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.

Abortion *Is* an Economic Issue. Pundits, Please Take Note.

Why is it that pundit after pundit has argued that the economy will be the dominant issue this election? In doing so, they are ignoring the fact that abortion is an economic issue for women and their families.

How many times do we have to remind them about the impact of having a child on parents’ earning abilities, and the economic harm to women who do not have paid pregnancy/family or medical leave? Not to mention the cost of raising a child—which can go well over a quarter of a million dollars, between food, medical expenses, clothing, and education. 

This Constitution Week, a Reminder That Women Still Aren’t in Our Nation’s Founding Document

Smack dab in the middle of “Constitution Week”—beginning Sept. 17 and ending Sept. 23 each year—it’s ironic that, with the exception of the right to vote, American women are left out of our Constitution.

Although the ERA has been ratified by the required three-quarters of the states and all that remains is for Congress to pass a simple resolution directing it be placed in the Constitution, politicians continue to block its placement with political games. Every woman in America deserves to have her rights enshrined in the Constitution—not left vulnerable to the whims of a changing political landscape.

Ms. Magazine @ the DNC

Ms. editors and contributors are going to be on the ground at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago from Monday, Aug. 19, through Thursday, Aug. 22—listening in on key speeches, and reporting on the policies and politicians that matter to feminists this election year.

If you’re in Chicago, we’d like to invite you to join us! We’ll be featured at several events throughout the DNC.

Front & Center’s Next Phase: How We Fix Systems Designed to Fail Black Women

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Front & Center is a groundbreaking Ms. series that offers first-person accounts of Black mothers living in Jackson, Miss., receiving a guaranteed income. Moving into the fourth year and next phase of this series, the aim is to expand our focus beyond individual stories to include a broader examination of systemic issues impacting Black women in poverty. This means diving deeper into the interconnected challenges they face, including healthcare, childcare and elder care, and the importance of mental, physical and spiritual well-being.

“When we started our Front & Center series three years ago, our goal was to give Black women living in extreme poverty—too often ignored in our politics and press—a platform to share their lived experience. … Instead of the narrow spotlight we’ve held to the singular program of the Magnolia Mother’s Trust guaranteed income pilot, we recognize that we must illuminate the full range of systems that harm our most vulnerable communities.”

Republicans Want to Reverse Over a Half-Century of Hard-Fought Progress for Women and Girls

The women and girls of Afghanistan are in my thoughts lately, as the recently released U.N. special rapporteur’s report sheds light on the devastating impact of the Taliban’s gender apartheid regime in the time since they came back to power. Women and girls in the country are living under a brutal system of gender apartheid, experiencing the “deliberate systematized step-by-step eradication of their rights and freedoms.”

And to be honest, it seems like the right wing in America is trying to push women in this country in the same direction. Just look at their policy objectives outlined in Project 2025—a roadmap for a Republican presidency that would reverse over a half-century of hard-fought progress for women and girls.

‘Not a Victory,’ But ‘a Delay’: With the Supreme Court’s EMTALA Ruling, U.S. Women Are Still at Risk

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In an opinion published Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed its final major abortion case of the term. The opinion was a narrow ruling that Idaho cannot prohibit doctors from performing emergency abortions for women with life-threatening pregnancy complications while the case is appealed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Make no mistake: The ruling in Moyle and Idaho is barely a win for abortion supporters. The Court refused to rule on the underlying issue: Must state abortion bans provide an exemption when a woman’s health is at risk, not only her life? 

The Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban Survives Yet Another Attack

The Feminist Majority—the advocacy arm of the Feminist Majority Foundation, which publishes Ms.—together with the National Network to End Domestic Violence and its then director, Donna Edwards, played a pivotal role in passing the original Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban at the heart of the Rahimi case, often referred to as “the Lautenberg Amendment,” after its sponsor, the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), in 1996. After passage, feminists stood firmly against all attempts to gut the law, like the 1997 and 1999 attempts to exempt police officers and military service personnel from its coverage (which both failed). 

“The law prevented countless tragedies,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority. “It has saved the lives and harm of countless domestic violence survivors, most of whom are women.” Here’s to the feminist allies and advocates ensuring those days stay behind us.

Texas Ruling and Louisiana Abortion Pill Restrictions Are Bad Omens for Pending SCOTUS Decisions

Even as we wait for U.S. Supreme Court decisions in two cases set to come down this month that could have massive impacts on abortion access, I fear that a court decision out of Texas and a new law passed in Louisiana foreshadow how the Court might rule.

The cases pending before the U.S. Supreme Court involve whether federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions in cases when a woman’s health—not only her life—is threatened supersedes state abortion bans, and whether the FDA acted properly in its decision to ease regulations making it easier to dispense abortion pills without in-person visits. 

The Ms. Q&A with Nasrin Sotoudeh: The Iranian Activist on Global Solidarity, Her Time in Prison and Being an Optimist  

Nasrin Sotoudeh is an Iranian human rights lawyer and activist who has consistently fought for the rights of women, children, religious minorities and others under persecution in Iran. Over the years, Sotoudeh has spent much of her time in prison, having been arrested for protesting Iran’s mandatory hijab law and resisting authoritarian rule. While in custody in 2022, Sotoudeh wrote to Ms. editors detailing the plight of women in Iran and called for global solidarity around women’s rights.  Ms. executive editor Kathy Spillar spoke with Nasrin and her husband Reza Khandan last month.

“The world has gone through darker days. … We’ve made our way forward through those horrific and dark events and times, and so, why not again? As long as I’m alive, I’m just naturally an optimist.”