More Than A Magazine, A Movement
The pro-feminist future needs more publications like Ms.—especially in light of the recent uncertainty around Jezebel in the U.S. and the cessation of Shameless in Canada.
We believe Voice Male magazine is one of them. Its preservation and growth are essential to putting forth a narrative that counters the troubling undertow of Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate and points to answers within the tearing down of patriarchy, not the rebuilding of it.
On the floors of state legislatures over the past year, doctors detailed the risks their pregnant patients have faced when forced to wait to terminate until their health deteriorated. Women shared their trauma. Some Republican lawmakers even promised to support clarifications.
But so far, few efforts to add exceptions to the laws have succeeded.
“On Oct. 22, 2020, a group of anti-abortion extremists forced their way into the Washington Surgi-Clinic, a facility that provides abortion care in Washington, D.C.” So begins investigative reporter Amanda Robb’s alarming account of a violent attack on an abortion clinic in the nation’s capital.
Here’s some of what else you’ll find within the pages of the upcoming Winter 2024 issue of Ms. magazine: how online abuse is used to intimidate, discredit and silence people; women activists in Afghanistan and Iran are calling on the international community to stop gender apartheid; and the top 10 most disappointing TV series cancellations of 2023.
On Oct. 23, three male Lubbock County commissioners approved an abortion trafficking ordinance making it unlawful to transport anyone seeking an abortion through the unincorporated area of Lubbock County—all thanks to tireless crusader Mark Lee Dickson, director of East Texas Right to Life and the founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Initiative, who is pushing to bring about the day when “abortion is considered a great moral, social and political wrong and is outlawed in every single state.”
Even Justice Brett Kavanaugh—certainly no fan of Roe—expressed the view in his concurring opinion in Dobbs that a state cannot bar its residents from cross-border abortion travel.
Tuesday, Nov. 7, is the last day for voters in several states to head to the polls to vote in a number of off-year elections. While they may be lower-profile, some of these races are still deeply consequential.
We’ll be watching: Ohio’s pro-abortion ballot measure; Virginia’s state legislature; the Pennsylvania supreme court race; and the Kentucky and Mississippi governors’ races.
In the face of a referendum that could add a right to reproductive freedom to the Ohio constitution, state Republicans have organized a campaign to confuse voters and undermine the democratic process.
As Ohioans United started collecting signatures to make sure the Reproductive Freedom Amendment would be on the ballot in November, state Republicans started plotting. They first tried to make it more difficult to pass referenda. Thankfully, Ohio voters showed up during an August special election to defeat the amendment—by a 14-point margin. Unfazed by the loss, state Republicans embarked on a crusade to push voters away from the Reproductive Freedom Amendment.
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.
Since our last report: The U.S. Coast Guard covered up an investigation of systemic sexual misconduct; a man fired two rounds from a shotgun into the front entrance of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Montana; the deadliest mass shooting in Maine’s history; some of Rep. Mike Johnson’s most eyebrow-raising beliefs; President Biden called for $16 billion in emergency childcare funding; and more.
Protect Women Ohio would like you to think it’s a “grassroots” coalition of anti-abortion momentum in Ohio. In reality, it’s fueled by millions of dollars tied to Leonard Leo—the man responsible for packing the U.S. Supreme Court with the very justices responsible for overturning Roe.
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s path to the speakership was circuitous, but it puts an ally of one of the country’s most influential anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion groups third in line for the presidency.
On Dec. 1, 2023, the Natal Conference will be held in Austin, Texas. Promising to gather the “brightest minds in the world,” the conference is aimed at turning around the world’s “shrinking population,” which represents “the greatest population bust in human history.” The meeting will solidify links between the far right and right-wing influencers. Fiercely anti-feminist speakers will join them.
“It’s not surprising to see far-right folks, eugenicist types and white nationalists joining forces at a conference like this,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project on Hate and Extremism. “They have become bedfellows.’”
