Texas

Keeping Score: Leaders Stand Up for Trans Rights; California’s First Latina Supreme Court Justice; Oklahoma Moves to Ban All Abortions

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: Biden administration announces gender-neutral passports to be made available; California confirms first Latina state Supreme Court justice; Governors Gavin Newsom and Jay Inslee increase abortion accessibility; Polish pro-choice activist charged for assisting an abortion; and more.

Kelly’s Story: Overcoming S.B. 8 and a ‘Crisis Pregnancy Center’ to Have an Abortion in Texas

Through ingenuity, persistence and a little luck, some Texans are wading through the state’s six-week abortion ban and a sea of anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers” to find abortion healthcare in a safe and affordable way. Kelly is one of them.

“My heart goes out to those women who feel like they have no choice and they get swindled into this. I really want to prevent that from happening. … I’m telling my story because I had no idea about these ‘pregnancy health clinics.’ Women should not feel obligated to keep a pregnancy. I don’t think those women at CPCs should be saying, ‘Oh, I’m here to help women.’ They’re not helping if they’re making women feel bad for their decisions, period.”

How Texas’s S.B. 8 Restricts Sexual Abuse Survivor Advocacy

Texas’s S.B. 8 empowers private citizens, giving them the right to sue anyone who “knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion”—including attorneys like myself who represent survivors of sexual assault.

This attempt to tie the hands of attorneys and organizations that serve survivors is a gross overreach of the law that opens the door for attorneys to face civil action for giving advice to our clients and constitutes a breach of the attorney-client privilege that is critical to a healthy justice system. That is why, since S.B. 8 was enacted, I have continued to advise my clients and other women who call our office to help them find resources, even though it means I may face civil liability.

Online Abortion Care Provider Hanna Kim of Hey Jane: ‘Everything Is Done in Your Own Time’

Hey Jane provides medication abortion for anyone who is at least 18 years old, medically eligible, up to 10 weeks pregnant, and located in New York, California, Washington, Illinois, Colorado or New Mexico.

“Doctor’s appointments can be very difficult to get. With Hey Jane, we can get medication to patients in like a day.” Hanna Kim, lead nurse for Hey Jane, told Ms. “Patients feel really cared for. I remember one email that said, ‘I felt like I was talking to a mom or a sister who had all the answers.'”

Idaho Is the Second State to Ban Abortion After Six Weeks

Idaho has become the second state to ban abortion after six weeks.

“By the time you get to six weeks into pregnancy, chances are it is very difficult to have gotten an abortion,” said Lisa Humes-Schulz, vice president of policy and regulatory affairs for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates Northwest. “It’s not when you find out you become pregnant, but how long it takes you to get an abortion when you find out in idaho. There’s so few providers, a waiting period, you have to travel and raise money. That’s a big task.” 

Women’s Rights and Democracy Are Inextricably Linked

Last fall, America was featured for the first time on a list of backsliding democracies. With inadequate progress in women’s participation in government, reproductive rights, and maternal mortality, this title may reflect recent attacks on gender equality. Amer­ica’s long­stand­ing and abysmal record on myriad gender equity mark­ers has been the true harbinger for our down­graded democracy status.

Texas Abortion Funds File New Challenges to Abortion Ban: ‘We Will Not Be Intimidated’

Two Texas abortion funds—the Texas Equal Access Fund and the Lilith Fund—filed lawsuits asking the courts to declare S.B. 8 unconstitutional and to block the defendants from enforcing the law. Whereas previous lawsuits challenging S.B. 8 were filed in Texas, which falls within the notoriously anti-abortion 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, these news lawsuits are filed in Chicago and Washington, D.C., which fall within the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 7th Circuit and the District of Columbia, which are seen as likely to be more favorable to their arguments.

“We are proud to fight back, even when we have no choice,” said Amanda Beatriz Williams, executive director of Lilith Fund.

Yelp Joins Growing List of Companies Covering Costs for Texas Employees Seeking Abortions Out of State

Yelp Inc. said on Tuesday it will cover expenses for its employees and their dependents who must travel to another state for abortion services. Yelp joins Citigroup, Match Group, Bumble as the four publicly traded companies helping cover travel costs for Texas employees seeking abortions out of state—a necessity in the wake of S.B. 8, which bans abortions after six weeks. Clinics in Texas’s surrounding states have reported a nearly 800 percent increase in abortion patients since the law was enacted.

Come June, when the Supreme Court announces the end of Roe v. Wade as many experts predict, even more business leaders will feel the pressure to take a stand on the issue.

Dr. April Lockley Answers Your Questions About Abortion Pills: ‘To Protect Each Other As Much As We Can’

April Lockley

The Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline (M+A Hotline) was founded in 2019 by two primary care physicians who knew people were self-managing their abortions at home but often had questions and would go to the internet looking for answers. Dr. April Lockley is a family medicine physician in New York City and medical director of the M+A Hotline (1-833-246-2632).

“Since the beginning of time, people and communities have taken care of themselves without going to the doctor because of how the system is set up. It’s inequitable. It’s racist. And so people have always taken care of themselves. We’re a support to say, ‘This process is going as it should.'”