Last week, the Hawaii House passed legislation that would enable women over the age of 18 to obtain emergency contraception (EC) from their pharmacists without a prescription. The bill faced opposition from anti-choice state representatives as well as the state Board of Pharmacy. Executive Director of the Board, Lee Ann Teshima, noted that the legislation, […]
The Kansas Supreme Court last week rejected J’Noel Gardiner’s claim to her late husband’s estate, citing that because J’Noel is transsexual, her marriage to Marshall Gardiner could not be legally recognized. The Court noted that Kansas state law defines marriage as a union between a biological man and a biological woman. The Court then determined […]
Reports from Arab News (Jeddah) suggest that the Saudi Arabian Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (mutawwa’) put the lives of hundreds of young girls and teachers at the Mecca Intermediate School No. 31 in danger on the morning of March 11 when a fire broke out at the school. […]
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a national and international alert yesterday warning consumers that obstetrics and gynecological surgical devices manufactured by A&A of Alpharetta, Georgia were incorrectly labeled sterile. The devices may not have undergone sterilization processes putting women at risk of death, infection, infertility, and miscarriage. According to the FDA, the devices […]
In a 10-9 vote along partisan lines, the US Senate Judiciary Committee voted against the nomination of Judge Charles Pickering to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the federal court level just below the US Supreme Court. “This is an important milestone,” said Feminist Majority Foundation president Eleanor Smeal, “and the vote […]
The new school year will begin in Afghanistan on March 23, and for the first time since Taliban rule, women and girls will return to their classrooms without fear of reprisal. This week five schools in Kabul received, from Pakistan and UNICEF, stationery for 20,000 students and blackboards, and textbooks for 200 teachers. Millions of […]
In a victory for Nepalese women, the Lower House of Parliament amended the Nepalese Civil Code to legalize abortion in the first trimester, in cases of rape or incest, or to protect a woman’s health. Nepal’s king must now sign the legislation for the new laws to take affect. Nepal has the fourth highest maternal […]
A new report released today by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), a legal aid group opposed to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy,” reports that discharges based on sexual orientation have reached record levels, and women are often the ones being discharged. According to SLDN’s new report, “Conduct Unbecoming: The 8th Annual Report on […]
Andrea Yates, the Texas woman convicted on murdering her five children, will begin the sentencing phase of her trial today. Tuesday, the jury rejected her defense that she was insane at the time of the murders. Evidence that she had twice tried to commit suicide and was on strong, anti-psychosis medication for postpartum psychosis did […]
Bishop Anthony J. O’Connell of the diocese of Palm Beach, FL, submitted his resignation to Pope John Paul II yesterday, making him the highest-ranking church official to resign, amidst the discoveries in recent months of pedophilia and sexual abuse involving the Catholic Church. O’Connell admitted last week that he sexually abused a teenage seminary student […]
The Boston Archdiocese announced yesterday that it will pay 86 people who have filed claims of sexual abuse at the hands of the defrocked Boston priest, John J. Geoghan, up to $30 million. As part of the settlement, the archdiocese also agreed not to make the accusers sign confidentiality agreements, a practice that had been […]
Oprah Winfrey, the reigning queen of daytime talk, announced yesterday that she will retire her #1 talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, in 2006. In the meantime, she will continue to host one of the only talk shows on television urging women’s self-empowerment. The Oprah Winfrey Show has consistently taken on hard-hitting women’s issues, such […]
The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP) petitioned the Second Circuit Court of Appeals today asking the court to allow its legal challenge of President Bush’s global gag rule to continue. CRLP charges that the global gag rule impinges free speech and amounts of government-sanctioned censorship. The gag rule forbids foreign organizations receiving U.S. […]
Addressing students at Yale University on International Women’s Day, Flip Benham, National Director of Operation Save America (formerly Operation Rescue), claimed that American’s lack of religion was to blame for the attacks against the U.S. and would cause future violence to occur. Benham railed against abortion in his remarks, saying, “If the shedding of blood […]
The U.S.-based Women’s Capital Corporation (WCC), along with Canadian distributor Paladin Labs, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada, and the Canadian Pharmacists Association, has filed an application with Health Canadian to make the emergency contraception (EC) Plan B available to all Canadian women without a prescription. Included in the application are the results […]
Bahamians last week voted against two women’s rights amendments to the Bahamas constitution. One would have protected women against job discrimination, and the other would have bestowed Bahamian citizenship to children of Bahamian women and their foreign husbands. The amendments, on the ballot with three other proposed changes, were defeated by more than 60 percent […]
Rent-A-Center, a nationwide retailer of rent-to-own appliances and furniture, agreed to pay $47 million to settle a class action sexual discrimination lawsuit. More than 5,000 women will receive compensation, and according to the terms of the agreement, Rent-A-Center will recruit women to serve on its board of directors and make a commitment to increase its […]
The Roman Catholic hierarchy in the U.S. claims that it does not collect data or keep records of cases of sexual abuse by priests or other clergy members. Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops explained that the conference “has not attempted to gather this kind of data because each […]
The United Nations marked International Women’s Day last Friday by looking ahead at the future for women in Afghanistan. Afghan Minister for Women’s Affairs Dr. Sima Samar sent a statement to the gathering stating that “The long darkness for the women and girls of our country may finally be over.” Samar, however, also highlighted the […]
Irish voters narrowly defeated a referendum that would have increased the prohibitions on when women in Ireland are permitted to seek an abortion. The confusingly worded referendum would have allowed woman to have an abortion if her life was at risk, but would have barred the threat of suicide as one of the possible life […]
