Past allegations of sexual harassment by Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain have resurfaced, with Cain being accused of having demonstrated suggestive sexual behavior towards at least two former employees during his tenure as CEO of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. Two women are said to have complained of Cain’s sexual misconduct, only to […]
The Catholic Church is at odds with the Obama Administration over a recent decision to end Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) funding to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops because of its stance on birth control and reproductive rights. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was previously awarded grants from HHS to help […]
We humans mark a milestone today—the world’s population reaches 7 billion. When I was born there were about 2.2 billion people on earth. When my assistant was born there were a little more than 5 billion people on earth. It took just 12 years to go from 6 billion to 7. As the population climbs […]
6,998,460,833: the world’s current population, according to an estimate by Population Action International (PAI). In anticipation of October 31st, the day the world’s population is predicated to reach 7 billion, I’ve sat at my desk transfixed by PAI’s scrolling ticker, documenting the rapidly increasing population as it approaches a number troubling to reproductive rights activists, […]
The UN has projected that the world’s population will reach 7 billion today, a scary milestone amidst increasing global political and economic instability. More people will only place increased pressure on our environment, on the world’s habitats, forests, and resources such as water. But how does investing in women’s rights tie into slowing the world’s […]
The world’s population reached 7 billion today. The population as a whole is aging, particularly in developed areas in which people are living longer and the fertility rates are lower. However, the number of births continues to increase in developing countries. There are 158 more births than deaths each day in the world, but 154 […]
In a step toward gender equality, leaders of the 16 Commonwealth countries of the United Kingdom who gathered at a Commonwealth of Nations summit approved changes made to the royal succession laws of the United Kingdom that give first-born daughters precedence over younger brothers when crowning a future monarch. The constitutional amendments are designed to […]
On Thursday, current and former employees of Wal- Mart’s California stores filed a lawsuit against the corporation on grounds of sex discrimination. This is the first of many class action suits designed to serve as a scaled down version of the initial lawsuit, which was filed in 2001 and rejected by the U.S Supreme Court […]
Despite the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s decision to remove some of its proposed regulations on abortion providers, three doctors who perform abortions in Kansas announced that they will continue their challenge to the state’s abortion law in court. Earlier this week, the Kansas Health Department announced that it would abandon regulations that specify […]
On Thursday, current and former employees of Wal- Mart’s California stores filed a lawsuit against the corporation on grounds of sex discrimination. This is the first of many class action suits designed to serve as a scaled down version of the initial lawsuit, which was filed in 2001 and rejected by the U.S Supreme Court […]
With the world’s population predicted to reach 7 billion by the end of the month, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) released the State of World Population 2011 report yesterday. UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin stated, “our work is far from done. Consider that there are 215 million women of childbearing age in developing […]
On Wednesday, hundreds of Yemeni women gathered in the country’s capital of Sanaa to burn their veils in protest of the government’s on-going crackdown against anti-government demonstrations. The women held banners to criticize President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s authoritative regime, with the banners reading: “Saleh the butcher is killing women and is proud of it” and […]
US District Court Judge Catherine Eagles issued a preliminary injunction yesterday against a provision in a North Carolina abortion law that would require abortion providers to perform an ultrasound at least four hours prior to an abortion. The law, scheduled to take effect today, would also require that providers describe the images in the ultrasound […]
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted yesterday to recommend that boys between 11 and 21 years old be vaccinated for the human papilloma virus (HPV). Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the Department of Preventative Medicine at Vanderbilt University, stated, “If the boys are also immunized, […]
Women in Kenya are dying at an alarming rate due to unsafe backstreet abortions, according to Reuters. In Kenya, which has high rates of poverty, sexual violence and limited access to family planning, approximately 35 percent of maternal deaths are the result of unsafe abortions and an estimated 2,600 women die each year from complications […]
Following a nine month investigation of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) in North Carolina, NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina found that the centers provided clients with incorrect information about abortions. NARAL’s 36 page report indicated that the North Carolina CPCs oftentimes did not reveal that they were not comprehensive medical facilities and gave their clients incorrect information […]
In anticipation of the world’s population reaching 7 billion at the end of this month, approximately 2,000 policymakers and advocates will gather for the International Conference on Family Planning from November 29 to December 2 in Dakar, Senegal. The conference – sponsored by over 30 international organizations, including UNFPA, USAID, WHO, European Commission, World Bank […]
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has agreed to remove some of its proposed regulations on abortion providers, including regulations which specify the size and temperature of patients’ rooms. Nevertheless, the majority of the provisions have been upheld, such as that which requires that abortion providers be licensed by the Kansas Department of Health […]
On Friday, US District Court Judge Susan Bolton dismissed Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s (R) lawsuit against the federal government charging it with inadequate enforcement of immigration laws. Governor Brewer’s case was a countersuit to the lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice challenging the constitutionality of Arizona immigration law (SB 1070). The state requested that […]
According to a study by Amir Erfani, entitled “Induced Abortion in Tehran, Iran: Estimated Rates and Correlates,” many women in Tehran obtain abortions, despite Iran’s highly restrictive abortion laws. Erfani reports that approximately “one in six married women of reproductive age in Tehran will have an abortion in their lifetime” or 9 percent of pregnancies, […]
