{{Interventions infobox | Name = | Image = | Caption = | ICD10 = | ICD9 = | ICD9_mult = | MeshID = D018607 | OPS301 = | OtherCodes = | }} Selective reduction (or fetal reduction) is the practice of aborting one or more fetuses in a multifetal pregnancy. Such an abortion procedure is often performed after a congenital defect has been identified. Prenatal diagnostic testing may determine that some fetuses have chromosomal defects or a greater chance of genetic diseases, and those fetus(es) are then targeted in selective reduction.

Selective reduction is also used to reduce a higher-order multiple pregnancy (one with three or more fetuses) to a twin or singleton pregnancy. This is done to avoid the medical issues generally related to multiple births, including premature births, low birth weights, and associated medical problems. Selective reduction can also be used to reduce a twin pregnancy to a singleton one, but this is less common as the risks in twin pregnancies, while existent, are much lower than in higher-order multiple pregnancies.

In many cases this type of multifetal reduction is chosen by couples who used fertility treatments that resulted in a multifetal pregnancy.

Practice

The reduction procedure is generally carried out during the first trimester of pregnancy. The most common method is to inject potassium chloride into the fetus's heart; the heart stops and the fetus dies as a result. Generally, the fetal material is reabsorbed into the woman's body. While the procedure generally reduces the over-all risk level for the remaining fetus or fetuses, reduction does have its own risks, including the possibility that one or more of the remaining fetuses will also die.

Dr. Mark Evans, a New York City-based obstetrician-geneticist, and a group of doctors, developed the procedure for selective reduction in the 1980s.

See also

Abortion

Assisted reproductive technology

Sex-selective abortion and infanticide

References

Category:Abortion

Coordinates	38°53′51.61″N77°2′11.58″N
birthname	Daniel Keenan Savage
birth date	October 07, 1964
birth place	Chicago, Illinois
spouse	Terry Miller
children	D.J.
other names	Keenan Hollahan
education	B.A., Theater, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
occupation	Author, media pundit, journalist, newspaper editor and sex advice columnist }}

Daniel Keenan "Dan" Savage (born October 7, 1964) is an American author, media pundit, journalist and newspaper editor. Savage writes the internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column ''Savage Love''. Its tone is frank in its discussion of sexuality, often humorous, and hostile to social conservatives, as in the Santorum controversy regarding homosexuality. Savage, who is gay, has often been the subject of controversy regarding some of his opinions that pointedly clash with cultural conservatives and those put forth by what Savage has been known to call the "gay establishment". He has also worked as a theater director, both under his real name and under the name Keenan Hollahan, using his middle name and his grandmother's maiden name. In 2010, Savage and his husband Terry Miller began the It Gets Better Project to help prevent suicide among LGBT youth.

Early life and college

Dan Savage was born to William and Judy Savage in Chicago, Illinois. He is of Irish ancestry. The third of four children, Savage was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary North, which he has described as "a Catholic high school in Chicago for boys thinking of becoming priests." Though Savage has stated that he is now "a wishy-washy agnostic" and an atheist, he has said that he still considers himself "culturally Catholic."

Savage attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied theater and history. As a theater director, Savage (working under the name "Keenan Hollahan") was a founder of Seattle's Greek Active Theater. Much of the group's work has been queer recontextualizations of classic works, such as a tragicomic ''Macbeth'' with both the title character and Lady Macbeth played by performers of the opposite sex. In March 2001, he directed his own ''Egguus'' at Consolidated Works, a parody of Peter Shaffer's 1973 play ''Equus'' which exchanged a fixation on horses for a fixation on chickens. Savage has not directed, produced, or performed in any productions since a 2003 production of ''Letters from the Earth'', also at Consolidated Works, his trimmed version of Mark Twain's ''The Diary of Adam and Eve'', which received scathing reviews, including one from his own paper, "My Boss's Show Stinks".

Savage Love

In 1991, Savage was living in Madison, Wisconsin, and working as a manager at a local video store that specialized in independent film titles. There, Savage befriended Tim Keck, co-founder of ''The Onion'', who announced that he was moving to Seattle to help start an alternative weekly newspaper titled ''The Stranger''. Savage "made the offhand comment that forever altered [his] life: 'Make sure your paper has an advice column — everybody claims to hate 'em, but everybody seems to read 'em'." Savage typed up a sample column, and to Savage's surprise Keck offered him the job.

