In a televised address yesterday evening, President Bush announced his veto of a $124 billion war spending bill that included a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Ignoring overwhelming public opinion that the Iraq war should be ended swiftly, Bush said, “Setting a deadline for withdrawal is setting a date for failure, and that would […]
In an effort to raise awareness and to end femicide in Guatemala and throughout Central and South America, the House of Representatives passed House Resolution 100 yesterday. Introduced by Representative Hilda L. Solis (D-CA), Resolution 100 calls for the US government to urge Guatemala to investigate the unsolved murders of thousands of women and girls. […]
The Kansas House of Representatives has approved legislation that would allow those who harm a pregnant woman to be charged with injuring the fetus as well. The House vote of 97-27 came three weeks after the Senate also voted to support the bill, which changes the legal definition of a person to include an unborn […]
Randall Tobias, Director of US Foreign Assistance and Adminstrator of the Agency for International Development (USAID), has resigned after admitting that he had used a DC escort service. Tobias, the Bush Administration’s former “AIDS Czar,” is responsible for a highly criticized US policy requiring recipients of US foreign aid to sign a pledge against prostitution. […]
Japan’s Supreme Court acknowledged on Friday that women had been coerced into sex slavery by the Japanese military during World War II, but the court still rejected claims for compensation. The court acknowledged that Japanese soldiers had kidnapped the two Chinese plaintiffs in 1942 and forced them into slavery. At the time, the women were […]
A new Amnesty International report finds that one in three Native American women will be raped in her lifetime, twice the national average for non-Native women. The report, “Maze of Injustice: The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women in the USA,” is based on research carried out by Amnesty International USA during 2005 and 2006 in […]
A 27-year-old man has been arrested on three charges related to a pipe-bomb that was found near an Austin, Texas abortion clinic last week. The Austin Police Department has announced that Paul Ross Evans has been charged with use of weapons of mass destruction, manufacture of explosive material, and violating the federal Freedom of Access […]
Morgan Stanley settled a sex bias class-action lawsuit for $46 million on Tuesday. The suit was brought against the Wall Street firm by eight former and current employees who charged that Morgan Stanley deprived them of the trainings, pay raises, and opportunities for promotion that were available to male employees. Tuesday’s settlement, which must be […]
A law enforcement task force disabled an explosive device found in the parking lot of the Austin Women’s Health Center on Wednesday. Four lanes of a nearby highway were closed as the Austin Police Department worked with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to determine that a suspicious package contained […]
Of the 11 women’s rights activists who have been summoned by Iran’s Revolutionary Court in the past week, six have now been sentenced to serve jail time. All six women faced charges for participating in a public demonstration against Iran’s discriminatory laws against women last June. On April 11, Azadeh Forghani was handed a suspended […]
The North Dakota legislature has passed a bill that would ban abortions in the event that the US Supreme Court rules that such laws are constitutional. The bill, which passed the House 68-24 and the Senate 29-16, will now await Governor John Hoeven’s (R) approval. If Governor Hoeven signs the bill and the Supreme Court […]
The Texas legislature has passed a bill banning the mandatory administration of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to sixth grade girls. The House supported the bill yesterday with a 135-2 vote, and the Senate passed the bill on Monday by a wide margin of 30-1. The legislature’s ban counteracts an executive order issued in February […]
Abortion bans in Missouri and Virginia that had never gone into effect may now be enforceable following the Supreme Court’s decision last week to uphold a federal ban on an abortion procedure. Requests from Missouri and Virginia attorney generals to review these two bans were pending when the highest court made its decision last Wednesday. […]
A change in the Medicaid rules under the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 has increased the price of birth control pills and other prescription drugs at college health centers and many clinics serving low-income women nationwide. The change, which went into effect January 1, 2007, has only been felt by students and low-income women recently […]
The eleventh annual Equal Pay Day was marked by the first congressional hearing in ten years on the need to eliminate the pay gap between women and men. The House Education and Labor Committee held the hearing to consider the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Representative Rosa DeLauro […]
The Mexico City Legislative Assembly voted yesterday evening to legalize first-trimester abortions in a 46-19 vote, with one abstention. Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, a member of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, has already promised to sign the bill into law, which will likely spark court battles in the predominately Roman Catholic country. The […]
The World Bank Board of Directors opted to defer a decision on changing its Strategy for Health, Nutrition, and Population after representatives from several European countries voiced objections to the proposals. Whitney Debeviose, the US representative on the World Bank’s board, proposed to change language describing reproductive services for women in developing countries from “reproductive […]
Laurie David, producer of An Inconvenient Truth, and singer Sheryl Crow concluded their two-week Stop Global Warming College Tour at George Washington University on Sunday. David, whose environmental activism and tour are featured in the current issue of Ms. magazine, told the crowd of 2,000, that “Hurricane Katrina is just a taste of what’s to […]
Today is the 11th annual Equal Pay Day, marking the additional time that women must work in 2007 to earn what men earned in 2006. The National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) initiated Equal Pay Day in 1996 to increase public awareness of the wage gap between women and men. In 1963, women earned 59 […]
The US House of Representatives passed the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007 last week in a 241-177 vote. The bill would officially make the District of Columbia — which is solidly liberal — a congressional district with full voting rights in the House. In an effort to gain bipartisan support, the […]
