‘Fake Clinics Are Spooky!’ and ‘Haunted by Hidden Agendas’: Feminist Halloween Campaign Unmasks CPCs’ Antiabortion Deception
The real Halloween horror villains are antiabortion organizations masquerading as legitimate healthcare clinics while working to prevent women from accessing abortion care.
Throughout October, Reproductive Transparency Now and the Southwest Women’s Law Center have joined forces for a Halloween-themed campaign exposing the deceptive practices of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs): antiabortion organizations that seek to reach vulnerable women and girls facing unintended pregnancies to prevent them from accessing abortion and prenatal care.
“Challenging CPCs is about more than identifying deceptive practices. It is about protecting people’s ability to make informed decisions about their bodies, pregnancies and families without coercion or manipulation and ensuring that people can access both comprehensive reproductive healthcare and the support they need,” said Hailey Zock of the Southwest Women’s Law Center.
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Rest in Power, Dolores Huerta. She Never Waited for Permission—and Neither Should We
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Before You Head to the Polls, Know Your Rights and Save These Phone Numbers
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Abortion Rights Are on the Ballot in Four States in 2026
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This Midterm Season, Five States Are Voting on Anti-Trans Ballot Measures
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Voting Is Underway. Here’s How to Find Your Polling Place, Check Your Ballot and Get Help
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Vivek Ramaswamy Weaponized Childhood Rape as a Political Talking Point. Women Across The Country Are Responding. (with Moira Donegan)
In this episode, we’re looking at the upcoming midterm elections, the role of women playing in national politics, and the attacks on the women who are running for office. In Ohio, we recently saw an example of this—an unreasonably cruel and debasing attack ad from gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, directed at his Democratic opponent Amy Acton, who has said she was sexually abused as a child by her stepfather who was charged with rape and fled the state. The ad includes her estranged mother, claiming that Acton lied about the traumatic events in her childhood.
What do attacks like these say about our current political climate, and how will they influence voters? How is our cultural climate around gender impacting the midterms? Moira Donegan joins Dr. Michele Goodwin to unpack these important questions, just one week out from the election.
This podcast and many more can be found in Ms. Studios or at your favorite podcast aggregator.
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- ¡Sí Se Puede!: Dolores Huerta’s Feminist Legacy Lives On
- Making Women’s History Part of the Curriculum
- Domestic Violence and Femicide in Afghanistan: Women Are Denied Protection and Justice
- Texas Mother Sues Anti-Abortion Extremists Under Law Targeting Abortion Pills
- Election Day is Not the Only Day to Vote
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Survivors Describe How Epstein Used Their Modeling Dreams to Abuse Them
Jeffrey Epstein “used the modeling industry as a lever to try to get girls into his orbit,” says survivor Lisa Phillips.
Phillips describes how Epstein operated: He asked about her career, about how often she talked to her father (she told him not often), and he specifically wanted to know about her goals as a model. She told him her “big dream” was to work for Ford Models. He told her that she and the other model had to stay over on the island, then assaulted her later that night.
Months later, she says, he called to say he had arranged a meeting with his “great friend” Katie Ford, the CEO of Ford Models. Phillips met with Ford and became a model for the agency.
“Models were being sent to every charity event, every modeling party,” she says, “everything organized through Katie Ford and agents. … It was always us younger girls and older men. We [felt] our bodies weren’t ours and we would just have to put up with it to keep [our] career.”
Part 1 of The Pipeline to Predators, a four-part Ms. investigation into the modeling industry’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein and survivors’ fight for accountability.
Keeping Score: Early Voting Signals Strong Midterm Turnout; Hundreds of Women Charged With Pregnancy-Related ‘Crimes’; Dems Seek Special Counsel on Trump-Epstein Ties
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:
—As early voting begins, several Texas counties report record-breaking turnout.
—Vivek Ramaswamy sinks to new lows by weaponizing his opponent’s esranged mother and childhood sexual abuse.
—Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeated far-right challenger Flávio Bolsonaro.
—Protests continue on the Cornell campus after allegations of gang rape by fraternity members.
—Women are much more likely to have their autoimmune conditions dismissed as psychological.
—Over 900 women have been charged with pregnancy-related “crimes” since Roe was overturned.
—More than 500 U.S. citizens have been detained by ICE under Trump.
—ICE also collected over 48 million voter records and investigated hundreds of nonprofits that help people register to vote. ICE may have shared this state voter data with a Palantir surveillance tool used to identify and locate immigration enforcement targets.
—New Mexico’s universal childcare policy led to an increase in labor force participation by lower-income moms.
—The National Women’s History Museum is honoring teachers Kristen Kelly and Serene Williams, who created the first AP U.S. Women’s History class, with the 2026 Meryl Streep Educator Award.
—Four members of antiabortion group Students for Life have been sued under a Texas law they supported.
—House Judiciary Democrats released a 53-page report compiling allegations of sexual misconduct involving President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein and calling for an independent special counsel to investigate.
—UltraViolet and the Trump-Epstein Reading Room held an event highlighting MoMA trustee Leon Black’s references in the Epstein files and his multiple rape accusations.
—Almost 70 percent of voters in the Deep South do not believe the government should ban abortion.
—”The Trump administration’s announcement to pursue a military execution by a manner not used in the military since 1945 demonstrates the federal government’s zeal for brutality at any cost,” says the Legal Defense Fund.
—The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have unionized.
… and more.
