An excerpt from Allison T. Butler's
The Judgment of Gender: How Women Are Centered and Silenced in Pop Culture , published March 8, 2026:\n
While Sinead O’Connor was roundly criticized for ripping up the picture of the pope, the passage of time has revealed: She was right.
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O’Connor was labeled a pop star, but she never saw herself that way. From Rememberings : “Everyone wants a pop star, see? But I’m a protest singer. I just had stuff to get off my chest. I had no desire for fame.”
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The post Sinead O’Connor Was Right: It’s Time to Revisit Some of Pop Culture’s Most Maligned Women appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Allison Butler","publishDate":"2026-03-24T16:19:02.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-85365207.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/24/sinead-oconnor-the-judgment-of-gender-how-women-are-centered-and-silenced-in-pop-culture/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-24T18:00:16.333Z"},{"id":"ds0yoy","archiveId":"p7or6m","slug":"thin-skin-the-perimenopause-cortisol-block-may-be-to-blame","title":"Thin Skin? The Perimenopause ‘Cortisol Block’ May Be To Blame","excerpt":"Like everything else, our skin grows as we age. What used to be plump and buoyant in our 20s naturally grows more thin and prone to dryness after 40. While […] The post Thin Skin? The Perimenopause ‘Cortisol Block’ May Be To Blame appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 24, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Like everything else, our skin grows as we age. What used to be plump and buoyant in our 20s naturally grows more thin and prone to dryness after 40. While aging is a beautiful process, the needs of your skin are also changing. By then, your tried-and-true skincare routine may suddenly stop “working” while your serums feel like they’re just sitting on top of your skin. But, not for the reason you may think.
“After 40, the biggest shift in skin health isn’t chronological age—it’s hormonal change,” author of Hormone Harmony Over 35 and naturo>lower your cortisol” and the haunting buzzword “cortisol face ” was being thrown around. However, contrary to popular belief, “cortisol is essential for survival,” Sands says. “It regulates metabolism, immune responses, blood sugar, and the body’s stress response.”
How does cortisol impact the skin?
As the body’s primary stress hormone, if your cortisol remains chronically elevated—think: perimenopausal sleep disruption, metabolic changes, and life stress—it can directly breakdown collagen and delay skin repair. According to Sands, studies show excess cortisol can inhibit the cells that produce collagen, accelerate collagen degradation, impair wound healing, and increase inflammation in the skin.
“This is why chronic stress is associated with dull skin, slower healing, and premature aging,” she says. But, it’s not just cortisol. “Hormones are a network. During perimenopause, declining estrogen can make the body more sensitive to cortisol, amplifying its effects,” she says. While collagen loss is real and a well-discussed conversation, hormonal imbalance (like elevated cortisol) is often secretly driving that loss.
What is a “cortisol block”?
“The phrase ‘cortisol block’ is more of a marketing term than a medical one,” she says. “You cannot completely block cortisol—and you wouldn’t want to.” Instead of trying to “block” cortisol, try practicing stress regulation through your life href=\"https://www.amazon.com/OBOGEE-Restore-Anti-Aging-Moisturizer-Ceramides/dp/B0CT4T7NDC?th=1\" target=\"_blank\"> amazon.com 48 Shop Now Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser cvs.com 12 Shop Now La Roche-Posay Toleriane Hydrating Gentle Face Cleanser cvs.com 9 Shop Now SkinCeuticals Triple Lipid Restore dermstore.com 155 Shop Now La Roche-Posay Mela B3 UV Daily Moisturizer Sunscreen SPF 30 ulta.com 37 Shop Now Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen SPF 50 Invisible Sun Protection ulta.com 38 Shop Now La Roche-Posay Hyalu B5 Pure Hyaluronic Acid Face Serum ulta.com 43 Shop Now Biologique Recherche Creme M.E.C. biologique-recherche.com 225 Shop Now TOPICS: perimenopause skin over 40
The post Thin Skin? The Perimenopause ‘Cortisol Block’ May Be To Blame appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-24T15:45:12.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/thin-skin-perimenopause-cortisol-block-skincare/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-24T18:00:21.986Z"},{"id":"b3wmbr","archiveId":"lrvr8p","slug":"justice-scalias-uncertain-legacy","title":"Justice Scalia’s uncertain legacy","excerpt":"Controlling Opinions is a recurring series by Richard Re that explores the interaction of law, ideology, and discretion at the Supreme Court. On the surface, Justice Antonin Scalia’s legacy has […] The post Justice Scalia’s uncertain legacy appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"
Controlling Opinions is a recurring series by Richard Re that explores the interaction of law, ideology, and discretion at the Supreme Court.
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On the surface, Justice Antonin Scalia’s legacy has never been more distinguished. He is regularly invoked by all sitting justices, as well as by advocates before the Supreme Court. Legal culture remains transformed by the legal movement he helped spearhead, as evidenced by the prevalence of textualism and originalism. And his most celebrated dissent, from Morrison v. Olson Trump v. Slaughter
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Yet the surface celebration masks a deeper ambivalence and even repudiation. For some of Scalia’s signature positions have been outright rejected by the justices who carry his banner. Take the demise of Chevron deference in Loper Bright v. Raimondo Chevron .” Yet every conservative justice repudiated Chevron . Or consider Employment Division v. Smith Smith has come in for sharp criticism from Justice Samuel Alito and been whittled away by cases like Mahmoud v. Taylor .
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And most recently, in Mirabelli v. Bonta deemed parents’ unenumerated rights unenforceable in federal court and generally repudiated substantive due process as illegitimate. In Obergefell v. Hodges really likes.” That last statement remains largely true, but now it is his followers who are making it so.
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Scalia’s core methodological commitments, moreover, are less settled than sometimes appears. One reason why Scalia is invoked so often is that liberal justices have been citing his restraint-oriented views. Loper Bright again offers an example, as do many cases bearing on textualism, such as West Virginia v. EPA
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In a tribute to the late justice, the great advocate Paul Clement recalled Scalia asking him “when I thought ‘the bad old days’ — when the Supreme Court routinely looked beyond the text of statutes — had ended?” Clement, who had himself clerked for the justice, responded, “The bad old days ended when you got on the court, Mr. Justice Scalia.” That anecdote says a lot about what old-fashioned textualism was about. Once Scalia was no longer on the court, however, a version of “the bad old days” came back. In recent years, the justices do “routinely” look “beyond the text of the statutes,” particularly when applying the major questions doctrine . Figuring out what that atextual principle means, and whether it applies, is regularly the central issue in cases on statutory interpretation.
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Just look at the recent tariff case, Learning Resources v. Trump Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States Learning Resources , some references to common sense arose in Justice Neil Gorsuch’s concurrence, which forcefully criticized Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s reliance on assertedly commonsensical interpretation. Yet even Gorsuch joined the chief justice’s opinion, which invoked “common sense” twice. Remarkably, every justice in Learning Resources authored or joined a “common sense” opinion.
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Originalism, too, is not quite turning out as expected. As Clement put it in his tribute, Scalia “advocated a focus on the original public meaning of the constitutional text.” Yet major rulings have not relied on the public meaning originalism that Scalia famously supported. Instead, some cases, like Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health United States v. Rahimi
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Other big decisions, like Mahmoud or United States v. Skrmetti Trump v. United States Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections Adrian Vermeule .
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Even some of Scalia’s vindications are tempered by retrenchment. While Slaughter is set to redeem the general theory of Scalia’s Morrison dissent, for instance, Trump v. Cook Cook involves the president’s attempt to terminate Federal Board Governor Lisa Cook for cause, based on alleged mortgage fraud. One might have thought, based on Scalia’s approach in Morrison , that the leaders of administrative agencies could be fired at will. As Scalia wrote in that case, the Article II vesting clause “does not mean some of the executive power” is vested in the president, “but all of the executive power”; thus, the president must have the power to fire, or otherwise control, all personnel who wield executive power. In the last year, however, the justices have signaled that the Fed is different. It seems that not all executive power was vested in the president after all, the Morrison dissent notwithstanding.
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Indeed, conservatives sometimes honor Scalia even as they qualify his views. At the Cook oral argument , for example, Justice Brett Kavanaugh invoked Scalia’s Morrison dissent in a way that limited its applicability. Kavanaugh’s remark started off by noting an amicus brief that “cites Justice Scalia’s dissent in Morrison , which is always a good place to look for wisdom.” Having thus tipped his hat to that canonical dissent, Kavanaugh pointed out “the concern that you’re putting all these resources” toward finding misconduct with the idea of “let’s find something, anything, about” an official to justify firing her. Cook’s attorney, the very same Paul Clement who had clerked for Scalia, seized on Kavanaugh’s suggestion, noting that “Justice Scalia creat[ed] this beautiful picture of some independent counsel with nothing to do but to find a crime on somebody.” In Morrison , however, Scalia had viewed the risk of such rogue prosecution as a reason for presidential control over federal prosecutors. By contrast, Kavanaugh and Clement used that part of Scalia’s reasoning to raise concerns about presidential control and to support independence for the Federal Reserve. Both the bench and the bar are sometimes prepared to honor Scalia’s views in the breach.
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***
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While Scalia was famous for staking out stark positions, his legacy was always both complex and evolving. Early in his career, he was more pluralist about the law’s sources and open about making methodological choices. For instance, he cast stare decisis as a policy-based “exception” to originalism, and he acknowledged that the text of Article III, including its “Cases” and “Controversies” language, did not actually support the doctrine of standing.
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Over time, he grew more woodenly formalist, consistent with the intellectual trends he helped establish. For example, he retracted the “faint-hearted” originalism that he advertised early in his tenure. Yet even in District of Columbia v. Heller necessary to secure Justice Anthony Kennedy’s vote. Today, that apparent concession to non-originalist judging has become a cornerstone of Second Amendment doctrine.
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Toward the end of his storied career, the forces of legal realignment began to work on Scalia. In other words, the constraining views that made sense when he was a visionary dissenter did not have the same appeal once he and other strong conservatives had grown accustomed to commanding the judicial power. Scalia started to scale back on his career-long support for deference to agencies, including by casting doubt on Auer deferenceeven though that doctrine is named for an opinion he had authored. He also began to find ways for the free exercise clause to support greater accommodations for religious belief in cases like Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA
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Scalia’s successors sometimes acknowledge his pivots and cast them in a favorable light. In Loper Bright , Gorsuch suggested it was a sign of Scalia’s open-mindedness that, during the twilight of his career, he began to back away from his long-held support for Chevron deference. As Gorsuch put it, “the Justice began to express doubts over the very project that he had worked to build.” So “[i]f Chevron ’s ascent is a testament to the Justice’s ingenuity,” Gorsuch reasoned, “its demise is an even greater tribute to his humility.” Gorsuch is surely correct that judges should be open to reconsidering their beliefs in light of new evidence or argument. But both Scalia’s earlier views and his later, nascent ones tracked the interests of conservative political interests at those respective times. If Scalia had actually thrown overboard his decades of support for Chevron deference, that result would have diminished his legacy by striking at its core: a demand for intellectual integrity, independent of party politics. A better basis for praising Scalia is that he was slow to adopt the latest interpretive fashions.
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In hindsight, then, it may be doubly fateful that Scalia passed away when he did. Not only did that timing create an opportunity for political mobilization around conservatism, leading to President Donald Trump’s first election and a supermajority conservative court, but it also prevented Scalia from pivoting any further in light of changing political trends. As a result, his jurisprudence today stands on a stronger, more coherent footing.
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In another sense, however, Scalia’s legacy has suffered a misfortune. Imagine for a moment that Hillary Clinton had won the presidency in 2016 and, as a result, the Supreme Court had become decidedly liberal for the next generation. In that alternate universe, conservatives would still be able to point to Scalia as a visionary. Untested by success, Scalia’s views on textualism, originalism, agency deference, religious exemptions, executive unitarianism, and all the rest would remain pristine. Admirers might continue to extol his unrealized project. In fact, however, Scalia’s own disciples are the ones who are quietly altering, ignoring, or repudiating many of his views. And if even the persons most committed to the justice cannot quite bring themselves to adhere to his foundational ideas, then one must wonder about the ideas themselves.
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The post Justice Scalia’s uncertain legacy appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Richard Re","publishDate":"2026-03-24T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/sSC140326_Scalia.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/justice-scalias-uncertain-legacy/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-24T18:00:28.234Z"},{"id":"b14kzo","archiveId":"9samda","slug":"dating-decoded-from-viral-meme-to-relationship-trendthe-rise-of-6-7-dating","title":"Dating Decoded: From Viral Meme To Relationship Trend—The Rise Of ‘6-7’ Dating","excerpt":"If you haven’t heard, there’s a new trend on the dating scene: the 6-7 trend. It just happens to share a name with the Gen Alpha “6-7” call-and-hand-gesture. But unlike […] The post Dating Decoded: From Viral Meme To Relationship Trend—The Rise Of ‘6-7’ Dating appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Ambreia Meadows-Fernandez ·
Updated March 24, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
If you haven’t heard, there’s a ’10-out-of-10′ fantasy culture . That is genuinely healthy reframing.”
This reveals something important about consistency in what we seek from partners across generations. “What human beings want in a partner hasn’t changed,” she says. “What changes is our capacity to receive it, and the cultural conditions that either support or undermine our ability to build it.”
The trend’s positives encourage people to look for a partner beyond skin deep — a reminder that quality mates offer more than physical attraction and sparks. However, critics worry it places people in binary either-or categories: hot or dependable, very attractive or emotionally available, exciting or stable. As one critic noted, it implies people behave well only because they aren’t desirable enough to get away with bad behavior.
What does that mean for Millennial and Gen X daters? Though created with Gen Z in mind, the 6-7 dating mindset can absolutely benefit everyone, especially those tired of “10-out-of-10 fantasy” culture but still serious about a long-term partnership. “The key is using it as a grounding framework for healthy expectations, not as another rigid checklist or way to settle,” she explains.
To see the biggest benefits, we have to go in with the right mindset. Del Rosario says it’s important not to confuse “6–7” with settling. “The frame is about re-centering on character and compatibility, not convincing yourself to accept disrespect, instability, or misaligned life goals,” she says.
Watching for trauma and fear masquerading as “standards” is a must. Del Rosario says many over-30 daters use therapeutic language to avoid vulnerability, and it’s important to notice if you’re rejecting good partners because you’re afraid, not because they are unfit. “We are the first generation with widespread access to therapy and psychological frameworks. But awareness of one’s wounds is not the same as healing them,” she explains. “Many daters over 30 use therapy-speak to explain why they can’t commit rather than using therapeutic tools to actually become ready.”
It’s also essential to protect against disposability thinking. “Apps can train people to treat partners as replaceable,” she says. “Consciously resist the urge to discard someone at the first inconvenience if core values and safety are present.”
No dating trend is one-size-fits-all, and being self-aware about your meaningful needs and relationship preferences — not superficial ones — helps prevent self-doubt and insecurity so you don’t feel like you’re settling. This is especially important as myths about Black women — that we’re too selective, less desirable than other races, or must be the “strong Black woman” — can quietly influence our sense of self-worth and relationship expectations. “For Black women especially, prioritize partners who respect your experiences and are willing to co-labor with you against the unique pressures you face,” she says.
Millennials dating after 30 or with children often sense something is “off” compared to their parents’ era. Our parents dated in a climate shaped by proximity, community, and predictability, meaning meeting someone at church, work, or through family, with commitment as the default. Today’s dating landscape requires more intentional navigation.
That navigation works best when rooted in values, not fear. “Fear-based dating means moving too fast out of fear of loss; playing games to avoid looking available; accepting less than you deserve to avoid being alone; hiding vulnerability due to past hurt; or overgiving to earn love instead of feeling lovable,” Del Rosario explains. Setting boundaries from values sounds like: ‘I don’t accept inconsistent communication because I value reliability,’ rather than ‘I’m not texting first so I don’t seem desperate.’ This helps interrupt repeating old patterns.
Ultimately, like with all dating supports, 6-7’s goal isn’t perfection — it’s helping others establish healthy relationships with secure attachment, where daters feel comfortable with both intimacy and independence.
TOPICS:
dating The post Dating Decoded: From Viral Meme To Relationship Trend—The Rise Of ‘6-7’ Dating appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Victoria Uwumarogie","publishDate":"2026-03-24T13:52:07.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/love/6-7-dating-trend/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-24T18:00:21.986Z"},{"id":"d23z9t","archiveId":"imykhf","slug":"contraception-services-dropped-after-defunding-provision-hit-clinics","title":"Contraception Services Dropped After ‘Defunding’ Provision Hit Clinics","excerpt":"Planned Parenthood closed 20 clinics in the months since the July 2025 budget reconciliation bill cut off Medicaid funding to some reproductive health-care clinics. The post Contraception Services Dropped After ‘Defunding’ Provision Hit Clinics appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
Visits for contraception and cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics have dropped by double-digits after Congress passed a bill cutting off Medicaid funding to certain reproductive health-care providers last year, according to a new Democratic congressional report .
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Between July 1 and the end of December, the report said emergency contraception distribution fell 10 percent, oral contraception distribution fell 27 percent, and IUD insertions fell 10 percent.
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Republican members of the House and Senate passed a sweeping budget reconciliation bill in July that included a one-year provision barring clinics from receiving federal Medicaid reimbursement if they offered abortion services and billed Medicaid more than $800,000 in fiscal year 2023. The rule largely affected Planned Parenthood because of the high dollar amount, but some large independent clinics were also affected, such as Maine Family Planning and Health Imperatives in Massachusetts.
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Since July, Planned Parenthood reported 20 clinics were forced to close because of the cuts. That was in addition to numerous clinics that had to close after the loss of Title X funds and other factors, bringing the total to 51 last year. The report said nearly 75 percent of those closures were in rural, medically underserved areas. About half were in the Midwest, including Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, affecting about 25,000 patients.
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“Almost all, 48 of 51, that closed between January and December offered primary care, and nearly half were in primary care shortage areas,” the report said.
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In recent months, the decline in services grew. The report also notes there were 20 percent fewer visits for birth control pills in November, and a drop of 36 percent for intrauterine devices in December, the steepest decline out of all services measured. Some clinics have reported dropping their IUD offerings because it is a costly birth control device to obtain that was normally covered by Medicaid, but it is also the most popular and preferred form of birth control.
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The number of visits for breast cancer screening exams fell by 25 percent in December, according to the report, and testing for sexually transmitted infections fell 11 percent in November, both of which could result in delayed treatment that increases overall health-care costs.
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Twelve states have committed their own funding to help address the gap from federal Medicaid cuts, amounting to about $300 million, according to the report. That includes California , Colorado, Connecticut , Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine , Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico , New York, Oregon , and Washington . But advocates for Planned Parenthood say it still leaves a significant shortfall, because health centers nationwide provided an estimated $700 million in care annually to Medicaid patients before the law went into effect.
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U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat who represents Oregon and a ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said at the March 19 press conference that he will vigorously oppose any reconciliation efforts to make the cuts permanent.
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“We’re here to tell people who are opposing access to health care for women, no way. It’s not going to happen on my watch at the Finance Committee, period. Not going to happen,” Wyden said.
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Federal law already prohibits providers from using federal dollars to pay for abortion care, with limited exceptions. Medicaid dollars paid for all of the other types of care that clinics provide, including contraception, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, and screenings for breast and cervical cancer. Maine Family Planning also provided primary care services to about 1,000 patients statewide, but had to halt that program in October because of the cuts.
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“The report makes clear that it actually costs money to see all these Planned Parenthood offices or providers close, and once they’re closed, it’s not as though you can just bring them back up,” said U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat who represents Hawaii, at a news conference on March 19, 2026. “But once they’re closed, people still need this kind of care, and so they’re going to go to other providers, or they will go without—which results in undiagnosed illnesses and health-care needs.”
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Planned Parenthood Federation of America and two of its affiliates sued to block the law, but the effort was unsuccessful. Republicans in Congress have signaled a goal of extending the cuts and making them permanent, as outlined in the Republican Study Committee’s framework for the next budget reconciliation bill , released in January.
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A coalition of major anti-abortion advocacy organizations, including Live Action, Heritage Action, National Right to Life, and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, signed a letter sent to House Republican leadership urging them to immediately begin the reconciliation process and make the cuts permanent.
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“Since the enactment of the 2025 reconciliation law, multiple abortion businesses have already closed facilities or scaled back operations, demonstrating the measurable impact of the defunding provision,” the letter said.
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This article was republished from News From the States , part of States Newsroom. Read the original story by Kelcie Moseley-Morris here .
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The post Contraception Services Dropped After ‘Defunding’ Provision Hit Clinics appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-24T12:30:17.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Contraception-calendar.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/24/contraception-services-dropped-after-defunding-provision-hit-clinics/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-24T18:00:15.636Z"},{"id":"ku7guv","archiveId":"td433p","slug":"op-ed-black-women-are-starting-more-businesses-than-anyone-else-so-why-arent-they-scaling","title":"OP-ED: Black Women Are Starting More Businesses Than Anyone Else. So Why Aren’t They Scaling?","excerpt":"Black women are consistently reported as the largest group of founders starting or running small businesses. Yet only a small fraction of those businesses scale into employer firms and build […] The post OP-ED: Black Women Are Starting More Businesses Than Anyone Else.","content":"
By
Dr. Tiffany Bussey ·
Updated March 22, 2026 Getting your
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Black women are consistently reported as the largest group of founders starting or running small businesses. Yet only a small fraction of those businesses scale into employer firms and build sustainable wealth. It cannot be said that this is due to a lack of ambition, innovation or work ethic. Rather, it is a systemic barrier known as the “concrete ceiling .”
The concrete ceiling is a “unique, compounded barrier that women of color face.” It is “much tougher to break than glass” and is “also impossible to see through.” Unable to advance in corporate America, many Black women turn to entrepreneurship for stability and independence.
In the first half of 2025, nearly 300,000 Black women exited the U.S. labor force. This wave of departures was attributed to policy changes in both the public and private sectors, which largely affected the roles they held. In response to the sudden job loss, many Black women launched small businesses at an overwhelming rate. But starting a business and scaling one are two very different challenges.
Despite the surge in Black women launching small businesses, they struggle to scale their businesses into employer firms and generate annual revenue comparable to that of their counterparts. In 2025, Black women-owned employer firms had the lowest average revenue at $650,000, as reported in the 2026 Wells Fargo Impact of Women-Owned Businesses report (IWOB).
The report points out that Black women-owned employers generate lower revenue because they are unable to scale their businesses into employer firms. Their inability to scale is due to systemic barriers, including unequal access to capital, differences in industry concentration and weaker professional networks.
Without the infrastructure necessary to grow, too many promising ventures remain small, undercapitalized, and overextended. To reduce or eliminate these challenges, business support organizations (BSOs) such as incubators, accelerators, and entrepreneurship centers have established collaborative ecosystems that introduce initiatives to provide technical assistance, mentorship and equitable access to capital.
The Morehouse Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center (MIEC) in Atlanta offers one example of how these ecosystems can work in practice. For more than two decades, MIEC has been part of a collaborative, data-driven ecosystem of BSOs that equip adult and student founders with vital resources and knowledge to scale their businesses into employer firms.
Recognizing that isolated programs are not enough, in 2023, the MIEC launched an 18-month community engagement research initiative involving more than 60 Atlanta-based business support organizations, entrepreneurs and civic partners. The Building Black Business Report 2024 is the result of that initiative. The report highlights a critical insight. Capital may start businesses, but collaboration sustains them.
The research also uncovered a significant operational gap. Seventy-two percent of the surveyed firms in the report lacked essential business operations systems, including accounting infrastructure, human resources processes and digital tools. Without these foundations, even strong businesses struggle to scale. Shared service delivery models, pooled infrastructure and coordinated mentorship can bridge these gaps, ensuring entrepreneurs spend less time struggling with back-office burdens and more time building their businesses.
To strengthen the small business ecosystem nationwide, MIEC calls on peer BSOs and community partners to adopt principles that foster equity and inclusion, resilient networking, financial and digital acuity and collaborative, centralized resources.
To help Black women grow employer firms, BSOs must build transparent support systems that foster fluency in capital management and technology adoption, create opportunities for long-term peer learning beyond one-time initiatives, and partner to eliminate redundancy and create seamless pathways for founders support. These ecosystem strategies mark a paradigm shift in supporting entrepreneurship. Collaborative networks build collective strength, resilience and innovation.
Black women entrepreneurs are among the fastest-growing business owners, generating jobs and strengthening communities. Yet growth will remain limited if structural barriers persist. Will our systems evolve to support their success?
Breaking the concrete ceiling requires coordinated investment, collaboration, and commitment to building growth infrastructure—far beyond individual effort.
When that happens, the impact will extend far beyond individual founders. It will strengthen communities, expand opportunity, and reshape what entrepreneurship in America can look like.
Dr. Tiffany Bussey is the Founding Executive Director of the Morehouse Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center (MIEC) in Atlanta, Georgia. For over two decades, she has led research and initiatives advancing minority entrepreneurship, including the 2024 Building Black Business Report, a national study on ecosystem collaboration and small business growth.
The post OP-ED: Black Women Are Starting More Businesses Than Anyone Else. So Why Aren’t They Scaling? appeared first on Essence .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-24T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2252074347-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/black-women-entrepreneurs-scaling-gap/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-24T12:00:22.210Z"},{"id":"ytjvl9","archiveId":"9cl4b3","slug":"not-so-fast-ask-these-5-questions-before-signing-any-job-offer-in-2026","title":"Not So Fast! Ask These 5 Questions Before Signing Any Job Offer In 2026","excerpt":"Once you’ve got an offer letter that’s landed on your proverbial desk — congratulations! — it’s not time to celebrate fully. It’s time to ask questions and negotiate. It’s always […] The post Not So Fast! Ask These 5 Questions Before Signing Any Job Offer In 2026 appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Andrea Bossi ·
Updated March 22, 2026 Getting your
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Once you’ve got an offer letter that’s landed on your proverbial desk — congratulations! — it’s not time to celebrate fully. It’s time to ask questions and negotiate.
It’s always exciting to make it through several rounds of interviews and, possibly, assignments and in-person work trials. The moment an offer letter comes through is cathartic, especially during 2026 when it’s particularly challenging to land a job. But it’s worth asking a few questions before signing anything, including for the full written offer if it was initially verbal.
When an employer or recruiter sends an offer letter through, there are usually negotiable terms. Many expect to go through at least one round of negotiating, which makes your first response to the offer letter crucial. You have leverage, too. Namely, the organization has devoted time and resources to recruiting you. While there are horror stories of jobs pulling back offers, don’t be afraid to ask questions and not accept the first offer… unless it’s unimaginable.
How diligently you approach a job offer is, at the end of the day, a reflection of the quality of work you might bring to your future team. Below, five questions to ask your potential future employer before signing any offer letter in 2026.
More Time
When an offer letter comes through, before negotiating even comes, make sure you have enough time in the first place. Make sure you get, in writing, the deadline for you to accept the offer and the day it was received. Then, ask for more time if you need it, which also helps the recruiter understand that negotiations and questions may be on the horizon.
Questions About the Job Itself
As much as you might have talked about the job throughout the interview process, make sure you ask any remaining questions once there’s an official offer letter. Find out if there are immediate priorities, how your growth and success will be measured, and what you can expect your first days to look like.
In-Person Expectations
More and more companies are asking their employees to come into the office full-time again, or at least on a more in-person-skewed hybrid schedule. Some companies might have even switched throughout your interview process. That’s why it’s key to be absolutely clear during the offer letter stage what’s expected of you. Ask what the policy is on remote work, being hybrid, or going in full-time. This can be a factor in commuting time and flexibility, especially key for those with families, for example.
Before accepting, make sure that schedule works for you, and if it’s not ideal, ask if it’s open to discussion.
Traveling for Work
It’s important to know how much your job will require you to plan , tailored to you, on the salary you’re aiming for and why. Think about what benefits are most aligned with what you need, and ask for what hasn’t yet been offered.
The post Not So Fast! Ask These 5 Questions Before Signing Any Job Offer In 2026 appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-24T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/questions-to-ask-before-signing-job-offer/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-24T12:00:22.210Z"},{"id":"1e96pg","archiveId":"r0jwvo","slug":"she-followed-a-civil-rights-hero-to-alabama-it-shaped-her-path-to-power","title":"She followed a civil rights hero to Alabama. It shaped her path to power.","excerpt":"MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA — More than 30 years apart, two women separately set forth on long drives south to Alabama. Their backgrounds were different, their mission the same: to join an existential fight for the soul of American democracy.","content":"
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA — More than 30 years apart, two women separately set forth on long drives south to Alabama. Their backgrounds were different, their mission the same: to join an existential fight for the soul of American democracy.
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Viola Gregg Liuzzo, a White 39-year-old married mother of five from Detroit, went first. In 1965, she was appalled by images from Bloody Sunday, when state troopers tear-gassed and brutalized voting rights activists who were attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge on a march from Selma to Montgomery. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis asked Americans to come to Selma to join them for their third try in March, Liuzzo answered the call.
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Jocelyn Benson, a 19-year-old inspired by Liuzzo’s story, made the same journey in 1997. Right out of college, she worked as a volunteer researcher and undercover investigator at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the nonprofit legal and advocacy organization that researches white supremacists and far-right hate groups.
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Benson’s time in Alabama helped set her on course to effect change by running for political office. After being elected to two terms as Michigan’s secretary of state, the state’s chief election official, she’s now the Democratic front-runner for the open governor’s race, set to be among the most competitive and consequential in the nation.
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“I left this experience thinking my contribution to the work would be making sure I was a public servant,” Benson recalled in an interview outside the Civil Rights Memorial at the SPLC’s headquarters in Montgomery, where she got her start nearly 30 years ago.
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“That’s all I’ve ever wanted to be, alongside being someone who would have the courage of those who were on the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge,” she added.
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Anthony Liuzzo Jr., Viola’s son, remembers her as a “strong, ferocious woman” strongly committed to social justice and to her community. She couldn’t attend the 1963 March on Washington, but she heeded King’s call for Americans to drive with their headlights on to show solidarity and painted: “My lights are on in support of Dr. King and his march on Washington” on her car with shoe polish, he recalled. She also opened up their family’s home to people experiencing homelessness and addiction and offered them clean clothes, meals and tried to get them to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
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“Inevitably, a lot of them would rip us off. But she didn’t care,” he said. “She said, ‘If I can get one, give them help, and it makes a difference in their life, then I’ll have succeeded.’”
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On March 25, 1965, Liuzzo walked into Montgomery as part of the historic, successful four-day march for voting rights from Selma that ended at the Alabama state capitol, where Dr. King addressed the then-25,000-person crowd.
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Civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo poses with her children in an undated family portrait. Liuzzo, a Detroit mother of five, traveled to Alabama in 1965 to support the Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches.\n (Bettman Archive/Getty Images) \n\n\n\n
After the march ended, she offered to shuttle marchers and volunteers back to Selma in the 1963 Oldsmobile she had driven 14 hours from Detroit. She and a fellow volunteer, a young Black man named Leroy Moton, were stopped at a red light driving on Route 80 in Lowndes County when four Ku Klux Klan members in another car spotted them. They proceeded to chase Liuzzo, eventually overtaking her car and fatally shooting her.
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Moton pretended to be unconscious and later testified against the men, three of whom were convicted of federal conspiracy to intimidate African Americans and were sentenced to prison.
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Liuzzo holds a unique place in history as a White woman who was killed during the Civil Rights Movement.
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After Benson first learned of Liuzzo’s story as a student studying political science at Wellesley College in the late 1990s, she traveled to Montgomery during the spring break of her junior year to visit the SPLC and the Civil Rights Memorial.
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She graduated early, then borrowed her grandparents’ 1985 Buick and drove to Montgomery, she writes in her 2025 memoir “A Purposeful Warrior.” There, she waited tables at an Italian restaurant to pay her bills during her unpaid internship at the SPLC.
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The car driven by Viola Liuzzo sits on the roadside in Alabama on March 31, 1965, after she was fatally shot by Ku Klux Klan members while transporting fellow voting rights activists following the Selma to Montgomery march.\n (Daily Express/Pictorial Parade/Archive Photos/Getty Images) \n\n\n\n
Benson researched neo-Nazi and far-right hate groups, including posing as a freelance journalist to uncover and expose the plans of white supremacist leaders and groups. In her first undercover assignment, she went to South Carolina to meet with and write a report on neo-Nazi leader Davis Wolfgang Hawke. The work could be scary, but she felt grounded in history.
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Benson views it as her life’s mission to carry on the work that Liuzzo would have continued had she lived and gone back to Detroit.
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Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson visits the memorial to Viola Liuzzo in Lowndesboro, Alabama, on March 8, 2026.\n (Courtesy of Jocelyn Benson for Governor) \n\n\n\n
“I wanted to learn from everyone who was actively trying to answer this question of, ‘What is the unfinished work of the Civil Rights Movement today?’” Benson said. “And that was 30 years after Selma when I was here. So now here we are, over 60 years later, still trying to pick up that baton and say, ‘How can I honor all the lives that were lost in this work by continuing the work they would have done had they lived?’”
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After two years at the SPLC, Benson continued her studies as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University and earned her law degree from Harvard Law School. A law clerkship for 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Damon Keith, a prominent Black jurist and ardent defender of civil rights, brought her to Detroit. Benson began teaching law at Wayne State University Law School at 27 and was appointed as the law school’s dean at 36, making her the youngest woman to serve as dean of an accredited law school in the history of the United States.
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She worked to elevate Liuzzo’s legacy at Wayne State, where Liuzzo had been a part-time nursing student. Anthony Liuzzo Jr., who was 10 when his mother died, met Benson for the first time in 2015, when the school awarded Liuzzo an honorary doctor of laws degree and dedicated a memorial tree and plaque in her honor.
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“I know she had worked with the Southern Poverty Law Center, but I had never met her,” Anthony Liuzzo Jr. said in an interview. “And I mean, right from the start, I thought, ‘Wow, she’s a firecracker.’ Very smart, intelligent, and just cared about people. You could tell that.”
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And every year, Benson returns to Montgomery and Selma for the Selma Jubilee weekend marking the anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
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The 19th joined Benson and a group of seven elected officials from Michigan as they visited historic landmarks in Montgomery, marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and paid their respects at a memorial to Liuzzo on the highway where she was killed.
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This year, the trip was particularly resonant for Benson as she takes on her biggest political challenge yet.
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“I do think this will be the most watched governor’s race in the nation because of the stakes of play,” Benson said. “But I’m ready for that spotlight as well, because I’ve been under that spotlight as secretary of state.”
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Prior to the 2020 election, secretaries of state were largely under-the-radar figures whose work administering elections attracted little public scrutiny. But all that changed soon after Benson was first elected in 2018.
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She found herself facing down violence and threats when she defended the integrity of the 2020 election against President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud and attempts to overturn his election loss in Michigan and other key battleground states. Months of attacks from Trump and his supporters culminated in angry, armed protesters showing up at her home , where she was inside with her young son, in December 2020.
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“I had this moment where I was like, ‘Oh, this is part of that work, too.’ You have to be prepared to have the moral courage to not run when it gets particularly scary, when your life is threatened,” Benson recalled. “And that, and being here, in many ways, prepared me to walk through the fire, especially in the Trump era.”
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Jack Schlossberg and Ambassador Caroline Kennedy present Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2022.\n (JFK Library Foundation) \n\n\n\n
She would later be honored with a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award, and in 2023, was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by then-President Joe Biden. Many Democrats and civil rights advocates see strong parallels between the world the Civil Rights Movement fought against and life under the second Trump administration.
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The Voting Rights Act of 1965, the crowning achievement of those who marched from Selma to Montgomery, is increasingly under threat . Ahead of the 2026 midterms, the Trump administration has taken extraordinary steps to cast doubt on election results . Protests over the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement and mass deportations, and the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal immigration officials in Minneapolis, have dominated the news.
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“It’s really sad to me and to my whole family that we see everything that my mother fought and died for being stripped away, and not even a little at a time,” Anthony Liuzzo Jr. said. “By just leaps and bounds, they’re just stripping everything away.”
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Benson planned this year’s trip to Alabama with Democratic state Rep. Morgan Foreman, who grew up steeped in the history of the Civil Rights Movement from her older family members, some of whom had lived in the South at the time.
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“Every single thing is at stake in Michigan. And I might sound dramatic when I say this, but the soul of our nation is at stake in Michigan right now,” said Foreman, who has endorsed Benson. “We know that the Trump administration, MAGA, they’re putting a lot of energy into Michigan right now to make it more purple, to try to turn it red, and we just cannot let that happen.”
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Trump narrowly carried Michigan by 1.4 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election, as Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin won a close Senate race by fewer than 20,000 votes. Michigan will again be at the center of the political universe yet again in 2026, with an open U.S. Senate seat , three top statewide executive offices, multiple competitive U.S. House seats and both chambers of the divided state legislature all up for grabs.
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“In poker, there’s a part of the game when all chips are pushed in, and everything’s on the line,” said Marcus Muhammad, the mayor of Benton Harbor and the president of the Black Mayors of Michigan, which recently endorsed Benson. “I think that’s the political landscape and picture that we’re looking at in 2026.”
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Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, state Rep. Morgan Foreman and local official Aidan Sova visit a statue of Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 7, 2026. (Courtesy of Jocelyn Benson for Governor) \n\n\n\n
Benson is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination: her main opponent is Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson after Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist dropped out of the governor’s race and opted to run to replace her as secretary of state. A crowded field of Republican candidates, including Rep. John James, state Sen. Aric Nesbitt and former state Attorney General Mike Cox are running in the GOP primary, set for August 4th.
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While their primary has meant that her potential general election opponents have not aimed much fire at her yet, Republicans in the state and nationally have continued to scrutinize Benson’s handling of elections. Michigan is one of several states that successfully rebuffed the Trump administration’s requests to turn over sensitive voter data and last year, some Republicans asked the Trump administration to take over Michigan’s 2026 elections because Benson is running for governor while secretary of state.
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Benson, who was also on the ballot statewide in 2022, said her team has a “firewall” in place to avoid any potential conflicts of interest and she has full confidence in the state’s local election officials. “I will not be the face of election administrators in Michigan this cycle,” she said.
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In a twist that could throw a wrench into the race, former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who left the Democratic Party after the 2024 election, is running as an independent candidate. Though Duggan has been vocally criticizing the Democratic Party in his campaign, his bid threatens to siphon votes from the Democratic nominee. On the campaign trail, Duggan has slammed Democrats over the state’s sliding education performance and lawmakers’ legislative priorities in Lansing as Democrats, including state party chair Curtis Hertel, have excoriated his bid as a “self-serving ego trip on a road to nowhere.”
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Black voters are critical to the electorate in Michigan, especially in Detroit and its surrounding suburban counties. A drop in support for Democrats among some voters of color, especially young Black men and Latinos, contributed to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 loss to Trump in Michigan and other key battleground states.
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Jocelyn Benson and Aidan Sova stand at the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 7, 2026. Benson first visited the site as a college student, an experience she says helped shape her commitment to public service. (Courtesy of Jocelyn Benson for Governor) \n\n\n\n
Foreman said she was “very moved” by Benson’s affinity for the history of the South.
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“I’m just really appreciative of her time and her love for this country and her love for the movement, because the movement never stopped. It’s changed. It looks different, but it hasn’t stopped at all,” Foreman added.
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As governor of Michigan, Benson would again be in a position to push back on any Trump-led efforts to interfere with and subvert the 2028 presidential election. Being a prominent swing-state governor would also give her a larger platform to restore and reshape the Democratic Party’s brand in the lead-up to the 2028 presidential contest.
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“To me, this work is not just the unfinished work of the Civil Rights Movement,” she said. “It’s the required work of state leaders right now to see the dysfunction in the broken system that is recklessly leading our nation and offer an alternative vision for what government can be, an entity that actually improves your life, that shows up when you need it, and then gets out of the way when you don’t.”
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Benson and seven elected officials from Michigan were among the hundreds of Democratic elected officials and civil rights activists who descended on Selma for the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march. But there was one stop they needed to make first.
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Route 80 cuts through the rolling green hills and rural farmlands between Selma and Montgomery. On the eastbound side of the highway, next to a Methodist chapel, is a memorial: a headstone on a small brick patio that reads: “In memory of our sister Viola Liuzzo, who gave her life in the struggle for the right to vote.”
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A commemorative Michigan license plate signed by Jocelyn Benson and state lawmakers rests at the Viola Liuzzo memorial in Lowndesboro, Alabama, on March 8, 2026.\n (Courtesy of Jocelyn Benson for Governor) \n\n\n\n
When Benson was elected as secretary of state, which oversees motor vehicle services in Michigan, she reissued the vintage navy blue and gold plate with the tagline “Water-Winter Wonderland,” like the one that was on Liuzzo’s car.
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Benson’s office produced a special commemorative edition with Liuzzo’s plate number, which she gave to her family. “I thought she hit a home run with that,” Anthony Liuzzo Jr. said. “It was such an honor to have that done.” Benson brought another plate with her to Alabama for her and the group of lawmakers to sign and leave at Liuzzo’s memorial, a physical token of her impact.
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Anthony Liuzzo Jr. said his mother’s legacy lives on through the lives she’s shaped, Benson’s and those of the many Americans who have reached out to him over the years.
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“I get emails and I get things through Facebook messages, saying, ‘Just wanted to let you know how your mother changed my life. I didn’t know about her, but after I found out, it just changed my life,’” he said. “And no matter what they do, they can’t kill what she was and what she lived and died for.”
","category":"politics","author":"Grace Panetta","publishDate":"2026-03-24T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jocelyn_benson_02.jpg?w=796","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/jocelyn-benson-michigan-viola-liuzzo-civil-rights/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-24T12:00:19.898Z"},{"id":"c29bct","archiveId":"yly9y5","slug":"court-reverses-ruling-on-qualified-immunity-denies-review-of-death-row-case-and-first-amendment-chal","title":"Court reverses ruling on qualified immunity, denies review of death-row case and First Amendment challenge by citizen journalist","excerpt":"In a list of orders released on Monday morning, the Supreme Court reversed a ruling by a federal appeals court, holding that a Vermont police officer is entitled to qualified […] The post Court reverses ruling on qualified immunity, denies review of death-row case and First Amendment challenge by ci...","content":"
In a list of orders released on Monday morning, the Supreme Court reversed a ruling by a federal appeals court, holding that a Vermont police officer is entitled to qualified immunity from a lawsuit brought by a nonviolent protester who was injured during a sit-in at the state’s capitol. The justices also denied review in the case of a Texas man on death row seeking DNA testing that he says could prove his innocence. The court’s three Democratic appointees dissented in both cases. One of those justices, Sonia Sotomayor, also dissented from the denial of review in the case of a Texas journalist who was arrested, Sotomayor wrote, “for doing something journalists do every day: posing questions to a public official.”
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The justices did not act on several high-profile petitions for review that they have repeatedly considered at their private conferences, including petitions challenging state bans on assault rifles and large-capacity magazines, a Fourth Amendment case involving a police officer’s justification to stop a car, and the FBI’s efforts to invoke the state-secrets privilege.
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The court summarily reversed a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in the case of Jacob Zorn , a Vermont detective and a defendant in a lawsuit alleging that he used excessive force when he arrested Shela Linton during a 2015 demonstration inside the Vermont State House.
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A federal district court in Vermont determined that Zorn was entitled to immunity, but the 2nd Circuit reversed that ruling. It reasoned that its 2004 decision in a case involving the arrest of anti-abortion protesters at a women’s health center in Connecticut “clearly establish[ed]” that the tactics that Zorn had used in arresting Linton “—such as a rear-wristlock—on a protestor who is passively resisting arrest constitutes excessive force and is therefore violative of that arrestee’s Fourth Amendment rights.” Therefore, the court of appeals concluded, law-enforcement officials like Zorn “were or should have been on notice on January 8, 2015 that they could be held personally liable for such conduct.”
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Zorn, represented by the state of Vermont, came to the Supreme Court in September, asking the justices to review the 2nd Circuit’s qualified immunity ruling.
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After considering the case at nine conferences, the justices reversed the 2nd Circuit’s decision in a six-page, unsigned opinion . Government officials, the majority explained, are entitled to qualified immunity “unless they could have ‘read’ the relevant” cases governing their behavior before acting “and ‘know[n]’ that it proscribed their specific conduct.” But the 2004 case on which the court of appeals relied, the majority said, “did not clearly establish that Zorn’s specific conduct violated the Fourth Amendment.” In fact, the majority stressed, the 2004 case “did not hold that any of” the police officers’ actions in that case “violated the Fourth Amendment, let alone all of them,” instead sending the case back to the lower court for a jury to consider the plaintiffs’ claims.
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In a nine-page dissent, Sotomayor – joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – argued that the 2nd Circuit’s decision was not so demonstrably wrong that it met the high bar necessary for the Supreme Court to reverse it without additional briefing and oral argument. Instead, Sotomayor wrote, the majority “simply disagrees with how the Second Circuit applied a correctly stated legal standard … to this particular set of facts.” Sotomayor also characterized the ruling as a “resurgence and perpetuation of” the Supreme Court’s “‘one-sided approach to qualified immunity’ that ‘transforms the doctrine into an absolute shield for law enforcement officers, gutting the deterrent effect of the Fourth Amendment.’”
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Nearly three years ago, the Supreme Court revived the case of Rodney Reed, who is on death row in Texas for the 1996 rape and murder of Stacy Stites. Reed has long insisted that he did not kill Stites but instead was in a secret relationship with her. Reed has pointed the finger at Stites’ fiancé – a white police officer who, he suggests, killed her after learning of her relationship with Reed, who is Black.
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Reed sought to have several pieces of evidence found from the crime scene and Stites’ truck tested for DNA, but his efforts to do so in the state courts were unsuccessful, as were his efforts in the federal courts. By a vote of 6-3, the justices in April 2023 reversed a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit holding that Reed was too late in challenging the Texas law governing DNA testing.
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Reed’s case went back to the 5th Circuit, which once again ruled for the state. A three-judge panel held that Reed had “not shown that Texas’s scheme is unfair or unjust in such a way that it is fundamentally inadequate to vindicate the substantive right to postconviction DNA testing that it confers upon him.” In particular, the court of appeals rejected (among other things) Reed’s argument that a rule, imposed by the Texas state courts, barring DNA testing of evidence that may have been contaminated violates a defendant’s right to due process.
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Reed returned to the Supreme Court in June, asking the justices to take up his case. “Despite compelling evidence of Reed’s innocence,” he wrote , “District Attorney Bryan Goertz refuses to DNA-test the murder weapon —the webbed belt used to strangle Stites.” And the non-contamination rule, Reed argued, “rests on the scientifically incorrect assumption that contaminated evidence cannot yield reliable DNA-testing results. But Texas itself has (and routinely uses) protocols for testing potentially contaminated samples to yield probative results” and allows their use at trial. “Texas,” Reed wrote, “cannot have it both ways.”
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The state countered that Reed had not shown that the state’s procedures for post-conviction DNA testing were fundamentally inadequate, as it said the Supreme Court’s cases require. Moreover, the state added, Reed could have sought DNA testing “based on new technological developments” earlier, but “wasn’t diligent in seeking to avail himself of those developments.” Instead, the state suggested, he “was clearly trying to stave off an execution date with litigation.”
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After considering the case at nine consecutive conferences, the court declined to take up Reed’s case for a second time. Sotomayor dissented, joined by Kagan and Jackson. She would have thrown out the lower court’s ruling and sent the case back for another look. Sotomayor deemed it “inexplicable” why the prosecutor’s office “refuses to allow DNA testing of the belt that was used to kill Stites, despite the very substantial possibility that such testing could exculpate Reed and identify the real killer.” “It is also inexplicable,” Sotomayor continued, “why the courts below did not proceed with more caution and carefully consider each of Reed’s arguments, especially given that his claim implicates the ‘constitutionally intolerable’ possibility of the ‘execution of a[n] . . . innocent person.’”
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Finally, the justices denied review in the case of a Texas journalist, Priscilla Villarreal, who sued police and prosecutors in Laredo after she was arrested on allegations that she had violated a state law that makes it a crime to seek non-public information from a public official “with intent to obtain a benefit.” The charges were based on her efforts to confirm details for two stories – one about a border agent who died by suicide, and the other about a fatal traffic accident – with a Laredo police officer. Villarreal then published the information on her Facebook page, where she has over 100,000 followers.
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Villarreal contended, as Sotomayor described, that the warrants for her arrest came after “a months-long investigation in which police officers worked closely with the local district attorneys’ office to come up with charges against her.” In affidavits supporting the application for the warrants, a police officer indicated that the “benefit” that Villarreal sought from the information was increased popularity on Facebook.
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Villarreal says that in the 23 years since the Texas law was passed, it had never been enforced. A judge dismissed the charges against her, concluding that the law was so vague that it was unconstitutional.
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Villarreal went to federal court, where she contended that the police officers and prosecutors had violated her civil rights. The majority of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit agreed with her. It wrote that “[i]f the First Amendment means anything, it surely means that a citizen journalist has the right to ask a public official a question, without fear of being imprisoned.” By a vote of 9-7, however, the full court of appeals ruled that the prosecutors and police officers were entitled to qualified immunity.
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Villarreal went to the Supreme Court in April 2024, seeking review of that ruling; the justices in October 2024 sent the case back to the 5th Circuit for another look after its ruling in Gonzalez v. Trevino
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The court of appeals again ruled , this time by a vote of 10-5, that the police and prosecutors could not be sued. Villarreal returned to the Supreme Court in July, asking the justices to take up her case. She argued that the Supreme Court’s “long-settled precedents” and “enduring First Amendment principles” “leave no doubt that arresting Villarreal for asking the government for information and publishing the response violated the First Amendment—and every reasonable official would have known that.”
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The state urged the Supreme Court to deny review. It contended that “Villarreal’s ‘just asking questions’ framing runs afoul of this Court’s ‘repeated[]’ command ‘not to define clearly established law at a high level of generality’ when considering qualified immunity.” The state law that Villarreal was arrested for violating, it said, “does not criminalize merely asking questions,” but instead “requires conduct closer to inciting or commanding a public official to leak nonpublic information for the benefit of the requestor.”
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In a 15-page solo dissent, Sotomayor argued that it was a “grave error” for her colleagues to deny review. “It should be obvious,” she wrote, that Villarreal’s “arrest violated the First Amendment.” “Tolerating retaliation against journalists, or efforts to criminalize routine reporting practices, threatens to silence ‘one of the very agencies the Framers of our Constitution thoughtfully and deliberately selected to improve our society and keep it free.’”
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The justices will meet for another private conference on Friday, March 27. Orders from that conference are expected on Monday, March 30, at 9:30 a.m. EDT.
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The post Court reverses ruling on qualified immunity, denies review of death-row case and First Amendment challenge by citizen journalist appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"activism","author":"Amy Howe","publishDate":"2026-03-23T22:32:10.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1251982729.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/court-reverses-ruling-on-qualified-immunity-and-denies-review-of-death-row-case-and-first-amendment-challenge-by-citizen-journalist/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-24T00:00:46.535Z"},{"id":"tzxmpz","archiveId":"szgly1","slug":"the-trump-administration-wants-the-supreme-court-to-permanently-close-the-border-to-asylum-seekers","title":"The Trump Administration Wants the Supreme Court to Permanently Close the Border to Asylum Seekers","excerpt":"Next week, the government will ask the Supreme Court to declare that asylum law does not apply at the border. There’s no legal basis for such a request, but this didn’t stop the first Trump administration from turning away thousands of asylum seekers, like Beatrice Doe (a pseudonym used to protect h...","content":"
Next week, the government will ask the Supreme Court to declare that asylum law does not apply at the border. There’s no legal basis for such a request, but this didn’t stop the first Trump administration from turning away thousands of asylum seekers, like Beatrice Doe (a pseudonym used to protect her safety).
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If the Supreme Court succumbs to Trump’s twisted logic, he will likely consider it carte blanche to keep the border closed permanently to asylum seekers and other people in need of protection. In other words, only people who already have permission to enter the United States could ask for protection. As the Trump administration has shuttered virtually all other avenues to obtain protection in the United States, this effectively would violate non-refoulement and expose people seeking asylum at the southern border to danger and death.
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The post The Trump Administration Wants the Supreme Court to Permanently Close the Border to Asylum Seekers appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"immigration","author":"Brianna Krong","publishDate":"2026-03-23T21:24:42.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-952815390.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/23/trump-supreme-court-asylum-immigration-noem-v-al-otro-lado/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-24T00:00:38.932Z"},{"id":"7m41vt","archiveId":"q2c5zr","slug":"the-save-act-is-designed-to-erode-access-to-the-ballot-the-woman-who-built-the-largest-voter-protect","title":"The SAVE Act Is Designed to Erode Access to the Ballot. The Woman Who Built the Largest Voter Protection Operation in History Is Not Surprised.","excerpt":"The Senate has begun debating the SAVE America Act—a bill that would require Americans to show a birth certificate or passport just to register to vote. Rachana Desai Martin is not surprised. She has spent her entire career watching exactly this happen.","content":"
The Senate has begun debating the SAVE America Act—a bill that would require Americans to show a birth certificate or passport just to register to vote.
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Rachana Desai Martin is not surprised. She has spent her entire career watching exactly this happen.
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Desai Martin is one of the only people in the country who has spent her career building the infrastructure to protect both voting rights and reproductive rights. She has seen both fights from the inside. And what she sees—clearly, consistently, without drama—is that these are not two separate battles.
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\"At base, both of these things are really about power and control,\" she told me. \"When we're advocating for reproductive rights, it's to give people power over their own bodies and their lives and their families and their futures. When we're talking about voting rights, it's to give people the power to pick their representatives and have their government work for them.\"
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Same target. Same architecture. Same playbook.
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The post The SAVE Act Is Designed to Erode Access to the Ballot. The Woman Who Built the Largest Voter Protection Operation in History Is Not Surprised. appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Jaime Patel","publishDate":"2026-03-23T21:02:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Rodin-Eckenroth-Getty-Images-for-the-Center-for-Reproductive-Rights-Michael-Marko-Newsmakers.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/23/rachana-desai-martin-save-act-abortion-voting-rights-reproductive-rights/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-24T00:00:38.932Z"},{"id":"rout0p","archiveId":"bgo8vr","slug":"on-the-road-one-conversation-at-a-time-the-case-for-the-era-is-landing","title":"On the Road, One Conversation at a Time: The Case for the ERA Is Landing","excerpt":"From Georgia to Tennessee to Alabama to Louisiana, the Golden Flyer II carried the legacy of the 1916 suffrage journey into direct conversation with the present-day push for constitutional equality. At each stop, the approach remained consistent: Meet people where they are, explain the stakes and in...","content":"
From Georgia to Tennessee to Alabama to Louisiana, the Golden Flyer II carried the legacy of the 1916 suffrage journey into direct conversation with the present-day push for constitutional equality. At each stop, the approach remained consistent: Meet people where they are, explain the stakes and invite them to take action.
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The responses were often immediate and unscripted. A restaurant owner in rural Georgia signed on the spot. A mayor in Knoxville, Tenn. issued a proclamation and added her name. Visitors at civil rights sites in Montgomery, Ala. stopped to ask questions and sign. In Baton Rouge and Lafayette, La., passersby—from veterans to pedestrians on their daily routines—engaged with the campaign, many expressing surprise that gender equality is still not explicitly guaranteed in the Constitution.
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The post On the Road, One Conversation at a Time: The Case for the ERA Is Landing appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Driving the Vote for Equality","publishDate":"2026-03-23T20:36:18.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/drive-for-equality-day-18-montgomery-al-0628-hero-edit-jpg.avif","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/23/equal-rights-amendment-era-road-tripgeorgia-lousiana-womens-history-suffrage/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-24T00:00:38.932Z"},{"id":"671itn","archiveId":"169ixj","slug":"queer-possibilities-in-revolutionary-america","title":"Queer Possibilities in Revolutionary America","excerpt":"The revolutionary era was one of surprising possibilities to express same-sex attraction and gender nonconformity. At the time, gender was widely understood not as an inner truth but as a social practice: something one did , not something one was .","content":"
The revolutionary era was one of surprising possibilities to express same-sex attraction and gender nonconformity.
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At the time, gender was widely understood not as an inner truth but as a social practice: something one did , not something one was . That understanding made gender surprisingly flexible.
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In a moment when LGBTQ+ people are again being told that they do not belong in the nation’s story, Revolutionary America offers a different lesson.
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(This essay is part of the FEMINIST 250: Founding Feminists series, marking the 250th anniversary of America by reclaiming the revolution through the women and gender-expansive people whose ideas, labor and resistance shaped U.S. democracy.)
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The post Queer Possibilities in Revolutionary America appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"lgbtq","author":"Jen Manion","publishDate":"2026-03-23T17:38:31.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-515417124-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/23/queer-gay-revolutionary-america-colonial-london/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-23T18:00:39.111Z"},{"id":"lhf23i","archiveId":"uazq8w","slug":"pharmacist-prescribing-of-hormonal-contraception","title":"Pharmacist Prescribing of Hormonal Contraception","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"contraception","author":"kffadarab","publishDate":"2026-03-23T17:01:44.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/pharmacist-prescribing-of-hormonal-contraception/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-23T18:00:39.053Z"},{"id":"vxakh6","archiveId":"u6y9ey","slug":"exclusive-nyc-schools-chancellor-kamar-samuels-on-his-vision-for-the-nations-largest-district","title":"Exclusive: NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels On His Vision For The Nation’s Largest District","excerpt":"As the largest school district in the country, more than 900,000 students attend public school in New York City from kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12). It is both a distinct […] The post Exclusive: NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels On His Vision For The Nation’s Largest District appeared ...","content":"
By
Bridgette Bartlett Royall ·
Updated March 23, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
As the largest school district in the country, more than 900,000 students attend public school in NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that Kamar Samuels would begin serving as the city’s school chancellor on January 1, 2026.
Samuels manages an adopted annual operating budget of an astounding $42.8 billion for the 2026 fiscal year. Mr. Chancellor has a lot to prove with what seems like a hefty amount of cash. The city’s school system is no stranger to hefty challenges, from alarming literacy declines to decreases in enrollment (in part due to an influx of charter institutions), to families with special needs children seeking additional support. The expectations he’s faced with are daunting; however, Samuels is ready to make a positive difference. We caught up with the husband and father of three to find out how he plans to do it.
ESSENCE: New York City has the largest school system in the country, but it is also the most segregated. Thoughts?KAMAR SAMUELS: A large number of Black families have been moving out of our city for affordability. As those Black families move out of the city, we will see an impact on the schools where most Black students attend. Our schools get funded by the number of students in them. So, if Black families are leaving, then it means that the schools are having fewer and fewer kids in them. When you look at the under enrollment or the enrollment crisis in our city, it disproportionately impacts Black communities.
ESSENCE: Right. Especially during and post-COVID.SAMUELS: Some schools would be, robustly enrolled in, and other schools would be under enrolled. And sometimes it feels like these schools are only blocks from each other. One school is disproportionately, you know, White and more affluent, and one school is going to be disproportionately Black and Brown. We need to be able to merge those schools and do it in such a way where we truly end up with an integrated environment. We also need to be able to enter into thoughtful conversations. That will lead to more integrated, more diverse schools.
Samuels is meeting students where they are in his new role as Chancellor. / PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NYC DEPT. OF EDUCATION
ESSENCE: You and Mayor Mamdani are engaging with constituents via social media in a way that New York City has never seen. It is allowing marginalized people to feel more seen. Is this intentional?SAMUELS: Well, you have a chancellor that is Jamaican and an immigrant. You have a mayor who is Indian and an immigrant from Africa. We are certainly thinking about how immigrants are treated in our city. We are heavily invested in a K-12 Black History curriculum. What I hear from from families has completely [positively] shifted over the last 2 months. When I think about the purpose of public schools, they are for marginalized groups in the city and to ensure that there is an engine for social mobility.
ESSENCE: And you see education as a vehicle for social mobility?SAMUELS: I went to public colleges. CUNY (City University of New York) and SUNY (State University of New York) always rank among the highest index across the nation. It’s a wonderful testament to what we do that at the end of 11th grade or 12th grade, when you’re graduating high school, and every student in New York City gets some automatic acceptance letter to a CUNY school. We’re also giving opportunities to students to do early college work with programs in fields like culinary arts and nursing.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels (@doechancellor)
ESSENCE: That is awesome.SAMUELS: This is giving our young people wonderful >New York City Reads Program, which is truly >AI will ever replace what I’ve considered the most sacred thing about what educators do, which is the connection between a human teacher and a student. We need to be thoughtful as we develop our AI guidance as a city, and then hopefully we’ll get to an AI playbook and we’ll be able to think about appropriate usages.
Samuels speaking on the expansion of universal childcare in NYC. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
ESSENCE: Another disturbing divide is the low number of Black students at the city’s coveted specialized high schools . How do you intend to work with families to address this issue?SAMUELS: We need to continue to create high quality high school options that are accessible to everyone. For example, we have HBCU Early College Prep High School . We’re going to be working hard to ensure that all around the city, we have high quality options. We also need to do work on how we think about belonging in schools, like our specialized high schools, where we want to get a more diverse group of families into them.
I think about schools that are safe, not just physically, but social emotionally, safe, a school that is welcoming, affirming and a school that simultaneously holds you to high expectations. We’re doing a lot of work now, with our parent coordinators to ensure that we have parent coordinators across the city can do strong outreach with other parents and connect them with the resources that they need.
And as I think about how I’m organizing our NYC public schools, I want to ensure that we are promoting community schools and make that connection with families. When I think about family and community engagement work, that’s what is going to make sure that our PTAs are stronger and more active. Because oftentimes that’s what goes far: when a parent can help and support another parent.
Think about what happens on the playground. It’s the parents who are having the conversations. And so, if we get more parents informed through our parent coordinators, then we will make sure every family’s voices are heard.
TOPICS:
black education black educators department of education education equality education policy
The post Exclusive: NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels On His Vision For The Nation’s Largest District appeared first on Essence .
","category":"education","author":"Bridgette Bartlett","publishDate":"2026-03-23T15:40:37.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/community/exclusive-nyc-schools-chancellor-kamar-samuels/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-23T18:00:44.623Z"},{"id":"dcmju4","archiveId":"x5prn2","slug":"chaka-khan8217s-beauty-038-style-evolution","title":"Chaka Khan’s Beauty & Style Evolution","excerpt":"Being the “Queen Of Funk” doesn’t come without beauty and style to match. And Chaka Khan, who turns 73 today, has been building an archive of iconic moments since the […] The post Chaka Khan’s Beauty & Style Evolution appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 23, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Being the “Queen Of Funk” doesn’t come without beauty and >beauty and >timeless funk legend.
Ahead, see how Chaka Khan’s beauty anddecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-85351807-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"Chaka Khan’s Beauty & Style Evolution\" width=\"400\" height=\"576\" />celebrity birthdays Chaka Khan
The post Chaka Khan’s Beauty & Style Evolution appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-23T15:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/beauty-evolution-chaka-khan-birthday/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-23T18:00:44.623Z"},{"id":"3ew44h","archiveId":"b0rgsf","slug":"5-things-to-know-about-marsai-martin8217s-beau-rajah-caruth","title":"5 Things To Know About Marsai Martin’s Beau, Rajah Caruth","excerpt":"In case you didn’t realize it, former Black-ish star Marsai Martin is grown now. Our ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood host, 21, is old enough to go red carpet official […] The post 5 Things To Know About Marsai Martin’s Beau, Rajah Caruth appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Elizabeth Ayoola ·
The post 5 Things To Know About Marsai Martin’s Beau, Rajah Caruth appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Victoria Uwumarogie","publishDate":"2026-03-23T14:54:11.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/marsai-martin-rajah-caruth/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-24T00:00:44.253Z"},{"id":"mhk5pl","archiveId":"vm35ft","slug":"immigrants-survivors-of-domestic-abuse-find-refuge-and-community-at-brooklyn-church","title":"Immigrants Survivors of Domestic Abuse Find Refuge and Community at Brooklyn Church","excerpt":"Despite fears of ICE, Latina women escaping violent relationships still visit the Healing Center at Bethlehem Lutheran for cafecito, therapy, and community. The post Immigrants Survivors of Domestic Abuse Find Refuge and Community at Brooklyn Church appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE or text “START” to 887888. Free and confidential resources are available 24/7 in Spanish and 290 other languages.
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In the heart of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn stands Bethlehem Lutheran Church, built in 1929. Featuring a Gothic-style stained-glass window, a cross at the very top of the church’s right-side tower, and an American flag mounted on a tall silver flagpole on the left side. Inside, sunlight filters through the windows, one of which reads: “God is Love.”
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The chapel is frequented by the primarily white congregants who attend the 10:30 a.m. Sunday service. But each week, some visitors from a different background come to Bethlehem Lutheran for a different reason.
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Adjacent to the church, behind an unmarked door, is the Healing Center. It has a gray sofa, purple curtains, and a frame with positive affirmations in Spanish: “Soy valiente. Soy inteligente. Yo merezco amor y felicidad.”
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“I am brave. I am intelligent. I deserve love and happiness.”
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The Trump administration’s aggressive immigration operations have been keeping people away from houses of worship nationwide . But this Brooklyn parish’s congregation isn’t afraid—and they’ve joined forces with a local organization to ensure a vulnerable population in their community—immigrant survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault—gets the support it needs.
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Everyone is welcome \n
From the moment visitors step inside Bethlehem Lutheran , the church makes clear that its doors are open to everyone, regardless of race or background.
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Pastor Paul Knudsen has led services for 30 years, and in 2014, Tony Clemente joined him as deacon. To see a white pastor and a Puerto Rican deacon leading the service is welcoming, Knudsen said.
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“It doesn’t matter who comes through the door,” he added. “We’re going to welcome whoever they are.”
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That philosophy of openness is what inspired the partnership between a domestic violence nonprofit and the church.
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The Healing Center was founded in 2000 by activist Antonia Clemente, a 72-year resident of nearby Sunset Park and the wife of Deacon Clemente. The idea came from her experience doing work with a support group in a domestic violence shelter. She remembers a woman who would not lift her head to make direct eye contact during a discussion on empowerment, no matter how much Clemente encouraged her.
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When she finally did, she saw a scar on the woman’s face.
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“I think at that point is where I began to feel a sense of [a] call,” Clemente said.
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The New York State Department of Health defines domestic violence as a pattern of behaviors used to establish and maintain power and control over an intimate partner . These can include physical, mental, financial, and verbal abuse, threats, and actions that may or may not constitute criminal acts such as isolation from family and friends, gaslighting, and controlling. Domestic violence can affect anyone—regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, nationality, class, or religion.
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“[Domestic violence is] about power and control over another person, where they lose their own autonomy,” Clemente said.
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For immigrant women, it can be even more complex. Studies show that Latina immigrants often confront silence and stigma around domestic violence , which research suggests may derive from a patriarchal cultural belief that women should maintain their roles as wives and mothers and prioritize their children and husband over their well-being.
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Latina immigrants who experience domestic violence frequently run up against multiple obstacles when seeking help, including economic dependency on their partner, language barriers in courts and police stations, and other systemic failures.
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Religion is known for being a key player in shaping values, social norms, and community life. According to the Pew Research Center , nearly 70 percent of Latino adults identify with a religion. In some of these traditions, religious interpretations reflect patriarchal views limiting women.
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That is not the image of God promoted at Bethlehem Lutheran, Knudsen said.
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“We believe in a God who wants us to be our own people, that everybody’s on the same level together,” he said. “No one is to be lording it over anybody else here in this world.”
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A study conducted at DePaul University in Chicago found that faith leaders’ approach to domestic violence is shaped by their religious beliefs. Psychologist Jaclyn Houston-Kolnik surveyed 20 Protestant religious leaders and learned that many had no training in the topic. That created uncertainty in responding, and they often referred cases to more experienced professionals, such as counselors.
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New York State Assemblywoman Maritza Davila, who represents Brooklyn’s 53rd district, believes more churches should engage their communities in these kinds of difficult—and at times, dangerous—conversations.
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“The church needs to do more in opening up the door and allowing professionals to come in and have this discussion with the parishioners,” Davila said. “Just giving them the information can be enough.”
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Between 2015 and 2024, Hispanic women represented nearly 30 percent of New York City intimate partner homicides despite accounting for just under 15 percent of the city’s population.
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Davila was instrumental in passing a 2018 state law requiring telephone and cable television companies to allow domestic violence victims to cancel contracts when a police report, protection order, or sworn affidavit is provided—without penalty. The National Network to End Domestic Violence found that 97 percent of survivors have been harassed, monitored, or threatened by perpetrators misusing technology.
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‘You need to be doing God’s work seven days a week’ \n
It took Clemente more than a year to bring her idea for the Healing Center to fruition.
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When she first proposed the idea of opening a center to provide services and resources to Spanish-speaking survivors of domestic violence, both church leadership at Bethlehem Lutheran—then located in nearby Sunset Park—and the congregation had been skeptical.
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People asked, “Who are the people that are coming? Was this going to be a shelter? What happens if a man comes? What happens? What are the things that we needed to have in place?” Clemente said. “They were, they were valid questions.”
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By 2000, the congregation had come around. The church’s then-pastor at that time offered a small space in the church’s kitchen, and within months, the space was too small.
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After struggling to navigate rising neighborhood rents in the search of a larger, more suitable location, Clemente eventually found a new home for the center at a fundraising event at her son’s Lutheran Elementary School. There, she spoke to Knudsen, who suggested an available space adjacent to the church.
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In 2008, the center officially moved into its new home. The Healing Center is a social ministry—one of very few ministries in the country addressing gender-based violence affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
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That really shouldn’t be so rare, said Dr. Gina Foster, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who has provided cross-cultural crisis counseling for survivors of domestic violence.
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“A faith-based organization that understands community and the importance of embracing the whole human being … can work really well with a nonprofit,” Foster said.
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Knudsen agreed.
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“Any church that just worships on a Sunday morning and then doesn’t do anything all week long is completely off track,” he said. “Yes, worship is important for us, but you need to be doing God’s work seven days a week.”
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Children witness domestic violence in nearly 1 in 4 cases filed in state courts, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline .
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That knowledge informs the Center, which provides help for all family members affected by domestic abuse, as well as its holistic support system—which starts with Cafecito, a Tuesday program where mothers come together to support one another over coffee and pan dulce, or sweet bread.
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“I take off work to go to Cafecito, after Cafecito I take the day for myself,” Fortaleza, a domestic abuse survivor and single mother whose name has been withheld for her safety, said in Spanish.
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Fortaleza came across the Healing Center at a street fair one Sunday afternoon. She had sought support before, but hit so many barriers: transportation, time, and having to end her therapy sessions when her insurance became inactive.
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Today, the Healing Center is a meaningful, “empowering” part of her life, and a source of friendship.
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“Being heard is the most beautiful thing,” Fortaleza said.
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The church also hosts the Hi-5 program, which provides therapy for children who have experienced and witnessed domestic violence. The program Daughters of the Lotus offers support to teenage girls.
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“It’s [an] intergenerational approach,” Healing Center Executive Director Noeline Maldonado said. “We’re gonna continue to take care of the whole family, the unit, for however long it takes.”
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The Center is also thoughtfully intercultural, as it serves a Brooklyn neighborhood where many residents come from Mexico and Central America.
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“Culture plays a big part,” Maldonado said.
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Faith and healing shape the relationship between the church and the center, she said.
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“The congregation is so committed to the work that we’re doing … they put their money where their mouth is,” Maldonado said.
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Davila pointed out that with comprehensive assistance, survivors can pursue new paths.
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“Addressing domestic violence holistically can really make a difference,” Davila said. “We know women with doctorates right now who were once abused and helped this way.”
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The Center is active on social media, participates in community tables, and receives referrals from schools, hospitals, precincts, nonprofits, and community organizations. For many survivors, these networks are often how they first learn that help exists.
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Churches under ICE threat \n
Fear of deportation can prevent undocumented immigrants in violent situations from reporting the abuse to law enforcement.
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Officially, abuse victims qualify for federal protection from deportation through the T and U visa programs . But in practice, schools and churches are frequent sources of refuge because of their longstanding status as government-free asylum spaces.
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Since the Trump administration began aggressively abducting people on the streets of major U.S. cities and removed asylum protections from schools and churches in January 2025, however, church attendance nationwide has declined markedly. Dozens of religious groups are suing the government , saying the raids infringe on their religious freedom to minister to all their congregants—including undocumented migrants.
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Still, Maldonado finds that even in this climate of fear, more people actually come to the Center for services.
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“They’re relying on us even more, especially since we’ve pivoted and worked with local legislators,” Maldonado said. “They trust us, and … we help them know their rights.”
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Today, some research , including a recent study from the Hunter College School of Social Work , suggests that immigration status —more than cultural or language barriers—is the biggest factor in whether and how domestic violence is responded to in immigrant households .
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Despite ICE threats and cultural pressures within religious communities, the Latino immigrant community of South Brooklyn has a safe space to tell their stories and prioritize their well-being. Fortaleza wants every woman in a difficult situation who needs to hear that message of hope.
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“If I can do it,” she said, “so can they.”
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The post Immigrants Survivors of Domestic Abuse Find Refuge and Community at Brooklyn Church appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"safety","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-23T13:42:30.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Brooklyn-Church-Breaks-Stigma.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/23/abuse-immigrant-domestic-violence-healing-center-brooklyn/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-23T18:00:38.758Z"},{"id":"k6wleq","archiveId":"za8xt0","slug":"annie-tagoe-is-in-it-for-the-long-run","title":"Annie Tagoe Is In It For The Long Run","excerpt":"Annie Tagoe speaks with the calm certainty of someone who has earned her peace the hard way. Not the kind of peace that arrives quietly or all at once, but […] The post Annie Tagoe Is In It For The Long Run appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Karissa Mitchell ·
Updated March 20, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Annie Tagoe speaks with the calm certainty of someone who has earned her peace the hard way. Not the kind of peace that arrives quietly or all at once, but the kind that has been negotiated over time, through injury, doubt, comparison, resentment, and the long, echoing silence that settles in when everything that once defined you is suddenly placed on pause.
Photographer: Malike Sidibe @malikesidibe Stylist: Josephine Herfst @j.herfst
“I’ve come to accept who I am,” she says. It sounds simple when she says it now, almost casual. But for years, acceptance felt distant, theoretical, something other people arrived at, not her.
As a professional track athlete , Tagoe has spent much of her life inside a sport that is at once hyper-visible and deeply isolating. Track looks communal from the outside, teams warming up together, bodies lined side by side, but it is an individual sport in its purest form. Everyone wears the same uniform. Everyone is training for the same outcome. And yet every body is quietly compared, evaluated, ranked.Speed is measured. Strength is visible. Bodies become data points.
“I struggled with my identity for a long time,” Tagoe says. “I struggled with the color of my skin. I struggled with how I looked, with feeling like I was never quite enough.” In a sport where bodies are currency and comparison is constant, it’s easy to lose yourself. Tagoe remembers looking around at her competitors, wishing she were slimmer, taller, built differently. The sport trains you to compete relentlessly, but it doesn’t always teach you how to belong.
For a long time, she didn’t feel like she did.
That feeling followed her beyond the track. When sponsorships and deals didn’t come easily, she internalized the rejection. She wondered whether her height, her skin tone, her difference were liabilities rather than assets. At 5’4”, she didn’t resemble the industry’s narrow ideals, whether in sport or fashion. And for a while, she believed that must mean something was wrong with her.What she didn’t realize yet was that the very things she tried to minimize would become her power.
Photographer: Malike Sidibe @malikesidibe Stylist: Josephine Herfst @j.herfst
Between 2020 and 2022, Tagoe raced just 17 times. Injuries stacked on top of injuries. Surgeries interrupted seasons. Momentum evaporated. “My body just wasn’t reacting to the talent I had been given,” she says. “And I was so confused by that. I kept asking myself, why would I be given this gift if I couldn’t actually produce with it?” The question haunted her.
There were moments when resentment took over. Track is not a sport that guarantees financial security, and when the losses outweigh the wins, physically, emotionally, professionally, it becomes harder to justify staying. After her second surgery, she reached a breaking point.
“I remember thinking, I’m done with this sport,” she says. “I can’t keep doing this. There are so many downs, and not nearly enough highs.”
And yet, something kept pulling her back.
She still can’t quite explain what it was. Maybe stubbornness. Maybe love. Maybe instinct. Whatever it was, it followed her across the Atlantic when she moved from the UK to Houston, Texas, to train under Coach Anderson. The first year was difficult, homesickness tugged her back again and again, but the second year changed everything.She made the team. She went to the World Championships. She won bronze in the arena.
“I genuinely thought my body was finished,” she says. “I thought I needed to find something else to do with my life. And then suddenly, this happened.” The turnaround felt surreal. And just as quickly, the cycle returned, more injuries, more setbacks, more pauses she didn’t ask for. But something inside her had shifted. Instead of fighting her body, she began listening to it.
Now, nearing the later stages of her athletic career, Tagoe speaks about track with a softness that wasn’t there before. “I’m enjoying it again,” she says. “I’m actually having fun with it again. Training feels good. It feels lighter.” That joy didn’t come from pushing harder, it came from loosening her grip. Moving to America gave her something she didn’t know she needed, freedom. Control. Space. She manages her own care. She advocates for her body. She decides when to rest and when to push. That autonomy fundamentally changed her understanding of strength.
“I used to think strength was only physical,” she says. “But when my body started breaking down, I realized that being strong is actually much more mental. And the more mentally strong I became, the more physically strong I felt.” Mental strength, for Tagoe, is about self-talk. It’s about choosing belief when doubt is louder. It’s about knowing that if someone tells her she can’t do something, she will do it, not out of spite, but out of self-trust.
That self-trust carried her beyond sport and into fashion. Tagoe didn’t set out to become a model. Like many things in her life, it unfolded organically. A freelance shoot led to a conversation. A conversation led to representation. Within her first month signed, she landed an editorial with Vogue Italia. The momentum surprised even her.
At first, imposter syndrome followed her into fashion rooms too. She saw herself as an athlete among “real” models, women whose faces and bodies felt more familiar to fashion’s gaze. She questioned why she was there.
“I kept thinking, why am I in this room?” she says. “These girls have done incredible things in this industry. And then there’s me, an athlete.” Then the evidence became undeniable. “I was doing the same shoots. I was being invited into the same spaces,” she says. “And at some point, I realized, I belong here too.” That realization changed how she entered rooms. Where she once tried to arrive quietly, hoping not to be noticed, she now shows up fully. She doesn’t shrink. She doesn’t apologize.
Photographer: Malike Sidibe @malikesidibe Stylist: Josephine Herfst @j.herfst
This past year (2025), London Fashion Week cemented that shift. Being invited, again and again, made it clear she wasn’t an exception or a novelty. She was part of the landscape. Paris is next. New York is on her horizon.
What makes Tagoe compelling in fashion isn’t just her athleticism, it’s her contrast. Off the track and off Instagram, she lives a quietly creative life. She spends evenings decorating her apartment, scrolling Pinterest for inspiration. She sews. She reads poetry. She makes pottery. She watches the same comfort shows on repeat, Girlfriends, A Different World, My Wife and Kids, with music always playing in the background.
“I’m honestly so boring,” she laughs. “I’m like a grandma.”
Her beauty rituals are disciplined but intimate. She exfoliates twice a day, every day. She would never sleep in makeup. Her wardrobe tells its own story, skirts only, she hates jeans, stacks of shoes, and an impressive Doc Martens collection, 17 pairs and counting. A trench coat is her ultimate fashion staple, timeless, grounding, elevating.
Recently, she signed a new contract with Honor Active, a sportswear brand that reflects the life she’s built, where athleticism and fashion coexist rather than compete. It’s a moment she’s deeply proud of, not just because of the deal, but because of what it affirms.
“I don’t feel like I have to choose anymore,” she says. “I don’t have to be just one thing. I can do both.” That philosophy extends into her dreams, too. Beyond medals and magazines, Tagoe wants something unexpected, her own puzzle business. She loves puzzles, the patience they require, the quiet satisfaction of watching pieces come together. It feels like a fitting metaphor.
As she looks ahead, her focus is less about proving herself and more about protecting herself. She’s learning to say no. To stop overextending. To put herself first without guilt.
“I’ve always been a yes person,” she says. “I’ve always put everyone else first. But now I’m learning that it’s okay to be a little selfish.” It’s a different energy from the woman who once wondered why she was in the room at all. Now, she knows she’s earned her place, on the track, in fashion, and within herself.
Annie Tagoe is rooted, steady, and staying.
Credits: Talent: Annie Tagoe @annietagoe Photographer: Malike Sidibe @malikesidibe Stylist: Josephine Herfst @j.herfst Blue dress look: Blue dress: Jannah Erdtracht @jannaherdtracht Crystal mesh skirt: The Zeina @the.zeina Shoes: Stylist’s own Jewelry: Miansai @miansai Red and white look: Top: The Zeina @the.zeina Shoes: Thijs de Jong @tyvesdejong Jewelry: Miansai @miansai Tights: Stylist’s own Skirt over trousers look 1 white top / red top: White top: The Zeina @the.zeina Red top: Daveed Baptiste @daveedbaptiste Skirt: Aimee Veenhof @aimeeveenhof Trousers: Daveed Baptiste @daveedbaptiste Jewelry: Miansai @miansai Big black dress: Black dress: Aimee Veenhof @aimeeveenhof Tights: Stylist’s own Shoes: Thijs de Jong @tyvesdejong Necklace & earrings: Stylist’s own Bracelet & rings: Miansai @miansai
The post Annie Tagoe Is In It For The Long Run appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Shelby Stewart","publishDate":"2026-03-23T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/annie-tagoe-resilience-identity-track-fashion/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-23T18:00:44.623Z"},{"id":"1zwqc9","archiveId":"tjs1pz","slug":"how-the-term-neurodivergent-moved-from-activists-to-pop-culture-and-politics","title":"How the term ‘neurodivergent’ moved from activists to pop culture — and politics","excerpt":"Nicki Minaj recently identified herself as “neurodivergent” in a series of now-deleted posts on the social media website X. “Neurodivergents watching our leader Elon be the richest & smartest while the others realize they’re cooked,” she wrote, referring to tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has said h...","content":"
Nicki Minaj recently identified herself as “neurodivergent” in a series of now-deleted posts on the social media website X. “Neurodivergents watching our leader Elon be the richest & smartest while the others realize they’re cooked,” she wrote, referring to tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has said he’s autistic. Her words were in response to a post quoting Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, one of the world’s biggest tech companies: “The future is neurodivergent.”
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“Neurodivergent” is an umbrella term that describes people whose minds differ from what society considers normal. It can encompass a number of conditions and is most commonly associated with autism and ADHD today.
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What was once an extremely niche term in neurodiversity and disability activist circles is now in the purview of pop stars, business leaders and politicians .
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Kassiane Asasumasu, an early neurodiversity advocate, is widely credited with coining the term in the late ’90s. The word was the result of “a pedantic, neurodivergent kid (me) having access to the Internet,” she told The 19th. Specifically, she was annoyed that people were using “neurodiverse” as a descriptor for individual people or individual diagnoses.
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“A single entity is not diverse,” Asasumasu told The 19th.
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Asasumasu also wanted a term that could encompass not just autism, but also other neurological conditions, mental illness or even just being different.
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“It’s not a specific diagnosis. There is not a list of qualifying conditions. There will never be a list of qualifying conditions,” Asasumasu said. “However big you think it is, bigger than that.”
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There were other competing terms, some of which predated “neurodivergent,” according to Ira Eidle. Eidle is a student archivist who maintains The Autistic Archive, one of the only repositories of documents from the early neurodiversity movement. Eidle put The Autistic Archive together prior to entering academia and is in the process of using the knowledge he has gained to update and improve the website. The earliest usage he could find for the word “neurodivergent” was from 2002.
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One earlier phrase that Eidle counts as significant? “Autistic cousins,” frequently abbreviated to “AC.”
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“Autistic cousins” is a term first used at Autism Network International, one of the first autistic self-advocacy organizations in the early ’90s, Eidle said. “It happened after a conference where they had somebody with hydrocephalus in their group who was not autistic, but he could acutely relate to a lot of their experiences. So somebody named Xenia Grant claimed him as a cousin. The term stuck,” he said.
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“Autistic cousins” was not a term for political organizing. It was more of a term to include non-autistic people who wanted to explore autistic spaces. By contrast, Asasumasu sees “neurodivergent” as an exercise in political coalition-building, comparing it to the phrase “Asian American.”
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“In Asia, people aren’t ‘Asian.’ They’re Chinese or Japanese or Korean or Mongolian or Thai or whatever their specific ethnicity is. But in the Asian diaspora, we need to lump together to have any political power,” she said. “Neurodivergent” serves the same function, Asasumasu explained: to unite people with a number of different conditions under one banner for political organizing purposes.
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That is not, however, how the word is frequently used today. Often, it will only refer to autism without intellectual disability, as well as ADHD. Sometimes it is used as a euphemism to avoid discussing disability. And sometimes, it is even used to talk about autistic people or people with ADHD as superior intellectual and creative beings, perhaps more evolved than other people.
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Elon Musk and his son X Æ A-12 step off of Air Force One upon arrival at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, on March 17, 2025.\n (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images) \n\n\n\n
This is how people like Musk and others on the political right frequently conceive of the term, according to Esther Warwick, a longtime researcher of disability, particularly autism, and political extremism. Warwick is the executive director of an emerging organization called Disability Communities Defending Democracy, which aims to combat political extremism in disability spaces.
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Warwick noted that historically, disability was more of a mixed bag politically. Support for disabled people and disability issues could be found across the political spectrum. That changed in 2017, when a fight over Medicaid funding for people with disabilities became a partisan flashpoint. At the same time, people on the right and far-right began to embrace a very specific vision of neurodiversity and who counts as “neurodivergent.”
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“In the early days of the alt-right, blogs were promoting neurodiversity as a kind of — whether it was genuine or not — that we are these special types of people who are different, and that makes us know better than the globalists,” Warwick told The 19th.
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This right-wing version of “neurodiversity” does not include people with intellectual disabilities or anything else that may require substantial disability support. Instead, it is narrowly applied to those whose differences can be of use. The phrase “weaponized autism” came to refer to intense focus and deep expertise paired with social challenges, applied to achieve particular political ends.
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Melanie Penner co-authored one of the first papers examining the connection between autism and the far right. Penner is a developmental pediatrician and associate professor at University of Toronto. She first became interested after the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was where white supremacists from all over the country gathered with tiki torches and one counterprotester was killed after a Neo-Nazi rammed his car into a crowd.
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“I had been, as most people, disturbed by what had happened. But what was more disturbing to me was hearing some of the experts talking about it afterward, saying that they had heard a lot of mentions of autism in these extremely xenophobic spaces,” Penner told The 19th.
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One phrase, in particular, stood out to Penner: “weaponized autism.” It’s the idea that people with the neurodevelopmental condition could be harnessed to further far-right political goals. She and other researchers decided to analyze how the term “weaponized autism” was used in far-right spaces — particularly on the far-right social media platform Gab.
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“Autistic people in these spaces are still stigmatized, laughed at. But there is this kind of compassion and a companion piece of being celebrated for their skills,” she said. However, that celebration was largely based on stereotypes.
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“In the paper, we use the phrase ‘all-powerful masters of technology.’ So autistic people are perceived to have these abilities that other people don’t have, that can be harnessed by these groups toward their kind of political ends or particular actions they want to do, like doxxing people or hacking activities,” Penner said.
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Warwick more explicitly connected the online use of “weaponized autism” to how Musk, who has frequently supported far-right causes , conceptualizes his own autism .
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“Elon Musk is trying to bring back this idea of autism as a sort of pure expression of White masculinity. It’s a huge throwback to 2010s Reddit. I mean, everything Elon Musk does is a huge throwback to 2010s Reddit. There was this sort of pro-autism, pro-neurodiversity in some sense on the far right. It’s often explicitly racist,” Warwick said. “Weaponized autism” flourished online, and Warwick believes Musk is very much a product of that culture.
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Minaj was not on Gab, 4Chan or any far-right online space in the 2010s, or at least not as far as anyone is aware. Recently, she has become increasingly involved in right-wing politics. She frequently supports President Donald Trump and is currently encouraging her fans, known as Barbz, to support the SAVE America Act , which could make it more difficult for many women and people of color to vote.
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Minaj talked about being neurodivergent on social media as early as 2022, although she did not use that word: “Honestly, I think It’s one of the many embarrassing signs of ADHD, actually. For some ppl… Not diagnosing, just thinking out loud,” she wrote. At the time, it didn’t appear to have any particular political valence.
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Using “neurodivergent” might be a new way for her to think about her identity.
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Asasamasu said she doesn’t have a problem with Minaj identifying as “neurodivergent.”
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“I am not actually the neurodivergence police,” she said.
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She draws the line, however, at calling Elon Musk her “leader.”
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“No. Absolutely not.”
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Finance, confused and business woman analysis of budget, profit and company startup report with eco friendly project. Stress, anxiety of manager chart, graph or paperwork in financial fail or mistake
By
Kara Stevens ·
Updated March 22, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Black women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the United States, building businesses at a remarkable pace. As of 2024, we own more than 2 million firms . Yet those businesses often generate far less revenue than women-owned businesses overall—averaging roughly $24,000 to $47,300 annually , about six times less—and receive less than 0.35% of venture capital funding.
That uphill battle becomes even steeper when a client refuses to pay. What might be a minor inconvenience for better-resourced businesses can create real financial strain for Black women entrepreneurs. After all, only about 3% of Black women-owned businesses reach the “mature” stage, surviving longer than five years.
In that context, an unpaid invoice isn’t just annoying—it can threaten the stability of an entire business.
Ask me how I know.
The Red Flag I Ignored
A company reached out to me to create content. I respected its mission and was happy to partner. Before signing the contract, he mentioned one thing that gave me pause: they paid out every 120 days. His rationale was that batching payments this way would be more efficient for his team.
It annoyed me, but with other work lined up, I convinced myself it would be fine and signed the contract—ignoring the sirens going off in my head and the common sense the good Lord gave me.
I delivered everything on time and submitted my invoice exactly as outlined. Instead of payment, I received excuses: a personal illness, trouble reaching the accounting team, and delays that were supposedly not his fault.
Then the calls and emails started going unanswered.
After three months, I enlisted a debt collector. For six more months, they sent letters, made phone calls, emailed, and even contacted the client’s family. Still, the payment never came.
The worst part? I had done everything “right” —well…mostly “right.” Looking back, agreeing to a 120-day payment schedule was absolute foolishness.
Frustrated but determined, I refused to let this derail my business. Giving up was never an option, but I realized I needed better safeguards for my business.
The Legal Know-How We All Needed Yesterday
Even when entrepreneurs take every precaution, unpaid invoices can still happen. Legal expert Yaminah Childress, JD, founder of Contractr AI, emphasizes that strong contracts, clear payment terms, and structured invoicing practices are essential safeguards. “Deposits and milestone payments dramatically reduce the risk of nonpayment, and linking invoices to payment platforms creates a paper trail that can be critical if a dispute arises,” she says.
Common Mistakes That Put You at Risk
Many payment problems start before the invoice is sent. “The biggest mistake I see happens before the invoice is ever sent: not having a clear contract,” Childress says.
While I had a contract, I was still missing so many other important parts. “Even with a contract, if terms like payment deadlines, late fees, and scope of work aren’t clearly outlined, collecting payment becomes much harder,” she explains.
Another common misstep is waiting too long to follow up: “If an invoice is due today, a professional reminder should go out today,” says Childress. “Delays send the signal that payment timing is flexible, when it shouldn’t be.”
Building Systems That Protect Your Business
For freelancers and small business owners, payment structure should be part of your overall risk management strategy. Childress recommends creating a written and signed agreement that includes the scope of work, total price, payment deadlines, acceptable methods (ACH, wire, credit card), and who covers processing fees if cards are used. She also emphasizes clearly defining when services are considered delivered and whether revisions are included in the project scope.
“For larger or longer projects, I recommend collecting a deposit before work begins and structuring payments around key milestones, “ says Childress. “In many industries, full payment before final delivery is standard because once services are delivered, they cannot be taken back.”
Invoices themselves should also reflect these terms. Childress notes that linking invoices to accounting software, a payment processor, or a bank-integrated platform helps create a paper trail. “This documentation can be critical if a dispute ever arises,” she says.
Recovering Payment Without Burning Bridges
Even with systems in place, some clients fail to pay. Delays aren’t always malicious; clients may need to submit a W-9, update accounting systems, or adjust invoicing details. Starting with friendly, professional reminders on a consistent schedule can often resolve delays.
After around 30 days of unresponsiveness, reassess whether or not to escalate collections, pause work, or end the client relationship. Protecting your cash flow and your time comes first.
When Small Claims Court Becomes a Necessary Option
If attempts to collect the invoice fail, the small claims court may be an option. Entrepreneurs should be aware that small claims courts have monetary limits, usually ranging between $10,000 to $15,000, depending on the jurisdiction. Claims above that amount typically require filing in a higher court, which can be more complex, unless they choose to reduce the claim to fit within the limit.
Before filing—or even before signing an agreement—review the jurisdiction clause, which determines where disputes will be handled. Ensuring the location is convenient for your business can save time and money, while filing in another state or county could add unnecessary costs and delays.
Losing a small claims suit can also carry real consequences. You may be responsible for paying the full judgment, including interest and court fees, and the case can appear on public records or affect your credit. Plaintiffs can pursue collection through garnishments or liens, which can strain cash flow, and the process itself can be time-consuming, distracting from running your business.
He Chose the Right One
I learned a lot about myself as a woman, problem solver, and business owner throughout this debt collection process. In addition to overhauling all of my contracts and conditions to reflect milestones and prepayments, I (gleefully) plan to pursue a small claims suit to send a message to businesses like my former client that exploit good faith and business integrity: you will not win.
For Black women entrepreneurs, the lesson is the same: sometimes clients won’t honor their commitments. Preparation—knowing your rights, having strong systems, and escalating smartly—can > The Frugal Feminista and author of heal your relationship with money and Unmasking the Strong Black Woman . Connect with her on LinkedIn .
The post Run Me My Money: A Survival Guide For Black Women Entrepreneurs Dealing With Non-Paying Clients appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-23T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1468481116-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/money-guide-nonpaying-clients/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-23T12:00:21.738Z"},{"id":"hlb26y","archiveId":"xd7gyi","slug":"hannah-bronfman-says-she-had-to-unlearn-being-liked-to-succeed-in-business","title":"Hannah Bronfman Says She Had To Unlearn Being “Liked” To Succeed In Business","excerpt":"Black women and wellness have always had a complicated relationship. Not because we don’t take it seriously, and not because we don’t have the time (well… we kind of don’t, […] The post Hannah Bronfman Says She Had To Unlearn Being “Liked” To Succeed In Business appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Kimberly Wilson ·
Updated March 22, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Black women and wellness have always had a complicated relationship.
Not because we don’t take it seriously, and not because we don’t have the time (well… we kind of don’t, but that’s not the point) but because the version being sold to us rarely accounts for the life we’re actually living. Scroll through #WellnessTok on any given day and you’ll see 5 a.m. workouts, perfectly calm morning routines where you dip your face in a bowl of ice water, green juice recipes, etc. But all of it looks a little different when you have two kids, a brand, and a TV show running simultaneously. Or so, I’ve heard.
It’s something Hannah Bronfman knows firsthand. The entrepreneur, HBFIT founder, and mom has spent years building a platform around wellness, but what does that look like right now? It’s not the weekly acupuncture she used to swear by. “Now I am lucky if I get into acupuncture once a month,” she says. And that perfectly curated home she had before kids? “Clutter piling up, loud moments in the house, toys everywhere,” she says.
“That’s just part of life with kids.”
The CEO Club on Amazon Prime has expanded her reach beyond the wellness world she built her name in. And what she’s doing with that platform is saying the things the wellness industry tends to skip. Like the fact that taking care of yourself as a Black woman often means taking time you technically don’t have. “Historically Black women take care of their entire village before taking care of themselves,” she says. She’s been living inside that sentence.
Motherhood pushed the whole conversation. These days self-care looks a lot more like boundaries than bath salts. “As a mom it’s important to have boundaries with my kids when it comes to taking time for myself. That could look like only reading them one book because I want to take a long shower and get to bed early, or take 5-10 minutes to myself before embarking on the bedtime routine so that I am more patient.”
She’s been using Mrs. Meyer’s since college, so when the brand launched a diffuser it wasn’t a hard sell for her to come on board as a partner. “The atmosphere in our home affects everyone’s mood, and scent is always my first step in resetting the mindset at home,” she says.
The scent changes depending on what she needs. She reaches for Rain Water while she’s working because it makes her feel refreshed. And then it’s lavender once the day is done. She builds the rest of the evening around it: the kitchen gets a once-over, she makes tea, puts something calming on in the background and does her skincare. “It turns the end of the day into an intentional reset instead of just another task,” she says. Small, but it’s every night.
She’s also particular about what she lets into a home she’s worked hard to make feel like her own, which is part of what drew her to the diffuser specifically. “I’m such a big fan of functional adds that don’t make me compromise on design,” she says. Business doesn’t bend to aesthetics the same way.
The CEO Club has been a different kind of education. She came up as talent, where being likable was part of the job description and accommodation was how you got hired again. Entrepreneurship doesn’t operate that way. It also meant unlearning something she had relied on for years: the instinct to prioritize being liked. “So much of doing business is psychological and I wish I had understood that earlier in my career,” she says. “In business, relationships are often more transactional and shaped by power dynamics, and understanding that changed the way I navigate them.”
“I feel like I look anything but polished but at least I am trying,” she says. “I think we are going to see a lot more moments of trying versus the perfect finished product.”
Building a wellness brand means the expectation is that you have it figured out. Bronfman has spent enough time in that lane to know how the game works. The aesthetic is still there, the brand is still intact. But she’s also the person telling you she hasn’t made it to acupuncture in a month and only read her kid one book last night. “Every night I need to switch my vibe from work to home and there are messy moments that happen then as well.” The diffuser helps. The five minutes help. And maybe so does just saying it.
The post Hannah Bronfman Says She Had To Unlearn Being “Liked” To Succeed In Business appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-23T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/hannah-bronfman-business-being-liked/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-23T12:00:21.738Z"},{"id":"ji1ojq","archiveId":"20uhjc","slug":"her-colleague-released-an-islamophobic-campaign-ad-now-this-georgia-lawmaker-is-running-against-him","title":"Her colleague released an Islamophobic campaign ad. Now this Georgia lawmaker is running against him.","excerpt":"Nabilah Parkes was inside the state Senate chamber in Georgia when she first saw the video. Her Republican colleague, state Sen. Greg Dolezal, Nabilah Parkes was inside the state Senate chamber in Georgia when she first saw the video. Her Republican colleague, state Sen.","content":"
Nabilah Parkes was inside the state Senate chamber in Georgia when she first saw the video. Her Republican colleague, state Sen. Greg Dolezal, Nabilah Parkes was inside the state Senate chamber in Georgia when she first saw the video. Her Republican colleague, state Sen. Greg Dolezal, had just released a 30-second ad, reportedly made using AI , as part of his campaign for lieutenant governor that depicted Muslims terrorizing White Georgia residents and ended with the message: “Keep Georgia sharia free.” Shariah is the body of Islamic religious law.
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The caption for the campaign ad, posted on social media earlier this month, said: “London has fallen. Europe is under siege. In America, the invaders who would rather pillage our generosity than assimilate are roaming Minnesota, New York, and LA. As Lt. Governor, I will fight the enemy before they’re within the gates and keep Georgia safe and Sharia free.”
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Parkes, a Democratic state senator at the time, said she immediately turned around, went over to Dolezal’s desk and asked him, “What is this?”
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“He refused to look at me and just looked down as if he was in shame,” Parkes said. “It was such a hateful, racist, Islamophobic video that he even came to my desk the next day and said, ‘Feel free to take a shot at me’ — as if he wanted me to even the score.”
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Parkes took the shot and decided to run against him. If she wins, she would be Georgia’s first Muslim lieutenant governor.
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“This type of hate, this type of Islamophobia, this type of racism has no place in the state legislature, no place in Georgia politics, no place in general,” Parkes said.
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Georgia state Sen. Greg Dolezal speaks with reporters at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta. Dolezal released a campaign ad that depicted Muslims as a threat and included the message “Keep Georgia sharia free.”\n (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP) \n\n\n\n
About one week after she saw the video, Parkes resigned her seat in the state senate. She is running for lieutenant governor alongside Democrats Josh McLaurin and Richard Wright. There are eight candidates in the race for the Republican nomination: Dolezal, David Clark, Steve Gooch, John Kennedy, Brenda Nelson-Porter, Takosha Swan, Blake Tillery and Jerry Timbs.
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In her resignation letter, Parkes wrote that the state Senate is a place where “good ideas go to die.” She said the state was being led by MAGA Republicans, including Dolezal and the current lieutenant governor, who brought “horrible” legislation that put disproportionate financial pressure on women, Black and Brown people and immigrant families. Because the state Senate is majority Republican, Parkes said the chamber “has no guardrails.”
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“These bills that keep coming into the legislature attack our immigrant communities, use us as scapegoats and are extremely xenophobic,” Parkes said.
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Dolezal’s campaign ad reflects a rise in Islamophobic rhetoric from prominent Republicans and a record-high number of discrimination complaints reported by Muslims, according to the latest data from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the country. Muslims make up about 1 percent of the U.S. adult population, according to the Pew Research Center .
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In early March, Republican Rep. Andy Ogles, who represents Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, said on social media that “Muslims don’t belong in American society.” Around the same time, Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama posted “the enemy is inside the gates” on social media atop an image from the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and an image of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s first Muslim mayor. Tuberville has previously claimed that Islam is a “death cult” and has called for the mass expulsion of Muslims from the country.
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Corey Saylor, the research and advocacy director at CAIR, said they received 8,683 claims of discrimination and bias — the highest number since the organization started tracking in 1997. After the Israel-Hamas conflict began in October 2023, Saylor said Muslim Americans saw a surge in Islamophobia that has remained at an all-time high.
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Nabilah Parkes speaks on the Senate floor at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta.\n (Courtesy of Nabilah Parkes Campaign) \n\n\n\n
While the initial complaints largely related to viewpoints, especially related to Palestine and protest participation, Saylor said he noticed a distinct shift in 2025. More complaints were coming in about incidents of bigotry, including attacks on Islamic religious principles and false allegations that Muslims were going to supplant the Constitution and take over the country.
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“The broader narrative of 2025 was powerful public officials telling us freedom comes with conditions,” Saylor said. “You can look the way they look, think the way they think, speak the words they approve of, come from the places they approve of — or else you don’t belong.”
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Islamophobia is not new, but Saylor said it feels like it’s “on steroids” with an energy he’s never seen before. And it feels different than the fallout from the 9/11 attacks, he added.
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Six days after 9/11, when Islamic extremists killed nearly 3,000 Americans and injured thousands more, then-President George W. Bush went to a mosque and called for civility toward Muslim Americans.
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“America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country,” said Bush, a Republican. “Muslims are doctors, lawyers, law professors, members of the military, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, moms and dads. And they need to be treated with respect.”
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But now, Republicans are taking a different approach. In December, U.S. Reps. Chip Roy and Keith Self, who represent districts in Texas, launched the Sharia-Free America Caucus. According to Self , the “American way of life is under siege by radicals from a culture waging war against our Constitution and Western values.” The congressional caucus has grown to include more than 50 Republican lawmakers across more than 20 states.
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U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill, a Republican member of the caucus who represents Texas’ 26th Congressional District, posted in February on social media: “Islam didn’t come to the United States on the Mayflower. We imported it relatively recently via a suicidal immigration system.”
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Saylor said it’s true that Islam didn’t arrive on the Mayflower, but it’s likely that Muslims arrived in America before then — on slave ships. Scholars estimate that between 10 and 40 percent of Africans enslaved and transported to the Americas were Muslim.
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In order to combat Islamophobia, Saylor said the two most effective avenues have been lawsuits and public pressure.
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“Freedom remains — legally, it’s still enshrined,” Saylor said. “More often what we saw is executive orders, proclamations, memos, investigative threats, withholding of money threats. So what is the solution? A very active defense of the community’s rights.”
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As one of only two Muslim state senators in Georgia and a daughter of immigrants, Parkes said she repeatedly pushed back against Republican-led legislation to advocate on behalf of immigrant communities.
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“If this is what politics has come to — that you have to throw whole communities underneath the bus to win power, then this is extremely problematic,” Parkes said. “So I’m running for office to give a voice to these marginalized communities. Stop picking on us. We are part of this fabric of Georgia that makes this state great.”
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Georgia’s population is becoming increasingly diverse: In 2010, about 56 percent of the state was White and by 2022, that number decreased to 50 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau . And in 2024, about 1 in 8 Georgia residents was an immigrant.
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Parkes, now 36, said she did not see this level of Islamophobia when she was growing up, including in the years shortly after 9/11. Now, she’s heard from Muslim students in public schools that they’re anxious, being bullied and being called terrorists.
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“What’s heartbreaking is as a child, I did not experience this,” Parkes said. “And now my relatives experience this in school, and that’s unacceptable. We’ve gone backwards.”
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Parkes said she’s especially concerned about Muslim women in her community who often wear head coverings that make them a more visible target for Islamophobic vitriol. Parkes said her grandma wears a burka and her mom and aunts wear hijabs, so she worries about what will happen if they are attacked without anyone to defend them.
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“I want to be able to protect our communities,” Parkes said. “I want to be able to show to these Republicans who are passing these bills left and right that there is a real person behind these bills. They are real people. Just because you may not interact with them in your social circles. We exist.”
","category":"politics","author":"Mariel Padilla","publishDate":"2026-03-23T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/nabilah-parkes-2.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/nabilah-parkes-georgia-lieutenant-governor-race-islamophobia/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-23T12:00:17.938Z"},{"id":"8ltp64","archiveId":"fvfmxx","slug":"trump-has-detained-the-parents-of-more-than-11000-us-citizen-kids","title":"Trump Has Detained the Parents of More Than 11,000 U.S. Citizen Kids","excerpt":"The post Trump Has Detained the Parents of More Than 11,000 U.S. Citizen Kids appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"
The baby needed somewhere to go. So in the frantic hours before officers took her parents away to immigration detention, her mom turned to their pastor and his wife. As squad cars waited outside the family’s Lakeland, Florida, trailer home, she gave them a crash course in how to care for the 4-month-old.
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Briany, with her plump cheeks and full head of dark hair, wasn’t normally this fussy. But it was late that January night — around midnight — and she was still hungry. Her mom, Doris Flores, had tried nursing her to calm her down. It didn’t work. When she brought Briany to her breast, the milk wouldn’t come. Flores thought it had to do with the panic that set in after the officers arrested the baby’s father and told her she was next.
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The baby also drank formula. The pastor and his wife, who’d never had children of their own, should take her bottles and the yellow cans of formula, too, and follow the instructions on the label. They should use distilled water, never from the tap. Briany drank 5 ounces at each feeding. She needed to eat every two to two-and-a-half hours.
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She was almost due for her next round of vaccinations. She was getting big enough for Size 3 diapers. What made her happiest was to be held in someone’s arms.
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The Rev. Israel Vázquez, 58, soft-spoken with close-cropped hair, had held Briany before, when he formally presented the baby to God in a ceremony at his Pentecostal church in Lakeland. If he and his wife, a fellow pastor at the church, didn’t take the girls in, they would have to go into foster care. “What else could we do?” he said.
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\nThe Rev. Israel Vázquez and his wife, the Rev. Raysa Vázquez, assumed care in January for 4-month-old American citizen Briany after her parents were taken into immigration detention. Jennifer Ortiz for ProPublica \n\n\n\n
The baby’s half-sister would be easier for the older couple to take care of. Eight-year-old Briana was quiet and humble. She preferred speaking in English rather than Spanish. Her favorite color was blue.
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Deputies from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office helped load a baby stroller and bouncy swing into the couple’s car. Then the officers, employed by one of the hundreds of Florida agencies carrying out immigration enforcement for the Trump administration, handcuffed a sobbing Flores.
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Incidents like this, involving the arrest and detention of immigrant parents with American citizen children, occurred twice as often after President Donald Trump returned to office, according to an analysis of a new nationwide Immigration and Customs Enforcement dataset shared exclusively with ProPublica. In the first seven months of his second term, authorities arrested and detained parents of at least 11,000 U.S. citizen children — a number that, if the pace held up, will have roughly doubled by now. That’s an average of more than 50 U.S. citizen kids a day with a parent pulled into detention.
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The data underlying this analysis was obtained by the University of Washington Center for Human Rights as part of an ongoing public records lawsuit . It covers the last three years of the Joe Biden administration and the Trump administration until mid-August 2025.
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Under Trump, Arrests of Immigrant Parents With U.S.-Born Children Surged \n\n\n\n
ICE arrests of parents doubled in the first seven months of Trump’s second term compared with the Biden administration.
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Note: Arrest figures for both administrations represent an undercount due to data limitations. See our methodology for more details. Source: ProPublica analysis of ICE data obtained by the University of Washington Center for Human Rights. Chris Alcantara/ProPublica \n\n\n\n
The differences between the fates of detained immigrant parents under the two presidents are stark, our analysis shows. The impact on mothers is particularly pronounced. Trump is deporting about four times as many moms of U.S. citizen children per day as Biden did.
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Immigration authorities are arresting more of these moms in the first place, but that doesn’t account for all of the surge in deportations. If arrested, they are seldom allowed to return home to their families anymore. About 30% of such arrests under Biden resulted in a deportation. Under Trump, almost 60% resulted in a deportation.
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Compared with the Biden administration, Trump officials are detaining many more parents with only minor criminal histories or none at all . Under Trump, more than half of the detained fathers of American citizen kids, and about three quarters of the mothers, had no criminal convictions in the United States except for traffic- or immigration-related offenses.
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Immigrant Mothers of U.S. Citizen Children Are Released Less Often During Trump’s Administration \n\n\n\n
ProPublica compared what happened to U.S. citizen children’s mothers arrested during the same seven-month period — Jan. 20 through Aug. 20 — in 2024 (under Biden) and 2025 (under Trump), looking at over 1,000 cases. About a third of the arrests made during the Biden administration led to a deportation. Under Trump, that rate doubled.
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Note: Outcomes for arrests under Biden were measured as of October 15, 2024. Outcomes for arrests under Trump were measured on the same date in 2025. Arrest and outcome figures for both administrations represent an undercount due to data limitations. See our methodology for more details. Sources: ProPublica analysis of ICE data obtained by the University of Washington Center for Human Rights and the Deportation Data Project. Chris Alcantara/ProPublica \n\n\n\n
While thousands of children who aren’t U.S. citizens are also caught up in the administration’s crackdown — some of them detained with their parents , others by themselves — families with mixed citizenship can be uniquely difficult to keep together. American-born kids like Briany can’t legally join their parents in immigrant detention. So some end up in the care of friends or strangers.
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Current and former officials from the Department of Homeland Security said such separations are not necessarily a violation of policy. Instead, guidelines on the way officers should exercise discretion have changed. Among the changes: A document once known as the Parental Interests Directive has been given a new name under Trump — the Detained Parents Directive . And its preamble, which once instructed agents to handle immigrant parents in a way that was “humane,” has been stripped of the word.
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John Sandweg, who oversaw ICE when the original directive was adopted under President Barack Obama, said, “Back then, we were operating from a lens that family unity is everything.” Tom Homan, then a top ICE official and now Trump’s border czar, introduced the directive to field offices around the country. If agents encountered parents, the directive would help them enforce immigration laws without “unnecessarily undermining their parental rights,” according to his August 2013 talking points, which were obtained by ProPublica.
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Now, Sandweg and the other former officials said, the second Trump administration has put aggressive enforcement goals like arresting 3,000 immigrants a day above concerns about the harms of hastily separating children from their parents.
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ProPublica sent detailed questions about our findings to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in an emailed statement that the agency “cannot verify the veracity of the data” that ProPublica analyzed. (We validated the data, which the agency provided via Freedom of Information Act requests, and our approach with outside experts.) Bis also said in the statement, “ICE does not separate families.”
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Immigrant parents can choose to leave the country with their children or to designate someone to care for them, Bis said, which “is consistent with past administration’s policies.” The revised directive “simply standardizes the required forms.” She added that “under President Trump, ICE will not ignore the rule of law.”
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A White House spokesperson wrote in a statement that those in the country illegally “who wish to avoid the deportation process should self-deport.”
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U.S. citizen children board a van in early February before taking a flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Guatemala, to be reunited with parents who were deported. Boyzell Hosey/ProPublica \n\n\n\n
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The unraveling of Flores’ family began with another kid’s alleged threat against 8-year-old Briana.
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According to a Jan. 15 police report, the girl’s school bus driver had contacted the Polk County Sheriff’s Office after Briana claimed a student at her elementary school, a boy with blond hair and blue eyes, had threatened to kill her.
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The sheriff’s office dispatched a deputy to the family’s mobile home, where she introduced herself to Flores and her fiance, Egdulio Velasquez, and asked to speak with Briana. The 8-year-old was “timid,” according to the police report, and initially denied any trouble with fellow students. The family said that the deputy questioned Briana alone outside the trailer. Eventually, the girl let on that her classmate had indeed been bothering her, poking her in the back and face with his fingers — but did not say the boy had threatened to kill her, according to the police report.
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The deputy went to the classmate’s house, and the boy told her it was Briana who had made the threats. He said she had pointed a broken pencil at him. The deputy filled out two threat assessment forms, one for the boy, one for the girl, noting that she hadn’t checked the boy’s home for firearms because his “father was uncooperative” but had searched Briana’s trailer.
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“I was unable to determine probable cause,” the deputy wrote in her report. She would have to drop the case. But her investigation had turned up something else: Flores and Velasquez were both immigrants from Honduras.
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A second sheriff’s deputy arrived at the trailer not long after and took their passports. According to police records, he then called an ICE hotline, a requirement stemming from Florida’s close cooperation with the agency. An operator told him that both parents had deportation orders: Velasquez from a DUI conviction and Flores from a missed asylum hearing.
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Flores said she had missed the hearing because of computer issues and was trying to appeal the ruling. She’d crossed the border into the United States and applied for asylum in 2023, after a man in Honduras had threatened to kill her. DHS’ Bis confirmed that Flores entered the country in 2023 and had a deportation order issued in May 2025.
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Flores had met Velasquez, who is from the same rural Honduran province of Olancho, in the United States. Briana, his daughter from a previous relationship, was born in Honduras. The family built a life together in Lakeland, where he worked in a factory that built shipping pallets, and they became members of Vázquez’s church.
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A third squad car appeared outside the trailer. The officers arrested Velasquez first, keeping him handcuffed in the back of one of the cars for hours. But before they could arrest Flores, they needed to figure out what to do with the kids.
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“Don’t be like this,” Flores recalled saying to the officers as she held baby Briany. “My girl needs me.” She said they told her they were just doing their jobs. She said she prayed to God: “Lord, I’m putting everything in your hands.”
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According to Flores and Velasquez, one of the deputies took a liking to a family kitten and offered to take it home with him. Velasquez said he later saw the kitten clinging to the officer’s pants.
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The Polk County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to specific questions about the incident, instead sending an emailed statement that outlined its state-mandated cooperation with federal immigration authorities .
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It was close to 11 p.m. when an investigator from Florida’s child protective services finally arrived, the family said. She informed Flores that if she couldn’t find someone to take the children, the state would place them in the foster care system. So Flores called her pastor.
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Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd recently began calling for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who have committed no crimes and have strong community ties. A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office wrote in the statement to ProPublica that deputies do not make any decisions on who to detain — they report suspects to ICE, and ICE makes the decision.
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But she noted they now make an effort to determine citizenship status.
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“Nothing has changed in how we deliver day-to-day law enforcement services in our community,” she wrote, “other than asking everyone with whom we interact their place of birth.”
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\nProPublica’s reporting shows that the parents of at least 11,000 U.S. citizen children were arrested and detained in the first seven months of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. First image: Two volunteers place a 2-year-old American child in a car so he can be reunited with his mother, who is from Honduras and awaits deportation at the Dilley, Texas, family detention center. Second image: Two American children, left, talk on the phone with their father, who is detained at “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida after being arrested on Christmas. First image: Christopher Lee for ProPublica. Second image: Michelle Bruzzese for ProPublica. \n\n\n\n
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Federal policy still says ICE officers should ask people they arrest if they are the parents or legal guardians of minors — and if they are, they should be allowed to make arrangements for the children’s care. The Trump administration’s July revision to this directive, the one that removed the word “humane” from the preamble, also added a new line. It specifies that the directive “in no way limits the ability of ICE personnel to make enforcement decisions on a case-by-case basis.”
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In practice, instances when parents are spared are becoming increasingly rare, said Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, a former ICE official who oversaw implementation of the directive at ICE during the Obama and first Trump administrations. “It may happen on a case-by-case basis because an officer in and of himself has humanity,” he said.
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ProPublica followed multiple families through their sudden separations — examining the moment itself and its aftermath — and found a wide variety of outcomes for the children.
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Fernanda, a Florida restaurant worker, made an agonizing decision after the father of her children was arrested and deported: She would send their toddler son and 4-year-old daughter to Guatemala to live with him. She feared it was only a matter of time until immigration agents came knocking on her door. She didn’t want the children, both U.S. citizens, to be stranded.
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Fernanda asked to be identified by only her middle name because of her immigration status. The Guatemalan-Maya Center, a nonprofit, helped her take the kids to the Fort Lauderdale airport in early February, the little boy dressed in a Spider-Man outfit, the little girl in a CoComelon sweatshirt and pink hat, and put them on a plane.
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Griselda, a single mom originally from Honduras, had to leave her young daughters with their babysitter for four months. She said she was getting a ride to a housepainting job in Melbourne, Florida, when the car’s brakes failed and it crashed into a stop sign. Police officers showed up, she said, then called ICE.
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A domestic abuse survivor who asked to be identified by only her first name, Griselda said she told the officers, then ICE, about her children, but she was sent out of state to be detained in Dilley, Texas, without them. Griselda was desperate to reunite with her 4-year-old, who was born in Mexico during her journey to the southwest border, and her 1-year-old, who is a U.S. citizen. She said she decided not to file an appeal after a judge denied her asylum claim and that an ICE agent and a social worker were dispatched to Florida to retrieve the girls. Then, she said, she and her daughters were escorted to the border to cross on foot into Mexico — where they knew no one and had no money.
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A DHS spokesperson confirmed that the family was sent to Mexico together.
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A deported father holds his 4-year-old daughter at La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City. Their mother, Fernanda, decided to send her two children, both U.S. citizens, to Guatemala to live with him after he was deported, fearing the same would happen to her. Daniele Volpe for ProPublica \n\n\n\n
Mauricio Ayala, a 24-year-old engineer working at a firm in downtown Seattle, called 911 after immigration agents arrested his dad last April. “My father has been illegally detained,” he told the dispatcher nervously, stumbling over his words. “A bunch of masked men in unmarked vehicles pulled up and detained him.” (A DHS spokesperson wrote in a statement that “our officers verbally identify themselves” and wear badges and vests that display their agency name.)
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His dad, a roofer, had been swept up in one of the first large-scale workplace raids of the new Trump administration. It was the beginning of a role reversal for Ayala, his college-age sister and his brother, a high school senior. All citizens, they would be the ones supporting their parents. Their mom had been forced to leave the country after an immigration arrest over a decade ago, Ayala said, but officers didn’t arrest his dad at the time because there were young children in the home. His dad was found guilty of reckless driving in 2015 but had no other criminal convictions that we could find in the United States. But now, as the siblings entered adulthood, their dad would be deported, too.
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To cut costs and send money to his parents in Mexico, Ayala moved from his Seattle apartment back into the trailer his dad owned in a smaller city 90 minutes away. His sister did the same. Their little brother picked up part-time jobs.
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Maria Magdalena Callejas, her boyfriend and her 14-year-old son were detained in Texas while on a road trip last spring. She called a friend back home in California who she’d asked to watch her two younger children — both U.S. citizens — until her return. She begged the friend to take care of them for even longer.
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Callejas’ boyfriend was deported. She and her older son, Edwin, were held in family detention, where he said he was stressed because it felt like a prison. He said he lost 10 pounds in a week after he got sick. He was so despondent, his mother said, that she felt her only option was to allow them to be sent back to El Salvador, a country Edwin left when he was 5. (ICE has said conditions in its facilities are safe for families and that everyone is provided proper medical care.)
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Callejas said she agreed to return to El Salvador only because she understood that her 6-year-old and 4-year-old would be allowed to join her and their older brother.
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The kids’ father had previously pleaded no contest to domestic battery and had a restraining order placed against him, which allowed brief supervised visitation. (Attorneys for both parents said Callejas allowed him to spend time with the kids despite the order.) When he found out their mom had been deported, he opposed the children leaving the country and decided to fight for custody. Since Callejas’ deportation, the children have been with a caretaker, and a judge has allowed their father more time with them, according to lawyers for both parents. The result: a monthslong battle in a Los Angeles court — with Callejas attending hearings virtually from El Salvador.
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Israel and Raysa Vázquez check in at the passport agency in Miami, seeking an emergency infant passport for Briany. Jennifer Ortiz for ProPublica \n\n\n\n
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Back in Lakeland, Israel Vázquez takes no credit for feeding the baby that first night or the ones after. “That girl can drink milk!” he said. His wife, the Rev. Raysa Vázquez, woke up every couple of hours and tended to Briany, sitting with her in the brown recliner in the living room, rocking her back to sleep.
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They did not know how long the girls would be with them. They decided 8-year-old Briana should stay at the same elementary school, to keep her with her friends and teacher. They drove around 45 minutes round trip to the school every day.
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Meanwhile, the girls’ parents bounced among hold rooms, jails and detention centers. In detention, Flores said, she began to suffer a painful swelling, which she believed could have been mastitis brought on by her inability to nurse her baby. Her chest became hot to the touch, her whole body feverish. The fever lasted a week.
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The couple wanted to do whatever they could to make the girls feel at home. But they also wanted to make sure the girls could be reunited with their parents. If Flores and Velasquez were going to be deported, the pastors wanted the girls to go with them. And to go with them, Briany would need a passport. The pastors would have to get both parents’ signatures while they were in detention.
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Briany was sitting on Raysa’s lap as they watched TV in the living room, babbling along as she listened to the couple talk, when Israel’s phone rang. It was an ICE deportation officer. He said Flores would be removed from the country soon and the window for getting her daughters on a plane with her was closing. He offered to help the Vázquezes get the parents’ signatures and said ICE would bring Flores to Tampa.
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The next day, they drove to a government office in Tampa to get Flores’ signature, where the girls were allowed to see and hug her. She let out a loud scream and started weeping at the sight of the children. In Mississippi, volunteers rushed to the detention center where Velasquez was being held and got his signature, too.
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The couple drove Briany to Miami a few days later and picked up her passport. Then they brought the girls to the Tampa airport.
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They met Flores at the terminal. She was clad in a sweatshirt and bleary from the early hour. Israel handed over the diaper bag he’d been carrying around and the baby’s bottles. Flores’ fiance would be deported a few weeks later on a separate flight to Honduras. Her eldest child, a son from a previous relationship who had to go live with his father after she was arrested, would remain in the U.S. So for now it was just Flores and the two girls. They posed for a photo, then said goodbye.
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Briany’s family is now back together and living in the town of San José in rural Honduras. Daniele Volpe for ProPublica \n\n\n\n
The family now lives at Velasquez’s father’s house in the town of San José, deep in rural Honduras. The baby no longer breastfeeds. She hasn’t since the night deputies separated her from her mother. “I brought her to my breast,” Flores said, “but she doesn’t want it anymore.”
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Briany’s preferred formula costs too much for the family to afford. To keep the baby fed, they rely again on their church. A box of it recently arrived, enough to last several weeks, sent by the Vázquezes and their Lakeland congregation.
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Doris Flores with Briana and Briany at their new home in Honduras Daniele Volpe for ProPublica \n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
How We Measured Separations of Families with U.S. Citizen Children \n\n\n\n
Ours is the most detailed accounting to date of the U.S. citizen children whose immigrant parents have been arrested, detained and in many cases deported. Underlying the analysis is a database of ICE I-213 records obtained by the University of Washington. Immigration agents fill out Form I-213 when they arrest someone alleging they are in the country without permission. Among other pieces of information, it records the citizenship and number of minor children of each arrestee.
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The data appears to contain arrests only by ICE and does not cover arrests by Customs and Border Protection. It covers late 2021 to mid-August 2025. We used this data to calculate the number of parents of U.S. citizen children arrested each day.
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To learn what happened to parents after they were arrested by ICE, including detention, final release from ICE custody in the United States or removal from the country, we combined the I-213 data with records from the Deportation Data Project , which covers late 2023 to mid-October 2025. The I-213 dataset contains about 17% fewer arrests by ICE in any given month than the Deportation Data Project’s arrest dataset.
\n\n\n\n
We were able to combine these two datasets using fields common to both of them, including date of arrest, gender, age, nationality, location and method of arrest. We matched about 85% of the arrests in the I-213 data to a unique record in the ICE arrest and detention data. (An additional 7% had multiple possible matches, so we did not include them, and about 7% had no possible match. These rates were similar across presidential administrations.)
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We used the overlapping 85% to make statements about the number of U.S. citizen children who had a parent arrested and detained by ICE since Trump returned to office and about the criminal status of their parents. We also used these combined records to compare how their mothers were treated differently by the Trump and Biden administrations.
\n\n\n\n
To calculate that more than 11,000 U.S. citizen children had a parent arrested and detained by ICE, we counted only children of fathers. We did this to avoid double-counting children in cases where both parents were detained, and fathers made up a large majority of the parents detained. We were limited to the first seven months of Trump’s second term, the time period covered in the I-213 data. If a father was arrested and detained more than once under Trump, we counted that father’s children only once. All other calculations were performed at the arrest level, meaning that in a very small number of instances, the same parent could be included more than once for each time they were arrested, detained, released or removed.
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The government cannot legally detain U.S. citizen children with their parents or deport them. According to immigration experts and current and former officials, the arrest and detention of parents of U.S. citizens often leads to a family separation, even if it’s brief.
\n\n\n\n
We counted a parent as having been detained by ICE if they were booked into a facility for any length of time according to the Deportation Data Project’s detention records. In a very small minority of cases during the Trump administration, parents were released from ICE custody in less than a few days. This was more common under Biden. When we calculated the criminal history of parents arrested and detained by ICE, we relied on the criminal charges in these detention records.
\n\n\n\n
To calculate that Trump has deported mothers of U.S. citizen children at four times the rate that Biden did, we calculated the total number of mothers removed under each administration in the period covered by our data and divided by the number of days each president was in office during that period. We used the period from November 2023 through mid-August 2025 to minimize undercounting at the start and end of our detention dataset. We also compared equivalent seven-month periods in 2024 and 2025, which produced a similar result. For the purposes of our analysis, we counted a small number of detained mothers who agreed to leave the country voluntarily as having been deported.
\n\n\n\n
Validating Our Approach \n\n\n\n
We verified our matches between the two data sources in several ways. First, there were three fields in the I-213 data that were in other parts of the Deportation Data Project data but not used as part of the linkage process: marital status, processing disposition and date of entry. For records we linked that contained values in those fields (some were empty in one or both datasets), we found that those data points matched more than 98% of the time.
\n\n\n\n
Next, we checked to make sure that there were no systematic differences in which ICE arrests appeared in the I-213 dataset compared to those contained in the Deportation Data Project records. We checked to make sure that women and men were equally represented, the different ICE field offices were equally represented, nationalities were equally represented, etc. We found no appreciable difference between the two datasets.
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We also compared records for which we found a match between the two datasets to records that had no match and found no strong patterns suggesting systematic differences between the two.
\n\n\n\n
ICE publishes the number of parents of U.S. citizens arrested on its detention management website and in reports to Congress. We compared our analysis against these numbers and found that for fiscal years 2023 and 2024, our data showed about 15% fewer such parents arrested by ICE than the official statistics noted. We do not know exactly why this is, although it is in line with how many fewer I-213 records we have than there are arrest records in the Deportation Data Project.
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We ran our findings and methodology by Phil Neff, a researcher at the University of Washington Center for Human Rights and Joseph Gunther, a mathematician who researches immigration-related datasets and former ICE officials.
\n\n\n\n
We also were able to link some of the data to leaked ICE flight manifests, which allowed us in some cases to find the full names — redacted in most of the other data — of some of the deported parents. In a handful of those cases, we found their phone numbers or those of family members, and we reached out to hear their stories.
\n\n\n\n
We conducted interviews in Spanish and English with close to two dozen detained or deported parents or their relatives or lawyers. We also spoke with nonprofits like the American Friends Service Committee and Each Step Home, which assist immigrant families — including Flores’ family — after they are separated.
\n\n\n\n
The parents we followed through the arrest process were originally from a range of mostly Latin American countries: Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and Ecuador. They and their children had made lives in all corners of the United States, including California, Washington state, New York, Massachusetts and Florida. Most of the parents we interviewed were moms.
\n
The post Trump Has Detained the Parents of More Than 11,000 U.S. Citizen Kids appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"immigration","author":"Jeff Ernsthausen","publishDate":"2026-03-23T09:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260202-Ortiz-ICE-Kids-262_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=752","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-family-deportations-ice-citizen-kids","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-23T12:00:19.376Z"},{"id":"xbanos","archiveId":"g3m02c","slug":"prevent-and-protect-a-looming-crisis-as-hiv-treatment-cuts-threaten-black-communities","title":"Prevent And Protect: A Looming Crisis As HIV Treatment Cuts Threaten Black Communities","excerpt":"In recent months, HIV policy shifts have been quietly unfolding across the United States, and advocates warn the consequences could be devastating. As of March 2026, at least 18 states […] The post Prevent And Protect: A Looming Crisis As HIV Treatment Cuts Threaten Black Communities appeared first ...","content":"
Updated March 22, 2026 Getting your
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In recent months, HIV policy shifts have been quietly unfolding across the United States, and advocates warn the consequences could be devastating.
As of March 2026, at least 18 states have already reduced or restricted access to AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP), with five more states considering similar changes, according to public health advocates and data from the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD).
The programs, funded through the federal Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, help people living with HIV afford life-saving medications that can cost tens of thousands of dollars each year. For roughly 300,000 Americans living with HIV (about a quarter of the nation’s HIV-positive population), ADAP programs are often the last line of defense for treatment access.
David J. Johns, Ph.D., the CEO and executive director of the National Black Justice Collective (NBJC), says the changes could interrupt treatment for thousands of people across the country.
“There are 18 states that have already adopted what they’re calling cost-cutting changes to their HIV drug assistance programs,” Johns tells ESSENCE. “And there are five more states that we know of that are considering similar steps.”
Among the states implementing restrictions are Florida, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Delaware, Rhode Island, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Alaska and Oklahoma, with additional states exploring similar policy shifts.
“These changes are essentially making it harder for people to qualify for assistance to afford drugs that have increased significantly in cost,” Johns says.
One of the biggest concerns resulting from these policy changes is the soaring cost of HIV medications.
Biktarvy, currently the most widely prescribed HIV medication in the United States, now costs about $61,000 per year at wholesale, according to Johns.
“And I know a whole lot of Black folks—and non-Black folks—who don’t make $60,000 a year,” he says.
At the same time, enrollment in ADAP programs has surged roughly 30 percent in recent years, according to advocates, partly because many Americans lost Medicaid coverage when pandemic-era protections expired.
The expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits at the end of 2025 also drove insurance costs higher. Average ACA premiums rose roughly 26 percent between 2025 and 2026, leaving more people unable to afford coverage.
Meanwhile, federal funding for the Ryan White program has remained largely flat for more than a decade, even as medication and care costs have climbed.
“The federal government has been investing in the same level of funding while the cost for drugs and care have increased,” Johns says. “This is a policy decision that elected leaders are making. And Black communities disproportionately are paying for it with our lives.”
Advocates say the ripple effects of these cuts will fall hardest on communities already disproportionately impacted by HIV.
Black Americans represent more than 40 percent of new HIV diagnoses despite making up just 13 percent of the U.S. population.
The disparities are particularly stark for Black women and Black transgender women .
“Black women account for more than 50 percent of all new diagnoses,” Johns shares. “Black trans women account for 46 percent of new HIV diagnoses.”
Geography also plays a major role. Many of the states implementing restrictions are in the South, where HIV rates remain among the highest in the country and where most Black Americans live.
“In the South in particular, Black women’s HIV rates are 14% higher than white women’s,” he says.
Black same-gender-loving men also remain among the groups most affected by the epidemic. According to national data, 35 percent of all new HIV diagnoses occur among Black same-gender-loving men.
Despite these risks, Black Americans remain underrepresented among people using preventive medications such as stigma in Black communities .
Johns also encourages readers to stay informed and engaged with ongoing policy conversations.
“The math doesn’t math,” he says. “In a country that has the resources to end the HIV epidemic, choosing not to fund treatment is a political decision.”
TOPICS:
HIV Prevent and Protect The post Prevent And Protect: A Looming Crisis As HIV Treatment Cuts Threaten Black Communities appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Victoria Uwumarogie","publishDate":"2026-03-22T16:03:31.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1668020274-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/hiv-treatment-cuts/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-22T18:00:36.336Z"},{"id":"qxsyr","archiveId":"44s1gu","slug":"where-are-all-the-good-swim-shorts-for-women-we-found-them","title":"Where Are All The Good Swim Shorts For Women? We Found Them.","excerpt":"Because sometimes you want actual coverage ... and pockets.","content":"","category":"equality","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-03-22T11:00:17.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/67c7d0a01600001400c51b10.png?cache=OMU0LfDULN&ops=1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/best-swim-shorts-for-women-ud_l_69bd8242e4b01c6ce88578da","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-22T12:00:15.692Z"},{"id":"jc163y","archiveId":"t3fykh","slug":"this-sex-position-reliably-gets-women-off-and-you-may-not-have-heard-of-it","title":"This Sex Position Reliably Gets Women Off, And You May Not Have Heard Of It","excerpt":"All the NSFW details on how to do this position, according to sex therapists.","content":"","category":"equality","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-03-22T11:00:17.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5af369bf1a00004400cde355.jpeg?cache=IxnPmswdn6&ops=1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/this-sex-position-reliably-gets-women-off-and-you-may-not-have-heard-of-it-goog_l_69bc0e6be4b0bb6debb79cd8","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-22T12:00:15.692Z"},{"id":"8pajk3","archiveId":"m7y1ur","slug":"netflix-documentary-inside-the-manosphere-exposes-a-digital-pipeline-to-misogyny","title":"Netflix Documentary ‘Inside the Manosphere’ Exposes a Digital Pipeline to Misogyny","excerpt":"On March 11, Netflix released Inside the Manosphere , a new documentary by Louis Theroux that hit the No. 1 spot on Netflix. It is an uncomfortable but necessary examination of how the manoverse—a loose conglomeration of men’s rights and red pill influencers, podcasters and politicians—exploits and ...","content":"
On March 11, Netflix released Inside the Manosphere , a new documentary by Louis Theroux that hit the No. 1 spot on Netflix. It is an uncomfortable but necessary examination of how the manoverse—a loose conglomeration of men’s rights and red pill influencers, podcasters and politicians—exploits and harms young boys and teenagers.
\n
At the heart of the documentary is a profound inequity in the influencer space between the experiences and expectations of men and women. While the male content creators are eager to proclaim traditional values, they exalt “one-sided monogamy,” where they expect women to remain loyal to them (“my wife doesn’t talk to any men”) while they have multiple partners. While they shame women who do sex work on OnlyFans, one of the influencers, Harrison Sullivan, funds an OnlyFans creator house. His excuses—that it's just business, that he would never allow his own daughter to do OnlyFans—attempts to create distance and deniability between him and his commercial choices and consequences.
\n
A majority of the influencers Theroux speaks to seem to be aware of the harm they cause. Sullivan even warns Theroux that young teenage boys should not be watching their content, and blames the parents that would allow their children to consume this content. Several seconds later, we see the influencer taking photos with young fans.
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What’s worse is witnessing how damaging the manosphere rhetoric is to men.
\n
When content creator Justin Waller meets up with two of his fans on the street, one of them shares, “He’s one of my greatest role models,” and when asked what he has learned from Waller and others’ content says, “Life as a man, you’re born without value. We have to build that value.” Waller jumps in and says that women are born with value because of their beauty but “nobody’s gonna invite him on a trip to Miami. … He has to be valuable to other men.”
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How devastating that these men are raised not just to accept, but to thank, influencers and content creators that tell them they are born without inherent value.
\n
The post Netflix Documentary ‘Inside the Manosphere’ Exposes a Digital Pipeline to Misogyny appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Emma Cieslik","publishDate":"2026-03-22T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/69b57466151f193063e0e26a_Screenshot-2026-03-13-at-18.39.40.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/22/inside-the-manosphere-social-media-louis-theroux/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-22T12:00:13.046Z"},{"id":"qgjmhf","archiveId":"dvjrm7","slug":"celebrate-black-joy-this-week8217s-best-uplifting-moments","title":"Celebrate Black Joy : This Week’s Best Uplifting Moments","excerpt":"These days, it is easy to feel like the world is on fire: all of our bills are too high, we’re at war with Iran, the government is…Well, you know […] The post Celebrate Black Joy : This Week’s Best Uplifting Moments appeared first on Essence .","content":"
Bryce Harris #34 of the Howard Bison celebrates his three-point basket against the Michigan Wolverines. / (Photo by Ishika Samant/Getty Images)
By
Bridgette Bartlett Royall ·
Updated March 21, 2026 Getting your
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These days, it is easy to feel like the world is on fire: all of our bills are too high , we’re at war with Iran , the government is…Well, you know how stressful politics are right now. Our news cycle usually feels like one sad or depressing story after another. But, there is still an abundance of Black joy and Black excellence in our midst. So we’ve gathered up some of the week’s most cheerful news to help take your happy meter up a notch. Enjoy and be sure to share this story in your favorite group chat. Every last one of us can use more joy in our lives!
The Mecca Scores Big at March Madness: Howard University (also known as “The Mecca” made history in the 2026 NCAA Tournament. The storied HBCU secured their first-ever tournament win by defeating University of Maryland at Baltimore County 86-83 in the First Four on March 17. The Bison, led by coach Kenneth Blakeney, appeared as a Number 16 seed before falling to top-seeded Michigan 101-80 in the first round. Still, we salute the players for their historic win. Blakeney said of players Bryce Howard (pictured above) and Ose Okojie, “I’m so proud of these guys and I love them so much.”
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cheryl Wills. (@cherylwills_ny1)
Dancing Like Everyone’s Watching at 100: A Queens, NY woman, Norma Hyatt, just celebrated her 100th birthday by dancing to Bob Marley surrounded by friends and family. Hyatt immigrated to the United States from Kingston, Jamaica in 1955 and worked as a lab technician for 34 years. During her fete, Hyatt was presented with a Citation of Honor from Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. Hyatt shared words of wisdom about living a long life with guests including, “Love your neighbors.”
Not Your Average Tee Shirts: New Edition (who is currently on tour with Boyz II Men and Toni Braxton ), recently made a few enterprising men in Philadelphia very happy. NE member Michael Bivins and a few other members of the legendary R&B group pulled up on some guys in their tour bus in Philly who were selling bootleg New Edition merch. Michael purchased a few to support their hustle. Gotta love when cooperative economics plays out in real life!
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pantora Bridal (@pantorabridal)
Bridal Bliss in B-More: Pantora Bridal , a sophisticated and stylish Black woman owned company that has thriving Brooklyn, NY location, recently opened a second brick and mortar boutique in Baltimore, Maryland. Pantora owner Andrea Pitter said of her expansion on Instagram , “For years, the DMV has shown up for this brand in a real way, building community with us even when we didn’t have a physical home here. To now plant roots here and serve this community in creative ways, means everything to me.”
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Michelle Obama (@michelleobama)
Michelle “Mo” Obama x Monica “Mo” Arnold Meet Up: Iconic R&B songstress Monica was a guest this week on the IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson podcast. The sit-down between our Forever Flotus and Monica was giving big sis and lil’ sis kekeing over brunch with bottomless mimosas. The mother of three opened up on the podcast about her love life, making history with Brandy, toting firearms (Yes, you read right.) and aging with gratitude. We love! (You can catch Monica performing this summer at the Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans .)
TOPICS:
black joy black joy matters celebrating black joy
The post Celebrate Black Joy : This Week’s Best Uplifting Moments appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Bridgette Bartlett","publishDate":"2026-03-21T18:42:08.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2267551797-Cropped-1-1-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/community/celebrate-black-joy-this-weeks-best-moments/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-22T00:00:31.351Z"},{"id":"ipncxs","archiveId":"fju2rm","slug":"4-beauty-experts-share-their-wellness-practices","title":"4 Beauty Experts Share Their Wellness Practices","excerpt":"With therapy stigmatized and wellness seen as a privilege, mental health is often left untreated in the Black community. Despite Black people being 20 percent more likely to have mental […] The post 4 Beauty Experts Share Their Wellness Practices appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 21, 2026 Getting your
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With therapy stigmatized and wellness seen as a privilege, mental health is often left untreated in the Black community. Despite Black people being 20 percent more likely to have mental health issues (often as a result of racial, systemic, and generational trauma), only 25 percent seek mental health treatments, with white people seeking help almost twice as much, at 40 percent.
However, beauty >“In The Chair With” series, hairstylists often say beauty is like therapy for their clients, making biweekly self-care appointments one of the most common mental health and wellness practices for Black women. But, wellness is a daily practice, happening more than just every other week.
“The biggest wellness lesson I’ve learned is that wellness doesn’t have to be big or grand,” founder of Black Skin Directory Dija Ayodele tells ESSENCE. “It’s actually about the small, consistent things you do for yourself every day—the quiet rituals that nobody but you sees that build up your mental health reserves over time.”
From taking nature walks to being present, and even saying “no” more, mental health means finding room for you in every moment. In honor of Women’s History Month, four beauty experts share their top mental health and wellness practices below.
Dija Ayodele, Founder of Black Skin Directory
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dija Ayodele (@dija_ayodele)
What’s Your Earliest Wellness-Related Memory?
“My earliest wellness-related memories are really tied to how you look after yourself on the outside to feel better on the inside. I remember following my mum to the beauty salon—she’d sit in the chair, get her nails and hair done, and the other women would fuss over her. It was more than just grooming—it was care, it was affirmation.
When I started going too, and sitting in that chair myself, having someone work on me made me feel good from the inside out. But beyond that, I realize now how much community played a role in those moments. The salon was a space where you could debrief, get things off your chest, laugh with other women who just got it, understood what you were talking about culturally, emotionally. It was healing in more ways than one.
I used to watch how my mum would leave the salon—she looked ten feet taller, her back straighter, her chin lifted, almost invincible. And I felt that too, especially after I got my hair done (even if it was just bangs) I’d walk out feeling like I was on top of the world.”
How Do Wellness Practices Directly Impact Your Mental Health?
“Wellness practices massively impact my mental health and how I feel about myself and even my place in the world. When I take the time to look after myself, to prioritize me, it changes everything. It reminds me that I matter. As an entrepreneur, a mother, a wife, a friend—I’m often giving so much of myself away. So those moments of wellness are more than just nice-to-haves. They’re the times I can actually put myself first, even if just for a short while. And that makes a huge difference to how I move through the world: more grounded, more centered, controlled and with a deeper sense of self.”
What Are Your Top Mental Health and Wellness Practices?
“My top mental health and wellness practices are really simple, but deeply impactful. I live near a nature reserve, so I’ll often go for a walk—just me, no music, no podcasts—just nature and my thoughts. That silence brings me a lot of clarity and peace. It’s a reset. I also love a shower at any time of day, especially when I’m not feeling my best. There’s something about literally washing away that heaviness. It’s symbolic but also very real. After that, I take my time to lotion my body. It’s not rushed. I’ll take care to lotion my feet, the areas that often get overlooked because it’s about putting goodness and positivity back into myself, building myself up in a world that can feel quite harsh at times.
Washing and caring for my hair is another act of wellness for me. When I feel depleted, this is something I do to pour back into myself. It’s restorative. And honestly, the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve prioritized sleep as a cornerstone of my wellness. It has a direct impact on my mental health: how I feel, how I show up, how I interpret what’s happening in my life. So now, I protect my sleep because it’s one of the most powerful tools I have. I also say ‘no’. A lot. And without explanation. Again, the older I’ve gotten the more I realize that saying no isn’t about being mean or difficult, it’s also about self preservation which is part of my wellness.”
What Mental Health Advice Would You Give to Another Black Woman?
“My advice to anyone trying to get into wellness or mental health practices is: start small. It doesn’t have to be big or elaborate. It could be something as simple as setting aside five minutes a day to rub oil into your dry cuticles, or spending a few quiet moments massaging thick moisturizer into the soles of your feet. Even just committing to brushing your teeth every night – that’s wellness, too.
It’s about intention, not perfection. Choose one thing and do it consistently. Once it becomes part of your routine, you can build another habit on top of that, and another. That’s habit stacking – and over time, you’ll have a whole toolkit you can call on when you need it most.
I’d also shout out Myleik Teele and her podcasts. In recent years, I’ve found her words to carry such a gentle touch – they really speak to me and help restore me. And that’s part of wellness too: finding people who can accompany you on your journey. Finding community. That might mean actively joining something, or it might simply be listening quietly and taking strength from it. You don’t always have to speak – just knowing you’re not alone can be deeply nourishing.”
Mamy Mbaye, Co-Founder of SLIQ
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mamy Mbaye Polk (@mamymbaye)
How Do Wellness Practices Directly Impact Your Mental Health?
“My wellness practices serve as the baseline to check in with myself and know how I’m doing. Am I doing my skincare routine? Have I gone to yoga? Am I journalling? I notice that if I’m letting go of these things, I’m usually in a really low space and re-prioritizing them is oftentimes the first step to making it to a better headspace.”
What Are Your Top Mental Health and Wellness Practices?
“Yoga has become really important to me, I work from home and can spend endless hours sitting at my desk so it’s a practice that’s forced me to be more present and truly focus on myself for those 60 minutes. It also helps that I found a Black-owned studio that’s made it easy to feel welcome and comfortable. Another practice I’ve come to love is my washday. It used to bring me so much anxiety but streamlining my routine and finding the products that work for me has turned it into this weekly ritual that makes me feel ready and confident to take on everything that’s on my plate.”
What’s the Biggest Wellness Lesson You’ve Learned?
“Be gentle with yourself. It sounds so simple but it’s been incredibly difficult for me to do over the years. I took a break from work last year and focused on building some wellness habits – at first I treated them like tasks on a to-do list, being harsh on myself when I didn’t meet my 4 yoga class/week goal but I quickly realized that needed to change. Now, I just try my best to carve out the space in my day to be gentle with myself whether it be through taking that walk or forcing myself to close my laptop and just embrace rest over productivity.”
What Mental Health Advice Would You Give to Another Black Woman?
“Start somewhere – it’s not easy to build up a new habit so just start with whatever is accessible to you at that moment. I never used to journal because I found it daunting and thought I had nothing to write about but I challenged myself to write two sentences about how I feel every day when I was on that break and ended up with pages and journals target=\"_blank\"> View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Pekela Riley (@pekelariley)
What’s Your Earliest Wellness-Related Memory?
“One of my early childhood memories was my grandmother styling me and giving me an extension braided ponytail. I went to school feeling like ‘that girl’, swinging my ponytail into class, and this boy shouted out, “That’s not your hair.” I said, “Yes it is” and he replied, “No it ain’t because your hair is fuzzy.” For a second, I felt embarrassed, because it added to the complexities I had about natural beauty. But, I still felt cute… and owned at a young age I could do what I wanted to with my hair. Also, in that moment I realized how external validation could shake one’s self-worth to the core. His call out stung me but it didn’t knock me off my throne.
Sometimes our greatest wellness memories aren’t completely about feeling good – they’re about recognizing your resiliency and what needs to heal and then becoming the healer the world needs. That boy’s words were meant to make me feel less than, but they became the catalyst for my life’s work: championing self-love liberation through texture innovation as the founder of True + Pure Texture, where I’ve dedicated myself to creating hair extension options that celebrate and perfectly complement every textured hair type for how ever you want to wear your hair.”
How Do Wellness Practices Directly Impact Your Mental Health?
“I can have seasons of anxiety and if I don’t incorporate wellness practices into my weekly routine—the difference in my mental clarity and sense of psychological safety is huge. When I make time for morning walks, no screen time, or even just mindful moments of resting my eyes, I’m protecting my sanity and recharging my spirit. These are not rituals—they are God given rights—that help me lead, invite inspiration, and keep stress and external bs in check, reminding me that self-care isn’t a luxury—it’s just essential.”
What Are Your Top Mental Health and Wellness Practices?
“Morning Walks: That sunrise stroll is my moving meditation. It clears my mind, boosts my mood, and sets my intentions for the day.
Vacations & Staycations: I put ‘me time’ on my calendar like it’s a headline tour. Whether it’s a romantic getaway with my hubby or chilling at home, I need that reset to stay inspired and try to do so quarterly.
Spa Days: A spa day is my sanctuary. It’s where I let go of tension, reconnect with my senses, and remind myself that softness is strength.
Present Moment Divine Downloads: I make sure to create emotional and mental space for those sacred, in-the-moment downloads—when inspiration hits, when clarity about life flows in, or when I need to process my feelings. Whether it’s journaling, pausing to breathe, or letting my thoughts flow during a hair mask, I honor those moments as gifts from the universe. That’s when some of my best ideas and deepest healing come through.”
What’s the Biggest Wellness Lesson You’ve Learned?
“One of the most powerful things I’ve learned emotionally is to stop measuring my decisions against how others might approach my situation. The truth is, most people haven’t walked through the kind of life experiences I have. So much of being well—mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—is learning to tune out judgment and tune in to your own inner knowing. You know what’s best for you. Period.
Also I’ve learned ‘what you are seeking is also seeking you’—when you open your heart to self-love and believe you’re more than enough, you attract the peace, healing, and joy you truly deserve. Embracing the power of self-love has taught me that everything I need is already within me, and by nurturing myself, I create space for the universe to meet me halfway, bringing abundance and clarity into my life. Self love equals self regulation.”
Tomi Talabi, Founder of Black Beauty Club
View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Black Beauty Club (@theblackbeautyclub)
What’s Your Earliest Wellness-Related Memory?
“My earliest wellness ‘aha’ was spotting my mom back from a London trip, lacing up her sneakers at sunrise, and just running around our neighborhood in Lagos. I remember thinking, why is she doing this… back then it wasn’t very normal to be running around for no reason but she was on this health kick.”
How Do Wellness Practices Directly Impact Your Mental Health?
“I actually have acute depression, which, as a Nigerian, has been a long road to acceptance. However, on days I feel that gloom creeping in, a quick dance party in my living room or a jog around the block literally flips the switch. Moving my body lifts the fog and reminds me I’ve still got full-on person energy in me.”
What Are Your Top Mental Health and Wellness Practices?
“Random Dance Breaks: No choreography—just me, the music, and some wild moves. Instant mood booster.
Easy Neighborhood Walks: I’ll pop in my earbuds, wander aimlessly, and suddenly half my worries are gone.
Morning Jogs: When I’m feeling ambitious, I hit the pavement—hello, fresh air!
Music on Repeat: If you walk into my home, there is a good chance I have afrobeats or bollywood on full blast, and that’s because their sounds almost instinctively spark joy and lift your energy whenever you hear them.”
What Mental Health Advice Would You Give to Another Black Woman?
“Forget grand commitments. Just step outside, walk for a few minutes, and notice how it feels. That tiny spark is all you need to start.”
TOPICS:
beauty and mental health Mental Health Awareness wellness The post 4 Beauty Experts Share Their Wellness Practices appeared first on Essence .
","category":"mental-health","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-21T14:31:43.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/4-beauty-experts-mental-health-wellness-womens-history-month/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-21T18:00:21.937Z"},{"id":"3n50q3","archiveId":"nactdh","slug":"juliana-stratton8217s-big-senate-win-kristi-noem8217s-next-steps-and-the-origins-of-women8217s-histo","title":"Juliana Stratton’s Big Senate Win, Kristi Noem’s Next Steps and the Origins of Women’s History Month","excerpt":"Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S.","content":"
Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
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This week:
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... and more.
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The post Juliana Stratton’s Big Senate Win, Kristi Noem’s Next Steps and the Origins of Women’s History Month appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Cynthia Richie Terrell","publishDate":"2026-03-21T13:30:53.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Weekend-Reading-on-Womens-Representation-Juliana-Strattons-Big-Senate-Win-Kristi-Noems-Next-Steps-and-the-Origins-of-Womens-History-Month.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/21/juliana-stratton-senate-kristi-noem-womens-history-month/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-21T18:00:17.217Z"},{"id":"7kn40u","archiveId":"7jxleq","slug":"women-make-our-movements-powerful-they-shouldnt-have-to-suffer-in-silence","title":"Women Make Our Movements Powerful. They Shouldn’t Have to Suffer in Silence.","excerpt":"A New York Times investigation released this week broke news of shocking sexual abuse allegations against labor leader César Chávez—from two women who were young teenagers at the time, and from Dolores Huerta, our long-time Ms. advisor, Feminist Majority Foundation (publisher of Ms.","content":"
A New York Times investigation released this week broke news of shocking sexual abuse allegations against labor leader César Chávez—from two women who were young teenagers at the time, and from Dolores Huerta, our long-time Ms. advisor, Feminist Majority Foundation (publisher of Ms. ) board member, friend, and feminist and labor icon who co-founded the United Farm Workers with Chávez.
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In fighting the culture that makes these actions not only possible, but permissible—and that encourages women like Huerta to remain silent for over 60 years—we must consider the role of men.
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Men, argues Ms. contributor Jackson Katz, are essential to shifting the narrative. In describing the case of Gisèle Pelicot, a woman who had been secretly drugged by her husband and set up to be raped by dozens of men over a 10-year period, Katz mentions the evocative nickname the case acquired in French media reports: Monsieur Tout-le-monde . Mr. Everyman.
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If the 50 men who assaulted Pelicot were just “ordinary men” (“many were married and had kids. They were blue- and white-collar workers: a restaurant manager, nurse, computer technician, prison guard, firefighter, journalist, soldier,” Katz writes), then consequently, every man has a role to play in dismantling systemic violence against women.
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The post Women Make Our Movements Powerful. They Shouldn’t Have to Suffer in Silence. appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"safety","author":"Kathy Spillar","publishDate":"2026-03-21T13:14:46.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2174736405.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/21/dolores-huerta-men-legacy-movements-activism/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-21T18:00:17.217Z"},{"id":"vfxaow","archiveId":"vuxbvz","slug":"gen-z-women-are-less-likely-to-put-on-makeup-every-day-and-guess-who-has-an-issue-with-that","title":"Gen Z Women Are Less Likely To Put On Makeup Every Day — And Guess Who Has An Issue With That?","excerpt":"Women are lifting the veil on their beauty routines, while men are calling them catfishes.","content":"","category":"breakthroughs","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-03-21T11:00:18.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/69bc55b31b000012b214eaaf.png?cache=zgPjU5OwAa&ops=1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/shell-day-beauty-trend_l_69bc433be4b06f4d9c81d1d3","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-21T18:00:21.018Z"},{"id":"tf7287","archiveId":"dqez6v","slug":"they-dare-they-can-they-will-the-history-of-iceland8217s-decades-strong-women8217s-strike-movement","title":"They Dare, They Can, They Will: The History of Iceland’s Decades-Strong Women’s Strike Movement","excerpt":"On Oct. 24, 1975, 90 percent of the women in Iceland refused to go to work, care for their children or cook for their families. Instead, thousands gathered in Reykjavík and villages nationwide to demand gender equality. Schools closed. Flights were canceled. Businesses shuttered.","content":"
On Oct. 24, 1975, 90 percent of the women in Iceland refused to go to work, care for their children or cook for their families. Instead, thousands gathered in Reykjavík and villages nationwide to demand gender equality.
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Schools closed. Flights were canceled. Businesses shuttered. Factories came to a standstill. Phone service was off.
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Men called it “The Long Friday.” Organizers called it Kvennafrídagurinn : Women’s Day Off.
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The post They Dare, They Can, They Will: The History of Iceland’s Decades-Strong Women’s Strike Movement appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Carmen Rios","publishDate":"2026-03-21T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Kvinnostrejk_i_Reykjavik_5.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/21/iceland-womens-strike-history-feminist/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-21T12:00:07.371Z"},{"id":"ytg2s1","archiveId":"5jv7wv","slug":"a-movement-responds-leaders-rally-around-dolores-huerta-after-chvez-allegations","title":"A Movement Responds: Leaders Rally Around Dolores Huerta After Chávez Allegations","excerpt":"In the wake of a New York Times investigation detailing allegations of sexual abuse by labor leader Cesar Chavez—including testimony from Dolores Huerta—a chorus of feminist leaders, organizers and advocates are rallying around Huerta, centering her story and the broader truths it reveals.","content":"
In the wake of a New York Times investigation detailing allegations of sexual abuse by labor leader Cesar Chavez—including testimony from Dolores Huerta—a chorus of feminist leaders, organizers and advocates are rallying around Huerta, centering her story and the broader truths it reveals.
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\"She birthed children he forced into her womb. She convinced herself to endure it alone to free others. My God, this grief I howl.\"
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The post A Movement Responds: Leaders Rally Around Dolores Huerta After Chávez Allegations appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Genevieve Davis","publishDate":"2026-03-21T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2204032265.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/21/a-movement-responds-leaders-rally-around-dolores-huerta-after-chavez-allegations/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-21T12:00:07.371Z"},{"id":"n9j7s0","archiveId":"4m1tge","slug":"a-reckoning-long-overdue-dolores-huerta8217s-moment-of-truth-must-also-be-ours","title":"A Reckoning Long Overdue: Dolores Huerta’s Moment of Truth Must Also Be Ours","excerpt":"Civil rights icon Dolores Huerta has shared a devastating truth she carried alone for 60 years: that her closest colleague, mentor, boss and the internationally revered face of the farmworker movement, César Chávez, sexually abused her.","content":"
Civil rights icon Dolores Huerta has shared a devastating truth she carried alone for 60 years: that her closest colleague, mentor, boss and the internationally revered face of the farmworker movement, César Chávez, sexually abused her. As she approaches her 96th birthday, and in the wake of a New York Times investigation revealing that she was not alone—that Chávez also preyed upon other young women, including underage girls—Dolores made the painful, courageous decision that she could no longer keep this secret.
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Across Latino, immigrant, labor, civil rights and farmworker communities—and far beyond—hearts broke and jaws dropped. César Chávez had ascended to the pinnacle of untouchable legend. And from that height, there was a long, painful fall.
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There will be many debates about what comes next: what to do with the written history, the plazas, streets, schools, parks and holidays that bear Chávez’s name; how to reconcile the image so many of us learned with the disturbing portrait described by Dolores and the other survivors. I will leave the deeper historical reckoning to others.
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But it feels both fitting and just that the holiday bearing his name be revised to Farmworkers Day—El Día del Campesino—and that every boulevard, park and street honor Dolores Huerta instead.
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The post A Reckoning Long Overdue: Dolores Huerta’s Moment of Truth Must Also Be Ours appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"safety","author":"Maria Cardona","publishDate":"2026-03-20T20:08:10.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2242726208.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/20/dolores-huerta-girls-latina-womem/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-21T00:00:12.521Z"},{"id":"8wcsla","archiveId":"dkudo3","slug":"us-ramps-up-deportation-of-pregnant-people","title":"US Ramps Up Deportation of Pregnant People","excerpt":"Click to expand Image A woman is detained by US federal agents after exiting a court hearing in immigration court at the Jacob K.Javits Federal Building in New York City, on September 3, 2025. © 2025 Michael M.","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n A woman is detained by US federal agents after exiting a court hearing in immigration court at the Jacob K.Javits Federal Building in New York City, on September 3, 2025.\n © 2025 Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 363 pregnant, postpartum, or nursing women between January 1, 2025, and February 16, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in response to a request from US senators. These figures reveal part of the mounting human toll of the administration’s immigration crackdown.</p><p>The response said that “(a)s of” February 16, 2026, there were 86 detainees that were identified as pregnant in ICE detention” including 9 in the final trimester, and that 16 miscarriages in detention had been recorded last year by late September 2025. Detaining pregnant or postpartum people means adding significant risk to their health. DHS claims that pregnant women have access to adequate medical care but media stories and reports, including a new one from Physicians for Human Rights and the Women’s Refugee Commission, indicating that pregnant women lack access to medical care continue to pile up.</p><p>DHS acknowledges that ICE is not collecting full information about numbers of lactating women in detention. Separating young children or babies from parents, including breastfeeding ones, is heartbreakingly disruptive.</p><p>The response said that 498 “pregnant, postpartum and nursing aliens” were marked as “booked out” of ICE custody between January 2025 and February 2026, but that they did not know whether they were deported, released, or perhaps taken to a medical appointment.</p><p>DHS said of its own policy that “(g)enerally ICE does not detain, arrest, or take into custody aliens known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing for an administrative violation of immigration laws unless release is prohibited by law or for exceptional circumstances.” Rights respecting alternatives allow people to stay home while their immigration case is decided.</p><p>Many questions remain and much more information and investigation is needed. The lack of clarity only emphasizes the path to a better solution: ensure that immigration officials fully follow US immigration, constitutional, and international human rights law. Without this, immigrant infants, children, nursing mothers, pregnant people, and family unity are all under threat in the United States.</p><p>DHS said of its own policy that “(g)enerally ICE does not detain, arrest, or take into custody aliens known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing for an administrative violation of immigration laws unless release is prohibited by law or for exceptional circumstances.”</p><p>Rights respecting alternatives allow people to stay home while their immigration case is decided.</p><p>Many questions remain and much more information and investigation is needed. The lack of clarity only emphasizes the path to a better solution: ensure that immigration officials fully follow US immigration, constitutional, and international human rights law. Without this, immigrant infants, children, nursing mothers, pregnant people, and family unity are all under threat in the United States.</p>","category":"immigration","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-20T19:15:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603wrd_us_ice_detaining.jpg?h=790be497&itok=ocWTvKsf","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/20/us-ramps-up-deportation-of-pregnant-people","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-21T00:00:17.814Z"},{"id":"y94n3d","archiveId":"k6n214","slug":"taylor-frankie-paul-speaks-out-after-her-bachelorette-season-was-canceled-amid-domestic-violence-inv","title":"Taylor Frankie Paul Speaks Out After Her ‘Bachelorette’ Season Was Canceled Amid Domestic Violence Investigation","excerpt":"“There are too many women who are suffering in silence as they survive aggressive, jealous ex-partners who refuse to let them move on with their lives,” a spokesperson for the reality star said.","content":"","category":"breakthroughs","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-03-20T17:58:38.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/69bd72a418000070121c516b.jpeg?cache=XWBlx0WU0o&ops=500_281%2Cscalefit_1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/taylor-frankie-paul-statement-domestic-violence-abc-bachelorette_n_69bd6f29e4b0284f9be04ee2","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-21T00:00:14.051Z"},{"id":"yttyxi","archiveId":"5bzp04","slug":"yeah-the-90s-were-cool-but-were-ready-to-fight-now","title":"Yeah, the ’90s Were Cool, but We’re Ready to Fight Now","excerpt":"“Mom, what were you like in the 90s?” The question has gone viral—and the response, a flood of celebrity flashback montages, captures the likes of Halle Berry and Courteney Cox in their Kodachrome heyday, set to (what else?) the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris.","content":"
“Mom, what were you like in the 90s?” The question has gone viral—and the response, a flood of celebrity flashback montages, captures the likes of Halle Berry and Courteney Cox in their Kodachrome heyday, set to (what else?) the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris.” The trend dovetails FX’s Love Story, the trashy yet wildly popular mini-series purporting to depict the behind-the-scenes courtship and ill-fated marriage of Carolyn Bessette and John F. Kennedy Jr.
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I always appreciate when Gen X, the perennially forgotten generation, gets its props.
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The post Yeah, the ’90s Were Cool, but We’re Ready to Fight Now appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Jennifer Weiss-Wolf","publishDate":"2026-03-20T16:26:18.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Yeah-the-90s-Were-Cool-but-Were-Ready-to-Fight-Now-1.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/20/what-were-you-like-in-the-90s-tiktok-instagram-celebrities-gen-x-women-democracy-politics-menopause/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-20T18:00:43.808Z"},{"id":"vi25o0","archiveId":"et07bm","slug":"the-best-bobs-of-2026","title":"The Best Bobs Of 2026","excerpt":"Bobs and pixie cuts have been neck-and-neck this year (literally!). While pixies are short and versatile, bobs are a classic power cut for the most dominant women. We’ve seen Monica […] The post The Best Bobs Of 2026 appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 20, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Bobs and pixie cuts have been neck-and-neck this year (literally!). While pixies are short and versatile, bobs are a classic power cut for the most dominant women.
We’ve seen Monica and Beyoncé convert to blonde bobs, Issa Rae and Kelly Rowland in blunt black cuts, and old Hollywood >Danielle Priano told ESSENCE back bobs celebrity hair
The post The Best Bobs Of 2026 appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-20T15:46:57.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/best-celebrity-bobs-2026/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-20T18:00:52.392Z"},{"id":"malnpj","archiveId":"62yhp3","slug":"the-women-leading-the-farmworker-movement-wont-let-it-be-defined-by-cesar-chavez","title":"The women leading the farmworker movement won’t let it be defined by Cesar Chavez","excerpt":"Monica Ramirez has spent much of her life spotlighting the pervasiveness of sexual violence against women farmworkers. She, like many in that movement, considered civil rights leader Cesar Chavez an icon.","content":"
Monica Ramirez has spent much of her life spotlighting the pervasiveness of sexual violence against women farmworkers. She, like many in that movement, considered civil rights leader Cesar Chavez an icon.
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Since allegations came to light this week that Chavez sexually assaulted women and girls as young as 12 — including fellow movement leader Dolores Huerta — Ramirez and the larger farmworker community have been left reeling. Now, they’re trying to reconcile how this man who so many revered — whose name is on streets, schools and even a holiday — could perpetrate the violence that has plagued women farmworkers for decades.
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The community has been “shaken to its foundation,” said Ramirez, the founder of Justice for Migrant Women, a civil rights organization focusing on farmworker and migrant women. She and other leaders are now trying to push forward the farmworker movement and continue the work that many women — not just Chavez — spearheaded.
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Monica Ramirez, founder of Justice for Migrant Women, said the farmworker community has been “shaken to its foundation” by the allegations against Cesar Chavez. (Courtesy of Monica Ramirez) \n\n\n\n
“The farmworker movement is a leaderful movement, and women have always been part of that leadership,” Ramirez said. But their work has often been made invisible, sometimes by the very men who stood beside them in building worker power for Latinx people in the United States.
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“In order to have a movement, in order to have a boycott, in order to organize any kind of action, it’s often women who are helping to organize the meetings, helping to bring their compañeras,” Ramirez said.
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Chavez was one of the most revered figures in the Latinx civil rights movement. The labor leader cofounded what became the United Farm Workers union alongside Huerta, and was most known for a series of strikes and protests that grew unionization efforts across California. After Chavez’s death in 1993, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. In 2014, former President Barack Obama designated his birthday, March 31, as a federal holiday to celebrate his legacy, which many states had already marked.
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Now, many of those celebrations are being canceled or renamed after a bombshell, yearslong investigation published by The New York Times Wednesday found evidence of a pervasive pattern of sexual abuse perpetrated by Chavez. Two women said Chavez sexually abused them for years as girls, when the organizer was in his 40s and had already become a powerful global figure. Ana Murguia said Chavez first assaulted her when she was 13; Debra Rojas was 12.
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In the years following the abuse, both suffered from depression, panic attacks and substance abuse.
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“I feel like he’s been a shadow over my life,” Rojas told the Times. “I want him to stop following me around. It’s time.”
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Huerta, the renowned activist who coined the rallying cry, “Sí, se puede,” spoke at length about emotional and physical abuse from her longtime organizing partner — a disclosure she had never made publicly. She told the Times that he raped her in a secluded grape field in 1966, and had pressured her to have sex with him another time during a work trip in 1960. Both encounters resulted in children. Huerta concealed the pregnancies and arranged for the baby girls to be raised by others.
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She was shaken upon hearing the allegations from other women, and told the Times she struggles to reconcile the man she knew and the one who assaulted her.
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Labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta sits during an interview in San Francisco, Saturday, June 8, 2024. Huerta revealed she was raped by Cesar Chavez and pressured into sex during their years organizing together, disclosures she kept private for decades while building the farmworker movement.\n (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle/AP) \n\n\n\n
In a statement released Wednesday , Huerta said she carried her secret for 60 years because “building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work. The formation of a union was the only vehicle to accomplish and secure those rights and I wasn’t going to let Cesar or anyone else get in the way.”
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She said she spoke up because she learned there were others coming forward.
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“The farmworker movement has always been bigger and far more important than any one individual. Cesar’s actions do not diminish the permanent improvements achieved for farmworkers with the help of thousands of people,” she said. “We must continue to engage and support our community, which needs advocacy and activism now more than ever.”
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Magaly Licolli knew exactly what Huerta was talking about in her statements about Chavez.
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Licolli is the co-founder and executive director of Venceremos, an organization advocating for poultry workers in Arkansas, and she’s heard stories about sexual harassment and assault on women for years.
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Before she started Venceremos, she was fired from another poultry worker organization after speaking up about multiple accusations of sexual harassment and assault against a well-known organizer.
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“Women came forward and accused the organizer of sexually assaulting them or sexually harassing them. When I brought that to the board, they didn’t believe it,” Licolli said. “I had to stand with the women … I cannot do this work pretending I’m doing justice when I’m hiding injustice.”
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Licolli felt that echoed this week.
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“Women of color, we are not trusted on what we go through. We have to prove with pictures, with testimony, our own stories for our own stories to be validated,” she said. “I’m happy that now it’s something that people are talking about, and I’m happy that people are now reflecting about what is the role of women in the movement and when we have to be silenced toward that kind of injustice to protect the work that we do.”
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Magaly Licolli, co-founder of Venceremos, pointed to a pattern in organizing spaces where women who report abuse are doubted, ignored or pushed out. (Courtesy of Magaly Licolli) \n\n\n\n
A growing share of farmworkers are women, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture : about 26.4 percent in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available. Most are Latina.
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A 2012 report by Human Rights Watch, an advocacy organization, found that women farmworkers are often at risk of sexual harassment or assault, with virtually every worker interviewed for the report saying they either had experienced harassment or assault or knew someone who had. Farmworkers work in mixed-gender settings, and they have limited worker protections But women typically lack avenues to report their experiences, the report’s authors wrote, in large part because of immigration status. As of 2022, most farmworkers were immigrants without U.S. citizenship.
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“Sexual violence and harassment in the agricultural workplace are fostered by a severe imbalance of power between employers and supervisors and their low-wage, immigrant workers,” the report said.
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A 2024 review published in the Journal of Agromedicine suggested that as many as 95 percent of women farmworkers in the United States have experienced workplace sexual harassment.
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None of the women in the Times story spoke publicly until recently because of the shame and fear associated with reporting abuse against prominent organizers.
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But over the past decade, after the growth of the #MeToo movement and the release of millions of Epstein files that have implicated numerous people in powerful positions, survivors have been more willing to speak up about their experiences.
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Ramirez, who also founded the public awareness campaign known as the Bandana Project to raise awareness of sexual violence against farmworker women, said she now expects more women to come forward with their own stories. At an event Wednesday night shortly after the news broke, she said one woman came up to her to tell her how sexual assault was a problem in the fields where she worked as a teenager.
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“Now that we understand clearly that this issue of sexual violence is an endemic problem in our society … the question we have to answer is: Knowing that, how serious are we going to get in our commitment to ending the problem?”
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California lawmakers already plan to change the name of Cesar Chavez Day on March 31 to “Farmworkers Day,” and efforts are underway to remove his name from landmarks. But the real work to come will be about investing resources and support to improve the culture that has protected perpetrators in organizing spaces over victims.
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Rep. Delia Ramirez, an Illinois Democrat who worked in organizing before entering politics, said it was “devastating” that the claims took so long to come out. She said when she became an executive director of a nonprofit at 21, she, too, had faced situations that in hindsight were not appropriate, and left the organization with a responsibility to create safer environments for other young women.
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“Oftentimes women, especially women of color, we end up having to hold so many things for the sake of the movement, family, community,” Delia Ramirez told the 19th. “I don’t believe that there is one hero for our movements. Movements are led by a collective, and you can’t create some pedestal for one person, because humans will always fail you.”
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Rep. Delia Ramirez said movements are led by a collective and warned against placing any one individual on a pedestal.\n (Allison Bailey/NurPhoto/AP) \n\n\n\n
Moving forward, Monica Ramirez said people will be watching how leaders in the farmworker movement respond to the allegations. Do they take a defensive posture or question the veracity of the survivors’ accounts? The revelations about Chavez come at a time when sexual misconduct by powerful men has been in the spotlight, all while the country grapples with a wave of immigration enforcement actions that are targeting Latinx people.
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Licolli, the poultry organizer, said she has “never romanticized the immigrant community and the immigrant movement.” Sexual abuse happens in every movement and it doesn’t negate the work that’s been done to secure worker power, she said.
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And for the farmworker women who are leading this work, it feels more urgent than ever that they continue leading.
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Rosalinda Guillen, a farmworker and organizer in Washington state, leads Community to Community Development, an explicitly feminist and women-led organization — a perspective that she said lends itself to advocating for workers who are also parents, and that she said offers space for women farmworkers to assert their needs.
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Guillen never met Chavez but was inspired to devote herself to organizing on behalf of farmworkers after his death. The news has been a “revision of everything that many of us know about the farmworker movement,” she said.
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Her organization is removing images of Chavez from its office, Guillen said. “We revisited our values and principles in how we work together, reiterating there is no room for that,” she said, referring to sexual misconduct.
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On Wednesday, while staff were still processing the reports, five farmworkers walked in. They had just lost their jobs.
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Her staff switched gears, turning to figure out what those workers needed and how they could support them.
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“They walked in reminding us this is the focus,” Guillen said. “This is why we’re here: To protect farmworkers.”
","category":"activism","author":"Ajohnston","publishDate":"2026-03-20T14:47:05.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/chavez_huerta_allegations_02.jpg?w=683","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/women-farmworker-movement-cesar-chavez/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-20T18:00:44.213Z"},{"id":"o5uiu3","archiveId":"hflscl","slug":"georgia-woman-charged-with-murder-in-apparent-self-managed-abortion","title":"Georgia Woman Charged With Murder in Apparent Self-Managed Abortion","excerpt":"Plus, Title X funding recipients scramble to renew family planning grants and vaccine guidelines get rebuked in federal court. The post Georgia Woman Charged With Murder in Apparent Self-Managed Abortion appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
Each week, Rewire News Group editors scour headlines nationwide—from lawsuits over abortion access to LGBTQ+ rights—to bring you the most urgent news in reproductive justice. Here’s this week’s latest.
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Georgia woman charged with murder for alleged abortion \n\n\n\n
Georgia’s abortion ban doesn’t allow people who end their pregnancies to be prosecuted. But that didn’t stop police from charging a woman with felony murder —or the news media from plastering her face online. The woman visited the ER for pain in late 2025, after she allegedly took the abortion drug misoprostol. She later delivered prematurely, and staff reported her to the police. The “unprecedented” murder charge, one advocate said to Jezebel , “will cause untold harm to this woman and the women of Georgia.”
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Will Title X funding lapse? \n\n\n\n
Today is the last day reproductive health-care clinics can apply for federal Title X Family Planning Program funding grants , which currently provide more than $200 million for STI testing, breast cancer screening, birth control, and other health services. Clinics expected the Trump administration to issue application guidelines in late 2025, but they didn’t come until last week, creating a scramble to make deadline. Current funding runs out April 1. Since application review can take months, funding gaps are feared, POLITICO reported.
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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Judge temporarily bars new CDC vaccine policy, suspends RFK Jr.’s expert panel \n\n\n\n
HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced multiple setbacks in court this week. Declaring vaccines to be one of science’s “greatest achievements,” a Massachusetts federal judge temporarily blocked the CDC’s updated childhood vaccine schedule . The judge also suspended all members of the CDC vaccine panel picked by RFK Jr., scolding them for endorsing an unscientific plan. Yesterday, a federal judge in Oregon also sidelined RFK Jr.’s attempt to restrict gender-affirming care for minors , declaring he did not have the legal authority to decide that such care is “neither safe nor effective as a treatment.” The decision temporarily allows health-care providers to continue providing these services.
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This news roundup first appeared in our newsletter, Rewire Weekly. Sign up here to get the latest reproductive rights news, expert analysis, and a peek into the RNG newsroom—fresh to your inbox.
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The post Georgia Woman Charged With Murder in Apparent Self-Managed Abortion appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-20T14:16:31.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/ReproRoundupPhoto-2_01.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/20/georgia-woman-charged-with-murder-in-apparent-self-managed-abortion/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-20T18:00:43.427Z"},{"id":"one3f1","archiveId":"zh48r7","slug":"prevent-and-protect-why-so-many-black-women-are-exhaustedeven-after-a-full-nights-sleep","title":"Prevent And Protect: Why So Many Black Women Are Exhausted—Even After A Full Night’s Sleep","excerpt":"After a long day, getting ready for bed can feel like the ultimate reward. You’re showered, maybe your favorite comfort show is playing (hello, Girlfriends fans), and it’s finally time […] The post Prevent And Protect: Why So Many Black Women Are Exhausted—Even After A Full Night’s Sleep appeared fi...","content":"
By
Tamieka Welsh ·
Updated March 20, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
After a long day, getting ready for bed can feel like the ultimate reward. You’re showered, maybe your favorite comfort show is playing (hello, Girlfriends fans), and it’s finally time to rest. But instead of drifting off peacefully, you find yourself tossing and turning, struggling to fall asleep. And it’s not hard to see why.
With so much happening in the world right now, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. A quick scroll through social media brings constant reminders of the recession , financial pressure, and global uncertainty . And for the more than 600,000 Black women who have been laid off, that stress can feel even heavier.
Unfortunately, when all of that pressure builds, sleep is often one of the first things to suffer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Black adults are more likely to experience shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality compared with other racial groups. Chronic stress, financial strain, and the everyday pressure many Black women carry can make it harder for the body to fully relax—even when the hours of sleep are technically there.
“My mind is racing right before falling asleep, and it picks up the moment I open my eyes,” says Marsha Badger , a journalist who has been navigating increased financial stress after being laid off last year.
That experience feels familiar to journalist Angelica Wilson . “Every ounce of my physical being just wants to relax, but my mind is still flipping through thoughts like a money counter,” she says, describing what it feels like to be physically exhausted but mentally alert.
To quiet her mind, Wilson sometimes has to talk herself through the moment. “Sometimes I have to tell myself, ‘we’re trying to go to sleep, let’s go to sleep,’ just to slow my thoughts down.”
The
The post Prevent And Protect: Why So Many Black Women Are Exhausted—Even After A Full Night’s Sleep appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Victoria Uwumarogie","publishDate":"2026-03-20T13:19:57.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/health-and-wellness/black-women-and-rest/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-20T18:00:52.392Z"},{"id":"vddz7y","archiveId":"tirdbk","slug":"are-black-men-getting-botox-now","title":"Are Black Men Getting Botox Now?","excerpt":"Myth: only women get botox. Culturally, we expect Black men to appear “effortlessly strong, unconcerned with appearance, or ‘low maintenance’,” founder and medical director of LuxMode Aesthetics & Wellness Dr. […] The post Are Black Men Getting Botox Now? appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 20, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Myth: only women get botox. Culturally, we expect Black men to appear “effortlessly strong, unconcerned with appearance, or ‘low maintenance’,” founder and medical director of LuxMode Aesthetics & Wellness Dr. Hank tells ESSENCE. “As a result, seeking aesthetic care can feel like stepping outside accepted norms.” But, contrary to the stigma, strong men take the lead without waiting for others’ approval. That means being well-groomed with clean fingernails, a skincare routine, and of course, routine “brotox”.
Gaining nearly 80,000 followers on TikTok for his natural-looking facial balancing techniques, Hank is famous for showing that self-care for Black men doesn’t have to exclude cosmetic treatments. While many men fear getting work done will make them look unnatural or feel too feminine, he proves how botox can actually make men naturally more attractive: healthier, sharper, and more rested without appearing like something was even “done” at all.
Below, Hank explains what “brotox” are, what to expect from the treatment, and why they’re popular for Black men now.
What is “Brotox”?
“‘Brotox’ is a colloquial term for botulinum toxin treatments, such as Botox®, Xeomin®, or Daxxify®, performed on male patients,” Hank says. “These medications temporarily relax the facial muscles responsible for dynamic wrinkles, which are lines created by repeated expressions like frowning, squinting, or raising the eyebrows.” By reducing muscle activity in targeted areas, the results speak for themselves: smoother, more rested skin while still allowing natural movement.
Although the medication is the same for women, he says the treatment is nicknamed “brotox” because, when done on men, it’s tailored to masculine anatomy. “Men generally have stronger facial muscles, thicker skin, and different brow positioning, so dosing and placement are adjusted to soften lines while preserving natural expression and strong masculine features,” he says.
Unlike other professionals, however, Hank gained acclaim for his restorative approach rather than fully altering his patients’ appearance. While many of his male patients receive a combination of treatments—including dermaltitle=\"@luxmodeaesthetics\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@luxmodeaesthetics?refer=embed\">@luxmodeaesthetics
Guys get injectables too — and the results go crazy #LuxModeAesthetics #BroTox #GuysGetInjectablesToo #MaleAesthetics #FacialBalancing
♬ original sound – LUXMODE AESTHETICS Why is brotox popular for Black men?
In today’s beauty landscape, cosmetic treatments are more casual, quiet, and undetectable. At the same time, Hank points out there’s a broader cultural acceptance of male self-care. “Skincare, fitness, grooming, and mental wellness are now openly discussed among men in ways they were not a decade ago,” he says. “Aesthetic treatments are increasingly viewed as an extension of those habits rather than something separate or taboo.”
You may like how you look, but simply want a more sculpted jawline, to look less tired, or more relaxed and refined. “Most men are not seeking dramatic change; they want improvement without attention,” he says. “The ability to look sharper, healthier, and more confident without anyone knowing why makes these treatments especially appealing.”
In one of Hank’s videos with over 180,000 likes, comments prove just how natural the results look. “He just looks like a more enhanced version of himself,” read one comment. “Looks good. Major yet subtle difference,” read another. Meanwhile, others say they can’t even tell what was done, despite a combination of forehead botox, cheekdecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/6DB99AA1-06CC-4D3F-8073-1D38634C8FD7-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Are Black Men Getting Botox Now? Everything To Know About “Brotox”\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" /> What’s the stigma behind Black men getting botox?
Despite how natural the results look, the Black community often strictly enforces gender norms which is a barrier when it comes to Black men and botox. But, that’s just one layer of the stigma. “There may be concerns about social judgment from peers, family, or professional circles, as well as a general mistrust of medical systems rooted in historical inequities,” Hank notes. “Ultimately, the stigma persists not because Black men are uninterested in self-care, but because the industry has not always made it clear that they are seen, understood, and welcomed.”
What to Expect at Your Brotox Appointment
“Appointments typically begin with a comprehensive consultation that explores the patient’s goals, concerns, medical history, life decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/4377AA16-79F9-4DF9-80F6-E1CD3CBAEDC2-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Are Black Men Getting Botox Now? Everything To Know About “Brotox”\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" /> What does recovery consist of?
“Recovery is generally minimal,” he says. Besides temporary redness, mild swelling, or small bumps at the injection sites, and occasional bruising, most patients resume normal activities the same day. After about two weeks, patients are typically scheduled for a follow-up visit to assess results and determine whether any refinements are needed.
How long do results last?
“Neuromodulator effects develop gradually over several days, with full results appearing around two weeks,” he says. Meanwhile, “dermalrel=\"tag\">botox brotox cosmetic treatments
The post Are Black Men Getting Botox Now? appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-20T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/botox-black-men-brotox/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-20T18:00:52.392Z"},{"id":"amhnto","archiveId":"bd3lt0","slug":"cesar-chavezs-legacy-was-a-staple-in-california-schools-how-will-districts-move-forward","title":"Cesar Chavez’s legacy was a staple in California schools. How will districts move forward?","excerpt":"In California — the first state to observe a holiday for Cesar Chavez, a man widely recognized as a pivotal figure in the country’s civil rights history — education leaders are rethinking his role in the curriculum and planning to strip his name from schools, following the publication this week of e...","content":"
In California — the first state to observe a holiday for Cesar Chavez, a man widely recognized as a pivotal figure in the country’s civil rights history — education leaders are rethinking his role in the curriculum and planning to strip his name from schools, following the publication this week of explosive sexual abuse allegations against him.
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The accusations — by women who said he abused them when they were girls and also by fellow labor leader Dolores Huerta, who said he coerced her into sex on one occasion and raped her on another — have already led to cancellations of events across the country planned around Cesar Chavez Day, observed on his birthday, March 31. California lawmakers created the holiday in 2000. On Thursday, they said they plan to rename it “Farmworkers Day.”
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Meanwhile, California school districts are scrambling over how to address the sex abuse claims against Chavez, who cofounded United Farm Workers in 1962 with Huerta and Larry Itliong in Delano, California, to advocate for higher wages and better working conditions for farm workers; it is the oldest such union in continuous operation in the United States. Up to 50 schools in California bear Chavez’s name and his legacy has been a staple of the school curriculum. The state requires students from elementary school to high school to learn about his life and contributions to the farm worker movement.
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Chavez, who died in 1993 at the age of 66, is considered one of the most revered figures in the history of the nation’s labor movement. His work has special significance for Latinos in California, who, at 3.25 million, represent 56 percent of students in public schools. Now, school districts are distancing themselves from the man that generations of students grew up learning about and condemning his alleged abuse of young girls and women, revealed on Wednesday in The New York Times .
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“There is no place — ever — for the abuse of children or any person, anywhere,” Fabi Bagula, superintendent of San Diego Unified School District, said in a joint statement with the school board provided to The 19th. “San Diego Unified is committed to supporting our community through this moment by creating the space and structure for thoughtful, respectful conversations — grounded in truth, centered on students, and responsive to those most impacted.”
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The district said its priority is to support those who may have been harmed.
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“As we move forward, including conversations about a school that bears his name, our focus will be on listening deeply to better understand the impact to the school community and how we might collectively move forward in a way that prioritizes student safety and a sense of belonging,” the statement continued.
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Chavez has extensive ties to Salinas, an agricultural city on California’s central coast region, where he and the farm workers union organized a number of strikes. In a letter to staff, school board members and families shared with The 19th, officials in the Salinas City Elementary School District denounced his abuse and supported the decision by the United Farm Workers Foundation to cancel its annual celebrations honoring Chavez.
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The district also emphasized its efforts to protect students from sexual violence, saying in the letter: “If a staff member suspects, or a student speaks to any staff member about abuse issues, sexual or otherwise, we are duty-bound to take it seriously and report it to the police.” The letter also provides information on how students can be supported — from counselors at district schools to contact information for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN ) and to the Monterey County Rape Crisis Center .
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The Board of Education for the Los Angeles Unified School District, the state’s largest, last year passed a resolution calling for schools to provide curriculum and resources on Chavez’s advocacy for workers’ rights and community empowerment.
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Following the allegations against Chavez, a district spokesperson emphasized that the triumphs of the farm worker movement stem from collective organizing.
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“Los Angeles Unified respects the voices and courage of survivors of all forms of violence,” the spokesperson said in a statement provided to The 19th on Wednesday. “The District is reviewing curriculum and resources to ensure the emphasis remains on the important work of the farmworker movement, not on any one individual. It is important to recognize the collective work of thousands who have advanced social justice, labor rights, and community empowerment.”
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In the Bakersfield City School District, just 35 miles north of the UFW’s headquarters in Keene, school officials said they are “actively reviewing the matter internally” and working with schools “to postpone any planned Cesar Chavez-related celebrations.” The district said it is committed to ensuring “all of our schools reflect the values of our district and continue to be safe, welcoming, and inclusive environments for every student.” A spokesperson for the Kern High School District, also in Bakersfield, said officials are “aware of the allegations” and evaluating next steps in its approach to celebratory activities.”
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In the Fresno Unified School District in California’s Central Valley, officials are identifying murals and other commemorations to Chavez across its schools. “This review will guide any appropriate next steps, ensuring our actions reflect our values of respect, safety, and care for our students and community,” the district said.
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A major agricultural hub in California, Fresno is home to an estimated 71,000 farm workers. The district said it “acknowledges the importance of the farmworker movement in promoting dignity and pride, improving working conditions and wages, and expanding opportunities for generations of families within our community.”
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At a press conference in San Lorenzo on Wednesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged how intertwined Chavez’s legacy is with the state’s education system and asked the public to extend grace as communities contemplate renaming schools.
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“I think there’s close to three dozen schools in the state named after Cesar Chavez,” he said. “So we’re just going to have to reflect on all of that and, you know, reflect on a farmworkers movement and a labor movement that was much bigger than one man and celebrate that.”
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Contact RAINN, which offers free, confidential, 24/7/365 support in English and Spanish at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or text “HOPE” to 64673.
","category":"resilience","author":"Nadra Nittle","publishDate":"2026-03-20T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cesar_chavez_schools.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/cesar-chavez-legacy-california-schools-curriculum/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-20T12:00:59.887Z"},{"id":"9wtdqp","archiveId":"ekfydc","slug":"doge-goes-nuclear-how-trump-invited-silicon-valley-into-americas-nuclear-power-regulator","title":"DOGE Goes Nuclear: How Trump Invited Silicon Valley Into America’s Nuclear Power Regulator","excerpt":"The post DOGE Goes Nuclear: How Trump Invited Silicon Valley Into America’s Nuclear Power Regulator appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"
Last summer, a group of officials from the Department of Energy gathered at the Idaho National Laboratory, a sprawling 890-square-mile complex in the eastern desert of Idaho where the U.S. government built its first rudimentary nuclear power plant in 1951 and continues to test cutting-edge technology.
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On the agenda that day: the future of nuclear energy in the Trump era. The meeting was convened by 31-year-old lawyer Seth Cohen. Just five years out of law school, Cohen brought no significant experience in nuclear law or policy; he had just entered government through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team.
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As Cohen led the group through a technical conversation about licensing nuclear reactor designs, he repeatedly downplayed health and safety concerns. When staff brought up the topic of radiation exposure from nuclear test sites, Cohen broke in.
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“They are testing in Utah. … I don’t know, like 70 people live there,” he said.
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“But … there’s lots of babies,” one staffer pushed back. Babies, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups are thought to be potentially more susceptible to cancers brought on by low-level radiation exposure, and they are usually afforded greater protections.
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“They’ve been downwind before,” another staffer joked.
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“This is why we don’t use AI transcription in meetings,” another added.
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ProPublica reviewed records of that meeting, providing a rare look at a dramatic shift underway in one of the most sensitive domains of public policy. The Trump administration is upending the way nuclear energy is regulated, driven by a desire to dramatically increase the amount of energy available to power artificial intelligence.
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Career experts have been forced out and thousands of pages of regulations are being rewritten at a sprint. A new generation of nuclear energy companies — flush with Silicon Valley cash and boasting strong political connections — wield increasing influence over policy. Figures like Cohen are forcing a “move fast and break things” Silicon Valley ethos on one of the country’s most important regulators.
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The Trump administration has been particularly aggressive in its attacks on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the bipartisan independent regulator that approves commercial nuclear power plants and monitors their safety. The agency is not a household name. But it’s considered the international gold standard, often influencing safety rules around the world.
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The NRC has critics, especially in Silicon Valley, where the often-cautious commission is portrayed as an impediment to innovation. In an early salvo, President Donald Trump fired NRC Commissioner Christopher Hanson last June after Hanson spoke out about the importance of agency independence. It was the first time an NRC commissioner had been fired.
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During that Idaho meeting, Cohen shot down any notion of NRC independence in the new era.
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“Assume the NRC is going to do whatever we tell the NRC to do,” he said, records reviewed by ProPublica show. In November, Cohen was made chief counsel for nuclear policy at the Department of Energy, where he oversees a broad nuclear portfolio.
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Source: Weekly Information Reports from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Note: The data is from the week ending Jan. 24, 2025, through Feb. 13, 2026. \n
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The aggressive moves have sent shock waves through the nuclear energy world. Many longtime promoters of the industry say they worry recklessness from the Trump administration could discredit responsible nuclear energy initiatives.
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“The regulator is no longer an independent regulator — we do not know whose interests it is serving,” warned Allison Macfarlane, who served as NRC chair during the Obama administration. “The safety culture is under threat.”
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A ProPublica analysis of staffing data from the NRC and the Office of Personnel Management shows a rush to the exits: Over 400 people have left the agency since Trump took office. The losses are particularly pronounced in the teams that handle reactor and nuclear materials safety and among veteran staffers with 10 or more years of experience. Meanwhile, hiring of new staff has proceeded at a snail’s pace, with nearly 60 new arrivals in the first year of the Trump administration compared with nearly 350 in the last year of the Biden administration.
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Some nuclear power supporters say the administration is providing a needed level of urgency given the energy demands of AI. They also contend the sweeping changes underway aren’t as dangerous or dire as some experts suggest.
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“I think the NRC has been frozen in time,” said Brett Rampal, the senior director of nuclear and power strategy at the investment and strategy consultancy Veriten. “It’s a great time to get unfrozen and aim to work quickly.”
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The White House referred most of ProPublica’s questions to the Department of Energy, where spokesperson Olivia Tinari said the agency is committed to helping build more safe, high-quality nuclear energy facilities.
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“Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, America’s nuclear industry is entering a new era that will provide reliable, abundant power for generations to come,” she wrote. The DOE is “committed to the highest standards of safety for American workers and communities.”
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Cohen did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The NRC declined to comment.
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Blindsided by DOGE \n\n\n\n
The U.S. has not had a serious nuclear incident since the Three Mile Island partial meltdown in 1979, a track record many experts attribute to a rigorous regulatory environment and an intense safety culture.
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Major nuclear incidents around the world have only strengthened the resolve of past regulators to stay independent from industry and from political winds. A chief cause of Japan’s Fukushima accident, investigators found, was the cozy relationship between the country’s industry and oversight body, which opened the door for thin safety assessments and inaccurate projections overlooking the possible impact of a major tsunami.
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“We knew regulatory capture led directly to Fukushima and to Chernobyl,” said Kathryn Huff, who was assistant secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy during the Biden administration.
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The U.S. has not had a serious nuclear incident since the Three Mile Island partial meltdown in 1979. Leif Skoogfors/Getty Images \n\n\n\n
The U.S. has barely built any nuclear power plants in recent decades. Only three new reactors have been completed in the last 25 years, and since 1990 the U.S has barely added any net new nuclear electricity to its grid. Though about 20% of U.S. energy is supplied by nuclear power plants, the fleet is aging. Some experts blame the slow build-out on the challenging economics of financing a multibillion-dollar project and the uncertainty of accessing and disposing of nuclear fuels.
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But an increasingly vocal group of industry voices and deregulation advocates have blamed the slow build-out on overly cautious and inefficient regulators. Among the most powerful exponents of this view are billionaires Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen; both venture capitalists have their own investments in the nuclear energy sector and are influential Trump supporters.
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Andreessen camped out at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Florida, after Trump won the 2024 election, helping pick staff for the new administration. In late 2024, Thiel personally vetted at least one candidate for the Office of Nuclear Energy, according to people familiar with the conversations. Neither responded to requests for comment.
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Four months into his second term, Trump signed a series of executive orders designed to supercharge nuclear power build-out. “It’s a hot industry, it’s a brilliant industry,” said Trump, flanked by nuclear energy CEOs in the Oval Office. He added: “And it’s become very safe.”
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Under those orders, the NRC was directed to reduce its workforce, speed up the timeline for approving nuclear reactors and rewrite many of its safety rules. The DOE — which has a vast nuclear portfolio, including waste cleanup sites and government research labs — was tasked with creating a pathway for so-called advanced nuclear companies to test their designs.
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The goal, Trump said, was to quadruple nuclear energy output and provide new power to the data centers behind the AI boom.
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As DOGE gutted agencies , departures mounted in the nuclear sector. Career experts in nuclear regulations and safety departed or were forced out. When Trump fired Hanson, a Democratic NRC commissioner, the president’s team explained the move by saying, “All organizations are more effective when leaders are rowing in the same direction.”
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In an unsigned email to ProPublica, the White House press office wrote: “All commissioners are presidential appointees and can be fired just like any other appointee.”
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In August, the NRC’s top attorney resigned and was replaced by oil and gas lawyer David Taggart, who had been working on DOGE cuts at the DOE. In all, the nuclear office at the DOE had lost about a third of its staff, according to a January 2026 count by the Federation of American Scientists, a nonprofit focused on science and technology policy.
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That summer, Cohen and a team of DOGE operatives touched down at the NRC offices, a series of nondescript towers across from a Dunkin’ in suburban Maryland. He was joined by Adam Blake, an investor who had recently founded an AI medical startup and has a background in real estate and solar energy, and Ankur Bansal, president of a company that created software for real estate agents. Neither would comment for this story.
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Many career officials who spoke with ProPublica were blindsided: The new Trump officials at the NRC seemed to have no experience with the intricacies of nuclear energy policy or law, they said. One NRC lawyer who briefed some of the new arrivals decided to resign. “They were talking about quickly approving all these new reactors, and they didn’t seem to care that much about the rules — they wanted to carry out the wishes of the White House,” the official said.
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At one point, Cohen began passing out hats from nuclear energy startup Valar Atomics, one of the companies vying to build a new reactor, according to sources familiar with the matter and records seen by ProPublica. NRC staffers balked; they were supposed to monitor companies like Valar for safety violations, not wear its swag.
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NRC ethics officials warned Cohen that the hat handout was a likely violation of conflict rules. It betrayed a misunderstanding of the safety regulator’s role, said a former official familiar with the exchange. “Imagine you live near a nuclear power plant, and you find out a supposedly independent safety regulator — the watchdog — is going around wearing the power plant’s branded hats,” the official said. “Would that make you feel safe?” The NRC and Cohen did not respond to requests for comment about the hat incident.
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Valar counts Trump’s Silicon Valley allies as angel investors. They include Palmer Luckey, a technology executive and founder of the defense contractor Anduril, and Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer of Palantir, the software company helping power Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation raids.
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It was among three nuclear reactor companies that sued the NRC last year in an attempt to strip it of its authority to regulate its reactors and replace it with a state-level regulator. Before the Trump administration came into office, lawyers watching the case were confident the courts would quickly dismiss the suit, as the NRC’s authority to regulate reactors is widely acknowledged. But new Trump appointees pushed for a compromise settlement — which is still being negotiated. The career NRC lawyer working on the case quietly left the agency.
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Valar and its executives did not reply to requests for comment.
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“Going So Fast” \n\n\n\n
The deregulatory push is the culmination of mounting pressure — both political and economic — to make it easier to build nuclear power in the U.S. Over the years, a bipartisan coalition supporting nuclear expansion brought together environmentalists who favor zero-carbon power and defense hawks focused on abundant domestic energy production.
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Anti-nuclear activists still argue that renewable energy like wind and solar are safer and more economical. But streamlining the NRC has been a bipartisan priority as well. The latest major reform came in 2024, when President Joe Biden signed into law the ADVANCE Act, which went as far as changing the mission statement of the NRC to ensure it “does not unnecessarily limit” nuclear energy development.
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Some nuclear power supporters say the Trump administration is merely accelerating these changes. They cite instances in which the current regulations appear out of sync with the times. The NRC’s byzantine rules are designed for so-called large light-water reactors — massive facilities that can power entire cities — and not the increasingly in vogue smaller advanced reactor designs popular among Silicon Valley-backed firms.
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Rules that require fences of certain heights might make little sense for new reactors buried in the earth; and rules that require a certain number of operators per reactor could be a bad fit for a cluster of smaller reactors with modern controls. Advances in sensors, modeling and safety technologies, they say, should be taken into account across the board.
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The NRC has said it expects over two dozen new license requests from small modular and advanced reactor companies in coming years. Many of those requests are likely to come from new, Silicon Valley-based nuclear firms.
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“There was a missing link in the innovation cycle, and it was very difficult to build something and test it in the U.S. because of mostly licensing and site availability constraints in the past,” said Adam Stein of the pro-nuclear nonprofit Breakthrough Institute.
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The regulatory changes are in flux: This spring, the NRC is starting to release thousands of pages of new rules governing everything from the safety and emergency preparedness plans reactor companies are required to submit to the procedures for objecting to a reactor license.
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“It’s hard to know if they are getting rid of unnecessary processes or if it’s actually reducing public safety,” said one official working on reactor licensing, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from the Trump administration. “And that’s just the problem with going so fast — everything just kind of gets lost in a mush.”
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Lawyers from the Executive Office of the President have been sent to the NRC to keep an eye on the new rules, a move that further raised alarms about the agency’s independence.
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Nicholas Gallagher — a relatively recent New York University law school graduate and conservative writer whom ProPublica previously identified as a DOGE operative at the General Services Administration — has been involved in conversations about overhauling environmental rules.
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He’s working alongside Sydney Volanski, a 30-year-old recent law school graduate who rose to national attention while she was in high school for her campaign against the Girl Scouts of America, which she accused of promoting “Marxists, socialists and advocates of same-sex lifestyle.”
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NRC lawyers working on the rules were told last October that Gallagher and Volanski would be joining them, and they both appear on the regular NRC rulemaking calendar invite.
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The White House maintains, however, that “zero lawyers from the Executive Office of the President have been dispatched to work on rulemaking.” Neither Gallagher nor Volanski replied to requests for comment.
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The administration is routing the new rules through an office overseen by Trump’s cost-cutting guru Russell Vought, a move that was previously unheard of for an independent regulator like the NRC. The White House spokesperson noted that, under a recent executive order, this process is now required for all agencies.
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Political operatives have been “inserted into the senior leadership team to the point where they could significantly influence decision-making,” said Scott Morris, who worked at the NRC for more than 32 years, most recently as the No. 2 career operations official. “I just think that would be a dangerous proposition.”
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Morris voted for Trump twice and broadly supports the goals of deregulating and expanding nuclear energy, but he has begun speaking out against the administration’s interference at the NRC. He retired in May 2025 as part of a wave of retirements and firings.
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At a recent hearing before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board — an independent body that helps adjudicate nuclear licensing — NRC lawyers withdrew from the proceedings, citing “limited resources.” The judge remarked that it was the first time in over 20 years the NRC had done so.
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Meanwhile, some staff members, other career officials say, are afraid to voice dissenting views for fear of being fired. “It feels like being a lobster in a slowly boiling pot,” one NRC official who has been working on the rule changes told ProPublica, describing the erosion of independence.
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The official was one of three who compared their recent experience at NRC to being in a pot of slowly boiling water. “If somebody is raising something that they think that the industry or the White House would have a problem with, they think twice,” the official said.
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Inside the NRC, the steering committee overseeing the changes includes Cohen, Taggart and Mike King, a career NRC official who is the newly installed executive director for operations. The former director, Mirela Gavrilas, a 21-year veteran of the agency, retired after getting boxed out of decision-making, according to a person familiar with her departure. Gavrilas did not respond to a request for comment.
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Any final changes will be approved by the NRC’s five commissioners, three of whom are Republicans. In September, the two Democratic commissioners told a Senate committee they might be fired at any time if they get crosswise with Trump — including over revisions to safety rules .
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Draft rules being circulated inside the NRC propose drastic rollbacks of security and safety inspections at nuclear facilities. Those include a proposed 56% cut in emergency preparedness inspection time, CNN reported in March.
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Even some pro-nuclear groups are troubled by the emerging order. Some have tried to backchannel to their contacts in the Trump administration to explain the importance of an independent regulator to help maintain public support for nuclear power. Without it, they risk losing credibility.
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“You have to make sure you don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater,” said Judi Greenwald, president and CEO of the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, a nonprofit that promotes nuclear energy and supports many of the regulatory changes being proposed by the Trump administration.
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Greenwald’s group favors faster timelines for approving nuclear reactors, but she worries that the agency’s fundamental independence has been undermined. “We would prefer that they yield back more of NRC independence,” she said.
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The Vogtle nuclear power plant in Waynesboro, Georgia, is the largest nuclear power station in the U.S. Kendrick Brinson/The New York Times/Redux \n\n\n\n
“Nuke Bros” in Silicon Valley \n\n\n\n
One Trump administration priority has been making it easier for so-called advanced reactor companies to navigate the regulatory process. These firms, mostly backed by Silicon Valley tech and venture money, are often working on designs for much smaller reactors that they hope to mass produce in factories.
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“There are two nuclear industries,” said Macfarlane, the former NRC chair. “There are the actual people who use nuclear reactors to produce power and put it on the grid … and then there are the ‘nuke bros’” in Silicon Valley.
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Trump’s Silicon Valley allies have loomed large over his nuclear policy. One prospective political appointee for a top DOE nuclear job got a Christmas Eve call from Thiel, the rare Silicon Valley leader to back Trump in 2016. Thiel, whose Founders Fund invested in a nuclear fuel startup and an advanced reactor company, quizzed the would-be official about deregulation and how to rapidly build more nuclear energy capacity, said sources familiar with the conversation.
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Nuclear energy startups jockeyed to spend time at Mar-a-Lago in the months before the start of Trump’s second term. Balerion Space Ventures, a venture capital firm that has invested in multiple companies, convened an investor summit there in January 2025, according to an invitation viewed by ProPublica. Balerion did not reply to a request for comment.
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A few months later, when Trump was drawing up the executive orders, leaders at many of those nuclear companies were given advanced access to drafts of the text — and the opportunity to provide suggested edits, documents viewed by ProPublica show.
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Those orders created a new program to test out experimental reactor designs, addressing a common complaint that companies are not given opportunities to experiment. There are currently about a dozen advanced reactor companies planning to participate. Each has a concierge team within the DOE to help navigate bureaucracy. As NPR reported in January , the DOE quietly overhauled a series of safety rules that would apply to these new reactors and shared the new regulations with these companies before making them public.
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Secretary of Energy Chris Wright — who served on the board of one of those companies, Oklo — has said fast nuclear build-out is a priority: “We are moving as quickly as we can to permit, build and enable the rapid construction of as much nuke capacity as possible,” he told CNBC last fall. Oklo noted that Wright stepped down from the board when he was confirmed.
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The Trump administration hopes some of the companies would have their reactors “go critical” — a key first step on the way to building a functioning power plant — by July 2026. Then the NRC, which signs off on the safety designs of commercial nuclear power plants, could be expected to quickly OK these new reactors to get to market.
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According to people familiar with the conversations, at least one nuclear energy startup CEO personally recruited potential members of the DOGE nuclear team, though it’s not clear if Cohen was brought aboard this way. Cohen has told colleagues and industry contacts that he reports to Emily Underwood, one of Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s top aides for economic policy. He is perceived inside government as a key avatar of the White House’s nuclear agenda.
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In its email to ProPublica, the White House said, “Seth Cohen is a Department of Energy employee and does not report to Emily Underwood or Stephen Miller in any capacity.”
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The DOE spokesperson added, “Seth’s role at the Department of Energy is to support the Trump administration’s mission to unleash American Energy Dominance.”
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Cohen has been pushing to raise the legal limit of radiation that nuclear energy companies are allowed to emit from their facilities. One nuclear industry insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said many firms are fixating on changing these radiation rules: Their business model requires moving nuclear reactors around the country, often near workers or the general public.
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Building thick, expensive shielding walls can be prohibitively expensive, they said.
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Valar CEO Isaiah Taylor has called limits on exposure to radiation a top barrier to industry growth. A recent DOE memo seen by ProPublica cites cost savings on shielding for Valar’s reactor to justify changing those limits. “Shielding-related cost reductions,” the memo said, “could range from $1-2 million per reactor.” The debate over the precise rule change is ongoing.
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The DOE has been considering a fivefold increase to the limit for public exposure to radiation, which will allow some nuclear reactor companies to cut costs on these expensive safety shields, internal DOE documents seen by ProPublica show.
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A presentation prepared by DOE staffers in their Idaho offices that has circulated inside the department makes the “business case” for changing the radiation dose rules: It could cut the cost of some new reactors by as much as 5%. These more relaxed standards are likely to be adopted by the NRC and apply to reactors nationwide, documents show.
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In February, Wright accompanied Valar’s executive team on a first-of-its-kind flight, as a U.S. military plane was conscripted to fly the company’s reactor from Los Angeles to Utah. Valar does not yet have a working nuclear reactor, and a number of industry sources told ProPublica they viewed the airlift as a PR exercise. Internal government memos justified the airlift by designating it as “critical” to the U.S. “national security interests.”
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Cohen posted smiling pictures of himself from the cargo bay of the military plane.
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Cohen told an audience at the American Nuclear Society that the rapid build-out was essential to powering Silicon Valley’s AI data centers. He framed the policy in existential terms: “I can’t emphasize this strongly enough that losing the AI war is an outcome akin to the Nazis developing the bomb before the United States.”
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As it deliberated rule changes, the DOE has cut out its internal team of health experts who work on radiation safety at the Office of Environment, Health, Safety and Security, said sources familiar with the decision. The advice of outside experts on radiation protection has been largely cast aside.
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The DOE spokesperson said its radiation standards “are aligned with Gold Standard Science … with a focus on protecting people and the environment while avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy.”
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The department has already decided to abandon the long-standing radiation protection principle known as “ALARA” — the “As Low As Reasonably Achievable” standard — which directs anyone dealing with radioactive materials to minimize exposure.
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It often pushes exposure well below legal thresholds. Many experts agreed that the ALARA principle was sometimes applied too strictly, but the move to entirely throw it out was opposed by many prominent radiation health experts.
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Whether the agencies will actually change the legal thresholds for radiation exposure is an open question, said sources familiar with the deliberations.
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Internal DOE documents arguing for changing dose rules cite a report produced at the Idaho National Laboratory, which was compiled with the help of the AI assistant Claude. “It’s really strange,” said Kathryn Higley, president of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, a congressionally chartered group studying radiation safety. “They fundamentally mistake the science.”
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John Wagner, the head of the Idaho National Laboratory and the report’s lead author, acknowledged to ProPublica that the science over changing radiation exposure rules is hotly contested. “We recognize that respected experts interpret aspects of this literature differently,” he wrote. His analysis was not meant to be the final word, he said, but was “intended to inform debate.”
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The impact of radiation levels at very low doses is hard to measure, so the U.S. has historically struck a cautious note. Raising dose limits could put the U.S. out of step with international standards.
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For his part, Cohen has told the nuclear industry that he sees his job as making sure the government “is no longer a barrier” to them.
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In June, he shot down the notion of companies putting money into a fund for workplace accidents. “Put yourself in the shoes of one of these startups,” he said. “They’re raising hundreds of millions of dollars to do this. And then they would have to go to their VCs and their board and say, listen, guys, we actually need a few hundred million dollars more to put into a trust fund?”
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He also suggested that regulators should not fret about preparing for so-called 100-year events — disasters that have roughly a 1% chance of taking place but can be catastrophic for nuclear facilities.
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“When SpaceX started building rockets, they sort of expected the first ones to blow up,” he said.
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The post DOGE Goes Nuclear: How Trump Invited Silicon Valley Into America’s Nuclear Power Regulator appeared first on ProPublica .
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It’s difficult to put yourself in the place of Cherise Doyley, a pregnant mother of three who found herself facing a judge while in labor at the University of Florida Health hospital in downtown Jacksonville.
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She had arrived at the facility with a plan for her birth. She wanted to try for a vaginal delivery, but she understood from years of experience as a professional birthing doula that things don’t always go as planned.
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She arrived overnight at the hospital after her water broke. Doctors told her they were concerned about the risk of uterine rupture, a potentially deadly complication for her and her baby. She understood the risk to be less than 2% and repeatedly told doctors she wouldn’t consent to a cesarean without trying to have a vaginal delivery first. The doctors appeared to relent, leaving her to labor for several more hours.
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Then a nursing supervisor wheeled a tablet up to her bed and informed her she was in court. The reason? Failing to agree to a C-section.
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When advocates for pregnant women say that you shouldn’t lose your constitutional rights just because you conceived, this is the kind of situation they’re talking about.
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I’m a reporter based in Alabama, and throughout my career, I’ve focused on women facing the consequences of the state’s fetal personhood policy. That’s the idea that fetuses should have the same legal status as children. My investigation shows how a similar theory played into the cases of two women: Cherise Doyley and Brianna Bennett, who experienced eerily similar situations in Florida. In both cases, they found themselves fighting for their rights to make medical decisions because they were pregnant .
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I obtained a video recording of Doyley’s court hearing. Watching her argue her case from her hospital bed shocked me. Even though courts have found time and time again that you can’t force someone to undergo medical treatment — even if it could save someone else’s life — the video underscored for me how pregnant women are the rare exception.
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In several states, judges have ruled pregnant patients can be forced to receive blood transfusions or remain on bed rest if it is in the best interest of the fetus. In Doyley’s case, a court would force her to undergo surgery.
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ProPublica has already investigated how abortion restrictions can lead to pregnant women being denied lifesaving care . Experts worry that the opposite problem, forced treatment, could also become more common in states like Florida that have fetal personhood policies.
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Doyley signed a waiver allowing the hospital to discuss her case with ProPublica, but a spokesperson for University of Florida Health in Jacksonville would not comment, citing patient privacy.
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By sharing and examining Doyley’s case with her consent, we aim to show you what forced medical treatment can look like. And, while we encourage you to read the full investigation , we wanted to offer you a look inside the Zoom court hearing so you can see for yourself what happened.
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The Hearing Convenes \n\n\n\n
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Nurses wheel in a tablet for a virtual hearing, and Cherise Doyley realizes she is facing a court hearing about her birth choices. Obtained by ProPublica \n
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You can see the confusion on Doyley’s face as she realizes she’s being taken to court over her medical decisions. She asked for a lawyer, or at least a patient advocate. Florida courts don’t require lawyers for pregnant women in hearings about their medical decisions and the hospital didn’t provide an advocate, so Doyley had to go it alone.
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Judge Michael Kalil was on the call in his black robe and explained how the hearing would work. Doyley, a Black woman, was lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to IVs and monitors and covered by a sheet. She was surrounded on the screen by nearly a dozen doctors and lawyers, most of them white, who offered a lot of testimony about what could happen to Doyley’s baby if she continued to refuse a C-section.
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The Judge Explains the Proceedings \n\n\n\n
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Judge Michael Kalil explains that the state attorney’s office, at the request of the hospital, has asked him to grant an order for an emergency C-section. Obtained by ProPublica \n
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Dr. Erin Burnett said during the hearing that she did not think Doyley could successfully give birth vaginally. A long labor could increase the risk of uterine rupture, which could kill Doyley and the child, she said. Dr. John Davis, the chair of the obstetrics and gynecology department, said in the hearing the hospital had been recognized for its low C-section rate and did not perform unnecessary surgeries. Doyley’s condition required intervention, he said.
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“Everybody was very concerned about the baby’s welfare,” Jenny Van Ravestein, director of women’s services at the hospital, said during the hearing.
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Burnett and Davis did not respond to requests for comment, and the hospital declined ProPublica’s requests to interview them and others involved in Doyley’s care.
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The research on the risks of uterine rupture after prior C-sections is unclear. Studies have found that 0.15% to 2.3% of these labors resulted in a rupture, depending on a number of factors such as body mass, a history of successful vaginal births and whether the labor began spontaneously or had to be induced. Either number felt pretty low to Doyley.
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What the testimony doesn’t include, though, is much about the downsides Doyley faced from having another C-section, which could entail a long recovery, infection and other complications, along with the risk of death.
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But she couldn’t explain her reasoning until the judge decided to unmute her.
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Doyley Testifies \n\n\n\n
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When Doyley is unmuted, she testifies that a C-section could put her life in danger. Obtained by ProPublica \n
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Doyley had her reasons to want to avoid major abdominal surgery: She had difficult recoveries from her previous C-sections. A hemorrhage after a prior C-section had sent her back to the hospital for almost a week.
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She worried that she wouldn’t be able to care for her children if she was struggling with recovery from the surgery itself and potentially also with complications. And she was concerned that if she were to die, her children could fall into the foster care system. Doyley said she didn’t see surgery as a low-risk option. She wondered aloud in the hearing if her other children’s lives — and her own — mattered to the hospital and doctors.
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Kimberly Mutcherson, a law professor at Rutgers University, said that women who want to opt for care that seems risky to doctors often face accusations of not caring about their babies.
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“You’re somebody who is a bad mother, right?” Mutcherson said. “Which is a huge part of what the thought process is here. This is not what mothers do. Mothers sacrifice, including allowing somebody to cut you open.”
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Obstetricians care for two interconnected patients — the mother and her fetus. Sometimes their needs conflict. When that happens, the ethical guidelines for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists say the doctor should prioritize the well-being of the mother. However, these cases show that doctors sometimes elevate the welfare of the fetus over the mother, said Elizabeth Kukura, a law professor at Drexel University.
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“It reflects a deep understanding of women as the incubators,” Kukura said. “Women in their role as childbearers.”
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The hearing dragged on for more than two hours. At one point, Doyley asked for a transfer to another hospital because she did not want anyone involved in the hearing to operate on her if she needed a C-section. Hospital officials said that wasn’t likely to happen since another hospital would have to accept her as a patient first.
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Doyley agreed to stay at University of Florida Health but asked if the hospital could assign a Black nurse or doctor to her care. She wondered aloud in the hearing what would happen in the morning, after the 6 a.m. deadline imposed by the court had passed. “They’re going to tie me up and go give me a C-section against my will?”
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A Deadline Is Set \n\n\n\n
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Doyley says she doesn’t like her care being determined by nurses and doctors, most of whom were white, who have been involved in her court hearing. Obtained by ProPublica \n
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The judge did not order an immediate C-section, but he said the hospital could perform one in an emergency without her consent.
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Doyley later said she did her best to maintain her poise and composure. And at the end, she even thanked the judge and highlighted how absurd the whole thing felt to her.
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“I appreciate you spending two hours on a Sunday going through my medical history and fighting for my vagina and my baby,” she said.
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The Judge Rules \n\n\n\n
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Doyley thanks the judge at the end of the hearing, trying to keep her composure. Obtained by ProPublica \n
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Overnight, doctors said the baby’s heart rate dropped for several minutes. They rushed Doyley into surgery, and she, once again, gave birth via C-section.
\n\n\n\n
The next morning at 8 a.m., nurses again put Doyley in front of a tablet for a final hearing. Doyley said the baby was born at 2 a.m., and she still hadn’t been taken to the neonatal intensive care unit to see her daughter.
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“Tell them I don’t want to be on,” she said. “Y’all can have your own meeting. I want to see my child.”
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Once Kalil heard the baby had been born, he wished Doyley well and closed the case.
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The Case Is Closed \n\n\n\n
\n\n
Hours after her C-section delivery, Doyley finds herself back in a hearing before she even gets to see her baby. Obtained by ProPublica \n
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In response to questions from ProPublica, Kalil wrote in an email that the judicial code of conduct prohibits judges from commenting on cases. “These ethical standards exist to protect the integrity of the judicial process, ensure fairness to all parties, and preserve the Court’s neutrality,” he wrote.
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For a year, Doyley and her family tried to forget about the case and move on. But she couldn’t shake the feeling of violation. She said if the hospital could force her to undergo surgery, it could happen to anyone.
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“When we use the courts to basically strong-arm, bully someone into an unnecessary medical procedure against their will, it’s akin to torture, in my eyes,” Doyley said.
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The post She Was in Labor at a Florida Hospital. Then She Was in Zoom Court for Refusing a C-Section. appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Amy Yurkanin","publishDate":"2026-03-20T09:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?w=400&h=400&crop=1","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/florida-court-hearing-c-section","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-20T12:00:59.938Z"},{"id":"xcchwr","archiveId":"4cxgnu","slug":"hungary-arrest-netanyahu-if-he-visits","title":"Hungary: Arrest Netanyahu if He Visits","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, July 19, 2018. © 2018 Debbie Hill/AP Photo
(Brussels) – Hungarian authorities should arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he enters Hungarian te...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, July 19, 2018.\n © 2018 Debbie Hill/AP Photo\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>(Brussels) – Hungarian authorities should arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he enters Hungarian territory, Human Rights Watch said today. Netanyahu is expected to travel to Hungary on March 21, 2026, to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference Hungary, an official source reported. The visit comes shortly before Hungary’s national elections, scheduled for April 12.</p><p>On November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, alongside then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, over alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip from at least October 8, 2023. Both Netanyahu and Gallant remain fugitives from justice before the ICC. ICC members countries are required to arrest them if they enter their territory.</p><p>“Despite its move to leave the ICC, Hungary is still a member country and is still obligated to arrest and surrender individuals wanted by the court,” said Alice Autin, international justice researcher at Human Rights Watch. “By flouting this obligation, for the second time in less than a year, Hungary would further entrench impunity for serious crimes in Palestine and once again betray victims who have been denied justice for far too long.”</p><p>Netanyahu’s planned visit to Hungary is set to take place as Israel and the United States carry out thousands of airstrikes on Iran, and Iran responds with hundreds of strikes on Israel and the Gulf states. In early March, the Israeli military escalated its attacks in Lebanon and ordered the immediate evacuation of large areas of southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs, raising a real likelihood of the commission of the war crime of forced displacement. The escalating hostilities and mounting risks of serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law underscore the urgent need to respect the rule of law and support credible avenues for justice, such as the ICC, Human Rights Watch said.</p><p>Since October 2023, Israeli forces have carried out war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip. The continued restriction on aid entering Gaza has caused critical shortages of medicines, reconstruction equipment, food, and water.</p><p>In April 2025, Netanyahu visited Hungary, but the Hungarian authorities did not arrest him. In July, ICC judges found that Hungary failed to comply with its obligation to cooperate with the court and referred the finding to its oversight body, the Assembly of States Parties. During its annual session in December, the Assembly noted the judicial finding but failed to take more decisive action. ICC member countries should strengthen their responses to noncooperation.</p><p>During the April 2025 visit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced his government’s intention to withdraw from the ICC treaty, the Rome Statute. On June 2, Hungarian authorities formally notified the United Nations secretary-general of Hungary’s withdrawal, which will take effect on June 2, 2026, one year later. Hungarian international lawyers and civil society organizations criticized the decision to withdraw from the ICC.</p><p>Since 2010, Orbán has used his supermajority in parliament to undermine the independence of the judiciary, crack down on independent media and civil society organizations, demonize migrants and asylum seekers, discriminate against LGBT people, and undercut women’s and girls’ rights. By declaring various states of danger or emergency, Orbán’s government has effectively ruled by decree, sidestepping parliament altogether.</p><p>The European Union has a clear legal framework that governs its relationship with and support for the ICC. EU members and institutions have nonetheless failed to take sufficient measures to prevent Hungary’s undermining of the ICC and Orbán’s broader attack on the rule of law, Human Rights Watch said.</p><p>In 2018, the European Parliament initiated a procedure under article 7 of the EU treaty to assess the risk that Hungary’s erosion of the rule of law breaches fundamental EU values, but EU member states in the European Council have, so far, failed to take any concrete action.</p><p>The European Commission indicated in May 2025 that it was “in the process of analyzing Hungary’s announced withdrawal from the ICC in the light of the EU’s acquis,” that is, the body of EU law which includes respect for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. But there is no indication that the Commission’s assessment has progressed.</p><p>EU leadership and member states, along with other ICC member countries, should press Hungary to reverse its withdrawal from the court, publicly remind Hungary of its ongoing obligations as an ICC member, and urge Hungarian authorities to cooperate with the court by arresting Netanyahu. If the visit takes place, they should strongly condemn Hungary’s continued failure to cooperate with the court and unambiguously reaffirm their own commitment to execute all pending ICC warrants, regardless of whom they target, Human Rights Watch said.</p><p>The European Commission and EU member states should also consider Hungary’s decision to leave the ICC as a further risk of serious breach of fundamental EU values, and consider including the withdrawal in the scope of the current procedure under article 7. They should also assess what other measures and action should be taken. This could include initiating a procedure that could lead to a finding that Hungary has infringed EU law.</p><p>“Orbán’s government is about to roll out the red carpet again for Netanyahu, when it is obligated to arrest him,” Autin said. “Silence and persistent inaction from the EU risks sending a dangerous message of acquiescence as the Israeli government continues to be responsible for atrocities.”</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-20T06:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2025/04/202504eca_mena_hungary_israel_Viktor%20Orban_and_Benjamin%20Netanyahu.jpg?h=45ac43bd&itok=7aYHKxSx","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/20/hungary-arrest-netanyahu-if-he-visits","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-20T06:00:48.613Z"},{"id":"ane07c","archiveId":"n6nk2v","slug":"georgia-woman-charged-with-murder-after-allegedly-taking-pills-to-induce-abortion","title":"Georgia Woman Charged With Murder After Allegedly Taking Pills To Induce Abortion","excerpt":"A 31-year-old woman has been charged with murder by police who say she took pills to induce an abortion -- even though taking abortion pills to end your own pregnancy is not illegal in Georgia.","content":"","category":"choice","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-03-19T23:32:29.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/69bc85f21b00009fba14ead4.jpeg?cache=rdNTL4HPEN&ops=1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/woman-charged-with-murder-after-taking-pills-to-induce-abortion_n_69bc8575e4b0284f9bdfabbc","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-21T00:00:14.051Z"},{"id":"7467i8","archiveId":"n3xoqo","slug":"how-us-tried-but-failed-to-wipe-out-70-years-of-global-consent-on-womens-rights","title":"How U.S. Tried but Failed to Wipe Out 70 Years of Global Consent on Women’s Rights","excerpt":"The United States set a new precedent at the United Nations annual women’s rights meeting by requesting a recorded vote on the draft conclusions. The U.S. action culminated after weekslong negotiations on this year’s theme, “Ensuring and Strengthening Access to Justice for All Women and Girls.","content":"
The United States set a new precedent at the United Nations annual women’s rights meeting by requesting a recorded vote on the draft conclusions. The U.S. action culminated after weekslong negotiations on this year’s theme, “Ensuring and Strengthening Access to Justice for All Women and Girls.”
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The US.. move—which failed drastically—reflects the continuing assault of the Trump administration on gender equality worldwide, yet resistance from across the world couldn’t be more profound.
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The post How U.S. Tried but Failed to Wipe Out 70 Years of Global Consent on Women’s Rights appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Damilola Banjo","publishDate":"2026-03-19T20:28:02.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Malala-Yousafzi-the-Pakistani-rights-activist-speaking-at-the-UNs-observance-of-International-Womens-Day-led-by-the-theme-of-Rights-Justice-Action-for-all-Women-and-Girls-March-9-2026.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/19/usa-csw-70-women/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-20T00:00:42.182Z"},{"id":"bf43pk","archiveId":"8vro94","slug":"the-filibuster-is-no-virtue","title":"The Filibuster Is No Virtue","excerpt":"Republicans have put on the Senate floor (barely, with only 51 votes) their massive voter suppression bill, inaptly named the SAVE America Act. What will likely trip up Republicans is not the substance of the bill, but fiddling with the filibuster, which will be necessary to pass this anti-democrati...","content":"
Republicans have put on the Senate floor (barely, with only 51 votes) their massive voter suppression bill, inaptly named the SAVE America Act.
\n
What will likely trip up Republicans is not the substance of the bill, but fiddling with the filibuster, which will be necessary to pass this anti-democratic monstrosity. A critical segment of the Republican Senate caucus cares about maintaining the filibuster, a tool Republicans have used repeatedly to block bills with majority support, such as reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act.
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The post The Filibuster Is No Virtue appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"politics","author":"Jennifer Rubin, The Contrarian","publishDate":"2026-03-19T19:56:10.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1332006457.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/19/democrats-filibuster-senate-republicans-congress-trump/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-20T00:00:42.182Z"},{"id":"de5dz8","archiveId":"135262","slug":"for-families-living-near-farms-pesticide-exposure-could-affect-babies-even-before-pregnancy","title":"For families living near farms, pesticide exposure could affect babies even before pregnancy","excerpt":"Pesticide exposure may affect the health of a baby even before a person becomes pregnant, according to a new study released last week. The study, led by researchers at the University of Arizona, relied on birth certificate data and the state’s pesticide use registry to figure out whether people who ...","content":"
Pesticide exposure may affect the health of a baby even before a person becomes pregnant, according to a new study released last week.
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The study, led by researchers at the University of Arizona, relied on birth certificate data and the state’s pesticide use registry to figure out whether people who lived near farms where pesticides had been sprayed, both before and after they became pregnant, were more likely to have babies that had low Apgar scores. The Apgar score is a metric used by doctors to quickly determine the health of a baby at birth.
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The research focused on three classes of commonly used pesticides — organophosphates, pyrethroids and carbamates — and found that several ingredients were linked to lower Apgar scores for women who gave birth and lived within roughly 500 yards of where pesticides had been sprayed on crops. Research has found that lower Apgar scores can indicate a higher likelihood of neurological anomalies like cerebral palsy.
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Melissa Furlong, a lead author of the study and assistant professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Arizona, said she was surprised to discover some of these stronger associations between certain pesticides and lower Apgar scores, particularly in the window of preconception. “It’s particularly problematic from a public health perspective, just because many pregnancies are unplanned,” she said.
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And the impact could extend beyond the person who becomes pregnant, Furlong said. More research needs to be done to determine how exposure affects both eggs and sperm. Men who live within the buffer area of approximately 500 yards from an agricultural spray could also find that this affects the health of their future offspring, she said.
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While the study focused on those living near agricultural spraying, Furlong said a lot of the ingredients they studied are also found in common household insecticides. The population could also be exposed to these ingredients when eating fruits and vegetables that have been sprayed.
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“This is just one metric of exposure to these pesticides, but it’s concerning because the general population is still exposed to these ingredients,” she said. “The research would have implications for household use and for residues on fruits and vegetables.”
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Furlong said that those living in rural agricultural counties like Yuma, which abuts the U.S. border with Mexico and where much of the country’s leafy greens are grown, were more likely to be exposed to these pesticides. But Maricopa County, where the suburbs are encroaching on agricultural land, also had a significant overlap between pregnancies and pesticide sprays, she said.
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Deborah Bennett, a professor of environmental health at the University of California, Davis, who has studied how exposure to pesticides and other toxic chemicals affects pregnancies, praised the study for using a state database of birth certificates. This robust data set allowed for the analysis of over a million births that took place between 2006 and 2020.
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The other benefit, according to Bennett, is that the study looks at exposure before conception and throughout pregnancy. Other popular methods of studying the impact of exposure to pesticides tend to be limited to a 24-hour period.
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A study like this one, that is able to look at potential public health impacts, is only possible because Arizona is one of two states, along with California, that require tracking agricultural pesticide use. The rest of the states are essentially “flying blind,” Furlong said, which impacts what pesticides can be studied because they vary based on what is grown in each state.
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Furlong said she hopes her work can help shape policies by singling out the health impact of certain ingredients present in pesticides. This more granular data could help target at least the most harmful chemicals. “The closer we get to specific ingredients, I think the better we’ll get towards balancing public health and farmers’ needs,” she said.
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The study did have some limitations. It only focused on 10 percent of the over 300 pesticides applied annually in the state, for example. Furlong also said her lab is looking at ways to improve that exposure assessment by using models that could also capture the drift of pesticides, beyond the buffer zone used in the study.
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While Furlong said she doesn’t like to put the burden on pregnant people, she does have some tips for those living near farms where pesticides are being sprayed: “Change your air filters, take your shoes off inside, keep your children’s toys inside, not outside during spray season, and vacuum and dust both your home and your car regularly.”
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Jessica Kutz","publishDate":"2026-03-19T19:44:15.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pesticides_pregnancy.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/pesticide-exposure-pregnancy-risks/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-20T00:00:42.596Z"},{"id":"zbmgg9","archiveId":"89qec7","slug":"the-latest-cache-of-epstein-files-havent-and-wont-spark-wall-streets-metoo-moment","title":"The Latest Cache of Epstein Files Haven’t (and Won’t) Spark Wall Street’s #MeToo Moment","excerpt":"In 2010, a 28-year-old woman working at the London branch of a Wall Street bank was leaving the office around 10 p.m. when a colleague pushed her against a wall and tried to forcibly kiss her. \"A cab driver saw what was happening and physically pulled him off me,\" the woman, who asked not to be name...","content":"
In 2010, a 28-year-old woman working at the London branch of a Wall Street bank was leaving the office around 10 p.m. when a colleague pushed her against a wall and tried to forcibly kiss her. \"A cab driver saw what was happening and physically pulled him off me,\" the woman, who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions, told me. She reported the incident the next day to her manager, who told her she “should dress for the job I want” and not “like a stripper.” The women quite a month later. “I just wanted out,” she said. “I was mortified.”
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What is notable about this story is how common it is. Even now, she said, you can speak to almost any woman who has spent time working in finance and she will know someone who has been harassed or assaulted. Often she has her own story.
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That culture, and Wall Street’s willingness to perpetuate it, is back in the spotlight after the latest release of emails linked to Jeffrey Epstein, which are reviving scrutiny of his extensive connections across the industry.
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The post The Latest Cache of Epstein Files Haven’t (and Won’t) Spark Wall Street’s #MeToo Moment appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Josie Cox","publishDate":"2026-03-19T19:28:11.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1197878096.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/19/wall-street-epstein-women-sexual-assault-rape-harassment/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-20T00:00:42.182Z"},{"id":"2ahkki","archiveId":"rbj928","slug":"taylor-frankie-paul-tested-how-reality-tv-confronts-abuse-allegations","title":"Taylor Frankie Paul tested how reality TV confronts abuse allegations","excerpt":"Content warning: This story contains graphic depictions of domestic violence. Taylor Frankie Paul’s reality TV career started with “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” a Hulu show whose first episode ends with her in handcuffs after police are called about a domestic disturbance.","content":"
Content warning: This story contains graphic depictions of domestic violence.
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Taylor Frankie Paul’s reality TV career started with “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” a Hulu show whose first episode ends with her in handcuffs after police are called about a domestic disturbance.
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Three years later, she was set to debut as the Bachelorette — before a new round of allegations of violence and footage of the 2023 incident led to a production pause on the fifth season of “Secret Lives” and the cancellation of this season’s “Bachelorette.”
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“In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of ‘The Bachelorette’ at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family,” a Disney Entertainment employee told TMZ and The Wall Street Journal .
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The news follows other public consequences like Cinnabon withdrawing from sponsorship deals with both shows. The decisions have started conversations of how the entertainment industry should handle real-life allegations of domestic violence.
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ABC could not be reached for comment.
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What do we know about what happened last month? \n\n\n\n
Very little is known about the incident: People reported that there is an open domestic violence assault investigation into Paul and her ex, Dakota Mortensen, relating to contacts on February 24 and February 25. The Draper City Police Department told Us Weekly that “allegations have been made in both directions” and no further information could be shared about an ongoing case.
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TMZ and People reported that Mortensen filed an order for protection against Paul this week, asking for temporary custody of their son. TMZ said his petition alleged Paul was physically violent with Mortensen in front of the couple’s child.
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What happened in 2023? \n\n\n\n
This isn’t the first time Paul has been accused of domestic abuse. She was arrested in 2023 and charged with aggravated assault, domestic violence in the presence of a child, child abuse and criminal mischief. She pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and the other charges were dropped.
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Police documents viewed by The Salt Lake City Tribune at the time said Paul was accused of physical violence toward both Mortensen and her then-5-year-old daughter. Paul contested this account of events after entering her plea.
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On Thursday, TMZ released a video from the 2023 incident showing Paul kicking and slapping Mortensen while he films. She is seen throwing metal chairs at him, and he says one of them hits her daughter. Half the video is audio-only, and it ends with Mortensen opening the door to a police officer.
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Paul’s representative told TMZ the video was “selectively edited” and released to “distract from [Mortensen’s] own behavior.”
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Disney, the parent company of Hulu and ABC, said the video release was part of the reason they canceled “The Bachelorette.”
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What have they said about this most recent incident? \n\n\n\n
Before the cancellation, Paul mostly deflected questions about the latest controversy during a Wednesday appearance on “Good Morning America.”
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Through a representative, Mortensen didn’t directly address last month’s incident other than to say he wants to have a positive relationship with Paul and to focus on being a good co-parent.
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Paul’s representative shared a statement with People on Thursday after the announcement that her “Bachelorette” season was canceled.
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“After years of silently suffering extensive mental and physical abuse as well as threats of retaliation, Taylor is finally gaining the strength to face her accuser and taking steps to ensure that she and her children are protected from any further harm,” a spokesperson said.
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“There are too many women who are suffering in silence as they survive aggressive, jealous ex-partners who refuse to let them move on with their lives. Taylor has remained silent out of fear of further abuse, retaliation and public shaming. She is currently exploring all of her options, seeking support, and preparing to own and share her story.”
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Who are the women of ‘Secret Lives’? \n\n\n\n
“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” follows a close-knit group of Mormon women originally famous for their TikTok videos. Paul caused a massive scandal on #MomTok in 2022 when she announced an affair and subsequent divorce. Viewers latched onto Paul’s claim that social media’s favorite Mormon mothers were privately exploring a form of consensual nonmonogamy known as “soft swinging.”
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The women of #MomTok are upfront about challenging gender stereotypes in the Mormon community. Several “wives” are divorceés, and some cast members are more lenient with following church guidance around substance use. The stars all outearn their husbands, a point of tension given their patriarchal faith and emphasis on men as the breadwinners.
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How has ‘Secret Lives’ or Bachelor Nation dealt with abuse in the past? \n\n\n\n
Several women on “Secret Lives” have a history of sexual abuse and talk openly about it on the show. Mayci Neeley is open about a past abusive relationship , and tells Mortensen his behavior toward Paul is reminiscent of that dynamic. A major plot line in season four is how Mikayla Matthews and her husband struggle with intimacy issues due to her history of childhood sexual abuse .
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The very first episode of the series ends with body camera footage of Paul’s 2023 arrest stemming from a domestic disturbance. But the next episode jumps 11 months into the future, with Paul and Mortensen back together, skipping the fallout from the assault.
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“Bachelor In Paradise,” a show following multiple couples under the Bachelor franchise, paused production in 2017 after one cast member accused the other of sexual assault.
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What should we keep in mind about domestic abuse allegations? \n\n\n\n
Media researcher Soraya Giaccardi Vargas noted that viewers don’t have the full picture of Paul and Mortensen’s relationship. She said audiences are most primed to recognize physical violence as abuse, but other forms like coercive control or surveilling a partner are hard to depict — or detect — onscreen.
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“When abuse becomes entertainment, we can become desensitized to the severity of the topic,” Giaccardi Vargas said. “We only have pieces of the puzzle, and we don’t necessarily know how it will all play out. But what I’ve seen in the discourse so far is a lot of folks that have already jumped to a conclusion about where the responsibility lies.”
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This matters because the audience will probably never really know what happened between Paul and Mortensen. When trying to piece together what is going on behind the cameras, viewers are likely to compare real people to the mythical perfect victim.
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A survivor with agency doesn’t fit the narrative that real victims are weak, White , calm, cisgender women. Survivors are often punished by the justice system for fighting back against their abuser, leading to a situation where they are demonized and incarcerated for what is seen as self-defense.
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Given this, it’s not uncommon for both people in a relationship to accuse each other of abuse. Sometimes “mutual abuse” is used as a tactic to discredit survivors by shifting the focus to how they chose to defend themselves from abuse.
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“There can be situations in which, again, someone’s response to violence can be mischaracterized, or it can be taken out of context by not acknowledging that sometimes the response is a defensive response,” Giaccardi Vargas said.
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What are experts saying about production decisions? \n\n\n\n
The “Secret Lives” pause is a marker of advancement for the entertainment industry as a whole, Kimberly Bautista, founder and executive director of survivor storytelling nonprofit Justice For My Sister , said before ABC’s decision. “There’s an immediate accountability that is coming up.”
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Bautista’s nonprofit trains marginalized survivors of gender-based violence on trauma-informed storytelling methods, and works with production executives to foster safe environments for those narratives. Popular depictions of domestic abuse often blame the survivor or don’t address the harm at all, she said.
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“The responsibility does, at the end of the day, lie with the executives that are green lighting and approving these stories to go forward,” she said.
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After ABC’s announcement that it was pulling the season, Bautista said the decision reflects the amount of scrutiny that would come if the season ran as intended.
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“Networks understand that we are in a moment of reckoning in our nation, and they’re signaling they’re not willing to cosign toxic celebrities with track records of domestic abuse in the way that they have in the past,” she wrote over email. “Now if only executives and the public at large would hold that same standard for influential men named the Epstein files,” referencing the elites who were shown to have had relationships with billionaire sex offender Jeffery Epstein through the release of case files from the Department of Justice.
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Giaccardi Vargas commended the decision not to air this season. “It’s not always easy for networks to put people over profit, and reality TV has long avoided breaking ‘the fourth wall’ in favor of letting the drama play out on-screen. This move is a reflection of an increased understanding of the responsibility that networks have both to cast members and to audiences with regards to ethical storytelling,” she wrote over email.
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Audiences are experiencing a dissonance between social media videos of Paul playing with her kids while also hearing accusations involving abuse in front of a child, said Fortesa Latifi, author of the forthcoming “Like, Follow, Subscribe: Influencer Kids and the Cost of a Childhood Online.”
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Even though Paul’s brand has always leaned into the messiness of being a mom, social media projects only part of the picture. “Online motherhood is often portrayed as frictionless and perfect. And of course, these kinds of allegations completely shatter that illusion,” Latifi said.
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Both Latifi and Bautista said that platforming Paul amid new allegations would risk normalizing this kind of violence.
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“I think it’s important that the networks respond to this moment and really become more conscientious of what it is that they’re greenlighting, who it is that they are platforming, whose narratives they are centering,” Bautista said.
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What can reality TV do to change the public perception of domestic violence? \n\n\n\n
“When abuse becomes entertainment, we can become desensitized to the severity of the topic and the importance of the topic, and it kind of generally just flattens all the discourse into this, you know, gotcha commentary that is failing to account for any nuance,” Giaccardi Vargas said.
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“Unfortunately, a lot of times the format of reality TV capitalizes on toxicity and unhealthy relationships,” Bautista said. She wants to see more portrayals of healthy conflict resolution, because popular media tends to give us only a blueprint for bad relationships. There’s also an opportunity for networks to educate their audiences on domestic violence prevention.
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The way TV chooses to engage with domestic violence has real-world consequences. “So often when cases of domestic violence are silenced, that does result in perpetuation of these cases,” Bautista said. “Many times, survivors stay in abusive relationships for years because they internalize that external messaging and they tend to blame themselves as well.”
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Reporter Marissa Martinez contributed to this report.
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Confidential, anonymous help is available 24/7 through the National Domestic Violence Hotline at (1-800-799-7233) or online.
","category":"safety","author":"Jasmine Mithani","publishDate":"2026-03-19T19:26:27.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/bachelorette_domestic_violence.jpeg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/taylor-frankie-paul-bachelorette-abuse-allegations/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-20T00:00:42.596Z"},{"id":"fzhwdk","archiveId":"gsyb9y","slug":"ayan-broomfield-038-lululemon-host-black-women-at-indian-wells","title":"Ayan Broomfield & Lululemon Host Black Women At Indian Wells","excerpt":"In 2001, at the Indian Wells Tournament, Serena Williams withdrew from her semifinal match against her sister, Venus Williams, due to injury. This sparked accusations from the crowd that the […] The post Ayan Broomfield & Lululemon Host Black Women At Indian Wells appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated March 19, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
In 2001, at the Indian Wells Tournament, Serena Williams withdrew from her semifinal match against her sister, Venus Williams, due to injury. This sparked accusations from the crowd that the match was fixed. When she returned for the final, she was met with boos and racist remarks. In response, Serena boycotted the tournament for 14 years, not returning until 2015.
Now, in a full-circle moment, Ayan Broomfield —former college tennis player and longtime partner of Frances Tiafoe—is reshaping that legacy. Earlier this month, she brought a group of Black women to the prestigious tournament through her initiative, Ayan’s Aces. The organization aims to provide opportunities for Black women to watch and interact with the sport of tennis. “What’s really special about Ayan’s Aces is that it brings together people from different industries—fashion, entertainment, social media—and creates community through tennis,” she shares with ESSENCE. “You’re seeing people from different worlds come together, and I think that’s why it’s resonated so much.”
Nowadays, “You have Coco Gauff, you have Serena, you have Venus, you have all these trailblazers that played,” Broomfield shares. “But when I started traveling with Frances a lot, I noticed that I’d be in the stands and not see anyone who looked like me. This is not okay. We have to do something about this.”
Often referred to as the “fifth Grand Slam” for its high attendance and top-tier field, the Indian Wells tournament, held in Palm Desert, California, remains one of tennis’s most coveted stops. This marks the third iteration of Ayan’s Aces, following activations at the US Open and Miami Open.
This time around, on the heels of her new partnership with Lululemon, Broomfield brought Ayan’s Aces to Indian Wells not only to celebrate the collaboration but to intentionally carve out space for Black women within the sport’s most elite arenas.
Below, Broomfield opens up about the initiative, her tennis journey, and more.
ESSENCE: You used to play tennis in college—what barriers have you experienced as a woman of color in the sport?
Ayan Broomfield: I think first and foremost, tennis is such an expensive sport, so it’s difficult to get in. I mean, between the equipment—I’m from Canada, so we have to play indoors six months of the year, so you need a country club membership—it’s just very expensive. If you come from a lower-income background, financially, you’re not going to push for tennis. It’s just not something we think is possible.
Have you experienced any discrimination while playing or even while supporting Frances?
Broomfield: Yeah, I think the toughest part is probably post-match with social media. You’ll get really nasty DMs and comments, and sometimes they are racially motivated. I’m just blessed to be with someone like Frances, who’s great at not focusing on social media and not caring about what people say. But yeah, it’s part of the sport, and it’s difficult for some players for sure.
This is another Ayan’s Aces event, how did the initiative start and grow?
Broomfield: I actually started Ayan’s Aces last year in Miami at the Miami Open. It was on a smaller level, I worked with a couple of brands and was just trying to get free tickets to send to people. Then I did it again a few times, and by the US Open it really took on a new level.
I think it’s really important that I share it on my platform, but when I bring these girls, they’re also sharing the sport with their own audiences. It creates a wider community of women who want to get into tennis, which is really important.
Indian Wells has a complicated history, how does it feel to host Ayan’s Aces here?
Broomfield: That moment with Serena was a huge turning point in tennis. For years, she said, “I’m not coming back,” because of how she was treated. So being able to use this space now and create space for women of color—it’s very powerful.
We deserve to be here. We deserve a spot and to enjoy the sport. I’m just glad we’re able to bring the community together in this way.
What has it meant to work with Lululemon in an official capacity, particularly in supporting and growing Ayan’s Aces?
Broomfield: Lululemon has been incredible in working with people whose values align with theirs. When they started working with Frances, I noticed how much they cared, not just about him as an athlete, but as a person. That really stood out to me. So it felt like a natural fit to partner with them as well.
What’s next for Ayan’s Aces?
Broomfield: The beauty of tennis is that it’s global. I’ve done a lot in the States, but I’d love to take bigger trips, bringing women to Wimbledon, the French Open, and even Australia. These tournaments are so special and prestigious.
If I can use my platform and connections to bring more women of color to these spaces globally—Europe, Asia, everywhere—I think it would be unbelievable.
TOPICS:
Ayan Broomfield Lululemon tennis The post Ayan Broomfield & Lululemon Host Black Women At Indian Wells appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-19T19:20:13.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/celebrity/ayan-broomfield-lululemon-indian-wells-tennis/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-20T00:00:45.973Z"},{"id":"2nwcnk","archiveId":"a3ucds","slug":"woman-charged-with-attempted-murder-under-georgia-abortion-law","title":"Woman charged with attempted murder under Georgia abortion law","excerpt":"A 31-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Kingsland, Georgia, has been charged with attempted murder, the first time that a mother has been charged under Georgia’s restrictive abortion law. The arrest comes two months after Alexia Moore was rushed to the emergency room in Camden County, pregnant and in e...","content":"
A 31-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Kingsland, Georgia, has been charged with attempted murder, the first time that a mother has been charged under Georgia’s restrictive abortion law .
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The arrest comes two months after Alexia Moore was rushed to the emergency room in Camden County, pregnant and in extreme pain. Doctors at the Southeast Georgia Health System hospital delivered a severely premature baby girl who lived for approximately two hours, according to police.
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On March 4, Kingsland Police charged Moore with attempted murder and possession of a controlled substance and dangerous drug for what they allege was an attempted illegal abortion.
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Moore, who is in Camden County jail awaiting arraignment, could not be reached for comment. Her mother, Edith Moore, who is a local pastor, described her daughter as a patriot and excellent mother, adding that the situation has created fear and anxiety for Moore’s 6-year-old and 9-year-old children, who don’t understand why their mother is in jail.
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“As a mother, and me talking as a grandma, she’s an excellent mother. I believe her children are her life. She has been a good provider for her children,” Edith Moore said.
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The arrest illustrates the complex and fraught nature of Georgia’s controversial law, known as the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act , which makes abortion illegal after cardiac activity is detected in a fetus, normally at about six weeks.
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A security guard at Southeast Georgia Health System’s St. Marys hospital called local law enforcement to investigate Moore “after ER staff discovered that Moore had attempted to abort the child,” according to the arrest report. Moore’s friend, who came to the hospital on December 30, told a responding police officer that Moore had used the abortion medication misoprostol and had taken pain medication, according to the report.
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Kingsland Police cited Moore’s health records and blood work, as well as the deceased infant’s blood work, as among the evidence used to charge her. The report also cited information obtained from Moore while she was recovering in the ER and from Moore’s friend, who was in the hospital waiting room.
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The arrest report does not cite a search warrant, nor does it say how many weeks pregnant Moore was when she was admitted to the hospital emergency room.
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Southeast Georgia Health System declined to answer questions about whether the security guard followed hospital policy. The hospital also declined to answer questions about the circumstances under which it would share patient information with law enforcement or whether it has provided training to staff on the Georgia LIFE Act.
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The hospital “places the highest priority on the care of its patients and is unable to comment on matters that might relate to patient care,” Marketing Director Jenni Morris said in a statement.
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Before the arrest \n\n\n\n
Moore grew up in Kingsland and, after graduating from Camden County High School, joined the U.S. Army. She was later discharged with 100 percent disability benefits after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to her mother.
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Edith Moore said that Alexia, who was adopted, experienced a lot of hardship throughout her life, which she said has led to her making some mistakes.
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“She never could understand being adopted. I believe that was traumatic. I believe going into the military, and winding up with PTSD… It was trauma after trauma, it was situation after situation,” Edith Moore said of her daughter.
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The circumstances leading to Moore losing her pregnancy at the end of December are unclear, with some of her friends contradicting the police narrative.
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According to the Kingsland arrest report, police recovered a blue medicine bottle labeled with Alexia Moore’s name and “misoprostol,” with a fill date of November 20, 2025. The bottle lacked a physician’s name, a pharmacy’s name or any warning labels. The police investigator concluded that the pills were purchased online.
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Misoprostol is a commonly prescribed medication that can induce a medical abortion.
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A friend who helped get Moore to the emergency room told the police officer that Moore had consumed the medication at her home. The friend said Moore was in so much pain on the morning of December 30 that the friend called 911.
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The friend brought the medication bottle to the ER, according to the arrest report.
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A police investigator also spoke to Moore while she was still at the hospital, according to the arrest report.
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The police report does not cite any conversations with medical staff, only the security guard, who is a retired Camden County sheriff’s deputy.
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Friend describes challenge \n\n\n\n
Another friend of Moore who spoke to The Current after her arrest said that Moore was struggling with the idea of becoming a mother again.
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This friend, who did not want to speak on the record because of the ongoing criminal investigation, said Moore had not taken any abortion pills. Instead, she said, Moore had taken a prescription pain pill before being admitted to the ER.
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“I remember her calling me, freaking out. She was bawling her eyes out. She said she didn’t know what to do,” the woman said. “‘If worse comes to worst,’ I said, ‘If you 100 percent go through with having the baby, and if you don’t want it, you can always give it to me, and you know, it’ll be taken care of.’”
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This friend added that Moore does not deserve to be in jail, that she is a loving mother who takes care of her children.
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“She is a great person. She is super bright. She has two amazing little boys that she’s raising to be young men. It’s just, it’s mind-blowing that she got charged with that over something like this. This is just crazy,” the friend said.
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Edith Moore said the first time she heard that her daughter had been pregnant was New Year’s Day, after Moore’s visit to the emergency room.
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Law enforcement involvement \n\n\n\n
Camden County Sheriff Kevin Chaney said that the hospital’s disclosure about Moore’s alleged abortion attempt is part of a cooperative relationship with Camden County law enforcement agencies.
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The security guard who called the police had previously worked at the St. Marys Police Department as well as the Camden County Sheriff’s Office. She officially left her position at the sheriff’s department on July 7, 2025, but began working security at the hospital on February 24, 2025.
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Security guards, Chaney said, have a duty to report suspicious behavior.
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“They’re law enforcement at the hospital, so they’re not just security officers. They’re actually sworn peace officers in the state of Georgia. And plus your mandated reports and stuff like that. Along those lines, we share information constantly,” Chaney said.
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Edith Moore says she worries about her daughter’s mental state while in jail and believes she is suffering postpartum depression.
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Chaney said that he has housed Moore in a cell by herself, and they are monitoring her health.
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“There are things that we watch, we look for as far as any medical situation, and if something comes up, we’ll make sure we contact the nurse and the doctors as well, and then if we need to take them to the hospital. But anytime somebody comes in, and we know that they had something done coming from a hospital, then we take extra special attention to them,” he said.
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Her mother said Moore is scheduled for a hearing on Monday, and the family is awaiting the district attorney’s decision about whether there is sufficient evidence to bring an indictment on attempted murder charges.
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Edith Moore hopes that prosecutors will treat her daughter sympathetically. “As a mother, I could say that she’s been a good daughter number one, a good person when it comes to her siblings. She’s a decent person who is caught up in her circumstances,” she said.
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This article first appeared on The Current and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .
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","category":"mental-health","author":"Megan Kearney","publishDate":"2026-03-19T17:54:16.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/abortion_georgia_arrest.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/woman-charged-attempted-murder-georgia-abortion-law/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T18:00:22.722Z"},{"id":"ef09ep","archiveId":"ybmam7","slug":"keeping-score-trump-attacks-iran-pressures-senate-republicans-to-pass-8216show-your-papers8217-voter","title":"Keeping Score: Trump Attacks Iran, Pressures Senate Republicans to Pass ‘Show Your Papers’ Voter Registration Bill; States Expand Access to Childcare and Paid Leave","excerpt":"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.","content":"
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.
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This week:Hamnet . The film was directed by Chloé Zhao, one of nine women to ever be nominated for the award of Best Director and the only woman nominated this year.
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… and more.
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The post Keeping Score: Trump Attacks Iran, Pressures Senate Republicans to Pass ‘Show Your Papers’ Voter Registration Bill; States Expand Access to Childcare and Paid Leave appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"politics","author":"Katie Fleischer","publishDate":"2026-03-19T17:23:11.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Keeping-Score-Trump-Attacks-Iran-Pressures-Senate-Republicans-to-Pass-Show-Your-Papers-Voter-Registration-Bill-States-Expand-Access-to-Childcare-and-Paid-Leave.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/19/keeping-score-feminist-news-trump-iran-save-america-act-women-voters-childcare-paid-leave-dolores-huerta/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T18:00:22.443Z"},{"id":"dl9jtv","archiveId":"9ajwot","slug":"exclusive-ciara-1-2-steps-her-way-into-hiv-prevention-advocacy","title":"Exclusive: Ciara 1, 2 Steps Her Way Into HIV Prevention Advocacy","excerpt":"This beat is: automatic, supersonic, hypnotic, funky fresh…The minute you hear those words, it feels like the early 2000s all over again. The classic “1, 2 Step” by Ciara featuring […] The post Exclusive: Ciara 1, 2 Steps Her Way Into HIV Prevention Advocacy appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Tabnie Dozier ·
The post Exclusive: Ciara 1, 2 Steps Her Way Into HIV Prevention Advocacy appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Victoria Uwumarogie","publishDate":"2026-03-19T14:19:31.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/ciara-1-2-prep/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T18:00:27.880Z"},{"id":"o6lvqe","archiveId":"vpkasm","slug":"the-radical-potential-of-traditional-femininity","title":"The Radical Potential of Traditional Femininity","excerpt":"In the 1700s and 1800s in the U.S., women were presumed to be subordinate to men: naturally helpless, emotional, vulnerable. Reading through the thousands of petitions submitted by revolutionary-era women to the state, one might get the impression that all women accepted their subordinate status to ...","content":"
In the 1700s and 1800s in the U.S., women were presumed to be subordinate to men: naturally helpless, emotional, vulnerable.
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Reading through the thousands of petitions submitted by revolutionary-era women to the state, one might get the impression that all women accepted their subordinate status to men with humility and grace.
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But what if they didn’t? What if their engagement with the discourse of feminine dependence was merely a shrewd tool, effectively deployed to cater to precisely what their readers—white, male elites—wanted to hear? What if the radical act of seeking a divorce in the 18th century contradicted the conservative language they employed?
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In most cases, we’ll never be able to deduce these women petitioners’ true feelings on their social and legal status. Many women petitioners in the revolutionary era left no trail for the historian to follow.
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What we can know is that the employment of this discourse of dependence, cunningly constructed in a sympathetic narrative neatly packaged for a patriarchal audience, was immensely effective. For the most part, women who engaged with these tropes of feminine subordination saw their petitions granted. Those that did not—including those who rebuked men—largely saw their pleas rejected or ignored.
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(This essay is part of the FEMINIST 250: Founding Feminists series, marking the 250th anniversary of America by reclaiming the revolution through the women and gender-expansive people whose ideas, labor and resistance shaped U.S. democracy.)
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The post The Radical Potential of Traditional Femininity appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"safety","author":"Jacqueline Beatty","publishDate":"2026-03-19T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Bettman-Archives-via-Getty-Images.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/19/traditional-women-femininity-american-revolution/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T18:00:22.443Z"},{"id":"ig3tcp","archiveId":"5f6ha1","slug":"uninjured-class-members-hindsight-harmlessness-presidential-cronies-and-the-mistaken-use-of-deadly-f","title":"Uninjured class members, hindsight harmlessness, presidential cronies, and the mistaken use of deadly force","excerpt":"The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here. There are 261 petitions and applications […] The post Uninjured class members, hindsight harmlessness, presidential cronies, and the mi...","content":"
The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here .
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There are 261 petitions and applications teed up for this Friday’s conference. Seventeen are familiar faces making return appearances on the relist stage, joined by four newcomers trying to break into the rotation. The lineup this week includes a RICO class-action that asks how many uninjured plaintiffs are too many, a capital case about whether harmless-error review can rely on evidence the jury never saw, and a qualified-immunity dispute featuring the wrong tear-gas round at the wrong time.
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Uninjured class members and statistical proof
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In Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. v. Painters and Allied Trades District Council 82 Health Care Fund
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The district court certified a nationwide class of TPPs under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3) that reimbursed at least five prescriptions, relying heavily on an econometric model estimating that roughly 57% of prescriptions were “fraudulently induced” – and thus that most class members likely paid for at least one “excess” prescription. A divided panel of the 9th Circuit affirmed certification , reasoning that common proof – including regression analysis and company documents – could establish classwide injury and causation, and that the possibility some class members were uninjured did not defeat predominance (one of the requirements for class certification). Judge Eric Miller dissented, warning that reliance and causation turned on individualized prescribing decisions, making classwide adjudication inappropriate.
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The petition argues the 9th Circuit’s permissive approach to Rule 23(b)(3) certification deepens two circuit splits. First, whether Rule 23(b)(3) permits certification of damages classes that include uninjured members without a reliable mechanism to identify and exclude them – an issue the court has twice tried and failed to resolve in Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings v. Davis Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo both Relist Watch graduates . Second, whether plaintiffs can use statistical modeling to prove individualized reliance in fraud class actions. Respondents counter that the case is interlocutory (a premature appeal before a final judgment on the merits) and fact-bound and there’s no real split on the causation issue.
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From a Relist Watch perspective, this is catnip: a big-ticket class action, a dissent below, and one of the court’s favorite unresolved questions – how much statistical averaging Rule 23 will tolerate. If the justices are still looking for a clean vehicle after LabCorp ’s untimely demise (the court dismissed the petition as improvidently granted ), this one may be hard to resist. Of course, “hard to resist” has described several recent cert petitions that ultimately proved very resistible.
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Determining prejudice on habeas review: harmless in hindsight?
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Whitton v. Dixon Giglio v. United States 11th Circuit still denied habeas relief , concluding that the Florida Supreme Court reasonably found the evidence of Whitton’s guilt “overwhelming.” In reaching that conclusion, the court pointed to DNA testing conducted years after trial that allegedly linked blood on Whitton’s boots to the victim – testing never presented to the jury.
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Whitton argues that this turns harmless-error review into a hindsight exercise: prejudice must be assessed based on the trial record, not post hoc developments. According to the petition, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 2nd, 6th, and 10th Circuits, as well as the North Carolina Supreme Court, have rejected the use of post-verdict evidence when evaluating harmless error. The state counters that the 11th Circuit was merely holding – under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act ‘s famously forgiving standard limiting federal courts’ power to grant habeas relief – that the state court’s determination was not unreasonable.
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If the justices see a genuine split about harmless-error methodology rather than a fact-bound dispute about AEDPA deference, Whitton may get a closer look; otherwise, the case may depart as quickly as it arrived.
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All the president’s men
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Stephen K. Bannon, former advisor to President Donald Trump, was convicted of contempt of Congress under 2 U.S.C. § 192 for “willfully” refusing to comply with a subpoena from the January 6, 2021, House Select Committee on the grounds that Trump had invoked executive privilege. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed his conviction , noting in part that circuit precedent required a willful refusal only be “deliberate” and “intentional,” and does not require bad faith or unlawful purpose. It also rejected as forfeited Bannon’s argument that the committee was improperly constituted under its authorizing House resolution, because he had not raised it before the committee.
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Judges Neomi Rao, Karen Henderson, and Justin Walker dissented from en banc denial on the mens rea issue, with Rao and Henderson also wanting to reach the composition question. Judge Gregory Katsas issued a decision respecting denial of rehearing en banc . And Judges Bradley Garcia, Cornelia Pillard, Patricia Millett, and Florence Pan concurred in the denial of rehearing en banc . All acknowledged varying degrees of tension between circuit precedent and more recent Supreme Court precedent indicating that “willfulness” requires a showing that the defendant knew his conduct was unlawful.
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In his petition , Bannon renews the two questions that spilled so much judicial ink: whether “willfully” in Section 192 requires the government to prove the defendant knew his conduct was unlawful, or merely that his noncompliance was intentional and deliberate; and whether the Select Committee’s apparent failure to comply with its own authorizing resolution (it never had the required 13 members or a ranking minority member) deprived it of the “authority” necessary to issue a valid subpoena under Section 192.
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Although the court may be interested in those issues, it is unlikely to reach the merits. In a terse filing signed only by the Trump administration’s Solicitor General, D. John Sauer, the government informed the court that it “has determined in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice,” and requested a GVR (grant, vacate, and remand) so the district court can grant the government’s pending Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a) motion to dismiss the case with prejudice. Bannon’s team, not surprisingly, agreed , while taking a parting shot at the D.C. Circuit’s “errant interpretation” of Section 192 and noting that the legal questions remain live and threatening to individual liberty.
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Given the ever-present risk of contempt-of-Congress prosecutions in D.C., the justices are likely giving this one a careful look.
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Qualified immunity and excessive force
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The petition in Reinink v. Hart similar-looking Spede-Heat tear-gas projectile, a munition intended to be lobbed into the air rather than fired directly at a person. The projectile struck Hart in the shoulder, injuring him.
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Hart brought an “excessive force” claim against Reinink. The district court granted summary judgment for Reinink, holding that his mistaken deployment of the wrong munition was objectively reasonable under the traditional Graham v. Connor reversed , reasoning that because testimony indicated that firing Spede-Heat directly at a person could constitute deadly force, a jury could find the use of such force unreasonable under the circuit’s test for evaluating its use. Judge Joan Larsen dissented , emphasizing the absence of clearly established law addressing this kind of mistaken deployment.
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Reinink’s petition asks the Supreme Court to resolve two questions. First, he urges the justices to clarify how courts should distinguish ordinary force from deadly force in Fourth Amendment cases, proposing a test that considers the weapon’s typical lethality, the officer’s intent, and the actual harm inflicted. Second, he asks the court to address when a reasonable factual mistake about the type of force used entitles an officer to qualified immunity. Respondent Hart counters that the case presents no doctrinal gap: the court recently reaffirmed Graham ’s totality-of-the-circumstances objective reasonableness approach in Barnes v. Felix reply , Reinink says his case provides a “perfect vessel” to answer important questions about how to handle factual mistakes in use-of-force cases.
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The court takes petitions from police officers invoking qualified immunity very seriously, and this case is no exception. Whether this one presents a genuine doctrinal gap or just a fact-specific disagreement remains to be seen – but it has enough moving parts to warrant at least one more look. We should know soon whether this petition is going to get traction.
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New Relists
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Reinink v. Hart 25-179
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Issues : (1) Whether, in the Fourth Amendment’s reasonableness-of-a-seizure context, a law enforcement officer’s intended level of force is relevant to determining whether an officer’s use of force should be analyzed under a deadly-use-of-force standard or a general use-of-force standard; and (2) whether, in analyzing an excessive force claim brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , an officer’s mistaken use of force being higher than what he or she intended entitles the officer to qualified immunity, so long as the mistake is reasonable under the circumstances.
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(Relisted after the Mar. 6 conference.)
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Bannon v. United States 25-453
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Issue s: (1) Whether “willfully” in 2 U.S.C. § 192 – which states that anyone who is “summoned … by the authority of either House of Congress” and “willfully makes default” on the subpoena has committed a crime – requires the government to prove the defendant knew his conduct was unlawful; and (2) whether the proper composition of a congressional committee bears on its “authority” to issue a subpoena for purposes of 2 U.S.C. § 192.
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(Relisted after the Mar. 6 conference.)
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Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. v. Painters and Allied Trades District Council 82 Health Care Fund 25-625
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Issues : (1) Whether a federal court may certify a class action pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3) when some members of the proposed class lack any compensable injury in fact; and (2) whether a federal court may certify a class action pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3) when a class relies on representative evidence to try to prove an individualized reliance issue that is a necessary element of each plaintiff’s claim.
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(Relisted after the Mar. 6 conference.)
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Whitton v. Dixon 25-580
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Issues : (1) Whether in determining if a constitutional error had a prejudicial effect on the outcome of a trial a court must consider only that evidence that was presented to the jury at the trial; and (2) whether the prejudice from the Giglio v. United States Brecht v. Abrahamson
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(Relisted after the Mar. 6 conference.)
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Returning Relists
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Smith v. Scott 24-1099
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Issues : (1) Whether, viewing the facts from the officers’ perspective at the time, the officers acted reasonably under the Fourth Amendment by using bodyweight pressure to restrain a potentially armed and actively resisting individual only until handcuffing could be accomplished; and (2) whether the panel erred in denying qualified immunity where no case clearly established that pre-handcuffing bodyweight pressure violates the Fourth Amendment.
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(Relisted after the Sept. 29, Oct. 10, Oct. 17, Nov. 7, Nov. 14, Nov. 21, Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20, Feb. 27, and Mar. 6 conferences.)
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Bannon v. United States 25-453
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Issue : (1) Whether “willfully” in 2 U.S.C. § 192 – which states that anyone who is “summoned … by the authority of either House of Congress” and “willfully makes default” on the subpoena has committed a crime – requires the government to prove the defendant knew his conduct was unlawful; and (2) whether the proper composition of a congressional committee bears on its “authority” to issue a subpoena for purposes of 2 U.S.C. § 192.
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(Relisted after the Mar. 6 conference.)
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Foote v. Ludlow School Committee 25-77
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Issue : Whether a public school violates parents’ constitutional rights when, without parental knowledge or consent, the school encourages a student to transition to a new “gender” or participates in that process.
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(Relisted after the Nov. 21, Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20, Feb. 27, and Mar. 6 conferences.)
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Fields v. Plappert 23-6912
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Issue: Whether the requirement that a verdict be based only on the evidence presented in the courtroom at trial satisfies 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1) ‘s “clearly established” requirement, and if so, whether a jury’s consideration of and reliance on extrinsic evidence as part of a jury experiment violates this rule.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, and Jan. 16 conferences; now being held for consideration of response to Fields’ rehearing petition.)
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Reed v. Goertz 24-1268
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Issue : Whether Article 64 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure , as authoritatively construed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, violates due process by arbitrarily denying prisoners access to postconviction DNA testing, rendering illusory prisoners’ state-created right to prove their innocence through newly discovered evidence.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20, Feb. 27, and Mar. 6 conferences.)
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Gator’s Custom Guns, Inc. v. Washington 25-153
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Issue: Whether ammunition feeding devices with the capacity to hold more than ten rounds are “Arms” presumptively entitled to constitutional protection under the plain text of the Second Amendment.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20, Feb. 27, and Mar. 6 conferences.)
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Duncan v. Bonta 25-198
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Issue: (1) Whether a ban on the possession of exceedingly common ammunition feeding devices violates the Second Amendment; and (2) whether a law dispossessing citizens, without compensation, of property that they lawfully acquired and long possessed without incident violates the takings clause.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20, Feb. 27, and Mar. 6 conferences.)
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Viramontes v. Cook County 25-238
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Issue : Whether the Second and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee the right to possess AR-15 platform and similar semiautomatic rifles.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20, Feb. 27, and Mar. 6 conferences.)
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Zorn v. Linton 25-297
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Issue: Whether the 2nd Circuit’s qualified immunity analysis conflicts with this court’s repeated instruction that courts must define rights with specificity and look for close factual analogues in determining whether a Fourth Amendment right is clearly established.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20, Feb. 27, and Mar. 6 conferences.)
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Villarreal v. Alaniz 25-29
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Issue : (1) Whether it obviously violates the First Amendment to arrest someone for asking government officials questions and publishing the information they volunteer; and (2) whether qualified immunity is unavailable to public officials who use a state statute in a way that obviously violates the First Amendment, or whether qualified immunity shields those officials.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
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Sittenfeld v. United States 25-49
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Issue: Whether, when the government alleges bribery based solely on lawful campaign contributions, the defendant may be convicted based on evidence that is ambiguous as to whether the public official conditioned any official act on the campaign contributions.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20, Feb. 27, and Mar. 6 conferences.)
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Poore v. United States 25-227
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Issue : Whether the limits on agency deference announced in Kisor v. Wilkie Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo
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(Relisted after the Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20, Feb. 27, and Mar. 6 conferences.)
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District of Columbia v. R.W. 25-248
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Issues : (1) Whether a court assessing the existence of reasonable suspicion under the Fourth Amendment may exclude a fact known to the officer, or instead must assess all the evidence when weighing the totality of the circumstances; and (2) whether, under the totality-of-the-circumstances test, the officer in this case had reasonable suspicion to conduct an investigative stop.
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(Relisted after the Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20, Feb. 27, and Mar. 6 conferences.)
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Stroble v. Oklahoma Tax Commission 25-382
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Issue : Whether Oklahoma may tax the income of a Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen who lives and works within the Muscogee (Creek) Reservation that McGirt v. Oklahoma
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(Relisted after the Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20, Feb. 27, and Mar. 6 conferences.)
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Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Fazaga 25-430
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Issue : Whether dismissal of a claim after assertion of the state-secrets privilege requires a district court to adjudicate the merits of the claim using the privileged information where the privileged information is relevant to a defense.
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(Relisted after the Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20, Feb. 27, and Mar. 6 conferences.)
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National Association for Gun Rights v. Lamont 25-421
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Issue : Whether a ban on the possession of AR-15-style rifles and firearm magazines with a capacity in excess of 10 rounds violates the Second Amendment.
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(Relisted after the Feb. 20, Feb. 27, and Mar. 6 conferences.)
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Grant v. Higgins 25-566
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Issue : Whether the Second and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee the right to possess semiautomatic rifles that are in common use for lawful purposes, including the AR-15.
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(Relisted after the Feb. 20, Feb. 27, and Mar. 6 conferences.)
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Beaird v. United States 25-5343
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Issues: (1) Whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) comports with the Second Amendment; (2) whether Stinson v. United States
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(Relisted after the Feb. 27 and Mar. 6 conferences.)
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The post Uninjured class members, hindsight harmlessness, presidential cronies, and the mistaken use of deadly force appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"activism","author":"John Elwood","publishDate":"2026-03-19T13:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/cameras-banner.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/uninjured-class-members-hindsight-harmlessness-and-the-mistaken-use-of-deadly-force/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T18:00:28.982Z"},{"id":"omr1f","archiveId":"3krlol","slug":"why-black-women-should-embrace-wearing-color","title":"Why Black Women Should Embrace Wearing Color","excerpt":"Fashion has always been about expression. But lately, color feels different. Instead of simply punctuating outfits, bold hues are carrying emotional weight. Electric blues, fiery reds, and joyful yellows are […] The post Why Black Women Should Embrace Wearing Color appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Larry Stansbury ·
Updated March 19, 2026 Getting your
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Fashion has always been about expression. But lately, color feels different. Instead of simply punctuating outfits,
The post Why Black Women Should Embrace Wearing Color appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-19T13:25:57.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/black-women-embrace-wearing-color-fashion-psychologist/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T18:00:27.880Z"},{"id":"3w8oda","archiveId":"lds8f2","slug":"some-endometriosis-patients-are-changing-their-diets-to-manage-symptoms","title":"Some Endometriosis Patients Are Changing Their Diets to Manage Symptoms","excerpt":"Endometriosis is underresearched and underdiagnosed. Providers and patients alike are trying a more holistic approach—but does it work? The post Some Endometriosis Patients Are Changing Their Diets to Manage Symptoms appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
Adanze Benjamin spent the end of 2024 feeling terrible. The lymph nodes in her armpits had swelled to the size of golf balls. Walking up the stairs left her winded. Every inch of her body ached.
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“ I literally would wake up in a pool of sweat in my bed, like soaked,” said Benjamin, now 24.
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All of her symptoms pointed to lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects the infection-fighting white blood cells in the body. But her biopsy showed no trace of cancer. Instead, she was diagnosed with stage-four lymphatic endometriosis .
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Endometriosis, commonly referred to as endo, is an inflammatory condition that occurs when tissue resembling the uterine lining grows as lesions outside of the uterus. Advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis have improved the chronic pain and infertility associated with the condition, but the disease remains understudied , underdiagnosed , and underfunded , leaving some patients to turn to diet as a way to manage their symptoms.
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Endometriosis can spread through the body almost like cancer, clinging to organs like the bladder and stomach. When the lesions become inflamed, patients can experience debilitating pain. But it’s not just pain; research has found that people with endometriosis may also face a higher risk of heart disease and ovarian cancer .
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“ Endometriosis is a disease that we don’t understand a lot about,” said Dr. Ashley Davis, an OB-GYN and endometriosis excision specialist based in Atlanta.
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But what experts do know is that the condition is an inflammatory disease.
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“There’s tissue that’s not supposed to be there inside the, in general, pelvis,” said Dr. Jessica Opoku-Anane, a minimally invasive gynecologic surgeon at Rutgers Health/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey. “Your body knows it’s not supposed to be there, and it sends out its immune cells to clear out those cells. But those immune cells also secrete inflammatory chemicals that can cause pain, inflammation and scar tissue.”
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Common treatment options for endometriosis include laparoscopic excision surgery, which is considered the current standard for stabilizing endometriosis progression , and hormone therapy , which involves taking medications that decrease estrogen levels and increase progesterone levels, Opoku-Anane added. But with limited research , funding , and long waitlists to see surgeons , patients are often left feeling helpless about how to efficiently manage their symptoms.
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“Patients are just searching for something and we don’t have the answers to give them,” Opoku-Anane said.
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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Addressing an inflammatory disorder \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
That uncertainty has some patients, like Benjamin, turning to diet to help manage their symptoms, despite a lack of clear evidence of its direct impact on the condition. She documents her endometriosis journey in viral TikTok videos—a journey that has meant changing her diet, exercising, and taking a slew of vitamins.
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In one video , Benjamin stands in a brightly lit kitchen with a row of supplements on the counter, including turmeric, fish oil, magnesium, vitamin D3 and K2, collagen, and inositol.
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“Do you take that whole bunch every single day?” I later asked. She nodded yes.
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“ The collagen and the lion’s mane I might take every other day,” she said. “But for the most part, yeah, I’m taking 40 supplements, 40 pills, a day.”
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The overall consideration of nutrition as a factor in endometriosis diagnosis and treatment is becoming increasingly common. Research into the possible effects of diet and anti-inflammatory foods on endometriosis symptoms remains scant and is still relatively new.
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A 2019 study conducted in Sweden on 12 endometriosis patients found that “the participants experienced decreased symptoms and increased well-being after adopting an individually-adapted diet.”
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Opoku-Anane said some supplements, like turmeric, capsaicin (the active component in chili peppers), and ginger, have anti-inflammatory properties.
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“ Endometriosis is very much an inflammatory disorder [and] that research is clear,” said Opoku-Anane. “In my practice, I offer an anti-inflammatory diet to every patient, and I do see a lot of patients do have improvement. This is just from my experience, not data, because we don’t have the resources to confirm it.”
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Feeding the fight \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Some patients might turn to nutrition experts to help alleviate symptoms. Alexis Brooks, a reproductive health dietitian based in Maryland, helps clients with endometriosis, among other health issues.
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Brooks said her process starts with “ a full intake.” She said she reviews everything: medical history, supplements, medications, lifestyle, fitness, sleep schedule, and menstrual cycle. Overwhelmingly, Brooks finds that most patients with endometriosis are undernourished.
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“The biggest macronutrient that’s missed is protein,” she said, as well as magnesium, potassium, zinc, selenium, and iron.
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As a specialist who curates personalized eating guides, Brooks often finds herself frustrated by generic endometriosis diet advice that circulates in online communities and groups. She finds that they tend to neglect the individual experience and lump everyone with the condition together, often suggesting restrictive diets or pushing all patients to cut out foods unnecessarily.
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Restrictive diets may be of particular harm to endometriosis patients, who have been found to have a higher risk of eating disorders than the general population.
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“My philosophy is: We should be able to eat as many things as possible that work with our bodies,” said Brooks. “So I don’t ever want to restrict anything that works for someone’s body.”
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Culturally competent care \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Nyquana Manning, who is in her early 40s, uses Mediterranean-style food habits to help manage her endometriosis. She focuses on getting in salmon, greens, and chickpeas, while avoiding fried or processed foods, which she has noticed worsen her endo symptoms.
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Manning said has a wall full of herbs at home that she frequently replenishes with trips to the botanical store, and she uses different blends to brew anti-inflammatory teas. It’s a practice that closely touches her heritage and roots.
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“I’m half Black, half Honduran,” she said. “There are medicine women in my family. So me learning about herbs is really an ancestral path.”
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Manning’s endometriosis journey started when she was experiencing heavy and painful periods in 2018. Before being diagnosed, she saw a doctor who attributed her pain to age, Manning said.
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It wasn’t until 2023 that she was diagnosed with endometriosis and uterine fibroids , which are noncancerous growths found in the uterus. Her doctor prescribed her progesterone, which stopped her period entirely. To Manning, something was wrong.
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“I didn’t like the way it made my body feel,” she said.
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Manning then asked her OB-GYN if holistic treatment options existed.
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They ran blood tests to evaluate her hormone levels, and then curated a treatment plan that included nutrition and supplements targeted to her specific needs. She regularly assesses how her body feels and whether her symptoms change based on the foods and herbs she consumes.
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Striking a balance \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Not all patients who want to manage their endometriosis with hormones and surgery are able to, according to Opoku-Anane. Some have progesterone-resistant endometriosis , meaning hormonal medication will not work for them. Others cannot take the medication because they are trying to get pregnant. There are also patients who have undergone multiple surgeries, and who have developed scar tissue or nerve pain, Opoku-Anane added.
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She said that she is a proponent of excision surgery for patients who require it, but also that anti-inflammatory diet changes are an option for long-term symptom management. Opoku-Anane added that she has noticed some of her own patients benefit clinically from it.
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“A lot of us are thinking about a more holistic approach to care that includes integrative medicine, largely because it’s very clear that endometriosis is no longer a pelvic disorder,” said Opoku-Anane. “It’s really a whole-body systemic disorder.”
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Opoku-Anane recommended patients consider taking a comprehensive approach to their care by seeing a team of specialists. According to Opoku-Anane, multidisciplinary medical centers with integrative endometriosis care—for example, ones that address endometriosis through surgery, nutrition, acupuncture, and pelvic floor therapy —can help patients with a variety of symptoms better treat their condition by using both traditional and holistic approaches.
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But not all patients can access that kind of comprehensive care.
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Manning said it was a daunting process to find a care team that would listen to her. She said she’s had to switch physicians multiple times until she felt that she was in the right hands.
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”It was important for me to make sure that I am amongst the team of people that will listen to me [and] will hear me,” Manning said.
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“I’ve been intentional with finding physicians that are like that,” she added.
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Opoku-Anane, who currently works at Rutgers University’s hospital system and previously built the Endometriosis and Chronic Pain Pelvic Center at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center, said that the advantage of academic medicine is that multiple forms of care are available within the same institution already.
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“A patient can just make an appointment and see multiple providers that are at the very same center together,” Opoku-Anane said. “I think that that’s gonna be the future of [endometriosis] care.”
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The post Some Endometriosis Patients Are Changing Their Diets to Manage Symptoms appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-19T13:13:49.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Food-as-Medicine-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/19/some-endometriosis-patients-are-changing-their-diets-to-manage-symptoms/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T18:00:21.871Z"},{"id":"h06ea5","archiveId":"isn2ct","slug":"scotustoday-for-thursday-march-19","title":"SCOTUStoday for Thursday, March 19","excerpt":"Chief Justice Earl Warren was born on this day in 1891. Before Warren joined the court, he served as governor of California for a decade. The post SCOTUStoday for Thursday, March 19 appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"
Chief Justice Earl Warren was born on this day in 1891. Before Warren joined the court, he served as governor of California for a decade.
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\n At the Court \n \n
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The court has indicated that it may announce opinions tomorrow at 10 a.m. EDT. We will be live blogging beginning at 9:30.
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Also on Friday, the justices will meet in a private conference to discuss cases and vote on petitions for review . Orders from that conference are expected on Monday at 9:30 a.m. EDT.
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On Monday, the court will hear oral argument in Watson v. Republican National Committee
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\n Morning Reads \n \n
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\n Zoe Tillman and Greg Stohr, Bloomberg \n \n \n \n
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The Supreme Court’s Monday announcement that it will hear argument on the Trump administration’s efforts to remove protected immigration status from Haitians and Syrians and leave those protections in place for now felt to some like an acknowledgement of pushback the justices have faced for quickly siding with the administration in most emergency requests in the past year and only rarely explaining why. The justices “have faced mounting public pressure to slow down and show their work – even if they ultimately rule for the administration,” according to Bloomberg . “We hope this is the beginning of the end of what has become this court’s routine acceptance of the government’s purported ‘emergency’ requests,” said J. Michael Luttig, a retired federal appeals court judge appointed by President George H.W. Bush, to Bloomberg.
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\n Josh Gerstein, Politico
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In the weeks since the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s global tariffs on Feb. 20, the Trump administration has been working to reimpose them under different laws. But new tariffs have sparked new legal battles, including lawsuits in the Court of International Trade over whether the administration is correctly applying Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which authorizes the president to impose temporary tariffs of up to 15% in response to “large and serious balance-of-payments deficit[s],” according to Politico . “While Trump called his new approach ‘time tested,’ that authority has never been invoked before and the high court has not given its blessing to Trump using that specific law in the current circumstances.” “The Court of International Trade has set arguments on the pending suits, including a request for a preliminary injunction, for April 10.”
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\n Daniel Wu, The Washington Post \n \n \n \n
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As the Supreme Court considers the legality of state laws barring transgender athletes from participating on women’s and girls’ sports teams, which are in place in almost 30 states, additional states are debating implementing such laws. “Maine and Colorado this week approved ballot initiatives by advocacy groups seeking to ban transgender student-athletes from playing on girls’ sports team,” according to The Washington Post . “Voters in Washington state will also vote on trans athletes in November, and similar measures have been proposed in Arizona, Nevada and Nebraska.”
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\n Smita Ghosh, Slate
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In Slate’s Executive Dysfunction newsletter , Smita Ghosh explored a 19th -century New York case on inheritance, Lynch v. Clarke birthright citizenship case . “In the 1844 case, Judge Lewis Sandford [of the New York Court of Chancery] held that Julia Lynch, the child of Irish parents who was born during their ‘temporary sojourn’ in New York, was a U.S. citizen,” Ghosh wrote, adding that “Lynch sheds light on the meaning of the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause because it represents the state of the law before the amendment was ratified, and the clause, according to its Framers, was ratified to confirm—not change—this aspect of existing law.”
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\n Jay Willis, Balls and Strikes
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In a column for Balls and Strikes , Jay Willis reflected on Trump’s recent complaints about the Supreme Court and about conservative justices ruling against him, contending that these comments make clear that the president expects loyalty from the judges and justices whom he appoints. “The nuances of any given case are irrelevant to him, because he expects his judges and justices to treat his interests as dispositive, and to cast their votes accordingly,” Willis wrote.
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\n On Site \n
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\n Case Preview \n
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\n The Supreme Court will kick off its March argument session by hearing a case that could have major implications for the 2026 elections and beyond. If the justices hold that mail-in ballots must arrive by Election Day, laws in more than a dozen states could be upended.
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\n Contributor Corner \n
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\n In his Immigration Matters column, César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández revisited the court’s March 4 ruling in Urias-Orellana v. Bondi, which made clear “that federal appellate courts have a limited role overseeing asylum claims.” The decision, according to César, “puts more responsibility on decision-makers who are stretched thin by mounting caseloads, while making it more difficult for migrants to ask federal appellate courts to overturn asylum denials.”
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\n You’ve likely heard of the “unitary executive” theory, which some believe gives the president sweeping power, but what about a “unitary judicial” power vested in the Supreme Court? In his ScotusCrim column, Rory Little explored the latter idea “and its possible radical implications.”
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\n Amarica’s Constitution \n
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\n Akhil Reed Amar and Andy Lipka offer an in-depth analysis of Amar’s “friend of the court” brief in the birthright citizenship case.
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The court will continue a longstanding tradition today when it hosts a bar memorial to honor the memory of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor , who died on Dec. 1, 2023. For two centuries , going back to “the days of Chief Justice [John] Marshall,” the Supreme Court has held such events .
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These memorials consist of “a meeting of the Supreme Court’s Bar, followed by a Special Sitting of the Court.” The bar meeting involves tributes to the justice (typically from former clerks) and ends with the adoption of resolutions that recognize the justice’s life and accomplishments. The Supreme Court Bar then presents these resolutions to the current justices.
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The last bar memorials were held in 2023 for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and 2022 for Justice John Paul Stevens. Elizabeth Prelogar, a former clerk to Ginsburg, opened the bar meeting for Ginsburg in her capacity as the U.S. solicitor general. Prelogar shared some of her favorite memories of Ginsburg, including a moment at the Supreme Court Christmas party when Ginsburg stuck a spoon into the chocolate fountain to eat it “straight.”
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As for Stevens’ bar memorial, in addition to the solicitor general and former clerks, Stevens’ granddaughter , Hannah Mullen, offered a tribute to her late grandfather. Mullen explained that she loved her grandfather’s opinions “because they show that he was the same man on the bench and at the coffee table, tenacious and empathetic and observant and funny.” She also recounted that, when she wrote her senior thesis, Stevens read the whole thing and then explained why he thought it was wrong. “I’ve never felt more kinship with Justice Scalia than in that moment,” Mullen joked.
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Today’s memorial event for O’Connor is scheduled to begin at 1:45 p.m. EDT in the Upper Great Hall of the Supreme Court Building. The bar meeting will start with remarks from Solicitor General D. John Sauer and will also include tributes from a number of O’Connor’s former clerks, including Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Judge Richard G. Taranto of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The meeting is expected to end (as is tradition ) with the adoption of a resolution honoring O’Connor’s life.
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In-person attendance is by invitation only, but if you would like to watch the bar meeting, it is going to be streamed on the court’s website . Following the meeting, there will be a special session of court at 3 p.m., during which Sauer and Attorney General Pam Bondi are expected to address the justices. The courtroom proceedings are not expected to be live streamed, but if the court continues past practice, then we can expect the audio to be made available online along with the transcripts, resolutions, and a memorial booklet at a later date.
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JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: “Mr. Garre, this is the fundamental problem that I think Justice Alito is pointing to, and you’re sort of talking past each other. So maybe I’ll explain his view.”
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(Laughter.)
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JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: “Strange, isn’t that?”
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JUSTICE ALITO: “I – I could use – I can use the help.”
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— Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (2015)
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The post SCOTUStoday for Thursday, March 19 appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Kelsey Dallas","publishDate":"2026-03-19T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://i0.wp.com/www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GettyImages-1245360314.jpg?w=500&ssl=1","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/scotustoday-for-thursday-march-19/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T18:00:28.982Z"},{"id":"pgq8om","archiveId":"976e0m","slug":"21-essential-books-that-fiercely-celebrate-black-womanhood","title":"21 Essential Books That Fiercely Celebrate Black Womanhood","excerpt":"Everyone has a desire to feel seen. For Black women? That desire is significantly magnified. Since books are the gift that keeps on giving, here are 21 titles that unquestionably […] The post 21 Essential Books That Fiercely Celebrate Black Womanhood appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Bridgette Bartlett Royall ·
Updated March 19, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Everyone has a desire to feel seen. For Black women? That desire is significantly magnified. Since books are the gift that keeps on giving, here are 21 titles that unquestionably help Black women not only feel seen but also heard and celebrated. They are all penned by brilliant Black women, from tenured university professors to former ESSENCE editors to our Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison , and more contemporary reads from the likes of Mikki Kendall and
The post 21 Essential Books That Fiercely Celebrate Black Womanhood appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-03-19T11:55:57.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/books/books-that-celebrate-black-womanhood/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T18:00:27.880Z"},{"id":"20fnnj","archiveId":"32xdsv","slug":"the-promotion-black-women-never-asked-for-at-work-chief-emotional-officer","title":"The Promotion Black Women Never Asked For At Work: Chief Emotional Officer","excerpt":"Time may not heal all wounds but it certainly has a knack for providing clarity. And when you look at the history of black women starting from slavery and the […] The post The Promotion Black Women Never Asked For At Work: Chief Emotional Officer appeared first on Essence .","content":"
Stressed black businesswoman working on a laptop in an office alone
By
Brieanna Lightfoot Smith ·
Updated March 18, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Time may not heal all wounds but it certainly has a knack for providing clarity.
And when you look at the history of black women starting from slavery and the mammy era to the strong black woman schema of the present day, it’s clear to see how our tendency to show up as dependable and reliable over centuries has been costly.
Without recognizing it, we became everything to everybody while simultaneously being too depleted to show up for ourselves, let alone for our families, communities or workplaces.
But this emotional labor we have taken on for so long is starting to produce a call for sweeping resignations.
When I spoke to women about what emotional labor looked like for them I received a wide array of responses.
Kara Stevens, the founder of The Frugal Feminista and author of heal your relationship with money described emotional labor as “the work of smoothing over tension, remembering important details about people’s lives, anticipating needs before they’re spoken, and creating a sense of stability for everyone around you.”
Psychologist and Parenting Coach Dr. Darlene M. Davis Goodwine said “Emotional labor is the lifting, carrying or management of emotional intelligence for others. And there’s a difference between emotional awareness and emotional intelligence.”
Because the weight of what black women carry for others is often unseen it can be easily dismissed.
“People misunderstand how it affects every other area of your life.” Maximized Money Founder and Certified Financial Educator, Joshlyn Ross said. “My mother often calls me to share the latest family drama, and I’ve had to set a boundary to remind her that I have my own challenges.”
Miyah Davis, a medical student at Charles R Drew’s University of Medicine and Science, quietly resigned from becoming a Chief Emotional Officer through the career choice she made. Rather than the fields of pediatrics, gynecology and primary care — roles typically selected by women who now make up roughly half of medical school graduates — Miyah decided to pursue surgery.
“[Pediatrics] requires a patient and somewhat witty personality,” she said. “I realize my personality is more suited for the fast-paced, precision-oriented environment of the operating room. I crave the immediate, tangible impact of surgical intervention.”
Career choice is just one of the ways black women can opt out or at least reduce the impact emotional labor has on them. Another is the decision on whether or not to have children.
“I knew motherhood wasn’t for me when I moved to DC as a young mid-20-something-year-old woman,” Ross said. “It was the first time that I saw powerful women with money,alt=\"™\" class=\"wp-smiley\"/> practitioner guiding people towards sustainable and balanced success. Her signature R.E.S.T.Freedom & Flow Planning System equip individuals to lead from a place of overflow and not exhaustion. Connect with her on LinkedIn .
The post The Promotion Black Women Never Asked For At Work: Chief Emotional Officer appeared first on Essence .
","category":"education","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-19T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1394347618-4-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/chief-emotional-officer-black-women/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T12:00:08.961Z"},{"id":"q13172","archiveId":"a95kj4","slug":"jordan-chiles-is-in-her-peace-era-and-shes-not-letting-anyone-disrupt-it","title":"Jordan Chiles Is In Her “Peace Era” And She’s Not Letting Anyone Disrupt It","excerpt":"If you’ve been sleeping on who Jordan Chiles actually is, she’ll give you a pass. She’s used to it. “People always think I’m mean,” she says, laughing. “I couldn’t tell […] The post Jordan Chiles Is In Her “Peace Era” And She’s Not Letting Anyone Disrupt It appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Kimberly Wilson ·
Updated March 18, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
If you’ve been sleeping on who Jordan Chiles actually is, she’ll give you a pass. She’s used to it.
“People always think I’m mean,” she says, laughing. “I couldn’t tell you why.”
The two-time Olympian and Paris gold medalist has heard some version of this her whole career: people brace for someone guarded and get someone who will talk your ear off in the back of an Uber. “When you see me on social and all the things that I do, you’re going to meet that same person in real life. I’m the same person.”
It took a while to get there. Chiles is 24 and in what she’s calling her peace era, a deliberate choice she made before this year even started. “I told myself going in 2026, I was just going to be at peace this era, making sure that my mental, physical, whatever it may be, is just how I want it to feel.”
That idea of protecting her peace is what made the partnership with Uber make sense. Uber’s Women Preferences feature , now available nationwide, lets women riders and drivers opt to match exclusively with each other. Chiles appears in the campaign’s new Gamechangers social series alongside women who drive for the platform. For her, safety and mental health have always been the same conversation. “Mental health is a huge thing. As big as mental health is, that’s as big as my safety,” she says. “We are women and I think people kind of take us for granted in certain situations.”
The post Jordan Chiles Is In Her “Peace Era” And She’s Not Letting Anyone Disrupt It appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-19T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/sports/jordan-chiles-protecting-her-peace/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T12:00:08.961Z"},{"id":"q0gt41","archiveId":"ug6sld","slug":"sex-workers-are-fighting-to-own-their-likenesses-in-an-ai-world","title":"Sex workers are fighting to own their likenesses in an AI world","excerpt":"When Nevada’s legal brothels reopened in 2021 after a 14-month closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, licensed sex worker Jupiter Jetson told The Nevada Independent, she noticed a new hiring practice at Sheri’s Ranch, the Pahrump brothel where she worked from 2018 until February.","content":"
When Nevada’s legal brothels reopened in 2021 after a 14-month closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, licensed sex worker Jupiter Jetson told The Nevada Independent , she noticed a new hiring practice at Sheri’s Ranch, the Pahrump brothel where she worked from 2018 until February.
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“Traditionally, most of the workers in Nevada brothels tend to be a little more anonymous,” said Jetson, who uses a stage name for safety.
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But starting in May 2021, the brothel began “prioritizing the hiring of online creators and porn actresses. … They aggressively encouraged us to create content,” she said.
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Sheri’s Ranch is now at the center of an effort to unionize sex workers, led by Jetson. It began after the brothel’s managers presented workers with a new contract that would grant them perpetual control over workers’ intellectual property, or the creative product or content that people can generate and copyright.
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Lawyers, professors and sex workers who spoke to The Indy say control over image and likeness has always been a sensitive area in adult industries. Those questions are becoming even more crucial today as online adult content grows more lucrative and as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes widespread. Legal sex work in Nevada is changing as a result, making women’s likenesses more profitable but also opening them to new forms of exploitation and abuse.
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“Whether it’s sex workers, or whether it’s women who are just going about their lives, we have seen enough of what can be done with someone’s likeness,” said Genevieve Dahl, a sex worker who was fired by Sheri’s Ranch for supporting the union push. She pointed to the recent controversy where Grok, the AI tool embedded in X, followed instructions to generate thousands of images of undressed women and children.
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OnlyFans, a subscription-based website primarily featuring adult content, launched in 2016 and exploded in popularity during the pandemic, when cooped-up Americans turned to their phones for entertainment. According to the data-tracking website OnlyFans Stats, the number of site users increased by 1,200 percent from 2019 to 2025. Last year, adult websites were a $1.3 billion industry.
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Two former sex workers with Sheri’s Ranch told The Indy that to attract attention online, the brothel has turned to recruiting women with large social media followings or encouraging existing workers to develop such followings. It’s a useful tool because brothel advertising is illegal or heavily limited throughout the state.
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Some sex work advocates say websites such as OnlyFans empower women in adult industries to generate larger, more predictable profits in a less risky, self-directed setting.
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“It has given sex workers and adult performers control over the means of production like never before,” said Lynn Comella, a UNLV professor who researches adult media.
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But others say that while sex workers might benefit from adult content, it can also put them at new risk of personal burnout, overreach by brothel management or the unauthorized dissemination of their image online.
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The internet brings new pressures, expectations for adult workers \n\n\n\n
Jetson began making adult content online in 2021, a direct result of her work at the brothel. She recalls Sheri’s Ranch repeatedly telling workers they were welcome to film adult content on the ranch’s property, including in more lavish rooms the women traditionally must pay to stay in. Most of her former colleagues at the brothel now post content to websites or apps, she said.
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Jetson enjoys having an online persona, she said. But some other adult workers say it can contribute to stress, particularly when it comes to the unexpected ways images can travel online.
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Dahl, for instance, maintains a hidden identity around her sex work. Her social media accounts solely promote upcoming stays at the ranch, and she never shows her face in photographs posted to those accounts or to the brothel’s website. Her desire to remain anonymous has led her away from creating adult content.
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“Other people can step away from in-person sex work tomorrow and now they have this whole following, they could pivot in any other direction,” Dahl said. “For me, it’s different.”
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Even for women who enjoy making adult content, it can be an exhausting endeavor. Nina Nova is a Las Vegas-based porn actress who worked briefly at Sheri’s Ranch in 2024. She said OnlyFans has made working in the industry more taxing.
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“We signed up to make adult content,” Nova said. “We didn’t necessarily sign up to also run a full-time social media brand and have a TikTok 24/7.”
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Of particular concern to sex workers is the potential threat that AI tools will be used to warp or change images they voluntarily post to adult websites. Nova said she and other friends in the industry “are having to double, triple check our contracts to make sure that we’re not accidentally signing away our likeness for use of AI purposes.”
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But even sex workers who are diligent about checking contracts have little power to prevent people from making digital replicas of their adult content.
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“Creators’ intellectual property rights do not fully protect against AI-generated likeness and digital replicas, at least not through copyright alone,” said Lauren Diaz, a professor and technology law expert at Nova Southeastern University. The U.S. Copyright Office has called for new federal legislation to protect content creators from unauthorized, AI-generated copies of their work, but no progress has been made yet.
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Websites such as OnlyFans “have made adult workers less dependent on managers in the porn industry, less dependent on traditional directors and producers,” said Heather Berg, a feminist studies professor at UCLA. “But it makes them more dependent on big platforms that are exploitative in their own ways,” she said, explaining that OnlyFans doesn’t include robust protections for creators’ rights.
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Research has shown that nearly 80 percent of OnlyFans profits flow to only the top 0.1 percent of creators, a dynamic that Berg said means the site “makes money off of sex workers’ labor while offering very little in return.”
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Jupiter Jetson, right, and Molly Wylder worked at Nevada brothel Sheri’s Ranch and are now advocating to unionize sex workers. \n (Ian Maule/AP) \n\n\n\n
Concerns about image exploitation \n\n\n\n
Women’s fears about their online names and images being exploited were a central cause of the unionization drive at Sheri’s Ranch, which began in February. Since The Indy ‘s initial reporting on that effort, Jetson said Sheri’s Ranch has fired four more women, bringing the total number of terminated sex workers to seven.
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The contract Sheri’s Ranch presented to workers in December grants the brothel “irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual” rights to any content produced while staying on the business’ property. Jetson said the contract came after management complained to her that the brothel was “losing out on money that they were owed” from women monetizing their adult images and videos.
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Jetson said she worries that by giving the brothel perpetual control over women’s likenesses, the new contract will preclude women from generating income from their images and harm women who eventually want to leave the industry.
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“They could claim copyright over our names and our videos and our clips and sell them on the website without compensation,” she said. “For all time, until after I die.”
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Sheri’s Ranch did not return a request for comment.
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Image exploitation in adult industries is hardly a new issue, said Caity Gwin, a Las Vegas-based lawyer and former dancer. She said strip club employees — of which there are approximately 20,000 in Nevada — frequently get into legal disputes with bosses who use their promotional photos on websites or billboards without their permission.
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But in the digital age, Gwin said the potential harms from employers exploiting women’s image rights have accelerated. Some workers are worried the brothel’s proposed intellectual property clause would make it easier for them to manipulate and distribute AI-edited images. It’s an especially concerning prospect for a worker such as Dahl, whose face is not publicly posted.
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“They want to have control over our identity completely, and there’s no actual legal protection saying my face won’t be put into some kind of AI composite,” she said. “There’s normal people, all over the world, who are finding themselves with deepfakes. I don’t want to see that happen.”
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The workers say their fears about Sheri’s Ranch owning the rights to their images reflect the broader power imbalances in the brothel.
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“They want to treat us as employees where it benefits them, but they don’t want us to ask for the rights and protections of employees,” said Dahl.
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With claims to intellectual property becoming more complex and difficult to prove in the digital age, sex workers seeking to unionize say the stakes of their efforts are higher than ever.
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Representatives for legal brothels, including Sheri’s Ranch, Mustang Ranch and Chicken Ranch, told The Indy that sex workers’ classification as independent contractors protects their intellectual property rights.
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“Copyright law is very clear that independent contractors have to own the copyright to the content that they produce,” said Berg.
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But those rules are less clear-cut if workers are classified as employees, as employers often automatically own the copyright to their workers’ products. The former sex workers from Sheri’s Ranch are toeing a difficult line, simultaneously pushing for control over their individual intellectual property but also for group recognition as employees.
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Women involved in the union efforts say the challenging labor questions raised by their situation only underscore the need for sex workers to have collective bargaining rights.
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Jetson said she couldn’t imagine “seeing us agree to a contract that says that we cannot maintain a social media presence, considering so many of us are already online personalities.” But she said those issues should be debated and decided through fair negotiations with the brothel.
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“We would be the ones with the final vote on any contract, and we need the right to reject unfair clauses,” she said.
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Workers and their advocates say there’s precedent for such a balancing act.
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““To me, this is the same fight as the screenwriters’ guild, and all of the actors’ guilds,” said Scott Goodstein, a spokesperson for the brothel workers’ union effort. Goodstein was referring to the historic 2023 strike by members of the Screen Actors’ Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, when artists negotiated contracts with AI protections to give them more control over digital replicas.
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That effort underscores the importance of being represented by a union, Goodstein argued, especially in the digital age.
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“Your job doesn’t own your being outright,” he said. “This is such an overreach.”
","category":"global","author":"Shyla Nott","publishDate":"2026-03-19T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/sex-work-content2.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/sex-workers-online-content-creation-onlyfans-ai/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T12:00:05.203Z"},{"id":"21yawh","archiveId":"qygxwi","slug":"how-robert-f-kennedy-jrs-vaccine-agenda-risks-a-resurgence-of-deadly-childhood-plagues","title":"How Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Vaccine Agenda Risks a Resurgence of Deadly Childhood Plagues","excerpt":"The post How Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Vaccine Agenda Risks a Resurgence of Deadly Childhood Plagues appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"
Dr. Adam Ratner hovered over a gravely ill infant in a New York City intensive care unit on a grim day in 2022. The 3-month-old girl spiked a fever two days earlier and had become lethargic. Soon she was having seizures and struggling to breathe.
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She didn’t register Ratner’s towering frame or the bright hospital lights. Her eyes stared up and to the right, eerily frozen.
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He ran his hand over the soft spot on her head, which should have been flat. Instead, it bulged, a sign that too much fluid was building up inside her skull.
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The baby’s life was in danger, and Ratner needed to figure out why. He worried the culprit was bacterial meningitis, an infection of the membranes that protect the brain.
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What came back on her lab tests was something out of the history books.
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The infant’s meningitis was caused by invasive Haemophilus influenzae type b, or Hib, a type of bacteria that used to kill nearly 1,000 children a year in the U.S. A shot introduced in the late 1980s was so effective that Ratner, a veteran pediatric infectious disease doctor, was among the generations of physicians who had never seen a case. But the baby’s parents, Ratner learned, had chosen not to vaccinate her.
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Disheartened, he told his colleagues, “This should be a never event.”
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It wasn’t. The following year, Ratner treated another infant with Hib, then another, each of them unvaccinated. Two went home, but one had to be discharged to a rehabilitation facility. That 5-month-old boy had huge black pupils that didn’t respond to light, and he needed a ventilator to breathe. Ratner and his colleagues noted an “absence of brain stem reflexes ,” indicating severe damage.
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The U.S. government took a half century to build a vaccination system that shielded children from such a fate. Its success depended on two fundamental pillars: parents trusting in vaccines and children having access to them. Both are now in peril, thanks in no small part to the man steering America’s health policy.
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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who founded an antivaccine group and once likened the immunization of children to a holocaust , is transforming a government that long championed the lifesaving benefits of shots into one that spreads doubts about their safety here and abroad.
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Kennedy is also considering changes that could prompt the few companies that make vaccines for American kids to abandon the U.S. market, leaving parents who want the shots unable to get them.
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The threat to vaccine access reaches across the globe after Kennedy yanked the government’s $1.6 billion pledge to the aid group that provides shots for the world’s poorest children. For decades, the U.S. had funded such work not just as a humanitarian mission but as a way to keep Americans safe from unchecked contagions.
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Kennedy’s efforts to reshape vaccine policies have been well chronicled, but ProPublica wanted to take a broader look at how the changes might affect Americans’ health in the years to come.
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We found that long-forgotten plagues have roared back, killing and maiming children in parts of the world where access to vaccines or trust in them faltered. What seemed like subtle changes to a country’s vaccine policies had disastrous consequences years later.
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Even in places that offer highly advanced health care, doctors have felt impotent trying to undo the damage when these horrors return. Modern medicine can’t reverse paralysis from polio. Surgeons can intervene when a baby is born blind, deaf and with heart defects after being exposed to rubella in the womb, but the child is still likely to face a life shaped by disability.
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ProPublica reviewed hundreds of studies on vaccines and outbreaks of the diseases they prevent and interviewed more than three dozen people who have worked on U.S. immunization programs here and abroad, dating back to the days of smallpox. Some had never spoken publicly about their experiences.
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They shared a pit-of-the-stomach dread that American children will end up fighting for their lives against infections that have long been preventable.
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“I think there always was a worst-case scenario,” said Dr. Melinda Wharton, who retired last September after more than three decades leading immunization programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “I don’t think I imagined it could or would be this bad.”
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This week, Kennedy’s agency indicated it planned to appeal a federal court ruling that halted, at least temporarily, some of his changes. Among those was the decision to drop six diseases from the routine childhood immunization schedule.
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HHS declined to make Kennedy available for an interview. In an emailed response to detailed questions, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said that the agency has not limited access to or insurance coverage for vaccines. During the prior administration, federal health agencies “told the public that questioning vaccine policy was off limits,” Nixon said. “That posture contributed to a collapse in trust in U.S. health care.”
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“Secretary Kennedy believes that trust is rebuilt through an open review of safety data, the willingness to ask the hard questions, and ensuring the American people have all emerging information as soon as we know it,” he said.
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Vaccination rates have fallen in large swaths of the country. Resentful of how government institutions responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans lost trust in public health leaders . Antivaccine activists spread misinformation and recast the once-fringe practice of refusing shots as an exercise in “medical freedom.”
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A medical team assesses an infant for measles in Spartanburg, South Carolina, this year. The Washington Post via Getty Images \n\n\n\n
Now the U.S. is experiencing a surge in measles not seen in three decades. There have been more than 3,600 cases across 46 states and three deaths since January last year. The virus spread so fast in South Carolina this year that some medical teams had to examine infected patients in their cars to protect vulnerable people in their waiting rooms, like they did during the worst days of COVID-19.
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Measles, among the most contagious diseases, is typically the first to infect undervaccinated communities and serves as a warning that other scourges will follow.
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That’s what happened in New York City where antivaccine forces distributed illustrated handouts that seeded fear in Orthodox Jewish communities. Ratner saw a direct line between a loss of trust and the sick children in his ICU — first with measles in 2018 and 2019 , then with Hib a few years later.
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Now the villainization of vaccines isn’t coming from pamphlets passed out on a Brooklyn street corner. It’s coming from the highest health offices in the U.S. government.
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“I’m worried,” Ratner said, “that we’re going back to a time where people die in childhood.”
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The U.S. has been a leader on vaccination since the nation’s founding.
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During the Revolutionary War, George Washington ordered troops to be inoculated against smallpox, which had ravaged the Continental Army and was scaring away recruits . Washington knew the perils of the disease: His face was pocked with scars from his own teenage infection.
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The inoculation, the country’s first immunization mandate, took a primitive form. A sore from a smallpox patient was lanced, then the pus was inserted under a healthy person’s skin. Though some people died, the resulting infection was, for the vast majority, milder than the type caught in a bunkhouse or on a battlefield.
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Washington gave the order in February 1777, “keeping the matter as secret as possible ” so that the British wouldn’t attack his bedridden troops during their monthlong recovery. Had he not carried out the inoculation, many historians have concluded, the British may have won .
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Nearly two centuries later, in the throes of the Cold War, CDC scientists teamed up with their counterparts from America’s archenemy, the Soviet Union, to wipe smallpox from the planet. They worked through the World Health Organization to track the virus in cities, rainforests and war zones, vaccinating those at risk. Four U.S. presidents, Democrats and Republicans, backed the work until the disease that had haunted humans since the days of the pharaohs was gone.
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Vaccines, for decades, weren’t politically divisive. They were so uncontroversial that McDonald’s restaurants in the 1990s put the childhood immunization schedule on their tray liners.
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When the nation’s immunization program was in trouble in the 1980s, Republicans and Democrats stepped in to save it.
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Vaccine makers were abandoning the U.S. market after a flood of lawsuits alleged that the shot used at the time to protect children from diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough caused profoundly disabling seizures. Scientists later discovered genetic causes of some of the most devastating forms of epilepsy, but parents who sued back then won big verdicts and settlements.
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At one point pediatricians could only buy that shot from a single company , and there were shortages. The U.S. also was down to just one manufacturer for the measles-mumps-rubella shot and one for the polio vaccine.
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“If there is a fire tomorrow in the plant where the polio vaccine is manufactured, what would happen?” Rep. Henry Waxman asked the CDC director during a 1984 House subcommittee hearing.
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“We would have a shortage,” the director answered.
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An exasperated Waxman shot back: “Are we going to then start putting money into iron lungs for polio victims?”
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A liberal Democrat from California, Waxman for years worked with Sen. Paula Hawkins, a conservative Florida Republican, on legislation that stopped the exodus of vaccine makers by limiting their liability. Launched in 1988, the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program pays people who suffer rare but serious side effects, using money from a special tax on certain shots. The program maintains a table of injuries that are eligible for quicker payouts, and a dedicated vaccine court rules on cases involving health problems not listed on the table.
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Those who don’t like what they are offered can still sue vaccine makers in traditional civil courts, but a Supreme Court ruling significantly limited the types of cases that can win there.
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Just as the compensation program was getting off the ground, measles laid bare a different weakness in the immunization system. The disease tore through American cities, hitting Black and Hispanic preschoolers especially hard. Between 1989 and 1991, there were more than 55,000 cases and 123 deaths .
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In June 1991, President George H.W. Bush, a Republican, stepped into the White House Rose Garden with a message for “every parent everywhere in America ”: “Please, make sure your child is immunized.”
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He announced that a special team of health officials was investigating why so many kids were missing their shots.
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“While some say each generation repeats the mistakes of the last, no generation in America should suffer the plagues of the past,” Bush said.
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The problem was access. Parents couldn’t afford the vaccines given at pediatricians’ offices. Bush’s successor, President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, ushered in a program that to this day offers free shots through local doctors to more than half of American kids.
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Vaccination rates climbed, and measles cases dropped precipitously. By 2000, the U.S. had stopped local spread of the virus so well that global health authorities declared it eliminated here.
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Having made progress at home, the U.S. government championed the use of vaccines abroad. Dr. Susan Reef, who had trained in the CDC disease-detective program made famous by Kate Winslet’s character in the movie “Contagion,” crisscrossed the globe showing health officials how they could save babies from birth defects and early death by introducing the rubella vaccine.
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The cloudy eye of this 3-year-old is from glaucoma caused by congenital rubella syndrome, a constellation of problems resulting from exposure to rubella while in utero. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Dr. Andre J. Lebrun \n\n\n\n
Also known as German measles, rubella is usually mild in kids and adults. When people get infected very early in pregnancy, though, they face up to a 90% chance of giving birth to a baby with congenital rubella syndrome. About a third of those infants die before their first birthday. Most survivors have deafness, blindness, heart defects or intellectual disabilities. Before the vaccine, a U.S. epidemic in the mid-1960s led to 20,000 babies born with the syndrome.
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Reef and her CDC colleagues helped foreign health authorities set up surveillance systems that identified newborns with congenital rubella syndrome.
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During a 2011 rubella epidemic in Vietnam, Reef spotted a cluster of tiny bassinets in a Ho Chi Minh City intensive care unit. The babies’ eyes had cataracts, a sign of vision loss. She knew that most would have trouble hearing, if they could hear at all. A collaborator from the WHO told Reef that at least one of the infants had been abandoned by his family.
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Doctors had isolated the contagious newborns to prevent the spread of rubella, a sign the country’s surveillance system was working. But the scene of this preventable suffering, Reef said, “broke my heart.”
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Vietnam launched a national rubella immunization program a few years later.
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When Reef’s work began, less than half the world’s countries had introduced a rubella shot. When she retired in 2022 after a 30-year career at the CDC, all but 19 had.
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For half a century, one idea lay at the core of all U.S. immunization programs: Let down your guard and the diseases will return.
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Dr. Chuck Vitek saw this happen as he walked the worn linoleum floors of Russian infectious disease hospitals in the mid-1990s.
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Throughout that decade, a massive epidemic of diphtheria raged across the countries of the former Soviet Union. The CDC repeatedly deployed Vitek to help health authorities contain this ancient contagion, once widely known as the “strangling angel of children.”
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Tissue destroyed by the diphtheria toxin can build up in the back of a child’s throat, sealing off the swollen airway and suffocating them. Photo By BSIP/UIG via Getty Images \n\n\n\n
Diphtheria’s name is drawn from the Greek word for leather because tissue destroyed by the diphtheria toxin builds up in the back of the throat like a piece of hide, sealing off a swollen airway. Many parents had to watch their children suffocate. For those who escape asphyxiation, the toxin can damage the heart and nerves. Patients who seem better can drop dead weeks later.
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At one hospital, Vitek peered into the mouth of a sick Russian teenager and saw the thick greyish-white membrane covering a third of his throat. Doctors had administered antitoxin promptly, so his windpipe wasn’t blocked. But, pale and weak, the boy faced a terrible wait. Had diphtheria ruined his heart?
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Vitek had to leave before it was clear whether the child would survive. But one detail from his medical history stood out above all others: The teen had not been vaccinated.
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“It was sad because it was something that would have easily been prevented with vaccination,” Vitek recalled.
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Vitek was another graduate of the CDC’s disease-detective program. A big part of his assignment was to investigate why diphtheria had come back. One obvious problem was access; the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 disrupted vaccine supplies. But that wasn’t the whole answer.
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The unvaccinated Russian boy offered a clue to the rest.
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The Soviets had been big believers in immunization. Diphtheria shots for kids had been free — and mandatory — since the 1950s.
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When diphtheria seemed like a problem of the past, though, the Soviet Union eased up. Concerns about fevers and other possible side effects from the shot used back then overshadowed fears of the disease. In the 1980s, Soviet health authorities created alternative immunization schedules with lower-dose diphtheria shots and fewer total injections, and they directed pediatricians to put off vaccination if a child had one of a long list of health issues. “If a kid had a runny nose, a stomachache, almost anything,” Vitek said, doctors would skip the shot that day. “They wouldn’t make an effort to catch them up.”
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Antivaccine activists tapped into the deep mistrust of government institutions in the years leading up to the collapse of the Soviet Union. One 1988 column in a Moscow newspaper suggested that Soviet officials knew the shot could be harmful — even deadly — but kept this secret. (In focus groups held years later, parents vividly recalled how news stories made them afraid of immunizations , Vitek and a colleague found.)
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By 1990, only 60% of infants in Soviet Russia had received all three full-strength diphtheria shots before their first birthday.
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The disease found a foothold. Before the epidemic was over, more than 157,000 people were infected and 5,000 died , mostly in Russia.
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Health officials in Russia ended the policies that left their people vulnerable and held mandatory mass vaccination campaigns.
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“It was an extra dose across the entire population,” Vitek recalled.
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It took years to end the epidemic.
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Japan had a similar struggle with rubella.
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A rash from rubella, also known as German measles Centers for Disease Control and Prevention \n\n\n\n
When health authorities introduced a rubella shot in the 1970s, they took an approach that weighed who was most at risk, targeting future mothers by giving the shot only to junior high girls. The boys of this era were passed over and remained susceptible as they grew up. Rubella researchers refer to them as “the lost generation.”
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In 1989, Japan changed course and began vaccinating young boys and girls with a shot that combined protection for rubella, measles and mumps. But doctors quickly discovered that the mumps component — different from the U.S. version — sometimes caused a type of meningitis. Mistrust spread as health officials downplayed the risk at first, then yanked the combined vaccines in favor of standalone shots.
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Japan in 1994 dropped its strict immunization mandates. Health authorities continued to recommend shots, but vaccination became a matter of personal choice , and a lack of trust shadowed the immunization program for years. One study showed Japan’s confidence in vaccines was among the lowest in the world .
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Time and again, rubella circulated in the men who were never offered the shots as boys, then spread to pregnant women who hadn’t been fully vaccinated. Babies were born with the type of devastating birth defects that Reef saw in the ICU in Vietnam. Japan’s epidemic from 2012 to 2014 was so bad that researchers discovered a temporary drop in the country’s fertility rates that coincided with a spike in Google searches for the Japanese word for rubella.
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Serious misgivings about vaccination in one part of the world can have far-reaching consequences. Twenty countries that thought their days of paralytic polio were behind them saw the dreaded disease return in the 2000s. The virus was traced to Nigeria, where religious and political leaders in some areas had boycotted polio immunization campaigns amid false rumors that the shots had been tainted to make Muslim girls infertile.
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Organizers of the boycott feared the vaccine more than the disease.
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The governor of one northern Nigerian state told the Associated Press in 2004: “It is a lesser of two evils to sacrifice two, three, four, five, even 10 children [to polio] than allow hundreds or thousands or possibly millions of girl-children likely to be rendered infertile.”
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Polio roared back in Nigeria, leaving more than 2,500 children disabled. It spread around the world for years, paralyzing kids as far away as Indonesia.
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When Kennedy became America’s top health official last year, no other leader at the CDC had more experience preventing death and disability with vaccines than Dr. Melinda Wharton.
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It was Wharton who had sent Vitek to Russia to figure out why diphtheria returned . And it was Wharton who started Reef on her quest to vanquish congenital rubella syndrome . Like them, she had trained as a disease detective.
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In her 39 years at the CDC, Wharton had seen activists try to persuade Americans that the shots they were giving their babies were scarier than the diseases those shots prevented. In 2021, Kennedy had written in a book that measles — a virus the CDC says kills nearly 1 to 3 of every 1,000 children who contract it — wasn’t the menace that the government proclaimed.
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“Measles outbreaks have been fabricated to create fear that in turn forces government officials to ‘do something,’” he wrote. “They then inflict unnecessary and risky vaccines on millions of children for the sole purpose of fattening industry profits.”
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During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy told senators he isn’t antivaccine. “I am pro-safety,” he said. “I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish, and nobody called me anti-fish .”
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In his early days as the nation’s top health leader, HHS dismissed thousands of Wharton’s colleagues , ended vaccine promotions during an especially deadly flu season and buried a CDC measles forecast that stressed the need for immunization.
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A measles rash covers a child’s torso. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Dr. Philip Nader \n\n\n\n
Wharton set five empty cardboard boxes on her filing cabinet in case she needed to pack up quickly.
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In recent years she managed the committee of outside experts that recommends which shots Americans should get and when. Few people had ever heard of her obscure corner of the federal health bureaucracy.
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But Kennedy knew it well. He understood that Congress had given these advisers the power to determine which shots were free for more than half of American kids and which ones insurers must pay for. Many states used the committee’s recommendations to set vaccine mandates for kids attending school.
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Kennedy for years complained the panel had been captured by Big Pharma. On June 9, his chief of staff at the CDC removed Wharton from her role managing the committee. Just as that news was sinking in, Wharton’s phone lit up with messages from the committee’s members. Kennedy had announced in a Wall Street Journal column that he was replacing all of them . “A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science,” he wrote.
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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kayla Bartkowski/Bloomberg via Getty Images \n\n\n\n
Kennedy stacked the new committee with many vaccine skeptics who quickly delved into his longstanding grievances about America’s immunization system. Webcasts of the meetings became a megaphone for mistrust. Some devolved into shouting matches as doctors from medical societies pushed back against misinformation.
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One of Kennedy’s new appointees, Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, suggested that vaccinating a baby was like flying on an airplane that hadn’t been rigorously tested. “I suggest to parents to be very, very suspicious when people tell them that something is safe, especially a vaccine,” he said.
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In an emailed response to questions from ProPublica, Levi said that vaccines have benefits and risks “often personalized to the individual’s health status, risk factors, and preferences.” Being transparent about those benefits and risks, including being honest about what is known and not known, increases public confidence in vaccination programs, he said.
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The chair of the committee, Dr. Kirk Milhoan, told the “Why Should I Trust You?” podcast he wasn’t afraid to reconsider whether the polio shot is needed any longer. In an email to ProPublica, Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist, said that the committee is required to review vaccines every seven years “to optimize effectiveness and to reevaluate possible long term risks.”
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Like Kennedy, Milhoan doesn’t think vaccines have been appropriately tested for safety. In the podcast, he said American parents deserve to know the risks so they can decide whether they’re more concerned about the disease or the potential for side effects from the shot.
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“What we are doing is returning individual autonomy to the first order, not public health,” he added.
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Since she retired last year, Wharton has tuned in to the meetings she used to run, but at times they were too painful to watch. The new committee at one point sought advice from a former president of the antivaccination group Kennedy founded, while a CDC compilation of evidence that ran counter to her presentation was quietly removed from the panel’s website. For insight on the childhood schedule, the panel listened to a 90-minute talk by a Kennedy ally, a vaccine-injury attorney who once petitioned the government to withdraw approval of the polio shot for infants and toddlers.
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In January, the acting CDC director trimmed the childhood immunization schedule so that it recommended routine protection for 11 diseases rather than 17. Six shots that had been universal would now fall into a category that essentially means “talk to your doctor and decide for yourself,” with guidance for certain shots based on risk.
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“The idea that it’s increasingly acceptable to put children at risk for these kinds of things is really just terrible,” Wharton said. “To have it be the official position of the federal government, it’s very frightening.”
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Nixon, the HHS spokesperson, defended the slimmed-down schedule, saying it would “maintain robust protection against diseases that cause serious morbidity or mortality to children while aligning the U.S. with peer nations.”
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As for the committee, Nixon said Kennedy’s appointees are “committed to rigorous review and independent thinking.”
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“Restoring confidence requires advisory bodies that are willing to ask hard questions, not simply reaffirm prior consensus and rubber stamp recommendations,” he said. “Disagreement at public meetings is a healthy scientific debate and the way to overcome groupthink.”
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The American Academy of Pediatrics, which for decades had collaborated with the committee on the childhood vaccine schedule, boycotted the panel’s meetings and sued to block many of Kennedy’s moves.
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On Monday, a federal judge sided with the academy , finding that for an advisory committee dedicated to using vaccines to control preventable diseases, more than half of the new members “appear distinctly unqualified.” While he considers the case, the judge, for now, put on hold Kennedy’s appointments to the panel as well as the CDC’s changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.
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The ruling is a setback for Kennedy, but the Trump administration has foreshadowed other changes that could affect Americans’ access to shots.
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President Donald Trump, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., addresses reporters during a press conference in the White House. Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg via Getty Images \n\n\n\n
In September, President Donald Trump stepped up to the microphone in the White House’s Roosevelt Room with a major announcement about his administration’s efforts to counter the rise of autism. Flanked by Kennedy and other top health officials, the president urged pregnant women not to take acetaminophen, the pain reliever often sold as Tylenol. This news ricocheted around the globe.
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But less attention was given to other bombshells dropped about vaccines that day. The president complained that pediatricians were giving so many shots, they were treating America’s children like horses.
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“They pump so much stuff into those beautiful little babies, it’s a disgrace,” he said.
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Without explaining how, Trump said his administration was going to get aluminum removed from vaccines. “Who the hell wants that pumped into a body?” he said.
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Aluminum has been used in shots since the 1930s to boost immune response. It is an essential ingredient in vaccines for nine diseases, including diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, human papillomavirus (a cause of cervical cancer), one version of the Hib vaccine, and many of the combination shots babies receive. Kennedy has long questioned its safety.
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A CDC-sponsored study found an association between aluminum in shots and asthma in young kids. But the researchers, citing limitations in their analysis, wrote that “these findings do not constitute strong evidence for questioning the safety of aluminum in vaccines.” A larger study by Danish government researchers subsequently found aluminum in shots did not increase the risk of autism, asthma, autoimmune diseases or dozens of other conditions. Kennedy criticized the methodology and tried unsuccessfully to get the Danish study retracted.
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If the federal government were to ban aluminum in vaccines, companies would have to reformulate them and, possibly, launch costly clinical trials. Nearly all the shots American kids get are made by a handful of pharmaceutical giants. The market is fragile enough that if any were to balk and stop making these vaccines, families could face shortages or lose access altogether.
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The fate of the measles-mumps-rubella shot, which does not contain aluminum, is also up in the air. At the White House autism press conference, Trump, without offering evidence, said he had heard bad things about that shot, which has been used here since 1971. Researchers around the world repeatedly have found it does not cause autism.
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Nevertheless, the president implored parents to insist on separate shots for measles, mumps and rubella — “separate, separate, separate,” he repeated.
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But there are no FDA-approved standalone shots for measles, mumps or rubella. Facing a year with the most American measles cases in a generation, the president had suggested that there’s a problem with the only surefire prevention available and told parents to demand shots that don’t exist here.
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In an X post, the acting CDC director at that time called on manufacturers to develop them.
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A measles rash covers the face and shoulders of a young boy. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention \n\n\n\n
A White House spokesperson did not answer questions about the president’s plans.
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“The Trump administration is committed to a nuanced, nimble, and multi-faceted approach to restore Gold Standard Science as the guiding principle of our health policymaking without compromising access to or coverage of any lifesaving treatment, including vaccines,” Kush Desai wrote in an email. “Until unveiled by the Administration, discussion about potential new policies or their second order effects is pointless speculation.”
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The federal court ruling that paused January’s revisions to the childhood vaccination schedule doesn’t stop Kennedy from making similar changes in the future, as long as he follows the proper procedures. While moving shots to the talk-to-your-doctor category may seem harmless, it could affect access down the line.
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The injury compensation program that Congress created to prevent manufacturers from fleeing the U.S. market in the 1980s only covers immunizations the CDC recommends for “routine administration” to children or pregnant women. That leaves shots in other categories open to legal challenges by vaccine injury lawyers, renewing the specter of big legal verdicts that previously prompted vaccine makers to bolt.
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Kennedy has long railed against the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, arguing it’s a gift to the pharmaceutical industry that removes any incentive to make safe products. Before he became HHS secretary, Kennedy referred plaintiffs to a law firm suing a vaccine maker in exchange for a cut of its fees if they won, federal financial disclosures show.
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Last year, he hired a vaccine injury lawyer to help him overhaul the compensation program and expand who can receive payments. In September, that attorney said he and Kennedy were considering ways to add symptoms of autism to the program’s injury table for quick payouts.
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So many studies — performed in different parts of the world and involving more than a million people — have found no link between vaccines and autism that this has become scientific consensus . (Scientists have found serious methodological flaws in papers that have claimed such a link.) The compensation program’s vaccine court spent years in the 2000s trying cases that alleged shots caused autism and found they didn’t . ProPublica asked HHS whether Kennedy planned to add symptoms of autism to the program’s injury table, but the agency did not answer.
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Given how prevalent autism is, a change like this could exhaust the compensation fund. If the program collapses and the legal protections go away, manufacturers may stop selling shots here like they did in the 1980s.
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Then, even Americans who still trust vaccines couldn’t get them.
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A child suffering from Haemophilus influenzae type B, or Hib American Association of Pediatrics \n\n\n\n
Diseases that have been wiped out in the U.S. are still found in other parts of the world.
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Polio is endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and this month the CDC warned American travelers that the virus has been circulating in 28 additional countries , including Israel and the United Kingdom. In 2022, a young unvaccinated man in New York was paralyzed by the virus .
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That same year, an outbreak of diphtheria began in Western Europe, its largest rise in cases in 70 years. Health authorities investigating the infection of an unvaccinated German boy in 2024 discovered that the toxic strain of the diphtheria bacteria had spread over two years from newly arrived migrants to homeless Germans, then to the child and his mother, who had no known contact with either group.
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The 10-year-old was admitted to a hospital in the historic city of Potsdam. Like Ratner encountering his first patient with Hib, the German doctors had never seen diphtheria before.
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“It was taught as history,” said Dr. Bernhard Kosak, head of pediatric emergency medicine and critical care there.
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Treated with antitoxin and antibiotics, the child was transferred to the big teaching hospital in Berlin where a ventilator helped him breathe . But the marvels of modern intensive-care medicine couldn’t undo the damage from this ancient toxin. The boy died in January last year.
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Diseases can follow the contours of global travel. In just the first few months of last year, the CDC found , people infected with measles arrived in the U.S. from Canada, Vietnam, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Australia, Guinea, the Netherlands, Somalia, Spain and Uganda.
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The Trump administration has walked away from long-standing international alliances that helped the U.S. beat back scourges in other countries. The president withdrew the U.S. from the WHO. And Kennedy backed out of the government’s promise to give $1.6 billion to Gavi, the global vaccine aid group the U.S. has funded for decades. He accused the organization of neglecting vaccine safety.
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“Secretary Kennedy has made clear that American public health dollars going abroad must be spent wisely,” Nixon, the HHS spokesperson, said. “That means reviewing funding commitments and ensuring programs meet safety and effectiveness standards. Protecting Americans at home remains our first obligation.”
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Reef, the former CDC doctor who had witnessed newborns suffering from congenital rubella syndrome in Vietnam, is devastated by the pullback.
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“It makes me very very sad,” she said, then paused for a long time. “Very very sad. I can’t explain to you what it feels like to see all your hard work going by the wayside.”
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In retirement, she remains part of the group of experts that helps governments decide when to introduce the rubella vaccine and also serves on four WHO committees that determine whether nations have eliminated rubella or measles.
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When countries launch rubella vaccination campaigns for the first time, they can’t just target babies or the virus shifts to older groups and can infect those who are pregnant. To avoid this, Gavi for many years supported immunizing all children from 9 months old up to age 15 when countries first introduce the shot, which offers protection not just for rubella but also for measles.
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But facing a massive hole in its budget, Gavi’s board in December decided in the future to save money by only guaranteeing that vaccine up to age 10 when a country first debuts it. Modeling predicts the change could result in 72,000 additional deaths from measles and congenital rubella syndrome, according to the Gavi board’s records.
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A Gavi spokesperson acknowledged that the shift creates a greater risk of congenital rubella but said that the organization had to figure out how to protect as many people as it could with far less money. Countries that want to offer the vaccine to older kids, she noted, can draw from a different pot of Gavi money, but that will leave those places with less funding for other shots.
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Fallout from the budget cuts goes well beyond rubella. “The bottom line is that, over the next five years, we expect to be able to prevent 600,000 future deaths less than if we were fully funded,” the spokesperson said.
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Addressing Kennedy’s criticism, the spokesperson added, “Gavi’s utmost concern is the health and safety of children. Our approach to vaccine safety is guided entirely by global scientific consensus.”
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Cataracts caused by congenital rubella syndrome Centers for Disease Control and Prevention \n\n\n\n
The spread of measles in the U.S. warns of future rubella outbreaks. Since the rubella shot here is given in combination with the vaccine for measles and mumps, parents who turn down measles vaccines leave their kids vulnerable to rubella, too. It could take 20 years before birth defects from rubella become common again. Unvaccinated children have to grow old enough to become pregnant. The long lag time can give a false sense of security.
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But, Reef warned, “when it comes back, it will come back with a vengeance. We will see babies being born who are blind, deaf and have heart disease.”
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The world is ill prepared for a major resurgence in diphtheria. Antitoxin, made from the blood of horses , has to be given immediately. Yet supplies are scarce, and not many companies sell it. Dozens of kids in Pakistan died in 2024 because doctors there couldn’t get it in time.
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Vitek, the CDC doctor who fought diphtheria in Russia, helped obtain permission for the CDC to keep an emergency stash of antitoxin for Americans after the only manufacturer with FDA approval stopped making it. The U.S. medical system still relies on an emergency supply controlled by the CDC.
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ProPublica asked the CDC and HHS how many diphtheria patients the government’s current supply could treat, but neither agency would say. (“The CDC vigilantly monitors disease trends, maintains emergency stockpiles, and supports outbreak response at home and abroad,” Nixon said.)
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Vitek retired in July after 33 years with the CDC, but he still worries how diseases that seem vanquished can reappear if people can’t or won’t get shots.
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The unvaccinated parts of America could find themselves, like Germany, one unwitting traveler away from an outbreak of a horror from the history books.
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“Once it gets reintroduced, your kid could get sick or die, even with modern medicine,” Vitek warned. And diphtheria, he noted, “it’s a terrible way to die.”
