More Than A Magazine, A Movement
It’s about 1,500 miles from Austin to Sacramento, but Texas and California lawmakers are a million miles apart on how to treat private data related to reproductive health.
The goalposts are moving, what used to be legal is now illegal in many places, and online speech and personal data are the new battleground—with millions of people’s health and lives in the balance.
As the abortion rights landscape changes from week to week, peer advocates are doubling down, speaking out and committing to what they’ve been doing all along: sharing accurate information about safe and legal abortion.
“Young people are fundraising for their loved ones to get abortions out of state, they are speaking out against draconian state abortion restrictions, and even organizing for their campuses to make emergency contraception, condoms and medication abortion easily accessible to the students who need them.”
For generations, Black parents have sat their children down for “the talk”—not about the birds and the bees, but about the pigs.
This rite of passage occurs as adolescents become independent and need to learn what is likely to be in store, what to be wary of, and what they can do to protect themselves. With the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the issue of abortion has taken center stage. Parents must incorporate into their talk the stark fact of abortion restrictions and the implications for their adolescent children, especially their daughters.
In the case of abortion, which the supreme court decriminalized in September 2021, allowing women access to abortion up until 12 weeks gestation, women are still struggling to gain proper access to legal abortion for free at public hospitals because doctors are unaware of the law or find excuses to delay the procedure.
Human rights defender and lawyer Ariadne Song has defended women’s rights cases for 19 years, including the ‘aborto legal’ campaign first started by the Green Wave, or Marea Verde, in Argentina.
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022 and the end of constitutional protection for abortion, emergency contraception has become more difficult to obtain and—more than ever—shrouded in misinformation.
Regardless of one’s stance on abortion, it is important to understand why emergency contraception should be a basic component of women’s reproductive health care and family planning services.
U.S. patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. But day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.
This month: Anorexia is on the rise for young girls; mifepristone remains on the market, for now; House Republicans bar trans athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sports; the ERA was blocked in the Senate; North Dakota gets one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country; and more.
There is great reason to look at direct democracy as an opportunity to address the disconnect where the elected leadership does not reflect the needs and the will of the voters—and there is a reason conservative lawmakers want to close that window, as they are attempting to do in Ohio.
(This article originally appears in the Spring 2023 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get the issue delivered straight to your mailbox!)
A series from Ms., Our Abortion Stories chronicles readers’ experiences of abortion pre- and post-Roe. Abortions are sought by a wide range of people, for many different reasons. There is no single story. Share your abortion story by emailing myabortionstory@msmagazine.com.
“The nurses and professionals showed me more Christian love than I had ever experienced at my church. … This has never been about saving unborn children. It’s about controlling women. When will men be held accountable?”
In her book, Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty, Annelise Orleck not only shares the history of Clark County Welfare Right Organization’s (CCWRO) ascent and activism but also provides an insightful guide to community organizing.
“I loved the CCWRO’s insistence that poor women are experts on poverty and can run their own programs better than so-called professionals. And they did! … They demanded to know why a state that took tax revenue from gambling and prostitution was considered morally acceptable, but mothers trying to feed their kids were called cheaters. They were fearless.”
Two years ago, pandemic-era lockdowns began a mass exodus in the workplace, as women left in droves, either choosing or forced to prioritize caregiving.
As official states of emergency expire, what—if anything—has changed?