Author: Feminist Majority Foundation Blog

An American Bar Association policy which would have granted “possession and control,” of a frozen embryo to that parent willing to assume parental responsibilities was voted down. A majority of the 531 ABA delegates opposed the proposal, which had been supported by the ABA’s board of governors.

District of Columbia lawyer Estelle Rogers voiced her concern and claimed that the ABA’s first step into this new area “should not be a misstep.” Rogers voiced concerns over a hypothetical episode in which an abandoned woman loses rights over the embryo when her ex-husband decides to use the embryo to have children in a new marriage.

[Source: Nando.net – February 2, 1998]

The Army of God claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama abortion clinic in letters postmarked just hours after the explosion. Letters sent to Reuters news agency, WAGA-TV of Atlanta and The Atlanta Journal and Constitution were all handwritten in block-style capital letters. The messages were in some ways identical to those claiming responsibility for the bombing of the Atlanta Family Planning Services clinic in January 1997, and the Otherside Lounge on February 21, 1997.

FBI agent Woody Endersen, head of the Atlanta Bomb Task Force, believes the letters came from the same source, “The handwriting and other elements are identical,” he said. However, FBI spokesman Craig Dahle said that it is “too soon to say anything now” about the “authenticity” of the letters.

The most recent letter threatened additional violence towards those who provide abortion services. “Let those who work in the murder mill’s (sic) around the nation be warned once more — you will be targeted without quarter — you are not immune from retaliation. Your commisar’s (sic) in Washington can’t protect you,” the letter threatens.

The letter also refers to the French abortion pill, RU-486, that is being offered through clinical trials throughout the United States by the Abortion Rights Mobilization (ARM). “We will target anyone who manufactures, markets, sells and distrobtes (sic) the pill.”

The Army of God became known in the early 1980’s when it set fire to two Florida abortion clinics. Later that year a bombing occurred in a Falls Church, VA. clinic, and Dr. Hector Zaevallos and his wife were kidnapped from their home. Although members of the Army of God are not known, Don Benny Anderson, who was convicted of the arsons, bombing and kidnapping, declared himself the group’s leader. The militant, anti-abortion group also distributes a manual containing information on how to make a bomb.

Kathy Spillar, national coordinator for the Feminist Majority Foundation, said the letters from the Army of God “must be taken very seriously,” and stressed previous letters sent during the Atlanta bombings which claimed, “the next facility targeted may not be empty. Clearly that is what happened in Birmingham,” said Spillar.

Abortion-rights supporters from around the country traveled to Birmingham to offer their assistance and help repair the damage. “The only way terrorists will win is if we fail to reopen clinics after they have been hit. We will not be intimated,” proclaimed Spillar.

New Women All Women’s Clinic co-owner Diane Derzis stated, “The only thing I’m thinking of doing is getting the clinic back open …What’s happened is not going to scare me out of the business.” Clinic phones lines will reopen today, and patients will be admitted Thursday. “We’ll work all night if we have to,” said Derzis. Workers remain calm. Currently, it is the “safest clinic in the U.S.,” the workers said.

Authorities continue their search for a 1989 gray Nissan pickup truck, with North Carolina plates KND-1117, registered to Eric Robert Rudolph. The truck was last seen leaving the scene following the explosion. A warrant has been issued for Rudolph, who is wanted for questioning as a witness.

Call 1-888-ATF-BOMB to give leads on suspects.

Feminist News on Clinic Violence

Authorities are searching for Eric Robert Rudolph, a witness whose gray Nissan truck was spotted leaving the Birmingham abortion clinic bombing scene last Thursday. The bomb, made of nails and gunpowder, killed Robert Sanderson, a clinic security officer, and seriously injured Emily Lyons, a nurse and counselor who suffered extensive injuries to her legs, abdomen and face, including the loss of an eye and severe damage to her second eye. It is unclear whether she will see again.

