Weekly Update: Us in the U.S.

Us in the U.S. is Women’s eNews’ new weekly update summarizing all of the past week’s actions, policies and legislation that are being proposed, as well as passed, impacting women’s rights in the USA. Since our audience spans the globe, Women’s eNews wants to ensure that our readers are provided with all of the facts since we have always, and will forever, publish only the TRUTH:

Five journalists were killed in a deadly shooting at the Capital Gazette office in Annapolis, Maryland on Thursday, June 29th. Donald Trump, who has denounced the press as the “enemy of the American people,” offered his condolences the day after the attack, but first declined a request from Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley to lower American flags in honor of the fatal shooting. The White House then reversed its decision, after public backlash, to allow the American flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of the five victims.
More than 3,700 white women have signed a letter calling on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who is White, to apologize for recent remarks aimed at silencing Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), who is Black. As several Trump administration officials increasingly faced public protests, Waters had invited her constituents to also publicly confront administration officials wherever possible.“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd,” Waters said at an event in Los Angeles. “And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” In response, Pelosi called for “civility,” and chastised Waters via Twitter on June 25th.
On June 30th, tens of thousands of people marched against the administration’s family separation and detention policies, in over 700 cities around the U.S. Activists organized a nationwide protest to demand the Trump administration reunite families, and end family separation and detention at the border. Donald Trump signed an executive order last week that ended the large-scale practice of splitting up parents and kids, but his administration will now detain families together — and it seeks to do so indefinitely. Even as the administration reunites families, it is still seeking to deport them together. There is also concern about the status of more than 2,000 children who have already been separated from their parents.
Therese Patricia Okoumou, a 44-year-old immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, attempted to climb the Statue of Liberty on the Fourth of July in protest of Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy on immigration and the separation of families at the border. Officers from the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit transported her to a federal detention center Wednesday night following her three-hour standoff with authorities. Her case is being handled by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.
Since Donald Trump promised during his campaign to appoint “pro-life justices” who would overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion throughout the U.S., there is growing concern that any Supreme Court pick who would oppose abortion rights. Now, just one week before Trump is set to announce his nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court, the names of potential candidates are emerging. Justin Kennedy, who recently announced his retirement, was a swing vote on many crucial issues, including abortion and the legalization of gay marriage.
In a piece of good news for women’s reproductive rights, Iowa’s state Supreme Court ruled last week that Iowa women have a fundamental right to abortion. The landmark 5-2 decision replaced the 72-hour waiting period requirement, which had been passed last year. Friday’s ruling came as the result of a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland challenging the three-day wait requirement, which had been placed on hold during Planned Parenthood’s legal challenge.