Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) announced yesterday that he intended to bring the first of several controversial Bush nominees for the federal judiciary to the Senate floor for a vote after passage of a transportation funding bill this week. Democrats have threatened to filibuster several judicial nominees waiting for a full Senate vote, at […]
A new study found that 55 percent of Catholic hospitals and 42 percent of non-Catholic hospitals in the United States do not dispense emergency contraception in their emergency departments under any circumstances. The study, conducted by Ibis Reproductive Health and published in the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Annals of Emergency Medicine found that of […]
The National Academy of Sciences, chartered by Congress as an advisor to the federal government on science and technology issues, elected a record high of 19 women (26 percent) out of the 72 new inductees for 2005. The number of women elected rose to 24 percent in both 2003 and 2004 after hovering around 10 […]
A group of 200 women from 26 Afghan women’s groups protested in Kabul on Thursday to demand that the killers of four Afghan women be punished for their crimes. Three women were recently found raped and strangled to death in an attempt to scare women away from working for aid groups in the northern province […]
Brazil declined $40 million of US funds to fight AIDS, making it the first country to take a stand against the Bush Administration’s AIDS policy requiring recipients to sign a pledge opposing prostitution. According to Voice of America, Brazilian officials feel that condemning prostitution will damage efforts to protect sex workers from contracting and spreading […]
Early vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) could vastly reduce the incidence of cervical cancer, and two vaccines are nearing the point of regulatory approval. GlaxoSmithKline has developed a vaccine containing the two strains of HPV most likely to cause cervical cancer, according to the New Scientist, and this vaccine has prevented 90 percent of new […]
In a blow to women’s rights, the Kuwaiti parliament has failed to pass legislation that would have given women the right to vote and run for office in municipal elections. According the New York Times, Islamist and conservative lawmakers created a block that eliminates any chance that women will be able to participate in elections […]
On Monday, Judge Ronald Alvarez ruled that a thirteen-year-old ward of the state was competent to make her decision and should be allowed to proceed. Last week, Alvarez had temporarily blocked the procedure. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, he found that “legally speaking, it’s not a difficult decision to make” and that further “delaying […]
Three Afghan women were found raped and strangled to death in the northern province of Baghlan with a warning for women to stop working for aid groups. One of the three was a 25-year-old woman who was working for a Bangladeshi non-governmental organization (NGO). The bodies were found with a note stating “this is retribution […]
The Florida Department of Children and Families (FDCF) went to court last week in West Palm Beach to intervene in the planned abortion of a 13-year-old ward of the state. The girl, known as L.G., learned of her pregnancy two weeks ago, and intended to undergo the abortion last Tuesday, according to Palm Beach Post. […]
Japan’s ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party, is working toward changing the constitution in a way that would roll back women’s rights. Women’s eNews reports that in June of last year a constitutional panel proposed adding language to Article 24 of the constitution that would emphasize the values of the family and community. According to […]
Iraq’s National Assembly has approved a list of 36 new cabinet members that includes six women. The female members of cabinet include Suhaila Jaafar as Minister of Migration and Displacement, Jwan Massoum as Minister of Communications, Nasreen Berawari as Minster of Municipalities and Public Works, Narmin Othman as Minster of the Environment, Azhar al-Sheikhli as […]
Yesterday, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would criminalize the transportation of a minor across state lines to obtain an abortion without parental involvement. The so-called Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act would require doctors to contact the parents of out-of-state patients 24 hours before performing an abortion. The Senate is expected to […]
A new report shows that current efforts to release children from armed groups often overlook the fact that over 120,000 girls have been abducted and forced to fight with armed groups around the world. According to the Save the Children report “Forgotten Casualties of War: Girls in Armed Conflict,” girls as young as eight years […]
Senate Republicans yesterday rejected a compromise offered by Democrats on judicial nominees. The compromise would have allowed some of President Bush’s conservative nominees to receive simple majority votes in the Senate, and President Bush would have to withdraw the other nominees to the Circuit Courts of Appeals, according to the Washington Post. In addition, Republicans […]
A female Iraqi member of parliament was shot and killed at her home in eastern Baghdad today by armed gunmen in an attempt to destabilize the reconstruction process. According to BBC News, Lamia Abed Khadouri al-Sagri, a member of Iraq’s National Assembly, did not have permanent security detail. Instead, she had to rely on her […]
The British Open, one of the world’s four major golf events, will allow women to compete starting in 2006. It may also accept American teen prodigy Michelle Wie to compete this summer if she qualifies, according to the Associated Press. Currently, the entry regulations specify that the British Open will only accept male professional or […]
Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced legislation to protect women’s access to contraception in response to recent reports that women seeking birth control or emergency contraception (EC) have been turned away by pharmacists. The legislation would require all pharmacies to fill all prescriptions or refer customers to someone who will, despite pharmacists’ […]
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has endorsed the appointment of the first female justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Aloma Mukhtar. Justice Mukhtar still needs to be confirmed by the Senate, reports This Day. At the 7th Biennial Conference of the National Association of Women Judges, Adetula Ade-Alabi, the chief justice of Lagos, said that female […]
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) appeared on “Justice Sunday: Stopping the Filibuster Against People of Faith,” an evangelical broadcast to fundamentalist churches across the nation on Sunday to garner support for a rule change in the Senate that would eliminate the use of filibusters against judicial nominees. The rule change, known as the “nuclear […]
