Michelle Oberman Wrote an Op-Ed for the Mercury News on Women and the Zika Virus

Michelle Oberman’s recent op-ed for the San Jose Mercury News, “Zika and the Myth of Female Sexual Self-Determination”, argues that the recommendations of various Latin American countries’ health ministries that women avoid pregnancy until the population is immune to Zika ignore the realities of sexual violence and teen pregnancy in these countries. Oberman writes, “What’s needed is a comprehensive response to sexual violence — one that mobilizes schools, hospitals, churches, the media, as well as the criminal justice system, to work aggressively to dismantle the norms that tolerate rape as if it were simply a side effect of being female.” Read more.