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.
Lest We Forget
“It was with great sadness that I learned of the egregious revelations reported by the United Farm Workers about César Chávez. We must listen to the survivors, speak their truth, and uphold the values of dignity and justice in the face of conduct that deplorably betrays those principles.
“A movement is about the people—not any one person—and its strength lies in the values it upholds. We can honor the farmworker movement—and the generations who sacrificed to build it—while also confronting painful truths. No legacy is above accountability.”
—Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi on the recent reports of sexual abuse and harassment by Chávez, including from UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta.
“Mail-in voting is so safe that even the president uses it when he votes. This is yet another attempt by President Trump to nationalize elections so he can pick and choose who gets to vote.”
—Common Cause president and CEO Virginia Kase Solomón. Common Cause, along with other civil rights organizations, are suing after Trump tried to restrict voting by mail through an executive order.
“Feminism is still alive and well. In fact, it has been the one thing that has been the preservation of democracy and our constitutional rights in some way over the past 12 years.”
—Teresa Younger, outgoing CEO of the Ms. Foundation.
“Contraception’s safety and efficacy are beyond dispute, and for generations its health and economic benefits have been widely recognized. But cost and access has put contraception out of reach for too many, creating sometimes dangerous circumstances. These Trump administration rules force women into a two-tiered system of care—requiring them to either pay out-of-pocket for contraception that the law guarantees should be free, try to seek that care elsewhere, or forgo it altogether. That is cruel, unlawful, and an unacceptable intrusion of employers’ personal beliefs into women’s healthcare decisions.”
—Kaitlyn Golden, senior counsel at Democracy Forward. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and other medical organizations filed an amicus brief opposing the Trump administration’s continued attempts to undermine the Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s contraceptive mandate.
“Republicans just voted to uphold an abortion ban for 462,000 women veterans—even in cases of rape, incest, or if their health is endangered. Shamefully, they are denying women veterans who have been raped or whose health is at risk the essential health care they need. Today, Republicans showed America they believe in abortion bans—and make no mistake, veterans will suffer as a result.”
—Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). Fifty Senate Republicans voted down his resolution that would have overturned the Trump administration’s policy ending abortion counseling and abortion care for veterans who have been raped or whose health is at risk from a pregnancy.
“Rori Harmon has scored 1,616 points, 977 assists, 659 rebounds, and 388 steals. Not one agency has ever voted her All-American. There’s not another player in the history of our game that’s done what Rori Harmon did. You might as well get rid of whatever awards you got if she ain’t good enough to get one of ’em.”
—Texas Longhorns women’s basketball team head coach Vic Schaefer praised star point guard Rori Harmon. He called out the lack of national recognition and awards Harmon has received, despite her success throughout her collegiate career.
“It’s no surprise that working women are being forced to bear the burden of Trump’s disastrous economic policies—he has shown us over and over again that he doesn’t care about us. We are seeing bleak statistics: an increasing wage gap and a sharp rise in unemployment. And there’s a real human cost to those numbers. Women are shouldering that cost, as this president so often forces them to do. I introduced this resolution to sound the alarm because no one should be able to bully women out of their rightful place in the economy.”
—Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.). She, along with Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.) and Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), introduced a “Working Women’s Bill of Rights.” The resolution recognizes Congress’ need to address recent harms to women’s workplace rights and protections.
“Any gap in Title X funding could result in over 2 million patients losing access to contraception and preventative care, worsen maternal health outcomes, and increase sexually transmitted infections. It will also risk layoffs of essential health care providers and staff who provide care for patients at thousands of Title X clinics nationwide, worsening the national maternal and reproductive health care crisis.
“A lapse in funding caused by this administration would deny patients and their families the dignity of affordable health care and irreparably worsen the health care crisis that President Trump and Republicans in Congress have already exacerbated by enacting the largest cuts to health care in American history. It is imperative that the Department act now and issue a one-year extension of Title X funding.”
—Almost 40 senators wrote to RFK Jr. to demand the release of life-saving funding for all current Title X grantees.
Milestones
+ March 31 was Transgender Day of Visibility, created to celebrate the lives of trans people and raise awareness of the disproportionate violence and discrimination the community faces.
+ April 9 was AANHPI Women’s Equal Pay Day, highlighting that Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women must work more than three months into the new year to match the earnings of non-Hispanic white men from the previous year. On average, AANHPI women are paid 83 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.
+ In a landmark ruling shaped by Pennsylvania’s Equal Rights Amendment, and driven by years of organizing and litigation led by women across the state, a Pennsylvania court struck down a decades-old ban on using Medicaid funds for abortion, declaring for the first time that the state constitution guarantees a fundamental right to reproductive autonomy. The decision is a major victory for abortion rights advocates, including the Women’s Law Project and Planned Parenthood. Rooting its reasoning in the state’s ERA, the court affirmed what advocates have long argued: Economic barriers to abortion access disproportionately harm women.
