More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is the first Republican governor to veto a ban on healthcare for transgender youth.
Politicians are not doctors and have no place intruding on decisions that go against the combined expertise of patient and provider. Laws banning abortion and essential healthcare for transgender people interfere with individual decisions about our health, bodies and our ability to control our futures.
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: how previously unknown problems can be solved by electing diverse leaders; the longest-reigning queen in the world for 53 years, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is stepping down; rest in power, former Texas Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson; and more.
This Monday, Jan. 8, Ms. Studios dropped the first episode of United Bodies, a new podcast about the lived experience of health. Hosted and co-produced by Kendall Ciesemier, an acclaimed health and disability advocate and writer, United Bodies will examine how physical, mental, spiritual and social health impacts how we understand ourselves, how we interact with the world and how we may fight for a better one.
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: In Florida, reproductive rights groups seeking a constitutional amendment protecting abortion secured enough signatures to put a referendum on the 2024 ballot; anti-LGBTQ laws are on the rise; tracking on-screen abortion representation; millions sign up for healthcare coverage; the pope approves blessings for same-sex couples; New York arbitrators frequently reinstate abusive correctional officers; Gypsy Rose Blanchard is released from prison; being a feminist does not equal hating men, research confirms; and more.
Each month, we provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups. And each year, we review our monthly Reads for the Rest of Us lists and choose our favorite books of the entire year.
You’ve read the other “Best of” lists—now read the other one. You know, for the rest of us. So here they are, our book critic’s top 38, in alphabetical order.
In Ohio, a grand jury is deciding whether to charge Brittany Watts—a woman who went to the hospital twice for care when she was miscarrying, was sent home twice, and miscarried in her bathroom. She could face jail time for “abuse of a corpse,” because fetal parts were found clogged in her toilet. Watts’ case is a chilling preview of what could come: Miscarriage criminalized in myriad ways. And now, the Fifth Circuit is holding that emergency rooms do not have to provide life-saving abortions—further ensuring that women with dangerous miscarriages will simply be sent home and left to manage on their own.
At the heart of the ‘pro-life’ movement is the idea that women are put on this earth for subservience. And so this is the plan: Force women to carry pregnancies against their will.
After reading about Kate Cox’s unsuccessful efforts to obtain an abortion in Texas, I needed an outlet for my ire. I took to social media, where I found reprehensible comments about abortion on Threads. I responded to them. I schooled my interlocutors with facts and links to research. I dazzled them with my correct grammar. I received tens of likes.
You may be shocked to learn that I changed no one’s mind. I was nevertheless surprised by some people’s misconceptions about abortion—many of which appeared to be shared by pro- and anti-abortion individuals. In the spirit of clearing the cobwebs out of our collective discourse, here are a few facts about abortion that have not been widely reported—starting with the fact that most people who obtain abortion care in America report using contraception in the month in which they became pregnant.
One reason women are losing the right to abortion is that men who do not support women’s rights have supermajority control of most state legislatures and Congress.
If we as a society want to address critical, life-affirming issues like healthcare, housing, education, childcare and anti-poverty programs, we must elect more women—because the men clearly aren’t going to do it.
Back for its third year, Front and Center is a groundbreaking Ms. series that offers first-person accounts of Black mothers living in Jackson, Miss., receiving a guaranteed income. First launched in 2018, the Magnolia Mother’s Trust is about to enter its fifth cohort, bringing the number of moms served to more than 400 and making it the longest-running guaranteed income program in the country. Across the country, guaranteed income pilots like MMT are finding that recipients are overwhelmingly using their payments for basic needs like groceries, housing and transportation.
“There are a lot of single mothers around here who want to work and just don’t have the support or family or guidance in front of them. That lack keeps them in the same position. For some people, all they have is themselves. … To know that I have a back up and can worry less about having enough gas or having to call on my mom. Now that I have this income coming in, I can save a little bit more. I can try to preserve a little bit more. There is light at the end of the tunnel.”
The Biden administration reminded hospitals of their obligation to perform life-saving abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act after the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Texas sued, arguing it was an overstep that mandated abortions.