The 70-year-old law professor, who belongs to the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party, won the presidential runoff with a significant lead over her opponent, incumbent social democrat Stevo Pendarovski, receiving nearly 65% of the vote.
The Teal Wand is an at-home self-collect device that aims to improve rates of screenings and provide a comfortable and accessible alternative to traditional pap smears. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has now granted the Teal Wand with Breakthrough Device status; a designation awarded to medical devices that the FDA considers “life-saving” or “life-changing.”
Denmark is easing its abortion law for the first time in 50 years to allow women to terminate their pregnancies up to the 18th week. The new rules will also allow 15 to 17-year-olds to have an abortion without parental consent and will replace the five regional abortion consultations with a new national abortion board, to avoid local differences.
The number of mothers dying as a result of pregnancy has declined precipitously in the last several decades due to reduced poverty rates, improved physical and mental health services, healthier lifestyles, increased access to contraceptives, and more. In 1985, nearly 600,000 mothers died every year worldwide. Today, it’s half that.
The government will pay for the most widely used methods to avoid pregnancy, such as IUDs, contraceptive pills, hormonal implants or the day after pill, for the nine million Canadian women of reproductive age, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said at a press conference. “Women should be free to choose the contraceptives they need without cost getting in the way. So, we’re making contraceptives free,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
After Cyprus and Malta, Croatia is the third E.U. member state to recognize the crime of femicide, which is defined as the killing of a woman or girl, in particular by a man and on account of her gender. The legislation will also increase the prison sentence for rape from one to five years to three to eight, and victims will have the option to give testimony via videocall rather than attending in person.
A male bastion from its founding in 1842 until 1997, the Vienna Philharmonic now has 24 female players among 145 members. It is widely considered among the world’s preeminent orchestras. Harpist Anna Lelkes played with the Philharmonic for 26 years as a nonmember before she became the first woman admitted.
France has become the world’s first country to enshrine abortion rights Lawmakers from both houses of the French Parliament voted 780 to 72 in favor of the measure, easily clearing the three-fifths majority needed to amend the French constitution. The French Senate and National Assembly each overwhelmingly approved the amendment earlier this year. The amendment states that there is a “guaranteed freedom” to abortion in France. Following the vote, the Eiffel Tower was lit up with the words “my body my choice.”
A new hand-held portable device is not only extremely quick and easy to use but very cost effective, say scientists from the University of Florida and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. Compared to the costly alternatives of Mammograms, which expose women to radiation—or MRIs and ultrasounds which require expensive equipment—researchers called the device revolutionary.
Child marriage is now illegal in Zambia, thanks to the new Marriage (Amendment) Act. The landmark amendment defines a child as a “person who has attained, or is below, the age of eighteen years”. It also states that any marriage between persons where either is a child is now void. Although the practice has become less common in recent years, the UNFPA and UNICEF reported that in 2018, 29% of all young women in Zambia aged 20–24 married before 18 years old, and 5% before turning 15.
