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Of Lipstick, Law and Order

The Backstory

In the spring of 1989, Debbie Smith was raped. While her husband was asleep upstairs, Debbie was kidnapped from her own back yard in Williamsburg, Virginia, dragged into the woods and raped. Her attacker left her with the threatening words that he knew where she lived, and she had best not tell anyone of her shame. But Debbie Smith would not be cowed. She immediately told her husband, a police officer, and the rape was officially reported.

Posted in Human Rights, Politics, Election 2008, Reproductive Rights, Women's Rights

My Lunch With Sarah

Trying to wring one last river trip out of our summer here in the region known affectionately as "The State of Jefferson," a few days ago our family decided to head south from Ashland through the rugged Siskiyou Mountains to explore McCloud Falls in Northern California.

Posted in Environment, Politics, War/Empire, Climate Change, Election 2008, Iraq, Reproductive Rights, Women's Rights

Why Are Mothers Still Dying in Childbirth?

Osman, a six month old baby whose mother died during childbirth in Sierra Leone. (Photograph: David Levene)

It is one of the world's greatest hidden epidemics, but the search for a solution is hopelessly underfunded. On average, every minute of every day a woman somewhere dies in childbirth or pregnancy, the overwhelming majority in developing countries.

It is estimated that they number more than half a million every year, in what Norway's Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, told the United Nations last week was 'the biggest expression of brutality to women I can imagine'.

Posted in healthcare, Africa, Women's Rights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 26, 2008
12:02 PM

CONTACT: ACLU

Mandy Simon, (202) 675-2312 or media@dcaclu.org

ACLU Calls Again for Withdrawal of Regulations Jeopardizing Women’s Health

All ACLU affiliates and more than 41,000 supporters ask administration to put health care first

WASHINGTON - September 26 - The American Civil Liberties Union and all its state affiliates, including Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, submitted comments to the Department of Health and Human Services asking the administration to rescind regulations that could seriously undermine access to reproductive health services, including birth control and abortion.

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Posted in Women's Rights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 25, 2008
10:14 AM

CONTACT: Violence Policy Center

Mandy Wimmer, 202-822-8200 x110, mwimmer@vpc.org

Nevada Ranks #1 in Rate of Women Murdered by Men for Second Year in a Row According to VPC Study Released Annually for Domestic

WASHINGTON - September 25 - For the second year in a row, Nevada, with a rate of 3.27 per 100,000, ranked first in the nation in the rate of women killed by men according to the Violence Policy Center (VPC) report When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2006 Homicide Data. The annual VPC report details national and state-by-state information on female homicides involving one female murder victim and one male offender.

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The Violence Policy Center is a national non-profit educational foundation that conducts research on violence in America and works to develop violence-reduction policies and proposals. The Center examines the role of firearms in America, conducts research on firearms violence, and explores new ways to decrease firearm-related death and injury.
Posted in Women's Rights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 25, 2008
10:12 AM

CONTACT: Violence Policy Center

Mandy Wimmer, 202-822-8200 x110, mwimmer@vpc.org

Black Women Murdered by Men are Most Often Killed with a Gun, Almost Always by Someone They Know, According to New VPC Study Rel

WASHINGTON - September 25 - Black women murdered by men are most often killed with a gun, almost always by someone they know, according to new the Violence Policy Center (VPC) report When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2006 Homicide Data. The annual VPC report details national and state-by-state information on female homicides involving one female murder victim and one male offender.

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The Violence Policy Center is a national non-profit educational foundation that conducts research on violence in America and works to develop violence-reduction policies and proposals. The Center examines the role of firearms in America, conducts research on firearms violence, and explores new ways to decrease firearm-related death and injury.
Posted in Women's Rights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 25, 2008
10:00 AM

CONTACT: NARAL Pro-Choice America
Ted Miller, 202.973.3032

NARAL Pro-Choice America Vows to Keep Fighting Bush Administration’s Attack on Women’s Health

Organization’s activists submit 25,558 comments opposing proposed regulation that could undermine birth control and other health services

WASHINGTON - September 25 - Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America will send 2,500 birth-control packs to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The packs, which are replicas of the pill pack, represent the thousands of activists who signed a petition to protest the Bush administration's proposal that could undermine women's access to essential health-care services, including birth control.

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Posted in Women's Rights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2008
8:00 AM

CONTACT: NARAL Pro-Choice America
Ted Miller, 202.973.3032

NARAL Pro-Choice America Praises Senators’ Leadership on HHS Regulation, Vows to Keep Pressure on Bush Administration

WASHINGTON - September 24 - Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, hailed Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Patty Murray for their continued leadership in trying to stop a Bush administration proposal that could undermine women's access to essential health-care services, including birth control.

Sens. Clinton and Murray met today with Mike Leavitt, secretary of Health and Human Services, about this proposal. The senators later issued a joint statement about this meeting and urged Americans to contact HHS to oppose this regulation.

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Posted in healthcare, Women's Rights

Women Fight to Put Violence on Global Agenda

Maria José Alcalá, senior advisor at UNIFEM. (Credit:UN Photo)

UNITED NATIONS - Joyce and Tanya -- two women of different ages, nationalities, cultures and religions -- share something: both became victims of a missing goal.

Combating violence against women is what Inés Alberdi, executive director of the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), calls the missing goal, because it is not an issue addressed by the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

But it is an issue with a lot of faces, like Joyce, who was raped during the post-election violence in Kenya, and Tanya, who is a survivor of domestic violence in New York City.

Posted in Women's Rights

'Hillary's Women' Reject McCain's VP Choice

The National Organisation for Women, along with other prominent women's advocacy groups, have decided to endorse Barack Obama and Joe Biden's bid for power, snubbing Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin (above). (Getty Images)

America's largest women's rights organisation delivered a snub to Sarah Palin's history-making candidacy yesterday by endorsing Barack Obama and Joe Biden's bid for power.

The National Organisation for Women (NOW) is 500,000 strong and hugely influential. The feminist organisation almost never supports a presidential candidate, but the Alaska governor's Christian fundamentalist faith and her opposition to abortion rights has forced its hand.

Posted in Voting, Women's Rights
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