Migration Category: news-10001-15000-national

In an effort to better address the medical needs of the thousands of women veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) started a “mini residency program” to refresh doctors and nurse practitioners, many of whom are more accustomed to treating male veterans, on women’s healthcare. Approximately 1,100 health care providers have completed the course, which offers training on pelvic and breast exams, as well as services for women veterans who have been sexually assaulted.

Women veterans are limited in their ability to ability to obtain gender-specific health appointments. According to Patty Hayes, the VA’s chief consultant for women’s health, only 16 percent of women who are eligible for care at the VA use it.

The VA aims to have a designated women’s health provider in each of its medical facilities. Currently the VA has practitioners specifically trained on women’s health in approximately 60- 65 percent of its clinics.

According to the Outline for the Development of Chinese Children (2011-2020), released today, China will strengthen its efforts to end sex-selective abortions as a means to close the country’s gender gap. The Outline states that “using ultrasonic techniques to conduct non-medical sex determination” is strictly banned in order to “eliminate discrimination against girls.”

Due in part to the country’s policy restricting families to one child, China has a male-to-female birth ratio of 119 male children for every 100 female children born. In certain provinces, the ratio is 130 males to 100 females born.

In June, the UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women, WHO, and OHCHR issued a statement about sex-selective abortion: “Sex selection in favour of boys is a symptom of pervasive social, cultural, political, and economic injustices against women, and a manifest violation of women’s human rights….There is a huge pressure on women to produce sons…which not only directly affects women’s reproductive decisions, with implications for their health and survival, but also puts women in a position where they must perpetuate the lower status of girls through son preference.”

On Wednesday, US District Court Judge Frank Damrell of Sacramento ruled that the University of California at Davis failed to allow women students equal opportunities to play college sports and violated Title IX, a law passed in 1972 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in all levels of education. Judge Damrell wrote in his decision, “UC Davis did not have a continuing practice of program expansion at the time plaintiffs were students….When an institution loses over 60 opportunities in two years and never fully regains all of those opportunities over the next four years, such an institution cannot be held to be Title IX compliant.”

Nevertheless, Judge Damrell stated that there was no evidence that the defendants in the case, the university officials, “deliberately discriminated” against the plaintiffs and therefore his decision would place “severe limitations on the damages these plaintiffs may recover.” Arezou Mansourian, Christine Ng, and Lauren Mancuso filed the lawsuit ten years ago after they were not permitted to sign up for varsity wrestling.

Noreen Farrell, Managing Attorney at Equal Rights Advocates who represented the plaintiffs, stated, “The young women who brought this suit courageously sought enforcement of Title IX, a law which was passed nearly 40 years ago to ensure that young women and men across the country have equal educational opportunities, including in athletics. As this Court’s decision reflects, schools such as UC Davis must make gender equity a priority. Generations of young women depend on it.”

On Wednesday, Sheila Coley was appointed by the Newark City Council of New Jersey as the first woman police chief in the department’s 175-year history. Coley will fill the newly re-established position after approval from the council. The position of police chief was removed in 2008 but was re-established Wednesday night.

In response to her appointment, Coley said “I am honored and excited by the challenge of becoming Newark’s first female chief of police. I promise my brothers and sisters in blue that I will give them the highest level of professional leadership and the citizens of Newark the best police force in the entire nation.”

Coley’s work with the Newark Police Department began in 1989 as a patrol officer and narcotics detective. In 2004, she was promoted to captain. Now as police chief, Coley will oversee day-to-day operations of a 1,100 member department. According to the National Center for Women & Policing, a division of the Feminist Majority Foundation, only 13% of police officers nationwide are women.

On Monday, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists filed an appeal on US District Court Judge Carlos Murguia’s decision to block the enforcement of a new Kansas anti-abortion law until the pending lawsuit is decided. The new restrictive legislation governing abortion clinics was signed into law by anti-abortion zealot Governor Sam Brownback (R). The law gives authority to the Department of Health and Environment to stipulate stringent and unnecessary building regulations that can result in closing the clinic if they are not met.

Bonnie Scott Jones, deputy of the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), representing the abortion providers in the case, remarked that she “felt confident” the judge’s ruling will not be appealed successfully. CRR also questions whether the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists have standing to appeal the ruling since it was not a party in the case. CRR will oppose the group’s efforts to intervene in the case.

The new regulations were sent out in mid-June by Brownback’s administration to abortion providers, which were then required to comply by July 1. The list of requirements is approximately 36 pages and stipulates hundreds of details including the minimum square footage of janitors’ closets and the temperature range for procedure and recovery rooms (68 to 73 degrees and 70 to 75 degrees, respectively).