Professor of sociology Dallas Blanchard commented, “the voice of violence in the abortion movement is increasing.” In the past, Alabama abortion clinics have been broken into and destroyed, and set on fire.

Workers and volunteers at the nearby Summit Clinic in Birmingham are refusing to surrender to anti-abortion violence; a sign reading “This clinic stays open,” sits in its window. Lisa Santer, a new volunteer who helps escort patients inside of the clinic, said she offered her services because she was outraged by the bombing. “I think allowing a bombing to frighten us is not a fitting tribute to a person who gives their life or a part of their body,” Santer said.

Feminist News Stories on Abortion

The American Bar Association is proposing its first-ever policy on the issue of frozen embryos. Concerns over who gets custody of previously frozen embryos after divorce has led to a discussion of policy that would automatically assert ownership to the spouse who favors gestation, and would be willing to assume parental rights and responsibilities.

Pittsburgh lawyer Bruce Wilder commented, “We know this is a sensitive issue, touching on the constitutional right to procreate or decide not to procreate, but when do those rights begin and end?” The spouse who advocates the destruction or continued storage of embryos and does not favor gestation would waive all parental rights and responsibilities.

Feminist News Stories on Abortion

Twice-Acquitted, Man Again Arrested for Rape, Attempted Murder

Scott Christopher Malsky was arrested for aggravated sexual battery and attempted murder after raping and stabbing a 14-year-old girl in Florida. Malsky, who was twice acquitted of rape in Massachusetts, was a friend of the girl’s family.

The girl was found walking down a Florida road after hiding out in the woods for four days, terrified that Malsky would return to kill her.

A report published in the American Journal of Epidemiology suggests that antioxidant vitamins reduce damage to the placenta caused by smoking. A study of more than 1,500 women found that smoking causes growth retardation and fetal distress in labor prompting calcification of the placenta. Researchers at the University of Tennessee and other centers found that antioxidant vitamin E reduced placental calcification in all women, and that vitamin C and beta-carotene limited placental calcification in African-American women.

Researchers also believe that antioxidant vitamins may aid in decreased damage to the placenta due to pregnancy-induced high blood pressure or exposure to environmental pollutants.

Jurors awarded Sunday Daskalea $5.3 million in damages after finding that a D.C. jail correctional officer forced her to participate in a striptease in July 1995.

Daskalea claims that correctional officer Yvonne C. Walker, who has since been fired, was intoxicated when she arrived at work and sent three inmates to force Daskalea to the area where the striptease took place.

When another inmate reported the striptease to a deputy warden, corrections officers assumed that Daskalea made the report and punished her by placing her in solitary confinement where she was denied “basic necessities.”

The District of Columbia plans to appeal the decision.

Three Leading National Organizations Will Reveal New Trends in Anti-Choice Terrorism and Assess the Effectiveness of Current Strategies to Reduce Anti-Choice Violence

Who: Gloria Feldt, President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America Vicki Saporta, Executive Director, National Abortion Federation        Eleanor Smeal, Feminist Majority Foundation

What: Representatives of the Feminist Majority Foundation, PPFA, and NAF will present 1997 violence and disruption statistics and assess current trends in anti-choice violence against abortion providers.

When: Thursday, January 15, 1998 at 9:30 a.m.

Where: National Press Club (Zenger Room), 13th and G Street, NW (near Metro Center), Washington, D.C.

Members of the Women’s Guild, a conservative Georgetown University women’s group supported by the Independent Women’s Forum, have written a manifesto condemning modern feminism. A Washington Post article deems Georgetown University feminists’ response to this manifesto “unladylike.” Elizabeth Kastor, author of the Post article, reports that Women’s Guild members only “wanted to kindle a debate…hold a couple of public discussions and distribute to every female freshman a pamphlet attacking contemporary feminism.”

