The Truth About COVID19

Countering misinformation about COVID-19

A joint campaign with the Government of the United Kingdom and BBC World

WHO has joined forces with the communications teams at the Government of the United Kingdom and the Prime Minister’s office for an awareness campaign about the risks of incorrect and false information regarding the pandemic. “Stop The Spread” is a global campaign, rolled out on BBC World television, website and apps during May and June 2020.

The campaign aims to raise awareness among BBC audiences of the risks of misinformation on COVID-19. It encourages them to double check information from unreliable sources and promotes WHO and national health authorities as trusted sources of information. 

In addition to the global TV and web channels, the campaign will also roll out through BBC digital apps in these 20 countries worldwide.

• Africa - Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zambia
• Asia – Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand
• Europe – Azerbaijan, Moldova
• Middle East – Algeria, Libya, Tunisia
• Latin America – Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Paraguay

Read the full article here



Source: World Health Organization

Thank You Amanda Nguyen and Senator Shaheen!!!

Senate Passes Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill Of Rights

The Senate unanimously passed legislation to establish basic rights for survivors of sexual assault today. The bill, which now must pass the House of Representatives to become law, was authored by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) with input from Amanda Nguyen, a sexual assault survivor who founded national civil rights nonprofit Rise to implement a Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights.

If passed into law, the Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights will be monumental in standardizing the treatment of survivors by the criminal justice and medical systems in America.

Seeking justice as a survivor of sexual assault is a disturbingly arduous process, requiring in-person follow-ups in order to make sure rape kit test results aren’t permanently disposed of — Nguyen is required to return to the state of her assault every six months to make sure the DNA evidence gathered from a forensic exam is not destroyed.

Different states have varied ways of dealing with the crimes of rape and other sexual assaults, many of which leave a lot of responsibility on the survivor. Navigating the criminal justice system is daunting enough, let alone while recovering from a traumatic experience. As Nguyen experienced herself, survivors sometimes have to pay for a rape kit test, and some states don’t keep them for longer than six months, jeopardizing essential evidence necessary for putting rapists behind bars. “When the federal government makes changes to criminal statutes,” Shaheen said in a Medium post outlining the legislation last month, “states often quickly follow suit.”

“When you hear about Amanda’s experience, you can see why nearly 70% of survivors don’t report their rape or decide not to press charges,” wrote Shaheen. “This has to change.”

The basic rights included in this new legislation, designed to address the unique challenges faced by sexual assault survivors, include the following:

1. The right to have a sexual assault evidence collection kit preserved for the entire relevant statute of limitations.
2. The right to be notified in writing 60 days prior to the destruction of a sexual assault evidence collection kit.
3. The right to request further preservation of a sexual assault evidence collection kit.
4. The right to be informed of important results of a sexual assault forensic examination.

“The system failed Amanda and so many other survivors of sexual assault across the country,” Shaheen wrote. “Today, the Senate has sent a message that it’s time to change the culture around how survivors are treated in our criminal justice system. I’m hopeful that the House will soon follow suit and we can send this important legislation to the President’s desk.”



Source: Refinery 29

Happy New Year California and Oregon!!!

The Birth Control Pill Is Now Available Without a Prescription In Oregon and California

Oregon this week allowed women who are at least 18 to buy over-the-counter birth control pills. In March, California will become the second state to implement a similar policy.

Since Jan. 1, women in Oregon who are over the age of 18 are allowed to get birth control without a doctor’s prescription. The bill was signed into law on July 1 by Gov. Kate Brown.

At the pharmacy, women are required to fill out a health questionnaire that pharmacists will use to fill the prescription, KOIN reported.

California’s law is set to start in March and has some differences — notably there are no age restrictions.

Senators from Colorado and Washington have also introduced bills that are similar to Oregon’s new law.



Source: BuzzFeed

Korean Singers Mistaken for Prostitutes and Detained at Airport

Question: What does a prostitute look like and what specifically triggered security to detain them in hopes of preventing a "terrorist attack" and was detaining them sexist or [stereotypically] racist???

Kesha Johnson-Clark

K-Pop Band Oh My Girl Mistaken for Sex Workers and Detained at LAX

 

The eight members were travelling to America for an album cover shoot but were detained for 15 hours in customs. A statement from the group's record company, WM Entertainment, said authorities held them after going through their costumes and props.

