Yesterday, President Bush made a recess appointment of Ellen Sauerbrey to be Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, circumventing Congressional opposition to her appointment. Sauerbrey was previously the US Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women, is a staunch opponent of reproductive rights, and has no experience […]
The Jackson Women’s Health Organization (JWHO), the only facility providing abortions in the state of Mississippi, is now waiting for state certification that it adheres to onerous new requirements and can continue to provide abortions after 13 weeks’ gestation. The state license would certify that the clinic meets state ambulatory surgical standards, in accordance with […]
The Feminist Majority Foundation, with the National Organization for Women and the National Congress of Black Women, today announced Freedom Winter ’06, part of a joint campaign to stop the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. “Make no mistake about it: Alito is no Sandra Day O’Connor,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist […]
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (HR 972) was recently reauthorized by Congress, extending funding for trafficking prevention and victim protection through 2007. The legislation authorized approximately $180 million per year. The legislation addresses many dimensions of trafficking, by enacting measures designed to combat labor trafficking, the use of child soldiers, and sex trafficking both domestically […]
Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, the editor of a women’s rights magazine in Afghanistan, has been released from prison. Nasab was originally sentenced to two years in prison for publishing articles criticizing execution and other severe punishments for adultery, thievery, and murder under sharia (Islamic) law, but an appeals court reduced his sentence to six months on […]
Patricia Hughes, 24, and Jeremy Dunahoe, 18, were charged on Saturday with the attempted bombing of the Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, Louisiana. Hughes was charged with the manufacture and possession of a delayed incendiary device, and Dunahoe was charged as an accessory to the December 12 attempted firebomb of the women’s health […]
An amendment attached to the Labor, Health, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill requires the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to resume its Women Worker Series, a 40-year-old program providing monthly data on women’s employment, after BLS discontinued the program in August 2005. The appropriations bill has been passed by both houses of Congress and […]
MS. MAGAZINE’S TOP TEN NEWS STORIES FOR WOMEN IN 2005 Advances, Setbacks and Cultural Milestones MOST SIGNIFICANT: Sandra Day O’Connor resigns from the Supreme Court, leaving a vacancy and likely a shift in direction of the court threatening to narrow women’s rights. MOST OUTRAGEOUS REJECTION OF SCIENCE: FDA controversy: stalls once again on Plan B […]
Check back here for updates in the New Year. Feminist Daily News Wire brings you the feminist perspective on breaking news affecting women, from Samuel Alito and the fight to save the Supreme Court, to the ongoing struggle to win over-the-counter status for emergency contraception, to women’s rights news from around the world. Happy Holidays.
The United States Senate today passed with Vice President Cheney’s tie-breaking vote a cruel budget spending cuts that were concocted in the dead of night by the US House Republicans, who locked the Democrats out. Members of the House approved the measure on a nearly party-line vote and immediately left town. The House is scheduled […]
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has written a letter to four presidential scholars asking them whether they believed that President Bush’s admitted domestic surveillance without a warrant constituted grounds for impeachment. Senator Boxer’s letter referred to a public statement made by John Dean, whom she quoted as saying that President Bush is “the first President to […]
Ford Motor Company has reaffirmed its commitment to inclusivity, same-sex benefits, and outreach to the lesbian and gay community, and has promised to advertise for all eight of its vehicle brands in LGBT-targeted publications. The announcement comes after a controversy in which the conservative American Family Association (AFA) dropped its planned boycott of Ford after […]
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was passed by both houses Saturday, authorizing almost $4 billion over the next five years, and now awaits the President’s signature. The compromised version of VAWA was approved as part of the Justice Department budget, passing the Senate on Friday and the House on Saturday. The reauthorization broadens efforts […]
Armed men reportedly shot and killed a male secondary school teacher in Afghanistan for teaching girls. Reuters reports that the man, identified by the name Laghmani, was dragged from his classroom and executed at the school gates. “He had received many warning letters from the Taliban to stop teaching, but he continued to do so […]
The NAACP, which represents more than 500,000 members, announced its opposition to the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court. President and CEO Bruce Gordon stated, “Judge Alito has consistently supported efforts to limit civil rights claims; he has done his best to undermine established civil rights […]
The South Dakota Task Force to Study Abortion released a 72-page report last week, following a walk-out of abortion-rights supporters and others who considered the final report one-sided and dogmatic. The report asserts that a fetus is a human from the moment of conception, and that abortion terminates a “unique, whole, living being,” according to […]
Two national coalitions, one of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights groups and the other of disabilities rights groups, have announced their opposition to the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court. On Monday, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the National […]
The Pittsburgh City Council voted on Tuesday to approve a city ordinance that would protect women entering clinics from aggressive anti-abortion protesters. The ordinance establishes a buffer zone between protesters and patients at health care facilities, prohibits protesters from getting within 15 feet of facilities and bars protesters from getting within 8 feet of patients […]
The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would hear four cases involving the 2003 redistricting in the state of Texas, which dramatically increased the number of Republicans in the Congressional delegation from Texas. Redistricting usually occurs once a decade, to account for shifts in population as demonstrated by the census, but Texas redrew boundaries […]
Led by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), 38 members of Congress sent a letter to President Bush yesterday, asking him whether he is for or against birth control. This is the fourth letter sent to President Bush, after White House Press Secretary Scott McLellan refused to answer this question posed by reporters in press briefings. “I […]
