More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Texas leads the nation in funding for crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs). The system is meant to help growing families, but it’s riddled with waste and lacks oversight, a ProPublica and CBS News investigation found.
What’s worse: Lawmakers around the country are considering programs modeled on Texas’ CPC system, called Alternatives to Abortion.
In the fall, the Department of Education will mark 45 years since its inception, but that anniversary could be its last if Donald Trump gets his way. The federal agency is one of several he’s vowed to slash if reelected president.
Project 2025, a set of policy recommendations for a second Trump term released by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, not only supports eliminating the agency and removing LGBTQ+ protections and diversity curricula from schools but also privatizing education.
A wave of lawsuits—including against major companies—is coming after the PUMP Act gave employees the right to sue over a lack of workplace accommodations.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding for the first year of a child’s life, a standard that is difficult to meet in the United States because postpartum workplace protections are very limited.
As domestic violence and housing costs skyrocket, the Supreme Court’s answer to the crisis of homelessness is more cruelty.
Now, it’s up to state and local governments to invest in proven strategies that help end abuse and homelessness, such as broad investments in affordable housing and targeted investments in survivor-specific housing programs. Survivors can’t wait any longer for the safe, affordable housing they need.
Serving over 7 million children in the U.S., home-based providers are often the unsung heroes of the early childhood workforce. But their heroism is not financially rewarded.
In response to the worsening caregiver crisis that emerged during the pandemic, the Thriving Providers Project (TPP) was launched in 2022 to stabilize the economic well-being of these essential workers—nearly all of whom are women—through direct cash transfers. One hundred home-based providers received $500 monthly for 18 months, alongside support services like access to mental health resources.
Front and Center offers first-person accounts of Black mothers living in Jackson, Miss., receiving a guaranteed income. First launched in 2018, the Magnolia Mother’s Trust (MMT) is about to enter its fifth cohort, bringing the number of moms served to more than 400 and making it the longest-running guaranteed income program in the country. Across the country, guaranteed income pilots like MMT are finding that recipients are overwhelmingly using their payments for basic needs like groceries, housing and transportation.
“My main goals during this year of receiving funds is to find regular schools for my kids that offer them opportunities. And next year, or the year after, I’d like to find a house with a yard so they can feel comfortable. Something that’s ours.
“I’m so happy to be a part of this program. … I think it should be a standard all across the world. Mothers do so much every single day. Everybody needs a little extra cushion, especially when you have kids.”
Over the last 15 years, I have had the privilege of meeting mothers and their children around the world. The universal experiences of motherhood—from the challenges of pregnancy and birth, to cooing over a newborn child—can make it seem that pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood are a great equalizer. But my own experience and my work have reinforced that motherhood remains undeniably influenced by privilege and power.
There is no single intervention that will stop complications in pregnancies, halt premature births and end neonatal deaths. But that shouldn’t stop us from making full use of what we know can make a difference for many.
Marking the two-year anniversary of Dobbs, reproductive rights advocates are forming marches, strikes and protests nationwide to demand access to abortion and other reproductive health services.
Millions of people have now watched the satirical TikTok, “I’m looking for a man in finance.” The song’s success reveals a cultural fault line about what it means to be ambitious and autonomous as a young woman in 2024, and just how hard society is making it for them.
The Reproductive Freedom Alliance is a nonpartisan coalition of 23 governors determined to protect abortion rights and reproductive health.
“It shows the alignment of Democratic governors who are very clear about women’s health, public health and the fact that the Dobbs decision is a complete violation of long-held constitutional rights—fundamental rights for women and their families,” said New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
(This article originally appears in the Summer 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)