"They seem to have mistaken them as sex workers," said a spokesman.
Oh My Girl, who formed in March, are thought to be back in South Korean capital Seoul after being released by officials at Los Angeles International Airport. WM Entertainment says it is taking legal advice in the US to find out whether the band's detention was legal.

The record company also said there might have been an issue with the type of visa the band members presented. They had also been booked to perform at a gala event in Los Angeles on Saturday.
It's unclear if they will try to return to America to complete their album cover shoot.

Oh My Girl (or OMG) brought their debut single Cupid out in April with a second mini-album and title track Closer released in October. The band members are all aged between 16 and 21.
South Korean pop music, known as K-pop, is dominated by girl and boy bands whose members are sometimes as young as 13 or 14 years old.

In 2012, the government clamped down on over-sexualised performances by threatening to give higher age ratings to films, music videos and TV shows which exaggerated the sexuality of younger singers and bands.


Source: BBC

UPDATE: Guards Indicted for Negligence in Death of Nimali Henry

St. Bernard prison employees indicted for negligence in inmate death

A federal grand jury on Thursday (Dec. 3) indicted four St. Bernard Parish Prison employees in the death last year of inmate Nimali Henry. The indictment accuses Andre Dominick, Timothy Williams, Debra Becnel and Lisa Vaccarella of failing to provide proper medication and treatment to Henry, who suffered from a rare blood disorder.

All four defendants also are accused of civil rights violations, as well as making false statements to the FBI. They have been placed on indefinite administrative leave, St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohlmann said.

The accused correctional officers have been named for the first time with the indictment, which came about eight months after the FBI intervened in a civil rights lawsuit against the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office.

The civil suit, filed by the father of Henry's baby daughter on the daughter's behalf, was put on hold pending the outcome of the criminal investigation.

None of the defendants could be reached Thursday evening at publicly listed phone numbers. Court records do not list their attorneys.

Henry was found face down in an isolation cell in April 2014. A coroner's report found she likely died of a blood clot. In addition to the civil rights charges, the indictment accuses all four defendants of providing false statements to the FBI, as follows:

• Dominick, a captain, told agents that Henry and another individual, "D.S.", were not aware of Henry's medical conditions. In fact, both Henry and D.S. informed Dominick of the condition, according to the indictment.
• Williams, a corporal, falsely told agents he'd spoken with another individual, J.C., about Henry's condition the weekend before her death, and that he had checked on her in the hours before her death, according to the indictment.
• Becnel, a deputy, falsely told agents that Henry, as well as other inmates, had not told her about her condition, according to the indictment.
• Vaccarella falsely told agents she saw Henry walk into a dorm, lie on the ground and stand up and walk on her own, without difficulty, according to the indictment, which also accuses Vaccarella of discussing her observations with a supervisor. In fact, prosecutors say, Vaccarella watched Henry fall to the dorm floor and left her there, without discussing the indicident with the supervisor. 

Pohlmann said he's still learning about the circumstances that led to Henry's death, as he hasn't spoken to any of the defendants since the FBI became involved in March. He declined to comment on whether the allegations might lead to any changes of procedure at the jail.

"I don't know a lot of the facts that resulted in the indictment today," Pohlmann said. "I'm hoping to meet with the U.S. Attorney's Office soon to maybe get briefed up on more of the detailed facts."

If convicted, the defendants face maximum lifetime prison sentences for the civil rights charges and five-year sentences for making false statements to the FBI, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite's office.

Also read related article, FBI Launches Civil Rights Probe in St. Bernard Prison

Source: Nola

Photo credit to DeShawna Henry, sister of Nimali Henry

Peruvian Government Grants Reparations for Abortions

Peruvian Government Gives Monetary Reparations As Part of Historic United Nations Abortion Case

The Peruvian government has agreed to pay reparations as part of the first United Nations (U.N.) ruling on human rights violations in an abortion case.

Almost a decade after the U.N. Human Rights Committee declared that Peru’s denial of access to legal abortion services is a human rights violation, the government will provide reparations to K.L., a woman who was forced to continue with a pregnancy that put her physical and mental health at risk, even though abortion is legal in these circumstances under Peruvian law.

The Center for Reproductive Rights with local partners the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women's Rights (CLADEM) and the Counseling Center for the Defense of Women's Rights (DEMUS) brought her case to the U.N. Committee and negotiated the reparations agreement. This decision marked the first time in history that an international human rights body held a government accountable for failing to ensure access to legal abortion services.

