Hillary Rodham Clinton on Shine

John McCain's daughter is having none of this

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I'm a little floored right now. A little taken aback. Slightly surprised. And it's over (shhh) fat. Specifically, a woman who has been the target of an unkind comment about her weight.

That's not what has me shocked, though. What woman hasn't been criticized about her weight? You don't have to be a celebrity to have commentary on your body broadcast publicly. To a famous woman, criticism shows up in a gossip rag or on TV.

Shine Women of the Year (Love + Sex): Hillary Rodham Clinton

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One of my favorite women in history andone of Time's 100 most important people of the last centuryis Margaret Sanger. She was a crusader for reproductive freedom and fought to educate and empower women about conception and contraception, and then to make birth control accessible to everyone. Among her many activist endeavors, Margaret Sanger founded the organization that eventually became Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She also wrote and spoke many words that could rally easily rally a new generation of women fight for their own sexual health rights.

One of Margaret Sanger's quotes has come to mind often in the last year as abortion rights were argued, voted on, and protested as a part of the election:

Hillary says this proposed rule threatens your basic healthcare rights (and could consider birth control as abortion)

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I've been struggling with how to write about the issue of abortion in this presidential election. And while I've been meditating on how to fairly present the facts of how each candidate has voted on and spoken out about women's health, I almost didn't give enough attention to how abortion is being addressed right now.

I've been focusing so much on the presidential candidates that I almost overlooked a major event in our current administration.

An op-ed piece in the New York Times today pulled me back to the present.