Michele Goodwin

Coercing Rape Survivors to Be Pregnant for the State—The Texas Way

PUBLISHED 10/1/2021 by and
Coercing Rape Survivors to Be Pregnant for the State—The Texas Way

Texas has one of the nation’s highest rape rates. Shockingly, its newest near-total abortion ban contains no exceptions for rape or incest. When asked about this, Gov. Greg Abbott said, “Texas will work tirelessly to make sure that we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas.”

Abbott’s disturbing pledge fits in line with a tried-and-true political strategy: claim to address a public health issue by pivoting to crime control. But as history has taught us, public health crises will not be solved in the prosecutor’s office or by claiming to be tough on crime.   

Danger in the Shadows: Supreme Court Uses Shadow Docket to Threaten Abortion Rights

PUBLISHED 9/28/2021 by
'Danger in the Shadows': Supreme Court Uses Shadow Docket to Threaten Abortion Rights

Reproductive rights—once perceived to be a hallmark of late 20th-century American democracy—may soon give way to conservative states enacting unconstitutional anti-abortion provisions with procedural barriers so thickly and cleverly intertwined that the ability to challenge them may be unattainable, including at the Supreme Court.

The result of the Court’s shadow docket opinion is not just an end, essentially, to the legal right to an abortion in Texas—it sets in motion a workable blueprint for all other conservative state legislatures bent on stripping away abortion rights.

The Texas Abortion Ban Is History Revisited

PUBLISHED 9/1/2021 by
The Texas Abortion Ban Is History Revisited

Aspects of Texas’s new six-week abortion law are eerily reminiscent of the Fugitive Slave Acts, which traumatized Black people for fear of being tracked, stalked and charged with violating the codes of slavery.

Texas has stepped into a dangerous zone that not only undermines the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy—but now calls for the worst in citizen action. 

Top Ten Most Memorable Moments from the First Year of “On The Issues with Michele Goodwin”

PUBLISHED 6/28/2021 by
Top Ten Most Memorable Moments from the First Year of “On The Issues with Michele Goodwin”

Did you know that Ms’s podcast “On the Issues with Michele Goodwin” has been reporting, rebelling and telling it like it is for one whole year?

We’ve covered a lot of ground over the past year, from interviewing your lawmakers to delving into a summer of resistance against police brutality to getting the perspectives of feminists on the front lines of changing culture—finding silver linings all along the way. Here are our top ten moments from the year.

Women’s Health Protection Act: Congress Has a Moral and Legal Obligation to Protect Abortion Access

PUBLISHED 6/22/2021 by

Dr. Michele Goodwin testified powerfully in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution on the urgency of the Women’s Health Protection Act in addressing racial, gender, legal and health disparities.

“Reproductive justice requires every individual to have the right to make their own decisions about having children regardless of their circumstances and without interference and discrimination.”

Policing In America: A Deadly Disease Rooted in Slavery [Who Killed George Floyd? Part II]

PUBLISHED 4/20/2021 by
Policing In America: A Deadly Disease Rooted in Slavery [Who Killed George Floyd? Part II]

Policing is part of America’s origin story and its history of enslavement, kidnapping and trafficking of Black people.

This article is the second installment in a three-part series examining police violence as symptomatic of broader social and cultural injustice, racism and anti-Blackness—including in one of America’s most liberal communities.

Who Killed George Floyd? Hidden Truths About Midwestern Racism

PUBLISHED 4/13/2021 by
Who Killed George Floyd? Hidden Truths About Midwestern Racism

“In many ways, Minnesota and Wisconsin have become the new south. The disparities we’re seeing rival anything in the Jim Crow era.”

This article is the first installment in a three-part series that asks what can we learn from officer-involved killings, which on their own can appear isolated and disconnected from larger social conditions and cultural dynamics.