To read the entire press release, click here.


Source: Center for Reproductive Rights

60 Years Later: Rosa Parks

According to history, Rosa was 42 years old and riding the bus home after work. She was a seamstress and a member of her local NAACP chapter who refused to 'move out of her seat so that a [white] man can sit'...that was her crime. She is a civil rights pioneer.

~Kesha Johnson-Clark

 

 Today marks the 60th anniversary of Rosa Parks taking a stand.

The 42-year-old seamstress and secretary of her local NAACP chapter defied Jim Crow laws that called for the separation of the races by refusing to move to the back of a bus to allow a white man to have her seat.

That defiant act in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 was a pivotal point in the civil rights movement and transformed Parks into a symbol of the struggle. Social media marked the day and remembered her, with some taking note of the current plight of African-Americans.



Source: CNN

Photo: Essence

Alert: Assault at Spring Valley High

Spring Valley High School Student Flung By School Officer On Video

A South Carolina school officer grabbed a high school student from her chair, knocked her to the floor and dragged her across the classroom on Monday, a video shows.

The brief, shaky video shows an officer grab the student by her arms while she's sitting at her desk and flip her over, toppling the desk. The officer then yanks the girl to the front of the classroom.

The officer has been identified as Deputy Ben Fields. He has been placed on administrative duty, Richland County Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. Curtis Wilson said, according to News19.

The video becomes blurry after the officer and the student reach the front of the classroom, but the officer appears to restrain the student by putting her arms behind her back. In a longer version of the video, the officer looms over the student before grabbing her.

Debbie Hamm, superintendent for Richland School District Two, said in a statement officials were "deeply concerned" about the incident.

"Student safety is and always will be the district’s top priority," Hamm said. "The district will not tolerate any actions that jeopardize the safety of our students. Pending the outcome of the investigation, the district has directed that the school resource officer not return to any school in the district."

The student had refused to leave class before the school officer became involved, the sheriff's office told the local TV station WIST.

James Manning, chairman of the school board, called the video "extremely disturbing" in an email statement Monday evening. He said the use of force appears "excessive and unnecessary." Fields, said Manning, has been banned from all school property.

"Staff are committed to the safety of all of our students and are taking immediate steps to ensure that our students are treated with the full respect and dignity that they deserve while in our care," Manning said.

The video, which spawned the trending hashtag #AssaultAtSpringValleyHigh, has already drawn sharp condemnation around the country.

The ACLU called the event "outrageous." Victoria Middleton, the executive director of the civil rights organization's South Carolina branch, slammed the criminalization of students. "School should be a place to learn and grow, not a place to be brutalized," Middleton told The State.

Incidents of violence involving students and school or local law enforcement are not uncommon. Last November, a video emerged of a school resource officer punching a student in the face, supposedly to break up a fight. An incident earlier this month shows a cop grabbing a teen by the neck and slamming him to the ground. And another shows a man using what Fusion calls a "WWE wrestling move" on a 14-year-old student.

Spring Valley High School officials didn't immediately respond to inquiries. A spokesman for the Richland County sheriff's office was unavailable, according to someone who answered the department's phone, because the office had been "inundated" with calls.

Source: Huffunigton Post

Is Vagina Probing Sexual Assault???

In light of recent police brutality cases and suspicious deaths of Black [female] Americans while in police custody, is vagina probing sexual assault??? 21 year old Charnesia Corley says, "I felt like they sexually assaulted me." Please read about her case in Texas.

-Kesha Johnson-Clark, Founder of SisterHood Inc/Green Afro Honey
San Francisco, California



A woman has accused sheriff’s deputies in Texas of sexually assaulting her at a gas station by stripping her and conducting a body cavity search without her consent during a traffic stop.
Charnesia Corley, 21, who is African American, said officers with the Harris County sheriff’s department held her down in a Texaco parking lot and probed her vagina in a search for marijuana.

“They did a manual cavity search. It’s the most serious search you can do under our constitution and should be done in a sterile environment. You sure can’t do it in public by the side of the road. It’s unbelievable,” her attorney, Sam Cammack, told the Guardian on Tuesday.

Corley, who has no criminal record, will file a complaint to the Internal Affairs Division, her attorney said. “I’m doing it right now,” Cammack said, adding that he hoped there was video of the incident.

 

Corley was pulled over at around 10.30pm on 21 June near Ella Boulevard and Barren Springs Drive in Houston while driving to a store in order, she said, to fetch something for her sick mother.

