Friday Femme Fatale: Women Winning the Spotlight

This was certainly an exciting week as Washington DC got ready for the inauguration of President Barack Obama and Change.org announced the winners from it's "Ideas for Change" contest - of which my idea, "Pass Marriage Equality Rights for LGBT Couples Nationwide" ended up as one of the top ten ideas presented to the new administration. Thanks again to all those who supported the idea and voted it along to success!

In other feminist news, Naral released a new report showing the change in tone of choice debate in 2008 this week. The report grades each state on women's reproductive rights and summarizes related state laws. This year's edition also includes key policy findings, which include the following:

Pro-Choice Progress:

• In 2008, 23 states enacted 39 pro-choice measures - four of these were Prevention First measures, or policies that help prevent unintended pregnancy.
• Colorado, Indiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin enacted Prevention First measures in 2008 that are aimed at improving birth-control access or teaching teens accurate sex education all toward the goal of preventing unintended pregnancy.
• In Wisconsin, Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law a bill ensuring that sexual-assault survivors receive information about and have access to emergency contraception (EC) in emergency rooms, making Wisconsin the 14th state to enact such policies.

Anti-Choice Attacks:

• In 2008, 16 states enacted 24 anti-choice measures.
• Oklahoma passed an omnibus bill that allows certain individuals and entities to refuse to provide abortion services, requires women to view ultrasound images before providing abortion care, and prohibits certain health-care professionals from providing abortion services. This was just one of six anti-choice measures Oklahoma enacted in 2008.

Also while Hillary Clinton was confirmed as Secretary of State this week, the Washington Post named it's first Female Managing Editor - which for a paper that was founded in 1877 - isn't a very long time to wait before putting a woman at the top, right? [insert sarcasm] The woman named Elizabeth Spayd will be responsible for the hard-news sections of the newspaper, located on The Post's fifth floor.

Additionally, the Prevention First Act was introduced yesterday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Rules Committee Chair Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY), and House Energy and Commerce Committee Vice Chair Diana DeGette (D-CO). The Prevention First Act, which addresses numerous family planning issues, has been repeatedly introduced in previous legislative sessions. The Act aims to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies by increasing funding for Title X, expanding Medicaid family planning services, ending insurance discrimination against women, improving awareness of emergency contraception, providing compassionate assistance for victims of rape, reducing teen pregnancy rates, and ensuring that Federal programs provide medically accurate information.

Finally, Stonewall Democrats announced this week how Laura Calvo became the first openly-transgender officer of a state Democratic party as Treasurer of the Democratic Party of Oregon.

And that's all for this week's Friday Femme Fatale!