Few organizations have or put the time, money and energy into creating social network-like sites to power their message. NARAL Pro-Choice America is the latest organization to harness all of that to create a smart and great looking micro-site, Free.Will.Power, to spread their pro-choice message.

Included in this site are videos of spoken word artists expressing their pro-choice views and why others should use their voices, too. There's a t-shirt design contest and of course e-cards to send to friends. Wonder how your state ranks in terms of protecting your reproductive rights? There's a clickable map that will tell you.

Why should you visit the site? I'll let NARAL Pro-Choice America tell you:

It's about your access to affordable birth control and your right to medically accurate sex education. It's about your ability to make private personal decisions with your doctor and your family. And it's about protecting these rights for yourself and your community.

Make reproductive rights a critical matter in your life, in your home, and in your community. Connect with us -- and commit to ensuring that no one infringes on your rights

Longtime fans of "ER" will know that Dr. Mark Greene, the beloved character played by Anthony Edwards, died in the prime of his life from cancer in 2002. And current fans will know that he reappeared last week, during a series of flashbacks to when he still lived.

Edwards didn't reprise his role because he's hurting for work. Far from it. The 46-year-old actor has had roles in six films since he left "ER," including The Forgotten, Northfork and Zodiac. He reprised it because he saw a way to help countless children in Kenya.

For the past three years, Edwards has worked with Shoe4Africa, a non-profit dedicated to empowering Africans, particularly women and children, by providing them with running shoes, educating them about AIDS, and in its largest project to-date, building a children's hospital in Eldoret, Kenya.

The hospital was suggested by the Kenyan government after violence ripped through that country last January, and Edwards, along with S4A's founder, Toby Tanser, promptly agreed to build one. "When your overall mission is to help and empower people, a hospital just makes sense," Edwards says. "It's an essential element of health."

The next step was a little more daunting: raise $15 million, a first for Shoe4Africa, which up to now has relied entirely on volunteer efforts and simple shoe donations.

So when Warner Bros. approached Edwards about playing Dr. Greene, Edwards said sure, but with one condition: the production studio would donate $125,000 to the hospital. The studio agreed. Steven Spielberg soon joined the cause, donating an additional $125,000, and the producer John Wells gave $50,000.

The donations gave the project some legs, and Edwards and Tanser are now taking an Obama-esque approach to fundraising. Using their networks of friends, colleagues, and philanthropists, and, of course, the Internet, the two friends have begun what may be the hardest marathon either has ever run. (Edwards ran the Chicago Marathon three times, and Tanser is a world-class athlete and one of the best runners to have ever come out of Iceland.)

The need is urgent and ongoing, says Edwards, who hopes the hospital will be built by 2010. When it opens its doors, the 250-bed Shoe4Africa Children's Hospital will be one of the largest in the world.

And when that happens, Shoe4Africa will walk away, allowing the hospital to function independently of the organization that built it. But that doesn't mean Shoe4Africa is walking away from the continent that gave it its name. Edwards says they plan to build a sports complex and a shoe factory, while increasing their outreach in Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Uganda, among other nations.

The shoe factory is key, says Edwards, because of the hookworm epidemic that has taken so many children's lives in Africa. "There are people in Africa who have tremendous spirit and enthusiasm," he adds, "but zero opportunity." Living in densely populated slums without water, clean food, or shoes, many Africans are forced to walk barefoot on disease-ridden roads. Once infected with hookworm, a person is much more susceptible to HIV, allowing the virus to spread even more rampantly than it does already. Giving a poor child or adult something as simple as a pair of shoes can make all the difference in the world.

"Shoes are like soap," Edwards says, "a basic element that we take for granted, but without which we get sick and die."

Edwards understands that his celebrity draws attention to the Shoe4Africa cause, and that's fine with him. "It's one thing to write a check to a charity, but it's much more fulfilling to get involved," he says. Having worked for years to raise awareness about autism, Edwards also recognizes that celebrities need to choose their causes carefully. "It's a thin veneer you're on already when you're a celebrity," he says, "and you can't spread it around too much. You have to pick one thing. And as long as [the charity] does what it says it's doing, it works."

Last week the NCAA unveiled their new handbook on how to deal with pregnancy. No, it's not a sports version of Our Bodies Ourselves, but rather a much needed policy. Stories about a pregnant woman on the basketball team pop up now and then in the press, but with no firm rules, each woman was pretty much on her own.

The guidelines are gender-neutral to allow for men to take leave, if their school provides any leave for new moms, as well as prohibiting punishment to women for having premarital sex if men aren't also equally punished.

Hopefully with these well established rules across NCAA schools, pregnant women won't feel that they need to hide their pregnancies until their 8th month.

Ashley Shields prayed.

Each time she headed onto the court for those six games in 2004 with Northwest Mississippi Community College, she asked that nothing happen to her baby.

Her unborn baby.

Shields was eight months pregnant, but only her family knew.

Being pregnant is stressful enough, dealing with an unplanned pregnancy heightens that stress, can you imagine having to hide your pregnancy and still play like you're at full physical strength? At least in the toolkit, it spells it out that athletes must be reinstated to their team and scholarship as long as they were in good standing before their leave. But she will have to win her starting job back:

The Title IX regulations require athletics departments to reinstate the formerly pregnant student athlete "to the status which she held when the leave began."45 This would include her returning to be a full-fledged member of the team, including receiving an athletics award, if that was her status when the leave began. As a member of the team, she will have to compete like the others for a specific position and playing time. While she cannot be penalized for having taken pregnancy leave, she need not necessarily be reinstated to the specific position she formerly held, such as being a starter.

Critics may complain that this encourages motherhood in college sports. Most college students do not have the same protections about returning to coursework if they take too much time off. The facilitator PowerPoint presentation makes a good case for addressing these issues and it is not about being fair, but rather doing what is best for the student-athlete including keeping them in school and not contributing to the pressure to have an abortion.

The PowerPoint presentation also includes the fact that there were 20 mothers on the 2008 USA Olympic Team and over 30 moms in the WNBA. The idea that motherhood changes women's bodies so much that they cannot achieve top athletic form is false and being disproved each day. The NCAA had no choice but to address the situation and support the women and men in their programs.

[Image: Ashley Shields, WNBA]

The AWEARNESS book consists of 86 essays and conversations by individuals who have been inspired to do their part to effect meaningful social change. Will be releasing excerpts from the book during the week. The last is Matisyahu; below is a short excerpt from his contribution:

Before I became religious, I remember playing some of my music for a record company. In one song, I made a reference to slavery, to which the A&R responded, "I guess that's cool...but who wants to hear a white Jewish kid rap about slavery?" He was ultimately right, especially if you look at Jews in the world today without having the historical perspective. But the truth is that Jews were the original people to break out of slavery, overthrowing the power in Egypt and leaving to start their own nation.

Go here for more excerpts or information on Kenneth's book.

The AWEARNESS book consists of 86 essays and conversations by individuals who have been inspired to do their part to effect meaningful social change. We will be releasing excerpts from the book during the week. The fourth is Sonny Caberwal, below is a short excerpt from his contribution:

Being Sikh and an American plays a big role in my overall sense of identity. My external appearance not only represents my spiritual commitment as a Sikh and the proud history and traditions of my forefathers, it also provides me with a certain amount of resolve and strength. By consistently being an individual, I feel more confident and empowered to do what I believe, even if that's not the most popular decision. And, of course, the way I look makes me instantly identifiable and unique in nearly any social environment. However, that unique identity also makes me an obvious target for discrimination.