The birth of a new feminist web site; Haitian women see some real advocacy in the fight against rampant post-earthquake sexual violence in the displacement camps and President Obama helps out the nursing mamas!

• Welcome to the (online) world, The Feminist Wire! For the reproductive justice minded, here’s a great new site to check out. Started by Rewire contributor, Tamura Lomax, The Feminist Wire features “an amazing line up of feminist writers” and aims to “provide a socio-political and cultural critique of anti-feminist opinions, practices, orientations, etc., that block or limit the satisfaction of goods or ends that humans minimally require for maintaining a biological life.” It’s already got some great pieces up so head over and get your feminist on!

• Great news for the women in Haiti, living in the post-earthquake displacement camps, where a walk to the bathroom has made many women victims of sexual violence.  A couple of months ago I wrote about a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IAHCR) to urgently address the epidemic of sexual violence in Haitian displacement camps. Today, according to MADRE, one of the key groups involved in the petiion, the IAHCR has acccepted the recommendations made and has stepped up to say they will present them to the Haitian government. According to MADRE, “The IACHR’s groundbreaking recommendations request that the Haitian government take immediate measures to prevent sexual violence against women and girls in displacement camps.”

• President Obama asked the federal government today to draft new provisions for breastfeeding women in the workplace, as per the health care bill. The legislation ensures that nursing mothers will not be discriminated against in the workplace or fired for nursing or pumping, among other provisions. 

• According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, the vote set up next week to repeal the health reform law, by the House, also includes a proposed resolution which specifically calls for proposals that would prohibit federal funding for abortion. The CRR says the anti-choice leadership is looking “to pave the way for legislation that will effectively prevent all American women from buying insurance plans that cover abortion services.”