The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has invited six Afghan athletes – three women and three men – in “consultation with Afghanistan’s largely exiled national Olympic committee.” However, the spokesman for the Taliban government’s sports directorate, Atal Mashwani, said “only three athletes are representing Afghanistan.” He continued, “in Afghanistan girls’ sports have been stopped. When girls’ […]
Georgetown Law Unpacks the Supreme Court’s 2024 Term: Civil Rights, Reproductive Health, and the Fight for Democracy
Georgetown Law’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law hosted an event, sponsored by Ms and Feminist Majority Foundation, on July 1st reviewing the Supreme Court’s 2024 term and discussing the current crisis of health and democracy due to the Dobbs decision. In honor of the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, […]
Project 2025: A Dystopian Future
Project 2025. What exactly is it? The 920 page document was written by The Heritage Foundation– a conservative think tank that has outlined their goals for the transition period if Donald Trump were to be elected as President in November. Heritage Foundation President Kevin D. Roberts has made it clear that the focus of the […]
The Impact of the Supreme Court’s Presidential Immunity Ruling
On July 1st, the Supreme Court released its last round of decisions before their summer recess. One of these decisions, Trump vs. the United States (2024), changed the future of the executive office, and possibly our democracy. After the January 6th insurrection in 2021, Special Council Jack Smith was assigned to investigate Trump’s involvement in […]
The Taliban has increased the flogging of women. This brutality will not end unless the international community holds the Taliban accountable.
In March this year, the Taliban’s Supreme Leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, announced that the Taliban regime would resume the public stoning of women for crimes like adultery. The Taliban argues that this is “in line with Sharia and Islamic law” and will also punish other “moral crimes” in a similar fashion. Since the Taliba returned […]
U.N. Report: Taliban’s Treatment of Women is Gender Apartheid
On June 18, the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, presented a mandated report to the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights. The report states that the “phenomenon of an institutionalized system of discrimination, segregation, disrespect for human dignity and exclusion of women and girls,” is Gender Apartheid. […]
Abortion Bans and the Effect on Infant Mortality Rates
There is no doubt that abortion bans are dangerous – for the women whose choice is ripped away from them, for the doctors who are unsure how to provide proper care within the limits of restrictive laws, and especially for the women who are forced to give birth to a baby that is clearly unable […]
Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Case On Transgender Affirming Care For Minors
On Monday, June 24th, the Supreme Court inserted itself into the fight over transgender rights. The court agreed to hear a Biden administration appeal to a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care to transgender minors. The state law, enacted last year, restricts puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery for minors and imposes civil penalties for […]
Supreme Court Upholds Federal Law Protecting Survivors of Domestic Violence
On June 21, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of a federal law prohibiting those with a domestic violence restraining order against them from possessing a firearm. The federal law in question under United States v. Rahimi (2024) was the 1996 Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban, often referred to as “the Lautenberg Amendment,” after […]
Louisiana Passes Law Requiring Public Schools to Display the Ten Commandments in Classrooms
On June 19, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed a Republican-sponsored bill requiring public schools — from kindergarten to university — to display a poster of the Ten Commandments in all classrooms by 2025 to maintain state funding. The law specifies that the poster must be at least 11 feet by 14 feet, with the 10 […]
Thailand to be the first Southeast Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage
On Tuesday June 18th, Thailand’s Senate overwhelmingly passed a marriage equality law, paving the way for it to become the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. It will now become the third Asian country to allow same-sex marriage. The legislation labels marriage as a partnership between two individuals and changes references to […]
Senate Republicans Block a Bill to Protect IVF
On June 13, the GOP blocked a bill aimed at protecting and expanding access to in vitro fertilization (IVF). The rejection of this bill demonstrates a concerning trend throughout the country condemning the use of IVF. The Right to IVF Act, introduced by Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), planned to expand access to fertility treatments like […]
Southern Baptists Reject Ban on Women Pastors — Substantive or Semantic?
On Wednesday, June 12th, the Southern Baptist Convention voted on a controversial amendment to their constitution — one that would formally ban women from pastoral roles in all affiliated churches. This amendment failed, narrowly missing the 2/3rds supermajority needed by only receiving 61% of the vote. While this measure may have failed, its sheer existence […]
Supreme Court Unanimously Upholds Full Access To Mifepristone
On Thursday, June 13th, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone. The FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine case was brought by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine against the Food and Drug Administration in an attempt to restrict mifepristone access. Mifepristone was approved by the FDA in 2000 and is […]
Shinnecock Indian Nation elects first female chair in over 200 years
People often wonder what the world would look like if it were run by women. Would there be less war? Greater partnership between countries? Universal access to health and social care? Safer streets? Of course, the number of female leaders has increased dramatically in the last few decades. Then again, anything can be a dramatic […]
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions holds hearing on abortion access
On June 4th, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing on “The Assault on Women’s Freedoms: How Abortion Bans Have Created a Health Care Nightmare Across America.” Filled to the brim with women young and old, the room was tense as the audience waited for opening remarks from Senator Bernie […]
Florida Law Restricting Treatment for Transgender People is Thrown Out by a Federal Judge
On June 11th, a federal judge struck down a 2023 Florida law which blocked gender-affirming care for transgender minors and restricted this treatment for adults. For minors, this law stopped puberty blocking treatments and cross-sex hormones. For adults, this law still allowed treatment, but it could only be done by a physician, not an advanced […]
Study Shows Record-Breaking Voter Turnout for Women in College
For years, older generations have often viewed the youth vote as unimportant due to perceived low voter turnout and have stereotyped college students as politically unmotivated or even apathetic. While this may have been true in the past, a 2021 study conducted by Tufts University, entitled Democracy Counts 2020, has disproven this stereotype and shown how the youth vote […]
International Human Rights Groups Demand Afghan Women’s Participation in the Third Doha Meeting
In a letter to the UN, the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security – expressed the growing concern about how the international community lacks the “necessary resolve to defend and advocate for the human rights of Afghan women and girls.” This will be the third Doha meeting, taking place in Doha, Qatar on […]
The Ever-Widening “Gender Chasm” of the Upcoming 2024 Presidential Election
The gender gap, coined by Feminist Majority Foundation founder and president, Eleanor Smeal, describes the percentage difference between women and men voting for a specific candidate and has existed since at least the 1980 presidential election. In that election, while a slim majority of women did vote for Ronald Reagan, they did so at a rate […]
