Ten top public health researchers urged Congressional leaders last week to cut funding for failed abstinence only programs. The letter, signed by researchers from universities like Columbia and Yale, as well as from the Guttmacher Institute, was sent to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. It warned that abstinence […]
Congress will be in session briefly in December, when there will be an opportunity to pass bills crucial for women’s rights. A bill to address the growing birth control pricing crisis has been introduced in both the House and the Senate. Prices have skyrocketed, some up to $50/month, as a consequence of the Deficit Reduction […]
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled unanimously last week that state laws granting legal protections to fetuses do not conflict with Roe v Wade. The Court rejected an appeal by an inmate who was convicted of two murders for the killing a woman and her 4 to 6-week-old fetus. The man claimed that his […]
Reproductive health advocates are pushing lawmakers to enact a series of bills before the holiday recess. One of the highest priorities is a bill to lower the price of contraceptives at college campus clinics and clinics that serve low-income women. Other priorities are funding for family planning programs and to study post-partum depression, reports Women’s […]
While domestic partners of employees of a Florida community college do not receive any discounted group medical insurance, pets will qualify for such benefits beginning in January. Full time employees of Palm Beach Community College will get a 5 percent discount and group rates on a health insurance plans for their pets. The decision to […]
President Bush is pushing for more funding for abstinence only programs even as a Congressional study shows they are ineffective. The US has spent about $1 billion on failed abstinence-only sex education programs over the past decade and President Bush proposes a 2008 budget of $204 million for such programs, reports Women’s eNews. In fact, […]
Sunday was International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and marked the beginning of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, an international campaign that began with the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. Since then, over 2,000 organizations in over 150 countries […]
The Saudi Arabia Justice Ministry on Saturday defended the sentencing of a rape victim to prison time and 200 lashings, despite international outrage. The case was under review following outcry by women”s rights and human rights groups, but the Saudi Justice Ministry confirmed on Saturday that the lashings will be carried out, reports Telegraph News. […]
The city solicitor gave the Boy Scouts of Philadelphia until December 3 to renounce their policy of excluding homosexuals, or the Scouts will lose the subsidized rent of their city-owned, 79-year-old landmark headquarters. The Boy Scouts also excludes atheists and agnostics within their organization. They have rented the building from the city for $1 a […]
The Jesuit order of Roman Catholic priests agreed to a $50 million settlement with 110 Eskimo victims of alleged sexual abuse. Twelve priests and three missionaries were accused of sexually abusing Eskimo children in 15 villages and the city of Nome from 1961 to 1987. Ken Roosa, the plantiffs’ attorney, said his clients ranged in […]
A rape victim in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail last week because she was in an unrelated man”s car at the time of the attack. The sentence is more than double the 90 lashes she was originally sentenced to last year before her lawyer appealed the case. Even […]
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled 7-0 this week to allow a proposed ballot initiative for the November 2008 election that would define a fertilized egg as a person. Colorado for Equal Rights, the anti-abortion group advocating the initiative, now has six months collect 76,000 signatures in order to place the initiative on the November 2008 […]
Women leaders from around the globe are holding a summit today in New York, focusing on women”s roles in global security. The two-day “International Women Leaders Global Security Summit” will be attended by 100 women business leaders, members of government, lawmakers, diplomats and researchers. The Summit is part of the International Women Leaders Global Security […]
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick this week signed a bill expanding the clinic safety buffer zones in the state to 35 feet. The law, which went into effect immediately, expands on legislation from 2000 that established smaller safety buffer zones but was difficult to enforce, according to reproductive choice advocates. Operation Rescue: Boston, an anti-abortion group […]
Clinical trials began in Australia and New Zealand on Monday for a new HPV vaccination that researchers believe will protect against 90% of the HPV strains that are linked to cervical cancer, as well as most cases of genital warts. Approximately 15 strains of HPV, the human papillomavirus, are linked to many kinds of cervical […]
President Bush vetoed yesterday a $150.7 billion domestic spending bill that contained largest increase in Title X family planning funding in 35 years. The bill, the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill, passed in Congress with bipartisan support but was three votes shy of the two-thirds majority required to override the veto in the House. The bill includes […]
The US dropped six places, going from 25th in last year”s gender equality study to 31st. While the US did make progress on political empowerment, the large gap in economic participation brought down the overall score. The report, The 2007 Global Gender Gap Report, was published last week by the World Economic Forum. The study […]
A federal judge last week ordered anti-abortion extremist John Dunkle to remove message from his website that threatened clinic physicians and staff. The injunction also bans Dunkle from posting similar threatening messages. The judge, US District Court Judge Thomas Golden, also ruled that the government would monitor Dunkle’s website to prevent any more threatening messages […]
Virginia Governor Timothy M Kaine has added Virginia to the list of 13 other states that have cut funding for abstinence-only sex education programs. In cutting the $275,000 from the state budget that is required to match federal abstinence-only funding, Kaine cited recent studies that found abstinence-only programs to be ineffective, reports the Washington Post. […]
New Jersey voters have elected a record 34 women lawmakers to the 120-member state legislature. Before last week’s election, women made up less than 20% of New Jersey’s state legislature. With the newly elected women, that number will jump to 28%. New Jersey will now have nine women in the state Senate and 25 in […]
