The Council of Europe, a council dedicated to the legal protection of democracy and human rights, passed a resolution calling for all of its member states to legalize abortion. Agence France Presse reports that abortion is legal in most of the Council”s member states, but it is illegal or severely restricted in Andorra, Ireland, Malta, […]
The Missouri House of Representatives voted 108 to 33 to approve an omnibus anti-abortion bill on Tuesday. The bill is marketed as an anti-coercion bill. It prohibits forcing a woman to have an abortion and would penalize the doctor who provided the abortion if the doctor suspected that the women had been coerced. The bill […]
The Third Wave Foundation launched the first annual National Week of Action for Reproductive Justice on Wednesday. The Third Wave Foundation with the Reproductive Justice Network will be holding events all over the country throughout the week to reach out to the public about reproductive justice. The Reproductive Justice Network has posted a video on […]
A support group for victims of clergy sex gathered in Washington, DC for the pope’s visit to demand that he hold bishops and cardinals accountable for concealing sex crimes committed by priests. Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) denounced the pope’s speech in which he criticized the way the scandal was handled. SNAP […]
A report released by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Monday reveals that violence against women has gone up to 4,276 recorded cases. This number is more than double that recorded by the HRCP in 2006. HRCP Secretary Iqbal Haider told the BBC News that 2007 was a “brutal year for women.” The HRCP […]
Women continue to face discrimination in the aftermath of Katrina, which inhibits the recovery process, a study released last Friday reports. The study (see PDF), issued by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, was based on interviews with 38 women from ages 19 to 66 and from diverse ethnicities who lived through Katrina. The study […]
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a lawsuit this week against an Austin-based company and its owners, Brian McDonald and Aaron Bouren, for selling fraudulent healthcare discount cards to uninsured pregnant women. According to the Attorney General’s news release, the company, Affordable HealthCare Options (AHCO Direct), sold a health discount card that promised to cover […]
At least ten schools in Afghanistan have been attacked since school began on March 23. These attacks are ten more in a long line of attacks; the Afghan Ministry of Education told IRIN, a United Nations (UN) humanitarian news service, that there were 2,450 terrorist attacks on schools from March 2006 to February of 2008. […]
Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), the largest anti-sexual assault organization in the US, launched an online counseling service yesterday. According to RAINN’s press release, the organization has already helped over 1.2 million victims of sexual assault through its National Sexual Assault Hotline (1-800-656-HOPE). The National Sexual Assault Online Hotline will reach a new […]
The Arizona House Committee on Natural Resources and Public Safety voted 6-3 last week to approve a ban on the so-called “partial-birth abortion” procedure. The measure, SB 1048, is similar to the ban Governor Janet Napolitano vetoed earlier this month. Napolitano stated that the bill she vetoed included a harsher criminal penalty than the federal […]
Eight-year-old Nojoud Muhammed Nasser filed a lawsuit in Yemen against her father who forced her to marry a 30-year-old man. Nasser arrived to court by herself because no one in her family defended her against her abusive husband and father. Nasser told the Yemen Times, “My father beat me and told me that I must […]
The Oklahoma state Senate voted last week to approve an anti-abortion omnibus bill. The Oklahoma House passed the bill earlier this week, and it has now been sent to Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry (D). Also known as the “Freedom of Conscious Act”, the legislation allows health care workers to refuse to participate in any actions […]
Khadijeh Maghaddam, an activist working to end discrimination against women in Iranian law, was arrested on April 8. Three police officers forcibly entered her house and mistreated her before arresting her on charges that she spreads propaganda, disrupts public opinion, and threatens national security, according to Changes for Equality. Maghaddam is a member of the […]
The Senate voted 91-4 yesterday to apply federal immigration laws to the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and phase out the islands’ exploitative “guest worker” program. A 2006 Ms. expose documented how the guest workers, mostly women, are forced to work long hours for little pay in the island’s garment factories under […]
A raid by Texas police on a compound owned by a fanatic polygamous sect revealed an environment rife with sexual abuse. More than 400 children were removed during the raid last week, and more than 100 women left voluntarily with police. The Washington Post reports that the leaders of the sect had told authorities that […]
California State Assembly Public Safety Committee approved legislation that would create an online database of domestic violence offenders. State Assemblywoman Fiona Ma authored AB 1771, the Domestic Violence Prevention and Right to Know Act of 2008 (see PDF). State Assemblywoman Ma, head of the Assembly Select Committee on Domestic Violence, told the California Chronicle, “AB […]
Following an overwhelming victory in Tuesday’s special election, Jackie Speier will be sworn into the US House of Representatives today. Speier won 77 percent of the votes to fill the seat for California’s 12th district. The seat has been vacant, following the death of Rep. Tom Lantos from esophageal cancer. Speier was endorsed by Lantos […]
After investigating why the word “abortion” would be removed as a search term from the world’s largest reproductive health database, National Public Radio (NPR) reports that the restriction stems from seven articles by an abortion advocacy magazine available on the website. The Dean of the John Hopkins University Public Health School, Dr. Michael J. Klag, […]
Women took advantage of gender quotas to run in the historic election of Nepal’s first Constituent Assembly today. Womens eNews reports that last year the interim constitution required that 33 percent of parties candidates running for office must be women. Though the Chinese news agency Xinhua reports that the parties did not meet the quota […]
A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill last week that would require the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) to improve health care for women veterans. According to the summary of the Women Veterans Health Care Improvement Act (see PDF), there are 1.7 million women veterans today, a number that is estimated to double in […]
