The Nebraska Court of Appeals this week sided with abortion provider Dr. Leroy Carhart who had appealed the eviction of his Bellevue Clinic. In May 2000, abortion opponents, including Nebraska state senator Paul Hartnett, purchased the building that Carhart was leasing for his clinic, and then commenced eviction proceedings against the doctor. Carhart sued Bert […]
The Feminist Majority Foundation featured Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, founder of Women on Waves (WOW), yesterday for a special chat on reproductive rights in honor of Women’s History Month. Dr. Gomperts spoke about WOW’s mission to “empowe[r] women to take charge of their lives, especially concerning reproductive health and abortion” by providing reproductive health services, including […]
Researchers at the ANZAC Research Institute in Sydney, Australia and Prince Henry’s Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne report that a hormone-based injection taken four times per year is effective as a contraceptive. The study followed a group of fertile men during two years of “normal” sexual activity. None of the men’s partners became pregnant […]
The case against Nigerian woman Safiya Hussaini Tungar Dudu, accused of adultery under newly implemented Islamic law, was overturned on Monday on procedural grounds, releasing her from a sentence of being buried up to the waist and stoned to death. At least ten Nigerian states have adopted Islamic sharia law codes that have put strict […]
An extradition order has been signed for James Charles Kopp to return to the United States to stand trial. Kopp is charged with the 1998 sniper-style assassination of Dr. Barnett Slepian, an Amherst, New York obstetrician-gynecologist who performed abortions. Kopp, who has also been indicted in the 1995 shooting of Ontario abortion provider Dr. Hugh […]
Amidst a widening sexual abuse scandal, a former seminarian in Hannibal, Missouri is suing the entire US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), originally intended to be used in cases involving organized crime rings. A 1980s student at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary is suing former West […]
For the first time since the Taliban took power in 1996, Afghan girls and female teachers returned to Afghanistan’s public schools on March 23. While the schools remain understaffed, overcrowded, and under funded, Afghans expressed exuberance at the new freedom found there. Hamid Karzai, head of Afghanistan’s interim government, gave an emotional address to Amani […]
A South African court has ruled that the government must provide pregnant women with nevirapine, a drug that helps prevent the spread of AIDS from infected mothers to their infants during labor. The government is appealing the decision to the countries highest court, but has been told it must provide the drug while the case […]
The Feminist Majority Foundation independently confirmed initial reports that Afghan women in Kabul greeted the (lunar calendar) New Year’s holiday by removing their burqas and participating in public celebration. For the first time in many years, women were able to don brightly colored clothes and move freely in the sun. The Washington Post foreign service […]
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced plans to scale back its search for anti-abortion terrorist Eric Robert Rudolph, suspected in the 1998 bombing of the Birmingham New Woman All Woman abortion clinic, the 1997 bombing of an Atlanta lesbian night club, and the 1996 Olympic Park bombing. Rudolph has been on the FBI’s […]
San Diego Superior Court Judge Ronald Prager dismissed a lawsuit this week filed by a Michigan anti-abortion group demanding that Planned Parenthood inform women of a possible link between abortion and breast cancer. Prager threw the case out, arguing that the Thomas More Law Center, who filed the suit in August, infringed on Planned Parenthood’s […]
Yesterday, the World Health Organization (WHO) released its first list of safe AIDS drugs, for the first time acknowledging generic drug makers. Generic drug manufacturers, despite criticism from major money-making manufacturers, have been attempting to provide AIDS medications at low cost. The current WHO list of AIDS drugs includes 41 different forms of medications from […]
Across Africa, women are banding together against a high-potency “moonshine” called changaa that leaves their husbands and sons violent, weak, impotent, blind, and even dead. A rampant problem in Kenya and other African nations, changaa is made from maize, sorghum or sugar cane and targeted at poor men for a cheap, quick highÑbut the liquor […]
Senior Advisor to the President Karl Rove gave a speech in front of the conservative Family Research Council last week strongly suggesting the president’s intention to send more reactionary judicial nominees to the Senate for confirmation to the federal courts. Speaking to an audience of about 250 right-wing Christian activists, Rove discussed the defeat of […]
Reproductive Health Technologies Project and a coalition of medical organizations and women’s groups, including the Feminist Majority Foundation, launched a new campaign today to decrease the number of unintended pregnancies in the U.S. by increasing access to emergency contraception (EC). The campaign, Back Up Your Birth Control, aims to increase awareness of EC and get […]
Despite pleas from Afghanistan’s interim government and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, as well as thousands of email messages from women’s groups, the Bush Administration appears to have made a decision not to allow an increase in the size of the 4500-member international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, nor an expansion of that force beyond the […]
The Southeast Bomb Task Force, which includes agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is investigating two letters claiming to be from the Army of God that expressed support for clinic bomber Eric Robert Rudolph and promised to continue using “lethal force” against abortion clinics and providers. The letters surfaced in Andrews, North Carolina […]
Women under 20-years old in western England will be able to obtain emergency contraception (EC) for free at Tesco, a British supermarket chain. The National Health Service and the North Somerset Teenage Pregnancy Clinic will also give these young women information about contraception and reproductive health. The joint initiative is the latest effort to lower […]
Mary Robinson announced that she will not seek another term as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and will instead vacate the office when her appointment ends in September. Robinson has received criticism from the United States for a myriad of issues, including her human rights concerns stemming from the U.S.-led war on terrorism. […]
An Islamic appeals court is expected to issue a ruling in the case of Safiya Hussaini, a Nigerian women sentenced to death by stoning for allegedly committing adultery, on March 25. Hussaini is the first woman to be sentenced to death by stoning under the Nigerian state of Sokoto’s Islamic sharia law. Defense lawyers are […]
