Survivors Know Donald Trump’s Type

As advocates and activists around the globe hold events to recognize October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, it’s worth acknowledging what we have recognized since 2016. Just like Vice President Harris, we know Donald Trump’s type. 

In abusive relationships, the abusive partner is often initially charismatic and attentive, seducing partners with professions of love and protection that demand loyalty and obedience in return. When you are good, you are in a wonderful romance. (“Women love me.”) When you step out of line, you are crazy and no one will believe anything you say. (“Kamala Harris is mentally disabled.”) If you leave, you’ll be sorry. (“Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole—that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”)

JD Vance Is Lying on Abortion

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz faced Sen. JD Vance of Ohio Tuesday night at the vice presidential debate, and day-after results are showing more or less a toss-up on who won among pundits.

Admittedly, Vance sounded coherent and slick. But much of what he said—especially on abortion, IVF and childcare—were lies, engineered for women to let their guards down and to distance himself from his extreme views, most of which are ripped right from Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership. Vance has stood consistently against abortion rights during his two-year political career—despite attempts Tuesday night to embody a congenial and reasonable version of conservatism.

Criminalization of Pregnant Women Skyrockets, Based on the Legal Fiction of ‘Fetal Personhood’

and

New research reveals at least 210 women faced criminal charges because of their pregnancies or pregnancy outcomes in the year after Dobbs—the highest number of documented prosecutions in a single year. The real number is likely much higher, according to new research released by Pregnancy Justice.

“Our new report shows how the Dobbs decision emboldened prosecutors to develop ever more aggressive strategies to prosecute pregnancy, leading to the most pregnancy-related criminal cases on record,” said Lourdes A. Rivera, president of Pregnancy Justice. “Being pregnant places people at increased risk, not only of dire health outcomes, but of arrest.”

The Life of the Mother, The Grief of Her Child: What Abortion Bans Take From Us

A 6-year-old boy faces life without his mother, Amber Nicole Thurman, because of an abortion ban. Candi Miller died at home with her 3-year-old daughter beside her, after her teenage son watched her suffer for days, because she was too scared to seek follow-up abortion and miscarriage care. And in Indiana, Taysha Wilkinson-Sobieski, a 26-year-old mom of one, died after she could not access timely reproductive healthcare for an ectopic pregnancy.

As someone who lost my mother as a teenager and who worked with grieving children as a volunteer, I implore you to imagine the powerless feeling of watching your mother’s last moments, wishing you could save her. Imagine the rage you would feel if you knew she could have been saved, but some politician did not care enough about her life to write a clear, evidence-based law that protected it.

A Second Trump Presidency Could Be Deadly for Women Overseas

The first time Donald Trump was president, he imposed a strict, overseas antiabortion policy that caused 108,000 women and children to die and 360,000 people to contract HIV/AIDS, according to a journal of the National Academy of Sciences. If voters send him back to the White House, those numbers, staggering as they may be, would be dwarfed by what comes next, reproductive rights advocates contend.

‘Women Are Afraid to Get Pregnant’: How the Texas Abortion Ban Denies Life-Saving Care

Kyleigh Thurman and Kelsie Norris-De La Cruz are the latest Texan women to file complaints or lawsuits after suffering harm to their reproductive health after the state enacted a near-total abortion ban.

“These women are examples of how scared, terrified and confused providers are even with the Texas law redefining that it’s legal that an ectopic pregnancy is a medical exception,” said Austin Dennard, a Dallas OB-GYN. Abortion bans in states like Texas are making doctors hesitate to provide life-saving care and “stealing the joy out of pregnancy,” she said.

Abortion in Georgia Can Resume Up to 22 Weeks of Pregnancy After Court Ruling

“It is generally men who promote and defend laws like the LIFE Act, the effect of which is to require only women … to engage in compulsory labor,” wrote Fulton County Superior Judge Robert McBurney.

“Georgia’s six-week ban left millions of people across a wide swath of the South facing drives of hundreds of miles to North Carolina and Virginia,” said Caitlin Myers, an economist at Middlebury College who studies abortion travel patterns. “Now, as long as the ban isn’t enforced, Georgia residents as well as people from Florida, Alabama and parts of Tennessee are going to be much closer to services.”

War on Women Report: More Women Die From Abortion Bans; Senate Republicans Block IVF Bill; Texas AG Sues Biden Over Teen Birth Control Access

and

U.S. patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. But day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report… Former Rochester police officer Shawn Jordan, convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl, was sentenced to just 10 weekends in jail; at least 11 states will ask voters to weigh in on abortion and reproductive healthcare access by way of ballot measures; a scarcity of research on tampon safety reveals a lack of women’s health prioritization in medicine and law; Taysha Wilkinson-Sobieski, a 26-year-old woman in Indiana, died in October 2023 after being unable to access timely care for her ectopic pregnancy; the gender pay gap has widened significantly for the first time in 20 years; and more.

We Can’t Keep Sidelining Survivor Justice

In the crowded landscape of gender justice, survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) are often neglected. While gender issues like abortion rights, pay equity and childcare frequently dominate discussions, survivor justice—particularly for those impacted by GBV—struggles for recognition.

The epidemic proportions of GBV demand a new approach: creating a survivor justice movement, an independent space that focuses on the healing, support and visibility of survivors.

From Springfield, Ohio, to the Debate Stage: The Fight Against Anti-Black Rhetoric

From the presidential debate stage, Trump falsely claimed that immigrants were killing and eating pets, further fueling the anti-Black frenzy. Since then, he’s vowed to enact large-scale deportations of Haitian immigrants in an effort to cleanse the city of its supposed threats. Meanwhile, the real threat was not the Haitian immigrants but the Neo-Nazi hate group that marched through Springfield, hurling insults and curses at residents enjoying a blues music festival.

I fear that no matter the outcome of the election, the real winner will be anti-Blackness.