More Than A Magazine, A Movement
The recent Supreme Court ruling striking down affirmative action in college admissions was heralded as a victory for “merit-based” selection. The ruling has, however, left an implicit discriminatory practice intact: Male applicants continue to be prioritized over female applicants when needed to balance out the student population. This is no coincidence. It’s the result of a deeply ingrained, albeit often unacknowledged, bias in the admissions process that dates back decades.
In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.
This week: Musk and Trump’s USAID attacks have devastating impacts; 80% of the clean energy investments from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act—which Trump wants to roll back—are in Republican congressional districts; Louisiana indicts a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills; new executive orders go after workers and LGBTQ people; the Laken Riley Act was signed into law; childcare costs affect the health of parents; and more.
Texas OB-GYNs describe practicing in an environment of fear under the state’s extreme abortion bans, which have led to maternal deaths, delayed care and a mass exodus of doctors. Physicians say they are forced to wait until pregnancy complications become life-threatening before providing care, fearing legal repercussions.
With experienced OB-GYNs leaving and fewer medical students planning to stay, the future of reproductive healthcare in Texas is at risk.
On the first day of his second term in office, Trump signed the “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism” executive order, which claims to defend and protect women by asserting that, as a matter of U.S. policy, the existence of transgender people will not be recognized. Trump followed up on Feb. 5 with his “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order. These EOs join a long history of laws in the U.S. based on professed protection for women, which actually do the opposite.
While posturing as women’s protectors, Republican lawmakers ignore or inadequately address very real, substantiated and systemic threats to women, including in the intimate space of their own homes, where as many as one in four women experience domestic violence and more than three women are killed by husbands or boyfriends every day.
Women’s intelligence is insulted—and their autonomy further threatened—when the state asserts the intent to protect them from trumped-up threats that are overstated and insignificant in comparison to a spate of other much more common material, even mortal, threats to their lives and well-being.
The Global HER Act, led by Rep. Lois Frankel, aims to permanently repeal the global gag rule, which restricts funding for international healthcare providers that offer or even discuss abortion services—jeopardizing reproductive care for millions worldwide.
“They’re gagging you, they’re putting something over your mouth to prevent you from giving information. … Silence is an enemy,” Frankel told Ms. “And so, we cannot be silent. … One of the ways that we talk is with a bill.”
An interview with Demelza Baer, director of public policy at the 62-year-old Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:
“We’re making plans, discussing litigation strategies and doing outreach. A lot is happening behind the scenes. … I know that this moment feels like one of the most challenging periods of our generation, but this makes our social justice work more meaningful than ever. Everyone in the civil rights and social justice communities is facing attacks, but this is our moment to lean in. We can’t retreat.”
A federal funding freeze on domestic violence programs threatens to shutter shelters, silence crisis lines, and leave survivors with nowhere to turn.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), would impose strict in-person documentation requirements for voter registration, effectively dismantling vote-by-mail, online registration and voter registration drives. These changes would disproportionately disenfranchise historically marginalized communities, including people of color, low-income individuals and women, while being based on debunked claims of non-citizen voting.
Critics argue that the bill is a voter suppression tactic designed to maintain political power rather than protect election integrity, threatening the fundamental right to vote in a democracy.
Agencies continue to suspend funding, despite multiple court orders blocking the federal freeze. Experts say the Trump administration’s actions set the stage for challenges to Congress’ authority—and the limits of the presidency.
Less than one into the Trump presidency, attacks on reproductive health and rights have begun. Against this backdrop, it may sound surprising to hold out hope for the immediate future of any women’s health issue. But I think menopause may be an outlier.
Perhaps you’ve seen the headlines: Menopause is having a moment, from new tell-all books by Brooke Shields and Naomi Watts, to viral clips of Halle Berry shouting from the steps of the U.S. Capitol, “I’m in menopause, OK?!” Commitment goes well beyond celebrity moments and includes notable support from public policy leaders across the spectrum—Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and in blue and red states. These prominent voices are part of a new wave of recognition that menopausal women deserve to make informed choices about our bodies.
Just as the fight for reproductive rights is an essential tenet of any free and fair democracy, so too is autonomy and health at this life stage.