The XX Factor: What women really think.

Crackdown on Illegal Abortion in Mexico

A post from DoubleX writer Meredith Simons:

When Mexico City decriminalized abortion in 2007, pro-choicers took it as a sign of great things to come, possibly including a nationwide liberalizing of abortion laws. Unfortunately, as Mary Cuddehe reports in the Atlantic, the Catholic Church and general sexist establishment reacted with outrage and doubled down on the war against women who want to control when they have children. Since then, 14 Mexican states have passed laws defining personhood as starting at conception, with some even going so far as to ban IUDs while they were at it. The result is that women have been going to jail for obtaining illegal abortions ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)

What, No Waterboarding?

The Irish government has released a report detailing the vicious beatings, rape, and emotional abuse inflicted on tens of thousands children entrusted to the care of Catholic orphanages for 60 years, until the 1990s. The Times pulls out this description: “Punching, flogging, assault and bodily attacks ... burning, scalding, stabbing, severe beatings with or without clothes, being made to kneel and stand in fixed positions for lengthy periods ..." (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)