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NEWS & LETTERS, November 2002
Women World Wide
by Mary Jo Grey With the blessing of the Bush administration, House
Republicans passed a bill, Sept. 25, allowing hospitals and other health care
providers to get away with refusing to perform or pay for abortions without the
threat of losing their federal funding. Opponents criticized the bill as a
further assault on already dwindling abortion rights. In further misogynist actions, in October Bush chose Dr. W.
David Hager to head the Food and Drug Administration's Health Drugs Advisory
Committee which advises the FDA on drugs used in obstetrics, gynecology and
related reproductive health care. A practicing obstetrician/gynecologist, Hager
refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women, and advises women with
pre-menstrual syndrome to read the Bible and pray. *
* * Chilean women have finally won formal legal access to
emergency contraception in cases of rape, unprotected sex or contraceptive
failure. The victory followed a long battle between women's groups and the
Institute of Public Health against the Catholic Church and the conservative
Right who had originally banned such contraception as a form of abortion. *
* * Palestinian women prisoners went on a hunger strike in August to protest Israel's treatment of Palestinian political prisoners. It was reported that as waste water flooded the prison cells, guards unleashed tear gas grenades on the women prisoners. |
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