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\n\tGot a story we should hear? Are you down to be a background source on a story about your community, your schools or your workplace? Get in touch.
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The post How Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Vaccine Agenda Risks a Resurgence of Deadly Childhood Plagues appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Patricia Callahan","publishDate":"2026-03-19T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?w=752","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/rfk-jr-vaccine-agenda-childhood-plagues","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T12:00:06.364Z"},{"id":"4ogz6p","archiveId":"4euokw","slug":"influencer-in-custody-battle-with-elon-musk-says-maga-women-realizing-theyre-pawns","title":"Influencer In Custody Battle With Elon Musk Says MAGA Women Realizing They’re ‘Pawns’","excerpt":"“It is a cult, and what you have to understand is, in any abusive relationship, right? Your access to other people, you're very isolated,” Ashley St. Clair said.","content":"","category":"breakthroughs","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-03-18T21:25:57.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/69bb07af1b00007a9814e973.jpeg?cache=pXCTEuE7kY&ops=500_281%2Cscalefit_1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ashley-st-clair-maga-tim-miller-the-bulwark-cult-women_n_69bb052fe4b04fe25a4882c3","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T00:01:19.483Z"},{"id":"a9g9l9","archiveId":"8jrj4j","slug":"every-man-has-a-critical-role-to-play-in-ending-violence-against-women","title":"Every Man Has a Critical Role to Play in Ending Violence Against Women","excerpt":"(An excerpt from Jackson Katz's Every Man: Why Violence Against Women Is a Men’s Issue, and How You Can Make a Difference , out March 19 from Bloomsbury Publishing.) In 2024, a mass rape scandal rocked France and reverberated around the world.","content":"
(An excerpt from Jackson Katz's Every Man: Why Violence Against Women Is a Men’s Issue, and How You Can Make a Difference , out March 19 from Bloomsbury Publishing.)
\n
In 2024, a mass rape scandal rocked France and reverberated around the world. Fifty men in a small town in the southern part of the country were convicted of raping Gisèle Pelicot, a woman who had been secretly drugged by her husband and set up to be assaulted. The shining light of this horrific case was the courage and dignity of Gisèle, who became an international feminist icon when she insisted on being present and highly visible throughout the spectacle of the trial. She made it clear that she wanted to appear in the courtroom to stand up for survivors and send an unmistakable message: \"Shame must change sides.\"
\n
But this epochal story had another major angle: the 50 men. A brief glance at their bios revealed most of them to be otherwise ordinary men.
\n
The concept of \"every man\" suggests there is growing recognition among the broader public that this enormous problem has deeper societal roots, and is not primarily about the deviant behavior of pathological individuals.\"
\n
Men from every walk of life have a critical role to play on this issue. But first we have to break through some of the layers of denial and resistance that have impeded progress for far too long.
\n
The post Every Man Has a Critical Role to Play in Ending Violence Against Women appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Jackson Katz","publishDate":"2026-03-18T19:50:16.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2172592212.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/18/every-man-why-violence-against-women-is-a-mens-issue-and-how-you-can-make-a-difference-excerpt/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T00:01:12.869Z"},{"id":"1vlp41","archiveId":"1iti9t","slug":"spring-pastel-picks-that-perfectly-complement-deeper-skin-tones","title":"Spring Pastel Picks That Perfectly Complement Deeper Skin Tones","excerpt":"Spring is almost here. And, as we coast through these final chilly days, it’s the perfect time to start building out your warm-weather wardrobe. While bold, bright hues always pop […] The post Spring Pastel Picks That Perfectly Complement Deeper Skin Tones appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated March 18, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Spring is almost here. And, as we coast through these final chilly days, it’s the perfect time to start building out your warm-weather wardrobe. While bold, bright hues always pop beautifully against deeper skin tones, pastels deserve just as much attention this season. With soft shades trending for spring, every Black woman should have a few in rotation.
Most recently, Wunmi Mosaku stunned on the Vanity Fair Oscars red carpet in a dreamy lilac gown complete with a floral-adorned train. Similarly, at the same event, actress Danielle Brooks stunned with a lavender strapless, high-low dress. With these soft hues glowing effortlessly against melanin-rich complexions, we’re reminded that pastels can be just as striking as more saturated tones.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 15: Wunmi Mosaku attends the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Mark Guiducci at Los Angeles County Museum of Art on March 15, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Steve Granitz/FilmMagic)
Whether you’re headed to a spring wedding, brunch with friends, or getting dressed for Easter Sunday, pastels will carry you through every occasion. From blush pinks and buttery yellows to airy blues and soft purples, there’s a shade for every mood and moment.
Lean into the lighter side of your wardrobe this season. Shop pastel picks that enhance your glow and step into the softness of spring with ease.
01 01 Zara Rib Knit Cardigan
Shop this pale yellow cardigan with a soft, curvy hem to add a touch of warmth and effortless femininity to your spring wardrobe. Available at
Zara 45 Shop Now 02 02 Banana Republic Satin Draped Top
This dainty, sleeveless silk blush pink piece is perfect for transitioning weather. Available at
Banana Republic 35 Shop Now 03 03 Zara Asynnetric Hem Satin Short Dress
Cop this blue ballerina-inspired dress with an asymmetrical hem for a whimsical, effortlessly ethereal vibe this spring. Available at
Zara 60 Shop Now 04 04 H&M Lace Trimmed Triangle Scarf
This lace-trim skirt pairs perfectly with an all-white look, with hints of lavender or butter yellow for a soft, seasonal touch. Available at
H&M 25 Shop Now 05 05 Cos Panelled A-Line Midi Skirt
While this skirt leans into a richer hue, it still beautifully enhances melanin-rich skin tones. Available at
Cos 100 Shop Now 06 06 Mango Ruffled Lyocell Blouse
This lush pink lyocell top brings the fun with a flirty V-neck, soft ruffles, and adjustable sleeves for the perfect spring vibe. Available at
Mango 65 Shop Now 07 07 Mango Cotton Lace Nightgown
This butter-yellow lace-trimmed midi gown with delicate spaghetti straps is a dreamy spring standout. Available at
Mango 40 Shop Now The post Spring Pastel Picks That Perfectly Complement Deeper Skin Tones appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-18T18:44:01.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/spring-pastel-perfectly-complement-deeper-skin-tones/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T00:01:20.291Z"},{"id":"tdbc1b","archiveId":"ebhm4i","slug":"guttmacher-releases-full-year-2025-abortion-incidence-and-travel-data","title":"Guttmacher Releases Full-Year 2025 Abortion Incidence and Travel Data","excerpt":"
Guttmacher Releases Full-Year 2025 Abortion Incidence and Travel Data March 24, 2026 mcherins March 18, 2026 ...","content":"<span>Guttmacher Releases Full-Year 2025 Abortion Incidence and Travel Data</span>\n<time datetime=\"2026-03-24T12:00:00Z\">March 24, 2026</time><span><span>mcherins</span></span>\n<span><time datetime=\"2026-03-18T12:25:38-06:00\" title=\"Wednesday, March 18, 2026 - 12:25pm\">March 18, 2026</time>\n</span>\n <a class=\"c-metadata-tag c-metadata-tag--light-violet\" href=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/news-releases\">\n News Release\n </a>\n\n \n <div class=\"field field--name-field-use-link field--type-boolean field--label-above\">\n <div class=\"field__label\">Use link</div>\n <div class=\"field__item\">On</div>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"field field--name-field-facebook-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-above\">\n <div class=\"field__label\">Facebook Image</div>\n <div class=\"field__item\">provision generic news release social@4x.png</div>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"field field--name-field-twitter-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-above\">\n <div class=\"field__label\">Twitter Image</div>\n <div class=\"field__item\">provision generic news release social@4x.png</div>\n </div>\n<div class=\"node_view\">\n\n</div>","category":"choice","author":"mcherins","publishDate":"2026-03-18T18:25:38.000Z","image":"https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/styles/open_graph_small/public/2026-03/provision%20generic%20news%20release%20social%404x.png?h=2240b8e9&itok=BlNpoVEW","source":"Guttmacher Institute","sourceUrl":"https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2026/guttmacher-releases-full-year-2025-abortion-incidence-and-travel-data","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-24T18:00:15.559Z"},{"id":"7xyua6","archiveId":"e04s69","slug":"transportation-lobbyists-have-donated-thousands-to-sean-duffys-son-in-law-as-he-runs-for-congress","title":"Transportation Lobbyists Have Donated Thousands to Sean Duffy’s Son-in-Law as He Runs for Congress","excerpt":"The post Transportation Lobbyists Have Donated Thousands to Sean Duffy’s Son-in-Law as He Runs for Congress appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"
The $16 billion Hudson Tunnel Project, under construction between Manhattan and New Jersey, will improve passenger rail service, an important issue for New York City commuters. It would seem to have nothing to do with what’s happening in northern Wisconsin.
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But after the White House froze federal grant funding for the project in the fall, citing concerns about diversity and equity measures, lobbyists with an interest in the tunnel donated $2,500 to a political novice running in the Republican primary in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District.
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The young candidate, Michael Alfonso, has no sway over the matter. However, his father-in-law does: Sean Duffy is secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
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The contributions are among dozens to Alfonso’s campaign from lobbyists, business executives and political action committees tied to industries — from rails and highways to shipping and air travel — that Duffy’s department funds and regulates. His department also oversees the Federal Aviation Administration.
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Duffy held the 7th Congressional District seat for nearly a decade before resigning in 2019. He was succeeded by Tom Tiffany, who is now running for Wisconsin governor, leaving the seat open again. Alfonso, 26, who has worked in construction and podcasting, has been endorsed by President Donald Trump.
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A ProPublica analysis found that many of the Alfonso donors with transportation interests had never given to Duffy or Tiffany. While legal, such donations set up the appearance that helping Alfonso might assist the donors with issues influenced by Duffy. (Politico has reported on some of these contributions.)
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“The law, as it stands, provides very little constraint,” said Daniel Weiner, director of the Elections and Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a law and policy institute based in New York. “There’s a very large gulf between what is legal and what is ethical. Obviously, this raises numerous ethical questions.”
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This is not the first time a Cabinet secretary’s relative has created thorny ethical issues. During the first Trump administration, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao made headlines for appearing to give preferential treatment to Kentucky officials for millions of dollars in infrastructure grants. Kentucky is the home state of her husband, Mitch McConnell, then Senate majority leader. At the time, Chao’s office denied showing any favoritism, saying that Kentucky’s share was not out of the ordinary.
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And in 2012, under President Barack Obama, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, an Iowa Democrat, fielded questions about the separation between U.S. Department of Agriculture business and the campaign of his wife, Christie, who was running for Congress. Christie Vilsack told ProPublica in an interview that the couple was careful about making sure her husband was not involved in the campaign, other than to support her at some debates and on election night. He “never did any fundraising at all,” she said.
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An influential member of Trump’s Cabinet, Duffy has been openly assisting his son-in-law’s campaign. The notice for a November “meet and greet” with Alfonso in Wausau, Wisconsin, mentioned that Duffy would be a special guest, as did an invitation for another December fundraiser.
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Among the sponsors for the December event was the political action committee for Delta Air Lines. The invitation included a caveat: “Sean Duffy is not soliciting funds in connection with this event.”
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Alfonso’s campaign did not respond to requests from ProPublica for an interview or for comment. A spokesperson for Duffy, Nathaniel Sizemore, provided a written statement saying: “The Secretary attends fundraising events in his personal capacity. Regulatory decisions are guided by career safety professionals, the law, and the facts.”
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Nothing in law bars Duffy from campaigning for his son-in-law, so long as he goes about it on his personal time, does not use government resources and does not promise to take some official action in exchange for a contribution.
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Alfonso is using the same fundraising consultant, Kirstin Hopkins, that Duffy employed, Federal Election Commission records show. In addition, Alfonso has received help with ads and mailers from a super PAC, the Northwoods Future PAC, that is funded with $1 million from Duffy’s former campaign committee. Alfonso’s familial advantage has irked some Wisconsin Republicans who don’t want the newcomer to glide into such an important position.
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Through his own campaign committee, Alfonso had raised a little over $305,000 as of the end of 2025, the latest filing available. By law, contributions for each election are limited to $3,500 from individuals and $5,000 from political action committees. Donors can contribute to more than one election at the same time, such as a primary race and a general.
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Alfonso’s donors include lobbyist Jeffrey Miller, a finance chair of Trump’s most recent inaugural committee. In December, Miller and his company’s chief operating officer donated separately to Alfonso, for a combined $8,500. No one listing their firm, Miller Strategies, as an employer had donated to either Duffy or Tiffany in the past, according to FEC records.
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Lobbyist disclosure reports show that Miller lobbied the Transportation Department in 2025 on behalf of at least nine companies, one New York county and one Native American tribe. The issues included airport signage regulation, aviation permitting for the developer of a supersonic airliner and advancements in GPS technology. Miller reported advocating for Archer Aviation regarding electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft technology, known as eVTOL — the basis for future flying cars.
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Earlier this month, Duffy announced a first-of-its-kind FAA pilot program to test eVTOL technology in eight demonstration projects across 26 states. Archer was among the companies selected to participate, according to the Transportation Department. In a video accompanying the announcement, Duffy spoke enthusiastically about the technology, envisioning “Ubers in the air” taking people from one airport to the next and beyond. He said, “eVTOLs are going to make the airspace far more interesting and far more fun, and we have to be prepared for that.”
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Miller did not return calls or emails seeking comment.
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Alfonso graduated in 2022 from the University of Wisconsin with a math degree. He moved to Florida for a time to help produce a popular podcast hosted by Dan Bongino, a Trump supporter who later served a brief stint as deputy director of the FBI. (Bongino is back podcasting again.)
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By Alfonso’s account, he and Trump first met in 2022 at Alfonso’s wedding to Duffy’s daughter, Evita. The reception took place at one of Trump’s New Jersey golf courses.
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Alfonso has said that in an Oval Office meeting after he decided to run for Congress, he pledged loyalty to the president. “I promised him that I would always be America first, I would always fight for his agenda and that nobody would ever outwork me,” Alfonso told Mark Halperin, another podcaster.
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On social media in November, Alfonso thanked Duffy for coming to his first campaign event in Wausau, the city where the candidate met his future wife while they were in middle school.
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In a post on X, Alfonso thanked his father-in-law for joining him on the campaign trail in Wisconsin last November. X \n\n\n\n
The following month, the transportation secretary appeared at a campaign fundraiser for Alfonso at a hotel in Green Bay, near the storied Lambeau Field. The donors in attendance included Sharad Tak of Bethesda, Maryland, the CEO of ST LNG, a company seeking a DOT-issued license to construct and operate a deep-water port offshore of Matagorda, Texas, to load liquefied natural gas onto carriers.
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Tak gave $500 to the campaign, and his wife, Mahinder, who did not attend the function, gave $7,000. Neither had donated to Duffy or Tiffany.
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Tak did not reply to ProPublica’s request for an interview but asked a longtime friend of his, Ann Murphy of Green Bay, who works as a consultant for him, to respond. Tak owns a paper mill in Oconto Falls, north of Green Bay. It is not in the 7th Congressional District. But Murphy said Tak was visiting the state and agreed, at her request, to attend the fundraiser for Alfonso.
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She said in an interview that the Texas liquefied natural gas project had no bearing on Tak’s campaign contribution. “Absolutely not.”
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It’s typical, she said, for Tak and his wife to support causes, both political and philanthropic, that Murphy and her husband find worthwhile — and vice versa.
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“We were very excited about Michael,” Murphy said of Alfonso, likening him to Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA who inspired many young people before being killed last year. “And he does have the endorsement of President Trump.”
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Others donating to Alfonso’s candidacy include political action committees for employees of the military jetmaker Lockheed Martin, which is subject to FAA safety regulations and has lucrative government contracts, and for T-Mobile, which is working on a DOT project to enhance the resilience of critical 5G infrastructure. PACs for unions and trade associations for heavy equipment operators, engineers, aeronautical services and the travel industry have also pitched in.
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The PAC for Brightline, a high-speed train service in Florida, also donated, giving $2,500 in December. Brightline trains have struck and killed more than 180 pedestrians or drivers at crossings since 2017, according to an investigation by the Miami Herald and WLRN . Duffy promised at a congressional committee hearing in July to work to “drive down the number of deaths.” In September, he announced t hat his department would distribute $42 million to improve safety along the line. In a statement to the Florida news organizations, Brightline officials blamed the deaths on suicides and the “reckless” behavior of people who put themselves in harm’s way.
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Brightline, T-Mobile and Lockheed Martin did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment. On its website, Lockheed notes that it complies with all applicable laws and regulations with regard to its political and public policy activities.
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Alfonso’s campaign has drawn donations from others in the heavily regulated railroad sector. They include Peter Bartek, founder of FTS Rail, which manufactures battery-powered railroad repair tools and sensors that detect rail breaks caused by extreme heat or cold. He gave $3,644 in November. Duffy appointed Bartek last July to serve on a DOT advisory committee.
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Bartek had never given to a candidate in the district before. In an interview, he said he read a news article about Alfonso’s campaign and decided to donate. “I like Secretary Duffy very much,” he said, “and I thought very simply, boy, if he’s anything like his father-in-law, it would be nice to support him as well.”
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He said in a text that he didn’t know Duffy personally and was not involved in Alfonso’s campaign or fundraising.
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In New York, construction on the Hudson Tunnel Project to improve commuter rail service came to a screeching halt in early February after the federal government cut off funds . A court intervened, ordering the money released, and work resumed. A bistate commission overseeing the project warned this month that it could face disruptions again in upcoming months if federal disbursements do not continue.
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In response to outreach from ProPublica, an executive at Venture Government Strategies, whose lobbyists for the tunnel project gave a combined $2,500 to Alfonso, said in an email the company had no comment.
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On his campaign website, Alfonso lists a dozen issues “that matter to us” — ranging from education and health care to immigration. He wants to “make farms and families strong,” “give Gen Z a voice” and work against access to abortion.
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Transportation issues are not among those priorities, but he still is getting support from General Motors, which regularly lobbies DOT on various issues, including fuel economy, vehicle safety and emissions standards, and other mandates. The giant car manufacturer also gave to Duffy when he was running for the congressional seat, and the transportation secretary has become a booster. (GM did not respond to ProPublica’s request for comment.)
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In mid-December, viewers of social media saw Duffy slide behind the wheel of a sleek, black, limited-edition Corvette, imbued with patriotic insignia to celebrate the nation’s upcoming 250th birthday.
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“Over 1,000 horsepower,” Duffy said in a promotional video , emphasizing the dynamic features of the $200,000 supercar. “We’re going to take this bad boy on a little test drive to the Army-Navy game.” Off he went.
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The video, uploaded to the social media platform X, highlighted a travel app the carmaker made in partnership with the Department of Transportation, while also showcasing Chevrolet’s automotive series dubbed Stars and Steel.
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The post received over 130,000 views: valuable advertisement for the storied carmaker, General Motors. A couple of weeks later, GM’s political action committee donated $1,000 to Alfonso.
\n
The post Transportation Lobbyists Have Donated Thousands to Sean Duffy’s Son-in-Law as He Runs for Congress appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"politics","author":"Megan O’Matz","publishDate":"2026-03-18T18:15:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DuffyAlfonso-Twitter-grey_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?w=527","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/sean-duffy-michael-alfonso-congress-transportation","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T00:01:14.705Z"},{"id":"ux9o74","archiveId":"dgu5q8","slug":"americans-are-losing-hiv-care-the-real-housewives-want-you-to-know-about-it","title":"Americans are losing HIV care. The Real Housewives want you to know about it.","excerpt":"WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thousands of low-income Americans with HIV are losing access to vital medications, as states grapple with a lack of federal dollars to support their state health budgets. The Real Housewives would like a word with Congress about it.","content":"
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thousands of low-income Americans with HIV are losing access to vital medications, as states grapple with a lack of federal dollars to support their state health budgets.
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The Real Housewives would like a word with Congress about it.
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Stars from the shows — including Atlanta’s Nene Leakes, Maryland local Candiace Dillard Bassett and New York’s Luann de Lesseps — took to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to advocate for HIV prevention and expanding access to care. Many Housewives are beloved by the LGBTQ+ community, a reputation that some of them actively encourage.
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The Housewives convening was organized by MISTR, a major online provider for PrEP, a daily HIV prevention pill. Several of the Housewives said they have family members and friends who are HIV-positive and emphasized that the epidemic disproportionately impacts Black women.
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“The science to end HIV already exists,” said Dillard Bassett, who worked in the White House during the Obama administration. “This is no longer a disease that can only be cured with money.”
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Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat and the country’s first openly gay senator, gave opening remarks at the event. HIV prevention and treatment is not a Republican or a Democrat issue, she said; “saving people from HIV is an American thing.”
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But, at the moment, both blue and red states are cutting back on services for HIV-positive Americans. Eighteen states plus Washington, D.C., have made cuts to their AIDS drug assistance programs, and two-thirds of those states are considering more, according to a recent report from KFF, a health policy research nonprofit. Five other states are considering such measures.
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AIDS drug assistance programs (ADAPs) get crucial HIV medications to low-income and uninsured Americans. The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program funds each state’s ADAP, which provides money for medications and helps people who are waiting for medicine. Federal funding for these programs allocated by Congress has stayed mostly the same since 2014, and now rising health care costs are driving states to make big cuts.
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Florida is the most extreme example. The state has lowered ADAP eligibility from 400 percent of the federal poverty level to 130 percent. The state says rising health care insurance premiums and a lack of additional Ryan White grant funding are to blame. Florida’s health department says it will cover costs for patients during a two-month transition period following ADAP cuts to allow more time for them to find services.
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“This is an extremely drastic change to their program,” said Lindsey Dawson, director of LGBTQ health policy at KFF. “There are blue states too that are having to reduce eligibility for their programs, but it just isn’t happening in such a dramatic way.”
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In Florida, over 10,000 people will lose access to HIV drugs, Dawson said. They may be able to turn to pharmaceutical companies, but it will be difficult for people to navigate, she said. Florida also plans to stop covering Biktarvy, the most widely prescribed antiretroviral medication nationally. That will impact even more people.
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Marysol Patton, one of the six original cast members in the first season of “The Real Housewives of Miami,” said Florida’s cuts have created uncertainty across the state.
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“When programs like ADAP are weakened, working-class people can’t access this treatment,” she said. As of 2025, Florida ranks third in the nation for HIV diagnoses.
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Patton and several other Housewives mingled and took selfies with reporters and congressional staff before the event. They glittered in gold platform heels, black and tan powersuits, and fur-lined wool dresses for the winter chill lingering in Washington. Erika Jayne of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” who flew in from Australia to make the event, Atlanta’s Phaedra Parks and New Jersey’s Melissa Gorga also spoke.
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Democrats Rep. April McClain Delaney of Maryland and Sen. Cory Booker from New Jersey also spoke at the event. The members of Congress looked considerably less glamorous than the Housewives.
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Pennsylvania, Kansas, Delaware and Rhode Island have taken the same step as Florida to reduce income eligibility, although the cuts are not as extreme. In Pennsylvania, roughly 1,500 people with HIV are expected to be impacted, according to the National Association of State and Territorial AIDS Directors . Hundreds of people in Kansas and Delaware will be affected.
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New Jersey is one of several states considering a waitlist for ADAP services. Waiting lists have not been used in over a decade and are widely viewed as a last resort, per KFF.
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Part of the problem is that federal funding for AIDS drug assistance programs has not kept up with inflation. But states say that the breaking point is the rising costs of medication, as well as the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies that have caused health care costs to soar .
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“Drugs have gotten more expensive, more people with HIV are relying on Ryan White, and the funding hasn’t kept pace with inflation,” Dawson said. “So state programs are really strapped, but that’s not a direct result of this administration’s policies.”
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Although the Trump administration did not mandate these cuts to HIV state programs, recent moves by the federal government have still frustrated experts and advocates. The development of a vaccine, which researchers believed was closer than ever to becoming a reality, is now dead after the administration ended the program. Medicaid cuts signed into law by President Donald Trump have also hurt HIV-positive Americans; about 4 in 10 Americans living with HIV rely on Medicaid.
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As health care costs go up, the safety net for Americans living with HIV is getting smaller. That harms the LGBTQ+ community, as well as Black women of all sexual orientations. New HIV diagnoses occur disproportionately among Black women, and in 2022, women accounted for 1 in 5 new diagnoses in the United States.
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At the event, Leakes said that her husband’s death in 2021 prompted an unexpected conversation with one of her girlfriends. Once she started dating again, her friend asked if she was on PrEP. She had never thought about it before. But everyone is HIV-possible, she told reporters.
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Shelley Washington, campus pastor at St. Peter United Church of Christ in Houston, Texas, who works to expand access to HIV treatment, said that many women are not aware that they should take precautions against the virus.
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“A lot of women, cishet women, say ‘PrEP is not for us, we’re not part of the LGBTQ+ community.’ That’s not the point. If you’re engaging in sexual activity, you should be aware,” Washington said.
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Washington leads PrEPHer, a program that equips Black, brown, and queer women with sexual health education and access to free HIV/STI self-testing kits. Many women are not getting tested because they have to ask their doctors for it, she said. That makes educating them about their risk level all the more important.
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“HIV today is highly treatable and manageable when people have consistent access to care,” said Dillard Bassett. “The challenge is making sure that everyone has access.”
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Orion Rummler","publishDate":"2026-03-18T17:54:59.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/housewives2.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/hiv-prevention-real-housewives-congress/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T18:01:16.911Z"},{"id":"c8yugw","archiveId":"52535u","slug":"in-her-own-words-dolores-huerta-on-surviving-abuse-speaking-out-at-96-and-honoring-the-movement-beyo","title":"In Her Own Words: Dolores Huerta on Surviving Abuse, Speaking Out at 96 and Honoring the Movement Beyond One Man","excerpt":"In the wake of newly reported sexual abuse allegations against labor leader Cesar Chavez, our hearts are with our long-time Ms. advisor, Feminist Majority Foundation (publisher of Ms. ) board member, friend, and feminist and labor icon Dolores Huerta.","content":"
In the wake of newly reported sexual abuse allegations against labor leader Cesar Chavez, our hearts are with our long-time Ms. advisor, Feminist Majority Foundation (publisher of Ms. ) board member, friend, and feminist and labor icon Dolores Huerta. The fact that she felt she had to bear this in silence speaks to the layers of harm that women who surfer sexual assault must bear.
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In the wake of going public for the first time, Huerta writes, \"I have never identified myself as a victim, but I now understand that I am a survivor—of violence, of sexual abuse, of domineering men who saw me, and other women, as property, or things to control.\"
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\"The knowledge that he hurt young girls sickens me. My heart aches for everyone who suffered alone and in silence for years. There are no words strong enough to condemn those deplorable actions that he did. Cesar’s actions do not reflect the values of our community and our movement.\"
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The post In Her Own Words: Dolores Huerta on Surviving Abuse, Speaking Out at 96 and Honoring the Movement Beyond One Man appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"safety","author":"Ms. Editors","publishDate":"2026-03-18T17:53:24.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-95800446-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/18/dolores-huerta-cesar-chavez/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T18:01:16.498Z"},{"id":"dtpz43","archiveId":"n5wrtg","slug":"hungary-bans-trans-rights-demonstration","title":"Hungary Bans Trans Rights Demonstration","excerpt":"Click to expand Image A transgender rights flag is held during a march after the Hungarian parliament passed a law that bans LGBT-related events, Budapest, Hungary, March 30, 2025. © 2026 Marton Monus/Reuters
The decision by the Budapest police to ban a demonstration to commemorat...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n A transgender rights flag is held during a march after the Hungarian parliament passed a law that bans LGBT-related events, Budapest, Hungary, March 30, 2025. \n © 2026 Marton Monus/Reuters\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>The decision by the Budapest police to ban a demonstration to commemorate the International Day of Trans Visibility, is not about a single protest, but is the latest step in a broader campaign in Hungary to restrict peaceful assembly and silence dissenting voices.</p><p>The decision relies on 2025 legislation that allows restrictions on events, including protests, associated with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Over the past year, Hungarian authorities have systematically restricted freedom of assembly following Parliament’s adoption of these measures, which ban LGBT-related events over vaguely defined concerns over “child protection.” This has enabled officials not only to prohibit marches but also to stigmatize those who organize or participate in them, including bringing criminal charges and issuing fines.</p><p>Hungary’s attempt to suppress visibility has been met with resistance. In June 2025, a record crowd defied a ban and marched for Budapest Pride, turning the event into a broader demonstration for democratic values. That moment underscored that restrictions on LGBT people’s rights are inseparable from wider attacks on the rule of law and fundamental freedoms.</p><p>In retaliation, the authorities have brought criminal charges for supporting LGBT rights against the Budapest mayor and a Pride organizer in Pécs. Those cases are currently suspended while Hungary’s Constitutional Court reviews the 2025 legislation, underscoring both the seriousness of the charges and the constitutional stakes.</p><p>Organizers of the trans rights demonstration are challenging the police ban. Whatever the outcome, it demonstrates that the selective denial of assembly rights based on the identity, message, or politics of participants is part of a broader chilling strategy.</p><p>Hungary’s authorities insist these measures are about protecting children. Yet they have not produced credible evidence of any negative impacts. Moreover, international human rights standards are clear: peaceful assembly cannot be restricted simply because a government disagrees with the content of a protest. When bans become routine and enforcement becomes punitive, the line between “regulation” and repression disappears.</p><p>The police should reverse the ban. What is at stake is not only the right of trans people and their allies to gather, but the broader principle that in a democracy, dissent has a right to be visible and protected.</p>","category":"activism","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-18T17:30:49.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603lgbt_hungary_trans.JPG?h=8c1344d8&itok=xh-GGVep","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/18/hungary-bans-trans-rights-demonstration","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T00:01:19.634Z"},{"id":"rzkfqn","archiveId":"2vjwk1","slug":"barcelona-through-a-black-womans-lens-with-the-samsung-galaxy-s26-ultra","title":"Barcelona Through A Black Woman’s Lens With The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra","excerpt":"There was a time when travel felt like a checklist—an urgency to see everything, do everything, document everything before the moment slipped away. But in Barcelona, I let that version […] The post Barcelona Through A Black Woman’s Lens With The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra appeared first on Essence .","content":"Shelby Stewart ·Updated March 18, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready…
There was a time when travel felt like a checklist—an urgency to see everything, do everything, document everything before the moment slipped away. But in Barcelona, I let that version of travel go. This time, I wasn’t chasing the city—I let it meet me where I was: open, curious, and committed to moving with ease.
I also arrived with a different kind of travel companion: the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, paired with the Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Buds—devices designed not to distract from the experience, but to support it. Built with Galaxy AI at the center , they promised something I didn’t realize I needed until I was moving through the city—less friction, fewer decisions, and a quieter kind of assistance that let me stay present while everything else stayed handled.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra high-end smartphone by Samsung is shown from the rear to highlight its advanced multi-lens camera system. It features cutting-edge imaging technology, optical zoom capabilities, and AI-powered photography enhancements. This emphasizes innovation in mobile photography, premium Android device engineering, and next-generation camera performance during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, on March 3, 2026. (Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Now, I know what you’re thinking—using AI to travel? But as the world continues to evolve, it’s important that we, especially within the Black community, stay aware of how these tools can work for us. Not as a replacement for real connection, but as something that enhances it. In this case, it created a kind of ease I hadn’t experienced before—helping me move through my itinerary without overthinking, and bridging communication gaps with locals through the phone’s built-in translator. That, and of course, the bits of broken Spanish I still remember from school.
It started, almost poetically, at Brisa Sin Prisa, where the name itself—breeze without hurry—felt like a quiet instruction. Plates of tapas moved across the table, glasses clinked, and conversation stretched without interruption. No one was watching the clock. For once, neither was I. There was no pressure to document every bite, just presence. And yet, when I did lift my Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra to capture a moment, its incredible display rendered colors and textures so vividly that the photos felt like they were part of the experience itself, not a pause from it.
Gaudí’s masterpiece in full color and detail—every arch, every stained glass panel, brought to life through the Ultra’s pro-grade camera.
By the next morning, I realized softness doesn’t mean doing nothing—it means moving without friction. At Park Güell, I wandered without a rigid plan, letting the curves of Gaudí’s imagination guide me instead of a tightly scheduled itinerary. Designed in the early 20th century, the hillside park is a masterclass in Catalan Modernism—bold, organic, and entirely its own—with flowing forms, intricate mosaics, and surreal structures that feel as though they’ve been pulled from a dream. At the entrance, whimsical gatehouses—reminiscent of something out of Hansel and Gretel—rise with sugar-like tiled roofs and storybook silhouettes, setting the tone for everything that follows. From above, the landscape of Barcelona stretched out in soft color and light, and this is where I captured some of my favorite images of the entire trip—the kind that don’t just show a place, but hold its feeling.
Wandering Gaudí’s fairytale park, capturing sweeping views of Barcelona and whimsical mosaics, all without stepping out of the moment.
It was also the first time I put the interpreter feature to use in listening mode, tuning into our guide’s Spanish as they spoke about the architecture and layered beauty of the city, with translations unfolding in real time. I didn’t have to interrupt, didn’t have to strain to understand—I could simply listen, absorb, and stay present. And somehow, I still made it everywhere I needed to be. The Galaxy’s quiet intelligence—those subtle Now Nudge reminders—kept the day flowing without making it feel structured. A quick glance at my Galaxy Watch gave me just enough information—timing, next moves, gentle prompts—without pulling me out of the moment or forcing me to reach for my phone. I wasn’t rushing, but I also wasn’t lost. There’s a difference, and it matters.
Narrow streets, ornate façades, and hidden architectural gems—discovering beauty around every corner, one photo at a time.
Everywhere I turned in Barcelona, the architecture commanded attention—the elegant façades of Eixample, the playful forms tucked into narrow streets, the way sunlight shifted over the city squares. It was nearly impossible not to stop, study, and capture the details. And yet, with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, those moments never felt like interruptions. The display and camera made it effortless to translate what I saw into photos that held both color and feeling, letting me witness and record the beauty without breaking my presence in it.
That ease carried into the afternoon, weaving through the narrow streets of El Born, where language could have easily created distance. Instead, it became another way to connect. What started as a light exchange with my Uber driver in Spanish turned into a full conversation—one that flowed naturally with a little help from the interpreter’s listening feature. Sometimes through my phone, other times through my Galaxy Buds, I didn’t have to pause conversations or second-guess my understanding. I could listen fully, respond naturally, and stay engaged in a way that felt effortless. The same ease followed me into restaurants where menus were entirely in Spanish—no guessing, no pointing and hoping for the best. Ordering, asking questions, sharing small exchanges—it all happened without friction, without stress. Confidence replaced hesitation, and suddenly the city felt even more accessible.
Every curve, every tile, every vibrant color—moments of genius that demanded a closer look, perfectly captured with the Ultra’s pro-grade camera.
That night, the energy shifted. At Spotify Camp Nou, softness gave way to something louder—collective joy, movement, the pulse of thousands of voices rising at once. It would have been easy to get caught between wanting to capture the moment and wanting to live in it. But I didn’t have to choose. The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra adjusted seamlessly to the environment—low light, constant motion, unpredictable bursts of excitement—capturing it all without requiring me to step outside of the experience. Even in the middle of the crowd, the Galaxy Buds created a kind of controlled clarity—rich, immersive sound that let me tune into the energy when I wanted it, and soften it when I didn’t.
And when I decided to leave the game early, the night didn’t feel like it was ending—it felt like it was opening up. I wandered the streets of Barcelona, moving with a quiet confidence that felt new. Even with my phone nearing its last bit of battery, I wasn’t anxious. I had already learned the rhythm of my device, leaned on the tools that supported me, and trusted the bits of Spanish I’d carried with me. Catching a taxi back to the hotel felt less like a challenge and more like a continuation of the experience—one where I realized I didn’t need to over-prepare to feel secure. I just needed to be present, aware, and open.
By the third day, I had settled into a rhythm I didn’t want to break. At W Barcelona, during a sound immersion experience, I leaned all the way into stillness. Paired with the Galaxy Buds, the outside world softened into the background, replaced by layered, intentional sound. It wasn’t just about blocking out noise—it was about creating space. Space to breathe deeper. Space to think more clearly. Space to simply be. Even my body felt more in sync—my Galaxy Watch quietly tracking movement, rest, and energy in a way that made me more aware, not more anxious. A soft nudge to pause, to hydrate, to take it all in.
Lunch by the water at Gallito stretched into the kind of afternoon that feels suspended in time—sunlight dancing on the surface, plates arriving slowly, no urgency to leave. And by the time dinner unfolded at Arcano, tucked inside stone walls and candlelight, I realized something had shifted. I hadn’t once felt overwhelmed. Not by logistics, not by language, not by the pressure to make the most of every second.
For so long, luxury has been framed as access—where you go, what you spend, how much you can fit into a single trip. But somewhere between the first sip of wine and the last walk back to the hotel, I understood that real luxury looks different. It’s ease. It’s moving through a new city without anxiety. It’s having the tools—like Galaxy AI, the Galaxy Watch, and Galaxy Buds—that quietly remove friction instead of adding to it. It’s capturing moments without interrupting them, staying present without feeling unprepared.
Barcelona gave me the backdrop—beauty, culture, a rhythm all its own. The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and its ecosystem made it easier to meet it fully. And in that space—where everything felt just a little more fluid, a little more intentional—I found what the soft life actually looks like in real time.
Not less doing. Just better feeling.
The post Barcelona Through A Black Woman’s Lens With The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Shelby Stewart","publishDate":"2026-03-18T16:56:29.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/articles/samsung-galaxy-s26-ultra-barcelona-diary/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T00:01:20.291Z"},{"id":"ka7qvh","archiveId":"i7d1zp","slug":"queen-latifah8217s-beauty-038-style-evolution","title":"Queen Latifah’s Beauty & Style Evolution","excerpt":"At 56, Queen Latifah represents decades of Black feminist magic. Since the late ‘80s, the artist has been the voice of women’s empowerment. Her Grammy-winning single “U.N.I.T.Y.” raised awareness about […] The post Queen Latifah’s Beauty & Style Evolution appeared first on Essence .","content":"
Updated March 18, 2026 The post Queen Latifah’s Beauty & Style Evolution appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-18T16:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/Queen-Latifah-HERO-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/queen-latifah-beauty-style-evolution/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T18:01:22.683Z"},{"id":"qc29kl","archiveId":"5rwj4n","slug":"why-vanessa-williams-is-our-forever-beauty-queen","title":"Why Vanessa Williams Is Our Forever Beauty Queen","excerpt":"Not many can claim they’ve made beauty history. But, Vanessa Williams can. In 1984, she became the first Black woman to win Miss America. Then, at just 21 years old, […] The post Why Vanessa Williams Is Our Forever Beauty Queen appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 18, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Not many can claim they’ve made beauty history. But, Vanessa Williams can. In 1984, she became the first Black woman to win Miss America. Then, at just 21 years old, the Queen later resigned due to media controversy . Specifically, photos of her were non-consensually published in Penthouse magazine. While her public fall from grace was devastating at the time, she bounced back 10-fold. Williams reclaimed her crown with a successful career as a singer and actress, starring in shows like Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives. She event went on to star on Broadway as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada musical. In short, she’s never had to prove to us why she’s forever our beauty queen.
Her original claim to fame was found in her glamorous pageantry portraits. In one portrait, for example, she wore a coifed beehive, red lip, and dark eye makeup, which accentuated her starry eyes. That same year, she accepted her historic Miss America crown in a curled bob cut. She held the scepter between her pink-painted fingertips. By the ‘90s, she opted for straight hair decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-458868542-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Why Vanessa Williams Is Our Forever Beauty Queen\" width=\"400\" height=\"582\" />LOS ANGELES – 1984:Actress Vanessa Williams poses for a portrait in 1984 in Los Angeles, California.(Photo by Harry Langdon/Getty Images)beauty evolution Vanessa Williams
The post Why Vanessa Williams Is Our Forever Beauty Queen appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-18T15:49:22.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/why-vanessa-williams-is-our-forever-beauty-queen/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T00:01:20.291Z"},{"id":"hgwayd","archiveId":"1bdlat","slug":"wnba-wnbpa-reach-verbal-agreement-on-new-cba-ahead-of-30th-season","title":"WNBA, WNBPA Reach Verbal Agreement On New CBA Ahead Of 30th Season","excerpt":"Following more than a year of negotiations, the WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association have reached a verbal agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement, bringing an end […] The post WNBA, WNBPA Reach Verbal Agreement On New CBA Ahead Of 30th Season appeared first on Ess...","content":"
By
Okla Jones ·
Updated March 18, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Following more than a year of negotiations, the WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association have reached a verbal agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement, bringing an end to a prolonged and, at times, tense process. The agreement was reached early Wednesday morning, just 51 days before the league is set to begin its 30th season.
Talks between the two sides intensified over the past week in New York, where league and union representatives logged more than 100 hours in meetings at The Langham hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Discussions stretched late into the night on multiple occasions before both sides finalized terms shortly after 2 AM ET. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert and WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson were joined by members of the union’s executive committee, including president Nneka Ogwumike and vice presidents Breanna Stewart and Alysha Clark, in confirming the agreement.
While full details have not yet been released, both sides described the deal as a significant step forward for the league. Stewart called the agreement “ rel=\"tag\">Nneka Ogwumike Sports wnba wnbpa women’s basketball
The post WNBA, WNBPA Reach Verbal Agreement On New CBA Ahead Of 30th Season appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-03-18T14:48:59.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/wnba-wnbpa-reach-verbal-agreement-on-new-cba/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T18:01:22.683Z"},{"id":"jq46nq","archiveId":"loyxhm","slug":"ice-has-been-deporting-pregnant-and-postpartum-immigrants-now-we-know-how-many","title":"ICE has been deporting pregnant and postpartum immigrants. Now we know how many.","excerpt":"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained and deported hundreds of pregnant, postpartum and nursing immigrants since the start of the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed for the first time Wednesday.","content":"
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained and deported hundreds of pregnant, postpartum and nursing immigrants since the start of the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed for the first time Wednesday. Federal policy says that such individuals should only be detained in limited circumstances.
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Between January 1, 2025, and February 16, 2026, 363 pregnant, postpartum and nursing immigrants were deported, DHS reported in response to questions submitted last fall by Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat. Sixteen miscarriages were recorded during that time period. In total, 498 pregnant, postpartum and nursing people were reported as “booked out” of ICE detention in that timespan, meaning that they were detained and then left ICE facilities.
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As of February 16, 121 people who were actively detained were pregnant, postpartum or nursing, according to DHS. Of those, nine were in their third trimester of pregnancy.
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These numbers are the most detailed glimpse the Trump administration has provided into how its sweeping immigration crackdown has affected pregnant, postpartum and nursing people in particular. Dating back to at least fall 2019, DHS reported this information twice a year to Congress. Those reports stopped in 2025.
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Previous reports show that ICE reportedly booked 347 pregnant, postpartum or nursing people in 2023 and 375 in 2022; most of those people were released or paroled, not deported.
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Detention facilities have come under scrutiny from lawyers, medical professionals and immigrant rights activists, who say that many provide inadequate health care — particularly for pregnant, postpartum and nursing people, who are at heightened medical risk.
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“We must ensure all pregnant women in custody are treated humanely and with respect,” Murray said in a statement. “I will continue to fight against the gross mistreatment of pregnant women in immigration detention.”
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DHS has said that pregnant people make up a tiny minority of people detained — .18 percent of all detainees as of February 16 — and that they receive excellent health care while in ICE facilities.
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“In the limited circumstances in which detention is necessary and appropriate, ICE monitors aliens known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing detained in ICE custody for general health and well-being, including regular custody and medical reevaluation, to ensure appropriate pre- and/or post-natal and other medical and mental health care,” the DHS report says.
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Multiple nursing women have told The 19th that they were not provided breastpumps when detained. One, Nayra Guzmán , said she was not given a bed to sleep on even as she recovered from a Cesarean section. Pregnant women and their attorneys have said they received limited prenatal care while in detention — which is vital for monitoring complications and treating them early — or even follow-up for complications. One, Amanda Isabel Fanego Cardoso, said she was diagnosed with preeclampsia and gestational diabetes after being released. Another, Cecil Elvir-Quinonez, said that though she began bleeding while in detention, she was not taken to see a doctor.
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Already, DHS has drawn scrutiny regarding the health care detained people receive. ICE reported 31 detainee deaths last year — more than over the entire Biden administration, and the highest number in more than 20 years. So far this year, at least 11 detainees have died. None of these people were pregnant, postpartum or nursing.
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Most people died after experiencing medical complications, including one man whose family attributed his death to an infection he contracted after developing an untreated toothache.
","category":"health","author":"Shefali Luthra","publishDate":"2026-03-18T14:44:15.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/ICE_detention_pregnant.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/ice-deporting-pregnant-postpartum-immigrants-data/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T18:01:16.911Z"},{"id":"r3ozv0","archiveId":"4octrq","slug":"i-didnt-think-black-women-did-ayahuascauntil-i-tried-it","title":"I Didn’t Think Black Women Did Ayahuasca—Until I Tried It","excerpt":"This is the most non-Black thing I’ve ever done. I said this to myself in the restroom as I experienced one of many purges during my 4-day ayahuasca ceremony. I […] The post I Didn’t Think Black Women Did Ayahuasca—Until I Tried It appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Shanetta McDonald ·
The post I Didn’t Think Black Women Did Ayahuasca—Until I Tried It appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Victoria Uwumarogie","publishDate":"2026-03-18T14:38:04.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/ayahuasca-retreat/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T18:01:22.683Z"},{"id":"misqpx","archiveId":"px7gbh","slug":"black-women-deserve-answers-about-the-chemicals-in-braiding-hair-opinion","title":"Black Women Deserve Answers About the Chemicals in Braiding Hair: Opinion","excerpt":"A new report found high lead levels in both synthetic and human braiding hair. It’s unclear how toxic these products are—but it shouldn’t be so hard to get basic information about our health. The post Black Women Deserve Answers About the Chemicals in Braiding Hair: Opinion appeared first on Rewire ...","content":"
To get AngryBlackLady Chronicles straight to your inbox, sign up for Imani’s bimonthly newsletter here .
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Right now I’m wearing braiding hair that may be exposing me to lead.
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According to a new analysis from Consumer Reports , the braiding hair currently installed on my head—Ywigs Water Wave Bulk human hair—contained the highest lead levels of any braiding hair they tested.
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That doesn’t mean the braiding hair on my head is actively poisoning me. But it does raise some questions: How did potentially dangerous products like this make it onto store shelves in the first place? And why are millions of Black women buying hair products that are not being regulated by the Food and Drug Administration?
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If the lead and other chemicals detected in braiding hair pose a health risk, we deserve to know. And if it doesn’t, we deserve clear answers about that too.
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Black women shouldn’t have to figure it out ourselves while navigating beauty standards that have spent generations telling us the way our hair grows out of our heads needs to be changed to fit in.
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That’s certainly why I begged my mother for a relaxer for years.
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She finally relented when I was 12. I was ecstatic.
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Relaxers promise straight hair. Straight hair meant fewer questions, fewer stares, and fewer moments where your hair suddenly becomes the most interesting thing about you.
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“Can I touch it?”
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“Your hair is so cool.”
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White folks become amateur anthropologists, grasping at your hair, and studying you the way people once studied Black bodies in human zoos .
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As comedian Paul Mooney put it in the documentary Good Hair , “If your hair is relaxed, they are relaxed. If your hair is nappy, they are not happy.”
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So for the next decade, I did what a lot of Black girls do: I relaxed my hair. It burned like hell which should have been a sign that I probably shouldn’t be using it. (It turns out that “ creamy crack ” is linked to uterine cancer , according to a 2022 study .)
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In 1996, I chopped my hair off and went natural. It wasn’t really a political statement. I also wasn’t concerned about cancer at the time. My decision was rooted in sheer frustration: I was living in Washington, D.C., I had started my first corporate job as a paralegal, and as any Black woman will tell you, relaxers and humid air do not mix.
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At the time, my options for hair styles were extremely limited.
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There was a quiet understanding among Black women professionals: If you wanted to be taken seriously, you relaxed your hair, wore wigs, or kept it cropped into the only natural style widely tolerated in professional environments—the teeny-weeny ’fro. (That’s what I opted for.)
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It wasn’t paranoia that drove us to relaxers and wigs and away from natural hair styles.
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It was societal expectations. In 2007, for example, a Glamour magazine editor told lawyers at a Manhattan law firm during a presentation to “ just say no to the ’fro ,” and said dreadlocks are “truly dreadful.”
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Her remarks set off a firestorm.
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In response to decades of discrimination like this, state lawmakers began passing bills that prohibit discrimination based on hair texture and protective styles like braids, locs, and twists. In 2019, California became the first state to pass a Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act, or CROWN Act , and since then, more than two dozen states have adopted similar laws.
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But passing a law doesn’t magically end the policing of Black hair.
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Just ask Darryl George , a Texas high school student who spent months in in-school suspension because his locs violated his school district’s grooming policy—even after Texas enacted its own CROWN Act in 2023. Courts ultimately allowed the school district to enforce its rule limiting the length of boys’ hair.
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This systemic disdain for Black hair also explains why so many Black women wear braids.
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If natural hair can still be treated as unprofessional—or simply “too much”—braids and extensions become the workaround. They allow natural hair to rest while producing a look white people are more comfortable with.
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Which brings us back to the braiding hair, that the FDA has thus far shown no interest in regulating .
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In 2025, Consumer Reports tested synthetic braiding hair and found potentially harmful chemicals. After many people began turning to supposedly safer alternatives, like human and plant-based hair made from banana fibers. Consumer Reports followed up in 2026 by testing those products as well—analyzing 30 braiding hair products from 29 brands, including human hair and plant-based options.
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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Lead was detected in 29 of the 30 products tested, and every product contained volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which can irritate the eyes, nose, and throat.
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Those findings quickly spread across TikTok and other social media sites—and so did skepticism about how dangerous these products actually are.
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In a YouTube video responding to the magazine’s 2025 report on synthetic hair, Dr. Michelle Wong, an Australian scientist with a doctorate in chemistry, questioned how alarming the results actually are. Her critique wasn’t that the lead wasn’t present. It was that the levels Consumer Reports flagged as concerning were based on an ingestion model that doesn’t reflect how braiding hair is actually used.
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For most adults wearing braids, Wong argued, the amount of hair someone would have to eat to reach concerning levels would be extremely high—like a yarn ball’s worth of hair every day.
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Consumer Reports itself notes that ingestion is only one possible pathway for exposure. Braiding hair sits against the scalp and skin for weeks at a time, and stylists handle it constantly while installing it. Scientists say it’s difficult to determine how much contamination might be absorbed through skin contact or inhaled when hair is heated or manipulated.
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So it’s unclear how harmful braiding hair is.
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Maybe the chemicals detected in braiding hair are harmless. Maybe they’re not.
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But millions of Black women are wearing these products on our heads every day and the FDA is supposed to be the agency that answers questions like that.
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And so far, it hasn’t.
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Can’t get enough AngryBlackLady? In her monthly podcast, B*tch, Listen , Imani Gandy candidly discusses race, culture, and reproductive justice, with enough snark to keep the toughest conversations cool. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever else you get your podcasts.
The post Black Women Deserve Answers About the Chemicals in Braiding Hair: Opinion appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-18T13:00:04.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Chemicals-in-Braiding-Hair-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/18/black-women-deserve-answers-about-the-chemicals-in-braiding-hair-opinion/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T18:01:16.124Z"},{"id":"lhzg5g","archiveId":"v4zou2","slug":"scotustoday-for-wednesday-march-18","title":"SCOTUStoday for Wednesday, March 18","excerpt":"Should the White House look more like the Supreme Court Building? The chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts, Rodney Mims Cook, Jr., has suggested swapping the White House’s “graceful […] The post SCOTUStoday for Wednesday, March 18 appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"
Should the White House look more like the Supreme Court Building? The chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts, Rodney Mims Cook, Jr., has suggested swapping the White House’s “graceful Ionic columns” for “more ornate” Corinthian columns, the style of columns used for the Supreme Court, according to The Washington Post . “Corinthian is the highest order” of column, Cook said.
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\n At the Court \n \n
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The court has indicated that it may announce opinions on Friday at 10 a.m. EDT. We will be live blogging that morning beginning at 9:30.
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Also on Friday, the justices will meet in a private conference to discuss cases and vote on petitions for review . Orders from that conference are expected on Monday at 9:30 a.m. EDT.
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The court will next hear arguments on Monday, the first day of its March sitting .
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\n Morning Reads \n \n
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\n Lawrence Hurley, NBC News
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During an appearance on Tuesday at Rice University in Houston, Chief Justice John Roberts spoke about criticism of the court and of individual judges and justices. Without naming President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticized the Supreme Court in recent weeks, Roberts explained “that critiques of the substance of Supreme Court rulings are part of the job but that some more pointed comments have gone too far,” according to NBC News . “The problem sometimes is that the criticism can move from a focus on legal analysis to personalities. And you see from all over, I mean, not just any one political perspective on it, that it’s more directed in a personal way, and that, frankly, can be actually quite dangerous,” Roberts said.
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\n Danae King, Columbus Dispatch \n \n \n \n
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Springfield, Ohio, was thrust into the national spotlight during the 2024 presidential election when then-candidate Donald Trump warned about the city’s Haitian immigrants. Now, a group of residents has filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to protect those Haitian immigrants as the justices consider the Trump administration’s effort to remove their protected immigration status, according to the Columbus Dispatch . “The amicus brief says millions of dollars in tax revenue are at stake if Haitians are made to leave Springfield,” as well as community diversity and economic growth.
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\n Nate Raymond, Reuters \n \n \n \n
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On Monday, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy blocked Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s effort to change U.S. vaccine rules. It was Murphy’s latest ruling against the Trump administration, which has also been before him in immigration, funding, and energy policy cases, according to Reuters . “Cases with national significance have been piling up on the dockets of Massachusetts-based judges like Murphy, as Trump opponents strategically funnel litigation into the federal court in Boston now dominated by the judicial appointees of Democratic presidents.” Last year, the Supreme Court lifted Murphy’s injunction in an immigration case, “clearing the way for the deportation of several men to South Sudan.”
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\n Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector
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On Friday, the Alabama Supreme Court “ruled that state law enforcement may arrest people who do not provide identification if they are not satisfied with the answers they provide about their identities,” according to the Alabama Reflector . “The crux of the case is a person’s Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution allows law enforcement to stop and detain someone to investigate” if the person is suspected of a crime, but that these stops, known as Terry stops, “must be temporary, not last ‘longer than necessary’ and be done in the least intrusive way.” According to the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling, “the suspect bears the burden to completely identify himself or herself during a valid Terry stop.”
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\n BrieAnna J. Frank, USA Today
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On Monday, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks “blocked several Arkansas school districts from implementing a state law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments,” holding that “[t]he displays would violate students’ and parents’ First Amendment rights,” according to USA Today . In his ruling , Brooks quoted “a landmark 1962 U.S. Supreme Court opinion over prayer in public schools,” Engel v. Vitale
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\n Michael A. Fragoso, National Review
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In a column for the National Review , Michael A. Fragoso reflected on the Judicial Conference’s recent decision to create an office that “coordinate[s] criminal defense strategy at the Supreme Court,” explaining why he believes “there are a number of problems with this.” Among other potential issues, it may involve using funding without statutory authorization and that was approved for a different purpose. “Republican appropriators should proceed with caution,” Fragoso wrote.
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\n On Site \n
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\n From the SCOTUSblog Team \n
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\n Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not give President Donald Trump the authority to impose sweeping tariffs. Although the decision was a landmark one, it left a variety of questions open – some of which Amy explored in her latest analysis.
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\n From the SCOTUSblog Team \n
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\n For SCOTUSblog’s series on different supreme courts around the world, Zachary Shemtob spoke with Adam Dodek, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Ottawa, about the Supreme Court of Canada.
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\n Contributor Corner \n
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\n In his Empirical SCOTUS column, Adam Feldman analyzed the authorities that advocates turn to in their Supreme Court briefs in an effort to determine which authorities are cited the most often and what that might tell us about how Supreme Court advocacy works today.
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\n Advisory Opinions \n
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\n Sarah Isgur and David French dive into two opinions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit: one involving anti-discrimination law in Washington and another related to a first-grade girl being punished for giving her classmate a drawing inspired by what her teacher read in class.
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On Oct. 13, 2021, Davenport Police Officer Dustin Mooty approached the home of Bobby Jo Klum with a plan to address an outstanding warrant for his arrest. When Klum spotted Mooty, however, Klum fled on foot, prompting a police pursuit and shooting that are now the subject of a petition for review .
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As Mooty pursued Klum while waiting for back-up, he realized that Klum was carrying a gun and had it pointed at his own head. Mooty “commanded Klum to get on the ground ,” but Klum continued to walk through the neighborhood “while continuing to hold the gun to his head.” He did not stop after several other officers reached the scene and ordered Klum to remain still and drop the weapon. He still did not stop after he was hit with rubber bullets. Several neighborhood residents watched from their yards and sidewalks, ignoring the officers’ instructions to go inside.
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Over 10 minutes after Klum fled from Mooty, Officer Mason Roth shot him, and he fell to the ground. Klum later died from the gunshot wound.
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In response to Klum’s death, his wife and mother sued Roth and the city. Among other things, they alleged that Roth’s use of deadly force violated Klum’s Fourth Amendment right against “unreasonable seizure.”
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A federal court in Iowa and then the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit sided with Roth and the city. They held that Roth’s behavior was reasonable and that, as a result, he was entitled to qualified immunity and that the city was not liable for Klum’s death. One key factor weighing in Roth’s favor, according to the 8th Circuit , was that Klum, still holding a gun to his head, was moving in the general direction of bystanders when Roth shot him.
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Before the Supreme Court, Klum’s wife (Nicole Klum) and mother (Wanda Albright) raise Second and Fourth Amendment questions. Specifically, in their petition for review , they contend that the lower courts ignored Klum’s right to openly carry a weapon in accordance with the Second Amendment, and that their Fourth Amendment analysis is out of step with the decisions of other courts of appeals. “[T]he Eighth Circuit now stands alone as the only circuit to hold that the mere possession of a firearm, without any menacing use or threat, may justify the use of deadly force,” the petition said.
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In their brief in opposition , the City of Davenport and Roth contend that it is too late in the legal proceedings for Klum and Albright to raise their Second Amendment concerns. They “never argued at the district court level that the Second Amendment or Iowa law permitting the open carry of firearms prohibited Officer Roth’s use of deadly force,” Roth and the city wrote. They also disputed the petition’s description of the pursuit, contending that it downplays the significance of Klum’s failure to heed multiple orders to stop moving and the presence of bystanders. Klum and Albright “frame this case as one involving a law enforcement officer who shot and killed an individual merely for holding a gun to his own head. Nothing could be further from the truth,” the brief said.
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In their reply , Klum and Albright contended that they remain free to advance Second Amendment arguments to support their Fourth Amendment claim. They emphasized that the case “raises significant questions regarding the constitutional protections afforded to gun owners and the limits on law enforcement’s use of deadly force.”
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The justices are scheduled to consider Klum v. City of Davenport, Iowa , at their private conference on Friday.
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JUSTICE SCALIA: “What are – what are you quoting from? I’m –”
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JUSTICE BREYER: “I’m quoting from regulations which are 54 U.S.C. – I don’t know. I’ll – I’ll have to show you later, because I’m quoting –”
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(Laughter.)
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JUSTICE BREYER: “We’re going to get into numbers, and I – I just thought this case is too complicated to ask anything, but you’ve tempted me.”
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— Sturgeon v. Frost
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The post SCOTUStoday for Wednesday, March 18 appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Kelsey Dallas","publishDate":"2026-03-18T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://i0.wp.com/www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/GettyImages-2209055942.jpg?w=500&ssl=1","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/scotustoday-for-wednesday-march-18/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T18:01:24.740Z"},{"id":"1i4bky","archiveId":"vpqxb2","slug":"teyana-taylor-named-chief-curator-of-essence-festival-of-culture-2026","title":"Teyana Taylor Named Chief Curator Of ESSENCE Festival Of Culture 2026","excerpt":"ESSENCE Festival of Culture® presented by Coca-Cola® has officially tapped Teyana Taylor and her creative collective, The Aunties, as Chief Curator for its 2026 festival, scheduled for July 3–5 in […] The post Teyana Taylor Named Chief Curator Of ESSENCE Festival Of Culture 2026 appeared first on Es...","content":"
By
Shelby Stewart ·
Updated March 17, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
ESSENCE Festival of Culture® presented by Coca-Cola® has officially tapped Teyana Taylor and her creative collective, The Aunties , as Chief Curator for its 2026 festival, scheduled for July 3–5 in New Orleans. This newly minted role positions Taylor to shape the festival’s programming with her distinctive approach rooted in Black culture, feminine power, and intentional storytelling.
An Oscar- and GRAMMY-nominated artist, Golden Globe winner, and ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood honoree , Taylor is no stranger to curating experiences that celebrate Black excellence. Through The Aunties, founded in 2017, she has built a reputation for bold, genre-defying work that honors artists’ visions while elevating their creative stories—a philosophy she now brings to the festival’s stages, spaces, and interactive experiences.
@essence It’s time for another round of our favorite game, Auntie Trivia!The Aunties took over the city of New Orleans during the ESSENCE Festival of Culture, and of course, we had to put their knowledge of Gen Z celebrities to the test.ESSIES, how many did you guess correctly?
♬ original sound – essence For decades, the festival has welcomed attendees of all ages, but it has affectionately been known as the “Auntie Festival”—a cultural gathering where Black women are centered, celebrated, and seen across generations. The alignment feels especially fitting: Taylor and her creative collective now step in as the festival’s curatorial voice, bringing that same spirit of care, vision, and cultural leadership to every stage, conversation, and activation.
“ESSENCE has always been more than a festival, it is a reunion,” Taylor said. “It is the place where Black women see themselves reflected at full scale: in their joy, in their genius, and in their magic. I don’t take this role lightly, I’m a true Auntie! The one in your corner, cheering you on, telling you the truth with love, and making sure every room you walk into knows you belong there. That’s what I’m bringing to this programming.”
As Chief Curator, Taylor and The Aunties will collaborate directly with ESSENCE’s programming, talent, and community teams to design moments that resonate across the festival—from mainstage performances to intimate conversations and community activations. Their work will shape not only what audiences see on stage, but how the festival feels, ensuring each touchpoint carries both cultural integrity and creative ambition.
The 2026 festival recently announced its first wave of Evening Concert Series performers, featuring Cardi B, Patti LaBelle, Kehlani, Latto, and the iconic duo Brandy & Monica—artists who, like Taylor, continue to define their own standards while shaping the sound and spirit of the culture.
“Teyana represents the spirit that ESSENCE was built to celebrate and amplify,” said Kirk McDonald, CEO of Sundial Media & Technology Group. “She carries the lived experience of our community, the creative vision to shape culture, and the genuine love for Black women that has always been at the heart of everything we do. Having Teyana as our Chief Curator for 2026 is a statement about who we are and what we believe programming can be when it is truly created by and for the people it is meant to serve. We are honored to welcome her home.”
Additional programming details, curator announcements, and daytime experience reveals will roll out in the weeks ahead.
Festivalgoers are encouraged to secure accommodations early and plan their weekend through the E360 app , where personalized itineraries, exclusive offers, and real-time updates bring the full ESSENCE Festival of Culture® experience to life. Tickets for the 2026 Evening Concert Series are on sale now, with updates available via @ESSENCEFest on X , Facebook , and Instagram .
The post Teyana Taylor Named Chief Curator Of ESSENCE Festival Of Culture 2026 appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Shelby Stewart","publishDate":"2026-03-18T12:50:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/festival/teyana-taylor-essence-festival-2026-chief-curator/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T18:01:22.683Z"},{"id":"y4hhrx","archiveId":"rxsihx","slug":"widows-are-waiting-months-for-the-benefits-meant-to-help-them-after-loss","title":"Widows are waiting months for the benefits meant to help them after loss","excerpt":"Kathy Quitno-Bolt was still numb when she started calling Social Security days after her husband’s sudden death in July. Steve, her partner of 25 years and husband of 13, died four days after being diagnosed with lung cancer — just enough time for their daughter to arrive and say goodbye.","content":"
Kathy Quitno-Bolt was still numb when she started calling Social Security days after her husband’s sudden death in July. Steve, her partner of 25 years and husband of 13, died four days after being diagnosed with lung cancer — just enough time for their daughter to arrive and say goodbye.
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When she finally got through to someone, they told her they wouldn’t have an appointment to begin her application for survivor benefits until October.
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Her head started spinning. Did she have enough saved to make it through then?
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Survivor benefits could have stabilized Quitno-Bolt’s life when it felt like everything she knew was falling apart. But like many people across the country, she was facing significant delays at the Social Security Administration (SSA).
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The agency hemorrhaged jobs in 2025, creating what advocates have described as a crisis of customer service. Since, it’s been taking weeks or months before some people can even get an appointment to receive their benefits, according to accounts by numerous advocates, attorneys and experts.
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Among those facing the longest delays are people claiming survivor benefits after the loss of a spouse and those applying on behalf of children who lost a parent. These groups are entitled to monthly payments that vary depending on the earnings of the worker who died and the age of the surviving spouse. There’s no online application for survivor benefits; they are at the mercy of the phones and the appointment calendar, which in the past year has become a logistical nightmare that has a disproportionate impact on women and children.
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People with disabilities, too, have reported extensive delays to access Social Security disability payments because those applications typically require more interaction with agency staff.
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After her first appointment in October, Quitno-Bolt submitted her documents, including her husband’s death certificate and their marriage license, to her local office thinking that was the end. But she heard nothing back for weeks. In November, she found out SSA had denied her benefits, saying she didn’t turn in her documents even though she had already received them back from the agency.
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It’s been a mess, and I can’t even think anymore because I’m so worried about everything.”
Kathy Quitno-Bolt \n\n\n\n
For the past four months now, she’s called the agency almost weekly trying to sort through what went wrong. Typically, she waits on hold for 70 to 90 minutes. At one point, she was told her application was closed without a denial or approval. More recently, she was told her second application was being processed. She’s still in limbo.
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“It’s been a mess, and I can’t even think anymore because I’m so worried about everything,” said Quitno-Bolt, 57, who is disabled and can’t work. Her husband, a factory worker, was the breadwinner. A GoFundMe set up by her daughter helped her scrape by, but she said the last of her savings will run out this month.
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“I was trying to stay busy and not think about the money, but you can’t do that, especially when you know that you deserve it, you know that it’s there,” she said.
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Women with one or more children make up 92 percent of those seeking young survivors benefits. About 95 percent of those seeking “aged widows benefits,” for those over the age of 60, are also women. Because women tend to live longer and face pay disparities, they are more likely to rely on their spouse’s Social Security benefits.
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An estimated 1.3 million children receive survivor benefits, and 1 in 10 children live in families that rely on Social Security payments to pay for bills, rent, food and other needs. When there are delays in timely benefits, children are among the ones who feel it the most.
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Funeral director Heather Hill, a widow herself, has been counseling families through the process of obtaining survivor benefits since she lost her husband in 2014. For the families Hill works with, it can now take up to two months instead of a couple weeks before an appointment is available, which can be “devastating for a widow,” she said. When her husband died suddenly, her children were six, seven and nine. The $4,000 check they received monthly from Social Security when her kids were small sustained the family.
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“If you aren’t the breadwinner, you don’t know how you’re going to feed your family, you don’t know how you’re going to make the rent or mortgage payment. You don’t even know how much you’re going to get,” Hill said. “You’re left with so much uncertainty, it exacerbates the grief you have.”
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Connie Becker, who lost her husband, Van, on January 2, told The 19th she had to navigate various dropped calls until finally, after waiting seven hours for a call back, she spoke to someone who scheduled an appointment for the end of February.
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It feels like the system forgets that grief doesn’t pause the bills.”
Connie Becker \n\n\n\n
“My knees nearly gave way. It felt like the floor might open up and swallow me whole,” she wrote on Facebook , where she’s been chronicling her grief journey, at the time. “Nothing can happen until the interview takes place and everything is processed. Only after that will anything begin to move forward.”
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At her appointment, she was told she likely won’t start receiving her payments until April or May.
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“How do people survive this?” she wrote. “How do widows live through months like this when every dime has already been spent caring for the love of their life as their health declined?
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“It feels like the system forgets that grief doesn’t pause the bills.”
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A year ago, as a part of Elon Musks’ so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce, the agency made its largest-ever personnel cuts: 7,200 positions were eliminated, many of them frontline customer service workers who helped connect people to their benefits. Another 1,500 positions have been cut this fiscal year so far. SSA was already at a 50-year staffing low when 2025 began, but those cuts were the largest-ever in the agency’s history. Its workforce is down nearly 15 percent from 2024.
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The agency has said the cuts to its “bloated” workforce would allow it to “prioritize customer service.”
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But the cuts hit field offices in every state. At least 49 individual field offices have lost a quarter of their staff or more.
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John Whitelaw, the advocacy director for Delaware Community Legal Aid Society who has been counseling clients through the process, called the current situation “a disaster.”
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“I’ve been doing this 38 years,” Whitelaw said. “It is the worst it has been since I started.”
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If people don’t have an advocate to support them or some other aid, they often quit the process entirely. Less than half of children overall and even fewer children of color with a dead parent or guardian even receive survivor benefits they are entitled to because they don’t apply or finish the process. All of his clients depend on their Social Security benefit just to meet basic needs, Whitelaw said. Any delay puts them in a bind of having to choose: “Which essential do you go without?” he said.
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In the past year, Social Security has been making changes to try to address the staffing shortfall and improve call wait times. At least 2,000 existing workers have been reassigned to answer the phones, backfill positions in field offices and handle disability claims.
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I’ve been doing this 38 years. It is the worst it has been since I started.”
John Whitelaw \n\n\n\n
A December 2025 audit from the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General found that the average time callers actively wait on hold dropped to 7 minutes in September 2025, statistics the agency has touted. What’s really happened is that callers now have the option to accept a callback instead of waiting on hold after they’re told their anticipated hold time. When Social Security calculates the average wait time, it records every person who elected to have a callback as having zero wait time, which lowered the average to 7 minutes. Those who declined the callback and sat on hold were waiting, on average, 83 minutes in March, when the job cuts began. By September, after workers were reassigned to the phones, the average had dropped to 19 minutes, according to the report.
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Every time The 19th called last week, the hold times were between 30 and 60 minutes.
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Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano said the audit is proof “that the profound customer service improvements were the result of technology enhancements and strategic staffing decisions.”
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In a statement to The 19th, an SSA spokesperson noted that the agency was able to serve 68 million callers last fiscal year, an increase of 65 percent over 2024, thanks to some of these changes. The spokesperson said “Commissioner Bisignano has consistently pledged to have the right level of staffing to ensure SSA operates at peak efficiency and delivers best-in-class customer service.”
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Interviews with attorneys, advocates and Social Security experts, reveal that delays are happening across the board, especially for people who need to interact directly with a staffer to complete their benefits application. Waits on the phone lines have improved over the past year, but it’s taking longer to get into a field office to complete an application, they said.
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“They’re taking more people away from actually taking the appointments and allowing people to file their claims, and having more people answer the phone to say, ‘Oh, sorry, no appointments,’” said Kathleen Romig, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Romig served as senior adviser at SSA during the Biden administration.
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The Social Security spokesperson said that the “large majority of all appointment requests are scheduled within 30 days,” speaking about all field office visits in general. But Social Security published some data in September showing 57 percent of claimants seeking survivor benefits, specifically, were waiting more than 28 days for an appointment.
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Walk-ins have also been more limited since late 2024, when SSA started requiring appointments to go to field offices. The agency later said it wouldn’t turn people away and it accepts walk-ins, but attorneys said that, in practice, offices are still telling people they have to have an appointment to come in.
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And many of the people who most need to interact directly with agency staff — widows and particularly aged widows, kids and those with disabilities — often can’t solely rely on many of the agency’s “digital first” improvements, like redirecting people to use the automated phone service.
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An SSA spokesperson told The 19th that claimants can file for survivors benefits over the phone, but agency policy requires claimants send in original or certified copies of documents like birth certificates to support their claims, which people are typically reluctant to do . So, in practice, most are still going in person — when they can get on the appointment calendar.
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And getting at exactly what’s happening with wait times for the phones and appointments is somewhat unknown because the agency removed data on wait times and other metrics from its website in the summer.
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Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who commissioned the audit on wait times and has been pressuring the agency to release data, told The 19th in a statement that the problems at the agency are “just the latest way Trump’s slash-and-burn approach to Social Security is hurting people and denying them the benefits they’re owed.”
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Jessica LaPointe, union council president for the American Federation of Government Employees Council 220, which represents Social Security workers, said the core issue is that there still needs to be a worker to process every claim.
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“We are an agency of intake and that’s about it,” LaPointe said. “So it creates this bottleneck of service. That’s where — the social safety net — people start to fall through the cracks because it’s taking too long to get their benefits. They’re going homeless, they’re going bankrupt, they’re not getting their health insurance started in time, so they’re going into debt, or they’re not taking their medications timely. People are dying just waiting for this money to come in. It’s really sad what that causes on the back end when the agency isn’t staffed properly.”
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The loss of staff means that at any given time there are about 1,500 benefit applications pending per worker, LaPointe said, according to data provided to the union by SSA’s Workload Support Unit, the group that processes online applications.
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A survey of more than 800 Social Security workers completed in January found that 84 percent felt their workloads had gotten worse in the past year. About 70 percent reported they’re serving the public at slower speeds, and 65 percent said the quality of service has deteriorated. The loss of not only customer service staff but also experienced staff at an agency like the Social Security Administration where the claims process is complicated means mistakes can arise or people can quit the process altogether because the waits are too long.
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The agency had already been incorrectly denying children’s benefits even before the job cuts began. According to a 2025 report from the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General, employees only correctly denied 39 percent of about 97,000 children’s claims surveyed between 2019 to 2023. Some $92.2 million in benefits were not paid out as a result of those employee errors, the report found.
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These folks need help. They need to talk to somebody at Social Security.”
David Weaver \n\n\n\n
“I’ve never seen anything like that kind of accuracy rate. That was shocking,” said David Weaver, a former associate commissioner in SSA’s Office of Research, Demonstration and Employment Support. “But it also tells you how complicated some of the child cases are. These folks need help. They need to talk to somebody at Social Security.”
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That’s why Weaver recommends always appealing a denial. He also suggests claimants apply for benefits as early as possible because even if there are delays, the benefits can be paid retroactively to when the process was started. House and Senate offices are good resources, he added, because they have case managers that help constituents through the process.
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The Social Security Advisory Board, a bipartisan and independent body, recently released a report recommending that child and survivor benefit applications move online , and that the agency work on an appointment scheduling platform that allows claimants to self-schedule their appointment slots online and bypass any challenges with the phones.
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There is some evidence Social Security is making changes to improve service, said LaPointe, the union president. The agency reportedly plans to hire at least 700 customer service representatives this year and increase its workforce by about 1,000 people, according to reporting in the Washington Post .
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“I do know that we’ve seen a lot of improvement in terms of communication, listening and working together as a voice so that’s encouraging,” she said. “The more that they engage with the union and the stakeholders, the more that we’re all getting on the same page.”
","category":"resilience","author":"Chabeli Carrazana","publishDate":"2026-03-18T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/SocialSecurityDelays-2x3-1.jpeg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/widows-social-security-survivor-benefits/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T12:01:01.421Z"},{"id":"zyrea","archiveId":"wys8um","slug":"lupita-nyong8217o8217s-hairstylist-ted-gibson-shares-his-top-tips","title":"Lupita Nyong’o’s Hairstylist Ted Gibson Shares His Top Tips","excerpt":"“In The Chair” spotlights the incredible hairstylists and makeup artists in our community who are giving us major inspiration. Each week, they discuss their personal beauty and career journeys, what they’ve […] The post Lupita Nyong’o’s Hairstylist Ted Gibson Shares His Top Tips appeared first on Es...","content":"
Composite by India Espy-Jones
By
Larry Stansbury ·
Updated March 17, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
“In The Chair” spotlights the incredible hairstylists and makeup artists in our community who are giving us major inspiration. Each week, they discuss their personal beauty and career journeys, what they’ve learned from their clients, and their top glam tips.
Ted Gibson has always understood that hair is about more than aesthetics. It’s aboutsrc=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/SnapInsta.to_622280516_18130909156454604_3260531895657810831_n.jpg\" alt=\"Lupita Nyong’o’s Hairstylist Ted Gibson Shares His Top Tips\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" />
At the time, the celebrity hairstylist was working a full-time job selling newspaper advertising, but his friend encouraged him to start hair school on Saturdays. “The rest is history,” he says simply. What began as a practical decision quickly revealed itself as purpose. His earliest hairstyling memories—doing his friends’ hair at school and his mother’s hair at home—are still vivid. “I would tingle from the top of my head to the tips of my toes,” he recalls. “I knew I was doing something I was put on this planet to do.”
What keeps him inspired, even now, is the power ofsrc=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/Ted-Gibson-Styling-a-Model-Photo-Credit-Xavier-Scott-Marshall.jpeg\" alt=\"Lupita Nyong’o’s Hairstylist Ted Gibson Shares His Top Tips\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" /> His favorite hair>ASCENSION by Ted Gibson Beauty Wellness Science is what I’m loving right now,” he says. “We’ve heard for years that what you put in your body shows up on the outside, and this was created with that in mind. ASCENSION supports brain, skin, and hair health using five powerful adaptogens—chaga, reishi, tremella, lion’s mane, and a rare blue-green algae. Styling products matter, but the foundation has to start from within.”
His top tip for healthy hair:
“Water, superfoods like ASCENSION, and meditation,” Gibson says. “Hair health isn’t just topical—it’s holistic. When you take care of your body and mind, your hair follows.”
A hair myth he wants to debunk:
“That you cannot love your hair,” he says. “Loving your hair is essential. It’s the starting point for confidence, care, and truerel=\"tag\">celebrity hair stylist In The Chair With
The post Lupita Nyong’o’s Hairstylist Ted Gibson Shares His Top Tips appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-18T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/Gibson-1920x1080.png","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/lupita-nyongo-ted-gibson-hairstylist-in-the-chair/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T12:01:03.331Z"},{"id":"w7akyu","archiveId":"pzs6os","slug":"detained-pregnant-people-are-entitled-to-full-medical-care-they-say-its-not-happening","title":"Detained pregnant people are entitled to full medical care. They say it’s not happening.","excerpt":"Amanda Isabel Fanego Cardoso was about 11 weeks pregnant when she was detained last September, then transferred between five immigration facilities over several months. Because her medical care was so limited, she said, it was only after her release this February that she learned she had developed p...","content":"
Amanda Isabel Fanego Cardoso was about 11 weeks pregnant when she was detained last September, then transferred between five immigration facilities over several months. Because her medical care was so limited, she said, it was only after her release this February that she learned she had developed potentially life threatening pregnancy-related conditions.
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Cecil Elvir-Quinonez was about eight weeks pregnant and still breastfeeding her 5-month-old when she was detained in January. She received emergency room care on January 6 after experiencing heavy bleeding and cramps in federal custody. The next day, she was transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana, where, though her bleeding continued, she received no follow-up medical attention or prenatal visits, according to her family.
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A pregnant woman in Minnesota was pulled over by immigration officials on her way to work in January. While detained, she developed abdominal pain, according to her lawyer. She, her husband and two children were sent to a Texas detention facility that did not have an OBGYN on staff. A nurse she saw took her blood pressure, but did not do anything to address the stomach pain, said her lawyer, who asked that The 19th not name her or her client, who fears retaliation for speaking about her experience in detention.
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Marianela Leon Espinoza, who was detained last July in California while pregnant, had only one medical visit during her detention — which was just shy of two months — according to court filings.
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Government detention standards say that when pregnant people are detained, they should receive comprehensive health care, including routine prenatal visits, specialized follow-ups if needed, prenatal vitamins and proper nutrition and exercise. But court documents and interviews with pregnant detainees and immigration attorneys across the country paint a different picture: Pregnant people in detention facilities say they are receiving sporadic medical visits and slow or limited medical care even when they experience bleeding, pain and other complications that could threaten their pregnancies. Some who have received medical visits say they were not given test results.
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Allegations of improper medical care for pregnant people are piling up. The 19th has spoken to two women who were pregnant while detained and four attorneys whose clients were pregnant while detained, and reviewed court records related to another similar case from last summer. A new report suggests that lack of medical care is endangering pregnant immigrants, who suffer complications in detention and do not receive timely treatment.
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For a report published Wednesday from two advocacy groups, the Women’s Refugee Commission and Physicians for Human Rights, researchers traveled to Honduras to spend a week interviewing recently deported people, including three women who were “visibly pregnant” and four who said they were recently postpartum. All four postpartum women had been separated from their children, including one who was just two months old, according to the report. None of the women’s names were published.
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Three pregnant women said they had “little to no medical care, and lack of access to clean water or healthy food,” according to the report, which did not specify where they were detained. Only one said she was taken to a medical facility for prenatal care; she said she was shackled for the entire appointment and monitored by guards even when providing a urine sample.
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In the same report, Honduras-based medical personnel at a center that receives deported immigrants described additional instances of people arriving in the country after receiving limited care for pregnancy-related complications experienced in detention.
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Medical staff described a woman who was deported 10 days after being diagnosed with a missed miscarriage — in which a pregnancy is lost but tissue remains in the uterus, raising the risk of infection. She did not receive treatment in the United States, and required emergency medical care upon arriving in Honduras, clinic staff said. Another medical worker described a pregnant woman who, like Elvir-Quinonez, experienced bleeding while in detention but said she did not receive medical care even after informing guards about her condition. She also required hospital care upon reaching Honduras, the worker said.
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The 19th was not able to speak with any of the women in the report or medical personnel referenced in it.
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“You’re putting large numbers of people who might suffer from all kinds of health or life-threatening conditions in this place and then not being attentive to how their bodies might be having health or life-threatening infections,” said Zain Lakhani, a lawyer and director of migrant rights and justice for the Women’s Refugee Commission and one of the report’s authors. “With pregnant people and lactating women, there’s an additional level to the fact that pregnancy is always dangerous.”
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A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said that detention of pregnant people is “exceedingly rare,” and that as of February 16, .18 percent of detained people were pregnant.
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“Pregnant women receive regular prenatal visits, mental health services, nutritional support, and accommodations aligned with community standards of care,” the spokesperson said. “This includes medical, dental, and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, and access to necessary medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. This is the best healthcare many of these individuals have received in their entire lives.”
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The same spokesperson said that use of restraints on a pregnant person only occurs “in the exceedingly rare situation where doing so would protect the life and safety of the detainee.”
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But the spokesperson did not specifically answer questions about how the agency responds to incidents such as missed miscarriage or bleeding, including in Elvir-Quinonez’s case. ICE said that Elvir-Quinonez received “full medical treatment” while in detention.
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Espinoza already knew about her pregnancy when she was detained in mid-July, and per court filings, her doctors deemed her high-risk because of a previous miscarriage. While detained, her lawyers wrote, her only medical attention was a “summary visit with a clinician where she received vitamins and folic acid.”
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When asked about Espinoza’s prenatal care specifically, the DHS spokesperson said she was released 23 days after her pregnancy was confirmed. Women are supposed to be tested for pregnancy upon being detained.
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Espinoza first petitioned for release on August 29, and a judge ordered her release at the beginning of September.
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Some pregnant patients have received regular health care in detention facilities, including weekly prenatal visits, attorneys said. But just how common that is — versus how many are receiving limited medical care, at best — is difficult to ascertain.
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But under President Donald Trump, DHS has stopped providing reports tracking how many pregnant, postpartum or nursing immigrants are in detention facilities, or detailing the conditions of facilities. Dating back to fall 2019, DHS used to release reports every six months. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not responded to repeated requests from The 19th for detailed reports, including one filed through the federal Freedom of Information Act.
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“People do get taken for visits sometimes, and it depends on the whim of the officers taking care of them, whether or not the people working in the clinic inside the detention center advocate or push for it,” said Amanda Hefferman, a longtime nurse-midwife and professor of midwifery at Seattle University who has worked with many pregnant detainees and studied their treatment in government facilities. “It’s not set up for any type of consistency or regularity — which is exactly what prenatal care is.”
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Immigrant rights advocates have raised concerns about the conditions and the consequences for immigrants’ health. Multiple facilities have been forced to impose quarantines because of measles outbreaks. Last year, ICE reported 31 detainee deaths, the highest number since 2004 and more than over the entire course of the Biden administration. At least 11 have died so far this year. Most detainees died after experiencing medical complications, including one man whose family said he died because of an infection stemming from an untreated toothache. None of these people were pregnant or postpartum.
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“The extreme risk is clear,” Lakhani said.
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Cardoso, 22, said she received few medical visits over the several months she was detained, with visits under supervision of facility guards. Clinical staff would use a stethoscope to check for cardiac activity, but did not perform any ultrasounds. When she received blood tests, she said, she was never informed of the results. Her doctors have not received any medical records from when she was detained, despite repeated requests, according to her lawyer. People detained by ICE have a legal right to their medical records, but the process of obtaining them can be complicated and cumbersome, Lakhani said.
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The DHS spokesperson said that Cardoso saw an offsite OBGYN “regularly” while detained, and that the agency provides medical records to any detainee who requests them.
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“One time I fainted and fell and I asked them to please make sure everything was good with the baby. And they only heard the heartbeat and they said everything’s OK,” Cardoso said in Spanish.
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Now back home in Florida, Cardoso is seeing a doctor who has diagnosed her with preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. She is not sure if she developed those conditions while detained or after her release. While detained, she received the same meals as everyone else: dishes like pasta, rice and chicken.
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“The days would pass, and I wasn’t able to know how my baby was,” she said.
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Her doctors have given her a tentative due date of March 27. They are concerned about the health of her pregnancy, noting that the fetus has been losing weight. Cardoso said doctors are scheduling extra visits to ensure that her daughter is growing appropriately.
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ICE has abandoned a guidance that discouraged the detention of pregnant, postpartum and nursing individuals — putting more people into facilities that may not have onsite medical specialists who are equipped for pregnancy care. Research examining 21 detention facilities from 2019 to 2022 found that most did not have a continuous doctor on staff for at least a year. Detention centers have pushed to hire more medical providers in the past year.
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After being transferred to a Louisiana facility in early January, Elvir-Quinonez waited until the end of February for her first doctors’ visit, according to her cousin Genesis Turcio. At that visit, she was found to have high blood pressure and to be at risk of preeclampsia. Days later, on March 5, she was deported to Honduras.
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Elvir-Quinonez is now about 16 weeks pregnant. She has not received any treatment for her blood pressure. Her brother is visiting her in an effort to help her find long-term housing and appropriate medical care.
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“They’re really providing no health care in there,” Turcio said. “She’s not really that good.”
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Her two sons are still in Florida, staying with her family. They have been told their mom is traveling for work. Elvir-Quinonez’s baby, less than a year old, still doesn’t quite understand what’s happening, Turcio said. But her 5-year-old often asks where his mom is, and when she’ll be home.
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“He still asks for his mommy every night,” she said.
","category":"health","author":"Shefali Luthra","publishDate":"2026-03-18T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/detention_pregnancy_ICE.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/pregnant-people-immigration-detention-medical-care/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T12:01:01.421Z"},{"id":"7axgfx","archiveId":"h7jwdf","slug":"kat-abughazaleh-loses-primary-election-bid-for-illinois-us-house-seat","title":"Kat Abughazaleh loses primary election bid for Illinois U.S. House seat","excerpt":"Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old political newcomer whose scrappy House campaign slogans “What if we didn’t suck?” and “I’m done waiting for change” reflected a push for new party leadership, has lost her competitive Democratic primary in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District to Evanston Mayor Daniel B...","content":"
Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old political newcomer whose scrappy House campaign slogans “What if we didn’t suck?” and “I’m done waiting for change” reflected a push for new party leadership, has lost her competitive Democratic primary in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District to Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss.
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Since the Chicago-area district is drawn to heavily favor Democrats, Biss is all but destined to win the U.S. House seat in the November midterm elections.
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Biss was the front-runner for much of the race, with Abughazaleh and state Sen. Laura Fine rounding out the top tier. In the final days of campaigning, Abughazaleh started to close the gap and Fine dropped deeper into third place. Just a week out from the primary, as much as 15 percent of the district’s Democratic electorate remained undecided.
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Biss won with about 30 percent of the district’s Democratic primary electorate, followed by Abughazaleh, then Fine, according to Decision Desk HQ . The results tracked polls in the closing weeks of the race.
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Biss is set to replace retiring Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who has held the House seat since 1999. Her longtime tenure inspired Abughazaleh to enter the race on her 26th birthday last year. At the time, Schakowsky had not yet announced her plans to retire. Once she did, Biss, Fine and others entered the race and the field swelled to more than a dozen candidates.
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Abughazaleh said she decided to challenge Schakowsky because the 2024 presidential election underscored the need for proactive generational change. Abughazaleh was referring to Vice President Kamala Harris replacing President Joe Biden on the ticket, but only at the eleventh hour. The Democrats went on to raise and spend $1.5 billion during a whirlwind campaign, but Harris still ultimately lost to now-President Donald Trump.
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“When Biden was in power, it was like, ‘Well, we have to keep up a strong front, so you can’t challenge the party.’ And now that Trump’s there, it’s like, ‘Well, we have to show we’re united, so we can’t challenge the party.’ If now is not the time to challenge who is in power, when will there ever be a time?” Abughazaleh told The 19th in an interview last year.
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As a Palestinian American, Abughazaleh was outspoken about ending Israel’s war in Gaza. In response, political super PACs aligned with the pro-Israel lobby American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, spent money against Abughazaleh, as well as Biss , because he is open to placing conditions on U.S. military aid to Israel. Fine received AIPAC’s support.
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Biss has been the mayor of Evanston, a city of about 75,000 just north of Chicago, since May 2021. Before that, he was a state senator from 2013 to 2019 and a state representative from 2011 to 2013. In 2018, Biss competed in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, finishing behind current Gov. JB Pritzker.
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Biss will likely be a reliably progressive-leaning vote in Congress. He wrote in an editorial board interview with the Evanston Round Table that “ICE, as it exists today, must be abolished. No one should be allowed to commit murder with impunity.” He is the grandson of Holocaust survivors. He has said he will work to reverse Trump and congressional Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid in the “big, beautiful” tax bill they passed last year.
","category":"politics","author":"Amanda Becker","publishDate":"2026-03-18T02:42:57.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/19th_KATChicago_042.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/illinois-election-results-house-abughazaleh/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T06:01:14.593Z"},{"id":"3um8wk","archiveId":"fou5ck","slug":"juliana-stratton-wins-democratic-primary-set-to-become-illinois-second-black-woman-senator","title":"Juliana Stratton wins Democratic primary, set to become Illinois’ second Black woman senator","excerpt":"Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won Illinois’ Democratic Senate primary Tuesday and is all but certain to make history as one of three Black women to serve in the upper chamber at the same time. Stratton edged out the race’s front-runner, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, with Rep.","content":"
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won Illinois’ Democratic Senate primary Tuesday and is all but certain to make history as one of three Black women to serve in the upper chamber at the same time.
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Stratton edged out the race’s front-runner, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, with Rep. Robin Kelly in third place, Decision Desk HQ projects. Now, she will face former Illinois Republican Party chair Don Tracy in November.
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During her victory speech, Stratton thanked her fellow candidates and said she was focused on the upcoming general election.
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“Tonight’s message is clear: We’re ready to take our democracy back into our own hands,” Stratton said Tuesday night. “I’ve seen the very best of Illinoisans who have taken to the streets, stood up for their neighbors and refused to back down. … Courage inspired me to run, courage powered this campaign and courage will bring this fight straight to Donald Trump’s door.”
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The lieutenant governor pointed to her initiatives to improve maternal health outcomes and foster girls’ political participation as examples of how representation led to direct change for women in the state. But she also named her father, who grew up in rural Pennsylvania and was barred from visiting the U.S. Capitol as a teenager, as a motivation for running for Senate.
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“He wasn’t allowed to because of the color of his skin,” she told The 19th last week. “This is not my great-grandfather, it’s not my grandfather, this is my father. Now his daughter is running to work in and serve the people in that very same building that he was not allowed to visit as a high school student. It’s the only chance in the country to elect a Black woman. I’m really proud I have the best path to do so.”
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Just five Black women have served in the Senate, including former Vice President Kamala Harris of California. When Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland won their 2024 campaigns , they became the first Black women to serve simultaneously.
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Illinois was the first state to elect a Black woman to the Senate, sending Carol Moseley-Braun in 1992. Both Moseley-Braun and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, first elected in 2016 and the only other woman ever elected to the Senate from Illinois, endorsed Stratton.
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The Illinois Senate race was the only one of its kind this cycle in which two Black women elected officials ran against each other. Stratton named Moseley-Braun and former President Barack Obama, who served one Senate term before running for president, as examples of the state’s wide bench of winning Black candidates.
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“I’m just going to keep doing whatever I can,” she said. “It’s not enough just to get to the table — you have to scoot over and make room for others to sit at the table as well, and sometimes we have to build our own tables.”
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Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker tapped into his vast personal funds to spend millions on his No. 2’s campaign, an expected move that nonetheless became a point of criticism late in the race — which already saw large amounts of PAC spending in the final weeks.
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The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) also got involved in March, blasting Pritzker — a potential 2028 presidential hopeful — for boosting Stratton financially. Members of the caucus across both chambers had split in backing either Kelly or Stratton.
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“Governor Pritzker’s effort to tip the scales in Illinois’ U.S. Senate race is beyond frustrating for the Congressional Black Caucus,” chair Yvette Clarke, a New York Democrat, said in a statement. “A sitting governor shouldn’t be heavy-handing the race. Quite frankly, his behavior in this race won’t soon be forgotten by any of us.”
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Stratton told The 19th she was disappointed to see the comments, adding that she strongly believes in the CBC’s mission to grow the Black caucus — a group she hopes to join next January.
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Clarke’s statement was one of several shifts to the race to occur in its final weeks. Following the death of civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Stratton announced last weekend that he had endorsed her campaign. Her son later clarified that while his father had considered candidates to back, he had not solidified his choice before his death and a “draft sample ballot” had erroneously been released.
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Both Stratton and Kelly also were criticized for recycling old endorsements from Obama, who still holds a lot of political sway in his home state — despite not having made a formal show of support in this Senate race.
","category":"politics","author":"Marissa Martinez","publishDate":"2026-03-18T02:21:57.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/illinois_stratton.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/illinois-election-results-senate-stratton/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T06:01:14.593Z"},{"id":"ocv4p","archiveId":"hsaz47","slug":"women-and-girls-are-taking-grok-to-court-over-sexualized-ai-deepfakes","title":"Women and girls are taking Grok to court over sexualized AI deepfakes","excerpt":"On Monday, three girls filed a class-action lawsuit against xAI alleging that the company’s Grok AI tool was used to generate child sexual abuse material from their photos. This new civil case joins at least two others revolving around nonconsensual deepfakes filed against xAI, which was founded b...","content":"
On Monday, three girls filed a class-action lawsuit against xAI alleging that the company’s Grok AI tool was used to generate child sexual abuse material from their photos.
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This new civil case joins at least two others revolving around nonconsensual deepfakes filed against xAI, which was founded by billionaire Elon Musk. Those earlier cases are centered around nonconsensual deepfakes posted on X, the social media platform also owned by Musk, while this new complaint involves a third-party app that relied on Grok AI to make images.
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Grok image generation debuted on X in December , and immediately users found ways to generate sexually explicit images despite nudity being banned. Grok generated over 4.4 million images over nine days , per a review by The New York Times, and 1.8 million of those were sexualized depictions of women. Researchers at the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate estimated Grok made 23,000 sexualized images of children over 11 days.
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While some users created images of themselves, many of the images were of people who had no idea they were being digitally undressed on social media.
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So far the three lawsuits are the only path forward for justice for the thousands, if not millions, of people who have been victimized in this way by Grok. Federal prosecutors have yet to pursue a criminal case under the Take It Down Act , which bans the publication of nonconsensual intimate imagery. (In fact, even as Grok’s deepfakes drew international investigations, the Pentagon announced it would integrate Grok in January, after securing a $200 million contract the year prior.) All three cases are civil actions seeking damages.
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“We have no mechanisms for holding accountable, for demanding transparency, for demanding information from these companies, and they are incredibly resistant to taking responsibility when their platforms cause harm,” said Imran Ahmed, the founder and CEO of nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate.
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“Ensuring that your platform isn’t an industrial-scale machine for for sexual abuse of women and children would seem like a no-brainer for someone seeking to launch a consumer platform,” Ahmed said.
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xAI did not reply to a request for comment.
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All of the cases allege negligence on the part of xAI in releasing Grok. Each case alleges that xAI did not undertake industry-standard testing or implement common guardrails to prevent nonconsensual explicit images or child sexual abuse material from being generated.
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xAI debuted the Grok chatbot in 2023, and Musk advertised it as an antidote to other chatbots, which he said were infected with the “woke-mind virus.” From the start, developers said Grok would reply to “spicy” questions that other apps would refuse to answer. This assertion has come back to haunt the company in these lawsuits, as it is being used to demonstrate negligence.
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Grok exists as a standalone app and is accessible through the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. On December 20, 2025, Musk announced that Grok could be prompted to edit and generate images on X. Deepfake abuse exploded on the platform, with many politicians and civil society watchdogs raising the alarm. After weeks of little action, the social media giant said image generation would be limited to paid X accounts — essentially monetizing nonconsensual deepfakes, critics argued. (Also, it didn’t completely stop free X accounts from making images with Grok.)
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On January 14, Musk posted on X that he was “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok,” but said “adversarial hacking” could lead to unexpected results that would be immediately fixed. Two of the three lawsuits allege Grok created sexually explicit, if not fully nude, images of kids before this date.
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Two of the current cases stem from the rollout of Grok’s image generator on X. Ashley St. Clair, a political influencer and mother of one of Musk’s 14 publicly acknowledged children, sued xAI on January 15 after users prompted Grok to make sexually explicit images of her. St. Clair says some of the images modify a photo of her at 14, creating AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
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Jane Doe, the plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit filed January 23 , is a woman in South Carolina who says the Grok account posted an AI-generated image of her in a revealing bikini without her consent. She said X refused to take the image down after she originally reported it, and she was only able to get it removed after reporting it many times over three days. She said she had to take unpaid time off work and lives in fear that the image will resurface and cost her professional opportunities.
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Unlike the prior two cases, the class-action suit filed Monday focuses on child sexual abuse material allegedly made on an app that licensed the Grok Imagine API . Three students in Tennessee, two minors and one whose deepfakes were sourced from images of her when she was under 18, discovered that someone created AI-generated child sexual abuse material from images they posted on social media. The accused allegedly distributed these images alongside the first names of the victims and the name of their school, heightening the risk of physical harm. The accused was arrested in December, and the complaint says the plaintiffs, known as Jane Does 1, 2 and 3, have suffered severe anxiety, particularly at school.
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But Riana Pfefferkorn, a policy fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI and expert on laws concerning AI-generated child sexual abuse material, said this lawsuit seems like “suing xAI on hard mode” because the complaint doesn’t directly tie deepfakes of two of the plaintiffs to Grok.
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There are a few other challenges these cases against xAI face. Legally, Pfefferkorn said xAI has indicated it will try to get the cases dismissed under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which says platforms are not liable for what their users post unless it is related to sex trafficking. (The case filed Monday alleges xAI violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.) This is an area of open legal debate, as while humans presumably prompted Grok to generate images, the @grok account posted the deepfakes.
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These cases could be an opportunity to clarify that AI platforms should be held liable for speech they generate, Ahmed said. “Our legal framework needs to change to deal with the new realities,” he said, advocating for Section 230 reform.
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The federal DEFIANCE Act, if passed, could provide another pathway for monetary compensation for victims of deepfakes. The bill cleared the Senate , and advocates are rallying for a House floor vote .
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Monday’s class-action suit was filed in the Northern District of California, like the other class action. St. Clair filed her case in the Southern District of New York, where she lives. The two earlier cases are tied up in requests to be litigated in Texas. xAI claims that users of Grok agreed to terms of service that required all cases to be filed in the Northern District of Texas, home to a conservative judiciary that on at least one occasion has ruled in Musk’s favor.
","category":"activism","author":"Jasmine Mithani","publishDate":"2026-03-17T21:34:37.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/grok_lawsuit.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/women-girls-lawsuit-grok-ai-deepfakes/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T00:01:01.478Z"},{"id":"lphwbj","archiveId":"wdvbi7","slug":"designing-democracy-for-women-lessons-from-representwomens-2026-solutions-summit","title":"Designing Democracy for Women: Lessons From RepresentWomen’s 2026 Solutions Summit","excerpt":"Across three days of conversations, RepresentWomen’s Democracy Solutions Summit showed that women’s political power depends on how democracy is designed—and how those systems can be rebuilt to better reflect the people they serve.","content":"
Across three days of conversations, RepresentWomen’s Democracy Solutions Summit showed that women’s political power depends on how democracy is designed—and how those systems can be rebuilt to better reflect the people they serve.
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The post Designing Democracy for Women: Lessons From RepresentWomen’s 2026 Solutions Summit appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"politics","author":"Cynthia Richie Terrell","publishDate":"2026-03-17T21:11:28.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/download.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/17/represent-women-democracy-solutions-summit-elections-politics-ranked-choice-voting/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T00:01:00.825Z"},{"id":"vep7dp","archiveId":"7z0m83","slug":"how-to-channel-regina-kings-radiant-yellow-look-for-less","title":"How To Channel Regina King’s Radiant Yellow Look For Less","excerpt":"From roles in Poetic Justice and The Boondocks, to If Beale Street Could Talk, Regina King has long-been a star. While keeping us entertained, she also seems to be aging […] The post How To Channel Regina King’s Radiant Yellow Look For Less appeared first on Essence .","content":"
Araya Doheny/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated March 17, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
From roles in Poetic Justice and The Boondocks, to If Beale Street Could Talk, Regina King has long-been a star. While keeping us entertained, she also seems to be aging like fine wine—a fitting nod to her wine label, Mianu Wines —only getting better with time. That said, we find ourselves constantly looking to her for beauty and fashion inspiration.
Over Oscar weekend, she stepped out at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party wearing a look by Sergio Hudson, >Wayman and Micah. The golden ensemble, a mini sequin dress layered with a silky matching trench coat, glowed against her skin—which was enhanced by legendary makeup artist Sir John .
Her look was finished with an elegant updo by LaRae Burress and minimal accessories, allowing her silhouette to take center stage. Specifically, King opted for gold drop chandelier earrings and rings from Lagos Jewelry, and delicate strappy sandals by Rene Caovilla. The result? A look that felt both bold and effortless.
While King’s exact outfit may not be within everyone’s budget, channeling her luminous yellow moment absolutely is. With the right under-the-radar finds, you can recreate the vibe without the splurge.
Scroll ahead to shop similar pieces and tap into her radiant, main-character energy.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Regina King (@iamreginaking)
01 01 Ralph Lauren Double-Breated Linen Trench Coat
Slip into this yellow trench coat to channel the same mysterious, radiant energy King exuded on the carpet. Available at
Ralph Lauren 295 Shop Now 02 02 Tiger Mist Kianna Mini Dress
Shop a yellow mini dress that shimmers beneath the coat, capturing King’s same luminous effect. Available at
Revolve 79 Shop Now 03 03 Natalie B Jewelry Dylan Drop Earrings
Pull your hair into a sleek bun and opt for a dainty drop earring—the perfect finishing touch. Available at
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Get The Look For Less The post How To Channel Regina King’s Radiant Yellow Look For Less appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Mecca Pryor","publishDate":"2026-03-17T19:45:02.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2266929185-Cropped-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/how-to-channel-regina-kings-radiant-yellow-look-for-less/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T00:01:06.522Z"},{"id":"f3wewm","archiveId":"fg4cfo","slug":"if-no-one-is-held-accountable-what-are-the-epstein-files-for","title":"If No One Is Held Accountable, What Are the Epstein Files For?","excerpt":"Releasing the Epstein files without real consequences risks turning a long fight for truth into yet another moment of exposure that leaves survivors without justice and systems of abuse intact. The post If No One Is Held Accountable, What Are the Epstein Files For? appeared first on Ms. Magazine .","content":"
Releasing the Epstein files without real consequences risks turning a long fight for truth into yet another moment of exposure that leaves survivors without justice and systems of abuse intact.
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The post If No One Is Held Accountable, What Are the Epstein Files For? appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"safety","author":"Omny Miranda Martone","publishDate":"2026-03-17T19:41:13.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2247293351-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/17/epstein-files-investigation-trump-doj/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T00:01:00.825Z"},{"id":"896u3w","archiveId":"9nn1uc","slug":"how-marquita-goings-brings-hayley-hamilton-to-life-on-8216beyond-the-gates8217","title":"How Marquita Goings Brings Hayley Hamilton to Life On ‘Beyond the Gates’","excerpt":"Few characters on the new CBS daytime drama Beyond the Gates stir up quite as much chaos as Hayley Lawson Hamilton—the calculating outsider whose romance with her former best friend’s […] The post How Marquita Goings Brings Hayley Hamilton to Life On ‘Beyond the Gates’ appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Shelby Stewart ·
Updated March 17, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Few characters on the new CBS daytime drama Beyond the Gates stir up quite as much chaos as Hayley Lawson Hamilton—the calculating outsider whose romance with her former best friend’s father rattles the show’s central family. Played by Marquita Goings , Hayley is the kind of character viewers love to hate: cunning, controversial and, by the end of the first season, revealed to be far more opportunistic than she first appears.
Marquita Goings as Hayley Hamilton in CBS’s Beyond the Gates, the cunning villain viewers love to hate. Credit: Rowan Daly
Love to hate is exactly the point. But offscreen, the woman behind the chaos couldn’t be more different.
“I feel like naturally, as Marquita, I’m chill. Hayley and I are the complete opposite,” Goings tells ESSENCE with a laugh. “I was getting the scripts and I’m like, ‘Oh, she’s a savage.’ But tapping into that, I also want to honor people’s real lives, because for some, this is somebody’s real situation. There are scammers out there, and there are people who maybe didn’t have the right upbringing or who’ve faced situations that shape how they move. I still want to honor that.”
Honoring those realities, however, requires more than emotional range, it also demands stamina. Beyond The Gates, the popular Black soap on CBS, still in its early stages and recently renewed for a second season, is particularly demanding, as it continues to carve out its place in the larger zeitgeist of daytime television. The format has a long legacy — shows like General Hospital have aired since 1963, Days of Our Lives since 1965, and The Young and the Restless since 1973 — making Beyond The Gates one of the few new daytime dramas in decades.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – FEBRUARY 16: Marquita Goings attend The Black Excellence Brunch and “Beyond The Gates” screening and talk back at 42West on February 16, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
Like most soap operas, long hours and intense pacing are part of the job. According to Goings, the cast often shoots 40 to 50 pages a day—an intense pace that leaves little room for error, making both focus and resilience essential for bringing Hayley Hamilton to life.
Unlike most primetime television shows, daytime dramas operate at a relentless pace. According to Goings, the cast of Beyond the Gates often shoots 40 to 50 script pages a day, a stark contrast to the roughly 7 to 10 pages typically filmed for a one-hour network drama .
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Beyond the Gates (@beyondthegatescbs)
“Some days, we’re shooting half a movie,” she says. “That’s a lot of dialogue, a lot of scenes, wardrobe changes. It’s made me a stronger actor because you have to take direction very quickly. We don’t have the luxury of doing a bunch of takes—we’re expected to get it on the first one.”
Strength, in Hayley’s case, often manifests as something darker. By the end of the show’s first season, the character’s intentions become increasingly clear. Deceptive and newly married to her former best friend’s father, Hayley is tangled in a web of her own making—her motives appearing tied more to money than romance.
Yet when Goings first signed on, she had no idea just how villainous Hayley would become.
What did catch her attention immediately, though, was the name attached to the audition: casting director Kim Coleman, whose credits include Lovecraft Country, Greenleaf and Wu-Tang: An American Saga.
“Kim Coleman is a huge casting director, and I have so much respect for her,” Goings says. “I’ve actually booked a few things through her—Woke being one of them—so when I saw her name, I knew I had to check it out.”
Marquita Goings as Hayley Hamilton in CBS’s Beyond the Gates, the cunning villain viewers love to hate. Credit: Rowan Daly
That curiosity quickly turned into creative freedom. Goings says she enjoys playing Hayley precisely because the character is so unlike her in real life.
“I like that she’s somebody who isn’t like me,” she says. “It makes it feel like I’m truly playing. She gets to do whatever she wants, and I get to step into that world.”
Doing whatever she wants, of course, is exactly what makes Hayley such a compelling villain—and sometimes a lightning rod for viewers. Goings joked that friends warned her about the hazards of playing a soap antagonist, referencing a famous scene in the film A Low Down Dirty Shame where Jada Pinkett Smith punches a soap actor she blames for his character’s behavior.
“Some people don’t separate the character and the person,” Goings says with a laugh.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – FEBRUARY 16: Timon Kyle Durrett and Marquita Goings attend The Black Excellence Brunch and “Beyond The Gates” screening and talk back at 42West on February 16, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
Fortunately, Goings is no stranger to demanding roles. Before joining Beyond the Gates, the actress appeared in projects including Zatima and Woke.
But it was an intense theater experience that gave her the confidence she’d eventually need for daytime television.
Goings recalled being asked to replace a cast member in a touring play on short notice, giving her just two days to learn roughly 100 pages of dialogue.
“I stayed up overnight with someone running the lines,” she says. “When I got the pages down, I realized I could actually do something like that.”
That realization, she says, stayed with her when she stepped onto the set of Beyond the Gates—a show where speed, instinct and stamina are all part of the job.
Below, Goings talks with ESSENCE about stepping into Hayley’s chaos, navigating the fast-paced world of daytime television, and how wellness helps keep her grounded while playing one of daytime television’s most delicious villains.
ESSENCE: How do you mentally prepare to step into Hayley’s mindset before filming?
Goings: I will say I get up and say my prayers or meditate first—that always sets the tone for me. Then I like to come with a clean slate. My hair—I wash it for them, they braid it, put me in a wig. I do my normal skincare routine, which is very natural and simple.
But as I’m driving to set, I put on my rap music. If somebody could hear it, they’d be like, oh, I see—she’s playing trap music from the car.
ESSENCE: So, give me two or three songs you’re probably playing on the way to set.
Goings: Well, it depends on what Haley’s doing that day. So if Haley needs to be grimy and snappy with attitude or if she needs to talk to Randy, I will put on some young Jeezy. I love that. I love that from his Thug Motivation [album]. I’ll put on T.I., or maybe a City Girls vibe. There are a lot of times where Hayley has to play the victim, so then I’m going to my R&B. My emotional music. I have a whole playlist just for that.
ESSENCE: If you take one look at your Instagram, it’s clear you have a real passion for fashion. How do you express that personally versus on set? Or does Hayley ever wear pieces you’d rock yourself?
Goings: I do have some pieces that Hayley wears, because it really depends on the mood and where you’re going. For example, recently I went to a Time magazine event, so I dressed more classy, covered, and sleek—but I still wanted the fit to show shape. I like to feel beautiful and give some sex appeal, because, like you said, I’m curvy, and you only live once.
It’s interesting—you wear certain things when you’re younger and then transition as you get older. But I just love fashion. I love putting different pieces together and the way it makes me feel. I get so many compliments sometimes, and I even think, it’d be nice if I had time to come up with my own line of pieces. But really, I just love to express myself this way.
I think it comes from childhood. I have photos of my mom, and even though her style was very conservative—longer dresses and pantsuits—she had such an eye for fashion. I feel like I get that from her. She always dressed me cute, too.
ESSENCE: Wellness practices like yoga and herbal remedies are clearly important to you. How do these rituals influence your work as an actress?
Goings: I feel like wellness is everything, especially when you can be on set for over 10 hours. By the end of the day, you’re tired, and I may just want to relax or decompress. What helps me is leaving set, taking a shower, and then sitting in a sauna. It relaxes my muscles, is good for your skin, and is just great for overall health. I’ve read that sauna use can even help prolong your life, but for me, I love it because it relaxes me. After that, I can go to bed and sleep like a baby.
Exercise is another key piece. Working out gives me endurance and energy, especially on the long days when I might not have time to train beforehand or afterward. It keeps me alert and prevents me from feeling sluggish on set.
The biggest factor for me, though, is what I put into my body. I went vegan in 2017 and stayed vegan for a long time. Recently, I’ve started incorporating other dishes, like fish, and combining that with herbal teas and tinctures—it’s really shifted everything for me. It helps with energy, focus, even my skin, and yes, it can help with things like losing belly fat. Balance is always key for me, but I’ve been very disciplined when it comes to my wellness, especially with what I eat.
ESSENCE: It sounds like wellness isn’t just for you—it impacts the people around you as well. How has sharing your practices influenced your family and friends?
Goings: I love that. That is my every day. Outside of acting, I feel a part of my calling or purpose has to do with wellness and sharing it. Everyone around me—my family, my best friends—has changed their lifestyle because they noticed health issues and came to me. I love being that influence. Hearing that they feel better now just makes me so happy.
ESSENCE: How do you balance the intensity of filming a daily series with prioritizing your personal well-being?
Goings: It’s a bunch of things. I’m a mom first, and then there’s career and family. When my body tells me I need to rest or back up, I listen. I’ll go in my room and, if I need to take a nap, I’ll take a nap. Sometimes it also helps to be around people, so I’ll do that too. But I think the key is paying attention when your body gives you those signs—it always does.
ESSENCE: You mentioned earlier that wellness feels like part of your purpose and that you’ve even inspired friends and family to change their lifestyles. If you weren’t acting, what creative path do you think you would fully pursue?
Goings: I wouldn’t even say if I weren’t acting, because I’m doing it alongside acting. I’m currently in classes right now to become an herbalist, which is really exciting. It’s something I’ve already been practicing in my everyday life.
Now it’s about balancing the two. I want to be able to create things that help people. I get a lot of compliments on my skin, and people are always asking what I use, so I’ve been looking into creating skincare. And then internally, a lot of people deal with different ailments, and there are natural things I already use day to day.
Sometimes I’ll tell people, “You can use this herb or put these things together,” but not everyone has the time or the knowledge to go find those ingredients or formulate something themselves. I would love to do that for them, because I truly feel like that’s part of my purpose. As I gain more knowledge in this space, I want to be able to share it.
ESSENCE: What’s one thing fans might be surprised to learn about you outside of your work on screens?
Goings: Outside of my work on screen, I think fans would be shocked to know because, I mean, if they just watch Beyond the Gates, they’re like, “Oh, Hayley’s this whiny, she’s not going to do anything. Weak girl.” But outside of the show, I come from a sports background. I was a pole vaulter in high school. I won the state championship my senior year, and people don’t expect someone like me—so little and petite.
ESSENCE: With Beyond the Gates gaining momentum—and recognition from the NAACP Image Awards—how do moments like this influence your career aspirations? Do they push you to think about what’s next?
Goings: Absolutely. I’m not closed off to anything, and I’ll never put myself in a box. I truly feel like God has shaped my career and everything that has come my way. Yes, I work hard, but the opportunities that have come to me have all arrived at the right time.
And when the time is right for me to do something different, I’m open to it. I trust that it will come when it’s supposed to.
ESSENCE: With that in mind, are there any dream roles or types of characters you haven’t tackled yet but hope to explore?
Goings: Yeah, I would love to. I love a good drama. I’ve played a homeless person before, and that was a challenge for me because I’ve never been in that situation. I really studied for that role—I would literally go and watch people and see how they moved, because some people are homeless for different reasons. Sometimes someone just fell into a bad situation—it could happen to anybody—and sometimes it’s because they’re struggling with drugs.
So I love a challenging role. When I played that character, I leaned more into someone who had fallen on hard times versus someone strung out on drugs. I haven’t done something like that yet, or an action film.
I also have a stunt background. I’ve done stunt work where your body is there, but your face isn’t showcased. I would love the opportunity to be in an action movie or show where I’m actually doing my own stunts. That would be amazing.
ESSENCE: Circling back to Hayley, what do you hope audiences take away from your portrayal of the character, particularly Black women who are watching?
Goings: Ooh. Well, I hope—and I want to say this with no judgment—but I’m someone who really values integrity and morals. So if someone watching Hayley is living that kind of lifestyle, maybe it might help them reflect a little. They might see themselves in the character and think, “Maybe I could do something a little differently.”
Sometimes people are in situations like that and feel like they’re not doing anything wrong. But seeing it play out from another perspective might help them look at it differently.
ESSENCE: As you look back on your career so far, was there a defining moment when you realized, this is exactly where I’m meant to be?
Goings: Wow. It’s hard to point to just one moment because this career really is a marathon. There are so many moments where you feel like, Okay, I’m on the right track, and then there are valleys where you start questioning it again. And then something happens that reminds you you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.
But I would say present day, even with this show, everything about it—the timing, the location, the opportunity to be part of something historic—felt right. It came into my life at the right time. Everyone is doing their job and making the show what it is, but for me personally, it arrived when it was supposed to.
And once I started working with the cast and producers, I knew it was special. It really feels like a family. People sometimes assume we don’t get along because of the characters we play—especially with Hayley stirring up so much drama. I remember someone commenting on a video saying, “Oh, she couldn’t get the other actors to do it with her,” because Hayley wasn’t in a lot of our TikToks at first. But it’s actually the complete opposite.
We’re there for each other on set and off. We have a group thread, we check in, we hang out. And I love that. It’s rare to be on a show where everyone truly gets along. Being around this cast and crew is when I really knew I was in the right place.
The post How Marquita Goings Brings Hayley Hamilton to Life On ‘Beyond the Gates’ appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Shelby Stewart","publishDate":"2026-03-17T18:45:03.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/marquita-goings-hayley-beyond-the-gates-2/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T00:01:06.522Z"},{"id":"9lfjna","archiveId":"rc9lsa","slug":"stop-policing-how-black-women-show-up-in-white-spaces","title":"Stop Policing How Black Women Show Up In White Spaces","excerpt":"This is undoubtedly Teyana Taylor‘s time. The multi-hyphenate artist has been clearing the red carpet and awards ceremonies over the past couple of months. Consequently, the 35-year-old beauty has been […] The post Stop Policing How Black Women Show Up In White Spaces appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Elizabeth Ayoola ·
The post Stop Policing How Black Women Show Up In White Spaces appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Victoria Uwumarogie","publishDate":"2026-03-17T18:19:42.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/opinion/teyana-taylor-oscars/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T00:01:06.522Z"},{"id":"csomx7","archiveId":"mlx9eb","slug":"the-erosion-of-womens-rights-is-a-warning-sign-for-democracies-everywhere","title":"The Erosion of Women’s Rights Is a Warning Sign for Democracies Everywhere","excerpt":"Over 30 years ago, world leaders came together in Beijing and made a promise: Gender equality would be a global standard, not a distant aspiration. This March, as the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women convenes for CSW70 under the theme of strengthening access to justice and eliminatin...","content":"
Over 30 years ago, world leaders came together in Beijing and made a promise: Gender equality would be a global standard, not a distant aspiration. This March, as the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women convenes for CSW70 under the theme of strengthening access to justice and eliminating discriminatory laws, that promise remains not only unfinished, but increasingly under coordinated assault.
\n
Since 1999, Equality Now’s Words & Deeds reports have tracked laws and policies that discriminate against women and girls, documenting progress when legal reform has been achieved and holding governments accountable when words fail to translate into action.
\n
Our new Words & Deeds update, Progress and Backlash: Accountability for the Rights of Women and Girls, shows that we are at a perilous moment of global regression in women’s rights. Across regions, protections once considered settled are being diluted, defunded and, in some cases, deliberately dismantled.
\n
The post The Erosion of Women’s Rights Is a Warning Sign for Democracies Everywhere appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"S. Mona Sinha","publishDate":"2026-03-17T18:15:55.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-649610380.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/17/womens-rights-democracy-csw-70-united-nations-gender-girls-health/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-18T00:01:00.825Z"},{"id":"om5fx5","archiveId":"qasjk7","slug":"when-trumps-political-stunt-becomes-a-household-emergency","title":"When Trump’s Political Stunt Becomes a Household Emergency","excerpt":"After a tumultuous 2025 that saw relentless attacks on Head Start, Medicaid, and SNAP, I found myself hoping that 2026 might begin with a little more steadiness for families already stretched thin. Instead, families, child care programs, and early educators were greeted with yet another round of unc...","content":"
After a tumultuous 2025 that saw relentless attacks on Head Start, Medicaid, and SNAP, I found myself hoping that 2026 might begin with a little more steadiness for families already stretched thin. Instead, families, child care programs, and early educators were greeted with yet another round of uncertainty and fear—this time courtesy of a manufactured crisis that no one asked for, and everyone is paying for.
\n
It started with a right-wing influencer falsely accusing certain child care programs of misusing federal dollars. Trump’s solution to these completely baseless accusations? Freeze or delay child care funds . The outcome? Immediate harm to the child care providers and the families who rely on child care to work, survive, and nurture their children–the same folks Trump claimed to be protecting with his freezes. And all of this is happening while Trump and his allies are calling for more babies—making the contradiction harder to ignore.
\n
What Funding Disruption Looks Like
\n
Child care funding is not abstract. It is rent. It is payroll. It is whether the lights stay on at the center and the doors stay open.
\n
Child care providers operate on razor-thin margins and do not have the luxury of “waiting it out” when funding is delayed. When the funds are frozen, that means providers can’t pay their staff. Programs close temporarily or permanently. Early educators lose income overnight, and children and families lose stability.
\n
In Missouri, a child care center was forced to close temporarily amid subsidy delays. For parents, this wasn’t a policy debate—it was a crisis. If you are forced to miss work because of child care falling through, you risk losing your job. This isn’t hypothetical. This is real for thousands of families.
\n
Who Bears the Brunt? The Same People, Every Time
\n
The child care workforce is largely women , and disproportionately women of color. Early educators already earn extraordinarily low wages while doing work that is foundational to everything else. On top of uncertainty around their pay, the threat of funding disruptions has caused many child care providers and educators to face violent threats when they go to work. In states like California, Minnesota, and Ohio, Somali-run child care programs and providers are facing targeted attacks —ranging from relentless racist harassment in phone calls and emails to vigilantes attempting to force their way into child care programs. Providers are treated with suspicion. Early educators are made to feel unsafe going to work. Families are caught in the crosshairs.
\n
Parents in these same communities already spend disproportionate shares of their income on child care. For them, even a minor disruption can tip a carefully balanced budget into crisis. A delayed payment or a temporary closure forces families into last-minute decisions, scrambling for back-up care, shifting work schedules, and navigating uncertainty.
\n
And yet, when child care funding is attacked, it is these families and educators who are expected to absorb the shock quietly and without complaint.
\n
Rhetoric Versus Reality: You Can’t Gaslight Families into Having Kids
\n
Here’s where the contradiction becomes impossible to ignore.
\n
At the same time child care funding is being attacked, we are hearing an uptick in pronatalist rhetoric —a conservative movement focused on raising birth rates at all costs.
\n
But here is the thing: You cannot claim to value families and demand higher birth rates while actively attacking the care infrastructure that families rely on.
\n
What families need is not symbolic gestures or abstract appeals to motherhood, but reliable child care, stable incomes, accessible and affordable health care, and the freedom to make decisions about if and when to have children. When the conversation centers on having more children while the support families depend on continues to weaken, families are left navigating the reality on their own. The expectations to have children remain public, but the responsibility of caring for them is treated as a private problem that families must somehow solve on their own.
\n
Child Care Shouldn’t Be Treated as a Political Pawn
\n
Child care is not a luxury. It is not a political pawn. It is the backbone of our economy and the foundation of children’s well-being. When child care collapses, parents lose jobs; some are forced to leave the workforce; educators lose their livelihoods; and children lose the stability, safety, and continuity they need to thrive. Yet as this unfolds, the Trump administration stands at podiums preaching about “family values,” while its actions threaten the very systems that sustain families.
\n
If lawmakers were serious about helping families, they would work to make child care universal, not try to cut already scarce funding. If children’s well-being were a real priority, early educators would be supported rather than met with suspicion and harassment. And if lawmakers were genuinely concerned about declining birth rates, they would focus on strengthening—not undermining—the care system families rely on every day.
\n
The post When Trump’s Political Stunt Becomes a Household Emergency appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"childcare","author":"Brittany Arp","publishDate":"2026-03-17T17:34:46.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/image.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/when-trumps-political-stunt-becomes-a-household-emergency/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T18:01:06.594Z"},{"id":"iza5o0","archiveId":"u50234","slug":"pregnancy-care-includes-abortion-whether-we-admit-it-or-not","title":"Pregnancy Care Includes Abortion, Whether We Admit It or Not","excerpt":"Here's what I know as an OB-GYN: Any book about birth that ignores abortion access isn't just incomplete—it's dangerous. I also know that any person researching birth plans needs to know how state laws could limit their care during a pregnancy complication, even if they never imagined needing an abo...","content":"
Here's what I know as an OB-GYN: Any book about birth that ignores abortion access isn't just incomplete—it's dangerous.
\n
I also know that any person researching birth plans needs to know how state laws could limit their care during a pregnancy complication, even if they never imagined needing an abortion. Even if they self-identify as being staunchly antiabortion.
\n
This is precisely why I talk about abortion in my book, a book meant for people who want to have a baby.
\n
The post Pregnancy Care Includes Abortion, Whether We Admit It or Not appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Jennifer Lincoln","publishDate":"2026-03-17T16:39:42.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1248162162.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/17/pregnancy-women-health-birth-book-abortion-laws-emergency-care/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T18:01:04.925Z"},{"id":"su04gn","archiveId":"urbi6j","slug":"what-is-the-save-america-act","title":"What is the SAVE America Act?","excerpt":"This week, the Senate will take up the SAVE America Act, the second version of an extensive elections bill that seeks to increase the restrictions on registering to vote in hopes of cutting down on non-citizen voting — already a rare and illegal occurrence.","content":"
This week, the Senate will take up the SAVE America Act, the second version of an extensive elections bill that seeks to increase the restrictions on registering to vote in hopes of cutting down on non-citizen voting — already a rare and illegal occurrence.
\n\n\n\n
Critics say the bill’s structure would add burdens for some people, especially women and others who have changed their legal names because of marriage, assimilation or to better align with their gender identity. GOP proponents of the legislation insist that there are workarounds and categorize concerns about the potential impact on the millions of people who have differing identifying documents as “ridiculous.”
\n\n\n\n
While Republicans are anxious to pass the legislation ahead of the midterms, many senators are still on the fence, making it highly unlikely the bill gets past the 60-vote threshold needed to land on President Donald Trump’s desk. The president also recently proposed adding more restrictions that would not make its passage any easier, saying he would “not sign other bills until this is passed, and not the watered down version — go for the gold.”
\n\n\n\n
Here’s what’s currently in the bill, why it’s facing trouble in the Senate despite easily passing in the House, and what could come next.
\n\n\n\n
Key details: What is currently in the legislation? \n\n\n\n
The SAVE America Act would require voters to provide documents proving their citizenship at the time of registration. One accepted document would be a U.S. passport — something approximately half of Americans do not have. Otherwise, a registrant would need to use a driver’s license paired with proof like a birth certificate or adoption paperwork. These documents would have to be verified in person at an election office.
\n\n\n\n
Much of the criticism of the bill stems from concern that married women and trans people who have changed their legal names, among others, would bear an unnecessary burden in proving their identities by requiring even more documentation.
\n\n\n\n
Republicans argue this process should not be difficult in practice.
\n\n\n\n
“We’ve made special accommodation for those who don’t have documentation, for those who can’t find their birth certificate — maybe their house burned down, maybe their dog ate it, whatever it is,” said Sen. Mike Lee, a firebrand Utah Republican who is one of the upper chamber’s main proponents of the bill. He explained that states would be allowed to accept sworn statements establishing citizenship, and it would be up to local officials to follow up later and determine its authenticity.
\n\n\n\n\n\n
The bill also requires a photo ID with visible expiration dates to vote in federal elections, including driver’s licenses, military IDs and tribal identification cards. Currently, many states do not require voters to present photo ID before casting an in-person ballot, and others accept documents like college student IDs or utility bills.
\n\n\n\n
Mail-in voters would need to start submitting copies of their identification as well.
\n\n\n\n
If the law passes, these provisions would go into effect immediately, likely causing confusion and difficulty as states shift the rules in the months leading up to the November midterm elections.
\n\n\n\n
Voter ID requirements are popular among Americans across the political spectrum, but under the proposed law, 9 percent of eligible voters would not have access to the necessary identification.
\n\n\n\n
What does Trump want to add? \n\n\n\n
Trump has said he wants to add even more provisions, including a ban on mail-in ballots, with exceptions. He also wants to include unrelated elements related to trans women’s participation in sports and gender-affirming care for trans youth, though he has not given additional details about how that would combine with the voting legislation.
\n\n\n\n
Trump said the proposed inclusions are massively popular with voters and represent the “best” of his policy positions. But to include those in the bill, the House would have to pass a third version. Republicans in the lower chamber acknowledged that adding culture-war issues would further hurt its chances in the Senate.
\n\n\n\n
“We can’t be the party that starts doing a bunch of multiple-issue bills, leveraging this to get this,” Utah Rep. Blake Moore told Deseret News .
\n\n\n\n
Democrats called Trump’s requests to include anti-trans provisions “desperate,” saying the president was trying to divert attention from a struggling economy and rising prices — though many have stopped short of condemning the specific use of trans issues as a sticking point.
\n\n\n\n\n\n
Why is there a new version called the ‘SAVE America Act?’ And why is the Senate having trouble passing it? \n\n\n\n
The House’s first pass at this voting overhaul legislation, the SAVE Act, was not taken up by the Senate in 2025 because intense opposition from Democrats meant it would not get the 60 votes it needed to pass through the upper chamber. Currently, seven Democrats or independents would have to join 53 Republicans to pass the bill.
\n\n\n\n
So the House revised the original legislation this year and reintroduced it under a new name, and fellow GOP lawmakers and political influencers launched an intense online pressure campaign to prompt Senate action. Some of the bill’s co-sponsors have considered attaching the legislation to other vehicles as another tactic to force a vote.
\n\n\n\n
Trump also ramped up support for the bill in recent weeks, dangling an endorsement in the Texas Senate race as an incentive and refusing to sign bills that make it onto his desk.
\n\n\n\n
“It’s hard to believe we’re having a hard time. I think anybody that votes against it shouldn’t be allowed to run for office, to tell the truth,” Trump said during a Women’s History Month event last week ahead of the vote.
\n\n\n\n\n\n
What does the filibuster have to do with this? \n\n\n\n
The filibuster is a legislative tool to delay or block votes with debates until the 60-vote threshold is hit.
\n\n\n\n
Senators from both parties have debated changing filibuster rules while in the majority, ultimately deciding against the move in fear of losing leverage when they lose control of the chamber. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota has said repeatedly this month that there is plenty of reason not to employ the “talking filibuster,” in which senators physically hold the floor to prevent action from the opposing party, because the math isn’t on Republicans’ side this time around.
\n\n\n\n
Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who both co-sponsored the original legislation and has been more critical of the Trump administration in his final year in office, is among GOP lawmakers who criticize employing a filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act.
\n\n\n\n
“People on my side of the aisle and people at the far right of the political spectrum are trying to swing for the fences, and they’re not going to succeed,” he said. “In the process, we are setting up vulnerable Republicans for a more difficult environment than they already have.”
\n\n\n\n
What could happen this week? \n\n\n\n
Regardless of the division among senators on supporting the current version or adding more provisions at Trump’s behest, Thune had to bring the bill to the floor at some point during primary season as pressure ramped up within his party. Several Republicans said they’re “done” with the relentless pile-on from prominent MAGA figures pushing to pass the bill.
\n\n\n\n
The Senate is expected to kick off the debate process Tuesday afternoon, and Republicans could spend much of the week peddling the legislation on the floor in a series of marathon sessions. Democrats will make their concerns known, particularly on the stricter registration document requirements.
\n\n\n\n
Teeing up a vote will calm some of the fervor among Republicans and force those on the fence to make public their hesitations and concerns. However, any additions the president wants to make to the legislative text would likely have to be part of a new House version altogether, which would further delay an upper chamber vote on the issue.
","category":"politics","author":"Marissa Martinez","publishDate":"2026-03-17T16:35:48.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/SAVE_amerca_act_trump_voting.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/save-america-act-explained/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T18:01:05.422Z"},{"id":"i0xkwb","archiveId":"nf9s56","slug":"full-year-estimates-show-overall-stability-in-abortion-incidence-decreased-travel-and-increased-tele","title":"Full-Year Estimates Show Overall Stability in Abortion Incidence, Decreased Travel and Increased Telehealth Provision","excerpt":"
Full-Year Estimates Show Overall Stability in Abortion Incidence, Decreased Travel and Increased Telehealth Provision In early February, while the nation was still reeling from the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents, Loretta Ross and Jackson Katz—two feminist academics with decidedly different backgrounds and identities—discussed how U.S. federal agents became the enforcement arm of the nation’s racism and misogyny.\nYou'll find this, and more, in the Spring 2026 issue of Ms.
\nThe post Cover Reveal and Spring 2026 Issue Sneak Peek: ICE Is ‘the Army of the Patriarchy’ appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"immigration","author":"Kathy Spillar","publishDate":"2026-03-17T16:01:56.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Spring-2026-Ms.-Magazine-Cover-Reveal-and-Sneak-Peek-1.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/17/spring-2026-ms-magazine-cover-reveal-sneak-peek-ice-is-the-army-of-the-patriarchy/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T18:01:04.925Z"},{"id":"f8hkyl","archiveId":"3mk03h","slug":"the-supreme-court-of-canada","title":"The Supreme Court of Canada","excerpt":"Welcome to SCOTUSblog’s recurring series in which we interview experts on different supreme courts around the world and how they compare to our own. For our debut column, we covered […] The post The Supreme Court of Canada appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"Welcome to SCOTUSblog’s recurring series in which we interview experts on different supreme courts around the world and how they compare to our own. For our debut column , we covered the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Today we visit our northern neighbor with the help of Professor Adam Dodek , a scholar and frequent commentator on the Supreme Court of Canada.
\n\n\n\nProfessor Dodek is a Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Ottawa. A graduate of Harvard Law School and a Fulbright Scholar, he clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Supreme Court of Israel, and the Supreme Court of Canada. He was a member of the three-person group who advised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on reforms to the Supreme Court of Canada’s appointment process that were implemented in 2016.
\n\n\n\nOur written interview is below.
\n\n\n\nSo let’s begin with the basics. How many justices are on the Supreme Court of Canada?
\n\n\n\nThere are nine judges, consisting of the chief justice and eight “puisne” (unfortunately pronounced “puny”) judges who are equivalent to associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. “Puisne” is old French for “later born” and distinguishes an “inferior” judge from the chief justice.
\n\n\n\nHow are these justices selected?
\n\n\n\nSupreme Court justices are appointed by the Governor General (the King’s representative in Canada) on the advice of the Prime Minister. The role of the Governor General is strictly formal; it is the Prime Minister who makes the choice. The Prime Minister has extremely wide discretion; the statutory requirements under the Supreme Court Act are minimal (a Supreme Court justice must have at least 10 years’ experience at the bar or be appointed from a lower court). The Supreme Court Act requires that at least three of the judges must be appointed from Quebec (due to its distinctive civil law system). By convention, three judges are appointed from Ontario, two from Western Canada, and one from Atlantic Canada.
\n\n\n\nIn 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau set up a process whereby interested candidates had to apply for advertised vacancies (full disclosure: I was one of a group of three professors who provided advice on these reforms). An independent selection committee reviewed applications and selected candidates to be interviewed and provided the prime minister with a shortlist of candidates from which to select. It is not known whether Prime Minister Mark Carney will follow this process. One justice announced her intention to retire effective May 30, 2026, and as of the date of this interview, no process has been announced.
\n\n\n\nThere is no role for the legislative branch in the selection of Supreme Court of Canada justices. However, a practice has developed that the nominee appears before an ad-hoc committee of parliamentarians for questioning, usually moderated by a law professor. The committee has no power to veto a nominee and the questioning of nominees has been rather gentle compared to U.S. Senate hearings.
\n\n\n\nWhat is the profile of a typical justice? For example, do they often come from having served as a judge on a lower court?
\n\n\n\nMost Supreme Court of Canada judges are appointed from the courts of appeal and most of them were trial court judges before. It is common that those justices were trial court judges before their elevation to the court of appeal. Since 1988, there has almost always been one judge who was appointed directly from practice to the Supreme Court of Canada.
\n\n\n\nDo the justices serve terms – if so, of what length?
\n\n\n\nSupreme Court of Canada judges may serve until mandatory retirement at age 75. This is in line with the mandatory retirement age for most judges in Canada and for Canadian Senators.
\n\n\n\nDoes the Supreme Court of Canada only hear appeals? Are there any cases in which it has original jurisdiction?
\n\n\n\nThe Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of appeal for Canada and hears appeals from provincial and federal courts of appeals. It also has original jurisdiction in “reference cases,” which are requests for advisory opinions submitted to it by the federal cabinet. The scope of permissible reference questions is extremely broad. Some of the biggest landmark cases have been references. The Supreme Court of Canada also hears “as of right” appeals; appeals where there is a statutory right to appeal from a lower court to it. These mostly involve criminal cases but also include appeals from references initiated by provincial governments in their provincial courts of appeal.
\n\n\n\nCan the Supreme Court of Canada overturn acts of Parliament? If so, how often does this occur?
\n\n\n\nYes. The Supreme Court of Canada can overturn acts of the federal Parliament and of provincial legislatures. It is not that unusual. The Supreme Court of Canada overturns acts of Parliament or provincial legislatures roughly 0-3 times per year.
\n\n\n\nAre cases decided by a simple majority?
\n\n\n\nYes.
\n\n\n\nHow is the opinion writer assigned?
\n\n\n\nThe chief justice assigns the opinion writer for the court’s unanimous or majority decision after each two-week period of hearings, based on the judges’ expertise, workload, and preferences. Although there are nine judges on the court, not all nine hear all appeals. The court may sit in panels of five, seven, or nine judges (and exceptionally in eight). The chief justice sets the size and composition of the panel for each case. Usually, the court will sit nine justices for important cases. All decisions are published in both English and French and counsel may argue in either language.
\n\n\n\nIs there a tradition of concurrences or dissents on the court?
\n\n\n\nYes. Until the 1960s, it was quite common for each justice, or groups of two or three justices, to write separate opinions. Over time, the practice developed of writing majority decisions with concurrences and dissents. Dissents at the Supreme Court of Canada tend to be less strident with fewer personal attacks than dissents at the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court of Canada has a higher rate of unanimous decision making than the Supreme Court of the United States, but it has been more fractured over the past 5-10 years.
\n\n\n\nWhat were some major issues recently decided by the Supreme Court of Canada?
\n\n\n\nIn Bedford Carter v. Canada
\n\n\n\nThe court decides many high-profile federalism cases involving the constitutional division of powers between the federal Parliament and provincial legislatures. In the Greenhouse Gas Pricing Act Reference
\n\n\n\nLater this month, the Supreme Court will hear an appeal from Quebec on the use of the Canadian Charter of Right’s “notwithstanding clause” which allows the federal Parliament and provincial legislatures to “override” certain constitutionally-protected rights. The use of the notwithstanding clause has become more frequent and more controversial over the past decade. Another case will be heard by the Supreme Court this fall involving the province of Saskatchewan’s use of the notwithstanding clause to protect legislation restricting gender-identity policies in schools. Some American jurists, such as the late Robert Bork, have been enamored of “the Canadian override” and advocated for its adoption in the U.S. Constitution.
\n\n\n\nWhat have been some particularly controversial issues decided by the Supreme Court of Canada throughout its history?
\n\n\n\nIn 1982, the Supreme Court decided whether the federal Parliament could unilaterally patriate the Constitution from the United Kingdom, making it wholly Canadian and adding a constitutionally-entrenched bill of rights known as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms . That decision was known as the Patriation Reference Quebec Secession Reference .
\n\n\n\nIn R. v. Morgentaler R. v. Keegstra
\n\n\n\nThe United States Supreme Court is often seen as partisan. Does the Supreme Court of Canada have a partisan reputation?
\n\n\n\nNot particularly, especially when compared to the United States Supreme Court. In Canada, we don’t usually refer to a judge by the Prime Minister who appointed them. We don’t speak of “Liberal justices” or “Conservative justices” the same way Americans speak of “Democratic justices” and “Republican justices.” The last three chief justices (Antonio Lamer , 1990-2000; Beverley McLachlin , 2000-17; and Richard Wagner , 2017-) were all appointed to the high court by the prime minister of one political party (Liberal Party or Conservative Party) and elevated to chief justice by the prime minister of the other political party.
\n\n\n\nWould you say the Supreme Court of Canada is considered a particularly powerful institution – say, compared to the Prime Minister or Parliament?
\n\n\n\nYes, most certainly, especially compared to Parliament. Under the Canadian parliamentary system, the prime minister is the leader of the party that can control Parliament so usually Parliament follows and approves the Prime Minister’s agenda. As a result, the Prime Minister in Canada is very powerful, arguably even more powerful than the U.S. President (within each’s system of government). There is no strict separation of powers in Canada.
\n\n\n\nWhat aspect of the Supreme Court of Canada do you see as superior to that of the Supreme Court of the United States?
\n\n\n\nIn many ways, the Supreme Court of Canada is more accessible than the Supreme Court of the United States. In particular, the Supreme Court of Canada hearings are webcast live (save in exceptional circumstances) and archived. The court gives advanced notice to the media and the public on when judgments will be released so there is not the same guessing game as in the United States.
\n\n\n\nThe Supreme Court of Canada is also much more open to considering international and foreign law than the Supreme Court of the United States is. I think this is a strength and not a weakness, as some American jurists assert.
\n\n\n\nNow I’ll ask the opposite: What aspect of the Supreme Court of the United States do you see as superior to that of the Supreme Court of Canada?
\n\n\n\nI think the Supreme Court of the United States’ workload and workflow is superior to that of the Supreme Court of Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada has decided only 34-59 cases per year over the past six years. It does not release all judgments by the summer each year the way the Supreme Court of the United States does. Thus, it is not unusual to wait for a year or more for the Supreme Court of Canada to issue a decision after it has heard a case. And unlike the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of Canada almost never gives reasons for denying leave to appeal (i.e., cert petitions).
\nThe post The Supreme Court of Canada appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Zachary Shemtob","publishDate":"2026-03-17T14:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-514479638.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/the-supreme-court-of-canada/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T18:01:19.510Z"},{"id":"223saj","archiveId":"fjf739","slug":"the-biggest-names-on-the-briefs","title":"The biggest names on the briefs","excerpt":"Empirical SCOTUS is a recurring series by Adam Feldman that looks at Supreme Court data, primarily in the form of opinions and oral arguments, to provide insights into the justices’ decision making and […] The post The biggest names on the briefs appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"Empirical SCOTUS is a recurring series by Adam Feldman that looks at Supreme Court data, primarily in the form of opinions and oral arguments, to provide insights into the justices’ decision making and what we can expect from the court in the future.
\n\n\n\nIn last year’s TikTok v. Garland Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. FCC
\n\n\n\nThat same precedent appeared throughout the briefing – but in radically different forms. TikTok’s brief invoked Turner to argue that the government cannot evade heightened review of a statute under the First Amendment through claims that speech should be treated differently based on its source. Turner , the brief argued, “does not suggest that, where Congress engages in content-and-speaker-based regulation, the Government can evade strict scrutiny by claiming the speaker is ‘special.’” The government’s brief cited the same case for the opposite proposition.
\n\n\n\nFor the present sake, the details of this argument don’t much matter. What does is that it was the same case and the same citation, yet there were completely different arguments about what it meant.
\n\n\n\nOf course, this isn’t unusual – it’s how Supreme Court advocacy works. Citations aren’t neutral markers of legal authority. They’re strategic choices about which precedents lend credibility, which frameworks control the analysis, and which justices’ reasoning will resonate with the court.
\n\n\n\nThis leaves open the question: Which authorities do advocates choose most, and what do those patterns reveal about the Supreme Court?
\n\n\n\nThis article examines all 191 parties’ merits briefs citing 3,482 cases across a total of 5,238 pages of briefs filed during the Supreme Court’s 2024 term. By coding every citation in each brief’s table of authorities, we can see not just which justices advocates invoke most often, but also which law firms cite which authorities, how public interest organizations and the Office of the Solicitor General approach citations differently, and what the aggregate picture tells us about how Supreme Court advocacy works today.
\n\n\n\nThe Roberts court – literally
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\n\n\n\nThis makes sense. Roberts has been on the court since 2005, authoring major opinions across nearly every area of law. He’s written landmark decisions on the Affordable Care Act, presidential immunity, voting rights, campaign finance, administrative law, and arbitration. His opinions represent doctrinal stability – the kind of precedent that both sides in a dispute can invoke because it established governing frameworks rather than taking maximalist positions. Roberts is key to the court’s infrastructure.
\n\n\n\nAs noted, Scalia is in second. Even nearly a decade after his death, Scalia’s writing continues to shape how advocates argue. Textualism, once a controversial method, is now the default language of statutory interpretation before the court. And Scalia remains its leading light.
\n\n\n\nThomas occupies the third tier, with 307 citations. His opinions appear most often in cases involving constitutional structure – federalism, the commerce clause, the nondelegation doctrine, etc. Advocates cite Thomas when they want to argue for limits on federal power or restrictions on the administrative state. In other words, his writing supplies the doctrinal architecture for arguments about what the federal government cannot do.
\n\n\n\nThe middle tier – Justices Samuel Alito (251 citations), Anthony Kennedy (243), Elena Kagan (225), Chief Justice William Rehnquist (224), and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (207) – reflects a mix of seniority, subject matter expertise, and methodological influence. Kennedy’s citations concentrate in constitutional rights cases where his pivotal opinions in Obergefell , Citizens United , and First Amendment disputes still govern. Kagan appears frequently in statutory interpretation and administrative law. Alito’s citations cluster in religious liberty, criminal procedure, and separation of powers disputes.
\n\n\n\nThe distribution suggests something important: citation patterns track both institutional authority and ideology. Roberts and Scalia together account for nearly a quarter of all justice citations. Their dominance reflects not just individual influence but the court’s center of gravity over the past two decades: towards a textualist, conservative orientation.
\n\n\n\nThe solicitor general’s Scalia strategy
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\n\n\n\nThis pattern is revealing. By invoking Scalia most frequently the OSG also borrows his textualist credibility. When the government argues that an agency acted within statutory bounds, for example, citing Scalia’s opinions about how to read statutes lends the argument legitimacy with the court’s current majority. But the OSG’s heavier reliance on Scalia suggests something more strategic: when you’re defending federal power before a court skeptical of federal power, you need to speak the court’s language. That language, today, is Scalia’s.
\n\n\n\nThe OSG’s citation pattern for other justices reinforces this. Kagan and Thomas appear frequently, but neither eclipses Scalia. The OSG cites Kennedy, Ginsburg, and Justice Stephen Breyer in moderate amounts – enough to invoke settled precedent in their areas of strength (especially on court deference to administrative agencies), but not so much as to signal ideological alignment. The OSG’s approach is ecumenical but tilted: invoke everyone but lean hardest on the justice whose methodology the court’s majority most respects.
\n\n\n\nBig Law’s citation portfolio
\n\n\n\nThe repeat-player law firms from this term (those that filed more than one brief on behalf of a merits party) that appear most often before the court exhibit distinct citation patterns. Firms like Gibson Dunn, Williams & Connolly, and Sidley Austin cite justices in ways that reveal both strategic calculation and subject-matter specialization. (Note that these firms were selected based on their participation levels alone.)
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\n\n\n\nOther firms show more pronounced patterns. Jones Day, which has strong conservative ties, cites Scalia heavily (29 pages) but also draws substantially on Thomas (24 pages) and Roberts (21 pages). Latham & Watkins spreads citations more evenly across justices. But the pattern suggests that repeat players don’t pick ideological sides so much as cite whoever wrote the governing opinions in their practice areas.
\n\n\n\nOne notable pattern: nearly every major firm cites Scalia extensively. No matter the case type, no matter the client, Scalia just keeps appearing. This confirms his role as the baseline authority – the justice whose methodology you must engage even if you’re arguing for an outcome that he would have rejected.
\n\n\n\nPublic interest organizations and citation strategy
\n\n\n\nPublic interest law firms show more divergent patterns. Organizations representing different constituencies cite different justices depending on their docket and litigation goals.
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\n\n\n\nThe Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest firm, shows its most heavy reliance on Thomas (5 pages) with several other justices trailing behind. Public Citizen, which is more liberal-leaning, cited Brennan most often.
\n\n\n\nAgain, these patterns suggest the possibility that ideological alignment matters, but less so than subject matter. Even organizations with strong political identities cite across the court’s spectrum. What matters most is which justice wrote the relevant opinion in the relevant area of law.
\n\n\n\nPrecedent’s gravitational pull
\n\n\n\nLoper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo Chevron deference, or the idea that courts should defer to agencies’ interpretation of ambiguous statutes. This makes sense – almost every regulatory or administrative law case now needs to address the post-Chevron landscape. Advocates cite Loper Bright both to argue that agencies lack authority and to distinguish why an agency’s interpretation of a statute or regulation remains valid even without Chevron deference.
\n\n\n\nOther heavily cited cases reflect the term’s docket. Becerra v. Empire Health Foundation Bostock v. Clayton County Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue
\n\n\n\nThe pattern of case-within-case citations reveals something about how advocacy works. Certain precedents become unavoidable – every brief in a category of cases must cite them. This creates citation cascades: once a case becomes central to a legal question, it appears in every brief addressing that question, which then reinforces its centrality.
\n\n\n\nThe temporal distribution of citations
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nThis temporal skew reflects several dynamics. First, modern cases address modern problems – administrative agencies, technology, contemporary statutory regimes. Second, the court’s current composition has been shaped by appointments from the 1980s onward, and those justices cite their own work and each other’s. Third, doctrinal frameworks change. Older cases get overruled, distinguished, or simply forgotten as newer precedent takes over.
\n\n\n\nBut the distribution also reflects advocacy strategy. Citing a 19th-century case can signal either deep historical grounding … or desperation – you’re reaching back because more recent precedent doesn’t help. And modern advocates prefer recent citations because the court prefers recent citations. The justices are often more familiar with opinions from their own era, more confident in their continued validity, and more likely to see them as controlling.
\n\n\n\nThe temporal pattern also reveals that constitutional law isn’t static. Despite the shift to originalism in some areas, advocates today aren’t arguing from first principles rooted in 1789 or 1868 as often as modern precedent. More often they’re arguing from frameworks established in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with older precedent invoked only when it remains directly relevant or serves rhetorical (or historical) purposes.
\n\n\n\nWhat citation patterns reveal
\n\n\n\nTaken together, these patterns tell us how Supreme Court advocacy works. As noted earlier, citations aren’t neutral – they’re strategic choices about which authorities lend credibility, which doctrinal frameworks control, and which justices’ methodologies the court will accept.
\n\n\n\nRoberts dominates not simply because he’s ideologically centrist but because he’s institutionally central. His opinions represent the court’s governing precedents across many areas of law. Scalia remains influential not through particular outcomes, necessarily, but through his methodological legacy – textualism as the default language of statutory interpretation. Thomas supplies the doctrinal architecture for arguments about structural constitutional limits. Other justices contribute specialized authority in their areas of expertise.
\n\n\n\nThe OSG’s heavy reliance on Scalia’s decisions reveals sophisticated advocacy: when defending federal power before a skeptical court, borrow the court’s preferred interpretive method. Big law firms cite whoever wrote the controlling opinions in their practice areas, which can be without regard to ideology. Public interest organizations do the same.
\n\n\n\nThe temporal distribution shows that advocacy operates in the present, not the distant past. Modern cases dominate because modern law is what the court applies. And certain precedents – especially new, transformative ones like Loper Bright – become inescapable, shaping every brief in their domain.
\n\n\n\nThese patterns matter because they reveal the hidden structure of appellate advocacy. Which justices get cited most isn’t just about influence – it’s about which authorities the court will find persuasive.
\n\n\n\nThis convergence also reflects professionalization. Supreme Court advocacy is now dominated by repeat players who know which citations work. The result is a relatively narrow citation universe – a few hundred cases and a handful of justices supply most of the authority for arguments before the court.
\n\n\n\nUltimately, the 2024 term briefs reveal a court and a bar operating within established frameworks. The citations track institutional authority, methodological influence, and subject-matter precedent. They show advocates making strategic choices about which authorities will resonate with this court, at this moment, on these issues. Maybe most importantly they show that in Supreme Court advocacy, some justices matter more than others – not because their views are always right, but because their opinions set the terms of the debate.
\nThe post The biggest names on the briefs appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"activism","author":"Adam Feldman","publishDate":"2026-03-17T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/image_f249f8.png?w=1024","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/the-biggest-names-on-the-briefs/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T18:01:19.510Z"},{"id":"69h3wx","archiveId":"inw8xf","slug":"abortion-on-the-2026-ballot-the-evolving-landscape-of-state-abortion-initiatives","title":"Abortion on the 2026 Ballot: The Evolving Landscape of State Abortion Initiatives","excerpt":"This issue brief reviews the abortion-related initiatives currently slated to be on the ballot in November 2026 and examines how these measures may impact abortion access in the state.","content":"This issue brief reviews the abortion-related initiatives currently slated to be on the ballot in November 2026 and examines how these measures may impact abortion access in the state.","category":"choice","author":"kffrolondad","publishDate":"2026-03-17T13:55:56.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2026/03/Feature-Image-2026-Abortion-Ballot-Inititiatives.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/abortion-on-the-2026-ballot-the-evolving-landscape-of-state-abortion-initiatives/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T18:01:04.898Z"},{"id":"dwzjx2","archiveId":"ei2kvg","slug":"washington-law-will-make-it-easier-for-state-to-distribute-its-abortion-pill-stockpile","title":"Washington Law Will Make It Easier for State to Distribute its Abortion Pill Stockpile","excerpt":"The newly-passed legislation makes it easier for the government to use or exchange soon-to-expire abortion drugs. The post Washington Law Will Make It Easier for State to Distribute its Abortion Pill Stockpile appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"Washington earlier this year had to return 30,000 expiring doses from its abortion pill stockpile to the manufacturer.
\n\n\n\nA state law signed March 14, 2026 seeks to ensure remaining pills the state has on hand are easier to access and use. Before Senate Bill 5917 , the state needed to sell its mifepristone pills for at least the purchase price, plus an extra $5 fee per dose.
\n\n\n\nThe new law eliminates the requirement for the state to get paid for the medication. It also requires the Washington State Department of Corrections to coordinate with the Department of Health to identify recipients for the pills.
\n\n\n\n“It’s more important than ever to protect access to reproductive health care,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said before signing legislation sponsored by Sen. Jessica Bateman, a Democrat who represents Olympia, Washington. Removing the cost barrier, he said, will make it easier for providers to access the state’s stockpile.
\n\n\n\nWashington Secretary of Health Dennis Worsham wrote to the governor this month, urging him to sign the bill.
\n\n\n\nFollowing the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade , some Republican-led states banned abortion. Mifepristone and misoprostol, the two abortion-inducing drugs, have become key for people to continue accessing the procedure.
\n\n\n\nIn the wake of the Supreme Court decision, then-Gov. Jay Inslee, in 2023, authorized the state’s purchase of 30,000 doses of mifepristone for $1.275 million in case the drug was no longer available due to federal restrictions. But that hasn’t yet become an issue here.
\n\n\n\nIn the same period of time, Ferguson, then the state’s attorney general, led a lawsuit that successfully blocked the federal government from doing anything to reduce the availability of mifepristone in Washington, 16 other states, and the District of Columbia. However, the judge in the case later overturned this ruling last July.
\n\n\n\nAcross the country there have been ongoing legal attempts to curtail access to the pills. A Louisiana court case heard recently in federal court threatens Biden-era policy allowing providers to prescribe mifepristone remotely without an in-person visit. And Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, of Missouri, this week announced legislation to undo U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for mifepristone.
\n\n\n\nBut because the pills remain readily available in Washington, they were set to expire at the end of January. Instead of destroying them, the state was able to return them to their manufacturer, according to the Washington State Women’s Commission, which requested the new law.
\n\n\n\nIt wasn’t immediately clear if the state had been refunded the nearly $1.3 million for the pills.
\n\n\n\nA separate, smaller stockpile of misoprostol that expired in February may have still needed to be destroyed. Advocates hope the new law, which takes effect immediately, will help save another batch expiring at the end of this month.
\n\n\n\nThe state also bought 17,600 doses of mifepristone in early 2025. They don’t expire until late 2028 and early 2029. On that purchase, the supplier agreed to accept unused doses when they expire and exchange them for new pills at no cost to the state.
\n\n\n\nMost Republicans argue the law signed on March 14, 2026 is fiscally irresponsible and makes the state an abortion pill distributor. Money from selling the pills goes into the state’s general fund.
\n\n\n\nDuring Senate floor debate on the bill in February 2026, senators shared two personal stories with diverging morals.
\n\n\n\nSen. Leonard Christian, a Republican representing Spokane Valley, Wasington, recalled his future wife getting an abortion when they were teenagers and his regrets.
\n\n\n\nSen. Noel Frame, a Democrat who represents Seattle, told of using misoprostol to manage a miscarriage a few years ago but not being able to find mifepristone, which is supposed to be taken in tandem with the other drug. This meant she had to get surgery.
\n\n\n\n“I tell this story to illustrate the point that this is about women’s health care, that these are medications that are safe,” Frame said. “They have been approved by the FDA for more than 25 years, and they are still hard to get access to.”
\n\n\n\nThe legislation passed the state legislature mostly along party lines, with Democratic support. In the state Senate, it got two Republican votes, from Sens. Paul Harris of Vancouver and Ron Muzzall of Oak Harbor, Washington.
\n\n\n\nIt was one of several wins for abortion care advocates this session.
\n\n\n\nFor one, the budget lawmakers approved Thursday restores $8.5 million in funding cut last year to the state’s Abortion Access Project.
\n\n\n\nAnd second, lawmakers passed a fee on insurers that would pay for grants to organizations providing abortion services. The tax in Senate Bill 6182 would raise about $10 million in its first year and around $2 million annually after that, according to a fiscal analysis .
\n\n\n\nThis story was originally reported by Jake Goldstein-Street of the Washington State Standard . The Washington State Standard info@washingtonstatestandard.com .
\nThe post Washington Law Will Make It Easier for State to Distribute its Abortion Pill Stockpile appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-17T12:59:00.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1b8b2ba1-7173-4ecc-845d-1b823afc3479-scaled.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/17/washington-law-will-make-it-easier-for-state-to-distribute-its-abortion-pill-stockpile/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T18:01:04.530Z"},{"id":"3jb5ef","archiveId":"9z4daj","slug":"ipas-president-038-ceo-anu-kumar-is-a-finalist-for-prestigious-win-win-award-2026","title":"Ipas President & CEO Anu Kumar is a finalist for prestigious WIN WIN Award 2026","excerpt":"Nomination recognizes Kumar’s work with Ipas to show that reproductive justice is essential for gender-equal societies The post Ipas President & CEO Anu Kumar is a finalist for prestigious WIN WIN Award 2026 appeared first on Ipas .","content":"\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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Nomination recognizes Kumar’s work with Ipas to show that reproductive justice is essential for gender-equal societies \n\t\t\t
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Ipas President & CEO Dr. Anu Kumar, a lifelong champion for women’s rights and reproductive justice, has been selected as a finalist for the WIN WIN Gothenburg Sustainability Award .
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The WIN WIN Award celebrates changemakers who inspire others and lead the way toward a sustainable future. Previous winners include Al Gore and Kofi Annan. This year’s award theme is “gender-equal societies,” and received a record 1,224 nominations from 136 countries .
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After a thorough jury evaluation, 10 finalists have been announced today for the WIN WIN Award and WIN WIN Youth Award (for nominees ages 13-29). Kumar is the first-ever finalist selected for work on reproductive rights and justice. Other finalists selected include Pakistani female education activist Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Prize winner in history.
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“The WIN WIN Award jury nominates Anu Kumar for her principled and strategic leadership, demonstrating how reproductive rights can be translated into concrete systems and processes,” the announcement states. “Her work shows how bodily autonomy and reproductive justice are essential for gender-equal societies and long-term social stability.”
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WIN WIN Award winners will be announced later in 2026.
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A lifetime devoted to reproductive justice \n
In her 24 years of leadership at Ipas, and now, in her ninth year as Ipas’s president and CEO, Kumar has been a relentless champion for the simple but revolutionary idea that abortion rights are human rights—and are necessary to realize gender equality.
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“At a time when reproductive rights, human rights, and democracy itself is under attack, the WIN WIN Award’s recognition of my work to advance reproductive justice is a light of hope during a dark time,” Kumar says. “I have dedicated my life to the cause of reproductive justice because the ability to control one’s body and reproductive life is critical for women to have power—economic power, social power, political power. It is critical to achieving gender equality and more just societies. I’m deeply honored to be among the changemakers working toward such a future.”
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Connecting abortion to gender equality \n
Ipas’s mission has always been to expand abortion access for all. And Kumar has always challenged the fields of international development and global health to think boldly about abortion. She highlights all that abortion access brings: bodily autonomy, decision-making power, a pathway out of poverty, continued education, the ability to life up to one’s fullest potential—and proven benefits to individuals, communities and even countries .
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Earlier in her tenure at Ipas, Kumar pioneered the field of abortion stigma, co-authoring a groundbreaking article that launched a robust field of research and activism. She has also worked with colleagues to create the sustainable abortion ecosystem model , which is rooted in human rights and recognizes the factors that impact a person’s ability to access abortion. This multifaceted approach to address the barriers that undermine sexual and reproductive health forms the foundation of Ipas’s work to advance women’s and girls’ rights, agency and reproductive autonomy.
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The post Ipas President & CEO Anu Kumar is a finalist for prestigious WIN WIN Award 2026 appeared first on Ipas .
","category":"choice","author":"Kristin Swanson","publishDate":"2026-03-17T11:32:12.000Z","image":"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Anu-Kumar.png","source":"Ipas","sourceUrl":"https://www.ipas.org/news/ipas-president-ceo-anu-kumar-is-a-finalist-for-prestigious-win-win-award-2026/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T12:01:10.016Z"},{"id":"uc156h","archiveId":"npv2jp","slug":"quincy-jones-estate-sells-part-of-his-legendary-catalog-including-michael-jackson-hits","title":"Quincy Jones’ Estate Sells Part Of His Legendary Catalog — Including Michael Jackson Hits","excerpt":"Quincy Jones’ estate has sold a notable portion of the late artist’s catalog, including some of his stake in Michael Jackon’s discography. Investment firm HarbourView acquired “select music and non-music […] The post Quincy Jones’ Estate Sells Part Of His Legendary Catalog — Including Michael Jackso...","content":" Michael Jackson 1994 Grammy awards with Quincy Jones (Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage)
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Andrea Bossi ·
Updated March 16, 2026 Getting your
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Quincy Jones’ estate has sold a notable portion of the late artist’s catalog, including some of his stake in Michael Jackon’s discography.
Investment firm HarbourView acquired “select music and non-music assets” on Thursday, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. The deal spans Jones’ assets, both publishing related and recorded. HarbourView Equity Partners also acquired assets tied to work in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, where Jones was an executive producer.
“Our father was endlessly curious and always ahead of his time,” Rashida Jones, the late producer’s daughter and actor, said in a statement. “Long before anyone talked about ‘multi-platform,’ he was already building bridges and connecting the dots across music, film, television, publishing, technology and culture, creating iconic juggernauts like Thriller, The Color Purple, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and [co-founding the magazine] Vibe.”
Jones died in 2024 at the age of 91. The Chicago-born music legend was raised amid the Great Depression and influenced by his mother’s mental illness. His discovery of an upright piano became a pivotal point in his journey into music. By as young as 14, he was performing in jazz clubs with Ray Charles. He didn’t just shift culture with his sonic taste and production genius. He was also, among many things, the first Black musical director of the Academy Awards in 1971.
“What made him extraordinary was his ability to see around corners and bring together the right people, ideas, and sounds to create timeless work again and again. As his children, our responsibility is to protect not only the catalog, but the spirit and love behind it,” Rashida Jones said. “HarbourView understands that legacy and has the vision and expertise to help ensure that future generations can feel the full scope of his everlasting impact.”
HarbourView, a New Jersey-headquartered firm, also acquired some stake in Jackson’s works. Jones was a close collaborator with the King of Pop and had produced some of his most seminal records like Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad.
“He was a once-in-a-century architect of culture,” HarbourView CEO Sherrese Clarke said in a statement. “Our partnership with the Estate is rooted in deep respect for Quincy’s creative vision and a long-term commitment to safeguarding his work, his likeness, and his influence for generations to come.”
Quincy Jones’ legendary body of work is only the latest HarbourView has acquired. The firm has been, no doubt, expanding quickly since its formation in 2021. It also owns music catalogs of Kelly Clarkson, T-Pain, Wiz Khalifa, and more.
The post Quincy Jones’ Estate Sells Part Of His Legendary Catalog — Including Michael Jackson Hits appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-17T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-79589627-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/quincy-jones-estate-sells-catalog/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T12:01:11.322Z"},{"id":"bviyum","archiveId":"9i9fl8","slug":"larenz-tate-is-the-face-of-bevel8217s-new-campaign","title":"Larenz Tate Is The Face Of Bevel’s New Campaign","excerpt":"It’s been nearly 30 years since Love Jones came out and Larenz Tate is still the “blues in our left thigh, trying to become the funk in our right” (if […] The post Larenz Tate Is The Face Of Bevel’s New Campaign appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Akili King ·
Updated March 16, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
It’s been nearly 30 years since Love Jones came out and Larenz Tate is still the “blues in our left thigh, trying to become the funk in our right” (if you know, you know). In other words, he’s still killing it while looking good doing so. Not only has he starred as Councilman Rashad Tate in Power Book II: Ghost in recent years, he’s also going to be in films Don’t Ever Wonder, and Michael, the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic, later this year. And, today, he’s being announced as the face of Black-owned grooming brand Bevel’s latest campaign for their new Body Cream.
Tate is equally as excited about the opportunity as we are. “Bevel is a brand that has been truly leading the way for premium, luxury, grooming and skincare,” he tells us while on set of his campaign shoot. “I’ve seen them start from the very beginning, I’ve been an admirer, and I’ve always wanted to be a part of the Bevel brand and family,” he says. Larenz adds, of course, that he loves that the brand caters to the needs of Black men. “They understand the necessity for us to look our best, feel our best, smell our best.”
When it comes to his own self-care practices, “grooming is a really big part of my daily routine,” he says. Especially having four sons, “I try to make sure that I’m setting an example for them. So when they can see their pops doing his thing, they stay inspired and motivated to not only look their best, but certainly feel their best.”
Aside from meditation, daily moisturizing is essential to him—making this partnership with Bevel even more in alignment. “I love that this product is really catered towards the men,” he notes. “Typically, when we’re using products, it’s usually a product we’ve probably been introduced to by the women in our life—your wife, your mom, or your sister,” he says laughingly.Now, he, and other men, can use their own. “I think what Bevel has been able to do is create something with not only quality ingredients,” like cocoa butter, shea butter, and hyaluronic acid, “but it certainly has the fragrance that speaks to me. It feels familiar, feels clean, and feels fresh.”
Speaking of women, since it’s Women’s History Month, naturally, we had to ask him what inspires him most about Black women. “What doesn’t inspire me?” he says. “Black women are truly, for me, the standard of beauty, the standard of greatness,” Tate adds. “Coming from a family of amazing women, I’ve been surrounded by women who are incredibly intelligent, who are confident, compassionate, and ultimately loving,” he rerflects. “There’s no loyalty and support that you can get from anyone else more than a Black woman. If you have Black women in your corner, you’re winning.”
And when it comes to Black women in Tate’s corner, specifically, Nia Long comes to mind. The actress will be starring alongside him in the upcoming film Don’t Ever Wonder on NETFLIX. “We’re very excited about it. And we shot it in the amazing New York City and it’s going to be phenomenal,” he adds. “This is a game changer. I can’t wait.” And neither can we.
You can find Bevel’s new Body Cream on Getbevel.com .
TOPICS:
Bevel Larenz Tate Nia Long The post Larenz Tate Is The Face Of Bevel’s New Campaign appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-17T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/exclusive-larenz-tate-bevel-campaign-interview/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T12:01:11.322Z"},{"id":"t3y26f","archiveId":"nbwdd3","slug":"the-snip-shift-march-madness-used-to-drive-vasectomies-now-abortion-bans-do","title":"The snip shift: March Madness used to drive vasectomies. Now abortion bans do.","excerpt":"“Vas Madness.” “Vasectomy Vacation.” Urologists have used these terms for years to signal that when real men get snipped, they get to watch sports on the couch. Urologists have encouraged vasectomies, the only permanent contraception for cisgender men, by promising that patients can recover while b...","content":"
“Vas Madness.” “Vasectomy Vacation.” Urologists have used these terms for years to signal that when real men get snipped, they get to watch sports on the couch.
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Urologists have encouraged vasectomies, the only permanent contraception for cisgender men, by promising that patients can recover while binging the NCAA men’s basketball tournament that happens every March.
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“You go in for a little snip snip and come out with doctors’ orders to sit back and watch nonstop basketball,” an announcer promised in a 2009 commercial for an Oregon urology clinic, one of the earliest recorded examples of medical professionals tying vasectomies to March Madness. “What could be better?”
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Vasectomies have never had the ubiquity of hormonal pills, intrauterine devices and other birth control options in the United States. Part of that is because the procedure, while technically reversible (with variable success), is considered permanent. But it’s also cultural. Does a doctor shot-blocking your sperm make you less of a man?
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Medical professionals have tried to change that using campaigns like the March Madness push. The idea is simple: Men who are done having kids can use a vasectomy as an excuse to sit on the couch, armed with a remote, frozen peas and no other responsibilities.
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Take the Oregon clinic ad, which noted that they had added extra slots to get a vasectomy done in time for the tournament. It ended by warning men about what they risked if they skipped this chance for “The Big V.”
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“If you miss out on this, you’ll end up recovering during a weekend marathon of ‘Desperate Housewives,’” the announcer promised. “That’s painful.”
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The message has been effective. The number of vasectomies spike every March, with many men directly citing the annual push and their excuse to watch basketball. One study suggested urologists see a 30 percent increase in appointments during the tournament. For the most part, men getting a procedure fit a specific profile: older, married dads who have decided they are done having children.
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But even with that March surge, the share of heterosexual couples relying on vasectomies for birth control remained stagnant for years , hovering around 5 percent. Now, though, the procedure may be getting more popular, for reasons totally unrelated to (basket)balls.
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Younger men — including those who are unmarried, and who don’t have kids — have turned to the procedure as a way to support their partners as abortion bans have spread. They’re offering a different rationale for when and why men might choose sterilization.
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The fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022 added a new level of urgency to an explanation that many men have turned to for decades when choosing vasectomies: the feeling that their partners have suffered enough.
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Men who shared their experiences with The 19th said they’re more worried about the risks of an unwanted pregnancy than they once were. Some said that they were already considering a vasectomy, but Roe’s overturn pushed them over the edge.
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And not one of them ever thought about doing it to watch basketball.
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For Barry Nelson, a 32-year-old outside of Minneapolis, a vasectomy offered a way to be an equal partner to his girlfriend.
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He’d known his whole life he didn’t want biological children, fearing he might pass on his Tourette syndrome. His girlfriend had already raised kids. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the decision that overturned Roe, spooked him.
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Nelson felt safer in his home state, where abortion is protected — until Election Day in 2024, when President Donald Trump was reelected. He worried that the president, who had taken credit for Roe’s overturn, might next turn to a national abortion ban or restrictions on contraception.
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“If in the future, she can’t get access to birth control, then at least I’ll have myself taken care of, and I’ll be able to take care of her in that way,” he said.
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The morning after the election, unsure of what the future might bring, Nelson swallowed his fear of needles and called the local hospital to schedule his vasectomy. The employee on the phone told him he was one maybe a dozen people to call so far that day.
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“The reason I got a vasectomy is to make sure my girlfriend could be cared for if she wasn’t able to have the same options,” he said. “And me doing my part to help our relationship and our future, that is masculine: helping your partner.”
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Basketball, he added, never would have figured into his timing. “I’m not a sports person,” he said.
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Mike Keon, a 42-year-old who lives in Nashville, said a vasectomy “was always in the back of my head. But Roe really was the deciding factor.”
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It wasn’t that he didn’t want to have kids. But if he did, he would foster or adopt children.
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(Anja Slibar for The 19th) \n\n\n\n
When Roe was overturned and Tennessee banned most abortions, Keon and his then-girlfriend, a registered nurse, started hearing stories. Reproductive health professionals were leaving their home state. They worried about what would happen if their birth control failed. And they were both scared that even if they traveled out of state for an abortion, she might somehow be held legally liable. (No abortion ban criminalizes out-of-state travel.)
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“When you hear horror stories about how they might prosecute people who have these things done — we didn’t want to take any risks,” he said.
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So in 2024, confident in his relationship and their future together, he got his vasectomy. The procedure took no more than 15 minutes; he spent the remainder of the day resting in bed. In less than a week, he said, he was back to normal.
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His partner called it “the most romantic thing someone’s ever done for her.” They have since gotten married.
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So far, 13 states including Tennessee have banned abortion almost entirely. Still more states have other strict bans, including six- and 12-week cutoffs. Pregnancy is now more dangerous: Research has linked abortion bans and restrictions to higher rates of pregnancy-related death. Multiple women have died or nearly died from pregnancy-related complications in states with bans, with reporting suggesting they would have lived with access to abortion.
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Sex, frankly, is a higher-risk proposition than it was before.
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When Trevor O’Hare, a 37-year-old dad in Florida, got his vasectomy in September, it was because he feared what might happen if his wife became pregnant again.
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“It just makes sense if you think about it for more than two seconds,” he said. “There’s an assault on women’s bodily autonomy and their rights, and this is one way that as men we can help stem the tide.”
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Interest was climbing well before Dobbs. A study from 2023 showed a 26 percent increase in vasectomies between 2014 and 2021 ; even then, men appeared to be factoring abortion access in their increasing interest in vasectomies.
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But Dobbs changed things: A health care research company found an 850 percent increase in the number of people searching for information about vasectomies after the decision. A study from last summer looked at men in Texas who got vasectomies after the state’s six-week abortion ban, which took effect in 2021, as well as after Dobbs, finding that almost 40 percent of the post-Dobbs vasectomies were for men who cited the decision specifically.
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These post-Dobbs vasectomies represent a demographic shift for the snip. That same study found that the people who got a vasectomy after the Texas law took effect were more likely to be younger, childless and single. After Dobbs, men who cited the decision had fewer kids and were younger compared with men who sought vasectomies without factoring in the court ruling. A 2024 study also found that more men got vasectomies after Dobbs, and that they were more likely to be younger and childless.
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Dr. Raevti Bole, a urologist at the Cleveland Clinic who has studied vasectomy trends, said most of her patients do still fit a conventional image: They’re married men and have had their “perfect number” of children; they are considering a vasectomy relatively later in life. But she’s noticed more people — including those who aren’t parents — having serious, open conversations about sterilization earlier than they otherwise might have.
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“There’s a sense of timeliness that people — not that they changed their mind in what they were intending to do, but they were making that decision having those conversations with partners in a more timely fashion,” she said. “Something about their situation has prompted them to sit down and say, ‘Let me have a serious conversation about where are we now, do we want kids or not.’”
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What she’s increasingly noticing, Bole said, is that “men want to be engaged in their care and be equal partners.”
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A vasectomy is a serious decision, said Matthew Gutmann, an anthropologist who has studied masculinity and vasectomies, predominantly in Mexico. He notes that people can change their minds about whether they want to have children. But in his research, too, many people who opted for the procedure — largely in Oaxaca — articulated a similar reasoning. They felt their partners had suffered enough.
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“The vast majority told me about, ‘Oh, my wife, she’s been pregnant three times, miscarried but gave birth twice, and goodness she’s been taking birth control for 15 years and it hasn’t been fun. It’s my turn,’” he said.
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American men are less likely than those in other wealthy Western nations to get vasectomies. The cultural stigma plays a big role: Some have said they fear they might not be perceived as manly. In a qualitative study in San Francisco, some Black men and Latinos expressed particular concern about a sterilizing procedure, citing historical efforts of forced sterilization in the United States. And research has found that many men worry a vasectomy will diminish their sex drive, or make it harder to get an erection or orgasm. (There’s no evidence to suggest that.)
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“Erection is a weird phenomenon. It’s such a quick transformation of the body in such a visible and blatant way, and I think that people who are used to having erections get used to it,” Gutmann said. “And therefore any kind of procedure in the genital region is going to cause preoccupation for a lot if not all.”
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Whiskey Miller said he understood the concerns some men might have — even though for him, getting a vasectomy ultimately felt like an obvious choice.
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“Obviously any surgery is scary to undergo. But I think a lot of it is the emotional symbolism or just machismo, all of that,” said the 33-year-old Coloradoan. “There’s a ton of misinformation about how it will affect your hormone levels or energy.”
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He’s talked to many men since getting his vasectomy, which took place only months after Roe’s fall, and he’s surprised by how many seem hesitant about a procedure that felt like an obvious step to take.
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Previously, he said, his partner relied on an intrauterine device, a highly effective form of birth control but one that can be particularly painful to insert. She was approaching the time when she’d have to get it replaced. And it hit him that maybe, with Roe gone, he should take a more active role in their family planning, even though abortion is protected by Colorado’s state constitution.
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“She had been taking on the lion’s share of the responsibility in managing our decision to not have children and be sexually active,” Miller said. “Admittedly, there was a level of protest against the way the world’s going. Hearing that it had gotten revoked just kind of galvanized me into action.”
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(Anja Slibar for The 19th) \n\n\n\n
That men without children are considering vasectomies is particularly noteworthy, said Dr. Kara Watts, a urologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who has also studied post-Dobbs trends.
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“It’s one thing to search this out and say let me see what’s available. To go through with it — we consider it a permanent decision for sterilization,” she said. “There is an option to reverse it but success rates are highly variable and it’s not always covered by insurance.”
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But for Miller, it was simple.
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“I was like, ‘I don’t ever want to have kids.’ She was like, ‘Why don’t you get a vasectomy?’” he said. “And I was like, ‘Why don’t I?’”
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When O’Hare was preparing to become a father in 2021, he and his wife still thought they might want multiple children. Then she gave birth, needing a Caesarean section and spending multiple days in the hospital. It was, he said, “traumatic,” and something neither of them wanted her to experience again.
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The couple, who lives outside Orlando, talked about his getting a vasectomy. But Dobbs was the turning point: ”A big, ‘oh shit’ moment,” he said.
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“What if my wife accidentally got pregnant again and something went wrong?” he said. “What if she needed an abortion that was medically necessary to save her life, and we live in Florida?”
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They weighed their decision for years before deciding, making sure they were confident in their decision — that there was no chance they’d want another kid.
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“It’s my turn to take some responsibility in this situation and make sure no harm comes to her just because I didn’t take action,” he said.
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Six months ago, he got his procedure. In the recovery, no basketball was required.
","category":"contraception","author":"Shefali Luthra","publishDate":"2026-03-17T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/19TH_March2026_AnjaS-02.jpeg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/men-vasectomies-abortion-bans-march-madness/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T12:01:09.396Z"},{"id":"s3p37z","archiveId":"v8m0up","slug":"i-want-everyone-to-be-free-a-midwifes-fight-for-womens-bodily-autonomy-in-chad","title":"‘I want everyone to be free’: A midwife’s fight for women’s bodily autonomy in Chad","excerpt":"Martine Naigna was arrested for helping a woman access contraception without a husband’s approval—and she kept fighting. The post ‘I want everyone to be free’: A midwife’s fight for women’s bodily autonomy in Chad appeared first on Ipas .","content":"
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Martine Ngaina was arrested for helping a woman access contraception without a husband’s approval—and she kept fighting
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Martine Naigna has spent the last 15 years working as a midwife in Chad’s toughest humanitarian settings—alongside refugee and nomadic communities, including in remote desert areas—to help meet the sexual and reproductive health needs of women and girls who are often the most marginalized and least served by the health system in times of crises.
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Now a health systems advisor with Ipas in Chad, she has built her career in a landscape where abortion is legally restricted and where patriarchal norms and systemic barriers have historically cost women their lives. Her advocacy was born of a singular, mounting frustration: witnessing preventable and needless maternal and child deaths because women lacked the autonomy to make decisions about their own bodies.
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“Because abortion is legally restricted, it makes people like me committed to reproductive freedom, and this stems from deep frustration,” explains Naigna. “You can see the needs, but it’s not easy to meet them.”
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Abortion was illegal in Chad until 2016. A legal shift that year decriminalized it under limited circumstances, including cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, or when the pregnancy endangers the mother’s life. Earlier, in 2002, Law 006 on the Promotion of Reproductive Health was officially passed, but the implementation decree wasn’t issued until 2021. This law is considered a cornerstone for women’s rights and bodily autonomy in Chad because it guarantees an individual’s right to reproductive health regardless of age or marital status.
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Confronting opposition from religious and community leaders \n
Despite this progress on paper, the law does not translate to immediate gains. Stigma surrounding sexual and reproductive health is strong, and health professionals and women and girls have historically faced threats and arrests for providing or seeking reproductive health services.
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Naigna is no stranger to these challenges. Early in her career, while working at a refugee camp with a humanitarian organization, she faced opposition from religious and community leaders who demanded that women seeking reproductive health care needed their husbands’ approval.
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“I argued that there was a law in place which protected these women’s rights, but they would hear none of it,” she explains. “I stood my ground, and at some point, my colleagues and I stopped calling husbands for their approval before providing family planning services. Why should a woman get approval from somebody when she needs health care?”
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She paid the price for her unflinching commitment to women’s bodily autonomy when she was arrested for giving a woman contraception without her husband’s consent (he then filed a complaint). However, her teammates and manager protested outside the police station, threatening to shut down all their services unless she was released.
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Naigna ( in a black headscarf) is pictured here during a training session with community members.
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Driving change one community at a time \n
Undeterred by the incident, Naigna continued her community advocacy. Alongside her colleagues, she began holding information sessions with religious leaders to discuss Law 006, which grants access to contraception services.
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“We met imams during Friday prayers,” she says. “Women can’t step into mosques, so we’d wait outside until they were done with prayers and speak to them. That’s how we ignited attitude changes at the community level.”
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Naigna argues that while she respects religion, culture and laws, they should not impede the reproductive health of women and girls.
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She and her colleagues witnessed tangible results. In the refugee camps where husbands dictated health-care access a decade ago, women now seek family planning freely.
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“Midwives, too, have full freedom in granting family planning to women,” she says. “I’m proud to have been part of the people who fought to make this change happen.”
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Ipas’s role in advocacy \n
Success at the refugee camp inspired Naigna to take on the role of health systems advisor with Ipas, which started operations in Chad in 2025 under the Women’s Integrated Sexual Health (WISH 2) project, funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth, & Development Office of the UK government. The work focuses on serving marginalized and hard-to-reach populations with high-quality reproductive health services and preventing death and injury from unsafe abortion. The program is a part of a broader effort to change harmful social and gender norms that hinder access to sexual and reproductive health services.
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“I want adolescent girls and women to know their rights—and to have the freedom to manage their own health and to make their own choices,” explains Naigna. “Ipas’s vision aligns with my professional goals.”
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Naigna wants adolescent girls and women to know their rights. She joined Ipas in 2025 and has been instrumental in our training and advocacy efforts.
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Naigna’s teammate—Sonia Adama Kodouroum, the research, monitoring and evaluation officer for Ipas in Chad—says the organization is filling a critical gap by documenting maternal deaths related to unsafe abortion and closely spaced pregnancies. Chad has one of the lowest contraceptive rates in the world, at 5%, and the second-highest maternal mortality rate, at 800 deaths per 100,000 live births.
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“For us to work effectively in advocacy, we need some evidence to build from,” Kodouroum says. “We use this evidence as a basis for our arguments.”
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Throughout Chad, Ipas is training young people as champions to raise awareness about the laws that exist to protect reproductive health and rights in the country. And Ipas is partnering with the Ministry of Justice to advocate for the ratification of the Maputo Protocol , which calls for women to be able to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights fully. “I want people in my local community to know that this freedom to choose exists, and that it’s necessary especially in cases of unplanned pregnancies where people feel the need to hide and procure unsafe abortions, which leads to deaths,” says Naigna. “I want people to know that they have the freedom to make their own choices about their bodies and their health.”
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The WISH 2 project in Chad will also engage the media to raise awareness about how to access sexual and reproductive health services and existing laws in the country that promote reproductive rights.
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“Using all forms of media—traditional, social and digital—will ensure that people in far-flung regions will get this information, including the legal knowledge they need to make informed choices about their reproductive health,” says Kodouroum.
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Slow but steady progress \n
While progress in achieving reproductive freedom in Chad has been steady, it remains slow. Naigna stays motivated by the memories of girls and women who couldn’t be saved.
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“I’ve seen women and girls die, even within my family, because they didn’t have the right to safe abortion or family planning,” she says.
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For those feeling overwhelmed by the slow pace of social change, Naigna offers a message of resilience.
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“To create some change, you need to stay determined. It’s a long-term fight, and it takes time for people to change. You must remain committed to your cause.”
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The post ‘I want everyone to be free’: A midwife’s fight for women’s bodily autonomy in Chad appeared first on Ipas .
","category":"global","author":"Kristin Swanson","publishDate":"2026-03-17T07:05:09.000Z","image":"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/dashes-3.svg","source":"Ipas","sourceUrl":"https://www.ipas.org/news/midwife-fight-bodily-autonomy-chad/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T12:01:10.016Z"},{"id":"rkoez","archiveId":"oydawr","slug":"the-academy-is-far-from-golden-feminist-wins-and-snubs-at-the-2026-oscars","title":"The Academy Is Far From Golden: Feminist Wins and Snubs at the 2026 Oscars","excerpt":"Autumn Durald Arkapaw. Amy Madigan. Jessie Buckley. Maggie Kang. Michelle Wong. Here are some of the feminist wins and losses that made up the 2026 Academy Awards. The post The Academy Is Far From Golden: Feminist Wins and Snubs at the 2026 Oscars appeared first on Ms. Magazine .","content":"
Autumn Durald Arkapaw. Amy Madigan. Jessie Buckley. Maggie Kang. Michelle Wong.
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Here are some of the feminist wins and losses that made up the 2026 Academy Awards.
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The post The Academy Is Far From Golden: Feminist Wins and Snubs at the 2026 Oscars appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Diana Mafe","publishDate":"2026-03-16T21:42:11.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2266324826.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/16/oscars-academy-awards-women-feminist/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T00:00:51.807Z"},{"id":"uuivl6","archiveId":"gsm389","slug":"paul-thomas-anderson-finally-weighs-in-on-debate-over-black-womens-depiction-in-one-battle-after-ano","title":"Paul Thomas Anderson Finally Weighs In On Debate Over Black Women’s Depiction In 'One Battle After Another'","excerpt":"The filmmaker addressed the longtime discourse surrounding his action dramedy after taking home three Oscars on Sunday, including Best Picture.","content":"","category":"breakthroughs","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-03-16T20:52:54.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/69b8323017000046752b214a.jpeg?cache=h10hFx5GDa&ops=crop_241_42_4956_3590%2Cscalefit_1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/paul-thomas-anderson-one-battle-after-another-black-women-criticism_n_69b82f1fe4b0e8cdfdd359c7","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T12:01:10.203Z"},{"id":"kzvxba","archiveId":"3koz1i","slug":"kathy-spillar-on-8216velshi8217-a-warning-about-the-rights-agenda-for-women","title":"Kathy Spillar on ‘Velshi’: A Warning About the Right’s Agenda for Women","excerpt":"This weekend on Velshi with MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) anchor Ali Velshi, Kathy Spillar—executive editor of Ms. and executive director of the Feminist Majority Foundation (publisher of Ms. )—joined to discuss a sweeping new policy blueprint from the Heritage Foundation that lays out a vision for reshap...","content":"
This weekend on Velshi with MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) anchor Ali Velshi, Kathy Spillar—executive editor of Ms. and executive director of the Feminist Majority Foundation (publisher of Ms. )—joined to discuss a sweeping new policy blueprint from the Heritage Foundation that lays out a vision for reshaping American family life and rolling back women’s independence.'
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Velshi summarized the underlying logic of the proposal starkly: “You cut off opportunities outside the home. You make the public sphere hostile to women’s independence. You create a system where the only viable path left for women is dependence on a man for survival. In other words, you drag the country back to a time when women had fewer choices.
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“Women today have opportunities their grandmothers could only dream of. From the perspective of the new right, that’s the crisis.”
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Spillar said the report spells out a broader political strategy. “They are determined to use whatever levers of power they have under the Trump administration—to change tax laws, to provide incentives for women to have more children, to get married younger and to stay married, even in bad relationships,\" and added the proposed policies primarily target heterosexual, middle- and upper-income families.
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“This is the game plan of an authoritarian regime,” she said. “It’s designed to support an authoritarian government that has control over its women—and therefore over its men as well, making men more compliant because they now have larger families who depend on them economically.”
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The post Kathy Spillar on ‘Velshi’: A Warning About the Right’s Agenda for Women appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Ms. Editors","publishDate":"2026-03-16T20:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-16-at-1.17.12-PM-scaled.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/16/kathy-spillar-ms-now-velshi-project-2025-heritage-foundation-womens-rights/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T00:00:51.807Z"},{"id":"dib3sm","archiveId":"a8blva","slug":"era-road-tour-weekly-road-diary-march-8-13","title":"ERA Road Tour: Weekly Road Diary (March 8-13)","excerpt":"Inspired by the 1916 suffrage road trip that helped win women the vote, activists behind Driving the Vote for Equality are traveling across the country in the restored Golden Flyer II to build support for recognizing the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment. Each week, Ms.","content":"
Inspired by the 1916 suffrage road trip that helped win women the vote, activists behind Driving the Vote for Equality are traveling across the country in the restored Golden Flyer II to build support for recognizing the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment.
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Each week, Ms. will share highlights from the road.
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During its first week on the road, the Golden Flyer II carried the push for the ERA through the Mid-Atlantic.
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Its second week took the Golden Flyer II through Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia—stopping in cities and towns where activists, students, historians and local leaders gathered to sign petitions, share suffrage history and press Congress to recognize the ERA as the 28th Amendment.
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The post ERA Road Tour: Weekly Road Diary (March 8-13) appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Driving the Vote for Equality","publishDate":"2026-03-16T19:21:03.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/image-e001eb9f.webp","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/16/era-road-tour-weekly-road-diary-march-8-13/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T00:00:51.807Z"},{"id":"4qxg3s","archiveId":"smkhoo","slug":"navigating-uncertainty-the-latest-challenge-to-the-title-x-family-planning-safety-net","title":"Navigating Uncertainty: The Latest Challenge to the Title X Family Planning Safety Net","excerpt":"The Administration's latest funding deadline and guidance shift intensifies pressure to the reproductive health safety net at a time when the number of uninsured individuals is projected to rise due to Medicaid cuts and expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, and Planned Pare...","content":"The Administration's latest funding deadline and guidance shift intensifies pressure to the reproductive health safety net at a time when the number of uninsured individuals is projected to rise due to Medicaid cuts and expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, and Planned Parenthood clinics have lost their federal Medicaid funding.","category":"choice","author":"kffaeronw","publishDate":"2026-03-16T19:16:01.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2026/03/260316_Quick-Takes_Alina-Salganicoff_Website.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/quick-take/navigating-uncertainty-the-latest-challenge-to-the-title-x-family-planning-safety-net/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T00:00:52.027Z"},{"id":"s81ywh","archiveId":"dtk9cf","slug":"queer-muslims-find-community-through-ramadan","title":"Queer Muslims Find Community Through Ramadan","excerpt":"New York’s LGBT Center hosts its tenth annual queer iftar. The post Queer Muslims Find Community Through Ramadan appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
One night during Ramadan each year, more than 100 queer folks find their way to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center tucked away in New York City’s West Village to break their fast. The iftar, which marks the end of the day’s fasting, draws in folks from all across the Eastern Seaboard and as far as California—all of whom want to celebrate the intersection of Muslim and queer culture.
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Amid escalating anti-immigrant sentiment and policy in the U.S., some queer Muslims have voiced feeling ostracized from their communities and faith traditions. But this year, during Islam’s holiest month, New York City’s LGBT Community Center marked a major milestone—the tenth anniversary of its annual iftar, where queer Muslims can celebrate their culture and break their fasts in the safety of their community.
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“Over the past decade, this event has remained a vital sanctuary where LGBTQ Muslims can fully embrace our intersectional and multicultural identities,” Mohamed Q. Amin, founder and executive director of the Caribbean Equality Project, said at the event. “At a time of rising violence against immigrants and continued efforts to erase transgender and queer people from public life, creating and protecting sacred spaces like this has never been more urgent.”
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In the event’s central room, a dozen tables welcomed guests as speakers from the Center and its partner organizations introduced the event. Then, the iftar began at 7 p.m. with the azan, or call to prayer. But unlike the traditional azan, where men lead the service, a queer woman—community organizer and educator Fazeela Siddiqui—led the LGBT Center’s azan. Canned water tabs popped and echoed across the hall as the group broke their fast together over bowls of dates.
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In another of the event’s three rooms, the crowd was entertained by speakers, drag shows, belly dancing, and spoken word poetry over a hot, halal meal sourced from local Muslim restaurants and vendors. A gender-neutral prayer space was set up in a separate room.
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This year’s theme was “A Decade of Ummah, ”which the Center defines as “the global community of Muslims bound together by faith or culture,” and featured performers from the last decade of its iftars.
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“Our ummah, our community, continues to guide us in building futures grounded in queer courage and collective power,” Amin said. “Ten years on, the LGBTQ community iftar stands as a living expression of repair, resilience, and love, an evergrowing ummah that nourishes body and spirit. And to every queer and trans Muslim whose life is endangered by war, imperialism, genocide, and criminalization, we honor your existence and we continue to fight for your freedom.”
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In an interview ahead of this year’s event, the Center’s manager of the New York State LGBT Health and Human Services Network, Louisa Benarbane, emphasized the need for “LGBTQ+ Muslim folks to really be in a space where they can unabashedly be themselves, but still be in community that is oriented in their faith.”
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The iftar, which often sells out, is an act of resilience, Benarbane added.
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The Center is “making sure that folks in that lens of their faith are still feeling connected to their religion, their cultures, and, of course, their identities, because they are not contradictions,” Benarbane said. “They are complementary.”
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A decade of iftars at the Center \n\n\n\n
The Center planned and hosted its first iftar in 2017, just months after President Donald Trump enacted a ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries . Trump has targeted both queer people and the Muslim community in the years since, referring to the U.S. population of more than 4 million Muslims as negative, hateful, and radical .
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The annual iftar “was a direct response to the Muslim ban,” Benarbane said. Queer Muslims needed a space where they could be empowered and build community.
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“There are LGBTQ+ Muslims, just like there are variances of all faith[s], and we need dedicated spaces to convene, not only as an act of resistance, but an act of resilience,” Benarbane said.
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Polling shows mixed acceptance of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people among Muslim Americans. In 2017, more than half of Muslim Americans reported acceptance , but the Pew Research Center’s 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) showed that 41 percent said homosexuality should be accepted. The RLS found that only 36 percent of Evangelical Protestants accepted homosexuality.
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“LGBTQ folks across faiths and cultures have always existed,” Benarbane said. “We will always continue to, and it is always the Center’s mission and goal to provide affirming spaces for that.”
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The Center’s iftar dinner parties are put together with the help of a coalition of other LGBTQ+ community organizations refusing to be “pigeonholed into this monolith,” according to Benarbane, including the Caribbean Equality Project, Tarab NYC, SALGA NYC, and the Ayah Project. Over the years, the iftars have grown increasingly popular.
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Prominent activists and politicians have attended the seminal iftar parties previously, including Shahana Hanif, the first Muslim woman elected to the New York City Council, and former New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani.
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Mamdani, who has since become New York City’s first Muslim mayor, did not attend the iftar this year, but instead sent a video message that was played for the Center’s iftar attendees before they broke their fast.
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The iftars have also explored many themes pertinent to what those in the community are experiencing. Last year, the theme was “Joy & Resilience as Resistance.” Benarbane said the event raised awareness about pinkwashing , a phenomenon where homophobia is used to justify atrocities —in this case, what a UN commission and many experts consider the genocide of Gazans by Israel.
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The Center’s 2025 iftar hosted a Palestinian drag king and a queer Palestinian poet, as well as activists from across the region.
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That legacy continued this year, amid the Trump administration’s increasing attacks against immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community. Since returning to office in 2025, the president has undermined access to gender-affirming care services, blocked legal recognition of trans people , and erased queer history from national landmarks and federal sites . Bills targeting queer people at the state and federal level have been on the rise since.
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“The more attacks continue on our community, the more we want our community members to know that we are here for them,” Benarbane said. “We will continue to resist and be a safe space for them to authentically be themselves and be in communities with others who share their lived experience and their sexual identity.”
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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‘There is no one way of being Muslim’ \n\n\n\n
The Center has also worked to provide resources on what it is to be Muslim and queer. The document provides historical context for queer Muslims, as well as up-to-date resources responding to the current political environment, and prayer guides for both Shia and Sunni denominations.
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“There is no one way of being Muslim,” the prayer companion emphasizes throughout. It includes crossword puzzles, book recommendations, a coloring page, and even a “Where’s Waldo?” half-page game.
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“Why celebrate when so many in our communities and across the world are suffering? Because joy is resistance. In a time of rising threats—from ICE raids to attacks on people of color and trans communities—joy keeps us strong,” the guide reads. “It fuels our fight, brings us together, and reminds us of the future we’re building. We celebrate, not in spite of the struggle, but because of it. So have fun! Joy is halal.”
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Nationwide queer resilience \n\n\n\n
On the West Coast, LGBTQ+ Muslims are also finding connection in culture and religious practice at a series of queer-friendly events hosted by Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV).
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The organization hosts iftars each year.
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Ani Zonneveld, who founded the group and is also an imam, leads the prayers at her iftars Mecca-style. While traditional prayers separate men and women on different sides of the room, Mecca-style prayers allow men and women to stand wherever they want, unsegregated.
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“I never did the Mecca-style prayer before, and it made me feel like there’s more than one way that I can be Muslim, and it helped me in my faith that way,” MPV volunteer Arisha Ashraf said.
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“I feel like there’s a part of me now that’s able to exist again in queer spaces,” Ashraf added.
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The organization’s website is also home to a variety of LGBTQ+ resources that exhibit queer histories in Islam, emphasizing how colonialism and its remnants have impacted different countries in penalizing queerness for centuries.
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Ashraf, who regularly attends the group’s annual iftars, said the experiences of the dinner helped her broaden her understanding of Islam and integrate her Muslim community with her queer community. MPV’s LGBTQ+ mental health toolkit , along with more theological lectures provided, helped Ashraf connect with her faith.
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She discovered the organization through MeetUp, a social platform for finding like-minded group activities. And last year, Ashraf marched with the organization during the Pride parade in West Hollywood, which describes itself as one of the world’s biggest Pride events. She delivered a prayer alongside other faith-based organizations.
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“People would say things like, ‘Well, how do you justify that, though, because it’s not in the Quran.’ And they just get hung up on that,” said Ashraf. “How many things do each of us do that aren’t theologically justified? But we’re still here.”
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The work by groups like Muslims for Progressive Values in West Hollywood and the Center in the West Village are connecting LGBTQ+ Muslims to their community, while promoting gender and sexual diversity.
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“You’re putting queer people back into Islam, and it feels super affirming,” Ashraf said.
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The post Queer Muslims Find Community Through Ramadan appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"resilience","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-16T17:25:20.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Queer-Iftar-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/16/queer-muslims-find-community-through-ramadan/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T18:01:05.986Z"},{"id":"pag4fz","archiveId":"hxjzz5","slug":"haitian-nationals-ask-court-to-deny-trump-administrations-request-to-remove-their-protected-status","title":"Haitian nationals ask court to deny Trump administration’s request to remove their protected status","excerpt":"A group of Haitian nationals urged the Supreme Court on Monday to leave in place a ruling by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that allows them to stay in […] The post Haitian nationals ask court to deny Trump administration’s request to remove their protected status appeared first on SCOTUSblog ...","content":"
A group of Haitian nationals urged the Supreme Court on Monday to leave in place a ruling by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that allows them to stay in the United States for the time being because of unsafe conditions in their home country. Since returning to office last year, the Trump administration has sought to end deportation protections for several countries, including Venezuela, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. In a 40-page filing , the Haitian nationals told the justices that they will “suffer irreparable—potentially fatal—injury” if that ruling is put on hold because they could be deported immediately to Haiti, which they described as “‘a maelstrom of disease, poverty, violence (including sexual violence) and death.’”
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The program at the center of the dispute is known as the Temporary Protected Status program . Established in 1990 by Congress, it allows the Department of Homeland Security to authorize the nationals of a specific country to remain in the United States and work when they cannot go home because of a natural disaster, armed conflict, or other “extraordinary or temporary” conditions there.
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Janet Napolitano, then the Secretary of Homeland Security, designated Haiti under the TPS program in 2010, shortly after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck just outside the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, causing catastrophic damage and hundreds of thousands of deaths. As of June 2025 , there were approximately 350,000 Haitian nationals in the United States with temporary protected status.
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Then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced late last year that the Trump administration intended to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation, effective Feb. 3, 2026. She had determined, she said, that although “escalating violence and gang violence” persisted in Port-au-Prince, “there are no extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti that prevent Haitian nationals … from returning in safety.” And in any event, Noem added, “it is contrary to the national interest of the United States to permit Haitian nationals … to remain temporarily in the United States.”
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A group of Haitian nationals with TPS went to federal court in December to challenge Noem’s efforts to end the program. On Feb. 2, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes temporarily blocked the government from ending the program for Haitians. She ruled that it was “substantially likely” that Noem had ended the Haitian TPS designation “because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants.” Noem had also violated the federal law governing administrative agencies, Reyes concluded, because she had not consulted with other federal agencies before ending Haiti’s TPS designation, nor had she considered “the billions Haitian TPS holders contribute to the economy.”
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A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the government’s request to pause Reyes’ ruling while the Haitian nationals’ challenge moves forward. Although the Supreme Court has already granted requests from the Trump administration to freeze similar rulings involving TPS designations for Venezuela, the majority explained, those cases were “‘meaningfully distinct’ because the government had invoked ‘complex and ongoing negotiations with Venezuela’” as part of its argument for temporary relief – negotiations, the majority suggested, that are not taking place with Haiti.
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The Trump administration came to the Supreme Court last week , asking the justices to step in and block Reyes’ ruling. U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer characterized the government’s effort to end the TPS designation for Haiti, as well as a similar effort for Syria, as “‘the legal equivalent of fraternal, if not identical, twins’” to its effort to end Venezuela’s TPS program, which the court had allowed to go forward for now. The lower courts, Sauer contended, “should be guided” by the Supreme Court’s orders in the Venezuelan TPS dispute; indeed, he noted, two other federal courts of appeals have followed those orders in cases involving the termination of TPS for other countries.
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In their Monday filing, the Haitian nationals countered that if Reyes’ order is put on hold, they could suffer permanent harm by being deported to Haiti while the litigation continues. They noted that conditions in Haiti remain perilous, so much so that “the State Department advises that people ‘not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest, and limited health care.’” Indeed, they continued, “last month, the decapitated bodies of four Haitian women deported from the U.S. several months earlier were found dumped in a river.”
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By contrast, they argued, the government will not suffer permanent harm if Reyes’ order remains in place for now. “Haitian TPS holders have lived in our midst for nearly two decades without problem,” they wrote. “There is no sudden emergency requiring their immediate expulsion.”
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Moreover, the Haitian nationals added, they are likely to prevail on the merits of their challenge, which is another key factor that courts consider in deciding whether to grant temporary relief. Among other things, they said, they are likely to win on their claim that the Trump administration violated the federal law governing administrative agencies. They emphasized that although Noem was required to consult with other agencies before terminating Haiti’s TPS designation, the government has conceded “that the only purported consultation was a three-sentence email exchange between a DHS staffer and a State Department staffer that did not address conditions in Haiti at all and touched on national interest obliquely at best.”
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Finally, the Haitian nationals urged the justices not to grant review now, without waiting for the court of appeals to weigh in. The issues in the case, they contended, are “important and complex” and are therefore “best resolved in the ordinary course.”
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The post Haitian nationals ask court to deny Trump administration’s request to remove their protected status appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"activism","author":"Amy Howe","publishDate":"2026-03-16T17:03:46.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1393695672.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/haitian-nationals-ask-court-to-deny-trump-administrations-request-to-remove-their-protected-status/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T18:01:18.163Z"},{"id":"4880mv","archiveId":"956wyx","slug":"birthright-citizenship-a-response-to-pete-patterson","title":"Birthright citizenship: a response to Pete Patterson","excerpt":"Brothers in Law is a recurring series by brothers Akhil and Vikram Amar, with special emphasis on measuring what the Supreme Court says against what the Constitution itself says. For more content from […] The post Birthright citizenship: a response to Pete Patterson appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"
Brothers in Law is a recurring series by brothers Akhil and Vikram Amar, with special emphasis on measuring what the Supreme Court says against what the Constitution itself says. For more content from Akhil and Vikram, please see Akhil’s free weekly podcast, “ Amarica’s Constitution ,” Vikram’s regular columns on Justia , and Akhil’s new book, Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840-1920.
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A recent SCOTUSblog post by attorney Pete Patterson is so riddled with confusions and misstatements that it requires a strong corrective. Today we consider several of its biggest blemishes.
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We begin with this weird passage: “The [14th] amendment’s text is contrary to the notion that citizenship is to be automatically granted to the children of temporary visitors at birth. First, its language rejects temporary presence as sufficient to establish State citizenship. Rather, Americans are citizens of ‘the State wherein they reside ,’ and reside means permanent residence, i.e., domicile.”
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This curious passage is confused and confusing on many levels. Let’s begin by recalling the key 14th Amendment sentence in its entirety: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” Now count the ways in which Patterson errs.
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First, contra Patterson’s garbled suggestion, U.S. citizenship in this sentence is not remotely the same thing as state citizenship. (A similar confusion/conflation also appears in the solicitor general’s brief at pages 20-21.) Indeed, a person can be a U.S. citizen without ever having been a state citizen. Consider for example a hypothetical president’s child born in the White House and living her whole life in Washington, D.C. She is surely a U.S. citizen, under a proper soil-and-flag analysis, for she was “born . . . in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” But our hypothetical first daughter has never been the citizen of any state and verily has never resided in any state. The same is true of any American born in a territory (say, New Mexico in the 1860s) and who lives her entire life in that territory. Thus, the “residence” language of the amendment is not about U.S. citizenship at all.
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A second and related point. As serious constitutionalists have long understood, and as Justice Robert Jackson noted nearly a century ago , the 14th Amendment’s residence language addresses an entirely different issue: This language guarantees every U.S. citizen a right to relocate over the course of his life – a right to reside as a full and equal state citizen in any state he might choose. No state can prevent a true American citizen from residing in that state and enjoying all the privileges of state citizenship. (Akhil stressed this point at page 381 of a book published in 2005.)
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Third, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 says nothing whatsoever about state citizenship or state residence. It citizenizes a broad swath of native-born, flag-and-soil Americans – including of course those born in territories and in D.C. If Patterson’s claim is that the 14th Amendment does not likewise citizenize American babies born outside the several states, then the amendment would have failed to achieve one of its central purposes: to provide a rock-solid constitutional foundation at least as broad as the 1866 Act itself. Without such a broad foundation, racist backers of the 1857 Dred Scott case (in which Chief Justice Roger Taney said that, constitutionally, Blacks could never be citizens) could have argued that the 1866 statute was unconstitutional in its effort to citizenize all American-born Black folk, in both states and territories .
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Fourth, the residence language of the amendment, as we have seen, addresses a person’s current residence, not his birth residence. It does not speak of “residence at birth .”
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Fifth, the amendment surely does not speak of parental residence or domicile. (Had it done so, it would have needed to address which parent or parents – a huge issue that Patterson simply misses.) The amendment addresses the child born, not the parent or parents who give birth. Imagine a married white couple from Virginia who conceive a child. Imagine further that both parents trace their lineage to the founding of Jamestown in the early 1600s and are thus entirely American on any conceivable view of the matter. Now imagine that while the child is still in her mother’s womb, the father dies and the mother in her ninth month of pregnancy travels to Pennsylvania to visit her sister who will help with the impending birth. Alas, the mother dies in childbirth, and the Pennsylvanian aunt assumes custody of the baby. The child is surely a flag-and-soil US citizen, but is surely not a Virginian, as were her parents. (Later in life, should the child choose to reside in Virginia, or in any other state for that matter, she undoubtedly has that right, under a proper reading of the amendment.)
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Sixth, Patterson’s weird “residence” argument ignores the plain language of Congress’ landmark 1952 immigration act , which affirms a soil-and-flag approach to birthright citizenship but says absolutely nothing whatsoever about residence: “The following shall be nationals and citizens of the United States at birth:
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Seventh: Moving beyond the amendment’s text, Patterson tries to invoke some rather technical verbiage from Senator Jacob Howard in 1866 to bolster Patterson’s untenable claim that the “children of temporary visitors” are not as a rule birthright citizens under the amendment. But Howard’s abstract language does not remotely say what Patterson wants and needs it to say on the specific issue of American-born children of foreign sojourners.
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On the other pan of the balance scale, countless specific and unambiguous statements from leading Republicans in the mid-1860s squarely rebut Patterson. For instance, President Lincoln’s Attorney General Edward Bates categorically declared that “children born in the United States of alien parents, who have never been naturalized, are native-born citizens of the United States.” Lincoln’s Secretary of State William Seward, said the same thing: “[T]he children of foreigners born here are citizens of the United States.” Ditto for Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, who would soon become chief justice: “[A]ll free persons born in the United States or naturalized of whatever color, are citizens of the United States.” In the 39th Congress, when asked whether the American-born children of itinerant (that is, non-domiciliary) non-citizen Gypsies would be birthright citizens under a precursor statute to the amendment, Senator Lyman Trumbull replied, “Undoubtedly .” Representative John Bingham used similarly robust language on the campaign trail in 1867 : “If a man is not a citizen of the country in which he was born, in God’s name of what country is he a citizen?” (All these quotes with full citations appear in Akhil’s amicus brief .)
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And if all that were not enough, consider the following exchange that unfolded on the floor of the Senate on May 23, 1866. Senator William Pitt Fessenden posed a hypothetical. “Suppose a person is born here of parents from abroad , temporarily in this country.” Senator Benjamin Franklin Wade answered unequivocally: “Most assuredly they would be citizens of the United States unless they went to another country and expatriated.” For this last point, we are indebted to attorney Chris Duggan’s brilliant and gripping amicus brief on behalf of the Charitable Irish Society of Boston and Pioneer New England Legal Foundation.
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***
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Now consider another adventurous statement from Patterson: “[E]ven if a member of a tribe was born while his parents were visiting, say, Chicago, that person still would not be a citizen under the 14th Amendment because his parents maintained their tribal allegiance.” Our question for Patterson: Is there even a single case, in any court, in all of American history, that so holds on its facts? If so, he should cite the case. At present, we know of no such judicial ruling. And there is surely no Supreme Court case that on its facts squarely holds this. In this specific quadrant, the evidence in fact cuts hard against Patterson. Surely there were countless situations in which tribally allegiant parents gave birth outside the soil of tribal enclaves. On our under-the-flag, soil-and-flag theory, these babies were all proper 14th Amendment citizens. They were, we believe , so treated by all branches of the American government at all relevant times. Thus far, Patterson and his allies have failed to produce a single definitive counterexample.
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****
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Elsewhere, Patterson conflates the language of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 with rather different language of the 14th Amendment. Here is the relevant passage of the statute: “All persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.” And, to repeat, here is the relevant language of the amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
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As Akhil made clear at pages 194-97 of a book published in 1998, the amendment ranged beyond the statute in key respects. In a later post, we hope to return to this interesting wrinkle in more detail. For now it suffices to say that the language of the act – “not subject to any foreign power” – differs from the counterpart language of the amendment: “subject to the jurisdiction [of the United States].” A baby born with dual citizenship – and of course both the act and the amendment address the baby, not the parent or parents – might indeed in some sense be subject to a foreign power (and thus fall outside the protective blanket of the act) but might also be undeniably subject to American jurisdiction (and thus fall within the amendment’s protective blanket).
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***
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Finally, we come to the biggest problem of all: Patterson’s weird appeal to anti-feudalism. True, America’s equal-birthright-citizenship regime does have deep roots in English common law dating back to the early 1600s – a feudal era in which Stuart kings claimed authority to rule birthright subjects based on the monarch’s divine birthright. Although these divine-right ideas were widely repudiated by the time of the English Glorious Revolution in the 1680s, most American colonists as late as 1775 did indeed see themselves as birthright Crown subjects, and this birth-king-birth-subject system did retain strong feudal remnants. But in July 1776, the colonies unanimously declared a new, more republican , regime based in no small part on the bold idea that all men are created equal. As Akhil has laid out in detail in his recent book, Born Equal , and has summarized in his more recent Barbara amicus briefequal birthright citizenship . According to this mid-1860s Lincolnian vision, all babies born on American soil under the American flag were born equal – whether born Black or white, male or female, Jewish or Gentile. Also, and relatedly, all American babies born on American soil under the American flag were born equal, whether born to citizen parents or alien parents, whether born to long-time residents or wandering sojourners.
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This is the precise Lincolnian idea that Patterson defies when he insists that a baby born in America to alien sojourners is lesser than a baby born in America to citizen parents. Patterson’s is a view closely akin to the view of the 1850s Know-Nothing party – a party that Lincoln emphatically repudiated . Patterson openly opposes Lincoln’s grand anti-hereditary idea of birth equality. Patterson wants modern America to focus instead on blood and parentage – on a American-born baby’s birth-lineage above and beyond her birth-location. But Patterson’s focus on lineage and blood is itself a strong vestige of Old World ideology. Patterson’s repudiation of Lincoln – under a banner of anti-feudalism, no less! – is thus somewhere between obtuse and absurd.
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The post Birthright citizenship: a response to Pete Patterson appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Akhil and Vikram Amar","publishDate":"2026-03-16T14:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2250382434.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/birthright-citizenship-a-response-to-pete-patterson/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T18:01:18.163Z"},{"id":"ye22ri","archiveId":"gnky0u","slug":"the-birth-control-pill-and-cancer-what-are-the-risks","title":"The birth control pill and cancer: What are the risks?","excerpt":"Originally published by PolitiFact. A flood of recent social media posts described hormonal birth control pills as cancer causing. “The WHO has just released a statement labeling birth control pills as a Group 1 cancer-causing agent,” one conservative commentator wrote March 8 on X.","content":"
Originally published by PolitiFact .
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A flood of recent social media posts described hormonal birth control pills as cancer causing.
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“The WHO has just released a statement labeling birth control pills as a Group 1 cancer-causing agent,” one conservative commentator wrote March 8 on X. His post was viewed more than 2.2 million times.
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Leading Report, a conservative account that describes itself as a “leading source for breaking news” but often shares misinformation , posted what it called “breaking news” that the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer lists birth control pills as a “Group 1” carcinogen.
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That’s alarming. And it’s not entirely inaccurate — but it’s also more nuanced than what the posts say.
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There’s a lot to know about birth control pills and cancer risk. Yes, scientific evidence shows that birth control pills can increase the risk of some types of cancers. Research also shows that taking the pill decreases the risk of some cancers. And although the WHO classified the pill as a cancer risk, it did so 25 years ago — this is not new. None of this means that if you’ve been taking the pill for years you’re certainly going to get cancer.
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Before switching contraceptives, here’s some information to consider.
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How do birth control pills work? \n\n\n\n
The most common birth control pills use hormones estrogen and progestin to block conception. This medication is often colloquially called “the pill” and it is sometimes referred to as combined birth control pills. The combined hormones stop or reduce ovulation , an ovary’s release of an egg, and make it harder for sperm to enter the uterus and reach an egg. They also thin the uterus’ lining, making it more difficult for a fertilized egg to grow there.
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Progestin-only birth control pills, also known as mini pills, work similarly but about half of people using the mini pill still ovulate.
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What does the World Health Organization say about the pill and cancer? \n\n\n\n
A 2025 WHO fact sheet on oral contraceptives described them as “one of the most effective ways to prevent unintended and high-risk pregnancies” and “a major public health achievement” that has improved women’s health and reduced maternal mortality.
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The WHO also wrote that oral contraceptives have a “complex association with cancer risk.”
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The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a WHO group that identifies hazards known to cause cancer in humans, in 1999 classified the pill as a carcinogen because it said there’s sufficient evidence demonstrating it causes some types of cancer.
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The same year, and in subsequent reviews , the agency highlighted research showing that taking the pill can reduce the risk of endometrial and ovarian cancer.
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Why does the WHO classify the pill as carcinogenic? \n\n\n\n
That WHO group’s 1999 report on hormonal contraception concluded that birth control pills containing both estrogen and progestin fall within its “Group 1: Carcinogenic to humans” classification. The agency reaffirmed that finding in 2008 , when it determined there’s sufficient evidence the pills can cause breast, cervical and liver cancer.
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Agency spokesperson Veronique Terrasse said the hazard classification is based on the strength of the evidence showing something causes cancer at some exposure levels or in some circumstances. But it does not say anything about specific risk, which varies depending on the exposure types, exposure levels and a person’s unique profile.
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That’s how the pill wound up in the same category as other “Group 1” cancer-causing hazards such as asbestos, solar radiation and alcoholic beverage consumption. It also explains how smoking tobacco and secondhand tobacco smoke exposure are both classified as “Group 1” carcinogens.
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That they share the same classification does not mean that taking birth control pills is as likely to cause cancer as regularly smoking cigarettes.
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Two hazards (such as asbestos and the pill) in the same group should not be compared, Terrasse said. Such comparisons can be misleading because there is so much variety when it comes to exposure types, and personal risk levels.
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What does more recent research say? \n\n\n\n
Research since 2008 has continued to show that taking birth control pills increases the risk of certain cancers such as breast and cervical cancer while lowering the risk of others like ovarian cancer.
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A 2024 Frontiers in Global Women’s Health study found that people using hormonal contraceptives, including intrauterine devices, had a higher risk of cervical cancer compared with nonusers. The study also said people taking combined birth control pills who have mutations to their BRCA1 and BRCA2 tumor suppressor genes also have a higher breast cancer risk.
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That same 2024 study found that hormonal contraceptive users had a lower risk of ovarian and endometrial cancer.
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What’s the best way to consider the risks and benefits, then? \n\n\n\n
Given the conflicting information, it’s important to consider the absolute health risks of developing cancer or becoming pregnant — not just the potential increased risk that comes with the pill.
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The National Cancer Institute says about 0.6% of women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer at some point in their life.
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That means even if, for example, the risk of cervical cancer is 50% higher for people taking combined birth control pills, that’s still a risk of less than 1%, said Liz Borkowski, deputy director at the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health. People can also reduce their cervical cancer risk by getting the HPV vaccine and regular screening tests, she said.
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Ultimately, people should consider their health and risk factors, lifestyle habits and thoughts on pregnancy when deciding what contraception to use.
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“A key thing to remember about contraception is that it’s supposed to prevent pregnancy,” Borkowski said. “So people need to compare the side effects and risks of any method they’re considering against the many elevated health risks that accompany pregnancy, and factor in how well the method prevents pregnancy and how important it is to them to not get pregnant at this point in their life.”
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Megan Kearney","publishDate":"2026-03-16T14:26:30.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/birth-control.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/birth-control-pill-cancer-facts-risks/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T18:01:06.796Z"},{"id":"dxllml","archiveId":"hipoij","slug":"zendaya-in-custom-louis-vuitton-038-more-celeb-fashion-moments","title":"Zendaya In Custom Louis Vuitton & More Celeb Fashion Moments","excerpt":"From the ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards to the Academy Awards and the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party, it was a major week for Hollywood style. While many of our […] The post Zendaya In Custom Louis Vuitton & More Celeb Fashion Moments appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated March 16, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
From the ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards to the Academy Awards and the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party, it was a major week for Hollywood >Zendaya and her The Drama co-star Robert Pattinson took the stage to present the award for Best Director at the Academy Awards. For the occasion, Zendaya teamed up with her longtime stylist Law Roach and their collaborators at Louis Vuitton to create a custom one-shoulder gown. The off-the-shoulder design featured subtle ruching along the skirt and a striking side cutout, blending understated elegance with a bold red carpet moment.
Rapper Doechii took the Lollapalooza Chile stage in a show-stopping look crafted by her stylist Sam Woolf in collaboration with Cult Gaia . Perfectly timed for the upcoming award season, she dazzled in a burgundy fridge body suit featuring daring cutouts along the waist and stomach, complemented by a sweeping train, matching ankle fringe, and glimmering gold bangles that wrapped her arms.
Teyana Taylor has been living in Chanel all Oscar weekend. She made her first appearance at the Chanel and Charles Finch pre-Oscars dinner in a vibrant multicolored fur jacket straight from the Autumn/Winter 2026 runway, paired with sleek cat-eye frames and white boots with contrasting black toes.
Entrepreneur and influencer Kristen Noel showcased Uniqlo’s latest collaboration with JW Anderson, styling low-rise baggy jeans with a collared shirt and topping the look with a cropped tan windbreaker jacket.
In case you missed it, take a look at all the best celebrity fashion moments from the week.
Hollywood, CA – March 15, 2026: Zendaya and Robert Pattinson present the Oscar for Best Directoing during the 98th Annual Academy Awards held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, CA, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Swamp Princess (@doechii)
Teyana Taylor at Chanel & Charles Finch Pre-Oscars Dinner held at Polo Lounge on March 14, 2026 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kristen Noel (@kristennoel)
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 12: Zoe Kravitz is seen on March 12, 2026 in New York City.(Photo by XNY/Star Max/GC Images)
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Myha’la (@mmyhala)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 15: Quenlin Blackwell attends the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Mark Guiducci at Los Angeles County Museum of Art on March 15, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 12: Marsai Martin attends the 2026 ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Awards on March 12, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for ESSENCE)
ROME, ITALY – MARCH 12: Tyla attends the Valentino Show “Interferenze” Fall/Winter 2026 at Palazzo Barberini on March 12, 2026 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Arnold Jerocki/Getty Images for Valentino)
The post Zendaya In Custom Louis Vuitton & More Celeb Fashion Moments appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-16T14:17:59.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/zendaya-louis-vuitton-and-more-best-fashion-moments/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T18:01:12.269Z"},{"id":"odassz","archiveId":"j3w13j","slug":"reclaiming-phillis-wheatley-peters-imagination-as-a-feminist-founding-project","title":"Reclaiming Phillis Wheatley (Peters): Imagination as a Feminist Founding Project","excerpt":"More than her own failings, perhaps there are times when new nations are just not ready to be called into being. Although Phillis Wheatley (Peters) is widely known as the first African woman to publish a book of poetry in English, her biography—her forced Middle Passage journey to Boston, her enslav...","content":"
More than her own failings, perhaps there are times when new nations are just not ready to be called into being.
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Although Phillis Wheatley (Peters) is widely known as the first African woman to publish a book of poetry in English, her biography—her forced Middle Passage journey to Boston, her enslavement by the Wheatley family, her rise to poetic celebrity and eventual fall into obscurity—often looms larger than the poems themselves.
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But what would it mean to consider Phillis not as a “slave,” but as a poet, writer and critic who was enslaved?
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Slavery was not an innate identity. It was a system imposed upon the enslaved. And when we return to Phillis’ work with that understanding, we encounter a writer of formidable imagination—one who envisioned interior worlds of freedom even while living within bondage.
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Phillis’ personification of Imagination becomes, in this sense, a founding feminist figure—an “imperial queen” who invites us to leave the rolling universe behind and imagine new worlds. That work of imagination remains unfinished. It is the ongoing labor of love that Black feminist traditions continue to carry forward today.
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(This essay is part of the FEMINIST 250: Founding Feminists series, marking the 250th anniversary of America by reclaiming the revolution through the women and gender-expansive people whose ideas, labor and resistance shaped U.S. democracy.)
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The post Reclaiming Phillis Wheatley (Peters): Imagination as a Feminist Founding Project appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Dana Elle Murphy","publishDate":"2026-03-16T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Reclaiming-Phillis-Wheatley-Peters-Imagination-as-a-Feminist-Founding-Project-1.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/16/reclaiming-phillis-wheatley-peters-imagination-as-a-feminist-founding-project/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T18:01:06.617Z"},{"id":"qhyil4","archiveId":"h6xf3e","slug":"ryan-coogler-won-first-oscar-in-8216sinners8217-inspired-braids","title":"Ryan Coogler Won First Oscar In ‘Sinners’ Inspired Braids","excerpt":"Director Ryan Coogler brought both the accolades and the artistry to the Academy Awards this year. His film Sinners took home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, marking another major […] The post Ryan Coogler Won First Oscar In ‘Sinners’ Inspired Braids appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated March 16, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Director Ryan Coogler brought both the accolades and the artistry to the Academy Awards this year. His film Sinners took home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, marking another major milestone in his career and further cementing his influence as one of Hollywood’s most compelling filmmakers. Known for crafting culturally resonant films that blend history, music , and social commentary, Coogler’s latest project continues that tradition while pushing his creative vision forward.
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 15: (L-R) Ryan Coogler accepts the Writing (Original Screenplay) award for “Sinners” from Chris Evans onstage during the 98th Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
While much of the attention during the evening focused on the film’s historic win , Coogler delivered a subtle but striking >Tyzanna B, >ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards, he wore two crisp stitch braids that framed his face with clean precision. Earlier in the season, he also debuted a curved braided pattern that appeared on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter, further showcasing the artistry behind his hair moments.
Ryan Coogler at the 98th Annual Oscars held at Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Rich Polk/Penske Media via Getty Images)
From the red carpet to editorial covers, Coogler’s hairstyles became a quiet throughline of the season. A subtle yet intentional expressions of culture, creativity, and personal style.
The post Ryan Coogler Won First Oscar In ‘Sinners’ Inspired Braids appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-16T13:48:43.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/ryan-coogler-guitar-sinners-inspired-oscar-braids/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T18:01:12.269Z"},{"id":"afkh75","archiveId":"mqff01","slug":"how-this-abortion-champion-is-expanding-access-in-mozambique","title":"How this abortion champion is expanding access in Mozambique","excerpt":"A tragic encounter early in her nursing career set Estrela Góia on the path to becoming a dedicated abortion champion who partners with Ipas Mozambique to train providers and expand access. The post How this abortion champion is expanding access in Mozambique appeared first on Ipas .","content":"
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‘I will not stop fighting for safe abortion until no woman or girl is left behind’ \n
A tragic encounter early in her nursing career set Estrela Góia on the path to becoming a dedicated abortion champion who partners with Ipas Mozambique to train providers and expand access.
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“I witnessed a lot of maternal deaths as a young nurse, and many were due to unsafe abortions,” says the maternal and child health-care manager with the Provincial Directorate of Health in Mozambique. “I remember once when a young woman came to our clinic with an incomplete abortion. She was desperate and afraid, but unfortunately, it was too late to reverse the damage caused by a back-alley procedure. Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t save her. She died a painful, needless and preventable death, which deeply saddened me.”
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Even though Mozambique has one of Africa’s most liberal abortion laws, people seeking abortion care still face many obstacles, with the country ranking one of the highest in maternal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. For every 100,000 live births in 2024, 223 women died because of problems related to pregnancy or birth, according to the World Health Organization.
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Based in Zambezia, one of the most populous provinces of Mozambique, which remains vulnerable to climate change and socio-economic problems, Góia has spent many years championing safe abortion in her community.
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“Caring is an inextricable part of my nature, and part of this means ensuring every woman has a right to make decisions about her own body and access safe abortion care,” she says. “Protecting women’s sexual and reproductive health is part of how I express this care.”
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Here, Góia speaks about her work as an abortion champion.
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Photography and videography by Bruno Pedro
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What is your current role? \n
Góia: I’m the focal point for sexual and reproductive health and rights at the Provincial Directorate of Health. Additionally, for the last seven years, I’ve worked as the provincial trainer on comprehensive abortion care, thanks to Ipas Mozambique, which first offered me training on this. I travel around the province to provide abortion care support and training.
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Pictured above: Estrela Góia, a maternal and child health-care manager in Mozambique, who became a dedicated advocate for safe abortion after witnessing preventable deaths caused by unsafe abortions.
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What was your role in the 2014 revision of the abortion law? \n
I can’t claim full credit—many people played major roles in the revision—but I contributed where I could. At the time, I conducted a literature review on the benefits of safe abortion.
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The process itself was very transparent and open. When a new government came to power, the constitution was revised. To align other laws with the new constitution, the penal code was also reviewed.
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Medical professionals, legal experts, women’s rights groups like the Ethiopian Women’s Welfare Association, and professional associations such as the Ethiopian Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists came together to advocate for change. They compiled research, synthesized data, gathered public opinion, and even arranged study visits for decisionmakers to learn from other countries with more progressive abortion policies.
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Ipas was part of this coalition, though I wasn’t with Ipas at the time. I was working with another organization but remained active in the discussions. I concluded from my review that safe abortion access offers far more benefits than restrictions. But the real credit goes to the senior leaders and advocates who led the charge to revise the law.
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When did you first interact with Ipas? \n
It was in 2017 when we hosted a team conducting a survey to assess health facilities at the district level. We carried out studies and had to decide which health facility had the highest number of incomplete abortions . After this, I attended a training-of-trainers session in Maputo, where we learned about the implementation of comprehensive abortion care.
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In 2018, we started training fellow health-care providers as we had selected specific health-care facilities where we could do this. Specifically, we trained those with the highest number of incomplete abortions, or postabortion care, based on our research.
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Did you face any resistance while implementing the program? \n
My views were unwelcome at first. Our provincial director, as well as my colleagues, had issues with conscientious objection , the rejection of abortion based on moral or religious grounds.
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Many people I interacted with still thought abortion was a crime in the country. As much as Mozambique liberalized its abortion law to greatly broaden women’s access to safe abortion care in 2014, this information had not been disseminated to everyone.
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My colleagues did not consider that safe and legal abortion was a way to avoid maternal deaths.
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VIDEO
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I succeeded at transforming minds because of my resilience through advocacy.
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How did you finally get them on board? \n
I did internal advocacy to persuade my director, colleagues and peers to support my efforts. I held several values clarification for action and transformation training sessions with them until they agreed to come to the table to discuss the topic of abortion logically.
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Together with Ipas Mozambique, I started holding several awareness-raising sessions at different levels—leadership, community, and providers’ levels—to make sure that people were aware that this law exists, and that it makes it accessible for women to have a safe abortion within the set norms.
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What kind of resistance did you face when talking to community members about this information, and how did you counter it? \n
Initially, it was not easy. But with a lot of persistence and a lot of iterations of awareness raising, we started talking about the advantage of accessing safe abortion services. It made a huge difference when people shared real life stories of the dangers of unsafe or clandestine abortions, as opposed to safe abortions, where a woman would be able to go on with her life. It took a lot of time, but people eventually appreciated the benefits of safe abortions. Now they are happy because complications and deaths from unsafe abortions have become increasingly rare in health areas where services are offered.
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And now we’re speaking the same language; we’re all on the same page. And women have access to this service without limitations.
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Estrela Góia partners with Ipas Mozambique to train providers and raise awareness on safe abortion. She’s pictured here talking to a colleague.
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What kept you going all these years despite the challenges you faced? \n
What really encouraged me was that I did not want to remain silent. I wanted to keep talking, even if people told me that they were against abortion or said that ‘Estrela is immoral for favoring abortion.’ But I did not want to silence my voice, because I knew that safe abortion was good for the community, and for me as a health-care worker.
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Do you think you’ve fully achieved your goals regarding safe abortion, or do you think there’s more to be done? \n
As a nurse and health facility supervisor, I have witnessed far fewer abortion-related complications among the women who come to seek services at our clinics, and we attribute this to training and raising awareness about safe abortions. Unlike before, we have significantly less workload and no longer run out of supplies.
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However, the goal is not fully achieved because not all health facilities provide safe abortion services. I’m talking about the health facilities that are in remote areas, for example, those located on remote islands, where women do not have access to these services. So, if they need to access them, they need to travel to a different location, which requires resources.
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With climate change, it’s even harder for these women in the islands and remote areas to access these services.
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I would be happy and singing around that I have achieved my goals if these services were available in every health facility, and any woman could go to a health facility and have access to all the services. Then I would say the mission is accomplished.
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VIDEO
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I would be happy and singing around that I have achieved my goals if these services were available in every health facility, and any woman could go to a health facility and have access to all the services. Then I would say the mission is accomplished.
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How has Ipas helped or supported your mission? \n
As a service provider, Ipas has been my strength. Ipas has been with me in every situation where I have needed to reach women. And sometimes, especially in emergencies, I’ve felt that Ipas has been more supportive than my own institution due to some of the limited resources that persist within our public health system.
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Sometimes we need to allocate supplies or medicines to certain health facilities. I first advocated for it with my own management, but they would give priority to other programs. But if I contact Ipas, they will support me.
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Looking back, what are the most impressive changes you’ve seen in terms of abortion rights and access? \n
My boss transformed from a conscientious objector to an abortion champion, and I count that as a win. He talks about abortions in public sessions.
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My colleagues, who used to call me the “owner of abortion,” now hug me and tell me that they just didn’t understand what safe abortion meant, but now they do. This is very satisfying and rewarding.
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Unlike before, when unsafe abortion data were omitted from reports about maternal death, these data are now reported.
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What achievement are you most proud of? \n
Before, women were charged illegal fees to access abortion. This has reduced significantly due to advocacy. People are now aware of how to access free abortion services.
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What advice do you have for someone living in a place where abortion is banned or very restricted if they want to advocate for expanded abortion access? \n
I would say that people should keep fighting. Women should get together and create a movement. Women need to shout and be loud because only then can decisionmakers make a change.
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Estrela Góia serves as the focal point for sexual and reproductive health and rights at the Provincial Directorate of Health in Mozambique. She’s pictured here talking to patients.
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FACT BOX \n\t\t\t
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\nAbortion was decriminalized in Mozambique in 2014. One of Ipas Mozambique’s partners, the Mozambican Association of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (AMOG), played a critical role. \nIn 2024, Ipas Mozambique, in partnership with the Mozambican Association of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, supported the implementation and dissemination of this law. \nThrough this partnership, they ensured that abortion drugs became part of the national health system’s basic drugs. It was through this advocacy that the Ministry of Health in Mozambique started including these types of drugs and medicines in the essential drugs and medicines at health facilities. \nIpas Mozambique also participated in the revision of the abortion law. \nIpas Mozambique worked to revise the new curriculum to train nurses in maternal and infant health. As a result, Mozambique government started including topics like abortion in the training of the nurses for maternal and child health. Any nurse trained within these curriculums will have these tools to support safe abortion. \nRevision of the gynecology emergency service record books: Before the Ipas intervention, the gynecology emergency service record books had no key indicators on the provision of safe abortion. They mentioned abortion, but only as a post-abortion care service. With the support of Ipas Mozambique, the gynecology emergency book was revised to ensure the inclusion of these key indicators for the provision of safe, high-quality abortion services. \n \n\t\t\t
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“This is not an easy thing in our country. Sometimes it takes 10 years to revise this type of book or manual. We managed to revise it to include all the safe abortion indicators. And it is approved. Right now, we are distributing these manuals in Mozambican health facilities. It’s not just for Ipas-supported facilities but a country-wide measure.”
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– Celina Fides de Morais , Health Systems Advisor and team leader-Mocambique-Zambézia, Ipas Mozambique
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The post How this abortion champion is expanding access in Mozambique appeared first on Ipas .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Kristin Swanson","publishDate":"2026-03-16T12:08:15.000Z","image":"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Ipas_Mozambique_EstrelaGoia_RS12256f.jpg","source":"Ipas","sourceUrl":"https://www.ipas.org/news/how-this-abortion-champion-is-expanding-access-in-mozambique/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T18:01:08.513Z"},{"id":"vo5qxc","archiveId":"stm582","slug":"mississippi-leads-the-nation-in-gun-deaths-among-those-who-are-pregnant-and-postpartum","title":"Mississippi leads the nation in gun deaths among those who are pregnant and postpartum","excerpt":"Mississippi has become a hotspot for these deaths in large part because of lax gun laws and restrictive abortion access, both of which have been proven to increase violence against pregnant women. The post Mississippi leads the nation in gun deaths among those who are pregnant and postpartum appeare...","content":"
Before dawn one warm Sunday in June 2021, Renata Flot-Patterson and her husband turned a street corner in their Biloxi, Mississippi neighborhood to a scene she remembers as “lit up like Las Vegas.”
\n\n\n\n
Police officers crouched on neighbors’ roofs. Dogs sniffed the yard outside the house where her daughter, Keli Mornay, lived. Immediately, Flot-Patterson suspected the worst.
\n\n\n\n
Nine days earlier, on May 28, Mornay filed a restraining order against her ex-boyfriend, Byrain Johnson, after more than a year of physical and verbal abuse, according to documents obtained by Mississippi Today . Mornay wrote in her petition for the restraining order that she was “in complete fear for my life, our infant son and my two other children.”
\n\n\n\n
On June 6, Mornay and her 7-month-old son were shot to death and became part of a grim statistic: Pregnant and postpartum women die by homicide more than any obstetric-related cause nationwide.
\n\n\n\n
Most of these homicides are linked to firearms. Mississippi leads the nation in pregnancy-related gun deaths, according to an analysis of 28 states with available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted by The Trace , a nonprofit news outlet that examines the nation’s gun violence crisis. For every 100,000 births in Mississippi, roughly 15 people who either were pregnant or had been pregnant in the previous year died as a result of gun violence.
\n\n\n\n
“We have women in Mississippi who are dying during pregnancy—not because they have medical problems, but because they are being beaten to death or shot and killed in their own home,” said Stacey Riley, chief executive officer of the Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence in Biloxi, Mississippi.
\n\n\n\n
Pregnancy increases a woman’s chances of being targeted for a number of reasons, including heightened difficulty for them to leave abusive partners. Mississippi has become a hotspot for these deaths in large part because of lax gun laws and restrictive abortion access , both of which have been proven to increase violence against pregnant women. An intricate web of poverty, health policy, and weak local justice systems have complicated the state’s problem.
\n\n\n\n
“We really did not want her to have that baby,” Flot-Patterson said. “We’re a Christian family and we don’t really believe in abortion, but we really tried to encourage her to have an abortion. We worried until the day she died.”
\n\n\n\n
On June 2, authorities granted Mornay the restraining order against Johnson. Things had gotten so bad between Mornay and Johnson that Flot-Patterson had bought her daughter a one-way ticket to Utah for June 12.
\n\n\n\n
Mornay never made it on that plane. Instead, she was shot to death in her bedroom before Johnson turned the gun on himself. Their infant son, Brixx, was also shot and later died in the hospital.
\n\n\n\n
Mornay is one of 36 pregnant or recently pregnant women who were killed with guns between 2018 and 2024 in Mississippi, according to analysis by The Trace . Eighty-one percent of those deaths were of Black women.
\n\n\n\n
Lenient gun laws are among the biggest culprits of the epidemic of violence against women, experts say. Mississippi consistently has among the weakest restrictions in the country.
\n\n\n\n
Studies found women are five times more likely to be killed if their partners own a gun.
\n\n\n\n
“There’s decades of research showing that a gun in the house, and especially a house that’s experiencing domestic violence, is really, really dangerous,” said Maeve Wallace, a reproductive epidemiologist at the University of Arizona who has studied pregnancy-related homicides for more than a decade.
\n\n\n\n
‘Doubling your statistics’ \n\n\n\n
Two years earlier and 200 miles north of Biloxi, Mississippi, McKayla Winston was found dead three days before she was due to give birth to her first baby.
\n\n\n\n
Yvetty Brown, a lifelong resident of Goodman, Mississippi said she last saw her daughter on June 28, 2019, while they were planning a baby shower. On July 1, a neighbor found Winston’s body on a desolate stretch of road near Highway 17 in Holmes County, just ten miles from where she grew up, Brown said.
\n\n\n\n
The father of Winston’s child, Terence Sample, was charged with two counts of capital murder and kidnapping, pleaded not guilty at his preliminary hearing and was released on bond nearly four months later, according to documents reviewed by Mississippi Today . The case is still open, and no trial has been set, according to a source within the Holmes County District Attorney’s Office who was not authorized to comment publicly on the case.
\n\n\n\n
Bailey Martin, spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, said the state crime laboratory is still investigating the case, more than six years after Winston was killed.
\n\n\n\n
\n
“Six years, that’s all you got to say? And he’s still walking around free?” Brown said. “I’m just tired.”
\n
\n\n\n\n
Maternal and infant health have long served as markers of a society’s well-being, said Rebecca Lawn, an epidemiologist and public health scholar at Harvard University who studies interpersonal violence. Yet the most common driver of maternal mortality has been left out of the conversation, she said.
\n\n\n\n
“The need to prevent violence against women cannot be overstated when considering pregnant women’s health,” Lawn said.
\n\n\n\n
In an abusive relationship, power dynamics shift during pregnancy. Pregnant people leave their homes to go to doctor’s appointments, and their bodies are carrying the baby—outside of an abusive partner’s sense of control, explained Joy Jones, director of the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
\n\n\n\n
During pregnancy, Jones said people may choose to leave an abusive relationship. That decision can compel the abuser to feel like they are “losing control of their significant other” and the baby, she said. They then may resort to violence to regain dominance.
\n\n\n\n
“You’re almost doubling your statistics,” Jones said.
\n\n\n\n
The Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that removed federal protections from access to abortion has also changed the landscape, reproductive advocates say. Preliminary research shows that abortion restrictions increased intimate partner violence by 7 percent to 10 percent.
\n\n\n\n
The healthline for Access Reproductive Care Southeast, an organization that helps pay for abortion-related travel and procedures for Southerners, has received a 66 percent increase in calls from Mississippi in the last year.
\n\n\n\n
Staff members say it’s not unusual to get calls related to domestic violence or reproductive coercion, a kind of abuse that includes birth control sabotage and controlling the outcome of a pregnancy.
\n\n\n\n
Anecdotally, staff have noticed an increase in these cases in recent years, said Kenny C., a healthline coordinator for ARC Southeast, whose name is abbreviated here for safety concerns.
\n\n\n\n
In Mississippi, where the average one-way distance callers must travel for abortion care is 358 miles, the stakes are high, according to a report published by ARC.
\n\n\n\n
“If I get a call today and someone says, ‘My boyfriend threw out my pills,’ or ‘He pierced the condom,’ or ‘I was sexually assaulted and it resulted in this pregnancy’—that’s not uncommon,” said Kenny C.
\n\n\n\n
Interrupting violence \n\n\n\n
Pregnancy-related homicides are not always the product of domestic violence. Sometimes, bystanders fall victim to social conflict or gang violence. Research shows public and private violence can overlap and reinforce each other.
\n\n\n\n
In 2021, Keyunta McWilliams, who was eight months pregnant, was killed in Jackson, Mississippi during a drive-by shooting that targeted her ex-boyfriend. Her ex-boyfriend and her son, now 5, both survived.
\n\n\n\n
The victim’s mother, Shunta McWilliams, was shocked at one of the killers’ indifference during his trial. Kenya Webster admitted to knowing there was a woman and child in the car when he began shooting at it, according to a source familiar with the case who was not authorized to comment publicly on it. In March, another man, Joseph Brown, was also found guilty for McWilliams’ murder.
\n\n\n\n
Thinking about reactions to lethal conflicts, Geno Womack said cycles of violence continue in part because young people become desensitized to brutality. In south Jackson, Mississippi, residents call Womack “PawPaw,” and he works as a violence interrupter. But he does more than break up fights. His group, Operation Good, organizes toy drives, runs reintegration programs for men coming home from prison, and offers safe passages for children walking to school along dangerous routes.
\n\n\n\n
In his neighborhood, Womack attempts to address the root causes of gun violence—deep, tangled, and complicated. In Jackson, he said many young men are born with the odds stacked against them. The legacy of slavery, along with racism and generational trauma, have fundamentally changed Black families, Womack said.
\n\n\n\n
From a young age, Womack said, children learn violence can distract from other challenges, such as struggling with illiteracy, having clean clothes, or enough money to feed their families. As they grow older, pressures often mount, and Womack looks for ways to alleviate that pressure to stop violence before it starts.
\n\n\n\n
Most mornings, Womack said he patrols the streets south of Interstate 20, paying attention to people’s body language and deescalating conflict. Womack looks out for yelling, gesticulating arms, and people who walk the other way when they see Womack’s vehicle.
\n\n\n\n
Violence interruption work has long faced criticism for being ineffective and not holding perpetrators accountable. But Womack sees his work as necessary and holistic.
\n\n\n\n
“Law enforcement is only reactionary, they only come after it’s too late,” he said. “We’re there before it even starts. We try to prevent it, and hopefully, law enforcement never even finds out about it.”
\n\n\n\n
Pushing for solutions \n\n\n\n
While the forces perpetuating violence can be complex, experts say some of the solutions are simple.
\n\n\n\n
Laws that ban people who have domestic violence-linked restraining orders from owning guns resulted in a 14 percent decrease in intimate partner homicide, according to a study co-authored by Wallace, the reproductive epidemiologist.
\n\n\n\n
“State policy makers should consider further strengthening domestic violence-related firearm regulations and their enforcement to prevent homicide of pregnant and postpartum women,” study authors wrote.
\n\n\n\n
However, data suggest Mississippi is in no rush to try them. Mississippi is second only to Idaho in adopting the fewest safety policies around gun ownership in the country.
\n\n\n\n
During this year’s legislative session, Republican Sen. Brice Wiggins of Pascagoula, Missisissippi introduced a bill to criminalize possession of firearms and ammunition for respondents in domestic abuse protection orders and those convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor. The bill died in committee Feb. 12.
\n\n\n\n
Law enforcement and victims deserve better from the state, Wiggins told Mississippi Today , saying he was disappointed with the committee’s decision. Gun restrictions for people with a history of domestic violence already exist at the federal level , but those regulations are often not enforced in states such as Mississippi that haven’t adopted their own policies.
\n\n\n\n
“This bill replicated the federal law on the state level in an effort to save the lives of law enforcement officers and domestic violence victims,” Wiggins said.
\n\n\n\n
But statewide, pregnant people encounter systemic problems beyond a lack of firearm regulation. Those who continue their pregnancy can run into the complicating factor that in Mississippi, maternity care deserts and a high rate of uninsurance mean women have fewer opportunities to interact with health-care providers who could potentially identify a problem and help them.
\n\n\n\n
When they do interact with health-care providers or law enforcement officers, those professionals don’t always have the relevant training on mental health or abuse one might assume they have.
\n\n\n\n
Kim Neal, who runs a women’s shelter in Meridian, Mississippi called The Care Lodge, said she’s prioritizing these practices.
\n\n\n\n
Her organization is certified with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety to provide training for law enforcement related to domestic violence. Neal says those trainings are available for police officers upon request, and staff have provided “too many to count” over the 45 years the shelter has been open.
\n\n\n\n
“We provide real life examples and try to involve the officers on different case examples to help them to learn how to better respond to a victim of domestic violence,” Neal said. “Continued training is also important for law enforcement when there is a lot of turnover with their departments.”
\n\n\n\n
Through her research in Arizona, Wallace has dedicated her life to studying these homicides and continues her work because she believes education can be an effective tool to produce meaningful change.
\n\n\n\n
“I try to disseminate this work to policymakers and people across political ideologies as a way to broaden our understanding and our empathy and ability to know truly what people go through—what women go through—across the course of their lives,” Wallace said.
\n\n\n\n
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .
\n\n\n
The post Mississippi leads the nation in gun deaths among those who are pregnant and postpartum appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-16T12:01:00.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/MT-Pregnancy-Gun-Deaths-FeatImage-01.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/16/mississippi-leads-the-nation-in-gun-deaths-among-those-who-are-pregnant-and-postpartum/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T18:01:05.986Z"},{"id":"ymmafb","archiveId":"nleuzd","slug":"mississippi-leads-the-nation-in-gun-deaths-among-pregnant-and-postpartum-people","title":"Mississippi leads the nation in gun deaths among pregnant and postpartum people","excerpt":"Before dawn one warm Sunday in June 2021, Renata Flot-Patterson and her husband turned a street corner in their Biloxi neighborhood to a scene she remembers as “lit up like Las Vegas.” Police officers crouched on neighbors’ roofs.","content":"
Before dawn one warm Sunday in June 2021, Renata Flot-Patterson and her husband turned a street corner in their Biloxi neighborhood to a scene she remembers as “lit up like Las Vegas.”
\n\n\n\n
Police officers crouched on neighbors’ roofs. Dogs sniffed the yard outside the house where her daughter, Keli Mornay, lived. Immediately, Flot-Patterson suspected the worst.
\n\n\n\n
Nine days earlier, on May 28, Mornay filed a restraining order against her ex-boyfriend, Byrain Johnson, after more than a year of physical and verbal abuse, according to documents obtained by Mississippi Today. Mornay wrote in her petition for the restraining order that she was “in complete fear for my life, our infant son and my two other children.”
\n\n\n\n
On June 6, Mornay and her 7-month-old son were shot to death and became part of a grim statistic: Pregnant and postpartum women die by homicide more than any obstetric-related cause nationwide.
\n\n\n\n
Most of these homicides are linked to firearms. Mississippi leads the nation in pregnancy-related gun deaths, according to an analysis of 28 states with available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted by The Trace, a nonprofit news outlet that examines the nation’s gun violence crisis. For every 100,000 births in Mississippi, roughly 15 people who either were pregnant or had been pregnant in the previous year died as a result of gun violence.
\n\n\n\n\n\n
“We have women in Mississippi who are dying during pregnancy – not because they have medical problems, but because they are being beaten to death or shot and killed in their own home,” said Stacey Riley, chief executive officer of the Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence in Biloxi.
\n\n\n\n
Pregnancy increases a woman’s chances of being targeted for a number of reasons, including heightened difficulty for them to leave abusive partners. Mississippi has become a hotspot for these deaths in large part because of lax gun laws and restrictive abortion access , both of which have been proven to increase violence against pregnant women. An intricate web of poverty, health policy and weak local justice systems have complicated the state’s problem.
\n\n\n\n
“We really did not want her to have that baby,” Flot-Patterson said. “We’re a Christian family and we don’t really believe in abortion, but we really tried to encourage her to have an abortion. We worried until the day she died.”
\n\n\n\n
On June 2, authorities granted Mornay the restraining order against Johnson. Things had gotten so bad between Mornay and Johnson that Flot-Patterson had bought her daughter a one-way ticket to Utah for June 12.
\n\n\n\n
Mornay never made it on that plane. Instead, she was shot to death in her bedroom before Johnson turned the gun on himself. Their infant son, Brixx, was also shot and later died in the hospital.
\n\n\n\n
Mornay is one of 36 pregnant or recently pregnant women who were killed with guns between 2018 and 2024 in Mississippi, according to analysis by The Trace. Eighty-one percent of those deaths were of Black women.
\n\n\n\n
Lenient gun laws are among the biggest culprits of the epidemic of violence against women, experts say. Mississippi consistently has among the weakest restrictions in the country.
\n\n\n\n
Studies found women are five times more likely to be killed if their partners own a gun.
\n\n\n\n
“There’s decades of research showing that a gun in the house, and especially a house that’s experiencing domestic violence, is really, really dangerous,” said Maeve Wallace, a reproductive epidemiologist at the University of Arizona who has studied pregnancy-related homicides for more than a decade.
\n\n\n\n
‘Doubling your statistics’ \n\n\n\n
Two years earlier and 200 miles north of Biloxi, McKayla Winston was found dead three days before she was due to give birth to her first baby.
\n\n\n\n
Yvetty Brown, a lifelong resident of Goodman, said she last saw her daughter on June 28, 2019, while they were planning a baby shower. On July 1, a neighbor found Winston’s body on a desolate stretch of road near Highway 17 in Holmes County, just 10 miles from where she grew up, Brown said.
\n\n\n\n
The father of Winston’s child, Terence Sample, was charged with two counts of capital murder and kidnapping, pleaded not guilty at his preliminary hearing and was released on bond nearly four months later, according to documents reviewed by Mississippi Today. The case is still open, and no trial has been set, according to a source within the Holmes County District Attorney’s Office who was not authorized to comment publicly on the case.
\n\n\n\n
Bailey Martin, spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, said the state crime laboratory is still investigating the case, more than six years after Winston was killed.
\n\n\n\n
Photos of McKayla Winston are seen on February 10, 2026, at her mom’s home in Goodman, Mississippi. Winston was pregnant when she was found dead in 2019.\n (Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today) \n\n\n\n
“Six years, that’s all you got to say? And he’s still walking around free?” Brown said. “I’m just tired.”
\n\n\n\n
Maternal and infant health have long served as markers of a society’s well-being, said Rebecca Lawn, an epidemiologist and public health scholar at Harvard University who studies interpersonal violence. Yet the most common driver of maternal mortality has been left out of the conversation, she said.
\n\n\n\n
“The need to prevent violence against women cannot be overstated when considering pregnant women’s health,” Lawn said.
\n\n\n\n
In an abusive relationship, power dynamics shift during pregnancy. Pregnant people leave their homes to go to doctor’s appointments, and their bodies are carrying the baby – outside of an abusive partner’s sense of control, explained Joy Jones, director of the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
\n\n\n\n
During pregnancy, Jones said people may choose to leave an abusive relationship. That decision can compel the abuser to feel like they are “losing control of their significant other” and the baby, she said. They then may resort to violence to regain dominance.
\n\n\n\n
“You’re almost doubling your statistics,” Jones said.
\n\n\n\n
The Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision that removed federal protections from access to abortion has also changed the landscape, reproductive advocates say. Preliminary research shows that abortion restrictions increased intimate partner violence by 7% to 10%.
\n\n\n\n
The healthline for Access Reproductive Care Southeast, an organization that helps pay for abortion-related travel and procedures for Southerners, has received a 66% increase in calls from Mississippi in the last year.
\n\n\n\n
Staff members say it’s not unusual to get calls related to domestic violence or reproductive coercion, a kind of abuse that includes birth control sabotage and controlling the outcome of a pregnancy.
\n\n\n\n
Anecdotally, staff have noticed an increase in these cases in recent years, said Kenny C., a healthline coordinator for ARC Southeast, whose name is abbreviated here for safety concerns.
\n\n\n\n
In Mississippi, where the average one-way distance callers must travel for abortion care is 358 miles, the stakes are high, according to a report published by ARC.
\n\n\n\n
“If I get a call today and someone says, ‘My boyfriend threw out my pills,’ or ‘He pierced the condom,’ or ‘I was sexually assaulted and it resulted in this pregnancy’ – that’s not uncommon,” said Kenny C.
\n\n\n\n
Interrupting violence \n\n\n\n
Pregnancy-related homicides are not always the product of domestic violence. Sometimes, bystanders fall victim to social conflict or gang violence. Research shows public and private violence can overlap and reinforce each other.
\n\n\n\n
In 2021, Keyunta McWilliams, who was eight months pregnant, was killed in Jackson during a drive-by shooting that targeted her ex-boyfriend. Her ex-boyfriend and her son, now 5, both survived.
\n\n\n\n
The victim’s mother, Shunta McWilliams, was shocked at one of the killers’ indifference during his trial. Kenya Webster admitted to knowing there was a woman and child in the car when he began shooting at it, according to a source familiar with the case who was not authorized to comment publicly on it. In March, another man, Joseph Brown, was also found guilty for McWilliams’ murder.
\n\n\n\n
Thinking about reactions to lethal conflicts, Geno Womack said cycles of violence continue in part because young people become desensitized to brutality. In south Jackson, residents call Womack “PawPaw,” and he works as a violence interrupter. But he does more than break up fights. His group, Operation Good, organizes toy drives, runs reintegration programs for men coming home from prison, and offers safe passages for children walking to school along dangerous routes.
\n\n\n\n
Geno Womack, executive director of Operation Good, talks about his organization’s resource center in Jackson, Mississippi on January 23, 2026.\n (Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today) \n\n\n\n
In his neighborhood, Womack attempts to address the root causes of gun violence – deep, tangled and complicated. In Jackson, he said many young men are born with the odds stacked against them. The legacy of slavery, along with racism and generational trauma, have fundamentally changed Black families, Womack said.
\n\n\n\n
From a young age, Womack said, children learn violence can distract from other challenges, such as struggling with illiteracy, having clean clothes or enough money to feed their families. As they grow older, pressures often mount, and Womack looks for ways to alleviate that pressure to stop violence before it starts.
\n\n\n\n
Most mornings, Womack said he patrols the streets south of Interstate 20, paying attention to people’s body language and deescalating conflict. Womack looks out for yelling, gesticulating arms and people who walk the other way when they see Womack’s vehicle.
\n\n\n\n
Violence interruption work has long faced criticism for being ineffective and not holding perpetrators accountable. But Womack sees his work as necessary and holistic.
\n\n\n\n
“Law enforcement is only reactionary, they only come after it’s too late,” he said. “We’re there before it even starts. We try to prevent it, and hopefully, law enforcement never even finds out about it.”
\n\n\n\n
Pushing for solutions \n\n\n\n
While the forces perpetuating violence can be complex, experts say some of the solutions are simple.
\n\n\n\n
Laws that ban people who have domestic violence-linked restraining orders from owning guns resulted in a 14% decrease in intimate partner homicide, according to a study co-authored by Wallace, the reproductive epidemiologist.
\n\n\n\n
“State policy makers should consider further strengthening domestic violence-related firearm regulations and their enforcement to prevent homicide of pregnant and postpartum women,” study authors wrote.
\n\n\n\n
However, data suggest Mississippi is in no rush to try them. Mississippi is second only to Idaho in adopting the fewest safety policies around gun ownership in the country.
\n\n\n\n
During this year’s legislative session, Republican Sen. Brice Wiggins of Pascagoula introduced a bill to criminalize possession of firearms and ammunition for respondents in domestic abuse protection orders and those convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor. The bill died in committee Feb. 12.
\n\n\n\n
Law enforcement and victims deserve better from the state, Wiggins told Mississippi Today, saying he was disappointed with the committee’s decision. Gun restrictions for people with a history of domestic violence already exist at the federal level , but those regulations are often not enforced in states such as Mississippi that haven’t adopted their own policies.
\n\n\n\n
“This bill replicated the federal law on the state level in an effort to save the lives of law enforcement officers and domestic violence victims,” Wiggins said.
\n\n\n\n
But statewide, pregnant people encounter systemic problems beyond a lack of firearm regulation. Those who continue their pregnancy can run into the complicating factor that in Mississippi, maternity care deserts and a high rate of uninsurance mean women have fewer opportunities to interact with health care providers who could potentially identify a problem and help them.
\n\n\n\n
When they do interact with health care providers or law enforcement officers, those professionals don’t always have the relevant training on mental health or abuse one might assume they have.
\n\n\n\n
Kim Neal, who runs a women’s shelter in Meridian called The Care Lodge, said she’s prioritizing these practices.
\n\n\n\n
Her organization is certified with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety to provide training for law enforcement related to domestic violence. Neal says those trainings are available for police officers upon request, and staff have provided “too many to count” over the 45 years the shelter has been open.
\n\n\n\n
“We provide real life examples and try to involve the officers on different case examples to help them to learn how to better respond to a victim of domestic violence,” Neal said. “Continued training is also important for law enforcement when there is a lot of turnover with their departments.”
\n\n\n\n
Through her research in Arizona, Wallace has dedicated her life to studying these homicides and continues her work because she believes education can be an effective tool to produce meaningful change.
\n\n\n\n
“I try to disseminate this work to policymakers and people across political ideologies as a way to broaden our understanding and our empathy and ability to know truly what people go through – what women go through – across the course of their lives,” Wallace said.
\n\n\n\n
This article first appeared in Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Megan Kearney","publishDate":"2026-03-16T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/3X0A1031-780x1007-1.jpg?w=785","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/mississippi-gun-deaths-pregnant-postpartum-people/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T12:01:08.008Z"},{"id":"5sxjnx","archiveId":"rduhjl","slug":"kelly-rowland8217s-bob-038-more-best-celebrity-beauty-moments","title":"Kelly Rowland’s Bob & More Best Celebrity Beauty Moments","excerpt":"Celebrity beauty was in a transitional mood this week. Following ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood and the Oscars, there’s just days until the official start of spring. In other words, […] The post Kelly Rowland’s Bob & More Best Celebrity Beauty Moments appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 16, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Celebrity beauty was in a transitional mood this week. Following ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood and the Oscars , there’s just days until the official start of spring. In other words, beauty looks have been glamorously reflecting the change in season.
The best way to bring in something new? A hair cut. Zendaya proved how easy it is for Black women to pull off ear-level hair : a set of casual curls and nothing but mascara and lip liner. It’s a >blush craze with neon pink plastered on to match her lipstick. Rico Nasty attended ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood with white swan inner corners. And, to end the week, Doechii took Lollapalooza in metallic makeup as dramatic as her bouffant hairtarget=\"_blank\"> View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Alexandra French (@alexandraafrench)
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ICYMI: Celebrity Beauty Moments From The Week The post Kelly Rowland’s Bob & More Best Celebrity Beauty Moments appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-16T11:20:52.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/kelly-rowland-bob-and-more-best-celebrity-beauty-moments/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T18:01:12.269Z"},{"id":"3a4b9d","archiveId":"jq5dr5","slug":"before-every-game-azzi-fudd-does-the-same-three-things","title":"Before Every Game, Azzi Fudd Does The Same Three Things","excerpt":"A year ago, Azzi Fudd won a national championship. She was named Most Outstanding Player at the Final Four, she was eligible for the WNBA Draft, and she had every […] The post Before Every Game, Azzi Fudd Does The Same Three Things appeared first on Essence .","content":"
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 22:Azzi Fudd talks with Sue Bird about her experiences as part of the UConn Huskies during the Deep Blue Business of Women’s Sport Summit at Chelsea Factory on April 22, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
By
Kimberly Wilson ·
Updated March 15, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
A year ago, Azzi Fudd won a national championship.
She was named Most Outstanding Player at the Final Four , she was eligible for the WNBA Draft , and she had every reason to walk out of Storrs on top. But you know what she did? She came back anyway.
Now she’s in her final semester at UConn, the Huskies are undefeated heading into March Madness , and she’s the projected number one pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft . We all have the same 24 hours as Beyoncé, and Fudd might be the closest thing to proof.
Because, let’s be clear: coming back for a fifth year when you’ve already reached the mountaintop is not something every player would do. But for Fudd it was less a calculated decision and more just who she is, and that’s someone who has never been willing to leave anything on the table. And it’s safe to say, she made a good bet on herself.
Ask her how she’s processing all of that and she’ll be the first to tell you she’s mostly choosing not to. “Obviously you really can’t not think about it,” she says. “So it’s there, but my goal this year was to be super present. I know how easy it is to get caught up in all the exciting things that are coming up in three weeks. But I’m also very aware that this is my last time in college. This is my last time with this team and this program doing so many things with them.”
Fudd came to UConn in 2021 as the number one recruit in her class , and a McDonald’s All-American from St. John’s College High School in Washington D.C. She had already made history before she ever stepped foot on campus, becoming the first sophomore ever to win the Gatorade National Player of the Year award. So the talent itself was never the question.
What followed was a college career that tested her in ways most players never have to face. Foot and knee injuries in back to back years, and then in November 2023, a torn ACL and meniscus just two games into her junior season, and her second ACL tear overall. She spent most of that year watching from the sideline. When she finally got back on the floor for her senior year, she helped UConn win the title. And when she talks about being present and soaking in every moment of this final season, there are a lot of years and a lot of hard road behind that.
She used to be superstitious, but at some point this year she made a conscious decision to let that go. “I was like, this is a waste of time and energy. I need to stop this.” What replaced it is three non-negotiables she swears by before every single game: a devotional, soft tissue body work, and yes, a pregame bathroom stop. “I have to take a pregame poop,” she says.
The pregame meal is just as important, always the same veggie egg scramble with mashed raspberries and honey on toast. “It’s simple, but it’s my favorite pregame meal,” she says. Her playlist follows its own order too, always opening with gospel, Kirk Franklin or Koryn Hawthorne, before her roommate inevitably takes over the aux and steers things somewhere else entirely like one of the Baby rappers (Lil or Da).
Fudd is also one of the faces of Marriott Bonvoy’s new “Where Gameday Checks In” campaign, which celebrates the off-court moments that live in between the games, the hotel hallway pep talks, the pre-game meals, and the late nights with teammates on the road. When you ask her what she’ll remember most about this final season at UConn, she talks about the time spent with her teammates in hotel rooms, the movie nights, learning TikTok dances together, sitting around debriefing practice the night before a big game, and how those are the moments she’ll carry with her long after she leaves Storrs.
It’s also why the noise surrounding her right now doesn’t seem to rattle her the way it might someone else. “I feel like I’ve done a great job of managing pressure this year and even though March is the biggest time of the year, it’s like, why let myself get caught up in all that now? …as long as the team is winning, I’m winning.”
And that same energy is what she’s carrying with her into the WNBA and into this particular moment in the league’s history. “This is the best time to be a women’s basketball player,” she says, “and I can’t really emphasize enough how grateful I am, like to be a part of it at this time and also how grateful I am for everyone that’s come before and really like laid that foundation and set that path and made it possible for me.”
And just as the women before her shaped what this moment looks like for her, she’s thinking about the little girls watching UConn play this March and what she wants them to take from it. “I hope that when people watch us play, they’re able to just see the joy and passion we have for the game, but then also for each other,” she says. “It’s so easy to get caught up, especially in this day and age with social media and like everything is like me, me, me, how important it is to have teammates that you love and you want to play for, not just with.”
The post Before Every Game, Azzi Fudd Does The Same Three Things appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-16T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2211462139-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/sports/azzi-fudd-uconn-pregame-routine/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T12:01:09.540Z"},{"id":"mm5jiv","archiveId":"xl6ibr","slug":"the-cruelty-is-just-the-point-a-broken-student-loan-system-has-women-at-the-center","title":"‘The cruelty is just the point’: A broken student loan system has women at the center","excerpt":"Mary Modica tried to do everything right. When a rise in digital music signaled she should reconsider a radio career, Modica decided to become a teacher — with the understanding that after she made a decade of payments, the Department of Education would discharge any outstanding student debt she owe...","content":"
Mary Modica tried to do everything right. When a rise in digital music signaled she should reconsider a radio career, Modica decided to become a teacher — with the understanding that after she made a decade of payments, the Department of Education would discharge any outstanding student debt she owed through its Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.
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But after teaching English learners in New York’s Hudson Valley for 12 years, Modica still has $102,000 in student debt. With her monthly payment rising more than 71 percent to $875 during President Donald Trump’s second term, she can’t afford to heat her house above 60 degrees. She’s also stopped physical therapy because she can’t cover the co-pays.
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“I broke down three times today,” Modica, 41, said. “I have a disease that will inevitably make me completely disabled, and I can’t afford the treatment because I’m hemorrhaging money to a 20-year-old debt.”
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The Department of Education hasn’t forgiven her loans, she said, because it is excluding two full years of her public service, a period when she taught full time but enrolled in a teacher training program at night, kicking her loans into deferment. Accordingly, her payments then don’t count toward the 120 payments required to earn public service loan forgiveness. And that’s not Modica’s only problem: Some of her pre-pandemic payment history, she said, no longer shows up in federal databases.
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Over the past year, millions of borrowers have run into similar difficulties trying to navigate a student loan system that has grown more confusing and chaotic during President Donald Trump’s second term. He may have campaigned on “affordability,” but his administration has systematically stripped borrowers of protections, threatened to garnish their wages and raised their monthly payments — all while promising to forgive the student debt of immigration enforcement agents . Experts say these policy shifts have broken a student loan system that was already in shambles, leaving nearly 45 million borrowers, disproportionately women , in financial and emotional distress.
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Older borrowers, in particular, have felt the quakes in the student loan landscape since the interest on their debt has had more time — often, decades — to accrue. Black women, who rely more on student loans than other demographics, are grappling with student debt at the same time they have been pushed out of the public service sector due to waves of government cuts during the second Trump administration.
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Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a longtime student loan reform advocate , knows what it’s like to experience the stress of student debt.
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“I took on loans like so many Black borrowers, at higher rates,” the Democrat from Massachusetts told The 19th. “My family did not have wealth in the form of home ownership. We did not have generational wealth, given the discriminatory GI Bill and redlining. Being raised in a single-parent home, believing that education was the great equalizer, I took out loans and defaulted on those loans, and that affected my credit score, my ability to make progress, to purchase a home.”
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It really is the shame of a nation that has burdened our families with this crushing debt.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley \n\n\n\n
Pressley, 52, whose Massachusetts district includes some of the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities, did not finish paying off her own loans until 2019 — her first year in Congress.
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“I know intimately how gutting it is to be a borrower, just sitting on the phone with a loan servicer as you try to navigate your options,” she said. “I know what it’s like trying to make those monthly payments balancing other financial responsibilities. And I also know the shame that comes along with that — though it was never our shame as borrowers to carry. It really is the shame of a nation that has burdened our families with this crushing debt.”
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Five years ago, Florida educator Dannielle Boyer owed $200,000 in student debt. A first-generation college student of Haitian and Dominican descent, she took out loans for her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, but it was her pursuit of a doctorate that really shot up her balance. The deaths of her grandparents in quick succession left her so distraught — they had raised her — that she never finished her dissertation.
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For years afterward, her loans haunted her, with loan servicers telling her that they didn’t qualify for public service loan forgiveness. Then, a temporary waiver under former President Joe Biden’s administration allowed her to consolidate her debt. In a matter of weeks, she received forgiveness, a development Boyer calls “a godsend.”
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Now the first vice president of the United Teachers of Dade, Florida’s largest teachers union, Boyer created a guide to help members with student debt get their loans forgiven, just as she had in January 2022. During Biden’s presidency, the union helped hundreds of teachers secure over $150 million in relief.
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Fast forward to 2026, when the avenues to make affordable payments or obtain forgiveness have dried up. Last December, the Trump administration announced that it had entered a settlement with the state of Missouri to terminate the Biden-era Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan , which capped monthly payments and curbed interest. On March 9, a federal appeals court order formally ended the plan , which the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act was slated to sunset by 2028.
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What’s more, the Department of Education moved applications for income-driven repayment plans offline a year ago, reposting them only after the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) labor union and a borrower advocacy group sued. Today, borrowers face an extreme backlog.
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“There are almost 800,000 outstanding applications — income-driven repayment, consolidation requests, forgiveness forms — all of it is massively delayed,” said Natalia Abrams, president and founder of the Student Debt Crisis Center. She blames this, in part, on a reduction in force at the Department of Education. “They don’t have the people to do the processes.”
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Following an AFT lawsuit, the Trump administration last month agreed to process thousands of backlogged applications in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness and income-driven repayment plans. “Twenty-thousand more teachers, nurses, firefighters and public service workers finally got their debt discharged,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten.
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It’s worse than mismanagement. They have intentionally broken the student loan system.”
Randi Weingarten \n\n\n\n
The AFT has filed multiple lawsuits against the administration over its handling of student debt. Weingarten said the state of the student loan system is no accident. “It’s worse than mismanagement,” she said. “They have intentionally broken the student loan system. They have pushed hard on all the penalties — garnishment, debt collectors — and made the positives, like how you actually get an affordable payment, indecipherable.”
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In an amended lawsuit filed against loan servicer MOHELA in January, AFT alleged the company “traps more than 6.5 million borrowers in a system of its own design, rife with errors, misinformation, and broken promises.” The complaint also notes that it is “practically impossible for borrowers to speak with a live customer service representative.”
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In January, the federal government prepared to resume wage garnishments for millions of borrowers who defaulted on their loans , a move that would have cut into the pay of workers barely making ends meet and directed more criticism to the White House. It backed down after a public outcry and also because mass layoffs at the Department of Education likely left the agency without the resources to collect the debts. But experts warn it’s a temporary reprieve.
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“It’s a testament to borrowers sharing their stories,” said Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director at advocacy group Protect Borrowers. “It’s awkward for the president to talk about lowering costs while his education secretary takes people’s hard-earned wages. But it’s a when, not an if. They’ll turn it back on.”
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Experts worry about the long-term effects of the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act. Under the legislation, the Repayment Assistance Program will become the default income-driven plan for loans disbursed after July 1, 2026, and existing borrowers must switch to the program by 2028.
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“Compared to the SAVE Plan, the new income-driven repayment plan increases payments, charges the lowest-income borrowers disproportionately more than those with higher incomes, and extends the maximum repayment term from the current 10 to 25 years to 30 years,” said Michele Zampini, associate vice president of Federal Policy & Advocacy at The Institute for College Access & Success, a nonprofit focused on college affordability. “Borrowers will see unpredictable payment spikes whenever their income crosses certain arbitrary thresholds. They could be penalized for small cost-of-living raises.”
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The 19th asked the Department of Education for comment about the concerns raised in this article, but the agency did not respond to the request before publication.
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With SAVE gone for good, Zampini predicts that waves of borrowers won’t be able to afford their payments, worsening the default crisis. “The safety net is gone,” she said.
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A recent survey that The Institute for College Access and Success commissioned Data for Progress to conduct on federal student loan borrowers found that 45 percent said they have to choose between loan payments and basic needs like rent and food. One in five borrowers is already in delinquency or default, including 33 percent of those with some college but no degree. One respondent said, “With how the economy is, I can barely afford to live. I have to choose between rent, loans, or putting food on the table. There’s no help and it feels like [the] government doesn’t care.”
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Sarah Knight, a 55-year-old grandmother, can relate. She took out $60,000 in loans to attend the State University of New York at Brockport in the late 1990s, hoping to pursue a career in education, but ultimately never graduated. Three decades later, despite making payments and even having her wages garnished previously when she fell behind, she still owes $60,000.
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Every penny you spend, you feel guilty. You think, ‘I should be spending this on my loans.’”
Sarah Knight \n\n\n\n
Student debt has affected all aspects of her life, she said. “Every penny you spend, you feel guilty. You think, ‘I should be spending this on my loans.’” A transportation scheduler for people with disabilities, Knight only has $2,000 saved for retirement, but she said her loan payments make it impossible to pay more. “The money just goes down this hole.”
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Knight’s circumstances seemed especially bleak several years ago, when she defaulted on her student loans, prompting the government to garnish her wages, a major hit to her take-home pay.
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“I was making maybe 20 cents above minimum wage, but they were taking $150 a pay period,” she recalled. “That garnishment actually pushed me below minimum wage. How was that legal?”
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But when Knight found out about the Debt Collective, a borrowers’ union advocating for debt cancellation, she became an activist. She has traveled to Washington, D.C., with the group to speak up for older borrowers. They persuaded the Biden administration to limit garnishments of social security payments to prevent beneficiaries from experiencing financial hardship. The victory was short-lived, as the Trump administration removed that protection upon the president’s return to office.
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“They rubbed a little salt in the wound,” Knight said. “The cruelty is just the point with this administration.”
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Pressley has introduced the Ending Administrative Wage Garnishment Act , which would “protect borrowers by ending garnishment as a tool writ large for student debt collection by the federal government, regardless of who’s in office.”
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The thought of garnishing wages from seniors on fixed incomes particularly rattles Pressley. “The fastest growing borrower constituency is 55-plus,” she said. “I’ve heard from seniors as old as 75 that their benefits were being garnished for loans they defaulted on. They wept in my arms that they were going to die still paying on these loans, and at this point, owed more than they had even initially borrowed.”
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Since women hold nearly two-thirds of the nation’s $1.7 trillion in student loan debt, the policy changes stand to impact them the most. The Trump administration has added to that burden by taking aim at women-dominated fields such as teaching, nursing and social work, reclassifying graduate degrees in these occupations as “non-professional” and, thus, significantly limiting the amount of loans students pursuing these careers can borrow.
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“When you look at the jobs this administration is making harder to access, they are the caretaking professions,” Bañez said. “By cutting the subsidies to become teachers and nurses to pay for tax cuts for the rich, the effect is going to be that women, and especially women of color, are not going to be able to afford to enter these fields.”
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These policy shifts coincide with a larger effort to push Black women out of the federal workforce as well as the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, Pressley said.
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We bear the brunt of everything. This is really a layered tsunami of hurt.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley \n\n\n\n
“Many of those jobs had been held by Black women in senior roles,” she said. “Black women, we’re always the canaries in the coal mine,” she added. “We bear the brunt of everything. This is really a layered tsunami of hurt.”
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Having taught in some of Miami’s most under-resourced schools, Boyer has seen that hurt firsthand. But fewer people want to be teachers given the low pay, student debt and a presidential administration hostile to education.
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“There’s a teacher shortage, and it’s going to get worse,” Boyer said. “Who will teach the children in the neediest schools? The communities will suffer. It’s cyclical, and it’s scary.”
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While educators struggle with the cost of living, the Trump administration has singled out one group for debt relief: immigration enforcement agents. In a move critics have characterized as “appalling” and “hypocritical,” the Trump administration is offering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recruits up to $60,000 in student loan forgiveness . That sum surpasses the $10,000-$20,000 in broad loan forgiveness that Biden offered to borrowers in fall 2022 over the objections of Republicans who deemed it “unfair” to people who had already paid off their debt and successfully blocked this relief in court .
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The offer of loan forgiveness to ICE recruits suggests that the Trump administration recognizes how powerful such relief is, Weingarten said.
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“They’re willing to give it to people who will terrorize our communities , but they’re using a wrecking ball on the infrastructure that helps teachers and nurses,” she said.
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Pressley finds it “disgraceful” that the Trump administration is using student debt forgiveness to lure in ICE recruits.
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“It’s using debt forgiveness to really deepen inequality, to keep borrowers underwater,” she said. “It’s a weaponizing of structural wealth and equity in exchange for building up an ICE militia and an anti-immigrant agenda. We should be pushing for incentives for our educators, for our nurses and for our first responders.”
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As the breadwinner for her family, Modica said the stress of student debt never goes away. Her home, health and car insurance have all increased, as has her mortgage, but she can’t defer her student loan payments because she must stay current on them to obtain public service loan forgiveness. If she didn’t oppose ICE on ideological grounds, she might be tempted to run the numbers on the debt relief the agency is offering. But her sense of morality trumps her financial desperation.
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Women and immigrants and people of color are continuing to hustle because that’s the only way we’ve known how to operate.”
Mary Modica \n\n\n\n
“That’s a signing bonus to sell your soul,” she said.
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When her anxiety about her finances flares up, she draws strength from how women have historically risen to the occasion when faced with challenges, she said.
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“Women have had to hustle. We’ve had to hustle and fight for space in those rooms,” she said. “That’s why we have the predominant student loan debt because we’ve had a hustle for it. Women and immigrants and people of color are continuing to hustle because that’s the only way we’ve known how to operate. And I think about it a lot.”
","category":"activism","author":"Nadra Nittle","publishDate":"2026-03-16T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/student_loans.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/women-broken-student-loan-system-trump/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T12:01:08.008Z"},{"id":"q73zha","archiveId":"w2hntd","slug":"ecuador-government-defies-court-ordered-oil-ban","title":"Ecuador: Government Defies Court-Ordered Oil Ban","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Waorani Indigenous leaders protest in front of the Constitutional Court in Quito, Ecuador on August 20, 2025, two years after an Indigenous-led referendum to halt exploitation of an oil block in Yasuni National Park, the ancestral home of the Waorani people.","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Waorani Indigenous leaders protest in front of the Constitutional Court in Quito, Ecuador on August 20, 2025, two years after an Indigenous-led referendum to halt exploitation of an oil block in Yasuni National Park, the ancestral home of the Waorani people.\n © 2025 RODRIGO BUENDIA/AFP via Getty Images\n \n \n\n\n \nEcuador is failing to comply with key provisions of an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling to protect the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous peoples from nearby oil facilities in Yasuní National Park.The court ruled that oil extraction generated environmental pollution and increased the risks of forced contact with the Indigenous groups, potentially exposing them to diseases, displacement, food shortage, and conflicts over resources.Ecuador should take immediate steps to suspend oil extraction in a nearby area called Block 43 and fully comply with the court’s ruling to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples in the national park. <p>(Quito) – Ecuador is failing to comply with key provisions of an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling to protect the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous peoples, Human Rights Watch said today. The groups live in voluntary isolation near oil facilities inside Yasuní National Park. </p><p>On March 14, 2025, the court ordered Ecuador to take measures to protect the Indigenous groups, including by immediately stopping oil operations in an area of Yasuní National Park called Block 43. Ecuador’s government was already obliged to stop oil production in Block 43 based on a 2023 national referendum. Despite a court-ordered deadline of March 2026 to improve protective measures and monitoring, the government has produced few results.</p><p>“Ecuador continues to allow extraction from Block 43, putting oil production above the rights of Indigenous communities,” said José Rodríguez Orúe, Kenneth Roth practitioner-in-residence at Human Rights Watch. “Ecuador should take immediate steps to suspend oil extraction in Block 43 and fully comply with the court’s ruling to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples in the national park.”</p><p>Despite the court order, during 2025 the government allowed oil production from Block 43 to continue and has not provided information on nearby environmental conditions. The government has also failed to meet a September 2025 deadline to establish a court-ordered technical commission to monitor the movements of people living in the area to determine whether a protected zone inside Yasuní National Park should be expanded to protect Tagaeri and Taromenane territory.</p><p>In November and December 2025, Human Rights Watch interviewed 13 leaders and community members of the Waorani Indigenous people and a leader from a Kichwa community situated within Block 43. Human Rights Watch also interviewed eight representatives of civil society organizations, journalists, academics, and economists. Researchers reviewed a range of external sources, including academic studies, news reports, legal documents, satellite imagery, oil industry publications, and publications by the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador (NAWE). The semi-nomadic Tagaeri and Taromenane live in the Ecuadorian Amazon, including a section of Yasuní National Park. In 1999, Ecuador established the “Tagaeri Taromenane Intangible Zone,” a core area of the national park where all extractive activity is forbidden. A ten-kilometer buffer zone separates oil facilities and the no-go zone.</p><p>Oil operations continued in other park areas, including an adjacent area to the north, oil Block 43. A 2024 government report that explained the challenges of complying with the referendum noted “signs of presence” of the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples to the south of Block 43 and acknowledged that oil operations “posed a threat” to their survival.</p><p>The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that oil extraction in Block 43—which overlaps with ancestral Indigenous territory—generated environmental pollution and increased the risks of forced contact with the Tagaeri and Taromenane, potentially exposing them to diseases, displacement, food shortage, and conflicts over resources. The court also noted the result of the national referendum on August 20, 2023, ordering the facility’s closure within one year.</p><p>It ordered the government to take “all necessary legislative, administrative, and other measures to ensure that this [referendum] is effectively implemented and that oil exploitation in Block 43 is prohibited.” Environmental defenders filed a compliance case against the government in November 2025 for failing to close Block 43.</p><p>Data from the state oil company, Petroecuador, showed that, except for a period in July 2025 when national oil production dropped due to damaged pipelines following a landslide, Block 43’s crude output remained constant throughout 2025, with an average of 1.2 million barrels of oil extracted each month. </p><p>The authorities have failed to provide public access to information about the required environmental monitoring since April 2024. Under Ecuadorian law, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition must submit these reports to the National Assembly every six months. An August 2025 ministerial letter on file with Human Rights Watch confirmed the submission of the October 2023-April 2024 monitoring report, yet the ministry has not disclosed the two subsequent reports that were legally due by that date.</p><p>The Tagaeri and Taromenane are part of the broader Waorani Indigenous people. Oil extraction near their territory increases the risk of unwanted encounters with outsiders and may expose them to pollution, severe health risks, and conditions that could make return to isolation virtually impossible.</p><p>The interviews with Waorani community members—who share the same language and culture and live in nearby areas affected by the oil operations—provide insights into how the Tagaeri and Taromenane might experience the impacts of oil operations in Block 43.</p><p>The Waorani community members said they believed that oil activity in and around Block 43 negatively affected the water quality of rivers—the primary source of drinking water—as well as the health and well-being of their communities. “Our rivers are being polluted, the animals are dying, rashes cover our skin after we bathe, we have no drinking water,” said Isabel Baihua, leader of the Waorani Women’s Association of Orellana.</p><p>The American Convention on Human Rights and the Escazú Agreement, to which Ecuador is a party, require the government to ensure people can access information needed to protect the rights to health and to a healthy environment. But Waorani community members said the authorities do not provide the information they need to make informed decisions to protect their health from the environmental impacts of oil extraction in Block 43.</p><p>The government has also not established the commission the court ordered to monitor the movements of the Indigenous groups to recommend expanding the no-go zone’s boundaries.</p><p>Ecuador’s ability to protect the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous peoples has been further weakened by changes that have undermined key ministries. President Daniel Noboa downgraded the previous Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition into a vice-ministry within a new Ministry of Environment and Energy. The Ministry of Women and Human Rights was also downgraded to a vice-ministry under the Government Ministry. In its judgment, the court had flagged concerns that institutional changes and budget cuts had led to the state’s failure to prevent incursions of loggers and other third parties into Tagaeri and Taromenane territory.</p><p>The government of Ecuador should work with the Waorani people and communities affected by oil extraction in Block 43 to ensure its suspension and progressive closure.</p><p>“The Ecuadorian government’s refusal to close Block 43 undermines the democratically expressed will of its people, and its refusal to comply with the Inter-American Court of Human Right’s orders erodes its commitments to the regional human rights system,” Rodríguez Orúe said. “The government needs to respect the rule of law, and ultimately, the will of the Ecuadorian people.”</p><p>Oil-Related Threats to Indigenous Peoples in Yasuní National Park</p> \n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Map of the Block 43 Infrastructure in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador. Graphics © 2026 Human Rights Watch. Data sources: Oil Concessions: Ecuador Ministry of Non-Renewable Natural Resources. Global Forest Watch. Protected areas: Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE). EcoCiencia. Oil extraction infrastructure: PetroEcuador, 2024. \n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Yasuní National Park is one of the most culturally diverse and biodiverse areas on Earth. The national park was established by law in 1979 and was designated a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1989. It overlaps with the ancestral territories of the Kichwa and Waorani Indigenous peoples. The Waorani were the last Indigenous group in Ecuador to be contacted by the outside world, in the 1950s. After contact, the Waorani fragmented into several clans and communities, with the Tagaeri and Taromenane deciding to remain in isolation.</p><p>Dr. Patricio Trujillo, an Ecuadorian anthropologist who researches the Tagaeri and Taromenane, said that these groups follow semi-nomadic cyclical mobility patterns on ancestral hunting trails and rivers.</p><p>In 2013, Ecuador’s National Assembly declared oil exploitation in Blocks 31 and 43 inside Yasuní National Park to be “of national interest,” overriding prohibitions on extraction in national parks. Block 43—with the highest oil production in Yasuní—contains 247 wells across three fields. Ishpingo, the field furthest south, is the newest and most productive field, and the one closest to the Indigenous groups’ buffer zone.</p><p>In 1999, Ecuador established the Tagaeri Taromenane Intangible Zone, a core area of the park with the greatest environmental protection, to protect the “lands of habitation and development” of the groups. While all extractive activity, including oil operations, is banned in the zone, a 2024 government report identified the area south of Block 43 as suitable for hunting and seasonal mobility of the Tagaeri and Taromenane, acknowledging that “competition for subsistence resources in these areas may lead to situations of ... forced contact with Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation.” Maps produced by the citizen-led Critical Geography Collective that were used by the Inter-American Court, show that the impacts of oil extraction in the Ishpingo field already extend to the buffer zone.</p><p>Waorani community members interviewed by Human Rights Watch affirmed that the Tagaeri and Taromenane still appear to use territory near Block 43 infrastructure. They said they hear war cries as they cross ancestral hunting paths and find pottery and animal carcasses left behind by their relatives living in isolation.</p><p>According to official spills reports disclosed by Petroecuador, 29 spills occurred in Block 43 between 2016 and 2024, the most recent period for which data is available. However, in the company’s 2024 statement on the feasibility of closing the oil block, it said that “no spills have been recorded,” classifying the 29 incidents as “operational events” that, it said, “had no environmental impact” and were properly contained.</p><p>By contrast, in an official document on file with Human Rights Watch, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition said that the last publicly reported incident in Block 43, a June 2024 diesel spill, reached the Salado River that flows through the Tambococha field, affecting a Kichwa community dependent on fishing.</p><p></p> \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n Block 43 Spills 2016 - 2024<br>(crude, hydraulic oil, diesel, and chemicals)\n \n \n \n \n Show Spill Clusters\n \n \n Map of spills inside Block 43, Yasuni National Park, Ecuador.<br>Note: This map omits a March 31, 2023, chemical leak at the Ishpingo field caused by a tank plug failure; irregular coordinates in the official record prevented its precise mapping.<br> Graphics © 2026 Human Rights Watch. Data source: EP Petroecuador; Official spill registry submitted to the Citizen Oversight Committee in 2024 and 2025.\n \n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n<p>Human Rights Watch has documented that, around the world, communities most exposed to the extraction, manufacturing, use of, and disposal of fossil fuel products often face ongoing rights violations or other harmful human rights impacts tied to toxic air, unsafe water, and polluted ecosystems.</p><p>Many Waorani communities live close to Yasuní oil facilities, and people interviewed said they believe they are exposed to harmful water pollution. They said that children and older people have become ill after bathing or drinking river water and that fish deaths have reduced the availability of staple food.</p><p>“When the oil spills, animals, fish, trees, and people die,” one said. A Waorani elder leader born in what is now Block 43 said that two older people from her community had fallen ill after bathing in the rivers: “their whole body was red, blisters covered their skin … now we avoid the big river and seek nearby streams. Before oil extraction began in Block 43, my family and I were free to bathe and fish in the river. Now we can’t bathe in it; the fish are not healthy; they’re covered in oil.”</p><p>Ministry of the environment monitoring reports to the National Assembly from 2016 to 2024 repeatedly show “very polluted” and “moderately polluted water” in Block 43 under the Biological Monitoring Working Party Index, which assesses river water quality but doesn’t determine whether pollutants related to oil production are causing that pollution.</p><p>In its last publicly disclosed monitoring report issued in April 2024, the ministry noted that Petroecuador had not presented its biotic monitoring data since 2022, as required under Ecuadorian law, and that it failed to “submit biotic monitoring data for the exploitation phase of Block 43 from October 2023 to April 2024 for review and comment.” The ministry started an administrative proceeding against the company in May 2024. </p><p>Spills in Block 43 are part of a broader pattern of chronic oil pollution in Ecuador. Between 2020 and 2022, the ministry recorded an average of 22.5 oil spills each month. In the Amazon, the impacts have historically fallen heavily on Indigenous peoples and communities that depend on rivers for water, bathing, and fishing. Oil contamination in Ecuador’s Amazon has long been associated with skin irritation and dermatitis and newer research continues to document the wider pollution of rivers and fish, on which Amazonian communities depend.</p><p>Waorani community members also described poor air quality, which they attributed to gas flaring from nearby oil operations in Block 43. A Waorani leader from the Nampaweno community inside Yasuní said, “When it rains, pollutants fall to the ground harming our cassava and plantain crops. Communities that have no flaring have healthy crops.”</p><p>Scientific literature shows that gas flaring can produce acid rain that damages staple crops such as cassava, with effects strongest in closest proximity to flare sites. Throughout 2025, satellite imagery analysis and remote sensing carried out by Human Rights Watch detected intermittent flaring from the Central de Procesos Tiputini, an oil and gas processing facility to the north of Block 43.</p><p>Waorani community members also reported that sound and light pollution from oil operations in Block 43 have driven animals away from traditional hunting areas, affecting their ability to hunt wild games, another staple food source.</p><p>“It’s like having a helicopter outside of your home every hour, every day,” said Sofía Torres Caiza, president of the Citizen Oversight Committee, which was intended to oversee compliance with Block 43’s closure between 2023 and 2025. </p><p>One Kichwa leader living in the area said: “Before Block 43 we lived without noise, now it’s 24 hours of nonstop noise. When the animals hear that noise, they start to move away. They used to stay within our territory, and we rely on hunting to feed our families, but now there isn’t as much wildlife anymore.” </p><p>The Inter-American Court of Human Rights Ruling </p><p>In March 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights formally communicated to Ecuador a ruling it had finalized in September 2024. The court found that Ecuador violated the rights of the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation by, among other things, authorizing oil operations that surround the area where oil extraction is forbidden without proper environmental and human rights risk assessments and failing to stop illegal loggers from operating inside the zone. This exposes the Indigenous groups to a serious risk of human rights violations associated with forced contact, pollution, and conflicts over limited resources, the court said.</p><p>The court held that, given the close relationship between territory, natural resources, and the survival of Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, Ecuador should have applied the precautionary principle when determining and implementing measures to protect their territory. Under that principle, a government may be required to implement mandatory preventive measures to head off the risk of irreversible harm, even where there is no scientific certainty about the environmental or health impacts at issue.</p><p>The court concluded that, with the expansion of extractive activities in Yasuní, oil fields surrounding the no-go zone and its buffer have impacts that encroach upon those areas. The court underscored that oil blocks adjacent to the no-go zone, including Block 43, pollute that area, and that roads enabling access to oil facilities have enabled illegal logging, fishing, and hunting to proliferate inside Indigenous territory, increasing risks of forced contact, disease transmission, and conflicts, jeopardizing the survival of the Indigenous groups.</p><p>The court underscored that while authorities knew local groups lived and moved near Block 43, the government failed to demonstrate how the risks posed by oil operations were “taken into account when analyzing the granting of permits and concessions.”</p><p>The court found that oil extraction in Block 43 violated several rights enshrined under the American Convention on Human Rights, including the rights to health, territory, a healthy environment, self-determination, and to live with dignity. It acknowledged that “there is a risk that an oil spill affects waterways and, therefore, ends up affecting the territory” of the Indigenous groups. </p><p>In 2023, Ecuadorians voted in a referendum to halt oil extraction in Block 43. Protecting Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation from the impacts of oil production was a core component of the underlying 10-year campaign that sought to keep oil in Block 43 “indefinitely underground.”</p><p>Ecuador’s Constitutional Court ordered that the government should implement the result at the latest by August 2024, progressively halt extraction, protect the Tagaeri and Taromenane, revoke permits, and restore the environment. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights considered that compliance with the referendum would help minimize the harmful impacts that oil extraction on the rights of the Indigenous groups and ordered Ecuador to adopt “all necessary legislative, administrative, and other measures to ensure that this [referendum] is effectively implemented and that oil exploitation in Block 43 is prohibited.” The government has not complied.</p><p>The court also ordered Ecuador to identify additional measures to fix serious gaps in producing reliable information about environmental conditions in the no-go zone, including potential contamination of water, air, and the broader ecosystem, and noise from nearby extractive activity. The court also ordered Ecuador to take steps to improve monitoring of the movements of peoples in isolation in areas surrounding the no-go zone.</p><p>Non-Compliance with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Ruling</p><p>Ongoing Oil Production</p><p>In a letter to a National Assembly member dated August 1, 2025, on file with Human Rights Watch, the ministry of the environment acknowledged that there was no final plan for phasing out oil production in Block 43, despite the referendum and the court order. The ministry also acknowledged that environmental licenses had not been revoked, and withdrawal of infrastructure remained stalled. As of March 2026, Ecuador has shut down a handful of wells in Block 43.</p><p>Oil production in Block 43 remained stable throughout 2025, according to Petroecuador’s yearly production reports, with an average of 1,245,225 oil barrels extracted each month. Ecuador was still extracting over 44,000 barrels of oil per day from Block 43, based on Petroecuador data, 9.4 percent of the country’s total crude output in 2025.</p><p></p>\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n<p>Despite President Noboa’s initial promise to comply with the 2023 referendum, his government has continued extracting oil from Block 43, alleging that an immediate compliance would harm the country’s economy and therefore postponed the closure until 2029. However, experts, environmental human rights defenders, Indigenous leaders, and academics interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that Block 43’s closure presents a critical opportunity to start a transition away from fossil fuels, on which Ecuador depends for about 12 percent of its GDP. </p><p>In February 2026, Human Rights Watch wrote to Petroecuador requesting comments on our finding that oil operations in Block 43 continued after the Inter-American Court's Ruling. At the time of publication, Petroecuador had not replied.</p><p>Reduced Access to Information </p><p>The ministry of the environment is required to present environmental monitoring information to the National Assembly every six months by law, but currently there are no publicly available monitoring reports. Pedro Bermeo from the citizen collective Yasunídos said, “These reports are rarely uploaded online; we always struggle to find them.”</p><p>As a result, interested parties are forced to seek information through freedom of information requests—which are often denied or ignored—said Indigenous leaders, oversight bodies, civil society organizations, and legislators.</p><p>Waorani leaders and community members also reported that the authorities provide little information about the potential health impacts of oil activities in Block 43. They said that the government does not warn them about potential pollutants and health hazards in the rivers from which they draw water, including when an oil spill or other associated polluting incidents occur. When coupled with the skin irritation and blisters that some community members have experienced, and the dead fish observed in surrounding areas, this lack of information leaves community members to consider their water unsafe for drinking or bathing.</p><p>“Information about the environmental conditions in Block 43 is kept secret, the government has never given it to us, even though we’re the affected people – it puts our lives at risk,” said Nemo Andy Guiquita, a Waorani leader from the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador.</p><p>In September 2025, the Citizen Oversight Committee established by the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control—the public entity charged with promoting public participation to monitor implementation of the 2023 referendum—reported repeated refusals by state institutions to provide information regarding environmental impacts of oil extraction in Block 43 and measures to protect the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples.</p><p>In April 2024, in a response to a freedom of information request filed by the Citizen Oversight Committee, the ministry of the environment provided information on the environmental conditions inside Block 43 in a Google Drive folder with data up to October 2023. Human Rights Watch reviewed the folder and concluded that monitoring reports showed no cumulative risk assessments to determine the environmental impacts of continued oil extraction over the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples. Much of the information from the ministry was from monitoring data by the state oil company.</p><p>Mariana Yumbay, a member of the National Assembly, filed a freedom of information request in 2025 asking the ministry of the environment to provide information on the closure of Block 43 and the environmental impacts of oil operations in the area. In its August 2025 reply, the ministry provided an additional environmental monitoring report for the October 2023-April 2024 period, but by that time authorities had been legally required to have produced two additional reports.</p><p>“[The ministry] takes far too long to provide us with incomplete information, and from what little they have given us, it is evident that the government is not complying with the orders to shut down Block 43,” Yumbay said. </p><p>Government Inaction on Protection Measures</p><p>The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered Ecuador to act with the utmost diligence within defined timelines to correct failures in monitoring and protection of the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous peoples. </p><p>The court acknowledged that Ecuador had established a protective framework for the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples but found the implementation of these measures insufficient to stop illegal logging, fishing, and hunting in their territory.</p><p>The court ordered Ecuador to create a Technical Evaluation Commission to map the presence of isolated peoples outside the no-go zone every two years and recommend expanding the protected zone if needed in light of those findings. The commission was to include Waorani and civil society representatives and operate under the supervision of the court. Ecuador had until September 2025 to establish it.</p><p>The Waorani Nationality of Ecuador and counsel for plaintiffs before the court confirmed that the government had not yet established the commission. “The government does not have the will to dialogue with the Waorani people … we don’t want to just participate, we deserve the right to speak and decide on how the closure and reparation of Block 43 happens,” said Juan Bay, president of NAWE.</p><p>The court found that Ecuador had failed to establish the required commission and criticized its existing protection measures as inadequate due to their lack of implementation. Human Rights Watch analyzed information presented by the Women and Human Rights Ministry to the Oversight Committee in June 2025 regarding the measures it was taking to ensure the protection of the Indigenous peoples. Although the ministry reported that it had carried out three patrols in the no-go zone to look for signs of Tagaeri and Taromenane presence and had also provided routine training to oil workers on how to avoid contact with Indigenous peoples living in isolation, it did not provide any information regarding third party incursions into the region or any measures it has taken to prevent such incursions.</p><p>The now downgraded Vice-Ministry of Women and Human Rights is responsible for conducting patrols to look for signs of Tagaeri and Taromenane presence and to monitor any threats to their rights, including by third-party incursions. However, the Citizen Oversight Committee noted in September 2025 that the entity lacked a protection plan or targets to carry out these functions.</p><p>In its final 2025 report concluding that the government had not complied with the 2023 referendum, the Citizen Oversight Committee emphasized that, “Although the ministry acknowledges the existence of protocols, patrols, and training, the reported actions are merely formal and do not constitute concrete measures for redress or effective protection … the absence of an operational and funding plan confirms the lack of actual implementation.” The committee noted that the ministry failed “to demonstrate cumulative risk assessments for ongoing operations in Block 43 (such as traffic, noise, gas flares, and construction), nor did it include safety measures to prevent exposure.” </p>","category":"activism","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-16T06:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603ehr_ecuador_waoroni_protest.jpg?h=455b0d43&itok=rD4u_HRC","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/16/ecuador-government-defies-court-ordered-oil-ban","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T06:00:45.862Z"},{"id":"l9d7t5","archiveId":"lrk9nr","slug":"michael-b-jordan-wins-best-actor-at-2026-oscars-sinners-grabs-best-original-screenplay","title":"Michael B. Jordan Wins Best Actor At 2026 Oscars, ‘Sinners’ Grabs Best Original Screenplay","excerpt":"The 98th Academy Awards unfolded Sunday evening at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood, where Hollywood gathered to celebrate the year’s most acclaimed films. Among the night’s most talked-about contenders […] The post Michael B.","content":"
Photo Credit: Mike Coppola
By
Okla Jones ·
Updated March 15, 2026 Getting your
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The 98th Academy Awards unfolded Sunday evening at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood, where Hollywood gathered to celebrate the year’s most acclaimed films. Among the night’s most talked-about contenders was Sinners , which entered the ceremony with a leading 16 nominations across all categories. By the end of the telecast, the film secured several key wins, including Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan and Best Original Screenplay for director Ryan Coogler, solidifying its place as one of the best films of the year.
One of the evening’s most memorable moments arrived shortly after its opening, when Miles Caton took the stage to perform “I Lied to You ,” the Oscar-nominated song from the film. Written by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson, Caton opened the number alongside Saadiq before the stage gradually >Misty Copeland made a notable appearance during the sequence, marking her return to the stage months after announcing her retirement. Members of the Sinners cast, including Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, and Jack O’Connell, were also part of the presentation, echoing the film’s most captivating scene.
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 15: Autumn Durald Arkapaw accepts the Cinematography award for “Sinners” onstage during the 98th Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Behind the camera, the film delivered one of the ceremony’s historic victories when cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw won Best Cinematography. Her win marked the first time a woman had taken home the award in the category’s history, and she also became the first woman of color to receive the honor. During her speech, Arkapaw acknowledged the women who helped shape her journey. “I don’t get here without you guys,” she said, asking the women in the audience to stand in recognition.
Coogler also took home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, thanking collaborators and the studio team who supported the project. During his acceptance speech, he reflected on the personal sacrifices that come with filmmaking while addressing his children directly. “I apologize for all the time away, memories are all we have and I hope I gave you some great ones,” Coogler said. “And when you’ve been blessed to live a long life and dad just becomes a memory I want you to remember this one thing, I love you more than anything.”
Göransson added another win for the film with the award for Best Original Score.
US film director, producer Ryan Coogler accepts the award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) for “Sinners” onstage during the 98th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on March 15, 2026. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)
A huge moment that night happened when Jordan was announced as the winner for Best Actor. In his acceptance speech, the actor thanked his family, collaborators, and peers. He continued by recognizing the studio leaders who backed the project, speaking to “the vision of Ryan Coogler, for betting on the culture, and betting on original ideas, and original artistry.”
Jordan also reflected on the legacy of Black actors who influenced hisdecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2266727691-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Michael B. Jordan Wins Best Actor At 2026 Oscars, ‘Sinners’ Grabs Best Original Screenplay \" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" />HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 15: Michael B. Jordan accepts the Actor in a Leading Role award for “Sinners” onstage during the 98th Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
The ceremony concluded with the final award going to One Battle After Another for Best Picture. The film, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, featured performances from ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood honorees Teyana Taylor , Chase Infiniti, and Regina Hall, among others.
Take a look at the full list of winners at the 98th Academy Awards below.
Best Picture
BugoniaF1FrankensteinHamnetMarty SupremeOne Battle After Another – WINNERThe Secret AgentSentimental ValueSinnersTrain Dreams
Best Actor
Timothée Chalamet – Marty SupremeLeonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After AnotherEthan Hawke – Blue MoonMichael B. Jordan – Sinners – WINNERWagner Moura – The Secret Agent
Best Actress
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet – WINNERRose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick YouKate Hudson – Song Sung BlueRenate Reinsve – Sentimental ValueEmma Stone – Bugonia
Best Supporting Actor
Benicio del Toro – One Battle After AnotherJacob Elordi – FrankensteinDelroy Lindo – SinnersSean Penn – One Battle After Another – WINNERStellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value
Best Supporting Actress
Elle Fanning – Sentimental ValueInga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental ValueAmy Madigan – Weapons – WINNERWunmi Mosaku – SinnersTeyana Taylor – One Battle After Another
Best Director
Chloé Zhao – HamnetJosh Safdie – Marty SupremePaul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another – WINNERJoachim Trier – Sentimental ValueRyan Coogler – Sinners
Best Original Screenplay
Blue MoonIt Was Just an AccidentMarty SupremeSentimental ValueSinners – WINNER
Best Adapted Screenplay
BugoniaFrankensteinHamnetOne Battle After Another – WINNERTrain Dreams
Best Animated Feature Film
ArcoElioKPop Demon Hunters – WINNERLittle Amélie or the Character of RainZootopia 2
Best International Feature Film
The Secret Agent – BrazilIt Was Just an Accident – FranceSentimental Value – Norway – WINNERSirât – SpainThe Voice of Hind Rajab – Tunisia
Best Casting
HamnetMarty SupremeOne Battle After Another – WINNERThe Secret AgentSinners
Best Cinematography
FrankensteinMarty SupremeOne Battle After AnotherSinners – WINNERTrain Dreams
Best Production Design
Frankenstein – WINNERHamnetMarty SupremeOne Battle After AnotherSinners
Best Editing
F1Marty SupremeOne Battle After Another – WINNERSentimental ValueSinners
Best Original Score
BugoniaFrankensteinHamnetOne Battle After AnotherSinners – WINNER
Best Original Song
“Dear Me” – Diane Warren: Relentless“Golden” – KPop Demon Hunters – WINNER“I Lied to You” – Sinners“Sweet Dreams of Joy” – Viva Verdi!“Train Dreams” – Train Dreams
Best Sound
F1 – WINNERFrankensteinOne Battle After AnotherSinnersSirât
Best Visual Effects
Avatar: Fire and Ash – WINNERF1Jurassic World RebirthThe Lost BusSinners
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Frankenstein – WINNERKokuhoSinnersThe Smashing MachineThe Ugly Stepsister
Best Costume Design
Avatar: Fire and AshFrankenstein – WINNERHamnetMarty SupremeSinners
Best Animated Short Film
ButterflyForevergreenThe Girl Who Cried Pearls – WINNERRetirement PlanThe Three Sisters
Best Live-Action Short Film
Butcher’s StainA Friend of DorothyJane Austen’s Period DramaThe Singers – WINNER (TIE)Two People Exchanging Saliva – WINNER (TIE)
Best Documentary Feature Film
The Alabama SolutionCome See Me in the Good LightCutting Through RocksMr. Nobody Against Putin – WINNERThe Perfect Neighbor
Best Documentary Short
All the Empty Rooms – WINNERArmed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent RenaudChildren No More: “Were and Are Gone”The Devil Is BusyPerfectly a Strangeness
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Michael B. Jordan ryan coogler Sinners The post Michael B. Jordan Wins Best Actor At 2026 Oscars, ‘Sinners’ Grabs Best Original Screenplay appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-03-16T03:24:13.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2266732500-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/2026-academy-awards-winners/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T06:00:46.505Z"},{"id":"r04d1z","archiveId":"lc2t1l","slug":"exclusive-michael-bearden-is-back-as-music-director-of-the-oscars-shaping-the-sound-for-films-bigges","title":"Exclusive: Michael Bearden Is Back As Music Director Of The Oscars, Shaping The Sound For Film’s Biggest Night","excerpt":"We’re finally here—game day, as the sports fans say. With the 98th Academy Awards set to take place this evening at The Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood, the anticipation over […] The post Exclusive: Michael Bearden Is Back As Music Director Of The Oscars, Shaping The Sound For Film’s Biggest Nigh...","content":"
Michael Bearden. Courtesy of the A.M.P.A.S.
By
Okla Jones ·
Updated March 15, 2026 Getting your
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We’re finally here—game day, as the sports fans say. With the 98th Academy Awards set to take place this evening at The Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood, the anticipation over who will take home the coveted Oscar has reached a fever pitch. Will ‘Sinners ’ finally get its just due? Is Delroy going to grab the much-deserved award for Best Supporting Actor? Is Teyana Taylor going to add another notch under her belt for her effort in ‘One Battle After Another’? All of these are questions that will get answered prior to the night ending. One of the more underrated aspects of the evening, of course, is the music. Helmed by the renowned Michael Bearden for the second year in a row, tonight will feature two of the five nominees for Best Song—“Golden” from Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters and “I Lied to You ” from Ryan Coogler’s genre-blending blockbuster.
Bearden, a Primetime Emmy-nominated keyboardist, arranger, conductor and composer, hopped on a video call with ESSENCE to discuss all things music, specifically as it pertains to the Oscars. Michael spoke to us about returning as music director for film’s biggest night, collaborating with executive producers Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan, and explains exactly how much rehearsal time he and his musicians actually get ahead of show day.
ESSENCE: This is going to be your second year as music director for the Oscars, correct?
Michael Bearden: Yes, that’s correct.
What excites you most about returning and shaping the musical tone this year?
The orchestra. I love that we get an actual live orchestra every year as some shows have gone away from that. The Oscars still have live music, so I’m always excited to see my orchestra, who I call the best musicians in the world. The show itself is already exciting enough. This is the 98th Oscars. It’s the biggest show in Hollywood. So to be in the role of music director is always exciting, but in the end, I’m a musician first, and I always love seeing my musicians.
With this being year two, did you approach the music any differently this time around?
No. My approach to everything I do is, if you will, bespoke to the moment or tailor made to what’s happening. So I never come in with anything preconceived. I always try to bring excellence and all of that to whatever music project that I’m in charge of. So this year’s theme for the Oscars is human connection, human touch, humanity. So the music will reflect that as the show progresses. And as we start from the first frame to the last, you’ll hear everything that says true to our themes of human connection, love, and the global community. And so that’s the approach I took this year because it’s a different theme this year.
Photo Courtesy of the A.M.P.A.S.
What is the preparation process like, from the moment that you know you’re going to be the music director to the day of the Oscars?
Fortunately, after last year’s Oscars, the executive producers, Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan, called me back only a few days after the show was over. So I’ve known for a year already that I was going to be the music director. So, I just kind of do what I call a “musical look book,” meaning I’ll hear some things as I’m listening to music in my daily life and go, “Oh, that might be cool for the Oscars. Let me just put that in the playlist.” And then I just start collecting pieces of music that could hover around maybe being on the [telecast]. With the Oscars, you still have the language of elegance and posh and grandeur and majesty and all the things that the Oscars are.
I also like to infuse my personality and a little bit of what’s happening today and the more modern feel while still being elegant. It’s constantly me just picking out tunes and going, “Oh, this could fit. This could fit.” Not everyone makes it, but that’s how I start my musical process. And then once we start knowing what the nominees are going to be and all that, then I start staffing my orchestra. Everybody in this town can play. Everybody’s really a great musician, but I like to curate energy—that’s what I call it. So, I don’t need just virtuoso players, but you still want great energy, and a great vibe. So I like to curate and foster an environment that will elicit emotion and all the things I want from the music that will eventually touch the people that are listening.
This year, two of the five nominees for Best Song will be performed live; which is “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters and “I Lied to You” from Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. Why is it so special to have these nominated songs performed live?
Well, there’s nothing like live music. It’s in the moment. It’s organic. You feel that and it just goes right in line with what the theme of the show is, human touch, human connection, and what I like to call actual intelligence as opposed to artificial. So having the creators of the nominated songs to perform live, that lets you know, one—it’s deserving of that nomination because you can see them actually perform this live. And it just feels different when it’s live. You know the difference between listening to your favorite artist at home, and then when you go to the concert, how much different that feels for you. If it was the record, everybody could listen to that at home, but come to the show and feel something different live. So it’s very special. And it just goes in line with what the Academy Awards ceremony is. We’re talking about, we’re celebrating cinema and we’re celebrating excellence and craftsmanship and artisans.
You spoke about this earlier in the conversation. When you’re curating the music, you try to stay true to the elegance and the tone of the Oscars, but you also add a modern flair to it as well. How do you balance the two?
I’ve been doing this for a very long time with all the artists. I’ve worked with over 530 artists now, and I’ve led many of the greatest in history. One of my favorite words is discernment. I can discern what will go with what and what makes sense together or not. And so that’s how I do it. There’s certain things that I would love to put together, but it just would not be appropriate. So you figure out how close to the line I can get and still keep it elegant, but everybody knows it’s still modern. So it’s just a fine line. It’s just trial and error too. Some things I try. Even last year, we wrote a couple things and it didn’t work, so we didn’t use them.
How much creative control do you have of what happens musically during the ceremony?
There is a team. The executive producers, Raj and Katy, really are keen on music. They really like to feature the orchestra and they’re really in tune to music. And so they always have ideas of what they would like to hear presenters come in on and all those kinds of things. So there’s collaboration, of course, but they also hired me for a reason, which means they trust my musical expertise and my intellect. And so certain things I would present to them. So, it’s very collaborative, but they trust my expertise.
Ahead of the ceremony, what do you look forward to the most at the Academy Awards?
The thing that excites me most is when we actually start, because all of this preparation is one thing. People think you get a lot of rehearsal for that. It’s a lot of moving parts to the show so that we don’t get to rehearse much. So you have to know what you’re doing.
How much rehearsal time do you get?
Well, for instance, I was Lady Gaga’s music director for many years. When we did the Super Bowl, that was months of rehearsal. You don’t get that for this. When I worked with Michael Jackson, that was months of rehearsal. You don’t get that for this. You get your prep work and some time with the orchestra and then everything must come together for the three hour show we’re putting together. So whenever the performance happens in sound check and rehearsal, you don’t get months. You may get an hour if you’re lucky because there’s still presenters and all these things that need to be rehearsed.So what I look forward to is once we’ve gone through all that and all the notes changing and everything like that, I look forward to actually starting the show. Let’s go. It’s a live show and it’s very organic and you don’t know what the presenters are going to do, you don’t know how excited they’re going to be, you don’t know how long they’re going to cry, you don’t know how long they’re going to talk, like all of that things that happens in these moments. But that’s the part I’m most excited about, is to be in the moment.
TOPICS:
2026 Academy Awards 2026 Oscars Michael Bearden The post Exclusive: Michael Bearden Is Back As Music Director Of The Oscars, Shaping The Sound For Film’s Biggest Night appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-03-15T18:57:18.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/AS_59426-1-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/michael-bearden-returns-as-oscars-music-director/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-16T00:00:48.403Z"},{"id":"2vqam5","archiveId":"w0mo0z","slug":"recap-inside-the-2026-essence-black-women-in-hollywood-celebration","title":"RECAP: Inside The 2026 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Celebration","excerpt":"The 2026 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood event is available to stream on ESSENCE’s YouTube starting Saturday, March 14: Watch Here There’s a particular kind of electricity that fills a […] The post RECAP: Inside The 2026 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Celebration appeared first on Essence .","content":"
Courtesy Victor Arriola @victorarriolaphotography
By
Shelby Stewart ·
Updated March 14, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
The 2026 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood event is available to stream on ESSENCE’s YouTube starting Saturday, March 14: Watch Here
There’s a particular kind of electricity that >women shaping the entertainment industry are highlighted, affirmed and celebrated on their own terms. This year’s 19th program carried that same spirit: equal parts reverence, joy and cultural pride, with industry leaders >Marsai Martin wasted no time setting the tone. With the confidence of a seasoned emcee and the warmth that has made her Hollywood’s niece, Martin opened the show by greeting the crowd and acknowledging some of the notable faces seated throughout the room. When she shouted out Zendaya, the audience erupted. Ever the good sport, Zendaya leaned into the moment—holding up her hand to flash a sparkling wedding ring toward the cameras, confirming the rumours and sending the crowd into another round of cheers and laughter.
At one point in the program, the celebration paused to acknowledge the elected officials seated in the audience—an important reminder that the influence of Black women extends far beyond the entertainment industry. When Jasmine Crockett was recognized, the response was immediate, with guests rising to their feet in a thunderous standing ovation. The Texas congresswoman, who has quickly become one of the most visible and outspoken voices on Capitol Hill, smiled and waved as the applause washed over the room. Karen Bass was also acknowledged, drawing warm applause from the crowd. The moment served as a powerful reminder that the leadership and influence of Black women—whether in Hollywood, Washington, or city hall—continues to shape culture and policy alike.
Teyana Taylor presents rising actress Chase Infiniti during the 2026 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood ceremony.
Once the applause settled, the program quickly moved into its first tribute of the afternoon—honoring rising actress Chase Infiniti. The honor was presented by none other than Teyana Taylor, who took the stage with the confidence of someone who understands exactly what it means to build a career across multiple creative lanes. Taylor praised Infiniti’s breakout performance in One Battle After Another, describing the young actress as part of a new generation of artists arriving in Hollywood with both intention and fearlessness.
Infiniti, visibly moved, accepted the honor with the kind of humility that made it clear the moment wasn’t lost on her. The recognition marked an early milestone in what many in the room believe will be a long and influential career. If the applause inside the ballroom was any indication, the industry is already paying attention.
Next came one of the afternoon’s most heartfelt tributes, as Jurnee Smollett stepped forward to honor the incomparable LaTanya Richardson Jackson. Smollett spoke with deep admiration about Richardson Jackson’s decades of dedication to the craft, describing her as both a guiding light and an artist whose presence has elevated every stage and screen she has touched.
Richardson Jackson’s career stretches across theater, television and film, but one of her most historic moments came in 2022 when she became the first Black woman to direct a play by legendary playwright August Wilson on Broadway with the revival of The Piano Lesson. When Richardson Jackson took the stage, the room rose almost instinctively. Her remarks were thoughtful and reflective, emphasizing the responsibility artists have not only to pursue excellence, but to open doors for the next generation.
Delroy Lindo presents Kerry Washington during an emotional tribute to her career and leadership.
From there, the afternoon turned toward a tribute that felt as much like a full-circle moment as it did a celebration. Kerry Washington was presented with her honor by the legendary Delroy Lindo, her co-star from the Hulu series UnPrisoned. The two clearly share a genuine admiration for one another, and Lindo’s introduction felt less like a formal speech and more like a tribute between collaborators who deeply respect each other’s craft.
When Washington took the stage, she made sure to return that admiration. She thanked Lindo for the artistry he has poured into his work over the years, recalling how deeply she was inspired by his portrayal of “West Indian Archie” in Malcolm X, the sweeping biographical film directed by Spike Lee about the life of Malcolm X. Washington reflected on the character’s tragic fall from grace and the depth Lindo brought to the role, calling it one of those performances that stays with you long after the credits roll.
Washington’s own career has had a similar impact. From her iconic turn as Olivia Pope on Scandal to her work behind the scenes as a producer championing diverse storytelling, she has become one of the industry’s most influential creative voices. Her remarks centered on legacy—on buildingdecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/VICTOR_BWIH2026_-36-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"RECAP: Inside The 2026 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Celebration\" width=\"400\" height=\"500\" />Producer Zinzi Coogler is honored at the 2026 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood luncheon for her work with Proximity Media and the Women of SINNERS, celebrating her role in shaping inclusive storytelling on screen.
The afternoon ultimately culminated in one of its most anticipated tributes, when filmmaker Ryan Coogler and actor-producer Michael B. Jordan took the stage together to honor producer Zinzi Coogler and the Women of SINNERS. Their collaboration—spanning films like Fruitvale Station, Creed, and the global phenomenon Black Panther—has become one of the most influential creative partnerships in modern Hollywood.
Through Proximity Media, Zinzi Coogler has helped bring stories to life that balance cultural specificity with global scale, proving that authentic storytelling resonates across audiences.
The cast of Beyond the Gates celebrates after winning the fan-voted ESSIES’ Choice Award.
The celebration also included the announcement of the fan-voted ESSIES’ Choice Award, with nominees including Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black, Beyond the Gates, Forever, and Reasonable Doubt, reflecting the vibrant ecosystem of Black storytelling flourishing across platforms and networks. In the end, Beyond the Gates took home the fan-voted honor. The CBS drama—developed with the backing of the NAACP and Procter & Gamble—has quickly become a standout in daytime television, recently entering its second season with more than 100 episodes already filmed.
And as if the afternoon needed any more star power, Grammy Award–winning singer Mýa later took the stage for a special performance that had the room swaying in their seats, bringing the celebration to a soulful close.
Grammy Award–winning artist Mýa delivers a special performance during the celebration.
By the time guests began filtering out of the ballroom, the feeling was unmistakable: nearly twenty years after its founding, ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood remains one of the industry’s most meaningful gatherings—a space where Black women are not just recognized for their contributions, but celebrated as the architects of Hollywood’s most powerful stories.
The post RECAP: Inside The 2026 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Celebration appeared first on Essence .
","category":"politics","author":"Shelby Stewart","publishDate":"2026-03-15T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/VICTOR_BWIH2026_-Cropped-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/red-carpet/black-women-hollywood/essence-black-women-in-hollywood-2026-recap/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-15T18:01:05.422Z"},{"id":"e2yj7c","archiveId":"8pwn7a","slug":"three-women-veterans-on-the-devastating-reality-of-the-va-abortion-ban","title":"Three Women Veterans on the Devastating Reality of the VA Abortion Ban","excerpt":"The Trump administration is no longer providing abortion care for veterans relying on VA healthcare, even in instances of rape and incest. Through firsthand accounts, veterans describe the fear, medical risk and loss of autonomy created by the policy.","content":"
The Trump administration is no longer providing abortion care for veterans relying on VA healthcare, even in instances of rape and incest.
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Through firsthand accounts, veterans describe the fear, medical risk and loss of autonomy created by the policy.
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\"Abortion is my right, if that was what I deemed I needed.\"
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\"No patient in America should have to go back and forth with their providers ... and for damn sure not with no politicians about what medical care they are allowed to have.\"
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\"We are all people who volunteered. We raised our hands and said, ‘yes send me.’ Healthcare is our right as veterans.\"
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The post Three Women Veterans on the Devastating Reality of the VA Abortion Ban appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Shoshanna Ehrlich","publishDate":"2026-03-15T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1241528107.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/15/women-veterans-abortion-health-pregnanc-emergency-rape-incest-total-ban-trump/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-15T18:01:00.429Z"},{"id":"xu2rxa","archiveId":"3psaam","slug":"this-arizona-wellness-resort-might-be-the-reset-your-burned-out-soul-needs","title":"This Arizona Wellness Resort Might Be The Reset Your Burned-Out Soul Needs","excerpt":"I didn’t realize how depleted I was until I got still enough to feel it. That happened in the Sonoran Desert, in a town literally called Carefree, Arizona, which I […] The post This Arizona Wellness Resort Might Be The Reset Your Burned-Out Soul Needs appeared first on Essence .","content":"
Updated March 14, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
I didn’t realize how depleted I was until I got still enough to feel it.
That happened in the Sonoran Desert, in a town literally called Carefree, Arizona, which I didn’t even clock until I was already there and starting to understand it. I mean, being carefree in Carefree is pretty symbolic if you ask me.
CIVANA Wellness Resort & Spa sits just outside of Scottsdale, and I’ll be honest, it had been showing up on my social media timelines for a while before I finally made the trip. Black women specifically had found this place and were not gatekeeping it, which I always appreciate about us. So I came in with expectations.
And as I walked in, I immediately thought, “the TikTok girlies were not lying.” I hadn’t been on the property five minutes before I understood the hype. There were Black women everywhere. On solo trips, girls weekends, and a whole range of ages, all of them looking like they had specifically come here to do something for themselves. I felt myself exhale a little just taking it in.
They gave me my itinerary at check-in and I was already mentally reorganizing it before the conversation was over to see how much more I could pack into my schedule. The wellness classes are complimentary, and well, in the words of Denzel, “I’m leaving here with something.” Meaning, I wanted to take in as much as I could, with the time I had on property.
Let’s just say… the desert humbled that out of me pretty quickly though. There’s something about being in that much open space with that much quiet just recalibrates you, and you want to just enjoy it, rather than trying to >Seed is the casual daytime spot, a cafe and market where you handle breakfast and lunch with mostly plant-based options, smoothies, grain bowls, grab-and-go things that are satisfying without being heavy. Terras is the dinner restaurant and it’s a completely different experience, a proper sit-down spot with a menu built around seasonal local ingredients, farm-to-table produce, grass-fed meats and sustainable seafood. After a full day of movement you want a real meal and Terras is that.
The spa deserved its own day honestly. At 22,000 square feet with 24 treatment rooms, it’s a full destination within the resort. I got a deep tissue massage and by the time I got on that table my body had already been through aerial yoga, aerial stretch, pilates, pickleball, running and the gym, so the timing of it was everything. When it was done, I took advantage of the rest of the spa amenities, like the sauna and pool, before spending the rest of that evening doing nothing in particular (except sneaking in a bit of Love Is Blind, while laying in bed and ordering room service). Can anyone describe a more perfect day?
A lot of us are running on empty and have been for long enough that it just feels normal now. CIVANA is for that person. The programming is flexible enough that two people can have completely different trips and both leave feeling like they got what they needed. Though I was solo, I began brainstorming my next visit, because I’d raved about my experience to both my mom and my bestie.
I left feeling rested in a way I genuinely had not felt in a long time. I didn’t realize how much I needed that until I got home and jumped back into the normal. The grind was still there waiting for me, as it always is. But I came back actually ready for it.
The post This Arizona Wellness Resort Might Be The Reset Your Burned-Out Soul Needs appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-14T15:29:10.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/civana-wellness-resort-spa-general-123e6982-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/civana-wellness-resort-arizona-reset/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-14T18:00:54.450Z"},{"id":"93wj1o","archiveId":"oz5yac","slug":"inside-the-2026-essence-black-women-in-hollywood-gift-bags","title":"Inside The 2026 ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Gift Bags","excerpt":"Yesterday, Los Angeles’ Fairmont Century Plaza was illuminated with the guests and honorees at ESSENCE 19th Annual Black Women in Hollywood Awards. While the blue carpet turned into a conversation […] The post Inside The 2026 ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Gift Bags appeared first on Essence .","content":"
Courtesy of ESSENCE
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 14, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Yesterday, Los Angeles’ Fairmont Century Plaza was illuminated with the guests and honorees at ESSENCE 19th Annual Black Women in Hollywood Awards . While the blue carpet turned into a conversation about reclaiming the film and television industry, inside the awards, an exclusive gift bag full of fresh beauty launches was left under the seats of each celebrity.
The sillage of fragrance—like Mugler’s Alien Pulp , Alloy Studio’s Luster , and MCM’s Daring Dragon —spilled out of the custom Sarep + Rose tote bag in which they were housed. But, that wasn’t all they were smelling. A Nourishing Body Oil from Brown Sugar Babe and a Sage Water Oil Body Cleanser are the perfect base to layer the fragrances over. While fragrances often double as our hair perfume (whether they were formulated to or not),
You can never go wrong with weloveus.shop 28 Shop Now The Good Good Shea Daily Moisturizing Lotion weloveus.shop 13 Shop Now L’Oréal Paris Collagen Moisture Filler Bounce Serum lorealparis.com Shop Now Camille Rose Guava Slip Mousse camillerose.com Shop Now Wellwithall Energy Drink (12 Pack) wellwithall.com 13 Shop Now Bernard James Gift Card bernardjames.com Custom Shop Now PATTERN Beauty Medium Conditioner Travel Pack patternbeauty.com 21 For bundle of 3Shop Now Christopher John Rogers Striped Knitted Cardigan net-a-porter.com 925 Shop Now Salvom Lavisse Oil Body Cleanser Shop Now Wellwithall Better Daily Vitamin D3 & K2 wellwithall.com 25 Shop Now YSL Beauty Couture Mini Clutch Eyeshadow yslbeautyus.com 69 Shop Now Mugler Alien Pulp Fragrance mugler.com 159 For 90mlShop Now Brown Sugar Babe Body Oil brownsugarbabe.com 15 Shop Now The Alloy Studio weloveus.shop 170 Shop Now Sweet July Skin Soursop Vitamin C Serum sweetjuly.com 49 Shop Now Smartwater coca-cola.com 3 Shop Now Hella Awkward Card Game weloveus.shop 25 Shop Now PATTERN Beauty Moisturizing Body Wash patternbeauty.com 21 For pack of 3Shop Now TOPICS: ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood
The post Inside The 2026 ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Gift Bags appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-14T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/HERCC_BWIH2026_-Cropped-2-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/inside-essence-black-women-in-hollywood-gift-bags-2026/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-14T12:00:33.040Z"},{"id":"ildnsb","archiveId":"11kli2","slug":"they-didnt-want-to-have-c-sections-a-judge-would-decide-how-they-gave-birth","title":"They Didn’t Want to Have C-Sections. A Judge Would Decide How They Gave Birth.","excerpt":"The post They Didn’t Want to Have C-Sections. A Judge Would Decide How They Gave Birth. appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"
On the afternoon of Sept. 9, 2024, Cherise Doyley was in her 12th hour of contractions at University of Florida Health in downtown Jacksonville when a nurse came in with a bedsheet and told her to cover up. A supervisor brought a tablet to Doyley’s bedside. Gathered on the screen were a judge in a black robe and several lawyers, doctors and hospital staff.
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“It’s a real judge in there?” Doyley asked the nurse at the beginning of what would be a three-hour hearing. “Now this is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”
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Doyley hadn’t asked for the hearing. The hospital had sought it. Doyley had mere minutes to prepare. She had no lawyer and no advocate — no one to explain to her what, exactly, was going on.
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Judge Michael Kalil informed her that the state had filed an emergency petition at the hospital’s behest — not out of concern for Doyley, per se, but in the interest of her unborn child. He described the circumstances as “extraordinary.”
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The hospital and state attorney’s office wanted to force Doyley to undergo a cesarean section. Doyley, a professional birthing doula, didn’t want that and had been firm about it. She’d had three prior C-sections, one that resulted in a hemorrhage, and hoped to avoid another serious complication and lengthy recovery. She was aware that doctors were concerned about the risk of uterine rupture, a potentially deadly complication for her and her baby. She would say during the hearing that she understood the risk to be less than 2% and didn’t want to agree to a C-section unless there was an emergency.
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But the choice would not be hers. The judge would decide how she would give birth.
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Watch How a Court Hearing Was Convened in Cherise Doyley’s Hospital Room \n\n\n\nObtained by ProPublica \n\n\n\n
Mentally competent patients typically have the right to choose their medical care — or refuse it. But there is one notable exception: pregnant patients. That inconsistency is particularly striking in Florida, a state that has pushed to expand medical freedom for those who wish to avoid vaccines or fluoridated water, while constricting the rights of people in various stages of pregnancy.
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“There aren’t any other instances where you would invade the body of one person in order to save the life of another,” said Lois Shepherd, a bioethics expert at the University of Virginia School of Law.
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In Florida and many other states, court-ordered medical procedures are just one of the ways pregnant patients’ rights are restricted. The effort to chip away at those rights is rooted in the concept of fetal personhood — that a fetus has equal and, in some cases, more rights than the woman sustaining it.
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The link between fetal personhood and court-ordered C-sections dates back to the 1980s, when courts started ruling that hospitals can override patients’ decisions in favor of the health of unborn children.
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In the years since, proponents of fetal personhood began to push for even broader legal protections. In 1986, Minnesota was the first state to recognize fetuses as victims in homicide cases. Some states have imprisoned pregnant women for exposing their fetuses to drugs. Nearly 30 states have passed laws that allow hospitals to invalidate pregnant patients’ advance directives, which outline the kinds of life-sustaining treatment a person wants after a catastrophic illness or accident. At least one, Alabama, extended the concept of personhood all the way to the earliest stages of fertilization and conception by giving frozen embryos the same legal status as children, though the Legislature later said the law couldn’t be enforced.
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And the fetal personhood movement has accelerated in the past several years, supercharged by the U.S. Supreme Court decision to reverse the abortion rights that had been protected by Roe v. Wade.
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Florida has long been at the forefront of fetal personhood policies. The state was one of the first in the country to prosecute a woman for “delivering” drugs to her fetus during pregnancy in 1989, although the Florida Supreme Court later overturned her conviction. And after advocates twice failed to get a fetal personhood amendment on the state ballot, the Legislature is now considering a bill that would enshrine the concept in state law by giving embryos and fetuses the same legal status as people in wrongful death suits.
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For women in labor, the potential impact of the bill is clear: Experts anticipate their medical needs could be further diminished in favor of the fetuses’.
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Several legal experts told ProPublica they are alarmed by Doyley’s case and the legislation’s potential to allow for more court interventions during childbirth. Lawyers who represent women in fetal personhood cases already have identified a higher number of forced C-sections in Florida than other states.
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The state attorney’s office for the 4th Judicial Circuit declined to comment on Doyley’s case, saying a response would violate her medical privacy. But in an email, a spokesperson noted why, in general, the office would intervene: “The courts have held that the State has a compelling interest in the preservation of the life of an unborn child and the protection of innocent third parties who may be harmed by the parental refusal to allow or consent to life-saving medical treatment.”
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C-sections account for nearly a third of all deliveries in the United States. They can be necessary when babies are breech, or in the wrong position for birth, as well as in cases of maternal or fetal emergency. But in other cases, such as slow laboring or prior C-sections, the need for the surgery is less clear.
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Surveys have found that more than 10% of women feel pressured into C-sections and other procedures by doctors worried about injuries to the baby. Patients generally don’t challenge doctors who say they’re necessary, and it is uncommon for someone to hold out and for the hospital to turn to the courts.
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It is so rare, in fact, that advocates for the rights of pregnant women were shocked to discover that the same thing that happened to Doyley had happened to another Florida woman just a year and a half earlier.
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The similarities in their cases were striking. Both women had three prior C-sections. They had questioned the need for their previous surgeries and arrived prepared to fight for vaginal births. And both women are Black.
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They had argued that compelling them to have C-sections violated their rights to make medical decisions. Hospital staff said their medical decisions threatened the health of the fetus. It would be up to the courts to decide which one mattered more.
