The Cambodian National Assembly proposed banning midwives and lay healers from performing abortions on Monday. The new law would legalize first-trimester abortions performed by licensed practitioners only. Because Cambodia currently has no abortion laws, untrained health workers often perform abortions for extra money and because women have nowhere else to go. The government wants to […]
While widows in Kabul stand in line for food handouts and policemen beg at intersections, the Taliban extremist group in Afghanistan issued an edict banning foreign journalists from writing commentaries or analyses of the situation in Afghanistan. In addition, foreign journalists were ordered to write only reports which “conform with the rules . . . […]
Facing a severe decline in Latino and African-American graduate enrollment as a result of prohibitions against affirmative action in the wake of Proposition 209, the University of California is considering dropping the SAT requirement for undergraduate admission, citing racial bias in the test. The university task force investigating the issue stated that continued use of […]
Under pressure from a critical Gov. Pete Wilson, the University of California Board of Regents delayed voting on same-sex partner benefits for students and faculty until November. Several regents were dismayed at the delay, and suggested that UC President Richard Atkinson simply start instituting the plan. Harvard, Yale and Stanford, among others, already have domestic-partner […]
Anne Beers, a 21-year veteran of the Minnesota State Patrol, was appointed chief on Friday. She is the first woman to head Minnesota’s State Patrol, and the second woman in the country to hold the position (Chief Annette Sandberg of Washington state is the other). When she began in 1966, there were only three women […]
21-year-old Stephanie Musick of Columbia, Md.,was found handcuffed to the seatbelt of a car at 4:25 Saturday morning, 19 hours after her alleged kidnapping by John Robert Righer, who was sleeping in the car when the police found him. Righter had apparently been obsessed with Musick, leading her to complain to police on Sept. 5 […]
In the face of the Promise Keepers’ growing visibility, suspicion is deepening among feminists and religious scholars, both about the organization’s ties to the political agenda of the Religious Right, and their fundamentalist rhetoric that calls for members to “take back the nation for Jesus” and who hold that abortion and homosexuality are sins. According […]
The Taliban extremist group in Afghanistan captured Hayratan, a northern town in Afghanistan, bringing them closer to another attack on Mazar-e-Sharif, the headquarters of Taliban opposition leaders. With control of the town of Hayratan, the Taliban has cut off access to a highway carrying supplies into Mazar-e Sharif. The Taliban controls the southern two-thirds of […]
Former Citadel cadet Kim Messer is suing six male cadets, saying they assaulted and sexually harassed her and denied her food and sleep. Messner left the Citadel last January after one semester, along with Jeanie Mentavlos, another woman cadet. Both women announced then that they had been hazed and harassed. In the suit, Messner charges […]
University of California President Richard Atkinson recommended yesterday that the UC Board of Regents adopt health care and student housing benefits for lesbian and gay couples. In order to be eligible for the benefits, the same-sex partners must be at least 18 years old and unrelated, and must prove that they financially support each other. […]
Police, MPs and women’s groups are pressuring England’s Home Secretary Jack Straw to allow rape victims to testify behind a screen and to avoid cross-examination about their sex lives. The groups were moved to action by a report, released Wednesday, that showed rape rates are rising, while rape convictions are decreasing. Only 19% of all […]
A military hearing officer reportedly has recommended that Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney, accused by six women of sexual misconduct, may face a court-martial on 22 counts of indecent assault, adultery, obstruction of justice and perjury. Although McKinney, the Army’s top enlisted man, did not testify at the trial, he claims he was unfairly attacked because […]
One day before it was scheduled to take effect, conservatives presented a petition for a referendum on the law that would make discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation illegal. Approved by the Maine Legislature earlier this year, the law bars discrimination against gays and lesbians in housing, public accomodations, credit and employment. Elections officials […]
A study by the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has drawn criticism for denying medication to some pregnant women with AIDS in Africa and Thailand. For the past two years, researchers have studied the effects of AZT on AIDS transmission between mother and fetus. Half of the 12,211 women […]
Ireland’s largest political party, Fianna Fail, chose Mary AcAleese rather than former Prime Minister Albert Reynolds for their presidential candidate, resulting in an all-woman race. She joins Adi Roche, Mary Banotti and Rosemary Brown in the race, which will be decided Oct. 30. Ireland’s first woman president, Mary Robinson, resigned last week to accept a […]
Between 1949 and 1995, the Japanese government sterilized 16,520 handicapped and retarded women without their consent. The government stated yesterday that it does not plan to apologize, investigate, or provide any compensation to the victims. Sterilized handicapped women and over a dozen citizens’ advocacy groups had been pressuring the Japanese government to look into the […]
Duke University senior Heather Sue Mercer has filed suit against her University and the school’s football coach for Title IX violation. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 bans sex discrimination in federally-funded education, including school athletic programs. Mercer, who had hoped to become the first female kicker for a Division I football team, […]
Betty Friedan, a leader of the women’s movement and author of the feminist classic The Feminine Mystique, is in Washington Hospital Center to have a heart valve replaced again, after it was replaced four years ago. She was listed in critical condition following her surgery.
A man with a razor blade raped a woman last night in a phone booth as people walked by, police reported. He is believed to have also raped another woman in the area an hour earlier. Because the phone booth shields a person’s upper body, pedestrians didn’t notice that anything was wrong. The rapist attacked […]
In a study funded by Kellogg’s and carried out by the American Health Foundation, researchers reported yesterday in Nutrition that women who eat a lot of bran may reduce their chances of getting breast cancer. Fiber-rich wheat bran lowers estrogen levels in the blood by about 10-20%, so increasing bran intake by 10-20 grams per […]
