More Than A Magazine, A Movement
On Feb. 28, 2025, the lookback window under New York City’s Gender-Motivated Violence Act (GMVA) will expire, erasing an essential opportunity for survivors of gender-based offenses, sex trafficking, sexual assault, workplace harassment, reproductive coercion and other forms of violence to seek justice.
The National Organization for Women, New York City, urges individuals to act quickly to protect their right to file civil claims for incidents of gender-motivated violence.
With 40,000 acres burned and more than 13,000 buildings destroyed in the SoCal wildfires, which have decimated whole neighborhoods of Los Angeles over the last two weeks, most recovery efforts have focused on providing shelter and food for the 10,000-plus people evacuated from their homes.
Fourteen-year-old Avery Colvert, whose school was destroyed in the fire, started the donation drive Altadena Girls to help young girl survivors find less obvious (but equally comforting) items. While GoFundMe has countless pages of drives for individual families who lost their homes, Altadena Girls sent out a call on Instagram for supplies like nail polish, pimple patches and curly hair products.
“For teenage girls who have lost everything, feeling like ourselves again is also really important for our mental health.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Sunday said the legislature should amend the language of the state’s near-total abortion ban to address confusion over when doctors may terminate pregnancies. Patrick is the first major state elected official to offer support for changing the state’s abortion law in this legislative session.
“I do think we need to clarify any language so that doctors are not in fear of being penalized if they think the life of the mother is at risk,” Patrick said on the WFAA program Inside Texas Politics.
At the end of her sermon at Tuesday’s inaugural prayer service, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde directly addressed President Trump on his first full day in office.
“I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” she said. “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives.”
Bishop Budde also asked Trump, who has repeatedly threatened mass deportation, to protect immigrants in the United States. She said, “The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.”
As the nation grapples with a new political reality, the legacy of Roe v. Wade and Cecile Richards reminds us of the power of coalition-building, advocacy and bold leadership in the fight for bodily autonomy.
In recent years, the use of abortion pills has skyrocketed and now accounts for an estimated 65 percent of all abortions performed in medical settings, including through both brick-and-mortar clinics and telehealth providers.
Carrie N. Baker’s fascinating new book, Abortion Pills: U.S. History and Policy, tells the story of a decades-long struggle for acceptance of this safe, secure and private method of ending an early pregnancy. It’s also a story of antiabortion attempts to suppress abortion pills.
Indian Americans have built a reputation as one of the most successful and influential immigrant communities in the United States, celebrated for our dedication to education, hard work and family values. Yet, when it comes to reproductive rights, our community has largely remained silent, even as these rights come under increasing attack across the country. This silence, quite frankly, is no longer acceptable.
To my fellow Indian Americans, especially women: this is our moment to step forward. Speak up in your communities, join organizations fighting for reproductive rights, and vote for leaders who prioritize these freedoms.
An increasing number of healthcare providers are prescribing abortion pills in advance of pregnancy, and many people are ordering these pills to have on hand in case they or a loved one needs them. Between September 2021 and April 2023, over 40,000 people ordered advance provision abortion pills. In one recent national survey, 65 percent of respondents said they would be interested in having these medications on hand. Advance provision abortion pills can significantly shorten the time between the decision to end a pregnancy and having an abortion. Growing legal restrictions on abortion and threats of even more restrictions once Trump is back in office have made this option more important than ever.
What if many of the working and middle-class men who voted for Trump were misled into thinking that feminists and racial justice advocates were their antagonists, instead of the denizens of what David Graham referred to in The Atlantic as a new “Gilded Age,” who were seated right behind Trump at his second inaugural?
To use a Star Wars analogy: What if many of the average men who supported Trump fancied themselves members of the Rebel Alliance, but one day came to understand they were actually working for the Empire?
Democrats don’t need to convert the MAGA faithful. I’m convinced that millions of men and young men who voted for Trump have not gone that far down the rabbit hole of hero-worship, conspiracy and delusion. That’s the source of my defiant hope.
Cecile Richards, the former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) died memorably on the holiday celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States. A day of light and darkness for the United States.