US Senate resolution commemorates women's achievements

CONCORD, N.H. — U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Susan Collins of Maine are leading a coalition of senators on a resolution commemorating the achievements of women around the world in recognition of International Women's Day.

Shaheen, a Democrat, said Wednesday that women and girls make up 51 percent of the population yet are consistently underrepresented in government, economically disenfranchised and faced with social barriers. Collins, a Republican, says women have blazed trails and broken barriers.




The resolution was co-sponsored by Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island; Robert Menendez of New Jersey; Chris Coons of Delaware; Kirsten Gillibrand of New York; Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin; Dick Durbin of Illinois; Ben Cardin of Maryland; Chris Murphy of Connecticut; Ed Markey of Massachusetts; and Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray of Washington.

In New Hampshire, about 50 students held a silent protest at the University of New Hampshire for 47 minutes — in honor of the 47,000 people who protesters say die from unsafe abortions every year because they don't have access to proper care.

One of their targets was a regulation known as the Mexico City Policy. In 2009, President Barack Obama rescinded a ban on providing federal money to international groups that perform or provide information on abortions. President Donald Trump reinstituted the regulation — also known as the global gag rule — on his first day in office.

"By cutting contraception and family planning funding, the global gag rule only increases unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions," said Mackenzie Evans, a sophomore volunteer with #Fight4HER, a group that fights the abortion funding ban. "It is a direct public health threat to millions of people worldwide."