The pamphlet entitled, “The Guide: A Little Beige Book for Today’s Miss G,” “declares modern feminism irrelevant to contemporary women and claimed feminists continue to exaggerate the prevalence of rape and anorexia.” The pamphlet urges women to “Take Back the Date,” and to forget relying on intelligence and initiative to move ahead in the world. It instead encourages women to, “try a dash of grace, a flash of charm, a modest flirtation. Remember, the tigress who knows when to roar also knows when to purr.”

Dawn Scheirer, a 21-year-old Georgetown University junior and co-author of the Guide, attributes her boyfriend’s father’s stories “about feminazis” as the source for her current political beliefs concerning women’s struggles.

The Guide stems from a movement against modern feminism, reflected in Christina Hoff Sommers 1994 book, “Who Stole Feminism?.” “There may have been a time for the characterization of women as victims, but now the women’s movement has been stolen by chronically offended, hypersexed, statistically challenged women,” said Sommers at a recent Georgetown Women’s Guild forum.

Feminists on campus are attending the conservative Women’s Guild forums and continue to fight for women’s rights. Sharon Doetsch, a Georgetown grad student and member of the Lesbian Avengers, explains the current movement as a “backlash” against increasing university support for the campus Women’s Center.

Despite cuts in social services in France, high-quality subsidized day-care has grown. Unlike in the U.S. where parents are unsure whether day care is good for children, French parents believe day care helps children become more outgoing and better socialized. Recent studies have shown that children who attended day care and pre-school do better in elementary school.

French day care centers receive enough funding to properly staff and equip the centers. For example, one Paris day care center has 25 trained employees for 88 children — a ratio of one adult to 3.5 children. Parents usually pay on a sliding scale depending on their salaries.

Although more and more day care centers have opened in recent years, demand continues to outstrip supply, with parents waiting up to a year for a spot in a day care center.

In response to United Nations demands that the Taliban ruling militia improve women’s and girls’ access to education in Afghanistan, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar said that education for women “is a big infidel policy which gives such obscene freedom to women.”

Currently, the Taliban controls two-thirds of Afghanistan, and has banned women and girls from working, going to school, and leaving their homes without a close male relative. Omar said that more rights for women would result in adultery and the destruction of Islam.

Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) are planning a trip to Afghanistan to investigate the situation of women’s human rights. Maloney and Rohrabacher made the announcement at a House Human Rights Caucus briefing on October 30. The Representatives, who sponsored a House resolution condemning the Taliban’s discrimination against women and girls in Afghanistan, also plan to write letters to the governments of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, asking them to stop supporting and arming the Taliban.

Testifying at the briefing were Sima Wali, president of Refugee Women in Development; Rona Popal, President of Afghan Women Association International; Momina Qaiyomi, an Afghan nurse who lived under Taliban rule; and Zieba Shorish-Shamley, Director of the Women’s Alliance for Peace and Human Rights in Afghanistan. Qaiyomi testified that when the Taliban took over Jalalabad, where she lived, “they closed and put big locks on schools and hospitals.” She saw a veiled woman and her husband being beaten with metal cables by the Taliban because a bit of the woman’s feet were showing. She also witnessed the Taliban killing people by slitting their throats.

The House resolution on Afghan human rights is expected to pass next week. The Senate has already passed a similar resolution.

Take Action: Support Women’s Human Rights in Afghanistan

For his role in bombing a Planned Parenthood clinic bombing, a newspaper office and a bank, as well as a bank robbery, alleged white separatist Verne Jay Merrell was sentenced yesterday to two life terms in prison without parole.

Merrell does not recognize federal authority and refused to stand for his sentencing. His defense lawyer plans to appeal both the conviction and the sentence.

Prosecutors said Merrell, along with the three other convicted men who were involved in the bombings and robbery, were members of a religious white separatist order opposed to homosexuality and mixed-race marriages.

On Thursday, October 30, members of Congress and representatives of the Asian-Pacific, Hispanic, African-American, and women_s communities gathered on the Capitol lawn to voice their support for President Clinton_s nominee for the position of Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Bill Lann Lee.

