The Hill: Helms 45 years later: It’s time for Congress to repeal it Kiefer Buckingham, senior policy advocate on public health issues at the Open Society Policy Center “…Led by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), opponents [of abortion] wanted to include a provision in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1973 that…

Agence France-Presse: Sri Lanka in bold bid to flush out open defecation (3/5). Agence France-Presse: Survivor antibody clears path for new Ebola vaccine (3/4). Agence France-Presse: Niger launches campaign to protect 6 mn children from meningitis (3/5). Al Jazeera: Colombia border hospitals struggle with Venezuelan migrant influx (Grattan, 3/5). CIDRAP…

Devex: Opinion: Business as usual won’t work for maternal and child health Helga Fogstad, executive director of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health “…The widespread health inequality that disproportionately affects women, children, and adolescents in remote areas, communities affected by poverty, patriarchal cultures, and humanitarian settings screams loud…

U.N. News: Women’s empowerment ‘essential to global progress’ says Guterres, marking International Day “Women’s empowerment and gender equality are ‘essential to global progress,’ United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stressed in his message for International Women’s Day which this year puts ‘innovation by women and girls, for women and girls,’ at…

New York Times: I Am Not Untouchable. I Just Have My Period. Cheryl Strayed, author, and Brian Lindstrom, documentary filmmaker “…The impact of [the practice of chhaupadi] is profound. … In an effort to end the practice, Nepal’s Supreme Court outlawed chhaupadi in 2005, and in 2017 a law was…

UNAIDS: On International Women’s Day, UNAIDS calls for greater action to protect young women and adolescent girls “On International Women’s Day, UNAIDS is urging countries to step up and protect young women and adolescent girls from HIV. … Much more needs to be done to reach young people with HIV…

U.S. Department of State: Observance of International Women’s Day In a statement observing International Women’s Day, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo notes, “The United States reaffirms our support for those women leading in boardrooms and the halls of government, for those changing lives in classrooms and laboratories, for those…

Al Jazeera: 19 million Yemeni children suffer malnutrition and illness (Javaid, 3/8). CBS News: “Our children are forgotten”: Zika’s devastating impact lingers 3 years later (Adams, 3/8). Financial Times: Chile’s sugary food fight echoes around the world (Jacobs, 3/10). The Guardian: China database lists ‘breedready’ status of 1.8 million women…

Devex: DFID chief seeks U.S. partnership on women’s rights “The U.K. Department for International Development will announce a new initiative in the coming weeks focused on partnerships and broadening who the agency works with, U.K. Secretary of State for International Development Penny Mordaunt said Friday [in a speech Friday at…

United Nations Population Fund: Explainer: What is the ICPD and why does it matter? This post provides an overview of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and its role in advancing women’s reproductive health and rights, noting, “This November, governments, advocates, health organizations, women’s and youth activists, and…