This week, Germantown, Md., became the latest front in the battle over a woman’s right to a safe abortion. Last Sunday, anti-abortion extremists launched a seven-day protest of Dr. LeRoy Carhart’s Germantown clinic. Since the murder two years ago of Dr. George Tiller by an anti-abortion extremist, Dr. Carhart, who worked with Dr. Tiller at […]
Author: Christie Thompson
Christie is a senior Journalism and International Studies major at Northwestern University. Recently returned from a semester in India, she is ready to take on international women's issues and the L.A. public transit system.
We’ve Got Birth Control Covered!
Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced they would accept the Institute of Medicine’s proposed guidelines, ensuring women receive vital preventative health care at no extra cost. The decision will require health insurance plans to fully cover key services such as well-woman visits, breastfeeding support, domestic violence screening and–most importantly– contraception. On […]
Women Hit Hardest By East African Famine
Two women have been living in the Dadaab refugee camp in Northern Kenya for two months. Refugees from Somalia’s drought, they traveled for weeks with their young children, leaving husbands behind to tend dry farms and dying livestock. They arrived hoping to find sustenance and safety within the camp. But one day, while searching for […]
Another Success! Summer’s Eve Takes Down Racist Ads
Feminists are on a roll this month. First, Toms Shoes disassociated from Focus on the Family in response to a Ms. and Change.org petition. Next, the California Milk Board agreed to end its sexist “Everything I Do is Wrong” campaign after feminist outcry. Now douche-vendors Summer’s Eve have followed suit, pulling an offensive series of […]
No Comment: Molson Coors Knows What Women Want–Pink Beer
It seems ad execs at Molson Coors were looking for a new way to alienate include women. With only 17 percent of Molson Coors’ sales coming from women, company heads knew they had to do something. But instead of, say, rethinking their exclusively male-targeted ad campaigns for Coors Light (for example), they’ve found a simpler […]
Newsflash: 14 U.S. Senators Call for End of Saudi Women Driving Ban
Yesterday, 14 U.S. Senators–all of them women–sent a joint letter to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asking him to end the ban on women driving in the kingdom. Arguing that the ban “stands in stark contrast with the commitments your government has made to promote the rights of Saudi women,” the letter reads: In June […]
Michelle Obama’s Milkshake and Other Non-Stories About Women
Want to know how women politicians accessorize? How many calories they consume? Us neither. And yet that’s exactly the kind of hard-hitting journalism we’ve been seeing from major news outlets this month. A few weeks ago, Washington Post reporter Natalie Jennings hit us with the investigative scoop, “Michelle Obama Orders 1,700-calorie meal at Shake Shack“: […]
Orlando Update: Clinics Remain Open in Face of Anti-Abortion “Siege”
The weeklong Operation Rescue/Operation Save America (OR/OSA) “siege” of Orlando has just two days left, and area women’s health care providers have successfully remained open and operating throughout. The anti-abortion extremist group targeted seven different clinics over the course of the week, surrounding offices and harassing both staff and patients. Organizers from the Feminist Majority […]
No Comment: Summer’s Eve Gives Your Vagina A New Monologue
Summer’s Eve has launched its “Hail to the V” campaign, a new series of print, online and television ads telling women to spend more time taking care of their “wunder down under.” According to Summer’s Eve marketing director Angela Bryant, the campaign is “all about empowerment.” You be the judge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RosLrkIwZA Let me admit that […]
Orlando “Siege” Fails to Draw Protesters, Yet Stalking Continues
A planned siege of seven Orlando-area abortion clinics by Operation Rescue/Operation Save America (OR/OSA) began this Saturday, but failed to draw the “hundreds” of anti-abortion protesters that organizers had called for. Only an estimated 40 or so individuals took part in anti-abortion protests Saturday, Sunday and Monday at the clinics–and that number included children brought […]