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What's New -- August 2004
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What's New
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Updates
from the Center for Reproductive Rights
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August
2004
In
this issue of What's New:
Court Shuts Down Man Who Fakes
Abortion Services in Louisiana
Judge Blocks Enforcement of Kansas
"Kiss and Tell" Law
Court Enjoins New Abortion Law, Protecting Rights of Nearly
400 Mississippi Women
New on the web: 2004 Mid-Year Legislative Report
Nepalese Legal Experts Seek to Remedy Reproductive Health
Violations
Argentina Update
August 28, March for Women's Lives, NYC
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Court
Shuts Down Man Who Fakes Abortion Services in Louisiana
For at least a decade, William Graham has operated a fake abortion referral
service in New Orleans. In a highly duplicitous scheme to stop women from
having abortions, Graham falsely advertises in the phone book, co-opting
the name of a well-known medical provider. When a woman contacts him,
he promises to connect her with doctors in private practice for a bargain
price. He claims to have set up an "appointment," and then repeatedly
"reschedules" it. Graham then strings his victim along for weeks
and sometimes months, intending to deceive her past the time for a legal
abortion. Now, because of the Center's legal challenge, a federal
judge in Louisiana has shut Graham's operation down.
Learn
more about Choice, Inc. v. Graham.
Judge Blocks Enforcement of Kansas "Kiss and Tell"
Law
For now, teenagers in Kansas can still receive confidential health care
-- thanks to the Center's challenge to the state's new "kiss
and tell" law. Last year, the Kansas attorney general issued a broad
opinion of a child-abuse reporting law. According to his interpretation,
the law required a wide range of health-care providers and counseling
professionals to report any sexual activity involving a teen younger than
16 as evidence of child abuse. Even a school counselor would have to report
a teen who disclosed "making out" with her boyfriend. But on
July 26, a Kansas federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against
enforcement of the legislation.
Learn
more about Aid for Women v. Foulston.
Court
Enjoins New Abortion Law, Protecting Rights of Nearly 400 Mississippi
Women
Back in the spring, the governor of Mississippi signed new abortion legislation,
claiming it would make second-trimester abortions safer for women. The
law really threatened to make the procedure completely unavailable by
placing absurd regulations on the abortion clinics in the state. Nearly
400 women seek second-trimester abortions a year in Mississippi. The new
measure would force them to travel outside the state or to carry their
pregnancies to term. Last month, a federal judge granted a preliminary
injunction against the law, concurring with the Center that the legislation
did not protect women's health, as the state claims, and placed
an "undue burden" on a woman's right to choose.
Learn
more about Jackson Women's Health Organization v. Amy.
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New
on the web: 2004 Mid-Year Legislative Report
The Center for Reproductive Rights' analysis of legislative trends
for the first half of the 2004 legislative session (January through July
2004).
Read
the report.
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Nepalese
Legal Experts Seek to Remedy Reproductive Health Violations
This month, the Center sponsored a roundtable discussion in Nepal among
some of the best legal minds in the South Asian country. The meeting marked
the first time this group of Nepalese government officials, lawyers and
reproductive rights advocates have joined together to look for remedies
to human rights violations that imperil women's reproductive health.
Nepal has one of the highest rates of unsafe abortions, child marriage and
sex trafficking in the world. The panel was prompted by the Center's
groundbreaking study, Women of the World: Laws and Policies Affecting their
Reproductive Lives: South Asia, the first extensive examination of the
laws and policies that influence reproductive rights in the region.
Learn
more about our Women of the World series.
Argentina
Update
In June 2004 the Center submitted a letter regarding women's and adolescents'
inadequate access to services and information in Argentina to the UN Committee
on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The Center's
letter aims to ensure that the CEDAW Committee receives full and adequate
information so that its committees' observations to governments address
inadequate compliance with reproductive rights standards. Argentina is
one of the countries featured in Women of the World: Laws and Policies
Affecting Their Reproductive Lives, Latin America and the Caribbean .
Read
the Center's Shadow Letter.
Purchase
or download for free Women of the World: Laws and Policies Affecting
Their Reproductive Lives Latin America and the Caribbean .
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August
28th, 2004 March for Women’s Lives, NYC
Be a part of New York City's biggest, strongest march for reproductive
freedom ever. March for global family planning, comprehensive sex education,
safe, legal and accessable abortion birth control options, privacy regarding
sexuality and equal access to health care! The Center is a co-sponsor
of this event.
11:00AM Assemble at Cadman Plaza, Brooklyn
12 NOON Step off to march across Brooklyn Bridge
1:00 PM Rally at City Hall Park, Manhattan
Learn
more about the March for Women's Lives, NYC.
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