Michigan GOP Supports Amending State Constitution, Bush's Overseas AIDS Policy is Counterproductive

"There will be firm confrontation with these people who disrespect religious sanctities and social values."
-Iranian Commander Morteza Talai, commenting on the country's crackdown on women who dress "immodestly and inappropriately." The crackdown is scheduled to begin on April 21.

Reproductive Rights

Owens sinks morning-after pill - Denver Post
Gov. Bill Owens on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have made it easier for women to get emergency contraception. The rejection of House Bill 1212 is the second time in two years Owens has disappointed women's health groups and elated abortion foes. This year's bill would have given pharmacists an unprecedented power in Colorado - the ability to dispense medication without a physician's prescription. In his veto message, Owens said the bill "strays radically from the accepted norms of medicine" by shifting prescribing power to pharmacists. He added that the medication is currently "widely available" with a physician's prescription.

Anti-abortion petition drive supported by GOP committee - AP
Organizers of an anti-abortion petition drive say they have received a boost from a resolution adopted by the Michigan Republican Party. Michigan Citizens for Life is campaigning to define a person as existing from the moment of conception in the state constitution. The group wants to spark a challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Campaign organizers must submit at least 317,757 valid signatures of Michigan voters to state election officials by early July to qualify for the November ballot. The Michigan Republican State Committee, at a meeting last weekend, unanimously passed a resolution supporting the Citizens for Life petition drive.

Anti-abortion amendment killed in House panel - The City Paper
A House panel voted to kill a proposed constitutional amendment Wednesday that would have removed any guarantees of a right to an abortion within the state's constitution. Earlier this year, the full state Senate had approved the constitutional amendment with a vote of 24-9. But with the House subcommittee killing the proposed amendment, the move is likely halted until 2007 at the earliest.

General

Balancing AIDS prevention - Boston Globe Editorial
In 2003, Congress required that one-third of all US money spent on preventing AIDS overseas be used for promoting abstinence and fidelity. Ever since, there have been complaints that this was getting in the way of efforts to fight the disease. Now, Congress's investigative arm has confirmed that the requirement is short-changing other prevention programs, including the use of drugs to prevent transmission of the virus from mothers to children.

Groups ask judge to toss out restrictions on AIDS funding - AP
A U.S. government ultimatum making federally funded health groups providing HIV prevention services pledge opposition to prostitution has "spawned a First Amendment nightmare," a judge was told Thursday. Lawyer Rebekah Diller, asking the judge to reject the measure, said three U.S. public health organizations serving as key partners in government efforts to stem the spread of AIDS internationally and receiving government funding want to speak freely.

Duke case reopens wounds for black women - AP
The young black women can almost finish each other's stories. They go to a party, a concert, a nightclub. Twenty-somethings of all colors are flirting and dancing. And then it happens. Inevitably, a woman says, a white man asks her to dance erotically while he watches. Or he grabs her rear end. Or asks for sex, in graphic detail, without bothering to ask her name. Black women have been talking about this for a long time now, but the conversation has heated up since accusations surfaced that white Duke lacrosse players raped a black student they had hired as a stripper and shouted racial slurs at her.

Women Flock to Thai Hospitable for Affordable Care - Women's eNews
With 46 million U.S. citizens living without health insurance--and millions of others underinsured or unable to get adequate care--a growing number of U.S. women are flocking to a Thai hospital for treatments they can't afford at home.

International

Iran to crack down on skimpy dressers - IranMania
Iranian police are poised to launch a fresh pre-summer crackdown on women disrespecting the Islamic dress code, AFP reported. "Unfortunately we see some immodestly and inappropriately dressed women who violate the rights of others," the hardline Jomhuri Islami newspaper quoted Tehran's police chief as saying. "There will be firm confrontation with these people who disrespect religious sanctities and social values," Commander Morteza Talai said, adding the clampdown will start on April 21.

Young Saudi women test feminist waters - Toronto Star
In Saudi Arabia the sexes don't mix freely. A woman cannot travel with a man who is not her brother, father or husband. Arriving at the doors of a girls' school in Jeddah, I was asked to wait outside, blocked from entering until some of the young women inside were moved to a private room. From the empty courtyard, cleared prior to our arrival, I could see curious eyes peeking through the windows. I was the first male ever to enter the school.

Forty rapists a year get away with a caution - Daily Mail
Up to 40 rapists a year are being cautioned and allowed to walk free instead of facing jail terms, it emerged today.
Home Office documents revealed the number of people cautioned for rape has more than doubled in the past decade, while the conviction rate has fallen steeply. Figures for 1994 show that 19 people were cautioned for rape, but by 2004 that number had risen to 40.