Tag: Women Voters

A Firsthand View of the Crisis Ahead for Abortion Rights—and What We Should Do About It

As a nation, we are at a fork in the road and we will have to decide if we will allow our reproductive freedom to be determined by others, or if we are going to demand that these freedoms be protected where they still exist and restored where they have been compromised.

Since it seems we can no longer rely on the courts to protect these rights, our only solution is to pass a new federal law that will protect abortion rights in all 50 states. The Senate’s recent failure to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act makes it clear that we will need a greater pro-choice majority than we have today to pass this new legislation.

Let’s Make This Another Year of the Woman—This Time for Governors

Let’s Make This Another Year of the Woman—This Time for Governors

Thirty years after the 1992 Year of the Woman, women are still underrepresented in governor positions, but research shows there’s hope to increase these numbers: More than a dozen women are running for governor across the country, and it’s clear that women candidates have made great progress. However, women running for governor are still held back by sexist stereotypes and double standards. 

Abortion Is Increasingly Becoming a Decisive Factor for Voters

In a few short months, we face the likelihood the Supreme Court will overturn Roe. Already, 2021 was the worst year for abortion rights in half a century. In Texas, abortion has already been virtually outlawed for almost five months. And now the Supreme Court has issued yet another decision that will ensure S.B. 8 will remain the law in Texas for months to come.

The silver lining of this fraught era for reproductive rights seems to be that a large swath of Americans who oppose overturning Roe v. Wade will be motivated to vote in the midterm elections this fall. Polls show that abortion is increasingly becoming a decisive factor for voters—particularly young women voters.

Rest in Power: Sarah Weddington

Rest in Power: Sarah Weddington, Feminist Attorney and Champion of Roe v. Wade

On Jan. 22, 2022, we mark the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States. The case was argued by a 26-year-old female lawyer from Texas: Sarah Weddington, in her first appearance before the Court. Female lawyers were so rare in those days that the Supreme Court lawyers lounge didn’t even have a ladies’ room. There were no female judges; Weddington faced a wall of older white men.

Almost five decades after the decision, Sarah Weddington died at her home in Austin on Dec. 26, 2021, at age 76, after a period of declining health. Rest in power, Sarah Weddington.

N.Y. Lawmakers and Activists Speak Out for Abortion Rights and Reproductive Justice: “If We Cannot Control Our Own Bodies, There Is No Democracy”

N.Y. Lawmakers and Activists Speak Out for Abortion Rights and Reproductive Justice: “If We Cannot Control Our Own Bodies, There Is No Democracy”

“If we cannot control our own bodies, there is no democracy. That is the requisite of every democracy,” said Gloria Steinem at a press conference organized by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) with New York political leaders and reproductive rights advocates in front of Planned Parenthood Manhattan Health Center in New York City on Monday. 

approve-roe-v-wade-disapprove-texas-abortion-law-supreme-court

Wide Majority of Americans Approve of Roe v. Wade and Disapprove of New Texas Abortion Law

Sixty percent of Americans believe the Supreme Court should uphold its 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which established the constitutional right to abortion. Just 27 percent believe it should be overturned.

In the run-up to oral arguments on Dec. 1 in the Supreme Court case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, a Gallup poll shows Supreme Court approval at 40 percent—the lowest number recorded since the poll first started tracking this question in August of 2000.