Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/author/julia-marsh/)
The Bush administration pushed marriage as a panacea for fighting poverty but a recent government study confirms the view of skeptics who say money problems must be solved first, since they destroy and destabilize relationships.
Four bills designed to curb discrimination based on sexual orientation are pending in Congress. Some advocates are hopeful, but others are more wary about hostile lawmakers and a lack of leadership by President Obama.
Women’s advocates are pressing a welfare overhaul agenda in reauthorization subcommittee meetings. President Obama is not expected to make major changes or raise basic funding levels, but emergency and contingency funds are being set aside.
The Feb. 20 protest at a leading U.S. mosque ended peacefully and unresolved. Demonstrators seeking to remove a partition blocking women’s view of the prayer leader say they will persist with their decade-long push.
The Women’s Bureau has gone for a year without a director but not without a leader, says the group’s deputy director. She credits Labor Secretary Hilda Solis with helping connect female engineers with federally-funded green jobs.
South Asian women from three spheres–journalism, politics and advocacy– recently planned a coordinated attack on HIV-AIDS among women. Their focus is on transportation, property rights and education.
The pro-choice question of the year is whether the Senate will tack an amendment like Stupak-Pitts on its version of health reform. So far, senators are sticking with status quo Medicaid restrictions but not imposing any more.
In late November the Baltimore City Council ordered crisis pregnancy centers to post disclaimers and a Maryland county council will debate a similar bill Dec. 10. Pro-choice activists hope other local governments will follow suit.
Pro-choice activists are battling to keep the House’s Stupak-Pitts amendment out of the Senate version of the health care bill. In doing so, they find themselves squaring off against an old, nearly forgotten barrier: the 1977 Hyde amendment.
Rescind the global gag rule. Refund U.N. family-planning. Restore contraceptive subsidy. These are just a few of the Bush-era regulations and policies that women’s advocates hope will come undone in the early days of 2009.