Women in developing countries will be the most
vulnerable to climate change, a report from the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) has warned.
The agency said there was a disproportionate burden on those women and called for greater equality.
They
do most of the agricultural work, and are therefore affected by
weather-related natural disasters impacting on food, energy and water,
it said.
Slower population growth would help cut greenhouse gas emissions, it added.
You know what I don't want to hear right now about the Stupak-Pitts amendment banning abortion coverage from federally subsidised health insurance policies? That it's the price of reform, and pro-choice women should shut up and take one for the team.
We know that the House healthcare reform bill passed after an
eleventh-hour compromise (you might say betrayal) on abortion access.
We know the compromise, the Stupak-Pitts amendment, is bad. But do we
know exactly how it's bad for women (and their partners)? Here's a
quick primer on what the amendment actually means for any woman
accessing healthcare through the newly-created health insurance
exchange.
The Affordable Health Care for America Act was approved by the U.S.
House Saturday night with overwhelming support from progressive
Democrats who serve in the chamber and from a president who was
nominated and elected with the enthusiastic support of progressive
voters.
But that does not mean that informed and engaged progressives are entirely enthusiastic about the measure.
Sorting through feelings as well as strategies in the face
of the enormous defeat that the passage of a health care reform bill that so
severely and punishingly restricts access to abortion will take time and hard
political decisions. One wants to punish those who voted for the Stupak
amendment and especially Stupak as much as they have punished women. At some
point in time one has to put women first and above all else for no else will.
During my recent trip to Afghanistan, I
never heard Afghans calling for a runoff election. Yes, they were
furious that the U.S.-sanctioned election in August was fraught with
fraud, and they knew (with the current election commission) only fraud
could again result. Their hopes had been dashed on the rocks once,
and they didn't want it repeated. Yet Senator John Kerry, Chairman of
the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations-talked Karzai into a "runoff
election." Did Senator Kerry ask the Afghan people if they wanted
one? Apparently, this didn't matter.
The warlords we champion in Afghanistan
are as venal, as opposed to the rights of women and basic democratic
freedoms, and as heavily involved in opium trafficking as the Taliban.
The moral lines we draw between us and our adversaries are fictional.
The uplifting narratives used to justify the war in Afghanistan are
pathetic attempts to redeem acts of senseless brutality. War cannot be
waged to instill any virtue, including democracy or the liberation of
women. War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and
access to weapons.
Ms. Magazine's inaugural cover featured President Obama in Superman pose, ripping open his suit coat and dress shirt to reveal a T-shirt that proclaims: "This is what a feminist looks like." Photoshop tricks aside, Honduran women need this to be true. They need the Obama administration to fully grasp the plight of Honduran women and their families and act decisively on their behalf.
Just before the Senate Finance Committee wrapped up debate
over its Sen. Max Baucus-designed health care bill, its members
debated one of Sen. Jon Kyl's amendments, which would have cut
language defining which benefits employers are required to
cover.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., argued that insurers must be
required to cover basic maternity care. (In several states there
are no such requirements.)
The "battle of the sexes is over" claims the
much-heralded Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything on
American work and family life. Go ahead, take a victory lap.
Unless, of course, you're among the millions of women who
still earn 23 percent less on average in wages, pay 38 percent more for
gender-rated health insurance or fear losing their jobs while trying to juggle
disproportionate family responsibilities without flexible work schedules and
reasonable family-leave policies.
