In a statement released on December 17th, the Archivist of the United States, Dr. Colleen Shogan, and the Deputy Archivist, William J. Bosanko, clarified their position on the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and the constitutional process for ratifying amendments. The press release highlighted their legal responsibilities and the current limitations preventing the ERA from being certified as part of the U.S. Constitution.
Raising Three on $1,300: A Mississippi Mother’s View on Policies That Matter
Front & Center began as first-person accounts of Black mothers living in Jackson, Miss., receiving a guaranteed income. Moving into the fourth year and next phase of this series, we’re expanding our focus beyond a single policy intervention to include a broader examination of systemic issues impacting Black women experiencing poverty. This means diving deeper into the interconnected challenges they face—including navigating the existing safety net; healthcare, childcare and elder care; and the importance of mental, physical and spiritual well-being.
“The Magnolia Mother’s Trust (MMT) has been a game-changer for me. The money I received made a huge difference in my life and my children’s happiness. We were able to go on more family outings, like visiting arcades, which brought us a lot of joy. ….
“Looking forward, my goals are centered around continuing to budget wisely and plan for the future. One thing that could still make a huge difference in my life is consistent financial stability and support—I really wish our government would invest in things that help people like guaranteed income, stimulus checks and affordable housing.’
Texas Is Coming for the Abortion Pill
A new battlefront in the war on women is being led by right-wing extremist Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s coming with guns blazing after a New York doctor who prescribed and sent abortion pills to a 20-year-old Texas woman who requested and used them. In the first-of-its-kind lawsuit, Paxton is suing Dr. Margaret Carpenter for $100,000 in a Collin County, Texas, court for enabling an abortion in Texas … even though Carpenter practices medicine in New York, and what she’s doing—providing abortion pills to women in all 50 states—is legal in New York as a result of the state’s shield law.
Trump’s Second Term Blueprint: Using the Helms Amendment to Enforce Total Global Abortion Bans
The Helms Amendment turns 51 years old on Dec. 17. As the second Trump administration gets underway, Project 2025 looks to Helms as a tool.
At the same time, there’s also a bill pending in Congress to repeal the Helms Amendment: the Abortion is Healthcare Everywhere Act—led in the House by Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and in the Senate by Cory Booker (D-N.J.)—which would remove Helms’ language from the Foreign Assistance Act and specify that U.S. foreign assistance funding can be used for the provision of abortion in countries where abortion is legal.
Hospitals Gave Patients Meds During Childbirth, Then Reported Them For Positive Drug Tests
Across the country, hospitals are dispensing medications to patients in labor, only to report them to child welfare authorities when they or their newborns test positive for those very same substances on subsequent drug tests.
Amairani Salinas was 32 weeks pregnant with her fourth child in 2023 when doctors at a Texas hospital discovered that her baby no longer had a heartbeat. As they prepped her for an emergency cesarean section, they gave her midazolam, a benzodiazepine commonly prescribed to keep patients calm. A day later, the grieving mother was cradling her stillborn daughter when a social worker stopped by her room to deliver another devastating blow: Salinas was being reported to child welfare authorities. A drug test had turned up traces of benzodiazepine—the very medication that staff had administered before wheeling her into surgery.
Can President Biden Actually Ratify the ERA?
ERA ratification is more legally complicated than the Instagram posts pushing for it make it seem.
If we want the ERA to be ratified, we need Congress to make it happen.
Music as Medicine: The Ms. Q&A with Renée Fleming and Dr. Francis Collins
Music feels healing, but can it actually heal us? The answer is a resounding yes—according to Sound Health, a collaborative project run by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The Sound Health Network began in 2016 after a chance meeting of Dr. Francis Collins, the former NIH director, and Renée Fleming, the globally renowned and five-time-Grammy-award-winning American soprano. Over the past eight years, the partnership, in association with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), has raised awareness about the healing benefits of music and advanced research at the intersection of arts and wellness.
Ms. recently spoke with Fleming and Collins about their journeys to connecting music with health, what we know so far about music’s effect on the brain, and how we can use that knowledge to heal ourselves.
‘Guerilla Storytelling’ and Joyful Resistance: Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández and the DWC’s Plan to Combat Project 2025
The Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC) this week announced the election of Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) as DWC’s chair for the 119th Congress, which starts in January. Leger Fernández served as the DWC vice chair in the 118th Congress and will now lead the largest ever DWC, which includes a record-breaking 96 members in the new Congress.
Ms. executive editor, Kathy Spillar, sat down with Rep. Leger Fernández, to discuss priorities for the DWC—both to fight back against what will be repeated attacks by the Trump administration on women’s rights and programs benefiting women and their children, as well as strategies for moving forward toward equality.
Sahra Mani’s ‘Bread & Roses’: A Documentary ‘About Afghan Women, by Afghan Women, When the World Had Stopped Seeing Them’
In her new documentary, Bread & Roses (available now on Apple+), filmmaker Sahra Mani reveals the fierce and courageous resistance of Afghan women defying the Taliban—who wish to make them disappear.
It’s a documentary about Afghan women, by Afghan women, at a time when the world had stopped seeing them.
2025 and Beyond: 15 Feminist Thought Leaders on Building a Better Future
“The most powerful and trusted messenger you have in reaching your community is you.”
“Half this country is female, and half is composed of people of color. Until those exclusions are gone, we are not living in a true democracy.”
“Keep it moving. That’s the only way.”
“Anyone can lead, especially on the issues that they care about.”
Some thoughts to keep us going.