Leading the way, Rep. Patsy Mink (D-Hawaii), chair of the Asian Pacific Caucus denounced opposition to Lee’s nomination and pledged to support the civil rights nominee . “The Congressional Asian-Pacific Caucus is especially proud to support the confirmation of Bill Lann Lee,” stated Mink, “He brings to this office the practical experience of an accomplished civil rights lawyer coupled with a deep understanding of and commitment to the human quest for equality.” Joining Mink in her endorsement of Lee was Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Chair of the Black Caucus, Xavier Beccera (D-Calif.), Chair of the Hispanic Caucus, Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, other members of Congress and Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal.

Lee is currently serving the State of California as the Western Regional Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. If confirmed, he will be the first Asian-American to serve in the position of Assistant Attorney for Civil Rights.

Nominated on July 21, 1997, Lee has faced criticism from Newt Gingrich and his Republican colleagues because of his support for affirmative action. Attorney General Janet Reno voiced support for Lee, stating “Bill Lee is a superbly qualified lawyer who epitomizes the American Dream. It would be a grave mistake, holding him hostage to political disagreements over policy.”

In response to the plummeting minority enrollments at University of California law schools, San Francisco’s top attorneys issued an ultimatum Wednesday. Representatives from 50 leading law firms and San Francisco’s Bar Association said they would no longer hire UC graduates unless the school admits more students of color.

The group criticized UC because minority enrollment at Berkeley, Davis and Los Angeles law schools dropped to almost nothing after the UC system ended its affirmative action program.

Attorney James Brosnahan asked if the UC Board of Regents intended “to tell the legal employers in the Bay Area that they will not be graduating minority lawyers in any great numbers any more?” Lawyer Steve Dunham said “A profession that doesn’t reflect the citizens it serves doesn’t work. We need diversity. Clients demand it, and the law firms must respond.”

The group delivered a “Statement of Commitment” to the law school deans on Tuesday, saying that they would increase recruiting and interviewing at schools with diverse applicant pools.

UC Regent Ward Connerly disapproved of the lawyer’s actions. “If you really want to hire a certain number of blacks, Latinos and people from Mars, employers should go out and give them scholarships when they’re still in grades K-12, so the kids can become competitive,” he said.

Lindbergh Porter, Jr., who is president-elect of the San Francisco bar and an African-American, said admissions committees should stop relying so heavily on test scores and grades. “We have to look at the individual to see who would make a good lawyer. When we hire attorneys, we rarely look at the indexes of how they scored. We as employers interview and look at the whole person.”

On Thursday morning, Representatives Nancy Johnson (R-Calif.) and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) in conjunction with the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues, co-chaired a congressional hearing on women’s access to contraceptive technology. At the hearing, members of Congress urged support for legislation which would require insurance companies to include contraceptives among prescription drugs already covered. The hearing began with opening statements from Johnson and Norton focusing on obstacles to the development and use of contraception.

Panelists Dr. Paula Adams Hillard, OB-GYN, a professor in the Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Cincinnati and Dr. Elizabeth Karlin, Director of the Women_s Medical Center in Madison, Wis., provided testimony on the many forces that can limit access to effective contraception. Among the obstacles to contraceptive use cited by panelists was the cost of birth control methods, ineffective contraception, misinformation on the dangers of contraceptives, lack of insurance coverage, lack of provider training in contraception and the lack of contraceptive research and development.

Karlin said doctors often contribute to this culture and its consequences. She stressed the importance of contraceptive education in medical schools, since most medical schools teach nothing about contraception, and rely on outside pharmaceutical companies to train ob/gyn students. Doctors’ ignorance and unwillingness to educate themselves and their patients about contraceptives was made very clear as Dr. Karlin told of tragedies created by misinformation given by untrained physicians.

