David Abel writes for the Boston Globe, "That it would be a tight vote was never in doubt, but the outcome was unclear until the roll call came to the end and Jeff Young, a gardener and freshman Democrat, switched his vote with a simple "yes" from his wooden desk in the chandelier-lit chamber.

His change of mind tipped the balance yesterday in the state House of Representatives, making Vermont the fourth state in the country to legalize marriage between same-sex couples -- and the first by a legislative vote."

Brian Montopoli writes for CBS News, "The decision by the Iowa Supreme Court to overturn that state's gay marriage ban is prompting questions about whether or not the battle over gay marriage, long a central focus in the culture war, has reached a tipping point in American culture."

Fisnik Abrashi writes in the Washington Post, "A new Afghan law makes it legal for men to rape their wives, human rights groups and some Afghan lawmakers said Thursday, accusing President Hamid Karzai of signing the legislation to bolster his re-election prospects. Critics worry the legislation undermines hard-won rights for women enacted after the fall of the Taliban's strict Islamist regime."

A Washington Post editorial says "Three more deaths demonstrate the need for more effective tools against domestic violence."

Lynn M. Paltrow writes for the Huffington Post, "PersonhoodUSA apparently sees itself as the new, hipper, more effective incarnation of the anti-abortion movement. PersonhoodUSA hopes that by establishing the 'pre-born, as legal persons with protection under the law' it will end the 'injustice of abortion.' Its attempt to do this last November through a 'personhood' ballot measure in Colorado's failed miserably. Nevertheless, PersonhoodUSA, is committed to 'working tirelessly to establish personhood in every State.' What supporters of this approach don't mention is that if the unborn have legal personhood rights, pregnant women won't."

Melissa Silverstein writes for the Women's Media Center, "Most women, including feminists, have a love/hate relationship with the chick flick. A mere mention of the term can send you into a lather bemoaning the disparagement that the entire genre has wrought on womankind. The current offerings are especially troublesome. But this was not always the case."

Bob Herbert writes in the Washington Post, "Rape and other forms of sexual assault against women is the great shame of the U.S. armed forces, and there is no evidence that this ghastly problem, kept out of sight as much as possible, is diminishing."

Anne Eggebroten, WeNews commentator, writes, "The "crime" of ending the pregnancy last week in Brazil has earned excommunication for the mother and doctors of the child, but not for the stepfather who apparently sexually abused the child for three years, and her sister as well."

DeNeen L. Brown writes in The Washington Post: "First lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton came together onstage yesterday to . . . present the State Department's Award for International Women of Courage to seven activists, including honorees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Malaysia and Uzbekistan.

Aisha S. Taylor and Erin Saiz Hanna write for the National Catholic Reporter, "In an infuriating combination of events, the Vatican rang in Women’s History Month by once again paying lip service to women’s equality while showing its true colors. The day before Pope Benedict XVI called for increased commitment to women’s dignity, a Vatican official announced his support for the excommunications of the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old girl who had an abortion after being raped by her stepfather."

Carole Joffe, in the Longview Institute, writes, "...as we enter a new era, with the end of the Bush presidency coinciding with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, I see different types of reproductive horror stories emerging. These stories transcend the abortion divide. They speak squarely to the economic devastation facing Americans across the political spectrum, and how this crisis impacts people's reproductive lives. Three recent items in the news serve as examples."

For the Austin Chronicle, Belinda Acosta writes, "Walking through the Convention Center during the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in years past, it didn't take a demographer to note that the crowd was predominantly white, male, and 30-ish. Not that that's surprising. Internet and computer access largely depend on means, knowledge, and information. But if it's called the World Wide Web, one has to wonder if that world is really that worldly or wide and how broadly that Web is cast and to whom."

Raina Kelley writes in a Newsweek Web Exclusive about the issue of domestic abuse and the public eye's focus on Rihanna and Chris Brown. "While we can argue about how much of all that is true, it really doesn't matter. This sad story doesn't have to be verifiable for it to potentially warp how Rihanna's hundreds of thousands of tween fans think about intimate relationships...Celebrity scandals may have a short shelf life, but what we teach kids about domestic violence will last forever. So rather than 'raise awareness,' here are five myths that anyone with a child should take time to debunk."

Dahlia Lithwick writes in the Los Angeles Times, "Last month, former U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr sent out a warning to President Obama: GOP senators won't readily forgive the president for his Senate votes against Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr."

Rhonda Copelon writes for On The Issues, "When one compares what is done to a woman in an advanced domestic battering cycle and to prisoners subjected to torture, the situations are frighteningly similar. But only recently have they begun to be equated legally and culturally. How would the world be different for women if domestic violence were treated as torture or as cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment?"