A Thousand Little Moments: The Insidious Loss of Women’s Freedom to Christian Nationalism

PUBLISHED 2/28/2024 by

Leaving a toxic marriage also meant temporarily abandoning my dream of motherhood. I grieve the loss of the future I imagined. Perhaps one day, I will have my own baby who will know how much she was wanted and loved. That dream is deferred. But the dream is altogether shattered for many women, in the wake of the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are considered children. Republicans cannot ignore their role in this devastating turn.

Women are losing both the right to end unwanted or dangerous pregnancies and the right to become pregnant. The common factor is the loss of women’s choice. If our country’s concept of family stability relies on depriving women of their choices, we do not have stable families; we have prisoners.

Front and Center: ‘Politicians Who Believe Guaranteed Income Programs Discourage People From Working Are Wrong’

PUBLISHED 2/28/2024 by

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 (MMT) 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.

“I’ve always had a good relationship with my kids, but MMT has allowed me to say ‘yes’ more. … My son and I both have birthdays coming up and I told him we could plan something fun, maybe go out of town. I’ve never taken them out of town before.”

My Family Was Made Possible by IVF. My Heart Aches for the Women of Alabama.

PUBLISHED 2/27/2024 by

For over a decade, I have been faced with constant reminders of the long and winding road it took for me to become a mother.

In the wake of last week’s Alabama Supreme Court ruling, there are very obvious places along the way where the whims of a judge who would like a Christian theocracy would supersede the wishes of myself, my husband and the suggestions of my doctors—well-educated and well-known experts in their field. 

The Barriers Black Women Face While Running for Public Office

PUBLISHED 2/27/2024 by

I was elected to the Portland, Maine, City Council in November 2022, in what I call the ‘new generation’ of Black leadership in public office. After the murder of George Floyd and the racial awakening this country experienced in 2020, we saw record-breaking numbers of Black women campaigning and being elected to public office.

Despite my excitement for more of us in elected positions, we are still severely underrepresented in government—and I believe this is by design. Our current system not only enhances the barriers that stop us from accessing public office but also hinders our ability to craft equitable policies once elected.

Senate Democrats Challenge Republicans With Wednesday Vote to Protect IVF

PUBLISHED 2/27/2024 by and

Senate Democrats on Tuesday highlighted their plan to protect IVF, warning their Republican colleagues they will need to decide by Wednesday whether to block a bill that would preserve access to assisted reproductive technologies.

“It’s been incredible to watch Republicans now scramble over the weekend to suddenly support IVF—well, many of these same Republicans are literally right now co-sponsors of legislation that would enshrine fetal personhood, the very concept that caused all of the chaos in Alabama,” said Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, an original co-sponsor of Duckworth’s Access to Family Building Act.

In Congress, meanwhile, Democrats’ bill that would protect IVF access nationally has received only a single Republican co-sponsor in the House and none in the Senate. 

Alabama’s Fundamentalist Leap: Cells Are Not Human Beings

PUBLISHED 2/26/2024 by

The Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling on Feb. 16 by an 8-1 majority that frozen embryos are constituted as “unborn children,” mirroring the state’s Constitution which recognizes rights of “the unborn.” The first of its kind, the ruling symptomatic of the 21st-century emergence of fetal personhood legislation embedded within Christian fundamentalism in the United States.

Your Top Questions on Abortion and Birth Control, Broken Down

PUBLISHED 2/23/2024 by

Dr. Raegan McDonald-Mosley, CEO of nonprofit Power to Decide and practicing OB-GYN, is dedicated to educating people on abortion and the healthcare options that come with it. #AskDrRaegan provides candid, judgment-free sexual health information to young people by meeting them where they are: on social media.

Check out TikTok users’ top questions on abortion and birth control, answered by Dr. Raegan.