More Than A Magazine, A Movement
The United States’ system of mass incarceration has imprisoned millions since the 1980s, with enormous racial disparities. During this period, women have become the fastest-growing segment of the incarcerated population.
We have reached the point in American politics at which a sitting U.S. president sees fit to decree pregnant women must “tough it out.”
We all would be wise to strenuously push back on junk science—not just for our safety here and now, but in service of a future that doesn’t create new inroads for punishment of pregnancy.
Recovery is not just a personal journey—it is a struggle shaped by policies that too often punish women rather than support them. From losing custody of their children to facing barriers in treatment and the criminal legal system, women with substance use disorder encounter hurdles that men rarely experience. Trauma, stigma and inadequate access to care create a landscape where seeking help can feel like choosing between survival and motherhood.
My sister’s story—years of overdose, illness and family separation—mirrors countless others who live at the intersection of addiction, gender and policy neglect.
The solutions are clear but rarely implemented. Women need access to care that recognizes their lived realities, programs that allow them to keep their families together, and protections that prevent survival strategies from being criminalized. Trauma-informed, women-specific treatment, expanded childcare, extended postpartum coverage, and decriminalization of behaviors tied to survival are not optional—they are essential. Until our systems prioritize dignity, equity and healing, the numbers will keep rising and the stories will keep repeating. Recovery must be recognized as a right, not a risk.
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The road to recovery—and the right to recovery—is essential to a free and fair democracy. This essay is part of a new multimedia collection exploring the intersections of addiction, recovery and gender justice. The Right to Recovery Is Essential to Democracy is a collaboration between Ms. and the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health at Georgetown Law, in honor of National Recovery Month.
Despite being among the top reasons women seek medical care, sleep disruptions during menopause have been understudied and undertreated. For women, sleep problems peak during the menopausal years, which span from their 40s to early 60s. Even more alarming, suicide rates also rise during these years. And the research shows that even amid immense hardship, the ability to sleep well buffers against suicidal thoughts. Yet, this crisis remains largely ignored.
Federal research, which now faces catastrophic budget cuts, has long neglected women’s sleep and menopause. And of course, in America, midlife women are holding the social safety net together, picking up the pieces of a broken welfare system.
Sleep is not a luxury. It is a nightly ritual restoring the brain through cellular growth and repair. To understand how we got here, we must examine the long history of how women’s sleep—or lack thereof—has been weaponized against us.
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 this biweekly roundup.
This week:
—Trump’s reconciliation bill will prevent millions from accessing healthcare and food assistance.
—IWMF announced this year’s Courage in Journalism Awards.
—Many prison systems lack accommodations for pregnant inmates.
—Sean “Diddy” Combs found not guilty of sex trafficking.
—The Supreme Court’s decision on LGBTQ books in public schools lays the foundation for new assault on books of all kinds in schools.
—Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) called out the hypocrisy of “pro-choice” members of Congress in a House Rules committee meeting: “They say they’re pro-life because they want the baby to be born, go to school and get shot in the school.”
—A group of actors including Jane Fonda and Rosario Dawson wrote a letter to Amazon, after allegations that the company has frequently refused to accommodate pregnant workers.
—Mahmoud Khalil is suing the Trump administration for $20 million.
—July 10 was Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, marking when Black women’s earnings catch up to what white men earned in 2024.
… and more.
A new quilt commemorating survivors of forced sterilization in California prisons exposes a long, ongoing history of reproductive and medical violence against incarcerated and marginalized women.
In a post-Roe America, where reproductive freedom depends not just on where you live but who your prosecutor is, New Orleans District Attorney represents a growing number of local officials refusing to criminalize care. His goal: to protect bodily autonomy and keep women out of prison.
As one of the few progressive prosecutors in the Deep South, Williams operates under intense pressure—from conservative lawmakers, a hostile state government and a legal landscape increasingly tilted against reproductive rights. But he’s doing so with clear priorities: decriminalize pregnancy outcomes, defend healthcare providers and prioritize the health and dignity of Black and low-income women in his parish.
Survivors of sexual violence, advocates and lawmakers in New York are calling for legislation that would fill key gaps in the state’s law, making it harder for those accused of sexual abuse, harassment and discrimination to sue their accusers for defamation. The legislation also includes a bill that would give people abused in state custody more time to seek justice.
“If New York truly supports survivors, our laws should make justice in civil court more accessible, not less. Survivors should be able to receive monetary compensation that can aid their healing without having to face onerous legal hurdles. The package of bills we’re urging Albany to pass this session will do exactly that,” said Emily Miles, executive director of the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault.
The idea of reopening Alcatraz for what Trump termed as punishment for the country’s “most ruthless and violent” criminals should not be viewed in isolation. It calls for a broader reckoning with why such carceral relics were created in the first place and why their logic persists.
Alcatraz was designed to be the ultimate deterrent, embodying the harshest aspects of the U.S. penal system as a symbol of punitive excess. Yet it was historically ineffective: The prison’s closure in 1963 was due to high operational costs and its failure to rehabilitate inmates, suggesting that its model was unsustainable and ineffective.
In this powerful mother-daughter exchange, Summer Knight and Kwaneta Harris reveal how nearly a decade of forced silence through solitary confinement shattered their bond—and how they’re fighting to rebuild it, piece by piece.
“Everything I did in my daily life, I’d wonder how Mama was doing the same thing in that hole. Was she cold? Could she see the sky?”
“How do you compress motherhood into five minutes at midnight? How do you explain to a child why you’re not calling on her birthday, her graduation, after her father died? … Without communication, we became strangers. She grew up with a ghost for a mother, and I mothered a memory.”
As long as women have been giving birth, people have assisted mothers and newborns up to and through childbirth—making midwifery one of the world’s oldest occupations. The International Day of the Midwife, observed each year on May 5, aims to honor the profession and promote awareness of its vital role in healthcare.
A new documentary, Arrest the Midwife, follows a criminalized midwife, the Mennonite women who rallied behind her, and the political battle to legalize life-saving care. Director Elaine Epstein hopes viewers take away something powerful: that meaningful change is often slow, imperfect and comes from unexpected places. “We’re in a time where things are pretty bad and it’s easy to want to bury our heads,” she said. “But we have so much to learn from the Mennonites.”