In this Power Talk, Ms.’s Roxy Szal spoke with four reproductive health experts— Power to Decide CEO Dr. Raegan McDonald-Mosley and VP of policy Rachel Fey; PRH’s Jennifer Blasdell; and State Innovation Exchange’s Jennifer Driver—on restrictions to reproductive healthcare and how advocates and lawmakers can protect abortion and contraception access.
Stimulus Payments and the Child Tax Credit Are Transforming U.S. Families—What Happens When They End?
Neither the COVID-era stimulus payments nor the child tax credit were designed to be permanent solutions—but if they were, they would especially help working moms, low-income women and women of color.
The Magnolia Mother’s Trust puts this into action, demonstrating that giving women an economic safety net leads to families escaping poverty and having the ability to set themselves and their families up for success.
Pennsylvania Medicaid Abortion Coverage Ban Challenged Under State ERA: “Sex Discrimination, Pure and Simple”
Pennsylvania-based abortion providers and reproductive rights lawyers filed their brief in a lawsuit—Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services—asking the state’s Supreme Court to strike down the Pennsylvania ban on Medicaid funding for abortion as a violation of the Equal Rights Amendment and equal protection provisions of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
The Taliban Continues to Abandon Girls’ Education
At a speaking engagement in Doha, the acting foreign minister of the Taliban, Amir Khan Muttaqi, avoided questions about education for women and girls and reiterated the group needs more time on girls’ education—despite international outcry after last month’s decision that schools above sixth grade would only reopen for boys.
Democrats in Congress Lead Fight for Abortion Access: “Abortion Is Healthcare, Plain and Simple”
Democratic members of Congress like Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Cori Bush are using the platforms and legal maneuvering they have access to, building political pressure to ensure that enacted laws reflect the will of the bipartisan pro-choice majority in the U.S.
The Department of Education is Failing Survivors of Campus Sexual Assault
In March, President Biden issued an executive order asking the Department of Education to re-examine the harmful Title IX regulations put in place under Betsy DeVos. But, after months of empty platitudes about “urgency” and how the Department “takes these matters seriously,” they have failed to take any meaningful action and will delay any changes until May of 2022.
No survivor should have to wait to have their most basic rights met.
The Danger of Plea Deals in Sexual Assault Cases
An excerpt from Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining is a Bad Deal by Carissa Byrne Hessick on the danger plea deals pose in sexual assault cases:
Jeffrey Epstein’s power translated to favorable treatment as he worked his way through the U.S. justice system—but you don’t have to have millions of dollars or be friends with a president and a prince. You just have to convince a prosecutor that it isn’t worth the time or the effort.
Are Women Human Beings?
On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court will hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Mississippi’s brief in Dobbs claims Roe v. Wade must be overturned because “scientific advances show that an unborn child has taken on the human form and features months before viability.”
But aren’t women human beings? The answer must be: Yes, and they must be able to control their lives, their reproduction and their bodies.
Rest in Power: Kamla Bhasin, Feminist Icon of India
Kamla Bhasin, an early leader of the women’s movement in India, died in New Delhi on Sept. 25 at the age of 75. Bhasin played an integral role in the second wave of feminism and was a prominent voice in the women’s movement in India and other South Asian countries from the 1970s to the present. Her impact will live on for years in the songs, poems, art and music of the thousands of people that she inspired across South Asia.
Femicide: The Need To Name Gender-Based Killing of Women in the United States
The U.S. downplays the growing issue of gender-based killings and violence by failing to call it what it is: femicide.
Recent high-profile murders have received immense media coverage, but the reality is they aren’t rare events. Femicide is a global issue that disproportionately impacts BIPOC women and requires urgent action to prevent. The U.S. needs to adopt a language of femicide that recognizes the gendered nature of ongoing murders of women in the nation, as well as the larger social patterns connecting them.