Painted by Robert Thom/ from the collection of Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan, a gift of Pfizer, Inc.; Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Attacks on Abortion Access Are as Old as White Supremacist Patriarchy Itself. Here’s How We Fight Back.

What really underlies attacks on our bodily autonomy isn’t a devotion to “life,” but a desire for dominance. “In the history of abortion, every single time there is a wave of criminalization of abortion, it’s at the same time that the people in power, the forces that be, are concerned about losing power,” says Renee Bracey Sherman.

In the second episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, advocates, lawmakers and experts explore the real roots of abortion criminalization throughout U.S. history — and lay out visions for where the fight for reproductive freedom must go next.

Listen to the second episode Ms. podcast, Looking Back, Moving Forward—”Inside the Feminist Fight to Reclaim Our Reproductive Freedom (with Renee Bracey Sherman, Michele Goodwin, Angie Jean-Marie and Amy Merrill, Susan Frietsche, and Gov. Maura Healey)”—on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Listen, Rate, Review and subscribe on:

Inside the Feminist Fight to Reclaim Our Reproductive Freedom (with Renee Bracey Sherman, Michele Goodwin, Angie Jean-Marie and Amy Merrill, Susan Frietsche, and Gov. Maura Healey)

Ms. launched with a bold declaration: Women were having abortions, and the law should allow for it. In the more than 50 years since, abortion access, abortion laws, anti-abortion violence, and abortion’s connection to larger feminist issues have remained core to the magazine.

In this episode of “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” host Carmen Rios traces the feminist fight for bodily autonomy — from Roe to Dobbs and beyond — and explores how feminists are organizing to defend and expand reproductive freedom in this challenging moment, and what lessons from the pages of Ms. can inform our fight forward.

Featuring WeTestify founder Renee Bracey Sherman, legal scholar Michele Goodwin, Angie Jean-Marie and Amy Merrill of Plan C, Susan Frietsche from the Pennsylvania Women’s Law Project, and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey.

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Why Trump’s Manhood Is Threatened by a Free Press

Global

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The U.N. Should Condemn the U.S.’ Human Rights Record on Abortion

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  • ‘No More Shame!’ The Transformative Lesson of Gisèle Pelicot, the French Survivor of Mass Rape

    A phone call one autumn morning from local police requesting that Dominique Pelicot, then 67, husband to Gisèle, also 67, report to the local station interrupted their daily routine. A surprised Gisèle listened as her husband told her not to worry: “It won’t be pleasant, but by noon we will be home,” he said. But the next time she saw him was at his trial.

    Like many countries, France has a protective privacy act guaranteeing anonymity for crime victims. Gisèle’s lawyers warned what would happen in a public trial—the intense media attention that would surely follow every development in the case, the probable attacks on her testimony in court and possible threats to her life. Undaunted, Gisèle chose to waive her right to anonymity.

    “When you’re raped, there is shame, and it’s not for us to have shame,” she told the court. “It’s for them.”

    Her insistence that her trial be public surprised both her lawyers and the presiding judge—and transformed Gisèle into a feminist hero and icon.

    Clement Mahoudeau / AFP via Getty Images

The SAVE Act Will Set Women Voters Back a Generation

Barely six months into the new administration, President Trump and his allies are advancing a bill that will fundamentally change our elections and make it harder for millions of women to register, vote and participate in our democracy.

The deceptively named SAVE Act represents the latest and most dangerous threat of election denialism to date.

Proponents of the SAVE Act would have us believe that anyone can walk into a polling station and cast a vote without being identified at all. This could not be further from the truth.

SAVE Act supporters allege mass fraud in our elections, votes under the names of dead people and party activists voting multiple times. This, too, is false.

Ellen Schmidt / The Washington Post via Getty Images

State Bills Would Require Passport or Birth Certificate to Register to Vote

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Ezequiel Becerra / AFP via Getty Images

To Expand Access to IVF, We Need to Expand Access to Abortion

Zeljkosantrac / Getty Images

Women’s Health Needs Are Ever-Changing. It’s Time for Flexible Benefits That Meet Us Where We Are.

Sarah Arencibia

Black Activists Say Trump Administration’s ICE Raids Revive Jim Crow Tactics

Nina Subin

‘Misogyny Is a System’: Julie Suk Wants to Reimagine U.S. Institutions—and Build a Democracy of Equality

John Shearer / Getty Images for The Hollywood Reporter

Keeping Score: Diddy’s Incomplete Conviction ‘Failed to Protect Survivors’; Inhumane Conditions in Alligator Alcatraz; What’s in the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’?

Rep. Bobby Scott / X

Virginia’s ‘Momnibus’ Is More Than a Set of Laws—It’s a Call to America to Protect Mothers Now

Fast Facts About Bea Feitler, the Pioneering Graphic Designer You’ve Never Heard Of