According to the Harris County sheriff’s office, a deputy pulled her over for running a stop sign. Upon smelling what he believed to be marijuana he handcuffed Corley, placed her in the back of his patrol car and searched her vehicle in vain for the drug.

Upon returning to the patrol car he then allegedly smelled marijuana, concluded Corley had it hidden on her person, and summoned female deputies. One was African American, the other white.

One ordered her on the ground and ordered her to pull her trousers down, Corley told ABC13. “I told her, I said: ‘Well ma’am, I don’t have any underwear on.’ She says: ‘Well that doesn’t matter. Pull your pants down.’”

Corley said she was ordered to open her legs but said she did not wish to do so. “So she says: ‘Well if you don’t open them, I’m going to break them,’” Corley said. “All I could do was just lay there. I felt helpless.”

She told KTRK she felt violated. “I feel like they sexually assaulted me. I really do. I feel disgusted, downgraded, humiliated.”

Corley was charged with resisting arrest and possession of marijuana after deputies allegedly found .02 ounces of marijuana.

The Harris County sheriff’s department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. But a spokesperson told local media the deputies did everything as they should and that Corley had assented to a strip search.

Cammack disputed that and said an officer’s report of the incident, which he had obtained, corroborated his client’s version. The attorney declined to say where the marijuana was found but said police claimed to have found it on Corley’s person. Police usually chose not to prosecute for such tiny amounts of marijuana, he added.

Regardless of what was found, the search violated privacy and the constitution, said Cammack. “They could’ve found a kilo of cocaine insider of her and still should not have done it.”

Rebecca Robertson, legal and policy director of the ACLU of Texas, said a cavity search without a warrant was a “blatant” violation of the fourth amendment, and that an orifice probe was the most invasive search possible.

“A body cavity search without a warrant would be constitutionally suspect. But a body cavity search by the side of the road ... I can’t imagine a circumstance where that would be constitutional,” she told the Houston Chronicle.

She noted previous controversies over cavity searches in Texas. In 2013, the Department of Public Safety was forced to pay $185,000 to two women who alleged troopers had conducted cavity searches by the roadside, illuminated by patrol car headlights, in full view of passing traffic.

Police in Texas came under renewed scrutiny last month over the case of Sandra Bland, an African American woman found dead in her Waller County jail cell after being detained during a traffic stop.


Source: The Guardian

Psst...Planned Parenthood Is Not Selling Baby Parts!!!

http://youtu.be/DUT1u8ePmVY

It’s weird for those of us with two brain cells to rub together, that this is even a thing. Because first of all, obviously Planned Parenthood doesn’t sell BABY PARTS. Jesus fucking christ, get a hold of yourselves. Baby parts!

3% of all Planned Parenthood’s activities are abortions, and more than 90% of those are in the first trimester when it’s about size of a kidney bean, so they do see some pieces of fetal tissue. Which are just going to be thrown away in the garbage, but which the patient can instead choose to donate to important medical research.

HOW DARE THEY! How dare Planned Parenthood allow women to aid in the research and treatment of conditions like H.I.V. and Parkinson’s disease, when instead those women could just be throwing that tissue in the garbage!

So yeah, there’s the fact that Planned Parenthood obviously isn’t “selling baby parts.” And then there’s the fact that the group releasing this video are some of the same people who worked for the group Live Action, which is best known for…editing together misleading videos attacking Planned Parenthood.

So despite the fact that this is an obviously made up and ridiculous accusation, actual politicians are taking it seriously. If you live in the US, your tax dollars are now going toward Congressional Republicans calling for a formal investigation, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee has announced they’ll launch a probe. A probe for baby parts! Good luck, guys!

This all reminds me of a course I took in college on heresy. I remember learning about how multiple times throughout human history, various groups of people have been accused of the very specific act of gathering together and hosting orgies, and then taking the resulting babies from any past orgies and burning them into ashes, which are then formed into cakes, which are then eaten. Usually it’s supposed to be the Jews doing this but plenty of other marginalized groups have been accused as well. And it always baffled me to think that people could really, truly believe that their fellow humans were doing something so obviously stupid and made up.

Well, now it’s 2015 and an organization that is mostly responsible for making sure poor women have access to basic medical care including cancer screenings, checkups, and birth control, are accused of convincing women to abort their babies and then tearing them into parts and selling them on the black market.

