The House of Representatives voted Friday to repeal a discriminatory law that prevents HIV-positive foreigners from entering the country. The law, originally enacted in 1987, prohibits foreign nationals with HIV to obtain visas for travel to the U.S. and prevents them from becoming legal permanent residents, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Senators John Kerry […]
Beijing Olympic officials have set up a sex determination lab to test female athletes suspected of being males, Chinese media reported yesterday. Cases will be evaluated based on external appearance and blood samples tested for sex hormones, chromosomes, and genes, according to AFP. The practice of sex testing began in Eastern Europe in the 1960s. […]
A study released yesterday dispels the stereotype that men are innately better than women at mathematics. The study, printed in the journal Science, examined over 7.2 million students in grades 2 through 11 and found that girls and boys perform equally on standardized math tests, according to the Los Angeles Times. This study shows that […]
Over 50 Catholic organizations published a letter addressed to Pope Benedict XVI last week urging the Pope to lift the Church’s anti-contraception policy introduced in the Humanae Vitae, the1968 Encyclical Letter of Pope Paul VI. The letter was advertised in the Corriere della Sera, Italy’s largest circulating newspaper, according to Catholics for Choice. The letter […]
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named South African judge Navanethem Pillay the UN high commissioner for human rights Thursday. She will serve a five-year term, replacing Louise Arbour, after her nomination is confirmed by the General Assembly Monday, reports the Washington Post. The U.S. has accepted her nomination, despite initial objections to her vocal support […]
The House of Representatives passed the Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2008 last week, which will help process a backlog of rape kits across the country. The Act provides funds for a grant program that started in 2004, with the objective to process the nearly 400,000 untested rape kits nationwide. In the United States, more […]
The Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based law firm that specializes in anti-abortion issues, filed appeals this week against an Aurora, IL clinic. The group filed appeals with the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Building Code Board of Appeals to revoke Aurora’s Planned Parenthood clinic’s certificate of permanent legal status, which was issued July 1, […]
HealthNow, a Buffalo, New York based insurance group, has been fined over $1 million by the New York State Insurance Department for denying claims from women seeking infertility treatment and failing to give legal notice of rate increases. New York State law requires that infertility treatments be covered by insurance companies with few exceptions, according […]
With over 190,000 women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, female soldiers have brought sexual assault in the military to the attention of military authorities and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). According to the Associated Press, 15 percent of women veterans who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan have reported being sexually assaulted, raped, or […]
A new study published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Viagra, usually prescribed for male sexual dysfunction, may help women with sexual side effects of antidepressants. The study’s coauthor Julia Heiman, director of the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University in Bloomington, and colleagues recruited 100 women with […]
Members of Parliament (MPs) in Northern Ireland have proposed an amendment to the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill that would give women the same abortion rights available in Britain. According to the BBC News, women are currently denied abortions in Northern Ireland by the National Health Service (NHS). Abortion is only available in Northern Ireland […]
A Women’s Health Initiatives research study found that abnormal sleep patterns put postmenopausal women at a greater risk of stroke, finding those who sleep 9 hours or more per night at a 70 percent greater risk. The study, which will be published in the July 28 issue of Stroke, it reports that “women with a […]
A Joint Economic Committee study released today reports that, in the past decade, the slowing economy, not a decision to “opt-out” and raise children, has driven women to leave the workplace. For the first time since the 1960s, the percentage of women in the workplace has fallen instead of risen after an economic recovery, reports […]
A study released last week found that nearly half of Egyptian women are sexually harassed on a daily basis. The report, released by The Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights, stated that 46 percent of Egyptian women were harassed daily and 98 percent of foreign women were harassed while in the country, according to Agence France-Presse […]
South Dakota abortion providers are now required to recite a script telling patients that the procedure will “terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique living human being.” They must then warn the woman of a supposed increased risk of suicide. The law additionally requires that doctors tell a woman seeking an abortion that there […]
Roman Catholic Womenpriests ordained three women as Roman Catholic priests and another as a deacon in an ordination ceremony in Boston on Sunday. Bishop Dana Reynolds ordained Gloria Carpeneto of Baltimore, MD, Judy Lee of Fort Myers, FL, and Gabriella Velardi Ward of New York City, NY, as priests, and Mary Ann McCarthy Schoettly of […]
Women and young girls are being pushed to commercial sex work due to high food prices and widespread unemployment in Afghanistan. High fertility rates, poor health services, and a high maternal mortality rate compound these issues. Sex work is considered to be a serious crime in Afghanistan, where offenders can face the death penalty or […]
A House Appropriations subcommittee approved $600 million to fund international family planning programs Wednesday. The $600 million includes a $60 million appropriation to the United Nations Population Func (UNFPA), and allots the remaining $540 million to USAID programs, according to RH Reality Check. The money will help provide treatment for obstetric fistula, supplies that aid […]
The California Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously refused to hear a challenge of a ballot initiative that would amend the state’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage if passed by voters in November. The Court did not provide a reason for refusing the case. Equality California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, and the […]
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA) announced at its Centennial Convention this week that Michelle Obama will be inducted as an honorary member. AKA was founded at Howard University in 1908 and is an historically black organization. AKA has long participated in the civil rights movement and has worked for many charitable causes. According to Ms., […]
