‘Surviving God’: An Excerpt on God, the Church and Sexual Abuse

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An excerpt from Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Susan M. Shaw’s new book, Surviving God: A New Vision of God Through the Eyes of Sexual Abuse Survivors:

“The God of our childhoods was terrifying. Sure, He (and it was always ‘He’) loved us, but we also knew He could destroy us in a moment if we displeased Him. Poof! Like Lot’s wife, we’d become a pillar of salt. God knew us intimately and had complete control over us. Like an abuser, He asked us to love Him even as he threatened us with the torments of hell if we didn’t.”

Invest in Black and Latina Early Childhood Educators. Our Students Deserve It.

The latest Head Start reauthorization bill and President Biden’s 2025 fiscal budget include much-needed funding increases to raise educator wages. However, these gains are fragile, as evidenced by a recent Washington, D.C., budget proposal that would eliminate the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund, a program created in 2021 to achieve pay parity between early childhood educators and their K-12 counterparts.

As at-large Councilmember Christina Henderson pointed out, “It feels like we’re balancing the budget on the backs of Black and brown women in the childcare sector.”

Who Is to Blame for the Death of Habiba el Shamaa?

On April 15, 2024, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced an Uber driver to 15 years in prison with hard labor for attempted kidnapping, driving under the influence of drugs and document forgery. The victim, 24-year-old Habiba el Shamaa, died on March 14 after 21 days in a coma following critical injuries she sustained when jumping out of the moving vehicle.

Uber is partly to blame for the death of el Shamaa, but the larger misogynistic context that has normalized violence against women in the region should not be ignored. At the core of this violence in Egypt and throughout the region is the common belief that the home is a woman’s only legitimate space.

Women are Front and Center in Mexican Politics. What Can the U.S. Learn?

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On June 2, over 60 percent of registered Mexican voters went to the polls for a monumental election, with over 20,000 public offices up for grabs at the federal and local levels. This election was historic, as a woman was elected to hold the highest office in Mexico for the first time. This transition did not occur naturally; it resulted from consistent, permanent debate at all levels by activists, institutions, academics and women in politics who worked together across party lines to close the political gender gap. Although there is still a long way to go to achieve substantive gender parity in public life, Mexico’s progress can and should be a valuable lesson to the U.S.

‘Evil in Washington Flooding Into Amarillo’: Abortion Travel Bans at the City Level

The Amarillo City Council rejected a potential abortion travel ban, making Amarillo the largest conservative Texas city to reject such a policy. The Initiating Committee of Amarillo, which garnered enough signature to put the now rejected “abortion trafficking” ordinance before the City Council, now has 20 days from the date of the meeting to decide if they wish to put the matter before the voters in November.

Presidents Matter: Title IX, Sex-Based Violence and LGBTQ Discrimination

There’s so much at stake in the 2024 presidential elections, including the rights of women and LGBTQ people. President Biden has been a longstanding advocate for women’s right to be free from violence.

On the other hand, Republicans are pledging to eliminate Title IX protections against sex-based discrimination and sexual violence. The difference is clear.

From Green to Red Tide: Latin America Is Leading the Way in the Fight Against Obstetric Violence

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In the early 2000s, Latin American feminists coined the term “obstetric violence” (OV) to refer to acts of abuse in the context of pregnancy, labor and birth, including physical and psychological violence, abusive medicalization and pathologization of natural processes that involve the loss of autonomy over our bodies and sexuality. 

Since then, governments of Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia and Costa Rica have all passed legislation using the language of OV, laying out the rights of people at the time of labor and delivery.

Criminalizing Drugs—Including Misoprostol and Mifepristone—Is a Bad Idea

Recently, Louisiana added misoprostol and mifepristone (“M&M”) to the state’s list of criminalized controlled substances. M&M are medications that, among other things, can safely and effectively end a pregnancy. As a result of this law, possession of these medications without a prescription can result in fines of up to $5,000 or “imprisonment of no more than five years with or without hard labor.”

Much of the outcry against this state action has focused on the fact that M&M are neither dangerous nor addictive and thus should not be categorized or criminalized as a controlled substance. While it is true that M&M, two exceptionally well-studied and approved medications, are extremely safe and lack any potential for addiction, this critique reinforces dangerous myths about the war on drugs already deeply intertwined with the war on abortion.

Republicans Say Access to Birth Control Is Protected. They’re Lying.

On Wednesday, Republicans killed a bill that would have federally protected an individual’s right to access birth control and a healthcare worker’s right to distribute it. The Right to Contraception Act passed a Democratic-led House in 2022. However, since then it has been blocked by Senate Republicans at every turn.

The real question is not if birth control access is in jeopardy—that much is certain—but whether voters are going to once again ignore the dying canary in the coal mine of democracy and allow another constitutional right to fall by the wayside.