We send Ms. to 5,547 federal, state and county prisoners, and hundreds of shelters across the country. That’s a fraction of the total, but it’s a number we’re very proud of and hope to keep growing. Over the 19 years since this program’s birth, we’ve discovered that even this small gesture of recognition, support and information means a lot.
Category: Justice & Law
Gisèle Pelicot, the Woman at the Center of France’s Mass Rape Trial, Takes the Stand for the First Time
“I never, even for a single second, gave my consent to Mr. Pelicot or those other men.”
Halfway through the mass rape trial in France that has been shocking the world and brewing feminist rage since September, survivor Gisèle Pelicot took the stand for the first time on Wednesday to share her nightmarish story.
On why she’s taking a stand: “I wanted all woman victims of rape—not just when they have been drugged, rape exists at all levels—I want those woman to say: Mrs. Pelicot did it, we can do it too.”
Care Policies Can Help Win Elections. Elections Can Help Win Care Policies.
The issues of “abortion” and “care” are highly intertwined and reinforced in voters’ minds. For many women, anger over the war on their fundamental right to control their own bodies is compounded by their inability to care for their families in the way they know is best.
Research also shows that for swing voters—especially men under 55, white men, and non-conservative Independents and Republicans—are more likely to switch their vote to a candidate who supports abortion rights and care investments, more than support for abortion alone.
For Women to Have Real Political Power, We Need Quotas
Since 1789, only six women have occupied a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States, one of the most crucial institutions for justice in this country; and in the last 237 years, only 60 women have held a seat in the U.S. Senate.
In order to achieve true parity, the United States needs to implement affirmative actions—gender quotas established by law. This will ensure that women are selected, appointed and supported by political platforms. Strategically speaking, these quotas would ensure that women rise to the same level of political opportunities as men.
Project 2025 Would Establish an Unborn Uber Class
Mostly without using the term “person,” Project 2025 lays out a plan for the next conservative president to use the federal government’s executive powers to enact nationwide policies that treat fertilized eggs as persons without needing to rely on courts or legislatures to achieve their goal—overriding the majority of Americans who oppose these measures.
Project 2025 would undermine public health, destroy and degrade women’s lives and inevitably lead to their criminalization.
We must understand Project 2025 as the culmination of the radical personhood agenda, launched in the 1970s, significantly advanced in 2022 by the Supreme Court decision overturning of Roe v. Wade and now poised to be fully achieved if Donald Trump is elected.
Mothers Without Homes: Tips on Raising Children While Living on the Streets
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that punishing homeless people for sleeping on public property does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, reality for those experiencing homelessness got much tougher.
In an effort to highlight a significant and unrecognized segment of America’s homeless population, a survival guide for mothers raising their children without a home: The Three Melissas: A Practical Guide to Surviving Family Homelessness
The Witch Hunts of the 1600s Never Really Ended
An excerpt from Mary Anne Franks’ new book, Fearless Speech: Breaking Free From the First Amendment:
“Amber Heard was professionally blacklisted, constantly surveilled by the press and the public, and subjected to death threats and harassment. All of this happened because Heard wrote something that people did not like—the kind of speech that, according to American free speech orthodoxy, should be most robustly protected by the First Amendment. But in a decision that chilled the speech of sexual abuse and domestic violence victims everywhere, Heard was found liable for defamation and ordered to pay Depp $15 million. … As the Heard case revealed in excruciating detail, when it comes to women’s speech, the protection of the First Amendment is little more than hollow rhetoric.”
Tennessee Court Says Some Women Denied Abortions Should Have Received Them Under Law
Late Thursday, a three-judge panel of the Tennessee Chancery Court unanimously agreed that the unclear exception to Tennessee’s abortion ban is preventing women in the state from getting medically necessary abortion care. This decision means that Tennessee physicians can treat their patients who are experiencing certain dire pregnancy complications and fetal diagnoses without fear of disciplinary action.
Republican AGs Want Access to Health Records of Out-of-State Abortion Seekers. Texas’ Ken Paxton Is Leading the Charge.
Since the fall of Roe, cross-border abortion travel has doubled. To guard against the threat of having—as President Biden put it—the medical records of abortion patients “used against them, their doctor, or their loved one just because they sought or received lawful reproductive healthcare,” a new HIPAA rule issued last year enhances the privacy protections for reproductive healthcare.
Attorneys general from 19 abortion-hostile states submitted a formal letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra in opposition to the proposed enhanced privacy rule, based on its disregard for fetal personhood. The AGs failed in their mission to prevent the proposed 2024 rule from becoming final—so Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton took matters into his own hands. The Texas challenge will be heard by Republican appointee Judge James Wesley Hendrix in Lubbock, Texas. It is anticipated that he will be sympathetic to the state’s position.
Half a Century After Title IX, Universities Are Still Failing Survivors: The Ms. Q&A With Nicole Bedera
Ms. spoke with Bedera about her research for her newly released book, On the Wrong Side: How Universities Protect Perpetrators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Violence, and how Title IX has fared in the 52 years since its passage.
Her findings are appalling.
“The average college expels just one perpetrator of sexual assault every three years.
“One of the administrators … told me that he hesitated to consider something as rape unless it involved ‘a stranger jumping out of the bushes.’ Survivors’ experiences were consistently misunderstood and minimized.”