USA – House Passes Defense Spending Bill That Limits Abortion, Halts Diversity Efforts

July 14, 2023
Associated Press

The House passed a sweeping defense bill Friday that provides an expected 5.2% pay raise for service members. But the bill strays from traditional military policy with Republican additions that block abortion coverage, diversity initiatives at the Pentagon and transgender care that deeply divided the chamber.

Democrats voted against the package, which had sailed out of the House Armed Services Committee on an almost unanimous vote weeks ago before being loaded with the GOP priorities during a heated late-night floor debate this week.

Continued: https://www.voanews.com/a/house-passes-defense-spending-bill-that-limits-abortion-halts-diversity-efforts-/7181554.html


USA – A New Bill Seeks to Enshrine Women’s Reproductive Rights as Human Rights, Period

A New Bill Seeks to Enshrine Women’s Reproductive Rights as Human Rights, Period

Kylie Cheung
Dec 12, 2018

On Monday, five Democrat Congress members celebrated International Human Rights Day by introducing the Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights Act to mandate that the US State Department recognize reproductive rights as global human rights.

The bill, introduced on the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, comes after the Trump State Department last year removed findings about reproductive rights from its annual report on global human rights. In introducing this bill, Congress members Barbara Lee, Katherine Clark, Nita Lowey, Lois Frankel, and Eliot Engel aim to make it clear that reproductive rights are human rights and, as such, should be included in all state reports concerning human rights.

Continued: https://www.brit.co/a-new-bill-seeks-to-enshrine-womens-reproductive-rights-as-human-rights-period/