COVID-19

Holding Dr. Fauci In Contempt Is a New Low For the Rule of Law

PUBLISHED 8/7/2026 by

Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted Aug. 6 to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt, for invoking his constitutional right to invoke the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution during a highly contentious and jarring hearing, which lasted nearly three hours. 

The hearing marked a chilling day for health, science and medical memory—one more concerned about retribution and retaliation than truth and the deaths and devastation brought about by the global pandemic. Despite the decorum expected of the nation’s highest government officers, the hearing devolved into a type of vile theatrics unfitting members of the Senate.

Much of the news coverage of the hearing primarily focused on Fauci, the former White House chief medical adviser, invoking the Fifth Amendment 111 times.

Little ink was spilled on what should have been the most important point of a hearing: keeping people in the United States and around the world safe from past, present and future domestic and global health threats. 

Instead, COVID-19 was reduced to science fiction, making a mockery not only of the deaths brought about by the pandemic, but also the devastating, lingering harms.

That Fauci remains a focus of Republican scrutiny while Congress faces urgent healthcare challenges to Americans, ensuring clean air and water, reducing the cost of medical bills, addressing the affordability of medications, addressing environmental impact and focusing on staggering maternal and infant mortality, says much about the grave state of affairs in U.S. healthcare. 

‘Protesters Spit on Us’: Why This Wisconsin Abortion Clinic Escort Won’t Back Down

PUBLISHED 6/21/2026 by

Molly (last name withheld for privacy), a 35-year-old clinic escort, says they will not be deterred from helping patients get the care they need at a Milwaukee clinic that provides abortions.

Molly outlines the current landscape of threats facing providers, the history that informs this moment, and what is at stake when violence against reproductive healthcare workers is minimized or ignored.

“Being an abortion escort appealed to me because I would be able to interact with people who were coming to the clinic to receive an abortion and give them support. …

“Abortion clinic escorts are doing de-escalation with radicalized people, and we have no weapons. We are a unique group of people with strong de-escalation training. … When I train new escorts, I tell them the names of some of our regular protesters: ‘This is Joe. This is Sam.’ I think names hold a lot of power, and if you know someone’s name, it takes away some of the fear. …

“I tell new escorts to approach a car slowly. Sometimes people arrive early and want to sit and take a breath. Sometimes they have children with them and are getting situated. … Then as they walk into the clinic, stand between them and the people shouting on the sidewalk to act as a physical sound barrier.

“What’s kept me coming back to this work is the other clinic escorts, who are all passionate about reproductive rights. You make incredible friends and build strong bonds when you spend so much time together. I advise other escorts, especially new people, to practice self-care after a shift. It’s not normal to be yelled at for hours. We get called ‘harlots,’ ‘jezebels’ and ‘sinners,’ so I encourage decompression time. Everybody has their own post-clinic ritual for self-centering. … I usually come home and do some baking. …

“I think the protesters believe we escorts have very sad lives. But I get to go home to a happy, loving place and a freshly cooked meal with my husband and two dogs.”

Keeping Score: Threats Against Abortion Clinics Doubled in 2025; Sounding the Alarm on ‘Horrible Conditions’ of Delaney Immigration Center; Pride Celebrations Around the U.S.

PUBLISHED 6/10/2026 by

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:
—”Trump only seems to have the capability to fire female secretaries,” observes AOC.
—Two-thirds of abortion clinics reported violence or harassment in 2025.
—The TAKE IT DOWN Act (Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act) took effect last month. It requires social media sites to take down non-consensual sexual imagery within 48 hours.
—Members of Congress visited the Delaney Hall Immigration Detention Center after detainees started a hunger strike to protest inhumane conditions.
—The Trump administration announced an investigation into E. Jean Carroll, who Trump sexually abused and defamed.
—Harvey Weinstein’s New York rape trial resulted in another mistrial.
—A North Carolina bill would allow deadly force against patients seeking abortion care.
—Healthcare premiums have skyrocketed, forcing 21 percent of HealthCare.gov enrollees to lose coverage.
—Women freelancers charge an average of 19 percent less per hour than men.
—Americans are struggling to access disability benefits after cuts to the Social Security Administration.
—Social media platforms are enabling anti-LGBTQ hate and censorship.
—Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) reintroduced the Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act to ban the death penalty at the federal level. Last month, the DOJ announced they would bring back firing squads and potentially electrocution and lethal gas for executions.
—A comprehensive calendar shows all the Pride parades this month, across the country and globe.

… and more.

A (Brief) History of Women’s Rights, 1600 to Present

PUBLISHED 6/3/2026 by and

From the Haudenosaunee women who successfully challenged warfare in the 17th century, to today’s feminist organizers defending democracy, reproductive freedom and civil rights, the struggle for women’s equality has never been a straight line. It is a story of persistence, resistance and collective action spanning centuries.

Compiled by editors at Ms. and researchers from the National Women’s History Alliance, this women’s history timeline traces the interconnected histories of feminism, abolition, labor organizing, civil rights, reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ liberation and democratic participation.

No timeline can fully capture more than 400 years of feminist history, let alone every movement, leader, victory and setback that has shaped the ongoing fight for equality. Rather than offering a comprehensive account, this chronology highlights pivotal moments and turning points that help tell the story of how women have expanded the boundaries of freedom, democracy and human rights in the United States and beyond.