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\nDoyley enjoys time with her 1-year-old daughter, Arewa, on their porch. Brianna Bennett with her 2-year-old daughter, Aubree. Like Doyley, Bennett was forced to have a court-ordered C-section. \n\n\n\n
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Asked to consider the constitutionality of court-ordered C-sections, the U.S. Supreme Court declined in 1994, leaving a patchwork of decisions that vary by state.
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In the early 1980s, a hospital in Georgia won a court order to force a woman with a dangerous pregnancy complication to have a C-section. Then, in 1987, a judge in Washington, D.C., approved a request to perform surgery on a pregnant woman dying from cancer without her consent. Later, a higher court reversed that ruling and held that hospitals should not override medical decisions. An Illinois appellate court in 1993 refused to order a woman to undergo a C-section.
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Not long after, a patient named Laura Pemberton, who did not want a C-section, left a hospital in Tallahassee, Florida, against medical advice. A local judge sent law enforcement to her house to bring her back. Once she returned to the hospital, the judge ordered her to have a C-section, which doctors carried out. She later sued in federal court and lost. The 1999 decision by a federal district judge found that the state had a right to override her wishes.
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“Whatever the scope of Ms. Pemberton’s personal Constitutional rights in this situation, they clearly did not outweigh the interests of the State of Florida in preserving the life of the unborn child,” the decision said. The decision marked a legal turning point in prioritizing fetal rights over the religious freedom and bodily autonomy of the mother.
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In 2009, Samantha Burton arrived at the same hospital at 25 weeks pregnant, after going into premature labor. Doctors told her she needed to remain on bed rest, but she wanted to leave and go home to her children. The hospital got a court order for her to remain in the hospital and undergo any treatment doctors deemed necessary to save the fetus. She had an emergency C-section, and the baby was stillborn.
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She appealed the ruling granting the emergency order, and a Florida appeals court ruled in her favor. They said the circuit judge should have required the hospital to prove the baby was viable before imposing unwanted treatment, but the court stopped short of saying it was unacceptable to override the medical decisions of pregnant women in all situations.
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Pregnancy is the only condition where Florida courts have ruled that a patient can be forced to undergo unwanted treatment. Even a state prisoner on a hunger strike has more rights to make medical decisions.
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Those rulings give the state vast control over pregnant women.
\n\n\n\n
“All of it essentially is about the state’s ability to decide that a fetus, at any point during a pregnancy, is more important than the person who’s pregnant,” said Rutgers University law professor Kimberly Mutcherson.
\n\n\n\n
\nDoyley decorates her home with decals of butterflies. She says she likes how they represent transformation. One-year-old Arewa plays on the family porch. \n\n\n\n
Bennett’s 2-year-old daughter, Aubree, pretends the floor is lava. \n\n\n\n
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In March 2023, more than a year before Doyley’s court-ordered C-section, Brianna Bennett arrived in labor at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital — the same hospital where the women in the 1999 and 2009 lawsuits had given birth.
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Over the preceding years, Bennett had come to question the medical reasoning behind her three prior C-sections. Each recovery had been harder than the last, leaving her so incapacitated after the third that for two weeks she couldn’t even go to the bathroom without help.
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At the time Bennett went into labor with her fourth, her mother’s hip problems had gotten so bad that she needed a wheelchair and required some help from Bennett to function. Bennett did not think she could care for all her family members while in recovery from abdominal surgery, so she insisted on trying for a vaginal birth.
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Bennett researched and weighed birthing options before going into labor. \n\n\n\n
Tallahassee Memorial Hospital had specialists on staff and a neonatal intensive care unit equipped to serve critically ill babies. Bennett believed it offered the kind of support she needed to be able to follow her birth plan. The hospital has handled a lot of high-risk pregnancies.
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As Bennett’s labor stretched past 24 hours, a doctor confronted her about agreeing to a C-section, Bennett said. She continued to refuse, so the hospital reached out to the state attorney. In an email, Jack Campbell, state attorney for the 2nd Judicial Circuit, responded that the court needed to act quickly.
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“I plan to file an emergency motion with the Court to allow TMH to take whatever steps medically necessary to protect the life of the child and mother,” he wrote.
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Bennett, in the red dress, prepares lunch with her children, from left, Alannah, 16, Aubree, 2, Ayden, 11, and Ava, 7. After her three prior C-sections, she was worried about recovering from a fourth while taking care of a newborn and other family members. \n\n\n\n
During the hearing, 15 to 20 people squeezed into Bennett’s hospital room. As would later happen with Doyley, she found herself in front of a tablet with a judge on the screen.
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Bennett said she found it offensive that so many people were concerned about the method of her delivery without taking into consideration how difficult it would be to take care of both herself and her baby while recovering from a C-section. “Are any of you gonna help me bathe or shower? Are you gonna help change my pad? Are you gonna help lift the baby out of the bed and put me in the bed because I can’t lift my legs? Is anyone going to help me?”
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Campbell told ProPublica that he felt the hearing was necessary to save two lives, Bennett’s and her baby’s. “I’m real comfortable with what we did here,” Campbell said. “I hate the fact that she’s upset about it.”
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A spokesperson for Tallahassee Memorial Hospital declined to comment on Bennett’s case, even though she signed a waiver allowing the hospital to do so. “We will not be able to discuss specific patients or cases,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. The hospital did not respond to questions about its history of seeking court intervention in multiple women’s medical decisions while giving birth.
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Bennett said she tried to remain calm, but inside she was panicking. During the hearing, her baby’s heart rate spiked. The judge ordered her to have a C-section, and doctors wheeled her into surgery. The operation lasted two and a half hours and the surgical team had to cut around existing scar tissue and avoid her bladder. Her incision looked like an upside-down T and required a wound vac, a portable machine that helps incisions close more quickly.
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She said a doctor who visited her room during recovery told her she should never get pregnant again, according to a civil rights complaint filed with federal regulators.The complaint is still under investigation, but lawyers for Bennett said they haven’t heard from investigators in more than a year. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not comment on the complaint.
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“I cried every single day,” Bennett said. “I felt like I was supposed to be happy. I’m supposed to be thankful that I have a new life and that the Lord has blessed me to see this new baby. And I’m not even happy.”
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\nBennett’s daughters Aubree and Ava play on a swing set. Aubree looks at a photo of her mother holding her after a court-ordered C-section. \n\n\n\n
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A year and a half later in Jacksonville, Doyley faced a situation eerily similar to Bennett’s.
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She noted as her hearing began that she was the only Black person on the screen. About a dozen faces, most of them white, had gathered to challenge her medical decisions. She said it made her feel as if her race had something to do with the fact that she was thrust into the intrusive hearing.
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“I have 20 white people against me, and because I am informed and I am making an informed decision, they are trying to take my rights away from me by force,” Doyley told the people on the screen, requesting a Black nurse or doctor.
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“I don’t find that race really has much to do with this, ma’am,” the judge responded.
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Dr. Erin Burnett said during the hearing that she did not think Doyley could successfully give birth vaginally because she had a history of stalled labors. A long labor after prior C-sections could increase the risk of uterine rupture, which could kill Doyley and the child, she said.
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She said the baby’s heart rate showed some signs of distress and told Doyley it would be better to have a C-section before it became an emergency. If the baby’s heart stopped or if she lost oxygen during delivery, the baby could suffer a brain injury or death.
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Dr. John Davis, the chair of the obstetrics and gynecology department, testified that the hospital had been recognized for its low C-section rate and did not perform unnecessary surgeries. Doyley’s condition required intervention, he said.
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Burnett and Davis did not respond to requests for comment, and the hospital declined ProPublica’s requests to interview them and others involved in Doyley’s care. Doyley signed a waiver allowing the hospital to discuss her case with ProPublica, but a spokesperson for University of Florida Health in Jacksonville would not comment, citing patient privacy. Nor did the hospital respond to questions about Doyley’s claim that race played a role in the decision to involve the court.
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The research on the risks of uterine rupture after prior C-sections is unclear. Studies have found that 0.15% to 2.3% of these labors resulted in a rupture, depending on a number of factors such as body mass, a history of successful vaginal births and whether the labor was spontaneous or had to be induced.
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Doyley, who felt comfortable with her odds and wanted to continue laboring, argued during the hearing that C-sections carry their own dangers — including a risk of death.
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“A lot of that comes from medical negligence and medical racism, where we have a group of white doctors that think that they know what is best for Black bodies and Black babies,” Doyley said in the hearing.
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Doyley’s children — from left, Aganju, 7, Akilah, 11, and Arewa, 1 — sit on the porch at their home. \n\n\n\n
Both the doctors and Doyley mentioned recommendations from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. However, neither one cited the organization’s stance on court-ordered C-sections, which the group has deemed to be “ethically impermissible.”
\n\n\n\n
After three hours of testimony — all while Doyley lay in her hospital bed — the judge ruled that she could keep laboring unless there was an emergency. If that happened, the hospital could operate, whether she wanted it or not. The judge would reconvene the hearing in the morning.
\n\n\n\n
In response to questions from ProPublica, Kalil wrote in an email that the judicial code of conduct prohibits judges from commenting on cases. “These ethical standards exist to protect the integrity of the judicial process, ensure fairness to all parties, and preserve the Court’s neutrality,” he wrote.
\n\n\n\n
Overnight, doctors said the baby’s heart rate dropped for seven minutes. Doyley woke to her hospital bed being wheeled into surgery. She called out to her sister who was asleep in the hospital room.
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“I had to tell her, ‘Hey, wake up,’” Doyley said. “‘Something is going on.’ She’s trying to put on her shoes. I’m like, ‘Girl, leave the shoes. Let’s go.’”
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Doyley recalled reciting a short prayer as her sister scrambled into the operating room. The baby was delivered by C-section. Although Doyley’s daughter was initially limp, she perked up and became responsive within a few minutes. Doctors took her to the NICU while Doyley went to recover. And to get ready to face the judge again.
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At the 8 a.m. hearing, Doyley looked pained and groggy. She told the judge she still hadn’t been allowed to see her daughter and asked if he could help. A doctor testified that the baby had been brought to the NICU in respiratory distress and placed on a continuous positive airway pressure machine to help with her breathing.
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Kalil said he couldn’t order the hospital to do anything. The matter he had been appointed to hear involved only her unborn baby. He had no authority over the child in the nursery.
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Kalil wished her well and quickly closed the case.
\n\n\n\n
Doyley in her home. In Florida and many other states, court-ordered C-sections are just one way in which pregnant women’s rights are eroded. \n
The post They Didn’t Want to Have C-Sections. A Judge Would Decide How They Gave Birth. appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"activism","author":"Amy Yurkanin","publishDate":"2026-03-14T09:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?w=752","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/florida-court-ordered-c-sections","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-14T12:00:30.321Z"},{"id":"iw0w30","archiveId":"s51zjv","slug":"this-test-may-predict-dementia-risk-in-women-up-to-25-years-in-advance-study-suggests","title":"This Test May Predict Dementia Risk In Women Up To 25 Years In Advance, Study Suggests","excerpt":"The outcome of the study revealed other interesting associations, too.","content":"","category":"breakthroughs","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-03-13T22:37:38.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/69b46f451b00006ef914e312.jpeg?cache=AsjtC4OmLo&ops=500_281%2Cscalefit_1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dementia-risk-women-blood-test_n_69b42dd7e4b0676e64bf39b9","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-14T12:00:30.541Z"},{"id":"povlgx","archiveId":"7sdlin","slug":"how-zendaya-uses-archival-fashion-to-honor-black-icons","title":"How Zendaya Uses Archival Fashion to Honor Black Icons","excerpt":"The 2026 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood event will be available to stream on ESSENCE’s YouTube starting Saturday, March 14: Watch Here. “And just like that…. I found it!!” read […] The post How Zendaya Uses Archival Fashion to Honor Black Icons appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 13, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
The 2026 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood event will be available to stream on ESSENCE’s YouTube starting Saturday, March 14: Watch Here .
“And just like that…. I found it!!” read the latest Instagram caption of Zendaya’s stylist and Image Architect Law Roach. Yesterday, Zendaya attended the 19th Annual ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards “wearing on the most iconic dresses in movie history.” He’s referencing the version of a dress worn by Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City: The Movie (2008): a white one-shouldered mini dress from Caché .
But, the dress goes far deeper than that. While her Carrie Bradshaw moment dates back to 2008, it’s a replica of an original Eugene Alexander dress famously seen over 20 years prior—on
As recent rumors swirl that Zendaya privately tied the knot with her fiancé Tom Holland, wearing a dress adorned with white and gold orchids makes sense. After all, she’s been leaning into the gossip all week, from her bridal white high-low skirt at Louis Vuitton and even a new hair cut, which often comes with big life changes. But, while her marriage-method-dressing via Whitney Houston was her most recent fashion statement, it wasn’t the first time she revived something special from the archives.
Ahead, take a look at 3 more times Zendaya—by way of Law Roach—used archival fashion to pay tribute to Black icons.
2025, Golden Globe Awards
“In honour of Diahann, Eartha, Dorthy and Joyce,” read Law Roach’s Instagram caption as the inspiration behind her orange Louis Vuitton gown at last year’s Golden Globes. The gown, which was form fitting with a bouffant train, specifically referenced the work of Zelda Wynn Valdes, an African American costume designer known for dressing Joyce Bryant, on the cover of Bryant’s 1954 album, Runnin’ Wild.
Zendaya during the 82nd Annual Golden Globes held at The Beverly Hilton on January 05, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by JC Olivera/GG2025/Penske Media via Getty Images)
2021, ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood
At ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood in 2021, Law Roach put Zendaya in a Yves Saint Laurent couture look from his personal archive. The puff-sleeved top originally belonged to Black businesswoman Eunice W Johnson, the creator of Ebony Fashion Fair, dating back to 1982.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 22: In this image released on April 22, 2021, Zendaya attends ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for ESSENCE)
2021, BET Awards
Beyoncé’s first-ever solo performance at the BET Awards was in 2003. She wore a short spring/summer 2003 Versace gown and a pair of green pumps. So, naturally, when Zendaya attended in 2021, she honored the icon with a longer version of that same gown.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 27: (L-R) Lil’ Kim and Zendaya attend the BET Awards 2021 at Microsoft Theater on June 27, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for BET)
Beyonce Performs (Photo by Steve Grayson/WireImage for BET Entertainment)TOPICS:
2026 Black Women in Hollywood archival fashion law roach Zendaya The post How Zendaya Uses Archival Fashion to Honor Black Icons appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-13T20:47:44.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/Untitled-16-x-9-cm-3-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/zendaya-uses-archival-fashion-to-honor-black-icons/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-14T00:00:36.635Z"},{"id":"8vorkc","archiveId":"wx1el","slug":"landmark-court-ruling-in-ukraine-a-step-toward-equality","title":"Landmark Court Ruling in Ukraine a Step Toward Equality","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Participants at the 2025 Kyiv Pride Equality March display a placard supporting Draft Law 9103, which proposes the legal recognition of civil partnerships in Ukraine, June 14, 2025.","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Participants at the 2025 Kyiv Pride Equality March display a placard supporting Draft Law 9103, which proposes the legal recognition of civil partnerships in Ukraine, June 14, 2025. \n © 2025 Cover Images via AP Images\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>A ruling this week by Ukraine’s Supreme Court recognizing a same-sex couple as a de facto family marks a significant victory for equality.</p><p>The case involves Zorian Kis, a Ukrainian diplomat, and his partner Tymur Levchuk. After years of legal struggle, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision recognizing that the couple constitutes a family under Ukrainian law.</p><p>While the ruling sets an important precedent for lower courts, legislation that would allow same-sex partners to register a civil union has remained stalled in parliament for three years.</p><p>Without formal legal recognition, same-sex couples in Ukraine are not considered immediate family members, blocking access to spousal hospital visits, medical decisions, inheritance, and other rights.</p><p>Public opinion in Ukraine on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights has shifted in recent years, particularly since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. The service of LGBT soldiers in Ukraine’s armed forces has reshaped public debate. A 2024 survey found that over 70 percent of Ukrainians support equal rights, a figure that remains high today.</p><p>In June 2023, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Ukraine violated prohibitions against discrimination and the right to respect for private and family life by failing to provide legal recognition for same-sex couples. The court rejected the government’s claim that protecting “traditional families” justifies excluding same-sex couples and highlighted that Ukraine offers two forms of legal recognition for different-sex couples.</p><p>A new draft civil code defines “de facto family unions” as different-sex partnerships, explicitly excluding same-sex families. If adopted, Ukraine could run afoul of obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and complicate its path toward European Union membership, which requires compliance with nondiscrimination standards.</p><p>The Supreme Court has made a clear determination: same-sex couples are families and the law must respect their rights. It is beyond time for the law on the books to catch up.</p><p>For LGBT Ukrainians, including many serving on the front lines and their loved ones, the continued legislative delay leaves them in a legal vacuum.</p><p>Ukraine is fighting for a future based on human rights and rule of law, but its democratic credentials are damaged if it continues to treat some citizens as second class. Parliament should adopt the civil partnerships bill without further delay. </p><p>Doing so is not just a matter of law, but of dignity.</p>","category":"lgbtq","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-13T17:04:18.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603eca_ukraine_lgbt_prideparade.jpg?h=f728280d&itok=H1exH4q0","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/13/landmark-court-ruling-in-ukraine-a-step-toward-equality","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T18:00:25.484Z"},{"id":"lrqwev","archiveId":"l0cx2x","slug":"black-wealth-watch-byron-allen-buys-stake-in-starz-unrivaled8217s-second-season-brings-in-45m-and-a-","title":"Black Wealth Watch: Byron Allen Buys Stake In Starz, Unrivaled’s Second Season Brings In $45M, And A Lawsuit Fights For 15,000 Diverse-Owned Businesses","excerpt":"Welcome to Black Wealth Watch, where we round up the biggest stories in Black business and economic news each week — the wins, the setbacks, the deals getting done, and […] The post Black Wealth Watch: Byron Allen Buys Stake In Starz, Unrivaled’s Second Season Brings In $45M, And A Lawsuit Fights Fo...","content":"
By
Kimberly Wilson ·
Updated March 13, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Welcome to Black Wealth Watch, where we round up the biggest stories in Black business and economic news each week — the wins, the setbacks, the deals getting done, and the conversations we should be having about money, power, and who actually gets a seat at the table.
This week we’ve got Byron Allen going after one of our favorite networks, a women’s basketball league that is proving its doubters wrong in the best way possible, a lawsuit that may be the most consequential legal fight for minority business owners you haven’t heard nearly enough about, a 400-day boycott that’s been called off (though not everyone agrees it should be) and one of our own ESSENCE Power 55 honorees making a major career move. Let’s get into it.
Byron Allen Sets His Sights On Starz
Byron Allen quietly picked up a 10.7 percent stake in Starz Entertainment last week , paying $25 million for 1.8 million shares and landing himself among the company’s largest individual shareholders. Starz, which only went public last year after splitting off from Lionsgate and is home to the entire Power universe and P-Valley, moved fast with the board voting unanimously to adopt a shareholder rights plan that makes it significantly more expensive for anyone to try to push their ownership past 17.5 percent. Allen has made clear he intends to engage directly with company leadership on strategy, and the board clearly took that seriously. This one is worth following.
Unrivaled Finished Its Second Season With $45 Million and a Point to Make
Men lie, women lie, but women’s basketball numbers don’t. The 3-on-3 women’s basketball league wrapped its second season this week and the numbers are not a fluke. Unrivaled pulled in $45 million in revenue , crossed 1.2 billion digital touchpoints with fans, and sold out arenas in both Philadelphia and New York. The league expanded to new tour stops this season while merchandise sales and its own digital platforms both hit new highs. The league is only two seasons in and showing no signs of slowing down.
15,000 Minority-Owned Businesses Just Got Their Biggest Legal Ally
If you have not been paying close attention to what’s been happening in Texas, this is your sign to start. The Global Black Economic Forum, alongside Freedom Economy and American Pride Rises, filed what organizers are calling the first affirmative national lawsuit brought specifically in defense of minority and women-owned business enterprises . At the center of it is the state’s Historically Underutilized Business program, which for more than 35 years directed public contracts to qualified small businesses (more than $4 billion worth in fiscal year 2024 alone). Then, through emergency executive action and without any vote from the legislature, more than 15,000 certified businesses were stripped of their certifications overnight. The lawsuit’s central argument is that programs created by law cannot be dismantled through executive order, and if the organizers prevail, the implications go well beyond Texas. This is the case to have on your radar right now.
The Target Fast Is Over. Sort Of.
After 400 days, Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant officially called an end to the Target Fast on March 11 , saying the coalition secured three of its four original demands, including Target moving toward ful>confirmed to USA Today that Target made no new concessions and reversed none of its DEI rollbacks. Co-organizer Nina Turner said publicly she is not going back to Target and that the boycott, from where she stands, is not over . The Racial Justice Network in Minneapolis, which helped spark the original movement, held their own press conference the same day to say the same thing. Meanwhile Target’s stock is up more than 20 percent so far this year. The pressure campaign cost the company an estimated $12 to $15 billion in market value. Bryant called it a victory. The community is still deciding.
GLD Just Hired Someone We Already Know
Life>named Vanessa Wallace its new Chief Marketing Officer, and if that name rings a bell, it should — she’s a 2025 ESSENCE Power 55 honoree . Wallace spent close to two decades at Nike, eventually running marketing for Jordan Brand North America, before becoming CMO at Savage X Fenty. At GLD, she’ll oversee brand strategy, performance marketing, and wholesale expansion for a company already deep in partnerships with Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Micah Parsons, and Snoop Dogg. It is a serious hire for a brand with serious ambitions and we couldn’t be more proud of her.
The post Black Wealth Watch: Byron Allen Buys Stake In Starz, Unrivaled’s Second Season Brings In $45M, And A Lawsuit Fights For 15,000 Diverse-Owned Businesses appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-13T17:03:08.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/black-wealth-watch-byron-allen-unrivaled-lawsuit-target/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T18:00:26.345Z"},{"id":"h2x8zu","archiveId":"y2ckvq","slug":"democrats-in-congress-challenge-ban-on-abortion-care-and-counseling-for-veterans-8216we-wont-stop-be","title":"Democrats in Congress Challenge Ban on Abortion Care and Counseling for Veterans: ‘We Won’t Stop Being Loud About This’","excerpt":"In the final days of 2025, under the cover of the holidays, Trump’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) instated a total ban on abortion and abortion counseling. The new policy applies to all VA healthcare facilities across the U.S., including in states where abortion remains legal.","content":"
In the final days of 2025, under the cover of the holidays, Trump’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) instated a total ban on abortion and abortion counseling.
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The new policy applies to all VA healthcare facilities across the U.S., including in states where abortion remains legal. As a result, the VA now has “one of the strictest abortion bans in the country,\" according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
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In late January, Sens. Patty Murray, Richard Blumenthal, Chuck Schumer and Democratic members of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee introduced a joint Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution—an oversight tool through which Congress can overturn rules issued by federal agencies, by a simple majority—to nullify the administration’s abortion and abortion counseling exclusion.
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Garnering a same-day endorsement by an array of veterans’, medical, women’s, and reproductive health and rights organizations, they urged “both chambers to act swiftly to overturn this extreme policy that puts veterans’ health and safety at risk.”
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The post Democrats in Congress Challenge Ban on Abortion Care and Counseling for Veterans: ‘We Won’t Stop Being Loud About This’ appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Shoshanna Ehrlich","publishDate":"2026-03-13T16:36:47.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251997346-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/13/va-veterans-women-military-healthcare-abortion/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T18:00:19.159Z"},{"id":"wv9gr2","archiveId":"rzjmbh","slug":"the-washington-spirit-know-their-style-can-open-new-doors-for-womens-soccer","title":"The Washington Spirit Know Their Style Can Open New Doors for Women's Soccer","excerpt":"The players explain why fashion and beauty on and off the field are so important to them.","content":"The players explain why fashion and beauty on and off the field are so important to them.","category":"empowerment","author":"Donya Momenian","publishDate":"2026-03-13T16:28:36.000Z","image":"https://assets.teenvogue.com/photos/69b438df0c584b0726761465/master/pass/Hal%203.jpg","source":"Teen Vogue","sourceUrl":"https://www.teenvogue.com/story/washington-spirit-kits-arrivals-outfits-style-interview","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T18:00:28.876Z"},{"id":"5e8hc4","archiveId":"hi1oxy","slug":"for-many-black-women-the-target-boycott-is-not-over-it-may-never-be","title":"For many Black women, the Target boycott is not over. It may never be.","excerpt":"Whatever you may have heard about the Target boycott ending, here’s the truth: The boycott is not over for many Black women. It probably never will be. A year ago, Black women started the movement to boycott the retail giant after it made a U-turn on its numerous commitments to racial equity — and ...","content":"
Whatever you may have heard about the Target boycott ending, here’s the truth: The boycott is not over for many Black women. It probably never will be.
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A year ago, Black women started the movement to boycott the retail giant after it made a U-turn on its numerous commitments to racial equity — and particularly the Black community. That movement took various forms: Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner called for a national boycott, as did grassroots activists in Minneapolis, where Target is based. Rev. Jamal Harrison Bryant of Atlanta’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church also launched a 40-day “Target fast” that stretched into nearly 400.
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The boycott played a key role in a year of declining sales and profits that forced CEO Brian Cornell to step down . Target’s stock price dropped about 30 percent in 2025.
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But this week, just as the Target fast passed the one-year mark, Bryant announced it was over, citing “productive” conversations with the company’s new CEO Michael Fiddelke.
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“We have not been able to get all that we have desired, but I am grateful for the strides that we have made. For the Target fast, that really reflects the faith-based component of this, we are claiming victory,” he said at a press conference Wednesday.
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His announcement confused many Black women who, for more than a year, have held steady in their conviction to not set foot inside a Target store until the company reversed its retreat on diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI.
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That still has not happened: The company confirmed to USA Today that it’s making no new commitments or reversals on its DEI policy. Target said in a statement to The 19th that it is “more committed than ever to creating growth and opportunity for all. We’re pleased to be moving forward, and we will continue showing up as trusted neighbors while delivering results for our team members, guests, and the more than 2,000 communities in which we serve.”
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Now, organizers in Minnesota are pushing forward with a boycott until that key demand is met, and Black women across the country are reminding people that they started the boycott — and they’ll decide when it ends.
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Laverne Mickens, a fourth grade teacher and scholarship coach in Springfield, Massachusetts, was one of the many who took to social media Wednesday.
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“It was Black women that started the Target boycott, not Jamal Bryant,” Mickens said in a video on Instagram . “[Black women] will say if and when it’s over. And I can tell you right now: That will be the 15th of never ever.”
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She told The 19th that the response she’s heard since is that many Black women are “lockstep on the same page” about continuing the Target boycott. “People have taken advantage of Black people and our dollars. They don’t respect us, they don’t respect our money,” she said.
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For years, Target, or “Tarjay” to many, has been a favorite among Black women. But the company gained more respect in the wake of the 2020 killing of George Floyd, when the retailer, whose offices sit a mere three miles from where Floyd was murdered, said it would work to raise the number of Black employees by 20 percent over three years , establish a racial equity committee and spend more than $2 billion on partnerships with Black-owned businesses , which included adding products from 500 Black-owned vendors.
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In that time, Target rolled out popular Black History Month displays and showcased vendors like the Black-owned makeup company the Lip Bar and creator Tabitha Brown’s food, appliance and hair care lines. It had installations at Essence Fest, the massive annual event celebrating Black culture.
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Shoppers like Whitney Roberts, a content creator in Philadelphia, would rush to get new merchandise whenever the Black History Month drops hit the shelves, only to find most of it sold out. Most of her registry for her daughter, who was born in late 2020, was made up of Target items.
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“It felt like they saw us. It felt like they cared about our community,” she said.
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Which is why what happened in January 2025 hit Black women so hard.
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Days after President Donald Trump took office and issued an executive order dismantling federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Target joined other major corporations in completely undoing its commitments to DEI . It announced a new program called “Belonging at the Bullseye,” which was positioned as an effort to recruit and retain staff “who represent the communities we serve and fuel a culture where everyone has access to opportunity and growth” while also offering an assortment of products and services that “help all guests feel seen and celebrated.”
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For Roberts and numerous other Black women, it felt like a betrayal. She’s since had to explain to her daughter, who is now 5, why they could no longer walk the aisles or scour the dollar section for toys.
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“At 5 years old, I shouldn’t have to tell her that a company that pretended to rock with us and feigned like they were supporting us broke a promise to us,” Roberts said. “Black folks have constantly had to explain to the new generation that promises keep getting broken to us.”
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Soon after Target’s announcement, a group of organizers in Minneapolis led by civil rights lawyer and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong formulated a plan to stage a national boycott with one primary objective: bring back Target’s DEI policies.
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At the same time, Turner, the former Ohio state senator, also started calling for a nationwide boycott of the retailer with her organization, We Are Somebody. She called activist Tamika Mallory to help her organize the boycott, and then Bryant joined in, offering to start a 40-day “Target fast” through his church, Mallory told The 19th.
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Both efforts moved concurrently, though Armstrong believes Bryant, Mallory and Turner tried to co-opt the efforts of local leaders as their own, claiming they started the boycott, Levy Armstrong told The 19th. Turner has maintained that she started the national boycott.
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“Women, period, are the ones who have been the main sustainers of this boycott because we are the ones in control of our family’s discretionary income,” Levy Armstrong said. “To have a man come out of nowhere and try to call for an end to it also is a slap in the face.”
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She called her own press conference in response to Bryant’s announcement outside Target’s Minneapolis headquarters Wednesday afternoon.
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“We are asking people: Continue to stand with grassroots leadership in the state of Minnesota, where Target is actually headquartered, and not clout-chasers, not fake pastors, not fake activists trying to co-opt our work,” she said at the press conference. “We are asking people: Continue to double down and hold Target accountable. The boycott continues.”
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Mallory denied claims that she, Bryant and Turner co-opted Levy Armstrong’s efforts. “I think the work everybody is doing is important and the leaders in Minnesota have been through a lot and they should be respected and honored for their contributions,” she said.
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“No one group of people has the authority to call off a grassroots-led movement,” Mallory said.
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An attendee holds a program book during the TARGET FAST TownHall Meeting at Salem Bible Church on April 22, 2025 in Lithonia, Georgia. The “Target Fast” began as a 40-day fast from shopping at Target in response to the company’s rollback of its DEI initiatives. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images) \n\n\n\n
Part of what prompted the end of the fast, Bryant said at his press conference Wednesday, was a meeting he and Mallory had with Fiddelke, Target’s CEO, who updated them on commitments the company has made to the Black community. Among them: Target committed $100 million in grants and scholarships to Black-led community organizations and partnered with Historically Black Colleges and Universities — announcements the company actually made back in 2021 , so it’s unclear what are new commitments. Fiddelke also said Target was on track to hit its $2 billion commitment set in 2020 by Easter in April. Bryant said during the press conference that he was also encouraged by Target’s “Belonging” program and how it’s opening opportunities for people of color and women within the company.
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For Bryant, those steps signaled it was time to end the fast “because we have other fights that we’ve got to see, and other things that we’ve got to tackle,” he said.
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But both Turner and Mallory told The 19th their battle is not done.
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Mallory said that in her meeting with Fiddelke, Target did acknowledge the company is responsible for the breakdown of trust that happened with the Black community. But Target continues to refuse to issue that apology publicly.
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“I also asked, ‘Why are you unable to apologize, to acknowledge the harm that has been done … stand by the work that you are so proud of, and speak about it publicly?’” Mallory recounted to The 19th. “They have not done so after my request and so therefore there’s no reason for me to believe that it’s time to return to Target. I probably will never go back.”
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Turner and her organization will also continue boycotting. She told The 19th she was particularly disheartened by news that Target allegedly said DEI is “divisive” during a recent meeting with a Washington, D.C., coalition of leaders who have been protesting in front of a store every Saturday for the past year.
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“That doesn’t seem to me a corporation that has learned its lesson,” said Turner, who emphasized that Target is just one of a number of corporations she and others have their eyes on due to their retreat from racial and social justice.
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Now, instead of dying down, it feels like the boycott is again ramping up, Levy Armstrong said.
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“There is so much momentum and actually some people are doubling down as a result,” she said.
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None of it is happening in a vacuum. Over the past year, Black women have lost jobs at record rates, hitting the highest unemployment rates they’ve experienced since the pandemic . The unemployment rate for Black women was 7.1 percent in February, the highest rate among every group of women and men. A big part of the reason? The retreat from DEI efforts across corporate America.
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Karla Lee, a pharmacist in Orlando, viewed her decision on Target “as a breakup, not a boycott” because her trust had been broken. She said Black women feel sidelined economically and “sidelined because of betrayal.”
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Lee has grieved the loss of shopping there, a place that offered a reprieve for her, where she got joy from wandering the aisles and picking out Easter basket knickknacks for her kids or stocking stuffers when the Christmas decorations went up. Once she realized so much of it for her was about the experience, and not the merchandise, she was able to move on. She knew the betrayal she felt meant she’d never be able to experience Target the same way again.
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“The trick was that there was really nothing that we needed at Target that we couldn’t get anywhere else,” Lee said. “Now that we lost out on the magic, we see it for what it is, and it doesn’t sparkle.”
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Errin Haines contributed to this report.
","category":"activism","author":"Chabeli Carrazana","publishDate":"2026-03-13T16:13:29.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/target_boycott_4.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/target-boycott-black-women-protest/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T18:00:19.620Z"},{"id":"9zntg4","archiveId":"2u9yhi","slug":"sephora-is-bringing-beauty-trackside-in-new-f1-academy-partnership","title":"Sephora Is Bringing Beauty Trackside In New F1 Academy Partnership","excerpt":"Sephora just entered the race. Literally. The beauty retailer announced an official partnership with F1 Academy, the all-female racing series backed by Formula 1, ahead of the 2026 season opener […] The post Sephora Is Bringing Beauty Trackside In New F1 Academy Partnership appeared first on Essence...","content":"
By
Kimberly Wilson ·
Updated March 13, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Sephora just entered the race. Literally.
The beauty retailer announced an official partnership with F1 Academy , the all-female racing series backed by Formula 1, ahead of the 2026 season opener in Shanghai this week.
If you’ve been watching Sephora’s moves lately, this probably doesn’t surprise you. Over the past year the brand has been building one of the most intentional women’s sports portfolios in beauty, partnering with Unrivaled basketball league in 2025 and later taking on naming rights for the league’s Miami home, now known as Sephora Arena. Similarly, they also partnered with the WNBA Golden State Valkyries . Racing, though, is a whole other world to walk into.
“We are thrilled to become the Official Beauty Retail Partner of F1 ACADEMY, supporting their commitment to women’s empowerment worldwide,” said Deborah Yeh, Global Chief Marketing Officer, SEPHORA.
“This collaboration will give us an incredible opportunity to engage with audiences from Shanghai to Austin, bringing our unique brand experience to fans while supporting the dreams of these athletes. We look forward to celebrating the synergy between sports and beauty and continuing to champion our shared values throughout the various races.”
Launched in 2023 , the F1 Academy series exists to get women into professional motorsport, on the track and off it. It’s now in its third season, with 14 races across seven rounds, all running alongside the FIA Formula One World Championship.
Under the partnership, Sephora becomes the Official Beauty Retail Partner of the series and will bring its Glam Bars to the F1 Paddock Club at 18 Grands Prix throughout the season. Fan activations are planned at select races worldwide. For Sephora’s 80 million active members, it opens a door into a world that hasn’t always felt accessible or particularly inviting.
Spanish rookie Natalia Granada is joining the 2026 grid under the “SEPHORA operated by PREMA” banner, her car wrapped in the brand’s signature black-and-white stripes and red. It’s her first full season and having impressed during the inaugural F1 Academy rookie test in 2025, this is her shot.
“Beauty and sport might seem like different worlds, but both celebrate confidence and expression,” Granada said. “It’s empowering to have a brand that truly believes in our ambitions.”
There’s also a new end-of-year celebration being introduced this season, sponsored by Sephora, honoring driver progress and performance, which is a first for the series.
Women have been showing up in these spaces for years, often without the backing to match their talent. The question has always been whether anyone was willing to put money and visibility behind them being there. Sephora is doing both.
The post Sephora Is Bringing Beauty Trackside In New F1 Academy Partnership appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-13T15:55:22.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/sephora-f1-academy-partnership/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T18:00:26.345Z"},{"id":"xznnjn","archiveId":"cdo6az","slug":"wyoming-passes-six-week-abortion-ban","title":"Wyoming Passes Six-Week Abortion Ban","excerpt":"Plus, gender-affirming surgery blocked from West Virginia Medicaid and Trump comments tank Tylenol prescriptions for pregnant people. The post Wyoming Passes Six-Week Abortion Ban appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
Each week, Rewire News Group editors scour headlines nationwide—from lawsuits over abortion access to LGBTQ+ rights—to bring you the most urgent news in reproductive justice. Here’s this week’s latest.
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Court battle over Wyoming abortion ban \n\n\n\n
Wyoming abortion advocates challenged a six-week “heartbeat” ban in court this week, one day after Gov. Mark Gordon signed it into law. At six weeks, many people don’t know they’re pregnant, and there is no fetus or heartbeat—only a fetal pole with measurable electrical activity. The lawsuit, filed March 10, was tacked onto another suit against two other, prior anti-abortion laws. Plaintiffs argue that these restrictions violate residents’ right “to make health-care decisions without interference from the government.”
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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Trump questioned Tylenol. Pregnant ER patients got less of it \n\n\n\n
Tylenol prescriptions for pregnant women declined in U.S. emergency rooms after President Donald Trump dubiously linked the drug to autism. A study published in The Lancet last week found that ER prescriptions for acetaminophen, Tylenol’s main ingredient, dropped by 10 percent for pregnant patients following Trump’s September 2025 comments but was unchanged for other patients. Data show Tyle nol is safe for treating pain and fevers in pregnancy . Prescriptions returned to pre-September levels within months.
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Court okays Medicaid exclusion for gender-affirming surgery \n\n\n\n
It’s legal for West Virginia to exclude gender-affirming surgery from coverage by Medicaid, a federal appeals court in Virginia ruled this week . The ruling—from a panel of mostly Trump-appointed judges—overturned a lower-court decision finding that the state’s law violated federal anti-discrimination protections. Research links gender-affirming surgeries to better mental health. Yet, calling gender-affirming care “ineffective and dangerous,” the ruling said states may reasonably encourage residents to “appreciate their sex.”
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This news roundup first appeared in our newsletter, Rewire Weekly. Sign up here to get the latest reproductive rights news, expert analysis, and a peek into the RNG newsroom—fresh to your inbox.
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The post Wyoming Passes Six-Week Abortion Ban appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-13T15:49:50.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/ReproRoundup_03.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/13/wyoming-passes-six-week-abortion-ban/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T18:00:18.574Z"},{"id":"p2sy8j","archiveId":"8eos7f","slug":"wyoming-passes-near-total-abortion-ban-updated","title":"Wyoming Passes Near-Total Abortion Ban (Updated)","excerpt":"Plus, gender-affirming surgery blocked from West Virginia Medicaid and Trump comments tank Tylenol prescriptions for pregnant people. The post Wyoming Passes Near-Total Abortion Ban (Updated) appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
Each week, Rewire News Group editors scour headlines nationwide—from lawsuits over abortion access to LGBTQ+ rights—to bring you the most urgent news in reproductive justice. Here’s this week’s latest.
\n\n\n\n
Court battle over Wyoming abortion ban \n\n\n\n
Wyoming abortion advocates challenged a “heartbeat” ban in court this week, one day after Gov. Mark Gordon signed it into law. “Heartbeat” bans often prohibit abortion around six weeks of pregnancy; at that stage, many people don’t know they’re pregnant, and there is no fetus or heartbeat—only a fetal pole with measurable electrical activity. The lawsuit, filed March 10, was tacked onto another suit against two other, prior anti-abortion laws. Plaintiffs argue that these restrictions violate residents’ right “to make health-care decisions without interference from the government.”
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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Trump questioned Tylenol. Pregnant ER patients got less of it \n\n\n\n
Tylenol prescriptions for pregnant women declined in U.S. emergency rooms after President Donald Trump dubiously linked the drug to autism. A study published in The Lancet last week found that ER prescriptions for acetaminophen, Tylenol’s main ingredient, dropped by 10 percent for pregnant patients following Trump’s September 2025 comments but was unchanged for other patients. Data show Tyle nol is safe for treating pain and fevers in pregnancy . Prescriptions returned to pre-September levels within months.
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Court okays Medicaid exclusion for gender-affirming surgery \n\n\n\n
It’s legal for West Virginia to exclude gender-affirming surgery from coverage by Medicaid, a federal appeals court in Virginia ruled this week . The ruling—from a panel of mostly Trump-appointed judges—overturned a lower-court decision finding that the state’s law violated federal anti-discrimination protections. Research links gender-affirming surgeries to better mental health. Yet, calling gender-affirming care “ineffective and dangerous,” the ruling said states may reasonably encourage residents to “appreciate their sex.”
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Correction, March 16, 2026: A previous version of this article incorrectly characterized Wyoming’s abortion ban as a six-week ban, as did the March 13 Rewire Weekly newsletter from which it was adapted. The “heartbeat” ban blocks abortion after electrical activity from the fetal pole is detected, which can happen as early as six weeks of pregnancy. Both the headline and article have been updated for accuracy.
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This news roundup first appeared in our newsletter, Rewire Weekly. Sign up here to get the latest reproductive rights news, expert analysis, and a peek into the RNG newsroom—fresh to your inbox.
\n\n\n
The post Wyoming Passes Near-Total Abortion Ban (Updated) appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-13T15:49:50.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/ReproRoundup_03.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/13/wyoming-passes-near-total-abortion-ban/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-24T00:00:38.544Z"},{"id":"25rze","archiveId":"8gyduc","slug":"sundance-2026-8216run-amok8217-uses-a-high-school-musical-to-confront-the-afterlife-of-school-violen","title":"Sundance 2026: ‘Run Amok’ Uses a High School Musical to Confront the Afterlife of School Violence and the Messy Work of Grief","excerpt":"Run Amok is a drama from Sundance’s U.S. competition, a debut feature written and directed by NB Mager, that notably and earnestly oscillates between quirky moments of comedy and profound reflections on how to navigate grief.","content":"
Run Amok is a drama from Sundance’s U.S. competition, a debut feature written and directed by NB Mager, that notably and earnestly oscillates between quirky moments of comedy and profound reflections on how to navigate grief.
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Run Amok never settles into a genre; it’s part coming-of-age, part drama, part satire, part socio-political indictment of U.S. gun culture, and part backstage high school musical.
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(This is one in a series of film reviews from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, focused on films by women, trans or nonbinary directors that tell compelling stories about the lives of women and girls.)
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The post Sundance 2026: ‘Run Amok’ Uses a High School Musical to Confront the Afterlife of School Violence and the Messy Work of Grief appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Aviva Dove-Viebahn","publishDate":"2026-03-13T15:17:43.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Run_Amok-Still_1-scaled.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/13/sundance-2026-run-amok-shool-shooting-high-school-musical-film-review/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T18:00:19.159Z"},{"id":"6xqag6","archiveId":"ay9no8","slug":"the-heritage-foundation8217s-new-policy-guidebook-wants-to-push-women-out-of-public-life","title":"The Heritage Foundation’s New Policy Guidebook Wants to Push Women Out of Public Life","excerpt":"In honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the right-wing Heritage Foundation—developers of Project 2025, the policy guidebook written to influence the Trump administration’s legislative priorities—has issued a 168-page position paper, \"Saving America by Sav...","content":"
In honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the right-wing Heritage Foundation—developers of Project 2025, the policy guidebook written to influence the Trump administration’s legislative priorities—has issued a 168-page position paper, \"Saving America by Saving the Family: A Foundation for the Next 250 Years.\"
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The document is intended to “restore the family,” by elevating a male-led, heterosexual model of social relations.
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The report is both absurd and terrifying—which is why the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) is sounding an alarm about it. Emily Martin, the NWLC’s chief program officer and Amy Matsui, its vice president of childcare and income security, spoke to Ms. reporter Eleanor J. Bader about \"Saving America by Saving the Family\" in late February
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The post The Heritage Foundation’s New Policy Guidebook Wants to Push Women Out of Public Life appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"economic","author":"Eleanor J. Bader","publishDate":"2026-03-13T14:56:04.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2230300537.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/13/heritage-foundation-declining-birth-rate-women-mothers-married-young-work/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T18:00:19.159Z"},{"id":"bwle8p","archiveId":"ey3lbt","slug":"is-justice-alito-jumping-the-gun-on-voting-rights","title":"Is Justice Alito jumping the gun on voting rights?","excerpt":"Cases and Controversies is a recurring series by Carolyn Shapiro, primarily focusing on the effects of the Supreme Court’s rulings, opinions, and procedures on the law, on other institutions, and on […] The post Is Justice Alito jumping the gun on voting rights? appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"
Cases and Controversies is a recurring series by Carolyn Shapiro, primarily focusing on the effects of the Supreme Court’s rulings, opinions, and procedures on the law, on other institutions, and on our constitutional democracy more generally.
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In October, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in 10 cases . It has now decided eight of them. Louisiana v. Callais section 2 of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional (or severely limit its effectiveness) as applied to vote dilution in redistricting. Justice Samuel Alito’s solo concurring opinion in Malliotakis v. Williams
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Under section 2 of the VRA, impermissible vote dilution occurs when “based on the totality of circumstances,” the way district lines are drawn or the way an at-large voting system operates effectively provide minority voters with “less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.” Imagine, for example, a city council with five members all elected at-large from a city that is 40% minority and 60% white. If there is racially polarized voting – that is, if white and minority voters tend to prefer different candidates – then all five city council members will be white-preferred candidates. If the city were divided into five single-member districts, on the other hand, depending on housing patterns and on how the districts were drawn, one or more of the city council members could be minority-preferred candidates. So it is possible that the at-large voting system dilutes minority votes and violates section 2.
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That example is dramatically oversimplified, of course. Actual vote dilution claims generally include extensive expert reports and testimony to establish not only racially polarized voting and whether the minority population is compact enough to constitute a majority-minority district, but also a host of factors related to current and historical racial discrimination. Notably, however, section 2 does not require the plaintiffs to show intentional discrimination, and as recently as 2023, in Allen v. Milligan amicus brief in that case on behalf of several members of Congress and in support of the plaintiffs.)
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Compliance with section 2 obviously requires consideration of race in the redistricting process. And the Supreme Court has also said that where racial considerations “predominate” over traditional districting criteria, a map may be subject to strict scrutiny (that is, heightened review) under the equal protection clause. There is tension between the two doctrines, but the court has long reconciled them by assuming without deciding that compliance with Section 2 is a compelling government interest necessary to meet the strict scrutiny standard. (Strict scrutiny has other requirements; a jurisdiction does not automatically prevail in a racial gerrymandering challenge by claiming to be complying with section 2.)
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Malliotakis is not a VRA case. Instead, it involves Article III Section 4(c)(1) of New York’s constitution , which is similar but not identical to section 2 of the VRA. The state trial court was the first to interpret the state constitutional provision and it concluded that the New York constitution provides “broader” protection of minority voting rights than does the VRA. It ordered the state’s independent redistricting commission to redraw the lines of a particular congressional district because, as drawn, the district diluted minority votes under the standards it announced that the New York Constitution demanded.
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The Supreme Court paused the district court’s order with no explanation. In a solo concurrence, however, Alito described the state trial court as requiring the redrawn district “for the express purpose of ensuring that ‘minority voters’ are able to elect the candidate of their choice.” So he echoed some of the language of section 2 prohibiting voting systems that give minority voters “less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.” He then described that purpose as “unadorned racial discrimination, an inherently ‘odious’ activity that violates the … Equal Protection Clause except in the ‘most extraordinary case.’” He made no effort to explain how the state trial court’s standard is different from or more constitutionally problematic than section 2 itself. (They are not in fact identical.)
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But Alito has equated the VRA with the most odious forms of political racism in the past. In Alexander v. South Carolina Conference of the NAACP , the justice, for the court, wrote an opinion reversing a district court’s findings that the South Carolina legislature had intentionally discriminated against African-American voters in its redistricting. The three-judge district court erred, he said, by not providing an adequate presumption of “legislative good faith,” in particular in a case where the defense was that the legislature was trying to maximize partisan benefit and the evidence of intentional racial discrimination was circumstantial. Describing what kind of evidence might be sufficient to overcome the presumption of good faith, he pointed to a “state actor’s express acknowledgment that race played a role in the drawing of district lines.” This type of evidence is “not uncommon,” he explained, “because States often admit to considering race for the purpose of satisfying” the VRA.
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Under this approach, a racially skewed map appears to be entitled to a presumption of good faith even in the most racially polarized voting environment as long as the legislators insist that they are maximizing partisanship and don’t mention race. But taking race into account to comply with the VRA, “the crown jewel of the civil rights era ,” is legally equivalent to deliberately excluding Black people from political participation. Indeed, in Malliotakis , Alito implicitly rejected the notion that compliance with the VRA to remedy racial vote dilution was a compelling interest. Instead, citing the recent affirmative action decision , he added that “our precedents have identified only two compelling interests that can justify race-based government action: (1) mitigating prison-specific risks and (2) ‘remediating specific, identified instances of past discrimination that violated the Constitution or a statute.’” This vision of how the 14th and 15th Amendments operate turns those provisions on their heads. It rewards conduct that undermines minority political participation as long as certain words remain unspoken, while deeming unconstitutional deliberate attempts to protect that participation.
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It would not be surprising if the Supreme Court, in Louisiana v. Callais , makes all this explicit. The Roberts court has been extraordinarily hostile to minority voting rights in general, and it has been steadily eviscerating the VRA . Nor would it be surprising if Alito is writing the opinion. Among other things, Alito is one of only two justices who have not yet issued majority opinions from the October session, when the case was argued. And he has authored several majority opinions in the VRA-evisceration campaign, such as Alexander and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee Brnovich limited section 2’s application to time, place, and manner regulations, such as burdensome restrictions on mail-in voting, even where those restrictions have a disparate impact on minority voters.)
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But the court has not yet held what Alito seems to be implying in Malliotakis. I can think of a couple of possible reasons for him to jump the gun. One is that he knows that the court is about to say what he is forecasting, and he does not trust the state courts to apply such a holding in this case. But that would explain the stay itself, even if it would not justify it, and may indeed help explain the majority’s actions. It does not explain what he wrote.
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A second possibility, however, that does explain the opinion, is that Alito wants to lock in a holding that he may not have full agreement on. The leak of the opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization reportedly short-circuited efforts by the chief justice to negotiate a less extreme outcome than complete elimination of the right to abortion. Perhaps Alito hopes that by publicly declaring the law to be what he wants, he will assure that it will be so.
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The post Is Justice Alito jumping the gun on voting rights? appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Carolyn Shapiro","publishDate":"2026-03-13T13:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/supremecourt-scaled-1.webp","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/is-justice-alito-jumping-the-gun-on-voting-rights/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T18:00:35.077Z"},{"id":"5ku8g4","archiveId":"4i8qva","slug":"ask-a-sex-columnist-vera-blossom","title":"Ask A Sex Columnist: Vera Blossom","excerpt":"Rewire News Group ’s Vera Blossom talks queer joy, good sex, and whether she’s a Carrie or a Samantha. The post Ask A Sex Columnist: Vera Blossom appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
If there’s a topic that makes Vera Blossom skittish, I haven’t found it yet. Writing in the pages of Rewire News Group , our sex columnist has been game to probe everything from the curative powers of masturbation to the mating habits of Gen Z . She’s even pondered how to protect your heart (and genitals) in a situationship .
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Casting an anthropological lens on her subjects, Blossom, 29, explores the sex questions you were probably too afraid to ask in school. She challenges the common wisdom, shares her friends’ secrets, confides in readers, and cites the science—essential in an era when health misinformation emanates from the highest ranks of power.
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The Chicago-based columnist spoke with me—her editor—about family acceptance, the joy of creating her own gender, and what makes a person good at sex.
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This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. Do you have a question for Vera? Email us at editorial@rewirenewsgroup.com or message us online !
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You are a published author (of the sex-centric memoir How to Fuck Like a Girl ), but writing a sex column is new to you. What’s your favorite thing about this work?
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What’s really fun about doing this sex column is that I still am learning so much. I really don’t have a lot of the answers. I think what I have are a lot of questions. My job is asking questions and having new questions to ask about sex. Every time I write something for Rewire , I learn more about how the body works, how we relate to each other, how the mind works, and new science about sex. It’s very, very fascinating.
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People must assume, when they’re talking to you or dating you, that they could end up written about in our pages. How do you balance privacy for yourself and the people in your life, with transparency and accuracy for readers?
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I’ve almost found that people are more forthcoming, which is actually really great, because my goal is to really create more of a safe space to have these conversations about things that I think are considered taboo or more sensitive. … I think they [feel they] can trust me, because I’ve been vulnerable in public about my own sex life and my own love life, and these questions I’m working through all the time.
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I really value that trust. So when it comes to writing about these conversations, I try not to give too many details about someone’s life so they could be easily doxxed. And I try to center these conversations or experiences in real life around me and what I’m going through … rather than projecting onto them.
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What’s your favorite column you’ve written for us so far?
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The BDSM guide to consensual erotic violence . That was a real challenge to write, and I really learned a lot. I talked to different therapists, different dommes. I read a lot of articles, and it was such a beast of a question that I was trying to answer, which is: How [do you] get into BDSM for the first time?
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I thought that it was just so interesting, all the intersections between what we consider to be “socially deviant,” neurodivergency, these taboo topics, and how this specific area of sex can be very healing and therapeutic for people who live in the margins.
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What do your parents think of your work?
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My family really adores my work. My immediate family was very open about their feelings and about their dating life. I come from a lineage of party animals and bisexuals, so I think they really love my work.
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There have been times when my mom has attended a reading and I’m like, “I’m sorry, I’m going to be talking about my relationship, my therapist, and, like, porn stars.” But they’re very supportive, which I really, really appreciate—especially in this climate.
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Does being a sex columnist mean you’re really good at sex?
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I don’t think it means that you’re really good at sex, but I’m good at sex.
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I think things that make you a good sex columnist can make you good at sex—being present and perceptive and communicative are all great qualities in terms of having sex. And I really put myself on the front lines trying to experience these things.
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Based on the topics that you tackle in your columns, people might think that you have a pretty swinging lifestyle. So how cool are you?
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Cool is not something that I identify with or that I strive towards. My ideals in life are: I really like having fun, I really like meeting people, and I kind of like being a clown. I like getting laughs out of people. I like being entertaining, and I think I frequently feel more like a dweeb than cool.
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On a scale of one to ten, how Carrie Bradshaw are you?
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I think I’m probably somewhere between a Charlotte and a Samantha, frankly. I’m pretty equal parts delusional and romantic about my love life, and also pretty blunt and straightforward about the kind of sex I want to have.
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… But obviously, I’m a sex writer with a lot of questions, so maybe seven. I’m a seven out of ten [as Carrie].
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Beyond being a sex writer, you’re also a trans woman living in a time when the government is actively rolling back all the progress of the past few decades. What do you tell yourself to get through the hard days?
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It’s really hard these days, and I really believe that there is still a future worth fighting for. And I really feel like I’m fighting for that future every day through whatever direct action I can take, in terms of donating money, volunteering, mutual aid, and showing up for my friends—and through being honest about my life and through talking about sex. Because I think that one of the many weapons of this current fascist entity is shame and polarization. [They’re] trying to turn trans people into monsters.
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And I really feel like being myself, being kind to others, showing love wherever I can, does make a difference. Because when other people have shown that to me, it’s made a huge difference. The kindness that I felt from others has saved my life. And I feel like I have a responsibility to the people in this country—not just the trans people, but everyone—to fight for a better world.
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So even when it gets really, really hard, and I get overwhelmed, and I have to cry it out, ultimately, I come back around to thinking that it’s all worth it.
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There’s so much disinformation—intentionally false information being wielded as a weapon—in this rollback of rights. It hinges on demonizing people in ways that are totally untrue and distorting science to be able to back that up. Part of our job at Rewire is to counter that.
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Yeah, I think that’s a good way to put it. I think I’m really correcting the narrative.
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The beginning of my writing career … was really informed by the kind of mid-2010s transgender tipping point, and this easy narrative that became mainstream about, like, Every trans person is just born in the wrong body . It was, you know, There’s gender and there’s sexuality, and they’re different . It was like this really clean, sanitized narrative.
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I wanted to complicate that narrative and also just be like, I’m human, you know, I’m just like you. I have a lot of the same questions, and I have a lot of the same experiences.
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My transness actually has brought me a lot of joy—the joy of building my gender like this ongoing art project … It’s been the greatest joy of my life … I really feel like I’m just having a lot of fun. And I think that, along with the other work we do journalistically to set the information straight, that is important, I think, to create that narrative.
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That’s What She Said: Vera Blossom \n
Best sex shop: The Pleasure Chest in Wicker Park has a huge collection of goodies. The folks at Early2Bed in Andersonville are really helpful and friendly.
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Best date restaurant: For a first date, somewhere you both haven’t tried yet so that you can immediately have a shared experience on equal footing. A cheap, delicious hole-in-the-wall restaurant is the sexiest place to take someone you already know. Try Pho 888 and Tesfa in Uptown.
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Favorite pastime: Dancing into the wee hours of the night at one of the city’s roving raves with hard techno music playing in the winter or laying around by the lake all day with friends in the summer.
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Favorite RNG story that you didn’t write: How Minneapolis Fought ICE With Dildos , by Hallie Lieberman.
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Pick-up line that never fails: “I just thought you seemed really cool and I wanted to say, ‘hi.’”
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Best dating advice you ever got or gave: Be as honest as possible as frequently as possible. And chill out.
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The post Ask A Sex Columnist: Vera Blossom appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"lgbtq","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-13T13:00:23.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Meet-our-Sex-Columnist-02.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/13/ask-a-sex-columnist-vera-blossom/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T18:00:18.574Z"},{"id":"e12rjc","archiveId":"a6mgbc","slug":"scotustoday-for-friday-march-13","title":"SCOTUStoday for Friday, March 13","excerpt":"President Chester A. Arthur nominated Justice Samuel Blatchford to the court on this day in 1882. According to Justia, Blatchford was a “precocious talent” who “enrolled in Columbia College (now […] The post SCOTUStoday for Friday, March 13 appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"
President Chester A. Arthur nominated Justice Samuel Blatchford to the court on this day in 1882. According to Justia, Blatchford was a “precocious talent ” who “enrolled in Columbia College (now Columbia University) when he was 13 years old.”
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\n At the Court \n \n
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The court has indicated that it may announce opinions on Friday, March 20, at 10 a.m. EDT.
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The interim docket case on the Trump administration’s effort to remove protected status from Syrian nationals is now fully briefed, and the court’s decision could come at any time.
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The Trump administration has also asked the court to allow it to remove protected status from Haitian nationals. Haitians’ response to that request is due on Monday by 12 p.m. EDT.
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The court will next hear arguments on Monday, March 23, the first day of its March sitting .
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In a Thursday court filing with the U.S. Court of International Trade, Brandon Lord, an official with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the “government’s work to build a four-part system to refund $166 billion in illegal tariff collections with interest is between 40% and 80% complete,” according to Reuters . “CBP did not say how quickly refunds would be paid. More than 330,000 importers paid the tariffs on 53 million shipments and only around 21,000 were registered with its system to receive a refund, according to a court filing last week.”
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\n Sophie Brams, The Hill
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In December, Costco sued the Trump administration over its tariffs. Now, those tariffs have been struck down by the Supreme Court, and a “Costco shopper in Illinois has sued the retail giant in an attempt to secure refunds for U.S. customers,” according to The Hill . “The proposed class action lawsuit seeks to prevent what is described as ‘double recovery’ by Costco, arguing that the corporation should be required to return any money it collects from tariff refunds to consumers because those costs were initially passed on through product prices.”
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\n Adam Liptak, The New York Times \n \n \n \n
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After executing 19 inmates in 2025, which was the second-most executions in a state “in a single year since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976,” Florida is on track to “execute 20 people in 2026 – more than were put to death nationally in 2020, 2021 or 2022,” according to The New York Times . Meanwhile, the Florida Legislature has, in recent years, “enacted a series of laws of doubtful constitutionality” that allow for imposition of the death penalty after “crimes involving the sexual abuse of children” and after a nonunanimous jury vote, and which require the death penalty when “unauthorized immigrants … commit capital crimes.” The laws are expected to prompt lawsuits, and “the law on the sexual abuse of children seemed calculated to let the U.S. Supreme Court reconsider” a 2008 decision stating that “crimes against people that do not involve killing, including the rape of a child, could not be punished by death.”
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\n Benjamin S. Weiss, Courthouse News Service
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On Wednesday, Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, unveiled a bill that would require the immediate withdrawal of “federal safety approvals for the medication abortion drug mifepristone,” according to Courthouse News Service . His measure “comes months after the Trump administration said it’s taking another look at the medicine’s safety – and years after the Supreme Court threw out a challenge to mifepristone’s longstanding status as an approved abortion medication by the U.S. Food and Drug administration.” Medication abortions – and lawsuits over medication abortions – have become more common in the four years since “the high court overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to have an abortion.”
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\n Nuria Martinez-Keel, Oklahoma Voice
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Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is taking the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board to court over its recent rejection of an application from a Jewish school. Rather than argue that the board should have approved the school, Drummond contends that the board’s denial was strategically designed to improve the school’s position in a forthcoming religious discrimination lawsuit, which some expect to one day reach the Supreme Court. “He said there were multiple reasons to deny the application, but the board engineered its vote to focus solely on the religious aspect. He asked an Oklahoma County district judge on Wednesday to order the board to issue a new and complete rejection letter that includes all valid grounds for denying the school,” such as flawed enrollment projects, according to Oklahoma Voice .
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\n From the SCOTUSblog Team \n
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\n With his comments on the tariffs ruling, President Donald Trump has furthered his reputation as a president comfortable complaining about the Supreme Court. But to be clear, he is not the first president – and he almost certainly won’t be the last – to do so. Here’s an overview of some of the most famous conflicts between presidents and the court.
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\n From the SCOTUSblog Team \n
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\n The first entry in SCOTUSblog’s new SCOTUS Innovators series features Jerry Goldman, founder of the Oyez project. Oyez was the first website to digitize and share thousands of hours of Supreme Court oral arguments and opinion announcements.
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\n Contributor Corner \n
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\n In a column for SCOTUSblog, Samarth Desai explored several briefs filed in the birthright citizenship case, contending that "the Trump administration and its allies" "are flunking Originalism 101."
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\n Advisory Opinions \n
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\n David French and Sarah Isgur break down new polling showing historic lows in trust for the Supreme Court, debate whether a public disagreement between Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson helps or hurts the institution, and dive into oral arguments on property seizures and witness testimony rights.
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William Howard Taft, a man of many superlatives. The first president to use a car for official transport, the last president to keep a cow on the White House lawn, and of course, the only person to serve as both a justice and president (though others gave it a try ). Between the last two points (the 1,500-pound Pauline Wayne enraptured the White House press corps, some of whom covered the cow “like a tabloid would a Kardashian ”), we have almost too much to talk about.
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The 10th chief justice was born in Cincinnati in 1857 and was the son of a former secretary of war and attorney general under President Ulysses S. Grant. Like his father , Taft graduated from Yale, coming second in his class before studying law at the University of Cincinnati. After he graduated in 1880 (and after having campaigned for several Republican candidates in that year’s election), Taft started in private practice in Cincinnati, then briefly served as an assistant prosecuting attorney. In 1887 , Ohio’s governor named Taft to be a judge on the Ohio Superior Court, and, in 1888, he won a five-year term.
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Although Taft’s name came up for the Supreme Court even back then, President Benjamin Harrison instead appointed him solicitor general. (Taft was quite successful in that role, winning 15 of the 18 cases he argued in front of the Supreme Court.) Taft was then named to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, where he served from 1892 until 1900. Under President Theodore Roosevelt, he was twice offered the job of a justice on the Supreme Court but twice declined – one of those times due to the post he assumed in 1901 as Civilian Governor of the Philippines.
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In 1904 , Taft agreed to become Roosevelt’s secretary of war, and in 1908 defeated the Democratic candidate, William Jennings Bryan, to become president. Taft served one term, in which the public saw him as a “large, genial ” fellow. (At one point Taft reached 332 pounds, which was not helped by his typical 12-ounce steak breakfast – though the popular bathtub myth is false .)
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Since we’re not here to learn about Taft’s presidency, we’ll treat it as he did. Before and after serving as chief executive, Taft expressed that his chief (pun intended) goal was to serve on the Supreme Court. Indeed, he wrote his brother in 1905 that, “My ambition is to become a justice of the Supreme Court. I presume, however, there are very few men who would refuse to accept the nomination of the Republican party for the presidency, and I am not an exception.” And after being on the court for a few years, he remarked , “I don’t remember that I ever was President.”
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To be fair, Taft’s wife, Helen “Nellie” Herron, had a different perspective . Nellie much preferred the role of “first lady of the country” as opposed to “first lady of the court” and was apparently instrumental in pushing Taft to initially accept the Philippines commission and run for president. (Nellie, among her other accomplishments, established equal treatment of White House staff and planted the first cherry tree at D.C.’s Title Basin.)
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Taft didn’t campaign in the 1912 election given the tradition that incumbent presidents not do so, and after his defeat, he became a constitutional law professor at Yale. Between 1916 and 1919 , Taft also joined the League to Enforce Peace, which pushed for a League of Nations, and acted as joint chairman of the War Labor Board from 1918 to 1919 .
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After Republican President Warren Harding won the 1920 election, Taft had another chance to serve on the Supreme Court – which he enthusiastically took in June 1921 when Harding nominated him to the chief justiceship. The Senate confirmed Taft’s appointment that same day.
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Taft’s most recognized legal contributions to the court include rulings restricting Congress’ power, such as through Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. Stafford v. Wallace Myers v. United States several cases this very term.
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But perhaps Taft’s greatest impact as chief justice was in the realm of judicial administration, which has earned him the designation as “father of the modern U.S. Supreme Court.” Among other things, Taft established the court’s practice of controlling its own caseload, reorganized the structure of the lower courts, and oversaw the construction of the Supreme Court Building – telling architects to create something “of dignity and importance ” (recall that before this, the court was confined to a small space in the U.S. Capitol).
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“[T]here have been two chief justices who really deeply cared about judicial administration,” said Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in 1997 when giving an introduction for the Supreme Court Historical Society’s lecture series on the chief justices of the 19th and 20th centuries. “One was Chief Justice Warren Burger … and the other was William Howard Taft.”
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O’Connor continued, “Taft was first and foremost a judge. He served as president for one term, it’s true. But what he really loved was being a judge. He cared about how the courts function, how this court functioned. He worked with Congress to get more discretion for this court in deciding what cases to take. He did so much that helped improve the system.”
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Taft retired from the court in 1930 due to health problems, and died a month later at age 72 from heart disease. He was both the first president and the first justice to be interred at Arlington National Cemetery, and remains the only justice to have a state funeral .
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“As the plurality must acknowledge, the ordinary meaning of ‘tangible object’ is ‘a discrete thing that possesses physical form.’ A fish is, of course, a discrete thing that possesses physical form. See generally Dr. Seuss, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1960).”
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— Justice Elena Kagan in Yates v. United States
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The post SCOTUStoday for Friday, March 13 appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Kelsey Dallas and Nora Collins","publishDate":"2026-03-13T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://i0.wp.com/www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/GettyImages-2194375273.jpg?w=500&ssl=1","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/scotustoday-for-friday-march-13/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T18:00:35.077Z"},{"id":"fluws4","archiveId":"nx58dy","slug":"in-illinois-a-primary-could-mean-a-new-record-number-of-black-women-in-the-senate","title":"In Illinois, a primary could mean a new record number of Black women in the Senate","excerpt":"The Illinois Senate race is the only one this cycle in which two Black women elected officials are running against each other. But there’s no guarantee that either Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton or Rep. Robin Kelly will emerge victorious from next week’s Democratic primary.","content":"
The Illinois Senate race is the only one this cycle in which two Black women elected officials are running against each other.
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But there’s no guarantee that either Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton or Rep. Robin Kelly will emerge victorious from next week’s Democratic primary. Polling has sometimes shown Stratton leading — or often trailing — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who is also vying to replace longtime Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin in the upper chamber. Kelly has been consistently polling in the low teens.
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If neither Stratton nor Kelly wins Tuesday, there’s likely no other path this cycle to set a new record for the number of Black women serving in the Senate at once.
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The unique three-way race disrupts questions about whether Black women are less “electable,” said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Though some find it unfortunate that there are campaigns with multiple Black women candidates and many others with none, that logic is also a symptom of women being told to wait, she said.
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“The more that we see women run, we’re going to see them run against each other,” Dittmar said. “It serves as a reminder that we have a pool of very qualified Black women that are more than capable of running and winning and serving in these offices.”
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Stratton pointed to her initiatives to improve maternal health outcomes and foster girls’ political participation as examples of how representation led to direct change for women in the state. But she also named her father, who grew up in rural Pennsylvania and was barred from visiting the U.S. Capitol as a teenager, as a motivation for running for Senate.
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“He wasn’t allowed to because of the color of his skin,” she told The 19th. “This is not my great-grandfather, it’s not my grandfather, this is my father. Now his daughter is running to work in and serve the people in that very same building that he was not allowed to visit as a high school student. It’s the only chance in the country to elect a Black woman. I’m really proud I have the best path to do so.”
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A spokeswoman for Kelly’s campaign told The 19th that the congresswoman “isn’t running to make history, but to make life better and more affordable for Illinoisians.”
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Just five Black women have served in the Senate, including former Vice President Kamala Harris of California. When Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland won their 2024 campaigns , they became the first Black women to serve simultaneously.
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Illinois was the first state to elect a Black woman to the Senate, sending Carol Moseley-Braun in 1992. Both Moseley-Braun and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, first elected in 2016 and the only other woman ever elected to the Senate from Illinois, have endorsed Stratton. The winner of the primary in this deep blue state is all but certain to win the Senate seat.
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The only other chance this cycle to send a Black woman to the Senate came with Rep. Jasmine Crockett in Texas, who lost the Democratic primary last week to state Rep. James Talarico.
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How Stratton, Kelly aim to distinguish themselves \n\n\n\n
While Krishnamoorthi has embraced more moderate stances, Stratton and Kelly have similarly progressive electoral profiles, including supporting Medicare for All and bolstering national education plans. After a heavily publicized crackdown in Chicago by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last year, both candidates — particularly Stratton, who has called to abolish the agency — have latched onto the citywide anger. National conversations about Israel’s war in Gaza have also permeated the race, with Kelly calling the conflict a “genocide.”
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Krishnamoorthi — who would be the state’s first South Asian senator — jumped into the race first and that helped him become an early front-runner. He has been advertising for the longest period of the candidates and holds a massive fundraising advantage , with a war chest of over $28 million, including transfers from his House campaign committee.
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“It just shows you the power of being on television unopposed for, you know, five months,” Frank Calabrese, a Democratic political consultant in Chicago, said of his initial momentum.
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But Stratton has recently been boosted in advertising and support by the state’s governor, J.B. Pritzker. Pritzker himself has fairly high support among Black voters, Calabrese said, which could help Stratton carve out a path against Kelly and Krishnamoorthi as well.
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Krishnamoorthi told The New York Times he did not believe he was benefiting from a potential vote split between the race’s two Black candidates, saying he believes voters are not assessing the contenders based on race, but who is best qualified for the role.
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Rep. Robin Kelly arrives for a news conference on Capitol Hill on January 14, 2026 in Washington, D.C.\n (Kevin Dietsch, Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty Images) \n\n\n\n
As with other major Illinois congressional races this cycle, super PAC money has proliferated throughout the campaign. The bulk of it has gone to boost Krishnamoorthi and Kelly over Stratton — a now-common move from campaigns in crowded fields that aims to boost a third-place candidate to eat into one of the front-runner’s bases. Several organizations poured millions of dollars in the last weeks of the race into digital and mail campaigns, and the final days have been largely defined by money squabbles among the candidates.
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“Congressman Krishnamoorthi is clearly someone who can be bought and paid for,” Stratton said, noting that she has taken a stance of not accepting corporate PAC money. “They’re concerned about their bottom line, and they want to make sure the wealthy get wealthier. I’m going to fight for the people, and they know that, and therefore, they’re coming out against me.”
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Kelly rejected the suggestion that she and Krishnamoorthi were working together, telling The New York Times she would not defer to Stratton. “I’m much more qualified than she is,” Kelly said. She similarly said Krishnamoorthi’s time in the House made him more qualified than Stratton.
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The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) also got involved in the last weeks of the race, blasting Pritzker — a potential 2028 presidential hopeful — for boosting his lieutenant governor’s campaign. Members of the caucus across both chambers have split in backing either Kelly or Stratton.
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“Governor Pritzker’s effort to tip the scales in Illinois’ U.S. Senate race is beyond frustrating for the Congressional Black Caucus,” chair Yvette Clarke, a New York Democrat, said in a statement. “A sitting governor shouldn’t be heavy-handing the race. Quite frankly, his behavior in this race won’t soon be forgotten by any of us.”
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Pritzker’s level of financial involvement is more rare than the endorsement of his No. 2 itself, though it was unsurprising the governor tapped into his vast personal funds to spend millions on Stratton’s campaign. Pritzker also has a fraught history with Kelly: He and other influential state powers pushed to unseat her as chair of the Illinois Democratic Party in 2022, citing an inability to fundraise.
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The CBC statement reverberated throughout local politics. The Illinois governor responded to the criticism by reaffirming that he would like a Black woman to represent the state, adding that his track record proves he stands with communities and candidates of color.
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“I just want the best person. She happens to be a Black woman,” Pritzker said at a news conference.
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Stratton told The 19th she was disappointed to see the comments, adding that she strongly believes in the CBC’s mission to grow the Black caucus — a group she hopes to join next January.
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Dittmar said that normally, one of the obstacles for Black women is that the country’s influential donor base is dominated by White men. Pritzker’s boosting of Stratton somewhat validates that argument, she said, especially as a popular governor among the state’s fundraising class.
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“A lot of these Black women [candidates] are not in competitive races, so they’re raising less, in part, because this is not a priority race for donors,” Dittmar said.
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She added that Kelly similarly has a wider network than some other candidates due to her past as Illinois Democratic Party chair, though her spread isn’t as vast as Stratton’s.
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“This race gives us a test to see if and where and how there might be differences,” Dittmar said. “Stratton has access to money networks in large part due to this Pritzker endorsement and connection, and so that can basically push back against what we would expect to be a disadvantage potentially.”
","category":"politics","author":"Marissa Martinez","publishDate":"2026-03-13T12:34:34.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Rep-Robin-Kelly.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/illinois-senate-primary-stratton-kelly/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T18:00:19.620Z"},{"id":"utkoir","archiveId":"jzot19","slug":"dhaka-declaration-2025-launches-at-bangladeshs-first-ever-urban-youth-conference","title":"Dhaka Declaration 2025 launches at Bangladesh’s first-ever urban youth conference","excerpt":"In August 2025, Ipas Bangladesh and partner organizations convened the first-ever urban youth conference in the country, themed “Youth Voice for Sustainable Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR).","content":"
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In August 2025, Ipas Bangladesh and partner organizations convened the first-ever urban youth conference in the country, themed “Youth Voice for Sustainable Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR).”
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The meeting brought together 650 diverse participants, including 550 youth volunteers from the Improving SRHR in Dhaka (ISRHRD) project, as well as policymakers, academics, health professionals, civil society leaders, and development partners.
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This diverse gathering enabled young people from underserved urban communities to engage directly with decisionmakers on the future of urban health and sexual and reproductive health and rights in Bangladesh.
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A youth-prepared policy document \n
A highlight of the conference was the launch of the Dhaka Declaration 2025 , a youth-prepared policy document outlining a comprehensive vision for an inclusive and resilient urban health system.
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“The Dhaka Declaration was finalized through a consultative consensus process before the youth conference and is now used consistently in our policy advocacy efforts as a youth-led framework of recommendations for strengthening the urban health system in Dhaka,” said Tania Tasnin, communication and youth mobilization coordinator, ISRHRD project, Ipas Bangladesh.
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Under the ISRHRD project, youth volunteers led multiple collaborative discussions to strengthen the urban health system, with Ipas Bangladesh staff providing facilitation and technical support.
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The process began with 24 youth mentors and expanded into wider community-level conversations. These discussions included a diverse group of men, women, adolescents, and people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, all led by youth.
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What the youth recommended \n
The Dhaka Declaration includes 16 recommendations addressing gaps in governance, service delivery, financing, and accountability. Key recommendations call for:
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\nEstablishing a comprehensive urban health management framework with equitable access for all citizens \nExpanding primary health-care centers through general practitioners under a strong regulatory oversight in every ward with extended hours, linked to referral networks \nCreating zonal health offices for effective oversight of both public and private health facilities \nStrengthening sexual and reproductive health and rights services for women and adolescents, including adolescent- and women-friendly health centers in educational institutions \nEnsuring affordable access to medicines and diagnostic services, particularly for the urban poor \nSetting up call centers and referral mechanisms to support sexual and reproductive health and rights and respond to gender-based violence \nAllocating adequate funding in the national health budget for urban health systems. \n \n\t\t\t
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Recognition for the youth’s leadership and commitment \n
During the conference, the declaration was formally handed over to Professor Dr. Md. Sayedur Rahman, special assistant to the Chief Advisor of the Government of Bangladesh, who welcomed the youth recommendations and assured that their perspectives would be considered in future health planning.
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“When issues of rights emerge, the younger generation tends to be the most uncompromising in demanding them,” he said.
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In his remarks at the conference, Edward Cabrera, First Secretary (Development–Health) at the High Commission of Canada, recognized the leadership and commitment of the youth participants, describing them as emerging advocates and future leaders in advancing SRHR and equitable health systems.
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Leaders from the government and health sector pledged to advance equitable services, while youth shared experiences from low-income communities, highlighting their role in raising awareness, mobilizing peers, and shaping rights-based solutions for urban health policies in Bangladesh.
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The event was supported by Global Affairs Canada through the HealthBridge Foundation of Canada.
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The post Dhaka Declaration 2025 launches at Bangladesh’s first-ever urban youth conference appeared first on Ipas .
","category":"global","author":"Faith Oneya","publishDate":"2026-03-13T12:08:02.000Z","image":"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/IpasBangladesh-Urban-Youth-Conference-RS12768a.jpg","source":"Ipas","sourceUrl":"https://www.ipas.org/news/dhaka-declaration-bangladesh/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-17T18:01:06.985Z"},{"id":"c2totq","archiveId":"1l807m","slug":"the-best-braids-from-essence-black-women-in-hollywood","title":"The Best Braids From ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood","excerpt":"The 2026 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood event will be available to stream on ESSENCE’s YouTube starting Saturday, March 14: Watch Here. Yesterday, our favorite stars in entertainment arrived at […] The post The Best Braids From ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 13, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
The 2026 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood event will be available to stream on ESSENCE’s YouTube starting Saturday, March 14: Watch Here .
Yesterday, our favorite stars in entertainment arrived at ESSENCE’s 19th Annual Black Women in Hollywood Awards in sunny Los Angeles. While we saw iconic bixie cuts on Zendaya and Marsai Martin, and a fabulous blonde blowout on Laverne Cox, braids were obviously the hottest cultural statement on the blue carpet .
Chloe Bailey, for one, braided her locs into a single jumbo braid which swung all the way past her knees (similar to Tia Mowery). Hannah Beachler—who was apart of the Luminary Spotlight for her role in Sinners—had the front of her hair braided into folds while the back was put up into a tight bun. Meanwhile, honoree Chase Infiniti had soft braids to replicate the texture of her knit gown, which took the form of a side swoop.
Other attendees preferred more classic braid >pick-and-drop braids on Maria Sten and Miatta Johnson continued a trend we spotted at Paris Fashion Week; and, Kandi Buress’ daughter, Riley, reminded us how popular the hybrid braid sew-in look is (even with natural hair). And, we can’t forget Yvonne Orji, whose small braids were the most sculpted we saw from the ceremony, all folded into a ponytail from different directions.
Below, check out the best celebrity braideddecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2266178486-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The Best Braids From ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood\" width=\"400\" height=\"584\" />LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 12: Chlöe Bailey attends the 2026 ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Awards at Fairmont Century Plaza on March 12, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images) Hannah Beachler 2026 Black Women in Hollywood braid inspiration Braided Beauties
The post The Best Braids From ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-13T11:32:45.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/red-carpet/black-women-hollywood/best-braids-essence-black-women-in-hollywood-2026/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T18:00:26.345Z"},{"id":"yjfak0","archiveId":"cb978h","slug":"the-funniest-posts-from-women-this-week-march-7-13","title":"The Funniest Posts From Women This Week (March 7-13)","excerpt":"\"I ain’t changing the stove clock. That’s the kitchen time zone now.\"","content":"","category":"activism","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-03-13T11:00:18.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/69b32daf170000d9282b1dab.jpg?cache=8L0p3KphyQ&ops=1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/funniest-women-social-media-posts-2025-3-7_n_69b2b850e4b0aea6db0becbd","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T12:00:35.017Z"},{"id":"7brmgm","archiveId":"1pf9cc","slug":"look-for-ms-magazine-at-hudson-news-this-womens-history-month","title":"Look for Ms. Magazine at Hudson News This Women’s History Month","excerpt":"Traveling this month? Keep your eyes peeled. For Women’s History Month, Ms. magazine is hitting the shelves at Hudson News airport bookstores across the country. If you spot Ms. at Hudson News, snap a photo and tag @msmagazine on social media—we’d love to see it.","content":"
Traveling this month? Keep your eyes peeled. For Women’s History Month, Ms. magazine is hitting the shelves at Hudson News airport bookstores across the country.
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If you spot Ms. at Hudson News, snap a photo and tag @msmagazine on social media—we’d love to see it. Consider grabbing a copy for your flight; every purchase helps sustain our feminist journalism.
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The post Look for Ms. Magazine at Hudson News This Women’s History Month appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"immigration","author":"Ms. Editors","publishDate":"2026-03-13T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Look-for-Ms.-Magazine-at-Hudson-News-This-Womens-History-Month.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/13/look-for-ms-magazine-at-hudson-news-this-womens-history-month/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T12:00:33.725Z"},{"id":"ny90gh","archiveId":"60h51p","slug":"esscent-of-the-week-i-knew-house-of-iyrahs-symphony-would-be-goodbut-not-this-good","title":"ESScent Of The Week: I Knew House Of Iyrah’s Symphony Would Be Good—But Not This Good","excerpt":"I’ll be real with y’all: the moment I see “floral gourmand” and “sweet fruits” and it’s a Black-owned fragrance brand? I’m already interested. Because of that, just know that House […] The post ESScent Of The Week: I Knew House Of Iyrah’s Symphony Would Be Good—But Not This Good appeared first on E...","content":"
By
Kimberly Wilson ·
Updated March 9, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
I’ll be real with y’all: the moment I see “floral gourmand” and “sweet fruits” and it’s a Black-owned fragrance brand? I’m already interested.
Because of that, just know that House of Iyrah’s Symphony had my attention before I even sprayed it. And of course, since it was created by a Black woman, you know it delivered.
This is a warm, spicy, and beautifully layered fruity fragrance that has absolutely no business being this good. A lot of fruity scents stay at the surface and never really go anywhere, but Symphony has depth and dimension that reveals itself slowly over time, which is exactly what separates a good fragrance from a great one.
From the top, you get a burst of apple and peach that is bright, juicy, and immediately attention-grabbing. The black currant then settles in underneath and gives it a sticky, jammy sweetness that adds weight to the opening. It’s sweet, but don’t let that fool you, there’s real substance underneath. The sillage is incredible from the jump, and you will absolutely want to over-spray but don’t need to (giving you just a fair warning, coming from a fellow over-sprayer because in the words of Funmi Monet you’ve got to put that sh*t on).
Then the saffron comes in, and this is where Symphony really earns its name. But I’ll be fully transparent with y’all: saffron is not always my note because it can go sharp, metallic, or just plain strange depending on how it’s blended. The way it’s handled here is genuinely impressive though. It’s warm and spicy and it weaves into the fruit so seamlessly that you forget it’s even there until you realize that’s exactly what’s making the whole thing so interesting. What could have easily been an abrasive or medicinal note becomes something sophisticated and elevated instead. If saffron has ever turned you off before, Symphony might just change your mind.
The dry down settles into sandalwood and vanilla, rounding everything out into something smooth, creamy, and completely gorgeous. I will say this as someone who wants you to make the most informed decision possible: if sandalwood is not your friend, you may want to test Symphony on your skin before you fully commit because depending on your chemistry it can pull slightly in the pickly direction. On me it deepened into something warm and rich, and I genuinely didn’t want it to end.
When you think of a symphony, you think of every instrument doing exactly its part, nothing too loud and nothing lost, just everything coming together to make something genuinely beautiful. That is exactly what this fragrance does. Every note has a role and not a single one is fighting for dominance, which is what I mean when I say it’s masterfully blended. I don’t use that phrase lightly, because truly well-blended fragrances are rarer than people think.
Why I love it: Where do I even start with this one. The sillage on Symphony is what #FragranceTok would call beastmode, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment because not every fragrance can pull that off without tipping into something overwhelming or aggressive. This one manages to project beautifully while still staying warm and sensual the whole way through. I’ve had multiple people stop me mid-conversation to ask what I’m wearing, which is always the sign of a truly special fragrance. The longevity is equally impressive because I’ve had this one last well into the evening from an afternoon application, and it doesn’t just linger as a faint skin scent either. It actually stays present on you. This is an afternoon-to-evening fragrance through and through, so you can reach for before dinner, before a date, or before any night where you want to show up and show out.
Perfect pairings: Before we even talk about layering, and I will say this every single time, please make sure you are moisturizing your skin before you apply any fragrance. A good unscented body oil or lotion underneath will extend the performance significantly, and Symphony is no exception. I love starting with the Brown Sugar Babe Créme de La Créme before spritzing Symphony on top because the vanilla in it amplifies that creamy dry down beautifully. For an actual fragrance pairing, try layering Symphony over Kayali Vanilla 28. The sweetness from the vanilla deepens the sandalwood base in a way that feels incredibly rich without being too heavy. If you want something with a little more edge, pairing it with Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Baccarat Rouge 540 is absolutely stunning because they share that warm saffron DNA and together they create something that feels really expensive and completely unforgettable. And honestly, on days where you want to keep it simple, Symphony is more than enough on its own.
Final verdict: Black women are the epitome of luxury, and House of Iyrah exists as a reminder of exactly that. Symphony is available at houseofiyrah.com, and this one is fully Kimberly and “ESScent” approved.
The post ESScent Of The Week: I Knew House Of Iyrah’s Symphony Would Be Good—But Not This Good appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-13T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-09-at-8.43.26 PM-1200x900.png","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/esscent-house-of-iyrah-symphony-review/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T12:00:37.597Z"},{"id":"87x82d","archiveId":"3c7dms","slug":"oregon-voters-overwhelmingly-said-yes-to-limiting-money-in-politics-then-politicians-had-their-say","title":"Oregon Voters Overwhelmingly Said Yes to Limiting Money in Politics. Then Politicians Had Their Say.","excerpt":"The post Oregon Voters Overwhelmingly Said Yes to Limiting Money in Politics. Then Politicians Had Their Say. appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"
Back in 2019, it looked like Oregon lawmakers might finally commit to ending the state’s outlier status on campaign finance.
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I had just authored an investigative series for The Oregonian/OregonLive , my previous newsroom, revealing how Oregon’s lack of limits on campaign donations had allowed corporate America to give more to sitting lawmakers, per capita, than anywhere else in the country and led to some of the weakest environmental protections on the West Coast. The state Supreme Court had allowed it to happen by saying campaign donations were protected free speech under the Oregon Constitution.
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Lawmakers in Oregon, one of five states without any limits at all, seemed willing to do something about what we’d revealed. They asked Oregonians to change the constitution and explicitly allow contribution limits, something legislators had repeatedly tried and failed to do before. At the ballot in 2020, 78% of voters said yes, one of the widest margins for any ballot measure in decades. All lawmakers needed to do was to write legislation limiting donations.
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But for the next four years, no limits were adopted. When lawmakers eventually set caps in 2024, individual donations were restricted to $3,300 per election, well short of caps in the $1,000 to $2,000 range that good-government groups had sought previously. Lawmakers left other avenues for donors to give their time and money. They allowed corporate donations, which many states ban, to continue. They made it so the limits wouldn’t take effect until 2027, after the current race for governor is over.
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And now, lawmakers have voted to ratchet the spigot open further — and perhaps, campaign reform advocates say, all the way.
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On March 5, Oregon’s Democratic-controlled Legislature approved a bill that supporters described as containing little more than technical fixes to what they’d written two years ago.
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Groups that seek to limit the influence of money in politics said the changes are far more serious than housekeeping. They said the new bill inserted loopholes that, among other things, will allow companies to bypass the limits by giving through corporate affiliates.
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Dan Meek, an attorney who for years has been at the center of efforts to curtail money in Oregon politics, labeled it “the bill to destroy campaign finance reform in Oregon.”
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Oregon elections haven’t had contribution limits since briefly in the 1990s. Phil Keisling, a former secretary of state who advocated for those caps only to see them overturned in court, described the Legislature’s track record on campaign finance as “one of the most profound public policy failures” in Oregon’s recent history.
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“Limits should have been in place decades ago,” he said. “The base problem is that there are powerful forces within both political parties who prefer the system as it is.”
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Legislative leaders defended their work.
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In a floor speech, House Majority Leader Ben Bowman described the contribution limits the Legislature adopted as delivering on “elections where the voices of everyday people are not drowned out by wealthy and powerful interests making unlimited political contributions.” He described this year’s changes as necessary for the new system to work.
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The investigation I worked on seven years ago found that campaign donations in Oregon did more than just help politicians get elected.
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They sometimes spent campaign money in ways that benefited themselves, including on luxury hotel rooms, dry cleaning, car washes — even picking up the tabs during dozens of visits to sports bars. One lawmaker used campaign money to buy a new computer three weeks before she left office; another spent it on an Amazon Prime membership, 11 days before resigning.
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The money shaped public policy. As a reporter covering Oregon’s environment, I watched the Legislature weaken or stall efforts on climate change, logging practices, industrial air pollution, herbicide spraying, oil spill preparedness and other issues over a decade. One retired regulator told me all it took was a single phone call from a well-connected lobbyist to kill one clean air initiative.
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What’s happened since my investigation was published reveals how hard it can be to eliminate this kind of influence when the people expected to rein in donations are the ones whose campaigns have long benefited from them.
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After Oregonians overwhelmingly voted to hand lawmakers the power to regulate election money in 2020, lawmakers failed to put restrictions in place in 2020 , 2021 , 2022 and 2023 .
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Tired of waiting, advocates for tight constraints on campaign money gathered tens of thousands of signatures to put a measure limiting donations on the ballot in 2024. Labor unions, a major source of giving to Democrats, responded by threatening to put up their own competing initiative. A backer of the union measure said recently that it would have encouraged grassroots participation through small donor committees and included public financing for candidates.
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Meek, the campaign reform advocate, described the union measure as an effort to create far looser limits, with less disclosure and major loopholes.
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Lawmakers stepped in, brokering a deal that was hailed as a historic breakthrough. Unions, the campaign reform advocates and big business produced a bill that Meek described as at least a starting point for controlling Oregon’s political money — albeit with fewer constraints and bigger dollar limits than he and others wanted.
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Kate Titus, Oregon director of Common Cause, an advocacy group that was involved in the negotiations alongside Meek, said everyone agreed that some technical fixes to the bill’s language would be needed before the system took effect in 2027. But she said the group, which included House Speaker Julie Fahey, agreed that no substantive changes would be made without everyone’s agreement.
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Then came this year’s short, monthlong legislative session — and a surprise.
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Titus described seeing Fahey in a state Capitol hallway in early February and asking whether any bills were coming on campaign finance. Fahey’s expression changed to what Titus described as “pure panic.”
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“I can’t talk,” Titus said the speaker told her, before hurrying away.
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(Fahey’s spokesperson, Jill Bakken, said the speaker was on her way from a floor session to a meeting and didn’t have time for an impromptu hallway conversation, telling Titus she could schedule time through her staff.)
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Hours later, Titus said, an 85-page bill was introduced with Fahey’s name on it and a public hearing scheduled early the next morning.
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It would push back the deadline that the 2024 legislation set for launching a new website for tracking campaign money, from 2028 to 2032.
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The bill would make the $5,000 limit on donations to one type of political committee apply per year, not per two-year election cycle — effectively doubling the amount allowed. A spokesperson for Fahey called the 2024 provision a “typo” that needed correcting because it was inconsistent with limits on other donation types.
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The 2024 law prohibited multiple businesses controlled by the same person from each giving as much as the law allows. The 2026 bill would allow it as long as the businesses weren’t created solely to evade limits, a change Fahey’s spokesperson said was needed to avoid a “chilling effect on community-based organizations’ participation in elections.” The Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group, called it a loophole that renders Oregon’s contribution limits “illusory.”
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On top of all that, the bill would remove a long-standing provision in state law that says that money someone spends in coordination with a candidate is a campaign contribution. A spokesperson for Secretary of State Tobias Read said the provision was “redundant” because the law also says “any other thing of value,” beyond money, is a campaign contribution. But the Campaign Legal Center said the change could leave Oregon functionally with “no contribution limits.”
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A representative of the League of Women Voters of Oregon, which was involved in the 2024 negotiations, called the bill “a complete betrayal.”
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Bakken, Fahey’s spokesperson, told ProPublica that groups including the league “have been part of this conversation for many years” and that they will have opportunities for input as lawmakers consider future changes.
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As for why the Legislature hasn’t done more to stem the flow of money into the system, Bakken said that constraining donors too greatly could push them to divert cash from campaign donations into commercials and mailers in support of candidates, something candidates legally can’t control. These “independent expenditures” have no dollar limit under federal law.
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Unhappy as Meek and others were with the proposal, they couldn’t do much. They threatened to go back to the ballot, but without the signatures they’d gathered to do so in 2024, they’d lost their leverage. The bill sailed through the Oregon House by a 39-19 vote and the Senate 20-9.
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Sen. Jeff Golden, a Southern Oregon Democrat who opposed the bill, called its passage the biggest surprise of his eight-year tenure. Given the potentially huge loopholes, he said in an interview: “I thought my colleagues wouldn’t pass it. And I was wrong.”
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The measure sits on the desk of Gov. Tina Kotek, a Portland Democrat. She has until April 17 to decide on it.
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The post Oregon Voters Overwhelmingly Said Yes to Limiting Money in Politics. Then Politicians Had Their Say. appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"politics","author":"Rob Davis","publishDate":"2026-03-13T09:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Oregon-Capitol.jpg?resize=2000,1333","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/oregon-campaign-finance-reform-legislature-loopholes","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T12:00:34.805Z"},{"id":"crfeip","archiveId":"515z4g","slug":"iranian-footballers-gain-asylum-in-australia","title":"Iranian Footballers Gain Asylum in Australia","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Iranian players huddle before the AFC Women's Asian Cup Australia 2026 football match between Iran and the Philippines on the Gold Coast on March 8, 2026. © 2026 AFP via Getty Images
The Australian government’s decision to grant asylum to five members of the Iranian women’s ...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Iranian players huddle before the AFC Women's Asian Cup Australia 2026 football match between Iran and the Philippines on the Gold Coast on March 8, 2026.\n © 2026 AFP via Getty Images\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>The Australian government’s decision to grant asylum to five members of the Iranian women’s national football team and one official shows the importance of protecting courageous athletes who stand up for what they believe.</p><p>The six Iranians sought protection in Australia after their final match of the Asian Women's Cup on March 8. In their opening match against South Korea on March 2, the players had, in protest, refrained from singing the national anthem of the Islamic Republic, prompting Iran’s state television to call the squad “wartime traitors.”</p><p>The women’s team’s silent protest echoed that of the Iranian men's team at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, following Iranian authorities’ repression of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising after the death in custody of Jina Mahsa Amini. Australia has in the past offered a safe haven to members of Afghanistan’s women’s national football team after the Taliban banned all sport for women and girls.</p><p>Since arriving in Australia, days before the conflict in Iran started on February 28 and the Iranian authorities’ ongoing internet shutdown, players on the team have reported being followed by Iranian security and handlers. Iranian athletes have previously told Human Rights Watch how government political “minders” travel with the national team to monitor them.</p><p>FIFPRO, the global players’ union, has said the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) should have foreseen the risk and have done too little to protect the players. By permitting political officials who restrict women’s rights to travel with delegations, the AFC and FIFA do not merely tolerate abuse, they provide it a platform beyond its country of origin.</p><p>The implications extend beyond Australia. The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, to be held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, comes amid a rights crisis in the US that includes a widespread immigration crackdown, threats to freedom of expression, and a wider slide towards authoritarianism.</p><p>Before the World Cup begins in June, FIFA needs to put in place safeguarding protocols including a grievance mechanism, confidential referral pathways, and prohibitions on political minders in football federations who actually restrict the rights of the athletes they are accompanying. This will protect athletes who choose to exercise their right to protest human rights abuses. </p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-13T09:15:16.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603mena_asia_iran_australia_football_players.jpg?h=ac778ff2&itok=_hudtUQ-","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/13/iranian-footballers-gain-asylum-in-australia","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T12:00:36.522Z"},{"id":"v8f462","archiveId":"ugi53p","slug":"nevada-regulators-fine-peptide-providers-at-anti-aging-festival-where-two-women-became-critically-il","title":"Nevada Regulators Fine Peptide Providers at Anti-Aging Festival Where Two Women Became Critically Ill","excerpt":"The post Nevada Regulators Fine Peptide Providers at Anti-Aging Festival Where Two Women Became Critically Ill appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"
Nevada regulators have fined three people who played a role in offering peptide injections last year at a Las Vegas anti-aging conference where two women became critically ill following treatment.
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Last month, the Nevada Pharmacy Board levied $10,000 fines against a doctor and a pharmacist who are licensed in California but who don’t have permission to practice in Nevada. It imposed a $5,000 fine against a third man who describes himself as an “integrative health coach ” but who doesn’t appear to be a licensed health care practitioner.
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The pharmacy board also imposed a $10,000 fine against a Texas-based private membership association, which authorities accused of mailing the peptides to Nevada. The group, Forgotten Formula, claims a constitutional right to conduct private transactions with its members and contends those transactions occur “outside the scope” of state commercial regulations.
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The citations stem from an incident in July at the Revolution Against Aging and Death Festival, which is put on by an Arizona-based organization that promises pathways to an “unlimited lifespan.” Dr. Kent Holtorf, whose anti-aging medical practice is based in El Segundo, California, operated a booth at the festival offering alternative health therapies, including peptide injections. Peptides are short amino acid chains that have exploded in popularity thanks to claims they can fight aging and chronic disease.
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The board alleged that Forgotten Formula mailed the peptides to the casino resort hosting RAADFest, marking the package “to the attention of Dr. Kent Holtorf.” That shipment constituted “unlicensed wholesaling of drugs,” according to the board’s citation.
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A trustee of Forgotten Formula told ProPublica his association was not present at the festival and did not provide peptides to be offered for public use.
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After being injected with peptides at Holtorf’s booth, two women left the conference in ambulances, so ill they had to be intubated to assist them in breathing. They have since recovered.
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The pharmacy board was unable to determine why the women became ill — including whether the injections were contaminated or the women reacted to the peptides themselves. Investigators were unable to test the serums.
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“We were not able to obtain the product, although attempts were made,” said David Wuest, the board’s executive secretary.
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Although the Food and Drug Administration has approved many peptide-based medications to treat serious diseases such as diabetes and cancer, peptide therapies used for anti-aging and regenerative health are largely unregulated. (Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been a strong proponent of peptides.) The FDA allows compounding pharmacies to dispense some peptides, but has listed 19 of some of the most popular peptides as posing “significant safety risks.” Compounding pharmacies are prohibited from dispensing those on the list. As a result, many unsafe peptides are sold on a booming gray market, including directly to consumers by entities in the U.S. and abroad that are skirting FDA rules.
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The injections administered to both women at the Las Vegas convention included at least one peptide that the FDA warns poses a safety risk , according to the pharmacy board’s citations. Kennedy said recently that the FDA plans to reclassify 14 of the peptides currently listed as unsafe, which could allow compounding pharmacies to begin dispensing them.
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Holtorf, who did not respond to repeated attempts to contact him, was fined for practicing in Nevada without a state license. Han Bao Nguyen, the pharmacist accused of mixing the peptides for both women and administering the serums to one of them , also was cited for the same violation. Nguyen works at Holtorf’s practice, according to its website. He did not respond to requests for comment.
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Michael McNeal, the “integrative health coach” and director of education at Integrative Peptides, a company founded by Holtorf, was accused of prescribing or recommending a peptide cocktail to one of the women. Wuest said McNeal does not appear to hold any health care licenses. McNeal did not respond to requests for comment.
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In July, Holtorf told ProPublica he didn’t believe the peptides caused the women’s illnesses, saying he’d asked an artificial intelligence app to analyze the incident. He wouldn’t share what the app had concluded was the cause. He also apologized for the situation and said he was “reassessing everything we are doing” to keep patients safe.
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Wuest said the board notified the California boards that license Holtorf and Nguyen of the fines so they may consider additional discipline. The FDA also has been notified, he said.
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Michael Blake Fiveash is co-founder and first trustee of Forgotten Formula, which the board accused of unlicensed wholesaling of pharmaceuticals. He said pharmacy board regulations, while necessary for regulating public commerce, don’t apply to his association because it offers services only to members who have signed a contract. He said such member-to-member activity is protected by the First and 14th amendments. In a letter to ProPublica, he said Holtorf, whose peptide company is listed as a partner on Forgotten Formula’s website, was operating at RAADFest under his public medical practice, not as an association member. Nor were the women who became ill members of the association, Fiveash said.
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“Dr. Holtorf’s booth at RAADFest was a public commercial activity,” Fiveash said in a letter. The Forgotten Formula Private Member Association “did not supply materials for public commercial use or public distribution. If Dr. Holtorf utilized any materials in his public professional practice, that would represent his individual choice to apply private member resources to his separate public professional activities, which is beyond FFPMA’s control or responsibility.”
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Fiveash did not directly answer questions about whether the association mailed the peptides to Holtorf. He also shared a video of testimonials from Forgotten Formula members, including children and adults, suffering serious illnesses such as cancer, Lyme disease, diabetes and cirrhosis who said they were helped by the association’s products.
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He challenged the premise that the women became ill from the peptides. “Without comprehensive toxicology, full medical histories, and analysis of all substances and treatments administered that day, attributing causation to peptides is speculation masquerading as reporting,” he said. “Any adverse event is concerning, and we hope both patients have fully recovered.”
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Laura Tucker, the pharmacy board’s lawyer, said this is the board’s first encounter with a private membership association making such legal claims, but emphasized that mailing drugs to the state without a Nevada license is against state law. She added that any of the parties can appeal their citations to the board.
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“Of course anyone is free to make any sort of legal argument they would like to try to make in front of the board,” she said.
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The post Nevada Regulators Fine Peptide Providers at Anti-Aging Festival Where Two Women Became Critically Ill appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Anjeanette Damon","publishDate":"2026-03-13T09:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/AgingV7_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_quality_95_embedColorProfile_true-1.jpg?w=400&h=400&crop=1","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/raadfest-peptide-injections-nevada-fines","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T12:00:34.805Z"},{"id":"u92m0k","archiveId":"a0e5hq","slug":"8216the-bride8217-speaks-back-rage-and-autonomy-in-gyllenhaals-frankenstein","title":"‘The Bride!’ Speaks Back: Rage and Autonomy in Gyllenhaal’s Frankenstein","excerpt":"Women are often stereotyped as overly talkative—gossiping, ‘blabbing’ or labeled ‘Chatty Cathys.’ Archie Bunker in the television series All in the Family often tells his wife Edith to “stifle yourself” to stop her talking.","content":"
Women are often stereotyped as overly talkative—gossiping, ‘blabbing’ or labeled ‘Chatty Cathys.’ Archie Bunker in the television series All in the Family often tells his wife Edith to “stifle yourself” to stop her talking. Recently, one critic argued that “the bride” (played by Jessie Buckley) in writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s new movie of the same name, talks too much.
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What makes Gyllenhaal’s reinvention of James Whale’s 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein story so compelling is precisely because this fabricated lady has her own voice and uses it loudly and in a rage. We’re glad she speaks.
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The post ‘The Bride!’ Speaks Back: Rage and Autonomy in Gyllenhaal’s Frankenstein appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"safety","author":"Julie Wosk","publishDate":"2026-03-13T03:19:31.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jessie-buckley-christian-bale-the-bride-030426-6014a698b933475592f41427952408e3.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/12/the-bride-feminist-review/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T06:00:44.877Z"},{"id":"9nrl3l","archiveId":"kut3ap","slug":"dissecting-trump8217s-short-women8217s-history-month-statement-line-by-line","title":"Dissecting Trump’s (Short) Women’s History Month Statement, Line by Line","excerpt":"When the White House issued a presidential message to kick off Women’s History Month, my first reaction was genuine surprise. Honestly, I did not think WHM was still recognized by the federal government.","content":"
When the White House issued a presidential message to kick off Women’s History Month, my first reaction was genuine surprise. Honestly, I did not think WHM was still recognized by the federal government.
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President Donald Trump’s brief (four paragraphs) public statement doubled down on the administration’s regressive societal vision, casting women primarily as caretakers and pillars of the “American family,” while pointing to a slate of policies he claims empower them.
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But a closer look at the statement reveals a familiar mix of culture-war signaling, selective policy claims, and omissions that obscure the real impacts of the administration’s agenda on women and families.
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I think often about the role of the media at this moment—an obligation intrinsically greater than reporting the verbiage that comes out of the White House. It is on all of us to explicitly counter double-speak and lies and to leave a paper trail of truth for posterity. This week’s column does just that: It dissects Trump’s WHM proclamation line by line and tests each claimed reform against the record.
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The post Dissecting Trump’s (Short) Women’s History Month Statement, Line by Line appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Jennifer Weiss-Wolf","publishDate":"2026-03-13T02:27:49.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-674517466.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/12/trump-womens-history-month/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T06:00:44.877Z"},{"id":"7fsm5o","archiveId":"ouz6ne","slug":"senate-introduces-attack-on-mifepristone","title":"Senate Introduces Attack on Mifepristone","excerpt":"Yesterday, Sen. Josh Hawley introduced legislation that would ban and withdrawal mifepristone’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. Dr. Jamila Perritt, ob/gyn and abortion provider in Washington DC and President & CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health responds: “Time and time again, an...","content":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\tSenate Introduces Attack on Mifepristone\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\n\n\thttps://prh.org/press-releases/senate-introduces-attack-on-mifepristone/ \n\t \n\n\t\n\tClick to print \n\tPrint Icon \n \n\n\t\n\tShare this page via Email \n\tMail Icon Rectangle in the shape of an envelope \n\n\t\n\tShare this page on Pinterest \n\t \n\n\t\n\tShare this page on Facebook \n\t \n\n\t\t\n\tShare this page on Twitter \n\t \n\t\t \n\t\t
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Yesterday, Sen. Josh Hawley introduced legislation that would ban and withdrawal mifepristone’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.
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Dr. Jamila Perritt, ob/gyn and abortion provider in Washington DC and President & CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health responds:
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“Time and time again, anti-abortion legislators show their hand: while they make claims to prioritize health and safety, in reality, they’re simply obsessed with finding new ways to put abortion care completely out of reach.
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“Despite the unrelenting and unfounded attacks from anti-abortion extremists, independent scientists, researchers, and the FDA have concluded many times over that mifepristone is safe, medication abortion is safe, and people who have abortions are receiving evidence-based care. There is no question of medication abortion’s safety.
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“Despite the misinformation and disinformation that anti-abortion politicians like Senator Hawley continue to push, the science is clear: mifepristone is safe, mifepristone is effective, and mifepristone is still medically indicated to be used for full spectrum sexual and reproductive health care, including for abortion care.
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CONTACT US
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Email voice@prh.org to speak to a physician advocate or get added to our reporter list.
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The post Senate Introduces Attack on Mifepristone appeared first on Physicians for Reproductive Health .
","category":"choice","author":"Kelsey Rhodes","publishDate":"2026-03-12T18:07:43.000Z","image":"https://prh.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/PRH-primary-web-feature.png","source":"Physicians for Reproductive Health","sourceUrl":"https://prh.org/press-releases/senate-introduces-attack-on-mifepristone/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T00:00:40.658Z"},{"id":"u4ask2","archiveId":"s0ia26","slug":"best-essence-black-women-in-hollywood-looks-2026","title":"Best ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Looks 2026","excerpt":"It’s a sunny day in Los Angeles and even sunnier at Fairmont Century Plaza where entertainment’s biggest stars were shining (like Harold Loomis, as Viola Davis would say) at ESSENCE’s […] The post Best ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Looks 2026 appeared first on Essence .","content":"
Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for ESSENCE
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 12, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
It’s a sunny day in Los Angeles and even sunnier at Fairmont Century Plaza where entertainment’s biggest stars were shining (like Harold Loomis , as Viola Davis would say) at ESSENCE’s 19th Annual Black Women in Hollywood Awards. Hosted by Marsai Martin, attendees and honorees—including Zinzi Coogler with a Luminary Spotlight for the women of Sinners—are using this year’s theme “Off Script” to take back ownership over the film and television industry. But, before the show began, they all owned the blue carpet first.
Washington arrived in a pale pink slip dress and leather jacket to match her sexy, edgy updo. Infiniti vowed to not drag her dress. Instead, she put her knit gown on a gold chain leash which held up her short train. Richardson Jackson had a similar updo to Washington’s, >privately married Tom Holland) is leaning into the rumors with her bridal white mini dress—as seen on Whitney Houston in 1987—and new crop cut. In the name of love, Niecy Nash-Betts and her wife, Jessica, proved how to do couplesrc=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2266175280-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The Best Blue Carpet Looks From ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood 2026\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" />LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 12: Marsai Martin attends the 2026 ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Awards on March 12, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for ESSENCE) Kerry Washington best red carpet looks ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood
The post Best ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Looks 2026 appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-12T18:06:01.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2266182038-Cropped-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/red-carpet/black-women-hollywood/best-red-carpet-essence-black-women-in-hollywood-2026/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T00:00:44.095Z"},{"id":"y9l47e","archiveId":"s0lmo7","slug":"sen-josh-hawley-again-cites-junk-science-to-argue-for-banning-abortion-pill","title":"Sen. Josh Hawley Again Cites Junk Science To Argue For Banning Abortion Pill","excerpt":"The bill is unlikely to become law, but its introduction gives a hard-line anti-abortion senator a bigger platform to spread misinformation.","content":"","category":"choice","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-03-12T18:01:54.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/69b2f445170000ec222b1d21.jpeg?cache=H8pqOBLK6u&ops=1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sen-josh-hawley-again-cites-junk-science-to-argue-for-banning-abortion-pill_n_69b2efade4b05a3e2aa4e311","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T12:00:35.017Z"},{"id":"cihp1e","archiveId":"gv34xs","slug":"the-best-black-women-in-hollywood-looks-of-all-time","title":"The Best Black Women In Hollywood Looks Of All Time","excerpt":"The 2026 Black Women in Hollywood awards show will be available to stream at 10:30 a.m. PT: Watch Here. Today, ESSENCE’s Black Women in Hollywood ceremony—hosted by Marsai Martin at […] The post The Best Black Women In Hollywood Looks Of All Time appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 12, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
The 2026 Black Women in Hollywood awards show will be available to stream at 10:30 a.m. PT: Watch Here .
Today, ESSENCE’s Black Women in Hollywood ceremony—hosted by Marsai Martin at Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles—will see the beauty and style looks of stars who are owning the moment in entertainment. For some, it’ll be their first time on the carpet, while others have been rocking with us since the beginning.
Think back to 2008. It was the very first Black Women in Hollywood luncheon and this year’s honoree
The post The Best Black Women In Hollywood Looks Of All Time appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-12T16:54:44.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/red-carpet/black-women-hollywood/best-essence-black-women-in-hollywood-looks-over-the-years/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T00:00:44.095Z"},{"id":"eevej1","archiveId":"vz6jv7","slug":"claiming-the-revolution-gender-sexuality-and-the-radical-promise-of-1776","title":"Claiming the Revolution: Gender, Sexuality and the Radical Promise of 1776","excerpt":"The American Revolution can feel like a legacy that belongs to a select few. It has often been told as the story of wealthy white men—many of them enslavers, many of them beneficiaries of Indigenous dispossession—who rebelled in the name of liberty while denying it to most of the people around them.","content":"
The American Revolution can feel like a legacy that belongs to a select few. It has often been told as the story of wealthy white men—many of them enslavers, many of them beneficiaries of Indigenous dispossession—who rebelled in the name of liberty while denying it to most of the people around them. From this perspective, those who are most marginalized—including women, LGBTQ people and communities of color—may feel as if they are reinforcing political amnesia, or worse, complicity, in patriotic celebrations of 1776.
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The post Claiming the Revolution: Gender, Sexuality and the Radical Promise of 1776 appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Charles Upchurch","publishDate":"2026-03-12T16:09:49.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1692009769.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/12/revolution-gender-sexuality-1776/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T18:01:04.966Z"},{"id":"faacp5","archiveId":"2bstie","slug":"nhs-england-blocks-access-to-gender-affirming-hormone-therapies","title":"NHS England Blocks Access to Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapies","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Demonstrators march through central London to protest a restriction on puberty-delaying medications in London, United Kingdom, on April 20, 2024. © 2024 WIktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto via AP Photo
England’s National Health Service (NHS) has announced it will block new refe...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Demonstrators march through central London to protest a restriction on puberty-delaying medications in London, United Kingdom, on April 20, 2024.\n © 2024 WIktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto via AP Photo \n \n \n\n\n \n<p>England’s National Health Service (NHS) has announced it will block new referrals for gender-affirming hormone therapy for transgender youth under 18, restricting access to evidence-based care and undermining young people’s rights to health, bodily autonomy, and nondiscrimination.</p><p>The decision came into force on March 9 and will undergo a 90-day consultation period after which the NHS will issue a longer-term policy. During this period, youth already receiving hormone therapy will be allowed to continue treatment, but clinicians will no longer be permitted to initiate new referrals. The policy applies to publicly provided health care by NHS England and does not affect doctors working in private practice or public healthcare providers in other parts of the UK.</p><p>The restrictions are worrying. Medical care for adolescents is typically tailored to the needs of each patient. A blanket prohibition on referrals prevents clinicians from recommending a course of treatment appropriate for a particular young person.</p><p>Hormone therapy is widely recognized by major medical associations as a component of best-practice care for some transgender youth. Clinical guidelines generally recommend that treatment be provided following comprehensive psychological assessment and counseling. Medical guidelines also require that practitioners obtain informed consent from patients prior to treatment. A 2024 systematic review found that hormone therapy has been associated with a reduction in gender dysphoria and did not identify any harmful health outcomes.</p><p>Research indicates that gender-affirming hormone therapy can significantly improve mental health outcomes for transgender youth, including reductions in suicidality.</p><p>NHS England’s decision comes in the wake of the Cass Review, a 2024 government-commissioned study which called for restrictions on gender-affirming medical care. Medical experts have since criticized the study, questioning its review of evidence and clinical practices.</p><p>Following the Cass Review, the NHS also restricted access to puberty-delaying medications for transgender youth to clinical trials, a decision criticized by the the British Medical Association. These medications, widely considered reversible, allow young people additional time to explore their gender identity before making decisions about further treatment.</p><p>Transgender youth in England have long faced significant barriers to health care. Young people often waited an average of two years for an appointment at a state-run gender clinic. Of those treated at the clinic, only a small share were referred to endocrinology for puberty-delaying medication or hormone therapy.</p><p>NHS England should reverse this harmful decision and ensure transgender youth can access evidence-based, gender-affirming care consistent with their rights to health, bodily autonomy, and nondiscrimination.</p>","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-12T15:52:23.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603lgbt_uk_trans_futures.jpg?h=ca01e4b9&itok=qOas3Hxt","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/12/nhs-england-blocks-access-to-gender-affirming-hormone-therapies","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T18:01:10.622Z"},{"id":"dv23dl","archiveId":"2ayigo","slug":"weaponizing-us-foreign-aid-trumps-new-2026-global-gag-rule","title":"Weaponizing US Foreign Aid: Trump’s New 2026 Global Gag Rule","excerpt":"Weaponizing US Foreign Aid: Trump’s New 2026 Global Gag Rule Policy Analysis sramashwar This article originally appeared in The Story Exchange .
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Note: The writer is a professional ensemble singer who performs with several choirs that address social-justice causes. She is not affiliated with the groups in this article.
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On a cold early-February evening in New York City, the first of what would become several “ICE Out Sing-Ins” was held.
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Co-hosted by two ensembles – the Resistance Revival Chorus and the Jerriese Johnson Gospel Choir – as well as New York City’s Interfaith Alliance, the event’s purpose was singular: Teach the hundreds who assembled at Manhattan’s Middle Church a set of songs to sing at protests against the Trump administration and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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When the Resistance Revival Chorus led the crowd in singing a particularly poignant piece – “Hold On,” by Vermont song leader Heidi Wilson – a ripple began to visibly spread . A few choir members reached out to embrace one another, followed by more. Within a minute, the entire ensemble was as bonded physically as they were musically, and spiritually.
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The moment serves as a metaphor for the broader, growing use this year of singing – group singing, specifically – as a form of resistance . Many see it as a powerful act of intention, rippling out from a center until it touches all who are open to it.
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The renewed interest in group singing as a protest tool – often associated with demonstrations in the 1960s and early 1970s related to the civil rights struggle and denouncing the Vietnam War – cropped up after organizers in Minneapolis began responding to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE agents. In January, a small group there began singing, in English and in Spanish, to help console and unite a grieving community. Hundreds joined in. Videos of Singing Resistance , a musical grassroots collective based in Minneapolis, quickly went viral.
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Now, organizers in dozens of other cities are forming their own chapters after seeing those early examples. Though Singing Resistance is focused on immigrant solidarity and anti-ICE campaigning, there is an expectation – and a hope – that group singing may soon be used at protests around other acts committed by the Trump administration, such as recent bombings in Iran.
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Famous musicians have already taken notice. Singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile recently led some 15,000 people in singing protest songs – and was joined onstage at one point by members of Singing Resistance – at a solidarity concert she hosted in Minnesota. Performers from Bruce Springsteen to Sara Bareilles have been sharing new protest songs as well.
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ArinMaya, co-musical director of the Resistance Revival Chorus, says “this moment we’re in now, it’s a continuation” of work she and others have been doing. “Music, and song, and the power of song keeps us lifted, keeps us encouraged, keeps spirits high.”
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And many of these organizers and song leaders – those lifting others’ spirits through music – are women , as they have been through history.
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‘Just like a tree that’s planted by the water’ \n\n\n\n
In the U.S., protest singing has been a tool for organizers since the nation’s founding – literally. Songs like “Yankee Doodle” and “Free Americay” were used to push back against British imperialism as often as muskets.
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Singing also helped shape other sea changes in American history, from the movement to abolish slavery in the 1800s, to the Women’s Suffrage and Labor movements of the early 1900s, on into the farmworkers’ strikes, Civil Rights marches and anti-war demonstrations that would follow several decades later.
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Sometimes people would sing new compositions in chorus with one another; other times, it would be familiar tunes featuring new lyrics. Many of both forms were taught, and often penned, by women. African-American spirituals like “Go Down Moses,” often sung by Harriet Tubman herself, “Which Side Are You On?” written by union organizer Florence Reece, “We Shall Not Be Moved,” a hymn-turned-protest-song performed often by the Freedom Singers, gospel singer Shirley Caesar’s own “This Joy” and many others would regularly be sung as groups organized against oppression, theirs and others.
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Tammy Kernodle , a PhD of music history and a professor at Miami University in Ohio, notes that organizers turned to group singing, time and time again, as a form of “embodied resistance,” or, “when a group of people or a person goes into a space and they use their bodies to disrupt the energy of that space.” And these physical acts – from sit-ins to singing – are unavoidably powerful, she adds, because “everything stops” for it.
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Throughout the history of American protests, women have often served as song leaders. That includes suffragist Ethel Smyth, workers’ rights activist Aunt Molly Jackson and domestic-worker-turned-folk-singer Odetta, as well as those involved in mixed-gender ensembles like the Hutchinson Family Singers of the abolitionist movement, and the Freedom Singers and Sweet Honey in the Rock (founded by another prominent activist, Bernice Johnson Reagon) of the Civil Rights era.
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One of Kernodle’s favorite examples is voting-rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. “We know [her] as an orator. We know her from the ‘64 Democratic Convention. But she always began those speeches with songs. And she would have people sing” with her. Noted farmworker rights activist Dolores Huerta also used music to protest unfair working conditions for migrants, despite being better known as a speaker.
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Indeed, “women played an essential but often underrated role in such movements,” says Dorian Lynskey , author of “33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs.” A lengthy list of prominent women artists have woven social justice into their musical work over the years, too, he notes — Marian Anderson, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Joan Baez, Sinéad O’Connor and Erykah Badu, and groups like Le Tigre and Pussy Riot. But it’s the on-the-ground, in-group singing that Lynskey says is “perhaps the most natural expression of solidarity and unity of purpose.”
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Beheld , a vocal ensemble based in Washington, D.C., that’s performed at conferences, demonstrations and even the vigil following U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s September 2020 death, has woven that same spirit of women’s sung resistance into their work. One of its members, Julie James, explains that “there’s a symbolism of [group singing]” that makes it a potent protest tool. “The many are greater than the one. When you lift your voice with someone else’s, there’s this alchemy that happens, and it’s just holy.”
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It’s the kind of singing civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King himself once called “the soul of the movement.”
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‘We who believe in freedom cannot rest’ \n\n\n\n
In the past several decades, however, group singing at protests has waned. The collective musical work never stopped – but it stopped being centered as an integral part of marches and demonstrations. If singing does occur, it’s usually done individually by featured artists, and is still scant at best. Experts suggest a combination of reasons.
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“We’ve lost community spaces where people are used to singing together,” says Chelsea MacMillan , who is heading up much of the actions of the New York City chapter of Singing Resistance, and who is a full-time climate organizer with Greenfaith . Even congregational singing in houses of worship is on the decline . And, she continues, “singing has become so professionalized,” with reality talent competitions such as FOX’s “American Idol” warping mass perception of the very act of singing into something one should only do if they excel at it – or be mocked for if they don’t.
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Lynskey offers another theory: The encroachment of American individualism into the music itself. Consider songs like “We Shall Overcome” and “Give Peace a Chance,” once popular at protests. And, “note the use of ‘we:’ ‘We shall overcome, ‘All we are saying is give peace a chance.’” It’s not a spirit seen in modern pop music, he adds.
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Hundreds gathered to sing together in protest of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement violence as part of a national Singing Resistance call to action.\n (Candice Helfand-Rogers) \n\n\n\n
The 1990s also saw deep cuts in music programs at U.S. public schools. And more recently, the Covid pandemic did its own damage, turning group singing into dangerous super-spreader events , for a time.
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So while communal, crowd-involved singing moments still happen at concerts, and organizations like the Gaia Music Collective have been bringing accessible choral experiences to an increasing number of cities over the past few years, the practice is simply no longer an organic, expected part of American culture – or American protests. “We’re not going to religious spaces anymore; we’re not singing in schools; there aren’t community spaces for singing,” MacMillan summarizes.
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But once all eyes were drawn to Minnesota earlier this year, people were opened up once more to the ways in which music can be used in organizing – and the ways in which it can be woven into protests with intention. And women organizers and song leaders – like the members of the Resistance Revival Chorus, Singing Resistance and Beheld, those who kept the practice alive and waiting – have now been hopping on this current spike in interest to effectively guide folks back en masse.
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But it’s not just about making everyone feel good, these experts add. As ArinMaya notes, group singing “doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It has to be connected to action.” MacMillan points, for example, to the ways in which Minnesota organizers used group singing as a cry for ICE agents to defect, through songs like “It’s Okay to Change Your Mind” by Minneapolis song leader Annie Schlaefer. (The tactic is inspired by the Serbian “Otpor!” movement of the 1990s to oust dictator Slobodan Milošević – by, in part, encouraging members of his regime to step away.)
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These organizations also do work beyond song-leading. Through their online channels, they share news updates and other critical pieces of information, and partner with like-minded groups to further the social-justice work. And, Carlile’s concert wasn’t just about “vibes” – it raised over $600,000 for families affected by ICE activity.
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The movement has grown legs. In Lower Manhattan’s Foley Square, next to the building where ICE detainees are taken, several hundred people gathered at the end of February as part of a nationwide day of musical action organized by Singing Resistance. There were dozens of such rallies around the U.S. – in all, over 90 gatherings were hosted, and over $100,00 was raised by attendees to aid immigrants directly.
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And, organizers add, over 230 Singing Resistance groups have now been formed.
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Standing and singing in solidarity with the Lower Manhattan assembly was Brad Lander, former New York City comptroller and current Congressional candidate. He was drawn to attend the event, and to lead the crowd in singing African-American spiritual and anti-war song “Down By the Riverside,” after watching protesters in Minneapolis sing “It’s Okay to Change Your Mind” outside of ICE agents’ hotels.
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“They found this way of showing how furious they are at the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti … and also found this beautiful song” for expressing that rage, he said. “People are steadfast – but soulfully so. And that comes out in the songs.”
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‘Here comes the dawn’ \n\n\n\n
As part of its ongoing efforts, Singing Resistance has shared a toolkit for organizers throughout the country, including a full songbook with tunes like “Hold On” – the song that created the ripple effect seen at that first packed event in New York City’s Middle Church.
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The song’s simple-yet-fervent melody and slower tempo make it more of a prayer than a rallying cry – and movements need that spirit, too, says Melinda St. Louis of Beheld. “Something I’ve been loving about what is happening in this moment, what is happening in Minneapolis, and what is happening in uprisings all over the country is, it’s not just all f—ing wanting to punch something all the time.”
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“There’s something to group singing that [reminds us] not everything has to be a fist in the air,” she continues. “Sometimes it is the embrace. It’s the wiping of a tear. It is just a human touch.”
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And, she and several other sources noted, this too is often women’s work: Caring when it’s difficult, loving with bruised hearts, pouring from drained cups. Showing up unsteady, yet ready.
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Gathering the scared and the tired and transforming that exhausted assembly into a robust choir.
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Yet there is joy derived on both sides of that effort, “Hold On” composer Wilson says. Joy, and restoration, and hope for something better on the horizon. “In this moment, collective singing offers us a chance to stand up against rising authoritarianism and violence in a way that is also simultaneously creating the world that we want to inhabit – one rooted in love.”
","category":"activism","author":"Megan Kearney","publishDate":"2026-03-12T15:19:21.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Singing-Resistance-NYC-March.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/women-singing-chorus-protests-resistance/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T18:01:05.624Z"},{"id":"u6j735","archiveId":"enjg01","slug":"the-new-parental-rights-legal-grift-podcast","title":"The New Parental Rights Legal Grift (Podcast)","excerpt":"The Supreme Court’s conservatives are using the shadow docket to redefine family rights at the expense of trans kids. The post The New Parental Rights Legal Grift (Podcast) appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
In this episode, Imani and Jess break down the latest anti-trans decision from the Supreme Court, Mirabelli v. Bonta, and explain how the conservative legal movement is rewriting parental rights law from the shadow docket of the Supreme Court.
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Transcript
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Independent journalism only exists because of you. Become a member today .
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Imani’s column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles , is back in 2026! Sign up for her newsletter here to read it first, and listen to Imani’s new podcast, B*tch, Listen, here .
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The post The New Parental Rights Legal Grift (Podcast) appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"activism","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-12T15:09:12.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/BL-S09-E53-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/12/the-new-parental-rights-legal-grift-podcast/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T18:01:04.180Z"},{"id":"3j3e3c","archiveId":"4jlolz","slug":"ecuador-court-affirms-adolescents-right-to-gender-recognition","title":"Ecuador: Court Affirms Adolescents’ Right to Gender Recognition","excerpt":"Click to expand Image A woman exits the Constitutional Court building, in Quito, Ecuador, February 7, 2024. © 2024 Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo
(Washington, DC, March 12, 2026) – Ecuador’s Constitutional Court’s ruling, made public on March 10, 2026, that people under 18 cannot automatically be refused...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n A woman exits the Constitutional Court building, in Quito, Ecuador, February 7, 2024.\n © 2024 Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>(Washington, DC, March 12, 2026) – Ecuador’s Constitutional Court’s ruling, made public on March 10, 2026, that people under 18 cannot automatically be refused a request to modify their gender on identity documents is an important victory for the rights of transgender youth, Human Rights Watch said today. The ruling affirms that constitutional protection cannot rest on rigid assumptions about age while ignoring adolescents’ lived realities, evolving capacities, and right to be heard. </p><p>The case arose after Ecuador’s civil registry denied a request by the parents of a 15-year-old to change the gender marker in his identity documents. The registry relied on article 94 of the Organic Law on Identity and Civil Data Management and, by extension, article 32 of its regulations, which require applicants to reach the age of majority for gender recognition. In Judgment 4-24-CN/26, the court held that applying that rule automatically is unconstitutional in a case like this one, where the adolescent had the support of his guardians and psychosocial evaluations showing sufficient maturity to make a free, informed, and voluntary decision regarding his gender identity.</p><p>“This ruling makes clear that dignity and identity cannot be postponed until adulthood,” said Cristian González Cabrera, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The court rightly recognized that transgender youth are rights holders with progressive autonomy, not mere objects of protection.”</p><p>The court anchored its reasoning in the rights to identity and to the free development of personality, as well as the principles of the best interests of the child, progressive autonomy, and the right of adolescents to be heard. It stressed that gender identity is “an essential dimension” of those rights and that timely recognition of gender identity is closely linked to adolescents’ integral development.</p><p>The judgment contains remarkably clear language in defense of trans youths’ rights, Human Rights Watch said. The court found that conditioning rectification of the gender marker on reaching adulthood can negatively affect adolescents. It also warned that the age requirement rests on “a static and homogenizing conception of adolescence,” one that assumes all adolescents lack the capacity to understand the consequences of their decisions.</p><p>The court went further, recognizing the real harm caused by bureaucratic refusal to acknowledge a young person’s lived identity. It found that the restriction, when applied automatically, may “generate adverse effects on the emotional, social, and psychological well-being” of adolescents with the maturity to decide, and that it gives to the civil registry the power to deny “identity that has already been constructed, lived, and recognized in other spaces of social life.” </p><p>At the same time, the court emphasized that it was not eliminating safeguards. Rather, it required a more tailored approach, which could include individualized assessment, psychosocial support, family accompaniment, and effective listening to the person concerned. The court made clear that “age cannot be required as the determining and sole criterion” for evaluating an adolescent’s capacity for understanding, discernment, or autonomy, and that less restrictive alternatives exist to protect adolescents without sacrificing their rights.</p><p>International human rights standards increasingly recognize that requiring medical or psychological evaluations as a condition for legal gender recognition can violate the rights to privacy, autonomy, and self-determination, and many countries have moved toward procedures based primarily on a person’s self-declared gender identity.</p><p>The ruling does not strike down the statutory provisions but will change their application in similar cases. The court ordered the civil registry and the Judiciary Council to broadly disseminate its ruling among registry officials and judges nationwide.</p><p>The decision builds on a significant ruling made public in January 2025 in favor of a transgender student whose rights had been violated when their school refused to recognize their gender identity. The court held that the student’s rights to equality, free development of personality, education, and the best interests of the child had been violated, and ordered the education authorities to develop and disseminate a mandatory protocol on respecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender children in schools within six months. The protocol was required to include guidance on the use of a child’s chosen name, dress, and bathroom access consistent with their gender identity. </p><p>Implementation of that decision has been uneven and controversial. Reporting in Ecuador has documented that the updated protocol issued in 2026 still leaves important questions unresolved, including guidance for evaluating a student’s evolving capacity and the lack of a clear procedure for resolving disagreements. </p><p>That gap between formal legal recognition and practical implementation matters, Human Rights Watch said. In a 2024 report, Human Rights Watch research documented that sexual violence remains endemic in Ecuador’s education system and that protective measures have progressed too slowly and unevenly to keep all children safe. The researchers underscored the need for stronger institutions, clearer protocols, and effective follow-through. </p><p>The ruling also comes at a critical moment for Ecuador’s democratic institutions. Human Rights Watch reported that the government organized demonstrations against the Constitutional Court and that senior officials called its judges “enemies of the people,” prompting concern from international human rights bodies about threats to judicial independence and security. Respect for the court’s authority is essential, particularly when it is protecting the rights of groups that often face discrimination and political hostility. </p><p>“Ecuadorian authorities should carry out the gender recognition judgment promptly by issuing clear guidance to civil registry officials, training judges, and administrative personnel, and bringing all relevant legislation in line with the constitutional standards the court has articulated,” González said. “Officials should respect and faithfully carry out Constitutional Court rulings and refrain from attacks that undermine the court’s role in safeguarding human rights.”</p>","category":"activism","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-12T15:01:04.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603ame_ecuador_constitutional_court.jpg?h=5c8fb8df&itok=lHDOhwWa","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/12/ecuador-court-affirms-adolescents-right-to-gender-recognition","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-13T00:00:43.441Z"},{"id":"spawwk","archiveId":"vpvg5w","slug":"dionne-warwick-says-she-lost-millions-in-royalties-now-shes-taking-the-fight-to-court","title":"Dionne Warwick Says She Lost Millions In Royalties. Now She’s Taking The Fight To Court","excerpt":"Dionne Warwick is suing a firm she has worked with for decades for, she says, “stealing millions of dollars in royalty income.” Artists Rights Enforcement Corporation specializes in helping artists […] The post Dionne Warwick Says She Lost Millions In Royalties.","content":"Updated March 12, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready…
Dionne Warwick is suing a firm she has worked with for decades for, she says, “stealing millions of dollars in royalty income.”
Artists Rights Enforcement Corporation specializes in helping artists recover music royalties and licensing, especially for legacy artists like Warwick. The firm, for example, negotiated clearing a sample of “Walk On By,” which Doja Cat used in her Grammy-nominated, hit single “Paint the Town Red” from 2023. But things have soured since then, as reported by Pitchfork.
AREC sued Warwick first, bringing its suit in December 2025, claiming that the firm was owed “hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars” for recovering the singer’s royalties. It alleged it had not yet been paid for the profitable clearance for Doja Cat’s track years back.
Warwick and her lawyers filed a fiery countersuit March 9. AREC is like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, her lawyers stated, that only says it helps artists “fight to make your music yours again.” But in actuality, her team says, it was “cloaking itself in professional credibility while concealing its own self-interest.”
“Ms. Warwick seeks to expose AREC’s performative ethics and vindicate her rights and obtain restitution for the damages caused by AREC’s decades-long pilfering of millions of dollars in royalty income she earned as a result of her legendary recordings,” the artist’s lawyer Robert S. Meloni wrote in the court filing, as reported by Billboard.
The legendary singer first started working with AREC in 2001. At the time, she needed help recovering royalties and ended up signing a one-page contract with the firm. According to the countersuit, she signed without legal representation, and the agreement was meant for a specific Warner Bros. record dispute. The contract stated, per Pitchfork, that the firm would be entitled to “an ongoing fifty percent of all sums and assets which are recovered.”
But Warwick’s suit against AREC reveals what happened from her perspective. Between 2002 and 2025, AREC collected a “50% share of anything and everything that flowed as a result of her creative output from 1962 to 2001,” lawyers said. Warwick claims she did not know the extent to which money was being extracted. She then sought help from the Davis Firm, which specializes in the music industry.
The Davis Firm requested a full set of documents from AREC on Warwick, and the countersuit complaint claims that AREC didn’t send back documents that properly reflected the artist’s 23 years working with the artist’s rights firm. This led the Davis Firm to send a letter of termination to AREC with a list of demands, like providing copies of all royalties statements and that AREC no longer take payments from Warwick. Rather than respond, the singer’s lawyers say AREC responded with its December 2025 lawsuit.
“AREC’s efforts were at best nothing more than administrative in nature, or activities that music lawyers routinely perform for an hourly fee,” Warwick’s lawyers wrote.Ahead, the 85-year-old singer is getting ready to release a single on March 20, titled “Ocean in the Desert,” teasing what she has said will be her final album , DWuets. Artists like Cynthia Erivo and Kehlani will be featured.
The post Dionne Warwick Says She Lost Millions In Royalties. Now She’s Taking The Fight To Court appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-12T14:38:28.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2179685403-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/dionne-warwick-royalties-lawsuit/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T18:01:11.451Z"},{"id":"c8evuq","archiveId":"d1jdqa","slug":"melanin-rich-black-women-in-hollywood-are-owning-the-red-carpetand-the-moment","title":"Melanin-Rich Black Women In Hollywood Are Owning The Red Carpet—And The Moment","excerpt":"“She’s pretty for a dark-skinned girl.” These seven words strung together carry an indescribable weight. So heavy that multiple generations have not just carried them but been encumbered by their […] The post Melanin-Rich Black Women In Hollywood Are Owning The Red Carpet—And The Moment appeared fir...","content":"
By
Bridgette Bartlett Royall ·
Updated March 12, 2026 Getting your
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“She’s pretty for a dark-skinned girl.”
These seven words strung together carry an indescribable weight. So heavy that multiple generations have not just carried them but been encumbered by their heaviness. These seven words, and the ugly colorism they are anchored in, crushed the spirits of too many of our mothers, aunties, grandmas and other matriarchs both known and unknown. Treasured books, including Don’t Play in the Sun by Marita Golden , have stood the test of time because they illustrate the weight of these comments through powerful storytelling that painfully resonates.
Whether it is memories of our enslaved ancestors being divided with labels of “House Negros” and “Field Negros” based on complexion. Or the shame triggered by brown paper bag tests . Or the humiliation (not to mention severe health risks) of skin bleaching. Or older family members breaking their necks to check the skin tone behind a newborn baby’s ears to predict how dark the child will eventually be—and the visible disappointment if those tiny precious ears are darker than expected (especially if said baby is a girl). Or the void felt when peering through popular magazines (sans ESSENCE of course), watching music videos or looking at billboard ads on public transportation and never seeing anyone with a darker hued complexion represented.
Colorism is a thing. Colorism has been a thing.
But bay-beee. There are a growing number of young Black women in entertainment who are unquestionably brown, indisputably talented and are unapologetically confident about the skin they’re in. The labels of “starlet” and “ingenue” seem far too limiting for these phenoms. They’re not begging for anyone’s validation. They do not shrink to fit into stifling, manufactured spaces that attempt to make them feel less than. They own red carpets not only with their beauty but also with their intellect and wit. Shut down front rows at the world’s biggest fashion shows. Make history as leading ladies on streaming services and at the box office. Break records on the musical charts. They blaze trails in six-inch stilettos and Adidas Sambas; sometimes in the same day. And they’re doing all of this, and more, while being fine AF. Dammit, it is a joy to witness.
Lola Brooke . Danielle Brooks . Olandria Carthen . Ryan Destiny . Isan Elba . Coco Jones . Jayme Lawson . Wunmi Mosaku . Aya Nakamura . Lovie Simone .
We would be remiss not to acknowledge the stunning stars who broke molds in similar ways years ago. Naomi Campbell. Regina King. Gabrielle Union. Lauryn Hill. Kelly Rowland. Tika Sumpter. Lupita Nyong’o. Let’s be clear that these sisters are still shutting ish down. And there are so many others worthy of recognition who paved the way for them even earlier like Yves Saint Laurent model and muse, Mounia and the beloved groundbreaking actress and all around force, Cicely Tyson.
We acknowledge that where people land on the brown shade spectrum is often in the eye of the beholder. The difference between milk chocolate and dark chocolate can be subtle and left to interpretation. No matter. You get the point. These women and their wide range of deep, rich skin hues are making the world sit up and take notice. They are not begging to sit at any tables set with archaic stereotypes that never benefited the culture. They exude a carefree aura that showcases their collective self-assuredness. They’re building their own tables without Hollywood or Fashion Avenue’s permission. Everyone else should catch up.
Coco: (Photo by Ferda Demir/WireImage), Joy: (Photo by Brianna Bryson/WireImage), Isan: (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images), Aya: (Photo by Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images).
From Olandria embracing bold pink blush to Lovie shining in metallic gold gowns, these non-racially ambiguous women don’t subscribe to silly notions about what Black women of darker shades can’t rock with ease and look amazing in to boot. Also important to note is the unbotheredness of it all. It is giving: Does me being chocolate and wearing fuchsia makeup or brightly hued clothing bother you? Too bad. Your colorist theories are none of my business. Now, watch me get this work. Sometimes the most profound political statements are made without saying anything at all. It is a new day.
Brown Skin Baddies Lovie, Olandria and Ryan are helping to spark important conversations surrounding colorism. / Lovie: Earl Gibson III/Deadline via Getty Images, Olandria: Francois Durand/Getty Images, Ryan: Photo by Savion Washington/Getty Images
In a world that once pretended chocolate brown women were invisible—and sometimes still does—this moment is refreshing, empowering and heartwarming. Casting agents, talent bookers, music, film and television executives have no choice but to notice too. This is not a trend or a flavor of the week. This is a long-overdue reckoning of sorts. It is both quiet and loud. Yes, there is still a whole lot of collective work to be done. But let’s enjoy this time and the beautiful, talented young women who are defining it.
Celebrate the achievements of these and more entertainment talents by enjoying our 2026 Black Women in Hollywood celebration. The 2026 awards show is available to stream: Watch Here .
TOPICS:
black beauty Colorism lovie simone Olandria Carthen ryan destiny The post Melanin-Rich Black Women In Hollywood Are Owning The Red Carpet—And The Moment appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Victoria Uwumarogie","publishDate":"2026-03-12T13:07:48.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/culture/melanin-rich-beauty-in-hollywood/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T18:01:11.451Z"},{"id":"wfgp19","archiveId":"448nhd","slug":"is-testosterone-a-miracle-cure-for-menopause","title":"Is Testosterone a Miracle Cure for Menopause?","excerpt":"People rave about the sex hormone’s anti-aging benefits, from libido boosting to skin brightening. But evidence for these claims is scarce, and getting testosterone can be tough—unless you’re a cis man. The post Is Testosterone a Miracle Cure for Menopause? appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
Testosterone has entered the cultural conversation.
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Over the past few months, this sex hormone has received heightened media attention and celebrity exposure as a treatment for aging and menopause. Actress Halle Berry, 59, credited testosterone for reviving her sex drive. In October 2025, the New York Times reported that middle-aged women worldwide were enthusiastically seeing the same effects.
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There is no FDA-approved treatment for all the symptoms of menopause, which generally include hot flashes, brain fog, sleeplessness, lowered libido, and fatigue—though there are drugs designed to treat some of these . Now, with increased publicity around testosterone, many women who have silently endured stigma and symptoms around aging feel that a promising treatment may finally be in reach.
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Hype is one thing. Accessibility is another. Whether you’re a testosterone-curious woman in the throes of menopause, or a trans man with an ongoing gender-affirming care plan, there can be a big gap between wanting testosterone and getting it—unless you’re a cisgender man.
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Hormone therapy for aging \n\n\n\n
“Lifechanging” is how Utah-based Marcella Hill, 45, described her experience being on testosterone over the past four years. Hill leads “Wake Her Up,” a community and provider directory for women seeking out hormone therapy.
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Hill spent years grappling with low sex drive, body aches, and a lack of motivation—problems often seen as an inevitable side effect of age . But after beginning testosterone in 2022, she said, her “body didn’t hurt” anymore, and she was “sleeping all night” for the first time in years. Hill felt she “had a regular happy energy” again.
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In a youth-crazy society where women are publicly demoted as a result of aging , and where women’s health research is underfunded —especially around menopause and aging—finding treatment that made her feel more excited to be in her body was transformative, Hill said.
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“We have lived in a world where women kind of just don’t exist after 40,” Hill said.
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The testosterone frenzy reflects changing science around hormone therapy.
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In the early 2000s, Women’s Health Initiative —a federally-funded, long-term National Institutes of Health study focused on preventing serious health conditions in postmenopausal women—linked risks like breast cancer to estrogen hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopausal treatment .
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“Testosterone was not a part of the study, but hormones in general got a bad rap after this,” Dr. Kudzai Dombo, an OB-GYN menopause expert, told RNG .
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The consequences were profound for both people in menopause—many of whom suddenly terminated their estrogen hormone therapy and were left to manage sometimes debilitating symptoms unaided —as well as providers. The potential of testosterone, which was never FDA-approved to treat menopause anyway, went unexplored.
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“A lot of clinicians that were trained during that time from 2002 onward, felt extremely uncomfortable prescribing hormone therapy,” Dr. Kudzai Dombo, an OB-GYN and menopause expert, told RNG .
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However, the safety conversation around HRT has evolved in the past decade as more critiques of the 2002 study emerged, alongside ongoing advocacy for destigmatizing menopausal care. In November 2025, the federal government removed the black box warning label about breast cancer risk that it had put on packaging for HRT used to treat menopause symptoms since 2003. (HRT may still pose a risk if an individual has a previous history of estrogen-responsive cancers like breast cancer and some other gynecological cancers.)
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Many people consider testosterone to be a “male hormone,” but that’s not the full picture. All bodies produce both testosterone and estrogen, said Dr. Siân West, a board-certified OB-GYN and menopause expert. But adult cis men generally produce about 10 to 20 times more testosterone than cis women.
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While the ovaries produce testosterone , along with other hormones like estrogen and progesterone, “testosterone levels in [cis] women gradually decline with age, beginning well before menopause,” West said.
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Testosterone levels also decrease with age in cis men .
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Who is using testosterone? \n\n\n\n
Cis men who are interested in testosterone therapy have an almost direct line to access. If you can show evidence for low testosterone levels through a blood test, you can get testosterone prescribed to you online .
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But this isn’t the case for anyone else. Though transgender patients regularly use testosterone as a form of gender-affirming care, it is currently only FDA-approved for cis men with clinically-diagnosed low testosterone.
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That means if you’re a cis woman or a transgender person looking for testosterone, there are significantly more hoops to jump through for patients and providers alike.
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The leading guidelines for prescribing testosterone to women come from the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health. They are grounded in providing treatment only for hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSSD).
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That “pretty much means you have to have a low sex drive that’s either impacting your quality of life [or] impacting your relationship,” Dombo said.
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You also may need a sympathetic doctor.
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“There is a level of politics around who should get it based on the guidelines,” Dombo said.
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Smaller studies suggest potential benefits of testosterone beyond treating HSSD, such as improvements in mood and cognition .
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Low libido isn’t exclusively linked to menopause. But more cis women may notice changes in their sexual desire around this time, West said.
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Due to the lack of FDA approval of testosterone for cis women and transgender patients, providers must prescribe testosterone to patients in these groups off-label, meaning in a way that isn’t officially approved by the FDA.
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While medications are frequently prescribed off-label—the anti-depressant Wellbutrin, for example, is often prescribed to help people quit smoking—this can be difficult when it comes to testosterone.
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For one thing, testosterone to treat HSSD in women is almost never covered by insurance, West said. This means that depending on the type of prescription you have prices can range anywhere from $30 to over $100 a month to access testosterone. Midi, a menopause and perimenopause care company, sells a low-dose T cream starting at $60 for a $90-day supply. Long-lasting pellets inserted under the skin can cost upwards of $1,500 a year.
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“Never mind dealing with the personal bias of the different pharmacists,” West added. “I have had some pharmacists refuse to fill it because it isn’t FDA approved for the female population.”
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Barriers to testosterone therapy treating gender dysphoria can be even more intense. Despite a plethora of research indicating gender-affirming care , including testosterone therapy, can be life-saving , transgender patients still face medical and legal roadblocks to care.
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“[I] had to get multiple letters from people saying … why I deserve to get this medical care,” Felix, a transmasculine person on testosterone said. RNG is using a pseudonym to protect Felix’s privacy.
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Despite feeling “unstable and dysphoric,” Felix recounted facing difficulties obtaining a mental health diagnosis, letters of recommendation, and getting insurance to cover testosterone, sometimes called “T.”
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Medical decisions made by trans people are often more politicized and scrutinized than cisgender patients making similar choices for themselves.
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“Cis women pursuing T for vitality or longevity are often framed as empowered health optimizers, while trans people using T for gender affirmation continue to face moral panic and political targeting; the same hormone is being discussed in radically different registers,” Kate Steinle, a nurse practitioner and chief clinical officer at FOLX Health, an LGBTQIA+ telehealth platform that provides gender-affirming care and therapy, said .
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Testosterone offers safe and necessary medical care for transgender people, suggesting it is suitable for cis women, too , who typically take a much lower dose. But that reality is not reflected in restrictive laws and a regulatory landscape that created barriers to testosterone access.
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“Trans people have been safely using testosterone for decades and represent a deep well of real-world evidence that has been systematically ignored,” Steinle added.
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And the process of accessing testosterone can be even more grueling depending on where you live. For example, a 2023 law in Florida restricting how and where minors can get gender-affirming care has also made adult access to hormones extremely difficult.
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More evidence needed \n\n\n\n
If you search the words “testosterone” and “menopause” together, you’ll likely encounter testosterone being hailed as a “miracle drug ” or the secret to anti-aging .
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But like any medication, it’s never going to affect everyone the same way. And despite Hill’s profound, full-body transformation on the hormone, the best research so far suggests that its main benefit for cis women is treating low libido.
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“There is much less evidence supporting testosterone for other symptoms that are commonly promoted online, such as fatigue, mood changes, brain fog, muscle strength, weight management, or ‘anti-aging,’” West explained.
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Still, some media coverage , wellness influencers, health providers, and dozens of Reddit users on the menopause subreddit claim that testosterone essentially reverses the effects of aging. They say it gives people supple skin , better cognitive function and leaner bodies—leaving them feeling an age younger than they actually are.
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But not everyone sees benefit, experts cautioned.
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“I have some patients who you would think would have a great response feel nothing,” West said.
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The growing demand and public hype demonstrates why there needs to be more research done on the potential benefits of testosterone, Steinle said.
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“Our hope,” Steinle said “is that the increased spotlight on the other uses of testosterone will help drive that research funding that will inevitably benefit all patients.”
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The post Is Testosterone a Miracle Cure for Menopause? appeared first on Rewire News Group .
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A March 24 program co-hosted by the Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues and Ms. will explore attacks on reproductive freedom, voting rights and gender equality, as well as strategies for feminist resistance.
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The post Virtual Event Will Examine Growing Threats to Women’s Rights and Democracy with Carrie N. Baker appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
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PASADENA, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 28: Colman Domingo attends the 57th NAACP Image Awards at Pasadena Civic Auditorium on February 28, 2026 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images for NAACP)
By
Kimberly Wilson ·
Updated March 11, 2026 Getting your
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When Colman Domingo sat down with host Vivian Tu on Season 5 of SoFi’s Richer Lives, he came with gems that Hollywood rarely makes room for. And that’s the unfiltered truth about what it actually costs to build a career in a gatekept industry when nobody is coming to write you a check.
Which makes sense, because a truthteller is always going to do what a truthteller does.
If his name is familiar but you can’t quite place why, here’s some context. Domingo has been a working actor for over three decades, moving through theater, television, and film long before mainstream audiences knew what to do with him. Most people found him through Fear the Walking Dead or Euphoria, but it was his portrayal of civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin in Rustin that put him in a category of his own, earning him an Academy Award nomination and making him the first openly Black gay man to receive one. Then came Sing Sing and a second nomination back to back. In 2024, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
He is a Temple University dropout who moved to San Francisco at 21 with a dream and very little else. And as you can see, the accolades are recent. The work is not.
But before any of it, Domingo was a kid from West Philadelphia watching his mother work multiple jobs just to keep the lights on.
She did what mothers from the hood (and honestly, just what mothers would do period) have always done, which is figure it out with whatever they had. And her son was watching all of it. “My mother was working several jobs, she was cleaning houses as well as going back to school,” he shares. “And I think I learned from her the power of hard work. Nothing was going to be given to me.”
That understanding shaped everything that came after. His parents, both working people themselves, were clear about what they wanted for him. Not just a job, but a life built around purpose. “My parents said, we have jobs, we don’t want you to have a job. We want you to have a career,” Domingo recalls. “Find something that you want to do, and trust that that thing will take care of you.” He held onto that, even during the years when the industry gave him very little reason to.
Because the reality of pursuing art without a financial safety net is something most profiles about famous people skip right over. Domingo is not interested in skipping it.
“There were times I didn’t think I could afford my career. I just thought it didn’t make sense. I don’t come from means. Anything I had was because I earned it. Plain and simple. I could never go and ask my parents to help me because they were barely able to help themselves.”
Over 35 years of working in entertainment, he kept that survival instinct close and stayed ready for whatever the moment required. “I was a hustler. I know how to bartend. I can dance. I can act. I can cut hair. I could do anything to make a buck while I pursue my art. And sometimes I may look like I’m not on an artistic path, but maybe I’m on a path to pay my bills to take care of the artistic life that I wanted.”
That perspective has only gotten sharper with time. These days, Domingo is intentional about how the business side of his career serves the creative side. “Most of my artistic pursuits have never been about money. It’s always been about the art,” he says. “As I’ve gotten older and wiser, I know that I do need that cushion as well to be able to do that work. That’s why I’ve worked in the branding spaces or the fashion spaces, one feeds the other. So I can actually go and do the things that I really care about.”
It is a lesson that took decades to learn and one that he is clearly not keeping to himself.
The post Before The Oscars And Emmys, Colman Domingo Was Bartending And Cutting Hair To Survive Hollywood appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-12T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2264134517-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/colman-domingo-side-hustles-before-success/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T12:00:49.092Z"},{"id":"lcnca6","archiveId":"9q21p0","slug":"nike8217s-after-dark-tour-is-going-global-again-and-this-time-it8217s-bigger-than-ever","title":"Nike’s After Dark Tour Is Going Global Again, And This Time It’s Bigger Than Ever","excerpt":"When the Nike After Dark Tour kicked off in 2025, nearly one in three women on the start line had never run a race before. And yet 50,000 women across […] The post Nike’s After Dark Tour Is Going Global Again, And This Time It’s Bigger Than Ever appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Kimberly Wilson ·
The post Nike’s After Dark Tour Is Going Global Again, And This Time It’s Bigger Than Ever appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-12T10:54:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/nike-after-dark-tour-2026/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T12:00:49.092Z"},{"id":"l1ql78","archiveId":"219sks","slug":"from-8216hamnet8217-to-8216wicked8217-how-women-are-leading-sustainable-filmmaking-in-hollywood","title":"From ‘Hamnet’ to ‘Wicked’: How women are leading sustainable filmmaking in Hollywood","excerpt":"It started with crayons. When Sheila Morovati took her children out to restaurants she’d inevitably feel guilty that their new crayons, which often accompanied the kids menu, would be thrown out at the end of the meal. That led to her first foray into sustainability.","content":"
It started with crayons.
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When Sheila Morovati took her children out to restaurants she’d inevitably feel guilty that their new crayons, which often accompanied the kids menu, would be thrown out at the end of the meal. That led to her first foray into sustainability.
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In 2009, Morovati started a nonprofit that collects used restaurant crayons and redistributes them to area Head Start programs, which offer early learning for lower-income families. From there, her work expanded from an effort to put pressure on the city council to ban plastic straws and cutlery in Malibu to a nonprofit that helps the entertainment industry rethink how they portray single-use plastics on screen.
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“At a certain point in time, you can only go to city council meetings so much, you can only ban so much, but it’s like you’re swimming upstream,” said Morovati, who is a sociologist by training. “I knew that shifting culture is one of the key parts to this whole mess, and that’s what Hollywood does really well, is shape culture.”
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In 2021, she launched a campaign — Lights, Camera, Plastic? — to shift the messaging around single-use plastics, like straws, on screen. Through her work, she connects with Hollywood productions to advise on alternatives they can present on screen to promote sustainable behaviors. This could include having characters carrying reusable water bottles over single-use plastic or taking a reusable grocery bag to the store. The “swaps” she promotes have expanded to include things like showing characters on screen carpooling and walking versus driving, or eating plant-based meals over meat.
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And she’s not alone in her work. She’s part of a women-led movement to make Hollywood more sustainable off and on screen. At a time when the political willpower to take action on climate is not just dwindling, but facing a White House hostile to the concept, the entertainment industry is a place where society can still be influenced to take the climate crisis seriously and change their behaviors accordingly.
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So far, Morovati has had success with spreading her message through Universal’s GreenerLight Program , an initiative launched in 2023 to bring sustainability messages both on screen and behind the scenes and led by another woman in the business, Kimberly Burnick, the senior director of sustainable content at NBCUniversal. The project has worked on films like “Wicked” and “Hamnet,” which is nominated for eight Academy Awards this year, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress. Nature is an important backdrop to “Hamnet”, and GreenerLight focused on reducing impact on the environment during filming by using hybrid and electric vehicles to transport cast and opt for train travel over flights. The production also instituted a waste management system that included recycling and composting and donating materials like wood and costume fabric after shooting wrapped.
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Morovati says a new Universal release, “You, Me and Tuscany,” which will hit theaters in April, has utilized her campaign’s swap guide to minimize depictions of wasteful plastic on screen. The movie also featured electric vehicles over gas-guzzlers when possible. “It’s not perfect, but we do believe that what people watch, it influences their choices,” Kat Coiro, the director of the film, told Yahoo News.
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Allison Begalman, a former screenwriter and current community organizer, is one of the most prominent faces of the movement. She launched the Hollywood Climate Summit in the middle of the pandemic, after she realized there was a clear desire from people in the industry to learn more about how they could be part of the solution to the climate crisis and some of the wasteful practices in the industry.
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“We were just trying to democratize the conversation around climate,” she said. “There really just weren’t spaces where anyone who is a creative or a climate leader or nonprofit or scientist or comedian could come and just access a conversation.” So she created one. While the inaugural summit took place online during the pandemic, it still attracted 15,000 people on YouTube. “We were blown away,” she said.
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Allison Begalman launched the Hollywood Climate Summit to help film and television industry workers learn how to address some of the wasteful practices in the industry. \n (Kevin Winter/Getty Images) \n\n\n\n
“It was like, ‘cool,’ let’s build this intergenerational space to have a conversation and make it fun and flashy and sexy, but also practical,’” she said. “And that included a lot of sustainable production and carbon emissions conversations.”
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From there, the work grew. Six years later, it serves as a hub where climate communicators and entertainment industry insiders meet annually to figure out how they can work together and learn from each other.
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One successful collaboration that has resulted from the summit includes a “Grey’s Anatomy” episode, which aired last year and centered on a heat dome descending on the Pacific Northwest . In the show, the cascading impacts of the heat strains the hospital’s capacity and shows how different populations are more vulnerable to extreme heat, including a storyline featuring a pregnant woman who goes into early labor. The plot was informed by experts at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental organization that has taken the lead in working with Hollywood to spread its climate messaging and promote climate storytelling in entertainment.
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The summit has also served as a hub for other types of climate communicators, including content creators like Susie Hicks, known by her social media moniker, The Climate Chick . She makes educational content for kids and, because of the summit, has been able to connect with organizations like NRDC. Other climate influencers based in Los Angeles have found community at the summit, too, including Leah Thomas, who became famous for her book, “The Intersectional Environmentalist,” and has over 200,000 followers on Instagram. In response to the ways culture and communication are shifting online, Begalman recently rebranded her organization as the Context Collaborative, to reflect its growing mission to spread the climate story in various forms.
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For Begalman, the impact that Hollywood can have on communicating climate change is obvious. “We know what the solutions are for the climate crisis, and we could implement them, but we need a full societal shift in our understanding of this to put pressure on policymakers to act,” she said. “At this point we need to integrate through culture, because it feels like the only trusted vehicle we have left.”
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This kind of cultural messaging has worked before. During the late 1980s when the organization Mothers against Drunk Driving (MADD) gained recognition for its advocacy work, the Harvard School of Public Health worked with Hollywood to integrate messaging around drunk driving and promote the concept of designated drivers in popular TV shows like “Cheers,” “Dallas” and “L.A. Law.” The messaging was credited with helping reduce traffic fatalities in the 1990s.
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More recently, advocates have turned to Hollywood to influence how caregiving is portrayed on screen. An initiative called Re-Scripting Gender, Work, Family, and Care , aims to help Hollywood incorporate the difficulties of caregiving in scripts in an effort to boost cultural support for paid family leave.
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Outside of influencing viewers’ habits, other women, like Hillary Cohen, are working to change the habits of productions themselves. Cohen was shocked when she worked on some of her first big sets in Hollywood for TV shows like “Private Practice” and saw the enormous amount of food thrown in the garbage at the end of each day. In a city with a large homeless population, “it was so upsetting to me,” she said. So during COVID, she decided to do something about it. She co-founded a nonprofit, Your Every Day Action, to divert some of that waste to organizations who distribute it to people facing food insecurity.
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Last year, the organization successfully saved 140,000 pounds of food by picking it up from television shows like “Abbott Elementary” and taking it to area nonprofits. The redistributed food saves organizations like the Homeless Coalition an estimated $25,000 on food that it would otherwise be buying for its programs.
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Since they launched, she’s expanded to pick up other items like water bottles and hygiene products, and even furniture, particularly from commercials. “Those productions are coming in for two to three days of shooting and they’re done,” Cohen said. “So they buy all these things, and then they have to get rid of them, and there’s nowhere to store them.” Last Thanksgiving, her organization picked up six ovens and multiple carloads of kitchen appliances after a cooking promo wrapped up production. She was able to redistribute the items to low-income housing units that needed those supplies for their kitchens.
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Now she’s renovating a warehouse in Los Angeles in partnership with four other nonprofits. It will include a large walk-in freezer that will be able to store some of the food donations. But after the Los Angeles wildfires she anticipates that it could serve another purpose. “We’re set up to be a disaster relief zone in the middle of Los Angeles.”
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Both supply and demand for her work is growing. This year, California is ramping up enforcement of a law passed in 2016 that requires companies to reallocate food that would otherwise go to waste, and that has led to a surge in requests for Cohen’s services. The rising cost of living in Los Angeles is also leading to more people needing assistance. ”Food insecurity is such a prevalent issue,” she said. “It’s currently becoming such a trending thing, because so many people who’ve never experienced it before … are now suddenly knowing what food insecurity is.”
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Alongside the efforts of people like Cohen, many large film and TV studios have also shifted how they approach the topic of climate change and sustainability. Heidi Kindberg, the vice president of of sustainability at Warner Bros Discovery, said that the studio has a robust production program called HBO Green that encourages shows under the studio’s umbrella to lower their impact on the environment through reducing emissions by using battery power and renewable diesel when possible, promoting composting on set and reducing red meat consumption. Similar to Morovati’s work, the studio also promotes modeling sustainable behaviors on screen.
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That modeling could look like anything from characters driving electric cars in movies to showcasing a vegan restaurant in the background of a scene or showcasing Earth Day posters at a set designed to look like a school. One example of how sustainability messaging might make it into a script can be found in an episode of “And Just Like That…” where the characters, Charlotte and Miranda, are ordering at Chipotle. As she’s ordering, Miranda switches from a steak burrito to a plant-based meat. It’s a simple and subtle nod to normalizing the option of reducing red meat consumption.
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Cohen said that Rare, a nonprofit that works to change people’s behaviors to protect the planet, created a study based off of the scene to test how viewers responded to the dialogue. “It found that people thought that eating plant-based food was accepted and was going to become more prevalent,” she said. “One of the important findings was that it didn’t take away from the story. Nobody had a negative reaction.”
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Cohen said that overall she’s seen the message of sustainability grow throughout Hollywood in the last few years, even as outside support and awareness has ebbed and flowed. “The political climate has an impact,” she said. “But through all of that, there has been an upward momentum.”
","category":"activism","author":"Jessica Kutz","publishDate":"2026-03-12T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/women-hollywood_3.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/women-sustainable-film-production-hollywood/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T12:00:46.426Z"},{"id":"ickgb0","archiveId":"fhywpx","slug":"burkina-faso-islamist-armed-group-commits-new-atrocities","title":"Burkina Faso: Islamist Armed Group Commits New Atrocities","excerpt":"
(Paris) – An Islamist armed group has killed at least 38 civilians, abducted 9 women, and burned property in 3 separate incidents in northeastern Burkina Faso since late January 2026, Human Rights Watch said today.","content":"<p>(Paris) – An Islamist armed group has killed at least 38 civilians, abducted 9 women, and burned property in 3 separate incidents in northeastern Burkina Faso since late January 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. The atrocities by the Al Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, or JNIM) are apparent war crimes.</p> \n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Screenshot from a video shared online on February 14, 2026, showing a demolished telecommunications tower, in the center of Titao, Burkina Faso.\n © 2026 Private\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>On January 29, JNIM fighters abducted nine women near Sollé village, North region, and threatened them with rape and death, releasing them the next day. On February 14, JNIM fighters executed at least 34 civilians, burned property, and destroyed telecommunications infrastructure during an attack on a military base in Titao city, North region. On February 22, JNIM fighters executed four shopkeepers and burned their shops after attacking a gendarmerie post in Manni town, East region.</p><p>“JNIM brutality against civilians in Burkina Faso has been unrelenting,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The current wave of abuses, targeting communities with perceived ties to militias, reflects blatant contempt for the distinction between combatants and civilians.”</p><p>Human Rights Watch remotely interviewed 20 people, including 10 witnesses to the 3 attacks, journalists, civil society members, and villagers. </p><p>The attacks appear to have targeted communities perceived to support or have ties with militias that assist the military in counterinsurgency operations, the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (Volontaires pour la Défense de la Patrie, or VDPs).</p><p>Since the start of their insurgency in Burkina Faso in 2016, JNIM and other Islamist armed groups have repeatedly attacked civilians and forcibly displaced tens of thousands. The Burkinabè military junta, which took power in 2022, has also targeted civilians during counterinsurgency operations.</p><p>The women kidnapped on January 29, ages 29 to 51, had ventured outside the village of Sollé to fetch firewood. Sollé has been under JNIM siege for four years and combustible material has become scarce.</p><p>Two survivors said JNIM fighters took the women to an abandoned settlement about five kilometers from Sollé, questioned them over their alleged ties with VDPs, and threatened to rape them. “Two fighters told their commander: ‘These women said they were fetching firewood, but they could be wives of VDPs who came to spy on us,’” said a 42-year-old woman. “They wanted to treat us as war booty.” The women said that the commander intervened saying such acts would require authorization from higher leadership.</p><p>The next day, another senior JNIM commander questioned the women about the VDPs in Sollè, including their numbers and positions. A third commander finally authorized their release, but ordered the women to wear veils and warned they would be killed if caught again.</p><p>In February, JNIM carried out a large-scale, coordinated campaign against government forces and allied militias across the central Sahel and into Benin, with Burkina Faso as the main focus. The nongovernmental group Armed Conflict Location and Event Data reported that JNIM’s offensive in Burkina Faso included more than 30 attacks with over 120 soldiers, forest guards, and militia members killed.</p><p>On February 14, shortly before 7 a.m., hundreds of JNIM fighters entered Titao on motorbikes and pickup trucks. Witnesses said that some attacked the military base, while others moved through the market firing at civilians and burning shops, destroyed telecommunications infrastructure, and blocked the city’s exits.</p><p>Residents said that about 200 soldiers from the Rapid Intervention Battallion 21 (Bataillons d’Intervention Rapide 21, or BIR 21) which is involved in counterinsurgency operations, and several hundred militia members are based in Titao.</p><p>“I heard the jihadists saying in Mooré language: ‘Didn’t we warn you not to join the VDPs?’” said a 39-year-old man. “‘We are here and we have accessed the heart of Titao!”</p><p>Witnesses said JNIM fighters opened fire on all men they found at the market area, but spared women and children. “I hid behind a wall, as men who attempted to run were gunned down before my eyes,” a 37-year-old farmer said. “I lost my uncle – I found his body with his face disfigured from multiple bullet wounds.”</p><p>A 37-year-old trader said that he was at the market when he heard gunfire. “I jumped off a wall while the jihadists were shooting behind me,” he said. “I saw my friend and two other men falling under the fire, while I got shot in the leg.”</p><p>Human Rights Watch reviewed a list compiled by witnesses of 27 victims, ages 25 to 50. International media reported that 7 Ghanian nationals also died in the attack. Ghana’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that on February 14 saying, “a truck carrying tomato traders from Ghana … was caught in a terrorist attack in Titao.” </p><p>The attack also resulted in significant infrastructure damage. Human Rights Watch geolocated a video shared online on February 14, showing a demolished telecommunications tower, in the center of Titao. Human Rights Watch also analyzed satellite imagery from February 14 captured at 11:32 a.m. showing burn marks in the Titao market area and the collapsed telecommunications tower.</p><p>“I noticed many men in military uniform near the telecommunications tower, and I thought they were our soldiers until they shouted ‘Allah Akbar’ and began shooting,” said a 40-year-old farmer who hid in his home. “When they left, I saw 15 shops, 3 trucks and 3 buses burned, and the tower down.” Witnesses said some of the shops burned belonged to militia members. </p><p>On February 15, Burkina Faso’s state broadcaster reported that the military carried out airstrikes in response to the attack in Titao, with BIR21 soldiers responding on the ground. A week later, Security Minister Mahamadou Sana visited Titao and said authorities were supporting residents with medical supplies and humanitarian aid.</p><p>A 43-year-old trader said that on February 22 at about 1 p.m., fighters surrounded the market in Manni, trapping everyone inside. As gunfire erupted at close range, he hid in his shop. “When the attack was over, we discovered the bodies of our friends, each in front of his burned shop with bullet wounds in the heads and chests,” he said. “We covered the bodies with cloth and waited until the night to bury them to the cemetery in four different graves.”</p><p>JNIM fighters executed four shopkeepers and burned their stores and attacked the gendarmerie and militia positions. “I heard a jihadist saying over the walkie-talkie, in the Gourmantché language: ‘Do what we were asked to do quickly and we will withdraw fast,’” a 43-year-old nurse said. “A few seconds later, gunshots rang out towards the market.”</p><p>Witnesses said JNIM targeted the four men, ages 47 to 61, because their sons had joined the VDPs.</p><p>In statements on February 14 and 26, JNIM claimed responsibility for the Titao and Manni attacks, but provided no further information.</p><p>All parties to the armed conflict in Burkina Faso are bound by international humanitarian law, notably Common Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and customary laws of war. The laws of war prohibit summary executions, attacks on civilians and civilian property, rape and other sexual violence, and looting, among other violations. Serious violations of international humanitarian law committed with criminal intent are war crimes.</p><p>“Burkinabé authorities have an obligation to impartially investigate and appropriately prosecute those implicated in war crimes,” Allegrozzi said. “They should seek appropriate international and regional support for this effort.”</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-12T04:01:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603afr_burkinafaso_telecommunicationstower.jpeg?h=bac6df12&itok=RA4ZeNcl","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/12/burkina-faso-islamist-armed-group-commits-new-atrocities","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T06:00:44.684Z"},{"id":"79i6xx","archiveId":"moi0oa","slug":"iraq-prominent-womens-rights-activist-assassinated","title":"Iraq: Prominent Women’s Rights Activist Assassinated","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Yanar Mohammed, founder of the Women's Freedom Organization in Iraq, speaks to reporters while holding a newspaper copy of Iraq's new constitution, Baghdad, July 28, 2005. © 2025 Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty Images
(Beirut) – A prominent Iraqi women’s rights activist was gunned down...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Yanar Mohammed, founder of the Women's Freedom Organization in Iraq, speaks to reporters while holding a newspaper copy of Iraq's new constitution, Baghdad, July 28, 2005.\n © 2025 Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty Images\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>(Beirut) – A prominent Iraqi women’s rights activist was gunned down outside her Baghdad home by two men on motorcycles on March 2, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. </p><p>Yanar Mohammed, 65, co-founded the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq in 2003. She opened Iraq’s first women’s shelters that same year, building a network that eventually spanned multiple cities and provided refuge for more than 1,300 women fleeing honor killings, domestic violence, and trafficking, the organization said. She also published the feminist newspaper Al-Mousawat (Equality) and ran classes for women’s rights activists. She was awarded the Gruber Foundation Women’s Rights Prize in 2008 and Norway’s Rafto Prize in 2016 and was listed among BBC’s 100 Women in 2018.</p><p>“Yanar Mohammed was formidable, indefatigable, and an inspiring leader for women’s rights in Iraq,” said Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Her efforts improved the lives of countless women, and her loss is being felt deeply. Yanar Mohammed deserves justice, and the Iraqi government is responsible for delivering it.” </p><p>Mohammed was transferred to a hospital but died of her injuries. No group has claimed responsibility for her assassination. Mohammed’s killing is the latest in a series of high-profile killings of political activists and human rights defenders in Iraq over the past decade. The authorities should make every effort to identify those responsible and hold them accountable, Human Rights Watch said. </p><p>In a statement, her organization said: “We strongly condemn this cowardly terrorist crime and consider it a direct targeting of feminist struggle and the values of freedom and equality,” and called on the authorities to “immediately reveal the perpetrators and the parties behind them and ensure their accountability under the law.”</p><p>Civic space in Iraq, particularly for women’s rights activists, has been increasingly under threat over recent years. Women’s rights groups faced heightened threats and backlash as a result of organizing to fight the passage of an abusive amendment to the country’s Personal Status Law, which ultimately came into force in January 2025. </p><p>Iraqi authorities have consistently failed to deliver justice for the families of assassinated human rights defenders and political activists over the past decade, Human Rights Watch said. Instead, they have allowed a culture of impunity for serious abuses against activists to fester. Assassinations like Mohammed’s are the expected, and entirely preventable, outcome of this impunity, Human Rights Watch said.</p><p>“Yanar’s assassins don’t understand that killing her does not kill the pursuit of justice, equality, and empowerment that she embodied,” Sanbar sad. “Her legacy will live on in the women who carry forward her work.” </p>","category":"safety","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-12T04:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603mena_iraq_Yanar_Mohammed.jpg?h=1cd874c6&itok=QGG3nyK9","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/12/iraq-prominent-womens-rights-activist-assassinated","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T06:00:44.684Z"},{"id":"ud9app","archiveId":"truftr","slug":"jada-pinkett-smith-returning-to-hillman-college-in-netflixs-a-different-world","title":"Jada Pinkett Smith Returning To Hillman College In Netflix’s ‘A Different World’","excerpt":"A Different World is welcoming another familiar face back to the fold. Jada Pinkett Smith has confirmed she will reprise her role as Lena James in the upcoming Netflix series, […] The post Jada Pinkett Smith Returning To Hillman College In Netflix’s ‘A Different World’ appeared first on Essence .","content":"Okla Jones ·Updated March 11, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready…
A Different World is welcoming another familiar face back to the fold. Jada Pinkett Smith has confirmed she will reprise her role as Lena James in the upcoming Netflix series, sending longtime fans of the Hillman universe into celebration.
Pinkett Smith revealed the news with a simple Instagram post on March 11, sharing a photo taken outside a trailer bearing her character’s name. “She’s back,” she wrote in the caption. The actress joined the original series during its later seasons, portraying Lena, the confident, outspoken student from Baltimore who brought a different energy to the fictional HBCU. Lena also became involved in storylines that included her job at “The Pit” and a relationship with Hillman basketball player Dorian Heywood (Bumper Robinson). The character’s past occasionally followed her to campus, including a memorable appearance from her former boyfriend Piccolo, played by the late Tupac Shakur .
Another icon is returning to Hillman. Jada Pinkett-Smith is joining the cast of the A Different World Sequel. pic.twitter.com/rjNYerqPRq
— Strong Black Lead (@strongblacklead)
March 12, 2026 Her return adds another bridge between the original show and its modern continuation. The new series shifts focus to Deborah Wayne, played by Maleah Joi Moon, the youngest daughter of Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert-Wayne. As Deborah begins her freshman year at Hillman, she must establish her own identity while navigating the legacy created by her parents.
Pinkett Smith joins a growing list of returning cast members tied to the original series. Kadeem Hardison and Jasmine Guy are set to return as Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert-Wayne, alongside Darryl M. Bell, Cree Summer, and Charnele Brown. Jenifer Lewis will also appear in the series.
The incoming freshman for this new edition of A Different World include Alijah Kai as Rashida, Chibuikem Uche as Kojo, Cornell Young IV as Shaquille, Jordan Aaron Hall as Amir, Kennedi Reece as Hazel, Chibuikem Uche as Kojo, Vincent Jamal Hooper as Ellington, Elijah J. Roberts as Jalen, Renee Harrison as Candace, and Famecia Ward as Nellie Gaines.
The sequel series continues the story of Hillman with a new generation of students while maintaining ties to the characters that made the original show a cultural touchstone. With production underway and more appearances still expected, the beloved college is once again preparing to open its doors.
TOPICS:
A Different World Jada Pinkett Smith Netflix The post Jada Pinkett Smith Returning To Hillman College In Netflix’s ‘A Different World’ appeared first on Essence .
","category":"education","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-03-12T03:20:26.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/jada-pinkett-smith-returns-to-a-different-world/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T06:00:45.237Z"},{"id":"y0ugov","archiveId":"37ep6a","slug":"australias-cynical-and-cruel-bill-to-suspend-temporary-visas","title":"Australia’s Cynical and Cruel Bill to Suspend Temporary Visas","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke (right) addresses the chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, January 20, 2026. © 2026 Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images
This week, the Australian government introduced a new bill, that if passed, will prevent people from conflict...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke (right) addresses the chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, January 20, 2026.\n © 2026 Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>This week, the Australian government introduced a new bill, that if passed, will prevent people from conflict and crisis-affected countries from visiting Australia. </p><p>Under the Migration Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Bill 2026, the minister for home affairs can issue an “arrival control determination” that would stop people from specified regions from entering Australia on temporary travel visas such as tourist, student, or sporting visas. Once issued, an “arrival control determination” automatically freezes any temporary visa held by people within the designated group, preventing them from entering the country. This determination can be made at any time before a visa holder arrives in Australia, including while they are in transit through a third country. </p><p>The government’s explanatory materials state that people travelling legally to Australia on temporary visas could face mandatory detention and deportation upon arrival if a determination is issued while they are in transit. </p><p>While there are exemptions for people holding certain protection or humanitarian visas, the measures preclude asylum seekers who might initially enter countries on other types of visas. Australia has already blocked various routes to asylum including policies that subject people arriving by boat to offshore detention. Legal and safe pathways are already very limited. </p><p>The bill, which is expected to pass parliament this week, was introduced without consultation with Australia’s refugee and migration sector and continues a pattern of the government passing anti-migration legislation that grants the home affairs minister expanded authority with minimal scrutiny. </p><p>While no country is specifically mentioned in the bill, Assistant Citizenship Minister Julian Hill, when introducing the legislation, pointed to instability in the Middle East, saying the “current situation” showed how quickly circumstances could change and affect whether temporary visa holders would leave Australia at the end of their stay. Home Affairs officials have confirmed there are currently 61,000 people from Middle East countries with temporary travel visas. </p><p>The same day the draft legislation was announced, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke drew global attention when he granted asylum protections to members of the Iranian women's national football team. Instead of introducing policies that place people affected by armed conflict at even greater risk, Australia should expand safe and legal pathways for everyone in need of protection. <br> </p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-11T23:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603asia_australia_tony_burke.jpg?h=6f8e2d4a&itok=9RbvTdzD","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/12/australias-cynical-and-cruel-bill-to-suspend-temporary-visas-0","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T00:00:45.255Z"},{"id":"k32a54","archiveId":"8vvjyh","slug":"north-korean-in-china-who-saved-son-faces-repatriation","title":"North Korean in China Who Saved Son Faces Repatriation","excerpt":"Click to expand Image North Korean soldiers guard the bridge at the China-North Korea border in Tumen, Jilin province, July 14, 2024. © 2024 CFOTO/Sipa USA via Reuters
Imagine living in North Korea.","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n North Korean soldiers guard the bridge at the China-North Korea border in Tumen, Jilin province, July 14, 2024.\n © 2024 CFOTO/Sipa USA via Reuters \n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Imagine living in North Korea. Then imagine your mother selling herself into a forced marriage in China to pay for your escape. This is what happened to Kim Geum Sung.</p><p>In 2019, the teenager arrived in South Korea alone. His mother remained in China so that her son might have a better life.For more than a year, Geum Sung heard nothing from her or how she was doing. He moved into a group home in Seoul run by Kim Tae Hoon, who has spent 20 years caring for North Korean orphans.</p><p>When Geum Sung’s mother was finally able to contact him through a middleman, she seemed content. She spoke kindly of the man she lived with, and for the first time, mother and son could talk freely. But like many North Korean women in China, she was living without legal status and under local police surveillance and control.</p><p>But now her situation has taken a perilous turn for the worse. Chinese authorities detained her and she may be facing imminent forced return to North Korea. Geum Sung is making a simple plea: release his mother, who sacrificed everything for him.</p><p>Over a year ago, Chinese authorities detained Geum Sung’s mother as she was trying to go to South Korea. If returned to North Korea, she could face torture, forced labor, sexual violence, and enforced disappearance. In 2014, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry’s report on North Korea found that China's cooperation in forced returns could amount to aiding and abetting in crimes against humanity.</p><p>China is party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, and the 1984 Convention Against Torture. Both prohibit forcibly returning anyone to where they face a real risk of persecution or torture. Yet the government routinely violates this obligation. Between January 2024 and September 2025, at least 406 North Koreans have been forcibly returned, bringing the total to at least 1,076 since 2020.</p><p>The Chinese government should immediately stop forced returns and provide asylum to North Korean refugees or permit them safe passage to a third country.</p><p>\"I just want to ask the world to help me save my mother,\" Geum Sung says.</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-11T22:50:29.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603asia_north_korea_border.JPG?h=ac778ff2&itok=stAf07-I","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/11/north-korean-in-china-who-saved-son-faces-repatriation","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T00:00:45.255Z"},{"id":"qje9yt","archiveId":"mknuqu","slug":"report-confirms-columbia-ignored-decades-of-doctors-sexual-abuse","title":"Report Confirms Columbia Ignored Decades of Doctor’s Sexual Abuse","excerpt":"The post Report Confirms Columbia Ignored Decades of Doctor’s Sexual Abuse appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"
Decades after patients first warned Columbia University that one of its doctors sexually abused them, some university administrators have finally faced consequences.
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On Tuesday, Columbia released a long-awaited report that details a culture of silence that allowed OB-GYN Robert Hadden to abuse more than 1,000 patients during his nearly 25-year career at Columbia.
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In unveiling the report, the university also announced that two long-time administrators are leaving their positions.
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Dr. Mary D’Alton, chair of the OB-GYN department and Hadden’s former boss, has stepped down. D’Alton will maintain her clinical practice.
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Dr. Lee Goldman, the former dean of the medical school, will retire. The two were administrators above Hadden. They were also among those cc’d on a 2012 letter that let Hadden continue seeing patients even after he was arrested when one woman reported he’d assaulted her.
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Yesterday’s report was prompted by a ProPublica investigation that revealed how Columbia had dismissed women and ultimately protected a predator . Amid outrage in the wake of the 2023 story, Columbia announced it would set up a $100 million fund for survivors and initiate an independent review .
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More than two years after the review was announced, the 156-page report was published days after the New York attorney general said it was investigating Columbia’s response to the Hadden case.
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The report outlines how more than a dozen patients’ complaints had gone nowhere, in part because of the lack of clear reporting procedures. The report also found a “hierarchal institutional culture” in which physicians occupied an “exalted” or “god-like” status that made it difficult for staff to report concerns.
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One patient, Eva Santos Veloz, was 18 years old when she saw Hadden for an emergency delivery in 2008. At the time, she and her mother reported that Hadden had touched her in ways that made her uncomfortable, sometimes without gloves. Nothing happened after she filed the complaint. At the time, she said, she came to believe she was making the whole thing up because no one seemed to believe her.
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Santos said that while the report confirms that she was right all along, it doesn’t tell her anything new. “The only peace it gives me is that they are publicly saying, ‘We knew about this and we did nothing,’” she said.
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The report also lists five different complaints that were reported to leadership but resulted in no action against Hadden. Investigators note that the university’s record-keeping practices were insufficient and that higher-ups failed to conduct a full investigation into his misconduct.
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\nAndrew Toth/Getty Images Patrick McMullan/Getty Images As a result of the report, both Dr. Mary D’Alton, first image, chair of the OB-GYN department, and Dr. Lee Goldman, former dean of the medical school, are leaving their administrative positions at the school. \n\n\n\n
In an internal email sent Tuesday to the OB-GYN department and obtained by ProPublica, D’Alton announced that she will remain on the faculty “to continue our department’s work of advancing women’s health.”
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“I cannot adequately express the sorrow that I feel for the suffering Robert Hadden inflicted on his patients,” D’Alton wrote in the email. “That these acts were committed by a doctor in our department, including while I was chair, pains me deeply and always will.”
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A similar statement posted to the Columbia website does not note her continued employment.
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D’Alton did not respond to a request for comment.
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In a statement, Goldman said his “heart breaks for the victims of Robert Hadden.”
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He continued: “Throughout my tenure we focused on prioritizing a culture of ethics and patient safety at the medical school, and to reassess and enhance its policies and procedures on an ongoing basis.”
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The report also confirms that executives at the top of the organizations — including former Columbia President Lee Bollinger, as well as one of the trustees at both Columbia and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, the Columbia-affiliated system where Hadden was an attending physician — had been alerted to Hadden’s arrest the evening it occurred.
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Bollinger, who retired from his post in the summer of 2023, did not respond to a request for comment.
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A letter accompanying the report’s release said, “The University remains steadfast in our commitment to our ongoing responsibilities. We must continue to operate with transparency and confront systemic failures when they occur.” Columbia did not provide an additional comment.
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In a statement , a group of survivors, including Marissa Hoechstetter and Evelyn Yang, criticized the report for failing to examine what happened in the years after Hadden left Columbia — including the university’s documented efforts to destroy evidence , fight former patients in court and discredit those survivors.
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The statement also points out that Claire Shipman, the current acting president of the university and who signed Tuesday’s announcement, has been on the board of trustees since 2013, amid the fallout from the Hadden case. She did not respond to a request for comment.
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“What Columbia has released today offers the bare minimum accountability for failures that
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should have been addressed years ago,” the survivors’ statement said. “It confirms the systemic breakdown that allowed Hadden to operate. But it stops short of examining the cover-up culture that survivors experienced firsthand once the abuse came to light.”
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The deadline to submit a claim for compensation to Columbia’s survivor fund , which was established for former patients who do not want to file a lawsuit, was extended to June 15.
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The post Report Confirms Columbia Ignored Decades of Doctor’s Sexual Abuse appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Bianca Fortis","publishDate":"2026-03-11T20:05:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-875114902-cropped_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=752","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/columbia-university-robert-hadden-obgyn-sexual-abuse-report","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T00:00:42.798Z"},{"id":"vn02v4","archiveId":"ujtu9s","slug":"teyana-taylors-hairstylist-edith-donaldson-wheeler-shares-her-top-tips","title":"Teyana Taylor’s Hairstylist Edith Donaldson-Wheeler Shares Her Top Tips","excerpt":"“In The Chair” spotlights the incredible hairstylists and makeup artists in our community who are giving us major inspiration. Each week, they discuss their personal beauty and career journeys, what […] The post Teyana Taylor’s Hairstylist Edith Donaldson-Wheeler Shares Her Top Tips appeared first o...","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 11, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
“In The Chair” spotlights the incredible hairstylists and makeup artists in our community who are giving us major inspiration. Each week, they discuss their personal beauty and career journeys, what they’ve learned from their clients, and their top glam tips.
“Hair was never the plan,” celebrity hairstylist Edith Donaldson tells ESSENCE. Although she grew up in the salon, watching and learning to cut from her older sister Jazzie who was a hairstylist, “I was in love with fashion.” But, one day, Donaldson had somewhere to go and got tired of waiting to get in the chair. That’s when her plan changed.
“Doing my own hair led me straight into my future,” Donaldson says. “I was doing everybody’s hair in my parent’s basement.” From then on, her mother gave her a choice to go to college, beauty school, or get a job. So, she chose beauty school. More than just something she did, she says hair was about community, creativity, and connection long before it was a career.
“I understood that hair wasn’t just about looking good, it was about how people felt when they walked away from the chair.” From cutting and structure, to face shape and discipline, every client was an opportunity to learn something new. Then, she got a call. It was 10 o’clock at night and her friend who worked at a radio station wouldn’t tell her who. So, out of curiosity, she went. “I walked into the hotel room… and it was Jazmine Sullivan.”
“I realized in that moment I had been preparing long before the opportunity ever showed up,” she says. “That experience taught me something I still live by today. Your talent may open the door, but professionalism is what keeps you in the room.” Since then, her work has been seen on red carpets, like the SAG, BAFTA, and NAACP awards, in magazines like the cover of Time, and on celebrities including Monica, Gabrielle Union, and for the past 10 years, Teyana Taylor.
Now, Donaldson shares her time between being a mother, wife, educator, celebrity stylist, and even the owner of a salon in Cleveland, Bangs Salon. “I love witnessing target=\"_blank\"> View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Edith Donaldson-Wheeler (@choppedbyedith)
Her Earliest Hair Memory:
My earliest memory is doing hair for family and friends. I wasn’t pressing, cutting, styling, experimenting and micro waving ponytails. Before I even understood it could be a profession. I realized early on that I loved target=\"_blank\"> View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Edith Donaldson-Wheeler (@choppedbyedith)
Her Favorite Hairtarget=\"_blank\"> View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Celeb MUA
A Hair Myth She’d Like to Debunk:
That growth comes from products alone. Growth starts with scalp health, proper trims, maintenance, and patience. There’s no shortcut to healthy hair.
A Lesson She’s Learned From Her Clients:
I’ve learned resilience. I’ve watched women sit in my chair during some of the hardest seasons of their lives and still choose themselves. That kind of strength stays with you.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Celeb MUA
How She Affirms Her Clients:
I remind them that confidence isn’t about perfection, it’s about ownership. When you own who you are, everything else falls into place. Be the best version of you!
The Deeper Meaning Behind Her Work:
The chair is a sacred space. Women come in carrying so much, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Sometimes hair is the entry point, but healing often happens along the way. We connect and heal each other.
TOPICS:
celebrity hairstylist Edith Donaldson In The Chair With Teyana Taylor The post Teyana Taylor’s Hairstylist Edith Donaldson-Wheeler Shares Her Top Tips appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-11T19:30:17.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/in-the-chair-with-edith-donaldson-teyana-taylor-hairstylist/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T00:00:45.746Z"},{"id":"wdggf9","archiveId":"wyr2rf","slug":"essence-black-women-in-hollywood-honoree-ruth-e-carter8217s-legacy","title":"ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Honoree Ruth E. Carter’s Legacy","excerpt":"Celebrate Ruth E. Carter’s achievements as a 2026 Black Women in Hollywood Honoree. The 2026 awards show is available to stream: Watch Here Style Files offers an in-depth exploration of […] The post ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Honoree Ruth E. Carter’s Legacy appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Mecca Pryor ·
The post ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Honoree Ruth E. Carter’s Legacy appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Mecca Pryor","publishDate":"2026-03-11T18:07:59.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/style-files-essence-bwih-honoree-ruth-e-carters-legacy/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T00:00:45.746Z"},{"id":"ntixga","archiveId":"ycjova","slug":"when-voting-rights-are-threatened-women-show-up","title":"When voting rights are threatened, women show up","excerpt":"This column first appeared in The Amendment, a newsletter by Errin Haines, The 19th’s editor-at-large. Subscribe today to get early access to her analysis. When the president and congressional Republicans proposed the SAVE America Act, they argued the legislation was meant to strengthen voter protec...","content":"
This column first appeared in The Amendment, a newsletter by Errin Haines, The 19th’s editor-at-large. Subscribe today to get early access to her analysi s.
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When the president and congressional Republicans proposed the SAVE America Act, they argued the legislation was meant to strengthen voter protections.
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The bill requires proof of citizenship — such as a passport or birth certificate — to register to vote, despite the fact that it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal or state elections.
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The SAVE America Act passed in the House last month but currently lacks the votes to pass in the Senate. In a Truth Social post Sunday, President Donald Trump threatened to refuse to sign any other legislation until the SAVE America Act is passed.
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For months, the bill has evoked a visceral reaction from many American women who see the bill as a threat to their right to vote. Voting rights activists and advocates point out that it could disenfranchise millions of them — particularly married women, who could have a harder time registering to vote if they changed their names.
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For them, the SAVE America Act — an earlier version was called just the SAVE Act — feels like a personal attack, said Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, president of the nonprofit, grassroots organization Moms Rising, which focuses on policies benefiting women and families.
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“We’re hearing from our members in every state in the nation that they are incredibly insulted by and upset about the SAVE Act,” Rowe-Finkbeiner said, adding that nearly 50,000 of the organization’s members are calling their senators to urge them to vote against the bill, marking “record high action rates.”
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Government workers and civil servants participate in a protest in front of the Capitol building in Washington D.C. on February 17, 2025. \n (DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images) \n\n\n\n
“They’re standing up for their right to vote,” she added. “Moms across the country see the SAVE Act specifically as an attack on women and moms, because the people who change their names the most over their lifetimes are moms as they get married.”
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Republicans say the proposed law shouldn’t impact voting access and is aimed at making sure only American citizens are casting ballots and protecting election integrity. They say it’s meant to stop voter fraud — but there’s no indication that exists in any election-altering way.
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If the SAVE America Act passes, it would add bureaucratic hurdles for people to register to vote. More than 21 million people do not have the necessary documents readily available, one study shows. People of color are also less likely to have the documentary proof of citizenship the law would require.
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What makes the reaction to the bill notable is how personal it feels. Millions of women suddenly have seen themselves in a policy — and the effect it could have on their lives. And when a group of people can picture their own voting rights being affected, they can be moved to act.
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Voting is the most direct way many Americans experience democracy. It is part of our national identity and an important way that many people think about what it means to belong to a community and a country.
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Threats to ballot access make democracy personal — not just theoretical. Voting can become a kitchen-table priority.
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“Voters are self-interested,” said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the Center for Women and Politics. “Economics and dinner table issues are the most important thing to people because they’re asking, ‘Did this person or party in power make it easier or harder for me to pay my bills and take care of my family?’”
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Dittmar likened it to the difference between an abstract conversation about the national gross domestic product versus the price of eggs. For voters, “when something affects my life and my rights, I’m going to be even more engaged and alert to those issues.”
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The threat to voting rights and both the perceived and real threats to women’s ability to fully participate in democracy and society have translated into increased political participation in recent years.
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In 2017, the Women’s March drew record protests across the country in response to Trump’s first election.
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In 2020, attempts to curtail mail-in and dropbox voting during a global pandemic helped motivate voters who saw the move as an effort at voter suppression.
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The 2022 Supreme Court decision that ended federal protections for abortion sent women to the polls in record numbers during the midterms as a way to express their outrage.
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For historically marginalized groups, attempts to tighten voting rules can be seen as an attempt to rig the game. That feels not just un-American, but taps into our innate sense of unfairness and inequality at a human level. The act of voting itself can become as important as the choice of who to vote for — a form of civic self-defense.
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It’s also a useful tool for organizers, a way to bring in people who may not have cared as much about voting — until they understand their right could be taken away.
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“It activates and motivates the mobilizers,” said Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown. “People who are not paying attention to voting, it gets their attention. It takes us from 10 to 1,000.”
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Black voters, who have been historically disenfranchised, understand policies like voter ID laws as oppression, Brown said.
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While such laws are popular with many Americans, Black Americans are disproportionately impacted by them because they may lack a birth certificate or the ability to afford the steps to obtain identification. These laws are often passed after elections where there is increased participation among Black voters in particular.
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“Whether it’s you trying to nullify my voice, you trying to deny me my agency, to have choice over my family and my conditions, you’re trying to silence what I want to say,” said Brown. “Starting from the democracy frame is in that America, patriotic paradigm … that’s real for a lot of folks, but our attachment isn’t based on us trying to hold up America. Our attachment is, ‘You’re oppressing me, you’re saying I don’t have a choice, you’re denying my humanity.’ It motivates us differently.”
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It’s a feeling middle- and upper-class married White women may be confronting for the first time because of the SAVE America Act, Dittmar pointed out.
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“So many of these policies normally target communities of color and their access,” Dittmar said. “You want them to see how this is a direct threat. If they are not persuaded by an argument for everyone, you have to make a connection to their own lives. Here in the SAVE Act, you can tell a story that is also about gender and women. … You can bring them into a conversation that, for some of these women, has been otherized.”
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For most of our country’s history, women, enslaved Black people and others have echoed the language of the American Revolution to argue for their access to democracy.
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With that push, much of America’s history has been about the expansion of rights, including voting rights.
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Even so, voting rights remain a partisan, politicized and polarizing issue. But voters are not divided on whether their vote should count. Attempts to keep them from the ballot box often have the opposite effect, with people insisting to be heard. It is perhaps the oldest reflex in American democratic life.
","category":"politics","author":"Errin Haines","publishDate":"2026-03-11T18:01:43.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/amendment_voting_2.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/women-voting-rights-threatened-save-america-act/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-12T00:00:42.737Z"},{"id":"1x5gsu","archiveId":"yaus38","slug":"resume-rundown-joy-sunday","title":"Resume Rundown: Joy Sunday","excerpt":"Catch the ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood award show on March 13th. The 2026 awards show is available to stream: Watch Here For Joy Sunday, life has always been a mixture of […] The post Resume Rundown: Joy Sunday appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Danielle Wright ·
The post Resume Rundown: Joy Sunday appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Danielle Wright","publishDate":"2026-03-11T17:37:02.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/resume-rundown-joy-sunday/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T18:01:06.546Z"},{"id":"hh8x7t","archiveId":"a3pm2x","slug":"javicia-leslie-on-high-potential-growth-as-an-actress-and-representation-in-hollywood","title":"Javicia Leslie On ‘High Potential,’ Growth As An Actress, And Representation In Hollywood","excerpt":"Over the years, Javicia Leslie has continued to expand her presence across television and film. On ABC’s High Potential, she plays Detective Daphne Forrester, a determined investigator whose confidence helped […] The post Javicia Leslie On ‘High Potential,’ Growth As An Actress, And Representation I...","content":"
By
Okla Jones ·
Updated March 11, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Over the years, Javicia Leslie has continued to expand her presence across television and film. On ABC’s High Potential, she plays Detective Daphne Forrester, a determined investigator whose confidence helped her become a standout on the show’s investigative team. The role reflects Leslie’s growing reputation as an actress willing to push her craft forward.
When Leslie first read for Daphne, the character’s personality immediately stood out. “Our first audition, she was sassy,” she recalled. “She had a little bit of a smart ass-ness to her, but in the most polite way, but just in a way of knowing who she is.” Forrester’s sense of self, she said, was central to the appeal. “I really enjoyed that. I love that. I could tell she would be highly intelligent, highly knowing as well. And I also could feel that she would have a sense of knowing her own power.”
Throughout High Potential ’s current run, Daphne evolves from a supporting presence into a detective with increasing responsibility. Season 2’s most recent episode placed the character at the center of an investigation, giving her the chance to lead a case on her own, where Daphne works to uncover who attempted to kill a key witness, navigating complicated dynamics within the department while relying on help from the team around her. The show’s recent renewal for another season adds an additional layer for the character. Leslie says the opportunity to continue exploring Daphne’s story intrigues her. “Very excited,” she said about the renewal. “I’m very excited to keep going deeper.”
The role also represents a shift from the superhero universe she occupied in Batwoman , where Leslie made waves portraying Ryan Wilder, a character created specifically for the series after the departure of the original lead. While her previous experience remains significant, Leslie approached High Potential with a different mindset.
“I think that being a police detective in general, is a world I’ve never played in,” she explained. “To be able to put down one hat and put on a totally different hat and immerse myself in that world, that has been a great journey.”
Much of Leslie’s perspective on career and identity traces back to her upbringing and education. Born in Germany to a military family and raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland, she later attended the prestigious Hampton University . The HBCU experience, she says, shaped how she understands success and community.
“There is this pride that I have that’s not even intentional about being Black, and being in Black environments, and being around Black success,” she said. Leslie notes that growing up surrounded by Black professionals and leaders made those achievements feel normal rather than exceptional. “It’s not something that I’m like, ‘oh my God, look.’ For me, it feels normal.”
Her outlook on life also informs how she views representation within the industry. Leslie stresses the importance of support systems on set, especially for actors of color, and emphasizes that authentic representation requires more than casting decisions; it requires attention to every department that contributes to the finished product. “In order to hire someone that doesn’t look like you, you need to make sure their voice is supported in every other element,” she said.
For Leslie, representation does not stop at casting. The environment around an actor matters just as much as the role itself, from the people writing the scripts to the teams responsible for production. When those things aren’t considered, she says, the experience can quickly become isolating; all of which have shaped how she evaluates the projects she joins and the spaces she works in.
“Innately, Black women’s skin textures are different,” the actress said. “The way our bodies are shaped, is different. So these things need to be comfortably addressed in those areas. I can say that I don’t have that problem at High Potential, but in my journey, it has been a problem because it makes you feel very insecure when someone else’s experience goes easy, but yours is a bit more complicated.”
“I think that we were moving towards fixing that, but with the disillusionment of DEI and things like that, we’re going backwards where [these issues] haven’t been important,” she continued. “I’m very blessed to be on a show where it is very important. You walk into our hair and makeup trailer and it looks like the cast, and that’s the type of reflection you need to have if you’re going to hire people of color.”
TOPICS:
abc Javicia Leslie The post Javicia Leslie On ‘High Potential,’ Growth As An Actress, And Representation In Hollywood appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-03-11T15:00:51.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/javicia-leslie-high-potential-season-2/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T18:01:06.546Z"},{"id":"jpjpad","archiveId":"6s7nol","slug":"are-we-teaching-our-daughters-to-dream","title":"Are We Teaching Our Daughters to Dream?","excerpt":"Dreaming is the first language our daughters speak—the one the world keeps trying to silence. The first time my daughter auditioned for The Nutcracker, she told me she planned to […] The post Are We Teaching Our Daughters to Dream? appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Dr. Rachel R. Hardeman ·
Updated March 11, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Dreaming is the first language our daughters speak—the one the world keeps trying to silence.
The first time my daughter auditioned for The Nutcracker, she told me she planned to dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy. This wasn’t just any Nutcracker—it was the professional production staged by the premier dance theater in our state. At 7 years old, her role would most likely be that of a mouse or a toy soldier, not the Sugar Plum Fairy, a role reserved for a professional prima ballerina—the very top of the pyramid.
She said it matter-of-factly, as if she already had the blueprint sketched in her mind. I remember smiling—half in wonder, half in worry.
“Baby, that’s incredible,” I told her. And then I heard myself ask the question adults always ask: “But how would that work?”
I didn’t want to dim her light. I loved her audacity. But I also felt the pull to manage expectations; to prepare her for disappointment before the world could deliver it. Even as the words left my mouth, I felt the quiet betrayal of them—the way practicality can arrive dressed as protection. The question rose in my throat before I could stop it—an inherited instinct I recognized even as I resisted it.
I come from a long line of women who were not always granted the luxury of dreaming. For them, practicality was protection—the armor so many Black women learn to wear. My grandmother’s prayers were pragmatic: keep food on the table, keep the children safe, keep the men working. But even within that pragmatism, she found room for what I call measured dreaming—visions of better that fit within the margins of her reality. A Saturday school on Black history for the neighborhood kids. A garden that turned scarcity into abundance. Quiet revolutions disguised as daily life.
My mother learned that practice too—measured dreaming—that tender space where the practical brushes up against the radical. She believed in possibility, but she also knew the cost of a world unprepared for our ambition. So she dreamed carefully, deliberately, mapping visions that could take root within the boundaries of safety. It wasn’t a limitation; it was love. It was survival. The reflex I feel when I want to shield my daughter’s dreams from disappointment, I recognize in her. She wasn’t dimming the light—she was protecting its flame.
My grandmother’s survival, and my mother’s, made my life possible. And still, I sometimes wonder what beauty never got to bloom because they were too busy enduring, without the space to dream freely, deeply.
Now, I am raising a daughter in a different kind of storm—one that howls through her phone and across our screens. She wakes up to a feed that tells her how to contour her face before she’s learned to love it. Between hair tutorials and dance trends are images of ICE Agents, police violence, starving children in Gaza, and lawmakers banning the teaching of history itself. As a young Black girl and a dancer, she is constantly being told who to be, what to look like and which parts of herself to hide. The contrast is dizzying—beauty lessons beside brutality, self-expression framed by censorship.
The world has given her endless content, but very little context for hope.
And so I ask myself, as both mother and scholar: Are we teaching our daughters to dream—or just to cope?
We teach them resilience—how to push through pain, how to outwork inequity, how to survive systems never designed for us to thrive. But resilience without imagination is just endurance with better branding.
Dreaming asks something different. It asks for breath where there’s been bracing, softness where there’s been survival. It invites us to unclench our fists long enough to imagine what freedom might feel like.
To dream is to believe in a future that has never yet existed—to hold joy as possibility, even when history argues against it. Dreaming is how we practice freedom before the world catches up.
I think often about how dreaming is a health practice—not metaphorically, but biologically. The body can’t heal in a constant state of defense. The nervous system needs safety to repair, imagination to rewire. When we invite our daughters to envision what joy could feel like—not just justice—we are teaching them to be well in a world that often confuses vigilance with valor.
So now, when my daughter dreams out loud—of Sugar Plum Fairies, of Broadway, or simply of a Saturday where she feels free—I try to resist the reflex to edit her possibility. Instead, I listen. I let her dreaming stretch the edges of my own.
And I think about all the Black women who came before me, who came before us, who were never given that kind of room. I think about my own ongoing work to embody liberation and freedom in the face of betrayal, prejudice, and narrow vision. I whisper a promise to them: I will not let the world shrink her imagination the way it tried to shrink ours.
Because teaching our daughters to dream is not just about castles in the sky—it’s about building a foundation sturdy enough for their imagination to stand on. It’s about clearing the noise so their inner voice can echo back: I am safe. I am possible. I am loved.
So this is the call—to myself, and to every mother, auntie, teacher, and sister-friend reading this:
Make room for her dreams, whatever form those dreams take, even when they scare you.Let her see you dream, even when the world tells you not to. Speak the language of what if in your own life, so she knows it’s still spoken here.
Because one day, she might dance prima ballerina. And if she does, I hope she knows it began with a mother who dared to dream beside her.
The post Are We Teaching Our Daughters to Dream? appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-11T14:37:05.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/teaching-our-daughters-to-dream/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T18:01:06.546Z"},{"id":"jz3g97","archiveId":"rxylk9","slug":"op-ed-running-a-black-bookstore-isnt-easy-but-the-mission-is-bigger-than-the-business","title":"OP-ED: Running A Black Bookstore Isn’t Easy. But The Mission Is Bigger Than The Business","excerpt":"Imagine waiting for months to attend your first booksellers conference with people who run bookstores across the country, all convening to discuss how to operate an amazing bookstore. Yes, it […] The post OP-ED: Running A Black Bookstore Isn’t Easy.","content":"
By
Dr. Nosakhere Griffin-EL ·
Updated March 10, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Imagine waiting for months to attend your first booksellers conference with people who run bookstores across the country, all convening to discuss how to operate an amazing bookstore. Yes, it was an amazing experience, but imagine on the day you are ready and expecting to acquire knowledge from these sessions to advance your store, but the most impactful conversation occurs not in a session, but in a hallway.
At the end of the third day of American Booksellers Association (ABA) Winter Institute , I walked down a long hallway to head home and saw Black Bookstore owner of Source Booksellers Mrs. Janet Webster Jones, whom I affectionately called Mama Janet throughout the conference. She is a warm and nurturing mama figure. She and I sat on a bench and talked for nearly an hour. Throughout the conversation, I found myself listening intently as if I was an elementary school-age student waiting to get the next powerful knowledge anecdote to implement in my life and business. When the conversation ended, I headed home, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how she inspired me to articulate the purposes of Black Bookstore.
Last week, the National Association of Black Bookstores , which was founded by Kevin Johnson released the State of Bookstores Report. There are 306 Black bookstores in 14 states across the United States, and 36% operate without a brick-and-mortar location. Of all Indie Bookstores, only 8% are Black-owned. The number may be small, but we are impact is mighty.
Our philosophical foundation is rooted in helping peopletarget=\"_blank\" href=\"https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/rB5WCkRVM4Sqlo5AUJtDSGipOI?domain=theyoungdreamersbookstore.com\">Malcolm Little book” and with a smile he said, “Yes.” Then he proceeded to tell me about how his son loved the other book Lava in My Veins too. These moments of connection turn customers into a community, all built on the foundation of trust.
Beyond trust, the Black Bookstore is also a curator of culturally relevant stories by and about Black people. As a child, my mother took me to Black Bookstores all throughout Philadelphia like Know Self Bookstore, Hakim’s Bookstore, and Basic Black Books. There, I could choose books that featured characters who looked like me—experiences that inspired me to become who I am today. I remember buying a comic titled Brotherman , which was the first timeI remember with a Black male protagonist, who was a superhero. And that made me think I, too, could be a superhero. Now, I strive to create the same opportunities for young readers, stocking our store with books that help them dream big.
Some may wonder: If Black Bookstores focus on books with Black characters or about Black people, how do they serve everyone? The answer is clear. As bookstore owner Yvonne Blake from Hakim’s Bookstore put it, “… we educate and teach people about the history that is so often hidden or not told to—not just African Americans—but to everyone.” Moreover, it’s vital for children of all backgrounds to read books by Black authors to counter negative stereotypes often seen in TV, social media, and movies. Through stories that showcase Black characters in their fullness, young readers can begin to see Black people in all their humanity—making the possibility of true equality more real and attainable.
In the end, Black Bookstores are led by people who see their work as a calling. This work is about serving Black people and humanity as a whole. During the recent American Booksellers Conference in Pittsburgh, I met Black Bookstore owner of Source Booksellers Mrs. Janet Webster Jones, owner of Source Booksellers, a Black bookstore. And she reminded me that we don’t own bookstores for profit—we do it to serve. Whether we sell out or sell some books, our commitment to making the world a better, more beautiful place stays the same.
Dr. Nosakhere Griffin-EL is the co-founder of The Young Dreamers’ Bookstore . He also is a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project in partnership with the National Black Child Development Institute.
The post OP-ED: Running A Black Bookstore Isn’t Easy. But The Mission Is Bigger Than The Business appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-11T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/entrepreneurship/black-bookstores-beyond-business/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T18:01:06.546Z"},{"id":"qj1vco","archiveId":"tr83ns","slug":"the-first-amendments-application-to-public-university-students-an-explainer","title":"The First Amendment’s application to public university students: an explainer","excerpt":"Free speech on university campuses is a perennially hot topic, perhaps most recently reflected in protests about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at places like Ball State University, Harvard, and Columbia.","content":"
Free speech on university campuses is a perennially hot topic, perhaps most recently reflected in protests about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at places like Ball State University , Harvard , and Columbia . This debate has also arisen in the context of offensive speech , harassment (under Titles VI and IX ), bias response teams , and speaker policies . In response to each event, the public, commentators, and scholars have questioned the appropriate boundaries of speech in the college environment, and, what, if any, constitutional protections exist.
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So how does the First Amendment apply to students in the context of public universities? The question seems clear, but the answer is surprisingly murky. Although the court has carved out a First Amendment framework for K-12 schools, it has not done so for universities, and the lower federal courts are in stark disagreement on this issue. This SCOTUS explainer takes a deep dive into what, exactly, is going on here, and how this might affect current (and future) events.
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Tinker and its K-12 progeny
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Let’s go back to where it all began. In 1969, the court decided Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District Tinker was centered around a group of middle and high school students who wore black armbands to their schools in protest of the Vietnam War. Each of the students were sent home and suspended from school until they would agree to come back without wearing the armbands. The students and their parents subsequently sued the school district, claiming that their First Amendment rights had been violated when school officials “banned and sought to punish [the students] for a silent, passive expression of opinion.”
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The court ruled in favor of the students. In doing so, Justice Abe Fortas wrote that “[i]t can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” At the same time, the court emphasized that the speech rights of students may be limited due to “the special characteristics of the school environment.” In recognition of this, the court set forth a standard allowing for the restriction of student speech whenever school officials may reasonably expect that the speech would cause “substantial disruption of or material interference” with school activities.
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After Tinker , the justices have considered only a handful of other K-12 student speech cases fleshing out this area of law. The first notable one was Bethel School District v. Fraser Tinker and held that the First Amendment allows schools to restrict “vulgar and lewd speech” (such as “a sexually explicit monologue directed towards an unsuspecting audience of teenage students”) because it might “undermine the school’s basic educational mission.”
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Next up was the 1988 case of Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeie r , where the court upheld a high school principal’s decision to withhold two articles (one about students’ pregnancies and another about divorce) from the school newspaper. In doing so, the court explained that the standard articulated in Tinker does not apply to speech sponsored by the school itself, such as a school newspaper, “so long as [the school’s] actions are reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns.”
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Then, in 2007, the justices decided Morse v. Frederick BONG HiTS 4 JESUS ” while the Olympic Torch Relay passed by his high school. The student was suspended for 10 days for advocating the use of illegal drugs while attending a school-supervised event. The majority acknowledged Tinker ’s warning that student speech cannot be restricted simply to avoid the discomfort that may come from an unpopular viewpoint or because school officials have an unreasonable fear of disturbance. But ultimately, the court concluded that the danger of student drug abuse was sufficient to overcome any such First Amendment concerns.
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And most recently, the court decided Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. Tinker , may restrict students’ “off campus” speech. This case arose after a high school student failed to make the varsity cheerleading team or get the softball position that she preferred. In response, she posted a picture on Snapchat with her middle finger raised and the caption “Fuck school fuck softball fuck cheer fuck everything.” After her cheer coaches learned of the post, the student was suspended from the team for a year.
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Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority, said that the ability of schools to regulate student speech did not automatically disappear simply because the speech occurs off campus. Ultimately, however, the court ruled in favor of the former cheerleader. The majority pointed to three factors that led to this conclusion: (1) the speech was off-campus; (2) there was no evidence in the record of a “substantial disruption” that rose to the level required by Tinker ; and (3) the school’s argument about concern for such things as “team morale” were not supported by the record, nor does an “undifferentiated fear or apprehension” justify limiting First Amendment protections.
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So here is what we know when considering student speech in the K-12 context. First, in line with Tinker , schools have the authority to regulate student speech that “materially disrupts classwork or involves substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others” due to the “special characteristics of the school environment.” Second, there are at least three categories of speech that schools may regulate: (1) indecent or vulgar speech (you know it when you see it? ); (2) speech that promotes illegal drug use; and (3) speech that may be reasonably viewed as that of the school itself, like a school-sponsored newspaper. Finally, and perhaps least helpfully, although schools may retain some ability to regulate students’ off-campus speech in certain circumstances (like bullying, threats, and use of school computers) the exact parameters of these circumstances have not been well defined.
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Higher ed
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As you probably noticed, all of these cases related to K-12 schools. The speech rights for college students are even less clear – at least in part because cases concerning this issue have been relatively sparse.
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Just three years after its decision in Tinker , the court decided Healy v. James Students for a Democratic Society . Justice Lewis Powell, writing for the majority, favorably cited to Tinker . He then stated that “the precedents of this Court leave no room for the view that, because of the acknowledged need for order, First Amendment protections should apply with less force on college campuses than in the community at large.” Unfortunately, he provided no further elaboration.
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The next year, the court issued a per curiam opinion in Papish v. Board of Curators Healy and Tinker to support the idea that the First Amendment applies on school campuses. Therefore, the court explained, universities may not restrict speech or “the mere dissemination of ideas … in the name alone of ‘conventions of decency.’” At the same time, the court acknowledged there was latitude for a university to exercise “its legitimate authority to enforce reasonable regulations as to the time, place, and manner of speech and its dissemination.”
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Circuit splits
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Understandably, this has left the circuit courts somewhat divided. At least four of them have applied Tinker and its progeny to cases involving public university students. But the nature of this application has varied significantly.
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In January, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit granted a stay of a district court injunction in Damsky v. Summerlin Tinker , the 11th Circuit sided with the university and held that it was likely to show that Damsky’s speech constituted a “material disruption” of classwork because members of the university community could reasonably interpret the posts as threatening others and promoting “extralegal violence.” Judge Kevin Newsom dissented and explained that Damsky’s speech, although “repugnant and hateful,” did not rise to the level of a “true threat” (an unprotected category of speech). He also expressed skepticism that Tinker should apply at all in the university context. But Newsom acknowledged that the Supreme Court’s guidance on this issue is unclear.
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The United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit has also applied Tinker in a university setting. In one case, a student was expelled after several tweets about his ex-girlfriend were found to violate the school’s sexual harassment policy. The 10th Circuit cited language from the Healy decision as support for the conclusion that the “material disruption” test does indeed apply in the university context.
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The United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit also applied Tinker and its related cases to a situation involving a graduate-level counseling student who asked for a gay client to be referred to another student after informing her supervisors that her religion “prevented her from affirming a client’s same-sex relationships as well as certain heterosexual conduct.” Although relying on the K-12 framework, the 6th Circuit recognized that the Tinker standard needs to take into account the different level of maturity that exist in the context of higher education versus a high school. For example, while it may be permissible for a high school principal to not allow a story about teenage pregnancy in the school newspaper, the same is likely not true in the college context.
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And last year, the United States Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit applied Tinker in Doe v. University of Massachusetts Doe , the court observed, like the 6th Circuit, that Tinker should apply differently in the university context. The 1st Circuit noted that most university students are over 18 years old and so their maturity level undermines the need to protect sensitive students from being exposed to harmful speech.
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Other courts have been more skeptical that the Tinker standard is appropriate to apply in a university setting. In Oyama v. University of Hawaii academic freedom in the university environment. The United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit has taken a similar position, explaining in one case that “[p]ublic universities have significantly less leeway in regulating student speech than public elementary or high schools.” At the same time, the 3rd Circuit acknowledged that it is not entirely clear what standard should apply to universities. But it insisted that what is clear is that Tinker and its progeny “cannot be taken as gospel in cases involving” universities and any applicability of these cases should be “scrutinized carefully, with an emphasis on the underlying reasoning of the rule to be applied.”
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The Alito footnote
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As noted above, the Supreme Court has not spoken on this issue, which is why the circuit courts appear so confused on it. That said, in his concurrence in Mahanoy , Justice Samuel Alito did provide some insight into at least his thinking on speech in the university context. Specifically, in a footnote, and without further explanation, Alito remarked that “the age, independence, and living arrangements” of university students are reasons why the regulation of their speech perhaps should be treated differently than younger students. But only Justice Neil Gorsuch joined his opinion.
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So where does this leave us?
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To answer that question: Pretty confused.
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Nevertheless, let’s consider how this might apply in the context of recent events like the campus protests mentioned at the article’s start. Under Healy , we know that the First Amendment grants university students (seemingly) robust speech rights. And, as things stand currently, it appears that lower courts are going to apply some version of the Tinker standard to the higher education context. Assuming Tinker applies, then the big question is whether the protest/speech is disruptive enough to satisfy that standard. If the disruption affects classroom activities or other official school events, the answer is likely yes. If, on the other hand, a protest takes place on a weekend or in a location where it won’t interfere with class activities, the university may have a harder time (legally) shutting it down. Of course, sometimes the protests do not directly cause a disruption, but the reaction to them does – this is where the facts will prove dispositive, based on the nature of the disruption and how the university’s academic mission was threatened.
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Like in certain other areas of law , it would make a good deal of sense for the court to step in when it finds the right case. Student speech controversies on university campuses are not going away, and university administrators, college attendees, and lower courts could all use some guidance in what is an often fraught First Amendment environment.
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The post The First Amendment’s application to public university students: an explainer appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Alex Rivenbark","publishDate":"2026-03-11T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/supremecourt1-scaled.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/the-first-amendments-application-to-public-university-students-an-explainer/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T18:01:12.224Z"},{"id":"lhzfzf","archiveId":"v4zotv","slug":"scotustoday-for-wednesday-march-11","title":"SCOTUStoday for Wednesday, March 11","excerpt":"You’ve likely heard of AI bots being used improperly by lawyers, but what about lawsuits over AI bots practicing law without a license? Reuters reported on one such case last […] The post SCOTUStoday for Wednesday, March 11 appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"
You’ve likely heard of AI bots being used improperly by lawyers, but what about lawsuits over AI bots practicing law without a license? Reuters reported on one such case last week.
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\n At the Court \n \n
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The interim docket case on the Trump administration’s effort to remove protected status from Syrian nationals is now fully briefed, and the court’s decision could come at any time.
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The court will next hear arguments on Monday, March 23, the first day of its March sitting .
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\n Morning Reads \n \n
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\n Abbie VanSickle, The New York Times \n \n \n \n
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Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson “publicly sparred on Monday evening over how the court is handling a barrage of emergency requests to clear the way for Trump administration policies” while participating together in an annual lecture series in Washington, D.C., according to The New York Times . “The polite but forceful back-and-forth … gave a rare glimpse into the justices’ sharply differing viewpoints about how to navigate repeated emergency requests by the Trump administration to greenlight its policies.” Kavanaugh said that such requests are “not a new phenomenon” and have become more common “because gridlock in Congress has led presidents to do more through executive orders, which have then been challenged in court.” Jackson, on the other hand, suggested that the court is treating requests from the Trump administration differently and “signing off on new policies” rather than “maintain[ing] the status quo.” “I think it is not serving the court or our country well at this point,” Jackson said.
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As it awaits the Supreme Court’s decision in an interim docket case on Syrian nationals’ participation in the Temporary Protected Status program, the Trump administration is facing a new lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts over its effort to remove TPS status from Somalians. “The lawsuit claims the conditions in Somalia are a humanitarian crisis, which supports extending the temporary status that has been in place since 1991, and that DHS’s process of ending the status was a reflection of the administration’s ‘preordained, pretextual, politically influenced agendas,’” according to the Washington Examiner . “The current TPS designation for Somalia is set to expire on March 17.”
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\n Zach Schonfeld, The Hill
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On Monday, the Liberty Justice Center, “[a] libertarian public-interest firm that helped topple President Trump’s emergency tariffs at the Supreme Court,” filed a lawsuit over tariffs imposed after the court issued its ruling, according to The Hill . The firm is representing “a new group of businesses who say they shouldn’t have to pay Trump’s latest tariffs,” including Burlap & Barrel and Basic Fun!. The businesses contend that Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows for tariffs “addressing balance-of-payments deficits,” cannot be used to impose tariffs “now that the U.S. has moved to a floating exchange rate.”
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\n Nuria Martinez-Keel, Oklahoma Voice
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The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board on Monday again rejected a group’s application to open a Jewish charter school in the state, with board members saying “they had no choice but to comply with a 2024 decision from the Oklahoma Supreme Court that prohibited the concept of taxpayer-funded religious schools,” according to Oklahoma Voice . However, Brian Shellem, the chair of the board, said “most of the board members disagree” with that 2024 ruling and “plan to fight against it” alongside the Jewish school. The U.S. Supreme Court left the Oklahoma ruling in place last year after the justices deadlocked 4-4 in a case on a Catholic charter school. (The tie was possible because Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case.)
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\n Elise Hammond, CNN
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On Tuesday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey granted clemency to Charles Burton, who had been scheduled to be executed on Thursday. Burton was sentenced to death for his role in the 1991 murder of Douglas Battle during a robbery, although “he was not the shooter and was not in the store at the time of the killing,” according to CNN . Ivey said “she could not ‘proceed in good conscience’ with the execution because he was not the shooter” and commuted Burton’s sentence to life without parole. Ivey’s announcement came as the Supreme Court was considering Burton’s request for a stay of execution.
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\n On Site \n
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\n Contributor Corner \n
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\n In her A Second Opinion column, Haley Proctor revisited last week’s oral argument in United States v. Hemani and explored what it means for a modern gun control law to fit within a historical tradition of firearm regulation.
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\n Contributor Corner \n
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\n In their Brothers in Law column, Akhil and Vikram Amar explored the “many factual and legal data points” that cut against the Trump administration’s effort to limit access to birthright citizenship. “If law and facts mean anything at all – anything! – then surely the [birthright citizenship] case is easy-peasy,” they wrote.
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\n Advisory Opinions \n
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\n Members of the SCOTUSblog/Advisory Opinions Extended Universe – Sarah Isgur and David French, along with Akhil Amar and Andy Lipka from “Amarica’s Constitution” and Will Baude and Dan Epps from “Divided Argument” – discussed the current term and the future of originalism.
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If you live in the Washington, D.C. area or plan on visiting for cherry blossom season , we’d recommend stopping by the Supreme Court to see its latest exhibitions.
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Exhibitions are one of the four core programs put on by the Curator’s Office. This also includes collections (such as caring for historic objects), court photography, and visitor programs. Exhibitions began with the very first curator, Cathy Skefos , who “started the Curator’s Office pretty much from scratch” in 1973. Chief Justice Warren Burger summed up the concept in this way: “[The Court’s exhibit program] communicates to all Americans a sense of the story of the Supreme Court as a living institution, and in that process to add warmth and humanity to the building itself.”
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Current exhibitions include: Harlan Fiske Stone: A Man for All Seats , From Petition to Opinion: How the Supreme Court Works, Integration Must Proceed Forthwith , The Triumph of Justice: Adolph Weinman’s Courtroom Frieze , and In Re Lady Lawyers: The Rise of Women Attorneys and the Supreme Court . The Stone and Lady Lawyers exhibitions are viewable online, while the others (besides the images shown on the exhibition website ) can only be seen at the court itself.
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The Harlan Fiske Stone exhibit , which commemorates the court’s 12th chief justice, lands on “the 100th Anniversary of Stone joining the Court,” and looks “back at Stone’s life and service.” Fun fact: Stone was the first and, to date, only justice to sit in every seat on the bench, going from the most junior justice to chief throughout his tenure on the court.
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As for the other exhibitions:
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The From Petition to Opinion exhibit allows viewers to “[f]ollow the process of how a case comes before the Supreme Court, the procedures the Justices use to complete their work, and some of the constitutional questions the Court has faced over time.” (While admittedly nerdy, it’s also fascinating to see the old petitions with their respective filing colors .)
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Integration Must Proceed Forthwith involves the legal story behind the post-Brown 1957 integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The temporary exhibit has the judge’s bench in which Judge Ronald Davies ordered the high school’s desegregation – and in doing so changed American history.
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The Triumph of Justice: Adolph Weinman’s Courtroom Frieze exhibit explores how Weinman developed and designed the four sculptural panels inside the courtroom (which feature “historical lawgivers and allegories of law and justice”).
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And to learn about the women who “carved a path for future female advocates, judges, and Supreme Court Justices,” you can visit the exhibit In Re Lady Lawyers: The Rise of Women Attorneys and the Supreme Court . “Notable objects include a judicial robe and jabot worn by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, historic photographs, as well as memorabilia and personal effects from Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.”
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Is much of this for Supreme Court obsessives? Sure. But if you’re reading this newsletter (and thanks for doing so!) you might just qualify as such.
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\n SCOTUS Quote \n \n
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JUSTICE KAGAN: “Right. And I completely understand that, Mr. Gannon, but even your own interpretation doesn’t get you the information –”
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(Laughter.)
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(Lights out.)
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CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: “I knew we should have paid that bill.”
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(Laughter.)
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JUSTICE KAGAN: “My red light on the bench is still working.”
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— Nichols v. United States
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The post SCOTUStoday for Wednesday, March 11 appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Kelsey Dallas and Nora Collins","publishDate":"2026-03-11T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://i0.wp.com/www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/gun-gavel-american-flag.jpg?w=500&ssl=1","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/scotustoday-for-wednesday-march-11/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T18:01:12.224Z"},{"id":"bw9opb","archiveId":"uykw7l","slug":"oprahs-power-pony-took-over-paris-fashion-week","title":"Oprah’s Power Pony Took Over Paris Fashion Week","excerpt":"If there’s one thing Oprah’s going to be, it’s powerful. Whether it’s her iconic O, The Oprah Magazine covers over the decades, moving episodes of the Oprah Winfrey Show throughout […] The post Oprah’s Power Pony Took Over Paris Fashion Week appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Akili King ·
Updated March 11, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
If there’s one thing Oprah’s going to be, it’s powerful. Whether it’s her iconic O, The Oprah Magazine covers over the decades, moving episodes of the Oprah Winfrey Show throughout the nineties and early aughts, or even creating the OWN channel, Winfrey knows a thing or two about leaving an audience inspired. This is, of course, inclusive of her beauty moments throughout her career, too. I mean, you couldn’t go an episode of her show without discussing her silky silk presses, big bouncy curls, or bouffant pixie cuts, and more, done by her former long-time stylist Andre Walker. And, we can’t forget when, in 2009, Chris Rock went on her show, while promoting the Good Hair documentary, and couldn’t believe her full head of healthy hair was real.
Most recently, at Paris Fashion Week, she’s continued to turn heads with elegant, yet bold statements.
The post Oprah’s Power Pony Took Over Paris Fashion Week appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-11T12:10:23.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/oprah-power-pony-hair-paris-fashion-week-2026/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T18:01:06.546Z"},{"id":"x0rfgw","archiveId":"ln8ipa","slug":"for-these-black-muslim-women-ramadan-is-about-faith-tradition-and-sisterhood","title":"For these Black Muslim women, Ramadan is about faith, tradition and sisterhood","excerpt":"Around 5 a.m., Detroit is still dark and Zarina El-Amin is already up, moving with purpose. Ramadan, she said, makes motherhood feel quieter on the inside. Home becomes the first masjid of the day — soft footsteps, warm light, a clock watched closely, and a family waking up together because the fas...","content":"
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Ramadan, she said, makes motherhood feel quieter on the inside. Home becomes the first masjid of the day — soft footsteps, warm light, a clock watched closely, and a family waking up together because the fast is set to begin as soon as dawn breaks.
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The mother of three is among 1.8 billion practicing Muslims — almost one-quarter of the world’s population — participating in the Islamic holy month that commemorates the revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad.
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From sunrise to sunset is the period of ritual fasting. Nothing to eat. Nothing to drink.
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Muslim women can face unique challenges juggling motherhood, sisterhood and womanhood while observing a holy time that is as physically, mentally and spiritually demanding as Ramadan. “All right, so today, for example, I woke up at 5:15 this morning,” said El-Amin, a Detroit cultural anthropologist and founder of Legacy Storykeepers. “And I woke the kids up at the same time to get suhoorr,” the pre-dawn meal that precedes the day’s fast.
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She serves her two sons, 19 and 14, and her 12-year-old daughter morning meals that are intentionally simple.
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“I don’t do heavy meals in the morning,” El-Amin said. “So typically, I’m just drinking a protein drink, I take my vitamins, and I drink lots of water. That’s what I do early in the morning for my suhoor and I make sure the kids have something sustainable, too. Like, they love dates.”
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For Muslims, dates carry meaning beyond nutrition. Eating them connects back to the practices of Prophet Muhammad, especially during fasting.
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El-Amin calls Detroit “one of the meccas for the Black Muslim movement,” then pulls that history into something intimate: faith passed down through family, inherited like a last name.
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“I am the daughter of converts to Islam,” she said. “My mother and my father both converted to Islam in the 70s, separately. They met at the mosque, they got married, and then my brother and I were raised in Islam. So, Islam has been a part of my upbringing and a part of my identity since birth.”
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That upbringing came with infrastructure — a community with enough strength to raise children within it.
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“My parents were also very active in the Detroit Muslim community,” El-Amin said. “They were founders of one of the largest African-American mosques in the city, called the Muslim Center. What that meant for me as a kid was that that place was my second home.”
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“And growing up Muslim, for me, was easy,” she added. “I had an extended family, a spiritual family. I had aunties. I had uncles. I had cousins, family that we chose and created.”
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“I think that my parents actually gave me a gift, raising me within this community,” she said.
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Now that gift lives in her own house, too. Ramadan isn’t only observed there. It’s taught — through repetition, rhythm and the steady returning to a practice until it becomes identity.
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“What came first for me, centered around Ramadan in particular, was that Ramadan is a miracle,” she said. “Like, how do you get over a billion people around the world to be like, I’m not going to eat today and be happy about it. And like, I’m going to stand up in line and pray for hours and be happy about it. Like, that is a miracle in itself.”
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“And when we’re in this society, though, like America, where it is an anomaly, not everybody in a society is doing it,” she said, “but you choose to do it for your own spiritual training, you choose to do it for the cleansing of your own soul when nobody is watching you.”
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“You can do whatever,” she continued. “But you’re choosing to try to cleanse your heart. Do good. Just the same way, you have to clean out your refrigerator, we have to cleanse our souls on the deep level every so often and that is what Ramadan does for us.”
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She wants her children to take in the inner training — discipline that doesn’t need an audience.
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“Being Muslim in a non-Muslim society, you have to be very strong with your own sense of self, because other people will try to tear you down all the time,” El-Amin said. “They’ll press and continue to say things like, ‘why you ain’t eating and you can’t drink anything either? Why would you do that?’ ”
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Inside her home, that grounding shows up through her daughter. El-Amin said the 12-year-old planned a potluck iftar, the meal that breaks the fast, with her friend girls from school — bringing Ramadan into her own world and turning fasting into community by choice.
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“For me, Black Muslims, like we’re unapologetic with who we are, what we’re going to do, and we have to be strong because we have a lot of people that just simply don’t want to understand too,” she said.
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Zarina El-Amin and her three children \n (Courtesy Zarina El-Amin) \n\n\n\n
El-Amin remembers talking with an Egyptian man who moved to the United States and couldn’t imagine fasting when the city stays open and the day doesn’t bend.
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“He was like, ‘Yeah, but the McDonald’s and all the restaurants are still open,’” she said. “He was like, ‘In Egypt, everything is closed during the day. Everything opens at night because everybody is fasting, but here, everything is still open.’”
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El-Amin’s answer stayed direct.
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“We don’t fast for the city. We don’t fast for society. We’re fasting for ourselves,” she said. “So it doesn’t matter how many restaurants are open. If God said fast now from dawn to sunset, I’m going fast now from dawn to sunset, and that’s just it.”
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El-Amin’s Ramadan is inheritance.
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Janae Wilson’s begins somewhere else: sisterhood.
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She can still see her first Ramadan — alone in an apartment she was proud to have, watching evening come like it always does, and realizing nobody was coming over.
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“I did it alone. I was completely alone when I broke my fast every night,” she said.
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She stayed home on purpose, she said. Not because she felt estranged from the Muslim community, but because she was still carrying what came before it — another religious environment that left her guarded. She wanted to be sure of herself. She wanted to know what she believed without borrowing somebody else’s version.
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“My first Ramadan was during the summer,” Wilson said. “So in the summer, you fast 16 hours and I remember just being in my apartment and feeling like, man, this is hard.”
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Her entry into Islam came through instability.
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“College was very, very hard for me,” she said. “For a lot of reasons, going through grief, going through financial challenges, going through homelessness at times, it was rough.”
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She worked full-time through school because that expectation arrived early.
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“I had to work full time through my entire college experience because, you know, with a more traditional Black family, you get put out at 18,” Wilson said.
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Couch surfing became routine. One of those couches belonged to a Muslim friend. That’s where faith shifted from an idea to something she could reach for. She remembers being at her friend’s family home when her friend’s mom asked a question that opened a door.
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“We were at her family home and her mom asked me if I’ve prayed,” Wilson said. “Then she said that, ‘God is very powerful and there is nothing that he can’t do. Muslims, we believe God is the most merciful.’”
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“I tried to pray and I just asked for clarity,” she said. “I asked for guidance in such a hard moment where it’s like, I don’t see how I personally am ever going to get to a point of stability.”
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Even then, she didn’t rush. She studied, read and tried to learn enough to feel ready. She kept returning to a bookstore in Detroit, picking up more books, circling the decision.
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“I would go into this bookshop and I would get new books and keep trying to learn more and more because I’m a bit of a perfectionist,” she said.
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Then the bookshop owner said what she needed to hear.
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“He’s like, well, tomorrow is never promised, right? So if you really are seriously considering it, you should do it now,” Wilson said.
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“And I did it right there in that bookstore,” she said. “We call it the Shahada, which is a proclamation of faith. I took my Shahada right there. I haven’t looked back since.”
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Conversion didn’t soften everything. With her family, she said, it made things harder before they improved.
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“My biggest struggle personally is acceptance for my family,” Wilson said. “There were moments where it’s like, okay, you want to be Muslim, cool but don’t come around the family.”
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She said she isn’t searching anymore. She’s rooted — and Ramadan looks different when you’re held by community.
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Janae Wilson\n (Courtesy Janae Wilson) \n\n\n\n
“The thing that I would say Ramadan brings to me more than anything else is also a sense of community,” she said. “Being able to be so active in our communities, especially the Black community specifically, is so special.”
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“I am a part of a beautiful group,” she added. “We call ourselves ‘The Sister Girls.’ We’re majority young, Black Muslim women and we all have different backgrounds, but we all come together and it’s so beautiful to be able to just relate on that level.”
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Before Ramadan this year, she hosted a gathering to bring women into the month together.
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“It was about 30 women, diverse, but mostly Black women,” Wilson said. “Just coming together and talking about ‘what do we want?’ ‘What does Ramadan even mean to us?’”
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It’s the same question she asked during her first Ramadan, but the place she asks from has changed. Her daily life has changed too — down to the workplace.
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Wilson is the deputy director of Dream of Detroit, a Muslim-led nonprofit focused on revitalization on the city’s westside through community organizing, housing and economic development.
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“This is my first Ramadan where I’m actually working at an organization that is Muslim-led,” she said. “And that has been really, really different for me.”
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“This is the first year where I wake up and I feel at peace,” Wilson said. “I don’t feel a sense of rushing. I don’t feel a sense of having to explain myself to anybody. Everyone understands.”
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For Wilson, the shift is simple: she is no longer breaking her fast alone.
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Tasleem Jamila Firdausee arrives at Ramadan from a different doorway.
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“I get up at about 4 AM or 4:30 AM,” she said. “And I go into my prayer room and I pray.”
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Ramadan, for her, is womanhood lived on purpose: tending to the body, checking the spirit, tightening the character, returning to God before returning to everybody else.
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“It’s the ultimate detox for me as a Muslim,” said Firdausee, an interdisciplinary scholar, multidisciplinary artist and holistic health coach. “It’s like not only am I cleansing my body, but my spirit, my actions, my character are all elevated to be a reflection of how Allah wants me to be in this life.”
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She called it armor.
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“To me, it’s a time to put on my spiritual warrior outfit and armor,” she said, “and to go deep within the holy Quran, recalibrate, and renew my intentions.”
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Her sense of self traces back to 18, coming of age on Chicago’s South Side in what she described as a socially conscious Black environment.
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“I grew up in a very socially conscious Black area of Chicago,” she said. “So I grew up really seeing Black people just in every position in the most beautiful way.”
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She said hip-hop introduced her to Islam before any formal introduction could.
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“I was introduced to Islam really through music, through hip-hop music,” she said. “Rakim, Poor Righteous Teachers, Public Enemy, they would mention Islam in their lyrics. And so it just really sparked me to say, OK, what is this?”
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Now, she holds that early awareness with steadiness. National division does not surprise her.
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“As long as I’ve been Black on this earth,” she said, “it’s always been a divide.”
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So Ramadan becomes her return — not away from the world, but back into herself. The fasting. The prayer. The early rise. The inward check. A woman keeping her footing through worship and teaching other women to do the same through the life she’s built: discipline that isn’t loud, faith that isn’t fragile and womanhood that stands tall before dawn.
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By the end of the month, the rhythm becomes muscle memory.
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That’s where Ramadan sits across these three lives: a mother waking her children early enough to carry the day, a young woman building a sister circle so nobody breaks fast alone and a prayer room lit before 4:30 a.m., again, because womanhood still has to be held steady before the world starts pulling.
","category":"resilience","author":"Ebony JJ Curry","publishDate":"2026-03-11T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/blkMuslims_02.jpg?w=683","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/black-muslim-women-ramadan/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T12:00:46.967Z"},{"id":"slgfdg","archiveId":"i7m0r6","slug":"these-black-designers-chased-the-saks-dream-now-they8217re-owed-six-figures","title":"These Black Designers Chased The Saks Dream. Now They’re Owed Six Figures","excerpt":"There’s never been an “easy” time to run a fashion brand, and that’s truer than ever in 2026. Already, we’ve seen our favorite designers decide to pause, while others have […] The post These Black Designers Chased The Saks Dream. Now They’re Owed Six Figures appeared first on Essence .","content":"
MILAN, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 26: Models walk finale of the runway at the BruceGlen fashion show during Milan Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2026 on September 26, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Justin Shin/Getty Images)
By
Andrea Bossi ·
Updated March 11, 2026 Getting your
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There’s never been an “easy” time to run a fashion brand, and that’s truer than ever in 2026. Already, we’ve seen our favorite designers decide to pause , while others have had to cancel production for the entire season’s worth of garments. Trump’s topsy-turvy tariffs don’t help keep anything stable. And to top it all off, Saks Global — the parent company of the U.S. department luxury store triad — filed for bankruptcy mid-January. Behind the scenes, Black designers were more than on edge.
For long, department stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Barneys (RIP) offered a clear >alienating vendors with payment terms that, in the past, kept getting longer and longer. Saks, for example, once had terms to pay its vendors 30 days after receiving inventory. Eventually, that tripled to 90 days, still the payment terms today .
“No business works that way, you know. You have all these upfront costs,” Glen Proctor, of BruceGlen , tells ESSENCE. Their womenswear brand, known for its vivacious colors and unmissable bold prints, used to sell at Saks for years until the twin founders made the tough decision to stop shipping early 2025. “When we were [working with] Saks, it always felt like family. It always felt very inclusive and felt very considerate. They were always working with us, and the buyers were so wonderfully nice,” Glen says. But that didn’t change the strain of frequently being paid late.
PARIS, FRANCE – JANUARY 16: A model walks the runway during the Heron Preston Menswear Fall/Winter 2020-2021 show as part of Paris Fashion Week At le Carreau Du Temple on January 16, 2020 in Paris, France. (Photo by Kay-Paris Fernandes/Getty Images)
Despite the opportunity of being stocked at Saks and the legitimacy that gives a brand, hidden costs behind the scenes can make it a harsh reality. Paying production costs upfront, handling possible chargebacks, and shipping to the department store all add up to a pretty penny that’s challenging to afford, especially without adequate financial backing. The intense financials it takes to sell to Saks can negatively affect all indie brands, including Black-founded ones. It has led designers to question how to strengthen their own brands, a trend happening across the industry at large, as indies develop their direct-to-consumer channels and seek more intentional retailer partnerships.
This is what led Fisayo Che, founder of Nigerian-inspired womenswear brand Elisamama, to stop shipping to Saks. She started working with Saks in 2023, and the department store eventually accounted for at least 50% of its total business, per Modern Retail. Merely two years later, in 2025, Saks wasn’t paying on time. She has lost six figures because of this and stopped shipping. “We have an order sitting in our warehouse that we’re supposed to send to them in the next couple of weeks. But we already decided that we won’t. The only way we will send it is if they pay first,” she told Modern Retail.
Saks owed massive companies like Chanel and Kering hundreds of millions of dollars. Quietly, indie brands like Elisamama suffered, owed less, but hit harder.
Bruce and Glen’s story into Saks started like a dream come true. On the Proctor twins’ 35th birthday in 2020, while celebrating on the picturesque Virgin Islands, they had a call scheduled with Saks. The retailer’s team initiated their first purchase order from BruceGlen of around $100,000, according to the designers. “It was a huge launch,” Bruce says. “We had a huge standalone display in the middle of the floor.”
Soon, reality set in: the twins had to finance producing that $100,000-worth of merchandise to ship to Saks. “We scrounged that money up,” Glen says, and they made it work. “Being in Saks validated our brand to other people. If people walk up to us and say, ‘Oh, you’re a designer, where are you sold?’ The moment we say Saks, it brings credibility.”
The two were already going through a lot of personal transitions in 2024 and 2025, but they also saw the writing on the wall as payments became later and later — this was during Marc Metrick’s tenure at the helm of Saks. This flurry of conditions led the brothers to make the tough choice to pull back and stop shipping.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 08: A model walks the runway, fashion detail, for Christopher John Rogers during New York Fashion Week: The Shows at Gallery I at Spring Studios on February 08, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows)
“It would have been hard for us had we not had our production partners,” Bruce says. When they started shipping to Saks, they fronted the cost of merchandise from their factories. Later, the brand worked with a production team in the Dominican Republic that, essentially, handled upfront costs to produce wholesale orders and didn’t get paid until the brand’s purchase order payments came through.
ESSENCE tried contacting several Black-owned brands currently in-stock at Saks — like Who Decides War , Christopher John Rogers , LaQuan Smith , and Andrea Iyamah — but most declined to comment on their experiences. Some labels not previously mentioned that declined to comment cited anxieties that speaking about what they’ve dealt with, albeit challenging, may sour the relationship.
To be clear, Saks is still a beacon for designers and brands who want their products to be stocked on the shelves of an iconic North American brand. Its role in the fashion ecosystem remains vital.
“The success of a company like Saks Global, like Neiman Marcus and [Bergdorf Goodman], is critically important to the luxury fashion ecosystem and can be especially valuable to emerging designers, including Black designers, because it can provide an entrée at scale and national presence that’s very difficult to do without a platform that substantial,” Neil Brown, CEO of Amsale , told ESSENCE. Amsale Aberra, his late wife, was a profoundly talented designer focused on bridalwear and the first Black woman designer elected to join the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The brand, which has its boutique in NYC’s SoHo neighborhood, has sold with Saks for more than three decades.
Saks Global is now doing what it can to rebuild its business and rebuild its relationships. A chapter 11 bankruptcy is, after all, about restructuring and reorganizing a business so that it might keep going. The parent company Hilldun CEO Gary Wassner recently told The Business of Fashion. The wholesale financing firm has worked with hundreds of fashion brands, many of which are stocked stores within the Saks Global portfolio.
Already, nearly 500 brands on the retail company’s roster have started shipping to Saks again .
“Throughout the chapter 11 process, we are focused on the steady progress we are making in rebuilding trust with our brand partners and strengthening these relationships to drive our business in service of our customers,” a Saks Global spokesperson tells ESSENCE. The company’s newly appointed CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck is spearheading this process.
“We remain actively engaged in productive discussions with our brand partners to drive growth for both established and emerging brands. This process will not deter our commitment to cultivating a welcoming and inclusive experience for diverse communities across Saks Global,” the spokesperson adds.
Ahead, brands will have to continue navigating a retail scene and economy riddled with uncertainty. DTC offers its own opportunity, and so does partnering with a department store giant. After all, as they reflected on their years-long run with Saks, Bruce and Glen say, looking back, “there were truly a lot of really wonderful things about being a part of it.”
The post These Black Designers Chased The Saks Dream. Now They’re Owed Six Figures appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-11T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2237534937-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/saks-bankruptcy-black-designers/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T12:00:50.407Z"},{"id":"uss9k9","archiveId":"uzaoy0","slug":"libya-surrender-international-criminal-court-suspect","title":"Libya: Surrender International Criminal Court Suspect","excerpt":"Click to expand Image The International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, July 2025. © 2025 Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via AP Photo
(The Hague) – Libyan authorities should urgently surrender Osama Elmasry Njeem to the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he is wanted for serious crime...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n The International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, July 2025.\n © 2025 Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via AP Photo\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>(The Hague) – Libyan authorities should urgently surrender Osama Elmasry Njeem to the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he is wanted for serious crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should also ensure full cooperation with the court for other ICC suspects believed to be in Libya.</p><p>Njeem is a senior member of the Deterrence Apparatus for Countering Terrorism and Organized Crime, a Tripoli-based militia affiliated with the Presidential Council. He is wanted by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, torture, and rape, committed in Mitiga Prison since 2015. Seven other Libyans remain fugitives of the ICC, and Libyan authorities are obligated to arrest and surrender those who are in Libya to the Hague.</p><p>“Those responsible for grave abuses in Libya have long been allowed to evade accountability,” said Hanan Salah, associate Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Njeem’s reported arrest in Libya is a chance for authorities to demonstrate a genuine commitment to justice by cooperating with the ICC.” </p><p>Libyan authorities reportedly arrested Njeem in Tripoli on November 5, 2025, to face charges domestically, but his location remains unknown and authorities have not taken any public steps to surrender him to the ICC. </p><p>Human Rights Watch wrote to Libya’s general prosecutor in December requesting information on the charges against Njeem, his location, Libya’s cooperation with the ICC, and the status of other suspects believed to be in Libya, but has received no reply. </p><p>The ICC is a court of last resort, stepping in only when national authorities do not conduct genuine proceedings. Although Libya is not an ICC member, it is legally required to cooperate under the terms of the 2011 United Nations Security Council resolution referring the situation in Libya to the ICC prosecutor. In addition, Libyan authorities in May 2025 accepted the court’s jurisdiction over crimes within its jurisdiction committed in Libyan territory or by Libyan nationals from 2011 until the end of 2027. </p><p>Libya is required to surrender Njeem to the ICC. There is no public indication that Libya has filed a challenge with the court on the basis that it is pursuing similar charges in Libya. Only ICC judges can decide on such a challenge. </p><p>There has already been a missed opportunity to bring Njeem to justice, Human Rights Watch said. On January 19, 2025, Njeem was arrested in Turin, Italy, but Italian authorities sent him back to Libya instead of surrendering him to the ICC. In January 2026, ICC judges asked the court’s member countries to hold Italy to account for refusing to cooperate with the court.</p><p>The ICC opened an investigation into the Libya situation in 2011, following a referral by the UN Security Council. It has issued arrest warrants against 14 people for crimes committed during the 2011 revolution, during hostilities between 2014 and 2020, and in detention facilities, including against migrants. Nobody has yet faced trial before the ICC in the Libya situation.</p><p>Pretrial proceedings in the first case to come to the court are moving ahead following Germany’s December 2025 surrender of Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri, on an ICC warrant for crimes allegedly committed in the same detention facility as Njeem. </p><p>Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi, long wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity and war crimes during the 2011 uprising against his father’s government, was killed in Libya by unidentified armed men on February 3, 2026. Gaddafi had been living near the town of Zintan, under the protection of members of the same armed group who detained him in 2011 and subsequently released him in 2017, citing an amnesty law. On March 5, the general prosecutor’s office announced they had identified three suspects in Gaddafi’s killing and ordered their arrest.</p><p>The Libyan general prosecutor should ensure a transparent investigation into the assassination of Gaddafi, make the findings public, and hold those responsible accountable, Human Rights Watch said.</p><p>Of the seven other ICC fugitives in the Libya situation still believed to be alive, Saif Suleiman Sneidel, a member of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) wanted for war crimes of murder, torture, and outrages upon dignity, remains at large in LAAF-controlled eastern Libya. ICC Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Khan called for his surrender to The Hague in her address to the UN Security Council on November 25, 2025. The others wanted for war crimes are Abdurahem Khalefa Abdurahem Elshgagi, Makhlouf Makhlouf Arhoumah Doumah, Nasser Muhammad Muftah Daou, Mohamed Mohamed Al Salheen Salmi, Abdelbari Ayyad Ramadan Al Shaqaqi, and Fathi Faraj Mohamed Salim Al Zinkal.</p><p>Human Rights Watch has documented inhumane conditions in migrant detention centers and prisons across Libya, many run by abusive and unaccountable armed groups nominally affiliated with the authorities. Detainees face severe overcrowding, torture, and other ill-treatment; prolonged arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance; as well as unlawful killings, beatings, forced labor, sexual violence, and deprivation of adequate food and water. </p><p>Human Rights Watch has found that Libya’s fragmented justice sector remains marred by serious due process violations and laws that breach international norms, and that the judiciary is unwilling and unable to meaningfully investigate serious crimes. </p><p>Nongovernmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have also criticized Libyan authorities’ lack of effective cooperation with the ICC and the absence of international oversight following the end of the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya’s mandate in March 2023. The UN Security Council has failed to respond to previous requests from ICC judges for support to ensure Libya’s cooperation.</p><p>The justice minister of Libya’s Government of National Unity, Halima Ibrahim Abdelrahman, told Human Rights Watch in 2024 that “as a matter of principle,” she was against extraditing any Libyan national to be tried abroad, and that she had conveyed this message to the court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, during his visit to Tripoli in April 2024. </p><p>UN Security Council and ICC members should press Libyan authorities to cooperate, including by promptly turning over Njeem and arresting and surrendering other suspects on Libyan territory subject to ICC arrest warrants. They should make clear they back the ICC’s mandate in Libya, including by enforcing judicial findings of noncooperation, said Human Rights Watch.</p><p>“Over 15 years after the ICC’s referral, abuses continue behind the locked doors of Libya’s prisons, enabled by the shortcomings of its judicial institutions,” Salah said. “To stop the cycle of crimes and impunity, other countries should press Libya to cooperate with the court, so that those responsible are finally held to account.” </p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-11T08:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2025/07/202507ij_netherlands_icc.jpg?h=99248b11&itok=Ez_OtqC-","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/11/libya-surrender-international-criminal-court-suspect","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T12:00:49.950Z"},{"id":"hor3y2","archiveId":"x705l2","slug":"missiles-memes-and-masculinity-when-the-white-house-turns-war-into-entertainment","title":"Missiles, Memes and Masculinity: When the White House Turns War Into Entertainment","excerpt":"Following the illegal strikes of war against Iran, the White House transitioned from traditional diplomacy to digital propaganda, releasing a series of highly stylized videos that blurred the lines between state-sanctioned violence and Hollywood entertainment.","content":"
Following the illegal strikes of war against Iran, the White House transitioned from traditional diplomacy to digital propaganda, releasing a series of highly stylized videos that blurred the lines between state-sanctioned violence and Hollywood entertainment. By splicing real military strikes with iconic imagery from films like Gladiator and John Wick , the administration did more than just trivialize the human cost of an illegal war; it reanimated an antiquated patriarchal script that equates manhood with domination.
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Beyond the troubling optics of movie tropes and videogame aesthetics lies a deeper systemic framework. As we navigate the twenty-first century, the real challenge facing American society is not the defeat of \"enemies\" abroad, but the transformation of manhood at home. To build a more humane world, we must move beyond the spectacle and embrace a courage defined by care, empathy and the bravery to reject violence, even when our own government insists that violence is what makes a man.
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The post Missiles, Memes and Masculinity: When the White House Turns War Into Entertainment appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Rob Okun","publishDate":"2026-03-10T21:45:06.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2263600089.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/10/trump-meme-war-iran-movies/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T00:00:48.643Z"},{"id":"jr4dlq","archiveId":"tozln7","slug":"harvey-weinstein-admits-he-misled-women-but-still-wont-accept-sexual-assault-allegations","title":"Harvey Weinstein Admits He ‘Misled’ Women — But Still Won’t Accept Sexual Assault Allegations","excerpt":"More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct, sexual assault, rape and more.","content":"","category":"safety","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-03-10T19:24:06.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/69b05f1d1700000fbe2b191e.jpeg?ops=1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/harvey-weinstein-says-misled-women-not-assault_n_69b0398ae4b07e0eaa2356be","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T06:00:49.461Z"},{"id":"4ql29g","archiveId":"yfdtfn","slug":"the-guardian-view-on-gen-z-young-men-hold-startling-views-about-women-inequality-may-be-to-blame-edi","title":"The Guardian view on gen Z: young men hold startling views about women – inequality may be to blame | Editorial","excerpt":"
Bad actors have treated equality as a zero sum game, with women falsely portrayed as ‘winning’. Feeling they have to compete, young men are lashing out
Last week, results from a global survey signalled a rise in By India Espy-Jones ·Updated March 10, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready…
It’s the final day of Paris Fashion Week, which means fashion month’s four-week Fall/Winter 2026 season has officially come to a close. While the shows are over, the front row’s star-studded guest lists delivered looks we’ll be thinking of—and trying out—all the way until next season.
Teyana Taylor, who’s known for her old Hollywood pixie cut, switched her >Zendaya—in a new bixie cut—wore bridal white (and what appeared to be a wedding band from Tom Holland) at Louis Vuitton.
Tyla ’s fashion week run started with a Jean Paul Gaultier cone bra dress (in reference to pop-fashion icon Madonna in 1990), before ending in something much more casual for Miu Miu: Men’s underwear. While Industry’s Myha’la suited up in marching band chic with a white collar, epaulettes, and Zoe Kravitz-matching pick-and-drop braids for Alexander McQueen, Oprah has been saddling up in best front row looks celebrity front row PFW FW26
The post From Teyana To Oprah: The Best Celeb Paris Fashion Week Looks appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-10T18:28:08.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/teyana-oprah-best-paris-fashion-week-fw26-celeb-looks/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T00:00:51.706Z"},{"id":"t0yqms","archiveId":"iyrhv0","slug":"girl-log-off-a-guide-to-recharging-on-national-day-of-rest-for-black-women","title":"Girl, Log Off: A Guide To Recharging On National Day Of Rest For Black Women","excerpt":"Today, March 10th, marks a dual moment of significance for Black women: it’s the National Day of Rest for Black Women and Harriet Tubman Day, celebrating the birth of one […] The post Girl, Log Off: A Guide To Recharging On National Day Of Rest For Black Women appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Kara Stevens ·
Updated March 10, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Today, March 10th, marks a dual moment of significance for Black women: it’s the National Day of Rest for Black Women and Harriet Tubman Day, celebrating the birth of one of our greatest healers, protectors, and liberators. The alignment is no accident. For Black women, rest has never been simply optional — it has always been radical, political, and revolutionary.
Since our arrival in this country as enslaved Africans, Black women have been conditioned to keep our heads down, prioritize the needs of others, and suppress personal desires. So it’s ironic — and necessary — that many of us might have missed today’s invitation to rest, failing to recognize that this day exists solely for us to pause, reflect, and restore.
Rest isn’t indulgent. It’s essential. And it has long served as a tool of resistance and resilience in the face of systems that sought to strip us of our full humanity.
When Our Rest Was Deemed Illegal and Disrespectful
The fight for Black women to rest is not abstract; it’s woven into history in this country. After emancipation in 1865, Southern states moved quickly to control the lives of formerly enslaved Black people, implementing laws and practices that restricted freedom and limited economic opportunities. Across the South, legal codes like the Black Codes confined Black people to farming or domestic work, with harsh penalties — fines, arrests, or forced labor — for anyone who stepped outside these roles. Vagrancy laws criminalized those who appeared idle or failed to meet white-defined standards of “respectable” behavior, giving authorities broad power to punish and coerce. Beyond these statutes, systems like convict leasing, chain gangs, and sharecropping trapped Black people in conditions that closely mirrored slavery, denying both economic mobility and the basic right to rest. These policies were designed to exploit labor and maintain white supremacy, affecting all Black people at the state level and setting a precedent for policing autonomy in every facet of life.
When Greenville, South Carolina, Tried to Police Our Rest, And Lost
Cities in the South, like Greenville, South Carolina, took these controls even further, targeting Black women specifically during World War I. Federal assistance provided to the wives of soldiers allowed some Black women financial independence, freeing them from the necessity of domestic labor in white households. For many, this autonomy was a rare opportunity to rest and manage their own households. White Greenville residents with their city council, however, viewed this independence as a threat. They labeled Black women “unpatriotic loafers” and accused them of shirking responsibility or turning to vice because they didn’t want to wash their clothes, cook their food, clean their homes, or babysit their children. In response, the city council proposed an ordinance that would have required Black women to carry labor identification cards proving “regular and useful employment” five days a week — with fines or jail for noncompliance. The Greenville Black community organized and protested, ultimately forcing the city to drop the ordinance, but attempts to force Black women into labor-intensive, low-paying, and unsafe work continued throughout Greenville and cities like it.
Rest Today: Still Radical and Now Multidimensional
That same spirit lives in Black women today, as we juggle work, caregiving, leadership, and community obligations— often at lower rates of compensation and recognition and disproportionately at the expense of our own well-being. Thankfully, conversations about the importance of rest have expanded beyond getting more sleep, which may not resonate with Black women who don’t feel like they have the space in their calendars for more shut-eye, or are fully entrenched in the scaling, ambition, and hustle season out of necessity.
Seven Types of Rest for Black Women
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a board-certified internal medicine physician, has identified seven types of rest that go beyond sleep, offering a framework for reclaiming energy, focus, and peace. By engaging with these forms of rest, Black women can radically reclaim agency over our time, bodies, and energy and continue our legacy of quiet acts of defiance against systems that were set out to break us:
1. Physical Rest – Includes both passive rest, like sleeping or napping, and active rest, such as stretching, yoga, or massage. Physical rest allows the body to repair, recharge, and maintain resilience.
2. Mental Rest – Giving the brain a break from cognitive tasks like decision-making, problem-solving, or multitasking. Journaling, meditation, or taking short pauses can quiet the mind and reduce cognitive fatigue.
3. Sensory Rest – Reducing stimulation from bright lights, screens, and background noise. Stepping into a quiet room, dimming lights, or unplugging digitally can reset your senses and calm overstimulation.
4. Creative Rest – Experiencing awe and inspiration without the pressure to produce. Listening to music, visiting art spaces, or being in nature refreshes the imagination and fosters wonder.
5. Emotional Rest – Allowing space to feel and release emotions without judgment. Talking to a trusted friend, therapist, or practicing mindfulness helps reduce emotional fatigue and restore balance.
6. Social Rest – Distinguishing between draining and supportive relationships. Spending time with people who uplift you or taking intentional solo moments replenishes energy and enhances social well-being.
7. Spiritual Rest – Connecting with purpose, belonging, or something greater than oneself. Practices such as prayer, meditation, volunteering, or mindful reflection nurture a sense of meaning and inner peace.
What Rest Reminds Us Of
Rest is radical because it challenges the belief that productivity equals worth. By prioritizing rest, Black women refuse exploitation, protect mental health, and reclaim autonomy. This serves as a model for self-advocacy, demonstrating that Black women deserve care and respect beyond their labor.
It’s Safe to Log Off
On this National Day of Rest for Black Women — and on Harriet Tubman Day — pause unapologetically. Engage with your body, mind, emotions, and spirit. Reflect on the generations who demanded the right to pause and the resilience it took to claim that right. Rest is more than sleep: it is a continuation of resistance, a practice of empowerment, and a radical declaration of your value.
Today, we rest. Today, we reclaim. Today, we remember. Let these actions serve as both tribute and resolution: Black women’s rest is powerful, necessary, and deserves to be recognized every day.
Kara Stevens, EdM, is the founder of The Frugal Feminista and author of heal your relationship with money and Unmasking the Strong Black Woman . Connect with her on LinkedIn .
The post Girl, Log Off: A Guide To Recharging On National Day Of Rest For Black Women appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-10T18:09:20.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/national-day-of-rest-black-women/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T00:00:51.706Z"},{"id":"bmd66z","archiveId":"soqlbx","slug":"yahya-abdul-mateen-ii-stars-in-netflixs-man-on-fire-series-first-teaser-released","title":"Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Stars In Netflix’s ‘Man On Fire’ Series, First Teaser Released","excerpt":"Today, Netflix has released the first teaser and images for the upcoming action drama Man on Fire. The seven-episode series stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as John Creasy, a former elite […] The post Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Stars In Netflix’s ‘Man On Fire’ Series, First Teaser Released appeared first on E...","content":"
By
Okla Jones ·
Updated March 10, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Today, Netflix has released the first teaser and images for the upcoming action drama Man on Fire. The seven-episode series stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as John Creasy, a former elite mercenary attempting to rebuild his life after years of combat.
Based on the book series by A. J. Quinnell, the show follows Creasy as he struggles with the psychological toll of his past. Once known for surviving some of the most dangerous missions imaginable, the former Special Forces operative now lives with severe PTSD. Determined to move forward, he begins searching for a >Man on Fire arrives on Netflix April 30, 2026.
Take a look at the trailer for the series below.
TOPICS:
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II The post Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Stars In Netflix’s ‘Man On Fire’ Series, First Teaser Released appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-03-10T17:56:52.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/watch-yahya-abdul-mateen-ii-man-on-fire/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T18:01:05.253Z"},{"id":"j92lts","archiveId":"j2v0jm","slug":"young-feminists-prepare-to-gather-in-dc-for-national-leadership-conference-march-28-30","title":"Young Feminists Prepare to Gather in D.C. for National Leadership Conference, March 28-30","excerpt":"Hundreds of student activists will gather in Washington, D.C., later this month for the 2026 National Young Feminist Leadership Conference, a three-day event focused on organizing, policy advocacy and building the next generation of feminist leaders.","content":"
Hundreds of student activists will gather in Washington, D.C., later this month for the 2026 National Young Feminist Leadership Conference, a three-day event focused on organizing, policy advocacy and building the next generation of feminist leaders. (There's still time to register!)
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Hosted by the Feminist Majority Foundation (publisher of Ms. ), the conference will take place March 28-30 at the DoubleTree Crystal City in Arlington, Va., bringing together high school and college students from across the country.
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The post Young Feminists Prepare to Gather in D.C. for National Leadership Conference, March 28-30 appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Ms. Editors","publishDate":"2026-03-10T17:27:15.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/78d71bd7-0504-4d0a-bb5a-15a685b8c4c6.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/10/national-young-feminist-leadership-conference-washington-dc/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T18:01:00.817Z"},{"id":"7jdzfu","archiveId":"ezqkmk","slug":"op-ed-rev-jesse-jacksons-hbcu-roots-show-how-student-leadership-shapes-black-political-power","title":"Op-Ed: Rev. Jesse Jackson’s HBCU Roots Show How Student Leadership Shapes Black Political Power","excerpt":"When I learned of Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.’s passing, it was the morning of my very first keynote presentation in Charlotte, North Carolina where I discussed the century-long relationship between […] The post Op-Ed: Rev.","content":"
By
Tevon Blair ·
Updated March 10, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
When I learned of Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.’s passing, it was the morning of my very first keynote presentation in Charlotte, North Carolina where I discussed the century-long relationship between civic engagement and student leadership at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) . I knew it was important to name the many leaders who made transitions from elected leadership roles on campus to shaping national politics.
One of the leaders I recognized was Jackson.
What many people may not know is that twenty-five years before he launched his historic 1988 presidential campaign and delivered the “Keep Hope Alive” speech , he was elected as president of the student government association at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T).
He also shares this beginning story with Randall Woodfin, mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, Phillip Agnew, co-founder of Black Men Build and Dream Defenders, and Stacey Abrams, the Spelman alumna who made history as the first African American woman to secure a major party’s nomination for governor.
Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.’s legacy didn’t begin on the national stage. His journey from student government leader at NC A&T to civil rights icon reflects the enduring power of HBCU leadership. (Photo by jean-Louis Atlan/Sygma via Getty Images)
In 1960, just three years before he was elected to the highest-level position to represent his campus, students at his institution and Bennett College, led several protests and a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter. The passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Acts and 1965 Voting Rights Act also came shortly after he graduated from NC A&T. I’d go even further to say that Jackson’s early involvement with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., landing him a job with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), was a direct result of his political role as an HBCU SGA president.
His HBCU student leadership experience helped to build a foundation for the prominent civil rights leader we honor today. This foundation is one that contributes to generations of Black students being informed and engaged citizens in their communities. His children followed behind him as leaders in politics and also became graduates of NC A&T.
Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.’s leadership journey began at NC A&T, where he served as student government president. (Photo by Owen Franken/Corbis via Getty Images)
This one particular part of his story helped me to understand how a man who was never elected to public office at any level of government had so much political representation at his homegoing services. Although unheard of, his passing brought together three of the five living former United States presidents, a former vice president, sitting governors, mayors, congressional members and global leaders in one room to honor his legacy.
The remarks from political leaders shared at his service reminded me of the legacy of leadership that Jackson leaves behind and the generations of future leaders who continue to be inspired because of him.
Jackson spent six decades of his life committed to the advancement of African Americans and communities across the world, influencing politics and inspiring generations of people – his funeral was bound to be political.
His 1972 appearance on Sesame Street, reciting the poem “I am – Somebody,” makes me think of what a Black man raised in the segregated South who enrolled in college as a first generation student may have experienced before he believed he was somebody.
Growing up in Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago, I lived minutes away from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition building. While I always knew the organization was founded by Jackson, it wasn’t until these past two weeks that I fully understood the significance of this building, his legacy and its connection to my own >Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Even though 56 years had passed since NC A&T and Bennett students sparked protests across the South, the role of SGA president was still just as political for me. It was the U.S. Senate race in Louisiana that shaped my approach to student leadership and understanding how my generation of students engaged in local and state politics.
Now 10 years after that experience, I lead the nonpartisan Vote HBCU program at Xceleader , a nonprofit organization I co-founded with two other HBCU SGA presidents. Since 2020, we’ve registered more than 4,200 HBCU students to vote, educating and training these students to show up as active and informed citizens in their college communities.
History continues to show us that HBCUs are centers for Black leadership and political movements. Dr. Jelani Favors, another N.C. A&T alum and author of Shelter in a Time of Storm: How Black Colleges Fostered Generations of Leadership and Activism, documents the unique experiences of many HBCU students and alumni who shaped social and political movements since the beginning of our institutions.
I am intentional about Black students going to HBCUs because these experiences hold a deep impact on our lives. To put it in perspective, almost every civil rights leader we celebrate today is a graduate of an HBCU or has some level of HBCU student leadership experience. Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin, Stokely Carmichael, Patricia Stephens Due, John Lewis, Mary McLeod Bethune and many others all share this experience.
Holding an elected public position is not what made their legacy remarkable, it was the experiences they gained from HBCUs.
The beginning stories of Jackson and those previously named are not too far from our own, making their impact seem a bit more attainable. Now, more than 60 years later, a new generation of leaders are needed as the issues that Jackson and other civil rights leaders dedicated their lives to are being overturned, dismantled and under attack.
In the realest way possible, we’re Black, therefore politics will always find its way in our lives, even in our final celebration of life.
The post Op-Ed: Rev. Jesse Jackson’s HBCU Roots Show How Student Leadership Shapes Black Political Power appeared first on Essence .
","category":"politics","author":"Shelby Stewart","publishDate":"2026-03-10T17:03:49.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/jesse-jackson-hbcu-student-leadership-legacy/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T18:01:05.253Z"},{"id":"5h8s2v","archiveId":"xqbrwl","slug":"teens-avoid-coercive-parental-involvement-laws-by-using-telehealth-abortion-services","title":"Teens Avoid Coercive Parental Involvement Laws by Using Telehealth Abortion Services","excerpt":"The majority of U.S. teenagers live in states that require parental involvement in abortion healthcare decision-making. If parents are unavailable or teens under 18 do not want to involve their parents, they must go to court and convince a judge that they are mature enough to decide on their own or ...","content":"
The majority of U.S. teenagers live in states that require parental involvement in abortion healthcare decision-making. If parents are unavailable or teens under 18 do not want to involve their parents, they must go to court and convince a judge that they are mature enough to decide on their own or that the abortion is in their best interest.
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To avoid this invasive and burdensome process, resourceful teens are now turning to abortion care from telehealth providers located outside their restrictive states.
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The post Teens Avoid Coercive Parental Involvement Laws by Using Telehealth Abortion Services appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Carrie N. Baker","publishDate":"2026-03-10T16:58:29.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2196090428.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/10/teens-abortion-pills-ban-states/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T18:01:00.817Z"},{"id":"nea4va","archiveId":"amlvbu","slug":"zendaya-channels-bridal-energy-in-white-at-louis-vuitton-aw26","title":"Zendaya Channels Bridal Energy In White at Louis Vuitton AW26","excerpt":"We’ve all been eagerly awaiting Zendaya’s first public appearance since her stylist, Law Roach, jokingly hinted that she might already be married—and that we all somehow missed it. Still, for […] The post Zendaya Channels Bridal Energy In White at Louis Vuitton AW26 appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated March 10, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
We’ve all been eagerly awaiting Zendaya’s first public appearance since her stylist, Law Roach , jokingly hinted that she might already be married—and that we all somehow missed it. Still, for Zendaya and her partner, Tom Holland, the speculation comes as little surprise. The couple has long kept their relationship largely out of the spotlight. What isn’t kept quiet, however, is her commitment to showing up for Louis Vuitton . And the AW26 show earlier today was no different.
The show itself took place at the Louvre Museum, where the collection leaned into avant-garde geometric outerwear and playful, almost childlike references. The set was molded into grassy green mountains inspired by the Jura Mountains near the Swiss-French border, where Louis Vuitton grew up. The designer riffed on knapsacks and walking sticks, triangular hats, evoking themes of play and adventure—an imaginative escape set against a tumultuous global political climate.
PARIS, FRANCE – MARCH 10: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY – For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from Fashion House) Zendaya Coleman attends the Louis Vuitton Womenswear Fall/Winter 2026-2027 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on March 10, 2026 in Paris, France. (Photo by Marc Piasecki/WireImage)
There, the actress rocked a white exaggerated tuxedo-collared shirt cinched with a thick black belt. She paired it with a high-low bubble-hem skirt that revealed her legs, finished with sleek black pumps—her signature.
While many of fashion’s current it-girls are leaning into shorter cuts, Zendaya followed suit with a curly bob that bordered on
The post Zendaya Channels Bridal Energy In White at Louis Vuitton AW26 appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-10T16:48:27.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/zendaya-bridal-energy-louis-vuitton-fall-winter-2026/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T18:01:05.253Z"},{"id":"7zlor2","archiveId":"phcqt0","slug":"why-chase-infiniti-is-our-style-038-beauty-muse","title":"Why Chase Infiniti Is Our Style & Beauty Muse","excerpt":"Celebrate Chase Infiniti’s achievements as a 2026 Black Women in Hollywood Honoree. The 2026 awards show is available to stream: Watch Here Chase Infiniti, one of our upcoming 19th Annual Black […] The post Why Chase Infiniti Is Our Style & Beauty Muse appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Larry Stansbury ·
The post Why Chase Infiniti Is Our Style & Beauty Muse appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-10T16:24:08.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/chase-infiniti-essence-black-women-in-hollywood-honoree-style-beauty-muse/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T18:01:05.253Z"},{"id":"2qlu07","archiveId":"npjjqx","slug":"the-grok-generation-the-consent-crisis-no-one-is-stopping","title":"The Grok Generation: The Consent Crisis No One Is Stopping","excerpt":"Grok, the AI chatbot used on Musk’s platform X, has been under fire for generating nude or sexualized images of real people, including individuals who are minors. In one estimate, Grok produced one nonconsensual sexual image per minute over a 24-hour period.","content":"
Grok, the AI chatbot used on Musk’s platform X, has been under fire for generating nude or sexualized images of real people, including individuals who are minors. In one estimate, Grok produced one nonconsensual sexual image per minute over a 24-hour period. Prompts such as “put her in a transparent bikini” produced altered images that were then circulated publicly, some accumulating thousands of likes. The targets are real women and underage girls whose images were manipulated without their knowledge or permission.
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Elon Musk responded by making a joke, requesting a Grok-generated image of himself in a bikini and reacting with laughing emojis. When the platform’s most powerful figure and one of the country’s most powerful men treats the abuse as a punchline, it sends a message about what is actually harmful versus what he thinks should be considered humor—and provides a tacit granting of consent to young men on the platform to keep making these images.
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Much of the public conversation about young people and AI has focused on cheating in school or declining literacy. Far less attention has been paid to what it means when a middle school boy can type a sentence and produce a sexualized image of a female classmate in seconds as a joke or for attention—or to pretend he received it from her for status.
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For girls growing up in this online environment, the message is unmistakable: Your image is not protected as yours. Your body can be altered, distributed and consumed for entertainment. Its violation can be dismissed as a joke.
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Teachers, parents, lawmakers and platform leaders are behind. The question is not whether this will shape the next generation’s understanding of power and intimacy—but what we will step in to do about it.
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The post The Grok Generation: The Consent Crisis No One Is Stopping appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Haley Lickstein","publishDate":"2026-03-10T16:00:40.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2256074404.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/10/grok-girls-ai-chatbot-images-porn-elon-musk-bikini/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T18:01:00.817Z"},{"id":"kyqfav","archiveId":"ib8nom","slug":"ugandan-police-arrest-two-women-for-allegedly-kissing","title":"Ugandan Police Arrest Two Women for Allegedly Kissing","excerpt":"
Two women are currently in custody in Uganda for allegedly kissing in public. The pair, whom Ugandan police arrested on February 18, are detained under the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, one of the most draconian anti-LGBT legislations in the world.","content":"<p>Two women are currently in custody in Uganda for allegedly kissing in public. The pair, whom Ugandan police arrested on February 18, are detained under the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, one of the most draconian anti-LGBT legislations in the world.</p><p>Uganda criminalizes consensual same-sex relations under its British colonial-era Penal Code Act. Over the last decade, the Ugandan government has increasingly further restricted the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, culminating in the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act.</p><p>The Act criminalizes consensual same-sex conduct with penalties of up to life imprisonment, attempted homosexual acts with penalties of up to 10 years’ imprisonment, and the death penalty for those convicted of “aggravated homosexuality,” which includes repeated same sex acts and intercourse with a person older than 75, or a person with a disability.</p><p>A police spokesperson said that the two women were arrested under suspicion of “practicing homosexuality” after community members reported them for engaging in “queer and unusual acts.” According to local media, they were held in police custody until February 27, then briefly released but re-arrested promptly.</p><p>While the Anti-Homosexuality Act originally included an obligation to report someone suspected of participating in same-sex acts, that provision was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2024.</p><p>The Act has had a devastating impact on the lives of LGBT people, activists, allies, and their families. LGBT activists in the country have reported an increase in physical attacks, violence, extortion, entrapment, and arbitrary arrest and detention. The arrest of the two women is only the latest in a series of many.</p><p>The Anti-Homosexuality Act contravenes Uganda’s obligations under international human rights law including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which guarantees equality before the law and protection from discrimination, violence, and arbitrary arrest. The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights has called on states to prevent violence and other human rights violations based on real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. These obligations require Uganda to protect LGBT people from harassment, arbitrary arrest, and abuse.</p><p>The Ugandan police should immediately release the two women. The Ugandan government should repeal the Anti-Homosexuality Act and the Penal Code provisions criminalizing consensual same-sex conduct, and ensure equal protection and non-discrimination for all, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.</p>","category":"lgbtq","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-10T15:30:56.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603lgbt_uk_uganda_rights.jpg?h=6f665716&itok=x4u9C1H0","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/10/ugandan-police-arrest-two-women-for-allegedly-kissing","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T18:01:05.678Z"},{"id":"gdetpj","archiveId":"krdc93","slug":"equity-cannot-wait-confronting-the-unequal-burden-of-hiv-and-aids-on-women-of-color","title":"Equity Cannot Wait: Confronting the Unequal Burden of HIV and AIDS on Women of Color","excerpt":"When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first reported what would later be called AIDS in 1981, public narratives narrowly centered on white gay men. Globally, women account for more than half of all people living with HIV today.","content":"
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first reported what would later be called AIDS in 1981, public narratives narrowly centered on white gay men. Globally, women account for more than half of all people living with HIV today. But, women were present in the epidemic from the start, but their experiences were marginalized in surveillance and public discourse.
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The post Equity Cannot Wait: Confronting the Unequal Burden of HIV and AIDS on Women of Color appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Jacqui Kilmer","publishDate":"2026-03-10T15:25:41.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2249453578.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/10/hiv-aids-women-girls/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T18:01:00.817Z"},{"id":"rudqqs","archiveId":"gf2rj8","slug":"women-over-40-get-to-be-complicated-on-screen-finally","title":"Women over 40 get to be complicated on screen, finally","excerpt":"Want more stories like this? Subscribe to our new menopause newsletter. Actor Rose Byrne is 46. In “If I Had Legs I Would Kick You,” she plays Linda, a therapist who is struggling to balance a demanding and emotionally draining job with caring for a largely unseen daughter with a pediatric feeding d...","content":"
Want more stories like this? Subscribe to our new menopause newsletter .
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Actor Rose Byrne is 46. In “If I Had Legs I Would Kick You,” she plays Linda, a therapist who is struggling to balance a demanding and emotionally draining job with caring for a largely unseen daughter with a pediatric feeding disorder, all the while her husband is away working as a ship captain. Her performance has been widely heralded as raw, expansive and nuanced, an extreme close-up of a woman who is trying so hard to care for others.
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Kate Hudson is 46, too. She plays Claire “Thunder” Sardina in “Song Sung Blue,” a biopic about a husband-and-wife Neil Diamond tribute band. It tells the story of a tragic accident and the years of addiction, mental health crisis and physical pain that follow — and how Claire’s journey of self-discovery and recovery makes the seemingly impossible take shape.
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They’re both Academy Award nominees for Best Actress in a Leading Role — a category whose winners have historically skewed younger. (Last year’s winner, Mikey Madison, was all of 25 at the time of her win.)
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That said, in the past decade we’ve seen notable wins by women who are firmly in midlife: Frances McDormand, in her 60s at the time, won in 2018 and in 2021, and Michelle Yeoh was a 60-year old winner in 2023 for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
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And they won for playing wonderfully complicated characters: McDormand’s vengeful, violent and deeply tormented Mildred Hayes in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”; her turn as the van-life-discovering Fern in “Nomadland”; Yeoh’s kung-fu-fighting, multiverse-hopping Evelyn Quan Kang as an immigrant mom just trying to keep her family loved and safe.
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These women were flawed, interesting, occasionally filled with rage and often deeply vulnerable. They were exactly the kind of characters that make me want to go to the movies. (Obligatory Nicole Kidman, “Somehow heartbreak feels good in a place like this” moment here.)
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It also speaks to what’s resonating with people about Byrne and Hudson’s performances this year: They’re roles that show women can be just as messed up, despondent, striving and triumphant as any man.
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Rose Byrne, 46, plays Linda in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, a therapist struggling to balance a demanding and emotionally draining job with caring for a largely unseen daughter with a pediatric feeding disorder while her husband works away as a ship captain.\n (Logan White/A24) \n\n\n\n
Cue the expert \n\n\n\n
I wanted to know how to contextualize women’s representation on screen, so I called Madeline Di Nonno , the president and CEO of the Geena Davis Institute (GDI), which has been researching gender representation on screen for decades.
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In December, the group released a report, “Missing in Action: Writing a new narrative for women in midlife on the big screen ,” evaluating over-40 characters in films released from 2009 to 2024.
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And what a surprise: They found real and persistent age gaps in storytelling when it comes to men versus women in midlife.
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Di Nonno said women characters over 40 are twice as likely as equivalent men characters to have a storyline focused on physical aging — 15 percent vs 7 percent.
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GDI also found that women are portrayed in a frantic chase of beating back these tell-tale signs of aging. Three-quarters of characters who engage with cosmetic treatments of any kind are women. And men? Well, they’re only ever shown dying the occasional gray hair or trimming a stray nose hair.
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And the stereotypes go beyond the superficial, Di Nonno said. She pointed to “the sad widow trope,” when a character’s entire storyline is defined by the loss of their spouse. Nineteen of the films released over the past 16 years featured a “sad widow,” while only eight had a “sad widower.”
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Of the 225 films reviewed in the GDI study about menopause representation, only 14 mentioned menopause. And when it was mentioned, it almost exclusively was there to serve as some kind of comedic device about women’s inevitable decline, Di Nonno said. “So, we have a lot of work to do in terms of this narrative culture change work.”
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“When you think about midlife and aging, particularly with menopause, it’s positioned as the end instead of the beginning,” DiNonno said. “But we’re living so much longer. … By the time we hit midlife and menopause, we’ve got another 40-, 50-something years left to live. It’s the beginning of this age of wisdom and knowledge and should be celebrated.”
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We’re talking about sex again \n\n\n\n
On screen, what’s often missing is the sense of hope, possibility, and, yes, sexuality that feels real to what most people’s midlife experiences entail.
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Can midlife women be sexual on screen? The question reminds me of an infamous sketch from “Inside Amy Schumer.”
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In the 2016 sketch, Schumer (then in her early 30s) is hiking through a lush California landscape when she comes upon a sumptuous picnic being enjoyed by Tina Fey, Patricia Arquette and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, all playing themselves (and all in their mid-40s through late 50s at the time). Louis-Dreyfuss welcomes Schumer, also playing herself, telling her they’re celebrating the official moment when Hollywood stops considering her as sexual or desirable.
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Who tells you when your “last fuckable day” — the sketch’s title — comes, Schumer asks.
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“Well, nobody, nobody really overtly tells you, but there are signs,” Fey says. “Like, you know how Sally Field was Tom Hanks’s love interest in ‘Punchline,’ and then, like, 20 minutes later, she was his mom in ‘Forrest Gump’?”
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Also, Louis-Dreyfuss says, there are a lot of long sweaters that cover your entire body waiting for you in wardrobe.
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I love a big sweater, don’t get me wrong. And I love watching talented women play complex characters enduring hardship. But I also think we deserve to see women over 40 as sexual and powerful — not just facing insurmountable odds.
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Violet Bridgerton and all of us \n\n\n\n
So much of the richness and complexities that come with aging are basically nonexistent on screen.
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Men and women ages 50 to 85 agree that there are not enough characters on TV who are older, another GDI survey shows . And when they are portrayed, it is in ways that don’t feel representative. They wanted to see more love, marriage and romance for older characters.
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That romance is part of what has made this season of Shonda Rhimes’ “Bridgerton” so appealing, as matriarch Violet Bridgerton finally is seen with a love — and sex — interest of her own.
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She grapples with insecurity about having sex with a new partner and her feelings about her own body, while also feeling plenty entitled to an evening “tea.” It feels far from a coincidence that her storyline is the one resonating with everyone I know: Yes, we all love how opulent and beautiful the world of Bridgerton is, how lovely it is to get lost in the fantasy of it all. But with Violet? Well, it feels like we’re getting that fantasy and something very real.
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In the latest season of Bridgerton, the matriarch Violet Bridgerton finds a love interest of her own while grappling with insecurity about her body and intimacy with a new partner.\n (Netflix) \n\n\n\n
What women want \n\n\n\n
Seeing more women in midlife play more dynamic, well-rounded roles makes good economic sense for studios too, Di Nonno said. The GDI survey of older viewers found that they stop watching when characters who are midlife and beyond are portrayed as frail, frumpy and sad. They want to see characters who look like them — and they want to see those characters thriving.
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It’s why Di Nonno says she hopes that industry execs are paying attention to what audiences really want when it comes to women in midlife: “One, they’re fully in control of their destiny and not a victim. Two, they can experience romance and love and sex without guilt. And three, they have full awareness of their financial power and literacy.”
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We’ll all have what Violet Bridgerton is having: looking our age and being celebrated for it — riveting sex scenes and all.
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Jennifer Gerson","publishDate":"2026-03-10T15:24:45.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/menopause-representation-2.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/oscars-women-nominees-embracing-midlife/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T18:01:00.918Z"},{"id":"o68740","archiveId":"y6lym6","slug":"louisiana8217s-legal-fight-against-mailed-abortion-pills-a-timeline","title":"Louisiana’s Legal Fight Against Mailed Abortion Pills: A Timeline","excerpt":"Key moments in Louisiana v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration , the case that could upend telehealth abortion care nationwide. The post Louisiana’s Legal Fight Against Mailed Abortion Pills: A Timeline appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill’s lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which attempts to restrict access to mifepristone—one of two drugs commonly used in U.S. medication abortions—is heating up.
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The case, filed in 2025, centers around a Biden-era rule that removed a requirement for abortion patients to receive mifepristone from a provider in-person and allowed certified retail pharmacies to dispense the drug directly to patients. The requirement was temporarily lifted during the COVID-19 pandemic and was officially codified in 2023, citing a scientific review by agency staff . This was just months after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which stripped federal abortion protections and led many states to impose abortion bans, increasing the use of telehealth abortion care .
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In her complaint, Murrill argued that the FDA’s rule flies in the face of the state’s near-total abortion ban, since providers in other states can mail abortion pills to patients in Louisiana. Missouri, Idaho, Texas, Kansas, and Florida have also sued over the rule.
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The case, Louisiana v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration , has the potential to completely alter the state of telehealth medication abortion care, which accounts for nearly 27 percent of all abortions , according to the health policy research organization KFF.
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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If Louisiana prevails, it would make abortion access even more difficult—researchers found that 84 percent of online prescriptions from Aid Access, a nonprofit that dispenses abortion pills to people in all 50 states who are less than 14 weeks pregnant, went to patients residing in states that ban abortion.
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Here’s a breakdown of the key moments so far in the case.
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Timeline of Louisiana v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration \n\n\n\n
Oct. 6, 2025 \n\n\n\n
Murrill sued the FDA in an attempt to reverse a 2023 rule that allowed mifepristone to be dispensed remotely, via telehealth.
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(Read more: Louisiana Mifepristone Lawsuit Could Hinder Telehealth Abortion Nationwide )
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Dec. 17, 2025 \n\n\n\n
Murrill asked a federal district court in Louisiana for a preliminary injunction to temporarily reinstate pre-2023 rules requiring in-person provision of mifepristone while the case proceeds.
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Jan. 27, 2026 \n\n\n\n
The FDA asked the court to stay , or pause, the case, saying it was actively reviewing its rules around mifepristone. The Trump administration’s brief argued that granting Louisiana’s request to re-implement pre-2023 rules would “threaten to short circuit the agency’s orderly review and study of the safety risks of mifepristone,” and that it “may prove as unnecessary as it is disruptive, if FDA ultimately decides that the in-person dispensing requirement must be restored.”
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Feb. 3, 2026 \n\n\n\n
GenBioPro—a pharmaceutical company that makes a generic version of mifepristone—and Danco Laboratories, which sells the drug under the brand name Mifeprex, filed motions to intervene in the case and asked the court to dismiss it altogether. “We are increasingly concerned by extremists’ complete disregard for the large body of scientific evidence supporting mifepristone’s use and safety,” GenBioPro CEO Evan Masingill said in a statement the following day.
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Feb. 24, 2026 \n\n\n\n
During a hearing, the court allowed GenBioPro and Danco to intervene in the case. The court did not rule on Louisiana’s request to enforce pre-2023 rules while the case proceeds.
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(Listen: What’s Going On In the Fight Over Abortion Pills–Podcast )
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This case continues in the courts. RNG will update this timeline as it proceeds.
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The post Louisiana’s Legal Fight Against Mailed Abortion Pills: A Timeline appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-10T14:50:34.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/FDA-exterior.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/10/louisiana-fda-abortion-mifepristone-telehealth/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T18:01:00.370Z"},{"id":"cprkju","archiveId":"wojolm","slug":"body-positivity-was-never-anti-health","title":"Body Positivity Was Never Anti-Health","excerpt":"If you’ve been scrolling lately, you may have noticed the shift in how we talk about bodies. Once again, thinness is being elevated as the gold standard of health, and […] The post Body Positivity Was Never Anti-Health appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Andrea Mathis, MA, RDN, LD ·
Updated March 10, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
If you’ve been scrolling lately, you may have noticed the shift in how we talk about bodies. Once again, thinness is being elevated as the gold standard of health, and in that shift, body respect , I see something very different. What I see is not evidence that body positivity failed, but evidence that we have misunderstood it. And that misunderstanding is dangerous.
Body Positivity Did Not Begin on Social Media
Body positivity did not originate online with perfectly curated selfies or pastel-colored affirmations. Its roots trace back to the 1960s fat liberation movement, which was a civil rights effort led by activists who demanded equitable treatment for people in larger bodies.
Organizations like the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), founded in 1969, advocated for anti-discrimination protections, fair employment practices, and equitable healthcare access. The movement challenged systemic bias and insisted that people in larger bodies deserved dignity, safety, and medical care without shame and humiliation.
It was not, and has never been, about denying health concerns or rejecting personal responsibility. It was about rejecting the idea that someone’s humanity, intelligence, morality, or access to care should be conditional on their weight. Over time, social media reduced that message to something much smaller than it was meant to be.
When Civil Rights Became Aesthetic Branding
In the age of algorithms and viral moments, complex movements are often reduced to catchy, bite-sized slogans. This sadly resulted in body positivity became a hashtag, a trend, and a marketing aesthetic. Some creators and brands viewed this new “trend” as an opportunity to monetize empowerment…to sell products, build platforms, and attach themselves to the language of self-love without necessarily engaging in the deeper advocacy work that birthed the movement.
The nuance, which includes the policy advocacy, the healthcare reform, and the anti-discrimination work, was overshadowed by surface-level messaging. What began as a demand for structural change became a performance of self-love curated for engagement. And once the message was watered down, it became easier for critics to redefine it on their own terms. If body positivity is only framed as “love your body no matter what,” it becomes easier to argue that it dismisses health concerns. But that framing completely ignores its foundation. Body positivity was never anti-health. It was anti-shame, and that is a significant difference.
Health Versus Weight Stigma
When someone says they want to “focus on their health,” that is their personal right. Health is dynamic, goals evolve, and bodies are allowed to change. As a dietitian, I support anyone who wants to improve their overall health, but pursuing health is not synonymous with perpetuating weight stigma.
Weight stigma occurs when body size is treated as a moral failing or a visual diagnosis. It shows up in doctors’ offices when patients’ symptoms are dismissed with, “Just lose weight.” It appears in hiring decisions, in classroom teasing, and in media portrayals that equate thinness with virtue and integrity.
Research consistently shows that weight stigma itself is harmful. It increases stress, raises cortisol levels, discourages medical visits, and can contribute to disordered eating patterns. Body positivity challenges stigma. It does not reject health. In fact, removing stigma has been associated with producing sustainable health outcomes. When people feel safe in their bodies, they are more likely to engage in joyful movement, nourish themselves consistently, and seek preventative care. Fear, shame, and humiliation has been shown to shut down thosedecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/Andrea-Mathis-Image-1.jpg\" alt=\"Body Positivity Was Never Anti-Health\" width=\"400\" height=\"502\" />The author, Andrea Mathis MA, RDN, LD Why This Conversation Affects Black Women the Most
For Black women, this hits even harder. Black women already face disproportionate healthcare disparities, from maternal mortality rates to higher prevalence of hypertension and diabetes. Research shows that Black women’s pain is more likely to be dismissed and our symptoms are more likely to be minimized in healthcare settings. We are often required to advocate harder just to be taken seriously . When weight bias intersects with racial bias, the impact doesn’t just add up, it multiplies.
So, when public narratives claim that body positivity “encourages neglect,” that messaging doesn’t land neutrally. It reinforces harmful stereotypes about larger Black women, implying that we are irresponsible, lazy, or indifferent to our health. That narrative is not just inaccurate, it’s dangerous. Once certain bodies are viewed as careless, it becomes easier to dismiss their symptoms, overlook their concerns, and offer less thorough care. And that’s how stigma quietly turns into substandard treatment.
You Don’t Have to Choose Between Health and Humanity
The public conversations about body positivity suggest you must pick a side: body positivity or health, and that is simply not true. We can pursue metabolic health while rejecting body shame. We can set personal goals without stigmatizing others. Health is multifaceted and includes a variety of contributing factors. It includes lab values and medical assessments, but also mental well-being, food access, stress, sleep, and social support. When we reduce health to weight alone, we erase its complexity and miss the bigger picture.
It’s also important to separate personal choice from public messaging. If someone chooses to change their eating or activity habits, that’s autonomy, and body positivity has always centered autonomy. Body positivity did not tell anyone to ignore medical advice and reject health. It told society to stop withholding compassion and treat all bodies with dignity and respect. Period.
So Where Do We Go From Here?
We start by teaching that advocating for equitable healthcare does not cancel out managing chronic conditions, and challenging weight stigma is not the same as dismissing evidence-based nutrition. We can hold space for both.
For Black women especially, this means rejecting the idea that we must shrink, physically or metaphorically, to deserve care. It means demanding inclusive research, addressing implicit bias in healthcare, and expanding our definition of health beyond aesthetics. When body positivity centers dignity, it strengthens health outcomes rather than undermining them. And when we dismantle misinformation about body positivity it helps to ensure that the next generation understands that advocating for body dignity does not mean abandoning health. It means pursuing health from a place of respect rather than punishment.
Body positivity was never about ignoring health. It was about insisting that our bodies should never determine whether we are treated with humanity. And that is a movement worth defending, not renouncing.
TOPICS:
Body positivity health and wellness Prevent and Protect The post Body Positivity Was Never Anti-Health appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Victoria Uwumarogie","publishDate":"2026-03-10T14:42:37.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/health-and-wellness/body-positivity-campaign/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T18:01:05.253Z"},{"id":"88wdmv","archiveId":"7kprix","slug":"why-a-white-jogger8217s-run-through-howard-university-sparked-outrage","title":"Why A White Jogger’s Run Through Howard University Sparked Outrage","excerpt":"H-U! You know!Howard University, often referred to as The Real H-U (We don’t want any smoke, Hampton.), has become the topic of a heated debate across social media. A White […] The post Why A White Jogger’s Run Through Howard University Sparked Outrage appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Bridgette Bartlett Royall ·
Updated March 10, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
H-U! You know!Howard University , often referred to as The Real H-U (We don’t want any smoke, Hampton .), has become the topic of a heated debate across social media. A White content creator who goes by Your Buddy Gus on Instagram, recently posted a reel of content filmed on the popular HBCU campus in the NorthWest section of Washington, D.C.
“Gus”, a young blonde male who regularly posts fitness videos, has caused an online stir and both Howard University students and alumni are torn on whether his HU content is offensive or insensitive. Gus is especially known for his outdoor fitness vlogs, specifically running and jogging content, throughout the nation’s capital. On February 26, he posted a video compilation of content shot throughout Howard University. The comprehensive campus reel was executed tastefully, showcasing popular destinations on the yard including Divine 9 plots and the buildings where the school’s legendary Hilltop and WHUT headquarters live. He ended the video with a lovely signoff of, Gorgeous Campus! The kicker? The accompanying music was a classic Go-Go tune by Chuck Brown , Hey Go Go Mickey (Live) . Gus, at least appeared to be, thoughtful and intentional from conception to completion.
Some social viewers were not too fond of the reel, however. It seemingly gave colonizer vibes to many of those who criticized it. There are arguments that Howard, and any HBCU campus, should remain safe spaces. Clashes such as these might be a direct result of the city’s growing gentrification in a destination once known as Chocolate City. Previous incidents in Washington, D.C., like those related to White newcomers to the city leisurely walking their dogs on a sacred Howard University lawn, offer additional context as to why there might have been apprehension to the reel Gus recorded and posted.
As we dig further, additional deeply rooted historical context surfaces. For example, on the campus of another HBCU, Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, the Ku Klux Klan repeatedly terrorized the school community with threats to burn down dormitories and other violent, racially motivated attacks. This is merely one of countless such horrific stories. In fact, HBCUs have faced a long history of intimidation and violence from the Ku Klux Klan and other White supremacist groups, ranging from Reconstruction-era (1870s) opposition to modern-day bomb threats.
On the other side of the coin, many proud Howard alumni and current students have no issue with the reel Gus posted and some are even in support of it. One commenter offered this enlightening point of view on Instagram, “He didn’t hurt anybody or anything but merely highlighted some of the great things that make HU a historic treasure not only for DC but for the United States and the world.” Another commenter and Howard graduate shared similar sentiments. “Bison pride through and through but let’s save these reads for the yts who disrespect our campus. Not only are our streets not ‘private’ but he is showing love and appreciation.”
In response to the backlash, Gus posted an apology, roughly a week or so after the posting the video in question, with this caption: “To the Howard community, I apologize for my insensitivity. It won’t happen again, and I hope you can forgive me.” His apology has more than six thousand likes (and counting). Is this enough? Was his apology even necessary in the first place? And how does the reel Gus posted that has stirred up so much robust debate differ from the content of the self-proclaimed HBCU advocate and White ally, GW Sedberry, Jr. who has more than half a million followers on Instagram and regularly films content at HBCUs across the country?
The bottom line: There is nuance here. This incident has ignited passionate dialogue surrounding HBCU culture, Black legacy, gentrification and more. Both sides raise valid points. Let’s continue to have these types of respectful and healthy exchanges about our rich and layered culture. We can agree to disagree. In the meantime, turn up the Rare Essence, pass the Mumbo Sauce and let’s make a date to all meet up and have fun at HBCU Howard University
The post Why A White Jogger’s Run Through Howard University Sparked Outrage appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Bridgette Bartlett","publishDate":"2026-03-10T14:22:33.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/education/white-jogger-howard-university-video-outrage/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T18:01:05.253Z"},{"id":"1y9567","archiveId":"pt9mup","slug":"trump-adds-pressure-to-pass-the-save-america-act-with-new-anti-trans-provisions","title":"Trump adds pressure to pass the SAVE America Act, with new anti-trans provisions","excerpt":"WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republicans have tried multiple avenues to pass their keystone elections bill. They reintroduced it in the House under a new name, mounted online pressure campaigns on congressional leadership and threatened to tank other legislation.","content":"
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republicans have tried multiple avenues to pass their keystone elections bill. They reintroduced it in the House under a new name, mounted online pressure campaigns on congressional leadership and threatened to tank other legislation.
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Though the SAVE America Act (formerly the SAVE Act ) cleared the House in February, the Senate has avoided taking it up for a vote. Now, President Donald Trump has raised a series of demands that won’t make its passage any easier. Trump announced in a weekend social media post that he would “not sign other bills until this is passed, and not the watered down version — go for the gold,” a revision that could now put anti-trans measures in the bill.
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As written, the SAVE America Act requires voters to provide documents proving their citizenship at the time of registration. That has raised alarms with voting rights groups, who say it would be burdensome to voters — especially married women and others who have changed their legal names because of marriage, assimilation or to better align with their gender identity.
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Trump now says he wants to add other provisions, including voter ID requirements and a ban on mail-in ballots, with exceptions. He also wants to include unrelated provisions related to trans women’s participation in sports and gender-affirming care for trans youth, though he has not given additional details about how that would combine with the voting legislation.
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The bill already faced a 60-vote threshold for passage in the Senate that it can’t meet without Democrats. Adding anti-trans measures and mail-in ballot restrictions further complicates any chance of passage.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said that for the version of the bill outlined by Trump to pass, the House — currently on recess — would need to act first.
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“Those were all things that weren’t part of what they sent over here to us,” Thune told reporters Monday. “Whatever we take up here is an open question now, because the thing we have in front of us is the House message, so it would probably make sense for them to send over another version.”
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The president repeated his wishlist while addressing House Republicans and donors in Miami during the GOP retreat on Monday. He said he’s asked Speaker Mike Johnson to “draw a new one” with these provisions in it, saying he believes they’re broadly popular with voters.
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“I wanted to add two more to it because they’re, I say, 95 percent, maybe 100 percent,” Trump said, pointing to banning trans girls and women from sports that align with their gender identity and blocking what he has repeatedly referred to as “mutilization” of trans youth. “That should be the easiest thing to get passed that you’ve ever had. Each one, it’s ‘best of,’ best of Trump.”
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There are currently no provisions in the SAVE America Act dealing with gender-affirming care or transgender athletes, despite Trump’s new priorities list. House Republicans have tried to pass anti-trans laws this session, but barely any have made it out of Congress — most have gotten stripped in the Senate. Most recently, all but one anti-LGBTQ+ provision was removed from the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act . The remaining one stopped trans women enrolled at U.S. service academies from participating in athletic programs designated for women.
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Caius Willingham, a senior policy analyst at Advocates for Trans Equality who frequently works on the Hill, said that there is just not enough support in the Senate to adopt these anti-trans measures. That makes Trump’s fixation on this bill all the more perplexing, he said.
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“It seems as if he believes that attaching these anti-trans riders to the SAVE America Act would improve its chances in the Senate,” he said. “Putting those riders into the SAVE America Act would actually turn off more senators than it would inspire them.”
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The president’s comments also directly contrast Thune’s beliefs that there is no current path for the chamber to pass the SAVE America Act as is with a “talking filibuster” — a tactic used to delay or block a vote by physically holding the floor to prevent action from the opposing party — particularly because the GOP is not unified enough to stave off Democratic amendments. While the legislation is still considered a key bill, Thune said last week that ending the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was his priority.
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“The one thing I’ve said all along — and I’ve told him and others — that I can’t guarantee an outcome,” Thune said on Monday. “I can’t guarantee a result if the result is only achieved by nuking the legislative filibuster. We don’t have the votes to do that.”
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Funding for DHS lapsed February 14, and frustrations have mounted as airports began to see longer security lines last week. Thune told reporters Monday that Trump has said he would sign a bill that reopens the department, adding that the president’s statement was an expression of how “passionate” he is about the SAVE America Act. When asked, many members were skeptical or unaware of how the process would play out amid still-frozen DHS negotiations.
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While voter ID requirements are popular among Americans across the political spectrum, critics say the provisions in the SAVE America Act would be overly burdensome on already eligible voters and dissuade new registration, particularly in rural areas.
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Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said he wanted to see a version of the bill with what he called best practices on absentee and mail-in voting, which, he added, the federal government should not ban outright.
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“There’s a right way to do it, a wrong way to do it. Nuking the filibuster doesn’t work. The talking filibuster would be a goat rodeo, and if we want to do the hard work, we should,” Tillis said. “I actually think that we could get 60 votes for a voter ID bill that encourages states to move forward with voter ID with certain parameters. … Then it would put pressure on Democratic states that say they don’t want voter ID. Let money flow to the states that are actually doing it up to what we consider to be best practices.”
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Voting rights groups maintain the SAVE America Act would pose a barrier for millions of women and others who have changed their legal names. An estimated 69 million American women and 4 million men do not have a birth certificate that matches their current legal name.
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With or without the SAVE America Act, trans Americans’ ability to vote has been jeopardized as more states restrict whether trans people can access accurate IDs and birth certificates, advocates say. In Kansas, trans residents’ licenses are being invalidated because of a new state law that requires gender markers to match a person’s sex at birth. Kansas requires a state ID to vote.
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But, if the SAVE America Act were to pass, that would make voting harder for trans people across the country.
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“Many of us could be disenfranchised as a result of the SAVE America Act,” Willingham said, referring to transgender Americans.
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Democrats have consistently criticized the bill’s potential impact on married women. However, on Monday many stopped short of specifically condemning Trump’s suggestion of attaching any legislation dealing with transgender people to it.
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“He’s trying to do anything he can — other than focus on the economy, because the economy is so bad,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, adding that he was not sure how serious the president’s “mad in the middle of the night” post was. “So he’s going to go to his little stock issues to keep people’s minds off rising prices.”
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Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, said he was “vehemently opposed” to the SAVE America Act, and said Trump’s “bizarre” statement only stood in the way of his own agenda.
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“It’s clear that they’re not trying to save America. Donald Trump is trying to save his power at any cost, and so he’s going to ring all those familiar bells of division, because he’s running desperately and in the end it’s not going to work,” Warnock said.
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Meanwhile, Thune and Republican leadership in the Senate are facing online pressure from lawmakers within their own party, to their growing irritation.
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The president is not backing down in the face of criticism from fellow party members.
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“It will guarantee the midterms,” Trump told lawmakers on Monday. “If you don’t get it, big trouble, my opinion.”
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Passing the act has also entered key midterms races. In Texas, embattled Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton has been goading Sen. John Cornyn, whom he’ll face in a May runoff, to speak up in favor of the bill. Politico reported Monday that Trump was putting off making an endorsement in the race in an attempt to pressure Cornyn and other Republicans to pass the bill.
","category":"politics","author":"Marissa Martinez","publishDate":"2026-03-10T12:46:39.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/SAVE_america_act_GOP.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/trump-save-america-act-senators/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T18:01:00.918Z"},{"id":"orln0y","archiveId":"du767i","slug":"these-pediatrician-moms-have-a-shared-message-release-all-children-in-immigration-detention","title":"These pediatrician moms have a shared message: Release all children in immigration detention","excerpt":"Dr. Lara Jones still remembers her visceral reaction to the image of Liam Ramos. It wasn’t the most famous one, of the 5-year-old boy in a blue bunny winter hat and superhero backpack with ICE officers behind him.","content":"
Dr. Lara Jones still remembers her visceral reaction to the image of Liam Ramos. It wasn’t the most famous one, of the 5-year-old boy in a blue bunny winter hat and superhero backpack with ICE officers behind him. It was one from days later, of Liam slumped in his father’s arms while both were in custody in Texas.
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“He looked pale, he looked sickly. He looked like a completely different child,” she said. “When I saw that image, my doctor brain turned on. I was like, this kid is sick. He needs medical attention.”
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Jones, who is double board-certified in pediatrics and pediatric critical care medicine, can quickly assess a lot based on a child’s appearance.
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“I can tell in the first 10 seconds that I look at you from the door, before I even put my hands on you, before I put a stethoscope on your chest — I can look at you, and I can know right away, you are going to be fine, or you are really sick and you need attention,” she added. “He looked very sick.”
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Jones couldn’t sleep that night. Liam’s well-being consumed her while at work the next day at a California hospital. After a round of patient visits, she went into a private room and “broke down and cried.” She needed to do something.
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Since then, Jones has become part of a trio of doctors — all pediatricians, all mothers — collectively calling on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to immediately release all children in immigration detention out of concern for their health. They warn that the detention of these children is causing severe and lasting harm to their mental and physical health, and say that emerging reports of kids allegedly facing delayed and inadequate medical care under DHS demands urgency and transparency.
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“We are traumatizing children, and we are putting them in dangerous environments,” Jones said.
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These doctors are bringing public awareness to known cases of sick children in detention, raising funds to help families in need of emergency assistance and meeting with members of Congress to demand accountability so that children who remain in custody receive evidence-based standards of care.
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“We are mothers of young children, and we are doing all of this in between shifts, after working night shifts, during nap time,” Jones said. “We are just doing as much as we can, in the time that we have, while we are working full time and being full-time moms.”
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Just weeks ago, Jones and the other women — Dr. Ashley Marie Cozzo of Connecticut and Dr. Anita K. Patel of Washington, D.C. — did not know each other personally. Now they’re in contact daily through a group text that pings at all hours of the day. They use the chat to think through advocacy ideas, to troubleshoot potential challenges and to align their priorities.
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“We’re trying to figure out every day in our brainstorming, ‘What’s next? What’s next?’” said Cozzo, who is double board-certified in pediatrics and neonatal-perinatal medicine. “I love a group project, and this is such a unique situation.”
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Patel, who is double board-certified in pediatrics and pediatric critical care medicine, said the quick camaraderie among the women has “reinvigorated” her after years of online campaigns around unrelated advocacy issues.
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“You have three critical care doctors for kids, and there are certain qualities inherent in pediatric critical care specialists — we will not stop until we have either saved a kid or we know that there is no chance of saving them,” she said. “We all have that personality, because literally that’s what we do in our jobs.”
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Liam’s story propelled their cause. As the image of Liam seemingly in a lethargic state ricocheted across the internet, the women shared their outrage with medical peers. Jones and Cozzo circulated a small online petition calling for Liam to be returned home, and amid the national outcry, a judge ordered the federal government to release the boy and his father . (The Ecuadorian family has an active asylum case, and it’s unclear for now whether they will be able to permanently stay in the United States.)
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The doctors then connected with Patel, and the three agreed to work together to bring more awareness to other children in detention. Patel said the power of imagery catapulted Liam’s story.
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“If he was an older kid, or even if he was Liam without the bunny hat — the outcry may not have come,” Patel said. “And all I could think was Liam deserved that outcry, and every single kid in detention needs that outcry.”
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The trio has fixated on the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the facility near San Antonio that houses families, in part because they are in frequent communication with a journalist, Lidia Terrazas, who has been reporting on people impacted by detention.
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When Terrazas highlighted in early February the story of a 2-month-old baby named Juan Nicolás, the case crystallized the doctors’ urgency. The boy had been in respiratory distress while at Dilley, but had allegedly received delayed care as his condition worsened. He was sent by ambulance to a hospital on February 16, according to Patel, after an unresponsive episode where detention officials could not wake him. DHS later deported the baby, his mother and other family members, including a 16-month-old, to Mexico.
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Jones was able to connect by text with Mireya López Sánchez, Juan Nicolás’ mother. The postpartum mother said that her milk had dried up while at Dilley. Patel is still nursing her toddler; the parallels — the universal urge a mother has to feed her baby — linger for her.
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When Patel nurses her own child, “I think of Mireya, whose milk dried up because she was so stressed and nutritionally deficient that she couldn’t breastfeed, and then when she couldn’t breastfeed, then she couldn’t afford clean water that wasn’t brown or smelled like chlorine to make formula.”
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According to the advocacy organization Each Step Home , which has partnered with the doctors to raise money for commissary funds, detainees at Dilley have to spend $40 to buy a four-pack of large water bottles and $35 for a 12-pack of small water bottles.
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A spokesperson for DHS did not respond to a request for comment from The 19th, but the agency has disputed allegations of malnourished or mistreated children and claims people in detention have access to medical care and adequate food. Emergency crews were called to the facility at least 11 times since September for children with symptoms including bronchitis, respiratory distress and fever, according to NBC News .
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CoreCivic, a private company that runs the Dilley facility, deferred questions to DHS but added in a public statement that claims of inadequate medical care are inaccurate and “directly contradicted by the comprehensive, around-the-clock care delivered by our licensed physicians, dentists, advanced practice providers, nurses and mental health professionals.”
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Jones doesn’t buy that when it comes to Juan Nicolás, whose mother reportedly told officials that her newborn was having difficulty breathing and was vomiting. Mireya said that instead of being seen by a medical professional, guards at the facility monitored the newborn for two days before he was sent to the hospital in distress.
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“I don’t know what they were assessing, but they’re not assessing it through the lens of a pediatric expert,” Jones said. “They’re not doing the appropriate medical workup. So that case alone is proof of delayed care and denied appropriate care, because the appropriate care for a 2-month-old with difficulty breathing and vomiting is to go to the emergency department.”
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Cozzo noted that several children died in 2018 and 2019 while in immigration custody , detention or after being released . In 2023, an 8-year-old girl died while in Border Patrol custody — reportedly after her mother repeatedly sought medical care for her.
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“We have a precedent of the highest degree of loss: children’s lives,” Cozzo said. “It has happened before, the things that these women are worried about — it’s only going to be a matter of time before we don’t learn from the mistakes of the past and another child dies.”
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As the doctors circulated Juan Nicolás’ story online, they connected with a charity to help raise money for the family . They also helped secure a hotel room for Juan Nicolás’s family amid their deportation to Mexico. They are now raising money for commissary funds for other families . As they hear of specific cases, including those of a woman who was deported while eight months pregnant and a family living in their car in the aftermath of their detention , they try to spring into action by either raising public awareness or funds.
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The medical community has long expressed alarm about how children’s health can deteriorate in immigration detention. Researchers in 2019 concluded that children’s mental health suffers and there’s a cascade of ripple effects, including anxiety disorders, depression and developmental regression and delays. The issue has been examined in immigration enforcement practices abroad , with similar outcomes.
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There are also standards of care for immigrant children in detention, and a 1997 legal agreement states that children should not be detained for more than 20 days. But the Marshall Project reported in December that some children are being held in detention for much longer — weeks or months. The publication estimated at the time that at least 3,800 children under 18 had been booked into ICE since President Donald Trump, who campaigned on mass deportation, returned to office. More than 1,300 children were held last year for longer than 20 days.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has repeatedly reaffirmed its call for limited exposure of children in DHS facilities. Dr. Sural Shah is chair of AAP’s Council on Immigrant Child and Family Health. She said the council, which was very responsive during the first Trump administration’s family separation policy, has been accelerating its work in recent months.
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“We’re always active, always sharing information. But the era that we’re in now — it’s been a heightened sense of need, of urgency, of hey, this is happening, and we need to do something about it,” she said. “We need to figure out how to band together, how to lift up voices, how to gather health care professionals and folks that care about children’s health to stop these practices because they’re so harmful to children.”
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Shah added that she’s not surprised that pediatricians are leading organic advocacy efforts.
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“It is something that is deeply woven into the fabric of who pediatricians are,” she said. “We have a deep understanding of the range of factors that affect children and their families.”
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Over the past few weeks, the trio of doctors began drafting and circulating a letter, which was later signed by thousands of medical professionals, to be sent to DHS officials and several key senators with roles in immigration enforcement oversight. The letter , dated February 26, alleges unsanitary detention conditions and inadequate access to food and clean water. It also expresses concerns of a measles outbreak within the Dilley facility. Infants are typically too young to be vaccinated against measles.
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Kristi Noem’s ouster as head of DHS last Wednesday doesn’t alter the demand for accountability, said Cozzo.
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“I actually don’t necessarily think that changing the face changes anything, because it’s just a complete system that is broken,” she said.
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All three agreed that the letter is a start.
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“This letter is day one of a marathon,” said Patel, who was a guest of Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro at the recent State of the Union address, with the goal of elevating the issue. “The point of the letter was to clearly and succinctly as possible, dictate what has been documented as known medical negligence or medical harm or human rights violations.”
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They want to grow public pressure while helping as many children and their families as possible. Jones said their advocacy is about the health and well-being of children. She doesn’t see that as political.
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“This is an issue about child welfare,” she said. “I feel like if we can continue to stand our ground about the fact that we are causing preventable, measurable, well-studied, predictable harm to children that is not justified. There’s no context in which that is justified, and so I think we just have to continue to get that message across — to the public, to lawmakers. There will be challenges at every step of the way, no doubt, but I think the truth and what’s right is on our side.”
","category":"immigration","author":"Barbara Rodriguez","publishDate":"2026-03-10T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/dilley_ICE.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/pediatrician-moms-children-health-immigration-detention/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T12:00:50.016Z"},{"id":"s08fvg","archiveId":"4yg7to","slug":"the-timeless-power-of-alvin-ailey-and-his-celebration-of-the-black-experience","title":"The Timeless Power Of Alvin Ailey And His Celebration Of The Black Experience","excerpt":"The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is currently traveling the country on a months-long tour led by its newly appointed creative director, Alicia Graff Mack, who assumed the role in […] The post The Timeless Power Of Alvin Ailey And His Celebration Of The Black Experience appeared first on Essenc...","content":"
Photo by Daniel Azoulay
By
Shelby Stewart ·
Updated March 9, 2026 Getting your
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The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is currently traveling the country on a months-long tour led by its newly appointed creative director, Alicia Graff Mack , who assumed the role in November 2024. For Graff Mack, her approach to leading the company is rooted in the vision of its namesake founder. “I follow the blueprint that Mr. Ailey set from the start,” she tells ESSENCE, describing the company as a space where artists can express their voices, stories, and experiences on stage.
That blueprint also reflects Ailey’s belief in a repertory company—one that serves as a platform for multiple choreographic voices, not just the founder’s. Graff Mack explains that this philosophy allows the company to continue stretching the boundaries of dance while remaining grounded in the legacy Ailey established.
Creative Director Alicia Graff Mack leads the company, continuing Ailey’s legacy of Black artistic expression.
Since launching in Washington, D.C., the company has brought its repertoire to major cultural hubs including Atlanta and Austin. Yet among the many stops along the way, Houston carries particular significance. Ailey’s connection to the Bayou City runs deeper than the stage, and his influence continues to shape generations of artists. Even Tina Knowles recalls in her memoir, Matriarch, that as a child in Galveston, she never imagined leaving her small town—until a trip to Houston to see the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater opened her eyes to the possibilities beyond.
Born in Rogers, Texas, Ailey drew on the rhythms and spiritual traditions of his rural Southern upbringing to create some of his most profound choreography. Chief among them is Revelations, the company’s signature masterpiece, which continues to anchor performances on this national tour. Created in 1960, the work draws on the movement, music, and spirituals of the African-American church, particularly the Black Baptist tradition, with pieces such as “I Been ‘Buked,” “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel,” “Wade in the Water,” and “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham.”
Founded in the midst of the civil rights era, the company was born from Ailey’s desire to create space for the fullness of the Black experience onstage. Growing up in the Jim Crow South shaped that vision, Graff Mack explains. “Mr. Ailey wanted to give space to the Black experience in a dignified and very expressive way when he created the company. He grew up during the Jim Crow era. He experienced extreme racism. He experienced the ugly and the beauty of our country,” she says. “I draw strength from his original ideas that, while he was not a political person, he wanted to address our society through his art. We continue to do that today by standing boldly on the stage, by touring widely across the United States, and by arming our talent and beauty and excellence all around the world.”
That vision continues to shape the dancers who bring Ailey’s work to life today. Houston native Isabel Wallace-Green, the ensemble’s only Texas-born member, says performing Revelations demands both openness and courage—to step beyond what feels familiar while remaining fully present as an artist. “He didn’t want cookie-cutter dancers,” she says of Ailey’s vision. “He wanted real humans who are individuals and make different artistic choices and view the world differently. There has to be a fearlessness in bringing yourself to the table fully and authentically—beautifully and imperfectly.”
Houston native Isabel Wallace-Green dancing. Photo: ©Paul Kolnik paul@paulkolnik.com
For Wallace-Green, performing the work in her hometown is especially meaningful. “It’s definitely >Ailey/Fordham BFA Program in New York deepened her connection to the company and helped her imagine a future with the very institution that had inspired her as a child.
Wallace-Green’s homecoming reflects a broader truth: for Houston audiences, Ailey’s visits have long been a cultural touchstone. This year marks the 21st consecutive season that the company has performed with Performing Arts Houston, a partnership that has helped solidify the city’s reputation as a major hub for dance and the performing arts. The nonprofit also approaches its 60th anniversary season next year.
Meg Booth, CEO of Performing Arts Houston, says the relationship between the company and the Houston-based organization has become a tradition. “For decades, Performing Arts Houston has brought the company back again and again, allowing generations of Houstonians to experience one of the most powerful artistic voices in American culture,” she explains. That relationship, Booth notes, is part of what makes the company’s work resonate so strongly in a city with such a rich cultural fabric. She adds that Ailey is more than a performance—it is both a “cultural conversation and a decades-long relationship.”
The city itself pulses with Black cultural energy. Gospel music, majorette traditions, Texas Southern University’s “Ocean of Soul” marching band, and a vibrant contemporary art scene mirror the energy and spirit at the heart of Ailey’s work. In this context, Revelations touches audiences with an intensity uniquely felt in Houston. Graff Mack recalls performing in the city herself: “I remember how vibrant the relationship between audience and dancer felt. That connection is a testament to two things Alvin Ailey always placed at the forefront of his work: that dance comes from the people and should be delivered back to the people. Our work is a fusion of these movements, and I think that resonates with Houston audiences. People can see themselves in the work.”
She adds that Ailey’s vision—to “hold our mirror to society and show people how beautiful they are”—continues to guide her leadership. Booth echoes that sentiment, noting, “Works like Revelations and hundreds of other pieces in Ailey’s repertory speak to shared histories of resilience, faith, and community. In a city as diverse as Houston, those stories resonate.”
As the company carries its work across the country, the spirit of Alvin Ailey’s vision feels more urgent than ever. His legacy was never about politics in the headlines, but about the pulse of life itself — the joy and the sorrow, the sweat and the spirit, woven into movement that speaks to our shared humanity. In a world unsettled by conflict, where headlines divide and fear can overshadow hope, the arts remain a refuge, a place to breathe, to bear witness, and to remember who we are.
Revelations carries that power in every lift, turn, and pause — born from Ailey’s “blood memories” of church, blues, and Black American life. It asks audiences to feel, to connect, to see themselves in one another, and to reclaim the hope that can feel so fragile in uncertain times. In the hands of the dancers today, his work is a living testament: that art can hold us, challenge us, and remind us of the beauty and resilience of the human spirit. Through Ailey’s vision, movement becomes more than performance — it becomes a language of empathy, a bridge between hearts, and a light in a world that so desperately needs it.
The post The Timeless Power Of Alvin Ailey And His Celebration Of The Black Experience appeared first on Essence .
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By
Kimberly Wilson ·
The post Black Women Are Taking Over HYROX. So I Signed Up To See Why appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-10T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/hyrox-race-black-women-fitness/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T12:00:52.098Z"},{"id":"lgrvar","archiveId":"9hvecr","slug":"oral-contraceptive-pills-access-and-availability","title":"Oral Contraceptive Pills: Access and Availability","excerpt":"This brief provides an overview of oral contraception, discusses private insurance and Medicaid coverage, and reviews strategies to promote and expand women’s access to oral contraceptives.","content":"This brief provides an overview of oral contraception, discusses private insurance and Medicaid coverage, and reviews strategies to promote and expand women’s access to oral contraceptives.","category":"contraception","author":"kffkarend","publishDate":"2026-03-10T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2026/03/Feature-Image-Oral-Contraceptive-Pills-Access-and-Availability.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/oral-contraceptive-pills-access-and-availability/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T18:01:00.786Z"},{"id":"1xjgdo","archiveId":"apre1i","slug":"ahead-of-essence-festival-of-culture-2026-revisit-the-songs-that-shaped-kehlanis-career","title":"Ahead Of ESSENCE Festival Of Culture 2026, Revisit The Songs That Shaped Kehlani’s Career","excerpt":"Yesterday, the ESSENCE Festival of Culture revealed the first wave of performers for its 2026 lineup, and Kehlani was among the artists leading the announcement. The news arrives at a […] The post Ahead Of ESSENCE Festival Of Culture 2026, Revisit The Songs That Shaped Kehlani’s Career appeared firs...","content":"
By
Okla Jones ·
Updated March 10, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Yesterday, the ESSENCE Festival of Culture revealed the first wave of performers for its 2026 lineup, and Kehlani was among the artists leading the announcement. The news arrives at a moment when the singer’s career is at its most visible, with much of Oakland native’s newfound popularity can be traced to “Folded.” Released in 2025, the single climbed to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and later won Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song at the 68th Grammy Awards. The track became one of the year’s defining R&B records, expanding Kehlani’s reach while reinforcing her standing within the genre.
On top of the awards, organizers for the NCAA Women’s Final Four recently announced that Kehlani will headline the free Super Saturday concert in Phoenix. By the time she arrives in New Orleans for the Fourth of July weekend, fans can expect new material to be in rotation, with a new album scheduled for release later this year.
Kehlani first gained national attention in 2011 as part of the teen group PopLyfe on America’s Got Talent. After leaving the group, she built her career independently with the mixtapes Cloud 19 and You Should Be Here—both projects received strong critical reception. Her studio albums followed, as SweetSexySavage debuted in the top five of the Billboard 200, and It Was Good Until It Wasn’t reached No. 2.
If “Folded” served as an introduction for some listeners, there is plenty left to explore. Ahead of her ESSENCE Festival performance, revisit the songs that built Kehlani’s catalog in the list below.
“The Way” ft. Chance the Rapper (2015)
“Good Life” with G-Eazy (2017)
“Gangsta” (2017)
“Nights Like This” ft. Ty Dolla $ign (2019)
“Toxic” (2020)
“After Hours” (2024)
“Folded” (2025)
Kehlani is part of the 2026 Essence Festival of Culture lineup. Don’t miss out—tickets here: Get Tickets
TOPICS:
Kehlani The post Ahead Of ESSENCE Festival Of Culture 2026, Revisit The Songs That Shaped Kehlani’s Career appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-03-10T11:30:33.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/revisit-the-songs-that-shaped-kehlani-career/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T12:00:52.098Z"},{"id":"p4bk7m","archiveId":"qu3tyk","slug":"what-8216americas-next-top-model8217-got-wrong-about-power","title":"What ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Got Wrong About Power","excerpt":"Modeling appears glamorous. Beautiful people, high end clothing and photo shoots in exotic locations. But the reality is far more bleak. I was ecstatic when I was selected to be on America’s Next Top Model . By the time I understood how little control I had, it felt too late to ask questions.","content":"
Modeling appears glamorous. Beautiful people, high end clothing and photo shoots in exotic locations. But the reality is far more bleak.
\n
I was ecstatic when I was selected to be on America’s Next Top Model . By the time I understood how little control I had, it felt too late to ask questions. Personal phones were gone. Contact with the outside world was restricted.
\n
When Netflix released Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model , my reaction was not shock. It was recognition.
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The post What ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Got Wrong About Power appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Kayla Ferrel Onder","publishDate":"2026-03-10T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/51l8wXc000L._AC_UF8941000_QL80_-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/10/americas-next-top-model-documentary-sexual-harassment-assault/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T12:00:49.551Z"},{"id":"k6uci5","archiveId":"49co0h","slug":"how-two-black-women-turned-a-pandemic-idea-into-one-of-atlantas-fast-growing-olive-oil-brands","title":"How Two Black Women Turned A Pandemic Idea Into One Of Atlanta’s Fast-Growing Olive Oil Brands","excerpt":"Malatrice Montgomery and Ayanna Carver never knew their path would lead them to olive oil. But the two family friends linked up and wanted to make entrepreneurial moves, outside of […] The post How Two Black Women Turned A Pandemic Idea Into One Of Atlanta’s Fast-Growing Olive Oil Brands appeared fi...","content":"
By
Andrea Bossi ·
Updated March 6, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Malatrice Montgomery and Ayanna Carver never knew their >Vine & Olive, which offers a plethora of premium olive oils and balsamic vinegars.
“The idea started way back in 2020. I wanted to think of what’s next for me, what’s the next step, how can I show up and serve my community.” Montgomery, who has been a physician’s assistant for more than 15 years, said in an interview . During the pandemic, she was on the frontlines as an essential worker. But after a post-pandemic vacation when the spread slowed, Montgomery witnessed the joy in an olive oil shop in town and wanted to bring it back home to Atlanta.
She called up Carver, who is a director of sales for a broadcast television station, to see about starting something together. And building a brand together that revolved around such a personal product all made sense as a natural next step.
“Some of our favorite moments are centered around the table. So when we started to think about entrepreneurship, we knew we wanted to do something that brought joy and community and connection to the world,” Montgomery, who also serves as adjunct faculty at the Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga., told Fox 5 Atlanta. Plus, “there’s nothing like this in the city of Atlanta.”
Since founding the brand in 2023, Montgomery and Carver have expanded its product offerings to more than 40 different flavors of extra virgin olive oils and more than 30 variations of their balsamic vinegar . Their olive oil flavors range from pasta-ready lemon pepper to a blood orange-infused olive oil that’s ripe for mixing into mocktails and cocktails alike.
The co-founders have doors open at four locations across Metro Atlanta, where they frequently also host experiential tasting events. Vine & Olive hasn’t just helped bring joy and creativity into the lives of its founders, but that bubbly energy spreads to customers, too, especially at in-person events. This is why the co-founders have already successfully partnered with business leaders like Sarah Jakes Roberts and corporate groups like KPMG.
For Montgomery and Carver, this was a side hustle at first. It was “lots of nights and weekends building this business,” Carver recalled, burning the midnight (olive) oil. But it was also the opportunity to follow through on something her dad always said: “Feel the fear and do it anyways.”
“Jump. If it’s something you’re passionate about, take the leap. BE prepared for some sleepless nights,” Carver advised for anyone thinking about starting a side hustle. And, don’t quit your day job until you’re confident the side hustle is becoming the main one, Montgomery added.
Ahead, big things are planned for what is currently the only Black woman-owned olive oil brand based in Atlanta. A fifth retail partnership is reportedly coming soon, and the co-founders are preparing for more corporate tasting partnerships in the near future. After all, “we can do hard things. Sometimes, we tend to count ourselves out and say ‘this is too much.’ But we’re capable of doing whatever it is we set our minds to,” Carver said.
The post How Two Black Women Turned A Pandemic Idea Into One Of Atlanta’s Fast-Growing Olive Oil Brands appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-10T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/vine-olive-black-women-founders-atlanta/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T12:00:52.098Z"},{"id":"ta49ps","archiveId":"z2c8wi","slug":"the-internet-has-always-fueled-eating-disorders-influencers-could-be-adding-to-the-harm","title":"The internet has always fueled eating disorders. Influencers could be adding to the harm.","excerpt":"Content warning: This story contains depictions of eating disorders. In 2013, when Kate Regan was a senior in high school, she became fixated on health and nutrition. She found content from online creators who made “what I eat in a day” videos inspiring.","content":"
Content warning: This story contains depictions of eating disorders.
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In 2013, when Kate Regan was a senior in high school, she became fixated on health and nutrition. She found content from online creators who made “what I eat in a day” videos inspiring. What she didn’t realize at the time was that this curiosity was masking a developing eating disorder.
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Soon, the algorithm made that kind of content pervasive on her social media feeds.
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“Every single time I was getting online to scroll and maybe see what my friends were up to, or look for new recipes, I was still getting these micro exposures to diet culture, weight loss and dieting content,” Regan said.
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Regan’s struggles with disordered eating peaked in her early college years at the University of Delaware, where she studied fashion merchandising. In her junior year of college, she changed her major to nutrition and dietetics, which helped shift her personal relationship with food. Professors and mentors talked about food and health in ways she hadn’t considered before, allowing her to start making positive changes.
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In 2019, the year after she graduated, Regan had recovered from her eating disorder and was motivated to help people like herself. That year, she officially became a registered dietician and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, founded her private practice, Wholesome Chick Nutrition , in Philadelphia. At Wholesome Chick Nutrition, she and other dietitian nutritionists encourage a non-diet, intuitive eating approach. Intuitive eating, sometimes referred to as an anti-diet, doesn’t involve restricting calories or particular foods, instead allowing people to be guided by their natural hunger cues.
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“[Intuitive eating] helps you to utilize nutrition in your life according to your preferences, lifestyle and medical needs, without going to the point of obsession or rigidity, and allows you to be much more in tune with your body’s hunger and fullness cues, versus following a meal plan that might not fit your needs,” Regan said.
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Regan has also reentered some of the same online spaces where she once found content that bolstered her disordered eating. Wholesome Chick Nutrition has a combined following of nearly 350,000 on TikTok and Instagram, where Regan offers tips on intuitive eating and meal ideas. A lot of her content focuses on debunking the latest trends and misinformation on health and nutrition. She recently posted that “cheat days” suggest a daily regimen that is too limited. She said that eating too rigidly the majority of the week and then essentially pre-planning a day or weekend to binge isn’t healthier than incorporating a daily, balanced approach that allows foods you enjoy and doesn’t assign morality to certain food groups.
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“The content that we’re exposed to on a regular basis really is shaping our beliefs and behaviors, and it’s important that you’re able to also access the truth,” she told The 19th. “That’s why I speak to a lot of really popular trends that I see and try to clear up confusion for people around what they should be eating, what they shouldn’t be eating, and how they should be thinking about food for themselves on an individual basis, versus taking generalized statements from an influencer with no credentials as the ultimate truth.”
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Registered dietitian Kate Regan founded her private practice, Wholesome Chick Nutrition, during the COVID-19 pandemic to encourage a non-diet, intuitive eating approach.\n (Victoria Noonan) \n\n\n\n
Her expert voice stands out in a digital ecosystem that normalizes eating disorders, one that has been complicated by the rise of creators.
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Nine percent of the U.S. population will have an eating disorder in their lifetime. The risk is exacerbated even further for women, who are twice as likely as men to have an eating disorder, and LGBTQ+ people experience eating disorders at a higher rate than heterosexual and cisgender people.
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For many, disordered eating begins in the way Regan’s did: seemingly innocuous social media posts.
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Amanda Raffoul is a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto, whose research emphasizes eating disorder prevention. She says most people are unaware of how easy it is to fall down the rabbit hole of this content.
