More Than A Magazine, A Movement
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be remembered for many things: securing passage of the Affordable Care Act; recruiting more women and diverse candidates to run for office (“organize, don’t agonize” was her mantra!); and guiding the nation through the nightmare of the Trump years.
Quite simply, though, she’ll be remembered as the Best. Speaker. Ever.
Across the board, Democratic candidates and progressive ballot measures far outperformed expectations set by the pundits, who had all but declared that abortion no longer was the driving factor in voters’ decisions.
“It was abortion that made a huge difference in race after race,” said Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners. “In well over half the races, it was the issue of abortion that increased turnout of Democrats and younger voters.”
As election season kicks off in earnest and with the consequential midterms fast approaching, pundits are speculating: What effect will the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision have on the election’s outcomes? It’s clear that abortion is on the ballot—but how will it sway turnout and decisions in an election that traditionally sees lower numbers of voters?
In the Fall issue of Ms., we’re tackling these questions, and much more. Join us as we delve deep into the current state of abortion access nationwide and the security of our very democracy.
In the Summer issue of Ms., we delve deep into the impact of the Court’s decision, the dark money behind the bans, and legal strategies that will determine where we go beyond Roe.
It’s been just over a year since we launched Front and Center—our series centering the low-income Black women of the Magnolia Mother’s Trust guaranteed income project in Jackson, Miss.
From the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, to the cruelty of Mississippi state legislators who refuse to expand postpartum Medicaid access, the disregard displayed toward Black women shows us that our work here is not done.
In a cruel betrayal of the women of this country, and for the first time in the history of the Supreme Court and the United States, a fundamental constitutional right has been taken away. The opinion will have wide-ranging consequences not just for abortion access and women’s health—but for rights like access to contraception, infertility treatments and sexual privacy.
For nearly 50 years, as anti-abortion legislators in states around the country have chipped away at the constitutional right to a safe and legal abortion, they have done so with the steady drumbeat of violence at their back. In the face of the recent leak of a draft opinion from Justice Samuel Alito that confirmed that the Supreme Court is set to overturn Roe v. Wade, abortion advocates and providers are bracing for a surge in clinic violence.
It’s been women’s progress—the right to vote, to own property, for reproductive rights and for civil rights for all people—that has led to an expansion of democracy globally in the 20th century. We must be prepared for what is nothing less than major battles for the survival and advancement of women’s rights—and our very democracy.
In the Spring issue of Ms., we examine the backlash against feminist progress in the U.S.—from increasing restrictions on abortions at the state level, to restrictions on voting rights, to attacks on LGBTQ rights, and more.
In the midst of a news cycle that’s largely been dominated by bad news, this week we were elated to celebrate the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court—making her the first Black woman to ever serve on the nation’s highest court when Justice Breyer officially steps down this summer.
But the Supreme Court nevertheless remains dominated by a 6-3 right-wing majority that appears likely to overturn—if not at least severely gut—the Roe v. Wade decision that 50 years ago established a woman’s constitutional right to abortion.
