A man is being charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children after allegedly removing his daughter’s clitoris when she was two years old in the first criminal case in the US involving female genital mutilation (FGM). Prosecutors claim that Khalid Adem, a 30-year-old Ethiopian immigrant, removed his daughter’s clitoris with scissors in their apartment […]
Only 10 percent of married Afghan women ages 15 to 49 use a form of contraceptives. Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world, and experts hope that increased use of family planning techniques will extend women’s life expectancy. In Afghanistan, a woman dies giving birth every 30 minutes, […]
The US Department of Education (ED) announced changes to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 on Wednesday that will “expand flexibility” for the creation of sex-segregated classrooms, programs, and entire schools with public funds. The new regulations will allow educators to experiment with single-sex learning environments. Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal said […]
The Women’s Research & Resources Center at Spelman College, the first of its kind at a historically black college, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Since 1981, the Center has frequently opened its doors to national women’s conferences and has developed new scholarship in black feminist thought. To honor the anniversary, a series of events […]
The Nicaraguan legislature voted yesterday to outlaw all abortions, making it the third country in the Western Hemisphere to outlaw abortion without exception. The legislation was approved 52-0, with nine abstentions and 29 legislators not voting. The legislation must still be signed by Nicaraguan president Enrique Bolanos, who is strongly against abortion rights and favors […]
US District Judge Paul Huck ruled on Tuesday that a 2005 Florida law that banned exit polling from occurring within 100 feet of a polling place is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment’s free speech and freedom of the press protections. The 2005 law placed Election Day exit polling in the same category as electioneering. […]
The New Jersey State Supreme Court ruled yesterday in a 4-3 decision that same-sex couples should have the same benefits of marriage as heterosexual couples. The court gave the state legislature six months to pass a law granting civil unions or amend the marriage laws to allow same sex marriage, the Chicago Tribune reports. Justice […]
Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) sent a joint letter last week to Andrew von Eschenbach, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), calling for a full investigation of the silicone breast implant maker Mentor. Earlier this month, an anonymous former Mentor scientist alleged that the company had withheld safety information from […]
The US Supreme Court on Friday overturned an injunction issued by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to stop an Arizona voter identification law from being enforced in the upcoming elections. The ruling means that the voter identification law Ñ which requires voters to present a photo ID with their current street address or two […]
Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy (MA) promised to quickly pass an increase in the minimum wage if Democrats gain control of the Senate. In a conference call with reporters, Kennedy, joined by Senator John Edwards (D-NC) and labor leaders, said, “Let’s get a Democratic Senate, and I’ll do my damnedest to get this out in 24 […]
A new study has found that African-American women are more likely to suffer from larger, faster-growing, and harder-to-treat breast cancer tumors than white women. The study of 2,140 breast cancer patients was conducted by researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and published yesterday in Cancer, the American Cancer Society’s peer-reviewed […]
Maryland will reinstate a $7 million Medicaid program for immigrant pregnant women and children after a court ruled that it was unacceptable to cut them from the Medicaid program. In July 2005, the state dropped the Medicaid plan, which covered about 4,000 immigrants who have been in the country legally for less than five years, […]
A record number of women are running for state legislative seats this year, with 10 percent more women candidates running than in 2004. According to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University, 2,431 women are running for state legislative seats. The former record of 2,375 was set in 1992, the “Year […]
Earlier this month the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport, Iowa filed for bankruptcy after paying out millions of dollars to settle dozens of sex abuse claims, making it the fourth diocese in the country to seek financial protection. Twenty-five outstanding claims of priest sexual abuse will now be settled by a judge in a bankruptcy […]
Ohio gubernatorial candidate and current Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, in a debate on the Ohio News Network last week, avoided answering questions about improving access to birth control by calling the issue “settled,” according to Bush v. Choice, NARAL Pro-Choice America’s blog. His statement was in response to a question on whether he would […]
The New York State Court of Appeals ruled unanimously on Thursday to uphold a 2002 state law requiring all employers, including Catholic and other religious employers, to cover reproductive health services, including offering contraceptives as part of prescription drug coverage. “This is a great day for the women of New York state,” said JoAnn M. […]
Despite a major anti-rape law implemented in Liberia early this year, a United Nations report found that progress has been slow in abolishing sexual and gender-based violence due to flaws in the judicial system. The Rape Amendment Act, implemented when Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf came into office January 2006, strengthened consent laws, redefined rape as […]
In a six-to-one decision, the Missouri Supreme Court struck down a voter identification law on Monday, supporting a lower court decision that ruled the law violated the equal protection clause of Missouri’s constitution, as well as the right guaranteed by the state constitution to vote. Opponents of the voter identification law, which would have required […]
Consumer activist organization Public Citizen called for a Food and Drug Administration investigation of silicone gel breast implants maker Mentor Corporation after a former employee reported that Mentor was aware of dangerous side effects of the implants, but hid them from the FDA. The former employee was a scientist with Mentor for 15 years, and […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a legal opinion on Wednesday finding that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must ensure that abstinence-only programs receiving federal funding include medically accurate information about condoms. In its letter to HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, the GAO found that Assistant Secretary for Children and Families Wade Horn […]
