Taliban officials accused President Bill Clinton of insulting Islam after he criticized the regime’s brutal repression of women in Afghanistan. Clinton has promised not to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s official government until women’s rights are restored. A statement issued by the Taliban’s foreign ministry stated “the Taliban are following Islamic law and international law […]
Child support collections have increased from $12 billion in 1996 to $14.4 billion in 1998, thanks to 1996 laws that made it harder for deadbeat parents to evade financial responsibility for their children. The 1996 laws, included in a larger package of welfare laws, allow states to punish parents who don’t pay child support by […]
A Louisiana Senate judiciary committee has passed a law that would give an embryo the right to sue from the point of conception on. SB 225, which now goes to the Senate floor, would give an embryo “from the moment of conception ‘the same rights a natural person would have’ when it comes to lawsuits.” […]
Businesswomen’s associations The Financial Women’s Association, The International Alliance, the Association of Professional Insurance Women (APIW), and the New York Women’s Agenda, all called upon their members to increase women’s representation on corporate boards. The associations urged their members, which number more than 100M in all, to actively encourage women to seek open board positions. […]
A study published in the journal Cancer showed that not all women with breast cancer need to have their underarm lymph nodes removed. Generally, the lymph nodes have been removed to determine whether or not the cancer is spreading. The removal of these nodes often leads to lymphedema, an uncomfortable swelling of the arm that […]
Women in Taiwan embraced a legal victory for victims of rape on Tuesday. Regardless of whether or not rape victims press charges themselves against their attackers, prosecutors can now file suit against the rape perpetrators. This law protects women from describing the painful and exacting details of the rape to an open court. Records show […]
The Association of Reproductive Health Professionals and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice called upon Congress to support initiatives to lower the rates of teen sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and teen pregnancy. The two groups plan to launch a series of teen-focused health fairs in communities around the country. According to Dr. Trent MacKay of […]
On Monday evening in an unprecedented show of support for international women’s human rights, the Hollywood community turned out in numbers to join women’s rights and human rights leaders in exposing the brutal treatment of women and girls living under gender apartheid in Afghanistan. The gala event, which took place at the Hollywood Directors Guild, […]
The Florida state Senate will soon consider a bill that would make it possible to charge criminals who target women under tough hate crimes laws. A Senate committee approved the bill last week. Florida’s current list of criteria for hate crimes includes race, color, ancestry, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, national origin, advanced age and physical […]
Kansas City, Missouri elected Kay Waldo Barnes as its first female mayor on Tuesday. Barnes defeated Mayor Pro Tem George Blackwood by 59 percent to 41 percent. The race was expected to be close because both candidates had worked mostly behind the scenes of the city government and offered little name recognition. Since 1995 corruption […]
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Sunday that isolated complaints from women who say they were denied prescriptions for emergency contraception have been surfacing around the U.S. for several years. Michele Crider went to a chain drug store to fill a prescription for emergency contraceptive pills in 1997 and was turned away. Crider, then a 28-year-old mother […]
The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a ruling that struck down an affirmative action program that sought to promote more women and minorities at the Dallas Fire Department. Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsberg both dissented in the decision. Under the former city program, sex and race were considered in the granting of promotions, […]
A jury of 13 Methodist ministers found the Rev. Greg Dell of Broadway United Methodist Church in Chicago guilty of violating the church’s “order and discipline” by performing a unification ceremony for a gay couple last September. The jury said that Dell, who has been a minister for almost thirty years, could avoid being suspended […]
In a speech before a large group of professional women in Tunisia’s capital, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton harshly condemned the violent abuse of women in Algeria and Afghanistan by fundamentalist Islamic groups. Clinton described barbaric acts committed against women in Algeria. “We hear stories of girls whose legs were burned with acid because someone […]
The “Child Custody Protection Act” has been reintroduced in Congress yesterday. The bill, which passed in the House last year before it was defeated in the Senate, would make it a federal misdemeanor for an adult to transport a minor over state lines to evade parental notification laws and obtain an abortion. This year’s bill […]
The FDA has approved a new estrogen drug that is derived from soy and yam plants. Cenestin was developed by Duramend Pharmaceuticals for used in treating hot flashes, night sweats, and other symptoms of menopause. The top-selling brand of estrogen is now Premarin, a drug which is derived from the urine of pregnant horses. Women’s […]
Dress for Success launched a highly-successful, week-long drive in which the employees, family, and friends of several major companies were encouraged to donate business suits and accessories for low-income women seeking jobs. The non-profit Dress for Success gives qualifying women one suit when they have a job interview and a second suit when they get […]
For the second time, the New York state Senate has passed a bill banning so-called “partial-birth” abortions in the state, this time by a vote of 41-19. The state has already banned all abortions after 24 weeks unless they are performed to save a woman’s life. The restricted procedure, referred to as “intact dilation and […]
One year ago today, two boys ages 11 and 13 shot and killed four girls and one female teacher outside the Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Natalie Brooks, Paige Ann Herring, Stephanie Johnson, all age 12, Brittany R. Varner (11), and teacher Shannon Wright (32) all lost their lives in the shooting. In addition […]
Bishop Melvin Talbert has “with sorrow and regret” filed a complaint against the 69 ministers who participated in a “holy union” lesbian commitment ceremony last January in Sacramento. This complaint will be brought before a committee of clergy and lay people who will investigate the charges and decide whether or not the participants should face […]
