More Than A Magazine, A Movement
In early August, the Utah Supreme Court ruled to place a near-total abortion ban on hold, effectively blocking the law until a lower court can assess its constitutionality. For now, abortion will remain legal in the state until 18 weeks.
“This is an individual choice, and it should be between that individual and their healthcare provider, and their healthcare providers should not be afraid that they’re going to be put in prison,” Utah House Minority Leader Angela Romero told Ms.
There’s about seven weeks till Election Day, but voters in most states—except those in Mississippi, Alabama and New Hampshire—will have the opportunity to vote in mere weeks.
For some states, the last day to register to vote is less than a month away. Currently 21 states and D.C. allow voter registration on Election Day, meaning that you can wait until Nov. 5 to register and vote. However, many states require registration as early as the first week in October.
Come November, Colorado voters will have the opportunity to prove their support for abortion rights in the Centennial State. In May, Coloradans for Reproductive Freedom gathered more than the 125,000 valid petition signatures needed to place Initiative 89 on the 2024 general election ballot.
The measure reads as follows:
“The right to abortion is hereby recognized. Government shall not deny, impede, or discriminate against the exercise of that right, including prohibiting health insurance coverage for abortion.”
RepresentWomen’s Women Experts in Democracy Directory is meant to help organizations and media outlets connect with women in politics to ensure their meaningful representation in today’s important political conversations. It allows users to search almost 100 women by their location and area of expertise.
“Now there is no excuse for all-male panels. Democracy needs women at the table, now more than ever,” said Katie Usalis, partnerships director at RepresentWomen.
Project 2025, the extremist blueprint for the next Republican president, maps out the permanent reversal of more than 50 years of gains for American women and LGBTQ+ people. The authors of Project 2025—80 percent of whom served in the first Trump administration—paint a picture of a nation where women are fundamentally second class citizens.
Project 2025 contains an 887-page policy agenda. We read the whole thing, so you don’t have to. Here are the most terrifying things we found.
Protesters and activists gathered for marches across the country in support of abortion and reproductive rights on the two-year anniversary of Dobbs.
Wednesday afternoon, Senate Republicans blocked the Right to Contraception Act, a Democrat-led measure that would have codified the right to contraception into federal law.
“It’s very simple. It just says you have the right to use and healthcare providers have the right to provide contraception,” said Rachel Fey, vice president of policy and strategic partnerships at Power to Decide. “I think this bill is as clear as it gets, and if you can’t get behind that, I don’t think as a policymaker you should be able to say that you’re pro contraception. I think that is something that people deserve to know about their elected officials.”
When Rep. Marilyn Lands won her race for the 10th District seat in Alabama in March with 63 percent of the vote, she did not expect to beat her Republican opponent by such a large margin.
After having an abortion herself, Lands made reproductive freedom the heart of her winning campaign this year. She has found that sharing her story has had a profound impact on her relationship with voters.
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, women share how abortion has shaped their lives and how abortion restrictions in Mississippi have created challenging work environments for providers.
Amidst the current attacks in the United States on women and abortion, legislators are sharing their abortion stories, demonstrating the importance of safe and accessible abortion.
Georgia state Rep. Shea Roberts (D), a mother, attorney and small business owner, had an abortion over 15 years ago, back when Roe v. Wade was still in effect. After losing her first race for the statehouse in 2018 by 1,200 votes, she went on to win her race in 2020 and has since used her platform to share her abortion story.
