More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Have something to share? Drop us a line at ontheissues@msmagazine.com. Background Reading: “The Ms. Q&A: Jackson Katz on Performative Patriotism, White Masculinity, and the Future of the Republican Party,” Jackson Katz and Jeremy Earp, Ms. magazine, January 8, 2021. “Young Voters Critical to Georgia’s Historic Elections,” Sophie Dorf-Kamienny, Ms. magazine, January 7, 2021. “‘We’re Building […]
Prior to the pandemic, we were barely hanging on as we struggled with the strain of a too-busy, too-individualistic lifestyle, as we tried to prove we could take care of ourselves by suffering in our nuclear families alone.
Imagine a world where collective care was a daily practice rather than a reaction to cancer, global pandemics and structural oppression. By engaging in collective care, we may begin to believe that we belong to one another.
Countless stories have applauded nurses, and all frontline workers, as heroes during the pandemic. Yet, actions to protect nurses—so they can safely do their jobs—are lacking by the public and places where nurses work.
“Nurses are not superheroes and cannot actually do it all, nor should they. We have asked, and now we are begging for help from the public and policy makers. We’ve been sounding the alarm and some places are starting to listen. When will everyone else?”
In 2019, the Trump administration enacted sweeping changes to the public charge regulations in order to make it harder for a low-income applicant to get their green card. Families, terrified of being deported and having their family torn apart by Trump’s “arcane” public charge rule, left social programs—like SNAP and Medicaid—in droves.
The new COVID-19 vaccines bring promising new technology—but new data reveals that people of color are expressing vaccine hesitancy in significant numbers.
“To fellow health care workers and community leaders, know that so many people are looking for answers. It is critical to guide them down that tunnel to a small light on the other side.”
“My parents, understandably, do not want me to come home for the holidays—the risk for everyone is too high. … I will imagine my path home now, so I may travel it tomorrow.”
The coronavirus surge is likely to get worse over the coming weeks and months. The U.S. has a long history of taking on challenges and leading by example. We still have a chance to seize this unique moment to completely change the way we care for the health of our citizens.
Last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed the Geneva Consensus Declaration, a U.S.-led document that fired yet another shot across the bow at reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy. The signing ceremony was touted as a watershed moment in the fight against an international movement to declare a right to abortion at the expense of traditional family values.
The only problem? There very much is an international right to abortion.
The result of an Amy Coney Barrett confirmation is clear: It will lurch the Court significantly to the right. The tenuous balance struck in June Medical Services will be lost.
The next abortion case to reach the Court (maybe a gestational limit, a fetal heartbeat law, a ban on an abortion procedure, or ban on sex and race selection) will likely find a much friendlier audience in this new Supreme Court.
With the Affordable Care Act in the crosshairs at the Supreme Court, it behooves all of us to consider contraception and planned pregnancy a national concern. Men benefit, too.
We can save billions of dollars and increase the quality of lives by supporting birth control access through the ACA.