We have to help decision makers realize that women's reproductive health rights are civil rights and that women need to be free to make the same decisions that men are free to make with regard to health care and whether and when to have a family. It's going to be increasingly important for women to speak up not only about being able to make our own decisions, but also about the importance of being trusted to make our own decisions.
We must not let politicians who believe they are above the Constitution interfere with the personal health decisions of women. It is the job of a woman, not a politician, to make informed decisions about her own pregnancy.
The most basic principle to being a free American is the notion that we as individuals are responsible for our own lives and decisions. We do not have the right to rob our neighbors to make up for our mistakes, neither does our neighbor have any right to tell us how to live, so long as we aren’t infringing on their rights. Freedom to make bad decisions is inherent in the freedom to make good ones. If we are only free to make good decisions, we are not really free.
My husband believed that all women who want to should be free, equal, independent, creative, well informed, and lead stimulating, interesting lives. Except me.
You have to look at what the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous people says which is free and prior informed consent. Now, if you say 'we're going to build a pipeline, what does it take for us as the colonial power of Canada to make you agree?' That's not free, prior and informed consent, that's coercion.
I remember being in Japan when Destiny's Child put out 'Independent Women,' and women there were saying how proud they were to have their own jobs, their own independent thinking, their own goals. It made me feel so good, and I realized that one of my responsibilities was to inspire women in a deeper way.
I'll be an independent contractor and I'm going to make sure that I am my own boss, that I pick my own hours. I'm going to make my own business decisions.
Medical care is one of the only sectors in which Americans are asked to make significant, long-term decisions without knowing the exact price of those decisions up front. Americans deserve to make informed decisions about their medical options.
If you just look at the number of roles for women versus the number of roles for men in any given film, there are always far more roles for men. That's always been true. When I went to college, I went to Julliard. At that time - and I don't know if this is still true - they always selected fewer women than men for the program, because there were so few roles for women in plays. That was sort of acknowledgment for me of the fact that writers write more roles for men than they do for women.
As a physician and a policymaker, I believe all Virginia women should be informed about and have access to all possible reproductive health-care options so they can make the best decisions for their families.
Women are smart enough and strong enough to make their own health care decisions and should be able to make these decisions in private, consulting with their doctors and families as they choose.
Helping women make informed decisions about the best contraceptive methods for their families would also help us ensure that more infants are celebrating their first birthdays.
Initially, women only had to portray married wife roles on TV, but now there are show that are offering other roles to portray for women. Earlier, all drama used to revolve only around married women, which is not the case now. Even the male actors have a good opportunity for better roles now.
I think it is clear that what we ought to do has to be independent of our decisions about what to do, and independent of any procedures we might use in making such decisions.
What I really want to do is create great roles for women. And I'm not talking Nicholas Sparks romance. I think women's roles have gotten ghettoized in these sort of places... I'm thinking women in action, comic books, or like the Tony Soprano of women. We need some complex roles.
My parents weren't very strict. They've always trusted me to be independent and make my own decisions. There wasn't really anything to rebel against.