An Indiana law that denies Medicare funds to Planned Parenthood has once again been blocked. The law, signed into effect by Republican Governor Mitch Daniels in May 2011, claims that Planned Parenthood of Indiana (PPIN) should not receive Medicare funding because the funds would indirectly subsidize abortion. The law was blocked in June of 2011 […]
Since the end of last month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have been busy rallying up their base to come out and defend their “religious liberty.” A series of events, spanning over two weeks and dubbed the ‘Fortnight of Freedom,” were planned and publicized to parishes and diocese across the US in an attempt to […]
A new report by the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, an independent body of former world leaders and top legal, human rights and HIV experts, released on the eve of the London Summit, has labeled the global response to the AIDS epidemic as “stifled.” The ground-breaking account, “HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights […]
By Rev. Dr. E. Faye Williams, Chair of the National Congress of Black Women If you have ever been beaten, kicked, punched, slapped by a partner who claims to love you, it is not difficult for you to understand why it’s mandatory to have the Violence Against Women Act. If you’ve ever had a daughter, […]
By: Maggie Fridinger, Program and Policy Intern National Council of Women’s Organizations Every 9 seconds a woman is assaulted or beaten in the United States. One in four women are subjected to violence during their lifetime. Perpetrators do not discriminate in their acts of violence. Women are exposed to domestic violence regardless of race, sexual […]
by Mary Reardon Johnson, Executive Director, YWCA of Western Massachusetts Officer down! Around the city of Springfield, Mass., sirens blare, lights flash, emergency vehicles screech and news media are dispatched. Yellow tape goes up and the first accounts are sent out over the air and internet. The veteran police officer responded to a call requesting […]
By Kim Gandy, VP and General Counsel, Feminist Majority Foundation HERvotes is joining our voices together in a blog carnival urging passage of the “real” Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization — the bi-partisan bill that has already passed the Senate. The House has passed a version of VAWA reauthorization that some have called “VAWA […]
Planned Parenthood sued the state of Arizona on Monday in an effort to overturn a new law that blocks it from receiving government funds. The law was signed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer in May, and is designed to prevent the allocation of public funds to clinics that also provide abortion in the state. The […]
Everybody wants to know where women fit into the new Egypt. After an electrifying revolution, leading to the end of President Hosni Mubarak‘s three decade long dictatorship, the “women question” awaited the country’s first democratically elected leadership. The world watched as Egyptian women, young and old, Christian and Muslim, fought alongside their brothers, slept next to them […]
Canada is the best place to be a woman, and India is the worst according to a new poll by Thomson Reuters Foundation. The legal news service launched a global poll of experts this week ranking countries for women in the G20, putting the US, which “polarised opinion due to issues surrounding reproductive rights and affordable healthcare,” in sixth place. Access to healthcare […]
The post- Liberation War generation of Bangladesh know stories from 1971 all too well. Our families are framed and bound by the history of this war. What Bangladeshi family has not been touched by the passion, famine, murders and blood that gave birth to a new nation as it seceded from Pakistan? Bangladesh was one […]
Today, the IOC announced that two Saudi Arabian female athletes, Sarah Attar and Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhan, qualified to participate in the 2012 Olympic Games in London. This comes one month after Saudi Arabia announced that it would reverse its ban on women competing in the Olympic Games. The country was under international pressure […]
International donors, including the US and Japan, pledged $16 million in development aid to Afghanistan at the Tokyo Conference yesterday. Four million dollars will be provided annually through 2015. By providing this assistance, the international community expressed its commitment to assist with the stabilization of Afghanistan as international troops are withdrawn from the country. In […]
On Saturday Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) married his longtime partner Jim Ready, becoming the first sitting member of congress to marry a same-sex partner. Frank and Ready met in 2005 at a political fundraiser in support of gay rights and nondiscrimination legislation for the LGBTQ community. The couple was married in Newton, Massachusetts, part of […]
Requests for a gay pride parade to be held in St. Petersburg this Saturday were denied as a result of a Gay Propaganda law that came into effect in March. The Russian LGBT group Ravnopravie applied to hold St. Petersburg’s third annual pride parade tomorrow, and its organizers are now facing charges of homosexual propaganda. […]
Feng Jianmei of China’s Shaanxi Province was forced by local officials to abort her second pregnancy this June after violating China’s strict one-child policy. After being unable to pay over $6,000 in fines for her second pregnancy, Jianmei was abducted and held for three days by local officials. She was then given an injection against […]
A transgender woman was recently sentenced to a 41-month prison term in a men’s prison for acting in what many are calling self-defense in response to a hate crime. Cece McDonald, a young, black, transgender woman was arrested in Minnesota last June for stabbing and killing a white man who was part of a group […]
The Republican-controlled General Assembly of North Carolina voted to defund Planned Parenthood late Monday night. An estimated $200,000 will be stripped from the state’s two Planned Parenthood Affiliates after the General Assembly voted to override Governor Beverly Purdue’s veto of the annual budget. The General Assembly unsuccessfully attempted to defund Planned Parenthood in 2011. The […]
A crisis pregnancy center (CPC) is opening up across the street from the Women’s Health Center, the only abortion provider in northern Minnesota. “We already have problems with picketing and harassing patients, so we feel if the crisis pregnancy center goes kitty-corner from us, there just may be more picketing and harassment,” said Laurie Casey, […]
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services released proposed changes to regulations of abortion services last week. The proposed changes modify the conditions that qualify an abortion procedure for federal reimbursement. The new language reads that a woman can be reimbursed if, “the mother is endangered by the pregnancy.” The changes have raised alarm […]