Savage stated in a February 2006 interview in ''The Onion'''s ''A.V. Club'' (which publishes his column) that he began the column with the express purpose of providing mocking advice to heterosexuals. Savage wanted to call the column "Hey Faggot!" His editors at the time refused his choice of column name, but for the first several years of the column, he attached "Hey Faggot!" at the beginning of each printed letter as a salutation. According to Savage: In his February 25, 1999 column, Savage announced that he was retiring the phrase: "Lo many columns later, it feels strange to begin every column with a joke about a debate that ended years ago."

He has written in a number of columns about "straight rights" concerns, such as the HPV vaccine and the morning-after pill, stating in his November 9, 2005, column that "[t]he right-wingers and the fundies and the sex-phobes don't just have it in for the queers. They're coming for your asses too."

Radio and journalism

thumb|right|Dan Savage speaking at Illinois Wesleyan University, 2007In addition to maintaining his weekly column and authoring four books, Savage has been involved in several other projects.

From 1994 until 1997, he had a weekly three-hour call-in show called ''Savage Love Live'' on Seattle's KCMU (now KEXP). From 1998 to 2000, he ran the biweekly advice column ''Dear Dan'' on the news website abcnews.com.

He is now the editorial director of the weekly Seattle newspaper ''The Stranger'', a promotion from his former position as ''The Stranger''s editor-in-chief. Savage is currently a contributor to ''This American Life'', an hour-long radio show on Chicago's WBEZ syndicated by PRI, as well as a frequent contributor to ''Out'' magazine and a "Real Time Real Reporter" on HBO's ''Real Time with Bill Maher''. He has also made multiple appearances on MSNBC's ''Countdown with Keith Olbermann'' and CNN's ''Anderson Cooper 360'' discussing LGBT politcal issues such as same-sex marriage and Don't Ask Don't Tell.

Podcast

The Savage Lovecast is a weekly audio podcast based on Savage's column ''Savage Love'', available via iTunes and at the ''Stranger'''s website for free download. It features Savage doing a call-in version of his sex advice column.

iPhone App

In 2010, the Savage Love iPhone App was released. The app features a "Question of the Day" pulled from "Slog," the Stranger's blog, as well as archived and indexed advice from ''Savage Love''s archives. The app also provides access to The Savage Lovecast podcast and videos of Savage's speaking appearances, among other features.

Opinions and points of view

It Gets Better Project

On September 21, 2010, Savage started the It Gets Better Project in light of the suicide of 15-year-old Billy Lucas, who was bullied for his perceived sexual orientation. The project encourages adults, both LGBT and otherwise, to submit videos assuring gay teenagers that life can improve after bullying in early life. As of January 3, 2011, the project had over 5,000 user created testimonials.

Political advocacy

Savage has written about his interest in political matters. His political leanings are primarily liberal, with pronounced contrarian and libertarian streaks. For example, he wrote that in 2000, suffering from the flu while on an assignment for salon.com to cover the Iowa caucuses, he was so angered by televised remarks in opposition to same-sex marriage by conservative Republican presidential hopeful Gary Bauer that he abandoned his original plan "to follow one of the loopy conservative Christian candidates around — Bauer or Alan Keyes — and write something insightful and humanizing about him, his campaign, and his supporters." Instead, he volunteered for the Bauer campaign with the intent to infect the candidate with his flu. He wrote that he licked doorknobs and other objects in the campaign office, and handed Bauer a saliva-coated pen, hoping to pass the virus on to Bauer and his supporters (though he later said that much of the article had been fictitious). He also registered and participated in the caucus, which was illegal, as Savage was not an Iowa resident. He was charged and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of fraudulent voting in a caucus, and was sentenced to a year's probation, 50 hours of community service, and a $750 fine.

Savage frequently mentions political issues in his column, particularly issues that affect family planning, birth control, and sexuality. He often encourages readers to get involved and/or voice a positive or negative opinion about a politician or public official.

After Rick Santorum, then a United States senator from Pennsylvania, made comments to a reporter comparing homosexual sex to bestiality and incest in 2003, Savage assailed Santorum in his column. Later, he sponsored a contest that led to the term ''santorum'' being used to refer to "the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes a byproduct of anal sex". Savage set up a website to spread the definition. In 2010, Savage offered to remove his website if Rick Santorum would agree to donate US$5 million to a gay rights group. The organization, Freedom to Marry, advocates on behalf of same-sex marriage in the United States. Savage told ''Mother Jones'' in 2010, "If Rick Santorum wants to make a $5 million donation to [the gay marriage group] Freedom to Marry, I will take it down. Interest starts accruing now." Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, responded in a statement to ''Metro Weekly'': "Support for Freedom to Marry's national campaign would be welcome—and a good way for Rick Santorum to start cleaning up the discriminatory mess he and his companions have made."

