Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is calling for state police departments to send all rape kits to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation. He is also encouraging police to send thousands of unprocessed rape kits from previous kits to the crime lab and indicated that four workers will be hired to assist with processing the rape […]
President Obama is expected to sign the FY 2012 omnibus spending bill, which includes $610 million in bilateral and multilateral funding for international family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH), cutting off international family planning by a mere $5 million from 2011. The Republican House had initially voted to cut international FP/RH by some 25%. Both […]
District Judge James Wilson Jr. ruled that a fetal personhood ballot initiative in Nevada, which proposes to give constitutional rights to a fertilized egg, is misleading and fails to provide an explanation of its effects on voters, as required by Nevada law. Judge Wilson ruled that the Nevada Prolife Coalition, which filed the initiative, must […]
Governor Scott Walker’s administration recently announced that it will no longer contract with Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin (PPWI) as a part of the Wisconsin Well Woman Program. Under the Well Woman Program, in which PPWI has served as a state contractor for the past 16 years, women without insurance between the ages of 45 and […]
Today President Obama issued an executive order to establish the United States’ first-ever National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security to formalize the nation’s commitment to promoting women’s role in conflict prevention and resolution. The executive order states, “The goal is as simple as it is profound: to empower half of the world’s population […]
Planned Parenthood of Arizona (PPAZ) announced that it will continue offering abortion services at two clinics near Phoenix. The clinics temporarily halted abortion services after the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled to uphold a law that only a physician can provide medical services, which took effect in August. Previously PPAZ permitted medicinal abortions to be […]
According to a study by the Guttmacher Institute’s Rachel Jones and Lawrence Finer entitled, “Who Has Second-Trimester Abortions in the United States?,” women with lower educational attainment, teenagers, women who have “experienced multiple disruptive events in the last year,” and African American women are more likely to have second trimester abortions-at 13 weeks gestation or […]
(correction from original story) FBI Director Rober Mueller told a Senate panel Wednesday that the FBI National Crime Information Center Advisory Board recommended to update the current Uniform Crime Report definition of rape that many say is too narrow. He also said his “expectation is it will go into effect sometime this spring.” Currently, the […]
On Wednesday, Ohio Senate President Tom Niehaus (R-OH) announced that he will suspend hearings on the “heartbeat bill” due to the confusion created by the 20 amendments to the bill submitted by its supporters. He stated, “These eleventh hour revisions only serve to create more uncertainty about a very contentious issue. We’ve now heard hours […]
A survey released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 1 in 4 women in the United States, or 24 per minute, experienced intimate partner violence by either a husband or boyfriend. Moreover, 1 in 5 women stated that they were victims of rape and 1 in 6 of stalking. […]
The White House and the Department of Labor are expected to propose new regulations this afternoon to protect home health-care workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act, guaranteeing that they will receive the minimum wage and overtime protections. This will affect approximately two million home-care workers, many of whom are minority and immigrant women, according […]
A survey released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 1 in 4 women in the United States, or 24 per minute, experienced intimate partner violence by either a husband or boyfriend. Moreover, 1 in 5 women stated that they were victims of rape and 1 in 6 of stalking. […]
Yesterday Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and 14 other US Senators issued a letter calling on Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to indicate the medical and scientific basis that led her to overrule the FDA’s decision to lift the age limit for emergency contraception and her refusal to permit the over-the-counter sale of the […]
Yesterday US District Judge Edward Korman ruled that he would allow the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) to refile a case against the FDA for “imposing unnecessary age restrictions on emergency contraceptives, and seek immediate relief to allow broader access to available drugs.” Judge Korman will also permit CRR to add Health and Human Services […]
Politicians, economists and activists gathered at the Bonn Conference in early December expressed concerns regarding the impact of the withdrawal of th US on maternal mortality. Sarah Pickworth, a public health specialist in Afghanistan stated, “The greatest risk at present is through aid levels dropping off precipitously. Without sufficient funding, there is likely to be […]
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case, Arizona v. United States, concerning whether Arizona can impose its own stringent immigration law, given that immigration enforcement is typically under the purview of the federal government.Arizona’s SB 1070 mandates that police investigate and detain anyone believed to be undocumented and make arrests without warrants […]
A new program in Sierra Leon, established by the Gloag Foundation, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and Airtel, enables women to call a toll-free number and speak with nurses to determine whether they are eligible to receive treatment for fistulas. Since the hotline was launched in October, […]
On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted 21 to 5 that the label on Yaz and its predecessor Yasemin birth control does not adequately warn users about the drug’s risk of causing blood clots, which is higher than other oral contraceptives. In addition, the FDA found that Yaz and Yasemin did not contain […]
On Saturday, three women were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. The three women – Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, who led a women’s movement to protest the use of rape during Liberia’s civil war, Tawakkol Karman, a pro-democracy campaigner from Yemen, and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberi, the first woman to be […]
by Jon Walker This post originally appeared on Firedoglake. This is a pure expression of male paternalism regarding women being able to make their own reproductive decisions. From USA Today: President Obama said today that “as the father of two daughters,” he supports his health secretary’s decision to block over-the-counter sales of the Plan B […]