On Wednesday, the US Commerce Department’s Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA) released the second report on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) jobs and higher education, which found fewer women than men in STEM jobs and pursuing degrees in STEM fields. The report entitled “Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation” also noted that there is greater income parity between genders in STEM jobs than there is in the employment market overall. According to the report, men in STEM jobs earn 14 percent more than women in STEM jobs.

Currently, only 24 percent of STEM jobs are held by women, who earned 33 percent more than women not in STEM jobs in 2009. According to Rebecca Blank, acting Commerce Secretary, possible factors contributing to fewer women than men in STEM jobs include less family-friendly flexibility, lack of women role models, and gender stereotyping.

In response to the fact that the percentage of women in STEM fields has not grown in a decade, Blank stated, “closing the gender gap in STEM degrees will boost the number of Americans in STEM jobs, and that will enhance U.S. innovation and sharpen our global competitiveness.”

Over 170 countries are celebrating World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) this week to improve breastfeeding rates globally by raising awareness. Partners of the week in the 170 countries, including UNICEF, hope to broadcast the benefits of breastfeeding in order to educate the public.

UNICEF’s Executive Director Anthony Lake said he hopes the week will send the message that “Breastfeeding can save your baby’s life. No other preventive intervention is more cost effective in reducing the number of children who die before reaching their fifth birthdays.” Onyebuchi Chukwu, minister of health, also advised mothers “to put their babies to breast within half an hour of delivery, avoid giving water, and continue to breastfeed exclusively for six months, while continuing breastfeeding for two years on demand.”

WBW promotes exclusively breastfeeding newborn babies and infants. In addition to nourishing infants and newborns, breast milk also protects them from neonatal disease and stunted growth. Evidence has shown that if infants were exclusively breastfed for 6 months up until one year, that there could be a 13 percent decrease in deaths of children under five.

Yesterday the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced new guidelines, developed by the Institute of Medicine, that will require private insurance plans beginning on or after August 1, 2012 to cover an annual well-woman visit and a variety of specific health screenings and counseling, such as for domestic and interpersonal violence, gestational diabetes, cervical cancer (an HPV DNA screening), HIV and STIs, as well as all FDA-approved contraceptives, breastfeeding support, lactation services, and supplies. Nevertheless, HHS issued an amendment to the guidelines, which permits religious institutions that offer insurance to employees to choose whether or not to cover contraceptive services.

These guidelines will increase vitally needed and often lifesaving preventive services for women. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius stated, “These historic guidelines are based on science and existing literature and will help ensure women get the preventive health benefits they need.”

Birth control and other women’s health services will not be free but will be fully covered for all women who have health insurance, without any additional charges or co-pays. This rule will apply to new insurance policies that are issued after the expiration of a one year waiting period, which starts after HHS adoption of the recommendations, and to all plans by 2018.

Representative Lois Capps (D-CA) stated, “Today marks an incredible step forward for women’s health. By adopting each of the IOM’s recommendations for preventive women health care services, the Obama Administration is ensuring that all women—regardless of how they get their health care — will have increased access to the services they need to be healthy. For too long, women have faced financial and access barriers that have kept them from the services that they need. These new rules change that.

In an effort to save the lives of pregnant women and women with newborns in the drought-stricken areas of Somalia and some parts of Ethiopia and Kenya, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is distributing reproductive healthcare kits. The health kits include sanitary pads, soap, underwear and other hygiene items. Headscarves are also included so women can walk to food distribution centers without being harassed by Islamic Extremists.

Over 3,500 kits have already been distributed to Kenyan women. UNFPA executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin said “We are deeply concerned by the gravity of the situation in the region. We call upon the international community to urgently look after the unique needs of pregnant women and mothers whose families’ survival are particularly at risk.”

The UNFPA is focusing its support specifically on women because around 80 percent of refugees in these three areas are women. OXFAM estimates that for every 100,000 live births, at least 298 women die in these areas, and the numbers are rising. Malnutrition increases pregnancy-related complications that lead to maternal deaths and infant illness. Experts believe that by eliminating malnutrition among months, disabilities in infants will be reduced by almost a third.

On Sunday, nearly 200 abortion rights activists gathered at the Reproductive Health Services in Germantown, MD to kick off the Summer Celebration of Choice week in support of abortion provider Dr. LeRoy Carhart, who has been practicing at the clinic since December. About 100 anti-abortion protestors launched their week of morning protests today, which was expected to be their largest morning demonstration of the week.

Supporters will be outside the clinic all week, serving as a peaceful reminder that support for abortion rights is a majority position in the country and as reinforcement of our determination that the clinic will stay open.

Kim Gandy, Vice President and General Counsel of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said, “Dr. Carhart and this clinic have made a commitment to serving women’s health needs, and the women’s rights community is here to support their work.”

The Reproductive Health Services clinic offers comprehensive family planning, male sexual health care, education programs, and abortion services, including specialized care in late abortion cases.

