(WOMENSENEWS)–
Cheers
Dr. Mila Means, a family practitioner, is planning to establish an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kan., reported The Bellingham Herald June 23. Means, who identifies as pro-choice, wants to form a nonprofit and raise up to $1million to buy and start a clinic providing early-term abortions. This would be the first abortion clinic to open since Dr. George Tiller’s murder in May 2009. Tiller’s clinic was one of the few offering later term abortions.
More News to Cheer This Week:
- North Carolina is considering offering compensation to the mostly low-income and uneducated women who were sterilized against their will in compliance with a since-repealed eugenics law, reported NPR news June 22.
- In light of the recent Supreme Court ruling against a class action by Wal-Mart female employees, New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and New Jersey State Sen. Bob Menendez reintroduced the Equal Rights Amendment, reported The Huffington Post June 22. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled against the female plaintiffs in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., v. Betty Dukes, et al., preventing them from banding together as a class to challenge the discrimination they described in receiving lower pay and fewer promotions, reported National Women’s Law Center June 20.
- French government minister Georges Tron resigned May 29 over accusations from at least two female employees that he persuaded women to let him massage their feet, which lead to groping. French police took Tron into custody for questioning, reported The New York Times June 20.
- After pressure from Saudi Women for Driving, a coalition of leading Saudi women’s rights activists, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared her support for their campaign to claim the right to drive, reported the Associated Press June 20.
Jeers
Kansas officials have taken only a few weeks to draft new abortion clinic regulations and plan to decide by July whether to give the state’s three existing clinics the licenses they need to continue operating, according to documents released to the Associated Press June 21. The new regulations are part of legislation signed into law by Republican Sam Brownback, a strong anti-choice governor in Kansas. Planned Parenthood runs one of the three clinics in question and is looking into filing a lawsuit over the regulations and the process used to implement them; the regulations have changed twice since they were first distributed to the clinics.
More News to Jeer This Week:
- In a special session negotiating Senate Bill 7, House Republicans, fearing abortion providers would attempt to find a loophole in the legislation, demanded that the language banning federal monies from funding abortion narrow the exemptions for hospitals when a fetus has a fatal and "irreversible abnormality," reported The Statesman June 23.
- Over 60 women were raped and dozens of people beaten by rebels during an attack in the Democratic Republic of Congo, stated the international medical aid organization Medicins San Frontieres, reported The Guardian June 23.
- Kelli Conlin, ex-president of NARAL Pro-Choice New York and the National Institute for Reproductive Health, plead guilty to charging NARAL Pro-Choice New York for $75,000 in personal expenses, reported The Wall Street Journal June 23.
- Planned Parenthood of Indiana was using $100,000 in donations to continue family planning services after a law passed in Indiana that cut off Medicaid funding to the clinic, but USA Today reported June 22 that the money had run out and 9,300 Medicaid patients would have had their care disrupted. Planned Parenthood in Minnesota will close six clinics by August 1, reported The Star Tribune June 20.
- Anti-choice organizations The Radiance Foundation and The Issues 4 Life Foundation have created a "Black and Beautiful" campaign targeting African Americans that discourages abortion and promotes adoption, reported BET.com June 21.
- GOP presidential hopefuls Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty joined Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum in signing the Susan B. Anthony List’s 2012 Pro-life Presidential Leadership Pledge, reported the Minnesota Independent June 20.
Noted:
- Former Rwandan government minister Pauline Nyiramasuhuko became the first woman to be convicted by the U.N.-backed tribunal in Tanzania when she was sentenced to life in prison for her role in the 1994 genocide, reported Voice of America June 24.
- Journalists Raina Abouzeid and Khirbet al-Jouz ventured into Syrian refugee camps near the Turkish boarder, in search of sexual assault victims– the protagonists of stories and rumors circulating through the region–and returned with more questions. Their full story is in TIME Magazine, June 20.
