grrrly news 01/28

FDA Recommends Pregnancy Prevention Pill be Sold without Prescription
An emergency birth control pill available in dozens of countries can lower a woman's risk of an unwanted pregnancy after unprotected sex. But purchasing the pill often requires a note from a doctor or clinic. That may soon change in the United States. A panel that advises the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recommended that the so-called "morning-after pill" be sold over the counter, without a prescription. But conservative groups are opposing such a move.

Britain to End Sperm and Egg Donor Anonymity
Britain said Wednesday it would end anonymity for sperm and egg donors next year in an move that a fertility expert said could worsen the country's already critical shortage of donations.
Children conceived from donated eggs or sperm will have the right to track down their biological parents from the age of 18, public health minister Melanie Johnson told a news conference.
"I firmly believe donor-conceived people have a right to information about their genetic origins that is currently denied them, including the identity of their donor," she said.

Ga. High Court Gets Teen Sex Case
Marcus Dixon led is whole life to avoid a place like the prison he is currently held in.

Just a year ago, he was at the top of his class. He wasn't just an "A" student, but, as CBS News Correspondent Mika Brzezinski reports, a star football player at his Rome, Georgia high school.

Iraqi women divided over family law
Thousands of Kurdish women have marched in northern Iraq against an interim Governing Council decision to repeal long-standing secular family laws even as 500 veiled women gathered in the Shia city of Najaf to support it.

Too well-dressed to be abused
A MOROCCAN man had been released after a Spanish court ruled his wife was too well-dressed during the trial to be a victim of domestic violence, news reports said yesterday.

Barcelona judge Francisco Javier Pauli Collado said Latifa Daghdagh's "physical appearance during the three-day hearing, not only made up, but also dressed differently each day, with rings, fancy bracelets and earrings and large glasses ... does not coincide with the image of a woman who has suffered months of aggression", the national news agency Efe quoted the ruling as saying.

Boxer Announces Federal Bill to Codify Abortion Rights
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), flanked by pro-choice leaders, today announced new federal legislation to codify women's right to choose abortion. "The Freedom of Choice Act of 2004 (FOCA) would establish a statutory right to choose within the same parameters articulated by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade," said Sen. Boxer on the 31st anniversary of that landmark decision. The legislation would strike down any restrictions placed on abortion apart from those in Roe, so poor women would be able to obtain abortions through Medicaid, public hospitals would not be allowed to refuse to perform abortions, women in the military overseas would be able to obtain abortions at military hospitals, and women would not be forced to endure waiting periods and anti-choice propaganda before undergoing abortions. "We need to take steps to secure our right to choose," said Boxer. "It is time to write Roe v. Wade into law."

Girl Scouts Revamp Image
The Girl Scouts of America has launched a program called Studio 2B, which allows girls ages 11 to 17 help set their troop's agenda, where they earn charms instead of badges, and their mentors are college-aged women instead of moms.
"Studio 2B is what girls 11 to 17 need in their lives, and Girl Scouting is making sure that Studio 2B is becoming part of their lives," said Dr. Harriet Mosatche, director of research and programs for Girls Scouts of America

Hamas: Women who shame family can be bombers
Last week, Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin praised the woman who killed herself and four Israeli security men at the Erez checkpoint. But it turns out Yassin's militant Islamist organization does not unequivocally support the use of women in terror attacks - it is especially hesitant about the deployment of married mothers. Senior Hamas figures who have consulted about the subject recently are inclined to support only the use of women who have desecrated rules of "family honor."

News Anchor Fired for Flashing
Once upon a recent time--in the city of Youngstown, in the state of Ohio, and in the age of the world-wide web--there dwelled a young lass named Catherine Bosley

Serial Murders Tied to Canada's Prostitution Law
The arrest of a man accused of murdering 22 women from Vancouver--most of them prostitutes--sparked debate over a 1985 Canadian law that some say drives sex workers underground and makes them easy targets for criminals

Family Violence Cries Out for Prevention
New findings on the toll that domestic violence takes on the mental health of teens should wake up our policymakers. What our children need is not a federal policy of marriage promotion. They need a commitment to end domestic violence.

Rape, Abductions on Rise in Baghdad
Amid surging crime in postwar Baghdad, sexual violence and abductions of women appear to be increasing. But with police stations focused on bombing threats, no one is counting the women being attacked or sold into prostitution

3 Presidential Hopefuls Address Women's Issues
Three Democratic hopefuls took the opportunity last night to address women's issues at an event in Hanover, N.H., hosted by Lifetime TV in partnership with ABC's "Good Morning America" and Dartmouth College.

Schwarzenegger Paroles Two Battered Women
In his brief time as California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger has paroled two battered women. Now prisoners' advocates are looking for even more help from the man who took office amid negative publicity about his treatment of women.

Early Detection Test Underway for Ovarian Cancer
Researchers are conducting clinical trials of a non-invasive, pin-prick procedure that is the first to catch ovarian cancer in its initial stages

Saudi Calls for Equity; Grand Mufti Blasts Speech
An internationally renowned Saudi Arabian businesswoman addressed a roomful of men and women at an important economic forum this week on the issue of women in the Saudi Arabian workforce, ignoring vehement backlash from conservative religious authorities
At the same forum, Saudi Arabia's highest religious authority denounced all calls for greater women's rights, declaring the mixing of unveiled women with men as a violation of Islamic teaching

Prison system discriminates against women: commission
Major changes are needed to fix a prison system that routinely discriminates against women, says the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
Aboriginal women and those with mental disabilities are too often over-classified as security risks and placed in isolation, says a report released Wednesday

'Foreign women considered easy'
Foreign women in Delhi face worse harassment than their native counterparts, especially because they stand out in a crowd.
Staring, catcalling, unwanted touching and even outright propositioning are some of the actions that these women living in or visiting the city experience.
An American student, Torea Frey, described an encounter with an auto driver that made her think twice about how she behaved towards male friends in public.

Giving credit to women
Call centre credit management and recovery has emerged as a major employer, especially of women, in South Africa, with one top company in the sector increasing its staff complement by more than 3 000 percent in the past two years.

And 95 percent of the staff are women, most of them previously disadvantaged people, who have representation all the way through to senior management and will very soon be represented on its board

'Wild Women' nude pulled from museum's display
An artist who removed her painting of a nude female from a Northeastern Nevada Museum display said there was nothing objectionable about the artwork.