In an effort to help local police officers and prosecutors crack down on rapes committed using “date rape” drugs, the Justice Department has issued an instruction video and book entitled “The Prosecution of Rohypnol and GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate) Related Sexual Assaults.” Attorney General Janet Reno explained that drug-facilitated rapes are “very difficult for police officers […]
President Clinton announced two new proposals that will help parents to spend more time with their children during a commencement speech he gave Sunday at Grambling State University. Clinton told the crowd, “If you or any American has to choose between being a good parent and successful in your careers, you have paid a terrible […]
Five boys have been charged with repeatedly raping and sodomizing two twin six-year-old girls in and around a Kansas City day-care center. The four 13-year-old boys and an 11-year-old boy are accused of sexually assaulting the girls in the basement of a day care center and in a nearby shed. A juvenile court has charged […]
New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, a life-long supporter of abortion rights, has stated that she plans to a sign a bill that would require unmarried NJ minors to obtain parental consent at least 48 hours before getting an abortion. Whitman’s staff and supporters attest that Whitman intends to continue with her strong supporter of […]
An Islamic cleric ordered that 18-year-old Bedi Begum be buried in mud up to her waist and then flogged 101 times with a bamboo cane as punishment for having premarital sex and inducing an abortion using herbs. She died the next day after the cleric prevented her family from taking her to a doctor. Islamic […]
Denmark has bestowed same-sex couples with most of the legal rights of heterosexual married couples for over ten years. Under a new law passed yesterday, Denmark’s gay and lesbian and citizens may now adopt their partners’ children. Denmark’s gay and lesbian couples are still prohibited from adopting children that are not related to either parent […]
Husniya Jabara is the first Arab woman to be elected to Israel’s Parliament. A native of Taibe, Jabara will represent the leftist Meretz Party, which now holds 10 seats in the Israeli Parliament. In other news, a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews attacked a group of Reform Jews who were participating in a mixed-sex prayer service. […]
In a tremendous victory for lesbian and gay rights, the Canadian Supreme Court today ruled that the Canadian province of Ontario must rewrite its laws to include same-sex couples, arguing that its current definition of “spouse” as a person of the opposite sex is unconstitutional. The case was brought by a Toronto woman who sought […]
Last week, the Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel amended the Defense Department Reauthorization Act to improve the reproductive health services available to military personnel and spouses stationed overseas by granting federally-funded abortions to women whose pregnancies are the result or incest or rape, or are life-threatening. Yesterday, the full Armed Services Committee rejected the […]
In traditional Fijian culture, round, robust figures have long been the standard for beauty. Now new cultural forces, including the introduction of Western television shows, seem to be changing that. A team of researchers from the Eating Disorders Center of Harvard Medical School led by Anne E. Becker recently completed a three-year study of Fijian […]
Last Friday, feminist theologian and professor Mary Daly took Boston College to court making public statements that Daly was “retiring” from her professorship. Daly, who has accused Boston College of engaging in “thug behavior” and “firing a tenured professor,” has also demanded that her employer of 25 years refrain from distributing a course catalog that […]
The Lunelle contraceptive shot was found 100% effective in a large-scale trial of more than 700 U.S. women. U.S. Today reported today that similar trials conducted abroad yielded comparable results “in more than 17,000 women worldwide.” The recent trial was conducted for Phamacia & Upjohn by a group of researchers at the University of Florida […]
Sens. Jim Jeffords (R-VT), Harry Reid (D-NV), and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) joined super model Waris Dirie in condemning the inhumane practice of female genital mutilation. Dirie, who was born in Somalia and later earned fame through a modeling career, suffered FGM at the age of 5. Dedicated to ending this brutal practice, she is […]
A U.S. Department of Labor report of working conditions at garment shops in San Francisco and Oakland, CA reveals that established shops and closely-monitored shops were more likely than others to obey federal labor laws. Businesses which “effectively monitored” a shop’s compliance with labor laws had a 90% compliance rate. Manufacturers who took at least […]
A spokesperson for Cristine Sanchez, Spain’s best-known woman matador, has announced that Sanchez will retire from her successful career at the age of 27 in protest of her male colleagues’ discriminatory, macho attitudes. Although Sanchez has won obvious recognition from her fans, who often carried her on their shoulders after a bullfighting match, she has […]
A recent Chronicle of Higher Education study of U.S. women’s participation in collegiate sports yielded both positive and negative results. The good news is that more women college students are participating in sports programs. The bad news is that women’s numbers still lag far behind men’s, and that men’s athletic programs still continue to receive […]
The UK armed forces’ ban on gay and lesbian service personnel will be challenged today in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Former Navy Lieutenant Commander Dun Lustig-Prean, ex-naval rating John Beckett, one-time RAF chief Graeme Grade and ex-RAF nurse Jeannette Smith allege that the military’s ban on gays and lesbians has violated […]
Japan’s lower house of Parliament passed a law which will make it a criminal offense for an adult to have sex with a minor. The measure also outlawed the production, distribution, sale, and possession of child pornography. Currently, Japanese law bans the solicitation of sex for money with children aged 13 or younger. Persons found […]
International cancer experts presented findings from 5 different studies of a controversial treatment for advanced breast cancer at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting yesterday in Atlanta. Preliminary findings from the five studies were released last month, when officials agreed that the findings were sufficiently provocative to warrant their early release. The studies […]
Elizabeth, N.J., will soon lose its last secular hospital. Pending approval from New Jersey’s The Elizabeth General Medical Center and St. Elizabeth Hospital will merge this summer to become Trinitas Hospital, a Catholic facility in which abortions, tubal ligations, vasectomies and contraceptive counseling will not be provided. The Catholic Health Association of the United States […]
