An aide to former Senator John Ensign (R-NV) pled guilty to a misdemeanor violation yesterday, four years after he resigned from his job over a scandal that later forced Ensign to resign from the Senate. Doug Hampton, Ensign’s former administrative assistant, faced charges of violating a law that prohibits congressional aides from lobbying within one […]
A package of anti-abortions bills in Michigan was approved by a State House Panel yesterday and the bills are expected to be brought to a floor vote next week. Under the proposed laws, abortion would be banned after 20 weeks; doctors would be required to screen women seeking abortions to make sure they are not […]
The US House of Representatives passed a Homeland Security spending bill yesterday that includes an anti-abortion rider. Under the provision of the bill, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would be prohibited from providing abortion services to illegal immigrant detainees. The bill was approved by the GOP controlled House on a straight party-line vote, 234-182. According […]
A spending bill released on Tuesday by US House of Representatives Republicans maintains provisions that restrict abortion in the District of Columbia and a planned bill seeks to further restrict abortion in DC. Under the introduced spending bill, DC would be prohibited from using its taxpayers’ money to subsidize the cost of abortions for low-income […]
Opponents of abortion are working to include a personhood initiative on the state’s ballot this November. The personhood initiative, known as amendment Cl-108, seeks to define life under state law as beginning at the moment of fertilization, granting fertilized eggs with the full rights and privileges of a person under the Montana state constitution. As […]
Nearly 2,000 current and former Walmart employees filed claims of discrimination on the basis of gender with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Complaints were filed in all but two states – Montana and Vermont – but at least one complaint was filed in every US Walmart retail region. The lawsuits were filed in response […]
A New York Times investigation released yesterday shows that the main argument used by critics of the morning-after pill does not reflect current scientific findings. Opponents of the morning-after pill argue that the pill prevents pregnancy by blocking fertilized eggs from implanting in the uterus. However, the New York Times investigation shows that studies do […]
A federal appeals court yesterday declined a request to review its recent ruling on Proposition 8, the ban on same-sex marriage in California that was approved by voters, greatly increasing the chances that the Supreme Court will take up the issue. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law against same-sex marriage in […]
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) survived a recall attempt yesterday; the recall election was prompted by Walker’s attack last year on collective bargaining rights of public sector employees, specifically teachers, nurses, and social workers. Democratic nominee, Tom Barrett, mayor of Milwaukee, lost to Walker by 6.9 percent of the vote, with Walker taking about 53 […]
The Paycheck Fairness Act failed to get the 60 votes necessary to break the filibuster in the US Senate today and was not brought to the floor, with all Republicans voting against the bill and all Democrats voting for the bill in a straight party-line vote. (Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) must vote procedurally with […]
The Vatican censured a US nun, Sister Margaret Farley, on Monday because she wrote a book on sexuality. The book, “Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics,” focused on sexuality and veered from the Church’s teachings on masturbation, homosexuality, remarriage after divorce, and gay marriage. According to CBS News, Farley said that she had […]
Protesters rallied in Istanbul on Sunday to protest proposed anti-abortion laws by Turkish Prime Minster Tayyip Erdogan. An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 protesters gathered, most of them women. One protestor, Bahar Guler, told Reuters that “it is our right to choose when to give birth or to have children at all. We will not bow […]
The US Senate is scheduled to hold a procedural cloture vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act today, a bill that seeks to tighten equal pay protections. Under the proposed law, employers would be required to demonstrate that salary differences between men and women who do the same work are not due to gender. Employers would […]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently launched “Teach Kids, Not Stereotypes Campaign,” which calls for the end of unlawful and ineffective sex segregated programs in public schools. This campaign complements an earlier campaign to “Rescind the Bush Administration 2006 Regulation Weakening prohibitions Against Sex Discrimination in Education”. The new ACLU campaign identifies sex discrimination […]
The Louisiana State Legislature passed two bills restricting abortions last week – one that prohibits abortions in the state after 20 weeks and one that requires a woman seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound 24 hours before the procedure. The 20 week restriction, based on the unsupported premise that a fetus can feel pain […]
The Virginia Department of Health released its proposed permanent regulations for women’s health clinics on Friday. Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell signed the Targeted Regulations on Abortion Providers (TRAP) law last year and emergency regulations have been in effect since January 1, even though there was no declared public health emergency. The law requires that first-trimester […]
A Federal District Judge blocked a portion of Florida’s voting law yesterday that put restrictions on voter registration. The judge issued an injunction against the part of the law that required those who conduct voter registration drives to turn in forms within 48 hours of collecting them. Opponents argued that the law, signed by Governor […]
Documents released yesterday show that Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York authorized payments, some as much as $20,000, to priests who sexually abused children as a means of encouraging them to leave the ministry. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) announced the findings after discovering them in the minutes of a Milwaukee […]
The US House of Representatives voted 246-168 yesterday against the Pregnancy Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA), a bill that sought to impose criminal penalties on doctors who perform an abortion for a woman who seeks the procedure on the basis of the gender of the fetus. The bill would have also prohibited federal funding for organizations that […]
UPDATE: The House rejected this bill. Debate began in the House of Representatives yesterday on H.R. 3541, the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA). The bill, sponsored by Representative Trent Franks (R-AZ), would impose fines or imprison doctors who perform desired abortions due to the fetus’s gender and bar federal funding for organizations that do not comply. […]
