More Than A Magazine, A Movement
“Pills have become the frontline of the battle for abortion access,” writes professor and Ms. contributor editor Carrie N. Baker in her new book Abortion Pills: U.S. History and Politics—the first to offer a comprehensive history of abortion pills in the United States.
A fair amount of news coverage this election cycle has focused on the Gen Z vote, and for good reason. Besides being the most diverse generation in American history, Generation Z—born between the mid 1990s and the early 2010s—has grown up in a turbulent time in this country, from the rise of school shootings to the COVID-19 pandemic to the first (and soon to be second) Trump presidency and legislative attacks on reproductive freedom.
In The Z Factor’s third episode, host Anoushka Chander interviewed 21-year-old Olivia Julianna, who has advocated for abortion in her home state of Texas. On the podcast, she and Chander delved into the unique worries of young women in America right now and Julianna’s own advocacy work.
On the campaign trail, Trump boasted that under his presidency, “women will be happy, healthy, confident and free” and that we will also magically be freed from the stress of “thinking about abortion.”
Trump’s back-and forth with women at his rallies may, at first glance, be viewed as an act of paternalistic beneficence for our collective best interest. After all, who would not prefer to be “happy, healthy, confident and free” over being “abandoned, lonely, and scared?” But, as history makes clear, paternalistic protectionism reinforces male supremacy. It is premised on the deeply subordinating and essentialist view that women are “weak and incapable of taking care of themselves.” Accordingly, we require protection for own good, with the resulting loss of self-agency and decisional autonomy.
Half of all U.S. families live in childcare deserts with either inadequate or nonexistent licensed childcare to rely on for support. Within this landscape, many parents are forced to make difficult decisions about their children’s care or their own jobs, not because it’s what they think is best for their family, but because they lack any other options.
As the incoming Trump administration readies itself for office, early childhood advocates must press any advantage to keep childcare and early learning a top priority.
On Friday, Oct. 25, at Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, President Joseph Biden delivered a formal apology on behalf of the United States to an assembly of Native American leaders for the genocidal impact of 150 years of U.S. Indian boarding schools, which sought to erase Indigenous people, culture and languages.
“I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we did,” said President Biden. “It’s long overdue.”
This apology came as a result of years of work by Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo. The U.S. Department of the Interior oversees U.S. relations to American Indians, Native Alaskans and Native Hawaiians.
If someone needs an abortion and is unsure how to get one, they’ll probably do what seems obvious to many of us: Use Google or another search engine and type “abortion options near me.” It’s likely they’ll find a mishmash of antiabortion crisis pregnancy centers, clinics that aren’t actually near them, and irrelevant information.
That’s where the Online Abortion Resources Squad (OARS) comes in. We run the r/abortion subreddit on the social media platform Reddit. No matter who you are, where you live, or what you need regarding your abortion, you can write a post on the r/abortion subreddit any day at any time, and you’ll receive a quick, thorough, accurate and compassionate personal response.
Though President-elect Donald Trump has waffled on how his administration might handle abortion policy, antiabortion activists are already exerting a pressure campaign for the incoming Trump administration to take a hardline approach and undo many of the policies set in place by the Biden administration.
Still, with two months left before Biden leaves office, there are some areas where legal scholars and attorneys suggest the outgoing administration could still take action, even if the impact may be narrow or short-lived.
This election is an unfortunate macrocosm of what Black women experience each day across industries: a fundamental lack of trust to lead.
It is long past time for us to face the fact that racism—specifically anti-Blackness—and sexism are at the base of the many other reasons Harris was unable to triumph in this election.
Wrapping his wife in a blanket as she mourned the loss of her pregnancy at 11 weeks, Hope Ngumezi wondered why no obstetrician was coming to see his wife. Over the course of six hours on June 11, 2023, Porsha Ngumezi had bled so much in the emergency department at Houston Methodist Sugar Land that she’d needed two transfusions. Three hours later, her heart stopped.
The 35-year-old’s death was preventable, according to more than a dozen doctors who reviewed a detailed summary of her case for ProPublica. Some said it raises serious questions about how abortion bans are pressuring doctors to diverge from the standard of care and reach for less-effective options that could expose their patients to more risks. Doctors and patients described similar decisions they’ve witnessed across the state.
Porsha’s is the fifth case ProPublica has reported in which women died after they did not receive a D&C or its second-trimester equivalent, a dilation and evacuation; three of those deaths were in Texas.
In 2017, Briana Martinson, then 20, and Megan Cater, 19, went to the apartment of a man whom they believed had stolen medication from Martinson, with the intent to steal it back. By the time they arrived at the apartment, Martinson and Cater were joined by several other individuals, two of whom were older men that the women did not know. According to Martinson, one of the men threatened them with a gun before entering, at which point she realized, “Okay, there’s no turning back.”
In the end, they were each sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison for aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional felony murder.
Was this a case of wrongful conviction? It’s complicated.