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‘Dad Went to War’: The Radical Faith Behind the Minnesota Assassinations
When Minnesota police arrested 57-year-old Vance Boelter after a two-day manhunt, they uncovered notebooks filled with names and addresses of elected officials and abortion providers. The suspect, who authorities say stockpiled 48 firearms, had already gunned down two people and left others gravely wounded. His writings and sermons hint at extremist religious currents, including ties to the New Apostolic Reformation.
“Their vision is violent at the outset,” says Frederick Clarkson, a longtime researcher of Christian extremism.
Advocates warn that rhetoric casting abortion as a holy war is not fringe—it is increasingly mainstream within the movement, fueling both deadly plots and everyday harassment of patients and providers.
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New Back-to-School Anxiety: ICE Raids and Family Separation (With Kevin Johnson)
As families prepare to send their kids back to school this year, some parents must face a new worry: Will their children make it home safely, or will they be there to greet them, at the end of the day?
Trump’s immigration crackdown is taking a toll on families across America, particularly under new guidance that allows ICE to arrest people in places where they were formerly prohibited from doing so—like schools, healthcare facilities and places of worship. How will this impact students and families across the nation—and what can we do to fight back?
Helping us to sort out these questions and set the record straight is our very special guest: Kevin R. Johnson.
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- Taliban Bans WiFi in Afghanistan, Cutting Off a Lifeline for Women and Students
- SCOTUS Greenlights Racial Profiling in Immigration Enforcement
- Medication Abortion Under Siege: New Texas Law Empowers Private Citizens to Challenge Access
- Afghanistan’s Deadly Earthquake Hurt Women and Girls the Most
- This Women’s Equality Day, the Fight Continues
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Murder, Pardons and Impunity: How Antiabortion Violence Escalated Under Trump
Her friend Melissa Hortman, a longtime Minnesota lawmaker, was murdered at home in June—shot by a man posing as a police officer who had also wounded two others and left behind a hit list of dozens of abortion-rights supporters. Among the names was Ruth Richardson, CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States. “It was one thing to get a threat; it’s another to have confirmed threats where you have a friend and colleague who is assassinated,” she told Ms.
This tragedy unfolded against a backdrop of federal retreat: Trump pardoned extremists convicted of clinic blockades and violence, and his Justice Department declared it would largely stop enforcing the FACE Act, the law meant to protect providers. Advocates warn these decisions have emboldened extremists, leaving abortion providers more vulnerable than at any time in decades.
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‘You’re Either Going to Be on the Right Side of History, or on the Sidelines Watching Us Make History’: ERA Champion Pat Spearman Is Ready for the Feminist Future
Pat Spearman had a habit of making history during her three terms in the Nevada Senate.
Spearman became the first openly lesbian member of the Nevada Legislature when she was first elected in 2012. In her second term, she was the chief sponsor of legislation ratifying the ERA in the Silver State in 2017—35 years after the deadline imposed by Congress on ERA ratification had expired—reigniting the movement for constitutional equality and leading a three-state wave that pushed the ERA over the finish line for addition to the U.S. Constitution. And in her third term, Spearman also drove the successful effort to add the most inclusive and expansive ERA on record to Nevada’s own state constitution in 2022, “guaranteeing rights regardless of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, ancestry or national origin.”
“I want us to hurry up and get this done,” she said in the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, “because I’m ready to pick another fight.”
Listen to the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, “The Feminist Fight For The Equal Rights Amendment Is Far From Over—and More Urgent Than Ever (with Pat Spearman, Ellie Smeal, Carol Moseley Braun, Kathy Spillar, and Ting Ting Cheng)” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
