Randal Hanson of Fargo was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison for attempting to set fire to a Fargo abortion clinic in April of 1998.
During a three-day trial in October, Hanson was found guilty of breaking out a window at the Fargo Women’s Health Organization and spreading kerosene around inside of the clinic.
Women of Israel Television (WIT) is investing $15 million for a new women’s channel for Israel. The new channel will operate by cable and satellite broadcasting. Printed press elements for the channel are currently being developed.
Negotiations are also in progress with women’s channels worldwide on possible cooperation, representation and the creation of original content.
Conservative Republican presidential hopeful Gary Bauer yesterday called Vermont’s recent Supreme Court decision that grants homosexual couples the same legal protections given to married couples “worse than terrorism.”
Speaking to reporters at his New Hampshire campaign headquarters, Bauer told reporters, “I think what the Vermont Supreme Court did last week was in some ways worse than terrorism.”
Bauer brought up his criticism after praising federal authorities in Vermont for arresting a woman who is alleged to have been working with a terrorist group.
Under new state Department of Health regulations, announced yesterday, RI will become the fifth state to allow mid-level professionals as well as doctors to prescribe drugs to induce an abortion. The changes which are the first changes to Rhode Island’s abortion regulations in more than 15 years also allow nurse practitioners, physician assistants and midwives to perform abortion procedures.
The new rules ensure that mifepristone can be used as soon as it obtains final federal approval, which is expected early next year.
Mifepristone has been proven to be a safe, effective, non-surgical form of early abortion which is now available and widely used in France, Great Britain and Sweden. The Feminist Majority Foundation has conducted the largest public education campaign on mifepristone in the United States.
Bahrain recently announced the appointment of the country’s first female ambassador. Sheika Hayya bin Rashid Al Khalifa, a prominent feminist and lawyer, will take her place as BahrainÕs ambassador to France in January, 2000. Al Khalifa, who is a member of BahrainÕs ruling family, said she is looking forward to her starting her new job in Paris.
Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2000 concludes that there has been no improvement in the situation of women in areas of Afghanistan under Taliban control. “Taliban officials continued to beat women on the streets of Kabul for dress code violations and for venturing outside the home without the company of a close male relative,” cites the report. The report also documents the continued restriction on women’s employment and girls education.
Human Rights Watch highlights the influx of refugees and displaced people in the past year as a result of ruthless Taliban offensives that amount to ethnic genocide. “…the Taliban forced civilians from their homes and then set fire to houses and crops, and destroyed irrigation canals and wells, ostensibly to rout opposition sympathizers but effectively preventing the residents’ return.” Men suspected of loyalty to an opposition group were reportedly arrested or killed and women and children either trucked to Pakistan or forced to walk to Kabul. During a two-week period the U.N. estimates that forty thousand people fled to Kabul alone.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union reports today that Sweden tops legislative gender-equity standing at the turn of the century with over 40 percent of its parliamentary seats held by women.
The United States ranked 43d on the list, with women holding only 13.3 percent of seats in the House of Representatives.
Nordic countries took the top spots on the IPU list with women in Sweden holding 42.7 percent of seats. Denmark ranked second with 37.4, followed closely by Finland at 37 percent and Norway with 36.4 percent.
Countries with no women legislators are Djibouti, Jordan, Kuwait, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu, the United Arab Emirates, and Vanuatu.
Attorney General Mark Pryor said that he will not appeal the federal appeals court ruling in September that struck down Arkansas’ ban on late-term abortion. Pryor explained in a letter to Arkansas Right to Life Executive Director Rose Mimms that the appeal would be costly and would likely fail.
In September, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that laws in Arkansas, Nebraska, and Iowa banning late term abortions are unconstitutional. The court, upholding U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf’s decision from last year, said that the laws in these three states are so vague that they could potentially outlaw all abortions. Chief Judge Richard Arnold wrote regarding the Nebraska law that “Such a prohibition places an undue burden on the right of women to choose whether to have an abortion.”
Pryor said he would “wait for the (U.S.) Supreme Court to rule on similar cases in Nebraska and Wisconsin” before taking any further action on the issue.
