A survey released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 1 in 4 women in the United States, or 24 per minute, experienced intimate partner violence by either a husband or boyfriend. Moreover, 1 in 5 women stated that they were victims of rape and 1 in 6 of stalking. […]
The White House and the Department of Labor are expected to propose new regulations this afternoon to protect home health-care workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act, guaranteeing that they will receive the minimum wage and overtime protections. This will affect approximately two million home-care workers, many of whom are minority and immigrant women, according […]
Yesterday Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and 14 other US Senators issued a letter calling on Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to indicate the medical and scientific basis that led her to overrule the FDA’s decision to lift the age limit for emergency contraception and her refusal to permit the over-the-counter sale of the […]
On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted 21 to 5 that the label on Yaz and its predecessor Yasemin birth control does not adequately warn users about the drug’s risk of causing blood clots, which is higher than other oral contraceptives. In addition, the FDA found that Yaz and Yasemin did not contain […]
A report by the United Kingdom’s National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, released by Britain’s Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the Royal college of Psychiatrists, indicates that abortions do not increase women’s tendency to develop mental health problems, including anxiety and depression. The report did, however, caution that mental health issues can increase for […]
A report published by Human Rights Watch, entitled “‘We’ll Show You You’re a Women’: Violence and Discrimination Against Black Lesbians and Transgender Men,” revealed a high rate of discrimination against black lesbians and transgender men in South Africa. The report includes data from over 120 interviews performed in six provinces of South Africa. Many of […]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio has indicated that it will sue if two anti-abortion bills, both of which have passed the state House, become law: a fetal heart beat bill, which would ban abortions after the fetal heartbeat is detected, and another bill that would prohibit Ohio residents from purchasing health insurance […]
Today Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius overruled the FDA’s decision to lift the age limit for emergency contraception and permitting the over-the-counter sale of the “morning after pill.” Sebelius indicated that she did “not believe enough data were presented to support the application to make Plan B One-Step available over the counter […]
Yesterday in a vote of 54 to 45, almost entirely along party lines, Senate Republicans filibustered Caitlin Joan Halligan, one of President Obama’s nominees for the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. After Halligan was nominated 14 months ago to fill Chief Justice John Roberts’ vacated seat, there was an eight […]
Late yesterday afternoon the FBI Criminal Justice Advisory Board voted unanimously to update the archaic definition of rape in the FBI Uniform Crime Report. “It’s a great victory,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of Feminist Majority Foundation. “This new definition will mean that, at long last, we will begin to see the full scope of this […]
A new study, “Medicaid Family Planning Expansions: Lessons Learned and Implications for the Future,” by Adam Sonfield and Rachel Benson Gold of the Guttmacher Institute, reveals the importance of expanded Medicaid eligibility for contraceptive services. The study indicated that “increasing women’s contraceptive use increased their use of more effective method and improved their continuity of […]
Yesterday Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee, and 46 bipartisan Members of Congress, issued a letter to the House and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairs and Ranking Members calling for the adoption of five provisions to the FY2-12 National Defense Authorization Act to “ensure zero tolerance for sexual assault in […]
The US Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced that it will sue Brunswick Corp and Lund Boat Co., both federal contractors, for discriminating against over 200 women job applicants. OFCCP claims that the federal contractors violated Executive Order 11246 “by failing to meet its obligations as a federal contractor to […]
Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) will introduce a bipartisan bill today to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The Violence Against Women Act is due to expire at the end of this year. VAWA was originally drafted by then-Senator Joe Biden and was passed into law in 1994. It was then […]
On Monday, U.S. District Judge James Fox issued an injunction temporarily blocking North Carolina from issuing anti-abortion license plates, as the new state law that allows for the production of the plates is being challenged. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina (ACLU-NCLF) filed a lawsuit in September, arguing that the production of the […]
The Tallapoosa County School Board in Alabama announced that it will end its single sex classes at the end of this school year following the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) allegations that the program violates Title IX, a law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in all levels of education. Mie Lewis, a […]
A dozen New Jersey nurses filed a lawsuit in federal court against the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey alleging that it broke state and national law by requiring that the nurses provide pre- and post- operative care for abortion patients, despite the nurses’ objections on religious or moral grounds. However, the hospital […]
A new study entitled “Gender Inequality in Popular Films” was released by researchers at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism and found that women are often underrepresented and oversexualized in Hollywood films, with 33.8 percent of teen girl characters appearing in revealing clothing and 28.2 percent appearing with “exposed skin […]
Adrian school district in western Missouri announced that it will stop offering single-sex classes. The school district, located approximately 50 miles from Kansas City, began offering single-sex math and communications classes this fall to students in sixth through eighth grade. The decision came after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) threatened to file a lawsuit […]
On Monday, President Obama signed the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act, legislation designed to protect Peace Corps Volunteers during their tours of service. The law provides “whistleblower protection” for Peace Corps workers and requires that the Peace Corps take measures to reduce sexual assault risk and establish a response protocol to protect volunteers. […]