Prior to Dr. George Tiller’s murder in Wichita in May 2009, Dr. Carhart had traveled to Wichita each month to work with Dr. Tiller. After the murder, Dr. Carhart became the chief target of Operation Rescue, which is based in Wichita but organized the Germantown demonstrations.

Feminist Majority Foundation 8/1/11; Washington Post 7/31/11

As a result of Congress’ failure to reauthorize the funding for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) budget, the FAA has been shut down since last Friday, leaving approximately 4,000 FAA employees furloughed and 70,000 likely to lose their jobs as a result of all construction jobs at airports coming to a stop. Although airports and air traffic control remain open, the FAA has been forced to halt long-term airport improvement and construction projects. Moreover, without reauthorization, the FAA is unable to collect taxes on airline tickets, a loss of $200 million per week Several small airports have already been closed.

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) International President Veda Shook, stated “The House Republican leadership has been holding the negotiations over this critical funding bill hostage in their single-minded crusade against workers’ right to join a union and bargain for a contract. Republicans are disregarding the democratic principle that majority rules – demanding instead that votes not cast be counted as no votes. Not one member of Congress would be in office today if they were held to the same standard in their elections.”

The Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee John Mica (R-FL) has been holding the reauthorization hostage, according to the Democrats. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, stated, “I wish I could understand why the desires of one company… matters more than thousands who have been furloughed….This is not policy. This is pettiness. It’s the typical ‘my way or the highway’ that has become the mantra of House Republicans.” Mica denies such claims.

On Tuesday, the North Carolina House voted 72-48 to override Governor Beverly Perdue’s (D-NC) veto of an abortion bill (HB 845) that would require women seeking an abortion to wait 24 hours after mandatory counseling and obtain an ultrasound. It is estimated that if passed, the new requirements would lead to around 2,900 additional births annually and would cost taxpayers $6.7 million in the first year and $35 million over 5 years.

Governor Perdue stated, “the bill contains provisions that are the most extreme in the nation in terms of interfering with that relationship [between patients and their doctors]. Physicians must be free to advise and treat their patients based on their medical knowledge and expertise and not have their advice overridden by elected officials seeking to impost their own ideological agenda on others.”

The bill will now go to the Republican-controlled state Senate. The Senate which initially passed the bill 29-20 will need three-fifths majority in order to override the veto and pass the bill into law without Perdue’s signature.

Sexual assault screening should be a routine part of a woman’s healthcare, according to a new Committee Opinion of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Doctors “can be instrumental in stopping the cycle of abuse,” Dr. Veronica Gillispie, a co-author of the Committee Opinion in the Journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, stated.

More than 300,000 American women are sexually assaulted each year in the US but the actual number of sexual assaults is probably higher since the crime often goes unreported. Moreover, ACOG reports that approximately 32,000 pregnancies result from rape annually. Victims can suffer from a wide range of health problems, from unintended pregnancy to post traumatic stress disorder to broken bones and bullet wounds.

“By identifying victims of sexual assault and encouraging them to report their abuse, these problems can be better addressed and even prevented,” said Gillispie.

Hundreds of Roman Catholic priests from all over the world are challenging the Vatican to rethink all-male celibate priesthood and ordain women priests. In the United States, 157 Roman Catholic priests signed a statement in support Roy Bourgeois, a member of the Maryknoll religious order and priest who faces dismissal for taking part in a ceremony that purported to ordain Janice Sevre-Duszynskaas. The statement was organized by Call to Action, a group that advocates change in the church.

Sevre-Duszynska, now a member of the Roman Catholic Women Priests, began her journey to priesthood in 1998. She gained media attention over the years for “disrupting” services and conferences calling for ordination of women priests. In 2008, Bourgeois delivered the homily ordaining her a “womanpriest.” Following the ceremony, Bourgeois received a letter from the Vatican demanding that he recant his belief and public statements for the ordination of women or he would be excommunicated. He did not recant and has not yet been excommunicated.

In June, 300 Austrian priests and deacons issued a “Call to Disobedience” to promote priesthood for both married men and women. The Austrian priests and deacons read aloud a public prayer for “church reform” in every Mass.

In 1994, Pope John Paul II issued an apostolic letter, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, declaring that the church “has no authority whatsoever” to ordain women as priests. The church argues that the Apostles of Jesus Christ were all men, and since all-male priesthood has been their practice all along, it cannot be changed.

Fourteen women US senators sent a letter to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday asking him to lift the country’s ban on women drivers. “As you know, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world with such a ban on women driving,” the senators wrote, “and maintaining such a restriction stands in stark contrast with the commitments your government has made to promote the rights of Saudi women.”

The signers were led by Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer and Mary Landrieu and included Senators Dianne Feinstein, Patty Murray, Claire McCaskill, Barbara Mikulksi, Jeanne Shaheen, Maria Cantwell, Kirsten Gillibrand, Debbie Stabenow, Amy Klobuchar and Kay Hagan – all Democrats – as well as Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.

