32 Girls Have Died

32 Girls Have Died

11,916 adverse events already reported to the CDC… and counting.

Pain and swelling. Life-threatening muscle weakness. Blood clots in the heart and lungs.

And the deaths of 32 innocent girls and young women.

You might think I'm talking about a deadly new disease or a global epidemic…

I'm not.

Sadly, it's more sinister than that. The health threats listed above have all been linked with Gardasil, the so-called "cervical cancer vaccine." And thanks to Pharma giant Merck, desperate parents and naive young women believe this vaccine saves lives… they couldn't be more wrong.

That's why HSI's Jenny Thompson has released a new video in which she exposes the deception for what it is…and reveals some truly shocking information no one else is talking about.

And you are the very first to see it.

Please, if you have daughters, granddaughters or friends who might be considering this terrible vaccine, you must watch this video. And please forward it to anyone you think would benefit from the vital information it contains.

If you think you know the whole story on Gardasil, I think you'll be shocked by what you're about to see. Just click here to start watching the video. It's just a few minutes long…and those few minutes might just save a young girl's life.

Urgent: Call Your Senators to Save Funding for Development Programs!

Urgent: Your Action Needed to Save Funding for International Development Programs!

During his inauguration speech, President Barack Obama pledged to work alongside the "people of poor nations...to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds."

"We can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders," President Obama said, underscoring the fragility of the world economy. On March 11, he took an important step towards this goal by requesting $53.8 billion for the country's fiscal year 2010 International Affairs Budget, which includes funding for vital development programs for women and families living in poverty.

This funding, while only 1.4 percent of the national budget, could mean the difference between life and death for millions who are struggling to survive on less than a dollar a day, many of whom have been plunged into extreme poverty over the past few months. However, this week the Congressional Budget Committees cut the President's International Affairs Budget request by $5.3 billion in the House and $4.0 billion in the Senate.

Take Action! Tell the Senate to Restore Lifesaving Funding for the International Affairs Budget!

Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) will be offering an amendment this week to restore funding for the International Affairs Budget. As supporters of women's economic opportunity, we must do all we can to gain support for the Kerry-Lugar amendment so that this important support reaches the millions of women and families around the world who are living in extreme poverty. Please take action today by asking your Senators to co-sponsor the Kerry-Lugar Amendment and oppose any further cutting amendments.

Take Action: Call your Senators today and urge them to support the Kerry-Lugar Amendment to restore $4 billion to the International Affairs Budget and oppose any further cutting amendments!

How to Take Action:

1. Click here to look up your Senators' office phone numbers.

2. When an office staffer answers the phone say, "As a consituent of Senator ______, I am calling to urge the Senator to support the Kerry-Lugar Amendment to restore the $4 billion cut to the FY10 International Affairs Budget in the Senate Budget Resolution and oppose any further cutting amendments." Click here for more talking points.

Thank you for taking action on behalf of women and girls worldwide!

Don't Forget: RSVP for Wednesday's Tele-Conference on Pres. Obama & Women!

March 2009 | Women Thrive Worldwide | Photo Credits: Sara Heinrichs, Steve Evans, Sara Heinrichs

Join Us for Our New National Tele-Conference Series!

On International Women's Day, March 8th, Women Thrive Worldwide launched our new free tele-conference series on global women's issues. Join us quarterly to hear from our experts on some of the most important issues facing women in the developing world as well and what's going on in Washington, DC. Ask questions, stay informed, & get involved!

Join us this Wednesday, March 18th from 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EST for our first tele-conference: President Obama's Priorities for Women Worldwide & Honduras Field Report Hear Ritu Sharma, Women Thrive's President and Co-founder, and Catalina Rojas, Women Thrive's Director of Global Partnerships to discuss the Obama Administration's priorities for women in developing countries. RSVP Now!

Also learn about their recent trip to Honduras where they spent time with Women Thrive's partner COMUCAP. Learn how organizations like COMUCAP are fighting violence and poverty through women's economic opportunity and what the U.S. can do to help.

Click here to RSVP and receive call-in details!

First, North Dakota. Is your state next?

