The Health Care for Women Resolution was reintroduced in both chambers of Congress yesterday by co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Women’s Issues Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). If passed, the resolution would help to ensure the needs of women would be met in national healthcare reform. In a press release, […]
Arizona state legislators introduced a bill this week that would allow pharmacists to refuse to honor prescriptions for emergency contraceptives due to moral objections. The legislation requires minors to receive notarized parental consent prior to an abortion, requires a 24-hour waiting period prior to an abortion, and specifies that women must be briefed on assistance […]
Four female journalists were brutally attacked last week by a pro-female genital mutilation (FGM) group in Kenema, Sierra Leone. The journalists were abducted, stripped, and marched through the city after being accused of reporting on an anti-FGM campaign. Police and human rights organizations intervened to free the women. Members of the Bondo society, a secret […]
Legislation has been proposed by Maine Republican state Senator Doug Smith for the second time that would require parental consent for the distribution of prescribed medication to minors in the state. The act, entitled “An Act to Protect the Safety of Maine Children by Requiring the Express Consent of a Legal Guardian To Dispense Prescription […]
Republican Georgia state Representatives Charlice Byrd and Calvin Hill have spearheaded efforts in the state to cut funding for professors who teach college-level courses on queer theory, reproduction, and sexuality. Two of the experts that Byrd and Hill have targeted spoke to a state House committee yesterday about the practical academic applications of their research, […]
The Wyoming House of Representatives rejected an amendment to the state constitution last week that would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and would no longer require Wyoming to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. The amendment will not go to the state Senate. If it had passed, Wyoming would […]
President Barack Obama’s questioning of reporters in his first prime-time press conference as President was close to being perfectly gender balanced. Women reporters asked a total of six questions and men asked a total of seven questions. Obama’s first and last questions were from women reporters. “At last, at a presidential news conference, women reporters […]
The New York State Assembly Labor Committee has approved legislation to help protect an estimated 200,000 domestic workers in New York, approximately 93 percent of whom are women. According to the New York Daily News the bill would ensure that domestic workers receive paid sick leave and vacation, discrimination protection, notice of termination, and severance […]
Nawal al-Samarraie, the Iraqi Minister of Women’s Affairs, resigned from her post last week largely due to lack of funds for her office. Her budget was slashed from $7,500 to $1,500 a month after a drop in oil prices. Al-Samarraie told the Associated Press, “I reached to the point that I will never be able […]
President Obama announced late last week that he plans to maintain and expand President Bush’s Office on Faith Based Initiatives. Obama has renamed the office the Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, has appointed 15 of the 25-person council, and has appointed Joshua DeBois, a Pentecostal who worked on Obama’s campaign, as the head of […]
Last week a federal judge in the 9th Circuit Court ruled that the gay spouse of a federal employee is entitled to the same spousal health benefits that any heterosexual spouse would receive. Judge Stephen Reinhardt ruled that the denial of spousal benefits “cannot be justified simply by a distaste for or disapproval of same-sex […]
At a meeting late last week, members of the United Nations Human Rights Council urged Saudi Arabia to actively work to end pervasive human rights violations in the country, particularly those against women and children. According to Reuters, Britain, Switzerland, Canada, and Israel spoke against Saudi Arabia’s current practices. Israel’s delegation reportedly accused Saudi Arabia […]
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) will chair the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy, and Global Women’s Issues. This is the first time in history where women’s issues will be a specific focus of a foreign relations subcommittee. During Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s confirmation hearing, Senator Boxer presented photographs […]
The University of Wisconsin Health Center Authority Board voted 11 to 3 to offer abortions to women up to the 22nd week of pregnancy at a hearing this week. The university decided to consider offering the procedure after learning that the only area provider who offered abortions up to the 22nd week of pregnancy retired, […]
California’s Supreme Court announced this week that it will hear arguments on March 5 of this year in a case that considers the constitutionality of the Proposition 8, which eliminated same sex marriage in the state when it was approved by voters in the 2008 elections. The proposition, which passed 52 percent to 48, overturned […]
President Obama signed the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act of 2009 (SCHIP) yesterday. The SCHIP program currently provides health insurance for more than 7 million children whose families cannot afford private healthcare but do not qualify for federal Medicaid. This bill expands the program to cover 4 million more children, including legal immigrants. President Bush […]
The Pittsburgh Public School District is considering expanding their current abstinence-only program to include contraception and alternative lifestyles. The new comprehensive program was proposed as a solution to the high birth rate of Pittsburgh teens, which make up 14% of all births in the city. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that district administrators have referenced multiple […]
A settlement of $850,000 from a 2004 rape case has resulted in reform of sexual harassment and misconduct response policies at Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University. An unnamed victim accused student-athlete Darnel Henderson of rape in 2004 and filed a lawsuit alleging that Arizona State had “placed her in […]
A Chamber Judgment released yesterday by the European Court of Human Rights found that Portugal had violated Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights in 2004 when Women on Waves, a Dutch nonprofit organization that provides medical abortions in international waters, was banned from entering Portuguese waters on a ministerial order. The case, […]
Two transgender women filed lawsuits against the state of Illinois last week after its Department of Vital Records refused to change their birth certificates following sex reassignment surgery. The department claims that the surgery must be performed by a US-licensed physician in order for the birth certificate to be changed, which is a recent adjustment […]