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“There have been widely read and shared media stories about trends where young women are in the hospital with anorexia nervosa, or engaging in extreme body checking. But most of the content that’s out there is not extreme,” she said. “It’s this gray area content like what I eat in a day videos, where somebody is consuming a really low-calorie diet, or exercise videos where somebody is showing a very intensive and excessive exercise routine, or the types of videos that focus on celebrity inspiration. I think that sort of gray area content is maybe more dangerous because more people see it.”
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In the decade since Regan first got swept into food videos, social media platforms and algorithms have undergone significant shifts. Platforms like Instagram have changed feeds to be engagement-driven rather than in chronological order. Many platforms have prioritized short-form video content over static content and integrated artificial intelligence in their app features. These changes have made it easier for users to become addicted and can negatively impact mental health, particularly for younger users . For people struggling with eating disorders, the endless scrolling can increase their risk of being exposed to harmful content.
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Recommendations from the early days of social media like muting certain keywords or blocking accounts to curate feeds have become futile on some platforms. On X, formerly known as Twitter, there is currently no feature to block “communities” — groups where users can discuss specific topics — on the app. Even without joining a community, posts from these groups can appear on anyone’s general timeline.
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Although platforms have cracked down on some overt eating disorder forums and accounts over the years, content has still been able to thrive by making accounts private, using special hashtags and purposely misspelling words.
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In September 2024, X suspended one of the largest eating disorder communities on the app, stating the group violated rules on promoting self-harm content, according to NBC News . Still, several eating disorder groups persist on X where users swap low-calorie diets, evaluate each other’s weight and sternly criticize their own eating choices. X did not respond to a request for comment.
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But one of the biggest changes across platforms has been the rise of the social media influencer. Online content creators have emerged as leading voices in our cultural zeitgeist and have supplanted traditional media for many users.
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So when creators spread misinformation, like the kind that Regan sees on health, the impacts are swift. Creators are often rewarded by the algorithm for sharing misinformation and disinformation on topics like high-profile court cases, politics and health. The full impact of this is hard to measure, but a decades-long study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2018 found that fake news stories travel six times faster than factual news online. For experts like Regan working to combat false information, this makes their job all the more difficult.
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Regan says that conversations about social media come up frequently with her in-person clients. She encourages them to ask themselves key questions when consuming media.
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“Does that person have the training, education and the credentials to back up the claims that they’re making? Are they citing research articles? Are they talking in a very reasonable tone, and are they including nuance in their discussion? I think that’s a huge lesson to learn on social media. Most of it is very black and white, and most of it is very all or nothing, because that is what gets views.”
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Creators’ relatability can also be a powerful influence. For decades, people with disordered eating have used the internet to find each other. A key part of those communities have been providing “thinspiration,” typically photos of celebrities meant to motivate people with disordered eating. Still, Kathryn Coduto, an assistant professor of media science at Boston University, said a celebrity’s body is generally understood to be unattainable. Influencers and content creators are a different story.
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“[Creators] feel much more accessible,” Coduto said. “They feel like, ‘Oh, I could really become just like them.’ I think that’s a different kind of danger, where maybe you are seeing what they eat in a day, but that is also still very curated. But I think it’s easier to forget that because an influencer is showing up in your feed.”
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She warns that the development of parasocial relationships can happen more easily between social media users and influencers who make nutrition content or promote unrealistic body standards.
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“It’s easy to comment on their content. You might even hear back from them. And so I think that is unhealthy in a different way, where it feels like something that you could accomplish,” Coduto said.
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Coduto especially worries about Generations Z and Alpha, whose formative years for socialization were interrupted by COVID-19. She cautions that, even unintentionally, parasocial relationships between young users and influencers who make health and diet content can be formed. Those relationships, she says, can especially be formed on video-centered apps like TikTok, where there are more cues like seeing someone’s face and hearing their voice.
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“If you are someone in an eating disorder community, it’s so easy to find yourself in an echo chamber,” Coduto said. You’re looking for other people who’ve had that experience. So instead of maintaining those connections to people that you know in real life who are going to be looking out for you, instead you’re opting into people who reinforce that.”
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Raffoul and Regan are wary of online health trends like protein-maxxing — that focuses on consuming high amounts of protein, particularly meat, to maximize fitness — and its direct target to young men. Despite trusted health organizations like the Mayo Clinic Health System finding that most Americans already meet or surpass the daily protein recommendation, many influencers are suggesting people consume double or triple the daily recommendation.
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As the internet and social media continue to be two of the main sources where individuals get information on nutrition, Regan encourages social media users to scrutinize the content they encounter.
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“If a person is able to communicate nuance to you and confirm that they’re sharing information that might not be applicable to every single person, then that is likely someone who you can trust more so than people who are using extreme or alarmist language,” she said.
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For support with eating disorders or mental health challenges, visit the National Eating Disorders Association website .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Sierra Lyons","publishDate":"2026-03-10T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/kate_regan.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/internet-influencers-diet-culture-eating-disorders/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T12:00:50.016Z"},{"id":"1e8tb0","archiveId":"qh5qsa","slug":"over-the-counter-oral-contraceptive-pills","title":"Over-the-Counter Oral Contraceptive Pills","excerpt":"Oral contraceptives are the most commonly used method of reversible contraception in the U.S. In July 2023, the FDA approved Opill, the first daily oral contraceptive pill to become available over the counter (OTC) without a doctor’s prescription.","content":"Oral contraceptives are the most commonly used method of reversible contraception in the U.S. In July 2023, the FDA approved Opill, the first daily oral contraceptive pill to become available over the counter (OTC) without a doctor’s prescription. This issue brief provides an overview of OTC oral contraceptives and laws and policies related to insurance coverage.","category":"contraception","author":"kffaeronw","publishDate":"2026-03-10T04:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2026/03/Feature-Image-Over-the-Counter-Oral-Contraceptive-Pills.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/affordable-care-act/over-the-counter-oral-contraceptive-pills/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T18:01:00.786Z"},{"id":"ayca0c","archiveId":"u4rkcl","slug":"ghanas-parliament-revives-dangerous-anti-lgbt-bill","title":"Ghana's Parliament Revives Dangerous Anti-LGBT Bill","excerpt":"
Lawmakers in Ghana have reintroduced a draconian bill that jeopardizes the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. On February 17, the Ghanaian parliament formally received the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, also known as the anti-LGBT bill, marking the lates...","content":"<p>Lawmakers in Ghana have reintroduced a draconian bill that jeopardizes the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. On February 17, the Ghanaian parliament formally received the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, also known as the anti-LGBT bill, marking the latest chapter in a prolonged legal and legislative process that started in 2021.</p> \n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Queer rights activist Angel Maxine opposing the anti-LGBT bill in Accra, Ghana.\n © Angel Maxine\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Ghana’s parliament first passed a version of the bill in February 2024, but it expired without then-President Nana Akufo-Addo’s approval. At the time, Akufo-Addo said he would not allow Ghana to backslide on human rights and the rule of law. However, his successor, President John Dramani Mahama, who returned to office in January 2025, has signaled his support for the proposed law.</p><p>The reintroduced bill significantly expands criminal sanctions related to same-sex conduct and imposes up to three years in prison for anyone who even identifies as LGBT. It also subjects individuals and organizations who advocate for the rights of LGBT people, including parents of LGBT children, teachers, journalists, doctors, and human rights defenders, to prosecution. If enacted, the law would also force LGBT organizations to dissolve and put donors and partner organizations at risk. </p><p>Ghanaians who identify as LGBT suffer widespread discrimination and abuse in public and in family settings. Since 2021, they have faced increasing repression marked by arbitrary arrests and closures of community services, as well as hostile and misleading media coverage. </p><p>Ghana is set to host the fourth African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family and Sovereignty in Accra in May 2026, a platform with documented ties to US-based far-right advocacy groups. Previous editions have featured speakers who promoted Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act as a model for other African legislatures.</p><p>Opposition to the bill exists. Influential voices like Cardinal Peter Turkson and the prominent politician Samia Nkrumahhave called for dialogue and inclusion. Ghana's Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice has likewise warned parliament that the bill would infringe on fundamental rights of Ghanaian citizens.</p><p>Instead of falsely juxtaposing ostensible Ghanaian values with human rights, Ghanaian leaders should uphold the international legal protections that guarantee every Ghanaian the rights to equality, nondiscrimination, freedom of expression, and privacy.</p>","category":"activism","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-10T04:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603afr_ghana_Kill_the_Bill.jpg?h=0f612f9b&itok=vcqayvCA","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/10/ghanas-parliament-revives-dangerous-anti-lgbt-bill","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T06:00:53.830Z"},{"id":"rpecy9","archiveId":"3850u8","slug":"haiti-drone-strikes-put-residents-at-risk","title":"Haiti: Drone Strikes Put Residents at Risk","excerpt":".paragraph--id--11756 .pb-video { padding-bottom: 73.25%; } Click to expand Image People look out at a street in the Simon-Pele neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, September 22, 2025. © 2025 Odelyn Joseph/AP Photo
(Washington, DC) – Haitian security forces and private contractors working ...","content":".paragraph--id--11756 .pb-video {\npadding-bottom: 73.25%;\n} \n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n People look out at a street in the Simon-Pele neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, September 22, 2025.\n © 2025 Odelyn Joseph/AP Photo\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>(Washington, DC) – Haitian security forces and private contractors working with them have conducted extensive and apparently unlawful lethal drone strikes, Human Rights Watch said today. The strikes, at least some of which appear to be deliberate extrajudicial killings, have been carried out with quadcopter drones armed with explosives in densely populated urban areas, in some cases killing and injuring dozens of people, including children and other residents who are not members of criminal groups.</p><p>According to data from multiple sources reviewed by Human Rights Watch, at least 1,243 people were killed by drone strikes in 141 operations between March 1, 2025, and January 21, 2026, including at least 43 adults who were reportedly not members of criminal groups, and 17 children. The data also shows that the drone strikes injured 738 people, at least 49 of whom were reportedly not members of criminal groups. </p><p>“Dozens of ordinary people, including many children, have been killed and injured in these lethal drone operations,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Haitian authorities should urgently rein in the security forces and private contractors working for them before more children die.”</p><p>The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti has attributed the drone attacks in Haiti to a specialized “Task Force” established by Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé that is operated with support from the private military company Vectus Global. The US ambassador to Haiti has confirmed that the US State Department issued a license to Vectus Global to export defense services to Haiti.</p><p>Human Rights Watch interviewed five relatives of people killed or injured in a September 20, 2025, attack, as well as six community leaders, doctors, and others who either visited the site, or spoke to or treated victims afterward. Researchers also interviewed the relative of a woman killed in a different drone strike on January 1, 2026. The National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH) and the Eternal City Child Protection Committee (Komite pwoteksyon pou timoun Site Letènèl, or KPTSL), both Haitian civil society groups, facilitated interviews with relatives. </p><p>In the September 20 attack, a drone armed with an explosive device detonated near the “Nan Pak” sports and cultural complex in the Simon Pelé neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, the capital, where children had gathered for a gift distribution by the Simon Pelé criminal group. Human Rights Watch found that 10 people who were not members of criminal groups, including 9 children ages 3 to 12, were killed. </p><p>The number of armed drone attacks in Port-au-Prince has significantly increased in recent months, with 57 reported between November and January 21, nearly double the 29 from August through October. Over forty percent of reported killings took place between December 1 and January 21. The average number of people killed per operation is 8.8, with the most lethal operation killing 57 people.</p>\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n<p>The attacks occurred in nine communes in the West Department: Cabaret, Cité Soleil, Croix-Des-Bouquets, Delmas, Kenscoff, Léogâne, Pétion-Ville, Port-au-Prince, and Tabarre. Human Rights Watch reviewed information from multiple sources concerning the operations. </p>\n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Geographic distribution of reported armed drone operations by commune in Haiti’s West Department between March 1, 2025, and January 21, 2026. Source: Human Rights Watch analysis of attacks reported by organizations operating in Haiti. Analysis and graphic © 2026 Human Rights Watch.\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Researchers also analyzed seven videos uploaded to social media or shared directly with Human Rights Watch that demonstrate the use of armed quadcopter drones and geolocated four of them to Port-au-Prince. The videos show the repeated use of drones equipped with explosives to attack vehicles and people, some of them armed, but none who appear to be engaged in violent acts or pose any imminent threat to life. These videos bolster the impression that many of the drone attacks are attempts to target and extrajudicially kill people, rather than a law enforcement response that might justify the deliberate, lethal use of force.</p><p>Quadcopter drones can maneuver between buildings while tracking individuals and moving vehicles. They transmit detailed live video feeds to their operators, who control both the drones’ flight and use of weapons. </p><p>Some people living in Port-au-Prince told Human Rights Watch that drones are a constant source of terror, leaving some afraid to leave their homes. “I live with this fear, this anxiety, all the time,” said a shopkeeper living in Martissant. “I pray that the drones will no longer be in our area.” </p><p>Neither Prime Minister Fils-Aimé, the Haitian National Police nor the private military company Vectus Global responded to Human Rights Watch requests for comment.</p><p>Researchers have received information about two failed tests of armed drones by criminal group members in May 2025. The Central Directorate of the Judicial Police is investigating people allegedly involved in trafficking drones through the Dominican Republic for criminal groups. The UN Integrated Office in Haiti reported that criminal group leaders have tried to use and acquire drones. However, researchers did not find evidence of widespread drone use by criminal groups.</p><p>The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Haiti has ratified, protects the right to life. Under international human rights law standards, states are required to ensure that law enforcement officers, including those employed by private security contractors working on behalf of the government, seek to minimize injury and preserve human life. </p><p>The deliberate, lethal use of firearms and other weaponry is permissible only when strictly unavoidable in order to protect the life of any person. Any use of force, including nonlethal force, should be both necessary and proportionate.</p><p>Haitian officials have offered no indication that drone strikes were in response to any threat to life that might allow for the deliberate lethal use of force through such attacks. Instead, many of these attacks appear to be attempts to target and kill people in circumstances that amount to unlawful, extrajudicial killings. </p><p>Haitian authorities and any private military actors partnering with them should put in place strong safeguards to ensure that any deliberate lethal use of drones armed with explosives or other weaponry occurs only in the very narrow circumstances where human rights law allows it.</p><p>The authorities should also transparently investigate all allegations of unlawful killings, prosecute those responsible, and provide reparations to affected families. They should publicly clarify the command structure relevant to drone attacks, and the role private military contractors play in these operations.</p><p>The Gang Suppression Force, a UN Security Council–authorized international force created to help combat criminal groups in Haiti, should refrain from providing any operational support to the Haitian security forces until adequate safeguards are put in place to prevent unlawful killings, and should require transparency and accountability from Haitian authorities as a condition of any such cooperation. </p><p>Human Rights Watch has previously documented the use of armed quadcopter drones in attacks on civilians in populated areas in the context of armed conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan. Human Rights Watch is not aware of any other situation where quadcopter drones armed with explosives have been used repeatedly in the context of law enforcement operations. </p><p>“Restoring security in Haiti is essential,” Goebertus said. “But unlawful attacks with armed drones are adding a new layer of abuses to the violence that has devastated communities for years.”</p><p>September 20 Attack and Aftermath</p><p>The densely populated neighborhood of Simon Pelé, where the September 20, 2025, attack took place, is controlled by the Simon Pelé criminal group. The group imposes its own rules and enforcement mechanisms and commits serious abuses against the population, including killings and sexual violence. Residents said that their phones are regularly searched, both in their homes and when they try to leave the neighborhood, and that they fear being killed if the group suspects residents of cooperating with the police. </p><p>Many families in extreme poverty rely on support distributed by the criminal group, residents and community leaders said. “You’re talking about an area where there are no services: no school, no health care, no sanitation,” said Rosy August Ducena, program director for RNDDH. “Most people there live below the poverty line.” </p><p>The day of the attack, the leader of the Simon Pelé criminal group, Albert Steevenson, alias Djouma, was preparing to distribute gifts for children at a recreation complex as part of his birthday celebration. Community leaders said such celebrations are a common practice by criminal groups. Videos verified by researchers confirm that the recreation complex, a large semi-enclosed area with colorful murals, had previously been used as a venue for concerts and has continued to be used as a gift distribution site and outdoor recreation complex for children since the attack.</p>\n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Location of an armed drone attack that took place in the Simon Pelé neighborhood of Port-au-Prince on September 20, 2025. Source: Administrative boundaries: Centre National de l’Information Géo-Spatiale (CNIGS). While Simon Pelé is officially classified as a neighborhood within the Delmas commune, local sources primarily regard it as part of Cité Soleil. OCHA Field Information Service Section (FISS). Analysis and graphic © 2026 Human Rights Watch.\n \n \n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Human Rights Watch geolocation of an armed drone attack that took place in the Simon Pelé neighborhood of Port-au-Prince on September 20, 2025. Image: September 28, 2025 © 2026 Planet Labs PBC. Analysis and graphic © 2026 Human Rights Watch.\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>People interviewed said many of the children affected were playing near the complex, waiting for the gift distribution or accompanying caretakers who were running errands there. Family members and witnesses described a scene of chaos and panic when the explosion occurred, with dozens of injured people waiting for help.</p><p>According to Doctors Without Borders, at least 17 people injured in the attack were treated at hospitals that day, 9 of whom, including 3 children, died. A doctor who treated victims said that the most common injuries she observed were partial and complete traumatic amputations, with most patients she treated losing at least one limb and having open and complex fractures.</p><p>The doctor said fragmentation injuries from the blast were also common. The most severe injuries appeared to have been caused by blunt force trauma, with the blast most likely having propelled people against objects or buildings or caused objects to strike them.</p><p>Family members said that the attack occurred just outside the recreation complex sometime between 7 and 8:30 p.m. Affected residents said that they were near the complex, some of them running errands while their children played in the area near the gift distribution site, when the explosion occurred. </p><p>A resident who lost both her 3-year-old daughter and her husband, an artisan working outside at the site of the explosion, said: </p><p>I heard the sound of the explosion.… My husband and daughter were together at the place where my husband makes his crafts.… There was panic, and I wanted to go and see what had happened.… I didn’t see [their bodies] at the scene. I saw blood in the areas where they had been.… I was taken to Terre Noire Hospital to see them. When I saw them, my daughter’s foot was crushed, and she had other holes in her body. [My partner] also had a crushed foot and many holes in his neck.</p><p>Another woman, whose 6-year-old daughter was killed, said she had been doing laundry in her home near the “Nan Pak” complex and briefly stepped out to buy food while her daughter played nearby: “When I arrived near the vendor, I heard an explosion. It was chaos, people were mutilated, there were noises everywhere.… It was full of children. Many people were dead.” </p><p>She buried her daughter immediately, by herself, explaining that she was too shocked to wait for help. “Her face and her rib cage, and even around her heart, all that area had been affected,” she said.</p><p>A resident who arrived shortly after the explosion saw a woman sitting at the site with her baby. “The explosion had taken off the baby’s two feet,” he said. “Two women and a man had also lost their feet. I didn’t get there right away, so there must have been more injured.”</p><p>Another woman said her 21-year-old daughter had been injured while buying food near the complex. A metal fragment propelled by the blast went through her daughter’s body, hitting near the hip and exiting through her back, she said. Her daughter survived but spent 22 days hospitalized. </p><p>A community member from another neighborhood in Cité Soleil said she agreed to help care for 3-year-old twins when their father told her their mother had been killed in the strike. </p> \n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Drone impact site where at least 8 children were killed and 6 others injured, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, September 22, 2025.\n © 2025 Pierre Luxama/AP Photo \n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Human Rights Watch analysis of footage of the aftermath of the attack indicates that the damage is consistent with the detonation of a device containing high-explosives and pre-formed fragments. The damage is also consistent with the high-explosive payload of the size and weight that quadcopter drones known to be operated in Haiti are capable of delivering. </p><p>Several residents said that the explosion occurred in an area filled with families. The woman who lost her 6-year-old daughter said, “In the spaces where the gangs are, there are innocent people, people who raise their children, who follow normal paths.”</p><p>Some residents said that criminal group members prevented families from retrieving bodies or burying their family members, which they believed was to maintain control over the neighborhood and information about drone attacks.</p><p>A man, whose 43-year-old son sold juice in the area and was killed, said that some criminal group members transported injured people to a nearby hospital in their cars. He said that his son was not part of the criminal group.</p><p>The father of a man who was killed and several others said the criminal group organized and controlled access to a funeral inside the “Nan Pak” complex. “We could only watch from the outside, observe like any passerby, as if we were nobody,” the father said. Some residents said that only people who accepted money or support from the criminal group had been allowed to attend the funeral. </p><p>The woman who lost her daughter and her partner said she did not have the money for a burial and had to leave their bodies at the morgue. </p><p>Residents interviewed in November 2025 said that drones continued to fly over the community daily. One resident that she saw drones “all day, every day,” and that people kept their children close when they saw them for fear of what happened on September 20. </p><p>January 1 and Other Attacks </p><p>Human Rights Watch interviewed a witness to a different drone strike that took place on January 1, 2026, in downtown Port-au-Prince that killed at least one person who was not a criminal group member. Human Rights Watch confirmed the date and location of the drone strike with a source with reliable knowledge of drone operations. </p><p>A shopkeeper said that between 12:30 and 1 p.m., she was traveling with her cousin to downtown Port-au-Prince in separate vehicles when she saw a drone fall and explode onto the truck carrying her cousin.</p><p>The woman fled the explosion but returned to the scene a few minutes later, where she found her cousin dead. She said that she had been unable to recover the body because she would have had to pay criminal groups for the remains. </p><p>She stated that she had not seen or heard any sign of a threat before the explosion. “I was on the phone with my cousin when the explosion happened, so I knew that her [truck] had been hit, but I don’t know why they hit that [truck],” she said.</p><p>Human Rights Watch also reviewed and analyzed videos and images showing the use of explosive quadcopter drones in other apparent attacks on people, vehicles, and buildings in Port-au-Prince.</p> \n\n\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n <p>Video compilation uploaded to the social media platform X on June 16, 2025, showing four quadcopter drones striking a building in Martissant.</p>\n \n \n\n \n<p>The videos analyzed by Human Rights Watch show quadcopter drones flying into their target, detonating upon or moments before impact. The videos that Human Rights Watch geolocated show quadcopter drone attacks on people in the street, as well as hitting buildings and vehicles in the Martissant and Village de Dieu areas of Port-au-Prince. One video uploaded to social media on June 17 shows the live feed of four quadcopter drones striking people and two buildings in Martissant.</p> \n\n\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n <p>Video uploaded to the social media platform X on May 31, 2025, showing an armed drone attack on a courtyard in Village de Dieu.</p>\n \n \n\n \n<p>In another video, a drone films a quadcopter drone flying toward a courtyard in Village de Dieu and exploding just above the ground. Nine people, two of whom appear to be armed, rush to take cover shortly before the drone explodes. The video does not show the people attacked engaging in any acts of violence or appearing to pose an imminent threat to life prior to the attack. It is unclear from the video whether anyone was injured or killed. The video cuts to a road, also in Village de Dieu, where a drone is tracking a vehicle with its camera. A second drone strikes the car. </p> \n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Screenshot from a video uploaded to the social media platform X on November 28, 2025, showing a quadcopter drone on the ground and an apparent unexploded 3D-printed munition.\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Researchers also reviewed photos and videos uploaded to social media of quadcopter drones found on the ground, reportedly in Haiti’s capital, together with what appear to be unexploded munitions. The munitions appear similar to 3D-printed drone munition designs that can be found online. Researchers were unable to confirm the location of the drones and munitions due to lack of geographical information in the footage. </p><p>Unexploded ordnance left behind by armed drones that fail to function presents severe risks and can result in the direct loss of life or severe injuries that can cause a permanent disability or life-long scarring and psychological trauma. </p><p>Security Forces and the Role of Private Contractors</p><p>On March 1, 2025, Prime Minister Fils-Aimé announced that he and the Transitional Presidential Council had created a security “Task Force” to stop the advance of criminal groups. The UN Integrated Office in Haiti said the Prime Minister’s Office, the Prime Minister’s Security Unit, and the General Security Unit of the National Palace coordinate the Task Force, which is responsible for drone operations. </p><p>The prime minister said the Task Force was initially operated under the leadership of the police inspector general, Vladimir Paraison. Paraison became interim head of the Haitian National Police on August 8, 2025. Starting on January 4, 2026, the police and Paraison posted about several joint operations between the police and the Task Force on social media.</p><p>The UN Integrated Office in Haiti and other informed sources said the Task Force operates with the support of Vectus Global, a private military company led by Erik Prince. Prince’s former private military company, Blackwater, was implicated in serious crimes in Iraq in September 2007, when its employees opened fire on Iraqi civilians, killing 17. </p><p>Prince has said that Vectus Global signed a one-year contract with the Haitian transitional government and hired Salvadoran operators to support the Haitian police in using armed drones. </p><p>Human Rights Watch sent letters to Haiti’s prime minister, the Haitian National Police, and Vectus Global sharing its findings on the documented drone attacks and requesting a response. At time of writing, none had replied.</p> \n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Emblem seen on videos uploaded to the “Haitian Security Task Force” X social media channel.\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Human Rights Watch also analyzed two videos uploaded to an X page called “Haitian Security Task Force” in May 2025 showing six drone strikes, two of which researchers geolocated to Port-au-Prince. The videos are overlayed with an emblem that reads “Task Force Haïti Sécurité.” A source who archived the footage and shared it with Human Rights Watch researchers said the page first issued a post on May 8 and was taken down on May 26. </p><p>Prime Minister Fils-Aimé told the Wall Street Journal in August 2025 that the drone operations have “stopped the bleeding” and driven criminal group members into hiding. He also said that “keeping innocent citizens safe is a government priority” and that “one civilian [passing] away is one too many.” However, at time of writing, the families of victims interviewed said they had not had any contact with government officials in relation to the killings, nor access to justice or reparations.</p><p>Applicable International Human Rights Law </p><p>At least some of the drone strikes analyzed by Human Rights Watch appear to be attempts to carry out extrajudicial killings. Haitian officials have made no statements that would tend to push back against this analysis and have not replied to the request for comment on this and other points. Extrajudicial killings are unlawful violations of the rights to life and due process under international law, and officials responsible for such killings should be held accountable.</p><p>Under international human rights law, the deliberate, lethal use of force in law enforcement contexts can be permissible only when unavoidable in order to protect life. Some UN experts have warned that the use of drones may depersonalize policing, making it more difficult to ensure that force is applied minimally and appropriately, particularly in complex and crowded urban environments. </p><p>A UN resource book on the use of force and firearms in law enforcement notes that “military weapons”—which would include quadcopter drones armed with explosives designed to attack targets and produce area effects—“may be inappropriate for law enforcement, and given their nature, they may make it more difficult to comply with the obligation to apply the minimum force necessary to achieve the legitimate law enforcement objective.” </p><p>The guidance further states that military instruments “of the offensive type” should generally “not be used in law enforcement,” and that, “if they are needed for a particular situation, they must be used only by a special unit trained in their use, under special supervision and after strict authorization at the highest levels.”</p><p>Haitian authorities should refrain from using armed drones equipped with explosives, due to the difficulty of using these weapons in a manner that is consistent with the obligation to apply the minimum force necessary to achieve a legitimate law enforcement objective. The use of explosives designed to produce lethal effects over an area, including with preformed or natural fragmentation, should at minimum be severely restricted in law enforcement operations. </p><p>Any further or proposed use of these types of armed drones and the individual types of explosive munitions they carry should be formally and thoroughly evaluated to ascertain whether and in what circumstances these weapons could be used in a manner consistent with international human rights standards. </p><p>Any evaluations should include a technical evaluation, taking into consideration drones’ limitations, reliability, and accuracy; an assessment of their effects, including the risks of the use of explosives in cities and towns; and an evaluation of the overall potential human rights impact of their use. </p><p>Authorities should also ensure transparency around and accountability for any unlawful death resulting from a security operation, and conduct prompt, thorough, and independent investigations to disclose, to the greatest extent possible, the number and identity of victims, and provide adequate reparation where violations have occurred. </p>","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-10T04:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603ame_haiti_Simon-Pele.jpg?h=ac778ff2&itok=eORad9oj","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/10/haiti-drone-strikes-put-residents-at-risk","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T06:00:53.830Z"},{"id":"7416w3","archiveId":"osv4jl","slug":"era-road-tour-weekly-road-diary-march-2-7","title":"ERA Road Tour: Weekly Road Diary (March 2-7)","excerpt":"Inspired by the 1916 suffrage road trip that helped win women the vote, activists behind Driving the Vote for Equality are traveling across the country in the restored Golden Flyer II to build support for recognizing the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment. Each week, Ms.","content":"
Inspired by the 1916 suffrage road trip that helped win women the vote, activists behind Driving the Vote for Equality are traveling across the country in the restored Golden Flyer II to build support for recognizing the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment.
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Each week, Ms. will share highlights from the road.
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During its first week on the road, the Golden Flyer II carried the push for the ERA through the Mid-Atlantic. In New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Virginia, ERA advocates connected historic sites of feminist resistance with renewed calls for constitutional equality.
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The post ERA Road Tour: Weekly Road Diary (March 2-7) appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Driving the Vote for Equality","publishDate":"2026-03-09T22:19:05.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/image-13f1c14a.webp","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/09/era-road-tour-weekly-road-diary-march-2-7/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T00:00:15.747Z"},{"id":"q7tcg","archiveId":"btxki","slug":"reproductive-justice-demands-we-call-in-not-just-call-out","title":"Reproductive Justice Demands We Call In, Not Just Call Out","excerpt":"Reproductive justice is not simply about the right to abortion or access to contraception; it is about the right to have a child, to not have a child, and to raise families in safe and sustainable communities.","content":"
Reproductive justice is not simply about the right to abortion or access to contraception; it is about the right to have a child, to not have a child, and to raise families in safe and sustainable communities. This framework, created by Black women in the 1990s, recognizes that race, class, gender and immigration status all intersect with reproductive health and freedom. At its core, reproductive justice is about dignity and self-determination.
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We must call out systems of oppression. We must call out elected officials who use the law to control our bodies and futures. But we must also call in those who are silent, those who are uncertain, and those who are still learning. Not everyone understands the full weight of these attacks. Not everyone sees how racism, poverty and patriarchy are connected to abortion bans. That is where our movement’s compassion must meet its courage.
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It’s about helping a young person in a conservative home understand that their freedom to plan their life is a human right. It’s about showing a voter in a swing state that abortion bans are government overreach and economic violence. It’s about connecting the dots between forced pregnancy and the erosion of democracy itself.
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Let us call in, where we can, those around us to join the work. Let us call on our government to honor its duty to protect, not control, our bodies—because true justice cannot wait.
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The post Reproductive Justice Demands We Call In, Not Just Call Out appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Susan Sheu","publishDate":"2026-03-09T20:44:35.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2159272667.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/09/reproductive-justice-call-in-abortion-bans-republicans-democracy-bipartisan-support-freedom/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T00:00:15.747Z"},{"id":"y1hz9e","archiveId":"kq37r4","slug":"oscar-nominated-documentary-8216the-devil-is-busy8217-shows-what-it-takes-to-keep-an-abortion-clinic","title":"Oscar-Nominated Documentary ‘The Devil Is Busy’ Shows What It Takes to Keep an Abortion Clinic Safe","excerpt":"Tracii’s day begins early—before dawn. She arrives at work, turns on the lights and thoroughly searches the building for intruders. Then she checks outside, where it’s still dark, making sure no one is hiding in the woods or behind a dumpster.","content":"
Tracii’s day begins early—before dawn. She arrives at work, turns on the lights and thoroughly searches the building for intruders. Then she checks outside, where it’s still dark, making sure no one is hiding in the woods or behind a dumpster.
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Tracii is the head of security at an abortion clinic in Atlanta, and is also the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary short, The Devil Is Busy . Directed by Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir, the film follows Tracii over the course of a long, stressful day at the clinic, as she works tirelessly to ensure not just the safety but the comfort of the women seeking care. (Neither her last name, nor the name of the clinic, gets mentioned in the film.)
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Available to stream on HBO Max, The Devil Is Busy is a compelling portrait of a deeply compassionate woman on the frontlines of the abortion war. It packs a lot into 31 minutes, exploring not just the precarious status of abortion care post-Roe v. Wade , but also the fraught intersection of race, religion and women’s health.
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The film arrives just as advocates mark Abortion Provider Appreciation Day, observed each year on March 10. The date honors Dr. David Gunn, an abortion provider murdered by a white supremacist anti-abortion extremist in 1993. Since 1996, supporters have used the day to recognize the courage and compassion of abortion providers—people like Tracii—whose work continues despite harassment, threats and political attacks.
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The post Oscar-Nominated Documentary ‘The Devil Is Busy’ Shows What It Takes to Keep an Abortion Clinic Safe appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Meredith Blake","publishDate":"2026-03-09T20:02:11.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/thedevilisbusy1920x1080approved-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/09/the-devil-is-busy-oscar-academy-ward-clinic-violence-protesters/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T00:00:15.747Z"},{"id":"d9z3ji","archiveId":"vey9n6","slug":"latanya-richardson-jacksons-beauty-038-style-evolution","title":"LaTanya Richardson Jackson’s Beauty & Style Evolution","excerpt":"Celebrate LaTanya Richardson Jackson’s achievements as a 2026 Black Women in Hollywood Honoree. The 2026 awards show will be available to stream: Watch Here. This Thursday, ESSENCE will honor the Black women shaping […] The post LaTanya Richardson Jackson’s Beauty & Style Evolution appeared first on...","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
The post LaTanya Richardson Jackson’s Beauty & Style Evolution appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-09T19:34:29.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/red-carpet/black-women-hollywood/latanya-richardson-jackson-beauty-style-evolution/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T00:00:21.664Z"},{"id":"1t8q3h","archiveId":"y7bagz","slug":"kristi-noem-is-out-at-dhsbut-women-may-not-be-safer-under-her-replacement","title":"Kristi Noem Is Out at DHS—But Women May Not Be Safer Under Her Replacement","excerpt":"As frontline witnesses to the worst of humanity, physicians carry the heavy burden of moral distress—the anguish of seeing harm unfold and feeling powerless to stop it. This feeling has only grown with the rise of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in its current form.","content":"
As frontline witnesses to the worst of humanity, physicians carry the heavy burden of moral distress—the anguish of seeing harm unfold and feeling powerless to stop it. This feeling has only grown with the rise of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in its current form. Its inhumanity under former DHS Security Kristi Noem’s leadership—reflected in the anxieties of our patients, many of whom are avoiding essential medical care out of fear—has us despairing with helplessness.
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So, yes, many of us were excited to see Noem go.
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The hope that swelled with Noem’s ousting vanished quickly with news of President Trump tapping Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) as her replacement, a former MMA fighter and co-sponsor of the SAVE America Act, which disproportionately targets women’s voting eligibility. Mullin holds extremist views on abortion, opposing even exceptions to save the mother’s life. Deeply disturbing is Mullin’s 2013 vote against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act.
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While Noem’s firing is a step in the right direction, appointing a manosphere-adjacent fitness bro whose rhetoric of “protection” echoes the same ideology predicated on women’s forced subjugation—and whose political track record shows a distinct disdain for women’s lives—as her replacement is absolutely not the move.
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The post Kristi Noem Is Out at DHS—But Women May Not Be Safer Under Her Replacement appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"immigration","author":"Chloe Nazra Lee","publishDate":"2026-03-09T19:06:44.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1252641884.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/09/kristi-noem-dhs-ice-markwayne-mullin/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T00:00:15.747Z"},{"id":"2vlaxp","archiveId":"m41ny5","slug":"the-story-of-sylvia-moy-the-unsung-motown-hitmaker-behind-stevie-wonder8217s-classic-songs","title":"The Story Of Sylvia Moy: The Unsung Motown Hitmaker Behind Stevie Wonder’s Classic Songs","excerpt":"It is no secret that the music industry is cut-throat and not for the weak. Add to that it being incredibly sexist and racist. Another sobering fact: Those behind the scenes in […] The post The Story Of Sylvia Moy: The Unsung Motown Hitmaker Behind Stevie Wonder’s Classic Songs appeared first on Ess...","content":"
By
Bridgette Bartlett Royall ·
Updated March 9, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
It is no secret that the music industry is cut-throat and not for the weak. Add to that it being incredibly sexist and racist. Another sobering fact: Those behind the scenes in the music business , from engineers to producers to songwriters, are rarely ever as celebrated as those in the spotlight if they get recognized at all. And for a Black woman in the 1960s and 1970s? Well, the light was sadly even more dim.
Enter Sylvia Moy . Born on September 15, 1938, Moy certainly faced the before mentioned obstacles. Moy became the first certified in-house songwriter and producer at Motown . Moy was one of nine children growing up on the northeast side of Detroit and grew up to become one of the world’s most prolific songwriters. Her most notable hits include Stevie Wonder’s My Cherie Amour and Uptight (Everything’s Alright) and several other timeless soul and R&B classics. In fact, Motown Records founder Berry Gordy has credited Moy for saving the career of musical icon Stevie Wonder . According to his autobiography, it was Moy’s plea to write for the young Wonder that persuaded Gordy not to drop him from the label.
Moy also went on to write theme songs for television shows and movies. She earned six Grammy nominations and 20 BMI Awards. In an effort to continue her legacy, Moy co-founded the Center for Creative Communications which trains young adults in telecommunications and media arts. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006, an esteemed accomplishment that only five women have reached to date.
Unfortunately, Moy was still virtually unknown until now. In February 2026, veteran journalist Margena A. Christian, EdD released a riveting book to change that travesty. Her recent biography, It’s No Wonder: The Life and Times of Motown’s Legendary Songwriter Sylvia Moy , is a meticulously researched work that bravely puts Sylvia Moy in her rightful place at the forefront of music history. A senior lecturer at the University of Illinois Chicago, Christian opened up to ESSENCE about her catalyst to write this book, how Moy opened doors for household names like Missy Elliott and why telling the incredible stories of women trailblazers is not just inspiring but necessary. ESSENCE.com: How did you learn of Sylvia Moy and her unsung contributions to the music industry? MARGENA A. CHRISTIAN: I first found out about her in 2021 during the pandemic. I consumed lots of social media like most folks with nothing else to do during this down time. I saw a post on Instagram from @blackstory1619 and Sheila E. reposted it on her Facebook page. It was an old Motown picture of Moy, standing at a piano with a young Stevie Wonder playing harmonica beside her with three members of the legendary Funk Brothers session band in the background.
She stood out as the only female in the picture. The post mentioned how she was Motown’s first female to both write and produce songs. I was perplexed because I never heard any of this before. Why weren’t Moy’s musical accomplishments documented in a definitive way not only by Motown but music history at large? Describe the moment when you said, “I want to write a book about her.”The Instagram post had more than 10k likes, and the hundreds of comments were engaging. Most people responded how they were incredibly proud of Moy’s accomplishments, but there was this singular sentiment of bewilderment. Almost overwhelmingly everyone expressed a burning desire to learn more about this woman. After I did some digging around to see if there was any validity to the claims of her being the first female to both write and produce at Motown along with having supposedly saved Stevie Wonder from being let go at the label, I had enough solid evidence. Then, I’m big on astrology. I saw that she was a Virgo like me. That’s when I knew I wanted to write a book about Sylvia Moy.
We know sexism and racism are widespread in the music industry. Still, were you surprised to learn how much Moy was unfairly treated?Unfortunately, I wasn’t the least bit surprised to learn how much Moy was unfairly treated. There was racism from the rest of the world she dealt with, but then there were intra-racial concerns with her own who denied her credit. It was a double-edged sword. This was especially true behind the scenes in the music industry as a songwriter, so being a music producer for a female was out of the question.
When she finally left Motown after seven years, Moy made noise, because she no longer had to play the game or worry about having her value denied and validated by others. She didn’t wait for anyone to give her production credit and demonstrated agency. During the 1970s, Moy built her own top-notch recording studio, Masterpiece Sound, in her Detroit-based home. There she continued writing songs while producing music for others. She did not wait for a seat at the table; Moy built the table and owned the house!
How has Moy paved the way for people like Missy?This incredible change agent paved the way for Missy as a multi hyphenate, because Moy could sing, play instruments (piano, guitar, drums), write songs and produce music. Did I mention she was also a gifted artist and painter?
While Moy pioneered the way, unfortunately, we must understand that pioneers also pay the price when opening doors for others. But here’s the one good thing about history. It might be hidden but it is never erased! What’s in the washer will always come out in the rinse. There was a time when women were not considered to be producers, especially in the 60s. In fact, nothing Moy produced at Motown had been credited though she mentioned how she was actually paid for the work. My head spinned all the way around after learning this. That was painful. Fortunately, the time has come for herstory to be told.
What do you think Moy would say about Eve getting her long overdue flowers last month at the Grammys?I believe that Moy would say, it doesn’t matter how long it takes, if your voice is heard. Eve was faithful. She let go and let God, because it took 26 years before she finally received the recognition and golden gramophone statuette she deserved for the verse she performed on The Roots’ 1999 song You Got Me. Eve’s contribution as an artist on the track was excluded and not documented. The Recording Academy and The Black Music Collective corrected this oversight by having this “technicality” reversed at the 2026 Recording Academy Honors, signaling a major breakthrough in music history that offers hope that there’s now a willingness to perhaps right other wrongs for those who’ve been unfairly denied music credit. These women have a voice and the world is ready to listen. Faith moves mountains.
TOPICS:
Essence Authors motown The post The Story Of Sylvia Moy: The Unsung Motown Hitmaker Behind Stevie Wonder’s Classic Songs appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-03-09T19:00:04.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/books/margena-christian-author-sylvia-moy-book/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T00:00:21.664Z"},{"id":"chsxwo","archiveId":"soc9go","slug":"law-roach-partners-with-sheamoisture-for-silk-press-campaign","title":"Law Roach Partners With SheaMoisture For Silk Press Campaign","excerpt":"For decades, the silk press has been more than a hairstyle for Black women. So, it makes sense that the iconic look is at the center of SheaMoisture’s newest campaign, […] The post Law Roach Partners With SheaMoisture For Silk Press Campaign appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Larry Stansbury ·
Updated March 9, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
For decades, the silk press has been more than a hair>SheaMoisture’s newest campaign, The Silk Press Conference. In it, an investigation, to uncover how it-girls are achieving the perfect silk press, is being led by none other than fashion’s ultimate Image Architect, and king of the silk press, Law Roach .
The answer arrives with the debut of Silk Press In A Bottle Prep Cream , a new styling innovation that expands SheaMoisture’s Bond Repair Collection and promises sleek results without sacrificing the integrity of textured hair.
To bring the concept to life, SheaMoisture also tapped four influential women: Clarke Peoples , Masai Russell , Serena Page , and Kirah Ominique . Whether navigating humidity during travel, powering through intense workouts, preparing for milestone moments, or simply showing up in everyday spaces, each woman demonstrates the durability and versatility of thedecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/AAL-1317-2_RT.jpg\" alt=\"Law Roach Partners With SheaMoisture For Silk Press Campaign\" width=\"400\" height=\"499\" />
In the video, Roach channels a heightened version of his famously discerning eye, interrogating the suspiciously perfect silk presses. “If I’m the King of the Silk Press as some people call me, I want to find out all the details about these girls who are coming for my spot,” says Roach. “As we all find out, the magic is coming from SheaMoisture’s new Silk Press in a Bottle.”
At the center of the campaign, the Prep Cream was created to help achieve smooth, long-lasting silk pressalt=\"™\" class=\"wp-smiley\"/> Technology, the formula strengthens hair bonds while adding shine and manageability. It also delivers heat protection up to 410°F, shielding strands during styling while helping to fight humidity and frizz. “What’s really important is how the products help women get thedecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/AAL-2105-2_RT.jpg\" alt=\"Law Roach Partners With SheaMoisture For Silk Press Campaign\" width=\"400\" height=\"499\" />
Although Roach is known primarily for shaping some of fashion’s most memorable celebrity images, stepping into playful on-camera roles like this one is something he genuinely enjoys. “I do enjoy improv,” he says. “I’ve been blessed enough to do cameos in commercials like this, Alexis Bittar’s Instagram series, and Netflix’s Running Point. Even when I’m judging on shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race or Project Runway, those are my real opinions—I’m just adding a little dramatic flair.”
Looking ahead, Roach says he’s especially excited about the upcoming season of Project Runway. “Supporting and giving advice to young designers is something I’ve done my entire career,” he says. “Being able to do it on television—and have a little fun while I’m doing it—is even better.”
TOPICS:
SheaMoisture silk press The post Law Roach Partners With SheaMoisture For Silk Press Campaign appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-09T18:43:36.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/law-roach-silk-press-shea-moisture-campaign-interview/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T00:00:21.664Z"},{"id":"7inmgj","archiveId":"fkktar","slug":"this-democrat-built-a-farm-to-politics-career-now-shes-working-with-maha-moms","title":"This Democrat built a farm-to-politics career. Now she’s working with MAHA moms.","excerpt":"Long before entering politics, Rep. Chellie Pingree was a self-described hippie, a back-to-the-lander and an organic farmer. In the 1970s, after attending college in Maine, she saw an opportunity to live a more sustainable life there.","content":"
Long before entering politics, Rep. Chellie Pingree was a self-described hippie, a back-to-the-lander and an organic farmer.
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In the 1970s, after attending college in Maine, she saw an opportunity to live a more sustainable life there. She decided to stay, and moved to an island off the coast where she and her husband started a small farm and sold their produce at a local market.
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Pingree’s passion for farming influenced her legislative work at the state and federal level. Representing Maine’s 1st District in Congress since 2009, the 70-year-old Democrat has focused on bolstering organic food production, creating better access to healthy foods for kids and fighting pesticides.
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If her priorities sound familiar, it may be because much of her life’s work on these issues aligns neatly with certain facets of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, which is led by current Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. but gained momentum through the support of moms on social media .
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But while the Democratic lawmaker is far from a supporter of Kennedy, she saw early into the second Trump administration the potential of working with MAHA activists. “It’s kind of a no-brainer in many ways,” she said. “We have a lot in common.” And as MAHA moms, in particular, are conflicted about some of Kennedy and President Donald’s Trump’s recent decisions , it’s an even better opportunity to find common ground.
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Most sustainable agriculture-related issues are populist and bipartisan at their core, she said, adding: “I really don’t think that these are necessarily left or right. I think the questions around toxins in our food and food is medicine, and the opposition to Big Ag and big chemical companies is very universal. This just really broadens the coalition of people.”
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Pingree had also seen how Kennedy’s message resonated with farmers in her district. When he visited her state as a presidential hopeful, “A lot of people went to hear him, and it was partly because of his interest in alternative medicine and healthy food,” she said.
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So, after Trump’s return to office, she started reaching out to members of the movement: people like Kelly Ryerson, better known by her social media handle, The Glyphosate Girl, and Zen Honeycutt, founder of Moms Across America, a grassroots group focused on healthy foods. Both are big supporters of Kennedy’s role at HHS and the MAHA agenda he’s pushed there.
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But over the past few months, they’ve also expressed disappointment about Kennedy’s shifting stance on pesticide use. While he has championed some of the issues that animate MAHA, including his decisions around vaccine recommendations and his fight against food dyes and ultra-processed foods, Kennedy has distanced himself from his position on glyphosate — the same herbicide he fought against as an environmental lawyer.
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Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree sees the benefits of working alongside the MAHA movement.\n (Courtesy Chellie Pingree) \n\n\n\n
In late February, when Trump issued an executive order to expand domestic production of glyphosate, which is found in the week killer Roundup, and that potentially shield pesticides companies from lawsuits, Kennedy announced his support, stating the “order puts America first where it matters most — our defense readiness and our food supply.”
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Though most MAHA activists still view Kennedy favorably, the executive order has exposed a widening rift for some in the movement. “Unfortunately, Trump’s action to issue this executive order on glyphosate broke a lot of that trust,” Honeycutt said. “It may be permanently broken.”
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But where MAHA and the current administration don’t see eye to eye they’ve found an ally in Pingree. In late December, she worked with MAHA to strip a pesticides rider in a spending bill that would have shielded companies like Bayer, which produces Roundup, from health-related lawsuits and stopped states and localities from being able to regulate pesticides.
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Ryerson said Pingree has been a key partner over the past few months and applauds the work she did to remove the language from the spending bill.
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“We’re finding our friends, and it’s like, can we get even more? I don’t care even which side they’re from,” she said. “Can we get even more on board to just prioritizing this issue?”
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And Honeycutt said that on one of her recent visits to Capitol Hill, she was impressed that Pingree met with them in person. Every other lawmaker sent a staff member to hear her concerns.
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“We loved learning that she is an organic farmer in Maine, and has been for quite some time, and is a huge supporter of organic farming,” she said. “So we had a lot of things in common to talk about.”
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For Pingree the alliance has been mutually beneficial.
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“Frequently, I would be kind of a lone voice in fighting to take that out, but we were able to remove that language from the bill just before it passed at the end of the year,” she said. “And a lot of that was due to the help of the MAHA moms.”
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Recently, the Democratic lawmaker introduced an amendment to strip similar language from this year’s farm bill, which the House Agriculture Committee advanced out of committee last week. While her efforts ultimately failed, she plans to take up other opportunities to continue the fight when it goes to a floor vote in the House. And a few weeks ago, she and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced the bipartisan No Immunity for Glyphosate Act, which aims to undo Trump’s executive order.
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All of this work has been bolstered by MAHA advocates who have a powerful platform to keep pressure on GOP leaders. She says they’ve helped raise the profile of wonky issues like pesticide regulations and the dangers of PFAS chemicals, better known as forever chemicals. They are able to reach everyday moms who might not know much about environmental policy but care about the foods their kids are eating.
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The veteran lawmaker has watched the movement amplify the reach of its message on TikTok and Instagram. “They are reaching many more people than maybe your average organic farming blog or environmental group.”
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As a result, Pingree said she’s also started to post on social media more, sharing reels on Instagram, for example, to gain visibility among potential supporters.
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For environmental groups, the MAHA movement has also helped make some of these issues relevant to Republicans who need to keep their constituents happy ahead of midterms, said J.W. Glass, an Environmental Protection Agency policy analyst at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity.
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“Now that the dialogue is wider and bipartisan there is lots of pressure on the Republicans,” he said. “There is more of a world where Republicans are sweating across the aisle. There is a lot more attention on them.”
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For environmental organizations, it’s also a welcome change to see bipartisan support for some of these issues. “It’s safe to say that MAHA shares a lot of the same views as the mainstream environmental movement,” he said.
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Moving forward, Pingree hopes to raise the profile of the work she said Democrats have been doing all along and sees the potential of forming a bipartisan MAHA caucus.
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“I think my feeling has always been, if you could win on some of these important issues, then you build a coalition to win. You don’t make everything a litmus test on whether or not you’ll have a conversation.”
","category":"activism","author":"Jessica Kutz","publishDate":"2026-03-09T17:03:54.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pelligree_02.jpg?w=683","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/chellie-pingree-farmer-congresswoman-maha/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-09T18:00:16.938Z"},{"id":"n1c8qi","archiveId":"upbuq0","slug":"show-love-for-abortion-providers","title":"Show Love for Abortion Providers!","excerpt":"Over the last decade of working at Physicians for Reproductive Health, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know hundreds of abortion providers across the country who are a part of our organization’s network of advocates.","content":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\tShow Love for Abortion Providers!\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\n\n\thttps://prh.org/updates/abortion-provider-appreciation-day-30th-anniversary/ \n\t \n\n\t\n\tClick to print \n\tPrint Icon \n \n\n\t\n\tShare this page via Email \n\tMail Icon Rectangle in the shape of an envelope \n\n\t\n\tShare this page on Pinterest \n\t \n\n\t\n\tShare this page on Facebook \n\t \n\n\t\t\n\tShare this page on Twitter \n\t \n\t\t \n\t\t
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Over the last decade of working at Physicians for Reproductive Health, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know hundreds of abortion providers across the country who are a part of our organization’s network of advocates.
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This year marks the 30th anniversary of the official declaration of Abortion Provider Appreciation Day, in commemoration the life of Dr. David Gunn and the courageous work of abortion providers across the country in spite of the harassment, violence, and stigma they face.
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In the eyes of community members, patients, and colleagues, abortion providers are of course extraordinary. They provide care that is stigmatized, face violence from anti-abortion extremists, and combat the overwhelming misinformation and disinformation about the care they provide.
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They geek out over the latest Beyoncé album. They binge Heated Rivalry. They go to the pottery studio. They complain about the dating apps. \n\n\n\n
But what I love most about abortion providers is everything that makes them normal. They geek out over the latest Beyonce album. They binge Heated Rivalry. They get pregnant. They have miscarriages. They have babies. They go to protests in support of the safety of community members. They go to the pottery studio. They complain about the dating apps. They love their weird, perfect pets. They talk nonstop about Bad Bunny. They have great taste in memes. Abortion providers, despite the over-politicization of the care they were trained to provide, fight to seek a sense of normalcy in the midst of the pressure.
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This seems a bit saccharine or simple, but these efforts are a clear playbook for what we all need to do as we face more national and international grief: stay present and live our lives in alignment with our values. The same policymakers who want to ban abortion and gender affirming care and the same people who protest outside of abortion clinics want us to be in a collective state of fear and confusion. They hope that we get burnt out, distracted, and lose our way. If we look closer at the way that abortion providers are facing the various emotional, political, mental, and physical attacks on their careers, we can learn new ways to face attacks by the same actors on our lives.
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If we look closer at the way that abortion providers are facing the various emotional, political, mental, and physical attacks on their careers, we can learn new ways to face attacks on our own lives. \n\n\n\n
Abortion providers aren’t one dimensional; they live whole lives. They have families. They are invested members of their communities.
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When I was in elementary school, I drew pictures of myself with a blue triangle dress and wild curly hair as an astronaut and as a tap dancer and as an equestrian vet when I dreamed up what future me looked like (all real, ask my mom). I wish I could tell little me that the way I’d spend my 20’s and 30’s was so much cooler than that, alongside countless heart-lead organizers, committed to being staying present, engaged, and committed, despite all the collective grief.
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💜✨ Happy Abortion Provider Appreciation Day to everyone who makes abortion care possible.
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In shared vision of something more,
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Kelsey & The PRH Staff
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The post Show Love for Abortion Providers! appeared first on Physicians for Reproductive Health .
","category":"choice","author":"Mykella Palmer","publishDate":"2026-03-09T16:50:08.000Z","image":"https://prh.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Header_Abortion-Providers.png","source":"Physicians for Reproductive Health","sourceUrl":"https://prh.org/updates/abortion-provider-appreciation-day-30th-anniversary/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-09T18:00:17.393Z"},{"id":"3fbduv","archiveId":"cqp7ze","slug":"australia-gender-equality-essential-for-national-security","title":"Australia: Gender Equality Essential for National Security","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Australia Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, September 22, 2023. © 2023 Craig Ruttle/AP Photo
(Sydney) – The Australian government should strengthen gender-focus...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Australia Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, September 22, 2023. \n © 2023 Craig Ruttle/AP Photo\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>(Sydney) – The Australian government should strengthen gender-focused approaches across all crisis responses, Human Rights Watch said today following International Women’s Day. The authorities should acknowledge that gender equality is essential to global peace, security, and justice by supporting women-led organizations and ensuring that women are meaningfully included in decision making.</p><p>Human Rights Watch in February 2026 made a submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade inquiry addressing gender equality as a national security and economic security imperative. Human Rights Watch highlighted the gender-related impact of conflict, crisis, and climate change; the dangerous erosion of the basic principles of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security; and the need to push for a gender-sensitive UN crimes against humanity treaty.</p><p>“International Women’s Day is a key opportunity for the Australian government to be thinking about gender equality, both domestically and abroad,” said Daniela Gavshon, Australia director at Human Rights Watch. “Human Rights Watch’s submission to the Joint Standing Committee emphasizes that undermining gender equality violates international human rights law, fuels instability, and weakens countries’ resilience to crises.”</p><p>Amid rising militarism, attacks on women human rights defenders, and efforts to roll back gender rights across the globe, Australia’s leadership in advancing and defending the Women, Peace and Security agenda is paramount, Human Rights Watch said.</p><p>The Australian government should support the development of an international treaty on crimes against humanity, which provides a crucial opportunity to strengthen international criminal law protections for women and girls, and support such as creating the crime of gender apartheid. Australia should expand asylum pathways for women and girls fleeing persecution and adopt a feminist foreign policy that places the rights of women and girls at the center of all foreign policy, defense, and national security decisions, Human Rights Watch said.</p><p>“Australia has the tools to effectively promote women’s rights around the world, including a foreign minister committed to gender equality and having an ambassador for gender equality,” Gavshon said. “The Australian government can become a global leader on women’s and girls’ rights by making them a more prominent part of its foreign policy.”</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-09T16:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2023/12/202312asia_australia_penny_wong.jpg?h=7502a1d9&itok=z7dsBVZe","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/09/australia-gender-equality-essential-for-national-security","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-09T06:00:54.984Z"},{"id":"25xv09","archiveId":"9wlbrt","slug":"court-agrees-to-hear-case-on-environmental-laws-does-not-act-on-several-second-amendment-challenges","title":"Court agrees to hear case on environmental laws, does not act on several Second Amendment challenges","excerpt":"The Supreme Court added just one case – a technical dispute over the interaction between two federal environmental laws – to its docket for the 2026-27 term. The justices on […] The post Court agrees to hear case on environmental laws, does not act on several Second Amendment challenges appeared fir...","content":"
The Supreme Court added just one case – a technical dispute over the interaction between two federal environmental laws – to its docket for the 2026-27 term. The justices on Monday morning released a list of orders from their private conference last week in which they granted review in Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guahan a request from Steve Bannon , a former adviser to President Donald Trump, to clear the way for a lower court to throw out his conviction for contempt of Congress.
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In Prutehi Guahan , the justices will weigh in on a dispute that arises from the U.S. Air Force’s disposal of unexploded ordnance, which it burns or blows up, on a base in Guam. Four years ago, Prutehi Guahan, an environmental group, went to federal court to challenge the Air Force’s then-pending application to renew its permit, granted to it by Guam’s Environmental Protection Agency under a federal law called the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act , for its disposal of ordnance. The group contended that before the Air Force submitted its application, it should have prepared an environmental impact statement, as required by a different federal law, the National Environmental Policy Act .
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A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit agreed with the challengers and sent the case back to the trial court to allow it to go forward. The Air Force then came to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to weigh in. It contended that, under the federal law governing administrative agencies, the Administrative Procedure Act , the group could not challenge the Air Force’s permit yet because Guam’s EPA had not granted or denied it. And the Air Force was not required to submit an environmental impact statement, it argued, because it was seeking a permit renewal under one law – the RCRA – that specifically deals with the environmental impact of hazardous wastes.
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After considering the Air Force’s petition for review at three consecutive conferences, the justices on Monday agreed to take up the case. The justices will likely hear oral argument in the case in the fall, with a decision to follow sometime in early 2027.
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In addition to Bannon’s case, the justices once again did not act on several cases challenging bans on assault rifles and large-capacity magazines. The court could be waiting to act on those petitions for review once it issues its rulings in a pair of gun-rights cases that the justices are currently considering on the merits. If so, a ruling on the disposition of those petitions might not come until late June or early July.
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The justices also did not act on a petition asking them to decide whether a Massachusetts school district violated a couple’s parental rights when it both socially transitioned their child over their objections and also hid that fact from them. On March 2, the court granted a request from a group of California parents in a similar dispute on its interim docket, reinstating a ruling by a federal judge in that state that bars California schools from “misleading parents about their children’s gender presentation” and that requires schools to follow parents’ instructions regarding the names and pronouns that children use there.
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In a dissent joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Justice Elena Kagan pointed specifically to the Massachusetts case as she criticized the court’s decision to “resolve[] the issues raised through shortcut procedures on the emergency docket even though it has had—for months now—the option of doing so the regular way, on our merits docket.”
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Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented from the court’s decision not to hear the case of Jaron Burnett , who was sentenced to just under nine years in a federal prison, followed by 15 years of supervised release, for a crime that carried a maximum sentence of 10 years.
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After Burnett was released from prison, he was twice charged with violating the terms of his supervised release. After the first violation, he was sentenced to an additional 13 months, which he served, for a total of 118 months in prison. After the second violation, he argued that if the government wanted to try to send him back to prison for more than two months – that is, so that he would wind up serving more than the maximum sentence that he could have received – he was entitled under the Sixth Amendment to have a jury, rather than a federal judge, determine beyond a reasonable doubt that he had violated the terms of his release.
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The lower courts rejected that argument, and the Supreme Court turned down Burnett’s petition for review on Monday. In his three-page dissent from that disposition of the case, Gorsuch wrote that “Mr. Burnett does not ask for much. He does not object to receiving new prison time for supervised release violations. He does not even object to a court issuing that prison time based on its own factual findings under a preponderance of the evidence standard, so long as the punishment issued does not exceed the statutory maximum for his underlying crime of conviction.” Rather, according to Gorsuch, “[a]ll Mr. Burnett claims is the right to have a jury decide any contested facts under the reasonable doubt standard where, as here, a court seeks to impose a sentence that will cause a defendant’s total time in prison to exceed the statutory maximum Congress has authorized for his underlying conviction.”
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Gorsuch added that “even if the class of cases like Mr. Burnett’s is small, the stakes are high. Many federal criminal defendants today serve long terms on supervised release (terms that can be further extended after any new violation). Others serve on supervised release for life. And, under the logic of the decision below, defendants like these can effectively wind up losing for decades (and sometimes forever) the right to receive a federal jury trial to resolve charges against them under the reasonable doubt standard.”
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The justices’ next private conference will take place on Friday, March 20. Orders from that conference are expected on Monday, March 23.
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The post Court agrees to hear case on environmental laws, does not act on several Second Amendment challenges appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Amy Howe","publishDate":"2026-03-09T15:58:42.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1238364333.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/court-agrees-to-hear-case-on-environmental-laws-does-not-act-on-several-second-amendment-challenges/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-09T18:00:29.982Z"},{"id":"qtqahj","archiveId":"y0lfnb","slug":"este-pas-tambin-es-nuestro-la-herencia-duradera-de-las-mujeres-hispanohablantes-en-la-amrica-colonia","title":"‘¡Este País También Es Nuestro!’: La Herencia Duradera De Las Mujeres Hispanohablantes En La América Colonial","excerpt":"Siglos antes de la Revolución Americana, las mujeres hispanohablantes cruzaron océanos y desiertos para construir comunidades cuyo legado aún define a Estados Unidos. Dado que el sentimiento antilatino coincide con el 250.","content":"
Siglos antes de la Revolución Americana, las mujeres hispanohablantes cruzaron océanos y desiertos para construir comunidades cuyo legado aún define a Estados Unidos.
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Dado que el sentimiento antilatino coincide con el 250.º aniversario de la fundación de Estados Unidos, debemos recordar que mucho antes de la Revolución Americana, las mujeres hispanohablantes habitaban el territorio que se convertiría en Estados Unidos.
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Al igual que sus homólogas protestantes inglesas de Nueva Inglaterra, las mujeres hispanohablantes fueron las madres fundadoras de nuestra nación. Su legado perdura a través de sus descendientes y de las muchas otras latinas que emigraron a Estados Unidos en los últimos 250 años. Ante la detención generalizada de mujeres hispanohablantes, es crucial recordar que Estados Unidos también ha sido su país durante mucho tiempo.
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(Este ensayo es parte de la serie FEMINIST 250: Feministas fundadoras, que conmemora el 250 aniversario de Estados Unidos reclamando la revolución a través de las mujeres y las personas de género expansivo cuyas ideas, trabajo y resistencia dieron forma a la democracia estadounidense).
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The post ‘¡Este País También Es Nuestro!’: La Herencia Duradera De Las Mujeres Hispanohablantes En La América Colonial appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Allyson M. Poska","publishDate":"2026-03-09T14:52:16.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1755308794-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/09/este-pais-tambien-es-nuestro-la-herencia-duradera-de-las-mujeres-hispanohablantes-en-la-america-colonial/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-09T18:00:17.065Z"},{"id":"kwnro4","archiveId":"z73cic","slug":"this-is-our-country-too-the-enduring-legacy-of-spanish-speaking-women-in-early-america","title":"‘This Is Our Country Too!’: The Enduring Legacy of Spanish-Speaking Women in Early America","excerpt":"Centuries before the American Revolution, Spanish-speaking women crossed oceans and deserts to build communities whose legacies still shape the United States. As anti-Latino sentiment coincides with the 250th anniversary of the United States, we must remember that long before the American Revolution...","content":"
Centuries before the American Revolution, Spanish-speaking women crossed oceans and deserts to build communities whose legacies still shape the United States.
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As anti-Latino sentiment coincides with the 250th anniversary of the United States, we must remember that long before the American Revolution, Spanish-speaking women inhabited territory that would become the United States.
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Like their English Protestant counterparts in New England, Spanish-speaking women were founding mothers of our nation. Their legacies live on through their descendants and the many other Latinas who immigrated to the U.S. over the past 250 years. Faced with the widespread detention of Spanish-speaking women, it is crucial to remember that it has long been their country too.
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(This essay is part of the FEMINIST 250: Founding Feminists series, marking the 250th anniversary of America by reclaiming the revolution through the women and gender-expansive people whose ideas, labor and resistance shaped U.S. democracy.)
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The post ‘This Is Our Country Too!’: The Enduring Legacy of Spanish-Speaking Women in Early America appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Allyson M. Poska","publishDate":"2026-03-09T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-466291163.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/09/spanish-speaking-women-mexico-usa-founding/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-09T18:00:17.065Z"},{"id":"10516t","archiveId":"yrhfrx","slug":"from-ghana-to-rwanda-these-black-american-women-are-building-businesses-on-the-continent","title":"From Ghana To Rwanda, These Black American Women Are Building Businesses On The Continent","excerpt":"In recent years, the idea of returning to the African continent has captured the imagination of many Black Americans. Social media is filled with images of vibrant markets, oceanfront villas, […] The post From Ghana To Rwanda, These Black American Women Are Building Businesses On The Continent appea...","content":"
By
Halona Black ·
Updated March 7, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
In recent years, the idea of returning to the African continent has captured the imagination of many Black Americans. Social media is >Kelis, who has documented building a farm ecosystem in Kenya, have added to the growing curiosity about what life and work on the continent might look like.
But building a life and a business there requires far more than a plane ticket and a dream.
For Black American women entrepreneurs, the reality often involves navigating unfamiliar systems, building trust in new markets, and unlearning assumptions shaped by life in the United States. The romantic idea of “returning” can quickly collide with the everyday work of entrepreneurship: negotiating local business cultures, adapting to different infrastructure, and building relationships that make long-term ventures possible.
Still, many say the rewards — both personal and professional—are worth it.
From a spa owner in Ghana, to a communications strategist in Rwanda, and an investor building real estate across the continent, these women are creating businesses that reflect both the promise and the complexity of diasporans exploring entrepreneurship in Africa.
Building a PR Agency in Rwanda
When autumn marie left New York City, she wasn’t planning to launch a company. She was looking for a break. After years in the fast-paced communications world, she wanted distance from what she describes as the relentless “rat race” of American life. Her move initially took her to Mauritius with her husband, who had spent more than a decade living and working on the continent. Not long after, the couple relocated to Rwanda for his job.
What was supposed to be a pause in her career quickly turned into a new venture. “I kept seeing gaps in the market,” she says. Drawing on her background in communications, she founded KGL FWD (pronounced Kigali Forward), a Kigali-based public relations agency focused on storytelling, brand positioning, and strategic communications for companies operating in Rwanda and across East Africa.
Launching the agency, she says, was surprisingly straightforward. “Opening a business here is actually quite accessible,” she explains. “The filing process is clear, and institutions are open to working with entrepreneurs.” But the real challenge wasn’t paperwork — it was earning trust.
“It means a lot when someone trusts you with their vision or their company anywhere in the world,” she says. “But being able to build that trust here, when you’re not from here, is huge.”
That credibility has allowed her agency to work with organizations including RwandAir, ONOMO Hotel, Africa Soft Power, and international cultural exchange groups like Nomadness Travel Tribe bringing visitors from the diaspora to Rwanda. Her firm has also helped build professional infrastructure in the industry, including the Rwanda Communications Network.
For autumn marie , seeing those projects come to life has been deeply rewarding. “You step back and you can see the vision coming to fruition,” she says. “That’s when you realize the trust people placed in you was worth it.”
She also advises Black American women considering business ventures on the continent to approach the work with humility. “Don’t try to copy and paste the models that work in the US,” she says. “Bring your skills and experiences, but be ready to learn the ways of doing business that work here. You’re not coming to solve everything — you’re coming to contribute.”
Creating a Spa Sanctuary in Ghana
For Maya Gilliam, the >Ma’ati Spa in East Legon, a suburb of Accra, had already spent more than a decade running a successful spa in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. But after visiting Ghana and seeing the country’s rapid development, she began to imagine building something there.
When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted her business in the United States, she made the leap. Maya sold her properties in the US, built 3 homes in Ghana and opened Ma’ati Spa, a lush wellness space that attracts both locals and international visitors.
The Instagram version of her life in Ghana may look idyllic, but she’s quick to remind people that the reality involves serious work. “There’s the beautiful side people see online,” she says. “But behind the scenes, there’s chaos and a lot of building.”
One of her first lessons came quickly: Americans often pay more. “With my American accent, people were overcharging me constantly,” she says. “You absolutely need someone local who can negotiate on your behalf.” Eventually, Maya became a naturalized Ghanaian citizen, allowing her to fully own her business without having to use a local partner.
Gilliam manages the spa’s Instagram account herself, drawing on her background in television production, film, and graphic design. For her, controlling the visual narrative of the brand is essential. That storytelling also includes highlighting some of the spa’s signature treatments. One of them is what she calls the waterfall massage.
“The waterfall massage is my original concept,” she says. “I’m the first person to do waterfall massage in West Africa — and possibly the world. When I created it, I searched online to see if anyone else was doing it and I didn’t find anything.” The treatment has since become one of the spa’s distinctive offerings, part of Maya’s broader vision to create wellness experiences rooted in the landscape and culture of Ghana.
The most ful>Wandi Steward, entrepreneurship in Africa looks a little different. At 62, Wandi is brand new to entrepreneurship in Africa. She divides her time between impact work and real estate investments across the continent. One of her passion projects is the Afrikan Baby Book Project , a Rwanda-based initiative aimed at increasing access to culturally relevant children’s books across Africa. “It’s not something that makes a lot of money,” she says. “But it’s something that has impact.”
Alongside that work, Wandi has been steadily building a portfolio of real estate investments, including land in Rwanda and an income-generating apartment in Cape Town, South Africa’s city center.
Wandi quickly learned that operating in African markets requires letting go of the expectations many Americans bring with them. “There aren’t always standardized systems,” she says. “You have to be prepared for things to work differently.” In the US, buyers are accustomed to clearly defined roles for real estate agents, attorneys, and inspectors. In Rwanda, she found a much more fluid environment.
“You can have multiple brokers — or commissioners as they call them — on one property,” she says. “You might have to pay them all, and they are negotiable.” Learning how to navigate that landscape required patience and a willingness to unlearn assumptions. “Patience,” she says. “That’s putting it nicely.”
Despite the unpredictability, Wandi believes the continent offers powerful opportunities for entrepreneurs who approach it with the right mindset. “Africa gives you the greatest opportunity for self-actualization or failure,” she says. “You have to have a certain amount of grit, patience, humility, and humor.”
For Black American women considering building businesses on the continent, she offers simple advice: do your research, bring more resources than you think you’ll need, and take the time to integrate into the local community. “You cannot go it alone,” she says.
Lessons From the Journey
While each woman’s story is unique, their advice for Black American women considering business ventures in Africa is strikingly similar: do extensive research before making the move, bring more money than you think you’ll need, and above all, be prepared to adapt. Despite the challenges, all three say the experience of building businesses on the continent has transformed them. Their stories reveal a more nuanced picture of diaspora entrepreneurship in Africa — one that isn’t simply a romantic return, but a process of learning, building relationships, and creating something meaningful across cultures. And for these women, that work is only just beginning.
The post From Ghana To Rwanda, These Black American Women Are Building Businesses On The Continent appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-09T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/black-american-women-building-businesses-africa/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-09T18:00:23.217Z"},{"id":"havykj","archiveId":"29634z","slug":"the-dissent-that-believed-the-olympics-belong-to-everyone","title":"The dissent that believed the Olympics belong to everyone","excerpt":"In Dissent is a recurring series by Anastasia Boden on Supreme Court dissents that have shaped (or reshaped) our country. The Olympics are one of those rare moments when the […] The post The dissent that believed the Olympics belong to everyone appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"
In Dissent Anastasia Boden on Supreme Court dissents that have shaped (or reshaped) our country.
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The Olympics are one of those rare moments when the country comes together whatever its divisions and stays up late watching a skater joyfully complete a near perfect routine just years after quitting the sport completely – or cheers as a hockey player scores the winning goal in overtime moments after losing a few teeth to an opponent’s stick. The athletes’ personal stories somehow feel like our own.
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In 1981, former Olympian Thomas Waddell believed the word “Olympic” itself belonged to everyone. He wanted to organize a “Gay Olympic Games” – a nine-day, international athletic competition in San Francisco meant to challenge stereotypes about the gay community. He had heard that using the term “Olympic” required permission from the United States Olympic Committee, so he asked for it, but it declined. On the advice of the ACLU, he used the name anyway, and the USOC sued to stop him.
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The resulting Supreme Court case – San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. v. United States Olympic Committee
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Most justices agreed that the USOC had the power to block SFAA from using the word “Olympic.” But even a few of those in the majority dissented when it came to power without accountability, and about the increasingly blurry line Congress sometimes draws between a creature of its own making and an arm of the state.
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I. Olympic dreams
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One night in the early 1980s, while flipping through television channels and landing on a gay bowling tournament, Dr. Thomas Waddell had an idea. Waddell had placed sixth in the decathlon at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and had worked as a military paratrooper and physician. Watching the bowlers compete for glory, he wanted to challenge the prevailing stereotype of gay men. He wanted, as the Gay Olympics charter would eventually put it , to “bring people together for greater understanding and physical fitness and not for the purpose of establishing one group being better than any other.” Why not model it on the greatest athletic competition in the world?
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And why not use the word “Olympic”? There were, after all, all sorts of Olympic derivatives in the world – the Firemen’s Olympics , the Rat Olympics , the wrist-wrestling Olympics, even something called the Alcoholic Olympics. “The bottom line is that if I’m a rat, a crab, a copying machine or an Armenian, I can have my own Olympics,” Waddell later said . “If I’m gay, I can’t.”
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Waddell had heard that using the word Olympic required the blessing of the United States Olympic Committee, which was a relatively recent congressional creation. Congress had long left the organization of U.S. Olympic participation to a private body called the Amateur Athletic Union, but the AAU had managed things badly – excluding women from some events, allowing internal politics to hamper athletic performance, and failing to keep pace with the increasingly sophisticated national programs in other countries.
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In response, Congress passed the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 , which dissolved the AAU’s authority, chartered the USOC as its replacement, gave it exclusive governance over participation by the United States in the Olympic Games, and granted it extraordinary control over Olympic words and symbols, including the exclusive right to use the word “Olympic” for commercial and promotional purposes.
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Waddell wrote to the USOC executive director explaining his vision, but the USOC refused to allow him to use the word “Olympic” to describe his planned event. So, Waddell initially agreed to change the name to the Gay Olympic Games. Then, after the ACLU advised him that he had a solid legal argument, he resumed using the original name. The USOC sued in August 1982, just weeks before the first games were to begin. A federal district court granted a temporary restraining order and then a preliminary injunction, forcing organizers to frantically remove the word “Olympic” from posters, T-shirts, tickets, and bumper stickers, ultimately renaming the event the “Gay Games.” Waddell was disappointed. He didn’t think “Gay Games” carried the same weight.
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Typically, one defense in trademark law is that the contested use is not confusing to consumers. So SFAA argued that nobody would think this was the actual Olympics. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in 1986 that no such defense was available under the Amateur Sports Act, and that Congress’ ban on the word’s use did not violate the First Amendment because SFAA had “satisfactory alternative means” to express itself. Over the objections of three jduges, the full court declined to rehear the case.
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The lead dissent was written by Judge Alex Kozinski, joined by two other judges. Kozinski wrote that the panel’s decision “threatens a potentially serious and widespread infringement of personal liberties.” Quoting Justice John Harlan II’s 1971 opinion in Cohen v. California
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There were also, Kozinski noted, serious equal protection concerns. “Handicapped, juniors, police, Explorers, even dogs are allowed to carry the Olympic torch,” he wrote, “but homosexuals are not.”
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SFAA appealed to the Supreme Court, represented by Mary C. Dunlap, an openly gay San Francisco attorney who had broken her thumb that same year playing goalkeeper in the soccer semi-finals of the second Gay Games. She flew to Washington for oral argument in what she said “no one [would] ever be able to prevent [her] from calling” the “Gay Olympics case.”
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II. Olympic arguments
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The case presented several issues: the scope of the USOC’s statutory rights (that is, whether Congress had authorized it to bar uses of the term “Olympic” or only those that cause consumer confusion); whether Congress’ grant of those rights violated the First Amendment (or whether as the district court said, SFAA had “no more First Amendment right to market the ‘Gay Olympics’ than they would Gay Coca-Cola”); whether the USOC was engaged in “state action” and therefore had to abide by the Constitution; and if so, whether its selective enforcement violated principles of equal protection.
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Oral argument opened with a pointed debate over a missing comma. The statute covered “the words ‘Olympic’, ‘Olympiad’, ‘Citius Altius Fortius’, or any combination or simulation thereof tending to cause confusion.” Justice Antonin Scalia pressed Dunlap. Without a comma after “thereof,” the natural grammatical reading was that “tending to cause confusion” modified only “combination or simulation thereof,” not the word “Olympic” standing alone. This meant that USOC could bar uses of the term whether they were confusing or not.
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Dunlap pushed back: in her view, the legislative history showed Congress had wanted to reach only confusing uses, and the absence of a comma shouldn’t be allowed to give the USOC a crown monopoly over an ancient word. Scalia remained skeptical – though Dunlap later described him as “playfully hostile” rather than outright hostile.
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Other justices pressed just how far USOC’s monopoly reached. The organization’s attorney was forced to concede to Justice John Paul Stevens that a cereal manufacturer would be barred from putting an athlete’s picture on the box stating it had helped him win three Olympic medals. The exchange prompted laughter when Justice Sandra Day O’Connor got the attorney to admit that “Breakfast of Olympic Champions,” was “clearly covered.”
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But for the most part, the justices were clearly with USOC.
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III. Olympic decision
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The court affirmed the 9th Circuit and ruled for the USOC on all counts. Justice Lewis Powell wrote the majority opinion. It was his final term, and he announced his retirement the same month the decision came down. The year before, Powell had authored Bowers v. Hardwick Bowers was the opinion he most regretted. He never expressed any regret about this one.
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Powell was joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Byron White, Stevens, and Scalia in full. The opinion stated that the statute did cover all uses of the term, whether they tended to cause confusion or not, that this was not an unconstitutional burden on protected speech, and that the USOC was not engaging in any state action. Because it was a private organization rather than a state actor, it could engage in discriminatory enforcement free of the Constitution’s limits. Justices Harry Blackmun and O’Connor joined the parts related to the statutory interpretation and protected speech, but they dissented with regard to state action. Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall dissented across the board.
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On the First Amendment, the majority applied the intermediate scrutiny test from the 1968 case of United States v. O’Brien
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On this point, Brennan and Marshall dissented alone, contending that the USOC’s monopoly on language was unconstitutionally overbroad.
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But on state action, they picked up two more dissenters in Blackmun and O’Connor. These four justices would have held that USOC was a state actor because it performed the distinctively governmental and important function of representing the nation to the world community: “Every aspect of the Olympic pageant, from the procession of athletes costumed in national uniform, to the raising of national flags and the playing of national anthems at the medal ceremony, to the official tally of medals won by each national team, reinforces the national significance of Olympic participation.” In the dissenters’ view, the public associated the USOC with the United States itself.
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“Private organizations sometimes participate in international conferences resplendent with billowing flags,” these dissenters continued, “[b]ut the Olympic Games are unique: at stake are significant national interests that stem not only from pageantry, but from politics.” And in fact, when the president had told the USOC to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics out of foreign policy concerns, it did.
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In sum, the dissenters wrote, the public viewed the USOC as linked to the state. The USOC sometimes made decisions based on U.S political interests. And it wielded extraordinary state-like power. The USOC sure looked like a state actor, and if it was, it had to abide by constitutional limits just like the government. This meant that its selective enforcement of the Olympic trademark and viewpoint discrimination was likely unconstitutional and illegal.
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The dissenters concluded by observing the irony of the case. USOC’s primary source of funding was its government-granted monopoly over the word “Olympic.” It would be an “‘irony amounting to grave injustice’ if, to finance the team that is to represent the virtues of our political system, the USOC were free to employ Government-created economic leverage to prohibit political speech.”
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O’Connor wrote a separate dissent joined by Blackmun. Rather than deeming the actions outright discriminatory, as Brennan and Marshall had, they would have sent the case back to the lower court for it to determine whether the USOC’s enforcement was unequal.
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The upshot was that the USOC won on every count. The word “Olympic” belonged to the USOC.
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IV. Aftermath
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Waddell had known for years by then that he had AIDS, and he died just weeks after the decision was released. “The Supreme Court’s terrible decision probably did not hasten Tom’s death,” Dunlap said. “It just made it all the more bitter.” The USOC had been awarded its attorneys’ fees and had placed a lien on Waddell’s house to collect them. A few weeks before he died, the USOC waived its legal fees and lifted the lien.
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The Gay Games continued without the word. Gay Games IV in New York City in 1994 drew more than 11,000 athletes and 500,000 spectators, setting a record at the time as the largest athletic competition in world history. Closing ceremonies were held at Yankee Stadium. This year, the Gay Games will be held in Spain.
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The arguments over state action at the heart of the Gay Games dispute reflect a recurring structural problem in U.S. law: what happens when Congress creates a private entity, invests it with governmental powers and privileges, even pressures it into politically laden decisions, and then that entity argues that its conduct falls outside constitutional constraints because it is technically “private”? Similar questions surround the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority , which have cozy relationships with the government – their rules must even sometimes be approved by the government – yet have been considered “private” and thus free from constitutional constraints. And the issue arose in different form this term, as the court considered whether private entities acting on behalf of the government can claim its immunities as well as its powers.
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So, just as the Gay Games will go on, so will the questions this case raised.
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The post The dissent that believed the Olympics belong to everyone appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"global","author":"Anastasia Boden","publishDate":"2026-03-09T13:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ian-hutchinson-U8WfiRpsQ7Y-unsplash.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/the-dissent-that-believed-the-olympics-belong-to-everyone/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-09T18:00:29.982Z"},{"id":"spylxb","archiveId":"61m6xt","slug":"new-kansas-bathroom-law-likely-to-harm-mental-health-increase-risks-for-trans-people-experts-say","title":"New Kansas Bathroom Law Likely to Harm Mental Health, Increase Risks for Trans People, Experts Say","excerpt":"“This type of stigmatizing treatment is associated with significant psychological harm,” one expert said. The post New Kansas Bathroom Law Likely to Harm Mental Health, Increase Risks for Trans People, Experts Say appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
Refusing to allow transgender Kansans the ability to use the bathroom of their choice or hold documents that match their gender affects their mental health and may open them to acts of violence, researchers and doctors say.
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And claims that women are safer because of restrictive laws, as proponents said during Kansas legislative hearings, aren’t supported by evidence.
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The situation frustrates and worries Susan Peach, who cried last week when her daughter turned in her Kansas driver’s license to comply with the state’s new law targeting transgender residents.
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“They clipped the corner of the first license,” she wrote online. “It was as if someone had clipped her wings.”
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The question now plaguing this Merriam mother is where her 20-year-old daughter, Elora Peach, will go to the restroom at the University of Kansas, where she is enrolled in the five-year Legal Education Accelerated Degree Program.
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Early in her transition, Peach said, her daughter was kicked out of men’s restrooms twice.
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“I’m worried that if she were to walk into a men’s room, they are absolutely going to send her away,” she said. “She does not look like a man. She’s a beautiful woman.”
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National experts submitted testimony last week in a Douglas County District Court case filed by two Lawrence men who are challenging the new Kansas law, which forces transgender people to use private spaces and hold state documents that match the sex they were assigned at birth.
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The two men, using pseudonyms of Daniel Doe and Matthew Moe, are suing the state to stop implementation of Senate Bill 244 . On Friday, the court will hear arguments on whether to issue a temporary restraining order, which would delay enforcement of the law for up to 14 days, with a possible extension of another 14 days. That would give the two sides time to prepare arguments over a preliminary injunction, which would block enforcement until the lawsuit is resolved.
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Experts in court filings \n
Ayden Scheim, an epidemiologist and biostatistician who is completing a systematic review on legal gender recognition for the World Health Organization, said in testimony that stigma, discrimination, and violence toward transgender people is widespread.
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Transgender people report “high levels of discrimination and violence,” he wrote in a 57-page court filing for the Kansas case. In a 2022 survey of 92,000 transgender and nonbinary adults, 30 percent reported being verbally harassed the previous year, Scheim said.
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The problems are made worse by documents that don’t match a person’s outward appearance, Scheim said.
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“Transgender persons experience discrimination and poor treatment due specifically to identity documents that do not accurately reflect the sex they know themselves to be and that they live as,” he said.
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The 2015 U.S. Trans Survey found nearly one-third of respondents who presented an identity document that did not match their gender presentation had at least one negative experience, including verbal harassment, denial of service, being asked to leave a venue, and assault.
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Racial and ethnic minority responders were more likely to report harassment or violence, Scheim said.
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Angela Turpin, a pediatric endocrinologist and medical director for the Gender Pathways Services Clinic at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, provided a 29-page court filing that said the impact of incongruent driver’s licenses on transgender people increases gender dysphoria.
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Being transgender is not a mental health condition, she said. However, gender dysphoria, which is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual for Mental Health Disorders, occurs when someone is struggling with feeling a marked incongruence between one’s experienced or expressed gender and their assigned sex, Turpin said.
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“From a medical perspective, denying access to facilities consistent with a person’s gender identity constitutes a form of social non-affirmation,” she said.
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Social affirmation is an important component of treatment for gender dysphoria, Turpin said, and when transgender individuals are required to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity, it separates them from others.
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“This type of stigmatizing treatment is associated with significant psychological harm,” she said, adding that patients subjected to requirements and penalties outlined in Kansas’ new law expressed feelings of rejection, isolation, shame, and social stigma.
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The result is elevated rates of anxiety, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation, Turpin said.
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If the new Kansas law remains in place, transgender individuals in the state are more likely to experience diminished psychological well-being; decreased access to educational, employment and housing opportunities; and increased likelihood of harassment and violence, Turpin said.
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No harm to women \n
Kansas Rep. Charlotte Esau, R-Olathe, supported the Kansas bill during House debate, saying that women who had been assaulted had told her they only feel safe in women-only private spaces.
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“If they are in a place that they believe is for more than one person but only one gender, and it’s their gender, and they feel safe and they hear a male voice in the background, the trauma starts all over again,” she said. “I’ve had folks tell me they won’t go out in public, they won’t go to public pools, where they have to go to a locker room.”
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Kansas Rep. Alexis Simmons, D-Topeka, disputed Esau’s argument. Simmons revealed that she had been sexually assaulted and said she never thought it was anyone else’s responsibility to manage her trauma.
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“I spent years in therapy, “ she said. “I drained my savings to pay for therapy. I worked exceedingly hard to get to a place where I could do something like I am today, sharing it for the betterment of other people.”
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“I do not appreciate my trauma being used to justify legislation that we know will cause harm to people,” she added.
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Esau didn’t answer Kansas Reflector questions about how many women reached out to her about their concerns or how they will react to seeing and hearing transgender Kansans who look like men and have lower voices in the women’s restroom, which they are now required to use by law.
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Experts who have studied the topic say there is no evidence that banning transgender people from spaces that match their gender identity makes anyone safer.
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“This is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” said Elana Redfield, federal policy director at the Williams Institute, a University of California, Los Angeles, think tank that tracks gender identity law and public policy.
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“There’s no evidence that suggests that inclusion of transgender people in bathrooms or getting ideas that are affirming leads to any kind of negative consequence,” she said.
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In a February 2025 report , institute researchers studied states that enacted bathroom bills and found no change in rates of violence or harassment in bathrooms, she said.
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The study found incidents of violence or harassment in private spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms were rare and, in fact, negative incidents were more likely to occur if a transgender person tried to use a bathroom that matched their sex assigned at birth.
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More people were denied access or verbally harassed in the latter situation, the study said.
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Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com .
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The post New Kansas Bathroom Law Likely to Harm Mental Health, Increase Risks for Trans People, Experts Say appeared first on Rewire News Group .
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Just 22% of U.S. registered voters have “a great deal” (7%) or “quite a bit” (15%) of confidence in the Supreme Court, according to a new NBC News poll shared on social media . Voters were more likely to say they had “some” (40%) or “very little” (28%) confidence in the institution.
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On Friday, the justices met in a private conference to discuss cases and vote on petitions for review . Orders from that conference are expected this morning at 9:30 a.m. EDT.
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The court will next hear arguments on Monday, March 23, the first day of its March sitting .
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\n Sophie Brams, The Hill
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During a Friday roundtable at the White House, President Donald Trump again criticized the Supreme Court, “voicing deep frustration with ‘a number’ of recent decisions that have included the rejection of his signature tariff policy and his attempts to federalize the National Guard,” according to The Hill . “I think the Supreme Court ought to be ashamed of itself for a lot of reasons, ok?,” the president said. “I got to live with these people. And I say this … and they’ll only vote bad, and I couldn’t care less at this point. They have hurt this country so badly because they haven’t had the guts to do what’s right.”
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\n Mae Anderson, Associated Press
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In a Friday filing with the U.S. Court of International Trade, Brandon Lord, executive director of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s trade policy and programs directorate, explained that “the CBP is working on a new system [for tariff refunds] that will simplify the process. He said it should be ready in 45 days and require ‘minimal submission from importers,’” according to the Associated Press . “The filing comes after a judge on Wednesday ordered the government to start paying back all importers the illegal tariffs they paid – with interest.”
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\n Nate Raymond, Reuters \n \n \n \n
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On Friday, a 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit “refused to let the Trump administration revoke legal protections that allow more than 350,000 Haitians to live and work in the U.S.,” according to Reuters . “The administration [had] noted that the U.S. Supreme Court had twice allowed it to end [Temporary Protected Status] for Venezuelans. But U.S. Circuit Judges Florence Pan and Brad Garcia, both appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, distinguished the cases and said Haitians sent home would ‘be vulnerable to violence amid a “collapsing rule of law” and lack access to life-sustaining medical care.’” In dissent, U.S. Circuit Judge Justin Walker, who was appointed by Trump, said “the case and the earlier Supreme Court litigation involving Venezuelans were ‘the legal equivalent of fraternal, if not identical, twins.’”
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\n Mattathias Schwartz, The New York Times \n \n \n \n
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The District of Columbia Court of Appeals on Thursday struck down Washington, D.C.’s ban on “gun magazines that contain more than 10 bullets,” holding that it is unconstitutional because “large-capacity magazines ‘are arms in common and ubiquitous use’” and there is a “lack of ‘history or tradition’ of any blanket prohibition on them,” according to The New York Times . “The District of Columbia could appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, or ask that a larger panel from the local appeals court reconsider it.”
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\n Aaron M. Renn, The Washington Post
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In a column for The Washington Post , Aaron M. Renn advocated for “[a] stronger evangelical presence in elite institutions,” including the Supreme Court, explaining his belief that such presence “could strengthen” these institutions “while addressing polarization and public mistrust.” “Evangelicals are 23 percent of U.S. adults and one of the most loyal Republican voting blocs, with 81 percent backing Donald Trump in 2024. Yet despite six of the nine Supreme Court justices being appointed by Republican presidents, there are no evangelicals on the Supreme Court,” Renn wrote.
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\n On Site \n
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\n From the SCOTUSblog Team \n
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\n The leak in May 2022 of a draft of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has been back in the news lately. Here’s a refresher on the circumstances of the leak and a look at what might happen next.
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\n Argument Analysis \n
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\n The Supreme Court heard oral argument on Tuesday about what exceptions exist to federal defendants’ waivers of their right to appeal. The justices seemed poised to endorse more exceptions than just the two the government endorsed – ones for ineffective assistance of counsel in entering into a plea agreement and for sentences above the statutory maximum.
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\n Contributor Corner \n
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\n In her Ratio Decidendi column, Stephanie Barclay pushed back against the claims that, in two recent interim docket orders, “the court bypassed necessary procedural steps in a rush to reach preferred results.” “What is called judicial aggression at One First Street,” Barclay contended, “is often just a response to judicial aggression one floor down – the correction, not the disruption.”
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\n Contributor Corner \n
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\n In a column for SCOTUSblog, Samarth Desai explored the meaning of the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the 14th Amendment, reflecting on who it excludes and why he rejects the Trump administration’s view that “a child is a birthright citizen only if at least one parent’s domicile, or legal home base, is in America.”
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\n Interim Docket Blog \n
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\n In his latest Interim Docket Blog post, William Baude addressed the Supreme Court’s recent interim order staying a New York trial court decision, analyzing the circumstances under which the Supreme Court has jurisdiction in disputes working their way through state courts.
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Roughly 20 years ago, the editor-in-chief of Black’s Law Dictionary, Bryan Garner, interviewed eight of the nine sitting justices (all but the characteristically press-shy Justice David Souter) about “legal writing and advocacy.” The interviews are excellent, but – as the topic suggests – they were fairly restrained.
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That has not always been the case. Below are three of the more candid (and perhaps unexpected) remarks given by justices during interviews over the years (we will feature more in future Closer Looks):
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Justice John Paul Stevens
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“[W]e were all lined up and they threatened to kill, to shoot everybody with a sub-machine gun,” the late Justice John Paul Stevens once remarked in a free-wheeling 2010 CBS interview, referencing his experience as a boy when gangsters invaded his family’s home in Chicago.
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In a May 2019 PBS News Hour appearance , the 99-year-old Stevens elaborated on a similar anecdote he included in his book, being his father’s meeting with the infamous Al Capone. As journalist Judy Woodruff, who interviewed Stevens, explained: “Stevens writes that his father and other hotel men in the city thought it important to persuade industry groups to hold their conventions in Chicago. His father and another hotel manager ‘paid a visit to Al Capone, explained how Chicago’s hotel business might be affected if any conventioneers were robbed and asked for his help.’” “According to my father’s account,” Stevens wrote, “Capone said he understood, and, in fact, there wasn’t a single holdup in Chicago during the week of the convention.”
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Stevens also recalled when his childhood home was broken into and one of his brothers almost shot a neighbor by mistake, noting that he “thought about that frequently, for the fact that these accidents can happen when there are too many guns around. And that has reminded me of reason to be opposed to the Second Amendment.”
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Justice William O. Douglas
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“[Robert Kennedy’s] tendency was to get into arguments with Communists trying to convince them that they were wrong – and I said, ‘Bobby, that’s whistling in the wind. You never can argue with these fellows, so why don’t we just forget about it, and spend an evening doing something else rather than wasting it trying to convert some guy who will never be converted,’” the often outspoken Justice William O. Douglas said in a 1969 interview, talking about his 1955 trip to Russia during the height of the Cold War with Robert F. Kennedy, or “Bobby” (the two were friends most of RFK’s life).
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Douglas went on to discuss RFK’s pivotal 1960 decision to accept the role of attorney general in his brother, John F. Kennedy’s, incoming administration – a choice Douglas helped influence: “He crossed that bridge in my office; he decided to do it,” said Douglas. In a second interview about a month later, Douglas said he and Bobby Kennedy occasionally talked about matters outside of the Justice Department. “Bobby and I, when we met socially, would often talk about State Department problems, foreign policy questions. ‘Is the president doing the right thing? Is he doing the wrong thing? What do you think should be done about this country, that country?’”
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Justice Antonin Scalia
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“I’m nervous about our civic culture. I’m not sure the Internet is largely the cause of it. It’s certainly the cause of careless writing. People who get used to blurbing things on the Internet are never going to be good writers,” Justice Antonin Scalia explained in a 2013 New York Magazine interview when asked if he felt like the Internet “coarsened our culture.” “And some things I don’t understand about it. For example, I don’t know why anyone would like to be ‘friended’ on the network. I mean, what kind of a narcissistic society is it that people want to put out there, This is my life, and this is what I did yesterday? I mean … good grief. Doesn’t that strike you as strange? I think it’s strange,” continued Scalia.
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In the interview, Scalia also (when asked why he hadn’t been to a State of the Union address as of late) replied that “[i]t’s childish.” “[W]e are trucked in just to give some dignity to the occasion. I mean, there are all these punch lines, and one side jumps up—Hooray! And they all cheer, and then another punch line, and the others stand up, Hooray! It is juvenile! And we have to sit there like bumps on a log. We can clap if somebody says, ‘The United States is the greatest country in the world.’ Yay! But anything else, we have to look to the chief justice. Gee, is the chief gonna clap? It didn’t used to be that bad.”
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Scalia also discussed his belief in the devil, his favorite talk show host (Bill Bennett), what part of the Constitution he “found stupid” (the Ninth Amendment ), and TV shows (Scalia watched one episode of Duck Dynasty).
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The post SCOTUStoday for Monday, March 9 appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"activism","author":"Kelsey Dallas and Nora Collins","publishDate":"2026-03-09T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://i0.wp.com/www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/protests-after-politico-scaled.jpg?w=500&ssl=1","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/scotustoday-for-monday-march-9/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-09T18:00:29.982Z"},{"id":"epvsyg","archiveId":"js29be","slug":"tracee-ellis-ross-is-our-forever-style-muse","title":"Tracee Ellis Ross Is Our Forever Style Muse","excerpt":"Some women have style. Others, beauty. Tracee Ellis Ross has both. It’s rare someone looks good in everything. Lucky for her, she’s tasteful enough to walk the tight rope of […] The post Tracee Ellis Ross Is Our Forever Style Muse appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
The post Tracee Ellis Ross Is Our Forever Style Muse appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-09T12:37:20.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/tracee-ellis-ross-spring-style-beauty-inspiration/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-09T18:00:23.217Z"},{"id":"5eyeta","archiveId":"bxwmf6","slug":"the-moms-risking-arrest-to-protect-gender-affirming-care-for-trans-youth","title":"The moms risking arrest to protect gender-affirming care for trans youth","excerpt":"Larissa Godfrey-Smith, a therapist living and working in Washington, D.C., recently spent 12 hours in a jail cell with five other people. There was no running water, since the sink wasn’t working. There was one toilet. They were fed once: a baloney sandwich per person.","content":"
Larissa Godfrey-Smith, a therapist living and working in Washington, D.C., recently spent 12 hours in a jail cell with five other people. There was no running water, since the sink wasn’t working. There was one toilet. They were fed once: a baloney sandwich per person. One guard also gave them a few peanut butter crackers.
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By the end of the day, she just missed her kid.
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“I was like, oh, I don’t get to do bath and bedtime with my 4-year-old the way that I thought I was going to be able to,” she said. There was no clock in the cell — she snuck peeks at the time whenever the cell door was open. As the hours went by, she realized she wouldn’t pick him up from school or read to him before bed. Her husband would take care of their kid, of course. But she also knew he would be anxious.
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Godfrey-Smith was one of over 50 people who joined a protest last month against the Trump administration’s plans to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth. They blocked the entrance to the Health and Human Services Department headquarters to demand that the government stop blocking medical care for transgender kids. Godfrey-Smith was among the 25 protesters arrested.
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Parents and grandparents of trans youth, plus their therapists and medical providers, are fed up after years of health care bans and hostile rhetoric. Those feelings are driving them to do things they’ve never done before — like plan to get arrested at a protest.
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Godfrey-Smith and her husband had decided, together, that participating in a little civil disobedience was worth risking her arrest. But they hadn’t expected that she would be held for so long.
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As a licensed professional counselor who specializes in LGBTQ+ mental health, Godfrey-Smith, who uses she and they pronouns, works with trans kids and their families as they navigate the complexities of gender changing over time. They answer nervous parents’ questions. They talk about concerns regarding medical transition. They also work with trans adults who are well into their 30s and 40s and figuring it all out for the first time.
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The Trump administration is not helping those patients, she said; bans and rhetoric are just making everything worse. Families are confused about what they can access and what to believe. Financial costs to find knowledgeable providers are rising. And parents are scared about the world their trans children are growing up in.
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“I’m so angry and so frustrated. I’m just so exhausted at the misinformation,” they said.
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As a mental health provider, they know that families feel abandoned. She wants those families to see people standing up for them.
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The protest was organized by the Gender Liberation Movement, which advocates for bodily autonomy and trans rights. The volunteer-run group has been active in response to the second Trump administration: marching against Project 2025, the conservative policy blueprint from the Heritage Foundation; facing arrest through a bathroom sit-in on Capitol Hill; and protesting outside the Supreme Court.
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Raquel Willis, co-founder of the group, said that families and allies of trans youth increasingly want to get involved and push back against the Trump administration. They don’t want to feel powerless, she said.
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“We had affirming grandparents with us. We had trans parents with us,” she said. “We are seeing more and more people say that they have trans and nonbinary kids, or young people, in their lives.”
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Now, the organization is getting ready to fight the next challenge to trans youth and gender-affirming care.
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Protesters are arrested during a demonstration with Gender Liberation Movement and ACT UP blocking the entrance to the Department of Health and Human Services and protesting the Trump administration’s plan to cut federal funding to clinics providing care for transgender youth on February 17, 2026 in Washington, D.C. 24 demonstrators were arrested while protesting.\n (Heather Diehl/Getty Images) \n\n\n\n
The government wants to block Medicaid and Medicare funds from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors. This is a serious deterrent, since hospitals rely on these federal programs to cover their spending. The administration also wants to prevent hospitals from using federal Medicaid reimbursement to cover gender-affirming treatments. Taken together, these regulations would essentially ban the care nationwide.
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In response, 21 states and Washington, D.C., have sued , asking a court to block enforcement of these policies. States say the government is restricting their ability to administer Medicaid plans in accordance with local laws. Their lawsuit has halted attempts by the Trump administration to investigate and punish hospitals that provide gender-affirming treatments to minors. Until a court decision comes — or 30 days after a March 19 hearing , whichever comes first — the government cannot take action against these hospitals.
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But, faced with the ire of the federal government, hospitals have been shutting down treatment anyway. Christen Clifford, a mom of two trans kids living in New York City, knows that’s happening because she’s lived it.
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“I got out of jail last Tuesday to a message from my pediatrician, saying ‘call me.’ Then, as I’m looking at other messages, I find out that NYU had closed down their youth gender clinic,” Clifford said. As she was protesting federal threats to her children’s health care, the hospital where her 17-year-old son currently gets treatment shuttered its transgender youth health program. NYU Langone Health cited “the current regulatory environment” as a key reason why it made the decision.
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Gender-affirming care is not only legal in New York — it’s protected by a state shield law . The New York attorney general’s office has ordered the hospital to resume treatment, but the hospital has not publicly responded.
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Luckily, Clifford had just filled a prescription for her son’s hormone replacement therapy, so he still had some medication. Suddenly stopping testosterone would be painful: side effects of an abrupt stop include fatigue, brain fog and headaches. But they still have to come up with a Plan B for where to get his medication now.
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The care her son and her 22-year-old daughter received at NYU Langone made a huge difference in their lives, she said. Now, her children do better in school — they eat better, they sleep better, she said. They’re both happier. The loss of the hospital’s transgender youth health program in New York is devastating to families, she said.
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“I have seen firsthand that gender-affirming care is life saving for teenagers,” she said. “I really believe it saved my children’s lives.”
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The February protest wasn’t Clifford’s first rodeo. She’s been protesting since 1989, primarily for bodily autonomy and abortion access. But what motivated her to risk arrest this time is her kids. That day, the protesters were given a few warnings before agents with the Department of Homeland Security — not local enforcement — arrested members of their group one by one. Eventually, the officers ran out of zip ties. Clifford was the last person arrested. She was taken to a different district from Godfrey-Smith, the local therapist.
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Over in Godfrey-Smith’s shared cell at MPD first precinct headquarters, conditions were rough. They had to bang on the door to ask for water, since the sink wasn’t working, and were given small cups of water sporadically after. None of them slept during those 12 hours. DHS and D.C. police did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
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Another mom waited in the cell with Godfrey-Smith: a Latina who risked arrest as Immigration and Customs Enforcement cracks down on families across the country. She is a nurse practitioner who worries what will happen to her daughter if she can’t access gender-affirming care anymore. She spoke with The 19th on condition of anonymity, since her young daughter’s trans identity is not public.
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“For my kid, if she has to stop care, I fear for her mental well-being. That’s why I went to D.C.,” she said. “And I just felt like when I look at my kid in the eyes, years from now, I can say I did everything that I could.”
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As of now, her daughter’s next appointment at the Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago hasn’t been canceled. But that feels like it could change at any moment. Getting arrested at this protest was terrifying, she said; but so is being a parent of a trans kid right now.
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Her daughter, who is 14, started socially transitioning at 5 years old. There were early signs: growing up, she would pretend her mother’s scarves were hair and try on her heels. She got upset when she couldn’t wear princess dresses at Halloween. She seemed weighed down by some kind of sadness. When they asked if their child wanted to be a girl, she glowed. Since then, she hasn’t wavered in those feelings, her mom said.
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Along the way, her parents relied on a robust medical support system. Their daughter started seeing a therapist. And through the Lurie Children’s Hospital, she saw endocrinologists and psychiatrists that advised on major decisions that came later, like whether she should start hormone replacement therapy. Repeatedly, doctors and therapists checked if this was what their daughter really wanted. And it was.
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“Nobody’s ever pushed for or discussed surgery or anything like that,” her mom said. “I think there’s a lot of fear mongering when it comes to Republicans saying that, ‘we’re trying to do surgeries on little kids.’ That’s not the case.”
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When HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the federal rules restricting youth gender-affirming care in December, he described the practice as “chemical and surgical sex-rejecting procedures” that endanger patients’ lives.
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“This is not medicine. It is malpractice,” Kennedy said. “We’re done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits, not the well-being of children.”
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Parents of transgender kids disagree. They argue that without medical intervention at a young age, their children would grow up in bodies changing in unwanted ways. They worry that, without treatment, puberty mixed with gender dysphoria could lead to suicide. Multiple studies have found that access to medical treatment lowers suicidality rates for trans youth . And gender dysphoria, the distress experienced by trans people when their body doesn’t align with their gender, is a medical condition — a diagnosis.
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Families of trans kids fear what happens when they can’t get treatment for that diagnosis anymore.That fear is driving them to action.
","category":"activism","author":"Orion Rummler","publishDate":"2026-03-09T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/moms_trans_arrests.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/moms-arrested-gender-affirming-care/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-09T12:00:15.197Z"},{"id":"b4gsaq","archiveId":"3m6hhc","slug":"abortion-bans-reshaped-reproductive-health-and-now-the-rental-market","title":"Abortion bans reshaped reproductive health, and now the rental market","excerpt":"People are leaving or avoiding living in states with abortion bans, a new paper shows — resulting in lower rental prices and higher vacancies than in states that protect reproductive rights. The research — published Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonprofit economic research o...","content":"
People are leaving or avoiding living in states with abortion bans, a new paper shows — resulting in lower rental prices and higher vacancies than in states that protect reproductive rights.
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The research — published Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonprofit economic research organization — compared housing markets in states with abortion bans to states without those restrictions. They found that between July 2022 — the first month after the fall of Roe v. Wade — and June 2025, housing markets with abortion bans experienced a 2.2 percent decline in rental prices, compared to similarly trending markets in states without bans. Rental vacancies went up by an average of 1.1 percent in housing markets with abortion bans compared to similar markets in states without bans.
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The paper’s authors concluded that abortion bans had an “economically meaningful and statistically significant” effect on rental markets.
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“This combination of findings—falling rents alongside rising rental vacancies—is consistent with a demand shift,” they wrote.
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The paper is part of a growing body of research showing how abortion bans are reshaping communities. Other studies have linked abortion bans to higher rates of poverty and higher property crime rates, and found that they may be driving young people to leave their home states. Surveys have shown that aspiring doctors — especially those training to OBGYNs — are less likely to choose residencies in states with abortion bans.
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Abortion rights may not be the only factor people weigh when choosing where to live. States with abortion restrictions may have cheaper housing, for instance, or offer people a chance to live closer to family.
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But the paper’s findings suggest access to reproductive health care is influencing a meaningful share of people in the United States regarding where they want to live — especially renters, who have more mobility than homeowners. Rental prices declined more as time progressed, which suggests the trend may continue as long as states’ approaches to abortion continue to diverge.
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“What we establish in our paper is that the policies around abortion matter to some people — to enough people to move the needle significantly when it comes to the real estate market,” said Jason Lindo, an economist at Georgia Institute of Technology and one of the paper’s authors.
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That, he added, may stem from people thinking about abortion itself — and what health care they may need if they or their loved ones become pregnant — but also considerations about the broader political environment in a state with abortion restrictions.
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“It could be about the social message or about the broader policy climate or concerns regarding bodily autonomy or concerns around how issues concerning women are treated in the state,” he said. “Abortion bans affect abortion access, but also it’s possible the effects we find could be a result of what the abortion bans signal more broadly.”
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When Kayla Smith moved from Idaho, where she had lived for more than a decade, the state’s abortion law was a key factor. Smith was 18 weeks pregnant in 2022, when her doctor discovered the fetus had fatal anomalies, including inoperable heart issues. Smith had developed severe preeclampsia, a high blood pressure condition, in her previous pregnancy. Staying pregnant with a nonviable pregnancy didn’t feel like an option.
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Idaho’s abortion ban had taken effect two days prior; Idaho’s law does not have an exception for fetal anomalies, even fatal ones. In fact, of the 13 states with near-total abortion bans and four- with six-week bans, only six have exceptions for fatal fetal anomalies. But even those are difficult for people to use.
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Smith and her family traveled to Washington state for an abortion. Idaho’s law left them unsure if the procedure — which would cost more than $10,000 — would be covered by insurance. The couple took out a loan to pay for her health care. Smith later joined a lawsuit against the state of Idaho, seeking to clarify exceptions to the state’s ban. Last April, a state court in Idaho ruled in the case to broaden the state’s abortion exceptions, but it did not add an abortion allowance for cases of fatal fetal anomalies.
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Still reeling, Smith and her husband began talking about whether it was safe to stay in Idaho, where they owned their home and had a close network of friends. Down the line they had talked about moving to Washington to be closer to her family, but they’d never imagined it would happen so soon. They knew a state with abortion rights protections would be more expensive to live in. But what they would gain felt evermore worth it.
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“It became a nightly conversation with my husband and I,” she said. “We felt personally victimized by the state of Idaho.”
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After becoming pregnant again in 2023, Smith worried about what health care she would need in Idaho and whether she’d be able to receive it. So did her maternal-fetal medicine specialist, who told her she didn’t believe the state was a safe place to be pregnant. Smith thought about her daughters — the one she already had, and the second one she was now expecting. She was maybe 28 weeks pregnant when they decided to leave the state. That September, they sold their house. A month later, she gave birth. If not for the abortion ban, she said, she doesn’t think they’d have made that decision.
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“It sucks. But ultimately, we feel like we made the right choice in moving to Washington,” she said. “It shouldn’t matter what ZIP code you live in, right? But here we are.”
","category":"choice","author":"Shyla Nott","publishDate":"2026-03-09T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/rent_abortion_bans.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/abortion-bans-reproductive-health-rental-market-research/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-09T18:00:16.938Z"},{"id":"449xc4","archiveId":"kpphj8","slug":"ladies-first-cardi-b-latto-kehlani-patti-labelle-and-brandy-038-monica-to-perform-at-2026-essence-fe","title":"Ladies First: Cardi B, Latto, Kehlani, Patti LaBelle And Brandy & Monica To Perform At 2026 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture","excerpt":"We are so back. ESSENCE Festival of Culture® presented by Coca-Cola®, that is. In celebration of March’s Women’s History Month observance, the ESSENCE Festival of Culture has unveiled its first wave […] The post Ladies First: Cardi B, Latto, Kehlani, Patti LaBelle And Brandy & Monica To Perform At ...","content":"
By
ESSENCE Editors ·
Updated March 9, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
We are so back. ESSENCE Festival of Culture® presented by Coca-Cola® , that is.
In celebration of March’s Women’s History Month observance, the ESSENCE Festival of Culture has unveiled its first wave of artists for the 2026 Evening Concert Series at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, July 3-5. The names are titans in R&B as well as hip-hop, pushing the sound and the culture forward: Cardi B, Patti LaBelle, Kehlani, Latto, and our Fall/Winter 2025 cover stars, Brandy and Monica . They’re giving “Ladies first” new meaning.
Cardi B, who is currently on her wildy popular Little Miss Drama Tour , will make her ESSENCE Festival of Culture debut to perform her chart-topping, Grammy-winning hits.
Also making their debut is Grammy-nominated hitmaker Latto. The “Big Mama” rapper, who has redefined the Southern rap sound with her confident, infectious lyrics, is sure to is shake things up on the Superdome stage. Kehlani is also new to the EFoC experience, but her catalog isn’t new to R&B fans. Her song, “Folded,” a top 10 hit on the Hot 100, recently nabbed her the Grammy for Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song at the 68th annual Grammy Awards. Fans will certainly be singing along come the July 4th weekend.
As for icons making a welcome return, Grammy winners Brandy and Monica, recent ESSENCE cover queens, are returning to the stage together after wrapping up their Boy Is Mine Tour in December. For those who missed that moment, which brought out the stars, you’ll have your chance to hear their deepest cuts and see the spectacle for yourself in New Orleans.
And last, but certainly not least, the legendary Patti LaBelle will be back, kicking off her heels and hitting notes we could only dream of reaching. The Grammy winner’s stage presence is unmatched, and so is her catalogue.
And that’s just the first wave. Additional talent, special guests, along with our programming across the three days will be rolled out in a series of curated reveals that lead up to all the Festival fun in July.
Speaking of daytime programming, we’re back at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, offering interactive moments for guests to hear from those they admire most: innovators in the beauty space, burgeoning and established filmmakers, celebrated politicians, activists and entrepreneurs, best-selling authors and A-list talent. And don’t forget about the creative vendors who will be selling their goods at SOKO MRKT by ESSENCE. Applications for founders interested in particpating, meeting their audience in person on the Convention Center floor, are now open .
The full daytime programming lineup includes the following stages:
ESSENCE Food & Wine Festival
BEAUTYCON
AFROPUNK BLKTOPIA
ESSENCE Film Festival® by ESSENCE STUDIOS
ESSENCE Stage
SOKO MRKT
ESSENCE Authors
ESSENCE® GU® Kickback
GBEF® HQ
We’re gearing up for an experience you won’t want to miss out on. Get your tickets for the 2026 ESSENCE Festival of Culture® presented by Coca-Cola® Evening Concert Series now. Firm up your plans for the holiday weekend with help from our E360 app , offering you exclusive offers, real-time updates and personalized itineraries.
Join the conversation on social at @ESSENCEFest on X , Facebook , and Instagram — and subscribe to ESSENCE Magazine and our newsletter to stay connected all year long.
Get out the group chat, gather up your bae, or make plans for a solo experience . However you prefer to partake in the “party with a purpose,” we’ll see you there.
TOPICS:
2026 ESSENCE Festival of Culture essence festival of culture The post Ladies First: Cardi B, Latto, Kehlani, Patti LaBelle And Brandy & Monica To Perform At 2026 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Victoria Uwumarogie","publishDate":"2026-03-08T21:15:23.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/essence-festival-performers-2026/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-09T18:00:23.217Z"},{"id":"gif0ju","archiveId":"rndpxm","slug":"is-micro-dosing-glp-1s-safe-to-curb-menopausal-symptoms","title":"Is Micro-Dosing GLP-1s Safe To Curb Menopausal Symptoms?","excerpt":"When Jana Stewart, 54, a hormone and midlife health coach and bodybuilder, first hit perimenopause she was doing everything “right.” Between regular exercise and healthy eating, “I’d never had a […] The post Is Micro-Dosing GLP-1s Safe To Curb Menopausal Symptoms? appeared first on Essence .","content":"
Tony Duffy/Allsport/Getty Images
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 5, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
When Jana Stewart, 54, a hormone and midlife health coach and bodybuilder, first hit perimenopause she was doing everything “right.” Between regular exercise and healthy eating, “I’d never had a problem losing weight before,” she tells ESSENCE. But, she still gained about 15 pounds that just wouldn’t budge. “Suddenly, everything that used to work perfectly just stopped working,” she says. So, her hormone specialist suggested Wegovy.
An injectable medication like Ozempic, Zepbound, and Mounjaro, Wegovy is a synthetic version of the GLP-1 hormone—a hormone that manages blood sugar, makes us feel full, and regulates appetite—our body naturally produces. After taking a full dose to lose the initial weight, dropping from 140 to 123 pounds in a year, Stewart switched to micro-dosing. Now, she takes just 10 units every Saturday to maintain her goal weight: 125 pounds. “The difference is that micro-dosing isn’t about weight loss for me anymore—it helps tremendously with cravings and inflammation, which are huge for managing perimenopause symptoms,” she says. And, she’s not alone.
“Weight gain during menopause is incredibly common,” says Dr. Roxanne Pero, OBGYN MD, FACOG, FACLM, IFMCP, who is on O Positiv’s Medical Advisory Board. 60 to 70 percent of women in midlife report weight gain during the menopausal transition, with total gain reaching up to 22 to 25 pounds from the start of perimenopause, and even more after menopause.
@janarosestewart Can we talk about weight management peptides for women over 40? I’m 52, in perimenopause, and I use prescription peptides strategically. Here’s what I wish I’d known: • It’s not magic – you still need to train right • Low-dose approach works better long-term • Must protect your muscle while losing fat • Compound pharmacies = way more affordable At 40+ with hormonal changes, sometimes you need support beyond just diet and exercise. I help women do this the RIGHT way – pairing peptides with proper training and nutrition. Comment PEPTIDE, DM me if you want info on: #WeightLoss #WomenOver40 #Perimenopause #PeptideTherapy #FitnessOver50
♬ original sound – Jana Rose | Women’s Health 40+ According to Pero, Black women often start menopause with a higher body weight and more abdominal fat compared to White women. “They may not gain as much additional weight during the menopause transition itself—but tend to hold onto that existing body fat and then see more weight gain after menopause,” she says.
While weight gain is completely normal as we age, Black menopausal women have been turning to GLP-1s to take control over stubborn pounds. Celebrities like Serena Williams , Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah, and most recently,
The post Is Micro-Dosing GLP-1s Safe To Curb Menopausal Symptoms? appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-08T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2025/11/GettyImages-1312667475-Cropped-2-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/micro-dosing-glp-1s-menopausal-weight-gain-understand-potential-risks/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-08T18:00:28.411Z"},{"id":"xuty8p","archiveId":"cky9ey","slug":"will-un-plans-to-transform-the-way-it-works-throw-equality-under-the-bus","title":"Will UN plans to transform the way it works ‘throw equality under the bus’?","excerpt":"
Many of those attending the world’s largest meeting on women’s rights in New York this week are primed to defend the two key UN agencies that protect women and girls around the world
Thousands of international delegates are gathering in New York this week for the world’s largest meeting on ...","content":"<p>Many of those attending the world’s largest meeting on women’s rights in New York this week are primed to defend the two key UN agencies that protect women and girls around the world</p><p>Thousands of international delegates are gathering in New York this week for the world’s largest meeting on women’s rights. The United Nation’s annual <a href=\"https://www.unwomen.org/en/how-we-work/commission-on-the-status-of-women\">Commission on the Status of Women</a> (CSW) is an opportunity for government ministers, UN officials, NGO representatives and activists to discuss the global state of gender equality and women’s empowerment. This year, there will be a strong focus on “ensuring and strengthening access to justice”.</p><p>But as senior UN figures urge countries to intensify their efforts to achieve gender equality, many of the delegates will be asking whether the UN is at risk of diluting its own commitment to women and girls.</p> <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/mar/08/un-plans-merge-women-unfpa-equality-reform\">Continue reading...</a>","category":"global","author":"Isabel Choat","publishDate":"2026-03-08T11:00:17.000Z","image":"https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/37de2367156b7adc6b4874b77629281a7647b789/560_0_5600_4480/master/5600.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=877cda914136ddb6fa7bc8cd429f1850","source":"The Guardian Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/mar/08/un-plans-merge-women-unfpa-equality-reform","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-08T12:00:39.228Z"},{"id":"j8qtog","archiveId":"b9z3ip","slug":"usisrael-investigate-iran-school-attack-as-a-war-crime","title":"US/Israel: Investigate Iran School Attack as a War Crime","excerpt":"Click to expand Image The aftermath of the attack on a school in Minab, southern Iran, on February 28, 2026. © 2026 Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters A February 28, 2026 attack on a primary school in southern Iran was an unlawful attack that reportedly killed scores of ...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n The aftermath of the attack on a school in Minab, southern Iran, on February 28, 2026.\n © 2026 Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters\n \n \n\n\n \nA February 28, 2026 attack on a primary school in southern Iran was an unlawful attack that reportedly killed scores of civilians, including schoolchildren.The laws of war prohibit attacks if the anticipated harm to civilians and civilian objects is disproportionate compared to the expected military gain from the attack.The United States and Israel should immediately assess their responsibility for this attack and make the findings public. The responsible party should fully account for the civilian harm and hold those responsible accountable, including prosecuting anyone responsible for war crimes.<p>(Beirut, March 7, 2026) – An unlawful attack on a primary school in southern Iran before midday on February 28, 2026, that reportedly killed scores of civilians, including many children, should be investigated as a war crime, Human Rights Watch said today.</p><p>The attack was carried out among hundreds of strikes across Iran by Israeli and US forces on the morning of February 28. Neither the United States nor Israel has claimed responsibility for the attack, and an Israeli military spokesperson told Human Rights Watch that it was “not aware of any [Israeli military] strikes in the area.” The Iranian government has blamed the US-Israeli coalition for the attack.</p><p>The Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in the town of Minab, Hormozgan province, is on the interior border of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Naval Forces compound. However, information Human Rights Watch reviewed shows that the school is walled off and has a separate entrance to the street from the rest of the compound. </p><p>The pattern of strikes in which distinct structures across the compound, including the school, were directly struck, as well as the entry points of the munitions visible on multiple buildings, indicate that the attack was carried out by highly accurate, guided munitions, rather than errant weapons whose guidance or propulsion systems failed or were otherwise disrupted and randomly struck the area.</p><p>“A prompt and thorough investigation is needed into this attack, including if those responsible should have known that a school was there and that it would be full of children and their teachers before midday,” said Sophia Jones, open source researcher with the Digital Investigations Lab at Human Rights Watch. “Those responsible for an unlawful attack should be held to account, including prosecutions of anyone responsible for war crimes.” </p> \n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Map of the town of Minab, including the Shajareh Tayyebeh School, the IRGC Naval Forces Compound and the Minab Hermud Cemetery.\n Graphics © 2026 Human Rights Watch \n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Human Rights Watch verified and analyzed 14 videos and photographs posted on social media that were recorded immediately after the strike or during search-and-rescue operations, as well as 4 from funerals. Researchers also reviewed about 40 publicly available satellite images captured over the past 25 years as well as satellite images obtained commercially that were captured after the attack, showing both the attack site and the nearby cemetery where victims were apparently buried. Researchers also reviewed statements by the Iranian Red Crescent Society and government officials from Iran, Israel, and the United States, and reports by independent media outlets outside Iran. </p><p>Due to the internet shutdown and communications restrictions imposed by Iran’s authorities, Human Rights Watch was unable to safely speak with witnesses or family members of those killed in the strike, limiting researchers’ ability to verify the precise number and identities of children and other individuals killed and other details related to the attack. However, researchers interviewed two sources who had spoken with witnesses and relatives of victims. Human Rights Watch is also investigating Iranian forces’ strikes on targets in countries in the Middle East. </p><p>The exact nature of the different sections in the IRGC compound, the extent to which the facilities were in use for military purposes at the time of the attack, and what may have been stored there was not immediately apparent. If any of the facilities within the compound were used for military purposes, Iranian authorities would appear to have been placing civilians at unnecessary risk and therefore also would have been in violation of the laws of war. </p><p>Satellite imagery analysis shows that at least eight structures across the compound were directly struck by munitions, including at least one that struck and severely damaged the school, which was walled off from the rest of the compound. </p><p>Two videos filmed next to the school in the immediate aftermath of the attack and verified by researchers show black smoke billowing from the top of the school and part of its roof collapsed. In one video, white lines of a soccer pitch, a volleyball net, and brightly painted school walls are clearly visible, as are two smoke plumes from elsewhere on the compound. In the second video, people are gathered around the school, screaming. A third video verified by researchers shows a different angle of the compound, from the south, and plumes of smoke from at least a third location within that compound.</p><p>High-resolution satellite imagery reveals that, between February and September 2016, an inner wall was built that separates the school from the rest of the compound. Moreover, a separate entrance without a security post was created during that time frame, allowing street access to the school without having to enter the military compound. Two watchtowers, previously visible on satellite imagery and less than 50 meters from the school building, were also removed in 2016. The front of the school was cleared and marking lines of a soccer pitch were drawn in the courtyard by August 2017.</p><p>The compound also contains a medical clinic, under the auspices of the IRGC’s Naval Forces. State media reported that it was inaugurated in January 2025 by Major General Hossein Salami, the then-commander-in-chief of the IRGC.</p><p>Low-resolution satellite imagery from March 2, 2026, shows at least seven other impact sites within the IRGC compound in addition to the school, including a clear impact on the medical clinic’s roof. An analysis of very high-resolution satellite imagery captured on March 4 confirms that explosive weapons detonated in at least eight points, including five sites where damage is consistent with a munition entering the structures from the roof and detonating.</p> \n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Satellite imagery captured on March 4, 2026, shows the main impact sites and damaged structures within the IRGC Naval Forces Compound, including Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School, following the February 28 attack. At least eight impact sites are visible, including destroyed buildings and structures showing significant damage consistent with the point of detonation of an explosive weapon. Neighboring buildings appear to have sustained damage caused by blast effects or fire consistent with having been directly hit by an explosive weapon.\n Image: March 4, 2026 © 2026 Planet Labs PBC. Analysis and Graphics © 2026 Human Rights Watch\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Damage to two other structures, as well as the relative distance between these and others attacked, indicate that both structures were most likely also directly attacked with explosive weapons, bringing the total number of impact sites most likely directly attacked to ten. The number of individual strikes and the apparent accuracy with which they struck individual structures across the base, observed in part through the relatively small circular holes that were points of entry for the munitions, indicate that the attack was carried out across a wide set of individual targets on the base with highly accurate, guided munitions. </p><p>The school’s location within the IRGC Naval Force’s compound did not, in and of itself, make the school a legitimate target. The school was in use, and children were in attendance on the day of the attack. Human Rights Watch found no evidence that would indicate that the school was being used for military purposes, though researchers were not able to speak to witnesses of the strikes, families of those killed, or other informed sources. </p><p>Even if the attackers were targeting a legitimate military target in the vicinity of the school, the laws of war prohibit attacks on military objectives if the anticipated harm to civilians and civilian objects is disproportionate compared to the expected military gain from the attack. </p><p>Both the US and Israeli militaries possess and have used advanced and expansive multi-domain intelligence collection methods in their conduct of many combat operations, which allow for enhanced monitoring, assessment and verification of targets. </p><p>Human Rights Watch wrote to the US and Israeli militaries on March 2 and to Iranian authorities on March 3. The Israeli military responded on March 3, writing: “After an initial examination[,] [t]he [Israeli military]is not aware of any [Israeli military] strikes in the area,” and that “the incident is being examined.” Neither the US military nor Iranian authorities have responded.</p><p>On March 4, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded to a question in a media briefing about the attack on the school. “All I can say is that we’re investigating that,” he said. “We, of course, never target civilian targets, but we’re taking a look and investigating that.” During that briefing, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, said that US forces from the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group were providing “pressure” along the “southeastern side of the coast and has been attritting naval capability all along the strait,” as he pointed to an area of a map that included Minab, where the map shows there had been US/Israeli strikes. </p><p>A thorough, independent investigation into the strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School should be conducted, including to determine whether war crimes were committed, Human Rights Watch said. War crimes are serious violations of the laws of war committed with criminal intent, that is deliberately or recklessly. Those responsible for any war crimes or other serious violations of the laws of war, including military and civilian commanders, should be held to account, while victims and their families should be appropriately compensated.</p><p>Schools and other educational facilities are civilian objects and protected from attack. They lose that protection when used for military purposes, although all parties must still comply with international humanitarian law including respecting the principle of proportionality and taking all feasible measures to minimize harm to civilians. The mere presence of military personnel in civilian infrastructure does not in itself automatically make such facilities as whole a legitimate military target. Human Rights Watch has seen no information to indicate that the Shajareh Tayyebeh school was used for military purposes. </p><p>Iranian authorities should ensure the protection of schools and other civilian infrastructure. </p><p>The United States should immediately assess its responsibility for this strike and make the findings public. If the US military carried out the strike, it should conduct a full investigation into the operational and policy failures that led it to strike a school, fully account for the civilian harm caused, hold those responsible accountable including through prosecution, and commit to changes that would ensure such failures will not be repeated in future operations. </p><p>“Allies of the US and Israel should insist on accountability for the Shajareh Tayyebeh school attack and for an end to attacks on civilian infrastructure in all of their operations across the region, before more civilians, including children, are unlawfully killed,” Jones said.</p>For additional details, please see below.<p>The school and work week in Iran begin on Saturday morning. The first reports of the US and Israeli attacks in Iran surfaced online before 10 a.m. on Saturday, February 28. The Shajareh Tayyebeh school administration called parents to pick up their children, but “the time between the announcement of the school’s closure and the moment of the explosion was extremely short; many families had not yet arrived,” the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations said in a statement on March 1.</p><p>Satellite imagery from February 28 shows the school intact as of 10:23 a.m. The attack took place sometime before 11:47 a.m., when the first video of the attack surfaced on social media. Local media, citing Iranian officials, said the attack on the school took place around 10:45 a.m.</p><p>As of March 4, the death toll from this attack had risen to 168, Iranian state media reported. Human Rights Watch has not been able to independently verify that number. Researchers reviewed a list of 57 names announced by the Special Governor’s Office of Minab County and circulated by news outlets on March 2. Of the names on that list, at least 48 appear to have been children, according to their birth dates on the list. Researchers analyzed this list of names, which included girls, boys, women, and men, and in some cases were able to immediately match names with other identifying information, such as photographs, caskets, body bags, or funerary materials with names, ages, names of family members, and whether they were identified as a student or teacher at the school. The list included the apparent principal of the school and several teachers.</p><p>Researchers identified an additional 25 names by reviewing a list published by Iran’s Gymnastics Federation and names written on body bags, caskets, or funerary materials, as seen in photographs and videos published by state media between March 3 and 6. At least 15 of them appear to be children; researchers were unable to determine the ages of the remaining 10. Human Rights Watch was not able to immediately obtain information regarding the remaining individuals reported to have been killed or about people who may have been killed in strikes elsewhere on the compound.</p><p>Videos shared on social media on February 28 and analyzed by researchers show an ambulance arriving at the Hazrat Abolfazl hospital roughly two kilometers from the school. Other videos show 12 body bags lying on the ground, and photographs show the bodies of what appears to be 4 girls, their faces covered in dust, dressed in school uniforms lying in body bags. Another video analyzed by Human Rights Watch shows the body of a child with a head wound, who is wearing the same green checkered school uniform as a surviving boy seen in another video analyzed by researchers.</p><p>Additional verified photographs taken by Mehr News on February 28 and circulated by the Associated Press show men, including some in uniform, digging through the rubble of the school. At least one body buried in the rubble is visible in these photographs.</p><p>On March 2, a video published by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) shows graves being dug at the Minab Hermud cemetery in preparation for funerals on March 3. Aerial imagery of the cemetery published on March 2 shows at least 100 new grave locations, 83 of them being dug with the use of heavy machinery. Ground preparation for the burials within the same cemetery plot seen in the photos and videos began in the afternoon of March 1, according to satellite imagery analyzed by Human Rights Watch.</p> \n\n\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n \n \n \n \n\n\n \n \n\n \n <p>Satellite imagery captured on March 1 and 4, 2026 shows changes at Minab Hermud Cemetery located roughly 3.5 kilometers from the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School. Imagery from March 1, captured less than 24 hours after the attack, shows soil preparation for new burials within one plot of the cemetery. By March 4, rows of freshly dug individual graves are visible in the upper half of the same plot.</p>\n \n Image left: March 1, 2026, and Image right: March 4, 2026 © 2026 Planet Labs PBC. Analysis and Graphics © 2026 Human Rights Watch\n \n \n \n\n \n\n\n \n<p>Photographs published from the funerals on March 3 show crowds of people at the cemetery standing next to the graves. Fourteen caskets had been placed into the graves, while others were empty in one photograph. Human Rights Watch was unable to verify whether all 100 graves were used for people killed in the attack on the school. According to reports online, at least two people’s funerals took place elsewhere outside of Minab.</p>Further Analysis of Structures in the IRGC Compound and Strike Impacts<p>In addition to the unguarded entrance from the street to the school, which was walled off from the rest of the compound, at least seven other entrances to different parts of the compound can be seen on satellite imagery from February 19. An undated photograph shows a sign at a southern entrance on the main road that reads “Seyyed Al-Shohada Cultural and Educational Complex” alongside an IRGC logo.</p><p>Sixty meters north, at another entrance on the main road, a photograph uploaded to Google Maps in February shows a sign for the “Shaheed Absalan Specialist Clinic, the Health Commandment of the IRGC’s Naval Force.” Human Rights Watch also geolocated a picture published in 2025 showing the facade of the clinic. At the main entrance of the complex, an undated photograph shows a sign with the IRGC logo and the word for “barracks” or “unit.”</p><p>Analysis of images taken over the last 25 years shows structural changes within the military compound itself, including the construction of additional inner walls that separate different areas within the compound between 2022 and 2024. As a result, additional separate gates to access the different sections of the compound were constructed between 2022 to 2025.</p>\n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Satellite imagery captured on February 19, 2026, shows the IRGC Naval Forces Compound nine days before the attack. Analysis of previous satellite imageries by Human Rights Watch and overlayed on the map shows how and when the compound was partitioned into several sections.\n © Image © 2026 Vantor. Source: EUSI. Analysis and Graphics © 2026 Human Rights Watch \n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Low-resolution satellite imagery from March 2, 2026, shows at least seven other impact sites within the IRGC compound, in addition to the school, including a clear impact on the rooftop of the Shaheed Absalan clinic. The buildings all appeared intact on satellite imagery captured at 10:23 a.m. on February 28. A very high-resolution satellite image from March 4 shows at least eight areas that were directly struck. Five buildings, including the school and the medical clinic, show damage consistent with a large munition striking and entering the roof before detonating. Four other buildings are completely destroyed, indicating they were also directly struck by a munition with a large high-explosive yield. Two of the buildings are immediately adjacent to one another, indicating that they were struck by at least one munition.</p><p>Two other buildings on the compound exhibit fire damage. Due to the relative distance between them and the nearby structures that were also struck, it is likely that the fire damage is the result of these buildings also being individually struck by explosive weapons, bringing the total number of buildings most likely directly attacked to 10. In all, 14 buildings across the site were damaged, nearly all of the structures within the compound.</p>Further Legal Background <p>The laws of war obligate warring parties to take constant care to spare the civilian population. All feasible precautions must be taken to avoid, and in any event to minimize, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects. Unless circumstances do not permit, warring parties should give “effective advance warning” of attacks that may affect the civilian population. Human Rights Watch is not aware of any warning having been given in advance of the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school.</p><p>The laws of war also obligate warring parties to avoid locating military targets near densely populated areas. </p><p>Serious violations of the laws of war carried out by individuals with criminal intent—that is, deliberately or recklessly—are war crimes. A combatant or commander may have acted recklessly when they consciously disregard a substantial and unjustifiable risk of causing prohibited harm—such as death or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects—during an armed conflict. </p><p>Investigations into the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school should consider whether those responsible acted recklessly, including if they should have known that they were attacking a school, and that an attack during the middle of the day on a school day would have most likely resulted in a large number of civilian casualties. </p><p>Individuals may also be held criminally liable for assisting in, facilitating, aiding, or abetting a war crime. Civilian and military commanders may be held criminally liable for war crimes committed by their subordinates that they knew or should have known about and failed to take reasonable measures to prevent the crimes or submit the matter to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution. All state parties to an armed conflict are obligated to investigate alleged war crimes by members of their armed forces.</p>Further Context on Access to Information in Iran <p>On February 28, 2026, internet traffic dropped significantly in Iran, indicating a nationwide blackout following strikes across the country by the United States and Israel. Cloudflare Radar, a network measurement platform that provides real-time information on internet traffic, said that internet traffic dropped by 98 percent, signaling a near-complete blackout. Iranian authorities have a track record of imposing internet disruptions and shutdowns during times of conflict and crisis, including during protest crackdowns, to restrict access to information, conceal atrocities they commit, and obstruct independent documentation of violations.</p><p>United Nations member states should urge Iranian authorities to restore internet access, which has been shut down since the start of US and Israeli forces’ attacks on February 28. The near-total internet shutdown across the country severely restricts access to information, including evacuation orders and safety measures, which can be lifesaving. International policymakers and companies should also support the provision of internet services for the civilian population affected by internet shutdowns, including by building out satellite communication services.</p>Further Context on the United States and the US and Israeli Attacks on Iran <p>During a March 2 press briefing on military operations in Iran, Gen. Caine, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the preparations for the overall attacks were extensive. He added that “[o]n the U.S. side, this marked the culmination of months, and in some cases, years of deliberate planning and refinement against this particular target set.” Caine emphasized that this preparation spanned across multiple aspects of the US operations “[f]rom precision strikes against key military infrastructure, to persistent intelligence and targeting integration, to the close coordination of the components across vast distances.” The Israeli military stated on February 28, as strikes were ongoing in Iran, that the attacks were based on “precise intelligence,” and has since continued to assert that the attacks are intelligence-based.</p><p>Human Rights Watch is concerned that under the second Trump administration, the Defense Department has deliberately and systematically weakened its domestic protections meant to ensure its compliance with the laws of armed conflict. Those include the termination of senior military lawyers, reported loosening of targeting protocols, and the elimination of “civilian environment teams” and “red-teams” within the operational chain of command. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth commented at a news conference on March 2, 2026, about “stupid rules of engagement,” suggesting that they may interfere with “fight[ing] to win.” The US Congress should hold hearings to understand how and if these rollbacks contributed to any civilian harm verified to be caused by the US military in Iran.</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-07T15:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603mena_iran_minab_school.JPG?h=a141e9ea&itok=kFLBQqF6","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/07/us/israel-investigate-iran-school-attack-as-a-war-crime","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-07T18:00:26.049Z"},{"id":"ialxr","archiveId":"tc795d","slug":"13-black-women-who-have-made-beauty-history","title":"13 Black Women Who Have Made Beauty History","excerpt":"Since before the first Women’s History Month, which was originally introduced as “Women’s History Week” in March 1978, Black women have been making beauty history. Annie Turnbo Malone founded the […] The post 13 Black Women Who Have Made Beauty History appeared first on Essence .","content":"India Espy-Jones ·Updated March 5, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready…
Since before the first Women’s History Month, which was originally introduced as “Women’s History Week” in March 1978, Black women have been making beauty history. Annie Turnbo Malone founded the cosmetics school Poro College in 1917 to teach Black haircare; Madame C.J. Walker (who attended Poro and opened the hair school Lelia College) formulated a Black haircare method and product line called Walker Haircare System selling her philosophy of “hair culture “; And, soprano singer Anita Patti Brown founded a mail-order cosmetics and perfume business called “Patti’s Brazilian Toilette Luxuries” in 1920.
Now, just after the 100th anniversary of Black History Month, it’s now officially (Black) Women’s History Month, so we’re looking back at all the women who’ve revolutionized the industry over the past century.
From the inventor of sew-ins Christina Jenkins to Grandassa Models in the “Black Is Beautiful” Movement and the actresses who put Black beauty on the big screen, read on for 13 Black women who’ve made Black beauty history.
Josephine Baker
As the most referenced woman at the 2025 Met Gala , which had a theme channeling 1920s Harlem, Josephine Baker has long established her beauty identity in Black history.The American-born French entertainer was the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture: the 1927 French silent film Siren of the Tropics. In the film, she popularized the kiss curl (often >using gum arabic) and since then, Baker has been one of the most identifiable beauty icons in history.
UNITED STATES – NOVEMBER 10: Josephine Baker, circa 1927, wearing large hoop earrings, looking away from camera with chin resting on angled shelf (Photo by George Hoyningen-Huene/Conde Nast via Getty Images) Christina Jenkins
Wigs and hairpieces have long been apart of Black beauty culture. But, they haven’t always been easy to secure. Researching a solution, Christina Jenkins was the inventor of the sew-in method, sewing the extensions into a persons natural hair using a needle and thread. By 1952, she was granted a patent for sew-ins before teaching the technique to other stylists throughout the US and even internationally, leading to the popularity we see today.
Dorothy Dandridge
Like Josephine Baker, Dorothy Dandridge was a Black woman who broke barriers in cinema. The entertainer became the first Black woman to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in Carmen Jones (1954), which had an all-Black cast. Her success turned her into a leading lady in the widely-referenced Old Hollywood beauty era, specifically with her red nail polish and lipstick as a symbol of glamour, power, and seduction.
Dorothy Dandridge studio portrait in off-shoulder dress for ‘Carmen Jones’ 1954. (Photo by Screen Archives/Getty Images) Grandassa Models
In 1962, a fashion show was held at the Purple Manor jazz club in East Harlem titled Naturally ’62: The Original African Coiffure and Fashion Extravaganza Designed to Restore Our Racial Pride and Standards. According to Brooklyn Public Library , the show was organized by the African Jazz-Art Society & Studios (AJASS), a group of Black creatives, co-founded by photographer Kwame Brathwaite and his brother, activist Elombe Brath.
In the show, Grandassa models (“Grandassa” from the term “Grandassaland” which is how the black nationalist Carlos Cooks referred to Africa) wore their Afros and traditional African fabrics with the tagline “Black Is Beautiful” which turned into a natural hair movement in the 1960s and ’70s alongside the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement.
Donyale Luna
Peggy Ann Freeman, better known as Donyale Luna, is considered the first-ever Black supermodel. Gaining popularity in America and Western Europe in the 1960s, she was the first Black model to appear on the cover of the British Vogue in March 1966.
American model and actress Donyale Luna (1945 – 1979), March 1966. (Photo by Roy Milligan/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Flo Jo and Gail Devers
In the 1980s, 3x Olympic Gold Metalist Gail Devers and the fastest woman in history, Florence Griffith Joyner (“Flo-Jo”), were the first to wear long acrylics in Track & Field. They were the first to cross the lines between beauty and sports, which is an influence we see especially prominent today, passing the torch to stars like Sha’Carri Richardson.
Florence Griffith-Joyner is congratulated by teammate Gail Devers after setting a new world record for the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Indianapolis, Indiana, July 16, 1988. Vanessa Williams
In 1983, Vanessa Williams shook the beauty industry when she became the first Black woman to win the Miss America Pageant. Although the title was revoked due to Penthouse leaking nude photos of the model without her permission, Williams’ achievement will never be underscored as a prominent milestone in Black beauty history.
(Original Caption) Atlantic City, New Jersey: Miss America 1984, Vanessa Williams of New York, is all smiles as she poses for photographs after becoming the 63rd Miss America and the first Black woman in the history of the pageant to be crowned here, late September 17. Tyra Banks
Supermodel and ESSENCE’s March/April 2025 cover star was the first Black woman to ever appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 1996. Over two decades later, the model made history with the magazine by becoming the oldest woman on the cover. She’s also the first to appear on the cover of GQ and get her wings as a Victoria’s Secret Angel.
Tyra Banks during 33rd Edition of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Party at All Star Cafe in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images) Naomi Campbell
In the 1990s, it was uncommon for more than one Black model to be in a single fashion show, and even more rare for one to be the first to walk. But, in 1997, supermodel Naomi Campbell became the first Black woman to open for Prada in their Fall-Winter 97/98 show. Since then, the only other Black model to open the Prada show was Anok Yai 20 years later.
Naomi Campbell (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images) Alek Wek
Supermodel Alek Wek became the first Black woman to appear on the cover of ELLE Magazine in November 1997. She appeared on the cover with minimal makeup, a shaved head, and luminescent skin. She later revealed to ELLE her beauty secret costs a whopping 3 dollars and 69 cents. “I use Johnson & Johnson! I use their baby oil gel! That’s it.”
Alek Wek during Dior Sponsors Artist’s Ball Honoring Matthew Ritchie – Red Carpet and Inside at Guggenheim Museum in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/WireImage for Full Picture) Pat McGrath
In 2015, makeup artist Pat McGrath and her powerhouse brand, Pat McGrath Labs , sold out of her very first product, GOLD 001, in record-breaking time (just six minutes). In 2017, McGrath became the first makeup artist to receive the British Fashion Council Award and, in 2021, she became the first and only makeup artist to be named a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE).
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 05: Pat McGrath attends the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 05, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/MG25/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue) Rihanna
In 2017, Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty was the first to revolutionize the beauty industry with shade-inclusive makeup products, specifically for darker skin tones. Straight out the gate, she launched the brand with 40 foundation shades (which has since reached over 50), which caused a ripple effect coined the “Fenty Effect ” throughout the industry. Since then, Rih’s turned Fenty Beauty into an empire, becoming a billionaire in 2021.
Rihanna at the Dior fashion show as part of Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2026 held at the Musée Rodin on January 26, 2025 in Paris, France. (Photo by Swan Gallet/WWD via Getty Images)TOPICS:
black history month The post 13 Black Women Who Have Made Beauty History appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-07T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/black-history-month-beauty-2026/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-07T18:00:26.927Z"},{"id":"pifn9f","archiveId":"4qwyan","slug":"ruth-e-carter-on-archiving-her-legacy-of-black-cinematic-fashion","title":"Ruth E. Carter On Archiving Her Legacy Of Black Cinematic Fashion","excerpt":"Past to Present: Bridging Generations in Fashion is a Women’s History Month series focusing on disruptors who have made significant contributions to fashion and the culture at large. A conversation […] The post Ruth E.","content":"
By
Cierra Black ·
Updated March 5, 2026 Getting your
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Past to Present: Bridging Generations in Fashion is a Women’s History Month series focusing on disruptors who have made significant contributions to fashion and the culture at large.
A conversation with Ruth E. Carter feels like a masterclass on material Black history. Her recollection of costuming some of the culture’s foremost films depicts a clear picture of her legacy, imagination , and dedication to the craft . Sharing this legacy with the public is her traveling exhibit, Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism In Costume Design , coming to The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis on March 22.
Carter’s career is colored with devoted self-education and ingenuity. Learning the important nuances between the esthetic distance in theater or the “subtleties of texture” magnified through a film shot, has led her to define a genre of storytelling that sees no limit to creation. Whether that means spending countless hours researching in library collections ordecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2025/03/ATL_2020Fall_Exhibitions_RuthECarter_Portrait_CC_03_SN_v1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Ruth E. Carter On Archiving Her Legacy Of Black Cinematic Fashion\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" />Colin Grey
“Once I stepped into the film industry in 1987 to do School Daze, I thought, ‘Well we created so many costumes there’s a lot of things that are going to be useful when [Spike Lee ] comes back to do another film’,” she begins. “At the time, he was on fire, doing a new film every year. So I would stock things in the basement of 40 Acres and a Mule, his production company.” After repeatedly finding that the clothing was done away with for one reason or another, she realized, “Maybe I can’t save everything like we do in theater, but I can save the things that are important to the film.”
Carter explains how in that era of filmmaking, no one spoke of costume design, save for Lee mentioning her name and work in interviews, and further, no one thought to speak with designers themselves. Today, through her traveling exhibit, Ruth E. Carter is educating a new generation on the cultural impact of design.
“Now, through me collecting the important pieces from my movies throughout the years, I amassed this collection of history of Black cinema. The conversation has come to the foreground, and we’re able to talk about the process of being a costume designer.” Through this process, she is proud to display her life’s work in a children’s museum with the intention of inspiring young people to explore the arts and costuming as a viable careerdecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2025/03/ATL_2020Fall_Exhibitions_RuthECarter_CC_07_SN_v1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Ruth E. Carter On Archiving Her Legacy Of Black Cinematic Fashion\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" /> Courtesy of SCAD
“I picked things for this exhibition that would not only inspire artists and show costume design, but also give people a historical education.” This includes the dress she wore to receive her historic Oscar Award .
Accompanying her work within the Indianapolis display , is the work of visual artist Israel Solomon. Carter goes on to explain the overlap between the two mediums, through color theory for example, and the role they each play together: “Visual art and costume design both tell stories that shape cultural narrative,” she shares. “[They] celebrate identity and heritage in a unique and powerful way.”
Seeing all of this work come together feels deeply validating for Carter. “I can see the passion I took with me into each one of those films.” She speaks of the wisdom she gained with each project and how utilizing “anachronisms” allowed her to be historically accurate while pushing the conversation forward. With Roots, she learned about the significant history of indigo, and was able to tell the story of a historic shipwreck through Amistad. The fruits of her labor provide a detailed history of Black culture and survival through cinema.
JB LACROIX/AFP via Getty Images
“I’m very intentional with my work, and when I see all of it together, it’s sometimes overwhelming. It’s a joy; a celebration of who I am and what I was able to do through many years of my career, and how impactful it still is on people today.”
She goes back to the thought of parents bringing their inquisitive and creative children to the exhibit, and how >Afrofuturism as “a unification of culture and technology in one space.” This unification demonstrates the way Black communities have historically imagined possibilities beyond our oppression.
More pointedly, she looks to Afrofuturistic styling as a means to shape a collective identity rooted in pride and resilience. Take, for example, the challenging of the throne scene in Black Panther that saw an array of traditional clothing enhanced by futuristic technology. “For me, it’s [about] blending tradition and innovation to craft designs that honor the past while envisioning a bold and vibrant future.”
To Carter, Afrofuturism is as essential to Earth, Wind, & Fire and Parliament-Funkadelic as it is to Spike Lee who shapes his inclusive worlds through film. She hopes by witnessing this exhibit, young children can feel moved to play dress up, conjure up a character, and shape their liferel=\"tag\">Black Costume Designers Ruth E. Carter
The post Ruth E. Carter On Archiving Her Legacy Of Black Cinematic Fashion appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Mecca Pryor","publishDate":"2026-03-07T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/ruth-e-carter-on-archiving-her-legacy/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-07T18:00:26.927Z"},{"id":"3oilyo","archiveId":"5no6qp","slug":"the-internet-is-calling-this-type-of-men-worse-than-gold-diggers","title":"The Internet Is Calling This Type Of Men Worse Than Gold Diggers","excerpt":"Labor diggers, women are onto you.","content":"","category":"breakthroughs","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-03-07T12:00:17.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/68f2ad5b160000624b484101.jpg?ops=500_281%2Cscalefit_1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/labor-digger-goog_l_69a9a664e4b0d84f0de0cd27","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-08T00:00:22.748Z"},{"id":"a08esr","archiveId":"gklaiz","slug":"from-every-man-to-the-epstein-class-misogyny-in-male-peer-culture-cuts-across-class-lines","title":"From ‘Every Man’ to the ‘Epstein Class’: Misogyny in Male Peer Culture Cuts Across Class Lines","excerpt":"The rich men surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, and the working and middle-class men who were lured into Dominique Pelicot’s twisted fantasy, navigate the social world from very different sides of the class chasm.","content":"
The rich men surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, and the working and middle-class men who were lured into Dominique Pelicot’s twisted fantasy, navigate the social world from very different sides of the class chasm.
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But they share something in common, too: They’re all men who were socialized into a misogynous culture that dehumanizes women, turns them into sexual commodities and licenses men to mistreat them.
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Misogynous exploitation is not rooted primarily in plutocratic privilege. The sense of unquestioned entitlement to women’s bodies that many observers have noted about “Epstein class” men is hardly confined to the wealthy.
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The post From ‘Every Man’ to the ‘Epstein Class’: Misogyny in Male Peer Culture Cuts Across Class Lines appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"safety","author":"Jackson Katz","publishDate":"2026-03-07T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2264538486-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/07/epstein-class-male-peer-culture-gisele-pelicot/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-07T12:00:29.912Z"},{"id":"3a9d4l","archiveId":"b8crfv","slug":"women8217s-history-month-looking-back-on-how-far-we8217ve-come-and-the-hill-that-lies-ahead","title":"Women’s History Month: Looking Back on How Far We’ve Come and the Hill That Lies Ahead","excerpt":"Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S.","content":"
Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
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This week:
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... and more.
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The post Women’s History Month: Looking Back on How Far We’ve Come and the Hill That Lies Ahead appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Cynthia Richie Terrell","publishDate":"2026-03-06T23:22:53.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/image.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/06/women-history-politics-primary-democracy-usa-texas-arkansas-north-carolina/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-07T00:00:20.474Z"},{"id":"s4izkn","archiveId":"u7dzhx","slug":"women-and-the-taliban-apartheid-by-another-name","title":"Women and the Taliban: Apartheid by Another Name","excerpt":"Apartheid is the one Afrikaans word that the whole world knows. It is arguably South Africa’s greatest contribution to the development of international criminal law so far. As a South African who lived under apartheid, I recognize the same architecture of systemic oppression in the Taliban’s rule ov...","content":"
Apartheid is the one Afrikaans word that the whole world knows. It is arguably South Africa’s greatest contribution to the development of international criminal law so far.
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As a South African who lived under apartheid, I recognize the same architecture of systemic oppression in the Taliban’s rule over women in Afghanistan.
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In the same way that Black people were excluded from spaces and services—“whites only” beaches and benches, for example, and entire suburbs—women in Afghanistan are excluded from public life. They are not permitted to travel outside their homes without a mahram, a close male relative. Authorities have instructed businesses and health clinics to refuse services to all women who are not accompanied by a mahram.
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The post Women and the Taliban: Apartheid by Another Name appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Navi Pillay","publishDate":"2026-03-06T20:46:20.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2229472713.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/06/women-taliban-apartheid-south-africa-united-nations/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-07T00:00:20.474Z"},{"id":"dhjmpg","archiveId":"f9uo38","slug":"one-syrian-girls-life-in-exile-reveals-the-long-road-after-war","title":"One Syrian Girl’s Life in Exile Reveals the Long Road After War","excerpt":"Winner of Sundance’s Audience Award in the World Cinema Documentary category, as well as the Directing Award for filmmakers Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes, One in a Million lives up to its title. It homes in with a laser focus on the experiences of Israa, a Syrian girl whose family undertakes the peri...","content":"
Winner of Sundance’s Audience Award in the World Cinema Documentary category, as well as the Directing Award for filmmakers Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes, One in a Million lives up to its title. It homes in with a laser focus on the experiences of Israa, a Syrian girl whose family undertakes the perilous migration to Germany after the start of the Syrian civil war.
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When the filmmakers first meet Israa in 2015, she is an inquisitive 11-year-old selling cigarettes on the street in Turkey while her family waits for the chance to cross the Mediterranean. The journey that follows—overcrowded rafts, long treks across multiple borders and nights spent sleeping on the street—contains harrowing moments, but it ultimately occupies only a sliver of the film’s larger story.
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Once the family arrives in Germany, where the filmmakers check in with them over the next nine years, One in a Million reveals a far more complicated and intimate portrait of migration and acculturation.
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As Israa grows from child to teenager to young adult, she navigates questions of identity, freedom and belonging, while her mother Nisreen becomes increasingly confident and independent in a country that offers opportunities she was denied in Syria. The result is a quietly riveting portrait of family life in transition, showing how the experience of displacement continues to reshape relationships, expectations and the possibilities of who each person might become.
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(This is one in a series of film reviews from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, focused on films by women, trans or nonbinary directors that tell compelling stories about the lives of women and girls.)
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The post One Syrian Girl’s Life in Exile Reveals the Long Road After War appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Aviva Dove-Viebahn","publishDate":"2026-03-06T20:16:14.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/One_In_A_Million-Still_1-scaled.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/06/syria-middle-east-girl-immigration-womens-rights-one-in-a-million-sundance/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-07T00:00:20.474Z"},{"id":"gjbia1","archiveId":"vusu21","slug":"how-to-achieve-the-blurred-lips-makeup-trend","title":"How To Achieve The Blurred Lips Makeup Trend","excerpt":"Having soft lips doesn’t just refer to the texture. Instead, this season, blurred lips are the ultimate indicator of how soft yours actually are. “We’re in the midst of a […] The post How To Achieve The Blurred Lips Makeup Trend appeared first on Essence .","content":"
Johnny Nunez/Getty Images for BET
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 5, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Having soft lips doesn’t just refer to the texture. Instead, this season, blurred lips are the ultimate indicator of how soft yours actually are. “We’re in the midst of a new beauty renaissance, and blurred lips feel undeniably romantic,” MAC national artist Ximena Curtis tells ESSENCE. “They’re effortless, flirty, and deliver the perfect pop of color without doing too much.”
First gaining popularity as a K-beauty trend, blurred lips “have been popular for years, and usually are connected to a more natural, youthful look,” says Erika Guinn , vice president of brand marketing and community at NYX Professional Makeup. Seen on celebrities from Zendaya to Lori Harvey, Naomi Campbell to Jodie Turner Smith, Curtis says soft, diffused lip moments helped elevate the trend from fleeting to iconic.
Below, these makeup pros break down how Black women can achieve the blurred lip and best products to do it with.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 10: Zoë Kravitz attends W Magazine’s Annual Best Performances Party at Chateau Marmont on January 10, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.(Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for W Magazine) What is a blurred lip?
“Blurred lips offer a new approach to wearing your favorite lip shades,” says Guinn. It’s when you use a subtle color at the center of your lips or blur out your lip liner for a more soft, pouty appearance. “You often use less product to achieve the look and the outcome tends to be a softer, more natural finish.”
How do you achieve a blurred lip?Step 1: Exfoliate your lips
Like the first step to any lip combo: “The blurred lip look starts off with soft, moisturized lips,” says Guinn. “Try exfoliating them to create an even softer, smoother pout.”
Step 2: Apply your lip liner (optional)
“Start by softly lining and lightlysrc=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-2202728548-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"How To Achieve The Blurred Lips Makeup Trend\" width=\"400\" height=\"560\" />Doechii at Le Grand Dîner du Louvre held at Musée du Louvre on March 04, 2025 in Paris, France. (Photo by Swan Gallet/WWD via Getty Images) How do blurred lips differ from traditional application?
“Unlike traditional lipstick—where bold lines and precision are the focus—the blurred lip is intentionally soft and diffused,” says Curtis. “It’s less about solid structure and more about mood.” Hence why the key technique to the look is how well you can blur.
Instead of lining the lips and adding lipstick from the outside in, Guinn says blurred lips are the opposite. “Blurred lip application usually focuses on applying the product in the center of the lips and pushes out to the edge.”
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 11: (FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Chase Infiniti, winner of the Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy Award for “One Battle After Another” poses in the press room during the 83rd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on January 11, 2026 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Brianna Bryson/Getty Images) The Best Products to Achieve Blurred Lips MAC Cosmetics Powder Kiss Lip + Cheek Mousse
Curtis says shades like “Date Night” or “Burning Love” will give off a beautifully blurred, berry-stained pout. Available at
maccosmetics.com 27 Shop Now NYX Professional Makeup Smushy Matte Lip Balm
Having a buildable base to your blur can enhance the softness of your lip look—and feel—even more. Available at
nyxcosmetics.com 9 Shop Now REFY Lip Blur Lip Liner
It’s in the name. This lip liner is perfect for a blurred lip because of its dome applicator, which helps effortlessly blur your lip lines. Available at
sephora.com 24 Shop Now NYX Professional Makeup Lip I.V. Hydrating Lip Gloss Stain
“[This] is my new favorite product because it offers a shiny gloss finish then settles into a lip stain after removal,” says Guinn. “It’s perfect for a shiny/matte blurring combo.” Available at
nyxcosmetics.com 12 Shop Now MAC Cosmetics Lip Pencil
Curtis suggests using a “brown-based liner closest to your complexion—cult classics like Stripdown, Cork, or Chestnut never miss.” Available at
maccosmetics.com 25 Shop Now Benefit Cosmetics Benetint Liquid Lip + Cheek Blush Stain
Make your blurred lip last longer—and look even more natural—with a transfer-proof lip stain (that’s also kiss proof). Available at
sephora.com 28 Shop Now TOPICS:
2026 makeup trends lip products The post How To Achieve The Blurred Lips Makeup Trend appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-06T20:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-2264120224-Cropped-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/achieve-blurred-lips-makeup-trend/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-07T00:00:24.345Z"},{"id":"uh9qyx","archiveId":"3yhnmi","slug":"new-report-warns-trump-epa-undermining-health","title":"New Report Warns Trump EPA Undermining Health","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Children at play near the home of Robert Taylor in Reserve, Saint John the Baptist Parish, in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley and the census tract with the highest risk of cancer from industrial air pollution in the United States. October 17, 2023.","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Children at play near the home of Robert Taylor in Reserve, Saint John the Baptist Parish, in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley and the census tract with the highest risk of cancer from industrial air pollution in the United States. October 17, 2023.\n © 2023 Eli Reed for Human Rights Watch\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Weaker regulations from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are putting millions at risk of higher exposure to deadly air pollutants, hundreds of former EPA scientists said in a new report. Published on February 27, “Terrible Toxics” found that under President Donald Trump, the EPA has abandoned safeguards necessary to protect communities’ health.</p><p>The Environmental Protection Network, a nonprofit made up of over 700 former EPA officials, studied how a dozen toxic pollutants are poised to wreak even greater havoc due to recent EPA rollbacks. This includes air pollutants that have been linked to respiratory diseases, reproductive health harms, and early deaths: particulate matter, ozone, benzene, formaldehyde, and vinyl chloride. Human Rights Watch has documented how air pollution often directly harms front line communities, which frequently includes low-income communities of color.</p><p>According to the report, the EPA is worsening exposure to these air pollutants by repealing emissions standards for power plants, delaying requirements for the oil and gas industry to cut pollution, and ending its longstanding policy of considering health costs when determining pollutant limits. These pollutants, most of which are also known carcinogens, are emitted at dangerous levels by the fossil fuel and petrochemical industry. </p><p>In 2024, Human Rights Watch found that communities at the front lines of these industry operations in Louisiana face elevated risks of cancer, respiratory ailments, and reproductive and newborn health harm. That 85-mile corridor known as “Cancer Alley” was singled out in the EPN report as being especially threatened by the Trump EPA’s sweeping reversal of regulations.</p><p>“When EPA weakens standards on all five pollutants at once, [Cancer Alley] residents don’t face five separate health burdens,” the report said. “They face a multiplied, cumulative health burden. Children breathe a chemical cocktail daily.”</p><p>The former EPA scientists also chided the agency for dismantling protections for communities of color, who are among those who will suffer most from higher pollution. One of the earliest attacks on human rights under Trump’s EPA was the shuttering of environmental justice offices that invested in preventing and addressing environmental harm disproportionately concentrated within Black and minority communities.</p><p>The EPA under Trump should stop its assault on regulations essential to protect the health of millions of US residents. By providing the fossil fuel industry with greater leeway to contaminate the air, the rights of communities at the front lines are being needlessly sacrificed.</p>","category":"choice","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-06T18:40:28.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2024/01/202401us_louisiana_canceralley_kids.jpg?h=9eb0d413&itok=OvJrpMZl","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/06/new-report-warns-trump-epa-undermining-health","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-07T00:00:23.711Z"},{"id":"c9s7an","archiveId":"4a4ke","slug":"iran-internet-shutdown-violates-rights-escalates-risks-to-civilians","title":"Iran: Internet Shutdown Violates Rights, Escalates Risks to Civilians","excerpt":"Click to expand Image A person using their phone in Tehran, Iran on January 27, 2026. © 2026 Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images
(Beirut) – Iranian authorities should immediately end the ongoing internet shutdown and communications restrictions, which place civilians at risk of further ...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n A person using their phone in Tehran, Iran on January 27, 2026.\n © 2026 Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>(Beirut) – Iranian authorities should immediately end the ongoing internet shutdown and communications restrictions, which place civilians at risk of further harm, Human Rights Watch said today. The international community should also support internet access for the civilian population.</p><p>On February 28, 2026, internet traffic dropped significantly, indicating a nationwide blackout following strikes across the country by the United States and Israel. Cloudflare Radar, a network measurement platform that provides real-time information on internet traffic, said that internet traffic in Iran dropped by 98 percent on February 28, signaling a near-complete blackout. State affiliated media have indicated that only pre-approved websites are accessible through the National Information Network. </p><p>“Shutting down the internet during times of crisis restricts access to lifesaving information, such as where strikes are taking place and how to safely access medical care,” said Tomiwa Ilori, senior technology and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Internet shutdowns can also contribute to severe psychological harm on people during the conflict as they are unable to contact their loved ones.”</p><p>Iranian authorities have a track record of imposing internet disruptions and shutdowns during times of conflict and crisis, including during protests, to restrict access to information, conceal atrocities they commit, and obstruct independent documentation of violations. On January 8, authorities imposed a 21-day internet shutdown along with severe communications restrictions as security forces massacred thousands of protesters and bystanders across the country within the span of two days. During the 12-day Israel-Iran armed conflict in June 2025, Iranian authorities imposed a similar near-total internet shutdown. </p><p>Other recent examples include in November 2019, a near-total 12-day internet shutdown that was imposed by Iranian authorities as nationwide protests engulfed the country and the authorities lethally repressed the protests, killing and injuring protesters and bystanders. Similarly, during the brutal repression of Women, Life, Freedom protests of September to December 2022, the authorities imposed a range of measures to restrict internet access, including localized and short-term shutdowns. </p><p>The ongoing military attacks from the United States and Israel and Iran’s in military actions against a number of countries in the region do not justify blanket internet shutdowns in the country. </p><p>Such sweeping internet shutdowns violate a range of human rights. They help conceal large-scale atrocities, contribute to the spread of mis- and disinformation, and unlawfully restrict access to information. At the same time, the shutdowns severely hamper the work of journalists and human rights monitors, including documentation and reporting on possible laws of war violations by all parties. Communications blackouts could also contribute to impunity for human rights violations,</p><p>These shutdowns place civilians at further risk of serious harm, including injury and death, with numerous daily military strikes across the country. The shutdowns prevent people from timely access to information about safety measures, lifesaving services, and sources of food and shelter. Internet shutdowns during conflicts and humanitarian emergencies also inflict psychological harm by cutting people off from their loved ones.</p><p>International human rights law protects the right of people to freely seek, receive, and provide information and ideas through all media, including the internet. Any security-related restrictions on the use of the internet should be implemented according to clear law and be a necessary and proportionate response to a specific security concern. </p><p>Any shutdown of communication networks during conflict, including mobile data, which is regularly used for both civilian and military purposes, would need to take into account the basic principles of the laws of war, including necessity and proportionality. </p><p>While in some circumstances imposing restrictions on the internet and communications may serve a legitimate military purpose, such as denying belligerent forces a means of communicating with one another and carrying out attacks, any such restrictions need to also comply with the principle of proportionality, which prohibits actions in which the expected civilian harm is excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage.</p><p>The blanket and widespread shutdown of the internet and civilian communications, being imposed by the Iranian authorities, would not be justified under international humanitarian or human rights law, taking into account the significant harm this inflicts on civilians and the lack of proportionality in such sweeping bans, Human Rights Watch said. </p><p>In their 2015 Joint Declaration on Freedom of Expression and Responses to Conflict Situations, United Nations experts said that even in times of conflict, the use of communication “kill switches” (i.e. shutting down entire parts of communications systems) can never be justified under human rights law.</p><p>The government should restore unrestricted access to the internet and communications networks throughout the country. The international community should also support internet access for the civilian population.</p><p>“The international community, including policy makers and companies, should explore technical and regulatory measures to help civilians access the internet in conflict settings,” Ilori said. They should also support populations affected by internet shutdowns, including by building out satellite connectivity for use in humanitarian contexts.</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-06T18:25:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603tech_iran_phone.jpg?h=3d43c187&itok=mRUC9n2i","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/06/iran-internet-shutdown-violates-rights-escalates-risks-to-civilians","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-07T00:00:23.711Z"},{"id":"airqx","archiveId":"jxr43c","slug":"new-york-attorney-general-is-investigating-columbia-for-allowing-predatory-doctor-to-see-patients-de","title":"New York Attorney General is Investigating Columbia for Allowing Predatory Doctor to See Patients Despite Warnings","excerpt":"The post New York Attorney General is Investigating Columbia for Allowing Predatory Doctor to See Patients Despite Warnings appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"
The New York State attorney general’s office has begun investigating how Columbia University let a predatory doctor continue to see patients despite decades of warnings.
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“The Office of the Attorney General is conducting a thorough investigation into the institutional response to Robert Hadden’s misconduct,” a spokesperson said in a statement to ProPublica. The agency did not give further details.
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A ProPublica investigation from the fall of 2023 revealed how Columbia ignored women and ultimately protected Robert Hadden , a longtime OB-GYN at the university. In 2012, Columbia allowed Hadden to continue seeing patients just days after one of them called 911 to report Hadden had sexually assaulted her.
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In early 2023, Hadden was convicted in federal court of sexually abusing patients. He is currently serving a 20-year sentence. Columbia has paid out more than $1 billion for over 1,000 claims of sexual abuse.
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After our investigation, Columbia committed to a variety of reforms, including improved patient safety , a $100 million fund for victims and an independent investigation.
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But advocates, students and survivors say Columbia needs to do far more to grapple with its role in Hadden’s conduct. Four hundred Columbia medical students recently wrote to university officials demanding disciplinary reviews for administrators who failed to heed warnings about Hadden.
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Unlike at other universities that have dealt with serially abusive doctors, no higher-ups at Columbia appear to have lost their jobs or been disciplined. Dr. Mary D’Alton, who was cc’d on a letter that authorized Hadden’s return to work , remains the chair of the obstetrics and gynecology department.
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D’Alton did not respond to a request for comment.
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Columbia declined to comment for this story.
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The attorney general’s office has significant powers over New York’s nonprofits, including Columbia. A few years ago, it forced the Trump Foundation to shut down . More recently it sued the National Rife Association, which then had to enact a series of reforms .
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Survivors told ProPublica they were heartened that New York is looking into Columbia.
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“Accountability is overdue, particularly in light of the Epstein files,” said Evelyn Yang, pointing to recent revelations that several Columbia affiliates had ties to the financier.
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Yang was among at least 8 patients who were assaulted by Hadden after he returned to work. She was seven months pregnant at the time.
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Shortly after our story was published more than two years ago, Columbia promised to “thoroughly examine the circumstances that allowed Hadden’s abuse to continue.”
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No report detailing those findings has yet been published.
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Last week, Columbia acknowledged in an announcement that there “are many questions” about the timing of the investigation it commissioned. It said that the report is expected to be released “soon.”
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New York State Assemblymember Grace Lee blasted the university’s failure to issue the report, telling ProPublica the university has not taken responsibility for what happened.
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“To me, it’s just outrageous that we are here now in 2026 and we still have no report and no one has been held accountable,” she said.
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By comparison, the external investigation into the University of Michigan’s response to the crimes committed by its former physician Robert Anderson took about 15 months.
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Another Hadden survivor, Marissa Hoechstetter, said the attorney general’s decision to examine Columbia provides some relief because the institution has repeatedly failed to do so itself.
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“I do believe institutional accountability is a missing part of making a bigger change in the fight of gender-based violence,” Hoechstetter said. “I don’t know what will come of this investigation” — referring to New York’s probe — “but it shows that institutions that protect and cover up abusers in order to protect their own people and reputation will be held accountable.”
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Hoechstetter and Yang both advocated for the passage of the Adult Survivors Act, a New York State law that in 2022 opened a one-year window in which survivors of sexual assault could file civil suits against their abusers or the institutions that protected them, even after the statute of limitations had passed.
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For years, the university had failed to notify Hadden’s former patients of his misconduct. Finally, in November 2023, just 10 days before the law’s extended window closed, Columbia announced it would send letters to almost 6,500 patients.
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A closed town hall meeting at the medical school this January gave a window into who was behind that lack of notification. “It actually is a Board of Trustee decision” because of the potential cost of litigation, Monica Lypson, the vice dean for medical education, told students in a recording that ProPublica obtained.
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Lypson did not respond to a request for comment.
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Separately, the deadline to submit a claim to Columbia’s survivors’ settlement fund, which was established for survivors who do not want to file lawsuits, has been extended to April 15 .
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The post New York Attorney General is Investigating Columbia for Allowing Predatory Doctor to See Patients Despite Warnings appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"activism","author":"Bianca Fortis","publishDate":"2026-03-06T18:10:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/columbia-doctor-promo.jpg?w=400&h=400&crop=1","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/columbia-university-new-york-ag-investigation-robert-hadden-assault","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-07T00:00:21.410Z"},{"id":"c859p7","archiveId":"pwelol","slug":"rare-beauty-and-the-hue-report-celebrate-black-women-shaping-the-future","title":"Rare Beauty And The Hue Report Celebrate Black Women Shaping The Future","excerpt":"In a candlelit New York City dining room filled with laughter, reflection, and intentional community, Rare Beauty and The Hue Report gathered a powerful group of Black women for an […] The post Rare Beauty And The Hue Report Celebrate Black Women Shaping The Future appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Larry Stansbury ·
Updated March 5, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
In a candlelit New York City dining room >Rare Beauty and The Hue Report gathered a powerful group of Black women for an evening centered on one truth: legacy isn’t something we leave behind, it’s something we live out loud. The occasion marked the launch of Rare Beauty’s forthcoming Legacy in Motion campaign, an intimate celebration of Black women whose impact is unfolding in real time.
Shot by photographer Patience Ojionuka , the campaign captures joy, strength, and self-possession. Through the striking portrait series, trailblazers across beauty, culture, and entrepreneurship are spotlit. The dinner—attended by industry tastemakers including Isan Elba, Ava Dash, Simi Muhumuza, and Janelle Lloyd—served as both a moment of recognition and a reminder of what’s possible when Black women are centered, supported, and seen.
At the heart of Legacy in Motion is a partnership with The Hue Report, founded by beauty expert Olivia Hancock . Together, the collaborators set out to honor the women redefining professional spaces today. “I launched The Hue Report to create a dedicated space for Black beauty storytelling—one that honors our legacy, our innovation, and our undeniable impact,” Hancock shares. “This partnership with Rare Beauty embodies everything I stand for. The imagery and the event are a reflection of the power of Black women and the trailblazing impact we’re making in real time.”
“Whether it’s last year’s I See You campaign, the When We Link pop-out, or our daily content, we have our own legacy for spotlighting and supporting the culture,” says Chrystina Woody Train , SVP of Global Brand Partnerships at Rare Beauty. “Engaging Olivia and The Hue Report to bring Legacy in Motion to life made perfect sense. She represents what it means to be a Black woman in the beauty industry—and is actively building her own legacy alongside a community of Black women, captured so beautifully by Patience Ojionuka.”
That sense of intention was palpable throughout the evening. Conversations—on everything from career pivots to creative freedom, mentorship, and the importance of claiming space without apology—flowed with ease.
Anchored by the dinner , the portrait series, and ongoing storytelling, Legacy in Motion extends Rare Beauty’s commitment to community-building through its Rare Impact Fund and broader cultural initiatives. More than a campaign, it’s an affirmation that Black women don’t have to wait to be historic to be honored. The risks, the leadership, and the care they pour into their communities is legacy, already in motion.
TOPICS:
Rare Beauty The Hue Report The post Rare Beauty And The Hue Report Celebrate Black Women Shaping The Future appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-06T17:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/rare-beauty-hue-report-black-women-campaign/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T18:00:08.319Z"},{"id":"pmxcra","archiveId":"529yzc","slug":"indiana-court-blocks-near-total-abortion-ban","title":"Indiana Court Blocks Near-Total Abortion Ban","excerpt":"Plus: Ohio court dismantles key parts draconian fetal remains law and Supreme Court rules against California law protecting trans kids. The post Indiana Court Blocks Near-Total Abortion Ban appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
Each week, Rewire News Group editors scour headlines nationwide—from lawsuits over abortion access to LGBTQ+ rights—to bring you the most urgent news in reproductive justice. Here’s this week’s latest.
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Religious freedom wins in Indianapolis \n\n\n\n
An Indiana court permanently barred the state from enforcing its near-total abortion ban yesterday. The ACLU filed the class action lawsuit more than three years ago on the grounds that the state’s anti-abortion law violated the state Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The civil rights group argued that Judaism prioritizes the health of the pregnant person over that of the fetus. It’s unclear what yesterday’s decision means for abortion access in the state; Indiana currently completely bans abortion with limited exceptions.
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U.S. prenatal care falters \n\n\n\n
Fewer Americans are getting early prenatal care, which is essential to detecting maternal or fetal health problems. A new CDC report shows that 75% of all pregnant people received first-trimester prenatal care between 2021 and 2024, a 3% drop from 2016-2021. One expert cited maternity care deserts as a potential cause. Rather than funding hospitals, though, state governments are directing millions of dollars to “crisis pregnancy centers,” reports News from the States . These anti-abortion faux clinics rarely provide prenatal care.
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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Court deals blow to Ohio fetal remains law \n\n\n\n
An Ohio appeals court ruled this week that pregnant people who have procedural abortions—and the clinics that care for them—cannot be forced to bury or cremate the remains of their fetuses. The law was blocked by a county-level court after Ohio’s legislature passed it in 2020. Clinics said it would deter people from seeking abortions, and the three-justice panel agreed that the policy ran afoul of the abortion-rights amendment added into the state constitution in 2023. “Ohio voters said what they meant,” the justices wrote.
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Teachers can out trans kids, SCOTUS rules \n\n\n\n
The Supreme Court this week blocked California from enforcing legislation that limited how schools notify parents about students coming out as trans. The majority opinion said the parents, who sought a religious exemption to the education policy, were exercising the First Amendment’s Free Exercise clause. In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan said the ruling is at odds with the 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade by undercutting the substantive due process argument used to justify federal abortion protection.
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This news roundup first appeared in our newsletter, Rewire Weekly. Sign up here to get the latest reproductive rights news, expert analysis, and a peek into the RNG newsroom—fresh to your inbox.
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The post Indiana Court Blocks Near-Total Abortion Ban appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"politics","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-06T15:45:28.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/ReproRoundup_02.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/06/indiana-court-blocks-near-total-abortion-ban/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T18:00:01.273Z"},{"id":"bzwkza","archiveId":"gy4b4a","slug":"pick-and-drop-braids-are-taking-over-paris-fashion-week","title":"Pick-And-Drop Braids Are Taking Over Paris Fashion Week","excerpt":"Seasons are temporary. But, at Paris Fashion Week, we’re reminded that pick-and-drop braids are forever. It’s true that smaller braids last longer, and on the front row, they survived the […] The post Pick-And-Drop Braids Are Taking Over Paris Fashion Week appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 5, 2026 Getting your
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Seasons are temporary. But, at
At Rabanne’s FW26 show, singer Ravyn Lenae had her natural roots growing out of her signature ginger pick-and-drop braids. They were medium-length and only half-way braided, which meant the ends were left out and effortlessly tucked away into her tailored blazer. But, even that wasn’t enough to tame the inevitable flyaways. Instead of being an eye-sore, it added texture, personality, and a well-lived >Industry star Myha’la, she channeled a similar mood at Courrèges. Paired with pin-thin brows and blurred liner, her braids were pulled back into a bun with loose ends that made the updo much more casual and natural. Like Lenae, her braids were also leave-out heavy pick-and-drops. There were small strands of braiding hair fed into the top of her braids to almost blur the actual plait, which in turn, made her braids look more lived-in and dimensional.
Myha’la Herrold at Courrèges – Paris Fashion Week Fall 2026 – Arrivals held at Carreau du Temple on March 04, 2026 in Paris, France. (Photo by River Callaway/WWD via Getty Images)
One of the most well-known wearers of this braiddecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2264634990-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Pick-And-Drop Braids Are Taking Over Paris Fashion Week\" width=\"400\" height=\"599\" />PARIS, FRANCE – MARCH 03: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY – For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from Fashion House) Zoe Kravitz attends the Saint Laurent Womenswear Fall/Winter 2026-2027 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on March 03, 2026 in Paris, France. (Photo by Marc Piasecki/WireImage)
For all three women, hair was statement enough to pair with light makeup (think: the occasional blurred liner and a completely naked-looking lip). Case in point: the more effortless the hair, the chic-er it is.
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Braids fashion week trends front row beauty PFW FW26 The post Pick-And-Drop Braids Are Taking Over Paris Fashion Week appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-06T15:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/paris-fashion-week-fw26-braids-ravyn-lenae-zoe-kravitz-myhala/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T18:00:08.319Z"},{"id":"l99mf2","archiveId":"yn6bnm","slug":"the-emergency-dockets-critics-have-it-backwards","title":"The emergency docket’s critics have it backwards","excerpt":"Ratio Decidendi is a recurring series by Stephanie Barclay exploring the reasoning – from practical considerations to deep theory – behind our nation’s most consequential constitutional decisions. Last Monday, the […] The post The emergency docket’s critics have it backwards appeared first on SCOTUS...","content":"
Ratio Decidendi is a recurring series by Stephanie Barclay exploring the reasoning –from practical considerations to deep theory – behind our nation’s most consequential constitutional decisions.
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Last Monday, the Supreme Court issued two emergency orders in a single evening: Mirabelli v. Bonta Malliotakis v. Williams
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Justice Elena Kagan’s dissent in Mirabelli set the tone, complaining that the court resolved “novel legal questions” with “scant and, frankly, inadequate briefing,” without oral argument, on a “short fuse.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent in Malliotakis was more colorful – her opening line being that the 101-word unsigned order “can be summarized in just 7: ‘Rules for thee, but not for me’” — but made a parallel point about premature federal intervention. The New York Times recently reported on other criticisms from court watchers (some of whom are friends and colleagues).
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These are serious critics making arguments that deserve a serious answer. On examination, though, I don’t think the procedural objections hold up in either case. In Mirabelli , the critics identify no rule the court violated – only a preference for more waiting. But that standard has never governed the emergency docket. What’s novel here is not the court’s practice. It’s this objection. And in Malliotakis , the question is not just whether one more state court avenue technically existed, but whether it could have provided meaningful relief before the election calendar foreclosed federal review. The court has authority to act to protect potential future jurisdiction even before a case is in final appellate posture, precisely to prevent irreversible facts on the ground from mooting the constitutional question before the court can reach it.
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California: the nonexistent en banc problem
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One of Kagan’s key complaints in Mirabelli is that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit’s en banc process was still actively pending when the court acted. Specifically, parents prevailed at the district court level, a 9th Circuit panel granted California’s stay, and the parents then sought en banc rehearing – a petition that had been filed but not yet decided when the court granted relief. Again, Kagan’s charge is that the court couldn’t even wait for the 9th Circuit to resolve its own en banc consideration.
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This objection would be a real problem if there were a rule requiring en banc exhaustion before seeking emergency relief from the Supreme Court. There is no such rule. The standard governing emergency applications is the four-factor framework outlined in the 2009 case of Nken v. Holder 14-day window for seeking panel or en banc rehearing has even closed. Death penalty litigation wouldn’t function as it does if the rule were otherwise. If Kagan’s principle were accepted, emergency jurisdiction from the 9th Circuit – the nation’s largest – would become effectively illusory in capital cases and many others.
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But the court’s willingness to act before en banc proceedings conclude is not new — and Kagan herself has treated it as unremarkable. In Husted v. Ohio State Conference of the NAACP Husted — as a matter of judicial administration if nothing else. She did not. The procedural concern she now elevates was, in 2014, simply a scheduling detail.
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More to the point, the dissenters’ own practice undercuts their procedural objection. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson have spent years arguing, in dissent after dissent in capital cases, that irreversible harm justifies immediate emergency intervention without waiting for further proceedings below. And it’s not just capital cases. When the court took up the Trump administration’s emergency application in Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition emergency docket. The majority applied that same logic in Mirabelli . What has changed is not the court’s practice. It is whose interests that practice now serves.
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The deeper answer, though, is that the panel’s error in Mirabelli was the kind of clear misreading of controlling precedent that makes en banc self-correction particularly unlikely – and emergency intervention particularly appropriate. Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s concurrence identified the problem precisely: the 9th Circuit panel’s opinion in Mirabelli had characterized the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Mahmoud v. Taylor Mahmoud ’s reasoning. Rather, the court’s holding in Mahmoud was that government action “substantially interfer[ing] with the religious development” of children triggers strict scrutiny (the highest standard of review) – a standard not anchored to classroom instruction, and plainly satisfied by a policy of active concealment of a child’s social transition from parents. When a panel demonstrably misconstrues a recent and controlling precedent, waiting for en banc review has no principled advantage over prompt correction.
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Finally, the harm calculus mattered independently of any sequencing question. The record in Mirabelli included accounts of parents who learned their child had been socially transitioning at school only after a mental health crisis involving a suicide attempt – and even then “school administrators continued to withhold information about the student’s gender identification.” That harm accrues daily and cannot be undone retroactively. En banc timelines are measured in months. The Nken factors – irreparable harm and likelihood of success – provided the court with independent justification for prompt intervention.
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New York: the finality problem that isn’t
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Sotomayor’s dissent in Malliotakis rests on two related claims: that the court lacked jurisdiction (the ability to hear the case) because New York’s highest court had not yet ruled, and that even if jurisdiction existed, longstanding principles of federal deference to state courts in election disputes should have counseled restraint. As quoted earlier, her opening line – that the unsigned 101-word order “can be summarized in just 7: ‘Rules for thee, but not for me’” – captures the dissent’s animating charge: that the majority weaponized the emergency docket to hand a Republican incumbent a partisan victory before the state courts could finish their work.
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The procedural sequence deserves some careful assessment. After the trial court’s Jan. 21 order that a new congressional map be drawn to prevent the dilution of Black and Latino voting power, applicants sought relief in both the Appellate Division and Court of Appeals (the highest court in New York) simultaneously. Following the Appellate Division’s refusal to stay the district court’s order, the Court of Appeals transferred the appeal and dismissed the stay motion on Feb. 11. Applicants filed at the Supreme Court the very next day — before the Appellate Division had ruled on the merits, and after it had denied the stay. Sotomayor is thus right that a procedural path in the state courts remained open.
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That said, the critique falters on three grounds.
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First, Sotomayor’s invocation of Purcell v. Gonzalez Malliotakis was “irreconcilable with its repeated admonishing of lower federal courts not to interfere with state election laws on the ‘eve of an election.’” But the legislatively enacted map was the status quo. The trial court’s redistricting mandate was the 11th-hour intervention. Staying that order restores stability; it does not undermine it. Sotomayor’s argument would recast Purcell ’s equitable logic — that late judicial disruption of settled election rules harms candidates, voters, and administrators — as a reason to permit exactly that disruption, so long as it originates in a state court rather than a federal one. That is not what Purcell ’s rationale supports, even if its formal doctrine has not been extended to state tribunals.
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Second, the charge of partisan manipulation is difficult to sustain against the court’s actual redistricting record. The majority’s consistent principle across terms has been to preserve existing or legislatively enacted maps against last-minute judicial alteration – a principle applied regardless of which party benefits. California’s Democratic-drawn maps and Texas’ Republican-drawn maps have both been allowed to proceed on the emergency docket under this framework. The New York case fits the same pattern: the court stayed a trial court’s alteration of an existing map. Indeed, when the court denied emergency relief in the California case earlier this term — leaving California’s Democratic-drawn map undisturbed — that denial drew no objection from the conservative majority, a fact that sits awkwardly alongside the narrative of systematic partisan manipulation. If the majority were selectively intervening to entrench Republican incumbents, one would expect asymmetric outcomes. The record shows something more principled, and less dramatic, than Sotomayor’s seven-word summary suggests.
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Third, the jurisdictional analysis holds, though the issue requires some untangling. The Court of Appeals’ Feb. 11 transfer and stay dismissal — issued on state jurisdictional grounds — raises a threshold problem: decisions resting on adequate and independent state grounds are ordinarily insulated from federal review, which undermines the claim that the dismissal constitutes a reviewable “final judgment” under 28 U.S.C. § 1257 . Sotomayor presses this point, and it has some force.
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But Justice Samuel Alito’s concurrence invokes a separate jurisdictional basis: the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. §1651 , which authorizes writs “necessary or appropriate in aid of jurisdiction.” Under the 1970 case of Atlantic Coast Line v. Engineers FTC v. Dean Foods Co .CBS, Inc. v. Davis Volkswagenwerk A.G. v. Falzon , the Supreme Court issued stays before the state high court had ruled on the stay request, much less the merits, where such action was necessary to protect the court’s potential jurisdiction. Alito was thus following this same sort of approach when he said that type of reasoning applies here.
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Finally, Sotomayor’s characterization of the case as a state-law dispute the federal courts should leave alone is question-begging. Alito’s position is that the trial court’s order is racially discriminatory under the 14th Amendment. If he is right, this was always a federal constitutional case. The premise that the court intruded on a purely state law matter collapses the moment the equal protection clause is implicated, and the dissenters notably decline to offer even a tentative defense of the trial court order’s constitutionality.
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What the critiques actually establish
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None of this is to say the procedural critics have no important questions to raise. Kagan is right that a full merits opinion with proper briefing, oral argument, and conference deliberation would have produced a more carefully developed analysis. These are real costs of the emergency docket, and Barrett’s concurrence in Mirabelli acknowledged them candidly.
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But the critics have conflated a policy disagreement about the emergency docket with a principled procedural objection to these specific orders. There is no rule or long-established practice requiring en banc exhaustion before emergency relief; the court has never consistently required it; and the liberal justices raising the objection have not applied it symmetrically. The finality objection in Malliotakis identifies a real gap where the case had not been fully resolved below. But the All Writs Act arguably provides jurisdictional grounds for the court to take up the case in such a posture, and Alito addressed this justification in writing, which is more transparency than many emergency orders provide.
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The emergency docket exists because some harms cannot wait for the ordinary appellate process to run its course. That is not a Republican or Democratic principle. It is a structural feature of emergency jurisdiction.
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Applied to these cases, it means that parents who are being actively deceived about their children’s gender transitions at school, and applicants facing a likely unconstitutional redistricting on the eve of an election, can seek relief without waiting for a process whose timeline would swallow the remedy.
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And it is worth asking, in cases like these, which court is actually behaving aggressively. What generates a Supreme Court emergency application is almost always a lower court that has already disturbed the status quo — issuing an injunction, overriding a legislative map, blocking a policy already in effect. Viewed in that light, the court’s intervention looks less like overreach than like a restoration of equilibrium pending full appellate review, consistent with the ordinary four-factor stay analysis. What is called judicial aggression at One First Street is often just a response to judicial aggression one floor down — the correction, not the disruption.
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The post The emergency docket’s critics have it backwards appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Stephanie Barclay","publishDate":"2026-03-06T15:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GettyImages-1258551194.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/the-emergency-dockets-critics-have-it-backwards/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T18:00:12.224Z"},{"id":"sox1ih","archiveId":"ijqdrr","slug":"will-the-mystery-of-the-dobbs-leak-ever-be-solved","title":"Will the mystery of the Dobbs leak ever be solved?","excerpt":"Justice Clarence Thomas’ virtual appearance last week at a legal conference in Washington, D.C. brought renewed attention to court security. Thomas had originally planned to attend in person, but he […] The post Will the mystery of the Dobbs leak ever be solved? appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"
Justice Clarence Thomas’ virtual appearance last week at a legal conference in Washington, D.C. brought renewed attention to court security. Thomas had originally planned to attend in person, but he had to pivot due to an unexplained risk. News coverage of the change noted that justices have taken heightened precautions since 2022, when a leak of a draft of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Roe v. Wade , led to protests outside some justices’ houses and an assassination attempt on Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
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The leak itself was briefly back in the news in mid-February, amid Attorney General Pam Bondi’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. During the hearing, Rep. Brandon Gill, a Republican from Texas, asked if “the Biden-Harris DOJ ever determine(d) who leaked the Dobbs decision,” prompting Bondi to explain that she “can’t discuss that,” but that, no, the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden did not identify the leaker.
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Bondi’s non-response response implies that the Department of Justice does not consider the investigation to be closed, although the Supreme Court itself announced in January 2023 that, after an unsuccessful investigation led by the Supreme Court marshal , there were few leads left to follow.
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Here’s a refresher on the circumstances of the leak, the court’s investigation, and a look at what might happen next.
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What is the Dobbs leak?
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This part will likely be quite familiar to most SCOTUSblog readers, but, as a refresher, in Dobbs the court reconsidered its past decisions establishing a constitutional right to abortion, ultimately overruling those cases and returning the power to set abortion policy to the states. Dobbs was the highest-profile case of the 2021-22 term, and indeed, one of the highest-profile Supreme Court cases in history.
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The court heard argument in Dobbs on Dec. 1, 2021. On May 2, 2022, Politico published, in an article by Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward, what appeared to be a draft of the court’s opinion in the case without revealing who had leaked it. The article – titled “Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows” – reported that the opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, which was dated Feb. 10, had been “circulated inside the court and obtained by Politico.”
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The article sparked a flurry of online commentary about whether the draft was real and, if so, how the unprecedented leak had happened. It also led to in-person protests outside the Supreme Court Building, outside some of the justices’ homes, and across the country .
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Did the Supreme Court confirm the Dobbs leak was real?
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The day after Politico published the draft opinion, the Supreme Court confirmed that it was real in a press release . Chief Justice John Roberts described the leak as “a singular and egregious breach” of the trust between the court and its employees – indeed, the Dobbs leak is thought to be the first leak of a draft opinion, although there have been leaks about the court’s internal deliberations before (such as justices’ likely votes). Nevertheless, Roberts made clear that “[t]he work of the Court will not be affected in any way.”
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“To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed,” Roberts said.
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The chief added that he had “directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak.”
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How did the court’s Dobbs opinion compare to the leaked opinion?
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While the court’s press release confirmed the authenticity of the draft, it also emphasized that a draft is exactly that, a draft. “Justices circulate draft opinions internally as a routine and essential part of the Court’s confidential deliberative work. Although the document described in yesterday’s reports is authentic, it does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case,” the release said.
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However, when the court released its Dobbs opinionCNN’s in-depth analysis of the two texts showed that more than 100,000 of the 125,290 characters in the final opinion were unchanged from the February draft. As CNN reported, “[w]hile some parts were taken out [from the draft], Alito’s opinion added more to the final ruling — including a critique of the dissenting opinions — than he removed.”
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What happened with the Supreme Court’s investigation?
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As noted above, following the draft’s leak, Roberts instructed Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley “to launch an investigation into the public disclosure of the draft majority opinion” so as to “determine who made the unauthorized disclosure.”
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On Jan. 19, 2023, seven months after it released its opinion in Dobbs and over eight months after the investigation began, the Supreme Court offered an update on Curley’s investigation. “After months of diligent analysis of forensic evidence and interviews of almost 100 employees,” the court’s two-page statement explained, “the Marshal’s team determined that no further investigation was warranted with respect to many of the ‘82 employees’” who would have had access to the leaked draft. The investigators, according to the statement, followed up “on all available leads,” but had so far been “unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence.”
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Along with its statement, the court released a public version of Curley’s report, which explained the investigation in more detail. It indicated that her team conducted “formal interviews” with 97 employees, “all of whom denied disclosing the opinion.” After those initial interviews, the employees were asked to sign sworn statements, under penalty of perjury, attesting that they were not the source of the leak. “[A]ll personnel who had access to the draft opinion” signed these affidavits, according to the report.
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The report also revealed that investigators had ruled out as “unlikely” the possibility that someone from outside the court had hacked into the court’s computer systems and accessed the draft opinion that way.
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The court’s statement emphasized that investigators would continue to review available evidence but implied that there were few leads left to pursue. It also noted that the court had asked Michael Chertoff, a former secretary of Homeland Security and judge, to assess the investigation, and that Chertoff had deemed it to be “thorough.”
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As SCOTUSblog reported at the time, the marshal’s report was “widely criticized” because it provided few insights about how the justices themselves were treated during the investigation. For example, Curley did not reveal whether investigators had spoken with the justices or members of the justices’ families. But in a brief statement released on Jan. 20, 2023, Curley clarified that she had spoken “with each of the Justices, several on multiple occasions.” She further clarified that, unlike court employees, the justices were not asked to swear under penalty of perjury that they were not the source of the leak.
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Is the FBI involved?
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Even before the court revealed that its investigation had not uncovered a clear culprit, Roberts faced some criticism for the decision to assign the task to Curley from observers who felt the marshal and her team were ill-equipped to conduct a thorough investigation. Although few of the justices have spoken about this, Alito told The Wall Street Journal in 2023 that he felt Curley “did a good job with the resources that were available to her.”
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In May 2025, we learned that additional investigators had been assigned to the matter: then-FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino announced on social media that the FBI was prioritizing work on the Dobbs leak and that he was receiving weekly briefings on the investigation. “If you have any investigative tips on these matters that may assist us then please contact the FBI,” Bongino wrote.
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What would happen if the leaker were to be identified?
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In the aftermath of the leak, legal experts debated whether what had happened was a crime or merely a breach of the court’s internal code of conduct. Charges would have been more likely if the leak involved hacking or a physical break-in, lawyers told The Washington Post .
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As it stands, the most likely charge is for theft of government property. The relevant statute, 18 U.S.C. 641 , prohibits stealing or receiving government property, including documents, and carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
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The leaker could also potentially be subject to prosecution for lying during the court’s investigation if that individual had signed a sworn affidavit denying involvement.
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If the source of the leak is identified as a current Supreme Court employee, there would almost certainly be professional consequences. The court has long used confidentiality pledges or other, similar documents to enforce its expectation of secrecy and has more recently begun having employees sign nondisclosure agreements “promising to keep the court’s inner workings secret,” according to The New York Times (though the enforceability of such agreements is questionable).
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What has Pam Bondi said about the Dobbs leak?
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February was not the first time Bondi was questioned about the Justice Department’s work on the Dobbs leak. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, brought up the potential for criminal charges against the source of the leak – if that source can be identified – when Bondi testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in October 2025.
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“General Bondi, do you agree that leaking that opinion was a criminal act?,” Cruz asked after explaining that he believes that 18 U.S.C. 641 would apply.
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Bondi responded, “I can’t discuss anything regarding that matter. That should answer your question.”
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Cruz urged Bondi “to direct the FBI to use every resource possible to investigate, to find the leaker,” noting that the FBI “has far greater investigatory tools at its disposal than does the Marshals Service.”
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Will the source of the Dobbs leak be identified?
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To state the obvious: we don’t know.
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That said, the justices themselves may have at least some idea of the leaker’s identity. In his 2023 interview with The Wall Street Journal , Alito said that he has “a pretty good idea who is responsible,” but added that “that’s different from the level of proof that is needed to name somebody.” He didn’t elaborate further.
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As noted above, Bondi also alluded to an ongoing investigation during her House testimony in February. At the very least, this suggests that the Justice Department may believe there is more to uncover about the leak.
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But as Cruz noted during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in October, time is running out in at least one regard: There is a five-year statute of limitations on stealing government property, which would mean that prosecutors would have to bring charges by around this time next year.
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The post Will the mystery of the Dobbs leak ever be solved? appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"activism","author":"Kelsey Dallas","publishDate":"2026-03-06T14:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/protests-after-politico-scaled.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/will-the-mystery-of-the-dobbs-leak-ever-be-solved/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T18:00:12.224Z"},{"id":"x7c16p","archiveId":"sbm6r4","slug":"us-abortion-restrictions-causing-preventable-deaths","title":"US Abortion Restrictions Causing Preventable Deaths","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Abortion rights protestors demonstrate outside the U.S. Supreme Court as oral arguments are delivered in the case of Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic in Washington D.C., April 2. 2025.","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Abortion rights protestors demonstrate outside the U.S. Supreme Court as oral arguments are delivered in the case of Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic in Washington D.C., April 2. 2025.\n © 2025 Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>State restrictions on abortion, since the Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the US constitution does not confer a right to abortion, are creating risks to pregnant people nationwide. Women are dying preventable deaths because abortion care is denied or delayed due to state restrictions.</p><p>Thirteen states enforce complete abortion bans, while others impose harsh limits on when a pregnancy can be ended. According to the Gender Equity Policy Institute, women in states with abortion bans are twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes as those in states where abortion is legal and accessible. Women of color, in particular, are disproportionately harmed.</p><p>Women’s access to reproductive healthcare services, an essential element of their right to health, has also been severely restricted by financial cuts and limitations, including for Planned Parenthood, Medicaid, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.</p><p>Pregnant women and adolescents have been detained under the administration’s ongoing brutal immigration enforcement and are unable to access adequate healthcare services while in detention. Some have had miscarriages while experiencing medical neglect.</p><p>Two Tennessee Republicans recently proposed a bill that would make it possible to sentence women to death for having an abortion.</p><p>Anti-abortion groups are also attempting to block or severely restrict access nationwide to mifepristone, the drug used for medical abortion. Despite its more than two decades of safe use in the US, and its recognition as a safe, effective medication used in nearly 100 countries worldwide. Six states are currently engaged in three federal lawsuits challenging the use of mifepristone.</p><p>International human rights law affirms that access to reproductive health care is closely linked to the rights to life, health, privacy, equality, and freedom from discrimination. Restrictive abortion laws can also constitute discriminatory access barriers that undermine women’s right to health.</p><p>The US continues to have the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income nations around the globe, even as it is attempting to further limit access to reproductive health services. Data shows that 80 percent of maternal deaths in the US are preventable. On this International Women’s Day, it is time to remind US decision-makers that access to reproductive health care, including safe and legal abortion, is a human right.</p>","category":"choice","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-06T13:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603wrd_us_reproductive_freedom.jpg?h=2bb33676&itok=SlDo-095","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/06/us-abortion-restrictions-causing-preventable-deaths","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T18:00:07.721Z"},{"id":"ceqj0d","archiveId":"8awzmj","slug":"mental-health-issues-plague-new-moms-in-the-military-the-pentagon-is-supposed-to-help","title":"Mental health issues plague new moms in the military. The Pentagon is supposed to help.","excerpt":"This article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service. Subscribe to their newsletter. Shawna Bush had been blissfully ignorant during her pregnancy: happy, excited, and expecting the best out of motherhood.","content":"
This article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service. Subscribe to their newsletter .
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Shawna Bush had been blissfully ignorant during her pregnancy: happy, excited, and expecting the best out of motherhood. It took just two days for the wrecking ball of postpartum depression to demolish her joy and leave her sobbing on the couch.
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“It hit me like a train,” Bush said. “I was not expecting any of it.”
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Leading up to the birth of her daughter in 2015, the medical care Bush received was totally focused on what was going on in her belly, not the potential effects of pregnancy and parenthood on her brain.
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Now here she was, her Coast Guard husband underway on his ship again, the searing pain she felt during breastfeeding triggering crying jags that lasted hours.
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Instead of napping when her baby did, Bush would restlessly clean the house. At night, she was wracked with anxiety, constantly rushing in to make sure baby Ella was breathing.
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When Bush was alone with her newborn, motherhood began to seem like a never-ending stretch of darkness. “It’s just gonna be terrible.” she thought.
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A new baby can test any parent. But in military families, challenges are compounded by frequent moves that strip new mothers from their social support systems and deployments that leave them alone to figure things out on their own.
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Shawna Bush holds her newborn Ella in 2015. \n (Courtesy of Shawna Bush) \n\n\n\n
Ongoing stigma surrounding mental health and uncertainty about the ramifications of asking for help can make military mothers hesitant to seek it, lest it affect their loved ones’ careers or their own.
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A coalition of advocates pressing for military mothers to get more help won a major victory in December 2024 when Congress passed The MOMS Act , which was incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act of 2025. The legislation put the Pentagon on the hook for improving maternal mental health conditions across the services through mental health screening, counseling, treatment, parenting support, and awareness campaigns.
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The law also mandated that the Department of Defense report to Congress by the end of 2025 on what it had accomplished and where it could improve.
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Lawmakers and advocates are still waiting for those answers.
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When asked whether the Defense Health Agency had taken any steps in implementing the MOMS Act, a spokesperson said the DHA “is currently coordinating on a report to Congress that details the Department’s activities to address perinatal mental health conditions.”
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Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, who introduced the MOMS Act, told The War Horse the delays could reflect the military’s lack of interest in women’s and family issues.
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“It’s hard not to interpret things like that that way,” said Houlahan, a Pennsylvania Democrat and Air Force veteran. “Especially when the narrative coming out of the DoD is so anti-women, to be honest.”
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Bush agrees. “I don’t think moms are their priority,” she said. “I think they pretend like our mental health struggles just don’t exist.”
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Impact on mission readiness \n\n\n\n
Mental health issues are some of the most common pregnancy complications in the U.S., with up to one in five mothers meeting criteria for a perinatal mood and anxiety disorder. Those rates are likely even higher in military families; a government report found that military-connected moms had a mental health condition in up to 40% of pregnancies or within a year of giving birth.
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With half of recent mothers on active duty reporting feeling depressed during or after their pregnancy, and around 10% of American men also experiencing depression after the birth of their babies, these conditions are a clear detractor from mission readiness.
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Who can really “leave your family at the brow,” as Michael Bush said the Coast Guard encourages its members? When Shawna was struggling at home with their newborn, he admits it was “heavy on the mind.”
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“There were some days that she was a robot just going through the motions, and so I’d be thinking about that,” Michael Bush said. He worried about Shawna and her ability to bond with their daughter.
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“Did it prevent me from doing anything at work? No, because you don’t really have a choice,” he said. “Was it consistently on my mind? Yes.”
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Holly Johnson, an international board-certified lactation consultant, relaxes a baby to aid with breastfeeding. \n (Courtesy of Holly Johnson) \n\n\n\n
When you don’t have a village \n\n\n\n
A week after Holly Johnson delivered her first baby at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska, her active-duty husband left town for training, and she felt like she was being thrown to the wolves.
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“You’re discharged from the hospital, and it was like, poof! There wasn’t really anything,” she said.
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Her mom, sister, and best friend from high school were thousands of miles away. As for the postpartum depression she experienced, she doesn’t remember any provider bringing it up.
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“It’s so weird that we’ve completely normalized having postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, and all these things,” said Johnson, who is now a lactation consultant and certified birth doula with a master’s degree in public health.
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“We’re not finding the root cause of why so many women are struggling: Because no one has a village, no one has help.”
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New moms in the military often must find resources in a new community on their own. Military and family support centers are supposed to ease the transition. But it’s tough to know where to start when moms can’t even get to the grocery store without GPS. And even tougher if they are dealing with a mental health condition.
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“These people we’re working with are very capable, but they’re also tired,” said Annalisa Galenski-Rimer, a social worker with the Army Community Service’s New Parent Support Program at Fort Carson in Colorado. “They’re busy, you know, they’re taking care of a new human. And sometimes it’s hard to just take that next step.”
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Where help for new moms does exist, it isn’t always accessible. There might be a stroller group or a support group nearby, said Johnson, but “none of these programs meet moms where they are.”
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“I have to get in my car, I have to drive there, I have to shower, I have to look like I have my shit together,” Johnson said. “And then it’s led by somebody who says, ‘Oh, isn’t mothering so beautiful?’ … Well, yeah, it is, but I was crapped on yesterday, and I haven’t taken a shower, and this sucks at the moment, and I don’t have any help.”
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Patience Riley nurses her youngest son, Reid, while playing with her older son, Remy. \n (Courtesy of Patience Riley) \n\n\n\n
Just a piece of paper \n\n\n\n
Patience Riley found that the best place to cry was in the shower, where her toddler and 4-month-old baby couldn’t hear her. It was winter, it was COVID, her family was back in Alabama, and her active-duty Air Force husband was deployed. Riley was isolated, irritable, and overwhelmed.
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She was able to laugh when a friend came over and pointed out that coffee didn’t count as a meal, but Riley wasn’t getting good sleep at night, and she was white-knuckling it through the days of solo parenting, willing herself to be resilient, only breaking down and sobbing as the hot water coursed over her shoulders in the shower.
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“The military did this to me,” she remembers thinking bitterly, as she let her husband’s short-notice deployment roll around in her mind and considered the distance it had put between her and her friends and family.
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She’d been screened for postpartum depression at her son’s pediatric visits. But on those days at those times, she was OK enough not to raise any eyebrows or red flags.
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Someone could have asked Riley a follow-up question about how she was doing. Or mentioned that if things felt hard, there were people who could help. Maybe given her the number of a caring professional so she wouldn’t have to figure it out herself.
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But for Riley, like many moms, no one did.
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In 2022, only 52% of active-duty servicewomen who delivered at a military hospital or clinic got the recommended three screenings for postpartum depression and anxiety. That puts the military well ahead of most civilian health systems where screening rates below 10% are common.
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Screening only leads to help for around half to two-thirds of them.
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At an appointment at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, six weeks after delivering her son Mason, Katelyn Malcuit told a provider she was struggling a bit but didn’t get much of a response.
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“It was just kind of like, ‘Reach out if you need anything,’” she said. “I don’t think I really knew what I needed.”
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Riley, who is now a support group leader with Postpartum Support International, said that without follow-up, the screenings don’t do much to address maternal mental health anyway.
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“If you’re just going to hand people a piece of paper, you might as well not even hand it to them. There needs to be some type of conversation as well.”
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Katelyn Malcuit with her 8-month-old son, Mason, at Fort Carson’s Family Nurturing Center. \n (Jennifer Brookland) \n\n\n\n
What happens after the mental health screening? \n\n\n\n
Amanda Morales, an Air Force spouse and clinical social worker, was worried providers would judge her for not having it all together if she filled out the screening honestly after having her third child at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.
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She had not been prepared for the emergency cesarean section, the sudden transfer to the operating room for what would be her first surgery—a “splash and dash,” as it’s sometimes called, when doctors spill Betadine over the abdomen to save precious minutes before cutting the baby out.
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For three months after her daughter was born, Morales experienced flashbacks nearly every day. The cold of the operating table would tingle up her spine, the bright lights would pierce her vision, and she’d be back in that hospital room, hearing the beeping of the monitors as her blood pressure dropped, remembering her own screams as she panicked, semi-conscious, over the terrifying silence that filled the moments following her baby’s delivery.
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But she wasn’t sure what would happen if she admitted that.
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“I remember sitting in the lobby and filling it out and laughing to myself and then turning to my husband to laugh and be like, ‘I wonder what would happen if I answered this literally the way that I feel right now?’” Morales said.
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She had a feeling no one would even notice.
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Other women fear the opposite: that admitting to mental health struggles would result in child protective services involvement or hospitalization.
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Morales said over the course of multiple pregnancies, no one ever explained to her how providers score those questionnaires or what the potential outcomes are.
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The cost of asking for help \n\n\n\n
Nearly 25 years ago, when Adrienne Griffen was serving as a Naval intelligence officer, she knew requesting antidepressants to treat her postpartum depression could be career suicide.
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More than two decades later, that concern still plagues military moms today.
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“We know that mental health in the military is still very highly stigmatized,” said Griffen, who now serves as executive director of the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance , the nonprofit that spearheaded advocacy for the MOMS Act.
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Whispers follow servicewomen who become pregnant, feeding rumors they were trying to avoid deployment. Military spouses remain afraid of the implications for their spouse’s career if they admit they need help.
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“In the back of your mind, you’re like, … will his command begin to look down upon him because he’s not prioritizing his service over his family?” said Shawna Bush. “I think a lot of spouses don’t go about trying to find the resources because they are afraid of possible repercussions.”
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These include being added to the military’s Exceptional Family Member Program , which can limit which bases they can move to. Despite the prevalence of perinatal mental health conditions, the DOD classifies women experiencing them as having “special medical needs.”
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At Fort Carson, Galenski-Rimer teaches new mom “boot camp” and goes on home visits to families with young children through the military’s New Parent Support Program .
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Here, licensed counselors facilitate playgroups, infant massage classes, and parenting workshops most days of the workweek. Hundreds of parents come each month and even more flock to special events like the annual egg hunt or fire truck visit.
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Not all military moms can benefit from the New Parent Support Program, which is available at 169 of the 234 U.S. installations with Family Advocacy Programs. The services vary from location to location.
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“Here at Fort Carson we have more to offer than most other posts,” said Katie Hopkins, one of the licensed counselors. “That’s what we’ve heard, anyway.”
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Riley was at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska when she got pregnant for the first time. She got a roadmap of resources from pregnancy to postpartum at a mandatory orientation session, and saw how professionals from mental health to medical to family readiness communicated and referred to one another like a well-oiled machine. “I feel like Offutt got it right,” she said.
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But when Riley became pregnant again at Tyndall Air Force Base in the Florida panhandle, she said there was nothing. She even had to ask a nurse whose sister had recently had a baby where to go for care.
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“When I went to Florida, it was like, figure it out,” she said.
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Patience Riley helps her sons, Remy and Reid, video chat with their father during an Air Force deployment. \n (Courtesy of Patience Riley) \n\n\n\n
With passage of the MOMS Act, the military will have to fill some of the knowledge and support gaps it creates through frequent moves and deployments.
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The Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance has offered recommendations, including providing group prenatal care, integrating mental health care into primary care settings, doubling down on screening, and increasing awareness of the resources that are already out there.
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Military moms have plenty of ideas too, from equipping more providers to be proactive to creating “buddy” programs that would pair mothers who’ve been through the struggle with those who are just starting out.
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Shawna Bush is already using her experience with postpartum depression to help other military moms.
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It took a year of support groups, therapy, and medication to get Bush back to feeling like herself, and another seven for her to successfully get off antidepressants. Now, she leads support groups and serves as the Coast Guard coordinator for Postpartum Support International.
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But whether consistent, accessible help for mothers can also be available inside the military health system remains to be seen.
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Maybe the DOD report on the MOMS Act will reveal progress. Or maybe it will confirm Griffen’s hunch: “If I were a betting person,” she said, “I would say absolutely nothing has been done.”
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If you or someone you care about is experiencing perinatal mental health issues, visit Postpartum Support International for help finding resources and support.
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Jennifer Brookland is a regular contributor to The War Horse who served as a special agent in the Air Force before she received her master’s in journalism from Columbia University. She’s covered military and veterans issues for North Carolina Public Radio and child welfare for the Detroit Free Press. She was also a 2022 War Horse fellow.
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This War Horse story was edited by Mike Frankel, fact-checked by Jess Rohan, and copy-edited by Mitchell Hansen-Dewar. Hrisanthi Pickett wrote the headlines.
","category":"mental-health","author":"Shyla Nott","publishDate":"2026-03-06T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Copy-of-Shawna-Bush-and-Baby-Ella-1.jpg?w=683","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/mental-health-military-moms-pentagon/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T18:00:02.087Z"},{"id":"6ka5pe","archiveId":"kkmrdq","slug":"karen-pittman-is-the-face-of-merit-beautys-latest-campaign","title":"Karen Pittman Is The Face Of MERIT Beauty’s Latest Campaign","excerpt":"For Karen Pittman, beauty has never been about fitting into a standard. Rather, it’s about finding what fits around her life. That ethos makes her the perfect face of MERIT […] The post Karen Pittman Is The Face Of MERIT Beauty’s Latest Campaign appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Larry Stansbury ·
Updated March 5, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
For Karen Pittman , beauty has never been about fitting into a standard. Rather, it’s about finding what fits around her life. That ethos makes her the perfect face of MERIT Beauty ’s newest campaign in celebration of the Signature Lip Lightweight Lip Blush launching. Centered on joy, ease, and everyday confidence, the campaign reimagines bold lip color as something soft, wearable, and lived-in.
“At this stage of my life, I need things to be simple, easy, and effortless,” Pittman tells ESSENCE. “I want something that’s going to carry me all the way through the day. I don’t have time to be in front of a mirror all day—but I do want to feel pretty while doing the work of life.”
That philosophy mirrors MERIT’s approach to makeup: minimalist, clean, and designed to enhance rather than mask. The Forever actress has been a fan of the brand since 2022, when she first discovered it at a Brooklyn Sephora. “Up until that point, clean makeup hadn’t been working for me—it was chalky, made my skin look gray,” says Pittman. “Then I tried MERIT, and the colors actually looked good on my skin. I remember thinking, more women of color need to know about this.”
Years later, that personal connection turned into a full-circle partnership. “I was a client before they ever came to me,” says Pittman. “This wasn’t about me fitting into a beauty standard. It was about finding a brand that aligned with the beauty I already represent.”
The Signature Lip Blush is designed to blur the line between balm and lipstick. Think of a sheer, buildable formula that enhances your natural lip color and fades gracefully. For Pittman, that versatility is key. “It’s like amplifying what you already have,” she explains. “You can swipe it on lightly for everyday, or build it up when you want more intensity. That flexibility feels very modern to me.”
Her go-to shades? Bespoke, along with Andie, which closely matches her natural lip tone. Lately, she’s been reaching for Vendôme, a barely-there pink nude topped with a touch of gloss. “It’s perfect,” she says. “You look put together, but not like you spent all day getting ready.”
And while The Morning Show actress often opts for a minimal face, she loves the option of pairing simplicity with impact. “I’m definitely a simple face and a bold lip woman,” she shares. “Or a dramatic eye with a softer lip. With the lip blush, you really get the best of both worlds.”
And, if you can’t tell, joy, for Pittman, isn’t always loud—it’s intentional. Her beauty rituals are less about trends and more about peace. “A lot of it happens at night,” she says. “I put away my devices, turn on music, make tea, take a long shower or bath, and read. Beauty is about calm, contentment, and the people I love.”
That sense of ease extends to how she uses makeup, too. The lip blush often does double duty as a cheek tint, and there’s always a gloss in her bag. “I’m one of those Black women who’s always like, ‘Are my lips dry?’” she laughs. “A little sheen can shift your whole mood.”
That perspective is what makes this campaign resonate so deeply. “I truly believe there is no single beauty standard,” says Pittman. “The question now is: what brands fit around you? MERIT does that beautifully. It’s for women of all ages, skin tones, and undertones. Clean beauty is for us—and it doesn’t make us look ashy.”
Her hope is simple, yet powerful: that more women of color feel invited into beauty conversations that honor them as they are. “If I could walk every Black woman into a Sephora and help them find their shade, I would,” she says. “Because we deserve beauty that fits our lives and celebrates us.”
The post Karen Pittman Is The Face Of MERIT Beauty’s Latest Campaign appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-06T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/karen-pittman-merit-beauty-signature-lip-blush-campaign-exclusive/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T18:00:08.319Z"},{"id":"ksxq23","archiveId":"u4lk8l","slug":"black-wealth-watch-wendy-038-eddie-fraud-case-splits-into-separate-trials-sba-cuts-loans-to-immigran","title":"Black Wealth Watch: Wendy & Eddie Fraud Case Splits Into Separate Trials, SBA Cuts Loans To Immigrant Entrepreneurs, ‘Tendernism’ Trademark Changes Hands","excerpt":"Welcome to Black Wealth Watch, where we round up the biggest stories in Black business and economic news each week — the wins, the setbacks, the deals getting done, and […] The post Black Wealth Watch: Wendy & Eddie Fraud Case Splits Into Separate Trials, SBA Cuts Loans To Immigrant Entrepreneurs, ‘...","content":"
By
Kimberly Wilson ·
Updated March 5, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Welcome to Black Wealth Watch, where we round up the biggest stories in Black business and economic news each week — the wins, the setbacks, the deals getting done, and the conversations we should be having about money, power, and who actually gets a seat at the table.
This week had a little bit of everything. A viral pitmaster finally got back what was his, a media mogul is out here proving that Black podcasting is only getting bigger, a federal agency slammed the door on some of the hardest-working entrepreneurs in the country, a Wall Street giant is cutting thousands of jobs right after a record-breaking year, and a Real Housewife whose legal drama just got a lot more complicated. Let’s get into it.
Walter Johnson Secures the Tendernism Trademark
If you’ve been following Uncle Walt’s saga, you know this one was a long time coming. Walter “Mr. Tendernism” Johnson, the viral barbecue personality known for those deeply satisfying fall-off-the-bone videos, officially secured the rights to his signature phrase this week. An attorney named Kenneth Harris had previously filed two intent-to-use trademark applications for the term back in November, but without any actual commercial use to back up those filings, he agreed to begin the transfer process over to Johnson. The two appeared on Instagram together to announce the news, with Harris telling Johnson, “You deserve it, you created it.” Johnson had already parted ways with Destination Smokehouse , the California restaurant his presence helped make famous, after a dispute over who really owned the brand he built. With a GoFundMe that surpassed $50,000 and a food truck in the works, Unc is moving forward on his own terms and in his own words, “I’m finna tenderize the whole United States.”
Charlamagne Grows His Podcast Empire
The Black Effect Podcast Festival is coming back to Atlanta’s Pullman Yards on April 25 , and tickets go on sale March 12. Now in its fourth year, the festival will feature live tapings, panels on AI, media, and the Gen-Z creator economy, plus a marketplace spotlighting Black-owned businesses. The Black Effect Podcast Network, founded by Charlamagne Tha God and iHeartMedia, has grown to 47 shows since launching in 2020 , and what started as a bet on Black audio storytelling has quietly become one of the most influential media ecosystems in the country. Mark your calendars.
The SBA Just Shut Immigrant Entrepreneurs Out
A new SBA policy that took effect March 1 now requires that every owner of a business applying for its most popular loan programs hold U.S. citizenship . Green card holders are completely locked out, even people who have spent decades here building businesses from scratch, creating jobs, and paying taxes their entire adult lives. Research shows immigrants start businesses at a significantly higher rate than U.S.-born residents and make up a substantial share of the country’s small business community. Democratic lawmakers called the move a “devastating attack on immigrant entrepreneurs.” This is the fourth time the SBA has revised its citizenship guidance in less than a year, but the impact on communities most dependent on accessible capital has stayed the same.
Morgan Stanley Cuts 2,500 Jobs After a Record Year
Morgan Stanley announced this week it is trimming roughly 3% of its global workforce , about 2,500 employees, across its investment banking, wealth management, and investment management divisions. The cuts come after the bank posted record annual revenue and a nearly 50% surge in investment banking fees last quarter. The stated reasons involve shifting business priorities and location strategy. It’s also worth noting that the bank’s CEO received a 32% pay raise last year . The math is not mathing for the people who just lost their jobs.
Wendy and Eddie Osefo to Be Tried Separately
There is a significant update in the Osefo fraud case. Wendy and Eddie appeared in Carroll County Circuit Court on March 4 and will now face separate trials after multiple shifts in legal strategy. The couple was arrested in October 2025 on more than 30 combined criminal counts tied to an alleged staged burglary at their Maryland home. Eddie waived his right to a speedy trial while Wendy’s team is pushing for the earliest available court date. Both continue to deny any wrongdoing.
The post Black Wealth Watch: Wendy & Eddie Fraud Case Splits Into Separate Trials, SBA Cuts Loans To Immigrant Entrepreneurs, ‘Tendernism’ Trademark Changes Hands appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-06T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/black-wealth-watch-osefo-fraud-case-sba-immigrant-loans-tendernism/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T18:00:08.319Z"},{"id":"yvx5jd","archiveId":"mfy5nr","slug":"rep-tony-gonzales-drops-reelection-bid-as-house-opens-inquiry-into-affair","title":"Rep. Tony Gonzales drops reelection bid as House opens inquiry into affair","excerpt":"Rep. Tony Gonzales announced Thursday night that he was dropping his bid for reelection ahead of an Ethics Committee investigation into his affair with a former staffer. However, the Texas Republican did not announce a resignation from the House altogether — part of the party’s caution around furthe...","content":"
Rep. Tony Gonzales announced Thursday night that he was dropping his bid for reelection ahead of an Ethics Committee investigation into his affair with a former staffer.
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However, the Texas Republican did not announce a resignation from the House altogether — part of the party’s caution around further slicing thin vote margins ahead of a contentious midterm election.
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“After deep reflection and with the support of my loving family, I have decided not to seek reelection while serving out the rest of this Congress with the same commitment I’ve always had to my district,” Gonzales wrote in a statement. “Through the rest of my term, I will continue fighting for my constituents, for whom I am eternally grateful.”
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Gonzales admitted to an affair with the aide on Wednesday after the Ethics Committee announced their inquiry, and the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Conduct reported it had “substantial reason to believe ” he had a sexual relationship with a subordinate in an apparent violation of House rules.
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Earlier this week, Gonzales had advanced to a May 26 runoff election , and was set to face Brandon Herrera in a rematch of a race Gonzales narrowly won in 2024. On Thursday afternoon, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other GOP leaders called for him to end his 2026 campaign — though Johnson stopped short of asking for his resignation.
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“The Ethics Committee has announced an investigation into Congressman Tony Gonzales’s conduct, and we urge them to act expeditiously,” Johnson and three other members of leadership said in a statement. “We have encouraged him to address these very serious allegations directly with his constituents and his colleagues.”
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Fellow GOP members had previously avoided suggesting the lawmaker resign or drop his 2026 campaign, saying that voters would ultimately decide on Gonzales’ political fate. Some directly mentioned keeping the House majority as the party’s first priority.
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But more Republicans, including other Texas delegation members, on Thursday began pressuring him to resign or withdraw. Rep. Monica De La Cruz categorized his actions as “unacceptable” while saying he should step down from all leadership roles, including his position as Congressional Hispanic Conference chair.
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Majority Whip Tom Emmer told CNN he’d warned Gonzales in a phone call that he would almost certainly face an expulsion vote if he refused to bow out.
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“‘I am asking you to withdraw because you told me something else. And you are now acknowledging that what you told me is not accurate,’” the No. 3 Republican said he told his colleague. “I told him, ‘You put the speaker in a bad position. You put everybody else in a bad position by doing this.’”
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Gonzales’ resignation comes as the veneer of GOP unity in Congress has cracked across multiple issues, including sexual misconduct. Rep. Ana Paulina Luna, a member of the House Oversight Committee, told reporters, “there’s a lot there” ahead of filing motions to censure and strip Gonzales of his committee assignments — a rare weapon for fellow party members to wield against one another.
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Republican Rep. Nancy Mace also introduced a resolution this week to release all investigative reports into sexual misconduct allegations against members of Congress, saying her colleague is “not the only one” who has faced these claims of inappropriate advances. The measure failed to advance Wednesday after being met with skepticism by Ethics Committee chair Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican. The full House voted 357-65 to refer it to committee — where the measure will likely die.
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Gonzales admitted to the affair in a Wednesday interview with conservative talk show host Joe Pags, calling it “a lapse in judgement.” The representative had previously denied the allegations.
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“I take full responsibility for those actions. Since then, I’ve reconciled with my wife, Angel, I’ve asked God to forgive me — which He has — and my faith is as strong as ever,” Gonzales said.
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While he did not elaborate further on the former aide’s texts, he said he looks forward to the upcoming investigation and being able to explain “the entire situation.” Gonzales spent much of the interview deriding media coverage of the issue and categorizing the criticism against him as about “power and money.”
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The former aide, Regina Santos-Aviles, was Gonzales’ Uvalde district director. Her husband, Adrian Aviles, shared alleged exchanges between her and her boss with news outlets last week. (The texts have not been independently seen by The 19th.) Santos-Aviles died by suicide in September 2025.
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The reported text messages from 2024 show Gonzales pushing conversations with Santos-Aviles in a sexual direction, despite her attempts to deter him. The San Antonio Express-News first reported the content of the text messages, which appear to indicate an affair. House members are prohibited from engaging in “unwelcome sexual advances” or having sexual relationships with staffers.
","category":"politics","author":"Marissa Martinez","publishDate":"2026-03-06T12:47:33.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/gonzales_3a9492.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/tony-gonzales-drops-reelection-bid/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T18:00:02.087Z"},{"id":"n8a392","archiveId":"qiy9wb","slug":"the-funniest-posts-from-women-this-week-feb-28-march-6","title":"The Funniest Posts From Women This Week (Feb. 28-March 6)","excerpt":"\"There are no 2 temperatures further apart than 55° in March and 55° in September\"","content":"","category":"equality","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-03-06T12:00:20.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/69a9e5bc170000c9242b1332.jpg?ops=1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/funniest-women-social-media-posts-2025-2-28_n_69a755a8e4b0c9c664ad9b82","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-07T00:00:22.750Z"},{"id":"tw4y11","archiveId":"t9hfdl","slug":"the-epstein-files-reveal-a-system-built-to-shield-the-powerful","title":"The Epstein Files Reveal a System Built to Shield the Powerful","excerpt":"Investigative journalist Julie K. Brown with the Miami Herald has extensively documented the mishandling of the Epstein case. Early reports and accusations were treated with skepticism; initial investigations were shut down; charges were narrowed; powerful actors were shielded; and even meaningful s...","content":"
Investigative journalist Julie K. Brown with the Miami Herald has extensively documented the mishandling of the Epstein case. Early reports and accusations were treated with skepticism; initial investigations were shut down; charges were narrowed; powerful actors were shielded; and even meaningful survivor notification of prosecutorial decisions was bypassed.
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The post The Epstein Files Reveal a System Built to Shield the Powerful appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"safety","author":"Justine Andronici","publishDate":"2026-03-06T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2260272747.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/06/epstein-files-trump-abuse-women-protect/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T12:01:01.536Z"},{"id":"knuszj","archiveId":"tsc481","slug":"new-research-quality-provider-client-interaction-is-key-to-enhancing-abortion-care-in-uganda","title":"New research: Quality provider-client interaction is key to enhancing abortion care in Uganda","excerpt":"This study looks at the experiences of 440 women who received abortion care at 13 Ipas Africa Alliance-supported public health facilities in nine districts of Uganda. The post New research: Quality provider-client interaction is key to enhancing abortion care in Uganda appeared first on Ipas .","content":"
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Study
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Mapping the journey: enhancing abortion care in Uganda’s health systems
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Published in Frontiers in Reproductive Health
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This study looks at the experiences of 440 women who received abortion care at 13 Ipas Africa Alliance-supported public health facilities in nine districts of Uganda. It identifies factors associated with high levels of client satisfaction and examines how satisfaction levels influenced the uptake of abortion and postabortion contraception services.
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Main takeaway \n
Positive engagement with providers was strongly associated with higher satisfaction levels and increases the likelihood that clients will return for future services and recommend the facility to others. Respectful, supportive interactions between providers and clients are an essential step toward delivering high-quality, equitable, and respectful abortion care in Uganda’s health system.
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Why it matters
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Abortion is highly restricted in Uganda, permitted only to save a woman’s life. The challenges of this restrictive landscape continue to contribute to high rates of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. Addressing both provider-related barriers to care and social and cultural barriers is critically important to improving women’s overall experiences with abortion services and supporting their autonomy in making reproductive health care decisions.
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\n“The doctor spoke to me in a calm and humble manner. He explained to me what he was going to do … and he never judged me anywhere in our interaction .” – from in-depth interview with 32-year-old client
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Key findings \n
\nAnalysis of client exit interviews with 440 women, aged 15-49, who received abortion services at 13 Ipas Alliance-supported clinics in 2024 showed that positive provider engagement was strongly associated with higher levels of satisfaction. Clients who experienced respectful and supportive interactions with providers were significantly more likely to report satisfaction and indicated a greater willingness to recommend the facility and return for future services. Analysis of client exit interview data also revealed no statistically significant differences in satisfaction levels across sociodemographic groups such as age, marital status, facility location, education level or type of abortion service. Although infrequent, some participants reported negative interactions with healthcare providers, particularly during contraceptive counseling. These interactions were primarily characterized by poor provider attitudes and ineffective communication. Additional in-depth interviews with 63 women offered deeper insights into their experiences with abortion services across different levels of the health system. For many of these women, the urgent need was to terminate the pregnancy, often with limited attention to postabortion services such as contraceptive counseling. Women who participated in qualitative, in-depth interviews expressed overall satisfaction with the abortion services they received. High levels of client satisfaction were evident through several indicators: women reporting that they were treated with dignity and respect, women who reported that providers listened to their needs, and women who stated they received private and confidential care. Overall, the findings underscore the importance of investing in provider training, ensuring consistent availability of contraceptive methods, and addressing social stigma to improve client experiences. Strengthening referral systems, standardizing counseling protocols, and promoting client-centered approaches are essential steps toward delivering high-quality, equitable, and respectful abortion care in Uganda’s health system. \n
Noteworthy \n
This is the first study conducted by Ipas in Uganda using the client journey mapping approach in conjunction with quantitative survey data collected from client exit interviews at the facility level. Journey mapping captures more qualitative information than client exit interviews and also helps to uncover unmet health needs, emotional challenges, and ways that health systems responses and patient engagement can be improved.
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The post New research: Quality provider-client interaction is key to enhancing abortion care in Uganda appeared first on Ipas .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Faith Oneya","publishDate":"2026-03-06T11:40:18.000Z","image":"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/feature-module-default-image-B.png","source":"Ipas","sourceUrl":"https://www.ipas.org/news/uganda-abortioncare-research/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T12:01:02.557Z"},{"id":"axq7i6","archiveId":"ftg1xr","slug":"kyrgyzstan-women-girls-with-disabilities-face-abuse","title":"Kyrgyzstan: Women, Girls with Disabilities Face Abuse","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Aisha (not her real name), a woman with an acquired disability, sitting at the Center for Independent Living, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. © 2022 Cabar.Asia
(Bishkek, March 6, 2026) – Women with disabilities in Kyrgyzstan face alarming rates of harassment, physical and sexual abuse,...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Aisha (not her real name), a woman with an acquired disability, sitting at the Center for Independent Living, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.\n © 2022 Cabar.Asia\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>(Bishkek, March 6, 2026) – Women with disabilities in Kyrgyzstan face alarming rates of harassment, physical and sexual abuse, and economic discrimination, despite legal reforms, Human Rights Watch said today, ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2026.</p><p>The Kyrgyz government has taken positive steps in the last year to address violence against women with disabilities and to uphold their rights. But the government needs to provide effective protection from harassment and abuse.</p><p>“Women and girls with disabilities are still not heard and believed, and are unable to access Kyrgyzstan’s justice system, even as progress is made on paper,” said Syinat Sultanalieva, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Kyrgyz authorities should make their promises a reality and address existing gaps.”</p><p>Based on March 2025 research by Equality, a grassroots organization of women with disabilities, although violence was widespread, very few women reported it or received meaningful support from the government. The group surveyed 150 women with disabilities across seven regions of Kyrgyzstan, with nearly 93 percent reporting having experienced abuse and, in some cases, multiple forms.</p><p>Of those surveyed, 140 reported psychological abuse, 80 reported harassment, 70 economic problems, 60 physical violence, and 40 sexual violence. Only eight had ever sought help from the police or medical services, citing deep distrust of law enforcement, lack of information about their rights, fear of shame and social judgment, and concern for their own safety in cases where the abuser was a family member.</p><p>This data echoes findings that Human Rights Watch documented in its December 2023 report, “Abused by Relatives, Ignored by the State”, based on interviews with 56 survivors across three provinces of Kyrgyzstan. As Human Rights Watch reported at the time, families frequently concealed the existence of relatives with disabilities from society, while law enforcement routinely minimized reported cases, and shelters and legal services were largely inaccessible to survivors with disabilities.</p><p>In February 2025, President Sadyr Japarov signed into law legal amendments to the criminal code introducing harsher penalties for sexual violence offenses against people with disabilities, and recognizing disability as an aggravating factor. It also eliminated exemptions from imprisonment for convicted offenders who had committed sexual violence against persons with disabilities. While these changes respond to the heightened risk of sexual violence faced by many women and girls with disabilities, framing disability itself as a basis for harsher penalties and grouping people with disabilities with children can risk reinforcing paternalistic attitudes and stereotypes of inherent vulnerability rather than ensuring equal protection, Human Rights Watch said.</p><p>In August, President Japarov signed a law on “Rights and Guarantees of People with Disabilities” which aligns the country’s legislation on disability rights issues with the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. This requires Kyrgyzstan to move away from what is referred to as the “medical model” of disability, which largely focuses on a person’s medical condition, and toward the social model, which recognizes the human rights of people with disabilities, including social protection and full legal capacity on an equal basis with others.</p><p>Among the new approaches is the acceptance that the government has a responsibility to support citizens with disabilities to acquire, develop, and maintain skills for independent living. It also would require the government to provide support to enable people with disabilities to, for example, perform a job, access services, or participate in public events.</p><p>Throughout 2025, the Kyrgyz Ministry of Labor, Social Welfare, and Migration organized educational seminars for law enforcement and judicial personnel across the country on supporting women with disabilities to access justice. In 2024, a practical guide was developed by lawyers and human rights defenders for judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and social workers on protecting women with disabilities from violence. Local nongovernmental organizations, funded by the country’s international partners, are providing more social justice and empowerment projects focusing on women with disabilities.</p><p>However, serious gaps remain in access to justice. While the authorities collect data on domestic violence, it is still not disaggregated by specific populations, including women and girls with disabilities. Official statistics on victims and survivors of sexual violence, domestic violence, and forced and child marriage do not include any information about disability, nor are there any official or nongovernmental studies that accurately measure the prevalence of the various types of domestic violence against women and girls with disabilities.</p><p>Based on the Equality research, Kyrgyzstan’s justice system is still structurally unprepared and often unwilling to handle cases involving women and girls with disabilities. Courthouses and police stations remain physically inaccessible: only 25 percent of all buildings in Bishkek, the country’s capital, are equipped with ramps. There are still no adapted information materials, and sign language interpretation is almost entirely absent in legal proceedings. Survivors of violence still face an entrenched culture of disbelief and dismissal.</p><p>In one case documented by Equality from the town of Karakol, a judge has refused to admit the recorded testimony of a young woman with disabilities whom two men kidnapped and raped over the course of three days. The court cited her legal incapacity status as reason for refusal, a direct result of Kyrgyzstan’s outdated guardianship system, which strips people of legal standing and heightens their risk of abuse. Another case, involving a girl from the village of Tyup, ultimately resulted in a conviction and was referred to the Supreme Court, showing that justice is achievable, but only through exceptional effort and often years of persistence, Human Rights Watch said.</p><p>International partners, UN agencies, and development organizations operating in Kyrgyzstan should continue prioritizing funding for organizations led by or serving people with disabilities and should support independent civil society monitoring of the implementation of the 2025 legal reforms.</p><p>“The laws Kyrgyzstan passed in 2025 are a testament to what is possible when governments listen to advocates,” Sultanalieva said.” Now the government needs to show that these are not just symbolic gestures. Women and girls with disabilities should be safe: in their homes, in their communities, and before the law.\"</p>","category":"safety","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-06T10:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2023/12/202312eca_kyrgyzstan_drd_aisha.jpg?h=a6f82ae8&itok=wWFA7XVt","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/06/kyrgyzstan-women-girls-with-disabilities-face-abuse","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T12:01:05.002Z"},{"id":"3ens9s","archiveId":"pkr8z5","slug":"vietnams-courageous-women-behind-bars","title":"Vietnam’s Courageous Women Behind Bars","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Left to right: Hoang Thi Hong Thai, Can Thi Theu, Pham Doan Trang, and Dinh Thi Thu Thuy. © Private
In celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, the Vietnam Women’s Union launched a nationwide campaign called “long-dress week” (tuan le ao dai) to “promote the...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Left to right: Hoang Thi Hong Thai, Can Thi Theu, Pham Doan Trang, and Dinh Thi Thu Thuy.\n © Private\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>In celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, the Vietnam Women’s Union launched a nationwide campaign called “long-dress week” (tuan le ao dai) to “promote the beauty of Vietnam’s women.”</p><p>Between March 1 and 8, women have been urged to wear “traditional” long dresses at workplaces and public events to spotlight “the image” of Vietnamese femininity. But by prioritizing women’s appearance, the Vietnam Women’s Union is ignoring serious rights issues, including those that women activists have long campaigned for.</p><p>The Vietnam Women’s Union is a government body established to promote a patriotic ideal of women under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam. The Vietnamese government often boasts about their achievements in promoting women’s rights and gender equality, but women who challenge the government’s narratives and expose inequality and abuses risk their freedom. Authorities routinely use abusive penal code provisions to lock up critics including prominent women rights activists Pham Doan Trang, Can Thi Theu, Dinh Thi Thu Thuy, and Hoang Thi Hong Thai.</p><p>Pham Doan Trang, 48, is a blogger who has published hundreds of articles, commentaries, and books on women rights, the need for environmental protection, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. Arrested in October 2020 for her advocacy, she is serving a nine-year prison sentence.</p><p>Can Thi Theu, 64, is a rights activist who has been imprisoned three times for her work on land confiscation, environmental protection, and police brutality. She was arrested in June 2020 and is serving an eight-year prison sentence.</p><p>Dinh Thi Thu Thuy, 44, is an activist who participated in a protest against Vietnam’s cybersecurity law, which infringes on citizens’ rights. She was arrested in April 2020 and is serving a seven-year prison sentence.</p><p>Hoang Thi Hong Thai, 45, is a blogger and businesswoman who has published hundreds of comments on social media expressing sympathy for rights activists who have suffered repression. Hanoi police arrested her on January 7; she will likely face trial in 2026.</p><p>Instead of busying itself with long dresses, the Vietnam Women’s Union should focus on issues of real concern, including calling for the release of these women activists whose only “crimes” have been to speak out for the rights of the Vietnamese people.</p><p>The Vietnamese government should immediately release these women and others and respect the fundamental rights to freedom of expression, association, religion, and peaceful assembly.</p>","category":"activism","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-06T05:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603asia_vietnam_political_prisoners_0.jpg?h=9f677f54&itok=yTaMS-2q","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/06/vietnams-courageous-women-behind-bars","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T06:01:10.208Z"},{"id":"ij2j3d","archiveId":"e07eyx","slug":"how-ice-enforcement-is-driving-black-domestic-workers-out-of-public-spaces","title":"How ICE Enforcement Is Driving Black Domestic Workers Out of Public Spaces","excerpt":"Like many domestic workers in New York City, Felicia has built a strong network of other working professionals who meet at local parks to socialize and share their experiences. Over the two decades she has spent caring for New York families since arriving from St.","content":"
Like many domestic workers in New York City, Felicia has built a strong network of other working professionals who meet at local parks to socialize and share their experiences. Over the two decades she has spent caring for New York families since arriving from St. Lucia, those conversations have grown into friendships—friendships she says have become a lifeline.
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For years, the park has been one of the only places Felicia felt she could exhale. That has all changed under the second Trump administration.
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Felicia hears it constantly: fewer nannies at the park, fewer informal gatherings in play spaces, fewer familiar faces lingering in bookstores to warm up with kids on cold days. People are staying indoors, shortening their routes and avoiding public places that were once part of the workday. That’s because fear has gotten louder. The process feels unpredictable and unchecked. “No one knows,” Felicia says. “ICE can kidnap you.”
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The post How ICE Enforcement Is Driving Black Domestic Workers Out of Public Spaces appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"immigration","author":"Jenn Stowe","publishDate":"2026-03-06T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2261567561-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/05/black-domestic-care-work-nanny-ice-immigration/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T00:01:04.413Z"},{"id":"2dwk3q","archiveId":"tyusho","slug":"too-lazy-to-workout-heres-how-i-sculpted-my-belly-by-doing-nothing","title":"Too Lazy To Workout? Here’s How I Sculpted My Belly By Doing Nothing","excerpt":"Over the past month, I’ve been in and out of a facial plastic surgeon’s office in midtown Manhattan. Not because I was in for a preventative facelift, but because it’s […] The post Too Lazy To Workout? Here’s How I Sculpted My Belly By Doing Nothing appeared first on Essence .","content":"
Before and after/ Courtesy of India Espy-Jones
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 5, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Over the past month, I’ve been in and out of a facial plastic surgeon’s office in midtown Manhattan. Not because I was in for a preventative facelift , but because it’s almost spring and I wanted the results of a vigorous workout without working out at all (sue me!). And, in the words of Doja Cat in her single “Gorgeous ,” “she thank God for that EmSculpt.” So, I found out why.
The EmSculpt Neo , a body sculpting treatment equal to doing 20,000 crunches in just 30 minutes, has been all the rage among celebrities. Model of the Year Anok Yai used the treatment to tighten and strengthen her core before walking in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show with 40-pound wings. Meanwhile, 56-year-old JLo says she plans on using EmSculpt on her bum well into her 60s and 70s.
But, does it really work? After four session of my own with Dr. Yael Halaas, read on for more about my results and what to expect.
What is EmSculpt Neo?
EmSculpt Neo is a noninvasive body sculpting treatment that burns stubborn fat and builds muscle without any downtime. It’s proven to reduce fat by 30 percent, and stimulate muscle growth and strength by 25 percent and 29 percent respectively.
Depending on where you want to target—Anok Yai targets her core, while JLo targets her bum—the treatment can be customized to your abdomen, buttock, arms, and legs. For the Black women who don’t want to lose their butt fat, “settings can be adjusted to build muscle without melting fat,” double-board certified plastic surgeon Dr. Yael Halaas tells ESSENCE.
How does EmSculpt work?
“The treatment induces thousands of powerful muscle contractions, helping to build and tone muscle while simultaneously burning fat,” Halaas says. Combining high-intensity focused electromagnetic (HIFEM) energy and radiofrequency (RF), all I had to do was lay down with an iron-shaped device strapped to a band around my waist while I was in Halaas’s office.
What does EmSculpt feel like?
While it may sound painful, it isn’t. At best, I started off each session by laughing because it felt like I was being tickled. At worst, it feels like the aches you feel after an ab workout, but in short on and off intervals over 30-minutes.
Each session, we started with a short warm-up period, which feels like a series of less intense muscle contractions. Then, the practitioner adjusted the settings to my comfort. At my first session, I began at a lower intensity, then worked up to higher intensities throughout my next few sessions.
The Benefits
While EmSculpt undeniably sculpts your body, “many of my patients incorporate EMSCULPT Neo into their weight-loss journey, as it not only helps build and tone muscle but also burns fat,” she says. However, the benefits are more than just aesthetic.
“[It] can also support medical wellness by helping improve circulation, increase range of motion, reduce muscle spasms, re-educate muscles, and prevent muscle atrophy,” Halaas says. 83 percent of patients reported improved range of motion, while 90 percent said it helped re-educate their muscles.
How much does EmSculpt cost?
“While results can vary from person to person, most patients see optimal benefits after 5 to 7 sessions, scheduled about one week apart,” Halaas advises. “The cost typically ranges from $400 to $550 dollars per session.”
My EmSculpt Results
I have a sensitive stomach and get easily bloated (lymphatic massages work wonders), so most times my belly isn’t as flat and sculpted as it would be if I didn’t. Luckily, I noticed results immediately after my first EmSculpt session; I couldn’t stay out of the mirror!
The first change I noticed was the top of my core looked more defined, then after the second session, my curves started to tighten in. My core felt stronger and my bloated lower belly, tighter.
Like most Black women, I have a more arched posture which causes a bit of lower back pain, so having my core feel stronger helped take some pressure off. I even took my first
The results only last if you maintain them. While EmSculpt requires nothing but for you to lay down, the impressive results obviously don’t replace the overwhelming benefits of actually moving. Just like if you work out vigorously then stop, your results will slowly fade over a few months if you’re not engaging your core regularly.
“[It] effectively builds muscle and reduces fat in targeted areas, [but] it does not provide the full-body cardiovascular benefits of traditional exercise,” Halaas notes. “It is designed to complement your workouts and improve your results, not replace your workouts.”
TOPICS:
body sculpting celebrity beauty treatments EmSculpt The post Too Lazy To Workout? Here’s How I Sculpted My Belly By Doing Nothing appeared first on Essence .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-05T23:45:52.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2025/12/Emsculpt-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/emsculpt-body-sculpting-treatment-review/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T00:01:08.811Z"},{"id":"c9c9ag","archiveId":"hoeuq0","slug":"ms-global-iranian-girls-school-hit-in-usisraeli-strikes-taliban-legalize-domestic-violence-and-more","title":"Ms. Global: Iranian Girls’ School Hit in U.S.–Israeli Strikes, Taliban Legalize Domestic Violence, and More","excerpt":"The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to healthcare. But Ms.","content":"
The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to healthcare. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.
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This week: stories from Iran, Afghanistan, the Netherlands and more.
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The post Ms. Global: Iranian Girls’ School Hit in U.S.–Israeli Strikes, Taliban Legalize Domestic Violence, and More appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Olivia Mccabe","publishDate":"2026-03-05T23:22:09.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Ms.-Global-Iranian-Girls-School-Hit-in-U.S.–Israeli-Strikes-Taliban-Legalize-Domestic-Violence-and-More.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/05/ms-global-iranian-girls-school-taliban-domestic-violence/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T00:01:04.413Z"},{"id":"6hp9qw","archiveId":"21eixy","slug":"as-kristi-noem-exits-post-her-ice-barbie-shadow-remains","title":"As Kristi Noem exits post, her ‘ICE Barbie’ shadow remains","excerpt":"Few, if any, of Donald Trump’s Cabinet members have featured themselves so prominently as a figurehead within their agencies as former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The South Dakota Republican centralized herself at many turns throughout her tenure.","content":"
Few, if any, of Donald Trump’s Cabinet members have featured themselves so prominently as a figurehead within their agencies as former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
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The South Dakota Republican centralized herself at many turns throughout her tenure. She posed with loaded guns next to immigration enforcement officers. She appeared at briefings decked out in tactical gear. She visited active operations, with constant in-house promotional footage produced along the way.
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Unlike most agency heads, Noem made herself and her image — steely-eyed and polished — synonymous with both deportation and the department.
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And those in the president’s inner circle noticed. Despite Trump himself punting on calls to replace her, those close to him privately expressed frustration with her handling of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Minnesota, where agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in January. Other factors mounted with time: her personal relationship with DHS “special government employee” Corey Lewandowski, reports of staff mistreatment and a general eschewing of other priorities like dispensing Federal Emergency Management Agency payments or signing off on large contracts.
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Republican womanhood has now come to embrace contradictory visual and political demands , and Noem’s leaning into her femininity — including her pivot from a short pixie cut to long, flowing hair and an infamous teeth adjustment — served as a counter to her inhabiting a masculine sheriff persona .
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“It’s all about her appeal to an audience of one,” Republican strategist Ron Bonjean told the New York Times in March 2024, as Noem was under consideration to become Trump’s running mate. “The whole teeth thing almost looks like it was done for Trump to see. She is showing him she works well in front of the camera, that she has that star power he wants onstage with him, while fitting into the mode of women in the Trump universe.”
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While she didn’t secure the second spot on the ticket, the appearance overhaul did seem to appeal to Trump, who tapped her to lead one of his most consequential agencies shortly after winning re-election.
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“You’re not allowed to say she’s beautiful, so I’m not going to say it,” Trump said, praising Noem last year.
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Outside of impressing the president, Noem’s performance was designed to be an assuaging yet authoritative presence in an immigration-fueled storm to the Republican base that craved order from Trump’s inauguration onward.
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In an unusual move for an agency head, Noem frequently appeared in heavily produced ride-along videos with law enforcement officers. These encounters, which would often appear on official DHS social media channels, showcased the secretary interacting directly with people being forcibly arrested — calmly explaining to one detainee in the back of a van , “You will be removed from this country and never get the chance to come back.”
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But Noem’s aesthetic approach to the position also made her stand out as a target for ridicule and criticism, including the nickname “ICE Barbie.” The satirical show “South Park” poked fun at her facial work and heavy makeup, while right-wing commentators like Megyn Kelly said she should “stop trying to glamorize the mission … as you cosplay ICE agent, which you’re not” last April.
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“Conservatives need a distinct aesthetic, but this one isn’t it,” conservative commentator Christopher Rufo said last April , criticizing her “girlboss tacticool” visuals.
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Members of Congress also noted Noem’s use of her own image as a campaign tactic in several congressional hearings. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, confronted her about her taped appearances at ICE raids during a Homeland Security Committee hearing last May.
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“Whatever got you here, Secretary Noem, I’m glad you found time among your many photo ops and costume changes to testify about why President Trump is seeking more taxpayer dollars, and what do you plan to do with that money if you get it,” Thompson said.
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One of Noem’s most egregious judgment calls was a $220 million ad campaign, awarded to a then-days-old company with personal and business ties to the secretary. The campaign focused on Noem and featured clips of Trump and the border wall. In the videos, the immigration chief discourages immigrants from entering the country illegally — reminiscent of political campaign videos rather than the usual stylings of public service announcements.
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During her appearance on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republican Sen. John Kennedy pressed her on the ads’ primary purpose as “effective in your name recognition.” Specifically, he asked if the president had approved ahead of time the multimillion dollar campaign, which he suggested had put Trump in “a terribly awkward spot.” Noem testified that Trump had indeed signed off, and asked her to craft it to thank him for his border policies — a statement that deeply frustrated the president later and which he categorized as untrue .
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Kennedy further blasted the decision to award the ad contract as something the Office of Management and Budget or congressional appropriations committees would never have approved — particularly as DHS avoided a competitive bidding process while under national emergency at the time.
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Trump said in a Truth Social post following her firing that Noem “has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results.”
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Noem attempted to readjust her profile to fit her vision for the department. The president’s pick to replace her with Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin — a former mixed martial arts fighter who Trump described on Thursday as a “MAGA warrior” — will make over DHS’ image once again.
","category":"politics","author":"Marissa Martinez","publishDate":"2026-03-05T22:33:54.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/ice-barbie.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/kristi-noem-dhs-secretary-ice-barbie/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T00:01:05.074Z"},{"id":"8qv6n7","archiveId":"wwmcn1","slug":"a-state-of-the-state-for-women-taking-stock-of-the-fight-for-democracy-at-home-and-abroad","title":"A State of the State for Women: Taking Stock of the Fight for Democracy at Home and Abroad","excerpt":"March’s Women’s History Month arrives at a moment when our rights, and democracy itself, feel newly precarious. From feminist perspectives on the war in Iran, where women and girls remain at the forefront of resistance, to the troubling parallels between authoritarian crackdowns abroad and the rollb...","content":"
March’s Women’s History Month arrives at a moment when our rights, and democracy itself, feel newly precarious.
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From feminist perspectives on the war in Iran, where women and girls remain at the forefront of resistance, to the troubling parallels between authoritarian crackdowns abroad and the rollback of reproductive rights here in the United States, the throughline is hard to ignore: Democracy rises and falls with women’s movements and mobilization.
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Taking stock of the moment, I’m highlighting reporting and analysis that help make sense of where we are now—from the criminalization of pregnancy outcomes in places like El Salvador, to new data revealing stark disparities in women’s well-being across U.S. states.
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At the same time, as the country approaches its 250th anniversary, initiatives like Ms.’ FEMINIST 250: Founding Feminists
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The post A State of the State for Women: Taking Stock of the Fight for Democracy at Home and Abroad appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Jennifer Weiss-Wolf","publishDate":"2026-03-05T22:32:51.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2256300364.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/05/women-democracy-iran-trump/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T00:01:04.413Z"},{"id":"85cw34","archiveId":"nc48j4","slug":"all-about-the-black-woman-who-designed-jackie-kennedys-wedding-dress","title":"All About The Black Woman Who Designed Jackie Kennedy’s Wedding Dress","excerpt":"Style Files offers an in-depth exploration of some of the most influential Black women in fashion that deserve more praise. Here, we highlight and celebrate their journeys and the legacies […] The post All About The Black Woman Who Designed Jackie Kennedy’s Wedding Dress appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated March 5, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Style Files offers an in-depth exploration of some of the most influential Black women in fashion that deserve more praise. Here, we highlight and celebrate their journeys and the legacies that have helped secure their place in the history of fashion.
Ann Lowe was the first African American to become widely recognized as a fashion designer. Best known for designing the ivory silk taffeta dress worn by Jacqueline Kennedy when she married her husband, President John F. Kennedy, in 1953, Lowe’s designs were coveted among upper-class women throughout the 1920s through the 1960s.
Today, the Kennedy family lore is a craze among younger generations, with the Hulu series Lovestory being one of the platform’s most-watched limited series. Fans are doing all they can to reference the Keneddy women in their outfits, hairtarget=\"_blank\"> View this post on Instagram
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Born Into Dressmaking
Ann Lowe was born around 1898 in Clayton, Alabama , into a family where dressmaking was both a craft and a livelihood. Her mother, Janie Cole Lowe, and grandmother, Georgia Tompkins, were highly skilled seamstresses who created gowns for wealthy white families throughout the state.
From an early age, Lowe was immersed in the art of sewing. By just five years old, she was learning the basics of the trade. At six, she spent her free time turning fabric scraps into small decorative flowers. By the age of ten, she was already creating her own dress patterns—an early sign of the design talent that would later define her career.
Tragedy struck in 1914 when Lowe’s mother unexpectedly passed away while working on four gowns for a New Year’s Eve ball. At only 16 years old, Lowe stepped in and completed the dresses herself. The moment not only honored her mother’s legacy but also established Lowe as a remarkably skilled young dressmaker in her community.
A Chance Encounter Changes Everything
A chance meeting in 1916 would alter Lowe’sdecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1326281157-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"All About The Black Woman Who Designed Jackie Kennedy’s Wedding Dress\" width=\"400\" height=\"620\" />A cream silk faille dress with embroidered floral appliqué decorations designed by Ann Lowe. The dress has a bodice with cap sleeves, a scoop neck front, and a deep scoop neck back. Shaping of the bodice and waist is created with princess seams, but there is no waistline seam. The skirt is shaped round and very full, with some additional fullness at the hips. The dress is decorated throughout with machine-embroidered cream and pink flowers with green leaves. The embroidery is stitched to the dress at the neckline, the center back seam to the back waist of the bodice, and in six large sprays to the skirt at the front left, proper left, back left, back right, proper right, and front right. Two lengths of cream silk faille are pleated and attached at back waist to create streamers that reach to the hemline of the skirt. The streamers are decorated with small machine embroidered pink flowers that are basted by hand to the fabric. The dress closes with a zipper running from the top of the center back bodice to center back below the waist. Artist Ann Lowe. (Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images) Fashion School in Segregated New York
In April 1917, Lowe moved to New York after spotting an advertisement in a fashion magazine for the S.T. Taylor Design School. Despite being one of the most talented students in the program, the school’s director segregated her into a separate classroom because she was Black.
Ironically, many of the same classmates who refused to share a room with her still relied on her designs as examples and references. Lowe’s talent was undeniable, and she completed the program in half the expected time.
After graduating, she worked briefly in a Manhattan dress shop before returning to Tampa, where demand for her gowns quickly grew.
Building Her First Boutique
Back in Florida, Lowe opened her own shop, Annie Cohen’s (often referred to as Annie Cone) Boutique, where she designed cotillion dresses, debutante gowns, and formalwear for Tampa’s elite. As her business expanded, Lowe hired and trained 18 seamstresses, establishing herself as one of the region’s most sought-after designers.
Her reputation for exquisite craftsmanship and intricate detailing continued to grow.
Establishing a Fashion Empire in New York
After nearly a decade of success in Tampa, Lowe returned to New York to expand her clientele among high society.
Over the years, she opened several boutiques, including: Ann Lowe, Inc. at 667 Madison Avenue in the late 1940s, Ann Lowe Gowns at 973 Lexington Avenue in 1955, A.F. Chantilly Inc. at 558 Madison Avenue in 1965, and Ann Lowe Originals on Madison Avenue in 1968.
These salons catered to some of America’s wealthiest women until Lowe retired in 1972.
Designing for Hollywood and High Society
Lowe’s designs were worn by some of the most prominent women of her era. She famously created the gown worn by actress Olivia de Havilland when she accepted the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in To Each His Own. The gown featured Lowe’s signature floral details, including delicate hand-painted embellishments.
Beyond designing, Lowe also traveled frequently to Paris to attend fashion shows as a reporter for The New York Age, one of the leading Black publications of the time.
The Wedding Dress That Made History
In 1953, Lowe received one of the most important commissions of her career: designing the bridal gown and bridesmaids’ dresses for the wedding of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and John F. Kennedy.
The opportunity came through Jackie’s mother, Janet Auchincloss, who had previously worked with Lowe and trusted her craftsmanship.
The gown became one of Lowe’s most celebrated creations. The off-the-shoulder dress featured cap sleeves, a dramatic portrait neckline, and a voluminous skirt crafted from more than 50 yards of silk taffeta. Lowe’s signature lace manipulation and intricate floral detailing added dimension, while concentric pleats created a layered, sculptural effect.
Despite the dress becoming iconic, Lowe’s name was not publicly credited for years. She eventually confirmed her role in a 1964 interview with journalist Mike Douglas for The Saturday Evening Post.
Bridal portrait of Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (1929 – 1994) shows her in an Anne Lowe-designed wedding dress, a bouquet of flowers in her hands, New York, New York, 1953. (Photo by Bachrach/Getty Images) A Legacy Finally Recognized
Today, Ann Lowe is widely recognized as one of the most important figures in American fashion history. As the first widely known African American fashion designer to dress the nation’s elite, she paved the way for generations of Black designers to follow.
Her legacy is not only defined by the gowns she created, but by the barriers she overcame—and the artistry that made her one of the greatest dressmakers of her time.
TOPICS:
The post All About The Black Woman Who Designed Jackie Kennedy’s Wedding Dress appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Mecca Pryor","publishDate":"2026-03-05T19:59:44.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/all-about-the-black-woman-who-designed-jackie-kennedys-wedding-dress/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T00:01:08.811Z"},{"id":"gpeqne","archiveId":"sg0mgc","slug":"kristi-noem-is-out-as-head-of-homeland-security","title":"Kristi Noem is out as head of Homeland Security","excerpt":"Kristi Noem is out as the head of the Department of Homeland Security. President Donald Trump announced in a Thursday post on Truth Social that he was tapping Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma to replace Noem effective March 31; he must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.","content":"
Kristi Noem is out as the head of the Department of Homeland Security.
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President Donald Trump announced in a Thursday post on Truth Social that he was tapping Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma to replace Noem effective March 31; he must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
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“The current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere we are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida,” Trump wrote. “I thank Kristi for her service at ‘‘Homeland.’”
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Noem, a former Republican governor of South Dakota and U.S. representative, is the first Cabinet official Trump has ousted in his second term. News of Noem’s removal spread as she was giving a keynote speech to the Sergeants Benevolent Association, a law enforcement union, and answering specific questions about her department’s work on immigration and her plans to meet with other law enforcement groups. It was not clear during the question-and-answer session whether she knew about Trump’s announcement.Sens. Thom Tillis and John Kennedy. Noem and the department have come under scrutiny over the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement and Noem’s use of official resources.
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Noem was sidelined after federal immigration agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti , during the administration’s immigration surge in Minneapolis. After the shootings, Trump put Tom Homan, the White House border czar, in charge of the operation in Minnesota.
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During the Senate committee hearing, Tillis, a retiring North Carolina senator and noted dog lover, excoriated Noem over the killings and over her description of shooting a 14-month-old dog and a goat in her 2024 book, “No Going Back.”
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“You decided to kill that dog because you had not invested the appropriate time in training. And then you have the audacity to go into a book and say it’s a leadership lesson about tough choices?” Tillis said.
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“But my point is, those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment — not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis,” he added. “We’re an exceptional nation, and one of the reasons we’re exceptional is we expect exceptional leadership, and you’ve demonstrated anything but that.”
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Tillis also threatened to put a hold on the Trump administration’s nominees and to stall the advancement of legislation in committees he serves on if Noem didn’t resign or respond to accusations she’d stymied internal investigations. Lawmakers’ frustrations with Noem and the department have contributed to lawmakers declining to renew the agency’s funding last month, and momentum was building among House Democrats to impeach Noem .
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Outlets including the National Review and NBC News reported that Trump was also displeased with Noem testifying under oath that he was aware of and signed off on $220 million in taxpayer-funded advertisements in which Noem urged immigrants to leave voluntarily.
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Kennedy, a Louisiana senator and staunch conservative, pressed Noem over the ad campaign and the no-bid contracting process behind it.
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“It’s just hard for me to believe, knowing the president as I do, that you said, ‘Mr. President, here’s some ads I’ve cut, and I’m going to spend $220 million running them,’ that he would have agreed to that,” Kennedy said. Noem said the president asked her to make the ad campaign and the contract was awarded by department officials, not her directly.
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“The president of the United States called me, and I’m not going to speak for him, folks, but, I would put it this way: his recollection and her recollection are different,” Kennedy told reporters after the hearing, according to NBC News .
","category":"politics","author":"Grace Panetta","publishDate":"2026-03-05T19:28:59.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/noem.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/trump-replaces-kristi-noem-homeland-security/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T00:01:05.074Z"},{"id":"yy8mr0","archiveId":"81jrfa","slug":"aid-held-hostage-how-trump8217s-expanded-global-gag-rule-weaponizes-foreign-assistance","title":"Aid Held Hostage: How Trump’s Expanded Global Gag Rule Weaponizes Foreign Assistance","excerpt":"Global maternal and child health is already in crisis. Hundreds of thousands of preventable pregnancy-related deaths occur annually, and progress to address maternal mortality has stalled globally. Now, the Trump administration’s expanded global gag rule—which took effect last week—will accelerate t...","content":"
Global maternal and child health is already in crisis. Hundreds of thousands of preventable pregnancy-related deaths occur annually, and progress to address maternal mortality has stalled globally.
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Now, the Trump administration’s expanded global gag rule—which took effect last week—will accelerate this already dangerous backslide.
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The global gag rule, or Mexico City Policy, has long functioned as a financial chokehold, barring U.S. aid to international organizations that offer abortion counseling or referrals, even with non-U.S. sources. In its most sweeping expansion to date, the policy now extends to nearly all non-military foreign assistance.
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A policy that accelerates a global maternal and child health crisis cannot credibly be described as pro-life. As care fragments and organizations are forced into silence, the fallout is predictable and permanent: Survivors will navigate trauma alone, and women will die.
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The post Aid Held Hostage: How Trump’s Expanded Global Gag Rule Weaponizes Foreign Assistance appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Terry McGovern","publishDate":"2026-03-05T19:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2217155942.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/05/global-gag-rule-trump/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T00:01:04.413Z"},{"id":"bk0mws","archiveId":"nzs5l0","slug":"in-our-own-voice-launches-narrative-power-for-justice-initiative","title":"In Our Own Voice Launches Narrative Power for Justice Initiative","excerpt":"Blending research and cultural strategy, the initiative aims to advance Reproductive Justice policy through storytelling and narrative power NATIONWIDE — Today, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda announced the official launch of Narrative Power for Justice, a bold n...","content":"
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Blending research and cultural strategy, the initiative aims to advance Reproductive Justice policy through storytelling and narrative power \n
NATIONWIDE — Today, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda
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Narrative Power for Justice
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Through rigorous national qualitative and quantitative research, public opinion analysis, message testing and deep engagement with the cultural storytelling ecosystem, Narrative Power for Justice will map the dominant narratives shaping public understanding of Reproductive Justice and generate evidence-based strategies to shift them at scale, equipping advocates, policymakers, and cultural leaders with the tools needed to transform public conversations.
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“At In Our Own Voice, we know that narrative power is foundational to advancing Reproductive Justice because policy does not exist in a vacuum—it moves when culture moves,” said Regina Davis Moss, President and CEO of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda. “When Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people are portrayed through distorted or incomplete narratives, it is challenging to secure the resources and protections our communities urgently need. That is why Narrative Power for Justice is so critical for this moment. It is not a new belief, but rather doubling down on the work we’ve done for over a decade. Our research-backed, evidence-based insights will help flip the script on who gets to tell our stories, and in doing so, strengthen the path toward policy change that reflects our autonomy, dignity and leadership.”
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A core component of Narrative Power for Justice is its robust research agenda, which will include:
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\nConducting large-scale qualitative and quantitative media and culture research, public opinion research and message testing to understand how narratives resonate across audiences; \nBuilding on insights from the What Black Women Want to See research to surface what Black women actually prioritize, value, and want policymakers and culture makers to understand; \nIdentifying the cultural assumptions, storytelling gaps, and narrative assumptions that shape perceptions of Black women and Reproductive Justice; \nDeveloping data-grounded narrative guidance to support advocates, policymakers, media partners and cultural influencers. \n \n
To deepen the connection between research and real-world narrative change, Narrative Power for Justice will also be working with a group of influential cultural storytellers and narrative strategists across film, television, and emerging media committed to shaping transformative narratives. In Our Own Voice will equip creators with research-backed insights, messaging tools, and strategic guidance to help navigate beyond reacting to harmful tropes and seed affirming, accurate narratives that reflect the full leadership and lived experiences of Black communities.
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Narrative Power for Justice builds on In Our Own Voice’s longstanding leadership in advancing a comprehensive Reproductive Justice policy agenda at both the national and state levels. By aligning cultural influence with policy advocacy, Narrative Power for Justice will strengthen the narrative foundation necessary to advance Reproductive Justice and ensure that public discourse reflects the lived realities, leadership, and visions of Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people.
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In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda is a national-state partnership focused on lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and regional levels in our fight to secure Reproductive Justice for all women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals. Our eight strategic partners are Black Women for Wellness, Black Women’s Health Imperative, New Voices for Reproductive Justice, SisterLove, Inc., SisterReach, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW, The Afiya Center and Women With A Vision.
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The post In Our Own Voice Launches Narrative Power for Justice Initiative first appeared on In Our Own Voice .
","category":"resilience","author":"In Our Own Voice","publishDate":"2026-03-05T18:49:38.000Z","image":"https://blackrj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/policy-ioov-logo-a.png","source":"National Black Women's RJ Agenda","sourceUrl":"https://blackrj.org/in-our-own-voice-launches-narrative-power-for-justice-initiative/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T00:01:07.819Z"},{"id":"oxjrmo","archiveId":"v3yh9a","slug":"8216lone-star-three8217-how-three-ut-austin-students-paved-the-way-for-birth-control-access-in-1960s","title":"‘Lone Star Three’: How Three UT Austin Students Paved the Way for Birth Control Access in 1960s Texas","excerpt":"In 1969 Victoria Foe, Judy Smith and Barbara Hines were students at the University of Texas in Austin when Smith invited Foe and Hines to attend women’s liberation meetings at her house. Their discussions led them to start a campus Birth Control Information Center and eventually evolved into an unde...","content":"
In 1969 Victoria Foe, Judy Smith and Barbara Hines were students at the University of Texas in Austin when Smith invited Foe and Hines to attend women’s liberation meetings at her house. Their discussions led them to start a campus Birth Control Information Center and eventually evolved into an underground network that helped women access safe abortion at a time when it was illegal in Texas.
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Their activism would eventually extend far beyond their university campus, planting the seeds for Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that would legalize abortion in the U.S. Not until 1965 did birth control in the U.S. become legal for married women. Not until 1972 did it become legal for anyone, married or unmarried, to access birth control.
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A new documentary, Lone Star Three, directed by Karen Stirgwolt, tells the story of the women who formed the underground networks that allowed young women to access reproductive care in Texas in the days leading up to Roe v. Wade. Ms. recently spoke with Foe and Hines (Smith passed away in 2013), and archivist Alice Embree, about their activism from the 1960s to the present moment.
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The post ‘Lone Star Three’: How Three UT Austin Students Paved the Way for Birth Control Access in 1960s Texas appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Livia Follet","publishDate":"2026-03-05T18:47:32.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-05-at-12.35.07-PM.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/05/lone-star-three-documentary-roe-v-wade-texas-abortion-birth-control-victoria-foe-judy-smith-barbara-hines/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T00:01:04.413Z"},{"id":"oev54y","archiveId":"t99q80","slug":"serena-williams-gets-the-barbie-treatment-for-international-womens-day","title":"Serena Williams Gets The Barbie Treatment For International Women’s Day","excerpt":"There are women who inspire a generation, and then there is Serena Williams, who has managed to inspire several. Now she has the doll to prove it. In celebration of […] The post Serena Williams Gets The Barbie Treatment For International Women’s Day appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Kimberly Wilson ·
The post Serena Williams Gets The Barbie Treatment For International Women’s Day appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-05T18:17:02.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/serena-williams-barbie-international-womens-day/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-06T00:01:08.811Z"},{"id":"bnatlt","archiveId":"dj2fi9","slug":"the-2016-essence-black-women-in-hollywood-looks-that-still-have-us-obsessed","title":"The 2016 ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Looks That Still Have Us Obsessed","excerpt":"Ten years ago, in 2016, “Work” by Rihanna featuring Drake was on constant repeat. Brows were thicker and darker than ever, and platform stilettos were practically non-negotiable—extra points if they […] The post The 2016 ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Looks That Still Have Us Obsessed appeared fir...","content":"
Jason LaVeris/WireImage
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated March 5, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Ten years ago, in 2016, “Work” by Rihanna featuring Drake was on constant repeat. Brows were thicker and darker than ever, and platform stilettos were practically non-negotiable—extra points if they came with some kind of spiked embellishment. More importantly, it was the 9th year of ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood . And, of course, Black stars came with their best looks.
We’re taking a look back nearly a decade to 2016, as fashion and beauty from the era has recently begun trending on everyone’s mood boards again. Lately, people have even been buying old iPhone 5s and iPhone 3GS models to capture photos with the same nostalgic, slightly grainy quality that defined the time. It’s a collective return to simpler moments—and the looks that defined them.
Some standout >Zendaya stepped out in a signature Christian Louboutin So Kate heel—still a favorite of hers on red carpets today—paired with a red satin sleeveless suit, dotted with tiny white polka dots. Another memorable look came from director and screenwriter Mara Brock Akil , who wore a black satin slouchy blouse with a shiny green accordion->Serayah opted for a green dress featuring a sweetheart neckline, black choker detailing, and a peplum->Jurnee Smollett kept things sleek in a strapless white jumpsuit with wide-leg trousers,src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-512306316-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The 2016 ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Looks That Still Have Us Obsessed\" width=\"400\" height=\"586\" />BEVERLY HILLS, CA – FEBRUARY 25:Zendaya attends the Essence 9th annual Black Women In Hollywood event at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on February 25, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California.(Photo by Jason LaVeris/WireImage)
The post The 2016 ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Looks That Still Have Us Obsessed appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Mecca Pryor","publishDate":"2026-03-05T16:44:54.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-512306316-Cropped-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/2016-essence-black-women-in-hollywood-best-looks/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T18:01:05.287Z"},{"id":"qxqy9b","archiveId":"7hqx8x","slug":"lawmakers-want-to-expand-housing-protections-for-domestic-violence-survivors","title":"Lawmakers want to expand housing protections for domestic violence survivors","excerpt":"New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis will introduce legislation to make it easier for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault to access housing, in plans first shared with The 19th.","content":"
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis will introduce legislation to make it easier for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault to access housing, in plans first shared with The 19th.
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The Fair Housing for Survivors Act would amend the Fair Housing Act to expand protections for people who have experienced domestic violence and sexual assault, ensuring they cannot be evicted or denied access to housing on the basis of being survivors of those crimes — similar to a protected class designation. The bill has been endorsed by the American Civil Liberties Union and several housing and domestic violence advocacy organizations.
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“We know that people who have experienced sexual assault, domestic violence and sex-trafficking are more likely to face homelessness. At the federal level, we should be making every effort to help survivors heal – and access to safe, stable housing is a critical component,” said Shaheen, a Democrat who also advocated for modernizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
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Intimate partner violence affects over 10 million people every year in the United States. Nearly 40 percent of all domestic violence survivors become homeless at some point in their lives, and those who do are further vulnerable to violence. In addition, more than 90 percent of women already experiencing homelessness have experienced physical or sexual abuse at some point, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
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The legislation would build on VAWA, which provides protections and rights for people applying for federally subsidized housing units.
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“I’m proud to join my colleagues in introducing the Fair Housing for Survivors Act to ensure survivors have the necessary resources to rebuild their lives free from abuse, protect them from unfair discrimination in the private housing market and provide them with support to escape abusive environments,” Malliotakis said.
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Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat, and Malliotakis, a New York Republican, had also worked with Shaheen in a 2023 effort to introduce these protections. It never made it out of committee.
","category":"safety","author":"Marissa Martinez","publishDate":"2026-03-05T15:09:38.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/shaheen.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/fair-housing-survivors-act-domestic-violence/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T18:01:00.185Z"},{"id":"99riow","archiveId":"6t813y","slug":"jasmine-crockett-ends-texas-senate-bid-after-primary-loss-to-james-talarico","title":"Jasmine Crockett Ends Texas Senate Bid After Primary Loss To James Talarico","excerpt":"Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett ends her three-month bid for Texas’ United States Senate seat after her opponent, State Representative James Talarico, led with more than 144,000 votes during the March 3 […] The post Jasmine Crockett Ends Texas Senate Bid After Primary Loss To James Talarico appeared ...","content":"
By
Tevon Blair ·
Updated March 5, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett ends her three-month bid for Texas’ United States Senate seat after her opponent, State Representative James Talarico, led with more than 144,000 votes during the March 3 primary.
Voters in Dallas county, located in Crockett’s district, were turned away from polling sites after arriving at what used to be countywide voting centers. In previous elections, residents could vote at any polling site to cast a ballot, however a decision from the Dallas County Republican Party shifted to a precinct-based Election Day process. A December 2025 statement confirmed .
“I can tell you now people have been disenfranchised,” said on election night by Crockett.
The new decision caused confusion among voters as they were turned away and required to vote at their assigned precinct. While a lower court ordered Dallas County polling sites to remain open for an additional two hours on Tuesday, the Texas Supreme Court blocked the decision. Polling sites in the county were now required to separate any ballots cast by voters who were not in line before 7 p.m. Voters in Williamson county were also impacted by this decision.
As of February, the Texas Secretary of State’s office confirmed that 18.7 million residents were registered to vote ahead of the primary election. Democrats saw 2.3 million in voter turnout compared to just 2.1 million voters who cast a ballot in the Republican primary. The enthusiasm among democratic voters led to a turnout that broke a Texas record for a midterm primary election since at least 1970. Election results from both Talarico and Crockett expand the expected turnout possibility for a statewide Texas democratic primary.
The two candidates aligned closely on their policy stances, however, running their campaigns with different approaches on how and who to engage as possible voters. While Crockett focused on targeting disengaged voters to expand her already existing base of supporters, Talarico used faith as a >launched her ‘Texas Tough’ campaign in early December with the intent of leading the party to the November general election. Her 22 policy priorities listed on her campaign website display what she planned to bring to the Senate, shifting her national voice from a district-level viewpoint to representing Texas on national issues. Affordability, healthcare, immigration reform and foreign policy are among the key issues she was set to address.
When the results were called, Crockett made it clear to the one million Texans who voted for her to remain engaged to support the full statewide Democratic ticket.
“This is about the future of all 30 million Texans and getting America back on track. With the primary behind us, Democrats must rally around our nominees and win,” said Crockett in a social media post . “I’m committed to doing my part and will continue working to elect democrats up and down the ballot.”
The second-term Congresswoman joins many other Black women candidates who gained national visibility in electoral politics seeking positions historically never obtained by their demographic. Today, only four Black women have been elected in the U.S. Senate, and one has been appointed. Furthermore, America has yet to elect a Black woman governor or to the nation’s highest office, as president.
Since Crockett launched her Senate campaign, she has been critiqued for not being ‘electable.’ This is a frequent conversation that Black and women candidates often experience unlike traditional white male candidates running at any level of government.
“Electability is rooted in racism,” E.J. Carrion, a Fort Worth political activist, told Politico . “James [Talarico] is less threatening to people, and I think if just those people who say that actually voted for the most qualified candidate, you wouldn’t have a problem.”
Leading up to Election Day, polling showed that Crockett had strong support among Black voters while Talarico had a tighter grasp on white and Hispanic voters. Now that Talarico stands as the Texas Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat, he is tasked with earning the support of Crockett’s base.
Tuesday’s results also led to Crockett’s friend and pastor Rev. Frederick Haynes III to become the Democratic nominee set to be on the ballot in November for Texas’ 30th Congressional District. If he wins during the November general election, he will replace Crockett, representing her district, when her term ends January 3, 2027.
The post Jasmine Crockett Ends Texas Senate Bid After Primary Loss To James Talarico appeared first on Essence .
","category":"politics","author":"Shelby Stewart","publishDate":"2026-03-05T15:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/politics/jasmine-crockett-texas-senate-primary-loss-talarico/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T18:01:05.287Z"},{"id":"go10nx","archiveId":"5dbyrf","slug":"theres-more-drama-at-the-supreme-court-podcast","title":"There’s More Drama at the Supreme Court (Podcast)","excerpt":"Can our democracy withstand much more infighting from the Justices? The post There’s More Drama at the Supreme Court (Podcast) appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
In this episode! Imani and Jess spill the tea on the recent Supreme Court drama, from infighting among the justices in the Trump tariff decision, to retirement rumours, and why it is more than political theater when the president attacks the independence of the judiciary.
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Transcript
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a member today .
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Imani’s column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles , is back in 2026! Sign up for her newsletter here to read it first, and listen to Imani’s new podcast, B*tch, Listen, here .
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The post There’s More Drama at the Supreme Court (Podcast) appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"activism","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-05T14:18:47.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/BL-S09-E51-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/05/theres-more-drama-at-the-supreme-court-podcast/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T18:00:59.512Z"},{"id":"baoby3","archiveId":"grjc4n","slug":"bradley-carter-on-villain-labels-and-being-bravos-only-black-man","title":"Bradley Carter On Villain Labels And Being Bravo’s Only Black Man","excerpt":"It’s no secret that when you hear the words reality television, the first thing that comes to mind is The Real Housewives. Images of NeNe Leakes, Porsha Williams, Phaedra Parks, […] The post Bradley Carter On Villain Labels And Being Bravo’s Only Black Man appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Taylor Crumpton ·
Updated March 5, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
It’s no secret that when you hear the words reality television, the first thing that comes to mind is The Real Housewives. Images of NeNe Leakes , Porsha Williams, Phaedra Parks, Karen Huger overwhelm the senses followed by their iconic lines, such as “Close your legs to married men!” Yes, the Black women who comprise the Bravo universe have been a part of our daily lives for almost 20 years, but a new generation of Black talent, specifically Black men, are marking their mark on the network. And Bradley Carter of Southern Hospitality is one of them.
SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY — Pictured: Bradley Carter — (Photo by: Terry Kuzniar/Bravo)
The VIP server has been an integral part of the Southern Charm spinoff since the series debuted in 2022. Over the past three seasons, Bradley has followed the trajectory of every reality tv star. He’s been subjected to rumors from his fellow cast members. His character has been called into question. Now, he’s been characterized as the series’ villain, not by the production company, but by a minority of his cast members who took issue with his decision to tell the truth, an unpopular decision in the unscripted television space, but great for a reunion. He’s not the only cast member subjected to the vilification of his peers. Fellow cast member TJ Dinch is on the receiving end of backlash as well.
However, allegations about engaging in crude sexual acts in public, behind your place of work looks different if you’re a Black man in the South. When Bradley entered the series, he was joined by Mikel Simmons, another Black male cast member, along with two Black women, Mia Alario and Lucía Peña. As the series, Simmons and Pena exited the series, while Michols Peña and Lake Rucker joined in season three. Compared to a number of other series on the network, Southern Hospitality has not only been diverse in terms of race but sexual orientation as well.
“ Our show is really unique and dynamic in the sense that we showcase a little bubble in Charleston where we are in the Deep South,” said Carter. “There are some dark long storied roots to Charleston and how America became what it is today. Our show is showing that we’re trying to move forward while still honoring our past. We still have that southern touch to it, but this is a new age. We have queer castmates. We have the LGBTQ community represented and it’s more than just one person. I think that’s really cool and special. It shows that the youth is trying to move the needle forward.”
Like many shows which came to air in the post-George Floyd and Breonna Taylor era, there was an effort to increase diversity among film and tv programming. This was evident on Southern Charm, where the predominantly white cast began to have conversations about race and slavery in Charleston, a major port city in the transatlantic slave trade . Although those conversations have subsided nationwide, as efforts to dismantle DEI increased across industries, Southern Hospitality remains to be one of the few shows where multiculturalism feels genuine and authentic. Bradley attributes this to the real relationships he has with his fellow cast members.
Another source of support for Bradley has been Venita Aspen of Southern Charm. As the only Black cast member on the Charleston, South Carolina-based reality tv series, she has encountered a plethora of anti-Black and anti-woman sentiments from the audience. “We’ve had those conversations and lean on each other and really express how we’re feeling, which is really nice,” he said. “She’s been able to point me in the right direction and give me guidance.”
As a four season veteran, Bradley is no stranger to the commentary from fans online and across social media about his performance during the season, specifically the reunion, where his attempts to take accountability and atone for his actions were met with disdain. “ I felt like I needed to explain myself to anything and everything. I realized that it may not have come across in the most non-guilty way. If anything, it seemed a little bit more guilty. I realized that I needed to be defensive. Twice as good for half as much.”
In lieu of being on the defense for this season, he gave himself the ability to showcase moments of vulnerability with his fellow cast members. “I didn’t want to show up as weak. I have a tough time not defending myself or saying something,” he said. “Masculinity can be soft too and that doesn’t make you not a man.” This shift in mindset has been years in the making. As a young man who spent the majority of his life playing sports from grade school to college, the decision is not only reflective of his own personal growth, but to display a type of Black masculinity that is not frequently seen in unscripted and scripted television.
“When it comes to holding space for people, you don’t need to dominate the space or feel like you’re in control in order to show your masculinity. It doesn’t make you an alpha male. Helping people, being kind, showing compassion, and emotional maturity is what really makes you a man,” he said. Wise words from the 28 year old man, who started his reality tv journey at 24.
Bradley does miss the presence of Simmons on the series. “I think the one thing that is missing in reality tv is seeing the brotherly relationship between two young Black men,” he said. Despite the addition of KJ Dillard to Summer House, there is a significant lack of Black male relationships and talent on the network, and its presence is felt. “When I was at Bravocon, I was looking at our pictures on the side of the building and realized that I’m the only Black male cast member on Bravo,” he recalled. “I took a lot of pride in that. Not in a negative way, but it gives me a chance to represent myself, show my life, and share my story with people, so that others can be seen.”
Outside of Charleston, he has accepted sweet messages from Black viewers of the series who have thanked him for his presence on the series. To him, the responsibility of representation is not a burden, but a source of joy and perseverance. It is his hope that young Black people like him do not feel the need to leave the South to feel seen and heard, but to take advantage of the opportunities and be the person to hold the door open for the next generation of Black reality tv stars. Or at least the door of Republic on King Street.
The post Bradley Carter On Villain Labels And Being Bravo’s Only Black Man appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Shelby Stewart","publishDate":"2026-03-05T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/reality-television/bradley-carter-bravo-black-male-representation/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T18:01:05.287Z"},{"id":"hw8szr","archiveId":"5hrdm1","slug":"mielle-dropped-the-new-lavender-038-lychee-collectionand-we8217re-obsessed","title":"Mielle Dropped The New Lavender & Lychee Collection–And We’re Obsessed","excerpt":"The first time I spoke with Monique Rodriguez was two years after Mielle had been acquired by Proctor & Gamble in January 2025. She was measured and purposeful—every word landing […] The post Mielle Dropped The New Lavender & Lychee Collection–And We’re Obsessed appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Tatiana Pile ·
Updated March 4, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
The first time I spoke with Monique Rodriguez was two years after Mielle had been acquired by Proctor & Gamble in January 2025. She was measured and purposeful—every word landing like it had been considered long before the interview began. When we reconnected recently, she was navigating through jet lag, but you’d never know it . The warmth was the same—and so was the conviction.
This time, she had something new to talk about: Mielle’s new Lavender & Lychee scalp care collection. The new line is the brand’s second product innovation since the P&G acquisition and its first-ever dedicated scalp care system.
“[A lot of] brands don’t cater to women who have textured hair,” Rodriguez tells ESSENCE. “Which is why when you think about high-quality ingredients that focus on scalp care, there’s not a lot of accessible [products] for our [diverse] hair textures,” she explains. “That’s what I thought about when I created this collection—no matter how wedecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/LL-1.png\" alt=\"Mielle Dropped The New Lavender & Lychee Collection–And We’re Obsessed\" width=\"400\" height=\"352\" />
While Mielle has never been a brand that feeds into the trend cycle, the timing of this new launch couldn’t be more perfect. Scalp care has become a cultural moment as conversations about buildup, irritation, and the true cost of protective >Substack to dermatology appointments. However, Rodriguez, whose background is in nursing, was careful to distinguish between chasing a moment and answering a need.
“We pride ourselves in being solution based,” she says, which is how the brand landed on this collection. Through her own journey as a consumer first, Rodriguez kept coming back to how healthy hair starts with a healthy scalp.
The Lavender & Lychee collection, which officially dropped in February, consists of five products: Lavender & Lychee Scalp Moisturizing Shampoo ; Lavender & Lychee Scalp Soothing Conditioner ; Lavender & Lychee Daily Scalp Moisturizing Lotion ; Lavender & Lychee Scalp & Hair Build Up Remover ; and the Lavender & Lychee Scalp Soothing Daily Refresher . The products are available for purchase wherever Mielle products are sold and are all priced at $13.99.
The differentiator for this line are the ingredients. One of the key actives is zinc pyrithione (ZPT), which fights scalp concerns such as dandruff, soothes irritation and manages the scalp’s pH. Niacinamide, another hero ingredient in the collection, helps strengthen the skin barrier and reduces dryness and inflammation.
“We’re the first brand to create a scalp system that’s formulated specifically to help with itchiness and dryness” for textured hair, Rodriguez says, adding, that it’s also clinically backed, with the guarantee that the products deliver twice the moisture compared to other dandruff shampoos on the shelf.
With scalp the target focus of this collection, naturally, we speak about protective styling. “When your scalp is suffering, you’re actually defeating the purpose [of protective styling],” she says. To combat that, she encourages consumers to the Daily Refresher mist if they have braids or locs. And for buildup, applying the Buildup Remover can be precise enough to “lift any dirt or build up from having your protectiverel=\"tag\">Mielle Organics
The post Mielle Dropped The New Lavender & Lychee Collection–And We’re Obsessed appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-05T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/mielle-organics-lavender-lychee-collection/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T18:01:05.287Z"},{"id":"d09lgv","archiveId":"uczfw1","slug":"haudenosaunee-governance-the-matrilineal-democracy-that-shaped-america","title":"Haudenosaunee Governance: The Matrilineal Democracy That Shaped America","excerpt":"I am a member of the Oneida Nation Wolf Clan of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, whose governance model influenced modern democracy and the women’s rights movement. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy is recognized as the oldest continuous, participatory democracy in the world.","content":"
I am a member of the Oneida Nation Wolf Clan of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, whose governance model influenced modern democracy and the women’s rights movement. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy is recognized as the oldest continuous, participatory democracy in the world.
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Our representative form of government, organized on local, state, national and international levels, flows organically from our Creation Story, which begins with Sky Woman, pregnant, falling from Sky World. She descends toward an endless water world, where water animals already reside and help form the first land, known as Turtle Island. Through their efforts, the living world we inhabit today was brought forth.
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Haudenosaunee women inherently hold political, economic and spiritual authority—a significant difference from colonial patriarchy.
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When the U.S. founding fathers drafted their Constitution, drawing inspiration from Haudenosaunee governance, they committed a catastrophic omission: matrilineal leadership. As the U.S. commemorates the 250th anniversary of its founding documents amid political, social and ecological upheaval, the country has a unique opportunity to revisit the original influences of American democracy.
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(This essay is part of the FEMINIST 250: Founding Feminists series, marking the 250th anniversary of America by reclaiming the revolution through the women and gender-expansive people whose ideas, labor and resistance shaped U.S. democracy.)
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The post Haudenosaunee Governance: The Matrilineal Democracy That Shaped America appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Michelle Schenandoah","publishDate":"2026-03-05T13:45:21.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Schenandoah-Clan-Mothers.jpeg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/05/haudenosaunee-government-matrilineal-democracy-america-constitution-native-women/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T18:01:00.088Z"},{"id":"fqdkiz","archiveId":"6lazat","slug":"were-using-ai-more-than-everbut-at-what-cost-to-our-mental-health","title":"We’re Using AI More Than Ever—But At What Cost To Our Mental Health?","excerpt":"Generative artificial intelligence might be the next big push, especially in professional settings, as a tool to improve productivity and skills more quickly. But what effect is this having on […] The post We’re Using AI More Than Ever—But At What Cost To Our Mental Health? appeared first on Essence...","content":"
LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 13: A guest wears a bob hat, a beige jumpsuit, during London Fashion Week September 2019 on September 13, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Edward Berthelot/Getty Images)
By
Andrea Bossi ·
Updated March 2, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Generative artificial intelligence might be the next big push, especially in professional settings, as a tool to improve productivity and skills more quickly. But what effect is this having on our brains?
This is exactly what a group of researchers set out to find in a study investigating how AI use might be associated with adverse mental health outcomes, namely depressive symptoms. To the authors, the current moment feels reminiscent of when social media became explosively popular. Today, people have started using AI at breakneck speed, but on a broad level, little is known about how that might affect our mental health down the line.
“Are greater levels of generative artificial intelligence use by U.S. adults associated with greater levels of depressive symptoms?” the multi-institution research team, including Harvard-affiliated members, asked in their study , published late January 2026. The short answer is, yes, to some degree.
After studying the results of their survey of over 20,000 participants, researchers found that higher levels of AI usage were associated with “modest increases” in depressive symptoms. This mostly includes those who use AI for personal use. In their findings, researchers found that those using AI for work and school, where AI is being pushed as a productivity booster , did not show significant ties with depressive symptoms.
While they didn’t find any significant ties between AI use and mood by gender, they did find some flags when it came to age. According to the researchers behind the study, “AI use was significantly associated with greater depressive symptoms among individuals aged 25 to 44 years and 45 to 64 years,” but not other age groups. In other words, AI use was correlated with higher levels of depressive symptoms overall, but the association was stronger in those aforementioned age groups
What does this mean for the workplace and schools? Even if the study found significant ties in personal AI use, it’s still important to be vigilant about how any kind of AI usage may affect mental health. The same way social media was exponentially adopted without understanding the effects it would have on mental health and brain function , AI has caught on quickly with little known about long-term effects, though emerging research is flagging potential issues tied to personal use. This is why researchers across universities right now are trying to catch up and break down what’s going on in the brain.
It is key to note that these researchers did have some limits in their study, including not being able to account for preexisting mental health diagnoses and not being able to test for causation, versus just correlation. Still, they wrote, “the ability to capture other online behavior… does allow us to begin to determine the specificity of the outcomes we observed.” The team behind the paper includes Roy H. Perlis, MD, MSc; Faith M. Gunning, PhD; Ata A. Uslu, MSc; Mauricio Santillana, PhD; Matthew A. Baum, PhD; James N. Druckman, PhD; Katherine Ognyanova, PhD; and David Lazer, PhD.
Based on their findings, the team suggests a need to better understand a potential causal relationship and if some individuals may be more prone to experiencing depressive symptoms after AI use than others. For now, early research is showing there is a link between the two, and more needs to be understood to inform actions and preventative measures to be taken ahead.
The post We’re Using AI More Than Ever—But At What Cost To Our Mental Health? appeared first on Essence .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-05T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1266942712-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/ai-mental-health-research-findings/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T12:00:58.453Z"},{"id":"tsjm6h","archiveId":"kkhwnr","slug":"child-marriage-comes-with-a-price-tag-175-billion","title":"Child marriage comes with a price tag: $175 billion","excerpt":"When Carmen Martell was 14, she met a 23-year-old man in her small New Hampshire town. He worked at the nearby brickyard, and she loved him. She started skipping school, running away and getting into legal trouble.","content":"
When Carmen Martell was 14, she met a 23-year-old man in her small New Hampshire town. He worked at the nearby brickyard, and she loved him. She started skipping school, running away and getting into legal trouble. At one point, a judge ordered her to go to a disciplinary group home in Vermont — but Martell’s mother didn’t want her to go that far.
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“I got along good with my mom — I was the youngest of 11 kids,” Martell said. “I didn’t get in trouble with the law or school or anything before I met him. I was pretty sheltered.”
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Her mother went to the brickyard and told the boyfriend she would charge him with statutory rape of a minor if he didn’t marry Martell. So a few weeks into her eighth grade year in 1985, Martell got married. She was 15.
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She never went back to school. She suffered years of domestic violence from her partner, eventually divorcing him to protect her children. Her mother died, leaving her without emotional or financial support. She has needed government assistance to stay afloat.
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“I feel like all my life I’ve had to just do everything in survival mode,” Martell said. “Even after the divorce, I got remarried but it was the same kind of pattern. That was the only pattern I knew.”
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Martell’s story is not unique. Between 2000 and 2021, nearly 315,000 minors were legally married in the United States — with girls being far more likely to be wed as children than boys. Child marriage was legal in all 50 states until 2018, but since then, 16 states have passed bans .
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The United States has a comparatively low rate of child marriage, but its continued legality has drawn the attention of researchers who want to eliminate the practice altogether. This week, Sheryl Sandberg, the former chief operating officer of Meta and founder of Lean In Foundation, in partnership with Columbia University released a new report, “Accelerating Efforts to End Child Marriage ,” that calculated that the global cost of inaction amounts to $175 billion each year. The report also highlights potential strategies — including investing in education, improving access to reproductive health, and shifting cultural and social norms — that could help end the practice in the United States
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“We rarely talk about child marriage in economic terms, but we should. In addition to the concrete costs in lost productivity and higher health expenditures, child marriage forecloses the ingenuity and ideas each girl might have brought to the world — an incalculable squandering,” Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state and former senator, and Sheryl Sandberg wrote in the report’s foreword. Clinton is currently the Board Chair of the Institute of Global Politics at Columbia University.
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Rachel Vogelstein, director of the Women’s Initiative at Columbia’s Institute of Global Politics and co-author of the new report, said that in the past 25 years, the rate of child marriage globally has decreased from 1 in 4 girls married as children to 1 in 5. But advocates and researchers are troubled by a trend of countries shifting priorities and resources away from gender equality and ending child marriage.
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Last year, the United States froze billions of dollars of foreign assistance that helped advance women’s rights and gender equality, including programs to help end child marriage. Vogelstein also pointed to a number of authoritarian-leaning and populist regimes that have dismantled government bodies focused on advancing the rights of women and girls, including in Turkey and Argentina. In Iraq, the parliament recently proposed an amendment that would permit girls to be married at 9.
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“There is concern that this broader aggression in commitment to women’s and girls’ human rights and the backlash that we’ve seen to gender equality, which we see manifesting here in the United States, will affect the fight against child marriage everywhere — including here,” Vogelstein said.
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Though the vast majority of child marriages occur in Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the United States is proof that child marriage can still exist in countries where girls have stronger access to education and employment.
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“I think a lot of this gets excused as tradition or culture,” Sandberg said. “Well, there are a lot of things in the world that were cultural that were terrible and are long gone.”
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What makes the report particularly unique is its focus on the economic impact of child marriage. According to an analysis from the Center for Global Development, child marriage costs the world up to $175 billion per year — nearly $2.5 trillion by 2040 — from lost productivity and increased health risks. The report argues that it would take only a $1.3 billion investment to reduce the rate of child marriage by 30 percent in the next five years.
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“I hope that folks will start to think about this not only as something that we ought to address because it’s the right thing to do, but something we ought to address because it’s the smart thing to do,” Vogelstein said.
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Fatima Maada Bio, the first lady of Sierra Leone and a member of Columbia’s child marriage advisory council, said she was able to criminalize child marriage in her country after five years of getting buy-in from communities and the people. Maada Bio is one of the most vocal advocates against child marriage, and she argues it’s more than a humanitarian issue.
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“I’ve gone around the world to talk about this issue, and I’ve never seen a minister of finance talk about the financial implications of this issue for any government,” Maada Bio said. “And they should be talking about this. And the ministers of education should be talking about the benefit of keeping women in schools. Ministers of health should be talking about how many girls are dying in their hospitals.”
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Maada Bio said she continues to fight for an end to child marriage around the country because she herself was married at 12 and knows the kind of impact that can have on girls’ lives.
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“The Fatima that didn’t have a voice, that’s the Fatima I’m fighting for now,” Maada Bio said.
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Martell, now 56, said that she was at a doctor’s appointment a few years ago and she saw in her medical notes: “Child abuse.”
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She called the doctor immediately and said, “What do you mean? My mother never abused me.” And for the first time, someone explained to Martell that when she got married, she was still a child. Martell said she plays that conversation over and over in her head.
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“I had never thought of it that way,” Martell said. “If someone asked me if a 15-year-old should get married today, I would be absolutely against it. I would go to protests or sign any petition. I feel that those years formed my life.”
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Martell said she was shocked to find out that child marriage is still legal in most parts of the United States. Her own home state, New Hampshire, did not pass a ban until 2024 — nearly 40 years after she was married as a minor.
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“I wish there was a law back then,” Martell said. “I wanted it, but you’re too young. You can’t buy cigarettes. You can’t drive. You can’t do so many things, but yet you’re allowed to get married. It’s mind-blowing. Back then, I didn’t know any better. I didn’t look at life through all the cracks and crevices — I had blinders on.”
","category":"global","author":"Mariel Padilla","publishDate":"2026-03-05T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/ChildMarriage_2x3.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/child-marriage-report-columbia-sandberg/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T12:00:56.368Z"},{"id":"lktdxj","archiveId":"2fcdug","slug":"germany-proposed-bill-would-weaken-right-to-social-security","title":"Germany: Proposed Bill Would Weaken Right to Social Security","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Two women visit a Jobcenter in Berlin, Germany, June 25, 2025 © 2025 Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images
(Berlin, March 5, 2026) – The German government’s legislative proposal to replace the existing basic income program for job seekers with a more punit...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Two women visit a Jobcenter in Berlin, Germany, June 25, 2025\n © 2025 Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>(Berlin, March 5, 2026) – The German government’s legislative proposal to replace the existing basic income program for job seekers with a more punitive program would harm human rights and risks breaching the German constitutional guarantee of a dignified standard of living, Human Rights Watch said today. The legislation is due for its second reading in the lower house of parliament. </p><p>“The government’s plans would worsen living conditions and leave more people, including children in low-income families and single mothers, at risk of poverty,” said Kartik Raj, senior Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Lawmakers should reject the proposals, which run counter to Germany’s human rights obligations and the ‘minimum subsistence level’ principle in German constitutional law.”</p><p>Human Rights Watch research has found that key aspects of the current German social security system are already failing to ensure the rights to social security and to an adequate standard of living, in particular for single parents, most of whom are women raising young children. The proposed changes to the social security system are likely to exacerbate these problems. </p><p>Reducing social spending and fundamentally reshaping the social security system are priorities for the governing coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. A key aspect of this plan is replacing the current unemployment benefit known as “Citizens Income” (under Social Code, Book II, SGB II)) with a revised “Basic Security for Job Seekers,” that would tighten obligations for claimants and expand the scope and severity of sanctions for noncompliance. </p><p>At its heart, the plan is based on a punitive logic to shape behavior. If job center authorities deem that a person claiming unemployment benefit has “failed to report,” meaning missed an appointment or not accepted what the authorities consider available employment, their monthly benefit will be cut by 30 percent in the first instance. If the authorities consider that there are repeated failures to report, they deem the person “unreachable” and can impose “total sanctions,” withholding all benefits until the person next reports in person to a job center. </p><p>At present, when the government deems that it has reason to withhold benefits, it must still provide the part of the benefit payment apportioned for accommodation and heating costs to avoid destitution and ensure compliance with the Federal Constitutional Court’s interpretation of the “minimum subsistence level.” In the absence of such protections, the changes are likely to breach this key constitutional principle and fall short of requirements under international human rights law to ensure minimum core obligations and non-retrogression on economic, social, and cultural rights. </p><p>Human Rights Watch research identified an already existing gap between amounts received under the current Citizen’s Income, including housing costs, and the official at-risk-of-poverty threshold. For example, in 2023 a single-parent household with two children received €1,198 in monthly social security benefits, while the at-risk-of-poverty threshold for such a household in Germany, was €1,626, a 26 percent gap. </p><p>Given that people currently receiving existing full benefits can nevertheless be at risk of poverty, expanding the scope of sanctions would leave many more people with incomes that fall far short of what is needed to ensure the right to an adequate standard of living and the ”minimum subsistence level” to which they are entitled under Germany’s Constitution.</p><p>The proposal also radically changes job-seeking requirements, which, if applied as drafted, are likely to have a strong negative impact on the rights and well-being of single parents. The draft law treats all single adults as available for full-time work, making no distinction between adults living alone and those with dependents, ignoring the availability of care, which can significantly affect availability to work. </p><p>For example, as drafted, the law could be used to sanction a single mother of a two-year-old child for failing to take up an offer of full-time work when care commitments may mean taking such a job is simply not possible. This issue is further exacerbated by the longstanding shortage of publicly provided full-time free or affordable early years child care, and nonuniform provision of a full primary school day across Germany.</p><p>Additionally, the draft law does not include a clear, explicit exemption from sanctions for claimants who have responsibility for young children. Withholding or reducing benefit payments negatively impacts not only the adult claimant but also the children for whom they are responsible, who have their own rights to social security and to an adequate standard of living.</p><p>The German government is legally obliged to respect, protect, and fulfill the rights to social security and to an adequate standard of living contained in international treaties to which it has become a party. Related treaties, standards, and guidance on social security, from United Nations and European human rights bodies, require social security to be adequate.</p><p>Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court has developed jurisprudence on the minimum subsistence level required to live in dignity. This requires the state to ensure that people are left with at least enough of their earnings to cover their necessary living expenses and to guarantee a minimum level of participation in social, cultural, and political life. Withholding benefits in a manner that leaves people below this minimum subsistence level is likely to be subject to significant challenge on domestic constitutional grounds.</p><p>“German lawmakers should push back against this harsh social security bill, which will harm children and single parents,” Raj said. “Social protections that uphold rights make society stronger and more resilient.”</p>","category":"economic","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-05T05:00:01.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603eca_germany_jobcenter.jpg?h=f80ece54&itok=aeCh_LQv","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/05/germany-proposed-bill-would-weaken-right-to-social-security","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T06:00:47.641Z"},{"id":"cgonm5","archiveId":"q9itld","slug":"allegations-against-rep-tony-gonzales-further-divide-house-gop-ahead-of-midterms","title":"Allegations against Rep. Tony Gonzales further divide House GOP ahead of midterms","excerpt":"Reports alleging GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas sent sexually explicit texts to a now-deceased former aide have divided House Republicans. A handful have explicitly condemned him, with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida filing a censure resolution against him Wednesday.","content":"
Reports alleging GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas sent sexually explicit texts to a now-deceased former aide have divided House Republicans. A handful have explicitly condemned him, with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida filing a censure resolution against him Wednesday.
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Others, including the House speaker, have distanced themselves from the issue, saying they’ll wait for voters to decide on Gonzales’ fate — wanting to avoid further chipping away at incredibly close GOP voting margins.
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On Tuesday, Gonzales advanced to a May 26 runoff election . He’ll face Brandon Herrera in a rematch of a race Gonzales narrowly won two years ago.
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Republican Rep. Nancy Mace this week introduced a resolution to release all investigative reports into sexual misconduct allegations against members of Congress, saying her colleague is “not the only one” who has faced these claims of inappropriate advances. The measure failed to advance Wednesday after being met with skepticism by Ethics chair Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican. The full House voted 357-65 to refer it to committee — where the measure will likely die.
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“We believe the forced disclosures mandated by House Resolution 1072 could chill victim cooperation and witness participation in ongoing and future investigations,” Guest and ranking member Mark DeSaulnier wrote in a statement. “Victims may be retraumatized … and witnesses, who often only speak to the Committee confidentially or on condition of future anonymity, could fear retaliation if their cooperation is made public.”
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said leadership made a collective decision “that the most appropriate thing to do right now — since Nancy Mace is an unserious individual — is for the Ethics Committee to evaluate what’s appropriate moving forward in a bipartisan way.”
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Mace blasted the vote results on X soon after, saying both parties had “colluded” to protect predators over survivors.
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“Not one Member who voted against our transparency resolution gets to pretend they care about Epstein’s victims,” she posted , referring to the disgraced financier, a convicted sex offender who died awaiting trial on trafficking charges. “Sit down.”
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The former aide, Regina Santos-Aviles, was Gonzales’ Uvalde district director. Her husband, Adrian Aviles, shared alleged exchanges between her and her boss with the media last week. (The texts have not been independently seen by The 19th.) Santos-Aviles died by suicide in September 2025.
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The reported text messages from 2024 show Gonzales pushing conversations with Santos-Aviles into a sexual direction, despite her attempts to deter him. The San Antonio Express-News first reported the content of the text messages, which appear to show an affair. House members are prohibited from engaging in “unwelcome sexual advances” or having sexual relationships with staffers.
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Politico reported Wednesday that the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Conduct (OCC) said there is “substantial reason to believe” Gonzales had a sexual relationship with a subordinate in an apparent violation of House rules. While the OCC cannot discipline members, its reports are followed closely by the Ethics Committee, which opened its own inquiry Wednesday. Generally, these types of deliberations are kept out of the public eye.
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Gonzales has previously denied allegations of an affair. When asked why he hadn’t yet addressed the allegations, he instead referenced his Tuesday primary, saying: “We did well.”
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Gonzales’ case comes as the veneer of GOP unity among members has cracked, with representatives more boldly speaking out against each other, even as midterms approach. Oversight committee member Luna told reporters “there’s a lot there” ahead of filing motions to censure and strip Gonzales of his committee assignments — a rare weapon for fellow party members to wield against each other.
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Though the Texas lawmaker has faced calls to step down, other Republicans said they wanted to see how Gonzales fared electorally instead of expulsion, hoping to avoid shaving already thinning vote margins. House Speaker Mike Johnson has punted the final decision to voters and said he will let the process “play out,” though he has since “encouraged him to address it publicly.”
","category":"politics","author":"Marissa Martinez","publishDate":"2026-03-04T22:20:55.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/gonzales_35ebec.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/tony-gonzales-house-republicans-midterms/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T00:00:41.897Z"},{"id":"syzgah","archiveId":"uf4y3r","slug":"zinzi-cooglers-beauty-038-style-evolution","title":"Zinzi Coogler’s Beauty & Style Evolution","excerpt":"In just one week, ESSENCE’s 19th annual Black Women in Hollywood ceremony will honor the Black women shaping the future of film and television. Naturally, then, we’re honoring the women […] The post Zinzi Coogler’s Beauty & Style Evolution appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
The post Zinzi Coogler’s Beauty & Style Evolution appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-04T22:14:33.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/zinzi-coogler-beauty-style-evolution/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T18:01:05.287Z"},{"id":"3c5xb3","archiveId":"2d1tt","slug":"14-best-pink-blushes-for-deeper-skin-tones-this-spring","title":"14 Best Pink Blushes For Deeper Skin Tones This Spring","excerpt":"Is that enough? Instead of putting down the blush, you compulsively pat on even more. After all, in 2026, there’s no such thing as blush blindness, especially for Black women. […] The post 14 Best Pink Blushes For Deeper Skin Tones This Spring appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 4, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Is that enough? Instead of putting down the blush, you compulsively pat on even more. After all, in 2026, there’s no such thing as blush blindness, especially for Black women. “My first viral moment happened when I did a strong blush look on a dark skinned woman,” Ngozi “Esther” Edeme , a makeup artist known for packing it on, in the best way, told ESSENCE last year .
Since 2024’s blush boom , we’ve seen the cheeks of Black women turn every shade of pink. From Olandria and Ms. Lauryn Hill to Jodie Turner-Smith and Doechii, it’s true. Black women do blush. Whether it’s liquid, cream, or powder (and sometimes all three in one look), blush is the ultimate final touch to any makeup look. With spring coming up, it’s the perfect time of year for your makeup to really go bigger, bolder, and of course, blushier.
Below, ESSENCE rounded up all the best pink blush for deeper skin tones this spring.
14 Best Pink Blush For Spring Glossier Cloud Paint in “Soar”
Available at
glossier.com 24 Shop Now Juvia’s Place Blushed Duo Blush in “Vol 4”
Available at
juviasplace.com 20 Shop Now Pat McGrath Labs Divine Cream Blush in “Luscious Lotus”
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patmcgrath.com 29 Shop Now Haus Labs Color Fuse Glassy Blush Balm Stick in “Glassy Pitaya”
Available at
hauslabs.com 34 Shop Now Danessa Myricks Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder Flushed in “IT Girl”
Available at
sephora.com 27 Shop Now Glossier Cloud Paint Plush Blush in “Bloom”
Available at
glossier.com 26 Shop Now Dior Rosy Glow Blush Stick in “001 Pink”
Available at
sephora.com 44 Shop Now MERIT Flush Balm Cream Blush in “Le BonBon”
Available at
sephora.com 30 Shop Now PATRICK TA Double-Take Crème & Powder Blush Duo in “She’s Giving”
Available at
sephora.com 40 Shop Now Yves Saint Laurent Make Me Blush in “42 Babydoll Pink”
Available at
sephora.com 46 Shop Now Milani Cheek Kiss Cream Blush in “Coral Crush”
Available at
milanicosmetics.com 12 Shop Now Fenty Beauty Fenty Cheeks Suede Blush in “Lolly Poppy”
Available at
ulta.com 14 Shop Now Sephora Colorful Blush in “Trust Yourself”
Available at
sephora.com 15 Shop Now NYX Sweet Cheeks Soft Cheek Tint Blush Mousse in “Baby Doll”
Available at
nyxcosmetics.com 10 Shop Now
TOPICS:
best blush blush for Black women spring beauty The post 14 Best Pink Blushes For Deeper Skin Tones This Spring appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-04T21:28:47.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/14-best-pink-blushes-deeper-skin-spring-2026/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T00:00:45.127Z"},{"id":"iil42h","archiveId":"ijbf1z","slug":"from-dm8217s-to-i-do8217s-five-ways-social-media-is-reshaping-child-marriage","title":"From DM’s to I Do’s: Five Ways Social Media Is Reshaping Child Marriage","excerpt":"As the world goes digital, so does the ancient practice of child marriage. More than half a billion women and girls living today are, or were, child brides. Among young adult women aged 20 to 24, one in five was married before age 18. But that doesn’t mean that child marriage has stayed the same.","content":"
As the world goes digital, so does the ancient practice of child marriage.
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More than half a billion women and girls living today are, or were, child brides. Among young adult women aged 20 to 24, one in five was married before age 18.
\n
But that doesn’t mean that child marriage has stayed the same. There has been gradual progress in ending child marriage (around a decade ago, one in four women was married under 18). And technology is playing a growing role, both in cases where girls say “I do” and in cases where they say “I don’t.\"
\n
The post From DM’s to I Do’s: Five Ways Social Media Is Reshaping Child Marriage appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)","publishDate":"2026-03-04T21:15:39.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/UP126Q6-1000x560.jpg.avif","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/04/child-marriage-young-girls-social-media/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T00:00:41.637Z"},{"id":"leqge8","archiveId":"1diry8","slug":"fashion-it-girl-telsha-anderson-boone-gives-us-a-peak-into-her-core-wardrobe","title":"Fashion It-Girl Telsha Anderson-Boone Gives Us A Peak Into Her Core Wardrobe","excerpt":"The Insider Edit is a curated list of pieces worth buying once and wearing forever. Entrepreneur and creator Telsha Anderson-Boone breaks down her wardrobe investments, which she defines as ranging […] The post Fashion It-Girl Telsha Anderson-Boone Gives Us A Peak Into Her Core Wardrobe appeared fir...","content":"
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated March 4, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
The Insider Edit is a curated list of pieces worth buying once and wearing forever. Entrepreneur and creator Telsha Anderson-Boone breaks down her wardrobe investments, which she defines as ranging from motherhood-friendly to fashion week ready.
Telsha Anderson-Boone wears many hats. Be it mom, wife, entrepreneur, or stylist, her wardrobe has to keep up with every version of herself. Whether Anderson-Boone—who got her start at HYPEBEAST and Atlantic Records—is dashing between fashion shows, handling school drop-off, or cooking dinner for her family, versatility is nonnegotiable. As the former owner of T.A. New York (a concept store that was once located in the Meatpacking District) puts it, “I [may be] wearing this really chic, vintage T-shirt with Betty Boop, then my son gets milk on it.” That tension—between polished and practical—perfectly captures this chapter of her life.
As Anderson-Boone has evolved from wife to mother (and everything in between), her philosophy on >Christopher John Rogers, Aisling Camps , and The Attico—that “draws me in to shop and invest,” she explains.
Though she champions mindful shopping, she admits some of her most treasured pieces were spur-of-the-moment buys. “I think Holy Grail pieces, sometimes people are like, ‘Oh, they have to be from this coveted luxury brand.’ And I don’t necessarily think that’s the case.” For Anderson-Boone, holy grails span old Zara finds, vintage gems, and archival designers alike, each serving its own purpose. Together, they form the cornerstone of her wardrobe, from mom-friendly flats to fashion week–ready stilettos.
“I can still look cute and, you know, be comfortable and run after my kids in the middle of a Target,” she says. “I’m able to kind of find that balance. And I think that’s how my content is reflected as well.” For Anderson-Boone, authenticity isn’t a strategy—it’s a life src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/20260211-1207-EOS_7579-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Fashion It-Girl Telsha Anderson-Boone Gives Us A Peak Into Her Core Wardrobe\" width=\"400\" height=\"500\" /> 01 01 Levi’s ‘90s 501 Jeans Levi's 65 Shop Now 02 02 Wardrobe NYC Trench Coat wardrobe.nyc 406 Shop Now 03 03 Zara Basic Plain Knit Sweater Zara 45 Shop Now 04 04 Lemaire High Waisted Curved Pants in Denim 680 Shop Now 05 05 Aldo Maelie Block Heel Bootie Nordstrom 60 Shop Now 06 06 Vintage Fendi Baguette Bag The Real Real 1,375 Shop Now TOPICS: The Insider Edit
The post Fashion It-Girl Telsha Anderson-Boone Gives Us A Peak Into Her Core Wardrobe appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Mecca Pryor","publishDate":"2026-03-04T21:11:19.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/the-insider-edit-telsha-anderson-boone/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T00:00:45.127Z"},{"id":"dp2yzh","archiveId":"fa31dx","slug":"what-trump8217s-rollback-of-dei-means-for-first-generation-students-like-me","title":"What Trump’s Rollback of DEI Means for First-Generation Students Like Me","excerpt":"\"People can take anything from you, but they can never take away your education.” My roots are in Guyana, a Caribbean nation, and this mantra of resilience echoed through generations and followed me from Guyana to Queens, N.Y.","content":"
\"People can take anything from you, but they can never take away your education.” My roots are in Guyana, a Caribbean nation, and this mantra of resilience echoed through generations and followed me from Guyana to Queens, N.Y.
\n
But when President Trump recently bragged he \"ended DEI in America,\" he was openly celebrating the very shift I’ve already felt in my own education.
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When I entered college in Fairfield, Conn., I carried more than my own ambition. I carried the unrealized dreams of my grandmother and the women in our village who were told their place was in the home, not a lecture hall. My education isn’t just for me—it’s for my family, my community and every girl back in our motherland who never got the chance and never will.
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But higher education in the United States has increasingly transformed from a public good into a private marketplace. The very pathways that made my presence in these institutions possible are now being publicly dismantled through legislation and policy.
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Immigrant and first-generation students do not weaken universities. We strengthen them. If we believe education cannot be taken from us, then we must be willing to fight for the conditions that make it accessible in the first place. In a political moment where leaders celebrate the end of DEI as progress, defending its need has never felt more urgent.
\n
The post What Trump’s Rollback of DEI Means for First-Generation Students Like Me appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"education","author":"Aliyah Seenauth","publishDate":"2026-03-04T21:00:01.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-117628137.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/04/trump-dei-college-university-immigrant-first-generation-student/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T00:00:41.637Z"},{"id":"o6b1ul","archiveId":"7s532d","slug":"dr-cheryl-polote-williamsons-ageless-fearless-038-unscripted-champions-reinvention-at-every-age","title":"Dr. Cheryl Polote Williamson’s ‘Ageless, Fearless, & Unscripted’ Champions Reinvention At Every Age","excerpt":"Dr. Cheryl Polote Williamson has spent the past decade encouraging women to rethink what the next chapter of their lives can look like. Now, that message has reached a new […] The post Dr. Cheryl Polote Williamson’s ‘Ageless, Fearless, & Unscripted’ Champions Reinvention At Every Age appeared first ...","content":"
By
Okla Jones ·
Updated March 4, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Dr. Cheryl Polote Williamson has spent the past decade encouraging women to rethink what the next chapter of their lives can look like. Now, that message has reached a new milestone. Her podcast, Ageless, Fearless, & Unscripted , earned its first NAACP Image Award nomination in the Outstanding Podcast (Life>Terri J. Vaughn, Sheila Eldridge, Cicley Gay, Portia Bruner, Kimberly Noel Sweet, and Russell M. Williamson Sr., among others. While several guests are well known, Williamson intentionally avoids a celebrity-only format.
“I want to interview anyone who has a story worth hearing,” she said. “It could be someone overcoming a health crisis, someone rebuilding their life after trauma, or someone starting a new career in their fifties. Everyone has a voice.”
Beyond the podcast, Williamson continues to expand her work supporting women through entrepreneurship and global opportunities. After a recent trip to Ghana, she decided to organize a program that will bring a group of women business owners to the country later this year.
With the NAACP Image Awards now in her rearview, Williamson remains confident about the future. Her approach to recognition reflects the same mindset she encourages listeners to adopt. Regardless of however many awards or achievements she accumulates over the years, Williamson sees any nomination as a signal that the show’s message is reaching the people it was meant to serve.
“My prayer is that someone hears this story and decides to go after the dream in their heart,” she said. “If they see that I did it, then they might believe they can do it too.”
TOPICS:
Dr. Cheryl Polote Williamson naacp image awards The post Dr. Cheryl Polote Williamson’s ‘Ageless, Fearless, & Unscripted’ Champions Reinvention At Every Age appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-03-04T19:22:44.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/dr-cheryl-polote-williamson-ageless-fearless-unscripted/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T00:00:45.127Z"},{"id":"9q6we7","archiveId":"fxvwdd","slug":"meet-cliff-vmir-the-hairstylist-behind-cardi-b-and-more","title":"Meet Cliff Vmir, The Hairstylist Behind Cardi B, And More","excerpt":"“In The Chair” spotlights the incredible hairstylists and makeup artists in our community who are giving us major inspiration. Each week, they discuss their personal beauty and career journeys, what they’ve […] The post Meet Cliff Vmir, The Hairstylist Behind Cardi B, And More appeared first on Esse...","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 4, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
“In The Chair” spotlights the incredible hairstylists and makeup artists in our community who are giving us major inspiration. Each week, they discuss their personal beauty and career journeys, what they’ve learned from their clients, and their top glam tips.
“As a child, hair was something I couldn’t go a day without thinking about,” celebrity hairstylist and founder of FEMMÉ hair care Cliff Vmir tells ESSENCE. “Even though it wasn’t something a young boy was ‘supposed’ to do at the time.” But, despite that, hair was his calling. He started off playing with Barbie doll hair and, by middle school, Vmir was charging his friends (and, sometimes even their parents) $30 to $45 dollars for a hairtarget=\"_blank\"> View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Cliff Vmir (@cliffvmir)
His Favorite Hair>FEMME Silkening Mist—it’s viral and enhances straightening and curling with heat, giving a shiny, glass-like finish without oiliness. I also have a
Liquid Glass Shampoo and Conditioner designed for natural hair and extensions. My line focuses on achieving silky shine without weighing hair down.”
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cliff Vmir (@cliffvmir)
His Top Tip For Healthy Hair:
“Protect the hair with braids under wigs, keep it trimmed, moisturize it—especially the ends, not just the roots—and focus on retaining length.”
A Hair Myth He Wants to Debunk:
“The myth that wigs pull your edges out. If applied correctly—glued in front of the hairline—your edges won’t come out. It depends on the stylist’s technique.”
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cliff Vmir (@cliffvmir)
What He’s Learned From His Clients:
“Professionalism matters. Clients still remember my professionalism from 2015. Also, many stylists do hair for quick money, but I genuinely love it.”
The Deeper Meaning Behind His Work:
“The crown is your head, and making someone’s crown beautiful can be emotional. The salon can feel like therapy—a safe place to vent, relax, and breathe.”
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cliff Vmir (@cliffvmir)
TOPICS:
celebrity hair stylist In The Chair With The post Meet Cliff Vmir, The Hairstylist Behind Cardi B, And More appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-04T17:37:15.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/cliff-vmir-in-the-chair-hair-stylist-behind-cardi-b/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T00:00:45.127Z"},{"id":"p0rjmn","archiveId":"5i0vzz","slug":"get-the-look-channel-willow-smiths-effortlessly-cool-dior-moment-for-less","title":"Get The Look: Channel Willow Smith’s Effortlessly Cool Dior Moment For Less","excerpt":"Willow Smith is the ultimate Gen Z cool girl. From her ever-evolving natural hairstyles to her alternative edge—complete with facial adornments and an effortlessly earthy aesthetic—she can truly pull off […] The post Get The Look: Channel Willow Smith’s Effortlessly Cool Dior Moment For Less appeare...","content":"
Arnold Jerocki/Getty Images for Christian Dior
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated March 4, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Willow Smith is the ultimate Gen Z cool girl. From her ever-evolving natural hair src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2264024758-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Get The Look: Channel Willow Smith’s Effortlessly Cool Dior Moment For Less\" width=\"400\" height=\"599\" />PARIS, FRANCE – MARCH 03: Willow Smith attends the Christian Dior show during Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2026-2027 on March 3, 2026 in Paris, France. (Photo by Dave Benett/Getty Images) 01 01 Zara Pleated Balloon Pants Zara 60 Shop Now 02 02 H&M Cotton-Blend Shirt H&M 25 Shop Now 03 03 Jimmy Fairly Paris The Elvie Jimmy Fairly 148 Shop Now 04 04 Jeffrey Campbell Sweet On U Heels Jeffrey Campbell 165 Shop Now 05 05 Uniqlo Wide Ribbed Knee High Socks Uniqlo 6 Shop Now 06 06 Rosefield Bangle S Gold 189 Shop Now TOPICS: Paris fashion week
The post Get The Look: Channel Willow Smith’s Effortlessly Cool Dior Moment For Less appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Mecca Pryor","publishDate":"2026-03-04T16:27:36.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2264685675-Cropped-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/get-the-look-for-less-willow-smith/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T18:00:53.103Z"},{"id":"bqn6a3","archiveId":"y39cif","slug":"jid-blends-hip-hop-and-childhood-nostalgia-with-the-new-record-hey-tony","title":"J.I.D. Blends Hip-Hop And Childhood Nostalgia With The New Record, “Hey Tony!”","excerpt":"J.I.D. has had one hell of a year, already. In the aftermath of his critically-acclaimed fourth studio release God Does Like Ugly, the Atlanta rapper received two Grammy nominations at […] The post J.I.D.","content":"
By
Okla Jones ·
Updated March 4, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
J.I.D . has had one hell of a year, already. In the aftermath of his critically-acclaimed fourth studio release God Does Like Ugly, the Atlanta rapper received two Grammy nominations at February’s ceremony, and just embarked on a world tour in support of the album. His current level of success is the result of long hours in the studio, and an unwavering dedication to his craft. Now, he has reached another milestone. It’s a bit nostalgic for most of us, and it’s an achievement that would make the inner child in us all extremely proud.
In a new collaboration, J.I.D. partnered with Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes to create a brand new jingle for the cereal brand titled “HEY TONY! ” It’s an upbeat anthem that aims to inspire today’s youth by highlighting perseverance, following one’s dreams, and the importance of being “great.” (Make sure you say the word in your best Tony the Tiger voice, it gives it an added effect.) J.I.D., a working musician whose schedule is busier than most, said that this partnership with Frosted Flakes felt right from the very beginning.
“It was easy and organic, because we all grew up eating Frosted Flakes,” he said. “I even loved the opportunity to put the Hip-Hop twist on [the song]; it gives a different meaning to it, and a different visual to it. So, when the opportunity presented itself, I didn’t even second guess it.” As far as the creation of the song, J.I.D. explained that he “pulled from childhood memories,” which helped to reflect the motivational energy of Tony the Tiger, along with the mood boost the Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes cereal provides.
The new song launch was paired with limited-edition Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Tony the Tiger and J.I.D “Day Ones” merchandise and a Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes “Day Ones” box with featuring the East Atlanta native on the front, illustrated exclusively for this collectible drop. The dream of so many children is to see themselves on a cereal box. Athletes like Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams, Simone Biles, and a short list of others, have achieved this feat, so naturally, it was an honor for J.I.D. to say that he’s done the same.
“That was hard—it’s something you can’t even really draw up,” the Never Story rapper said. “As you progress through whatever field you’re in; whether it’s sports, arts, or whatever, you can think of it, will this ever really happen? So when the opportunity presented itself, it was a dream in itself, and what made it even better was that it’s something that I align with. Breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day; the first thing that you put into your body. I work out in the morning, so anything that adds to a healthier life rel=\"tag\">JID
The post J.I.D. Blends Hip-Hop And Childhood Nostalgia With The New Record, “Hey Tony!” appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-03-04T16:27:25.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/jid-hip-hop-nostalgia-new-music/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T18:00:53.103Z"},{"id":"ck1wwe","archiveId":"iv6568","slug":"monaleo-undergoes-emergency-surgery-amid-ovarian-cyst-health-scare","title":"Monaleo Undergoes Emergency Surgery Amid Ovarian Cyst Health Scare","excerpt":"Houston Rapper Monaleo had to undergo an emergency surgery, but thankfully, she’s on the mend. The “Beating Down Yo Block” MC shared the news with fans because the surgery led […] The post Monaleo Undergoes Emergency Surgery Amid Ovarian Cyst Health Scare appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Elizabeth Ayoola ·
The post Monaleo Undergoes Emergency Surgery Amid Ovarian Cyst Health Scare appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Victoria Uwumarogie","publishDate":"2026-03-04T15:58:27.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/monaleo-emergency-surgery/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-05T00:00:45.127Z"},{"id":"3t1wks","archiveId":"wqtxws","slug":"for-black-women-with-tourette-syndrome-long-standing-invisibility-meets-viral-attention","title":"For Black women with Tourette syndrome, long-standing invisibility meets viral attention","excerpt":"Black women with Tourette syndrome have long felt invisible. A shocking moment at the British Academy Film and Television Arts awards ceremony, involving a racial slur broadcast to millions, has thrust them into the spotlight.","content":"
Black women with Tourette syndrome have long felt invisible. A shocking moment at the British Academy Film and Television Arts awards ceremony, involving a racial slur broadcast to millions , has thrust them into the spotlight.
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Suddenly, the videos they posted on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram racked up hundreds of thousands of views when previously, the audience had been small; there are very few Black women with Tourette syndrome, or very few who have been diagnosed and whose tics have been believed.
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In fact, none of the women The 19th interviewed for this story had met another Black woman with Tourette syndrome until adulthood. Their journeys have been marked by doubt and confusion that has not abated as the controversy from the broadcast continues to unfold. Last weekend, a Saturday Night Live sketch used Tourette syndrome to explain the antisemitic, transphobic and even cannibalistic comments of certain celebrities.
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Jhónelle Bean, 30, has been inundated with interview requests since her videos on Tourette syndrome went viral following the awards ceremony. In her most recent videos, Bean explores the complexity of being impacted in multiple, intersecting ways by the incident. She also discussed the conversation surrounding it — the need for empathy and understanding toward people with Tourette syndrome, as well as the heavy history and harm of the slur for Black people.
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Bean is a sign language interpreter from San Antonio, Texas. When she started making videos in 2020, she wasn’t looking for virality or fame. Instead, she was motivated by the anxiety and isolation of the early COVID-19 pandemic because stress can worsen tics for many people with Tourette syndrome. She wanted to reach out to other people like her, who were experiencing what she was experiencing.
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“I wanted to speak on it because I remember not finding many people that looked like me talking about [Tourette syndrome], and I wanted to be a potential resource for someone else experiencing it during that tough time,” Bean said.
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Jhónelle Bean’s social media posts discussing Tourette syndrome have gone viral in the aftermath of the BAFTA incident.\n (Emily Scherer for The 19th) \n\n\n\n
Social media was the first place Emauni Crawley, 23, saw another Black woman with Tourette syndrome; she’s a fan of Bean’s videos. She is a behavioral health coach living in Durham, North Carolina, who was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome when she was 7 years old. She first met another Black woman with Tourette syndrome in real life two years ago, at a Tourette Association of America advocacy day in Washington, D.C.
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She still remembers the feeling: “OK, OK, God, it’s not just me,” she said. “There are other Black women out here going through similar experiences as me.”
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Crawley’s mother, a licensed therapist, was her biggest advocate and still struggled to find resources when Crawley was growing up. “All she could find were people with Tourette’s syndrome that were White males. She was never able to find anybody that looked like me, not even a Black man,” Crawley said.
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About 1.3 million Americans have Tourette syndrome, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . It isn’t currently possible to estimate how many are Black women because the available data is so limited, according to Marisela Dy-Hollins, a pediatric neurologist and movement disorder specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital who is one of only a handful of researchers who have focused on Tourette syndrome, race and gender.
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Crawley also faced misunderstanding from medical professionals. She remembers getting an X-ray a few years ago; the technician, a Black man, seemed surprised by her tics.
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She told him anyone can have Tourette syndrome, but the interaction got her thinking.
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“How many people think that? There are health care disparities when it comes to people of color in general. Statistics show that. White people have a better chance of being diagnosed with Tourette syndrome than any other community,” Crawley said. “For the Black community, there are health care disparities, there’s lower socioeconomic status, lack of resources — there’s so many different reasons, and stigma is also still prevalent.”
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In a 2024 paper in the journal Pediatric Neurology, Dy-Hollins and her colleagues wrote about how they had tried to use one of the larger and most commonly used datasets on Tourette syndrome to draw conclusions about people with Tourette syndrome from different ethnic and racial backgrounds. But it wasn’t possible because people who weren’t White made up less than 10 percent of the dataset.
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“There weren’t enough people to really make a meaningful statistical analysis,” Dy-Hollins said.
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In a different paper , published in the journal Neurology last year, Dy-Hollins and colleagues were able to use the same dataset to determine that women with Tourette syndrome were less likely to be formally diagnosed, were diagnosed at later ages and took longer for professionals to diagnose.
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There is little specific research on Black women and girls with Tourette syndrome because of sampling and underdiagnosis.
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“If people are not recognized or diagnosed early, then they’re not being seen in the clinics, right? There’s this potential bias saying that maybe people who are from racial, ethnic minority backgrounds, they don’t have tics and Tourette Syndrome. But maybe they just don’t make it to our clinic. It could also be access to care, referral patterns, potentially mistrust of the medical community, or even cultural factors. It’s complex. And then you try to look at the intersection between race, ethnicity and sex, and there’s not enough data available,” Dy-Hollins said.
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Chloe Winston, 24, works at a hospital. This fall, she will go back to school to study nursing. She was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome when she was 17, after two years of unexplained tics and skepticism from some doctors. She struggled to transition from a pediatric psychiatrist to one who treated adult patients. One of the first ones she met with, a White man, didn’t believe her.
