Chanel Dubofsky

I did not have a bat mitzvah. I might have come up with a lot of reasons not to do it at the time, but there was actually only one that was real: the kids in Hebrew school were mean, and I wanted to get out as soon as possible, and that was it, end of discussion. (I was indeed a nerdily-dressed and hopelessly awkward 11-year-old, but you were cruel, Hebrew school classmates who are most definitely not reading this.)
The skipped bat mitzvah was not an issue until I decided I wanted to work in ...

If you, like me, are a consumer of a lot of media, you probably can remember at least one time when you learned something you didn't know from a magazine or tv. I first heard about menopause when I was nine after watching an episode of The Golden Girls. (I had to do some research.) Egg freezing is another one of those things; it seems like there are stories everywhere about celebrities who are seizing the day - and their ovaries - and freezing their eggs in the name of fertility preservation....

A year ago, after her divorce, Kaye froze her eggs. Recently, Sadie and her partner began the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process. In addition to being emotionally and physically arduous, both of these procedures come with a hefty price tag, and they're not always covered by insurance. Women ask us all the time: “Should I look into a fertility treatment?” And our answer is always the same: Check in with yourself first — your hormones, your finances, your emotional state. It's a big decision ...

Yesterday’s bombshell news that Justice Anthony Kennedy—a reliable pro-abortion rights vote—is retiring from the Supreme Court means that Roe v. Wade is truly, seriously imperiled. We could wake up within a few years to find abortion fully illegal in over 20 states.
Ironically, in recent months, right up until the Kennedy-related outpouring of fear we’re seeing at this very moment began, abortion rights advocates had noticed a growing fatigue around the issue. Buzzfeed published an opinion pi...

Kayla’s period is, in a word, treacherous. "As soon as I ovulate, I get some serious digestive disruption. Constant heartburn, going back and forth from being super constipated to having diarrhea — things just feel bad," she says. "I get insomnia, some pretty dark depression, and an inability to trust my own emotional barometer." Things don't get any better as she gets closer to her period, either. "I get achy, horrible cramps and just have no fuel — like a deep, bone tired and constant heada...

Erin Matson was buying diapers for her infant daughter at her local Harris Teeter grocery store when she noticed something odd. On the shelf where the emergency contraception (EC) was supposed to be, there was a card in its place. The card, which Matson points out is the same size as the actual product, read: “To purchase this item, please take to the Pharmacy or to the Customer Service Desk in non-Pharmacy stores.”
To recap: emergency contraception is exactly what it sounds like – contracept...

The day before her period was due, Alexandra took a pregnancy test. She and her partner had been trying to get pregnant, so she was thrilled when the test revealed a strong positive. The next day, she took another one, just to be sure. It was still positive, but the pink line was slightly fainter. The day after that, Alexandra took one more test. The line was now barely visible. "Then, about five days after my period was due, I got a very, very heavy period,” she remembers. “My doctor said it...

“I’ve been harassed. It’s happened to every female rabbi I know,” Rabbi Rebecca Sirbu said. “People have an overwhelming sense of discomfort with women rabbis, because they’re women.”And female rabbis face an additional burden of harassment because they are occupying a powerful position once permitted only to men. “People have to start seeing women as religious leaders and thinking about what that means,” Sirbu, director of Rabbi’s Without Borders, told me.
Even rabbinical students don’t esca...

In May of 2012, a study published in the journal Pediatrics revealed that girls who gave birth between the ages of 15 and 19 experienced postpartum depression (PPD) at twice the rate of older moms. That study, consisting of 6,4000 Canadian women, isn’t the only one – research published in 2014 also reported that there’s a connection between the age a person gives birth and their mental health.
The messages that we get about teen moms aren’t exactly subtle — they run the gambit of how difficul...

If you were seeking an abortion, where would you go? Would you be able to get one from your primary care physician or your OB/GYN? If you couldn’t get an abortion from either, how would you proceed?
Here is a scary fact: According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2014, people seeking abortion in the US often had to drive between 180 and 330 miles to access the procedure. The number of clinics in the country has decreased from 851 in 2008 to 788 in 2014, and five states have only a single clini...

“Indiana is not a safe place to be pregnant,” said Shelly Dodson.
Dodson is the director of All-Options Pregnancy Resource Center in Bloomington, where folks can go for support in their decisions about pregnancy, including abortion, adoption, and parenting. In addition to having the the 4th highest maternal mortality rate in the country, which disproportionately impacts people of color, abortion laws make it very difficult to access abortion care in the state, and also cause those who have ha...

Let's just admit it: We are in deep, committed (probably co-dependent) relationships with our phones. There are many compelling reasons to limit our phone usage, from getting better sleep to preventing “tech neck.” And yes, actually making eye contact with strangers. There is also a claim that consistent exposure to mobile phone radiation could negatively impact sperm quality, potentially causing fertility issues in men. This theory has some so freaked out that a German company started manufa...

You’re pregnant and you don’t want to be. You know you want an abortion, and the clock is ticking – the longer you stay pregnant, the more expensive the procedure becomes, and the less likely it will be that you can obtain an abortion in the state where you live, if at all. You go to the doctor, confirm your pregnancy, and then you’re told that no, you can’t get an abortion today. You have to wait, and it’s going to be a while.
R, a teacher in New York City, was around 9 weeks pregnant when s...

I did not understand the significance of the KitchenAid mixer. We have one — it’s white, on the old side but still functional, and my housemates use it on occasion to make cookies. We got it from Craigslist, knowing that brand new mixers are super expensive — even without all the fancy attachments, the Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer model is $700, before shipping, if you buy it online.
I was aware that this was a useful object, but I didn’t realize, or appreciate, the deep power with which it wa...

On January 11, 2018, the ACLU reported that yet another undocumented young woman was being denied access to an abortion. For those of you keeping track, this is the fourth time this has happened since the advent of the Trump administration. The profusion of these accounts is not only disturbing because, as Nikki Jacobson, a Los Angeles immigration lawyer put it, “they will find anyway to deny someone an abortion,” but because of the fear it spreads among undocumented folks looking to access a...