House races in many states remained uncertain for days after the election, but Republicans ultimately secured the House majority. Republicans also took control of the Senate, after flipping several key seats (West Virginia, Montana, Ohio) and holding others (Nebraska, Florida, Texas) to secure a majority—marking the first GOP trifecta since 2017.
Author: Livia Follet
Livia Follet is an editorial intern for Ms. and a recent graduate from The University of Colorado Boulder where she earned bachelor's degrees in English literature and women and gender studies. Raised in rural Colorado, her interests include environmental justice movements, Indigenous feminisms and reproductive justice.
‘Forced to Return to the Butcher’s Lair’: The Reality of Abortion Before Roe and the Fear of What’s to Come
Abortions are sought by a wide range of people for many different reasons. There is no single story. Telling stories of then and now shows how critical abortion has been and continues to be for women and girls. (Share your abortion story by emailing myabortionstory@msmagazine.com.)
“Instead of protecting our right to freedom of choice, they would have women go through what I went through and perhaps die in the process.”
“The night before the procedure, the nurse gave me a sleeping pill and as I became sleepy, I shed a few tears. But, I knew that it was the only decision for me as the baby was unplanned. I was too young and my spirit had to be eternally free to create and experience my own type of utopia.”
From Maine to Georgia in 40 Days: Tara Dower’s Fastest Known Time on the Appalachian Trail and the Community that Got Her There
The fastest known time (FKT) on the Appalachian Trail has never been held by a woman, until now. Just minutes before midnight on Sept. 21, Tara Dower became the fastest known person to hike the Appalachian Trail, reaching Georgia’s Springer Mountain 39 days, 18 hours and 5 minutes after she began her journey in Maine.
Averaging 54 miles a day, Dower crossed 14 states and hiked 2,189 miles with 465,000 feet of vertical gain—dropping 13 hours off the previous record set in 2018.
Ms. spoke with Dower about being a woman in ultra-endurance sports, her recent FKT and love for the Appalachian Trail.
Abortion Is Popular. The Antiabortion Movement Is Still Set on ‘Punishing’ Women Who Get Them—or Aid and Abet Others
In her new book, Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win, Jessica Valenti argues that abortion is not in fact as controversial as abortion ban lawmakers would like their constituents to believe. As noted on the back of Abortion, 81 percent don’t want government regulation of abortion or pregnancy at all.
A week before the election, Valenti, feminist reporter and founder of ‘Abortion, Every Day,’ sat down for a conversation about her new book with moderator True North Research’s Ansev Demirhan, also in conversation with Karen Thompson of Pregnancy Justice; and Anoushka Chander, youth activist and host of the Ms. magazine podcast, The Z Factor.
Some of the Hardest Questions Kamala Harris Has Been Answering Lately, ICYMI
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.
From Music Fans to Voters: Registering Young People Ahead of the 2024 Elections
Gen Z and millennials are officially the largest voting bloc in the U.S., making up 48 percent of eligible voters. In 2022, it’s estimated that 27 percent of people aged 18-29 cast a ballot, marking the second highest youth voter turnout in a midterm election in almost three decades. Since then, 8 million young people have reached voting age, and just under half of them are people of color.
(This essay is part of a Women & Democracy multimedia package focused on Gen Z and student voters. The future envisioned by young leaders is bright—it’s built on reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, sustainability, freedom from violence and economic opportunity. Explore essays, a brand-new podcast, videos and more from some of your most loved [or soon to be!] influencers and writers, brought to you by Ms., DoSomething, the nonprofit that helps make volunteerism “cool,” and The Anthem Awards, the social impact arm of The Webbys.)
Ending Child Marriage—For Good: The Ms. Q&A With Clay Dunn, CEO at VOW for Girls
Oct. 11 is International Day of the Girl, an annual celebration that promotes advocacy for the rights, education and empowerment of girls across the globe. This year’s theme is “Girls’ Vision for the Future.” Child marriage, a practice that robs millions of girls of their childhoods, opportunities and dreams, prevents girls from realizing their own vision for the future. Each year, an estimated 12 million girls are married before the age of 18, perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality.
We got the chance to speak with Clay Dunn, CEO of VOW for Girls, an organization that partners with brands, individuals, and the wedding industry to raise money for local partners working to end child marriage in their community.
‘Now I Can Share My Story With Pride’: Thai Feminist Organization Collects Abortion Stories After Procedure Is Legalized
Abortions are sought by a wide range of people for many different reasons. There is no single story. Telling stories of then and now shows how critical abortion has been and continues to be for women and girls. (Share your abortion story by emailing myabortionstory@msmagazine.com.)
In this edition of Our Abortion Stories, Thai women share their own abortion stories along with their advocacy work with the queer feminist organization, Tamtang.
Where Architecture Meets Activism: ‘Spatializing Reproductive Justice’ in the Post-Roe Landscape
From Oct. 25, 2024, to Jan. 1, 2025 the school of architecture and urban planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwalkie will be hosting Spatializing Reproductive Justice, a traveling exhibition and programming series working to spread awareness on how design fields can help increase equity in reproductive healthcare in a post-Roe landscape.
Although the reproductive rights movement is often not directly associated with the design space, Spatializing Reproductive Justice brings together the areas where they overlap, hopefully prompting designers and architects to consider how they can have an impact and support reproductive justice in their communities.
‘Artificial Timelines Put Parents on a Constrained Roadmap to Make Decisions About Their Life’: Rep. Hillary Scholten on Faith and Preserving Choice
If there had been a 15-week abortion ban in place at the time that U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.) was 14 weeks pregnant, she would have never been given the freedom, space and time to make the choice not to have an abortion.
“It made me recognize how incredibly grateful I was that I was able to make those choices free from government interference, free from the overreach of people who just wanted to score political points, and how I was free to make the best decision for me and my family, which in my case was to choose not to have an abortion and to give our daughter every chance at life that we possibly could,” Scholten told Ms.