More Than A Magazine, A Movement
A fierce feminist resistance is ready to defend women’s rights at the federal level—and creatively expand equality protections in the states. This is the third in a four-part series on the steps activists are taking to fight for our rights amid Trump’s attacks on democracy.
Trump’s pardon of 23 antiabortion extremists—followed by the Justice Department’s decision to stop prosecuting most FACE Act violations—has emboldened those who seek to terrorize clinic workers and patients. But feminists are fighting back. From lawmakers to grassroots organizers, the movement is rolling up its sleeves to defend reproductive rights and strategize for the battles ahead.
A fierce feminist resistance is ready to defend women’s rights at the federal level—and creatively expand equality protections in the states. This is the second in a four-part series on the steps activists are taking to fight for our rights amid Trump’s attacks on democracy.
Part 1 covered the organization Democracy Forward and its new initiative Democracy 2025, which is working to counter the Trump administration’s antidemocratic acts with swift legal challenges and other strategic responses. This follow-up discusses the Democratic governors and attorney generals who are working to “Trump-proof” their state’s existing laws and fight for legal protections for their residents. Next Wednesday and Thursday, Part 3 will tackle more specifics of state law and advocacy, while Part 4 will get into the issue of federal funding under Trump.
After a narrow political victory in November, a second Trump administration is now threatening to reverse decades of hard-fought gains for women and girls. Luckily, a fierce feminist resistance is ready to defend women’s rights at the federal level—and creatively expand equality protections in the states.
This is the first in a four-part series on the steps activists are taking to fight for our rights amid Trump’s attacks on democracy.
The progressive women newly elected and sworn into office—including three non-incumbent senators and 16 representatives—offer a glimmer of “bright hope” as the country enters a second Trump administration.
All of these women know that they’re entering a complicated political landscape, one that’s heavily partisan and disheartening to many of their constituents. They’re also experienced and driven, ready to work across the aisle as necessary while remaining dedicated to important causes, from protecting abortion rights and supporting the LGBTQ+ community to advocating for gun control, judicial reform, affordable healthcare and public education. These women come from all walks of life, sectors of the workforce and backgrounds. Some worked retail or food service jobs to pay their way through school. Others have been lifelong public servants or dedicated themselves to volunteering. They’ve been working physicians, engineers, attorneys, climate change activists, CIA analysts, mayors, state representatives and senators, education advocates, executive directors of nonprofits and small-business owners. They are Black, white, Latina and Middle Eastern. Some are proud members of the LGBTQ+ community. Many are from working-class backgrounds. Some are mothers and even grandmothers. Several are first-generation college graduates or the children of immigrants.
Hard-won rights are steadily being rolled back. Authoritarianism is once again fashionable, dressed up in slogans and banners. And billionaires are calling the shots. This moment feels grim and hopeless—but it’s not. Consider it, instead, a call to action for feminists everywhere.
Ms. magazine was born for a time like this. Fifty-three years ago, Gloria. Steinem and a small band of determined women set out to create a magazine that didn’t whisper, didn’t apologize and didn’t avert its eyes from the truth. All these years later, Ms. remains—still defiant, still asking questions others won’t dare to touch, still answering those questions truthfully and boldly.
On Nov. 5, 2024, voters in the Texas Panhandle city of Amarillo resoundingly defeated (59 to 41 percent) a proposition that would have declared their town a “sanctuary city for the unborn.” Amarillo now enjoys the distinction of being the first city in the U.S. where voters rejected a post-Roe abortion travel ban.
The defeat marks a powerful repudiation of Mark Lee Dickson, founder of the antiabortion group Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn—due in large measure to the activism of the Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance. The alliance was launched when six local women met at a coffee shop to debrief after Dickson’s initial presentation, which several of them had attended. The women immediately recognized that the ordinance posed a threat they needed to take seriously.
In her new documentary, Bread & Roses (available now on Apple+), filmmaker Sahra Mani reveals the fierce and courageous resistance of Afghan women defying the Taliban—who wish to make them disappear.
It’s a documentary about Afghan women, by Afghan women, at a time when the world had stopped seeing them.
Now what? That’s what feminists have been wondering since we lost the bright promise of a Kamala Harris presidency on Nov. 5.
We asked Ms. contributing editor Carrie Baker to point the way. For the upcoming issue, she spoke to some of the many leaders and organizations preparing to safeguard decades of hard-fought gains for women and girls, now threatened by the Trump administration and its Project 2025. What she uncovered is a fierce resistance ready to defend our rights at the federal level—and creatively expand equality protections in the states.
All this and so much more awaits you in the Ms. Winter 2025 issue. And, for a limited time, you can get a year of Ms. for just $20—a 43 percent discount from our usual price!