An Unsung Heroine of the Suffragists Can Show Us How to Deal With Failure

I recently spoke with students at the University of Pennsylvania Law School Women’s Association at their annual Carrie B. Kilgore dinner—a gathering of budding lawyers and their professors united in honoring the first woman to attend the Penn Carey Law School and be admitted to the bar in the Commonwealth. 

Giving this speech was a pleasure, not only for the opportunity to encourage and support some of the great lawyers and judges of tomorrow, but because it brought me into contact with the life of Carrie Kilgore, a name, I have to admit, I had never heard before. 

In the research for my remarks, I discovered that Kilgore was a doctor, lawyer and early suffragist, and while known to an extent in the Pennsylvania legal community, her papers have largely been unpublished, her achievements largely unknown to the public. This is a shame—because not only did she live a fascinating, meaningful life, but I think there are lessons that we can take from it as we confront the urgent challenges of the present moment.

Amid Support from Doctors Group, Bill to Clarify Texas’ Abortion Ban Does Little to Save Lives, Critics Say

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A bipartisan bill to clarify exceptions to the state’s near-total abortion ban garnered widespread support Thursday from healthcare professionals and abortion opponents who said the bill would remove any hesitation doctors might have to save a pregnant woman’s life.

Critics, meanwhile, told lawmakers that Senate Bill 31 doesn’t go far enough to protect women facing pregnancy-related medical emergencies and even quietly resurrects 160-year-old laws that could be used to criminalize those who have undergone an abortion or have helped those who receive an out-of-state abortion.

This Week in Women’s Representation: From AOC to Alaska’s Next Governor, Women Candidates to Watch in 2024, 2028 and Beyond

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris did not lose to Donald Trump because they were women; Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announces run for governor; it’s looking increasingly likely that a woman may be elected in 2026 in Alaska; women will disproportionately feel the effect of Trump’s tariffs; and more.

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court Race Will Decide the Fate of IVF and Abortion Rights—Just Ask This OB-GYN

The possible return to a near total abortion ban in Wisconsin—which depends on the outcome of the April 1 state Supreme Court election—would gravely interfere with Dr. Anna Igler’s work as an OB-GYN near Green Bay.

“Terrible things happen in pregnancy,” said Anna Igler, an OB-GYN near Green Bay. “All babies aren’t healthy and all pregnancies are not healthy for the baby or the mother. That’s just biology.” 

She knows that firsthand.

Twenty-Nine States Have a Not-So-Secret Weapon to Fight for Democracy

As the Trump administration’s attacks on women’s rights, reproductive access and LGBTQ equality continue in force, state executive leaders have emerged as potent frontline responders.

Among the tools in states’ arsenals are often underused state-level equal rights amendments (ERAs). Even as the federal ERA remains in limbo, an unlikely bulwark for the next four years—see professor Laurence Tribe’s Contrarian piece explaining its legal status—29 states have some form of an ERA (e.g., broader sex equality language than the U.S. Constitution) written into their constitutions. Several have already been used to advance abortion rights (Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Mexico); many are broadly worded and inclusive of protection against pregnancy discrimination, age, disability and immigration status. Issues such as pay transparency and addressing gender-based violence also could be bolstered by a state ERA.

The Senate Wives Club and Carter’s ERA Extension: Four Decades Later, ‘Equality of Rights Under the Law’ Has Yet to Be Guaranteed

This Women’s History Month, we remember President Jimmy Carter’s role in establishing this official observance of women’s achievements, his related support for the Equal Rights Amendment, and some unsung heroes in the Senate Wives Club who were instrumental in gaining Carter’s support for an ERA milestone that advanced, but ultimately failed to achieve, ERA ratification.

The contributions of Senate wives in the 1970s, particularly their efforts to help delay the ERA’s ratification deadline, often go unrecognized even today.

Forced to Carry a Dying Baby, This Texas Mother of Four Says She Didn’t Think It Could Happen to Her

Samantha Casiano, an east Texas mother of four, tells her story of life and loss:

“I found out that my baby daughter had no chance of being able to live outside my womb at my 20-week ultrasound. … I felt that what happened to us should be everybody’s business. The people in power in Texas forced me to give birth with their abortion ban. I wanted everyone to know who Halo was and how she suffered.

“We all try to visit Halo’s grave every Sunday, and we’ll have a party for her second birthday on March 29 with a cake. We call her birthday her ‘Freedom Day.’ The day she was born is the day she was finally free to go to heaven. She shouldn’t have been on this earth, but the state of Texas forced her to be here, and she fought a fight we all knew she would lose.”

Keeping Score: Trump Threatens Students and Universities; Texas Midwife Arrested for Abortion Care; Americans Criticize Federal Worker Firings, ‘It’s Time to Fire Elon Musk’

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week: Trump pulled university funding and arrested student leaders over pro-Palestine protests; a Texas midwife faces felony charges for providing abortion care; Congress members avoid town halls after Department of Education and other federal agencies were decimated; abortion bans threaten the lives of Black mothers; and more.

Mobile Billboard Parks Outside Fake Abortion Clinics to Expose Lies and Protect Would-Be Patients

Over the course of a week in early March, five antiabortion pregnancy clinics in Arkansas had an eye-catching visitor: a huge mobile billboard, in Handmaid’s Tale-red, reading:

CAUTION!
Pregnancy Help Clinics in Arkansas DO NOT OFFER ABORTION.
HIPAA PRIVACY PROTECTIONS MAY NOT APPLY.

The first-of-its-kind digital billboard tour was the brainchild of Mayday Health—which the Arkansas Times dubbed “a zero-fucks-given nonprofit”—whose mission is to share information on how to access safe abortion pills and gender-affirming care, and empower people to make their own informed decision about their own bodies.

Break Things and Leave Them Broken: The Next Stage for Fired Federal Workers

Federal judges ordered the reinstatement of workers terminated based on their probationary status—a blow to the Trump administration. But for many fired feds, this welcome news does not mean a return to work. For me and most of my colleagues in HHS’ Administration for Children and Families, for instance, we will continue to receive our pay and benefits, but we won’t be allowed to work. One might think that this is a pretty good deal—but only if you don’t know federal employees.

Some of my colleagues shared with me their stories of uncertainty, loss and an unfinished mission to serve the public.

—My first colleague, a change management specialist, was nervous about rumored changes to the federal workforce, but buoyed by the encouragement of his mentors who said, “This is your dream. The way you light up, this is the thing we want in federal employees. Roll the dice, go for it.”
—Another, a policy analyst specializing in children’s issues, said she was living out her dream job. When she found out she was fired, she was on bedrest for a high-risk pregnancy. In a cruel twist of fate, it was Valentine’s Day … and also the anniversary of her previous stillbirth.