More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Zoe Weissman remembers how it felt to be 12 years old on Feb. 14, 2018, terrified of what sounded like gunshots ringing out from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. She was at Westglades Middle School right next door thinking that no kid should feel the way she felt at that moment. Something had to change.
Today, Weissman is among those making that change.
I found out I was pregnant in June 2022. My husband and I were thrilled—and at 42 years old, we understood that I was embarking on a high-risk pregnancy. I was also leading the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee at the time. I certainly did not anticipate that my personal and professional worlds were about to collide in a historic political year.
Weeks after I learned I was pregnant, the conservative U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Some people believe that abortion laws and pregnancy have nothing to do with one another. Those people have no idea what they’re talking about—and they’ve probably never been pregnant.
In a shadow docket ruling late on Friday, April 21, the Supreme Court has decided to block a previous ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from taking effect, allowing the abortion pill mifepristone to remain on the market under current rules.
“While SCOTUS offered temporary relief, the fate of a medication approved by the FDA more than 20 years ago should have never been before the Supreme Court to begin with,” said Kirsten Moore of Expanding Medication Abortion Access Project.
Many legislators are in hot pursuit of tweaking, if not fully rescinding, ballot initiative processes because they want to stop the people from enshrining the right to abortion back into law.
Women make up a little over a quarter of Congress and around one-third of state legislators. Policy can remedy inequities and create a world that is more supportive of women. When our government truly represents women, we won’t have to defend our right to exist in the halls of power, or our right to vote for the policy we need and deserve.
(This essay is part of The Majority Rules project—an artful essay and op-ed series from Ms. and Supermajority Education Fund.)
Safety is our most fundamental need, but the U.S. denies it to women—especially women of color. Every attack on our safety stands in the way of our freedom. We need to get serious about the problem with serious policy solutions.
Securing safety for women is possible. State legislatures across the country are proposing legislation to ensure that people who have committed violence can’t get access to guns, support families who experience domestic violence, improve investigative processes for missing Indigenous people, and fund mental health crisis services.
(This essay is part of The Majority Rules project—an artful essay and op-ed series from Ms. and Supermajority Education Fund.)
If 2022 proved anything, it’s that we must continue to organize and channel the collective rage that was triggered by the Court’s reversal of Roe, to not only restore abortion rights across the nation but to push forward toward our goal of full equality. There is no way the movement can be stopped.
It’s important to celebrate our wins and take stock of our losses at a time like this—because they are what will fuel us as we move forward into the new year and meet the new challenges it will bring.
U.S. patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. But day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.
This month: Brittney Griner is released from a racist and homophobic penal colony; abortion access is still in shambles despite midterm victories; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to step down; three high-profile mass shootings in a matter of weeks; and more.
Ahead of the midterms, many were concerned that election workers and voters would face intimidation or threats at polling places. By and large, though, the push to recruit an “army” of poll watchers and observers didn’t amount to much.
How was it that this election, conducted in the midst of grave threats to our democracy, went so smoothly? In short, because many of the people who needed to step up did so.
Now, longer-term, consistent and adequate funding from the federal government is necessary to ensure election workers have the support they need to continually improve at their jobs without worrying for their own safety and that of their families.
It has simply become unthinkable for millions of white men to vote for a party they see—in crudely stereotypical and misogynous terms—as soft, weak and effeminate.
