Anti-Abortion Group Targets Homes of Clinic Workers, KS Board of Ed Considers Abstinence-Only

"Probably a dozen times or more, I tell them abstinence is the only 100 percent protection against pregnancy and diseases. I say that all the time. If we lived in a perfect world, in a bubble, just saying 'Don't do it' would be great. But it's not a perfect world. Kids have STDs, they have HIV, they're getting pregnant. This stuff happens. If we're truthful and we arm them with a little bit more information, that's just smart."
-Candee Stuchlik, a ninth-grade sex education teacher at Heights High School in Wichita, Kansas, speaking to The Wichita Eagle about a proposal that would require abstinence-only sex education across the state

Reproductive Rights

Board of Ed to discuss limiting sex education - The Wichita Eagle
Should sex education classes stop at "Just say no"? Some members of the Kansas Board of Education think so, and are pushing for a change that would require abstinence-only sex education across the state. Under a proposal to be considered at the board's meeting Tuesday in Wichita, districts that teach more than abstinence could risk losing their accreditation.

Deaths After RU-486 - NY Times Editorial
Reports that up to six American women and another woman in Canada have died after pill-induced abortions in recent years are making the regimen based on RU-486 look a lot less attractive than once thought. Conservatives in Congress and anti-abortion organizations are demanding that RU-486 be withdrawn from the market. That seems premature given the uncertainties and small number of deaths in a still-unfolding story. But women seeking an abortion will need to weigh the risks and benefits carefully before deciding which method to choose.

Anti-abortion group targets home of clinic worker - Sioux City Journal
An anti-abortion group has a new strategy: It plans to picket the homes of all employees of a Bellevue abortion clinic. The group Rescue the Heartland recently picketed the home of one, Karen Pender, until she received a protection order against the group's director, Larry Donlan. The group sent at least two letters to employees of the clinic run by Dr. LeRoy Carhart, giving the employees two weeks to quit or face protests at homes.

Site's neutrality questioned - ArgusLeader
The South Dakota Health Department's Web site contains links to a Sioux Falls organization that lobbied in favor of the state's near-total ban on abortions, despite a disclaimer that prohibits links to politically affiliated sites. But officials from the health department and the governor's office, citing a 2003 law requiring a state Web site for abortion alternatives, say the question isn't nearly that simple. Almost two years ago, Gov. Mike Rounds asked the state library board to shut down a teen section of the state library's Web site that included a link to the Planned Parenthood Federation, which Rounds at the time called a political group that hires lobbyists. Rounds subsequently ordered a review of all external links on all state Web sites.

Birth control emerges as hot issue in election year - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Saturday's rally in front of the Eliot Unitarian Chapel in Kirkwood seemed to hark back to the 1960s. One picket asserted in big type: "The Government Should Not Have the Power to Force Women to Have Children!" And some of the 100 or so gathered on the lawn gasped when Kim Gandy, the national president of the National Organization for Women, pointed out that the Supreme Court didn't rule in favor of an unmarried woman's right to contraception until 1972. In Illinois and especially Missouri - where abortion long has reigned as the No. 1 hot-button topic - that debate appears to have been nudged aside this season by flaps over birth control. Some blame changes in public policy. Others tie the shift to politics.

Kansans for Life calls for removing abortion ed amendment - AP
Kansans for Life, the state's largest anti-abortion group, wants lawmakers to remove a proposal that would require school sex education classes to include details about various abortion procedures and fetal pain. Kansans for Life said in a news release that removing the amendment should make the bill, which would require more information on records of abortions, "non-controversial." Abortion rights advocates have said the bill was intended to produce more burdens for doctors and clinics.

Politics

Number of women legislators low in Alabama, Southeast - AP
When Tammy Irons won a special election for an Alabama House seat last month, she did so without giving much regard to the politics of gender. "I think it's great that more women are getting involved in politics. But I hadn't thought about whether this job was best for a man or a woman," said Irons, a Democrat from Florence. Her election, however, made her the 16th woman in the 140-member Alabama Legislature, allowing Alabama to discard the distinction of being tied with South Carolina for having the smallest number of women in the legislature in the Southeast. But Alabama's percentage of women in the legislature - 11.4 percent, just above South Carolina's lowest-in-the-nation 8.8 percent - is still far below first-place Maryland's 34.6 percent and less than half the national average of 22.6 percent.

International

From home of Kashmir's head priest, a 'feminist' magazine - The Sunday Express
Kashmir's head priest and Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is among the Valley's prime newsmakers. Now his wife Sheeba Masoodi is making news as a founder editor of She, Srinagar's first women's English quarterly magazine with a strong "feminist" theme. Launched today at Kashmir University's Gandhi Bhawan, the contents of the first issue created quite a splash with some speakers criticising a piece on teenage dating.

Syria breaks taboo on violence against women - Reuters
Syria has broken a taboo by presenting a high profile study on violence against women, which found that one in four married women gets beaten -- usually by her husband or father. The study, released this week by the state-run General Union of Women and funded by United Nations Development Fund for Women, sheds light on the nature and extent of violence against women in Syria. It also coincides with calls for a campaign to raise awareness of the problem. The results of the Syrian survey appear in line with studies in Egypt, Britain and the United States, but campaigners said it breaks new ground simply by drawing attention to the issue.

Families Vie With Boom Economy for Emirati Women - Women's eNews
In the United Arab Emirates a booming economy and progressive government offer women wider employment and educational opportunities. But some young women say traditional attitudes keep them from venturing too far from home.