The timeline is part of Ms. magazine’s FEMINIST 250: Founding Feminists project, a multimedia essay series marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by examining the women and feminist movements that have worked to make the nation’s founding promises more fully realized. Through reported features, essays, interviews and historical analysis, FEMINIST 250 explores not only where we have been, but where we must go next to achieve true equality.

FEMINIST 250’s Parts 2 and 3—Feminist Lessons and Feminist Futures—drop this month on MsMagazine.com.

There Is Danger in Silence: How to Mobilize Your Friends and Neighbors Into an ‘I Will Not Be Quiet’ Chapter

PUBLISHED 5/12/2026 by

In 2016, just after Donald Trump was elected to his first term, a small group of women gathered in a Brooklyn apartment to talk through what they had been afraid to say out loud. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, balancing mugs in their hands, they created a space not for debate, but for listening. What emerged from those conversations became —a growing network of talking circles designed to help people find their voice in uncertain political times.

“It felt like a dam had been broken, and all this fear and anger was pouring out into the open,” said co-founder Adrianne Wright. “But underneath all of that noise, I noticed that there was something else: this impenetrable silence. It was a silence of people who didn’t feel safe enough to say I don’t really know, or I don’t know everything about this topic.” Over time, the circles expanded across the country, from Seattle to Atlanta, creating spaces where people could process political fear, connect with others and channel those conversations into action—from voter outreach to rallies supporting survivors of gender-based violence.

Wright says the idea behind the circles is rooted in a long history of collective organizing. “From Black churches during the Civil Rights Movement, to women’s groups in the 1960s, these spaces helped people name what they were living through and turn that into collective action,” she explained. “There’s a real pattern there: When people are given the space to speak truthfully about their lives, movements begin.” Today, the organization encourages anyone to start a local chapter using its free toolkit. “If we don’t feel like we belong, we can’t speak up,” Wright said, “and if we don’t speak up, it’s very hard for us to realize our power.”

The White House’s Medical Misinformation Is Harming American Children

PUBLISHED 4/11/2026 by

Amid a war in Iran, the Epstein files, Americans gunned down in the Twin Cities, the gutting of the Department of Justice and more, domestic health policy might not be at the top of mind. Yet, American children are being harmed.

Vaccine mandates are being lifted across the United States, and the consequences are immediate and measurable.

In 2000, U.S. healthcare officials declared measles eradicated nationwide—a major public health achievement now under threat. As politicians weaponize science and elevate misinformation, measles cases are rapidly rising, driven overwhelmingly by low vaccination rates among children.

How did we get here? Disinformation, conspiracy theories and debunked claims about childhood vaccines have been transformed into political talking points and, in some cases, policy guidance. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—once globally respected—has been hollowed out, with key experts pushed out or resigning in protest.

Under the Trump administration, measles has not only returned but surged to record levels, following actions like the dismissal of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, long considered the gold standard for vaccine guidance.

The consequences are not abstract. Before the measles vaccine, millions of Americans were infected each year, with thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of hospitalizations. Children suffered encephalitis, pneumonia and lifelong complications; pregnant women faced miscarriage and death. That history is not distant—it is a warning.

Today, as vaccination rates decline and exemptions rise, the United States risks repeating it. Protecting children requires rejecting political distortions of science and recommitting to evidence-based public health—before more preventable harm is done.

The Strange Hopefulness of Growing a Human While the World Burns

PUBLISHED 2/14/2026 by

As I write this, I’m in my third trimester, anxious and excited for my daughter’s arrival, which feels imminent.

Yes, it’s an extremely dark time, but that’s not exactly a historical outlier. People have been making babies throughout the worst of them. And nothing motivates me more to build a better future for all of us than this little girl—who, like every child, deserves safety, stability, love and care, and a world equipped to give it to her.

I can’t wait for her to see it.

Mifepristone Could Treat Endometriosis, Some Cancers, Depression and Chronic Illness—If Politics Didn’t Interfere

PUBLISHED 1/21/2026 by

Across a range of conditions that disproportionately affect women, research into mifepristone’s potential has been slowed, defunded or blocked altogether. Nowhere is that clearer than in the treatment of endometriosis and other serious illnesses that leave millions of women in chronic pain.

Endometriosis—when endometrium cells grow outside the uterus—afflicts an estimated 10 percent of reproductive-age women. It can lead to chronic pelvic and back pain, heavy or abnormal bleeding, pain during sex or bowel movements, fatigue, bloating, digestive issues, infertility, anxiety and depression.

Mifepristone can help—it blocks the progesterone causing the cellular growth and decreases the size of existing endometrial lesions, thereby relieving painful symptoms. But antiabortion politics have obstructed the development of the medication for these uses in the U.S.

Researchers have also produced studies showing mifepristone is effective for treating ovarian and breast cancer, chronic inflammatory diseases, and several psychiatric disorders, including major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychotic depression.

This is Part 2 of 3 in a new series, “The Moral Property of Women: How Antiabortion Politics Are Withholding Medical Care,” a serialized version of the Winter 2026 print feature article.