According to a document obtained by the Washington Times, Samuel Alito, Bush’s nominee for the Supreme Court, does not support a woman’s right to a safe, legal abortion. In a 1985 application to become deputy assistant to then-Attorney General Edwin Meese under President Reagan, Alito wrote, “It has been an honor and source of personal […]
Following last week’s election, Maine became the last state in New England to extend discrimination protection to gays and lesbians. The state legislature passed an amendment to the Maine Human Rights Act that prohibited discrimination on the basis of “a person’s actual or perceived heterosexuality, bisexuality, homosexuality or gender identity or expression,” in employment, housing, […]
A new study of 38,000 US women found that new testing methods could better predict fetal Down’s Syndrome in the first trimester than current, second-trimester testing. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study compared a new form of ultrasound test with the current “quadruple test,” a blood test administered around 16 weeks’ […]
With 97 percent of votes counted, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has been elected president of Liberia, the first woman elected to head any African nation. Although Johnson-Sirleaf won 59 percent of the vote in a runoff election on Tuesday, she is holding off declaring victory based on fraud allegations by her competitor, soccer star George Weah. According […]
In a win for reproductive rights advocates, federal Circuit Court Judge Charles Atwell on Monday issued a preliminary injunction barring the enforcement of a state law allowing civil suits to be brought against anyone who “intentionally cause[s], aid[s]or assist[s]” in a minor obtaining an abortion without parental or judicial consent. Planned Parenthood of Kansas and […]
Wins by women candidates in Tuesday’s election have set a new record for women’s representation in New Jersey. The state legislature will now include 22 women, a record for New Jersey. This brings New Jersey out of its place on the list of ten worst states for women’s representation, according to the Center for American […]
The House International Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere has unanimously approved a resolution authored by Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-CA) that addresses the violent murders of women in border cities of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico. The resolution denounces the murders and asks that the United States government engage the Mexican government in order to […]
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a sex-discrimination suit on Monday against Fox News, on behalf of former employee Kim Weiler. The suit seeks new policies at Fox News to combat discrimination and demands punitive damages. The complaint focuses on a vice president, Joe Chillemi, who supervises Fox Advertising and Promotions. According to the New […]
In an impressive victory for women’s health advocates, voters in California defeated a ballot measure (proposition 73) that would have required doctors to notify the parents of young women under the age of 18 before performing an abortion. The proposal, endorsed by Governor Schwarzenegger, was defeated 52.6 percent of 47.4 percent. Funding in support of […]
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) withdrew an amendment last week that would have funded an investigation into the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) continued delays on the application to make the emergency contraceptive Plan B available without over the counter. Her decision came shortly after Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) threatened to attach an amendment to the […]
Samuel Alito’s senior thesis advisor at Princeton University shed new light on Alito’s judicial philosophy concerning the right to a safe, legal abortion. In an interview with the Daily Princetonian, Professor Walter Murphy said that Alito agrees with him in such issues as “finding no constitutional barrier to bans on late-term abortions and requiring spousal […]
Nadia Anjuman, a 25-year-old poet who was gaining recognition after publishing her first book of poetry, was beaten to death last Tuesday in the western Afghan city of Herat. Anjuman’s husband, Farid Ahmad Majid Mia, was arrested and has admitted to hitting her, according to the New York Times. This tragedy is a brutal example […]
Hauwa Ibrahim, Nigerian lawyer and human rights activist, is one of three recipients of the European Parliament’s distinguished 2005 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Ibrahim has been courageously defending people (mainly women) “condemned under sharia law to horrifying punishments (lashing, stoning, and amputation),” according to the European Parliament. For her lifesaving work, she has […]
Opposition to the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court continues to mount as a leading coalition of women’s rights organizations and a group of Congresswomen announced their opposition to his confirmation. They join a growing coalition against Alito that includes the Feminist Majority, as well as […]
A report from the Center for American Women and Politics shows that the 2005 statewide and legislative elections in New Jersey and Virginia are unlikely to result in any significant increase in women in government. New Jersey and Virginia are the only states to hold statewide and legislative elections this year, and both rank in […]
Senate Judiciary Chair Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Ranking Minority Member Patrick Leahy (D-CT) announced yesterday the schedule planned to consider the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. The committee hearings are scheduled to begin on January 9, 2006, with a committee vote planned for January 17 and an expected full Senate vote on […]
Four members of the House of Representatives introduced legislation yesterday that would give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 30 days to take action on the emergency contraceptive Plan B, after which it would be automatically approved for over-the-counter sales. The bipartisan legislation, sponsored by Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Christopher Shays (R-CT), Jay Inslee (D-WA) and […]
The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) 60-day comment period on the emergency contraceptive Plan B ended on Tuesday, but the FDA has not taken further action. Estimates place the number of comments received around 10,000, and FDA spokesperson Julie Zawisza said the agency will “read them all and decide how to proceed,” reports the Washington […]
Rose Alito, the mother of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, told the Associated Press that “of course” her son is “against abortion.” But you don’t need to get this from his mother. Reading between the lines, Alito has done the most he could do as an appellate judge who had to follow Supreme Court ruling […]
The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled on Monday that the Board of State Canvassers should approve petitions that would put an initiative to end affirmative action on the November 2006 ballot. The elections board had neither approved nor rejected the petitions this summer, as there was a tie vote, and the misleadingly named Michigan Civil […]