Anti-choice ideologues think you don't care about North Dakota.

But what happens in North Dakota affects women everywhere.

Tell the governor:
Veto any abortion-ban bill.

Anti-choice ideologues think you don't care about women in North Dakota.

That's why they're pushing a so-called "personhood" bill through the North Dakota legislature—a measure that would ban abortion and could lead to bans on birth control, stem-cell research, and in-vitro fertilization.

Stand up for the women of North Dakota and stop this "guerilla warfare" on reproductive choice now.

After losing the White House, critical seats in Congress, and three ballot measures last November, the anti-choice movement launched a new phase of their war on women's freedom and privacy. They vowed to return to their glory days of angry protests by waging "guerilla warfare" against a woman's right to choose.¹

The anti-choice movement is starting in North Dakota because they think no one will notice. And when they're done there, they'll move along to the next state.

In fact, they're working to advance "personhood" measures in 16 states. Personhood USA, one of the organizations leading the fight, hopes their strategy leads to the end of the right to choose: "Establishing personhood closes what we call the 'hole' in Roe v. Wade."

Sign the petition to the governor of North Dakota telling him to veto any abortion-ban bill that comes to his desk.

North Dakota does not have a single pro-choice law on the books that helps prevent unintended pregnancy. Women in North Dakota have no safeguard against pharmacies that refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control. And they have no assurance that they can access emergency contraception at the hospital in the case of sexual assault. This new "personhood" bill would block women in North Dakota from ever receiving those protections.

Thank you for standing with the women of North Dakota—and women everywhere—by taking action today.

My best,

Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

¹ "Pro-Lifers In Obamaland," Newsweek.com, January 27, 2009, http://www.newsweek.com/id/181786

Other International Women's Day Events

Women in Afghanistan: Solutions for a Stable Future

On Tuesday March 10, Women Thrive will host it's first International Women's Day Breakfast on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

President Obama has noted that Afghanistan is currently one of our nation's greatest foreign policy challenges. Afghanistan has taken center stage as a security concern for the United States with a focus on the threat of growing instability, the dangers of terrorism, the potential rise of the Taliban, and other undemocratic forces. Women in Afghanistan: Solutions for a Stable Future will feature the voices of women who have traveled from Afghanistan to share their insights about the critical role women are playing in building peace and security, establishing rule of law, increasing political participation, and educating the next generation to improve Afghanistan's future and global security. Learn More.

Paola Gianturco's Celebrating Women Exhibit: Paris, France

Celebrate International Women's Day at an inspiring March 10-25, 2009 photography exhibit in Paris, France. Photojournalist Paola Gianturco's Celebrating Women exhibit - photographs of festivals that honor women in six countries - will open at a private reception on March 9, 2009 at UNESCO international headquarters in Paris, France. Based on Ms. Gianturco's book Celebrating Women (powerHouse Books, 2004), which featured seventeen festivals in fifteen countries, these traditions honor women for reasons as diverse as kind-heartedness; ferocity; courageousness in the face of social injustice; or simply for being young and fancy-free. Learn More.

Watch A Powerful Noise Live!

CARE invites you to attend its premier event celebrating International Women's Day, featuring the acclaimed documentary, A Powerful Noise Thursday March 5th, 2009.

This one-night event by Executive Producer Sheila Johnson will feature the acclaimed documentary A Powerful Noise, followed by a town hall discussion broadcast live from New York City featuring: former Secretary of State Madeline K. Albright, CARE Advocate Christy Turlington Burns, CARE President and CEO Dr. Helene Gayle, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof and actress and activist Natalie Portman. Learn More.

Poll: Large Majority in All Countries Favor Equal Rights for Women

According to a WorldPublicOpinion.org poll, publics around the world express a widespread consensus that it is important for "women to have full equality of rights" and most say it is very important. This is true in Muslim nations as well as Western nations.

In nearly all of the 22 nations surveyed most people perceive that in their lifetime women have gained greater equality. Nonetheless, large majorities would like their government and the United Nations to take an active role in preventing discrimination. Learn More.

International Women's Day: Join Our New Tele-Conference Series!

