by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Hayley Leventhal
Reporter
California Progress Report

A bill to redefine “marriage” as a union between two gender-neutral persons passed the California Senate Judiciary Committee on July 10th. All that it needs to land on the Governor's desk is approval by the Senate Appropriations Committee and the full Senate. The bill, authored by Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), is the fifth time in six years that the California Legislature will tackle the same-sex marriage debate.

Assembly Bill 43, known as the “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act,” will modify parts of the existing California Family Code to gender-neutral terms. For example, where existing law says marriage is between “a man and a woman,” Leno’s bill will change the law to reflect that marriage is between “two persons.” It passed the committee 3-2, along party lines, with three supporting votes from Democrats, and two opposing from Republicans.

by Sheri Divers [courtesy of Blog for America]

Jessica Stites is Editorial Assistant at Ms. Magazine:

Yesterday's ruling upheld Bush’s ban on the D&X (dilation & extraction) abortion procedure. Its language, however, is vague enough to potentially outlaw D&E (dilation and evacuation), the procedure used in 95% of post-first trimester abortions. No exception was provided for the health of women.

But what does that mean in real-life terms?

One answer comes from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Martha Mendoza, who in 2004 learned that her 19-week-old fetus was dead in her womb. Even then — just months after the ban was first passed -- it was already becoming difficult to find a doctor willing and able to perform a D&E. Martha Mendoza tells of her struggle to find one in her lucid, heart-wrenching Summer 2004 Ms. essay  "Between a Woman and her Doctor”: