Anti-abortion extremist James Charles Kopp is expected to end his fight to avoid extradition to the United States from France. According to Paul Cambria, Kopp’s Buffalo, NY-based attorney, the alleged murderer may be moved to New York as soon as this summer. “The only thing that could change that is if his French lawyer takes […]
In a preliminary draft report commissioned by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Tufts University famine expert Sue Lautze characterized the situation in Afghanistan Ð exacerbated by a three-year drought Ð as “still in acute disaster phase” and urged continued diligence in international emergency assistance. Based on 1,100 interviews with Afghan households, Lautz’s report […]
One week after approving the Lowey-Kolbe amendment which set a July 10 deadline for the release of $34 million to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the US House Appropriations Committee narrowly reversed its vote 32-30 passing an amendment by Representative Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) to drop the July 10 deadline and cap the UNFPA Fiscal […]
Led by Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), several women House members and abortion rights organizations including the Feminist Majority, National Abortion Rights and Action League, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, National Abortion Federation, the National Women’s Law Center, and the National Organization for Women, gathered yesterday in support for the Schumer-Hatch amendment to the bankruptcy bill […]
Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Harry Reid (D-NV) joined Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal, NOW President Kim Gandy, National Council of Women’s Organizations Executive Director Martha Burk, Equality Now President Jessica Neuwirth, V-Day Founder Eve Ensler, Gloria Steinem, and Zieba Shorish-Shamley of the Women’s Alliance for Peace and Human Rights in Afghanistan in calling on […]
Preliminary findings on the new oral contraceptive “Seasonale” show that this method of birth control is both safe and effective. Seasonale is based on a 91-day menstrual cycle as opposed to standard oral contraceptives that are based on a 28-day cycle. As a result, women using Seasonale experience only four menstrual periods per year, or […]
Despite intense lobbying by the California Catholic Conference, the California Senate voted along party lines 22-11 to approve SB 1301, a bill that would allow nurses and other healthcare providers – who are already authorized to write prescriptions – to prescribe mifepristone, the early abortion pill. Currently, it is unlawful in California for a nurse […]
Commenting on child sex abuse in the Catholic Church, Reverend Gianfranco Ghirlanda, Dean of Canon Law Faculty at Pontificial Gregorian University in Rome, argued that bishops should not inform their parishioners if a priest has committed pedophilia because the priest “would be totally discredited in front of his parochial community and in fact would be […]
In a highly partisan vote, the House of Representatives voted yesterday to reauthorize the 1996 Welfare Reform Act and increase work requirements, promote marriage, and impose abstinence-only sexual education on welfare recipients. As Representative Ron Kind (D-WI) stated, “The Republican bill is very long on conservatism and very short on compassion.” Passed on a vote […]
Preliminary data gathered from one-half of schools in Kabul, Afghanistan by the United Nations Children’s Fund show that over 200,000 children are enrolled, 34 percent more than United Nations expectations. Of the children enrolled, 100,000 are girls, 42 percent more than expected. These numbers, however, differ from the data provided to the Feminist Majority Foundation […]
A study appearing in the British Medical Journal concludes that incorporating information about emergency contraception (EC) into regular high school sex-education courses does not make students more sexually active. Twenty-four high schools in the UK participated in the study. Trained teachers gave 14- and 15-year old students participating in sex-education programs one specific lesson on […]
Zafran Bibi is on death row, sentenced to death by stoning for having sex outside marriage. She is in solitary confinement, visited only by her one-year old daughter, who was conceived, according to Zafran, not through a consensual extra-marital affair, but through rape. Islamic law in Pakistan, however, according to the New York Times, does […]
The Bush Administration has announced plans to re-interpret Title IX to more easily allow for the creation of single-sex schools. Presented as a plan to improve education, this new initiative is largely seen by the women’s rights community as an attack on Title IX, a 1972 federal law that bans sex discrimination in education. In […]
Margaret McGilvray and Dan Redmond are fighting the District of Columbia for the right to name their child how they choose. Their child, Alexander, now 3 months old, still does not have a birth certificate because the District of Columbia will not allow the couple to give the baby his mother’s surname. In fact, since […]
Over 125 women representing 14 countries and 22 US states joined with the East Timor Action Network (ETAN) to urge the United Nations Security Council to establish an international tribunal for East Timor. Since 1975 when the Indonesian military illegally invaded and occupied East Timor, the country has witnessed the killing of over 200,000 people, […]
The Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) to the US Constitution was introduced today in the House of Representatives. Drafted by an anti-gay, anti-lesbian, self-proclaimed “multicultural coalition” called the Alliance for Marriage, the amendment explicitly defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The FMA would also nullify existing domestic partnership laws in eight […]
The House passed an amendment to the 2003 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) yesterday prohibiting the Pentagon from requiring or encouraging women military personnel in Saudi Arabia to wear the abaya, a head-to-toe black robe. The amendment also bars the Department of Defense (DOD) from purchasing the garment for US servicewomen. After Operation Desert Storm […]
Congressman Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) has threatened to introduce an amendment to the emergency appropriations bill that would give the president discretion over how much, if any, of the $34 million appropriated to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will be released during the 2002 fiscal year. According to the Washington Times, the Republican leadership in […]
The House last week rejected an amendment to the defense appropriations bill that would have allowed US servicewomen overseas to use their own funds to obtain abortions at military hospitals. Introduced by Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D- CA), the amendment was only narrowly defeated 202-215. The bill will now move to the Senate for consideration. The […]
In a win for affirmative action, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that the University of Michigan Law School could consider race as a factor in making admissions decisions. The 5-4 decision reversed a lower court’s ruling that found the law school’s policy to be discriminatory. Three white students who had been denied […]
