Period Pills: Another Option for Fertility Control

Menstrual regulation has a long history in the United States where, for centuries, women have used a wide range of herbs and medicinal teas to “induce” or “bring down” a late period when they did not want to be pregnant. Today, period pills—also known as “missed period pills” or “late period pills”—are medications that you can take if your period is late and you suspect you’re pregnant—but don’t want to be. Advocates believe period pills can help avert the negative consequences of new abortion bans, now in effect in over a dozen states across the country.

Keeping Score: Biden Issues Mass Pardon for Marijuana Possession; 36% of U.S. Counties Are ‘Maternity Care Deserts’

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 in this biweekly round-up.

This week: National children’s health organizations urge Biden to issue a National Emergency Declaration; pregnant cancer patients struggle to start chemotherapy without abortion access; Biden issues mass pardons for federal marijuana possession; Cardi B is first woman rapper to have two 11x platinum singles; 36 percent of U.S. counties are “maternity care deserts”; and more.

What Our Primate Ancestors Can Teach Us About Dismantling the Patriarchy: The Ms. Q&A with Diane Rosenfeld

A new book shines an intriguing new light on the possibilities for alliances among women in the ongoing struggle to end men’s violence against women by examining the social organization of one of our closest primate relatives. In The Bonobo Sisterhood, Harvard Law School professor Diane Rosenfeld shows how we have much to learn from the bonobos about how to eliminate male sexual coercion.  

“Patriarchy is not inevitable; the bonobos are living proof of that.”

The Bonobo Sisterhood Versus White Supremacist Patriarchy

Diane Rosenfeld’s new book The Bonobo Sisterhood: Revolution Through Female Alliance is a call to action, a way forward and societal shift that can free us from the grips of patriarchy.

“The bonobos are peaceful, loving, food sharing, freely sexual and xenophilic, meaning they love strangers, they do not fear them,” because “they have nothing to fear,” she writes. In the bonobos, Rosenfeld finds proof positive that “patriarchy is not inevitable.” 

Demystifying Cyber: Jessica Robinson’s Effort to Empower Women Online

It will take a paradigm shift to defend our national security moving forward. Women and people of color should be at the forefront of this effort. Demystifying Cybersecurity, a #ShareTheMicInCyber and Ms. magazine monthly series, spotlights women from the #ShareTheMicInCyber movement—highlighting the experiences of Black practitioners, driving a critical conversation on race in the cybersecurity industry, and shining a light on Black experts in their fields.

This month, we’re featuring Jessica Robinson—executive officer of PurePoint International.

Anti-Abortion ‘Crisis Pregnancy Centers’ Face New Accountability Post-Roe

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Post-Roe, the anti-abortion movement is funneling more resources to crisis pregnancy centers that use these tactics in order to block access to abortion healthcare, both in states with bans and in states that protect reproductive rights.

Over 2,500 crisis pregnancy centers across the U.S. provide virtually no medical services, spreading fabricated claims about the dangers of abortion. Public officials are taking actions to hold CPCs accountable for their deceptive practices.

Abortion and Equal Rights Are Driving Young Women Voters—and High Turnout Is Expected

Among young women voters ages 18-29 in the battleground states, abortion and women’s rights are the most important and highly motivating issues in determining their vote—22 points higher than inflation. And youth voter turnout is expected to match or exceed the record set in 2018.

“The overturning of Roe v. Wade has lit a fire under women voters, and especially young women voters, who have the power to determine close elections,” said Katherine Spillar, executive editor of Ms.