More Than A Magazine, A Movement
A peek into the first class of medical professionals applying to residency in a post-Roe America.
“My personal take is that it’s really hard to learn in an environment of scarcity and an environment of fear,” said Dr. Lauren Thaxton, an ob-gyn professor at the University of Texas Dell Medical School. “And I think that those are two things that are very realistic in some of these restrictive states.”
Many anti-poverty groups agree that strategically targeted guaranteed income, not universal basic income, is the best path forward to ending poverty, advancing gender and racial equity and supporting low-income Americans.
That’s why guaranteed income programs like the Magnolia Mother’s Trust (MMT) focus on low-income Black women to address the deeply entrenched economic inequities caused by systemic racism and sexism. MMT moms have used their monthly payments to go back to school, find stable housing, escape predatory cycles of debt and start their own businesses.
The horrific human rights violations exhibited inside Romanian orphanages and the Magdalene laundries resulted from policies designed to control people of reproductive age by limiting their bodily autonomy.
Recent events show that the U.S. is, in fact, capable of comparable atrocities.
In a post-Roe world, legislators—most of whom have no medical expertise and cannot get pregnant themselves—in one state could assert that life begins at fertilization, while a neighboring state could say life begins at birth.
Next, all hormonal contraception and IUDs might be outlawed just because some people believe they interfere with implantation and therefore “endanger” the new “life.” Defining personhood as starting at fertilization also has significant implications for in vitro fertilization, a process that creates fertilized eggs.
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 in this biweekly round-up.
This week: A top Russian diplomat condemns acts of war against Ukraine; Lia Thomas speaks out on space for trans women in sports; June marks the start of Pride; Oklahoma to ban abortion during all stages of pregnancy; Democrats in the House introduce bills addressing “stealthing”; new U.S. quarter will feature first female Cherokee principal chief; and more.
Contemporary attacks on reproductive rights are motivated by many things. Chief among them is a penchant for coercion, hostility to women’s autonomy and self-determination, and a desire to enforce our status as mothers first, and human beings a distant second.
Today’s supply-chain issues have turned a formula shortage into a crisis, particularly for Black and Latino families seeking to nourish their babies. The formula crisis is a racial justice issue.
Over the years friends have asked my advice about their unplanned pregnancies or their daughters’. I don’t give advice. What I say is that I’m thrilled that my son walks the earth, but that the emotional cost was so much higher than I’d imagined. That there was no ‘clean slate’ afterward, only loss. That if I were faced with the same circumstances a second time, I would probably choose an early abortion. That what saved me in the end was the ability to make the choice myself.
This list includes 38 of my most anticipated books releasing this month. I know I am grateful for the work of the writers who gift us their remarkable thoughts, knowledge, ideas and worlds. They help me to forget about reality for a bit… or help me learn how to keep fighting it.
Maternal mortality is one of the most compelling indicators that America runs on racism. Here’s what we need to do to overcome this legacy and current reality.
