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
Supreme Court Allows States to Ban Trans Athletes From School Sports
“We have seen an unprecedented pace of legislation introduced and passed aimed at excluding trans youth from every aspect of society, from schools, sports, healthcare and public life. Extremist politicians and courts have cruelly targeted young people as scapegoats in their hateful vendetta to control our bodies and our communities. Today’s decisions are another blow, further marginalizing and targeting young trans people.
“We know that the hate and harm being issued toward trans people is about control, power and attacking the most vulnerable of our communities. Trans youth deserve the opportunity to live their lives authentically, joyfully and with dignity. We will never stop fighting for equal access, fair treatment and for our gender identities to be respected.”
—Daniela Diaz, senior federal policy and advocacy director at URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity
The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to allow discrimination against transgender student athletes. States may now prohibit trans athletes from participating in sports consistent with their gender, as the majority argued that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment does not protect trans students from discrimination. Twenty-seven states have already enacted bans on trans athletes.
“A transgender woman penalized for being perceived as aggressive has experienced discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ just as much as a cisgender woman has, no matter that the transgender woman’s behavior matches expectations of her sex assigned at birth. Either way, the institution has imposed its gender-based expectations upon her. And either way, the institution may have violated Title IX.”
— Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in her dissent.
“When politicians convince the public that any girl could be ‘the wrong kind of girl,’ they invite harassment, intimidation, invasive questioning or even an inspection of their body by a total stranger. While we know this administration and other anti-equality politicians won’t stop obsessing over trans kids, we must all call on states to adopt inclusive policies so that no one gets left behind for being their authentic selves. We must show up in large numbers for every school board, local and state and federal election to be sure our communities are heard. We must continue this fight with full force until freedom, justice and equal opportunity are not flimsy promises but nationwide guarantees.”
— Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign
“No one should be excluded from participating in sports because of who they are. As physicians, we know how devastating the impact of this decision will be on young transgender students’ mental, physical and social well-being. This decision comes at the end of a long year of systematic and orchestrated attacks against transgender people.
“From villainization by the Trump administration via gender-affirming care bans, to statehouses passing dehumanizing bathroom bans and driver’s license bans, to Attorney Generals’ demanding hospitals provide harmful and unscientific ‘detransition care,’ today’s decision is yet another attempt to target, alienate and harass transgender people.”
— Dr. Jamila Perritt, OB-GYN and president and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health
“This is a devastating ruling for so many young people who just want to play with their friends at school but who, simply because of who they are, have become pawns in political games. States should be focusing on breaking down barriers to participation, not building them up. We have already seen the harms of these categorical bans on all girls, and this ruling will continue those harms in all of the states that have enacted these categorical bans.”
— Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Congressional Equality Caucus chair
“These attacks are intended to divide and scare us. Attacking trans athletes. Silencing Black voters. Changing who is given necessary protections when they enter this country from dangerous situations. Attempting to deny children born here their citizenship. These are moves meant to divide us. To make us panic and protect only ‘our own.’ But we know that our rights are interconnected. Freedom for one is freedom for all.”
— Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Feminists on 21st Century (and Beyond) Reproductive Justice
“What we’re up against is the resurrection of the philosophies of eugenics. They have better tools now and better toys, but it is the same old thinking. If you do not understand the intersection of race and gender, you do not understand what is happening in reproductive politics.”
— Loretta Ross, speaking during the keynote at the Ms. magazine writers’ workshop at Smith College on July 13
“Reproductive justice futurisms already organize our everyday lives. They shape who receives care and who is monitored, who is imagined as a desirable parent and who is treated as a threat, whose reproduction is encouraged and who is constrained, and whose children are imagined as belonging to the future.”
— Jallicia Jolly, Ms. magazine writers’ workshop at Smith College on July 13
Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship
“America’s moms are breathing a sigh of relief that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected President Trump’s effort to undermine, with a stroke of his pen, a bedrock right that has been enshrined in our Constitution for 150 years. Birthright citizenship has made our nation stronger and more successful. The contributions of our immigrant friends, neighbors, family members and colleagues have driven our economic progress throughout our history. Immigrants today are our doctors and nurses, teachers, business owners, child and elder care providers, construction and farm workers, and community and family members. Without their contributions, our care and affordability crises would be even worse and our national debt even larger.
“President Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship is part of his shameful, ugly, racist agenda, and it is causing immense harm. Congress and the courts should reject every part of the Trump administration’s racist, divisive, mean-spirited anti-immigrant agenda.”
— Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, executive director and CEO of MomsRising
The Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship in Trump v. Barbara, striking down Trump’s executive order and reaffirming that all children born on U.S. soil are automatically American citizens.
