News

With more than 2 million votes counted, feminist candidate Jennifer Brunner is winning her bid for Ohio Secretary of State. The latest results indicate that she is winning with 53 percent of the vote.

The latest news from the field and from news sources is that the abortion ban in South Dakota has been defeated, 55 to 45 percent.

On the eve of Tuesday’s election, news has broken that Vote Yes for Life, the group trying to pass a sweeping abortion ban in South Dakota, may have received an illegal donation of $750,000 — the largest single amount received by either side of the South Dakota abortion ban debate. The disputed money came from […]

Abortion provider George Tiller plans to ask the Kansas Supreme Court today to investigate if Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline and FOX TV Host Bill O’Reilly violated patients’ privacy during an interview on Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor.” O’Reilly reported that a “source inside” one of the two abortion clinics under investigation by Kline said that […]

The Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is suing the Department of Health and Human Services for failing to respond to a request for information regarding its policy of using federal funds to support so-called crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs). CREW requested the information in August under the Freedom of Information Act after some […]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have added the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil, to the government-sponsored Vaccines for Children program. The Vaccines for Children program provides subsidized vaccines for children ages nine to 18 who are on Medicaid, are uninsured or underinsured, or are Native American or Alaska Native, according to Kaiser Daily […]

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) released a report last week that draws attention to disparities among female and male faculty in higher education. According to the report (PDF), women are obtaining doctoral degrees at record rates, but represent only a small portion of tenured faculty. The report notes nine doctoral institutions where women […]

The National Council for Research on Women (NCRW) and Harvard University’s Institute of Politics (IOP) have both released reports citing the importance of the women’s and youth votes, respectively, this election. Confirming the results of the May 2006 Ms. magazine poll that found women are more likely to be anti-war, NCRW‘s poll found that candidates […]

Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline (R) announced on Tuesday that he had succeeded in his two-year quest to obtain abortion records from two clinics, though the records have been stripped of names and other identifying information. Kline had initially sought these records in 2004, at which time he said he needed the records to prosecute […]

A man was convicted of aggravated battery and cruelty to children on Wednesday for performing female genital mutilation on his young daughter in 2001. This is believed to be the first criminal case of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the US. The girl’s father, 30-year-old Ethiopian immigrant Khalid Adem, was sentenced to 10 years in […]

When women leave careers to raise children, they are not “opting out” – as the news media often suggests – but are pushed out by the “maternity wall,” the mothers’ version of the glass ceiling, the Center for Worklife Law argues in a new report. The report, “Opt Out or Pushed Out: How the Press […]

A three-judge panel of the Maryland Special Court of Appeals reinforced the provision of Maryland’s rape law that says a woman who gives consent prior to intercourse cannot withdraw her legal consent during the act. The decision came on Monday when the Court overturned a rape conviction. During deliberation in the original trial, the jury […]

A new poll released on Sunday shows that opposition to the abortion ban ballot initiative in South Dakota is leading, with 52 percent of registered voters saying they will vote ‘no’ on the initiative. Only 42 percent said they would vote in favor of the initiative, which would outlaw all abortions except to “prevent the […]

Jane Hodgson, MD, a longtime crusader for abortion rights, died last week at the age of 91. Dr. Hodgson was the first doctor convicted for performing an illegal abortion in 1970, a conviction that was overturned in 1973 with the US Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade. She was motivated to break […]

New Jersey announced last week that it will not accept $800,000 in federal funds to teach abstinence-only sex education. Sex education programs in states that receive the federal funds are not allowed to teach students about contraception, must describe sex before marriage as “potentially mentally and physically damaging,” and must teach that “sex within marriage […]