Undercovered Stories: New Abortion Laws in Georgia

General

*Archaeological finds from Mexico and Peru show that, long before Europeans arrived, women served as warriors, governors and priestesses.
Source: AP


Politics

*One of 55 House Democrats who've signed a "Catholic Statement of Principles" says it's an effort to keep abortion from becoming their single defining issue. Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro says she and other Catholic Democrats are "very proud of our spirituality," but reserve the right to obey conscience rather than church teachings.
Source: AP

*Paula Duran is an outreach worker with a style of her own. That style -- heavy on fishnet, tattoos and suggestive poses -- is at the heart of an ideological disagreement between Brazil and the United States over the best way to fight AIDS.
Source: Washington Post


In the Courts

*A Cook County judge abruptly decided Wednesday that a 20-year-old woman needn't watch the homemade video that prosecutors say shows her being gang-raped during a drunken party. "I'm not going to force her to view the videotape,'' Judge Kerry M. Kennedy said Wednesday, backing off his earlier warning that he might jail the former Naperville woman if she refused to watch the video while testifying against one of her alleged attackers.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times


Reproductive Rights

*A slate of abortion-related bills passed in the [Georgia] state Senate on Thursday, requiring doctors to offer women seeking the procedure a look at an image of the fetus and clearing pharmacists who don't want to give out abortion pills they say go against their beliefs. A third bill would create a murder charge any time a fetus is destroyed in an attack on a pregnant woman.
Source: AP

*Republican Gov. Matt Blunt and Missouri's largest anti-abortion group expressed reservations Thursday about newly proposed legislation seeking to ban most abortions in the state. Blunt said he feared an abortion ban could lock the state in a legal battle, which Missouri Right to Life said may not yet be winnable.
Source: KMBC


In the Workplace

*For four decades, the number of women entering the workplace grew at a blistering pace, fostering a powerful cultural and economic transformation of American society. But since the mid-1990s, the growth in the percentage of adult women working outside the home has stalled, even slipping somewhat in the last five years, leaving it at a rate well below that of men, various studies show.
Source: The NY Times


International

*Dubai-based news channel Al Arabiya mourned on Thursday the murder in Iraq of two technicians and a young female Iraqi reporter renowned for her brave frontline journalism.
Source: Middle East Times