“The 14th Amendment is crystal clear about birthright citizenship, and today we can breathe a sigh of relief that a bare majority of the Supreme Court justices still respect the plainest reading of the Constitution on this issue. Trump’s xenophobic effort to block immigrant families from essential benefits was steeped in cruelty—without even a whiff of legal merit. This case should never have been taken in the first place, but four justices made clear their willingness to ignore the Constitution if it doesn’t advance their MAGA agenda. Let’s not waste much breath giving this Court any credit for narrowly reading the Constitution correctly as it otherwise continues to dismantle our rights and democracy.”
— Rachel Rossi, president of the Alliance for Justice
“Today’s ruling is more than a legal landmark—it is a human one. For more than a century, birthright citizenship has been a cornerstone of equal citizenship and national belonging in our country. This decision reaffirms that fundamental guarantee—no president has the power to decide who is entitled to the rights our Constitution protects. Americans’ rights cannot simply be erased by the Trump administration’s reckless executive actions.”
— Amb. Norm Eisen (ret.), co-founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund
Marking Four Years Without Roe
“We are four years out from the day Republicans ripped away the national right to abortion. The pain that has caused—the horrors we all knew it would cause—are now plain as day. Every single Republican in the Senate helped enable this new and horrifying reality.
“Make no mistake, Republicans would love to ignore the nightmare they made a reality. They don’t just want women to stay pregnant, they want them to stay silent. Republicans don’t want to hear from the rape survivors they denied care, they don’t want to hear from the girls they forced into motherhood. They are hoping the women who were miscarrying and were forced to suffer until they were at death’s door because of Republican policies will just be quiet. They are hoping the widowed husbands, the grieving parents, the kids who lost their moms, will forget about the women who abortion bans have killed.
“We will lift up women’s voices and keep up the fight for abortion rights. We will never be quiet. We will never forget. And we will never accept Republicans’ deadly new status quo.”
— Sen. Patty Murray, (D-Wash.)
Murray co-led a forum on the fourth anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, titled “Post Dobbs Chaos: Republicans’ War on Reproductive Health Care.”
“Every month, we hear from hundreds of people facing impossible choices because of abortion bans, financial hardship and a healthcare system that is increasingly difficult to navigate. About 75 percent of our callers are already parenting, 80 percent live in states with abortion bans or severe restrictions and all face barriers to obtaining the care they want, need and deserve.
“We come from a long line of women who have never confused legality with justice, and who have never stopped showing up for one another when the stakes were high. That is what abortion funds do. After four years of Dobbs, I know that the ability to have an abortion continues to change the course of countless lives every single day.”
— Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund (CAF)
Jeyifo was invited by Murray to speak before the Senate Democratic Caucus. CAF is the largest independent abortion fund in the United States. Since June 2022, they have helped more than 60,000 people access abortion care and provided over $25 million in direct support.
“Abortion is an issue that will only get more popular over time. The further we get from Dobbs—and the longer bans stay on the books—the more people will be hurt. It’s only a matter of time before every single American knows someone who’s been harmed by these laws.”
— Jessica Valenti, author
“I started covering abortion pills in 2018, when mainstream media [was saying], ‘Roe will be here forever. We never need to worry about anything. The women just fuss and fuss and fuss. Just calm your pretty little selves down.’ I was [thinking], we are losing Roe, so we’ve got to figure out, how are we going to get abortions? … [Now,] half of states have banned and restricted abortion, yet abortion has gone up 20 percent [since Dobbs], and about 30 percent of that is telehealth abortion that didn’t exist in 2018.”
— Carrie N. Baker, Ms. writer and contributing editor, at the Ms. Magazine writer’s workshop on July 13
Trump Hijacks Fourth of July Celebrations in Washington, D.C.
“I think we have to give a big round of applause for our military band and singers. Way better than those libtards that canceled on us. So much better. Thank you guys. President Trump will make you famous.”
— Sean Duffy, transportation secretary
Trump took over the “Great American State Fair” celebrations in Washington, D.C., amid droves of cancellations from musicians and several states refusing to participate.
“Communism is a loser, and it always will be. Won’t happen, and all these talks from the communists, they haven’t got a chance, not even a chance. We don’t want communists in our country—never worked, and it never will work.
“Unlike so many others in the world, in this country we have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equal justice under the law—although I wasn’t treated that well, but we won’t get into that. You showed that tonight with one flag, and as our Declaration of Independence tells us, we are all made in the image of one almighty God, and a communist will never say that, that’s for sure.”
