Women's Voices Media

Category: "Newsworthy"

Elder Abuse Awareness Day

Posted by on Jun 15, 2026 in Newsworthy, Women's Health & Reproductive Rights

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) is June 16. WEAAD provides an opportunity for communities to promote a better understanding of abuse and neglect of older persons by raising awareness of the cultural, social, economic and demographic processes affecting elder abuse and neglect.

2026 Theme: Beyond Awareness: Making Elder Abuse Prevention Work

As populations age, more people with disabilities are growing older, and many older persons develop disabilities later in life. This overlap calls for closer coordination between efforts on ageing and disability, especially in areas such as protection, care, and community-based support—all of which are essential to addressing elder abuse.

Elder abuse remains widely under-recognized and under-reported. It can take many forms, including physical, psychological, and financial abuse, as well as neglect. It often occurs in situations where individuals lack visibility, support, or access to services. Addressing this issue requires more than raising awareness. It calls for stronger systems that can prevent abuse and respond effectively when it happens, while respecting the dignity, independence, and rights of older persons.

What needs to be in place for societies to effectively prevent, identify, and respond

Ageism affects how we think, feel and act towards others and ourselves based on age. It imposes powerful barriers to the development of good policies and programmes for older and younger people, and has profound negative consequences on older adults’ health and well-being. Launched by World Health Organization, the Combatting Ageism Campaign aims to change the narrative around age and ageing and help create a world for all ages.

Addressing Elder Abuse

Between 2019 and 2030, the number of persons aged 60 years or over is projected to grow by 38%, from 1 billion to 1.4 billion, globally outnumbering youth, and this increase will be the greatest and the most rapid in the developing world, and recognizing that greater attention needs to be paid to the specific challenges affecting older persons, including in the field of human rights.

Elder abuse is a problem that exists in both developing and developed countries yet is typically underreported globally. Prevalence rates or estimates exist only in selected developed countries — ranging from 1% to 10%. Although the extent of elder mistreatment is unknown, its social and moral significance is obvious. As such, it demands a global multifaceted response, one which focuses on protecting the rights of older persons.

Approaches to define, detect and address elder abuse need to be placed within a cultural context and considered along side culturally specific risk factors. For example, in some traditional societies, older widows are subjected to forced marriages while in others, isolated older women are accused of witchcraft. From a health and social perspectives, unless both primary health care and social service sectors are well equipped to identify and deal with the problem, elder abuse will continue to be underdiagnosed and overlooked.

YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE.

Posted by on Jun 09, 2026 in Newsworthy, My Voice

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Sen. Bernie (I} and Sen. Katie Britt (R) Express Their Concerns About AI

Posted by on Jun 05, 2026 in Newsworthy

US senator Bernie Sanders amplified his recent criticism of artificial intelligence on Sunday, explicitly linking the financial ambition of “the richest people in the world” to economic insecurity for millions of Americans – and calling for a potential moratorium on new datacenters.

Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democratic party, said on CNN’s State of the Union that he was “fearful of a lot” when it came to AI. And the senator called it “the most consequential technology in the history of humanity” that will “transform” the US and the world in ways that had not been fully discussed.

“If there are no jobs and humans won’t be needed for most things, how do people get an income to feed their families, to get healthcare or to pay the rent?” Sanders said. “There’s not been one serious word of discussion in the Congress about that reality.”

From shrimp Jesus to erotic tractors: how viral AI slop took over the internet

Days from being scheduled to help swear New York mayor-elect and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani into office, Sanders said “the richest people in the world” were pushing the technology. He singled out tech moguls Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel Thiel while questioning their motives.

“You think they’re staying up nights worrying about working people and how this technology will impact those people?” Sanders said. “They are not. They are doing it to get richer and even more powerful.”

Sanders also pointed to studies that show dependence on AI chatbots for emotional support. “If this trend continues, what does it mean over the years when people are not getting their support, their interaction from other human beings, but from a machine?” he said. “What does that mean to humanity?”

That theme was taken up separately on State of the Union by Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican senator and co-sponsor of legislation to protect minors from chatbots.

The proposed measure – the Guardianship Over Artificial Intelligence Relationships (Guard) Act – seeks to ban providing AI companions to minors. It also mandates that AI companions disclose their non-human status and lack of professional credentials. The measure seeks to establish criminal liability if companies make AI companions available to minors that solicit or produce sexually explicit content – or encourage self-harm or violence.

Britt said she had met with parents who have told her “devastating stories about their children where chatbots ultimately, when they kind of peeled everything back, had isolated them from their parents, had talked to them about suicide”.