Announcing Our National Tele-Conference Series!

In honor of International Women's Day, March 8, Women Thrive Worldwide is proud to announce our new national tele-conference series on global women's issues. Join us quarterly to hear from our experts on some of the most important issues facing women in the developing world as well and what's going on in Washington, DC. Ask questions, stay informed, & get involved!

Save the Date: President Obama's Priorities for Women Worldwide & Honduras Field Report Our first tele-conference will be held on Wednesday March 18 from 3:00 - 4:00 pm EST. Join Ritu Sharma, Women Thrive's President and Co-founder, and Catalina Rojas, Women Thrive's Director of Global Partnerships to discuss the Obama Administration's priorities for women in developing countries. Also hear about their recent trip to Honduras where they spent time with Women Thrive's partner COMUCAP. Learn how organizations like COMUCAP are fighting violence and poverty through women's economic opportunity and what the U.S. can do to help. Click here to RSVP!

More abstinence-only insanity: You can't rape a slut

by Amplify Your Voice

Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 10:42:42 AM PST

(crossposted at Amplify)

I recently attended a book reading by some of the contributors of Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape. The book (which is wonderful and you should go buy) deals with many subjects around "rape culture", particularly the common practice of blaming the victim of rape if she has a "loose" or "slutty" reputation. Our society far too often holds up a pure and virginal ideal for women, and once this "seal" is broken or they display "unnaceptable" behaviors, they become "dirty" and "get what is coming to them".

• Amplify Your Voice's diary :: ::
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A few days after the reading, I came across an abstinence-only until marriage program in Ohio (yes, the same Ohio with Derek the Abstinence Clown) that pretty much reinforced every crazy aspect of a rape culture that blames the victims of rape if they do not pass the "purity" test. It’s bad enough that abstinence-only programs like these withhold and distort vital information that young people need to protect their own sexual health, but adding this acceptance of rape culture is the icing on the Shit Cake.

The Ohio program is Abstinence ‘Till Marriage, which started receiving annual CBAE grants of $600,000 in 2006 (set to run until 2011). On their "Miss the Mess" website, you can enter the "Party Room", where you learn the story of Rochelle, Jason, Monica and Tanner. Each person tells their perspective about what happens during and after a party one night.

Rochelle tells how she drove her drunken friend Jason home after the party, and then is raped by him. Jason denies that the rape happened, saying their sex was consensual. Monica and Tanner observe that Jason was being a drunken idiot the entire night, with Monica (Jason’s ex) adding her opinion that Rochelle has a reputation for "putting out" and being a "slut".

The site then asks the question: "Based on all accounts, whose story sounds the least credible?"

Guess who is the "correct" answer? Rochelle.

Why, you ask? Because she "made several questionable decisions", "she had a motive to lie" and, lest we forget, "she’s been pinned reputation (sic) for being ‘loose’"

It’s hard not to overemphasize the sickness in this "correct" answer. Rochelle is not be believed. After all, she drove in a car with a boy. And she’s actually had sex before, or at least people say that she has, which is apparently the same thing and equally worthy of disbelief after you’ve been raped.

The site then asks if we know that a rape occurred. The "correct" answer says that we don’t know, emphasizing again that Rochelle has a "motive to lie", and that:

"Unfortunately, we are left judging (Rochelle’s) honesty by her character and her actions"... "Monica implied Rochelle had a promiscuous reputation and the whole school seemed to know it."

Ah, yes. Her "character". They once again remind us that "sluts" aren’t to be trusted. Why should we listen or care about them, right?

The site then goes a step further, adding a degree of sympathy for the actions of the rapist:

"Also, alcohol makes people less inhibitive. Jason was extremely vulnerable to his circumstances".

Vulnerable? Less inhibitive? What exactly are they saying here, that rape is a "less inhibitive" behavior? That alcohol made poor Jason "vulnerable" to being a sick rapist asshole? Seriously, I’d like to know what the hell their point is on this one.