Savage continued the tradition in 2009 by having his readers vote to define ''saddlebacking'' as "the phenomenon of Christian teens engaging in unprotected anal sex in order to preserve their virginities", as a protest against the vocal support given to California Proposition 8 by Rick Warren (pastor of Saddleback Church), and President Barack Obama's invitation to Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration. When Savage vowed to boycott Utah due to strong Mormon support for Proposition 8 ("Fuck you, Utah – we’re going to big, blue Colorado"), the ''Salt Lake City Weekly'' dropped Savage's column: "all Utahns aren’t to blame."

Savage strongly supported the war in Iraq in the pages of ''The Stranger'' in October 2002. By the time of the U.S. invasion in March 2003, however, he had somewhat softened his argument.

Savage has also been a vocal opponent of state legislation proscribing the sale of sex toys. After an exposé by Kandiss Crone from WLBT (Jackson, Mississippi) precipitated the arrest and fining of an adult video store owner, Savage suggested that readers send any sex toys that they needed to dispose of to Crone.

Personal opinions

Savage initially supported the Iraq war and advocated military action against other Middle Eastern states, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, saying, "Islamo-fascism is a regional problem, like European fascism – and the Middle East [has] to be remade just as Europe was remade." One week before the war began, Savage spoke against it, citing the inability of President George W. Bush to form a convincing case and sway the UN and NATO allies. By 2005 he deemed the situation "hopeless" and advocated an immediate troop withdrawal. He describes his view toward family as "conservative", and his husband, Terry Miller, is a "stay-at-home dad" for the couple's adopted son. He has, however, expressed skepticism of "simplistic" views of monogamy. In response to a letter asking "Is the AIDS crisis over?" Savage, in his October 22, 1997 column, answered simply, "Yes." Several weeks of columns were devoted in whole or in part to discussion of the issue. In an interview with the ''Daily Pennsylvanian'', Savage stated that then-Green Party Senate candidate Carl Romanelli, whom Savage claimed was partially funded by state Republicans for a spoiler effect against Democrat Bob Casey, "should be dragged behind a pickup truck until there's nothing left but the rope." In the same interview, he stated, "Mr. Romanelli should go fuck himself." Immediately after the interview, Savage wrote, "I regret using that truck metaphor, and didn't mean it literally, and it was in poor taste, and I regret it." He opposes the tactics of the War on Drugs, and opposes the prohibition of certain controlled substances. On HBO's ''Real Time With Bill Maher'' July 15, 2011, during a panel discussion of the debt limit increase negotiations between the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama, Savage said in a stand-alone remark, "I wish the Republicans were all fucking dead." He apologized for his remarks on his blog later the same night saying in part, "I don't feel that way. My dad is a Republican. (Well, he says he's an independent, but he hasn't voted for a Democrat since JFK. My dad is a Republican.)"

Views on outing

Savage stated in a column that he favors outing in some cases, specifically mentioning anti-gay activist Tyler Whitney. However, in the same column he noted that "I recently talked someone ''out'' of outing a public figure. A ''Savage Love'' reader was contemplating outing an innocuous celebrity back in April. I advised him against it because, as I wrote to him privately, outing is brutal and it should be reserved for brutes."

Local issues

Savage's editorship of ''The Stranger'' has established him as a voice in local Seattle politics. His most high-profile commentary has been as an outspoken critic of the Teen Dance Ordinance and other crackdowns on all-ages events.

Savage argues that closing down supervised all-ages dance venues drives teens to boredom and reckless activities: "Places like Ground Zero and the Kirkland Teen Center are invaluable from a law enforcement point of view. They keep kids out of, say, 7-Eleven parking lots or the homes of friends whose parents are away."

Ann Landers

On December 3, 2002, Savage announced in an article that he had purchased columnist Ann Landers's desk; she died on June 22 of that year. Savage has facetiously referred to Landers as his "college roommate" and said "I like to think of myself as a gay Ann Landers."

