April is sexual assault awareness month – a month dedicated to connecting with survivors, raising public awareness, and educating individuals and the community on how to prevent sexual violence. Ending sexual assault is closely connected to protecting reproductive rights. Violence committed against women violates women’s rights, limits women’s freedom, and threatens women’s physical, mental, and reproductive health.  Sexual assault awareness is important in our fight to support women’s reproductive health and rights.

As we come to the close of the first month of the Trump administration, little could have been predicted by the events of week one. Federal level attacks on reproductive freedoms and healthcare continued, and attacks on immigration ramped up. 

Week two:

When you think of porn, education probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. However, with laws in place that prohibit schools from teaching comprehensive sex education, adolescents are forced to take matters into their own hands and ask their trusty friend Google. Given the fact that almost every teenager has access to the internet, and that roughly 30% of the internet is made up from pornography, it is not surprising that a recent study found that around 60% of adolescents look to porn to answer their sex-related questions.

President Donald Trump made it clear: “I will appoint [Supreme Court] judges that will be pro-life,” Trump promised on the campaign trail. Vice President Mike Pence doubled down on Trump’s promise during a speech on Jan. 19 at the March for Life Demonstration in D.C.. But, as the first weeks of Trump’s presidency have shown, you can’t always take Trump’s words as truth. Trump nominated judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court on Jan. 31.  So the question stands: did Trump keep his promise and nominate an anti- abortion Supreme Court nominee?