When the House of Representatives voted on Friday to oppose President Bush’s plan to send more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq, a marked gender gap emerged. 71% of women representatives voted to express their “disapproval” of the troop escalation in the non-binding resolution, as opposed to only 55% of the men–a gender gap of […]
The Kansas Supreme Court has granted Attorney General Paul Morrison’s (D) request that charges against George Tiller, one of the country’s few providers of late-term abortion, be dropped. The former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline (R) pursued a case against Dr. Tiller, first alleging that he was investigating child rapes and later admitting that he […]
South Dakota’s House of Representatives passed the so-called “Women’s Health and Human Life Protection Act” by a vote of 45-25 yesterday. The bill (HB1293) would make abortion illegal in all cases except for rape, incest, or if the life or health of a woman is endangered. Even cases that fall into these categories would be […]
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Innocenti Research Center released a report yesterday ranking the well-being of children in the world”s most economically advanced countries. Out of 21 countries, the United States came in second-to-last, at number 20. The study focused on six areas: material well-being, health, education, relationships with peers and family members, risky […]
Although cardiovascular disease kills more women each year than breast cancer and lung cancer combined, studies have shown that traditional ways of assessing women’s risk for heart disease have been woefully inadequate. Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have determined that a new model designed specifically for women may result in better preventative and diagnostic […]
Anti-abortion extremist James Kopp, who is currently imprisoned for killing an abortion provider near Buffalo, NY, may be extradited to Canada to face more charges. Kopp, who was recently convicted on federal charges for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and is also serving a 25-year-to-life sentence on state charges for […]
Feminists were saddened by the death of Harriett Woods, 79, from leukemia. Woods was a trailblazer for women in politics. As a state senator in Missouri, Woods was a leader in the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. She ran a vigorous campaign in 1982 for US Senate. Although a veteran politician and public […]
President Bush included in his 2008 budget resolution a provision that hands over control of anti-violence program funding to the executive branch. Women’s rights advocates are concerned that this provision will endanger programs and services that are available to victims of domestic abuse throughout the country. Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), a longtime advocate of domestic […]
Drew Gilpin Faust, a current Harvard dean and history professor, has been named the first woman president of Harvard University. The election of Dr. Faust by the seven-member Harvard Corporation comes after Harvard’s former President, Larry Summers, resigned in February 2006. Summers, who came under criticism for saying at an academic conference that women have […]
After a referendum on Portugal’s strict abortion laws failed due to low voter turn-out, the country’s Socialist government has announced that it will work to legalize abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. Portuguese voters yesterday decisively voted to liberalize Portugal‘s extremely strict abortion law, but the results were considered invalid because only 44 […]
Most young women believe that emergency contraception (EC) is safe and effective, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The survey of sexually active 15-to-24 year-old women, conducted by the University of California, San Francisco, was aimed at evaluating the attitude toward EC among women at high risk […]
Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Chairwoman of the House Rules Committee, introduced a bill yesterday designed to improve participation in and funding of high school girls’ sports. The announcement was keyed to National Girls and Women in Sports Day, an annual event since 1987. The High School Athletics Accountability Act would require high schools to report […]
A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that courts in Illinois are still not prepared to handle the implementation of a parental notification measure that was passed over 10 years ago and has never been enforced. The bill, which would require girls 17 and younger to either notify their parents or obtain permission from a court […]
The US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held hearings yesterday on the labor, immigration, law enforcement, and economic conditions in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. A US territory in the Pacific Ocean, the Northern Mariana Islands are currently exempt from US labor and immigration laws, though minimum wage bills that were […]
Conservative lawmakers are demanding that Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) rescind an executive order issued last week that mandated human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations for all girls entering the 6th grade. Texas became the first state to require the vaccination Gardisil, which has proven to prevent cervical cancer and genital warts caused by HPV types 6, […]
Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY) reintroduced the Prevention First Act in the House on Monday. This bill, which was not acted on the last congress, is designed to increase access to both contraception and comprehensive sex education and reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in the US. The bill, which was introduced in the Senate by […]
The Mississippi State Senate passed an abortion ban on Wednesday by a vote of 35-4. The ban, which includes exceptions for cases of sexual assault, incest, or when a woman’s life is in danger, will now move to the Mississippi House for consideration. A similar bill in Mississippi died last year when the two chambers […]
Jen Harris, a former basketball player for Pennsylvania State University, has reached an “amicable” settlement of a discrimination lawsuit filed against the university, its athletic director, and its women’s basketball coach, Rene Portland. Harris, who was represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), had charged that Portland repeatedly inquired about her sexual orientation, […]
A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that a class-action gender discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart, the world’s largest private employer, will go to trial. The class, which is represented by six women plaintiffs who have worked or currently work at Wal-Mart, would include all women who have worked for Wal-Mart since December 21, 1998, for a […]
Andre Chreky, hair stylist to the Washington DC elite and longtime hairdresser to first lady Laura Bush, is facing sexual harassment charges for the second time in four months. In the latest lawsuit, Chreky’s former employee Ronnie Barrett alleges that she was fired for rebuffing Chreky’s sexual advances. The previous lawsuit, brought in September by […]
