Women's eNews, December 11, 2002

By Françoise Girard

Editor's Note: The following is a commentary. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily the views of Women's eNews.

Many concerned citizens saw President Bush's move blocking the United States' $34 million contribution to the United Nations Population Fund last July as yet another attack on abortion. But his actions then and since have revealed a much broader anti-woman agenda, one that is threatening women's health, human rights and equality in the United States and worldwide.

New York Newsday, December 1, 2002

By Mabel Bianco

A United Nations report released last week announced that women have caught up with men as far as AIDS is concerned. Half the adults affected with HIV worldwide are now women. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise. It was just a matter of time before the disease shifted from one originally affecting gay white men to one transmitted heterosexually all over the world.

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Summary: Factsheet developed by the International Sexual and Reproductive Rights Coalition in preparation for the 2002 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children. Includes basic information, key actions, and international commitments related to families worldwide (2 pages).

>>Available in PDF / Available in French and Spanish

Summary: Factsheet developed by the International Sexual and Reproductive Rights Coalition in preparation for the 2002 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children. Includes basic information, key actions, and international commitments related to the human rights of children and their sexual and reproductive health (2 pages).

>>Available in PDF / Available in French and Spanish

Summary: Factsheet developed by theInternational Sexual and Reproductive Rights Coalition in preparationfor the 2002 United Nations General Assembly Special Session onChildren. Includes basic information, key actions, and internationalcommitments related to trafficking and girls (2 pages).

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Summary: By Françoise Girard and Wanda Nowicka (Reproductive Health Matters, Vol. 10, No. 19, May 2002). Describes the findings of the July 2001 Tribunal on Abortion Rights in Warsaw, which was organized by the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning in response to the Polish Anti-Abortion Act of 1993. A panel of Polish and foreign experts heard testimonies from seven women and, based on their stories, concluded that restrictive abortion laws do not decrease the incidence of abortion but rather push it underground, endanger women's health, create a climate where even those services that are allowed by law become unavailable, and contravene standards set by international human rights law. The Tribunal brought the issue of abortion into the media and galvanized Polish and other Eastern European women's groups to become more active in defense of abortion rights (9 pages). 

Click here to order the full issue of Reproductive Health Matters.

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Summary: By Françoise Girard andWilhelmina Waldman (International Family Planning Perspectives, Vol.26, No. 4, December, 2000, New York: Alan Guttmacher Institute).Examines the international legal framework for the reproductive rightsof refugees and internationally displaced persons, as well as someaspects of UN and NGO policies relevant to refugee reproductive health(7 pages).

Click here to order this issue or other issues of International Family Planning Perspectives.