On June 17, some 40 Saudi women got behind the wheel to protest the driving ban, which is based on religious rulings by senior clerics. Currently, Saudi Arabia does not have written laws barring women from driving. Women activists have continued to make forays onto the roads since then, often posting videos of themselves driving on social networks. Several dozen women have defied the ban in recent months, often tweeting about their experiences and posting videos of themselves behind the wheel on YouTube. A handful of women have been detained, including Manal al-Sharif, an IT consultant whose arrest in May inspired the wave of resistance.

Iranian women’s rights activist Maryam Bigdeli was arrested for the second time in two years. Bigdeli was picked up by authorities in Qom last week to finish serving a 2009 sentence for campaigning to reform laws that discriminate against women, according to Radio Zamaneh, an Iranian news service based in the Netherlands.

Bigdeli and fellow activist Fatemeh Masjedi were sentenced to six months in prison and a $2,000 fine in 2009 “for propaganda against the Islamic Republic” after taking part in the One Million Signatures Campaign for legal reform. Bigdeli challenged the sentence, but a court has rejected the challenge. Masjedi has already served six months and released.

The One Million Signatures Campaign has received numerous international honors, including the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Global Women’s Rights Award and the Simone de Beauvoir Award. Bigdeli and Masjedi were previously involved in an effort to defend a young woman against a planned honor killing.

A study based on a circumcision program conducted in Orange Farm, South Africa revealed that circumcising adult males is effective in preventing the spread of HIV. The study “resulted in a 55% reduction in HIV prevalence and a 76% reduction in HIV incidence in circumcised men.” This study is the first to link an increased rate of adult male circumcision to a reduction in the spread of HIV. The results of the study were presented at the 6th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention by the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis.

Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS, stated, “Science is proving that we are at the tipping point of the epidemic. Urgent action is not needed to close the gap between science and implementation to reach the millions of people who are waiting for these discoveries. Scaling up voluntary medical male circumcision services rapidly to young men in high HIV prevalence settings will help reach the 2015 goal of reducing sexual transmission of HIV by 50%.”

UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) nevertheless indicated that male circumcision only offers partial protection and encouraged the regular HIV testing and counseling services, as well as the adoption of safe sex practices.

On Sunday, hundreds of same-sex couples officially married in New York as the state’s Marriage Equality Act went into effect. Same-sex couples in New York can now enjoy the rights, benefits and protections attached to marriage, such as the right to visit a partner in the hospital and the right to make decisions about the partner’s medical care that are currently limited to married couples of the opposite sex.

The New York City clerk’s office has received over 2,600 requests from same-sex couples for marriage licenses since the language on the application changed from “Groom and Bride” to “Spouse A and Spouse B.” Given the large number of marriage applications, the New York City clerk’s office established a lottery system, which selected 764 couples to be married on Sunday.

In late June, the New York Senate passed the Marriage Equality Act by a vote of 33 to 29, with four Republicans joining all but one Democrat in supporting the measure. Governor Cuomo signed the bill into law that evening. The bill passed the state Assembly by an 80-63 vote earlier in June.

New York is the sixth and largest state to legalize gay marriage, following Iowa, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia.

President Obama announced that the US ban on gays serving openly in the military will be lifted on September 20, bringing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy to an end. The President met with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen to certify that the armed forces are ready for the change.

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell forces gay and bisexual service people to keep their sexual orientation a secret or face possible expulsion from the military. More than 14,000 men and women have been discharged in the policy’s 17-year history, according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi applauded the move. “When the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is complete, we will send a clear message to every American: anyone with the courage to wear our nation’s uniform will be judged not by whom they love, but by their skill, ability, and love of country,” said Pelosi in a written statement.

DADT was instituted by former President Bill Clinton in 1993 and prohibits the military from inquiring about a service member’s sexual orientation, and also calls for the discharge of anyone who acknowledges being lesbian or gay. Thus far, the policy has led to the expulsion of more than 13,000 troops.

Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) signed a bill into law that will restrict abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy unless a doctor determines the fetus is not viable or if the woman’s life is endangered. The bill does not include an exception for instances of rape and incest. Doctors who break this law could face arrest or have their medical licenses revoked.

Elizabeth Nash, public policy associate at the Guttmacher Institute, stated, “This is a big deal, in that it could have a real chilling effect on later abortions because there’s a potential to be thrust into the court system for providing an abortion after viability. It would be a huge burden for a provider to go through all of that and have to hire a lawyer to prove that you provided an abortion under the law.”

Ohio joins 39 other states with late-term abortion limits, including seven states that passed similar legislation: Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Idaho, Indiana, Missouri, and Alabama. Since January, the Ohio legislature has taken up eight other abortion related bills.