She described one of her patients, an 18-year-old who had been on Depo-Provera for a year. When she missed an injection and became pregnant, she told Karlin that her doctor told her Depo-Provera prevented pregnancy for two years after one injection. Another woman told Karlin that her doctor refused to sterilize her when her first pregnancy caused a stroke. When she began taking birth control pills, she developed pre-stroke symptoms and had to stop taking them. Pregnant for the second time and at great risk, she asked her doctor about abortion. He refused to either perform one or refer her to another physician.

Other witnesses such as Dr. Florence Haseltine, director of the Center for Population Research, and Roderick Mackenzie, CEO of Gynetics, Inc., testified that family planning is much cheaper than the costs of unintended pregnancies, and that the U.S. has by far the highest rates of unwanted pregnancies and STDs among any industrialized nation. Women are sterilized twice as often as men, and men usually only get vasectomies at their wife’s urging. One witness asked why men were not taking more responsibility for birth control. She said that although there have been two huge men’s marches in D.C. in the past couple of years, she wondered why they did not discuss “which kind of condom is more comfortable” or “which is better, scalpel or no-scalpel vasectomy.” “Lara,” a graduate student, testified that every form of birth control she had ever used caused her serious health problems, and called for more contraceptive research.

Congresswomen at the hearing agreed with the panelists, and reaffirmed their commitment to making contraception a part of basic health insurance and health care, given that almost everyone in the country will need birth control at some point in his or her life.

In Israel, a man who raped and sodomized a pregnant woman received a light sentence because the assault was “extremely brief,” said judges. Although the woman was late into her pregnancy, and the rape could have severely injured her and her baby, judges gave Reuven Vaknin a brief three-year jail sentence.

A Saudi Arabian court has spared an Indonesian maid from having her head cut off as a punishment for murder. The woman, Nasiroh, was convicted of shooting her male employer to death in 1994. She reportedly confessed to a closed court, even though Saudi police say she did not even know how to fire a gun. The wife of the victim has forgiven Nasiroh and exempted her from making a “blood money” payment. Her sentence was reduced to five years in prison.

Human and women’s rights activists and Indonesians protested the Saudi closed judicial system. Indonesian and Filipina women often work illegally in Saudi Arabia as maids and servants. There have been many reports of widespread sexual and physical abuse of the women by their Saudi employers.

With votes from most of the Irish constituencies in, Mary McAleese of the Fianna Fail party will be the next president of Ireland.

McAleese was the first choice of 45% of the voters, while her closest competitor Mary Banotti trailed with about 30% of the vote. Banotti conceded defeat this afternoon. McAleese campaigned for reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants.

This year’s race was unusual for Ireland because four women and only one man ran for the presidency. Although a neon sign on Ireland’s City Hall reads “It’d be much better for the world to be governed by the women in it,” from James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” women make up less than one-eighth of the lower Parliament, take home 61.3% of men’s pay, and are still underrepresented in management positions.

Lyndi McCartney, wife of Promise Keepers’ founder Bill McCartney, revealed in a New York Times interview that her husband was frequently absent from home even while preaching to men that they should treasure their wives and families.

The Promise Keepers, a male-only evangelical Christian group, preaches that women should submit to their husbands, and that in return husbands would agree to become more actively involved with their families. But according to his wife, Bill McCartney did not practice what he preached — he worked constantly, coaching college football teams and founding the Promise Keepers. He was like a plumber, said his wife. “A plumber never fixes anything at home. He’s always out fixing everyone else’s plumbing.” McCartney’s son said of his father, “we knew we were loved, but day-to-day he wasn’t present.”

In 1993, Lyndi McCartney spent the year suffering from bulimia and lost 80 pounds; her husband just thought she was on a diet. Bill gave up his coaching contract in 1994 and now tries to come home by 4:00 p.m., but Lyndi says “We’ve still got a long way to go” and was amazed on a recent vacation that they were able to talk to each other for three hours.