Monica Potts

Last week, I wrote that women’s groups were quietly trying to get the regulators at the Department of Health and Human Services to include birth control among the preventative services that will be covered at no cost to patients under new health insurance plans. At the time, I said that if they had any sense, […]

The New York Times has a great story about police officers using the stop, question, and frisk tactic in Brownsville, Brooklyn — one of the many areas designated an “impact zone” under commissioner Ray Kelly. Those zones are flooded with police officers, often new recruits, who reinforce small quality-of-life crimes like having an open alcohol […]

As The Root reported, Frances Goldscheider, a sociologist at Brown, thinks that men should be able to, by law, explicitly tell a female partner that if she becomes pregnant, they do not want to be a father, and that this assertion should bar them from any financial responsibility should their partner have a baby. She […]

I have very little to add to Adam’s elegant writing on the aftermath of the Oscar Grant verdict, except to wonder, as I did after the verdict in the shooting of Sean Bell in New York City, how long we’re going to tolerate officers who think the communities they police are inherently dangerous for them. […]

It’s hard not to read Jennifer Senior‘s piece in New York Magazine on parents being unhappy with parenting and not think it’s one long invented middle-class problem. Several studies over the years have asked parents to rate how they feel about various daily activities, and parenting ranks very low, but if you ask what makes […]

Yesterday, Jezebel published a piece criticizing The Daily Show — and Jon Stewart in particular — for being sexist. The allegation is based on a few quotes from ex-employees, the paucity of female correspondents, and the fact that the newest female hire, Olivia Munn, has a certain frat-boy appeal. In response, the women of the […]

Much of what new insurance plans will have to cover under the new health-care reform law will be determined by regulators, and women’s groups want contraceptives to be included in the necessary preventative-care services that are to be provided at no cost to patients. From a financial perspective, this makes a lot of sense. Pregnancies […]

Last week, New York Gov. David Paterson dropped his proposal to tax sugary drinks by a penny per ounce, and The New York Times has an analysis on how the money behind the soda industry and the power of anti-tax advocates did it in. Pepsi Co., which has a headquarters in Westchester County, and Coca-Cola, […]