More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Disrespect for women and for other species lies at the heart of the current, unprecedented crisis of human health and ecological degradation. In both cases, we treat female bodies as objects for economic gain.
Our dietary freedom comes with costs. Consuming the products of female exploitation is both ethically suspect and environmentally fraught.
Civilians gathered in a global moment of silence to commemorate the first official Climate Emergency Day on July 22. From California to Nigeria, New Orleans to London, Ghana to Pennsylvania, Rome to Jerusalem—the world watched the Climate Clock tick over from seven years to six. I led the moment of silence under the Union Square Climate Clock in New York City. It was hot, reaching 99 degrees Fahrenheit. As we faced the clock, we felt the crisis in our bodies.
When we imagine the climate crisis together, and all that’s at stake, we are feeding the momentum of a movement with revolutionary potential. Adrienne Maree Brown wrote, “We are in an imagination battle.” The Climate Clock is the drummer of this battle.
The communities that disproportionately lack abortion and reproductive healthcare services are also the ones uniquely affected by environmental injustices. Decades of public health impacts have shown us that communities who struggled to access reproductive healthcare, even before Roe v. Wade‘s repeal, are the same ones who have faced decades of environmental racism and injustice.
I am one face of the millions of people on the frontlines of urban oil extraction who endured serious health affects as a result.
Climate change continues to cause fatal flooding and heatwaves that are devastating the U.S. while the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022—legislation that would put $369 billion towards climate action and clean energy—is still on a tenuous path to passage. This bill would reduce carbon emissions roughly 40 percent by 2030 and mitigate the most devastating impacts of the climate crisis, such as life-threatening illnesses and housing and job instability—all of which affect the health of pregnant people.
The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to health care. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.
Without the protections of Roe, we stand to see gross inequalities in fertility care and reproductive decision-making.
State laws defining ‘life’ as the moment an egg is fertilized will limit or prohibit the freezing or discarding of embryos—a process fundamental to successful fertility treatments. These practices could all but vanish in some places. These restrictions emerge at a moment where fertility technology is becoming ever more precise. Combined with existing anti-poor fertility policies, the reality is that poor women of color will have even less opportunity to determine the time and circumstance in which they decide to have a family.
A biological pull, no matter how powerful, is not an imperative. In fact, while there is surely the possibility that I will one day regret not having had a child, there is an equal possibility that I would regret having had one—a possibility so terrifying that our failure to warn young people of its existence (just Google “I regret having children,” and be prepared for a ride) seems grossly negligent.
Overturning Roe also casts a shadow over the right to contraception and family planning services. We must face up to how reproductive decisions threaten our common future. Empowering people to make them responsibly will protect future generations in ways that other approaches have failed to do.
Soaring temperatures, air pollution and extreme weather contribute to adverse pregnancy outcomes—especially for women of color.
Financial instability, housing insecurity and greater caregiving responsibilities make U.S. women more vulnerable to climate disasters.
