By Becky Prager There are news reports that say #MeToo has been slow to take off in China. Well, what do you expect? China’s not a normal country. This is a hashtag campaign in a country where there is no internet freedom. The hashtag is routinely censored. Women’s personal stories of sexual abuse are routinely […]
By Alexa Richardson Although acts of sexual assault and harassment are rooted in power, the law has failed to adequately address the issue of power imbalance.[1] Prior to major shifts in the legal conception of sexual misconduct in the seventies and eighties, such acts were also considered too “private” for state interference.[2] Not only has
Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow’s e-commerce empire, recently settled a consumer protection lawsuit to the tune of $145,000 in civil penalties. The suit was brought in September of 2018 by ten prosecutors from the California Food, Drug, and Medical Device (FDMD) Task Force in response to what they characterized as false medical advertising claims. Prosecutors focused on
In the months since Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the Supreme Court of the United States, popular, legal, and political discourse has continued to explore the now-Justice and his conduct[1] within the context of the current #MeToo era. Some observers have argued that the fact that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations against him were treated as
On October 12, 2018, the Hungarian government officially removed Gender Studies Masters and PhD degrees from the list of accredited subjects in the country. The government also issued a decree rescinding the accreditation and funding for Gender Studies programs at two Hungarian universities, Eötvös Loránd University (a state-run school) and Central European University (also known as
With the relatively recent decisions in Obergefell v. Hodges and Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, sexuality has of late been a hot-button issue for the Supreme Court. However, the subject is not new ground. The debate over what protections, if any, the Constitution and statutory law afford LGBT persons has carried on through
In the public debate, paid parental leave is often framed as a women’s issue. Advocates of paid leave repeatedly point to research that shows how paid leave policies boost female employment figures and decrease turnover at work among women. To make the case for parental leave stronger, the benefits for children (such as lower high
At a time when Roe v. Wade is deeply imperiled in the United States and reactionary conservatism is growing across Europe, Ireland offers a different path forward. In 2015, Ireland became the first country in the world to legalize gay marriage by popular vote. This year, the country voted by an overwhelming margin–66% to 33%–to
The Use of Child Protective Services and Court Orders to Enforce Medical Compliance in the Labor and Delivery Room: How Threats of Legal Action Limit Reproductive Choice by Alexa Richardson Competent adults have a legally recognized right to complete control over health decisions that involve their bodily autonomy.[1] However, when patients make decisions during labor
A Patient Struggles to be Heard by Ann Tweedy [Full PDF of Essay] When I received a call from a nurse notifying me that I had breast cancer, my first sensation was shock. I was at work at the time, and the call came in a day earlier than I had expected. The nurse sounded
