A Virginia Senate committee voted down a provision yesterday that would have forbidden any abortions after 20 weeks, the point at which pro-life organization say that fetuses can feel pain. more ›

Conservative lawmakers in Virginia want women considering an abortion to first undergo an ultrasound. In response, one state senator said men seeking Viagra should get a rectal exam before getting their hands on those little blue pills. Seems fair. more ›

The comedian and actress Susie Essman, known best for her role on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, is headlining a pro-choice gala in Washington tonight. We talk to her about about abortion rights and, yes, a little bit about her famously foulmouthed character. more ›

As they do every year, tens of thousands of pro-lifers will gather on the National Mall today for the March for Life, where they will again demand further restrictions on abortions throughout the country. more ›

Much like a fringe Congressional candidate did in D.C. in 2010, the anti-abortion activist Randall Terry is using federal election law to force television stations to run incredibly graphic campaign ads featuring images of aborted fetuses. During the Super Bowl. more ›

Well, damn it. Despite Martin Austermuhle's protestations yesterday, the federal government still looks like it's creeping toward running out of cash and going into shutdown mode. Hooray. Bad news for D.C. more ›

It's Wednesday, and Congress has yet to finalize and vote on an omnibus federal spending plan. You know what that means -- if something isn't done by Friday, the federal government could shut down, taking with it the District's government. more ›

The three protesters that launched a hunger strike yesterday for D.C. voting right and self-determination are planning on trying to meet with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) today, in hopes of having him introduce a clean bill granting the District budgetary autonomy. more ›

D.C. doesn't seem to be able to get what it wants. Should it just settle for what it can get instead? more ›

Today, D.C. leadership stated that they "regret" they cannot support Rep. Darrell Issa's (R-CA) proposal to afford the city more budgetary control at the expense of abortion funding. more ›

Would you give up some autonomy to get some autonomy? That's a question District officials may soon have to answer. more ›

Good morning, Washington. The D.C. Snow Team did a dry run Friday to give plow drivers a chance to “practice their skills.” It’s unclear yet to what extent they’ll have to use them, but there’s no harm in fine tuning their operation for this rare October storm. From my perch in Northeast I see only puddles, but meteorologists throughout the region tell us that snow has already begun falling in some spots north and west of D.C. more ›

Today the Post brings up an issue that we've discussed plenty of times around these parts: where is it OK to protest, and where is it not? more ›

Abortion clearly remains a controversial social issue for Republicans, but same-sex marriage, needle-exchange programs and medical marijuana don't seem to be attracting the same ire they once did. more ›

Yesterday, we reported on 28 D.C. women whose scheduled abortion procedures at a local clinic were in danger of being unexpectedly cancelled after D.C. Medicaid coverage of such procedures suddenly expired. Amanda Hess follows up today with the news that the fundraising effort spearheaded by the DC Abortion Fund -- which garnered support from Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington and an fund-match from the Eastern Massachusetts Abortion Fund -- enabled all 28 women to make their appointments. more ›

The compromise reached last week by President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner to reinstate a ban on D.C.'s ability to fund abortions for low-income women has, so far, been enveloped inside a bubble of political rhetoric. But the very real effects of the ban have started to take hold: 28 women who were scheduled for abortion procedures in the District today were informed by a local clinic last night that, as of midnight, they would be unable to rely on D.C. Medicaid to pay for those procedures. more ›

I was out of town and out of touch for much of the weekend, so I missed the late-night drama that spared the federal and District governments from a shutdown. That's why I was even more shocked to see how blatantly the District had been used as bargaining chip in negotiations between President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner. Sure, a ban on the use of federal funds for abortions was set aside, but what remained is a ban that's exclusive only to the District. During the negotiations, Obama literally gave us away, telling Boehner, "John, I will give you D.C. abortion. I am not happy about it." more ›

Today on Capitol Hill, a number of D.C. voting rights activists protested a hearing on legislation that would ban the use of local D.C. taxpayer funds on abortions. The ban, which was lifted by Democrats in 2009, specifically applies to federal taxpayer funding of abortion, but also includes local D.C. funds because of the city's standing as something of a federal colony. more ›

In the third piece of legislation crafted this session, House Republicans have moved to prohibit the use of federal taxpayer dollars in funding abortions -- and they've included the District's locally-raised tax dollars in that prohibition. more ›

There's an interesting media conundrum brewing in D.C. revolving around a local politician's advertising -- and it's sure to be one which you'll be hearing a lot more about very soon. Today, Mike DeBonis reported on Missy Reilly Smith, who is running as a Tea Party-advocating, pro-life challenger against Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton this November. Obviously, trying to unseat Norton in this town is about as close to a political impossibility as you could reach for. So Smith has decided to pull out all the stops: she's decided to pay for two advertisements which include slideshows of numerous bloody and dismembered aborted fetuses -- and all indications are that they will run on D.C.'s televisions. These advertisements are incredibly graphic; click through at your own discretion. more ›

Word coming down from the Hill is that the District's annual appropriations bill has made it through conference and will include provisions lifting long-standing prohibitions on spending city funds on medical marijuana, needle-exchange programs and abortion. more ›

Two big updates today on the ongoing federal bribery probe into Ted Loza, chief of staff to Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham. more ›