La Cámara de Representantes aprobó unánimemente la Resolución Concurrente 90, autoría de la Representante Demócrata por California, Hilda Solís, que busca hacerle frente a las desapariciones y asesinatos de más de 400 mujeres en Ciudad Juárez, México.

NOW President Kim Gandy spoke Saturday at the March for Peace, Justice and Democracy: "On this important day, as we prepare to march for peace, justice and democracy, I want to echo some of the voices of women—diverse voices that have been largely absent in the media coverage of peace and justice issues."

With support for administration policies at an all time low, massive turnout is expected for the March for Peace, Justice & Democracy on Saturday, April 29 in New York City. The crowd, including representatives from a uniquely diverse coalition of groups, will call for an end to the war in Iraq and a new set of priorities at home.

Today, April 25, is Equal Pay Day—the day when women's average earnings finally catch up with the amount men earned on average in the previous calendar year alone. At our founding in 1966, the National Organization for Women identified the wage gap and its negative impact on women. Forty years later, the gap remains wide and progress has slowed to a crawl. Now, women working full-time, year-round, are paid only about three-quarters as much as men, and African-American women and Latinas receive even less.

A massive turnout is expected for the March for Peace, Justice & Democracy on Saturday, April 29 in New York City. Organizers anticipate an unprecedented crowd, which will gather in the area stretching from 7th Avenue to Park Avenue South and 18th to 22nd Streets. The march will step off at 12 noon, proceeding south on Broadway to Foley Square for the Peace and Justice Grassroots Action Festival.

NOW applauds the reintroduction of the Freedom of Choice Act by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). In this hostile political climate, an act that codifies "women's right to choose to bear a child or terminate her pregnancy" is crucial to save women's lives.

"We are together today, this rainbow of organizations, for a common purpose: to raise a clarion call in the nation. To appeal, as Dr. King did at the pulpit of this great church, to the conscience of the nation. To call on those who would join us in this noble cause. March with us for Peace, Justice and Democracy. Here in New York City on April 29, under the gaze of the Statue of Liberty, we will say to our government: Enough is enough."

On the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s death, a coalition of progressive groups will start the countdown to a mass action in New York City. The March for Peace, Justice and Democracy will take place on April 29 in midtown Manhattan, uniting leaders and activists from labor, peace, environmental, women's, civil rights, veterans, youth/student and other social justice and community-based movements. The April 4 press conference launching the march will be held at Riverside Church, the site of King's historic speech against the Vietnam War.

In less than a month, the city of New Orleans will hold an election in which hundreds of thousands of residents are expected to cast votes, despite the fact that many of them are thousands of miles from home and not informed about the candidates—or even that an election is being held.

Because the 2006 Pennsylvania Senate race is so critical to women's rights, the NOW PAC has voted to endorse Democratic candidate Alan Sandals for the United States Senate. With so many of our rights at risk, and reproductive freedom on the line, the NOW PAC will invest both political resources and grassroots strength in the candidate we believe will best protect and advance our rights in the U.S. Senate.

The National Organization for Women Political Action Committee (NOW PAC), together with the Feminist Majority Political Action Committee, will mobilize both political resources and grassroots activists in order to make a difference in the critical Pennsylvania Senate race. Kim Gandy of NOW PAC and Eleanor Smeal of Feminist Majority PAC will announce a major move in this effort at a March 21 press conference.

Six months after Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, taking many lives and forever changing many more, NOW is proud to be part of the Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign, joining with our congressional allies, the Hip Hop Caucus, Rainbow/PUSH and others in demanding that the federal government end the deadlock and start providing answers and assistance to the survivors.

The National Organization for Women will join Rainbow/PUSH, the Hip Hop Caucus, the Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign and others in an afternoon of events supporting the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Today, on International Women's Day, women and men across the globe are celebrating women's social, political and economic achievements and honoring the gains women have fought for as activists, advocates, mothers, workers and citizens of their countries.

South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds today signed away the reproductive freedom of the women he is sworn to protect, with the specific intent of challenging and overturning Roe v. Wade and putting at risk the lives and freedom of women across the country.

Spurred on by a lawsuit in Massachusetts, national retail chain Wal-Mart announced Friday that it has decided to stock emergency contraception (EC) in all of its pharmacies, acquiescing to pressure from the National Organization for Women and other women's rights groups.

Today the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that could add to the increasing difficulty women face in obtaining reproductive health services. If the Court's 8-0 decision in Scheidler, et al., v. National Organization for Women (NOW), et al. and Operation Rescue v. NOW, et al. ushers in a return to clinic violence in the United States, NOW stands ready to fight in every jurisdiction.

In passing a law today that bans all abortions except when the life of the woman is at stake, South Dakota legislators gave right-wing zealots what they have been waiting for since the 1992 Casey decision: another shot at Roe v. Wade. That landmark decision recognized a woman's fundamental right to privacy in deciding whether to continue her pregnancy.

Today the Supreme Court announced that it will consider the constitutionality of a federal abortion procedure ban—a law identical in effect to the Nebraska ban that was struck down by the Court in 2000 because it didn't protect women's health. We will soon learn whether the High Court's two newest justices are as devoted to precedent as they say they are, or whether their visceral opposition to abortion will lead them to overturn a clear precedent after only six years.

Under pressure from a lawsuit and the state pharmacy board, Wal-Mart agreed yesterday to start stocking and selling emergency contraception in its Massachusetts stores. Currently Wal-Mart does not dispense emergency contraception (also known as Plan B or the "morning after pill") in any state other than Illinois, where it is required to do so by law.

"I am proud, as a New Orleanian myself, to stand with others in demanding that the Administration and its friends in Congress stop stalling, stop giving out no-bid contracts to people who can't do the job, stop punishing the survivors because FEMA still hasn't managed to process their applications—and start cooperating in the restoration of our ravaged Gulf Coast and its people," said NOW President Kim Gandy.

Today the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the nation celebrate the life and legacy of Betty Friedan, one of the founders of NOW and the modern women's rights movement.

At the same time Wal-Mart faces the largest gender discrimination class action lawsuit in U.S. history, affecting 1.6 million women, three Massachusetts women are now suing Wal-Mart over its failure to provide access to emergency contraceptive pills.

We commend the 25 honorable senators, led by John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, who voted on principle today—choosing a valiant stand for justice over weak-kneed capitulation to George Bush's stacking of the Supreme Court.

"NOW applauds Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy for taking the lead in launching a filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito," said NOW President Kim Gandy. "We call on all women's rights supporters in the Senate to join this important effort."