— President Trump
Trump spoke on the National Mall late in the night on July 4. He slammed communism, argued for voters providing proof of citizenship and ending vote by mail and joked about his “third term.”
Milestones
+ President Trump refused to sign a bipartisan housing bill passed by Congress, hours before a planned ceremony. After 10 days of inaction, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act automatically became law and will prevent large investors from buying up single-family homes.
+ The Supreme Court ruled that states may accept mail-in ballots postmarked before polls close but received after Election Day. A federal judge also blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to obtain states’ voter registration lists.
Voto Latino celebrated: “For too long, President Trump has spread lies about mail-in voting, using them as an excuse to push forward his extreme anti-voter agenda in an effort to disenfranchise our multiracial, multicultural electorate. This ruling upholds trust in our electoral process and reaffirms that a voter’s voice cannot be discarded.”
+ In Trump v. Slaughter, the Supreme Court struck down a law restricting Trump from firing members of the Federal Trade Commission. The ruling ignores a precedent of 91 years and expands the president’s power to remove staff from independent federal agencies.
Justice Sotomayor warned in her dissent that the decision “gives the President a power unknown even to the English Crown against which the Founders revolted, elevating him above his once coequal branches.”
+ Federal agents shot and killed Joan Sebastián Guerrero in Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas, during traffic stops by ICE. Both men had been living in the U.S. for years with their partners and children.
+ A national “Good Trouble Lives On” Weekend of Action on voting rights will take place from July 17 to 19. Communities across the U.S. will honor the legacy of representative John Lewis with civic engagement and events to continue the fight for civil rights.
+ Feminist Majority Foundation president and publisher of Ms. Ellie Smeal won the National Organization for Women Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring her decades of feminist activism and organizing.
“We’ve been there, in one crisis or another, but we’ve always come out on top because what we’ve been fighting for—equality—is going to win,” Smeal said in her acceptance.
+ The inhumane “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center has closed. Lawyers say their detained clients were sent to other facilities across the country about a week before their attorneys and families were informed of their location.
+ A proposed abortion ban ballot measure failed to make it onto the Nebraska ballot after not getting enough signatures.
+ Conversely, in Idaho, a measure to establish a right to reproductive freedom over contraception, abortion and fertility treatment choices qualified for the ballot, with over 100,000 signatures.
+ Senate Democrats sent a letter urging the Department of Justice to stop all efforts to compensate Jan. 6 rioters. Although the administration was forced to abandon their “anti-weaponization” slush fund for now, about 600 insurrectionists have filed Federal Tort Claims Act requests for compensation for the “harms” they experienced from being prosecuted.
+ On June 13, Wikicurious: Black Broward brought together edit-a-thon participants to improve and add articles on Black history to Wikipedia.
+ Olivia Rodrigo announced an all-women music festival that will donate its proceeds to organizations centered on women and girls, including Planned Parenthood, National Women’s Law Center, National Domestic Workers Alliance and more.
+ The Safeguarding Access to Full-Spectrum Education (SAFE) Training for OB-GYNs Act would create a grant program to train OB-GYN residents on abortion care for those living in states with abortion bans.This would ensure they get the full training they need to care for all patients.
+ Congressional Democrats warn that the Trump administration is trying to restrict immigrants’ ability to apply for a green card or permanent U.S. residency from within the country. A new policy could force most applicants to return to their home country to apply.
+ A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from creating a database of social security numbers and citizenship statuses, saying they have fed inaccurate data to states that are now purging alleged non-citizens from voter rolls.
“The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” wrote Judge Sparkle Sooknanan.
+ Gun owners now have the right to carry concealed firearms into stores and other private property, unless the owner objects.
+ Graham Platner of Maine withdrew from the Senate race after a former partner came forward to share that he raped her.
+ Camp Mystic in central Texas won’t reopen this summer, a year after the tragic flood that killed 28 people, primarily young girls.
+ A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s plan to classify graduate degrees in nursing, public health and more as “non-professional,” limiting the amount of federal student loans available. Theology programs have also now shifted to the “non-professional” definition.
+ Ahead of their wedding, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce donated a total of $26 million to 20 charities, including food banks, children’s hospitals, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and other education nonprofits.
+ Two months after Pete Hegseth rescinded the U.S. military flu vaccine mandate, outbreaks have led the Air Force, Army and Navy to again require the vaccine for new recruits. At least 222 recruits at the Lackland Air Force Base have fallen ill and four were hospitalized.
+ The National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association and the Family Health Council of Central Pennsylvania are suing the Trump administration for politicizing the Title X program. The new application process could deny grants to clinics who have supported gender-affirming care or DEI efforts. This would favor religious organizations and deceptive crisis pregnancy centers.
+ Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) wants to force a “talking filibuster” on the Senate floor in order to move the SAVE America Act forward. Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) dismissed the tactic, and fellow senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) criticized Lee on social media.
+ The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services terminated 53 grantees from the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, echoing their attempt to defund all grantees in 2017, which was struck down in federal court.
“Attempting to remake the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program into a funding stream for conservative ideology not only flies in the face of the congressional appropriators who have funded this evidence-based program every year since FY 2010, but also denies young people the high-quality sexual health education they need and deserve,” wrote Rachel Fey, Power to Decide interim co-CEO.
+ Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) called for a national moratorium on artificial intelligence data centers “until we can find a way to ensure they don’t harm our nation’s air, water and power bills.
+ Nolberto Meza was struck and killed by a vehicle fleeing the U.S. Park Police. The suspect was not engaged in a violent crime, so the pursuit would have been illegal before Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and President Trump began allowing all vehicle pursuits last summer.
At least 30 percent of police pursuits end in a crash, and more than 20 percent of the resulting serious injuries are on innocent bystanders. More than 90 percent of pursuits stem from traffic violations.
+ A federal court blocked Florida’s “Stop WOKE Act” restrictions on higher education. It was found to violate the First Amendment rights of professors, by threatening their jobs and funding if they taught about racism, sexism or privilege.
+ Aviator Wally Funk died at age 87. She was the first female flight inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration and taught more than 3,000 people how to fly. In 1961, she volunteered for NASA’s “Women in Space Program” and trained to be an astronaut, but was not given the opportunity. In 2021, she became the oldest woman to travel to space, on a Blue Origin flight.
How We’re Doing
+ The U.S. continues to underperform on the health, education and well-being of citizens compared to other high-income countries. Proportionate to each country’s resources, the U.S. has worse health outcomes than Turkey and Hungary and poorer access to food than 29 of the 37 countries. The U.S. also lags behind on access to quality education and fair incomes. Recent cuts to healthcare and nutrition programs are likely to worsen the downward trend.
+ Latina women are disproportionately affected by abortion bans in the U.S., as 43 percent of Latinas of reproductive age live in 26 states with restrictions. More than 3 million Latinas in those states are economically insecure and over 1 million face language barriers.
+ Seventy percent of the 200 rural counties in Texas don’t have a hospital or a labor-and-delivery unit. Nationwide, less than half of rural hospitals provide birth services, and one-third of rural hospitals are at risk of closure. In Texas alone, more than half of rural hospitals and 20 percent of remaining labor-and-delivery units are at risk of closure.
+ Ninety-seven percent of single mothers reported housing hardship in the past year, 85 percent experienced food insecurity and 72 percent struggled to pay medical bills. Childcare is a major barrier to employment and education, with 64 percent of single moms using paid childcare reporting that they had to quit or turn down work because of childcare changes.
+ A study found that women under 30 who received the HPV vaccine are at almost zero risk of dying from cervical cancer.
+ More than 770,000 children are no longer receiving SNAP benefits. But the median Democratic senator hasn’t mentioned SNAP on social media or in a press release in 84 days.
+ Almost 60 percent of child safety features on social media platforms don’t work as advertised. Some promised to prevent young users from showing up as “suggested friends” to adults but still recommend unknown adults to teen accounts. Notifications meant to limit time scrolling are easily bypassed. Content related to self harm and eating disorders is easily accessible on many platforms.
+ Imprisoning women costs up to 75 percent more than incarcerating men, due to specialized healthcare needs and smaller populations. But research shows cutting women’s time spent incarcerated in half has a negligible effect on crime and can save hundreds of millions of dollars. The majority of incarcerated women are mothers, and the loss of their unpaid caregiving and domestic labor is estimated to be $2.8 billion a year.
+ Only 53 percent of American adults are “extremely” or “very” proud to be American, the lowest rating since 2001. Pride in U.S. democracy has fallen from 42 percent in 2017 to just 28 percent. Pride in the armed forces and the country’s history have both dropped as well.
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A note from Ms. editors: We want to hear from you for The Majority, a new campaign collecting stories about how reproductive freedom has enabled readers to build the lives they want and need. Poll after poll shows a majority of Americans support reproductive healthcare access. Yet public debate overlooks the lives shaped by abortion access, contraception, IVF, miscarriage care, maternal healthcare or comprehensive sex education—countless women who chose to pursue an education, have children, not have children, protect their health and chart their own future. Add your voice and complete the sentence: “Access to reproductive choices gave me the freedom to….” Together, these stories will help show not only why reproductive freedom remains a majority value, but also what it makes possible.
