A Judge ruled on Friday to let a strict new anti-choice law stand, but will allow Mississippi’s lone abortion clinic more time to comply with the new regulations. Under this law, House Bill 1390, doctors must have admitting privileges at a local hospital and they must be board certified OB-GYNs. The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, […]
Today, Air Force Sergeant Luis Walker’s court-martial in the Lackland Air Force Base sexual abuse scandal begins in Texas. Walker faces 28 charges including multiple counts of rape, aggravated sexual contact and aggravated sexual assault. If convicted of all counts, he could get life in prison and a dishonorable discharge. A seven-member jury of military-personnel […]
The Center for Reproductive Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Thursday in an attempt to block an anti-choice law in Arizona. The law was signed into effect by Governor Jan Brewer this April, and is scheduled to go into effect August 2nd. The law prohibits women from getting an abortion […]
Hanifa Safi, a provincial head of women’s affairs, was assassinated on Friday in Afghanistan. Safi was driving with her husband and daughter when a car bomb exploded, killing Safi and leaving her husband in a coma. Safi was the department head for women’s affairs in the Laghman province, and was a prominent advocate for women’s […]
The first lesbian Super PAC, LPAC, was launched yesterday. LPAC, which is supported by actress Jane Lynch and tennis star Billie Jean King, will support pro-lesbian candidates and issues. LPAC has already received pledges of $200,000 and aims to raise one million dollars this election cycle. The group has not announced which candidates or issues […]
The FDA approved the first at-home HIV test this past Tuesday. The OraQuick test, manufactured by OraSure, uses a mouth swab to provide test results within 20 to 40 minutes. Advocates in the HIV/AIDS community are praising the potential effects of the test on lowering infection rates. Transmission rates of HIV can be lowered by […]
Following in the footsteps of many major businesses, including Toyota, Geico, and McDonald’s, UPS denounced Rush Limbaugh’s misogynistic rhetoric by pulling their ads from the Rush Limbaugh radio show on July 3rd. Huffington Post reports that UPS received a number of complaints on Twitter about the appearance of their ads on his show. The total […]
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 […]
