Author: Lauren Barbato

Lauren Barbato is a Ph.D. candidate in religion at Temple University and a professor in the Department of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Delaware. She has worked as a consulting writer for Catholics for Choice and has written for Religion Dispatches, Ms. magazine, Nursing Clio, Bustle, and Cosmopolitan, among others.

Trump’s IVF Walkback Opens the Door to a Catholic ‘Alternative’

When Donald Trump anointed himself the “father of IVF” on the campaign trail, he promised to expand insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization—a move that was more pronatalist than pro-choice. In February 2025, Trump signed an executive order to explore reducing insurance-plan and out-of-pocket costs for IVF without a national insurance mandate. Now, reports indicate that the “father of IVF” is walking back his campaign promise just as a religiously motivated “alternative” threatens to enter mainstream medicine and be codified into law.

The Women in This Room

I am not like the women in this room. There are hundreds of them, plastered to the walls of the Korean Cultural Center in the mid-city neighborhood of Los Angeles. Some are as large as ostrich eggs; others are petite and demure. They announce themselves in shimmering metallics and matte pastels; uneven clumps of glitter […]

Massachusetts May Unlock the Shackles

No one believed Kenzie was in labor. As an inmate at the Western Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional facility, she was told to wait while her contractions grew more severe. “They just kept denying me, saying I wasn’t really that far into labor because I was not hysterically screaming,” Kenzie told radio station WBUR in a recent interview. “It wasn’t until I had said that I had the urge to push that they decided to take me seriously.” Kenzie was transported to a nearby hospital with shackles on her ankles and cuffs on her wrists. The restraints remained until she could persuade a correctional officer […]

Will Mississipi’s Last Abortion Clinic Stay Open?

When Ms. last spoke with Diane Derzis, director of Jackson Women’s Health Organization in Jackson, Mississippi, she was “forging ahead” in her battle to keep the state’s last abortion clinic open. That battle continues today, as the clinic’s physicians have been denied admitting privileges at seven hospitals in the area—and having those privileges is a […]

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Are You A #Feministsuperhero?

Last week, Ms. posted a “Question of the Day” on Twitter that asked followers “What would be your power(s) if you were a feminist superhero?” The response has been tremendous: Hundreds have replied to the question with their own wished-for feminist superhero power, and retweeted others’. Responses range from serious to humorous to awe-inspiring. People even […]

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Know Your November Ballot: Reproductive Rights

In the weeks leading up to Election Day, Ms. will be outlining state ballot initiatives and referenda of major significance to women. I know what you’re (wishfully) thinking: By 2012, American women should already have easy access to, and public funding for, abortions—with the most minimal-to-nonexistent restrictions. Unfortunately, the opposite is true: In state legislatures […]

NEWSFLASH: Earned Sick Time Fails to Make Florida Ballot

A coalition pushing for earned sick time in Orange County, Fla., was defeated today when its initiative failed to make the November 2012 ballot. Though the coalition, Citizens for a Greater Orange County, collected around 50,000 signatures during the summer in support of the initiative, the Orange County Commission halted the initiative from going forward. […]

Alabama Abortion Clinic Struggles; Mississippi’s Forges On

When Diane Derzis shut the doors of the New Woman All Women Health Care clinic in Birmingham, Ala., last May, she did not expect the clinic to be shut for good. Derzis, known as the “Abortion Queen” by both her opponents and her supporters in the Deep South, was under investigation by the Alabama Department […]