And I realize, that if it helps you achieve your goals — whether they be persecuting people of a different faith or cutting funding for poor women’s health care — it becomes surprisingly easy to believe something unbelievable.


Source: Skepchick

Celebrating 50 Years of Legal Birth Control

Fifty years after the landmark Griswold decision, birth control has become a staple in the lives of American families, yet is still anchored in legal controversy.  As we celebrate Griswold’s powerful legacy and the important steps taken to make birth control access a reality, we must also hold our breaths that the courts do not undermine this tremendous progress. In the meantime, we also must continue to work to ensure that every woman in America has access to the birth control she needs. 

Source: Planned Parenthood

Pics: I Stand in Solidarity with Baltimore Speak Out 5/30/15

Please click here to view more photos from the San Francisco, California location. A special thank you to W.O.R.D, ANSWER and all the supporters who attended on Saturday, May 30th.

Action: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women (San Francisco)

Demonstrators took to the streets of San Francisco to draw attention to the police-related deaths of black women. The movement was spurred by the recent report “Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women.” Nearly 300 protesters on Thursday gathered in San Francisco’s Financial District to draw attention to unarmed black women who have been killed by police in recent years. And, in an unexpected departure from the rest of the nationwide movement, many of the activists did so topless.

The Bay Area protest was just one of at least 17 other movements taking place in other metropolitan areas, including Chicago, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and New Orleans. Chinerye Tutashinda, a founding member of the BlackOUT Collective, told BuzzFeed News that the decision to carry out the protest by exposing their bodies was a local one, and that she did not expect other demonstrations in other cities to follow suit. She added that the reasons behind the bold choice ranged from ancestral homage to social critique. “We wanted to be able to say ‘enough is enough’ and draw on traditions from Nigeria, Gabon, Uganda, and South Africa, from women who bare their chests and other parts of their bodies in protest,” she said.

Exposing their breasts also served as a statement on the societal tendency to fixate on black women’s physical bodies, but not when those same bodies face violence. Rose Berry works for the local chapter of the Black Youth Project 100, and described the disconnect to BuzzFeed News. “When it’s in the name of pop culture, and what’s expected in mainstream society, people applaud it, but when it’s in the name of peace and justice and liberation, they ignore it,” she said.

The organizers also talked about the third, more personal impact of protesting topless: For black women who had been victimized by various forms of violence to reclaim their bodies in public space. Tutashinda said some of the women who removed their shirts “were women who’ve been survivors of rape, who’ve had abortions, who’ve lost children.” “Putting yourself out there makes you very vulnerable,” she said. As someone who also protested with her chest exposed, Tutashinda said she was terrified.

According to Berry, the protest, while relatively small compared to other related demonstrations, still made a sizable impact. “There were black women on their way to work who stopped and cried, thanked the women who were protesting,” she said. Some men joined the demonstration, and while they experienced a few unpleasant words from frustrated commuters, the police were cooperative, Berry added. “We wanted to kick off the day, give them a dose of black women’s liberation with their morning coffee,” she said. “We won’t be ignored anymore. We’re not invisible. We’ve never been invisible.”

Source: BuzzFeed UK

#SayHerName

Action: Sign Petition to Make Sexual and Reproductive Health a Priority!!!

Do you support the motto "My body, My Choice"??? Help tell world leaders to make sexual and reproductive health [of women] a priority. Click here to sign the petition and spread the word!!!



#mybodymychoice

UPDATE: California SB967

And we have great news...California legislature passes YES Means YES Sexual Consent Bill!!!

The Senate unanimously passed SB967 as states and universities across the U.S. are below pressure to alter how they manage rape allegations. The bill now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not indicated his stance on the bill. Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, stated his bill would start a paradigm shift in how California campuses avoid and investigate sexual assault. Rather than utilizing the refrain no signifies no,the definition of consent below the bill needs affirmative, unambiguous and conscious choice by each celebration to engage in sexual activity.

Advocates for victims of sexual assault supported the alter as a single that will supply consistency across campuses and challenge the notion that victims have to have resisted assault in order to have valid complaints. Some critics say the legislation is overreaching and sends universities into murky, unfamiliar legal waters. The bill would apply to all California post-secondary schools, public and private, that obtain state money for student economic aid. The California State University and University of California systems are backing the legislation after adopting comparable consent standards this year.

