The Shadow Summit hosted by Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) brought women’s voices to the NATO Summit. Featured speakers, Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Ambassador at Large for Women’s Global Melanne Verveer, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (IL-D), and Afghan Women’s Leaders, Afifa Azim, director and co-founder of the Afghan Women’s Network, and Manizha Naderi, executive director, […]
Amnesty International is staging a “Shadow Summit” this Sunday, May 20, in Chicago to emphasize to NATO Summit leaders that Afghan women’s and girls’ needs must be front and center in all planning. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky together with Afghan Women’s […]
The GOP Controlled House Appropriations Committee expanded the war on women globally yesterday. The committee slashed international family planning funding by $149 million, or 25%, reinstated the Global Gag Rule, and banned all US funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Nita Lowey (D-NY), Ranking Democratin the Committee, summed up the damage of the […]
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution held a hearing yesterday on a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks in Washington, DC. Outrageously, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton’s (D-DC) request to testify at the hearing was denied by the bill’s sponsor, Republican Trent Franks (AZ-2), who chairs the subcommittee. The Republicans called three physicians […]
Amnesty International is staging a “Shadow Summit” this Sunday, May 20, in Chicago to emphasize to NATO Summit leaders that Afghan women’s and girls’ needs must be front and center in all planning. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky together with Afghan Women’s […]
The Cantor/Adams Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization passed the US House yesterday on a nearly straight party line vote of 222-205. Only six Democrats voted yes for the GOP bill, but 23 Republicans joined Democrats in voting against it. For the first time in history, the House passed a VAWA reauthorization that rolls back […]
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution is holding a hearing today on a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks in Washington, DC. The bill’s sponsor, Republican Trent Franks (AZ-2), chairs the subcommittee. His home state, Arizona, enacted new abortion restrictions in April that prohibit abortion after 20 weeks, though the law essentially […]
By Cindy Pearson, co-founder of Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need For the 13th #HERvotes blog carnival, we’re celebrating National Women’s Health Week. The federal government launched National Women’s Health Week ten years ago in an effort to improve women’s health by building awareness about things like exercise, healthy eating and the […]
The New Hampshire House of Representatives voted yesterday in favor of a bill that requires a woman seeking an abortion to wait 24 hours from the time of the consultation with the doctor or abortion provider to the time she undergoes the abortion. Last month, the New Hampshire State Senate voted against a different bill […]
In a statement released yesterday, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced that they submitted comments (PDF) to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in opposition to the Obama Administration’s recent announcement that employers’ insurance plans must include contraception coverage. The Obama Administration, in an accommodation, made clear that if […]
The Obama Administration released a Statement of Administration Policy (PDF) yesterday in which the administration threatened to veto the House version of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), HR 4970, because it does not contain many of the protective provisions that are included in the Senate version. These provisions include protection for LGBT, immigrant, and […]
An Oklahoma Judge ruled on Friday that a proposed state law severely restricting medication abortions is unconstitutional, permanently blocking the enforcement of the bill. Oklahoma County District Judge Donald Worthington issued the ruling against the bill, which banned non-FDA approved uses of the drug for abortion, but allowed for off-label use of the same medication […]
The number of US women in Chief Information Officer (CIO) positions has decreased since 2010, according to a survey (PDF) released by Harvey Nash USA this week. In 2010, 12 percent of CIOs were women. That number dropped to 11 percent in 2011 and is down to 9 percent this year. The report finds that […]
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed a bill into law on Monday that gives pharmacists the right to deny women any drug that the pharmacist believes can cause an abortion. Critics have argued that the bill can give pharmacists the right to deny contraception or the morning after pill to women because under the law, pharmacists […]
A study conducted by the Guttmacher Institute and published in the June 2012 edition of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health demonstrates the link between knowledge of contraceptive methods and avoidance of risky behaviors among young adults. The Guttmacher institute collected data from a nationally representative sample of 1,800 sexually active people between the ages […]
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed a law on Friday banning schools in the state from teaching students about “gateway sexual activity” in sex education classes. According to drafters of the bill, so-called gateway sexual activity includes any type of “intentional touching of the primary genital area, groin, inner thigh, buttock or breast of a human […]
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a law on Friday that expands an exemption to a state law that requires employers to include birth control coverage in their health plans’ coverage of prescription medication. Under a law passed in Arizona in 2002, employers’ health plans must include contraception coverage if the plans cover prescriptions, unless the […]
Yesterday, District Judge James Reynolds ruled unconstitutional Montana’s ban on birth control coverage for teenage girls who are insured by the state’s low-income health insurance program for minors, Healthy Montana Kids. He concluded that the law “violates the right of privacy and the rights of persons not adults set forth in the Montana Constitution.” In […]
The House on Thursday passed a plan to increase military spending while slashing funding for food and child care programs, as well as Medicaid and federal employees’ benefits. The budget proposal, written by House Budget Committee chairman Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI1), was an attempt to avoid the cuts to defense spending mandated in last summer’s […]
by Terry O’Neill, National Organization for Women In time for Mothers Day, the 12th HERvotes blog carnival is dedicated to getting the word out about economic security for women, especially in their retirement years. Women need better benefits — not cuts — under social safety net programs. The economic slump in both the U.S. and […]
