“Are doctors who are willing to provide [abortions] still just on their own, with their face on WANTED posters … waiting to see what happens next?… How do we as a country react?” Rachel Maddow posed that question last week as she reported from Kansas on the escalating campaign of threats, harassment and terror against […]
Eleanor Smeal
Newsflash: Assaulted Service Women Sue the Military
Seventeen veteran and active-duty service members who were raped, sexually assaulted or harrassed while serving their country announced today that they have filed a groundbreaking class-action lawsuit against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and current Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. They charge the Department of Justice leaders for failing to prevent, investigate and prosecute the […]
Republicans’ War on Women
Feminists are outraged over House Republicans’ proposed 2011 budget, which would leave millions of low-income women without contraceptive access and their children without support for health care or good nutrition. The plan zeroes out funding for the 40-year-old Title X family-planning program. That popular program, which has historically had strong bipartisan support, provides five million […]
Watch Out, John—Nancy’s Still on the Job
As Nancy Pelosi hands off the Speaker’s gavel to John Boehner today, she also hands him a tough act to follow. Despite insistent attempts to malign her during her four years as Speaker of the House, the California congresswoman turns out to have been arguably the most effective person in that post in U.S. history. […]
Mind The Gender Gap
This election season marks an important anniversary in the history of women and politics: the term gender gap turns 30. And since women voters as a group have tended to be more progressive [PDF] when it comes to issues like reproductive freedom, social welfare spending, and gay and lesbian rights, this seems an apt moment […]
Newsflash: U.S. Has “Failed” Rape Victims; Senate to Hear Testimony
Congressional hearings trade in statistics, so here’s a preview number for a subcommittee hearing tomorrow: Three percent. That’s the number of rape cases that ultimately lead to a rapist’s incarceration, according to a 2010 report by End Violence Against Women International. At 2:15 p.m. (EST) on Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled “Rape in […]
This One’s For You, Anita Hill
Marie Joseph Eugène Sue said it in 1841 (well before The Godfather): Revenge is very good eaten cold. And this week, it tasted particularly great washed down with champagne. It’s too bad it took nearly 20 years, but watching Arlen Specter go down to defeat was worth it. This fight was personal. In early October, […]