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“He just straight up was like, ‘Oh, I’ve never met a Black person with Tourette syndrome before.’ He didn’t think I had it, because he’d never met anyone with it who looked like me. He was like, ‘Are you sure? Have you been checked for anything else?’ And I was like, ‘No, I do have it. I did check. I promise,’” Winston recalled.
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She has been able to meet younger Black girls with Tourette syndrome through her work with Camp Twist and Shout , a summer camp for children with Tourette syndrome. She said she’s frustrated that she doesn’t see people like her on TV shows.
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“Pretty much all of the Tourette representation is White guys, except for that one lady on TLC,” Winston said, referring to reality television star Baylen Dupree .
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“I wish there was more diversity. I think the fact that it’s only White people [in media] reinforces the stereotype that people of color don’t get [Tourette syndrome], which is very far from true,” she said.
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Both Crawley and Winston have found more representation on social media than traditional media. Bean was the first Black woman with Tourette syndrome Winston ever met in real life, and Winston was the first Black woman with Tourette syndrome Bean ever met in real life. “We’re still friends today,” Bean said.
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Their meeting wasn’t without difficulties, however. She and Winston were the only Black women at a Tourette syndrome conference that year. People kept getting them confused, even though they do not look particularly alike. At the time, Winston had pink braids, while Bean’s hair was in a dark bun. After a while, they started jokingly calling each other “twins.” Bean described the incidents as “microaggressions ,” a form of subtle and unintentional discrimination.
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Bean has mixed feelings about the attention the British film awards brought to her and others in the Tourette syndrome community, particularly Black members of the community. On one hand, it has been an opportunity to educate. On the other hand, a lot of people still have major misconceptions about people like her.
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“Speaking for myself and some of my friends with Tourette’s, we’ve all experienced a bit of an increase in our tics due to stress or anxiety from everything. Things like that can exacerbate the symptoms we deal with,” she said. “While the world will move on to the next big topic in a few weeks, we will still feel the effects of it in our bodies.”
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Sara Luterman","publishDate":"2026-03-04T15:52:07.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/BlackWomenTourettes_VideoScreenshots.jpeg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/black-women-tourette-syndrome-bafta-controversy/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T18:00:47.788Z"},{"id":"z7i8u3","archiveId":"4f5nz1","slug":"corporate-boards-say-they-value-people-and-culture-so-why-are-black-women-still-shut-out","title":"Corporate Boards Say They Value People And Culture. So Why Are Black Women Still Shut Out?","excerpt":"Five years ago, Robin Washington and I started Black Women on Boards with a simple problem: we were both at capacity – serving on multiple boards, fielding opportunities – but […] The post Corporate Boards Say They Value People And Culture.","content":"
By
Merline Saintil ·
Updated February 28, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Five years ago, Robin Washington and I started Black Women on Boards with a simple problem: we were both at capacity – serving on multiple boards, fielding opportunities – but we knew so many amazing Black women who were not getting the calls. What began as a single Zoom call in October 2020, bringing together 18 women executives, investors, and board directors, has become a movement to move talented women into positions of real power and help fuel generational wealth and impact. Today, we are a global network of more than 200 senior leaders, convening everywhere from the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq to our annual summits, trading insights, opening doors, and holding each other accountable.
The growth has been beautiful to witness. But what moves me most isn’t the numbers – it’s the stories. The woman who landed her first board seat after years of being told she wasn’t “ready.” The CEO who found her strategy advisor in our network. Over these five years, I have quietly helped more than 50 women step into public, private, advisory, and operator roles through BWOB – a purpose-driven initiative that reflects my north star.
Black Women on Boards Rings The Opening Bell® The New York Stock Exchange welcomes Black Women on Boards, today, Tuesday, February 14, 2023, to the podium. To honor the occasion, Merline Saintil and Robin Washington, Co-Founders, joined by Lynn Martin, NYSE President, rings The Opening Bell®. Photo Credit: NYSE
Equally important are the allies – investors, fellow board members, and champions from every sector – who show up, lend their platforms, and help us move faster. You can see their faces and hear their voices in our five-year tribute video, and every time I watch it, I’m reminded that progress isn’t just about policy – it’s about people willing to bet on each other.
Here’s what I’ve learned from five years of this legacy work: the best companies don’t just talk about culture and innovation – they invest in the people who make those things real.
“A 2020 study by the Ocean Tomo Intangible Asset Market Value Study found that 90% of a company’s value now comes from things you can’t touch: the talent they attract, the ideas they generate, and the culture they build. In 1975, that number was just 17%. Markets already know that culture, people, and innovation are what matter most. Too many boardrooms, however, still treat them as side topics rather than strategic resources.
At the 2026 Davos World Economic Forum, leaders discussed responsible innovation. Conversations with Symbotic CTO James Kuffner on tech’s role in supply chains and Stanford’s James Landay highlighted a key theme: meaningful innovation depends on combining human talent with technology, not just technical capability. BWOB’s greatest advances come from investing in women and working to design systems and structures that integrate capable women in the workforce.
The same is true in boardrooms. The companies that thrive don’t just check a box on culture. They ask: Do our values match what’s actually happening on the ground? Are we thinking five years ahead, or just five quarters? Are we building a culture where people want to stay and grow? And they invest in people the way they invest in technology, because in 2026, the two are inseparable.
When I remind our BWOB members that “progress requires persistence, and leaders willing to lean into difficult moments can close the gap between knowing and doing,” I mean it. Patricia Roberts Harris became the first Black woman on a corporate board at IBM in 1971. That was 55 years ago. We should be past the firsts by now. But we are not, and that’s exactly why this work matters.
The good news? The talent is here. The research is clear. What’s missing is the will to act.
Here is my call to every leader. Make space for multiple perspectives and engage for the long term, not for the moment. Treat innovation as a mandate. And value culture as currency.
At Black Women on Boards, we’re not waiting for permission. We’re building, connecting, and leading together. And we’re just getting started.
Merline Saintil is a Fortune 100 board director and co‑founder of Black Women on Boards, a global network of leaders opening doors for each other in the boardroom and beyond. She brings a six‑IPO track record, deep tech experience, and a passion for “lifting as we climb” to every room she enters.
The post Corporate Boards Say They Value People And Culture. So Why Are Black Women Still Shut Out? appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-04T15:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/why-black-women-are-missing-from-boards/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T18:00:53.103Z"},{"id":"3qxiv8","archiveId":"kfiwqs","slug":"k-michelles-beauty-evolution","title":"K. Michelle’s Beauty Evolution","excerpt":"K. Michelle’s beauty has long been a topic of discussion. “You know how people put bodies on you? They put surgeries on me,” she told ESSENCE back in 2022. If […] The post K. Michelle’s Beauty Evolution appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated March 3, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
K. Michelle’s beauty has long been a topic of discussion. “You know how people put bodies on you? They put surgeries on me,” she told ESSENCE back in 2022 . If it was up to the rumors, “I’ve had a facelift on Monday and a new face by Wednesday. Let them tell it, it’s always something.” And, as one of the latest to join Real Housewives of Atlanta season 17 (premiering April 5), the conversation around Michelle isn’t ending anytime soon.
It’s true her appearance has evolved over the years . But, one thing’s for sure: She’s always looked good. Since stepping into the spotlight after signing to Jive Records in 2009, the platinum-selling R&B singer and songwriter asserted her dominance in jet black wigs with blonde highlights. But, it wasn’t until she joined VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta in 2012, that her face was plastered all over the country. By then, we saw her switch from bright pink lipstick, like at the show’s premiere party at Frank Ski’s Restaurant, to a short red bob when she returned in 2016.
However, by the 2020s, she was recruited to more natural beauty looks. At the 2023 BMI Country Awards, for example, she wore light nude makeup with long lashes and a black chin-length bob. Then, in 2024, she attended Lifetime’s Single Black Female 2: Simone’s Revenge premiere in a big bouffant with a long bang and ‘80s makeup with a matte finish. In one of her most recent beauty looks, she toned it all down in a silky mid-length hairdo and a soft natural beat at the 18th Academy Of Country Music Honors.
Below, look at how K. Michelle’s beauty evolution, in honor of her 44th birthday today.
NEW YORK – MARCH 30:Recording Artist K Michelle attends The Artist Watch at G Uptown on March 30, 2010 in New York City.(Photo by Moises De Pena/WireImage)
MIAMI BEACH, FL – NOVEMBER 02: K Michelle attends Lets Get Laced and Think Pink Rocks Fundraiser at Club PLAY on November 2, 2011 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo by Vallery Jean/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA – JUNE 13: K. Michelle attends the VH1 “Love and Hip Hop Atlanta” premiere party at Frank Ski’s Restaurant on June 13, 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Prince Williams/FilmMagic)
NEW YORK, NY – AUGUST 12:Singer K. Michelle poses backstage at BET’s ‘106 and Park’ at BET Studios on August 12, 2013 in New York City.(Photo by Cindy Ord/BET/Getty Images for BET)
LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 22:K Michelle attends the MOBO Awards at SSE Arena on October 22, 2014 in London, England.(Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 24:Singer K.Michelle attends “The BET Honors” 2015 at Warner Theatre on January 24, 2015 in Washington, DC.(Photo by Kris Connor/BET/Getty Images for BET)
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 03:K. Michelle at Agora Gallery on March 3, 2016 in New York City.(Photo by Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – NOVEMBER 17: K. Michelle poses backstage at the 2019 Soul Train Awards presented by BET at the Orleans Arena on November 17, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images for BET)
MIRAMAR, FL – AUGUST 21:K. Michelle performs on stage during the ‘Live & Love R&B Fest 2021’ at Miramar Regional Park Amphitheater on August 21, 2021 in Miramar, Florida.(Photo by Johnny Louis/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – NOVEMBER 07: K Michelle attends the 2023 BMI Country Awards at BMI on November 07, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for BMI)
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – NOVEMBER 08: EDITORIAL USE ONLY: K. Michelle attends the 2023 CMA Awards at Bridgestone Arena on November 08, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Taylor Hill/WireImage)
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – FEBRUARY 27: K Michelle attends Lifetime’s “Single Black Female 2: Simone’s Revenge” Atlanta Premiere at Regal Atlantic Station on February 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Prince Williams/WireImage)
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – NOVEMBER 19: K Michelle attends 2024 BMI Country Awards at BMI on November 19, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee.(Photo by Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – AUGUST 20: K Michelle attends the 18th Academy Of Country Music Honors at The Pinnacle on August 20, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee.(Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for ACM)
TOPICS:
celebrity beauty K Michelle Real Housewives of Atlanta The post K. Michelle’s Beauty Evolution appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-04T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/k-michelle-beauty-evolution/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T18:00:53.103Z"},{"id":"8gzdlt","archiveId":"er33i9","slug":"scotustoday-for-wednesday-march-4","title":"SCOTUStoday for Wednesday, March 4","excerpt":"Good morning, and welcome to the court’s fourth opinion day in less than two weeks. We will be live blogging beginning at 9:30 a.m. EST. The post SCOTUStoday for Wednesday, March 4 appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"
Good morning, and welcome to the court’s fourth opinion day in less than two weeks. We will be live blogging beginning at 9:30 a.m. EST.
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On Tuesday, the court heard argument in Hunter v. United States
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Also on Tuesday, the court denied a request for a stay of execution from Billy Leon Kearse, who was executed in Florida hours later.
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As noted above, the court has indicated that it may announce opinions this morning at 10 a.m. EST. We will be live blogging beginning at 9:30 a.m.
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After the possible announcement of opinions, the court will hear argument in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II
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About eight months ago, “President Donald Trump convinced Texas Republicans … to redraw the state’s congressional map,” sparking an unusual mid-decade redistricting push in several Republican-led states that was expected to net the GOP “as many as a dozen new House seats in November,” according to Reuters . But that redistricting effort has not played out as expected because “Trump’s push stalled in several Republican states, while Democrats’ own aggressive moves in states like California, and favorable court rulings, have allowed them to claw their way to a near-draw.” That said, the redistricting battle may not be over; a few Republican-led states could adopt new maps ahead of this year’s elections based on the Supreme Court’s ruling in its Voting Rights Act case .
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\n Fatima Hussein and Suman Naishadham, Associated Press
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On Tuesday, President Donald Trump “threatened to end trade with Spain, citing a lack of support over the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran and the European nation’s resistance to increasing its NATO spending,” according to the Associated Press . However, it was not immediately clear how Trump would carry out that threat, since Spain is part of the European Union and “[t]he EU negotiates trade deals on behalf of all 27 member countries.” The AP noted that Trump’s comments on Spain were “just the latest instance of the president wielding the threat of tariffs or trade embargoes as a punishment.” After the Supreme Court struck down his signature tariffs, Trump claimed “that the court allows him to instead impose full-scale embargoes on other nations of his choosing.”
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In an abrupt about-face, the Trump administration on Tuesday told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit “that it planned to renew its defense of executive orders that it had leveled against law firms,” which aim to force cooperation between the firms and the government, according to The New York Times . On Monday, the administration had requested “to abandon the fight” against four law firms that challenged the orders, but it has now asked to withdraw that request. Shira A. Scheindlin, a former federal district judge in Manhattan, told the Times that she expects the administration to “lose at the appeals court level,” but added that the executive orders “might have some faint hope at the Supreme Court.”
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\n Josh Blackman, The Volokh Conspiracy, Reason
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In a post for Reason’s Volokh Conspiracy blog, Josh Blackman reflected on the court’s Monday order in Mirabelli v. Bonta
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In a column for the National Review , Charles C.W. Cooke revisited Monday’s argument in United States v. Hemani
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\n From the SCOTUSblog Team \n
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\n For the debut entry in a new series on different supreme courts around the world, Zachary Shemtob spoke with Mark Elliott, a professor of public law at the University of Cambridge and fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, about the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
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\n Relist Watch \n
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\n In his latest Relist Watch column, John Elwood analyzed the one new relist set to be considered at this Friday’s conference, which raises a familiar question about whether restrictions on gun ownership for past felons violate the Second Amendment and a more novel one about sentencing guidelines for offenses involving a firearm capable of accepting a large capacity magazine.
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\n Contributor Corner \n
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\n In their Brothers in Law column, Akhil and Vikram Amar explored four amicus briefs filed in the birthright citizenship case that address foundlings, or babies born of unknown parentage. “Together, these four briefs show that the foundling issue alone … is a sufficient basis on which to reject the Trump administration’s outlandish claim that, with small exceptions, a birthright citizen must be able to point to a citizen parent or a permanent-resident parent,” they contended.
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\n In his Civil Rights and Wrongs column, Daniel Harawa reflected on two recent decisions in which the court summarily reversed grants of habeas relief to state petitioners. “That the Supreme Court reversed in two habeas cases may not come as much of a surprise,” Harawa wrote. “But the repeated summary reversal … sends a more troubling message: that federal habeas relief should largely be understood as beyond reach.”
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\n Advisory Opinions \n
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\n Sarah Isgur and David French debate whether President Donald Trump’s military action against Iran requires congressional authorization, explore the constitutional limits of presidential power, and argue over which version of James Madison deserves our respect.
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Since it was first announced in early August, Justice Samuel Alito’s new book – So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country – has created some … well, disorder.
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Given its scheduled Oct. 6, 2026, release date, the book has prompted a news cycle (or three ) of speculation that the “most consistently conservative ” justice (at least according to one analysis) is set to retire before the next term commences.
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One of the initial pieces on this was a Feb. 6 column by Elie Mystal, cheekily titled “Is Samuel Alito Preparing to Disrobe?” “The justices are busy in October. Arguably too busy to sell a book,” wrote Mystal. “The publication date of the book makes me think that Alito is planning to retire at the end of the Supreme Court’s current term, in July.”
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Mystal added that Alito’s retirement would also be timely given the unpredictability of the 2026 midterms: If Alito retires in July, President Donald Trump and Republicans would still have time to appoint and confirm his replacement. “I think he’s leaving while Republicans still have the political power to replace him with another Sam Alito who is 30 years younger,” Mystal wrote.
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Other Alito-retirement-rumor enthusiasts have pointed to the following: the associate justice’s age and tenure on the court (Alito “joined the high court 20 years ago ,” a “very good milestone on which to retire ”); his supposed political inclinations (“by retiring well in advance of the midterms, Justice Alito can ensure that his seat goes to a sympatico but much younger version of himself ”); and his wife (“there’s also evidence that Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann, would like him to step down from the bench so that both of them can openly express their political opinions ”)
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But not everyone agrees. David Lat titled his recent article, “Justice Samuel Alito Won’t Hang Up His Robes Anytime Soon .” Alito, according to Lat, “remains energetic and engaged as a justice” and is “still years away from the ages that SCOTUS members have retired at in recent years.” Lat also noted that Alito’s book may gain more readers if he stays on the bench, rather than leaving for a book tour (as the works of retired justices may not do quite so well).
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With this speculation, of course, comes discussion of just who Alito’s successor would be. Some popular names (so far ) include, in alphabetical order: Judges Patrick Bumatay (9th Cir.), Aileen Cannon (District Court for the Southern District of Florida), James Ho (5th Cir.), Andrew Oldham (5th Cir.), Neomi Rao (D.C. Circuit), and Amul Thapar (6th Cir.). But, given any such announcement would still be months away, this list is likely far from complete.
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“The Framers of the Constitution knew human nature as well as we do. They too had lived in dangerous days; they too knew the suffocating influence of orthodoxy and standardized thought. They weighed the compulsions for restrained speech and thought against the abuses of liberty. They chose liberty.”
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— Justice William Douglas in Beauharnais v. Illinois
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The post SCOTUStoday for Wednesday, March 4 appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Kelsey Dallas and Nora Collins","publishDate":"2026-03-04T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://i0.wp.com/www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2227289348.jpg?w=500&ssl=1","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/scotustoday-for-wednesday-march-4/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T18:00:59.136Z"},{"id":"xt3hks","archiveId":"oqd092","slug":"the-supreme-court-keeps-finding-new-ways-to-make-discrimination-free","title":"The Supreme Court Keeps Finding New Ways to Make Discrimination Free","excerpt":"In USPS v. Konan , the justices denied that mail carriers who refused to deliver to a Black landlord should pay damages. The ruling makes it even harder to sue the government for blatant racism and receive financial compensation.","content":"
A Black landlord in Texas says that for two years, postal workers refused to deliver mail to her properties because she rented rooms to white tenants.
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Lebene Konan owns two rental properties in Euless, Texas, and according to her complaint in USPS v. Konan , the mail carrier servicing her rental properties simply stopped doing his job.
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For nearly three months, the United States Postal Service stopped delivering mail altogether. She wasn’t getting her mail, and neither were her tenants. Her mail carrier took it upon himself to decide which pieces of mail were delivered and which weren’t.
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He also marked important documents addressed to both Konan and her tenants as “undeliverable” and returned them to sender. At one point, he changed the mailbox lock so that only one tenant could access it. (And yes, that tenant was white.)
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In the age of instant gratification via text message and email, the importance of mail seems to be dwindling. But when a mail carrier refuses to deliver mail, they’re potentially deciding who gets access to paychecks, credit card statements, court notices, government benefits, and—critically, given the maniac in the White House— ballot and election information .
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Konan says the reason for this deplorable behavior was explicit: The postal workers objected to a Black woman owning property and renting said property to white tenants.
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So she filed a lawsuit against the United States Postal Service seeking money damages.
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And the Supreme Court’s response was simple: tough luck. The USPS doesn’t have to pay you a dime.
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Racial discrimination is still illegal … officially \n\n\n\n
If that seems grossly unfair to you, that’s because it is. If the USPS refuses to deliver your mail because you’re Black, then you should be able to sue the USPS for discrimination and get financially compensated for emotional distress and any lost income the USPS’s deplorable behavior caused.
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But unfortunately for Konan, the government generally enjoys something called sovereign immunity. Sovereign immunity is the rule that says the government can’t be sued unless the government agrees to be sued—which is a very convenient system if you happen to be the government.
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Sometimes, however, the federal government throws us rubes a bone and allows lawsuits against them for certain types of misconduct thus waiving sovereign immunity. One such law is the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) . The FTCA allows people to recover damages for torts. (A tort is a negligent or intentionally wrongful act that causes harm to another person, their property, or reputation.) Through the FTCA, Congress has agreed that when federal employees cause harm on the job, the government can be forced to pay.
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But that didn’t matter in Konan’s case, because the FTCA includes an exception for any “claim arising out of the loss, miscarriage, or negligent transmission of letters or postal matter.” And in a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court ruled that this exception includes the intentional withholding of mail, too.
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Even deliberate refusal to deliver mail triggers sovereign immunity under Thomas’s strained interpretation of the law .
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Apparently you can intentionally “lose” mail. When was the last time you intentionally lost anything?
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The Supreme Court’s ruling doesn’t endorse the racist conduct. It’s still against the law to discriminate against Black people—officially, at least.
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But if there’s no right to obtain damages when a racist postal worker refuses to deliver mail because he’s big mad that a Black woman owns a couple pieces of property, then the postal service has no financial incentives to stop racist employees from tossing Black people’s mail into a river.
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The vanishing right to damages \n\n\n\n
Konan sits alongside a series of recent Supreme Court decisions narrowing the availability of damages when federal officials violate individual rights.
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In 2017’s Ziglar v. Abbasi , the Court refused to allow damages claims brought by Muslim men detained after the 9/11 terror attacks who alleged they were held in abusive conditions because of their religion and national origin.
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Three years later, in Hernandez v. Mesa , the Court refused to allow a damages suit against a border patrol agent who shot and killed a Mexican teenager who was on the Mexico side of the border. The majority pointed to national security and foreign relations concerns when it declined to recognize a remedy.
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(Read: Trump’s Racism Carries No Consequences—And That’s Scary )
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And in 2022’s Egbert v. Boule , the Court again rejected a damages claim after a border patrol agent allegedly used excessive force against a U.S. citizen—on the citizen’s own property—and retaliated against him for complaining.
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These cases involved different doctrines and different fact patterns. But they all add up to one truth: There aren’t a lot of ways to hold the federal government or its employees financially accountable for misconduct. And more doors slam shut every time the Supreme Court drops a ruling like Konan into the pile.
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Money damages are a deterrent \n\n\n\n
Civil rights laws are much easier to ignore when violating them is free. Money damages are one of the few ways that can reliably get a government’s attention.
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Public institutions rarely decide to behave better because they’ve experienced a sudden burst of ethical clarity. Large organizations respond when they have to write large checks and then explain to taxpayers why they’re spending millions paying out settlements rather than implementing reforms to make sure federal employees treat the law as more than just a suggestion.
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Research on police misconduct settlements bears this out. A national database of settlements published by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund has identified hundreds of cases where payouts were followed by policy changes inside police departments.
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When the availability of money damages disappears, accountability starts to wane. Enforcement becomes dependent on internal disciplinary mechanisms within federal agencies or on prosecutorial discretion. Oftentimes, the institution accused of wrongdoing simply investigates itself to decide whether anything bad actually happened. (kind of like what the DOJ is doing right now with the Epstein files .)
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The Supreme Court’s decision in Konan did not legalize discrimination. But if federal employees can intentionally withhold someone’s mail and the federal government never has to pay damages for it, then incentives to behave lawfully disappear. The incentives to deliver mail to everyone, irrespective of their skin color or property ownership status, shrink.
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The law may say what they can’t do.
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But the budget tells them what they can get away with.
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Editor’s note (March 4, 2026) : The dek, or summary, of this story has been updated for clarity.
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The post The Supreme Court Keeps Finding New Ways to Make Discrimination Free appeared first on Rewire News Group .
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By
Shelby Stewart ·
Updated March 4, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
For nearly two decades, the Black Women in Hollywood luncheon has functioned as both celebration and corrective — a space that centers Black women’s labor and leadership in an industry where they have historically been underrepresented in both executive ranks and leading roles. Launched in 2008, the event takes place during one of entertainment’s most visible weeks, amplifying achievements that too often go unrecognized on mainstream stages.
The lineup comes full circle with actress-producer Marsai Martin hosting the celebrated event and Grammy Award–winning artist Mýa delivering a special musical performance.
Academy Award–nominated actor Delroy Lindo will present to Emmy Award–winning producer and Golden Globe and Tony Award–nominated actress Kerry Washington, whose career spans film, television and producing. Beyond her Emmy-nominated turn as Olivia Pope on Scandal , Washington has expanded her executive footprint through producing projects for television and film.
Jurnee Smollett will honor Tony Award and NAACP Image Award–nominated actress, director and producer LaTanya Richardson Jackson, whose decades-long career stretches from stage to screen. In 2022, Richardson Jackson became the first Black woman to direct a play by August Wilson on Broadway with The Piano Lesson, a milestone that deepened her already substantial impact as a cultural steward and mentor.
Teyana Taylor will present to Golden Globe, BAFTA and Critics’ Choice–nominated actress Chase Infiniti, recognizing a breakout performance in One Battle After Another. The nod is acknowledgement of Hollywood’s increasing appetite for multidimensional artists who traverse different creative mediums. Taylor herself embodies that cross-disciplinary ethos — a throughline the ceremony highlights as the industry refocuses around creative multihyphenates.
In one of the ceremony’s most anticipated segments, Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan will unite to honor producer Zinzi Coogler, founder of Proximity Media, alongside the cultural impact of the Women of SINNERS. Coogler and Jordan’s long-standing creative partnership — spanning Fruitvale Station, Creed and Marvel’s Black Panther franchise is a case study inBlack collaboration. Through Proximity Media, Zinzi Coogler has helped shepherd projects that pair commercial scale with culture, illustrating how inclusive storytelling is now being created at the outset, not retrofitted later.
The broadcast will include the announcement of the ESSIES’ Choice Award winner. Nominees include casts from Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black, Beyond the Gates, Forever and Reasonable Doubt. Voting remains open through March 8.
The program will also debut the inaugural Creators’ Award, presented by smartwater®, honoring digital storytellers who have reshaped how stories are told and audiences are built in the social media era. As Hollywood increasingly turns to online platforms for talent and content, the award highlights the evolving landscape where traditional gatekeeping meets digital influence.
As an added bonus, Grammy Award–winning Mýa will also take the stage for a special performance.
ESSENCE will roll out exclusive digital covers for each of the honorees, examining creative process, leadership and the mechanics of sustaining longevity in a volatile industry. The pre-show, hosted by Scott Evans and Stacy Ike, along with the awards ceremony hosted by Martin, will premiere March 14 on ESSENCE’s official YouTube channel .
The post ESSENCE Honors Black Women Trailblazers In Hollywood With Star-Studded Lineup appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Shelby Stewart","publishDate":"2026-03-04T13:55:12.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/essence-black-women-in-hollywood-2026-lineup/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T18:00:53.103Z"},{"id":"4p82q5","archiveId":"5iv0lv","slug":"losing-your-job-is-one-thing-losing-yourself-is-another-heres-how-to-pick-yourself-back-up-and-move-","title":"Losing Your Job Is One Thing. Losing Yourself Is Another. Here’s How To Pick Yourself Back Up And Move Forward","excerpt":"It seems like Black women in the workforce are under siege right now. Not only was there a forced exodus of hundreds of thousands of Black women in 2025 thanks […] The post Losing Your Job Is One Thing. Losing Yourself Is Another.","content":"
By
Andrea Bossi ·
Updated March 3, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
It seems like Black women in the workforce are under siege right now. Not only was there a forced exodus of hundreds of thousands of Black women in 2025 thanks to federal job cuts, but as Black unemployment rises in the face of a cooling labor market, systemic challenges, and the aftermath of axed DEI initiatives, Black women are losing their jobs at three quicker than other women. We, the economy’s proverbial “canary in a coal mine,” are in undeniable distress. This is part of what inspired Kamika Dillard to >experience being laid off from Microsoft last summer after six-and-a-half years into a movement.
The morning she was laid off last summer, Dillard remembers doing her New York Times Strands puzzle, themed “keep on keeping on,” and taking a screenshot of it for how it spoke to her. ”I didn’t think much of it at the time. It was just the puzzle in front of me but looking back, it [felt] kismet. A quiet message I didn’t yet know I needed,” she wrote in a reflective essay after the layoff, which wasn’t the first one she experienced. When she was let go, “that old feeling showed up. The one that says maybe I’m not good enough to be here. The one that so many of us carry quietly, even when our resumes say otherwise.”
Dillard now works as a “fail forward” coach, helping her clients re-think their next move when they’ve hit what feels like failure. She also heads her platform and podcast, “Black Women Will S.A.V.E. Black Women.” The acronym stands for support, amplify, validate, and elevate. “I want Black women to give themselves permission to fail and to stop equating failure with something being wrong. Most of what we call failure is really just data. It’s information about what worked, what didn’t, and how to move differently next time,” Dillard tells ESSENCE.
“‘Black Women Will S.A.V.E. Black Women’ is about creating spaces where we can learn out loud, share what didn’t work, and move forward without shame,” she says. “I share my own failures every episode because I know there is power in transparency. There is so much power in failure when it’s treated as information instead of indictment. The goal isn’t to avoid falling: it’s to keep moving .”
Being laid off can trigger financial stress, but it is often deeply emotional, especially when your work is tied to your value, Dillard says. “That’s what makes a layoff so destabilizing. It doesn’t just take away a paycheck: it disrupts the story we’ve been living inside. When you’ve made real sacrifices for your job—time, health, relationships, rest—and then that job disappears, it forces a reckoning. You start questioning whether any of it mattered,” she continues.
There is a timeline after experiencing being let go, which Dillard stresses is not about speed as much as it’s about direction. After a layoff, don’t treat each moment like an emergency, she says. Instead, “immediately after a layoff, the priority is information, not action. Understand your severance, benefits, and unemployment options. Give yourself space to process what just happened before jumping into job applications.” In other words, get as organized as possible. Negotiate what you can.
After settling from the first few weeks to one month after the shift, assess everything: your skills, finances, energy, and actual desires for the future. Update your resume, LinkedIn, website, and any other platforms, Dillard says. Decide if entrepreneurship is the best next move, or if there’s a strategic move for your next role. If it’s the latter, create structure around the job search, with measurable and actionable goals, like applying to three intentionally chosen jobs per day.
“Between government instability, rapid AI adoption, and shifting labor priorities, the market is moving in ways that traditional job search strategies don’t always account for,” she says. Those applying to jobs today need to have a mindset ready for the moment. “By six months, patterns start to emerge. If the search isn’t moving, this isn’t a personal failure but a signal to reassess strategy. This is often when reskilling, consulting, or a pivot becomes a thoughtful decision instead of a reactive one,” she adds.
It’s also important to not isolate yourself, especially since layoffs often affect many employees at the same time. Find your group, whether it’s former coworkers who can support you as you enter your job search or fellow coworkers who were laid off and can share resources and connections. “Community is not optional during a layoff: It’s essential,” Dillard flags. “Staying connected reminds you that this moment is shared, survivable, and temporary.”
Despite the turbulence in the job market right now, from burnout to record cuts , Dillard is seeing a silver lining: the ex-Microsoft manager sees this moment as a rare opportunity to move forward as a collective.
“We were tired. We were overextended, over-performing and carrying systems that were never designed to sustain us. This moment has forced a pause that many of us wouldn’t have chosen but one we needed,” she tells ESSENCE. In that pause is the chance to grasp at evolution. “Black women are rethinking how we work, who we work for, and what we’re willing to sacrifice.”
In other words, Dillard likens the current moment to the early days of a modern version of the Harlem Renaissance, specifically “one led by Black women, shaped by our values and rooted in collective care,” she says. “This season is not the end of something: It’s the start of something more intentional, more powerful and more ours.”
The post Losing Your Job Is One Thing. Losing Yourself Is Another. Here’s How To Pick Yourself Back Up And Move Forward appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-04T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/recovering-from-layoff-black-women/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T18:00:53.103Z"},{"id":"oz1gjh","archiveId":"a9sns3","slug":"talarico-defeats-crockett-in-democratic-senate-primary-in-texas","title":"Talarico defeats Crockett in Democratic Senate primary in Texas","excerpt":"Rep. Jasmine Crockett lost the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Texas to state Rep. James Talarico, Decision Desk HQ projects. Talarico, a state lawmaker from an Austin-area district, defeated Crockett in the highly competitive primary race, which in many ways centered on race and gender.","content":"
Rep. Jasmine Crockett lost the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Texas to state Rep. James Talarico, Decision Desk HQ projects.
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Talarico, a state lawmaker from an Austin-area district, defeated Crockett in the highly competitive primary race, which in many ways centered on race and gender.
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Many in the Democratic Party viewed the race, the first major primary of the 2026 midterms, as a test of the party’s future direction. Crockett and Talarico were generally aligned on policy, and both rose to prominence in large part through social media, making the race largely about stylistic and strategic differences.
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Talarico, a former middle school teacher and seminarian, offered a vision of progressive politics rooted in his Christian faith. Much of his campaign message centered on excoriating billionaires and corporate interests, who he said are trying to divide Americans. He sought to build an inclusive, big-tent movement, campaigning in rural and deep-red parts of the state and courting support from independents and Republicans.
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“Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, whether you’re a progressive or a conservative, the real fight in this country is not left versus right. It’s top versus bottom,” Talarico said at a recent campaign rally in San Antonio.
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“We are not just trying to win an election. We are trying to fundamentally change the politics in this state and in this country,” he added. “Our nation is so divided that we can’t even share the Super Bowl anymore.”
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It’s not yet known who Talarico will face in November: no candidate received a majority of the vote in the three-way Republican primary, meaning Sen. John Cornyn is headed to a May 26 runoff against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
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There were hiccups with voting in Dallas County, a major Crockett stronghold, and Williamson County, north of Austin. Republicans in both counties ended the use of county-wide vote centers where anyone in the county could vote, and now require voters to vote in a specific precinct. On Tuesday, there were widespread reports of voters in both counties being confused about their correct polling places, leading to calls from the Crockett and Talarico camps to extend voting.
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A court order extended voting by two hours in Dallas County, but the Texas Supreme Court later temporarily blocked that ruling and ordered provisional ballots cast after 7 p.m. Central Time to be separated from other Election Day votes. In brief remarks Tuesday night, Crockett said she didn’t expect full results to come in until Wednesday.
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“So that’s my news, is that we’re not going to have election results tonight, in my opinion, based upon what specifically is taking place in Dallas County,” she said. “Unfortunately, this is what Republicans like to do. So they specifically targeted Dallas County, and I think we all know why.”
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Talarico largely refrained from attacking Crockett directly in his campaign, though he did tell Politico he was “concerned” about her assertion that she wouldn’t need to win over Trump voters in a state that backed Trump by 13 percentage points in 2024 and that she would instead seek to expand the electorate by turning out new voters.
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Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas spoke at her election night party during the Democratic primary. \n (Ron Jenkins/Getty Images) \n\n\n\n
Crockett, first elected to a Dallas-based House seat in 2022, broke out on the national stage as a progressive firebrand with her tough questioning of witnesses before the House Oversight Committee and attacks against President Donald Trump and Republicans. Crockett’s approach launched her into the national spotlight, but also drew criticism and concerns about her viability in a general election.
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She infamously insulted former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s “bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body” in a spat during a House Oversight hearing in 2024 after Greene made a dig at her eyelashes. She referred to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who uses a wheelchair, as “governor hot wheels” — she said she was referring to his busing of migrants to Democratic-controlled states. Late last year, she defended blasting a Trump Cabinet official for taking a campaign donation from “a Jeffrey Epstein” who was not, in fact, the late convicted sex offender but a Long Island physician. And in the final stretch of the campaign, a reporter from The Atlantic said armed security escorted her out of a Crockett campaign event , an allegation Crockett’s team denied .
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Crockett and her allies charged that criticisms of her strategy and concerns about electability in a general election were rooted in race and gender. She also pointed to Abbott spending millions on ads that attack her in his reelection bid as a sign that Republicans weren’t keen to run against her. She also picked up the support of former Vice President Kamala Harris, who recorded a robocall endorsing her days before the primary.
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“Some people say, ‘Listen, there’s no way that Texas will support a Black woman,” Crockett said at a recent campaign event, according to Politico . “We are a majority-minority state, we can start there. The reality is that I didn’t run because I was a woman. I ran because I’m qualified. At the end of the day. I just happened to be Black and woman, but I am the most qualified person in this. Period.”
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Supporters of James Talarico, a Texas Democratic primary candidate for U.S. Senate, cheer during a March 1 campaign event in San Antonio, Texas. \n (Brenda Bazán/AP) \n\n\n\n
Talarico will face an uphill battle in the general election in Texas, which hasn’t elected a Democrat to a statewide office since 1994. But Democrats hope that Trump’s poor approval ratings, declining poll numbers among Latinx voters who swung to Trump in 2024 and the messy three-way Republican primary could give them a shot in the Lone Star state.
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Trump declined to endorse in the GOP contest, though Senate Republicans and their official campaign arm backed Cornyn in the primary.
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Republicans control the U.S. Senate 53 to 47 votes. For Democrats to win back the chamber in 2026, they’d need to hold competitive seats in states like Georgia and Michigan while flipping four GOP-held seats in Maine, North Carolina and even more Republican-leaning states like Texas.
","category":"politics","author":"Grace Panetta","publishDate":"2026-03-04T07:15:54.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/crockettprimary.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/texas-us-senate-primary-election-results-2026/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T12:00:39.652Z"},{"id":"hhdfwy","archiveId":"d0g8v3","slug":"uzbekistans-domestic-violence-reforms-fall-short","title":"Uzbekistan's Domestic Violence Reforms Fall Short","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Women walk past a fountain in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, July 6, 2023. © 2023 Ilya Pitalev/Sputnik via AP Photo
Three years after Uzbekistan criminalized domestic violence, data shows that for women progress is too slow.","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Women walk past a fountain in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, July 6, 2023.\n © 2023 Ilya Pitalev/Sputnik via AP Photo \n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Three years after Uzbekistan criminalized domestic violence, data shows that for women progress is too slow. Ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, the government should recommit to enforcing laws that protect women and ensuring justice for victims of gender-based violence.</p><p>In a December 2025 report, the International Partnership for Human Rights noted important legal reforms but found serious gaps in implementation. These include Uzbekistan’s continued use of reconciliation in domestic violence cases, along with restricted access to shelters, services, and legal aid: barriers that continue to deny survivors justice. The report also documented how survivors continue to face social stigma, geographic disparities in services, and are confronted with insufficiently trained officials.</p><p>A 2024 study by civil society organizations and the United Nations Development Programme found that, since domestic violence became a criminal offense in Uzbekistan in April 2023, more than 55 percent of domestic violence cases were dismissed through reconciliation procedures, and over 90 percent of victims lacked legal representation.</p><p>The 2023 legislative reforms strengthened protections by introducing penalties for sexual harassment and stalking, and establishing administrative and criminal liability for domestic violence, including fines and detention, with harsher punishments for repeat or severe offenses. And, in February 2025, Uzbekistan removed the mandatory court-imposed reconciliation period in divorce cases involving domestic violence, ending a practice that often delayed proceedings, and sometimes forced women to remain in abusive relationships.</p><p>Thousands have since been prosecuted for domestic violence. According to Uzbekistan’s Supreme Court, more than 10,000 individuals were prosecuted for domestic violence in the first ten months of 2025 alone.</p><p>In February 2026, the government also approved a new state program to strengthen penalties for violence against women and children, improve enforcement, expand support services, and introduce measurable benchmarks.</p><p>While these are steps in the right direction, the numbers do not paint a full picture. The state continues to focus on reconciliation instead of prosecuting perpetrators for domestic violence crimes, leaving too many survivors without recourse to justice.</p><p>Authorities should end the routine dismissal of cases through reconciliation, ensure consistent enforcement of legal protections, expand survivor-centered services, and do more to address the surrounding stigma. Gender-based violence survivors cannot wait any longer for Uzbekistan to ensure legal reforms translate into real safety and justice.</p>","category":"safety","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-04T06:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603eca_uzbekistan_street.jpg?h=9eb0d413&itok=x8TqgZ0T","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/04/uzbekistans-domestic-violence-reforms-fall-short","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T06:00:49.574Z"},{"id":"koyz23","archiveId":"ekglst","slug":"texas-rep-tony-gonzales-advances-to-runoff-after-reported-sexual-messages-with-staffer-released","title":"Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales advances to runoff after reported sexual messages with staffer released","excerpt":"Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas has advanced to a runoff in the Republican primary for the House seat he’s held since 2020, according to Decision Desk HQ, after reports that he sent sexual text messages to a now-deceased former aide.","content":"
Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas has advanced to a runoff in the Republican primary for the House seat he’s held since 2020, according to Decision Desk HQ, after reports that he sent sexual text messages to a now-deceased former aide.
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Gonzales will face off against Brandon Herrera, who narrowly lost to Gonzales two years ago, in a May 26 runoff. Herrera is a right-wing YouTube personality who owns a firearms factory.
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The district is likely to remain Republican, and President Donald Trump has not renounced his December endorsement of Gonzales.
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In recent weeks, Gonzales has faced criticism and calls to step down — including from within his own party — over an alleged relationship with a former aide.
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The former aide, Regina Santos-Aviles, was the Uvalde district director for Gonzales. Her husband, Adrian Aviles, shared alleged exchanges between her and her boss with the media last week. (The texts have not been independently seen by The 19th.) Santos-Aviles died by suicide in September 2025.
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The reported text messages from 2024 show Gonzales pushing conversations with Santos-Aviles into a sexual direction, despite her attempts to deter him. The San Antonio Express-News first reported the content of the text messages, which appear to show an affair.
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Gonzales, a married father of six, has denied allegations of an affair.
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Aviles told The San Antonio Express-News that he discovered the affair in 2024 and reported it to his wife’s coworkers. The two eventually separated. Aviles said that before her death, his wife was ostracized in the workplace.
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Several House Republicans have called for Gonzales to step down from office, protesting sexual abuse and misconduct within their own party. GOP women in particular have taken strong stances.
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“Voters are going to have to turn out against him or force him to resign. I don’t know how he goes forward. It was disgusting and shameful, and it’s why many women feel like second-class citizens,” said Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who plans to force a vote this week on a measure that would require the release of records on sexual harassment involving lawmakers. “We’ve just got to say no more.”
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Reps. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Lauren Boebert of Colorado have also called on Gonzales to resign, as have Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Tim Burchett of Tennessee.
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“A male harassing a female employee — I can’t stomach it, dude,” Burchett said last week when approached by CNN. “I got a wife and a daughter. He needs to go.”
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Gonzales represents Texas’ 23rd District, which covers part of the state’s border with Mexico.
","category":"politics","author":"Jasmine Mithani","publishDate":"2026-03-04T05:23:08.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/gonzales.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/texas-us-house-primary-election-results-2026/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T06:00:47.007Z"},{"id":"mzjesg","archiveId":"q7oo6n","slug":"us-sanctions-rwandan-army-commanders","title":"US Sanctions Rwandan Army, Commanders","excerpt":"
(Washington, DC) – The United States government on March 2, 2026, announced sanctions on Rwanda’s military and four senior commanders because of their support for the abusive M23 armed group in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Human Rights Watch said today.","content":"<p>(Washington, DC) – The United States government on March 2, 2026, announced sanctions on Rwanda’s military and four senior commanders because of their support for the abusive M23 armed group in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Human Rights Watch said today. The sanctions have wide-reaching implications for business, financial, arms, equipment, and other transactions with the Rwandan army, the Rwanda Defence Force.</p><p>The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control stated that Rwanda’s military “is actively supporting, training, and fighting alongside the [M23],” an “armed group responsible for human rights abuses and a mass displacement crisis” in eastern Congo. The sanctions follow the Rwandan military and M23’s capture of the city of Uvira on December 10, 2025, days after the Rwandan and Congolese presidents signed a US-brokered peace agreement in Washington, DC.</p><p>“The US sanctions go beyond acting against the Rwandan military’s support for the M23 and reflect a significant effort to enforce the December 2025 Washington Accords,” said Nicole Widdersheim, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “The US is making clear that the M23’s territorial gains would have been impossible without the Rwandan military’s direct operational involvement, and that Rwanda should end its support to the M23 once and for all.”</p><p>The United Nations, the Unites States, and the European Union, as well as human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch, have reported on the M23’s widespread violations of international law, including summary executions, sexual violence, forced displacement, indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and forced recruitment, including of children. Many of the abuses occurred during and since the M23 and Rwandan military captured large swathes of territory in eastern Congo in 2025, including the provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu as well as strategic mining sites critical to the region’s economy and global mineral supply chains.</p><p>UN and military sources told Human Rights Watch that several thousand Rwandan soldiers, including special forces, crossed the border into Congo in the weeks preceding the offensive on Uvira in December. The M23 withdrew from Uvira in January following intense diplomatic pressure.</p><p>Those sanctioned include Maj. Gen. Vincent Nyakarundi, the Rwandan army chief of staff; Maj. Gen. Ruki Karusisi, commander of the 5th Infantry Division and former special forces commander; Gen. Mubarakh Muganga, the chief of defence staff; and Brig. Gen. Stanislas Gashugi, the special operations force commander.</p><p>The US sanctions block any assets these individuals or the Rwandan military may hold in the United States and prohibit US citizens from engaging in transactions with them. The Treasury Department stated in its news release that “financial institutions and other persons may risk exposure to sanctions for engaging in certain transactions or activities involving designated or otherwise blocked persons.” This could have implications for institutions partnering with the Rwandan military, including the EU and its European Peace Facility funding to Rwandan army joint military operations in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.</p><p>In February 2025, the US imposed financial and property sanctions on Rwanda’s then-minister of state and current senior defense and security adviser to the president, Gen. James Kabarebe. In March 2025, the EU sanctioned several M23 leaders, several Rwandan officials, including General Karusisi, and the head of Rwanda’s Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board, as well as a gold company for their role supporting abuses in eastern Congo. In response, the Rwandan government cut diplomatic ties to Belgium. Since then, the EU has not taken any additional measures in response to M23’s violations and Rwanda’s support for the armed group.</p><p>The new US sanctions come amid a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis in eastern Congo, where ongoing fighting has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and exposed civilians to serious abuses. The haphazard and uncoordinated international response to Rwanda’s support for the M23 has not provided a serious check on these abuses and has emboldened abusers on all sides, Human Rights Watch said.</p><p>Other concerned governments, notably in the EU, in the region, and the United Kingdom should follow the United States’ lead by imposing targeted sanctions on additional M23 commanders and Rwandan military figures and officials or entities enabling M23 abuses. The US and regional actors should ensure that monitoring mechanisms are used to enforce the peace agreement’s provisions.</p><p>Measures should also extend to any Congolese officials or allied groups whose actions pose a risk to civilians. Sustained multilateral pressure on all parties to the conflict is necessary to ensure civilians are adequately protected and have access to humanitarian assistance, Human Rights Watch said.</p><p>The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights should also intensify scrutiny of violations in eastern Congo, including through its special mechanisms. Regional accountability avenues should complement international efforts.</p><p>“The US Treasury’s announcement signals that the US government is prepared to use available tools to uphold the Washington Accords,” Widdersheim said. “The US and other governments should go beyond sanctions and press for accountability for war crimes and other grave violations of international law in eastern Congo.”</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-04T03:00:00.000Z","image":"","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/03/us-sanctions-rwandan-army-commanders","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T06:00:49.574Z","_ogAttempted":true},{"id":"pv8a82","archiveId":"lk26ki","slug":"the-road-to-the-era-runs-through-congress","title":"The Road to the ERA Runs Through Congress","excerpt":"In 1916, just as Americans were beginning to enjoy the new travel freedoms that came with motorized vehicles, a couple of frustrated leaders of the campaign to secure women’s rights to vote, Alice Snitjer Burke and Nell Richardson, secured one of the first gas-driven automobiles in the country.","content":"
In 1916, just as Americans were beginning to enjoy the new travel freedoms that came with motorized vehicles, a couple of frustrated leaders of the campaign to secure women’s rights to vote, Alice Snitjer Burke and Nell Richardson, secured one of the first gas-driven automobiles in the country. They named the car, a Saxon, Golden Flyer and set off across the country to get support for what would become the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote.
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Yes, the original ‘road trip’ was an act of political audacity. Long before women even had the vote, these two women drove into towns across America, on their own, spoke in town squares, slept in boarding houses and not surprisingly, endured ridicule and resistance. They were history’s first \"Thelma and Louise.\" This road trip had a very different ending, of course, as it led to the passage of constitutional clarity on the question of voting rights, at least for white women, with the 19th Amendment. Getting that right guaranteed for all women, whatever race or circumstances, would still take other struggles. And the campaign for full equality for all women didn’t end with the Drive across America for voting rights.
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The struggle for a constitutional guarantee of equality has led to another road trip across America: Driving the Vote for Women’s Equality Tour.
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The post The Road to the ERA Runs Through Congress appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Pat Mitchell","publishDate":"2026-03-03T22:09:14.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-141713430.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/03/era-road-trip-congress-equal-rights-amendment-constitution/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T00:00:49.066Z"},{"id":"24uj9s","archiveId":"lpcrw0","slug":"survival-mode-isnt-a-strategy-the-lesson-in-hanifas-pause","title":"Survival Mode Isn’t A Strategy: The Lesson In Hanifa’s Pause","excerpt":"We adore a comeback. We worship momentum. If something is working, we insist it accelerate. What unsettles us, though, is a pause. Is this a fall-off? Mismanagement? The beginning of […] The post Survival Mode Isn’t A Strategy: The Lesson In Hanifa’s Pause appeared first on Essence .","content":"
Composite by India Espy-Jones
By
Karissa Mitchell ·
Updated March 3, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
We adore a comeback. We worship momentum. If something is working, we insist it accelerate. What unsettles us, though, is a pause. Is this a fall-off? Mismanagement? The beginning of the end? When a fast-rising brand hits the brakes, whether to address ful>Hanifa has publicly paused production after facing backlash over delayed pre-orders and operational strain. In a society that already places disproportionate strain on Black women, the demand to operate flawlessly while postpartum feels especially unforgiving. Accountability still matters, of course. But so does acknowledging the human context in which these decisions are being made. In a candid video shared to her Instagram, founder Anifa Mvuemba framed the moment not as defeat, but as a decision to stop rushing, to rebuild, to choose intention over optics. It was less of an apology tour, and more about recalibration. And she isn’t alone.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hanifa (@hanifaofficial)
What makes the discourse around production pauses so revealing isn’t the delay itself. It’s our reaction to it. We panic when momentum slows. We read recalibration as collapse. We treat stillness like a red flag instead of a strategy.
It wasn’t too long ago that Telfar temporarily halted its hyper-demand drop model after overwhelming sellouts exposed the limits of its supply chain. Instead of leaning further into scarcity, the brand introduced its Bag Security Program—a made-to-order system designed to prioritize access and production accuracy over hype. When Pyer Moss went quiet following its couture moment and cultural dominance, the group chat lit up, a reminder of how quickly cultural heat can strain operational systems. Supreme built its model on tightly controlled drops, limiting supply to avoid overextension and resisting rapid expansion for years before acquisition . It resisted overexpansion for years before acquisition. Resets actually seem to be a part of the rhythm.
Not to mention, the beauty space is no exception. Glossier’s restructuring period made clear that hypergrowth without internal alignment eventually demands correction. Pat McGrath Labs, once valued at over $1 billion, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early 2026, underscoring how even culturally beloved brands can hit financial limits when momentum outruns sustainable business execution. Pauses are not rare. They’re just uncomfortable. Because somewhere along the way, we started confusing speed with strength.
In fashion, especially in the age of social media, motion equals relevance. New drop. New campaign. New collaboration. Algorithms reward output. Consumers reward visibility. The uncomfortable truth about rapid growth is that momentum can move faster than systems can support. Growth changes the conditions, and systems that once felt efficient can quickly become inadequate.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hanifa (@hanifaofficial)
A pre-order model works until it scales beyond production capacity. A cult following grows until customer service teams are underwater. A moment becomes a movement, and suddenly you’re expected to operate like a conglomerate without conglomerate capital. That tension isn’t scandalous. It’s math.
And let’s be very honest here, there’s an added layer when the brands in question are independent and Black-owned. They don’t just carry inventory; they carry symbolism. Representation. Community pride. Cultural investment. When a brand like Hanifa succeeds, it isn’t seen as just a business win, it feels collective. So when it pauses, it can feel personal. But the symbolic weight doesn’t eliminate operational limits. If anything, it intensifies the pressure to perform resilience. To keep proving you can handle it. To keep scaling to stay relevant. And to keep delivering at a pace that defies the natural rhythm of building something sustainable.
The word “resilience” has become an aspirational branding language. But resilience without rest is just survival mode. And survival mode is not a long-term strategy.
What if stillness isn’t stagnation? What if it’s system-building? What if the most responsible move a founder can make is to say: we need to fix this before we grow further? In business terms, that’s discipline. In cultural terms, it’s almost radical.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hanifa (@hanifaofficial)
We’ve built an ecosystem that rewards spectacle over structure. Drops over development. Announcements over assembly lines. We see the runway show at the front end, the influencer unboxing, and the sold-out banner. We rarely see the back end of the manufacturing bottlenecks, the warehouse strain, the vendor negotiations, the late nights spent reconciling growth with reality. A pause disrupts the fantasy. It forces us to look at fashion not as magic, but as mechanics. And that might be the most uncomfortable part.
There’s a reason conglomerates invest years into supply chain logistics before scaling globally. Infrastructure is invisible until it fails. Then, it’s all anyone can see. Independent brands, especially those propelled by digital momentum, often build the plane while flying it. Sometimes that works beautifully. Sometimes it requires a midair adjustment. That adjustment is rarely graceful. It may come with refunds, criticism, and even disappointment. But it can also come with clarity.
The brands that survive beyond their viral moment are usually the ones that learn to separate applause from architecture. Hype can launch you, but only systems can sustain you. When Telfar pivoted its model, it wasn’t abandoning demand; it was reorganizing around it. When Pyer Moss recalibrated, it wasn’t erasing impact; it was protecting longevity. When luxury houses go quiet between eras, they’re not disappearing, just designing the next chapter.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hanifa (@hanifaofficial)
Stillness is not the absence of work. It’s often where the most important work happens. It just isn’t glamorous. There’s nothing flashy about restructuring ful rel=\"tag\">anifa mvuemba Hanifa
The post Survival Mode Isn’t A Strategy: The Lesson In Hanifa’s Pause appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-03T22:04:57.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/HANIFA-1920x1080.png","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/fashion-oped-hanifa-pause-production/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T00:00:55.031Z"},{"id":"7mj4wi","archiveId":"l8x7x0","slug":"sundance-2026-big-girls-dont-cry-is-an-empathetic-slice-of-life-portrait-of-one-teenage-girl8217s-su","title":"Sundance 2026: ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ Is an Empathetic, Slice-of-Life Portrait of One Teenage Girl’s Summer","excerpt":"For adults who’ve conveniently blocked out memories of their own teenage angst, director Paloma Schneideman’s Big Girls Don’t Cry may bring all those feelings roaring back—but it’ll also urge you to have a little empathy for the younger version of yourself.","content":"
For adults who’ve conveniently blocked out memories of their own teenage angst, director Paloma Schneideman’s Big Girls Don’t Cry may bring all those feelings roaring back—but it’ll also urge you to have a little empathy for the younger version of yourself.
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A New Zealand entry in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic competition, the film is a sensitive, insightful portrayal of how teenagers struggle to sort out their own mixed motivations while shuttling constantly between big adult feelings and childlike urges.
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(This is one in a series of film reviews from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, focused on films by women, trans or nonbinary directors that tell compelling stories about the lives of women and girls.)
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The post Sundance 2026: ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ Is an Empathetic, Slice-of-Life Portrait of One Teenage Girl’s Summer appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"lgbtq","author":"Aviva Dove-Viebahn","publishDate":"2026-03-03T21:30:43.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Big_Girls_Dont_Cry-Still_2-scaled.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/03/sundance-big-girls-dont-cry/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T00:00:49.066Z"},{"id":"h2r4fk","archiveId":"blg15c","slug":"stubhub-just-launched-hersportshub-a-one-stop-ticket-hub-for-womens-sports","title":"StubHub Just Launched HerSportsHub, A One-Stop Ticket Hub For Women’s Sports","excerpt":"At some point you have probably pulled up a ticketing app looking for WNBA (or any women’s sporting event) seats and ended up spending more time digging through search results […] The post StubHub Just Launched HerSportsHub, A One-Stop Ticket Hub For Women’s Sports appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Kimberly Wilson ·
Updated March 3, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
At some point you have probably pulled up a ticketing app looking for WNBA (or any women’s sporting event) seats and ended up spending more time digging through search results and clicking through filters than actually finding what you came for.
StubHub heard our prayers and just launched something specifically built for that problem.
The company launched HerSportsHub this week, the first dedicated women’s sports ticket hub in the resale market. The hub pulls together tickets for WNBA, NWSL, PWHL and NCAA Women’s Basketball all in one centralized place, and if you want to know why it’s necessary, look at the last two Olympics.
WNBA demand is up 360% in Olympic years, NWSL jumped 150% during the Paris Games in 2024, and PWHL surged 252% during this year’s Winter Games. And the momentum did not stop with the Olympics. In the 30 days after the closing ceremony, ticket buyers for women’s sports jumped 199% and 88% of those buyers were purchasing women’s sports tickets for the very first time. Unique buyers across women’s sports grew 64% during Olympic periods overall and it is consistent across every league. StubHub says HerSportsHub is here year round, not just for March, and that is not changing anytime soon.
StubHub is also putting $100,000 into StubHub Access: New York , a youth ticket fund focused on getting younger fans into live women’s sporting events. StubHub says additional details about the program will be announced later this year.
Black women have been central to the WNBA’s fanbase since the league’s early days, supporting these athletes through seasons that did not always get the coverage or the resources they deserved. This growth did not come from nowhere. It was built on years of consistent fandom, word of mouth, and a genuine connection to the players and the game. What’s shifting now is that the wider audience is catching on, and the industry is finally building around what fans like us were already doing.
And these leagues have given people every reason to be there. The WNBA, NWSL and a PWHL that is only two seasons old have been delivering and the fans showing up for the first time right now are not going anywhere. HerSportsHub just makes getting there a lot less complicated.
HerSportsHub is live now on StubHub.
The post StubHub Just Launched HerSportsHub, A One-Stop Ticket Hub For Women’s Sports appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-03T21:04:10.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/sports/hersportshub-womens-sports-ticket-hub/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T00:00:55.031Z"},{"id":"sz37k9","archiveId":"ejb5t5","slug":"thursday-march-5-in-st-paul-minn-elaine-welteroth-and-janell-hobson-on-the-power-of-feminist-media","title":"Thursday, March 5, in St. Paul, Minn.: Elaine Welteroth and Janell Hobson on the Power of Feminist Media","excerpt":"The Luann Dummer Center for Women at the University of St. Thomas will host a Women’s History Month event on Thursday, March 5, featuring a moderated conversation between Elaine Welteroth, former editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue , and Dr. Janell Hobson, writer and contributing editor at Ms. magazine.","content":"
The Luann Dummer Center for Women at the University of St. Thomas will host a Women’s History Month event on Thursday, March 5, featuring a moderated conversation between Elaine Welteroth, former editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue , and Dr. Janell Hobson, writer and contributing editor at Ms. magazine.
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The event, titled \"Ms. Magazine to Teen Vogue : Essential Feminist Journalism,\" will explore the long history and present necessity of feminist voices in an evolving media landscape. The conversation will be moderated by Nina Moini of Minnesota Public Radio and will include an open audience Q&A.
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The post Thursday, March 5, in St. Paul, Minn.: Elaine Welteroth and Janell Hobson on the Power of Feminist Media appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"resilience","author":"Ms. Editors","publishDate":"2026-03-03T20:53:07.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Thursday-March-5-University-of-St.-Thomas-QA-With-Elaine-Welteroth-and-Janell-Hobson-on-the-Power-of-Feminist-Media.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/03/march-5-st-paul-elaine-welteroth-janell-hobson-on-feminist-media/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T00:00:49.066Z"},{"id":"n7i6o0","archiveId":"hbs6j3","slug":"us-state-revokes-gender-affirming-identification","title":"US State Revokes Gender-Affirming Identification","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Transgender and LGBTQ rights flags sit on the desks of legislators in the Kansas House chamber in Topeka, February 19, 2026. © 2026 John Hanna/AP Photo
Across the state of Kansas, transgender people are receiving letters informing them that their driver’s licenses are invali...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Transgender and LGBTQ rights flags sit on the desks of legislators in the Kansas House chamber in Topeka, February 19, 2026.\n © 2026 John Hanna/AP Photo \n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Across the state of Kansas, transgender people are receiving letters informing them that their driver’s licenses are invalid following the passage of a law that invalidates birth certificates and driver’s licenses that do not reflect the bearer’s sex assigned at birth.</p><p>The law also prohibits transgender people from using bathrooms and facilities inconsistent with their sex assigned at birth in all public buildings, making it among the most severe bans in the United States.</p><p>The driver’s license revocations are part of a larger legislative onslaught against transgender people that is playing out in states across the country. According to the ACLU, more than 400 bills are pending before state legislatures that would target lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. And at the federal level, the US Supreme Court recently allowed the US State Department to stop processing applications for passports that display nonbinary gender markers or a gender other than the bearer’s sex assigned at birth.</p><p>In the midst of this backlash, several states have barred transgender people from obtaining documentation that reflects their gender identity. As of February 2026, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Tennessee, and Texas do not allow people to update the gender marker on their driver’s licenses, and these states as well as Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Montana do not allow people to update the gender marker on their birth certificate. Some other states have onerous requirements for such changes, like restricting access to people who have had gender-affirming surgery or can secure a court order.</p><p>These laws expose many transgender people to a real risk of discrimination and violence by forcing people to carry identification that is inconsistent with their identity and gender presentation. Kansas’s law goes even further than other states have by invalidating legal identification that has already been issued. This threatens people’s ability to exercise other rights, including their ability to travel and vote, unless and until they obtain new identification inconsistent with their gender identity.</p><p>Federal and state lawmakers, including those in Kansas, should swiftly ensure all people can obtain and keep identification that reflects their gender identity, without burdensome requirements. And they should ensure that no right, from freedom of movement to voting, is curtailed by cruel attacks on the rights of transgender people.</p>","category":"lgbtq","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-03T20:05:29.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603lgbt_us_kansas.jpg?h=b8aa45f6&itok=k8pkxgUE","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/03/us-state-revokes-gender-affirming-identification","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T00:00:54.289Z"},{"id":"gssiou","archiveId":"a54v8i","slug":"olandrias-new-pixie-cut-took-over-milan-fashion-week-fw26","title":"Olandria’s New Pixie Cut Took Over Milan Fashion Week FW26","excerpt":"For Black women, pixie cuts have proven to be a pre-spring favorite. They’re cool, sexy, and work on virtually every face shape. But, this time around, there’s one specific style […] The post Olandria’s New Pixie Cut Took Over Milan Fashion Week FW26 appeared first on Essence .","content":"India Espy-Jones ·Updated March 3, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready…
For Black women, pixie cuts have proven to be a pre-spring favorite. They’re cool, sexy, and work on virtually every face shape. But, this time around, there’s one specific >Justine Skye, Quinta Brunson , and now, Love Island sweetheart Olandria Carthen.
MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 27: Olandria Carthen attends the Blumarine fashion show during the Milan Womenswear Fall/Winter 2026/2027 Fashion Week on February 27, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Alena Zakirova/Getty Images)
The last we saw Olandria in Europe, she was at couture week in Paris. Her ’70s blowout fringe at Valentino was to die for. But, naturally, she switched it up for Milan. There, she proved to be a fan of the
The post Olandria’s New Pixie Cut Took Over Milan Fashion Week FW26 appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-03T19:34:52.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/olandria-wolf-cut-pixie-milan-fashion-week-fw26/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T00:00:55.031Z"},{"id":"whmhoo","archiveId":"rf6u4q","slug":"our-favorite-fashion-moments-from-milan-fashion-week","title":"Our Favorite Fashion Moments From Milan Fashion Week","excerpt":"Now that Milan Fashion Week FW26 has come to a close, a few moments from the season are still living rent-free in our minds. Maximilian Davis is still going strong […] The post Our Favorite Fashion Moments From Milan Fashion Week appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated March 3, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Now that Milan Fashion Week FW26 has come to a close, a few moments from the season are still living rent-free in our minds. Maximilian Davis is still going strong at the helm of Ferragamo after presenting his 7th collection. British-Nigerian designer Tokyo James showcased his collection “Harmony.” Meanwhile, Demna made his highly anticipated debut for Gucci, marking a major moment for the heritage house. Then, Maria Grazia Chiuri’s debut at Fendi spotlighted playful and reimagined Baguette bags, signaling a fun and fresh new start at the label.
Scroll ahead to read more about our favorite moments at Milan Fashion Week.
Maximillian Davis’ 7th Ferragamo Collection
For his seventh season with Ferragamo, Central Saint Martins alum Maximilian Davis revisits the brand’s roots, drawing inspiration from its founding year, 1920. The collection features shawl colors, ties tucked into waistbands, bubble-hemmed skirts with silk-lined bodices, double-breasted suit jackets, gowns cinched at the hem, and oversized wool coats.
MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 28: A model walks the runway at the Salvatore Ferragamo Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 2026/2027 fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week on February 28, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images) Emerging Nigerian Designer, Tokyo James, Showcased His “Harmony” Collection
Tokyo James’ show Harmony explored the balance of opposing forces, reflecting his own identity as a British-Nigerian. Through texture and shape, he examined how contrast can coexist in harmony. A standout look featured a sheer button-up shirt paired with black leather panels and orange fringe cascading from the legs. Models also wore coats with built-in scarves, tousled tweed dresses, and layered belts.
MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 28: A model walks the runway at the Tokyo James Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 2026/2027 fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week on February 28, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images) Demna Staged His First Runway Show For Gucci
Channeling the same unapologetic sensuality that Tom Ford cemented at Gucci in the ’90s, Demna delivered a collection pulsing with that familiar, high-gloss provocation. An extended runway sliced by a single beam of light nodded to Ford’s iconic presentations, setting the tone before a single look even emerged. Peeking thongs, razor-low tight pants, monogrammed satchels, dangerously high mules, and micro minis made one thing clear: Gucci is back.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by GUCCI (@gucci)
The Return of the Fendi Baguette Marks a Playful New Chapter at Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Debut
Maria Grazia Chiuri makes her Fendi debut following Kim Jones’s departure, and one highlight has everyone talking: the playful, statement-making Baguette bags. Standouts from the runway included a multicolored sequin-adorneddecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2263505151-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Our Favorite Fashion Moments From Milan Fashion Week\" width=\"400\" height=\"561\" />MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 25: A model, bag detail, walks the runway at the Fendi fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week – Womenswear Fall/Winter 2026/2027 on February 25, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Daniele Venturelli/WireImage)
The post Our Favorite Fashion Moments From Milan Fashion Week appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Mecca Pryor","publishDate":"2026-03-03T19:01:50.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/our-favorite-fashion-moments-from-milan-fashion-week/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T00:00:55.031Z"},{"id":"2cnbe","archiveId":"g63c54","slug":"essence-authors-demond-martins-new-book-friends-of-the-good-reveals-the-power-of-chosen-family","title":"ESSENCE AUTHORS: Demond Martin’s New Book ‘Friends Of The Good’ Reveals The Power Of Chosen Family","excerpt":"What about your friends? Solid friendships have the ability to fortify, inspire and keep us grounded when the world around us gets unpredictable and even scary. Without them, we can […] The post ESSENCE AUTHORS: Demond Martin’s New Book ‘Friends Of The Good’ Reveals The Power Of Chosen Family appear...","content":"
By
Bridgette Bartlett Royall ·
Updated March 3, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
What about your friends? Solid friendships have the ability to fortify, inspire and keep us grounded when the world around us gets unpredictable and even scary. Without them, we can lose our way and with them? A trusted friendship is simply priceless.
Lauded investor, philanthropist and speaker Demond Martin has tapped into this philosophy with his new book, Friends of the Good. Published by Storehouse Publishing , an imprint of Crown Publishing, the inspirational title will be officially released on March 31, 2026. The married father of two tapped into his personal and professional friendships to enlighten readers of how influential these bonds have been in shaping Martin into the man he has become. One of Martin’s many accomplishments include being CEO of WellWithAll , an innovative health and wellness company that pours a significant portion of its profits into health equity for Black, Brown, and underserved communities; further proof that he’s serious about giving back as he climbs.
Alongside writer and editor Corey Hajim, and featuring a foreword by journalist Michele Norris, Friends of the Good delivers impactful anecdotes and personal testimonies from Martin that inspire, motivate and celebrate the importance of community and connection.
CEO Demond Martin examines the power of powerful friendships in his new book. / PHOTO COURTESY OF STOREHOUSE PUBLISHING
Focal points in Friends of the Good include:
Chosen Family: Martin shares how his chosen family, including his beloved brothers of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. , helped shape his entrepreneurial and industrious spirit, paving the way for pivotal career roles at The White House, a major investment firm, and ultimately co-founding his company that delivers wellness solutions to underserved communities.
Relationships Save: Martin reflects on how it wasn’t luck or chance that helped him overcome difficult circumstances, but the strength of the relationships he cultivated both personally and professionally.
Three Types of Companionship: Martin explores three crucial forms of companionship at the center of our orbits — convenience, pleasure, and virtue.
Leaning on valuable life lessons from his firsthand experience working on nonprofit boards like the Obama Foundation , building portfolios on Wall Street and serving as a trustee for the Berklee College of Music, each chapter concludes with insights that expand Martin’s stories into universal lessons. This offers readers quick, actionable and practical takeaways they can immediately apply to their own lives.
“Friends of the Good tells the stories of the most important people in my life: those who showed up, guided me, cared for me, and invested in my success and happiness,” says the WellWithAll CEO. “It’s not a self-help book ; it’s an honest story of my life and its lessons, and it’s about the people who have stood at every threshold to hold my hand as they steered me toward a >intentional storytelling by publishing books that strongly resonate with Black women while elevating culture and community. Friends of the Good challenges readers to reconsider the role of friendship not as a luxury, but as a foundational force for leadership and resilience. Friends of the Good is now available for pre-orders .
TOPICS:
black authors black books Essence Authors friendship
The post ESSENCE AUTHORS: Demond Martin’s New Book ‘Friends Of The Good’ Reveals The Power Of Chosen Family appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Bridgette Bartlett","publishDate":"2026-03-03T18:30:55.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/books/essence-authors-demond-martin-friends-of-the-good/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-04T00:00:55.031Z"},{"id":"v3wwtu","archiveId":"puhdos","slug":"our-favorite-celebrity-looks-from-milan-fashion-week","title":"Our Favorite Celebrity Looks From Milan Fashion Week","excerpt":"Milan Fashion Week has officially wrapped, and all eyes are shifting to Paris Fashion Week. But, before the industry turns its full attention to Paris, it’s worth revisiting some of […] The post Our Favorite Celebrity Looks From Milan Fashion Week appeared first on Essence .","content":"
Jacopo Raule/Getty Images for Bottega Veneta
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated March 3, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Milan Fashion Week has officially wrapped, and all eyes are shifting to Paris Fashion Week. But, before the industry turns its full attention to Paris, it’s worth revisiting some of the standout celebritysrc=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2263963863-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Our Favorite Celebrity Looks From Milan Fashion Week\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" />MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 27: Olandria Carthen attends the GCDS fashion show during the Milan Womenswear Fall/Winter 2026/2027 Fashion Week on February 27, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Alena Zakirova/Getty Images) Megan Thee Stallion At Roberto Cavalli
At Roberto Cavalli, Megan Thee Stallion stepped out in a fully sheer, patterned maxi dress that clung to her curves and teased skin beneath. She completed the sultry moment with shield- src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2263735951-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Our Favorite Celebrity Looks From Milan Fashion Week\" width=\"400\" height=\"612\" />MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 26: (EDITOR’S NOTE: Image contains partial nudity.) Megan Thee Stallion attends the Roberto Cavalli show during Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2026/2027 on February 26, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Max Cisotti/Dave Benett/Getty Images) Coco Jones At Roberto Cavalli
Seated alongside her, Coco Jones channeled pure Diana Ross glamour with voluminous, waist-grazing curls tinted a rich brownish-red. She wore a deep-cut, cape- decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2263762699-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Our Favorite Celebrity Looks From Milan Fashion Week\" width=\"400\" height=\"599\" />MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 26: Coco Jones attends the Roberto Cavalli fashion show during the Milan Womenswear Fall/Winter 2026/2027 Fashion Week on February 26, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Valentina Frugiuele/WireImage) Lauryn Hill Attended The Bottega Show
Lauryn Hill stepped out in support of Louis Trotter’s sophomore presentation for Bottega Veneta. Upon arrival, she was spotted in a bold red jacket paired with playful recycled fiberglass fringe detailing and sleek black trousers. She completed the look with crisp white shoes crafted in the house’s signature intrecciato leather weave and a cream leather fringe clutch. True to form, she wore her signature short, coiled locs, finishing the ensemble with grey gradient sunglasses.
MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 28: Lauryn Hill is seen arriving at the Bottega Veneta fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2026/2027 on February 28, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Jacopo Raule/Getty Images for Bottega Veneta)TOPICS:
Celebrity Looks Milan Fashion Week
The post Our Favorite Celebrity Looks From Milan Fashion Week appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Mecca Pryor","publishDate":"2026-03-03T17:20:58.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2264104876-Cropped-1-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/our-favorite-celebrity-looks-from-milan-fashion-week-fw-26/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T18:00:55.601Z"},{"id":"xsgnod","archiveId":"pki03p","slug":"kerry-washington8217s-beauty-038-style-evolution","title":"Kerry Washington’s Beauty & Style Evolution","excerpt":"In just over one week, ESSENCE’s 19th annual Black Women in Hollywood ceremony, honoring the Black women shaping the future of film and television, will honor the trajectory of none […] The post Kerry Washington’s Beauty & Style Evolution appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
The post Kerry Washington’s Beauty & Style Evolution appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-03T17:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/kerry-washington-beauty-style-evolution/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T18:00:55.601Z"},{"id":"noutod","archiveId":"52m8gr","slug":"dj-vu-all-over-again","title":"Déjà vu all over again","excerpt":"The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here. The Supreme Court is continuing to […] The post Déjà vu all over again appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"
The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here .
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The Supreme Court is continuing to chip away at its relist backlog, though not exactly at warp speed. The justices denied review in three such cases on Monday. Most notably, they closed the book (for now) on the remaining Second Amendment challenges to the federal ban on felons possessing firearms. In late January, the court denied review in 76 of the 78 petitions then pending that raised that issue. Monday, it disposed of the final two holdouts – Vincent v. Bondi Thompson v. United States
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The court also denied review in Johnson v. High Desert State Prison dissented from the denial . They argued that prohibiting fee-splitting is both legally incorrect and functionally shuts the courthouse doors to prisoners who typically earn between 13 cents and $1.30 per hour. It takes only four votes to grant review; it’s noteworthy that none of the remaining six justices was willing to provide the fourth vote as a courtesy.
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There is just one new relist this week, but it has a distinctly familiar feel. Kendrick Jarrell Beaird was spotted pointing his Glock pistol at someone at an abandoned fast-food restaurant. That’s never a good idea, particularly when, like Beaird, you’re a former felon and prohibited from possessing firearms. Beaird was convicted and because his Glock had a full 17-round magazine, his sentence was enhanced because the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines increase the base offense level if the firearm is capable of accepting a “large capacity magazine,” and the Sentencing Commission’s official commentary defines that term to include magazines holding more than 15 rounds.
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In Beaird v. United States Vincent and Thompson , that argument appears to face long odds.
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Second, and more interestingly, Beaird challenges the Sentencing Guidelines enhancement. He contends that the Supreme Court’s 2019 decision in Kisor v. Wilkie Stinson v. United States Kisor trims Stinson , though many – including the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 3rd and 9th Circuits – have concluded that the “large capacity magazine” commentary survives. That broader deference question is currently pending before the court in five-time relist Poore v. United States Stinson ’s vitality, Beaird could be a way to do so – but because this particular commentary may satisfy Kisor , it would likely ride in tandem with (or trail behind) Poore .
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Finally, Beaird renews the perennial commerce clause argument: that Congress lacks authority to criminalize possession of a firearm based solely on the fact that it crossed state lines at some point in the past. He urges the court to reconsider precedents approving that minimal nexus in light of more recent federalism decisions that require a showing of an affect on commerce. The court has repeatedly declined similar invitations, and is likely to do so here.
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The government opposes certiorari across the board, emphasizing the court’s recent denials on each issue and arguing that Beaird is a poor vehicle in any event (perhaps particularly because he reportedly told police he was trying to sell the gun, which tends to strengthen the commerce nexus).
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That’s all for this week!
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New Relists
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Beaird v. United States 25-5343
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Issues: (1) Whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) comports with the Second Amendment; (2) whether Stinson v. United States
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Returning Relists
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Smith v. Scott 24-1099
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Issues : (1) Whether, viewing the facts from the officers’ perspective at the time, the officers acted reasonably under the Fourth Amendment by using bodyweight pressure to restrain a potentially armed and actively resisting individual only until handcuffing could be accomplished; and (2) whether the panel erred in denying qualified immunity where no case clearly established that pre-handcuffing bodyweight pressure violates the Fourth Amendment.
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(Relisted after the Sept. 29, Oct. 10, Oct. 17, Nov. 7, Nov. 14, Nov. 21, Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20 and Feb. 27 conferences.)
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Foote v. Ludlow School Committee 25-77
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Issue : Whether a public school violates parents’ constitutional rights when, without parental knowledge or consent, the school encourages a student to transition to a new “gender” or participates in that process.
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(Relisted after the Nov. 21, Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20 and Feb. 27 conferences.)
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Fields v. Plappert 23-6912
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Issue: Whether the requirement that a verdict be based only on the evidence presented in the courtroom at trial satisfies 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1) ‘s “clearly established” requirement, and if so, whether a jury’s consideration of and reliance on extrinsic evidence as part of a jury experiment violates this rule.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9 and Jan. 16 conferences; now being held for consideration of response to Fields’ rehearing petition.)
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Reed v. Goertz 24-1268
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Issue : Whether Article 64 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure , as authoritatively construed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, violates due process by arbitrarily denying prisoners access to postconviction DNA testing, rendering illusory prisoners’ state-created right to prove their innocence through newly discovered evidence.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20 and Feb. 27 conferences.)
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Gator’s Custom Guns, Inc. v. Washington 25-153
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Issue: Whether ammunition feeding devices with the capacity to hold more than ten rounds are “Arms” presumptively entitled to constitutional protection under the plain text of the Second Amendment.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20 and Feb. 27 conferences.)
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Duncan v. Bonta 25-198
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Issue: (1) Whether a ban on the possession of exceedingly common ammunition feeding devices violates the Second Amendment; and (2) whether a law dispossessing citizens, without compensation, of property that they lawfully acquired and long possessed without incident violates the takings clause.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20 and Feb. 27 conferences.)
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Viramontes v. Cook County 25-238
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Issue : Whether the Second and 14th Amendments guarantee the right to possess AR-15 platform and similar semiautomatic rifles.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20 and Feb. 27 conferences.)
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Zorn v. Linton 25-297
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Issue: Whether the Second Circuit’s qualified immunity analysis conflicts with this court’s repeated instruction that courts must define rights with specificity and look for close factual analogues in determining whether a Fourth Amendment right is clearly established.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20 and Feb. 27 conferences.)
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Villarreal v. Alaniz 25-29
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Issue : (1) Whether it obviously violates the First Amendment to arrest someone for asking government officials questions and publishing the information they volunteer; and (2) whether qualified immunity is unavailable to public officials who use a state statute in a way that obviously violates the First Amendment, or whether qualified immunity shields those officials.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16 and Jan. 23 conferences; record requested and now held awaiting arrival.)
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Sittenfeld v. United States 25-49
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Issue: Whether, when the government alleges bribery based solely on lawful campaign contributions, the defendant may be convicted based on evidence that is ambiguous as to whether the public official conditioned any official act on the campaign contributions.
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(Relisted after the Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20 and Feb. 27 conferences.)
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Poore v. United States 25-227
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Issue: Whether the limits on agency deference announced in Kisor v. Wilkie Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo
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(Relisted after the Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20 and Feb. 27 conferences.)
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District of Columbia v. R.W. 25-248
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Issue : (1) Whether a court assessing the existence of reasonable suspicion under the Fourth Amendment may exclude a fact known to the officer, or instead must assess all the evidence when weighing the totality of the circumstances; and (2) whether, under the totality-of-the-circumstances test, the officer in this case had reasonable suspicion to conduct an investigative stop.
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(Relisted after the Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20 and Feb. 27 conferences.)
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Stroble v. Oklahoma Tax Commission 25-382
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Issue : Whether Oklahoma may tax the income of a Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen who lives and works within the Muscogee (Creek) Reservation that McGirt v. Oklahoma
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(Relisted after the Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20 and Feb. 27 conferences.)
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Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Fazaga 25-430
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Issue : Whether dismissal of a claim after assertion of the state-secrets privilege requires a district court to adjudicate the merits of the claim using the privileged information where the privileged information is relevant to a defense.
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(Relisted after the Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, Feb. 20 and Feb. 27 conferences.)
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National Association for Gun Rights v. Lamont 25-421
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Issue : Whether a ban on the possession of AR-15-style rifles and firearm magazines with a capacity in excess of 10 rounds violates the Second Amendment.
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(Relisted after the Feb. 20 and Feb. 27 conferences.)
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Grant v. Higgins 25-566
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Issue : Whether the Second and 14th Amendments guarantee the right to possess semiautomatic rifles that are in common use for lawful purposes, including the AR-15.
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(Relisted after the Feb. 20 and Feb. 27 conferences.)
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Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guahan 25-579
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Issues: (1) Whether the federal government’s submission to a state or territorial regulator of an application to renew a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 permit is “final agency action” that is immediately reviewable under the Administrative Procedure Act ; and (2) whether the federal government must comply with the general environmental-review procedures of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 , before submitting a permit-renewal application under RCRA, which sets forth its own specific procedures to review environmental impacts in the context of hazardous-waste treatment.
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(Relisted after the Feb. 20 and Feb. 27 conferences.)
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The post Déjà vu all over again appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"John Elwood","publishDate":"2026-03-03T16:09:27.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/cameras-banner.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/deja-vu-all-over-again/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T18:01:01.969Z"},{"id":"nltev1","archiveId":"kbp7kt","slug":"a-record-share-of-us-workers-now-have-access-to-paid-leave","title":"A record share of U.S. workers now have access to paid leave","excerpt":"A third of American workers now have access to some form of government-issued paid leave — the biggest share ever. The United States is one of only a handful of countries that doesn’t have a federal paid leave policy offering workers paid time off after the birth of a child or to seek medical care,...","content":"
A third of American workers now have access to some form of government-issued paid leave — the biggest share ever.
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The United States is one of only a handful of countries that doesn’t have a federal paid leave policy offering workers paid time off after the birth of a child or to seek medical care, for example, and access to unpaid leave is only about 30 years old . In that dearth of federal action, states have moved ahead to pass 14 paid leave laws since 2002, which now cover a third of the population. Ten of those were passed in the past decade, as support for paid leave has risen ; three go into effect this year.
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Some states’ paid family and medical leave programs expand beyond time off to care for a new baby or to get medical treatment. Last year, Colorado expanded its paid leave program to include an additional 12 weeks for parents of babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. In Oregon, survivors of domestic violence also qualify for paid leave. Connecticut offers paid leave if you’re serving as an organ or bone marrow donor .
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According to research from the National Partnership for Women & Families, a nonprofit advocacy group, the 14 laws now cover 32 percent of private-sector workers, an estimated 46 million people. Of those covered, a third are women, a third are men and another third are parents. Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders have especially benefited — 55 percent have paid leave through their state programs, as do 41 percent of Latinx workers due to a concentration of these communities in states that have enacted programs.
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Paid leave laws are in 13 blue states and the District of Columbia: California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New York, Washington, Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Oregon, Colorado, Maryland, Delaware and Minnesota.
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Though other workers may receive paid leave from their employers, workers of color — and especially women of color — are less likely to be in jobs that offer any paid leave. That’s one of the reasons advocates have pointed to a state or federal system as an equalizer that could improve access.
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“All workers will at some point need paid leave, whether for their own health or to care for loved ones. But when access is not guaranteed, the workers least likely to have paid leave also tend to be those who are likely to face greater health and caregiving challenges and have fewer financial resources to fall back on,” the National Partnership for Women & Families noted in its report.
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Low-wage workers, two-thirds of whom are women , have less access to paid family and medical leave from their employers than do high-wage workers.
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“This creates a double bind for low-wage workers who often can’t take off unpaid time because they lack savings or might lose their job if they do. This inequity especially impacts women who are more likely to be low-wage workers and at the same time do two-thirds of unpaid caregiving ,” said Katherine Gallagher Robbins, a senior fellow at the National Partnership for Women & Families and one of the authors of the report.
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Large paid leave campaigns in six more states — Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Virginia — could, if passed, bring the share of American workers covered to 44 percent, the national partnership estimated.
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The most imminent of those is a proposal in Virginia. Last month, lawmakers in the Virginia House and Senate passed a pair of paid family and medical leave bills that are likely to be signed by Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who called for passing a state program in her State of the Commonwealth speech this year.
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In Pennsylvania, lawmakers are hoping to reignite momentum behind a paid leave bill that has bipartisan support. Lawmakers in Hawaii and Illinois are also considering a bill this session. And both Nevada and New Mexico have come close: In Nevada, a paid leave bill passed in the legislature last year was vetoed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and in New Mexico, a paid leave bill passed the House last year but not the Senate .
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At the federal level, part of the momentum of the past decade has come from men — especially dads in Congress — pushing for more paid leave access. During the Biden administration, the United States got as close as it ever has to passing a federal paid leave policy before it was removed from a spending bill. Now during the Trump administration, lawmakers made permanent a tax credit for employers who voluntarily offer paid leave to certain employees.
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So while the issue does have bipartisan support, Republicans and Democrats remain at odds about what form a federal paid leave policy should take. At a House hearing last week , U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, a Pennsylvania Republican who has a newborn, said his wife is able to care for their daughter because of her company’s paid leave policy.
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“We know that this practice makes an important difference for many in our community. Unfortunately, paid family leave has been out of reach for millions of Americans who are hoping to grow their families,” he said.
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But while state bills are “encouraging,” Mackenzie said it is also “difficult for state administrators and private-sector benefits managers to navigate the patchwork of paid leave policies across different states. While one program may work in Maryland, Alabama likely has its own workforce challenges to manage. One state’s approach should not be forced upon another’s workforce, or vice versa.”
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For paid leave, he said, “there is no silver bullet solution.”
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Dawn Huckelbridge, the director of Paid Leave for All, a national advocacy organization pushing for federal paid family and medical leave, said she is “heartened to see there is bipartisan interest and dialogue” on the subject.
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But, she added, “there are states that will likely never pass paid leave, so as long as there isn’t a federal guarantee, this is going to create a system and have and have nots that will just continue to grow inequities.”
","category":"politics","author":"Shyla Nott","publishDate":"2026-03-03T15:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/paid_leave.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/paid-leave-policies-united-states/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T18:00:50.364Z"},{"id":"nb2mul","archiveId":"skc51","slug":"the-uk-supreme-court","title":"The UK Supreme Court","excerpt":"Welcome to SCOUTSblog’s newest recurring series, in which we interview experts on different supreme courts around the world and how they compare to our own. For our debut column, we […] The post The UK Supreme Court appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"
Welcome to SCOUTSblog’s newest recurring series, in which we interview experts on different supreme courts around the world and how they compare to our own. For our debut column, we figured it only made sense to go back to the mother country and its mother court. And to help us shed some light on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, we could think of no one better than Mark Elliott.
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Mark Elliott is Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. He has previously served as legal adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution and as Chair of the Cambridge Law Faculty.
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Our written interview is below.
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So let’s start with the simple stuff. How many judges are on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom?
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There are usually 12 justices, including the president and deputy president, at any time, unless vacancies have arisen that have not yet been filled. There is also provision for certain additional judges to sit in the UK Supreme Court, including recently retired justices who have not yet reached the mandatory retirement age.
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How are these judges selected?
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Supreme Court justices are appointed by an independent selection commission. The process is set out in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and in the Supreme Court (Judicial Appointments) Regulations 2013 . Vacancies are advertised, applicants are shortlisted on merit, and interviews are held. The selection commission recommends its preferred candidate to the Lord Chancellor (a government minister with responsibility for the administration of justice) who can accept the recommendation, or ask the commission to reconsider or reject the recommendation. Once the Lord Chancellor accepts a recommendation, the successful candidate is appointed by the King on the advice of the Prime Minister; the roles of the King and the Prime Minister are merely formal. The degree of political involvement in the appointment of UK Supreme Court justices is therefore very limited.
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Do these judges serve terms – if so, of what length?
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UK Supreme Court justices are appointed to the retirement age of 75. That retirement age is set by statute in the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022 .
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Does the UK Supreme Court only hear appeals? Are there any cases in which it has original jurisdiction?
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The UK Supreme Court’s jurisdiction is almost entirely appellate in nature. However, in relation to certain issues concerning the UK’s system of devolved government, the UK Supreme Court has original jurisdiction. Under devolution arrangements in the UK, three of the UK’s four constituent nations – Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland – have their own legislatures and administrations. (No comparable arrangements exist in relation to England.) Those devolved institutions have authority to act in areas that are not “reserved” to the UK level of government.
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This can give rise to disputes about whether a devolved institution has the authority to act (just as disputes can arise about whether state-level institutions have authority to act in a federal system). In certain circumstances, such matters can be determined by the Supreme Court in exercise of original jurisdiction. That jurisdiction extends both to questions about legislative and administrative acts already undertaken by devolved institutions and to legislation that is in the process of being enacted by devolved legislatures.
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As I understand it, the UK has no written constitution. Does this mean its judges only interpret statutes?
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It is not part of the UK Supreme Court’s role – and neither is it part of the role of any other court in the UK – to strike down Acts of the UK Parliament. This means that in relation to such legislation, the court’s role is limited to an interpretative one. In interpreting legislation, the court applies a presumption – which, in some circumstances, can be a very strong presumption indeed – that Parliament does not intend to interfere with fundamental rights and values that form part of what is sometimes called the “common law constitution.” The result is that legislation that appears to remove or otherwise interfere with such rights or values might be interpreted – in the absence of explicit or otherwise extremely clear provision otherwise – compatibly with such rights or values. This approach is augmented by the Human Rights Act 1998 , which requires courts, so far as it is possible to do so, to interpret legislation compatibly with the rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights .
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As well as interpreting legislation, the UK Supreme Court also resolves disputed questions about the common law. For instance, significant areas of private law, including substantial parts of the law of tort and the law of contract, are formed principally by the common law rather than consisting of rules laid down in statute.
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Does the UK Supreme Court overturn Acts of Parliament – if so, how often does this occur?
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Because the UK Parliament is “sovereign,” no court can strike down, or overturn, an Act of Parliament — albeit that, as explained above, the courts, including the UK Supreme Court, can deploy strong interpretive powers in order to read Acts of Parliament compatibly with common law constitutional rights and values and with the rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights. In contrast to the UK Parliament, the devolved legislatures (the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd (i.e., the Welsh Parliament), and the Northern Ireland Assembly) are not sovereign. Rather, they have limited powers. Legislation enacted in breach of those powers can be struck down by the courts, including the UK Supreme Court.
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While the Human Rights Act 1998 does not authorise the Supreme Court (or any other court) to overturn Acts of the UK Parliament, it does permit certain courts, including the UK Supreme Court, to issue “declarations of incompatibility.” Such declarations do not affect the validity or enforceability of Acts of Parliament. Instead, they trigger administrative powers to amend Acts of Parliament that have been found to be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. Although there is no domestic legal obligation to remedy such incompatibilities, failure to remedy them may result in proceedings against the UK in the European Court of Human Rights, which, if successful, triggers the UK’s obligation in international law to align domestic law with the European Convention. This means that declarations of incompatibility, while not amounting to a strike down power, are more potent than they might at first appear.
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Has anything changed with regard to the UK Supreme Court’s powers since “Brexit”?
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While the UK was a member of the European Union, it was subject to the “primacy” of EU law. This meant that UK courts, including the UK Supreme Court, could “disapply” Acts of Parliament that were incompatible with relevant EU law. For practical purposes, disapplication was equivalent to overturning or striking down the relevant legislation. Although the UK has now left the EU, UK courts, including the UK Supreme Court, retain the power to disapply Acts of Parliament that are incompatible with relevant aspects of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement .
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Are cases decided by a simple majority? How is the opinion writer assigned?
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Cases are decided by a simple majority. Although the UK Supreme Court consists of 12 justices, it usually sits in panels of five. Larger panels (e.g., seven or nine) are used in cases that are considered to be particularly important (usually in constitutional terms). The size and composition of panels are determined by the president [of the UK Supreme Court]. The process by which such matters are determined is opaque and can therefore give rise to concerns about membership of the panel potentially influencing the outcome of the case. The presiding judge (that is, the president, the deputy president, or the next most senior judge) determines who writes the leading judgment.
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Is there a tradition of concurrences or dissents on the court?
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Justices are free to write concurring or dissenting judgments. However, the court is increasingly likely to give a single judgment. For example, in 2023 and 2024, single judgments were given in 77% of cases.
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What were some major issues recently decided by the UK Supreme Court?
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Perhaps the most discussed recent UK Supreme Court decision is its judgment in the For Women Scotland case (For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers Equality Act 2010 – the UK’s principal legislation concerning equality and non-discrimination — terms such as “sex,” “man,” and “woman” refer to biological sex rather than to gender identity, even in relation to those who have undergone a legal process to obtain a “gender recognition certificate.” This has significant implications for how and to what extent sex-based rights and the rights of trans people are accorded legal protection.
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What have been some other particularly controversial issues decided by the UK Supreme Court in recent times?
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The UK Supreme Court has only been in operation since 2009. Before that, the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords served as the UK’s court of final appeal for most matters. The Appellate Committee was functionally independent but formally part of Parliament. The abolition of the Appellate Committee in favour of a new UK Supreme Court was intended, among other things, to establish a clearer separation between judicial and legislative functions, thereby embedding the separation of powers principle to a greater extent.
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The UK Supreme Court’s judgment in the Miller II case (R (Miller) v Prime Minister
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The United States Supreme Court is often seen as partisan. Does the UK Supreme Court have a partisan reputation?
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The UK Supreme Court does not have a partisan reputation. In the UK, adjudication, including at the supreme court level, is generally considered to be a technical matter that does not require attentiveness to the political views or ideological leanings of judges. This is reflected in the appointment process, which does not involve any public or parliamentary scrutiny stage and which is not considered to be a political process. The emphasis is on appointing “on merit,” which is taken to refer to the technical legal qualities of candidates. Lack of interest in the “politics” of judicial candidates and appointees is likely attributable to the absence of strike-down powers and, until relatively recently, to the limited role played by fundamental human rights in the adjudicative process.
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As such, UK judges have historically not tended to have to engage as directly as judges in many other systems with the sort of highly contentious questions to which fundamental rights cases can give rise – and, even now that they must do so under the Human Rights Act, the stakes are not, at least formally, as high as in some other jurisdictions, given the absence of strike-down powers. However, even if not framed in political or partisan terms, it is clear that individual judges’ ideologies – concerning such matters as the appropriate extent of the judicial role versus the latitude that ought to be accorded to the political branches of the constitution – can exert significant influence on how cases are decided. This is a matter that increasingly interests legal scholars in the UK; however, unlike in, say, the United States, this is not an issue that features prominently (or at all) in public, media, and political debate.
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Would you say the UK Supreme Court is considered a particularly powerful institution – say, compared to the Prime Minister or Parliament?
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The UK Supreme Court clearly is a powerful institution, given that it serves as the court of final appeal for most matters in the UK. However, its public profile is relatively limited, and certainly more limited than that of some other supreme courts around the world. The primary reason for that is no doubt the fact that the UK Supreme Court’s powers are relatively limited, given that it cannot strike down or otherwise decline to apply Acts of the UK Parliament (except in very limited circumstances relating to the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement). That said, the prominence of the court’s role today is greater than in the past not least because of the contentious nature of the some of the issues it must now confront under the Human Rights Act 1998 coupled with its power under that legislation to declare Acts of Parliament incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
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If you feel comfortable responding, what aspect of the UK Supreme Court do you see as superior to that of the Supreme Court of the United States? What aspect of the Supreme Court of the United States do you see as superior to that of the UK Supreme Court?
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There are obvious and important differences between the two courts. One argument that is sometimes made in favor of the UK system is that it is much less politicized than its US counterpart. While there is no doubt some truth in this view, it is also highly reductive. It might, for instance, be argued that the UK system is merely perceived to be less politicized because there is in the UK a misplaced assumption that the adjudicative process is not sensitive to political or ideological considerations in the absence of powers judicially to strike down legislation — whereas in reality, UK judges must now, under the Human Rights Act, confront questions every bit as contentious as those that can arise under the US Constitution. From another perspective, therefore, it might be argued that a strength of the US system is that it openly acknowledges and confronts the ideological and political aspects of adjudication that inevitably arise, whereas in the UK there is an unwillingness directly to acknowledge and address such matters.
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The post The UK Supreme Court appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Zachary Shemtob","publishDate":"2026-03-03T15:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2227289348.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/the-uk-supreme-court/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T18:01:01.969Z"},{"id":"jtjcoe","archiveId":"pqu2g1","slug":"us-militarys-dangerous-slide-toward-fully-autonomous-killing","title":"US Military’s Dangerous Slide Toward Fully Autonomous Killing","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Aerial photo of the Pentagon building in Washington, DC, February 2, 2026. © 2026 Julia Demaree Nikhinson/ via AP Photo
The United States Department of Defense’s decision on February 27 to reject the artificial intelligence company Anthropic’s ethical red lines for AI for mi...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Aerial photo of the Pentagon building in Washington, DC, February 2, 2026.\n © 2026 Julia Demaree Nikhinson/ via AP Photo\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>The United States Department of Defense’s decision on February 27 to reject the artificial intelligence company Anthropic’s ethical red lines for AI for military use is a clear sign that the Pentagon is unlikely to uphold meaningful safeguards on weapons’ development. Anthropic declined to allow the Pentagon to use the company’s products for fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance of US citizens in fulfilling its Defense Department contract.</p><p>Governments at the United Nations in Geneva this week should push back against this dangerous decision when they discuss ways to address autonomous weapons systems under the auspices of the Convention on Conventional Weapons.</p><p>At the heart of Anthropic’s dispute with the Pentagon are divergent views about the definition of “responsible AI” in military domains. Anthropic says it drew a red line at fully autonomous weapons systems, which would select and engage targets with no human involvement.</p><p>But the Defense Department’s January AI memo apparently removed a requirement for operators of autonomous weapons systems to be able to exercise “appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force.” The memo prioritizes accelerated adoption of AI to achieve US “Military AI Dominance,” which would contravene those standards.</p><p>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on February 27 directed that Anthropic be designated a “supply chain risk” and swiftly signed a deal with Anthropic’s competitor Open AI, which agreed to their products being used for “any lawful use,” a new requirement from the US government.</p><p>Human Rights Watch has long described how autonomous weapons systems risk placing civilians in grave danger because they would struggle to distinguish between civilians and combatants during armed conflict or to navigate complex, dynamic environments like protests. Among other things, they lack the ability to understand subtle clues signaling human intentions.</p><p>Because of their opacity and unpredictability, it would be difficult to hold individual operators or developers accountable for the systems. And built-in biases that the algorithms for these systems use could lead to disproportionate harm for people of color, women, and people with disabilities, among other groups.</p><p>To prevent the US from leading the world down a dangerous slide from which there is no return, governments at the Convention on Conventional Weapons should use this week’s meeting to support and strengthen the draft treaty banning and regulating autonomous weapons systems.</p>","category":"activism","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-03-03T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/03/202603cca_pentagon_aerial.jpg?h=eba63bae&itok=j4UiNX5q","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/03/us-militarys-dangerous-slide-toward-fully-autonomous-killing","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T18:00:54.781Z"},{"id":"moubyv","archiveId":"shluk7","slug":"scotustoday-for-tuesday-march-3","title":"SCOTUStoday for Tuesday, March 3","excerpt":"As we’ve noted before, we read a lot of legal news in the process of preparing this newsletter. Here’s a headline we saw recently that we won’t soon forget: References […] The post SCOTUStoday for Tuesday, March 3 appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"
As we’ve noted before, we read a lot of legal news in the process of preparing this newsletter. Here’s a headline we saw recently that we won’t soon forget: References to ‘The Wire’ helped taint man’s trial, NJ Supreme Court rules .
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On Monday, the court heard argument in United States v. Hemani
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Also on Monday, the court released orders from its Friday conference.
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Last night, the court resolved two pending matters on its interim relief docket, clearing the way for New York to use its current map in the 2026 elections and siding with parents who challenged California policies on transgender students. Find Amy’s coverage of these disputes in the On Site section.
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Today, the court will hear argument in Hunter v. United States
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The court has indicated that it may announce opinions tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. EST. We will be live blogging beginning at 9:30 a.m.
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Also on Wednesday, the court will hear argument in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II
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\n Jacob Rosen and Melissa Quinn, CBS News
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On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit declined a request from the Trump administration “to delay implementation of the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated most of President Trump’s tariffs, allowing next steps in processing of tariff refunds to begin swiftly,” according to CBS News . “The decision … clears the way for the lower court, the U.S. Court of International Trade, to begin the process of crafting relief for the small businesses that successfully challenged Mr. Trump’s global tariffs.”
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\n Maureen Groppe, USA Today
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The Supreme Court on Monday denied review in Taylor v. Singleton USA Today . The denial means that a lower court ruling in favor of Jonathan Singleton – “[a] homeless man from Montgomery,” Alabama, who “challenged the state’s panhandling bans as a violation of his free speech rights” – will remain in place.
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The court announced Monday that it will not “take up the issue of whether art generated by artificial intelligence can be copyrighted under U.S. law, turning away a case involving a computer scientist from Missouri who was denied a copyright for a piece of visual art made by his AI system,” according to Reuters . The Trump administration had asked the court to deny the petition, contending that copyright law has long required human authorship. “The Supreme Court previously rejected Thaler’s request to hear his argument in a separate case involving prototypes for a beverage holder and a light beacon concerning whether AI-generated inventions should be eligible for U.S. patent protection.”
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During a virtual appearance at a legal conference last week, Justice Clarence Thomas “expressed concerns that the Supreme Court faced increasing polarization, incivility and security threats, including one that apparently led the justice to appear at the event remotely instead of in-person as planned,” according to The New York Times . The details that went into the decision to switch Thomas’ appearance from in-person to virtual have not been made public. The article noted that there was a small protest outside the conference venue that appeared to be about Thomas’ participation in the event “and the Trump administration.” During his remarks, Thomas emphasized the importance of making connections across ideological lines and addressed staying on the bench until at least 2028 so as to “surpass the 36-year record for longest-serving associate justice.” “Well, I just get up every day and go to work,” Thomas said. “I don’t do a lot of that counting stuff.”
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Craig Monteilh was an undercover operative for the FBI who became a whistleblower. He “provided inside details that supported an ACLU lawsuit alleging that” the FBI operation he was involved in “violated the religious freedom and privacy rights” of Muslims in California. But now, Monteilh says “that much of the information he gave to the ACLU was ‘made up,’” and it’s complicating a petition for review about protecting state secrets that’s currently pending before the Supreme Court, according to Politico . Monteilh hopes the justices “return the case to a lower court for a hearing where he can publicly air his grievances against both sides.”
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\n From the SCOTUSblog Team \n
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\n The Supreme Court on Monday night cleared the way for New York to go forward with the 2026 elections using the state’s existing congressional map. Over the objections of the court’s three Democratic appointees, the justices granted a request from a Republican member of Congress, a group of voters, and state election officials to pause an order by a state trial court that would have required the state to redraw the map to add Black and Latino voters.
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\n From the SCOTUSblog Team \n
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\n The Supreme Court on Monday night granted a request from a group of California parents to reinstate a ruling by a federal district court that prohibits schools in that state from “misleading parents about their children’s gender presentation” and that requires schools to follow parents’ instructions regarding the names and pronouns that children use there.
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\n From the SCOTUSblog Team \n
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\n Over the objections of the court’s three Democratic appointees, the Supreme Court on Monday morning declined to hear a case involving the payment of filing fees by indigent prisoners. The announcement was part of a list of orders released on Monday from the justices’ private conference on Friday.
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\n Argument Analysis \n
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\n The Supreme Court on Monday appeared skeptical that the indictment of a Texas man on charges that he violated a federal law prohibiting the possession of a gun by the users of illegal drugs could go forward. Ali Danial Hemani argued that the law violates the Second Amendment as it applies to him, and a majority of the justices seemed to agree.
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\n Case Preview \n
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\n Today, the Supreme Court will address how broad federal defendants’ waivers of their right to appeal can be and the effect of a district court’s statement at sentencing that the defendant may appeal when he previously agreed to an appellate waiver.
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Monday’s argument in United States v. Hemani
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Take, for example, Justice Neil Gorsuch’s questions about whether the government sees a difference between using marijuana “about every other day” and taking a THC gummy before bed every other night. “[W]hat if he took one gummy bear with a medical prescription in Colorado – well, you may not even need a medical prescription. … But let’s say he had one to help him sleep every other day. Disarm him for life?,” Gorsuch asked.
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Arguing for the government, Sarah M. Harris, the principal deputy solicitor general, told Gorsuch that such gummy bear use would be treated the same under the law as marijuana use so long as the user realized that their gummy bears were laced with illegal drugs.
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And then there was Justice Elena Kagan’s extended description of the effects of a psychoactive drug, which she used to ask about the types of drug users the government can constitutionally target. “I’m going to say I don’t know a lot about this drug, I’m assuming you don’t know a lot about this drug, so what I’m going to tell you about this drug let’s just assume is the truth about this drug,” she said.
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The drug, as it turned out, was ayahuasca, which, as Kagan put it, is “a very, very, very intense hallucinogen” that is not addictive but does have long-term effects on users. “[W]hen you’re in its grip, like, you basically – reality dissolves, all right? And I’m assuming that Congress has a good reason for saying, when reality dissolves, you don’t want guns around.” Erin Murphy, who argued on behalf of Ali Danial Hemani, explained that it’s likely constitutional for the government to bar someone who is currently using ayahuasca from having a gun, but that it’s less clear if that prohibition can extend to someone who “merely” uses it “every few weeks.”
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Kagan’s questions about ayahuasca set up perhaps the most memorable comment from Monday’s discussion, which came from Justice Amy Coney Barrett. In pointing Murphy back to Kagan’s hypothetical, Barrett acknowledged that she had “never heard” of the drug Kagan was describing. “Is that real?,” Barrett asked.
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Barrett’s question was met with laughter in the courtroom and some confusion in the SCOTUSblog live blog , where participants noted that ayahuasca comes up somewhat regularly in pop culture coverage and religious freedom lawsuits .
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Questions and comments like these rarely come up in Supreme Court arguments, so they made Monday’s discussion feel a bit like a long, strange trip.
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JUSTICE GORSUCH: “[B]efore we lose track of what Justice Sotomayor is talking about, one – one can ask whether the habitual drunkard statutes are sufficiently – how and why sufficiently analogous. One could also ask, though, more basically whether this defendant would qualify as a habitual user, and I want to explore that before we lose track of it. Habitual drunkard, the American Temperance Society back in the day said eight shots of whiskey a day only made you an occasional drunkard.”
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— United States v. Hemani
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The post SCOTUStoday for Tuesday, March 3 appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Kelsey Dallas","publishDate":"2026-03-03T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://i0.wp.com/www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1239390115.jpg?w=500&ssl=1","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/scotustoday-for-tuesday-march-3/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T18:01:01.969Z"},{"id":"y64dku","archiveId":"q7cnf3","slug":"womens-underwear-that-wont-give-you-a-wedgie-in-the-front","title":"Women's Underwear That Won't Give You A Wedgie In The Front","excerpt":"No more pinching or ride-ups with these comfy panties.","content":"","category":"breakthroughs","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-03-03T12:00:18.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/69a5b3d01500000e8b01a1a2.jpg?cache=KYTqQe7vFr&ops=500_281%2Cscalefit_1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/womens-underwear-wide-gussets-ud2_l_69a5a8d2e4b0d383f5042dac","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T18:00:53.047Z"},{"id":"3t518a","archiveId":"t7ah14","slug":"too-afraid-to-leave-home-ices-toll-on-latino-hiv-care","title":"Too Afraid to Leave Home: ICE’s Toll on Latino HIV Care","excerpt":"In Minneapolis, intense immigration enforcement is disrupting HIV care for Latino communities, a group already disproportionately affected by the virus. The post Too Afraid to Leave Home: ICE’s Toll on Latino HIV Care appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
For two weeks, Ablé Sanchez didn’t leave their house in South Minneapolis.
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“[I was] forced into survival mode,” Sanchez told Uncloseted Media and Rewire News Group (RNG ).
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“I felt like there was an invisible wall [to the outside world] that I couldn’t cross unless I really wanted to put myself in a place where there was a chance that I might not be able to come back,” they added.
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Queer and Mexican-American, Sanchez was afraid of being targeted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) presence in their neighborhood, even though they are a U.S. citizen.
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Sanchez drives to the Aliveness Project clinic. Photo by Liam James Doyle for Uncloseted Media and Rewire News Group . \n
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“Every day is a risk,” they said, adding that even if they have paperwork, if they fit the profile, they are a target, making it scary to go out at all, even to work or the grocery store.
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Sanchez, a 30-year-old sexual health-care educator, has been taking oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the daily preventive medication for HIV, for over a decade, but the mounting stress of ICE raids has made it harder to keep up.
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“A missed dose here and there pushed me to make that appointment [for something more sustainable],” they said.
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Sanchez said they felt like somebody would have their back at their local clinic. It was only a ten-minute drive from where they worked, they knew its staff from previous visits and community outreach, and they could count on finding Spanish-speaking staff and providers of Latino heritage. But not everybody has had that same experience accessing care.
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Since ICE’s Operation Metro Surge began in early December , an increasing number of Latino patients in Minnesota are delaying or canceling what can be lifesaving care for the prevention and treatment of HIV.
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These findings are particularly concerning for Latino communities, who, as of 2023, are 72 percent more likely than the general U.S. population to be diagnosed with HIV. And while overall infections have decreased, cases among Latinos increased by 24 percent between 2010 and 2022 .
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“I’m very concerned that there is going to be a sharp uptick in transmission,” Minneapolis-area community health specialist Alex Palacios told Uncloseted Media and RNG .
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In a January 2026 declaration as part of a lawsuit seeking to end Operation Metro Surge in the days following Renee Nicole Good’s killing, the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health said HIV testing among Latino populations has “dropped dramatically” and that “although grantee staff continue to go into the community to promote and provide testing, people are not showing up.”
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Local clinics are reporting the same thing. The Aliveness Project, a community wellness center in Minneapolis specializing in HIV care, told Uncloseted Media and RNG they have seen a more than 50 percent decrease in new clients. The clinic serves a large number of Latino and undocumented clients, and while it usually sees 750 people walk through their door each week, according to providers, it reported seeing 100 fewer people each week since December.
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Red Door, Minnesota’s largest STI and HIV clinic has had a “modest uptick” in no-shows and missed appointments since December.
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What happens when treatment stops \n\n\n\n
Today, there are multiple medications available that work to prevent HIV, and dozens that treat it once a person tests positive. Many people who consistently take their medication have such low levels of the virus that they can’t transmit it through sex. But becoming undetectable requires patients to stay on their medication; otherwise the virus replicates and mutates, weakening the immune system and increasing the risk of life-threatening infections .
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“If patients aren’t on their medicines consistently, HIV can learn about the medication and become resistant to them . When this happens, the medicine will not work for the patient, and the new resistant virus could potentially be passed on to others,” said George Frohle, a physician assistant and provider at Aliveness. “Medication adherence is one of the most important aspects of HIV care.”
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To maintain care and prevent dangerously untreatable strains from spreading in Minnesota, providers at Aliveness have begun delivering medication to patients when possible, offering telehealth when they can, and pausing routine lab work to limit in-person appointments.
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“The most important thing we can do from a public health perspective is to keep people undetectable so they don’t transmit HIV,” Frohle said, adding that providers in other cities targeted by ICE will need to make plans for missed injection visits, pivot to telehealth and prepare their teams for the “trauma.”
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Sanchez understands the risks of inconsistent treatment, which is why they opted for the injectable preventative medication.
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“I have a lot of risk [to HIV in my community],” Sanchez said. “With so much uncertainty about the future and whether HIV care will remain stable, I realized I couldn’t let this opportunity pass.”
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But injectable HIV treatments are commonly dosed at two weeks to six months apart, and the medication must be administered in a clinic—a setting many patients are avoiding, according to providers.
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“They have a two-week window” to get their shots, said Frohle, adding that because patients are afraid to come in person, they have had to transition people off of their injectable HIV treatments and back onto oral HIV treatments without the testing they would normally order had ICE not been in Minneapolis. Oral treatments “weren’t super successful [for these patients] to begin with and that’s why they were on injectables.”
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Oral HIV medications, too, must be taken consistently to work. In response, providers have urged patients to have their pills with them at all times in case they get deported or detained.
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The caution is not unfounded. Federal immigration facilities have a history of denying adequate medical care to people living with HIV, despite internal standards that require them to do so . Since 2025, at least two men living with HIV have been denied access to their medication in a Brooklyn jail, according to lawsuits obtained by The City . One man said he was only given his medication after his lips broke open and he developed an open pustule on his leg. And in January 2025, another man died of HIV complications while in ICE custody in Arizona.
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Beyond being detained without proper medication, patients deported to countries with limited access to HIV care, like Honduras and Venezuela , are also at risk, experts said.
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“A lot of men [from Venezuela] told me they left because it wasn’t safe to be gay there and because they struggled to access HIV care,” Frohle said. “It’s a little heartbreaking to see new folks not only face the threat of deportation, but to places where they didn’t feel safe medically or identity-wise.”
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“Some of these patients will die in their home country,” Dr. Anna Person, the chair of the HIV Medicine Association, said. “It’s a death sentence.”
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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A ‘cascading disaster’ \n\n\n\n
While ICE’s deployment is threatening the infrastructure of HIV care that Minneapolis has built over decades, experts say there has always been a blind spot in HIV care for the city’s Latino community.
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Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, executive director of The Institute for Policy Solutions at the Johns Hopkins University of Nursing, describes HIV in Latino communities as a “cascading disaster,” the result of years of compounding inequities.
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“There’s been an invisible crisis among Latinos that hasn’t gotten traction,” he said. “The numbers have consistently gone up in terms of new infections, while nationally they’ve gone down. … That should be a big alarm.”
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Numbers are rising because structural barriers and stigma are preventing Latinos from receiving care. A 2022 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that between 2018 and 2020, nearly one in four Hispanic people living with HIV reported experiencing discrimination in health-care settings. Lack of representation among providers, language barriers, and deep-rooted medical mistrust further complicate access to care, according to Guilamo-Ramos.
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Beyond the medical system, stigma within Latino communities can be equally damaging. According to Human Rights Campaign data , more than 78 percent of Latino LGBTQ+ youth reported experiencing homophobia or transphobia within the Latino community in 2024.
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Sanchez agrees that stigma and bias are already massive barriers to care, citing the strict gender norms and Catholic beliefs many Latino communities hold. They said the ICE operation is threatening already delicate access to HIV care.
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“This has caused so much damage to people,” Sanchez said. “Not being able to access your health-care appointments is such a stab in the side. … Being able to navigate any of these things in normal circumstances already has so much difficulty to it.”
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Palacios, the health specialist who is themself is Afrolatine and living with HIV, said the heightened ICE presence is worsening barriers that have long undermined the Latino community’s access to HIV care.
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“The horizon has always been stark and dim,” they said. “And this just feels like one more thing to address and to fight back against.”
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Sliding backwards \n\n\n\n
Navigating HIV care is becoming more difficult across the board, as the federal government has decimated HIV funding, compromising decades of progress made in the fight against the virus since Donald Trump retook office just over a year ago.
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In February 2026, three months into Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration proposed slashing $600 million in HIV-related grants, targeting four blue states, including $42 million for Minnesota programs . A federal judge has temporarily blocked the cuts .
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“This would completely decimate and gut all of our HIV prevention,” said Dylan Boyer, director of development at Aliveness Project. “That’s the reality that we live in.”
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“We have all the tools, and yet we are staring down this rollback of infrastructure and research dollars, prevention efforts, treatment efforts, that are going to put us squarely back in the 1980s,” said Person, a national HIV expert who grew up in Minnesota. “[There] seems to be no other rationale for that besides cruelty, to be quite frank, since there’s no scientific reason for it.”
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Repair and representation \n\n\n\n
Jenny Harding, director of advancement at a Minneapolis-area supportive housing program for people living with HIV, said that while ICE’s presence is lessening in the Twin Cities , the “damage is done.”
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Person said that this mending will take years, especially between the medical community and patients, since HIV providers can have a “very fragile” relationship with their clients.
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“It takes, sometimes, years to build that level of trust. And I do worry that folks are just going to say, ‘I don’t feel safe here anymore. The system does not have my best interest at heart, and I’m not coming back,’” she said. “This is not something that you can flip a switch and everything will go back to normal.”
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“We need to hold our federal government accountable, particularly HHS, [and] we need to ensure that HIV funding remains intact,” Guilamo-Ramos said. In order to lower rates of HIV in the Latino community, he added, there should be more specialized efforts like bilingual and culturally aligned health-care providers, community-based outreach programs co-located where risk is highest, trust-building initiatives to address medical mistrust, mobile clinics, and targeted programs to re-engage patients who have fallen out of care.
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Aliveness Project’s patient numbers have increased in the last few weeks as the ICE operation has waned, but the clinic staff is keeping “a watchful eye” and is having “difficulty reaching folks who are understandably scared.”
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“Our biggest focus right now is reconnecting with people through our outreach so no one has a lapse in their HIV medications or prevention care,” Boyer, of Aliveness Project, said.
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Sanchez speaks to a health-care provider at the Aliveness Project clinic. Photo by Liam James Doyle for Uncloseted Media and Rewire News Group . \n
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For Sanchez, seeing the providers at Aliveness Project speaking Spanish and coming from Latinx backgrounds built enough trust for them to reach out and make an appointment despite the risks. Sanchez feels optimistic about their new injectable prevention strategy with the support of their clinic.
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“There’s many places where you can receive care here in the Twin Cities where you might not see your skin tone … There’s still a lot of health-care professionals that unfortunately carry bias. … Aliveness is the opposite of that,” they said. “Seeing that representation and knowing someone has that cultural context and how to meet you in moments of sensitivity, it’s crucial.”
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This story was produced in collaboration with Uncloseted Media , which investigates America’s anti-LGBTQ+ landscape. Uncloseted receives support from MISTR, a telehealth platform offering free online access to PrEP, DoxyPEP, STI testing, Hepatitis C testing and treatment and long-term HIV care across the U.S. MISTR did not have any editorial input into the content of this story.
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The post Too Afraid to Leave Home: ICE’s Toll on Latino HIV Care appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"activism","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-03T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/022026LJD_MPLS_UnclosetedMedia_EDITS_01.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/03/ice-minneapolis-hiv-latino/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T12:01:08.050Z"},{"id":"grdk0d","archiveId":"6ho0j1","slug":"uncle-nearest-founders-accused-of-trying-to-hide-20-million-in-new-court-filing","title":"Uncle Nearest Founders Accused Of Trying To Hide $20 Million In New Court Filing","excerpt":"Uncle Nearest officially entered the eighth month of a fiery legal battle with its lender, and things are only escalating in court. A motion filed Feb. 25 showed that the […] The post Uncle Nearest Founders Accused Of Trying To Hide $20 Million In New Court Filing appeared first on Essence .","content":"
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11: Fawn Weaver speaks at Forbes Power Women’s Summit 2024 on September 11, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)
By
Andrea Bossi ·
Updated March 2, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Uncle Nearest officially entered the eighth month of a fiery legal battle with its lender, and things are only escalating in court.
A motion filed Feb. 25 showed that the Black-owned whiskey brand — which ESSENCE previously reported is financially insolvent and owes millions of dollars to external parties — may soon undergo asset liquidation . The next day, the court-appointed receiver filed a bombshell update that showed Uncle Nearest, Inc. founders Fawn and Keith Weaver may have tried to obscure $20 million from lenders in a linked entity.
In the Feb. 26 filing, receiver Phillip G. Young Jr. pointed to the Weaver-owned Grant Sidney company, saying it was actually used in an attempt to hide assets from Farm Credit, including $20 million in loans, arranged by Fawn Weaver. He flagged nearly 500 money transfers between Uncle Nearest and various company accounts, which indicates a “substantial commingling of funds,” per the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Even though the U.S. District Judge Charles E. Atchley Jr. ordered the Weavers to turn over all bank records, Young said that they, in fact, had not. Two new bank accounts surfaced instead.
In briefs filed the next day, the Weavers shot back saying that their company is solvent and that the receiver “has yet to find evidence constituting fraud by current management.” Fawn Weaver also added a section to her website, titled “Follow the Case,” with links to court updates and documents .
This case began late July 2025, when the Black-owned whiskey company’s main creditor, Farm Credit Mid-America, filed a lawsuit against Uncle Nearest Inc. and its founders. Farm Credit claimed it was owed $108 million and alleged the spirits company had been in default on its loans since as early as January 2024. Uncle Nearest was placed under court-ordered receivership in August 2025.
Though the Weavers have been advocating for the court to drop the receivership so that they can take back the reins of their company, Young has only continued uncovering revelations. To start, he claimed the company was worth closer to $100 million, a fraction of the billion-dollar valuation it touted years before. Young also found the whiskey brand’s records before 2024 were deleted, that it struggled to make payroll, and that it hadn’t filed federal tax returns since 2018, per The New York Times. He also claimed the company was losing roughly $1 million per month.
Fawn Weaver has called the suit “attempted robbery in broad daylight” in a mid-February video .
After Farm Credit brought its case against Uncle Nearest, the whiskey brand sued its ex-CFO Michael Senzaki in January 2026, alleging fraud . The Weavers accused him of “abusing his position of trust to divert funds, conceal liabilities, and improperly transfer or encumber Weaver’s personal equity interests without her knowledge or consent,” per The Lynchburg Times.
“The need for the receivership has been shown to be even greater,” Farm Credit said in a recent brief. “The evidence clearly demonstrates that Fawn Weaver and the prior management team have an egregious inability to effectively manage Uncle Nearest and navigate it out of its distressed situation.”
The judge is expected to make a decision on the receivership this month.
The post Uncle Nearest Founders Accused Of Trying To Hide $20 Million In New Court Filing appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-03T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2171444961-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/uncle-nearest-lawsuit-20-million-allegations/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T12:01:10.998Z"},{"id":"ca6s28","archiveId":"ttzuch","slug":"nike-wants-factory-workers-to-earn-a-decent-living-in-indonesia-its-moved-into-areas-where-workers-d","title":"Nike Wants Factory Workers to Earn a Decent Living. In Indonesia, It’s Moved Into Areas Where Workers Don’t.","excerpt":"The post Nike Wants Factory Workers to Earn a Decent Living. In Indonesia, It’s Moved Into Areas Where Workers Don’t. appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"
If you’re among the more than 1 million people who make Nike’s sneakers and apparel around the world, the company says you should be able to support your family. You should earn enough to pay your living expenses and have some discretionary money left over. If your factory wages don’t cut it, your employer should have a plan to get you there.
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But Nike’s expansion in Indonesia over the last decade has directly undermined these goals, an analysis by ProPublica and The Oregonian/OregonLive found.
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Over the last decade, employment at factories supplying the world’s largest athletic apparel brand expanded dramatically in regions of Indonesia where, according to one leading estimate, the minimum wage is less than the amount workers need to live on. Meanwhile, Nike’s supply chain shrank overall in places that pay this estimated living wage, our analysis found.
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The trend shows how the movement of multinational corporations to countries with ever-lower labor costs is being replaced, in some cases, by movements within a country that can achieve major savings and improve the bottom line.
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Nike’s suppliers employ 280,000 people in Indonesia, the company’s second-largest production center.
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From 2015 through last year, these suppliers shed around 36,000 jobs in places where the monthly minimum wage exceeds or comes close to a living wage. In these high-wage areas, which include the capital of Jakarta, the minimum typically equates to about $300 a month.
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By contrast, the company’s supplier workforce grew by nearly 112,000 in parts of Central and West Java with local minimum wages that are typically about $165 a month — far from what’s considered enough to live on. Dozens of workers employed by Nike suppliers in Indonesia told the news organizations the minimum is about all they make .
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“If it’s very labor intensive, then you go where labor is cheapest,” said Nurina Merdikawati, a lecturer in the Indonesia Project at Australian National University. In Indonesia, she said, “that’s going to be Central Java.”
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Other brands have also moved to Central Java and other low-wage regions of Indonesia in recent years and continue expanding there, local news organizations have reported.
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For Nike, the trend threatens the jobs of the existing factory workforce elsewhere in the country. Last October, more than 2,000 workers were laid off by Victory Chingluh, one of Nike’s longtime suppliers near Jakarta. In 2024, another 1,500 workers were cut by a Nike shoe supplier nearby, Adis Dimension, according to local news reports.
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Labor advocates say the geographic shift is concerning because the Jakarta area has a stronger union presence that ensures working conditions and wages get closer attention than in less-developed places like Central Java.
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At Victory Chingluh, three employees told the news organizations that the fear of more job cuts hangs over their work. They said the company is building a new factory in Cirebon, in West Java, where the minimum wage is 45% lower.
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Over the Past Decade, Nike’s Workforce Ballooned in Areas Where Workers Do Not Make a Living Wage \n\n\n\n
Factory employment shrank in the areas near Jakarta where the minimum wage is considered enough to meet basic needs.
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Lucas Waldron/ProPublica \n
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Employees said when they were offered a choice between keeping their jobs and accepting severance packages during layoffs last year, workers were willing to take the buyout, fearing that they wouldn’t get anything if the factory closed altogether.
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That happened in 2018 when one Nike supplier near Jakarta, Kahoindah Citragarment, shut down without paying workers their full severance after Nike pulled its orders, an investigation by the Worker Rights Consortium found. The factory’s South Korean parent company, Hojeon, eventually agreed to pay workers $4.5 million after labor advocates argued they were legally owed separation pay. Hojeon did not respond to requests for comment.
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At Victory Chingluh, two union leaders said in December that they anticipated another 5,000 layoffs at a company that once employed about 15,000.
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“Almost all employees here are worried about that,” one of them said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they feared repercussions from talking to reporters.
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The leaders said they’ve been told the factory being built in Cirebon could be ready by 2027. They said they’ve been told it’s for an expansion — even though their factory recently lost thousands of jobs.
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Victory Chingluh did not respond to questions. Nike said in a statement that it works closely with suppliers during layoffs to minimize disruptions. “We mandate that suppliers pay all statutory severance, social security, and other separation benefits required by local law and often assemble working groups — which may include civil society, unions, and local governments — to aid in proper execution,” the company said.
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Business leaders near Jakarta have voiced concern about the wage disparity between their region and Central Java, more than 150 miles away, saying that mandated pay increases around Jakarta could lead to mass layoffs and cause manufacturers to shift production.
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“There is a real possibility that many labor-intensive industries will move to other regions,” Herry Rumawatine, the head of a local employers association, told the Jakarta Globe in January.
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Asked whether the geographic shifts in Nike’s Indonesian supply chain were aimed at improving the bottom line, the company said that creating “operational efficiencies” is part of doing business in a competitive environment.
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However, the company said treating Nike’s geographic shift primarily as a move to save money “creates an incomplete picture” and cited “other plausible drivers” such as automation or changing production needs.
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Less-developed regions shouldn’t be excluded from opportunities for economic growth, Nike said, and it expects its suppliers everywhere to meet its code of conduct.
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“Growth and progress go hand in hand,” Nike wrote, “and we remain committed to investing in ways that expand opportunity while strengthening labor standards and worker protections where we operate worldwide.”
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Nike suggests that people who work for its foreign suppliers are well paid. In particular, the company says most workers for which it has data earn nearly double the local minimum wage.
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As The Oregonian/OregonLive reported in partnership with ProPublica in January, Nike does not pay workers anywhere close to this amount in Indonesia. In interviews across three regions of the country, roughly 100 workers said they made the minimum wage or a little bit more.
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Nike told the news organizations that its figure is a global average and variations naturally exist. But the company also told the news organizations that it’s important not just to compare what its suppliers pay relative to the minimum wage. Nike’s focus, one company official said, is on whether workers make a living wage and, if not, whether their employers are trying to get there.
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Although Nike does not explicitly require its suppliers to pay this amount, it says every worker “has a right to compensation for a regular work week that is sufficient to meet workers’ basic needs and provide some discretionary income.” The company reported that two-thirds of its key suppliers — it did not say which ones — paid above living wage benchmarks in 2022.
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Jason Judd, executive director of the Global Labor Institute at Cornell University, said living wage pledges from companies like Nike are so flexible that they’re almost meaningless. Only asking factories to be working toward living wages, as Nike does, “could go on for 20 years,” Judd said, “until you’ve found yet another lower-wage province.”
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Nike’s recent move to Central Java is notable because while wages are far lower there than in urban Jakarta, food and housing are not dramatically cheaper, according to estimates from the WageIndicator Foundation, a Dutch nonprofit. The foundation says a living wage in Central Java starts around $245 a month; in the parts of the province that are home to Nike suppliers, the local minimum wage ranges from only $136 to $215.
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Workers in Central Java said second jobs are common, including selling fish and gasoline. One said workers covertly sold snacks inside the factory, out of sight of managers who might fire them if caught.
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“At its core, this is about cost reduction and power,” Wiranta Ginting, deputy international coordinator for the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, a labor group, said in an email.
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It isn’t clear exactly how much Nike may have saved on labor by growing aggressively in low-wage regions. But some rough calculations are possible, based on addresses Nike has published for its suppliers, the numbers it says they employ and the minimum wage they must pay in each municipality.
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If each factory worker made exactly the minimum wage and worked only on Nike products, then the company’s shift into lower-cost areas would have saved about $200 million on labor in 2025 alone. The estimate is based on what Nike’s suppliers paid last year versus what they would have paid in labor costs had the company expanded uniformly across regions where it had factories in 2015.
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It’s only a broad indicator of potential savings.
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Nike said the analysis “rests on a series of oversimplified assumptions that limit the reliability of its conclusions.”
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For example, the company said that to assume the workforce could have grown where suppliers were located in 2015 “does not reflect the realities of manufacturing operations, which are constrained by factors such as facility capacity, workforce availability, skills, technology, and changes in product mix.”
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The geographic shift into lower-wage regions of Indonesia shows one way Nike can try to wring more profit from its vast supply chain. The company, which reported $46.3 billion in revenue last year, is struggling with declining annual sales and profits, problems compounded by uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which Nike had estimated would cost $1.5 billion a year before a recent Supreme Court decision struck them down. Its stock has dropped more than 60% from a 2021 peak.
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“Margin expansion is a top priority for me and my leadership team,” CEO Elliott Hill told Wall Street analysts in a December earnings call.
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Nike CEO Elliott Hill in February Francesca Volpi/Bloomberg via Getty Images \n\n\n\n
Officials in low-wage Central Java have welcomed the industrial expansion. The province’s then-governor said in 2022 that 97 factories had opened there. Another 10 garment and footwear factories were under construction last year, according to local news reports, with 17 more expected to be built this year.
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Nike’s explanation of its move into the region was in keeping with assertions decades ago by its co-founder, Phil Knight, that Nike’s arrival was a positive force for local economies and workers in developing countries.
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“Increased manufacturing in Central Java is not an accident and, in many ways, is something to be celebrated,” Nike told The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica. “The Indonesian government has taken meaningful, intentional steps to transform Central Java into an industrial hub, with an eye toward extending the economic growth that has benefited other regions of the country for more than 30 years.”
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The company added that “manufacturing growth in regions with lower prevailing wages can lead to raised standards, increased worker skills, and positive contributions to local communities.”
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Nike’s move has ripple effects around relatively high-wage Jakarta, Indonesia’s biggest city, where the company has sourced sneakers since 1988. Factory workers and union officials there said they’re reluctant to demand wage increases.
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They said they fear better pay will mean fewer jobs.
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“It’s clear that every company will expand where it’s cheaper,” a union official at a Nike supplier near Jakarta said.
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The differences between Indonesia’s well-established urban production centers and the less-developed areas where Nike has expanded employment go beyond wages.
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“Greater Jakarta is an older industrial region with a long history of unionization and collective bargaining, reflected in higher minimum wages won through years of worker organizing and mass mobilization,” Ginting, the Asia Floor Wage Alliance representative, said in his email.
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By contrast, he said, factories in the new apparel hot spots of Central Java often recruit younger workers, have less union representation and face less scrutiny from labor inspectors.
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Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, said problems on the factory floor are more prevalent in this region. Nova’s international watchdog group has conducted investigations at the region’s apparel factories for the past five years.
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Despite some recent progress, Nova said by email, workers at many factories “suffer gender-based violence and other abuses at higher rates than in the country’s older production centers.”
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“Because unions have a tenuous foothold in the region and face harsh employer resistance,” he added, “workers often cannot fight back.”
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An investigation by Nova’s group found that women at a Central Javanese factory producing Nike-licensed goods for Fanatics, a privately owned brand, had been sexually harassed for years. The labor rights group told Fanatics in 2022 it had heard from women who said they had to endure unwanted touching and verbal harassment by supervisors.
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After the factory owner pledged to fix the problems, the consortium found even more egregious abuse in 2023 at another Central Java factory owned by the same company, South Korea-based Ontide. The company struck a binding deal with labor unions in 2024 called the Central Java Agreement for Gender Justice, which mandates harassment training and monitoring.
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Ontide did not respond to a request for comment. However, Ontide sustainability director John Yoon said in a press release announcing the gender justice agreement that it would protect workers. “As part of our commitment to our workers’ safety and well-being, we are pleased to be seeing initial results,” the release said.
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Fanatics said in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica that there has been “excellent progress” in implementing the agreement. “We are proud of this work, which has been recognized by the Agreement signatories, and which will continue into 2026,” the company said.
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Nova, of the Worker Rights Consortium, called the outcome at Ontide “a ray of hope.”
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But workers told the news organizations that problems have persisted at other factories in Central Java. Ten workers at one supplier said many women’s toilets hadn’t been working for months. Two workers at other factories said they received written reprimands after they told their employers they were injured on the job.
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Asked about these workers’ accounts, Nike said that a “safe and healthy work environment is a fundamental human right” and that it audits factories annually for compliance with its code of conduct. It said it has not found more problems at suppliers in Central Java than in other parts of Indonesia. The company added that it works quickly with its suppliers when needed to put improvement plans in place.
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At Selalu Cinta, a Central Java factory that employs 18,000 people and has made Nike Burrow slippers, Blazer Mid ’77 sneakers and other shoes, hundreds of workers signed petitions asking the factory to remove a manager they said repeatedly screamed at and intimidated workers.
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Leaders at the factory have failed to remove him, 10 workers told the news organizations.
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Nike said it required Selalu Cinta to engage in an independent third-party investigation and is overseeing corrective actions in consultation with unions. Nike said it plans follow-up verification. Selalu Cinta officials did not respond to requests for comment.
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A woman who worked for the manager said in an interview last summer that her parents depended on her wages, forcing her to keep her job despite what she described as her boss’ frequent tantrums.
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“Working like that,” she said, “feels like you’re in hell.”
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How We Tracked Nike’s Factories \n\n\n\n
Overall employment at Nike suppliers in Indonesia grew by 39% from 2015 to 2025. To see where in Indonesia that growth occurred, we used factory-level data self-reported by Nike in November 2015 and November 2025.
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Because Nike said it began working to increase its disclosure of materials and components factories in 2021, we excluded any factories of this kind that appeared on Nike’s list in 2025 but not in 2015, to avoid counting Nike’s expanded disclosure as employment growth. This eliminated 12 materials factories from 2025, removing about 3,500 workers from the analysis.
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ProPublica and The Oregonian/OregonLive assigned minimum and living wages to each factory based on their locations. Wage and location data was manually reviewed, and when information was incomplete or inconsistent, classification was based on the data that appeared to be the most reliable.
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The city or regency of each factory was identified using factory addresses and verified against Google Maps, factory websites, shipping records and other public disclosures.
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We assigned minimum wages at the municipal level based on 2025 government decrees. Some municipalities specify a single minimum wage across all sectors. Others specify wages by sector (in which case we used the sectoral wage that best matched what each factory produces) and/or by nature of the work and employer (in which case we used the rate for labor-intensive multinational companies).
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Unlike minimum wages, which are defined by law, living wage estimates can vary. We used estimates from the WageIndicator Foundation, an independent Dutch nonprofit. While the group calculates living wages as a range, we used the group’s lowest estimate for 2025 of what a worker would need to provide a decent standard of living for a typical family.
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Factories were classified as “at or above living wage” if the applicable minimum wage was at least 95% of WageIndicator Foundation’s lowest living wage estimate for the province.
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Wages were converted from Indonesian rupiah to U.S. dollars using the mean of monthly average daily USD/IDR exchange rates for 2025 from the Federal Reserve .
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For the graphic, factory coordinates were manually reviewed, then grouped when multiple factories were close to one another. Factories were grouped when located within 15 kilometers of at least one other factory, forming density-based clusters that were represented on the map as the geometric center of those points. We verified that factories in different wage classifications were not lumped together. For municipalities without a Nike factory, we assigned the highest 2025 minimum wage that could apply if a Nike factory was located there.
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To estimate potential savings based on where Nike expanded production between 2015 and 2025, we compared actual 2025 supplier payroll (based on reported number of factory workers and municipal minimum wages) to a counterfactual scenario in which employment grew proportionally across the same municipalities where Nike had factories in 2015. The calculation reflects what Nike’s suppliers would have paid in labor costs under each scenario if all workers earned the applicable minimum wage and factory employment were dedicated to Nike production. Because suppliers can produce for multiple brands and some workers earn above minimum wage, the estimate merely provides a broad sense of potential savings rather than a precise measure of how much the company and its suppliers actually saved in labor costs.
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The post Nike Wants Factory Workers to Earn a Decent Living. In Indonesia, It’s Moved Into Areas Where Workers Don’t. appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"global","author":"Rob Davis","publishDate":"2026-03-03T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260302-nike-java-map-mobile_v2.jpg?w=752","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/nike-jobs-indonesia-living-wages","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T12:01:09.411Z"},{"id":"qoerth","archiveId":"m2zsfn","slug":"court-sides-with-parents-in-dispute-over-california-policies-on-transgender-students","title":"Court sides with parents in dispute over California policies on transgender students","excerpt":"The Supreme Court on Monday night granted a request from a group of California parents to reinstate a ruling by a federal district court that prohibits schools in that state […] The post Court sides with parents in dispute over California policies on transgender students appeared first on SCOTUSblog...","content":"
The Supreme Court on Monday night granted a request from a group of California parents to reinstate a ruling by a federal district court that prohibits schools in that state from “misleading parents about their children’s gender presentation” and that requires schools to follow parents’ instructions regarding the names and pronouns that children use there. In a seven-page order, the majority explained that the parents were likely to prevail on their claim that California’s policies violate the parents’ right to freely exercise their religion and their right to “direct the upbringing and education of their children.”
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Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented from the court’s ruling. She argued that Monday’s ruling “shows, not for the first time, how our emergency docket can malfunction.”
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The dispute dates back to 2023, when two teachers sued the school district, seeking an exemption from the district’s policies regarding gender and pronouns. They were later joined as plaintiffs by parents whose children socially transitioned at school (or who believed that their children socially transitioned at school).
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The district court ruled for the challengers, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit put that order on hold while the state appealed. The challengers then came to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to intervene. In a mixed ruling on Monday night, the majority handed a victory to the parents but turned down the request from the teachers.
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The majority explained that the parents were ultimately likely to prevail on the merits of their claim that the state’s policies interfere with their right to freely exercise their religion. The policies are subject to the most stringent constitutional test, known as strict scrutiny, the majority wrote, because “they substantially interfere with the ‘right of parents to guide the religious development of their children.’” And they cannot pass that test, the majority continued, despite the state’s contention that the “policies advance a compelling interest in student safety and privacy” because they “cut out the primary protectors of children’s best interests: their parents.” Moreover, the majority added, parents have long had “primary authority with respect to ‘the upbringing and education of children,” including “the right not to be shut out of participation in decisions regarding their children’s mental health.”
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In a seven-page dissenting opinion, Kagan criticized the court’s choice to resolve the case on the interim docket, observing that the court had “receive[d] scant and, frankly, inadequate briefing about the legal issues in dispute” and then, without holding oral argument, “grant[ed] relief by means of a terse, tonally dismissive ruling designed to conclusively resolve the dispute.”
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Moreover, Kagan continued, the court could resolve the issue at the center of this case in “the regular way, on our merits docket.” She noted that, since November, the court has repeatedly considered a petition for review in a very similar case. “Why not, then, just grant” review in that case, she asked, “and decide it this coming fall?” “Our processes,” Kagan concluded, “are, in short, the hallmark of judicial probity, and alike its guarantor. There was no reason to abandon them here.”
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In a four-page concurring opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett – joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh – pushed back against Kagan’s criticism. Barrett emphasized that the majority’s conclusion that “the parents are likely to succeed on the merits” is a “preliminary” one. And she stressed that the decision to grant interim relief “is not a sign of the Court’s ‘impatience’ to reach the merits,” but rather “reflects the Court’s judgment about the risk of irreparable harm to the parents.” If the 9th Circuit’s order is not lifted, she contended, “parents will be excluded—perhaps for years—from participating in consequential decisions about their child’s mental health and wellbeing.”
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Justice Sonia Sotomayor indicated that she would have denied not only the teachers’ request, but also the parents’ request.
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Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito indicated that they would have granted the teachers’ request.
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The post Court sides with parents in dispute over California policies on transgender students appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Amy Howe","publishDate":"2026-03-03T01:41:00.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GettyImages-1244486494.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/divided-court-sides-with-parents-in-dispute-over-california-policies-on-transgender-students/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T06:00:55.439Z"},{"id":"b4qhk6","archiveId":"qz0wk8","slug":"march-2026-reads-for-the-rest-of-us","title":"March 2026 Reads for the Rest of Us","excerpt":"Each month, Ms. provides readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups. Wishing you a powerful, inspired and liberatory Women’s History Month! Check out this month’s list of 24 books. The post March 2026 Reads for the Rest of Us appeared first on Ms.","content":"
Each month, Ms. provides readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
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Wishing you a powerful, inspired and liberatory Women’s History Month!
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Check out this month’s list of 24 books.
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The post March 2026 Reads for the Rest of Us appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"lgbtq","author":"Karla J. Strand","publishDate":"2026-03-02T22:59:31.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/March-RRU-Book-Covers.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/02/best-new-feminist-books-march-2026-reads-for-the-rest-of-us-women-lgbtq-writers/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T00:00:50.809Z"},{"id":"4shg26","archiveId":"refrhw","slug":"sensual-birthday-outfit-ideas-for-pisces-season","title":"Sensual Birthday Outfit Ideas For Pisces Season","excerpt":"It’s March 2nd, which means we’re officially in the thick of Pisces season. Whether you’re jetting off to celebrate your special day seaside or keeping things cozy with something fun […] The post Sensual Birthday Outfit Ideas For Pisces Season appeared first on Essence .","content":"
Gotham/GC Images
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated March 2, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
It’s March 2nd, which means we’re officially in the thick of Pisces season. Whether you’re jetting off to celebrate your special day seaside or keeping things cozy with something fun closer to home, curating a look that delivers main-character energy is nonnegotiable.
Milestone birthday or not, it’s worth remembering that we only get so many of these days. Every year is an opportunity to celebrate yourself intentionally—so why not invest in the outfit that makes you feel the most special?
As an indecisive Pisces myself, my birthday plans have taken a few turns. What started as dreamy travel plans to Dubai and Mexico shifted due to ongoing safety concerns at hotels and airports. I’m taking it as a sign to either stay put for the actual day or pivot to a European escape (even if the climate is similar. Sighs).
No matter where you land, the key is to be intentional and treat your birthday like the special moment it is.
Scroll ahead to shop the best Pisces birthday outfits, whether you’re headed somewhere warm or celebrating at home.
01 01 Skims Lace Mini Slip Dress
Lace takes center stage in the dreamiest shade of blue, perfectly capturing the soft, aquatic energy Pisces naturally exude. Available at
skims 198 Shop Now 02 02 Zealous Ozone Mini Dress
Latex will undoubtedly turn heads—shop this sleek, curve-hugging piece for a bold and undeniably sexy statement. Available at
Zellous 360 Shop Now 03 03 H&M Dress With Tiered Skirt
Perfect for a warm-weather day trip, this crisp white look feels effortlessly polished and undeniably chic. Available at
hm 40 Shop Now 04 04 Femme Los Angeles GT3 Slingback 120
Infused with that signature aqua energy, this sleek slingback keeps the look sultry and polished—even in the cold. Available at
Femme LA 200 Shop Now 05 05
This quarter-sleeve, high-neck dress is ideal for a chic spring lunch moment. Available at
Revolve 500 Shop Now 06 06 Cult Gaia Mercier Mini Shoulder Bag
This multicolored, jewel-adorned bag is perfect for a nature-loving Pisces. Available at
Cult Gaia 900 Shop Now 07 07 Zara Semi Sheer Blouse
Sheer always delivers a sultry edge—pair it with hot pants or sleek, form-fitting leggings for the perfect finish. Available at
Zara 50 Shop Now The post Sensual Birthday Outfit Ideas For Pisces Season appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Mecca Pryor","publishDate":"2026-03-02T22:26:19.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1180714338-Cropped-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/sensual-birthday-outfit-ideas-for-pisces-season/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T00:00:54.345Z"},{"id":"iag05m","archiveId":"hzws22","slug":"meet-dr-asya-johnson-principal-of-queens-nys-hbcu-early-college-prep-high-school","title":"Meet Dr. Asya Johnson: Principal Of Queens, NY’s HBCU Early College Prep High School","excerpt":"Impactful educators who intentionally and passionately pour into their students are invaluable parts of our community. Dr. Asya Johnson, founding principal and creator of the HBCU Early College Prep High […] The post Meet Dr.","content":"
By
Bridgette Bartlett Royall ·
Updated March 2, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Impactful educators who intentionally and passionately pour into their students are invaluable parts of our community. Dr. Asya Johnson , founding principal and creator of the HBCU Early College Prep High School in Jamaica, Queens, NY , has proven to be a principal who will leave a lifelong positive impression on her students, and thankfully, she’s just getting started in this exciting role.
Dr. Johnson, a Philadelphia native, boasts an impressive career that spans two decades. Before HBCU Early College Prep, she received an Ed.D. from Drexel University; an Ed.M. from Bank Street College; an M.Ed. from Holy Family University and a B.A. from her beloved HBCU , Delaware State University. She has served as a principal in the South Bronx and Harlem. In addition, Dr. Johnson assisted with the creation of special education instruction for incarcerated youth in Rikers Island correctional facility. In short, sis has receipts.In, September 2025 the doors of the HBCU Early College Prep School opened and Dr. Johnson hasn’t taken her foot off the gas since. The first high school of its kind in the nation, HBCU Early College Prep has received overwhelming support and interest. In fact, with only 100 seats available for its first class, more than 1,000 students applied for admission. The school’s mission is to “cultivate a community of learners dedicated to academic excellence, diversity, societal contributions and social justice.”
Superintendent of Queens South High Schools, Dr. Josephine Van-Ess sheds an insider light on the school’s uniqueness. “As someone who grew up in this community and walked these same streets our students walk, I know firsthand what it means when young people can see a clear >HBCU Homecoming vibes to Southeast Queens for her students.
The future of HBCUs is now! / PHOTO COURTESY OF HBCU EARLY COLLEGE PREP HIGH SCHOOL
ESSENCE.com: What is your biggest challenge in this extremely important position as founder and principal of the first and only HBCU High School?DR. ASYA JOHNSON: Since opening our doors, we’ve received significant outreach from HBCU graduates, community-based organizations, and various partners eager to support our mission. The biggest challenge I’ve faced has been managing the tremendous interest from external organizations.
While this enthusiasm is both flattering and welcomed, it has required me to develop the difficult skill of saying no to organizations that don’t align with our school’s mission and vision. Authentic alignment with our values and our student needs must come first. Protecting the integrity of our mission means being selective and intentional about every partnership we pursue.
ESSENCE.com: Explain how graduates of HBCU Early College Prep High School will receive a diploma and an associate’s degree from an HBCU.DR. JOHNSON: Students are dually enrolled in both high school and college classes, allowing them to earn 64 tuition-free college credits by their fourth year of high school. Upon graduation, our scholars will have both their high school diploma and an associate’s degree from Delaware State University (DSU), as well as automatic admission into the university. Additionally, our students receive mentorship from DSU Presidential Scholars, providing them with guidance and support with staying on track for success.
Black Girl Joy at HBCU Early College Prep High School. / PHOTO COURTESY OF HBCU EARLY COLLEGE PREP HIGH SCHOOL
ESSENCE.com: What are your scholars doing in the school’s surrounding community?DR. JOHNSON: In physics, students are working directly with NYCHA public housing residents, collecting real-world data and using evidence to refine their designs and advocate for scalable solutions in public housing. They are completing a powerful learning module where they use physics concepts to design, build, and test low-cost, renter-friendly solutions that address safety and health problems in apartments.
Students will partner with NYCHA residents to validate their devices in real apartments, collecting before-and-after data to measure impact. Finally, students will pitch evidence-based recommendations to Empower NY, NYCHA, and local tenants’ organizations, making the case for scaling these DIY solutions across public housing.
ESSENCE.com: That’s impressive. Tell us about some of the extra-curricular activities your students have participated in.
DR. JOHNSON: Our scholars are involved in a rich array of extracurricular activities that extend their learning beyond the classroom and into >Ghana where they engaged in community service at a local junior high school, forging connections with students across the diaspora. They visited Cape Coast, a point of departure where our ancestors were forcibly taken. This is a deeply meaningful journey that connects them to their heritage and history.
Back home, our scholars participate in the Young Debaters team, our HBCU Band, and female self-empowerment programs with the Greater Queens Links, Inc. – each designed to build confidence, skill, and community. Through the KAPPA League and programming such as the Junior Investment and Stock Market Challenge, with the help of 100 Black Men of America, Inc. our scholars are becoming financially literate.ESSENCE.com: You will be adding a grade each year until you reach the 12th grade. It seems like this will help build a strong bond between the students.DR. JOHNSON: Yes, we plan to add a grade each year until we reach 12th grade, creating a cohesive learning community that grows together over time.
Building strong bonds and a sense of camaraderie has already become a cornerstone of our school culture, established through our summer bridge program and innovative “House” system. Each scholar is placed in one of four houses named for an influential HBCU: Hampton House, “SpelHouse ” (Spelman x Morehouse),
The post Meet Dr. Asya Johnson: Principal Of Queens, NY’s HBCU Early College Prep High School appeared first on Essence .
","category":"education","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-03-02T22:01:12.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/education/meet-dr-asya-johnson-hbcu-early-college-prep-high-school/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T00:00:54.345Z"},{"id":"2min5v","archiveId":"ljtroj","slug":"consent-dignity-and-maternal-health","title":"Consent, Dignity, and Maternal Health","excerpt":"This op-ed by PRH Fellow Stacy Sun, originally published in the Buffalo Sun, examines how the Maternal Health, Dignity, and Consent Act would require informed consent for drug testing in pregnancy, strengthen provider-patient trust, and help ensure more patients seek prenatal and postpartum care in ...","content":"
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Requiring informed consent for drug testing would strengthen trust and improve maternal health outcomes statewide.
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Another Voice: Maternal Health, Dignity, and Consent Act would ensure more patients seek care \n\n\n\n
This op-ed by PRH Fellow Stacy Sun was originally published in the Buffalo Sun on February 26, 2026.
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As an obstetrician-gynecologist in Western New York, I’ve seen the maternal health crisis unfold in real time. Federal funding cuts are stripping maternal health services from our region. Statewide, the maternal mortality rate is 18.5 per 100,000 births, but in Western New York, the numbers are worse.
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In Monroe County, maternal mortality reaches 29.7 per 100,000 births, and in Erie County, maternal mortality reaches 35.7 per 100,000 births. Black families are at even higher risk, facing pregnancy-related death at five times the rate of their white counterparts.
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At the same time, continued breaches of provider-patient trust are compounding this crisis. Trust is the foundation of medicine, but under current practice, that trust is being violated.
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From the earliest stages of medical training, clinicians are taught to drug test and screen reflexively, even when tests are medically unnecessary and performed without explicit patient consent. This secret testing violates patients’ bodily autonomy, leaving people wondering why they were tested, when they were tested, and what it means. It deters patients from seeking prenatal and postpartum care and disproportionately harms people of color.
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Passing the Maternal Health, Dignity, and Consent Act would ensure patients understand and consent to their care, safeguarding bodily autonomy and protecting their trust in healthcare.
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In 2020, New York City’s Health + Hospitals system began requiring informed consent, resulting in stronger provider-patient relationships with no negative impact on child safety.
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Once informed consent for drug testing became embedded in my own department’s culture, I saw a profound shift. Patients are more open and trusting, allowing us to provide compassionate, evidence-based care.
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Change has been slow and uneven across the state. This legislation would ensure informed consent is the standard everywhere, no matter where you are in the state.
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We need policies that reinforce the trust at the heart of medical care. Passing the Maternal Health, Dignity, and Consent Act is a meaningful step toward ensuring pregnant patients seek care when they need it most, protecting people and saving lives.
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Dr. Stacy Sun, M.D., M.P.H., is an obstetrician-gynecologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
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The post Consent, Dignity, and Maternal Health appeared first on Physicians for Reproductive Health .
","category":"health","author":"Mykella Palmer","publishDate":"2026-03-02T20:33:06.000Z","image":"https://prh.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/informed-consent-ny-prh-support.png","source":"Physicians for Reproductive Health","sourceUrl":"https://prh.org/updates/maternal-health-dignity-consent-act-new-york/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T00:00:51.376Z"},{"id":"ehc6g3","archiveId":"ddn9tv","slug":"nwlc-leads-149-organizations-opposing-hhs-attempt-to-weaken-disability-nondiscrimination-protections","title":"NWLC Leads 149 Organizations Opposing HHS’ Attempt to Weaken Disability Nondiscrimination Protections for People with Gender Dysphoria","excerpt":"The National Women’s Law Center led a coalition of 149 organizations—including organizations advocating for disability rights and justice, access to health and human services, LGBTQI+ equality, gender justice, and civil rights broadly—in opposing a rule that seeks to weaken disability nondiscriminat...","content":"
The National Women’s Law Center led a coalition of 149 organizations—including organizations advocating for disability rights and justice, access to health and human services, LGBTQI+ equality, gender justice, and civil rights broadly—in opposing a rule that seeks to weaken disability nondiscrimination protections for people with gender dysphoria.
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Our cross-movement comment counters a proposed rule by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Section 504, the law prohibiting disability discrimination by federal funded entities. The proposed rule falsely asserts that gender dysphoria, a condition many transgender people experience, can never be a disability under Section 504. It claims that recipients of HHS funding can freely discriminate against people with gender dysphoria, opening individuals up to mistreatment and exclusion in critical health and human services.
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Our comment demonstrates why the rule is harmful, wrong on the law, and unjustified. It firmly rejects the hateful anti-trans rhetoric HHS has used to justify it, HHS’ attempts to pit our communities against one another, and the broader anti-trans campaign the proposed rule is a part of.
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The post NWLC Leads 149 Organizations Opposing HHS’ Attempt to Weaken Disability Nondiscrimination Protections for People with Gender Dysphoria appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"equality","author":"eleven11","publishDate":"2026-03-02T20:08:38.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/nwlc-logo-1200x630-1.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/nwlc-leads-149-organizations-opposing-hhs-attempt-to-weaken-disability-nondiscrimination-protections-for-people-with-gender-dysphoria/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-23T18:00:39.881Z"},{"id":"gh3xi6","archiveId":"g7hmwd","slug":"the-fight-for-facts-defending-access-to-comprehensive-sex-education-from-the-anti-abortion-agenda","title":"The Fight for Facts: Defending Access to Comprehensive Sex Education from the Anti-Abortion Agenda","excerpt":"
The Fight for Facts: Defending Access to Comprehensive Sex Education from the Anti-Abortion Agenda Policy Analysis mcherins By Mecca Pryor ·Updated March 2, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… Award show season continues to press on with standout fashion moments. For starters, Regina Hall stunned in custom Cong Tri at the SAG Awards , while Ryan Coogler and Zinzi Coogler opted for Fear of God at the NAACP Image Awards .
Meanwhile, Burberry unveiled its “Portraits of an Icon” campaign, celebrating the legacy of its signature trench.
On the launch front, Telfar debuted its Modular Shoes, and Adanola introduced its new Classic Seamless collection.
Keep scrolling to catch up on all the fashion happenings of the week.
Regina Hall Wears Custom Cong Tri Regina Hall attended the SAG-AFTRA Awards wearing a custom gown by Cong Tri. The white-lined design featured a peplum- decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2264419126-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"ICYMI: Regina Hall Wears Custom Cong Tri, Burberry Launches New Campaign, And More \" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" />LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 01: Regina Hall attends the 32nd Annual Actor Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on March 01, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images) Ryan and Zinzi Coogler Wears Fear of God
Ryan Coogler and Zinzi Coogler stepped out in coordinated Fear of God looks at the NAACP Awards. Both opted for oversized black blazers paired with tailored black trousers, leaning into relaxed silhouettes for the evening. Zinzidecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2264138168-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"ICYMI: Regina Hall Wears Custom Cong Tri, Burberry Launches New Campaign, And More \" width=\"400\" height=\"599\" />PASADENA, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 28: (L-R) Zinzi Coogler and Ryan Coogler attend the 57th NAACP Image Awards at Pasadena Civic Auditorium on February 28, 2026 in Pasadena, California.(Photo by Julian Hamilton/Getty Images) Burberry Launches Their “Potraits of an Icon” Campaign
Burberry celebrates its iconic trench coat in the “Portraits of an Icon” campaign, starring talents like Teyana Taylor and Little Simz. Shot by photographer Tim Walker, the series unfolds in striking black-and-white imagery, capturing each star in dynamic motion. The portraits highlight the trench’s versatility, revealing how its silhouettedecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/Burberry-Trench_-Portraits-of-an-Icon-Campaign-Stills-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"ICYMI: Regina Hall Wears Custom Cong Tri, Burberry Launches New Campaign, And More \" width=\"400\" height=\"500\" /> Telfar Launches Modular Shoes
Telfar’s Modular footwear line injects fresh energy into a fashion landscape craving innovation, delivering truly unisex design with mass appeal. Defined by its signature tubular sole that wraps the toes and coils at the heel, the collection spans three distinct silhouettes, including the Mid Modular Boot, Tall Modular Boot, and the Modular Mule. Bothdecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/00_Modular_All-Slx.00_16_14_08.Still008-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"ICYMI: Regina Hall Wears Custom Cong Tri, Burberry Launches New Campaign, And More \" width=\"400\" height=\"582\" /> Adanola Launches Classic Seamless
Adanola is introducing Classic Seamless, the latest addition to its Seamless category. Designed with creative layering in mind, the collection blends nostalgic activewear with seamless transitions from the gym to the street. Think: stacked bras and tanks, joggers over leggings, and hybrid silhouettes that feel both modern and cool.
The post ICYMI: Regina Hall Wears Custom Cong Tri, Burberry Launches New Campaign, And More appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Mecca Pryor","publishDate":"2026-03-02T18:49:37.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/icymi-regina-hall-custom-cong-tri/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T00:00:54.345Z"},{"id":"cu06ui","archiveId":"1p4wra","slug":"faqs-about-the-save-america-act-and-its-impact-on-voters","title":"FAQs About the SAVE America Act and Its Impact on Voters","excerpt":"As the SAVE America Act moves through Congress and outside groups mobilize on both sides, confusion about what the bill would actually require has fueled misinformation and political spin. If passed, the legislation would require Americans to show a passport or birth certificate to register to vote—...","content":"As the SAVE America Act moves through Congress and outside groups mobilize on both sides, confusion about what the bill would actually require has fueled misinformation and political spin. If passed, the legislation would require Americans to show a passport or birth certificate to register to vote—adding a new layer of federal documentation requirements that could block millions of eligible voters. Supporters describe it as a simple measure; critics warn it would create sweeping new barriers at the registration stage.
\nMore than 21 million Americans don’t have ready access to those documents. Married women who have changed their names could face mismatched records. And the bill rests on a premise that researchers have repeatedly debunked: widespread noncitizen voting.
\nTo cut through the noise, Ms. has put together this guide to the SAVE America Act, answering common questions about what it would do and how it could affect your right to vote, including: Does a Real ID count? What if I can’t find my passport? And why are Trump and Republicans pushing so hard for this bill?
\nThe post FAQs About the SAVE America Act and Its Impact on Voters appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"politics","author":"Roxanne Szal","publishDate":"2026-03-02T17:58:45.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2172990737.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/02/save-act-married-women-college-student-voters-election-integrity-trump-republicans/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-02T18:00:03.779Z"},{"id":"ppyd03","archiveId":"yyzggy","slug":"propublica-sues-education-department-for-withholding-records-about-discrimination-in-schools","title":"ProPublica Sues Education Department for Withholding Records About Discrimination in Schools","excerpt":"The post ProPublica Sues Education Department for Withholding Records About Discrimination in Schools appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"ProPublica has sued the U.S. Department of Education in federal court in New York, accusing it of withholding public records about how it’s enforcing civil rights protections for millions of American students.
\n\n\n\nThe Education Department has failed to provide public records related to its investigations, communications and other work that ProPublica sought through four Freedom of Information Act requests filed last year.
\n\n\n\nThe Education Department’s civil rights arm for decades has investigated allegations of discrimination in schools. It historically has kept an online list of its open investigations and posted the findings of completed inquiries. But under Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, the Office for Civil Rights has been decimated and the work of its remaining investigators is largely cloaked in secrecy.
\n\n\n\nProPublica submitted three FOIA requests — the first of them more than a year ago — seeking records about civil rights investigations that have been opened or closed, notices sent to institutions being investigated and previous findings of discrimination that have been reversed under the Trump administration. A fourth request sought communication between top Education Department officials and conservative groups that have criticized public schools. Some of the groups have urged the OCR to investigate specific school districts and have met often with McMahon.
\n\n\n\nThe department has not responded to the requests other than to acknowledge that it received them.
\n\n\n\n“Actions by the Department of Education have real consequences for millions of students and families,” said Alexandra Perloff-Giles of the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, which is representing ProPublica.
\n\n\n\n“The public deserves to understand how executive authority is being exercised so that it can hold government accountable,” she said. “Congress enacted FOIA to offer the public that necessary transparency, and we’re asking the court to enforce it.”
\n\n\n\nSpokespeople for the department did not respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit. The department has not yet responded to the complaint in court.
\n\n\n\nThe lawsuit, filed Wednesday, argues that since Trump took office, the work of the OCR — once one of the federal government’s largest enforcers of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — has become significantly more opaque. Though each presidential administration has its priorities, OCR has consistently worked to uphold constitutional rights against discrimination based on disability, race and gender.
\n\n\n\nBut the focus of the OCR under Trump has shifted to investigations relating to curbing antisemitism, ending participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports and combating alleged discrimination against white students. Complaints about transgender students playing sports and using girls’ bathrooms at school have been fast-tracked while cases of racial harassment of Black students last year were ignored.
\n\n\n\nAnd although some documents that detail how cases were resolved are being posted online, some older resolution agreements have been terminated . Those terminations have not been disclosed to the public.
\n\n\n\n“The public interest in this information is substantial and ongoing. Since there are approximately 49.6 million students in the U.S., changes to the ED and its policies affect millions of families,” the lawsuit says.
\n\n\n\nTrump has been working to shutter the department. Hundreds of department workers have been laid off and official employee counts at the OCR went from 568 in 2024 to 403 as of December 2025. McMahon closed seven of the 12 regional OCR offices that handled discrimination complaints across the country. Amid the staffing difficulties and the shift in priorities at the OCR, families’ discrimination complaints have piled up.
\n\n\n\nWhen President Joe Biden left office, about 12,000 investigations were open; by December 2025, there were nearly 24,000. ProPublica reporting has found that new complaints as well as older ones included in the backlog often are dismissed without investigation. OCR workers have said they feel as if they’re working in a “dismissal factory.”
\n\n\n\nIn the past year, ProPublica has filed several other lawsuits seeking to force transparency in courts and the federal government. That includes a lawsuit filed in May against the State Department. ProPublica also has joined other media organizations in lawsuits.
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\n\tHave you recently filed a civil rights complaint or do you have a pending case? We need your help to get a full picture of how the dismantling of the Office for Civil Rights is affecting students, parents, school employees and their communities.
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The post ProPublica Sues Education Department for Withholding Records About Discrimination in Schools appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"equality","author":"Jennifer Smith Richards","publishDate":"2026-03-02T16:50:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/social-AP25079783159671_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=2000,1050","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/education-department-civil-rights-office-foia-lawsuit","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-02T18:00:05.172Z"},{"id":"l7gwln","archiveId":"shbmhh","slug":"gyrl-wonder8217s-inaugural-women-of-impact-gala-will-honor-gayle-king-danessa-myricks-and-asia-milia","title":"Gyrl Wonder’s Inaugural Women Of Impact Gala Will Honor Gayle King, Danessa Myricks And Asia Milia Ware","excerpt":"Gyrl Wonder is stepping into a new chapter, and it is bringing some heavy hitters along to celebrate. The national nonprofit, which has spent 11 years building pathways for young […] The post Gyrl Wonder’s Inaugural Women Of Impact Gala Will Honor Gayle King, Danessa Myricks And Asia Milia Ware appe...","content":"Kimberly Wilson ·Updated March 2, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… Gyrl Wonder is stepping into a new chapter, and it is bringing some heavy hitters along to celebrate.
The national nonprofit, which has spent 11 years building pathways for young women of color between the ages of 17 and 23, will host its inaugural Women of Impact Gala on Monday, March 16th at the LVMH Magic Room in New York City. Les Alfred, founder and host of the podcast She’s So Lucky, will emcee the evening.
This year’s honorees are Gayle King, co-host of CBS Mornings and editor-at-large at Oprah Daily; beauty entrepreneur Danessa Myricks, founder and CEO of Danessa Myricks Beauty; and Asia Milia Ware, beauty editor at The Cut.
“The Women of Impact Gala represents the next chapter of Gyrl Wonder,” Lawal said.
“As we celebrate 11 years, we are not only honoring women who have broken barriers — we are investing in ensuring the doors they’ve opened remain accessible for the next generation.”
The gala, sponsored by Legacy Partner belif Skincare, is Gyrl Wonder’s first major fundraising and recognition event. Founded by Tola Lawal, the organization has built its reputation through conferences, mentorship programs and leadership experiences that connect emerging young professionals with established industry figures.
King, whose journalism career has spanned decades, has long been one of the most recognizable Black women in broadcast news. Beyond her work at the anchor desk, she has been a visible presence in conversations about representation and mentorship in media, and has conducted some of the most talked-about interviews in recent memory.
Myricks built her brand from the ground up, going from self-taught makeup artist to founder of a globally recognized beauty company celebrated for its inclusivity and innovation. Her product development has consistently centered women of all skin tones, and her success has made her a reference point for what ownership in the beauty industry can look like for women of color.
Ware has used her platform at The Cut to center underrepresented voices and expand what beauty journalism covers and who it speaks to. Her editorial work sits at the intersection of beauty, identity and culture, and she has been deliberate about amplifying founders and creatives who might otherwise go overlooked.
The evening will gather leaders from across media, beauty, sports, culture and philanthropy. For the hundreds of young women who have come through Gyrl Wonder over the past 11 years, it has been a long time coming.
The Women of Impact Gala takes place March 16th in New York City.
The post Gyrl Wonder’s Inaugural Women Of Impact Gala Will Honor Gayle King, Danessa Myricks And Asia Milia Ware appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-02T16:34:12.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2259328807-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/gyrl-wonder-women-of-impact-gala/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-02T18:00:08.322Z"},{"id":"deku9d","archiveId":"cm3vot","slug":"america8217s-founding-feminists-rewriting-americas-origin-story","title":"America’s Founding Feminists: Rewriting America’s Origin Story","excerpt":"Two hundred and fifty years ago, a small group of men declared that “all men are created equal,” casting a vision of liberty that has shaped the American imagination ever since. Yet even as they debated freedom in Philadelphia, women were writing, organizing, governing, resisting and insisting on th...","content":"Two hundred and fifty years ago, a small group of men declared that “all men are created equal,” casting a vision of liberty that has shaped the American imagination ever since.
\nYet even as they debated freedom in Philadelphia, women were writing, organizing, governing, resisting and insisting on their place within the nation taking form. Some, like Mary Katherine Goddard, literally set their names in print; others, like Phillis Wheatley, wrote themselves into intellectual existence against a backdrop of enslavement and doubt. Still others left their mark through acts of refusal and flight, choosing freedom when the republic would not grant it.
\nA new series, Founding Feminists —launching at the start of Women’s History Month—unfolds over two months, twice a week. On this semiquincentennial of the United States, Ms. turns to these “founding feminists” not as anachronistic heroines, but as architects of an unfinished democratic project. There is no nation without women at its core—no democracy without their labor, intellect, resistance and imagination.
\nFrom Haudenosaunee matrilineal governance, to Black women’s freedom-seeking acts, from revolutionary manifestos to quiet domestic rebellions, our Founding Feminists series reexamines the past to illuminate our present moment of backlash and possibility.
\nIf the Declaration of Independence set forth a promise of equality, it was women—across race, class, sexuality and nationality—who pressed the nation to live up to it.
\nTwo hundred and fifty years later, their questions remain ours: What does freedom truly mean, and who gets to claim it?
\nThe post America’s Founding Feminists: Rewriting America’s Origin Story appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Janell Hobson","publishDate":"2026-03-02T15:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Nettrice-Gaskins-Founding-Feminists-2026-scaled.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/02/founding-feminists-introduction-america-250/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-02T18:00:03.779Z"},{"id":"7uo2p7","archiveId":"pz97at","slug":"anti-abortion-bounty-hunter-laws-spread-from-texas-across-us","title":"Anti-Abortion ‘Bounty Hunter’ Laws Spread from Texas Across U.S.","excerpt":"Analysis: Several GOP towns and states now allow residents to sue each other for getting abortion care. The reward: money. In February, Kansas passed a similarly designed trans bathroom ban. The post Anti-Abortion ‘Bounty Hunter’ Laws Spread from Texas Across U.S.","content":"From Kansas to Tennessee, U.S. states are copying a novel legal tactic from Texas to turn neighbors on each other and strip residents of their rights.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIn 2021, Texas passed SB 8 , an aggressive law that outlawed abortion after six weeks. In practice, this banned almost all abortions since most people don’t learn they’re pregnant so soon. Texas imposed the bill nearly one year before the Supreme Court ended federal abortion protections in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSB 8 clearly violated accepted constitutional law under Roe v. Wade, which had made abortion legal nationwide since 1973 . But Texas had a plan to get around that pesky fact.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSince imposing criminal penalties against pregnant people seeking abortions or doctors who provided them would likely have gotten the law declared unconstitutional and overturned pretty quickly, SB 8 is enforced through civil lawsuits rather than by the government. That is, everyday people—not state prosecutors—enforce the law.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThis legal loophole is the reason SB 8 is nicknamed the “bounty hunter” law. It encourages people to sue their neighbors for having an abortion. Their incentive: money.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNow, the Texas bounty hunter strategy is being deployed nationwide—and testing the legality of this theory.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSupreme Court skirts the problem \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nTexas’ idea to rely on civilians rather than the government to enforce its abortion ban did bypass the constitutional issue created by Roe. But it also created a new legal problem.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nUsually, in order to bring a suit for a financial reward, a person has to show they have “standing,” meaning they were directly harmed in some way. Texas SB 8 apparently requires no such standing. Anyone can sue a person they suspect has had an abortion.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFinancial settlements on civil lawsuits are also typically based on the harm one suffered . But with the bounty hunter law, the financial settlement seems to be treated more as a payment for reporting abortion patients to the state than restitution for actual distress.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSB 8 should have been thrown out as unconstitutional on those grounds. Instead, when a challenge to Texas law reached the Supreme Court in 2021, the justices decided to sidestep untangling this convoluted legal strategy.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIn Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nTo date, no lawsuit has successfully been litigated under SB 8. But in 2023, the architect of the law, right-wing lawyer Jonathan Mitchell, helped a Texas man file a wrongful death suit against his wife’s friends for helping her obtain an abortion. The case was eventually dropped , but only after nearly two years of what one of the defendants called “abusive litigation.”
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCritics of the law also warn that bounty hunter mechanisms could financially incentivize domestic abusers to sue if their partner chooses not to bring a child into a violent household. In theory, even rapists could sue their victim for getting an abortion if the rape has not been reported to the police. Those lawsuits might fail, but they could be used to drag women into court to exert control and abuse.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNew bounty hunter laws \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSince the Supreme Court allowed SB 8 to stand, more anti-abortion “bounty hunter” laws have been popping up across the country.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSome attempt to resolve the issue of legal standing.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nA 2022 Idaho anti-abortion law specifies that only family members—specifically those related to one of the fetus’ parents—of an aborted fetus can sue. While this law doesn’t encourage random citizens to profit from reporting the health-care choices of their neighbors, it is still legally problematic. Traditionally, a family member wouldn’t have standing to sue over an abortion, because a parent or a spouse isn’t owed a baby.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIn 2024, Tennessee passed a law that allowed the parents of a minor child to sue anyone who “intentionally recruits, harbors, or transports a pregnant unemancipated minor” to get abortion care. Targets could include a friend, a cab driver , a doctor, and a host of other people.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNo lawsuit has succeeded yet under either of these laws. Both the Tennessee and Idaho abortion laws have been making their way through the courts with partial blocks and appeals.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nA new Texas law is also being tested in court. In December 2025, Texas HB 7 , which allows private citizens to sue anyone who distributes, manufactures, provides, or mails abortion medication into Texas, went into effect.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nTwo months later, a Texas man amended his lawsuit against a California doctor who prescribed abortion pills supposedly taken by his then-girlfriend to include an HB 7 violation.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMeanwhile, Kansas is applying the Texas bounty hunter approach to anti-trans legislation . The state’s new anti-trans bathroom law gives people “aggrieved by an invasion of privacy or other harm” when using a public bathroom also used by a trans person the right to sue the person they believe is trans.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThis approach theoretically offers a fig leaf of legal standing—that your privacy is violated if a trans person uses the same bathroom as you. But the Kansas law is essentially applying the same shaky legal logic as Texas’ abortion bounty hunter law. It provides financial incentive for people to report their trans neighbors for simply using the bathroom.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe law also invalidated trans people’s drivers licenses if the gender on their ID doesn’t match the sex they were assigned at birth. In addition to creating administrative chaos around replacement IDs, Kansas requires people to present a valid photo ID to vote . If trans Kansans have trouble replacing their documents, they may not be able to participate in the 2026 midterm elections. Even if they replace their documentation, the gender markers on their IDs might no longer match their gender presentation, leading to questioning at the polls.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nKansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the anti-trans bill on Feb. 13, 2026, citing issues with visiting family members in nursing homes and hospitals. Her rationale sidestepped the question of trans people’s rights. The Kansas senate overrode the governor’s veto anyway, on Feb. 17, and the Kansas House followed suit the next day, meaning the bill is now law .
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nToday, if a person in Kansas is sued for using a different bathroom than the one designated for the sex they were assigned at birth, they could be forced to defend themselves in civil court.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nEven if they aren’t found liable in the suit, they may have to spend money on lawyers and potentially disclose private medical information to “prove” their gender. Beyond the public humiliation of enduring such a court hearing, such proceedings could “out” people as trans, putting them at risk of all kinds of anti-trans harassment.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nA little more than two-thirds of trans people reported having ever experienced verbal harassment when using public bathrooms, according to a 2008 study published in Journal of Public Management & Social Policy, the most recent comprehensive study available. More recent survey data from The Williams Institute , a think tank that studies gender identity and the law, reports that in 2022, 6 percent of trans people reported verbal harassment while using a public bathroom in the past year alone.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe anti-trans frenzy can also sweep cisgender women into its dragnet. In March 2025, two cis women reported being harassed by a male security guard in a Boston hotel who wanted them to prove their gender while they were using the women’s bathroom. A month earlier, two male sheriffs confronted a Black cis woman in a Tucson, Arizona, Walmart women’s restroom because a store employee allegedly assumed she was trans.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nState legislators aren’t the only lawmakers passing anti-trans bounty laws. In 2024 Odessa, Texas became the first municipality to pass its own “bounty hunter” law to police trans bathroom use. A local ordinance now states that trans people are not only subject to trespassing charges and fines for using the bathroom that doesn’t match their assigned sex at birth, but also that private citizens can also sue trans people for upwards of $10,000.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe bounty-hunter strategy may have been rolled out to punish people for getting abortions. But it’s expanding into new territory where it may prove even more effective. Logistically it’s easier to notice trans people in a public bathroom than to spy on a neighbor swallowing abortion pills at home.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAnd now this kind of legal maneuver has even reached the federal level.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Riley Gaines Act , introduced in the House of Representatives on Feb. 4, 2026, would financially incentivize civilian enforcement of anti-trans policy nationwide. The proposal would allow people to sue academic institutions that “negligently or recklessly” allow a “biologically male student athlete to compete in an athletic competition intended exclusively for female student athletes, resulting in harm.”
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSlave catcher laws \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe nearest legal precedent for modern-day bounty hunter laws are the slave catching incentives instituted before the Civil War.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIn the antebellum U.S., many slave owners in the South were angry that enslaved people could escape and live in the North without Northerners aiding in returning them. As sectional tensions heated up and anti-slavery sentiment grew, more and more laws were passed to try and protect the Southern slaveholding power.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was one such law. There was already a federal fugitive slave law in place that affirmed that enslaved people who escaped remained “property” even in free states, but that law wasn’t enough to get most white citizens to turn in their Black neighbors who fled slavery.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe new law not only imposed financial penalties on people caught aiding a “fugitive slave”—it also gave financial incentive to federal commissioners, people tasked with adjudicating if a captured Black person was free or a runaway.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nRoughly 330 formerly enslaved people were returned to the South in the decade that followed. And the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made many more who fled slavery feel much less safe in their northern communities, driving thousands to migrate further North to Canada .
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Fugitive Slave Act was repealed in 1864, a year before slavery was outlawed in the U.S.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNation of snitches \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe constitutionality of Texas SB 8 might finally be evaluated in a court of law. A case first brought in 2022, Sadie Weldon v. The Lilith Fund
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSadie Weldon, a private citizen in Texas, sought to depose Neesha Davé, the deputy director of an abortion fund called Lilith Fund, in a 202 petition. This type of petition is used to depose someone to gather information before filing a lawsuit. It has been used to target abortion providers and researchers .
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nLilith Fund countersued, asking a judge to declare SB 8 unconstitutional and prevent Weldon from suing under the statute. After two lower courts declined Weldon’s request to dismiss the countersuit, the issue now sits with the Texas Supreme Court. If the countersuit is not dismissed and the case gets sent back to a lower court, a judge could rule on SB 8’s constitutionality.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nUntil and unless a court declares bounty hunter laws unconstitutional, it’s likely more states will continue to pass laws that financially incentivize residents to spy on their neighbors.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHow long before the government offers money to people who sue the undocumented immigrants who work in your favorite restaurant? Might Texans soon be able to get paid for suing people who seek gender-affirming care?
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe possibilities for persecuting our neighbors are theoretically endless.
\r\n\r\n\r\nThe post Anti-Abortion ‘Bounty Hunter’ Laws Spread from Texas Across U.S. appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"politics","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-03-02T14:00:47.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Kansas-Bounty-Hunter-Law-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/03/02/abortion-bounty-hunter-laws-texas-trans-bathroom-bill/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-02T18:00:03.816Z"},{"id":"lj5ydv","archiveId":"jolb63","slug":"the-best-nail-studios-for-artful-manis-in-nyc","title":"The Best Nail Studios For Artful Manis in NYC","excerpt":"One of the best things about New York City is the range of options on tap. From restaurants to museums to theatres to events, there’s always something to do and […] The post The Best Nail Studios For Artful Manis in NYC appeared first on Essence .","content":"Valerie Butler ·Updated February 27, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… One of the best things about New York City is the range of options on tap. From restaurants to museums to theatres to events, there’s always something to do and somewhere to try. While every New Yorker will tell you they know the best route, deli or stylist, we’ve compiled a list of the most thoughtful, design-driven nail studios in the city.
Sundays Studio A 100% vegan nail salon, Sundays Studio is a spa-like environment rooted in wellness. With six locations (and counting), Sundays continues to create little sanctuaries across NYC without compromising its meditative signature services or nontoxic proprietary varnishes and dissolvents. One of the most popular offerings at Sundays is the Signature Manicure: a 2-in-1 treatment that couples a manicure with guided meditation. My favorite part of the experience is the noise-cancelling headphones provided to drown out the hustle of the city and help you settle into your service.
The serene atmosphere, along with Sundays’curated space to shop wellness partners including Grown Alchemist, Intelligent Change and WTHN acupuncture tools, makes this salon an ideal space to wind down while you pamper.
Chillhouse You know that friend whose nails you always compliment, only for her to exclaim, “They’re press-ons!”? It’s more than likely she’s wearing Chill Tips. Perhaps owing its popularity to its range of press-on nails and equally impressive nail designs, Chillhouse is a bold, fun salon with treatments for the “minimalist to the maximalist and everyone in between!”
In addition to their traditional regular and gel salon services, Chillhouse offers a Chill Tips mani as well as infrared sauna sessions and a range of face and body services. From their cafe offerings to the private massage rooms, the studio is just as inspired as its Instagram feed.
But it’s not all tips and treats. Chillhouse is known to partner with brands that champion women. Most recently, they’ve collaborated with Opill, the first and only daily birth control pill available without a prescription in the U.S. The goal of this partnership is to make birth control pills as accessible as picking up a set of press-ons. So not only does Chillhouse empower women in their Soho location, but also across the U.S.
Tina Green Nails From the outside, Tina Green may look like your standard nail salon—you know the type that makes you feel like just another hand to be polished. TGN, however, differentiates itself by two key models: its waiting list and green card.
Similar to many NYC restaurants, Tina Green does not take reservations. Instead, they encourage walk-ins and offer an online waitlist that opens from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. When you join the waitlist, it provides estimates as to how many people are ahead of you and alerts you when your “table is ready.” At the end of the appointment, you receive a green card that notes the date of service, technician and total due. This card serves as a loyalty card, a discount card and helps both the client and technician recognize each other—not to mention, with every $180 spent, you receive $10 off.When I want to leave the nail salon with an intricate nail art or hard gel overlay, Tina Green Nails is my go-to. Equipped with my inspiration in hand and no shortage of nail technicians ready to bring the design to life, the team at Tina Green has ingrained themselves in my routine.
Primp and Polish Primp and Polish has made a name for itself with consistent, luxurious service. As someone very particular in all things, but especially at the nail salon, I can never fully relax. Yet I found myself curling up in their big, plush, single-seater sofas used to designate the pedicure stations. The salon was peaceful and the service was easy. No cross talk, loud music or distraction—unless you consider being offered water or tea a distraction.One of the key design features of the shop is its bar seating where they offer simple, classic or spa manicures and a range of enhancements. With four nearly identical locations across Brooklyn, a seamless online booking system as well as availability through Classpass, Primp and Polish is ready to do just what its name says.
Suite Eleven Suite Eleven is a Black-owned vegan nail salon based in the heart of Brooklyn. Founded in 2018 by Ari Smith, the salon is all things chic and zen. Not only can you book everything from a hot stone foot massage to an Aprés Gel mani with art, you can also shop teh Suite Eleven collection. Need a re-up on non-toxic polish or a fresh batch of mango butter? This salon has got you covered.
The post The Best Nail Studios For Artful Manis in NYC appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-02T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/best-nail-studios-nyc-for-spring-manis/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-02T18:00:08.322Z"},{"id":"bicyin","archiveId":"408kyp","slug":"finding-the-edge-how-black-adventurers-are-redefining-thrill-community-and-belonging","title":"Finding the Edge: How Black Adventurers Are Redefining Thrill, Community, and Belonging","excerpt":"There’s a quiet revolution underway in adventure culture, and Black women are leading it with intention. Spaces once treated as off-limits or “not for us” are being reclaimed through lived, […] The post Finding the Edge: How Black Adventurers Are Redefining Thrill, Community, and Belonging appeared ...","content":"Jennifer Ford ·Updated March 2, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… There’s a quiet revolution underway in adventure culture, and Black women are leading it with intention. Spaces once treated as off-limits or “not for us” are being reclaimed through lived, heart-pounding experiences. This shift is not about proving anything to anyone else. It is about movement, curiosity, and the freedom to discover new edges—physically, emotionally, and collectively.
Thrill, in this context, is not just adrenaline for adrenaline’s sake. It is the moment you trust your body on a steep climb after years of being told to play small. It is the breath you take at the top of a ridge that you once thought was out of reach. It is the quiet confidence that builds when you realize fear did not get the final say. These experiences expand what feels possible, and that expansion has a ripple effect that shows up in everyday life.
When Black women show up for high-intensity experiences, we are not just participating. We are reshaping the atmosphere. The edge is no longer a boundary. It is a meeting place between courage and connection. If you’re ready to unlock a new level of confidence, start with one of these outdoor experiences.
Rock ClimbingWhen you scale a rock face, every move is a lesson in trust—trusting your body, your judgment, and your ability to keep going even when doubt creeps in.
Whitewater Rafting
Whitewater rafting is all about embracing the unknown and working as a team to overcome obstacles together, proving to yourself that you can navigate chaos and come out stronger.
Ziplining
Ziplining asks you to leap, to let go of hesitation, and experience the exhilarating freedom that comes from believing in yourself.
The 2026 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited is part of that story—giving us the ability to explore uncharted routes and shape every adventure into something uniquely our own.
Jeep jeep cherokee The post Finding the Edge: How Black Adventurers Are Redefining Thrill, Community, and Belonging appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Khadija Allen","publishDate":"2026-03-02T13:54:14.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/health-and-wellness/finding-the-edge-how-black-adventurers-are-redefining-thrill-community-and-belonging/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-02T18:00:08.322Z"},{"id":"veldub","archiveId":"n8484x","slug":"this-week-in-news-supreme-court-hunter-college-travel-alerts-038-selma","title":"This Week in News: Supreme Court, Hunter College, Travel Alerts & Selma","excerpt":"Across the country, citizens are paying close attention to these top stories that are impacting travel plans, public safety and how accountability is determined from a university professor to United […] The post This Week in News: Supreme Court, Hunter College, Travel Alerts & Selma appeared first o...","content":"Tevon Blair ·Updated March 2, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… Across the country, citizens are paying close attention to these top stories that are impacting travel plans, public safety and how accountability is determined from a university professor to United States Postal Service employees. The latest decision made by the Supreme Court confirms that even if your packages are intentionally not being delivered, there’s no legal standing for an individual to take action against the federal government. Accountability is also being tested with a college professor after sharing racist remarks during a school board meeting. We have also seen how both domestic and international issues can impact travel plans with the threats in Mexico and the recent pause of the Global Entry program. And in Selma Alabama, community members honor the life and legacy of one of the youngest to march during the Civil Rights Movement.
Together these stories shape this week in news – from a Supreme Court decision to airlines pausing travel and hopefully people learning to mute themselves on zoom when they don’t have nice things to say– especially about Black people.
Supreme Court Rules Against Texas Landlord In Postal Office Dispute A dispute between a Texas landlord and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has resulted in the Supreme Court ruling that American citizens do not have the legal standing to sue when mail is deliberately not delivered.
The 5-4 decision ruled against Lebene Konan, the landlord pursuing the lawsuit, after reporting that for nearly two years mail was intentionally withheld from their property. Konan is a Black Texas resident and claims that the actions by USPS staff was due to racial discrimination.
Konan filed several complaints with postal officials and later decided to pursue a lawsuit under the 1946 Federal Tort Claims Act, a >The New York Times that she was “trying to explain the concept of systemic racism.”
“Regardless of whether it was said under the assumption of being muted, the sentiment itself is rooted in violent and painful history of racial segregation and dehumanization,” says Hunter College’s Black Student Union and four other student groups in a joint statement. “This rhetoric is incompatible with the responsibilities of an educator entrusted with molding young minds.”
U.S. Lifts Shelter-In-Place Order After Travelers Impacted By Safety Concerns In MexicoThis week began with shelter-in-place orders from the United States and massive flight cancellations after violence spread across Mexico in response to Cartel leader Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, also known as El Mencho, was killed by the Mexican army.
Video footage and images spread across social media of travelers at a Mexican airport running, frightened by the threat of danger and warnings from local and foreign governments seeking immediate shelter. Although travel advisory remains, the U.S. lifted the shelter-in-place order.
Delta, Southwest and other major airlines all canceled flights on Sunday and Monday departing to cities in Mexico due to the safety concerns of their passengers. These alerts came as American travelers prepare for spring break and warm weather vacation destinations to Mexico.
The Department of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says that the Jalisco cartel is one of the largest distributors of drugs across the U.S. Now, since President Trump started his second term, he has been critical of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to gain control of cartel operations between the two countries.
The U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Mexico continue to share updates for those continuing with travel plans to Mexico.
Partial Government Shutdown Impacts Global Entry Program, Leaving PreCheck Available For Travels Travels with access to TSA PreCheck and Global Entry were initially impacted by the suspension of the two programs due to the partial government shutdown. Hours later, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said that its PreCheck program would remain operational on a “case by case basis.”
This reversed decision comes during the third government shutdown in less than six months under President Trump. The shutdown began on February 14 in response to Congress failing to approve funding toward the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“This is Trump and Kristi Noem purposely punishing the American people and using them as pawns for their sadistic political games,” said Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson in a statement. “TSA PreCheck and Global Entry reduce airport lines and ease the burden on DHS staff who are working without pay because of Trump’s abuse of the Department and killing of American citizens.”
Although PreCheck was not impacted, DHS is considering to pause the program again to prioritize standard security lines if staffing TSA officers becomes an issue.
‘Child Foot Soldier’ and Selma Civil Rights Activist Joanne Bland Passes at 72Community members in Selma, Alabama mourn the passing of lifelong Civil Rights Activist Joanne Bland. She is one of the youngest children who participated in many of the Selma voting rights marches, including Bloody Sunday, known as a ‘child foot soldier.’
Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell honored Bland’s life as a freedom fighter on the House Floor . “I am forever grateful for the sacrifices made by JoAnne Bland in the name of equality and justice,” said Sewell. “I know that I get to walk the halls of Congress as Alabama’s first Black congresswoman because of her courage, resilience, and determination.”
She became an active member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at age 11. While being one of the youngest participants in the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, she was arrested at least 13 times for her involvement during the movement.
Her life was dedicated to continuing the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement by sharing the history of Selma and inspiring generations of Alabama residents to lead through her organization’s Foot Soldiers Park, Journeys for the Soul, and the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute.
Bland’s family said that she “departed this life surrounded by love.”
The post This Week in News: Supreme Court, Hunter College, Travel Alerts & Selma appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Shelby Stewart","publishDate":"2026-03-02T13:49:16.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/this-week-news-supreme-court-hunter-college-travel-selma/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-02T18:00:08.322Z"},{"id":"5o6q4u","archiveId":"m6cvim","slug":"fresh-air-clear-mind-how-everyday-outdoor-movement-supports-our-wellness","title":"Fresh Air, Clear Mind: How Everyday Outdoor Movement Supports Our Wellness","excerpt":"Time spent outdoors supports overall well-being, and Black women are increasingly reclaiming the outdoors as a space for grounding, restoration, and connection. Whether it’s biking through tree-lined neighborhoods or a […] The post Fresh Air, Clear Mind: How Everyday Outdoor Movement Supports Our We...","content":"Jennifer Ford ·The post Fresh Air, Clear Mind: How Everyday Outdoor Movement Supports Our Wellness appeared first on Essence .
","category":"equality","author":"Khadija Allen","publishDate":"2026-03-02T13:47:59.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/fresh-air-clear-mind-how-everyday-outdoor-movement-supports-our-wellness/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-02T18:00:08.322Z"},{"id":"otf93i","archiveId":"rv4kfx","slug":"jailed-for-losing-a-pregnancy-how-progress-on-el-salvadors-harsh-anti-abortion-law-is-unravelling","title":"Jailed for losing a pregnancy: how progress on El Salvador’s harsh anti-abortion law is unravelling","excerpt":"Years of campaigning led to the release of 81 women imprisoned under the country’s strict reproductive laws, but the suspension of civil rights by President Nayib Bukele is fuelling a new wave of criminalisation
Her ordeal began with stomach cramps; 19 years old and training to be a nurse, ...","content":"<p>Years of campaigning led to the release of 81 women imprisoned under the country’s strict reproductive laws, but the suspension of civil rights by President Nayib Bukele is fuelling a new wave of criminalisation</p><p>Her ordeal began with stomach cramps; 19 years old and training to be a nurse, she knew something was wrong. At the hospital she waited for hours in the emergency department. She had suffered an obstetric emergency.</p><p>Under El Salvador’s legal framework, emergencies including miscarriages and stillbirths place women under criminal suspicion. She lost the baby and doctors alerted the police. She was arrested and handcuffed.</p> <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/mar/02/el-salvador-bukele-anti-abortion-laws-women-criminalised-obstetric-crisis-miscarriage-rights\">Continue reading...</a>","category":"equality","author":"Harriet Barber","publishDate":"2026-03-02T13:15:10.000Z","image":"https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d5a087951a62a493fd6a4ae4c1397d0fb1103f21/11_942_2985_2390/master/2985.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=888e5594d882d251240b2844334cb1e0","source":"The Guardian Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/mar/02/el-salvador-bukele-anti-abortion-laws-women-criminalised-obstetric-crisis-miscarriage-rights","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-02T18:00:06.022Z"},{"id":"erf2r9","archiveId":"edqhpn","slug":"honoring-a-champion-for-black-maternal-health-and-reproductive-justice","title":"Honoring a Champion for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice","excerpt":"In Our Own Voice honors Congresswoman Robin Kelly with the 2025 Reproductive Justice Champion Award on Capitol Hill. At a time when Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people face escalating attacks on bodily autonomy, healthcare access, and economic security, In Our Own Voice: National Black W...","content":"
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In Our Own Voice honors Congresswoman Robin Kelly with the 2025 Reproductive Justice Champion Award on Capitol Hill.
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At a time when Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people face escalating attacks on bodily autonomy, healthcare access, and economic security, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda gathered on Capitol Hill to celebrate leadership that continues to move Reproductive Justice forward.
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In partnership with the Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls , led by Co-Chairs Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman, Yvette Clarke, and Robin Kelly, In Our Own Voice proudly presented Congresswoman Robin Kelly (IL-02) with the 2025 Reproductive Justice Champion Award, recognizing more than a decade of unwavering leadership advancing maternal health equity and comprehensive reproductive justice policy.
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From elevating the Black maternal mortality crisis as a national public health priority to championing legislation that expands postpartum Medicaid coverage, strengthens maternal health data collection, supports doulas, and combats systemic bias in healthcare, Congresswoman Kelly has consistently advanced policies rooted in care, equity, and justice.
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Her leadership reflects a fundamental truth of the Reproductive Justice framework: the ability to make decisions about our bodies and families is inseparable from economic stability, community safety, and access to quality healthcare.
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Surrounded by congressional colleagues and movement partners, the evening celebrated not only Rep. Kelly’s legislative accomplishments, but also her deep commitment to ensuring Black women and families can thrive.
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Members of Congress, advocates, and movement leaders gathered to celebrate Reproductive Justice leadership at the start of the 119th Congress.
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Leadership That Builds Community in Challenging Times
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Dr. Regina Davis Moss reflects on the urgency of advancing Reproductive Justice amid ongoing attacks on Black women’s health and autonomy.
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Opening the program, Dr. Regina Davis Moss, President and CEO of In Our Own Voice, reminded attendees that Reproductive Justice remains grounded in human rights and collective liberation.
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As attacks on civil rights and social safety nets intensify, gatherings like this serve as essential moments to affirm shared purpose and recognize leaders who expand opportunity when others seek to restrict it.
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The Reproductive Justice Champion Award was created to honor policymakers who fight alongside communities and intentionally build connection, hope, and resilience during moments marked by political hostility and uncertainty.
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Celebrating a Legacy of Service
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Congresswomen Bonnie Watson Coleman and Yvette Clarke recognized Congresswoman Watson Coleman for more than 50 years of public service and leadership.
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The evening also included a special tribute to Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, honoring her historic leadership and more than five decades of public service advancing civil rights, economic justice, and maternal health equity.
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As New Jersey’s first Black woman elected to Congress and a founding leader within the Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls, her legacy continues to shape the path toward justice for future generations.
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Continuing the Fight for Reproductive Justice
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Champions of the Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls continue advancing policies that protect Black women and families.
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As the 119th Congress begins, the stakes for Black communities remain high. Yet the evening served as a powerful reminder that courageous leadership endures and that collective action remains our greatest strength.
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Standing alongside champions like Congresswoman Robin Kelly, In Our Own Voice will continue fighting to ensure Reproductive Justice is not an aspiration, but a lived reality for Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people nationwide.
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Until full access to equitable, compassionate reproductive care is secured, our work continues.
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The post Honoring a Champion for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice first appeared on In Our Own Voice .
","category":"health","author":"In Our Own Voice","publishDate":"2026-03-02T13:02:30.000Z","image":"https://blackrj.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/480A1527.jpg","source":"National Black Women's RJ Agenda","sourceUrl":"https://blackrj.org/honoring-a-champion-for-black-maternal-health-reproductive-justice/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-02T18:00:05.898Z"},{"id":"skhxec","archiveId":"403bzg","slug":"experience-isnt-enough-anymoreheres-what-employers-actually-want-in-2026","title":"Experience Isn’t Enough Anymore—Here’s What Employers Actually Want In 2026","excerpt":"Jobs have long hired their employees based on experience. Generally, the more, the better, especially for senior level positions. Today, however, hiring managers are changing how they find talent, meaning […] The post Experience Isn’t Enough Anymore—Here’s What Employers Actually Want In 2026 appear...","content":"Andrea Bossi ·Updated March 2, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… Jobs have long hired their employees based on experience. Generally, the more, the better, especially for senior level positions. Today, however, hiring managers are changing how they find talent, meaning it’s getting a little more complicated.
According to a new report by LinkedIn, experience alone might not carry the weight it used to in the job search. Nearly half of recruiters using LinkedIn globally “explicitly use skills data” to help >report, released late February 2026.
“Fueled by AI, traditional career >wrote when sharing the report. “Employers are following suit, increasingly evaluating candidates based on their capabilities — not just where they’ve worked or studied.”
What’s powered this shift? A rapidly changing world, especially with AI , has made this change in needs more pertinent. Today, employers are seeking out those with AI literacy or who are open to learning, in addition to those with people skills. According to LinkedIn, this intensified skills-focused approach might do some good for those who haven’t had a linear career track, like those without college degrees and women on career breaks to raise children, to name a couple. Skills have always mattered during hiring, but they carry more weight in 2026.
“Recruiters who consider candidates by skills rather than qualification or previous experience are 12% more likely to make better-quality hires… and also make more hires overall. A skills-based approach could increase companies’ talent pipeline by 8.2-times globally if we just look at recruitment in AI,” LinkedIn vice presidents Sue Duke and Meg Garlinghouse wrote in a June 2025 memo flagging the early stages of the skills-focused hiring trend.
This shift comes amid a weakened U.S. labor market, which has seen heightened job cuts and concerning trends about Black unemployment , especially for Black women who lost jobs three times faster than all women in 2025. According to the 2026 report, 66% of Black professionals in the U.S. surveyed by LinkedIn say the job search has become harder. In other words, skills-focused hiring may be taking over how employers think, but fewer are hiring right now regardless.
According to LinkedIn’s report, those with five or more skills listed on their profile receive up to 5.6-times the profile views from recruiters. So, what can someone looking for a job do right now? Don’t leave your skills off the table. List them on your resume and where you can online. Upskill and learn where you can, especially around AI. The employment platform also flagged key skills on the rise across 12 different industries, from sales to education, in its report.
The job market will remain uber competitive in 2026, and maximizing relevant skills is just one way to better position yourself.
The post Experience Isn’t Enough Anymore—Here’s What Employers Actually Want In 2026 appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-03-02T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/skills-over-experience-hiring-2026/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-02T18:00:08.322Z"},{"id":"i3czls","archiveId":"fmn11e","slug":"idaho-considers-an-8216apocalyptic8217-choice-for-disabled-people-and-families","title":"Idaho considers an ‘apocalyptic’ choice for disabled people and families","excerpt":"Stephanie Walters doesn’t know what she will do if Idaho stops funding home care for her daughter. Until recently, this option would have been unthinkable. But because of steep cuts to Medicaid from Donald Trump’s signature policy measure, state officials are considering the unthinkable.","content":"Stephanie Walters doesn’t know what she will do if Idaho stops funding home care for her daughter. Until recently, this option would have been unthinkable. But because of steep cuts to Medicaid from Donald Trump’s signature policy measure , state officials are considering the unthinkable.
\n\n\n\nLast month, Republican Gov. Brad Little released a budget plan that would potentially dissolve the state’s home care services. The possibility has people with disabilities and their families scrambling. A number of programs are on the chopping block, including dental services, occupational and physical therapy for children and adults, and home care for people with disabilities. That’s exactly the type of service Walters, 56, and her daughter rely on.
\n\n\n\nEarlier this month, over 500 people flooded the Idaho statehouse to testify against the proposed cuts; between her job and caregiving responsibilities, Walters didn’t have time to join them, but she shares their concerns. Walters and her daughter, Shelby, live in Meridian, Idaho. Shelby, 28, has cerebral palsy. Walters works as a nurse. She also receives some funding through the state to provide care for her daughter at home. Every morning, she helps Shelby get dressed, brush her teeth and use the bathroom. Four days a week, Shelby goes to a day program where she works on skills like expressing her needs and using money. This program is also funded by the state and is potentially on the chopping block.
\n\n\n\nWalters also helps Shelby do the things she loves: bowling, going to the movies and spending time with her boyfriend, Jason. They’ve been together for about a year and a half and go on weekly dates.
\n\n\n\n“She’s already planning her birthday for next year. She loves life,” Walters said.
\n\n\n\nShelby, who has cerebral palsy, attends a state-funded day program four days a week and receives care at home through Idaho’s home care program — services that are potentially on the chopping block.\n (Emily Scherer for The 19th; Stephanie Walters) Home care is already underfunded, according to experts. Even a small reduction in services could drastically impact the lives of people with disabilities and the families who rely on them.
\n\n\n\nNational- and state-level disability and aging advocates warned throughout the negotiations around the president’s tax legislation, known as the “one, big, beautiful bill,” that cuts to Medicaid would severely impact the most vulnerable.
\n\n\n\nThe vast majority of Medicaid-funded home care programs are optional under the law — and “optional programs are what get cut first,” said Nicole Jorwic, chief program officer at Caring Across Generations, a national advocacy organization for caregivers. “We always knew that that would be the place that states would have to look, but this is the first time that we’re hearing of a cut to the whole system.” According to Jorwic, other states are watching what Idaho will do. Idaho, she said, may be a bellwether for what happens to disability services in other states. Massive cuts are also being proposed in Missouri and Utah , but none go as far as what has been proposed in Idaho.
\n\n\n\nWhile Jorwic and other experts anticipated the cuts, she still described the situation as “apocalyptic.”
\n\n\n\n“It’s a cut of $900 billion over 10 years. We went to hearings. We talked to governors” throughout the country as well as lawmakers, including Sen. Mike Crapo, a Republican from Idaho who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, she said. “We very actively forecasted that this was a real threat.”
\n\n\n\n\n\nEven small cuts can be devastating for home care programs, which are already underfunded and stretched thin. According to ANCOR, an organization representing home care providers that tracks issues like labor shortages and program closures, the system is already buckling under the strain in almost every state before any cuts take place.
\n\n\n\nThe loss of funding for Shelby’s day program and for the care she receives at home would be devastating for both of her and her mother.
\n\n\n\n“I’d probably have to quit my job. I need to make sure she can spend time with friends and her boyfriend, but she would still be more socially isolated,” Walters said. “I’d have to get some kind of job where I can work from home so I could still pay the mortgage, for groceries, and everything else in this terrible economy.”
\n\n\n\nWalters has left work to care for her daughter before, when Shelby first started having seizures in early childhood. This is a common experience for many family caregivers, especially women, who account for almost 60 percent of all family caregivers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Women are also more likely to leave the workforce to fulfill caregiving responsibilities.
\n\n\n\nKaren Shen, a health policy professor at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, found in a 2024 study that there was a direct relationship between adult daughters remaining in the workforce and whether a state provided home care for aging parents. There was considerably less impact on sons in terms of employment.
\n\n\n\n“Overall, most people are cared for by women. Daughters provide a much greater share of hours of care than sons,” Shen said. “Daughters are potentially more likely to be secondary earners, so their labor force participation might be particularly sensitive in a way that sons are not.”
\n\n\n\nIt still isn’t clear what and how much will be cut from the budget for home care services in Idaho. James Baugh, 73, a retired disability rights lawyer living in Boise has been closely following the heated negotiations occurring at the statehouse.
\n\n\n\nBaugh’s son, Gabriel, is 53 and has significant, constant medical needs. He is on a ventilator and, if he has a cold, he may need to have his tracheostomy, a hole in his neck through which he breathes, suctioned every 15 minutes. He eats through a tube inserted directly into his stomach. He needs assistance with every aspect of his daily life. Idaho’s home care program pays for people to come in and do all of that.
\n\n\n\n“That kind of one-to-one care is far beyond what I can pay for with my social security,” Baugh said.
\n\n\n\nGabriel Baugh, 53, receives care through Idaho’s home care program to support his complex medical needs, allowing him to live at home in Boise rather than in a long-term care facility.\n (Emily Scherer for The 19th; Gabriel Baugh) Gabriel is able to live at home because of Idaho’s home care program. If the program ceased to exist, nursing homes would reject Gabriel, according to Baugh. His medical needs are too complex.
\n\n\n\n“He would need to go to a long-term acute nursing hospital, which would be terrible for him. I don’t even know if there are any openings. There’s maybe one or two across the state,” Baugh said.
\n\n\n\nThere are safety issues with that kind of long-term hospitalization; Gabriel can’t push a nurse’s call button if something is wrong. But even more than that: At home, Baugh is able to ensure Gabriel does things he enjoys.
\n\n\n\n“He loves live music. I play guitar and sing, and I have friends who come over. He loves to watch cooking shows and Food Network,” Baugh said. “Before his spinal cord injury, he wanted to be a chef. I thought after he had to start tube feeding, that he’d lose interest in cooking, but not at all.”
\n\n\n\nAccording to Baugh, the cuts are still being hotly debated behind closed doors. The challenge is getting lawmakers to understand the impact this will have on families like his.
\n\n\n\n“People know as an article of faith that all of these government programs are bloated and full of fraud and waste, and that cutting 4 percent is not going to hurt anybody,” Baugh said. “You have to penetrate that thinking and actually get them to look at the service and what it does. This is what happens to people if you don’t provide it.”
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Sara Luterman","publishDate":"2026-03-02T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/IdahoDisabilities-Spot1.jpeg?w=995","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/03/idaho-medicaid-budget-cuts-disability-programs/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-02T12:00:06.310Z"},{"id":"lav1p9","archiveId":"2bk88v","slug":"nwlc-condemns-supreme-courts-rush-to-expand-religious-exemptions-in-public-schools","title":"NWLC Condemns Supreme Court’s Rush to Expand Religious Exemptions in Public Schools","excerpt":"WASHINGTON — Tonight, the U.S. Supreme Court barred California from enforcing its guidance prohibiting schools from forcibly outing transgender students while lower courts consider a challenge to the policy brought by a group of objecting parents.","content":"WASHINGTON — Tonight, the U.S. Supreme Court barred California from enforcing its guidance prohibiting schools from forcibly outing transgender students while lower courts consider a challenge to the policy brought by a group of objecting parents.
\nThe decision reverses an earlier decision by the 9 th U.S. Circuit Court and suggests that parents are allowed to assert religious exemptions to general school policies. The Supreme Court also asserts that parents have a due process right to make “decisions regarding their children’s mental health,” even though it ignored similar arguments from parents challenging a ban on access to transition-related care for transgender youth in last year’s United States v. Skrmetti.
\nGaylynn Burroughs, vice president for education and workplace justice at the National Women’s Law Center, issued the following statement in response:
\n“When educators are forced to act as informants, students suffer. The Supreme Court’s hasty decision disrupts the trust and stability that schools provide for students to learn and thrive.
\n“In its rush to expand religious influence in public schools, the Supreme Court prioritized religious exemptions over children’s success and well-being and trampled on the rights and futures of transgender students without considering the full facts of the case. Trans youth — like all youth — deserve a school environment that is safe, inclusive, and free from discrimination.”
\nThe post NWLC Condemns Supreme Court’s Rush to Expand Religious Exemptions in Public Schools appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"equality","author":"Eun Kim","publishDate":"2026-03-02T10:35:46.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/nwlc-logo-1200x630-1.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/nwlc-condemns-supreme-courts-rush-to-expand-religious-exemptions-in-public-schools/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T06:00:51.244Z"},{"id":"4max22","archiveId":"4mq6et","slug":"applications-open-for-2026-propublica-investigative-editor-training-program","title":"Applications Open for 2026 ProPublica Investigative Editor Training Program","excerpt":"The post Applications Open for 2026 ProPublica Investigative Editor Training Program appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"For the fourth year, ProPublica will invite up to 10 news editors from media companies across the country to participate in a yearlong investigative editing training program, led by the newsroom’s award-winning staff.
\n\n\n\nApplications are now open for the ProPublica Investigative Editor Training Program. Submissions are due Monday, March 30, at 9 a.m. Eastern time.
\n\n\n\nAs the nation’s premier nonprofit investigative newsroom, ProPublica is dedicated to journalism that changes laws and lives and to advancing the careers of the people who produce it. The goal of this program is to address our industry’s critical need to broaden the ranks of investigative editors. Building a pipeline of talent is a priority that serves us and our industry.
\n\n\n\n“Journalism is vital to a healthy democracy, and it is clear that our world needs more investigative journalism at this moment, not less,” Managing Editor Ginger Thompson said. “We see the Editor Training Program as an indispensable training ground to ensure the future of investigative journalism. Where others are contracting, we are investing in the future of our industry, and that of talented journalists across the country.”
\n\n\n\nThis year’s program will begin with a weeklong boot camp in New York that will include courses and panel discussions on how to conceive of and produce investigative projects that expose harm and have impact. The editors will also get training in how to manage reporters who are working with data, documents and sensitive sources, including whistleblowers, agency insiders and people who have suffered trauma. The program also includes virtual continuing education sessions and support from a ProPublica mentor.
\n\n\n\nFrequently Asked Questions \n\n\n\nWhat is this? \n\n\n\nThe ProPublica Investigative Editor Training Program is designed to help expand the ranks of editors with investigative experience in newsrooms across the country, to help better reflect the nation as a whole.
\n\n\n\nWhat kind of experience can you expect? \n\n\n\nThe program kicks off with a five-day intensive editing boot camp in New York, which includes a series of courses and panel discussions led by ProPublica’s senior editors, veteran reporters and other newsroom leaders. The boot camp will include hands-on editing exercises and opportunities for participants to workshop projects underway in their own newsrooms.
\n\n\n\nAfterward, participants will gather virtually for seminars and career development discussions with their cohort and ProPublica journalists. Each of the participants will also be assigned a ProPublica senior editor as a mentor for advice on story and management challenges or on how to most effectively pursue their own professional aspirations.
\n\n\n\nWhat skills should I expect to learn? \n\n\n\n\nHow to evaluate story ideas and determine the right scope, length and time for getting the work done. \n\n\n\nHow to manage a reporter through a complicated accountability story and communicate feedback in ways that build trust and confidence. \n\n\n\nHow to edit investigative drafts, spot holes in reporting logic, organize a narrative and guide the reporter through the fact-checking process. \n\n\n\nHow to work collaboratively with research, data and multimedia teams to elevate an investigative project. \n \n\n\n\nWhen is the boot camp? \n\n\n\nThe five-day, all-expenses-paid boot camp will be held May 31 to June 4, 2026, in New York, with remote sessions via Google Meet throughout the year.
\n\n\n\nIs there a virtual option for the boot camp? \n\n\n\nThis boot camp will be held in person and will not have a virtual option.
\n\n\n\nWill I be responsible for my expenses in New York? \n\n\n\nProPublica will cover participants’ expenses for meals, travel and lodging during the boot camp.
\n\n\n\nHow many participants will be selected each year? \n\n\n\nUp to 10 journalists.
\n\n\n\nWho is eligible? \n\n\n\nThe program is open to all. The aim is to help broaden our industry’s investigative editing ranks to include journalists from a wide array of backgrounds. We encourage everyone to apply, including those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds and rural news organizations, as well as women, people of color, veterans, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities. Past participants have come from a wide range of news outlets across the country.
\n\n\n\nThe ideal participants will have:
\n\n\n\n\nA minimum of five years of journalism experience, either as an editor or as a reporter primarily doing work with an investigative or accountability focus. \n\n\n\nA strong grasp of the basics of editing, storytelling, structure and framing. \n\n\n\nExperience managing a team of journalists or a complicated multipronged reporting project. \n\n\n\nAn accountability mindset: You don’t have to have been on the investigative team, but we are looking for people with an eye for watchdog reporting and editing. \n \n\n\n\nAm I eligible if I live outside of the United States? \n\n\n\nNo.
\n\n\n\nHow do I apply? \n\n\n\nThe application period is now open and closes Monday, March 30, at 9 a.m. Eastern time. You can find the posting to apply at propublica.org/jobs .
\n\n\n\nWhat if I have other questions? \n\n\n\nSend an email to Assistant Managing Editor Talia Buford at talent@propublica.org .
\nThe post Applications Open for 2026 ProPublica Investigative Editor Training Program appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"activism","author":"Talia Buford","publishDate":"2026-03-02T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/miotke_propublica_final_print_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=2000,1333","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/propublica-investigative-editor-training-program-2026","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-02T12:00:07.048Z"},{"id":"n5nbea","archiveId":"bfncxc","slug":"the-best-red-carpet-looks-from-the-2026-actor-awards","title":"The Best Red Carpet Looks From The 2026 Actor Awards","excerpt":"As award season rolls on, the Actor Awards (formerly known as the SAG-AFTRA Awards) capped off a whirlwind weekend of ceremonies. Still, Black Hollywood’s finest haven’t let up for a […] The post The Best Red Carpet Looks From The 2026 Actor Awards appeared first on Essence .","content":"Mecca Pryor ·Updated March 1, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… As award season rolls on, the Actor Awards (formerly known as the SAG-AFTRA Awards ) capped off a whirlwind weekend of ceremonies . Still, Black Hollywood’s finest haven’t let up for a second. Even as the curtain falls on a packed slate of shows, the stars are making their runs look effortless. From sultry silhouettes to dazzling adornments, they delivered moments that will live rent-free in our minds long after the night ends.
ESSENCE’s Black Women in Hollywood honoree pixie cut craze with voluminous finger waves, which sculpted along her forehead and framed the sides of her face. She paired the look with a couture gown fresh off the Saiid Kobeisy runway, complete with a feathered boa that grazed the floor and diamonds dripping from her ears and neck.
Ryan Coogler stepped out in Fear of God, keeping it effortlessly cool with a black T-shirt layered under a double-breasted blazer buttoned only at the waist for a relaxed, yet refined finish.
Below, see the best beauty and fashion moments from the 2026 Actors Awards red carpet.
Actor Awards 2026 award show sag-aftra
The post The Best Red Carpet Looks From The 2026 Actor Awards appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-03-02T02:19:50.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2263756321-Cropped-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/best-beauty-and-fashion-sag-awards-2026/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-02T06:00:35.246Z"},{"id":"ahgkoq","archiveId":"u3ssg4","slug":"sinners-and-one-battle-after-another-set-for-record-breaking-showdown-at-the-2026-actor-awards","title":"‘Sinners’ And ‘One Battle After Another’ Set For Record-Breaking Showdown At The 2026 Actor Awards","excerpt":"As the 2026 Actor Awards approach this evening, two films sit at the center of the conversation—One Battle After Another and Sinners. Both projects have dominated the awards circuit in […] The post ‘Sinners’ And ‘One Battle After Another’ Set For Record-Breaking Showdown At The 2026 Actor Awards app...","content":"Okla Jones ·Updated March 1, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… As the 2026 Actor Awards approach this evening, two films sit at the center of the conversation—One Battle After Another and Sinners. Both projects have dominated the awards circuit in recent months, and Sunday’s ceremony could further cement their place in this year’s race.
According to data from VegasInsider.com , either film has the potential to break the record for the most wins by a single movie in one night at the Actor Awards, with the current mark standing at four awards. With nominations across cast, individual acting categories and stunt ensemble, the stage is set for a possible shift in the record books.
One Battle After Another has already built serious momentum this season. The darkly comedic thriller secured major victories at the Producers Guild Awards, BAFTAs, the Directors Guild and the Golden Globes, positioning it as a leading Best Picture contender. Its nominations at the Actor Awards include Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for Sinners , directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan, set a new benchmark with 16 Academy Award nominations, the highest total ever recorded. At the Actor Awards, the film is nominated for Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for Jordan, Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for Wunmi Mosaku , Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for Miles Caton and Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble.
Several individual milestones are also within reach. Caton, nominated for his supporting turn in Sinners, could become the youngest winner ever in the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role category. The current youngest winner in that field is Heath Ledger, who won posthumously at 28 years, 9 months. Caton will be 20 at the time of the ceremony, placing him well below that benchmark. A win would also make him the youngest male winner in the film acting categories overall.
Mosaku could also make history. Born in Zaria, Nigeria, the Nigerian-British actress would become the first Nigerian performer to win in the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role category.
Formerly known as the SAG Awards, the 32nd Annual Actor Awards will air live on Netflix from the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 1, 2026, at 8pm ET / 5 pm PT.
TOPICS: Chase Infiniti Miles Caton One Battle After Another ryan coogler Sinners Wunmi Mosaku The post ‘Sinners’ And ‘One Battle After Another’ Set For Record-Breaking Showdown At The 2026 Actor Awards appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-03-01T17:13:14.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/ActorAwardsRecords-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/sinners-one-battle-after-another-set-for-historic-2026-actor-awards/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-01T18:00:09.982Z"},{"id":"p33rkk","archiveId":"1oiuge","slug":"there-is-power-in-the-word-patriarchy-we-need-to-start-using-it","title":"There Is Power in the Word ‘Patriarchy.’ We Need to Start Using It.","excerpt":"News commentators still overlook the obvious when they speculate about why the majority of white female voters in the last three presidential elections cast their ballots for a dishonest, fraudulent, racist, misogynistic sexual predator or why people who call themselves Christians support someone wh...","content":"News commentators still overlook the obvious when they speculate about why the majority of white female voters in the last three presidential elections cast their ballots for a dishonest, fraudulent, racist, misogynistic sexual predator or why people who call themselves Christians support someone who embodies in virtually every way the opposite of “what would Jesus do?”
\nI’m tired of snapping at the talking heads on the TV or computer screen, “Come on, say the P word! It’s the patriarchy, stupid!”
\nWe can trace harmful sex binaries, reproductive control and white Christian nationalism back to the same root system: patriarchy. Naming it is the first step toward dismantling its power.
\nThe post There Is Power in the Word ‘Patriarchy.’ We Need to Start Using It. appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"politics","author":"Roberta W. Francis","publishDate":"2026-03-01T16:08:08.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2202965025.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/01/patriarchy-news-media-women/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-01T18:00:05.906Z"},{"id":"hwexc7","archiveId":"45ut2f","slug":"michael-b-jordan-ryan-coogler-and-sinners-take-top-honors-at-2026-naacp-image-awards","title":"Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Coogler And ‘Sinners’ Take Top Honors At 2026 NAACP Image Awards","excerpt":"The 57th NAACP Image Awards closed out a week of celebrations with a dominant showing from Sinners, which capped its run with 13 total wins across five nights of events. […] The post Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Coogler And ‘Sinners’ Take Top Honors At 2026 NAACP Image Awards appeared first on Essence .","content":"Okla Jones ·Updated March 1, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… The 57th NAACP Image Awards closed out a week of celebrations with a dominant showing from Sinners , which capped its run with 13 total wins across five nights of events. During Saturday’s live broadcast from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, airing on BET and CBS, the Ryan Coogler-directed film picked up three major honors: Outstanding Motion Picture, Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for Michael B. Jordan and Outstanding Breakthrough Performance for newcomer Miles Caton.
Over the course of the week, Sinners had already secured 10 awards in non-televised ceremonies, including recognition for its soundtrack and score. The film entered the awards with a leading 18 nominations and leaves as the clear standout of this year’s Image Awards. Coogler, who has now directed three films that have won outstanding motion picture at the Image Awards, used his acceptance speech to reflect on representation.
“Since our people have been here over four centuries, there’s always been a lot of lies told about us,” he said. “And a lie, no matter how powerful the person saying it is, is still a lie and the truth, no matter how little power the person saying it has, is still the truth, and the truth is y’all are loved, y’all are beautiful and y’all are powerful and mighty. And bless y’all. Thank y’all so much.”
Jordan, who also earned Entertainer of the Year, dedicated his acting win to his late friend and Black Panther co-star Chadwick Boseman, underscoring the ceremony’s theme of legacy and community. “I was thinking about what “lead actor” meant to me. And honestly, I gotta dedicate this award to Chadwick Boseman,” Jordan said to the audience. “…Our time on this planet is short. I was watching the ‘In Memoriam’ and seeing how fast these careers go by and people’s lives go by, and what we do while we’re here on Earth. And I just want to be here and be present with you guys as much as possible.”
Other major film winners included Cynthia Erivo, who took home Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture for Wicked: For Good. On the television side, Angela Bassett claimed Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for 9-1-1, and Abbott Elementary emerged as a strong performer overall, winning five awards during the week. Sterling K. Brown, who won outstanding actor in a drama series for Paradise , used his time on stage to address the current political climate.
“We are living under an administration that has an attack on diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, is trying to erase critical race theory but they can’t erase us because, as Sam[uel L. Jackson] said, ‘There’s no America without us,’” Brown said.
In music, Cardi B won Outstanding Female Artist, Outstanding Album for Am I the Drama?, and Outstanding Hip-Hop/Rap Song for “ErrTime.” She became the first hip-hop artist to win Outstanding Female Artist since Lauryn Hill in 1999. Kendrick Lamar also added to his tally earlier in the week when The Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show Starring Kendrick Lamar won Outstanding Short-Form Series or Special in the Reality and Documentary field, placing him in a tie with Cardi B for the most music wins this year.
The ceremony, hosted by Deon Cole (who delivered an amazing monologue, and touched on topics like the current administration, ICE, and BAFTA -gate), also honored cultural icons. Colman Domingo received the President’s Award. Salt-N-Pepa and DJ Spinderella were inducted into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame. Viola Davis was presented with the Chairman’s Award. In a moving tribute led by Samuel L. Jackson, the organization honored the late Jesse Jackson, who died on February 17 at age 84.
Take a look at the full list of winners for the 57th NAACP Image Awards below.
Entertainer of the YearMichael B. Jordan
Outstanding Motion PictureSinners (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Outstanding Actor in a Motion PictureMichael B. Jordan – Sinners (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Outstanding Actress in a Motion PictureCynthia Erivo – Wicked: For Good (Universal Pictures)
Outstanding Actor in a Drama SeriesSterling K. Brown – “Paradise” (ABC)
Outstanding Actress in a Drama SeriesAngela Bassett – “9-1-1” (ABC)
Outstanding Actress in a Comedy SeriesQuinta Brunson – “Abbott Elementary” (ABC)
Breakthrough Performance in a Motion PictureMiles Caton – Sinners (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Outstanding Writing in a Motion PictureRyan Coogler – “Sinners” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Outstanding Directing in a Motion PictureRyan Coogler – “Sinners” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Outstanding Directing in a Documentary (Television or Motion Picture)Reginald Hudlin, Shola Lynch – “Number One on the Call Sheet” (Apple TV)
Outstanding Documentary (Television)“Number One On the Call Sheet” (Apple TV)
Outstanding Actress in a Limited Television (Series, Special, or Movie)Taraji P. Henson – “Straw” (Netflix)
Outstanding Actor in a Limited Television (Series, Special, or Movie)Tyler Lepley – “Ruth & Boaz” (Netflix)
Outstanding Limited Television (Series, Special, or Movie)“Straw” (Netflix)
Outstanding Talk Series“The Jennifer Hudson Show” (Syndicated)
Outstanding Host in a Talk or News/Information (Series or Special) – Individual or EnsembleDon Lemon – “The Don Lemon Show” (YouTube)
Outstanding News/Information (Series or Special)“The Don Lemon Show” (YouTube)
Outstanding Animated Motion Picture“Zootopia 2” (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama SeriesAisha Hinds – “9-1-1” (ABC)
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama SeriesCaleb McLaughlin – “Stranger Things” (Netflix)
Outstanding Performance by a Youth in a Motion PictureNaya Desir-Johnson – “Sarah’s Oil” (Amazon MGM Studios)
Outstanding Performance by a Youth (Series, Special, Television Movie or Limited-Series)Leah Sava Jeffries – “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” (Disney+)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy SeriesJanelle James – “Abbott Elementary” (ABC)
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy SeriesWilliam Stanford Davis – “Abbott Elementary” (ABC)
Outstanding Comedy Series“Abbott Elementary” (ABC)
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion PictureDelroy Lindo – “Sinners” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion PictureWunmi Mosaku – “Sinners” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy SeriesCedric The Entertainer – “The Neighborhood” (CBS)
Outstanding Digital Creator- Art/ComedyTee Sanders – @teesanderscomedy
Outstanding Digital Creator- Political/CultureLynae Vanee – @lynaevanee
Mildred Bond Roxborough Social Justice Impact Award
Rev. Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant
NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award
Dr. Mary Anne Franks
Outstanding Music Video/Visual Album“luther” – Kendrick Lamar & SZA (pgLang under exclusive license to Interscope Records)
Outstanding New ArtistMonaleo – “Who Did the Body?” (Columbia Records)
Outstanding Female ArtistCardi B – (Atlantic Records)
Outstanding Male ArtistKendrick Lamar – (pgLang under exclusive license to Interscope Records)
Outstanding Hip-Hop/Rap Song“ErrTime” – Cardi B (Atlantic Records)
Outstanding Soundtrack/Compilation Album“Sinners (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)” (Proximity Media LLC, under exclusive license to Masterworks, a label of Sony Music Entertainment)
Outstanding International Song“Is It” – Tyla (Epic Records)
Outstanding Jazz Album“We Insist! 2025” – Terri Lyne Carrington & Christie Dashiell (Candid Records)
Outstanding Gospel/Christian Song“Do it Again” – Kirk Franklin (Fo Yo Soul Recordings/Tribl Records)
Outstanding Gospel/Christian Album“Tasha” – Tasha Cobbs Leonard (Motown Gospel)
Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration (Traditional) 803Fresh feat. Fantasia – “Boots on the Ground Remix” (Snake Eyez Music Group/Artist Partner Group)
Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration (Contemporary) Chris Brown feat. Bryson Tiller & Usher – “It Depends (Remix)” (RCA Records/Chris Brown Entertainment)
Outstanding Original Score for TV/Film “Sinners (Original Motion Picture Score)” (Proximity Media LLC, under exclusive license to Sony Classical, a label of Sony Music Entertainment)
Outstanding Album“Am I The Drama?” – Cardi B (Atlantic Records)
Outstanding Podcast – Scripted/Limited Series/Short Form“Interesting Things with JC” (Jim Connors LLC)
Outstanding Podcast – News and Information“The Don Lemon Show” (Lemon Media Network)
Outstanding Podcast – Life rel=\"tag\">Black directors black films Michael B. Jordan ryan coogler Sinners
The post Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Coogler And ‘Sinners’ Take Top Honors At 2026 NAACP Image Awards appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-03-01T16:07:35.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/awards-events/sinners-takes-top-honors-2026-naacp-image-awards/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-01T18:00:09.982Z"},{"id":"vj3cj6","archiveId":"le0zbk","slug":"the-best-red-carpet-looks-from-the-naacp-image-awards-2026","title":"The Best Red Carpet Looks From The NAACP Image Awards 2026","excerpt":"Tonight, on the final day of Black History Month’s 100th anniversary, the NAACP Image Awards honored the actresses, musicians, and writers who’ll be remembered in our future books. But, before […] The post The Best Red Carpet Looks From The NAACP Image Awards 2026 appeared first on Essence .","content":"India Espy-Jones ·Updated February 28, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… Tonight, on the final day of Black History Month’s 100th anniversary , the NAACP Image Awards honored the actresses, musicians, and writers who’ll be remembered in our future books. But, before the show, it’s their red carpet looks that’ll be pictured next to their prestigious biographies.
For one, ESSENCE’s Black Women in Hollywood honoree Chase Infiniti stunned in a two-toned feathered gown with a spiky high bun. Yet, Quinta Brunson confirmed the 2026 NAACP Image Awards best red carpet looks red carpet
The post The Best Red Carpet Looks From The NAACP Image Awards 2026 appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-02-28T23:02:40.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2264115232-Cropped-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/celebrity/naacp-image-awards-2026-best-red-carpet-looks/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-01T06:00:30.538Z"},{"id":"o26ndt","archiveId":"scve0v","slug":"another-casualty-of-trumps-new-foreign-policy-women","title":"Another Casualty of Trump’s New Foreign Policy: Women","excerpt":"For decades, policymakers across political parties understood that political, economic and social progress cannot be achieved by leaving half the population behind. Advancing women’s opportunities, leadership and rights through foreign policy and programs was seen not only as the morally right cours...","content":"For decades, policymakers across political parties understood that political, economic and social progress cannot be achieved by leaving half the population behind. Advancing women’s opportunities, leadership and rights through foreign policy and programs was seen not only as the morally right course, but as an effective strategy for promoting peace and prosperity around the globe.
\nThe first Trump administration, in recognition of these facts, took actions that seemed to belie support for women’s economic empowerment—for example, President Trump signed the bipartisan Women, Peace and Security Act into law in 2017 to advance women’s leadership and protect women in times of conflict.
\nBut Trump’s second administration has taken a sharply different approach, mounting a sustained assault on women’s rights and reversing bipartisan policies his own administration once championed.
\nThe post Another Casualty of Trump’s New Foreign Policy: Women appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Geeta Rao Gupta","publishDate":"2026-02-28T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2221377777.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/28/trump-foreign-policy-women-usaid-united-nations-health/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-28T12:00:24.047Z"},{"id":"a7t39e","archiveId":"jzcor1","slug":"a-secret-survey-from-inside-a-womens-prison-tells-stories-of-domestic-abuse-untold-in-court","title":"A Secret Survey From Inside a Women’s Prison Tells Stories of Domestic Abuse Untold in Court","excerpt":"The post A Secret Survey From Inside a Women’s Prison Tells Stories of Domestic Abuse Untold in Court appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"Last summer, I traveled to McLoud, Oklahoma, home to the state’s largest women’s prison. McLoud — a town of fewer than 5,000 residents — lies 30 miles east of Oklahoma City on a wide expanse of prairie. At the edge of town, off a rutted road, stands Mabel Bassett Correctional Center, a sprawl of concrete and razor wire.
\n\n\n\nI went there to meet April Wilkens, who has spent more than a quarter century at Mabel Bassett for the 1998 shooting death of her ex-fiancé, Terry Carlton. Wilkens had repeatedly sought help from law enforcement after Carlton beat, raped and stalked her — pleas that, according to trial testimony, were met with indifference. She was convicted of first-degree murder and handed a life sentence.
\n\n\n\nMore than two decades later, her case drew renewed attention. Wilkens became a central figure in the push for new legislation that would allow survivors of domestic violence to seek reduced sentences when their crimes stemmed from their abuse.
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The state’s high incarceration rate — and the mounting human and financial costs of keeping so many people behind bars — had created an opening, one that a Tulsa lawyer named Colleen McCarty recognized. Troubled by Oklahoma’s dual distinction as a state that consistently has one of the highest rates of female imprisonment and of domestic abuse, she and another Tulsa attorney, Leslie Briggs, visited Wilkens in prison in 2022. In that meeting, the lawyers explained that they wanted to pass legislation that could reduce the long sentences that survivors of domestic abuse faced, even when their crimes were a direct result of their abuse. After two years of advocacy, the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act was passed into law in 2024.
\n\n\n\nThe law did not automatically reduce survivors’ sentences. Instead, it created a mechanism for them to petition for relief — requiring them to demonstrate that domestic abuse was a “substantial contributing factor” in their offense and leaving the ultimate decision to a judge.
\n\n\n\nWhen I first heard about the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act, I was floored. I live in Texas and cover criminal justice, so I spend a lot of time tracking where change is — and isn’t — politically possible. I knew how unusual it was for ambitious sentencing reform to emerge from a deep red state where lawmakers have long favored harsh punishment. Oklahoma, which has put to death 130 people since capital punishment resumed in 1976, has the most executions per capita of any state in the nation.
\n\n\n\nI wanted to understand how that law came to be, and, just as importantly, if it was working as intended. As I chronicle in my story, “The Victims Who Fought Back ,” the path to the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act began with that meeting in 2022 between the two lawyers and Wilkens. McCarty and Briggs wanted a sense of how many women were imprisoned for crimes tied to their own abuse. After their meeting, Wilkens came up with a solution; she decided to draft a questionnaire asking other prisoners about the abuse they had endured. She wanted to know: How many other women at Mabel Bassett had cases like hers?
\n\n\n\nWilkens distributed the questionnaire one weekend that fall. She chatted up anyone she saw in the rec yard, the library, the chow hall. Conducting an unauthorized survey could’ve earned her a disciplinary write-up, but Wilkens, who had a nearly spotless record, decided it was a risk worth taking.
\n\n\n\nFor years, she had listened to women describe the violence they had endured — stories that had barely surfaced in courtrooms, if at all. She could see the intersection between their abuse and the crimes they went on to commit. Some had been prosecuted for failing to protect their children from their abusive partners; others had committed crimes alongside their abusers under threat of further harm — offenses that, like Wilkens’, could not be understood apart from the abuse that preceded them.
\n\n\n\nAmong Mabel Bassett’s lifers, Wilkens stood out as a leader; she was well-liked and respected, and as she moved through the prison with her questionnaire, women stopped to hear what she had to say. There was no incentive to fill it out, because no law yet existed to help survivors. There was only Wilkens’ force of personality and a simple request: “If you’ve experienced domestic violence, and that’s connected to why you’re here, will you fill this out?”
\n\n\n\nOne hundred and fifty-six women filled out the survey. McCarty, who would go on to become Wilkens’ attorney, told me she read them in a single sitting, so unmoored by the women’s stories that she had to lie down when she finished. When I went to talk to her last year in Tulsa, she told me that I could read them, too.
\n\n\n\nI’m sharing brief excerpts of them here because they do more than document individual suffering. They also expose something broader: the systemic blind spots that allowed so many of these women’s histories to go unheard in police reports, courtrooms and sentencing decisions.
\n\n\n\nFear and terror are the predominant themes. “The abuse graduated from emotional to verbal to physical to sexual,” wrote one woman.
\n\n\n\n“He said he was going to kill me and hide the body,” wrote another. “His wife before me had her nose broken twice.”
\n\n\n\n“I kept begging for a divorce and he’d threaten to kill my children.”
\n\n\n\n“From the beating I received, my left ear I don’t hear well.”
\n\n\n\n“My children’s father he beat me barely made it out alive.”
\n\n\n\nA fraction of the respondents had, like Wilkens, gone on to kill their abusers. “I didn’t realize I shot him until the gun went off,” wrote one woman.
\n\n\n\nAnother wrote, “One night just snapped, shot & killed my husband.”
\n\n\n\nMany described a system that had failed them. “My lawyer was arrested during my trial,” wrote one woman whose children were put in foster care after her arrest. “I never even got a chance.”
\n\n\n\n“Am ready to tell my story,” wrote a woman who was convicted when Ronald Reagan was president. “Have been for a long time.”
\n\n\n\nThe questionnaires became part of the foundation for a legislative push, helping lawmakers grasp how often abuse and criminal charges intersected, and how rarely that history was fully considered in court. When the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act passed in 2024, there was hope that it would offer women like Wilkens and others at Mabel Bassett a meaningful second look at their sentences.
\n\n\n\nWhat I learned through my reporting, though, is just how resistant that system can be to change. Wilkens, along with many other women with similar stories, still waits behind bars.
\n\n\n\nWith her, inside Mabel Bassett, is another prisoner whose response to the questionnaire has stayed with me: “I was in a very abusive, sick relationship,” she wrote. “I am FREE now.”
\nThe post A Secret Survey From Inside a Women’s Prison Tells Stories of Domestic Abuse Untold in Court appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"resilience","author":"Pamela Colloff","publishDate":"2026-02-28T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/20260218-coloff-drake-ok-justice-wilkens-ogcrop.jpg?w=400&h=400&crop=1","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/oklahoma-survivors-act-survey-domestic-violence","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-28T12:00:25.472Z"},{"id":"gp461y","archiveId":"xxpnu1","slug":"landmark-win-on-abortion-in-the-eu","title":"Landmark Win on Abortion in the EU","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Activists and representatives of the European Citizens’ Initiative \"My Voice, My Choice\" hold a press conference at Press Club Brussels Europe, presenting their campaign for safe and accessible abortion across the EU, after meeting with the European Commission, Brussels, Belgiu...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Activists and representatives of the European Citizens’ Initiative \"My Voice, My Choice\" hold a press conference at Press Club Brussels Europe, presenting their campaign for safe and accessible abortion across the EU, after meeting with the European Commission, Brussels, Belgium, October, 1, 2025.\n © 2025 Wiktor Dabkowski/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>On Thursday, the European Union Commission announced that the European Social Fund can be used by member states to fund safe abortions and improve access to abortion. This is in response to the European Citizens’ Initiative—My Voice, My Choice—which requested that “the EU does what is in its power to ensure safe and accessible abortion for all.”</p><p>The My Voice, My Choice campaign garnered over 1 million signatures from EU citizens and was also supported by civil society organizations from all 27 member states. They argued that abortions were neither accessible nor affordable for many across the EU, especially marginalized women, and that this put women at risk of physical harm, undue stress, and financial strain. </p><p>While the European Commission has not committed to introducing new legislation to reinforce this step, Hadja Lahbib, commissioner for equality, stated that Thursday’s decision means “support for women who need to travel; support for women in their own country; support for women in remote areas; support for women without financial means.” And that, in practice, “it means women will have better access to safe abortion care. Any vulnerable woman. Anywhere in Europe.” </p><p>In the EU, only two countries—Poland and Malta—maintain highly restrictive abortion laws, permitting the procedure only in exceptional circumstances. Malta amended its legislation in 2023, easing what had previously been a total ban, while Poland further tightened access following a 2020 constitutional tribunal ruling. Although most other EU member states allow abortion on broader grounds, many permit broad conscientious objection by medical practitioners, which can significantly limit availability and delay care. International human rights bodies have repeatedly found that barriers to accessing abortion can violate rights to health, privacy, humane treatment, and nondiscrimination. But now women in countries with abortion bans or limited access could seek help abroad.</p><p>This is a significant and long-overdue victory for women across the EU. It signals a renewed commitment to protecting reproductive rights and expanding access to safe abortion care. However, because health policy rests at the national level, now the responsibility lies with member states to ensure these funds translate into meaningful, tangible improvements on the ground. Governments across the EU should seize Thursday’s decision as an opportunity to strengthen access to abortion and uphold women’s rights.</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-02-28T05:01:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/02/202602wrd_belgium_my_voice_my_choice.jpg?h=8c1344d8&itok=b4woP5Fk","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/28/landmark-win-on-abortion-in-the-eu","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-28T06:00:16.068Z"},{"id":"iykrod","archiveId":"8497b1","slug":"kerry-washington-on-democracy-storytelling-and-real-world-change","title":"Kerry Washington On Democracy, Storytelling And Real-World Change","excerpt":"At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Kerry Washington received the Elevate Prize Catalyst Award during the event Democracy on the Screen – and on the Line, along with an unrestricted […] The post Kerry Washington On Democracy, Storytelling And Real-World Change appeared first on Essence .","content":"Okla Jones ·Updated February 27, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Kerry Washington received the Elevate Prize Catalyst Award during the event Democracy on the Screen – and on the Line, along with an unrestricted $250,000 grant to support her work in civic engagement and the protection of democratic freedoms.
The honor places her among a list of prestigious recipients such as Dwyane Wade, Michael J. Fox, Matt Damon, George Clooney, Amal Clooney, Sesame Street Workshop and Malala Yousafzai—figures recognized for using their influence to advance social change. Washington said the news left her reflecting on the company she now keeps.
“I was really honored because I know some of the incredible change makers who’ve gotten it before me, like Malala and Dwyane,” she said. “There’s just been such profoundly important people doing really beautiful work in the world getting that award. So I was really, really honored, and I feel really honored to be in that company.”
For Washington, the funding aligns directly with the mission of her foundation and production company, Simpson Street . She pointed to Elevate’s stated goal to “make good famous,” a phrase she believes mirrors her own approach to advocacy. After the 2016 election, when her Scandal character Olivia Pope began trending online as viewers jokingly begged the fictional fixer to “save” the country, Washington had a realization.
“The focus was on her, well, on me and Olivia Pope,” Washington said. “But really I needed to figure out a way to turn the spotlight, turn the resources, and turn the fame and attention toward some of the real change makers who were doing this work because Olivia Pope’s not real.” She continued, “In the real world, you, I, and every single person has more power than Olivia Pope.”
Through her foundation, Washington has worked to amplify organizers and activists on the ground, providing resources and media training so their efforts reach wider audiences. The Elevate Prize grant will allow her to scale that work and deepen partnerships already in motion.
Her connection between art and activism began long before Hollywood. As a teenager, Washington participated in a peer-to-peer theater program that toured the East Coast performing shows about safer sex, HIV prevention and substance abuse; an experience left a lasting imprint. “Very early on in my life, I connected theater with social change and with activism,” she said, recalling moments when the group pushed back against censorship and advocated for funding and healthcare access. “So I’m not new to this. This idea has been in my life for decades.”
Washington’s early experiences also inform the choices she makes as an actor and producer. While she gravitates toward layered characters, she draws a clear boundary around roles that diminish Black women. Her work through Simpson Street has prioritized stories rooted in truth and justice, and she believes the current climate demands a broad approach to storytelling.
“Right now we need to be telling all the stories that uplift our humanity and our value, our presence,” the actor said. “We are being taught that our stories don’t deserve to be told, that our history should be ignored, that our joy is not allowed.” In her view, stories that center everyday life are just as vital as overtly political narratives. “Any story that uplifts our humanity is important at this moment.”
During the Sundance, Washington also announced that she has joined the upcoming season of Nevertheless as an executive producer. The second installment, titled Nevertheless: Democracy Defenders, will highlight grassroots leaders confronting polarization and threats to civil liberties worldwide. She described the series as a natural extension of her foundation’s VIP Cohort program, which supports activists across the country with training and financial backing.
“When I first saw the Elevate series , I realized that this was a global version of what we were doing with VIP,” she explained. “The work of democracy is actually a global effort.” She noted that the United States can learn from other nations engaged in similar struggles, adding that the series offers a “broader lens on democratic resilience.”
For those feeling burdened by politics, Washington offers practical advice grounded in community. “If you feel overwhelmed, that just means that you’re human,” she said. “You’re not alone.” She encourages people to contribute in ways that fit their lives, whether that means marching, voting, providing childcare, buying groceries for a neighbor or simply showing up in support. “Figure out what it is that you can give and give of yourself,” she said, emphasizing that collective action can ease isolation.
Before concluding the conversation, Washington added one final thought about the role of art. “Supporting artists who are highlighting the humanity of marginalized people is important,” she said. “When you watch those shows and listen to that music—that too is a service because we have to be creating joy and art and heart for each other.”
TOPICS: Kerry Washington The post Kerry Washington On Democracy, Storytelling And Real-World Change appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-02-27T21:50:32.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2263264941-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/culture/kerry-washington-on-democracy-and-storytelling/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-28T00:00:07.683Z"},{"id":"8utkv8","archiveId":"oagtlm","slug":"9-historic-black-wall-streets-you-should-know-besides-tulsa","title":"9 Historic Black Wall Streets You Should Know Besides Tulsa","excerpt":"Greenwood, the legendary business district in Tulsa, Oklahoma has rightfully so become a household name. From the Gurley Hotel to Union Grocery Store, the self-sufficient Black community now known as […] The post 9 Historic Black Wall Streets You Should Know Besides Tulsa appeared first on Essence .","content":"Bridgette Bartlett Royall ·Updated February 27, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… Greenwood , the legendary business district in Tulsa, Oklahoma has rightfully so become a household name. From the Gurley Hotel to Union Grocery Store, the self-sufficient Black community now known as “Black Wall Street” represents the pinnacle of African American entrepreneurship, determination and innovation.
Unfortunately, it was destroyed by an angry White mob during the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre . The massacre killed hundreds of innocent people and destroyed 35 square blocks that represent the blood, sweat and tears of some of our country’s most disenfranchised residents. Today, the midwestern location is a popular tourist destination and hub for Black history, culture and economic development.
We love celebrating Greenwood and only hope that it continues to get the recognition it deserves. What we don’t love and quite frankly detest? The fact that we collectively refer to Black Wall Street in the singular tense; as though there was only one when in fact, during the late 1800s through the early 1960s, there were hundreds of thriving Black Wall Streets in America. One important albeit sad reason for this were Jim Crow Laws which prevented Black people from being welcomed in the same stores, restaurants, schools, hotels and more as their White counterparts.
Instead of asking for permission to sit at the table, many of our ancestors boldly built their own. They built tables, chairs, homes, banks…you name it. The gumption of our forefathers and mothers to not only start lucrative businesses in many cases merely a couple of decades post-slavery but to use their revenue to pour back into their communities. The Great Migration fueled these Black Wall Streets to spread across the country beyond the south to the Northeast and the West Coast.
Since all things Black Excellence and Generational Wealth are not simply trending topics for us, we’re celebrating 9 other impressive Black Wall Streets across the United States. We never learned about these Black business hubs created by people who faced unthinkable odds in our American History classes, but they absolutely represent the quintessential American Dream. Systemic racism disguised as urban renewal (major highway constructions and such) and White rage like the Tulsa massacre destroyed most of these communities but we will continue to say their names and honor the brilliant minds who built them.
BLACK BOTTOM, DETROIT, MICHIGANWith more than 350 booming businesses from doctors and dentists to restaurants and clubs, Black Bottom, and specifically Hastings Street, became known as the city’s major artery for the African American economy. Notable residents included Ralph Bunche, United Nations official and the first African American to earn a Nobel Peace Prize, Charles Diggs Jr., who became Michigan’s first Black U.S. House member in 1955 and iconic actress and recording artist, Della Reese. Contrary to what most would assume, Black Bottom’s name was derived from the area’s rich, dark soil, not the residents who lived there.
BRONZEVILLE, CHICAGO, ILLINOISLocated on Chicago’s South Side, Bronzeville was once considered the city’s Black Metropolis. In 1908, James Binga established Binga Bank, providing mortgage and small business loans to Black residents. 35th Street was Bronzeville’s prime location. Among the businesses of note are the Overton Hygienic Building, a combination store, office and manufacturing space commissioned by entrepreneur Anthony Overton in 1922. The influential Chicago Defender, a Black-focused newspaper with a nationwide circulation was based in the area. Bronzevillesrc=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/Black-Cities-Story-Imagery_Houston-TX.jpg\" alt=\"9 Historic Black Wall Streets You Should Know Besides Tulsa\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" />Freedmen’s Town, Houston
FREEDMEN’S TOWN, HOUSTON, TEXASOften referred to as the “child of Juneteenth”, Freedmen’s Town, located in Houston’s Fourth Ward, is the city’s first and most significant historic Black neighborhood, established by formerly enslaved people after Juneteenth . It flourished as a thriving economic center with more than 400 Black-owned businesses, serving as the hub for 95% of Houston’s Black middle class, despite the area’s swampy foundation.
FOURTH AVENUE DISTRICT, BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMAA bubbling center for popular hotels, restaurants, and entertainment, this district was a focal point for the city’s Black community. Key landmarks between 15th Street to 18th Street North include the Alabama Penny Savings Bank, Carver Theatre and the Masonic Temple. The district is adjacent to the 16th Street Baptist Church , making it a critical part of the nation’s civil rights history.
HARLEM, NEW YORK CITYUptown, Uptown! Harlem USA is commonly connected to the legendary Harlem Renaissance known for fostering creatives like Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes and Aaron Douglas from the 1920s to the mid-1930s. Entertainment venues like the Cotton Club, real estate firms such as the Afro-American Realty Company, and retail organizations including the Colored American Retail Company helped provide essential services and built this Manhattan community up as a hub for Black ownership (see Striver’s Row ) and innovation.
HAYTI DISTRICT, DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINAHayti is a post-Reconstruction Black enclave that thrived through much of the 20th century. Anchored by Parrish Street, Hayti was home to hundreds of booming Black-owned businesses including North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance. Founded in 1898, it became the largest Black-owned business in the world. Other standout businesses are the Biltmore Hotel and the Regal Theater. Key leaders of the district include entrepreneurs like John Merrick, Dr. Aaron McDuffie Moore (who became Durham’s first Black physician in 1888) and Charles Clinton Spaulding. Fun fact: Hayti was named in the late 19th century to honor Haiti, the first independent Black republic in the Western Hemisphere.
JACKSON WARD, RICHMOND, VASometimes called the “Harlem of the South”, Jackson Ward’s Second Street became a bustling center of Black commerce, featuring insurance companies, banks, and businesses that served Richmond’s African American community. Maggie L. Walker, a pioneering figure of the district, chartered the Saint Luke Penny Bank in 1903. This is the first U.S. bank chartered by a woman. That’s right: The first woman to charter a bank in the United States was Black! Her home is now a National Historic Site. SEVENTH STREET, WEST OAKLAND, CALIFORNIAIn the 1940s and early 1950s, Seventh Street became a nationally praised cultural haven for African Americans. Jazz and blues musicians from across the country performed in the neighborhood at clubs and lounges producing a sound that folks began to call the West Coast Blues. The historic 13 block stretch is fondly associated with cultural giants like poet and author Maya Angelou and club owner and philanthropist Esther Mabry. Mabry’s most memorable establishment, The Orbit Room, hosted the likes of Al Green, B.B. King, Etta James and Tina Turner.
TOPICS: 1921 Tulsa Race riots black history black wall street The post 9 Historic Black Wall Streets You Should Know Besides Tulsa appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Bridgette Bartlett","publishDate":"2026-02-27T21:41:51.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/history/9-historic-black-wall-streets-you-should-know/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-28T00:00:07.683Z"},{"id":"6sqs02","archiveId":"10tc3g","slug":"ive-battled-racist-online-trolls-for-years-ai-is-a-whole-different-beast","title":"I’ve Battled Racist Online Trolls For Years. AI Is A Whole Different Beast","excerpt":"Shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, I notified my followers on Instagram that I was speaking to Yahoo! News about what such a monumental attack on reproductive […] The post I’ve Battled Racist Online Trolls For Years. AI Is A Whole Different Beast appeared first on Essence .","content":"Dr. KáLyn Coghill ·Updated February 27, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… Shortly after Nekima Levy Armstrong was arrested while protesting at a church service, the White House circulated an AI‑altered photo of the moment. Instead of showing the real photo — Levy Armstrong calmly being escorted by federal agents — the AI-manipulated image portrayed her as frightened, crying, and with noticeably darkened skin.The photo itself has been viewed over six million times, and it has been used by the administration to portray Levy Armstrong — and by connection, other Black nonbinary, agender, and gender-variant folks — as weak and hysterical.
False and harmful narratives about us, like the one of Levy Armstrong, have long been perpetuated — and they have an unmistakable impact on how we are treated, especially the dark-skinned among us. Offensive images and racist tropes about us and our level of education means that we are more likely than others to hear people express surprise when they demonstrate strong language skills in the workplace. Black people also have some of the highest maternal mortality rates because doctors and nurses are more likely to dismiss their pain due to tropes about “toughness” or “thick skin”. I, myself, have experienced the way that racist tropes show up in rooms with white academics who have dismissed my research as lacking rigor because it focuses on harm leveled against people who look like me. This is not just hurtful, it’s disabling.
But artificial intelligence adds a sinister layer to this long-standing form of violence. Anyone can access these generative applications and alter any image they want without guardrails, moderation, or even consequences. Where online trolls have long perpetuated racist narratives through words, now they can do the same via images churned out in seconds and spread online even faster. But despite its name, AI can’t shake the fact that it has human DNA. AI mimics what real people, not robots, program it to do and the data it does it with.
To stem the deluge of online misogynoir, we need to reflect on our built-in biases so that AI doesn’t continually replicate them and reproduce harm. We have seen scholars, organizers, and scientists like Timnit W. Gebru , Joy Buolamwini , and Ruha Benjamin talk about the power dynamics and harms that these biases replicate in digital spaces.
But we also need to pre-empt the harmful ways that AI perpetuates racist stereotypes by educating people so that they know to call it out when they see it, especially young people who are growing up with this new technology. And when we talk about educating people on AI, we need to be explicit about how racism plays a key role in what we are witnessing in real time. We can do this by providing examples of the ways harmful racist tropes have had a dangerous impact on Black nonbinary, agender, and gender-variant people throughout history — even teaching this to students as early as the primary school level. We also need to create curricula that give young people the foundation for identifying and combating these harms. We also can’t forget that our own digital hygiene is monumental in combatting harmful AI, especially when it comes to targeting Black nonbinary, agender, and gender-variant folks in particular. Interrogating images and videos you see before reposting or resharing can help mitigate the virality of harm.
As a disabled person, I often wrestle with the ways that AI can be used as a tool for accessibility. I’ve seen it help people with cognitive impairments who use AI to help them brainstorm or work through brain fog. But I am all too aware that it hurts me as a Black person, which is also a part of my identity. We need to call a thing a thing, and what we witnessed with Nekima Levy Armstrong, what I have experienced and observed online, and what is becoming even more normalized is the racist use of AI to harm this group.
We must ensure that our education system can teach young people the harmful narratives that AI perpetuates, and then we must hold people accountable for them — even when that’s our own government. Because if AI can be turned into a tool that makes the world more dangerous for Black nonbinary, agender, and gender-variant folks, the next shiny innovation won’t be far behind.
The post I’ve Battled Racist Online Trolls For Years. AI Is A Whole Different Beast appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Shelby Stewart","publishDate":"2026-02-27T21:34:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/ai-racist-online-trolls-digital-misogynoir/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-28T00:00:07.683Z"},{"id":"99jys7","archiveId":"olra9j","slug":"democracy-is-not-self-executing-how-we-shape-a-better-government-through-laws-institutions-and-cultu","title":"Democracy Is Not Self-Executing: How We Shape a Better Government Through Laws, Institutions and Culture","excerpt":"Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S.","content":"Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
\nThis week:
\n... and more.
\nThe post Democracy Is Not Self-Executing: How We Shape a Better Government Through Laws, Institutions and Culture appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Cynthia Richie Terrell","publishDate":"2026-02-27T21:10:35.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2262885485.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/27/weekend-reading-women-politics-democracy/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-28T00:00:04.669Z"},{"id":"f1lzwr","archiveId":"cqtu37","slug":"in-documentary-to-hold-a-mountain-motherhood-becomes-a-form-of-resistance-and-love-of-land-becomes-p","title":"In Documentary ‘To Hold a Mountain,’ Motherhood Becomes a Form of Resistance, and Love of Land Becomes Political","excerpt":"In the remote mountains of Montenegro, a small community of herders tend their sheep and cattle, making cheese, harvesting wool, and maintaining traditions that have persisted for generations. But they also must passionately defend their rural life against the incursions of NATO, which wants to use ...","content":"In the remote mountains of Montenegro, a small community of herders tend their sheep and cattle, making cheese, harvesting wool, and maintaining traditions that have persisted for generations. But they also must passionately defend their rural life against the incursions of NATO, which wants to use their land as a military training ground because of its isolation and rugged terrain. A documentary premiering at Sundance, To Hold a Mountain follows the leader of the protest movement, a staunchly loving and protective woman named Gara, and her young charge, Nada.
\nThe documentary film won this year’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for documentary film at Sundance. By remaining focused with meditative intensity on the quiet day-to-day of its subjects, the film presents an argument both deeply affecting and more effective than if its message were emblazoned across every frame. As the festival jury aptly put it, To Hold a Mountain , directed by Bijana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić, represents “the truest example of the power of cinema to make the personal political.”
\n(This is one in a series of film reviews from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, focused on films by women, trans or nonbinary directors that tell compelling stories about the lives of women and girls.)
\nThe post In Documentary ‘To Hold a Mountain,’ Motherhood Becomes a Form of Resistance, and Love of Land Becomes Political appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"resilience","author":"Aviva Dove-Viebahn","publishDate":"2026-02-27T19:00:36.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/To_Hold_a_Mountain-Still_1-scaled.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/27/sundance-documentary-to-hold-a-mountain/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-28T00:00:04.669Z"},{"id":"7zagrv","archiveId":"vgewqd","slug":"op-ed-ti-50-cent-038-the-cultural-reckoning-around-defending-black-women","title":"Op-Ed: T.I., 50 Cent & The Cultural Reckoning Around Defending Black Women","excerpt":"When did hip-hop become a cesspool for misogynoir, and furthermore, how did it become such? How did an entire genre built on the foundation of Black liberation, through the lens […] The post Op-Ed: T.I., 50 Cent & The Cultural Reckoning Around Defending Black Women appeared first on Essence .","content":"Kenneth Williams Jr. ·Updated February 27, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… When did hip-hop become a cesspool for misogynoir , and furthermore, how did it become such? How did an entire genre built on the foundation of Black liberation, through the lens of musical storytelling, become a breeding ground for the degradation of Black women? These are questions that continue to populate my inner thoughts and group messages as the digital skirmish between 50 Cent and T.I. continues to heat up, with Black women becoming the casualties in this melee.
Over the last week, we’ve seen a seemingly innocuous discussion about a potential Verzuz battle between the two veteran MCs >T.I.’s wife and R&B icon,
If I’m being completely honest, I was excited to see T.I. and his sons, Domani and King, immediately jump to defend their matriarch, including on diss tracks. As the sole son of a Black woman, there’s no end that I wouldn’t travel to in support and protection of my mother. It wouldn’t even be an afterthought. While I disagree with the hurtful jabs thrown into the ring surrounding 50 Cent’s mother, especially considering she’s deceased, I do understand and resonate with the men of the Harris family, and I don’t believe we can police the way someone responds to (repeated) disrespect surrounding their loved ones. Truthfully, the course of events has excited me because I believe they signify a new direction in Hip-Hop in which the respect and protection of Black women are no longer optional.
We’ve seen this industry all but create smear campaigns against Black women like Megan Thee Stallion, Michel’le, and others for speaking out against their abuse, transmuting their survival into harmful social media discourse. It’s been normalized, within this landscape, to discredit Black women, their appearance, and their experiences to uphold the patriarchy that allows violence and harm to prevail at the expense of these women’s mental health and social standings. It’s also become common for the court of public opinion to autonomously collaborate with digital hate trains to become co-conspirators in the disenfranchisement of Black women. Those memes that 50 Cent routinely posts that leave Black women vulnerable to attacks, and the insidious words left in their comment sections and direct messages by mentally unwell fans (or stans), along with the constant discourse born of unbalanced and misogynistic podcast discussions, all contribute to the problem.
As social media continues to expand, I fear that so will the virtual abuse of Black women. Mrs. Harris’s appearance or that of any Black woman should never be used for social media fodder in the same way that the onslaught of attacks directed toward 50 Cent’s deceased mother is inappropriate. While this “rap” beef continues to escalate, it does bring me joy that the phrase Protect Black Women is not dead and very much alive, thanks to T.I. and his musically inclined family. I don’t agree with all of the tactics, but I concur that Black women must be protected at all times, and if this is an indication of where the genre is headed, let’s go.
TOPICS: 50 cent misogynoir T.I. Tiny Harris The post Op-Ed: T.I., 50 Cent & The Cultural Reckoning Around Defending Black Women appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Victoria Uwumarogie","publishDate":"2026-02-27T18:24:23.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/op-ed/ti-wife-tiny/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-28T00:00:07.683Z"},{"id":"w069to","archiveId":"fpqdmk","slug":"nba-all-star-donovan-mitchell-wants-to-make-wellness-a-birthright-not-a-privilege","title":"NBA All-Star Donovan Mitchell Wants To Make Wellness A Birthright, Not A Privilege","excerpt":"Not everyone gets a nutritionist, a recovery coach, a personal chef, and a roster of wellness experts in their corner at their beck and call. In the NBA, that is […] The post NBA All-Star Donovan Mitchell Wants To Make Wellness A Birthright, Not A Privilege appeared first on Essence .","content":"Kimberly Wilson ·Updated February 26, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… Not everyone gets a nutritionist, a recovery coach, a personal chef, and a roster of wellness experts in their corner at their beck and call. In the NBA, that is just Tuesday.
Donovan Mitchell knows this better than most, and rather than just talking about it (and benefiting from it), he’s putting money behind a solution.
The Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star recently joined WellWithAll , a Black-owned health and wellness company working to close generational wellness gaps, as a strategic investor and brand ambassador.
“Performance starts with education and understanding what to put in your body,” Mitchell said. “In the NBA, we have access to the information and products we need to perform at a high level and maintain mental clarity. With this investment in WellWithAll, I’m helping make sure more families have access to the products and tools that make wellness a reality for everyone, not just a luxury for a few.”
WellWithAll was founded on the observation that health disparities in this country are not inevitable, they are the result of unequal access, and that with the right products and support systems, that equation can change. They sell a line of better-for-you products and have built out a wider wellness ecosystem, including the $1 million WellWithAll Prize, which funds AI-driven solutions aimed at advancing health equity. Co-founder and CEO Demond Martin has built the company with a long-game mentality, and Mitchell’s arrival as a strategic investor is a reflection of that same thinking.
“Donovan and I share the same belief that where you’re born should never determine how well or how long you live,” said Martin. “Generational wellness requires long-term thinking. By investing capital in WellWithAll, Donovan is helping to build a future where daily health resources are easier to access and designed with intention for the people who need them most.”
Through his foundation SPIDACARES , he has consistently used his public profile to push conversations around mental health and emotional wellbeing into spaces where those conversations do not always get the oxygen they deserve. The WellWithAll investment puts capital behind that same conviction.
As part of the partnership, Mitchell will work alongside WellWithAll on initiatives that span community health education and resource access, with a particular focus on connecting younger audiences to the brand’s growing toolkit of products and wellness programming. He joins a broader investor coalition that includes Ken Chenault, Jonathan Kraft, David Fialkow, and Larry Fitzgerald.
The post NBA All-Star Donovan Mitchell Wants To Make Wellness A Birthright, Not A Privilege appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-02-27T17:10:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2261749234-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/sports/donovan-mitchell-wellwithall-investment/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T18:00:28.768Z"},{"id":"q5m3rr","archiveId":"3oexie","slug":"un-experts-rebut-olympics-sex-testing-plan","title":"UN Experts Rebut Olympics Sex Testing Plan","excerpt":"Click to expand Image International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Kirsty Coventry speaks at the Olympic House, in Lausanne, Switzerland, June 25, 2025. © 2025 Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP Photo United Nations human rights experts issued a damning public critique of the Internatio...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Kirsty Coventry speaks at the Olympic House, in Lausanne, Switzerland, June 25, 2025.\n © 2025 Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP Photo \n \n \n\n\n \n<p>United Nations human rights experts issued a damning public critique of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) plans to “sex test” all women athletes. </p><p>Last year, the IOC started a secret process to “protect the female category,” and it appears the result is an impending announcement that all women athletes will undergo genetic sex testing for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic games. </p><p>Sex testing has long been used by sporting bodies to target women athletes who, often through variations in their sex characteristics, or intersex traits, have higher than typical natural testosterone. Yet sex testing has been debunked as unethical, unscientific, and unworkable, and has often relied on racist gender stereotypes. Moreover, there is no scientific consensus that such higher than typical testosterone in women confers an athletic advantage. </p><p>Men have never been subject to sex testing, illustrating its discriminatory nature. Instead, the vague language of sex testing regulations, sport governing bodies’ exclusive control over their implementation, and the arbitrary application of unscientific methods, trigger surveillance of women.</p><p>Brave athletes have previously pushed back against sex testing and won. In 2015, following Indian sprinter Dutee Chand’s successful appeal against an Athletics Federation ban for having higher testosterone, global sex testing regulations for women runners were temporarily scrapped. South African Caster Semenya successfully challenged sex testing at the European Court of Human Rights, with one of the court’s judges emphasizing that Semenya “was at a disadvantage … not only as a professional athlete.... but also because she is a woman, she is black, and she is from the Global South.” In the 2024 Paris Games, the IOC, drawing on its framework for inclusion, stood up for Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, with then-President Thomas Bach saying: “I would ask everybody to respect these women[...]. When you speak about human rights then you have the human right of every woman to participate in a women's competition,”</p><p>Women’s equality in sport is an ongoing project, and sex testing does nothing to promote inclusion. Rather it casts a dragnet over women showing their talents to the world. </p><p>IOC President Kirsty Coventry should reconsider her endorsement of sex testing and instead follow the IOC’s evidence-based framework for inclusion developed to promote fairness and inclusion while treating all athletes with dignity.</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-02-27T16:33:11.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/02/202602eca_lgbt_switzerland_olympics_coventry.jpg?h=0ae7fbfa&itok=sHiD8NAh","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/27/un-experts-rebut-olympics-sex-testing-plan","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T18:00:27.823Z"},{"id":"o1pclw","archiveId":"ihms0k","slug":"fashion-on-a-mission-celebrating-black-life-one-thread-at-a-time","title":"Fashion On A Mission: Celebrating Black Life, One Thread At A Time","excerpt":"In an era when fast-fashion labels are cranking out items at breakneck speed, some Black-owned brands are slowing things down instead. These designers are rooting their work in history, activism […] The post Fashion On A Mission: Celebrating Black Life, One Thread At A Time appeared first on Essence...","content":"Jaha Nailah Avery ·Updated February 27, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready…
In an era when fast-fashion labels are cranking out items at breakneck speed, some Black-owned brands are slowing things down instead. These designers are rooting their work in history, activism and collective care. For them, fashion is cultural preservation, protest and affirmation. It’s also atarget=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">HGC Apparel. “Being bold and telling our stories, and the stories of our communities through fashion is something we’ve been doing forever.”
Smith founded HGC Apparel (which stands for “Heritage, Garments & Culture”) in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. “I wanted to create something based on pride and uplift, something that gave the feeling that the yard and the HBCU environment brings.” Smith, who is a member of the Divine Nine, went to Howard on a bowling scholarship. Her first brand event was at a Howard step show. She wants her clothing, steeped in HBCU culture , D9 traditions and 1990s aesthetics, to be a bridge between generations of Black people.
HGC’s signature declaration, “They Love Our Culture, They Don’t Love Us!” calls out the commodification of Black creativity alongside the persistent devaluation of Black lives. The garments are bold and graphic, but Smith is clear that the brand’s mission extends beyond statement-making.
“It’s about giving us our flowers,” she says. “It’s a movement, and it starts with understanding and loving ourselves. We are combined in our thoughts, how we move as a people, and knowing our value.” Her long-term vision looks past individual success. She’s currently developing programs that will help other Black-owned brands master product placement in retail stores. “The more of us that come in there, the better,” she says. “You want to go fast, go alone; you want to go far, go together. I want to go far.” In that ethos, collective over individual, HGC Apparel frames pride as wellness, not ego.
Black N Ugly Clothing turns to historical excavation as its primary design tool. Founder Sherifa Gayle describes her work as “edufashion,” which is education and fashion intertwined. What began as a personal exploration of identity has evolved into a brand dedicated to telling fuller, richer stories about Black life in America.
“I want people to know how powerful the story is,” Gayle says, “especially the stories that aren’t as well known.” Her Green Book collection pays homage to the travel guide created by Victor Hugo Green that helped Black motorists navigate the dangers of Jim Crow America. Active from 1936 to 1966, the guide listed safe hotels, gas stations and restaurants for Black travelers in a segregated nation.
The collection was born from research and reverence. Gayle visited a traveling exhibit curated by cultural documentarian Candacy Taylor, read extensively, and interviewed elders who had firsthand knowledge of the guide. “It made me feel like this was purposeful in the sense that there’s people who resonate with this. For some, it was a part of their life, and for the rest of us, we can learn about it and respect history,” she says. “With this collection, people can hold something physical that is meaningful, and references back to that time.”
Gayle’s design process is immersive and sensory. “When I think about the Green Book, I’m like, How did it feel when they were traveling?” she explains. “I just always try to design with whose story I am telling in mind and ask myself if I am doing them justice by telling the story.”
The collection includes leather jackets, which evoke a sense of durability. Its mechanic sets are a nod to the people who ensured safe journeys. And its accessories, like passport covers and license plates, extend the narrative beyond clothing. “History connects us all, and the more we know, the better it makes us,” Gayle says.
At a moment when historical memory is often contested or even facing erasure, Black N Ugly (named for a Biggie verse)target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Actively Black is bringing empowerment into the realm of athletic wear and economic justice. Launched in November 2020 by Bianca Winslow and Lanny Smith, Actively Black was born from a powerful necessity: Ownership. “The inspiration for launching Actively Black was to build something that we own as a community, instead of supporting brands that profit from Black culture and consumers, without respecting or investing in it,” says Winslow.
The brand’s name is a mantra, but it’s also a mission. “To be Actively Black means choosing to live with intention, in your health, your culture and your community,” Winslow explains. “It’s about honoring where we come from, while also actively investing in where we’re going.” History is stitched into the very fabric of the brand. Actively Black has collaborated with cultural figures and estates, including civil rights photographer Cecil Williams and Olympic icons Tommie Smith and John Carlos, and has created designs for Nigeria’s Olympic team. Each collection begins with an idea grounded in legacy and impact, then moves into the design.
In 2024, the brand took its commitment a step further by sourcing cotton from Black farmers, as a response to systemic land loss and economic inequities. In an industry historically tied to the exploitation of Black labor, that choice is layered with meaning. “There’s greatness in our DNA,” Winslow says. “We’re all about Black culture and Black history, and we walk the talk. It’s reflected in everything we do.”
For Actively Black, wellness is inseparable from ownership. Participating consciously in where you shop, what you wear, and how your dollars circulate matters. When customers wear the clothing, it’s a tangible reminder that they are part of something larger than themselves.
Across all three brands, fashion as a tool for wholeness is a common thread. HGC Apparel centers self-love and unity. Actively Black reclaims ownership and economic power. Black N Ugly safeguards memory and honors ancestral resilience. Together, they redefine wellness as cultural affirmation: knowing where you come from, supporting businesses that reflect your values, and seeing yourself fully and unapologetically on runways, racks and city streets.
In a world that has long extracted from Black culture without reinvesting in Black communities, these brands insist on reciprocity. They invite customers to remember, to build, and to move together. And in doing so, they remind us that sometimes the most powerful statements aren’t spoken, they’re worn.
TOPICS: fashion
The post Fashion On A Mission: Celebrating Black Life, One Thread At A Time appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Victoria Uwumarogie","publishDate":"2026-02-27T16:12:36.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/black-owned-apparel-brands-culture-pride/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T18:00:28.768Z"},{"id":"6wlnup","archiveId":"h9pzz","slug":"surgeon-general-nominee-flip-flops-on-birth-control","title":"Surgeon General Nominee Flip-Flops on Birth Control","excerpt":"Plus: Vanderbilt cancels adult gender-affirming surgeries and Meta AI stifles abortion discussions. The post Surgeon General Nominee Flip-Flops on Birth Control appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"Washington, D.C. \n\n\n\nDuring her Wednesday confirmation hearing, surgeon general nominee Casey Means claimed a “huge amount” of hormonal contraceptives have been prescribed without patients giving “informed consent.” Her statement contradicts federal medical guidelines. Means, who holds a medical degree but does not have a medical license, previously called birth control a “disrespect of life” and overstated hormonal contraception risks. When pushed, she said oral birth control should remain available to patients.
\n\n\n\nNashville \n\n\n\nVanderbilt University Medical Center announced this week that it will no longer provide gender-affirming surgery to trans adults. In a statement to the Vanderbilt Hustler , VUMC blamed the change on “operational limitations” and said it will still provide non-surgical gender-affirming care to adults. NYU Langone Health and Mount Sinai Health System in New York City recently stopped offering gender-affirming care to minors. Vanderbilt’s refusal to serve trans adults comes amid a growing federal battle against trans health care.
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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Menlo Park, California \n\n\n\nMeta’s AI chatbots are trained to avoid discussing abortion and sexual health with users under 18, Mother Jones reported this week . Leaked documents show that Meta bans Facebook and WhatsApp AI from providing information “that helps a user obtain or carry out an abortion.” These AI also can’t offer advice to teens on the “physiology of reproductive organs,” puberty, menstruation, STI prevention, or contraception. Critics said the policies promote “censorship.” Meta said “age-appropriate” conversation is its goal.
\n\n\n\n\nThe post Surgeon General Nominee Flip-Flops on Birth Control appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"contraception","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-27T16:01:00.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/ReproRoundupPhoto-2_03.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/27/surgeon-general-nominee-flip-flops-on-birth-control/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T18:00:23.408Z"},{"id":"uupeyd","archiveId":"l3w0et","slug":"war-on-women-report-kentucky-woman-arrested-for-miscarriage-kansas-anti-trans-bill-takes-effect-poll","title":"War on Women Report: Kentucky Woman Arrested for Miscarriage; Kansas Anti-Trans Bill Takes Effect; Polls Show Most U.S. Women Disapprove of Trump","excerpt":"MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.","content":"MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.” We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.
\nSince our last report:Dobbs .
\n… and more.
\nThe post War on Women Report: Kentucky Woman Arrested for Miscarriage; Kansas Anti-Trans Bill Takes Effect; Polls Show Most U.S. Women Disapprove of Trump appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Ava Slocum","publishDate":"2026-02-27T15:54:33.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/image-11.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/27/war-on-women-kentucky-woman-arrested-miscarriage-kansas-anti-trans-bill-polls-women-disapprove-trump/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T18:00:23.777Z"},{"id":"p5xg90","archiveId":"eg3gsm","slug":"8216i8217m-heartbroken8217-trans-kansans-struggle-with-reality-as-drivers-licenses-are-invalidated","title":"‘I’m heartbroken’: Trans Kansans struggle with reality as driver’s licenses are invalidated","excerpt":"TOPEKA — Transgender rights activist Jaelynn Abegg was furious Thursday morning when she received a letter from the state informing her that her driver’s license had been invalidated because of a new state law.","content":"TOPEKA — Transgender rights activist Jaelynn Abegg was furious Thursday morning when she received a letter from the state informing her that her driver’s license had been invalidated because of a new state law.
\n\n\n\nAbegg, a Wichita resident, said she would only get a new driver’s license if she needs one before fleeing the state, which she plans to do as soon as she can afford it. In the meantime, she figures her U.S. passport will be “ID enough.”
\n\n\n\n“When things like this happen, I honestly get a little bit of a demon of rebellion in me, and I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to manifest that, if at all right now, but I can tell you that I’m very angry,” Abegg said. “I’m heartbroken. This is my home state. I’ve lived here all but two years of my life, and yet, every year since I’ve been living as a woman and having come out as transgender, this state has done nothing but break my heart. If this state was a romantic partner, I would definitely call this an abusive relationship at this point.”
\n\n\n\nThe Kansas Department of Revenue this week sent a letter to Kansans affected by a new law , which took effect Thursday, that requires the gender marker on a driver’s license to match a person’s sex at birth.
\n\n\n\nThe letter informs trans Kansans that because the Legislature didn’t include a grace period for updating credentials, they are “invalid immediately, and you may be subject to additional penalties if you are operating a vehicle without a valid credential.” A spokesman for the agency told Kansas Reflector the law invalidated about 1,700 licenses.
\n\n\n\nThe letter directed trans Kansans to surrender their driver’s license to the state before they can receive a new one, which will cost them $8.
\n\n\n\n“We apologize for the inconvenience this causes you,” the unsigned letter said.
\n\n\n\n\n\nRepublicans in the Legislature placed transgender Kansans in their crosshairs at the start of this year’s session. The House Judiciary Committee scheduled a hearing with less than 24 hours notice on the second day of the session for a bill that would invalidate their driver’s licenses. The bill was a response to a Kansas Court of Appeals ruling last year that determined there was no harm in letting people change their gender markers, which Kansans have done since at least 2002 with no complaints.
\n\n\n\nA week after the rushed hearing, in a flurry of procedural maneuvers, the committee took action on the bill without warning. Republicans added language that would make it illegal for someone to use a public building bathroom, or similar space, like a locker room, that conflicts with their sex at birth. They then inserted the contents of the House bill into an unrelated Senate bill that passed the year before. That allowed the House and Senate to pass Senate Bill 244 the next day without ever holding a public hearing on the bathroom provision.
\n\n\n\nDemocratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the bill on Feb. 13. The House and Senate subsequently overrode her veto with all but one Republican, Rep. Mark Schreiber of Emporia, voting in favor of the bill.
\n\n\n\nAbegg, who organized a Feb. 6 “pee-in” protest , in which trans people and their allies filled a bathroom at the Statehouse, said lawmakers were “blatantly subverting the democratic process … because they know they’re going to get blowback.”
\n\n\n\n“This is a hallmark of a Legislature and of a government that has a deep, deep sickness in it, and it really saddens me that we’re living to see days like this, where there’s that sort of situation going on, and there’s not a greater public outcry about it,” Abegg said. “This should be a concern to everyone who values democracy and who values Kansas as a free state.”
\n\n\n\nTrans people and their supporters rally at the Statehouse in opposition to Senate Bill 244 on February 6, 2026.\n (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) Trans Liberty, a political action committee that fights for trans rights, issued its first-ever statewide evacuation order Thursday, when it urged transgender Kansans to flee.
\n\n\n\nSamantha Boucher, founder of Trans Liberty PAC, said in a statement there is “something deeply wrong with a government that erases its own citizens’ legal identities.”
\n\n\n\nAbegg said the warning to leave is “absolutely the right approach.”
\n\n\n\n“I don’t think that legislators in Kansas are done harassing trans people,” Abegg said. “I think that transgender health care for adults is coming next. It would not shock me within the next two to five years to see them come after name changes for transgender people. The cruelty has always been the point, and the objective has always been the complete erasure of transgender people from public life.”
\n\n\n\nJessie Lawson, a trans woman from Wichita, initially planned to go to the DMV and refuse to pay for a new license, then decided against it.
\n\n\n\n“I can work from home and, for the moment, minimize the risk of getting pulled over,” Lawson said.
\n\n\n\nShe said her first thought when she read the letter from the state was to wonder “how conservatives can live with so much fear and hate in their hearts.”
\n\n\n\n\n\n“Even at my most angry, I’ve never wanted to see an entire demographic of people wiped off the planet the way they do. It’s unreal,” she said. “The second thought is how I’m going to survive now that bigotry has been officially sanctioned by the state of Kansas.”
\n\n\n\nLawson said she has wrestled with whether she should leave the state where she has lived her entire life.
\n\n\n\n“I have a great job and own my own home,” Lawson said. “All of my friends are here. Leaving would be very difficult for me. At the same time, this place is becoming increasingly hard for me to exist safely as bigotry takes more and more control of the state government.”
\n\n\n\nShe added: “Please publish whatever you get from us. There needs to be a record that we existed and strove for peace and joy as long as we could.”
\n\n\n\nRep. Brooklynne Mosley, D-Lawrence, posted on her Facebook page that she would be available Friday to drive people to the DMV to replace their birth certificates. She said she was willing to personally pay for up to five individuals’ fees if they have financial constraints.
\n\n\n\nThe new law also affects birth certificates.
\n\n\n\nJill Bronaugh, spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said individuals will be responsible for contacting the Office of Vital Statistics to replace their invalidated birth certificates, and a $20 fee will apply.
\n\n\n\nThe agency identified 1,849 birth certificates on which the sex has been changed, which can be attributed to correcting data entry errors or recognizing gender changes, she said.
\n\n\n\n“Each amended birth certificate will be reviewed manually by staff to determine if the birth certificate must be invalidated and amended,” Bronaugh said. “This process is expected to take several months to complete.”
\n\n\n\nKansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com .
","category":"activism","author":"Megan Kearney","publishDate":"2026-02-27T14:55:16.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/P2060873-scaled-1.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/kansas-drivers-license-law-transgender/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T18:00:24.096Z"},{"id":"ahizas","archiveId":"kavnim","slug":"epstein-files-debate-gets-pedophilia-and-power-wrong","title":"Epstein Files Debate Gets Pedophilia and Power Wrong","excerpt":"‘Barely legal’ isn’t a thing. Neither are ‘underage women.’ The post Epstein Files Debate Gets Pedophilia and Power Wrong appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"The release of the Epstein files continues to dominate headlines for what is and isn’t included.
\nOn Feb. 25, 2026, almost a month after the Jan. 30, 2026, document dump by the Department of Justice, both the New York Times NPR reported on missing memos related to President Donald Trump’s relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
\nEarlier in February, members of the Congress were given access to unredacted versions of these documents. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, had this to say when she emerged from the viewing room: “I’ve not been one of the members who has glommed on to this as an issue. … But 9-year-old victims … wow.”
\n“Well, initially, my reaction to all this was, ‘I don’t care. I don’t know what the big deal is,” she added. “But now I see what the big deal is, and it was worth investigating.”
\nWhether she meant to do this or not, Lummis’ comments suggested that an alleged global sex trafficking ring involving some of the world’s most powerful people—including, possibly, the president of the United States and several of his high-ranking officials , though they deny all allegations—was not such a big deal when she thought the survivors were teens and young adults.
\nThis sentiment echoes something former Fox News host Megyn Kelly said about the survivors’ ages when a previous round of Epstein files was released in November 2025. On her podcast, Kelly expressed sympathy for the idea that Epstein was not really a pedophile because he was into 15-year-olds—not 8-year-olds. He didn’t like children, Kelly explained, so much as he liked them “barely legal.”
\nBut “barely legal” isn’t a thing (I’ll get to that in a minute), and randomly nuancing the definition of pedophilia shouldn’t be either.
\nAge isn’t just a number \nLet’s start by getting our terms straight: Pedophiles are people who have a sexual preference for children , usually prepubescent children or those who are around the age of puberty. Pedophilia is a psychiatric diagnosis . You can be a pedophile without sexually abusing children, and you can be a child abuser without meeting the diagnostic definition of a pedophile.
\nThe word pedophile instantly conjures up abuse of small children, which makes our hearts break and our skin crawl. This visceral reaction is understandable, and it may explain why Lummis, Kelly, and other public figures have insisted on drawing a distinction between the abuse of young children and the rape of teenagers.
\nTo be clear, the law does not distinguish between a 9-year-old and a 15-year-old—both minors—when it comes to sex. While age of consent laws vary by state, all states see 15 as too young to consent. With the possible rare exception of consenting couples who are close in age (for example, the 18-year-old high school senior dating a 15-year-old sophomore), any adult who has sex with someone 15 or younger has committed a crime.
\nIn some cases that crime is statuatory rape. In others it might be rape or sexual assault. And in some states, teens having sex with teens is illegal, too.
\nAs I said, there’s only legal and illegal—not “barely legal.”
\nWhen consent isn’t possible \nI believe that teens should be experimenting with sex . I’ve spent much of my career as a sex educator arguing that sexual development and experimentation are natural parts of adolescence that help young people understand themselves and develop the relationship skills they’ll need as adults. Grown-ups should see high school students as capable of having consensual sexual relationships with each other.
\nBut relationships can only be consensual if the couple is on equal footing. When one holds too much control because of their age, status, or position of authority over the other (think coach, teacher, or boss), true consent is rarely possible. Age is not the only power imbalance, but it seems obvious that a 51-year-old man looking for sex from a 14-year-old is a predator—not a partner.
\nThe late financier Epstein has been accused of sexually abusing at least 1,000 young women and children . He had a pattern of offering teenage girls as young as 14 money for massages, during which he would masturbate and touch their genitals with his fingers or sex toys. He would offer these children more money if they would recruit other girls for the same thing.
\nEpstien has also been accused of forcibly raping girls as young as 14 . (Epstein pled guilty to soliciting a minor for sex in Florida in 2008 and was indicted on sex trafficking charges in 2019, but died in jail before a trial could take place.)
\nSurvivors have also said they were abused, assaulted, or raped by friends and acquaintances of Epstein; President Trump has been named in these allegations. The accusations against Trump have not been investigated or verified, but he has previously been found civilly liable for sexual abuse .
\nLet’s stop saying ‘underage women’ \nQuestioning whether Epstein or others among his we-just-like-them-young buddies were “really pedophiles” as Megyn Kelly did is a twisted game of splitting hairs.
\nIt opens the door for letting some perpetrators of sexual abuse off the hook by implying thatthe pedophile who goes after young children is a pervert, while the CEO who preys on teenagers is just misbehaving . It’s bad but not that bad.
\nI have to wonder whether this is what some of the men involved in Epstein’s sex ring have told themselves as well. When Trump embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory that there was a secret cabal of powerful pedophiles abusing children and made exposing it part of his 2024 campaign strategy, did he not remember partying with Epstein? Or did he think his name wouldn’t come up because he didn’t consider himself a pedophile?
\nFor some people—and I’m betting that Trump, Lummis, and Kelly fall into this group–the distinction between an 8-year old and a 15-year-old likely seems important because 15-year-old girls can be sexual. Most have breasts and curves and pubic hair. They may wear make-up and short skirts. They probably think about boys or girls or both. They might read spicy books and have sexual fantasies.
\nSome 15-year-olds even have sex : In 2023, 16 percent of ninth graders and 25 percent of 10th graders reported they had had sexual intercourse. This is likely why we’ve seen so many people—including some legitimate news sources , like NPR—refer to the young girls as “underage women.” Again, that’s not a thing. Even in high heels and mascara, being “underage” means that you’re a child.
\nAnd children are children—not women. Suggesting otherwise could lead to blaming girls for wearing the wrong clothes, making bad choices, leading men on, or any number of other things that we tend to put on rape survivors after the fact.
\nIt’s about power \nWe should stop talking about the age of Epstein’s victims and start talking about their sexual agency —that is, their ability to make conscious, informed, and empowered decisions. Agency is about having a voice and being able to negotiate what you want.
\nIt seems clear to me that the men of this decades-long sex-ring were looking for those who had no agency. The girls and women were reportedly lied to, coerced, threatened, and possibly held against their will. The men didn’t want sexual partners; they wanted control .
\nNone of this is meant to downplay the horror of 9-year-olds being trafficked. If anything, I want to up-play (I know that’s not a word, but I need it to be) the horror of 19-year-olds being trafficked, too. Even though the law may see them as adults, these young women were not empowered to make their own decisions about how they were treated or what they would and wouldn’t do.
\nThe emerging revelations that young children suffered in Epstein’s crimes may make some people, like Lummis, start paying attention, and it may make others, like Kelly, shut up. My hope, though, is that we can stop debating whether the men were pedophiles and start focusing on the survivors.
\nWe can give the survivors back some agency by listening to their stories and believing them—no matter how old they were at the time of their abuse.
\nThe post Epstein Files Debate Gets Pedophilia and Power Wrong appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"safety","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-27T14:14:58.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Age-of-Consent-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/27/epstein-files-pedophilia-power/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T18:00:23.408Z"},{"id":"imy8vz","archiveId":"y7cesf","slug":"impacted-by-the-estrogen-patch-shortage-here-are-your-options","title":"Impacted by the estrogen patch shortage? Here are your options.","excerpt":"One of the most commonly used forms of menopause hormone therapy is hard to find right now. This applies to estradiol patches, as two of the major manufacturers report being in shortage. Estradiol is a form of estrogen, and these patches are one way to deliver the hormone transdermally, or through ...","content":"One of the most commonly used forms of menopause hormone therapy is hard to find right now.
\n\n\n\nThis applies to estradiol patches, as two of the major manufacturers report being in shortage. Estradiol is a form of estrogen, and these patches are one way to deliver the hormone transdermally, or through the skin. Transdermal estrogen is often prescribed by menopause care specialists because the delivery keeps the estrogen from being processed by the liver, and thus does not increase the risk of blood clots or cardiac events.
\n\n\n\nThe reasons for the shortage aren’t entirely clear, though it is likely a combination of preexisting supply chain issues, the impacts of tariffs on overseas drug manufacturers, and an increased demand for the patches after a regulatory shift. In November, the Food and Drug Administration lifted the 20-year old black box warning on estrogen products used in menopausal hormone therapy warning of serious adverse effects, which likely has made these drugs feel more accessible.
\n\n\n\nSystemic estrogen — the form of hormone therapy utilized via patch — treats some of the best-known, and most disruptive, symptoms of menopause: hot flashes, night sweats, heart palpitations and mood changes.
\n\n\n\nBut experts say that if you can’t find the patch you’ve been prescribed to address these symptoms, there are other options.
\n\n\n\nDr. Lauren Streicher , professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and author of a forthcoming AARP book on menopause, said there’s no need to panic.
\n\n\n\n“It doesn’t matter how it gets in there, it’s going to help your hot flashes, it’s going to help your symptoms,” Streicher said.
\n\n\n\n\n\nPatches are not the only form of transdermal estrogen available — and in fact, all transdermal estrogens use the same drug, often manufactured by the same company and then distributed to pharmaceutical companies. So, some end up in transdermal patches, but there are also gels, creams and sprays that go on your skin and have the same active ingredient.
\n\n\n\nTransdermal estrogen isn’t the only form of estrogen available for hormone therapy either, Streicher explained.
\n\n\n\nOral estrogen — taken via pill — is also a safe form of estrogen for many people, depending on their medical history. For someone who does not have a history of blood clots, it can be a great option. It also has been shown to lower cholesterol levels and reduce lipids , both great for heart health.
\n\n\n\nSome patients may turn to oral estrogen because the non-patch transdermal options are often not covered by insurance.
\n\n\n\nStreicher advises against going to compounding pharmacies to help bridge the gap, as it is impossible to know the exact dosing you are actually receiving in the products dispensed there.
\n\n\n\n\n\nAs the systemic dose of estrogen leaves your body, any symptoms you are experiencing will return — how long this takes will vary from person to person — but Streicher assured that the impacts of going off the patch won’t be more severe than that. “Your brain isn’t going to start eating itself,” she noted.
\n\n\n\nBut other than discomfort, there is no inherent danger in going off hormone therapy for a time. Likewise, there is no danger in resuming again once you have access to hormone therapy of choice — and yes, your symptoms will once again abate once you resume taking your estrogen.
\n\n\n\nIn the face of a shortage, Streicher advised that those wishing to continue on hormone therapy seek out the care of a gynecologist who is well-versed in menopause care and is very familiar with the various forms of estrogen used in menopausal hormone therapy and its dosing. Seeing someone who specializes in menopause care can help ensure you have options if you want to continue on hormone therapy, even if you can’t find patches. (Can’t find a menopause specialist by you? There are also many telehealth services that focus on hormone therapy specifically and connect patients with menopause specialists who can prescribe it.)
\n\n\n\n“This is nuanced stuff,” Streicher said. “It takes an expert to be able to help somebody with that. and most people out there, especially if you have someone who only prescribes patches, is going to be scratching their head and saying, ‘I don’t know how to help you.’ So keep looking. Keep looking until you find a doctor who has expertise in hormone therapy.”
\n\n\n\nBecause whether it means finding a brand name versus a generic, another form of transdermal application, seeing if you’re a candidate for oral estrogen, or just waiting things out — options, and care, do exist.
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Jennifer Gerson","publishDate":"2026-02-27T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/estrogen_patch_shortage_horizontal.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/estrogen-patch-shortage-menopause-hormone-therapy/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T18:00:24.096Z"},{"id":"727kto","archiveId":"n8kzh2","slug":"rooted-in-more-than-beauty-how-sally-beauty-is-investing-in-the-next-generation-of-textured-hair-lea","title":"Rooted In More Than Beauty: How Sally Beauty Is Investing In The Next Generation Of Textured Hair Leaders","excerpt":"There’s a certain kind of magic that happens when beauty meets intention. Not the kind found in perfectly curated shelves or trending tutorials, but the kind that shows up in […] The post Rooted In More Than Beauty: How Sally Beauty Is Investing In The Next Generation Of Textured Hair Leaders appear...","content":"Essence ·Updated February 26, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… There’s a certain kind of magic that happens when beauty meets intention. Not the kind found in perfectly curated shelves or trending tutorials, but the kind that shows up in community spaces where conversations feel honest, affirming, and rooted in culture. Sally Beauty, in partnership with Impressions of Beauty, is deepening its commitment to the textured hair community for the second consecutive year of the Rooted in Success campaign. As part of the campaign, Sally Beauty is popping up across Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the country with student-focused activities designed to uplift and celebrate campus communities.
For many young women navigating identity, independence, and self-expression, hair becomes more than routine. It becomes language. A way to experiment, to heal, and to reclaim narratives that have often been misunderstood or overlooked. And on campuses where tradition anddecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/Ecomm_PNG-Sally25__ECOMM_Texture-ID_PDP_UPDATES_2091750_Essesntials_Collection_Group_Horizontal_V2.png\" alt=\"Rooted In More Than Beauty: How Sally Beauty Is Investing In The Next Generation Of Textured Hair Leaders\" width=\"400\" height=\"229\" />
The Evolution Of Texture Conversations
Textured hair care has always lived at the intersection of innovation and heritage. Today’s students are stepping into that legacy with curiosity and agency, exploring products and techniques that allow them to define beauty on their own terms.
That evolution is reflected in Sally Beauty’s textured hair brand, Texture ID, which recently introduced improved formulas, a modernized aesthetic, and a renewed focus on personalization across curl patterns. Designed to meet evolving consumer needs, the Texture ID line represents Sally Beauty’s broader commitment to inclusivity, performance-driven care, and empowering customers to embrace their natural texture with confidence.
Alongside Texture ID, participating brands such as Silk Elements, Cantu, Camille Rose Naturals, Kaleidoscope, and The Doux help create a product ecosystem that combines culture with professional-grade innovation.
Beyond Products, Toward Possibility
While product discovery plays a key role, the heart of the Rooted in Success experience lies in education. Previous campus activations included panels, demonstrations, and conversations with industry professionals, celebrity stylists, and leaders from Black-owned or founded brands carried in Sally Beauty stores. These moments createdecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/Ecomm_PNG-Sally25__ECOMM_Texture-ID_PDP_UPDATES_2091750_Essesntials_Collection_Group_Square.png\" alt=\"Rooted In More Than Beauty: How Sally Beauty Is Investing In The Next Generation Of Textured Hair Leaders\" width=\"400\" height=\"383\" />
A Legacy Rooted In Community
As the tour travels from Alabama State University to Florida A&M, Texas Southern, Coppin State, and beyond, it reflects a deeper truth about why initiatives like Rooted in Success matter. They are not one-time moments, but part of Sally Beauty’s ongoing mission to champion inclusivity, entrepreneurship, and culturally relevant storytelling within the textured hair space. For those looking to stay connected to each campus stop, behind-the-scenes moments, and student-led stories unfolding throughout the tour, you can follow along by tapping into @sallybeauty across social platforms.
Because at the heart of it all, beauty has never just been about appearance. It’s about belonging. It’s about legacy. And through continued partnerships, education-driven experiences, and brands like Texture ID designed with texture in mind, Sally Beauty is helping ensure the next generation of HBCU students feels supported, celebrated, and empowered to define beauty on their own terms.
TOPICS: #Beauty HBCU Sally Beauty The post Rooted In More Than Beauty: How Sally Beauty Is Investing In The Next Generation Of Textured Hair Leaders appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Khadija Allen","publishDate":"2026-02-27T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/rooted-in-more-than-beauty-how-sally-beauty-is-investing-in-the-next-generation-of-textured-hair-leaders/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T18:00:28.768Z"},{"id":"giw26v","archiveId":"4qzmmw","slug":"the-funniest-posts-from-women-this-week-feb-21-27","title":"The Funniest Posts From Women This Week (Feb. 21-27)","excerpt":"\"I would never send my mom to a nursing home. She will stay with my brother, who was always her favorite.\"","content":"","category":"breakthroughs","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-02-27T12:00:17.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/69a0d28d150000a047019db5.jpg?ops=500_281%2Cscalefit_1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/funniest-women-social-media-posts-2025-2-21_n_699c9e65e4b01da50152856e","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T18:00:26.652Z"},{"id":"esvt7m","archiveId":"hxsgpu","slug":"megan-thee-stallion-038-coco-jones-stun-at-milan-fashion-week","title":"Megan Thee Stallion & Coco Jones Stun At Milan Fashion Week","excerpt":"Milan Fashion Week has gotten a dose of unapologetic Black girl magic. This season, so far, Megan Thee Stallion and Coco Jones are turning the front row into a masterclass […] The post Megan Thee Stallion & Coco Jones Stun At Milan Fashion Week appeared first on Essence .","content":"Larry Stansbury ·Updated February 27, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… Milan Fashion Week has gotten a dose of unapologetic Black girl magic. This season, so far, Megan Thee Stallion and Coco Jones are turning the front row into a masterclass in beauty,src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2263219032-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Megan Thee Stallion & Coco Jones Stun At Milan Fashion Week\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" />Megan Thee Stallion at the Roberto Cavalli fashion show as part of Milan Fashion Week Fall 2026 on February 26, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Saira MacLeod/WWD via Getty Images)
Megan arrived at Roberto Cavalli’s Fall/Winter 2026/2027 show with that signature confidence we adore. Draped in a sculptural Fausto Puglisi sheer, long dress, she gave us bawdy. Her makeup was fierce yet refined: full glowing skin and a nude lipstick look that perfectly complemented her cobra statement sunglasses and earrings. Hair sleek and long, Megan proved once again that when she steps into a room, all eyes stay exactly where she wants them.
Coco JonesCoco Jones attended the same show as Megan, giving us 70’s energy with a metallic gold Fausto Puglisi gown and gold shoes to Milan’s storied fashion crowd. The hair was also channeling Diana Ross with big, voluminous curls. Bringing it all together was a graphic liner flick that felt like modern art, luminous skin, and a pop of nude lipstick on the lips.
But, Jones didn’t stop there. Front row at the Etro show, she traded the 70s disco vibe for a romantic brown lace ensemble and matching hat that sat on top of her chestnut layers. But what really drew us in? Her snatched beat and killer smoky eye.
While these two are sitting pretty on the front row, we’re seated at home patiently waiting to see what aspirational looks they’ll pull next.
The post Megan Thee Stallion & Coco Jones Stun At Milan Fashion Week appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-02-27T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2263751169-Cropped-1-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/megan-thee-stallion-coco-jones-stun-at-milan-fashion-week/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T12:00:42.148Z"},{"id":"z6c7ik","archiveId":"77e4c6","slug":"how-to-talk-to-your-children-about-ice","title":"How to talk to your children about ICE","excerpt":"The historic expansion of immigration arrests and detention in the United States means that many families around the country are confronting the possibility that they could be targeted. Preparing for this reality may require uncomfortable conversations between immigrant parents and children about th...","content":"The historic expansion of immigration arrests and detention in the United States means that many families around the country are confronting the possibility that they could be targeted. Preparing for this reality may require uncomfortable conversations between immigrant parents and children about the risks they face and how to navigate them.
\n\n\n\nResearchers told The 19th that parents of all backgrounds feel ill-equipped to have tough discussions about law enforcement with their children. Some communities of color, African Americans in particular, have had more experience with preparing their kids for racism and the possibility of police brutality in the United States through generational conversations known as “The Talk.” Many immigrant parents, however, even those from majority-Black countries, may have a different understanding of racial dynamics in America. As a result, they may not recognize a need to talk about ICE or other law enforcement until a threat is more imminent.
\n\n\n\nHere are some tips from child development experts to help parents — particularly those most at risk of being targeted by ICE — with questions about how to navigate talking with their children.
\n\n\n\nDo I need to speak with my kids about ICE? Child development experts say yes.
\n\n\n\nPsychologists recommend that parents should do their best to validate their children’s fears or concerns while also affirming their safety and sharing basic details about the family’s plan of action should anything come up. \n (Sylvia Jarrus for The 19th) The country has seen a historic expansion of immigration funding and operations during the first 13 months of President Donald Trump’s second term. A decade ago, ICE’s annual budget hovered around $6 billion. It has since spiked to about $85 billion, $75 billion of which can be spent over the next four years, after the approval of additional funding last year. The money is being used to hire and deploy more immigration officers in local communities and increase capacity for far-reaching detentions and deportations. National news coverage and online videos documenting this ongoing political climate mean that children have more access than ever to media that could confuse or frighten them.
\n\n\n\nGabriela Livas, a professor and chair of the Human Development and Family Sciences department at the University of Texas at Austin, told The 19th that even though parents may think their children are too young to understand these messages, “they’re still receiving them” in some form — whether through media or by witnessing events in their communities. “And so we need to make sure that as parents we’re providing those resources to help them make sense of some things that can be really scary and confusing to them,” she said.
\n\n\n\nWhen children don’t receive information to help them make sense of the world, they will fill in the blanks with their own stories, which can turn into self-blame, said R. Gabriela Barajas-Gonzalez, an associate professor in the Department of Population Health at New York University.
\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat is the best way to initiate these conversations with my child? Livas said that a great way to start is by asking children open-ended questions to gauge what they know. Some suggestions:
\n\n\n\n\nWhat have you heard about immigration or ICE at school or online? \n \n\n\n\n\nHow did hearing this make you feel? \n \n\n\n\n\nIf something scary happened in our community, who do you think you could talk to? \n \n\n\n\n\nWhat questions do you have for me about what’s going on? \n \n\n\n\nBooks, news articles, television shows or podcasts, depending on the child’s age, can be a great way to anchor the conversation with something specific, Livas said. For younger children in particular, books allow them to talk about the feelings or experiences of specific characters in a way that can resonate more.
\n\n\n\nLinda Cote-Reilly, a professor of psychology at Marymount University, advised asking children about trusted adults in their lives and using that as a jumping-off point to create a list of five or more people whom children can consult for questions or concerns, or people who can serve as allies to the children during a crisis.
\n\n\n\n“I would definitely try to identify some people in the neighborhood, some people at school, wherever the child might find themselves,” Cote-Reilly said. “I think that would be true for children of all ages who can participate in that.”
\n\n\n\nHow can I keep the conversation honest but age appropriate? Parents should emphasize to their child that they are loved and affirm that the child will be taken care of by a particular person they trust.\n (Sylvia Jarrus for The 19th) Children ages 3 to 6: It is crucial for all children, but particularly those in this age group, to have a sense of safety and security in the world, experts said.
\n\n\n\nThat means parents should do their best to validate their children’s fears or concerns while also affirming their safety and sharing basic details about the family’s plan of action should anything come up. They advise parents to be honest if there’s a risk that someone their child knows and loves could be detained or deported. But these talks should use simple, direct language like, “Mom or dad may need to leave for a while because of new rules in this country.”
\n\n\n\nParents should also emphasize to their child that they are loved, affirm that the child will be taken care of by a particular person they trust and reassure them that the parent will find their way back to the child.
\n\n\n\nIf the children are likely to see things out in the community, such as masked ICE agents, honesty and validation remain key. Parents can explain that these are members of the government who are causing some people to be scared, though it’s important to balance the negative with positive, experts said. One way parents can do that is by discussing how people in the community are trying to support and love their neighbors who are afraid.
\n\n\n\nChildren ages 7 to 12: At this stage, children begin to be more exposed to outside voices, including other children in school and things they may see online. Experts say that children in this age group do not want to burden or worry their parents, so they may not share with their parents if they read or witness something frightening.
\n\n\n\nIn addition to establishing a family plan and identifying a list of trusted adults, parents should also equip children in this age group with more specific behaviors and ways of talking about or navigating school and other situations that could lead to an ICE encounter. Roleplaying with the child can be helpful, Livas said.
\n\n\n\nCote-Reilly recommends looking at the messages that their children’s school is sending out about ICE. They could also consider approaching a teacher, if they feel safe to do so, and ask how the teacher has addressed the subject. Parents can then try to align the messages their children receive at home with those taught in school, if practical. It’s a good way to avoid confusing the child.
\n\n\n\nChildren 13 to 18 years old: This age group is likely much more online, and is also becoming more independent and spending more time away from parents’ direct supervision. Parents can guide their tween- and teen-aged children on taking breaks from media that might be upsetting to them.
\n\n\n\nThis is also a time to give children in this age group more guidance on how they can engage with an ICE officer if they are driving on their own, or otherwise away from an adult. The experts advise instructing the child to be calm and respectful, to know some of their basic rights and to have information like phone numbers memorized. Livas also noted that parents can take this as an opportunity to learn alongside their children and discuss more specifics about the laws and political systems influencing what’s happening with ICE.
\n\n\n\n\n\nHow can I avoid passing my fear or anxiety on to my child? Experts advise parents to continue having conversations with their kids even if they are quiet or appear disinterested.\n (Sylvia Jarrus for The 19th) Prior to speaking with their children, Livas encourages parents to sit down and think through how they want their children to feel after their talk. In many cases, parents want their children to feel resilient, so they can use that as a guide for how they speak about ICE and immigration fears during the conversation.
\n\n\n\n“Sharing our own distress in an authentic way is okay, but you don’t want to overwhelm them. Kids want to take care of their parents as much as parents want to take care of their kids,” Livas said. She cautions parents to be careful with how they speak about things within earshot of their children, and she recommends that they have another adult they can confide in about their day-to-day stressors and anxieties.
\n\n\n\nTo help keep a sense of safety and stability, parents should try to maintain some type of routine in the home as much as they can, Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez with New York University said. Creating moments of joy by playing music or reading a fun book together can be crucial as well.
\n\n\n\nWhat signs of stress or anxiety should I be on the lookout for? Changes in appetite, mood swings, trouble sleeping or an increase in headaches or stomach aches can all be signs of anxiety or distress, according to experts.
\n\n\n\nSometimes parents may overlook or minimize behavior changes or irritability in their child, Livas said, but it’s important to pick up on these signs, offer support and keep the door open to communication. She added that parents should continue to have conversations with their kids even if they are quiet or appear disinterested.
\n\n\n\n“Kids aren’t always the best at reinforcing parents that are having these conversations,” Livas said. “So you just have to keep having them, knowing that they are making an impact.”
\n\n\n\n\n\nAre there any additional resources? A guide to talking about deportation or separation from the Florida State University College of Medicine, available in English , Spanish and Creole .
\n\n\n\nThe Hope Center for Wellness guide to talking about possible deportation, available in English and Spanish .
\n\n\n\nArizona State University Child Equity Project’s report on supporting the mental health and well being of immigrant children and families in early care and education settings.
","category":"global","author":"Candice Norwood","publishDate":"2026-02-27T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/ice-talk-guide_12.jpg?w=683","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/how-to-talk-to-your-children-about-ice-guide/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T12:00:40.218Z"},{"id":"ifazje","archiveId":"nsphh5","slug":"5-investigations-sparking-change-this-month","title":"5 Investigations Sparking Change This Month","excerpt":"The post 5 Investigations Sparking Change This Month appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"You know what we do here at ProPublica: investigative reporting that sparks change and holds power to account. As we near the end of February, we wanted to share five examples of how our investigations have already done that this year.
\n\n\n\nFrom Colorado to Massachusetts to Texas, ProPublica investigations, many of them published in collaboration with local partners, led to proposed changes to laws and practices. And while we report on the details of how these changes happen, we aim to never lose sight of how these changes could affect actual people. This may mean, for example, people under New York’s guardianship system receiving better care, or survivors of rape in Massachusetts being able to pursue justice without a deadline.
\n\n\n\nRead on to learn more about our recent reporting that’s making an impact.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMore than a decade ago, Colorado created the first regulated recreational marijuana market in the nation. Lawmakers promised the state’s voters that the move to legalize marijuana would drive out the black market and create a safer environment through regulation. But, as Denver Gazette reporters Christopher Osher and Evan Wyloge revealed in a January investigation in partnership with ProPublica, hemp derivatives have jeopardized that promise.
\n\n\n\nFor years, hemp, which is a close cousin of marijuana and is cheaper to produce, seeped into the Colorado marijuana market. While Colorado allows the use of hemp in some items such as clothing and rope, the state banned companies from using it to make intoxicating products sold in the state. Our investigation found that despite the ban, the Colorado legislature and regulators failed to adopt critical regulations that other states have employed to keep harmful hemp products off the shelves. One result, some marijuana manufacturers say, is that some companies are sending samples and products that they know will pass mandatory testing to labs; dispensaries, meanwhile, might receive products that could be contaminated with chemical solvents, fungus or pesticides.
\n\n\n\nBut, as Osher and Wyloge reported this month, Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division may now require independent labs or outside vendors to collect product samples for testing before they can be sold. That would remove marijuana manufacturers’ ability to choose which products they send in.
\n\n\n\nRead the full story .
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nU.S. senators introduced legislation this month that would require prescription drug labels to identify where the medication was made, adding momentum to a yearslong campaign to bring more transparency to the often elusive generic drug industry.
\n\n\n\nCurrent labels often list only a distributor or repackager of a medication and sometimes provide no information at all. The Clear Labels Act, introduced by Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., calls for labels to disclose the original manufacturer as well as the suppliers that produced key ingredients.
\n\n\n\nA spokesperson for the trade group for brand-name drugmakers told ProPublica that the industry would “welcome conversations about how to strengthen the biopharmaceutical supply chain.” The generic drug lobbying group said that additional labeling requirements would impose “significant costs in exchange for limited returns,” adding that drug manufacturers already disclose country of origin information under U.S. Customs and Border Protection rules.
\n\n\n\nOur reporters had to file public records requests and sue the FDA in federal court to obtain information about where generic drugs are made and whether government inspectors had flagged those factories for safety or quality concerns. We ultimately created a first-of-its-kind tool that allows consumers to find the information themselves.
\n\n\n\nRead the full story .
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLast year, WBUR and ProPublica told the story of a woman who, according to a police report, had been raped and stabbed after accepting a ride in 2005 from a man who said he recognized her from college. DNA testing later connected a man accused of multiple assaults to her case, but prosecutors had to drop charges under Massachusetts’ statute of limitations.
\n\n\n\nUnder Massachusetts law, prosecutors have only 15 years to file charges after an alleged rape — and it’s nearly impossible to bring charges past that statute of limitations even if new evidence emerges. That places Massachusetts behind almost every other state in the country . Attempts to expand that window have failed every year since 2011 in part because defense attorneys have opposed changes, arguing a longer deadline risks violating the rights of the accused.
\n\n\n\nWBUR’s Willoughby Mariano reported that Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey wants to eliminate that deadline for rape cases when DNA evidence exists. The provision, which is included in Healey’s budget proposal for the 2027 fiscal year, needs to pass both chambers of the state Legislature. If enacted, it would affect cases where the statute of limitations has not yet expired and future cases, but not older cases.
\n\n\n\nRead the full story .
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTwo years after ProPublica’s Jake Pearson first documented New York’s dire shortage of guardians — and the substandard care some provide — state lawmakers introduced legislation to boost spending on the system by $15 million a year. It would be an unprecedented cash infusion for a bureaucracy that has long struggled to care for the tens of thousands of disabled or elderly New Yorkers who cannot care for themselves.
\n\n\n\nThe new bill, called the Good Guardianship Act, aims to help the most vulnerable segment of this population: those who are too poor to pay for a private guardian and who have no family or friends willing to serve. Advocates say the Good Guardianship Act is the most promising step to date in improving the system — if it can get the support of Gov. Kathy Hochul.
\n\n\n\nThe proposal follows a 2024 ProPublica investigation that revealed how the state’s guardianship system was failing this group in particular by conducting little to no oversight of guardians, some of whom provided substandard care and exploited those they were charged with looking after. The stories also prompted the state attorney general to open an investigation into several guardianship providers and spurred the court system to appoint a special counsel to enact reforms.
\n\n\n\nRead the full story .
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFor the first time since Texas criminalized abortion, the state’s medical regulator is instructing doctors on when they can legally terminate a pregnancy to protect the life of the patient — guidance physicians have long sought as women died and doctors feared imprisonment for intervening.
\n\n\n\nThe new mandated training for any doctor providing obstetric care goes over nine case studies for physicians where abortion is considered legal to protect the life of the patient. Some of the scenarios in the training are similar to instances ProPublica investigated, such as miscarriages where a patient’s water breaks before term but there is still a fetal heartbeat or when someone is experiencing complications from an incomplete abortion.
\n\n\n\nProPublica’s reporting has shown that pregnancy became far more dangerous in the state after the law took effect: Sepsis rates spiked for women suffering a pregnancy loss, as did emergency room visits in which miscarrying patients needed a blood transfusion ; at least four women in the state died after they didn’t receive timely reproductive care. More than a hundred OB-GYNs said the state’s abortion ban was to blame.
\n\n\n\nRead the full story .
\nThe post 5 Investigations Sparking Change This Month appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"activism","author":"ProPublica","publishDate":"2026-02-27T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2206545399-social.jpg?resize=2000,1049","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/propublica-investigations-february-impact","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T12:00:40.819Z"},{"id":"3bkktw","archiveId":"sxkvv0","slug":"black-fashion-archives-honoring-edward-buchanans-impact-on-modern-luxury","title":"Black Fashion Archives: Honoring Edward Buchanan’s Impact On Modern Luxury","excerpt":"Black Fashion Archives offers an in-depth exploration of some of the most influential Black figures in fashion that deserve more praise. Here, we highlight and celebrate their journeys and the […] The post Black Fashion Archives: Honoring Edward Buchanan’s Impact On Modern Luxury appeared first on E...","content":"Mecca Pryor ·Updated February 26, 2026 Trinity Audio player ready… Black Fashion Archives offers an in-depth exploration of some of the most influential Black figures in fashion that deserve more praise. Here, we highlight and celebrate their journeys and the legacies that have helped secure their place in the history of fashion.
Edward Buchanan is recognized as the first design director at Bottega Veneta—long before the buzzy runway shows and coveted leather goods that define the brand today. At just 26, Buchanan was among the earliest creatives to shape the house into what we now know it to be. Yet, his contributions were largely written out of the narrative, and only recently has his story begun to resurface following the brand’s full-circle campaign honoring the designer.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by EDWARD L BUCHANAN (@edward_l_buchanan)
Regardless, Buchanan has continued to stay equal-parts busy and inspiring in recent years. He currently runs his own knitwear brand Sansovino 6 , is the Fashion Director at Perfect Magazine Milan, and has consulted for brands like Off-White. And when he’s not working with major names, he’s giving back to his community with the organization “We Are Made In Italy,” designed to diversify Italy’s fashion landscape, which he co-founded alongside Haitian-Italian designer Stella Jean .
Now, ESSENCE dives into the archives to trace the creative evolution and lasting impact of Edward Buchanan
From Cleveland To New York Born in Cleveland, Ohio, to a single mother alongside his two older brothers, Buchanan grew up watching his mother make things happen—no matter the obstacles, she always figured it out. Her resilience paved the way for him to move to New York City and attend Parsons School of Design. While juggling full-time school and work, he also immersed himself in the city’s nightlife, rubbing shoulders with fashion icons like Marc Jacobs, Honey Dijon, and JFK Jr. It was through these connections that he ultimately landed a role at Bottega Veneta, after a chance encounter with Rodney Patterson, the display designer for Bottega Veneta on Madison Avenue.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by PERFECT (@theperfectmagazine)
The Job Of A Lifetime In 1995, Bottega Veneta was still a relatively young brand compared to the long-established luxury fashion houses—it was approaching its 30th anniversary and had yet to show at Milan Fashion Week. The house was not the global powerhouse we recognize today, and it wasn’t even on Buchanan’s radar. But he understood it was his first real opportunity to break into fashion.
After presenting a creative project to Bottega’s former President and Creative Director Laura Moltedo, Buchanan received life-changing news just three weeks later. At 26, he was on a flight to Vicenza, Italy. With a brief stop in Venice, the young, loc’d designer was detained by immigration officers—an encounter that felt unmistakably racially motivated. In that moment, he was reminded that, despite earning his position, he was still seen as a foreigner—and a Black man. What made the moment even more significant: he was stepping into history as Bottega Veneta’s first Design Director.
The Creative Director Without The Title After years of intimate presentations, Buchanan staged his first Milan runway show for Spring/Summer 1999 with a tight, deliberate team that included fashion designers like Manuela Morin on shoes, Eduardo Wong Vale on handbags, and Laura Moltedo overseeing development. Early campaigns featured Rachel Roberts, photographed by Peter Lindbergh, followed by Vivien Solari, shot by Steven Klein.
The brand quickly gained cultural momentum—dressing artists like Lauryn Hill, attracting regular visits from John Galliano, and later bringing in Stuart Vevers to design handbags, which helped the brand reach an international stage. Young and unconcerned with industry constraints, the team created with clarity and conviction. By the Fall/Winter 2000 show in New York—soundtracked to Prince—Buchanan sensed his tenure was coming to a close. Though he was effectively acting as creative director at Bottega Veneta, he worked without the formal title, taking his bows and remaining focused on the work before ultimately choosing to pursue independence.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by EDWARD L BUCHANAN (@edward_l_buchanan)
Life After BottegaAfter departing Bottega Veneta, Buchanan did not step away from fashion—he expanded his vision. Teaming up with Manuela Morin, he co-founded the label LEFLESH, a collection rooted in sculptural tailoring, sensual structure, and a deep respect for craftsmanship. The brand quickly became known for its unapologetic glamour and technical precision, dressing some of the most iconic women in entertainment. Custom pieces were created for performers such as Cher and Jennifer Lopez, blending stage presence with couture-level construction.
Beyond the atelier, Buchanan’s world moved seamlessly between fashion, music, and cultural powerhouses, including Mick Jagger, Grace Jones, and Kanye West—each moment reinforcing his quiet yet undeniable influence. His reputation for mastery of craft and form extended across generations. He even collaborated with Virgil Abloh and the house Abloh founded, Off-White. Whenever Abloh spoke of Buchanan, it was with a tone of grace and admiration, acknowledging a designer whose technical brilliance and creative integrity left a lasting impression.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by EDWARD L BUCHANAN (@edward_l_buchanan)
“Craft Is Our Language”In a full-circle moment, Buchanan was featured in Bottega Veneta’s May 2025 campaign celebrating fifty years of its iconic intrecciato leather. The campaign honored the house’s heritage and the artisans, designers, and creative forces who helped define its visual language. For many, this marked the first time his legacy at the brand was publicly acknowledged on such a global scale. In an industry that often compresses its timelines and simplifies its narratives, Buchanan’s presence expanded the story. It reminded audiences that fashion history is layered, collaborative, and frequently built on contributions that go uncredited.
By spotlighting him, Bottega did more than celebrate intrecciato; it broadened the conversation about visibility, authorship, and who is remembered when a brand tells its story. Buchanan’s return to the frame was not just nostalgic—it was necessary.
The post Black Fashion Archives: Honoring Edward Buchanan’s Impact On Modern Luxury appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Mecca Pryor","publishDate":"2026-02-26T21:54:23.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2239018349-Cropped-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/black-fashion-archives-honoring-edward-buchanans-impact-on-modern-luxury/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T00:01:00.860Z"},{"id":"q6129u","archiveId":"ywyddd","slug":"fans-are-divided-after-trump-offers-medal-of-freedom-to-us-mens-hockey-goalie-but-not-womens","title":"Fans Are Divided After Trump Offers Medal Of Freedom To U.S. Men's Hockey Goalie — But Not Women's","excerpt":"Some are questioning why the president neglected to honor U.S. women's hockey goalie Aerin Frankel.","content":"","category":"breakthroughs","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-02-26T21:44:47.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/69a0b43b2700008f4247235a.jpeg?cache=niPuFqQUfq&ops=500_281%2Cscalefit_1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-usa-hockey-aerin-frankel-connor-hellebuyck-presidential-medal-freedom_n_69a07cfee4b0b62154a8670c","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T18:00:26.652Z"},{"id":"8f5zlu","archiveId":"1zvwhq","slug":"8216my-heart-breaks-for-the-survivors8217-hillary-clinton-defends-anti-trafficking-record-demands-tr","title":"‘My Heart Breaks for the Survivors’: Hillary Clinton Defends Anti-Trafficking Record, Demands Transparency in Epstein Probe","excerpt":"The following statement was delivered by former Secretary of State and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at the start of a closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee, as part of its ongoing inquiry into the federal government’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.","content":"The following statement was delivered by former Secretary of State and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at the start of a closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee, as part of its ongoing inquiry into the federal government’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.
\nIn the statement, Clinton tells lawmakers she had no knowledge of Epstein’s or Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal activities and does not recall ever meeting or speaking with Epstein, flying on his planes or visiting any of his properties. She says she has no new information to provide to the committee.
\nHer testimony is both a denial of involvement and a broader political and policy argument—one that defends her record on combating human trafficking, criticizes the committee’s approach and calls for wider accountability in Epstein-related investigations and anti-trafficking efforts. Clinton characterizes the subpoena as part of a partisan investigation designed to create “political theater” and distract from what she describes as more relevant lines of inquiry, particularly those involving former President Donald Trump and others named in Epstein-related materials.
\nThe post ‘My Heart Breaks for the Survivors’: Hillary Clinton Defends Anti-Trafficking Record, Demands Transparency in Epstein Probe appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"safety","author":"Ms. Editors","publishDate":"2026-02-26T21:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2261830413.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/26/hillary-clinton-epstein-congress/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T00:00:57.702Z"},{"id":"xdfbm6","archiveId":"twzn8y","slug":"the-black-women-leading-todays-civil-rights-movements-deserve-to-be-front-and-center-in-tomorrows-hi","title":"The Black Women Leading Today’s Civil Rights Movements Deserve to Be Front and Center in Tomorrow’s History Books","excerpt":"It’s February, which means many students in history classes across the country are reading chapters dedicated to the Civil Rights Movement in celebration of Black History Month. They’re learning about the contributions of the great Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.","content":"It’s February, which means many students in history classes across the country are reading chapters dedicated to the Civil Rights Movement in celebration of Black History Month. They’re learning about the contributions of the great Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. They’re looking at photos of these men giving speeches to the masses and discussing their impact on the world today. In the margins of these pages, they’ll find brief blurbs about Rosa Parks, the defiant older woman who refused to give up her seat, or see a picture of a grieving Coretta Scott King holding her daughter at her husband’s funeral. To reference Beyoncé, the movement was “ran by the men while the women kept the tempo.”
\nTextbooks of course can’t tell the whole history of that time, but it’s interesting who they choose to highlight and how .
\nWhy were the few Black women who were spotlighted only discussed as maternal figures or wives of changemakers? Why did my textbooks recast these women as secondary characters?
\nOur textbooks are not immune from the inherent biases present in our culture. Society viewed women solely as mothers and wives, and therefore largely downplayed the breadth of their contributions to the Civil Rights Movement, especially when those contributions fell outside of qualities or actions women were “supposed” to do at the time.
\nFast forward 50 years, in a world where women have increased opportunity and access, it’s fascinating to think about how the changes in modern society have recontextualized the role Black women play in civil rights movements. Future historians have an opportunity to reclassify and deepen their representation of Black women in this space.
\nHere are some women making change today and how I hope they will be remembered in future history textbooks:
\n1. Brittany Packnett Cunningham
\nBrittany Packnett Cunningham is a former educator turned social justice activist. She began as an elementary teacher before expanding into lead roles at Teach for America. She then served as a Congressional legislative aide before being appointed by President Obama to his Task Force on 21st Century Policing. She assumed this role after becoming a major presence in the Missouri protests fighting for change after the murder of Black teenager Michael Brown at the hands of local police.
\nPacknett Cunningham is also a founder of Campaign Zero, an organization seeking to end police and bring major reform to how our law enforcement agencies are trained and interact with our communities. She is a frequent contributor to MSNBC, NPR, and other media outlets continuously advocating for Black Americans and calling for an end to Black suffering. She’s also an author, releasing We Are Like Those Who Dream , a collection of speeches by Black women. Packnett Cunningham is a figure that will be remembered for her organizing, advocacy, and efforts to inspire the Black community by uplifting others.
\n2. Letitia James
\nLetitia James made history in 2018 as the first Black person elected to serve as Attorney General of New York. Graduate of the historic, storied HBCU Howard University, Letitia James has dedicated her career to public service. She began her career as a public defender with the Legal Aid Society, established an association of professional organizations that provide scholarships for Black children, served on the New York City Council, and even made a run for governor. However, James made headlines for filing AND WINNING(!) a civil lawsuit against Trump and The Trump Organization for defrauding New Yorkers for decades.
\nIn an age where many companies and institutions are avoid holding the Trump administration accountable to avoid retaliation, James is holding steady. She’s been subjected to countless attacks and lawsuits from Trump’s Department of Justice, yet she persists. History will remember her as a woman who fought against a tyrannical regime and carried on in the face of significant threats to her own wellbeing. She did her job when many others wouldn’t. I hope future textbooks highlight the importance of her actions and remind future generations that when facing fascism, it’s crucial to rely on your strengths and do what’s right.
\n3. Quinta Brunson
\nChange not only happens in the courtroom or in grassroots organizing, it also happens in our own homes, our own living rooms. Quinta Brunson is a woman who is making societal change through film and television, making her mark on culture and the modern education system. Brunson started out as an internet personality, inadvertently becoming several memes that still dominate our feeds. She then took her talents to the small screen with her role on A Black Lady Sketch Show , making history as part of one of the first comedy sketch shows written, produced, and starring Black women. Now of course, Brunson is most known as the creator, showrunner, producer, and star of ABC’s hit show Abbott Elementary . Spotlighting the joys and issues affecting Philadelphia public schools, through Abbott Elementary Brunson has provided representation for all kinds of educators, showcasing the many ways we can show up for the next generation and make a way out of no way. Shows like Abbott Elementary have a ripple effect on society, helping move the needle in conversations around predominantly Black public schools. Joy is an act of resistance, and through her show Brunson is infusing joy—and change—into households across the country.
\n4. Claudia Gordon
\nFinally, I hope the history books of the future do a better job of recognizing the intersectional leaders making systemic changes in our world. One of these leaders is Claudia Gordon, the first deaf Black woman attorney in the U.S.
\nClaudia has spent her career advising and developing disability employment policy and has worked with multiple administrations advocating for more inclusive policies. Within the Obama administration she served as the Chief of Staff to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Director in the U.S. Department of Labor, she was later appointed by President Biden to the National Council on Disability.
\nClaudia is an example of why it is crucial to remember and highlight the importance of understanding intersectionality in an individual’s experience. Black people with disabilities must navigate both racism AND ableism when interacting with systems such as health care, education, and employment. Claudia is an example of intersectional civil rights leadership and reminds us that the Black experience is not singular, and we must respect the full scope of lived experiences.
\n***
\nIn a world where Black women’s leadership and impact are constantly mischaracterized and downplayed, I’m curious how history will remember today’s leaders and their contributions to society. It is my dream that textbooks will recognize the many ways Black women have led and changed our world for the better. Black women can no longer be relegated to support roles, existing in the margins of history. We’re undeniably front and center.
\nThe post The Black Women Leading Today’s Civil Rights Movements Deserve to Be Front and Center in Tomorrow’s History Books appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"activism","author":"Amelia Packham","publishDate":"2026-02-26T19:57:01.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/updated-blog-graphic-video-games-1.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/the-black-women-leading-todays-civil-rights-movements-deserve-to-be-front-and-center-in-tomorrows-history-books/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T00:00:58.374Z"},{"id":"1cxe8k","archiveId":"mxxgyr","slug":"new-attacks-on-medication-abortion-distort-the-reality-of-reproductive-coercion","title":"New Attacks on Medication Abortion Distort the Reality of Reproductive Coercion","excerpt":"New Attacks on Medication Abortion Distort the Reality of Reproductive Coercion Policy Analysis sramashwar Rebecca Hearle The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here . \n\n\n\n
With the rest of the current term’s argument calendar filled , the grants may slow after the frenzy of December and January. On Monday, the Supreme Court added just one case to the merits docket from the relist rolls. Specifically, the court granted review in four-time relist Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County
\n\n\n\n
There are just three new relists this week.
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guahan restricted-access beach on Guam’s northeast shore. Every three years, it applies to Guam’s territorial Environmental Protection Agency for a permit allowing it to do so under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 , which governs the treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. Prutehi Guahan brought suit to challenge the Air Force’s 2021 renewal application, arguing it failed to comply with procedural requirements. A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit agreed , holding that the Air Force’s permit application constituted “final agency action” and was thus reviewable under the Administrative Procedure Act . The panel majority then concluded that the Air Force had to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 – most notably, by preparing an Environmental Impact Statement before submitting its application. Judge Lawrence VanDyke dissented, stating that the majority opinion created a rule wrongly “finding that a perfunctory action, like routinely submitting a permit application, is enough on its own to qualify as final agency action,” and in doing so “turns the prevailing understanding of final agency action on its head” by potentially subjecting “each and every permit application” to immediate APA review. He wrote that the renewal application merely “initiated a permit process” and determined “no legal rights or obligations” until Guam EPA acted.
\n\n\n\n
The United States now seeks review, warning that the 9th Circuit’s decision will create bureaucratic chaos, with “massive implications” for federal agencies that routinely seek permit renewals. An agency’s permit application, it argues, merely starts a process; the real legal consequences flow only when Guam EPA grants or denies the permit. The government contends that the decision conflicts with “precedents of other circuits holding that agency actions are not final where ‘a separate actor’ (here Guam EPA) ‘must take an additional action’” before legal consequences attach. On the merits, the government invokes the principle that specific statutes (RCRA) govern over general ones (NEPA), citing cases holding that environmental regulators need not conduct NEPA review when issuing RCRA permits.
\n\n\n\n
Prutehi Guahan counters that there’s no genuine circuit split. And they argue that subsequent amendments to the NEPA reinforce the 9th Circuit’s reading. They frame NEPA as complementary, not conflicting, with the RCRA, and downplay broader stakes as “fact-bound” rather than raising pertinent legal issues for the court to hear. In reply , the government contends the NEPA amendments merely reinforced pre-existing principles and change nothing. We should get an indication Monday about how the justices view the dispute.
\n\n\n\n
The next two relists involve an issue that will be quite familiar to regular readers of this feature. The court is once again being asked whether the Second Amendment protects what many courts have described as “the most popular rifle in the country.” Specifically, these petitions challenge Connecticut’s post–Sandy Hook ban on so-called “assault weapons” (including AR-15–style rifles) and magazines holding more than 10 rounds. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit assumed , without deciding, that these rifles and magazines are “bearable arms” covered by the Second Amendment and acknowledged that they are in “common use,” but nevertheless upheld the law as consistent with a historical tradition of regulating “unusually dangerous” weapons. In National Association for Gun Rights v. Lamont Grant v. Higgins
\n\n\n\n
If, again, this sounds familiar, that’s because it is. The court denied review in Friedman v. City of Highland Park an opinion dissenting from denial lamenting the “second-class right” treatment of the Second Amendment). In early 2020, it relisted Wilson v. Cook County group of Illinois “assault weapon” petitions were relisted six times before meeting their end, with Thomas again writing . Snope v. Brown another dissent from Thomas, and leading Justice Brett Kavanaugh to write that “this Court should and presumably will address the AR–15 issue soon, in the next Term or two.” And now pending are six-time relists in Viramontes v. Cook County Gator’s Custom Guns, Inc. v. Washington Duncan v. Bonta
\n\n\n\n
New Relists
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National Association for Gun Rights v. Lamont 25-421
\n\n\n\n
Issue : Whether a ban on the possession of AR-15-style rifles and firearm magazines with a capacity in excess of 10 rounds violates the Second Amendment.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Feb. 20 conference.)
\n\n\n\n
Grant v. Higgins 25-566
\n\n\n\n
Issue : Whether the Second and 14th Amendments guarantee the right to possess semiautomatic rifles that are in common use for lawful purposes, including the AR-15.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Feb. 20 conference.)
\n\n\n\n
Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guahan 25-579
\n\n\n\n
Issues: (1) Whether the federal government’s submission to a state or territorial regulator of an application to renew a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 permit is “final agency action” that is immediately reviewable under the Administrative Procedure Act ; and (2) whether the federal government must comply with the general environmental-review procedures of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 , before submitting a permit-renewal application under RCRA, which sets forth its own specific procedures to review environmental impacts in the context of hazardous-waste treatment.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Feb. 20 conference.)
\n\n\n\n
Returning Relists
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Smith v. Scott 24-1099
\n\n\n\n
Issues : (1) Whether, viewing the facts from the officers’ perspective at the time, the officers acted reasonably under the Fourth Amendment by using bodyweight pressure to restrain a potentially armed and actively resisting individual only until handcuffing could be accomplished; and (2) whether the panel erred in denying qualified immunity where no case clearly established that pre-handcuffing bodyweight pressure violates the Fourth Amendment.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Sept. 29, Oct. 10, Oct. 17, Nov. 7, Nov. 14, Nov. 21, Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
\n\n\n\n
Vincent v. Bondi 24-1155
\n\n\n\n
Issue : Whether the Second Amendment allows the federal government to permanently disarm Petitioner, who has one seventeen-year-old nonviolent felony conviction for trying to pass a bad check.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Nov. 21, Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
\n\n\n\n
Foote v. Ludlow School Committee 25-77
\n\n\n\n
Issue : Whether a public school violates parents’ constitutional rights when, without parental knowledge or consent, the school encourages a student to transition to a new “gender” or participates in that process.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Nov. 21, Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
\n\n\n\n
Thompson v. United States , 25-5434
\n\n\n\n
Issue: Whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)’s lifetime ban on firearm possession for all individuals previously convicted of a felony violates the Second Amendment, either facially or as applied to the Petitioner.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Nov. 21, Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
\n\n\n\n
Fields v. Plappert 23-6912
\n\n\n\n
Issue: Whether the requirement that a verdict be based only on the evidence presented in the courtroom at trial satisfies 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1) ‘s “clearly established” requirement, and if so, whether a jury’s consideration of and reliance on extrinsic evidence as part of a jury experiment violates this rule.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, and Jan. 16 conferences; now being held awaiting the filing of an opposition to Fields’ rehearing petition.)
