By Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office Every few weeks, opponents of birth control manage to garner some media attention by objecting – again – to the federal contraceptive coverage rule, which ensures that millions of women will have affordable insurance coverage for contraception without extra out-of-pocket costs. But time after time, it’s just more of [...]

By Tiseme Zegeye, ACLU Women’s Rights Project & Elayne Weiss, ACLU Washington Legislative Office Earlier this week Huffington Post reported, "American women have served in the military since there has been an America to serve." And while it is widely acknowledged that women are already engaging in combat, American servicewomen continue to be officially excluded from being "assigned" to [...]

By Tiseme Zegeye, ACLU Women’s Rights Project & Elayne Weiss, ACLU Washington Legislative Office Earlier this week Huffington Post reported, "American women have served in the military since there has been an America to serve." And while it is widely acknowledged that women are already engaging in combat, American servicewomen continue to be officially excluded from being "assigned" to [...]

By Ariela Migdal, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Women’s Rights Project & Vania Leveille, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office Less than three months after the Pentagon announced that it was loosening the rules that bar women from being assigned to ground combat units, the Marine Corps followed suit, taking important steps to open up previously restricted opportunities [...]

By Deborah J. Vagins, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office Would you know if the person sitting next to you at work was being paid significantly more than you to do the same job? If you suspected that might be the case, would you know what to do about it? You might start by simply asking [...]

By Shantelle Hicks, ACLU client When I walked into the school gymnasium, every kid in my entire middle school was staring right at me — all 400 of them. It was like a bad dream. I was confused why the middle school department head had called me into the junior high assembly in the first place. Students who [...]

By Ariela Migdal, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Women’s Rights Project Peggy Young delivered letters and packages sent by air for UPS. When she got pregnant after struggling with infertility and IVF, her doctor recommended that she not lift more than 20 pounds. She asked UPS, where she had worked since 1999, for a "light duty" assignment, so [...]

There is something fundamentally wrong with allowing companies to own the rights to pieces of the human genome. Today the ACLU is launching a campaign to illustrate the personal harms of gene patenting by showcasing those who have been or may be directly impacted by this practice. Today we are ” Taking Back Our Genes .” Stand with [...]

There is something fundamentally wrong with allowing companies to own the rights to pieces of the human genome. Today the ACLU is launching a campaign to illustrate the personal harms of gene patenting by showcasing those who have been or may be directly impacted by this practice. Today we are " Taking Back Our Genes ." Stand with us. [...]

By Ariela Migdal, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Women’s Rights Project & Vania Leveille, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office Last week, Pentagon officials got a few steps closer to recognizing what those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have known for years : servicewomen fight on the battlefield alongside their male counterparts , despite a longstanding rule barring them [...]

By “Dara” Lately the water cooler conversations at my religiously affiliated nonprofit social service agency have been focused on trying to understand the new HHS contraceptive mandate . My younger, female coworkers and enlightened male coworkers are giddy with anticipation. For as long as any of us have been working here, we haven’t been able to get coverage for [...]

By Alicia Gay, ACLU Today’s announcement from President Obama that his administration will modify its policy on contraception insurance coverage to allow religiously affiliated organizations to opt out of paying for contraceptive coverage and instead have insurance companies directly provide coverage should end the recent storm of controversy surrounding the birth control rule. The administration’s actions should lay [...]

By Amanda Dysart & Ariela Migdal, ACLU Women’s Rights Project Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit hears oral argument in Davis v. Cintas , one of the first nationwide class action discrimination cases to be argued since the Supreme Court issued its decision in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes last June. The court will decide whether [...]

By Amanda Dysart & Ariela Migdal, ACLU Women’s Rights Project Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit hears oral argument in Davis v. Cintas , one of the first nationwide class action discrimination cases to be argued since the Supreme Court issued its decision in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes last June. The court will decide whether [...]

By Andrew Beck, Staff Attorney, Reproductive Freedom Project On Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took the unprecedented step of overruling the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to allow the emergency contraceptive Plan B One-Step to be sold over-the-counter to consumers of all ages. Plan B One-Step has been approved for over-the-counter sale to [...]

Mie Lewis, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Women’s Rights Project In recent years, the number of public schools segregating their students by sex has ballooned, despite mounting evidence that single-sex programs don’t improve academic performance and instead perpetuate sex stereotypes. But things are changing. This week, yet another school district — this time in Tallapoosa County, Alabama — agreed [...]

By Ariela Migdal, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Women’s Rights Project It may seem obvious that all workers are entitled to a work environment free from sex discrimination and to the wages guaranteed to them by law. But for laborers who come to this country to work temporarily under the H-2B visa program, the ability to enforce these basic rights [...]

By Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, Staff Attorney, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project The people have spoken: Twice in South Dakota; twice in Colorado ; and now in Mississippi. Red state, blue state — it doesn’t make a difference. The message to government is clear: Women’s lives matter. Respect for women, respect for their decisions about their health and families, respect for their [...]

By Ariela Migdal, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Women’s Rights Project According to a new study , sexual harassment, including unwanted sexual touching and sexual coercion as well as milder behaviors, is a regular feature of going to school for a significant number of American middle- and high-school students. The American Association of University Women released a study yesterday, surveying nearly [...]

By Ronald E. Jackson, Executive Director, Citizens for Better Schools Here in Alabama and across the South, our public schools — and the children who attend them — are under continuous assault. Cuts in state funding, school closings and increases in school and class sizes are just some of the ways the quality of education for our [...]