From Politico

President Barack Obama has been in office for just over a week, but already he has managed to upset some top leaders in a key constituency - women's groups - after he personally intervened to get family planning funds stripped from the House stimulus package.

Planned Parenthood led the charge, with President Cecile Richards sending an "urgent" e-mail to supporters on Wednesday decrying the deletion - calling it a "betrayal of millions of low-income women, and it will place an even greater burden on state budgets that are already strained to the breaking point."

"I'm stunned," she wrote, urging supporters to call the White House.

Other prominent women leaders joined in expressing their disappointment at Obama's move - which came after Republicans turned up the heat on Obama by highlighting the family planning proposal in the House bill to spur conservative opposition.

From Time

The first piece of real legislation Barack Obama signed as the 44th President of the United States helps ensure that workers discriminated on the basis of gender have a fair chance to sue their employers. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is named after a woman who was paid less than her male co-workers at an Alabama tire factory. Ledbetter did not set out to be an activist; she did not even involve herself in politics much. But after the Supreme Court ruled against her, she decided it was time to start.

Fast Facts:

· Lives in Jacksonville, Ala. and is 70 years old, a mother and grandmother. Her husband died in December.

· Hired at the Alabama Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in 1979 and worked as an overnight supervisor (7 p.m. to 7 a.m.) for nearly two decades.

· During her career at Goodyear, Ledbetter suffered sexual harassment and day-to-day discrimination. She testified before Congress in 2007 that a supervisor once asked for sexual favors in return for good job performance evaluations. After Ledbetter complained about the supervisor to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), he was reassigned, but Ledbetter said she felt isolated at work and experienced a long-term pattern of discrimination.

From Center For Reproductive Rights

01.15.09 - The global gag rule, or "Mexico City Policy," restricts foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive U.S. family planning assistance from advocating for or providing abortion-related services, even with their own, non-U.S. resources. A recent report from the Center for Reproductive Rights-- Breaking the Silence: The Global Gag Rule's Impact on Unsafe Abortion-and a report by the Global Gag Rule Impact Project reveal the damaging effects of the gag rule.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about 80 million women face unwanted pregnancies each year, and that one-fourth of these pregnancies are terminated under unsafe conditions. More than 95% of these unsafe procedures occur in low-income countries. WHO also estimates that 13% of all pregnancy-related deaths result from unsafe abortion-claiming the lives of some 70,000 women a year. Untold millions more suffer serious injuries and disabilities. According to WHO, "Unsafe abortion is one of the most easily preventable and treatable causes of maternal mortality and morbidity." Changing restrictive abortion laws and ensuring that abortion is safe and accessible are the best ways to address unsafe abortion.

From NOW

1965 - Griswold v. Connecticut The Supreme Court nullified a Connecticut statute prohibiting the use of birth control by married persons, arguing that the right to marital privacy protects the access of married couples to contraceptives.

1972 - Eisenstadt v. Baird The Court struck down a law prohibiting the distribution of birth control to unmarried adults

1976 - Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth The Court ruled against a Missouri statute that would force a married woman to obtain her husband's approval before getting an abortion and ruled against a written parental consent requirement for minors.

From IRIN News

KATHMANDU, 3 February 2009 (IRIN) - Each year more than 2,000 women die due to pregnancy-related complications in Nepal, according to government figures. Nearly 30,000 babies die even before reaching one month.

"We must face the fact that the maternal mortality rate (MMR) is too high," Gillian Mellsop, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) country representative in Nepal, said.

However, many of these deaths could be avoided if basic health and obstetric care services were more widely available.

From Center For Reproductive Rights

11.20.08 - Currently, over 60% of the world's people live in countries where induced abortion is permitted either for a wide range of reasons or without restriction as to reason. In contrast, about 26% of all people reside in countries where abortion is generally prohibited

The table below illustrates the varying degrees to which countries worldwide permit access to abortion. Countries in Category I have the most restrictive laws. Those in each subsequent category recognize the grounds specified in the preceding category as well as additional grounds. Depending on such factors as public opinion, the views of government officials and providers, and individual circumstances, laws in each category may be interpreted more broadly or restrictively than indicated by their classifications below.