Author: Ava Slocum

Ava Slocum is an editorial intern for Ms. originally from Los Angeles. Now she lives in New York, where she's a current senior at Columbia University and majoring in English. She is especially interested in abortion politics, reproductive rights, the criminal legal system and gender-based violence.

Debunking Five Common Myths About Birth Control

Barely a week after Trump was reelected to the White House, for many in the U.S., access to birth control is seeming shakier than it did at the start of this month. But is it possible that young women are more dubious about birth control than past generations?

The last few years has seen a rise of social media influencers—many of them Gen Z—putting forth false and misleading claims on TikTok and YouTube about the safety and efficacy of hormonal birth control. In honor of Thanks, Birth Control Day on Nov. 14, Ms. spoke with Dr. Raegan about some of the most common social media misconceptions when it comes to birth control. Here’s what she said about separating the facts from the fiction.

War on Women Report: 27 Women Accuse Trump of Sexual Assault; Louisiana’s Controlled Substances Law Criminalizing Abortion Medication Takes Effect

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U.S. patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. But day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report:
—Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the city of Austin over its abortion travel fund.
—The number of women who have accused Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump of sexual assault is now up to 27.
—Louisiana’s law reclassifying the abortion medications mifepristone and misoprostol as “controlled dangerous substances” took effect on Oct. 1.
—In Manhattan, a 20-year-old woman is facing criminal charges for miscarrying in a restaurant bathroom.

Nonpartisan Voter Guides Created by Veteran Journalists Let Voters See Candidates’ Positions, in Their Own Words

If you’re looking for a cheat sheet for any of the races your ballot asks you to weigh in on, guides.vote has nonpartisan guides for the ongoing local and national elections. Produced by veteran journalists (who know how to fact-check … and bring their receipts), the guides break down this years’ candidates and their track records, in their own words, on issues like abortion, criminal justice, climate, DEI and more.

‘A Thousand Miles for Care’: Vanessa Carlton and Center for Reproductive Rights Spotlight the Women Forced to Travel for Abortion Care

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, more than 20 states have completely banned or severely restricted abortion. In 2023 alone, over 171,000 women were forced to travel out of state—in some cases, several states away—to have an abortion. The Center for Reproductive Rights unveiled a national video campaign last week highlighting the distances women have been forced to travel for abortion care after their own states criminalized the procedure.

Women on abortion road trips all listen to Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” … in the car, on the bus, on the highway, at the gas station; the song becomes part of a communal soundtrack as the women cross state lines for abortion care. They all end up in the same medical waiting room.

Gisèle Pelicot, the Woman at the Center of France’s Mass Rape Trial, ‘Never Regretted’ Making the Decision to Go Public

“I never, even for a single second, gave my consent to Mr. Pelicot or those other men.”

Halfway through the mass rape trial in France that has been shocking the world and brewing feminist rage since September, survivor Gisèle Pelicot took the stand for the first time on Wednesday to share her nightmarish story.

On why she’s taking a stand: “I wanted all woman victims of rape—not just when they have been drugged, rape exists at all levels—I want those woman to say: Mrs. Pelicot did it, we can do it too.”

Some of the Hardest Questions Kamala Harris Has Been Answering Lately, ICYMI

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Two weeks before the election, with early voting already ongoing in a majority of U.S. states, Vice President Kamala Harris is making her way through interviews, explaining her positions and taking tough questions on her validity as a candidate, abortion rights, the Supreme Court and the preservation of democracy.

We have listened and read through five of these tough interviews—Alex Cooper’s podcast Call Her Daddy; Charlamagne Tha God’s The Breakfast Club podcast; the Univision Town Hall; a Fox News interview with Bret Baier; and Howard Stern’s show—so you don’t have to.

Here are some of the toughest questions she faced, and her frank answers, in her own words.  

ER Doctor Blasts Trump-Vance ‘Leave It to the States’ Abortion Stance: “Should Be ‘Leave It to the Individuals'”

Trump’s abortion laws would “leave” the choice of whether to ban abortion “to the states.” An ER doctor and father chimed in on a now-viral thread on Twitter (X) on the need for individual choice.

“[Vance] claimed that the US is a diverse country,” Davidson wrote after sharing that his wife experienced four miscarriages over the course of raising their three children. “I couldn’t agree more—we ARE diverse—but that diversity does not end at state lines.”

What to Know About How Hurricanes and Voter Purges Are Affecting Early Voting

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In less than a month, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton have caused record storm surge and damage in multiple southeastern states, including Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. With Election Day just weeks away (and early voting starting much sooner), will the storms force voters away from the polls in the South?

Meanwhile, the hurricanes aren’t the only challenge facing would-be voters. Right now, voters in states from Texas to Ohio are facing the additional threat of racist voter purges. In the wake of Donald Trump’s baseless comments about migrants in Springfield, Ohio, third-party groups are attempting to challenge voter registration lists with unfounded claims that non-citizen immigrants are voting illegally.

Abortion Ad ‘Something’s Missing’ Spotlights the Families Left Behind

2024 has seen a flurry of abortion-themed campaign ads, from January’s ad featuring Dr. Austin Dennard, the OB-GYN in Texas denied an abortion for her dangerous pregnancy, to July’s featuring testimony from Hadley Duvall, the Kentucky woman raped and impregnated by her stepfather as a child.

Now, in the wake of horrors like Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller’s 2022 deaths—officially deemed “preventable” by a Georgia maternal health board last week— the latest ad from All* Above All and Project 68 hones in on the families left behind when abortion bans kill women by keeping them from life-saving care.

War on Women Report: More Women Die From Abortion Bans; Senate Republicans Block IVF Bill; Texas AG Sues Biden Over Teen Birth Control Access

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U.S. patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. But day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report… Former Rochester police officer Shawn Jordan, convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl, was sentenced to just 10 weekends in jail; at least 11 states will ask voters to weigh in on abortion and reproductive healthcare access by way of ballot measures; a scarcity of research on tampon safety reveals a lack of women’s health prioritization in medicine and law; Taysha Wilkinson-Sobieski, a 26-year-old woman in Indiana, died in October 2023 after being unable to access timely care for her ectopic pregnancy; the gender pay gap has widened significantly for the first time in 20 years; and more.