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Honor Killing Leaves Unease About Future of Afghan Women’s Rights

A Mullah has issued fatwa, or religious edict, for the execution of a woman named Halima who has been in hiding since April. Abdul Ghafoor ordered her father to shoot Halima in front of the villagers. According to Tolo News, Halima was accused of her illicit relationship with a man in Kokchail Village of Badghis province. Ghafoor handed over a gun to Halima’s father and asked him to kill his 20-year old daughter in front of the public.

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North Carolina Senate Passes Abortion Restrictions

The North Carolina Senate passed SB 353 Thursday in a vote of 31 to 13, moving the bill which restricts abortion from the legislature to the Governor’s desk for final approval. SB 353 is the Senate version of theHouse motorcycle safety bill that passed over a week ago. Lawmakers added abortion provisions in at the last minute in the House.

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Federal Judge Delays Enforcement of Alabama Abortion Law

US District Judge Myron Thompson has delayed the implementation of an Alabama law that would severely limit access to abortion services from August 2013 to March 24, 2014. The law, which mandates abortion clinics conform to the same standards as ambulatory care centers and requires doctors to attain admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, would eliminate three out of the five clinics in Alabama currently offering abortion services.

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Federal Judge Blocks North Dakota Six Week Abortion Ban

Yesterday a federal judge placed a temporary block on North Dakota’s ban on abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Signed into law in March, the abortion law in North Dakota bans the procedure once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can usually be found around the six-week mark. U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland said that North Dakota’s abortion ban, which is the nation’s earliest ban, is “clearly invalid and unconstitutional.”

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USC Under Investigation for Mishandling Sexual Assault Cases

The United States Department of Education (DOE) has opened an investigation into the mishandling of sexual assault cases by the University of Southern California (USC) and Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. The DOE’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating the schools under Title IX, a law that bans discrimination on the basis of gender, and the Clery Act, which requires cases of sexual assault to be reported to the DOE.

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Hobby Lobby Win Injunction Against Birth Control Mandate

After receiving a temporary injunction from US District Judge Joe Heaton last week, Hobby Lobby will now be exempted from the Affordable Care Act stipulation that requires employer-based insurance plans to cover various birth control methods at no extra cost to employees until October 1, 2013.

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Northern Virginia Clinic Forced to Close

NOVA Women’s Healthcare, an abortion provider that is repudiated to be the busiest clinic in Virginia, has closed its facility in Fairfax as a result of new city regulations combined with impending new Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers (TRAP laws). NOVA was one of the main abortion clinics in the Northern Virginia area, and a main provider of low-cost cancer-screenings, birth control options, and other women’s health services.