A Florida appeals court ruled yesterday that a school voucher program violates the state’s constitutional separation of church and state. The court found that the “vast majority” of students using vouchers under the 1999 law enrolled in religious schools that are barred from receiving state funds under Florida’s constitution, according to the New York Times. […]
Hong Kong’s rate of abortion is the highest among developed nations, with 29 percent of pregnancies being legally terminated in 2001. Social workers in Hong Kong estimate that the number of abortions could actually be higher than the 20,235 recorded, according to Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, because of the stigma associated with pregnancy outside […]
Female athletes will be competing in two sports previously limited to only male participants in this year’s summer Olympics in Greece. Saber fencing now joins foil and epee fencing as a women’s event, along with women’s wrestling. The Dallas Star-Telegram reports that a record 44 percent of this year’s Olympic athletes will be women. Pairing […]
Massouda Jalal, an Afghan woman who is one of the 18 candidates for President in Afghanistan, is determined to defeat President Karzai in the first post-Taliban elections that are scheduled to take place in October. According to Eurasianet, the Religious Order Department of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court has tried to declare her candidacy as un-Islamic and […]
Nearly 4,000 marriages performed in San Francisco this spring for same sex couples were nullified by a California Supreme Court ruling Thursday. The ruling found that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom did not have the authority to singularly interpret laws prohibiting same sex marriage, deem them unconstitutional, and thus legalize same sex marriage. The court’s […]
Julia Child, the face of French cuisine to many Americans, died Thursday at the age of 91. Child was well-known and well-loved for her cookbooks and television cooking show. She was also revered as a feminist. “Pro-choice is the only way to be,” Child told Ms. Magazine in 2003, “because women are human beings, after […]
This week marks the 20th anniversary of a harmful US foreign policy that bars family planning programs in countries that receive US federal aid from using separate, private monies for abortion counseling, services, and referrals. Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority asserts that this policy is “desperately injuring the poorest women in developing nations.” […]
Denise Majette became the first woman and the first black candidate nominated to the US Senate in Georgia following her Democratic runoff victory Tuesday. Majette, a pro-choice first-term member of Congress who earned a 100 percent rating from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, easily defeated her opponent, businessman Cliff Oxford. Aside from its history-making aspects, […]
Earlier this week, the French and German-led military unit, Eurocorps, took command of NATO peacekeeping forces (ISAF) in Kabul. The transition occurred two months before Afghanistan’s first post-Taliban elections are scheduled to take place. In June, NATO stated that it would increase the size of peacekeeping troops from 6,500 to 10,000 for the elections. It […]
Last week a family of three in Michigan was kicked out of a rally for President Bush because they were wearing feminist and pro-choice T-shirts. First, Barbara Miller’s pro-choice T-shirt was confiscated as they attempted to enter Wendler Arena to hear President Bush speak at a rally, The Saginaw News reports. Later, after the Miller […]
Zambia’s Minister of Health, Brian Chituwo, recently announced that subsidized AIDS drugs will be available for 12,000 people at local public and private hospitals. However, women constitute only 10 percent of those receiving the drugs, while they represent 70 percent of the two million people living with AIDS in Zambia, according to Panos. Nkundu Luo, […]
Officials announced the new rules for Saudi Arabia’s first municipal elections yesterday, stating that all citizens above the age of 21, except for military personnel, would be eligible to vote. The BBC News reports that Saudi women’s rights activists hailed these new regulations, as they leave open the possibility for women to vote, a possibility […]
Michigan’s primary election last Tuesday decided the nominees for the only vacant US House seat this election cycle. In Michigan’s 7th district, Democrat Sharon Renier will be facing Republican John (Joe) Schwarz in the general election this November. Renier, an organic farmer, has been an advocate of women’s rights and gender equality throughout her career. […]
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced plans to distribute 20,000 specially designed interactive talking books to women in Afghanistan as part of an effort to reduce Afghanistan’s appallingly high rate of maternal and infant mortality rates, Agence France-Press reported yesterday. Built by the American corporation LeapFrog Inc., the technology-based educational books, […]
A leading Afghan women’s rights activist, Malaly Joya, expects to be killed for her opposition against former warlords. According to Joya, “I know that if not today, then probably tomorrow, I will be physically annihilated,” reports BBC News. During the Loya Jirga in 2003, Joya protested the exclusion of women during the selection of committee […]
South African anti-abortion groups are calling on Parliament to change their current law regarding abortion to allow medical nurses the right to refuse to perform an abortion based on moral and religious grounds. Anti-abortion groups are also trying to change the law to require parental consent for minors seeking abortion. According to Business Day, the […]
Missouri voters on Tuesday passed a ballot measure amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, while a Washington state judge ruled yesterday that same-sex marriage is legal under state law. Missouri is the first state to pass such a ballot measure since the historic ruling in Massachusetts last year legalizing lesbian and gay marriage […]
A man who has been running a fake abortion referral service for over 10 years was ordered to stop his misleading activities in a preliminary injunction granted Wednesday by a Louisiana US District Court. William Graham is an anti-abortion activist who promised to connect women seeking abortions with abortion providers, only to stall and create […]
In a speech to the conservative Knights of Columbus in Dallas yesterday, President Bush emphasized his opposition to issues such as abortion rights and same-sex marriage. Telling the Knights of Columbus, a 1.7-million-member Catholic men’s organization, that “you have a friend in this administration,” Bush pledged to work with the Knights to “defend the sacred […]
Missourians gave the green light to five pro-choice women running for state and national posts in Tuesday’s primary. Claire McCaskill beat sitting Governor Bob Holden in the Democratic gubernatorial primary; Nancy Farmer had a landslide victory in the Democratic US Senate race; Linda Jacobsen ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for the US House of […]
