Six months after the creation of UN Women (UNW), a special agency for women started by the United Nations, the agency lacks the voluntary funding necessary to complete its 2011-2013 Strategic Plan, to assist countries in achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. Initially, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had set a 500 million dollar target as an […]
In honor of World Population Day today, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), together with National Geographic, IBM, and SAP, launched the 7 Billion Action Campaign, which will run through October 31 when the world population is expected to exceed 7 billion. The campaign seeks to educate people concerns related to the growing population. Dr. […]
I will never forget the day in 1981 that I asked Betty Ford to be an honorary co-chair with Alan Alda of the Equal Rights Amendment Countdown Campaign. I thought it would be a long, involved process. But she said almost immediately that she would be honored to do so. At the time Betty Ford, […]
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit voted 2-1 to strike down the anti-affirmative action provision of the Michigan Constitution. That provision, which was passed in a 2006 referendum, banned any preferences on the basis of ethnicity, sex, or race, particularly affecting admissions policies at state universities. This decision […]
Planned Parenthood of Arizona has won a temporary victory over new state laws restricting access to mifepristone, also known as RU-486 or the “abortion pill.” The two statutes would have taken effect on July 20, requiring the pill to be administered by a doctor rather than a nurse practitioner. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Richard […]
An activist group says it has collected 10,000 signatures demanding that state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser resign after fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley accused him of grabbing her neck in a chokehold. “Prosser took his bullying to a new level of unacceptable conduct and now he must go,” said One Wisconsin Now Executive Director […]
Yesterday Governor Bobby Jindal (R) signed a law requiring that clinics providing abortion services post signs indicating that a woman cannot be forced to obtain an abortion and that her partner is legally obligated to pay child support. The signs must also state that services are available to help women during and following their pregnancies […]
According the Guttmacher Spring 2011 Policy Review, family planning services are indispensable for many women, particularly marginalized populations like poor and low-income women. In “The Numbers Tell the Story: The Reach and Impact of Title X,” Susan Cohen states as a result of the federal Title X family planning program, which subsidizes contraceptive services and […]
By Kari Paul In a challenging time for reproductive rights in the U.S., it’s a relief to occasionally read a bit of good news. So here it is: Late last week, a federal court blocked South Dakota’s new anti-choice law, which would have required women to wait 72 hours–the longest, most extreme waiting period in […]
US District Court Judge Carlos Murguia blocked a law that would have shut down all but one abortion provider, Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, in the state. Murguia said there was evidence the clinics would “suffer irreparable harm” by being forced to close, and questioned whether the rules “rationally related” to patient health. The […]
Today Federal District Court Judge Same Sparks is scheduled to hear arguments in a case filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) on behalf of Texas medical providers challenging Texas’ new abortion ultrasound law. The law, scheduled to take effect September 1, requires that women seeking abortion services forced to obtain and view an […]
US District Court Judge Karen Schreier blocked a law in South Dakota requiring that women undergo a 72 hour waiting period and mandatory counseling from a crisis pregnancy center (CPC) before obtaining an abortion. Schreier’s preliminary injunction will prevent the law, scheduled to take effect July 1, from becoming effective while it is being challenged […]
Yingluck Shinawatra was elected as Thailand’s first woman prime minister on Sunday. Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai party won the majority of the country’s 500 seat parliament with 262 votes as of Sunday night. Official results of the election will come in July 12. This was the first general election since 2007. Shinawatra stated that her primary […]
Kansas has closed two of its three abortion providers after they failed to comply with a long list of arbitrary and hastily-imposed state regulations for abortion providers. The third provider, run by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, received a last-minute approval after initially being told that it too had been denied a license. The […]
Milwaukee public schools sent layoff notices to 519 public school employees, including 354 teachers yesterday. Superintendent Gregory Thornton attributes the layoffs to the $84 million cut to Milwaukee public schools in the two-year state budget, which Republican Governor Scott Walker signed last weekend. The budget cuts will amount to approximately $200 less per student in […]
According to a study done by Sian Cutris et. al. of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill entitled “Contraceptive Discontinuation and Unintended Pregnancy: An Imperfect Relationship,” more than 40 percent of women in six developing countries – Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Kazakhstan, Kenya, the Philippines and Zimbabwe – discontinue use of their contraceptive method […]
Today, 12 jurors in Charlotte, N.C., found anti-abortion extremist leader Flip Benham guilty of criminally stalking a Charlotte-area physician who performs abortions. This is the second time Benham, who is director of Operation Rescue/Operation Save America, was convicted for conduct that caused a person to fear for their safety or the safety of their family. […]
The recent hostile budget process targeted women’s health programs globally as much as it did domestically. International family planning was targeted for a 40% cut and UNFPA funding eliminated in the House majority proposals alongside a total elimination of Title X and Planned Parenthood funding. The final amount approved for FY 2011 by Congress for […]
Yesterday, the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio decided with a 2-1 majority that the mandated minimum coverage provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), which requires that a person purchase minimum health coverage or face a modest monetary penalty beginning in 2014, is constitutional under the Commerce Clause. […]
Yesterday the Rhode Island Senate voted 21 to 16 to pass a bill that would allow same-sex couples to enter into civil unions and attain some of the same benefits enjoyed by married couples, such as the right to visit a partner in the hospital and make decisions about the partner’s medical care and the […]
