Civil Rights

Civil rights mean equal protections and opportunities under the law, and are a vital part of human rights and for the functioning of a democracy. They include liberties such as the right to vote, the right to a trial, and the right to access government services and education.

Keeping Score: Devastating Attacks on USAID; Louisiana Indicts N.Y. Doctor; Autumn Lockwood Is First Black Woman Coach to Win Super Bowl

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 this biweekly roundup.

This week: Musk and Trump’s USAID attacks have devastating impacts; 80% of the clean energy investments from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act—which Trump wants to roll back—are in Republican congressional districts; Louisiana indicts a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills; new executive orders go after workers and LGBTQ people; the Laken Riley Act was signed into law; childcare costs affect the health of parents; and more.

‘There Is a Lot of Advocacy Underway … We Can’t Retreat’: Demelza Baer on the Legal Fight for Civil Rights

An interview with Demelza Baer, director of public policy at the 62-year-old Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:

“We’re making plans, discussing litigation strategies and doing outreach. A lot is happening behind the scenes. … I know that this moment feels like one of the most challenging periods of our generation, but this makes our social justice work more meaningful than ever. Everyone in the civil rights and social justice communities is facing attacks, but this is our moment to lean in. We can’t retreat.”

‘Calling In’: Loretta Ross’ New Book Teaches How to ‘Model the World We Desire’

Reproductive justice founder Loretta Ross has a groundbreaking new book: Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel. Ross draws on over 40 years of experience as a feminist activist to offer hope and guidance for how we can learn to communicate and work together across our differences of identity, political opinion and priorities. Calling In is part activist memoir, part how-to guide for calling in and part strategic plan for growing the human rights movement.

Beautifully written and engaging, Calling In is a guide to “compassionate politics”—an antidote to infighting and calling out that is weakening the women’s movement and the left today. 

Beyond the Bus: Rosa Parks’ History of Fighting Sexual Violence and Systemic Oppression

Rosa Parks is often remembered as the quiet seamstress who ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Yet, her history as an advocate against sexual violence is often overlooked. Parks’ work demonstrates how the fight against sexual violence is inseparably linked to the fight against systemic oppression, particularly racism, sexism, and misogynoir.

U.N. Landmark Ruling Condemns Ecuador and Nicaragua for Forcing Girls Into Motherhood

For the first time in its history, the United Nations Human Rights Committee recognized in a Jan. 20 ruling that denying an abortion to a child is not just a denial of choice but an imposition of pregnancy and forced motherhood that irreversibly disrupts their health, well-being and life trajectory.

This landmark decision represents a crucial shift in how the international community addresses the intersection of children’s rights, reproductive rights and gender justice.

This Is the Power-Grab Moment

Trump is not a small-government conservative because he read Ayn Rand in college. He’s a government-of-one conservative: an authoritarian.

What Trump has done here is not just a funding pause. It is a test: Will members of Congress comply with increasingly extreme acts—acts that strip their power, publicly humiliate them and anger their constituents? Will Congress and the public agree that in order to receive federal funding that Congress has already allocated, every single agency and organization that receives such funding has to demonstrate their loyalty to far-right Trumpian ideology? Will the people who make up the federal government decide that the foundation of American democracy—the separation of powers, put into place in part to ensure that the nation would be governed by representatives of people and not a singular king—is worth preserving?

Restoring ‘Truth’ or Restricting Freedom? The Real Impact of Enforcing Gender Binaries

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In a flurry of executive orders this week, President Donald Trump signed one that calls for “accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.” The order, called Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, seeks to restore the gender binary. 

Let’s be clear: Women do not need to be protected from an inclusive definition of gender or trans people. Nonbinary and trans people exist. Their identities are valid, their rights matter and their existence does not threaten cisgender women or anyone else. 

Enforcing binary language lays the foundation for broader discrimination and exclusion, emboldening harmful policies in communities, workplaces and state governments.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Is Also Trump’s Inauguration Day. We Must Keep Honoring Dr. King’s Legacy.

Each year, the holiday dedicated to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reminds us of his remarkable contributions in the fight for civil rights and freedom and his powerful legacy that continues to serve as a beacon of hope. In 2025, the holiday falls on Inauguration Day, when the nation will witness the swearing-in of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States. 

Regardless of any discouragement, frustrations and setbacks we may experience in the coming weeks and months, we can learn from Dr. King’s example and remain unbowed, unflinching and undeterred in opposing injustice and fighting for equality. Our commitment must last well beyond Jan. 20—until the promise of democracy becomes a reality for all. 

Black Women on the Ballot: Top Races to Watch in 2024

The 2024 elections are a watershed moment for Black women in politics.

As Americans—particularly young people and people of color—become more disillusioned by our political processes, the intentional and strategic advancement of Black women candidates may infuse a much-needed dose of confidence in decency, democracy and dignity in politics.

Mass Deportation Won’t Solve U.S. Immigration Policy. Here Are Three Things That Will.

There are three things the U.S. government must do to address immigration. None entails policing the U.S. border, and none are prioritized by U.S. politicians today. 

Support of land sovereignty, reproductive autonomy and safe borders would do far more to address the problems accompanying U.S. immigration, than threatening expensive deportation and promising ineffective border walls.