The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is unconstitutional. The case was brought by plaintiff Christy Brzonkala, who filed a federal lawsuit against the two former Virginia Tech students who are charged with raping her. Passed in 1994, the VAWA gave victims of sex-based crimes […]
Anti-abortion protestor Teresa Van Camp is apparently trying to force a test of U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones’ ruling prohibiting anti-abortion protesters from contributing to “The Nuremberg Files” Web site. Last month, a federal jury awarded $170 million to a group of abortion providers, doctors, and clinics, arguing that creators of “The Nuremberg Files” […]
Amnesty International urged Pakistan’s government to take steps to protect the women who will protest against the Taliban’s abuse of Afghan women and girls on International Women’s Day, March 8. Amnesty International reported that a particular activist group, Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), has received “continued threats” from warring factions in Afghanistan and […]
The China Youth Daily reported Sunday that 32 lawmakers have drafted a sexual harassment law and submitted their proposal to the Chinese legislature, the National People’s Congress. The newspaper reported that sexual harassment in China has become rampant in many areas, and especially within private businesses, foreign-funded businesses, and industries in which large numbers of […]
In a speech to United Nations staff and delegates yesterday, Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke out against the Taliban’s abuse of Afghan women and girls and the trafficking of women in children for use as prostitutes in Thailand and many other nations. “There probably is no more egregious and systematic trampling of fundamental rights of women […]
After nine years of resistance, the Japanese Health Ministry has finally conceded that there is no reason to withhold approval for contraceptive pills. After the male impotency drug Viagra was approved for use in only 6 months, Japanese feminists and members of the news media questioned the Health Ministry’s decision. Dr. Kunio Kitamura, director of […]
Gynetics Inc. and The Women’s Capital Corp. have plans to bring new emergency contraception drugs to market. Research has shown that a levonorgestrel-only pill is more effective and produces fewer side effects than the ethinyl estradiol and levonorgestrel combination that is currently available for sale as part of Gynetics’ Preven emergency contraception kit. The Somerville, […]
A Louisiana law that bans certain surgical abortion procedures was found to be unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Thomas Porteous declared, “This act’s broad language seems to purposefully create confusion and ambiguity,” and said that the law would interfere with a woman’s constitutional right to abortion. Although anti-choice activists claimed that only late-term procedures were targeted, […]
Osama bin Laden, a major instigator of anti-U.S. terrorism and top suspect in the August 7 bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, has allegedly lost favor with Afghanistan’s extremist Taliban regime. The Taliban has been harboring the fugitive in Afghanistan since last August and has refused to turn him over to the U.S. […]
Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia suggest that human hair may be used to screen women for breast cancer in the future. Veronica James and colleagues conducted x-ray analysis on the pubic hairs of groups of healthy women, women with breast cancer, and women who did not have breast cancer, […]
A group of international women’s urged attendees of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women to help reverse worldwide declines in breast-feeding by encouraging government to support nursing mothers. International Women Count’s Selma James stated “Out aim is to show what society loses in health and welfare when breast-feeding is not properly valued […]
A group of fourth-grade students from Luxmanor Elementary School in Montgomery County, Maryland, has urged Children’s Hospital to pull a television commercial that depicts a young girl who is tormented by stomach pains caused by her algebra class. The ad, which has been running on Washington, DC-area stations since January, depicts an adolescent girl who […]
FBI and Planned Parenthood officials have announced new information about the slew of anthrax threats sent to women’s health clinics and pro-choice organizations in the last few weeks. The FBI has confirmed, after conclusive tests, that none of the almost 30 letters claiming to contain anthrax actually held the deadly bacteria. Officials also revealed that […]
Leading congressional Republicans Rep. Christopher Smith, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, House Republican Leader Dick Armey and Republican Whip Tom DeLay have pledged to block President Clinton from paying arrears to the U.N. until he agrees to allow a provision, sponsored by Smith, which would eliminate U.S. aid to international family planning groups that perform abortions, […]
Amnesty International has uncovered widespread evidence that female inmates in U.S. prisons are subjected to a “double sentence” of rape, unwanted groping and fondling, and other inhumane treatment meted out by prison guards. Michel Forst, who heads Amnesty International in France, said that female inmates are punished both through their court-ordered sentences and “specific humiliation […]
The Shawnee Girl Scout Council will offer a new achievement patch to Girl Scouts who work to educate themselves about domestic violence. The Council, which governs 15 counties in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, will debut the new patch at its annual meeting March 20. Junior Troop 47 of Wiley Ford designed the patch, […]
The nonprofit Children’s Home/Chambliss Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee has provided 24-hour day care for 30 years and has become indispensable to its community. Executive Director Phil Acord said, “We see ourselves as one of the major cogs that keeps the community working and people productive.” In a changing economy where many parents now work evening […]
More than 900 current or former female employees of Merrill Lynch have filed claims of discrimination against the financial services company. When Merrill Lynch settled a class action suit last June, the company’s lawyers anticipated that somewhere between two hundred and three hundred people would file complaints, far fewer than the 900 who actually did. […]
France’s Senate will soon consider a constitutional amendment that would “favor equal access by men and women” to elected office. Constitutional scholar Guy Carcassonne has reported that the vaguely-worded amendment would most likely result in the passage of laws which would limit the percentage of a party’s male or female candidates to 60 or 70% […]
The U.S. Justice Department had urged the Supreme Court to make it easier for employees to win large punitive awards for workplace discrimination. Currently, workers must prove that an employer acted “with malice or with reckless indifference to the federally protected rights of an aggrieved individual” in order to collect large punitive damages. Prior to […]
