Media commentators have made inappropriate criticisms this week of Regina Benjamin, MD’s weight. Dr.Benjamin is President Barack Obama’s nominee for Surgeon General. Critics, including Fox News guest Michael Karolchyk, owner of a now non-operational gym in Colorado, argue that Benjamin’s weight disqualifies her from the job of Surgeon General of the United States. Karolchyk argues […]
The Mexican City government has launched a free Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination campaign to reduce cervical cancer rates. About 35,000 girls between ages 11 and 13 will be vaccinated at the city’s clinics. After Panama initiated a similar campaign in October of 2008, the Mexican government allotted 10 million dollars to their existing campaign, […]
The US House Energy and Commerce Committee approved legislation to support comprehensive sex education yesterday, adding the Healthy Teen Initiative amendment to the proposed health care reform bill, Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. The amendment, introduced by Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA), is intended to expand on the more limited teen pregnancy initiative outlined in […]
New Delhi’s Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s decision yesterday, ruling against terminating the pregnancy of a nineteen-year-old mentally handicapped rape victim. This ruling was made immediately before the pregnancy reached 20 weeks, the latest that abortion is legal in India. Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan stated, “we know that she will not be able to […]
Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Judy Biggert (R-IL), and more than 50 co-sponsors reintroduced the Equal Rights Amendment today in the House of Representatives. The amendment would add the following sentence to the US Constitution: “Equality of Rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account […]
The US Senate passed several controversial amendments to the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act yesterday. Three amendments introduced by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) were backed by many Republicans who oppose the expansion of hate crime protections, according to The Hill. The most contentious amendment, SA 1615, authorizes use of the death penalty in some […]
Former police officer Debra Hartley will arrive in Washington, DC today after walking 225 miles from Effort, Pennsylvania in a mission to raise awareness on sex bias that impacts women in law enforcement. Hartley hopes to meet with First Lady Michelle Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to discuss policies that would address this issue […]
Iranian women’s rights activist, lawyer and journalist Shadi Sadr was beaten and arrested by plainclothes police officers last week as the government continues to crack down on dissidents. Sadr was walking with friends to Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s Friday sermon when several men approached and seized her without displaying a warrant, according to the […]
The 41st Bulgarian Parliament elected their first female speaker, Tsetska Tsacheva last week. This was Tsacheva’s first election within Parliament, where she won on a 226-0 vote with three abstentions, according to EurActive. Tsacheva is a 51 year old lawyer from the northern Bulgarian town Pleven, where she served on the municipal council, reported the […]
A legal brief filed by the Obama administration reverses a Bush administration policy that prohibited battered women from seeking asylum in the US. The brief was filed in the case of a Mexican woman who requested asylum in the US because she feared she would be murdered by her husband. According to the New York […]
Natalia Estemirova, a journalist and human rights advocate in Chechnya, a Russian republic, was abducted from her home on Wednesday and found dead in a nearby republic. Tanya Lokshina, a Human Rights Watch researcher in Moscow, told Reuters “There is no shred of doubt that she was targeted due to her professional activity.” Estemirova documented […]
Afghanistan is in deplorable condition. There’s no disputing that. Some feel that we should just walk away.
Judy Chu won the special election for California’s 32nd Congressional District Tuesday and was sworn in today as the first Chinese-American woman in Congress. Chu won 62 percent of the vote against Republican Betty Chu and Libertarian Christopher Agrella reported, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Chu’s election brings the number of women currently serving in […]
On Friday, thirteen Sudanese women were arrested and ten flogged for wearing pants. The floggings occurred after the women were arrested by public order police enforcing Sharia law in a cafe in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. The women were each fined 250 Sudanese pounds, which is about $120. According to the BBC, the ten women who […]
Finance Minister Surendra Pandey and the Nepalese government released a budget for fiscal year 2009/2010 this week, which includes a cash incentive for men who marry widows. According to the planned budget, any widow who remarries will receive 50,000 Nepali rupees, about $645. Nepalese activist Lily Thapa, who founded Women for Human Rights (WHR) and […]
Buried in the stories about the Sonia Sotomayor hearings are mentions of the arrests at the hearings of four anti-abortion protestors, including Norma McCorvey, who is the Roe of Roe v. Wade. Not mentioned is the disgusting, little pamphlet being handed out there by supporters of Randall Terry, founder of the original Operation Rescue, an […]
A federal appeals court in Chicago ruled on Tuesday that an Illinois law requiring parental notification before abortions for teenage girls is constitutional. The law, which was originally passed in 1984 and updated in 1995, mandates that physicians notify the parents at least 48 hours before the abortions of girls 17 or younger. The law […]
Former President Jimmy Carter issued a statement Sunday announcing he is severing all ties with the Southern Baptist Church due to their treatment of women. A devout Southern Baptist for more than sixty years, Carter left the church in 2000 because of ideologically differences where the religion justifies the subordination of women. His announcement comes […]
Congresswomen and global health administrators held a briefing on Capitol Hill Tuesday to highlight the issue of maternal health in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has the second-highest maternal mortality rate in the world according to UNICEF. Women’s Policy Inc. sponsored the event in collaboration with the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues. Melanne Verveer, the first-ever Ambassador-at-Large for […]
Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings for the United States Supreme Court began yesterday. Though the first day of hearings was dominated by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s opening statements, Sotomayor made a brief introductory statement at the close of the proceedings. In her opening statement Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) referenced Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth […]
