Two OB/GYN clinics in Georgia that suspiciously caught fire this week appear to have been the victims of arson, the Federal Bureau of Investigations said in a statement Wednesday night. On Wednesday morning, firefighters were called to Alpha OB/GYN in Marietta, Ga. after smoke began billowing out of the building. The firefighters cleared the fire in about 20 minutes and nobody was hurt, but a spokesperson for Cobb County Fire and Emergency Services told The Huffington Post that the building had been badly damaged. "Pretty much all of the third floor was severely burned, and the second had a lot of water and smoke damage," said Denell Boyd, the department's public information officer. While the police department has yet to apprehend a suspect, employees of ... Continue reading →
A swarm Washington, D.C., residents descended on Rep. Trent Franks' (R-Ariz.) Capitol Hill office on Wednesday to drop off plastic rats, pictures of potholes, unfair parking tickets and other representations of municipal problems in protest of the D.C. abortion ban he sponsored. Franks recently introduced a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy in D.C. and denied D.C.'s only elected representative, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), from testifying at the hearing on the bill. The incident sparked debates about D.C.'s lack of voting representation in Congress, since Norton does not have a vote. Wednesday's protest was organized by DC Vote, an advocacy group dedicated to securing full representation for D.C. in Congress, and Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington. One by one, about ... Continue reading →
A swarm Washington, D.C., residents descended on Rep. Trent Franks' (R-Ariz.) Capitol Hill office on Wednesday to drop off plastic rats, pictures of potholes, unfair parking tickets and other representations of municipal problems in protest of the D.C. abortion ban he sponsored. Franks recently introduced a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy in D.C. and denied D.C.'s only elected representative, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), from testifying at the hearing on the bill. The incident sparked debates about D.C.'s lack of voting representation in Congress, since Norton does not have a vote. Wednesday's protest was organized by DC Vote, an advocacy group dedicated to securing full representation for D.C. in Congress, and Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington. One by one, about ... Continue reading →
WASHINGTON -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday questioned Mitt Romney's choice in foreign policy advisers, saying that some are so right-wing that the advice they give deserves "second thought." "I don't know who all of his advisers are, but I've seen some of the names and some of them are quite far to the right. And sometimes they might be in a position to make judgments or recommendations to the candidate that should get a second thought," Powell said during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." He gave the example of Romney recently saying that Russia is the "number one geopolitical foe" to the United States. "Come on Mitt, think," Powell said. "That isn't the case." Romney's team of about 40 foreign ... Continue reading →
Pennsylvania State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) will introduce legislation on Wednesday that would defund Planned Parenthood, adding his state to a list of four others that have pending bills to strip public funds from the family planning provider. Metcalfe's bill, the Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priority Act, would put health care providers that offer abortion services at the bottom of the priority list for state funding. The anti-abortion activist group Susan B. Anthony List wrote the bill, which closely resembles the one Arizona lawmakers used to defund Planned Parenthood earlier this year. Planned Parenthood clinics receive a substantial percentage of their money through state and federal government funding streams, including Medicaid and Titles V, X and XX. The clinics use the funds to offer breast ... Continue reading →
Catherine Furey, 38, of the UK, died in December 2010 after drinking concentrated vinegar, a DIY abortion she read about on the Internet. Furey had a “violent reaction” to the vinegar, was rushed to the hospital and died. The details of her death have only know come out in relation to a trial against Furey’s sister-in-law, Dawn Chadwick, who handed Furey the vinegar bottle. Arrested in 2011, Chadwick was later charged with “unlawfully supplying a poisonous or noxious substance with the intent to cause the miscarriage of a woman.” The charge was later upgraded to manslaughter, but she was eventually cleared of wrongdoing. The families of the two women, through their lawyers, have issued statements saying they do not blame the sister-in-law for Catherine Furey’s ... Continue reading →
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) After repeatedly being accused of participating in a legislative "war on women," Republican women in the House of Representatives announced Monday that they're forming a new caucus dedicated to raising their profile as female lawmakers and presenting a "unified voice" on issues that affect women. The Women's Policy Committee includes all 24 GOP women in the House, and will be chaired by Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.). Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) will serve as vice chairmen. “When I am back home visiting with women in my district, the number one concern I hear is that the uncertainty in Washington about regulation, litigation and taxation is hindering their ability to innovate and create jobs,” said Blackburn in ... Continue reading →
Sites such as RH Reality Check and Abortion Gang have long comprised a thriving reproductive-rights blogosphere. In the past year, their numbers have swelled, as legions of pissed-off feminists take to the Internet to oppose the growing war on women’s reproductive rights. One of the new kids on the repro-rights block is Keep your Boehner out of my Uterus, which started in early 2011 as an anonymous Tumblr in response to increasing anti-choice legislation and quickly amassed a following of thousands. After being interviewed for an article for Salon.com, Jessica Luther, the woman behind this fierce and furious Tumblr, has made her identity known and is ready to talk openly about her salvo against the War on Women and what she has learned along the ... Continue reading →
