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Iowa’s supreme court has unanimously granted legal recognition to same-sex marriages!
More cool details:
- The ruling will take effect on April 24, three weeks from today.
- Two of the justices behind the unanimous opinion were appointed by Republicans.
- The decision is based on the Iowa state constitution, so it cannot be appealed to any other court.
- It appears that the earliest the decision could be overturned by constitutional amendment is November 2012.
- Such an amendment would require approval by the Iowa state legislature prior to a popular referendum.
The majority leaders of both houses of the state legislature can be expected to oppose any effort to overturn the decision by constitutional amendment — they released a joint statement today hailing the ruling as an example of “Iowa common sense and Iowa common decency.”
It’s been a long, long time coming, but I know … a change is gonna come.
Seventeen-year-olds will have open access to “Plan B” emergency contraception thanks to a judge’s ruling yesterday, and access for younger teens is likely to follow.
A federal court ruled yesterday that the Bush-era Food and Drug Administration relied on politics, not science, when it limited non-prescription sales of Plan B to women aged 18 and over. The court blasted the FDA’s “political considerations … and implausible justifications” in its consideration of Plan B.
The court directed the FDA to allow 17-year-olds access to non-prescription Plan B within 30 days, and to review its decision to require prescriptions for younger teens.
Students at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur pelted the home of the Institute’s director with stones and overturned his car yesterday after the death of a student who had been seen at the Institute’s hospital.
The student, Rohit Kumar, went to the B C Roy Hospital on campus complaining of a headache, and was given pain pills and released. On his way back to the hostel he lived in, he collapsed. According to one report, the hospital then took two hours to arrange for an ambulance to transfer him to a better-equipped facility, and did not provide a medical professional to accompany him on the trip. Kumar deteriorated in transit, and was pronounced dead on arrival at Midnapore General Hospital.
The B C Roy Hospital has long been criticized as inadequate by members of the IIT Kharagpur community, and as news of Kumar’s death spread on campus, more than a thousand students gathered at the home of Institute director Damodar Acharya to express their anger. The crowd vandalized Acharya’s house and overturned his car before forcing him to sign a letter of resignation from the university.
The university announced on Monday that it would be authorizing an external inquiry into Kumar’s death. Updates on the story are being posted to Twitter with the hashtag #iitdeath.
Harvard’s medical student activists are still waiting.
Earlier this month, word broke that a representative of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer had been caught photographing a student demonstration against drug companies’ influence over the Harvard medical school.
In response to the revelations, Senator Charles Grassley set a one-week deadline for to Pfizer to provide him with all internal corporate documents relating to “Harvard medical students demonstrating and/or agitating against pharmaceutical influence.”
Grassley’s demand made headlines, and Pfizer promised to comply. That was fifteen days ago, however, and since then Grassley has made no further public statement on the matter.
The omnibus budget bill that the Senate passed last night may make low-cost birth control available from campus health centers after a four-year absence.
The bill incorporated the Affordable Birth Control Act, which overturns provisions of a 2005 law that, in the words of Choice USA,
stopped pharmaceutical companies from providing prescriptions at lower than market costs to health clinics and College and University health centers. Previously, companies were supplying schools and safety-net providers with low cost or no cost birth control. As a result of the [Deficit Reduction Act], low income women and college students were forced to pay market price, approximately $40-$50 per month.
The Affordable Birth Control Act was the subject of intense organizing by campus groups, making its passage a victory for students and for student activism.
Quoting Choice USA again, “This is an example of the power we as young people have to make real change that directly impacts our lives. Congratulations everyone!”
studentactivism.net 
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