CBS news reported on Monday that “the power of women voters can make or break presidential bid.” “In the battle for the White House, currying women’s vote has become a campaign necessity in recent years,” said the report.
Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal pointed out that women’s votes were key in electing President Clinton both terms. Smeal added that in the 1996 54% of women voted for Clinton, and only 34% voted for Dole, which gave Clinton the edge he needed to win.
The Planned Parenthood Association of Bucks County, PA announced it will offer abortions at its Warminster Township Clinic early next year. The clinic will be only health care facility in the county to offer abortions, and the move will increase women’s access to health care by eliminating area-women’s need to cross county lines for services.
Linda Hahn, Bucks County Planned Parenthood’s Executive Director, said access has been a problem for women seeking abortions in the area. “We had to refer all of our patients outside the county,” she said. “It was a hardship for patients who sought these services.” Anti-abortion protestors have already said they plan to picket the clinic.
The Russell Athletic 1999 “In the Long Run” survey revealed that over sixty-percent of women over thirty regularly excise and take better care of their bodies than they did when they were younger. The women surveyed said they exercise “for the health of it” rather than for their appearance.
Seventy-one percent of the women surveyed said they prefer walking, twenty-five percent aerobics, and twenty-one percent cycling/spinning. Also, seventy-four percent of women prefer exercising outside rather than joining a gym.
The survey also found that eighty-percent of women get an physical examination annually.
U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. ruled on Monday that Ohio’s taxpayer-funded school voucher program was unconstitutional as a violation of the constitutional separation of church and state.
Oliver said that not only was there no attempt to guaranteed that taxpayer dollars support only secular educational aspects of the participating school but also that parents do not have a true choice between sending their children to a religious or non-religious school.
“Thus, the program has the effect of advancing religious through government-supported religious indoctrination,” said Oliver.
In his decision, Oliver pointed to the mission statement of a participating Roman Catholic school, St. Patrick School, which states it is “dedicated to the formation of youth according to Catholic traditions.” The majority of students enrolled in Ohio’s school voucher program attend religious schools.
Governor Knock Yokoyama submitted a letter of resignation to the vice governor of Osaka from his hospital bed on Tuesday in response to charges he sexually harassed a university student. Prosecutors raided Yokoyama’s office and questioned him about the harassment allegations on Monday.
The Osaka District Court last week ordered Yokoyama to pay $107,000 in damages to his accuser, a 21-year old woman who had worked on the governor’s re-election campaign, who claimed Yokoyama fondled her in a van. Women’s groups had rallied in Osaka demanding Yokoyama’s resignation since the ruling against him.
The case against Governor Yokoyama has been a landmark case in the battle against sexual harassment in Japan, bringing serious and international attention to the issue. The damages issued against Yokoyama were a record amount for a sexual harassment case in Japan.
Customs Service inspector Diana M. Dean, a 19-year Customs veteran, was credited for relying on her instincts and training in the capture of a suspected terrorist in Port Angeles.
Dean started a conversation with the driver and determined that something was awry, so she asked the man to get out of the car. The suspect took off on foot, and Dean and three other Customs inspectors apprehended the suspect six blocks away. Inside the suspect’s car was 100 pounds of bomb-making materials, including nitroglycerin and other explosives.
Dean and two colleagues were honored at an awards assembly yesterday by Customs Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly who presented medals for “exceptional service.”
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) reported the burning of an Afghan woman by her husband in Kabul recently. The report stated that during an argument with his wife, Salehah, the man beat her, then tied her hands and legs, poured gasoline over her body, and set fire to her. The woman, taken to the hospital by neighbors, died two days later. The man, who is said to be employed by the Taliban Intelligence Ministry in Kabul, escaped and has not been brought to justice.
Twenty-seven-year-old Salehah Askarzadah had a bachelor’s degree in Economics and worked for the Export Development Bank before the Taliban took over Kabul and banished women from work and school. Salehah leaves behind a son and infant daughter.
The Vermont Supreme Court ruled today that lesbian and gay couples must receive benefits and protections equal to those given to married couples of the opposite sex. The Court is leaving it up to the state Legislature to determine whether the benefits will be given through formal marriages laws or a parallel domestic partnership system.
