Feature Archives

CUNextTuesday is a new radical womyn's media collective in the Bay Area. It has been hosting monthly film screenings to benefit a host of projects, specifically a documentary on radical womyn in the 21st century and the evolution of the feminist movement in the U.S. For the month of August, CUNextTuesday will be screening "LIVE NUDE GIRLS UNITE! at the Artists' Television Access on Valencia Street in the Mission. Director Julia Query will be on hand to discuss the film that launched a movement. The story follows a group of women at the local Bay Area peep show, the Lusty Lady, as they attempt to overcome union-busting and engrained stereotypes, becoming the first and only unionized exotic dancer's establishment in the U.S. There will be discussion after the film, so bring some popcorn and a friend!
ATA Schedule | Exotic Dancers' Alliance | Shaping San Francisco: Exotic Dancers | Sex Workers Outreach Project

The screening comes on the heels of Ladyfest Bay Area 2004, a non profit, feminist, community-based collaborative festival of empowering workshops, forums, art showings, and events held by and for self-identified women and transfolk organized by pro-women volunteers. This year's panels and DIY workshops included topics as wide-ranging as female ejaculation, micro-radio broadcasting, trans-activism, cycling and indie publishing. CUNextTuesday hosted a workshop on Sunday, August 1st. Ladeez were encouraged to come out and make their very own video retorts to the corporate image manipulators-- organizers planned to send those videos to the men and women who control the female body propaganda machine. Indybay's Sarah Olson presented a workshop about feminist micro-radio on Saturday, July 30th.

6/1/04 The Partial Birth Abortion Act, which President Bush signed into law in November of 2003, was overturned today by Justice Phyllis J. Hamilton in the Federal 9th District Court of Appeals in San Francisco today. Doctors have interpreted the Supreme Court's decision in Roe. v. Wade to mean they can perform abortions usually until the 24th to 28th week after conception, or until the "point of viability," when a healthy fetus is thought to be able to survive outside the womb. Generally, abortions after the "point of viability" are performed only to preserve the woman's health. The U.S. Supreme Court had overturned a Nebraska partial-birth abortion law because it did not allow the banned procedure in cases in which the doctor believes the method is the best way to preserve the woman's health. Doctors call the procedure "intact dilation and extraction," but opponents refer to it as "partial-birth abortion."
Today's ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Ashcroft prohibits Attorney General Ashcroft and his successors from enforcing the law against doctors who provide abortion services for Planned Parenthood, whether they are working at Planned Parenthood or elsewhere, as well as doctors to whom Planned Parenthood makes referrals. It also prohibits enforcement against the city of San Francisco and its medical facilities. Two other challenges to the Partial Birth Abortion Ban are still in the courts: they were brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and Wilmer Cutler Pickering LLP on behalf of the National Abortion Federation and other doctors; and the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of Dr. LeRoy Carhart and other doctors. Closing arguments in the other two cases are scheduled for June.
Due to the fact that there are two pending federal cases, Judge Hamilton did not extend the injunction to all abortion providers.

Gloria Anzaldúa, who was a lesbian feminist Chicana/Xicana theorist and creative writer, succumbed to an illness that was apparently related to diabetes on May 15, 2004. She left this world at the age of 61, just weeks before completing her dissertation and earning her doctorate from UC Santa Cruz. A public memorial was held at the San Francisco Women's Building on Sunday, June 13th. Read more about Gloria Anzaldúa on the Web Altar for Gloria and on Indybay's Race Page

5/8/2004: The Food and Drug Administration announced this week that Plan B will not be available over the counter. Plan B is an emergency medical contraceptive that, if taken within 72-120 hours of unprotected intercourse, can prevent pregnancy. The FDA claims that not enough research on teenage women's ability to use Plan B correctly is available.
Pro-choice organizations react: Many organizations around the country believe that this denial of women's right to determine when they become pregnant reflects the Bush administration's conservative nature.
ACLU | NARAL Pro-choice America | National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health | National Organization for Women

CRITICS DECLARE BILL "DEEPLY MISGUIDED"
4/01/03: President Bush today signed legislation which creates legal "person" status for a fertilized egg, embryo or fetus, separate from the human mother. It makes it a federal crime to harm a "child in utero." Supporters claim it will allow for greater punishment of persons who attack pregnant women, but similar State laws have often been used against pregnant women, themselves.
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America had pushed for defeat of the Act. "The so-called 'Unborn Victims of Violence' Act... is not intended to protect pregnant women from domestic violence or punish individuals who harm them," said PPFA President Gloria Feldt. "It is part of a deceptive anti-choice strategy to make women's bodies mere vessels by creating legal personhood for the fetus."
The National Organization of Women recently stated that the "approach taken in this bill is deeply misguided and does nothing to enhance protections for pregnant woman, who are at increased risk of domestic violence."
The law would apply even if the woman does not know she is pregnant.

Other legal battles related to women's rights continue all over the country:
On Monday, Planned Parenthood went to court in San Francisco. In Planned Parenthood Federation of America v. Ashcroft, PPFA challenges a law that would ban abortions as early as 12 to 15 weeks in pregnancy, outlawing abortion procedures in the second trimester that doctors say are safe and among the best to protect women's health. At the same time, NARAL Pro-Choice California has been organizing protests against the US's efforts to access people's medical records.

On Thursday, March 11, SF Bay Area Indymedia screened the award-winning documentary “The Cucumber Incident”, along with women-produced shorts fresh from the East Coast. "The Cucumber Incident" documents the issues of class and gender that led to severe consequences for three Ohio women who decide to seek justice outside of the law. It was showcased on the Sundance Film Channel and in New York at the NY Underground Film Festival, Filmmaker Bonita Makuch from LA was on hand to answer questions after the screening.