Category: Sexual Equality

Ireland Appears to Have Voted in a Landslide to Repeal Abortion Ban

~ mcequality

During the campaign, the story of a woman named Savita Halappanavar was again used to push for change. Halappanavar died in 2012, the Guardian reports, after suffering a miscarriage in Galway. She went to the hospital 17 weeks pregnant and in extreme pain, and was told a miscarriage was likely inevitable. However, she was refused a number of times after asking for an abortion, because a fetal heartbeat was detected. Abortion is against the law in Ireland even in cases of “rape, incest or fatal fetal abnormality.” She died from sepsis eight days after being admitted, at the age of 31.

via Ireland Appears to Have Voted in a Landslide to Repeal Abortion Ban

Six New Sexual Abuse Allegations Added to USC Student Lawsuit Against Campus Gynecologist 

~ mcequality

On Monday, a class-action lawsuit was filed against George Tyndall, the University of Southern California student health center’s primary gynecologist who was permitted to continue practicing at the school despite years of sexual misconduct allegations dating back to the 1990s. Also included in the lawsuit are USC and its board of trustees. The original complaint detailed the experiences of plaintiff Lucy Chi, a graduate student at the school who was assaulted by Tyndall. He’s currently being accused of making sexualized comments about patients’ bodies while giving exams and racially targeting Asian patients, among other heinous crimes.

via Six New Sexual Abuse Allegations Added to USC Student Lawsuit Against Campus Gynecologist 

The Bachelorette’s Meredith Phillips Says She Was Drugged and Sexually Assaulted During the Show’s Filming 

~ mcequality

“She was hired to give me a massage and she said, ‘I’m going to give you a pill.’ I just assumed it was an aspirin or something to loosen up my back or a Tylenol or something, and it wasn’t that, that’s for sure. The last thing I remember is she got naked and she was in the tub with me rubbing my back and rubbing areas that probably she shouldn’t have. Then I was put in bed. I woke up naked. Don’t remember much. I wasn’t even drinking.”

via The Bachelorette’s Meredith Phillips Says She Was Drugged and Sexually Assaulted During the Show’s Filming 

Irish abortion referendum: The people travelling #HomeToVote – BBC News

~ mcequality

From car shares, to offers of beds for the night, the movement has been propelled by social media. A similar movement also took off ahead of the 2015 vote that legalised same-sex marriage.
People on both sides of the argument are travelling back to vote, but the movement has been spearheaded by the London-Irish Abortion Rights Campaign – a pro-choice group that believes some 40,000 people who recently left Ireland could be eligible to vote.
The Eighth Amendment came into being after a 1983 referendum, so no-one under the age of 54 has voted on this before. For many, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to have their say on Ireland’s abortion laws.

via Irish abortion referendum: The people travelling #HomeToVote – BBC News

Scott Pruitt Twice Proposed Anti-Abortion Legislation Granting Men ‘Property Rights’ Over Fetuses

~ mcequality

Progressive super PAC American Bridge tipped HuffPost off to the latent legislation. American Bridge’s senior director, Dawn Huckelbridge, told HuffPost, “It’s not surprising that another member of Trump’s inner circle is hostile to women. But framing a fetus as a man’s property is a new low.”

via Scott Pruitt Twice Proposed Anti-Abortion Legislation Granting Men ‘Property Rights’ Over Fetuses

Comedian Rebecca Corry on Louis CK Sexual Misconduct

~ mcequality

She describes a toxic culture of male comedians who continue to cover and vouch for one another, to the detriment of victims everywhere:

“The comedians who choose to shame and attack are the most disappointing of all. Dave Chappelle, a self-proclaimed “feminist,” used his Netflix special as an opportunity to single out one of the C.K. accusers, saying she has a “brittle-ass spirit.” ​His rambling bit, filled with ignorance and vitriol, isn’t comedy. It’s just another example of a comedy giant misusing his power and platform to hurt someone.”

via Comedian Rebecca Corry on Louis CK Sexual Misconduct

The Senate Finally Passed a Sexual Harassment Bill, but a Bullshit Version 

~ mcequality

Behind the scenes, women in the Senate had reportedly been frustrated by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for blocking the bill from the Senate floor. Under the current system, taxpayers fund sexual harassment and discrimination settlements, which have amounted to almost $200,000 in the past decade. In April, the Atlantic reported that McConnell objected to “a provision that would make individual members financially responsible for harassment and discrimination settlements against them.”

via The Senate Finally Passed a Sexual Harassment Bill, but a Bullshit Version 

Watch Trump Get Off on Taking Away America’s Reproductive Healthcare 

~ mcequality

Donald Trump, a man I am certain has never paid or asked someone to abort a fetus he helped put inside them, proposed last week to withhold federal Title X grant funds from healthcare providers that offer abortions or abortion referrals. The so-called domestic gag rule would financially punish places like Planned Parenthood that provide abortions and other health services. It would also make it difficult for many women and other marginalized genders, especially those with low income, to obtain abortions, birth control, and other necessary care. Trump, who has been loudly “Pro-Life” for all of maybe three years now, and anti-woman for decades, is immensely pleased with himself.

via Watch Trump Get Off on Taking Away America’s Reproductive Healthcare 

USC Students Sue School, Campus Gynecologist for Decades-Long Sexual Misconduct

~ mcequality

Last week, Jezebel reported on George Tyndall, the University of Southern California student health center’s primary gynecologist who was allowed to continue practicing at the school despite years of sexual misconduct allegations. Since the 1990s, Tyndall has been accused of making sexualized comments about patients’ bodies while giving exams, photographing their genitals, and racially targeting Chinese patients, among other crimes. On Monday, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Tyndall, USC, and its board of trustees by “a proposed class of hundreds, if not thousands, of women students,” according to attorneys from Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, a nationwide litigation law firm.

via USC Students Sue School, Campus Gynecologist for Decades-Long Sexual Misconduct