A group of Democratic Senators, led by Massachusetts Senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, has launched a filibuster to block the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has called for a cloture vote on Monday at 4:30 p.m. to end debate and move to a vote on […]
A federal district judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline (R) that sought to prevent Kansas from funding abortions for the state’s Medicaid recipients. Kline filed the suit in summer 2005, attempting to define life as beginning at conception and arguing that Medicaid-funded abortions conflicted with the right-to-life provision […]
Representatives from four women’s organizations discussed the effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on low-income women in a Congressional briefing held earlier this week by the National Council of Women’s Organizations. The organizations represented were the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), Digital Sisters, and YWCA USA. The panel spoke […]
Nearly two-thirds of college students in the US have experienced some form of sexual harassment, according to a new report from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). The report, Drawing the Line: Sexual Harassment on Campus analyzed the results of a spring 2005 survey of undergraduate students, and found that the majority had experienced […]
A female star athlete at a Tennessee high school has been allowed to return to a weightlifting class, after being pulled from the class because she was the only girl. School officials said their decision to remove the student, Ambrea Phillips, from the class was based on a “safety issue.” “If it were my daughter, […]
Robert Casey, an anti-choice Democrat who is challenging Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) in November, has outraged women’s rights supporters by announcing his support for confirming Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. “It’s very disturbing and should worry, I think, Pennsylvania women and civil rights advocates and people concerned about unchecked executive power to wiretap and […]
The Michigan Board of Canvassers on Friday approved language for an anti-affirmative action ballot initiative to be placed on the ballot this November. The proposed constitutional amendment would ban affirmative action for women and people of color in university admission, state hiring, and government contracting decisions. The Board in December had refused to approve the […]
In a straight party-line vote (10-8), the Senate Judiciary Committee voted this morning to approve Alito’s confirmation, sending the debate to the Senate floor. “The strong statements from Democrats on the Judiciary Committee demonstrate that the confirmation of Judge Alito is too risky for a nation divided in a time of crisis,” said Eleanor Smeal, […]
Colleges and universities in Pennsylvania are failing to provide adequate athletic opportunities for women students, according to a recent report from the Pennsylvania-based Women’s Law Project (WLP). The report studied 112 schools in Pennsylvania for three years, and found that while women were over 53 percent of the student body, they received only 43 percent […]
Tomorrow, two days after the 33rd anniversary of Roe v Wade, the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Samuel Alito, a Supreme Court nominee who in 1985 wrote that the Constitution does not protect a woman’s right to an abortion. Women’s rights leaders and activists rallied last night at the Supreme Court in support of […]
A measure to ban abortion has been introduced in the Ohio House of Representatives dominated by Republicans, just one of the increasing number of anti-choice measures moving through individual states. The measure proposed in Ohio could ban abortion throughout a pregnancy, and Ohio would join the 15 states that have already enacted such “trigger laws” […]
More Senators have announced their opposition to Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court. Encouragingly, no additional Democrats have announced support for Alito since Ben Nelson (NE). Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), the Democratic Whip, announced his opposition to a packed auditorium at Northwestern University School of Law. “In the record, the writings, the words, and the […]
Two leading health advocacy groups have announced their concern over the Bush administration’s nomination of Randall Tobias to lead the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to replace Andrew Natsios, a Massachusetts Republican. Advocates for Youth and the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) have both released statements highlighting Tobias’ troubling record from […]
The FDA has put an anti-HIV vaginal gel called VivaGel on the fast track for approval. Women can apply the gel vaginally in the hours before intercourse to prevent HIV and genital herpes. If trials go smoothly, VivaGel may be commercially available as early as 2008, making it the first anti-HIV microbicide on the market. […]
Publicly traded private companies in Norway are now obliged to have 40 percent of corporate boards to be comprised of women and have been given two years to meet the requirement. Karita Bekkemellem, Minister of Children and Equality, has threatened to dissolve any company that does not do so, reports the New York Times. While […]
The momentum to stop the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court is growing. Several Democratic Senators have already announced their intention to oppose Alito. These Senators include Patrick Leahy (VT), Ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee; Judiciary Committee member Ted Kennedy (MA); Barbara Mikulski (MD); and Max Baucus (MT). Senators Leahy and […]
In the past week, the Maryland state legislature has passed two laws in support of the state’s low-income workers: first, a law that effectively requires Wal-Mart to contribute more money to employee health insurance; and second, a $1 increase to the minimum wage. The first measure was vetoed by Governor Robert Ehrlich (R), but the […]
Michelle Bachelet was elected the first woman president of Chile this Sunday, beating out right-wing opponent Sebastian Pinera by a handy 7 percent. The vote was a runoff between Bachelet and Pinera after Bachelet won only 46 percent in the multiple-candidate December 11 election, failing to get the 50 percent necessary for victory. Bachelet, an […]
The US Supreme Court unanimously ruled to send the New Hampshire parental notification case back to the lower courts, avoiding a decision about whether such laws place an undue burden on women seeking abortions when they lack any exception to protect the health of the young woman in medical emergencies. Writing for the Court, Justice […]
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was sworn in as the president of Liberia on Monday, making her the first democratically elected female head of state in Africa. The presidential term is six years, during which time Johnson-Sirleaf will have to address the manifold difficulties that remain after the disastrous presidency of Charles Taylor, who is in exile, and […]
