More Than A Magazine, A Movement
We need to socialize men differently and create a united force of activists. Men need to be a part of the larger conversation, and work to dismantle the idea that reproductive choice is simply “a women’s problem.”
Reproductive choice is not just a women’s issue. We all are well aware that it does not take just a single person to get pregnant. If Roe falls, it will affect everyone.
The U.S. legal and political tradition has a long history of failing to recognize women’s claims to autonomy as individuals possessing citizenship rights equal to those of men. Now, reproductive rights are in grave danger—but the ERA could change things.
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: Michigan governor appeals to state Supreme Court to enshrine abortion rights in constitution; track star Allyson Felix plans to retire; Florida and Oklahoma move to criminalize abortion; Ukrainian refugees face a lack of sexual and reproductive healthcare; U.N. funds Bilan Project to give a voice to female journalists in Somalia; and more.
Approximately one in three lawyers are women. Fewer than two in 10 lawyers are people of color. And only one in 115 justices of the Supreme Court has ever been a woman of color. That number could soon double as Ketanji Brown Jackson has become the first Black woman ever nominated to the highest court in the country.
Madiba Dennie and Elizabeth Hira are uniquely positioned to discuss this historic nomination: They’re both women of color, they’re both attorneys, and they both work at the Brennan Center for Justice on issues of democracy and equity. This discussion highlights the networks they have relied on, the progress that has been made and the challenges that remain, and the democracy they hope to build.
As I witnessed several U.S. senators smear and disrespect Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation hearings, I wanted to shout these words: “America, get your knee off our necks.”
Jackson should be confirmed with an overwhelming bipartisan vote. However, that’s not the world in which we find ourselves, But history will soon be made, and Judge Jackson will become Justice Jackson—with a bipartisan vote. And from henceforth all Black women and girls will finally see themselves on our highest court.
The Equal Rights Amendment has been in the works for almost 100 years. In 1972, the amendment passed in Congress. Now 50 years later, the required 38 states have voted to ratify the ERA—but it hasn’t yet been added to the U.S. Constitution after the Trump administration blocked the national archivist from certifying and publishing the ERA as the 28th Amendment. But no one is taking that as final.
I’m 20 years old and a senior at Long Island University Global. In conversation with other Gen Zers, here’s why the ERA is important to us and how we see our role in the fight today.
I was born in 1974, nearly 18 months to the day after Roe. The women of my generation, along with the following generation, have been shaped by access to legal abortion and the subsequent guarantee of full personhood. The birth control pill, first approved by the FDA in 1960, promised reproductive autonomy, but abortion rights helped make it true.
As we approach the overturning of Roe, the women of Generation Roe must continue to speak out and join forces with other generations of activists to ensure we will not be the only ones to have experienced full personhood, unencumbered by laws seeking to define all women as mothers whose interests are subsumed by their children, born and unborn.
The fundamental question at stake in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health is not the future of abortion access—but whether or not women count as equal citizens under the law.
What happens when the rights of the unborn prevail over those of living, breathing, working, loving and dreaming women and girls? Historically, women and girls suffer dire health, emotional, economic, career and personal consequences.
During last week’s oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson, many Supreme Court justices said nothing about equality at all—but Justice Amy Coney Barrett stood out. She suggested that people relied on abortion “as a backup form of birth control in case contraception fails” because they wanted to avoid the burdens of both pregnancy and parenting.
If the Court is ready to put an end to Roe, the conservative majority might also try to redefine what the Constitution means when it comes to equality of the sexes.
Abortion is not (just) a health issue. Whether we are willing to let women and people capable of becoming pregnant control their own bodies, for health or any other reason, is an equity issue—a question of who deserves bodily autonomy and freedom to reach their full potential.
Ultimately, abortion bans and restrictions are part of broader legal and societal structures that were unambiguously designed to not recognize women’s inherent equality.
