By Rudi Keller Planned Parenthood on Monday sued to overturn the latest state abortion regulations, claiming the rules have already forced it to cancel appointments for some women in Columbia and will prevent new clinics in Springfield and Joplin from opening. In the federal lawsuit filed in the Western District of Missouri, the two Missouri-based Planned Parenthood affiliates are seeking a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of rules requiring a complication plan for women who have trouble after taking medication to induce an abortion. The regulations are unconstitutional, the lawsuit argues because they require a doctor handling complications to have hospital admitting privileges that have been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court when applied to doctors performing abortions. “This ‘complication plan’ flies in the face of our patients’ constitutional rights to safe, legal abortion services without undue burden,” Planned Parenthood Great Plains interim President and CEO Aaron Samulcek said in…

Gauteng Provincial Government is putting more resources in law enforcement to fight gender-based violence, including sexual offences against girl children and girl learners. Responding to questions in the provincial legislature on Tuesday, Premier David Makhura said a comprehensive multi-disciplinary, multi-agency and multi-stakeholder approach was needed in dealing with the crimes against women and children. “We are resourcing and re-establishing the specialised crime fighting units of the SAPS to ensure the swift arrest, prosecution, and jailing of perpetrators of horrific crimes against women and children. “Sexual offences against girl learners require a comprehensive multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach because the scourge of gender-based violence is based on patriarchy. “These crimes need to be tackled through multi-agency and community-wide interventions that ensure that perpetrators are brought to book and victims and survivors are empowered while at the same time working to change social behaviour among men and boys,” said Premier Makhura. He said…

By: Elena Semerikina The head of Women’s Dialogue, a party affiliated with majority party United Russia, has told reporters of her intent to stand in the 2018 presidential elections. Yelena Semerikova means to use the promotion opportunities to support Vladimir Putin. In a recent interview with popular business daily Kommersant, Semerikova said that her decision to run for the Russian Presidency still needed confirmation at her party’s upcoming conference. She also emphasized that if her party colleagues support her intention to run, and the authorities duly register her as a candidate, she will promote Vladimir Putin because she fully agrees with the incumbent’s political course. She also promised that in the course of her campaign she would attract public attention to contacts between women’s groups from the USA and Ukraine and Russian citizens. 60-year old Yelena Semerikova is a former military logistics manager who switched to a political career in…

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Monday that his administration will create safer working conditions for women as women’s participation in the labour market had remained low in recent years. In an economic policy statement delivered at the parliament, Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka had a low percentage of women in the labour market compared to other countries in the region. The present women labour force participation rate is less than half of that of males, lingering around 30 percent to 35 percent since the 1990s. “This participation is not enough to sustain the high growth momentum of the economy,” Wickremesinghe said. He added that his administration would take steps to improve the public transport systems enabling women to travel comfortably to their workplaces. “We are introducing the Light Rail Transit (LRT) with this purpose. This will greatly ease the current passenger congestion and provide a convenient and a…

Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission says authorities should declare a gender violence alert for the central state of Puebla. The governmental commission said Monday that 83 women were killed between January and September in Puebla, where women report above-average rates of domestic violence. A national agency formed in 2007 can declare violence alerts and follow up with education, prosecution, and prevention programs. The state government has called for tougher standards for ride-hailing apps after two women were killed in incidents involving such apps in a month. A female university student was robbed and shot to death Sept. 30 by men riding in an Uber-registered vehicle with its driver. Earlier in September, a driver for the Spain-based app Cabify allegedly killed a young female passenger.

The first women’s health centre in Syria’s Idlib province, designed to accommodate up to 3,500 patients, has been opened near the Turkish border by an Istanbul-based NGO. Mehmet CihatAygun, a board member of the Alliance of International Doctors (AID), told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that the new centre would include units specialized in obstetrics and gynaecology with a view to providing women with medical treatment both before and after they give birth. AID was established in Istanbul in 2011 by a group of volunteer doctors, pharmacists, dentists, and nurses. It is devoted to providing assistance to people in regions affected by disasters and poverty. Set up inside the Atme Camp, directly across the border from Turkey’s southern Reyhanli district, the facility hopes to meet the needs of some 3,500 women now living in and around the camp. “There were no health centres for women in the camp cities [in Idlib],”…