More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Over the last year, our country has lost almost 550,000 people to COVID-19. America lost countless citizens to racism and experienced one of the largest spikes in hate crimes.
We changed the way we loved, shopped, worked and lived. But the expectations for mothers did not change.
Women clearly played an essential role in the passage of this legislation and were able to do so as a result of gender quotas that ensure more equitable political representation.
“Abortion Helpline, This is Lisa” paints a harrowing picture of life under the Hyde Amendment; after dipping into rent and food money, asking everyone in their life for money, and calling strangers at a fund, a person may still not end up with enough to exercise their legal right to an abortion.
In this edition: Arkansas becomes “America’s worst state for trans kids” after lawmakers ban gender-affirming health care for minors; wins and losses in the fight for abortion rights; a new study shows one in three survivors of COVID-19 are diagnosed with a brain or psychiatric disorder within six months; and President Biden moved up his call for states to make all adults vaccine eligible from May 1 to April 19.
Last month, Congress passed President Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill. On top of direct stimulus checks, the Plan also includes funding for schools and childcare, increased child tax credits and rental assistance. But another—frequently overlooked—priority of this bill is expanding access to sexual and reproductive health care across the country.
“For nearly nine years, I’ve been without my daughter because the laws in my country put the value of her pregnancy above the value of her life.”
Right now, the Congress of the Dominican Republic—one of the few nations in the world where abortion is illegal in all circumstances—is weighing whether to update the country’s penal code to decriminalize abortion in certain instances.
No more debate; Dominican women need action. Now.
It is time for the Biden administration to begin fixing inequities by ensuring that federal policies do not hinder but instead help make the abortion pill more accessible, by allowing pharmacists to dispense the abortion pill.
Making mifepristone available through pharmacies can improve abortion access—especially in rural or other areas where abortion providers and clinics are remote or unavailable. And federal action can make this a reality.
The Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage requirement has increased the use of birth control among patients. But even with the measure in place, the pandemic took a toll on women’s contraceptive access to contraception, perpetuating inequities in access.
In this edition, we highlight conservative lawmakers attacking trans rights and health care; track the growing number of anti-abortion legislation; provide updates on the potential for a fourth wave of COVID-19; and take a look at health care affordability, new research on using CRISPR technology for chronic pain and a new study on adolescents and drug use.
In Florida, policymakers are considering a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. This bill and the inflammatory rhetoric surrounding it are straight from the well-worn antiabortion playbook of vilifying abortion later in pregnancy, regardless of the real-world harms to pregnant people.