Perhaps the sickest aspect of this organization and their website is the fact that our tax dollars are funding it. To date, they have received $1.8 million dollars, and are set to receive another $1.8 million in the next three years. Yes, we are subsidizing rape culture. And this is just one example of the many ridiculous abstinence-only until marriage sex education programs that we have wasted $1.5 billion in federal money on in the last decade.

But we now have a great chance to end funding for abstinence-only until marriage initiatives. President Obama is currently drafting his budget for the 2010 fiscal year, and it is vital that he ZERO OUT ab-only funding in this budget. If he doesn’t’ zero it out, it will be extremely difficult to get Congress to pull the money out. Likewise, if Obama does zero out the funding, it will be a more difficult process for Congress to sneak the funding back in through appropriations.

So please, with all due haste, send Obama this message today: ZERO OUT ABSTINENCE-ONLY SEX EDUCATION FUNDING.

Send out the abstinence clowns, and strike one small blow against rape culture.

Fighting Violence Against Women, One Coffee Bean at a Time

February 2009 | Women Thrive Worldwide | Photo Credits: Sara Heinrichs, Steve Evans, Sara Heinrichs

Fighting Violence Against Women, One Coffee Bean at a Time

In honor of Valentine's Day we are devoting this month's newsletter to the fight to end violence against women and girls worldwide, an issue so many of you have take action on over the past few years. To honor your efforts, and those of women around the world, we couldn't think of a better story than that of COMUCAP, our partner in Honduras that has overcome all odds to improve the lives of the women they serve:

Photo Credit: COMUCAP	When Dulce Marlene Contreras started her organization with seven of her friends, there was one thing on her mind: how to help the women of Honduras protect themselves from domestic violence. A daughter of farmers in the rural region of La Paz, Honduras, Marlene was tired of watching the women of her community endure widespread alcoholism and household abuse. She wanted to fight back.
So, in 1993, Marlene founded the Coordinadora de Mujeres Campesinas de La Paz, or COMUCAP, to educate women about their rights. But as time went by Marlene noticed that something was missing. While awareness-building was critical, in order to reduce violence for the long-term, COMUCAP had to attack the problem at its root: poverty. "We realized that until women are economically empowered, they will not be empowered to escape abuse for good," says Marlene. Seeing this link between economic independence and reducing violence revolutionized the way COMUCAP approached its work. In addition to rights awareness workshops, it started training women to grow and sell organic coffee and aloe vera, helping them earn an income for their families. Soon Marlene and her friends started seeing results - the more money women made, the more power they were able to assert in the household.	Marlene (right) shows off a bag of coffee with COMUCAP members. Photo Credit: COMUCAP
As the community started to view the women of COMUCAP as economic contributors to its families, rather than threats to the status quo, more and more women made decisions jointly with their husbands and stood up for themselves and their children in the face of abuse. Today COMUCAP provides employment and income to over 256 women. Household violence, Marlene is proud to report, is now nearly non-existent within the families of COMUCAP. Read more about our partner, COMUCAP, here.

How You Can Fight Violence Against Women

As the leading organization advocating for policies that economically empower women like those in COMUCAP, Women Thrive fights to get organizations around the world like COMUCAP the assistance they need to attack violence and improve lives. Right now, for example, we are working on getting the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA), a bill that would reduce violence against women worldwide by investing in local groups like COMUCAP, re-introduced and passed by Congress.

If passed, IVAWA, which was developed by lead Senate sponsors with the help of Women Thrive, the Family Violence Prevention Fund, Amnesty International USA, and over 150 groups around the world, would make ending violence against women a diplomatic priority for the first time in U.S. history. It would for the first time comprehensively incorporate proven solutions for reducing violence into all U.S. foreign assistance programs - solutions such as promoting women's economic opportunity, addressing violence against girls in school, and working to change public attitudes, potentially affecting millions of women worldwide. We need your help to get IVAWA through Congress and passed so that it can become a reality for women worldwide! This Valentines Day, help us make this happen: Click here to donate to our life-saving anti-violence advocacy! Click here to sign the petition calling on Congress to pass IVAWA! On Facebook? Join our End Violence Against Women & Girls group to stay connected to other activists!