+ On April 16, a Michigan court ruled that the state’s Pregnancy Exclusion law—which prevents providers from honoring pregnant women’s documented end-of-life decisions—violates a voter-approved 2022 constitutional amendment protecting “the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy.” The court said laws like this have been used to keep pregnant patients on life support against their wishes—prolonging suffering for both them and their families “simply because they are pregnant.”
“The most sacred decisions a person will make—about how they will birth and how they will die—belong to them and not the state or anyone else,” said Farah Diaz-Tello, the plaintiff’s attorney Diaz-Tello and senior counsel and legal director at If/When/How. “These are rights that can’t be taken away because someone is pregnant; in fact, they should be even more closely guarded in these vulnerable moments.”
+ Three women have accused César Chávez of sexual abuse: Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas, who were young teens at the time of their assault, as well as co-founder of the United Farm Workers union Dolores Huerta. Huerta said Chávez believed in promoting women to run operations, but not shaping union policy and leadership. The accusations have sparked a broad reassessment of Chávez’s legacy, with institutions, labor groups and communities grappling with how to reconcile the accusations with his long-celebrated role in the farmworker movement.
+ Conflict in the Middle East continues, disrupting supply routes needed to deliver fuel, food, medicine and agricultural tools, deepening humanitarian crises.
+ After Trump threatened Iran, saying “a whole civilization will die tonight,” more than 70 congressional Democrats called on the Cabinet to declare the president unfit and remove him from office using the 25th Amendment.
+ Viktor Orbán lost his election for Hungary prime minister after 16 years in power. Péter Magyar’s opposition party is set to also secure two-thirds of the seats in parliament, raising hopes that he will reverse some of Orbán’s nationalist policies.
+ Congressional Democrats introduced “Virginia’s Law,” named after Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, which would end the statute of limitations for adult victims bringing civil suits.
+ Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), along with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.), are creating a group to write legislation to make childcare more affordable, in case Democrats take back the congressional majority in 2026.
+ A jury found Meta and YouTube liable for the mental health damages experienced by a young woman addicted to social media. She was awarded $6 million after the plaintiffs presented evidence that the companies designed their products to be addictive and knew they were harmful.
+ A federal judge blocked RFK Jr.’s “arbitrary and capricious” changes to routine vaccination schedules. RFK Jr. likely violated federal law by firing all 17 members of the advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP) last June and appointing hand-picked anti-vaccine advisers, he ruled. For now, all of their votes have been invalidated.
+ The Supreme Court ruled that Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy violates the First Amendment. Over 20 states have similar laws to protect LGBTQ youth, which now could be at risk. Conversion therapy is widely discredited by medical organizations and considered dangerous and torturous.
+ On March 28, an estimated 8 million people attended more than 3,300 “No Kings” rallies and protests across the U.S.
+ Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won the Democratic primary for Senate in Illinois. If elected in November, she would be the sixth Black woman senator, and mark the first time three Black women serve in the Senate at the same time. Stratton and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) would also be the first two female senators of color to represent a state together.
+ The Department of Education announced a plan to transfer some of the $1.7 trillion student debt portfolio to the Treasury. This could lead to massive data security risks, legal violations and raises in monthly payments. Advocates are calling for a one-year pause on federal student loan debt payment.
+ Civil rights organizations filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request into the Trump administration’s restrictions on federal childcare funding. The new restrictions have caused payment delays to childcare providers and TANF recipients and may be racially and politically motivated.
“These attacks are not accidental: They are a targeted attempt to undermine the programs that women, and particularly women with low incomes and women of color, depend on. We are committed to holding the administration accountable,” said Whitney Pesek, senior director of federal childcare policy at the National Women’s Law Center.
+ The Fair Housing for Survivors Act would expand housing protections for people who have experienced domestic violence or sexual assault. Nearly 40 percent of domestic violence survivors experience homelessness at some point in their lives.
“At the federal level, we should be making every effort to help survivors heal—and access to safe, stable housing is a critical component,” said bill lead Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).
+ OB-GYN Mark Mulholland was repeatedly accused of sexual harassment and abuse by patients, and allowed to keep practicing. The Washington Medical Commission could have suspended his license after complaints in 2022. But they waited until April 2025 to issue a formal statement, and September to restrict him from seeing female patients. Since the investigation became public, at least 84 patients have filed lawsuits.
+ In New York, Drs. Mary D’Alton and Lee Goldman from Columbia University are stepping down after an investigation found that staff members under their leadership were discouraged from reporting former OB-GYN Robert Hadden, who sexually assaulted hundreds of patients. Hadden was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2023.
+ Through executive orders Trump is trying to hijack DHS’ Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to nationalize voter registration. SAVE (unrelated to the SAVE America Act) is full of errors and frequently misidentifies citizens as noncitizens. Civil rights organizations are urging courts to prevent the administration from creating this national voter database that could disenfranchise voters.
+ Seven states don’t allow transgender people to update the gender marker on their driver’s license. Mississippi just passed a bill that will make them the eighth if signed into law by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves.
+ Judge Chris Taylor won her race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, locking in a liberal majority until at least 2030.
+ Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) ended his campaign for California governor and announced he will resign from Congress just days after multiple women came forward with allegations of rape and sexual misconduct.
