Christie Vilsack, former executive director of the Iowa Initiative, has written a number of columns about the issue of unintended pregnancy among adult women, which have been published in newspapers across Iowa. The columns are made available here for use in research, teaching, for other educational purposes and by the media for newsworthy purposes. For these purposes you may reproduce (print, make photocopies, or download) materials from this website without prior permission, on the condition that you provide proper attribution of the source in all copies to Christie Vilsack and The Iowa Initiative. Commercial use and commercial reproduction of these works is strictly prohibited. The terms “commercial use” and “commercial reproduction” shall be defined as those uses which primarily serve to exploit the works for monetary gain.
Gloria
Sixty years ago, a 23-year-old woman gave up her secretarial job and entered a home for unwed mothers in Pittsburgh, Penn. She gave birth to my husband and then left him in the care of nuns at the Catholic orphanage. ... Read more
Everyone Has A Story
Whether I'm dining with Rotarians in Washington, Iowa, or dining with cabinet secretaries in Washington, D.C., everyone has a story of unintended pregnancy and how it changed a life. ... Read more
Ellen's Story
Ellen Gaffney's story has a happy ending. She wouldn't be sharing it if it didn't. When she carried out her adoption plan in 1960 she didn't ask if it was a boy or girl. ... Read more
Dutch Letters
Highway 163 between my two hometowns, Des Moines and Mt. Pleasant, no longer passes through downtown Pella and the Jaarsma Bakery. To eat Dutch letters, I have to make the conscious decision to detour several miles into town. ... Read more
Tina's Story
After the press conference, a 37-year-old mother of two, who has just started her Ph.D, approached me to say, "If you ever need anyone to go with you to a civic organization to talk about unintended pregnancy, I'd be willing to tell my story." ... Read more
The Question
"If we talk to teenagers and young adults about sex and birth control isn't that going to encourage them to have sex or condone sexual experimentation?" I hear this question or some variation of it at almost every presentation I make to civic organizations in Iowa. ... Read more
Show Me The Money
"Show me the money," Cuba Gooding's Rod Tidwell says in the movie, Jerry McGuire. I thought of this line when I approached a women's organization to speak about unintended pregnancy among adult women. These were women business executives. ... Read more
Misconceptions
During the past two years as Executive Director of the Iowa Initiative, I've identified three misconceptions I had about family planning and women's reproductive health. I assume that a lot of other people have the same misconceptions. ... Read more
Teens, God and Sex
I first heard about Pastor Andrea Kraushaar's faith and sexuality curriculum for United Methodist teenagers in Boone from Representative Donovan Olson, whose son participated in these classes. ... Read more
Anchors Aweigh
She trembled slightly. For a moment, I thought of what the 21-year-old woman might have been like at six, sitting on the edge of the paper-covered table in the doctor's office waiting for the needle prick. ... Read more
Blog
Versions of some of these columns and several other writings can also be found on the blog Christie kept as the Iowa Initiative was starting up in 2008-2009. You can view her blog here.