A new study published by Reproductive Health found that US states with higher religiousity also have higher teen birth rates. The study hypothesizes that this correlation may be because “teens in more religious communities may be less likely to use contraception.” According to US News, study author John Strayhorn, an adjunct professor at Drexel University […]
First lady Michelle Obama described health care reform as a women’s issue last week while speaking before an audience of 140 leading women’s rights and health care advocates. Obama’s speech at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC outlined ways in which the current health care system is disadvantageous to women, reports the Washington […]
Command Sergeant Major Teresa King takes charge of the Drill Sergeant School, the Army’s largest training institution for drill sergeants, in Fort Jackson, SC today and is the first woman ever appointed to head the school. As Commandant of the school, King will oversee 78 instructors and supervise drill sergeant training for the entire Army. […]
Taliban insurgents are suspected of bombing a coeducational primary school last Tuesday in Peshawar, Pakistan. The bombing destroyed the small three room school building, but no casualties were reported because the school was closed at the time of the attack for Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim festival that marks the end of Ramadan. Hamzullah Khan, a […]
The trial for Scott Roeder, the alleged murderer of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, MD, has been postponed until January 2010. Roeder’s trial for first degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault had originally been set to begin today, according to the Wichita Eagle. If convicted of all charges, Roeder faces life in prison […]
The Lancet, a British Medical Journal, published an editorial last week that indicates increased access to birth control could slow population growth, thereby hampering climate change. More than 200 million women want, but do not have, access to modern contraceptives, resulting in 76 million unplanned pregnancies annually. “Meeting this unmet need” for birth control would […]
A state appellate court in Indiana ruled yesterday that a state law requiring voters to show identification was unconstitutional. The State’s ruling (see PDF) comes after a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in April 2008 that upheld state voter ID laws as constitutional. The League of Women Voters filed a separate suit in Illinois […]
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that former military contractor Jamie Leigh Jones’ 2005 federal lawsuit filed against the Halliburton Corporation and its affiliated subsidiaries can be tried in court rather than undergoing binding arbitration. The Court decided whether Jones’ case, which rested on allegations that she was drugged and raped by […]
A study by researchers at Stanford University and the University of Chicago says that national women legislators routinely outperform their male counterparts. The study, entitled “The Jackie (and Jill) Robinson Effect: Why Do Congresswoman Outperform Congressmen?,” takes into account three defining factors: how many bills the member introduces, how many co-sponsors they recruit, and how […]
India has introduced eight commuter trains reserved only for women passengers in response to increasing amounts of harassment by women on trains. Women-only trains, called Ladies Specials, will run in the cities of New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta as part of a pilot program, reports the New York Times. Increasing complaints from women who […]
The Yemeni Embassy in Washington, DC is responding to media coverage of the death of a 12-year-old child bride last week. Fawziya Abdullah Youssef died in a hospital of the Hodeida province of Yemen after struggling to give birth for three days. Her child was stillborn. The story made headlines on several news outlets and […]
The White House announced Monday that President Obama intends to nominate Chai Feldblum, law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, for Commissioner of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Feldblum is a distinguished scholar and activist for workplace issues and LGBT, welfare, and disability rights, according to her Georgetown Law biography. She is also […]
Tegan Simone Leach, a nineteen-year-old Australian woman, faces up to seven years in prison for allegedly facilitating her own abortion. Abortion is criminalized in the Australian state of Queensland, where Leach resides, with an exception only to save the life or health of the mother. Leach reportedly used a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, which […]
The legal community in Uruguay is now questioning whether a law passed in the nation’s congress last week would make Uruguay, a predominantly Roman Catholic nation, the first country in Latin America to legalize gay adoption. After the law was approved, the New York Times reported that the legislation would allow gay couples to adopt […]
The Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), was introduced today in the US House of Representatives. Passed in 1996, DOMA defines marriage as between one man and one woman and denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages. According to a press release from Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who is […]
A Yemeni child bride died on Friday from severe bleeding during childbirth. Twelve-year-old Fawziya Abdullah Youssef died while giving birth to a stillborn in a hospital of the Hodeida province of Yemen, reported the Associated Press. Youssef was 11 years old when her father married her to a 24-year-old man, reports Siyaj, a Yemeni children’s […]
Rutgers basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame Friday. Stringer is the first coach, male or female, to lead three different teams to the Final Four (Cheyney State University, 1982; Iowa University, 1993; and Rutgers University 2000 & 2007), according to the Boston Globe. Stringer also ranks third […]
A campaign was launched Friday in Florida to put a constitutional amendment on the state’s 2010 ballot that would legally define fertilized embryos as people. According to the Associated Press, the proposed amendment would define a “person” as existing starting at “the beginning of biological development” and seeks to ban some forms of contraception and […]
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Mary Lou Mikula’s Title VII pay discrimination claim yesterday, dismissing a previous ruling that her claim was invalid on the basis that it was not timely. The Court relied heavily on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in the ruling. The Ledbetter Act corrects the […]
Contractors hired to guard the United States Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan have been accused of sex trafficking. One guard was heard “boasting” about the profit he could turn if he was able to “purchase a girl for $20,000.” The same guard claimed to join the force because he “knew someone who owned prostitutes there,” according […]
