Manila mayor Lito Atienza has stated that he will arrest anyone who attempts to ship the abortion pill RU-486 into the city, dubbing the pill as a “do-it-yourself murder kit”. His statement was in response to an announcement made by the Philippine secretary of health authorizing RU-486 for victims of rape and incest. The pill, […]
Lombe Chibesakunda, Permanent Human Rights Commission Chairperson in the African country of Zambia, publicly stated that “women in Zambia have continued to be under-represented at all level of decision making in government and other institutions in the communities”. While Zambian women constitute over half of the population and the majority of the voting population, less […]
Negotiations on the $14.9 billion foreign aid bill could come to a close this week with a “compromise” on family planning funding. Representatives Sonny Callahan (R-AL) and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), respectively the chairman and top Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee that controls foreign aid, have contrived two options for dealing with the family planning […]
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report for 1999 showed that, as overall serious crime continued to decline over the past year, hate crimes based on sexual orientation increased 4.5 percent between 1998 and 1999. “Somewhere in America every day at least three gay and lesbian Americans are being targeted for a crime just because they are […]
Former President Jimmy Carter announced this weekend that he is ending his association with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Carter, a self-professed “born-again” Christian, stated in a letter to the SBC that the group’s increasingly conservative stances, including recent decisions barring female pastors and declaring that wives should “submit graciously to their husbands, “violate the […]
Special Reporter of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Commission Abdelfattah Amor, in a recent interview with the Associated Pres, called for international efforts to combat religious extremism, which he called “an ever-growing scourge” in the world. Amor cited the Taliban as the greatest example of how religious extremists are “using religion as a political […]
The Los Angeles Times recently featured Ramona High School’s efforts in the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid Back to School drive. The only all-girls public school in LA, Ramona is a safe space for troubled girls who were not making it in other institutions. Its surrounding area is plagued by gang violence, […]
Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca has vowed to combat sexual harassment and discrimination in the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department (LASD), which has been under a consent decree to examine the treatment of women in the agency. LASD’s current head Lee Baca has initiated efforts to hire and promote more women, and to effectively deal with […]
On October 17, almost one month after the United States Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) approved mifepristone, a new study shows that the F.D.A.’s prescribed regimen for the drug could be simplified to lower costs, ensuring that more women would have access to the non-surgical abortion. The study involed 2,295 women in 16 primary care […]
A county judge in Indiana ruled in favor of two women’s health clinics that filed a suit in August of 1999 arguing that the state’s Medicare policies discriminated against low-income women with certain health conditions. Current state law allows Medicare to cover abortions when a woman’s life is in danger and in instances of rape […]
The first of thirty men indicted for attacking women in New York’s Central during the June 11, 2000, Puerto Rican Day parade has pled guilty. Immanuel Nunez, 18, admitted to being a participant in a throng of men who drenched women with water, tore the women’s clothes off and molested them. Nunez, jailed since his […]
In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, New York Senate candidate Hillary Clinton said that her vision of US foreign policy includes promoting women’s rights and human rights, humanitarian assistance and international family planning. Clinton said, “We will not have strong markets to invest in, or democratic allies to depend on if children […]
In one of the most contentious exchanges in Tuesday night’s presidential debates, Vice President Al Gore clearly stated his support of affirmative action, saying affirmative action is “taking extra steps to acknowledge the history of discrimination and injustice and prejudice and bring all people into the American dream.” Gore then challenged Republican candidate George W. […]
A federal grand jury has indicted fugitive anti-abortion extremist James Charles Kopp in the 1998 sniper killing of Dr. Barnett Slepian in Amherst, New York. Slepian, an abortion provider in upstate New York, was killed in his home by a single shot from a high-powered rifle on October 23, 1998. Dr. Slepian was the fifth […]
According to a new study, mifepristone can be used beyond the 49-day gestational limit approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A multi-center trial of 2,295 women, conducted by Dr. Eric Schaff of the University of Rochester in Minnesota, found that the pill could be taken within 56 days of intercourse with a success […]
The pro-choice community mourns the loss of ally Governor Mel Carnahan (D-MO), who died in a plane crash on his way to a campaign rally on Monday night. The popular governor was running for the U.S. Senate seat against John Ashcroft (R-MO) in one of the closest races of this election year. Carnahan, a long […]
According to a report published by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) using the Environmental Protection Agency’s figures, Texas has the worst air pollution problem in the entire country. Ninety-three smog polluters in Texas are in violation of federal air standards2.5 times as many violators as the second worst state, Illinois. The EWG has pointed its […]
In the last of the 2000 presidential debates, feminist leaders are urging the Commission on Presidential Debates to give women’s issues a greater voice. In the first debate, abortion and mifepristone (RU 486) received just a few minutes of attention before being redirected to other topics. In the second debate, the world “woman” was uttered […]
Six years ago, emergency workers counseling refugee women in the former Yugoslavia sent out a red alert. The women, traumatized by war, would sit in silence during therapy sessions, opening up only when they had their knitting in front of them. When counselors sent out a call for yarn donations, they were flooded with offerings. […]
The 2000 elections could produce a Democratically controlled Senate, and possibly by the narrowest margin. Thirteen seats are hotly contested in this year’s election, and Democratic candidates will need to fill 10 of those seats to reach a majority of 51. Women are fighting in some of the tightest Senate races. In Michigan, Democratic Representative […]