Choice under attack in the Senate

Even though we're just a week into President Obama's administration, we can already see what a world of difference pro-choice leadership makes: one of his very first acts was to repeal the global gag rule! We sent more than 25,000 thank-you messages to the White House within days—thank you!

Unfortunately, we're not out of the woods. As we expected, our opponents in Congress are using women's freedom and privacy as a political football, and are attacking choice on several fronts right now.

We won't stand by while anti-choice leaders at the national and local levels block women's access to abortion and even birth control. Help us fight these attacks today.

My best,
Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

Anti-choice members of Congress on the attackYou may have heard the news: anti-choice House Minority Leader John Boehner derailed a family-planning proposal in the economic-rescue package that would have saved taxpayer dollars and helped make birth control more affordable for women hurt by the economic crisis.

The attacks don't end there. This week our opponents in the Senate are using a bill that would fund children's health insurance as an opportunity to launch no fewer than three separate attacks on reproductive freedom!

Urge your senators to oppose these anti-choice amendments!



Anti-choice movement's "guerilla warfare" While anti-choice House Minority Leader John Boehner and his allies in Congress are attacking choice on the federal level, we expect our opponents to take the fight to local clinics, pharmacies, and school boards.

Jill Stanek, a prominent anti-choice blogger, said this to Newsweek.com: "[President Obama]'s got the House, he's got the Senate, so I think we may go more guerilla warfare, or go back to working harder on your own turf, protesting at your abortion clinic in your town."

We won't stand by while Stanek and others block access to abortion and even birth control. Help us fight these attacks today.

HALL OF FAME AND HALL OF SHAME

FAME: President Barack Obama Just days into his presidency, pro-choice President Barack Obama took swift and decisive action to end one of George Bush's worst policies: the global gag rule. Better yet, the U.S. Senate stood behind Obama yesterday by rejecting by a vote of 60-37 an amendment to restore the global gag rule. By repealing this policy, health clinics in developing countries will once again be able to offer the world's poorest women access to the reproductive-health services that every woman deserves. Learn more >> SHAME: Gov. Sarah PalinA new report shows Alaska had the nation's biggest increase in the teen birth rate from 2005 to 2006. Gov. Sarah Palin's response? She's declared her support for anti-choice parental-consent legislation that would do nothing to prevent teen pregnancy in her state, but instead could actually endanger the lives of young women. She's ignoring a public-health crisis and playing politics with Alaskan teens' health. Learn more >>

CHOICE IN THE NEWS

Ashley Judd helps celebrate 36 years of Roe v. Wade and the overturn of the global gag rule Another troubling study on "abstinence-only" programs and decreased contraceptive use Nancy Keenan in Politico: As politics change, so does debate The introduction of the Prevention First Act in Congress More News >>

House passes fair pay bill

The U.S. House of Representatives just passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay act by a vote of 250-177. The vote was almost along party lines, with only a few Democrats voting against it and a few Republicans crossing the line and voting for it.

The Republicans also lost a motion to commit vote, which would have sent the bill back to committee, the grave yard of good and bad bills alike.

The Senate passed the bill last week and it will go to President Obama for his signature.

What does Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Bill do? It allows employees to take action against employers for pay discrimination within 180 days of the last paycheck.

This is significant because the SCOTUS recently handed down a ruling that destroyed workers' rights.

From the National Women's Law Center:

"The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act would reverse the damaging Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and help to ensure that individuals subjected to unlawful pay discrimination are able to effectively assert their rights under the federal anti-discrimination laws.

In Ledbetter, the Supreme Court held that employees cannot challenge ongoing compensation discrimination if the employer's original discriminatory decision occurred more than 180 days before, even when the employee continues to receive paychecks that have been discriminatorily reduced."

It is unfair to flame the court on this. The court was following the letter of the law. Congress adjusted the various laws to set the 180 day (that's half a year) time frame.

Anyone who has worked in a non-union job knows how tough it is to even find out if pay discrimination occurred. Discussions about pay rates are generally verboten at work and not considered a topic for polite conversation any where. (Collective bargaining agreements are a bit different since pay rates are negotiated by the union.)

