Nearly 115 million children lack primary education, and 90 million of those children are girls, according to a report entitled “Gender Achievements and Progress in Education” (GAP), which was presented at the global advisory committee of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI). The report found that 46 countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, will not […]
The Supreme Court tomorrow will hear arguments in a case involving a challenge to a New Hampshire parental notification law for women under the age of 18 seeking an abortion. The law makes it a crime for a doctor to perform an abortion on a minor without waiting 48 hours after a parent or legal […]
A law requiring women to obtain in-person counseling at least 18 hours before having an abortion was upheld by the Indiana Supreme Court on Wednesday. This waiting period was passed into law ten years ago, but not enforced until 2003, due to numerous court challenges that argued the law placed an undue burden on women […]
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has released a new report that provides current information on female genital mutilation (FGM) and suggests solutions for putting an end to the violent practice. UNICEF’s Innocenti Research Centre’s report, entitled Changing a Harmful Social Convention: Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting, reveals that FGM is practiced as often as it was […]
The Supreme Court will hear two related cases on Wednesday involving violence against women’s health clinics and access to abortion services. The cases, Scheidler v. National Organization for Women (NOW), et. al. and Operation Rescue v. National Organization for Women, et. al., stem from a case initiated in 1986 by Eleanor Smeal as president of […]
Seventeen women ran as candidates in the election for the board of directors of the Jiddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, making it the first time women have been on a ballot in Saudi Arabia. According to United Press International, the polls were open to businesswomen this past Saturday and Sunday, and while low turnout […]
Army National Guard Specialist Katherine Jashinski is the first woman conscientious objector to the Iraq war. In a press conference last week, Jashinski publicly refused deployment and spoke out against the war. She applied for conscientious objector status in 2004, but after 18 months, her claim was denied and she was ordered to weapons training […]
A new United Nations report reveals that more than six million children die every year from hunger or malnutrition. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization report, “The State of Food Insecurity in the World,” many of these six million children die from treatable diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, and measles. One-third of the […]
In a move that could destroy victim confidentiality and discourage sexual assault reporting, the Army has announced plans to create a database system to log the names and comprehensive personal information of any alleged sexual assault victim or assailant associated with the Armed Forces in any way. According to the Federal Register notice, the database, […]
In an interview on FOX News Sunday, Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) indicated that the chances for a filibuster against Samuel Alito have increased following the release of Alito’s 1985 job application. Senator Biden was not only concerned about Alito’s views on the constitutionality of abortion and affirmative action expressed in the job application, but also […]
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced its appointment of Kathleen Uhl, MD, to serve as director of the Office of Women’s Health. The position was previously held by Dr. Susan Wood, who resigned in September to protest the FDA’s refusal to make emergency contraception Plan B available over the counter. According to the […]
Women hold only 10.3 percent of board seats at 50 of the world’s largest banks, according to a report released earlier this month by Corporate Women Directors International (CWDI), a nonprofit dedicated to increasing women’s presence on boards of directors. The figures for the top 100 US banks were slightly higher, as 90 percent of […]
The nation’s largest civil rights coalition has announced its opposition to the nomination of Samuel Alito to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court, joining a growing coalition of at least 22 constituency groups. The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) represents 192 organizations. Of President Bush’s nomination, LCCR’s Executive Director, Wade Henderson, […]
A panel convened by the Irish government has released a report outlining failures by both the Roman Catholic Church and the state to protect children from sexual abuse over a 40-year period, provoking ire and leading to calls for an end to the close church-state relationship that characterizes Irish public life, reports the New York […]
Following the release of the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) report on the ‘unusual’ circumstances surrounding the handling of the application for over-the-counter sales of Plan B, 18 House members sent a letter to Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services, asking for further investigation into practices at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under […]
A bill to exempt domestic violence shelters from submitting personal information about their residents will go before the full House with a favorable recommendation from the Committee on Financial Services. Currently, the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) McKinney-Vento Act requires all shelters, transitional housing programs, homeless shelters, and emergency shelters receiving funds to submit the […]
Samuel Alito played a key role in a 1985 Reagan administration brief that advocated for overturning the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, according to a coauthor of the brief. Albert Lauber, who worked with Alito in the solicitor general’s office under Reagan, told the Boston Globe that Alito helped with “the research, the thinking, […]
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has dropped his attempts to undermine legislation requiring a five-to-one patient/nurse ratio in California hospitals. The decision came just days after all four of his ballot initiatives were rejected in a special election. Schwarzenegger suspended portions of the ratio law to benefit hospital chains last November, and was met with […]
In a report issued yesterday, the independent Government Accountability Office (GAO) questioned the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) handling of the application for over-the-counter use for emergency contraception Plan B. The GAO labeled some aspects of FDA’s handling of the application as “unusual” and questioned the involvement of high level officials in the process. The […]
The Florida Second District Court of Appeals on Thursday overturned a lower court’s decision and granted a 17-year-old’s request for judicial bypass. This was the first test of Florida’s new parental notification measures, signed into law in May, requiring doctors to notify the parents or guardians of minors at least 48 hours before the procedure, […]
