News

Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee tried to make abortion the primary issue in the Committee’s hearing today on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Despite their attempts, the treaty was voted out of Committee on a vote of 13-6 with three Republican Senators voting with the 10 Democrats on the […]

Washington, DC, which is hosting the 2012 International AIDS Conference this week, has a higher HIV/AIDS infection rate than African countries such as Ethiopia, Nigeria and Rwanda, ABC News reports. Approximately 3 percent of the city’s residents are infected with the virus with 7% of all Black males being HIV positive. Infection rates amongst Black […]

Monsignor William Lynn, the high-ranking Philadelphia Catholic Church official convicted of covering up priests’ sexual abuses in a landmark court case, was sentenced to three to six years in prison yesterday. The Washington Post reports that Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said Lynn “enabled monsters in clerical garb … to destroy the souls of […]

Yesterday Sam’s Club announced their decision to withdraw ads from The Rush Limbaugh Show, following in the footsteps of over 150 other businesses. Advertisers have been fleeing from association with Limbaugh’s show since the talk show host’s sexist rants against Georgetown Law student and women’s rights advocate Sandra Fluke in March. Eleanor Smeal, President of […]

Senate Democrats, including Barbara Boxer (CA), Patty Murray (WA), and Richard Blumenthal (CT), went to the Senate Floor yesterday to ask the House Republican leadership to pass the bipartisan Senate version of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The Senate passed the VAWA reauthorization in April with provisions to increase protections on college campuses in […]

Sally Ride, who made history as the first American woman in space in 1983, passed away on Monday at age 61 from a 17 month battle with pancreatic cancer. In addition to her achievements as an astronaut, Ride held a Ph.D. in astrophysics and was a lifelong advocate of women and girls in science, technology, […]

Air Force Staff Sergeant Luis Walker was found guilty of 28 rape and sexual assault charges by a military jury Friday and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Walker was convicted of sexually abusing 10 women Air Force trainees. In addition to the prison sentence, Walker will also be demoted to the lowest Air […]

The ACLU of Arizona released thousands of emails last week that they argue prove that SB1070, Arizona’s harmful anti-immigrant law, was racially motivated. The emails are cited in a new legal effort by the ACLU to challenge the remaining provision of SB1070 that requires police to determine the immigration status of anyone arrested or detained […]

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has called for the decriminalization of homosexuality everywhere in the world as a necessary step in combating HIV/AIDS. The archbishop wrote in The Lancet last week, arguing that increasing acceptance and reducing stigma of homosexuality is a crucial step in the fight against HIV/AIDS. His statements appeared in The […]

In an interview with the Philadelphia Gay News, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), chair of the Democratic National Committee, backed the inclusion of marriage equality in the party platform. “I hope that marriage equality, and expect that marriage equality, will be part of our platform,” Rep. Wasserman Shultz said. In May, President Obama became the […]

Members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to pass a ban on abortions after 20 weeks in the District of Columbia. Introduced by Representative Trent Franks (Ariz.) in January, HR3803 prohibits physicians from providing abortions at or after 20 weeks of pregnancy unless the woman’s life is at stake. The passage of the […]

A federal judge in Nebraska dismissed a federal lawsuit yesterday that sought to block part of the new healthcare policy that will require insurance plans to cover birth control with no co-pays. The lawsuit, filed by attorneys general in seven states – Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Michigan, Florida, South Carolina, and Texas, claimed that the contraception […]

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell appointed anti-choice obstetrician Dr. John W. Seed to the Virginia Board of Health this week. He is a vocal public opponent of legal first-trimester abortion. He serves as vice-chairman of anti-choice group “OBGYNS for Life”; is a member of the “medical resource council” of The Family Foundation, a religiously-based anti-choice group; […]

Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli refused to certify the new Virginia targeted regulations of abortion providers (TRAP) yesterday that were passed by the Virginia Board of Health last month. The regulations contain an amendment, added in a 7 to 4 vote by the Board of Health, that exempts existing clinics from building regulations that would […]