Approximately 100 labor, social security and women’s rights advocates gathered outside of Washington’s Capitol Hilton hotel this morning to rally against President Bush’s initiative to privatize social security. The majority of Bush’s Social Security Commission, which was meeting at the hotel, largely supports replacing the current system with private accounts in order to encourage investment […]
Balancing the Equation, a recent report by the National Council for Research on Women, reveals the deficit of women in the fields of science and engineering. In the early 1990’s, 54 percent of female students at top colleges and universities quit majors in engineering, science and math, as compared with 39 percent of male students. […]
It’s payback time in D.C. All the big boys from the credit card companies and banks who lined W’s coffers were whistling a happy tune on March 15 when the Senate passed legislation that would place severe restrictions on personal bankruptcy, and (surprise, surprise) generate substantial profits for the credit industry. So what are the […]
Pope John Paul II urged President Bush during their first meeting to ban the creation of human embryos for stem cell research. The 81-year-old pontiff claimed America, which aspires to be a “free and virtuous society,” must “reject practices that devalue and violate human life at any stage from conception to natural death.” Bush thanked […]
The fire that destroyed the Delta Women’s Health Clinic, Baton Rouge’s only abortion facility, was ignited by a faulty air conditioner according to a statement made Thursday by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). Arson had not been ruled out as a possible cause of the fire, which occurred in the early morning […]
Despite soaring temperatures, hundreds of pro-choice activists rallied around Dr. George Tiller’s abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas every day this past week, ensuring their voices would be heard against the anti-choice group Operation Save America’s “Summer of Mercy” campaign. Pro-choice demonstrators, organized by the Feminist Majority, helped Tiller’s clinic remain open throughout the week. With […]
Outraged by what they believe to be an attempt to deter women from the medical field, Turkish feminists have vowed to fight Turkish Health Minister Osman Durmus’ proposed virginity testing of nurses in medical school. Although virginity testing was officially banned in 1999 after five orphans drank rat poison after having their hymens examined, Durmus […]
The Republican National Committee, which has long performed poorly among women voters, has vowed to put “money, muscle and womanpower” into recruiting women to their party. In announcing the launch of the initiative, the RNC offered maps illustrating that Gore would have won the 2000 presidential election by a landslide if only women had voted, […]
The federal government announced plans to reject all requests pending from states to provide more contraception and family planning services to Medicaid recipients. Although women on Medicaid are currently eligible for contraceptive coverage, it is only within certain time and income limits. Currently eight states have proposal pending that would either extend the benefit period […]
Opponents of a recently enacted Maryland gay rights law that guarantees equality for gays and lesbians in housing, employment, and public accommodation collected over 47,000 signatures to put the law to a statewide referendum. The group TakeBackMaryland.org circulated their petition via Internet as well as in churches, mosques, and Republican clubs throughout the state in […]
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Hearing on legislation to overturn President Bush’s Family Planning ‘Gag’ Rule yesterday. Under the ‘gag’ rule, nongovernmental organizations in foreign nations receiving U.S funds for family planning programs cannot use their own money to provide abortion counseling, referrals, or lobby to change abortion law. Federal law […]
House Republican leaders postponed a vote on Bush’s “faith-based” funding proposal due to continued opposition by Democrats and moderate Republicans to federal funding of organizations with discriminatory hiring practices. The debate centers on a 1964 law that exempted religious groups from anti-discrimination employment laws. After a leaked Salvation Army memo revealed that their public support […]
Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), the Senate’s only M.D., added his voice to the growing call for federal funding of both embryonic and adult stem cell research. Frist serves as a trusted advisor to President Bush, who has threatened to veto stem-cell funding, on medical issues. Frist joins a long list of senators who support the […]
The National Abortion Federation’s first ad in their new $2M public education campaign on the early option pill (Mifepristone/RU486) appears this month in Self and People magazines. Vanity Fair, Glamour and 7 other magazines will carry the ad in August. More on the NAF Campaign
In hopes of capitalizing on the surge in media coverage of female athletes, the Ladies Professional Golf Association is airing a series of television advertisements with the tag line, “L.P.G.A, positively amazing.” The L.P.G.A. receives 260 annual hours of television coverage–more than women’s basketball, tennis and soccer–but is less well known than these sports, largely […]
Steven Rogers, a security guard at the Fertility Control Clinic in Melbourne, Australia was shot in the face and killed by an unidentified gunman on Monday, July 16. Police have not determined if the shooting was related to anti-abortion protests. The clinic, Australia’s oldest private clinic to provide abortions, was the site of an anti-abortion […]
President Bush’s proposal to eliminate contraception coverage for federal employees was overturned yesterday by the House Appropriations Committee, virtually guaranteeing that the benefit extended to 1.2 million working women will stay in place. Twelve Republicans and 28 Democrats on the panel voted, 40-21, in favor of an amendment by Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) to rebuff […]
Katherine Graham, 84, a prominent journalist and businesswoman, died yesterday morning from severe head injuries in Boise, Idaho. Graham, former chairman and chief executive officer of The Post Co. and former publisher of the Washington Post, was the first female on the Associated Press’s board of directors. A pioneer in the male-dominated fields of business […]
Despite the fact that women and minorities comprise a percentage of federal employees roughly equal to their population proportion, the numbers of blacks, Hispanics and women drastically drop at mid-management levels. Women make up 43.8 percent of federal workers, but hold only 30.7 percent of mid-management positions and 24.2 percent of senior management jobs. After […]
The following is a first-hand report of the recent gay rights parade in Serbia, where police and others attacked the marchers. Belgrade 30 June, 2001 It was supposed to be a feast, the first public demonstration of the gay lesbian movement, celebrating their international day, in the main Square of the Republic, where all our […]