\n\n\n\n
Reed v. Goertz 24-1268
\n\n\n\n
Issue : Whether Article 64 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure , as authoritatively construed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, violates due process by arbitrarily denying prisoners access to postconviction DNA testing, rendering illusory prisoners’ state-created right to prove their innocence through newly discovered evidence.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
\n\n\n\n
Gator’s Custom Guns, Inc. v. Washington 25-153
\n\n\n\n
Issue: Whether ammunition feeding devices with the capacity to hold more than ten rounds are “Arms” presumptively entitled to constitutional protection under the plain text of the Second Amendment.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
\n\n\n\n
Duncan v. Bonta 25-198
\n\n\n\n
Issue: (1) Whether a ban on the possession of exceedingly common ammunition feeding devices violates the Second Amendment; and (2) whether a law dispossessing citizens, without compensation, of property that they lawfully acquired and long possessed without incident violates the takings clause.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
\n\n\n\n
Viramontes v. Cook County 25-238
\n\n\n\n
Issue : Whether the Second and 14th Amendments guarantee the right to possess AR-15 platform and similar semiautomatic rifles.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
\n\n\n\n
Zorn v. Linton 25-297
\n\n\n\n
Issue: Whether the 2nd Circuit’s qualified immunity analysis conflicts with the court’s repeated instruction that courts must define rights with specificity and look for close factual analogues in determining whether a Fourth Amendment right is clearly established.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Dec. 5, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
\n\n\n\n
Villarreal v. Alaniz 25-29
\n\n\n\n
Issue : (1) Whether it obviously violates the First Amendment to arrest someone for asking government officials questions and publishing the information they volunteer; and (2) whether qualified immunity is unavailable to public officials who use a state statute in a way that obviously violates the First Amendment, or whether qualified immunity shields those officials.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, and Jan. 23 conferences; record requested and now held awaiting arrival.)
\n\n\n\n
Sittenfeld v. United States 25-49
\n\n\n\n
Issue: Whether, when the government alleges bribery based solely on lawful campaign contributions, the defendant may be convicted based on evidence that is ambiguous as to whether the public official conditioned any official act on the campaign contributions.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
\n\n\n\n
Poore v. United States 25-227
\n\n\n\n
Issue : Whether the limits on agency deference announced in Kisor v. Wilkie Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
\n\n\n\n
District of Columbia v. R.W. 25-248
\n\n\n\n
Issue : (1) Whether a court assessing the existence of reasonable suspicion under the Fourth Amendment may exclude a fact known to the officer, or instead must assess all the evidence when weighing the totality of the circumstances; and (2) whether, under the totality-of-the-circumstances test, the officer in this case had reasonable suspicion to conduct an investigative stop.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
\n\n\n\n
Stroble v. Oklahoma Tax Commission 25-382
\n\n\n\n
Issue : Whether Oklahoma may tax the income of a Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen who lives and works within the Muscogee (Creek) Reservation that McGirt v. Oklahoma
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
\n\n\n\n
Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Fazaga 25-430
\n\n\n\n
Issue : Whether dismissal of a claim after assertion of the state-secrets privilege requires a district court to adjudicate the merits of the claim using the privileged information where the privileged information is relevant to a defense.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
\n\n\n\n
Johnson v. High Desert State Prison 25-457
\n\n\n\n
Issue : Whether 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1) requires each incarcerated plaintiff filing in forma pauperis to pay the full amount of a filing fee whether or not he is filing a joint civil action with other plaintiffs.
\n\n\n\n
(Relisted after the Jan. 16, Jan. 23, and Feb. 20 conferences.)
\n
The post Beach blasts and unusually dangerous weapons appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"activism","author":"John Elwood","publishDate":"2026-02-26T19:01:56.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/cameras-banner.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/02/beach-blasts-and-unusually-dangerous-weapons/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T00:01:00.914Z"},{"id":"sqbprk","archiveId":"6o77ou","slug":"how-minneapolis-fought-ice-with-dildos","title":"How Minneapolis Fought ICE With Dildos","excerpt":"A sex toy has become a symbol of resistance in Minnesota and beyond. The post How Minneapolis Fought ICE With Dildos appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
A Feb. 7 protest at the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis became decidedly phallic when hundreds of protestors chucked purple and pink dildos at vehicles driving out of the gates of the facility that houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) office.
\n
“Fuck you” chants resounded as the dildos bounced off a sheriff’s SUV. Police scrambled to gather the dildos and toss them over a fence, away from the protestors screaming “eat a dick.”
\n
Since early January, near daily protests in Minneapolis have demanded an end to the federal occupation of the city, where 3,000 immigration agents were deployed until a drawdown in late February . The protestors have been largely non-violent. The ICE agents have not, leading to the killings of two local residents, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
\n
This particular anti-ICE protest employed an unlikely projectile: the humble rubber shaft.
\n
Operation Dildo Blitz \n
The Minneapolis dildo protest was the brainchild of Rook T. Winchester, a pseudonym for a man who declined to use his legal name for safety reasons.
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Much like Portland’s inflatable “protest frogs” and Chicago’s speedo-clad demonstrator , the point of “Operation Dildo Blitz” is what’s known as tactical frivolity —that is, a funny form of protest meant to expose as absurd the government’s claims that protesters are dangerous or violent.
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Protesting absurdly, Winchester believes, also irks the immigration agents in a particular way. Mockery, he told Rewire News Group , is “kryptonite for these fascists.”
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He got the idea after meeting a young woman during a prayer vigil outside the Florida ICE detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” After her father was arrested by ICE and transported to that facility, she moved in with a conservative aunt who supports President Donald Trump.
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The aunt later kicked her out for being outspoken about her political beliefs, Winchester recalled. In response, the woman “put a suction cup dildo on her aunt’s door as a message for her to … go fuck herself,” Winchester said. He decided dildos could send a similar signal in Minneapolis.
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One of the anti-ICE protestors, Russell “Jolly” Ellis, nicknamed the action “Operation Dildo Blitz” in a nod to Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration’s aggressive September 2025 immigration enforcement operation in Chicago.
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This is not the first time sex toys have been used as a political message.
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A 1768 Japanese parody of a samurai etiquette book for women replaced pictures of origami gift wrap with dildos . The authors of the 2013 book Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art
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In 2015, an artist inserted dildos in place of guns in Republican leadership’s photos in a bid for more gun control. And in 2016, students at the University of Texas staged a “Cocks Not Glocks” action , where they toted dildos around to protest a concealed carry law.
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Five days after “Operation Dildo Blitz,” Border Czar Tom Homan announced that the Minneapolis “surge operation” concluded. As of Feb. 25, roughly 500 agents remained .
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Joy is resistance \n
Winchester knew that Minneapolis-based sex toy store Smitten Kitten had transformed into a donation center that provides supplies to people affected by the ICE operation. So, he called the store to see if they had any dildos they could donate for a protest at the Graduate Hotel in Minneapolis in late January.
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“Fuck ICE, how can I help you?” the Smitten Kitten clerk answered.
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“We’re going to protest ICE. We’d like to bring some dildos with us. … Can we stop in and get some?” Winchester asked.
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The store was game. Winchester and his friend swung by Smitten Kitten and left with dozens of discounted dildos. They then took a Lyft to the Graduate Hotel.
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They arrived to a “couple hundred” protesters making noise and hoisting signs. Winchester and his friend distributed the dildos throughout the crowd.
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“What people do with these dildos after we hand them out is on them,” Winchester said, recalling that protesters “juggle them, they attach them to their helmets, they wave them.”
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The mood shifted from intense chanting and noisemaking to a lighter atmosphere —until a protester tossed a dildo at the feet of an ICE agent . It didn’t touch the agent, according to Winchester.
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He claimed that, “No one was hurt, other than their egos.”
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Nonetheless, Winchester said, he believes the agent retaliated by spraying pepper balls.
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“I didn’t see the pepper ball get shot, but I certainly breathed it in,” Winchester said.
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Natalie Johnson, CEO of Minneapolis-based sex toy manufacturer Like a Kitten, saw a video of the protester being pepper sprayed on social media. She said the violence shows “how much lack of control there is over these federal agents.”
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“It’s that whole culture of fragile masculinity, and nothing puts a point on that as much as just throwing a dick at their feet,” Johnson added.
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Dildos made another appearance at an anti-ICE protest about a week later outside the Whipple Federal Building. And this time, there were a lot more of them.
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Johnson got connected to Winchester and asked if protest attendees would need more dildos. He said they did. She offered to donate 500 dildos. She purchased them for about $2 a piece from a local bank that was liquidating excess inventory from a recently shuttered Minneapolis adult store.
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Winchester drove to Johnson’s warehouse and filled up his Subaru Crosstrek’s backseat and hatchback with boxes of eight-inch dildos, in colors ranging from clear to Day-Glo pink to purple . This time, he and a friend drove to the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, wheeled the dildos out in a wagon. They passed them out to the crowd of protesters that the dildo distributors estimated to be in the hundreds.
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Ellis arrived at the protest around 11:15 a.m. He was covering it for his Instagram and working as a “designated dildo retriever.” After protestors threw the dildos over the fence in front of the Whipple Building, he would gather them before police did.
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“There’s this ridiculous juxtaposition of these agents that are armed to the teeth with masks on, and bulletproof vests, and AR-15s, and we were literally armed with rubber dicks,” Ellis told RNG .
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Ellis said the protest felt different than the others he’d attended at Whipple.
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“There was joy because people felt like they could express some of that righteous anger,” Ellis said. “Joy is resistance. Fascism wants you to be bitter and miserable and angry and wants you to just give up.”
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After about nine cars had been pelted with dildos, Ellis said he was “certain” he’d be arrested, even though he wasn’t throwing any dildos. He’d previously seen protestors being arrested outside of Whipple for throwing bologna and snowballs.
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“Then it occurred to me exactly why they’re not arresting nobody, because then they have to have an arrest report that says ‘arrested for throwing dildos,’ ” Ellis hypothesized.
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Winchester and Ellis both left as tensions rose.
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“When [the dildos] all started getting lobbed over the fence, and I heard a car get hit, then I was like, all right, well, I guess the distribution is done, because I’m not there to hurt anyone,” Winchester said. “We’re nonviolent.”
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Eventually, at least 42 people were arrested at the Whipple protest for failure to disperse. The Hennepin County Sheriff reported that chunks of ice were thrown and that an officer was hit in the head. Winchester disputes that account.
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When Johnson watched videos of the protests, she saw some commenters saying that the protest showed “how crazy and unhinged everyone on the left is.” But she thinks it’s absurd to be more upset about throwing dildos than about taking children from their parents and killing civilians.
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“Why are you having this reaction to a dildo when you are not having this kind of reaction to human life?” Johnson asked.
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The supply is cut off \n
When protestors from across the country contact Johnson to ask if she can supply sex toys, she suggests they go to their local sex toy store. Johnson’s dildo supply line has ended.
\n
Recently, when she called her bank contact to purchase more of the liquidated supply, the man said he’d been informed that the bank could no longer sell dildos. He said management had expressed concern that its customers would be upset about their bank selling sex toys.
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Johnson believes the decision was political—that the bank cut her off because the dildos were used to protest ICE. (The bank in question declined to comment on this matter.)
\n
Though her supply in Minneapolis has been cut off, the anti-ICE dildo movement has spread nationwide, most recently at a State of the Swamp protest in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 24. Winchester brought a suitcase of dildos to distribute to protestors. The Portland protest frog also joined the demonstration in the capital.
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“It’s in line with the spirit of the Merry Pranksters or Abbie Hoffman,” Winchester said, referring to some notoriously mischievous activists from U.S. history.
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ICE defenders “want to have this narrative that we’re all a blood thirsty, violent mob. But once you stick dildos in our hands and we embrace that absurdity, it becomes harder for them to fight.”
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The post How Minneapolis Fought ICE With Dildos appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"activism","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-26T19:00:40.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/MLW_1386-Edit-2.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/26/how-minneapolis-fought-ice-with-dildos/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T00:00:57.288Z"},{"id":"c1jepl","archiveId":"6umhlz","slug":"immigration-detention-is-failing-women-and-childrenby-design","title":"Immigration Detention Is Failing Women and Children—By Design","excerpt":"The South Texas’ Family Residential Center, an immigration detention facility in Dilley, Tex., has been the subject of an onslaught of headlines in recent weeks. National protests followed the horrifying seizure of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, the boy with a blue bunny hat and Spiderman backpack, w...","content":"
The South Texas’ Family Residential Center, an immigration detention facility in Dilley, Tex., has been the subject of an onslaught of headlines in recent weeks. National protests followed the horrifying seizure of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, the boy with a blue bunny hat and Spiderman backpack, who was sent there from Minnesota with his father last month. (Officials later released them.) By early February, Dilley was the epicenter of a measles outbreak. ProPublica just issued a searing report as told by the kids detained there — a place where they are served rotten, worm-infested food and dirty water, get little or no classroom time, and are perpetually sick.
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The post Immigration Detention Is Failing Women and Children—By Design appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"immigration","author":"Jennifer Weiss-Wolf","publishDate":"2026-02-26T18:52:19.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/3cabdea6-79d9-4e24-88b1-10a0fd9fd8ad_2048x1536.webp","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/26/immigrant-detention-centers-trump-women-children/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T00:00:57.702Z"},{"id":"bm6bvd","archiveId":"18aefb","slug":"celebrity-hairstylist-suzette-boozer-breaks-down-her-top-tips","title":"Celebrity Hairstylist Suzette Boozer Breaks Down Her Top Tips","excerpt":"“In The Chair” spotlights the incredible hairstylists and makeup artists in our community who are giving us major inspiration. Each week, they discuss their personal beauty and career journeys, what […] The post Celebrity Hairstylist Suzette Boozer Breaks Down Her Top Tips appeared first on Essence ...","content":"
By
India Espy-Jones ·
Updated February 26, 2026 Getting your
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“In The Chair” spotlights the incredible hairstylists and makeup artists in our community who are giving us major inspiration. Each week, they discuss their personal beauty and career journeys, what they’ve learned from their clients, and their top glam tips.
“As a hairstylist, I’ve done everything to my hair,” celebrity hairstylist and Dippity-Do hair expert Suzette Boozer tells ESSENCE. In part, because taking care of her textured hair has been trial and error. “My texture is easier to target=\"_blank\"> View this post on Instagram
A post shared by SUZETTE BOOZER
What She Loves Most About Hairstyling:
“My favorite part of what I do is giving a client complete satisfaction, the kind that brings tears of joy. There’s nothing more ful>Dippity-Do Girls with Curls. I remember it from when I was a little girl, and now seeing how they’ve expanded specifically into curly hair is exciting. Their range is thoughtfully developed; each product serves a clear purpose for different curl patterns and styling needs and because it’s curated for curls, it removes confusion. It becomes easier to understand what to use, how to use it, and why you’re using it.”
View this post on Instagram A post shared by SUZETTE BOOZER
Her Favorite Hair Styles to Do:
My favorite hairtarget=\"_blank\"> View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Pircilla Pae, 배근희 (@pircillapae)
A Hair Myth She Wants To Debunk:
“‘My hair can’t do that.’ Most of the time, it’s not that your hair can’t, it’s that it hasn’t been understood properly. With the right technique, the right products, and the right approach, hair is far more versatile than people think.
Another myth I can’t stand is when products are labeled or mentally assigned to a certain race. Hair doesn’t operate by race, it operates by texture, density, porosity, and condition. When we reduce products or techniques to race, we limit people. Education removes those limitations. The truth is, understanding hair scientifically and technically opens possibilities. Assumptions close them. I’m here for informed styling, not boxed-in thinking.”
What She’s Learned From Her Clients:
“It moves me when they come in with awareness sharing what they’ve noticed, what’s changed, or even offering thoughtful suggestions. That tells me they’ve been listening. That tells me they care. I can see the difference in their questions, in their habits, in the health of their hair. That evolution means everything to me because the best results happen when it’s not just stylist and client, it’s a partnership built on trust, education, and communication.”
View this post on Instagram A post shared by SUZETTE BOOZER
How She Uplifts Her Clients:
“I always say I’m a therapist behind the chair. Not because I have all the answers, but because I know how to listen. Most of the time, I don’t have to say much to uplift my clients. I remind them that beauty already lives within them. What I do is simply the enhancement. When someone sits in my chair, they’re often at a vulnerable moment. Hair carries emotion, identity, and confidence. When it’s not where they want it to be, insecurity can surface. That’s why listening is the most important part of my job.”
The Deeper Meaning Behind Her Work:
“[Hairstyling is healing] not because I claim to fix everything, but because I create a space where people feel safe, heard, and restored. Healing doesn’t always look dramatic. Sometimes it looks like consistency, like a client returning weekly, biweekly, or monthly not just for therel=\"tag\">celebrity hairstylist In The Chair With
The post Celebrity Hairstylist Suzette Boozer Breaks Down Her Top Tips appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-02-26T18:48:31.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/suzette-boozer-celebrity-hairstylist-in-the-chair/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T00:01:00.860Z"},{"id":"xtu6xv","archiveId":"i69uir","slug":"inside-the-era-of-undetectable-injectables","title":"Inside The Era Of Undetectable Injectables","excerpt":"Your favorite celebrities aren’t looking better because they’re getting less work done; they’re just getting better work. The last decade has been filled with loud, heavy cheekbones, over snatched brows […] The post Inside The Era Of Undetectable Injectables appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Shani Hillian ·
Updated February 26, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Your favorite celebrities aren’t looking better because they’re getting less work done; they’re just getting better work. The last decade has been Kaitlyn Nelson, DPAS, MS, PA-C —a board-certified Physician Associate, national trainer, and owner of SKNdustry in Philadelphia. She’s an aesthetics expert who’s performed over 20,000 injections and has built a reputation for delivering natural, anatomy-first results. Through subtle, methodical facial balancing, “ I help patients achieve refreshed results that highlight and enhance—not alter—their natural features” she adds.
Why The Shift Towards Undetectable Injectables is Happening Now?
According to Nelson, there are a few reasons driving this shift: First, technique has evolved. “We better understand facial aging as a process of structural change, including bone resorption and fat compartment descent, rather than simply volume loss,” she says.
Second, dissolving filler has become more common. Patients who experienced the “overfilled” look several years ago are now reversing it. That reset has contributed to a cultural correction toward restraint.
Lastly, social media absolutely plays a role but perhaps not in the way people expect. While earlier social media cycles amplified exaggerated aesthetics, today’s platforms reward relatability. “The “clean girl” and “natural aesthetic” movements emphasize healthy skin, balanced features, and subtle enhancements and my patients often bring in references that are less about volume and more about glow, symmetry, and softness,” Nelson adds.
What The “New” Approach and Technique Looks Like
They want soft structural support, improved skin quality, and movement that remains dynamic. Over>Dermatology Times, 58% of patients are solely looking for results that are only noticeable to themselves and their close friends or families. Less than 10% of users are looking for more drastic changes that completely alter their current look. Subtle isn’t safe, it’s strategic.
Treating structure not shadows
Rather than chasing folds and hollowing at the surface, providers evaluate how bone and fat compartment descent are changing facial support.
Layered Placement
As Nelson explains, current best practice emphasizes layered approaches meaning the product is placed intentionally at different tissue depths to restore support and softness without creating visible volume.
Supporting movement instead of freezing it
“Neuromodulators are being used to soften rather than freeze. Filler is being used to support rather than inflate,” says Nelson.
The New Status Symbol
The real status symbol is a face that looks untouched because it was treated with precision, grace and restraint. And, according to Nelson, “Good aesthetic medicine has always aimed for natural results. What’s new in 2026 is that patients are demanding it, expecting it, and recognizing when it’s done well.”
The post Inside The Era Of Undetectable Injectables appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-02-26T18:15:47.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/undetectable-injectables-inside-the-new-era/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T00:01:00.860Z"},{"id":"axnudv","archiveId":"t1q8cv","slug":"the-evolution-of-cool-erykah-badus-most-transformative-fashion-looks","title":"The Evolution Of Cool: Erykah Badu’s Most Transformative Fashion Looks","excerpt":"Erykah Badu is a soulful visionary whose lyrics feel like ancestral whispers and affirmations all at once. She creates music that makes you feel seen, held, and spiritually aligned as […] The post The Evolution Of Cool: Erykah Badu’s Most Transformative Fashion Looks appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated February 26, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Erykah Badu is a soulful visionary whose lyrics feel like ancestral whispers and affirmations all at once. She creates music that makes you feel seen, held, and spiritually aligned as a Black woman. Expanding the boundaries of what artistry,src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2181644319-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The Evolution Of Cool: Erykah Badu’s Most Transformative Fashion Looks\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" />NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 28: Fashion Icon Award Honoree Erykah Badu attends the 2024 CFDA Awards at American Museum of Natural History on October 28, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
The post The Evolution Of Cool: Erykah Badu’s Most Transformative Fashion Looks appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Mecca Pryor","publishDate":"2026-02-26T15:55:38.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/celebrity/the-evolution-of-cool-erykah-badus-fashion-looks-birthday/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-26T18:00:06.685Z"},{"id":"gs98bl","archiveId":"guiv27","slug":"8216datelines8217-josh-mankiewicz-takes-you-inside-the-true-crime-machine-podcast","title":"‘Dateline’s’ Josh Mankiewicz Takes You Inside the True Crime Machine (Podcast)","excerpt":"A candid conversation about case selection, empathy gaps, and why some families can’t even get their calls returned. The post ‘Dateline’s’ Josh Mankiewicz Takes You Inside the True Crime Machine (Podcast) appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
In part two of her series on true crime and disability, Imani Gandy interviews Dateline correspondent Josh Mankiewicz about true crime as a machine that decides whose stories get told—and whose don’t. From missing Black women, to missing and murdered Indigenous people, to the near invisibility of disabled victims, they talk about what true crime shows—and what it leaves out.
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Because attention itself is a form of power.
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(And yes, there’s a Bill Hader moment.)
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Transcript
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If you love B*tch, Listen, chip in to keep help Imani keep her podcast going. Become a supporter today .
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Imani has relaunched her column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles . Sign up for our newsletters here to read it first.
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The post ‘Dateline’s’ Josh Mankiewicz Takes You Inside the True Crime Machine (Podcast) appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"resilience","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-26T15:00:13.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/B_L-Podcast-Web-Thumb-05.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/26/datelines-josh-mankiewicz-takes-you-inside-the-true-crime-machine-podcast/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-26T18:00:01.743Z"},{"id":"86d1we","archiveId":"4l5cs3","slug":"us-womens-hockey-team-finally-speaks-out-against-trumps-snide-joke","title":"U.S. Women's Hockey Team Finally Speaks Out Against Trump's Snide Joke","excerpt":"Hilary Knight, who was captain of the gold medal-winning Olympic team, blasted the president.","content":"","category":"breakthroughs","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-02-26T14:00:20.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/69a04f7127000045244722bd.jpeg?cache=Z5jexOTNXI&ops=1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hilary-knight-distasteful_n_69a04b47e4b0b218a8b1c981","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T18:00:26.652Z"},{"id":"rqettu","archiveId":"vydqim","slug":"op-ed-halle-berry-speaks-out-against-faking-orgasmsand-it8217s-about-time-somebody-said-it","title":"Op-Ed: Halle Berry Speaks Out Against Faking Orgasms—And It’s About Time Somebody Said It","excerpt":"Women often put their needs on the back burner to appease men’s egos. That often looks like not telling them the truth about how they’re performing outside, and inside, of […] The post Op-Ed: Halle Berry Speaks Out Against Faking Orgasms—And It’s About Time Somebody Said It appeared first on Essence...","content":"
By
Elizabeth Ayoola ·
The post Op-Ed: Halle Berry Speaks Out Against Faking Orgasms—And It’s About Time Somebody Said It appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Victoria Uwumarogie","publishDate":"2026-02-26T13:47:19.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/faking-orgasms/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-27T00:01:00.860Z"},{"id":"c8m2uj","archiveId":"puhdfx","slug":"the-people-standing-between-students-and-ice-teachers","title":"The people standing between students and ICE? Teachers.","excerpt":"The viral photograph of federal authorities apprehending little Liam Conejo Ramos in his bunny ear beanie and Spider-Man backpack stunned viewers across the country, filling them with horror and rage. For the students and staff at Valley View Elementary in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, Liam’s detenti...","content":"
The viral photograph of federal authorities apprehending little Liam Conejo Ramos in his bunny ear beanie and Spider-Man backpack stunned viewers across the country, filling them with horror and rage. For the students and staff at Valley View Elementary in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, Liam’s detention in January particularly stung: That’s where the 5-year-old attends school.
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“When Liam was taken, we had this devastating loss,” Valley View teacher Peg Nelson said. Although Liam has since been released, “We’ve had other students in our building also taken in. We realized a fifth grader was also at the detention center; they had just kind of disappeared.”
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Under the guidance of teachers like Nelson, a 33-year education veteran, Valley View students expressed their emotions about their classmates’ detentions in letters to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.
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“We wrote letters to process our feelings, to give advice about how they should treat people differently because we felt like they aren’t treating people the way we talk about how we should treat others — the Golden Rule,” Nelson said.
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Nelson is among the many teachers who have found themselves on the front lines of an immigration enforcement surge that has turned the simple routine of going to school into a source of extreme anxiety for students. With the number of people held in detention up by as much as 75 percent since President Donald Trump returned to office, educators are not only teaching but also tending to students’ emotional needs and offering vital support — groceries, car rides, rent money — to their immigrant families.
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They are contending with the daily impact of a decision by the Trump administration to lift longstanding protections for schools and other so-called “sensitive locations” against federal law enforcement, which has left them vulnerable to ICE operations.
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Teachers nationwide shared stories with The 19th about the toll that immigration enforcement is having on students, from chronic absenteeism to emotional distress that makes learning nearly impossible. All the while, they are going beyond the classroom to protect their pupils, experiencing exhaustion and fearing reprisals — for themselves and the students’ families.
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At Valley View, where about two-thirds of students are Hispanic, some teachers have taken to escorting students to and from school by foot, while others have obtained special licenses to drive the children to class in district vans to help them avoid bumping into federal agents.
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“My day is Monday. I’m a walker on certain days,” Nelson said. “It’s a whole system above and beyond what we normally do, which is to teach children. Now we’re doing this as well.”
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Peg Nelson\n (Courtesy Peg Nelson) \n\n\n\n
ICE agents have followed school personnel delivering groceries and laptops for virtual learning, waving at them as if saying, “Hey, I see where you’re delivering groceries to,’” Nelson said. “Kind of like, ‘I now know where this family lives.’”
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Staff have been bringing food to 140 vulnerable families. Recently, school officials reached out to the Columbia Heights Police Department to ask if their deliveries may be putting families at risk. The response, as Nelson recalled it, was sobering: “Them leaving the house to get groceries is more dangerous, so you keep doing what you’re doing because, ultimately, this is something that’s helping get their family fed.”
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On Monday, Minnesota school districts and educators sought an emergency order in federal court to stop immigration operations near public schools because of their potential to traumatize children. The nation’s largest teachers unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, filed a similar motion earlier this month to stop ICE from operating in and around sensitive places, which also include hospitals and churches.
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“All students, regardless of race, place of birth, or language they speak, deserve schools that are safe, welcoming and free from fear — no exceptions,” National Education Association President Becky Pringle said in a statement.
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Nelson wonders if her district can provide enough social workers and counselors to support students who feel targeted. A pair of therapy dogs recently visited Valley View classrooms, a “wonderful” respite from the tensions the school community has faced, she said.
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Her gifted and talented students in grades 3 through 5 know that federal agents shot dead Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in January. When she appeared on television recently to condemn the rise of immigration enforcement in the region, students expressed concern for her. “They’re shooting white people, too,” they told Nelson. “You’ve got to be careful.”
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One child told her that he was proud of her but wanted her to be OK. “That’s a fourth grader processing that,” Nelson said. “I told him, ‘Don’t worry about me. You just have fun and learn.’ But that’s how much they know what’s going on.”
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In St. Paul, 15 miles southeast of Columbia Heights, Mandi Jung teaches seventh-grade science as part of a local school’s Spanish immersion program. “My students are being directly impacted by ICE. It would be absolutely ridiculous to not talk to them about it,” Jung said.
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Attendance has dropped by 50 percent “on a good day,” she said, “and it’s just the white kids and African American students who are coming to school right now.” ICE agents have confronted some of her students on the streets, asking them for identification. They’ve had to explain, “We’re 12. We don’t have identification,” Jung said.
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Mandi Jung\n (Courtesy Mandi Jung) \n\n\n\n
Even students with United States citizenship fear deportation, she said. One girl worried her Spanish surname would make her a target. While Jung told her that citizens should not be deported, she couldn’t guarantee it wouldn’t happen. People with legal status, including citizens, have been detained and deported.
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As fear of immigration enforcement keeps undocumented people away from their jobs, the decade-long educator has paid rent for two families — one in December, one in January — after they reached out for help. “I don’t have children of my own, and I’m a social media influencer, so I have extra income. I’m happy to do it,” Jung explained.
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She understands the sacrifices families made to get to the United States, she said, asserting that she owes those families “that same level of energy and grit and determination.”
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The current political climate, however, has significantly lowered morale at her school. She’s witnessed students have emotional outbursts, break into tears, hide under their hoodies and push cafeteria food around on their plates because they’ve lost their appetites, unable to stomach the chaos in their communities.
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“What we’re seeing in middle school is really just sad because they really don’t want anyone to know that their dad is in hiding,” Jung said. “I have one little girl — both her parents were taken.”
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When asked where she finds the strength to comfort these children, Jung didn’t hesitate: “From them. There’s no teacher who gets into teaching after Columbine who isn’t ready to die for their kids,” she said. “I will put my body in between any member of the federal government and my students. Maybe it’s that feminine rage, but I have that deep down inside of me.”
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The public school district in the Boston suburb of Chelsea, Massachusetts, has lost more than 400 students — or 7 percent of its 6,100-student population — over the past year, according to Kathryn Anderson, a middle-school special education teacher and president of the local teachers union.
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“We’ve had a huge loss in enrollment from kids and families leaving the district because they’re trying to avoid enforcement,” Anderson said. “That includes families who are U.S. citizens who are just nervous about how indiscriminate immigration enforcement is now.”
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Dozens of students have had family members detained or deported, and district social workers are developing grief groups to support children grappling with loss, Anderson said.
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Kathryn Anderson\n (Courtesy Kathryn Anderson) \n\n\n\n
Immigration enforcement, she added, has been more disruptive to learning than the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“COVID was relatively straightforward,” she said. “If you were at home, you knew you were pretty safe from the virus itself. Now there’s so much uncertainty. There’s so much fear and anxiety that’s really well-founded. We’ve had kids see people being detained by ICE on their way to school. We’ve had people pulled from their cars in front of their children. It’s really been devastating.”
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Some of her middle school students are unafraid to initiate conversations about immigration enforcement, she said, while others keep their feelings to themselves or act out. She keeps her eye on the more withdrawn children, finding it overwhelming at times to ensure that no student in pain goes unnoticed.
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Anderson considers this school year to be her most difficult since she began teaching in 2012. She doesn’t know what to expect next from the federal government, but she’s concerned about revocations of Temporary Protected Status and other existing protections against deportation for immigrants. Moreover, Chelsea Public Schools is facing budget shortfalls due to declining enrollment; school districts are funded on a per-pupil basis. This could result in cuts of up to 100 staff positions, or one-eighth of the district’s workforce.
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“We need to keep giving kids hope and consistency while facing fear and uncertainty ourselves,” Anderson said. “It’s really hard.”
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The National Guard troops and Marines that Trump deployed to the Los Angeles metropolitan area last summer are gone, but ethnic studies teacher Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona said the immigration raids have not let up. Her students and their parents still fear they could be detained or deported at any moment. Many have refrained from going to school.
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Cardona’s high school, near Downtown Los Angeles, usually has a long waitlist, but when the current school year started, the waitlist evaporated. In fact, the school has lost over 200 students, causing a budget shortfall that resulted in three teacher positions being cut from the faculty.
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Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona(Courtesy Guadalupe Cardona) \n\n\n\n
When staff visited the homes of students to inquire about chronic absences, they discovered a troubling trend: parents staying home from work to avoid federal agents and their children working to support their families instead.
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“We tried to get resources to keep as many students in school as possible, but it’s a daily challenge,” Cardona said.
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She shared story after story of students whose lives have ruptured under the weight of immigration enforcement. One senior is considering leaving school to work because her mother has been detained since last year — and she has younger siblings to support. “We have been trying our very best to get her resources so that she doesn’t have to leave school because she’s got excellent grades,” Cardona said. “She contributes. She’s an athlete.”
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A family, where only the younger siblings have legal status, is struggling because they can’t make their usual outings together to the park or library. The daughter, she said, is an exceptional student who has already won admission to several film schools, though she almost decided against completing her senior year. “She was afraid to walk to the bus stop from her apartment,” Cardona said. After school personnel arranged for a bus to pick her up directly in front of her home, she continued coming to class.
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Dozens of other students have simply stopped coming to school. Some who continue to show up keep quiet about the detentions or deportations of family members because they feel ashamed, Cardona said. “Then you have friend groups where one friend’s dad may have been deported, and now the rest of the friends are worried that could happen to their dad or their mom or their brother.”
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Cardona herself fears that ICE might target her son because of his brown skin.
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Across her campus, anxiety has spread — but students and teachers have organized. Youths have staged walkouts to protest immigration enforcement, while educators like herself patrol neighborhoods to spot federal agents, informing the community if they do.
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“There’s a group of about 15 teachers, before school and definitely after school until all the bus stops are clear, we wait and we monitor to make sure kids get on the bus,” she said. “We are communicating with a cluster of schools, so all the other high schools, middle schools and elementary schools in the area, they’re doing the same thing.”
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Taking part in patrols and teaching — Cardona is also an adjunct professor at California State University, Northridge — makes self-care a struggle. She feels exhausted. The effort, she said, is “taking a toll on us and our families.”
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For Kat Zamarrón, a music teacher at an elementary school on Chicago’s North Side, the uncertainty of not knowing when ICE might target students or staff has been trying. She serves as her school’s sanctuary team lead, a volunteer role that entails preparing the building for potential immigration enforcement.
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Like the other teachers who spoke to The 19th, she’s seen students or their parents disappear at the hands of federal agents. Recently, ICE detained the parent of a student, leaving the child understandably too shaken to attend classes.
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“The family doesn’t know where the father is,” Zamarrón said. “He’s not coming up in the detention locator yet.”
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Zamarrón is always vigilant. “My phone is always close to me now because I need to know if somebody is reaching out to let me know that ICE is close by. My attention is divided. I’m on alert after school, while at home, and then on alert at school. I was burning the wick at both ends,” she said. She even wrote an emergency plan in case agents detain her as she commutes or defends her students. “It doesn’t matter that I’m a citizen and that I speak English.”
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She notices the enforcement’s impact on students in even mundane moments. During recess one day, a student inquired about a helicopter flying overhead — “Is that ICE?” the child asked. (The local police department owned the chopper.) She especially worries about the children who might be keeping their anxieties to themselves, which gets her thinking about the people without legal status who once hid in the shadows to protect themselves.
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“There was a period in this country when undocumented people never talked about status,” she said. “It wasn’t just that it didn’t come up — it was, ‘You 100 percent can’t talk about this with anybody. Make sure nobody’s asking questions.’ I think we’re getting closer to that.”
","category":"immigration","author":"Nadra Nittle","publishDate":"2026-02-26T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/teachers-ice_9.jpeg?w=681","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/teachers-students-ice-agents/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-26T12:00:07.104Z"},{"id":"370jbe","archiveId":"6569dz","slug":"seized-art-eavesdropping-guards-parents-describe-a-clampdown-at-dilley-detention-center-as-kids-shar","title":"Seized Art, Eavesdropping Guards: Parents Describe a Clampdown at Dilley Detention Center as Kids Shared Their Stories","excerpt":"The post Seized Art, Eavesdropping Guards: Parents Describe a Clampdown at Dilley Detention Center as Kids Shared Their Stories appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"
When guards appeared earlier this month outside the room Christian Hinojosa shared with her son and other women and children at the immigrant detention center in Dilley, Texas, she guessed what they might be after. She quickly donned her puffy winter jacket, then slipped a manila envelope inside it. “Thank God the weather was cool,” she said — the jacket didn’t raise suspicions.
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Then, she said, she was instructed to leave the room while eight to 10 guards lifted up mattresses, opened drawers and rifled through papers. In the envelope were kids’ writings and artwork about life in America’s only detention facility for immigrant families, a collection of trailers and dormitories in the brush country south of San Antonio. She planned to share their letters with the outside world.
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Guards have taken away crayons, colored pencils and drawing paper during recent room searches at Dilley, according to Hinojosa and three other former detainees, along with lawyers and advocates in contact with the families inside.
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Guards have taken artwork, too, they said — even one child’s drawing of Bratz fashion dolls.
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They said detainees have lost access to Gmail and other Google services in the Dilley library amid stepped up searches, seizures and restrictions on communications, making it more difficult for them to contact lawyers and advocates.
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They and family members said guards sometimes hover within earshot during detainees’ video calls to relatives and reporters.
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“We Are Kidnapped Help!” \n\n\n\n
Seven-year-old Mathias Bermeo, a detainee at Dilley wrote: “I’m writing this letter so that you can hear my story. I need you to help us I have been detained for 23 days with my mom and my 3-year-old sister. I cry a lot I want to get out of here go back to my school they don’t treat us Well here there are many children we are kidnapped help!” Obtained by ProPublica. Alien Registration Number redacted by ProPublica. \n
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The detainees and others interviewed for this story said these measures increased after the Jan. 22 arrival of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old in a blue bunny hat, sparked protests and congressional visits. They said the clampdown intensified as children and parents at Dilley wrote letters to share with the public and reporters and relatives recorded video calls with the detainees , including those published by ProPublica this month. The children’s stories, many told in their own words, fueled an outcry over the scope of the Trump administration’s deportation campaign, which the president had promised would focus on criminals.
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The detainees said the more they tried to make their voices heard, the more difficult it became.
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One mother, who asked to remain anonymous because her immigration case is still pending, told ProPublica that she and her three kids watched through a window as guards swept through their room in late January, removing drawings from the walls and placing colored pencils and crayons in plastic bags before taking them away.
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With little schooling available at Dilley and weather too chilly for kids to want to play outdoors, drawing had been the children’s main diversion, the former detainee said. “What were they going to do now?” she said. “They were so bored.”
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After the room inspection, the woman said, the children just “cried and cried and cried.”
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“I Can’t See My Pet Willi” \n\n\n\n
A detainee at Dilley wrote, “I feel bad being here! Bad because I can’t because I can’t see my pet willi and I can’t eat what I want and I can’t see my friends from school and at home.” Obtained by ProPublica \n
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CoreCivic, the private prison company that runs the Dilley facility for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a written statement that routine inspections of living facilities are a common practice and that detainees are informed of what items they are allowed to have in their rooms.
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“We vehemently deny any claims that our staff have confiscated or destroyed children’s personal artwork or their related supplies,” the statement reads, adding that there are examples of kids’ artwork “proudly displayed” throughout the facility.
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The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said in a statement that “ICE is not destroying children’s letters,” but the agency acknowledged that in one case “all the written items in the cell were seized” as part of an investigation of a mother who DHS said refused to comply with a search and pushed a detention center employee. CoreCivic referred questions to DHS when asked about this incident. ProPublica was unable to reach the mother for comment.
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This week, DHS issued press releases that it said were “correcting the record” about Dilley, saying “adults with children are housed in facilities that provide for their safety, security, and medical needs.” DHS’ and CoreCivic’s statements to ProPublica did not answer questions about Google services being blocked or whether guards listen in on Dilley detainees’ calls.
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U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, visited Dilley after Liam and his father, both originally from Ecuador, were picked up in Minnesota and transferred in January. He went again last week and was asked at a Friday news conference about reports of children’s letters and drawings being suppressed.
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“I believe those stories, because I’ve heard similar stories myself,” Castro said.
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He said he’d been told repeatedly that guards had warned detainees not to talk to him. “Yes, I think there’s a lot of secrecy there,” Castro said.
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DHS did not respond when asked to comment on Castro’s assertion about the guards. A CoreCivic spokesperson said, “We are not aware of any staff member warning residents not to speak with Rep. Castro.”
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“I Feel Bored Here” \n\n\n\n
Justin Lopez created what appears to be a floorplan of a room inside Dilley, with labels for windows, couch, television and phone. Obtained by ProPublica \n
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The Dilley Immigration Processing Center first opened during the Obama administration primarily to hold families that had just crossed the border. Then Biden ended the practice of detaining families in 2021. President Donald Trump restarted it even as border crossings in his second term hit record lows. Now ICE is ramping up immigration arrests inside the country, and Dilley holds many families who have been living in the United States for years.
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The families spend their days behind a metal fence, sleeping in rooms that hold six bunk beds and a common area with a few small tables and desks. More than 3,500 people have cycled through the detention center since the Trump administration began sending families here last spring.
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Hear Christian Hinojosa in Her Own Words: “It’s Not Only About Me. It’s About My Kid.” \n\n\n\nChristian Hinojosa and her son Gustavo speak with ProPublica reporter Mica Rosenberg from inside Dilley on Feb. 2. Mica Rosenberg/ProPublica \n\n\n\n
A ProPublica reporter who had been speaking with families at Dilley since late last year went to the center for an in-person visit in mid-January and asked families whether their children would want to write about their experiences. On Jan. 22, we received a packet of colorful drawings and handwritten letters from a detainee who had been recently released, which we later published.
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Then on Jan. 24, dozens of detainees staged a mass protest in the yard, which was photographed from above, where they yelled “libertad” and held up hand-drawn signs. The signs were made using the detention center’s art supplies, former detainees said.
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That protest and Liam’s detention triggered widespread media coverage and a visit by Castro, who arrived on Jan 28. Supporters gathered outside Dilley, and some clashed with state troopers. At the beginning of February, Liam and his father were released, and ProPublica published the letters it had received. By that time, it had become clear to detainees that their voices — especially children’s voices — had gotten broad public attention.
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They kept writing.
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“We were looking for help,” said Hinojosa, who collected letters at ProPublica’s request. “We were looking to be heard.”
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Hinojosa, along with her 13-year-old son, Gustavo, both originally from Mexico, were released in early February after four months at Dilley to return home to San Antonio. (Although a 1990s legal settlement holds that children should generally not be detained for more than 20 days, DHS has said the settlement should be terminated because newer regulations have addressed the needs of child detainees.)
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“My parents say it’s been 4 months but for me and my little sister,” a 9-year-old wrote in one of the letters Hinojosa gathered. “It feels like a year I just want to go to the United States to be with my grandparents and finally end this nightmare.”
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“I’m writing this letter so that you can hear my story,” a 7-year-old wrote in another of the letters. “I need you to help us … I cry a lot. I want to get out of here go back to my school.”
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“I see how they treat us like criminals,” wrote Edison, a seventh grader from Chicago who was born in Guatemala, “and we’re not.”
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“We Are Not Criminals” \n\n\n\n
While detained at Dilley, 7-year old Diana wrote: “I lived in oregon We were detained in a hospital parking lot I feel bad because I miss my stuffed animals I don’t want to be here and I miss my friends and also miss my teacher and my house and my bed. we are not criminals I’m a very pretty girl.” Obtained by ProPublica. Alien Registration Number redacted by ProPublica. \n
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CoreCivic said that Dilley residents are given a written description of property they’re allowed to have in their living areas, and that decorating rooms with personal items is permitted “provided they do not present a health or safety hazard.”
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Former detainees told ProPublica they experienced room searches before January but that they typically were carried out by just two employees at a time, not eight or more.
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After guards searched Hinojosa’s room following the protest, she said, she and the other residents were unable to locate their colored pencils, which were purchased at the commissary and stored in a little cup atop the writing table where the kids liked to doodle. “Even knowing that we had paid for those ourselves,” she said, “they removed them.”
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“There were many, many families whose children had their pencils and paper thrown away,” said a third mother, who also asked to remain anonymous because of her immigration status.
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“I Just Want to … Finally End This Nightmare” \n\n\n\n
Nine-year-old Valentina wrote: “I have been detained for a long time. My parents say it’s been 4 months but for me and my little sister Jireth it feels like a year I just want to go to the United States to be with my grandparents and finally end this nightmare that my family has had to live through, I feel like I’ve had the worst days of my life I want God to help us get out of here so we can be happy again and study together as a family. Please help us and our parents get out of here thank you.” Obtained by ProPublica. Alien Registration Number redacted by ProPublica. \n
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Former detainees and their family members described close attention by guards during calls home, some of which happened via tablet computers in a common area.
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Edison, the 13-year-old Chicago seventh grader, cried during a recent video call home that his father shared with ProPublica, saying he felt locked up.
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Seventh Grader Edison Shares His Struggles in Dilley with His Father \n\n\n\nObtained by ProPublica \n\n\n\n
The father, who asked that his son’s last name not be used, recalled the boy saying before the recording began, “Dad, there’s an agent here and he’s watching us.” He said his son sounded panicked.
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The mother who said she watched guards sweep her room told ProPublica that after the January protest inside Dilley, a half-dozen guards were posted in a room where calls took place. “Every time someone came in to make a call,” she said, “they practically stood behind you.”
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As families held at Dilley continue to try to make themselves heard, Hinojosa and other recently released detainees are determined to help.
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Hinojosa carefully protected her fellow residents’ letters and drawings before her release. Every time she left her room, she wore the CoreCivic-issued puffy gray jacket and tucked the drawings and letters inside.
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“I carried them around with me all day to prevent anyone from taking them,” she told ProPublica. “I knew they were valuable.”
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Many of the pieces she carried were different from the vibrant paper drawings ProPublica received in January. With paper in short supply, Hinojosa said, children drew pictures on the backs of old artworks. With crayons and colored pencils now scarce, some drew in plain pencil.
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Hinojosa walked out of Dilley earlier this month with her son Gustavo and with 34 pages of drawings and letters. They capture the names and lives of dozens of people.
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Along with long notes from moms who remain inside are simple sketches by the kids detained with them: a teddy bear. A bus going home. A pet cat named Willi. A family of three stick figures trapped behind a wire fence. A family of six stick figures trapped behind a wire fence. A single small stick figure trapped behind a wire fence. Many of the drawings show faces, and most of the faces are frowning.
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“I Want to Leave” \n\n\n\n
A handwritten drawing from detained child Elian Ysai Brenes Chávez says, “I want to leave.” Obtained by ProPublica. Alien Registration Number redacted by ProPublica. \n
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The post Seized Art, Eavesdropping Guards: Parents Describe a Clampdown at Dilley Detention Center as Kids Shared Their Stories appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"resilience","author":"McKenzie Funk","publishDate":"2026-02-26T10:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/letters-Mathias-tinted-redacted_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=752","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/dilley-detention-center-kids-art-removal","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-26T12:00:07.209Z"},{"id":"kb3rbo","archiveId":"76fo71","slug":"afghanistan-accountability-needed-for-gender-persecution-other-grave-crimes","title":"Afghanistan: Accountability Needed for Gender Persecution, Other Grave Crimes","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2025. © 2025 Lian Yi/Xinhua via Getty Images
Mr. President,
We thank the Special Rapporteur for his comprehensive report on the Taliban’s systematic violation of women’s rights, including the right to health.","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2025. \n © 2025 Lian Yi/Xinhua via Getty Images\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Mr. President,</p><p>We thank the Special Rapporteur for his comprehensive report on the Taliban’s systematic violation of women’s rights, including the right to health.</p><p>The Taliban have recently passed a new criminal procedure code that further deepens repression and discrimination in Afghanistan. The new law defines Muslims exclusively as adherents of the Hanafi jurisprudence and labels other religious groups, including Shia, as heretics. It prescribes strict punishments to silence dissent and recognizes only “excessive” beating as domestic violence against women, leaving survivors of other forms of abuse with no protection or pathways to justice.</p><p>We urge UN member states to listen to the women and girls of Afghanistan, center their voices, and do more to protect their rights and advance accountability for gender persecution. </p><p>The new mechanism that this Council created last October will be a key tool in holding perpetrators of grave abuses to account. Member states and the UN leadership should urgently operationalize it and ensure it has the necessary resources to fulfill its mandate. </p><p>In addition, states should recognize gender apartheid as a crime against humanity, support and protect ICC efforts to prosecute those responsible for gender persecution and other grave international crimes in Afghanistan, support the initiative to hold the Taliban accountable for CEDAW violations at the ICJ, and pursue criminal cases through universal jurisdiction.</p><p>Thank you.</p>","category":"safety","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-02-26T10:02:16.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2025/10/202510un_switzerland_flags.jpg?h=1d1d9559&itok=K0R_Wsr3","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/26/afghanistan-accountability-needed-for-gender-persecution-other-grave-crimes","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-26T12:00:07.833Z"},{"id":"y12y4u","archiveId":"tx8pbm","slug":"texas-uses-new-abortion-ban-with-bounty-hunter-provision-to-target-california-doctor","title":"Texas Uses New Abortion Ban With Bounty Hunter Provision to Target California Doctor","excerpt":"Texas antiabortion politicians have made one thing clear: Their ban was never meant to stop at the Texas border. On Feb. 1, 2026, Dr. Remy Coeytaux of California became the first person to be sued in federal court under Texas' newly enacted House Bill 7, a bounty-hunter law that invites private citi...","content":"
Texas antiabortion politicians have made one thing clear: Their ban was never meant to stop at the Texas border.
\n
On Feb. 1, 2026, Dr. Remy Coeytaux of California became the first person to be sued in federal court under Texas' newly enacted House Bill 7, a bounty-hunter law that invites private citizens to file civil suits against anyone who manufactures, distributes, mails or provides abortion medication to women in Texas.
\n
HB 7 “is the first law that a state has passed that has specifically tried to counteract another state’s shield laws,” said Marc Hearon, senior counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, who is defending Coeytaux.
\n
The post Texas Uses New Abortion Ban With Bounty Hunter Provision to Target California Doctor appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Teresa Cisneros Burton","publishDate":"2026-02-25T22:35:28.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-513454394.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/25/texas-abortion-pills-ban-bounty-hunter-california-doctor-remy-coeytaux/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-26T00:00:01.185Z"},{"id":"hulyr6","archiveId":"316c1c","slug":"how-rocking-fun-patterns-is-helping-me-beat-seasonal-blues","title":"How Rocking Fun Patterns Is Helping Me Beat Seasonal Blues","excerpt":"ESSENCE Senior Beauty & Style Editor Akili King believes ‘glow’ is more than skin deep. In The Ritual Report, she shares personal healing practices—from acupuncture for skin and grounding benefits […] The post How Rocking Fun Patterns Is Helping Me Beat Seasonal Blues appeared first on Essence .","content":"
Photos by MECCA PRYOR. Composite by India Espy-Jones.
By
Akili King ·
Updated February 25, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
ESSENCE Senior Beauty & Style Editor Akili King believes ‘glow’ is more than skin deep. In The Ritual Report, she shares personal healing practices—from acupuncture for skin and grounding benefits to ‘dopamine dressing’—designed to inspire readers to find creative ways to soothe their nervous systems and reclaim their magic from the inside out.
I’ve always had eczema , but I never recall it being this bad. I remember as a child having flare-ups here and there, but they typically went away with a little extra moisture and patience. These days? The winter has my skin absorbing zero hydration, while the itching and red patches persist without holding up.
KODAK Digital Still Camera
Meanwhile, I’m sure my unusual stress levels (thanks to both personal reasonings and the state of the world) don’t help, either. It’s felt like a vicious cycle, to say the least, and I do feel like I’ve tried it all. Think: prescriptions, both topical and oral, changing up my diet and gut health, acupuncture, natural remedies, and more. Everything feels like temporary relief to get by. I do have faith it will clear up during the warmer seasons, given that every time I have left NYC this winter to a warmer location, it has mostly gone away.
But, until then, I am left with figuring it out. Some days that means waking up with unexpected patches or scratches from the night before, or other days it being more clear. All that to say, the unpredictability of it all is taking a toll.
KODAK Digital Still Camera
Not to mention, I don’t really feel like doing my makeup, as I do not want to further irritate my skin. And my hands are feeling raw, so some days, slicking my hair back in a bun is the best bet. Additionally, having my lashes done at my favorite Black-owned beauty spot, Blackshere Beauty , has been a great solve to not having to reapply mascara every day.
And, now, my latest form of relief is not even beauty related at all. I’ve found that dressing up in bold patterns has helped me have fun with getting ready again. Not only did I notice fun textures and patterns trending during both New York Fashion Week and
Instead of worrying about doing too much to my face, body, or glam, I can dress up in funky sets or an animal printed boot to express my inner world. Something important to me, especially in an industry where I’m constantly on the go—and our >The Lulo Project, a Black-owned brand, that I pulled via RK Communications for fashion week. The accompanying red boots, from LUCASHEVA , with this knock-out heel, that Idecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/Facetune_25-02-2026-17-21-15-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"How Rocking Fun Patterns Is Helping Me Beat Seasonal Blues\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" />
So, if you’re feeling anything remotely close to what I feel, or simply want to spruce up your winterdecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/1467DB87-3847-4082-A78E-D23DFEBCFF60_1_201_a-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"How Rocking Fun Patterns Is Helping Me Beat Seasonal Blues\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" />KODAK Digital Still CameraTOPICS: eczema self-care
The post How Rocking Fun Patterns Is Helping Me Beat Seasonal Blues appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-02-25T22:27:58.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/Akili-1200x900.png","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/how-rocking-fun-patterns-helping-my-seasonal-blues/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-26T00:00:04.968Z"},{"id":"5sz786","archiveId":"26dtka","slug":"stylish-snow-boots-for-every-budget","title":"Stylish Snow Boots For Every Budget","excerpt":"The snow is here, yet the girls still have places to go. After our second storm of the season, we’re all hoping it was the last, but with flurries back […] The post Stylish Snow Boots For Every Budget appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated February 25, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
The snow is here, yet the girls still have places to go. After our second storm of the season , we’re all hoping it was the last, but with flurries back in next week’s forecast, winter clearly isn’t finished with us just yet.
While snow boots aren’t usually my go-to when planning an outfit, a chic new pair has completely changed my perspective. Their oversized silhouette looks just as good with baggy pants as it does with fitted leggings, making the wintry look totally worth it. Morning meetings, dinner plans, or weekend getaways, icy sidewalks, and freezing temps won’t slow life down.
Luckily, neither doeshref=\"https://www.ugg.com/women-sale-boots/metropeak/1161890.html?dwvar_1161890_color=BLK&utm_source=google&utm_medium=pla&cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=17573506022&cq_con=&cq_term=&cq_med=pla&cq_plac=&cq_net=x&cq_pos=&cq_plt=gp&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17565736771&gbraid=0AAAAADRQoPCNpmvCxUfW1ZL8iUnwCaigf&gclid=CjwKCAiA2PrMBhA4EiwAwpHyC84sNZb47iwPoOTV-Ac43KvxcNs9NCifCLkMHrRHpeCpjWe81hlTNxoC7DQQAvD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\"> Ugg 195 Shop Now 02 02 Moon Boot Icon Nylon Boots Moonboot 175 Shop Now 03 03 Mou Eskimo 18 Bounce Mou Online 315 Shop Now 04 04 Chloé Betty PVC Short Rain Boots Saks 695 Shop Now 05 05 Isabel Marant Nowles Shearling Snow Boot Revolve 890 Shop Now 06 06 Moncler Trailgrip Après High Boots 980 Shop Now TOPICS: winter fashion
The post Stylish Snow Boots For Every Budget appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-02-25T20:00:13.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/stylish-snow-boots-winter-for-every-budget/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-26T00:00:04.968Z"},{"id":"likyf4","archiveId":"8rt3k0","slug":"robert-cosby-jr-son-of-rhoslcs-mary-cosby-dies-at-23","title":"Robert Cosby Jr., Son Of RHOSLC’s Mary Cosby, Dies At 23","excerpt":"Robert Cosby Jr., the 23‑year‑old son of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City cast member Mary Cosby, has died following a reported medical emergency, TMZ first reported Wednesday. The cause […] The post Robert Cosby Jr., Son Of RHOSLC’s Mary Cosby, Dies At 23 appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Shelby Stewart ·
Updated February 25, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Robert Cosby Jr., the 23‑year‑old son of
Salt Lake City police said officers were called Monday night for a “full arrest/medical emergency” involving a 23‑year‑old man. Fire crews and paramedics were also dispatched to the scene.
The tragic news comes months after his wife, Alexiana Smokoff , filed for divorce. Robert and Alexiana married in 2022 in a Utah courthouse — a union that later became a recurring storyline on RHOSLC.
Robert’s struggles with substance use and mental health were documented publicly both on and off the show. In RHOSLC Season 5, he spoke candidly with his mother about longstanding addiction issues, including dependence on prescription medications like Xanax and oxycodone, as well as other substances, which he said dated back to his teenage years.
In 2024, Robert entered rehab after testing positive for cocaine, fentanyl and marijuana, a move his mother said was a hopeful step in his sobriety journey; she shared that he completed a month‑long program and “came out a new person.”
Despite those efforts, he continued to face legal and personal challenges. Over the past few years, Robert had multiple run‑ins with the law, including a DUI arrest in 2022 — for which he pleaded guilty — and more recent arrests on charges including trespassing and assault in 2025.
Family and friends are now mourning the loss of a young life cut tragically short. Robert was only 23.
Note to readers: This is a developing story. Updates will be added as more information becomes available.
The post Robert Cosby Jr., Son Of RHOSLC’s Mary Cosby, Dies At 23 appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Shelby Stewart","publishDate":"2026-02-25T19:21:24.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/robert-cosby-jr-son-of-rhoslc-mary-cosby-dead/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-26T00:00:04.968Z"},{"id":"mehn7d","archiveId":"efpx1m","slug":"is-ai-making-us-want-impossibly-perfect-teeth","title":"Is AI Making Us Want Impossibly Perfect Teeth?","excerpt":"More young women are seeing this expensive dental procedure online and rushing to pursue it themselves. But at what cost?","content":"","category":"breakthroughs","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-02-25T19:02:46.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/699e02a9150000b07b01990f.jpeg?ops=500_281%2Cscalefit_1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/veneers-crowns-social-media-trend_n_699cc35ee4b074e2825b6cab","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-26T12:00:07.515Z"},{"id":"urjtcr","archiveId":"qxsqpn","slug":"damson-idris-is-formula-18217s-new-global-brand-ambassador","title":"Damson Idris Is Formula 1’s New Global Brand Ambassador","excerpt":"Damson Idris is on a generational run right now. The British actor has spent the last few years collecting career highs like infinity stones, and his latest is one nobody […] The post Damson Idris Is Formula 1’s New Global Brand Ambassador appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Kimberly Wilson ·
Updated February 25, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Damson Idris is on a generational run right now.
The British actor has spent the last few years collecting career highs like infinity stones, and his latest is one nobody (or maybe, everybody) saw coming: he is now an official Global Brand Ambassador for Formula 1 .
“I’ve always been drawn to spaces where culture, performance, and precision meet, and Formula 1 sits right at the centre of that,” Idris said in a statement.
The announcement follows the blockbuster success of F1: The Movie, the Brad Pitt film Idris co-starred in that became the highest-grossing sports movie ever made , clearing $630 million at the box office. But what separated this project from a typical Hollywood cash grab was how seriously everyone involved took the real thing. The film was shot at real Grand Prix weekends, so they got to see the world inside of actual paddocks, alongside the teams and drivers who do this for a living. Idris trained for the role of Joshua Pearce, a young driver fighting for his shot, and kept showing up long after the cameras stopped rolling. And luckily for him, Formula 1 noticed.
“I had an enormous amount of respect for it before making the film, but getting closer to it gave me a real understanding of the innovation, the heart, and the intensity behind everything, and the elite level the drivers operate at,” he continued. “I’m genuinely excited to step into this role as a Global Ambassador. Being part of this world now means a lot to me, and I’m proud to represent something that inspires and connects people all over the world.”
As Global Brand Ambassador, Idris will attend Grands Prix, collaborate on content, and help bring new audiences into a sport actively working to expand its reach. More than 827 million people follow F1 globally, with nearly half under 35 and 42 percent women. Idris, whose appeal cuts across generation and culture, fits exactly into what F1 is chasing right now.
“In Formula 1, we are all about authenticity and Damson is passionate about the sport and shares our vision to grow it, so it’s fantastic that we’ll continue to work with him,” said Stefano Domenicali, President and CEO of Formula 1. “With his incredible platform and position in the entertainment and lifestyle space, together we will push the boundaries of how we reach fans.”
While it’s a step in the right direction, let’s be honest about what sport we’re talking about. Formula 1 has had one Black driver in its entire history (shoutout to our forever fave, Lewis Hamilton). Seeing Damson Idris become a global face of the sport is not a solution to that, but it is not nothing either. It says something about where F1 is trying to go, and more importantly, who it’s only now starting to see.
The post Damson Idris Is Formula 1’s New Global Brand Ambassador appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-02-25T18:33:58.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/sports/damson-idris-formula-1-ambassador/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-26T00:00:04.968Z"},{"id":"6iq4dv","archiveId":"dn3lg5","slug":"anti-abortion-coalition-decries-ice-detention-practices-unborn-children-are-dying","title":"Anti-abortion coalition decries ICE detention practices: ‘Unborn children are dying’","excerpt":"As the U.S. embarks on a massive expansion of the country’s immigrant detention capacity, a coalition of organizations opposing abortion are calling on President Donald Trump to stop detaining pregnant, postpartum, and nursing immigrant women.","content":"
As the U.S. embarks on a massive expansion of the country’s immigrant detention capacity, a coalition of organizations opposing abortion are calling on President Donald Trump to stop detaining pregnant, postpartum, and nursing immigrant women.
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Rehumanize International, which opposes abortion, the death penalty, war, and other forms of “aggressive violence,” spearheaded an open letter to Trump , Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Todd Lyons. Dozens of signatories—including representatives of Secular Pro-Life, Live Action, Anglicans for Life, and some state-level affiliates of the National Right to Life Committee—urged the Trump administration to immediately resume enforcing federal policy against holding pregnant and postpartum women in ICE detention.
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ICE has started acquiring warehouses across the country in a reported $38 billion effort to expand its detention capacity. Existing federal policy dating to 2021 states ICE should not detain women known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing except in “very limited circumstances.” However, ICE appears to be ignoring the policy .
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On Tuesday evening, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) said a woman had been deported along with her sick 2-month-old infant, her 16-month-old toddler, and the children’s father. The family had been held at the ICE family detention center in Dilley, Texas, in Castro’s congressional district. The Dilley facility came under scrutiny when 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were sent there in late January.
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It’s unclear how many pregnant, postpartum, or nursing people are in detention, The 19th reported , as Congress no longer requires ICE to disclose that data. But news outlets have reported ICE detained numerous pregnant women and teens, including more than a dozen pregnant teenagers sent to a single facility in Texas with inadequate medical care.
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The American Civil Liberties Union in October documented “miscarriages, denial of prenatal care, and inadequate food and medical attention.” While immigration detention is “known for medical neglect, abusive conditions, and utter disregard” for human dignity, “what we heard from the pregnant women we interviewed are some of the most horrifying stories I’ve heard about detention,” ACLU attorney Eunice Cho said in an October press release.
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Citing the ACLU’s work, the open letter from Rehumanize and other signatories stated that “unborn children are dying because of this policy.”
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“These outcomes are not anomalies. They are the result of placing pregnant women in systems designed for incarceration, not medical care,” the letter states.
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Rehumanize developed the letter after brainstorming how to respond effectively as ICE ramped up operations in Minneapolis, targeting legal immigrants as well as those without legal status or whose status was pending.
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The organization advocates for a “consistent life ethic” on several issues and demands “nonviolence towards all human beings, in all times, and in all places.” But executive director Lauren Pope explained that “the area where we have the most influence … on the current administration, is through our anti-abortion, pro-life work.”
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“Let’s see if the pro-life movement can come together on this,” she recalled thinking.
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Pope worked with leaders at Secular Pro-Life, which opposes abortion on non-religious grounds, to write the open letter. Herb Geraghty, chief communications officer for Secular Pro-Life and a formerly imprisoned activist, said the letter focuses on “an issue that is beyond politics, and it’s beyond faith breakdowns. It’s something that anyone who is concerned about the dignity of women and children should be able to get on board for.”
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Geraghty spent about a year and a half in federal prison following his arrest during a 2020 sit-in at an abortion clinic. A year ago, Trump pardoned him and other protesters who had been convicted under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinics Act. Geraghty had tried to reject the pardon for fear it would affect his appeal of conviction. He said his time in prison had a “profound impact.”
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“There needs to be serious reform for how we care for the people that are under our duty of care, as taxpayers, as citizens of this country,” Geraghty said. “But in particular when it comes to pregnant women, there is a second party—the unborn child.
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“Regardless of how you feel about crime, or immigration … at least this child shouldn’t be subject to these adverse conditions.”
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Rehumanize sought signatures from other organizations they had worked with before, as well as any other anti-abortion organizations they had contact information for. As organizations signed on, Geraghty said he was heartened by their ideological diversity—“state Right to Life chapters, Live Action, these organizations that tend to be conservative, right wing, saying we care about this, too.”
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Pope noted that releasing pregnant and postpartum women has “very wide support even within the conservative population. People aren’t comfortable with pregnant women being put into ICE detention.”
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Rev. Georgette Forney, president of Anglicans for Life and a signatory to the letter, said, “It frankly seemed like a no-brainer.”
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Forney, an ordained deacon licensed with the conservative Anglican Church in North America, has helmed Anglicans for Life for 28 years. The parachurch organization opposes abortion, assisted suicide, and euthanasia, among other advocacy issues.
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“Protecting women is my beat, helping babies, honoring life,” Forney said. “That’s what we do here.”
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Forney said open letters are “pretty common” among organizations that oppose abortion. She added the Trump administration is “much more responsive to these kinds of letters.” While Forney doesn’t expect a direct reply from the administration, she believes “what we’ll probably see is some investigation, looking at it, and they’ll reinstate or reinforce the ’21 guidelines.”
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Elizabeth Edmonds of Georgia Life Alliance, a state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee, also signed on to the letter. She had already been in talks with other organizations about how to respond to ICE mistreatment of pregnant women. She pointed to a report published by The Guardian detailing how pregnant women feared repercussions from ICE if medical professionals cut off their tracking devices in the course of emergency treatment. ICE reportedly has no policy allowing medical professionals to remove the device—only ICE or an authorized agent of the device’s manufacturer can take it off.
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“That’s way too far,” Edmonds said. “There’s got to be some sort of way that the officer that’s overseeing that woman’s particular case can be notified, hey, we cut this off because of medical necessity.”
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Georgia Life Alliance had lobbied the federal government a few years ago to investigate the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Ga., an immigrant detention facility where detainees reported unwanted hysterectomies and other medical abuses. The federal government closed the facility in 2021, but reportedly reopened it last fall . Edmonds said the organization had also supported a ban on shackling pregnant detainees.
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Edmonds added she believes the National Right to Life Committee is “paying attention to any response from the Trump administration” to the issues raised in the open letter.
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The national organization hasn’t signed on to the letter, and Texas Right to Life, the NRLC’s Texas affiliate, has not signed on either. Neither organization responded to a Sojourners request for an interview, and it’s unclear whether they were aware of the letter before its release.
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Pope, of Rehumanize, said generally that organizations which declined the invitation to sign on did so because they don’t sign coalition letters as a rule, or have policies against political statements of any sort. None who responded had any issue with the language of the letter, she said.
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“We, obviously, would like to see much further reform of the ICE detention process, what’s happening right now, but also the pro-life movement is very familiar with trying to make incremental changes where you can,” Pope added. “It is a complicated movement with a lot of moving parts, where you are doing a lot of one step forward, two steps back.
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“You get the wins where you can, and I feel like this is an area where we have a good chance of getting a win.”
","category":"activism","author":"Shyla Nott","publishDate":"2026-02-25T18:27:01.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/prolife-ICE.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/pro-life-coalition-ice-detention-practices/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-26T00:00:01.634Z"},{"id":"4x0l2z","archiveId":"wqwb39","slug":"keeping-score-voters-disapprove-of-kristi-noem-and-ice-winter-olympics-nears-gender-parity-challenge","title":"Keeping Score: Voters Disapprove of Kristi Noem and ICE; Winter Olympics Nears Gender Parity; Challenges to State Abortion Bans Continue","excerpt":"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.","content":"
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.
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This week:
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… and more.
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The post Keeping Score: Voters Disapprove of Kristi Noem and ICE; Winter Olympics Nears Gender Parity; Challenges to State Abortion Bans Continue appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Katie Fleischer","publishDate":"2026-02-25T18:24:27.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2258146059.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/25/keeping-score-voters-disapprove-of-kristi-noem-ice-winter-olympics-gender-parity-women-state-abortion-bans/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-26T00:00:01.185Z"},{"id":"uolh1l","archiveId":"q7h3l3","slug":"black-journalists-don-lemon-038-georgia-fort-face-federal-charges-amid-press-freedom-battle","title":"Black Journalists, Don Lemon & Georgia Fort Face Federal Charges Amid Press Freedom Battle","excerpt":"Black members of the press have educated the public about the injustices and oppression in America since the establishment of the first Black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, in 1827. Now, two-centuries […] The post Black Journalists, Don Lemon & Georgia Fort Face Federal Charges Amid Press Freedom Bat...","content":"
(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
By
Tevon Blair ·
Updated February 25, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Black members of the press have educated the public about the injustices and oppression in America since the establishment of the first Black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, in 1827. Now, two-centuries later, independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort face federal charges after their coverage of an anti-immigration enforcement protest, adding to the long history of Black journalists and the rights that exist under the First Amendment of the Constitution.
“This isn’t just about me, this is about all journalists, especially in the United States,” said Lemon during a press conference outside of a Los Angeles courthouse. “For more than 30 years, I’ve been a journalist, and the power and protection of the First Amendment has been the underpinning of my work. The First Amendment, freedom of the press, is the bedrock of our democracy.”
Last week, Lemon pleaded not guilty to all charges related to his coverage of protests against the Trump Administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in Minnesota. The former CNN news anchor, Fort and seven others are all listed in the federal indictment under two counts for allegedly conspiring against the rights of religious freedom at a place of worship and injuring, intimidating and interfering with the exercise of the right of religious freedom at a place of worship. Temple University student Jerome Richardson was also arrested for assisting Lemon and among the names listed in the indictment.
Several national journalists associations have voiced their outrage and concern of reporters’ First Amendment rights. In a statement , the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) said, “A government that responds to scrutiny by targeting the messenger is not protecting the public, it is attempting to intimidate it, and considering recent incidents regarding federal agents, it is attempting to distract it.” This comes after the federal government’s recent 10-week-long occupation in Minnesota resulted in ICE agents shooting and killing two Minneapolis residents, Renee Good and Alexi Pretti, and thousands of arrests.
NABJ continued, “The selective targeting of journalists— especially, Black and LGBTQIA journalists— raises urgent concerns about unequal enforcement and retaliatory policing of the press.”
For generations, Black journalists from outlets like the Freedom’s Journal, The North Star, The Crisis, Chicago Defender, Ebony, Jet, ESSENCE and many others have collectively added a new voice to documenting the struggles, achievements and experiences of Black people across the country. From the anti-slavery movement, Jim Crow, the Civil Right Movement and decades of resistance and empowerment, these outlets have provided a platform to fight oppression through truth and education in reporting.
“The Black press has always been a vital source of information for Black readers whose stories were often ignored by mainstream media,” said Phil Lewis, president of the Washington Association of Black Journalists (WABJ).
While today’s Black journalists are focused on a diverse range of issues and the current political decisions being made on all levels of government, the first few decades of Black journalists’ reporting focused on America’s long history of slavery, racism and segregation. Abolitionist Fredrick Douglass, founded the antislavery newspaper, The North Star in 1847.
In the late 1890s, Ida B. Wells , a reporter and anti-lynching activists, became a pivotal voice in reporting on injustice, oppression and racism in the South. She is largely recognized for her investigative reporting on lynchings, using her research to argue the reasoning behind these inhumane acts. She published her research in The Memphis Free Press and Headlight and independently through her own publications, ‘Southern Horrors’ and ‘A Red Record.’
Black journalists in the 20th century used the foundation built in the 1800s to further expand their perspectives in reporting, gaining access to newsrooms and roles that historically excluded their voices. Both Alice Dunnigan and Ethel Payne became pioneers for Black journalists in white-only roles, with Dunnigan becoming the first African American woman to be a White House correspondent in 1947 and Payne holding the same distinct honor in her role as a major news network commentator after being hired by CBS in 1972.
Although progress was made for the field, many Black journalists today are impacted by massive layoffs , budget cuts and media organizations dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives amid the Trump administration’s orders .
“Traditional newsrooms have taken advantage of Black journalists for decades,” Lewis tells ESSENCE. “Black journalists have never had the luxury of simply being ‘journalists.’ We are often advocates for diversity in coverage, mentors for Black and other journalists of color, recruiters for our newsrooms and more. And after all of that, Black journalists are the first out of the door when layoffs take place.”
In the wake of these decisions, Black journalists have resulted in independent coverage and using social media as a tool to continue using their voices to report news. After years of Joy Reid, the former MSNBC host, calling out injustice in America and being a constant target of President Donald Trump, her show was canceled and she was removed from her position. Reid now reports independently, using social media as a platform to engage with audiences.
Lewis says “social media has provided journalists like me the opportunity to continue that tradition of telling Black stories and informing our community without having to worry about non-Black editors who don’t understand.” Lewis is currently leading one of the largest chapters within NABJ.
“Community and advocacy are at the heart of what we do in WABJ, and we want Black journalists in the DMV area to know we support them,” said Lewis. “But it’s going to take more than strongly worded letters to combat the multi-pronged attack on journalism and the First Amendment we’re facing at this moment. WABJ is always thinking of ways to keep its members protected and supported.”
Earlier this month, Onyx Impact , a nonpartisan, nonprofit research, education, and digital innovation hub dedicated to empowering Black communities and exposing and countering the information threats that undermine Black progress, announced a $500,000 investment in Black media.
“At this moment, Black media, Black history and Black data are under attack,” said Esosa Osa, founder and CEO of Onyx Impact. “The Invest in Black Media campaign is Onyx’s way of putting real money behind that truth. Throughout our history, Black media has held the line in the face of anti-democratic forces, while others fall in line and appease propaganda. There is no healthy democracy in this country without strong, independent Black media.”
NABJ, the National Newspaper Publishers Association, National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and Archiving the Black Web are among the organizations benefiting from this investment. Each organization will receive between $75,000 to $100,000 to expand opportunities for independent Black journalists. $150,000 of the fund will be directed to Onyx’s Information Integrity Lab, established to invest in Black digital creators and their relationships with Black newspapers to help increase reach and deliver accurate, fact-checked information to the public.
“The Black Press has always held the line on trust and standing firm in the face of threats to our democracy. For 200 years, we have been on the frontlines of American history, documenting Black stories,” said Dr. Benjamin Chavis, president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). “We are grateful to Onyx Impact for their continued partnership, helping NNPA members to modernize in the era of digital media and disinformation. This critical investment will help extend our work and will enable us to continue holding the line in the face of ongoing threats to truth and democracy.”
Onyx Impact’s 2026 investment is a clear call to action for funders and institutions to commit long-term investments to support Black media.
“America is worse off without Black journalists to tell the full story of this country,” said Lewis. “Without sustainable revenue, more Black papers — like the Skanner in Oregon or the Richmond Free Press — will be forced to close and more Black journalists will have to leave the profession.”
The post Black Journalists, Don Lemon & Georgia Fort Face Federal Charges Amid Press Freedom Battle appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Shelby Stewart","publishDate":"2026-02-25T16:37:36.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2260978525-Cropped-1920x1080.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/articles/black-journalists-don-lemon-georgia-fort-press-freedom/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T18:00:16.244Z"},{"id":"x0gvwy","archiveId":"8r5wq4","slug":"at-the-state-of-the-union-trumps-claims-betray-americans-reality","title":"At the State of the Union, Trump’s Claims Betray Americans’ Reality","excerpt":"In his State of the Union address, President Trump opened by boasting about a roaring economy, falling inflation and a richer and stronger nation. But those claims ring hollow for many Americans who feel economic security slipping further out of reach, a reality made worse by the policies he and his...","content":"
In his State of the Union address, President Trump opened by boasting about a roaring economy, falling inflation and a richer and stronger nation. But those claims ring hollow for many Americans who feel economic security slipping further out of reach, a reality made worse by the policies he and his Republican Congress have championed.
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In Tucson, Ariz., Angelica Garcia begins most mornings waiting for her Lyft app to ping. She’s a driver raising three children in a two-bedroom apartment that costs $1,400 a month. Her summer electric bills hover around $300. At the grocery store, it costs her over $100 just to cover basic essentials. Angelica and her children rely on Medicaid and SNAP. Medicaid covered her daughter’s broken arm and her son’s tonsil surgery. “It’s been a blessing. A godsend,” she says.
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But her representative in Congress, Juan Ciscomani (R), voted to cut Medicaid and SNAP and to impose new work requirements.
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Meanwhile, in Iowa, a retired woman named Jill is enrolled in a Marketplace healthcare plan that once cost her $75 a month thanks to enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. But when Republicans voted against extending those subsidies, her premium jumped to nearly $800 a month.
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Her representative in Congress, Marianette Miller-Meeks (R), voted to let those subsidies expire.
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In Eau Claire, Wis., Erin Klaus has spent 17 years building up and running her small business. Erin’s representative in Congress, Derrick Van Orden (R), voted to protect Trump’s tariffs—tariffs that made small businesses like hers pay upfront, even as multinational corporations are better positioned to shift supply chains or pass along costs.
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The post At the State of the Union, Trump’s Claims Betray Americans’ Reality appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"politics","author":"Sage Warner","publishDate":"2026-02-25T16:36:18.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2263408842.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/25/state-of-the-union-trump-tariffs-healthcare-subsidies-affordable-care-act-bills-groceries-marketplace-economy/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T18:00:10.315Z"},{"id":"heq789","archiveId":"4miz0p","slug":"exclusive-from-married-to-medicine-to-congress-heavenly-kimes-says-her-fame-helps-not-hurts-her-chan","title":"Exclusive: From ‘Married to Medicine’ To Congress? Heavenly Kimes Says Her Fame Helps, Not Hurts Her Chances","excerpt":"Dentist and Married to Medicine cast member Heavenly Kimes, known as Dr. Heavenly on the series, has joined the reality TV-to-politics pipeline. The 55-year-old is aiming to turn her platform into a […] The post Exclusive: From ‘Married to Medicine’ To Congress? Heavenly Kimes Says Her Fame Helps, N...","content":"
By
Rayna Reid Rayford ·
Updated February 25, 2026 Getting your
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Dentist and Married to Medicine cast member Heavenly Kimes, known as Dr. Heavenly on the series, has joined the reality TV-to-politics pipeline. The 55-year-old is aiming to turn her platform into a political run against ten-term incumbent David Scott to represent Georgia’s 13th district in the U.S. House of Representatives .
As the campaign ramps up for the Democratic primary on May 19, 2026, Kimes sat down with One, Big Beautiful Bill was introduced. Everything shifted for Kimes. “My congressman said nothing. He gave us no town halls…we heard nothing from him,” she recalls. “Who would be better to actually represent our district than somebody that’s real relatable, somebody who’s lived here over 25 years, who served patients over 25 years, that has the reach?”
“I’ll be more than a vote. I’ll be a voice for the people,” emphasizes Kimes, who sees her reality television stardom as a political asset, rather than a liability. “Without it, I would not have the platform of hundreds of thousands of people.” On the campaign trail, meeting constituents has buoyed her motivation. She fondly recalled talking with Miss B. who explained what she was looking for from her congressmember. “Somebody real, somebody truthful, somebody relatable that’s not going to leave them once they get in office,” she recalls.
The doctor is very aware of what it means to be running for office right now, as a Black woman in Georgia, with the extreme backlash against DEI. Pointing out the barriers Shirley Chisholm faced and what she had to do to become the first Black woman elected to Congress and even to run for president of the United States, Kimes acknowledges how public service can come at a high personal cost. “It is a real sacrifice to do this job, but I want to do it,” she says. “I want to actually work across the aisle, get things done, negotiate to bring back resources to my district.”
“I feel like it’s an obligation to give back,” says the public figure. “I went to Meharry Medical College, and we learned to serve the underserved, and I think that stuck with me throughout my life. We’re here to serve.”
Freddy-O
The combination of a service-driven mindset along with her background in healthcare and as a small business owner is why Kimes believes she is uniquely positioned to serve District 13. As a multihyphenate, she brings experience across sectors and industries. “I have my real estate license, Series 65 [license]. I owned a mortgage company. I understand business from all ways around,” Kimes elaborates. “And I can boast that I have lived in this district 25 years. But on top of that, I also can boast that I’ve had an office in every county in this district.”
When asked what the first issue is she wants to tackle if elected, Kimes did not hesitate. “When I win, the first thing I’m going to do is look at that Big, Beautiful Bill, because I understand how people are going to be kicked off their Medicaid because they are required to have 80 hours a month or be full-time students or have community service,” she states, adding “I know plenty of people, including my colleagues that have children that are over 18, that have autism or mental health challenges, that cannot do either of these things.”
She asserts that flexibility and humanity are a key part of the solution. “I think that any kind of insurance should be individualized rather than putting a blanket over it. I’m an advocate for a single payer system,” she says. “But what I want to do first is get an amendment so that people can stay on their insurance and extend it, because right now, every six months, you have to register, and nobody knows it. So, extend it at least to one year until we can come up with some solutions so people can keep their insurance.”
“That’s my main thing, keeping their insurance,” Kimes proclaims, “because without insurance, people will be unalived, for lack of a better word.”
She ends the conversation by driving home the point that despite what people think of her based on what they’ve seen on TV or online, she means business when it comes to having an impact in politics.
“This is real. I am very serious about making a change,” she says. “Get up, get out, and vote, like never before.”
She is working to build a movement and urges people to follow along in person and on social media , to learn about her campaign and events, and to take part in the primaries, which are more important than people realize.
“Only 11 percent of my community votes in the primary. That’s where elections are really decided,” Kimes says. “My district is 80 percent Democratic. If I win the primary, I will win in November.”
TOPICS:
Georgia Married to Medicine news and politics The post Exclusive: From ‘Married to Medicine’ To Congress? Heavenly Kimes Says Her Fame Helps, Not Hurts Her Chances appeared first on Essence .
","category":"politics","author":"Victoria Uwumarogie","publishDate":"2026-02-25T16:27:31.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/news/dr-heavenly-congress/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T18:00:16.244Z"},{"id":"9a3nb","archiveId":"4qwx3t","slug":"how-ella-lisqu-founder-maxie-j-rebuilt-her-fashion-brand-with-women-at-the-center","title":"How Ellaé Lisqué Founder Maxie J. Rebuilt Her Fashion Brand With Women At The Center","excerpt":"Echoing Queen Latifah‘s hit “Ladies First,” the phrase has become more than a cultural reference for Maxie J. It is the guiding principle behind Ellaé Lisqué, the luxury fashion e-commerce […] The post How Ellaé Lisqué Founder Maxie J.","content":"
By
William Thompson ·
The post How Ellaé Lisqué Founder Maxie J. Rebuilt Her Fashion Brand With Women At The Center appeared first on Essence .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Shelby Stewart","publishDate":"2026-02-25T16:10:06.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/ellae-lisque-maxie-j-ladies-first-fashion/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T18:00:16.244Z"},{"id":"a722uv","archiveId":"3txju3","slug":"this-pill-treats-postpartum-depression-so-why-dont-more-people-take-it","title":"This Pill Treats Postpartum Depression. So Why Don’t More People Take It?","excerpt":"Some 500,000 new parents are diagnosed with PPD each year. Far fewer take Zurzurvae, the first drug specifically designed to treat the condition, three years after its approval. The post This Pill Treats Postpartum Depression. So Why Don’t More People Take It? appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
Amanda was no stranger to depressive moods. But after giving birth to her second child in four years, she felt worse than she’d ever felt in her life.
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The pharmacist and mother of two from South Carolina, whose last name has been withheld to protect her privacy, had dealt with anxiety and depression on and off throughout adulthood. Amanda could usually manage her symptoms with an SSRI , or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, the most prescribed type of antidepressant medication.
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That worked even after the traumatizing birth of her first child. She had an unplanned cesarean section following a lengthy, painful, and unintentionally unmedicated labor. The way she felt after giving birth for a second time, however, was “unlike anything I’ve ever known,” Amanda told Rewire News Group .
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The birth itself went smoothly. But afterward, Amanda said, she felt no joy whatsoever and sobbed constantly. She didn’t want to kiss her child or say his name out loud. She would go an entire day without eating, even though her postpartum body had higher nutritional needs than normal .
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Alarmed, Amanda brought up her symptoms at her six-week check-up with her OB-GYN. She was prescribed Zoloft, an SSRI that had previously worked for her. This time, it didn’t. After a few more SSRI trials and meetings with different OB-GYN providers, she recalled being told, “I don’t know what else to do for you.”
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But there is, in fact, a pill specifically designed to treat postpartum depression. Why didn’t anyone tell Amanda about it?
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What is postpartum depression? \n
Postpartum depression (PPD) affects at least 1 in 8 people nationwide. The brain and body undergo numerous changes after birth that can affect mental health.
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One change is hormonal. Estrogen and progesterone plummet after pregnancy.
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“Certain women have abnormal mood responses to changing levels of hormones,” psychiatrist Katie Unverferth, Medical Director of the UCLA Maternal Mental Health Program, told RNG in an email. “The large drop in estrogen and progesterone in the postpartum is such a time, and can trigger baby blues or the more severe postpartum depression.”
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At the same time, other chemicals in the brain called neurosteroids are rapidly shifting in the postpartum period. These naturally occurring substances act on GABA receptors, which help the brain calm anxiety and help regulate mood. The key neurosteroid during pregnancy is “a very calming neurosteroid” called allopregnanolone, Dr. Sarah Oreck, reproductive psychiatrist and CEO of Mavida Health, told RNG via email.
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“Allopregnanolone levels rise dramatically during pregnancy and then drop precipitously after delivery,” Oreck said. “This sudden decline is thought to be one mechanism underlying postpartum depression in vulnerable individuals.”
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“PPD tends to be a very anxious depression,” added Unverferth.
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People often feel sad and irritable, and experience obsessive thinking—especially disturbing thoughts around accidental harm happening to the infant, she added. A sense of overwhelm tends to be in the PPD mix, too.
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Public awareness of PPD got a boost last year with the film Die My Love . The movie, released in November 2025, stars Jennifer Lawrence as a young mother with severe postpartum depression and psychosis. During the press tour for the film, Lawrence spoke openly about her own experience with postpartum anxiety after the birth of her second child. She described a disconnect and guilt around feeling like not being a good mother to her infant son.
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“There’s not really anything like postpartum,” she told Variety . “It’s extremely isolating.”
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Long road to PPD treatment \n
Until 2019 , there were no confirmed FDA approved treatments for PPD beyond SSRIs, which won’t work for everyone and can take weeks to kick in if they do.
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Then, in 2019, came brexanolone , the first-ever treatment approved by the FDA specifically for postpartum depression. While clinical trials suggested that the drug, marketed under the drug name Zulresso, could improve depression symptoms , logistical challenges dramatically limited its use.
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Without insurance coverage, brexanolone was estimated to cost $34,000 . It also needed to be administered via a 60-hour IV infusion in a hospital—a very long time for a new parent to be separated from their newborn and family.
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In August 2023, the FDA approved zuranolone , prescribed under the brand name Zurzuvae, and the manufacturer discontinued brexanolone in 2025.
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With her pharmaceutical background, Amanda had actually heard of zuranolone . She used her expertise to research the drug and couldn’t find much information online from other moms who had taken the treatment, even after posting in a social media group of 40,000 moms who are pharmacists.
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“I got crickets. Nothing, not a single response,” Amanda said. “No one could give me any insight on what to do, how to obtain it, what it was like, side effects, no one.”
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She convinced her psychiatrist to prescribe it anyway.
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How zuranolone soothes the postpartum brain \n
Zuranolone is a synthetic version of allopregnanolone, the neurosteroid that declines post-pregnancy. Typically taken once daily for 14 days, psychiatrists believe that it likely works fast in the brain to restore levels of this mood-regulating neurosteroid, potentially within days.
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This allows the nervous system to calm and emotions to stabilize, Oreck explained.
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In a manufacturer-funded clinical trial for zuranolone, patients who were given the drug compared to the placebo had lower measures of clinical depression scores. Some saw mood improvement within three days.
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Within the first week of taking zuranolone, Amanda said she felt a “hormonal reset.”
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“It was like day one of giving birth started that day. I became a mother to my son that day. Because before that, I was not a mother. … I did nothing but keep this child alive for the first three months of his life. But once I took that medicine, it was like, reset,” said Amanda. “Okay, now we can restart our bonding.”
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By day around three, her appetite returned. She doesn’t remember the first food she actually enjoyed—it was probably chicken nuggets or the Costco hotdogs that she was also feeding her toddler—but at some point, eating felt normal again.
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Appetite loss was also what tipped off Karlee, a mother in Arkansas, that she might have PPD. Karlee spoke with RNG using her first name only to protect her daughter’s privacy.
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Karlee had a history of anxiety symptoms that she had managed with prescription medication since adolescence. But when she brought her infant daughter home from the hospital in July 2024, her persistent anxiety became untenable.
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“The very first night, I was terrified that she was going to stop breathing in the middle of the night … so I was like, someone has to stay up and stare at her,” Karlee told RNG .
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“The anxiety and depression are so overwhelming,” she wrote on July 24, 2024, in a journal she kept to document her postpartum journey, recalling her third day home as “the most scared of my mental health I have ever been in my life.”
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This anxiety and panic continued for more than a month. By that point, Karlee became used to her “meltdowns,” as she described them to RNG in an email. Exhaustion seeped into her bones; her milk supply was low. Breastfeeding parents may need to consume 500 additional calories per day , but Karlee said she was not taking in enough food.
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Unlike Amanda, Karlee didn’t have to work to discover Zurzuvae; her psychiatrist recommended it immediately. She saw Karlee’s face in a telehealth call and knew something wasn’t right.
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Karlee started the treatment about five-and-a-half weeks postpartum. It wasn’t an immediate “magic turning point,” Karlee said. But, slowly, by late summer, she felt herself climbing back to her baseline.
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“I still have my moments, but they are manageable,” she remarked in her postpartum journal.
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Zurzuvae is not currently FDA-approved to treat other mental health conditions of pregnancy, including postpartum psychosis and postpartum anxiety. Still, given that mental health conditions are a leading cause of death in postpartum and pregnant people in the U.S. , the doctors RNG interviewed were willing to take a chance on the drug.
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Oreck said she has prescribed the medication for patients with postpartum anxiety symptoms.
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“I’m careful to counsel patients that this is an off-label use,” she said. “The medication hasn’t been specifically studied for anxiety in clinical trials, so we don’t have the same robust evidence base as we do for PPD.”
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Challenges to widespread adoption \n
Some 500,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with PPD each year. Zurzuvae’s original manufacturer, Sage Therapeutics (later acquired by Supernus Pharmaceuticals), reported that 2,000 Zurzuvae prescriptions were shipped out in the last quarter of 2024, according to a 2025 Psychiatry Online article—up 40 percent from the second quarter of that year.
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Those figures still fall well short of the potential market for this drug. If the treatment works, why do so few people use it?
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Providers appear to be one part of the story. Initially, some insurance companies required zuranolone be prescribed by a psychiatrist, which experts said dramatically limited access to the drug. In practice, OB-GYNs are the most likely prescribers of any postpartum medication, since they are generally the only providers doing a dedicated postpartum mental health screening—at least for new parents who don’t have an existing psychiatric provider.
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Even when an insurance company covers a zuranolone prescription from an OB-GYN, providers’ ability to gauge how someone is faring postpartum based on a series of routine questions is limited. That’s especially true if the doctor-patient relationship is new or if the patient isn’t open about or aware of their mental health challenges.
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Karlee felt somewhat uncomfortable discussing her mental health in the sterile environment of her OB-GYN’s office. As a result, at a follow-up appointment two weeks after giving birth, she scored within the normal range on the postpartum mental health screening—even though she was in the throes of postpartum depression.
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Unverferth also believes that many providers lack training and education around the medication.
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“It is a very new medication that has a very unique way of dosing it,” she said, adding that some mental health providers may not be comfortable prescribing a 14-day dose of a calming, sedating medication.
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Other providers—and some patients—could also be leery of Zurzurvae’s sedative nature. After taking a dose, patients cannot drive for 12 hours and may be too sleepy to properly care for an infant overnight. Breastfeeding is not advised during the 14-day treatment course.
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These side effects didn’t bother Amanda. She had a supportive partner to pitch in if needed on night feedings, and she woke up nightly at 3 a.m. to feed her son. But she spoke with other moms who’d taken Zurzuvae and said they were too “zonked out” to fully function at night.
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Yet as with so many health-care challenges in the United States, the main problem may be insurance, according to a 2025 article in Psychiatry Online about barriers to accessing this “innovative oral pharmacological treatment for postpartum depression.”
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Without coverage, Zurzurvae costs about $15,000 for the two-week course .
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The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health reports that insured patients whose plans don’t automatically cover the medication won’t necessarily be shut out from the drug entirely. But they could be required to try other less-expensive treatments first, like SSRIs, delaying their recovery.
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Zurzuvae also has a copay assistance program that can help ease the out-of-pocket costs. But it only applies to people who have commercial insurance. That won’t help uninsured PPD sufferers.
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Amanda and Karlee understand these barriers, and they’re working to help more people with PPD get treatment. Amanda posts online about her experience with Zurzurvae and invites people to reach out to her with questions. So far, she’s walked two moms through the process of getting prior approval and copay assistance.
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Karlee speaks out about zuranolone to any moms who will listen, she said. If doctors aren’t necessarily talking up the drug yet, it falls on patients to educate each other.
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“I really wanted to put it out there that women need to trust themselves,” she said.
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The post This Pill Treats Postpartum Depression. So Why Don’t More People Take It? appeared first on Rewire News Group .
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SHANGHAI, CHINA – MARCH 7, 2024 – Citizens attend a lip balm promotion event organized by Canadian makeup brand M.A.C in front of Jiuguang Department store in Jing ‘an District, Shanghai, China, March 7, 2024. The two staff members wore red and black lip hoods, which had a dramatic effect on the busy streets. (Photo credit should read CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
By
Kimberly Wilson ·
Updated February 25, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
When I first saw that MAC Cosmetics was entering Sephora , my first thought was “this is a recession indicator, for sure.” And that thought says a lot about the state of MAC right now then it says about the state of Sephora.
16-year-old me remembered when these two stores were fierce competitors. I had to go to MAC for my Riri Woo, and then I had to go to Sephora for my Illamasqua foundation (before they sadly discontinued it), and it was always annoying because I had favorite products from both brands that I couldn’t give up.
If only both stores were combined into one.
Well, a decade plus later, my wish has finally come true. And I’d probably be more excited about it if the reason it’s happening wasn’t so obvious (i.e. the world is currently being on fire).
Beauty is in a strange place right now. The so-called “lipstick effect,” is the reason every brand from Rhode to Eadem to Maybelline has released a new lip product over the past several years (to be clear, I love all of these brands lip products, I’m just saying). For those unfamiliar, it’s the idea that people trade down to small luxuries during a recession instead of making big purchases like an expensive foundation, serum or fragrance. It has been a talking point in the industry for years, and it’s increased only recently now that we’re in a lip product frenzy. Because things have gotten bad! Real bad, Michael Jackson (in the words on Kanye).
Prestige beauty had a massive run post-pandemic and brands like MAC that didn’t fully capitalize on that window are now playing catch-up in a market where consumers are simultaneously being more intentional about spending and more influenced than ever by what they see on social media (editor’s note: TikTok has influenced me to buy more things than I’m willing to admit). Drugstore is having a real moment again, dupes are mainstream in a way they weren’t five years ago, and legacy brands sitting on decades of goodwill are finding out quickly that goodwill alone does not move product.
MAC posted a $15 million operating loss in its most recent earnings cycle , and if you’ve been paying attention you could already feel it coming. The brand that once had you lined up for limited edition collections and made you feel like a professional just for stepping up to the counter had been fading from the conversation for a while. Not gone, but quieter than it used to be, and in the current beauty landscape quieter means losing ground fast.
So the Sephora move, which goes live March 2 in more than 100 stores and on sephora.com, plus every Sephora at Kohl’s location, is very clearly a distribution play designed to fix that. It’s an opportunity for more doors, more eyeballs, and more chances to get back in front of a younger shopper who may have scrolled past MAC entirely in favor of whatever Rare Beauty or Charlotte Tilbury is doing that week.
And they’re not wrong for trying it. MAC did the same thing with ULTA back in 2017 and became one of that retailer’s better performing makeup brands fairly quickly. More distribution can absolutely move numbers in the short term, and right now MAC needs to move numbers.
The harder question is whether any of this addresses the actual reason people drifted away in the first place. MAC’s decline wasn’t really a distribution problem, it was a relevance problem, and relevance, especially for a brand that Black women, drag artists, and working makeup professionals built from the ground up, requires more than new shelf space.
Now, there are some genuinely encouraging signs on that front. Nicola Formichetti came on as global creative director and the Sephora launch campaign starring Chappell Roan alongside Gabbriette and Quenlin Blackwell shows someone is paying attention to culture. The concept, showing Roan stripped down with just a sculpted 90s MAC lip on one side and full maximal glam on the other, works because it reminds you what MAC actually does better than almost anyone. And it’s worth noting that the person most responsible for rebuilding MAC’s cultural credibility before this moment, Aïda Moudachirou-Rébois, who served as global head of brand and championed the Doja Cat era campaigns that finally made MAC feel plugged in again, quietly left the company in January with no named successor. The brand is in better creative shape than it was two years ago partly because of her work, and whoever stewards that going forward has a real foundation to build on.
And then there’s the Kohl’s component, which I don’t think is getting enough attention in the conversation around this launch. On one level it makes sense. MAC was never supposed to feel exclusive, it was always the brand that showed up for everybody, the girls in the mall, the working makeup artists, the people who needed their actual shade actually matched. Sephora at Kohl’s reaching into neighborhoods that didn’t always have a Sephora fits that history. What I keep thinking about though is that you didn’t go to a MAC counter just to shop. You went because whoever was behind that counter could beat your face and actually explain why every product they used worked for you specifically. That was the whole experience. And I genuinely don’t know how that travels to a self-serve shelf.
In this economy, I’m rooting for every business to win. And with MAC, I genuinely want them to turn things around. Their most recent campaign announcing their launch into Sephora is good, the creative energy has seemingly gotten consumers excited, and who knows, maybe the girl who only knows MAC from TikTok will walk into Sephora and fall in love with it the way I did at 16.
The post MAC Cosmetics Is Coming to Sephora—And It Might Say More About the Economy Right Now Than Beauty appeared first on Essence .
","category":"global","author":"Kimberly Wilson","publishDate":"2026-02-25T12:57:32.000Z","image":"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2056984861-1200x900.jpg","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/mac-sephora-recession-beauty-industry/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:52.612Z"},{"id":"5eay9v","archiveId":"9igfvj","slug":"8216my-children-are-here-how-journalist-georgia-forts-arrest-impacted-her-daughters","title":"'My children are here’: How journalist Georgia Fort’s arrest impacted her daughters","excerpt":"When federal agents showed up before dawn last month to arrest journalist Georgia Fort for covering an immigration protest at a Minneapolis-area church, her three daughters — ages 7, 8 and 17 — were still asleep. “My children are here,” Fort said as she livestreamed her arrest.","content":"
When federal agents showed up before dawn last month to arrest journalist Georgia Fort for covering an immigration protest at a Minneapolis-area church, her three daughters — ages 7, 8 and 17 — were still asleep.
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“My children are here,” Fort said as she livestreamed her arrest. “They’re impacted by this.”
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Nearly two dozen federal agents had surrounded her home. They had knocked loudly on the front door and spoken to Fort’s mother about a warrant. Her video captured an anguished cry in the background, and then a voice trying to comfort.
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This is what was happening off-camera: Fort’s 17-year-old, awakened by the commotion, saw a flash of light through her bedroom window. She didn’t want to stand up because she thought the agents would see her, so she crawled out of her room and down to the home’s entryway, where her mother was filming. Fort ended her live video and saw her eldest daughter “kind of curled up in a fetal position, crying,” she told The 19th.
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“The last thing I did was wipe the tears out of her eyes, I hugged her and told her she’s the oldest. I needed her to be strong,” Fort recalled.
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Then she stepped outside and allowed herself to be arrested.
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A 2014 report from the International Association of the Chiefs of Police and the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance recommends that “where timing is not a critical concern, an arrest may be postponed so that it will not be conducted in the presence of the child.” The report states that this is most feasible “when using tactical teams to conduct arrests.”
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The chain of decisions made by federal law enforcement in the lead-up to Fort’s arrest reveals how the Department of Justice ignored its own best practices related to “safeguarding children of arrested parents,” according to interviews with experts and government records like the 2014 report.
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The 19th agreed to not use the names of Fort’s daughters since they are minors.
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Her 8-year-old was also awoken the morning of the arrest, but she remained in bed, crying, too scared to get up. The youngest, 7, slept through the ordeal, but would have many questions later about what happened. The 17-year-old spoke at a press conference hours after her mother’s arrest: “I’m demanding that my mom gets released. The separation of families will never be right.”
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After Fort’s release later that day, her 7-year-old asked her what “prison” was like. The 8-year-old had questions about her own safety and that of other family members: Would immigration agents come and get her at gymnastics practice? Would they take her dad? The 17-year-old began having “extremely terrifying nightmares,” Fort said.
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Journalist Georgia Fort (right) and Minnesota State Senate candidate Jamael Lundy are greeted by family and supporters as they leave the Federal Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn., on January 30, 2026. \n (Renee Jones Schneider/The Minnesota Star Tribune/Getty Images) \n\n\n\n
Mary Kelly Persyn, an attorney who has studied the impacts on children of parental arrest and incarceration, said the agents surveilling Fort’s house could have waited. “If you actually cared about the impact on kids, that’s what you would have done: You’d arrest her after the kids go to school, she’d appear in court, and then … she would have been released before the kids got home from school,” Persyn said.
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DOJ did not respond to questions about the agents’ decision-making around Fort’s arrest, including whether or how her children’s well-being had been weighed against other factors.
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Fort had tried to prepare her daughters for the possibility that the government could retaliate against her for doing her job since she knew she was listed on a then-sealed indictment . Knowing that didn’t make explaining any easier, though. “A hard thing for children to digest is, if you didn’t do anything wrong, why would you be arrested for simply doing your job? And so I think it’s hard to rationalize with children why you would be criminalized for simply telling the truth, for simply documenting something that’s happening,” Fort said.
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Fort and fellow journalist Don Lemon, who covered the same protest, were indicted on federal charges that include conspiracy and violating the rights of worshippers. They have both pleaded not guilty.
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As the children of a journalist, Fort’s daughters were at heightened risk of experiencing trauma related to her job — and were likely better prepared for it as a result. But as the Trump administration attempts to expand the scope of preexisting laws and norms to stop individuals from documenting ongoing immigration crackdowns, parents who aren’t journalists, activists or politicians are having to assess their own tolerance for risk — and how to mitigate exposure for their kids.
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Dr. Maryam Jernigan-Noesi, a licensed psychologist whose practice and research focus on children and social identity, including what she calls “raising resistors,” said it’s important to use “simple concrete language” when talking to children about how parents’ work or activism could put them at odds with the government. “Silence is going to create more anxiety,” Jernigan-Noesi said.
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“I even think about this as a psychologist who actually actively speaks out about race, racism and justice. I have a 10-year-old, and I actually have been having this conversation. For me, it’s creating the safety plan: Who are the other adults or support systems in my life that I can designate if need be?” she said.
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Even preschool-aged children can understand a basic concept of fairness that can ground conversations about more complex injustices. “They have an idea of rules, right? So one example might be: Sometimes the rules get applied in different ways that aren’t fair. And part of our job as grownups is to work on making things more fair,” she said.
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“In this case: Mommy was doing her job, trying to tell important stories, so that people know what’s happening … in our country, people have the right to share information and tell the truth but sometimes the government or other people make decisions that go against those rights,” she continued.
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Jernigan-Noesi said the overarching goal of the conversations she has with her son is conveying that even though “systems may fail us … we still need to believe that we have the power to create change.”
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Editor’s note: The charges against Fort and independent journalist Don Lemon have been widely criticized by press freedom groups and newsrooms , including The 19th.
","category":"activism","author":"Amanda Becker","publishDate":"2026-02-25T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/fort_2.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/journalist-georgia-fort-arrest-impact-children/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T12:00:42.128Z"},{"id":"cd7uop","archiveId":"9p0079","slug":"in-state-of-the-union-address-trump-used-women-to-prove-his-point","title":"In State of the Union address, Trump used women to prove his point","excerpt":"As President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech sought to boost his economic message amid a turbulent season of high prices and unemployment, he primarily highlighted women and girls as beneficiaries of policy successes in his almost two-hour address.","content":"
As President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech sought to boost his economic message amid a turbulent season of high prices and unemployment, he primarily highlighted women and girls as beneficiaries of policy successes in his almost two-hour address.
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Nearly every example of his policy wins was accompanied by reference to a woman, either hypothetical or present in the chamber. He named a woman who bought IVF drugs through TrumpRX after struggling with infertility ; a mother with children who could qualify for money through his “Trump accounts”; and a mother he said will benefit from an expanded child tax credit and no tax on tips.
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“I met Megan Hemhauser, a devoted mom who homeschools her children, beautiful, two children during the day while waiting tables at night as her husband works overtime,” Trump said during his speech. “Megan is here this evening, and she’s happy to tell you that she is so, so much richer … Megan and her husband will take home more than $5,000 extra just for the year, cutting her tax bill in more than half.”
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His other shout-outs concentrated on women and girls who had faced violence and tragedy, including: Erika Kirk, widow of conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk; Milly Cate , a survivor of the Camp Mystic flooding in Texas; and “angel moms,” his term for the mothers of children who were killed by undocumented immigrants .
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The medals and honors awarded to guests during the ceremony primarily went to men service members. One exception was a posthumous Purple Heart awarded to Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, the member of the National Guard who was killed in Washington, D.C., last year.
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Absent from the president’s speech were the Jeffrey Epstein files, the release of which is currently roiling congressional lawmakers. An NPR investigation found that the Justice Department has withheld some of the documents related to allegations that Trump sexually abused a minor, and also removed files from the public database where accusations against Epstein mention the president. The files appear to include more than 50 pages of FBI interviews and notes concerning accusations against Trump. A spokesperson for the Department of Justice told NPR that the removed files were privileged, duplicates or related to an investigation.
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Lawmakers’ guests to Tuesday night’s speech included several people who survived abuse under the purview of Epstein, a convicted sex offender with ties to many powerful people who died while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who was one of the most vocal proponents of releasing more batches of documents concerning the late financier’s sex offenses, brought Haley Robson, who says Epstein trafficked her starting when she was 16. In the chamber, he sat alongside Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie, who partnered with Khanna to force the DOJ to release more files.
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Other Democrats wore pins, including “Release the files” white pins with a redaction line in the middle.
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A number of Democratic lawmakers boycotted the event, attending counterprogramming like the “People’s State of the Union” earlier in the day, while a section of Democratic women wore white , in a reference to a voting bill that could make it more difficult for married women and LGBTQ+ people to vote.
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During the counter-event, Democratic lawmakers addressed a small crowd near the Lincoln Memorial, framed by the Capitol building. Some brought guests, while others, like Pennsylvania Rep. Summer Lee, spoke about their constituents, including one in her district whose son-in-law was detained by immigrant officers,
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“That is the real state of our union, where families are being torn apart and traumatized,” Lee said. “Where the government would rather protect powerful people in the Epstein files than the women and the girls who were sexually abused.”
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Lee also announced she would be introducing articles of impeachment against Attorney General Pam Bondi.
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Trump’s approval rating among women has dropped since his last State of the Union address. One recent CNN poll showed a nine-point drop for women respondents since February 2025, while a Quinnipiac poll from this February showed a 30 percent approval rating for the president among women, with 64 percent disapproving.
","category":"activism","author":"Ajohnston","publishDate":"2026-02-25T04:38:50.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/trump_sotu_women.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/trump-women-state-of-the-union/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T06:00:34.880Z"},{"id":"3ms0s1","archiveId":"77yx75","slug":"trump-didnt-mention-abortion-in-the-state-of-the-union","title":"Trump didn’t mention abortion in the State of the Union","excerpt":"Over almost two hours, President Donald Trump covered issues as varied as tariffs, men’s hockey, immigration and health care. He even touted a drug-purchasing platform offering discounted prices the government has bargained for some fertility drugs.","content":"
Over almost two hours, President Donald Trump covered issues as varied as tariffs, men’s hockey, immigration and health care. He even touted a drug-purchasing platform offering discounted prices the government has bargained for some fertility drugs.
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But not once did he mention abortion — underscoring, just months before the midterm elections, a growing rift between the White House and a coalition that helped fuel Trump’s two presidential victories.
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Some activists argue that ignoring the issue could ultimately hurt the president with a core constituency.
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“What we have said to the president and people behind the scenes is, don’t discourage your voter. The most loyal voter is the pro-life voter,” said Kristi Hamrick, the head of policy for Students for Life, a national anti-abortion group.
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Though Trump spoke about abortion in his 2019 and 2020 State of the Union speeches, calling for a ban on what abortion opponents call “late-term abortions,” he ignored the issue in his address before Congress last year. His Tuesday night speech emphasized the economy — including unpopular tariffs that were struck down last week by the U.S. Supreme Court — and an immigration enforcement approach that has resulted in the killing of two U.S. citizens, sparking national outcry on what was once one of his best-polling issues.
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Though Trump did not mention abortion, he highlighted other health care concerns, calling for lawmakers to scrap the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies and touting discounts for the fertility drugs used in in vitro fertilization — which is actually opposed by many anti-abortion activists .
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Abortion opponents have been more vocal in their frustrations with the Trump administration, which many see as having done little to capitalize on the fall of Roe vs. Wade. The White House helped pass legislation to cut funding for Planned Parenthood, has pardoned anti-abortion activists convicted of forcing their way into clinics, and, following the lead of Republican administrations since Ronald Reagan, has interpreted foreign aid policy to prohibit funding organizations that tell people about abortion as an option.
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But the administration has not acted on a key anti-abortion priority: restricting access to mifepristone, the medication used in most abortions that can be mailed to states with bans. Now, about a quarter of abortions are performed through telehealth, and the number of abortions done in the country has actually increased, despite Roe’s fall. Medication abortion is very safe and effective, including when done by telehealth.
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“The current GOP strategy of leaving this issue to the states clearly does not work,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of the anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America, said in remarks ahead of Tuesday’s speech.
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Though conservative led states have pushed new laws and legal challenges meant to curb access to the drug, the Trump administration has not offered its support to those efforts. The Food and Drug Administration has said it is reviewing mifepristone’s approval — a process abortion opponents hope could be used to block prescribing the pills via telemedicine — but the federal agency has not given a timeline for the process.
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“The White House hasn’t done very much, and I’m not surprised they haven’t. This is a relationship that’s much more strategic than prior Republican administrations,” said Patrick Brown, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank that opposes abortion. “I think it’s fair to say the pro-life movement’s leverage with Donald J. Trump is pretty minimal,” he added.
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Trump’s speech fell the same day as a hearing in a key case filed by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, challenging the FDA’s 2023 decision to allow telehealth dispensation of mifepristone. The Department of Justice defended the FDA’s position in court, arguing that Louisiana did not have standing to challenge the government’s mifepristone decision, and that court intervention could disrupt the federal review of the drug’s approval.
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“HHS and the FDA are unmoved. They could easily, today, reestablish in-person dispensing and get the drug out of the mail,” Dannenfelser said. “They are deaf to the cries of the House, and the Senate, attorneys general in half of their states, and of women and unborn children.”
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Lila Rose, head of the anti-abortion group Live Action, also criticized the administration’s inaction on the mifepristone.
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“The FDA has the authority and responsibility to act now in defense of mothers and their children,” Rose said in a statement sent before the speech. “Revoke mifepristone’s approval as an abortifacient, and until that happens, immediately require in-person exams, full medical screening, and real follow-up care. We demand action now.”
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SBA has committed to spending $80 million on midterm races this year, suggesting it could withhold funding from candidates who don’t prioritize abortion restrictions. The White House has argued that anti-abortion voters will continue to back Republicans, including this November, by suggesting that the alternative — Democrats who largely support abortion rights — will be too unpalatable.
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Still, some in the anti-abortion movement have been underwhelmed — and are looking past Trump.
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“The undercurrent over the last year has been, we showed up at the polls and what have you given us?” Brown said. But many are already looking at potential successors — including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — who may be more supportive of aggressive abortion restrictions.
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“The mistake is thinking because Trump can roll pro-lifers, future Republicans can do the same thing,” he added.
","category":"choice","author":"Shefali Luthra","publishDate":"2026-02-25T04:33:09.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/SOTU-abortion-trump.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/trump-abortion-state-of-the-union/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T06:00:34.880Z"},{"id":"qbcm7q","archiveId":"ickw1z","slug":"sudan-people-with-disabilities-targeted-in-north-darfur","title":"Sudan: People with Disabilities Targeted in North Darfur","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Displaced families from El Fasher at a displacement camp where they sought refuge from fighting between government forces and the Rapid Support Forces, in Tawila, Darfur region, Sudan, October 1, 2025.","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Displaced families from El Fasher at a displacement camp where they sought refuge from fighting between government forces and the Rapid Support Forces, in Tawila, Darfur region, Sudan, October 1, 2025.\n © 2025 NRC via AP Photo \n \n \n\n\n \n<p>(Nairobi) – The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), one of Sudan’s two main warring parties, targeted, abused, and killed people with disabilities during and after their October 26, 2025, takeover of El Fasher, North Darfur’s capital, Human Rights Watch said today.</p><p>The Rapid Support Forces singled out people because of their disabilities, accused people with physical disabilities of being injured combatants, and mocked others as “insane,” and told them they were not “complete,” survivors and witnesses said. Targeted killings of civilians or others not participating in a conflict, including those with disabilities, are war crimes, as is subjecting them to cruel, humiliating, and degrading treatment or similar outrages. When committed as part of a widespread attack on the civilian population, these acts may constitute crimes against humanity.</p><p>“The Rapid Support Forces treated people with disabilities as suspects, burdens, or expendable,” said Emina Ćerimović, associate disability rights director at Human Rights Watch. “We heard how they accused some victims, particularly those missing a limb, of being injured fighters and summarily executed them. Others were beaten, abused, or harassed because of their disability with fighters mocking them as “insane” or for not being a “complete person.””</p><p>Human Rights Watch interviewed 22 survivors and witnesses from El Fasher between December 2025 and February 2026, including remote in-depth interviews inside Sudan and interviews with people with disabilities who fled to eastern Chad. Human Rights Watch also interviewed eight disability rights activists from other parts of Sudan who described similar RSF abuses in other parts of country.</p><p>The Rapid Support Forces took control of El Fasher on October 26, 2025, after an 18-month siege. As civilians attempted to flee, Rapid Support Forces attacked them, killing thousands. People with disabilities faced particular difficulties escaping and were at times singled out for abuse, extortion, and execution.</p><p>A 33-year-old man who uses crutches for a physical disability acquired from an explosive weapon attack in December 2024, said RSF fighters captured him and about 50 others, including women and children, as they tried to flee the city on October 26, and interrogated them.</p><p>“The RSF considered everybody who was missing a hand or a limb to be a soldier,” the man said. He said that RSF fighters also relied on skin color and accent to decide whether they were civilians, or members or supporters of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which RSF is fighting for control of the country. He said RSF fighters used machine guns and AK-style assault rifles to execute more than 10 people, the majority with physical disabilities, in front of the group.</p><p>The 33-year-old said he negotiated with the fighters to allow detainees to call their families to seek ransom payments. One fighter responded: “You are already weak and shattered in pieces, your family wouldn’t want you anyway.”</p><p>He was detained for 4 days and released after his family paid 17 million Sudanese pounds and he transferred 13 million Sudanese pounds from his bank account (totaling approximately US$8,830).</p><p>A 29-year-old female nurse said she saw RSF fighters kill a young man with Down syndrome, whom the fighters referred to as “insane,” a blind child, and a younger woman with a physical disability who could not walk, as civilians fled on October 26.</p><p>Sudanese disability rights activists documented additional cases in which RSF fighters killed people with disabilities because of their disabilities. Zainab Salih, former head of the Association of People with Disabilities in South Darfur, said she spoke with a father whose 14-year-old son with a physical disability was executed as they tried to flee on October 26 because RSF fighters claimed he was “slowing other people down.” Before executing him, she said, RSF fighters took his wheelchair.</p><p>Two other disability rights activists provided similar accounts of the Rapid Support Forces killing people with disabilities in other parts of Sudan during the conflict, with a family member saying an RSF fighter said, “let us help you get rid of them.”</p><p>People with disabilities also experienced other forms of abuse often based on ethnic targeting. A 31-year-old man who acquired a disability after being injured in shelling at Naivasha market in El Fasher, said RSF fighters beat and whipped him while he was sheltering at his uncle’s house following the fall of the city.</p><p>Fighters repeatedly accused him of being an SAF or Joint Forces soldier or sympathizer because of his disability and his ethnic background, calling him a “falangay,” a derogatory term for non-Arab ethnic groups.</p><p>Witnesses and survivors described RSF fighters looting fleeing civilians, including of assistive devices or their only means of mobility, such as the wheelbarrows used by the families of people with disabilities to transport them.</p><p>Witnesses also described people with disabilities being left behind. A 30-year-old woman fleeing with her 3 children, said: “What’s stayed with me the most is the image of wounded people, including people with disabilities, whose families were trying to evacuate along that road, but they were not able to, [so they] were left behind and no one knows their fate.”</p><p>Those who reached Tawila, also in North Darfur, described fleeing under extreme conditions, often without assistive devices or transportation. Some crawled, or family members carried them. Others were separated from their families or support networks, making escape and survival in displacement significantly harder.</p><p>They said they lacked access to assistive devices, medical care, and psychosocial support. People with disabilities and their families said the facilities in the Tawila camp for internally displaced people, including bathrooms, were inaccessible for people with physical disabilities.</p><p>The 31-year-old man mentioned above, who now advocates for people with disabilities in the Tawila camp, said he has repeatedly asked humanitarian organizations for disability-inclusive services. “The concept here is that if you have a disability, it’s on your family to provide help,” he said.</p><p>Under international humanitarian law, parties to a conflict must distinguish, at all times, between civilians and combatants, and civilians may never be the target of attack. People with disabilities who are not directly taking part in hostilities are entitled to full protection from deliberate attacks and ill-treatment. Deliberate attacks on and ill-treatment of civilians with disabilities are war crimes and may constitute crimes against humanity.</p><p>The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Sudan has ratified, obliges states to ensure the protection and safety of people with disabilities in situations of risk, including armed conflict. United Nations Security Council Resolution 2475 says that parties to armed conflict should protect persons with disabilities and ensure their full inclusion in humanitarian responses.</p><p>The United Nations Security Council should urgently act to prevent further atrocities in Sudan against civilians including those with disabilities, Human Rights Watch said, including by sanctioning the Rapid Support Forces leadership for ongoing atrocities, and publicly calling on the force’s backers, notably the United Arab Emirates, to end their support to the Rapid Support Forces.</p><p>Members of the UN Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council should work together to secure the deployment of a civilian physical protection mission in Sudan. Humanitarian agencies should ensure that assistance is accessible and inclusive of people with disabilities, including by providing assistive devices and targeted support.</p><p>“Human Rights Watch has documented abuses against people with disabilities in armed conflict around the world for over a decade,” Ćerimović said. “But this is the first time we have documented this type and scale of targeted abuse, including killings, of people with disabilities because of their disabilities. Governments and the UN Security Council should act now to stop these crimes and ensure accountability.”</p><p>Killings and Abuse</p><p>A 29-year-old female nurse from El Fasher described a Rapid Support Forces fighter calling to another and saying, “Come and see this majnun [‘insane’ person],” referring to a young man with Down syndrome. Fighters ordered his sister, who was carrying him on her back, to put him down and they executed him. After killing her brother, they tied her hands, covered her face and took her away. Human Rights Watch ongoing research has found that many women and girls were abducted to be raped or held ransom.</p><p>The nurse also said RSF fighters shot and killed a young woman with a physical disability, as well as her mother who had been carrying her. She also described fighters ordering a woman carrying a blind teenage boy on her back to put him down. “She said ‘he cannot see’,” the nurse said. “They immediately shot him in the head.”</p><p>The 31-year-old man mentioned above described how, in September 2025, a driver abandoned him and his mother 20 kilometers from Hilat Al-Shaikh, a village they were trying to reach on their way to Tawila. His mother tried to push him in a wheelbarrow but became exhausted. He urged her to go ahead and pleaded with passing travelers to help take him back to El Fasher. They initially refused.</p><p>“They told me if the RSF saw me in that condition [with amputations], they would think I was SAF and cause them problems,” he said. Eventually, a man driving a donkey cart allowed him to climb aboard, and he returned to El Fasher where he was reunited with his father.</p><p>He and his father fled on October 26 under heavy shelling as the Rapid Support Forces took control of El Fasher. He was separated from his father and sustained additional injuries.</p><p>He managed to get back to his uncle’s house in El Fasher, but RSF fighters broke into the house a few hours later and accused him of being a member of a coalition of Darfuri armed groups aligned with the military because of his disability and ethnic background. He said:</p><p>“They started questioning me, ‘Are you a Joint Forces member?’ I told them I was sick in the hospital, I told them how I got injured while retrieving my goods at the market in August. They started arguing with me that I am a soldier. … They beat me for 20 minutes with a whip all over my body. I was bleeding. … A soldier said they need to kill me, and why did I stay, and that I should have left earlier. They kept asking if I was SAF or a Joint Forces member, I kept saying no.”</p><p>In February 2026, he said that he still had scars on his arms from the beating and showed photographs to Human Rights Watch.</p><p>Upon reaching Tawila, he was reunited with his mother. When Human Rights Watch interviewed him in February 2026, he still had no information about his father’s whereabouts.</p><p>Abandonment</p><p>A 39-year-old man described fleeing but having to leave behind his 41-year-old brother with a physical disability who could not walk. “My brother said to us, ‘I am finished, I will die here, please just leave with your children and leave me here.’ We couldn’t take him, there were no cars, no camels.”</p><p>The same witness described seeing injured people and people with disabilities asking for help while trying to flee El Fasher on October 27, “There were injured people on the ground, people who had lost limbs, asking for help, and you just couldn’t help them.”</p><p>A 22-year-old man who was injured in an attack in February 2025 was abandoned by the person carrying him as they fled El Fasher with a group of civilians. “He put me down and told me he would come back. I don’t know what happened to him, whether he was killed or arrested.”</p><p>Unable to move without support, he was eventually arrested by the Rapid Support Forces, detained for 10 days and released only after paying 15 million Sudanese pounds (about US$3,600).</p><p>Looting Assistive Devices</p><p>A 40-year-old teacher with a hearing disability was fleeing toward Garni from El Fasher in October 2025 when RSF fighters stopped and searched civilians on the road, confiscating personal belongings.</p><p>“They started searching all of us, stealing everyone’s nice watches and phones,” he said. “They found my hearing aid, asked what it was. I told them, and that it’s really important for me, but they didn’t believe me, and they took it away. They threatened to shoot me so I just let them take it.”</p><p>He said fighters also stole his clothes and phone.</p><p>Life in Displacement</p><p>A 47-year-old woman in an internal displacement camp fled with her 15-year-old daughter, who has physical and speech disabilities, and her 79-year-old mother, who also has a physical disability.</p><p>“Before the war, we used to go to physical therapy [for my daughter],” she said. “There is no such thing any longer, no technician or doctor to follow up with us.”</p><p>She said bathrooms and other facilities in the camp are inaccessible for people with physical disabilities: “There is no separate place for [people with disabilities] for bathrooms or food. My mother and daughter cannot go to these [inaccessible] bathrooms. We need to take them.”</p><p>Another mother of five children, including a 6-year-old daughter with a physical disability, said her daughter needs an assistive device and specific food that she cannot get in the Tawila camp for internally displaced people: “She needs an assistive device, otherwise she is just laying around. She only eats soft food, and it’s hard for me to find the specific food she needs. I am trying my best.”</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-02-25T03:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/02/202602afr_sudan_displaced_tawila.jpg?h=97507bfe&itok=WHIKBdZO","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/24/sudan-people-with-disabilities-targeted-in-north-darfur","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:53.369Z"},{"id":"cym2ne","archiveId":"vz3onq","slug":"meet-abigail-spanberger-virginias-governor-will-respond-to-trumps-state-of-the-union","title":"Meet Abigail Spanberger: Virginia’s governor will respond to Trump’s State of the Union","excerpt":"Abigail Spanberger, the first-term governor of Virginia, is set to deliver the Democratic rebuttal to President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address of his second term. Spanberger has positioned herself as antithetical to Trump’s policies and last year flipped Virginia’s highest state off...","content":"
Abigail Spanberger, the first-term governor of Virginia, is set to deliver the Democratic rebuttal to President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address of his second term. Spanberger has positioned herself as antithetical to Trump’s policies and last year flipped Virginia’s highest state office by double digits.
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“On Tuesday, I look forward to joining Virginians in this historic place to lay out the next chapter of our story — a clear vision for a stronger, safer, and more affordable future for every American who calls our nation home,” Spanberger said in a statement announcing her speech. In response, Trump called her a “Radical Left lunatic” and derided the policy positions that won her office.
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Spanberger made headlines last year when she became the first woman governor of the state , part of a wave of Democratic electoral wins. She focused her campaign on affordability and education, leaning on her law enforcement background and identity as a mother to appeal to voters.
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Before running for governor, Spanberger served three terms representing Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives, part of a wave of women who won office in 2018. She was one of a group of Democratic women who ran on national security backgrounds and won; she formerly worked for the CIA. She flipped the seat after her frustration with incumbent Rep. Dave Brat’s vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act motivated her to run for office.
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Spanberger was elected following term-limited Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. She won against then-Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who centered her campaign on trans-exclusionary policies, mimicking the Trump administration’s “protecting women” language.
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Youngkin leaned into the language of “parental rights” to fan panic over transgender students in public schools. Spanberger’s education policies throughout her campaign instead focused on addressing Virginia’s teacher shortage, boosting learning outcomes and physically repairing school buildings.
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She also zeroed in on the failures of Trump’s year in office. She was endorsed by the largest union of federal workers , the members of which saw potentially illegal mass firings and layoffs in the first few months of the Trump administration. She spoke against Trump’s trade war: “Virginians are already being squeezed by high prices — and these reckless tariffs are doing nothing to make life more affordable,” she said last August.
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On her first day in office, Spanberger signed executive orders overturning a directive for state law enforcement to prioritize cooperation with federal immigration authorities, establishing a nondiscrimination policy in state government and initiating several commissions to assess possible affordability measures.
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She has pledged to raise the state minimum wage to $15 by 2028 and further ordered the end to state partnerships with federal immigration enforcement.
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Democratic counterprogramming is in full force on Tuesday before, during and after Trump’s speech. Sen. Alex Padilla of California will deliver a Democratic response in Spanish. He was thrown to the floor, handcuffed and forcibly removed from a Los Angeles event where Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was speaking last June.
","category":"activism","author":"Jasmine Mithani","publishDate":"2026-02-24T23:32:33.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/spanberger_.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/abigail-spanberger-democratic-response-trump-state-of-the-union/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T00:00:07.503Z"},{"id":"sd9jaz","archiveId":"wky279","slug":"a-white-house-invite-a-punchlineand-a-choice-for-the-men-of-team-usa","title":"A White House Invite, a Punchline—and a Choice for the Men of Team USA","excerpt":"Both the U.S. women’s and men’s ice hockey teams won gold at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Yet, within hours of defeating Canada, only the U.S. men’s hockey team received a congratulatory call from President Donald Trump and an invitation to the White House.","content":"
Both the U.S. women’s and men’s ice hockey teams won gold at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Yet, within hours of defeating Canada, only the U.S. men’s hockey team received a congratulatory call from President Donald Trump and an invitation to the White House.
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What should have been a routine celebration of athletic excellence instead became a revealing cultural moment.
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After extending the invitation, the president joked, “I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team,” adding that he would “probably be impeached” if they were not invited. Laughter followed.
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Some have dismissed the comment as harmless—just a joke, just locker room talk, boys being boys. But humor has long been one of the ways inequalities sustains itself. Framed as harmless, softened by laughter and repeated often enough, it teaches audiences what is acceptable and what feels risky to challenge.
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When women’s inclusion becomes a punchline, the triumph no longer belongs equally to everyone it represents.
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The post A White House Invite, a Punchline—and a Choice for the Men of Team USA appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Jodi Bondi Norgaard","publishDate":"2026-02-24T22:11:02.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2262538612.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/24/team-usa-men-women-gold-trump-white-house-invite/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T00:00:07.163Z"},{"id":"ayupr7","archiveId":"3n9tkt","slug":"talibans-new-penal-code-codifies-violence-obedience-and-gender-apartheid","title":"Taliban’s New Penal Code Codifies Violence, Obedience and Gender Apartheid","excerpt":"On Jan. 7, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada signed off on the “Penal Principles of Taliban Courts,” a sweeping new penal code that fundamentally reshapes Afghanistan’s legal system: formalizing violence, criminalizing dissent, legalizing slavery and stripping women of legal personhood under the ...","content":"
On Jan. 7, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada signed off on the “Penal Principles of Taliban Courts,” a sweeping new penal code that fundamentally reshapes Afghanistan’s legal system: formalizing violence, criminalizing dissent, legalizing slavery and stripping women of legal personhood under the guise of religious law. It took effect immediately without public announcement or consultation.
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The regulation only became public weeks later after an Afghan human rights organization, Rawadari, published the text, raising alarm over provisions that legalize slavery, authorize private violence and institutionalize repression across nearly every aspect of life.
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According to the regulation, absolute obedience to the Taliban’s supreme leader is mandatory. The penal code also codifies a rigid social hierarchy, dividing society into four classes and explicitly recognizing individuals as either “free” or “enslaved,” with harsher punishments imposed on those deemed lower status. Human rights advocates warn this structure institutionalizes discrimination and revives concepts long prohibited under international law.
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Women are among the most severely targeted. Under multiple iniquitous provisions, husbands are authorized to punish their wives through discretionary violence, while domestic abuse is only recognized as a crime in limited circumstances and carries a maximum sentence of 15 days imprisonment for the perpetrator.
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In contrast, forcing animals to fight carries a longer prison sentence than severe violence against women—reinforcing a sinister legal hierarchy in which women’s lives are afforded less protection than animal welfare.
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These codes are not merely domestic policies. They will shape the psychological, social and moral landscape of an entire population and a new generation growing up under the Taliban’s brutal regime. Children are being raised under a system where violence is law, obedience is survival and women are denied humanity. The cost of inaction will not be measured only in today’s abuses, but in the long-term destabilization of Afghan society and the normalization of extremist governance beyond its borders.
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The post Taliban’s New Penal Code Codifies Violence, Obedience and Gender Apartheid appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Sarah Hamidi","publishDate":"2026-02-24T21:45:15.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1234393707.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/24/taliban-women-violence/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T00:00:07.163Z"},{"id":"cbs4n9","archiveId":"h7tjq1","slug":"women-in-fantasy-leading-with-courage-in-any-world","title":"Women in Fantasy: Leading with Courage in Any World","excerpt":"Winter contains both Black History Month and Women’s History Month, but for gamers and readers like me it’s also peak hibernation season. Those of us who hate the cold relish curling up with a good story that transports us—and for me, nothing does that better than fantasy.","content":"
Winter contains both Black History Month and Women’s History Month, but for gamers and readers like me it’s also peak hibernation season. Those of us who hate the cold relish curling up with a good story that transports us—and for me, nothing does that better than fantasy.
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Whether I’m in front of a computer, TV, or book, I love the escape that comes from living through the eyes of another person (or demon, elf, or hobbit) and exploring familiar struggles in unfamiliar worlds. We’re able to see ourselves in these characters, and the different powers available to them in the face of evil combined with the traits we recognize from our lives make triumph over evil seem possible.
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I especially love women in fantasy. Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary people, and I’ve found this genre to be most generous in giving women power and agency. Women in fantasy in the past century have often been the most courageous characters in their stories. It’s that courage I return to most these days. These women all inspire me with their courage, whether they’re real or not. I hope they help light the way for you, too.
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1. The godmothers of fantasy and sci-fi: Octavia Butler, Mary Shelley, and Ursula K. Le Guin
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It would be wrong not to start with our godmothers of fantasy and sci-fi, the real-life examples of courage on this list. Octavia Butler, Mary Shelley, and Ursula K. Le Guin all wrote during times when women achieving literary success was difficult at best and unimaginable at worst. In eschewing those expectations, they shaped their respective genres with stories that have informed modern structures, creatures, and arcs in both sci-fi and fantasy.
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These women authors achieved everything by leaning into who they were, not running from it. Butler became the first Black woman to achieve notoriety in science fiction and even won the MacArthur Prize for her work. Shelley wrote under a pen name, not to gain readership under a male-sounding name but to avoid association with her famous father. Le Guin brought sci-fi and fantasy into literary culture when the Library of Congress honored her as a “Living Legend.” Their courage was in knowing their power and leaning into it, despite the obstacles in their way as women authors.
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2. Maelle, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of those games that feels more like a movie. I loved exploring this world, filled with equal parts of magic and heartache. Of all the dynamic and charming characters, Maelle best exemplifies this dichotomy. Her backstory is a patchwork of loss and lack of security, but her history gives her the strength to confront the deep questions about sense of self, perseverance, loyalty, and seeking joy in the darkest times.
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Ever since finishing the game, I keep thinking of Maelle and how she would move through our own world. She would recognize the collective sense of loss many of us have felt this past year, but then she would find the people, places, and things that bring her joy and lean into them.
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It’s an important reminder that bravery doesn’t necessarily mean slaying dragons—courage itself can look like joy in the face of desperation.
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3. Éowyn, The Lord of The Rings
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Ah, The Lord of the Rings , my first fantasy love. This book is filled with A LOT of men, but my favorite character has always been Éowyn. In the world of Rohan, she is a brave, bold woman—like many other women of Middle Earth and Rohan in particular—but when faced with possible exile due to the manipulation of her uncle, she turns to caring for him instead. She wants to be on the front lines, riding into battle with her cousin, but evil forces have attacked her family and community. Éowyn serves her people in the ways available to her.
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Sometimes the bravest thing we can do is go where we’re needed before we go where we want to be. Éowyn gives all she has to her family and her people, even if it’s not the way she dreamed. Courage isn’t necessarily synonymous with sacrifice, but it can be. While sacrifice is too often the patronizing crowning jewel of “femininity” for characters in other works, Tolkien turns this on its head. Éowyn shows us that sacrifice doesn’t mean abandoning your identity or dreams. After all, she is only one of two fighters not to flee in the face of the Witch King (second biggest-bad guy next to Sauron) and goes on to strike him down, claiming victory for her people.
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4. Karlach, Baldur’s Gate 3
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The world of Baldur’s Gate 3 spans from the deepest recesses of Hell to otherworldly dreamscapes and everything in between. Karlach, one of our many heroes, rises from a desperate situation in Hell (is there any other kind?) to join forces against a looming existential threat to the world. She’s a seasoned fighter and relishes it. There’s no fear there.
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Her fear is rooted much deeper. She fears abandonment and therefore is wary of friendship and love. She wears toughness and nonchalance like armor, one that begins to erode little by little. Karlach begins to open up to her group of fellow fighters, allowing herself friendship and love. This vulnerability ultimately makes them all stronger—it’s a lot easier to fight an otherworldly psychic guy with an octopus head intent on taking over all living consciousness when you fully understand your teammates and yourself.
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5. Ellie, The Last of Us (note: this section contains mild spoilers for The Last of Us game and season one of the television show)
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Ellie is a badass, modern girl with all the tenderness and naivete of a child and all the responsibilities and heartache of an adult. In an apocalyptic world controlled by a terrifying zombie-like virus, Ellie’s forced to grow up way too fast. But she softens when Joel, a man who lost his daughter when she was about Ellie’s age, agrees to take her across the country in a last-ditch effort to find a cure for the illness plaguing the world.
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That journey alone is harrowing and requires serious courage, but Ellie’s bravery shines most at the end of this part of the story. In trying to save Ellie, Joel stole her agency, by going against her wishes and choosing to save her at the cost of saving the world. Joel has been the most constant source of love and stability for her, but she bravely confronts him and eventually makes him face his actions. Ellie teaches us that sometimes the most courageous thing we can do is hold the people we love accountable for their mistakes.
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6. Tar-Míriel, Rings of Power
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Rings of Power has been a divisive expansion of Tolkien’s Middle Earth, but Tar-Míriel appears in both the foundational Silmarillion book and the recent TV adaptation. She serves as queen-regent of the later lost city of Númenor, taking the place of her father when he can no longer rule. But in her short tenure, she faces constant power struggles when her political opponents paint her as ill-equipped for leadership and misaligned with her people. She never caves, instead courageously leading despite attempts to discredit her.
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Like I mentioned at the beginning, fantasy is meaningful both in how it differs from our world—and how it reflects it. In real life, Míriel is portrayed by Black actress Cynthia Addai-Robinson. Unfortunately, her casting caused hateful fans to rail against both her and the show for casting her and other Black actors. Addai-Robinson has pressed forward, showing her own courage in the face of baseless detractors—just like Míriel.
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These women feel like my friends and my mentors. They lead me through the darkest times with their courage and strength, all without compromising who they are. Real or imagined, they teach us to break the mold, help where you can without sacrificing who you are, find strength in vulnerability, hold even the ones you love accountable, lean into leadership, and try to find joy, even when it seems impossible. Those are lessons I’ll be taking to heart this Women’s History Month and beyond.
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The post Women in Fantasy: Leading with Courage in Any World appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"resilience","author":"Amelia Packham","publishDate":"2026-02-24T20:56:59.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/updated-blog-graphic-video-games.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/women-in-fantasy-leading-with-courage-in-any-world/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T00:00:08.382Z"},{"id":"z5bbp9","archiveId":"4rvdi3","slug":"channel-jodie-turner-smiths-unapologetic-chic-for-less","title":"Channel Jodie Turner-Smith’s Unapologetic Chic For Less","excerpt":"Jodie Turner-Smith lives rent-free on our style mood board. From daring hot pants to full-on high glamour, she consistently turns heads wherever she goes. Whether she’s commanding attention on the […] The post Channel Jodie Turner-Smith’s Unapologetic Chic For Less appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Mecca Pryor ·
Updated February 24, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Jodie Turner-Smith lives rent-free on our >Burberry Autumn/Winter 2026 show in London, the actress delivered yet another unforgettable look. Posing in front of the iconic London Tower Bridge, Turner-Smith stunned in a grey mirror-paneled dress that reflected the city lights with every movement. She paired the statement piece with sleek thigh-high leather boots and layered an oversized black fur coat over her shoulders to stay warm in the evening chill. A black fringe bag added texture and movement, perfectly complementing the futuristic edge of her ensemble.
While a head-to-toe Burberry runway look may not fit into everyone’s budget this year, channeling Turner-Smith’s bold, polished aesthetic is still within reach. With the right mix of reflective fabrics, strong outerwear, and sharp accessories, you can recreate the essence of her show-stopping outfit without the designer price tag.
We’ve scoured the internet for the best lookalike pieces to help you capture her fashion-forward vibe. Scroll ahead to shop this quintessentially British look at a lower price point.
LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 23: Jodie Turner-Smith attends the Burberry show during London Fashion Week February 2026 at Old Billingsgate Market on February 23, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Neil Mockford/WireImage) 01 01 Naturalizer Scarlette Over The Knee Boot
Have your boots reach thigh-high like Turner-Smith’s by shopping these flat leather boots from Naturalizer—giving you a chic edge while keeping comfort top of mind. Available at
Naturalizer 120 Shop Now 02 02 More To Come Yarina Mini Dress
This dress from More to Come features a silhouette similar to the classic disco- class=\"retailer essence-commerce-link\" target=\"_blank\">Revolve
94 Shop Now 03 03 Jaded London Mara Oversized Faux Fur Coat
The only way to brave winter in a mini dress is with the biggest coat you can find. Take a cue from Jodie Turner-Smith and layer up with this oversized faux fur coat from Jaded London to stay warm without sacrificingclass=\"retailer essence-commerce-link\" target=\"_blank\">Jaded Ldn
319 Shop Now 04 04 Silence + Noise Fringe Faux Leather Hobo Bag
Channel her boho-chic energy with a fringe bag from Urban Outfitters, and carry it nonchalantly by the straps for a paparazzi-ready pose. Available at
Urban Outfitters 60 Shop Now 05 05 Alexis Bittar Solanales Gold Crystal Spiral Stud Earring
Peeking through a voluminous blowout, a crystallized gold and silver earring adds the perfect touch of glamour. Shop a similar statement piece from Alexis Bittar to capture the same bold finish. Available at
Alexis Bittar 95 Shop Now
The post Channel Jodie Turner-Smith’s Unapologetic Chic For Less appeared first on Essence .
","category":"activism","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-02-24T20:42:31.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/fashion/channel-jodie-turner-smith-unapologetic-chic-for-less/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:52.612Z"},{"id":"s5fgtm","archiveId":"5kgae3","slug":"hbo-documentary-the-devil-is-busy-highlights-the-challenges-of-post-dobbs-abortion-access","title":"HBO documentary, The Devil Is Busy, highlights the challenges of post-Dobbs abortion access","excerpt":"
HBO documentary, The Devil Is Busy, highlights the challenges of post-Dobbs abortion access sramashwar February 24, 2026 The global gag rule just expanded: here’s how it threatens reproductive rights worldwide
sramashwar February 24, 2026 By
Donnetta Monk ·
Updated February 24, 2026 Getting your
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During my first year in corporate, I was taken aback when my coworker made an off-hand comment. He mentioned that my many different hair>CROWN research study revealed that Black women’s hair is two-and-a-half times more likely to be perceived as unprofessional . And, for many of us, that’s not just a statistic, it’s our reality.
As we celebrate Black History Month , ESSENCE is highlighting five Black women who are breaking glass ceilings and rewriting the narrative in the corporate space. These professionals share how they navigate hair routines, workplace perception, and identity in today’s corporate landscape.
The Blue Print
Black women have always silently balanced (battled) corporate perceptions of their natural hair. In the early 80s and 90s, there were no protections like the CROWN act to guard against workplace discrimination for young professionals like Patricia Wilson. Advancing in your career meant assimilating to euro centric standards.
“Before we had to really assimilate to our [white] counterparts, wearing naturaldecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/Patricia-Wilson-Photo-Option.jpg\" alt=\"Black Women Are Rewriting The Corporate Natural Hair Narrative\" width=\"400\" height=\"689\" />
Patricia Wilson’s Tip on Embracing Natural Hair Color: Wilson decided to stop coloring her hair due to its health concerns and began embracing her natural, silver curls.
The New Executives on Letting The Work Speak For Itself
Today, Black women are rocking boho braids, sisterlocks, fluffy twists and countless other naturalsrc=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/KeAnna-Jackson.heic\" alt=\"Black Women Are Rewriting The Corporate Natural Hair Narrative\" width=\"400\" />
KeAnna Jackson’s Corporate Hair Routine: Jackson is going back to the basics by cutting out high tension hair decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/Alexis-Johnson-Headshot-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"Black Women Are Rewriting The Corporate Natural Hair Narrative\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" />
Alexis Johnson’s Go-To Hair>studies show that two-thirds of Black women reported that they changed their hair for a job interview, next gen rising stars are leaving that in the past. They are wearing their natural hair in the early stages of the hiring process and showing up authentically themselves.
“Recently, I was asked “Do you really wear your natural hair to interviews?” And I said, “Yes. What else am I going to do?” says Kaelyn Lowe, Site Communications Lead at Pfizer. “Even if you start with braids or a sew-in, at some point people are going to see your natural hair. Maybe your stylist cancels. Maybe you change yourdecoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/Kaelyn-Lowe-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Black Women Are Rewriting The Corporate Natural Hair Narrative\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" />
Kaelyn Lowe’s Go To Product: Lowe swears by Design Essentials Almond & Avocado Curl Enhancing Mousse for a bouncy crunchless curl.
Noelle Allen’s Perfect Work Hair rel=\"tag\">black in corporate america natural hair natural hair discrimination
The post Black Women Are Rewriting The Corporate Natural Hair Narrative appeared first on Essence .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Akili King","publishDate":"2026-02-24T20:00:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/beauty/black-history-month-women-corporate-natural-hair/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:52.612Z"},{"id":"8kx8hm","archiveId":"bcplj0","slug":"medicaid-postpartum-coverage-extension-tracker","title":"Medicaid Postpartum Coverage Extension Tracker","excerpt":"This page tracks recent state actions to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage, including approved and pending 1115 waivers, legislation that will require the state to seek federal approval through a SPA or 1115 waiver, submitted and approved SPAs, and coverage financed solely with state funds.","content":"This page tracks recent state actions to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage, including approved and pending 1115 waivers, legislation that will require the state to seek federal approval through a SPA or 1115 waiver, submitted and approved SPAs, and coverage financed solely with state funds.","category":"equality","author":"kffmadelineg","publishDate":"2026-02-24T19:12:36.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2025/01/Feature-Image-Medicaid-Postpartum-Coverage-Extension-Tracker.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/medicaid/medicaid-postpartum-coverage-extension-tracker/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T00:00:07.284Z"},{"id":"q5fsyh","archiveId":"s8hby1","slug":"why-are-democratic-women-wearing-white-to-the-state-of-the-union-address","title":"Why are Democratic women wearing white to the State of the Union address?","excerpt":"Democratic women lawmakers are again wearing white as a symbol of protest during this year’s State of the Union address. After expanding the dress code to include pink last year to call attention to President Donald Trump’s administration’s treatment of women and families, the lawmakers will return ...","content":"
Democratic women lawmakers are again wearing white as a symbol of protest during this year’s State of the Union address.
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After expanding the dress code to include pink last year to call attention to President Donald Trump’s administration’s treatment of women and families, the lawmakers will return to white, the color of suffrage, partially in reference to the SAVE America Act. The bill, which could make it more difficult for married women and LGBTQ+ people to register to vote , recently passed the House and could be taken up soon by the Senate.
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“Trump will speak later tonight, but you don’t have to be a fortune teller to know what he’s going to say,” Ohio Rep. Shontel Brown said during a Democratic Women’s Caucus news conference. “He’s not going to talk about the challenges facing women and families every day. Tonight, the president will lie, gaslight and flat-out ignore women’s issues because our voices were never a part of his agenda to make America great again.”
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Lawmakers’ guests to Tuesday night’s speech will include at least half a dozen survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender with ties to many powerful people who died while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who was one of the most vocal proponents of releasing more batches of documents concerning the late financier’s sex offenses, is bringing Haley Robson, who says Epstein trafficked her starting when she was 16.
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“Haley’s courageous fight is proof that this isn’t about politics, it’s about exposing America’s two-tiered system of justice and bringing accountability to the Epstein class involved in the horrific abuse of young girls,” Khanna said in a statement. “She and her fellow survivors’ bravery was the catalyst for changing a rotten system and finally standing up for humanity and American values.”
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Illinois Democratic Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García will bring Marimar Martinez, a Chicago woman who was shot multiple times by a Customs and Border Protection agent in October. Body camera video footage and the officer’s texts were released earlier this month , showing the agent had bragged about shooting her.
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Trump’s approval rating among women has dropped since his last State of the Union address. One recent CNN poll showed a nine-point drop for women respondents since February 2025, while a Quinnipiac poll from this February showed a 30 percent approval rating for the president among women, with 64 percent disapproving.
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“Women are not safe in Trump’s America, as costs keep rising, health care slips out of reach, and violence becomes a daily headline,” said DWC chair Teresa Leger Fernández, a New Mexico Democrat.
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Meanwhile, a handful of Democrats in both chambers plan on skipping the event for a “People’s State of the Union” held near the Lincoln Memorial, while others say they will stay at home.
","category":"activism","author":"Marissa Martinez","publishDate":"2026-02-24T18:44:08.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/sotu-white_.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/democratic-women-wearing-white-state-of-the-union-trump/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T00:00:07.503Z"},{"id":"hqilw1","archiveId":"rwblv7","slug":"mara-brock-akil-announces-her-debut-novel-and-we-have-the-cover","title":"Mara Brock Akil Announces Her Debut Novel: And We Have The Cover!","excerpt":"Mara Brock Akil has been helping Black women feel seen for three decades. As the creative mastermind behind some of our most beloved shows like Being Mary Jane, Forever, The […] The post Mara Brock Akil Announces Her Debut Novel: And We Have The Cover! appeared first on Essence .","content":"
By
Bridgette Bartlett Royall ·
Updated February 24, 2026 Getting your
Trinity Audio player ready…
Girlfriends , Akil is an iconic storyteller. The wife and mom of two possesses an undisputable gift for creating characters who have layers, and are ambitious, intelligent and resilient, while also being fly, flawed and vulnerable. We become invested in their relationships, their careers and their families. She gets us. She is us.
Now, the Northwestern grad is turning the page in her career and adding yet another accomplishment to her impressive resume: novelist. Akil’s debut novel, The Revelation of Dionne Daphne will officially be released on June 30. Tapping into her stellar character development skills, Akil delivers what is sure to be a publishing cult classic just like her shows. The book’s protagonist, Dionne Daphne, has everything a modern, thirty-something New York City woman in the 1990s could desire. She’s the beauty editor at a prestigious magazine (translation: unlimited skincare products and spa visits), has a poppin’ social life, and a fi-one boyfriend. But all of this comes to a crashing halt when he arrives at her Brooklyn doorstep with life-threatening news. Will this destroy Dionne’s seemingly picture-perfect life?
In true Akil fashion, this page turner reveals that there is always more to people beyond what is shown on the surface. The novel takes readers into Dionne’s past, unearthing a dark secret that she has hidden since childhood. What follows is a deeply moving novel about enduring love and self-awakening. The Revelation of Dionne Daphne is a gripping book that demonstrates what can happen when you dig deep enough into the shadows of your life. It’s a powerful story of the reconnection of broken lovers, fractured family, and distant friendships.
Mara Brock Akil’s storytelling magic ensure that her debut novel be an instant bestseller.
“My hope is that readers will see themselves in Dionne and recognize the weight they’ve been holding and feel permission to release it. Stepping into fiction as a novelist has been a beautiful journey for me, expanding my storytelling into a new form and discovering what revelation looks like on the page and I am so grateful to have Storehouse Voices alongside me on this new journey,” explains Akil. She adds, “I wrote this novel with the intention of taking the reader through a story that may be familiar. One of isolation, shame, resilience and the redemptive power of love.”
Akil’s laser focus storytelling was even more empowered when she partnered with Storehouse Voices, publisher of the novel. Known for helping to amplify the voices of Black women through literature, the strategic collaboration was a no-brainer. “Mara Brock Akil has shaped the emotional landscape of a generation through television,” shares Tamira Chapman, Publisher of Storehouse Voices. “With The Revelation of Dionne Daphne, she brings that same depth, vulnerability, and cultural insight to the page. Mara is a master storyteller reminding us that Black women’s interior lives deserve permanence in literature.”
Chelcee Johns, Executive Editor at Storehouse Voices agrees. “I’d always wondered what a novel from Mara Brock Akil would look like,” Johns admits. “I reached out with hopes she’d been thinking the same and after a few years of working behind the scenes, what has come is beyond anything I’d imagined. This debut novel wrestles with themes of sexual awakening and acceptance, family trauma, sudden love and evolving friendship through a character with as much bite as she has tenderness.”
We are excited to read this literary gem and know you are too. For more information about The Revelation of Dionne Daphne and to preorder a signed copy, visit RevelationofDionneDaphne.com .
TOPICS:
Being Mary Jane black authors Forever Girlfriends Mara Brock Akil The post Mara Brock Akil Announces Her Debut Novel: And We Have The Cover! appeared first on Essence .
","category":"resilience","author":"Okla Jones","publishDate":"2026-02-24T18:14:00.000Z","image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","source":"Essence","sourceUrl":"https://www.essence.com/entertainment/books/mara-brock-akil-announces-debut-novel/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:52.612Z"},{"id":"vw9ner","archiveId":"stnoh","slug":"sundance-2026-extra-geography-puts-a-quirky-tender-spin-on-a-familiar-boarding-school-tale","title":"Sundance 2026: ‘Extra Geography’ Puts a Quirky, Tender Spin on a Familiar Boarding-School Tale","excerpt":"Extra Geography , the United Kingdom’s entry in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance this year, is a funny, sweet and quirky coming-of-age story about two best friends in an all-girls English boarding school.","content":"
Extra Geography , the United Kingdom’s entry in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance this year, is a funny, sweet and quirky coming-of-age story about two best friends in an all-girls English boarding school. Directed by Molly Manners and written by Miriam Battye, the film offers a wholly unique angle on a well-worn subgenre, reimagining the contours of youthful exuberance and teen ambition, as well as the conflicting feelings and confusing choices we make when we’re learning what it means to grow up.
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(This is one in a series of film reviews from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, focused on films by women, trans or nonbinary directors that tell compelling stories about the lives of women and girls.)
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The post Sundance 2026: ‘Extra Geography’ Puts a Quirky, Tender Spin on a Familiar Boarding-School Tale appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Aviva Dove-Viebahn","publishDate":"2026-02-24T17:02:19.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Extra_Geography-Still_1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/24/sundance-extra-geography-review/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-24T18:00:07.208Z"},{"id":"i44w36","archiveId":"kwqpmc","slug":"standing-in-and-after-bost","title":"Standing in and after Bost","excerpt":"Controlling Opinions is a recurring series by Richard Re that explores the interaction of law, ideology, and discretion at the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Bost v. […] The post Standing in and after Bost appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"
Controlling Opinions is a recurring series by Richard Re that explores the interaction of law, ideology, and discretion at the Supreme Court.
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The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections
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Bost well illustrates a much broader trend toward “standing realignment ,” that is, the rise of standing hawkishness on the left and dovishness on the right.
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Bost also has more specific implications for the ever-changing, frequently amorphous law of standing. I discuss five here, respectively relating to: (i) the disappearance of a history-and-tradition test for standing; (ii) the expansion of “fair-competition” standing; (iii) the narrowing of the court’s decision in the 2013 case of Clapper v. Amnesty International
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***
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First, Bost ignores, or at most pays lip service to, the history-and-tradition approach to standing set out a few years ago in Transunion v. Ramirez Second Amendment , the court has similarly emphasized the importance of considering historical practices and their modern analogues. As Justice Amy Coney Barrett pointed out, however, Bost did not undertake that sort of analysis.
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In a single sentence, Bost did posit that a candidate’s “reputation” is a traditional common law injury, citing Transunion . In that earlier ruling, the court had insisted that reputation-harming information – such as assertions that someone is a known terrorist – had to be published or disclosed to third parties to generate an injury in fact capable of supporting a suit for damages. In Bost , however, the court did not require a showing of anything analogous to publication or disclosure of traditionally defamatory information.
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The chief justice’s opinion for the court calls to mind his majority opinion in United States v. Rahimi New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen Bost appears to have done something similar for the approach to standing set out in Transunion .
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In short, the court’s throwaway, unpersuasive line about traditional injury only confirms that other rationales did the real work.
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***
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Second, Bost may indirectly loosen up the law of competition-based standing in general, including for affirmative action cases.
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Though Bost did not rely on them, affirmative action cases on standing, such as Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
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That logic tracks other cases involving “procedural rights.” Oftentimes, people denied a concrete government benefit through an unlawful process cannot show that they would have gotten the benefit if the law had been followed. A contract, for instance, might be assigned based on an unlawful selection process. Would the plaintiff have won out in a lawful process? Who knows. Yet standing exists, because the plaintiff’s right to a lawful procedure is thought to loosen the causation requirement.
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Bost appears to loosen the requirement quite a bit more. Remarkably, the court did not feel the need to establish that any concrete injury was being protected by a procedural right to a lawful process. The court instead relied on a fair opportunity for Bost to compete in a lawful election, period. “Each runner in a 100-meter dash,” the court reasoned, “would suffer if the race were unexpectedly extended to 105 meters,” because “all would be deprived of the chance to compete for the prize that the rules define.” Likewise, a candidate might be advantaged by a rule in favor of counting late-arriving ballots. He might even be a shoo-in to win. No matter, reasoned the court. Even if counting extra ballots caused the candidate’s victory, he would still have lost a chance to compete fairly in a lawful process.
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Now apply that logic to affirmative action. Let’s say that someone is advantaged by an affirmative action program. And further imagine that the person is admitted to the program to which they are applying. And imagine even further that the person is admitted because of the affirmative action program that advantaged them. One might have thought that such a claimant had suffered no injury. Yet Bost ’s logic suggests that the imagined individual could sue (say, for ideological reasons) to have his application evaluated on race-neutral grounds. Only then would the individual have competed in a fair process. The result: standing to seek not just race-neutral consideration, but a race-neutral rejection.
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Bost ’s purely fairness-based logic thus supports, and may portend, other expansions of standing. No longer would a procedural right have to secure a concrete interest. An interest in “fair” process alone may generate standing.
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***
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Third, Barrett’s opinion (joined by Justice Elena Kagan) strengthens the argument that the case of Clapper v. Amnesty International is to be read narrowly or even overlooked.
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Over a decade ago, the court ruled in Clapper that attorneys representing alleged terrorists lacked standing to challenge a surveillance program that, they argued, would unconstitutionally monitor their communications with clients. More recently, however, Justice Samuel Alito (in a dissent from denial of certiorari joined by Justice Thomas) complained that lower courts were overreading Clapper ’s restriction onstanding. That view was noteworthy in part because Alito wrote Clapper itself and Thomas joined his majority opinion. But how many other justices had a similar view?
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Bost affords a partial answer. Barrett’s concurrence in the judgment argued that candidates have standing to challenge vote-counting procedures when they hire poll watchers to guard against miscounting because they expend resources in doing so. Clapper seemingly established that such costs are self-inflicted and non-cognizable unless they respond to a substantial risk of some harm. In Bost , however, there was no showing of such a substantial risk.
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Barrett addressed this concern in part as follows: “it is standard practice for campaigns to send poll watchers to monitor ballot counting to ensure that any discrepancies are resolved appropriately. See Brief for League of Women Voters et al. as Amici Curiae 20 (calling it ‘political malpractice’ for candidates not to monitor ballot counting in their races).” This appeal to “standard practice” – as well as its counterpart, “political malpractice” – makes sense. The existence of a costly practice is powerful evidence that the practice guards against a substantial risk.
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Buch such a practice, and a reciprocal sense of malpractice, was also present in Clapper . There, a responsible attorney would be prepared to incur costs to avoid the risk that privileged attorney-client conversations might be unlawfully surveilled by the government. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who ultimately provided a necessary vote in Clapper , said precisely that at oral argument: “I think the lawyer would engage in malpractice if he talked on the telephone with some of these clients, given this statute.”
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So Barrett’s opinion suggests Clapper ’s deterioration as precedent, and raises the possibility that practice/malpractice may play a greater future role in standing cases.
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***
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Fourth, Bost featured attention to what I call relative standing, even as the court denied it was engaged in that mode of argument.
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Yours truly has argued that standing doctrine both is and should be attentive to whether the plaintiff at hand is the best available plaintiff. If there is no better plaintiff to vindicate a legal principle through the pursuit of a particular judicial remedy, that is often a reason for the plaintiff at hand to have standing. And if there is a better plaintiff available, that is often a reason for the plaintiff at hand to be denied standing.
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Clapper illustrated this dynamic. After explaining that it would deny standing to the plaintiffs, the court was at pains to identify alternative claimants, including ones that supposedly had a “stronger evidentiary basis” than the actual plaintiffs. I have argued that Clapper ’s relativistic analysis was faulty and unpersuasive, but I do agree that that kind of analysis was the right way for the court to proceed.
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However, even cases that engage in relativistic reasoning generally deny that such reasoning is legally relevant. Courts instead insist that they simply demand “injury in fact” (that is, the particular plaintiff was adequately injured) even as relativistic issues appear during oral arguments or within published opinions.
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Bost continued that pattern in grand style. Early in its analysis, the court noted: “An unfair and inaccurate election plainly affects those who compete for the support of the people in a different way than it affects the people who lend their support.” Quoting a dissenting opinion by Judge Andrew Oldham on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, the court further noted that a candidate has a “more particularized” interest than a voter. While it is not entirely clear what the court had in mind here, candidates do seem to have at least as much at stake as an arbitrarily selected voter. Even a miniscule risk of losing an election is still a risk of losing out on a job. And candidates are generally voters, too.
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Recognizing the unavoidably relativistic nature of the court’s claims, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson contested them. In her view, the court’s “assessment gets the significance of the relative interests exactly backward.” Jackson argued that candidates have nothing more at stake than voters. And voters’ interest in lawful elections, Jackson concluded, are generalized and so non-cognizable.
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Yet the majority (true to its past practice) denied that it was interested in that seemingly pivotal question. “We have no occasion to theorize,” the court asserted, “about the ‘significance of the[se] relative interests.’” The reader is left to wonder how that disavowal could be squared with the court’s adjacent comment about candidates having a “more particularized” interest.
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In short, the court’s bottom line is eminently defensible as a matter of relative standing. And, despite the majority’s claim otherwise, some attention to “relative interests” seemed to underlie its decision.
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***
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Finally, Bost is remarkable for its extensive and unusual deployment of what might be called systemic pragmatism.
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Both before and after Bost , election law scholar Rick Pildes (including in a piece with Samuel Ozer-Staton) argued in favor of the broad rule of standing that the court adopted – that is, a rule allowing for a candidate to challenge ballot-counting procedures. And that general view has been echoed by other scholars, including Daniel Tokaji . These figures have largely focused on one or more pragmatic points that also appeared in the court’s opinion.
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In brief, here are those pragmatic points. First, election litigation should whenever possible come before an election rather than after one – and, generally, the earlier the better. Second, instead of putting themselves in a position of deciding elections once ballots are in, courts should rule behind a “veil of ignorance” (that is, before the results are known). Finally, courts must avoid the catch-22 threatened by the “Purcell principle,” which bars courts from altering election procedures too close to an election. If this principle blocks judicial relief late in time, in other words, then standing doctrine must not block earlier judicial review.
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Interestingly, the Bost court advanced these pragmatic, systemic arguments in a section styled as a response to the separate opinions. Yet these points – although in a supposedly defensive section – provide reasons that could independently support the court’s result. This aspect of Bost (like its attention to relative standing) reveals the court’s interest in designing standing rulings that foster a practicable legal system.
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Perhaps the most intriguing possibility raised by Bost is that systemic pragmatism might come to play a more central and unembarrassed role in standing doctrine.
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The post Standing in and after Bost appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Richard Re","publishDate":"2026-02-24T14:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GettyImages-1393695657.jpg","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/02/standing-in-and-after-bost/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:54.181Z"},{"id":"mt0bog","archiveId":"oj3zz6","slug":"louisiana-mifepristone-lawsuit-could-hinder-telehealth-abortion-nationwide","title":"Louisiana Mifepristone Lawsuit Could Hinder Telehealth Abortion Nationwide","excerpt":"Republican Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill is leading a challenge against federal health officials over a Biden-era regulation allowing a key abortion medication to be prescribed through telehealth.","content":"
A hearing is set for Feb. 24 in a federal lawsuit led by Louisiana seeking to further restrict access to mifepristone by asking the courts to stop abortion pills from being mailed across the country.
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The Department of Justice has argued plaintiffs lack standing to bring the case and asked the judge to halt legal proceedings until the Food and Drug Administration wraps up a review of the medication.
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Hundreds of studies have concluded that the drug is safe and effective for abortions early in pregnancy, but a paper released by a conservative think tank last year compelled Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to order a reevaluation of mifepristone.
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The state of Louisiana and a woman who said her ex-boyfriend made her take abortion medication sued the FDA in October and asked for a preliminary injunction against a 2023 rule that allows abortion pills to be prescribed through telehealth or mailed to patients, and pharmacies to apply for certification to dispense mifepristone.
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Julie Kay, the founder and CEO of legal advocacy group Reproductive Futures, told States Newsroom the lawsuits in Louisiana and elsewhere are “thinly veiled attempts” to block access to telehealth medication abortion.
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“We’ve seen that telemedicine abortion has become incredibly popular in all 50 states and particularly vital for women in under-resourced areas,” Kay said.
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Missouri, Idaho, Kansas , Texas, and Florida are also suing the FDA over mifepristone’s regulations and asking the courts to restrict or rescind approval of the drug altogether.
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Nearly 30 percent of abortions provided in the first half of 2025 were through telehealth, according to the Society of Family Planning’s latest #WeCount report .
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By June 2025, about 15,000 abortions per month were provided by physicians shielded by state laws, allowing them to prescribe abortion medication remotely to people living in states where abortion is banned or restricted, the report found. Shield laws protecting health-care professionals from out-of-state investigations have held up in court so far , despite efforts from prosecutors in Texas and Louisiana .
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Republican Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill vowed to defend anti-abortion laws in her state, which has had a ban with no exceptions for rape or incest since August 2022. She indicted a California doctor in January, accusing him of mailing abortion pills to Rosalie Markezich, a plaintiff in the lawsuit before federal courts.
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Lawyers for Louisiana argue that the Biden administration’s decision to nix the in-person dispensation requirement for mifepristone is an affront to states that ban abortion.
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Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Erik Baptist framed the lawsuit as an intimate partner violence issue, saying Markezich’s former boyfriend ordered abortion pills online from Dr. Rémy Coeytaux in California without any in-person interaction.
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“So what this lawsuit would do is protect women across the country, in particular in Louisiana, from this mail-order abortion scheme that enables and emboldens people in coercive situations, such as men and abusers who can now obtain these drugs through remote means,” Baptist said.
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Reproductive coercion —when an abusive partner controls a person’s bodily autonomy—has been brought up in recent legal challenges to abortion pill access by other GOP attorneys general in bids to restrict mifepristone, according to Rachel Rebouché, a University of Texas at Austin law professor who specializes in reproductive rights.
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“There’s really not evidence that people are being coerced or forced into taking pills. It’s, of course, awful if someone has felt coerced, but I’m not sure it changes the argument of what the FDA should do as an agency committed to reviewing evidence,” Rebouché said.
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For their part, DOJ attorneys have said an injunction would interfere with the FDA review and Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies, setting off an avalanche of other lawsuits.
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“Plaintiffs now threaten to short circuit the agency’s orderly review and study of the safety risks of mifepristone by asking this Court for an immediate stay of the 2023 REMS Modification approved three years ago,” they wrote in a memo filed on Jan. 27 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
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Kay said she views the Trump administration’s motion to pause the case as a legal delay tactic that is more about politics than science, because most Americans believe abortion should be accessible. A Pew Research Center poll from June 2025 showed 63 percent of respondents said abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
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“This federal administration is very aware of that popularity, and I think they’re saying they want to wait until after the midterms,” Kay said.
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Baptist said the FDA can conduct their review while the in-person requirement is restored.
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Mifepristone’s manufacturers intervened in the case earlier this month, Louisiana Illuminator
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In a memo filed on Feb. 17 lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that the 2023 regulatory change “was intended to authorize a direct attack” on anti-abortion states.
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The filing also rejects arguments that Louisiana and Markezich lack standing in the same way that a group of anti-abortion doctors did in a lawsuit against the FDA over mifepristone’s previous regulations, according to a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court ruling . Justices rebuffed the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine’s requests but did not rule on the merits of the case.
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Baptist also said judicial panels on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana—a conservative-leaning court where this lawsuit could go next—have twice ruled that it was “arbitrary and capricious ” for the FDA to allow abortion medication without an in-person doctor visit.
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In Louisiana’s corner are major anti-abortion players: Students for Life of America , 60 Republican members of Congress , 21 GOP attorneys general , and the Ethics and Public Policy Center filed briefs backing the state.
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Rebouché, the University of Texas professor, said there would be conflict between the federal courts if the district court judge rules in favor of Louisiana. There are nearly a dozen lawsuits over abortion pills seeking to restrict and deregulate mifepristone, States Newsroom reported.
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Guttmacher Institute Principal Federal Policy Adviser Anna Bernstein said in a statement Friday that reinstating the in-person dispensation requirement for mifepristone would hinder abortion access.
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“If access to telehealth and mifepristone by mail is curtailed, more patients would be pushed toward in-clinic care, straining provider capacity and increasing wait times in an already chaotic landscape,” she said. “Given that travel is out of reach for many people, the result would likely be increased delays and more people unable to get the abortion care they need and deserve.”
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Kelcie Moseley-Morris contributed to this report. This article was republished from News From the States , part of States Newsroom. Read the original story by Elisha Brown here .
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The post Louisiana Mifepristone Lawsuit Could Hinder Telehealth Abortion Nationwide appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-24T14:00:39.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_2171432255-scaled.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/24/louisiana-mifepristone-lawsuit-could-hinder-telehealth-abortion-nationwide/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-24T14:01:51.175Z"},{"id":"a6ama3","slug":"texas-a038ms-womens-and-gender-studies-closure-signals-a-wider-crackdown-on-academic-freedom","title":"Texas A&M’s Women’s and Gender Studies Closure Signals a Wider Crackdown on Academic Freedom","excerpt":"Texas A&M University’s decision to eliminate its women’s and gender studies program is not happening in a vacuum. For years, the university has steadily rolled back programs, courses and resources tied to gender and LGBTQ+ studies, leaving students and faculty with fewer spaces to learn, teach and e...","content":"
Texas A&M University’s decision to eliminate its women’s and gender studies program is not happening in a vacuum. For years, the university has steadily rolled back programs, courses and resources tied to gender and LGBTQ+ studies, leaving students and faculty with fewer spaces to learn, teach and engage with these subjects.
\n
Now, with the program gone and new classroom restrictions in place, the impact is being felt directly by the people who rely on these courses to study, teach and understand the world around them.
\n
For many students and educators, this moment feels like part of a much larger shift unfolding across the country. As universities scale back programs and limit discussions around race, gender and sexuality, what can be taught—and who feels supported in the classroom—is rapidly changing. The closure at Texas A&M reflects a growing national pattern: one that raises urgent questions about the future of academic freedom in public higher education.
\n
The post Texas A&M’s Women’s and Gender Studies Closure Signals a Wider Crackdown on Academic Freedom appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Emersen Panigrahi","publishDate":"2026-02-24T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2095088785.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/24/texas-am-women-gender-studies-academic-freedom-dei-diversity-equity-inclusion/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-24T12:00:20.607Z"},{"id":"kno1pu","slug":"how-do-you-explain-ice-to-your-child-immigrant-families-are-having-8216the-talk8217","title":"How do you explain ICE to your child? Immigrant families are having 'The Talk'","excerpt":"Ana is a Mexican American woman who, as a child, did not live in fear of immigration raids. She's a U.S.-born citizen who grew up in Mexicantown, Detroit, a Southwest neighborhood that serves as a cultural hub for the city’s Latinx population.","content":"
Ana is a Mexican American woman who, as a child, did not live in fear of immigration raids. She’s a U.S.-born citizen who grew up in Mexicantown, Detroit, a Southwest neighborhood that serves as a cultural hub for the city’s Latinx population.
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Her grandparents immigrated to the United States with legal status from a small town in the Mexican state of Jalisco. Admittedly, Ana, 38, did not have much awareness about the experiences of undocumented immigrants until she started dating her now-husband in 2012. At 18, he entered the country without documentation, arriving from the same area of Mexico as Ana’s family.
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“We started dating in the early fall, and I remember that he couldn’t take me out, and I was so distraught. Like, ‘Do you not want to take me out?’ But he couldn’t get a job because he didn’t have a Social Security Number,” said Ana, whose name has been changed by The 19th to protect her family.
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When she imagined getting married and raising a family, her list of motherhood expectations definitely did not include one day preparing her elementary school-age children, all of them U.S. citizens, for an encounter with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): Memorize our home address. Take daddy’s phone and hit record. Call mom.
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This is Ana’s reality during the second Trump administration. Her husband still does not have legal status. Together, they have three children who are 9, 7 and 5 years old, and the family speaks openly at home about the risks they face.
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“I’m parenting in a political climate that could separate my whole family. It could break us apart,” Ana said. “It’s just one more thing; this emotional labor that we carry on as mothers — but this one’s with more stress.”
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Ana says parenting during the second Trump administration carries a new level of stress. “I’m parenting in a political climate that could separate my whole family,” she said.\n (Sylvia Jarrus for The 19th) \n\n\n\n
Across the country, immigrant mothers and mothers who are partnered with immigrants are forced to teach their children a lesson of survival as President Donald Trump continues his historic expansion of immigration enforcement. Over the last year, $75 billion — an unprecedented increase — has been approved for building new detention centers, hiring thousands of immigration officers and surging ICE operations.
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The administration initially claimed it would focus on detaining and deporting people with criminal convictions, but independent analyses of ICE data show that about one-third of those arrested in 2025 had a criminal conviction. The rest included people without convictions — child care workers , high school honor roll students , parents heading to work and kids on their way home from school . Some are undocumented. Others have legal status or, in some cases, are U.S. citizens.
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For generations of Black American mothers, preparing their children for interactions with police, including arrests or violence, is an unwelcome rite of passage known as “The Talk.” Historically, it has served as an act of love, vigilance and desperation by mothers seeking to protect their kids in a world that often views them as suspects first and children second.
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In the Trump era, a different version of “The Talk” is emerging among immigrant parents who are living with the dread that their children could become targets as well.
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As an Afro-Dominican woman living in North Carolina, Dania Santana is balancing multiple dynamics. Her youngest son, who is 11 years old, looks more like the stereotypical image people associate with Latinx children. Her middle son, who is 14, is a Black boy with afro-textured hair. Her 16-year-old daughter has a skin tone that is more of a mix between the two.
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“I always get different reactions among different groups of people with my kids, of who is acceptable or cute and who is the opposite. It’s interesting because it’s different reactions from Black people, from Latino people and then from White people,” Santana said. “So I have different conversations with my children about how things can play out for them in this moment.”
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Coming to the United States from the Dominican Republic at 25, Santana, now 48, had limited knowledge of U.S. racial dynamics until she began to witness the bias and discrimination firsthand. That understanding shaped the way she began to guide her children. When her older son, who has darker skin, was in middle school, Santana recalls hearing from his teacher that he and his friends were pulling small pranks in class.
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Santana said that she took the incident as an opportunity to not only discourage her son from being disruptive in class, but also to share with him that he may not always receive the same level of grace as his White friends. “You need to learn this now before you’re out there,” she said.
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With both ICE and local police on Santana’s mind, she feels on high alert all the time, questioning every aspect of where her children will be and who they will be with. This includes monitoring cell phone locations and sitting inside the nearby Starbucks while her kids hang at the mall. She has even considered moving her family to New York City, where she lived before North Carolina. At least in New York, her kids wouldn’t have to drive, she said. Or maybe they might flee the United States entirely if circumstances get worse.
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“I have been very clear with them that the moment I see that things are turning, we will be looking into leaving the country,” she said. “So when my youngest son heard that the National Guard was coming, he thought it was that moment. He got really sad. He was like, ‘So we’re gonna have to leave everything behind?’”
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Ana has taught her children specific instructions in case of an encounter with ICE: memorize their address, record on their father’s phone and call their mother. (Sylvia Jarrus for The 19th) \n\n\n\n
For many households in the United States, “The Talk” is a common method of racial socialization, a way for parents and caregivers to teach children about race and identity to both foster a sense of pride and to prepare them for societal inequities and police brutality.
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Often, what prompts a parent to begin these conversations is a specific incident: a racist comment muttered under someone’s breath at the grocery store, a White mother on the playground instructing her child not to play with a Black child, said Dr. Leslie A. Anderson, an assistant professor of family and consumer sciences at Morgan State University.
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As part of her research, Anderson analyzed how Black families with young school-age children navigated “The Talk.” She and her team found that many parents gave their children specific directives on how to act when in the presence of law enforcement. This includes keeping their hands visible at all times, remaining calm and respectful to the officers, answering officers’ questions and directing the officers to their parents. In other cases, parents instruct their children to leave the situation and find them or another trusted adult, which could unintentionally escalate the interaction.
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Research indicates that when done thoughtfully, with specific, practical directives, “The Talk” can be beneficial for children, Anderson said. “But it’s also extremely stressful for the parent, primarily the mom, to have to navigate these conversations in the first place,” she said. “And what I found is that a lot of folks feel inept, like ‘I know I need to have this conversation. I don’t know how to do it.’”
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Black and Brown people regardless of citizenship or immigration status face disproportionate risk of racial profiling and violence by law enforcement. Recent studies have also captured how the day-to-day lives of immigrants can be heavily shaped by the threat of immigration enforcement. One survey conducted among a representative sample of Latinx and Asian immigrants in California between 2018 and 2020 found that about 43 percent of Latinx immigrants and 13 percent of Asian immigrants knew someone who had been deported, said Dr. Maria-Elena De Trinidad Young, an immigrant health scholar and professor at the University of California, Merced.
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About 16 percent of Latinx immigrants and 10 percent of Asian immigrants reported experiencing racial profiling. When it comes to speaking with children about ICE, conversations may start when children ask their parents specific questions based on what they’re observing. But many times, the conversations are not explicit, Young said.
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Families walk past restaurants and shops in Mexicantown, a Southwest neighborhood that serves as a cultural hub for Detroit’s Latinx population. (Sylvia Jarrus for The 19th) \n\n\n\n
Immigrant parents experience varying levels of comfort speaking directly about their status. They may instruct kids to avoid staring out from windows or going outdoors on certain occasions, which can be confusing, at least initially. Over time, the children may begin to pick up on their parents’ fears and any ICE presence in their communities — and they will connect the dots for themselves.
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Many immigrant mothers feel that the country’s approach to immigration has intensified over the course of their lives. Some did not have to confront conversations about immigration enforcement until having to do so with their own children during the Trump administration.
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Maya was born in India, spent her childhood in Australia and moved to the Seattle area when she was 12. The schools she attended in the United States were not diverse, so she often felt different from other kids. Immigration-specific conversations were never really on her radar until after she received a green card in high school and later began to face more explicit experiences with xenophobia as an adult, she said.
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Her son was just 1 year old when Trump returned to Washington for a second time. The 35-year-old and her husband live in a predominantly White New Jersey town. The week Trump got elected, she said, an older White man walked up to her and her son at the grocery store and told her to go back to her country.
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In the 15 months since, Maya, whose name The 19th has changed, has watched online videos of ICE agents storming playgrounds and posting up outside of elementary schools. She’s read the stories of what’s happened in Minnesota, including the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents, as well as the detention of 5-year-old Liam Ramos .
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Maya has her green card and should be legally shielded from an ICE arrest or detention. Yet she has seen news reports documenting the apprehension of people with legal work permits, green cards or pending asylum cases.
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Maya’s green card expires next year.
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Maya, who has a green card, is teaching her 3-year-old son what to do if he is ever separated from her during an immigration enforcement encounter, including to say, “I want my mommy” and “I want my daddy.” (Courtesy of Maya) \n\n\n\n
Her son is 3 years old now, and there’s only so much he can absorb, Maya said. She struggles with the balance between protecting his innocence and childhood and making sure he’s prepared should anything happen. His nanny is undocumented, which adds an extra layer of complication because ICE could come after her while she’s out with Maya’s son. Maya said there are days when her phone will ping with a text from the nanny saying she can’t make it to work because ICE agents are near her home.
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For now, Maya tells her young son:
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Do not go anywhere except with his nanny, mom and dad.
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Do not walk away with any strangers.
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If his nanny gets pulled over while he’s in the car, he needs to immediately say, “I want my mommy.” “I want my daddy.”
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Maya also keeps a laminated card tucked into the backseat pocket of her car. It states, “If left unattended, please contact,” with her name and phone number, as well as her husband’s name and phone number.
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Maya said she feels isolated in her town, which has few other women of color. She described encounters with other mothers in her area who appear confused by the fear she is experiencing. She also hasn’t been able to find any resources to help her navigate having age-appropriate conversations with her son about ICE and the political climate, which heightens the anxiety.
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“I think that is the piece of motherhood that is changing so much, because when you are living a very different version of motherhood versus someone who is White, who has lived here for generations, who does not have this level of stress and anxiety on them at all times. It’s a very different experience,” she said.
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In conversations with The 19th, immigrant mothers’ concerns in some ways mirrored those of the Black parents from Anderson’s research. Immigrant moms largely expressed feeling ill-equipped to handle conversations about ICE with their kids. They also struggled with the grief that their children will have to internalize adult problems at an early age.
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As immigration enforcement operations intensify nationwide, families like Ana’s are building contingency plans for moments they hope never come. (Sylvia Jarrus for The 19th) \n\n\n\n
Some studies suggest that Black children who received “The Talk” report lower levels of stress related to the anticipation of police brutality. But general exposure to incidents with law enforcement has been shown to create psychological distress in Black and Brown children. For immigrants or children of immigrants, the more times a person comes into contact with immigration enforcement, the higher their risk for psychological distress and self-reported poor health outcomes over the course of their lives, Young said.
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Black and Brown mothers are trying to balance all of these factors.
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“No one should have to tell their children, first of all, that the streets might not be safe anymore. Like, as mothers, we don’t want to tell our children that they shouldn’t trust the police, that the police might get into their schools and try to detain kids like them,” said Linda López Stone, who came to the United States from Ecuador nearly two decades ago and has three children ages 12, 14 and 17.
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She lives in Utah, and has made a point to teach her kids their basic rights and, most importantly, to know when to stay quiet. “No digas nada,” she has told them. Don’t say anything to law enforcement about themselves, their immigration status, their parents or their friends. If there’s any silver lining, Stone said, it’s that she’s raising children who are engaged and active in their communities, serving as a language bridge for their classmates who cannot speak English and passing on the safety lessons they have learned to other kids.
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“I have let them know everyone is an immigrant, and everyone that you know who is a person of color is under threat, even myself,” Stone said. “So you have to make sure that the people around you, your friends and your peers, are aware of what’s happening, and it’s important to take care of each other.”
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Candice Norwood","publishDate":"2026-02-24T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/the_talk_02.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/ice-immigrant-parents-families-the-talk/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-24T12:00:21.380Z"},{"id":"cr7tko","archiveId":"vr4521","slug":"un-body-finds-hallmarks-of-genocide-in-darfur","title":"UN Body Finds 'Hallmarks of Genocide' in Darfur","excerpt":"Click to expand Image A Sudanese woman displaced from El-Fasher carries her child as she walks between tents at El-Afadh camp in Al Dabbah, in Sudan's Northern State, November 16, 2025. © 2025 Marwan Ali/AP Photo
The United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) for the...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n A Sudanese woman displaced from El-Fasher carries her child as she walks between tents at El-Afadh camp in Al Dabbah, in Sudan's Northern State, November 16, 2025.\n © 2025 Marwan Ali/AP Photo \n \n \n\n\n \n<p>The United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) for the Sudan has released a damning report on atrocities by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during their takeover of El Fasher, North Darfur, in late October 2025.</p><p>It concludes that the RSF, which is fighting Sudan’s military for control of the country, committed war crimes and crimes against humanity and that its “conduct, and inferred intent, present indications pointing to genocide.” The report warns that without decisive measures to advance accountability and protection of civilians, “the risk of further genocidal violence remains acute.”</p><p>The 18-month siege on El Fasher, the mission members found, was deliberately calculated to leave the population on its knees. It preceded “three days of horror” during which RSF forces rampaged through the city, killing, forcibly disappearing, and raping thousands. They further found that “[i]dentity-based targeting linked to ethnicity, gender, and perceived political affiliation was a central element of the RSF operation.” They concluded that the hallmarks of at least three underlying acts of genocide were present.</p><p>The atrocities in El Fasher were wholly predictable, fitting into what the fact-finding mission described as the RSF’s “modus operandi” across Darfur and making clear that only a radical shift in global response to RSF crimes can prevent further atrocities.</p><p>The report provides a compelling roadmap on protection and accountability as conflict expands into the Kordofan region.</p><p>The UN Security Council should immediately endorse the deployment of a civilian protection mission and enforce and expand the UN arms embargo from Darfur to the whole of Sudan. Other countries should speak out against the UAE’s ongoing military support to the RSF, and the UN should investigate the UAE’s potential complicity in these crimes.</p><p>UN member states, notably Security Council members, should act to advance accountability, including through targeted sanctions, supporting the International Criminal Court and expanding its jurisdiction across Sudan; and pursuing universal jurisdiction cases, which could draw on the confidential dossiers the FFM is preparing on individual perpetrators. States should work with UN leadership to support the mission’s ongoing investigations, ensuring it has the necessary resources.</p><p>States should commit to decisive action when convening to discuss the mission’s report in Geneva on February 26. Without such action yet more Sudanese civilians will suffer similar horrors to those laid bare in this report.</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-02-24T10:38:22.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/02/202602afr_sudan_displacement_Al%20Dabbah.jpg?h=1c276ee7&itok=2JgbFLWo","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/24/un-body-finds-hallmarks-of-genocide-in-darfur","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:53.369Z"},{"id":"lufc3c","archiveId":"5oeq93","slug":"iran-tsunami-of-arbitrary-arrests-enforced-disappearances","title":"Iran: Tsunami of Arbitrary Arrests, Enforced Disappearances","excerpt":"Click to expand Image © 2026 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch Iran’s intelligence agencies and security forces have carried out mass, arbitrary, violent arrests and detentions of protesters, including children, since December 28, 2025.","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n © 2026 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch\n \n \n\n\n \nIran’s intelligence agencies and security forces have carried out mass, arbitrary, violent arrests and detentions of protesters, including children, since December 28, 2025. Tens of thousands are reported to have been arrested across the country. Waves of arrests have continued following the countrywide massacres of January 8 and 9, 2026.Authorities have subjected detainees to torture and other ill-treatment. Those detained are at serious risk of death in custody, grossly unfair trials, and secret, summary, and arbitrary executions. Authorities have systematically refused to provide any information about the fate and whereabouts of detainees, thus forcibly disappearing them.UN member states should demand Iranian authorities immediately release all those arbitrarily detained, disclose the fate and whereabouts of people forcibly disappeared, halt any planned executions, and allow independent international bodies and monitors, particularly the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, unhindered access to the country, including to all prisons and detention facilities. Judicial authorities in other countries should act to open criminal investigations, including under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Governments with embassies in Iran should send high level observers to all capital trial proceedings and urgently request to visit all sections of detention facilities.<p>(Beirut) – Iran’s authorities have waged a brutal campaign to terrorize the population through mass arbitrary detentions, torture, and enforced disappearances in the aftermath countrywide massacres of protesters and bystanders by security forces on January 8 and 9, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today.</p><p>Evidence examined by Human Rights Watch shows that senior officials, Iran’s security and intelligence agencies including the police, known as FARAJA, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) and its intelligence organization, the Ministry of Intelligence, and prosecutorial and judicial officials have orchestrated a coordinated, brutal mass clampdown to quash further dissent and conceal their atrocities. In addition to mass arrests, they have held detainees in incommunicado detention including in unofficial facilities, broadcast hundreds of coerced “confessions,” including by children, and carried out large-scale enforced disappearances while imposing severe restrictions resembling martial law in many cities.</p><p>“As a whole nation remains in shock, horror, and grief, and families still search for their loved ones in the aftermath of the massacres of January 8 and 9, authorities continue to terrorize the population. Arrests continue and detainees face torture, coerced “confessions,” and secret, summary, and arbitrary executions,” said Bahar Saba, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Given the immense dangers those detained and forcibly disappeared face, international monitors should immediately be given unhindered access to all detention facilities and prisons.”</p><p>A prisoner whose voice recording was received by Human Rights Watch stressed the importance of maintaining international scrutiny, saying, “Do not forget the detainees… Be our voice, if you do not raise your voice, they will eliminate us all.”</p><p>Those forcibly disappeared include individuals arrested and may include cases of people who participated in the protests but never returned home. Some families have received calls informing them that their loved ones had been killed but have not had the bodies of their loved ones returned, or received any information about them despite repeated inquiries.</p><p>A January 26 statement by the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization indicated that at least 11,000 people had been summoned by intelligence and security forces as of that date. According to judiciary’s spokesperson, 10,538 individuals had been referred for prosecution and 8,843 indictments were issued by February 17.</p><p>Human Rights Watch spoke with 23 people both inside and outside Iran, including detained protesters; relatives of people killed, detained, and/or forcibly disappeared; people participating in protests; lawyers; human rights defenders; medical professionals; and journalists. Sources provided information about the situation in areas across the country, including the provinces of Alborz, Eastern Azerbaijan, Fars, Golestan, Hormozgan, Ilam, Kermanshah, Khouzestan, Kurdistan, Lorestan, Mazandaran, Razavi Khorasan, and Tehran.</p><p>Human Rights Watch also analyzed videos of security forces violently arresting protesters and their heavy presence on the streets after the mass killings, including 139 videos of forced “confessions” broadcast by the state broadcaster—Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)—and state-affiliated media as of February 6. Human Rights Watch also reviewed official statements, reports, and publications by independent media and human rights organizations.</p><p>Authorities have repeatedly vowed “speedy trials” and a “harsh response” without “any leniency,” while labelling protesters “criminals,” “enemies of God,” and “terrorists.” On February 3, a criminal court in Qom sentenced 19-year-old wrestling champion, Saleh Mohammadi, to death for alleged involvement in the death of a member of the security forces. Mohammadi was convicted after summary proceedings that did not even last a month and relied on forced “confessions” that he said were extracted under torture. The court has ruled that Mohammadi’s execution should be carried out in public.</p><p>On February 19, Amnesty International reported that children were also among 30 people facing the death penalty whose cases were documented by the organization. In a measure reminiscent of sham trials broadcast in 2022 that resulted in arbitrary executions of several men, IRIB started broadcasting segments of trial proceedings, including against two children, for alleged offences in connection with the protests.</p><p>The exact number of those arrested since the start of the protests remains unknown, but human rights groups have reported the figures to be in the tens of thousands. As of February 13, the Volunteer Committee to Follow-Up on the Situation of Detainees, a network of activists outside Iran, had published the names and details of over 2,800 people arrested.</p><p>Those interviewed said that prosecutors and prison officials have systematically denied detainees access to their families and lawyers and refuse to provide information about detainees’ fate and whereabouts, thus subjecting them to enforced disappearance. Enforced disappearances are grave crimes under international law and are considered ongoing so long as the authorities refuse to acknowledge the fate or whereabouts of those disappeared.</p><p>A human rights defender who has spoken to several detainees’ relatives in the provinces of Ilam and Kermanshah said that officials responded to families’ requests with insults and profanities. Verified videos posted online and verified by Human Rights Watch show scores of concerned families gathering outside prisons, prosecutors’ offices, and police stations in search of their loved ones.</p><p>Human Rights Watch has also documented cases of torture and other ill-treatment, including severe beatings with batons; kicks and punches; sexual and gender-based violence; food deprivation; and psychological torture, such as threats of execution, and denial of medical care to those injured. These cases, which can also amount to serious international crimes, are believed to be a fraction of the true scale of gross detention violations given that many people remain in incommunicado detention.</p><p>Iran’s authorities have imposed and maintained a heavy military presence applying severe restrictions against the population across numerous cities in the aftermath of the massacres. Several witnesses described measures resembling curfews and martial law, including checkpoints across cities and intra-city roads and armed agents routinely stopping vehicles and searching cars and passengers’ mobile phones. These descriptions were corroborated in videos verified by Human Rights Watch.</p><p>Security and intelligence forces have continued to carry out arrests of real and perceived dissidents. Those targeted include protesters, lawyers, medical professionals, human rights defenders, students, schoolchildren, athletes, journalists, political activists, environmentalists, and members of ethnic and religious minorities including Baha’is.</p><p>Since the start of the protests, the IRIB and media outlets affiliated with the IRGC have broadcast hundreds of protesters’ coerced “confessions.” They further heighten fears that people whose forced “confessions” have been aired will face the death penalty, and arbitrary executions.</p><p>Coerced television “confessions” violate the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment, the rights to presumption of innocence, and to a fair trial. The Islamic Republic has a long history of using coerced “confessions” to quash dissent and in cases leading to death sentences and arbitrary executions after grossly unfair trials.</p><p>Fears of a wave of death sentences and arbitrary, summary, and secret executions are growing in light of official statements and the execution spree of recent years. Since the start of the protests, officials have vilified protesters, repeatedly referring to them as “criminals”, and mohareb, an individual “waging war against God,” which is a capital offense.</p><p>UN member states should demand that Iran’s authorities immediately release all those arbitrarily detained, disclose the fate and whereabouts of people forcibly disappeared, halt any planned executions, and allow independent international bodies, such as the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, unhindered country access, including to prisons and detention facilities, hospitals, morgues, and cemeteries.</p><p>Governments with embassies in Iran should send high level observers to all capital trial proceedings and urgently request to visit to all sections of detention facilities.</p><p>“Systematic impunity has enabled Iranian authorities to repeatedly commit crimes under international law,” Saba said. “Other countries’ judicial authorities should initiate criminal investigations of international crimes under the principle of universal jurisdiction and in accordance with national laws, with a view to prosecute those suspected of criminal responsibility.”</p>\n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n A woman described to Human Rights Watch how several members of Iran’s security forces first restrained her and then severely beat her on the street. \n © 2026 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch\n \n \n\n\n \nMass Arbitrary and Violent Arrests, Unlawful Detentions<p>Officials and state-affiliated media in Iran have stated that authorities have arrested thousands of people across the country, but independent rights organizations have reported that there have been tens of thousands of arrests.</p><p>Several sources who had spoken to people in prisons across the country said that authorities had emptied prison wards to hold detainees together and in isolation from other prisoners, in an apparent attempt to stop the flow of information.</p><p>Protest detainees are also held in unofficial detention facilities run by security and intelligence bodies, and other unregistered and secret locations, placing them at heightened risk of torture and arbitrary, summary, and secret executions. Iranian authorities have a track record of using secret, unofficial, and makeshift detention facilities, in particular during protest crackdowns, to hold detainees without registration.</p><p>Security forces have continued to arrest protesters on the streets, at checkpoints, and in home raids. A spokesperson for the Volunteer Committee to Follow-Up on the Situation of Detainees told Human Rights Watch that many people were arrested at home, days after they had participated in protests.</p><p>In one case, based on credible information received, Revolutionary Guard forces conducted an early morning raid on the house of Milad Ebrahimi, an injured protester in Kamyaran, Kurdistan and arrested him on February 1. The source said Ebrahimi sustained a gunshot wound during the protests but did not seek medical care at a hospital fearing arrest. Security forces also arrested his brother, Hamed Ebrahimi, for objecting to the arrest.</p><p>Witness statements and state media reports indicate that security forces have used video footage from CCTV cameras, and drones to identify those participating in protests.</p><p>Relatives of detainees and lawyers interviewed said that the authorities prohibited access to lawyers during the investigation phase, consistent with authorities’ decades-long pattern of denying detainees access to legal representation, including independent lawyers of their choice.</p><p>Under Note to Article 48 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, individuals charged with certain offenses, including national security offenses, are denied the right to access an independent lawyer of their own choosing. Only lawyers approved by the head of the judiciary can be appointed to defend them. The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran and human rights organizations have documented a pattern of complicity by many judiciary-approved lawyers in grave human rights violations. As a result, families and detainees have said they do not trust them.</p><p>“Detainees have no access to lawyers,” a lawyer said. “Families do not want to retain Article 48 lawyers. Independent lawyers who go to officials to take on protest detainees’ cases are told by the authorities, ‘Are you an Article 48 lawyer? No? Then leave, you cannot take the case.’”</p><p>In practice, even in cases with judiciary-approved lawyers, detainees are denied access to legal counsel during the investigation phase including during interrogations.</p><p>Witnesses said that, consistent with their track record, authorities have also harassed families of detainees, warning them not to speak up or publicize the situation of their loved ones.</p>Incommunicado Detention; Enforced Disappearances<p>The authorities have held those arrested during and after the protests in incommunicado detention. In many cases those detained are forcibly disappeared, as authorities have refused to provide families with any information about their fate and whereabouts.</p><p>In one case, authorities arrested Youresh Mehrali Beiglou, an Azerbaijani Turk activist, on January 4 in or around Tabriz, East Azerbaijan province, after releasing a video in which he spoke about the protests. After the arrest and for a period of over a month, he was allowed to make only one brief phone call to his family, and they were denied information about his whereabouts.</p><p>Another Azerbaijani Turk activist, Ali Babai, was arrested on January 14. Other than one brief phone call informing his family that he was in an intelligence ministry detention facility, the authorities have denied his relatives information about his fate and whereabouts.</p><p>In Karaj, Alborz province, security forces raided Jahangir Kazemi’s home on January 14 and arrested him. His family received two brief phone calls from Kazemi, who is reportedly held in solitary confinement, but has been denied visits and information about his situation. Kazemi’s wife, Fatemeh Golmohammadi, was arrested on January 27. The couple, who have young children, have been denied access to a lawyer.</p><p>A relative of a detainee in a northern province, described the response of prosecution officials to detainees’ families:</p><p>“When we ask officials at the prosecutor’s office [about our loved one], they tell us, ‘They are criminals, if they weren’t, we would not have arrested them,’ “When we ask what their crime is, they respond, ‘You yourselves know better.’”</p><p>Families have been gathering outside prisons, police stations, and prosecutors and governors’ offices. Human Rights Watch has reviewed four videos showing such gatherings.</p><p>Researchers geolocated videos showing these scenes outside the county courthouse in Karaj, Alborz province, Qazvin Central Prison, Qazvin province, and outside the governor’s office in Yasuj, Kohgiluyeh, and Boyer-Ahmad province. </p><p>Verified videos analyzed by Human Rights Watch from the provinces of Alborz, Esfahan, Lorestan, and Razavi Khorasan corroborated these accounts. Collectively, the videos show large numbers of armed security forces patrolling cities on foot or in vehicles, including trucks mounted with heavy machine guns, discharging weapons and using megaphones to order people to stay indoors.</p><p>In one video published online on January 29, and reported to have been recorded outside a police station in Kerman, concerned families are seen speaking to an official from behind a closed door, repeatedly saying that their loved ones are missing. One man is heard saying, “Why is there no one to answer us… my child has disappeared for 24 hours, but no one answers… is there not a manager, a supervisor, someone to step outside? So many people are here worried for their children.”</p>\n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Many concerned families in Iran have been gathering outside prisons, prosecutors’ offices, and police stations in search of their loved ones.\n © 2026 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Those forcibly disappeared may also include people who participated in protests but never returned home.</p><p>An informed source said that two of their students, a young man and a young woman, had remained disappeared since January 8, when they took part in the protests in Tehran: “The family knows they were in the protests and has since been to all police stations, hospitals, and morgues, but there is no trace of them. They do not know if they are dead or alive.”</p><p>An activist outside Iran who has been in touch with relatives of detainees and the missing in the provinces of Ilam and Lorestan said that he was aware of 12 people who didn’t return from the protests. Human rights defenders and journalists provided similar accounts from other provinces.</p><p>In some cases, families have spoken publicly about their search for their loved ones. On February 1, Sekhavat Salimi, a former political prisoner, published a video online in which he said that he had searched for his son, Mohammadi Ali Salimi, for days after the family received a call informing them that he had been killed and they should collect his body: “For 10 to 15 days, I searched everywhere in Tehran and Karaj. I went to Kahrizak [morgue], and to Behest-e Zahra and Behesht-e Sakineh [cemeteries]. I searched for my son everywhere but did not find him or his body... There is no trace of him, I do not know what to do.”</p>Torture and Ill-Treatment <p>Security forces including FARAJA, Revolutionary Guards, the Ministry of Intelligence, and plainclothes agents, have tortured protesters, including on the streets during arrests and after restraining them and in detention facilities. These ongoing gross violations and crimes under international law are consistent with Iranian authorities’ decades-long record of torture.</p><p>Witnesses described violent arrests of protesters. A protester from Tehran said they had seen security forces severely beat a man they had arrested and restrained:“They had handcuffed him, covered his eyes with a medical mask, and sat him on a motorbike. There, right before everyone’s eyes, they started beating this fully defenseless man. They repeatedly struck him on the head with a baton and beat him on his back and arms.</p>\n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n A protester described how security forces beat a young, defenseless man they had already restrained and sat on a motorbike, including by repeatedly striking him on the head with batons.\n © 2026 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Another source said security forces severely beat their relative, a 16-year-old boy, while restrained in a city in Khuzestan province, breaking one of his ribs, then left him on the street. The child had started running when security forces ordered him to stop.</p><p>A woman who was detained in a city in Razavi Khorasan said several agents violently arrested her while subjecting her to sexualized insults and profanities: “Suddenly, around five or six members of security forces attacked me and started beating me on the back of my head and neck with batons and gunstock. I am a small sized woman and there were six of them, all men. They handcuffed me from the back and made me lie on my stomach, faced down. Then they took me to their vehicle while constantly swearing at me and put my face on the trunk of the car. When I objected to my arrest telling them that I had not done anything, they hit me in the face with a shield, and I got a bloodied nose.”</p><p>Human Rights Watch also analyzed videos depicting violent arrests. One video analyzed, published online on January 2 and said to be recorded in Neishabour, Razavi Khorasan, shows several uniformed and plainclothes security forces’ members beating a woman and pushing her into a private car.</p><p>Human Rights Watch also received credible information about violent home arrests, with security forces beating the person arrested as well as other family members. The relative of a detainee in Kermanshah province said that security forces beat his brother during the arrest, adding, “This is no exception, all arrests I know of have been violent and carried out with beatings.”</p><p>Based on witness accounts, informed sources, and reports by other human rights organizations, security and intelligence forces have committed torture and other ill-treatment in detention facilities.</p><p>A detainee who was held in solitary confinement in Razavi Khorasan province said she could hear other detainees being tortured and saw young people beaten with batons. Accounts from Kermanshah and Fars provinces described severe beatings resulting in injuries and sexual and gender-based violence.</p><p>“Everyone you see has been horribly tortured,” a prisoner in central Iran said in a voice recording. … “All [confessions] are coerced, they [authorities] would write up what they want themselves or would dictate what to write… and if you did not accept to sign, they would hit you with a shocker [electric shock weapon] on the head. You are sitting there blindfolded, shackled, and in handcuffs, encircled by several men, you would accept anything.”</p><p>An informed source said security forces arrested and beat a 16-year-old boy at his home in a northern province, then transferred him to detention facilities run by intelligence bodies where he was severely tortured and was denied food for 5 days. Security forces repeatedly beat him to the point he lost consciousness on four occasions. Relatives who were able to visit him days later saw bruises on his face but were not able to see his body as they were only allowed to speak to him behind a glass barrier.</p><p>People interviewed said that many protest detainees had wounds from metal pellets, or other injuries such as broken ribs, but were denied medical care in prison.</p><p>Human Rights Watch received credible information that the authorities pressured the Nobel Peace Laureate Narges Mohammadi, arbitrarily detained since December 12, to condemn the protests that started on December 28. According to the information, Mohammadi was tortured and otherwise ill-treated at the time of her arrest, including being severely beaten with sticks and batons causing injury to her head and her genital area.</p><p>Security forces also dragged her by her hair and threatened her with further violence. On February 7, a revolutionary court in Mashhad sentenced Mohammadi to seven years and six months in prison for vaguely worded national security offenses and supplementary punishments, including a two-year travel ban.</p>Forced Televised Confessions; Death Penalty Risk<p>Since January, the IRIB and state-affiliated media have aired hundreds of coerced “confessions” by protest detainees. Human Rights Watch reviewed 139 clips aired as of February 6.</p><p>These videos systematically label detainees “rioters,” “terrorists,” and “agents” of foreign intelligence services, prior to any judicial proceedings and when detainees are denied access to lawyers. Some were taken during arrests, on the streets, in buses or vehicles used to transfer detainees, and in police stations. They depict women, men, and children, often blindfolded and in handcuffs, “confessing” to “collaboration with enemies” and various offenses including some that carry the death penalty.</p><p>In at least two videos reviewed, two girls aged 16 are coerced into making self-incriminating statements, including that they had received foreign support and instructions. Another video shows a 16-year-old boy, introduced as a “leader of riots” making a coerced “confession.”</p><p>Several other videos also depict people who appear to be under the age of 18 and therefore likely children. In one video, two men interrogate a visibly terrified young person in handcuffs on the street, accusing him of carrying stones in his cross-body bag with the intention of throwing them at security forces.</p><p>In some videos, detained protesters make statements about engaging in conduct that falls under the exercise of human rights, including chanting slogans, inviting others to take to the streets to protest, writing slogans on the walls, filming the security forces’ use of force against protesters, and sharing footage and images of protests with Persian speaking media outside Iran.</p>\n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n \n Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Since the start of the protests, Iran’s state media have broadcast hundreds of coerced “confessions” of protesters, including children. They heighten fears that people whose forced “confessions” have been aired will face the death penalty and summary and arbitrary executions.\n © 2026 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>In one video, a man, identified as Rasoul Salehi, is accused of having committed a “grave crime” by attending a peaceful gathering outside a government building in Yazdanshahr in Esfahan province and inviting people to protest if authorities did not release the detainees. A video of the gathering, in which Salehi is seen giving a speech and demanding the release of detainees, widely circulated online in early January.</p><p>Amid a surge in acts of persecution against members of the Baha’is religious minority, including an increase in arrests and detentions, on February 1, the IRIB aired coerced “confessions” of three young adults, including two members of the Baha’i community, Venus Hosseininejad, arrested on January 8, and Peyvand Niami, arrested on January 15 in Kerman.</p><p>Consistent with the authorities' long-standing campaign of spreading disinformation and inciting hatred and discrimination against Baha’is, the video clip sought to portray them, among other youth, as members of an “organized, violent, and foreign-backed network” with links to “Zionist networks” and “Satanism.”</p><p>According to information the Baha’i International Community provided to Human Rights Watch, at least 50 members of the Baha’i religious minority have been arrested between January 8 and February 13.</p><p>On February 4, in a letter published by media outlets outside Iran, Hosseininejad’s parents wrote that they were refused information about the intelligence body that had arrested their daughter for 15 days and had only received three brief phone calls from her. In one of the calls, they wrote, Hosseininejad said that she had agreed to “cooperate” under “severe physical and mental pressures” by giving false confessions because she was “promised” that she would be released.</p><p>Human Rights Watch also reviewed footage in which Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje’i, the judiciary head, interrogated detainees, including a woman, in front of a camera. The interrogations were reported by state media to have been carried out during a five-hour visit he made to a detention facility. Two other officials, including the Tehran prosecutor, are shown in these videos.</p><p>Iran’s laws criminalize a wide range of conduct that fall under the exercise of human rights, including some that are subject to the death penalty. Capital offenses also include acts that do not meet the threshold of the “most serious crimes,” limited only to intentional killing, as well as vaguely worded charges that contravene the principle of legality, such as “waging war on God” and “corruption on earth”.</p><p>A new law to “Intensify the Punishment of Spies and Collaborators with the Zionist Regime and Hostile States,” adopted in 2025, has further expanded the scope of the death penalty. The law imposes capital punishment for a range of vaguely worded offenses pertaining to collaboration and cooperation with “hostile states” and further criminalizes and subjects to long prison terms acts such as “sending footage, images or information to [media] networks, citizen journalists or online foreign [social media] pages where [such acts] contravene national security.”</p><p>The sheer number of coerced “confessions” that have been aired, official statements that routinely describe protesters as “those waging war on God,” and the authorities’ increasing use of the death penalty as a tool of political repressiongive rise to growing concerns about a wave of death sentences and arbitrary executions against protest detainees in the coming weeks and months. These include child detainees, some of whom have already been charged with capital offenses. In flagrant violation of the absolute prohibition on the use of the death penalty against people under age 18, Iran’s authorities continue to impose and implement death sentences against children.</p>De Facto Martial Law and Militarized Clampdown<p>In the days that followed the massacres, the authorities imposed curfews and enforced martial law-like restrictions across many cities while carrying out waves of arrests of real and perceived dissidents.</p><p>One protester from Tehran told Human Rights Watch that, “from 8 p.m., there was effective martial law. You could not really go out.”</p><p>Interviewees said that security forces had set up and maintained checkpoints in cities and intra-city roads including the in provinces of Kermanshah, Ilam, Lorestan, and Khouzestan.</p><p>Human Rights Watch has analyzed videos from several provinces corroborating these accounts.</p><p>In one video published online on January 15, 11 armed members of the security forces both in uniforms and plain clothes are seen along with a vehicle passing through a residential alley. The person who posted the video online said it was taken in Karaj, Alborz province. Due to the lack of geographic information, Human Rights Watch could not confirm the location. The forces are heard repeatedly warning through a megaphone that “no one should be near the windows,” ordering residents to “go inside” and “part ways with the rioters.”</p><p>Another video published online on January 20, and geolocated by Human Rights Watch to a city in Esfahan province, shows dozens of armed forces in uniforms and plain clothes with their faces covered patrolling a large street. The video shows four tan vehicles consistent with those used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps mounted with heavy machine guns and four white Toyota pickup trucks carrying at least four armed men in each vehicle. The forces repeatedly shout “go inside” then chant slogans vowing obedience to the Supreme Leader. A burst of automatic gunfire and other solo gunshots can be heard. One uniformed man in the back of a white pickup truck fires five shots into the air.</p><p>A third video, initially geolocated by a GeoConfirmed member, AndyNovy, and analyzed by Human Rights Watch shows more than 40 members of the security forces in vehicles, motorbikes, and on foot in several locations along the Hashemiye Boulevard, Kowsar Boulevard, and Vakil Abad Highway, in Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan. The video was filmed at night from a moving car. No pedestrians could be clearly seen in the video.</p><p>Another video from Boroujerd, Lorestan province, published online on January 17, and geolocated by Zaryon OSINT, shows a row of at least 15 military vehicles, including six-wheeled green trucks, trucks with pedestal-mounted heavy machine guns, and at least 22 members of the security forces armed with rifles along Takhti Boulevard. Riot police at an assembly point with vans nearby appear prepared to detain or arrest people. The number of vehicles and personnel indicates that the police action was deliberately planned and organized.</p><p>In the ongoing clampdown, authorities have targeted lawyers and medical professionals and other groups such as journalists, medical, students, human rights defenders, and members of ethnic and religious minorities.</p><p>On January 31, the domestic newspaper Shargh reported cases of eight detained lawyers, six of them arrested in the city of Shiraz, Fars province alone. As of February 16, the Volunteer Committee to Follow-Up on the Situation of Detainees had recorded the names of 20 lawyers arrested across the country since January 16.</p><p>Lawyers have also been held incommunicado and without access to their families and legal counsel. In an interview with a domestic newspaper, the lawyer for Shima Ghousheh, one of the first lawyers arrested, stated that he did not have access to his client and was not given any information about the charges against her. </p><p>Two lawyers who spoke with Human Rights Watch said that the real number of lawyers arrested across the country was higher and that each was aware of other arrested lawyers whose cases had not become public.</p><p>Authorities have also targeted medical professionals including doctors and nurses who have provided medical care to injured protesters in hospitals and private clinics, arbitrarily arresting them and subjecting them to enforced disappearances. As of February 16, the Volunteer Committee to Follow-Up on the Situation of Detainees had published the names of 39 medical professionals arrested across the country in connection with the protests.</p><p>A lawyer and a journalist interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that, in addition to large-scale arrests, intelligence bodies have been routinely summoning real and perceived dissidents, including student activists and lawyers, and coercing them to sign statements that they would not engage in any forms of activism.</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-02-24T05:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/02/202602mena_iran_detentions_collage.jpg?h=a7444f0f&itok=nxtDHzWY","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/24/iran-tsunami-of-arbitrary-arrests-enforced-disappearances","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:53.369Z"},{"id":"343q5i","archiveId":"6c8zjp","slug":"russias-war-on-ukraine-four-years-on","title":"Russia’s War on Ukraine Four Years On","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Residents react after a missile hit an apartment building during Russian attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine, June 17, 2025. © 2025 Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Residents react after a missile hit an apartment building during Russian attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine, June 17, 2025.\n © 2025 Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo \n \n \n\n\n \n<p>On February 24, 2022, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The war—defined by a relentless series of apparent war crimes and crimes against humanity—has resulted in tens of thousands of civilian casualties and triggered Europe’s largest displacement crisis since World War II.</p><p>Throughout the war, Russian forces have repeatedly shown disregard for international humanitarian law and civilian life. From Kharkiv, Izium, and Mariupol to Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Kherson, they have struck hospitals, schools, and apartment blocks, devastating entire neighborhoods, often the result of indiscriminate attacks using explosive weapons in populated areas.</p><p>In areas that fell under Russian occupation, including Bucha, Izium, and Kherson, Russian forces have carried out summary executions, enforced disappearances, sexual violence, and torture. Civilians were held in basements and makeshift detention sites, beaten, and subjected to electric shocks and mock executions. Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian detainees still in Russian custody face daily physical and psychological abuse. Thousands of Ukrainian children have been deported or forcibly transferred to Russia or Russian occupied areas.</p><p>Russian authorities continue to commit routine abuses in occupied territories, imposing Russian laws, unlawfully seizing property, and coercing Ukrainians into adopting Russian citizenship and performing military service. Occupying authorities have imposed Russian language and Russian curriculum in schools as part of a systematic campaign to suppress Ukrainian identity, language, and culture.</p><p>Since 2022, Russian forces have also repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s energy grid, infrastructure indispensable to civilian survival. The latest wave of strikes has left over one million Ukrainians with severely interrupted heat, water, and electricity during winter months. As United States-led peace negotiations continue, Ukrainians joke grimly after each brutal night that these missiles are the Kremlin’s true “peace offerings”.</p><p>Four years on, the scale of documented atrocities demands concrete accountability across Russia’s entire chain of command, from those on the ground to Russia’s highest political and military leadership. The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrants for senior Russian officials are an important milestone toward redress for victims. Ukraine’s allies, including the European Union and its member states, should fully support justice for all grave crimes throughdomestic and ICC investigations, act to enforce arrest warrants, encourage the expansion of universal jurisdiction prosecutions, and back Ukraine’s strong and resilient civil society groups documenting violations and assisting survivors.</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-02-24T05:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/02/202602eca_ukraine_apartment_missile_attack.jpg?h=9f6dd7fa&itok=lnrX2e1K","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/24/russias-war-on-ukraine-four-years-on","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:53.369Z"},{"id":"4vzcau","archiveId":"13c2re","slug":"birthright-citizenship-under-the-flag","title":"Birthright citizenship: under the flag","excerpt":"Brothers in Law is a recurring series by brothers Akhil and Vikram Amar, with special emphasis on measuring what the Supreme Court says against what the Constitution itself says. For more content from […] The post Birthright citizenship: under the flag appeared first on SCOTUSblog .","content":"
Brothers in Law is a recurring series by brothers Akhil and Vikram Amar, with special emphasis on measuring what the Supreme Court says against what the Constitution itself says. For more content from Akhil and Vikram, please see Akhil’s free weekly podcast, “ Amarica’s Constitution ,” Vikram’s regular columns on Justia , and Akhil’s new book, Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840-1920.
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What determines whether a baby born on American soil is a constitutional birthright citizen? Is it the domicile of that baby’s parents? Their allegiance? Their law-abidingness?
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No, no, and no. Constitutional birthright citizenship in fact has virtually nothing to do with the baby’s parents, and instead has everything to do with a simple, concrete fact: Was the baby born under the flag ?
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When a baby is born, if American soil lies below and an American flag flies above, that baby is a birthright citizen, as Reconstruction Republicans across the land understood. This originalist rule is clear and clean: look down, and then look up.
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Under the flag
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This column is the first in a new series on birthright citizenship and Trump v. Barbara order seeking to end birthright citizenship. We believe Trump’s order is egregiously unconstitutional , and we’ve now said so to the justices, in an amicus brief filed earlier today by Akhil, with Vik as counsel of record and Sam as lead assistant.
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In this series-inaugurating column, we focus on the three words the 14th Amendment’s framers and ratifiers repeated countless times and that best capture the essence of the citizenship clause: under the flag .
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“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States,” the 14th Amendment’s first sentence promises. No one doubts that babies born on American soil are born “in the United States.”
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And the refining jurisdictional clause essentially means that a baby must be born “under the flag.” This principle, which Akhil first presented in a 2005 book , cleanly explains both the scope and the limits of birthright citizenship. Certain enclaves, even though located on American soil, fall under different flags: foreign embassies, foreign public vessels, foreign-army-occupied territories, and tribal land. These enclaves thus lie outside constitutional birthright citizenship’s full guarantee (as we will discuss in a future column, and as a key 1898 precedent also recognized).
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But all children born under the American flag are born American citizens. In 1868, this rule embraced the children of slaves , the children of Confederates , and the children of “Gypsies.” It undoubtedly blankets the children of illegal immigrants today.
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The originalist evidence
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Between 1866 and 1868, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, Reconstruction Republicans proclaimed over and over again that all born under the flag would be birthright citizens.
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Leading these architects of the 14th Amendment, which the 39th Congress sent to the states for ratification in June 1866, were once and future vice presidents, Hannibal Hamlin and Schuyler Colfax.
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In October 1866, Hamlin – Abraham Lincoln’s first vice president – addressed an “overflowing” crowd at the Cooper Institute in New York City. “[T]he constitution shall be so amended that every man born under that flag shall be an American citizen,” Hamlin declared . One week earlier, in Philadelphia, he had glossed the 14th Amendment the same way: “every child born under our flag shall be an American citizen.” (Recall that Lincoln himself had delivered a famous address at the Cooper Institute in 1860.)
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For the 14th Amendment’s framers and ratifiers, “under” was synonymous with “subject to,” and “the flag” was a helpfully concrete stand-in for the more abstract word “jurisdiction.” Theirs was not only a verbal culture, but a visual one, and fittingly, a great American flag adorned the very scene of Hamlin’s Manhattan speech. “The hall of Cooper Institute,” a widely circulating newspaper reported , “was appropriately embellished with a profusion of ‘Stars and Stripes,’ the pillars adjoining the stage being encased in the star-spangled bine, and the ample folds of a large flag flowing gracefully from the speaker’s stand to the floor beneath.”
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In August 1866, Schuyler Colfax – the sitting Speaker of the House and future vice president to Ulysses S. Grant – likewise invoked the flag before an Indianapolis audience of “five to seven thousand”:
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\n[The 14th Amendment] declares that every person – every man, every woman, every child, born under our flag, or naturalized under our laws, shall have a birthright in this land of ours . High or low, rich or humble, learned or unlearned, distinguished or obscure, white or black, born in a palatial residence or born in the humblest cabin in the land, this great Government says “the ægis of protection is thrown over you; you can look up to this flag and your country, and say they are yours .” [Applause.]
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Notice how Colfax’s phrasing (“born under our flag, or naturalized under our laws”) parallels the constitutional text itself (“born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof”). In the original understanding, “born under the flag” was functionally equivalent to “born . . . subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Colfax used the same parallel construction – “born under our flag or naturalized in our Courts” – in the peroration of a July 2, 1866, public letter, read aloud at a South Bend convention and widely reprinted in newspapers across the land.
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Other prominent Americans echoed Hamlin and Colfax. The 14th Amendment secures “[t]he immunities of citizenship . . . for every one born under our flag ,” General Granville Moody, one of only 58 brevet generals commissioned by Lincoln, informed some 25,000 Union veterans at a September 1866 Pittsburgh convention.
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The flag was a constitutional touchstone for 1860s Americans precisely because it was sacred, palpable, and emblematic of sovereignty. Indeed, Moody had opened his oration by naming the “two objects which always stir my soul’s susceptibilities to their profoundest depths”: first, “[t]he cross of the Son of God,” and second, “the Flag of my Country.” He then recited a verse from a founding-era poem, Joseph Rodman Drake’s The American Flag:
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\nForever float that standard sheet;
\n\n\n\nWhere breathes the foe that stands before us;
\n\n\n\nWith freedom’s soil beneath our feet;
\n\n\n\nAnd freedom’s banner floating o’er us.
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It is therefore unsurprising that Reconstruction Republicans glossed “jurisdiction” by looking up to the flag, as Representative James M. Ashley did in November 1866, addressing an “overflowing” hall in Jackson, Michigan: “We hold that this is a government free and equal; . . . that every citizen born under its flag owes it an allegiance, and that he cannot withdraw from that allegiance unless he takes up his residence under a foreign flag.”
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Ordinary Americans, too, understood the flag as jurisdictional. Consider three unsigned editorials (not remotely exhaustive), each from a different corner of the republic:
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\nFrankfort, Kentucky (July 1866): “The purpose of the first clause of the Constitutional Amendment is to declare . . . the universality of these rights to all who are born under the flag of the Union or become its adopted citizens . . . .” \n\n\n\nTiffin, Ohio (August 1866): “Every child born under our flag, . . . becomes, by the very fact of its birth beneath our flag , a citizen of the United States . . . .” \n\n\n\nSacramento, California (June 1868): “[A]rticle 14 of the National Constitution . . . declares all persons born under the flag citizens of the United States . . . .” \n \n\n\n\n
Uncle Sam’s Thanksgiving dinner
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The political cartoon accompanying this column – Thomas Nast’s “Uncle Sam’s Thanksgiving Dinner,” published in the influential Harper’s Weekly in 1869 – captures all this and more in a single remarkable image.
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In Nast’s dazzling depiction, men, women, and children – babies! – gather around a Thanksgiving table as Uncle Sam carves a turkey. One family, on the far left, is Black. Nearest the viewer is a Chinese family, with the hair of the father and the son braided in the traditional queue. The scene also includes a Spanish family, marked by a mother holding a fan and sporting a mantilla; Italian and French Catholic families, identified by crucifixes; Irish, German, and British families; an Arab man in a turban; and even an assimilated Native American, with a feather in his hair.
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The words “Free and Equal” appear in the lower right, an unmistakable allusion to the recently ratified 14th Amendment. Echoing the Declaration of Independence, over a dozen antislavery state constitutions enshrined “born free and equal ” clauses, which in turn furnished the template for the Amendment’s opening sentence.
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Notice, too, the paintings on the walls, the art within the art. On the far wall hangs a painting of Castle Garden – that era’s Ellis Island, the landing point for immigrants yearning to be free. On the closer wall hang portraits of Lincoln, father of the Second Founding; Washington, father of the Founding; and Grant, Washingtonian commander-turned-president.
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Let us now focus on the seven children arrayed around the table, some old enough to sit in their own chairs, others so young they must be held in their parents’ arms. Each child was born to a different set of parents. Some may descend from enslavers, others from the enslaved; some from native-born citizens, others from strangers in a new land; some from the Mayflower, others from Castle Garden.
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But what all the little ones have in common are the stars and stripes draped above them, spanning both walls. All thus feast at Uncle Sam’s table, “Free and Equal” citizens – for when they drew their first breath, they did so on American soil, with freedom’s flag floating over their cradle.
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The post Birthright citizenship: under the flag appeared first on SCOTUSblog .
","category":"politics","author":"Akhil and Vikram Amar","publishDate":"2026-02-23T22:42:28.000Z","image":"https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Picture1.png","source":"SCOTUSblog","sourceUrl":"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/02/birthright-citizenship-under-the-flag/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:54.181Z"},{"id":"v2gop4","slug":"total-cervical-cancer-death-by-raceethnicity","title":"Total Cervical Cancer Death by Race/Ethnicity","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"activism","author":"kffkevinstemp","publishDate":"2026-02-23T20:41:03.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/cervical-cancer-death-rate-by-re/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-24T06:00:09.941Z"},{"id":"8tr68b","archiveId":"b6wg4t","slug":"cervical-cancer-deaths-and-death-rates-per-100000-women-by-raceethnicity","title":"Cervical Cancer Deaths and Death Rates per 100,000 Women by Race/Ethnicity","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"activism","author":"kffkevinstemp","publishDate":"2026-02-23T20:41:03.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/cervical-cancer-deaths-and-death-rates-by-re/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T18:00:49.881Z"},{"id":"kdo6sc","slug":"total-cervical-cancer-deaths","title":"Total Cervical Cancer Deaths","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"activism","author":"kffkevinstemp","publishDate":"2026-02-23T20:19:45.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/cervical-cancer-death-rate/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-24T06:00:09.941Z"},{"id":"r8p2xz","archiveId":"6pn07d","slug":"cervical-cancer-deaths-and-death-rates-per-100000-women","title":"Cervical Cancer Deaths and Death Rates per 100,000 Women","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"activism","author":"kffkevinstemp","publishDate":"2026-02-23T20:19:45.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/cervical-cancer-deaths-and-death-rates/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T18:00:49.881Z"},{"id":"qggso6","slug":"total-female-breast-cancer-deaths-by-raceethnicity","title":"Total Female Breast Cancer Deaths by Race/Ethnicity","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"activism","author":"kffkevinstemp","publishDate":"2026-02-23T20:12:55.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/breast-cancer-death-rate-by-re/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-24T06:00:09.941Z"},{"id":"yg1rcu","slug":"total-female-breast-cancer-deaths","title":"Total Female Breast Cancer Deaths","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"activism","author":"kffalannaw","publishDate":"2026-02-23T20:02:07.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/breast-cancer-death-rate/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-24T06:00:09.941Z"},{"id":"eg1sjp","archiveId":"t5uye1","slug":"female-breast-cancer-deaths-and-death-rates-per-100000-women","title":"Female Breast Cancer Deaths and Death Rates per 100,000 Women","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"activism","author":"kffalannaw","publishDate":"2026-02-23T20:02:07.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/breast-cancer-deaths-and-death-rates/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-03-03T18:00:49.881Z"},{"id":"ros5dx","slug":"guttmachers-dr-elizabeth-sully-speaks-at-cpac-press-briefing","title":"Guttmacher’s Dr. Elizabeth Sully Speaks at CPAC Press Briefing","excerpt":"
Guttmacher’s Dr. Elizabeth Sully Speaks at CPAC Press Briefing sramashwar February 23, 2026 Guttmacher experts unpack the expanded global gag rule on Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (SRHM) podcast
sramashwar February 23, 2026 The SAVE Act—the Republicans’ attempt to strip voting rights from millions of Americans under the guise of “safeguarding” elections that are already quite safe—is now headed for debate in the Senate, and President Donald Trump is pushing hard for the bill. Top Democrats say the GOP's real aim is to “rig the system” by putting paperwork and ID barriers in front of millions of currently eligible voters, and that the bill is part of a larger, ongoing effort to undermine trust in elections and reshape rules in Trump's favor.\n
Under the SAVE Act, people would have to show “proof of citizenship,” in the form of a passport or a birth certificate, in order to be allowed to register to vote.
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But 21.3 million people (more than 9 percent of Americans) don’t have these documents readily available, and at least 3.8 million don’t have them at all, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Just over half of Americans (51 percent) lack a passport, a document that is time-consuming and costly to acquire or replace.
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The SAVE Act will also disproportionately impact women who have changed or hyphenated their names—which is over 80 percent of women married to men.
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Likewise, elderly voters, young voters and voters without the financial means to acquire these documents will be overwhelmingly impacted.
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The post The SAVE Act Isn’t About Election Security. It’s About Blocking Women, Young and Low-Income Voters appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Kathy Spillar","publishDate":"2026-02-23T17:54:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2152219985-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/23/save-act-women-voters-election-senate/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-23T18:00:24.296Z"},{"id":"5veete","slug":"how-anti-ice-organizing-in-minnesota-reactivated-mutual-aid-networks-started-after-george-floyds-mur","title":"How Anti-ICE Organizing in Minnesota Reactivated Mutual Aid Networks Started After George Floyd’s Murder","excerpt":"The residents of the metropolitan area known as the Twin Cities—Minneapolis and Saint Paul—quickly came together to try to prevent their neighbors being caught up in ICE raids. As well as monitoring ICE activities, block by block, people organized mutual aid for neighbors fearful of going out in cas...","content":"
The residents of the metropolitan area known as the Twin Cities—Minneapolis and Saint Paul—quickly came together to try to prevent their neighbors being caught up in ICE raids. As well as monitoring ICE activities, block by block, people organized mutual aid for neighbors fearful of going out in case of immigration raids.
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Daniel Cueto-Villalobos, a doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota, who lives in southern Minneapolis and studies race, religion and social movements, tracks the neighborhood groups that have sprung into action in response to the ICE presence, back to mutual networks set up during the 2020 COVID pandemic, and in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
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The post How Anti-ICE Organizing in Minnesota Reactivated Mutual Aid Networks Started After George Floyd’s Murder appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Gemma Ware","publishDate":"2026-02-23T17:11:58.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2257779303.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/23/ice-minneapolis-groups-mutual-aid-organizing-george-floyd-renee-good-alex-pretti/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-23T18:00:24.296Z"},{"id":"wgggll","slug":"federal-prisons-bar-gender-affirming-care-for-trans-people","title":"Federal prisons bar gender-affirming care for trans people","excerpt":"This article was originally published by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook.","content":"
This article was originally published by The Marshall Project , a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletters , and follow them on Instagram , TikTok , Reddit and Facebook .
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The federal prison system will stop providing gender-affirming medical or social transition care to almost any transgender people, under a new policy released by the Bureau of Prisons Thursday .
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Gender identity, the policy states, is “disconnected from biological reality and sex” and “does not provide a meaningful basis for identification.” The move upends nine years of federal policy and will affect more than 1,000 people diagnosed with gender dysphoria in prisons across the country, who had longstanding access to basic gender-affirming care.
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The new policy states that trans people will not have access to surgery, clothing or toiletry items that align with their gender identity. People behind bars on hormone medications will be forced to taper off them. Instead, the primary treatments will be therapy and psychiatric medications like antidepressants.
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The policy, which was signed on Thursday and filed in federal court at a hearing in Washington, D.C., uses the phrase “sex trait modification surgery” to describe procedures that earlier iterations of the manual called “gender-affirming surgeries.” “The Bureau will not provide sex trait modification surgeries to address” gender dysphoria, it says.
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The changes are in keeping with an executive order President Donald Trump signed last year , almost immediately after taking office, called “Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.” That order said the federal prison system “shall ensure that no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”
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As part of a lawsuit challenging Trump’s executive order, a federal judge had ordered the prison system to continue providing hormones and social accommodations . However, in court papers and interviews with The Marshall Project, transgender people have described their access to hormone treatments and social transition supports as inconsistent.
\n\n\n\n\n\n
Attorneys representing transgender people in that suit said they will continue to press for their clients to receive the care they need. “It’s clear that this new policy is a ban on gender affirming healthcare,” said Shana Knizhnik, an attorney with the ACLU. “This is a policy that disregards the medical needs of our plaintiffs.”
\n\n\n\n
The Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new policy.
\n\n\n\n
For the last nine years — including during Trump’s first administration — the federal prison system operated under a policy that allowed transgender people to be offered hormones, surgery, and placement in prisons that matched a person’s gender identity — although the latter two rarely happened in practice. Alix McLearen authored earlier versions of the Bureau of Prisons’ transgender policy manuals as a senior official at the agency before her retirement in 2024. “Denying hormones to people in distress and withdrawing them from people who are stable undermines safe facility operations,” she said. “From a corrections management perspective, this is not just cruel, but reckless.”
\n\n\n\n
The new policy is the latest move amid a culture war targeting transgender civil rights nationwide, with hundreds of anti-trans bills passed in state legislatures over the last several years. These efforts culminated last year with the Supreme Court upholding gender-affirming care bans for young people , which have passed in some 20 states. Jared Littman, an attorney for the government, cited that decision in Thursday’s hearing, arguing that the Supreme Court “made it pretty clear” that a ban with “any conceivable rational basis” must be allowed. Amid this push, prison systems in Georgia, Kentucky, Utah and Florida have banned access to gender-affirming care .
\n\n\n\n
People incarcerated in Georgia are suing state officials over their policy, which is very similar to the new federal one. “If they implement that plan and it’s not enjoined, people will die,” said Chinyere Ezie, an attorney representing the plaintiffs in the Georgia suit, of the new federal prison policy. “People will die by suicide. People will die or be severely hurt from castration attempts. People who do not lose their lives will experience the very extreme physiological symptoms of hormone therapy withdrawal in addition to psychological symptoms, including depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.”
\n\n\n\n
Stopping hormone therapy can lead to hot flashes, mood swings and insomnia, and may affect bone density, leaving people vulnerable to breaks and fractures. More than 600 people with gender dysphoria were getting gender-affirming hormones in federal prison, according to court documents filed last year.
\n\n\n\n
C.C. Hunter, who is incarcerated in a men’s facility in Butner, North Carolina, was diagnosed with gender dysphoria and prescribed gender-affirming hormones by federal prison doctors and psychologists. If they were discontinued, “I would think and feel like the world was ended,” she said. “Like my life doesn’t really matter to these people.”
\n\n\n\n
The changes come on the heels of a memo the Trump administration issued in December to auditors who inspect federal prisons, telling them to ignore provisions of a federal law called the Prison Rape Elimination Act that were designed to keep transgender people safe from sexual assault. Those provisions conflict with Trump’s executive order, the memo said. Transgender people are at greatly increased risk of sexual assault while they’re incarcerated compared to cisgender people.
\n\n\n\n
The Prison Rape Elimination Act requires that officials deciding where to house transgender people give “serious consideration” to the “inmate’s own views with respect to his or her own safety.” Even under that policy, across both Democratic and Republican administrations, gender-affirming housing was rare, and surgery rarer still. By the end of the Biden administration, fewer than two dozen trans people were housed according to their gender identity . Two people had received gender-affirming surgery, only after their lawsuits led to a settlement or a judge’s order.
\n\n\n\n
But hormones and social accommodations were readily available after medical and psychological evaluation. Special clothing and commissary items were also available, like bras for transgender women or chest binders for transgender men.
\n\n\n\n
That began to change last year after Trump’s executive order led to a chaotic response in federal prisons, when transgender people had clothing and medications confiscated, only to be redistributed again, while wardens awaited guidance from Washington.
\n\n\n\n
The new policy says no one newly diagnosed with gender dysphoria can have access to hormones, and anyone currently on hormones must taper off. Those who have already had surgery and those who have been on hormones “for an extended period of time and develop severe…withdrawal effects from tapering” may have their tapering plan “adjusted as necessary.” But the policy does not outline any scenario where a transgender person can stay on hormones indefinitely, as has long been the practice.
\n\n\n\n
Courts have held that prisons issuing a blanket ban on any kind of medical care is a violation of the Constitution. In dozens of cases, judges have said prisons are required to provide gender-affirming hormones as needed. Denying the treatment, without an individualized assessment of each patient’s needs, can be cruel and unusual punishment, they found.
\n\n\n\n
The new federal prison policy says that each person with gender dysphoria will get an “individualized treatment plan,” but there is a categorical ban on surgeries and new hormone prescriptions.
\n\n\n\n
Experts caution that for many people, therapy alone is not adequate. Dan Karasic, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, helped develop international standards for the treatment of transgender people and is an expert witness for prisoners in the ongoing lawsuit challenging the Bureau of Prisons’ implementation of Trump’s executive order. “For those people for whom hormones and surgery are indicated, psychotherapy is not a substitute. Psychotherapy does not make gender dysphoria go away. You are substituting an intervention that’s been demonstrated to be effective with one that has not,” Karasic said.
\n\n\n\n
Some of the language in the new policy is nearly identical to a 2024 Florida policy that experts likened to “conversion therapy ,” a discredited practice that claims to cure homosexuality. Under Florida’s policy, the state’s prisons eliminated access to women’s clothing and undergarments , stopped providing accommodations that allowed trans women to grow their hair long, and greatly restricted access to gender-affirming hormones.
\n\n\n\n
“First, they made her cut her hair, then they took her bra away,” said LaTrisha Ramon, whose daughter Sauge Smith was incarcerated in Florida. Smith had well-developed breasts after years on hormones, and the prison uniform was a thin white t-shirt, which left her feeling exposed and unsafe. “Imagine walking around a men’s prison without a bra.”
\n\n\n\n
Smith died by suicide in a Florida prison last year. Friends and family blame the prisons for suddenly stopping her gender-affirming care.
\n\n\n\n
The Florida Department of Corrections has not responded to emails and a records request regarding Smith’s death. In an email to The Marshall Project, Smith’s partner, Ralph Miller, asked, “How many situations like Sauge is needed before it’s acknowledged that this is seriously not a game?”
","category":"activism","author":"Megan Kearney","publishDate":"2026-02-23T16:09:25.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/prisons_transgender.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/gender-affirming-care-prohibited-federal-prisons/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-23T18:00:24.575Z"},{"id":"j53ve4","archiveId":"ucalkr","slug":"northeast-syria-camp-closures-leave-thousands-stranded","title":"Northeast Syria: Camp Closures Leave Thousands Stranded","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Syrian security forces take control of al-Hol camp in the desert region of al-Hasakah Province, Syria, on January 21, 2026, following the withdrawal of Kurdish forces the previous day.","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Syrian security forces take control of al-Hol camp in the desert region of al-Hasakah Province, Syria, on January 21, 2026, following the withdrawal of Kurdish forces the previous day.\n © 2026 Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto via AP Photo \n \n \n\n\n \n<p>(Beirut) – The wellbeing of about 8,500 people held in camps housing families of men suspected of Islamic State (ISIS) affiliation in northeast Syria remains uncertain, Human Rights Watch said today. On January 30, 2026, the Syrian government announced that the camps, called al-Hol and Roj, would be imminently closed. After control of al-Hol was transferred to Syrian authorities on January 20, most residents reportedly left in a largely unplanned and chaotic manner, and authorities said on February 22 that they had fully evacuated and shut down the camp. </p><p>The camps have long held thousands of women and children, most of whom have never been charged with a crime and were detained for years in life-threatening conditions because their countries failed to repatriate them. </p><p>“For years, many governments claimed that difficulties negotiating with a non-state actor in charge of the camps was why they couldn’t repatriate their citizens, but now that excuse won’t hold,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Seven years is a long time to kick the can down the road. These countries need to bring their citizens home.”</p><p>Until mid-January, the camps housed approximately 28,000 people. About 12,500 are foreigners from more than 60 countries; 4,000 of them are Iraqi. Roj camp remains under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and is also expected to close. </p><p>Human Rights Watch spoke with four foreign women in the camps and five employees of organizations working in the camps between November 2025 and February 2026.</p><p>Since the government took control of al-Hol on January 20, the population has dropped, with many people leaving in a largely unplanned and chaotic manner.</p><p>In Roj camp, those interviewed said that guards have conducted near-nightly raids, beating and threatening detainees, and separating boys from their mothers. </p><p>While ending arbitrary and indefinite detention in the camps is long overdue, the way these departures have unfolded has exposed women and children to serious risks, including trafficking, exploitation, and recruitment by armed groups, Human Rights Watch said. Syrian authorities should prioritize identifying and protecting those who have left, ensuring safe shelter, access to health care, psychosocial support, and child protection services, and establishing individualized screening procedures that respect due process and avoid punitive or discriminatory treatment.</p><p>Three women in Roj camp, which houses 2,300 foreign women and children, said they have been experiencing near nightly raids by the Asayish, Kurdish internal security forces, which involve beatings, destruction of property, verbal harassment, and threats, theft, and extortion.</p><p>On February 9, one woman said, armed men kidnapped her neighbor’s two sons and refused to return them unless their mother paid US$2,000. “When they returned the boys, the oldest one was beaten and bloody,” she said.</p><p>A Trinidadian woman said that on January 31, “a big entourage of cars started coming in” around 11 p.m., with security forces “shooting in the air” then banging on tents and ordering women to come out. She said the women were gathered in a playground in freezing temperatures while guards insulted them. </p><p>She said that boys age 11 and over were separated from their mothers and beaten and quoted a guard saying, “this is the last day you are going to see these boys, we are going to take them away and kill them.” She said guards forced the boys to put their heads down and arms behind their backs “like prisoners,” while searching women in groups. “They started ripping off people’s jackets. They started slapping me and hitting my head, pulling off my hijab.” She said the raid lasted four and a half hours.</p><p>On February 12, she said that the raids and beatings continued. </p><p>Human Rights Watch was unable to independently verify these accounts, though aid workers reported hearing similar concerns.</p><p>Human Rights Watch asked the SDF for comment but has not received a response as of the time of publication. </p><p>Since the fall of the Assad government in Syria, the US-led coalition against ISIS supporting has stepped up its efforts to facilitate the repatriation of foreigners through the establishment of a Joint Repatriation Cell. </p><p>“[Bosnian authorities] carried out one repatriation in 2019 of a few women and children while leaving the rest of us without explanation,” said a woman who said her parents have been seeking her release for two years. “We feel discriminated against because we are the same citizens of Bosnia and our basic rights are being violated.” </p><p>While some countries have long ignored the call to repatriate their citizens, others are trying to ensure that their citizens are never able to return. The United Kingdom and Denmark have revoked the citizenship of many or some of their nationals, leaving several stateless. Australia has recently confirmed that it will not support the repatriation of 34 Australian women and children with alleged links to ISIS, with the government saying it will provide “absolutely no support.” Australian authorities have also issued a temporary exclusion order against at least one citizen in the camps, leaving the person effectively stateless. </p><p>Human Rights Watch has found that many of the children who were returned to their countries are reintegrating successfully.</p><p>Some women in the camps do not want to return. Uyghurs, Afghanis, or Iranians may be at risk of refoulement (mistreatment) if returned. For these women, a proper resettlement plan is needed, Human Rights Watch said.</p><p>Other women fear they will be separated from their children if they are detained in their home countries. “This will by default happen to 100 percent of the women who will be prosecuted upon return,” said Beatrice Eriksson, cofounder of Repatriate the Children. “These women have been 24/7 with their children since they were born, and in many cases, they are the only caregiver. Many say they don’t want to add that trauma of separation to their children when they have already gone through so much, but what is the alternative? Stay in Syria and settle there?” </p><p>Iraq ramped up repatriation efforts following the fall of the Syrian Assad government in December 2024. At its peak in 2019, al-Hol housed around 31,000 Iraqis. On February 9, Iraq’s National Security Adviser, Qasim al-Araji, said Iraq had repatriated all but 300 to 350 families from al-Hol. Iraqis are transferred to a camp in Ninewa Governorate, for security screening and rehabilitation. </p><p>Separately, on January 21, United States armed forces began transferring 5,700 male detainees, including Syrians, Iraqis, and third country nationals, from northeast Syria to Iraq for trial. Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said they include 157 boys under 18. A few hundred other boys and young men are held in so-called rehabilitation centers, most after being forcibly separated from their mothers in the camps. </p><p>All governments should urgently ensure the repatriation of their nationals. Pending repatriation and possible camp closures, all parties to the conflict should cooperate to ensure the well-being of camp residents and take urgent steps to improve the dire conditions. Anyone unlawfully detained should be immediately released or detained according to law including ensuring full due process rights for anyone charged with crimes. </p><p>“After years of terrible conditions in the camps, women and children are fleeing in fear, with nothing, and could risk further ill-treatment,” Coogle said. “Unless there is evidence they have committed a crime, all residents regardless of nationality need to be given support to return, reintegrate, rehabilitate, and rebuild their lives.</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-02-23T16:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/01/202601mena_syria_security_forces_al_hol.jpg?h=b1d8128a&itok=PmbELq-w","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/23/northeast-syria-camp-closures-leave-thousands-stranded","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:53.369Z"},{"id":"hdmhoj","archiveId":"r0hwuk","slug":"us-research-roundup-how-misconceptions-barriers-and-state-policies-impact-contraceptive-access","title":"US Research Roundup: How Misconceptions, Barriers and State Policies Impact Contraceptive Access","excerpt":"
US Research Roundup: How Misconceptions, Barriers and State Policies Impact Contraceptive Access February 24, 2026 mcherins F...","content":"<span>US Research Roundup: How Misconceptions, Barriers and State Policies Impact Contraceptive Access</span>\n<time datetime=\"2026-02-24T12:00:00Z\">February 24, 2026</time><span><span>mcherins</span></span>\n<span><time datetime=\"2026-02-23T07:49:11-07:00\" title=\"Monday, February 23, 2026 - 7:49am\">February 23, 2026</time>\n</span>\n <a class=\"c-metadata-tag c-metadata-tag--light-violet\" href=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/news-releases\">\n News Release\n </a>\n\n \n <div class=\"field field--name-field-use-link field--type-boolean field--label-above\">\n <div class=\"field__label\">Use link</div>\n <div class=\"field__item\">On</div>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"field field--name-field-facebook-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-above\">\n <div class=\"field__label\">Facebook Image</div>\n <div class=\"field__item\">Guttmacher generic Preview NEW social.png</div>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"field field--name-field-twitter-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-above\">\n <div class=\"field__label\">Twitter Image</div>\n <div class=\"field__item\">Guttmacher generic Preview NEW social.png</div>\n </div>\n<div class=\"node_view\">\n\n</div>","category":"breakthroughs","author":"mcherins","publishDate":"2026-02-23T14:49:11.000Z","image":"https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/styles/open_graph_small/public/2024-11/Guttmacher%20generic%20Preview%20NEW%20social.png?h=886612c2&itok=7s1fd0IH","source":"Guttmacher Institute","sourceUrl":"https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2026/us-research-roundup-how-misconceptions-barriers-and-state-policies-impact","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-24T18:00:06.555Z"},{"id":"84dlif","slug":"the-boys-club-how-epsteins-influence-shaped-the-exclusion-of-women-in-stem","title":"The boys’ club: How Epstein’s influence shaped the exclusion of women in STEM","excerpt":"In 2018, an elite group of academics and scientists planned to gather for an exclusive retreat at a luxury farm in the woods of Connecticut. The guests had been hand-picked by prominent New York literary agent John Brockman, who frequently hosted similar salons for luminaries in science, technology ...","content":"In 2018, an elite group of academics and scientists planned to gather for an exclusive retreat at a luxury farm in the woods of Connecticut. The guests had been hand-picked by prominent New York literary agent John Brockman, who frequently hosted similar salons for luminaries in science, technology and media.
\n\n\n\nThe problem? Brockman had included two women on the list, and his staunch supporter and biggest funder wanted them out.
\n\n\n\n“John, the old conferences did not care about diversity. I suggest you not either,” Jeffrey Epstein wrote in response to an email about the programming. “The women are all weak, and a distraction sorry.”
\n\n\n\nIn reply, Brockman justified the women’s inclusion, and says they’d been a part of a related book about AI, which needed to be inclusive to sell. “Today, it’s impossible to get a publisher to buy such a book with essays by 25 men and no women,” he wrote.
\n\n\n\nBrockman concludes the email by citing #MeToo and mentioning the news of another scientist, whose book he had tried to publish, coming under fire for sexual harassment allegations. He wonders whether it might be best for optics if the disgraced financier — the biggest financial backer to Brockman’s nonprofit Edge Foundation — didn’t attend after all.
\n\n\n\n“Me-Too is not going away; it’s growing, it’s all-pervasive and we’re now in a McCarthy-ism moment on steroids.”
\n\n\n\nBrockman did not respond to a request for comment.
\n\n\n\nThe 2018 exchange, which was revealed as part of a trove of files released by the Department of Justice, illuminates Epstein’s deep interest and entrenchment in the scientific community. He was well connected to scientists at top universities who continued to associate with him after a 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. But the files also underscore how he used his power and money in ways that kept women out of places where they might succeed.
\n\n\n\n“I think we all had a sense that the system wasn’t super fair, right?” said Nicole Baran, an assistant professor of biology and a member of 500 Scientists, a grassroots organization that started in 2016 to combat racism and misogyny in STEM — or science, technology, engineering and mathematics. “Seeing some of these emails — and peering behind the curtains of the rooms that we were never invited into, I think has really laid bare, I don’t know, just truly how broken and corrupt the system is.”
\n\n\n\nThe emails are a reminder to women like Baran that the profession, at its highest levels, still operates under the gaze of men. And in a field where funding is scarce — and climbing the career ladder is often only possible through a combination of luck, mentorship and networking — the files reveal the ways sexism and misogyny still hold women back.
\n\n\n\nFor the boys in the club, the arrangement worked to their benefit. Epstein donated millions of dollars to their research, hosted them at networking dinners at his home, invited them to visit his island or his ranch in Santa Fe, and connected them to potential funders to further their work.
\n\n\n\nAs a result, these men were able to establish their own well-funded labs to pursue their work, land lucrative book deals and make connections to other prominent men, particularly those in Silicon Valley who were working on technological advancements like AI.
\n\n\n\nBut as the emails reveal, these same men did not see women as intellectual equals.
\n\n\n\nTake Roger Schank, an AI researcher and theorist who died in 2023. He suggested in one email that “intelligence comes about in part from real focus” and that it is rare for a woman to not be “first and foremost focused on what others are thinking and feeling about her.”
\n\n\n\n“Hard to be brilliant if you are worrying if you look fat or why another woman hates you or why you don’t own a kelly bag,” he wrote. To which Epstein responded: “It’s the tail of distribution , no really smart women – none.”
\n\n\n\n(Epstein’s emails and those of his correspondents often contained typos; The 19th is reproducing the text as it appears in the files released by the Justice Department.)
\n\n\n\nLarry Summers, the former president of Harvard University, who emailed with Epstein hundreds of times , made a joke in one email about how “half the IQ In world was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of population.”
\n\n\n\nThe email was sent in 2017, more than a decade after Summers came under fire for a speech he gave at a conference for women and underrepresented groups in STEM, where he suggested that there weren’t as many women smart enough to be in these professions due to higher variability in men’s intelligence. During his time as president he was also scrutinized for the lack of women in tenured positions. The Guardian reported that under his reign the share of tenured positions offered to women fell from 36 percent to 13 percent.
\n\n\n\nIn another exchange, Epstein and Jeremy Rubin, a bitcoin developer and MIT researcher, went back and forth over whether there are any games that women are actually better at than men. It would be “interesting to attempt to make an intellectually stimulating game where women outperform men,” Rubin wrote in 2016. “Unless women are inherently inferior to the maximally talented man at all tasks ;).”
\n\n\n\nFor women like Lauren Aulet, a neuroscientist and assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, the files revealed conversations that were more brash than she expected. “I think what was most shocking was simply how blatant and explicit the misogyny was.”
\n\n\n\n“We have this narrative that explicit misogyny is something from the ’50s and ’60s, and what we have now is like implicit bias and microaggressions,” she said, adding: “I think this made clear that explicit misogyny is still out there in science and in academia, it’s just perhaps behind closed doors.”
\n\n\n\nImportantly, she says, the ways in which women are talked about, and also excluded from the connections these men had, have professional repercussions
\n\n\n\n“Women scientists aren’t necessarily the people that come to mind for certain men when they’re thinking about who they’re inviting to dinner or who they’re inviting to a conference,” she said.
\n\n\n\nNot having that visibility can matter when it comes to achievements like being offered a tenured position — the height of stability in academia. “Often the tenure board will reach out for letters of recommendation from other people at other institutions in the field. Certainly, the more you’re known broadly, the better it is for your career in terms of tenure.”
\n\n\n\nOther scientists, like Alison Twelvetree, a neurobiologist based in the United Kingdom, said she was not as surprised by the contents of the emails. “You just feel that it’s happening, even if you’re not privy to the exact contents of the conversations.”
\n\n\n\nIn her career, she said she’s often been the only woman in the room. “You become very aware of the — I mean a very British way of putting this — blokey banter that you’re not a part of and you kind of feel that exclusion.”
\n\n\n\nFor Twelvetree, the emails also showed how these scientists would let things slide in their interactions with Epstein. “A lot of men who get to the top, they’re cowards,” she said. “So even if they’re aware that they’re not supposed to condone the way people are speaking, or they shouldn’t be that way in those environments, they will condone it,” she said. “It’s that sort of cowardice to [not] be an active bystander and not call it out. It’s still the majority.”
\n\n\n\nShe sees a connection between the ways women are talked about in the files and the response to a recent push to strip Elon Musk of his fellow title at the Royal Society, the U.K.’s premier scientific institution, after his AI tool, Grok, was given the capability to undress women and girls .
\n\n\n\nSo far, the head of the institute has said the only reasons to strip fellows of their titles is if they’ve conducted scientific misconduct, things like falsifying data, Twelvetree said. “[Elon’s] used the products of science to make his personal AI assistant Grock a mass engine of misogyny and white supremacy. I don’t understand how that isn’t scientific misconduct.”
\n\n\n\nIn January, X, formerly known as Twitter, announced it had limited image generation to paid users and added additional safety guardrails. However, reporting has shown Grok can still generate explicit images despite these changes.
\n\n\n\nFor her, it’s just another example of men not being allies to women. “It’s these people at the top just sort of being pretty casual about stuff they should be standing up to,” she said.
\n\n\n\nOutside of quipping about women’s intelligence, some of the emails show men talking about young women in their profession in ways that are degrading. David Gelernter, a computer scientist at Yale University who corresponded with Epstein many times, recommending an undergrad student for a possible job, describing her to Epstein as a “v small good-looking blonde.” Yale has since placed Gelernter on leave, while they review his conduct.
\n\n\n\nIn another series of exchanges, Epstein and Summers discuss a woman whom Summers said he was mentoring, but who he implied he wanted to sleep with. He has since clarified the woman was not a student to the Harvard Crimson . In November, he told the student newspaper, that he was deeply ashamed of his actions and takes full responsibility “for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein.” He has stepped down from public positions including at the Center for American Progress and on the board of OpenAI.
\n\n\n\n\n\nThe interactions revealed in the files are “very dehumanizing” for women, Baran said. “I think especially when you think about like, these are men who had colleagues [and] mentees that were women,” she said. “And I think what was so clear is the way in which women in particular were just not spoken about as people with equal intellectual capacity and power.”
\n\n\n\nThe revelations also made her question some of the work produced by some of the men scientists connected to Epstein, including researchers she teaches in her own classes. “It’s really hard to separate the science that these people created from the theories that are considered sort of foundational,” she said. “Especially in this area of psychology and evolution in particular, where I’m finding it just really hard to disentangle [from their] behavior in their personal life that seems so egregious and horrific.”
\n\n\n\nAs an assistant professor of biology, it’s made her think of the young women she sees going into the sciences today. “Will their ideas be taken seriously?” she wonders. “Will their creativity, brilliance or ingenuity be taken seriously? Or will it be dismissed or ignored?”
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Jessica Kutz","publishDate":"2026-02-23T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/epstein_scientists-graywhite.jpeg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/epstein-files-academic-research-women-scientists/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-23T12:00:28.497Z"},{"id":"vmuuyh","archiveId":"9eormy","slug":"theyre-scared-theyre-bleeding-too-much-or-not-enough-heres-who-they-call-during-an-at-home-abortion","title":"They're Scared They're Bleeding Too Much — Or Not Enough. Here's Who They Call During An At-Home Abortion.","excerpt":"Since Roe v. Wade fell, many callers are filled with concern: “If I go to the emergency room, will they call the police?”","content":"","category":"choice","author":"HuffPost Women","publishDate":"2026-02-22T15:07:24.000Z","image":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/6998e842150000084d01959b.jpg?cache=5yVcxUtj5Z&ops=500_281%2Cscalefit_1200_630","source":"HuffPost Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/abortion-miscarriage-hotline-doctor-advice_n_699894b0e4b069f4556c2c72","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:51.009Z"},{"id":"iqgmjy","slug":"in-mississippi-were-feeding-kids-the-state-has-left-behindand-building-the-future-our-leaders-refuse","title":"In Mississippi, We’re Feeding Kids the State Has Left Behind—and Building the Future Our Leaders Refuse to Imagine","excerpt":"For three years now, the state of Mississippi has chosen to opt out of Summer EBT, now called SUN Bucks, which is a federally funded program that would provide an additional $120 in grocery benefits per child to families who qualify for free and reduced lunches.","content":"For three years now, the state of Mississippi has chosen to opt out of Summer EBT, now called SUN Bucks, which is a federally funded program that would provide an additional $120 in grocery benefits per child to families who qualify for free and reduced lunches. The decision means that this summer, 324,000 Mississippi children will go without these benefits—joining more than 9 million kids nationwide who are left hungry because of political choices, not policy gaps.
\nFor the past two summers, Jackson-based nonprofit Springboard to Opportunities has stepped in with its own summer cash program to fill the gap—providing direct cash assistance to families, trusting them to make the best choices for their children.
\nAs we mark Black History Month, we’re reminded that the story of food insecurity in Mississippi, and across this country, is also a story about structural racism.
\nThe post In Mississippi, We’re Feeding Kids the State Has Left Behind—and Building the Future Our Leaders Refuse to Imagine appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Sarah Stripp","publishDate":"2026-02-22T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1247284684.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/22/mississippi-springboard-to-opportunies-sun-bucks-free-meals-summer-lunch/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-22T12:00:41.707Z"},{"id":"um90vz","slug":"the-victims-who-fought-back","title":"The Victims Who Fought Back","excerpt":"The post The Victims Who Fought Back appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"Lisa Rae Moss — serving a life sentence for her involvement in the 1990 murder of her husband, Mike Moss — sat in the witness box in a courtroom in Seminole, Oklahoma, on a frigid January morning in 2025, her hands knotted in her lap. Moss, who is 60, was asked to recount what she endured in her 20s, during her marriage to a volatile man a dozen years her senior. Her long silver hair and prison-issued glasses accentuated the years between her and the younger self she was describing.
\n\n\n\n“Did Mike ever use a gun on you in the bedroom?” her lawyer, Colleen McCarty, asked.
\n\n\n\n“He had a gun that usually lay on top of the chest of drawers at night,” Moss said quietly. She explained that her husband would place it there before they went to bed.
\n\n\n\n“There were a number of occasions where he took the gun — and I wasn’t in the mood to have sex and I didn’t want to have sex — and he would move the gun up and down my inner thigh and then lay it on the pillow next to the bed.” She stopped to correct herself: “Next to my head, I’m sorry.”
\n\n\n\nUnder her lawyer’s questioning, Moss described a pattern of abuse that began six months after their wedding, when her husband grabbed her by the throat and threw her against the fireplace. She recalled how, during an argument, he tried to shove a tennis ball into her mouth. How she was knocked unconscious when he once slammed her head against their refrigerator so hard that it left a dent. How he repeatedly punched her in the stomach when she was pregnant with their son. How he raped her multiple times, once with a curling iron — an assault that caused lasting injuries. “I bled every day for five years until I finally had a hysterectomy,” she said. When her 4-year-old daughter from a previous marriage complained that Mike had done something to make her bottom hurt, Moss feared he was sexually abusing her little girl, too.
\n\n\n\n“Were you afraid for your life?” McCarty said.
\n\n\n\nMoss nodded. “Absolutely.”
\n\n\n\nHer testimony put her at the center of an extraordinary legal experiment unfolding in Oklahoma, where a new state law, the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act, passed in 2024, offers prisoners like her a chance at freedom. Under the law, a domestic-violence victim who is serving time can petition for a reduced sentence, which the law mandates if a judge decides that the abuse she endured was a “substantial contributing factor” to her crime.
\n\n\n\nMoss was the first to get her day in court and test whether the law could deliver on its promise. Unlike most other defendants in cases the statute was intended to remedy, Moss did not carry out the violence herself. She was not present when her older brother, Richard Wright, shot her husband. But at her 1990 trial, prosecutors argued that she had solicited and helped orchestrate the killing, introducing testimony that she once asked an acquaintance to “get rid of” her husband in exchange for an initial payment of $500. She was convicted of first-degree murder and lesser charges and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. (Her brother is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.)
\n\n\n\nLisa Wright, formerly Lisa Moss, was released from prison last year under the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act. She had been serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. Carolyn Drake/Magnum, for The New York Times The question before the court that morning in Seminole was not one of guilt or innocence; it was whether Moss’ punishment failed to account for the role that years of physical and sexual abuse played in her crime. McCarty called Margaret Black, a licensed counselor specializing in domestic violence, to the stand. Black, who had evaluated Moss, explained that each time Moss tried to leave her husband, the violence escalated. Black described a lethality assessment she had conducted to measure the risk Moss faced of being killed or seriously injured. “Eighteen and above is what’s called extreme danger,” Black said. In Moss’ case, her review of the evidence led her to assign a score of 24. “This was a very, very dangerous situation for Lisa and her children.”
\n\n\n\nThat afternoon, District Judge C. Steven Kessinger announced that he had reached a decision. “The court finds that the defendant has provided clear and convincing evidence that she was a survivor of domestic violence, having endured physical, sexual and psychological abuse,” he told the crowded courtroom. “The court further finds that such violence and abuse was a substantial contributing factor in causing the defendant to commit the offenses for which she is presently incarcerated.” Under the statute, this finding made her eligible for a sentence of 30 years or fewer — and because she had already served more than that, the judge ordered her to be freed that day.
\n\n\n\nThe exultation that broke out inside the courtroom as Moss embraced her grown daughter, who was 5 when Moss was incarcerated, soon reached Mabel Bassett Correctional Center. The prison, a low sprawl of concrete and razor wire that sits on the outskirts of the small town McLoud, was where Moss had spent virtually all her adult life. One of Moss’ oldest friends there, April Wilkens, was bent over the tablet that connected her with the outside world when she received a text message with the news of the judge’s ruling. She leaped off her bunk and ran out of her cell, shouting, “Lisa’s going home!”
\n\n\n\nThe prison’s day room erupted at the news of Moss’ release. The outpouring of joy was about more than one woman’s walking free. Moss’ lawyer, McCarty, had identified dozens of other prisoners at Mabel Bassett, including Wilkens, who she believed would qualify for relief under the new law, and the hearing suggested they had reason to hope. “The feeling was electric — pure elation,” Wilkens told me. “Our survivor exodus had begun.”
\n\n\n\nWhen Wilkens returned to her tablet, she saw a text from McCarty: “You’re next!”
\n\n\n\nWilkens first met McCarty when the lawyer came to visit her at Mabel Bassett, Oklahoma’s largest women’s prison, in the summer of 2022. Wilkens was serving a life sentence for shooting and killing her ex-fiancé after years of abuse and stalking and indifference from the police. She had already spent 24 years behind bars. McCarty had just founded the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, and in Wilkens’ case, she saw an opportunity to compel the justice system to do what it rarely did: revisit harsh punishments that the criminal-justice system had long treated as final.
\n\n\n\nFor years, only a handful of states had tried to grapple with cases like Moss’ and Wilkens’, and even then, survivors faced steep barriers to having their sentences reconsidered. That began to change in 2019, when New York passed a law empowering judges to reduce sentences when they found that abuse had been a “significant contributing factor” to a defendant’s crime.
\n\n\n\nAccompanying McCarty that day was Leslie Briggs, another lawyer who would later become the center’s legal director. Briggs had learned of Wilkens’ case from Wilkens’ niece, who had collected boxes and boxes of records related to her aunt’s conviction. The two lawyers had reviewed the transcripts of the long-forgotten case and saw Wilkens’ prosecution as a stark example of a justice system that often fails to stop abusers but proves swift to punish those who fight back.
\n\n\n\nThe case had particular resonance for McCarty. One of her earliest memories was of her teenage sister sitting at the kitchen table one morning with a bruised eye and split lip, having been thrown down a flight of stairs by a boyfriend. McCarty’s mother had escaped an abusive relationship only to be victimized again by a different partner before McCarty graduated from high school.
\n\n\n\nThe lawyers wanted to pass legislation modeled on New York’s law, the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act. They thought that calling attention to Wilkens’ case, in which the abuse was both extensive and thoroughly documented, might be the way to do it. But first McCarty needed a sense of how many women were imprisoned at Mabel Bassett for crimes tied to their own abuse — a phenomenon that sentencing-reform advocates call criminalized survivorship.
\n\n\n\nThough there was no system to identify these women within the prison, Wilkens came up with a solution: She wrote an informal questionnaire aimed at survivors of domestic violence. A friend of hers inside the penitentiary managed to type up and print hundreds of copies, and that September, Wilkens and her contacts in other parts of the prison began circulating them. (“It certainly helps to have friends in low places,” Wilkens told me.) The questionnaire asked each respondent to provide the length of her sentence, the county of her conviction and an account of her crime, and to mail the responses to Appleseed’s office in Tulsa.
\n\n\n\nOne hundred and fifty-six questionnaires arrived over the course of several weeks in the fall of 2022. Each envelope held a harrowing narrative, some in polite, looping script, some in block letters. The respondents were Black and white, Native American and Hispanic, young and old, from big cities and small towns. “I kept begging for a divorce, and he’d threaten to kill my children.” “His wife before me had her nose broken twice.” “Whenever I didn’t want to have sex with him, he would twist my wrists as far as he could until I gave in to him.” Another woman recounted the feeling of liberation she felt behind bars, where her partner could no longer hurt her: “I was in a very abusive, sick relationship,” she wrote. “I am FREE now.” A few were vague about their crimes. Others were blunt: “One night just snapped, shot & killed husband.”
\n\n\n\nOklahoma consistently ranks among the states with the highest rates of domestic violence; it also has one of the highest rates of female imprisonment. McCarty believed the two were connected, and the surveys seemed to bear that out. Some respondents claimed to have participated in robberies or other crimes under the threat of violence from their abusers. More had been convicted under Oklahoma’s “failure to protect” law, punished for not doing enough to shield their children from the brutality of their partners, often while enduring that violence themselves. But the women serving the longest sentences were typically those who had struck back at their abusers. McCarty began talking to lawmakers about these findings, and in 2023, an early version of a domestic violence survivors’ bill was introduced.
\n\n\n\nThe lawyer Colleen McCarty advocated for the passage of the Survivors’ Act. She saw it as a corrective to a justice system that punishes domestic-violence survivors who fight back. Carolyn Drake/Magnum, for The New York Times Nothing might seem to have longer odds in deep-red Oklahoma than an effort to lessen punishments for violent crimes, but overcrowded prisons and rising costs were already forcing a rethinking of harsh, decades-old sentencing laws. In 2016, voters approved a landmark ballot initiative reducing penalties for certain low-level drug and property crimes; three years later, lawmakers made those changes retroactive, leading to one of the largest single-day prisoner releases in American history.
\n\n\n\nMcCarty hoped to build on that momentum. Wilkens advocated for the bill from prison, writing an opinion piece in The Oklahoman and telling her story on a local TV-news program, and she became the focus of a social media campaign, #FreeAprilWilkens.
\n\n\n\nNot everyone in Oklahoma supported the proposed law for domestic-abuse survivors. Prosecutors warned that the statute encouraged exaggerated or bad-faith claims that would be difficult to disprove years after the fact. The law, they argued, opened a Pandora’s box — one in which potentially anyone who had suffered violence could seek a lesser punishment.
\n\n\n\nArguing that the bill took too broad a view of who should be eligible for resentencing, the Tulsa County district attorney, Steve Kunzweiler, wrote in a 2024 email to a lawmaker that the legislation “presents a risk to public safety.” He went on to cite an infamous case, which he had prosecuted, to make his point: “The Bever brothers, who slaughtered their family in Broken Arrow, would be eligible for sentence modification under this bill in its present form.”
\n\n\n\nThe case, from 2015, fell well outside the law’s scope. Robert and Michael Bever had killed their parents, who a surviving sister testified were not physically abusive, and three younger siblings. The proposed legislation required that any claims of abuse be corroborated with some kind of documentary evidence — evidence that case did not have.
\n\n\n\nKunzweiler had given voice to a broader concern among prosecutors: that undeserving and dangerous defendants could exploit the law to seek reduced sentences. Pushback from elected district attorneys led to changes in the bill; cases involving death sentences were excluded. It would take two legislative sessions and a sustained effort by a bipartisan coalition to pass a version lawmakers could agree on. The Oklahoma Survivors’ Act was signed into law in May 2024.
\n\n\n\nBut its passage did not quiet criticism from the state’s district attorneys. They would play a central role in how the law was applied, because they had the authority to oppose any applications they believed were unfounded. Prosecutors could challenge a survivor’s account of abuse or argue that it played no meaningful role in the crime. A judge would make the final determination, but the law’s promise of sentence reduction would depend, in part, on the discretion of prosecutors.
\n\n\n\nNew York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act offered a glimpse of the challenges that lay ahead in Oklahoma. The act had produced sharply different results from county to county. In a 2025 article for The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Alexandra Harrington, a law professor at the University at Buffalo, found that whether a defendant had her sentence reduced or not largely depended on the local district attorney.
\n\n\n\nWhen prosecutors supported an application for resentencing, judges frequently granted relief. When prosecutors opposed an application, only a fraction succeeded. Opposition from district attorneys was most common when the crime was seen as too egregious; or when the defendant had a criminal history or a substance abuse problem, or was perceived as aggressive or otherwise viewed as unsympathetic; or when the applicant had previously received a plea deal in the case. “In some jurisdictions, the D.A.’s office has served almost entirely to obstruct the path to relief,” Harrington wrote.
\n\n\n\nTulsa County’s district attorney, Steve Kunzweiler, opposed Wilkens’ application for resentencing. He and other Oklahoma prosecutors have expressed concern that bad-faith applicants can exploit the Survivors’ Act. Carolyn Drake/Magnum, for The New York Times McCarty was clear-eyed when we first spoke last spring about the challenges ahead. Many of the resentencing cases she was working on — including Wilkens’ — were in Tulsa, where Kunzweiler was the top prosecutor, and they had very different visions of what justice looked like. McCarty, animated and intense, with large brown eyes that widened as she talked, spoke passionately about the possibility of second chances for those the system had failed. Kunzweiler, a phlegmatic, gray-haired career prosecutor a generation older, prized the finality of a jury verdict — and the punishment that went with it. Signaling just how seriously he took Wilkens’ request for resentencing, he had chosen to represent the state along with one of his best prosecutors, and he had repeatedly asked for more time to prepare. After numerous delays, there was still no hearing set, and McCarty was growing impatient. “We wrote this law with April in mind,” she said.
\n\n\n\nWilkens had filed her application for resentencing on Aug. 29, 2024 — the day the law took effect — and she had expected to lead the way. But Moss was the first to receive a hearing, and in the wake of her release, four other women at Mabel Bassett were given court dates, the first of which was in July 2025. Wilkens would have to wait.
\n\n\n\nWilkens grew up in the 1970s and early ’80s in Kellyville, a no-stoplight town, where her father’s moodiness and brute discipline dominated the household. Wilkens says he whipped her with a belt or switch for minor infractions and once punched her square in the mouth. Wilkens cultivated a sunny, high-energy persona: cheerleader, honor student, the kind of girl untouched by turmoil. She propelled herself out of Kellyville by excelling academically, graduating from high school two years early. She attended Oklahoma State University and completed a graduate program in prosthetics at Northwestern University’s medical school in Chicago.
\n\n\n\nAn early marriage to her college sweetheart produced a little boy, Hunter, but ended after four years. In 1995, when she was 25, she was newly divorced, running her own prosthetics business in Tulsa and ready for a new chapter. She began dating again. Tall and willowy, with long chestnut hair and a bright smile, she drew attention.
\n\n\n\nThat fall, she met Terry Carlton, who was 12 years older and the son of a prominent auto dealer. Handsome and magnetic, with an impulsive streak, he flew them first class to Dallas and hired a chauffeured limousine for their first date. He proposed two months later, on Christmas Eve, when he slipped a $25,000 engagement ring onto her finger. She did not yet know that he had both a drug problem and a history of violence with women. Two of his previous romantic partners had gone to the police to report abuse; one of them, citing repeated chokings and “severe emotional trauma,” secured a protective order against him.
\n\n\n\nFour months into Wilkens’ engagement to Carlton, he grabbed her by the throat during an argument. Afterward, he swore to her that he would never hurt her again. But over the next two years, during their on-again-off-again relationship, Wilkens called 911 at least 10 times to plead for help. She was granted three emergency protective orders and sought medical attention for injuries sustained during a rape and multiple beatings.
\n\n\n\nPolice reports, medical records and trial testimony document what Wilkens endured — sometimes in full view of witnesses. A neighbor once watched as Carlton chased her down the driveway, grabbed her by the hair and dragged her, screaming, back toward her house. The same neighbor also saw him, on another occasion, pounding on Wilkens’ back door with what looked like a metal pipe. A doctor who lived across the street from Carlton discovered Wilkens in her car, bleeding, after Carlton smashed her driver-side window and grabbed her keys so she couldn’t leave.
\n\n\n\nYet Carlton — whose family wielded influence in Tulsa — seemed untouchable. “When the police were called, his timing was impeccable,” a neighbor, Glenda McCarley, testified at Wilkens’ 1999 trial. “He could be in his car and gone just as they rounded the corner.” Officers responded but rarely intervened. Their attitude toward Wilkens was typified by one officer whom McCarley remembered as “put out, impatient, in a hurry.”
\n\n\n\nCarlton, whose sports car was often seen idling outside Wilkens’ house at odd hours of the night, was arrested only once, after the police found him at her home in February 1998, with a loaded 9-millimeter pistol and a stun gun. He faced no meaningful consequences: Rather than pursue assault or stalking charges — both felonies — the authorities cited him for a misdemeanor weapons violation. When he skipped his court date, a warrant was issued for his arrest, but the Tulsa police never enforced it.
\n\n\n\nHis relentless harassment left Wilkens in a fragile state of mind; twice that spring, she was involuntarily committed to psychiatric hospitals. Her unraveling was further accelerated by a growing dependence on drugs. She would later testify that Carlton had introduced her first to cocaine, then to meth, taken intravenously. As his erratic behavior intensified, so did her drug abuse. By the time she appeared on his doorstep at around 3 a.m. on April 28 — on the day that she killed him — she was a shadow of the vibrant young woman she was when they first met.
\n\n\n\nApril Wilkens’ case was the impetus for the passage of the Survivors’ Act. Tulsa prosecutors have advocated to keep her in prison. Carolyn Drake/Magnum, for The New York Times In less than three years, she had lost everything: her business, which went under as her focus drifted; her family and friends, from whom Carlton kept her isolated; and her son, now in her ex-husband’s sole custody. She would later testify that she went to Carlton’s house in the middle of the night with a singular, desperate purpose: to beg him to leave her alone for good. Facing him directly, she would later say, seemed like the only way she could reclaim some measure of control. But the encounter quickly turned violent. She said that after she refused to have sex with him, he raped her and threatened to kill her. Eventually, she managed to grab his .22 handgun, and when he came toward her, enraged, she fired. She kept firing — eight shots in all.
\n\n\n\nAfter undergoing questioning and a sexual-assault exam that documented vaginal tearing, Wilkens was jailed and charged with first-degree murder.
\n\n\n\n“When in trouble, cry rape,” District Attorney Tim Harris said in closing arguments at her 1999 trial, in which prosecutors cast her as a manipulative, mentally unstable, meth-crazed fabulist who went to Carlton’s home looking for drugs and revenge. Though Wilkens’ attorney argued that she acted in self-defense because she feared for her life, Harris suggested that she and Carlton had a mutually destructive relationship, in which Wilkens — who weighed 107 pounds at the time of the murder — met Carlton’s abuse with her own aggression.
\n\n\n\n“There is no doubt he physically abused her,” Harris told the jury. “But is there not some doubt that she also abused him? He abused her, she abused him, I file a protective order, I cry rape, now I’m back, let’s get high, I hate you, I love you, you owe me money. Man, what a dysfunctional life.” Harris blamed her for resorting to violence: “If April Wilkens had really been serious about her fear of Terry Carlton, she could have allowed the system to come to her aid.” Wilkens was found guilty and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.
\n\n\n\nWilkens being brought to the Tulsa Police Department in 1998, for questioning in the killing of her former fiancé Mike Simons/Tulsa World Harris was succeeded 16 years later, in 2015, by Kunzweiler, who had been one of his top lieutenants. As district attorney, Kunzweiler took the same hard line on Wilkens’ case, repeatedly opposing her bids for parole. In 2022, the district attorney’s office stated in a letter to the parole board that her sentence reflected the gravity of her crime and that she should remain in prison. “She presents a risk to the safety of the public,” the letter read.
\n\n\n\nWilkens was denied parole once again. McCarty emphasized this to lawmakers when she fought for passage of the Survivors’ Act; without a new law, Wilkens faced the prospect of remaining locked up for the rest of her life.
\n\n\n\nIn June, after nearly a year of delays, a Tulsa judge scheduled Wilkens’ resentencing hearing for September. She, and the three other women who would have their hearings first, were part of the loose-knit group at Mabel Bassett that Wilkens called the “survivor sisterhood.”
\n\n\n\nErica Harrison, the unofficial den mother to the young women in her housing unit, was serving a 20-year sentence for having shot and killed a family friend after he raped her in 2013. Norma Jane Lumpkin, whose long hair hung past her waist, was four decades into a life sentence for her role in the 1981 bludgeoning death of her husband. Tyesha Long, who is 27 — the youngest of the group and a former rodeo competitor in barrel racing — had a 27-year sentence for shooting her abusive on-again-off-again boyfriend to death in 2020. “Jane and I have both been locked up longer than Tyesha has been alive,” Wilkens told me.
\n\n\n\nAside from minor driving infractions, none of the women had been in trouble with the law before their arrests, and Wilkens saw their crimes, like hers, as aberrations, acts she believed were inseparable from the abuse each woman had endured. Before they were led out of Mabel Bassett in handcuffs and leg irons, to face their resentencing hearings in the county courts where they were convicted, Wilkens tried to prepare them. She quoted her favorite passage from Ecclesiastes, reminding them that there is power in numbers. She urged them to listen carefully to each question when they were on the stand and to take a breath before responding. And she advised them on how to prepare for their processing photos. Don’t grimace, she told them. Your mug shot is going to be all over the local news.
\n\n\n\nMoss, the only woman who had been freed under the Survivors’ Act, attended the hearings that summer. She deliberately positioned herself where she could be seen by whichever woman from Mabel Bassett was sitting at the defense table, and she met the defendant’s gaze, offering reassurance that she was there and that she remembered exactly what this moment felt like. She made a point of looking her best, knowing that she embodied the promise of the freedom that might lie ahead. Wearing bright colors and simple but elegant jewelry, she looked polished, with her hair blown out, her nails lacquered, her lipstick fresh. After 35 years behind bars, she was not going to keep her head down. “Freedom looks good on her,” Wilkens later told me.
\n\n\n\nBut it soon became clear that not everyone’s resentencing hearing would unfold the way Moss’ did in Seminole, under a different district attorney. Harrison, the first in the sisterhood to go before a judge that summer, testified in a Tulsa court in July. “I was going through a terrible divorce,” Harrison said, recalling a period when she was on her own with three children and a totaled car. “I had just left the domestic-violence shelter and moved into a little, small, no-name apartment.” Harrison had a drink with a family friend, Calvin Anderson, and passed out. She woke to find him on top of her, and after he sodomized her, she managed to fight him off. In the hours that followed, he loitered around her apartment complex, and when her eventual calls to 911 did not bring a timely response, she shot him in the parking lot.
\n\n\n\nProsecutors challenged her account, emphasizing that elements of her story had changed since she was first questioned by the police in 2013; they capitalized on the fact that she did not call 911 right after the assault, suggesting the danger she claimed to feel afterward was invented. “At what point did he magically become a threat?” Assistant District Attorney Meghan Hilborn asked. The judge in Harrison’s case said she would hand down a ruling later that summer.
\n\n\n\nThe oldest of the group, Lumpkin, appeared in court the following week. Her crime — committed with a neighbor who was also charged in connection with the killing — had been particularly gruesome. Her husband was beaten to death, his body later found in the trunk of her car. Yet it did not seem inconceivable that she might be granted some measure of leniency, because she was 75 and had been incarcerated for the past 44 years. But as Lumpkin sat at the defense table, the victim’s family delivered searing statements that undercut her long-standing claims of abuse, portraying her instead as a calculating, coldblooded killer. Lumpkin’s daughter, Alisha Keeney, who was 12 when her father was bludgeoned to death, told the court her mother had not served enough time for the brutal slaying. “That’s the only resentencing she deserves, is jail forever,” Keeney said.
\n\n\n\nNorma Jane Lumpkin is serving a life sentence in connection with the murder of her husband, who she says abused her. She has been behind bars since 1981. Carolyn Drake/Magnum, for The New York Times Again, no immediate ruling came down from the bench. Eleven days later, Tyesha Long settled into the witness box in an Oklahoma City courtroom and recounted how a local businessman named Ray Brown began pursuing her when she was 17. Brown, who was in his early 50s, had been the subject of protective orders obtained by multiple women. The first time he was violent with her, she testified, he sucker-punched her in the mouth. He went on to stalk her, choke her, threaten her life and push her down a flight of stairs, causing her to have a miscarriage, she said. After he chased her in his car and rammed her vehicle, she received a protective order against him. But their relationship never completely ended. During one heated argument, she said, he reached for her throat — and Long, who said Brown had strangled her before, thought she was going to die. “I pulled out my gun and I shot him,” she testified.
\n\n\n\nThe problem Long faced at her trial, when she argued that she acted in self-defense, was that she shot Brown in the back. This was at odds with how she remembered it, with Brown advancing toward her. Experts on domestic violence say that cases in which survivors kill their abusers often look different from typical self-defense cases, which hinge on an obvious, imminent danger, like a drawn weapon. For a survivor who has been repeatedly and continuously terrorized, the perception of being in mortal danger does not come into focus in a single, dramatic moment. She may be moved to fight back not when being attacked but in the lull between violent episodes, when the abuser is momentarily disengaged. To a jury, it may be hard to see the imminent threat in such a scenario — as when Brown turned and walked away from Long.
\n\n\n\nThat gap, between how the law traditionally understands self-defense and how domestic-violence victims experience danger, is one the Survivors’ Act sought to address. Violence within intimate relationships is understood to be part of what researchers call “coercive control”: a sustained pattern of domination enforced through intimidation, threats, surveillance and social isolation. Research has shown that living under such conditions can alter threat perception and decision-making, narrowing a survivor’s perceived options when danger feels imminent. To a victim who has learned that such a moment of calm could be the prelude to the next round of violence, it may feel like her last opportunity to act before she is assaulted again.
\n\n\n\nLong had another challenge, which was that her descriptions of Brown’s abuse had varied over her police interview, her trial and now the hearing. Trauma “impacts the way our brain stores memory,” the defense’s expert witness Angela Beatty, a social worker and vice president at YWCA Oklahoma City whose work focuses on survivors of domestic violence, explained at the hearing. Such experiences, Beatty said, can fracture memory, leaving recollections fragmented rather than organized and chronological.
\n\n\n\nTyesha Long is serving a 27-year sentence for killing a man she had a protective order against. The Oklahoma County district attorney’s office opposed her application for resentencing. Carolyn Drake/Magnum, for The New York Times But Assistant District Attorney Madeline Coffey seized on those inconsistencies to argue that Long wasn’t credible. Long seemed to fold in on herself, her shoulders drawn tight and her voice barely audible, as Coffey dissected each claim: How many times, exactly, was Long strangled to the point of unconsciousness? Wasn’t the sex sometimes consensual? What was the precise number of punches Brown dealt her? “Is that testimony at trial — that he only punched you one time — different than your testimony today, that he punched you probably two times?” Coffey pressed. Again, there was no ruling from the bench, but the mood among Long’s supporters was grim. She had remained on the stand for nearly five hours.
\n\n\n\nWord of the grueling cross-examinations quickly got back to Wilkens, who was busy preparing for her upcoming hearing. Prosecutors had warned that these hearings could retraumatize victims’ families, but she could see that the hearings had also traumatized the defendants themselves. Testifying at her own trial had been an excruciating exercise, Wilkens told me, not only because describing the abuse meant reliving it. Her cross-examination — with its rapid-fire accusations, caustic tone and presumption of dishonesty — had felt eerily familiar after years of verbal abuse. It had also proved to be an impossible test. “I would challenge anyone to sit on the stand and just be berated and asked the same question 20 different times in 20 different ways,” she said. “On top of that, you’ve got an audience. It’s very public. Your whole life is laid bare for everyone to see.”
\n\n\n\nEvery seat in the courtroom was taken when Wilkens’ resentencing hearing got underway in Tulsa one morning in September. Members of her family sat shoulder to shoulder with women Wilkens once served time with. Next to a group of law students who had come to observe the proceedings was Wilkens’ niece, Amanda Ross, who years earlier had first brought her aunt’s case to McCarty’s attention.
\n\n\n\nRoss, who was 7 when Wilkens was arrested, had corresponded with her aunt since elementary school. Growing up, she knew only the vague outlines of Wilkens’ case; the crime had never squared with the woman she knew. After college, Ross became a librarian and put her skills to work, trying to understand, as she traced her aunt’s odyssey through the courts, how Wilkens ended up with a life sentence. By the time of the hearing, Ross had spent nearly a decade trying to chase down every relevant document and public record. Having long since run out of space to store her growing archive, she stashed boxes of legal papers in the trunk of her Toyota Corolla.
\n\n\n\nWilkens sat at the defense table, taking in the room; she wore no makeup, and her hair, streaked with gray, hung loose past her shoulders. She had been warned by a sheriff’s deputy not to speak to anyone, but when she spotted Lisa Rae Moss sitting in the gallery, she caught Moss’ eye and smiled.
\n\n\n\nKunzweiler was representing the state that day alongside Meghan Hilborn, the assistant district attorney who had conducted the bruising cross-examination of Erica Harrison in July. The judge in that case announced five days earlier that she was denying Harrison relief. Though Lumpkin and Long were still awaiting rulings, there was little reason to believe they would fare differently.
\n\n\n\nAmanda Ross was 7 when her aunt April Wilkens was arrested. Her research helped bring attention to Wilkens’ case. Carolyn Drake/Magnum, for The New York Times In Kunzweiler’s brief opening statement, he made clear that he saw no reason for a renewed debate over Wilkens’ punishment. “Twelve men and women sat in a courtroom very much like this,” Kunzweiler said. “They saw all the evidence.” It was a pointed reminder that a jury had already weighed much of what the court was now being asked to reconsider. Invoking her “extreme methamphetamine use,” he emphasized that Wilkens sought out Terry Carlton on the morning she shot him, arriving at his house unannounced. Kunzweiler gestured toward the defense table, where Wilkens sat in a striped orange jail jumpsuit, her handcuffs padlocked to a heavy chain at her waist, her ankles shackled together in leg irons. “She sits here as a convicted murderer,” Kunzweiler said.
\n\n\n\nDespite Kunzweiler’s initial comments to the court, there was a piece of evidence that jurors at her 1999 trial had not been given to consider — a tape recording Wilkens made of a phone call between her and Carlton, in which he angrily admitted to raping, beating and choking her, while blaming her for provoking him. Now, at the hearing, it was entered into the record when the defense called a federal judge, Judge Claire Eagan of the Northern District of Oklahoma, to the stand.
\n\n\n\nEagan had an unexpected personal connection to the case; as a lawyer in private practice in 1996, she helped Wilkens obtain an emergency protective order. She testified that when Wilkens came to her office, she had injuries that included black eyes and bruises on her face and arms. A few days later, Wilkens brought the tape recording with her and played it for Eagan. Wilkens later failed to come to court to extend the protective order, too frightened to see Carlton in person. Because she did not appear, the order was dismissed — a moment Eagan said she still remembered. “Mr. Carlton was there with his attorney,” she said. “He looked at me when it was dismissed and smiled.”
\n\n\n\nThe recording was given to the court — along with police reports, protective orders and medical records — to show that Wilkens was abused by the man she killed. Wilkens, however, would not be taking the stand. After the summer’s punishing cross-examinations of the other women, Wilkens’ lawyers — Colleen McCarty and a veteran of the public defender’s office, Abby Gore — had made the difficult decision, along with Wilkens, that she should not testify. Their appraisal underscored the challenges the Survivors’ Act was encountering in the courtroom. Its most visible and articulate champion in Mabel Bassett would go unheard. The strategic calculation was made to ensure that an aggressive cross-examination did not overshadow the well-documented evidence of abuse at the heart of Wilkens’ case.
\n\n\n\nThe remaining question was whether Carlton’s abuse was a substantial contributing factor, under the statute, when Wilkens killed him — a point the defense sought to establish through Angela Beatty, the social worker who previously testified at Tyesha Long’s hearing. Beatty, who had interviewed Wilkens and reviewed her medical records, said that the “coercive control” exerted by abusers like Carlton can impair survivors’ ability to weigh options and make reasoned decisions, narrowing their focus to survival. “Ms. Wilkens shared that Mr. Carlton did threaten her life that night,” Beatty said, adding that Wilkens believed she was going to die. “He told her he would kill her.”
\n\n\n\nOn cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney Hilborn pressed Beatty. “Can you ever tell if you’re being deceived by a victim?” she asked. “Would you agree that April Wilkens has a good reason to say certain things to you for a sentence modification?” Having cast doubt on Beatty’s objectivity, Hilborn then made the case that Wilkens’ fear may have stemmed from something other than abuse. She returned again and again to Wilkens’ substance use, emphasizing that Wilkens had used meth intravenously. “When you’re talking about her being paranoid that somebody is stalking her, are you able to tell the court that is definitively from domestic violence?” Hilborn asked. “Or can it also be caused by methamphetamine use?”
\n\n\n\nOn the second day of the hearing, the state called its own witness, Jarrod Steffan, a forensic psychologist it had hired. Steffan had evaluated Wilkens and found her to be psychologically well adjusted. But her decades-old medical records, he testified, showed “she was experiencing severe mental-health issues, such as hallucinations and delusions, leading up to Mr. Carlton’s death.” He played down the impact that ongoing physical and sexual abuse may have had on her mental state: “Her actions in Mr. Carlton’s death were not due to domestic violence,” he said. “It was her mental illness and heavy meth use that led to Mr. Carlton’s death.”
\n\n\n\nA rebuttal witness called by Wilkens’ lawyers, Dr. Reagan Gill, a forensic psychiatrist, questioned Steffan’s methodology, saying that his characterization of Wilkens’ past behavior — which Steffan described in a written report as “nefarious” and “irrational” — had no place in a clinical assessment. “These are not words we use,” Gill said.
\n\n\n\nJudge David Guten did not wait to hand down a ruling. “There was more than sufficient evidence that there was violence in this relationship,” he said from the bench that afternoon. But he concluded that the defense had failed to meet the second requirement of the Oklahoma Survivor’s Act: to show, “by clear and convincing evidence,” that the abuse substantially contributed to the crime itself. Guten singled out the defense’s witness, Beatty, as too biased to render an impartial assessment, characterizing the social worker’s testimony as advocacy, not an expert opinion. “I could not give her testimony any weight,” he said. Moments later, Guten pronounced the proceedings over: “I am going to deny the request for a sentence modification.”
\n\n\n\nThe morning after the hearing, I met Lisa Rae Moss in a downtown Tulsa coffee shop. Eight months had passed since she walked out of the Seminole County Courthouse. In that time, she had met her grandchildren and relearned how to drive. She had found joy in walking barefoot, and picking out produce at the grocery store, and sitting alone in silence. She had legally changed her name back to her maiden name, Wright.
\n\n\n\nShe was living with Vicki Thorp, a lay pastor who visited her throughout her years in prison, and Thorp’s husband in their spacious home outside Oklahoma City, which afforded her the kind of privacy she never had at Mabel Bassett. Most mornings, she listened to the birds outside her bedroom window, sometimes studying them through a pair of binoculars. Evenings, she went out to the Thorps’ deck to stare up at the stars.
\n\n\n\nNow Moss looked tired and uncertain. Those small freedoms were shadowed by what had happened to Wilkens. “I feel such, such — guilt,” she said, almost choking on the word. “How can I be sitting here and April has to go back to prison?”
\n\n\n\nMore losses followed. In October, Lumpkin and Long were each denied relief, and in early December, a judge declined to reduce the life sentence of another woman at Mabel Bassett, Kimberley Perigo, who shot and killed her ex-husband in 2001. Perigo, who had taken the stand to recount years of physical and sexual abuse and stalking, was the fifth applicant to be denied since Moss’ release.
\n\n\n\nThe string of denials gave rise to questions inside Mabel Bassett: Had Moss been the only one to walk free in Oklahoma because she wasn’t at the scene of the crime? Was it because her case originated in a county where the district attorney did not try to discredit her accounts of abuse? Or was it simply the luck of having the first hearing at a time when the law was animated by rare bipartisan support? Among advocates for domestic-violence victims, much of their anger was directed at the district attorney’s office, which had spent more than $16,000 on expert witness testimony in Wilkens’ case alone.
\n\n\n\nKunzweiler, who is up for reelection this year, made clear to me that he believed he had a duty to rigorously probe applicants’ claims, including through cross-examination. “Aren’t we all trying to get to the truth?” he said. “That’s our obligation: to find the truth and then seek justice.” When I asked what he thought justice looked like in Wilkens’ case, he said that the system had worked as it should; she had been afforded a trial and the opportunity to challenge her conviction through her appeals. The jury’s verdict had been upheld each time, Kunzweiler noted, and when Guten later considered her request for resentencing, he saw no reason to modify her punishment. “She has the right to appeal the finding of this judge,” Kunzweiler said. “But the process is here for a reason.”
\n\n\n\nMcCarty asked Guten to reconsider his decision in the Wilkens case on the grounds that he misinterpreted the Survivors’ Act by relying so heavily on expert testimony. The facts of the case alone should guide him, she argued, and those facts — which included police reports, medical records, protective orders and witness testimony — pointed to only one conclusion.
\n\n\n\nIn late November, Guten denied the motion to reconsider. Wilkens and her lawyers, he stated in a written order, “are requesting this court to accept evidence of abuse while completely discarding all other factors surrounding the homicide.” Guten continued, “This court declines to view the evidence with tunnel vision.” He lauded the jury in Wilkens’ trial, which “appropriately weighed evidence of substance abuse and mental health.” He dismissed the claim “with prejudice,” foreclosing any further reconsideration of it in his court.
\n\n\n\nMcCarty believed institutional resistance had stacked the deck against Wilkens. As evidence, she pointed to text messages of Kunzweiler’s she obtained through a public records request, including one he sent to several state employees after Wilkens’ hearing. “Sorry about just now getting back with you,” it read. “I was busy keeping April Wilkens in prison.” More text messages McCarty uncovered showed that Guten texted the district attorney in September asking if he had seen a letter The Tulsa World had just published, written by one of the jurors at Wilkens’ 1990 trial; the juror claimed Wilkens’ sentence had been fair and her claims of self-defense were “a fabrication.”
\n\n\n\nTo McCarty, the texts reflected just how determined the system’s gatekeepers were to preserve the status quo, despite the new law. On Jan. 29, she announced that she would be running for district attorney, challenging Kunzweiler in the Republican primary.
\n\n\n\nWilkens is appealing her case to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, where the court’s review of Guten’s ruling will help determine how judges will apply the Survivors’ Act moving forward. As more states — most recently Georgia — enact survivor-justice laws, it remains to be seen if the criminal-justice system is capable of perceiving someone like Wilkens not just as a perpetrator who must be punished but also as a victim deserving of mercy.
\n\n\n\nThe Oklahoma Court of Appeals will wrestle with what the Survivors’ Act means when it asks judges to evaluate whether domestic abuse was a substantial contributing factor in a crime. That appeal will be led not by McCarty but by a lawyer whom she asked to take the case: Garrard Beeney, at the white-shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, who won the first appellate court ruling under New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act in 2021.
\n\n\n\nAppellate courts move slowly, however, and it may be years before the court hands down a ruling. All Wilkens can do in the meantime is wait. After I visited her at Mabel Bassett last summer, she wrote to me about a tree that she planted when she first arrived there. “It was just a scrawny little thing back then, barely waist-high,” Wilkens said. It now towers over her, its branches reaching toward the sky.
\nThe post The Victims Who Fought Back appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"activism","author":"Pamela Colloff","publishDate":"2026-02-22T10:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/20260218-coloff-drake-ok-justice-wright.jpg?w=752","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/oklahoma-survivors-act-domestic-violence","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-22T12:00:42.956Z"},{"id":"xp5jbv","slug":"the-heritage-foundation8217s-plan-to-keep-women-uneducated-pregnant-and-subservient","title":"The Heritage Foundation's Plan to Keep Women Uneducated, Pregnant and Subservient","excerpt":"Since Trump’s re-ascendance to the White House, the reactionary conservative movement has become the most aggressive and unfettered it has been in my lifetime. And they are getting very, very clear on what they think an acceptable life looks like for women: —Settle for any man who decides he wants y...","content":"Since Trump’s re-ascendance to the White House, the reactionary conservative movement has become the most aggressive and unfettered it has been in my lifetime. And they are getting very, very clear on what they think an acceptable life looks like for women:
\n—Settle for any man who decides he wants you.
\nThis isn’t hyperbole. It’s a plan they wrote down and published: Last month, the Heritage Foundation published \"Saving America by Saving the Family: A Foundation for the Next 250 Years.\" Think of it as Project 2275, a detailed plan that is mostly about how America can spend the next two and a half centuries undoing the feminist progress we’ve made.
\nThe post The Heritage Foundation’s Plan to Keep Women Uneducated, Pregnant and Subservient appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Jill Filipovic","publishDate":"2026-02-20T22:52:31.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2260731893.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/20/heritage-foundation-women/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-21T00:00:27.419Z"},{"id":"5v7w8a","archiveId":"da93ut","slug":"abuses-in-cameroon-after-us-deports-third-country-nationals","title":"Abuses in Cameroon After US Deports Third-Country Nationals","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Cars drive through an intersection near a monument in Yaoundé, Cameroon, September12, 2025. © 2025 Welba Yamo Pascal/AP Photo Cameroonian authorities are arbitrarily detaining non-Cameroonian nationals deported from the United States and detaining and abusing journalis...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Cars drive through an intersection near a monument in Yaoundé, Cameroon, September12, 2025. \n © 2025 Welba Yamo Pascal/AP Photo \n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Cameroonian authorities are arbitrarily detaining non-Cameroonian nationals deported from the United States and detaining and abusing journalists who tried to interview them. But US President Donald Trump’s administration doesn’t seem to care.</p><p>In January and February, under a secret agreement, the US government deported to Cameroon 17 men and women—including asylum seekers and a stateless person—from 9 African countries: Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe.</p><p>Cameroonian authorities immediately detained the deportees, despite having no legal basis for doing so. A lawyer assisting some of the deportees said representatives from United Nations agencies spoke to them about the possibility of seeking asylum in Cameroon. However, the deportees told the lawyer they felt pressured to return to their countries of origin.</p><p>Several deportees were ineligible for asylum in the US but had court-ordered protections against deportation to their countries of origin due to fears of persecution or torture. The Trump administration circumvented these protections by sending them to a third country – one that Human Rights Watch and others have consistently said is unsafe for deportations.</p><p>For years, parts of Cameroon have been wracked by violence and armed conflict, the government has cracked down on opposition and the media, and armed groups and government forces have committed widespread abuses, including torture in detention. In 2022, we documented how Cameroonian asylum seekers deported by the US experienced harms in Cameroon after their return.</p><p>Cameroon is party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and has national refugee legislation, yet two people the US sent to Cameroon have already returned to their country of origin. Fifteen remain in detention in the Cameroonian capital, Yaoundé. The forced or coerced return of anyone to a country where they face risks of persecution, torture, or other serious harm is refoulement, prohibited under international law.</p><p>The Cameroonian government should immediately release the remaining deportees, ensure protection from refoulement, and arrange their return to the US. It should also respect freedom of the press and hold relevant authorities accountable for abuses.</p><p>Given the risks of torture, refoulement, and other abuses in Cameroon, the US violated international law by deporting people there. US courts and Congress should press for the return of those deported to Cameroon and for an end to deportation agreements with third countries, which lack safeguards and have consistently resulted in abuses.</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-02-20T22:30:14.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/02/202602afr_cameroon_Yaounde%CC%81.jpg?h=a141e9ea&itok=LKbYeHjB","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/20/abuses-in-cameroon-after-us-deports-third-country-nationals","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:53.369Z"},{"id":"q54mmb","slug":"we8217re-hiring-a-part-time-fellowships-coordinator","title":"We're hiring a part-time fellowships coordinator","excerpt":"Role details The 19th is hiring a part-time Program Coordinator, Fellowships to provide dedicated administrative and operational support across all areas of its journalism fellowship program for alumni of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).","content":"
Role details \n\n\n\n\nHourly rate : $33-43.50 per hourHours : up to 25 hours per weekDuration : March through November 2026 Location : Remote (U.S. only)Application deadline : March 9, 2026Department: FellowshipsTravel: None \n\n\n\nThe 19th is hiring a part-time Program Coordinator, Fellowships to provide dedicated administrative and operational support across all areas of its journalism fellowship program for alumni of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). This role supports the day-to-day functioning of the Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Fellowship and plays a critical role in ensuring the smooth execution of program logistics, communications, events and documentation.
\n\n\n\nThe part-time program coordinator reports to and works closely with the director of fellowships, as well as fellows, mentors, contractors and internal partners across the People Operations, Finance, Development, Product and Creative departments. The role supports key fellowship activities, including meeting coordination, curriculum and training logistics, retreat and event planning, internal communications, alumni engagement, survey and evaluation management, documentation, and recruitment and onboarding support.
\n\n\n\nThis role is highly organized and detail-oriented, with a strong emphasis on coordination, follow-through and relationship management. The coordinator helps bridge priorities between fellows and internal stakeholders, supports timely communication, and ensures systems and processes are well-documented and maintained. While part-time, this role is essential to the operational continuity and success of the fellowship program.
\n\n\n\nIt includes day-to-day (recurring/ongoing) responsibilities to ensure the program’s continuity and project-based initiatives, which can be worked on in the coordinator’s remaining hours. The coordinator will manage core operational and communications functions each week, and use remaining weekly hours to advance priority projects based on program timelines and director guidance.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nResponsibilities Day-to-Day (Recurring / Ongoing)
\n\n\n\nOperations and administration \nCoordinates weekly fellowship team meetings and biweekly cross-functional meetings, including scheduling, Zoom setup, agendas and note-taking. \n\n\n\nPlans and follows up on fellowship trainings and professional development sessions, including speaker coordination, calendar scheduling, participant management and invoice collection. \n\n\n\nSupports onboarding of incoming fellows by coordinating schedules, materials and communications and ensuring readiness for program start. \n\n\n\nDrafts, tracks and coordinates contracts for fellowship-related vendors, facilitators, mentors and events in collaboration with finance and people operations. \n\n\n\nAdministers surveys for fellows, mentors and external speakers; tracks and manages responses; and supports analysis and reporting to inform program improvements and evaluation. \n\n\n\nOther duties as assigned. \n \n\n\n\nCommunications, outreach and engagement \nDrafts and circulates weekly fellowship updates to all 19th staff and submits communications on deadline. \n\n\n\nServes as a point of contact for fellows, mentors, alumni, partners and internal stakeholders regarding fellowship logistics and programming. \n\n\n\nCoordinates alumni engagement activities related to workshops, events, outreach efforts and partnership opportunities. \n\n\n\nCollaborates with cross-functional teams to ensure timely sharing of information, visuals and materials related to fellowship activities. \n\n\n\nOther duties as assigned. \n \n\n\n\nProject-based Responsibilities
\n\n\n\n\nMentorship program coordination: mentor outreach, contracts, pairing mentors with fellows, kickoff meetings, survey administration, invoice processing and documentation.Documentation and records management: establishes and maintains a structured Google Drive filing system to ensure consistent documentation, version control and ease of access across program areas.Career fair coordination: develops and documents project management workflows for career fair participation, including logistics planning, vendor coordination, timelines and post-event documentation.Fellowship microsite: develops project management workflows to guide the planning and cross-functional coordination of the fellowship microsite.Retreats and events: supports retreat and event coordination, including pre- and post-event communications and documentation. \n\n\n\nNon-essential functions (as capacity permits) \nParticipates in culture-building, inclusive decision-making and cross-team collaboration. \n \n\n\n\nRelevant skills and experience \nExperience providing administrative, operational or program coordination support, preferably in a nonprofit, media or mission-driven organization. \n\n\n\nStrong organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple timelines and priorities. \n\n\n\nExcellent written and verbal communication skills, including drafting internal updates and coordinating with diverse stakeholders. \n\n\n\nExperience coordinating events, trainings or programs involving multiple participants and vendors. \n\n\n\nExperience developing and documenting project management workflows for cross-functional initiatives. \n\n\n\nExperience building or maintaining structured documentation systems (e.g. Google Drive). \n\n\n\nExperience planning and coordinating external-facing events. \n\n\n\nComfort working in a remote, deadline-driven and collaborative environment. \n\n\n\nAbility to exercise sound judgment, take ownership of tasks and follow through independently. \n\n\n\nExperience managing documentation, databases or shared filing systems. \n\n\n\nFamiliarity with tools such as Google Workspace, Airtable, Zoom, Mailchimp, WordPress and project tracking systems. \n\n\n\nExperience supporting fellowship, internship or mentorship programs is a plus. \n\n\n\nPast attendance at an HBCU is a plus. \n\n\n\nJournalism experience is a plus. \n \n\n\n\nWe know there are great candidates who might not check all these boxes or who possess important skills we haven’t thought of. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself. We also encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including people of color, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.
\n\n\n\nBenefits \nSick time accrual (1 hour of sick time for every 26 hours worked) \n \n\n\n\nHow to apply Interested candidates should apply here by 12 p.m. CT on Friday, March 9, 2026. Have questions about this position? Contact us at jobs@19thnews.org . (Note: We are not accepting résumés or applications via email; apply here .)
\n\n\n\n","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Zurii Conroy","publishDate":"2026-02-20T22:09:01.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/X-job-post-1200x675-2.png","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/part-time-fellowships-coordinator/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-21T00:00:27.848Z"},{"id":"54t32e","slug":"celebrating-black-americans8217-commitment-to-democracyfrom-jesse-jackson-to-dorothy-height-to-shirl","title":"Celebrating Black Americans' Commitment to Democracy—From Jesse Jackson to Dorothy Height to Shirley Chisholm","excerpt":"Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S.","content":"Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
\nThis week:
\n... and more.
\nThe post Celebrating Black Americans’ Commitment to Democracy—From Jesse Jackson to Dorothy Height to Shirley Chisholm appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Cynthia Richie Terrell","publishDate":"2026-02-20T20:52:17.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/From-Jesse-Jackson-to-Dorothy-Height-Celebrating-Black-Americans-Commitment-to-Democracy-1.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/20/black-america-women-democracy-jesse-jackson-dorothy-height-shirley-chisholm-politics/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-21T00:00:27.419Z"},{"id":"83x7eg","archiveId":"poxopj","slug":"haiti-criminal-groups-trafficking-children-amid-state-collapse","title":"Haiti Criminal Groups Trafficking Children Amid State Collapse","excerpt":"Click to expand Image A 17-year-old Carrefour resident, associated with a criminal group, stands on a terrace, gazing out over the horizon in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 2024. © 2024 Nathalye Cotrino/Human Rights Watch A new United Nations report details how criminal groups in Haiti are expl...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n A 17-year-old Carrefour resident, associated with a criminal group, stands on a terrace, gazing out over the horizon in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 2024.\n © 2024 Nathalye Cotrino/Human Rights Watch\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>A new United Nations report details how criminal groups in Haiti are exploiting the near-total absence of the state, as well as widespread hunger and violence, to recruit children who then face abuse. These criminal groups traffic children by using threats and material incentives to force them into criminal activity, sexual abuse, and sexual slavery.</p><p>At least 26 criminal groups operate in and around Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, where an estimated 500,000 children live in areas under their control. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently stated that child recruitment tripled in 2025, with children estimated to make up between 30 to 50 percent of criminal groups.</p><p>According to the new report, issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Integrated Office in Haiti, these groups use children in often dangerous roles that help strengthen the groups’ power and profits. Boys are deployed as lookouts to track police movements, forced to transport weapons and ammunition, collect extortion payments, and take part in kidnappings and fighting. Some are subjected to violent initiation rites, the report says, including beatings and forced participation in killings and rapes, which appear designed to “isolate the children from their families and communities.”</p><p>The report found that girls as young as 12 face sexual exploitation and sexual slavery, including in the form of coerced “relationships” with criminal group members. While they are often forced to perform domestic work, some are also used to gather intelligence, assist in criminal operations, and in certain groups wield weapons. Children who attempt to escape, as well as their families, risk violent retaliation.</p><p>These findings are consistent with Human Rights Watch’s documentation of serious abuses against children by criminal groups and the failure of Haitian authorities to prioritize children’s protection and rehabilitation. Social protection programs cover only a small number of vulnerable households. Schools, which should be protective spaces, remain closed in many areas that criminal groups control.</p><p>Haitian transitional authorities should strengthen social protection programs for families in vulnerable situations, ensure schools can function as safe spaces, expand access to psychosocial care, and develop community-based reintegration programs for children who experience serious abuse.</p><p>Without immediate action to help children leave criminal groups and reintegrate into communities safely, the criminal groups will continue to profit from exploiting them. Through sustained reforms and strong international support, Haiti can begin to restore trust in state institutions and break the cycle of abuse.</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-02-20T20:21:06.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2024/10/202410CCD_Haiti_Child.jpg?h=9738e81d&itok=flxJ9yy2","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/20/haiti-criminal-groups-trafficking-children-amid-state-collapse","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:53.369Z"},{"id":"1nmocf","slug":"south-carolina-hospitals-arent-required-to-disclose-measles-related-admissions-that-leaves-doctors-i","title":"South Carolina Hospitals Aren’t Required to Disclose Measles-Related Admissions. That Leaves Doctors in the Dark.","excerpt":"The post South Carolina Hospitals Aren’t Required to Disclose Measles-Related Admissions. That Leaves Doctors in the Dark. appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"
In mid-January, an unassuming man in khakis and a button-down shirt walked to a wooden lectern at a school board meeting in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. Most chairs in the audience were empty. The man, Tim Smith, was the only person signed up to speak during public comments. He had five minutes.
\n\n\n\n“I trust that each one of you had a good Christmas and New Year’s,” he began. “Unfortunately, I can’t say the same thing.”
\n\n\n\nHis wife is an assistant teacher at a public elementary school in the county, epicenter of the state’s historic measles outbreak, and shortly before winter break she’d received a notice that a child in her classroom had measles. Given his wife is fully vaccinated, he wasn’t worried.
\n\n\n\nThen, she began to get sick. And sicker. She got a measles test and, to their shock, it came back positive. She was apparently among the very rare breakthrough infections.
\n\n\n\nFrightened, they took her to the hospital that night. “My wife was throwing up,” Smith said at the meeting. “She had diarrhea. She couldn’t breathe. All for what? This is — it’s absolute insanity.”
\n\n\n\nDr. Leigh Bragg, a pediatrician working a county away, wasn’t even aware that anyone in South Carolina had been hospitalized with measles-related illnesses until a short time later when she logged on to Facebook and saw someone relay the distraught husband’s comments.
\n\n\n\nPart of the reason Bragg didn’t know is that South Carolina doesn’t require hospitals to report admissions for measles, potentially obscuring the disease’s severity. In the absence of mandatory reporting rules, she and other doctors are often left to rely on rumors, their grapevines of colleagues, and the fragments of information the state public health agency is able to gather and willing to share.
\n\n\n\nWith 973 reported cases , South Carolina’s measles outbreak has ballooned into the nation’s largest since the virus was declared eliminated in the U.S. 25 years ago. Yet, since state health officials first confirmed the outbreak on Oct. 2, the state’s hospitals have reported only 20 measles-related admissions, or about 2% of cases. Some infectious disease experts say that the true number is likely much higher.
\n\n\n\nHospitalization rates can vary greatly by a measles outbreak’s location and who is getting infected. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 20% of measles cases will result in admissions.
\n\n\n\n“A hospitalization rate at 2% is ludicrous,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an infectious disease physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who served on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization advisory committee.
\n\n\n\n“It’s vast underreporting,” Offit said. “Measles makes you sick.”
\n\n\n\nMeasles is among the most contagious of viruses. In 2026 so far, almost half of states have reported cases. Yet it’s left largely to each state to decide how much infectious disease reporting to require about it.
\n\n\n\n“We don’t think we are getting an accurate picture at all of how these illnesses are impacting our community,” Linda Bell, the South Carolina state epidemiologist, said at a briefing last month. “We’re just not getting a picture of that now with the small number of hospitalizations that are known to us.”
\n\n\n\nBell said the state Department of Public Health is urging hospitals to report their measles-related admissions, and seven hospitals have done so. (There are at least a dozen acute care hospitals in the Upstate alone.) But the state cannot force them to do so. Bell also said that the agency, which sets infectious disease reporting requirements, hasn’t considered adding hospitalizations to the list because the primary purpose of public health surveillance is to understand disease transmission, frequency and distribution — not to track complications.
\n\n\n\nThat leaves doctors like Bragg advising patients, including vaccine-resistant parents, without the benefit of confirmed, real-time data about how many South Carolinians have been hospitalized with measles. Severe complications include pneumonia, dehydration and a potentially life-threatening brain swelling called encephalitis.
\n\n\n\n“It’s a very big disservice to the public not reporting complications we are seeing in hospitals or even ERs,” Bragg said. “Measles isn’t just a cold.”
\n\n\n\nProPublica contacted state health agencies across the South and found most do not require hospitals to report measles-related admissions. Alabama does. So does Virginia, although it doesn’t release that data to the public. Like South Carolina, North Carolina and Texas don’t require reporting of hospitalizations, but epidemiologists can identify them during case investigations.
\n\n\n\nDuring the Texas measles outbreak last year, 99 people were hospitalized out of 762 cases.
\n\n\n\nThat’s a rate of about 13%. In South Carolina, the reported rate is 2%.
\n\n\n\nReal-time hospitalization data can show where to target resources and help hospitals prepare for an influx of patients. “As vaccine rates decrease, it could also really help us understand the changing epidemiology of measles in this current context,” said Gabriel Benavidez, an epidemiology professor at Baylor University in Texas.
\n\n\n\nWhen ProPublica asked hospitals across the Upstate, the northwest quadrant of South Carolina where the outbreak is concentrated, if they are reporting their measles-related admissions to the state and how many patients they had treated, few responded. Only Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System shared its total. (As of mid-February, the number was four.)
\n\n\n\nA spokesperson for Prisma Health, a Greenville-based nonprofit that owns eight acute-care hospitals in the Upstate, said its hospitals are “reporting everything we are supposed to report.” She wouldn’t say how many measles patients have been hospitalized at Prisma hospitals or how many the system has reported to the state.
\n\n\n\nDoctors in the Dark \n\n\n\nBragg, who is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric infectious disease, works in the region of South Carolina where the outbreak is concentrated. It’s a highly religious expanse with the state’s lowest student vaccination rates. She recently met with a parent questioning the recommended vaccines for a 1-year-old child, which includes a first dose of measles vaccine .
\n\n\n\n“We’re in the middle of a measles outbreak,” Bragg thought.
\n\n\n\nThen she began a 30-minute discussion of the vaccine’s extreme safety and 97% lifetime effectiveness when two doses are given. She explained that 95% of people in South Carolina who have gotten measles were unvaccinated. She rattled off historic risks of measles complications.
\n\n\n\nYet Bragg couldn’t tell the parent just how severely ill their fellow South Carolinians were getting from the outbreak sickening people around them.
\n\n\n\nShe had heard about pneumonia, ICU admissions — and even a case of encephalitis. But she hadn’t been able to confirm it, or find out if it was a child, much less how the patient fared. (Shortly after, Bell announced that the state health agency had learned of encephalitis cases in children, but she didn’t provide the numbers of patients or their outcomes.)
\n\n\n\nAs president of the South Carolina chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Martha Edwards is connected to physicians across the state. “All I’m hearing about are ‘complications of measles,’” which can mean a lot of different things, she said.
\n\n\n\nCommunicating the risks of severe illness is all the more important because few of today’s parents have seen measles up close. Neither have most practicing doctors.
\n\n\n\nEarly in his career, Dr. William Schaffner, a professor at Vanderbilt University who focuses on the prevention of infectious diseases, worked with the CDC to implement the measles vaccine. When he tells medical students today that in the 1960s, before the measles vaccine, 400 to 500 kids died of measles and its complications each year, “They’re stunned.”
\n\n\n\n“If the severity of the illness cannot be ascertained — if it can’t be determined — it can’t be appropriately communicated to the public,” Schaffner said. “And the public might get the false impression that measles is milder than it really is.”
\n\n\n\nAt a briefing, Dr. Robin LaCroix, a Prisma pediatric infectious disease physician, said the organization’s physicians “have seen the whole gamut of acute and post-measles infections that have afflicted these children. They are sick.” Children have become listless and suffered blotchy rashes, coughing and coughing spasms, dehydration and secondary infections including pneumonias.
\n\n\n\nMeasles infections are particularly dangerous for babies who cannot get vaccinated yet and young children who haven’t gotten the second dose. Infections during pregnancy also pose severe risks for mothers who are not vaccinated or immune, including miscarriage and a tenfold increase in death due to pneumonia. Mothers can pass on the virus to their babies, “which can be catastrophic,” said Dr. Kendreia Dickens-Carr, a Prisma OB-GYN.
\n\n\n\nMore than 900 confirmed measles cases have been reported across the country already in 2026, compared with 2,281 in all of 2025. Most of this year’s cases are in South Carolina, but Florida has reported 63 cases and neighboring North Carolina 15, including one hospitalization.
\n\n\n\n“We really do need to think about the way in which we report these things, because viruses and bacteria don’t respect state lines,” said Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician running as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate in South Carolina. “Public health professionals from one state to another should be comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges.”
\n\n\n\nThe most advanced pediatric care in the state is provided at the Medical University of South Carolina’s campus in Charleston, several hours away from the Upstate on the coast. So far, its children’s hospital hasn’t admitted any measles patients, doctors said.
\n\n\n\nDr. Danielle Scheurer, the chief quality officer at MUSC, celebrated the state’s low hospitalization rate and said she doubted hospitals would object to required reporting of measles-related admissions if the state health agency were to change its rules.
\n\n\n\n“Transparency here is going to help other states,” Scheurer said. “The more transparent we are about all of our statistics, the better off any other state is going to be in preparing.”
\n\n\n\nPolitical Pressures \n\n\n\nAcross South Carolina, large health care systems have bought up local hospitals and doctors’ practices. With that control, they can exert influence over what those doctors and hospital employees say publicly, especially when it comes to potentially controversial topics like vaccines. At the same time, they face pressure from Republican lawmakers and a growing segment of vaccine-wary patients.
\n\n\n\nThe result is often highly controlled information sharing, or a lack thereof.
\n\n\n\n“There’s this level of caution that wasn’t there before,” Edwards said. She understands that hospitals don’t want to offend patients who are dubious of vaccines. Bragg agreed but said given that 93% of the state’s students are vaccinated, she worries the hospitals are “pandering to a small group.”
\n\n\n\nA pending bill , sponsored by several of Spartanburg County’s state representatives, seeks to prevent hospitals and doctors from questioning or interfering “in any manner” with a patient’s right to refuse treatments or vaccines. During COVID-19, the bill contends, federal agencies collaborated with medical organizations and others “to orchestrate a coordinated and coercive propaganda campaign” to shame people who declined COVID-19 vaccines. Doctors and hospitals argue they must balance public health risks with individuals who decline to take vaccines.
\n\n\n\nThe state’s Republican governor, Henry McMaster , and major GOP candidates to replace him have largely framed their responses to the measles outbreak around the concept of medical freedom , particularly when discussing vaccine mandates.
\n\n\n\nAndrews, the pediatrician running for the U.S. Senate, said she’s experienced the “chilling effect” the GOP’s “anti-science movements” have had on health care systems and individual physicians. “If you speak up, you are at risk of being censored,” Andrews said. “If you speak up, you are at risk of losing your job. So everyone is just trying to keep their head down and do what’s best for their patients.”
\n\n\n\nBragg is among the declining ranks of doctors who run their own independent practices. She has the freedom to post what she wants to on social media and to wear pro-vaccine T-shirts that say things like, “Got polio? Me neither because I got the vaccine.”
\n\n\n\nBut one recent day, her 10-year-old son asked why she insisted on wearing the T-shirts. “Even a 10-year-old can tell you how polarizing vaccines have become,” Bragg said. Despite that, she has continued to wear them.
\nThe post South Carolina Hospitals Aren’t Required to Disclose Measles-Related Admissions. That Leaves Doctors in the Dark. appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Jennifer Berry Hawes","publishDate":"2026-02-20T20:15:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2258579705-OG_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?w=1366","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/south-carolina-measles-hospital-admissions","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-21T00:00:28.868Z"},{"id":"nsgnb3","archiveId":"iniaxc","slug":"chloe-kim-amber-glenn-and-more-athletes-speak-about-ice-lgbtq-rights-at-2026-winter-olympics","title":"Chloe Kim, Amber Glenn, and More Athletes Speak About ICE, LGBTQ+ Rights at 2026 Winter Olympics","excerpt":"Here's how other US athletes have been speaking up about ICE, LGBTQ+ rights, and more at the Olympics 2026.","content":"Here's how other US athletes have been speaking up about ICE, LGBTQ+ rights, and more at the Olympics 2026.","category":"lgbtq","author":"Donya Momenian","publishDate":"2026-02-20T19:49:29.000Z","image":"https://assets.teenvogue.com/photos/6998b8d297c2c535bd51b0fa/master/pass/2262074243","source":"Teen Vogue","sourceUrl":"https://www.teenvogue.com/story/chloe-kim-amber-glenn-more-athletes-speak-about-ice-lgbtq-rights-at-2026-winter-olympics","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:52.211Z"},{"id":"tmpomc","slug":"midlife-women-are-a-sleeping-giant-voter-bloc-in-2026even-as-the-save-act-puts-them-at-risk","title":"Midlife Women Are a Sleeping Giant Voter Bloc in 2026—Even as the SAVE Act Puts Them at Risk","excerpt":"Since 2024, there has been handwringing among politicos about the rightward shift of young male voters in the United States. And now, a new report from the centrist think tank Third Way predicts many of the “swingy, moderate, low-propensity young men” who support Donald Trump will sit out the midter...","content":"Since 2024, there has been handwringing among politicos about the rightward shift of young male voters in the United States. And now, a new report from the centrist think tank Third Way predicts many of the “swingy, moderate, low-propensity young men” who support Donald Trump will sit out the midterms this year.
\nAt the same time, it’s crickets when it comes to understanding the political engagement of midlife and older women. Even as “organized gangs of wine moms” dominated headlines in recent weeks, I’ve found vanishingly little interest in analyzing how that demographic energy might translate to electoral clout.
\nThe post Midlife Women Are a Sleeping Giant Voter Bloc in 2026—Even as the SAVE Act Puts Them at Risk appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Jennifer Weiss-Wolf","publishDate":"2026-02-20T18:59:10.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2182410394.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/20/midlife-older-women-voters-election-menopause-save-act/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-21T00:00:27.419Z"},{"id":"rm5th6","archiveId":"vkw8p5","slug":"mercury-latest-trump-rollback-of-environmental-protections","title":"Mercury Latest Trump Rollback of Environmental Protections","excerpt":"Click to expand Image A coal-fired plant in the town of Poca near the Kanawha River, in West Virginia, US, August 28, 2018. © 2018 John Ray/AP Photo US President Donald Trump’s administration today rolled back another air-pollution protection, this time for one of the most toxic substances o...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n A coal-fired plant in the town of Poca near the Kanawha River, in West Virginia, US, August 28, 2018.\n © 2018 John Ray/AP Photo \n \n \n\n\n \n<p>US President Donald Trump’s administration today rolled back another air-pollution protection, this time for one of the most toxic substances on earth: mercury.</p><p>The action reverses then-President Joe Biden’s decision in 2024 to reduce the levels of allowable mercury air emissions for coal-fired power plants, restoring them to their previous levels. Trump had already given dozens of US power plants a presidential exemption, which environmental rights groups contend is illegal, to postpone attempts to meet the 2024 standards even before today’s repeal.</p><p>The previous policy increased monitoring and reporting requirements as well as restrictions on extra-toxic lignite, the most polluting form of coal. Lignite also contains the highest levels of mercury; microorganisms absorb mercury from air pollution, which then flows up the food chain as methylmercury. Studies show that even very low levels of methylmercury have “no threshold of safety.”</p><p>Because mercury is such a dangerous poison that needs regulation, Human Rights Watch has long done research and advocacy on the heavy metal and considers it a global rights concern. Mercury is a highly toxic substance that attacks the central nervous system and is particularly harmful to children. Exposure is also of concern to pregnant people as it is especially damaging to developing brains and the toxin crosses the placental barrier into the fetus. Mercury also passes through breastmilk and across the brain-blood barrier easily. The damage is irreversible and lasts a lifetime.</p><p>Reducing mercury pollution in the United States—which ratified the 2013 Minamata Convention on Mercury—has been a public health success and an important example of making regulation work. The Trump administration’s loosening of restrictions for the coal industry’s benefit won’t make all progress disappear, but it is an important loss.</p><p>While the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, has publicly praised the administration’s deregulation campaign, these destructive actions are a setback for maternal and child health—among the most sensitive developmental stages, affecting people throughout their lives.</p>","category":"activism","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-02-20T18:05:26.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/02/202602usp_ehr_us_coal_power.jpg?h=4088e832&itok=jQzXvumr","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/20/mercury-latest-trump-rollback-of-environmental-protections","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:53.369Z"},{"id":"7ycrwg","slug":"how-to-find-your-nearest-no-kings-protest-on-march-28","title":"How to Find Your Nearest No Kings Protest on March 28","excerpt":"On Saturday, March 28, the third round of No Kings will take place in cities and towns across the United States. The protest comes in response to the Trump administration’s recent crackdowns on immigration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s systemic violations of proper law enforcement ...","content":"
On Saturday, March 28, the third round of No Kings will take place in cities and towns across the United States. The protest comes in response to the Trump administration’s recent crackdowns on immigration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s systemic violations of proper law enforcement procedures. The organizers are optimistic that millions of Americans will take part in demonstrations, marches and rallies, and predict it will be the largest nonviolent protest in American history.
\nTo find a protest close to you, No Kings has created a map to locate a nearby protest site.
\nThe protest’s flagship event will be hosted in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota’s Twin Cities.
\nThe post How to Find Your Nearest No Kings Protest on March 28 appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Emersen Panigrahi","publishDate":"2026-02-20T17:22:05.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2241669772.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/20/no-kings-protest-map/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-20T18:00:13.850Z"},{"id":"cok8sm","slug":"what-happens-when-the-life-you-always-dreamed-of-isnt-meant-for-you","title":"What Happens When the Life You Always Dreamed of Isn’t Meant for You?","excerpt":"Over 70 percent of Indian Americans support abortion access and reproductive rights. But you wouldn't know it from the public conversation. We're not testifying at hearings, writing op-eds or speaking openly about the messy, painful realities of our own reproductive lives.","content":"Over 70 percent of Indian Americans support abortion access and reproductive rights. But you wouldn't know it from the public conversation. We're not testifying at hearings, writing op-eds or speaking openly about the messy, painful realities of our own reproductive lives. In a community that prizes privacy and propriety, the body remains one of the last taboo subjects—especially when it doesn't cooperate.
\nMaya Shankar didn't plan to break that silence. But then again, Shankar—a cognitive scientist, best-selling author and host of the award-winning podcast A Slight Change of Plans —has built her entire body of work around what happens when life refuses to follow the plan.
\n\"There's a special stigma reserved for childfree women,\" she says. \"And certainly that stigma holds in the South Asian community.\"
\n\"Society often says, 'Always chase your dreams, never accept failure, keep going,'\" she adds. \"And there are limits on that.\"
\n\"It's just an ongoing conversation,\" she says. And then, without prompting: \"I'm childfree today. And I feel more joyful and happy and peaceful than I ever have.\"
\nThe post What Happens When the Life You Always Dreamed of Isn’t Meant for You? appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Jaime Patel","publishDate":"2026-02-20T16:54:04.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Kirsten-Lara-Getchell-and-Riverhead-Books.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/20/maya-shankar-indian-american-women-child-free/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-20T18:00:13.850Z"},{"id":"udezr6","slug":"they-better-take-away-duct-tape-trans-men-say-theyll-keep-binding-despite-fda-crackdown","title":"‘They better take away duct tape’: Trans men say they’ll keep binding despite FDA crackdown","excerpt":"In the early 1980s, Jamison Green needed to bind his chest so that he would be less likely to be perceived as female when he walked down the street or went into the men’s restroom at work. He first tried ACE bandages, but those didn’t work. The clips would sometimes come off in the middle [...","content":"In the early 1980s, Jamison Green needed to bind his chest so that he would be less likely to be perceived as female when he walked down the street or went into the men’s restroom at work.
\n\n\n\nHe first tried ACE bandages, but those didn’t work. The clips would sometimes come off in the middle of meetings, and the fabric was just too loose. Ultimately, he made do with girdles he bought through the Sears catalog. Each one was 10 inches wide, with a long Velcro closure. He would buy one and cut it in half to create two chest binders while also avoiding adding pressure on his waist.
\n\n\n\nBinders have come a long way since then, especially in the last 15 years. Modern binders, typically made of nylon and spandex, are easier on the body for long-term wear and frequent use. Safe binding is key, since it’s common for some people to bind every day of the week, or all day at work.
\n\n\n\nBut now, the federal government is going after companies that sell chest binders to transgender people. By targeting manufacturers of the best binders on the market, the government could put Americans’ health at risk by limiting safe options and forcing them to turn to DIY binding.
\n\n\n\nJamison Green\n (Courtesy of Jamison Green) When announcing that the Food and Drug Administration is taking action against manufacturers and retailers selling binders, Commissioner Marty Makary listed negative side effects from long-term binding — like pain and breathing problems. These issues have been found in multiple studies , which note that although binding supports mental health, it can cause musculoskeletal pain, skin irritation and shortness of breath.
\n\n\n\nFor trans people, these findings aren’t revelatory. Binding is uncomfortable. How to do it safely is a frequent topic of conversation: books and online resources suggest taking breaks throughout the day, never sleeping with a binder on, and avoiding the gym.
\n\n\n\nBut although it’s uncomfortable, it is a necessity that allows trans people to go out into the world and function, said Green, who is now 77.
\n\n\n\n“Having a flat chest was really important, because if people couldn’t see who I was, it was devastating,” Green said.
\n\n\n\nGreen, a trans health expert and writer, is known as a historian of gender-affirming care. Binders are not medical devices, as the FDA argues, he said — they’re tools. And trans people have been binding by any means necessary for a long time.
\n\n\n\n“You just endure it because you need to,” he said. “Without it, you’re constantly aware of how miserable you are, how other people are judging you. Then you get this sort of stopgap, this appliance, and it’s just a huge relief.”
\n\n\n\n\n\nSean Ebony Coleman, who turns 58 next month, remembers when trans people had no way to access gender-affirming care other than black market and DIY solutions. That includes binding, which helps trans men and nonbinary people deal with gender dysphoria by flattening the chest and concealing breasts.
\n\n\n\n“Back in my day, we didn’t have binders. We used electrical tape. We would wrap with an ACE bandage, and then go around it with electrical tape. So just imagine wearing that for eight to ten hours a day, the harm that it caused,” Coleman said. He still has back problems and issues with his posture.
\n\n\n\nFor Coleman, the FDA’s new stance on binders reflects how the administration is not listening to the actual experiences of trans people.
\n\n\n\n“They may believe that a binder is not safe, because they don’t know what the alternative was,” he said.
\n\n\n\nColeman worries that the Trump administration’s policies will push trans health care back underground. Gender-affirming care rollbacks are reinforcing distrust of medical providers, he said. As founder and CEO of Destination Tomorrow, a nonprofit providing housing and other services to LGBTQ+ people, he sees many people in the community who aren’t sure what medical providers are safe for them to visit.
\n\n\n\nSean Ebony Coleman\n (Courtesy of Sean Ebony Coleman) “Some of the clients are dealing with isolation, anxiety, because of the climate that we’re currently in,” he said.
\n\n\n\nMakary said in December that the FDA would send 12 warning letters to manufacturers and retailers for illegally marketing breast binders to children for the purposes of treating gender dysphoria. According to him, the agency will take enforcement action like import alerts, seizures and injunctions if “illegal marketing of these products for children” continues.
\n\n\n\nBut none of the warning letters mention selling binders to minors, or list any health risks associated with wearing them. Instead, they declare that binders are medical devices that must be registered with the FDA, since they are treating gender dysphoria.
\n\n\n\nIt is rare for the FDA to send these kinds of letters regarding low-risk devices, according to attorneys and specialists at Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, a food and drug law firm. It’s even rarer for the agency to issue this kind of warning over a procedural issue as small as failing to register a product. These letters are inconsistent with the FDA’s own policies, Hyman, Phelps & McNamara noted in the FDA Law Blog , their firm’s two-decade-old resource for industry experts.
\n\n\n\n“FDA may be called to explain why it is publicly targeting safe, low‑risk products that support those seeking treatment for gender dysphoria, and why the warning letters cite a technical, easily-corrected violation while the rhetoric in its press release alleges different concerns,” the attorneys said.
\n\n\n\nIn response to a request for comment, the Department of Health and Human Services referred to the definition of “device” in the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act , which gives the FDA its regulatory authority. That act defines medical devices as items that mitigate or treat diseases, or affect the structure of the human body.
\n\n\n\n“There is objective evidence that these articles are intended for medical purposes, including the medical condition of gender dysphoria,” the agency said in a statement. The FDA’s letters quote directly from binder manufacturers to find that evidence.
\n\n\n\n\nPer your firm’s website: “Chest binding is the practice of compressing breast mass into a more masculine shape, often done in the LGBTQ community for gender euphoria … but also practiced by cis men with gynecomastia.”
\n\n\n\nPer your firm’s website: “Our compression wraps are perfect for wearing after top surgery to keep swelling down without needing to lift your arms.”
\n\n\n\nPer your firm’s website: “our product is aimed at helping to relieve dysphoria for trans folks”
\n \n\n\n\nBinders are more easily attainable these days, but that doesn’t mean that everyone has access. The nonprofit Point of Pride has given away thousands of binders to trans people who can’t afford them or safely get one themselves. They get 40 requests a day on average, said co-founder Aydian Dowling.
\n\n\n\n“The need is still very much there,” he said. “You can’t just go to your local shop and purchase a binder.”
\n\n\n\nPoint of Pride only gives binders to trans people who are 18 and up. Still, young people are in greater need: the average age of someone requesting a free binder is 22, and many who ask are much younger. Many are low-income or living in poverty. To them, a binder represents a first step in exploring gender identity, Dowling said.
\n\n\n\n“They’re a part of gender-affirming care. They’re not medical devices. They’re really just clothing that anyone can wear,” he said.
\n\n\n\n\n\nPoint of Pride plans to continue to support the binder manufacturers that they work with, which includes two of the companies that the FDA has sent warning letters to.
\n\n\n\n“We’re going to continue to give out garments,” Dowling said. If there is an influx of more trans people needing free binders through their program, Point of Pride is prepared for that, he said.
\n\n\n\nDowling, who’s 38, bought his first binder in 2009 from Underworks, which sells shapewear for men, women, and pregnant people. That was the only game in town. There was nowhere else to buy one online. He remembers trying it on vividly. Looking in the mirror, it was like he recognized himself for the first time. He could picture what his future might look like. He started leaving the house more.
\n\n\n\n“That felt like, ‘wow, maybe I could live this life and be okay,’” he said.
\n\n\n\nThat intense feeling of relief is why so many trans people bind, despite the annoyance of wearing a restrictive piece of clothing all day. And that’s why trans people will keep binding regardless of any potential federal restrictions, Green said.
