Author: Kathy Spillar

Katherine Spillar is the executive director of Feminist Majority Foundation and executive editor of Ms., where she oversees editorial content and the Ms. in the Classroom program.

Trump’s Vanity Parades, Immigration Raids and Cuts to Medicaid Face a Feminist Wall

This weekend, while Trump paraded tanks through D.C. in a $45 million display of ego, tens of thousands of peaceful protesters flooded streets across the country to say: No more kings. In cities like Los Angeles, we saw communities come together to defend their neighbors from the cruel realities of immigration raids, family separation and attacks on basic healthcare. The protests made one thing clear—especially among women, who overwhelmingly disapprove of Trump’s actions: We reject this vision of America. And we’re not backing down.

As Antiabortion Violence Surges, Republicans Vote to Strip Federal Protections for Providers

and

Early Saturday morning, news broke of the assassination of Melissa Hortman, a Democratic Minnesota state legislator and former speaker, along with her husband Mark. State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were also shot multiple times; both survived and are fighting for their lives following emergency surgery. The suspect had a list of more than 50 additional “targets,” including other Democratic officials, some from outside Minnesota, as well as abortion facilities and leading abortion rights advocates in the state.

Although we don’t yet know if his extremist views on abortion were the driving cause in his murderous rampage, it is proof of the ongoing threats to abortion providers in this climate of escalating political violence.

Yet, just weeks after the suicide bombing of a Palm Springs fertility clinic, and despite rising rates of threats and violence against abortion clinics after the Dobbs decision, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee unanimously voted to advance HR 589, the FACE Act Repeal Act of 2025. The bill would repeal the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a statute protecting clinicians’ and patients’ right to safely provide and access reproductive healthcare. All Democrats on the committee voted against the proposed bill.

This Is Not Just a Budget. It’s a War on Women.

They didn’t just vote to gut programs. They voted to gut women’s lives.

Last week, in the dark of night, House Republicans passed a budget bill that slashes billions in federal spending on Medicaid, SNAP (food assistance), childcare, home energy assistance and disability support. The budget bill will cut direct support to tens of millions of working-class families—and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, millions more will lose their health insurance through changes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace. This is not just cruel. It’s calculated. And it will hit women hardest.

We have one month to stop these devastating cuts.

How Antiabortion Extremists Stopped a Beverly Hills Clinic From Opening … With Help From City Officials

and

Ever since middle school, Jennefer Russo wanted to be a doctor—by the time she entered college she knew she wanted to be one who performed abortions. The reason was simple. As she told Ms., “I grew up watching the impact that abortion had on the women in my life, and I saw that it allowed them to have autonomy and relative control over their lives.”

Early in summer 2022 (right around the time the Supreme Court issued its Dobbs decision), Russo learned that a suite in a medical building located at 8920 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills was available. She began negotiations with the owner, the real estate investment trust Douglas Emmett, and on June 30, DuPont sent a letter of intent to the company to lease a suite there. It read: “Use: The DuPont Clinic is a private referral center for all-trimester abortion care.”

It would take only two months to stop the DuPont Clinic from opening.

(This article originally appears in the Spring 2025 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox.)

The Republican Budget Plan Betrays Women and Their Families

If you’re like me, you were following the drama around the Republican funding bill that played out on Friday in the Senate, just hours before the government was set to run out of money. A continuing resolution to fund the government—constructed entirely by Republicans who refused to negotiate a bipartisan bill with Democrats—was finally passed, over nearly unanimous Democratic opposition. Once again, programs that make a profound difference in the lives of women and their families were sacrificed in a high stakes political game, played by people who won’t experience any the real-world impacts.

The Republican Budget Plan Won’t Work for Women

On Tuesday, House Republicans passed a budget resolution—and it does not bode well for women and their families.

As the Democratic Women’s Caucus reported, the resolution includes more than $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid—which, by the way, covers 40 percent of births that happen in America. The budget also includes significant cuts to SNAP programs that support nutrition for poor families, and helps feed over 13 million American children. We’re already in a care crisis—and Republicans are hell bent on making it worse.

Trump’s Second Term: A Month In, And Americans Are Already Fed Up

We’re just over a month into the second Trump administration, and the reviews from the American public are in. Across four major polls this week, Trump’s approval ratings have dropped to the mid-40’s, down from closer to 50 in January.

A headline from CNN proclaims that “pessimism [is] on the rise” among Americans. We’re not surprised. Many of the initiatives and departments Trump’s targeted for downsizing or tried to shut down are actually quite popular with the American public—like the Department of Education, which he’s been gearing up to obliterate. Or take the case of the Consumer Federal Protection Bureau (CFPB)—the oversight agency that’s responsible for protecting consumers like you or I from things like predatory lending rates, excessive credit card fees, and other unfair and undisclosed fees and practices. 

As long as the administration keeps acting against Americans’ best interest, Americans will keep fighting back—from the courts to the streets, and from coast to coast.

Attacks on Clinics, Abandonment of Justice—And the Feminist Resistance Rising in Response

Trump’s pardon of 23 antiabortion extremists—followed by the Justice Department’s decision to stop prosecuting most FACE Act violations—has emboldened those who seek to terrorize clinic workers and patients. But feminists are fighting back. From lawmakers to grassroots organizers, the movement is rolling up its sleeves to defend reproductive rights and strategize for the battles ahead.