Tag: Courts and Judges

The Upcoming SCOTUS Abortion Pill Case Could Be the Next Dobbs

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next week, on Tuesday, March 26, in a case against the abortion pill mifepristone, filed against the FDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of anti-abortion doctors and dentists. The Court will issue its ruling by summer—just months before the fall election, when voters will decide on the next U.S. president and control of Congress.

“This case is not based on any kind of medical or scientific fact around abortion. It’s purely based on politics,” said Elisa Wells of the abortion pill advocacy group Plan C. “The fact that it’s been allowed to progress so far in the court system is outrageous.”

(This article originally appears in the Spring 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

Abortion Bans = Sex Discrimination

On Jan. 29, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that a law banning Medicaid funding for abortion discriminates against women, in violation of the state’s Equal Rights Amendment. The decision overturned a 1985 case saying the ERA did not apply to abortion.

“The Pennsylvania case is so sweeping and strong in the way that it identifies interference with reproductive decision-making as a form of sex discrimination and as part of the historic pattern of oppression of women. It’s really beautiful,” said Susan J. Frietsche, co-executive director of the Women’s Law Project, which filed the case on behalf of Pennsylvania abortion providers.

(This essay is part of “The ERA Is Essential to Democracy” Women & Democracy collection. It also appears in the Spring 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

How the Far Right-Wing Plans to Obliterate More of Our Constitutional Rights

In the last decade, the Convention of State Action (COSA) has become the fastest-growing Article V movement.

COSA advocates are pushing for Congress to call a convention to ratify a number of constitutional amendments which threaten the fabric of our democracy. If states have immediate standing to challenge the constitutionality of any enactments by Congress and the executive branch, the lives of women would be at risk.

Women Who Dissent: Remembering Lilly Ledbetter, Mary Edwards Walker and Anjali Forber-Pratt

Throughout Women’s History Month, discover untold stories of incredible women. This week: Lilly Ledbetter, namesake of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009; Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, one of the first female doctors in America and the only woman to win the Medal of Honor; and Dr. Anjali Forber-Pratt, a professional wheelchair racer and Paralympian medalist.

Federal Judge Rules Against Pregnant Workers in Texas

Texas AG Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration last year over a government funding package that passed largely by proxy votes because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding package, passed in December 2022, included the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which protects accommodations for pregnant employees and allows workers to sue employers for failing to do so.

Paxton argued the Constitution requires a physical majority of members to pass legislation. Since a majority voted on the funding package by proxy, Paxton said it was unenforceable. Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas agreed with Paxton’s understanding of a quorum—ruling the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act unenforceable against the state government and its agencies.

When Every Miscarriage Is a Murder Scene, Poor Women Pay the Highest Price

The Alabama Supreme Court recently shocked the nation when it held that the word “child” includes frozen embryos. Treating an embryo as the equivalent of a child upends the fertility industry, as it threatens to end in vitro fertilization (IVF) services and puts the status of embryos already in storage in serious question.

While these implications are important to untangle, the brunt of the effects of fetal personhood will fall not upon families with the resources to undergo IVF, but rather on poor and non-white women. Every decision made by a pregnant person could be second-guessed by the government. Every step outside of the most risk-averse approach to pregnancy puts the pregnant person under the microscope of the state.

From The Vault: Joan Little and The Dialectics of Rape (June 1975)

“A little more than 100 years ago … rape served not only to further [the Black woman’s] oppression but also as a means of terrorizing the entire Black community. It placed brutal emphasis on the fact that Black slaves were indeed the property of the white master. … The social incentive given to rape is woven into the logic of the institutions of this society. It is an extremely efficient means of keeping women in a state of fear of rape, or of the possibility of it.”

( For more ground-breaking stories like this, order 50 YEARS OF Ms.: THE BEST OF THE PATHFINDING MAGAZINE THAT IGNITED A REVOLUTION (Alfred A. Knopf)—a collection of the most audacious, norm-breaking coverage Ms. has published.)

Seeing Fetal ‘People’ Everywhere: What Has ‘Dobbs’ Wrought?

The anti-abortion movement moved a step closer to realizing its goal of achieving fetal personhood when the Alabama Supreme Court held that frozen embryos are children for purposes of the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. However, the 8-1 ruling is a victory with a discernable twist. Republican lawmakers and their allies are now scrambling since at least three Alabama IVF providers have suspended their family-building services while they sort out the ruling’s implications.

My Family Was Made Possible by IVF. My Heart Aches for the Women of Alabama.

For over a decade, I have been faced with constant reminders of the long and winding road it took for me to become a mother.

In the wake of last week’s Alabama Supreme Court ruling, there are very obvious places along the way where the whims of a judge who would like a Christian theocracy would supersede the wishes of myself, my husband and the suggestions of my doctors—well-educated and well-known experts in their field.