+ Soon after, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) also announced he will resign from Congress. He was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for having an affair with a former aide in his office, who died by suicide.
+ A federal judge denied Louisiana’s attempt to immediately restrict patients from accessing mifepristone, issuing a stay until the FDA review of the medication is complete. However, the re-review will likely be based on discredited antiabortion narratives, despite decades of studies finding it to be safe and effective.
+ The American Library Association (ALA) and cultural workers union AFSCME have reached a settlement with the Department of Justice that protects the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The Trump administration had tried to dismantle IMLS, but now it can continue awarding grants and supporting libraries and museums. Staff reductions and grant terminations have all been reversed.
+ The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in Foote v. Ludlow, leaving in place a lower court ruling that Massachusetts schools are not required to disclose a student’s chosen name or pronouns to parents without consent.
How We’re Doing
+ Trump’s Department of Justice has charged the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) with multiple counts of fraud, alleging the group paid informants within extremist organizations and misrepresented how donor funds were used—claims the SPLC denies, saying it will “vigorously defend” its work tracking hate groups. Critics, including the Feminist Majority Foundation (publisher of Ms.), said the indictment “should alarm everyone committed to the rule of law and public safety,” calling it part of broader efforts to target civil rights organizations.
+ The U.S. Senate has once again failed to advance the SAVE (America) Act, a Republican-backed voting bill that critics say would have imposed significant barriers to voter registration by requiring documents like passports or birth certificates. Voting rights advocates, including the SPLC, hailed the move as a win for ballot access, though they warn efforts to restrict voting are likely to continue.
+ On March 26, the Senate narrowly defeated the effort by Democratic lawmakers to reverse Trump’s near-total ban on abortion care and abortion for veterans through VA healthcare facilities, including in states where abortion remains legal. The move to preserve the strictest abortion policy in the federal healthcare system was condemned by Democrats.
+ A new analysis finds that 442 of the nation’s roughly 1,700 private, nonprofit four-year colleges—serving about 670,000 students—could be forced to shut down or consolidate within the next decade.
+ A report showing that last winter’s COVID-19 vaccine cut emergency department visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by roughly half will not be published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to people familiar with the decision—an unusual move given the study had already cleared the agency’s scientific review. The analysis had been slated for release in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report before being delayed and ultimately rejected over stated methodological concerns. Current and former officials say the suppression raises alarms that evidence of vaccine effectiveness is being sidelined amid political pressure, particularly as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—a longtime critic of COVID-19 shots—faces scrutiny from lawmakers and voters wary of efforts to roll back vaccine policy.
+ In states with abortion bans, housing rental prices fell by 2.2 percent and vacancies increased by 1.1 percent, compared to similar markets in areas without bans. Other studies indicate that young people are leaving states with abortion bans, and doctors are avoiding those states for their residencies.
+ About a quarter of pregnant women and new moms have become more skeptical about taking Tylenol since the White House told pregnant women to avoid using it. Just 21 percent feel completely comfortable taking acetaminophen for pain relief during pregnancy, despite ACOG’s reassurance that it is safe.
+ Women researchers were disproportionately affected by the Trump administration’s cuts to NIH grants last year, 58 percent to 48 percent, even though they were receiving less NIH funding overall. Of the almost 300,000 federal jobs cut by the administration in 2025, 33 percent were held by Black women.
“The Trump-RFK Jr. HHS might as well post a sign on the door: ‘Women need not apply.’ More and more we see how the administration is systematically rigging the system further in favor of wealthy men and corporate donors by denying access to women researchers and expert staff, all the while targeting research and health programs addressing women’s health,” said Kayla Hancock, Director of Protect Our Care’s Public Health Project.
+ rePRO’s annual report card on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights tracks policies on sex education, abortion care, gender-affirming care and more. The U.S. received a failing grade as the administration continues its attacks on bodily autonomy, Medicaid and Title X. Just five states received an “A” and 11 states a “B,” while 25 states got failing grades.
+ Reports found high lead levels and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in synthetic, human and plant-based braiding hair. It’s not clear how much contamination can be absorbed through the skin or inhaled, but limited research and no FDA regulation means consumers, mainly Black women, are in the dark on possible dangers.
+ U.S. federal spending on young children has decreased from 3 percent of the budget in 2021 to 1.59 percent in 2025. Discretionary spending has decreased from 2.05 percent to just 0.96 percent.
+ Systemic inequities, not personal choice or caregiving responsibilities, cause women’s underrepresentation as collegiate sport coaches. Women’s attrition from coaching is primarily driven by insufficient pay. Limited benefits and career advancement and infrastructure barriers like access to locker rooms and properly designed uniforms also contribute. Importantly, organizations that support women leaders report higher employee engagement and long-term stability.
+ Data from online job search platform JobLeads found women set their salary expectations 9.5 percent lower than men. 94 percent of men who clicked on at least one job also submitted at least one application, compared to 81 percent of women. Women are more likely to search for part-time roles and apply to jobs requiring soft skills, which pay less on average.