The bill also requires colleges and universities to adopt victim-centered sexual-assault response policies and implement complete applications to avoid assault. The bill passed the state Assembly on Monday by a 52-16 vote. The 23-campus Cal State University endorsed the legislation in an Aug. 25 letter to de Leon.
Read the full article here...



Source: Daily News

Yes Means Yes and No Means No

California Senate Bill 967

What Does It Mean???

This bill requires the governing boards of post-secondary institutions in the state to adopt policies concerning campus sexual violence, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. The governing boards must adopt detailed and victim-centered sexual assault policies and protocols based on best practices and current professional standards including an affirmative consent standard in the determination of whether consent was given by a complainant. At a minimum, the policies and protocols must include: a policy statement on how the institution will protect the confidentiality of victims, an initial officer response to a report of sexual assault, a preliminary victim interview and followup interview, an interview with the accused, medical forensic examinations and coordination with the forensic examiner, participation of victim advocates, and procedures for anonymous reporting of sexual assault. The bill requires these governing boards to adopt certain sexual assault policies and protocols, and requires the governing boards, to the extent feasible, to enter into memoranda of understanding or other agreements with on-campus and community-based organizations to make services available to victims. The bill also requires the governing boards to implement comprehensive prevention programs addressing sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. A comprehensive prevention program includes a range of prevention strategies, including, but not limited to, women’s empowerment programming, awareness raising campaigns, primary prevention, bystander intervention, and risk reduction.



Source: ALICE Law

Women's Equality Day 2014

Source: Twitter

What Is Women's Equality Day???

What is Women’s Equality Day?

At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.”

The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement by women that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world’s first women’s rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York.

The observance of Women’s Equality Day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, but also calls attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality. Workplaces, libraries, organizations, and public facilities now participate with Women’s Equality Day programs, displays, video showings, or other activities.

Joint Resolution of Congress, 1971
Designating August 26 of each year as Women’s Equality Day

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have been treated as second-class citizens and have not been entitled the full rights and privileges, public or private, legal or institutional, which are available to male citizens of the United States; and WHEREAS, the women of the United States have united to assure that these rights and privileges are available to all citizens equally regardless of sex; and

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have designated August 26, the anniversary date of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, as symbol of the continued fight for equal rights: and

WHEREAS, the women of United States are to be commended and supported in their organizations and activities,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that August 26th of each year is designated as Women’s Equality Day, and the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920, on which the women of America were first given the right to vote, and that day in 1970, on which a nationwide demonstration for women’s rights took place.


Source: National Women's History Project

Wendy Davis Wants to End Statute of Limitations on Sexual Assault & Rape

Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis proposed ending the state’s statute of limitations on sexual assault at a press conference on Wednesday, during which she criticized opponent Greg Abbott for failing to advocate for rape victims. Davis presented the proposal as an expansion of her past legislative efforts on behalf of sexual assault survivors, following up on a recent statewide attack ad on Abbott accusing him of “siding with a corporation over a rape victim.”

"To turn around and make survivors pay the price for our failure ... is almost criminal in itself" says Davis.

Read the full article here...

New Birth Control Rules for Non-Profits

The new accommodation will allow religious nonprofits, such as Catholic schools and hospitals, to opt out of covering birth control by notifying the Department of Health and Human Services of their objections. HHS and the Department of Labor will then arrange for a third-party insurer to pay for and administer the coverage for the nonprofits' employees so that women still receive the contraceptive coverage guaranteed to them by the Affordable Care Act.

“Women across the country deserve access to recommended preventive services that are important to their health, no matter where they work,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. “Today’s announcement reinforces our commitment to providing women with access to coverage for contraception, while respecting religious considerations raised by non-profit organizations and closely held for-profit companies."

The original accommodation required religious nonprofits to directly ask a third-party insurer to pay for and administer the contraception coverage if the nonprofit objected to covering it. But several nonprofits sued the administration over the rule, claiming that the act of filling out a form violated their religious beliefs by serving as a "permission slip" for its employees to use contraceptives.

The administration developed the new accommodation to pre-empt those lawsuits, which legal experts expected the Supreme Court to take up next year. The court already ruled in June against the administration's contraception coverage rule, which requires most employers to cover the full range of 20 contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug Administration at no out-of-pocket cost to women. The court decided that closely-held for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby, a craft-supply store owned by a family of Christians, should be able to opt out of covering birth control for religious reasons.

Read the full article here...