Tag: Sexual and Reproductive Health

The Republican Crusade Against Issue 1: Ohio’s Reproductive Freedom Amendment

In the face of a referendum that could add a right to reproductive freedom to the Ohio constitution, state Republicans have organized a campaign to confuse voters and undermine the democratic process.

As Ohioans United started collecting signatures to make sure the Reproductive Freedom Amendment would be on the ballot in November, state Republicans started plotting. They first tried to make it more difficult to pass referenda. Thankfully, Ohio voters showed up during an August special election to defeat the amendment—by a 14-point margin. Unfazed by the loss, state Republicans embarked on a crusade to push voters away from the Reproductive Freedom Amendment. 

Who Pays the Price for Men’s Wars?

The people who are least responsible for this war—women, children, innocents of all kinds—are bearing the heaviest burdens of this war.

I’m on the side of the women whose children’s lives have been stolen, of the women who were told to flee but had nowhere to go, of the women who fled but were bombed anyway, of the women who don’t have clean water or medicine or electricity or a safe place to hide, of the women who like so many women are desperate down to the marrow to protect their children, of the women who cannot do that one singular thing, of the women scrawling names on their children’s limbs so someone might be able to identify them, of the women who are pulling their children’s bodies out of piles of rubble, of the women who lost their lives to a war they didn’t start and wanted nothing to do with.

‘Comstocked’: How Extremists Are Exploiting a Victorian-Era Law To Deny Abortion Access

In June 2019, the all-male city council in Waskom, Texas, unanimously voted to make the tiny town of just 2,000 residents the nation’s first “sanctuary city for the unborn.” Characterizing fetuses as the “most innocent among us [who] deserve equal protection under the law,” the ordinance expressly bans abortion within its municipal boundaries. The man behind the ban, anti-abortion zealot and pastor Mark Lee Dickson, has since expanded his campaign to outlaw abortion “one city at a time” into at least six other states.

(This article originally appears in the Fall 2023 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

The Hyde Amendment Continues to Be a Barrier for Accessing Abortion Care

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Even in states where abortion is still legally protected, many in need of financial support may not be able to obtain abortion care due to the Hyde Amendment.

This amendment, passed 47 years ago last month, prevents federal funds from being used to cover the cost of abortion services except in very limited circumstances. Many people enrolled in public programs—such as Medicaid—have to pay out-of-pocket for their abortion care.

This November, Abortion Is on the Ballot in Ohio. Here’s What You Need to Know to Vote

This November, Ohioans will decide whether to add to the state’s constitution the right for individuals to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions, including abortion. Early voting in the election has already begun. 

A coalition of reproductive, women’s and civil rights organizations, Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, is urging voters to vote YES on Issue 1 to protect reproductive freedom.

Ohioans, here’s all you need to know about how to vote in this election.

‘Babies Are Good. More Babies Are Better’: Pro-Natalism Takes Center Stage in Austin

On Dec. 1, 2023, the Natal Conference will be held in Austin, Texas. Promising to gather the “brightest minds in the world,” the conference is aimed at turning around the world’s “shrinking population,” which represents “the greatest population bust in human history.” The meeting will solidify links between the far right and right-wing influencers. Fiercely anti-feminist speakers will join them.

“It’s not surprising to see far-right folks, eugenicist types and white nationalists joining forces at a conference like this,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project on Hate and Extremism. “They have become bedfellows.’”

As the New York Adult Survivors Act Nears Expiration, Survivors of Dr. Robert Hadden Are Left in the Dark

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The New York Adult Survivors Act (ASA) expires on Nov. 23, 2023—yet the tens of thousands of patients of Dr. Robert Hadden have not been notified of his history of sexually assaulting women in his gynecology practice. Unless Columbia University urgently notifies these patients, survivors may miss the window to file civil suits.