Family and marriage

Savage's home state of Washington allows same-sex couples to adopt children and enter civil unions, but does not legally recognize same-sex marriage. In March 2004, Savage wrote about an action that he took to highlight what he saw as being indicative of same-sex couples' lack of legal right to marry. After his co-worker Amy Jenniges was denied a license to marry her girlfriend Sonia, Jenniges and Savage obtained a license to marry one another. He wrote at the time, "We emphasized to the clerk and her manager that Amy and I don't live together, we don't love each other, we don't plan to have kids together, and we're going to go on living and sleeping with our same-sex partners after we get married. So could we still get a marriage license?" According to Savage, the license-department manager replied, "Sure. If you've got $54, you can have a marriage license."

Savage and his husband, Terry, have one adopted son, D.J., and were married in Vancouver, BC in 2005.

Awards

!Year !! Work !! Award !! Organization !! Result
1999	''The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant''	PEN West Award for Excellence in Creative Nonfiction	PEN Center USA
2003	rowspan="2"	Lambda Literary Award	Lambda Literary Foundation
2004	''The Best American Sex Writing 2004''	Running Press
			International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences
Anthony Giffard "Make the Change" Award

Bibliography

In addition to his advice column, Savage has written four books, edited one book, and authored various op-ed pieces in ''The New York Times''.

References

External links

Savage Love – Savage's weekly sex advice column

* Savage's podcasts

It Gets Better Project

Category:1964 births Category:American advice columnists Category:American agnostics Category:American memoirists Category:American political pundits Category:American political writers Category:American relationships and sexuality writers Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American writers of Irish descent Category:Gay writers Category:Lambda Literary Award winners Category:LGBT memoirists Category:LGBT writers from the United States Category:LGBT journalists Category:LGBT parents Category:Living people Category:People from Chicago, Illinois Category:People from Madison, Wisconsin Category:People from Seattle, Washington Category:Sex columnists Category:Sex educators Category:University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign alumni Category:Writers from Chicago, Illinois Category:Writers from Washington (state) Category:Writers from Wisconsin *

de:Dan Savage es:Dan Savage fr:Dan Savage la:Daniel Keenan Savage simple:Dan Savage

Coordinates	38°53′51.61″N77°2′11.58″N
name	Amy Richards
birth date	ca. 1971
nationality	United States
genre	books, magazine articles
subject	feminism, parenthood
footnotes	}}

Amy Richards (born ca. 1971) is an United States activist, writer, organizer, feminist and art historian. She graduated from Barnard College in 1992. Richards has appeared in Fox’s The O'Reilly Factor, Oprah, Talk of the Nation, New York One and CNN.

After graduating cum laude from Barnard College in 1992 with a degree in Art History, Amy Richards embarked on an unexpected career as a feminist activist, writer, and organizer. What began as a summer project, Freedom Summer ’92, a cross-country voter registration drive, eventually led Amy to co-found the Third Wave Foundation, a national organization for young feminist activists between the ages of 15 and 30. Amy’s leadership and visionary work launched her as a primary spokesperson and leading voice for young feminist issues and for the past fifteen years Amy has assumed that role by lecturing at hundreds of venues, writing books and articles about feminism today, and making numerous media appearances all in an attempt to confirm that younger people are making bold and transformative contributions to their communities.

Amy is most popularly known as the author of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future (co-authored with Jennifer Baumgardner and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2000 with an anniversary and updated edition published in 2010) and as the voice behind Ask Amy, the online advice column she has run at feminist.com since 1995. Amy is also the author of Opting In: Having a Child Without Losing Yourself, about feminism and motherhood, and the co-author of Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism. Amy’s writings have appeared in The Nation, The LA Times, Bust, Ms. and numerous anthologies, including Listen Up, Body Outlaws and Catching A Wave—where she has tackled issues ranging from plastic surgery to abortion politics. Amy was also the author of Insight Guides: Shopping in New York City. She also authored "When One is Enough", about her experience becoming pregnant with triplets, and deciding to terminate two of them, giving birth to the third.

Amy has appeared in a range of media venues including Fox’s The O’Reilly Factor, Oprah, Talk of the Nation, New York One and CNN. Amy was first publicly distinguished as a leader in 1995 when Who Cares magazine chose her as one of twenty-five Young Visionaries. She has gone on to win accolades from Ms. magazine, which profiled her in "21 for the 21st: Leaders for the Next Century,” Women’s Enews, which in 2003 named her one of their “Leaders for the 21st Century,” the American Association of University Women, which chose her as a 2004 Woman of Distinction, and her alma mater, Barnard College, which honored her for her achievements in 2007.

Books

External links

Soapbox profile

References

Category:1970 births Category:Living people Category:American feminists Category:American writers

de:Amy Richards