February 16, 2007 Support the Center now!
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DEFENDING OUR VICTORY AGAINST "KISS AND TELL" IN KANSAS
The Center filed a brief on January 25 to defend our victory in Kansas. The U.S. District Court of the District of Kansas ruled in favor of our clients last April, but the state appealed one month later. The ruling stopped Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline from enforcing a legal interpretation that would have required health-care and counseling professionals to report all suspected sexually active adolescents under the age of 16 to the state, including a 15-year-old teen who disclosed that she was "making out" with her 15-year-old boyfriend.
Read more about the case > >
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LILIAN SEPÚLVEDA, ON THE GROUND IN NICARAGUA AND BEFORE THE CEDAW COMMITTEE
Lilian Sepúlveda, the Center's Legal Adviser for Latin America, traveled to Managua in December to advise a group of activists, lawyers and doctors on legal challenges to Nicaragua's dangerous total ban on abortion. "Every Nicaraguan woman of child-bearing age is at risk," Sepúlveda said. "Today in Nicaragua women are dying because of lack of access to therapeutic abortion." Upon her return, Sepúlveda went to the UN, where she urged the Committee that monitors compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to call Nicaragua to task for violating human rights recognized in international treaties ratified by the country. This week the Committee released its Concluding Observations, which express concern about Nicaragua's criminalization of therapeutic abortion and state that the ban could lead more women to seek unsafe, illegal procedures, with consequent risks to their lives and health. The Center continues to work with local partners to fight for repeal of the ban.
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CENTER APPLAUDS CONGRESSONAL LEADERS FOR TAKING STRIDES ON PREVENTION
On February 4, Congressional leaders introduced the Prevention First Act, legislation designed to reduce high rates of unintended pregnancy in the United States through increased funding for reproductive health services, expanded availability of services, and sex education programs. The Center commends the bill's sponsors and supporters for making women's health a priority and putting forward practical, comprehensive solutions. "Every year, three million women become pregnant unintentionally, but that rate could be cut in half if emergency contraception was made more readily available to all women," said Nancy Northup, President of the Center.
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Learn more about Prevention First > >
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TRAINING LAWYERS IN POLAND TO USE THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
The Center will train Polish lawyers this month on how to take reproductive rights cases to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Advocates are finding that the ECHR has tremendous potential to advance reproductive rights throughout Europe -- for example, through cases like Tysiac v. Poland, in which the Center filed an amicus brief. Currently pending before the ECHR, Tysiac centers on a Polish woman who is severely visually impaired and was denied an abortion that would have prevented further irreversible damage to her eyesight, even though abortion in Poland is permitted to avert threats to a pregnant woman's physical health. The four-day training is a collaboration with the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning and the Warsaw University Law Clinic.
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PORTUGAL VOTES TO LIBERALIZE RESTRICTIVE ABORTION LAW
The Center welcomes Portugal's vote in a referendum on February 11 to legalize abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, and applauds Prime Minister José Sócrates for stating that he will ask Parliament to change the law. The current law criminalizes abortion except where a woman's life or health is at risk and in cases of rape and fetal impairment. As a result, tens of thousands of Portuguese women undergo illegal abortions every year, many performed under unsafe conditions. Just under 60 percent of voters favored liberalizing the law, while 40.75 percent opposed, with a turnout of slightly less than 44 percent of eligible voters. Under new legislation, women will no longer be forced to undergo illegal and life threatening abortions, and those who decide on abortion will be free from prosecution. Laura Katzive, Deputy Director of the International Legal Program at the Center, appeared on CNN International to discuss the referendum.
Learn more > >
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