The Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee heard testimony last night on a pending measure that would ban “mid-level” medical practitioners from prescribing methyltrexate, a drug used in chemical abortions in Rhode Island. The bill would overturn an earlier ruling from the Department of Health that deemed midwives, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants capable of prescribing […]
Women’s rights activists accused the Vatican and some Islamic and Catholic countries of blocking consensus on plans to implement the Beijing Platform for Action, which emerged from the United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing, China 5 years ago. This week’s gathering of women’s rights activists aims to review the progress made by the […]
A report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) today documents racial disparities in the country’s growing prison population. According to prison admission statistics in 1996, nearly double the amount of African American men and women are being imprisoned for drug offenses than are white drug users, even though there are five times more white drug […]
Women’s rights advocates have learned that the FDA is discussing onerous restrictions on Mifepristone that would drastically limit its distribution and threaten the safety of physicians. Pro-choice leaders are in agreement that these unprecedented restrictions under discussion would be unacceptable and would represent undue government interference with medical practice and women’s right to abortion. Restrictions […]
Due to a new cab service started by the Dubai Transport Company, seven women have become the first female cab drivers in the Persian Gulf. Mohammed Obaid Al Mulla, director of the cab service, said Dubai had received several requests from female customers who did not want male drivers. Despite family, cultural, religious, and governmental […]
U.S. immigration officials demanded that seven Iranian women delegates to the United Nations Beijing +5 Conference be fingerprinted before their entry into the country Monday. The United Nations invited the women, representing three non-governmental organizations, to the conference. Rather than consenting to be fingerprinted, the women returned home to Iran in protest. “We were taken […]
In its first attempt to estimate the extent of sex slave trade in England, the British government released a report Sunday stating that hundreds of women, most from the former Yugoslavia, are being forced into prostitution in Britain. Kidnapped or lured into the country by false advertisements for jobs, women are escorted into the country […]
In its first attempt to estimate the extent of sex slave trade in England, the British government released a report Sunday stating that hundreds of women, most from the former Yugoslavia, are being forced into prostitution in Britain. Kidnapped or lured into the country by false advertisements for jobs, women are escorted into the country […]
Sunday morning, 75 women gathered before the Western Wall in Jerusalem, one of the city’s holiest sites, to pray aloud. Their prayer was met by taunts and jeers from a crowd of mostly ultra-Orthodox men (and some Orthodox women) who accused them of desecrating the site with their presence. “You are not Jews,” some shouted. […]
In a 35 percent increase over last year, 8.2 percent of ExxonMobil shareholders voted in favor of adding sexual orientation to the corporation’s non-discrimination policy, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) reported Thursday. The vote follows the company’s shocking December decision to remove sexual orientation from its equal employment opportunity policy. When Exxon […]
A Superior Court Judge ruled that Arizona lawmakers overstepped their bounds in restricting state-paid abortions only to cases of rape or incest or where the mother’s life is in danger. Judge Kenneth Fields said that legislators are bound to fund “all medically necessary abortions” for poor women; making exceptions, he argues, is unconstitutional. Arizona’s Health […]
Federal and state authorities met yesterday to negotiate reform recommendations for the Los Angeles Police Department, currently under fire for a continually evolving scandal. Since early this year, accusations and confirmations of beatings and shootings of citizens, perjury, drug dealing, and other illegal activities among Los Angeles Police officers have prompted outrage from citizens and […]
The Israeli parliament yesterday attempted to override a recent Israeli Supreme Court decision granting women greater religious equality. Parliamentarians showed support for a bill that would ban women from wearing prayer shawls, reading from Torah scrolls, and participating in other religious rituals at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, under penalty of a seven-year jail term. The bill […]
Up to half of the female population of the world become the victims of domestic abuse, suggests Unicef’s report, “Domestic Violence Against Women and Girls,” released today. The study defines “abuse” broadly, from the abortion of female fetuses to the infanticide of girl-children, to “the deliberate under-feeding” of girls and their lack of access to […]
Penn State University pathologists have uncovered BRMS1, what is hoped to be a suppressor gene capable of preventing breast cancer tumors from metastasizing. Scientists believe the gene slows the spread of cancer by reestablishing communication between cancer cells, which allows tumors to remain localized. Researcher Danny Welch of Penn State’s College of Medicine explains that […]
In May, the European Union began regulating its aviation industry to protect flight crews from cosmic radiation-the higher we fly above the earth’s surface, the higher the exposure. The EU directive came just in time for what is considered a peak phase in solar flare activity (storms on the sun’s surface), which can increase cosmic […]
We are 16 boys and girls under 18 who have grown up in the midst of a war which is not ours, says Mayerly Sanchez of the Colombian Children’s Movement for Peace, which has put peace on her country’s national agenda. Colombians are caught in the cross fire between warring drug cartels, right-wing paramilitary forces, […]
The battle over a woman’s right to choose has become not just a matter of law, but also of language, forcing pro-choice activists into a metaphysical netherworld, having to fight, among other things, a ban on something that does not exist—”partial-birth abortion.” The term, concocted by anti-choice activists as part of an incendiary public relations […]
For the first time, indigenous women in central Bolivia are demanding their rightsÑand getting them. In the sparsely populated Cochabamba district, Quechua women have developed a series of educational and media tools to help raise awareness about their rights. Throughout Bolivia, half of which is rural, poverty and illiteracy predominate and opportunities for advancement, especially […]
In our April/May 2000 issue, Ms. profiled Christy Brzonkala, the woman behind the Supreme Court case that tested the civil rights provision of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). VAWA allows victims of gender-based violence to sue their attackers in federal court; Brzonkala brought her case against two university football players who allegedly raped her […]
