On Monday, the US House Committee on Small Business held a hearing to on the issue of pharmacists refusing to fill women’s prescriptions for birth control and emergency contraception. A major topic of the hearing was the effects of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s emergency rule requiring pharmacies that sell any kind of contraceptives to fill […]
In defiance of the Vatican’s refusal to ordain women priests, nine Roman Catholic women participated in an ordination ceremony on Monday, risking excommunication. The nine women were ordained by unofficially ordained Bishops Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger and Gisela Forster on a cruise ship off the coast of Canada. One of the women ordained Monday, Regina Nicolosi, told […]
US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said that as a Supreme Court Justice, John Roberts would not be bound by precedent on abortion rights as he was as an appeals court judge. Roberts had said during his 2003 hearing to become a judge on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals that Roe v. Wade is “settled […]
The White House released some of the papers of John Roberts, Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court, but refused to release papers from when Roberts was deputy solicitor general under the George Bush, Sr from 1989 to 1993. Those papers would include any memos written by Roberts when the first Bush Administration intervened in Planned […]
The Alaska State Medical Board will delay its vote on a regulation requiring women to obtain a physical exam and a doctor’s prescription before obtaining emergency contraception. Currently, Alaska is one of eight states in which women can obtain emergency contraception from a pharmacist without a prescription. The proposed change sparked an outcry, as hundreds […]
In response to provisions in the draft Iraq constitution limiting women’s rights, approximately 200 women protested in Baghdad last week to demand full equality between women and men. Activists have also met with constitutional committee members to lobby for women’s rights. Iraq’s new draft constitution draft would allow Islam to play an important part in […]
A new poll found that the majority of Americans not only want to know Supreme Court nominee John Roberts’ position on abortion but also want him to support a woman’s right to legal abortion. According to a recent poll by the Washington Post and ABC News, 64 percent of Americans said that before the Senate […]
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R) vetoed legislation today that would have expanded access to emergency contraception (EC). Women’s rights and reproductive rights groups immediately protested Romney’s decision to veto the bill. The bill would have allowed specially trained pharmacists to dispense EC without a doctor’s prescription and it would have required hospitals to offer EC […]
Superior Court Judge Gail Ohanesian has ruled that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s redistricting measure, Proposition 77, must be removed from the November 7 special election ballot in California. The redistricting measure would take away the Democratically controlled state legislature’s power to draw voting districts for state political offices, instead giving this power to a panel of […]
Late last week, the Senate approved a measure to provide financial incentives to low-income residents of the District of Columbia who get married or stay married. These “marriage development accounts” would be federally funded matching funds of $3 for every $1 invested in a savings account. For married couples, the government would invest up to […]
Women and most racial minorities are considerably underrepresented in today’s US information technology (IT) field, according to a recent study by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA). The report, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Surveys, found that the percentage of women in the IT workforce dropped from 41 percent […]
Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) indicated yesterday that he may attach a bill to expand federal funding for stem cell research as an amendment to the Labor-Health and Human Services 2006 appropriations bill. “I don’t like to put it on the appropriations bill, but we waited long enough,” said Specter, one of the primary sponsors of […]
This week, the Massachusetts House and Senate both overwhelmingly approved legislation to make emergency contraception available from pharmacists without prescriptions and to require hospitals to offer it to rape victims. Following a final procedural vote in the Senate, expected next week, the bill will move to the desk of Governor Mitt Romney (R). Although Romney […]
In an important advancement for women conductors and musicians, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra appointed Marin Alsop to the post of music director this week. Alsop will be the first woman to conduct a major American symphony. She was appointed despite opposition from some of the orchestra’s musicians, with strong support from the Board of Directors […]
Women’s groups in Iraq held protests on Tuesday over draft language in the new Iraqi constitution that threatens to severely limit women’s rights. Provisions currently being considered include putting family law, which covers marriage, divorce and inheritance, under the jurisdiction of religious courts, according to the New York Times. In addition, the individual family’s sect […]
Eric Robert Rudolph was sentenced to two life sentences without parole on Monday for the 1998 bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama women’s health clinic, which killed an off-duty police officer and critically injured a nurse. Judge C. Lynwood also ordered Rudolph to pay restitution to the bombing victims in the amount of $1.2 million. Rudolph […]
President Bush plans to announce his nominee for the US Supreme Court at 9 pm EST tonight. The nominee is intended to fill the vacancy left by Sandra Day O’Connor’s announced retirement. LEARN MORE Read Ms. magazine’s Urgent Report on the Looming Fight Over the Supreme Court DONATE Make an emergency contribution to the Feminist […]
President Bush nominated DC Circuit Court Judge John Roberts to the US Supreme Court. The Feminist Majority, the National Organization for Women, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the National Abortion Federation all immediately announced their intentions to oppose Roberts for the position. “I am extremely disappointed that the President did not appoint a centrist woman to […]
United Nations expert Yakin Erturk said that violence against women in Afghanistan is commonplace, pointing to forced and child marriages as the primary cause of violence. Erturk, the Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights on Violence Against Women, highlighted poverty, lack of education, and years of warfare as the major causes of […]
A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last week heard an appeal by anti-abortion groups in the “Nuremberg Files” case. The case, American Coalition of Life Activists v. Planned Parenthood, originated as a suit filed in 1999 by Planned Parenthood of Oregon and four Oregon doctors listed on WANTED-style posters on the […]
