Feature Archives

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.

4/25/04: More than 1 million people participated in the March for Women in Washington, DC today. Report from the Radical Cheer/Anti-Fascist Block.
There was a live bilingual broadcast from the March for Women on Pacifica Radio. Speakers and performers on the stage began an hour late because of the large size of the crowd. After 1:00 PST, the coverage continued on KPFT
A pro-choice rally was held in Fresno today.
Bay Area Women in Black held a Solidarity Vigil in San Francisco.
4/24/2004: Local Rally for Women's Lives in San Francisco. Photos: 1 2
"The time is right for a public demonstration of historic size in support of abortion rights and reproductive freedom for all women. Our rights are under attack as they haven't been in over a decade, and Roe v. Wade hangs by a thread in the Supreme Court." For these reasons, a variety of organizations sponsored The March for Women's Lives (formerly the March for Choice) in Washington, DC on Sunday, April 25th, 2004. Locally, Radical Women is one organization that put together a contingent. Read a fact sheet that march organizers printed about the March for International Women's Day.
Call for a Radical Cheer Bloc at the March in DC.
More coverage at DC Indymedia and Tally IMC
Women of Color Contingent:
Historically women of color have been excluded from mainstream feminist organizating. Through the early parts of the 20th century organizations like Planned Parenthood conducted a campaign of government sanctioned sterilizations of poor women and women of color. In the 1940s, when white women were recruited by Rosie the Rivetter to work during war time, again poor women and women of color were forced to point out that they had always worked. During the late 1960s and early 1970s women of color, lesbian and transgendered women, and poor women left feminist organizations in disgust, accusing the groups of catering to an upper-middle class straight, white woman, only. In 1992, during the last March on Washington for abortion rights, women of color were left out of the organizing and many chose not to attend the march. ECR interviews Women of Color Contingent on KALX

Women of color contend that this is the first time that the issues important to them have been taken seriously, but only because they put significant pressure on the organizers. Women of color formed their own contingent for the march on Washington, and organized around the concept of reproductive justice a concept that they say builds on abortion rights, but includes a much broader set of issues, including access to affordable health and childcare, adequate housing, employment guarantees for pregnant women, access to adequate sexual education and contraception, and much more. Women of color are also interested in elevating issues including economic, geographical, and language access to abortions and to health care and counseling, as well as a redefining of the concept of choice to include the ability to choose to have children.
Other events in DC this weekend as part of the March for Women:
On Saturday, April 24th there was a Latina Summit on Mobilizing for Reproductive Justice.
On Saturday the 10 in 10 gathering was held to organize for Choice USA's Young People's Contingent
Also on Saturday, the Strong Voices, Strong Choices, A Weekend for the Next Generation of Jewish Women
Pride at Work, Pride in Women was held on Friday.
NAACP Contingent

In the spirit of creative resistance, Saturday, February 28th, there were performances by some of the most fiery, brilliant women in our radical community, who all rose up together to support women in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan. --PHOTOS--

Women's Voices Rise Up is a benefit that occurs once a year; this year it was a benefit for Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, Union of Palestinian Women Committees, and Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq. Performers this year included: Sisters of the Underground, spoken-word artist Shailja Patel (pictured in this article), Sparlha Swa, poet Uchechi Kalu, and the revolutionary a cappella group Samsara Details of Event

Sarah Jacobson, a gutsy female film maverick, passed away on February 13 in New York City. Sarah burst on to the S.F. film scene in the early '90's with her San Francisco Art Institute-produced short I Was A Teenage Serial Killer, a film she has described as the story of "a 19-year-old girl who has a series of run-ins with various condescending men." In the mid-'90's her debut feature Mary Jane's Not A Virgin Anymore screened at Sundance, and tore up the festival circuit. She was known for her grassroots filmmaking and do-it-yourself style, mixing feminism and film by creating unconventional female protagonists. Look for a retrospective of Sarah's work in SF sometime soon. Read more about Sarah here, here, and here

"Everyone told me I would never be a filmmaker, and that's when I decided I would be, and they could go fuck off." — Sarah Jacobson

International Women's Day has been celebrated around the world on March 8th since the early 1900's. In the US, Code Pink called for March 8 to be a day of lobbying Capitol Hill. Other groups put out a call for a Global Women's Strike for the same day.
In the SFBayArea there were many events: 3/4: Int'l Women's Art Expo | 3/5: Trespasses Women's Film Festival | 3/6: Berkeley COPWATCH Women's Show: In Song and Struggle | 3/7: Women's Day Fair at the Women's Building in SF | 3/8: Global Women's Strike Protest and Film Screening to Defend a ‘Caring Economy’ in Venezuela | Global Women's Rights Forum at USF | Indybay women's film screening on 3/11 | Herstories Project theatrical event on 3/12. | Socialist Women's Day Event on 3/13.
More events in the US. Look for additional events posted to our calendar.
Video from March 8th event