\n\n\n\n“They better take away duct tape if they really want to stop us,” he said.
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Orion Rummler","publishDate":"2026-02-20T15:59:15.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/binders_2.jpg?w=683","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/fda-binding-transgender-health/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-20T18:00:14.091Z"},{"id":"ekkk86","slug":"gender-affirming-care-for-minors-axed-at-major-nyc-hospital","title":"Gender-Affirming Care for Minors Axed at Major NYC Hospital","excerpt":"Plus: New Hampshire introduces abortion shield law and LGBTQ+ federal workers fight back. The post Gender-Affirming Care for Minors Axed at Major NYC Hospital appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"Each week, Rewire News Group editors scour headlines nationwide—from lawsuits over abortion access to LGBTQ+ rights—to bring you the most urgent news in reproductive justice. Here’s this week’s latest.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNYU Langone to halt care for trans kids \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNYU Langone Health, a premier New York City hospital system, announced this week that it is halting gender-affirming care for trans youth. “These kids need care,” one parent of a teen who had been receiving care through the program, told Gothamist . She called the move “dangerous.” The announcement comes after a year of uncertainty about the program’s future. Patients began reporting cancelled visits in January 2025, following a Trump administration executive order banning the care for people under 19.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNew Hampshire lawmakers propose shield law \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nDemocratic lawmakers in New Hampshire introduced an abortion shield law this week that would protect people from being prosecuted by abortion-restrictive states for receiving legal care in New Hampshire. If passed, the bill would make it illegal for doctors to be extradited to other states for rendering health care. Abortion is legal up to 24 weeks gestation in the state. “We will continue fighting off attacks from those who want to strip away our bodily autonomy,” Sen. Debra Altschiller, the bill’s sponsor, said.
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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Queer federal workers allege discrimination \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCurrent and former LGBTQ+ federal workers are suing the Trump administration, alleging discrimination. After Trump signed a 2025 executive order declaring the federal government would only recognize two genders and that gender is assigned at birth, these government employees said they were forced to choose between their jobs and their basic human needs, including being unable to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.
\r\nThis news roundup first appeared in our newsletter, Rewire Weekly. Sign up here to get the latest reproductive rights news, expert analysis, and a peek into the RNG newsroom—fresh to your inbox.
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The post Gender-Affirming Care for Minors Axed at Major NYC Hospital appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-20T15:24:55.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/ReproRoundup_01.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/20/gender-affirming-care-for-minors-axed-at-major-nyc-hospital/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-20T18:00:13.425Z"},{"id":"a41jp4","slug":"seven-black-women-writers-thinkers-and-poets-that-captured-the-human-experience","title":"Seven Black Women Writers, Thinkers and Poets That Captured the Human Experience","excerpt":"Seven short films on our favorite Black writers, thinkers and poets capturing the human experience: Barbara Brenner, Phillis Wheatley, Octavia Butler, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ida B. Wells, Hannah Crafts and Adrienne Kennedy.","content":"Seven short films on our favorite Black writers, thinkers and poets capturing the human experience: Barbara Brenner, Phillis Wheatley, Octavia Butler, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ida B. Wells, Hannah Crafts and Adrienne Kennedy.
\nThe post Seven Black Women Writers, Thinkers and Poets That Captured the Human Experience appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"resilience","author":"Look What SHE Did!","publishDate":"2026-02-20T15:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Seven-Black-Women-Writers-Thinkers-and-Poets-Who-Shaped-American-Literature-1.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/20/black-women-writers-barbara-brenner-phillis-wheatley-octavia-butler-gwendolyn-brooks-ida-b-wells-hannah-crafts-adrienne-kennedy/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-20T18:00:13.850Z"},{"id":"q0bfsc","slug":"women-are-just-as-likely-as-men-to-hold-christian-nationalist-views","title":"Women are just as likely as men to hold Christian nationalist views","excerpt":"Pastor Doug Wilson is a self-proclaimed Christian nationalist who advocates for a patriarchal society where sodomy is criminalized, women submit to their husbands and women lose the right to vote. He also preached at the Pentagon this week after being personally invited by Secretary of Defense Pete ...","content":"Pastor Doug Wilson is a self-proclaimed Christian nationalist who advocates for a patriarchal society where sodomy is criminalized, women submit to their husbands and women lose the right to vote . He also preached at the Pentagon this week after being personally invited by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth , a member of the pastor’s church network.
\n\n\n\nWilson’s presence in the nation’s capital highlights how a fringe conservative evangelical Christian belief system has gained more traction in politics.
\n\n\n\nThree in 10 Americans qualify as Christian nationalism adherents or sympathizers, according to Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey data released this week. American women are just as likely as American men to hold Christian nationalist views.
\n\n\n\nMelissa Deckman, the chief executive of PRRI, said the percentage of Americans who adhere to Christian nationalist views has remained steady since PRRI started collecting this data in 2022 — but the movement’s influence has grown in politics and culture.
\n\n\n\n“I think we’re talking about Christian nationalism more and more in part because the MAGA movement has essentially taken over the leadership of the party,” Deckman said. “Even compared to Trump’s first term, you’re seeing a big difference in who Trump has brought with him back into office.”
\n\n\n\nThe majority of Republicans — around 56 percent — qualify as Christian nationalism adherents or sympathizers, compared with 25 percent of Independents and 17 percent of Democrats, according to PRRI. Christian nationalist views are more prevalent in Southern and Midwestern states, where there is also a larger proportion of Republican elected officials in state legislatures.
\n\n\n\nThe PRRI results were based on a survey and online interviews with more than 22,000 adults who were asked whether or not they agreed with five statements:
\n\n\n\n\nU.S. laws should be based on Christian values \n\n\n\nBeing Christian is an important part of being truly American \n\n\n\nThe U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation \n\n\n\nIf the United States moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore \n\n\n\nGod has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society \n \n\n\n\nBased on their level of agreement, respondents were categorized as Christian nationalism adherents, sympathizers (groups PRRI identifies as Christian nationalists), skeptics or rejecters. The survey did not explicitly ask participants if they consider themselves to be Christian nationalists because many people don’t want to be conflated with the extremist stereotypes attached to the title.
\n\n\n\nIn a 2025 CNN interview, Wilson said he embraced the term Christian nationalist, however, because he preferred it to the other names he was getting called. He added: “I’m not a White nationalist. I’m not a fascist. I’m not a racist.”
\n\n\n\nPastor Doug Wilson is a Christian nationalist who says women should lose the right to vote. \n (Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images) According to the survey data, Christian nationalists are more likely to believe the country should be more patriarchal, favor Trump, vote Republican, hold anti-immigrant views and believe true patriotism might require violence.
\n\n\n\n“If you think about Christian nationalism as a means to power, what has made Trump so popular with Christian nationalist leaders is that he’s been willing to enact policies that reflect their worldview,” Deckman said.
\n\n\n\nTrump has appointed conservative judges , including those who eventually overturned Roe v. Wade . He declared a war on gender ideology in a way that appeals to Christian nationalists; rolled back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives ; decried wokeness; and created a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias in the country.
\n\n\n\n“I think many feminists find it surprising that this movement is often just as endorsed by women as men,” Deckman said. “There are lots of women for whom that worldview meshes with their own religious and cultural beliefs. It’s not a majority, but that’s a pretty consistent finding.”
\n\n\n\nCNN Chief Investigative Correspondent Pamela Brown, who has a documentary on Christian nationalism premiering Sunday, interviewed Wilson last year and later went to Texas to spend a weekend in a church connected to him.
\n\n\n\n“Doug Wilson is emblematic of the movement,” Brown said. “And as he told me, he’s been preaching the same things for decades and hasn’t changed his message, but he argues society is now moving toward him.”
\n\n\n\nAmong those identified as Christian nationalist adherents, women tend to have differing views on gender than men, according to PRRI. For instance, 89 percent of men identified as Christian nationalist adherents think society is “too soft and feminine,” compared with just 61 percent of women. Christian nationalist women are also 21 points less likely than men to think that women’s gains have come at men’s expense. And women are nearly 30 points less likely to support policies that encourage Americans to have more children .
\n\n\n\n\n\n
Brown talked to one woman in Texas who held a combat role in the Army and had plans to go to medical school before she gave all that up to get married, becoming a stay-at-home mom and a submissive wife. Another woman told Brown that her husband was the provider and decider and her role was to “glorify the home, make nice dishes and make a nice place for him to come to.”
\n\n\n\n“The women I interviewed there in Taylor said they’re flourishing, that they don’t feel oppressed, that this is what they believe the Bible tells them is how they should be in a marriage and that it’s the natural way a marriage should be,” Brown said.
\n\n\n\nBut not everyone she spoke with was happy with the Christian community, Brown said. She also spoke to a group of women who had left their Christian nationalist communities due to emotional or physical abuse.
\n\n\n\n“These women had a different experience, and they did feel oppressed, like they didn’t have any agency,” Brown said. “A lot of them talked about developing health issues. And some even left with their husbands.”
\n\n\n\nWilson told Brown that his church network saw membership skyrocket during the COVID-19 pandemic as many people found a sense of certainty and a black-and-white blueprint to live by in uncertain times.
\n\n\n\nBut, experts say, it relies on a “modern day myth” that the United States was intended by the founders to be a Christian-only nation.
\n\n\n\n“If taken to its natural ends, Christian nationalism is antithetical to democracy,” Brown said.
","category":"global","author":"Mariel Padilla","publishDate":"2026-02-20T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/christ-nat_2.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/christian-nationalists-women/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-20T12:01:12.289Z"},{"id":"inuwvg","slug":"the-missing-voices-in-the-epstein-files8217-media-commentary-sexual-assault-prevention-educators","title":"The Missing Voices in the Epstein Files' Media Commentary: Sexual Assault Prevention Educators","excerpt":"The Epstein files scandal has all the elements of a gigantic media spectacle. It encompasses everything from true crime to political intrigue, and offers a peak behind closed doors into the lifestyles of the rich and famous. It has more than a little sex and violence.","content":"The Epstein files scandal has all the elements of a gigantic media spectacle. It encompasses everything from true crime to political intrigue, and offers a peak behind closed doors into the lifestyles of the rich and famous. It has more than a little sex and violence.
\nIt’s a conspiracy theory come to life.
\nMedia commentary has explored seemingly every angle. Or has it? On closer examination, something has been missing.
\nThe post The Missing Voices in the Epstein Files’ Media Commentary: Sexual Assault Prevention Educators appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"resilience","author":"Jackson Katz","publishDate":"2026-02-20T02:06:52.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2260908332.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/19/epstein-men-protect-experts-masculinity-male-peer-complicit-sexual-assault/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-20T06:00:20.710Z"},{"id":"ddcg1t","slug":"new-moms-in-wisconsin-to-get-extension-of-vital-benefits-after-gop-powerbroker-ends-holdout","title":"New Moms in Wisconsin to Get Extension of Vital Benefits After GOP Powerbroker Ends Holdout","excerpt":"The post New Moms in Wisconsin to Get Extension of Vital Benefits After GOP Powerbroker Ends Holdout appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"For years, Wisconsin’s powerful Assembly speaker refused to allow a bipartisan bill to come to a vote that extends postpartum Medicaid coverage for new moms. Finally, this week, he relented.
\n\n\n\n“Go out and take your victory lap,” Republican Robin Vos told caucus members late Wednesday, according to one lawmaker.
\n\n\n\n“You won,” Vos added.
\n\n\n\nOn Thursday, the Assembly agreed 95-1 to opt in to a federal program that provides free health insurance to low-income mothers for a year after giving birth, up from 60 days. Vos was among those voting yes.
\n\n\n\nThe legislation, which had already been adopted by the Senate, now goes to Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat. He has openly supported such legislation for years and is expected to sign it.
\n\n\n\nEvery other state in the nation, except Arkansas, has already taken the step.
\n\n\n\nThe vote represented a rare capitulation for Wisconsin’s longest-serving Assembly speaker — a man who controls the legislative agenda, provides campaign cash to those he favors and punishes those who antagonize him. ProPublica wrote about Vos’ opposition to the bill last fall.
\n\n\n\nThe turnaround came on a day of surprises involving Vos. Earlier, at the start of the session, he announced that he would retire at year’s end, revealing that he’d had a slight heart attack in the fall and needed to reduce his stress. “To my leadership team and my caucus colleagues, thank you for your trust, thank you for your candor and your willingness to carry responsibility when it is heavy,” he said.
\n\n\n\nRep. Patrick Snyder, a Republican and the lead sponsor on the postpartum bill, threatened to not pursue reelection if he did not succeed in getting the measure passed — a legislative goal he had promised constituents he would deliver. That would have left an open GOP seat in a swing district. Typically, incumbents have an advantage in elections.
\n\n\n\n“I just said if we can’t get this thing passed, I just don’t feel I can come back,” Snyder said he told the speaker. “It was that important of a bill.”
\n\n\n\nVos has long opposed extending Medicaid coverage for new moms, explaining that he opposes spending more money on welfare in Wisconsin. The state’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated that, once fully phased in, the 12-month policy would cost the state about $9.4 million, with the federal government paying an additional $14.1 million.
\n\n\n\nAll sides have felt a sense of urgency as the Legislature, controlled by Republicans, intends to wrap up the session soon to hit the campaign trail for the remainder of the year.
\n\n\n\nOn Wednesday, Democrats moved aggressively on the postpartum extension issue, proposing amendments that attached the Medicaid change to bill after bill, creating a bit of legislative havoc as Republicans repeatedly ruled the matter not germane to the legislation under consideration. (Democrats did the same for another stalled bipartisan bill on insurance coverage for breast cancer screenings, a measure that also passed Thursday.)
\n\n\n\nSnyder said the Democrats’ tactic nearly derailed GOP efforts to convince Vos to let both bills advance. In a press conference, a dismayed Snyder likened it to someone tripping him as he made a dash for the finish line.
\n\n\n\n“I guess maybe they just didn’t think I could get it done,” he later told ProPublica. “And now we did.”
\n\n\n\nIn recent weeks, seven other GOP members joined Snyder to push Vos to reconsider his stance. In a letter to Vos dated Feb. 3, the group told the speaker the legislation aligns with core Republican priorities, including safeguarding infants by ensuring they have healthy mothers.
\n\n\n\nThe eight lawmakers are all in competitive districts. This week, despite whatever conflict they had with Vos, they still were careful to pay him homage, with one calling the speaker “a tough negotiator” and another publicly thanking Vos for “his understanding.”
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The legislation was backed by hospitals and medical groups as well as anti-abortion advocates, who favor robust support for pregnant women and new moms. Research has shown that the year after birth can be a dangerous time for women, who can face postpartum depression, blood clots, hypertension, cardiovascular ailments and other long-term health issues.
\n\n\n\nKate Duffy, a Wisconsin mom who amplifies political issues on social media under the moniker Motherhood for Good, has fought for the extended postpartum coverage and challenged Vos on the topic for about a year. She’s grown a sizable audience, especially among Wisconsin women, many of whom responded to the call to urge lawmakers to act.
\n\n\n\nShe credited the bill’s passage to “good old-fashioned organizing and relentless persistence.”
\n\n\n\nSaid Duffy: “We just would not shut up about this.”
\nThe post New Moms in Wisconsin to Get Extension of Vital Benefits After GOP Powerbroker Ends Holdout appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"activism","author":"Megan O’Matz","publishDate":"2026-02-20T00:20:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/USATSI_21417038_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?w=400&h=400&crop=1","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/wisconsin-postpartum-medicaid-new-mothers-robin-vos","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-20T06:00:22.307Z"},{"id":"jpv8q0","archiveId":"bzltbr","slug":"olympic-ban-raises-thorny-free-speech-issues","title":"Olympic Ban Raises Thorny Free Speech Issues","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych wearing a helmet honoring Ukrainian athletes killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine during skeleton training at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Italy, February 9, 2026.","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych wearing a helmet honoring Ukrainian athletes killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine during skeleton training at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Italy, February 9, 2026.\n © 2026 Press Association via AP Photo\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>The disqualification of the Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych from the 2026 Winter Olympics shines a critical light on Rule 50 (2) of the Olympic Charter prohibiting political, racial, or religious “propaganda” at Olympic venues. He was disqualified for wearing a helmet displaying images of Ukrainian athletes killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.</p><p>The decision by the Ad Hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, an Olympic panel, while rejecting Heraskevych’s appeal, sympathizes with his motivation to commemorate those who have died. But it found the Athlete Expression Guidelines to be reasonable, proportionate, and correctly applied in this case.</p><p>At the 2024 Paris Olympics, an Afghan athlete, Manizha Talash, was disqualified after displaying the message “Free Afghan Women,” highlighting denial of rights to millions of women and girls under Taliban rule. </p><p>The International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s interest in keeping playing grounds free from political propaganda is a legitimate aim, and freedom of speech is not absolute. However, there is a case to be made that commemorating the dead, whether from war, disease, or sexual violence, is not a political statement that could legitimately be banned. </p><p>The war has undeniably devastated Ukraine’s sports community, severely limiting athletes’ ability to train and compete, including at the Olympic level. Ukrainian authorities reported in February that more than 650 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed, and that Russian attacks have destroyed over 800 sports facilities, including training centers for Olympians and Paralympians. Many athletes now train without reliable electricity, heat, or water, often amid air sirens and shelling as attacks on their home cities continue.</p><p>Athletes do not surrender their human rights in competition and should not feel censored from speaking out on human rights, social justice, racism, or bigotry at the risk of losing all they have trained for. Indeed in 2022, the IOC amended the Olympic Charter to acknowledge their responsibility to abide by “respect for internationally recognized human rights” and adopted a Strategic Framework on Human Rights.</p><p>The IOC and other international sports bodies need to assess the human-rights impact of their rules and ensure they protect both the integrity of competition and fundamental rights. Rules designed to keep sport free from propaganda should not silence remembrance of victims or expression about serious human rights abuses. </p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-02-19T20:59:03.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/02/202602eca_ukraine_Vladyslav%20Heraskevych.jpg?h=a622ca0b&itok=UjXQd8aQ","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/19/olympic-ban-raises-thorny-free-speech-issues","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:53.369Z"},{"id":"e24bsz","slug":"community-networks-sharing-free-abortion-pills-expand-to-states-where-abortion-is-legal-but-out-of-r","title":"Community Networks Sharing Free Abortion Pills Expand to States Where Abortion Is Legal but Out of Reach","excerpt":"In response to abortion bans and restrictions, feminists across the country have created networks of community groups that share abortion pills by mail, free of charge, with people who need them. Mostly run by volunteers, these mutual aid networks have served over 100,000 people since 2022.","content":"In response to abortion bans and restrictions, feminists across the country have created networks of community groups that share abortion pills by mail, free of charge, with people who need them. Mostly run by volunteers, these mutual aid networks have served over 100,000 people since 2022.
\n“Everybody deserves bodily autonomy,” said one volunteer, who got involved out of rage after the Supreme Court revoked women’s constitutional right to abortion in 2022.
\nIncreasingly decentralized and moving closer to the people they serve, these community providers are expanding their reach. While originally focused on states with bans and severe restrictions, they are now increasingly serving people in states where abortion is legal, but may not be affordable or accessible.
\nThe post Community Networks Sharing Free Abortion Pills Expand to States Where Abortion Is Legal but Out of Reach appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Carrie N. Baker","publishDate":"2026-02-19T18:26:20.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2196090551-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/19/free-abortion-pills/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-20T00:00:18.609Z"},{"id":"xhwzlj","slug":"intrauterine-devices-iuds-access-and-coverage-in-the-us","title":"Intrauterine Devices (IUDs): Access and Coverage in the U.S.","excerpt":"Intrauterine devices (IUDs), along with implants, are known as long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs) because they can be used to prevent pregnancy for several years. This fact sheet reviews FDA-approved IUDs, as well as use, availability, and key issues in insurance coverage and financing of ...","content":"Intrauterine devices (IUDs), along with implants, are known as long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs) because they can be used to prevent pregnancy for several years. This fact sheet reviews FDA-approved IUDs, as well as use, availability, and key issues in insurance coverage and financing of IUDs in the U.S.","category":"choice","author":"kffivetteg","publishDate":"2026-02-19T16:23:24.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2026/02/Feature-image-IUDs.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/intrauterine-devices-iuds-access-for-women-in-the-u-s/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-19T18:00:33.663Z"},{"id":"6k4k02","slug":"federal-agents-keep-deploying-tear-gas-near-kids-we-have-no-idea-what-it-does-to-their-health","title":"Federal agents keep deploying tear gas near kids. We have no idea what it does to their health.","excerpt":"From the roof of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in Portland, Oregon, federal agents late last month watched as thousands of people marched past the processing center in protest.","content":"From the roof of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in Portland, Oregon, federal agents late last month watched as thousands of people marched past the processing center in protest. Families and children were among the daytime crowd, which had gathered for an event advertised as family friendly.
\n\n\n\nWhen some protesters reportedly crossed the facility’s property line and approached the security gate , agents began deploying tear gas and flash-bang grenades . Smoke quickly filled the air.
\n\n\n\nVideo of the ensuing chaos showed a young girl — wearing a pink sweater with butterflies — in visible distress as a volunteer medic sprays water on her face. At one point the ponytailed girl said, “Owie, it burns.”
\n\n\n\n“She was confused, stunned, upset, crying,” a witness said . “It shattered me.”
\n\n\n\nWeeks earlier in Minneapolis — where federal agents have injured and killed civilians as part of a massive immigration enforcement operation — an agent threw a flash-bang that rolled under an SUV stopped in traffic. It set off smoke inside the vehicle, forcing a family with children in the passenger seats to run into a nearby home . A 6-month-old in the car stopped breathing briefly.
\n\n\n\n“I stopped and I looked at my baby and I was just like, ‘Wake up, you have to,’” the mother told CNN . She administered CPR before taking her infant to the hospital.
\n\n\n\nAs the Trump administration expands militarized operations ensnaring U.S. citizens , legal immigrants and undocumented immigrants with no criminal record , agents’ use of tear gas and other chemical irritants as crowd control measures is worrying medical professionals and public health experts, who say such exposure could disproportionately impact children and other vulnerable populations.
\n\n\n\n“People have to realize these chemicals are not safe,” said Dr. Afif El-Hasan, a pediatrician and member of the American Lung Association’s board of directors. “We don’t know the long-term effects. We don’t understand their effects on children. Assume that children should have zero exposure to these chemicals.”
\n\n\n\nTear gas — a catch-all term to describe chemical compounds that cause irritation to people’s eyes, lungs, mouth, nose and skin within seconds of exposure — has been deployed around residential streets and public spaces in at least four major American cities since last fall.
\n\n\n\nFederal agents prepare to disperse tear gas into a crowd during a protest. \n (Adam Gray/AP) While at least one entity is tracking immigration-related demonstrations in the United States , there is no substantive monitoring on the exact number of times tear gas is deployed, who is deploying it and why, and what chemicals are being released into the air. Critical details like proximity of impact, length of exposure and whether an incident involved a vulnerable group is also unknown.
\n\n\n\n“This gap makes it difficult for the public, for researchers and for policymakers to quantify the impact or identity of these toxic air pollutants across states,” said Julie A. González, a demographer and environmental justice scholar .
\n\n\n\nSeveral types of chemical irritants are often lumped into a broad definition of tear gas, including those found in devices that disperse smoke when launched and pepper spray. Exposure to these “riot control agents ” can cause chest tightness, coughing and shortness of breath . For people with diseases that impact their heart or lungs, the side effects can be more serious, said El-Hasan. They can be worse for children.
\n\n\n\n“Children’s bodies are different than adult bodies,” he said. “They’re growing. They take more breaths per minute than adults.”
\n\n\n\nDr. Sarita Chung, a pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital, noted how children’s height can add potency to exposure.
\n\n\n\n“Children are usually closer to the ground, where there is greater gas vapors,” she said. “Or it’s more dense, and so they’re going to breathe in more.”
\n\n\n\nThe Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has repeatedly defended its use of tear gas and other chemical irritants during its recent immigration operations. Law enforcement — not just federal but state and local — have used these chemicals legally for decades to disperse crowds. But citizens are challenging in court whether the federal government’s recent use of force, including tear gas deployment, has been excessive and unconstitutional.
\n\n\n\nRepresentatives for DHS, ICE and CBP did not immediately respond to requests for comment about its use of riot control agents. But an agency spokesperson specifically claimed the incident in Portland last month involved an unruly crowd. The same spokesperson also said the Minneapolis family was not targeted — though she initially blamed the family in a since-deleted post on X .
\n\n\n\n\n\n“It is horrific to see radical agitators bring children to their violent riots,” the post read. “PLEASE STOP ENDANGERING YOUR CHILDREN.”
\n\n\n\nBut some of these incidents involving children occurred outside of organized protest. The family in Minneapolis told news outlets that they were headed home after a child’s basketball game at the time that their vehicle was damaged. In early November, a masked federal agent pepper sprayed into a vehicle near a Sam’s Club in Chicago. The car was being driven by a man who had been attempting to go grocery shopping with his 1-year-old daughter. The chemicals spread into the child’s eyes.
\n\n\n\n“My daughter was trying to open her eyes,” the man told reporters . “She was struggling to breathe.”
\n\n\n\nThe Oregonian reported on a 3-year-old who lives across the street from the ICE facility in Portland whose mom routinely rushes her inside from an apartment balcony when chemicals are deployed. Tear gas has been released on busy commercial streets in Minneapolis, with video showing a parent holding a toddler and running away from the smoke.
\n\n\n\n“You can’t just say, oh, avoid the tear gas,” El-Hasan said. “You’re basically talking about random incidents or incidents where very innocent people are just being exposed to these toxic substances.”
\n\n\n\nEl-Hasan said if an adult or child has asthma and is exposed to tear gas, it should be assumed that the irritant will get into the body. He recommended anyone who is asthmatic to have an inhaler and take preventative medication if possible. He also suggested they see a medical profession within 24 hours.
\n\n\n\n“We have no great understanding, at least none that has been published, on what the long term effects of these chemicals are on children,” El-Hasan said. “The only thing that we can do is just have people understand what to do if their children or they themselves have been exposed to tear gas, and to do that very quickly afterwards.”
\n\n\n\nBut the public’s perception of tear gas use could get reshaped by the emerging imagery and videos of children being exposed to these chemicals.
\n\n\n\nIn Chicago last fall, the repeated deployment of tear gas on residential streets during a weekslong immigration enforcement operation led a federal judge to admonish federal government officials as a temporary restraining order restricting tear gas use was in place.
\n\n\n\n“Kids dressed in Halloween costumes walking to a parade do not pose an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer,” U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis told then-Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino during an October court hearing, according to Reuters . “They just don’t. And you can’t use riot control weapons against them.”
\n\n\n\nWeeks later, Ellis ordered federal agents to give at least two separate warnings before using tear gas and other chemicals on crowds, and to only use them if there was an immediate threat of physical harm.
\n\n\n\nThe use of tear gas dates back a century, when soldiers deployed it during World War I. Its use is now prohibited in international warfare.
\n\n\n\nThe Army and police used it in 1932 in Washington, D.C., in response to a gathered group of World War I veterans and their families who for weeks protested in support of wartime payments from the federal government amid the Great Depression.
\n\n\n\nThat protest, known as the Forgotten March, was linked within weeks to the death of a 3-month-old baby, Bernard Myers. Bernard’s parents claimed exposure to tear gas — the family said they were in a private home that was filled with smoke — contributed to their child’s death. Newspapers at the time reported that while hospital officials said the child died from an intestinal disorder, doctors also reportedly said: “the gas certainly didn’t do any good.” There was public distrust after military personnel visited the hospital to view the boy’s body.
\n\n\n\nAnna Feigenbaum is a professor at the University of Glasgow and author of the 2017 book “Tear Gas: From the Battlefields of World War I to the Streets of Today.” She highlights Bernard’s case in her book as well as the use of tear gas in residential areas that often results in children being in close range and exposed to the chemicals.
\n\n\n\n“There’s a long history of children being tear gassed, once tear gas started being used domestically,” she said.
\n\n\n\nThe disproportionate impact of tear gas extends beyond children. In 2023, scientist Asha Hassan was part of a team that published a survey-based study on the adverse health effects of tear gas on reproductive health following the 2020 protests against police brutality that followed the death of George Floyd. They found people reporting uterine cramping, early menstrual bleeding, breast tenderness and delayed menstrual bleeding.
\n\n\n\n\n\nHassan, a professor at the University of Minnesota and an expert on reproductive health, police violence and disability-related research noted that the public’s baseline for understanding the safety of tear gas is limited because it has mostly involved studying the impact of tear gas on young healthy men in a training environment in the 1960s.
\n\n\n\n“Applying or understanding what we know from that long ago, about some of these gasses to populations that all have different bodies — including people who have uteri, people who have chronic conditions, and children — we actually don’t know,” Hassan said. “We actually don’t have the data to say how this might impact their bodies disproportionately or differently than what this original research shows.”
\n\n\n\nPeople who have been impacted by tear gas exposure have sought legal justice in recent years . In December, residents of an affordable housing complex just 300 feet from the ICE building in Portland filed a lawsuit claiming that the federal government’s repeated use of tear gas, smoke grenades and other chemical munitions has seeped into their homes and poses environmental and health risks.
\n\n\n\n“You have a government that regulates everything from serving sizes to what can go into your soda to what can be in your water,” said Jennifer Brown, who was part of a team that published research in 2021 on the use of tear gas and its unknown long-term health impacts. “How is it, then, that it’s OK to use unregulated chemicals on a broad range of civilian populations, especially when these chemicals are banned in war?”
\n\n\n\nBrown’s research concluded that tear gas has been poorly studied, and guidelines on its use do not properly account for variables like duration of exposure. Under the federal government’s own definition of tear gas , “long lasting exposure or exposure to a large dose” may cause blindness, glaucoma and respiratory failure.
\n\n\n\nSeparately, the decontamination process after tear gas exposure is already challenging for adults: The federal government recommends that people not only throw away their clothing after exposure, they’re told to cut it off instead of pulling it over their heads. Anything that touches the clothing should be sealed into a bag that’s then placed into another bag.
\n\n\n\nTwins Buddy Mae Walker (L) and Eleanor Walker (R), 4, play in their front yard while trying on child respirators in Portland, Oregon after police used tear gas near their residential street in 2020. \n (Nathan Howard/Getty Images) And yet, there is no universal protocol for how law enforcement should discard tear gas canisters and other related residue. In Minneapolis, the chemicals have been left on piles of snow, which can then melt into sewer drains. It’s all hazardous waste, Brown said.
\n\n\n\n“They shouldn’t get anywhere near your skin, your clothes, your house — but both the physical detritus of the canisters themselves and anything that the gas itself touches — it gets into your house, it’s now on your floors. It’s on your linens. It’s on your clothes. Are you washing your clothes in your washer? You really shouldn’t. You should dispose of them as hazardous waste,” she said.
\n\n\n\nThis month, congressional Democrats asked for an investigation of ICE agents’ use of force, including their deployment of tear gas and flash-bang grenades at close range . A federal judge has extended a temporary order restricting immigration agents outside the Portland ICE facility from releasing tear gas and other munitions at people unless someone poses an imminent threat. In Illinois, a state lawmaker has filed a bill that would ban tear gas.
\n\n\n\nIt’s unclear for now if there will be more accountability over the use of tear gas near children. In Portland, the city’s mayor highlighted the January 31 incident in demanding that ICE agents resign.
\n\n\n\n“To those who continue to make these sickening decisions, go home, look in a mirror, and ask yourselves why you have gassed children,” he wrote in a statement .
\n\n\n\nChung helps oversee a council on the health effects on children after disasters for the American Academy of Pediatrics. She said the council is monitoring additional instances of tear gas deployment around children, in case it shapes future communication with health care professionals about treatment guidelines.
\n\n\n\n“Tear gas is harmful for the health of children,” she said. “The decontamination process can be challenging, and especially if it’s done in a crowd, and if children are separated from their families, then we need to be diligent about reunification processes to make sure that the children get quickly reunited with their families.”
","category":"activism","author":"Barbara Rodriguez","publishDate":"2026-02-19T15:59:37.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/children-gas_01.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/ice-agents-tear-gas-children-health-impacts/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-19T18:00:34.286Z"},{"id":"rxkagr","slug":"whats-going-on-in-the-fight-over-abortion-pills","title":"What’s Going On In the Fight Over Abortion Pills","excerpt":"Are conservatives about to get a national ban through the courts? The post What’s Going On In the Fight Over Abortion Pills appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"In this episode, Imani and Jess walk through the current legal threats to medication abortion access and explain how the national abortion landscape could be reshaped entirely by spring.
\nTranscript (coming soon!)
\nEpisodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a member today .
\nImani’s column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles , is back in 2026! Sign up for her newsletter here to read it first, and listen to Imani’s new podcast, B*tch, Listen, here .
\nThe post What’s Going On In the Fight Over Abortion Pills appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-19T14:11:40.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/BL-S09-E50-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/19/whats-going-on-in-the-fight-over-abortion-pills/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-19T18:00:34.456Z"},{"id":"akvbci","archiveId":"6m4w4j","slug":"trinidadian-nationals-face-escalating-abuse-in-syrian-camp","title":"Trinidadian Nationals Face Escalating Abuse in Syrian Camp","excerpt":"Click to expand Image Gailon Lawson, from Trinidad and Tobago, poses for a portrait at Al-Hol camp in Hassakeh province, Syria, March 31, 2019. © 2019 AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo Since 2019, more than 90 Trinidad and Tobago nationals, including at least 50 children, have been arbitrarily detained in ...","content":"Click to expand Image\n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n Gailon Lawson, from Trinidad and Tobago, poses for a portrait at Al-Hol camp in Hassakeh province, Syria, March 31, 2019.\n © 2019 AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo\n \n \n\n\n \n<p>Since 2019, more than 90 Trinidad and Tobago nationals, including at least 50 children, have been arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria for alleged links to the Islamic State (ISIS). After enduring years of life-threatening conditions, their situation in recent weeks has only gotten worse.</p><p>Trinidadian women detained in Syria’s Roj camp, which is under control of the Syrian Democratic Forces, recently reported to Human Rights Watch what they described as escalating abuses by Asayish, Kurdish internal security forces, including night raids, beatings, threats, and degrading treatment. In a message to Human Rights Watch, one woman described armed men entering the camp late at night, firing into the air, forcing women and children from their tents at gunpoint, separating boys from their mothers, and beating the children. “It’s the most humiliated and powerless I’ve ever felt in my entire life,” she said. She said the men beat her as well and shouted, “You will never be free. You are garbage. You’ve failed your children. They are going to die.” The attack continued for four hours.</p><p>More than 40,000 foreigners from 60 countries have been held in camps and other detention facilities in northeast Syria since the fall of ISIS in 2018-2019. Since then, at least 40 countries have repatriated more than 12,000 of their nationals. Despite numerous promises to repatriate its own nationals, Trinidad and Tobago has only accepted back two boys in April 2025.</p><p>Most Trinidadian detainees are children who never chose to live under ISIS. Many were taken to Syria by parents who sought to join ISIS or live in the “caliphate.” Thirty or more were born in Syria. Not one Trinidadian being held in northeast Syria has been charged with a crime or had access to a judge to challenge their detention, which is unlawful.</p><p>The government of Trinidad and Tobago has long cited the difficulty of engaging with a nonstate armed group controlling the camps as a barrier to repatriation. As control of the area shifts and international engagement with Syria’s transitional authorities increases, that justification is less convincing.</p><p>The lives of dozens of Trinidadian women and children are hanging in the balance.</p><p>Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar should act immediately to bring the country’s detained nationals home.</p>","category":"global","author":"Human Rights Watch","publishDate":"2026-02-19T06:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph/public/media_2026/02/202602americas_trinidadtobago_syria_alholcamp.jpg?h=9202a37b&itok=4amDqeAs","source":"Human Rights Watch","sourceUrl":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/19/trinidadian-nationals-face-escalating-abuse-in-syrian-camp","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:53.369Z"},{"id":"u30rxq","slug":"a-pride-flag-a-bathroom-ban-a-job-change-lgbtq-federal-workers-challenge-trump-in-court","title":"A pride flag, a bathroom ban, a job change: LGBTQ+ federal workers challenge Trump in court","excerpt":"Sarah O’Neill loved her job as a data scientist at the National Security Agency (NSA). “The government before last year was what I would consider to be a model employer,” O’Neill said. She started the job in 2019, two years after she started her transition to living as a woman.","content":"
Sarah O’Neill loved her job as a data scientist at the National Security Agency (NSA).
\n\n\n\n“The government before last year was what I would consider to be a model employer,” O’Neill said.
\n\n\n\nShe started the job in 2019, two years after she started her transition to living as a woman.
\n\n\n\n “That wasn’t an issue at all,” she said. “Everybody was supportive.”
\n\n\n\nEverything changed in January 2025. That’s when President Donald Trump took office for a second term and signed an executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
\n\n\n\nThe order stated that the federal government would recognize only “male” and “female” genders and that they were unchangeable from birth, denying the existence of transgender people like O’Neill.
\n\n\n\nO’Neill was informed that she was no longer allowed to use a women’s restroom, and should use one aligned with her biological birth sex.
\n\n\n\n\n\nAs a government employee, O’Neill was used to following rules. But this one seemed almost impossible to follow. She found a few single-stall restrooms at work and used those, but O’Neill is a woman. Using a men’s room was not appropriate.
\n\n\n\nAcross the Trump administration, LGBTQ+ federal workers describe being forced to choose between their jobs and their ability to fulfill their most basic human needs.
\n\n\n\nShannon Leary, a partner at Gilbert Employment Law, has spent the past 19 years representing federal workers in discrimination lawsuits against the federal government. Such discrimination chips away at a person’s ability to do their job, she said.
\n\n\n\n“That impacts a person on so many different levels, both personally and professionally,” she said.
\n\n\n\nThere has been a steady stream of those cases across all presidential administrations, Leary said. But something has changed with the advent of the second Trump administration.
\n\n\n\n“I personally have observed an increase in potential clients reaching out,” Leary said.
\n\n\n\nIt’s unknown how many LGBTQ+ federal workers are suing the Trump administration for alleged discrimination, experts said. That’s because some of the suits are public, while others have been made as confidential complaints. But over the past year, the administration has faced a number of high-profile lawsuits over the ban on LGBTQ+ pride expression and refusal to let transgender workers use bathrooms that align with their genders.
\n\n\n\nHere are the suits advocates are watching most closely in the courts:
\n\n\n\nSarah O’Neill, NSA O’Neill, the data scientist, is suing her agency, saying the NSA violated Title VII and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by denying her existence as a transgender woman and creating a hostile work environment. Agency actions included “cancelling its policy recognizing her identity and right to a workplace free of unlawful harassment, prohibiting her from identifying her pronouns as female in written communications, purging references to transgender people from its materials, and barring her from using the women’s restroom at work,” her complaint alleged.
\n\n\n\nThe agency did not respond to a request to comment on the lawsuit.
\n\n\n\nLeAnne Withrow, Illinois National Guard LeAnne Withrow, a transgender woman who serves as the lead military and family readiness specialist for the Illinois National Guard, also enjoyed an accepting workplace until January 2025. Then, following Trump’s executive order, she was told she could no longer use a women’s room, she said.
\n\n\n\nWithrow has mostly made it work by using a single-stall bathroom close to her office.
\n\n\n\n“But this past week, for example, I had a two-hour meeting in a building across campus, where I have to badge in, and I’m two floors up,” she said, putting her far from the bathrooms she knew were safe to use. “It’s kind of humiliating in a way. … It feels very much like separate, but also not equal.”
\n\n\n\nWithrow filed a federal class-action lawsuit in November against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Withrow alleges that Trump’s order violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title VII, which prohibits discrimination against transgender workers on the basis of their sex.
\n\n\n\nOPM did not respond to a request to comment on the lawsuit.
\n\n\n\nDavid Maltinsky, FBI Veteran FBI employee David Maltinsky was undergoing special agent training in Quantico, Virginia, when he received a letter from Director Kash Patel informing him he had been fired for displaying political messages at work, he said.
\n\n\n\nMaltinsky’s firing came after Trump signed an executive order ending all government diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Months prior, Maltinsky displayed a Pride flag that he had been given by the FBI Los Angeles Field Office. Maltinsky said he had asked multiple supervisors about keeping the flag displayed and been told he was not in violation of a policy.
\n\n\n\n“My supervisor and I talked, and he agreed, the flag is not violating anything that he sees,” he said. Maltinsky also asked the head attorney for the Los Angeles field office.
\n\n\n\n“And he also agreed, and he said, this does not violate any FBI policy, rule or regulation.”
\n\n\n\nWhen Maltinsky was fired, he filed suit against Patel. A spokesperson for the FBI said in a statement that the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
\n\n\n\nDanielle Mittereder, TSA Transportation Security Officer Danielle Mittereder sued the Department of Homeland Security in November after supervisors made her stop doing airport pat-downs because she is transgender. The removal came after Trump’s January 20 executive order declaring two biological sexes. Mittereder alleges that she had excelled in her job and never received complaints until supervisors enacted the order, which also barred her from using bathrooms that aligned with her gender at work.
\n\n\n\nDHS did not respond to a request to comment.
\n\n\n\nHRC Foundation, federal health care The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ rights advocacy organization, is in the midst of preparing a class-action lawsuit against OPM for blocking insurance coverage for gender-affirming care ifor federal workers. The foundation says the policy forces employees to choose between their jobs and their health care.
\n\n\n\n“The Trump administration is weaponizing medical care to push transgender public servants and their families out of their jobs and back into the closet,” Human Rights Campaign Foundation President Kelley Robinson said in a statement. “This policy is textbook discrimination and we will continue to advance this litigation until our federal employees and their families get the respect, care and dignity they deserve.”
\n\n\n\nOPM did not respond to a request to comment on the suit.
","category":"activism","author":"Kate Sosin","publishDate":"2026-02-18T19:11:54.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/lawsuit_roundup.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/lgbtq-federal-workers-lawsuits-trump/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-19T00:00:35.867Z"},{"id":"tlcq2u","slug":"sundance-2026-olive-nwosus-haunting-lagos-set-drama-lady-asks-what-happens-when-you-can-no-longer-tu","title":"Sundance 2026: Olive Nwosu’s Haunting Lagos-Set Drama ‘LADY’ Asks What Happens When You Can No Longer Tune Out the World","excerpt":"LADY is a film about perspective—about choosing what we see and how we see it, as well as what we decide is important. It’s also a film that consciously balances discomfort with bravery, weaving a tale about a woman on the cusp of a sea change, uncertain whether or not she’s willing to be taken up b...","content":"LADY is a film about perspective—about choosing what we see and how we see it, as well as what we decide is important. It’s also a film that consciously balances discomfort with bravery, weaving a tale about a woman on the cusp of a sea change, uncertain whether or not she’s willing to be taken up by its current.
\nWinner of the 2026 Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting Ensemble, LADY is, according to the jury, “a film full of depth and texture and with a rhythm all its own, with an electric ensemble cast that brings life and humor and insight to a story about day-to-day challenges and finding safety in unexpected friendships.”
\n(This is one in a series of film reviews from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, focused on films by women, trans or nonbinary directors that tell compelling stories about the lives of women and girls.)
\nThe post Sundance 2026: Olive Nwosu’s Haunting Lagos-Set Drama ‘LADY’ Asks What Happens When You Can No Longer Tune Out the World appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Aviva Dove-Viebahn","publishDate":"2026-02-18T18:31:50.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/LADY-Still_1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/18/sundance-2026-olive-nwosu-lagos-nigeria-drama-film-lady/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-19T00:00:35.530Z"},{"id":"r7w7ry","slug":"the-intensity-and-perfectionism-that-drive-olympic-athletes-also-put-them-at-high-risk-for-eating-di","title":"The Intensity and Perfectionism That Drive Olympic Athletes Also Put Them at High Risk for Eating Disorders","excerpt":"Olympians—athletes at the top of their sport and in prime health—are idolized and often viewed as superhuman. These athletes spend their lives focusing on building physical strength through rigorous training and diets that are honed to provide the nutrients necessary to excel at their sport.","content":"Olympians—athletes at the top of their sport and in prime health—are idolized and often viewed as superhuman. These athletes spend their lives focusing on building physical strength through rigorous training and diets that are honed to provide the nutrients necessary to excel at their sport.
\nHowever, athletes are at considerable risk for eating disorders and having an unhealthy relationship with food and their bodies.
\nThe post The Intensity and Perfectionism That Drive Olympic Athletes Also Put Them at High Risk for Eating Disorders appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Emily Hemendinger","publishDate":"2026-02-18T17:58:32.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2260675192.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/18/olympic-women-sports-eating-disorder/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-18T18:00:01.977Z"},{"id":"tfwsd7","slug":"lindsey-vonn-redefines-the-limits-of-possibility","title":"Lindsey Vonn Redefines The Limits of Possibility","excerpt":"Last Sunday, I woke before dawn to watch 41-year-old ski legend Lindsey Vonn race Olympic downhill at the Milano Cortina Games—the oldest woman ever to start the event and the first to do so with a knee replacement.","content":"Last Sunday, I woke before dawn to watch 41-year-old ski legend Lindsey Vonn race Olympic downhill at the Milano Cortina Games—the oldest woman ever to start the event and the first to do so with a knee replacement. Nearly seven years after retiring, she returned to the Olympic start gate with a torn ACL and decades of accumulated injuries, propelled by the same resolve that once made her the most decorated female alpine skier in history.
\nAs I watched her charge down the course, cheered on by teammates, family and a global audience, I found myself asking the same question reverberating across sports media: Could she once again defy the limits imposed on her body, her age and her ambition?
\nWhen Vonn crashed seconds into the run, the reaction revealed just how persistent those limits still are. While elite skiers—men and women alike—routinely crash when pushing for hundredths of a second, her fall was framed by some as proof that a 41-year-old injured woman had overreached, rather than as the calculated risk that defines downhill racing. What moved me most wasn’t just the loss of a potential medal but the familiar scrutiny that followed: critiques of her age, her body and her decision to try at all. Her return alone had already stretched what we imagine is possible for women in sport. The fall, though painful to witness, underscored something more enduring—her insistence on defining her own limits in a world still unsettled when women refuse to accept theirs.
\nThe post Lindsey Vonn Redefines The Limits of Possibility appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Livia Caligor","publishDate":"2026-02-18T17:17:23.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2259762793.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/18/lindsey-vonn-women-sports/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-18T18:00:01.977Z"},{"id":"fzgw7a","slug":"josh-and-erin-hawleys-8216love-life-initiative8217-signals-the-next-phase-of-the-antiabortion-fight","title":"Josh and Erin Hawley’s 'Love Life Initiative' Signals the Next Phase of the Antiabortion Fight","excerpt":"Erin and Josh Hawley’s new dark-money group, the Love Life Initiative, arrives at a moment when abortion opponents are shifting tactics. With Roe overturned and sweeping bans already in place across much of the country, the focus is now on cutting off the remaining paths to care—through ballot measu...","content":"Erin and Josh Hawley’s new dark-money group, the Love Life Initiative, arrives at a moment when abortion opponents are shifting tactics. With Roe overturned and sweeping bans already in place across much of the country, the focus is now on cutting off the remaining paths to care—through ballot measures, advertising campaigns and state-level policy fights designed to reshape public opinion and law from the ground up. The Hawleys frame this effort as a moral crusade to restore a national “culture of life.”
\nBut in practice, it is an escalation of a post-Dobbs strategy that has already restricted access across wide swaths of the United States.
\nThe consequences of that strategy are increasingly stark. Pregnant women in states with abortion bans are dying after being denied care, and people living in those states face significantly higher risks during pregnancy, with women of color bearing the brunt.
\nAt the same time, public support for abortion rights has grown, and abortion-protective states have moved to shield providers and patients from out-of-state enforcement.
\nThe Love Life Initiative reflects a movement determined not only to defend its legal victories but to reverse that growing acceptance—by reshaping the political and cultural terrain on which the abortion debate now unfolds.
\nThe post Josh and Erin Hawley’s ‘Love Life Initiative’ Signals the Next Phase of the Antiabortion Fight appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Shoshanna Ehrlich","publishDate":"2026-02-18T16:45:38.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1410185667.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/18/josh-and-erin-hawleys-love-life-initiative-signals-the-next-phase-of-the-antiabortion-fight/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-18T18:00:01.977Z"},{"id":"704lkr","slug":"when-racism-stops-carrying-consequences","title":"When Racism Stops Carrying Consequences","excerpt":"Opinion: Trump’s attacks on the Obamas reveal what happens when open bigotry no longer disqualifies a president—and how that shift could endanger civil-rights protections. The post When Racism Stops Carrying Consequences appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"To get AngryBlackLady Chronicles straight to your inbox, sign up for Imani’s bimonthly newsletter here . You can catch Imani’s monthly podcast, B*tch, Listen here , in the Boom! Lawyered feed. Donald Trump posted a video online depicting the Obamas as apes.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThis isn’t shocking—or at least it shouldn’t be. Trump has built an entire political career out of saying the quiet racist part out loud and then daring the country to do something about it.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFrom housing discrimination in the 1970s and the Central Park Five ads to birtherism and comments about “shithole countries ,” the man has been running the same racist playbook for decades. This is the same man who told congresswomen of color to go back where they came from and warned that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the nation. At this point, treating any of this as shocking requires a kind of practiced amnesia.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nDepicting the first Black president and first lady as apes is racist, dehumanizing, and offensive in ways that aren’t exactly subtle or remotely original.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nStill, the current president of the United States sharing this video matters—even if he ultimately deleted it.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAnd what happened next matters more.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWhere’s the pushback? \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThis latest episode, which occurred in the first week of February, is not just another entry in America’s long, ugly scrapbook of anti-Black dehumanization. It’s a stress test—a very simple one, really, of how much open anti-Black cruelty American institutions can sustain while still pretending this is a democracy.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHistory suggests the answer is “quite a lot.”
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nTo be fair, a handful of Republicans objected to Trump’s racist AI slop. Eleven Republican members of Congress by my count, managed to locate both their conscience and a microphone. Some of them even managed to say the word “racist,” which in modern Republican politics is akin to setting yourself on fire.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBut here’s the problem: Nothing happened next. Nothing changed.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAs with so many past examples of outrageously deviant behavior by the chief executive, this moment was brushed aside as simply another example of Trump being Trump—filed away as background noise rather than as a political event with political consequences.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBut the relevant question after Trump posted the offensive video was never whether a few people could locate their conscience for long enough to issue a press release. The real question was whether any of it would produce consequences that meaningfully altered Trump’s standing inside the GOP.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIt did not.
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The mainstream media behaved as if a few Republicans who registered their disapproval became evidence that our democracy is healthy. We saw headlines about Republican “pushback” and stories about internal tension.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe New York Times described an “unusually strong and public outcry ,” as though a few sentences of disapproval from a tiny fraction of the GOP was meaningful. Al Jazeera called it an “outpouring of bipartisan condemnation ,” which seems hyperbolic when 97 percent of Republican officials said nothing.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nRepublican leaders absolutely know the imagery Trump shared is racist. They are not confused. They are not misinformed. They are making a calculation. And the calculation is simple: angering Trump’s base is more dangerous than tolerating Trump’s racism.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSo they tolerate it. Again and again.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBy the time you read this, the media will have likely moved on. After all, every day in the Trump administration brings a fresh hell and even open racism struggles to hold the public’s attention. Trump is historically extreme in both cruelty and contempt for the political norms that once constrained even the most harmful presidents. So why am I even writing about it? Shouldn’t I just move on?
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNo. Because this is how normalization actually works. Not through silence, but through consequence so weak it barely registers. A little dissent. A few headlines. Some sternly worded tweets. And, in this case, a defiant president who once claimed he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters actually being forced to delete a racist post (after first defending it and trying to shuffle the blame onto a White House aide ).
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAnd then everybody goes back to pretending the restraints that once limited this behavior still hold.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThey do not.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCruelty is no longer bad politics \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nTake former President Ronald Reagan. In 1971—nine years before he assumed the presidency—he was recorded on tape laughing with President Richard Nixon and describing a United Nations delegation from Tanzania as “monkeys.” The remark remained hidden for decades.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe National Archives eventually released the tape in 2000, but the racist language was redacted. When the full remarks were finally released in 2019, Reagan’s daughter, Patti Davis , tearfully took to the pages of the Washington Post to defend her father, claiming that the language was an aberration rather than evidence of how power actually spoke behind closed doors. (I beg to differ .)
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nEvidently, past presidents who used racist language were clearly forced into apology, distance, or damage control. Trump mostly avoids these pressures, beyond deleting a post and refusing to apologize for it.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSo, yes, everyone understands that depicting the Obamas as apes is racist. And still, only 11 congressional Republicans could be bothered to condemn it. Trump hasn’t lost any standing in the GOP as a result of it.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThat’s where the real danger lives—not in Trump’s cruelty, and not even in his contempt for rules or law, but in the steady erosion of the political norms that once made certain behavior disqualifying for any politician, much less for the president. American institutions have now demonstrated a willingness to treat even this level of norm violation as politically survivable.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nRacist leaders make racist policies \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOnce cruelty becomes politically survivable, the consequences do not remain confined to spicy internet discourse and barbs thrown between elected officials. They migrate into policy—and eventually into law.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFor decades, civil-rights law has recognized a basic reality: Discrimination doesn’t always announce itself with a slur or a white hood. Sometimes it shows up as a “facially neutral” policy —one that does not mention race on its face—that just so happens to keep producing racially unequal outcomes. This is known in legalese as “disparate impact.”
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Supreme Court established the concept of disparate impact in Griggs v. Duke Power
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nTrump has now taken aim at that doctrine. In April 2025, he issued an executive order that tells federal agencies to stop enforcing disparate impact liability wherever possible. An executive order can’t magically erase statutes or Supreme Court precedent. But it can signal how aggressively—or whether at all—the law will be enforced.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nTaken together with Trump’s assault on school and workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives—which he tried to outlaw in a January 2025 executive order —a pattern begins to emerge. If Trump’s policies on disparate impact liability become reality, Black plaintiffs—facing the kind of housing or employment discrimination that is rarely confessed out loud—will struggle to prove discriminatory intent in court.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThis has obvious disadvantages for Black people. And it has a corollary advantage for white people, because white plaintiffs can point to diversity or equity programs as affirmative evidence of intentional discrimination against them. The result is a civil-rights framework turned inside out, one that makes inequality harder to challenge and white grievance easier to vindicate. Meanwhile, Trump and his allies insist this inversion is what fairness actually looks like.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThis is what consequence-free racism looks like once it moves from speech into the law. And it becomes harder to fight once it gets there.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nReconstruction rides again \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThis isn’t an abstract legal debate. It’s happening right now. Reconstruction-era civil-rights statutes—written to guarantee Black Americans the same rights as white citizens—are now being used in ways that make it easier for inequality to continue against Black Americans.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nExamples include legal efforts to shut down programs intended to remedy racial exclusion, such as the successful legal challenges to investment programs like Fearless Fund , created to address the historic exclusion of Black women entrepreneurs from venture capital, as well as the re c ent prosecution of Black journalists covering protest , like Don Lemon.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nLaws designed to dismantle white supremacy are being repurposed to police the people still targeted by it. Because in the United States, even the laws designed to fight white supremacy can eventually be repurposed to defend it, provided you wait long enough and hire enough lawyers.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNone of this is unprecedented, of course. After Reconstruction, the Constitution technically promised equality, while Jim Crow and the KKK made a mockery of it. American history is full of moments where rights existed on paper while disappearing everywhere else.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWhat feels different during Trump’s presidency is not necessarily the racism. It’s the shrug.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nA meaningful slice of the electorate keeps rewarding his racist behavior. Political leaders keep accommodating it. Media institutions keep normalizing it. And democracy—supposedly—keeps functioning.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWhich brings us to the uncomfortable truth at the center of all this: American democracy has always depended on voluntary restraint. On powerful people choosing not to do the worst thing they were technically allowed to do.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWhat the Trump era has revealed is how fragile that arrangement really is.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBecause once abandoning restraint and trafficking in open racism carries no real consequence, the guardrails don’t fail dramatically. They just stop existing. And when the guardrails are gone, the law does not remain neutral. It reorganizes itself around the new reality. If that new reality is old racism, the question stops being whether the system is once again bending toward white supremacy.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe question is whether anything in the system still exists that can bend it back.
\r\n\r\nUpdate, February 18, 2026 : This article has been updated to clarify how executive orders are enforced.
The post When Racism Stops Carrying Consequences appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"activism","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-18T14:00:20.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Dump-is-a-Racist-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/18/trump-racism-truth-social-consequences/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-18T18:00:01.457Z"},{"id":"f83set","slug":"she-was-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-a-new-law-set-her-free-after-23-years","title":"She was sentenced to life in prison. A new law set her free after 23 years.","excerpt":"Nicole Boynton has endured some tough days throughout her life. September 30, 1999, was one of them. An argument with her then-boyfriend, Ronnie Moss II, escalated from a verbal altercation to a physical one, and she was on the receiving end of punches from the man who claimed to love her.","content":"Nicole Boynton has endured some tough days throughout her life.
\n\n\n\nSeptember 30, 1999, was one of them.
\n\n\n\nAn argument with her then-boyfriend, Ronnie Moss II, escalated from a verbal altercation to a physical one, and she was on the receiving end of punches from the man who claimed to love her.
\n\n\n\nThey shared a 9-month-old son, Romello, a townhome, and a life.
\n\n\n\nBoynton had endured trauma and sexual abuse from others throughout her childhood, and then Moss came along. That September day, she made the split-second decision to protect herself in a way that she hadn’t before.
\n\n\n\nThe fight escalated to the point where a neighboring group of middle-school-aged girls overheard the commotion and knocked on the door.
\n\n\n\nMoss answered and told them everything was fine, but it wasn’t.
\n\n\n\nAfter they left, he returned to confront Boynton who, at this point, had retrieved a steak knife from the kitchen.
\n\n\n\nHe stepped toward her and grabbed her arm. During the struggle, she drove the knife into Moss’s chest.
\n\n\n\nIt would be the last time she ever suffered physical abuse from him. The knife pierced Moss’ heart. He died.
\n\n\n\n“September 30, 1999, was one of the worst days of my life,” Boynton said. “It was one of the days that I lost somebody that I really loved and I cared about and I felt like I didn’t know how to save him anymore.”
\n\n\n\nDomestic violence cases that end in victim retaliation against their abusers, resulting in death, aren’t always as black and white as they may seem. For instance, it took more than two years before prosecutors indicted Boynton on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault.
\n\n\n\nHer case sits inside a national pattern advocates have documented for years: Women say they were trying to protect themselves or a loved one when they retaliated, while prosecutors frame them as violent aggressors and seek long sentences anyway. In courtrooms, the question often becomes narrow — did she kill him? — while the context that shaped that moment gets treated like background noise.
\n\n\n\nThat narrowing lands hardest on Black women.
\n\n\n\nNicole Boynton, whose life sentence was vacated under Georgia’s Survivor Justice Act. On January 5, a judge resentenced her to time served, making her the first person released under the law.\n (Emily Scherer for The 19th; Nicole Boynton) Ellie Williams, legal director at the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said she has watched that pattern play out in case after case through her work representing incarcerated survivors. Her office leads the coalition’s Justice for Incarcerated Survivors program, providing them with post-conviction representation and pushing courts to look again at convictions tied to abuse.
\n\n\n\n“It is really rare that my Black female clients are given any sort of leniency in sentencing,” Williams said. “If they can be maxed out, they’re being maxed out.”
\n\n\n\nThat same story is one reason Michigan advocates are pressing for their own survivor justice legislation.
\n\n\n\nNatalie Holbrook-Combs, program director of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Michigan Criminal Justice Program, said the organization has advocated alongside imprisoned people in her state for decades, with a newer “hyper focus” on women serving long and life sentences.
\n\n\n\n“In Michigan, we have about 33,000 people in prison right now and 1,750 of them are women,” she said, explaining that women’s needs get ignored because the system was built “for and by men.”
\n\n\n\n\n\nHolbrook-Combs said the numbers inside Michigan’s women’s prisons show racial concentration at the extreme end of punishment. According to reports she has read she said 191 women are serving life with parole in Michigan, including 172 serving life without parole, and “83 are Black.” She said more than 500 women are serving 15 years or more and “of those women, 250 of them are Black.”.
\n\n\n\nShe also described watching five domestic-violence-related clemency cases move through Michigan’s judicial appeals process, only to be denied after public hearings that required women to relive their trauma.
\n\n\n\n“Three of those five women were Black women,” said Holbrook-Combs.
\n\n\n\nMarta Nelson of the Vera Institute of Justice said the organization’s sentencing work exists because “you really aren’t going to be able to end mass incarceration without addressing how we sentence people in this country. Michigan’s long sentences make it a critical place to push reform.”
\n\n\n\nErin M. Ross, also with Vera’s sentencing initiative, said nationwide research consistently shows incarcerated women have extraordinarily high rates of victimization. “Some reports say at least 86 percent of incarcerated women have reported sexual violence,” Ross said. “Seventy-seven percent? report partner violence and around 60 percent report caregiver abuse.”
\n\n\n\n“At its core, my research shows that Black women who survive violence often enter the criminal legal system already socially, systemically and legally disappeared,” said Breea Willingham, Ph.D, associate professor of Criminology at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. “A pattern I identify through my framework, Black Feminist Disappearance Theory, which explains how harm against Black women is routinely minimized, dismissed or reframed in ways that erase their victimization. That disappearance shapes what happens at every stage, from police response to charges, trial and sentencing. In simple terms, the system often treats Black women’s survival as criminal behavior.”
\n\n\n\nIn Georgia, Williams said, murder historically carried a mandatory minimum life sentence — leaving almost no room for a court to account for domestic violence as a driving force in how a survivor responded. Under Georgia’s Survivor Justice Act , signed into law last year, that doorway opened wider: the law created routes for abuse evidence to matter at trial, at sentencing and after conviction through resentencing.
\n\n\n\nBoynton’s story shows why that matters.
\n\n\n\nNicole Boynton, left, with her son Romello as a baby while she was out on bond in her grandmother’s backyard.\n (Emily Scherer for The 19th; Nicole Boynton) She was 18, exhausted from trying to keep peace inside a home where her body and safety never belonged to her. She told it straight, the way you do when the details have never left you.
\n\n\n\nShe described a relationship where the rules changed constantly andwhere violence was the predictable ending of ordinary moments.
\n\n\n\n“If I didn’t pay him enough attention or if I didn’t do something a certain way, I already knew I was going to get smacked or punched,” she said.
\n\n\n\nThat day, she was nursing her son when Moss walked in and erupted.
\n\n\n\n“Before I knew it, he snatched Romello off my breast and threw him against the wall,” she said. “And we immediately started fighting.”
\n\n\n\nHer townhome windows were open — she liked them open while she cleaned — and the noise carried. When Moss got distracted by the three neighborhood girls who knocked on the door.
\n\n\n\n“When they knocked on the door, it was like he instantly stopped,” Boynton said. “It’s like it took him out of his trance.”
\n\n\n\nShe ran upstairs to her son.
\n\n\n\n“He was still breathing, but he was unconscious,” she said.
\n\n\n\nIn the seconds that followed, Boynton said, her mind went to escape.
\n\n\n\n“In the kitchen, he chased me around the island and I got to the nearest drawer that I could and I hurried up and I grabbed a knife,” she said. “And so I’m thinking in my mind, if he see the knife, he’ll stop, but he didn’t care that I had a knife.”
\n\n\n\nBoynton said she pleaded.
\n\n\n\n“Please,” she recalled telling him. “Somebody’s gonna get hurt. Please, just stop.”
\n\n\n\nShe said Moss grabbed her arm, overpowering her, twisting the knife toward her body.
\n\n\n\n“When he grabbed my arm, I knew I was gonna lose my life,” she said. “The knife was pointing at me, and all I was trying to do now is not get hit with the knife.”
\n\n\n\nThen: a swing, an attempt to break free, Moss falling back.
\n\n\n\nBoynton called 911.
\n\n\n\nOn the tape, she said, she told the operator they’d had an altercation. She said she stabbed him — then corrected herself, trying to explain the force of his grip, her loss of control over her own arm. She said the wound looked small beside his heart, but blood pumped fast. She pressed a baby blanket to his chest.
\n\n\n\nShe says Moss grabbed her arm and apologized as he died.
\n\n\n\nWhen police arrived, Boynton said, they pushed her aside.
\n\n\n\n“I’m yelling at the police,” she said, “because I was applying pressure to him versus them just looking at him.”
\n\n\n\nBoynton said officers placed her in handcuffs with only a T-shirt on, then questioned her at the Marietta police station. She said she didn’t ask for a lawyer because her grandmother raised her to believe the truth would protect her.
\n\n\n\n“They waited to get all of the questions out of me,” she said. “And as soon as I finished, then they tell me that he died and I fell out.”
\n\n\n\nWhat followed, she said, was an outcome that felt decided from the beginning.
\n\n\n\n“They had already had it in their minds who to charge,” she said.
\n\n\n\nProsecutors indicted her in 2001. The next year, her case went to trial and a jury convicted her of felony murder and aggravated assault. She says she later learned there had been a plea offer for 15 years — information she says she didn’t have when it mattered.
\n\n\n\nHer sentence: life.
\n\n\n\nNicole Boynton with her attorneys at the 10-year celebration of Justice for Incarcerated Survivors on January 22, 2026. The awards reference the judge’s release papers and the district attorney’s consent to her resentencing.\n (Emily Scherer for The 19th; Nicole Boynton) The legal framing of cases like Boynton’s often ignores a truth that advocates say is central: survivors do not enter the criminal legal system as blank slates. Large shares of incarcerated women report past victimization, including intimate partner violence and sexual violence — trauma that can shape pathways into criminalized survival.
\n\n\n\nWilliams said Georgia’s law was built to force the system to confront that context without treating it like an excuse or a footnote. She described “criminalized survival” as acts undertaken to stay safe, but that lead to incarceration: fighting back against an abusive partner, being coerced into crimes under threat, or being charged with “failure to protect” when an abusive partner harms a child and the mother is punished for what she could not stop.
\n\n\n\nThat last category hits hard in public conversation because it cuts against the cultural script — the myth that a mother can always control an abusive man, that danger is something you can simply choose to avoid.
\n\n\n\nWilliams calls it what it is: another way the system criminalizes survival.
\n\n\n\nBlack women are incarcerated at markedly higher rates than White women, a disparity that shapes who gets punished hardest when courts and prosecutors decide whose survival “counts.” The Sentencing Project , a nonprofit research and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., reports that Black women are imprisoned at about 1.7 times the rate of White women (rates per 100,000), even though women remain a smaller share of the total prison population than men.
\n\n\n\nThe harm shows up inside women’s prisons in a way that’s hard to ignore: incarcerated women are overwhelmingly survivors of violence.
\n\n\n\nBecause the system does not reliably track “criminalized survival” in official sentencing data, some of the clearest numbers come from large-scale survey work that asked incarcerated women directly what happened. In a 2020 analysis for The Appeal , reporter Justine van der Leun coded 608 survey responses from women imprisoned on murder and manslaughter charges across 22 states and found that at least 30% said they were incarcerated for trying to protect themselves or a loved one from physical or sexual violence.
\n\n\n\nIf those findings reflect the broader population, the analysis estimates — conservatively — that more than 4,400 women and girls could be serving lengthy sentences for acts of survival tied to violence and abuse.
\n\n\n\nThat same survey work also matters for the focus on Black women because it shows who is sitting in these cages when “self-defense” gets treated like first-degree intent, according to experts. Among respondents, 32.7 percent identified as Black. The reporting also notes that race and socioeconomic circumstances repeatedly surfaced in how women described being charged, prosecuted and sentenced. Those numbers don’t claim a single national “Black women self-defense sentencing” rate — because the system rarely labels cases that way. But they do document, at scale, that Black women are a significant share of the women describing survival-driven convictions inside the most severe homicide categories.
\n\n\n\n“The Black women’s prison narratives I’ve studied repeatedly show they suffered prolonged abuse that was ignored by the system and their failed attempts to seek help,” Willingham said. “And at trial, context surrounding the women’s actions are often misconstrued or deleted entirely. If states truly want to stop criminalizing survival, reforms must expand how self-defense is recognized, allow complete evidence of prior abuse and invest in trauma-informed training and defense resources. Also, limit unchecked prosecutorial power.”
\n\n\n\nThe Georgia Survivor Justice Act attempts to change outcomes at three points: trial, sentencing and post-conviction. Williams said the law modifies legal defenses — including self-defense and coercion — so lawyers can present abuse evidence in a way jurors are permitted to meaningfully consider in their decisions. It creates a mitigation framework that can move sentencing out from under mandatory minimums. And it allows retroactive resentencing, giving people already behind bars a way to return to court and ask for a new sentence that accounts for abuse as a significant contributing factor.
\n\n\n\n\n\nThat retroactive piece is where Boynton’s case broke open.
\n\n\n\nOn January 5, a judge in Cobb County vacated her life sentence and resentenced her to time served, making her the first person released under Georgia’s new law.
\n\n\n\nBoynton said she never stopped pushing paper — letters, requests, documents. She said she wrote a judge so powerfully early on that it helped her secure bond while her case dragged on.
\n\n\n\n“I didn’t know I was a writer until I wrote something so deep to the judge,” she said.
\n\n\n\nInside prison, she said, incarceration stripped her privacy and dignity — telling her when to eat, when to move, how to live — while her mind stayed fixed on a future she couldn’t yet see.
\n\n\n\n“My body was there physically,” she said, “my mind would never let me stay there.”
\n\n\n\nShe described cycling through multiple prisons as facilities closed and reopened — each transfer another disruption, another reminder that women’s incarceration in America is treated as an afterthought inside systems built for men.
\n\n\n\nShe also described health harm she connects to confinement: “Every prison that I’ve been to has something wrong with the water,” she said, describing serious illness and surgery near the end of her sentence.
\n\n\n\nThen came court — and a judge who looked at the record and said what Boynton had been saying for decades.
\n\n\n\n“You should have never been in prison,” Boynton recalled Judge Angela Z. Brown telling her, as the life sentence was lifted.
\n\n\n\nBoynton’s son appeared on Zoom.
\n\n\n\n“My son always tell me, ‘Mom, I love you. You’re my queen,’” she said.
\n\n\n\nBoynton still speaks of Moss as someone who was not “always a bad person.” She still marks his birthday at times. She grieves and remembers and holds contradiction, because real life keeps contradiction.
\n\n\n\nThe law does not ask survivors to become perfect victims. It asks courts to become more honest about what abuse does to decision-making, danger and time.
\n\n\n\nAdvocates see what has happened in Georgia as part of a broader shift. States including New York and Oklahoma have some of the most robust survivor sentencing laws, and Georgia’s is among the most expansive in how early it can operate in a case, according to Williams.
\n\n\n\nOther states are moving, too. In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation on January 21 aimed at fairer sentencing and record relief for survivors, a pairing advocates say is essential for rebuilding life after incarceration.
\n\n\n\n“For far too long, Black women survivors have been punished for surviving,” said Monifa Bandele, chief strategy officer at MomsRising. She pointed to survivor-centered reforms that treat coercive control and domestic violence as realities courts must weigh — and that recognize how a record can lock someone out of housing and employment long after a sentence ends.
\n\n\n\nThe throughline across these reforms is not mercy. It is accuracy.
\n\n\n\nBecause the current system has long demanded that women fit a narrow mold of innocence to be believed — and Black women rarely get the benefit of that mold. They are read as older than they are, tougher than they feel, more responsible for the violence done to them than the person who did it. They are expected to absorb harm quietly, then punished when they refuse.
\n\n\n\nBoynton named that imbalance in her own case.
\n\n\n\n“Back then, Cobb County was predominantly White,” she said. “You could have people do the same thing and they get involuntary manslaughter, versus I get a life sentence.”
\n\n\n\nShe said she had no prior record. She spent three years out on bond without trouble. None of it moved the system.
\n\n\n\n“It was like they said, ‘She doesn’t know nothing about the law so we gonna get her,’” she said. “And that’s exactly what they did.”
\n\n\n\nGeorgia’s Survivor Justice Act did not give her back 23 years.
\n\n\n\nIt gave her back breath.
\n\n\n\nAnd it offered a blueprint that — if other states follow — could mean the next Black woman who survives does not have to spend decades proving she deserved to live.
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Ebony JJ Curry","publishDate":"2026-02-18T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/BlackWomenDVSentencing-Spot-1.jpeg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/georgia-survivor-justice-act-nicole-boynton/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-18T12:00:55.554Z"},{"id":"oilo8s","slug":"he-called-me-doc-i-called-him-rev-remembering-jesse-jacksons-moral-leadership","title":"He Called Me ‘Doc.’ I Called Him ‘Rev.’ Remembering Jesse Jackson’s Moral Leadership","excerpt":"I knew Rev. Jackson beyond the conventions. He married me and my husband, Gregory Shaffer, almost 25 years ago. He always showed up and gave graciously of himself when I called—whether it was to host a convening on HIV/AIDS at Rainbow PUSH in the early 2000s, or to bring together hundreds of working...","content":"I knew Rev. Jackson beyond the conventions. He married me and my husband, Gregory Shaffer, almost 25 years ago. He always showed up and gave graciously of himself when I called—whether it was to host a convening on HIV/AIDS at Rainbow PUSH in the early 2000s, or to bring together hundreds of working-class residents from the South Side of Chicago to engage on matters of national healthcare, or to meet with (mostly women) academics coming together to figure out the intersections of law, family and reproductive rights at the University of Chicago Club 20 years ago.
\nHe called me \"Doc\" or \"Doctor Michele.\" I called him \"Rev.\"
\nA week ago, by his father’s bedside, Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) and I spoke by phone. He had just delivered a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast calling the president to account—to be more humane and just, and to “do what is right.” It was clear that Rev. Jackson’s legacy is already living on.
\nThe post He Called Me ‘Doc.’ I Called Him ‘Rev.’ Remembering Jesse Jackson’s Moral Leadership appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Michele Goodwin","publishDate":"2026-02-18T04:45:13.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/UCI_RJJ-144.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/17/jesse-jackson-women-civil-rights/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-18T06:01:00.108Z"},{"id":"92o6n7","slug":"a-deliberate-attempt-to-terrorize-former-fbi-agent-asha-rangappa-on-what-real-law-enforcement-looks-","title":"‘A Deliberate Attempt to Terrorize’: Former FBI Agent Asha Rangappa on What Real Law Enforcement Looks Like—and What ICE Is Not","excerpt":"ICE is the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in American history—its budget larger than the FBI, ATF, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service and Bureau of Prisons combined. Its agents wear masks, drive unmarked vehicles and operate with an impunity that has drawn comparisons to secret police forces ...","content":"ICE is the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in American history—its budget larger than the FBI, ATF, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service and Bureau of Prisons combined. Its agents wear masks, drive unmarked vehicles and operate with an impunity that has drawn comparisons to secret police forces around the world. Multiple federal courts have refused to trust the agency’s own statements of fact. And in Minneapolis, ICE agents shot and killed Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti in front of their neighbors’ cameras.
\nAsha Rangappa has seen this movie before—just never in America.
\nA former FBI special agent who spent years in the bureau’s New York division, specializing in counterintelligence, Rangappa was trained to monitor threats to America. Her job required surgical precision, behavioral psychology, extraordinary patience and, above all, trust.
\n“The bread and butter of your work as a law enforcement agent is that you need the community’s help,” she told me. “You actually can’t do your job without it.”
\nThe post ‘A Deliberate Attempt to Terrorize’: Former FBI Agent Asha Rangappa on What Real Law Enforcement Looks Like—and What ICE Is Not appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Jaime Patel","publishDate":"2026-02-17T23:27:42.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-526625050.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/17/fbi-asha-rangappa-ice/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-18T00:00:17.729Z"},{"id":"cob008","slug":"in-a-scorching-order-federal-judge-rejects-trumps-attempt-to-trample-the-first-amendment-and-rewrite","title":"In a Scorching Order, Federal Judge Rejects Trump’s Attempt to Trample the First Amendment and Rewrite America’s Antebellum Past","excerpt":"In a sharply worded order, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe instructed the Trump administration on Monday—George Washington's birthday—to reverse course and restore exhibits that depicted and paid homage to the enslaved people who labored at Washington’s home in Philadelphia.","content":"In a sharply worded order, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe instructed the Trump administration on Monday—George Washington's birthday—to reverse course and restore exhibits that depicted and paid homage to the enslaved people who labored at Washington’s home in Philadelphia. Citing George Orwell’s novel, 1984 , Judge Rufe (first appointed by President George W. Bush) chastised the administration for operating as if the U.S. has a “Ministry of Truth” whose motto is “Ignorance is Strength.”
\nThe panels in question were installed at the President’s House in the early 2000s, after years of advocacy by local Black leaders and activists, to commemorate the nine men, women and children enslaved by Washington there: Ona (Oney) Judge, Hercules Posey, Richmond Posey, Christopher Sheels, Joe Richardson, Austin, Giles, Moll and Paris.
\nHowever, last month—a week before the start of the United States' 100th anniversary of Black History Month—NPS workers arrived unannounced at the historical site in Philadelphia and removed these panels and video exhibits.
\nThis case is not just about the erasure of slavery—which on its own is historically important. It’s also about the separation of powers and the First Amendment, which the Trump administration repeatedly violates.
\nThe post In a Scorching Order, Federal Judge Rejects Trump’s Attempt to Trample the First Amendment and Rewrite America’s Antebellum Past appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Michele Goodwin","publishDate":"2026-02-17T22:13:43.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2228563509.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/17/trump-black-history-slavery-george-washington-exhibits-nps-dei/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-18T00:00:17.729Z"},{"id":"huov59","slug":"the-2026-winter-olympics-are-the-most-gender-balanced-yet-these-athletes-are-leading-the-way","title":"The 2026 Winter Olympics Are the Most Gender Balanced Yet. These Athletes Are Leading the Way.","excerpt":"The Olympic Winter Games in Milan began late last week on Feb. 6, 2026, with the U.S. roster—made up of 115 women and 117 men—nearly reaching gender parity. Here are some of the athletes contributing to that history to watch in the days to come.","content":"The Olympic Winter Games in Milan began late last week on Feb. 6, 2026, with the U.S. roster—made up of 115 women and 117 men—nearly reaching gender parity.
\nHere are some of the athletes contributing to that history to watch in the days to come.
\nThe post The 2026 Winter Olympics Are the Most Gender Balanced Yet. These Athletes Are Leading the Way. appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Livia Follet","publishDate":"2026-02-17T22:08:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2262008619.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/17/2026-winter-olympics-gender-balanced-women-athletes/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-18T00:00:17.729Z"},{"id":"m19goz","slug":"he-gave-me-my-wings-jesse-jackson-opened-doors-for-black-women-in-politics","title":"‘He gave me my wings’: Jesse Jackson opened doors for Black women in politics","excerpt":"Leah Daughtry was 6 years old when she first met the Rev. Jesse Jackson at a boycott of a local grocery store that refused to hire Black workers. Her father was a prominent civil rights activist and church leader long active in politics, and Jackson became a fixture in the Daughtry family’s home and...","content":"Leah Daughtry was 6 years old when she first met the Rev. Jesse Jackson at a boycott of a local grocery store that refused to hire Black workers.
\n\n\n\nHer father was a prominent civil rights activist and church leader long active in politics, and Jackson became a fixture in the Daughtry family’s home and church in Brooklyn. Later, when Daughtry was a student at Dartmouth College, Jackson introduced her to presidential politics when he recruited her to mobilize young voters in New Hampshire.
\n\n\n\n“It was incredibly empowering, incredibly weighty, but what I learned from that experience was that he trusted me,” Daughtry recalled. “He saw something in me and in all of us that said, ‘I believe you can do it and I’m going to give you the responsibility to help me win.’”
\n\n\n\nPart of the civil rights legacy of Jackson, who died Tuesday at 84 , is the expansion of Black women’s political power at the voting booth and within Democratic Party politics.
\n\n\n\nJackson, who worked with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and led key organizations in the push for civil rights, including the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, also mounted two ultimately unsuccessful presidential bids, in 1984 and 1988. Through those runs, Jackson helped reshape American political power by building a diverse coalition centered on those long excluded from national leadership — including Black voters, women, young people, and the working class. It was a coalition that would become the foundation of modern Democratic Party politics.
\n\n\n\nThe Rev. Jesse Jackson with Leah Daughtry and her family in 1983. Jackson became a fixture in the Daughtry family’s home and church.\n (Courtesy of Leah Daughtry) As Jackson’s civil rights work evolved from the movement to political power, his campaigns registered millions of new voters — what became known as the Rainbow Coalition — and diverse voter participation would become part of his lifelong work. His campaigns helped to normalize Black women’s leadership beyond the ballot box as organizers, decision-makers and strategists. In the years since his presidential campaigns, Black women have shaped party leadership and helped define the direction of American politics.
\n\n\n\n“He used to say, ‘Our patch ain’t big enough,’” Daughtry said of Jackson. “Any one community, there aren’t enough of us to make electoral change. We have to build a quilt that has bigger patches, and all of us together means we can get the change we all need. We are much stronger when we are together, and there are more of us — even if they may not come where you come from, or look like what you look like. There is common ground, if you look for it.”
\n\n\n\nWomen were key to the Rainbow Coalition, said Melanie Campbell, who was a student at Clark College (now Clark-Atlanta University) when she volunteered on Jackson’s campaign, registering voters in Georgia.
\n\n\n\n“He had women around him politically. … He let us understand that we had the power of the vote,” said Campbell, now president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. “I didn’t know I was going to end up working in civil rights. Being able to be around him and other civil rights leaders, men and women … it molded me to be what I am today.”
\n\n\n\nPractically every skill I learned, I learned standing on his shoulders.”
Donna Brazile Donna Brazile was also among the young Black women who got her start in politics working with Jackson. In 1984, at the age of 23, she left a job with Coretta Scott King to work for Jackson, who tapped her Louisiana roots to focus on Southern voters.
\n\n\n\nShe remembered him as someone who saw people as individuals, who never made her feel reduced or like she had to fight to get into rooms.
\n\n\n\n“He always included us,” said Brazile, who would become the first Black woman to manage a major party presidential campaign in 2000. “He gave me my wings. He understood I could organize and he gave me every opportunity. He rooted me in politics. He let me know that I could manage campaigns. … Practically every skill I learned, I learned standing on his shoulders.”
\n\n\n\nMinyon Moore walks with the Rev. Jesse Jackson in Texas in 1988 while he was campaigning in Dallas and speaking at churches. Moore served as deputy field director for Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign.\n (Courtesy of Minyon Moore) Chicago native Minyon Moore was a college student working at Encyclopedia Britannica when she was hired to work at Operation PUSH, the civil rights organization Jackson co-founded in her hometown. In 1988, Moore was tapped to be deputy field director for Jackson’s presidential campaign.
\n\n\n\n“Shirley Chisholm said, ‘If you don’t have a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.’ Reverend Jackson said, ‘You have a seat at the table — and it’s a hard chair,’” — a permanent spot, Moore said. He emphasized the importance of preparation and the value of serving other people and taking on any task, no matter how big or small, she added.
\n\n\n\n\n\nMoore’s career in politics includes becoming the first Black woman director of White House political affairs, under President Bill Clinton, and, later, leading the Democratic National Committee and the party’s convention.
\n\n\n\nBlack women elected officials are also part of Jackson’s legacy. Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters co-chaired Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 campaigns. She was elected to Congress in 1990 and is serving her 18th term in California’s 43rd District.
\n\n\n\nIn a tribute to Jackson, former Vice President Kamala Harris wrote: “He let us know our voices mattered. He instilled in us that we were somebody. And he widened the path for generations to follow in his footsteps and lead.”
\n\n\n\nThe Rev. Jesse Jackson with New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm after announcing his candidacy for president in 1983. Jackson was the second Black American to run for president as a major political party candidate, following Chisholm’s run in 1972.\n (Jacques M. Chenet/CORBIS/Getty Images) In 1984, Jackson was only the second Black American to run for president as a major political party candidate, following Shirley Chisholm’s trailblazing run in 1972. While neither of them was elected, voters won important gains in political representation through Jackson’s candidacy. He pushed the Democratic Party to change its rules around rewarding delegates to end winner-take-all primaries, creating fairer, proportional representation.
\n\n\n\nIn 2024 at the Democratic National Convention, where Harris accepted the party’s nomination for the presidency, Jackson appeared on the opening night to thunderous applause from the arena, a testament to his contribution to American politics. It was a full-circle moment for Moore, who said Jackson never stopped mentoring her over the decades.
\n\n\n\nHe trusted us to go out and work on behalf of the people.”
Minyon Moore “He trusted us to go out and work on behalf of the people,” Moore said. “He always wanted me to know exactly what our White counterparts knew. He felt like the only way to do that was to give us the experience to do it. There was never a place where we weren’t welcome.”
\n\n\n\nBy inviting Black women into national politics, Jackson helped ensure they would help shape its future. His approach holds lessons for the Black women organizers and political strategists who carry his work forward, said Glynda Carr, president of Higher Heights for America.
\n\n\n\n“His two campaigns were built on this notion of coalition, to elevate the voices of the working poor, the working class, the middle class, and insisting that Black voters and our communities were centered in a national conversation,” said Carr, whose political action committee mobilizes Black women voters to elect Black women to office. “If we’re actually going to rebuild America, what does true coalition-building look like?”
","category":"activism","author":"Errin Haines","publishDate":"2026-02-17T21:53:32.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/jesse_jackson_02.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/jesse-jackson-opened-doors-black-women-politics/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-18T00:00:17.896Z"},{"id":"2hgu6e","slug":"sundance-2026-barbara-forever-chronicles-the-life-and-work-of-experimental-lesbian-filmmaker-barbara","title":"Sundance 2026: ‘Barbara Forever’ Chronicles the Life and Work of Experimental Lesbian Filmmaker Barbara Hammer","excerpt":"Prolific lesbian feminist filmmaker Barbara Hammer’s refusal to be written out of history paid off, and Barbara Forever is full of evidence of the impact Hammer, both herself and her work, made on those around her.","content":"Prolific lesbian feminist filmmaker Barbara Hammer’s refusal to be written out of history paid off, and Barbara Forever is full of evidence of the impact Hammer, both herself and her work, made on those around her. Beyond just telling the story of the life of a trailblazing lesbian filmmaker, the documentary is an intimate portrait of a fascinating and indomitable woman who treated life as the ultimate adventure.
\nBarbara Forever received Sundance’s Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award for U.S. Documentary (the film’s editor is Matt Hixon), with its whirling, dynamic and comprehensive array of film and archival footage from an artist who voraciously documented her own life and the lives of others.
\n(This is one in a series of film reviews from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, focused on films by women, trans or nonbinary directors that tell compelling stories about the lives of women and girls.)
\nThe post Sundance 2026: ‘Barbara Forever’ Chronicles the Life and Work of Experimental Lesbian Filmmaker Barbara Hammer appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"resilience","author":"Aviva Dove-Viebahn","publishDate":"2026-02-17T18:33:56.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Barbara_Forever-Still_2-scaled.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/17/sundance-2026-barbara-forever-experimental-lesbian-filmmaker/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-18T00:00:17.729Z"},{"id":"3j5zy0","slug":"are-we-still-mad-at-tyra-banks-should-we-be","title":"Are we still mad at Tyra Banks? Should we be?","excerpt":"Want more stories like this? Subscribe to our new menopause newsletter. If it was a Tuesday night in the early aughts, I always had plans. Because that’s when “America’s Next Top Model” was on. Some nights I curled up on the couch with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of red wine...","content":"Want more stories like this? Subscribe to our new menopause newsletter .
\n\n\n\nIf it was a Tuesday night in the early aughts, I always had plans. Because that’s when “America’s Next Top Model” was on.
\n\n\n\nSome nights I curled up on the couch with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of red wine and watched on my own. But just as often, I tuned in with whatever peer group was most central to my life at the time: dorm hallmates, castmates from a college theater project, work friends. We would squeeze into a small apartment to see just what Tyra Banks, Ms. Jay, Jay Manuel and Nigel Barker had in store for the young women desperately trying to make it in the modeling industry.
\n\n\n\nBut since those days, there’s been a broad cultural reconsideration of Banks and “ANTM” — and the version of beauty that was put forward. Which makes the new Netflix documentary “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model ” — in which all the aforementioned judges participated — so interesting.
\n\n\n\nBanks has been asked to assume the vast majority of the blame for the discussion of bodies and beauty, now seen as harmful. She’s apologized for some parts, including a challenge in which contestants’ skin color was changed and darkened. But she’s also stood by much of what made the show so fascinating for so many of us.
\n\n\n\n“Did we get it right? Hell no. I said some dumb shit,” Banks said at the ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards last year. “But I refuse to have my legacy be about some stuff linked together on the Internet when there were 24 cycles of changing the world. And I am so excited that I, and so many of us, have opened that door for others to follow.”
\n\n\n\n\n\nToday, it feels like that appeal remains largely unheard. But why are we so mad at Tyra Banks when it doesn’t feel like we’ve progressed on women and their bodies, whether in their 20s or squarely middle aged?
\n\n\n\nI needed to unpack what it all means, so I did what I do best in these moments. I called some experts to weigh in on what we’re really talking about when we talk about “America’s Next Top Model.”
\n\n\n\nCue expert #1 First I spoke to Victoria Pitts-Taylor , the chair of the department of feminist, gender and sexuality studies at Wesleyan University and the author of the books “Surgery Junkies: Wellness and Pathology in Cosmetic Culture ” and “In the Flesh: The Cultural Politics of Body Modification .”
\n\n\n\nAfter all, the foundation of any season of “ANTM” was the makeover episode, with dramatic haircuts and lots of tears.
\n\n\n\nThese transformations were meant to shock, sure, but they also put a point on something constantly underscored by the show: Wanna be on top? Then get ready to modify your face and your body in the process.
\n\n\n\nBut the idea that your body had to look a certain way wasn’t confined to “ANTM.” And it still isn’t.
\n\n\n\nPitts-Taylor said the proliferation of cosmetic procedures — especially non-surgical procedures like fillers and neurotoxins and the use of GLP-1 medications by those without clinical obesity — are all evidence of the ways that society certainly hasn’t moved past demanding a certain look. If anything, it’s more intense than when “ANTM” premiered over 20 years ago.
\n\n\n\nYou look good for your age And this expectation is aging right alongside us.
\n\n\n\nWith the advancement and increased availability of cosmetic procedures, the way women are expected to age has also changed. (Perhaps your group chat was also left reeling by seeing the gaggle of elite 90s celebrities in the Dunkin’ commercial that aired during the Super Bowl.)
\n\n\n\n“70 is the new 50,” Pitts-Taylor said. “As women are aging, what’s happening is that the celebrities we grew up with don’t seem to be aging along with us, and we’re also immersed in a social media culture that still privileges youth and still privileges the highly curated image, so we’re pressured to filter ourselves — whether it be through sort of careful curating of our photos or literally using filters on our phones and our apps or getting fillers and Botox.”
\n\n\n\nBut just as problematic is that questioning women for choices about their appearance is deeply gendered, designed to vilify women for existing in the world.
\n\n\n\nNigel Barker, Tyra Banks, Vogue Editor-at-Large Andre Leon Talley and Jay Manuel attend the CW Network Reality launch party at SL on February 23, 2010, in New York City. \n Larry Busacca/WireImage “We place a lot of blame on individual women — whether they’re making good choices, whether they’re good cosmetic surgery patients or they’re turning into surgery junkies. We obsess over individual choices,” she said.
\n\n\n\nInstead of asking what larger systems — cultural, economic, political — are forcing people to feel they need to look a certain way, the problem (shocker) often is assigned to women themselves.
\n\n\n\nSociety is telling women what Banks told Tiffany Richardson: “When you go to bed at night, you lay there and you take responsibility for yourself.”
\n\n\n\nIn other words, no matter how you slice it, women are to blame — and that certainly hasn’t changed since “America’s Next Top Model” premiered. But it also isn’t because of “ America’s Next Top Model,” either.
\n\n\n\nCue expert #2 Racquel Gates , an associate professor of film and media studies at Columbia University who studies Blackness and popular culture, was also a hardcore “ANTM” fan.
\n\n\n\n“It lives rent-free in my brain, forever,” she said.
\n\n\n\nSeeing her Gen Z students discover the show through clips on social media has really put a point on another aspect of our current cultural moment: nostalgia for appointment television. Viewing parties for shows such as “ANTM” and “Sex and the City” brought us into constant conversation with our peers in meaningful, IRL ways.
\n\n\n\nWhat do we want our TV to do for us? And that’s just one layer behind what Gates says makes her “uncomfortable” about how “ANTM” is being revisited.
\n\n\n\n“It feels like the show is being turned into a scapegoat for body issues and representations of women that are problematic,” Gates said. “This is not new. Body image stuff is not new. There’s something for me that is troubling about displacing the sins of our society onto this show, and specifically onto Tyra Banks, and thinking that if we can exorcize that demon, that we will be OK as a society. But it really just feels dishonest to me.”
\n\n\n\nThe focus on Banks — and her legacy — feels especially sticky, Gates said.
\n\n\n\n“If Tyra were not a world famous supermodel, if Tyra Banks had not been able to cross over into television and film, if she had not already been a household name, there would be no show, or the show would have no credibility,” Gates said.
\n\n\n\nAnd while Banks was the face and the creator, plenty of other people were involved in making decisions about the show, Gates said.
\n\n\n\nGates said she recently asked her students what they wanted from “ANTM” — an authentic look at the modeling industry or something that totally disrupts the industry? The second, she said, may be an unfair ask of a TV show.
\n\n\n\nWe are all rooting for you Which brings us back to the anger being directed at Tyra Banks.
\n\n\n\n“Our society still does not want to ever actually confront issues of racism or sexism head-on,” Gates said. “It’s easy for us to talk about body issues with ‘America’s Next Top Model’ because the show isn’t on anymore. It’s harder to talk about your favorite influencer, your favorite podcaster.”
\n\n\n\nGates said she would ask those aiming criticism at Banks to interrogate why.
\n\n\n\n“I would never say that because Tyra Banks is a Black woman in America that she is excused from a criticism of the role she has played in promoting healthy body images, but what I would say is that I really think we need to question why we have made her responsible for all of society’s issues around body images. Why are we placing this onto her? What does that do for us?”
\n\n\n\nAnd she hopes that in the midst of all of this, Banks also gets her flowers. Banks was a pioneering TV executive who created content with a broad appeal.
\n\n\n\n“I am legitimately rooting for her.”
","category":"empowerment","author":"Jennifer Gerson","publishDate":"2026-02-17T16:30:41.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-121556032.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/tyra-banks-antm-documentary-culture-beauty-standards/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-17T18:00:34.780Z"},{"id":"dd242v","slug":"what-the-covid-19-pandemic-revealed-about-abortion-accessresearch","title":"What the COVID-19 Pandemic Revealed About Abortion Access—Research","excerpt":"A recent peer-reviewed study focusing on Latina women in North Carolina found that people were still able to get abortion care, despite pre- Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization barriers. The post What the COVID-19 Pandemic Revealed About Abortion Access—Research appeared first on Rewire New...","content":"When a deadly virus spreads through a community, routine health care, including reproductive health care, may suffer .
\n\n\n\nIn North Carolina, the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped how and when residents got abortion care in unexpected ways, new research shows.
\n\n\n\nA team of University of North Carolina researchers tracked abortions in the state between March 2020, when the World Health Organization declared a global coronavirus pandemic, and December 2021. They specifically evaluated impacts on reproductive health care among Latina patients.
\n\n\n\nThe resulting peer-reviewed study , published in the Women’s Health Issues journal in December 2025, found that there was no spike in abortion care in the first month of COVID-19 being declared a global pandemic. But as the pandemic continued, the number of abortions began to climb.
\n\n\n\n“Despite all of the barriers that were in place during the pandemic, people in North Carolina were still able to obtain abortions,” said the paper’s lead author, Marissa Velarde, who is now a post-doctoral research fellow at San Diego State University. “And in fact, the number of abortions increased.”
\n\n\n\nThat increase in abortions, which occurred between April 2020 and December 2021, was more pronounced among Latina-identifying women, who had 6.3 more abortions per month than they did in March 2020. The white women who served as a comparison group for the research saw 4.1 more abortions per month between April 2020 and December 2021.
\n\n\n\nThe study also found an increase in medication abortion care and a decrease in abortions after the first trimester.
\n\n\n\nRewire News Group spoke with Velarde about what the COVID-19 pandemic revealed about abortion access—and how public health officials and policymakers can better prepare for the next public health emergency.
\n\n\n\nThe following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
\n\n\n\nWhat does the study tell you about why or how patients accessed abortion during the COVID-19 pandemic?
\n\n\n\nThe literature on family planning during the COVID-19 pandemic has indicated that people’s pregnancy intentions really changed due to the economic and social changes happening during COVID-19. And because of that, abortion increased —across the country , really—because people had more financial constraints and their systems of support just weren’t there anymore.
\n\n\n\nThis is particularly true for people who are marginalized. In my study, I really focused on comparing Latina patients to white patients. And you can see that even though abortion was increasing for both white patients and Latina patients, Latina patients saw a much steeper incline. The rate of increase was much greater for Latina patients who received abortions in North Carolina.
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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\n
To what do you attribute that difference?
\n\n\n\nPrior research has indicated that women of color and people of color, in general, were impacted by the pandemic much greater than white, affluent patients. There are a number of reasons for that. One of them, for example, is that Latinas are more likely to work in service industry jobs. So they were more affected by the pandemic because they didn’t have work.
\n\n\n\nSo I think that’s one of the reasons for the steeper increase. …
\n\n\n\nAt the beginning, we all thought we would be home for a couple of weeks. We didn’t think we’d be home for months, or for some people, even a year.
\n\n\n\nI think women started to realize that they had to deal with their impending [economic] situation. A lot of women didn’t have the economic or financial means to continue their pregnancies, so there was an increase in abortions.
\n\n\n\nI also compared procedural and medication abortions . There was a huge jump in medication abortions(Editor’s note: Velarde’s research found that 64 percent of pandemic-era North Carolina abortions used medication, up from 43 percent pre-pandemic.) … That’s another reason for the increase. Health facilities were able to see a lot more patients [for medication abortion] than they normally were able to before the COVID-19 pandemic.
\n\n\n\nYou also saw a drop in abortions that occurred after the first trimester. What do you think explains that decrease?
\n\n\n\nThere are a couple of factors at play here.
\n\n\n\nPatients were able to make their decisions a lot faster during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, a patient might have taken their time trying to decide whether or not they wanted to have an abortion. But because of the precarity of COVID-19, it seems that patients were much more eager to make a decision because they felt [they were] in a place of instability.
\n\n\n\nAnd on top of that, they were able to have their abortions earlier, as indicated by the huge increase in medication abortions.
\n\n\n\nThe second piece to that is that there’s a specific demographic that is often associated with abortions in later pregnancy—and that’s adolescents. We saw that there was a decrease in adolescent abortions in general. …
\n\n\n\nThat is because their social lives surround school. And because of the pandemic stay-at-home order, [teens] weren’t having social lives. They weren’t convening with friends. And so they weren’t getting pregnant. And I think that was another driver of the decrease in the proportion of abortions after the first trimester.
\n\n\n\nWhat can your research teach us about abortion care during pandemics?
\n\n\n\nWe absolutely have to consider abortion an essential health service. … In North Carolina, you still cannot have medication abortion dispensed remotely. You have to come in person to do it. I do think that there is a need to eliminate that stipulation.
\n\n\n\nThere are states that [allow for telehealth abortion] and patients can keep themselves safe. And health-care providers don’t have to interact with more people, thereby keeping themselves and future patients safer from viral illnesses.
\n\n\n\nIs there anything else important for RNG readers to know?
\n\n\n\nMy study was before Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Dobbs could potentially have devastating effects on access to abortion.
\n\n\n\n[That] further amplifies the need for telehealth, for medication abortion, and … [for] shield laws for providers who continue to provide medication abortion for patients that are in ban states.
\n
\nThe post What the COVID-19 Pandemic Revealed About Abortion Access—Research appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-17T15:22:50.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Covid-QA-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/17/what-the-covid-19-pandemic-revealed-about-abortion-access-research/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-17T18:00:33.648Z"},{"id":"3tcqf3","slug":"new-student-loan-limits-could-threaten-diversity-in-nursing-and-public-health-programs","title":"New student loan limits could threaten diversity in nursing and public health programs","excerpt":"Shawnie Allen traces her choice to study public health to a moment inside a hospital room in 2023. At 20 years old, she was a junior at Nova Southeastern University when she found out she was six weeks pregnant.","content":"Shawnie Allen traces her choice to study public health to a moment inside a hospital room in 2023. At 20 years old, she was a junior at Nova Southeastern University when she found out she was six weeks pregnant.
\n\n\n\nAbortion was still legal until 15 weeks of pregnancy, and Allen asked her presiding nurse about options for termination. The nurse’s expression, Allen noted, shifted.
\n\n\n\n“I could just tell she obviously did not like that I was going toward abortion,” she said.
\n\n\n\nAllen carried through with the abortion, but the interaction lingered with her. It made her contend with the realities of health care for Black women like herself when people who look like them aren’t in the room.
\n\n\n\n“I did further research, and there’s a lot of racial disparities in health care,” she said. “It wasn’t like I made the decision because I didn’t want the child. I made a decision because I could not financially take care of a child, and I did not want to put myself in that position, especially still pursuing my bachelor’s degree at the time.”
\n\n\n\nNow 23, she is at the tail end of completing her master’s degree in public health at the University of South Florida with a concentration in maternal and child health, spurred by that encounter in the doctor’s office and only made possible through federal student loans.
\n\n\n\nBut a proposed new classification for public health and nursing could make it harder for people like Allen to pursue advanced degrees, making these fields less diverse and leaving a noticeable gap in care.
\n\n\n\n(Shawnie Allen) Legislation signed by President Donald Trump in July puts new limits on most federal student loans. Now, students pursuing what have been classified as “professional degrees” are granted a higher loan limit of $200,000 total. Other degrees are classified as standard graduate degrees, which means students can borrow up to only $100,000. People in public health and nursing worry that these proposed limits will disproportionately impact students of color who are seeking to go into women-dominated fields.
\n\n\n\nThe administration based the decision in part on a 1965 law governing student aid , which lists examples of professional degrees but says it’s not an exhaustive list. Nursing and public health are not included in the examples.
\n\n\n\nTrump officials stated that the decision to impose the new guidelines will make universities more affordable for students. “These loan limits will help drive down the cost of graduate programs and reduce the debt students have to take out,” the Department of Education said on its website. “Graduate students received more than half of all new federal student loans originated in recent years, and graduate student loans now make up half of the outstanding $1.7 trillion federal student loan portfolio.”
\n\n\n\nThe student loan cap is expected to go into effect in July 2026. Some health care-related degrees are eligible for the higher borrowing limit and are classified as “professional,” including pharmacy, dentistry and chiropractic degrees.
\n\n\n\n\n\n“The U.S. Department of Education’s consensus on a definition that excludes public health degrees, along with several other essential health professionals, is short-sighted and it carries real risks,” Laura Magaña, president of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), said at a recent media briefing. “If we get this wrong, the impact will be immediate and far-reaching, not just for students, but for the health, safety and resilience of the nation.”
\n\n\n\nThe administration’s proposal is expected to further alienate people of color, whose presence in public health professions is already scant and who only accounted for 32 percent of all healthcare practitioners in 2024 , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This change will particularly leave vulnerable women of color – who historically borrow more student loans and thus carry more debt.
\n\n\n\n“This will have a profound rippling effect on the nation’s health care, especially in those medically underserved communities,” said Veronica Vital, president of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN). “It’s at risk of compounding already significant obstacles that nurses of color experience, and so I believe this policy will have profound implications and threatens to impede pathways in general for nurses of color.”
\n\n\n\nNurses with advanced degrees have historically filled a gap in health care, particularly in rural communities, and are uniquely positioned to provide care in the absence of physicians. Their roles can include delivering babies as nurse midwives, providing primary care and anesthetizing patients when necessary.
\n\n\n\nPublic health practitioners are responsible for disease prevention and treatment, as well as monitoring and improving the health of communities through policy analysis and intervention. Their work encompasses epidemiology, health care administration and implementing safety standards to protect employees in the workplace.
\n\n\n\n(Chloe Urias) For many women of color studying public health, the uncertainty ahead has left them apprehensive.
\n\n\n\n“I keep using the same word, devastated,” said Chloe Urias, 23. “Since I was a young girl, I was always taught that education opens those doors for you. Education will allow you to pursue your dreams. And so I think for me, education is at the forefront of everything that I do because I understand that it is my only opportunity to be able to make a change in this world.”
\n\n\n\nUrias is a second-year graduate public health student at Vanderbilt School of Medicine with a focus on global health. Her perception of health equity has been shaped by her experiences as the daughter of a woman who immigrated to the United States from Mexico.
\n\n\n\nUrias said the administration’s proposal would strip away one of the few avenues that has made the health profession attainable for women like her.
\n\n\n\n“I get really sad thinking about how people behind me that really want to pursue a higher education will no longer be given that opportunity just because of this new financial decision,” she said. “I think it can be pretty obvious how important public health is, especially when the United States just went through a global pandemic that showed how our infrastructure needs to be bolstered a bit more.”
\n\n\n\nHealth professionals have expressed concern that the proposed change could lead to worse care for people of color or those that don’t speak English.
\n\n\n\n“Historically, we know that when the culture and lived experiences between provider and between the patients are shared, that enhances trust and ultimately enhances outcomes,” Vital said. “So I believe this policy will threaten to weaken the pipeline of diverse health care providers and those that are serving the communities with long-standing health equity gaps, and I foresee that there’s going to be a significant impact on these communities.”
\n\n\n\nBrittany Vang, who is receiving her doctorate of public health at Mercer University, worries the change will impede care for vulnerable groups.
\n\n\n\n(Brittany Vang) “We had so much hope of improving the health care and the preventative care within America because it is like a melting pot pretty much,” the 31-year-old said. Vang, whose parents and grandparents are refugees from Laos, has witnessed firsthand how health practitioners’ lack of cultural competence can impact the care that people receive.
\n\n\n\n“We have so many people from so many different walks of life and different backgrounds. How do you cater to everyone the best that you can? And we had hoped to improve on that. But changing this I feel like takes away that hope a little bit.”
\n\n\n\nAs students brace for the effects of this newest policy, health professionals say that the administration’s decision could pose a larger issue in health academia’s future.
\n\n\n\n“They are the backbone of our prevention and preparedness infrastructure. Removing public health from the professional degree category fundamentally misunderstands how public health functions in practice,” Magaña said. “This isn’t about labels or academic titles. It’s about whether we continue to recognize, invest in the training pipeline that has protected Americans for generations, and this proposal is coming at exactly the wrong moment.”
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Lauren Nutall","publishDate":"2026-02-17T14:22:38.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Shawnie-Allen.jpeg?w=683","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/student-loan-limits-advanced-nursing-degrees/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-17T18:00:34.780Z"},{"id":"747nd8","slug":"black-men-endured-sexual-exploitation-under-slavery-their-story-is-rarely-told","title":"Black Men Endured Sexual Exploitation Under Slavery. Their Story Is Rarely Told.","excerpt":"Historian Thomas A. Foster discusses his new book Rethinking Rufus: Sexual Violations of Enslaved Men. The post Black Men Endured Sexual Exploitation Under Slavery. Their Story Is Rarely Told. appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"This article was originally published byTruthout , and has only been edited to adhere to Rewire News Group’s style guide.
\n\n\n\nBlack knowledge production, Black self-understanding, and the power of Black people to represent ourselves is under attack, which means that Black identity and Black meaning-making practices are being erased. In The Mis-Education of the Negro, published in 1933, Black historian Carter G. Woodson wrote, “The education of the Negroes, then, the most important thing in the uplift of the Negroes, is almost entirely in the hands of those who have enslaved them and now segregate them.” Woodson is pointing to the assault on Black dignity and Black agency.
\n\n\n\nAlmost 100 years since the publication of Woodson’s indispensable text, the Trump administration has attacked the reality of Black existential dread and pain experienced in this country. In short, the president is attempting to whitewash U.S. history. Just think here of the removal of the Black Lives Matter Plaza and ground mural and the removal of Black history from museums, parks, and monuments . Think specifically of Donald Trump’s attack on the Smithsonian Institution, which he charges with focusing too much on “how horrible our Country is, how bad slavery was.” In his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass , Douglass described the horrible beating of his Aunt Hester as the “blood stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery.” Trump would have us believe that there is something “positive” about the hell of slavery .
\n\n\n\nAs Francine Prose writes , “The point is to create a national identity that mirrors the president’s own view of himself as a model of moral purity, an angelic being who has never made a mistake that merits an apology or even a moment of regret.”The fact of the matter is that Trump’s view of himself is a lie, a case of deep and destructive self-deception.
\n\n\n\nConsidering this systematic attempt to erase Black history and the history of Black pain and horror, I conducted this exclusive interview with Thomas A. Foster, a historian of early American gender and sexuality who is associate dean for faculty affairs and professor of history at Howard University, as well as the author or editor of seven books, including most recently, Rethinking Rufus: Sexual Violations of Enslaved Men how bad slavery was , how pervasively sexually violent it was toward both enslaved Black women and men. It is a history that we must tell, and damned if Trump will control our narrative about our pain and our joy.
\n\n\n\nGeorge Yancy: Just last semester in the fall, I taught a course where I had my students read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass . There is a very revealing description that Douglass provides regarding the white slave breaker, Covey. He is described as a poor white man, but he was able to purchase a Black woman, Caroline. Covey was excited to buy her specifically for the purpose of making her a “breeder,” which means that he had to hire an enslaved Black man to have sex with her. As a result of this forced union, Caroline had twins. Douglass says, “The children were regarded as being quite an addition to his wealth.” I pointed out to my students how Black bodies were exploited to produce more “chattel.” It is clear to me that Caroline was the victim of slavery’s dehumanizing practices, and that any sense of her sexual autonomy was deemed inconsequential. What is not necessarily clear is how the Black enslaved male was also stripped of his sexual autonomy. Both were clearly sexually assaulted by a white supremacist institution.
\n\n\n\nThis made me think about the paucity of work dealing with the sexual assault of enslaved Black men. In your significant historical text, Rethinking Rufus: Sexual Violations of Enslaved Men , you precisely and critically write about Rufus, an enslaved Black man who was forced to have sex with an enslaved Black woman, Rose Williams. In short, your work helps us to explore those cases where Black males were sexually assaulted during slavery. Given the paucity of work in this area, your work is so important and revealing. You recognize this paucity when you write, “But the academy has been slow to produce studies that verify oral traditions that include sexual violence against enslaved men.” Why do you think the academy has been slow in this regard?
\n\n\n\nThomas A. Foster: First, thank you for this opportunity to discuss Rethinking Rufus and for your interest in the book. As we know, historians study the past on its own terms, but the questions we ask about history are always informed by the present. We traditionally work from written sources, have an uneasy relationship with oral traditions and family lore, and the loudest voices in written sources tend to shape which topics are studied first.
\n\n\n\nAt the same time, our country is still working through the legacy of enslavement, and both in source material and in cultural awareness, sexual assault of men remains a poorly understood topic. The rape of men by other men is still frequently treated as a source of derisive humor. The rape of men by women is also deeply fraught. Consider how the legal system and the court of public opinion often view relationship violence perpetrated by women against men, or sexual intimacy between adult women and adolescent boys.
\n\n\n\nThis is not to say that our culture has a firm grip on sexual violence against women. We can see this clearly in the ongoing horrors revealed in the Epstein files and in the hypocrisy that shapes how the legal system and society respond to the sexual assault of Black women. Discourse about rape has deep legal and cultural roots in this country, and yet even today, with all of that awareness, rates of sexual assault remain high, and women and girls must fight for justice despite a legal and cultural apparatus that has existed for generations.
\n\n\n\nGiven all of this, it is not entirely surprising that sexual assault of enslaved Black men has failed to garner sustained scholarly attention. The sexual assault of white men and boys in colonial America and in U.S. history is also understudied.
\n\n\n\nGender roles have long defined sexual assault in ways that obscure an understanding of sexual violations of men. There were no legal protections against the rape of enslaved Black women or enslaved Black men. In both the legal system and the broader culture of colonial America and the early United States, sexual assault was most often framed through the racial and gender ideology of white womanhood, the ability of white men to protect their dependents, and the imagined criminality of perpetrators who were non-white and non-elite.
\n\n\n\nAs a result, sexual assaults committed by white men have also gone largely understudied, especially when scholars rely primarily on legal sources that rarely brought those men to justice. The imbalance in the sources has shaped our historical understandings, and that problem has only been compounded by cultural discomfort—especially when the gender, race, or class of the actors don’t fit familiar scripts.
\n\n\n\nYou argue that abolitionist literature would have intentionally avoided the issue of sexual violence against Black men. Say more about this. Was it fear? What was the white ideology driving such an avoidance narrative?
\n\n\n\nAbolitionists were trying to persuade an audience about the atrocities of slavery and that enslavement was morally repugnant, and they often framed their arguments around concerns that resonated with white northern readers: the sanctity of the family, violations of gender roles such as the male “protector” and the “virtuous” woman, and their political opposition to the South.
\n\n\n\nIn that context, the sexual assault of enslaved Black men was not a particularly effective rhetorical strategy. There was only a very little conceptual framework through which such violence could be understood—no supportive biblical language, no legal recognition, and no widely shared way to imagine men as sexual victims. I don’t know that abolitionists were consciously afraid to address the issue so much as that it was not deemed a topic that would resonate with their intended audience.
\n\n\n\nMore broadly, I would speculate that the sexual assault of men was threatening to patriarchal systems because it holds the potential to expose male vulnerability and destabilize gender hierarchies.
\n\n\n\nIn your book, you cover the important historical work that shows just how brutal slavery was in terms of its economic and libidinal investment in the rape of Black enslaved women. From the example given by Douglass, and what happened to Rufus, however, both Black bodies were subjected to the “breeding” process, and hence both were victims. Elaborate on the process of forcing Black men to be “breeders.” Talk about how this is a manifestation of sexual assault.
\n\n\n\nBlack men and women were expected to produce children because of the financial incentives created by a system that defined the children of enslaved Black women as born into lifelong bondage and as the legal property of the person who enslaved the woman.
\n\n\n\nScholarly attention has rightly focused on the forced reproduction of enslaved Black women, but that focus need not come at the expense of understanding the position of enslaved Black men, who were also denied sexual autonomy, including the ability to choose with whom they would have children. When reproduction is compelled under threat of violence, sale, or punishment, it is a manifestation of sexual assault, even when it is not named as such in the sources.
\n\n\n\nTo begin to take seriously the claim that enslaved Black men were sexually assaulted on plantations, one must confront white supremacist assumptions and myths regarding the so-called “hypersexual Black male.” In your book you write, “In the era of slavery, Anglo-American culture already embraced a message about Black men as particularly sexual, prone to sensual indulgence, and desiring white women.” How does one cut through these myths to even begin to accept the view that Black men can be victims of sexual assault—victims of white male patriarchal oppression?
\n\n\n\nOne place to begin is by listening carefully to the voices of formerly enslaved Black men, as happens in Rethinking Rufus in a chapter that examines the importance of autonomy for enslaved and free Black men within family life and intimate relationships. The WPA Slave Narrative collection and other sources offer glimpses of how Black men resisted, adapted, and attempted to assert control over their intimate lives under extreme constraint.
\n\n\n\nFormerly enslaved Black women also sometimes wrote about violations they witnessed. As scholars have noted, Harriet Jacobs’s autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl , contains an account that strongly suggests the sexual violation of an enslaved Black man by a white man. Jacobs never names the assault explicitly, but her coded language—typical of 19th-century moral discourse—points clearly in that direction. She describes Luke as being chained to his enslaver’s bed and depicts the enslaver as sexually degenerate, engaging in “freaks of despotism” and “of a nature too filthy to be repeated.”
\n\n\n\nI situate this account within a broader discussion of Black men who were enslaved as valets or body servants, a group that one can view as having greater autonomy or improved living conditions than Black men who were forced to labor in fields. Similar to the understanding of field versus house conditions for enslaved women—where field labor provided harsher conditions, but somewhat removed from enslavers, and house labor, which carried the constant scrutiny of enslavers—Black men enslaved as body or man servants placed them within closer proximity to their enslavers, which increased their vulnerability and exposure to sexual scrutiny and likely abuse.
\n\n\n\nIn what ways does your book deal with the issue of rethinking Black male masculinity? I’m thinking about how difficult it would have been to nurture a sense of Black male masculinity under conditions of emasculation. Exposure to sexual assault—to the hegemonic power and sexual whims of white men and white women—had to shape how enslaved Black men understood their masculinity, especially when compared to 19th-century models of manhood that emphasized independence, patriarchal authority, and the ability to protect and provide.
\n\n\n\nMany Black men expressed pride in fathering children and in seeking intimacy with women, especially in moments when some degree of choice or autonomy was possible. In some cases, accounts of forced reproduction—including situations in which enslaved men were rented out to impregnate women on other plantations—were described in relatively positive terms.
\n\n\n\nThose descriptions, however, must be understood within a cultural and legal environment that systematically denigrated Black men and subjected them to wide-ranging violations. Expressions of pride or resilience do not negate coercion. Some men mobilized strategies of endurance to survive being objectified, violated, and controlled. Survival and adaptation should not be mistaken for emotional immunity; many enslaved men likely carried the psychic weight of these violations in ways the archive can only partially reveal.
\n\n\n\nYou state that your text “does not equate the sexual assault of women with that of men.” I would add that sexual assault experienced by Black enslaved men and Black enslaved women should not be seen as a zero-sum situation. Both experienced deep sexual terror. In your view, what has to shift in U.S. culture to avoid the assumption that Black men had it easy—or easier—under slavery when it comes to sexual exploitation, assault, and trauma? I ask this with no intention of downplaying the brutal sexual treatment of Black women.
\n\n\n\nIt requires a willingness to move beyond familiar narratives and to sit with the complexity of what it means to be a victim and what it means to be a perpetrator under slavery.
\n\n\n\nIn Rethinking Rufus , Rose was violated by Rufus and by the man who enslaved them both, who set the assault in motion. She endured pregnancy, likely ongoing violations, and physically punishing labor during pregnancy, which was not uncommon. Rufus was violated by the white man who enslaved them both, by being forced into that situation and used to fulfill the enslaver’s directive. Another example that illustrates multilayered victimhood and vulnerability comes from late 18th-century Maryland, whereby an enslaved Black man was forced at gunpoint to rape a free Black woman. Both were forced to have sexual intercourse by pistol-wielding white men, raising the issue of a definition of rape and sexual assault that until very recently had relied upon penetration and ignored forcing a man to penetrate. Yet one can imagine in the abstract that if you took a case of a woman wielding power to coerce or force a man to penetrate her, most would say that he was indeed sexually violated.
\n\n\n\nTaking the vulnerability of enslaved men seriously also allows us to reread sexual relationships between white women and enslaved men through the lens of power rather than through transhistorical assumptions about desire across the color line. One vivid example in the book comes from a legal case in North Carolina around 1840 involving a white woman and a Black man who lived together. The court focused on property rights after the relationship ended, but neighbors’ testimony revealed the power imbalance, including accounts that when the couple fought, she threatened to sell him.
\n\n\n\nBy focusing on individuals and their lived experiences, we gain a clearer understanding of specific circumstances and of the additional pressures that the sexual vulnerability of enslaved Black men placed on their families and communities. It touched the lives of many others in addition to the men themselves. Thank you again for this opportunity to share a little about Rethinking Rufus.
\n\n\nThe post Black Men Endured Sexual Exploitation Under Slavery. Their Story Is Rarely Told. appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"resilience","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-16T13:59:00.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/52013993773_9bf9940151_k.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/16/black-men-endured-sexual-exploitation-under-slavery-their-story-is-rarely-told/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-16T18:00:21.011Z"},{"id":"ca8b2x","slug":"the-strange-hopefulness-of-growing-a-human-while-the-world-burns","title":"The Strange Hopefulness of Growing a Human While the World Burns","excerpt":"As I write this, I’m in my third trimester, anxious and excited for my daughter’s arrival, which feels imminent. Yes, it’s an extremely dark time, but that’s not exactly a historical outlier. People have been making babies throughout the worst of them.","content":"As I write this, I’m in my third trimester, anxious and excited for my daughter’s arrival, which feels imminent.
\nYes, it’s an extremely dark time, but that’s not exactly a historical outlier. People have been making babies throughout the worst of them. And nothing motivates me more to build a better future for all of us than this little girl—who, like every child, deserves safety, stability, love and care, and a world equipped to give it to her.
\nI can’t wait for her to see it.
\nThe post The Strange Hopefulness of Growing a Human While the World Burns appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Anna Lind-Guzik","publishDate":"2026-02-14T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2162595398.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/14/pregnant-woman-health-trump-fascism/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-14T12:00:19.375Z"},{"id":"ux17a6","slug":"denmarks-generous-childcare-and-parental-leave-policies-erase-80-percent-of-the-motherhood-penalty-f","title":"Denmark’s Generous Childcare and Parental Leave Policies Erase 80 Percent of the ‘Motherhood Penalty’ for Working Moms","excerpt":"For many women in the U.S. and around the world, motherhood comes with career costs. Can government programs that provide financial support to parents offset the \"motherhood penalty\" in earnings? Killewald with Therese Christensen, a Danish sociologist, set out to answer this question for moms in De...","content":"For many women in the U.S. and around the world, motherhood comes with career costs. Can government programs that provide financial support to parents offset the \"motherhood penalty\" in earnings? Killewald with Therese Christensen, a Danish sociologist, set out to answer this question for moms in Denmark, a Scandinavian country with one of the world’s strongest safety nets.
\nIn an article to be published in an upcoming issue of European Sociological Review , Christensen and Killewald show how mothers’ increased income from the state, such as from child benefits and paid parental leave, offset about 80 percent of Danish moms’ average earnings losses.
\nThe post Denmark’s Generous Childcare and Parental Leave Policies Erase 80 Percent of the ‘Motherhood Penalty’ for Working Moms appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Alexandra Killewald","publishDate":"2026-02-13T22:51:19.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1244331211.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/13/childcare-working-women-paid-family-leave-usa-denmark/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-14T00:00:05.109Z"},{"id":"wi1dbj","slug":"how-the-save-act-could-impact-women8217s-participation-in-democracy","title":"How the SAVE Act Could Impact Women's Participation in Democracy","excerpt":"Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S.","content":"Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
\nThis week:
\n... and more.
\nThe post How the SAVE Act Could Impact Women’s Participation in Democracy appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Cynthia Richie Terrell","publishDate":"2026-02-13T22:06:29.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2199641036-3.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/13/how-the-save-act-could-impact-womens-participation-in-democracy/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-14T00:00:05.109Z"},{"id":"sg8zg0","slug":"sundance-2026-the-tea-is-profitable-the-land-is-contested-documentary-8216kikuyu-land8217-tells-the-","title":"Sundance 2026: The Tea Is Profitable. The Land Is Contested. Documentary 'Kikuyu Land' Tells the Story.","excerpt":"The Kikuyu are a tribal people located in the Kenyan highlands—a gorgeous region now dominated by enormous tea plantations, many owned by multinational corporations. As the documentary Kikuyu Land spells out, the farms are owned by wealthy Kenyans and multinational corporations who seem quite capabl...","content":"The Kikuyu are a tribal people located in the Kenyan highlands—a gorgeous region now dominated by enormous tea plantations, many owned by multinational corporations.
\nAs the documentary Kikuyu Land spells out, the farms are owned by wealthy Kenyans and multinational corporations who seem quite capable of hiding their exact provenance. One such corporation: consumer goods behemoth Unilever.
\nAs news of journalists being abducted and people being killed over land disputes filters into the film, Nairobi-based journalist Bea Wangondu tries to track down a representative of Unilever willing to address the allegations against the plantations, going so far as traveling to its headquarters in London. When those efforts fail, she seeks answers in archival records. But, as she digs into her own family and its claims to Kikuyu land, she discovers an upsetting history of complicity and betrayal.
\nThe documentary is a gripping investigation with stakes that are both intimately personal and startlingly global, contrasts the arresting beauty of its geographical setting with the dark underbelly of its secrets.
\n(This is one in a series of film reviews from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, focused on films by women, trans or nonbinary directors that tell compelling stories about the lives of women and girls.)
\nThe post Sundance 2026: The Tea Is Profitable. The Land Is Contested. Documentary ‘Kikuyu Land’ Tells the Story. appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"resilience","author":"Aviva Dove-Viebahn","publishDate":"2026-02-13T18:21:29.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Kikuyu_Land-Still_1-scaled.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/13/sundance-tea-plantations-kenya-unilever-documentary-kikuyu-land/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-14T00:00:05.109Z"},{"id":"tsml13","slug":"what-meetings-among-trump-lawyers-reveal-about-the-fbis-seizure-of-election-records-in-georgia","title":"What Meetings Among Trump Lawyers Reveal About the FBI’s Seizure of Election Records in Georgia","excerpt":"The post What Meetings Among Trump Lawyers Reveal About the FBI’s Seizure of Election Records in Georgia appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"The Missouri prosecutor overseeing an investigation into the 2020 vote in Fulton County, Georgia, has taken part in meetings since last fall with lawyers tasked by President Donald Trump to reinvestigate his loss to Joe Biden.
\n\n\n\nThomas Albus, whom Trump appointed last year as U.S. attorney for Missouri’s Eastern District, has had multiple meetings set up with top administration lawyers to discuss election integrity.
\n\n\n\nAt those meetings was Ed Martin, a Justice Department lawyer who until recently led a group investigating what the president has described as the department’s “weaponization” against him and his allies, according to a source familiar with the meetings who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
\n\n\n\nWhite House lawyer Kurt Olsen, who has been tasked with reinvestigating the 2020 election, also was directed to join at least one of the meetings, according to the source. Both Martin and Olsen worked on behalf of Trump to try to overturn the 2020 election results, and a federal court sanctioned Olsen for making false claims about the reliability of voting machines in Arizona.
\n\n\n\nThe meetings reveal new details about the length of the preparations for, and people involved in, the January FBI raid on Fulton County, which election and legal experts told ProPublica was a significant escalation in Trump’s breaking of democratic norms.
\n\n\n\nU.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi picked Albus and has granted him special authority to handle election-related cases nationwide, even though his earlier work as a federal prosecutor didn’t involve election law or election-related cases. The meetings with Martin, Olsen and other lawyers for the Justice Department were described by the source as being about “election integrity,” a term the Trump administration has used to describe investigations into its false claims that elections are rigged.
\n\n\n\nMartin, Olsen, Albus and others declined to answer questions about the meetings and other detailed questions from ProPublica. The White House and the Justice Department also did not respond to questions.
\n\n\n\nThe meetings came at a particularly crucial time.
\n\n\n\nMartin’s efforts to obtain election materials from Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold, had hit a wall. In August, he sent a letter demanding that a Fulton County judge allow him to access tens of thousands of absentee ballots for “an investigation into election integrity here at the Department of Justice,” but he had reportedly received no reply .
\n\n\n\nMartin explained to Steve Bannon on a podcast that aired around the time of the meetings that although the White House had given Olsen the official mandate to reinvestigate the 2020 election, “inside DOJ, myself and a couple of others have been working also on the same topic” — including getting the Fulton County ballots. But Martin described progress as a “challenge.”
\n\n\n\nBannon, who served as Trump’s chief strategist in his first term, asked why Martin didn’t just “get some U.S. marshals to go down and seize” the ballots.
\n\n\n\nMartin suggested it was easier said than done, but agreed: “Look, we’ve got to get” the ballots.
\n\n\n\nEd Martin posted a photo from his meeting with Thomas Albus in Washington, D.C., on social media. Via X Before long, Albus and Olsen were interviewing witnesses for their case. Kevin Moncla, a conservative researcher, told ProPublica that he spoke to Albus and Olsen a couple of times, both together and separately, around the turn of the year. He identified himself as Witness 7 in the affidavit that persuaded a judge to sign off on the raid, and the affidavit mentions a 263-page report he authored that activists believe may have justified the raid, ProPublica has reported . Moncla has a long history of working with Olsen, dating back to an attempt by Kari Lake , a Republican candidate for governor in Arizona, to overturn her 2022 loss.
\n\n\n\nJust a few weeks after those interviews, in late January, Albus was listed as the government attorney on the search warrant that authorized the seizure of roughly 700 boxes of election material in Georgia, far outside of Albus’ usual jurisdiction.
\n\n\n\nFormer U.S. attorneys from both parties said it was rare for a federal prosecutor from one region to take on cases in other states or be granted the nationwide authority Albus has been given.
\n\n\n\nUnder Trump, senior roles across the White House, DOJ and FBI have increasingly been filled by a small, interconnected group of Missouri lawyers with longstanding ties to one another.
\n\n\n\nAnother top federal official in the meetings was Jesus Osete, the principal deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights . Before joining the Justice Department, Osete worked in the Missouri attorney general’s office, where he represented the state in at least five lawsuits against the Biden administration regarding vaccine mandates, immigration and other policies. Osete did not respond to requests for comment or to a detailed list of questions.
\n\n\n\nWhen the FBI raided Fulton County’s election center, Andrew Bailey, another lawyer from the same political circles, was in charge . Before joining the FBI as deputy director, he had used his position as Missouri’s attorney general to pursue high-profile cases against prominent Democrats and said he supported all efforts to investigate Biden , his family and his administration.
\n\n\n\nA spokesperson for the FBI declined to answer detailed questions about Bailey.
\n\n\n\nLast year, Roger Keller, a veteran federal prosecutor from Albus’ office, was brought in to help prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James for alleged mortgage fraud in Virginia after the original career prosecutors on the case were replaced by political appointees. After a judge dismissed the case, two federal grand juries declined to indict James again, and Keller returned to Missouri.
\n\n\n\nTrump’s solicitor general, D. John Sauer, previously served as Missouri’s solicitor general under state attorneys general Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt. He and Schmitt signed Missouri’s amicus brief supporting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Sauer later represented Trump in his presidential-immunity case, successfully arguing before the Supreme Court that Trump was entitled to broad immunity from prosecution.
\n\n\n\nAlbus’ connection to the other Missouri lawyers goes back decades. Unlike some of the others, though, he has never held elected office or had a high public profile, nor has he waged culture-war campaigns like Bailey or Martin. Instead, he spent most of his career as a federal prosecutor and as a judge in a Missouri state circuit court.
\n\n\n\nEmails show Albus exchanging brief messages with Martin in 2007, when Albus was an assistant U.S. attorney in St. Louis and Martin was chief of staff to then-Gov. Matt Blunt. The emails were part of records from the Blunt administration that became public after being released under Missouri’s Sunshine Law.
\n\n\n\nIn the email exchange, Albus put in a good word for a St. Louis lawyer who was a finalist for an appellate court judgeship, and Blunt ultimately selected that candidate.
\n\n\n\nAlbus served as first assistant to Schmitt from early 2019 until Albus was appointed by Gov. Mike Parson to fill a circuit court judge vacancy in early 2020. Schmitt, now a U.S. senator, praised Albus as “one of the finest prosecutors I have ever met” when endorsing his nomination for U.S. attorney in December.
\n\n\n\nLawyers who appeared in Albus’ court rated him as well prepared, professional and attentive, according to Missouri judicial performance reviews. They said he followed the evidence, applied the law correctly and gave clear reasons for his rulings.
\n\n\n\nAlbus came under more critical scrutiny after Trump named him interim U.S. attorney last summer. Much of that attention centered on a fraud case he inherited when he took office. Prosecutors alleged that developers in St. Louis falsely claimed to be using minority- and women-owned subcontractors to qualify for city tax breaks, conduct the Justice Department has historically treated as wire fraud.
\n\n\n\nOne of the defendants was represented by lawyer Brad Bondi, the brother of Pam Bondi.
\n\n\n\nThe developers’ lawyers argued that even if the government’s claims were true, they were legally irrelevant because the Trump administration had taken the position that tax breaks based on race or gender were unlawful. Albus accepted those arguments and dropped the case . As part of the resolution, Albus personally hand-delivered to City Hall a check of about $1 million from one of the developers’ companies as restitution. He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he intervened “to make it clear” his office wanted to drop charges and hand-delivered the check “to make sure they got it.”
\n\n\n\nIn a letter to Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Congressional Democrats said the dismissal of the St. Louis case and other cases in which the Justice Department intervened on behalf of Brad Bondi’s clients raised “significant broader ethical concerns .” In the St. Louis case, and in a separate matter involving another Brad Bondi client whose charges were dropped, a Justice Department spokesperson said Pam Bondi’s relationship with her brother had “no bearing on the outcome .”
\n\n\n\nA spokesperson for the developers said their lawyers communicated only with the U.S. attorney’s office in St. Louis about the case and had no direct contact with Pam Bondi. He said the dismissal reflected “a recognition that this case should never have been brought in the first place.” Brad Bondi did not respond to a request for comment.
\n\n\n\nWeeks later, around the time of Albus’ meetings about election integrity, he posed with Martin in Martin’s office, flanked by a framed photo of Trump and a copy of “A Choice, Not an Echo,” the influential conservative manifesto by Phyllis Schlafly arguing that Republican voters were being manipulated by party elites and the media.
\n\n\n\nMartin posted the photo on X with the caption, “Good morning, America. How are ya’?”
\nThe post What Meetings Among Trump Lawyers Reveal About the FBI’s Seizure of Election Records in Georgia appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"activism","author":"Doug Bock Clark","publishDate":"2026-02-13T16:50:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/EdMartinTwitter_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?w=527","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/thomas-albus-fulton-county-georgia-election-records","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-13T18:00:38.796Z"},{"id":"uykoao","slug":"pregnant-immigrant-teens-in-detention-face-potentially-unsafe-conditions-in-texas-shelter","title":"Pregnant Immigrant Teens in Detention Face Potentially Unsafe Conditions in Texas Shelter","excerpt":"Plus: The Pride flag rises again over Stonewall and California reproductive clinics get cash influx from state. The post Pregnant Immigrant Teens in Detention Face Potentially Unsafe Conditions in Texas Shelter appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"Each week, Rewire News Group editors scour headlines nationwide—from lawsuits over abortion access to LGBTQ+ rights—to bring you the most urgent news in reproductive justice. Here’s this week’s latest.
\n\n\n\nNew York City \n\n\n\nOfficials reinstalled the Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument after a Trump administration directive forced its removal this week. A White House memo had stated that the National Park Service can only fly approved flags at its sites. In response, the city council passed a resolution that urged Congress to respect the history of Stonewall. Hours later, officials returned the Pride flag to the mast. “The flag is up,” Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the Manhattan borough president, said. “The community should rejoice.”
\n\n\n\nSan Benito, Texas \n\n\n\nMore than a dozen pregnant, unaccompanied minors have been sent to a south Texas immigration shelter that is not equipped to take care of them, according to new reporting from Houston Public Media . Advocates fear the teens were put there because of the state’s near-total abortion ban. “Putting pregnant kids in San Benito is not a decision you make when you care about children’s safety,” one official told the publication. At least half of the pregnancies reportedly resulted from rape. Some of the pregnant children are only 13.
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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\n
Sacramento Planned Parenthood will get a cash infusion after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill this week allocating $90 million in emergency funds to it and other reproductive health-care providers. Planned Parenthood lost nearly all federal funding last July after being barred from receiving Medicaid payments; 23 of its clinics have since closed. It dropped a suit over the lost funding last week. Newsom said it was “a point of pride” for him to “address these assaults and attacks on women.”
\n\n\n\nThis news roundup first appeared in our newsletter, Rewire Weekly. Sign up here to get the latest reproductive rights news, expert analysis, and a peek into the RNG newsroom—fresh to your inbox.
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\n\n\nThe post Pregnant Immigrant Teens in Detention Face Potentially Unsafe Conditions in Texas Shelter appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-13T14:49:08.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/ReproRoundupPhoto-2_02.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/13/stonewall-trump-california-planned-parentood-texas/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-13T18:00:37.253Z"},{"id":"oqlo6d","slug":"the-next-phase-of-the-abortion-wars-targeting-pills-helpers-and-patients","title":"The Next Phase of the Abortion Wars: Targeting Pills, Helpers and Patients","excerpt":"2025 and the start of Trump’s second term marked major blows for reproductive healthcare. Medicaid funding cuts forced about 50 Planned Parenthood clinics to close throughout the U.S. and blocked 1.1 million Planned Parenthood patients on Medicaid from using their insurance to pay for reproductive h...","content":"2025 and the start of Trump’s second term marked major blows for reproductive healthcare. Medicaid funding cuts forced about 50 Planned Parenthood clinics to close throughout the U.S. and blocked 1.1 million Planned Parenthood patients on Medicaid from using their insurance to pay for reproductive healthcare. Twenty-three independent abortion clinics throughout the country also shut down in 2025, according to Abortion Care Network’s annual report.
\nLast year also saw some new, troubling trends in state-level reproductive healthcare policies, including restrictions on medication abortion and shield laws and criminalization for people who help patients access abortions.
\nIn 2025, Guttmacher tracked 841 legal provisions introduced throughout the U.S. that would restrict access to sexual and reproductive healthcare. Of these, 70 were enacted—many attacking abortion pills and other channels for abortion access that have managed to survive post-Roe v. Wade. Now, in the fourth year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe with the Dobbs decision, here are some of the key ways states are pushing harder than ever to end any access to abortion.
\nThe post The Next Phase of the Abortion Wars: Targeting Pills, Helpers and Patients appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Ava Slocum","publishDate":"2026-02-12T22:24:31.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1241901729.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/12/abortion-bans-pills-state-shield-laws-fetal-personhood/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-13T00:00:35.547Z"},{"id":"ehrx4r","slug":"the-pathetic-price-of-entry-to-epsteins-world","title":"The Pathetic Price of Entry to Epstein’s World","excerpt":"The latest batch of Epstein files—over 3 million documents, only around half of what the Department of Justice reports to have amassed—has unleashed a new cast of characters, a list that includes tech titans, health influencers, litigation rainmakers, university leaders, sports executives, Hollywood...","content":"The latest batch of Epstein files—over 3 million documents, only around half of what the Department of Justice reports to have amassed—has unleashed a new cast of characters, a list that includes tech titans, health influencers, litigation rainmakers, university leaders, sports executives, Hollywood moguls and international royalty. None of the those named in the latest tranche of Epstein files strike me as people I ever assumed possessed particularly stellar moral character, and their collective fall from grace doesn’t shock me.
\nBut what does turn my stomach is how pathetically small the price of entry into Epstein’s world appears to have been.
\nThe expressions of regret now surfacing—I am ashamed, this is not who I am!—read less like moral reckonings and more like the lament of those who simply got caught.
\nThe emails reveal a tawdry economy of access: absurd favors, crude jokes, dating advice, shared handwringing about #MeToo, and giddy acceptance of gifts—Apple Watches, Prada bags, monogrammed sweatshirts—that these already powerful figures could easily have bought themselves.
\nWhether any individual named in the files participated in or witnessed Epstein’s crimes is only part of the story. Just as telling is the desperate desire to remain in his orbit—often long after his 2008 guilty plea for soliciting prostitution from girls.
\nThat eagerness to maintain proximity, for so little in return, speaks volumes about how power protects itself—and what too many were willing to overlook to stay connected to it.
\nThe post The Pathetic Price of Entry to Epstein’s World appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Jennifer Weiss-Wolf","publishDate":"2026-02-12T21:27:11.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2261086848.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/12/epstein-emails-trump-petter-attia-doctors/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-13T00:00:35.547Z"},{"id":"pa7ylm","slug":"in-serbia-women-journalists-say-death-threats-have-become-routine","title":"In Serbia, Women Journalists Say Death Threats Have Become Routine","excerpt":"In 2019, Jovana Gligorijević wrote a damning profile of a Serbian influencer who had connections to political power players and alleged criminal networks. Gligorijević works at Vreme , an independent news magazine founded in 1990 by intellectuals and activists fighting state censorship.","content":"In 2019, Jovana Gligorijević wrote a damning profile of a Serbian influencer who had connections to political power players and alleged criminal networks.
\nGligorijević works at Vreme , an independent news magazine founded in 1990 by intellectuals and activists fighting state censorship. Aside from her political reportage, she’s covered stories on sexual violence and, specifically, how Serbia’s judiciary treats rape victims. She notes wryly that in her experience, “when you report on politics and human rights, sooner or later you come across the far right as the root cause of the problem.”
\nOther independent women journalists like Gligorijević that are critical of the Serbian government face sexual insults, threats of lawsuits, surveillance, smear campaigns and online rage.
\nThe post In Serbia, Women Journalists Say Death Threats Have Become Routine appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Elizabeth Zach","publishDate":"2026-02-12T19:35:28.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/IMG_20190519_173449-e1560521722365.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/12/serbia-women-journalists/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-13T00:00:35.547Z"},{"id":"bxa1xr","slug":"whos-american-whose-america-bad-bunnys-radical-halftime-message","title":"Who’s American? Whose America? Bad Bunny’s Radical Halftime Message","excerpt":"Thirteen minutes is how long it lasted, and global superstar Bad Bunny—full name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio—more than delivered. Set against pulsating Afro-Latin rhythms and brimming with the energetic dancing bodies of Black, Brown and other multicolored peoples, the 2026 Super Bowl halftime sh...","content":"Thirteen minutes is how long it lasted, and global superstar Bad Bunny—full name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio—more than delivered. Set against pulsating Afro-Latin rhythms and brimming with the energetic dancing bodies of Black, Brown and other multicolored peoples, the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show transformed this historic moment of the first all-Spanish musical spectacle into a cultural reset. Now counted among the most watched halftime performances—with close to 130 million views—the Super Bowl was rightfully renamed the “Benito Bowl.”
\nBad Bunny’s performance came just one week after he made history as the first artist recording exclusively in Spanish to win the Grammy’s top honor for Album of the Year. It arrived, too, amid escalating violence tied to ICE enforcement and the policing and deportation of Brown and Black communities. At a moment when the U.S. president is railing against diversity, equity and inclusion—and circulating virulently racist content targeting his predecessor and the nation’s first Black president and first lady during Black History Month—the cultural resonance of this halftime show feels all the more potent.
\nBad Bunny’s dynamic performance is an affirmation of the same communities currently terrorized by state-sanctioned violence. At rallies and marches, people play Bad Bunny. In moments of grief and passion, people play Bad Bunny. His refusal to be silenced, to be forgotten, is an inspiration of hope and resilience for social movements. His music is music of the revolution, which was spectacularly televised in the middle of a widely watched football game.
\nThe post Who’s American? Whose America? Bad Bunny’s Radical Halftime Message appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Simone Jacques","publishDate":"2026-02-12T18:30:14.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Untitled-design-copy.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/12/bad-bunny-trump-michele-barack-obama-video-racist-america/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-13T00:00:35.547Z"},{"id":"s3wnfc","slug":"data-for-democracy-the-essential-role-of-guttmacher-evidence-post-roe","title":"Data for Democracy: The Essential Role of Guttmacher Evidence Post-Roe","excerpt":"Data for Democracy: The Essential Role of Guttmacher Evidence Post-Roe sramashwar February 12, 2026 Guttmacher Statement at the 57th Session of the UN Commission on Population and Development (CPD57)
sramashwar February 12, 2026 Guttmacher celebrates partnership at ICFP2025
sramashwar February 12, 2026 Guttmacher expert Kelly Baden debunks anti-abortion myths
sramashwar February 12, 2026 Guttmacher expert Kelly Baden on evidence-informed policies advance reproductive freedom
sramashwar February 12, 2026 Pregnant immigrants in Minnesota have been postponing their abortions, skipping aftercare, and delaying birth control visits and urgent cancer screening follow-ups to avoid coming in contact with federal immigration agents. \n\n\n\n
Medical providers say the federal operation — which the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest-ever immigration enforcement raid — has cut off access to time-sensitive reproductive health care, delays that can result in more complicated and expensive care. Border czar Tom Homan announced Thursday that the operation — now in its third month — is coming to a close, saying that only a “small footprint” will remain in the state.
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Since December 1, Planned Parenthood clinics in Minnesota have seen their no-show rate increase by about 8.2 percent, a notable increase that the organization attributes to the prolonged federal offensive, said Ruth Richardson, CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, which operates health centers in Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska.
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“There is just a tremendous sense of fear in this moment,” Richardson said. Planned Parenthood staff said it was the largest no-show spike they could identify in recent years.
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Disproportionately, patients who have skipped or canceled appointments are those scheduled for family planning services, an umbrella category including contraception, wellness visits, cancer screening and testing for sexually transmitted infections, per data shared by Planned Parenthood.
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But increased cancellations are happening across the board — including with some patients in their first trimester of pregnancy, said Dr. Sarah Traxler, the organization’s chief medical officer. Though abortion is safe, it becomes more complicated — and more expensive — as a pregnancy progresses, particularly through the second trimester.
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“It’s always best if someone knows they want an abortion to come in and do it when they’re ready,” Traxler said. “The longer they delay, the harder the procedure will be for them.”
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The Trump administration has rescinded a Biden-era policy that barred immigration officials from targeting health care providers, opening the door to raids conducted at or near medical centers. Immigration agents have been in “close proximity” to Planned Parenthood affiliates and have briefly come to one of the organization’s health centers, Richardson said. Whole Woman’s Health, another abortion provider, has not seen immigration agents on site, but is located near apartment buildings that have been targeted by federal officials.
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“Everyone is concerned. Our patients are concerned. Our staff is also concerned,” Richardson said.
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Patients at Planned Parenthood, which has clinics in Minneapolis and St. Paul, have also been nervous about coming in for follow-up visits after their abortions, Traxler said, including visits to confirm the abortion was successful.
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Complications from abortion are very rare, and the failure rate is low. But patients who receive medication abortions can experience excessive bleeding or infection, the latter of which can be caused when the body fails to expel all parts of an embryo or fetus.
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“Those usually can be treated on an outpatient basis, but if the treatment is prolonged, they can become life-threatening,” Traxler said.
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Another Minnesota organization has noticed a possible decline in who is seeking abortions. Our Justice, a local abortion fund, has received fewer requests for funding, a change that leaders attribute to the climate of fear sparked by the federal operation, said executive director Shayla Walker. This January, 82 people requested money to help cover the costs of abortion, she said. That number was 131 in January 2025.
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Abortion providers in the area have emphasized medical options that don’t require people to leave their homes. Planned Parenthood and Whole Woman’s Health, another abortion provider, are both highlighting telehealth abortion. Patients in their first trimester can have abortion medications mailed to them, which they can safely take from home. Whole Woman’s Health is sharing information about mail-delivery options for abortion pills, contraception and pregnancy tests through local mutual aid websites, which have also been used in the Twin Cities to coordinate services such as food donations, legal assistance and rental support.
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“That is a really safe option for people who are homebound,” said Amy Hagstrom Miller, who runs Whole Woman’s Health. “People don’t always know it’s an option.”
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Still, it’s not a viable alternative for everyone. People in the second trimester of pregnancy require an in-person procedure if they want to terminate their pregnancies. The medication option resembles the experience of a miscarriage, and some patients may feel more comfortable ending their pregnancies with an in-person procedure. For people who want to keep their abortions private, or who aren’t safe telling their partners they are seeking an abortion, receiving pills in the mail to take from home can pose a safety risk.
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Traxler also pointed to other time-sensitive reproductive services Planned Parenthood provides — specifically, cervical cancer screenings — that can’t be done at home.
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She described two patients in need of cervical cancer follow-ups have been unwilling to come in for care, citing concerns about ICE. Both had “high grade abnormalities” after diagnostic screenings, results that suggest a serious risk of cancer, and that require a detailed, in-person evaluation.
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“This is not something that waits for ICE,” she said. “Usually we don’t have a lot of urgency around cervical cancer screening, but with these patients it’s pretty critical, and we cannot get them to come in.”
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Clinic escorts — the volunteers who guide patients from their cars to the clinic, shielding them from anti-abortion protesters — have received training in how to protect patients from immigration agents, including when to involve the organization’s legal team, and how to recognize a proper search warrant.
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With fewer people seeking abortions, the abortion fund Our Justice has shifted to emphasize other offerings. That has included raising funds to distribute menstrual pads and diapers, coordinating rent support for people who feel unsafe going into work, and in one case, trying to cover medical expenses for a pregnant client who delayed prenatal care because she was worried about encountering immigration officials, and who then required an emergency room visit.
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“We’ve always been trying to figure out ways to respond to the needs of the community,” Walker said.
","category":"choice","author":"Shefali Luthra","publishDate":"2026-02-12T16:06:39.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/ICE_planned_parenthood.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/abortion-patients-minnesota-ice/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-12T18:00:39.894Z"},{"id":"qidnt","archiveId":"3r8sqg","slug":"not-for-ogling-forget-titian-botticelli-and-the-male-fantasists-only-women-can-paint-great-female-nu","title":"‘Not for ogling’: forget Titian, Botticelli and the male fantasists – only women can paint great female nudes","excerpt":"
From Yoko Ono to Frida Kahlo, from Louise Bourgeois to Artemisia Gentileschi, women have long been capturing the unvarnished truth about their own bodies – and that’s why my novel Female, Nude weaves them into the plot
‘If you want to paint, put your clothes back on!” That was how Carolee S...","content":"<p>From Yoko Ono to Frida Kahlo, from Louise Bourgeois to Artemisia Gentileschi, women have long been capturing the unvarnished truth about their own bodies – and that’s why my novel Female, Nude weaves them into the plot</p><p>‘If you want to paint, put your clothes back on!” That was how Carolee Schneemann summarised the critical response to her 1975 performance piece Interior Scroll, which she had performed nude standing on a gallery table. After making a series of life model poses, she removed a scroll from her vagina and began to read her manifesto. In doing so, Schneemann asked an important question: “What does it mean for a female artist to be both the artist and the life model?” Or as she put it: “Both image and image-maker?”</p><p>The female nude, as depicted and objectified by the male artist, has dominated western art for centuries. Despite decades of feminist efforts, that interaction between the great male genius and his female model – sometimes muse – remains a subject of perennial fascination. To enter a gallery, or to open a university textbook, is to be confronted with a parade of idealised naked females by male artists from Rubens, Titian and Botticelli to Picasso and De Kooning.</p> <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/feb/12/female-nude-self-portraits-women-yoko-ono-frida-kahlo-gentileschi-titian-botticelli\">Continue reading...</a>","category":"equality","author":"Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett","publishDate":"2026-02-12T14:27:30.000Z","image":"https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fba7113fe678d4064e2cacd1aabb75c9fb13624f/0_58_1759_1406/master/1759.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=195ca7be2655dc01b319005453d55d4e","source":"The Guardian Women","sourceUrl":"https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/feb/12/female-nude-self-portraits-women-yoko-ono-frida-kahlo-gentileschi-titian-botticelli","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:50.595Z"},{"id":"ls59hs","slug":"measles-is-spreading-in-south-carolina-could-it-make-people-vote-for-a-pediatrician","title":"Measles is spreading in South Carolina. Could it make people vote for a pediatrician?","excerpt":"In mid-December, Dr. Annie Andrews turned on her camera to record. The pediatrician — among a growing cohort of medical professionals who use social media to break down health care news and misinformation — had a public service announcement.","content":"
In mid-December, Dr. Annie Andrews turned on her camera to record. The pediatrician — among a growing cohort of medical professionals who use social media to break down health care news and misinformation — had a public service announcement.
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“As the entire country is aware, we have a measles outbreak in the upstate of South Carolina,” Andrews said. At the time, there had been over 120 cases of the highly contagious disease in the state, where she and her three school-aged children reside.
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Andrews noted that the vaccine available to prevent measles — known as the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine — is incredibly safe and effective . She offered practical advice for adults who might want to check if their measles immunity had waned. And she cautioned people to be extra mindful amid holiday travel.
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“Please stay home if you have a fever, stay home if you have obvious cold symptoms like a cough and a runny nose,” she said. “Certainly stay home if you have a rash along with that fever. Protect your loved ones and do what you can to stop the spread of measles here in South Carolina and in the other parts of the country where it is currently spreading.”
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Her video ended with an image promoting her campaign for the U.S. Senate.
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“I never in a million years, when I was in medical school, thought that I would be running for the U.S. Senate and also talking about measles nearly every single day,” Andrews told The 19th.
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A growing measles outbreak — since start of the year, more than 700 cases have been reported in the United States, with South Carolina being the epicenter — has become a cornerstone of Andrews’ messaging for her campaign , which she balances while working at a children’s hospital and parenting.
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And Andrews suspects that mothers are paying close attention to her campaign. She calls mothers of school-aged children her most loyal base of supporters. They leave positive messages on social media, stop her after campaign events and while she’s shopping at the grocery store.
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“As we see our children under constant threats — whether it’s from the gun violence epidemic or now sort of the politicization of HHS and vaccine recommendations — moms have had enough and they’re fighting back,” she said. “I think I’m tapping into something here in South Carolina and across the country. Moms who just get that ‘mama bear’ instinct — and now they understand that politics is a really important way to fight back and protect their kids.”
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The Democrat faces an uphill battle as she challenges Sen. Lindsey Graham, a four-term Republican incumbent who’s held the seat for more than 20 years. While Andrews outraised Graham in the third and fourth quarters of 2025 and polling indicates a close race , the senator has more cash-on-hand to spend. Both candidates are heavily favored to win their primaries in June.
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Andrews first ran unsuccessfully for Congress against Republican Rep. Nancy Mace in the 2022 midterm election. Mace easily won, capturing more than 56 percent of the vote over Andrews’ 42 percent in a race that centered health care and abortion . After her last congressional bid, Andrews did not plan to run again.
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Then Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as health secretary.
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“The fact that it is 2026 and here I am in South Carolina, where we are in the midst of a measles outbreak because of disinformation and conspiracy theories spread by people like RFK Jr. — is just really mind-blowing to me as a health care professional, as a physician, as a clinical researcher,” she said. “And so it really was the reason I decided to get in this race.”
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Andrews connects Kennedy’s actions on vaccines — his department has made several changes to the childhood vaccine schedule , including cutting the number of recommended universal shots , to senators like Graham in part by noting their critical confirmation votes. A spokesperson for Graham did not respond to a request for comment about the senator’s stance on the measles outbreak in his home state. A review of recent public news releases on Graham’s Senate website does not appear to address the topic.
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But Andrews’ campaign also focuses on health concerns more broadly: Andrews believes the political headwinds are shifting. Republicans, who control Congress, last year enacted massive budget cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP , and they allowed enhanced subsidies that helped people afford insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act to lapse, sending premiums skyrocketing.
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“South Carolina has a lot of health care deserts, folks who live in rural areas, who have to drive many, many miles and cross county lines to reach a hospital system and an emergency department and maternity care,” she said. “All of that is going to be made so much worse because of what we’ve seen from this Trump administration — of course, enabled and supported by Lindsey Graham.”
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Andrews is tapping into a topic with massive implications on public health, said Shaughnessy Naughton, president of 314 Action, a political action committee that tries to elect Democrats with a STEM background to office and has endorsed Andrews. Before the record-setting cases in 2025, the United States had averaged 180 cases of measles annually since 2000, when the disease was declared eliminated. Four times as many cases have been reported this year and the United States is on the brink of losing its elimination status.
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Andrews is running for the U.S. Senate while continuing her work at a children’s hospital, where she says treating patients “reminds me of all the reasons I’ve sacrificed so much to run for office.”\n (REBEKAH HULLIHEN/Annie Andrews Campaign) \n\n\n\n
“As a pediatrician in kind of ground zero of the measles outbreak in South Carolina, she is a voice of real credibility and authority,” Naughton said.
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Doctors and health care professionals have increasingly declared candidacies ahead of the midterms, according to 314 Action. Last November, the group endorsed and supported 148 candidates in races that included seats in New Jersey and Virginia — 108 won.
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314 Action launched a new recruitment campaign last year aimed at electing more doctors, nurses and public health experts to state and federal offices. It has received 200 applications from doctors interested in running, according to Naughton.
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“Americans overwhelmingly support childhood vaccines that have been shown to be effective and safe. Americans wanted the ACA subsidies to be extended so they could continue to purchase health insurance to keep their family safe and healthy,” she said. “You couple it with a cut to public health and research that provides future hope for people and cures — it’s just an administration that is not listening to what Americans want.”
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Kayla Hancock is director of Public Health Watch, a health-focused communications initiative from the health care advocacy group Protect Our Care. She said the Trump administration’s health policies — led in part by Kennedy — have forced the electorate to pay attention. Recent public polling shows 75 percent of voters say the cost of health care will impact how they vote in the midterms.
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“Every day, the consequences of the Trump administration’s policies around health and public health are mounting,” she said. “Between disruptive vaccine development and now deadly outbreaks of diseases that we had previously had under control, and then, of course, shattering research programs .”
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Andrews is running for office while commuting between Charleston, where her children attend public school and she co-parents with her ex-spouse, and Washington, D.C, where she works at a children’s hospital. She said going back and forth between these two worlds — the campaign trail and her job as a doctor — has grounded her candidacy.
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“I’m taking care of kids who are struggling with food insecurity. Kids who have asthma and live in a home with mold on the walls and can’t afford to move to a different apartment. Kids whose parents can’t afford their prescription drugs. Kids who can’t access mental health resources in their community, and kids who have a past medical history of gunshot wounds, which is really only something you see in America,” she said. “It reminds me of all the reasons I’ve sacrificed so much to run for office. Because these problems are so urgent.”
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Andrews’ campaign platform extends beyond health care. Through her lens as a parent, she talks about addressing gun violence, making groceries more affordable for families and restoring federal abortion rights.
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Still, disease prevention has been a central issue for her. Even before the outbreak in South Carolina, Andrews featured an X-ray of a kid with measles pneumonia in her campaign launch ad last May and noted the condition could be prevented by vaccines. It’s a point she often brings up now both online and on the campaign trail, partially because the outbreak in her state has worsened since her December PSA: As of early February, cases in the state have jumped to more than 900 since last fall , mostly involving children 17 and under.
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More than 240 cases involve children under the age of 5, some of the most vulnerable to infection since children under the age of 1 are typically too young to get the MMR vaccine. Most of the infections reported were among people not vaccinated.
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The consequences to children only crystallize Andrews’ decision to run. She pointed out that while doctors have served in the Senate, a pediatrician has never been elected into the centuries-old chamber. (Rep. Kim Schrier of Washington state, a Democrat elected in 2018, is the first pediatrician in the U.S. House .)
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This week, Andrews added an FAQ page on her campaign site focused on measles and related resources for parents.
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“There’s never been a more important time for people who have an understanding of our health care system and basic medical principles to be in the room where decisions about our health care system — decisions about the public health guidance that is coming out of the federal government — are being made,” Andrews said.
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Barbara Rodriguez","publishDate":"2026-02-12T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Annie-Andrews_2.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/annie-andrews-south-carolina-measles-pediatrician-senate/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-12T18:00:39.894Z"},{"id":"ju68gw","slug":"why-i-masturbate-on-valentines-day","title":"Why I Masturbate on Valentine’s Day","excerpt":"A guaranteed orgasm is better than waiting for a box of chocolates that may never arrive. The post Why I Masturbate on Valentine’s Day appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
Valentine’s Day is supposed to be a romantic holiday—but in my experience, it frequently inspires feelings of desperation, inadequacy, and loneliness.
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Whether you’re single or in that vaguely-erotic-and-amorous-yet-poorly-defined dynamic with someone we like to call a situationship, Valentine’s Day is a time where people who are expecting big romantic gestures, bouquets, and dates can become keenly aware of the lack of flower deliveries at their door.
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Instead of spending this Feb. 14 feeling sorry for yourself, envying the relationships of others, or planning an anti-Valentine’s Day celebration with your gal pals, spend the evening doing something healthier and more obviously pleasant: masturbating!
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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Masturbation for stressful times \n\n\n\n
I force myself to be completely unproductive for one day every week: no catching up on posters for my graphic design gig, no freelance emails to my managers about the podcast I’m editing, no work on my novel, no writing this column. I recently woke up on one such day feeling sort of aimless and vaguely horny, unmoored by the lack of work.
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I pulled out my phone on my couch and started to assume the classic posture of a singleton at 9 a.m. on a Saturday: one hand poised on my crotch while the other one went searching for internet pornography to mindlessly masturbate to.
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But, I decided I deserve better. Why jerk off mindlessly on the couch when I could roll out the red carpet for myself?
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I set the mood with the psychedelic rock playlist I usually play during hookups, pulled out all my lubes—from my trusty jar of Boy Butter to the tube of emergency AstroGlide usually lost under my bed—and dusted off my robotic blowjob machine and my dildo.
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I truly showed up for myself that day, and all by myself, I achieved the kind of full-body orgasm that I usually associate with a particularly good lay. I was equally surprised by both the fact that I could do that and the fact that I don’t do that more often.
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In stressful times like these, we’re all in desperate need of relief. Masturbation is a great release valve—and yes, I come wielding the science to prove it!
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Masturbating releases several hormones related to your brain’s reward system, like dopamine. It also triggers an avalanche of endorphins, which help your body feel less stressed. You don’t even have to climax—just rub. Research shows that clitoral stimulation helps boost mood and engender relaxation, and the literal act of self-soothing and self-pleasure reduces anxiety. Masturbation has also been found to improve cognitive function during ageing —just another great reason to touch yourself!
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Despite longstanding taboo around masturbation, research conducted by the International Society for Sex Medicine reports that people of all age groups—from adolescents to folks 70 and over —masturbate regularly.
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Another study found that for 46 percent of perimenopausal women and 32 percent of postmenopausal women, masturbation had a positive effect on at least one of their uncomfortable symptoms, from improving sleep or mood to reducing vaginal pain. And for some folks aged 50 and up, masturbation can give memory recall a boost.
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Finally, while the science isn’t conclusive, some research shows that, for men and other folks with a prostate, more frequent ejaculation is associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer .
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On Valentine’s Day, what could be more romantic than warding off cancer?
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To porn or not to porn \n\n\n\n
I am a proponent of the adult entertainment industry.
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In my writing and my life, I talk about and celebrate all kinds of sex work because that’s one of many ways to destigmatize this field. I also believe that sex work should be decriminalized, and that censorial bills like the new online age-verification laws that have been enacted in roughly half of the U.S. , which require users to share sensitive information, like biometric data, to access sexual content are dangerous.
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(Read more: Seattle Sex Worker Collectives Are Providing Health Care to Their Community )
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But all that said, some research has shown that excessive consumption of porn can change the chemistry in your brain , leading to poorer impulse control , difficulty focusing, and dopamine-hunting cycles of addiction . So, it could be fun to experiment with a little more mindful masturbation this Valentine’s Day, using nothing but your body, some toys if you have them, and your imagination.
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Mindful masturbation combines self-pleasure with meditation; it’s a tool that can be used to become more attuned to the body and help eliminate the dopamine hunt associated with swiping on apps or scrolling lots of pornography. Instead of setting goals for this masturbation session—I must come! —mindful masturbation is a practice that asks you to be in the present moment, notice the body, and see what happens.
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Similar to the practice of body scanning in meditation, you might start off gliding your hands across your entire body, exploring where a new and surprising erotic sensation may arise. As in traditional meditation, you can let your mind wander here and be surprised by the memories and emotions that come up. And then: Release them as you continue touching yourself, from the usual erotic zones you might already know to other areas you rarely pay attention to.
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What a totally psychedelic way to treat yourself on Valentine’s Day.
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If, instead, you’d still like to masturbate with some visual or audio support (I know I do!) but you find yourself distracted, worried, or alienated by the mainstream porn that comes across your feed on websites like PornHub, I have a couple of recommendations.
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The website Ersties has an all-woman production team that focuses on female pleasure and intimate moments. I find the production style of its videos, similar to the glossy made-to-go-viral aesthetics of internet gameshows and tutorials, to be comforting and weirdly erotic. There’s also Bellesa , a studio that makes porn “by women, for everyone that wants something real.”
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(Read more: Sex Work e rs Fear Border Patrol’s New Social Media Requirements Could Make U.S. Travel Off Limits )
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For example, the first Ersties video that caught my attention was “Orgy My Way,” from 2025, where 20 contestants of many genders compete in seven rounds of erotic games, revealing red flags, an oral sex contest, and a stripping challenge, all to join in an ultimate orgy. It felt like watching an entertaining game show on Netflix that also happened to be pornographic.
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Quinn , a very popular audio erotica platform, has more than 350k followers on Instagram. Quinn has an entire library of short and sexy stories you can listen to while you jerk off (or clean the house, commute, or whatever).
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Internet boyfriends are frequently cast to narrate their stories. Christopher Briney, from The Summer I Turned Pretty, plays the part of a man falling in love with his brother’s ex in one story. In another, Heated Rivalry ’s Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams star as fey princes of opposing kingdoms who are in an erotic competition.
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If internet girlfriends are your thing, Kate Moennig (yes, Shane from The L Word) even plays a rock star that’s retired to a ranch in Montana. Sapphic sexiness ensues.
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With fantasies and sex toys like these at your finger tips, who needs a box of chocolates on Valentine’s Day?
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The post Why I Masturbate on Valentine’s Day appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-12T13:59:00.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Just-masturbate-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/12/why-i-masturbate-on-valentines-day/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-12T18:00:39.396Z"},{"id":"jengeq","slug":"aoc-and-warren-join-forces-in-high-profile-child-care-push-ahead-of-midterms","title":"AOC and Warren join forces in high-profile child care push ahead of midterms","excerpt":"An effort by Democratic lawmakers to lower snowballing child care costs has a new high-profile front woman: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The New York representative is now the lead House sponsor of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Child Care for Every Community Act, The 19th has exclusively learned.","content":"
An effort by Democratic lawmakers to lower snowballing child care costs has a new high-profile front woman: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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The New York representative is now the lead House sponsor of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Child Care for Every Community Act, The 19th has exclusively learned. Ocasio-Cortez replaces original House sponsor Mikie Sherrill, who is now the governor of New Jersey.
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The progressive women’s effort comes as Republicans at the national level are calling for larger American families but have struggled to craft policies that make it easier for parents. Ocasio-Cortez’s backing also comes as Democrats head into a midterm elections cycle where they plan to highlight affordability issues, which polls show are a top concern for voters, including finding affordable child care. High-profile Democratic strategists are already suggesting that universal child care be added to the party’s official policy platform ahead of the 2028 presidential elections.
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“We’ve turned childhood itself into a privilege, not a promise. It is time that we give all families the quality, affordable child care they deserve,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement to The 19th.
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James Carville, who advised President Bill Clinton, among others, wrote in a recent piece for The New York Times: “When 70 percent of Americans say raising children is too expensive, we should not fear making universal child care a public good.” David Plouffe, who managed President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and advised the 2024 campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, recently said that universal child care should be in Democrats’ 2028 platform.
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Warren is a senator from Massachusetts who made affordable child care the central pillar of her own 2020 presidential campaign, and she has introduced a series of bills in the Senate related to reducing its cost. If enacted, the most recent legislation would result in half of U.S. families paying no more than $10 a day for child care and cap costs for families in higher income brackets. It would use a sliding scale modeled on the U.S. military’s child care program. There is no funding mechanism attached to the legislation.
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“In the wealthiest country on the planet, we can’t keep treating affordable, high-quality child care like a luxury reserved for only the richest Americans,” Warren wrote to The 19th.
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Democrats at the state and city levels have already made moves to implement universal or reduced-fee child care. In New Mexico, where lawmakers have been working to lower child care costs since 2019, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced last year that the state would make child care free as of November. In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned on the issue, and one of his first moves after being sworn in was announcing a plan for universal child care for children under five. In San Francisco, which has some of the highest child care costs in the country, Mayor Daniel Lurie recently launched a “Family Opportunity Agenda” that would likewise ensure children under five can access child care.
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Analysis of polling done by the First Five Years Fund, which aims to build bipartisan support for child care policies at the federal level, showed that voters of all political persuasions believe child care is unaffordable and lawmakers should do something about it. Seventy-two percent of Republican voters, for example, said increasing federal funding for child care was an important priority, along with 70 percent of political independents and 90 percent of Democrats.
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While President Donald Trump has said Republicans want to reduce child care costs, and they have aimed to do so by restructuring tax incentives, he has also cut off federal funding for child care programs in states seen as political enemies. During his reelection campaign, Trump said in an economic address that child care is “relatively speaking, not very expensive.” Congressional Republicans have not prioritized legislation related to child care affordability.
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“Universal child care is incredibly popular, being able to access affordable child care that works for your child and your family is not a ‘red’ or ‘blue’ issue, it’s something that people across parties experience every single day,” said Julie Kashen, director of women’s economic justice for the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank.
","category":"activism","author":"Amanda Becker","publishDate":"2026-02-12T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/AOC_childcare.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/aoc-warren-child-care-midterm-elections/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-12T18:00:39.894Z"},{"id":"qx2jwk","slug":"tiktokers-came-to-springfield-looking-for-ice-then-the-child-trafficking-rumors-began","title":"TikTokers came to Springfield looking for ICE. Then the child trafficking rumors began.","excerpt":"The residents of Springfield, Ohio, had prepared for the arrival of immigration agents on February 3, the expiration date set by the Trump administration for Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, who account for nearly a quarter of the city's population.","content":"
The residents of Springfield, Ohio, had prepared for the arrival of immigration agents on February 3, the expiration date set by the Trump administration for Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, who account for nearly a quarter of the city’s population. A federal judge intervened at the last minute, pushing the deadline indefinitely. The agents never arrived.
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Still, the city has found itself on edge this month and the threat is as unsettling as it is familiar: online misinformation, this time accusing the very people trying to protect their immigrant neighbors from deportation of trafficking their children instead.
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Ahead of the 2024 elections, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, then Republican running mates, amplified a rumor initially shared in a local Facebook group that Haitian immigrants were eating area pets. Last Wednesday, TikTok creators, finding none of the mayhem they expected to see in Springfield, started suggesting that faith-based groups working with Haitian immigrants were misdirecting resources. Then came allegations that Haitians were “under threat from the local community.” Within 48 hours of their arrival, they concocted a conspiracy theory that the churches and nonprofit organizations were, in fact, working to deport Haitian parents to take their children.
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“The destructive force they have brought is nearly immeasurable,” said one leader in a faith-based coalition, who was hesitant to use her name or the organization’s since the creators have already taken their statements out of context and shared them on social media.
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Americans everywhere are trying to figure out what is happening in the Trump administration’s immigration-enforcement hot spots like Minneapolis and Springfield. As they search for information on social media, they are encountering a torrent of misinformation, conspiracy theories and deceptive propaganda. It comes from both political sides: there are liberal Americans using AI to generate the obscured faces of masked immigration agents, though they may not look anything like they do in real life, and there are conservative Americans creating fake images of White women welcoming federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as saviors.
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Much of it focuses on children or women. Community leaders across the country are warning that it has the potential to destabilize neighborhoods and entire cities, just as it did in Springfield.
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The latest bout of misinformation to hit this city of about 60,000 residents echoes “Pizzagate,” when right-wing conspiracy theorists said during the 2016 presidential campaign that high-profile Democrats were running a pedophilia ring. It culminated in a believer shooting up a popular Washington pizzeria. The conspiracy echoed around the internet for years, with teenagers on TikTok adopting the cause .
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This is how it happened in Springfield this month.
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Finding no large-scale enforcement action by ICE agents on the street, TikTok creators, who presented themselves as pro-immigrant and anti-deportation, cited reports from “actual Springfield locals” that the groups helping Haitians were refusing them aid. They sent people to a church who demanded to see evidence of the help they were giving. One creator misrepresented news coverage, including by The 19th, to construct the lie that churches and other groups were “trying to take these kids from Haitians and allowing them to be deported without helping them.”
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The lies took a life of their own, as viral stories often do. The creators built on each other’s rumors.
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Creator Ohaji Free, who posted the video suggesting child trafficking was at play, declined to discuss it with The 19th. Dai’Marr Keys, who suggested community groups were diverting help from Haitians, wrote in an email that he did not stay in Springfield to confirm details because he received threats.
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Multiple creators shared photos of Pastor Carl Ruby, whose church has welcomed Haitian congregants. Ruby soon started receiving harassing voicemail messages. Callers said things like, “All of America knows you are complacent in the trafficking of innocent children,” “What is going on with you guys taking their children?” and “Hi, Carl. I was just wondering why you are into, you know, human trafficking and why you want to, like, take these children from families?”
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Ruby talked to the local police, then spoke to the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. On Monday, Springfield’s schools and downtown streets closed due to unspecified security threats. Ruby said federal authorities have told him that “rogue content creators” played a key role in amplifying complaints from several disgruntled individuals, and that led to the threatening messages he and his church have received.
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Ruby said in an interview on Tuesday, as calls continued to come in: “These attacks have just made me more motivated to stand with our Haitians and do everything we can to protect them … They’re causing a lot of hassle, but they’re not really getting under my skin.”
","category":"resilience","author":"Amanda Becker","publishDate":"2026-02-12T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/ICE-Misinfo-2x3-blue.jpeg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/tiktok-conspiracy-theory-child-trafficking-springfield-ohio/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-12T12:00:35.675Z"},{"id":"3lbn8n","slug":"sundance-2026-the-masculinist-and-eugenicist-origins-of-ai-are-writ-large-in-documentary-ghost-in-th","title":"Sundance 2026: The Masculinist and Eugenicist Origins of AI Are Writ Large in Documentary ‘Ghost in the Machine’","excerpt":"A fast-paced Sundance documentary, Ghost in the Machine traces how modern AI’s obsession with “intelligence” and innovation is rooted in the eugenicist, sexist and racial hierarchies that have long shaped Silicon Valley and its technologies.","content":"
A fast-paced Sundance documentary, Ghost in the Machine traces how modern AI’s obsession with “intelligence” and innovation is rooted in the eugenicist, sexist and racial hierarchies that have long shaped Silicon Valley and its technologies.
\n
(This is one in a series of film reviews from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, focused on films by women, trans or nonbinary directors that tell compelling stories about the lives of women and girls.)
\n
The post Sundance 2026: The Masculinist and Eugenicist Origins of AI Are Writ Large in Documentary ‘Ghost in the Machine’ appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Aviva Dove-Viebahn","publishDate":"2026-02-12T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Ghost_in_the_Machine-Still_1-scaled.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/12/sundance-artificial-intelligence-ai-documentary-eugenics-ghost-in-the-machine-documentary/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-12T12:00:36.374Z"},{"id":"uhzmqk","slug":"delayed-and-turned-away-how-access-to-abortion-can-depend-on-your-weight","title":"Delayed and turned away: How access to abortion can depend on your weight","excerpt":"When Elie Liakopoulos discovered she was pregnant, she knew immediately that she wanted to have an abortion. A surgical abortion to be specific — a prior distressing miscarriage experience made her wary of taking the abortion pill at home, since both miscarriage and medication abortion are managed u...","content":"
When Elie Liakopoulos discovered she was pregnant, she knew immediately that she wanted to have an abortion. A surgical abortion to be specific — a prior distressing miscarriage experience made her wary of taking the abortion pill at home, since both miscarriage and medication abortion are managed using mifepristone. She lived in Portland, Oregon, where abortion access is legally protected by the state. She assumed that meant the hardest part of the process would be scheduling the appointment. She called the Lilith Clinic — an independent abortion provider in the city — completed the intake process and set her date.
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Then, a phone call changed the course of her plans.
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“They returned my phone call to tell me that they wouldn’t be able to perform the abortion. I had no idea at that time that you could be turned away from an abortion at any size for any reason,” Liakopoulos said. “They just said that they had a limit for BMI.”
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Body mass index (BMI) is a screening tool to estimate a patient’s body fat. Patients over a certain BMI seeking surgical abortions can face substantial limits and delays (medical abortions however, are not impacted by BMI). Those barriers can lead to a scramble to find alternative care, leaving patients with lingering frustration, physical discomfort and emotional distress.
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The Lilith Clinic said that while they could not comment directly about Liakopoulos’s experience, citing health privacy laws, its policy was to “assess each patient from an anesthesia perspective, as well as a gynecological perspective, as to their eligibility for a safe outpatient procedure,” and to refer them to a hospital if they felt that was needed.
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For Liakopoulos, the denial meant she would have to remain pregnant longer, pushing her into the 12th week of her first trimester.
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“My first trimester was marred with horrific morning sickness that lasted all day,” Liakopoulos said. “Having to deal with another week and a half of not being able to eat anything or smell anything was really horrible.”
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She eventually secured care at Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, a northeast Portland location. But there, her body size also shaped her experience.
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“They did not sedate me the way they told me they would, nor did they manage my pain the way it was managed during my last abortion procedure,” Liakopoulos said. “They said this was because my neck was larger than 19 inches around and because my BMI is high.”
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Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette does not comment on individual patient experiences, but a spokesperson did say “anesthesia and sedation policies are based on evidence‑based medical standards and designed to ensure patient safety. Clinicians assess each patient’s health needs, including factors such as BMI.”
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Her prior surgical abortion at a similar gestational stage had been painful but brief. This time, she said, she was sobbing. The difference in sedation meant she could feel much of the procedure.
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“My abortion was noticeably much worse, materially, much worse, because of my BMI,” she said. “The difference three years of getting a little fatter made.”
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Size as proxy \n\n\n\n
There are no comprehensive statistics on how often patients are denied surgical abortions because of BMI or body size. Obesity is typically defined in medical research as a BMI of 30 or higher, but studies consistently show abortion is safe across weight categories. With medical abortions, BMI does not impact dosing or successful outcomes.
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“There’s nothing physiologically that should keep you from being able to perform these safe procedures or medications,” said Dr. Noora Siddiqui, a family medicine physician in Philadelphia and a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health.
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She added, “Strictly from a clinical standpoint, there is no difference in outcomes for someone over a BMI of 30 and someone under a BMI of 30.”
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Recent research backs that up. A 2025 study published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology found that obesity was not associated with increased risk of complications from surgical abortion, even when accounting for age, gestational age and prior cesarean delivery.
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An earlier 2019 study in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health found that complication rates did not differ by BMI, yet patients with higher BMIs were more likely to be referred out of clinics, often resulting in delays and higher out-of-pocket costs.
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Patients like Elie Liakopoulos often have difficulty receiving abortion care due to their BMI, even though recent research indicates obesity is not associated with increased risk of complications from procedural abortion. \n (Celeste Noche for The 19th) \n\n\n\n
Yet BMI limits act as a proxy for other concerns. Clinics may turn away obese patients seeking abortions because of a lack of training or equipment, experts said.
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“The history behind BMI was based on White, Scandinavian, European men,” she said. “It wasn’t made for guiding medical management.”
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Siddiqui cited anesthesia as an example. Some anesthesia providers rely on insurance policies or older risk models that treat BMI as a disqualifier, even when evidence shows moderate sedation is safe.
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“If the person providing sedation is not educated or trained in caring for people with higher weights, that feeds into bias,” Siddiqui said.
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Another common reason is equipment.
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“That could be the bed that somebody lays on or the chairs that they are expected to sit in,” said Megan Daniel, senior director of programs at the Chicago Abortion Fund, the largest abortion fund in the country. “Whether or not the literal physical structure of the clinic is made to accommodate their physical body.”
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Siddiqui said BMI cutoffs are not without consequences.
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“When we use these numbers to prevent folks from getting essential, safe, time sensitive care, we’re causing delays,” she said. “We’re causing increasing costs like travel, child care, loss of work or income.
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Lexis Dotson-Dufault had an abortion years ago in Massachusetts while in college. Access was straightforward, even if emotionally difficult. Medicaid covered the cost. The clinic visit itself, she said, was the easiest part.
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Years later, living in California and working in reproductive justice, Lexis found out she was pregnant again.
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“I knew immediately that I wanted a surgical abortion,” she said. “I just wanted quick, in and out, done.”
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She scheduled an appointment at FPA Women’s Health in Long Beach, where she had previously gone for routine care. She took time off work and flew her best friend in from across the country because she would need someone to drive her home after sedation.
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During the appointment, after the ultrasound, a nurse returned to the room.
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“She was like, we can’t do it today,” Dotson-Dufault said. “We have a visiting doctor, and they’re not comfortable with doing a surgical abortion on you because of your BMI.”
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When Dotson-Dufault asked whether the regular doctor could perform the procedure later, the nurse left and returned again.
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“She just hands me a bunch of different papers with different hospitals on it,” Dotson-Dufault said. “I immediately black out. I’m like, what are you handing me?”
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She said she was later told the denial was not about the visiting physician, but rather that it was part of their policy.
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When asked for comment, FPA women’s health pointed to their guidelines listed on their website which says that individuals with a BMI above 60 are considered high risk and will be referred to hospitals for their safety. Dotson-Dufault says that at the time, her BMI was 53.
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“I wasn’t expecting it with abortion care, because abortion is just so low risk, so safe,” Dotson-Dufault said. “All you looked at was my weight and said, ‘That’s not OK.’”
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Barriers to care \n\n\n\n
Abortion services are one area where size-based barriers surface, but not the only one.
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“The fatter I’ve gotten, the worse my care has gotten,” Liakopoulos said. “My fatness does not signify anything related to my health.”
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Christina Hughes, a size-inclusive doula who runs their company Big Fat Pregnancy out of Seattle, said these experiences mirror what many fat patients encounter throughout pregnancy and reproductive care.
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“We start at a disadvantage from chairs squeezing into us, gowns not being big enough, tables not fitting our bodies,” she said. “We’re physically uncomfortable and mentally being perceived as not enough.”
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They added that fear and shame shape how patients experience care.
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“When we’re scared that our body can’t do it, can’t have a baby, can’t be a parent, we are already physiologically signaling to our body that we can’t do this,” they said.
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After Elie Liakopoulos had her abortion at Planned Parenthood in Portland, she spent time at Trade Up Music where her partner, Andy Rayborn, (right) works.\n (Celeste Noche for The 19th) \n\n\n\n
That fear can make it harder for patients to ask questions or advocate for themselves when denied care.
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Abortion funds help connect patients with providers and coordinate care. Some are working to act as a buffer for patients by identifying clinic restrictions ahead of time. Daniel said the Chicago Abortion Fund surveys clinics about BMI limits, equipment constraints and sedation policies so callers are directed to providers who can meet their needs. She said that among the dozens of clinics surveyed, a handful explicitly said they had restrictions about who they could serve.
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“Everything that we do is guided by our callers,” Daniel said. “We want to make sure that the place they’re going to get abortion care is truly the best fit for them.”
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Siddiqui said broader change requires provider education and accountability.
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“There should be more provider education around this, and more research done for all body sizes,” she said. “Safe, accessible, effective reproductive care.”
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Liakopoulos said what she wants is simpler.
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“I just want fat people to be included. Fat people make up more than a third of this country. If all of us are being treated more poorly simply because our bodies are larger, that’s obviously a systemic problem,” she said. “If for abortion access, you have to kick a few fatties off the medical table, I think in the grand scheme, I think people think that’s worth it. And you know, being in that statistical margin is not a fun place to be.”
","category":"choice","author":"Gabriella Gladney","publishDate":"2026-02-12T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/BMI-abortions2.jpg?w=683","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/abortion-access-barriers-weight-bmi/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-12T12:00:35.675Z"},{"id":"18mshl","slug":"house-passes-elections-overhaul-bill-that-could-make-it-harder-for-married-women-to-vote","title":"House passes elections overhaul bill that could make it harder for married women to vote","excerpt":"WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House on Wednesday passed the SAVE America Act, which would implement strict limitations on voter registration and casting a ballot — including new rules that could make it more difficult for married women or LGBTQ+ people to register if they’ve changed their names.","content":"
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House on Wednesday passed the SAVE America Act, which would implement strict limitations on voter registration and casting a ballot — including new rules that could make it more difficult for married women or LGBTQ+ people to register if they’ve changed their names.
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The vote passed on partisan lines, with only Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar voting for the legislation, and will face an uphill battle in the Senate.
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Stricter voter ID requirements are part of a more aggressive GOP strategy to question the validity of elections. The vote comes after the White House reopened investigations on an election office in Fulton County, Georgia, one of the central sites in President Donald Trump’s unfounded concerns of election fraud in 2020. Trump also recently said he wanted to “nationalize” voting , and while he has been vague on what that means, it could include a federal override on states’ abilities to run their own elections — particularly in places where he lost to former President Joe Biden.
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While voter ID requirements are popular among Americans across the political spectrum, critics say the provisions in the SAVE America Act would be overly burdensome on already eligible voters and dissuade new registration, particularly in rural areas.
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Voting rights groups have said the bill would pose a barrier for millions of American women and others who have changed their legal names because of marriage, assimilation or to better align with their gender identity. An estimated 69 million American women and 4 million men do not have a birth certificate that matches their current legal name.
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The SAVE America Act requires voters to provide documents proving their citizenship at the time of registration. Many otherwise eligible citizens do not have access to the required documents, such as an unexpired passport. Birth certificates are also one of the few options to prove a registrant’s identity, but they often do not reflect a married person’s or LGBTQ+ individual’s current legal name once they have changed it. While there are ways to further corroborate one’s identity, some experts warn the bureaucratic burden may turn people off registering altogether due to complications — preventing citizens from being able to cast a ballot.
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“A real solution would eliminate the provision that requires women to go around and gather all these documents only to then affirm their own identity,” said New Mexico Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, who chairs the Democratic Women’s Caucus, during a press conference.
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She added that as a Latina, she and others often have multiple documents with different legal names, which would add to confusion when registering: “This bill will make it harder, more expensive, for you to register and vote.”
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Proponents of the bill have scoffed at the idea that the act would meaningfully affect married people who have changed their names.
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GOP Rep. Tim Burchett, a vocal advocate of the bill from Tennessee, said the concept of married women not being able to vote under the act was “ridiculous.”
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“It’s an easy change — there’s no problem with that at all,” Burchett told The 19th. “That’s just like saying it’s Jim Crow. That’s an antiquated argument that nobody buys.”
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Republicans introduced its predecessor, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility America Act (SAVE), last year to purportedly block noncitizens from voting — something that is already illegal. That House-passed version still hasn’t been taken up in the Senate.
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Between the new SAVE America Act and its amendments, passed in the House Rules Committee on Tuesday, the new version would have individuals present an eligible photo ID before voting, in addition to the former version’s requirement of proof of citizenship while registering. Mail-in ballots would also require voters to include a scanned copy of their identification, even in states that automatically send ballots to eligible individuals.
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The bill also mandates states to remove noncitizens from existing voter rolls — already an extremely rare occurrence — after submitting those logs to the Department of Homeland Security for review. Critics say on the state level, such voter roll reviews have in the past erroneously purged legal citizen voters.
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The voter ID provisions would be effective immediately, potentially affecting those who have already cast mail-in ballots for their primary elections, as well as the millions of people who would want to register to vote for the upcoming midterms. There are also logistical delays seen with voter overhauls over the last decade in states such as Texas or Kansas , when election officials and administrators faced confusing or conflicting information following the changes.
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“There’s absolutely no runway for this bill,” said Gréta Bedekovics, director of democracy policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. “Overnight, you would be changing the way that every single American registers to vote, and how millions of people actually vote at the ballot box, and elected officials would have to be doing all this education in real time.”
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Key Republican sponsors had gotten antsy about the delay in passing this voter legislation, going so far as to try to connect the measure to the wider spending package required for the government to run. That spending package already had been sidelined by debates over reforming and further funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after federal officers killed two people during its ongoing anti-immigrant campaign in Minneapolis.
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To the chagrin of the bill’s staunchest advocates, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune punted on the issue to separate it from DHS funding last week, with Johnson saying, “I don’t think we need to be playing games with government funding.”
\n\n\n\n
Trying to find a guaranteed vehicle to force a Senate vote on the provisions didn’t work, showing that the GOP is still strained to pass the controversial SAVE Act and get it to President Donald Trump’s desk before midterm primary voting begins in earnest.
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While the majority of Republican senators are listed as co-sponsors, the bill would likely need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, and House lawmakers are concerned that Democrats in the upper chamber would not be easy to divide over voting rights.
\n\n\n\n
Some Senate Republicans have also expressed hesitancy. Among them is Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, who said the voter ID push is “not how we build trust.”
\n\n\n\n
“When Democrats attempted to advance sweeping election reform legislation in 2021, Republicans were unanimous in opposition because it would have federalized elections, something we have long opposed,” she said in a statement. “One-size-fits-all mandates from Washington, D.C., seldom work in places like Alaska.”
","category":"activism","author":"Marissa Martinez","publishDate":"2026-02-12T00:28:42.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/SAVE_act.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/house-passes-save-america-act-married-women-vote/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-12T06:01:00.752Z"},{"id":"bk5l65","slug":"nafs-new-look","title":"NAF’s New Look","excerpt":"Dear Community, I’m excited to share that later this week, NAF will officially launch a newly refreshed brand identity and website, both designed to better reflect who we are today and what we aspire to be in the future.","content":"
Dear Community,
\n\n\n\n
I’m excited to share that later this week, NAF will officially launch a newly refreshed brand identity and website, both designed to better reflect who we are today and what we aspire to be in the future. With this new look, we’re aiming to pay homage to our radical roots, with a nod to a NAF vintage logo, while modernizing and embracing the call to be bold on abortion, as we represent providers and patients in our next chapter.
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As part of this new brand, we’re also changing our website and email domains from nationalabortionfederation.org to nationalabortionfederation.org . The purpose of this change is two-fold: first, we want to lead with abortion. We are proud to be all about abortion, all the time as we support all of you on the frontlines providing care. The move to become more abortion-forward in our public branding and messaging is a small but important step to help our collective efforts to destigmatize and normalize abortion as basic health care.
\n\n\n\n
Second, this change reflects our commitment to create a community and contribute to a movement that is grounded in our values of diversity, equity, inclusivity, and anti-racism. As our partners in the reproductive justice movement have long advocated, choice assumes equal access and power and does not reflect the complexities and lived experiences under which many people make decisions about their bodies, their lives, and their futures. In practice, we know that structural racism, sexual orientation, gender identity, economic inequality, immigration status, disability, geography, and state violence often shape who can actually exercise choice. As a reproductive health and rights organization, expanding beyond choice allows us to also expand our fight for abortion rights and access to be more inclusive of the various oppressions and injustices that lead to abortion bans and that people experience while accessing care. In short, today’s moment requires us to be more than pro-choice; we must be boldly and unapologetically pro-abortion. As our new tagline says, at NAF, “Abortion is our mission: for providers, access, and care.”
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Don’t worry – NAF still owns nationalabortionfederation.org . Our website and email addresses will automatically forward to our new domain, and we do not expect any disruption in service. Starting on Monday, you can go directly to our new website or say hello via email at bfonteno@nationalabortionfederation.org .
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As always, thank you for your partnership and the care you provide each day. It is an honor to be in this fight with you.
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In solidarity,
\n\n\n\n
Brittany
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The post NAF’s New Look appeared first on National Abortion Federation .
","category":"choice","author":"prochoice","publishDate":"2026-02-12T00:06:30.000Z","image":"https://nationalabortionfederation.org/wp-content/uploads/NAF-2025-LOGO-alt.jpg","source":"National Abortion Federation","sourceUrl":"https://nationalabortionfederation.org/nafs-new-look/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-15T00:00:15.445Z"},{"id":"87z0e3","slug":"ms-global-iranian-women8217s-resistance-gaza8217s-reproductive-care-crisis-and-more","title":"Ms. Global: Iranian Women's Resistance, Gaza's Reproductive Care Crisis and More","excerpt":"The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to health care. But Ms.","content":"
The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to health care. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.
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This week: stories from Iran, Gaza, the International Olympic Committee, and more.
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The post Ms. Global: Iranian Women’s Resistance, Gaza’s Reproductive Care Crisis and More appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Olivia Mccabe","publishDate":"2026-02-11T22:39:36.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Ms.-Global-Iranian-Womens-Resistance-Gazas-Reproductive-Care-Crisis-and-More.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/11/ms-global-iranian-womens-gaza-reproductive-care-ioc-trans-athletes/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-12T00:00:40.978Z"},{"id":"zaby4y","slug":"doctors-say-texas-abortion-laws-cost-a-37-year-old-mother-her-life-after-90-doctors-and-months-of-cr","title":"Doctors Say Texas’ Abortion Laws Cost a 37-Year-Old Mother Her Life, After 90 Doctors and Months of Crisis","excerpt":"Tierra Walker was just 37 years old when her son JJ, 14, found her lying facedown and unresponsive on her bed. As he desperately called 911, he cried, “I need you, I need you,” and tried his best to bring her back to life with CPR, following the instructions of the emergency operator.","content":"
Tierra Walker was just 37 years old when her son JJ, 14, found her lying facedown and unresponsive on her bed. As he desperately called 911, he cried, “I need you, I need you,” and tried his best to bring her back to life with CPR, following the instructions of the emergency operator. It was too late. He lost his mother and best friend on his birthday.
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Walker died at 20 weeks pregnant after multiple ER trips and hospitalizations. She had been examined by 90 doctors, including 21 OB-GYNs, during the previous months. Yet not one of those 90 medical experts Walker met with ever suggested that she do the only thing that could have definitively saved her life—undergo an abortion to end the pregnancy.
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One doctor interviewed for this story sums up the chilling stakes Walker faced as she pleaded with dozens of doctors for care as her condition spiraled. “It’s unfortunate she didn’t come upon a physician who was willing to stick their neck out,” despite the legal risks. In Texas, that’s exactly what it takes to keep a patient like Tierra Walker alive.
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The post Doctors Say Texas’ Abortion Laws Cost a 37-Year-Old Mother Her Life, After 90 Doctors and Months of Crisis appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Bonnie Fuller","publishDate":"2026-02-11T21:12:14.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1236282155.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/11/texas-abortion-ban-doctors-death-tierra-walker/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-12T00:00:40.978Z"},{"id":"vihvet","slug":"from-the-local-hockey-rink-to-the-olympic-stage-how-the-trump-administrations-attacks-on-trans-athle","title":"From the Local Hockey Rink to the Olympic Stage: How the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Trans Athletes Harm Us All","excerpt":"Ice hockey is in the air. Over the last few months, Heated Rivalry captivated millions of viewers. The Professional Women’s Hockey League continues to grow and break records at every turn. And with the 2026 Winter Olympics underway, the world’s best players—including the first Black woman to play fo...","content":"
Ice hockey is in the air. Over the last few months, Heated Rivalry captivated millions of viewers. The Professional Women’s Hockey League continues to grow and break records at every turn . And with the 2026 Winter Olympics underway, the world’s best players—including the first Black woman to play for the U.S. Olympic hockey team —are taking center ice. As a hockey fan, I’m living my best life. But as a transgender hockey player , the Trump administration has turned the sport I love into a political battleground.
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It all started with President Trump’s lawless and transphobic executive order demanding that sporting organizations exclude transgender girls and women from participation in girls’ and women’s sports. Then last summer, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) caved to Trump’s executive order and issued a policy banning transgender women from Olympic and Paralympic participation. The USOPC also directed the national sports governing bodies it oversees to revise their own policies to align with the anti-trans order. USA Hockey—the national governing body for ice hockey programs across the country —followed suit, issuing a policy that bans transgender women and girls from women’s and girls’ programs. And the consequences of Trump’s order don’t stop there: anti-trans extremists in Congress are working to codify the USOPC’s ban into law , depriving USOPC of the authority to change its rules in the future and permanently banning transgender athletes from participation. This effort may soon be voted on by the full U.S. House of Representatives.
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USA Hockey governs a vast network of amateur and recreational ice hockey programs across the country for both adults and youth, with youth players making up nearly 70% of its membership . That means that this anti-trans policy will primarily harm kids and recreation-level athletes—people who just want to play, learn, and have fun.
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And this attempt to target and exclude transgender athletes actually harms cisgender people too: USA Hockey also banned people who take testosterone from women’s and girls’ programs—a rule that not only affects many transgender and nonbinary athletes like myself, but also cisgender women who take testosterone as part of routine medical care, such as treatment for managing symptoms associated with menopause.
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Yes, you read that correctly: the nearly 100,000 women and girls playing in women’s and girls’ hockey programs—alongside countless women and girls, both cisgender and transgender, playing in other USOPC-sanctioned sports—will now be subjected to intrusive scrutiny of their bodies. In addition to inappropriate inquiries into private medical decisions, women and girl athletes who don’t conform to rigid gender stereotypes, or who are stronger, taller, or faster , will now be especially vulnerable to invasive investigation and testing to “prove” their gender. All because Trump and his allies want to attack trans people and sideline us from public life.
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This cruel policy hurts me and many of my teammates. Women’s sports spaces have long served as safe, inclusive, and welcoming communities for people with marginalized identities, including transgender and gender expansive people. While Heated Rivalry may be fictional, it highlights the very real challenges many LGBTQIA+ athletes face. In hockey, women’s leagues often provide a refuge from the homophobia, misogyny, and transphobia that still dominate many cisgender male-centered programs.
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When organizations like the USOPC and USA Hockey cave to political pressure from the Trump administration—and anti-trans legislators turn that pressure into law—the harm extends far beyond transgender athletes who simply want to play the sports they love.
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Arbitrary and categorical bans on transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people’s participation in sports don’t create more opportunities for girls and women. They also don’t address the real gender inequities in sports . In reality, all these policies accomplish is inviting gender policing, medical surveillance, and harassment of anyone who does not fit someone else’s rigid and archaic understanding of femininity. There are countless examples of this intrusive gender policing playing out against professional cisgender women athletes , particularly Black and brown women, ranging from Serena Williams to Brittney Griner to boxers Lin Yu-Ting and Imane Khelif. And we’ve seen relentless attacks on transgender student athletes at the state level , which blatantly undermine and violate Title IX protections that sought to protect marginalized students who had historically been left out of school sports.
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Across the country, professional-level players , recreational players , and leagues—including those governed by USA Hockey —have spoken out against these discriminatory policies, making one thing clear: we did not ask for this.
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Policies that police athletes’ gender are the real threat to women’s sports—not trans people . As I watch the Olympics this year, I’ll be thinking of the trans athletes who couldn’t be there to represent their country, the trans kids being told they can’t play with their friends on their school teams, and my fellow trans hockey players—because everyone deserves the opportunity to play, compete, and belong.
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The post From the Local Hockey Rink to the Olympic Stage: How the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Trans Athletes Harm Us All appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"activism","author":"Amelia Packham","publishDate":"2026-02-11T19:21:27.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/updated-blog-graphic-project-2025-3.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/from-the-local-hockey-rink-to-the-olympic-stage-how-the-trump-administrations-attacks-on-trans-athletes-harm-us-all/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-12T00:00:41.753Z"},{"id":"pjmuou","slug":"mifepristone-manufacturers-move-to-block-gop-lawsuit-seeking-nationwide-telehealth-abortion-ban","title":"Mifepristone Manufacturers Move to Block GOP Lawsuit Seeking Nationwide Telehealth Abortion Ban","excerpt":"The attorneys general of Louisiana, Idaho and Missouri filed a lawsuit in October 2025 in a Louisiana federal court, seeking to overturn the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2023 decision to allow telehealth abortion.","content":"
The attorneys general of Louisiana, Idaho and Missouri filed a lawsuit in October 2025 in a Louisiana federal court, seeking to overturn the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2023 decision to allow telehealth abortion. (The Louisiana lawsuit is one of three currently active lawsuits filed by state attorneys general pushing the FDA to roll back access to mifepristone.)
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Now, mifepristone’s manufacturers are moving to join the lawsuit and defend access to medication abortion.
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On Feb. 3, Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro—manufacturers of the brand-name and a generic of mifepristone—filed motions to intervene, opposing Louisiana’s request for a preliminary injunction and urging the court to dismiss the lawsuit. The drugmakers argue that mifepristone has a long-established safety record—proven safe beyond any doubt by over 100 peer-reviewed studies and 25 years of real-world use by more than 7.5 million women.
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GenBioPro explained its reasons for filing the motion. “We are increasingly concerned by extremists’ complete disregard for the large body of scientific evidence supporting mifepristone’s use and safety,” said GenBioPro CEO Evan Masingill. “We will not stand by while politically motivated efforts put Americans’ access to medication abortion in jeopardy.”
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The next hearing in the Louisiana et al. v FDA case is set for Feb. 24, when Judge David Joseph will hear arguments on Louisiana’s preliminary injunction motion to block telehealth abortion and pharmacy dispensing of mifepristone.
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The post Mifepristone Manufacturers Move to Block GOP Lawsuit Seeking Nationwide Telehealth Abortion Ban appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Carrie N. Baker","publishDate":"2026-02-11T18:09:07.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1250021201.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/11/mifepristone-manufacturers-move-to-block-gop-lawsuit-seeking-nationwide-telehealth-abortion-ban/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-12T00:00:40.978Z"},{"id":"5cwaqy","slug":"save-the-date-voices-of-courage-2026","title":"Save the Date: Voices of Courage 2026","excerpt":"Join Physicians for Reproductive Health on Monday, May 4 in New York City and livestreamed for an evening grounded in purpose, power, and collective action, honoring two courageous abortion providers whose leadership and care are transforming their communities.","content":"
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The post Save the Date: Voices of Courage 2026 appeared first on Physicians for Reproductive Health .
","category":"choice","author":"Mykella Palmer","publishDate":"2026-02-11T17:25:02.000Z","image":"https://prh.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/background.png","source":"Physicians for Reproductive Health","sourceUrl":"https://prh.org/voices-of-courage-2026/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-11T18:00:26.475Z"},{"id":"o7utqj","slug":"sundance-2026-a-film-about-resistance-and-hope-the-friends-house-is-here-shows-how-art-and-friendshi","title":"Sundance 2026: A Film about Resistance and Hope, ‘The Friend’s House Is Here’ Shows How Art and Friendship Sustain Resistance","excerpt":"Even when it's created at great personal risk, nothing can negate the power of art. So, too, the importance of friendship, which impacts our choices, shapes our ideas about the past, present and future, and changes lives. These are central themes of The Friend’s House Is Here , a U.S.","content":"
Even when it's created at great personal risk, nothing can negate the power of art. So, too, the importance of friendship, which impacts our choices, shapes our ideas about the past, present and future, and changes lives.
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These are central themes of The Friend’s House Is Here , a U.S.-Iranian co-production that won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast at Sundance this year. In their presentation of the award, the jury praised the film’s ensemble cast “for delivering performances that each of us could find ourselves in, revealing a story that is frighteningly universal. The ensemble injects the world with gravity, love, and humor, and shows us the way community and connection are often our key to survival.”
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In a case of life imitating art, the film circulates through its own act of defiance: It had to be smuggled out of Tehran for it to be shown at Sundance.
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(This is one in a series of film reviews from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, focused on films by women, trans or nonbinary directors that tell compelling stories about the lives of women and girls.)
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The post Sundance 2026: A Film about Resistance and Hope, ‘The Friend’s House Is Here’ Shows How Art and Friendship Sustain Resistance appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"resilience","author":"Aviva Dove-Viebahn","publishDate":"2026-02-11T17:21:17.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/The_Friends_House_is_Here-Still_1-scaled.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/11/sundance-2026-a-film-about-resistance-and-hope-the-friends-house-is-here-shows-how-art-and-friendship-sustain-resistance/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-11T18:00:25.979Z"},{"id":"54twjq","slug":"sex-workers-fear-border-patrol8217s-new-social-media-requirements-could-make-us-travel-off-limits","title":"Sex Workers Fear Border Patrol's New Social Media Requirements Could Make U.S. Travel Off Limits","excerpt":"Certain travelers may soon have to disclose years of their online history to the U.S. government. The proposed policy could ensnare sex workers in its dragnet. The post Sex Workers Fear Border Patrol's New Social Media Requirements Could Make U.S.","content":"
A proposed Trump administration policy intended to screen tourists and identify potential threats to national security may have the unintended consequence of keeping porn stars and other sex trade workers out of the United States, too.
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If enacted, the proposal, which U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) posted on the Federal Register on Dec. 10, 2025, would require travelers coming from 42 countries whose residents do not currently require visas to visit the U.S. as tourists—such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel, and South Korea—to share additional personal information to be approved for entry.
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Public comments on the proposal were due by Feb. 9, 2026. If adopted with no changes, the new regulations could go into effect this summer—just in time for the nation’s peak tourist months.
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The new policy may uniquely impact sex workers and sex educators in an increasingly globalized business, experts and sex trade professionals told Rewire News Group .
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“Traveling is a big part of the business today, because you have to meet content creators, you should go, from time to time, to b2b events, and … you can meet a production company at an expo,” said Berlin-based adult performer Jason Steel.
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Social media handles were first added to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) application, which determines a person’s eligibility to travel to the US without a visa, in 2016 as an optional section. The new proposal would require all applicants to list all social media accounts they’ve used in the past five years. The application, which takes the place of a formal visa, can be completed as little as 72 hours before departure to the U.S. But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recommends travelers fill it out as soon as travel plans are made.
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The policy does not require that visitors literally upload their social media content to the application. Still, by listing the names of their social media accounts, visitors grant CBP access to review their profiles and historic activity on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, X, BlueSky, and other major social media networks.
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Under the new proposal, travelers may also be asked to provide a range of “high-value data elements,” including all telephone numbers used in the last five years, all email addresses used in the past ten years, and biometric information such as facial images, fingerprints, iris scans, and DNA. The proposal does not clarify whether sharing that information would be mandatory.
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ESTA applications are flagged primarily for security, immigration, or health risks, resulting in travel not being authorized. But what counts as “flagged” in terms of social media can be vague , causing confusion for many travelers planning to enter the U.S.
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For those who create online sex content, the uncertainty about their ability to visit the U.S. began to ramp up under President DonaldTrump’s first administration. In 2018, Trump signed a far-reaching anti-sex trafficking law. Combining two prior legislative efforts—the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA)—FOSTA-SESTA was designed to hold websites and other online platforms legally accountable if they knowingly facilitated or supported sex trafficking or prostitution.
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However, FOSTA-SESTA has drawn criticism for its failure to distinguish sex trafficking from sex work . Sex trafficking is the sexual exploitation of people through force, fraud, or coercion for commercial purposes, and sex work is a consensual exchange of sexual services for money or other things of value. Performing in pornography, creating erotic content on OnlyFans, offering companionship as a sugar baby, or working as a phone sex operator are common types of sex work.
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(Read more: So You’re Dating A Sex Worker? Here’s What Not To Do
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For sex workers, the lack of distinction can have real-world consequences.
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One London-based dominatrix, who requested to remain anonymous for her security, has had concerns traveling to the U.S. for work in the past. The dominatrix said that in 2019, U.S. border agents questioned sex workers while traveling to the AVN Adult Entertainment expo , the largest trade show and award ceremony in the adult film industry, attracting more than 45,000 attendees annually.
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“Some people in the industry were turned away at the border when they stated they would be in Vegas to attend the expo, which raised some red flags with the customs agent,” she said. “I was lucky to get through, but I was asked additional questions about my travels.”
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“I used to advise that people delete their work-related social media apps from their phones,” she said. That preventive measure, she added, “wouldn’t be as effective if U.S. tourist visas require people to list their social media accounts ahead of time.”
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A ‘deeper and invasive look’ \n\n\n\n
The Trump-proposed social media check of travelers would be a “very concerning issue,” Robert Tsigler , a New York-based attorney specializing in immigration law, told RNG . “[The proposal] not only violates each individual’s right to privacy, but puts at risk those individuals involved in stigmatized occupations, including sex workers.”
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“Compared to past travel and entry regulations like travel history or criminal background checks, the new regulation calls for a much deeper and invasive look into the personal lives of individuals,” Tsigler added.
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Under the new policy, people who engage in sex work could be denied entry to the U.S. Some may avoid traveling to the U.S. altogether to avoid the heightened application process.
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But the policy could affect more than just sex workers, advocates told RNG . Sex educators, sex therapists, and any other professionals whose work involves discussing sex, sexual health, and sexuality online may also face heightened surveillance of their social media, they said.
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Policies like the one proposed “almost always have knock-off effects on the rest of the general public down the line,” said Janelle Toussaint , a somatic sexologist and technical product strategist.
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Laws and regulations that broadly target sex work or sexual content often fail to clearly separate consensual adult labor from education, therapy, or advocacy around sexuality. As a result, sex educators, therapists, and researchers can find their work flagged or monitored, even when the content violates no laws or policies.
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Sexuality professionals say these kinds of secondary consequences happen when lawmakers make decisions without input from the people most familiar with the work.
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“I’m concerned that policymakers, lacking the field-specific expertise that I and my colleagues have, will be unable to separate professional sexuality knowledge and practice from their personal beliefs on sexuality-related matters,” Gwen Walsh , a sex educator and confidential resource advisor for Maine’s community colleges, said.
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That concern extends to how border officials could interpret sexuality professionals’ online work. Canadian sex educator Ali Imperiale , who teaches about sexual health and relationships on YouTube for over 106,000 followers, said she worries that an opaque review of social media content could lead to a biased evaluation of complicated or controversial material.
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“Knowing that my ability to cross a border could depend on how someone interprets a podcast clip, an Instagram caption, or a YouTube thumbnail would likely push me toward self-censorship,” Imperiale said. “That’s a hard position to be in when your job is literally to talk openly about topics that already carry stigma.”
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For sex workers concerned that they could be denied entry to the U.S., Steel, the adult performer, recommends an alternative: Germany. His hometown of Berlin is a longtime hub for sexual freedom and expression, and the center-right government there has historically embraced tourism of all types.
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“We welcome everyone,” he said.
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The post Sex Workers Fear Border Patrol’s New Social Media Requirements Could Make U.S. Travel Off Limits appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"activism","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-11T13:59:00.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/New-Tourist-Policy-Web1.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/11/trump-cbp-immigration-policy-sex-work/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-11T18:00:25.423Z"},{"id":"ofxlff","slug":"without-school-vaccine-mandates-many-kids-may-never-see-a-doctor","title":"Without school vaccine mandates, many kids may never see a doctor","excerpt":"Every December brings an end-of-year crush to Washington, D.C.’s pediatric clinics. In addition to the usual culprits — colds, the flu, RSV — that’s also the time when the city school district issues notices reminding parents of children who are behind on required vaccinations to get caught up by De...","content":"
Every December brings an end-of-year crush to Washington, D.C.’s pediatric clinics. In addition to the usual culprits — colds, the flu, RSV — that’s also the time when the city school district issues notices reminding parents of children who are behind on required vaccinations to get caught up by December 8, or risk being turned away from school.
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For Dr. Megan Prior, a pediatrician in the district, the vaccine rush brings an opportunity to catch families up on more than shots. This past December, Prior said, a 12-year-old overdue for her meningitis, tetanus and other vaccines also presented with severe prediabetes that was on the verge of becoming full-blown disease.
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For years, the girl’s mother, busy with full-time work and two other children, hadn’t prioritized bringing her to the doctor for regular checkups — until she got the notice about the overdue vaccines.
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“Having vaccine mandates reminds parents to engage in their kids’ health,” Prior said.
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Like the federally recommended childhood vaccination schedule, those state-level mandates are under steady attack. Last year, at least 10 states made it easier for families to opt out of vaccines required by schools. For example, Iowa now requires school districts to disclose information on the vaccine exemption process on their websites and in school registration materials. Idaho prohibits day cares, schools and employers from mandating “medical interventions” of any kind — most pointedly, vaccines.
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More than a dozen similar bills have already been introduced in 2026 , with lawmakers in Indiana and New Jersey , for instance, proposing that those states develop reporting systems for documenting “adverse events” related to childhood vaccines. A South Carolina bill would prohibit any vaccines from being mandated for children under the age of two.
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Research has long shown that strong school and child care vaccine mandates lead to higher immunization rates . “School requirements make a massive, massive difference,” said Prior, citing her own experience watching HPV vaccination rates surge in Virginia , where she used to work, after the state added it to the list of required shots for middle school entry in 2008. In communities that have faced recent measles outbreaks , like Spartanburg, South Carolina, vaccination rates are almost uniformly low.
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But doctors say there is another, less understood public health risk of the shift away from vaccine mandates: Fewer children will end up getting routine medical checkups of any kind. Untold numbers of children come in for physicals and wellness checks only when their school forms are due, like Prior’s 12-year-old patient. That can be true for families who are neutral, or even somewhat positive, about vaccines, physicians say. For young children, those checkups can be crucial not only to ensure they stay healthy, but also to provide them with early diagnosis of any disabilities or developmental delays.
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Dr. Megan Prior, a pediatrician in Washington, D.C., says she spends so much time talking with parents about vaccines that it can crowd out conversation on other important health topics.\n (Valerie Plesch for The Hechinger Report) \n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, for the growing number of parents with skeptical or negative feelings about vaccines, the distrust over inoculations can rupture families’ connection with doctors and the care they provide. Many private clinics across the country do not serve unvaccinated children. And families who mistrust shots sometimes also mistrust the doctors who administer them, prompting them to seek medical care outside the established system, perhaps from chiropractors or naturopaths, if they seek it at all.
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Pediatricians across the country have watched the number of vaccine refusers in their clinics and hospitals rise steadily in recent years — a result, they say, of misinformation distributed on social media, widespread distrust of vaccines that grew out of the Covid pandemic, and, most recently, the steady assault on vaccines by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In early January, federal officials removed six vaccines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended list for all children. In December, the CDC also rescinded its recommendation that all newborns get a hepatitis B shot.
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Yet the states hold critical cards in determining whether children actually need shots to attend child care or school, meaning the cascade of new legislation at the state and local level could have a large effect on vaccination rates. By the time children start kindergarten, all states have historically required them to show proof of vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis; chicken pox; measles, mumps and rubella; and polio. Some of these illnesses can spread quickly in schools, where young children still learning basic hygiene sit, eat and play in close proximity.
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Vaccine mandates can also serve as the only formal connective tissue between families and physicians. Most states do not require regular screenings for health issues that can impede young children’s learning, like uncontrolled asthma or hearing problems. Slightly less than half of states mandate any kind of comprehensive health exam for children, according to a 2018 study. That means some children might go to the doctor only for their vaccinations. Any rollback in child care and school entry requirements has the greatest impact on children from birth to age 6, the years that most of the shots come due.
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Idaho has gone the furthest of all states in upending school vaccine mandates. A law enacted last spring bans employers, schools and child care centers from requiring anyone to get a vaccine. But even before the new state law took effect, scoring an exemption had become as easy as signing “a scrap of paper” citing an objection of some kind, said Dr. Tom Patterson, the president of the Idaho chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who has practiced in the state since 1998.
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Over several years in the early 2000s, two Republican leaders in the deeply red state had actually made strides at tightening school entry requirements. Former Idaho first lady Patricia Kempthorne and state Sen. Dean Cameron both championed the issue, and for several years starting in 2011, Patterson said, families who wanted to opt out of school vaccine mandates had to request each shot exemption separately; they also had to sign a form that repeatedly mentioned “death” as a possible consequence of declining the vaccines.
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But those stricter policies began to erode by the late 2010s, Patterson added. And with looser requirements, and the arrival of the pandemic, childhood vaccination rates plummeted. In 2018, nearly 90 percent of kindergarteners in the state had most of their shots, for diseases including measles, mumps and polio, according to CDC data; by 2024, the number getting shots for almost all reported diseases had dipped below 80 percent . For more contagious diseases like measles, studies show, an approximately 95 percent immunization rate is necessary to reach herd immunity, so that unvaccinated children are protected by their vaccinated classmates.
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Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, and his state surgeon general have been trying to eliminate vaccination requirements for school entry , though the legislature is moving forward with a proposal that weakens those requirements but falls short of a ban.
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Rather than eliminating school mandates entirely, it is far more common for states — including New Hampshire, Texas and West Virginia — to try to make it easier for families to receive vaccine exemptions for their children. New Hampshire, for instance, recently codified a Parental Bill of Rights that guarantees families can choose not to vaccinate because of religious beliefs .
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“The easier it is to claim exemptions, the lower the vaccination rates,” said Dr. David Higgins, an assistant professor of pediatrics and public health at the University of Colorado and a practicing pediatrician in Denver. One 2012 study found that when states allowed parents to exempt their children from mandatory vaccines on philosophical grounds — and not just religious or medical ones — exemption rates more than doubled .
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In Maine, one of a handful of states that allow only medical exemptions, longtime school nurse Patricia Endsley said the strict policies help maintain a statewide vaccination rate of about 97 percent.
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“I don’t think some people have a chance to be hesitant” to get vaccinations for their children, she said. “They have to have it or homeschool.” (Endsley did, however, mention hearing about families “purchasing” medical exemptions for about $500 through an out-of-state company called Frontline Health Advocates.) Endsley, who retired from her position as a school nurse last year and is now president-elect of the National Association of School Nurses, administered some of the shots herself with parent permission for families who lacked a primary care provider.
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For years, West Virginia, which like Maine only allowed medical exemptions, has also been a case study in the power of strict school entry requirements. The state has historically posted lower early childhood vaccination rates in the country for newborns to 2-year-olds, but has risen close to the top of the pack for kindergarteners — a clear result of the school mandate, researchers and physicians say.
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“It’s very common to see parents waiting until their children are school age,” said Dr. Youmna Mousattat, a pediatrician in Charleston, West Virginia. Mousattat works out of a hospital, and in recent years she’s watched the number of families declining their first vaccination, hepatitis B, rise from an almost startlingly rare event to a routine occurrence.
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Yet now, West Virginia’s 90-year-old law is in jeopardy, with an executive order from Governor Patrick Morrisey last year calling for the state to grant religious exemptions. Although the order has been paused and the state’s Supreme Court is considering related legal challenges , health officials had already started to grant hundreds of religious exemptions in the early months of 2025.
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West Virginia physicians, like their colleagues in other states, are beginning to see a rise in deadly diseases, some of which had almost entirely disappeared in the U.S.
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Dr. Andrea Lauffer, a physician who treats many young children in the hospital where she works in South Charleston, West Virginia, said she diagnosed a young elementary-school-age student over the summer with hepatitis B for the first time in her career. In the fall, an unvaccinated child who had traveled out of state came in with a rash that looked like measles and had to be quarantined. And the last quarter of 2025 brought sharply rising numbers of whooping cough cases across the state.
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“When I was in training, we really didn’t have to worry about these diseases,” she said. “My concern is that we’re going to keep seeing diseases that we thought we would never have to see again.”
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In the case of the Washington, D.C., child with prediabetes, the timely diagnosis possibly prevented her from developing common complications of untreated diabetes: kidney problems, loss of blood flow to hands and feet, even blindness. “There do need to be dramatic lifestyle changes and, if they can’t make those, patients need to start medication right away,” Prior said.
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Many families don’t make it to the pediatrician until the school deadline hits, agreed Higgins. Instead, they visit regularly for the first year or two of their child’s life, then disappear until their kids reach school age. “I can’t tell you how many times it’s the summer right before the start of kindergarten, and parents come in and say, ‘We’re here because we got a letter from school,’” he said.
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Those appointments often include far more than shots. Pediatricians assess growth, nutrition and blood pressure and screen for lead poisoning, chronic diseases, developmental delays and much more.
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Higgins points out that, nationwide, a significant majority of parents are still choosing to vaccinate their children. But he’s also concerned about more states following the lead of Idaho and Florida and attempting to totally upend school vaccine mandates. “That will ultimately result in more preventable harm and illness in children,” he said, both from diseases that vaccines can forestall and “from other diseases that aren’t being caught and treated because families are disconnected from health care.”
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In addition to her fear of relaxed school requirements, Prior said, she spends so much time these days answering patients’ questions about vaccines that it can crowd out crucial discussion of other topics. “I used to spend time talking about how to optimize sleep, how to address picky eating and a range of other topics related to children’s health,” she said. Now, she added, much of that time is devoted to explaining and, sometimes, defending vaccines.
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In Idaho, Patterson sees not only reluctance but also, occasionally, hostility from parents when he asks them if he can talk about vaccines. These days, that’s usually during his monthly week at the hospital, where he tries to make sure as many newborns as possible leave with a hepatitis B shot, as well as an injection of vitamin K, which can prevent uncontrolled bleeding. At the start of that conversation, “one father said recently, ‘How can we trust anyone in medicine?’” Patterson recalled.
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The physician no longer feels comfortable displaying his hospital ID and stethoscope outside of the hospital or clinic. He noted that the hospital used to experience a “Code Gray,” when a patient assaults a physician or staff person, once every couple of months. Now there are often three or four each day.
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The end of school vaccine mandates in Idaho are just the final nail in the coffin in a state where families have been bombarded with “misinformation” about vaccines for years.
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Indeed, the divide over shots has contributed to what some fear could be a lasting breach between many families and modern medical care — with lasting implications for public health.
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Although hard numbers don’t exist, several pediatricians report seeing a rise in the number of private clinics that won’t accept unvaccinated patients, often citing the need to protect medically fragile patients and family members in waiting rooms. In Florida, first lady Casey DeSantis recently held a roundtable for mothers frustrated that they couldn’t find a pediatrician after refusing vaccines.
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While Higgins said he understands the rationale for declining to treat unvaccinated children, he thinks clinics should give vaccine-skeptical caregivers some flexibility — and time to change their minds — before refusing care. “If a parent feels dismissed right from the start, you’ve closed that door to build rapport and a relationship,” he said.
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In Idaho, where the share of kindergarteners vaccinated against measles is nearly 20 percentage points below what’s required for herd immunity , Patterson is still trying whenever possible to build up that rapport — and he still has successes. But some days the response can be discouraging, and he has thought about shifting entirely to a clinic focused on autism and developmental pediatrics.
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While it used to be the vaccine refusers who sometimes felt pressured to withdraw their children from public school, it can now be those most committed to vaccines, including physicians, who feel that urge. Patterson’s children are no longer school age, but if they were, he said, “I wouldn’t send them to public school.”
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This story about school vaccines was produced by The Hechinger Report , a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Shyla Nott","publishDate":"2026-02-11T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/EC-vaccines-2.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/school-vaccine-mandates-children-doctor-visits/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-11T12:00:47.690Z"},{"id":"evoxb1","slug":"meet-the-hell-cats-a-key-to-democrats-hopes-of-taking-the-house","title":"Meet the Hell Cats — a key to Democrats’ hopes of taking the House","excerpt":"A few days after President Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Rebecca Bennett was standing in her bathroom talking to her husband when a switch flipped. “No one is coming to save us; we have to save ourselves,” she thought. That’s when she knew she had to run for office.","content":"
A few days after President Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Rebecca Bennett was standing in her bathroom talking to her husband when a switch flipped. “No one is coming to save us; we have to save ourselves,” she thought. That’s when she knew she had to run for office.
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“I’m the kind of person that runs at problems, and I just had to do everything I could to stand up and fight for this country because I love it,” said Bennett, a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot and mother of two daughters. “For me, this is about continuing to serve our country in a new capacity, but really it’s about fighting for the version of the country that I want to leave for my daughters.”
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Bennett, a Democrat, is running in a competitive race to unseat Republican Thomas Kean Jr. in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District. Her platform prioritizes affordability, health care and national security. Bennett’s campaign has raised more than $1.9 million, the highest amount among the 10 Democrats vying for the seat, according to the latest campaign data released last week.
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That day with her husband in 2024, “I remember standing there and telling him that there are people having these conversations all across the country,” Bennett said. “I remember just having this faith that there were other people out there like me that were doing the exact same thing and stepping up. And I got goosebumps.”
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And she was right: A few months later, she was introduced to Cait Conley, a combat veteran and national security expert running in New York. Later she met JoAnna Mendoza and Maura Sullivan, Marine veterans running for Congress in Arizona and New Hampshire, respectively. If elected, Mendoza and Sullivan would be the first women Marine veterans in Congress. The four women, all Democrats, formed a fast friendship and started a Signal group chat that Mendoza named the “Hell Cats,” a reference to the first women Marines who served in World War I.
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Bennett said the Hell Cats were inspired by the wave of Democratic women veterans and former national security officials — Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Elaine Luria of Virginia— who ran for Congress in 2018 and flipped seats. Those women called themselves the “Badasses.” (Slotkin is now in the Senate , Spanberger and Sherrill are governors of their states, Houlahan is still in the House and Luria is running again after losing her seat in 2022.)
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Rebecca Bennett, a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot and a Democrat, is running for Congress in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District to unseat Republican Rep. Thomas Kean Jr.\n (Rebecca Bennett Campaign) \n\n\n\n
More women veterans than ever are running for Congress this year, according to data from With Honor, a bipartisan nonprofit that helps veterans run for Congress. In 2018, 54 women veterans, both incumbents and non-incumbents, officially ran for Congress. In 2026, that number is 71 — and will likely grow, with five months remaining until the last candidate filing deadlines. More than 60 percent of these women veterans are Democrats.
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The Hell Cats said they are frustrated by rising costs of living, unaffordable health care, increasing polarization stoked by a divisive administration and lack of collaboration in politics. These women believe they are the kind of new leaders that will strengthen the Democratic Party’s credibility and bring results in Congress.
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Democrats are feeling optimistic going into the midterms, with Trump’s approval ratings hovering around 40 percent. They need to pick up just a few seats to take control of the House, and t he Hell Cats hope their backgrounds in the military and national security will be exactly what their party needs in their swing seat races.
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“When people are feeling frustrated and they’re upset about what’s going on, I just like to remind people that we can channel that into something productive: flipping the seat,” Bennett said. “That is an incredible opportunity that we in the 7th District of New Jersey have that can have an outsized impact on the future of the country.”
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Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics, said that for a long time being a veteran was a boost for candidates.
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“It’s only recently since we’ve had women who have served in combat in the military that they can now talk about that kind of service as candidates and that same commitment to country that men have been able to use forever,” Walsh said.
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About 55 percent of Americans say military service makes them more likely to vote for a candidate, and more than 80 percent of Americans agree that veterans possess strong leadership skills, according to a Gallup-With Honor Institute survey conducted in August 2025.
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Walsh said that often voters say women don’t have the strength, courage or foreign policy understanding to lead. Women veterans can take that concern or stereotype off the table.
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Mendoza, who grew up in a rural farming community before serving in the Marines, said she retired from the military after having her son. Now, her son is 9, and Mendoza said she felt a call to serve her country again as she wrestled with the questions: “What is happening to our country? Will my son have rights? Will he still have a democracy?”
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Mendoza’s campaign has raised more than $2.9 million, according to the latest campaign data released last week. One elderly woman on a fixed income, living off Social Security, told Mendoza that she is giving $1 to the campaign each month until the election as her way of fighting back against Republican policies and the state of the country, including stepped-up actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Mendoza is running in an Arizona district that borders Mexico to unseat Republican incumbent Juan Ciscomani, a Mexican immigrant who has a record of voting for a crackdown on immigration and more enforcement.
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“It’s really humbling to hear from people that are struggling to make ends meet, but they understand the severity of where we are in our country right now,” Mendoza said. “I think people are scared, especially with all of the ICE activity. There is something new every day; it seems like the headlines continue to get worse, and we cannot escape it.”
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JoAnna Mendoza, a Marine veteran and Democrat, is running for Congress in Arizona in a district that borders Mexico to unseat Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani.\n (JoAnna Mendoza campaign) \n\n\n\n
Mendoza said she talks to the Hell Cats practically every day. Like a “buddy check” in the Army, the group chat gives them a space to talk about what they’re going through. They share news, operational advice and execution strategies. They discuss all the ways they’re shocked and horrified by the current administration’s actions. And they share news of other veterans taking the leap into politics.
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“When you see other people jumping in and you understand the oath of service, you say to yourself, ‘Shit, they’re jumping into the fight — I need to get in there too,’” Mendoza said. “And I think that’s why we’re starting to see so many veterans step up to run as Democrats.”
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According to With Honor data, more than 560 veterans are running for Congress this cycle — about half are Republicans, 42 percent are Democrats and 7 percent are Independents. It’s the highest percentage of Democrats recorded.
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“Look, Democrats have conceded the American flag and what it means to be a patriot to the Republican Party, and we need to take that back because that does not belong to one political party,” Mendoza said.
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Conley, the daughter of a U.S. postal worker and a construction worker, grew up in the Hudson Valley, where her working-class family has lived for generations. She was a junior in high school when the 9/11 attacks devastated her community and the nation and ultimately led her to a decade of service in the Special Operations community. In her final two years in uniform, Conley served as the director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council staff, where she oversaw security in the 2024 elections.
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“In the days that followed the election, when the mission was over, we sat and reflected on what transpired,” Conley said. “We reflected on how much it matters to get leaders of character and public servants back into the political arena. I know we need less politicians in political office and more leaders who are going to put the public first.”
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Soon after, she felt an urgency to do more. Conley is now running for New York’s 17th District, currently represented by Republican Rep. Mike Lawler.
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Conley said she wants to help rebuild a country where the middle class feels like the American Dream is still real. Conley has criticized Lawler for supporting a House budget resolution that would likely cut funds to Medicaid and food aid programs.
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“I didn’t fight overseas for our freedoms just to watch the freedoms of Americans be clawed back right here at home,” Conley said.
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She decided to run for Congress and soon after met the Hell Cats.
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Cait Conley, a combat veteran and former national security official, is running as a Democrat for Congress in New York’s 17th District.\n (Cait Conley campaign) \n\n\n\n
“On this journey, friendship has been such a special thing,” Conley said. “Looking at all of the things I’ve ever done in life, and certainly all of the hardest ones, you accomplish because of the team you build. And it has been so incredibly special to be able to take this type of challenge on with fellow veterans and servants who are also in this because they believe in this country.”
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Conley’s campaign has raised more than $1.9 million, with the vast majority coming from individual donors, according to the latest campaign data released last week.
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“Women veterans know the importance of delivering results, and people are so badly hoping for a leadership they can believe in again,” Conley said. “It’s not about self-promotion or advancement. It’s about public service. And I do think we have a no-nonsense approach to life where we set out to do the hard because we know it must be done, and excuses don’t cut it.”
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Sullivan, a Marine Iraq veteran and former Obama administration official and mother of three, said she grew up in a military family with both of her grandfathers serving in World War II. She was taught the importance of a life of service — and she sees a pressing need in the country now.
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“I’ve fought for this country, and I’m sure as heck not going to give up on it,” Sullivan said. “We’re seeing polarization, political violence, attacks on our institutions and attacks on the way of life.”
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Sullivan said people in the competitive 1st District of New Hampshire — currently represented by Rep. Chris Pappas, a Democrat, who is running for a seat in the Senate this year — are not asking for anything unreasonable: decent jobs, affordable health care, good public schools, clean air and water, low energy costs, and safe neighborhoods for kids to grow up in. And that’s why she said she is running for office.
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Sullivan’s campaign has raised more than $1.9 million, more than any other Democrat or Republican in her race, according to the latest campaign data released last week.
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“We, the Hell Cats, are the leaders that this moment requires,” Sullivan said. “These are serious times, and they call for serious people. And we have a saying among us that steel sharpens steel. We make each other better.”
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Maura Sullivan, a Marine Iraq veteran, former Obama administration official and mother of three, is running as a Democrat for Congress in New Hampshire’s 1st District.\n (Maura Sullivan Campaign) \n\n\n\n
Erika Cornelius Smith, a director of research strategy at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said even as more women veterans run for office, structural barriers persist, including recruitment pipeline problems, inaccessible fundraising networks and stereotypes about authority.
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“With women veterans, it’s like two forward, one step sideways as the credibility boost from their service meets the gender double bind,” said Cornelius Smith, author of 2022 book, “Service Above Self,” about women with military, quasimilitary or intelligence backgrounds entering political office. “They’re supposed to show strength, but be warm. They’re supposed to be decisive, but we also expect them to be soft and collaborative.”
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Many of these women are also mothers, Cornelius Smith noted, and their campaigns balance the identities commander and caregiver. The Hell Cats, as a group, challenge voters’ preconceived notions about who can lead in the United States.
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“They kind of embody this new archetype of women candidates, or an emerging archetype, and they’re connected to the historic lineage of women warriors, adding emotional and symbolic weight,” she said
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When her first son was born, Sullivan said, her perspective on life changed and she became even more invested in the future of the country and building healthy communities for children to grow up in.
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“Nobody fights harder than a mom who is also a Marine,” Sullivan said.
","category":"global","author":"Mariel Padilla","publishDate":"2026-02-11T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Rebecca_Bennett.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/hell-cats-women-veterans-house-candidates/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-11T12:00:47.690Z"},{"id":"77hd46","slug":"for-many-incarcerated-women-the-state-is-their-abuser","title":"For Many Incarcerated Women, the State Is Their Abuser","excerpt":"Let me tell you what it's like to live in state-sanctioned, gender-based violence. In prison, we wake up when male guards tell us to. We wear what they tell us to wear. We eat what they give us, when they decide to give it.","content":"
Let me tell you what it's like to live in state-sanctioned, gender-based violence.
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In prison, we wake up when male guards tell us to. We wear what they tell us to wear. We eat what they give us, when they decide to give it. We go where they permit, speak when they allow, and exist under their constant surveillance. Our bodies belong to the state. Our movements are controlled. Our communications are monitored. They have the power to deny or delay our medical care, and our complaints go ignored or punished.
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Incarcerated journalist Kwaneta Harris explains that when we tolerate sexual assault in women's prisons, we signal that the state can commit violence against people without consequences.
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The post For Many Incarcerated Women, the State Is Their Abuser appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Kwaneta Harris","publishDate":"2026-02-10T23:07:40.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GettyImages-1210676477.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/10/incarcerated-women-gender-based-violence/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-11T00:00:28.533Z"},{"id":"ftpppa","slug":"you-could-save-thousands-of-dollars-this-tax-season-20268230but-dont-thank-trump","title":"You Could Save Thousands of Dollars This Tax Season (2026)...But Don’t Thank Trump","excerpt":"Tax season has arrived! Between now and April 15, you should plan to file your tax year 2025 taxes. Despite what you may have heard, the tax and budget law passed by Trump and congressional Republicans last year did not meaningfully improve tax benefits for most families, and in fact, has made it ev...","content":"
Tax season has arrived! Between now and April 15, you should plan to file your tax year 2025 taxes. Despite what you may have heard, the tax and budget law passed by Trump and congressional Republicans last year did not meaningfully improve tax benefits for most families, and in fact, has made it even harder for families to make ends meet. The real winners from the Big Ugly Law are billionaires and mega-corporations who will be receiving billions in dollars in tax breaks this tax season and in tax seasons to come.
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Read below for more context on these recent tax changes, and follow our steps to make sure you don’t miss out on any current tax benefits for you and your family.
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Claim Federal Benefits for Families
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\nDo you have children? You may be eligible for the Child Tax Credit (CTC) , which provides families up to $2,200 for each child under the age of 17. \nDid you have earned income in 2025? You may be eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) , which provides up to $8,046 for workers raising children at home and up to $649 for workers who do not have children or aren’t currently raising children at home. The size of your credit will depend on your income, your marital status, and the size of your family. \nDo you pay for child care so you can work or look for work? You may be eligible for the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) , which provides up to $2,100 to help cover out-of-pocket child and dependent care expenses from 2025. This includes expenses for child care, babysitters, and summer camps. \n \n
Don’t Forget State Benefits
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In addition to the federal tax credits, your family may be eligible for tax benefits through your state. State tax credits often mirror the federal tax credits, so if you are eligible for the federal CTC, EITC, or CDCTC, check to see if you are eligible for your state’s version as well.
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\n16 states (including the District of Columbia) have state CTCs. Find out if your state has a CTC here . \n32 states (including the District of Columbia) have state EITCs. Find out if your state has an EITC here . \n30 states (including the District of Columbia) have state CDCTCs or other child and dependent care tax provisions. Find out if your state provides a state version of the CDCTC here . \n \n
Get Help Filing Your Taxes
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Unfortunately, the Trump administration ended the tremendously successful Direct File program last year, which allowed taxpayers and families to file tax returns with the IRS quickly, easily, and for free. There is other preparation assistance still available, including through:
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Make Sure the Tax Code Works for Families—Not Just the Wealthy Few
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While we’re thinking about taxes, a reminder: In July of last year, congressional Republicans and Donald Trump passed massive tax cuts for billionaires and mega-corporations—at the expense of everyone else. To pay for these cuts, the Big Ugly Law makes drastic cuts to Medicaid, food programs, and higher education. And the few purportedly “pro-family” and “pro-worker” provisions in the law also give tax dollars away to businesses and the richest rather than everyday families.
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While families with incomes in the lowest 10% will be worse off by $1,200 a year under this law (without even factoring in the effects of the Trump administration’s tariffs ), the top 10% will receive on average an additional $13,600 per year . Even more egregiously, the top .01% will receive—on average—an additional $83,095 in a single year.
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We don’t need any more tax breaks for billionaires. We need a tax code that works better for women and families, and ensures the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share.
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The post You Could Save Thousands of Dollars This Tax Season (2026)…But Don’t Thank Trump appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"activism","author":"Amelia Packham","publishDate":"2026-02-10T20:20:12.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/NWLC_Website_Blog_SaveMoneyThisTaxSeason-1024x576-1.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/you-could-save-thousands-of-dollars-this-tax-season-2026-but-dont-thank-trump/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-11T00:00:29.288Z"},{"id":"a4rg25","slug":"the-filipino-american-legacy-of-fighting-for-freedom-is-taking-on-trump","title":"The Filipino-American legacy of fighting for freedom is taking on Trump","excerpt":"This piece was published in partnership with The Xylom, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on global health and environmental disparities. LOS ANGELES — Nurses, labor organizers and survivors of a brutal dictatorship are banding together to apply lessons learned from anti-authoritarian organizing in the...","content":"
This piece was published in partnership with The Xylom , a nonprofit newsroom reporting on global health and environmental disparities.
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LOS ANGELES — Nurses, labor organizers and survivors of a brutal dictatorship are banding together to apply lessons learned from anti-authoritarian organizing in the Philippines to the present-day United States.
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Political activist Myrla Baldonado became one of the “forced disappearances” under Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., in 1983. She was kidnapped by state agents , swept away to a secret location, tortured and then imprisoned for two years.
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She sees echoes of what she experienced in the United States today. But she has hope that nonviolent protests, like the No Kings rallies, can enact change the same way they did in the Philippines. Nearly two million people marched down Epifanio delos Santos Avenue, or EDSA, in 1986 to protest against the Marcos regime. The disgraced dictator abandoned his office and fled to the United States.
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“The lesson is that dictators fall. I mean, since time immemorial, this happened, from Nazi Germany to what happened during the ESDA Revolution and many other dictators. You all fall down,” Baldonado said. “It’s only a matter of time that they do.”
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She wants people who are despairing or mired in hopelessness to know that the more cruel those in power become, the harder more and more people will fight back.
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Joe Arciaga, a nurse and veteran, is the driving force behind bringing the No Kings rallies to Historic Filipinotown , a residential enclave west of Downtown Los Angeles. He wanted to link local activism with national pro-democracy movements, and founded the Filipino American Lakas Collective in 2025. Through that, he pulled together the rallies in Unidad Park in June and October. Now he’s gearing up for round three, in March.
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Joe Arciaga, a nurse and veteran, helped bring the No Kings rallies to Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles to link local activism with national pro-democracy movements.\n (Walter Tabayoyong) \n\n\n\n
Lakas — “strength” in Tagalog — is new, but it joins a rich network of community groups that have been organizing for civil and labor rights for decades. Led by advocates for Filipino health care and domestic workers, many of whom are single women new to the country, they have mobilized to support their community as violent Immigrations and Customs Enforcement actions increased across the city.
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At the rallies, titos and titas handed out water and freshly baked pandesal, reminiscing of when their legs were strong enough to march all the way to City Hall. American and Philippine flags were interspersed with signs equating President Donald Trump with former Philippine leaders Marcos and Rodrigo Duterte.
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California is home to 40 percent of the nation’s Filipino Americans, and the Los Angeles metropolitan area is home to the largest population of Filipinos outside of the Philippines.
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The long arm of American imperialism played a role in these current demographics. The Philippines was an American colony until 1946. During that time, nursing schools were built and maintained by the colonial government. When immigration quotas were abolished in 1965 , it became easier for Filipinos to immigrate to the United States, and many women nurses were encouraged to do so as the Marcos administration sought to grow the economy with diaspora funds.
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At home, the democratically elected Marcos prolonged his presidency and concentrated power through martial law beginning in 1972. That spelled danger for activists like Baldonado, who started protesting against the Marcos administration when she was in college. She continued her activism for over a decade, cutting contact with her family for their safety and going by a different name. But in 1983, government agents grabbed her from a library. Baldonado became one of the regime’s “forced disappearances,” held in a secret location and tortured. After a couple weeks she was transferred to a jail, where she was imprisoned for two years. Baldonado was free but still recovering from her ordeal when the People Powered Revolution overthrew Marcos in a mostly bloodless uprising in 1986.
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At the No Kings rally in June, she brought red carnations and passed them out to the attendees.
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“No one believed we could bring down Marcos without bloodshed,” Baldonado said later in an interview. “The flower was a symbol of that, the urge for people to do it in the nonviolent way and to deescalate.”
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Baldonado’s American chapter began in 2006, when she immigrated and took a job as a home care worker. The conditions were untenable: She experienced verbal abuse and sexual harassment, and her pay averaged only $5 per hour.
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There is a long history of Filipina protest responding to various issues that impact the immigrant community, such as this 2017 New York City march to the German consulate during a rally to support two Filipina domestic workers in their lawsuit against a German diplomat. \n (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) \n\n\n\n
Baldonado began organizing for better working conditions for caregivers and domestic workers, first in Chicago and then across the nation. Her work was honored by the Obama administration.
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Now, she works as the director of community engagement at the Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California, continuing to advocate for care workers. Many of the people she works with are middle-aged single women who immigrated from the Philippines — similar to her story.
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In the new Trump administration, the center has been hosting immigrant rights trainings and supporting detained Angelenos. Baldonado sees the hopelessness overtaking people in the wake of rising violence from the state, but she believes change will come through people-powered action, just like it eventually did against Marcos.
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“We want them to see that there is still a glimmer of hope, despite all the difficulties that we are having right now,” she said. “History has shown that dictators don’t remain forever.” Baldonado knows that intimately.
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At the No Kings rally in October, Jollene Levid climbed onto a park bench and read off the notes she had just finished compiling on her phone.
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“We are here today as Filipinos, Filipino Americans, as immigrants, workers, communities of color to remind Trump that this is not 1565,” she cried.
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“We Filipinos will never bow to a crown — from Spain to the Imperial Japanese and American colonizer, to Donald Trump and his cronies, we say NO KINGS!”
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Levid had not imagined herself speaking to a crowd. But her mentors, the women who taught her how to build collective power, instilled in her the necessity of translating revolutionary ideas to everyday language.
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Like Baldonado, Levid has dedicated her life to the power of collective organizing. Since college she knew she wanted to work with unions. She started organizing as an undergrad, but something felt out of place in those activist spaces: “Women’s issues were always secondary,” she said. “It was almost like always an afterthought. But my experience growing up in an immigrant family as the eldest daughter I knew was always informed by my gender, my sex.”
\n\n\n\n
When she went to an event hosted by a feminist collective in college, everything clicked into place. Now her political home is AF3IRM , a feminist group fighting imperialism around the world. She has served on the leadership of the national organization and is active in the Los Angeles chapter.
\n\n\n\n
AF3IRM has been active in local communities, protesting ICE as well as American intervention in Venezuela and Iran. “We’ve been hitting the streets and organizing new women to join us,” Levid said.
\n\n\n\n
Jollene Levid (center) spoke during the No Kings rally in Historic Filipinotown on October 18, 2025. \n (Courtesy Joe Arciaga) \n\n\n\n
Levid’s family is from north east Los Angeles, one of the most concentrated areas of Filipino Americans in the country, and she still lives there today. But her day job as an organizer for the United Teachers of Los Angeles takes her all over the city.
\n\n\n\n
She has always chosen to work for unions in fields dominated by women. Education and health care are some of the largest sources of overseas Filipina workers, and they wield power differently. “When those women workers strike, the facilities can’t work without them,” Levid said. “Filipino women have been instrumental in these types of labor fights.”
\n\n\n\n
Levid has been busy in 2026, as 94 percent of the teachers union she works for voted in favor of a strike if benefits negotiations stall out.
\n\n\n\n
Levid’s advocacy for workers took a new tack in 2020. After her aunt, Rosary Castro-Olega , became the first health care worker in Los Angeles County to die during the Covid-19 pandemic, Levid dedicated herself to documenting the deaths of Filipino health care workers.
\n\n\n\n
She was part of a group that scoured obituaries to create Kanlungan , a digital memorial. Their data work laid the foundation for future studies that found Filipinos made up a disproportionate amount of nurse deaths during the first year of the pandemic. The numbers are stark: 4 percent of nurses in the United States are Filipino, but they accounted for 26 percent of nursing deaths during that time.
\n\n\n\n
Her work drew the attention of Arciaga, who co-produced “Nurse Unseen,” a 2023 documentary about the history of Filipino nurses and their caregiving during the height of the pandemic.
\n\n\n\n
The topic is personal to Arciaga, whose family left the Philippines after Marcos declared martial law. After serving in Operation Desert Storm during the Gulf War, he entered nursing, encouraged by his wife — who is also a nurse — thinking it would be temporary. Instead, the decision sparked a decades-long career.
\n\n\n\n
Arciaga says it’s an honor to join the ranks of Filipino nurses who have come before him, and he is a member of the Philippine Nurses Association of America.
\n\n\n\n
Arciaga was active in numerous local organizations, but he didn’t see anyone coordinating with national efforts.
\n\n\n\n
“I want to live in a world, a society that respects civil liberties, that respects freedom,” Arciaga said. “I want a government that respects democracy and the rule of law, and I want my legacy to be that of someone who stood up.”
\n\n\n\n
He co-founded the Echo Park chapter of Indivisible, the national progressive organization, and the Filipino American Lakas Collective, a group organizing for civil liberties and democracy. And when Indivisible announced the No Kings rallies, he wanted to host one. But he had never put together a protest before.
\n\n\n\n
Filipino-Americans hold a rally against Asian hate on March 30, 2022 in Foley Square, New York City after four elderly Filipina women were attacked in a single week. \n (John Nacion/NurPhoto/AP) \n\n\n\n
So he called up Levid, who he met during the production of “Nurse Unseen,” remembering her experience as a union organizer. Levid shared resources she had made and trained volunteers on how to host a successful action. She helped organize the rally in June – and the following one in October, where she agreed to speak. She didn’t know how much larger the crowd would be the second time around.
\n\n\n\n
Wearing all black in the blazing sun, Levid didn’t speak for long, but by the end of her speech the crowd was energized. “They have never and will never break the revolutionary spirit of women’s resistance,” Levid yelled before starting a chant.
\n\n\n\n
“When women and children are under attack, what do we do?”
\n\n\n\n
“Stand up, fight back!” the crowd cheered.
\n\n\n\n
“When our community is under attack, what do we do?”
\n\n\n\n
“Stand up, fight back!”
\n\n\n\n
With two protests under his belt, Arciaga is gearing up for the third No Kings rally, planned for March 28. It will take place at Unidad Park again, where a diverse community will assemble beneath an enormous mural of Filipino freedom fighters .
\n\n\n\n
The name of the mural is “Gintong Kasaysayan, Gintong Pamana.”
\n\n\n\n
Its meaning: A glorious history, a golden legacy.
","category":"activism","author":"Jasmine Mithani","publishDate":"2026-02-10T19:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/filipina-protest_02.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/filipino-american-freedom-marcos-trump/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-11T00:00:29.084Z"},{"id":"y0qkpc","slug":"what-irans-crackdown-looks-like-from-inside-a-q038a-with-nasrin-sotoudeh-and-reza-khandan","title":"What Iran’s Crackdown Looks Like From Inside: A Q&A With Nasrin Sotoudeh and Reza Khandan","excerpt":"As mass protests and a deadly crackdown grip Iran, human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh speaks from Tehran while her husband, activist Reza Khandan, calls in from Evin Prison—offering a rare, firsthand account of repression, resistance and the stakes for democracy inside the country.","content":"
As mass protests and a deadly crackdown grip Iran, human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh speaks from Tehran while her husband, activist Reza Khandan, calls in from Evin Prison—offering a rare, firsthand account of repression, resistance and the stakes for democracy inside the country.
\n
\"My message has always been to use all non-violent means to persuade governments to uphold democracy and human rights. Small actions can have big impacts.\"
\n
\"... You can’t bomb a country into democracy.\"
\n
The post What Iran’s Crackdown Looks Like From Inside: A Q&A With Nasrin Sotoudeh and Reza Khandan appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Jeff Kaufman","publishDate":"2026-02-10T18:42:26.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2257398359.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/10/iran-protest-nasrin-sotoudeh-reza-khandan-evin-prison/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-11T00:00:28.533Z"},{"id":"8usc4j","slug":"olympians-on-olympians-women-athletes-honor-the-trailblazers-who-made-todays-games-possible","title":"Olympians on Olympians: Women Athletes Honor the Trailblazers Who Made Today’s Games Possible","excerpt":"Organizers of the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics are touting “the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games in history,” reflecting years of pressure from athletes who have questioned why women and men do not always have the same number of events or chances to participate.","content":"
Organizers of the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics are touting “the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games in history,” reflecting years of pressure from athletes who have questioned why women and men do not always have the same number of events or chances to participate.
\n
These gains did not happen on their own—they are the result of sustained advocacy by women athletes who have pushed the International Olympic Committee to expand women’s participation, add events, and commit to gender equity in both athlete quotas and medal opportunities. Even as parity edges closer, competitors and supporters continue to call out the remaining gaps—keeping the pressure on Olympic leadership to deliver full equality across all sports.
\n
The post Olympians on Olympians: Women Athletes Honor the Trailblazers Who Made Today’s Games Possible appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Look What SHE Did!","publishDate":"2026-02-10T18:30:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Julie-Nichols-on-Bonnie-Clair-Astonishing-Duet-1-scaled-1600x1066-c-default.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/10/women-olympics-gender-parity/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-11T00:00:28.533Z"},{"id":"azq2o5","slug":"analilia-mejia-wins-new-jersey-special-election-primary","title":"Analilia Mejia wins New Jersey special election primary","excerpt":"Progressive activist Analilia Mejia has won in the Democratic primary in a special election for New Jersey’s safely blue House seat, emerging from a crowded field to clinch a narrow victory days after the Thursday contest. In a field of nearly a dozen candidates, Mejia ran just ahead of former Rep.","content":"
Progressive activist Analilia Mejia has won in the Democratic primary in a special election for New Jersey’s safely blue House seat, emerging from a crowded field to clinch a narrow victory days after the Thursday contest.
\n\n\n\n
In a field of nearly a dozen candidates, Mejia ran just ahead of former Rep. Tom Malinowski, who on Tuesday conceded , saying he would support his opponent in the April general election. He also slammed pro-Israel group AIPAC, which spent millions in ad money against him in the contest, ahead of the state’s other upcoming primaries in June.
\n\n\n\n
Mejia will face Republican Joe Hathaway in the general election in two months, with the Democrat heavily favored to win in the district. The winner will complete the congressional term of Mikie Sherrill, who was elected governor in November.
\n\n\n\n
Mejia, a union organizer, ran on a platform of affordability for the working class, including more funding for child care and raising taxes on the highest earners. She got endorsements from notable progressive lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who held a rally with her during the campaign. She also backs abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and raising the minimum wage.
\n\n\n\n
Her campaign focused on upending the “any old blue” model of Democratic politics.
\n\n\n\n
“If you send weak sauce to Congress, we will get weak sauce back,” she said at a rally with Sanders last month.
","category":"activism","author":"Marissa Martinez","publishDate":"2026-02-10T15:53:27.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Analilia-Mejia_new_jersey.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/analilia-mejia-new-jersey-primary/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-10T18:00:34.561Z"},{"id":"vvy5vk","slug":"a-letter-to-my-future-self-in-a-time-of-undoing","title":"A Letter to My Future Self in a Time of Undoing","excerpt":"This essay is one of three “Letters to My Future Self” included in Flipping the Menopause Script Is Essential to Democracy . Through personal reflection, political memory and spiritual inquiry, these letters consider menopause and midlife as thresholds—moments of undoing, reckoning and renewal.","content":"
This essay is one of three “Letters to My Future Self” included in Flipping the Menopause Script Is Essential to Democracy . Through personal reflection, political memory and spiritual inquiry, these letters consider menopause and midlife as thresholds—moments of undoing, reckoning and renewal. They invite readers to see aging not as decline, but as a site of transformation, agency and hard-won power.
\n
\"Since we were born in 1967 ... we were told, implicitly and explicitly, that we were the first generation of Black children born into the fullness of freedom promised by law. The first generation of Black women was meant to be fully protected by the government. Free to vote without obstruction. Free to be educated without limits. Free to open a bank account, hold a credit card and own property. Free to marry who we loved. Free to live without our rights being constantly renegotiated.
\n
\"That was the promise we inherited. ...
\n
\"Menopause sharpened my understanding that rights, like bodies, require attending to and care. That neglect is a political choice. That erosion is not accidental. That what happens to aging bodies mirrors what happens to democracies that refuse to honor those most impacted by time, labor and sacrifice. So I am writing to you, Future Me, because I want us to meet each other awake.
\n
\"Who are we when I finally arrive?
\n
\"Are we softer without being smaller? Stronger without armor? Have we learned how to rest without apology? Have we let go of the belief that our worth must be proven through exhaustion? ...
\n
\"If you are an ancestor now, please remind me of what mattered most. Not the accolades. Not the fear. Not the scarcity. Remind me that I belonged to myself. That I belonged to my people. That I trusted the wisdom of my changing body.\"
\n
(This essay is part of the latest Women & Democracy installment, published in the middle of Black History Month, in partnership with Black Girls’ Guide to Surviving Menopause . Menopause is not only a physical transition—it is also cultural, social and political. Recognizing its full scope is essential to advancing true health and civic equity.)
\n
The post A Letter to My Future Self in a Time of Undoing appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Omisade Burney-Scott","publishDate":"2026-02-10T15:35:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/JAD09581-scaled.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/10/menopause-older-women-aging-democracy-politics/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-10T18:00:34.300Z"},{"id":"85g2i4","slug":"a-letter-to-my-future-self-menopause-joy-and-black-queer-becoming","title":"A Letter to My Future Self: Menopause, Joy and Black Queer Becoming","excerpt":"Elan Pratt writes toward her future self, exploring Black queer joy, intergenerational healing and the power of story to carry us forward. \"When I attended Iranti Ẹ̀jẹ̀, the writer and activist Rachel Cargle led a guided meditation enabling participants to interact with their future self.","content":"
Elan Pratt writes toward her future self, exploring Black queer joy, intergenerational healing and the power of story to carry us forward.
\n
\"When I attended Iranti Ẹ̀jẹ̀, the writer and activist Rachel Cargle led a guided meditation enabling participants to interact with their future self.
\n
\"I closed my eyes and created a portal to my 48 year-old self’s house. She was making soup in her kitchen, her hair was long and loc’d, her chest was flat. ...
\n
\"we were prompted to relay a statement to ourselves. I told myself, 'The laughter is my favorite,' to which my future self replied, 'The laughter remains.' And with all the madness in the world, it’s incredibly comforting that the laughter will remain. That joy will still be found through struggle, as it always has. As Black folks, it’s how we have always pushed through—not just to survive, but to thrive.\"
\n
(This essay is part of the latest Women & Democracy installment, published in the middle of Black History Month, in partnership with Black Girls’ Guide to Surviving Menopause . Menopause is not only a physical transition—it is also cultural, social and political. Recognizing its full scope is essential to advancing true health and civic equity.)
\n
The post A Letter to My Future Self: Menopause, Joy and Black Queer Becoming appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"resilience","author":"Elan Pratt","publishDate":"2026-02-10T15:30:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Attendees_906A9159-scaled.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/10/peri-menopause-midlife-joy-black-queer-women/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-10T18:00:34.300Z"},{"id":"6zsb3","slug":"the-incomplete-story-of-menopause-where-medical-racism-patriarchy-and-white-empiricism-intersect","title":"The Incomplete Story of Menopause: Where Medical Racism, Patriarchy and White Empiricism Intersect","excerpt":"Like many of the women in my family, I had early menopause and had completed the process by the age of 50, the same as my mother. The alarming truth is that we know more about reproductive organs in other species than we do our own.","content":"
Like many of the women in my family, I had early menopause and had completed the process by the age of 50, the same as my mother.
\n
The alarming truth is that we know more about reproductive organs in other species than we do our own. Our limited societal understanding of the lifespan of ovarian function is a casualty of the intersection of medical racism, patriarchy and white empiricism.
\n
The story will remain incomplete until we have our research and clinical care guided by the menopausal experiences of those who experience it.
\n
(This essay is part of the latest Women & Democracy installment, published in the middle of Black History Month, in partnership with Black Girls’ Guide to Surviving Menopause . Menopause is not only a physical transition—it is also cultural, social and political. Recognizing its full scope is essential to advancing true health and civic equity.)
\n
The post The Incomplete Story of Menopause: Where Medical Racism, Patriarchy and White Empiricism Intersect appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Monica McLemore","publishDate":"2026-02-10T15:25:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Attendees_906A9200-scaled.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/10/racism-menopause-black-women-research-science/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-10T18:00:34.300Z"},{"id":"33vljv","slug":"letters-to-my-future-self-choosing-yourself-is-the-turning-point","title":"Letters to My Future Self: Choosing Yourself Is the Turning Point","excerpt":"One of three “Letters to My Future Self” featured in Flipping the Menopause Script Is Essential to Democracy . Blending poetry, spiritual reflection and lived experience, these letters explore menopause and midlife as sites of transformation, rest and reclamation.","content":"
One of three “Letters to My Future Self” featured in Flipping the Menopause Script Is Essential to Democracy . Blending poetry, spiritual reflection and lived experience, these letters explore menopause and midlife as sites of transformation, rest and reclamation.
\n
\"Let the cleavage of your wound smile out at the world from your unbuttoned dress. You know how to do it. This is an exercise in nerve. You need nerve to be free. (And you need freedom to fulfill your earthly mission.) ...
\n
\"The liminality you are in is a temporary chrysalis. Your whole being is restructuring, and you're shedding the parts of you that are no longer useful. When you emerge, you'll soar.\"
\n
(This essay is part of the latest Women & Democracy installment, published in the middle of Black History Month, in partnership with Black Girls’ Guide to Surviving Menopause . Menopause is not only a physical transition—it is also cultural, social and political. Recognizing its full scope is essential to advancing true health and civic equity.)
\n
The post Letters to My Future Self: Choosing Yourself Is the Turning Point appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"resilience","author":"Sawdayah Brownlee","publishDate":"2026-02-10T15:20:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/IMG_0044-copy.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/10/menopause-black-women-power-mental-health-poetry-holidays/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-10T18:00:34.300Z"},{"id":"ssonzb","slug":"midwifery-is-for-menopause-too","title":"Midwifery Is for Menopause, Too","excerpt":"When I was younger, I remembered the kitchen turning into a collective of family midwives. Without understanding, they boisterously discussed the “change of life,” “personal summers” and somebody being “carefree, hot in the pants.","content":"
When I was younger, I remembered the kitchen turning into a collective of family midwives. Without understanding, they boisterously discussed the “change of life,” “personal summers” and somebody being “carefree, hot in the pants.” They waved their hands in praise, testifying, \"Tell it!\" \"Who you tellin'!\" \"Just you wait!\"
\n
Their language seemed mysterious to me since I was less than six months into menarche. The only reason I was allowed in that sacred space was because I started my period. I was seen and not heard. But I was an audience in this menopause reverie.
\n
Midwives, for centuries, chose who they passed on the secrets of the womb. These secrets included how to support those beyond their childbearing years and whose bleeding cycle unexpectedly came to an end. My family's knowledge was passed down during the communing of the midwives and womb bearers.
\n
Midwifery is individualized care. It’s my #1 favorite aspect of the profession. Midwifery includes the menopausal experience. In my one-hour appointments, each person is able to talk freely. I listen, gather precious information, hear their concerns, hopes and expectations, so that I can offer care that's specifically designed for their journey. To improve their reproductive and menopausal health, we discuss their experience and the differences between perimenopause, menopause and post menopause stages. I want them to feel affirmed and know where they are on their journey. Fourteen years later, and over 50 perimenopausal, menopausal and post-menopause clients later, the individualized care model remains.
\n
(This essay is part of the latest Women & Democracy installment, published in the middle of Black History Month, in partnership with Black Girls’ Guide to Surviving Menopause . Menopause is not only a physical transition—it is also cultural, social and political. Recognizing its full scope is essential to advancing true health and civic equity.)
\n
The post Midwifery Is for Menopause, Too appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"resilience","author":"Racha Tahani Lawler","publishDate":"2026-02-10T15:15:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Racha-Tahani-Lawler.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/10/midwifery-menopause-health/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-10T18:00:34.300Z"},{"id":"bt2mg6","slug":"menopause-in-prison-is-a-public-health-crisis-were-ignoring","title":"Menopause in Prison Is a Public Health Crisis We’re Ignoring","excerpt":"Speaking from a Texas prison, journalist Kwaneta Harris reveals how menopause is neglected and punished for those living under state control. \"You know what menopause looks like for most folks? Maybe some hot flashes at work, some joint pain and mood swings.","content":"
Speaking from a Texas prison, journalist Kwaneta Harris reveals how menopause is neglected and punished for those living under state control.
\n
\"You know what menopause looks like for most folks? Maybe some hot flashes at work, some joint pain and mood swings. Perhaps you adjust your thermostat frequently or get hormone therapy from your doctor.
\n
\"Now let me tell you what menopause looks like under state control. Imagine having a hot flash in a non air-conditioned cell with a recorded temperature of 119 degrees. The guards won’t let you have ice water. You’re bleeding through your state-issued white uniform because you had to beg an 18-year-old man-child for a pad this morning, and he said, 'Maybe later.' You get exactly five tampons a month, along with a handful of pads, if you’re lucky. Your hormones are all over the place, but there’s no hormone replacement therapy. Just Tylenol—if the guards remember.
\n
\"And here’s the kicker: They write you up for having an 'attitude problem' when you’re actually having hormone-induced mood swings from perimenopause. Those write-ups? They keep you from getting parole. So now you’re not just dealing with your biology changing, you’re trapped here longer because your biology is being criminalized.\"
\n
(This essay is part of the latest Women & Democracy installment, published in the middle of Black History Month, in partnership with Black Girls’ Guide to Surviving Menopause . Menopause is not only a physical transition—it is also cultural, social and political. Recognizing its full scope is essential to advancing true health and civic equity.)
\n
The post Menopause in Prison Is a Public Health Crisis We’re Ignoring appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Kwaneta Harris","publishDate":"2026-02-10T15:10:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Kwaneta_Harris.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/10/women-prison-jail-menopause-healthcare-air-conditioning-texas/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-10T18:00:34.300Z"},{"id":"b51mfy","slug":"queering-menopause-a-conversation-on-story-power-and-policy","title":"Queering Menopause: A Conversation on Story, Power and Policy","excerpt":"What would it mean to treat menopause not as a private medical event, but as a collective, political and even spiritual transition—one that spans far more bodies and experiences than mainstream narratives allow? In this wide-ranging conversation, writers and cultural workers Syd Yang and Austen Smit...","content":"
What would it mean to treat menopause not as a private medical event, but as a collective, political and even spiritual transition—one that spans far more bodies and experiences than mainstream narratives allow?
\n
In this wide-ranging conversation, writers and cultural workers Syd Yang and Austen Smith reflect on their own experiences of perimenopause and menopause—experiences shaped by queerness, trans identity, spirituality and community—as well as the broader systems that render many menopausal people invisible.
\n
The post Queering Menopause: A Conversation on Story, Power and Policy appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"resilience","author":"Rev. Syd Yang","publishDate":"2026-02-10T15:05:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/AustenSmith_906A8446-scaled.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/10/queer-menopause-culture-trans-men-nonbinary-health-aging/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-10T18:00:34.300Z"},{"id":"sr4ezr","slug":"alabamas-pretty-cool-plan-for-robots-in-maternity-care-sparks-debate","title":"Alabama’s ‘pretty cool’ plan for robots in maternity care sparks debate","excerpt":"It sounds like something from a science fiction novel, but Alabama officials’ plan to use robots to improve care for rural pregnant women and their babies is real. During a January White House roundtable touting the first grants to states under a new $50 billion rural health fund, Centers for Medica...","content":"
It sounds like something from a science fiction novel, but Alabama officials’ plan to use robots to improve care for rural pregnant women and their babies is real.
\n\n\n\n
During a January White House roundtable touting the first grants to states under a new $50 billion rural health fund, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz called the idea “pretty cool.” Later that day, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, said it is decidedly not cool . And obstetricians and others chimed in on social media to express alarm, with one political activist calling it a “dystopian horror story .”
\n\n\n\n
The disparate responses highlight how excitement over the tech-heavy ideas states pitched in their applications for the federal Rural Health Transformation Program conflicts with the reality that there simply aren’t enough health workers to serve patients in many rural communities. Now, as states prepare to spend their first-year awards, tension is mounting, and nowhere is that strain more visible than in Alabama.
\n\n\n\n
Oz has lauded the state’s proposal to invest in the relatively new technology of robotic ultrasounds.
\n\n\n\n
“Alabama has no OB-GYNs in many of their counties,” Oz said sitting with President Donald Trump and Cabinet members. The dearth of care, he said , prompted the proposal to use robots for ultrasounds on pregnant women.
\n\n\n\n
Britta Cedergren directs the Alabama Perinatal Quality Collaborative and has a firm grip on reality: “No one is using autonomous robots.”
\n\n\n\n
While robotic ultrasounds are a “really neat technology,” she said, they are not yet being used in the state. Instead, clinicians lean for obstetric care on phone consultations and — when equipment and internet are available — telehealth.
\n\n\n\n
The goal, she said, is to “support places where there is no care.”
\n\n\n\n
Cedergren is part of multiple state maternal and fetal health groups and works daily with doctors, hospitals, and first responders. While enhanced technology is vital for patient care, it’s not a replacement for a well-trained workforce and a coordinated care and data system, she said.
\n\n\n\n
A robotic arm remotely controlled by a sonographer hours away in Saskatoon scans a patient.\n (Virtual Health Hub) \n\n\n\n
In 2024, the most recent year for which data is available, Alabama’s infant mortality rate was 7.1 deaths per 1,000 live births. The nationwide rate was 5.5 per 1,000 live births, according to provisional data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
\n\n\n\n
Hospital-based obstetric unit closures, which often lead to a loss of health care providers who can care for expectant mothers and their babies, are a long-standing, ongoing trend in rural America. But Alabama’s loss of services has been particularly profound.
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In 1980, 45 of the state’s 55 rural counties had hospital-based obstetric services. By 2025, only 15 offered such care , according to state data. And the losses aren’t slowing. Five hospital obstetric units closed in 2023 and 2024, including in three rural counties: Monroe, Marengo, and Clarke.
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Katy Backes Kozhimannil , a professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, found that closures in remote areas lead to an increase in preterm births, a leading cause of infant mortality.
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“People will be pregnant and give birth in communities all over the place,” she said. “You have to be able to get to a place where you can be cared for.”
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Nearly all 50 states’ applications for the Rural Health Transformation Program declared workforce shortages and maternal health needs as priorities, but only Alabama proposed using robots to fill the gap. The rural fund, which Congress created as a last-minute sweetener in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer, encouraged states to be creative, be innovative, and pitch tech solutions.
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Alabama was awarded $203 million for the first of the program’s five years. Among nearly a dozen rural health initiatives , the state’s application includes bolstering its rural workforce as well as improving maternal and fetal health.
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Mike Presley, a spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs , which is overseeing the plan, said no one was available for an interview about telerobotic ultrasounds.
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LoRissia Autery, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist in rural Alabama northwest of Birmingham, said the robots won’t decrease maternal and infant mortality. There are nuances, she said, to doing ultrasounds.
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Many of her patients have high-risk pregnancies with diabetes, high blood pressure, and hepatitis C, she said. She said she worries about the kind of care that will be given to her patients, many of whom drive an hour or more to get to her, if robots are used instead of a trained specialist.
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“It takes away just the care that we need to have for women,” said Autery, who co-founded Walker Women’s Specialists . The clinic includes three doctors, draws patients from five counties, and could use an additional physician to meet the demand, Autery said.
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“Probably for the past six or seven years, we’ve been putting out feelers trying to find a fourth partner,” Autery said. “It’s difficult for a variety of reasons.”
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In his social media remarks to Oz, Vermont’s Sanders called the lack of rural health care providers in the U.S. an “international embarrassment.”
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“In the richest country on earth, we need more doctors, nurses, dentists and mental health counselors, not more robots,” Sanders wrote on the social platform X.
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At least one country is using robots paired with trained workers to decrease deaths.
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In the remote Canadian village of La Loche, Julie Fontaine operates an ultrasound robot at a clinic with two on-site nurse practitioners and rotating doctors. She said patients like the robot because it saves them the time and expense of traveling to a bigger regional health care facility six to seven hours away.
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“When people come in, they’re like, ‘Wow, like, technology these days,’” said Fontaine, a member of the Métis people in northern Saskatchewan. “It’s something they’ve never seen before or even used.”
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Julie Fontaine works for the Virtual Health Hub, operating a robotic ultrasound in the remote village of La Loche, Saskatchewan. \n (Julie Fontaine) \n\n\n\n
When working with patients, Fontaine connects the robotic ultrasound machine to a tele-sonographer at a control station in Saskatoon. The sonographer then remotely operates a robotic arm on the machine. A radiologist, who can be anywhere, reads the scan’s report and sends it back to the family doctor in La Loche, said Ivar Mendez, a neurosurgeon and the director of Canada’s Virtual Health Hub . Most babies in Canada, he said, are delivered by family doctors or midwives, not specialists.
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“The most important thing is the identification of a high-risk pregnancy early enough so you can intervene,” said Mendez, who added that the robotic ultrasound is “as good as the in-person ultrasound” but can’t be used when a patient needs a more invasive vaginal ultrasound. The mortality rate for mothers and newborns in the north, site of the La Loche clinic, is 20 to 25 times greater than in the rest of the nation, he said.
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“One of the reasons is that there’s no availability of prenatal ultrasonography in those communities, so pregnant women have to travel to cities and they’re put up at hotels,” he said.
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In a 2022 paper , Mendez and his team at the University of Saskatchewan examined 87 telerobotic ultrasounds and found that 70% of the time, the robotic ultrasound made travel for care unnecessary. Nearly all the patients said they would use the robot again.
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The same robotic ultrasound technology was approved in 2017 for use in the U.S.
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Nicolas Lefebvre, chairman and chief executive of the robot’s creator and manufacturer, AdEchoTech, said the company has “U.S. maternity-specific projects that are currently under preparation.” The average price of a robot will be $250,000 to $350,000, according to AdEchoTech’s U.S.-based business development consultant.
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Using robotic ultrasounds is one part of Alabama’s proposed maternal and fetal health initiative, according to the state’s application . Acknowledging loss of hospital obstetric units, officials said they planned to connect smaller rural providers and health care facilities that lack “high-quality maternal and fetal health services” to regional care hubs that can provide the services digitally, including through telerobotic ultrasound.
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For their workforce initiative, state officials proposed training programs for doctors, emergency services, and nurse-midwives.
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The estimated required funding for the maternal and fetal health initiative is $24 million over five years . Alabama officials proposed $309.75 million for their workforce initiative over five years.
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KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Shyla Nott","publishDate":"2026-02-10T15:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Robotic-ultrasounds-03.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/alabama-robotic-ultrasounds/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-10T18:00:34.561Z"},{"id":"1dr2ml","slug":"iranti-j-and-menopausal-mapping-how-womanist-cartographies-make-people-into-place","title":"Iranti Ẹ̀jẹ̀ and Menopausal Mapping: How Womanist Cartographies Make People Into Place","excerpt":"A Black feminist menopause convening in Durham reimagines “place” as something created by bodies and community—mapping care, memory and power across physical, digital and spiritual terrains often erased from mainstream menopause discourse.","content":"
A Black feminist menopause convening in Durham reimagines “place” as something created by bodies and community—mapping care, memory and power across physical, digital and spiritual terrains often erased from mainstream menopause discourse.
\n
(This essay is part of the latest Women & Democracy installment, published in the middle of Black History Month, in partnership with Black Girls’ Guide to Surviving Menopause . Menopause is not only a physical transition—it is also cultural, social and political. Recognizing its full scope is essential to advancing true health and civic equity.)
\n
The post Iranti Ẹ̀jẹ̀ and Menopausal Mapping: How Womanist Cartographies Make People Into Place appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"resilience","author":"Alexandra Jane","publishDate":"2026-02-10T15:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Attendees_DSC04310-scaled.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/10/black-feminist-women-health-menopause-community/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-10T18:00:34.300Z"},{"id":"sr7uan","slug":"moms-vs-culture-wars-how-suburban-women-flipped-school-boards","title":"Moms vs. culture wars: How suburban women flipped school boards","excerpt":"President Donald Trump’s approval ratings are underwater a year into his second term, amid voter frustration over the economy, immigration enforcement and foreign-policy tensions. A Quinnipiac poll released last week found that just 37 percent of registered voters approve of his job performance.","content":"
President Donald Trump’s approval ratings are underwater a year into his second term, amid voter frustration over the economy, immigration enforcement and foreign-policy tensions. A Quinnipiac poll released last week found that just 37 percent of registered voters approve of his job performance. The signs of discontent are clear in Democrats’ success edging out Republicans in special elections since Trump’s return to the White House — and in the progressive candidates who won school board races last November.
\n\n\n\n
A recent analysis by Red Wine & Blue, a left-leaning network of over 700,000 suburban women working to influence politics at the grassroots level, found that 62 percent of candidates it labeled as “extremist” lost their elections. Meanwhile, 71 percent of the candidates it characterized as “common sense” won competitive school board races in states like Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania, which remains a key battleground in 2026.
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Two-thirds of those winners were challengers, the analysis shows, and more than half were women, including many first-time contenders. It’s a departure from previous election cycles, when culture war themes like face masks, book bans and critical race theory propelled conservative sweeps of these boards.
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“Being a culture warrior did not sell in 2025 because it was such a signal of being out of touch with people’s everyday concerns,” said Red Wine & Blue founder and CEO Katie Paris. “Folks are worried and feeling stressed from all angles, so to have these candidates come in and say the No. 1 thing we should be concerned about are transgender children and what bathroom they use or what sports they play feels incredibly out of touch with the day-to-day realities of people’s lives.”
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While some experts attribute the success of liberal school board candidates to an electorate that craves local stability and has grown tired of the culture wars shaping education, others see it as a result of a lower conservative turnout at the polls.
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“We know, in general, particularly in the last few years, Trump voters generally turn out in presidential years, but do so at much lower rates during off years,” said Vladimir Kogan, a political science professor at The Ohio State University who has researched school boards nationwide and their impact on communities. “So just compositionally, it could be a different set of voters that was just more aligned with Democrats. So even in those conservative areas, it’s likely that the people who turned out in 2025 were different from the people that turned out in 2024.”
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Still, if the progressive shift repeats itself in the high-stakes midterms, school board policies may well move away from polarizing issues like critical race theory, gender identity and parental rights back to the fundamentals of education, such as curriculum and instruction and professional development for teachers.
\n\n\n\n
Last November — across swing states, the Houston suburbs and the historically red city of Colorado Springs, Colorado — candidates associated with right-wing groups lost to their more progressive counterparts who promised to prioritize academics, support educators and reduce political meddling in schools. The parental rights group Moms for Liberty, once influential in school board politics, saw limited success in 2025, with just 17 of its candidates winning their races nationwide.
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Political organizers say the results are more of a delayed backlash against a right-wing agenda than an abrupt ideological change.
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In Texas’ Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District — one of the largest in the state, with roughly 118,000 students — organizers say policy changes fueled a backlash. Backed by national political groups, the district’s far-right board majority spent years banning books, eliminating librarian positions and implementing policies that targeted LGBTQ+ students, including those that could force schools to “out” transgender youth to their parents.
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But voters flipped control of the board in November, electing three educators — Lesley Guilmart, Cleveland Lane Jr. and Kendra Camarena — endorsed by the Texas Freedom Network (TFN), a nonpartisan organization advocating for religious freedom, civil liberties and public education. During their campaigns, these candidates emphasized their desire to listen to families, support teachers and make schools safe and inclusive.
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“When Texas voters actually experience these policies firsthand, they reject them,” TFN Political Director Rocío Fierro-Pérez said of right-wing school board platforms. “This is signaling that people are rejecting far-right ideology, and they’re rejecting elected officials who put politics over kids.”
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The Cypress-Fairbanks results, she added, reflect a broader pattern across Texas, where communities have grown wary of outside influences interfering in local elections and distorting school boards. In the Cypress-Fairbanks district, incumbents backed by conservative groups like Patriot Mobile Action , a Christian Super PAC, lost to challengers who emphasized their backgrounds as educators and parents.
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“These are parents from their community that were affected directly by these policies that the far right was implementing at the school board level,” Fierro-Pérez said. “All three of them oppose these book bans. All three of them are focusing on educational outcomes and not these culture war battles that the right is so focused on. They’re committed to serving all students.”
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In previous years, right-wing candidates won with well-funded campaigns. Last year, though, Fierro-Pérez said that money couldn’t stave off a community fed up with candidates prioritizing political agendas over children’s education.
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Paris agrees that it angers people when billionaires try to sway local elections and ignore the concerns of parents and educators.
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“Relationships matter when it comes to organizing, and you cannot buy relationships with thousands of moms who are working together to protect their children’s schools.”
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In Colorado Springs, two out of three candidates affiliated with the teachers union won their school board races despite facing well-funded opponents. The victories followed a series of board actions that inflamed the culture wars in a city that has become a magnet for conservative causes over the decades.
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“We have a church on every corner of every street in this town,” said Kevin Coughlin, president of the Colorado Springs Education Association. “Focus on the Family, James Dobson . This town has been inundated with Christian right-wing agendas. And we have 90,000 active duty and retired military . So, you’ve got a lot of those folks here, and we don’t always see them fully engaged in the work of our schools because of separation of church and state, but they’re always making decisions for us that we have to follow or abide by, which is uncomfortable at times.”
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In recent years, the school board ended collective bargaining, suspended a teacher over social media comments, censored pages from health textbooks and removed curriculum related to Frederick Douglass. The board also scheduled discussions of new book bans immediately after Election Day.
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“People are nervous and worried, and rightfully so,” Coughlin said. “They’ve attacked our free speech, they’ve attacked our voice, they’ve attacked our leaders, and we’re nervous because we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen next.”
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The wins by the union-backed candidates undid previous defeats that allowed Moms for Liberty-backed candidates to assume control of the board. While not a complete transformation — there are still conservative members on the school board — Coughlin called the recent victories “a step in the right direction.”
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Whether other cities will see similar results in 2026 depends on midterm turnout. Kogan suspects that Democrats will show up at higher rates than Republicans across the country, just as they did in 2018 and 2022.
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“Some of the Trump voters do also sit out the midterm elections, so I think in general, it’s probably the case that it’s going to be a more hospitable electorate for more center-left candidates,” he said.
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Outrage over immigration enforcement could have an impact, since school attendance is down in areas with large populations of students without legal status. While those families aren’t eligible to vote, Kogan said, their treatment by the federal government could “change the types of issues that are salient in those communities.”
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If there is a nationwide backlash to Trump, it will likely follow candidates down the ballot, Kogan said. “So, really, anybody with an R next to their name or anybody perceived to be affiliated with the Republican Party is probably going to pay a price to the extent that public opinion in November is where it is now. That would be my prediction, and that’s what historical data shows us.”
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Paris credits something other than voter turnout for the progressive gains on school boards: organizing to effect change.
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“There are thousands of people, primarily women, on the ground, who know how to do this,” she said. “They know how to create change in their communities, and I think that we’re going to see the impact of that filter up.”
","category":"activism","author":"Nadra Nittle","publishDate":"2026-02-10T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/school_boards.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/suburban-women-moms-school-boards/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-10T12:00:48.598Z"},{"id":"bc8l8t","slug":"independent-clinics-still-provide-most-us-abortions","title":"Independent Clinics Still Provide Most U.S. Abortions","excerpt":"2025 was a year marked by attacks on reproductive freedom, including a staggering wave of forced Planned Parenthood closures. About 50 of Planned Parenthood’s 600 locations have shut down as of December, largely due to last year’s combined loss of Title X funds and Medicaid reimbursements.","content":"
2025 was a year marked by attacks on reproductive freedom, including a staggering wave of forced Planned Parenthood closures. About 50 of Planned Parenthood’s 600 locations have shut down as of December, largely due to last year’s combined loss of Title X funds and Medicaid reimbursements.
\n
In the midst of these closures, independent abortion clinics continue to play a crucial role in the abortion access landscape. Even before last year’s Planned Parenthood cuts, independent clinics provided most U.S. abortions, offering care to women in big cities and rural healthcare deserts alike. In 2025, independent clinics provided 58 percent of U.S. abortions, compared to 38 percent through Planned Parenthood (and 3 and 1 percent through hospitals and doctors’ offices, respectively), according to the annual Communities Need Clinics report from Abortion Care Network (ACN), released in December.
\n
The post Independent Clinics Still Provide Most U.S. Abortions appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Ava Slocum","publishDate":"2026-02-10T01:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-2150469210-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/09/independent-abortion-clinics/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-10T06:00:44.428Z"},{"id":"z5lpg3","slug":"bad-bunnys-super-bowl-show-was-a-love-letter-to-puerto-rico-the-americas-and-the-latino-diaspora","title":"Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Show Was a Love Letter to Puerto Rico, the Americas and the Latino Diaspora","excerpt":"Like a 19th-century sugar cane plantation brought to life, Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show staged a visually rich jíbaro vision of Puerto Rico—the foundational cultural figure representing the island’s self-sufficient, hardworking mountain farmers—in Santa Clara, Calif.","content":"
Like a 19th-century sugar cane plantation brought to life, Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show staged a visually rich jíbaro vision of Puerto Rico—the foundational cultural figure representing the island’s self-sufficient, hardworking mountain farmers—in Santa Clara, Calif., a region long shaped by Spanish colonization and U.S. expansion, on land where Ohlone (specifically Tamien/Tamyen) people lived alongside coastal Miwuk, Patwin and Yokut communities.
\n
The show’s imagery underscored layered histories of colonization and empire that resonated beyond the stadium.
\n
A love letter to Puerto Rico, its diaspora and Latino people across the globe, the performance suggested that love was indeed stronger than hate, as millions danced to the sounds of freedom, whether they recognized it or not.
\n
The post Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Show Was a Love Letter to Puerto Rico, the Americas and the Latino Diaspora appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Nicole Guidotti-Hernández","publishDate":"2026-02-09T21:51:14.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2260111721.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/09/bad-bunny-super-bowl-latino/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-10T00:00:35.154Z"},{"id":"6qyz9w","slug":"san-francisco-teachers-are-on-strike-highlighting-a-pay-crisis-in-a-city-of-tech-bros","title":"San Francisco teachers are on strike, highlighting a pay crisis in a city of tech bros","excerpt":"For the first time in 47 years, teachers are going on strike in a city that routinely ranks among the world's most expensive: San Francisco. The city’s more than 100 public schools are closed after the teachers union and the school district — home to about 50,000 students — could not rea...","content":"
For the first time in 47 years, teachers are going on strike in a city that routinely ranks among the world’s most expensive: San Francisco.
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The city’s more than 100 public schools are closed after the teachers union and the school district — home to about 50,000 students — could not reach an agreement on proposals involving pay, benefits and special education.
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Throughout the country, teachers earn less than comparably educated professionals, a disparity that experts have widely blamed on the gender pay gap since teaching is historically a woman-dominated or “pink-collar ” profession. But in the San Francisco Bay Area — the epicenter of the global tech boom that has revolutionized society, skyrocketed the salaries of its innovators and driven up the cost of living in Northern California — teachers have particularly felt the impact of pay disparities.
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In a region where even earning a six-figure income may not be enough to make ends meet, the salary for a new credentialed teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) is roughly $80,000. But in San Francisco County, the median income is $186,000 , with a median income of $109,700 for a one-person household considered low income.
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An estimated 67 percent of San Francisco’s teachers are women . Their pay is considerably lower than that of teachers in nearby Mountain View , home to Google, and Palo Alto, home to HP (formerly Hewlett-Packard). Their modest salaries have led to San Francisco teachers commuting an hour or more because they can’t afford housing in the city. San Francisco officials have greenlit the opening of new affordable housing units with teachers prioritized as tenants .
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For years, United Educators of San Francisco , the teachers union of more than 6,500 members, has demanded higher pay. Standing on the steps of Mission High School in San Francisco’s historic Mission District, teachers union President Cassondra Curiel on Monday explained the reasons for the strike.
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“It has taken over 10 months of sounding this alarm, negotiating, asking nicely and hearing unfulfilled promises to get to this point; we are still being promised one thing and offered another,” Curiel said. “That’s the truth of today.”
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She said the union, which represents nurses, librarians, paraeducators, speech pathologists and more, will stand together until their members get the contracts they deserve.
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“Our students deserve schools filled with trusted adults who can stay where they can find access to housing when their family experiences a crisis and fully staffed special education programs designed to meet their needs,” Curiel said. “Our educators deserve workloads that allow them to give their students the best, fully funded family health care and wages that keep up with rising costs.”
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The teachers are scheduled to picket at Civic Center Plaza at 1 p.m. local time. In the meantime, members of other unions marched, chanted and drummed outside of the SFUSD headquarters in solidarity — holding signs stating: “Public school employee working conditions are student learning conditions” and “We can’t wait for the future our students deserve.”
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Maria Su, the superintendent of San Francisco Unified, said in a recorded statement that she did not want a strike period, let alone a prolonged one.
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“We are at the table, and we urge UESF to continue the conversation with us,” Su said. “We need to finish this conversation so that our students can stay in the classroom where they belong.”
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San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose district includes most of San Francisco, are among the local leaders who urged the teachers not to strike and to continue negotiating.
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The city is providing free breakfast and lunch to students at multiple locations throughout San Francisco during the first days of the strike and is prepared to do so for an extended period. Temporary child care is also available for strike-impacted children 5 and younger.
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The San Francisco teachers strike comes during a period when big city teachers unions across the country have authorized walkouts. Earlier this month, United Teachers Los Angeles, representing educators in the nation’s second largest school district, authorized a strike amid contract negotiations. Last fall, Minneapolis teachers authorized a strike but reached a deal before walking out was necessary. In August, Philadelphia teachers authorized a strike ahead of the school year but ultimately came to an agreement with their school district as well. And over the past four years, teachers and other personnel in school districts including Columbus, Minneapolis and Seattle ; and Los Angeles , Oakland and Sacramento, in California, have gone on strikes.
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Negotiations between the San Francisco teachers and the district are slated to continue Monday.
","category":"global","author":"Nadra Nittle","publishDate":"2026-02-09T20:05:47.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/SF_teacher_strike.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/san-francisco-teachers-strike-pay-gap-tech-bros/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-10T00:00:36.013Z"},{"id":"shamy6","slug":"number-of-brick-and-mortar-abortion-clinics-declined-slightly-between-2024-and-2025","title":"Number of Brick-and-Mortar Abortion Clinics Declined Slightly Between 2024 and 2025","excerpt":"
Number of Brick-and-Mortar Abortion Clinics Declined Slightly Between 2024 and 2025 Report sramashwar In the coming days, Congress is poised to take up yet another vote on the so-called SAVE (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) America Act. While the bill has been debated before, its renewed momentum makes one thing clear: The implications of the SAVE Act for women voters and women’s political representation are no longer hypothetical. They are immediate. \nTo help unpack what is at stake, and to provide clear, nonpartisan context as Congress moves forward, RepresentWomen is hosting a public, educational webinar on Tuesday, Feb. 10. The nonpartisan, virtual event brings together election experts and members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, including Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) and Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), to provide clear, fact-based context, as debate over the SAVE Act intensifies on Capitol Hill.
\nWhen access to the ballot narrows, representation narrows with it. The SAVE Act would make that trade-off explicit, and women stand to lose the most.
\nThe post The SAVE Act Is Back—and Women’s Political Power Is on the Line appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Alana Persson","publishDate":"2026-02-09T15:18:23.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2170520510-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/09/save-act-women-voters-last-name/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-09T18:00:26.575Z"},{"id":"1llxp1","slug":"sex-educators-are-self-censoring-online-to-avoid-content-bans-does-it-work","title":"Sex Educators Are Self-Censoring Online to Avoid Content Bans. Does it Work?","excerpt":"It's called 'algospeak,' and it looks like 's3x,' 'le$bian,' and 'c00chie.' Some creators swear by it, but experts say it may increase stigma. The post Sex Educators Are Self-Censoring Online to Avoid Content Bans. Does it Work? appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"“Did you know sx isn’t supposed to hurt?” read the words on an Instagram reel posted by the sexual health and wellness company The Pelvic People in early 2025.
\n\n\n\nAt first glance, the missing “e” looks like a typo. But it’s not. A scroll through the Pelvic People’s Instagram page and others like it on the social media platform reveals videos littered with words like “s*x,” “lub3,” and “c00chie.”
\n\n\n\nCommonly referred to as “algospeak,” this popular form of online lingo exists to sidestep algorithms employed by tech companies like Meta, TikTok, and X that penalize or even remove posts for discussing sensitive topics like sex, mental health, or substance use.
\n\n\n\nPosts perform better with “a little bit of censorship,” said Emily Tran, social media manager at the Pelvic Health and Rehabilitation Center, who uses the center’s Instagram, @pelvichealth, to share evidence-based information about sexual health.
\n\n\n\n“If I were to write something about female anatomy and use the correct terms, [the algorithm] might flag it and say that it’s inappropriate,” Tran added.
\n\n\n\nThe algorithm would then reduce the post’s visibility, leading to a decline in engagement—something Tran said happened to the account before she started using algospeak.
\n\n\n\nCreators who discuss sensitive topics often see this kind of self-censorship as essential to posting freely without losing engagement. But, experts said in interviews with Rewire News Group, censored language like algospeak can feed the stigma around these topics and even pose threats to sexual health. And recent research has cast doubt on whether using algospeak actually improves their social media visibility.
\n\n\n\nCensorship begets censorship \n\n\n\nResearchers at the University of St. Cyril and Methodius in Slovakia gathered the most recent 50 Instagram posts from nine sex education accounts that post in English, Slovak, or Czech. They analyzed the likes, comments, and shares on a total of 450 posts to understand overall engagement.
\n\n\n\nThe resulting study , which was published in the journal Media Literacy and Academic Research in June 2025, found no statistically significant decrease in likes and shares between posts that did not use algospeak compared with those that did.
\n\n\n\nResearchers also found a slightly lower number of comments on posts not using algospeak, which they attributed to other potential factors, such as uncensored videos having a more academic tone.
\n\n\n\nAnother limiting factor, the study’s lead author, Michal Kabát said in an interview with Rewire News Group , was that “the accounts don’t use the algospeak consistently.” Still, because a given account often posts content both with and without algospeak, it’s unlikely that his study’s findings are simply explained by more popular accounts using less algospeak.
\n\n\n\nUltimately, algospeak is probably an unnecessary precaution for sex education accounts, Kabát said.
\n\n\n\n“[People] feel this obligation to fit in some unwritten rules somehow,” Kabát said.
\n\n\n\nPromoting censorship of sexual language reinforces taboos about sex and frames sexual organs as inappropriate to acknowledge, Kabát said.
\n\n\n\n“This is not helping to establish open, clear, and taboo-less communication,” Kabát added.
\n\n\n\nIf a topic is portrayed online as forbidden to talk about openly, Kabát said, “[viewers] won’t talk about it either, they won’t use the words, or they’ll also start auto-censoring themselves.”
\n\n\n\nIt’s a phenomenon he said he’s already observed in comment sections, where users, despite having no need to worry about engagement, parrot back the same algospeak used in a post.
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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Why language matters \n\n\n\nSex education is lacking in many school systems in the United States and around the world . Often, the curriculum centers on teaching people to avoid sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies without much discussion of anatomy and sexual health.
\n\n\n\nSocial media can fill in these gaps for many young people by making reliable sexual health information accessible. However, censoring language around these topics online can obstruct clear communication and lead to feelings of shame around uncensored sexual language.
\n\n\n\nThis practice may be especially harmful to those assigned female at birth. People with female anatomy more commonly report experiencing feelings of shame about their genitalia than those with male anatomy,, and studies show that parents often use euphemisms like “down there” and “private parts” when talking about the female genitalia to their children. As a result, even young children are more likely to know the actual names for male genitalia than female genitalia.
\n\n\n\nThis linguistic discomfort with the female anatomy is visible even on TV. For example, a 2023 review of the censorship of the word “vagina” found that network broadcasting officials required the show Grey’s Anatomy to replace the word “vagina” with “vajayjay.” Meanwhile, the word “penis” was said 17 times in a single episode.
\n\n\n\nThat kind of censorship can have real-world impacts on sexual health: “Cryptic language can unintentionally reinforce the idea that sexuality and genital anatomy is shameful,” said Taylor Roebotham, a gynecologist at London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario, Canada. Many of her patients already struggle to explain their symptoms, she added, often because patients lack the language to do so.
\n\n\n\n“I’ve had patients say that they had a problem with their vagina, using the only word that they know for that area of the body,” Roebotham said. “But on exam, they actually had a more musculoskeletal problem with their pubic bone.”
\n\n\n\nCommunication issues like this can delay care because clinicians may refer patients to the wrong specialist or investigate the incorrect area of the body.
\n\n\n\nSometimes, stigma can stop patients from seeking care at all.
\n\n\n\nA 2024 study using interviews with patients with vulvar lichen sclerosus, a chronic skin condition that causes pain, itching, and discoloration to the genitals, found that many participants experienced diagnostic delays because they were uncomfortable talking about their genitals with providers or didn’t even notice there was an issue in the first place.
\n\n\n\n“Some of the women in my study said that they didn’t even think they were supposed to … acknowledge the existence of their vulva,” said Sophie Rees, a social scientist at the University of Bristol who co-authored the 2024 study.
\n\n\n\nHow to avoid algospeak \n\n\n\nIt might seem like Kabát’s study points to ending algospeak altogether as the obvious solution.
\n\n\n\nBut for many sex education creators, getting rid of algospeak completely may not feel like a real possibility. Social media companies are often vague about their content restriction policies, and it’s never quite clear what kind of posts will get them flagged, downvoted, or even banned. For those who earn a living creating content, the threat of financial loss can make uncensored language too great of a risk without clearer content guidelines.
\n\n\n\nMeta, the company that owns Instagram and Facebook, has also been criticized for enforcing its policies inconsistently and failing to provide explanations when posts are restricted. The company has promised to communicate the reasons for restrictions to content, Kabát said, but users themselves claim this doesn’t always happen . Research shows that “shadowbanning,” where a platform reduces the visibility of a user’s posts without notifying them, leaving them aware only of the sudden drop in engagement that results, is prevalent on Instagram.
\n\n\n\nTran, whose job it is to get evidence-based information about sexual health to the public, tries to use algospeak that looks as similar as possible to the language it’s replacing, she said, to avoid making the censorship distracting. “We just want to push out information that we think should be accessible to all,” Tran said, “while creating a community that wants to engage and have conversations.”
\n\n\n\nEven so, experts warn that in the long run, the risks of using algospeak may outweigh the benefits.
\n\n\n\n“If creators collectively returned to medically accurate terminology, would sexual health content disappear entirely? Probably not,” Roebotham said. “Even if algorithms prefer censored language, they still need content, and we should be flooding them with thoughtful information.”
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\n\n\n\n\nThe post Sex Educators Are Self-Censoring Online to Avoid Content Bans. Does it Work? appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-09T13:59:00.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Unnecessary-Algospeak-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/09/sex-educators-are-self-censoring-online-to-avoid-content-bans-does-it-work/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-09T18:00:26.237Z"},{"id":"ek36qm","slug":"as-epa-weakens-air-pollution-regulations-black-women-stand-to-face-the-greatest-health-risks","title":"As EPA weakens air pollution regulations, Black women stand to face the greatest health risks","excerpt":"Rhonda Anderson has spent nearly three decades fighting for clean air and water in Detroit. As an environmental justice organizer with the Sierra Club, she led campaigns to raise awareness about lead poisoning of babies and children in the vicinity of steel mills and is part of a Clean Air Act lawsu...","content":"Rhonda Anderson has spent nearly three decades fighting for clean air and water in Detroit. As an environmental justice organizer with the Sierra Club, she led campaigns to raise awareness about lead poisoning of babies and children in the vicinity of steel mills and is part of a Clean Air Act lawsuit against the EES Coke Battery, a local industrial facility.
\n\n\n\nSo watching the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) taking one step after another to weaken air pollution regulations over the last year has felt “really, pretty much devastating,” she said.
\n\n\n\n“Just looking at my little world, we’ve worked so hard to get a lot of these things recognized,” Anderson said. Most of her work has been in southwest Detroit, which has over 150 industrial facilities and some of the worst air quality in Michigan. Just a year ago, “we had a fifth grader who passed from an asthma attack,” she said.
\n\n\n\nIn addition to overturning dozens of regulations aimed at reducing air pollution to save lives, the EPA has also exempted over 100 industrial facilities, including the Coke Battery plant Anderson has been fighting, from more rigorous rules to reduce pollution, created under the Biden administration.
\n\n\n\nExperts say all these moves combined favor industry while sacrificing public health — and it is Black women like Anderson, as well as their families, who stand to be harmed the most.
\n\n\n\nBlack women already have the highest death rates due to asthma, a condition caused and exacerbated by air pollution. They are four times as likely to die of an asthma-related death as White men, according to a report from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation. Black children are also eight times more likely to die from an asthma attack than White children.
\n\n\n\nOne of the reasons is that these women and their children also disproportionately live in medical deserts with limited health care infrastructure and insurance. Cuts to Medicaid stand to make the risks of asthma even worse. “We know that half of the children with asthma in the U.S. are covered by Medicaid or CHIP,” said Lynne Bosma, health equity director with the Asthma and Allergy Foundation. “If individuals that need that access lose it, they are going to struggle to get medication, specialty care access, and then emergency care as well.”
\n\n\n\nDue to their physiology, women are more likely to develop asthma in adulthood compared to men — and their asthma is also more likely to be severe. Some studies show a connection between the estrogen hormone and asthma, with girls after puberty experiencing higher rates of asthma diagnosis compared to boys. A study from 2025 found that asthma risk is also linked to pregnancy, menopause and even the menstrual cycle.
\n\n\n\nBecause women typically take on caregiving responsibilities, they are also more likely to be tasked with taking care of sick kids when their asthma flares up. This leads to more days of lost work compared to men, and a greater financial burden for women-led households.
\n\n\n\nMost recently, the EPA made headlines after the New York Times reported it would no longer calculate the cost to human health when making new regulations on particle and ozone pollution, and instead would only calculate the benefits to industry, further burdening women and their households.
\n\n\n\nAn agency spokesperson told The 19th the EPA is not stopping the calculation, but simply pausing it “until our models can better reflect the smaller, more complex changes seen as these pollutants continue to decline nationwide.” The spokesperson did not respond to a follow-up question asking when the agency would release a new calculation, nor what steps it was taking to monetize the health costs.
\n\n\n\n\n\nSarah Vogel, a senior vice president of healthy communities with the Environmental Defense Fund, doesn’t buy the explanation. “The reason they eliminated it is because air pollution has a huge impact on our health,” she said. Industries don’t like that because it shows the benefit of stricter regulations, which are more costly for polluters, she said.
\n\n\n\nThe country had been slowly moving toward cleaning up the air that both causes and exacerbates this life-threatening diagnosis since the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970, which resulted in an 80 percent drop in air pollution. “That legislation saved more lives than any doctor could,” said Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, a spokesperson for the American Lung Association. “It allowed people to enjoy capitalism without feeling like their lives and health are being sacrificed for it.”
\n\n\n\nSince then, he said, newer regulations have been about fine-tuning that law to better reflect the science that shows the impact pollution has on health. But by overturning those newer standards, and no longer calculating the cost to human health, “American lives will be the cost,” he said bluntly.
\n\n\n\nWhile the air is no longer as toxic as it once was, air pollution is still heavily concentrated in communities of color, like Anderson’s. Across the country, majority Black and low-income communities have a disproportionately high concentration of industries and freeways that result in poor air quality, which has been linked to a higher risk for their residents of asthma and other diseases.
\n\n\n\nAnderson said that in her community, “I see Black women dying at a rate that I would only describe as shameful.” She believes the pollution she grew up with may be the reason she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to have a mastectomy. Others in her family have also been diagnosed with breast cancer.
\n\n\n\nHer observation aligns with research showing that higher rates of particle pollution have been associated with higher rates of certain kinds of breast cancer in Black women living in the Midwest. Air pollution has also been associated with a higher risk of strokes, dementia and heart disease.
\n\n\n\nFor Vogel, the EPA’s latest moves are all about putting polluters’ pocketbooks ahead of people’s health.
\n\n\n\n“You’re shifting the burden of all this pollution — and they’re doing it with toxic chemicals — literally onto our bodies,” she said. “And it’s really pretty despicable when you really get down to like, who is actually benefiting here.”
","category":"activism","author":"Jessica Kutz","publishDate":"2026-02-09T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/EPA_asthma.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/epa-air-pollution-black-women-health/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-09T18:00:27.101Z"},{"id":"p34cr6","slug":"misogyny-is-rising-in-us-classrooms-where-is-the-national-response","title":"Misogyny Is Rising in U.S. Classrooms. Where Is the National Response?","excerpt":"As countries across Europe roll out national programs to confront misogyny in schools, the United States still lacks a coordinated response. Responding to school-based gender harassment, the politicization of gender issues, and the mental health crisis among youth requires an organized, collective e...","content":"As countries across Europe roll out national programs to confront misogyny in schools, the United States still lacks a coordinated response.
\nResponding to school-based gender harassment, the politicization of gender issues, and the mental health crisis among youth requires an organized, collective effort.
\nThe post Misogyny Is Rising in U.S. Classrooms. Where Is the National Response? appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Joel Levin","publishDate":"2026-02-09T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-450946870.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/09/misogyny-usa-schools-classrooms-girls-boys-sexism-harassment-jokes/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-09T18:00:26.575Z"},{"id":"mge2fh","slug":"after-years-of-waiting-she-wanted-to-start-gender-affirming-care-politics-interfered","title":"After years of waiting, she wanted to start gender-affirming care. Politics interfered.","excerpt":"Star Gates, a nonbinary transfeminine person in Ohio, realized something important a few months ago: She didn’t want to waste time pretending to be someone else. Her realization was sparked by “I Saw the TV Glow,” a horror-fantasy movie directed by a nonbinary filmmaker that’s loaded with trans symb...","content":"Star Gates, a nonbinary transfeminine person in Ohio, realized something important a few months ago: She didn’t want to waste time pretending to be someone else.
\n\n\n\nHer realization was sparked by “I Saw the TV Glow,” a horror-fantasy movie directed by a nonbinary filmmaker that’s loaded with trans symbolism. For years, she’d known something was different about her gender and ignored it. But after watching the movie’s protagonist waste a lifetime by repressing who they are, Gates didn’t want that to be her.
\n\n\n\nNow 36, she wanted to start gender-affirming care.
\n\n\n\nSo she went on Planned Parenthood’s website to find clinics near her Ohio town. This was her first step toward hormone replacement therapy, to taking estrogen and feeling more at ease in her body. Gates went to Planned Parenthood because she knew they would be supportive. But when she looked on the website, her heart sank.
\n\n\n\nThe North Columbus Health Center, the clinic closest to her, couldn’t take Medicaid patients anymore. None of the others could either. Suddenly, her plans seemed impossible.
\n\n\n\n“I’m a pub cook. I don’t make a lot of money. And I can’t do insurance through my spouse — so Medicaid it is,” she said. “I just want a doctor to help guide me with a medical thing. How is it crazy to want that?”
\n\n\n\nGates is one of many Americans who can no longer use their insurance at Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest reproductive health care provider. That’s because last fall, Planned Parenthood was cut off from Medicaid by the federal government. So now Medicaid patients like Gates either have to find a way to pay for their care out of pocket or find somewhere else to get it, depending on where they live.
\n\n\n\nI just want a doctor to help guide me with a medical thing. How is it crazy to want that?”
Star Gates This is a major setback for transgender health care. Planned Parenthood provides primary care and gender-affirming care to a lot of trans patients, especially in rural areas. But now, low-income trans adults have fewer options to start their transition at a time when accessing good health care is becoming even harder.
\n\n\n\nGates, who uses they and she pronouns, lives about a 40-minute drive from Columbus. The nearest Planned Parenthood would require making that drive. And so would any other clinic providing gender-affirming care; there are no other options that she’s heard of in her town. The weight of navigating these logistics and facing a sudden roadblock is taking a toll.
\n\n\n\n“It’s all I can do to not break down and cry every time I think about it. This is already so freaking hard,” they said. “I’m tired, I’m angry, I’m upset, and that is a lot of stuff to jam down and try to keep held together while I go about my daily life.”
\n\n\n\nIn Ohio, nearly 22,000 Planned Parenthood patients were affected when a federal appeals court allowed the federal government to kick the organization out of Medicaid. Although those patients can still access discounts and payment plans, they still have to pay out-of-pocket.
\n\n\n\nErica Wilson-Domer, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio (PPGOH), said the organization has had to reduce workforce, including frontline staff, to make up for the lack of Medicaid funds. Ohio is also requiring PPGOH to pay back the state for services provided to Medicaid patients from July to September, when the federal appeals court ruling came in.
\n\n\n\n\n\n“The value of that was about $800,000, roughly,” she said. Under federal law, Medicaid already could not be used to pay for abortion — so it’s other health care that is being affected, Wilson-Domer said. According to the Columbus Dispatch, PPGOH provided care to over 50,000 patients in 2024. That includes more than 156,000 tests for sexually transmitted infections, more than 11,300 HIV tests, over 10,000 preventative care visits like cancer screenings, and 7,600 gender-affirming care visits.
\n\n\n\nThe Athens Health Center in southeast Ohio, where the Appalachian mountains enter the state, is known for serving an especially high number of trans patients seeking gender-affirming care, Wilson-Domer said. In that area, it’s one of few options.
\n\n\n\n“We had a lot of trans patients telling us they were really struggling to find the appropriate drugs. They were struggling to find appropriate supplies. They were struggling to ask questions of pharmacies,” she said. “So we started a pharmacy.”
\n\n\n\nPlanned Parenthood of Greater Ohio opened PPRX, a pharmacy in Akron, Ohio, about two years ago. That was the outcome of trans patients saying they needed better care — and not just gender-affirming care. They were struggling to access basic prescriptions.
\n\n\n\n“Presumably, if you’re on Medicaid, you’re already struggling financially,” she said. “But the goal of that pharmacy is to provide low-cost drugs to people who need them, regardless of whether you’re a patient of ours or not.”
\n\n\n\nLGBTQ+ adults are twice as likely as non-LGBTQ+ adults to use Medicaid as their main insurance, according to the Williams Institute . That puts them at a higher risk of losing health care when Medicaid is cut. And in Ohio, a lot of medical providers will not see Medicaid patients at all, due to low reimbursements from the state.
\n\n\n\n“They just continue to squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and make it harder for people to access health care,” Wilson-Domer said.
\n\n\n\nWhile Medicaid funds cannot go toward Planned Parenthood for one year, states can extend the ban, which Ohio officials and other states are trying to do .
\n\n\n\nThey just continue to squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and make it harder for people to access health care.”
Erica Wilson-Domer “Ohio is extra interesting, because abortion is lawful there,” said Katie Keith, director of the center for health policy and the law at the O’Neill Institute at Georgetown Law. Voters passed a ballot measure protecting abortion in 2023. “And yet the state is still working to keep Planned Parenthood out of the Medicaid program.”
\n\n\n\nSince Trump signed the federal ban into law last summer, 20 Planned Parenthood clinics have closed nationwide. If successful, state efforts to keep Medicaid funds out of Planned Parenthood more permanently will make health care deserts worse, Keith said. Cutting those funds means less maternal health care, fewer preventive screenings and less access to contraception — on top of restricting gender-affirming care, she said.
\n\n\n\nPlanned Parenthood has dropped its lawsuit against the Trump administration after facing legal setbacks. While over 20 state attorneys general are also challenging the Medicaid cuts, their lawsuits have faced similar difficulties in court. Meanwhile, 11 Democrat-run states have allocated millions to Planned Parenthood clinics to maintain access for their Medicaid enrollees, per a KFF report . But in states like Ohio, Medicaid patients are on their own. And as many low-income Americans struggle to afford health care, trans people face extra challenges.
\n\n\n\nGoing to the doctor has been hard for Gates. After too many bad experiences over the years, they avoided medical appointments altogether.
\n\n\n\n“Random doctors and dentists are nightmare fuel for me, and my spouse has had to hold my hand a few times,” they said. LGBTQ+ people are more likely to be refused care and discriminated against in doctor’s offices than straight people. While Gates doesn’t feel like they have faced discrimination from their doctors, they do feel ignored by them.
\n\n\n\nA few days ago, Gates had their first telehealth appointment with a new therapist. She originally sought therapy for depression, but now she’s also seeking advice about navigating her gender transition. Luckily, her therapist is a queer woman, so Gates feels supported. She plans to hold off on gender-affirming care until she can meet with her therapist a few more times, so they can make a plan together.
\n\n\n\nAnd in the meantime, Gates said, she’s not giving up.
","category":"activism","author":"Orion Rummler","publishDate":"2026-02-09T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/pp-medicaid.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/medicaid-planned-parenthood-transgender-health-care/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-09T12:01:00.009Z"},{"id":"55r4s0","slug":"i-have-been-here-too-long-read-letters-from-the-children-detained-at-ices-dilley-facility","title":"“I Have Been Here Too Long”: Read Letters from the Children Detained at ICE’s Dilley Facility","excerpt":"The post “I Have Been Here Too Long”: Read Letters from the Children Detained at ICE’s Dilley Facility appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"A rainbow, a family portrait, a heart. These are the drawings found in handwritten letters from children detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas.
\n\n\n\nIn early February there were more than 750 families, nearly half of them including children, as well as some 370 single adult women being held at this facility. It is just one of many immigration centers across the country, but the only one holding families. Since the start of the Trump administration, the number of children in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention has skyrocketed, increasing sixfold .
\n\n\n\nProPublica received letters in mid-January from several children at Dilley. All but two of them had been living in the United States when they were detained. In their words and drawings, they convey how much they ache for creature comforts and describe the anguish of being trapped. They write about missing their friends and teachers, falling behind at school, having unreliable access to medical care when they’re sick — some say they’re sick a lot — and feeling scared about what comes next.
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The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said in a statement that all detainees at Dilley are “being provided with proper medical care.” DHS did not respond to questions about individual detainees but said all “are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries” and that “certified dieticians evaluate meals.” DHS also said “children have access to teachers, classrooms, and curriculum booklets for math, reading, and spelling.” Detained parents are given the option for their families to be deported together, or they can have their children placed with another caregiver, the statement said. CoreCivic, which operates the facility, said it is subject to multiple layers of oversight and that health and safety are a top priority.
\n\n\n\nThe public is rarely given an opportunity to glimpse inside Dilley and get a look at how the kids there are doing. Here, we let the children speak for themselves.
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Susej F
\n\n\n\n\n\nLetter transcript:
\n\n\n\nRead the full transcript \n“Hello, my name is Susej F and I’am 9 years old. I’am from Venezuela. I have been 50 days in Dilley Immigration Processing Center. And I want to go to my Country. But I miss my school and my friends I feel bad since when I came here to this Place, because I have been here too long. I have been 2 years and 6 months in united states, and I was happy with my friends in The school but now I need to leave. I miss my family in my country so now I want To go to Venezuela. But my mom do not want to leave because she wants a better future for me. Seen how people like me, immigrants are been treated changes my perspective about the U.S. My mom and I came to The U.S looking for a good and safe place to live, and my mom was looking for a Good job.”
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Listen to Ariana read her letter
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Ariana V. V .
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Letter transcript:
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Read the full transcript \n“Hello, my name is Ariana V.V. im 14 years old and im from Honduras, ive been detained for 45 days and I have never felt so much fear to go to a place as I feel here everytime I remind myself that once I go back to Honduras a lot of dangerous things could happen to my mom and my younger siblings haven’t been able to see their mom in more than a month. They are very young and you need both of your parents when you are growing up. Since I got to this Center all you will feel is sadness and mostly depression. When people have their courts the longest they will last is 15 minutes, our rights are not being provided, arrest are happening when people don’t even have any type of order, arrests are happening illegally.
\n\n\n\nIts sad to hear that peoples case are being denied and are getting send back to their country places where they are escaping from and are looking for protection and want to feel safe. Not a lot of people know what is happening in the Centers where immigrants are placed at. I haven’t been getting any school time. Every single person in here had their jobs they had their lifes, they aren’t any danger for this Country.
\n\n\n\nIve been in this country for almost 7 years and in those 7 years my mom and I found a home and made a bigger family. I have never been separated from my siblings and its honestly sad because they are little and they need their mom and sister, yeah they are with their dad but its still different for them and my mom and I. Since the day my mom and I get detained in Manhattan NY, my life was instanly paused, from my knowledge you can’t be under custody for more than 15 or 20 days, well here in Dilley Immigration Processing Center people have been in this place for 7 months, 5 months, 4-2 months, its not fair that the ICE officers are not following the laws. All kids are being damage mentally, they witness how the’ve been treated.
\n\n\n\nThey don’t have schools, doctor, all they have are nurses, if you need medical attention the longest you have to wait is 3 hours, but to get any medicine, pill, anything it takes a while, there are various viruses people are always sick. Serious situations happen and the officers can’t take them serious enough there are no consecuenses, they don’t care.”
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Luisanney Toloza
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Mia Valentina Paz Faria
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Letter transcript:
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Read the full transcript \n“Hello my name is Mia Valentina Paz Faria I am from Venezuela I have been living in the United States for 3 years, I am 7 years old, I have been here for 70 days in this place, I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school, I miss my grandparents, I miss my friends, I don’t like the food here, I miss my school, I don’t like being here, I am bored here, I don’t feel so good in this place, I already want to leave this place, I miss my uncles, I hope to leave here soon.”
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Scarlett Jaimes
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Letter transcript:
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Read the full transcript \n“01/16/25
\n\n\n\nFirst of all I want to introduce myself my name is Scarlett Jaimes and I am writing this to express how I feel in this place, since they detained my mother and me I feel really, really bored and overwhelmed because even though I am someone who doesn’t do many productive things being locked up against my will is quite overwhelming, also I feel down about the idea that I couldn’t finish my school year and that I bet I’m going to end up in a worse school in my own country, in my opinion what I think about this place is not a big deal since it’s a normal and ordinary camp.One of the things that I could complain about is that they don’t have varied food and it’s almost the same and it bores me and I lose my appetite and I am not going to even mention the store food because some people don’t have enough money and also some food tastes like cardboard, also in the store it seems a little unfair to me that they buy things that are high priced and bad quality like for example the notebooks and also colored pencils. In my opinion this place has to change several things like the cleanliness and I know it’s not the workers’ fault but the people’s and I know that even if there are rules nobody is going to care about them and that is why people are against the workers here because it seems that there will always be conflict they should keep their word of keeping people a maximum 21 days because if this continues like this this camp is going to get worse for many people.”
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Gaby M.M
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Letter transcript:
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Read the full transcript \n“Hola! my name is Gaby M.M im 14 years old im from Colombia
\n\n\n\nI ve been detained in Dilley Immigration Processing Center for 20 days and I haven’t been getthing the rigth education due to being in here. I have’t been able to see my family and friends, since I got here I started to feel sad also I haven’t feelt happy since I got here.
\n\n\n\nThe officers have bad manner of speaking to residents when the are asking anithing the workers treat the residents unhumanly, verbally and I don’t want to imging how they would act if they where unsupervised. I really want to go home I don’t care if I have to go to Katy or Colombia because in both places I have a home and school I get bored a lot and I don’t know what to do, I made friends here and they told me how the been here for 7 months and I get really surprised because I can’t imaging how bad and sad and stessed being here.
\n\n\n\nI want to tell you guys how I feel and is hell like I really want to go the food is bad im tired of almots the same thing. I feel so much sadness and depression of not being able to leave, its really sad to hear that peoples cases are being denied and getting send back to their countrys.”
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Ender
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Letter transcript:
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Read the full transcript \n“Hello I am Ender and I am 12 years old, I have been at this center for 2 months. I arrived here for an immigration appointment and I don’t think they should grab immigrants who are innocent, like instead of grabbing criminals because I mean they prefer to lock up children than look for people who really shouldn’t be in the U.S. They told me I could only be here 21 days but I have already spent more than 60 days waking up eating the same repetitive meals, going outside and that the majority of guards never pay attention to people, eating dinner always the same as the day before, seeing people cry every day for the same reasons, trying to sleep in that horrible uncomfortable bed, going to the doctor and that the only thing they tell you is to drink more water and the worst thing is that it seems like the water is what makes people sick here, going to wait for the bad answers from the judges, hearing the bad news from people who no longer have hope, having to share a room with minimum 3 families, and all that so they send us back to our countries.”
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Maria Antonia Guerra Montoya
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Letter transcript:
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Read the full transcript \n“Name Maria Antonia Guerra Montoya
\n\n\n\nCountry I am colombian
\n\n\n\nAge 9 years
\n\n\n\nLocked in custody how long 113 Days
\n\n\n\nI am Maria Antonia Guerra Montoya and I have been 113 days in detention I miss my friends and I feel they are going to forget me. I am bored here. I already miss my country and my house, I came on vacation for 10 Days and they took me into an ice office an officer interrogated me 2 hours without my mom, I was traveling with flight attendant because my mom lives in new york, they only wanted to arrest my mom, because my mom didn’t have documents to live in U.S.A., I always traveled with my tourist visa but ice used me to catch my mom and now I am in a jail and I am sad and I have fainted 2 times here inside. When I arrived every night I cried and now I don’t sleep well, I felt that being here was my fault and I only wanted to be on vacation like a normal family.
\n\n\n\nThey don’t give me my diet I am vegetarian, I don’t eat well, there is no good education and I miss my best friend julieta and my grandmother and my school I already want to get to my house.
\n\n\n\nMe in dilei [Dilley] am not happy please get me out of here to colombia.
\n\n\n\nAntonia”
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About the Letters \n\n\n\nReporter Mica Rosenberg asked detainees whether their children would be willing to write letters or draw pictures about their experiences. One detainee gathered the letters and brought them out of the center when they were released from Dilley on Jan. 20. The detainee said the parents whose children participated were aware that the letters would be shared with a journalist with the intention of making them public. Afterward we reached out to the detainee who shared the letters and obtained, when possible, additional details like the locations where the families were living before they were detained. The length of time the children say they have been detained is as of mid-January, when they wrote the letters. Some of the letter writers have since been released; the status of others is unclear.
\n\n\n\n\t\n\nProPublica plans to continue reporting on conditions inside immigration detention facilities. Please get in touch with our reporters through Signal at 917-512-0201 if you or someone you know:
\n\n\n\n\nHas worked at a detention facility housing immigrants. \n\n\n\nHas been detained at such a facility. \n\n\n\nKnows information about companies that have been contracted to build and provide services at such facilities. \n\n\n\nCan share other insight or information about immigration detention facilities. \n \n\n\n\nWe are also interested in any letters, images, videos or other documentation that you can share. Check out these tips for contacting us securely. We take your privacy seriously.
\n\n \nThe post “I Have Been Here Too Long”: Read Letters from the Children Detained at ICE’s Dilley Facility appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"global","author":"Mica Rosenberg","publishDate":"2026-02-09T10:25:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/v4featured-ice-kids-dilley-3x2-grid_2-3OG_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=400&h=400&crop=1","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/ice-dilley-children-letters","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-09T12:01:00.065Z"},{"id":"pm5ice","slug":"sundance-2026-based-on-a-true-story-8216the-huntress8217-film-mythologizes-a-vigilante-born-of-jurez","title":"Sundance 2026: Based on a True Story, 'The Huntress' Film Mythologizes a Vigilante Born of Juárez’s Violence","excerpt":"A gripping portrait of a Juárez factory worker who becomes an avenger after systemic violence against women goes unpunished, The Huntress (or La Cazadora ) explores how myth, motherhood and desperation collide in a city where justice is scarce.","content":"A gripping portrait of a Juárez factory worker who becomes an avenger after systemic violence against women goes unpunished, The Huntress (or La Cazadora ) explores how myth, motherhood and desperation collide in a city where justice is scarce.
\n(This is one in a series of film reviews from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, focused on films by women, trans or nonbinary directors that tell compelling stories about the lives of women and girls.)
\nThe post Sundance 2026: Based on a True Story, ‘The Huntress’ Film Mythologizes a Vigilante Born of Juárez’s Violence appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Aviva Dove-Viebahn","publishDate":"2026-02-08T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/The_Huntress_La_Cazadora-Still_1-scaled.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/08/sundance-the-huntress-la-cazadora-diana-bus-drivers/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-08T18:00:54.887Z"},{"id":"yxx4wb","slug":"from-minnesota-to-puerto-rico-how-we-survive-together","title":"From Minnesota to Puerto Rico: How We Survive Together","excerpt":"In each of our communities, every day seems to announce itself. Whistles and shouts for our neighbors punctuate each hour, as blades of helicopters and flight drills slice through the air into the night.","content":"In each of our communities, every day seems to announce itself. Whistles and shouts for our neighbors punctuate each hour, as blades of helicopters and flight drills slice through the air into the night. Increased military and federal government presence is visible, splitting images between the corners of our everyday lives and active battlefields.
\nWe write from two different places, often discussing them separately. We do, however, live as part of the same story.
\nFrom Minnesota to Puerto Rico, our struggles are one and the same. So is our strength. We are still here—not because the system is working, but because we work for each other. Maybe this is finally how we usher in a new world order.
\n(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund highlighting the work of Groundswell partners advancing inclusive democracy.)
\nThe post From Minnesota to Puerto Rico: How We Survive Together appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Wen Brovold","publishDate":"2026-02-06T23:19:25.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2219478115.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/06/minneapolis-minnesota-puerto-rico/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-07T00:00:12.074Z"},{"id":"mlv174","slug":"what-this-moment-requires-of-us-women-voting-rights-and-the-battle-for-representation","title":"What This Moment Requires of Us: Women, Voting Rights and the Battle for Representation","excerpt":"Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S.","content":"Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
\nThis week:
\n... and more.
\nThe post What This Moment Requires of Us: Women, Voting Rights and the Battle for Representation appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Cynthia Richie Terrell","publishDate":"2026-02-06T20:08:25.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1239592714.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/06/women-voting-rights-representation-trump-politics/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-07T00:00:12.074Z"},{"id":"6n2ok8","slug":"90-of-student-discrimination-and-harassment-complaints-were-dismissed-last-year-here8217s-why","title":"90% of student discrimination and harassment complaints were dismissed last year. Here's why.","excerpt":"President Donald Trump's efforts to dismantle the Department of Education has created a crisis that critics long feared: leaving marginalized students vulnerable to misconduct with little federal intervention.","content":"President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education has created a crisis that critics long feared: leaving marginalized students vulnerable to misconduct with little federal intervention. A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan arm of Congress, paints a damning picture of how mass layoffs and the slashing of resources at the agency have significantly impacted the civil rights of students.
\n\n\n\nThe department’s chief responsibility is to ensure that all students have equal access to education. However, its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) dismissed roughly 90 percent of the more than 9,000 new complaints of discrimination based on race, sex, disability and age it received from March to September 2025, the GAO found. This has raised concerns that Trump’s Education Department is systemically refusing to investigate civil rights cases instead of reviewing their merits — abandoning the students it is tasked with protecting.
\n\n\n\nThe fact that the agency shuttered seven of its 12 regional civil rights offices and placed half of OCR personnel — 299 out of 575 staffers — on administrative leave last year contributed to the dismissals of most complaints. They were prohibited from working while on leave, adding to the backlog of cases. The move was costly for the students who appealed to the agency for help and also for taxpayers since covering these employees’ salaries and benefits during their nearly nine months of leave amounted to as much as $38 million, according to the GAO.
\n\n\n\nSen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent who caucuses with Democrats and serves as ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, commissioned the GAO report. He criticized the department for wasting taxpayer dollars and preventing Office for Civil Rights staff from investigating claims. “That is unacceptable,” he said in a statement following the release of the findings.
\n\n\n\n“Every child in America should be able to get a good education no matter where they live, what their religious beliefs are or whether or not they have a disability,” he said.
\n\n\n\nThe Education Department did not respond to The 19th’s request for comment about the report before publication.
\n\n\n\n\n\nFor students with disabilities, their families and advocates, the GAO’s findings send a chilling message about the likelihood that they will receive a quality education. Historically, these students have filed the largest subset of civil rights complaints, with self-described “mama bear” parents typically fighting for their access to education.
\n\n\n\n“There’s just not enough capacity to do the work that OCR has been charged to do,” said Katy Neas, CEO of The Arc of the United States, a community-based organization advocating for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. “And what we’re seeing from families is just their complaints going into a black hole and not being responded to. They’re not able to get in touch with somebody. It’s quite concerning to us.”
\n\n\n\nLimited OCR oversight, she argued, removes a key mechanism for uncovering systemic problems, such as improper seclusion and restraint methods for students with disabilities. Often, these troubling practices only surface after multiple complaints have been filed. With the OCR path effectively closed, families face the financially daunting prospect of hiring an attorney to uphold their children’s rights.
\n\n\n\n“If the only way a parent can get their child’s needs met is by suing the district and assuming the risk of tens of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees, most parents can’t do that,” Neas said.
\n\n\n\nShe also questions the administration’s repeated goal of moving education “back to the states,” given their uneven record on educating students with disabilities.
\n\n\n\n“The reason we have a federal special education law was that states specifically barred children with disabilities from the public schools,” she said. “For our kids, the federal protections were what opened up the schoolhouse doors.”
\n\n\n\nJolene Baxter knows that fight all too well. The Oklahoma City mother of a third-grader with physical and cognitive disabilities has had to advocate for her daughter’s access to education throughout the 9-year-old’s life. Schools have tried to turn Marlee away, arguing there was no space for her, Baxter said. And after two students recently knocked the little girl down, she said, Marlee was moved out of the specialized class where she once thrived, a development Baxter considers an injustice.
\n\n\n\nShe has never filed a complaint on behalf of her daughter at the federal level but has done so previously at both the local and state levels. She fears what the federal government’s inertia on civil rights complaints could mean for students with disabilities.
\n\n\n\n“I just feel like it just trickles down,” she said. “It sends the message to schools at the local level that they don’t have to take the concerns of parents seriously.”
\n\n\n\nThe Office for Civil Rights has been perennially understaffed. It has a backlog of thousands of cases, some dating back to George W. Bush’s presidency. Since Trump returned to office last January, it has only resolved 32 cases related to Title IX , a law that bars sex discrimination in schools, according to a recent study by the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.
\n\n\n\nSince Trump returned to the White House, OCR has not resolved any complaint of sexual assault, sexual harassment, gender harassment or denial of benefits, or a single case of pregnancy discrimination. Instead, the civil rights office has focused on investigating cases involving transgender students, which the office itself initiated.
\n\n\n\n“There are a ton of sexual violence cases from over a decade ago that were still in the backlog, and this Department of Education didn’t touch any of them,” said Jessica Lee, co-director of WorkLife Law and a co-author of the recent study. “So it seems to me that their goal is using Title IX for their own purposes and not to bring justice for these students who have asked for help, which is just appalling.”
\n\n\n\nLee explained that their team’s findings are based on the resolutions that OCR posts publicly, but those reflect only a fraction of cases brought before the agency. “The thing that our research is missing, of course, is what is happening to the complaints before they’re reaching the point of investigation,” they said. According to the GAO report, most cases are dismissed from the start.
\n\n\n\n“It sounds like they are going through the motions, or they have put in place some completely different standards of review than what we’ve seen in the past decades,” Lee said. “It’s just stunning. I don’t know how they can work through that many cases and if they’re actually paying attention to the details, which is what they should be doing. It sounds like their goal might be to just shut things down rather than actually pursue justice.”
\n\n\n\nStudents with disabilities are more likely to be victims of sexual violence . Because of that, their complaints may overlap, encompassing special education and sexual misconduct alike.
\n\n\n\nBoth Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon have been accused of sexual misconduct , and Trump has been found liable for sexual abuse.
\n\n\n\n“If they valued justice for the survivors of sexual abuse, they would not be doing what they’re doing now,” Lee said. “It’s clear as day. It’s written in the numbers.”
","category":"equality","author":"Nadra Nittle","publishDate":"2026-02-06T17:29:28.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/DOE_civil_rights.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/student-civil-rights-cases-dismissed-trump-education-department/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-06T18:00:57.324Z"},{"id":"ty4fz1","slug":"olympic-mom-athletes-lack-child-care-and-other-support-during-the-games","title":"Olympic mom athletes lack child care and other support during the games","excerpt":"This story was co-published with The 74, a nonprofit newsroom covering education and child care in America. Sarah Newberry Moore had long believed that motherhood would mark the end of her career sailing at the world championship level.","content":"This story was co-published with The 74 ,a nonprofit newsroom covering education and child care in America.
\n\n\n\nSarah Newberry Moore had long believed that motherhood would mark the end of her career sailing at the world championship level. A five-time national champion, she didn’t know of many women who had made it to the Olympics as mothers, even as many of her male peers competed at the highest level while raising children.
\n\n\n\nBut then COVID hit, and her sailing competitions — and the 2020 Olympic Games — were postponed . As the months went on, she realized she didn’t want to stop sailing, even though she wanted to have a baby. The widespread lockdowns had presented a rare window in which she didn’t have to choose. She recalled thinking: “Who made this rule? I’m going to do both.” In 2021, her son Iren was born. And then, three years later, he was at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris to cheer his mom on as she competed with the U.S. Sailing Team.
\n\n\n\nWomen have been competing in the Olympics since 1900 when they were first granted access to participate, but it’s taken decades for pregnancy and parenthood to be acknowledged as a natural part of an elite athlete’s path — and policy still hasn’t caught up.
\n\n\n\nThough Newberry Moore said it’s becoming more common to bring children to the Olympics — and she is in touch with several athlete-mothers competing in this year’s Milano Cortina Games who are doing so — she described how hard it was to bring Iren to the Olympics in 2024.
\n\n\n\n\n\nThe children and families of athletes have historically not been allowed in the Olympic Village . Athletes who stay in the Olympic Village typically have their room and board covered; those who want to bring their kids along need to make — and pay for — other arrangements for housing accommodations and child care.
\n\n\n\nDuring the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, for the first time in history , a nursery arrangement was set up where parent athletes could visit with their children in the “nappy/diaper-wearing age.” There was also dedicated private space for breastfeeding. But Newberry Moore’s sailing competition was in Marseilles, not Paris, and the satellite Olympic Village where she was staying didn’t have a nursery. So Newberry Moore could only see Iren when her husband could bring him to visit; she would leave the hotel and give him a hug, and then return. He couldn’t go to her room and it was incredibly hot, so their visits were brief.
\n\n\n\nGymnast Hillary Heron of Team Panama (right) with her coach Yareimi Vazquez (left) and her daughter Aitana Vazquez inside a nursery room in the Olympic Village at the Paris Olympic Games in 2024.\n (Maja Hitij/Getty Images) “If my husband had been allowed to bring my kid into the room of the hotel, I could have spent actual recovery time with him,” she said. Newberry Moore finished 16th in the Olympics, but skipped the closing ceremony — which the rest of her teammates attended — to reunite with her family. Out of the 13 athletes on the U.S. Sailing Team, she was the only mother.
\n\n\n\nFor the 2026 Winter Olympics, there will be even fewer options for athlete parents. There will be no designated family space during The Games. A spokesperson from the International Olympic Committee confirmed that there will also be no permanent breastfeeding facilities within the Olympic Villages, but “a certain number of bookable spaces will be made available in each Village, which may be used for breastfeeding, among other purposes.”
\n\n\n\nThese spaces matter a great deal for Olympic athletes because many are inclined to bring children along, rather than be separated for weeks, or in some cases, months. For breastfeeding mothers in particular, these spaces are not a luxury but a necessity.
\n\n\n\nAs an Olympic medalist and mother of three, Alysia Montaño has been a vocal advocate for women in sports for years. She founded For All Mothers+ (formerly &Mothers), a nonprofit focused on dismantling the motherhood penalty that women face in all industries, including sports, and adopted better standards to help address it.
\n\n\n\nHer organization provides financial support for athlete moms — including the “Bring the Babies Changemaker Grant” — a $5,000 grant intended to help cover “essential family travel costs” which can include airfare, lodging and child care. Newberry Moore was a grantee in 2024, and this year, five athletes competing in the Milano Cortina Games have received funds from the grant.
\n\n\n\nThe grants are “a crutch for a broken system,” Montaño said. While interviewing some of the grantees gearing up to compete in Italy to learn more about their experiences, she said, it became clear that the funding plays an important role “in alleviating maternal and child stress. Reflecting on her conversations with athlete moms, she said, that “being able to stay with their children is the very best support system so that our athletes can go out and be the very best they can be.”
\n\n\n\nKelly Curtis, a skeleton athlete competing in this year’s Winter Olympics with the USA Bobsled & Skeleton (USABS) Team, is one of the grant recipients. In an interview with Montaño, Curtis explained that she regularly brings her daughter, Maeve, to competitions. “She comes with me wherever I go,” she said. For the 2026 Winter Games, Curtis will forgo staying in the Olympic Village, because she doesn’t want to be separated from her daughter. Instead, she will be staying off-site at a hotel. The cost is 700 euros a night, for 17 nights, she told Montaño, noting that she has to pay fully out of pocket.
\n\n\n\nOlympian and mother Kelly Curtis of Team USA attends the Team USA Welcome Experience on January 30, 2026 in Milan, Italy.\n (Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for USOPC) Tabitha Peterson Lovick, a member of the U.S. Olympic Curling Team and another grant recipient, told Montaño that having a “little bit of baby time” will be good for her mental health during her competitions. She is staying in the Olympic Village, but her daughter, who is traveling with her husband and in-laws, is staying off-site. “I really want to have that time with my baby, even if it’s just 30 minutes.”
\n\n\n\nKaillie Humphries Armbruster, an Olympic bobsledder, and another member of the USABS Team, called the grant “a huge relief,” in an interview with Montaño, and explained why it’s so important for her to have her baby there. “When I go to race, it will have been hours since I’ve seen him,” she said. “He could care less how I do every single time, but he’s just so excited. He like runs over and he just — he wants Mom. And I’m excited to end an Olympics and have that.”
\n\n\n\nKaillie Armbruster Humphries holds her new baby following a race at the 2025 IBSF World Championships on March 9, 2025 in Lake Placid, New York.\n (Al Bello/Getty Images) For mom Olympians, challenges go beyond child care \n\n\n\nWomen’s participation in the Olympics has been steadily increasing over the decades, but it wasn’t until the 2024 Paris Olympics that The Games achieved gender parity among athletes.
\n\n\n\nWhile it’s not uncommon for men to have both professional athletic careers and children, it is a much harder road for women who must pause their training and competition schedule to have children. According to an ongoing survey about the motherhood penalty in sports , conducted by For All Mothers+ and Carleton University’s Health & Wellness Equity Research Group, 73% of mom athletes experienced a decrease, termination or pause in funding related to pregnancy or motherhood, and 72% of respondents reported needing additional income or employment outside of their sport to support their family.
