Transcript of WSLR Women's News Broadcast:

Women News Mar 17, 2009

UPBEAT NEWS

On Sunday March 8, International Women's Day, President Obama named a new position and selected Mel Anne Verveer to become the first Special Ambassador-at-large for International women's issues. Verveer worked as an aide in the Clinton administration and as chief of staff to then first lady Hilary Clinton.

But what is really exciting is that this ambassadorship will confront the issues of women globally. It is exciting to see that women’s issues are rising in the new administration’s foreign policy agenda.

Last Wednesday (March 11) President Obama announced his newly created White House Council on Women and Girls. The council will be led by senior presidential adviser and longtime friend of the Obama family, Valerie Jarrett, will include most members of the president's Cabinet. It is charged with ensuring that all governmental agencies take the needs of women into account. Its purpose is to coordinate federal response on a range of issues, including equal pay, family leave and child care.

Nicholas Kristoff, writing at the new York Times web site about both this position and the newly created Council on Women and Girls, said, “you can’t fight poverty effectively unless you educate, emancipate and empower women, and bring them into the formal economy.”

In another event on Wednesday, Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented the State Department Women of Courage Awards. The event highlighted how both the current and former first ladies have made women's rights a signature issue. More importantly it highlighted the efforts of women and men around the globe working to improve the status of all human beings with little if any recognition.

Since calling women's rights a human rights issue at the women's conference in Beijing in 1995, Secretary Clinton has made it a personal mission to champion the rights of women. Her first two trips as secretary of state have been packed with events promoting the importance of women's rights. Clinton said. "The rights of women will "always be central to our foreign policy" and that, "women still comprise the majority of the world's poor, unfed and unschooled."  She pointed out that the status of women and girls is a key indicator of whether or not progress is possible in a society.

Michelle Obama spoke about the importance of proper health care, education and justice for women in ensuring strong families and communities. She said, "The difference between a broken community and a thriving one is the presence of women who are valued, where relationships among women and between women and men are based upon mutual respect."

And may I say “amen!”  

On Tuesday, Mar 10 the Senate passed a legislative fix to existing law that will restore access to affordable birth control for millions of women. Two years ago a legislative error made birth control prices skyrocket by as much as 900 percent. This should be a relief to the millions of women who will find affordable family planning services once again within reach.

They say it was some kind of legislative error, as if it were a technical error, but Jane, do you think it would have taken three years to fix it if the drug in question had been Viagra?

Good news on the contraceptive front: On March 11, The Food and Drug Administration approved the new FC2 female condom.  This kind of birth control lets a woman in charge of her body, and the female condom will of course work to prevent both pregnancy and disease.

On March 11, Governor Charlie Crist appointed Judge James Perry to the Florida Supreme Court, proving his commitment to diversity on the Court. State NAACP President Adora Obi Nweze, whom Crist recently named his minority affairs adviser, said "All Floridians ought to be proud that our Supreme Court can now begin to reflect the actual people who reside here. We applaud the governor's decision."

And more GOOD NEWS! On Friday, the ERA was referred to the Civil Justice & Courts Policy Committee in the house. A similar bill in the senate was referred to the Judiciary; Rules - SJ 00076

NOW FOR THE DOWN BEAT News:

On Thursday March 5, Rio de Janeiro - A Brazilian archbishop excommunicated the mother of a 9-year-old girl who had an abortion. She had become pregnant with twins after being raped by her stepfather. Brazilian Archbishop Jose Gomes Sobrinho also excommunicated the doctors who performed the procedure even though the pregnancy's gestation, which was in its 15th week, seriously threatened the life of the child who weighs only about 80 lbs. The stepfather was not excommunicated for his crime, but at least he has been jailed and faces criminal charges. Letha Dawson Scanzoni, a writer on religion and social issues said, "In essence, it appears the church's attitude and the stepfather's attitude are no different, namely, the idea that a female body is not the girl's or woman's own but belongs to men to determine whatever they want with it." Brazil's president as well as its progressive health minister have criticized the excommunication and defended the doctor for performing the legal procedure

That is perhaps the ultimate objectification of the woman’s body--in this case a female child’s body--as incubator.

March 10th was National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers but state legislatures are piling on the obstacles and restrictions: mandatory ultrasounds are the latest fad, with bills being considered in eleven states including Florida. As reported in the March 6 New York Times, the women's health activists who form the backbone of many clinic staffs are retiring and proving hard to replace. Doctors, nurses and technicians are reluctant to work in clinics in anti-choice places where they will be picketed, socially ostracized and forced to protect themselves daily against possible violence. Low pay is another factor: clinic staffers make about half what they would in another specialty.

With respect to the mandatory ultrasounds, I would think there might be an ethical issue with respect to performing medical procedures, in this case, an ultrasound, that are not medically necessary. And when every day we hear more about the costs of health care skyrocketing, who is going to pay for the unnecessary, in reality punitive, procedures? Ultrasounds are generally not painful, but they are invasive, and the sole purpose here would appear to be to upset the woman.