In a stunning display of misinformation, sexism and chutzpah, anti-choice Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) said yesterday that, from what he understands, “legitimate rape” rarely results in pregnancy, because women’s bodies can somehow stop it from happening. In an interview with The Jaco Report, aired on the news station KTVI-TV (a FOX affiliate), Akin justified his [...]
After 80 years of segregated men-only membership, the prestigious golf club Augusta National, which hosts the annual Masters Tournament, invited two women to join its exclusive ranks today. Facing heightened criticism for its sexist policies, the club invited former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore to become its first women [...]
After a 20-year absence, a woman will finally take the moderator’s seat in a U.S. presidential debate. CNN’s Candy Crowley, chief political correspondent and anchor of “State of the Union With Candy Crowley,” is the first woman since 1992 to take on the role. Martha Raddatz, senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC News, will moderate the vice presidential debate. [...]
A bill banning certain abortions in the District of Columbia failed in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday, marking an important victory for women’s reproductive health in a time when those rights are being jeopardized in many states. The bill–dramatically named the “District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Protection Act,” would have banned abortions in D.C. [...]
Just weeks after Mississippi’s lone abortion provider received preliminary injunctive relief to stay open by a federal judge, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the ACLU of Arizona filed a lawsuit with hopes to receive a similar injunction against Arizona’s new anti-abortion restriction. But the women of Arizona were not afforded that relief. U.S. District [...]
Should an embryo or fetus be granted equal protection under the law and the full rights of persons? Montana voters don’t seem to think so. Members of Personhood Montana, in conjunction with the Montana ProLife Coalition, scrambled over the last few months to get the requisite 48,674 signatures needed for their statewide petition to put [...]
Religious freedom won’t be ringing for the seven states that attempted to curb access to no co-pay contraception. U.S. District Judge Warren Urbom of Lincoln, Neb. dismissed a federal lawsuit today that challenged the Affordable Care Act’s HHS mandate, which requires health insurers to provide coverage of birth control, emergency contraception and sterilization. In line [...]
FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, has agreed to overturn its controversial ban on the wearing of hijabs during games. The organization instituted the regulation in 2007, as the formal rules of the sport prohibit equipment that make a religious statement or pose a danger to players. Referring to the garb as “headscarves” rather than “hijabs” in [...]
Arizona state legislators were smug last April when they passed a 20-week abortion ban that remains the earliest abortion restriction in the nation. But enacting this law won’t be a cakewalk for anti-choice Gov. Jan Brewer and co. The Center for Reproductive Rights and the ACLU of Arizona have joined forces in fighting the Arizona [...]
The director of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in the Laghman province of eastern Afghanistan, Hanifa Safi, was assassinated on Friday. A magnetic bomb, attached to her car, exploded as she left her home with her husband and daughter, both of whom were critically injured. Safi, a leading Afghan politician, was a longtime advocate of [...]
