Members of Connecticut’s state legislature are proposing a bill that would require all insurance companies to cover the cost of prescription birth control. Currently, half of all insurance companies in the United States deny payment for contraception. The proposal would require major plans to pay for birth control pills, intrauterine devices, diaphragms, Norplant and Depo […]
Violence against gays, lesbians and bisexuals is increasing, according to a survey published by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. The survey reported 2,445 documented anti-gay attacks, a 2 percent increase over 1996, and 18 murders in 1997. The survey documented 14 areas across the United States, including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. […]
The Bureau of Prisons has agreed to increase its sexual harassment training and provide psychiatric and medical services to inmates who have been assaulted. Prison authorities will also institute a confidential system that will allow inmates to report attacks within the next six months and will stop housing women in the men’s Secure Housing Unit. […]
Abortion rights activists argued against a Virginia law requiring parental consent before a minor can obtain an abortion, before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday. Simon Heller of the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, argued that the law is unconstitutional because it denies mature girls the right to decide what is best […]
Women’s rights activists met at the U.N. headquarters in New York to address the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. The group issued a signed statement, declaring “Heads of state must go on record to all the world about how they will take leadership in making violence against women in daily life unacceptable.” Activists […]
Four women have filed a class action lawsuit against Ingles Markets Inc., the largest grocery store chain in the Southeast. The women claim the store discriminates against female employees by denying promotions, management opportunities, equal pay and desirable job assignments. “When I met with my superiors to discuss my interest in an assistant store manager […]
One year after the Vienna Philharmonic announced its decision allowing women to join, the National Organization for Women says the orchestra has made little progress and remains dedicated to a “racist and misogynist philosophy.” Sonja Ablinger, a member of the Austrian parliament, said that the orchestra’s hiring procedures are designed to keep women out. “These […]
Approximately 200 women in Japan went on a “General Women’s Strike” yesterday. Participants held a rally in Tokyo, marching to Japan’s Parliament and giving copies of a proposed law that would prohibit discrimination against women in all fields to women legislators. Currently, there are no anti-discrimination laws in Japan. Companies are only encouraged to end […]
Emily Lyons, a clinic nurse and counselor who was seriously injured in the bombing of an Alabama abortion clinic, vowed that she would “not stay down.” During a press conference at the hospital where she is still a patient, Lyons said “I want everyone to know that this person survives. I will not stay down.” […]
The Taliban militia group punished a teen-age girl for walking with an unrelated man with 100 lashes in front of a crowd of 20,000 in Afghanistan’s sports amphitheater. Taliban authorities accused the girl of committing adultery. The girl, known as Suhailullah, stood for 60 of the lashes and sat down for the remaining 40, without […]
The trial of the National Organization for Women vs. the director of the Pro-Life Action League, Joe Scheidler, begins this week. NOW vs. Scheidler was filed as a federal class-action lawsuit in 1986. The case was initiated by then NOW president Eleanor Smeal, after the president of the local Pensacola NOW chapter was injured during […]
The Kuwait house legislative panel voted unanimously to deny women the right to vote or run for parliament. House members claimed their decision was based on a Ministry of Islamic Affairs decree, which stated that it is un-Islamic for women to cast ballots or work as politicians.
Pharmacists in Washington State can now attend a three-hour training session that will enable them to write prescriptions for the “morning after” birth control pills. Last year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of higher doses of birth control pills containing estrogen and proestrogen for use as “morning after” pills. The pill […]
Abortion providers in Virginia will appear today in a Richmond, VA appeals court to challenge the constitutionality of a parental consent law which took effect July 1, 1997. According to statistics from the Virginia health department and abortion clinics show that teenage girls received 20 percent fewer abortions in Virginia since the law took effect, […]
Clara Fraser, founder of the feminist group Radical Women, died from emphysema February 24, at age 74. Ms. Fraser lobbied for the rights of women, minorities, unions workers, gays and prisoners. She co-founded the Freedom Socialist Party, helped write Washington state’s first divorce-reform bill, and organized Washington’s first pro-choice rally. Ms. Fraser worked for Seattle […]
Mavis Leno, member of the National Board of the Feminist Majority, today testified at a Capitol Hill forum sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to call attention to the extreme human rights violations being committed against women in Afghanistan. Senator Dianne Feinstein spoke of gender apartheid and violations […]
A taskforce of FBI agents and Distict of Columbia police officers investigating a series of murders of women in the Petworth area of D.C. withheld vital information about the crimes resulting in the spread of false information concerning the killings. Petworth residents were told on several occasions that the murder victims had not been raped, […]
Queen Elizabeth II has departed from centuries of patriarchal tradition by deciding that the British Crown shall henceforth pass to a monarch’s oldest child, whether a son or daughter. Lord Williams of Mostyn announced the queen’s decision to the House of Lords, saying “There can be no real reason for not giving equal treatment to […]
Anne Richardson was sworn in as the first female chief of a Virginia tribe since Cockacoeske, chief of the Pamunkey tribe in the mid-1600s. Ms. Richardson, 41, was elected January 31, to take over for her father, Chief Captain “Chawanta” Nelson. She will be known as Queen Anne of Rappahannock. Ms. Richardson’s great-uncle and grandfather […]
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski ruled not to dismiss a case that challenges Alaska’s ban of same-sex marriages. Michalski said that “choosing a partner is a fundamental right,” and that the state must show why it should be able to regulate marriage. State attorneys had asked Michalski to dismiss a case brought by Jay […]