Incidentally, Ms. Ledbetter worked for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. for 19 years before she discovered the pay discrimination. She has also been lobbying for the act for a long time. On a side note, this both confirms that wage discrimination is not always readily apparent and not all lobbyists are bad people.

This is a great day for workers. Women's groups have been at the forefront of this debate, but it seems Lilly Ledbetter protects any worker who has been the victim of wage discrimination for any reason.

Naturally, the Republicans have been whining about how this will "hurt the economy." Pay them no heed. That is the standard line on any bill that would protect employees from arbitrary discrimination by greedy employers.

This is truly a victory for the Democrats that we helped to elect to the 111th Congress.

Say goodbye to the global gag rule

Week 1: Repeal the global gag rule.

Check.

Thank President Obama for his swift action.

Thirty-six years after Roe v. Wade became the law of the land, President Barack Obama took swift and decisive action today to end one of George Bush's worst policies: the global gag rule.

Let's respond just as quickly with our thanks and support.

Under the global gag rule, millions of women and their families have suffered.

The global gag rule canceled funding for many overseas health clinics, forcing them to cut their staff, limit services, and sometimes close their doors entirely. In many cases, these health clinics were the only local sources of birth control for women!

This outrageous policy severely limits women's access to family-planning services, which can lead to tragic results—higher rates of unintended and high-risk pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and maternal death.

President Obama's decision to reverse the policy and release the funds for family planning overseas will enable women worldwide to have access to the comprehensive health care they deserve and need, including birth control.

Please join me now in thanking President Obama for giving these women a new hope for the future.

Unfortunately, anti-choice groups are bombarding the White House with messages and running vicious ads on TV and online that distort the truth about a woman's right to choose. That's why after you've thanked our new president, we need your help to spread the word to your friends and family.

We look forward to working with President Obama over the years as our ally on women's freedom and privacy, and he deserves to know that the full strength of America's pro-choice majority stands with him.

Thank you for all that you do!

My best,

Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

P.S. Our opponents plan to spend millions attacking President Obama's pro-choice position. We're fighting back with everything we've got, but we need your support. Please make a generous contribution today.

Help Make More History Today

In his first days in office, President-elect Obama can begin to restore reproductive freedom for women by repealing the global gag rule. It’s time to end this destructive policy that has caused so much suffering among the world’s poorest women. And you can help!

With your support, we can urge President-elect Obama to reverse the Bush global gag rule and work with the new Congress to help protect a woman’s right to choose.

The global gag rule canceled funding for many overseas health clinics, forcing them to cut their staff, limit services, and sometimes close their doors entirely. In many cases, these health clinics were the only local source of birth control and prenatal care for women!

This outrageous policy severely limits women's access to family-planning services, which can lead to tragic results -- higher rates of unintended and high-risk pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and maternal deaths.

President-elect Obama can reverse this policy and release the funds for family planning overseas to enable women worldwide to have access to the comprehensive health care they deserve, including birth control.

In addition to asking the incoming administration to reverse the global gag rule, we can also work to increase our investment in family-planning here at home though the Title X program and to reverse the Bush administration’s last minute Federal Refusal Rule, which could deny women access to birth control and abortion care. But it will take your advocacy and your financial support for our work to succeed.

The incoming president and new Congress have many pressing issues to attend to; with your help, we will be sure that women’s access to affordable reproductive-health care is among these issues.

In these challenging financial times for our country and across the globe, it is all the more important to protect women’s health by ensuring they have access to one of the most basic services they need: family planning.

Will you help NARAL Pro-Choice America take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to repeal Bush’s destructive policies and restore our reproductive rights at every level?

Please donate now to help us protect choice for generations to come!

Women are counting on us, and we are counting on you. Please donate today.

My Best,

Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

PS: Even as we welcome our new pro-choice president to the White House, you can count on our most ardent anti-choice opponents not folding up their tents and leaving quietly. They will fight with all they have to cling to the gains they have made in the last eight years. Donate online today to help us jump-start our plans to encourage President-elect Obama to reverse Bush’s anti-choice legacy.