She said: “If these AI companies can make the most brilliant machines in the world, they could do us all a service by putting up proper guardrails that did not allow for minors to utilize these things, that also told the user consistently that they are not a physician, they are not a psychiatrist, ‘I am a machine.’”

Britt said AI companies should be held criminally liable if they create spaces where chatbots “are having these types of sensual and sexual relationships with young people or encouraging suicide”.

The remarks by Sanders and Britt offer a rare convergence of thinking from the left and right on aspects of the issue of governing AI. Sanders said Congress needed “to vigorously study the impact that AI is having on the mental health of our country”.

“I worry very much about kids spending their entire days getting emotional support,” he added. “So we have got to take a hard look on that.” The senator said lawmakers need to be “thinking seriously” about a moratorium on new AI datacenters.

“Frankly, I think you have got to slow this process down,” he said. “It’s not good enough for the oligarchs to tell us, it’s coming, you adapt. What are they talking about? They going to guarantee health care to all people?

“What are they going to do when people have no jobs? What are they going to do, make housing free? So I think we need to take a deep breath, and I think we need to slow this thing down.”

Edward Helmore

Sun 28 Dec 2025 14.00 EST

Prefer the Guardian on Google

MATERNAL MORTALITY IN THE U.S. - TRAGIC AND UNACCEPTABLE

Posted by on May 30, 2026 in Newsworthy

REVISED: Statement from Dr. Michael Warren, Chief Medical and Health Officer, March of Dimes

The latest maternal mortality data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows a slight decline in deaths in 2024 from causes related to pregnancy or childbirth in the United States. While any reduction in maternal deaths is encouraging, this decrease to 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births from 18.6 in 2023 is not statistically significant and reminds us that progress remains fragile.

These findings also demonstrate persistent health disparities experienced by Black moms and babies in America. In fact, the data show that the maternal mortality rate among Black moms was 44.8 per 100,000 live births compared to 14.2 among white moms.

Additionally, the 2025 March of Dimes Report Card shows that American Indian/Alaska Native women had the highest rate (60.8 per 100,000), followed by Non-Hispanic Black women (53.7 per 100,000) and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander women (40.7 per 100,000) compared to women of other racial and ethnic groups during the 2019-2023 time period.

These deaths are tragic, unacceptable, and a stark reminder that the U.S. remains among the most dangerous developed nations for childbirth. A system failing moms and babies is a system failing everyone.

March of Dimes remains committed to addressing the maternal and infant health crisis in America by advancing evidence-based solutions that improve maternal health outcomes, including expanding access to high-quality maternity care, supporting the maternal health workforce, and investing in innovations that help prevent complications and save lives. Every mom deserves the safest possible start to motherhood, and every baby deserves a healthy beginning.

This Statement was updated with population-specific maternal mortality rates on 4/10/2026.

Contact: Erin DeGiorgi

Email: press@marchofdimes.org

MEMORIAL DAY: REMEMBER AND HONOR OUR FALLEN SOLDIERS

Posted by on May 24, 2026 in Women Not Categorized, Background, Newsworthy, Social Justice

With all the parties and barbeques this weekend it's sometimes easy to lose sight of the true meaning of Memorial Day. Although certainly you know that Memorial Day honors those who have lost their lives serving in the U.S. Military, you may be unaware of the origins behind this day of remembrance.

One of the first Memorial Day celebrations in the U.S. was by newly freed enslaved men, women, and children on Mat 1, 1865, in Charleston, South Carolina. Not long after the Civil War ended, freed enslaved peoples, members of the U.S. Colored Troops, and some locals organized a ceremony to bury Union troops who died due to horrendous conditions of a prison created at what was once a racetrack, History.com reports. They honored the dead by singing hymns and placing flowers on their graves.

In 1950, Congress passed a resolution requesting the president issue a proclamation calling on Americans to observe Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace.

In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May, in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees, but Memorial Day didn't actually become an official federal holiday until 1971.

President Bill Clinton signed the National Moment of Remembrance Act in 2000, which asks Americans to pause and observe a National Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m. local time. A number of organizations throughout the country observe this moment.

While Memorial Day has generated community traditions, it has also generated traditions for how the government observes the day, too. The flag should be flown at half-staff from sunrise until noon, according to Gettysburg Flag, to honor men and women who have fallen in the line of duty. At noon, the flag should be briskly raised to full staff to salute all of those who have served.

One special tradition is that the President places a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

PLEASE, whatever plans you have for this holiday, make sure you take at least a few minutes to remember and honor those who have paid the uiltimate sacrifice so that you can enjoy those plans.