Study: Welfare Law Drives Single Moms Out of College, High Infant Mortality Rate in Afghanistan

"We are trying to change peoples' minds and tell them 'Yeah, you can participate. Yeah. You can be part of the political system and make a difference. That's because accurate information and family planning services are a right, something that's going to help people have more opportunities to develop as human beings in the ways they choose."
-Jeannette Tineo, program officer for Family Care International in the Dominican Republic, where 25 percent of girls get pregnant by the time they are 20. Family Care is working with the UN to ensure women have full access to reproductive health care.

Reproductive Rights

NGO Advocates for Sexual and Reproductive Health in 20 Countries - VOA
All women in the world have a right to expect adequate sexual and reproductive health care, and both the knowledge and the means to plan the size of their families. That's according to the United Nations, and most of the international community. And most agree that the sexual and reproductive health challenges of adolescents must also be urgently addressed.

Anti-abortion extremist to plead guilty to carjacking, robberies - AP
An anti-abortion extremist already serving a lengthy federal prison sentence for sending hundreds of letters with fake anthrax to abortion clinics has agreed to plead guilty to carjacking, robbery and weapons offenses. Clayton Lee Waagner, 49, said in documents filed Monday and Tuesday in Harrisburg federal court that he wants to plead guilty to a Mississippi carjacking, to weapons charges in Mississippi and Tennessee and to robbing banks in Harrisburg and Morgantown, W.Va. The cases were consolidated in federal court in Pennsylvania. Waagner, who once said he was on a mission from God to kill abortion providers, is currently imprisoned at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary.

FDA Reviewing New Birth Control Options - NBC6
Birth control has come a long way over the years. Now, the Food and Drug Administration is considering some new contraceptives. If they are approved, women could have more choices than ever before. "There are many options. It has to be individualized," said Dr. Dr. Janet Schaffel. The FDA is considering a new type of implant called Implanon. The old implant system called Norplant involved six rods the size of matchsticks inserted under the skin. Implanon uses just one. It goes under the skin of the upper arm, where it releases the hormone progestin for up to three years.

General

Study: Welfare Clock Should Stop for College Moms - Women's eNews
A 1996 welfare law has driven many single mothers out of colleges. A new study proposes a few tweaks to the system to help single mothers in college beat the welfare clock and find their way out of poverty.

Panel seeks to reduce number of women, girls in Alabama lockups - AP
A new state panel will consider ways to reduce the number of women and girls held in prisons and juvenile lockups in Alabama, where females make up a rapidly increasing portion of inmates. The Commission on Girls and Women in the Criminal Justice System, created during the just-completed legislative session, met Tuesday for the first time. The panel hopes to reverse a trend that has resulted in nearly 2,000 females being imprisoned in the state, a 53 percent jump since 1995. The rise in women sent to the Department of Corrections has been the most dramatic, but the Department of Youth Services also is getting more girls from juvenile courts. DYS admitted 606 girls in 2004, up from 450 in 1996, according to its annual report.

International

High infant, mother death rates cause anguish in Afghanistan - AP
Fayruza's doll-sized body leans limply across the forearm of her aunt, who became the infant's adoptive mother minutes after her birth three months ago. The death of the withered baby's natural mother soon after delivery at home epitomizes what President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday called war-ravaged Afghanistan's ''great tragedy'' _ its appalling rates of child malnutrition and maternal mortality, among the world's worst. ''The morning she was born I became an aunt,'' said Shirinja, who goes by one name, as she cradled Fayruza in the cramped confines of an infant ward at Kabul's Indira Ghandi Children's Hospital. ''But by the afternoon after my sister died I had become her mother.'' The baby has spent the last 18 days in the hospital, suffering chronic malnutrition Some 600 infants and 50 mothers die on average per day in Afghanistan, says the U.N.'s child health agency, UNICEF. This country has the world's second-worst rate of mothers dying during labor _ 1,600 per 100,000. The worst is Sierra Leone.

Scholarships for Female Students Soon As Pres. Sirleaf Launches Girls Education Policy - The Analyst
The Minister of Education, Joseph Korto said the government of Liberia is working out modality to secure scholarship for female students in the country. Korto said the government will use the scholarship program to encourage girls and their parents to engage the "universal learning process." Speaking during the official launch of the National Policy on Girl Education at the Monrovia City Hall yesterday, he noted that over the past years, girls were used as house keepers and house wives which to some extent enslaves them to men. But he pointed out that the Unity Party-led government will put all mechanisms in place in order to reduce the soaring number of uneducated girls in the country.

Aceh Sets Up Gender Working Group to Help Refugees - Antara News
Aceh province has set up a Gender Working Group (GWG) to help tsunami survivors who have become refugees living in emergency tents and barracks. "The establishment of GWG is to give assistance to the refugees, especially women and children, among other things through consultations and advocacy," the head of Aceh Province`s Woman Empowerment Bureau Lailisma Sofyati said here on Wednesday. The working group will help the refugees deal with their problems and meet their needs in daily life. The group will for instance help arrange usage of toilets and kitchens for female refugees.

Minister's motorbike campaign against female foeticide - IANS
As part of a campaign against female foeticide, Gujarat's Urban Development Minister I.K. Jadeja will lead a rally of motorcyclists in his constituency from Thursday. Citizens, NGOs, religious leaders and other ministers will join Jadeja in his campaign, the 'Matru Vandana Yatra', which is expected to continue till May 7 and cover 85 towns and villages in Dhrangdhra constituency in Surendra Nagar district, said an official statement. Jadeja said his campaign was 'a small part' of the larger movement by the state to save girl children.