Three couples filed suit in July 1997 after they were denied marriage licenses by their local town clerks. The couples argued that the inability to legally marry denied them over 300 benefits at the state level and 1,000 at the federal level.
Although all five justices agreed that lesbian and gay couples were entitled to the same benefits as couples of the opposite sex. Three justices joined a concurring opinion challenging the reasoning behind Chief Justice Jeffrey Amestoy’s decision. Justice Denise Johnson wrote a separate opinion stating that while the court recognized certain rights for lesbian and gay couples, it “declines to give them any relief other than an exhortation to the Legislature to deal with the problem.”
The state Legislature will address the issue of equal benefits for lesbian and gay couples when it reconvenes in January 2000.
Planned Parenthood and several other abortion providers won a victory in February when a Portland jury ordered militant anti-abortion protestors to pay $109 million for threatening abortion providers with “Wanted Posters” and The Nuremberg Files Web site. The plaintiffs, however, have collected virtually no payments.
Last Spring U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones ruled that defendants who created the Nuremburg Files and “wanted” posters featuring abortion doctors amounted to “blatant and illegal communication of true threats to kill” and violated federal anti-racketeering laws and the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
To date, more than 10 months after the verdict, the plaintiffs have collected $375.56. Defendants are considered “judgment proof,” meaning that on paper they appear penniless. Andrew Burnett, leader of Advocates for Life Ministries (AFLM), who owes $8.5 million, claims he earns about $700 a month. Yet according to his 1998 tax returns, Burnett and his wife, Diane Burnett, listed a gross income of about $191,000. Ms. Burnett owns the house where they live and Good Impressions, the Portland printing company where the couple works.
Just last month, Burnett announced that as of December 31, 1999, AFLM and its Life Advocate magazine was closing. Burnett cited the lawsuit brought against AFLM by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, as a factor in the group’s demise.
Maria Vullo, attorney for Planned Parenthood, stated that the financial activities of AFLM, Good Impressions, and Burnett himself were attempts to avoid payment to her client. “They’re just trying to avoid our bill and funnel money among themselves as they have for years,” said Vullo.
Judge Jones postponed any further action until next year to give the defendants time to answer Vullo’s and Planned Parenthood’s claims.
A thirteen-year old girl, “Laura,” who is three months pregnant, has been denied an abortion by an Italian court, overturning the decision of her guardian to go ahead with the procedure. Laura is three months pregnant by her fourteen-year old boyfriend, who is also mentally disabled.
Her guardian described Laura as a “a 7-year-old who can’t tell the difference between a baby and a doll.”
Anti-abortion activists intervened in Laura’s case and replaced her guardian and put her into a Catholic home. The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, condemned the guardian’s decision to allow the abortion. However, L’Unita, a more liberal Italian newspaper, called the outcome “a flag of victory planted on a mistaken battleground.”
Responding to questions on abortion from Larry King last night on ‘Larry King Live,’ Republican Presidential candidate George W. Bush declared that “the American people need to be led toward life.” Bush also spoke of respecting differences of opinion on the issue of abortion within the party and the possibility of “common ground” on issues such as parental notification, partial-birth, and adoption.
Bush went on further to say “people have got to understand that abortion is not a contraceptive. We should not have abortions on demand, that partial-birth abortion is dealing with a live child.”
Women Waging Peace, organized by Swanee Hunt, a former U.S. ambassador and director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, which sponsored the event, launched a global network to move women’s peace efforts toward shaping public policy.
Over two weeks, 110 women from around the world attended workshops and seminars to discuss and learn from one another about issues such as conflict resolution, power dynamics and Internet training.
The Feminist Majority Foundation sent three delegates to this phenomenal event. Participants responded positively to the experience indicating that it opened their eyes to the universal nature of conflict. “They come together as a network of women who are determined to stop the violence in some of the most dangerous regions of the world,” said Hunt.
“The Women Waging Peace Conference provided a landmark forum for women to meet and discuss strategies to bring about social change and more importantly solutions for peace in some of the most severe conflicts in the world. This was an important gathering to demonstrate to the world’s policy makers that women are the leading stakeholders in their communities and therefore must be involved in all discussions regarding conflict resolution and peacemaking,” states Cherreka Montgomery, the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Senior Associate.