\n\n\n\nThe key goal for gathering this data, Montaño said, is “to influence policy changes more broadly across the sports industry. There are biases with the motherhood penalty that we are looking to shift.” It’s bigger than sports though, she explained. She’d like to see the narrative change for all mothers in all industries. “The podium moments for athlete mothers are podium moments for all mothers.”
\n\n\n\nOlympic bobsledder Kaillie Humphries Armbruster with her baby.\n (Rian Voyles) Montaño has publicly shared about her experience losing sponsorships and health care when she was pregnant in 2014.
\n\n\n\nIn 2022, after several high-profile Olympic athletes, including Montaño, Allyson Felix, Kara Goucher and Elana Meyers Taylor spoke out about the disparity, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) directed the National Governing Bodies (NGB) of each sport to include provisions for pregnancy and postpartum time periods, allowing athletes who announce they are pregnant to have their stipends and health coverage continue for up to a year after the birth of a child.
\n\n\n\nNewberry Moore said these provisions are game changers. “It makes it possible for you to imagine returning, and it creates the climate needed for retaining female athletes.”
\n\n\n\nRunner Alysia Montano gives water to her daughter while speaking to the press on June 22, 2017, in Sacramento, California, after she ran an 800m-heat while pregnant at the U.S. World Championship trials.\n (Rob Woollard/AFP/Getty Images) A number of athletes have continued pushing for change beyond those provisions.
\n\n\n\nIn 2022, Felix and Montaño, two world-class American track and field Olympians, started an initiative to provide free child care to athlete moms in the U.S. Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Felix, who went on to be a leading voice in the Olympic nursery program , has said that the burden of child care costs is “the biggest barrier” to women continuing to compete at a high level.
\n\n\n\nKristine David, a spokesperson for For All Mothers+ explained that the recent attention on athlete moms isn’t because there weren’t mothers who could compete before, but because “they just got forced out too early because they didn’t see a path forward with the infrastructure in place for them, such as getting their health care cut off, or not being able to bring nursing babies to competitions.” She added: “We are making headway with the USOPC and other NGBs, but there’s still a long way to go to making maternal support standard at The Games. Our hope is that by the Summer 2028 Games, we will see ourselves as obsolete, and all provisions become standard.”
\n\n\n\nMontaño underscored that point and expressed the disappointment that there will be no nursery this year. “We are looking for consistent and reliable change that parents can rely on,” she said.
\n\n\n\nAfter the 2024 Olympic Games, Newberry Moore found out she was pregnant, this time with baby boy Rocky. She had a contract to continue with the U.S. National Sailing Team so she called her performance director and asked if she could defer by a year. But there was no specific language in her contract to protect her decision; a deferral would be at the discretion of the performance director. “I really think you guys should put this in writing,” she recalled saying to her director. “If she hadn’t had agreed to defer the contract, the idea of coming back is insane to me. It would have been a year of resources I couldn’t have used because I was growing a baby in my body.”
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Megan Kearney","publishDate":"2026-02-06T16:30:10.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/olympic_mother_04.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/olympic-mom-athletes-lack-child-care-support/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-06T18:00:57.324Z"},{"id":"6lvylw","slug":"planned-parenthood-drops-lawsuit-against-trump-administration-over-medicaid-funding","title":"Planned Parenthood Drops Lawsuit Against Trump Administration Over Medicaid Funding","excerpt":"Plus: Arkansas women challenge the state's abortion ban and a Texas man sues a California doctor under a new bounty hunter law. The post Planned Parenthood Drops Lawsuit Against Trump Administration Over Medicaid Funding appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"Each week, Rewire News Group editors scour headlines nationwide—from lawsuits over abortion access to LGBTQ+ rights—to bring you the most urgent news in reproductive justice. Here’s this week’s latest.
\nLittle Rock \nFour Arkansas women and an OB-GYN filed a lawsuit this week challenging the state’s near-total abortion ban . The case’s lead plaintiff, Emily Waldorf, was denied antibiotics and abortion care after her cervix dilated when she was 17 weeks pregnant. She was likely to develop an infection, so she was driven 240 miles by ambulance to receive miscarriage care in Kansas. The filing, which calls Arkansas’ bans “vague, confusing, and … extremely dangerous,” is one of at least four lawsuits filed by people denied care in their states.
\nBoston \nPlanned Parenthood is dropping its lawsuit against the Trump administration over the 2025 “big, beautiful bill” provision that prevented the reproductive health nonprofit from getting federal Medicaid funding. Planned Parenthood has said that nearly half its patients are insured through Medicaid, and 23 of its clinics closed as a result of the spending bill. The provision blocking Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood and other clinics that provide family planning services and abortion care is set to expire in early July.
\nGalveston, Texas \nA Texas man wants a California doctor to pay him at least $75,000 for allegedly sending abortion pills to his ex-girlfriend , who used them to end two pregnancies. Jerry Rodriguez initially sued Dr. Remy Coeytaux in July under a Texas law against assisting in a self-managed abortion. He amended his suit this week to cite a new bounty hunter law, HB 7, which offers up to $100,000 to plaintiffs related to the fetus who sue abortion providers. This is the first time the law, which took effect in December, will be tested in court.
\nThis news roundup first appeared in our newsletter, Rewire Weekly. Sign up here to get the latest reproductive rights news, expert analysis, and a peek into the RNG newsroom—fresh to your inbox.
\nThe post Planned Parenthood Drops Lawsuit Against Trump Administration Over Medicaid Funding appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-06T14:09:32.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/ReproRoundup_03.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/06/planned-parenthood-drops-lawsuit-trump-roundup/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-06T18:00:56.272Z"},{"id":"ow87ml","slug":"fertility-clinics-see-explosive-growth-in-private-equity-money-study","title":"Fertility Clinics See Explosive Growth in Private Equity Money: Study","excerpt":"It's not yet clear how this influx is influencing the cost and quality of fertility care. But other studies on private equity investments in health care could provide some clues. The post Fertility Clinics See Explosive Growth in Private Equity Money: Study appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"The U.S. has seen a massive expansion in private equity-linked fertility clinics since 2013, new research shows.
\n\n\n\nThe peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December 2025 found that more than half of IVF cycles in the U.S. in 2023 were done at clinics affiliated with private equity firms, or investment funds that raise capital to acquire and manage companies.
\n\n\n\nResearchers examined the relationship between private equity firms and fertility clinics in the U.S. between 2013 and 2023. They found that in 2013, less than 4 percent of fertility clinics were affiliated with private equity firms, but in the decade that followed, private equity-linked clinics soared. By the end of 2023, 32 percent of the roughly 500 clinics that shared data with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2022 were affiliated with private equity firms. In 14 states and Washington, D.C., 50 percent of fertility clinics studied had ties to private equity by the end of 2023.
\n\n\n\nThis uptick in private equity involvement comes amid an increased focus on U.S. fertility rates .
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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Fertility rates have been on the decline in the U.S. since the early 2000s . In 2024, the U.S. reached its lowest-ever fertility rate , with about 1.6 kids per woman. And on the 2024 campaign trail, now-President Donald Trump said he would expand IVF (in vitro fertilization) access —a promise that remains unfulfilled.
\n\n\n\nResearch on private equity affiliations in other medical specialities has shown mixed impacts on quality of care, including poorer nurse staffing and the hiring of less experienced providers. Private equity has also been linked to increased costs for patients and insurance companies.
\n\n\n\nRewire News Group spoke with one of the paper’s authors, University of Michigan infertility specialist Dr. James Dupree , about private equity’s growing role in U.S. reproductive care and the impact it could have on fertility patients.
\n\n\n\nThe following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
\n\n\n\nWhat was your most significant finding?
\n\n\n\nWhat stood out to me most was that, at least using data from 2022 and 2023, it appears that now over half of the IVF cycles in the U.S. are done at clinics that are affiliated with private equity firms. We had a sense that private equity firms were affiliated with many clinics that perform IVF, but I do not think we knew exactly how many in the current state were affiliating, nor did we have a sense for the volume of IVF care that was being done at those clinics.
\n\n\n\nYour research mentions the potential for private equity involvement in fertility care to influence costs to patients and insurers, and quality of care. What would that look like?
\n\n\n\nWe do not know in the fertility space about that balance between benefits and risks for patients. That research has not been done, to my knowledge. That’s very important research to be performed, but I haven’t seen any results speaking to that in the fertility space yet.
\n\n\n\nOther researchers, looking in other parts of medicine … have found that cost of care might increase—either for the patient or for the insurer. There’s some limited research suggesting that there might be certain benefits to the patients—quality of care, outcomes of care. A somewhat larger body of research suggests either mixed or potentially harmful outcomes for patients associated with these types of affiliations. But again, it is important to emphasize that research has been done outside of fertility care in other parts of medicine.
\n\n\n\nIncentives may change when ownership of the medical practice changes, and those incentives could encourage doctors and other folks in the clinic to maybe update or improve the way they practice for the betterment of patients. It is unlikely that any incentives are put in place that directly or [are] intended to harm patients. I think that’s very unlikely. But it’s possible that incentives could be put in place that might have unintended consequences, or unintended effects on patients.
\n\n\n\nWhat should patients already getting fertility care know, consider, or be worried about if a private equity firm acquires their clinic?
\n\n\n\nI don’t think we’ve seen research yet that tells us that patients need to be worried about [private equity ownership] at their clinic. It’s important to acknowledge there could be benefits associated with private equity firms affiliating with fertility clinics as well. That’s certainly possible.
\n\n\n\nIt is, for example, expensive to run a laboratory that does IVF. There’s a lot of very expensive equipment, a lot of training, and a lot of quality improvement efforts that are necessary to run an IVF lab. You can imagine that … when [a private equity firm] comes in and affiliates with a clinic, it will invest capital, and that capital could be used to improve the laboratory equipment. It could be used to implement quality improvement structures or do additional training for the staff.
\n\n\n\nSo there absolutely could be benefits as well. I’m not ready to say that there’s anything that patients should worry about, because I just don’t think that that has been shown yet.. I think it needs to be studied. It’s important to look at, given what has been seen in other parts of medicine. But it’s too soon for me to say that there are worries there.
\n\n\n\nIf you could do further research on an aspect of this issue that you weren’t able to account for, what would it be and why?
\n\n\n\nI personally have a strong belief that patients should be able to access [fertility] care. I’d like to know, after a clinic affiliates with a private equity firm, does that improve their access, or in any way limit their access? That research hasn’t been done. You could imagine that with the capital that comes from a private equity firm, clinics may be able to open satellite clinics that are able to reach patients further away that were struggling to access their care before. Or maybe it allows them to hire additional health-care providers that are able to help see more patients. We don’t know.
\n\n\n\nI’d love to look at costs for the patient, costs for the insurer. And especially given what has been found in other fields, look and see if costs increase, which has been found in several other parts of medicine.
\n\n\n\nAnd the most important thing that I’d like to look at, if budget was no limitation, is outcomes for patients. Patients that are doing IVF care are hoping to have a baby—hoping to build their family—which is a really powerful and really important outcome that they are seeking. It’s really important to know: Do those outcomes improve?
\n\n\n\nWhat should patients think about when deciding where to go for fertility care based on your research findings?
\n\n\n\nIt’s important for them to look for clinics that are members of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology . A lot of those clinics are dedicated to quality improvement. I would encourage patients to look for clinics that have experience doing IVF.
\n\n\n\n[And] this is more about the actual health-care providers than the clinic broadly, but that [patients] end up getting cared for with a provider that they feel like they mesh well with, and that they can establish trust with.
\n\n\n\nGoing through IVF is really difficult. It’s difficult financially, emotionally, physically. It’s not necessarily an easy treatment for patients to receive. The connection between the patient and their health-care provider is really important.
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\n\n\nThe post Fertility Clinics See Explosive Growth in Private Equity Money: Study appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-06T13:59:00.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Private-Equity-Investments-Rise-IVF-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/06/private-equity-fertility-clinics-research/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-06T18:00:56.272Z"},{"id":"kefcqs","slug":"sundance-2026-documentary-silenced-exposes-how-defamation-suits-muzzle-survivors-and-journalists","title":"Sundance 2026: Documentary ‘Silenced’ Exposes How Defamation Suits Muzzle Survivors and Journalists","excerpt":"Featuring the cases of Amber Heard, Gisèle Pelicot, Brittany Higgins, Colombian journalists at Volcánicas and others, Silenced traces a global pattern of defamation suits used to punish survivors and the reporters who amplify their stories.","content":"Featuring the cases of Amber Heard, Gisèle Pelicot, Brittany Higgins, Colombian journalists at Volcánicas and others, Silenced traces a global pattern of defamation suits used to punish survivors and the reporters who amplify their stories.
\nIt's a fitting but frustrating coda that Silenced itself faced legal threats right after its festival premiere.
\n(This is one in a series of film reviews from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, focused on films by women, trans or nonbinary directors that tell compelling stories about the lives of women and girls.)
\nThe post Sundance 2026: Documentary ‘Silenced’ Exposes How Defamation Suits Muzzle Survivors and Journalists appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Aviva Dove-Viebahn","publishDate":"2026-02-06T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Silenced-Still_1-scaled.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/06/sundance-2026-documentary-silenced-defamation-suits-survivors-journalists-gisele-pelicot-amber-heard/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-06T12:00:52.300Z"},{"id":"2mjq63","slug":"older-gay-men-built-their-own-hockey-fandom-then-came-8216heated-rivalry8217","title":"Older gay men built their own hockey fandom. Then came 'Heated Rivalry.'","excerpt":"Mike Holmes, 59, started watching “Heated Rivalry” because of the sex. “The first two episodes are the spiciest and, of course, that’s fun to watch,” he told The 19th. The gay hockey romance has become an unexpected international cultural sensation.","content":"Mike Holmes, 59, started watching “Heated Rivalry” because of the sex.
\n\n\n\n“The first two episodes are the spiciest and, of course, that’s fun to watch,” he told The 19th. The gay hockey romance has become an unexpected international cultural sensation . The two leads were even chosen to carry the Olympic Torch for one leg of the relay ahead of the Winter Games, which begin Friday in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina.
\n\n\n\nWhat Holmes didn’t expect was an emotional journey back to a time in his life when he was afraid to be out. When actor François Arnaud’s character, professional hockey player Scott Hunter, came out in an arena full of fans, Holmes was transported back to the terrifying moments before he came out to his own friends and family.
\n\n\n\n“The actor seems to be gulping air. I could viscerally feel that and flashed back to coming out to important people,” he said. “The first couple of times you come out, there’s such a sense of panic.”
\n\n\n\nHolmes works as a university administrator and lives in Attleboro, Massachusetts, with his husband, who works for the pharmaceutical industry. They have been married for over two decades and Holmes has been out for a very long time. But that scene in “Heated Rivalry,” and the series itself, tapped into something he didn’t expect. Holmes has gone back and watched the moment where Scott Hunter comes out a few times.
\n\n\n\n“The show is set in the late 2010’s. The idea is that they can’t come out because they’re in the hypermasculine world of hockey,” Holmes said. “But when I was growing up, that was my reality everywhere. It wasn’t just hockey, it was life.”
\n\n\n\nBut when I was growing up, that was my reality everywhere. It wasn’t just hockey, it was life.”
Mike Holmes Gallons of ink have been spilled about the hit TV show’s fanbase among straight women , as well as backlash from some gay men who have pointed out that the focus on the closet is a little out of date. But that fear of coming out in a world that may be hostile is precisely what has resonated with older gay fans.
\n\n\n\nThat same coming-out scene that has stuck with Holmes also spoke to Eric Pinder, 59. Pinder works at a theme park and lives in Orlando, Florida, with his husband. They have been together 25 years, married for nine. Pinder also works as the artistic director for a nonprofit opera company .
\n\n\n\n\n\n“At first, we didn’t really want to get married. My husband thought it was heteronormative. I only wanted the tax break from filing jointly,” Pinder said. But after the Pulse nightclub shooting , he said, “it became more important to me that we got married and declared to people that our relationship was real and we were legal about it.”
\n\n\n\nPinder and his now-husband, Dwayne Smoot, had always been avid hockey fans and decided to get married on the ice at the Orlando Solar Bears arena. Their cake was shaped like a Zamboni and their officiant wore a referee’s jersey. The goal horn went off during the ceremony when they kissed.
\n\n\n\nPinder wasn’t initially interested in “Heated Rivalry” when friends recommended it to him.
\n\n\n\n“My response was that I’m watching actual hockey right now. The season is on,” he said.
\n\n\n\nBut one day, while pet-sitting, he decided to give the show a try. To his surprise, he loved it.
\n\n\n\n“I don’t want to say ‘a lot better than I was expecting’ because I don’t know what I was expecting. But I think the performances, the direction, were flawless,” Pinder said.
\n\n\n\nEric Pinder and Dwayne Smoot are married on the ice at the Orlando Solar Bears arena in Orlando, Florida.\n (Eric Pinder) He has gone on to read the books and is currently working on a “Heated Rivalry” opera parody for the Orlando Fringe Festival. Like Holmes, Pinder found the relationship between hockey player Scott Hunter and smoothie slinger Kip Grady, played by actor Robbie G.K., relatable, particularly their first scene together.
\n\n\n\n“There’s sexual tension in that, crackle and chemistry. I met my husband at a party of other gay men. I remember when I met my husband, feeling that emotion — I just wanted to flirt with him the entire time,” Pinder said. Pinder had been wearing a Detroit Red Wings jersey and his now-husband recognized the logo. It turned out, after getting to know each other better, that Smoot knew nothing about hockey, much like when Kip Grady met Scott Hunter.
\n\n\n\nPinder was already in love with Smoot. It didn’t matter that he didn’t know anything about hockey yet. Smoot has since come to love the sport too.
\n\n\n\n“Hockey’s been a big deal in our lives,” Pinder said. “We got married before a game. We’ve gone to see a lot of games. We’re season ticket members for the Solar Bears here in town. It’s something that has shaped our relationship.”
\n\n\n\nCraig Brownstein, 68, lives in Washington, D.C. In 2010, Brownstein founded the first widely-read gay hockey blog, PuckBuddys, with his late husband, journalist Doug Johnson. Johnson died in 2022. “PuckBuddys was one of the greatest things I got to share with Doug,” Brownstein said.
\n\n\n\nPuckBuddys became the center of a close-knit gay hockey fandom. Pinder was one of around 20 people who blogged for the site during its heyday.
\n\n\n\n“When we started, we weren’t hockey players. We weren’t smart hockey fans. We weren’t going to detail the game, tactics, strategy or anything like that. We were going to be the cheeky gay bastards of the NHL and, as a lark, write about that,” Brownstein said.
\n\n\n\nBrownstein, who worked in public relations before he retired, used his experience to make PuckBuddys a smash hit. The blog became popular enough that Brownstein and Johnson got press credentials to attend Washington Capitals games and were featured in local and national news outlets, as well as the then-popular sports website Deadspin.
\n\n\n\n“We were embraced by a wide swath of the hockey community,” Brownstein recalled. He remembered a conversation he had with a man in the National Hockey League front office who told him that hockey is a game for misfits on both sides of the glass.
\n\n\n\nCraig Brownstein poses with his late husband Doug Johnson. The two founded the gay hockey blog PuckBuddys in 2010.\n (Craig Brownstein) “We were happy to embrace the term ‘misfit’ and to be a part of this weird, wacky, insular, peculiar, feral community of hockey fans,” Brownstein said. “They welcomed us. We were just a couple of gay guys who decided to do a hockey blog, and all of a sudden we were credentialed hockey journalists.”
\n\n\n\nBrownstein is less enamored with “Heated Rivalry.” He called the first three episodes “a slog” and felt that the show could have been about any sport.
\n\n\n\n“Will this show jumpstart a more meaningful conversation about LGBT inclusivity in sports? I don’t know,” Brownstein said. He is proud of his contribution to the You Can Play campaign in 2013, where players came together to stand up for the inclusion and acceptance of gay athletes. However, there were not and still are not any openly gay players in the NHL.
\n\n\n\nBrownstein is more optimistic about the possibility of a renewed gay hockey fandom.
\n\n\n\n“If anybody gay watches ‘Heated Rivalry’ for the sex and the scintillating aspects, if they come to care more about the sport, they will be welcomed in the fandom as gay fans,” he said. He certainly was.
","category":"global","author":"Sara Luterman","publishDate":"2026-02-06T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Pinder-smoot.jpeg?w=683","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/heated-rivalry-older-gay-men-acceptance/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-06T12:00:52.750Z"},{"id":"26y9bp","slug":"guttmacher-acting-co-ceo-on-the-importance-of-ensuring-access-to-medication-abortion-at-us-senate","title":"Guttmacher acting co-CEO on the importance of ensuring access to medication abortion at US Senate","excerpt":"Guttmacher acting co-CEO on the importance of ensuring access to medication abortion at US Senate sramashwar February 5, 2026 Abortion has remained widely available to people living in states with bans thanks to abortion medication sent through the mail. But a lawsuit — the first one filed under a new Texas law — could dismantle the legal systems that have protected medical providers making drugs available in the state, the largest to ban abortion.\n\n\n\n
Under the recently enacted House Bill 7, private citizens can sue people who “mail, transport, deliver, prescribe or provide” abortion pills to people in Texas, with a minimum penalty of $100,000. The law also authorizes suits against drug manufacturers. Abortion opponents have hailed it as a new opportunity to stop abortions from taking place in states with bans, by threatening out-of-state abortion providers with financially ruinous penalties, and by explicitly challenging the legality of other states’ abortion protections.
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Now, it’s getting its first test via a suit filed by Texas resident Jerry Rodriguez against a California-based doctor, Remy Coeytaux. Initially filed in July, the suit accuses the doctor of wrongful death for allegedly mailing medications his partner used to end her pregnancy. But Rodriguez updated his claim Sunday, citing the new law — which was passed after the alleged abortion took place — to seek a court injunction that would bar all medical providers from making abortion pills available in Texas, as well as asking Coeytaux to pay a penalty.
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Jonathan Mitchell, a prominent anti-abortion lawyer who helped write HB 7, is representing Rodriguez.
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This law is the first that aims to undo shield laws, which exist in almost half of all states. These laws say that the states, including New York and California, won’t comply with attempts from other states to prosecute health care providers for prescribing and sending abortion medication from states where it is legal — even if they’re mailing it to states with bans. Only eight shield laws explicitly protect providers even if they cared for a patient in another state.
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“This is the first law that a state has passed that has specifically tried to counteract another state’s shield laws,” said Marc Hearon, senior counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, who is defending Coeytaux. “All those provisions under this new law could be tested. It could be a bellwether.”
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Beyond an injunction, Rodriguez will also seek $100,000 per incident “if discovery reveals that Coeytaux has mailed, transported, delivered, prescribed, or provided any abortion-inducing drug to any person or location in Texas since HB 7 took effect.” Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment.
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“It’s testing out HB 7 — the willingness of people to do it, the willingness of courts to facilitate it, and trying to figure out if successful, will it chill provision [of abortion pills],” said Rachel Rebouché, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
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The legal process could take months to unfold. Mailed abortion medications are a key reason why the number of abortions performed in the United States has not declined since the 2022 fall of Roe v. Wade, despite the proliferation of state bans.
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“The number of people accessing medication abortion is very significant and also represents a way that both patients and providers have in a sense just shown resiliency in the face of bans and restrictions,” said Kimya Forouzan, a state policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks reproductive health policy. “This specific targeting of a shield law provider is intended to try to cut off access to one of those last options.”
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No case so far has successfully halted telehealth abortions. And in the wake of HB 7’s passage, shield law providers across the country indicated they would continue offering their services to Texans.
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But the scope of Texas’ law, authorizing private lawsuits from countless private citizens, and its direct targeting of shield laws means that this case offers abortion opponents a novel chance to block telehealth.
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“If it were successful, and he were able to overcome a shield law, that might change the calculus for some shield law providers,” Hearon said.
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This case is just one of several that have been filed against health care providers offering telehealth abortions to people living under bans. But no other case cites laws that specifically challenge shield laws, and both have thus far been thwarted.
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One civil suit, filed in January , accuses defendant Debra Lynch of practicing medicine without a license and of violating Texas’ abortion ban. Lynch is a nurse practitioner and the head of Her Safe Harbor, a Delaware-based shield law practice. A Texas court previously found another medical provider, Dr. Margaret Carpenter , guilty in a similar case, but her home state of New York has declined to enforce the court’s judgment. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has also brought criminal charges against Coeytaux and Carpenter; in both cases, their states’ governors have cited shield laws in refusing to cooperate. And Mitchell is also behind another civil lawsuit targeting a telehealth abortion provider under a wrongful death claim.
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Abortion opponents have expressed frustration about their inability to block shield law protected care. Many have pressured the federal government to enact new restrictions on mifepristone, one of the two medications used in abortions, so that it would no longer be approved for telehealth.
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There are three state lawsuits filed by state attorneys general pushing for the Food and Drug Administration to limit access to the drug. Federal officials at the FDA and Department of Justice have said the agency is already reviewing the drug’s approval— a move that could ultimately be used to implement national restrictions on the drug, including in states where abortion is legal.
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“All of these efforts are a piece of shutting down mailing medication abortion. That is what appears to be now the singular focus of many, and all these lawsuits get at it in different ways,” Rebouché said. “All of them try to turn up this heat and make this argument that both mifepristone’s unsafe, which they’ve been saying for years, but also we’re in this untenable state of state conflict.”
","category":"choice","author":"Shefali Luthra","publishDate":"2026-02-05T22:00:48.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/texas_shield_laws_lawsuit.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/texas-california-abortion-lawsuit/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-06T00:00:52.814Z"},{"id":"v8qkat","slug":"we-will-not-be-sidelined-again-survivors-respond-after-doj-releases-epstein-files-with-unredacted-na","title":"‘We Will Not Be Sidelined Again’: Survivors Respond After DOJ Releases Epstein Files With Unredacted Names and Personal Details","excerpt":"The Department of Justice has released more than 3 million pages of records related to Jeffrey Epstein. For decades, survivors have begged for answers and accountability. But they say the latest tranche of documents—many containing unredacted names, contact information and identifying details—have l...","content":"
The Department of Justice has released more than 3 million pages of records related to Jeffrey Epstein. For decades, survivors have begged for answers and accountability. But they say the latest tranche of documents—many containing unredacted names, contact information and identifying details—have left them retraumatized, exposed and furious.
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Some describe the release as careless. Others call it deliberate. Many say it confirms what they have long believed: that survivors are still not being centered, protected or heard.
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Read survivors' reactions, in their own words.
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\"My sister Maria Farmer filed a lawsuit against the government for negligence in this case, and really as I see it this is just further examples of that—of the ways that we have not been protected and that DOJ has not done their job.\"
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“I can’t help but wonder why the DOJ has once again failed us. Again. It feels like they’re ignoring our need for protection, especially when they’ve taken the time to redact the names of powerful individuals ... but not ours. This double standard makes it even harder for us to trust them.\"
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The post ‘We Will Not Be Sidelined Again’: Survivors Respond After DOJ Releases Epstein Files With Unredacted Names and Personal Details appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Roxanne Szal","publishDate":"2026-02-05T21:58:34.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/protesters007.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/05/survivor-reactions-epstein-files-redactions/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-06T00:00:52.517Z"},{"id":"i2p0bb","slug":"8216a-culture-without-art-will-die8217-robert-redford-and-the-impact-of-sundance","title":"'A Culture Without Art Will Die': Robert Redford and the Impact of Sundance","excerpt":"With Sundance alumni like director Chloé Zhao crediting its labs for shaping their careers, the festival’s legacy of nurturing independent storytellers underscores why Robert Redford’s artist-first vision remains vital in a new era.","content":"
With Sundance alumni like director Chloé Zhao crediting its labs for shaping their careers, the festival’s legacy of nurturing independent storytellers underscores why Robert Redford’s artist-first vision remains vital in a new era.
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The post ‘A Culture Without Art Will Die’: Robert Redford and the Impact of Sundance appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Pat Mitchell","publishDate":"2026-02-05T20:09:23.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Instagram-The-Redford-Center-Rich-Polk-2026GG-Penske-Media-via-Getty-Images.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/05/robert-redford-sundance-labs-women-film-screenwriters-directors-oscars/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-06T00:00:52.517Z"},{"id":"ryso3m","slug":"the-original-wine-moms-are-in-ohio-theyre-mobilizing-to-support-haitians-in-springfield","title":"The original ‘wine moms’ are in Ohio. They’re mobilizing to support Haitians in Springfield.","excerpt":"SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Katie Paris opened a “Unite for Springfield” Zoom gathering of more than 4,000 people earlier this week by asking participants to share one thing in the chat that was giving them hope. “Times are heavy. The subject we are discussing tonight is heavy.","content":"
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Katie Paris opened a “Unite for Springfield” Zoom gathering of more than 4,000 people earlier this week by asking participants to share one thing in the chat that was giving them hope.
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“Times are heavy. The subject we are discussing tonight is heavy. We’re in a heavy moment. It is so important in these times to tap into a sense of hope,” the mother of two said, sitting in front of a colorful wall displaying her children’s artwork.
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“One thing that’s giving you hope right now, okay, let’s turn on the chat. Let’s see them,” Paris prompted.
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“My children.” Liam Ramos .”
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Red Wine & Blue, an organization that Paris founded in 2019 to build a diverse “sisterhood” of suburban women to fight political extremism, hosted the call just hours before Tuesday night’s slated expiration of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, an immigration designation that has allowed some 350,000 Haitians to live and work legally in the country. Springfield, a central Ohio city of 60,000 where as many as one in four residents are Haitian, was bracing for an influx of federal immigration enforcement officers akin to the Trump administration’s violent crackdown in Minnesota. Paris, who lives outside of Cleveland, about a three-hour drive northeast of Springfield, tempered the hopeful tone at the start of the meeting with political reality.
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“Last night, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians living and working legally in America, and the fight is far from over. The Department of Homeland Security immediately stated that they are taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court , and we know what that means: With this Supreme Court, Haitians could lose their status in really a matter of weeks,” Paris said.
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“We’re going to talk about what’s next legally in all this, we’re going to talk about what we can learn from Minneapolis, and we’re also going to talk about how we can stay safe. Finally, perhaps most importantly of all, we are going to be giving you opportunities to take real action tonight,” she continued.
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Women have been leading the opposition to Donald Trump’s second presidency , playing key roles in resistance efforts and forming groups to counter the administration’s policies on immigration and more. During the 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly targeted the Haitians in Springfield with lies — as did now Vice President JD Vance, an Ohioan — to bolster his calls for a crackdown on even legal immigration. The president said he would “protect” women from immigrants, “whether the women like it or not ,” despite polls showing that women did not rank immigration among their top concerns, nor did they trust Trump the most on the issue.
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A PBS News/NPR/Marist Poll released Thursday showed that nearly two-thirds of Americans now believe Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has gone too far in its methods after federal agents killed Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. When broken down by gender , just 26 percent of women said they approved of how ICE was doing compared to 40 percent of men, the poll showed.
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Paris, who worked in national politics before moving back to her husband’s hometown from Washington, D.C., founded Red Wine & Blue to harness the political power of suburban women, a rapidly diversifying group that determines the outcome of elections — and often votes with different priorities on their minds than men do.
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Red Wine and Blue founder Katie Paris; Viles Dorsainvil, director of Haitian Community Help and Support Center; and Pastor Carl Ruby invited donations during a February 3 “Unite for Springfield” Zoom call attended by thousands. \n (Courtesy Red Wine and Blue) \n\n\n\n
“It was really my reaction to the 2018 election and seeing all these women, particularly in the suburbs, become involved in politics for the very first time as a result of the 2016 election,” she said in an interview after the organizing call. “I knew that we needed to keep them engaged, and women are not always taken as seriously as I believe they should be.”
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The Ohio chapter was Red Wine & Blue’s first, followed by chapters in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Michigan — all critical states in presidential elections. There is also a national network of “Trouble Nation” groups for women living outside of those four states. Red Wine & Blue now has more than 600,000 members and a staff of about 60. Its members and affiliated groups held 4,000 events last year, most of them in person.
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The opportunity for action during Tuesday night’s Zoom came in a series of requests for donations for Springfield groups supporting Haitian families. Participants heard from local pastor Carl Ruby , whose congregation includes Haitians and is vocal about supporting them; Catholic charity leader Casey Rollins, who has urged Haitian parents to get passports and documents for their U.S.-born children in case of deportation or separation; Viles Dorsainvil, director of the nonprofit Haitian Community Help and Support Center; and legal experts who advised them on their rights and precautions to take when documenting ICE activity. Minneapolis-based Rev. Ashley Horan also joined to talk about how her community stepped up to care for their immigrant neighbors .
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In between speakers, Paris reminded those on the call — the vast majority were women and many were Ohioans, or had connections to Ohio or to Haiti, or a mix of those — that the way to help this time was to give money, and to do it fast. “We’re not going to keep this donate page up for long because we do need to get these funds in the hands of these organizations quickly — they are providing such urgently needed services on the ground,” she said.
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The chat lit up again as the participants donated as little as $10 and as much as a $10,000 match.
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“Donated.”
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In less than an hour, Red Wine & Blue surpassed its fundraising target for the evening, collecting more than $107,000 for local groups supporting Springfield’s Haitian residents.
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Red Wine & Blue focuses on what Paris describes as “friend-to-friend” organizing; it does not spend money on expensive television ad campaigns or anonymous phone-banking efforts. Third-party analysis that matched Red Wine & Blue’s contacts to voter files showed that their on-the-ground organizing increased turnout by 5 percent in even years and 8 to 11 percent in odd years. Paris said that a recent membership analysis showed that 54 percent of their members are current or former political independents or Republicans.
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She gave the group its name — no wine consumption is required for membership, by the way — because she is “all about leaning into the tropes” that are put on women to “regain our political power.”
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“They called us the ‘suburban housewives’ in 2020. We’ve been the ‘Chardonnay Antifa.’ Now they’re saying the ‘wine moms’ are paid protesters. We’ve been ‘soccer moms’ and ‘Zoom moms.’ I think all of that is meant to reduce us , as a group of women who actually do have political power,” Paris said.
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After a Fox News columnist wrote last month that “organized gangs of wine moms” were using “Antifa tactics” to oppose ICE, Red Wine & Blue fired back on social media: “Add it to the very long list of names they’ve called us. They can try to scare us, they can try to shame us… but we’re still showing up, still supporting our communities.”
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After the Zoom call, Paris said, “People are already getting their protest signs ready for the next ‘No Kings’ Day, saying: Red Wine & Blue, the original ‘wine moms.’”
","category":"activism","author":"Amanda Becker","publishDate":"2026-02-05T19:41:35.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/redwineblue2.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/wine-moms-springfield-ohio-haitians-ice/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-06T00:00:52.814Z"},{"id":"nh9mgx","slug":"people-in-ice-detention-struggle-to-access-period-products-despite-rules-to-provide-them","title":"People in ICE detention struggle to access period products, despite rules to provide them","excerpt":"Period products like pads and tampons are considered an essential public health need, but access for women and trans people held in federal custody — from prisons to immigration detention centers — remains inconsistent.","content":"
Period products like pads and tampons are considered an essential public health need, but access for women and trans people held in federal custody — from prisons to immigration detention centers — remains inconsistent. While specific figures for women held in immigration detention have not been reported for President Donald Trump’s second term, the detention population broadly reached record highs in 2025, growing from about 40,000 to nearly 70,000 people.
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A report published Monday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan arm of Congress, found that federal prisons and immigration detention centers generally make menstrual products available. But investigators also discovered inadequate oversight: Some facilities do not follow federal policy that mandates specific types of menstrual products and how often they must be replenished.
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The watchdog office suggested recommendations to the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “GAO recommends that (1) BOP ensure its oversight activities monitor adherence to its policy on providing menstrual products, and (2) ICE clarify requirements related to providing menstrual products in its detention standards.” The report noted that while BOP committed to taking steps to address the recommendations, ICE declined, stating that its standards are intended to provide “guidance” and “flexibility” to facilities.
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“Menstrual products aren’t a luxury, they are a basic need for half of the population,” Rep. Grace Meng, a New York Democrat and one of six congresswomen to request the GAO report, wrote in a statement. “This is why I first requested this report from GAO in 2022: to investigate whether our own government is meeting that basic need. And this report now could not be more timely, as we see news reports from federal prisons and immigration facilities about women who have been denied pads and tampons and forced to sit in blood-soaked clothing.”
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Women and transgender individuals behind bars receive substandard reproductive health care, including insufficient access to menstrual products in local, state and federal facilities around the country.
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Many facilities limit the number of tampons or pads menstruating people may receive each month, in some cases providing 12 to 20 products per month that are often much lower quality than standard store-bought items. Outside of prison, people will typically go through three to six tampons or pads each day during a menstrual period, which can last for seven days.
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Currently and formerly incarcerated menstruating people have described prison pads as “not much more than a panty liner,” as one woman told The 19th last year. Some need to use six pads at a time to prevent leakage.
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Others are forced to either bleed through their clothing or make their own tampons out of whatever they can get their hands on: toilet paper, dirty rags or even filling from their mattresses, said Miriam Vishniac, the founder and director of the Prison Flow Project, a database focused on access to menstrual products in U.S. prisons.
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The GAO launched its investigation of products in federal facilities in response to a request from nine members of Congress, all Democrats. Between July 2024 and February 2026, GAO investigators conducted site visits to five federal prisons and three ICE detention facilities, conducted interviews with staff and officials at the facilities as well as incarcerated or detained women. The office also sent web-based questionnaires to all 29 BOP institutions that housed women in fiscal year 2024 and all 52 ICE facilities that housed women in fiscal year 2024.
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About 60 percent of prisons and ICE facilities that responded to the survey listed the quality of the menstrual products they provide to be an “important” or “somewhat important” consideration. About 70 percent listed the “timeliness of delivery” of the menstrual products as either “important” or “somewhat important.”
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The 2018 First Step Act requires BOP to provide free tampons and sanitary napkins that meet industry standards, “and in a quantity that meets the healthcare needs of each prisoner.” All menstrual products must be made available in common areas, such as bathrooms, and incarcerated individuals must have access to these items at all times of the day and may keep them in their cells, according to the GAO report. But the office found that some institutions do not provide all five of the required types of products in common areas, or replenish menstrual products within the required 24 hours.
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For ICE facilities, the agency assigns one of three different sets of standards that guide requirements for providing food, medical care and hygiene items. But these standards are inconsistent and lack detailed directives for providing menstrual products.
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“For example, of the two sets of detention standards that explicitly mention the provision of menstrual products, one set specifies that the facility must replenish products at no cost to detained individuals, while the other does not,” the report states. “The third set of detention standards does not mention menstrual products at all.”
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In response to the GAO recommendation that ICE clarify its requirements related to the provision of menstrual products, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declined to follow the suggestion. GAO recommendations are not legally binding and do not have to be implemented. DHS stated that the language of its current requirements allow different facilities to customize based on their individual operational needs, “strategic constraints” and geographic locations. The DHS letter added that the recommended changes “would create undue burdens on facilities that currently address these types of issues in accordance with local policies.”
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The other women lawmakers who requested the GAO inquiry did not get back to The 19th’s requests for comment by the publication of this story.
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Vishniac, from the Prison Flow Project, called DHS’ reasoning “ridiculous.”
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“When you do not document these procedures, menstruators in confinement are left at the mercy of their captors,” Vishniac wrote in an emailed statement. “In the best circumstances, this may lead to people who do not menstruate making uninformed decisions that have significant negative impacts. In the worst circumstances, it creates an opportunity for abuse.”
","category":"activism","author":"Candice Norwood","publishDate":"2026-02-05T18:14:27.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Detention-Menstruation-Products-2x3-1.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/ice-facilities-federal-prisons-menstrual-products/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-06T00:00:52.814Z"},{"id":"wlrgs8","slug":"resistance-from-the-red-carpet-to-the-courts-grammy-winners-denounce-ice-immigrant-families-challeng","title":"Resistance, From the Red Carpet to the Courts: Grammy Winners Denounce ICE, Immigrant Families Challenge Trump's Visa Ban","excerpt":"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.","content":"
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.
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This week:
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… and more.
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The post Resistance, From the Red Carpet to the Courts: Grammy Winners Denounce ICE, Immigrant Families Challenge Trump’s Visa Ban appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Katie Fleischer","publishDate":"2026-02-05T18:09:50.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Instagram-Scott-Olson-Getty-Images.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/05/grammys-women-ice-out-trump-visa-ban-abortion-minneapolis-senate-democrats/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-06T00:00:52.517Z"},{"id":"386rak","slug":"trump-era-federal-layoffs-hit-black-women-hardest","title":"Trump-Era Federal Layoffs Hit Black Women Hardest","excerpt":"There is a shift happening in the labor force that favors men in general, and white men in particular. And Black women—who historically have found more job security and upward mobility in federal employment—are now seeing those federal jobs slip away in record numbers.","content":"
There is a shift happening in the labor force that favors men in general, and white men in particular. And Black women—who historically have found more job security and upward mobility in federal employment—are now seeing those federal jobs slip away in record numbers.
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“What we are seeing happening is a federal government that is intent on creating a DEI boogeyman to radically change how workplaces operate in ways that disadvantage women, people of color and LGBTQ workers,” says Gaylynn Burroughs, vice president for education and workplace justice at the National Women’s Law Center.
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The post Trump-Era Federal Layoffs Hit Black Women Hardest appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Belle Taylor-McGhee","publishDate":"2026-02-05T15:49:46.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Alex-Wroblewski-AFP-via-Getty-Images.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/05/black-women-jobs-trump-layoffs-doge-cuts-fired/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-05T18:00:48.031Z"},{"id":"pueoxd","slug":"february-2026-reads-for-the-rest-of-us","title":"February 2026 Reads for the Rest of Us","excerpt":"Each month, Ms. provides readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups. There are hundreds of books being released every month, and it is challenging to narrow down the titles to a manageable list of 20-ish.","content":"
Each month, Ms. provides readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
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There are hundreds of books being released every month, and it is challenging to narrow down the titles to a manageable list of 20-ish. I pride myself on finding the hidden gems—the ones you may not hear about otherwise. That means that I sometimes forgo some of the most buzzy books for ones that haven’t gotten as much publicity, even though they deserve it.
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So all that said, here is February's list of 28 books. It was one of those months where it was tough to decide—enjoy the extra titles!
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The post February 2026 Reads for the Rest of Us appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"resilience","author":"Karla J. Strand","publishDate":"2026-02-05T15:17:32.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Canva-Book-Collage-2_3.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/05/best-new-feminist-books-february-2026-reads-for-the-rest-of-us-women-lgbtq-writers/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-05T18:00:48.031Z"},{"id":"fxbogo","slug":"the-justice-department-tries-to-prosecute-black-journalists-podcast","title":"The Justice Department Tries to Prosecute Black Journalists (Podcast)","excerpt":"The Trump administration is escalating its attacks on the First Amendment, and along with it, government accountability. The post The Justice Department Tries to Prosecute Black Journalists (Podcast) appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
In this episode, Imani Gandy and Jess Pieklo unpack the federal charges brought against Black journalists and advocates in connection to an anti-ICE protest at a Minnesota church.
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Transcript
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a member today .
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Imani’s column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles , is back in 2026! Sign up for her newsletter here to read it first, and listen to Imani’s new podcast, B*tch, Listen, here .
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The post The Justice Department Tries to Prosecute Black Journalists (Podcast) appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"activism","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-05T14:02:31.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/BL-S09-E49-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/05/the-justice-department-tries-to-prosecute-black-journalists/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-05T18:00:47.649Z"},{"id":"gg4hwp","slug":"the-post-roe-playbook-is-targeting-teens-and-immigrants-first","title":"The Post-Roe Playbook Is Targeting Teens and Immigrants First","excerpt":"A conversation between legal scholar Shoshanna Ehrlich and Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project. \"In the first Trump administration, we still had Roe . By losing that underlying constitutional right to abortion at the federal level, the door has been opened for ...","content":"
A conversation between legal scholar Shoshanna Ehrlich and Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project.
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\"In the first Trump administration, we still had Roe . By losing that underlying constitutional right to abortion at the federal level, the door has been opened for the second Trump administration to both compound the attacks and move in new directions,\" Amiri told Ms.
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\"We were screaming from the rooftops that they were coming after Roe , and abortion was going to be banned, and we were not believed. ... As with all rights, they're tenuous and you have to continue to fight to enforce them.
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\" It’s always the most marginalized, as we’ve been talking about. It’s the people who have the fewest resources, people who live in rural areas, young people, people without documentation, people with limited language skills. That is who will feel the brunt the hardest of these policies.\"
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The post The Post-Roe Playbook Is Targeting Teens and Immigrants First appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Shoshanna Ehrlich","publishDate":"2026-02-05T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-2159068561.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/05/immigrant-abortion-young-girls-teenagers-right-to-travel-state-aclu-brigitte-amiri/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-05T12:00:52.849Z"},{"id":"8lhee6","slug":"after-years-of-silence-texas-medical-board-issues-training-for-doctors-on-how-to-legally-provide-abo","title":"After Years of Silence, Texas Medical Board Issues Training for Doctors on How to Legally Provide Abortions","excerpt":"The post After Years of Silence, Texas Medical Board Issues Training for Doctors on How to Legally Provide Abortions appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"
For the first time since Texas criminalized abortion, the state’s medical regulator is instructing doctors on when they can legally terminate a pregnancy to protect the life of the patient — guidance physicians have long sought as women died and doctors feared imprisonment for intervening.
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The new training from the Texas Medical Board comes nearly five years after the state passed its strict abortion ban in 2021, threatening doctors with severe penalties. ProPublica’s reporting has shown that pregnancy became far more dangerous in the state after the law took effect: Sepsis rates spiked for women suffering a pregnancy loss, as did emergency room visits in which miscarrying patients needed a blood transfusion ; at least four women in the state died after they didn’t receive timely reproductive care. More than a hundred OB-GYNs said the state’s abortion ban was to blame.
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In response, the Texas Legislature passed the Life of the Mother Act last year. The law updated the abortion ban’s medical exceptions , added to the legal burden needed for prosecutors to criminally charge a doctor and required the medical board to create guidance for doctors by Jan. 1, something no other state with an abortion ban has done.
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The new medical training , which ProPublica obtained under a public records request, assures doctors they can now legally provide abortions, even when a patient’s life isn’t imminently in danger, and goes over nine example scenarios, including a patient’s water breaking before term and complications from an incomplete abortion.
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Some of the scenarios make clear how doctors can intervene in circumstances similar to cases ProPublica has investigated. For example, in 2021, Josseli Barnica was diagnosed with an “inevitable” miscarriage , leaving her at high risk of dangerous infection, and she died after doctors would not empty her uterus while there was still a fetal heartbeat. The new training includes an example that indicates an abortion would be legal in similar cases.
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But medical and legal experts who reviewed the training for ProPublica said the case studies represent only the most straightforward situations doctors encounter. The complications that women face in pregnancy are varied, complex and impossible to capture in a brief presentation, many cautioned. One attorney called the training “the bare minimum.”
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“I could probably list 100 different situations that would cause people to pause and say, ‘Wow, does that fit into the law?’” said Dr. Tony Ogburn, an OB-GYN practicing in Texas. “They’re taking years and years of medical training and experience on how to manage these cases and summarizing it in 43 slides.”
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Notably absent from the training is guidance on how doctors should care for patients with chronic conditions, a gray area that has come up again and again in ProPublica’s reporting. Last year, ProPublica investigated the death of Tierra Walker , a San Antonio woman with diabetes and high blood pressure who endured repeated hospitalizations and escalating symptoms before she died. Doctors dismissed her requests for an abortion to protect her health, her family said. Doctors and hospitals involved in Walker’s care did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment.
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And no amount of training can solve what many doctors see as the main problem: the law’s steep criminal penalties. If found guilty of performing an illegal abortion, doctors face up to 99 years in prison, $100,000 in fines and the loss of their medical license. Even the possibility of a lengthy and public court battle can be a powerful deterrent, many physicians told ProPublica.
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The Texas Medical Board writes in its training that “the legal risk of prosecution is extremely low” if doctors practice “evidence-based medicine,” follow “standard emergency protocols” and document cases appropriately. The training also emphasizes multiple times that the burden now falls on the state to prove that “no reasonable doctor” would have performed the abortion. Before the Life of the Mother Act, prosecutors could accuse a physician of performing an illegal abortion with little evidence.
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That assurance rings hollow to some doctors, who point to the actions of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton since the state’s abortion ban took effect.
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Dr. Damla Karsan, an OB-GYN based in Houston, said she appreciates that the training tells physicians they can use their expertise to make judgment calls during emergency situations. “But having to defend your decision is still scary,” Karsan said.
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In 2023, Paxton overruled Karsan’s medical judgement when her patient Kate Cox sought an abortion at 20 weeks after learning the fetus had a fatal genetic anomaly. Texas bans abortions for all fetal anomalies unless the pregnant woman is facing a medical emergency. Karsan argued that Cox qualified: She had previously had two C-sections, increasing her risk of hemorrhage, infection and future infertility. A Texas lower court permitted the abortion, but Paxton appealed the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court, which ultimately overturned the decision, arguing Karsan hadn’t done enough to prove Cox’s life was at risk.
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Paxton’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the Cox case and the medical board’s assertion that the risk of legal action for doctors who follow its guidance is extremely low.
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Texas Medical Board President Dr. Sherif Zaafran told ProPublica that the training was reviewed by Paxton, as well as Gov. Greg Abbott and state Sen. Bryan Hughes, the abortion ban’s author. The board, which has 19 members appointed by the governor, including 12 licensed physicians but no OB-GYNs, also consulted with the Texas Hospital Association and the Texas Medical Association.
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Any doctors who practice obstetric care, including all emergency room and urgent care physicians, will need to complete the self-administered online course before 2027 in order to obtain or renew their license.
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Multiple doctors told ProPublica decisions about abortion care are also shaped by hospital lawyers. The Life of the Mother Act required the State Bar of Texas to create its own training for attorneys, which ProPublica reviewed. That presentation also explains that prosecutors looking to file a criminal charge now need to demonstrate that no other doctor would provide an abortion if faced with the same scenario.
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Blake Rocap, a longtime reproductive rights attorney, said the state guidance should give doctors and hospitals more protections to help patients access care. “It will save lives,” he said.
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After Texas’ six-week abortion ban took effect in 2021, doctors, hospitals and reproductive rights advocates repeatedly urged the Texas Medical Board to provide guidance on how medical professionals could comply with it. In particular, they sought clarity around the law’s vague exception for a “life-threatening emergency.”
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For years, the board declined, saying it lacked the authority.
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In the absence of guidance, confusion reigned across the state. The standard of care for miscarrying patients in the second trimester, for example, is to offer to empty the uterus, which can lower the risk of infection and sepsis, according to leading medical organizations. While some Texas doctors told ProPublica last year they regularly offer to empty the uterus in these cases, others said their hospitals didn’t allow them to do so until the fetal heartbeat stopped or they could document a life-threatening complication, leading to delays in care like the one that Barnica experienced. Across the state, cases of sepsis in second-trimester pregnancy losses shot up more than 50% after the ban took effect, according to a data analysis by ProPublica.
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In 2024, the board released limited guidance stating that providers don’t need to wait until a pregnant woman is on the brink of death to intervene. The new training goes further, offering detailed examples of when abortion would be legal.
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One case study addresses patients who get an abortion out of state but retain tissue in the uterus. Because the pregnancy was already ended, the medical board advises, “ongoing treatment of any retained products is not an abortion and is not considered aiding and abetting an abortion.” ProPublica investigated the death of a woman in Georgia, Amber Thurman , who died of sepsis when doctors there delayed emptying her uterus after an incomplete abortion.
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The training also makes clear that the definition of ectopic pregnancies — which are always life-threatening — includes any that implant in an abnormal location outside of the uterine cavity. Previous laws had defined an ectopic pregnancy as one outside of the uterus. While most ectopic pregnancies occur in the fallopian tubes, some can also implant inside the uterus, such as in the scar tissue from a previous pregnancy.
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Still, the training doesn’t address a key issue in miscarriage management that ProPublica’s reporting has highlighted : Early pregnancy loss often can’t be conclusively diagnosed with a single ultrasound. Confirming that a pregnancy has ended can take days or weeks. In those cases, some doctors have left women bleeding and in pain instead of offering a D&C, a procedure that can prevent hemorrhage. Another Texas woman named Porsha Ngumezi bled to death in 2023 while miscarrying, according to the medical examiner, after her doctor did not provide a D&C.
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The training also offers no instruction on how to care for patients whose pregnancies are high risk because of underlying medical conditions like autoimmune disorders, uncontrolled blood pressure or heart disease. Pregnancy can often exacerbate these chronic conditions, sometimes leading to a small risk of death, but doctors may not consider this “life-threatening.”
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Walker, the San Antonio woman ProPublica reported on last year , had uncontrolled blood pressure and developed seizures and blood clots. More than 90 doctors were involved in Walker’s care, but not one offered her the option to end her pregnancy, according to medical records. Doctors who reviewed the new training for ProPublica said they still weren’t clear when they could intervene in cases like hers — would it be when a woman first got pregnant because she already had some risk factors that made pregnancy more dangerous? Or would they have to wait until she developed specific symptoms that showed her health was declining?
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Zaafran said the training makes clear that doctors can judge whether a patient is at risk of death or irreversible damage — and that they can intervene before the patient reaches that state. “In other words, you don’t need to wait until somebody has clots or seizures or whatever it might be to make a determination that something needs to be done.”
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What doctors do need to do, Zaafran repeatedly said, is document those risks in case their patients qualify for an abortion. But Karsan argues she did that in the Cox case, and Paxton fought her in court anyway.
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While the medical board’s training includes two case studies related to patients with fatal fetal anomalies, neither addresses whether the updated law allows an abortion in a scenario similar to Cox’s. Karsan documented in the medical records that a third C-section would put Cox at risk of death or a hysterectomy if there was a complication, and that argument is what she shared with the courts. The training emphasizes that a fatal fetal anomaly alone is not covered by the exceptions and that “the mother must have a life-threatening physical condition.” Zaafran declined to comment on Cox’s case specifically but said that his understanding was there was not enough documentation.
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Cox told ProPublica she trusted her medical team’s judgment and she did not want to risk her health by continuing her pregnancy. Grieving the unexpected loss while being denied care and seeing her doctor threatened by the top lawyer in the state, Cox said, “was incredibly scary.” She ultimately traveled out of Texas to get an abortion.
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“I’m grateful for my doctors. Their hands were tied in many ways,” she said. “The problem isn’t our doctors. It’s that pregnancy is too complicated to legislate.”
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The post After Years of Silence, Texas Medical Board Issues Training for Doctors on How to Legally Provide Abortions appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Cassandra Jaramillo","publishDate":"2026-02-05T10:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/20260204-tmb-guidelines-joselli.jpg?resize=2000,1333","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-medical-board-abortion-training-doctors","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-05T12:00:53.882Z"},{"id":"v10e1s","slug":"jennifer-driver-state-innovation-exchange-on-abortion-ballot-initiatives-amp-anti-democratic-attacks","title":"Jennifer Driver (State Innovation Exchange) on abortion ballot initiatives & anti-democratic attacks","excerpt":"
Jennifer Driver (State Innovation Exchange) on abortion ballot initiatives & anti-democratic attacks sramashwar February 4, 2026 Guttmacher's Candace Gibson on obstacles to abortion care in the US
sramashwar February 4, 2026 The year was 2018, and Lawrence Krauss, the prominent physicist and scholar of the cosmos, was facing a Title IX investigation at Arizona State University.
BuzzFeed News had just reported on allegations of sexual misconduct against him; he denied them. In March, he contacted a lawyer experienced in higher education cases. Krauss and Justin Dillon, the lawyer, exchanged a few friendly emails before speaking on the phone. \n\n\n\n
Then, Krauss presented him with an “unusual request” — he wanted Dillon to call a disgraced financier who had, 10 years before, pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution of a minor.
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“I have been advised through much of the BuzzFeed experience, both before and after, by a friend, who is also somewhat infamous. His name is Jeffrey Epstein, and you may know who he is already,” Krauss wrote.
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“Bottom line is that Jeffrey is not only friends with most of the famous people from finance, to business, to Hollywood, who have either been brought down during #metoo and he also speaks regularly with people ranging from the awful white house people, who he is friends with, to ken starr etc.,” added Krauss. He later walked back his request for Dillon to speak to Epstein. But Epstein appeared none too pleased that Krauss had invoked him and his connections.
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“Every email is to do with engagement/money etc. in the future please do not disclose our conversations or who I speak with!!!!!,” Epstein — who would die 16 months later, awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges — wrote to Krauss.
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Those emails between Krauss and Dillon are included in the more than 3.5 million files the Justice Department has released from its investigation into Epstein.
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Epstein became a convicted sex offender nine years before the #MeToo movement brought sexual harassment and assault to the forefront of the national conversation. He had long cultivated access and proximity to other powerful men in media and entertainment and used his wealth to fund scientific research and gain a foothold in elite academic circles.
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But in 2017, the #MeToo movement sparked a reckoning for men at the highest levels of the entertainment and media industries — some of whom had traveled in Epstein’s circles. The files provide a rare window into how Epstein reacted and strategized in real time to the political and cultural earthquake of #MeToo.
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Epstein and his allies derided the women who came forward while expressing concern about the movement’s impact. Epstein sent links to news articles and swapped messages about which powerful men “went down,” were “up to bat” and had been “whacked.” Behind the scenes, Epstein used his resources and influence to advise other men accused of sexual misconduct, like Krauss, and wondered how the reckoning could impact him.
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Epstein was closely monitoring the fallout of allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein , who would later be convicted of rape ; directors Woody Allen and Brett Ratner; talk show host Charlie Rose ; comedian Louis C.K .; former “Today Show” host Matt Lauer ; and ex-CBS chairman Les Moonves .
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“charlie, harvey , brett. louis. . jeffrey is looking better and better L:),” Epstein wrote in a November 21, 2017, email to high-profile Hollywood publicist Peggy Siegal.
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(Epstein’s emails and those of his correspondents often contained typos; The 19th is reproducing the text as it appears in the files released by the Justice Department.)
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“The world is topsy turvey,” Siegal replied. “That has been going on since the beginning of time (and that is not an excuse) has suddenly erupted in our day of massive global information as a new moral code of behavior. The mirroe of the internet is a social phenomena.”
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“You suffered for a few years and now you are the least of this witch hunt,” she added. Siegal did not return a request for comment.
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It was a year before The Miami Herald would publish its bombshell investigation into the controversial “sweetheart deal” that allowed Epstein to plead guilty to a lesser state charge and pay financial restitution to his victims in exchange for the Justice Department dropping a sex trafficking probe into him. That reporting led in part to the DOJ reopening its investigation into Epstein and charging him with sex trafficking in 2019.
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By the time the Herald published its investigation, Epstein had spent a year closely following and, in some instances, corresponding with and advising other prominent men who had been accused of misconduct.
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On December 4, 2018, days after the publication of the Herald story, Epstein sought advice on media strategy from journalist Michael Wolff.
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“I would look for some reporter to do a more nuanced post-morten on the case– with Trump overtones, legal joustings, #metoo-isms, and profit-motives. WSJ is probably right place,” Wolff replied.
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Wolff did not return a request for comment.
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President Donald Trump’s 2016 election and first term in office sparked the explosion of the #MeToo movement . Trump has been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct, allegations he’s denied, and, in 2023, was found liable for sexual abuse . Trump and Epstein were friendly and ran in the same New York and Palm Beach social circles, but Trump has said the two fell out before Epstein became a convicted sex offender. Trump long resisted the push to release the Epstein files, calling the Epstein matter “a Democrat hoax,” but signed the legislation compelling the Justice Department to release the files amid overwhelming bipartisan pressure.
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Trump’s name appears in the files , including in unverified tips fielded by law enforcement. He has not been accused of wrongdoing connected to Epstein.
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A search for the phrase #MeToo and the names of powerful men accused of misconduct in the files shows Epstein and friends sharing links to news articles, commenting on the statuses of various cases and denigrating the women who came forward.
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“how bad does the harvey weinstein story get?,” Epstein emailed Brad Karp , the chairman of white-shoe law firm Paul Weiss, on October 6, 2017.
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“I think it gets pretty bad — and a little bit worse every day,” responded Karp, who has expressed regret for associating with Epstein.
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Epstein also emailed Kathy Ruemmler, a former White House counsel for President Barack Obama and now the chief counsel at Goldman Sachs, about Weinstein . In an October 10, 2017, email exchange, Ruemmler wrote: “Whoever was not harassed by Harvey Weinstein must feel offended! Jesus!”
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“no worry, that means only grandmothers. wait, its not all out yet,” Epstein replied. Epstein and Weinstein had crossed paths over the years; they were part of a group of investors who tried to buy New York Magazine in 2003. Siegal also leveraged Epstein’s relationship with Andrew Mountbatten-Windso r in her efforts to get members of the British royal family to watch and endorse the Weinstein-produced film “The King’s Speech” during its Oscar campaign in 2011, emails show .
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On November 21, 2017, Epstein emailed the journalist Landon Thomas Jr . about Rose, writing: “the charley thing is wild.”
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“I m not sure why he was sanctimonious and agressive when detailing the harvey weinstein allegations,” Epstein wrote. “now watching the overlay , its amazing.”
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“brett ratner next,” Epstein emailed Wolff on November 1, 2017, the day the Los Angeles Times published an exposé from six women accusing the director of sexual misconduct. Ratner denied the allegations and was never charged with a crime, but was exiled from Hollywood and did not direct a film for years until he returned with Amazon’s 2026 documentary on First Lady Melania Trump.
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Ratner has also appeared in photos included in the Epstein files; he has not been accused of wrongdoing connected to Epstein, but he told Fox News Digital he “didn’t know” and didn’t have “a personal relationship” with Epstein.
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But in November 2018, modeling agency head Faith Kates wrote Epstein : “call me on cell with Brett Ratner.” After a back and forth, Epstein sent Kates a link to an article about a woman who withdrew allegations of rape against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, writing: “you can send to bratner.”
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Kates, who retired in December from the agency she cofounded, did not respond to an email associated with her in public records. A representative for Ratner did not respond to a request for comment.
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Epstein also exchanged texts and emails with his friends Woody Allen and Allen’s wife, Soon-Yi Previn. Allen’s adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow, has long accused him of sexually abusing her as a child ; Allen denied the allegations but has been largely shut out of the U.S. film business since #MeToo.
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In a 2016 email exchange with Epstein , Previn referred to a teenage victim of disgraced politician Anthony Weiner as a “despicable and disgusting person who preys on the weak.” As the #MeToo movement gained steam, Previn emailed Epstein articles about other men accused of misconduct , celebrated a negative review for a film starring “prick” Timothée Chalamet, one of the actors who had distanced himself from Allen; and forwarded Epstein an email titled “Just as the Me Too movement has gone too far so has Botox.”
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In several text message exchanges included in the files, Previn appears to be texting Epstein from Allen’s phone or a contact identified as Allen.
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“ask woody , if instead of the friars club we can start the pariahs club. moonves , lauer rose louis ck, etc,” Epstein wrote to a group text message including Allen’s contact on October 18, 2018.
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In January 2019 , Allen’s number texted Epstein: “Thinking of you as we’re seeing Lawrence Krauss for dinner tonight.”
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“A member of metoo casuallties,” Epstein responded.
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A representative for Allen did not respond to a message seeking clarification as to who sent the texts.
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Epstein was perhaps most closely involved in advising Krauss, the professor and scientist who publicly defended and stood by Epstein after his 2008 conviction. Epstein had made donations to Krauss’ Origins Project, part of his larger patronizing of the sciences. In February 2018, Buzzfeed News detailed allegations of inappropriate behavior against Krauss, ranging from sexist comments, making advances and non-consensually touching women. Krauss called the claims “false” and “defamatory.”
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The files show Krauss forwarding Epstein his correspondence with BuzzFeed News reporters , as well as with officials at Arizona State University and Dillon, the lawyer. Krauss turned to Epstein for public relations advice and strategy, sent him possible cross-examination questions for his accusers, forwarded an article on the dos and don’ts for apologizing , and fielded Epstein’s edits and feedback on draft statements.
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Krauss told Dillon in their first March 2018 email exchange that Epstein and others had raised concerns that hiring a lawyer to represent him in his interactions with the university could make him look guilty.
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“You are getting terrible advice from smart people who have never done this work and have no idea what they’re talking about,” Dillon responded. “I understand where they’re coming from, but it is just bad advice, full stop. I could give you dozens of examples where the only reason my clients got off — and we get a lot off — was because we fought hard to make the process fair. Moreover, no one will take seriously the constitutional law arguments of a physicist, no matter how famous he is. You need a lawyer to make those.”
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Dillon declined to comment further. Krauss did not return a request for comment.
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Krauss stayed in close contact with Epstein through text and email as the Title IX review at ASU played out. In July 2018, a university investigation concluded Krauss had grabbed the breast of a woman who asked to take a picture with him at a convention in Australia in 2016.
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“good news btw is that woman on conciliation committee seems like a sweetie.. she is old.. not some young metoo bitch,” Krauss wrote in a September 5, 2018 , email. “Investigating them more now.”
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Krauss, who had been on paid leave for months, eventually reached an agreement to retire from the university . He continued to send Epstein draft versions of statements, calling one “a Kavanaugh version” and another “almost Jeffrey level smart.”
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In announcing his retirement, he said: “I have never harassed or assaulted anyone and have most certainly not exhibited gender discrimination in my professional dealings at the University or elsewhere.”
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In another instance documented in the files in August 2018, Wolff forwarded Epstein a pitch from a writer whose name appeared on a Google spreadsheet that compiled anonymously-submitted sexual misconduct allegations against men in media, and was seeking legal representation to sue the spreadsheet’s creator.
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“If his story is solid he might be worth supporting,” Wolff wrote. “Thoughts?”
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“tough,” Epstein replied. It is unclear whether he engaged with the man, Stephen Elliott, who, shortly after, filed a defamation lawsuit against the spreadsheet’s creator. The case was settled in 2023 ; Elliott did not return a request for comment.
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And as the Herald was in the final months of pursuing its investigation into Epstein, other tabloids and news outlets started revisiting his case in the wake of #MeToo.
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In August of 2018, Page Six reported that Epstein had met with Steve Bannon, the right-wing media figure and architect of Trump’s 2016 election win, at his Upper East Side mansion. The piece, authored by then-Page Six editor Emily Smith, referred to Epstein as a “reviled billionaire pedophile.” Epstein sent Siegal a link to the story with the subject line: “not sure why she is so hostile.”
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Siegal, responding from a sailboat in Greece , wrote that “the Me Too crazies want blood and death” and called the movement “a barbaric over reaction to behavior that just ran it’s course.” She also suggested Epstein could further bolster his public image by donating money to women’s causes.
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“Instead of celebrating change, these women want to punish. They are not forwarding a new generation of change by destroying men in public,” she wrote. “I had conversations with you to give back. Did you ever set up scholarships? Help woman’s health? Care for single mothers? Anything? That would make you a hero. This the furthest thing from Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer’s minds. Can you imagine if Brett Rattner did anything constructive for women?”
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“Your timing in life was lucky,” Siegal added. “If this happened today, the media would have destroyed you.”
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The Herald published its investigation on Epstein three months later.
","category":"activism","author":"Grace Panetta","publishDate":"2026-02-04T20:26:02.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/7.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/jeffrey-epstein-files-tracked-metoo-fallout/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-05T00:00:58.391Z"},{"id":"e6y4at","slug":"paula-avila-guillen-of-womens-equality-center-on-the-latin-american-reproductive-rights-landscape","title":"Paula Avila-Guillen of Women's Equality Center on the Latin American reproductive rights landscape","excerpt":"
Paula Avila-Guillen of Women's Equality Center on the Latin American reproductive rights landscape sramashwar February 4, 2026 Few Utahns have witnessed the effects of withdrawing transgender kids’ access to care as Collin Kuhn, a clinical child and adolescent psychologist who specializes in helping their clients navigate challenges and questions related to gender.\n\n\n\n
The difference between receiving care and not receiving care, they said, is “night and day.”
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“All of a sudden, socially, their world opens up,” Kuhn said of transgender clients after they start hormone therapy — treatment that, Kuhn added, doesn’t start until the client has met with them or another mental health professional for a year or longer. “They’re not just isolating and sitting in their rooms behind a screen.”
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Kuhn, who has traversed their own yearslong journey of coming out as nonbinary and transmasculine, then receiving care they described as lifesaving to transition to a body they feel comfortable in, said they have about five dozen clients, most of whom are in their teens or early twenties.
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But in 2023, Utah lawmakers passed what they referred to as a “moratorium” on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, then-state Sen. Mike Kennedy’s SB16. The bill’s GOP proponents, at the time, repeatedly insisted they were concerned for minors’ health and safety. So as part of the law, the Legislature commissioned an in-depth review of all research into the effects of hormone treatments.
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Kennedy, a physician who is now a congressman, did not respond to a request for comment on the evidence review’s findings and its reception among lawmakers.
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As the Republican supermajority now moves toward permanently banning such care in Utah, lawmakers continue to sidestep public dialogue about the results of that research — which concluded that gender-affirming care for minors with gender dysphoria is largely found to result in positive outcomes and reduce the likelihood of suicide.
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Records obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune indicate legislative staff aiding the Health and Human Services Interim Committee initially planned on lawmakers discussing the review’s findings after the report’s delivery last May.
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In a statement to The Tribune, a spokesperson for House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said, “Speaker Schultz has been clear in his view that minors should not be subject to irreversible medical decisions.”
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“Kids should not be transitioning. Period. End of story. Minors should not be transitioning. Period. End of story,” Schultz told Deseret News earlier this month.
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A spokesperson for Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, declined to comment and pointed to remarks Adams made while speaking with reporters on the first day of the session, in which he said senators will weigh the House proposal to permanently ban care when it arrives in their chamber.
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The move to push for a permanent ban coincides with repeated efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to completely cut off transgender youth’s access to gender-affirming care. Most recently, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threatened to withhold federal funds from health facilities that provide gender-affirming care to minors.
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Over the course of its six public hearings held across several months last year, the chairs of the Health and Human Services Committee never included a presentation or discussion of the Legislature-ordered report in an agenda. Links to the University of Utah’s Drug Regimen Review Center’s work and a subsequent report offering recommendations for possible policy changes by the state’s Department of Health and Human Services were instead tucked into a May meeting outline .
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There was no explicit reference to the documents in the May 21 hearing — two days after the research was delivered to legislators — only comments from a policy analyst notifying the public that reports legally required to be submitted to the Legislature are posted on the committee’s website. Lawmakers did not publicly acknowledge the documents until The Tribune reported on them the next day.
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A draft “2025 HHS Interim Study Map” compiled by a legislative policy analyst, and obtained by The Tribune through a Government Records Access and Management Act request, included a list of topics to be discussed over the next year. Below that was a tentative agenda for the committee’s May meeting, with 20 minutes allotted for the “Transgender report” and DHHS listed as a possible presenter.
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House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, and Senate President J. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, in the House Chamber at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Jan. 20, 2026.\n (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune) \n\n\n\n
Staffers emailed that document to lawmakers chairing the committee, Sen. Keith Grover, R-Provo, and Rep. Bridger Bolinder, R-Grantsville, on April 18. Rep. Katy Hall, R-South Ogden, replaced Bolinder as the House chair ahead of the committee’s August meeting.
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“Please review this document at your earliest convenience and let us know if you would like to make any changes at this time,” they wrote in the email. “We can always modify the list as issues come up throughout interim.”
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A fiscal analysis of the 2023 bill estimated taxpayers would spend more than $100,000 on the evidence review.
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A spokesperson for DHHS said it would be difficult to calculate the total cost of the research, because it was performed under a broader contract the agency has with the Drug Regimen Review Center. Under an April 2023 contract, the department provided to The Tribune, the center was given a $150,000 budget for the project’s direct expenses.
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Neither Grover, Bolinder nor Hall responded to questions sent by The Tribune.
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In a joint statement in May, Bolinder and Hall said, “Young kids and teenagers should not be making life-altering medical decisions based on weak evidence. … Simply put, the science isn’t there, the risks are real, and the public is with us. We intend to keep the moratorium in place.”
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Gov. Spencer Cox said at a June news conference that he felt Utah’s limits on access to gender-affirming care are “probably in the right place right now,” adding, “There doesn’t seem to be an appetite to readdress it. I think things have shifted significantly over the past couple years.”
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After The Tribune contacted the Drug Regimen Review Center with questions about lawmakers’ responses to its work, a spokesperson for University of Utah Health responded with a statement standing by the findings that hormone treatments are safe and effective for transgender youth with gender dysphoria.
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‘The harm of being six-feet under’ \n\n\n\n
SB16’s so-called moratorium on gender-affirming care for transgender youth prohibited surgically changing a transgender minor’s sex characteristics (such procedures were already extremely rare), and barred prescribing puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy to Utahns under 18 who were not diagnosed with gender dysphoria prior to the bill being signed into law.
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Gender-affirming hormone treatments to alleviate mental health challenges like those faced by that client are effective and carry little risk, the experts contracted by the state to conduct the medical evidence review found.
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As the Drug Regimen Review Center compiled its thousand-page report, it sifted through 277 studies — which included more than 28,000 pediatric patients around the world — that met its standards for consideration.
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“After having spent many months searching for, reading, and evaluating the available literature, it was impossible for us to avoid drawing some high-level conclusions,” the review says.
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“Namely,” they wrote, “the consensus of the evidence supports that the treatments are effective in terms of mental health, psychosocial outcomes, and the induction of body changes consistent with the affirmed gender in pediatric [gender dysphoria] patients. The evidence also supports that the treatments are safe in terms of changes to bone density, cardiovascular risk factors, metabolic changes, and cancer.”
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The pharmacists who read the research and wrote the review added, in their opinion, there is no evidence to justify policies that prevent access to gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
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Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost, D-Salt Lake City, comments during the rules and general oversight committee meeting on Sept. 25, 2025.\n (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune) \n\n\n\n
In a more limited analysis of research assessing the long-term effects of hormone treatment which was included at the end of the review, the Drug Regimen Review Center concluded, “Overall, there were positive mental health and psychosocial functioning outcomes. … Patients that were seen at the gender clinic before the age of 18 had a lower risk of suicide compared to those referred as an adult.”
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In the absence of a public hearing or discussion, it’s difficult to know how many state lawmakers have privately read the report they requested and whether they considered its findings ahead of proposing additional bills this year.
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Schultz, Kennedy and Hall all reportedly told Deseret News that they agree with an assessment “debunking” the Drug Regimen Review Center’s conclusions by the conservative lobbying group Do No Harm.
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Do No Harm does not disclose the majority of its donors, but according to the most recent returns the group filed with the IRS, in 2024, it received grants from the Christian right-leaning Family Policy Foundation and The Heritage Foundation.
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Written by two of the organization’s employees, Do No Harm’s report recommended lawmakers instead rely on another review published in May by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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Among the four Democrats on the 19-member Health and Human Services Interim Committee last year was Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost of Salt Lake City, who also works as a public health researcher and instructor at the University of Utah.
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“My first thought was: I wonder if they’re actually even going to acknowledge this,” Dailey-Provost said of her GOP colleagues, remembering the first time she read the evidence review, “because as a researcher, I’ve said a million times, we all love data until it tells a story we don’t want to hear.”
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Dailey-Provost has voted against every piece of legislation she has seen aimed at restricting transgender Utahns’ rights. But as one of just 14 Democrats in the 75-member House of Representatives, she said in an interview that she struggles with the question of how to best advocate for transgender youth.
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Lawmakers have passed laws limiting transgender people’s ability to access care for four consecutive years, and the most acute effects of those measures are experienced by young people. Each time one of those bills is weighed, transgender Utahns form lines that often stretch outside the doors of committee rooms to testify on how the proposed policy would make their lives more difficult.
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“Say we had heard that [evidence review] as a study item — 20 kids come up and bare their souls and beg for compassion and are told, ‘No,’” Dailey-Provost said.
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“The thing that is hardest for me, that is most sensitive for me,” she continued, “is that every time we run these bills, these kids — these vulnerable kids — hear adults railing against their health care. And it’s important to look at this from a legislative standpoint, but how much do we have to put these kids through this trauma of hearing lawmakers declare that their health care doesn’t matter?”
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Psychologist Collin Kuhn works with transgender youth in Salt Lake City.\n (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune) \n\n\n\n
At least half of the people who see Kuhn, they estimated, are affected by SB16’s restrictions. In the aftermath of the law’s passage, some of Kuhn’s clients’ families decided to move away from Utah, while others are making regular trips out of state to receive care
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Because SB16 left some room for minors already receiving gender-affirming care to continue treatment, Kuhn said, “We do still have a handful of kids that are getting their treatment here.”
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Traveling causes parents to miss work, and children to miss school, and part of Kuhn’s job is helping families procure the accommodations necessary from educators to make that possible — a compromise schools aren’t always willing to make, even when treatment is necessary to address suicidality.
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“We’re actually trying to save her life at this moment,” Kuhn said, reflecting on their experience helping one client, “I don’t give a s— if she didn’t do her homework last week. That is not our priority right now.”
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As part of Utah’s 2023 Student Health and Risk Prevention survey, approximately a quarter of transgender students polled reported attempting suicide at some point during the previous year. About 61% said they had seriously considered it, compared to 18% of their peers. Utah did not publish information specific to transgender students’ well-being in its 2025 survey report.
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“I just don’t get how people can’t see what harm is being done,” Kuhn said. “Somehow they think the harm is if we have hormones — how about the harm of being six feet under?”
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‘No intention of actually using the data’ \n\n\n\n
Utah’s DHHS declined in its May report following the evidence review to take a position on what lawmakers should do next. It did, however, offer recommendations as to the policies the Legislature should put in place if it were to lift the moratorium.
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Those included creating a “hormonal transgender treatment board” that would provide care guidelines; limiting providers delivering care to “demonstrated experts” and requiring that treatment be overseen by an interdisciplinary team of physicians and mental health professionals; and implementing an “explicit informed consent” process.
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A week into the 2026 legislative session, lawmakers are proposing further limiting the ability to seek gender-affirming treatment not just for transgender youth, but for transgender adults, too.
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A new bill from Rep. Rex Shipp, R-Cedar City, would impose more permanent restrictions on transgender youth access to hormone therapy. HB174 would include limited exceptions for minors already receiving that care: They can continue treatment with their parents’ permission, if they are at least 17 years old and have been receiving treatment for at least two years, or if they will turn 18 within six months of the bill taking effect.
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Rep. Nicholeen Peck, a Tooele Republican, is proposing in HB193 prohibiting public money from going toward any transgender hormone therapy or sex characteristic surgical procedures — similar to a bill Peck unsuccessfully introduced last year .
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If passed, it would effectively ban government workers insured by their employer from using that coverage for gender-affirming care, block Medicaid recipients from treatment and could close one of the largest transgender health programs in the state at the University of Utah.
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Sen. Nate Blouin, a Salt Lake City Democrat, says he plans to introduce a bill to end the gender-affirming care ban as he mounts a congressional run. Blouin said he opened a bill file when the evidence review was published “because it was clear it was going to be ignored.”
\n\n\n\n
That the Legislature has not yet publicly weighed the medical evidence review and plans to ban gender-affirming care for youth in spite of it “signifies what we already knew,” said Kuhn, who has repeatedly testified in front of lawmakers on how devastating its restrictions on the transgender community can be.
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“They have no intention of actually using the data,” they continued. “They just keep punting with the line and pushing it back and back. They knew what DHHS would say — everybody, including myself, told them, and they’ve [listened but] always been unwilling [to hear].”
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Shyla Nott","publishDate":"2026-02-04T20:00:33.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/utah-trans-health_03.jpeg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/transgender-health-care-utah-lawmakers/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-05T00:00:58.391Z"},{"id":"xbe2rc","slug":"bills-cracking-down-on-abortion-pills-advance-in-states-that-already-ban-most-abortions","title":"Bills Cracking Down on Abortion Pills Advance in States That Already Ban Most Abortions","excerpt":"State lawmakers in Indiana, South Carolina, Florida, and Wisconsin have introduced bills that would restrict abortion pill access. The post Bills Cracking Down on Abortion Pills Advance in States That Already Ban Most Abortions appeared first on Rewire News Group .","content":"
Even though many legislative sessions only just convened across the country this month, efforts to restrict access to abortion pills are in full swing, particularly in states that already ban abortion.
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Nearly 200 anti-abortion bills have been introduced in 29 states, according to an estimate by the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research organization.
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“In 2026, medication abortion remains one of the central battlegrounds in the fight over reproductive autonomy, with policymakers in several states pushing bills that would criminalize patients, restrict telehealth and mailing, and even misclassify abortion pills as controlled substances or environmental hazards,” Kimya Forouzan, Guttmacher’s principal policy adviser for state issues, said in a statement.
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Some measures targeting abortion medication, including proposals in Arizona and Missouri , have not moved past introduction or beyond referral to initial committees. But lawmakers in Republican strongholds like Indiana and South Carolina have advanced bills that would allow residents to sue providers and manufacturers of mifepristone and misoprostol, key abortion drugs, for sending abortion pills into the state.
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Those efforts echo laws passed in Texas and Louisiana that come with $100,000 payouts if plaintiffs are successful in court. Leaders in states that ban abortions have been clear that the intent behind these measures is to thwart the availability of abortion drugs, States Newsroom
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Our reproductive rights reporting team will be tracking abortion-related bills through biweekly roundups as sessions continue this winter and into the spring. Depending on the partisan makeup of a state’s legislature and other state government officials, some bills have a higher chance of passing and becoming law than others.
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Efforts to restrict abortion pills in GOP-led states \n
Indiana \n
Senate Bill 236 Indiana Capital Chronicle
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The law would carry a 20-year statute of limitations. Women who took abortion pills and mail carriers could not be sued, and the use of the medication in other scenarios, such as miscarriage, would be permitted under the law. The bill also empowers the state’s attorney general to pursue litigation for violating the legislation.
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Other abortion-related provisions in the bill include legally redefining abortion—treatment for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies would no longer be considered abortion procedures. The measure would require providers to submit to the state health department information about the age, race, sex, and location of patients who sought care after abortions. The main sponsor of the bill tweaked language that would have originally made that information publicly available, Capital Chronicle
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Status : Approved by the Senate on Jan. 27 and referred to the House on Jan. 29
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Sponsor : Republican Sen. Tyler Johnson
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South Carolina \n
House Bill 4760 SC Daily Gazette
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The legislation would also allow prospective parents and other relatives to sue manufacturers, providers, and distributors of abortion pills if use of the drug causes harm to the mother or fetus. Relatives have three years to bring that claim, but a specific payout isn’t mentioned.
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Sponsor : Republican Rep. Weston Newton
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Status : In House Judiciary Committee
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Fetal ‘personhood’ proposal clears Florida House \n
House Bill 289 Senate Bill 164 Florida Phoenix
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Sponsors : Rep. Sam Greco and Sen. Erin Grall, Republicans
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Status : House approved on Jan. 15, in the Senate Rules committee
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Bills requiring students to watch fetal development videos advance \n
Florida \n
House Bill 1071 Florida Phoenix
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Sponsor : Republican Rep. Dana Trabulsy
\n
Status : Advanced in the House PreK-12 Budget Subcommittee on Jan. 29, in the chamber’s Education and Employment Committee
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Wisconsin \n
Senate Bill 371 Wisconsin Examiner
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Sponsor : Republican Sen. Mary Felzkowski
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Status : The Senate approved the bill on Jan. 21, and the Assembly concurred on Jan. 22; on Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ desk
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This article was republished from News From the States , part of States Newsroom. Read the original story by Elisha Brown here .
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The post Bills Cracking Down on Abortion Pills Advance in States That Already Ban Most Abortions appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-04T14:00:40.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/State-Bills-cracking-down-web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/04/bills-cracking-down-on-abortion-pills-advance-in-states-that-already-ban-most-abortions/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-04T18:00:55.376Z"},{"id":"h1btqn","slug":"women-combat-veterans-want-pete-hegseth-to-know-that-they-already-passed-the-test","title":"Women combat veterans want Pete Hegseth to know that they already passed the test","excerpt":"Shortly after she graduated from Princeton University, Mikayla Blaska was selected by a unit commander to attend Ranger School, one of the toughest training courses in the Army. For two months, she endured sleep deprivation, extreme calorie restriction and high-intensity patrolling while carrying ov...","content":"
Shortly after she graduated from Princeton University, Mikayla Blaska was selected by a unit commander to attend Ranger School, one of the toughest training courses in the Army . For two months, she endured sleep deprivation, extreme calorie restriction and high-intensity patrolling while carrying over 100 pounds in both mountainous and swamp terrains. As she led an exercise in her final phase of the course, Blaska noticed a man on her team was refusing to listen to her directives. When she confronted him, he responded that he could not respect a woman. He saw her only as a sexual object, he said.
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“I think that might be the worst thing that was said to me through the course of my career,” Blaska said. “And this is somebody who I’m sharing a foxhole with, someone I’m sleeping next to at night.”
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Blaska, now 28, knew she shouldn’t angrily tell him off. So she pointed to why his lack of respect would hurt the other men they were with.
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“I told him that I respected his honesty and that whether he liked it or not, I was going to be there with him,” Blaska said. “And at the end of the day, if he wants to screw me over, that’s fine, but it was about our other team members. I think that argument persuaded him to finally start listening.”
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By the end of the 61-day training course, he admitted he was impressed that she could carry so much “as a woman” and even ranked her the top performer of their team.
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The requirements for both Blaska and the man to graduate were exactly the same. He failed. She didn’t. Blaska never saw him again.
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Mikayla Blaska during Ranger School, one of the Army’s most demanding training programs. She was the 56th woman to complete the course. (Mikayla Blaska) \n\n\n\n
Recently, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called for a six-month review of women in combat, according to a memo that Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel Anthony Tata wrote in December 2025 — first reported by NPR in January. The goal is to assess the “operational effectiveness of ground combat units 10 years after the Department lifted all remaining restrictions on women serving in combat roles.”
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Defense Department press secretary Kingsley Wilson responded to requests for more information by saying the ultimate goal is to “ensure the United States maintains the most lethal military.”
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“Our standards for combat arms positions will be elite, uniform and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man or a woman. Under Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War will not compromise standards to satisfy quotas or an ideological agenda — this is common sense,” Wilson said in a statement.
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Quotas and different standards are already illegal , and past reviews have actually shown benefits to women being fully integrated into combat roles. But Hegseth continues to imply that the military has valued inclusion over efficacy — even though the requirements for women and men in combat roles are identical.
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Hegseth, a former Fox News host who served in the Army National Guard, has made disparaging comments about women . In a podcast interview in 2024, he said, “I’m straight up just saying we shouldn’t have women in combat roles.” In his book, “The War on Warriors,” he argued that women have made the military less effective, less lethal and “fighting more complicated.” And in August 2025, Hegseth reposted a video of an evangelical Christian pastor questioning women’s right to vote .
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Women currently make up more than 21 percent of the active-duty force and have held combat roles in the military for decades, though it’s been a gradual progression. The last roles were finally opened to women in 2015 after Congress repealed the combat exclusion policy two years prior. In the last decade, more than 5,000 women have served in combat arms, and 174 women have earned Ranger tabs alongside almost 15,000 men with the same standards.
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According to an assessment from the Women in the Service Coalition, Army data showed that brigade combat teams with women performed at the same level of training proficiencies as teams without women. In fact, crime trends were higher in teams without women. And several studies have shown that men who serve alongside women are more likely to support a fully gender-integrated military .
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Kris Fuhr, the author of the assessment and the first woman to command a ground-based intelligence company in Europe, said the Pentagon’s review is yet another “search for a problem that does not exist.”
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“They’re doing this now because it is no secret that Secretary Hegseth has a strong desire to marginalize women in the military,” said Fuhr, who worked for two years at the United States Army Forces Command as an expert on gender integration. “He carries his religious views into his professional duties, and his religious views are that women do not lead and men do not submit to women.”
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Hegseth served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, but did not complete Ranger School, Airborne School or Air Assault School. The 19th spoke to four women Army veterans who completed at least one of those elite trainings and were commissioned in an era when qualified women soldiers could serve in any capacity. They talked about their experiences on the front line and their thoughts on the future of the military’s effectiveness under Hegseth’s leadership.
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Mikayla Blaska, 28 \n\n\n\n
Graduated from Airborne School and was the 56th woman to complete Ranger School
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In September 2021, Blaska was deployed to Syria, the only woman in infantry there at the time. As an officer, she led 43 soldiers — all men — and partner force service members, a linguist and a few other personnel.
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Over the next nine months, Blaska said she led her platoon on over 120 combat patrols with zero casualties.
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“People think of combat deployments as something from World War I or World War II, which can absolutely still happen and we definitely need to be prepared for that, but the majority of what I was doing in Syria was a lot of key leader engagements and intelligence collection,” Blaska said.
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In fact, Blaska said her being a woman helped the mission. Because of cultural differences, many Syrian women and important community figures would not speak to men and felt more comfortable speaking to her.
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Blaska said she is not opposed to assessing and reassessing military standards. She agrees that the U.S. military should strive to be the best, most prepared and most qualified in the world. But, Blaska said, any legitimate review should include age, time in service, education levels, upbringings and life experiences — in addition to gender.
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“I hope we don’t reverse and start going backwards,” Blaska said. “This is the kind of thing that can be incredibly detrimental to the culture within the military, and it’s not grounded in any sort of factual basis. It’s clearly stemming from some sort of emotional bias against women.”
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Elizabeth Dempsey Beggs, 29 \n\n\n\n
Graduated from Airborne School
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(Elizabeth Dempsey Beggs) \n\n\n\n
When 29-year-old combat veteran Elizabeth Dempsey Beggs heard the Pentagon was going to review the effectiveness of the military with women in combat roles, she initially felt “sorrow and fear” for her friends who are still active-duty and serving in these roles. Then, she felt anger but not surprise — she knew that Hegseth had criticized women’s participation in the military.
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“We’ve done the studies, and we have the data,” said Dempsey Beggs, who is currently running for Congress as a Democrat in Virginia’s 1st District. “He could take that time, energy, money, effort and actually make the lives of service members better, but he’s choosing to go down a witch hunt because women have done what he can’t.”
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Dempsey Beggs completed Airborne School and was one of the first 50 women to serve in combat roles after Congress lifted the ban in 2015 — and the first from Kentucky. She was an acting company commander at Fort Benning in Georgia during the COVID-19 pandemic. She and her husband, also a company commander at the time, had two daughters.
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One morning, Dempsey Beggs had to leave at 4 a.m. to lead a training event. Her husband was supposed to watch their 6-month-old but unexpectedly had to take an injured service member out of state at 3:30 a.m. Dempsey Beggs — who was pregnant with her second daughter — strapped her baby on her chest and put her rucksack on her back and hiked five miles.
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“I just kept doing my job,” Dempsey Beggs said.
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She sees the review as designed to push active-duty women to leave the armed forces and not try for combat roles.
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“These combat roles already have physical fitness standards that are gender neutral,” Dempsey Beggs said. “Women and men fail them. No one is arguing that every single woman should be able to fill these roles, just like we never want every single man to be able to fill these roles. Everyone who is qualified and who is willing to serve is who we want in these roles.”
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Hailey Gibbons, 34 \n\n\n\n
Graduated from Airborne School, Air Assault School and was the 102nd woman to complete Ranger School
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(Hailey Gibbons) \n\n\n\n
Hailey Gibbons is disappointed in Hegseth’s leadership priorities. The 34-year-old graduated from West Point, Ranger School, Airborne School and Air Assault School before serving as a logistics officer for 10 years and becoming the seventh woman to ever serve in the 75th Ranger Regiment, one of the most elite Army infantry regiments . Though she didn’t technically serve in a combat role, Gibbons met the same standards as a combat soldier.
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“This is just blatant sexism,” Gibbons said of the Pentagon’s review. “It’s pretty upsetting that people in leadership positions are adjusting everything they’re doing just to help the sexist agenda of people in certain positions. Women have shown that they’re effective leaders in the military and in combat situations.”
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Gibbons said throughout her training, she never faced discouragement from peers or leadership because of her gender.
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“No one ever said that I couldn’t be able to do it because I had proven that I was physically fit and technically capable enough to be successful at each stage,” Gibbons said. “All of those opinions come from people who inherently hate women or haven’t really served alongside women, who haven’t been in Tier 1 units, who haven’t deployed — because everyone that I served with didn’t hold those opinions.”
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Gibbons said she was the 102nd woman to ever graduate from Ranger School, and the only time her gender came up as an issue was when she needed to go to a separate location to shower. For every mission and task, she said she was held to the same standards as the men.
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Gibbons doesn’t think women will be dissuaded from serving by Hegseth’s efforts — but she does worry about the effect on culture.
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“Repeating the lie that women can’t meet standards creates an environment that could lead to a toxic team environment, which is really disappointing because leaders have worked so hard to make women feel welcome,” Gibbons said.
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Sara Febbo, 30 \n\n\n\n
Graduated from Airborne School and was the 65th woman to complete Ranger School
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(Sara Febbo) \n\n\n\n
Sara Febbo grew up the daughter of a commissioned military attorney, and her childhood included a stint at an Army base in Vicenza, Italy. Fourteen years later, she was commissioned as a second lieutenant and sent back to Vicenza as the first woman to serve as a medical service officer in the unit. She was a platoon leader in charge of 50 combat medics and medic specialists.
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Febbo, now 30, said she wasn’t technically in a combat role but her job responsibilities included being attached to infantry units, Airborne Rangers and Special Forces. She was required to do all the same training and reach all the same standards.
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“The standard was there and the leaders were holding you to that standard because they couldn’t afford not to,” Febbo said. “There’s too many things on the line. Mission comes first, and you could be a liability. But that definitely was not the case for me, nor for any of the other women that I know that served in those units.”
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As she continued to meet and exceed the standards, Febbo said her superiors took notice. One reached out and said he wanted to bring her to the 75th Ranger Regiment and asked if she could meet the standards — which are even tougher than those of Ranger School. The mandatory intensive eight-week selection process included doing 41 push-ups in two minutes, holding a plank for two minutes and 35 seconds, running five miles in 40 minutes and doing six pull-ups.
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“I could barely do one pull-up, but this boss believed in me,” said Febbo, who is 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighed around 120 pounds at the time. “I started training with my peers. I set my mind to it, and to make a long story short, I eventually physically met the standards.”
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Febbo passed the selection process in October 2020 and became the second woman ever to be directly within an infantry battalion in the 75th Ranger Regiment.
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Four months later, she went to Ranger School and earned her Ranger tab.
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“It’s crazy to me that we’re even having this conversation,” Febbo said. “By the time I went through Ranger School, I was the 65th woman to graduate. It wasn’t a new concept having women in Ranger School, but I absolutely commend the women that went first because they had a very tough road trying to prove their worth over and over again.”
","category":"resilience","author":"Mariel Padilla","publishDate":"2026-02-04T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Blaska1-brown.jpeg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/women-combat-roles-pete-hegseth-pentagon-review/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-04T12:00:11.254Z"},{"id":"qc0gt","slug":"a-mississippi-synagogue-was-attacked-in-1967-and-2026-the-antisemitic-rhetoric-looked-the-same-then-","title":"A Mississippi Synagogue Was Attacked in 1967 and 2026. The Antisemitic Rhetoric Looked the Same Then and Now.","excerpt":"The post A Mississippi Synagogue Was Attacked in 1967 and 2026. The Antisemitic Rhetoric Looked the Same Then and Now. appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"
In July of 1968, Samuel Bowers sat down in his office with fingers poised over his typewriter keys, thoughts filled with fury. As founder and imperial wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, he cut a charismatic figure, though one with a militant Christian faith and a hate-filled mind. Just a day earlier, police had killed one of his most trusted assassins and severely injured another.
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Bowers had spent the past few years masterminding bombings at Mississippi’s Black churches and, more recently, synagogues as well. His two foot soldiers now riddled with bullets had bombed the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson on a foggy night nine months earlier and were en route to bomb a Jewish leader’s home when police gunned them down.
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At the typewriter, Bowers pounded out a five-page missive to Thomas Tucker, a local police officer who shot one of the Klan members but had earlier faced suspicions of being a Klan sympathizer himself, journalist Jack Nelson wrote in his 1993 book “Terror in the Night: The Klan’s Campaign Against the Jews.”
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“Mr. Tucker,” Bowers wrote, “the principle of law as it has been twisted and abused by the animals in the Synagogue of Satan, one of which you were guarding and protecting.” The Klanswoman killed, he insisted, was an American Patriot “doing her limited best to preserve Christian Civilization by helping to destroy the body of an animal of Satan’s Synagogue.”
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Flash forward almost 60 years after Bowers wrote his letter.
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On Jan. 10, a whole new generation of congregants at Beth Israel, among Mississippi’s oldest synagogues, awoke to devastating news about their house of worship. Someone had set a fire inside. The blaze had started in the library, destroying it along with sacred Torah scrolls, prayer books and myriad other materials. Smoke had filled the sanctuary. No congregants were injured, but they would not be able to worship there for some time.
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Later the day of the arson, a young man with scorched hands faced an FBI agent and others investigating the crime. Stephen Spencer Pittman was born in Jackson in 2006, the year Bowers died . Just 19 years old, he allegedly admitted to investigators that he set fire to the temple due to its “Jewish ties,” according to an FBI agent’s affidavit . He dubbed Beth Israel a “synagogue of Satan.”
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The fire that damaged Beth Israel’s synagogue last month marks the second time in nearly 60 years that the building has come under attack. Courtesy of Beth Israel Congregation \n\n\n\n
The term refers to biblical passages in which Jesus described Jews in specific communities who were persecuting the early Christians. Antisemites like Bowers had co-opted the phrase to describe Jews broadly as agents of evil plotting against white Christians. He believed that Jews who hadn’t converted to Christianity were “heretics ” and their houses of worship therefore legitimate military targets — especially those like Beth Israel, whose rabbi had been linking arms with civil rights protestors.
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Why Pittman, who has pleaded not guilty, used those words remains unclear. But according to the affidavit, after the fire burned the temple, Pittman texted his father, “I did my research.”
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What did that research entail? Little is known so far. It remains unclear whether the teenager knew much about the ideology of the people behind the 1967 bombing or if he followed any of today’s antisemitic influencers.
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Pittman, a community college baseball player from Madison, Mississippi, did engage in substantial online activity. He appears to have created profiles on multiple social media platforms where he mostly posted about his sport, nutrition and his Christian faith. Yet, shortly before the fire, an Instagram account that appears to be his posted an antisemitic meme of a cartoon character with a prominent nose, a Star of David affixed to his chest and a money bag in each hand.
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And across the online world that Pittman traversed, a crop of young influencers have been spreading antisemitism, often rooted in Christianity. They are attracting millions of followers, embracing conspiracy theories of global Jewish takeovers and using terms like the “synagogue of Satan” that people like Bowers would well recognize.
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Back Then … \n\n\n\n
In many ways, the original sin of mass antisemitic disinformation stems from a text called “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion .” Published in the Russian empire in 1903, it claimed to be an insider account of Jews plotting world domination. The tropes in it weren’t new, but the text provided rich fodder to those who embraced its “evidence” that Jews were orchestrating a global plan to amass wealth and eradicate non-Jews.
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“Only we, the Jews, are qualified to rule the world,” the text proclaimed. “We shall surround our government with economists, bankers, industrialists, capitalists — and the main thing — millionaires — for everything will be settled by gold.”
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The fact that the text was proven a forgery did little to thwart those who embraced it. Adolf Hitler called the document “immensely instructive .” Klan groups adopted it as a foundational text.
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Bowers used conspiracy theories rooted in “The Protocols” to contend that Jewish puppetmasters were the real masterminds behind the NAACP, the FBI and the young civil rights volunteers pouring into places like Mississippi and Black people were merely their pawns. With that framing, his followers could demean Black protesters and vilify federal agents and Jews, notably those who linked arms with their Black neighbors to demand equal rights — as the rabbi at Beth Israel had increasingly done before Bowers’ henchmen bombed his synagogue and then his home.
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Samuel Bowers, founder and imperial wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, masterminded multiple bombings in the 1960s, including on Beth Israel in 1967. A year later, an officer arrested him on arson charges connected to the murder of Black civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer. Bettman via Getty \n\n\n\n
“It’s a way of rationalizing racism and finding a way not to acknowledge Black political agency and power,” said William Robert Billups, a University of Florida historian who hails from Mississippi and published research about Bowers and 1960s synagogue bombers in the Journal of American History.
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Some like Bowers, later convicted of murdering a civil rights leader, also imbued their white supremacy with a militant theology known as the Christian Identity movement: Jews weren’t only political and economic threats. They were religious enemies, too, ones seeking to usurp white Christians from their place as God’s true chosen people.
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“They didn’t see any daylight between Christianity and whiteness,” Billups said. “They did not believe that Jewish people were fully white and didn’t believe they were fully human.” He wrote in his research that Christian Identity followers believed that Jews’ “innate depravity” drove them to pursue world domination.
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Christian Identity adherents tapped biblical phrases like the “synagogue of Satan” to justify their antisemitic views. Because they were religious, references from the Bible “came very easily to their tongues,” said Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League who has spent three decades studying extremism.
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The phrase appears twice in the New Testament. Both references deal with specific local conflicts between established Jewish communities and the early Christians they persecuted. Jesus was offering support to his faithful as they faced these hostilities, not making blanket statements about Jewish people.
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“Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not but do lie. Behold, I will make them come and worship at thy feet and to know that I have loved thee,” Jesus assured a fledgling church in one of the passages.
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But as Bowers continued typing his letter to the police officer that hot day in 1968, he added, “I just do not know what we Christians can do about these Synagogue of Satan Jews other than to oppose them in every possible way and pray for Divine Relief.”
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… And Now \n\n\n\n
In 2015, the “alt-right” white nationalist movement ascended to extremist popularity online in the corners of 4chan and 8chan and on burgeoning white supremacist websites like The Daily Stormer, named for the Nazi Party’s newspaper. Followers often posted jokey, racy and racist memes where they could hide behind the plausible deniability of humor.
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That summer, Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president, a move swiftly embraced by The Daily Stormer’s founder and others. The next day, a 21-year-old white supremacist named Dylann Roof drove to Emanuel AME Church, a historic Black congregation in downtown Charleston, South Carolina.
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When Roof arrived, the church’s pastor invited him to join the small group of mostly older women gathered for weekly Bible study. Roof sat with them for about an hour, until the closing prayer. Then he pulled out a pistol.
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As he fired more than 70 shots, killing nine people, he said, “Y’all raping all our white women and taking over the nation.”
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Roof had discovered the “great replacement theory.” Adherents believe that an elite group, often Jewish and described in terms such as “globalists,” is orchestrating mass immigration of nonwhites along with social policies that reduce white birth rates and otherwise “replace” whites — and their control of the West.
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It’s part of a shift in white supremacist ideology since the civil rights era from preserving white dominance to preventing white extinction. More recently, these notions have also bolstered a crop of influencers circulating versions of the ideology to new audiences.
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In 2017, hundreds of white supremacists and other extremists flocked to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, brandishing torches and chanting, “Jews will not replace us!” An 18-year-old named Nick Fuentes was in attendance and posted on Facebook that “the rootless transnational elite knows that a tidal wave of white identity is coming.”
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\nA mourner leaves a message outside Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, after Dylann Roof murdered nine Black church members during a weekly Bible study in 2015. Joe Raedle/Getty Images A mob of white men and women wearing helmets and tactical gear and holding various flags, including the U.S. flag and Confederate flag. Steve Helber/AP \n\n\n\n
The rally proved a launching pad for a career in commentary that now draws millions of followers for whom Fuentes has described the great replacement theory as the “Great Replacement REALITY .” At a “Stop the Steal” rally in 2020, he applauded Trump for standing up to various groups including “the synagogue of Satan.”
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But Fuentes is only one of a slew of influencers who have adopted similar anti-immigration rhetoric and frequently criticize what they perceive as Israel’s power in the United States, particularly related to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. (Supporters of the U.S.-Israel alliance contend that the relationship benefits both democracies.)
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Candace Owens, whose YouTube channel has 5.75 million subscribers, once worked for the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA and later at The Daily Wire until she was pushed out last year following conflicts with co-founder Ben Shapiro, who is Jewish. In 2024, she described an anti-Christian global conspiracy. “It does seem that they’re trying to almost now indoctrinate the entire world into their satanic faith. Like I said, it is my belief that this is a synagogue of Satan,” she told viewers.
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Similarly, Andrew Torba, founder and CEO of the social media site Gab, popular with extremists, wrote last fall that the federal government is owned by Israel and “its powerful fifth column of Jewish elites in our country.”
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“Naming the group that is the engine of our nation’s subversion isn’t bigotry,” Torba added, “it’s a Biblical diagnosis of a spiritual cancer. It is identifying the modern-day ‘synagogue of Satan’ that Christ Himself warned us about.”
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There’s no indication that Pittman, the teenager charged in the Beth Israel fire, was aware of any of these comments.
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ProPublica reached out to Fuentes on his website and on X and to Torba through Gab’s general email. We reached out to Owens on her website’s media request portal. (Her website tells users, “We do not allow pornography, incitement to violence or gore, discussions about active drug use and other topics in that vein.”) None responded to requests for comment about the Beth Israel fire and their use of the term “synagogue of Satan.” Torba’s X account posted our emailed questions with the message, “I regret to inform you that journos are at it again.”
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The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks antisemitic incidents including assaults, harassment and vandalism, found an 893% increase over the past decade with particularly large leaps in 2023 and 2024, according to its most recent audit . In 2024, it found 9,354 incidents compared to 1,267 in 2016. The audit also notes that much of the recent surge was related to protests, often on college campuses, against Israeli actions in Gaza, some of which included rhetoric such as “death to Israel.”
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Beth Israel’s Tree of Life was destroyed in the fire last month. Synagogue President Zach Shemper says the congregation will make a bigger one to demonstrate “all the outreach of love, compassion and support” they have received. Courtesy of Zach Shemper \n\n\n\n
“Increasingly, extreme actors in the anti-Israel space have incorporated antisemitic rhetoric into their activism, and it has become commonplace for perpetrators across the political spectrum to voice hatred of Israel or conspiracy theories about the state in a range of antisemitic attacks,” the ADL report says.
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Synagogues also received hundreds of bomb threats, and fears of violence remain a persistent part of what Jewish communities face. Indeed, in the early morning hours of Jan. 10, a man in a hoodie broke a window and slipped inside Beth Israel Congregation. He poured gasoline and ignited a fire near the spot where Klan members had burned the synagogue in 1967. Once again, the people of Beth Israel were left to rebuild from the ashes of antisemitism. Their library and offices will have to be demolished, it appears, but engineers found the sanctuary walls remain structurally sound.
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Since the fire, at least 15 churches have reached out to Beth Israel saying, “Our house of worship is your house of worship,” said Zach Shemper, the synagogue’s president. “There has been such a lovely, almost overwhelming outpouring of love and compassion from our local community.”
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The people of Beth Israel are, for now, holding services in a Baptist church in Jackson, one they opened their doors to in the 1960s, before the bombing. The Baptists needed temporary space then because they had just broken away from a church that refused to let in Black worshippers, and few other houses of worship would open their doors.
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The post A Mississippi Synagogue Was Attacked in 1967 and 2026. The Antisemitic Rhetoric Looked the Same Then and Now. appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"activism","author":"Jennifer Berry Hawes","publishDate":"2026-02-04T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20260130-ms-synagogue-vertical.jpg?w=752","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/jackson-mississippi-synagogue-arson-antisemitism","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-04T12:00:11.908Z"},{"id":"i7cbrb","slug":"guttmachers-kelly-baden-on-post-roe-attacks-by-abortion-opponents","title":"Guttmacher's Kelly Baden on post-Roe attacks by abortion opponents","excerpt":"
Guttmacher's Kelly Baden on post-Roe attacks by abortion opponents sramashwar February 3, 2026 As unbelievable as it sounds, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has deployed the FACE Act—not against antiabortion extremists who invade clinics and terrorize patients, but against journalists documenting political protests and peaceful activists decrying the killing of Renee Good by federal ICE agents.\n
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances and Places of Religious Worship (FACE) Act, a law designed primarily to protect abortion providers, clinic staff and patients, is being perverted by the DOJ as part of its broader effort to deny freedom of the press and undermine the rule of law.
\n
The DOJ has criminally charged nine people, including two journalists, under the FACE Act for entering a church to speak out against a pastor who is reportedly the acting field director for ICE in Minneapolis. The high-profile and highly unusual arrests of journalist and former CNN anchor Don Lemon and independent Minneapolis journalist Georgia Fort, along with several peaceful activists, underscore the Trump administration’s latest attack on the rule of law, freedom of speech, and the right to assembly.
\n
The Trump administration purposefully ignored clinic invasions and blockades by antiabortion extremist groups in 2025—all while reproductive health clinic staff and patients have experienced a dramatic surge in threats and violence.
\n
The post Abortion Clinics Left Unprotected as DOJ Weaponizes FACE Act Against Journalists and Peaceful Protesters appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Teresa Cisneros Burton","publishDate":"2026-02-03T22:02:56.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2259127648.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/03/doj-face-act-against-journalists-protesters-church-minneapolis-abortion-clinics/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-04T00:00:08.602Z"},{"id":"9rljc2","slug":"the-road-to-progress-the-intersection-of-state-policies-on-gender-race-and-reproductive-rights","title":"The Road to Progress: The Intersection of State Policies on Gender Race and Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"
The Road to Progress: The Intersection of State Policies on Gender Race and Reproductive Rights sramashwar February 3, 2026 Guttmacher at #UNGA79: Summit of the Future for SRHR Advocacy
sramashwar February 3, 2026 On the road to Beijing+30
sramashwar February 3, 2026 What is Beijing+30?
sramashwar February 3, 2026 Kelly Baden on abortion bans at #IWPR Power+ Summit 2024
sramashwar February 3, 2026 Addressing the ongoing need for reproductive rights protection | Beijing+30 UNECE review
sramashwar February 3, 2026 Abortion access for adolescents | Candace Gibson, Guttmacher Institute
sramashwar February 3, 2026 Note: Brittany Peng was a part of the National Women’s Law Center’s Gender Justice Youth Council and the views expressed below belong solely to the author and are not necessarily representative of NWLC. The author would like to give special thanks to Omny Miranda Martone, Founder & CEO of the Sexual Violence Prevention Association (SVPA) , for contributing insights and references discussed throughout this blog post. \n
Within the last 30 years, our world has transformed.
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The Internet of Things. Social media. Generative AI. We are more connected than ever.
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However, with connection comes consequences. According to a 2021 report from the Institute of Development Studies, 16% to 58% of women and girls worldwide have experienced online gender-based violence. Younger women in Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) and Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) are particularly impacted. As officially termed by UN Women, a program at the UN focused on gender justice, technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) , includes online sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, sextortion, image-based abuse (or non-consensual intimate images (NCII) abuse ), revenge porn, deep fake pornography abuse, stalking, or doxing, amongst other acts.
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Perpetrators of TFGBV can include individuals—like intimate partners and other people that we know—or groups of people who may be individually unknown to the victim. Nowadays, spoofed phone numbers, encrypted IP addresses, and fake profiles make it increasingly difficult to identify abusers. Yet, with just one click, a person’s privacy can be completely violated and their safety utterly compromised.
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In the past few years, perpetrators of TFGBV have increasingly used nonconsensual “deepfake” images to harass, humiliate, and abuse their victims. In one survey , 1 in 8 young people aged 13 to 20, reported that they “personally know someone” who was the target of a deepfake, and 1 in 17 reported that they had been targets themselves. The harm caused by this type of abuse can be long lasting and devastating.
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In response to this growing threat, Congress has moved to create protections and legal recourse for victims and survivors who are depicted in nonconsensual, sexually explicit deepfake images.
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A bipartisan group of lawmakers is taking action to help ensure that perpetrators of this type of violence are held accountable. This May, these lawmakers introduced the DEFIANCE Act , a bill that would strengthen protections against nonconsensual, sexually explicit “deepfake” images and videos. Current federal law already provides protections against the nonconsensual disclosure of intimate images, but the DEFIANCE Act would extend these protections to “digital forgeries,” sexually explicit images created through the use of software, machine learning, artificial intelligence, or any other computer-generated or technological means, which could include deepfake pornography, obscene audio spliced over a video, or photoshopped pictures.
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The Act would provide a civil right of action so victims and survivors could seek recourse against perpetrators who create, distribute, publish, solicit, or knowingly possess digital forgeries. If successful, a court could award a victim monetary damages and other relief. The court could also order the deletion or destruction of the digital forgery.
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Earlier this year, Congress passed the Take It Down Act , which criminalizes the publication of nonconsensual intimate imagery, including deepfakes. As part of the new law, websites are required to take down these images within 48 hours of receiving notice from a victim. The Take It Down Act, however, does not provide victims with the full range of relief included in the DEFIANCE Act.
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While Congress must act to ensure that survivors of TFGBV have multiple avenues for accessing justice, more must be done to prevent the circulation of deepfakes in the first instance and international cooperation is necessary to help ensure broad accountability.
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Technology-facilitated gender-based violence is a critical issue that demands comprehensive solutions for victims and survivors. The Sexual Violence Prevention Association notes that as of 2023, over 98% of deepfakes on the internet were pornography and that the number of deepfakes online is doubling every six months. Bipartisan action to create pathways for victims and survivors to seek justice is both necessary and already overdue.
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The post Charting a New Domain: The Importance of Tackling Digital Sexual Violence appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"global","author":"Amelia Packham","publishDate":"2026-02-03T20:53:28.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/updated-blog-graphic-project-2025-2.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/charting-a-new-domain-the-importance-of-tackling-digital-sexual-violence/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-04T00:00:09.333Z"},{"id":"f7oqtz","slug":"abortion-access-for-adolescents-in-the-us-after-dobbs-candace-gibson-amp-michelle-slaybaugh","title":"Abortion access for adolescents in the US after Dobbs | Candace Gibson & Michelle Slaybaugh","excerpt":"
Abortion access for adolescents in the US after Dobbs | Candace Gibson & Michelle Slaybaugh sramashwar February 3, 2026 Kelly Baden on hope at #IWPR Power+ Summit 2024
sramashwar February 3, 2026 Survivors of online sexual exploitation and abuse are not just confronting individual perpetrators—they are up against systems that were never designed to protect them. \n
A new report by Equality Now and the Sexual Violence Prevention Association documents how survivors who report tech-facilitated sexual abuse routinely encounter jurisdictional dead ends, outdated laws and opaque platform policies that leave harmful material circulating indefinitely. For many, the abuse does not end with the assault itself, but continues through repeated viewing, sharing and threats—often with devastating financial, professional and psychological consequences.
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The report also makes clear that this harm is not inevitable. Survivors point to concrete policy solutions that could meaningfully change outcomes: consent-based laws governing the online distribution of sexual material, clear and enforceable takedown obligations for tech companies, survivor-centered reporting systems and access to free legal and mental health support.
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Accountability is possible, but only if lawmakers and platforms choose to act.
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The post Raped, Recorded, Shared—Then Abandoned by the System: ‘Once It’s on the Internet, It’s Out There’ appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Alisa Nudar","publishDate":"2026-02-03T18:13:39.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2228091092.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/03/online-sexual-exploitation-abuse-women-abuse/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-04T00:00:08.602Z"},{"id":"sahb8f","slug":"long-covid-affects-millions-of-children-the-largest-pediatric-trial-so-far-launches-this-year","title":"Long COVID affects millions of children. The largest pediatric trial so far launches this year.","excerpt":"This article was published with The Sick Times, a nonprofit newsroom covering long COVID. Justin Lin’s daughter, Serena, developed long COVID in seventh grade. For more than three years, she has experienced postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome — causing rapid heartbeat, dizziness, and cognitive...","content":"
This article was published with The Sick Times , a nonprofit newsroom covering long COVID.
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Justin Lin’s daughter, Serena, developed long COVID in seventh grade.
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For more than three years, she has experienced postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome — causing rapid heartbeat, dizziness, and cognitive dysfunction as well as post-exertional malaise (PEM) . The latter causes debilitating crashes after minimal physical, cognitive, or emotional exertion, which forced her to switch to online school. With no approved pediatric treatments, Lin wonders whether Serena will be able to attend college.
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As a community representative for the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s long COVID clinical trials initiative , called RECOVER-Treating long COVID (RECOVER-TLC), Lin is providing input for the largest pediatric long COVID trial to date. He hopes the trial will inspire more large-scale, well-designed studies for kids. “I think about long COVID and its impact on society,” Lin said. “Helping the kids could be one of the highest-leverage things you can do.”
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Pediatric research into long COVID is several years behind that of adults. Public health officials repeated the false claim that children could not spread the virus that causes COVID-19 early in the pandemic. Despite affecting an estimated 5.8 million U.S. kids as of 2023 — more than asthma — families face disbelief, referrals to psychological services, and even child welfare probes .
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“The first message out, and the one that gets repeated, sticks,” Megan Carmilani, founder and president of the advocacy group long Covid Families and also a representative for the RECOVER program, told The Sick Times .
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At the end of 2024, The Sick Times reported on the lack of pediatric drug trials for long COVID. The sparse trials, experts said, were a result of not understanding of the disease in children, cost, and age discrimination. Now there are at least three drug and supplement trials, one currently recruiting and two more in development. The trials are still few compared to the well over 100 for adults, many of which are active or soon to be recruiting, according to ClinicalTrials.gov. RECOVER-TLC’s testing will be the largest and best-funded long COVID trial in children so far.
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There’s still a ways to go before doctors and scientists fully understand pediatric long COVID, but the ongoing pressure from patient groups has led to new trials regardless.
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Low-dose naltrexone for long COVID fatigue \n\n\n\n
RECOVER-TLC will recruit 1,300 children, teens, and young adults ages 6 to 25 for a randomized placebo-controlled trial of low-dose naltrexone (LDN) to treat a prevalent symptom of long COVID: fatigue.
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Approved at 50 milligrams per day for adult opioid and alcohol use disorders, naltrexone acts as an opioid receptor blocker. It’s been used safely in much smaller doses (1 to 4.5 milligrams) off-label to treat fibromyalgia, myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), and long COVID . Small randomized controlled trials suggest the drug may work for fibromyalgia, but the evidence for ME and long COVID is based on case reports and retrospective data looking at people who already took the drug. As a result, there’s still ambiguity over whether and how well it works. While some people report improvement, others report no difference.
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LDN was one of the top choices for drugs to trial in kids because of its safety profile and anecdotal reports that it can help improve fatigue and other symptoms, said Carmilani.
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Participants will be randomized to receive either a placebo or LDN for 16 weeks. The trial will require a six-month commitment as well as eight study visits, but only three will be on site, in order to make it more accessible for families. An NIH spokesperson confirmed that all of the 100 trial sites will take COVID-19 precautions, “including masking and separation of study participants and staff in rooms/areas during study visits.”
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The primary outcome will assess whether the drug improves fatigue . Additionally, the study will stratify participants into three age groups to look for age-specific affects, and also measure quality of life, pain, function, and more.
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Nandini Raj, founder of the Children’s long COVID Network, a support group based in Canada, told The Sick Times the protocol is “largely rigorous, using validated pediatric patient-reported outcomes and strong safety oversight.” However, she said that it doesn’t use more objective measurements called biomarkers, or test PEM specifically.
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The current study also doesn’t take into account how often children are able to attend school, an important issue for parents. These exclusions, she thinks, may “limit explanatory power, policy impact, and global generalizability.”
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Outcomes reflecting school activity might better motivate families to try the treatment rather than fatigue reduction, if it succeeds in trials. An NIH spokesperson said the working group is discussing whether to incorporate these measures into the final protocol.
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Researchers are also hoping to develop kid-friendly versions of the drug that could melt on the tongue, since some kids with long COVID aren’t able to easily swallow.
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Larazotide to seal the gut \n\n\n\n
Kids infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can also develop multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) . The rare condition causes persistent fever, extreme inflammation, gastrointestinal symptoms, and heart problems. Up to 25% of cases lead to long-term symptoms similar to long COVID.
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Lael Yonker, a pediatrician at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, found spike protein remnants in children with MIS-C. She hypothesized that the SARS-CoV-2 virus persists in the gut, boosting the levels of the protein zonulin, which widens gaps between gut cells and allows the virus’s spike protein to leak into the bloodstream, causing downstream symptoms.
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In a small clinical trial, Yonker and her former colleagues at Mass General Brigham found that larazotide , a zonulin blocker, safely treated MIS-C symptoms in kids with circulating spike protein. Now the Mass General and Boston Children’s Hospital team is recruiting for a 150-person randomized placebo-controlled trial , based in Boston, testing a 21-day course of larazotide in long COVID. Though the trial is open to anyone aged 7 to 50, Yonker is including a substantial number of kids and teens, she told The Sick Times .
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Precautions like masking and airborne filtration will be taken at the study sites. “And we accommodate any additional requests from participants,” Yonker said.
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For this trial, the team dropped the spike protein requirement. The tests they had used in previous trials weren’t always available, delaying the trials, and in some individuals the spike protein levels varied over time, Yonker said. But she still thinks viral persistence is “an important component of pathogenesis,” she added. a lot of variation in this research for adult long COVID .
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Though viral persistence may play a role in causing long COVID symptoms, scientists don’t know yet whether it represents a primary driver of the illness.
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Yonker’s team will collect blood samples to assess the inflammatory responses. The study includes two on-site visits as well as two virtual visits, in total requiring an eight-week commitment from participants and their families. Like the LDN trial, it does not explicitly measure PEM.
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Set to finish in 2027, Yonker hopes the study will provide enough information to justify a pivotal phase 3 study that could lead to drug approval.
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Taurine to counteract a possible deficiency \n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, in Canada, Calgary researchers are launching a trial of the amino acid taurine for long COVID that will include a pediatric arm. The rationale for the trial is based on a study linking lower taurine levels in the blood to worse long COVID symptoms and outcomes. Most participants in that study were over the age of 50.
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The adult arm is a randomized placebo-controlled trial that will recruit 300 participants. The pediatric arm, which will include 30 participants, will be open-label, meaning everyone will receive taurine. Both trials will test if increasing participants’ taurine levels will improve fatigue levels and cognitive function after three months. Researchers are also collecting microbiome and blood samples along the way.
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The pediatric trial will be decentralized and open to participants across Canada. On-site visits will be required for blood draws at the start and end of the study. Lawrence Richer, one of the principal investigators on the trial, told The Sick Times that trial staff will inform families about the COVID-19 precautions that sites will take during the consent process at enrollment.
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The study will recruit pediatric participants regardless of their blood taurine levels at baseline, rather than selecting for those with lower levels. “It means we’re going to have a bit more of a mix of population in our study, but we’re going to characterize our population very well,” Richer said.
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Since it is open-label and small, the study won’t be able to prove efficacy. But they may see that raising the taurine levels alleviates symptoms in adults. They can then extrapolate that to the pediatric arm, and if they see children’s taurine levels increase, too, that would be a good clue that the treatment might work.
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Designing kid-friendly trials \n\n\n\n
Scientists designing pediatric trials should keep families’ needs in mind.
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Families need to take parking and traffic into consideration when visiting trial sites, and they’re often bringing siblings who they’re caring for, Carmilani said. Allowing for flexible scheduling on evenings and weekends and accommodating for last-minute changes in schedule due to severe symptoms and flare-ups can ensure the trial is accessible. Some recent long COVID trials for adults have even been decentralized, meaning people can participate from home .
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Parents and patient advocates want to see that trial sites are taking COVID-19 precautions to avoid reinfection with the virus that put them in the trial in the first place, including high-quality masking and air filtration.
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“We are a family that has done every fucking thing we can [to avoid infection],” Cassidy Richey, a parent of a teen with long COVID, told The Sick Times .
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“Any kind of trial, anything that you would invite my family to, you have to do as much as we do.”
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Ajohnston","publishDate":"2026-02-03T17:27:24.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/child_long_covid.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/largest-long-covid-pediatric-trial-three-clinical-studies/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-03T18:00:40.361Z"},{"id":"jmgmmb","slug":"the-19th-launches-applications-for-fifth-frances-ellen-watkins-harper-fellowship-cohort-plus-a-new-t","title":"The 19th launches applications for fifth Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Fellowship cohort – plus, a new track","excerpt":"The 19th is excited to announce that applications are now open for the 2026-27 cohort of the Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Fellowships — a transformative opportunity for alums of Historically Black Colleges and Universities to gain additional journalism experience, mentorship and a pathway to leaders...","content":"
The 19th is excited to announce that applications are now open for the 2026-27 cohort of the Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Fellowships — a transformative opportunity for alums of Historically Black Colleges and Universities to gain additional journalism experience, mentorship and a pathway to leadership.
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Named for the “mother of African American journalism,” the Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Fellowships provide recent graduates and mid-career alums of HBCUs with yearlong, salaried roles with full benefits in reporting, audience engagement, news product and development.
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This year, the program opens a new track for the first time since its 2022 launch. As nonprofit journalism increasingly depends on diversified funding to sustain independent reporting, The 19th identified development as a critical — and historically underrepresented — career pathway in news.
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The new track is designed to expand who participates in shaping how journalism is funded, while equipping fellows with hands-on experience in fundraising strategy, donor engagement and the business side of nonprofit journalism. Fellows will gain a deeper understanding of how strong development practices support editorial independence and long-term newsroom sustainability.
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“By adding a development track, we’re opening doors to a critical part of the news ecosystem and creating new pathways for HBCU alumni to lead, not just in what stories get told, but in how independent, inclusive journalism endures,” said Kari Cobham, The 19th’s director of fellowships and an alum of Bethune-Cookman University.
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The annual fellows cohort will remain at five fellows, with two reporting fellows and one fellow each in audience engagement, news product and development.
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Reporting fellows cover issues through the lens of gender, politics and policy. The audience fellow connects our journalism to readers, while the news product fellow builds digital tools and products that support The 19th’s journalism and help us reach new audiences.
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This will be the fellowship’s fifth cohort, which includes graduates of Bennett and Spelman colleges; Morehouse School of Medicine; and Alabama A&M, Clark Atlanta, Dillard, Florida A&M, Howard, North Carolina Central, North Carolina A&T, Savannah State and Xavier universities.
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See the work of 2024/25 , 2023/24 and 2022/23 fellows .
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Fellowship alums have gone on to land competitive roles at The Marshall Project, The Trace, The Baltimore Banner, URL Media and Nonprofit Quarterly.
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The program was initially funded with a $3.8 million gift from Michelle Mercer and Bruce Golden and centers on-the-job experience, mentorship, professional development and preparing for fellows’ next career move.
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Highlights of the Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Fellowships: \n\n\n\n
\nThis annual journalism fellowship for five HBCU alums includes reporting, audience engagement, news product and development fellows. \n\n\n\nFellows are fully remote and receive a minimum salary of $75,000 and full-time employee benefits, including health insurance, generous paid leave, a 19th expense account and 401(k). \n\n\n\nFellowship-specific benefits include a merit bonus, an Apple Macbook laptop and membership to the National Association of Black Journalists . \n\n\n\nFellows participate in workshops throughout the year on topics like coping with trauma and burnout, networking, salary negotiation, refreshing résumés and portfolios, insights from hiring managers, mental wellness and financial literacy. \n\n\n\nFellows attend four in-person retreats and network with hiring managers in journalism throughout the year. \n\n\n\nFellows receive mentorship in their fellowship track through the Digital Women Leaders network . \n\n\n\nFellows are supported by URL Media in their search for post-fellowship job opportunities. \n \n\n\n\n
For more details on the program, who is eligible to apply and frequently asked questions, see the fellowship overview . Applications for the 2026/27 fellowship cohort close March 20, 2026. Don’t miss your chance to join this life-changing program and shape the future of journalism.
","category":"empowerment","author":"Shyla Nott","publishDate":"2026-02-03T17:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Fellowship-Hiring-2026-ARTICLE-TOPPER.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/frances-ellen-watkins-harper-fellowship-2026/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-03T18:00:40.361Z"},{"id":"8ak902","slug":"serious-work-begins-to-create-a-treaty-on-crimes-against-humanity","title":"Serious Work Begins to Create a Treaty on Crimes Against Humanity","excerpt":"Afghanistan. Myanmar. Syria. The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Over the last 80 years, there has rarely been a situation of atrocity that has not been marked by the commission of crimes against humanity.","content":"
Afghanistan. Myanmar. Syria. The Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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Over the last 80 years, there has rarely been a situation of atrocity that has not been marked by the commission of crimes against humanity. These crimes, defined by their widespread or systematic nature, target civilians and devastate societies.
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Yet, while the international community has created legal regimes to address war crimes and genocide, we lack a global legal architecture for the prevention, suppression and punishment of crimes against humanity, leaving millions across the globe at risk and justice elusive for survivors.
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The start of negotiations for such a treaty is not just overdue; it is of historic importance. Late last month, the United Nations General Assembly launched a four-year process to prepare for and negotiate a new global treaty to prevent and punish crimes against humanity by 2028. If it is crafted with ambition and resolve, it can be a game-changer for international accountability, strengthen the rules-based order and offer hope and justice to victims and survivors.
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The post Serious Work Begins to Create a Treaty on Crimes Against Humanity appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Akila Radhakrishnan","publishDate":"2026-02-03T16:21:47.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-2258325627.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/03/united-nations-treaty-crimes-against-humanity/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-03T18:00:40.115Z"},{"id":"i4y87d","slug":"mass-governor-proposes-eliminating-statute-of-limitations-for-rape-when-dna-evidence-exists","title":"Mass. Governor Proposes Eliminating Statute of Limitations for Rape When DNA Evidence Exists","excerpt":"The post Mass. Governor Proposes Eliminating Statute of Limitations for Rape When DNA Evidence Exists appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey wants to eliminate the 15-year deadline to prosecute rape in cases where there’s a DNA match.
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Current Massachusetts law bars rape prosecutions in older cases, even when DNA testing has identified a suspect.
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An investigation last year by WBUR and ProPublica found that nearly all other states allow more time to charge rapes or similar assaults of adults than Massachusetts. Many of those 47 states extended their deadlines in recent decades as DNA technology helped solve old cases and as evidence mounted that police had failed to fully investigate rapes.
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The WBUR-ProPublica investigation followed the story of Louise, a woman who had been raped and stabbed after accepting a ride in 2005 from a man who said he recognized her from college, a police report said. Although DNA testing would later connect a man accused of multiple assaults to her case, prosecutors had to drop charges in her attack under Massachusetts’ statute.
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(WBUR does not identify victims of sexual assault without their permission. We agreed to identify Louise by her middle name.)
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Healey’s proposal would eliminate the statute of limitations for rape cases when DNA evidence exists.
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“With technological advances, new evidence is being collected and tested every day, and we need to make sure our judicial system keeps pace,” Healey said in a written statement on Saturday. “I hope this proposal will help survivors who have had to wait far too long for justice, while also improving our ability to hold offenders accountable.”
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The new language is part of Healey’s budget proposal for the 2027 fiscal year . The provision must pass both chambers of the Legislature. It would take effect for cases in which the statute of limitations has not yet expired and future sexual assaults, but it would not affect older cases.
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Legislators have tried to pass similar proposals every session since 2011, WBUR found, but those efforts have failed in part because defense attorneys have opposed changes, saying a longer deadline risks violating the rights of the accused. State Rep. Adam Scanlon, who has introduced legislation to create a DNA exception since 2021, said media attention helped push the issue forward again this year.
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He said Healey’s “bill is really a testament to victims to ensure that folks that are in the same situation never have to go through the process of seeing somebody being able to walk away from an alleged rape when they know — when we know as a society — that DNA evidence connects them to that crime.”
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That Healey, the state’s former attorney general, is backing the changes gives new hope for victims, said Louise, the woman featured by WBUR as part of its investigation. She was raped and repeatedly stabbed, a police report said. But DNA evidence did not match her assault to a suspect for 17 years.
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“ There are several of us that have missed out on having justice. We won’t get to have that day when we know that our perpetrators are not going to get us,” Louise said.
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Prosecutors alleged in 2022 that Louise’s attacker was a serial rapist. DNA from Ivan Cheung, a Boston-area man who worked in the financial services industry at the time of his arrest, also matched a 2006 stabbing and rape, court records show. But that attack was also beyond the state’s statute of limitations by the time the match was made.
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Cheung has repeatedly maintained his innocence. His attorney did not reply to WBUR’s requests for comment.
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Louise decided to advocate for survivors like her after Cheung’s prosecution failed. In June, she testified publicly before a state legislative committee in support of Scanlon’s bill.
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She said she’s glad that the governor heard the voices of her and other survivors.
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“I have beautiful family members, young women,” Louise said. “I care about all the youth in the community. I want them all safer.”
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The post Mass. Governor Proposes Eliminating Statute of Limitations for Rape When DNA Evidence Exists appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"resilience","author":"Willoughby Mariano","publishDate":"2026-02-03T15:45:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Healey-file-photo.jpg?resize=2000,1333","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/massachusetts-rape-statute-of-limitations-dna-healey-proposal","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-03T18:00:41.621Z"},{"id":"qvplge","slug":"pathfinder-joins-every-pregnancy-coalition-to-pilot-maternal-health-program-in-egypt","title":"Pathfinder Joins Every Pregnancy Coalition to Pilot Maternal Health Program in Egypt","excerpt":"February 2, 2025—Pathfinder International announces its strategic partnership with the global Every Pregnancy coalition during the 2026 For Mama campaign. The For Mama campaign brings attention to proven interventions and programs that...","content":"
February 2, 2025— Pathfinder International announces its strategic partnership with the global Every Pregnancy coalition during the 2026 For Mama campaign. The For Mama campaign brings attention to proven interventions and programs that have the potential to save mothers and babies’ lives, and this year, aims to mobilize $30 million globally. Stronger Mothers, Healthier Babies ” initiative as part of the coalition’s campaign, a targeted pilot project designed to combat maternal malnutrition in Egypt through the introduction of multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS).
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Maternal and child malnutrition remains a critical health challenge in Egypt, contributing significantly to low birth weight, stunting, stillbirths, and congenital malformations. The current standard of care—supplementation with only Iron and Folic Acid—leaves dangerous gaps in maternal and neonatal health. Pathfinder’s new initiative will address these gaps by introducing comprehensive MMS to 50,000 women across two governorates.
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\n“Every mother deserves a pregnancy free from the preventable risks of malnutrition. By aligning our evidence-based health interventions with the powerful advocacy of the Every Pregnancy coalition, we are not just delivering supplements; we are delivering hope and health to thousands of families in Egypt. This partnership exemplifies our commitment to locally grounded solutions that save lives today while generating the evidence needed to transform health systems for tomorrow.” — Dr. Rannia Elsayed, Regional Portfolio Director, South Asia, Middle East, North Africa
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The “Stronger Mothers, Healthier Babies ” project aims to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes by reducing anemia and maternal mortality, while simultaneously preventing low birth weight and congenital malformations in newborns. Furthermore, the program is designed to increase stunting prevention as the intervention extends to infants after six months. The pilot will also generate critical evidence to advocate for scaling MMS distribution across Egypt.
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In 2025, the Every Pregnancy coalition successfully mobilized over $21 million USD from more than 37,000 donors. These funds provided essential care and medical supplies to over half a million mothers and babies worldwide.
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For the 2026 campaign, which officially begins fundraising on February 18
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Donations for the “Stronger Mothers, Healthier Babies” initiative and other coalition programs can be made throughout Ramadan and will be amplified through Every Pregnancy’s boost fund.
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About Pathfinder International \n\n\n\n
For nearly 70 years, Pathfinder has worked alongside women and girls in more than 100 countries, ensuring they have access to the critical services and resources they need. We work in close partnership with governments, civil society organizations, and other local partners to deliver services where unmet need is the highest, advance policies that contribute to gender equity, work with communities to transform practices and beliefs that harm women and girls, partner with young people to build a healthier future, and work at the intersections of climate and health, contributing to more resilient communities and health systems.
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Media Contact \n\n\n\n
Laurel Lundstrom llundstrom@pathfinder.org
","category":"global","author":"Ilayda Orankoy","publishDate":"2026-02-03T15:43:43.000Z","image":"https://www.pathfinder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Pathfinder_Logo_Image.jpg","source":"Pathfinder International","sourceUrl":"https://www.pathfinder.org/news/pathfinder-every-pregnancy/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-03T18:00:44.445Z"},{"id":"n1q5wr","slug":"guttmacher-and-partners-release-new-metric-to-measure-need-for-contraceptive-services-in-the-united-","title":"Guttmacher and Partners Release New Metric to Measure Need for Contraceptive Services in the United States","excerpt":"
Guttmacher and Partners Release New Metric to Measure Need for Contraceptive Services in the United States February 3, 2026 mcherins Vera Swanson is like many 5-year-olds.\nHer favorite colors are purple and sparkly blue. She loves strawberries. Art is her favorite subject in school. She really likes drawing axolotls.
\n“They’re so cute. I made them today,” Vera said while sitting on her couch in St. Paul with her parents nearby, just days after federal immigration agents shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
\nShe’s bubbly and extroverted. She can’t help but say hello to everyone she sees while running errands with her mom, Stacy.
\nShe’s well-liked at her French immersion school and is proud she can count to 20. Her teachers enjoy having her in class. Other parents come up to Stacy Swanson instantly knowing who she is by hearing their children’s stories of Vera, even if their kids aren’t in Vera’s class.
\nSince President Donald Trump’s surge of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents became a constant presence in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Vera’s heard her friends say something is happening.
\nAnd Vera’s taken up a new hobby: setting traps at home.
\n“I do need to make one because the bad guys are taking mommies and daddies,” she said.
\nVera and Stacy, like thousands of other children and parents in the Minneapolis metro area, are grappling with the reality of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement operation. Since December 2025, ICE, whose campaign, Trump has said, is ostensibly about combating fraud , has not only resulted in fear, mass protests, unlikely community organizing, and two deaths—it has also wreaked havoc on school-age children, parents, and teachers in the Twin Cities.
\nParents are figuring out on the fly how to tell their children about and protect them against armed federal agents, who are occupying the city and ripping people haphazardly off the street. Teachers are scrambling to instruct half-empty classrooms and keep students sheltering at home caught up. Students are facing an “unprecedented” disruption to their education for the second time in six years. And kids are wondering when they might see their friends again.
\nTalking to children about ICE \nIn an upheaval reminiscent of the coronavirus pandemic, federal agents have completely upended schooling in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, which has a combined population of more than 3 million people. Local news outlet MPR News has reported that in districts with significant Border Patrol presence, as many as 40 percent of students have been absent in recent weeks.
\nSome teachers are instructing half-empty classrooms as students attend online for fear of going outside. Parents worry their child might be taken, especially after ICE grabbed 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos on Jan. 20 from his Columbia Heights driveway and used him as bait to capture his father.
\nThe two were shipped to a detention center in Texas before a federal judge ordered them released. They returned to Minnesota on Feb. 1 , though the Columbia Heights school district said four more children are still likely being held in a Dilley, Texas, detention center. On Feb. 2, the district canceled classes after a “credible” bomb threat was emailed to their schools.
\nThe Columbia Heights Police Department said in a statement that they didn’t find any suspicious packages or devices. Classes resumed Feb. 3.
\nSwanson, 40, doesn’t sugarcoat what is going on and has tried to instill in her child a sense of duty to help those around her. She pulls from the stories her father, who retired as a sergeant in Benton County, told her when she was younger.
\n(Read more: Government Killings and Kidnappings in Argentina Drove Mothers to Revolt—And Win )
\n“I grew up listening to good guy, bad guy stories from my dad,” Swanson said. “I do the same for Vera. In our situation, ICE is not the good guys.”
\nVera’s 5 and doesn’t fully comprehend what’s happening, but she knows she wants to help.
\n“All bad guys are trying to take dark skin people like my friend,” Vera said in an interview with Rewire News Group . “A lot of people have dark skin, so I try to keep them safe.”
\nSwanson is proud of her daughter’s conviction at such a young age, but it still weighs on her.
\n“I’m sure she’ll look back at this time in 20, 40, 60 years and say, ‘Wow, I lived through that,’” Swanson said. “I’m hoping that she won’t remember how stressed mom and dad were, or that it was a scary time. I hope she just remembers, like, ‘Oh, we went to a protest or we yelled because we wanted the bad guys to get out.’”
\nSchool disruptions \nMike Vestal, a third-grade teacher at Northport Elementary in Robbinsdale, a northwest suburb that borders Minneapolis, said the immediate chaos is apparent. Around 85 percent of the students at Northport are Black, Hispanic, or Asian and Pacific Islander.
\n“We’re sitting there trying to teach a class that is basically half here,” said Vestal, 61, who’s taught in the district for more than 30 years. “That makes it really difficult as a teacher.”
\nHe worries, too, about what ICE’s disruption might mean in the long term. Robbinsdale, like most school districts in the metro—including Minneapolis and St. Paul—has switched to mixed modality, or hybrid, teaching. As of January 14, students in his district can come to class in-person or attend online for safety.
\nAround half of his 23 students are regularly not in the classroom.
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“You can’t say to this student everything is going to be OK, because it’s not. Her mom did go to the detention center.”
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– Mike Vestal, a third-grade teacher in Robbinsdale, Minnesota
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Vestal said what pains him most is the cruelty of ICE’s violent campaign and the indifference some outside the Twin Cities have shown to their efforts. School is supposed to be a safe, fun environment for students. He still tries to make it that way, but fears the impending performance drop-off among students who switched to online learning or have simply been absent. Student performance declined during the switch to online learning during the coronavirus pandemic.
\n“Online learning is not great,” Vestal said. “It will never be the same as here.”
\nVestal said he has at least been through the drill of preparing curriculum for online students, back in 2020 and 2021. But he struggles knowing he cannot reassure his students that everything will work out.
\nOne day while Vestal was in the school office, a 9-year-old student who wasn’t in his class came running in. She said she was at the bus stop when armed, masked officers came up and started asking questions. Her mom came out and the officers went straight to her while the girl bolted onto the bus.
\n“She comes to school not knowing what’s going on with her mom,” Vestal said. “She’s breaking down and crying. We’re emotional. What do you say? How do you react to that? This is all new territory. That day was a blur to me. You can’t say to this student everything is going to be OK, because it’s not. Her mom did go to the detention center.”
\n‘No one wanted to go to school’ \nLuca, a 15-year-old Roosevelt High School student from Minneapolis who asked to only be identified by his first name, said school felt somewhat hollow in the aftermath of the death of 37-year-old Renee Good, an observer whom an ICE agent shot and killed on Jan. 7. Minneapolis Public Schools closed for safety reasons and canceled two more days of class when agents showed up and used tear gas against his classmates, a claim which DHS has denied.
\n“When I came to school, I found lots of friends and classmates missing. It felt scary,” Luca said. “I understood that no one wanted to go to school because of how scared they felt and about being abducted.”
\nAdriana Adams, a 16-year-old 11th grader at Johnson High School in St. Paul, said ICE’s chaos has jaded her. She already missed important formative school years during the pandemic. She should be playing softball and gearing up to hopefully go to the University of Minnesota.
\nInstead, she’s watching her classmates and their families live in constant terror.
\n“I just see kids constantly, basically just fearing for their lives,” Adriana said. “My classes are really empty now because students are scared to go to school or leave their houses. My life is just less humorous as it was before, and less content.”
\nAdriana, who is multiracial, wanted to join the hundreds of students at the state Capitol Jan. 14 for a walkout protest—partly planned by Luca—but knew her parents would worry. ICE might terrorize the gathering or, worse, abduct her.
\n“I don’t know how these kids are doing it,” said Adriana’s mom, Shannon. “I don’t think my generation could have held up as well as they are. Both my kids have taken it very well.”
\nCommunity groups have organized school patrols throughout the day to make sure ICE agents don’t harass or take children. The groups, largely made up of parents like Victoria Downey, 42, of St. Paul, clad in high-vis vests and armed with whistles, use social media groups or encrypted chats and pay special attention during pick-up and drop-off.
\n“I never thought I’d do this,” said Downey. “Frankly, I didn’t think I’d become a community organizer in this way, but that’s the role I’m playing now.”
\nDowney said her son, 5-year-old Otis, is still pretty upbeat. He was especially excited during the recent cold snap when his kindergarten class got to do indoor Harry Potter yoga for recess.
\n“But he’s a little more clingy than normal,” Downey said. “He needs more hugs. He definitely seemed upset at bedtime a few nights ago and wanted to sleep with me.”
\n(Read more: Pregnant Immigrants, Babies May Suffer Complications from Chronic Stress of ICE Raids )
\nOtis was especially inquisitive after Pretti’s shooting. Downey teaches a yoga class about a block away and was caught in the post-shooting chaos.
\n“Otis has asked questions about, ‘Were there ten ICE agents?’ And I said, ‘No,’” Downey said. “‘Twenty?’ ‘No, there were more.’ I’ve tried to keep some of the level of violence of what I saw away from him because I don’t think it’s good for him to see. I’ve talked to other parents about this. Our nervous systems are on high alert all the time. It makes it really difficult to be a good parent, to not react.”
\nShe’s noticed her son is a bit more reactive as well, especially when he sees she is upset.
\n“I’ve had a tendency to just cry a lot,” she said. “I’ll see something or hear something—I’m OK with crying in front of him, but he’s come up to me a couple times and said, ‘It’s OK mama, I’ll protect you.’ That’s my job as a mom. I need to protect you.”
\n‘They could come back at any moment’ \nBut the biggest stressor ICE has brought to the Twin Cities is uncertainty, parents told RNG . Uncertainty over whether they might abduct you or your child. Uncertainty over how to tell your children what the armed, masked men in the street are doing. Uncertainty over when they’ll leave. And uncertainty over how to rebuild once—or if—they’re gone.
\n“Even if they packed up tomorrow and left, I think that everyone would still be on edge for a long time,” Shannon Adams said. “Whether it’s a month, a couple months, a year, they could come back at any moment. And we all know that. At the drop of a hat, they could come back and start it all over again.”
\nVera, too, didn’t know how long the bad guys or “naughties,” as she calls them, might be a presence in her life. It could take a year because she wants to make sure all the bad guys go away. She gets to see her friends, but is looking forward to seeing them more once ICE isn’t in her life.
\nShe was happy to hear a “big, big, meanie bad guy goed somewhere else”—referring to Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino’s reassignment . If she were president and had her way, Vera said, she’d reassign the rest of the agents as well.
\n“I’d tell them, ‘Go and clean the house.’”
\nThe post ‘Bad Guys Are Taking Mommies and Daddies’: ICE Upends Minneapolis Kids’ Lives appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"activism","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-03T14:49:01.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/ICEs-presence-in-Minnesota-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/03/ice-minneapolis-kids-immigration-parents/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-03T18:00:40.778Z"},{"id":"kdgyj0","slug":"no-women-of-color-appointed-to-federal-judgeships-in-trumps-first-year-back","title":"No women of color appointed to federal judgeships in Trump’s first year back","excerpt":"More than a year into his second term, President Donald Trump has appointed 27 judges to the federal bench. Seventeen of these judges — roughly 63 percent — are White men. Seven of them, or 25 percent, are women. None are women of color. These figures alone are not a surprise.","content":"More than a year into his second term, President Donald Trump has appointed 27 judges to the federal bench. Seventeen of these judges — roughly 63 percent — are White men. Seven of them, or 25 percent, are women. None are women of color.
\n\n\n\nThese figures alone are not a surprise. When Trump’s first term ended in 2021, White men comprised 64 percent of his judicial confirmations, White women made up 19 percent and just 5 percent were women of color. What is notable about the first year of his second term is the political climate surrounding these latest judicial confirmations, experts told The 19th.
\n\n\n\nThis term, Trump is more brazen and intentional in his efforts, often equating diversity in race and gender with professional incompetence, while signaling that independent members of the federal judiciary must loyally carry out his agenda. He has publicly praised judges who rule in his favor and called for the impeachment of judges who rule against him. Meanwhile, he has condemned what he views as “anti-White” racism and has banned efforts to diversify hiring within the federal government.
\n\n\n\n“If he’s just choosing judges on the basis of who he thinks will be politically loyal to him, it turns out that a lot of them are White dudes,” said Josh Orton, president of the progressive judicial advocacy group Demand Justice.
\n\n\n\nAbout 40 percent of all 831 active federal judges in the United States are women and 17 percent are women of color, according to data pulled from the Federal Judicial Center. President Jimmy Carter was the first to make significant inroads in diversity by appointing 41 women and 57 people of color to the bench during his four-year term. Since that time, each Democratic president has surpassed the diversity benchmark set by his Democratic predecessor, and each Republican president has surpassed the diversity benchmark of his Republican predecessor.
\n\n\n\nDuring his first term, Trump improved modestly on President George W. Bush’s record for women judges appointed by a Republican president — from 21 percent to 24 percent. The percentage of judges who were women of color during Trump’s first term (4.8 percent) fell slightly short of Bush’s 6 percent, which is the highest figure for a Republican president.
\n\n\n\nThe persisting power imbalance on the federal bench means that women judges continue to experience a range of biases, said Rachael K. Hinkle, a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University at Buffalo.
\n\n\n\nThe U.S. Supreme Court — which has three women on the bench, including two women of color — hears fewer than 100 cases annually from the federal appeals courts. The 12 regional appellate courts, however, rule on about 40,000 cases annually. Hinkle’s research found that on these courts, women judges tend to do more under-the-radar work, like authoring unpublished opinions that do not have the policymaking power of published court opinions. Her latest research also suggests that lawyers are more likely to request that an appellate court decision be reconsidered when the judge who authored the opinion is a woman or person of color.
\n\n\n\n“This is kind of speculative, but I think it’s probably subconscious norms about competence,” Hinkle said. “People have a perception of competence that’s linked to those demographic characteristics. So I think what the data are suggesting overall is there’s still this differential perception of competence based on race and gender.”
\n\n\n\nIt will likely be another decade or more before researchers are able to capture the long-term impact of how Trump’s judicial nominees are shaping the federal court system, Hinkle said. She expressed hope that the judiciary will maintain its independence from outside political pressure, but also noted that the Trump administration appears to be associating historically marginalized communities with professional incompetence.
\n\n\n\nProject 2025, the far-right Christian nationalist document that seeks to restructure the federal government, states that “the Administration should stop the messaging on wokeness and diversity and focus instead on attracting the best talent.”
\n\n\n\nThough Trump has insisted that he has “nothing to do with Project 2025,” analysis indicates that his administration has implemented about half of the project’s goals within his first year in office. These priorities range from eliminating funding for gender affirming care for transgender military members to undermining education discussing race and gender identity.
\n\n\n\nThroughout the 920-page document, Project 2025 repeatedly calls for eliminating federal staff and programming centered on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The Trump administration followed suit, signing five executive orders that ban DEI requirements throughout the federal government and federally funded organizations. Those actions and mindset could have a direct effect on the make-up of the judiciary itself, according to Alicia Bannon, the director of the judiciary program at the Brennan Center for Justice.
\n\n\n\n“The president’s executive orders and other broader attacks on DEI that we’ve seen, all of that is going after exactly the kinds of programs that have enabled us to make progress with respect to diversity within the legal profession and diversity on the bench,” Bannon said.
\n\n\n\n\n\nBy the end of Carter’s administration, only 50 women and nine women of color had ever sat on the federal bench. Since Carter, an additional 563 women and 182 women of color have held this distinction.
\n\n\n\n“I think the fact that we’ve seen more diversity over time within the legal profession and within positions of power, including the judiciary, is real testament to how important those initiatives have been,” Bannon said.
\n\n\n\nWomen judges and judges from racial minority groups tend to vote more progressively on issues concerning civil rights or gender compared to their White colleagues.
\n\n\n\nA narrowing pipeline of diverse judges is exacerbated by the administration’s focus on ideological loyalty from judicial nominees, according to Orton from Demand Justice.
\n\n\n\nOne New York Times report last month found that 92 percent of the decisions in cases brought before Trump nominees sitting on U.S. appellate courts during the first year of the second term favored the Trump administration’s policies. This is compared to 68 percent of rulings in favor of Trump policies by other Republican-nominated judges.
\n\n\n\nAnother report released by Demand Justice in November analyzed the questionnaire submitted by Trump’s judicial nominees last year and found that all 30 respondents would not state affirmatively that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, often opting instead to say that Biden “was certified as the winner.” When asked whether a “violent mob” attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and whether they agree that the attack was an insurrection, nearly all respondents declined to answer, stating that it would be an inappropriate expression of political beliefs.
\n\n\n\nIt is a common practice for federal judges to withhold public commentary on political issues. This is an expectation aimed at maintaining public confidence that judges can act freely without political pressure. But these questionnaire responses from Trump’s judicial nominees come at a time when Trump continues to claim, without evidence, that the 2020 election results were “rigged.” On the fourth anniversary of the January 6 attack, the White House published a website that rewrites the history of the attack, including falsely accusing former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats of fabricating an “insurrection narrative.”
\n\n\n\nIn this environment, judicial nominees who evade answering questions about the 2020 election and the January 6 attack may raise concerns about their judicial independence, Bannon said.
\n\n\n\n“The job of a judge is to, in a fair and impartial way, decide cases based on their understanding of the law and the facts in front of them,” Bannon said. “When you have indications that there are judges who are taking the bench who have these sort of close ties to the president, it can create concerns that ultimately they’re not going to be able to hear cases squarely.”
\n\n\n\n\n\nTrump’s critics most frequently cite Emil Bove, who was confirmed by the Senate to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit last year, as an example of a key Trump loyalist on the bench. Bove had been a top Justice Department official as well as the president’s personal lawyer. He represented Trump during his 2024 New York criminal trial that resulted in 34 felony convictions. During his time at DOJ, Bove’s work included directing the expansion of immigration enforcement and firing lawyers involved with prosecuting January 6 rioters.
\n\n\n\nThe Third Circuit, which until Bove’s controversial Senate confirmation had been evenly split between Republican and Democratic-appointed judges, holds the powerful position of hearing federal appeals from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
\n\n\n\nDelaware is home to an estimated 68 percent of Fortune 500 companies and 1.5 million other business entities, and hears high-profile appeals in cases concerning consumer financial protection actions and Fair Credit Reporting Act disputes. Pennsylvania is a key swing state, meaning the Third Circuit weighs in on voting rights cases and election laws. Trump challenged Biden’s win in Pennsylvania in 2020, and the appeals court ultimately held that the Republican nominee’s case “had no merit .”
\n\n\n\nNone of the other judges confirmed over the last year appear to have this kind of direct personal tie to Trump, though one Tennessee district court nominee still awaiting confirmation, Brian Lea, is currently a deputy associate attorney general with the DOJ. Left-leaning groups like Demand Justice argue that by prioritizing political loyalty, the Trump administration is reshaping the federal court system in a way that will further restrict the rights of women, LGBTQ+ people and people of color.
\n\n\n\n“If you choose nominees based on political loyalty, then it is much more likely that they are going to share your views of diversity as an evil,” Orton said. “So, political loyalty isn’t just a harm because the judge’s loyalty should be to the Constitution and not the President, but I think it’s a problem because it’s not just loyalty to the president, it’s loyalty to Trumpism.”
","category":"activism","author":"Candice Norwood","publishDate":"2026-02-03T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Judges_2x3.jpeg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/women-federal-judges-trump-second-term/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-03T18:00:40.361Z"},{"id":"3oqvly","slug":"we-have-to-keep-showing-up-for-each-other-in-minnesota-caregiving-is-a-form-of-resistance","title":"‘We have to keep showing up for each other’: In Minnesota, caregiving is a form of resistance","excerpt":"Ashley Fairbanks felt anxious as she scrolled through seemingly endless reports of federal immigration agents arresting and detaining people in Minnesota. It felt personal for Fairbanks, who lives in Texas but grew up on the south side of Minneapolis.","content":"Ashley Fairbanks felt anxious as she scrolled through seemingly endless reports of federal immigration agents arresting and detaining people in Minnesota.
\n\n\n\nIt felt personal for Fairbanks, who lives in Texas but grew up on the south side of Minneapolis. Her closest friends and family still live in the area, including her dad, who works near an intersection where agents are active.
\n\n\n\n“I just had so much fear in my heart about what happens to them,” she said.
\n\n\n\nFairbanks, who has a background in political organizing, launched a website in mid-January that allows people to give directly to individuals and organizations on the ground. Just two weeks later, the offers of help on Stand With Minnesota have become vast: People can donate to mutual aid funds that connect people to relief for rent and groceries. They can help with someone’s legal defense if they’re arrested, and they can support small businesses that are struggling financially amid the presence of thousands of heavily armed agents.
\n\n\n\nSomeone can pay rent and utilities for nearly 300 families in the metro or assist with bulk orders of groceries for more than 20 families. Residents stuck in their homes are being offered first aid supplies, prenatal vitamins and virtual access to free mental health services . They can request in-home veterinary care and dog walking . A church’s “sanctuary and resistance fund” is helping transgender and immigrant refugees with housing and food. Towing companies are collecting cars — abandoned in the frigid temperatures after the driver was arrested by agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — to make sure they’re returned to families . People are donating airline miles to help people who have been temporarily detained out of state.
\n\n\n\n“We have to keep showing up for each other,” said Fairbanks, whose site already has almost 2 million visits. “And we do that by starting with the really small things.”
\n\n\n\nResistance has taken many shapes in Minnesota, including formal protests and monitoring and recording ICE and CBP agents — observers like Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti were both shot and killed by federal agents last month. But for many others, their way of pushing back has been providing direct support for those who are too scared to leave their homes because of federal intimidation and warrantless searches . These are acts of caregiving — in all its loose definitions — and it’s at the heart of what fighting back means for them.
\n\n\n\nNotes left near the memorial site for Alex Pretti are seen on January 31, 2026.\n (Madison Thorn/Anadolu/Getty images) This scope of collective help stands out in part because care is often under the radar and gendered, said Gayle Goldin, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation , a progressive think tank. She is also a former deputy director of the Women’s Bureau for the Department of Labor under the Biden administration.
\n\n\n\n“If you think about it, historically, the devaluing of women’s work in care, it’s isolating. It’s often something you do in your home — care for somebody else, or it’s a one-on-one thing. So we can feel so separated from a greater social fabric,” she said. “This is really weaving it all together in a way that I think actually is showing the power of togetherness.”
\n\n\n\nFairbanks has intentionally elevated mutual aid funds and rent relief efforts, including from school-based groups led by parents, often women. She noted that the first of the month had brought a lot of anxiety for people who haven’t been able to work for most of January.
\n\n\n\n“It’s those PTA moms who are going to make sure people’s rent gets paid,” she said.
\n\n\n\nFairbanks has vetted formal groups on the site offering aid, but she also links to GoFundMe pages with more direct pleas from impacted people. Maintaining the site — run by Fairbanks and one other volunteer — includes administrative tasks like answering dozens of daily messages from strangers about where they can donate items like whistles or how they can seek services. Fairbanks tries to clarify that her site is a repository of information, but she feels compelled to make sure that people who appear to be in need are connected directly with information.
\n\n\n\n“I have to explain that I don’t have any money to give them, and I do my best to connect them to resources, but I don’t feel good leaving any of those messages without a response,” she said.
\n\n\n\nJustin Lewandowski, organizing director of the Hamline Midway Coalition , a community organization in the Twin Cities, said he’s never seen this kind of “grassroots relational connectivity” in his 15 years of community organizing. His group has been collecting funds since early January to buy diapers, formula and other hygiene and medical supplies.
\n\n\n\n“It has been nothing short of a whiplash between rage and joy, and sorrow and community,” he said.
\n\n\n\nTo date, volunteers who manage diaper needs — Lewandowski calls them “diaper fairies” — have helped distribute more than 200,000 diapers around the metro through a network of schools, faith groups and mutual aid networks.
\n\n\n\n“We get a call and they say, ‘We’re completely out of size fives and sixes and sevens — go, go, go,’” he said. “We need five diaper fairies to relay 28 box diapers, these sizes stat,” he said. “Then we get the order in, we load them up, and then that site, within 20 minutes, has got diapers on hand so they can keep getting families what they need. It’s crazy, it’s beautiful — and also that’s the level of urgency of need right now.”
\n\n\n\nSol Of The Cities , a youth development organization in the Twin Cities, set up a rapid relief fund for emergency rent and utility assistance, as well as groceries and school-related needs. Sparkle Wimberly, one of the group’s co-founders, said the group has been connected to a handful of immigrant families through intermediaries like sports coaches and school administrators — leaders in the community who built long-term connections with now-struggling households.
\n\n\n\n“We don’t always have all the information as to ‘the who,’ but we do know these are trusted people,” she said. “We’re hoping to offset long-term harm by some short-term stabilization.”
\n\n\n\n\n\nPam Fickenscher, a senior pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Northfield, a college town about 40 miles south of the Minneapolis and St. Paul area, has been making sure that her community knows how to access local resources as federal agents encroach into areas beyond the metro.
\n\n\n\nIn Northfield, where over 10 percent of the population is Latinx , some of the most prominent acts of caregiving began with parents of school-aged children offering to drive their neighbors’ kids to and from school. Soon, volunteers were sending those kids home with something for the whole family: a gallon of milk to help with the week ahead, or a pizza for dinner.
\n\n\n\n“Some of these efforts always sort of start really ground up, and then at some point it gets big enough that they’re like, ‘OK, we need a little more infrastructure,’” Fickenscher said. That’s where she steps in.
\n\n\n\nFickenscher thinks a lot about who’s helping the helpers, some of whom have been at this for weeks or months. When car rides accelerated, she made sure volunteers had gas cards to offset the extra costs. She recently coordinated dropping off cookies at the local community center where staff have been distributing items like rice, dried beans, diapers, toilet paper and menstrual products. Some volunteers have been working such long hours, Fickenscher worries about their potential burnout.
\n\n\n\n“They’re feeling quite overwhelmed, so just to make sure that we see them and all the work they’re doing every day,” she said.
\n\n\n\nFickenscher was among more than 100 faith leaders who were recently arrested during a related protest at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. She gave a Sunday sermon days later.
\n\n\n\n“We are seeing the very best of people in the worst of times. And I try to lift that up as a pastor,” she said. “I try to remind people that mutual care, small acts of care, are super important and the more we do that and tell the story of that, the more we fight back against this narrative that armed people are the only thing that keep us safe. What keeps us safe is knowing our neighbors, and looking out for each other.”
\n\n\n\nShe added: “I have never been more proud to be a Minnesotan than I am right now.”
\n\n\n\nPeople rally during a demonstration at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International airport on January 28, 2026. \n (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) Caregiving as an act of resistance is rooted in history, said Jennifer Wells, a community organizer and social worker in Alabama who is director of care economy for the national advocacy organization Community Change , leading a team around child care and health justice issues. She noted the localized coalitions and mutual aid efforts that sprouted up in 2020 — amid the dual realities of the pandemic and the racial reckoning after a police officer murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis. Going further back, care was at the center of organized protests like the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott of the 1950s that challenged segregated seating. There was organizing around carpooling and community care that highlighted how everyone found a way to contribute.
\n\n\n\n“Often they give Dr. King credit, but how many women were behind that movement, that strategy? How it was actually able to last the amount of days it lasted, it was because care was a part of it,” she said. “People were making a system of how people could get to work. There was a woman who said, ‘OK, I will cook for the movement .’ That was hugely important. You cannot — on a hungry belly or not having eaten — continue to strategize or stand strong. Care has to be a part of how we stand up.”
\n\n\n\nWells said there are practical lessons for everyone about Minnesota’s embrace of caregiving, and it’s to have a plan if ICE enters other states and communities. People should have conversations now with family, neighbors and their local school district, and they should learn their rights if they encounter agents .
\n\n\n\n“This is almost like storm preparation,” she said. “How do you anticipate getting food to people? How would you anticipate getting to and from school if this threat is upon you? You will find how resourceful you and your community actually really is. They want you to feel powerless. They want you to retreat in terror or fear. One thing Minnesota did show, they did not retreat. They showed up. And so knowing you have a plan allows you not to react or respond in pure fear or panic as they attempt this in other places.”
\n\n\n\nFairbanks said one of the most hopeful spaces in her work right now is a submission portal on the site that encourages strangers to send “love notes” to people in Minnesota. The frequency of incoming messages keeps Fairbanks’ phone literally buzzing. She is from the Minneapolis neighborhood of Powderhorn, where an annual May Day parade emphasized the power of collective care and community solidarity .
\n\n\n\nFairbanks has offered to help others set up mirror sites to share mutual aid offerings and links in other states if ICE activity expands into more communities.
\n\n\n\n“Mutual aid is the politics of our city,” she said. “Taking care of one another is a very Minnesota ethos … it’s a very common idea that we just take care of each other.”
","category":"activism","author":"Barbara Rodriguez","publishDate":"2026-02-03T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/minneapolis_care_2.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/minnesota-mutual-aid-caregiving-ice-resistance/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-03T12:00:26.046Z"},{"id":"4in1h2","slug":"8216devastating8217-texas-a038m-eliminates-womens-and-gender-studies-degree-program","title":"'Devastating': Texas A&M Eliminates Women’s and Gender Studies Degree Program","excerpt":"Texas A&M University announced it is eliminating its women’s and gender studies degree program. University leaders made the announcement alongside the results of a campus-wide course review launched after a video of a student confronting a professor over gender identity content went viral last fall ...","content":"Texas A&M University announced it is eliminating its women’s and gender studies degree program. University leaders made the announcement alongside the results of a campus-wide course review launched after a video of a student confronting a professor over gender identity content went viral last fall and sparked political backlash.
\n\"Limiting what can be taught in a university classroom is not education,\" said Amy Reid, program director for Freedom to Learn at PEN America. \"It’s ideological control.\"
\nThe canceled courses the university announced Friday were spread across the Bush School of Government and Public Service and the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Education and Human Development. The university later identified canceled courses as \"Introduction to Race and Ethnicity\"; \"Religions of the World\"; \"Ethics in Public Policy\"; \"Diversity in Sport Organizations\"; \"Cultural Leadership and Exploration for Society\"; and \"Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Youth Development Organizations.\"
\nTexas A&M has made similar cuts in recent years. In 2024, regents voted to eliminate dozens of low-enrollment minors and certificates, including an LGBTQ+ studies minor, a decision faculty said was made in response to conservative criticism and with limited faculty input.
\nThe post ‘Devastating’: Texas A&M Eliminates Women’s and Gender Studies Degree Program appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Jessica Priest, The Texas Tribune","publishDate":"2026-02-02T19:59:51.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2259542941.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/02/texas-a-m-women-gender-studies-degree-program-feminist-college-university/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-03T00:00:04.849Z"},{"id":"eie89m","slug":"rest-in-power-catherine-ohara-lit-up-every-scene-she-entered","title":"Rest in Power: Catherine O’Hara Lit Up Every Scene She Entered","excerpt":"Catherine O’Hara—the beloved actor and comedian who died on Friday at the age of 71—occupied that rare position in contemporary screen culture: a comic actor, a cult figure and a mainstream star. Her work spanned more than 50 years, from improv sketch comedy to Hollywood features and off-beat TV cla...","content":"Catherine O’Hara—the beloved actor and comedian who died on Friday at the age of 71—occupied that rare position in contemporary screen culture: a comic actor, a cult figure and a mainstream star.
\nHer work spanned more than 50 years, from improv sketch comedy to Hollywood features and off-beat TV classics. Her beloved characters proved that comedy doesn’t require mockery; only commitment, timing and trust in character.
\nHer role as Moira Rose, the eccentric, ex-soap opera star in the Canadian sitcom Schitt’s Creek , created by Eugene Levy and his son Dan, became O’Hara’s most significant late career move. Written for O’Hara’s unique talents, Moira was a larger-than-life character with a bizarre, unforgettable vocabulary, dramatic mood swings and a wardrobe that became nearly as famous as the character herself. Feminist media scholars have noted the rarity of such complex roles for older women, particularly in comedy, making O’Hara’s performance culturally significant.
\nThe post Rest in Power: Catherine O’Hara Lit Up Every Scene She Entered appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Ben McCann","publishDate":"2026-02-02T19:32:33.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-1247674631-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/02/obituary-catherine-ohara/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-03T00:00:04.849Z"},{"id":"grci6a","slug":"state-policies-on-abortion-coverage-in-medicaid-private-insurance-and-aca-exchange-plans-in-2025","title":"State Policies on Abortion Coverage in Medicaid, Private Insurance, and ACA Exchange Plans in 2025","excerpt":"The interactive map shows the increase in states with laws restricting abortion coverage in Medicaid and private insurance in 2010 compared to the present.","content":"The interactive map shows the increase in states with laws restricting abortion coverage in Medicaid and private insurance in 2010 compared to the present.","category":"choice","author":"kffmichaelp","publishDate":"2026-02-02T18:53:00.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2021/08/How-State-Policies-Shape-Access-to-Abortion-Coverage.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/state-policies-on-abortion-coverage-in-medicaid-private-insurance-and-aca-exchange-plans-2025/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-03T18:00:40.168Z"},{"id":"fb6sns","slug":"when-one-mother-was-taken-by-ice-another-stepped-in-to-donate-breastmilk","title":"When one mother was taken by ICE, another stepped in to donate breastmilk","excerpt":"A newborn in Minneapolis hadn’t eaten for a day and a half. Her mother had risked going into work to get just enough money for more diapers when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents stopped her car and took her away.","content":"A newborn in Minneapolis hadn’t eaten for a day and a half.
\n\n\n\nHer mother had risked going into work to get just enough money for more diapers when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents stopped her car and took her away. At home waiting for her were her 16-year-old daughter and the baby — just barely 3 months old.
\n\n\n\nWith their mother gone, the teenager tried to feed the baby, who was exclusively breastfed, formula to no avail. So they called Bri.
\n\n\n\nFor over a month and a half now, Bri, a mother of two in Minneapolis, has run an expansive donation network in the city, most of it to help other moms and families with children. Bri, who is breastfeeding her own infant, posted on her social media that in addition to groceries and diapers and wipes, she could also donate breastmilk to anyone who needed it.
\n\n\n\nBri is an overproducer — in one morning, she might pump 45 ounces alone. When the call came on January 17, Bri had pumped about a thousand ounces of extra breastmilk, which was stored in her freezer. She knew it was likely a matter of time before she’d hear of a baby in need.
\n\n\n\nAn hour and a half after she received the call, Bri was at the family’s doorstep with 350 ounces of milk in a cooler, along with a care package that included instructions on how to safely thaw the milk, a bottle warmer, bottles and some extra clothes that no longer fit her then-6-month-old.
\n\n\n\nInside, the baby was screaming.
\n\n\n\nThey quickly put together a bottle and watched as the child’s body relaxed. The baby drank the whole bottle and fell asleep.
\n\n\n\nBri wept.
\n\n\n\nThen the rage set in.
\n\n\n\n“I felt very angry — very, very, angry, and I couldn’t imagine what the 16-year-old was feeling because she felt broken. Her mom was her world … and now they’re separated,’” Bri said. “There are moms that are literally being torn apart from their kids.”
\n\n\n\nIn Minneapolis, for every story detailing the fallout of the federal crackdown, there are as many stories of people like Bri. Neighbors are putting their trust in total strangers. Moms are helping children who are not their own, who they’ve never met.
\n\n\n\nFor almost two months now, Bri has spent her mornings and afternoons, before and after work, picking up donations for immigrant families in hiding from ICE. Bri requested that The 19th only share her first name and omit the names of the children out of concern for her safety and that of the families she aids.
\n\n\n\nAt night, after her baby is down to sleep and under the care of Bri’s 18-year-old daughter, she delivers supplies until about 10 p.m. What started as a couple donations has quickly swelled into a network, with donations flooding in every week. Most of it is moms talking to one another and putting together packages, while Bri manages what comes in and posts about it on her social media, trying to match donations with families’ needs. Professionally, Bri’s job also involves connecting people with resources, so the community already knows to come to her.
\n\n\n\nMuch of her focus in recent weeks has been putting together donations of diapers, wipes and formula for mothers who are staying home to avoid ICE.
\n\n\n\n“The first line that a lot of these moms say when they call is, ‘I’ve never asked for help and the only reason why I’m asking for help is because I love my kids,’” Bri said. In response she’ll tell them in Spanish: Vergüenza robar — no pedir. Or roughly, ”Shame on those who steal, not those who ask for help.”
\n\n\n\n\n\nSo far, Bri and her network have helped more than 500 families with grocery deliveries and more than 300 with diapers and wipes.
\n\n\n\n“It fills my heart and it brings me hope that it’s not all bad and that if this is going to go on longer, that we have the help. If one mom can’t do it, another one can do it and we are acting in community,” Bri said. “When one mom hurts we are all hurting.”
\n\n\n\nBreastmilk donations are also coming in. An additional six moms have reached out offering to donate, Bri said. She has to be careful about it, only taking their milk if the moms are currently donating to local hospitals and have a certificate proving they’ve been cleared to do it (Bri herself has been screened and has a certificate). Hospitals and milk banks typically have a rigorous screening process that tests for microbes and screens donors for alcohol, drug and medication use. They also pasteurize the milk to eliminate pathogens.
\n\n\n\nBecause the families she’s helping don’t want to risk going to a hospital or milk bank, Bri tries to handle the milk and donations carefully to reduce the risks. The breastmilk is frozen and transported in an insulated cooler with ice packs, though “since it’s freezing here I don’t worry about it thawing,” Bri said.
\n\n\n\nIn the requests for aid she receives, Bri gets a window into the conditions other families are living in. They’ll ask for things like children’s medications because they’re too afraid to take their kids to hospitals. Some may ask for menstrual hygiene products, like pads and tampons. A mom asked for one box of diapers because she had been washing and reusing the diapers she had left. Bri brought her two.
\n\n\n\nAs Minneapolis enters its third month of ICE has called an immigration enforcement crackdown, the asks have shifted to help support long-term needs or people’s mental health. As part of a care package Bri put together for the teenage sister of the baby she helped, for example, she included colored pencils and a sketchbook. With the help of community donations through a GoFundMe , Bri’s been able to cover four months of the girls’ rent while their mom remains in detention in Texas pending a bond hearing.
\n\n\n\nAnd the deliveries haven’t slowed down. Most nights still, Bri is on the freezing roads in Minneapolis with a trunk full of groceries or diapers. She did two deliveries after work recently while on the phone with a reporter.
\n\n\n\nThe streets are empty these days, Bri said. A route that in the past might have taken her an hour now takes under 30 minutes. Our people are literally in hiding , she thinks.
\n\n\n\nThe work is all-consuming and difficult. On breaks at work, she’s often checking if anyone is asking for deliveries or offering donations. There are days when she’s driving home through tears.
\n\n\n\nBri is a single mom.
\n\n\n\n“What are you going to do if you bump into an ICE agent who is not having a good day and decides to profile you?” her parents ask her.
\n\n\n\n“You need to also think about your kids,” they tell her.
\n\n\n\nBut Bri is thinking about her kids.
\n\n\n\n“I am doing this,” she told them, “because I would hope, God forbid, anything happens to me, that my community steps up to help my kids.”
","category":"resilience","author":"Chabeli Carrazana","publishDate":"2026-02-02T18:39:49.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/ICE-BreastMilk-Donation-2x3-1.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/02/minneapolis-ice-mother-donate-breastmilk/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-03T00:00:05.273Z"},{"id":"z2ftbf","slug":"the-oscars-forgot-women-filmmakers-but-we-havent-here-are-six-women-directed-movies-that-speak-to-th","title":"The Oscars Forgot Women Filmmakers But We Haven’t: Here Are Six Women-Directed Movies That Speak to This Moment","excerpt":"Last week, Oscar nominations were announced, and while there are many wonderful films and filmmakers on the list (I strongly recommend all the International Feature Film nominees), there’s a distinct lack of...women.","content":"Last week, Oscar nominations were announced, and while there are many wonderful films and filmmakers on the list (I strongly recommend all the International Feature Film nominees), there’s a distinct lack of…women. In the major categories of Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, there’s only one woman-directed movie represented (Hamnet dir. Chloé Zhao). This is unfortunately typical—in the Academy Awards’ almost 100-year history, only three women have ever won Best Director. But it feels especially egregious after the year of Project 2025 , when women’s struggles and stories mattered more than ever.
\nFortunately, women filmmakers exist whether the Academy recognizes them or not. And last year’s crop of women-directed films was especially resonant for the current moment—speaking to maternal isolation, impossible beauty standards, deeply entrenched misogyny, and of course, entitled white men.
\nHere are five (well, really six) women-directed 2025 releases that I highly recommend seeking out.
\n1. Die My Love (dir. Lynne Ramsay) & If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You (dir. Mary Bronstein)
\nI’m cheating a bit, talking about these two together. But both movies, led by powerhouse performances from two outstanding actresses, are nerve-jangling immersions into the psyches of isolated mothers on the edge of a breakdown. In Die My Love , Jennifer Lawrence is stranded in a rural area with an infant and is in a volatile relationship. In If I Had Legs I’d Kick You , Rose Byrne (in an Oscar-nominated performance!) tries to care for her chronically ill child while contending with a hilariously escalating list of minor (and major) emergencies. Like so many women, neither have the support they need, from their emotionally (and often physically) absent partners to the general indifference of a society that—despite its increasingly pro-natalist focus on increasing births—leaves struggling mothers to fend for themselves. As Jennifer Lawrence says at one point: “I don’t have a problem attaching to my son. It’s everything else that’s fucked.”
\nDie My Love streaming on Mubi ; If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You available to rent on Amazon Prime
\n2. The Mastermind (dir. Kelly Reichardt)
\nIn what could be alternatively titled A Mediocre White Man’s Delusions of Grandeur , The Mastermind is about a family man (Josh O’Connor) who thinks he’s in a sleek, wish-fulfillment heist movie, when he’s actually in a naturalistic dark comedy about the consequences of one’s actions. Placed against the backdrop of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, O’Connor’s decision to steal several paintings from the local art museum—with no thought to how it might impact the museum, his community, or his family—is almost painfully topical. Aren’t we all, at this political moment, at the destructive whims of entitled, selfish men? Unfortunately, our current reality isn’t being directed by Kelly Reichardt, who unravels her pathetic leading man slowly and methodically while giving the women in his life platform to express their righteous disgust (look out for a great turn from Gaby Hoffmann).
\nStreaming on Mubi
\n3. The Ugly Stepsister (dir. Emilie Blichfeldt)
\nThe self-destructive pursuit of beauty is a common horror trope, and for good reason: with social media algorithms pushing increasingly niche and impossible standards of female beaut y, how far-fetched is it that someone might, say, take a self-splitting substance or start turning into a swan to achieve some elusive version of perfection? Oscar-nominated for Makeup & Hairstyling, Emilie Blichfeldt’s stylish and darkly funny debut adapts the Grimms’ Fairy Tale version of Cinderella (with all the self-mutilation Disney left out), centering one of the ugly stepsisters and her pursuit to win the prince’s affection through any means necessary. But while The Ugly Stepsister is just as gnarly as other movies in this genre (there’s a tapeworm scene I won’t be forgetting anytime soon), it also has real empathy for the women in its story and recognizes that no matter how far you go down the road toward self-annihilation, you can always step off it.
\nStreaming on Hulu (in Norwegian with subtitles)
\n4. Sound of Falling (dir. Mascha Schilinski)
\nThe most arthouse-with-a-capital-A movie on this list, Sound of Falling is about four generations of girls living in the same German farmhouse, as they contend with the horrors of girlhood, big and small: mean sisters and sexual abuse, forced marriages and unreciprocated crushes. But even that probably overstates its plot: this is mostly a collection of slippery, almost ghostly, scenes, sliding back and force across time with very little context and hard-to-determine connections. For example, the film might jump, from one scene to the next, from a young girl in the 19th century discovering her doppelganger in a post-mortem photograph, to a little girl in the present day fantasizing about drowning in a river. Confusing, frustrating, but also gorgeous and deeply rewarding, the movie captures, better than any other piece of art I’ve experienced, the atmospheric dread of growing up as a girl in times and places where a girl is the worst, most vulnerable thing you can be.
\nAvailable in limited theaters (in German with subtitles)
\n5. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (dir. Rungano Nyoni)
\nAfter returning to her hometown in Zambia, a woman discovers her uncle’s dead body in the road—a man who not only sexually abused her, but also many other young female relatives. What follows, in this furious, moving, and often-funny drama from Zambian-Welsh director Rungano Nyoni, is a potent examination of a family and culture that sacrifices the well-being of its young women to maintain patriarchal power: the way the older women of the family help hush up the dead man’s abuse; the way the man’s young bride is blamed and ostracized for a death she had nothing to do with; the way the victims of the deceased are expected to enthusiastically participate in elaborate funeral rituals for their abuser. Like so many corrupt systems, this cycle of abuse and misogyny feels too deeply entrenched, too broken, too rotten to the core, to ever possibly change. And so, the movie’s ending (which I won’t spoil here) breaks through like a revelation: all the victims’ fury and determination and love for each other concentrated into one piercing note of hope.
\nStreaming on Hulu (in Bemba and English with subtitles)
\nThe post The Oscars Forgot Women Filmmakers But We Haven’t: Here Are Six Women-Directed Movies That Speak to This Moment appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"resilience","author":"Amelia Packham","publishDate":"2026-02-02T14:49:22.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/image-12.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/the-oscars-forgot-women-filmmakers-but-we-havent-here-are-six-women-directed-movies-that-speak-to-this-moment/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-02T18:00:29.152Z"},{"id":"vvfttq","slug":"fda-targets-gender-affirming-garments-warning-companies-that-serve-trans-customers","title":"FDA Targets Gender-Affirming Garments, Warning Companies that Serve Trans Customers","excerpt":"At least 12 companies received letters from the agency stating that chest binders, a compression garment, are medical devices and require compliance with strict federal regulations. The post FDA Targets Gender-Affirming Garments, Warning Companies that Serve Trans Customers appeared first on Rewire ...","content":"Gender-affirming shapewear is the latest target of the Trump administration’s attacks on trans communities.
\n\n\n\nIn late 2025, the Food and Drug Administration warned companies that make and sell chest binders —compression garments resembling sports bras—that their products could be seized and their sales could be halted if they continued to market them as a treatment for gender dysphoria. Chest binders are commonly used by trans men and nonbinary people to minimize the look of breast tissue.
\n\n\n\nThe FDA classifies certain products as class 1 medical devices if they are marketed for medical uses. The Dec. 16, 2025 letter, which was sent to at least ten manufacturers and two chest binder retailers, stated that companies must register with the FDA because their devices “are intended for use in the diagnosis of disease” when marketed to “reduce gender dysphoria.” FDA registration costs $11,423 , plus subsequent annual fees and the expense of developing federally compliant procedures and plans .
\n\n\n\nCompanies were given 15 days to explain how they’d correct these “violations.”
\n\n\n\nMore than a month later, many of the businesses that received the letter are still scrambling to respond—and worrying that the government will continue targeting them if they do.
\n\n\n\nWho uses chest binders? \n\n\n\nBinders are not just used by trans people; cis men with gynecomastia, a hormone imbalance that causes enlarged breasts, also use them.
\n\n\n\nBut the FDA seems to primarily be concerned about their use among trans people, particularly trans kids. At a Dec. 18, 2025 press conference , FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said the agency was sanctioning companies “for the illegal marketing of breast binders to children for the purposes of treating gender dysphoria.”
\n\n\n\nMakary also claimed that long-term use of chest binders has been associated with “pain, compromised lung function” and “difficulty breastfeeding later in life.”
\n\n\n\nA 2025 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that some transgender young adults did experience back pain, chest pain, or shortness of breath while using binders. However, researchers found no long-term ill health effects.
\n\n\n\nRewire News Group spoke to three manufacturers and one retailer across the country who received the FDA’s letters. The letters were custom tailored to each business, but they all elicited a similar panicked reaction.
\n\n\n\nXander Shephard, founder of GenderBender, a gender-affirming clothing company based in California, said he was “freaked out” when he received the letter . It said that GenderBender’s chest binders were considered medical devices because the company’s website says binders could be used after top surgery and for gynecomastia.
\n\n\n\n“Failure to adequately address this matter may result in regulatory action being initiated by the FDA without further notice,” the letter warned. “These actions include, but are not limited to, seizure and injunction.”
\n\n\n\n“I’m not sure by business would survive if we only stopped selling chest binders,” Shephard said in an interview with Rewire News Group . “That’s our most popular category,” he added.
\n\n\n\nIn Shephard’s view, binders are only being classified as medical devices because they are marketed to trans people.
\n\n\n\n“Push-up bras, which can be a gender-affirming garment and also temporarily shift breast tissue into one’s desired shape, would never get called a medical device,” Shephard said.
\n\n\n\nMeanwhile, Shephard said, a sports bra carries similar compression-related risks.
\n\n\n\n“There’s tons of shapewear that is being sold with no restrictions, including no age restrictions,” Shephard said. “It’s not about the compression. It’s about who it’s being marketed toward.”
\n\n\n\nShephard emphasized that his company does not market to children and “very few people under the age of 18 purchase binders. However, parents and guardians do purchase binders for their children. He said he knows that because many thank the company for helping their kids.
\n\n\n\nFor trans teens, finding a garment that allows them to feel more at home in their body can be life-changing.
\n\n\n\n“Binders are a temporary way to flatten the chest until someone decides [if] they would like to get top surgery,” Kevin, a transgender 19-year-old, told RNG . Kevin is using a pseudonym to protect his privacy because he is newly out.
\n\n\n\nKevin first purchased a binder when he was 14 from gc2b, a gender-affirming garment company that also received an FDA letter. He doesn’t think the legislation is really about consumer safety.
\n\n\n\nRestricting binders to adult use only “would be detrimental to transgender youth,” Kevin said, adding: “I think they are simply trying to further oppress transgender people, and [it] is part of the plan to eventually erase us.”
\n\n\n\nThough Shephard disagreed with the government’s assessment of his binders, he has tried to comply with the FDA’s demands. Days after receiving the letter, he removed two mentions of “gender dysphoria” on GenderBender’s website, even though they were not in reference to binders.
\n\n\n\nFor good measure, he also added a legal disclaimer that the company’s products “are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or physical health condition.”
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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‘Dumped in the deep end’ \n\n\n\nTransguy Supply, which describes itself as a “trans-owned gender-affirming marketplace & community hub,” altered its website after receiving the FDA letter , too.
\n\n\n\n“We updated our language to clearly reflect that binders are compression garments, similar to shapewear or athletic compression apparel,” owner Auston Bjorkman told RNG .
\n\n\n\nThough Transguy’s website verbiage changed, Bjorkman said, “we are deeply committed to supporting trans, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, and gender-expansive people through affirming apparel and gear.”
\n\n\n\n“We will not allow intimidation or targeting to deter us from that work,” he added.
\n\n\n\nShapeshifters, a Vermont binder company, has taken a different tactic, refusing to remove mentions of gender dysphoria from its website. After receiving the FDA’s letter , its owners consulted with a regulatory expert and decided that binders are not medical devices and that the regulatory change is discriminatory.
\n\n\n\n“The mere fact that other companies that do not market to trans folks … did not receive a warning letter [shows] this was transphobia driven,” said Shapeshifters co-owner Gwen, whose last name RNG is withholding for privacy. “Pulling out the trans-focused language that we have would really be gutting the core of who we are.”
\n\n\n\nGwen and her spouse, Bryce, bought Shapeshifters from the company’s founder on Dec. 18—a day before learning about the FDA’s letter.
\n\n\n\n“Literally day one, we were dumped in the deep end,” Gwen said.
\n\n\n\nThough it was an inauspicious start to their new endeavor, Gwen and Bryce say they aren’t demoralized. They see their work as an essential service for teenagers with gender dysphoria.
\n\n\n\nDuring our interview, Bryce and Gwen pointed the camera at the thank you notes from parents tacked to the wall of the company’s office.
\n\n\n\nIf teens are prevented from getting binders, Bryce warned, “people aren’t going to stop binding. They’re going to go back to unsafe methods and get hurt.”
\n\n\n\nBefore commercial binders existed, people often layered sports bras or used fabric , ACE bandages, or even duct tape to bind their breast tissue.
\n\n\n\n‘It’s a bra, you know?’ \n\n\n\nThe FDA is also going after small retailers that sell chest binders directly to customers. Tara, an adult toy store owner in a Midwest city who received an FDA letter, said she thought it was a scam—until she saw the binders campaign in the news.
\n\n\n\n“I really freaked out,” said Tara, who asked to use a pseudonym due to fear of backlash. “We never marketed it as a piece of medical equipment.”
\n\n\n\nHer store has been selling binders for at least 15 years, she said, including to veterans’ hospitals. There are an estimated 134,400 transgender veterans, according to the Williams Institute , a research center.
\n\n\n\n“We have been paid by the U.S. government to provide these items for veterans with no issues for years,” she said, adding that those orders stopped coming in after Donald Trump election to a second term as president.
\n\n\n\nFollowing advice from the store’s lawyer, she has unhappily removed binders from its website. Tara doesn’t understand why her store was singled out.
\n\n\n\n“Literally dozens of retail stores” sell these products, she said. “TomboyX binders were sold at Target .”
\n\n\n\nDrea Walker’s lingerie store, Up4Drea Lingerie and Romance Boutique in Fayetteville, North Carolina, also sells binders, among many other products. She hasn’t heard from the FDA, but she’s worried she will—and that she will no longer be able to carry what she sees as basic shapewear.
\n\n\n\n“It’s a bra, you know? It just keeps your boobs under wraps,” Walker said.
\n\n\n\nThe binder company whose products she stocks, Gender Fluid, is on the FDA’s target list.
\n\n\n\nWalker sees her store as a safe space for trans people in the Fayetteville area, which is home to Fort Bragg. Many of her trans customers are members of the military. Some come on their lunch break to try on gender-affirming clothing. Some servicemembers purchase binders for their children.
\n\n\n\nTara also sees her work as a kind of public service. Binders are a small percentage of what her store sells; she would not take a huge financial hit if the FDA stopped her from offering them. But it would hurt her community.
\n\n\n\n“It seems directly targeted as an anti-trans attack,” Tara said. “It really puts at risk the accessibility of gender-affirming gear” that she sees as potentially “lifesaving.”
\n\n\n\nSince the FDA’s anti-binders campaign began, several trans customers have told Tara as much. One sent a handwritten letter describing “the joy and the wholeness that they felt when putting on a binder for the first time,” she recalled. “And I started just bawling.”
\n\n\n\nTara worries that the FDA’s letter is only the beginning of a broader government campaign against gender-affirming garments.
\n\n\n\n“They’re going to come after everybody eventually,” she said.
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\n\n\nThe post FDA Targets Gender-Affirming Garments, Warning Companies that Serve Trans Customers appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-02-02T13:59:00.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Binder-Regulation-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/02/02/chest-binders-fda-letter-gender-affirming-trans-customers/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-02T18:00:27.747Z"},{"id":"cda3uk","slug":"zero-abortions-reported-in-several-states--but-experts-say-the-data-is-misleading","title":"Zero Abortions Reported in Several States—But Experts Say the Data Is Misleading","excerpt":"Arkansas and South Dakota reported zero abortions in 2023, while Idaho recorded just five, marking a dramatic decline following abortion bans. While anti-abortion activists celebrate the numbers, medical professionals call them misleading, pointing to self-managed abortions and emergency procedures that go uncounted.","content":"In a notable turn of events, Arkansas, South Dakota, and Idaho recorded nearly zero abortions in 2023, marking the first complete year following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. State records indicate that Arkansas reported no abortions, South Dakota also recorded none, and Idaho noted only five. Anti-abortion advocates have celebrated the figures as evidence of their policies' effectiveness, while medical professionals and data analysts contend that the numbers are deceptive and do not reflect the complete picture of reproductive healthcare.
Dr. Amy Kelley, an OB-GYN in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, described the official statistics as “ludicrous,” highlighting that she and her colleagues have treated numerous patients who sought medical attention after taking abortion pills or facing complications from nonviable pregnancies. “I can easily recall five that I dealt with,” she said.
WeCount, a national research initiative monitoring abortions, noted an increase in total abortions in 2023, which stands in contrast to state reports. The organization estimates that between April and June 2024, an average of 240 telehealth abortions took place each month in Arkansas, a figure not reflected in state data.
Official reports indicate significant decreases in abortion procedures when compared to earlier years. In 2021, Texas documented 50,783 abortions, whereas in 2023, merely 60 were noted. Idaho experienced a significant decline in abortions, falling from 1,553 in 2021 to only five in 2023. Anti-abortion groups such as Arkansas Right to Life claim this indicates a decline in the number of women seeking abortions, while critics contend that restrictive laws merely drive patients to pursue care beyond conventional healthcare environments.
While anti-abortion activists express a celebratory tone, there are those within their movement who recognize that state figures fail to consider self-managed or out-of-state abortions. “Women continue to seek abortions in Arkansas,” stated Rose Mimms of Arkansas Right to Life. “We’re not foolish.”
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:41:02.862Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67b73d362bf8426e7028e453_Web_Photo_Editor%20(18).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/zero-abortions-reported-in-several-states--but-experts-say-the-data-is-misleading","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/zero-abortions-reported-in-several-states--but-experts-say-the-data-is-misleading"},{"id":"ah4ok6","slug":"young-women-seek-sterilization-amid-fears-of-reproductive-rights-rollbacks","title":"Young Women Seek Sterilization Amid Fears of Reproductive Rights Rollbacks","excerpt":"With concerns over reproductive rights growing under Donald Trump’s administration, more young women are opting for permanent sterilization. Social media platforms are seeing a rise in discussions about tubal ligations and salpingectomies, as women under 30 seek doctors willing to perform the procedures without resistance.","content":"As the Trump administration tightens its grip on reproductive rights, an increasing number of young women are opting for permanent sterilization. Social media platforms such as TikTok are brimming with conversations surrounding tubal ligations and salpingectomies, as users exchange lists of doctors who readily endorse the procedure. There is a growing concern that potential future legal changes may limit individuals' choices regarding reproductive autonomy.
Madison Clark, a 24-year-old nursing student from Battle Creek, Michigan, had a bilateral salpingectomy in September, guaranteeing that she would never conceive. “I simply don’t envision myself on that path,” she stated. Her decision was firmly established after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, rendering abortion access more uncertain. Clark is part of an increasing group of Gen Z women choosing sterilization as a precaution in response to changing reproductive laws.
A recent study featured in Health Affairs revealed a 70% rise in tubal sterilization procedures among women aged 19 to 26 in states anticipated to impose abortion bans after the Dobbs decision. Although vasectomy rates have increased significantly—by 95%—sterilization continues to be the more prevalent option.
Dr. Sarah K. Horvath, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Penn State College of Medicine, links the trend to fear. “Patients are fearful of losing access to various forms of reproductive care,” she stated.
The conversation around sterilization has grown on TikTok, with users sharing their experiences of undergoing surgery. A viral video, with over 73,000 views, features a woman getting ready for her procedure, accompanied by the caption: “Getting sterilized because y’all couldn’t act right in the voting booth.”
Dr. Krysten Stein, a specialist in social media and healthcare trends, indicates that these discussions highlight Gen Z’s increasing concerns about their reproductive futures.
For numerous individuals, sterilization transcends mere personal choice and has evolved into a significant political statement.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:41:02.238Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67b721b2e35464ba29cc8714_Web_Photo_Editor%20(17).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/young-women-seek-sterilization-amid-fears-of-reproductive-rights-rollbacks","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/young-women-seek-sterilization-amid-fears-of-reproductive-rights-rollbacks"},{"id":"du042a","slug":"www-herchoice-org-veteran-news-abortion-groups-are-raising-more-money-than-ever-where-exactly-is-it-going","title":"The Right to Choose: Understanding Abortion Access","excerpt":"In some ways, there have never been more dollars flowing into abortion rights organizing, with philanthropies finally stepping up and more Americans activated over freedoms they previously doubted were really at stake. With hundreds of candidates vying for of…","content":"Access to abortion is a crucial aspect of women's reproductive rights, offering individuals the freedom to make choices about their bodies. This article delves into the significance of abortion access, personal experiences, and ongoing advocacy efforts aimed at safeguarding this fundamental right.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:41:01.624Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67312ce058f2606d2646ab69_40.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/www-herchoice-org-veteran-news-abortion-groups-are-raising-more-money-than-ever-where-exactly-is-it-going","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/www-herchoice-org-veteran-news-abortion-groups-are-raising-more-money-than-ever-where-exactly-is-it-going"},{"id":"ukyzlr","slug":"women-rush-for-long-term-birth-control-post-election","title":"Women Rush for Long-Term Birth Control Post-Election","excerpt":"Following President Trump's re-election, healthcare providers report a significant uptick in women seeking long-term contraceptive options. Concerns over potential changes in reproductive health policies have driven increased appointments and proactive steps to secure access.","content":"Healthcare experts say that women throughout the country are racing to get birth control and search for long-term contraceptives following the reelection of President Donald Trump.
Appointments for contraception counseling and long-acting contraceptive device insertions such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) rose, according to Northwestern Medicine's OB-GYN, Dr. Brittany Cline in Chicago. Cline told ABC News: \"We have seen unparalleled demand.\" She went on, \"Patients are proactive, wanting to take control of their reproductive health before potential policy changes.\"
Google search data showed a notable increase in searches for phrases like \"birth control\" and \"Plan B\" right after the election, suggesting general worry over possible changes in healthcare access. This spike reflects attitudes shared during Trump's first term when legislative obstacles to reproductive rights arose.
Among the unusual patient demands Dr. Cline shared was a lady requesting a four-year birth control prescription. \"This marks first for me. Usually, prescriptions are written for up to a year,\" she said, stressing the safety restrictions resulting from drug shelf life.
Dr. Leslie Kantor of Rutgers School of Public Health also noted rising traffic to internet information concerning contraception, therefore indicating group anxiety. The status of the Affordable Care Act's government contraceptive coverage guarantee—which guarantees most private insurance plans cover contraceptives at no cost—defines the central focus for these worries.
Women are acting aggressively to protect their reproductive autonomy as uncertainty hangs around post-presidential elections.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:41:01.019Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673d3dccaf0bcd076d73538a_Web_Photo_Editor%20(4).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/women-rush-for-long-term-birth-control-post-election","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/women-rush-for-long-term-birth-control-post-election"},{"id":"t85usx","slug":"why-democrats-abortion-messaging-failed-to-resonate-in-texas-despite-unpopular-bans","title":"Why Democrats’ Abortion Messaging Failed to Resonate in Texas Despite Unpopular Bans","excerpt":"Despite strict abortion bans in Texas, Democrats' efforts to rally voters around reproductive rights fell short, as economic concerns emerged as the dominant issue in the 2024 election.","content":"Democrats hoping to excite voters on abortion rights were anticipated to focus on Texas, the epicenter of the national debate after Roe v. Wade. Democrats were disappointed that stringent abortion laws, which poll after poll show are unpopular with many Texans, failed to motivate voters.
A high-profile reproductive rights demonstration in Houston in late October featured Beyoncé, Vice President Kamala Harris, and other Democrats. The Vice President called Texas “ground zero” for abortion restrictions, emphasizing the need to protect abortion. However, the Democrats lost big days later. President Donald Trump won Texas by 14 percentage points, with Sen. Ted Cruz and Republicans winning statewide seats, including the Texas Supreme Court.
The election was a squandered chance for Democrats, especially because over 70% of Texans support abortion legislation, with exceptions for rape, incest, and congenital abnormalities. Political observers say voters valued economic considerations above abortion rights.
Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, said abortion was a significant issue for Democrats but did not increase voter turnout. \"There was just no indication that abortion was going to be the motivating issue that Democrats thought it was going to be,\" he added.
Despite its importance, the abortion issue didn't impact independent or undecided voters as Democrats expected. Exit surveys showed Texas women split about evenly between Trump and Harris, a modest rightward shift from prior elections. While abortion restrictions were unpopular, economic concerns dominated state voters' considerations.
This letdown for Democrats shows the difficulty of organizing voters on social issues when many Texans prioritize economic problems. While abortion remains a complex topic in the state, subsequent elections may need to focus on financial solutions to attract indecisive voters.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:41:00.386Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67312906c09970b51cd02bbf_36.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/why-democrats-abortion-messaging-failed-to-resonate-in-texas-despite-unpopular-bans","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/why-democrats-abortion-messaging-failed-to-resonate-in-texas-despite-unpopular-bans"},{"id":"y2pjx0","slug":"why-abortions-rose-even-after-roe-v-wade-was-overturned","title":"Why Abortions Rose Even After Roe v. Wade Was Overturned","excerpt":"The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was expected to reduce abortions nationwide. Surprisingly, the opposite occurred, with abortion rates climbing to a decade high. Here's a closer look at the unexpected trend and its forces.","content":"The 2022 ruling by the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade prompted numerous predictions of a national decrease in abortions and an increase in births. However, in 2023, the number of abortions reported exceeded one million, the highest in a decade. Furthermore, the fertility rate in the United States reached an all-time low.
What was the reason for the failure of abortion rates to decrease as anticipated? NBC News reports that a significant factor contributing to this trend was the increased accessibility of abortion drugs through telemedicine. This became possible after the FDA allowed abortion pills to be prescribed via telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, eight states enacted laws shielding providers from lawsuits for prescribing drugs to out-of-state patients.
Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, the founder of Aid Access and a Dutch physician, has played a critical role in this transition by sending abortion drugs throughout the United States. \"The current landscape provides greater accessibility than it did before Dobbs for individuals who lack the resources to visit clinics,\" she clarified.
The trend also underscores the tenacity of abortion providers and advocates, who swiftly adjusted to legal obstacles by utilizing telehealth and interstate networks. Despite the proliferation of state-level prohibitions, the availability of abortion services for numerous women has remained consistent as a result of their efforts and logistical advancements.
This unexpected result underscores the intricate dynamics of reproductive health care in post-Roe America.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:59.769Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6746837865eb20f6158b60a6_1.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/why-abortions-rose-even-after-roe-v-wade-was-overturned","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/why-abortions-rose-even-after-roe-v-wade-was-overturned"},{"id":"7r6ye1","slug":"website-com-veteran-news-life-and-death-decisions-in-post-roe-america-the-ms-q-a-with-shefali-luthra","title":"The Ongoing Battle for Abortion Rights in America","excerpt":"The fight for abortion rights in the U.S. is far from over. Following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, advocates continue to champion women's reproductive rights, emphasizing the importance of personal choice and access to safe healthcare.","content":"In a significant shift in the legal landscape for women's reproductive rights, the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has reignited the conversation surrounding abortion access in America. The ruling, which many assumed would solidify the right to choose, has instead highlighted the fragility of these rights and the need for ongoing advocacy. As Shefali Luthra pointed out in a recent interview with Ms., there was a common misconception that Roe v. Wade had permanently secured abortion rights for women. This assumption has been proven wrong, as numerous states have moved swiftly to impose restrictive laws and regulations that limit access to abortion services.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:59.178Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67316ef56f78d73f35f96be0_1.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/website-com-veteran-news-life-and-death-decisions-in-post-roe-america-the-ms-q-a-with-shefali-luthra","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/website-com-veteran-news-life-and-death-decisions-in-post-roe-america-the-ms-q-a-with-shefali-luthra"},{"id":"nbatdr","slug":"voidly-ai-helps-women-stay-safe-and-connected-online-even-where-censors-block-access","title":"Voidly AI Helps Women Stay Safe and Connected Online, Even Where Censors Block Access","excerpt":"Voidly AI is a free, community-run VPN that uses artificial intelligence to predict and avoid internet censorship in real time. It’s made to be simple and private — visit the Voidly website to learn more and try it.","content":"A free community VPN called Voidly AI uses AI to help women stay connected and protect their privacy when states or internet service providers block sites and apps. The program learns from anonymous connections and chooses the fastest and safest path so users can work, explore, and send messages without any problems.
Voidly looks at basic information like your country and internet service provider when you open the app. Then, its AI figures out which server, or \"node,\" has the best chance of joining. It uses WireGuard encryption and a tool called Cloak to hide VPN traffic as regular web browsing as it sends traffic through that node. Front-ends cannot easily find or stop the link because of this.
The only performance data that Voidly gathers is anonymous. There is no record of your browsing activity, personal information, or IP addresses. In RAM-only mode, servers delete data when a session stops. The project is not for profit, as there are no subscriptions, ads, or sales of user info. Volunteers are paying for the work and hope to make the code public so that experts and researchers can review it.
Why this effort is important for women: dependable privacy tools help keep searches for sensitive information (like health, legal, or safety information) safe, as well as online banking and private texts with family or coworkers. When local networks try to block access, a strong VPN can keep work and personal life safe for women who run small companies, work from home, report on sensitive topics, or plan community events.
Voidly AI gets better with use. Every link, whether it works or not, teaches the AI something new, so every week it changes and finds new ways to get around blocks. Because the concept is community-driven, each new user makes the network stronger for everyone.
Voidly AI is easy to use. Just download it, open it, and let it choose its best way. You do not need to know how to use technology or change settings. The team wants women to try Voidly, give comments, and help make the internet a safer place. You can get the app and learn more about how it protects privacy on the Voidly website . You can also join the community that is working to keep the internet open for everyone. Follow them on twitter https://x.com/Voidly_ai
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:58.550Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6908c7fbb807c559f529e34b_Web_Photo_Editor%20(9).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/voidly-ai-helps-women-stay-safe-and-connected-online-even-where-censors-block-access","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/voidly-ai-helps-women-stay-safe-and-connected-online-even-where-censors-block-access"},{"id":"5wd1ut","slug":"voices-for-choice-amanda-and-josh-zurawksi-at-dnc","title":"Voices for Choice: Amanda and Josh Zurawksi at DNC","excerpt":"At the Democratic National Convention, Amanda and Josh Zurawksi passionately advocate for reproductive rights, sharing their personal journey and the critical need for choice. Their story emphasizes the importance of women's rights and the fight against restrictive abortion laws.","content":"On August 19, 2024, the United Center in Chicago became a significant platform for the voices advocating for women's reproductive rights during the Democratic National Convention (DNC). Among those who took the stage were Amanda and Josh Zurawski, who shared their poignant and personal story, shining a light on the critical issue of reproductive freedom and the right to choose.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:57.892Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731bdbf0410c61ca7cb5ad1_37.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/voices-for-choice-amanda-and-josh-zurawksi-at-dnc","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/voices-for-choice-amanda-and-josh-zurawksi-at-dnc"},{"id":"tl737l","slug":"virginia-masons-shift-in-reproductive-care-after-merger-sparks-outrage","title":"Virginia Mason’s Shift in Reproductive Care After Merger Sparks Outrage","excerpt":"Following its merger with a Catholic health system in 2021, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in Seattle has faced backlash after closing its birth center and cutting insurance coverage for abortion and vasectomy services, leaving employees and patients with fewer reproductive health options.","content":"After merging with a Catholic health system, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, a Seattle hospital, has faced criticism that has resulted in notable changes in reproductive health care.
The lone birth center of the hospital closed in November 2023. Starting in 2025, employee insurance will not cover vasectomies or abortions, therefore drastically limiting reproductive healthcare options for employees.
Particularly in underprivileged areas, the closing of the birth center—which had been hailed for its polite and encouraging treatment—marks a change away from thorough reproductive care in the area. Having worked at the birth center for years, nurses like Heather Rosewarne expressed their grievance over the changes, which they see as a more general disengagement from vital services.
While most health plans in Washington mandate abortion coverage under state law, Virginia Mason's self-funded insurance plan lets it avoid this obligation, therefore rendering the modifications technically permissible.
Following Virginia Mason's 2021 merger with CommonSpirit Health, a Catholic healthcare provider, the birth facility closed. Although the goal of this merger is to increase services, it has resulted in less availability of several reproductive health treatments, including sterilization and abortion.
Critics contend that this change may aggravate already limited access to reproductive care, especially in America following Roe v. Wade, where many regions are facing comparable declines in service availability.
Reduced maternity care choices in Seattle and nearby areas mean that patients now have to travel further for reproductive health treatments, which raises questions regarding equality and access for underprivileged areas.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:55.432Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/676ff6e7efed8e06dc3c99dc_Web_Photo_Editor%20(22).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/virginia-masons-shift-in-reproductive-care-after-merger-sparks-outrage","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/virginia-masons-shift-in-reproductive-care-after-merger-sparks-outrage"},{"id":"gaqoyf","slug":"vice-president-harris-highlights-womens-rights-amid-arizona-abortion-ban","title":"Vice President Harris Highlights Women's Rights Amid Arizona Abortion Ban","excerpt":"At a recent campaign event in Arizona, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the implications of the state Supreme Court's ruling allowing a near-total abortion ban. She emphasized the critical importance of women's reproductive rights and the need for continued advocacy for freedom of choice.","content":"On a pivotal Friday in Arizona, Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage to address a pressing issue affecting women's reproductive rights across the nation. This event came on the heels of a significant ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court, which allowed an 1864 law imposing a near-total ban on abortion to go into effect. As states grapple with the implications of restrictive abortion laws, Harris's appearance underscored the urgency of protecting women's autonomy over their bodies.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:54.839Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67312bcfea876991a9f3d08d_38.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/vice-president-harris-highlights-womens-rights-amid-arizona-abortion-ban","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/vice-president-harris-highlights-womens-rights-amid-arizona-abortion-ban"},{"id":"dg2rxi","slug":"vice-president-harris-calls-out-trump-on-roe-v-wade-reversal","title":"Vice President Harris Calls Out Trump on Roe v. Wade Reversal","excerpt":"In a recent interview, Vice President Kamala Harris criticized former President Donald Trump for his comments on the Roe v. Wade reversal. She highlighted the ongoing challenges to women's reproductive rights and the importance of preserving the right to choose.","content":"In an exclusive interview with CNN, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the contentious remarks made by former President Donald Trump, who expressed pride in the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark ruling that had established the constitutional right to abortion in the United States for nearly five decades. Harris's strong condemnation of Trump's statements serves as a rallying cry for those advocating for women’s reproductive rights and highlights the broader implications of this legal reversal on personal freedoms and healthcare.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:54.245Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672f66d8b253801b1d29ef90_4.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/vice-president-harris-calls-out-trump-on-roe-v-wade-reversal","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/vice-president-harris-calls-out-trump-on-roe-v-wade-reversal"},{"id":"o7eanj","slug":"utah-supreme-court-upholds-reproductive-rights-amid-challenges","title":"Utah Supreme Court Upholds Reproductive Rights Amid Challenges","excerpt":"In a pivotal ruling, the Utah Supreme Court has reaffirmed reproductive rights, highlighting the ongoing struggle for women’s choices in the face of legislative challenges. This decision comes amidst a broader national dialogue on abortion rights and personal autonomy.","content":"On May 3, 2022, a significant demonstration took place at the Utah Capitol, as advocates gathered to support Roe v. Wade following the leak of a draft opinion suggesting a possible overturning of this landmark ruling. This protest was not just a local affair; it resonated with women and allies across the nation, highlighting a crucial moment in the ongoing fight for reproductive rights.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:53.653Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731db0ce8fb9100f4ec5fb5_48.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/utah-supreme-court-upholds-reproductive-rights-amid-challenges","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/utah-supreme-court-upholds-reproductive-rights-amid-challenges"},{"id":"vphv6w","slug":"utah-supreme-court-blocks-enforcement-of-abortion-ban","title":"Utah Supreme Court Blocks Enforcement of Abortion Ban","excerpt":"In a surprising move, the Utah Supreme Court has paused the enforcement of a recent abortion ban, protecting women's reproductive rights. This decision has significant implications for access to abortion services in the state, underscoring the ongoing legal battles surrounding reproductive health.","content":"In a notable decision that has captured national attention, the Utah Supreme Court recently ruled to block the enforcement of a new abortion ban that had been set to criminalize the procedure in most circumstances. This ruling comes from a court known for its conservative majority, making the outcome particularly surprising for those following the ongoing legal and political battles surrounding women's reproductive rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:53.058Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731afa6472820398a51fd08_32.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/utah-supreme-court-blocks-enforcement-of-abortion-ban","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/utah-supreme-court-blocks-enforcement-of-abortion-ban"},{"id":"c4v3j6","slug":"usaids-reproductive-health-funding-eliminated-sparking-global-health-crisis","title":"USAID’s Reproductive Health Funding Eliminated, Sparking Global Health Crisis","excerpt":"The U.S. has eliminated USAID’s reproductive health funding, ending a key source of contraception and HIV treatment for millions. Experts warn the cuts will have devastating consequences, particularly for women and LGBTQ+ individuals who rely on these critical health services.","content":"The U.S. government has decided to shut off financing for USAID's reproductive health initiatives, therefore depriving millions of people globally of contraception and HIV treatment. Supported by Elon Musk as part of his leadership in the recently established Department of Government Efficiency, the ruling has infuriated health professionals and humanitarian groups.
On Sunday, Musk bragged on X about USAID being \"fed into the wood chipper.\" Offering birth control, sexual education, and maternal care, USAID—which has given foreign aid since 1961—was a leading provider of family planning supplies in underdeveloped countries. The Congressional Research Service estimates that less than 1% of the federal budget went toward the agency's 2023 funding.
Senior director Beth Schlachter of MSI Reproductive Choices termed the cuts \"malicious and disgusting,\" saying that they will cause unwanted pregnancies and unnecessary mother deaths. Reversing Musk's remarks, she stated, \"You have to believe that the cruelty is the point.\"
Originally anchored in anti-population growth objectives, USAID's family planning program developed into a pillar of world reproductive health. Particularly in low-income nations, experts worry about a quick drop in health outcomes for women and LGBTQ+ people with its sudden ending.
The cuts have attracted strong criticism. Health advocates and NGOs call for a quick response to restore financing. They warn that without assistance, the results will be disastrous.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:52.466Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67a765bc657047da47f4f08a_Web_Photo_Editor%20(47).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/usaids-reproductive-health-funding-eliminated-sparking-global-health-crisis","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/usaids-reproductive-health-funding-eliminated-sparking-global-health-crisis"},{"id":"7e307m","slug":"understanding-the-supreme-courts-impact-on-womens-reproductive-rights","title":"Understanding the Supreme Court's Impact on Women's Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"As a new Supreme Court term begins, the justices' decisions on petitions will significantly shape women's reproductive rights. This article delves into the implications for freedom of choice, recent legal developments, and the critical role of advocacy in protecting these rights.","content":"As the new term of the Supreme Court unfolds, the justices have embarked on a crucial journey that will undoubtedly impact the landscape of women's reproductive rights across the United States. With numerous petitions lined up for review, the decisions made by the court will hold profound implications for the right to choose, access to abortion services, and the broader spectrum of reproductive health care.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:51.864Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731e5c18046ede0b8b11f00_54.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/understanding-the-supreme-courts-impact-on-womens-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/understanding-the-supreme-courts-impact-on-womens-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"o8ikdp","slug":"understanding-the-intersection-of-gun-rights-and-womens-safety","title":"Understanding the Intersection of Gun Rights and Women's Safety","excerpt":"The Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Rahimi highlights the complex relationship between gun rights and women's safety, especially for those at risk of domestic violence. This ruling reinforces the imperative of protecting women's reproductive rights and personal safety in the face of potential threats.","content":"The Supreme Court's recent ruling in United States v. Rahimi has sparked widespread discussion about the balance between gun rights and the safety of individuals, particularly women facing domestic violence. This case is pivotal, as it underscores the importance of interpreting the Second Amendment in a manner that prioritizes the protection of vulnerable populations, notably women who may be at risk of harm from their partners.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:51.204Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67318c585894898d78c72fcd_17.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/understanding-the-intersection-of-gun-rights-and-womens-safety","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/understanding-the-intersection-of-gun-rights-and-womens-safety"},{"id":"s3rduh","slug":"understanding-the-impact-of-election-results-on-womens-rights","title":"Understanding the Impact of Election Results on Women's Rights","excerpt":"The recent election results have left many parents and advocates grappling with the implications for women's rights, particularly in the realm of reproductive choice. This article delves into the effects of political shifts on abortion access, personal stories, and the necessity of continued advocacy.","content":"In the wake of the recent election results, a palpable sense of uncertainty pervades conversations among parents and advocates alike. The decision-making process reflected in the ballots cast has significant implications for women's reproductive rights across the nation. As discussions unfold in living rooms and classrooms, many are left asking how to explain the electoral choices to young individuals who may not yet grasp the complexities of political ideology, particularly regarding women's rights and health.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:50.595Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731e90e4276e1dd3cea3ae3_57.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/understanding-the-impact-of-election-results-on-womens-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/understanding-the-impact-of-election-results-on-womens-rights"},{"id":"p0eto2","slug":"understanding-the-american-electorates-views-on-abortion-rights","title":"Understanding the American Electorate's Views on Abortion Rights","excerpt":"Recent polling reveals significant shifts in American attitudes toward abortion and reproductive rights. This article delves into the complexities of public opinion, its implications for women's rights, and the ongoing advocacy for choice.","content":"The landscape of public opinion regarding abortion rights in America is as intricate as it is influential. Understanding these shifts is crucial for advocates of women's reproductive rights, as they reflect broader societal attitudes and the ongoing dialogue surrounding the right to choose.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:49.950Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672feb9532b4763a94cab3aa_Web_Photo_Editor%20(9).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/understanding-the-american-electorates-views-on-abortion-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/understanding-the-american-electorates-views-on-abortion-rights"},{"id":"cqk96b","slug":"understanding-american-attitudes-toward-abortion-rights","title":"Understanding American Attitudes Toward Abortion Rights","excerpt":"Recent polling data reveals a nuanced landscape of American opinions on abortion rights. As attitudes evolve, understanding these shifts is crucial for advocates of women's reproductive rights.","content":"The intricate dynamics of American public opinion around abortion rights continue to evolve, reflecting the complexities of individual beliefs and societal norms. A recent poll conducted by Data for Progress, highlighted by Mother Jones, reveals that fewer than a quarter of Americans firmly support the complete repeal of abortion rights. This statistic serves as a crucial indicator of changing attitudes in a country where reproductive rights have become a focal point of political discourse.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:49.302Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672ff1fe548f3171fbe1896b_Web_Photo_Editor%20(10).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/understanding-american-attitudes-toward-abortion-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/understanding-american-attitudes-toward-abortion-rights"},{"id":"g5grnx","slug":"un-report-toxic-chemicals-threaten-womens-reproductive-health-and-rights","title":"UN Report: Toxic Chemicals Threaten Women's Reproductive Health and Rights","excerpt":"A UN report highlights the significant threat toxic chemical exposure poses to women's reproductive health, disproportionately impacting women, girls, and marginalized groups. The report points out that industries like petrochemicals and agriculture fuel this crisis, with chemicals such as lead, mercury, and endocrine disruptors causing serious health issues","content":"Toxic chemicals like lead, mercury, and endocrine disruptors found in plastics make the reproductive health problem that women and other vulnerable groups are already going through even worse. A UN special rapporteur on toxics and human rights is going to give the UN General Assembly a report about how the growing crisis, which is caused by the petrochemical, extractive, and agricultural industries, hurts women, girls, transgender people, and men who are already struggling the most.
Socioeconomic factors, such as the fact that women are more likely to work low-paying jobs like house cleaning, where harmful chemicals are common, cause them to be exposed more than men. Cultural ideas about beauty also put pressure on women, especially women of color, to use personal care items that contain chemicals that are bad for them.
The study stresses how dangerous these chemicals are and how they can lead to diseases like endometriosis and infertility. Exposed women during pregnancy can have bad outcomes, such as giving birth early or with birth defects. As more proof of the severe health risks grows, activists and feminist groups are connecting the right to a healthy environment to reproductive rights more and more.
According to the UN report, the only way to fight this crisis is for governments to put in place strict rules and keep an eye on the business. Existing frameworks from reproductive justice movements can help you deal with these problems. They stress that protecting reproductive health means making sure that healthy pregnancies and newborns are born in a safe setting.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:48.636Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673455e7614e9ede23f980cd_3.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/un-report-toxic-chemicals-threaten-womens-reproductive-health-and-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/un-report-toxic-chemicals-threaten-womens-reproductive-health-and-rights"},{"id":"kjhikd","slug":"un-condemns-talibans-ban-on-women-in-medical-training","title":"UN Condemns Taliban’s Ban on Women in Medical Training","excerpt":"The UN has strongly condemned the Taliban’s recent ban on Afghan women attending private medical institutions, highlighting its dire implications for healthcare and women’s rights in the country.","content":"The United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) has condemned a recent directive from the Taliban that prohibits Afghan women and girls from enrolling in private medical training institutions, a decision that experts caution will worsen Afghanistan's healthcare crisis.
OHCHR Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani described the ban as “yet another direct blow” to Afghan women and girls, highlighting that it not only obstructs their access to higher education but also jeopardizes the future of the nation’s healthcare system. Afghanistan faces one of the highest maternal mortality rates globally, and the restriction is anticipated further to hinder women's access to essential healthcare services.
The Taliban’s policies currently restrict male medical professionals from treating women unless they are accompanied by a male relative, which underscores the essential role of female healthcare workers. The absence of new generations of female nurses and midwives may exacerbate the system's fragility, resulting in unnecessary suffering and fatalities.
UN agencies and human rights experts have voiced serious concerns. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) described the ban as having a “detrimental impact” on Afghanistan’s healthcare system and overall development. In the meantime, Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, characterized the decision as “profoundly discriminatory” and “inexplicable,” cautioning about its potentially life-threatening repercussions.
“This decision undermines the fundamental rights of women and Afghanistan’s commitments under international law,” Shamdasani emphasized, urging for the immediate reversal of the directive.
The ban contributes to an expanding array of restrictions enacted by the Taliban since regaining control in 2021, which includes barring girls from secondary and higher education and constraining women's mobility and employment opportunities.
The international community persists in urging the Taliban to uphold women's rights; however, with no indication of a shift in policy, Afghanistan confronts a concerning healthcare and human rights crisis.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:47.958Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/675504fb8693ec2005d1c391_6.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/un-condemns-talibans-ban-on-women-in-medical-training","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/un-condemns-talibans-ban-on-women-in-medical-training"},{"id":"69pdpp","slug":"un-appeals-for-1-4-billion-to-protect-womens-health-in-crisis-zones","title":"UN Appeals for $1.4 Billion to Protect Women’s Health in Crisis Zones","excerpt":"The UNFPA is appealing for $1.4 billion to deliver reproductive health services and prevent gender-based violence for 45 million women and girls in 57 crisis-hit countries next year.","content":"The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has launched a $1.4 billion appeal to combat reproductive health and gender-based violence in 57 countries experiencing humanitarian crises. The financing is designed to provide crucial services to approximately 45 million women, girls, and youth by 2025.
This year, a record 122.6 million people were displaced worldwide as a result of wars, natural disasters, and climate change, with half of them women and girls. These crises have severely limited access to life-saving care, raising the risks of maternal mortality, unsafe pregnancies, and gender-based violence, such as sexual assault and exploitation.
According to UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem, \"Global crises are disproportionately affecting women and girls, leaving millions without access to the basic health and protection they need to survive.\"
Currently, there is a 75% financing gap in reproductive health resources across 34 nations, denying many women access to critical care. The 2025 appeal also addresses the needs of an estimated 11 million pregnant women who require urgent assistance.
The UNFPA aims to provide reproductive health services such as safe childbirth, contraception, and gender-based violence prevention programs. Dr. Kanem urged the international community to take action: \"Investing in the health and dignity of women and girls is not only a humanitarian imperative, but also a step toward a future free of fear and violence.\"
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:46.382Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6751bdc7809a4953cddb6afc_13.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/un-appeals-for-1-4-billion-to-protect-womens-health-in-crisis-zones","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/un-appeals-for-1-4-billion-to-protect-womens-health-in-crisis-zones"},{"id":"j0xcwb","slug":"uks-highest-court-tackles-legal-definition-of-woman-in-equality-laws","title":"UK’s Highest Court Tackles Legal Definition of ‘Woman’ in Equality Laws","excerpt":"The UK Supreme Court is reviewing a landmark case on defining “woman” in law, challenging Scotland's inclusion of transgender women in equality protections, with implications for sex-based rights and representation nationwide.","content":"The UK Supreme Court is currently considering a crucial case that has the potential to reshape the legal interpretation of \"woman\" throughout the United Kingdom. The conflict, brought forth by the women's rights advocacy group For Women Scotland (FWS) against the Scottish government, questions the incorporation of transgender women in the legal definition of \"woman\" as it pertains to equality and public board representation legislation.
The case revolves around a 2018 Scottish law that requires 50% female representation on the boards of public bodies. The law's inclusion of transgender women with gender recognition certificates led FWS to contend that it alters the biological definition of \"woman\" and threatens sex-based representation.
The Supreme Court made up of five judges, is responsible for determining if the Equality Act allows for these redefinitions, which could have significant nationwide consequences for single-sex spaces and anti-discrimination protections.
Proponents of FWS, such as author J.K. Rowling, argue that the definition of \"woman\" should correspond with biological sex in order to maintain sex-based rights. Critics, including Amnesty International, contend that the exclusion of transgender women from protections infringes on human rights and threatens to undermine the progress of LGBTQ+ rights.
The hearing will take place over two days, with a ruling anticipated afterward, which could significantly alter equality laws in the UK.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:45.777Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67550d877fa59365e2a69215_9.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/uks-highest-court-tackles-legal-definition-of-woman-in-equality-laws","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/uks-highest-court-tackles-legal-definition-of-woman-in-equality-laws"},{"id":"o4ns48","slug":"uk-womens-health-report-reveals-years-of-misdiagnosis-and-pain-due-to-systemic-medical-misogyny","title":"UK Women’s Health Report Reveals Years of Misdiagnosis and Pain Due to Systemic Medical Misogyny","excerpt":"A new UK report reveals how medical misogyny and lack of awareness in healthcare systems are delaying diagnosis and treatment for women with reproductive health conditions like endometriosis, leading to years of unnecessary pain.","content":"A new report from the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) highlights the disturbing number of women who receive delayed diagnosis and untreated suffering owing to medical chauvinism. Women with endometriosis, adenomyosis, and heavy menstrual flow are routinely told their symptoms are “normal,” and their misery is disregarded. The paper warns that this prevalent issue causes many women years of unneeded anguish and interferes with their education, employment, relationships, and fertility.
Gynecological and urogynaecological health stigma and a lack of education among healthcare providers contribute to these delays. Despite their great frequency, these illnesses can take years to diagnose and treat, forcing many women to use expensive private healthcare. Patients waiting for treatment in these areas have expanded faster than in any other specialty in recent years, worsening the crisis.
The paper notes that basic healthcare providers typically lack the knowledge to diagnose reproductive health issues in young women and girls. The committee urges the NHS to immediately undertake training programs to improve treatment for women and girls. It also emphasizes early diagnosis and follow-up appointments to prevent symptom worsening.
According to the committee, the government should make diagnostic time improvements a significant performance indicator for the Women's Health Strategy for England. The strategy was launched in 2022, but development has been slow, and there is no clear implementation plan or enough resources.
Due to staffing constraints, healthcare practitioners struggle to keep up with reproductive health diagnoses and treatment options. The research proposes continuous training for NHS practitioners to ensure they have the latest expertise and that patients understand their treatment options.
The WEC also promotes school menstrual and reproductive health education. The survey found that many girls leave school without knowing what a “normal” period is or how to spot reproductive health issues. The committee advises the government to train teachers in reproductive health education and start it when most girls start menstruation. Update statutory instructions to teach males about female reproductive health and intersectional differences.
The committee underscores that the NHS must become a trusted first point of contact to prevent misinformation as more women seek reproductive health advice online. It advises the NHS to make its website and social media more comprehensive, accessible, and inclusive.
The research also notes that hysteroscopy, IUD fitting, and cervical screening might cause considerable pain in some women. It requires the NHS to rigorously supervise these procedures to provide informed consent, trauma-informed care, and tailoring to the patient's medical history and past experiences.
The paper recommends expanding women's health hubs to provide integrated care for reproductive health patients. The committee emphasizes the need for long-term, ring-fenced support to sustain and improve this paradigm, including ultrasound availability.
Finally, the committee requests more financing for reproductive health research on causes, diagnosis, and treatment. It advises the government to reduce endometriosis diagnosis wait times to less than two years by the conclusion of the current Parliament and improve heavy menstrual bleeding understanding and treatment. The paper claims the government can enhance care for women with these chronic diseases by emphasizing these issues.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:45.147Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673160d3c034f24469f803a8_9.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/uk-womens-health-report-reveals-years-of-misdiagnosis-and-pain-due-to-systemic-medical-misogyny","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/uk-womens-health-report-reveals-years-of-misdiagnosis-and-pain-due-to-systemic-medical-misogyny"},{"id":"wt1uup","slug":"uk-leader-nigel-farage-calls-for-parliamentary-debate-on-abortion-time-limit","title":"UK Leader Nigel Farage Calls for Parliamentary Debate on Abortion Time Limit","excerpt":"Nigel Farage has urged MPs to debate lowering the UK’s 24-week abortion limit, citing medical advancements. The proposal has sparked backlash from reproductive health advocates who emphasize evidence-based policy.","content":"Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, has proposed that MPs consider reducing Britain's abortion limit from 24 weeks. He cites medical advancements that potentially save babies as early as 22 weeks. Farage argued at a press conference in London that parliament should allocate more time to consider matters of public interest.
\"Is it appropriate to abort at 24 weeks, given that we are now able to save babies at 22 weeks?\" Farage inquired. \"That, in my opinion, would warrant a discussion in parliament.\" He emphasized that party politics should not be the driving force behind such a discussion.
His remarks were greeted with a resounding condemnation from advocates for reproductive rights. The proposal was criticized by Heidi Stewart, the chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, who stated, \"Rolling back women's hard-won rights is not what people at home are interested in.\"
Louise McCudden of MSI Reproductive Choices emphasized that the demands to reduce abortion time limits are ideological rather than evidence-based. She observed that abortions performed at 22 weeks or later frequently arise from health hazards associated with desired pregnancies or fetal anomalies identified after 20 weeks.
Stella Creasy, a Labour MP, underscored that 90% of abortions in the United Kingdom occur before the 10th week, and late-term procedures are uncommon and associated with catastrophic circumstances.
Andrea Jenkyns, a former Conservative minister, was announced as the mayoral candidate for Lincolnshire by Reform UK, coinciding with Farage's remarks. Jenkyns, recognized for her controversial political actions, stated that her decision to join Reform UK was consistent with her pro-Brexit principles.
Advocates are advocating for the modernization of legislation rather than the imposition of new restrictions, as the proposition contributes to the ongoing discussions regarding abortion laws.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:42.829Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/674aa482394ca5f684804cd6_2.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/uk-leader-nigel-farage-calls-for-parliamentary-debate-on-abortion-time-limit","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/uk-leader-nigel-farage-calls-for-parliamentary-debate-on-abortion-time-limit"},{"id":"hdigo8","slug":"uk-abortion-buffer-zones-under-fire-as-us-activists-join-legal-battle","title":"UK Abortion Buffer Zones Under Fire as US Activists Join Legal Battle","excerpt":"A US conservative Christian group is funding legal challenges against the UK’s abortion clinic buffer zones, sparking controversy over free speech and reproductive rights. The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has backed cases involving activists prosecuted under new public space protection laws.","content":"Legal challenges are being mounted against the UK’s abortion clinic buffer zones, supported by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative Christian group based in the US. The organization has offered financial and legal assistance to activists facing prosecution under public space protection orders restricting protests within 150 meters of clinics. Vice President JD Vance has recently criticized these restrictions, labeling them as infringing on religious freedoms.
Legal experts and reproductive healthcare professionals contend that buffer zones are crucial for safeguarding patients and staff from harassment. Before the nationwide implementation of buffer zones in late 2023, there were frequent reports of intense protests, prayer vigils, and confrontations. Since their implementation, incidents have significantly decreased.
ADF’s UK branch has organized publicity campaigns and legal appeals for activists such as Adam Smith-Connor, who was convicted of breaching a buffer zone order. Supporters argue that he faced consequences for engaging in silent prayer, yet court documents indicate that he declined several requests to vacate the premises. The group is additionally backing Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, an anti-abortion leader who has been arrested twice without any convictions.
The discussion surrounding abortion rights in Britain is becoming more intertwined with American conservative politics, especially with figures like Vance highlighting the issue.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:42.213Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67beafb9c3129d45e62b373c_Web_Photo_Editor%20(60).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/uk-abortion-buffer-zones-under-fire-as-us-activists-join-legal-battle","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/uk-abortion-buffer-zones-under-fire-as-us-activists-join-legal-battle"},{"id":"pewn2f","slug":"u-s-suspends-27-5-million-in-family-planning-grants-amid-compliance-review","title":"U.S. Suspends $27.5 Million in Family Planning Grants Amid Compliance Review","excerpt":"The U.S. government has paused $27.5 million in family planning grants while investigating whether recipient organizations, including Planned Parenthood affiliates, are complying with federal law. The decision could limit essential health services for low-income communities.","content":"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has suspended $27.5 million in federal family planning grants due to a compliance review. This affects several Planned Parenthood affiliates and other organizations in seven states.
The funding freeze impacts essential services like contraception, cancer screenings, and STI testing, especially for low-income communities.
The Associated Press reports that all Title X grant recipients in California, Hawaii, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, and Utah were notified of the suspension on Monday. At least 11 regional affiliates of Planned Parenthood are included among the organizations impacted.
HHS has not made public which laws or executive orders are currently being examined, although some notices have mentioned civil rights violations. The agency announced that the pause is a measure to assess grant recipients' compliance with federal law and ensure the responsible use of taxpayer funds.
Planned Parenthood, often under scrutiny from conservative lawmakers, issued a strong condemnation of the decision. “We understand the consequences when health care providers are unable to access Title X funding,” stated Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “Individuals nationwide endure—cancers remain undiagnosed, availability of birth control diminishes, and the country’s STI epidemic escalates.”
Mississippi, one of the impacted states, currently enforces a near-total abortion ban, and critics contend that the funding freeze will further limit access to vital reproductive care.
George Hill, president of Maine Family Planning, indicated that his organization might consider legal action. “The administration’s troubling choice to withhold Title X funds threatens access to essential health care services for thousands,” he stated.
Amid extensive layoffs at HHS, officials highlighted that no definitive decisions have been reached concerning long-term funding for Planned Parenthood or other grant recipients.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:41.618Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67ed34f86b6d6f57851e4985_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-04-02T205650.016.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/u-s-suspends-27-5-million-in-family-planning-grants-amid-compliance-review","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/u-s-suspends-27-5-million-in-family-planning-grants-amid-compliance-review"},{"id":"s3gku5","slug":"u-s-abortion-landscape-shaped-by-state-laws-legal-challenges-and-voter-decisions","title":"U.S. Abortion Landscape Shaped by State Laws, Legal Challenges, and Voter Decisions","excerpt":"The overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022 has led to a fractured abortion landscape in the United States. While 25 states protect abortion access, over a dozen others have banned the procedure or restricted it heavily. As legal battles and state-level decisions continue, the future of abortion rights remains uncertain, with ongoing shifts in laws and ballot measures that could reshape the national debate.","content":"Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, the landscape for abortion rights has drastically shifted, with each state now having the authority to regulate the procedure. While abortion remains legal in twenty-five states, including California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Washington, and New York, many others have enacted severe restrictions. Over a dozen states have implemented near-total abortion bans, while Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and Iowa have banned abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.
Legal battles continue to rage in several states, particularly where abortion access is severely restricted or contested. In Georgia, for example, a judge overturned the state’s six-week ban in September 2024, but the decision was quickly appealed. The state’s supreme court reinstated the ban just one week later. These fluctuating legal decisions have left the future of abortion access uncertain in several states, with some restrictions potentially being lifted or reinstated depending on ongoing legal developments.
Additionally, the November 2024 elections saw 10 states vote on abortion-related measures, with seven states passing amendments to either protect abortion rights or overturn existing bans. This wave of voter-led decisions underscores the ongoing national debate surrounding abortion and the deep divisions across the country on the issue.
This patchwork of state laws has created a deeply uneven access to abortion, with states in the South and Midwest seeing severe restrictions, while both coasts maintain more robust abortion rights. As the legal challenges continue, the battle for abortion access remains a highly contentious and rapidly evolving issue across the U.S.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:40.974Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6734d09afea76be957da2991_24.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/u-s-abortion-landscape-shaped-by-state-laws-legal-challenges-and-voter-decisions","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/u-s-abortion-landscape-shaped-by-state-laws-legal-challenges-and-voter-decisions"},{"id":"uir4ew","slug":"trumps-victory-what-it-could-mean-for-the-future-of-abortion-access","title":"Trump's Victory: What It Could Mean for the Future of Abortion Access","excerpt":"Donald Trump’s recent election win has reignited debates over the future of abortion rights in the U.S. Although Trump stated he would not sign a national abortion ban, experts are watching closely for potential policy shifts that could limit access in other ways, particularly concerning medication abortion and telehealth services.","content":"Now that Donald Trump has been elected, everyone is looking at how his presidency might affect the right to have an abortion in the United States.
Trump has said that he won't sign a law banning abortions across the country, but his past actions make us doubt that. During his last term, he chose Supreme Court judges who overturned Roe v. Wade and backed laws that would have made abortion illegal after 20 weeks.
Experts say that Trump could still put a lot of limits on things even if he doesn't directly ban them. The Guttmacher Institute says that policy changes might focus on drug abortion, which made up 63% of all abortions in the U.S. last year. Limiting telehealth services and mail-order abortion pills are two actions that could be taken. This would make it harder for many people to get abortion pills, especially those who live in states that already have limits.
Vice President-elect JD Vance has said he is open to national limits, but he has recently changed his mind and now agrees with Trump that states should make the decision. Because they don't stick to their views, the future is uncertain, and possible shifts will likely be small but significant.
People still strongly support the right to have an abortion. In the most recent elections, vote measures in several states were passed that protect the right to have an abortion. Arizona and Missouri lifted restrictions that were already in place, but Florida's move to support abortion rights just missed getting a supermajority vote. South Dakota and Nebraska, on the other hand, did not want constitutional protections for abortion, which shows that the country is split.
Experts say that early in Trump's new term, actions against medical abortion are likely to happen, which could change how people across the country get abortions.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:40.378Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731a9de74a8b5e36f55492e_Web_Photo_Editor%20(47).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-victory-what-it-could-mean-for-the-future-of-abortion-access","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-victory-what-it-could-mean-for-the-future-of-abortion-access"},{"id":"ezh4ea","slug":"trumps-stance-on-national-abortion-ban-remains-unclear","title":"Trump's Stance on National Abortion Ban Remains Unclear","excerpt":"Former President Donald Trump has not clarified his position on a national abortion ban if re-elected. His evasive responses during a recent event have raised concerns among advocates of women's reproductive rights about the future of abortion access in America.","content":"In a recent event, former President Donald Trump was once again confronted with questions regarding his stance on abortion, specifically whether he would endorse a national abortion ban if he were to run for office again. Despite the pressing inquiries, Trump sidestepped giving a definitive answer, leaving many advocates for women's reproductive rights unsettled about the implications of his potential second term.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:39.780Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67309d8c4c64df4e07a6e75a_20.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-stance-on-national-abortion-ban-remains-unclear","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-stance-on-national-abortion-ban-remains-unclear"},{"id":"opdez2","slug":"trumps-stance-on-abortion-rights-a-state-level-approach","title":"Trump's Stance on Abortion Rights: A State-Level Approach","excerpt":"Former President Donald Trump recently expressed his views on abortion rights, advocating for state-level decision-making. This stance reignites debates on women's reproductive freedoms and the ongoing battle for choice across the nation.","content":"In a recent statement, former President Donald Trump weighed in on the highly charged topic of abortion rights, suggesting that the decision should rest with individual states rather than being governed by federal law. This declaration marks a significant moment in the ongoing discourse surrounding reproductive rights in America, a subject that has long been a source of division among political factions and the public alike.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:39.075Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730c0a441126525bd359048_28.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-stance-on-abortion-rights-a-state-level-approach","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-stance-on-abortion-rights-a-state-level-approach"},{"id":"t6vw1w","slug":"trumps-stance-on-abortion-a-state-by-state-approach-","title":"Trump's Stance on Abortion: A State-By-State Approach","excerpt":"In a recent video, former President Donald Trump articulated his belief that abortion decisions should rest with individual states. This statement has reignited the conversation around reproductive rights and the ongoing battle for women's autonomy over their bodies. With states adopting varying laws, the implications of such a stance are profound and far-reaching.","content":"In a video announcement that has captured widespread attention, former President Donald Trump has put forth his belief that the authority to decide on abortion should lie with the states rather than the federal government. This perspective is not just a personal opinion but reflects a broader movement within American politics that advocates for localized control over reproductive rights. The implications of such a stance can significantly impact women's health, autonomy, and access to abortion services across the country.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:38.425Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673097ae523aaea8458210e1_Web_Photo_Editor%20(30).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-stance-on-abortion-a-state-by-state-approach-","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-stance-on-abortion-a-state-by-state-approach-"},{"id":"f1bpeb","slug":"trumps-stance-on-abortion-a-shift-in-political-strategy","title":"Trump’s Stance on Abortion: A Shift in Political Strategy","excerpt":"In a notable political maneuver, Donald Trump has chosen to adopt a largely neutral position on abortion restrictions, reflecting a strategic shift in response to the evolving legal and societal landscapes surrounding women's reproductive rights. This article explores the implications of his stance and its impact on the ongoing conversation about abortion access in America.","content":"In recent months, the debate surrounding abortion rights has intensified, especially in light of significant legal developments and shifting societal attitudes. Amid this backdrop, former President Donald Trump has made headlines with his decision to take a largely noncommittal stance on abortion restrictions, a move that appears calculated to navigate the complex political landscape.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:37.784Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67309d8c4c64df4e07a6e75a_20.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-stance-on-abortion-a-shift-in-political-strategy","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-stance-on-abortion-a-shift-in-political-strategy"},{"id":"erms9f","slug":"trumps-shift-on-floridas-pro-choice-amendment-sparks-debate","title":"Trump's Shift on Florida's Pro-Choice Amendment Sparks Debate","excerpt":"Donald Trump’s recent comments regarding Florida's pro-choice amendment have ignited discussions about his evolving views on women's reproductive rights. His apparent support has significant implications for the ongoing battle for reproductive freedom in the state.","content":"In a surprising turn of events, former President Donald Trump has made remarks that seem to indicate support for Florida's pro-choice amendment, stirring up significant conversation among both supporters and opponents of reproductive rights. This amendment, aimed at safeguarding the right to abortion within the state, underscores a critical moment in the ongoing national debate surrounding women's rights and bodily autonomy.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:37.148Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731756b63661a8a98cd6607_5.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-shift-on-floridas-pro-choice-amendment-sparks-debate","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-shift-on-floridas-pro-choice-amendment-sparks-debate"},{"id":"scmk6y","slug":"trumps-power-to-limit-abortion-access-without-congressional-action","title":"Trump’s Power to Limit Abortion Access Without Congressional Action","excerpt":"Donald Trump's return to the White House could significantly impact abortion rights in the U.S., even without the need for Congress. Through executive action, Trump has multiple tools to limit or ban abortion nationwide.","content":"President-elect Donald Trump has promised not to sign a national abortion ban into legislation. Once back at the White House, he could act to drastically curtail abortion rights without waiting for Congress to enact fresh legislation.
The potential reintroduction of the Comstock Act, a 19th-century anti-vice legislation, is among the most all-encompassing actions Trump may take. Many legal experts believe this legislation might be applied nationally, therefore rendering abortion illegal everywhere. It forbids the distribution of abortion-related items, including pills and other supplies.
Apart from the Comstock Act, Trump might revive many measures from his first administration meant to restrict access to abortion. He might, for instance, restore the \"Mexico City Policy,\" which forbids U.S. assistance to overseas organizations endorsing abortion rights, and enforce the Title X limits limiting financing for clinics like Planned Parenthood.
Trump also mandated in 2019 a rule requiring health insurance plans to segregate abortion coverage and reinstating a ban on the use of human fetal tissue in government-funded research. These acts might break through legislative deadlock and fundamentally change the scene of abortion rights in the United States.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:36.557Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67473cbdf7130b59a2805556_15.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-power-to-limit-abortion-access-without-congressional-action","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-power-to-limit-abortion-access-without-congressional-action"},{"id":"ph0n8f","slug":"trumps-potential-abortion-policy-sparks-concerns-over-global-reproductive-health","title":"Trump’s Potential Abortion Policy Sparks Concerns Over Global Reproductive Health","excerpt":"Donald Trump’s anticipated reinstatement of the global gag rule threatens to undermine reproductive health services worldwide, raising concerns about increased maternal mortality, restricted access to contraception, and reduced healthcare funding in vulnerable regions.","content":"International health organizations are worried about the possible effects on reproductive health care of Donald Trump's predicted return to restricted abortion regulations, including the dubious \"global gag rule.\" Originally carried out by President Reagan in 1984, this policy severely influenced funding for comprehensive healthcare services globally by prohibiting U.S. help to any entity offering or even advising on abortion practices.
The gag rule has evolved under past Republican presidencies from family planning to influence areas including HIV/AIDS treatment and mother care, therefore generating a knock-on effect of healthcare problems. Under Trump's former government, impact money skyrocketed to $12 billion, influencing programs much beyond direct recipients of U.S. aid.
Countries mostly dependent on U.S. health financing, such Kenya and Uganda, experienced clinic closures and a shortage of necessary contraceptives, which raised unsafe abortion rates. In Nepal, where abortion is allowed, mother health programs were cut back as groups were excluded from public health campaigns because of worries about losing U.S. backing.
Experts caution of terrible consequences should the policy be reinstated: a possible increase in mother and child mortality, limited access to contraception, and failures in HIV prevention. Studies have revealed an extra 30,000 mother and child fatalities yearly resulting from lower healthcare availability during past enforcement years. Advocates demand giving world health top priority over political beliefs as the globe gets ready for policy changes.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:35.962Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673c4ed6182930564db03e2d_6.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-potential-abortion-policy-sparks-concerns-over-global-reproductive-health","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-potential-abortion-policy-sparks-concerns-over-global-reproductive-health"},{"id":"1xz5xt","slug":"trumps-policies-and-global-abortion-clampdown-threaten-womens-health-warns-ipas-ceo","title":"Trump’s Policies and Global Abortion Clampdown Threaten Women's Health, Warns Ipas CEO","excerpt":"Global abortion restrictions and U.S. policies under Donald Trump’s influence have created a “grave moment” for reproductive rights, says Dr. Anu Kumar, CEO of Ipas, a global reproductive justice organization. With unsafe abortions being a leading cause of preventable maternal deaths, she urges swift action to protect women's health and rights.","content":"“Unsafe abortion remains a leading cause of maternal mortality, and it is entirely preventable,” emphasizes Dr. Anu Kumar, head of Ipas, which works in 23 countries to expand access to abortion and contraception. Yet, the rollback of abortion rights in the U.S. and globally poses a growing threat to millions of women and girls.
Ipas has helped over 640,000 people access abortions and provided contraceptives to over 1.5 million. However, Kumar warns that restrictive measures, particularly under Trump’s presidency and conservative influence, undermine reproductive health efforts worldwide.
In the U.S., abortion access has drastically diminished since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Fourteen states, including Texas, have nearly banned abortion, with others severely limiting it. Health professionals face harsh penalties, leading to fear and delays in critical care.
In one tragic case, Texan Porsha Ngumezi died after doctors hesitated to perform a standard miscarriage procedure, fearing legal repercussions. Kumar also highlights rising demand for abortion pills in the U.S. as women anticipate further restrictions.
Globally, Kumar warns that Trump’s anti-abortion stance emboldens conservative governments to tighten restrictions, jeopardizing lives. “We know how to prevent unsafe abortions. We just need the will to act.”
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:35.359Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731771e8b31f965ce48393c_45.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-policies-and-global-abortion-clampdown-threaten-womens-health-warns-ipas-ceo","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-policies-and-global-abortion-clampdown-threaten-womens-health-warns-ipas-ceo"},{"id":"4wg4hl","slug":"trumps-impact-on-reproductive-rights-experts-warn-of-growing-threats","title":"Trump’s Impact on Reproductive Rights: Experts Warn of Growing Threats","excerpt":"With Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th U.S. President, concerns over reproductive rights and women’s health are intensifying. Experts fear new restrictions on abortion, contraception, and family planning services.","content":"Donald Trump was inaugurated today as the 47th President of the United States, sparking renewed concerns over the future of reproductive rights.
Advocates warn that Trump’s administration, along with Vice President J.D. Vance and allies like Elon Musk, is poised to roll back abortion access, contraception availability, and family planning services.
After Trump's election victory in November 2024, there was a notable increase in emergency contraception sales, with Planned Parenthood documenting a 760% rise in IUD appointments. The concern is justified—Trump’s initial term resulted in the appointment of three anti-abortion Supreme Court justices, culminating in the 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade.
As of now, 14 states have implemented total abortion bans, with 12 of those currently in effect. Advocates are concerned that additional states may take similar actions.
Trump previously enacted a “domestic gag rule,” preventing clinics that receive Title X funding from providing abortion referrals. Numerous clinics had to withdraw from the program, resulting in millions of low-income Americans lacking access to vital health services. He is anticipated to restore this policy, imposing additional limitations on reproductive healthcare.
Compounding the concern is Project 2025, a far-right policy framework associated with Trump's administration. It suggests prohibiting medication abortion, obstructing its mail delivery, restricting contraceptive coverage, and permitting hospitals to refuse life-saving abortion care. Furthermore, it advocates for the establishment of an abortion surveillance system and the substitution of comprehensive sex education with abstinence-only programs.
Vice President J.D. Vance has faced backlash for his misogynistic remarks, implying that women without children have a diminished interest in societal matters. His views are consistent with conservative pronatalist ideologies that resist immigration and advocate for increased birth rates in the U.S.
At the same time, tech mogul Elon Musk, known for his support of Trump, has minimized the significance of climate change, instead emphasizing concerns regarding “population collapse.” Experts argue that the true crisis lies in environmental degradation resulting from overconsumption and unsustainable growth.
With the new administration assuming power, advocates for reproductive rights prepare for a vigorous battle to safeguard access to vital healthcare services.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:34.765Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/679ba448e26bad0a22dc545f_Web_Photo_Editor%20(23).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-impact-on-reproductive-rights-experts-warn-of-growing-threats","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-impact-on-reproductive-rights-experts-warn-of-growing-threats"},{"id":"j4u43o","slug":"trumps-hidden-war-on-reproductive-rights-new-report-uncovers-widespread-damage","title":"Trump's Hidden War on Reproductive Rights: New Report Uncovers Widespread Damage","excerpt":"A sweeping new report from the Center for Reproductive Rights outlines the extensive attacks on reproductive health and rights carried out by former President Donald Trump’s administration, impacting millions of Americans' access to essential care.","content":"A comprehensive report published today by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) has revealed the significant impact of actions taken by former US President Donald Trump on reproductive rights. The report outlines years of policy changes, funding reductions, and administrative reversals that have significantly impacted the nation's reproductive health framework.
The Trump administration's actions significantly impacted reproductive care, including cuts to Title X funding, the sole federal program focused on family planning and preventive services, as well as efforts to weaken emergency abortion access under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). Across the nation, clinics have closed their doors, resulting in patients losing access to essential services. This situation has particularly impacted vulnerable communities, which now face a diminished array of options for affordable health care.
The report underscores that although specific actions, including the defunding of Planned Parenthood clinics, captured national attention, numerous other initiatives remained largely under the radar. The administration has taken significant steps by dismantling a division within the CDC that focused on enhancing maternal and infant health. Additionally, it has removed federal websites that previously offered essential information on reproductive health.
Concerns are rising regarding Trump’s initiatives aimed at undermining the enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a law designed to safeguard patients and healthcare providers from violence and harassment. Under his leadership, the administration ceased enforcement of this law despite a rise in threats and attacks against clinics, even going so far as to grant pardons to individuals convicted of violence against these facilities.
In a bold move, Trump utilized executive orders to alter the definition of when personhood begins while also threatening lawyers who contest his policies. This strategy aimed to transform reproductive rights law and restrict Americans' capacity to seek legal recourse.
The CRR report highlights the severe consequences of these actions on individuals' health and rights, particularly affecting low-income and marginalized communities. As the extent of the damage becomes clear, advocates are urging policymakers to take decisive action to stop this ongoing crisis and initiate efforts to address the resulting harm.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:34.172Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6821a71e04140830eec2365e_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-05-11T161846.252.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-hidden-war-on-reproductive-rights-new-report-uncovers-widespread-damage","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-hidden-war-on-reproductive-rights-new-report-uncovers-widespread-damage"},{"id":"6kgbx6","slug":"trumps-defense-secretary-pick-opposes-women-in-combat-plans-to-remove-woke-officials","title":"Trump’s Defense Secretary Pick Opposes Women in Combat, Plans to Remove “Woke” Officials","excerpt":"President-elect Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has voiced strong opposition to women serving in combat roles and aims to remove military leaders who promote diversity and inclusion. His remarks signal potential policy changes for the Pentagon.","content":"Pete Hegseth, the nominee for defense secretary under President-elect Donald Trump, has sparked controversy by advocating for the removal of \"woke\" military officials and opposing women in combat positions.
During a recent appearance on *The Shawn Ryan Show* podcast, Hegseth, a Fox News host and Trump ally, expressed these views, indicating that he would make significant policy changes if he were to join Trump's Cabinet.
Hegseth, a 44-year-old Army National Guard veteran who has served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantánamo Bay, contended that the presence of female soldiers in combat positions does not enhance military effectiveness and instead complicates operations. He declared, \"I am simply asserting that women should not be employed in combat roles.\"
He also indicated that he intends to remove senior military leaders who are advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, beginning with Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Hegseth stated, \"Any general, admiral, or whoever was involved in any of the DEI, woke s---, has got to go.\"
All combat duties were made available to women by the Pentagon in 2015, a significant change that acknowledged the capabilities and contributions of women across all military ranks.
Women are now represented in over 17% of the active duty forces, and they are flourishing in leadership and combat roles. Nevertheless, some officials are concerned that Hegseth's posture may deter women from joining or remaining in the military, which could have an impact on recruitment efforts.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:33.572Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6735aec1c6ee7952cacedd35_2.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-defense-secretary-pick-opposes-women-in-combat-plans-to-remove-woke-officials","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-defense-secretary-pick-opposes-women-in-combat-plans-to-remove-woke-officials"},{"id":"8najb6","slug":"trumps-cuts-and-bans-millions-of-women-face-rising-barriers-to-healthcare","title":"Trump’s Cuts and Bans: Millions of Women Face Rising Barriers to Healthcare","excerpt":"Back in office, President Trump’s administration has taken aggressive steps to restrict abortion access and reproductive healthcare in the U.S. and worldwide. Experts warn these policies could leave millions of women without essential care, increase maternal deaths, and strain healthcare systems already under pressure.","content":"Upon his return to the White House, President Donald Trump has swiftly initiated policies that reproductive health experts caution may lead to severe consequences for women's healthcare both in the United States and around the world.
The administration is advocating for significant reductions to Medicaid and implementing stringent anti-abortion policies that jeopardize healthcare access for millions of women, especially within low-income and marginalized communities.
Reports indicate that Trump and Republican congressional leaders are considering a substantial $2.3 trillion reduction to Medicaid over the next ten years. Medicaid, a vital program in the American healthcare landscape, currently provides coverage for approximately 90 million individuals. This includes a significant portion of the population, with 40% of all U.S. births and 80% of children living in poverty relying on its support. The program plays a crucial role in ensuring access to healthcare for lower-income families, pregnant women, and individuals with disabilities.
Dr. Kanwar Kelley has warned that the proposed cuts may compel states to restrict eligibility, reduce services, and potentially close rural hospitals and clinics primarily serving women and children.
The pressure on reproductive healthcare services has commenced. In the initial weeks of his return to office, Trump took decisive action by reinstating and broadening the Global Gag Rule, which imposes restrictions on U.S. funding for international organizations that reference abortion in any capacity. The recent decision has resulted in the cessation of contraceptive and maternal care services for millions of individuals.
The Guttmacher Institute has also projected that the administration's 90-day freeze on foreign aid could result in more than 11.7 million women and girls losing access to contraceptives. This situation may lead to an estimated 4.2 million unintended pregnancies and over 8,000 preventable maternal deaths.
In a significant move, Trump has implemented measures aimed at dismantling protections for both abortion providers and patients across the nation. The Justice Department has curtailed prosecutions of anti-abortion protesters obstructing access to clinics, raising concerns among experts who warn that this could send a troubling message to extremists. The administration's decision to reverse executive orders from the Biden era, including one that classified abortion as healthcare and another that safeguarded gender-affirming care, has raised concerns about increasing obstacles to vital reproductive services.
Legal scholars and healthcare advocates are also closely monitoring the strategies employed by Trump’s team regarding medication abortion.
Mifepristone, a commonly utilized medication for abortion, has emerged as a crucial resource for patients in states with stringent restrictions following the Roe v. Wade decision. Experts caution that any reduction in telehealth access or withdrawal of FDA approval could significantly limit abortion services across the country.
Dr. Sierra Washington, a prominent global health expert, has warned about the cumulative effects of current policies abroad. She highlights a concerning rise in HIV cases, an increase in unsafe abortions, and a troubling number of maternal deaths as direct consequences. “This situation represents a significant tragedy,” she stated, highlighting that these challenges in global health will undoubtedly have repercussions in the United States.
As the Trump administration prepares to advance its stringent anti-abortion policies and implement significant cuts to Medicaid, experts warn that the health of women, both domestically and globally, is confronting unprecedented challenges not seen in decades.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:32.976Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6813186e3af85f90179d82cd_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-05-01T144410.370.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-cuts-and-bans-millions-of-women-face-rising-barriers-to-healthcare","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-cuts-and-bans-millions-of-women-face-rising-barriers-to-healthcare"},{"id":"pi64c1","slug":"trumps-convention-entrance-sparks-controversy-among-democrats","title":"Trump's Convention Entrance Sparks Controversy Among Democrats","excerpt":"Donald Trump's entrance music at the Republican National Convention has caught the attention of Joe Biden's team, reflecting the ongoing political divide. This moment underscores the importance of reproductive rights and the implications of political rhetoric on women's health issues.","content":"During the Republican National Convention, former President Donald Trump made a grand entrance accompanied by music that has stirred reactions, particularly from Joe Biden's campaign team. This event, while seemingly a simple aspect of a political gathering, is emblematic of the larger cultural and political divide currently permeating the United States. The responses to Trump's entrance music mirror deeper discussions about women's reproductive rights, freedom of choice, and the ongoing battle over abortion legislation.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:32.377Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67319d28c2d867d54f90079a_24.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-convention-entrance-sparks-controversy-among-democrats","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-convention-entrance-sparks-controversy-among-democrats"},{"id":"60pgfu","slug":"trumps-campaign-strategy-and-womens-reproductive-rights","title":"Trump's Campaign Strategy and Women's Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"As the election approaches, Donald Trump's campaign emphasizes issues like immigration while overshadowing critical topics such as women's reproductive rights. This article delves into the implications of his strategy on the ongoing fight for reproductive freedom.","content":"As the 2024 election season heats up, political rhetoric takes center stage, with Donald Trump and his campaign focusing heavily on issues he deems pivotal. Among these is the contentious topic of immigration, which Trump has labeled \"Biden's border bloodbath.\" However, as he rallies supporters around this narrative, an essential issue often gets sidelined: women's reproductive rights, particularly the right to choose and access safe abortion services.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:31.753Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67307321f4ecee1c96296c71_12.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-campaign-strategy-and-womens-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-campaign-strategy-and-womens-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"1q0dfb","slug":"trumps-call-to-action-on-abortion-a-divisive-debate-resurfaces","title":"Trump's Call to Action on Abortion: A Divisive Debate Resurfaces","excerpt":"Donald Trump's recent appeal to an anti-abortion Christian organization has reignited the contentious debate over reproductive rights in the U.S. As Democrats aim to highlight this issue, many are reflecting on the implications for women's autonomy and the future of abortion legislation.","content":"In a recent address to a prominent anti-abortion Christian organization, former President Donald Trump urged members to take a stand in defense of what he termed \"innocent life.\" This call to action resonates deeply within the ongoing national debate over reproductive rights, particularly as Democrats seek to elevate the conversation surrounding abortion access in the context of this year's elections.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:31.145Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673097ae523aaea8458210e1_Web_Photo_Editor%20(30).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-call-to-action-on-abortion-a-divisive-debate-resurfaces","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-call-to-action-on-abortion-a-divisive-debate-resurfaces"},{"id":"oqubwx","slug":"trumps-cabinet-picks-signal-uncertainty-on-abortion-policy-amid-flip-flops","title":"Trump’s Cabinet Picks Signal Uncertainty on Abortion Policy Amid Flip-Flops","excerpt":"As Donald Trump shapes his new administration, his Cabinet nominations provide a glimpse into potential abortion policies. Despite campaign flip-flops, his picks reveal mixed signals, leaving abortion rights and anti-abortion advocates uncertain about the path ahead.","content":"Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominations provide insight into the potential approach of his administration regarding abortion—a topic on which he consistently altered his stance during the campaign. Abortion rights advocates and opponents are meticulously examining these selections, looking for insights into upcoming reproductive health policies.
Experts indicate that Trump's choice of nominees lacking strong anti-abortion connections may imply that the issue is not a top priority. “It appears to imply alternative focuses,” remarked Greer Donley, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
Nonetheless, certain nominees possess significant personal opposition to abortion, which raises concerns within reproductive rights organizations. Karen Stone from Planned Parenthood emphasized that although numerous nominees possess anti-abortion records, one should approach assumptions about policy with caution.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stands out as a significant nomination, noted for the controversy surrounding his selection for Health and Human Services. Kennedy’s inconsistent statements—endorsing abortion access until viability while briefly proposing a national 15-week ban—have attracted criticism from all sides. His potential leadership may influence Title X funding, abortion access, and legal disputes regarding emergency abortion care.
Additional selections feature Marty Makary for the FDA, who has faced allegations of disseminating misinformation regarding abortion, and Russell Vought for the OMB, known for his role in formulating a conservative agenda aimed at limiting reproductive rights.
Trump’s appointments are under examination for their ability to influence policies, especially following the decision of his three Supreme Court justices to overturn federal abortion protections. Although he has distanced himself from rigid anti-abortion positions, Trump acknowledged his agreement with certain aspects of a conservative manifesto.
The president’s changing strategy leaves both supporters and critics in suspense, as the administration’s path continues to be unclear.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:30.540Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731771e8b31f965ce48393c_45.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-cabinet-picks-signal-uncertainty-on-abortion-policy-amid-flip-flops","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-cabinet-picks-signal-uncertainty-on-abortion-policy-amid-flip-flops"},{"id":"5vl0cu","slug":"trumps-cabinet-picks-face-growing-list-of-sexual-misconduct-allegations","title":"Trump’s Cabinet Picks Face Growing List of Sexual Misconduct Allegations","excerpt":"Several of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees face allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment, and trafficking, raising questions about their suitability for key government roles.","content":"As a result of allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment, or child sex trafficking levied against many cabinet-level nominees in the incoming government of President-elect Donald Trump, the scrutiny around his administration has been heightened. Allegations that pose major ethical and legal problems have been made against at least two of his top selections, including Matt Gaetz and Elon Musk. These allegations have been implicated in the allegations.
As a result of claims of sex trafficking, Matt Gaetz, who was Trump's choice for attorney general, has been the subject of investigations by both the Department of Justice and the House Ethics Committee. At a party in 2017, Gaetz was accused of having sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old, an accusation that was confirmed by the evidence of three witnesses. Although Gaetz has denied any misconduct, the Department of Justice has decided to terminate its investigation without pursuing any charges.
Elon Musk, who has been appointed to head a new \"Department of Government Efficiency,\" is already facing a lawsuit from eight former workers of SpaceX who allege that the company's culture is replete with sexual harassment while they were working there. The plaintiffs assert that Musk's actions, which included disseminating sexual memes and making inappropriate comments, contributed to the creation of an unfriendly working environment. Elon Musk, who is notorious for denying charges of this nature on social media, has not addressed the matter in a public forum.
Concerns with the administration's screening procedure have been further exacerbated by the fact that other nominations include persons who have been accused of similar behavior, such as making unwanted advances or perpetrating harassment. Despite the fact that he has been accused of sexual misconduct by a number of women, Trump has continuously denied the accusations that have been made against him.
In the context of a heightened public awareness of sexual harassment and misconduct, the charges have surfaced, and opponents are challenging the ethical standards of Trump's cabinet appointments. A defense of his nominations has been made by the president-elect, who argues that due process is very necessary.
Despite the fact that these individuals are getting ready to join office, the scandals that have always surrounded their previous actions continue to be scrutinized in great detail, which raises questions about the administration's accountability and moral leadership.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:29.946Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673f3a4397a5ff93a194b17c_%6013.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-cabinet-picks-face-growing-list-of-sexual-misconduct-allegations","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-cabinet-picks-face-growing-list-of-sexual-misconduct-allegations"},{"id":"rhauqv","slug":"trumps-abortion-stance-a-closer-look-at-womens-rights","title":"Trump's Abortion Stance: A Closer Look at Women's Rights","excerpt":"Donald Trump's recent comments on abortion have sparked significant debate. This article examines the complexities of his position, its implications for women's reproductive rights, and the political landscape following the Dobbs decision.","content":"In the wake of the Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, the landscape of reproductive rights in America has dramatically shifted. This change has prompted many politicians, including Donald Trump, to reassess their positions on abortion. Recently, Trump made statements that appear to advocate for more moderate views on abortion, suggesting a potential pivot in his approach. However, a closer examination reveals that these statements may lack genuine commitment and could be more about political positioning than about supporting women's rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:29.333Z","image":"","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-abortion-stance-a-closer-look-at-womens-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-abortion-stance-a-closer-look-at-womens-rights"},{"id":"tzaxx1","slug":"trumps-abortion-policy-a-political-gamble-gone-awry","title":"Trump's Abortion Policy: A Political Gamble Gone Awry","excerpt":"Donald Trump's recent comments on abortion reveal the complexities of political maneuvering around women's reproductive rights. After a short-lived stance against new national abortion limits, the implications for women's choice and health are significant.","content":"In a rapidly evolving political landscape, the topic of abortion remains a focal point of contention, particularly within the Republican Party. Recently, former President Donald Trump made headlines with his remarks on abortion limits, which ignited a fierce debate about women's reproductive rights and the future of access to abortion services in the United States.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:28.678Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730c02255afbe7080282f0c_27.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-abortion-policy-a-political-gamble-gone-awry","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-abortion-policy-a-political-gamble-gone-awry"},{"id":"52yx63","slug":"trumps-abortion-comments-spark-controversy-among-conservatives","title":"Trump's Abortion Comments Spark Controversy Among Conservatives","excerpt":"Donald Trump's recent remarks about abortion have ignited controversy among social conservatives, who are concerned about leaving reproductive rights to individual states. This article explores the implications of his comments on women's reproductive rights and the ongoing debate surrounding abortion access in America.","content":"On a recent Monday, former President Donald Trump made headlines with his comments on abortion, which have provoked a strong backlash from the social conservative community. In his statement, Trump suggested that the contentious issue of abortion should be determined by individual states rather than imposed through federal legislation. This proposal has raised alarms among many who advocate for a more unified national stance on reproductive rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Her Choice","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:28.080Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673097ae523aaea8458210e1_Web_Photo_Editor%20(30).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-abortion-comments-spark-controversy-among-conservatives","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-abortion-comments-spark-controversy-among-conservatives"},{"id":"iunfys","slug":"trumps-2024-abortion-stance-a-closer-look","title":"Trump's 2024 Abortion Stance: A Closer Look","excerpt":"Former President Donald Trump has made headlines with his recent announcement regarding abortion as he gears up for the 2024 election. This article delves into his position, its potential impact on women's reproductive rights, and what it means for the future of the pro-choice movement.","content":"As the political landscape prepares for the 2024 presidential election, abortion rights have emerged as a pivotal issue, gaining renewed attention from voters and candidates alike. Recently, former President Donald Trump made a significant announcement regarding his stance on abortion, which has raised eyebrows and sparked discussions among both supporters and detractors.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:26.618Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730b39a731b7317ed130c36_24.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-2024-abortion-stance-a-closer-look","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trumps-2024-abortion-stance-a-closer-look"},{"id":"d3ooi0","slug":"trump-on-abortion-what-it-means-for-womens-rights","title":"Trump's Stance on Abortion: Implications for Women's Rights","excerpt":"Recent statements from Donald Trump regarding his stance on abortion have sparked discussions about the potential implications for women's reproductive rights. As the GOP presidential nominee, his position could influence legislation and access to abortion services across the country.","content":"As the political landscape in the United States continues to evolve, reproductive rights remain a pivotal issue, especially with the upcoming presidential election on the horizon. The discourse surrounding abortion has recently been stirred by presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, whose comments have sparked debate and concern about the future of women’s rights and the freedom of choice.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:26.008Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730c02255afbe7080282f0c_27.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trump-on-abortion-what-it-means-for-womens-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trump-on-abortion-what-it-means-for-womens-rights"},{"id":"3i00qy","slug":"trump-era-spending-bill-forces-planned-parenthood-of-wisconsin-to-halt-abortion-appointments","title":"Trump-Era Spending Bill Forces Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin to Halt Abortion Appointments","excerpt":"Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin will stop scheduling abortion appointments beginning Oct. 1 as it navigates a new federal law signed by President Donald Trump that blocks Medicaid funding for clinics providing abortions.","content":"After a new federal law removed Medicaid funding from providers that perform abortions, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced that it will halt abortion scheduling effective October 1. The organization claims that this action poses a threat to the access to reproductive care of tens of thousands of patients.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced it will pause abortion scheduling starting Oct. 1 after a new federal law stripped Medicaid funding from providers that perform abortions, a move the organization says threatens access to reproductive care for tens of thousands of patients.
The delay is associated with the tax and spending package signed by President Trump on July 1. This package included a one-year provision that prohibited clinics that provide abortions from receiving Medicaid reimbursements for any other services. According to Planned Parenthood officials, the measure effectively prevents patients from utilizing Medicaid to cover the costs of contraception, cancer screenings, STI testing, postpartum care, and other reproductive health services.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin President and CEO Tanya Atkinson stated in a statement that the organization is currently pursuing all available options, including legal action, operational adjustments, and civic engagement. She noted that the pause is transitory. She emphasized that the organization \"will continue to provide the full spectrum of reproductive health care, including abortion, as soon as we are able to.\"
Medicaid covers approximately 60% of the approximately 50,000 patients that Planned Parenthood serves throughout Wisconsin. Three of the organization's 24 clinics—located in Madison, Milwaukee, and Sheboygan—offer abortion services. The Sheboygan location exclusively provides medication abortions, while the other two locations also perform surgical procedures.
The law's implementation was the result of months of legal disputes and negotiations. In July, a federal magistrate issued an injunction to prevent enforcement of the measure, determining that it was likely unconstitutional due to its targeting of abortion providers. However, on September 11, a federal appeals court lifted the injunction, thereby reinstating the restrictions while litigation persists.
Officials from Planned Parenthood have stated that they are making every effort to see as many patients as feasible before the law's implementation on September 30. They will also be closely monitoring court rulings. \"The organization has expressed its commitment to providing patients with timely, compassionate care with minimal delay,\" according to a statement.
Wisconsin resumed abortions in July, following the July ruling by the state Supreme Court that invalidated an 1849 abortion prohibition. The pause occurred approximately two years later. Planned Parenthood suspended services for 15 months following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. However, the organization resumed services in September 2023, following an order from a Dane County judge.
Health researchers caution that the cessation of Planned Parenthood services could place additional pressure on other providers. The Guttmacher Institute predicts that to meet the demand, federally qualified health centers and local health departments in Wisconsin would need to increase their caseloads by more than 140%. Planned Parenthood officials observed that the number of chlamydia cases in the Shawano County area increased by 46% in the years following the closure of the clinic in 2013, which serves as an illustration of the potential repercussions of diminished access.
Atkinson reassured patients and employees of the organization's continued dedication. \"To the patients who depend on us: we are at your service.\" We are grateful for the support of our staff and supporters. She stated, \"We are committed to providing care, regardless of the circumstances.\"
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:25.392Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68d4d75ac491ff84bb0646e5_Web_Photo_Editor%20(48).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trump-era-spending-bill-forces-planned-parenthood-of-wisconsin-to-halt-abortion-appointments","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trump-era-spending-bill-forces-planned-parenthood-of-wisconsin-to-halt-abortion-appointments"},{"id":"qubqq6","slug":"trump-backed-bill-forces-some-planned-parenthood-affiliates-to-reject-medicaid","title":"Trump-Backed Bill Forces Some Planned Parenthood Affiliates to Reject Medicaid","excerpt":"Some Planned Parenthood affiliates have begun rejecting Medicaid patients after a Trump-signed law aimed at defunding the organization took effect. A recent court order has temporarily blocked the provision, but confusion and care disruptions persist.","content":"Multiple Planned Parenthood affiliates throughout the United States have started to turn away Medicaid patients after the implementation of a contentious clause in President Donald Trump’s recent tax-and-spending legislation that seeks to cut funding for the reproductive healthcare organization.
The comprehensive legislation, enacted on July 4, 2025, features a provision that prohibits Planned Parenthood from obtaining Medicaid reimbursements for a minimum of one year—a decision that opponents argue will severely hinder access to vital care for millions of low-income individuals.
As of Wednesday, organizations like Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, DC, and Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains have revised their websites to inform patients that they can no longer accept Medicaid. “This defund’ provision is a cruel, harmful, and inhumane law,” stated the Washington, DC, affiliate, which also presented alternative funding options for patients.
A federal judge has stepped in to temporarily halt the defunding provision following a lawsuit from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which contends that the policy infringes upon constitutional rights.
Consequently, certain affiliates have started to schedule Medicaid patients again. “The circumstances are evolving quickly,” stated Michelle Quesada, representative for Planned Parenthood of Florida. She announced that clinics in the state have resumed accepting Medicaid after previously canceling appointments over the weekend.
Although federal regulations already restrict Medicaid from covering the majority of abortions, Planned Parenthood utilizes the program to support essential services such as contraception, STI testing, cancer screenings, and overall reproductive health care.
The prohibition poses a significant risk of shutting down close to 200 health facilities, with a particularly adverse impact on patients in states that lean Democratic, where Medicaid enrollment is notably elevated.
“If the defunding of Planned Parenthood is permitted to continue, there are no other providers capable of adequately addressing the needs of millions of patients,” stated Danika Severino Wynn, vice president of care and access at Planned Parenthood’s national federation.
In addition to the legal uncertainty, advocates warn that the recent legislation is causing turmoil at the local level, impeding care for Medicaid recipients and straining clinics to their capacity.
“This feels like a matter of enormous importance—not just for Planned Parenthood, but for the communities that rely on it,” stated Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson.
Neither organization provided any comments in response to media inquiries.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:24.014Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6871be8a63c2982f6010411d_2.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trump-backed-bill-forces-some-planned-parenthood-affiliates-to-reject-medicaid","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trump-backed-bill-forces-some-planned-parenthood-affiliates-to-reject-medicaid"},{"id":"f10ca0","slug":"trump-administration-rolls-back-reproductive-rights-with-executive-orders","title":"Trump Administration Rolls Back Reproductive Rights with Executive Orders","excerpt":"President Trump has dismantled reproductive health protections, rescinded abortion access policies, reinstated the Global Gag Rule, and pardoned anti-abortion extremists, signaling a drastic shift in federal policy on reproductive rights.","content":"During his initial week in office, President Donald Trump acted quickly to undo reproductive health protections, signing executive orders that diminish access to abortion and birth control. His actions reversed significant Biden-era policies designed to protect reproductive rights following the Supreme Court’s contentious ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. The repealed initiatives mandated federal agencies to uphold anti-discrimination laws, safeguard patient privacy, and guarantee access to emergency abortion care following federal law.
Trump’s executive orders reinstated the Global Gag Rule, which prohibits U.S. funding to international organizations that provide or even discuss abortion services. The policy has consistently resulted in the closure of clinics, layoffs of staff, and diminished access to reproductive care in some of the most impoverished areas of the world. Critics contend that bringing back the rule will jeopardize global maternal health and push more individuals towards unsafe abortions.
Furthermore, the Trump administration put a stop to military travel allowances for service members pursuing abortion care, which had a disproportionate effect on those assigned to states with stringent abortion laws. The Department of Defense, referencing Trump's executive order, revoked policies that provided leave and travel benefits for service members required to obtain care off-base.
In a contentious decision, Trump granted pardons to 23 anti-abortion activists who had been convicted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. These individuals were convicted of harassing and obstructing patients and staff at reproductive health clinics. After the pardons, the Department of Justice revealed plans to significantly reduce enforcement of the FACE Act, a move that may encourage extremist actions against abortion providers.
In a continuation of his administration's determined efforts to reverse reproductive rights, Trump instructed federal agencies to remove abortion-related information from their websites. The elimination of essential resources from government platforms—such as guidance on reproductive rights, information on contraception access, and recommendations for H.I.V. screening—raises significant concerns about the potential restriction of public access to crucial health care information under the new administration.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:23.393Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67c8522b707b6882b4951041_Web_Photo_Editor%20(89).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trump-administration-rolls-back-reproductive-rights-with-executive-orders","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trump-administration-rolls-back-reproductive-rights-with-executive-orders"},{"id":"9f05gp","slug":"trump-administration-rolls-back-biden-rule-on-emergency-abortions","title":"Trump Administration Rolls Back Biden Rule on Emergency Abortions","excerpt":"The Trump administration has rescinded federal guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortion care under EMTALA, a shift that reproductive health advocates say puts pregnant patients in danger. The move comes amid court fights in states like Idaho and Texas and raises fresh questions about how hospitals will respond during life-threatening pregnancy complications.","content":"On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced the rescission of federal guidance that had outlined hospitals' responsibilities to deliver emergency abortion care per the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). This decision has raised alarms among abortion rights advocates, who caution that it may jeopardize the lives of pregnant patients.
The guidance established during the Biden administration, released following the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, directed hospitals to consider abortion as a necessary option in medical emergencies, regardless of stringent abortion restrictions in certain states. The interpretation, now rescinded, played a pivotal role in legal disputes in states such as Idaho and Texas, where officials contended that it inappropriately expanded the scope of EMTALA.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a letter reversing its previous policy under the Trump administration. The agency confirmed it will continue to enforce EMTALA protections while committing to \"rectify any perceived legal confusion\" stemming from the prior administration's stance.
Abortion rights organizations expressed significant concern.
Dr. Jamila Perritt, an OB-GYN and president of Physicians for Reproductive Health, stated, “This action sends a clear message: the lives and health of pregnant people are not worth protecting.” “Adhering to this legislation could be a matter of survival.”
In the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, numerous women have come forward with accounts of being denied or experiencing delays in emergency medical care in states with abortion bans. Reports indicate that at least five fatalities have been associated with these delays, as highlighted by reproductive health advocacy organizations.
The withdrawn guidance played a pivotal role in a U.S. Supreme Court case from the previous year concerning Idaho’s near-total abortion ban, which permitted abortions solely when a woman's life was in jeopardy, excluding health considerations. The Biden administration contended that these restrictions contravened EMTALA, a law mandating hospitals to stabilize all patients in emergencies.
In a decisive 6–3 ruling, the Court dismissed the case on procedural grounds, thereby sidestepping a determination on the substantive issues at hand. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson delivered a powerful dissent, stating, “This court had a chance to bring clarity and certainty to this tragic situation, and we have squandered it…” Pregnant patients in Idaho, Texas, and other regions are set to face significant financial burdens.
Critics argue that the decision to rescind the guidance will create confusion among hospitals, expose physicians to legal vulnerabilities, and increase risks for patients.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:22.709Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6844f84e0fefebdd76b78d2d_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-06-08T104055.492.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trump-administration-rolls-back-biden-rule-on-emergency-abortions","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trump-administration-rolls-back-biden-rule-on-emergency-abortions"},{"id":"ou6r2b","slug":"trump-administration-restores-utah-family-planning-funds","title":"Trump administration restores Utah family planning funds","excerpt":"The Trump administration has restored federal Title X reproductive health funding to Utah after a months-long freeze that forced two Planned Parenthood clinics to close, though advocates say the program’s future remains uncertain.","content":"Utah's sole grant recipient said the Trump administration released $2 million in Title X funds, restoring family planning money that was frozen for months and led to the shutdown of two Planned Parenthood facilities.
After receiving the 2025 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Population Affairs late last week, the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah said Monday it may begin offering free or subsidized reproductive health services to low-income patients.
The financing follows nearly nine months without government funds, which caused Planned Parenthood to close facilities in Logan and St. George, the farthest from Salt Lake City and most accessible to rural residents. One-quarter of the organization's Utah clinics were there.
The restored grant is $2 million, down from $2.8 million in 2024. Utah was one of seven states in which all Title X funds were banned, per KFF Health News. Only Utah's Planned Parenthood Association provides Title X.
Title X, passed in 1970, provides low-income Americans with family planning, cancer screenings, contraception, and STD testing. It is illegal to utilize the funds for abortions.
Restoring Title X funding to Utah for now allows more Utahns to receive vital family-planning services, said president and CEO Shireen Ghorbani. She listed “birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing” as grant-supported services.
About 26,000 Utahns use Title X, according to Ghorbani. She added that many patients paid more or went without care during the freeze.
Ghorbani said, “But we cannot ignore the fact that too many Utahns have already felt the devastating effects” of the budget cutoff, calling it “unwarranted.”
The organization worries about the program's future. Whether Utah will receive the grant in future years is questionable, Ghorbani said.
Planned Parenthood Association of Utah is appealing a federal law that prohibits Medicaid patients from using its clinics. The Utah Legislature has tried to outlaw abortion clinics and sex education in schools.
Utah law allows abortion up to 18 weeks, but state courts are considering a near-total ban. That case's next hearing is in April.
Even though the reinstated Title X monies may not last long, clinics can reopen and reunite people with preventive and reproductive health care.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:22.104Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6966465dc773c43d5a60a408_Web_Photo_Editor%20(2).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trump-administration-restores-utah-family-planning-funds","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/trump-administration-restores-utah-family-planning-funds"},{"id":"6lzmia","slug":"tracking-u-s-abortion-laws-31-states-protect-access-as-courts-and-legislatures-continue-to-battle","title":"Tracking U.S. Abortion Laws: 31 States Protect Access as Courts and Legislatures Continue to Battle","excerpt":"As the legal battle over abortion continues across the U.S., Wisconsin’s top court struck down a 175-year-old ban, and Montana's voter-approved constitutional protections took effect. Meanwhile, 31 states have kept abortion legal, while 19 maintain severe restrictions following the fall of Roe v. Wade.","content":"The landscape of abortion access is evolving in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which reversed the precedent set by Roe v. Wade.
On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court made a significant ruling by overturning an 1849 abortion ban, effectively resolving years of legal ambiguity regarding its application. The decision is consistent with a ruling made earlier in 2023 by a lower court judge, who determined that the law did not apply to abortion. This decision reinstates the legality of abortion in Wisconsin, representing a significant triumph for advocates of reproductive rights in a critical battleground state.
In other developments, there has been a growing trend toward enhancing abortion protections. Voters in Montana approved a constitutional amendment that protects abortion rights last year, and it officially took effect on July 1. The amendment reflects a growing movement among states to enshrine abortion access within their legal frameworks or constitutions.
Recent information, as per the New York Times, reveals that abortion is currently legal in 31 states and Washington, D.C. However, numerous states impose restrictions that limit the procedure to the point of fetal viability, which is generally around 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Currently, 19 states have enacted outright bans on abortion or have imposed restrictions that take effect earlier than the standards established by Roe. In Wyoming, the legality of abortion continues for now as the judiciary considers various challenges to several state prohibitions. Legal battles are currently taking place in multiple states, as groups advocating for abortion rights strive to prevent the implementation of restrictive laws.
To enhance accessibility, numerous states that continue to allow abortion have implemented \"shield laws\" aimed at safeguarding both providers and patients. These regulations seek to prevent legal actions from other states aimed at individuals participating in abortion care.
Eight states have passed laws to protect providers who mail abortion pills to patients in states that forbid such procedures.
In certain conservative states, resistance to abortion continues to be robust. In Arkansas, the proposed “monument for unborn children” at the State Capitol has yet to be constructed amid continuing public disagreement. In New Jersey, pregnancy centers with religious affiliations are challenging a subpoena regarding claims of misinformation as the case progresses to the U.S. Supreme Court.
As the chasm between red and blue states widens, the situation surrounding abortion access remains precarious, with ongoing legal and legislative struggles influencing reproductive rights nationwide.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:21.505Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68707afd28a27ca67e7cc818_Web_Photo_Editor%20(47).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/tracking-u-s-abortion-laws-31-states-protect-access-as-courts-and-legislatures-continue-to-battle","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/tracking-u-s-abortion-laws-31-states-protect-access-as-courts-and-legislatures-continue-to-battle"},{"id":"j714hi","slug":"tracking-progress-womens-fight-for-reproductive-rights","title":"Tracking Progress: Women's Fight for Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"This article delves into the significant strides made in women's reproductive rights, emphasizing the importance of choice, legal developments, and advocacy efforts. It showcases personal stories and essential quotes from feminist leaders, reflecting on the ongoing journey toward equality.","content":"The fight for women's reproductive rights has been a cornerstone of the feminist movement, making remarkable progress over the decades while facing numerous challenges. From the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, which legalized abortion in the United States, to the recent legislative battles that threaten to roll back these rights, women's autonomy over their bodies remains a contentious issue.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:20.888Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67306e163169cdbc5df35451_Web_Photo_Editor%20(26).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/tracking-progress-womens-fight-for-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/tracking-progress-womens-fight-for-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"u13o3i","slug":"tracking-progress-the-feminist-movements-milestones-","title":"Tracking Progress: The Feminist Movement's Milestones","excerpt":"This article highlights the significant milestones in the feminist movement, focusing on the advancements in women's reproductive rights and the ongoing battle for equality. It emphasizes the importance of tracking progress and understanding the voices that shape the movement.","content":"The feminist movement, a powerful force advocating for gender equality and women's rights, has a rich history marked by numerous milestones that reflect both progress and ongoing challenges. One area that has garnered significant attention within this movement is women's reproductive rights, particularly the right to choose and access safe abortion services. Tracking the progress of these rights is crucial, as it allows us to appreciate how far we have come while acknowledging the work that still lies ahead.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:20.279Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731a5c4289fd723e1039008_28.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/tracking-progress-the-feminist-movements-milestones-","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/tracking-progress-the-feminist-movements-milestones-"},{"id":"k07au2","slug":"tracking-progress-in-the-fight-for-womens-reproductive-rights","title":"Tracking Progress in the Fight for Women’s Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"This article examines the significant strides made in women's reproductive rights, highlighting essential milestones, powerful feminist quotes, and ongoing advocacy efforts. It underscores the importance of choice and access to abortion, reflecting on the collective journey toward equality.","content":"The fight for women's reproductive rights has been a cornerstone of the feminist movement, encapsulating the broader struggle for gender equality. With each passing year, we witness both remarkable progress and formidable challenges in the realm of reproductive health, access to abortion, and the right to choose. In our continuous effort to monitor this evolution, we delve into research, spotlight influential voices, and document key milestones that shape the landscape of women's rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:19.668Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731878ba8fd79133c47c59b_Web_Photo_Editor%20(45).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/tracking-progress-in-the-fight-for-womens-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/tracking-progress-in-the-fight-for-womens-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"1zpw29","slug":"thousands-rally-across-france-to-protest-gender-based-violence","title":"Thousands Rally Across France to Protest Gender-Based Violence","excerpt":"Thousands in France protested against gender-based violence and in support of women's rights, with major demonstrations held in Paris and beyond.","content":"On a November Saturday, thousands of protesters filled the streets of France to express their opposition to gender-based violence and to champion women’s rights, just days ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
In Paris, tens of thousands marched with purple placards, representing unity in the battle against sexual violence and the protection of reproductive rights. According to the French newspaper Le Monde, there were an estimated 80,000 participants in the capital, with 400 organizations uniting in the call for change. Smaller cities like Rennes and Lyon experienced notable turnouts, highlighting the national call for action against gender-based violence.
Protesters voiced concerns about possible regressions in women's rights around the world, especially in the United States, where President-elect Donald Trump is poised to take office again in January. The administration of Trump previously managed the Supreme Court's decision to overturn federal abortion protections, which raised international concern. In contrast, France solidified abortion rights in its constitution in March, marking a historic step that clearly ensures access to reproductive healthcare.
The demonstrations highlighted support for survivors of sexual violence, including Gisele Pelicot, whose ex-husband Dominique Pelicot and 50 co-defendants are currently on trial for allegedly drugging and raping her while she was unconscious. Dominique Pelicot acknowledged the charges in September, serving as a stark reminder of the widespread issue of gender-based violence.
“Regrettably, anyone has the potential to commit acts of violence.” It may be our brothers. It may belong to our fathers. It may be our coworkers. “It can be our bosses,” stated Maelle Noir, a spokesperson for the feminist collective Nous Toutes (\"All of Us\"). Noir highlighted the shared astonishment as society confronts the pervasive and frequently concealed reality of abuse.
With protests gaining momentum, activists are calling for systemic reforms and global vigilance to uphold women’s rights and safety, urging nations to prioritize concrete actions rather than mere rhetoric.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:19.006Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6754673f6d6e897e89752f25_1.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/thousands-rally-across-france-to-protest-gender-based-violence","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/thousands-rally-across-france-to-protest-gender-based-violence"},{"id":"5z678w","slug":"the-urgency-of-choice-a-call-for-womens-reproductive-rights","title":"The Urgency of Choice: A Call for Women's Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"Gilda Bayegan passionately advocates for women's reproductive rights, highlighting the urgent need for choice and access to abortion services. This article delves into personal stories, legal challenges, and the ongoing fight for reproductive freedom.","content":"In the landscape of American politics, reproductive rights have become a focal point of intense debate and division. Gilda Bayegan, a staunch advocate for women's rights, recognizes the gravity of the situation and feels compelled to voice her concerns. Her urgency stems from a broader context: the protection of fundamental rights that allow women to make choices about their own bodies.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:18.403Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730c1f60036c0cc63c2251e_Web_Photo_Editor%20(35).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-urgency-of-choice-a-call-for-womens-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-urgency-of-choice-a-call-for-womens-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"ffpydr","slug":"the-unpredictable-political-landscape-womens-rights-under-threat","title":"The Unpredictable Political Landscape: Women's Rights Under Threat","excerpt":"As political dynamics shift, the consequences for women's reproductive rights become increasingly pronounced. This article examines the implications of recent political alignments and the importance of advocacy in protecting the right to choose.","content":"In a dramatic turn of events, Sen. JD Vance, a Republican from Ohio, has aligned himself with former President Donald Trump, becoming his running mate. This relationship comes as a surprise, given Vance's previous criticisms of Trump, where he labeled him a \"terrible candidate\" and expressed his reluctance to support him. This political maneuver raises significant questions about the future of women's reproductive rights in the context of shifting political alliances.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:17.812Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67313b7e00a632e2a1f6354c_Web_Photo_Editor%20(18).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-unpredictable-political-landscape-womens-rights-under-threat","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-unpredictable-political-landscape-womens-rights-under-threat"},{"id":"920tya","slug":"the-struggle-for-womens-reproductive-rights-iwf","title":"The Struggle for Women's Reproductive Rights: A Closer Look at IWF/V","excerpt":"The Independent Women's Voice/Forum (IWF/V) has played a significant role in shaping the narrative around women's reproductive rights. This article delves into their influence, strategies, and the broader implications for women’s rights.","content":"In the ongoing battle for women's rights, few organizations have stirred as much controversy as the Independent Women's Voice/Forum (IWF/V). Founded with the proclaimed goal of empowering women, IWF/V has often been criticized for its anti-feminist stance and its opposition to reproductive rights. With key figures, including former Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway, associated with the organization, the implications of their actions cannot be underestimated.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:17.190Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673163795ae9407692e1ee68_11.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-struggle-for-womens-reproductive-rights-iwf","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-struggle-for-womens-reproductive-rights-iwf"},{"id":"9y90ps","slug":"the-significance-of-mifepristone-understanding-the-supreme-court-arguments","title":"The Significance of Mifepristone: Understanding the Supreme Court Arguments","excerpt":"The court’s two most conservative justices signaled their belief that abortion could be effectively banned across the country via the 1873 Comstock Act.","content":"The recent Supreme Court arguments surrounding mifepristone highlight significant concerns regarding women's reproductive rights and access to essential healthcare. This article delves into the legal proceedings and their broader implications for abortion access and women's autonomy.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:16.569Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6732147d543cea89a91f5ec2_gettyimages-2115237711.webp","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-significance-of-mifepristone-understanding-the-supreme-court-arguments","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-significance-of-mifepristone-understanding-the-supreme-court-arguments"},{"id":"8jrecs","slug":"the-rise-of-microfeminism-tiny-acts-big-change","title":"The Rise of Microfeminism: Tiny Acts, Big Change","excerpt":"From prioritizing women in emails to challenging gender biases in everyday interactions, micro feminism is a growing movement reshaping male-dominated spaces. Here’s how small acts can make a big impact.","content":"The idea, called \"micro feminism,\" spread as more women liked and shared a TikTok video about it. Microfeminism is the movement of doing small, deliberate things to support women in places where men are dominant. It is growing in popularity. It's about the little things—small changes in behavior that might not seem important at first but have a significant impact on upsetting deeply held gender norms.
Ashley Chaney's popular TikTok video that made the term more well-known is a great example. When Chaney emails, if she copies a female assistant along with a male CEO, the female assistant's email address comes first. She said, \"That's my favorite kind of microfeminism,\" and she asked others to share theirs.
A considerable number of women responded by sharing their small acts of feminism. A preschool worker said that she calls dads first in case of problems to challenge the idea that moms are the only ones who can care for kids. On the other hand, a real estate agent always puts wives' names first in contracts, which often makes husbands question their choices.
A lot of people agree with the idea, but some people don't like it. Chaney was harassed a lot online; people called her a misandrist and said terrible things about how she looked. The meanness was so bad that she had to stop being online for a while. She said, \"To be honest, it scared me so much.\"
Experts say that these small acts can change the way people think about gender bias in everyday life. Microfeminism encourages women to \"wink and nod\" at each other, which strengthens their presence and importance in places where men have traditionally been dominant.
As Chaney says, these actions often come from being angry about the unfair things that happen every day. Some things happen to me every day that make me crazy. I'm aware that these small actions are meant to help the people around me. \"I wonder if they see.\"
Microfeminist actions could cause a significant change in culture if more people do them. This shows that even small acts of resistance can question more significant systems of inequality.
As of writing, micro feminism has more than a total of 15 million views and posts on Tiktok.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:15.952Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6754ff9eaff1544bb1e477bc_Web_Photo_Editor%20(36).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-rise-of-microfeminism-tiny-acts-big-change","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-rise-of-microfeminism-tiny-acts-big-change"},{"id":"uygzf2","slug":"the-ongoing-impact-of-sandra-day-oconnor-on-womens-reproductive-rights","title":"The Ongoing Impact of Sandra Day O’Connor on Women’s Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"This article delves into the legacy of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and her influence on women’s reproductive rights. It highlights key legal battles, personal stories, and the implications of her jurisprudence on the current landscape of abortion rights in the United States.","content":"The legacy of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, continues to resonate profoundly in the realm of women’s reproductive rights. Her tenure on the Court was marked by pivotal rulings that shaped the landscape of abortion access and reproductive freedom, and her influence remains a critical touchstone in the ongoing fight for women's rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:15.318Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730715611a05b71fc942895_10.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-ongoing-impact-of-sandra-day-oconnor-on-womens-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-ongoing-impact-of-sandra-day-oconnor-on-womens-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"ol7id7","slug":"the-ongoing-fight-for-womens-right-to-choose-abortion","title":"The Ongoing Fight for Women's Right to Choose Abortion","excerpt":"The right to choose an abortion remains a pivotal issue in women's reproductive rights. As legal battles unfold and personal stories emerge, the fight for autonomy over one’s body continues to resonate across the nation.","content":"The struggle for women’s reproductive rights, particularly the right to choose abortion, is one of the most pressing social issues of our time. The fight has intensified in recent years, with significant legal battles and cultural debates shaping the landscape of women's health and autonomy. Understanding this ongoing battle requires us to examine the legal framework, personal narratives, and the broader implications for society.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:13.679Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67306e163169cdbc5df35451_Web_Photo_Editor%20(26).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-ongoing-fight-for-womens-right-to-choose-abortion","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-ongoing-fight-for-womens-right-to-choose-abortion"},{"id":"ombeq8","slug":"the-ongoing-fight-for-womens-reproductive-rights","title":"The Ongoing Fight for Women's Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"This article delves into the persistent battle for women's reproductive rights in the U.S., highlighting personal stories, legal developments, and the vital role of advocacy groups. It underscores the importance of choice and the impact of recent laws on women's health and autonomy.","content":"The quest for women's reproductive rights has reached a pivotal moment in the United States, as advocates and opponents continue to engage in heated debates about the right to choose. The issue at hand is not merely a political one; it is deeply personal and affects the lives of countless women across the country. As states introduce increasingly restrictive laws, the significance of reproductive freedom becomes even more apparent.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:13.040Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67300f1c1acb7fad9efe67b2_13.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-ongoing-fight-for-womens-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-ongoing-fight-for-womens-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"b4mh6y","slug":"the-ongoing-fight-for-reproductive-rights-a-call-to-action","title":"The Ongoing Fight for Reproductive Rights: A Call to Action","excerpt":"The battle for reproductive rights remains a pressing concern in today's political landscape. This article delves into the importance of access to safe abortion services, the impact of recent legislation, and the voices advocating for women's autonomy over their bodies.","content":"In recent years, the conversation surrounding women's reproductive rights has intensified, drawing attention to the vital issues of choice, health, and autonomy. The right to decide whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy is deeply personal and fundamentally tied to a woman's health, economic stability, and future opportunities. As political climates shift, advocates and ordinary citizens alike are rallying to defend and expand these essential rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:12.444Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673198c07a8143745f7c30a0_Web_Photo_Editor%20(24).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-ongoing-fight-for-reproductive-rights-a-call-to-action","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-ongoing-fight-for-reproductive-rights-a-call-to-action"},{"id":"g3rku9","slug":"the-ongoing-battle-for-abortion-rights-in-america","title":"The Ongoing Battle for Abortion Rights in America","excerpt":"The debate over abortion rights in America remains contentious, particularly following influential statements from political leaders. Advocacy for women's reproductive freedom is crucial as states navigate their laws, shaping the choices available to women.","content":"Name:
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:11.835Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730a3818b18f8780bc3091f_Web_Photo_Editor%20(33).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-ongoing-battle-for-abortion-rights-in-america","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-ongoing-battle-for-abortion-rights-in-america"},{"id":"hjai57","slug":"the-myth-of-late-term-abortions-understanding-womens-choices","title":"The Myth of Late-Term Abortions: Understanding Women's Choices","excerpt":"The narrative surrounding late-term abortions is often distorted by political agendas. This article clarifies the realities of late-term abortions, including the reasons women may seek them and the importance of protecting reproductive rights.","content":"In recent years, the national conversation surrounding abortion has become increasingly polarized, particularly regarding late-term abortions. Many politicians, especially from the Republican party, have perpetuated the misconception that women are opting for abortions in the eighth and ninth months of pregnancy without valid reasons. This sensationalized rhetoric not only misrepresents the reality of women's reproductive choices but also undermines the complexities surrounding these decisions.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:11.217Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731726aa57b30ce5dba0ab2_3.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-myth-of-late-term-abortions-understanding-womens-choices","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-myth-of-late-term-abortions-understanding-womens-choices"},{"id":"qe2ngd","slug":"the-journey-of-isabella-rosario-blum-advocate-for-reproductive-rights","title":"The Journey of Isabella Rosario Blum: A Advocate for Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"Isabella Rosario Blum’s journey through medical school and her commitment to reproductive rights highlight the critical need for accessible abortion care. As a future family physician, her advocacy for women's choices reflects the ongoing battle for reproductive freedom.","content":"
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:10.601Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673164550fce48fafacbbfcc_12.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-journey-of-isabella-rosario-blum-advocate-for-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-journey-of-isabella-rosario-blum-advocate-for-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"f59n2p","slug":"the-importance-of-womens-reproductive-rights-in-todays-political-climate","title":"The Importance of Women's Reproductive Rights in Today's Political Climate","excerpt":"Women's reproductive rights continue to be a critical topic in political discourse. This article delves into the ongoing struggles and triumphs surrounding the right to choose, highlighting personal stories, legal developments, and the vital role of advocacy in protecting these rights.","content":"In recent years, women's reproductive rights have emerged as a focal point in political discussions across the United States. The right to choose remains a deeply personal issue that affects millions of women and their families. As various states introduce a range of policies that either protect or restrict access to abortion and reproductive healthcare, understanding the current landscape becomes crucial for advocates, supporters, and those directly impacted.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:09.934Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673176a3c034f24469084f6e_2.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-importance-of-womens-reproductive-rights-in-todays-political-climate","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-importance-of-womens-reproductive-rights-in-todays-political-climate"},{"id":"1zpund","slug":"the-importance-of-protecting-minors-right-to-abortion-in-montana","title":"The Importance of Protecting Minor's Right to Abortion in Montana","excerpt":"The Montana Supreme Court's recent rulings highlight the ongoing debate about minors' rights regarding abortion. This article explores the implications of these legal decisions, emphasizing the necessity of safeguarding reproductive rights for young women.","content":"In Montana, the right of minors to access abortion services has been a contentious issue, often framed within broader discussions about reproductive rights and autonomy. The Montana Supreme Court's recent rulings affirm the importance of protecting these rights for young individuals, ensuring that they can make critical health decisions free from unnecessary barriers.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:08.513Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731c092a9d6f6469e69dbd2_39.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-importance-of-protecting-minors-right-to-abortion-in-montana","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-importance-of-protecting-minors-right-to-abortion-in-montana"},{"id":"s5liuk","slug":"the-importance-of-accessing-healthcare-for-reproductive-choices","title":"The Importance of Accessing Healthcare for Reproductive Choices","excerpt":"Access to healthcare is vital for women seeking reproductive choices. This article delves into the challenges faced by women like Angel while highlighting the importance of informed decisions in abortion care.","content":"In the landscape of women's reproductive rights, access to healthcare remains a cornerstone that empowers individuals to make informed choices about their bodies and futures. This is particularly evident in the experiences of women navigating the complexities of abortion, where mental and physical health considerations intertwine with legal restrictions and societal pressures.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:07.902Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730c29da30d972d2b67b556_30.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-importance-of-accessing-healthcare-for-reproductive-choices","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-importance-of-accessing-healthcare-for-reproductive-choices"},{"id":"1802gu","slug":"the-impact-of-roe-v-wades-overturn-on-young-adults-choices","title":"The Impact of Roe v. Wade's Overturn on Young Adults' Choices","excerpt":"The overturning of Roe v. Wade has significantly reshaped the reproductive landscape for young adults in the United States. Many are re-evaluating their choices regarding pregnancy and family planning, leading to shifts in personal and societal attitudes toward reproductive rights.","content":"The recent overturning of Roe v. Wade in the landmark case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization has sent shockwaves throughout the United States, particularly affecting young adults who are now reconsidering their approach to family planning and pregnancy. As access to abortion rights faces unprecedented challenges, many individuals are feeling the weight of these legal changes on their personal lives and futures.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:07.299Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67312990b8f767735bb1e746_37.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-impact-of-roe-v-wades-overturn-on-young-adults-choices","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-impact-of-roe-v-wades-overturn-on-young-adults-choices"},{"id":"khrww4","slug":"the-impact-of-roe-fall-on-womens-reproductive-choices","title":"The Impact of Roe's Fall on Women's Reproductive Choices","excerpt":"The repeal of Roe v. Wade has created a significant shift in women's reproductive rights, leading to a surge in crisis pregnancy centers and impacting personal choices. This article delves into the stories of women navigating these changes and the ongoing advocacy for reproductive freedom.","content":"The recent overturning of Roe v. Wade has sent shockwaves across the United States, significantly impacting women's reproductive rights and their ability to access safe abortion care. As anti-choice legislation gains momentum, many women find themselves navigating an increasingly hostile landscape. This article examines the implications of the repeal, the rise of crisis pregnancy centers, and the essential conversations surrounding women’s health and autonomy.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:06.623Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731dbdcfb5c2bc8f97c44ac_49.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-impact-of-roe-fall-on-womens-reproductive-choices","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-impact-of-roe-fall-on-womens-reproductive-choices"},{"id":"567s5h","slug":"the-impact-of-overturning-roe-v-wade-on-womens-healthcare","title":"The Impact of Overturning Roe v. Wade on Women’s Healthcare","excerpt":"The 2022 Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has significantly impacted women's healthcare in states with abortion bans. This article explores the implications for pregnant patients and the broader landscape of reproductive rights.","content":"In 2022, the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade marked a seismic shift in the landscape of women's healthcare and reproductive rights in the United States. This ruling has had immediate and far-reaching consequences, particularly in states where abortion has been banned or severely restricted. For many women, the implications of this decision are not just legal; they extend deeply into their health, autonomy, and personal lives.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:05.999Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672ffdb7f4ecee1c96f5883f_11.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-impact-of-overturning-roe-v-wade-on-womens-healthcare","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-impact-of-overturning-roe-v-wade-on-womens-healthcare"},{"id":"3cpaoi","slug":"the-impact-of-female-justices-on-reproductive-rights","title":"The Impact of Female Justices on Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"The representation of women on the Supreme Court is significant, especially in the context of reproductive rights. This article delves into how female justices shape legal outcomes and impact the fight for women's right to choose, examining personal stories, legal developments, and advocacy efforts.","content":"In recent years, the composition of the Supreme Court has become a focal point in discussions surrounding reproductive rights, particularly the right to choose an abortion. The presence of four female justices on the bench marks a historic achievement, signaling progress in gender representation at the highest judicial level. Yet, the question remains: does their presence translate into tangible advancements for women's reproductive rights?
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:05.389Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673136c53e74194655dcf672_47.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-impact-of-female-justices-on-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-impact-of-female-justices-on-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"v95bcg","slug":"the-impact-of-abortion-restrictions-on-womens-lives","title":"The Impact of Abortion Restrictions on Women's Lives","excerpt":"During the recent Democratic national convention, compelling personal accounts were shared, illustrating the negative impact of abortion restrictions post-Roe v. Wade. These stories emphasize the urgent need for advocacy in support of women's reproductive rights.","content":"At the Democratic national convention, a poignant spotlight was shone on the harsh realities faced by women and couples in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The convention opened with heartfelt narratives that sought to highlight the devastating consequences of abortion restrictions, a critical issue that resonates deeply with many Americans.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:04.015Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731bd3180597500072f6721_36.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-impact-of-abortion-restrictions-on-womens-lives","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-impact-of-abortion-restrictions-on-womens-lives"},{"id":"ahf0e3","slug":"the-impact-of-abortion-bans-on-womens-health-and-society","title":"The Impact of Abortion Bans on Women’s Health and Society","excerpt":"Abortion bans have far-reaching consequences that extend beyond individual choice. They hinder medical advancements, impact economic stability, and deter healthcare professionals, particularly in underserved areas. This article delves into these critical issues and highlights the importance of protecting women's reproductive rights.","content":"The conversation surrounding abortion is not merely about individual choice; it encompasses a range of societal and health implications that affect women, families, and communities. As states enact various restrictions on abortion access, the consequences ripple outward, impacting economic growth, healthcare availability, and the very fabric of society.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:03.404Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67303159d6a57ed1062f7cfd_18.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-impact-of-abortion-bans-on-womens-health-and-society","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-impact-of-abortion-bans-on-womens-health-and-society"},{"id":"bhhnvt","slug":"the-illusion-of-freedom-arizonas-abortion-ruling-revealed","title":"The Illusion of Freedom: Arizona's Abortion Ruling Revealed","excerpt":"The recent abortion ruling in Arizona has sparked a significant debate about the true meaning of freedom and individual rights within the Republican party. This article delves into how these legal developments contradict the party's proclaimed values and highlights the impact on women's reproductive rights.","content":"For decades, the Republican party has positioned itself as a beacon of freedom and individual liberty, promoting a narrative of small government and personal autonomy. However, recent developments in Arizona have sparked a critical examination of this narrative, especially concerning women's reproductive rights. The state's latest abortion ruling starkly illustrates a contradiction between the party’s claims of protecting freedom and the reality of its legislative actions.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:02.775Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731290cb4c68c8bc6d1c05c_35.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-illusion-of-freedom-arizonas-abortion-ruling-revealed","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-illusion-of-freedom-arizonas-abortion-ruling-revealed"},{"id":"yda5ur","slug":"the-high-stakes-of-mifepristone-a-critical-examination","title":"The High Stakes of Mifepristone: A Critical Examination","excerpt":"The ongoing legal battles surrounding mifepristone highlight the critical importance of access to reproductive healthcare. As the Supreme Court weighs in, the stakes for women's rights and healthcare autonomy have never been higher.","content":"Mifepristone is often used in combination with another drug, misoprostol, to terminate early pregnancies. It has been recognized by medical professionals as a safe and effective method of abortion when used appropriately. The World Health Organization endorses mifepristone as an essential medicine in reproductive health, underscoring its importance globally. However, in recent years, access to this medication has faced significant challenges as various states implement restrictive abortion laws fueled by political agendas rather than medical necessity.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:01.991Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673043683169cdbc5de09c08_23.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-high-stakes-of-mifepristone-a-critical-examination","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-high-stakes-of-mifepristone-a-critical-examination"},{"id":"ufokpz","slug":"the-future-of-reproductive-rights-kamala-harris-vs-donald-trump","title":"The Future of Reproductive Rights: Kamala Harris vs. Donald Trump","excerpt":"As the 2024 presidential election unfolds with Donald Trump as the victor, the future of reproductive rights hangs in the balance. This article examines the implications for abortion access and the ongoing advocacy for women's rights.","content":"The recent conclusion of the 2024 presidential election has reignited a crucial conversation regarding women's reproductive rights in the United States. With Donald Trump emerging as the victor, many are left to ponder the implications of this outcome on the future of abortion access and reproductive health. In stark contrast, Kamala Harris, who has made abortion rights a cornerstone of her political platform, faced a challenging campaign environment that underscored the deep divisions within the nation on this issue.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:40:00.387Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672f69450d3bc989cf7385de_Web_Photo_Editor%20(4).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-future-of-reproductive-rights-kamala-harris-vs-donald-trump","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-future-of-reproductive-rights-kamala-harris-vs-donald-trump"},{"id":"7uaw36","slug":"the-future-of-abortion-rights-supreme-courts-upcoming-review","title":"The Future of Abortion Rights: Supreme Court's Upcoming Review","excerpt":"As the Supreme Court gears up to review pivotal abortion rights cases, the implications for women's reproductive health are profound. This article explores the current landscape, challenges, and advocacy efforts surrounding abortion access.","content":"The landscape of abortion rights in the United States has dramatically shifted over the last two years, particularly following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark ruling that had protected the right to choose for nearly five decades. This pivotal moment has not only altered the legal framework surrounding abortion but has also ignited a fervent national dialogue about women’s reproductive rights, autonomy, and health.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:59.652Z","image":"","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-future-of-abortion-rights-supreme-courts-upcoming-review","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-future-of-abortion-rights-supreme-courts-upcoming-review"},{"id":"t5zwpp","slug":"the-fight-for-womens-reproductive-rights-a-summer-of-change","title":"The Fight for Women's Reproductive Rights: A Summer of Change","excerpt":"This summer, the antiabortion movement is intensifying its efforts against bipartisan legislation that supports women's reproductive rights. This article delves into the implications of these developments, personal stories, and advocacy for freedom of choice.","content":"As summer unfolds, the landscape of women’s reproductive rights in the United States is marked by a renewed and aggressive campaign from antiabortion advocates. In Edgewood, New Mexico, the Care Net Pregnancy Center has become a focal point for these efforts, symbolizing the broader national fight over reproductive health and the right to choose. With the ongoing legislative battles and personal stories of women navigating their reproductive choices, this summer promises to be pivotal for advocates on both sides of the debate.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:58.790Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731b31e09dad20d01b3e0cb_34.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-womens-reproductive-rights-a-summer-of-change","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-womens-reproductive-rights-a-summer-of-change"},{"id":"28zz7f","slug":"the-fight-for-reproductive-rights-upholding-choice-in-the-face-of-adversity","title":"The Fight for Reproductive Rights: Upholding Choice in the Face of Adversity","excerpt":"The struggle for reproductive rights has intensified, especially with recent legal challenges to Roe v. Wade. This article examines the implications of these developments and the importance of advocacy for women's rights.","content":"
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:58.191Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731771e8b31f965ce48393c_45.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-reproductive-rights-upholding-choice-in-the-face-of-adversity","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-reproductive-rights-upholding-choice-in-the-face-of-adversity"},{"id":"p012vz","slug":"the-fight-for-reproductive-rights-analyzing-fda-v-alliance-for-hippocratic-medicine","title":"The Fight for Reproductive Rights: Analyzing FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine","excerpt":"The case of FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine is pivotal in the ongoing battle for women's reproductive rights. As legal challenges intensify, the implications for access to abortion and reproductive healthcare are profound. This article delves into the details of the case, the arguments presented, and what it means for the future of women's autonomy over their bodies.","content":"The battle for reproductive rights in the United States has reached a critical juncture with the case of FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. This case, which recently had oral arguments before the Supreme Court, centers on the legality and accessibility of abortion medications, specifically mifepristone. As one of the most commonly used medications for medication abortions, the outcome of this case will significantly impact women's reproductive health and their right to choose.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:57.578Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67305c30e3bcfa37f9649101_4.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-reproductive-rights-analyzing-fda-v-alliance-for-hippocratic-medicine","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-reproductive-rights-analyzing-fda-v-alliance-for-hippocratic-medicine"},{"id":"61kb22","slug":"the-fight-for-reproductive-rights-a-personal-story-","title":"The Fight for Reproductive Rights: A Personal Story","excerpt":"Kelsie Norris-De La Cruz's harrowing experience with a life-threatening pregnancy complication highlights the urgent need for improved access to reproductive healthcare. Her journey underscores the importance of legal protections for women’s rights in the face of restrictive laws.","content":"In a world where reproductive rights are increasingly under scrutiny, the story of Kelsie Norris-De La Cruz stands as a powerful testament to the struggles many women face in securing the healthcare they need. As a 25-year-old college senior, Kelsie's life took a dramatic turn when she encountered a life-threatening complication during her pregnancy. Instead of receiving the necessary medical care, she found herself turned away from a Texas hospital—a decision that would later spark a deeper understanding of her rights as a woman and a patient.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:56.968Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67318eec552dc79e17596504_19.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-reproductive-rights-a-personal-story-","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-reproductive-rights-a-personal-story-"},{"id":"3ynfwy","slug":"the-fight-for-reproductive-rights-a-closer-look-at-anti-abortion-activism","title":"The Fight for Reproductive Rights: A Closer Look at Anti-Abortion Activism","excerpt":"This article delves into the world of anti-abortion activism, featuring key figures and organizations, while emphasizing the ongoing struggle for women's reproductive rights. It highlights the implications of such activism on women's health and autonomy.","content":"Reproductive rights have been a cornerstone of women's health and autonomy for decades, yet these rights continue to face significant challenges from various anti-abortion movements. Within this landscape, activists like Lauren Handy have emerged as prominent figures, championing causes that seek to restrict access to abortion and undermine established reproductive freedoms. Understanding the motivations and strategies of such activists is crucial for anyone invested in the ongoing battle for women's rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:56.361Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67303e2c3dd45057d0062c2a_Web_Photo_Editor%20(20).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-reproductive-rights-a-closer-look-at-anti-abortion-activism","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-reproductive-rights-a-closer-look-at-anti-abortion-activism"},{"id":"osw9q1","slug":"the-fight-for-abortion-rights-after-roe-v-wade","title":"The Fight for Abortion Rights After Roe v. Wade","excerpt":"Explore the current landscape of abortion rights in America following the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the ongoing advocacy for women's right to choose.","content":"The landscape of reproductive rights in the United States has dramatically shifted since the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark ruling that had protected the right to choose an abortion for nearly five decades. This pivotal change has not only ignited political debates but has also mobilized advocates and organizations committed to preserving and expanding women's reproductive freedoms. As we examine the aftermath of this significant ruling, it becomes clear that the fight for abortion rights is more crucial than ever.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:55.763Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67312e212cb5bc132507a48b_41.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-abortion-rights-after-roe-v-wade","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-abortion-rights-after-roe-v-wade"},{"id":"u1g7ku","slug":"the-fight-for-abortion-rights-a-rallying-cry-in-dayton","title":"The Fight for Abortion Rights: A Rallying Cry in Dayton","excerpt":"On May 14, 2022, Dayton, Ohio, became a focal point for advocates of women's reproductive rights during a powerful pro-abortion rights rally. This event emerged in response to a leaked Supreme Court decision threatening to overturn Roe v. Wade, sparking widespread outrage and mobilization across the nation.","content":"On May 14, 2022, a significant pro-abortion rights rally unfolded in Dayton, Ohio, drawing passionate advocates from all walks of life. This gathering was not merely a local event but part of a broader national response to a leaked Supreme Court draft that indicated a potential overturn of the landmark 1973 decision, Roe v. Wade. This ruling has long been a cornerstone of women's reproductive rights, affirming a woman's right to choose.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:55.174Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730417f45b3c8e6b01be533_Web_Photo_Editor%20(21).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-abortion-rights-a-rallying-cry-in-dayton","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-abortion-rights-a-rallying-cry-in-dayton"},{"id":"m44jn8","slug":"the-fight-for-abortion-rights-a-historical-perspective","title":"The Fight for Abortion Rights: A Historical Perspective","excerpt":"This article delves into the historical context of the abortion rights movement, highlighting key protests, legal battles, and personal stories that emphasize the importance of women's autonomy over their reproductive choices. It underscores the ongoing struggle for reproductive rights and the necessity of advocacy in ensuring that every woman has the right to choose.","content":"The fight for abortion rights has been a significant aspect of the broader women's rights movement, reflecting deep societal shifts and the relentless quest for autonomy over one's body. The journey toward legal and safe abortion has been marked by landmark protests, passionate advocates, and a continuum of legal challenges that underscore the importance of reproductive freedom.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:54.582Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731a5c4289fd723e1039008_28.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-abortion-rights-a-historical-perspective","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-abortion-rights-a-historical-perspective"},{"id":"qb73fn","slug":"the-fight-for-abortion-rights-a-crucial-legal-battle","title":"The Fight for Abortion Rights: A Crucial Legal Battle","excerpt":"A critical legal case is unfolding that could shape abortion access in Idaho. With oral arguments heard at the Supreme Court, advocates are rallying for women's reproductive rights, emphasizing the importance of access to safe and legal abortion services.","content":"On April 24, 2024, a significant moment in the ongoing battle for reproductive rights unfolded outside the Supreme Court. Advocates gathered, some wearing veils as a symbol of solidarity, to lend their voices to a pivotal case concerning abortion access in emergency rooms across Idaho. This legal battle has far-reaching implications for women's health and their right to make choices about their own bodies.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:53.995Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731965bea876991a941966e_22.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-abortion-rights-a-crucial-legal-battle","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fight-for-abortion-rights-a-crucial-legal-battle"},{"id":"h6wlj2","slug":"the-fallout-of-roe-v-wade-voter-perspectives-on-bidens-role","title":"The Fallout of Roe v. Wade: Voter Perspectives on Biden’s Role","excerpt":"Explore how voters perceive President Biden's role in the Roe v. Wade repeal and its implications for women's reproductive rights.","content":"A recent poll reveals that nearly 20% of voters attribute the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade to President Biden. This article delves into the implications of these sentiments on women's reproductive rights and the ongoing political discourse surrounding abortion access.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:53.383Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67312990b8f767735bb1e746_37.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fallout-of-roe-v-wade-voter-perspectives-on-bidens-role","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-fallout-of-roe-v-wade-voter-perspectives-on-bidens-role"},{"id":"ug1iq1","slug":"the-evolving-landscape-of-abortion-rights-in-2024","title":"The Evolving Landscape of Abortion Rights in 2024","excerpt":"As we approach the 2024 presidential election, abortion rights have emerged as a central issue, with candidates taking bold stances. This article delves into the ongoing debates, personal narratives, and the urgent call for advocacy in the realm of women's reproductive rights.","content":"The 2024 presidential election is shaping up to be a critical juncture for abortion rights in the United States. With the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landscape of reproductive rights has dramatically shifted, igniting passionate debates and mobilizing advocates across the nation. While abortion has always been a hot-button issue, the current political climate has intensified discussions, revealing stark divides not only among politicians but also within the electorate.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:52.742Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731a9de74a8b5e36f55492e_Web_Photo_Editor%20(47).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-evolving-landscape-of-abortion-rights-in-2024","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-evolving-landscape-of-abortion-rights-in-2024"},{"id":"mfp5ua","slug":"the-evolving-landscape-of-abortion-rights","title":"The Evolving Landscape of Abortion Rights","excerpt":"The debate surrounding abortion rights is undergoing significant changes, influenced by recent legal rulings and evolving public sentiment. This article delves into the implications of these shifts for women's reproductive autonomy and the future of abortion access.","content":"The discourse surrounding abortion rights in the United States has long been a polarizing issue, but recent events indicate a notable shift in the intensity of this debate. While many participants may not recognize it, and some who do are left feeling conflicted, the fervor that once characterized discussions on abortion policy seems to be waning. This change can be traced back to landmark legal decisions and evolving societal attitudes, prompting a reevaluation of what reproductive rights mean in contemporary America.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:52.131Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730b449733911617e7ef0cf_25.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-evolving-landscape-of-abortion-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-evolving-landscape-of-abortion-rights"},{"id":"z60ppx","slug":"the-deadly-intersection-of-domestic-violence-and-anti-abortion-laws","title":"The Deadly Intersection of Domestic Violence and Anti-Abortion Laws","excerpt":"Recent research indicates a troubling link between anti-abortion legislation and heightened risks for pregnant victims of domestic violence. This article explores the implications for women's safety and the urgent need for policy reform.","content":"A recent study has illuminated a harrowing reality: anti-abortion laws are not just a matter of personal choice but have serious implications for women’s safety, particularly for those who are victims of domestic violence. The findings, published in a prominent medical journal, reveal that restrictive abortion legislation can significantly increase the risk that pregnant women will face lethal violence from their abusive partners.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:51.525Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67316037e7b38b5ccbbf67aa_8.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-deadly-intersection-of-domestic-violence-and-anti-abortion-laws","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-deadly-intersection-of-domestic-violence-and-anti-abortion-laws"},{"id":"djm9ed","slug":"the-crucial-intersection-of-abortion-bans-and-emergency-medicine","title":"The Crucial Intersection of Abortion Bans and Emergency Medicine","excerpt":"As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to make a landmark ruling, the implications of abortion bans on emergency medical care highlight the urgent need for access to reproductive health services. This case underscores the critical intersection of legal frameworks and real-world healthcare challenges.","content":"The upcoming decision by the U.S. Supreme Court has the potential to reshape the landscape of women's reproductive rights, particularly concerning how abortion bans in various states intersect with the practical realities of emergency medical services. As healthcare providers across the nation grapple with the implications of these legal restrictions, it becomes increasingly clear that the outcomes of this case will have far-reaching effects on both patient care and women's autonomy.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:50.898Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673136c53e74194655dcf672_47.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-crucial-intersection-of-abortion-bans-and-emergency-medicine","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-crucial-intersection-of-abortion-bans-and-emergency-medicine"},{"id":"avs2ux","slug":"the-crucial-fight-for-abortion-rights-a-rally-for-choice","title":"The Crucial Fight for Abortion Rights: A Rally for Choice","excerpt":"On March 26, 2024, an abortion rights rally took place outside the Supreme Court as the justices heard a pivotal case regarding reproductive rights. Advocates gathered to support women's autonomy over their bodies and to push back against restrictive legislation.","content":"On a brisk March day in 2024, hundreds of passionate advocates gathered outside the Supreme Court, their voices united in a call for reproductive freedom. The occasion was significant, as the justices were hearing oral arguments in the pivotal case of FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. This case challenges regulations surrounding abortion medications, and its outcome could shape the future of reproductive rights in the United States.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:50.308Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731756b63661a8a98cd6607_5.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-crucial-fight-for-abortion-rights-a-rally-for-choice","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-crucial-fight-for-abortion-rights-a-rally-for-choice"},{"id":"5jhnty","slug":"the-crucial-2024-vote-abortion-rights-at-stake","title":"The Crucial 2024 Vote: Abortion Rights at Stake","excerpt":"As the 2024 elections approach, abortion rights are set to take center stage in several states. Voters will have the opportunity to influence constitutional amendments that could protect or restrict access to abortion services. This pivotal election year underscores the importance of informed voting on women's reproductive rights.","content":"The upcoming 2024 elections are pivotal in determining the future of abortion rights across the United States. With constitutional amendments on the ballot in approximately a dozen states, voters will have the power to shape reproductive freedoms during a year marked by significant political activity. This moment represents not just a political decision but a fundamental affirmation of women's rights to make choices about their own bodies.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:49.688Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67304501a9e91179fff09b7a_24.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-crucial-2024-vote-abortion-rights-at-stake","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-crucial-2024-vote-abortion-rights-at-stake"},{"id":"tvq4xi","slug":"the-covert-strategy-to-ban-abortion-nationwide","title":"The Covert Strategy to Ban Abortion Nationwide","excerpt":"In an effort to impose a nationwide abortion ban, anti-abortion activists are leveraging political strategies that circumvent traditional legislative processes. This article delves into their tactics, the implications for women's rights, and the ongoing fight for reproductive freedom.","content":"Across the United States, a coalition of anti-abortion activists has been quietly but strategically working to impose a nationwide ban on abortion. This movement is not just about rallying public opinion or winning elections; it represents a concerted effort to bypass traditional democratic avenues, including Congress and the voices of the American people. Central to this strategy are key allies of former President Donald Trump, who are leveraging their influence to reshape the legal landscape surrounding reproductive rights.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:49.072Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67305b3b3d201ddcf88c83f0_3.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-covert-strategy-to-ban-abortion-nationwide","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-covert-strategy-to-ban-abortion-nationwide"},{"id":"6rjdz7","slug":"the-battle-for-choice-abortion-rights-in-the-2024-election","title":"The Battle for Choice: Abortion Rights in the 2024 Election","excerpt":"As the 2024 presidential election approaches, abortion rights have emerged as a critical issue influencing voter sentiment. This article examines how both major parties are shaping their messages around reproductive rights and what this means for the future of women's health and freedom of choice in America.","content":"As the nation gears up for the 2024 presidential election, one issue looms larger than many others—abortion rights. For millions of Americans, the right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy is a pivotal factor in determining their vote. President Biden is working to reinforce a pro-abortion rights platform, believing it can galvanize liberal voters and bolster his path to reelection. Conversely, Donald Trump and the Republican Party are rallying around an anti-abortion agenda, aiming to maintain the support of conservative bases while courting undecided voters who may be swayed by emotional narratives surrounding the issue.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:48.471Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67313b7e00a632e2a1f6354c_Web_Photo_Editor%20(18).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-battle-for-choice-abortion-rights-in-the-2024-election","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/the-battle-for-choice-abortion-rights-in-the-2024-election"},{"id":"lh8cxo","slug":"texas-supreme-court-hears-critical-abortion-rights-case","title":"Texas Supreme Court Hears Critical Abortion Rights Case","excerpt":"Texas Supreme Court hears pivotal arguments on women's reproductive rights, impacting future abortion access in the state.","content":"On November 28, 2023, the Texas Supreme Court became a focal point in the ongoing battle for women's reproductive rights as it heard a case that holds significant implications for abortion access in the state. The courtroom was filled with advocates, legal experts, and concerned citizens, all eager to witness the proceedings that could redefine how abortion rights are upheld in Texas.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:47.872Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67300b2efffcb1325dd87db4_Web_Photo_Editor%20(13).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/texas-supreme-court-hears-critical-abortion-rights-case","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/texas-supreme-court-hears-critical-abortion-rights-case"},{"id":"ocmldb","slug":"texas-judge-blocks-biden-rule-on-abortion-and-gender-treatment-privacy-protections","title":"Texas Judge Blocks Biden Rule on Abortion and Gender Treatment Privacy Protections","excerpt":"A federal judge in Texas has temporarily blocked a Biden administration rule aimed at strengthening privacy protections for patients seeking abortions and gender transition treatments, citing concerns over government overreach. The decision adds fuel to ongoing debates over healthcare rights in the U.S.","content":"With a rule meant to support privacy safeguards for patients seeking abortions and gender transition procedures, a Texas federal judge in a divisive decision, has found that the Biden government most certainly overreached itself.
On Sunday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a preliminary injunction stopping rule enforcement against Texas physician Carmen Purl, who opposed the measure via the conservative legal group Alliance Defining Freedom.
Introduced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in April, the rule was part of President Joe Biden's attempts to safeguard access to reproductive healthcare following the Supreme Court decision reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Medical records should not be used against anyone seeking legal healthcare, including abortions, Biden underlined.
Appointed by former President Donald Trump, Judge Kacsmaryk claimed the rule abused privacy rights relating to abortion or gender identification. This action corresponds with his well-publicized 2023 decision suspending FDA approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, which subsequently the Supreme Court reversed.
Legal counsel for Purl, Julie Marie Blake, praised the decision, saying it maintained doctors' rights and states' authority to safeguard patients. On the other hand, defenders of reproductive rights denounced the case as a deliberate attempt to discourage people from obtaining medical attention.
Particularly in Republican-led states like Texas, which have enacted strong abortion prohibitions and pushed to restrict interstate travel for such treatment, the case emphasizes continuous legal and political conflicts over abortion and gender-related procedures.
While HHS refused to respond, reproductive health advocates—including Liz Taylor of the Center for Reproductive Rights— pledged to defend the privacy provisions, branding the challenge as a threat to patient safety and autonomy.
The legal fight adds still another chapter to the nation's intense argument over healthcare rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:47.188Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/676fecd1eb7b3d6c2e0f61b5_Web_Photo_Editor%20(20).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/texas-judge-blocks-biden-rule-on-abortion-and-gender-treatment-privacy-protections","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/texas-judge-blocks-biden-rule-on-abortion-and-gender-treatment-privacy-protections"},{"id":"vtyrii","slug":"texas-hospital-violated-federal-law-in-denying-emergency-care-for-ectopic-pregnancy-investigation-finds","title":"Texas Hospital Violated Federal Law in Denying Emergency Care for Ectopic Pregnancy, Investigation Finds","excerpt":"A federal investigation has concluded that a Texas hospital broke the law when it repeatedly turned away a woman suffering from a dangerous ectopic pregnancy. The findings come amid a rollback of federal protections for emergency abortion care, raising alarm among advocates.","content":"As per the Associate Press, an inquiry conducted by the federal government has ruled that the hospital known as Ascension Seton Williamson, located in Round Rock, Texas, violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) when it neglected to provide treatment to Kyleigh Thurman, a 36-year-old woman who was experiencing a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy in the beginning of 2023.
Even though there were obvious warning indicators, such as a decrease in hormone levels, the absence of a visible intrauterine pregnancy, and a blocked fallopian tube, the staff at the emergency room dismissed Thurman many times, while at first providing her with nothing more than a leaflet about miscarriage. She underwent emergency surgery that removed a portion of her reproductive system since her condition deteriorated, and the fertilized egg broke her fallopian tube, which caused her to require the procedure.
Following Thurman's tragedy, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) conducted a federal inquiry. The CMS came to the conclusion that the hospital had failed to adequately screen and stabilize her, which is a breach of federal law that necessitates emergency care regardless of whether or not a state prohibits abortion.
Even though the decision that was handed down in April was a minor victory for Thurman, a new policy that was released in June by the Trump administration revokes federal advice that protects access to abortion in conditions of medical emergency.
Advocates and medical experts are concerned that the move creates dangerous ambiguity, despite CMS Administrator Dr. Chiquita Brooks-LaSure's assertion that the change does not undermine the protections of EMTALA that pertain to emergency care.
\"I did not want anyone else to go through what I did,\" Thurman stated, expressing his disgust with the lawmakers and hospital administration in the state of Texas.
Her case brings to light the mounting worries regarding access to abortion care that could save lives, as federal monitoring continues to deteriorate and states continue to tighten prohibitions.
Advocates continue to warn that withholding emergency abortion care is not only unethical but also illegal, and without unambiguous enforcement, lives continue to be put in danger. This is although hospital systems such as Ascension have declined to speak in detail.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:46.566Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/684c33990b337a243562eb96_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-06-13T221859.096.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/texas-hospital-violated-federal-law-in-denying-emergency-care-for-ectopic-pregnancy-investigation-finds","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/texas-hospital-violated-federal-law-in-denying-emergency-care-for-ectopic-pregnancy-investigation-finds"},{"id":"63v2qm","slug":"texas-considers-reclassifying-abortion-drugs-sparking-medical-concerns","title":"Texas Considers Reclassifying Abortion Drugs, Sparking Medical Concerns","excerpt":"A proposed Texas law to reclassify abortion-inducing drugs as controlled substances is drawing sharp criticism from medical professionals. Modeled after a controversial Louisiana law, the bill could complicate care for patients needing these medications for non-abortion-related conditions.","content":"Lawmakers in Texas are thinking about a bill that would make the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol controlled substances again. This is similar to a law in Louisiana that has caused a lot of debate among doctors. Supporters of House Bill 1339 say it will stop people from abusing it, but critics say it could hurt medical care.
The bill's author, State Rep. Pat Curry, says the plan will make it harder for people, especially teens, to order abortion pills online. Concerns have been raised by doctors, who point to Louisiana as an example of a state where the law made it harder to treat conditions like abortions and obstetric hemorrhages.
An OB/GYN, Dr. Nicole Freehill, said, \"These medicines are essential in gynecology and obstetrics.\" \"Limiting access for no reason puts lives at risk.\"
After the law was passed, it became more challenging to get misoprostol in Louisiana. This drug is often used to stop heavy bleeding or get ready for treatments like IUD insertion. Now, hospitals keep the drug in one central, locked area, which causes delays that could be dangerous in an emergency.
Some people who are against the bill say it puts politics ahead of patient safety. The head of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, Dr. Stella Dantas, said, \"This puts patients' health and lives at risk by adding extra hurdles for doctors.\"
Curry backed the plan by saying that doctors who are against it are just using worries as a \"smokescreen\" to avoid making abortion more restricted. Many people, though, aren't sure if these rules make things safer or if they're just making it harder to get primary medical care.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:45.942Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/674588e388be48c651e1c37e_Web_Photo_Editor%20(28).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/texas-considers-reclassifying-abortion-drugs-sparking-medical-concerns","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/texas-considers-reclassifying-abortion-drugs-sparking-medical-concerns"},{"id":"6spc1n","slug":"texas-authorities-charge-houston-midwife-in-landmark-abortion-ban-case","title":"Texas Authorities Charge Houston Midwife in Landmark Abortion Ban Case","excerpt":"In a first-of-its-kind case under Texas’ abortion ban, a Houston-area midwife has been arrested for allegedly performing illegal abortions. The case raises concerns about reproductive rights and access to care in the state.","content":"According to the announcement made by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday, Maria Margarita Rojas, a midwife from the Houston region, was taken into custody in a landmark case that falls under the strict abortion restriction that Texas has in place. Rojas is accused of performing unlawful abortions and practicing medicine without a license.
In the Northwest Houston area, Rojas, who is 48 years old, is suspected of running a clandestine network of medical clinics. Another individual, Jose Ley, who worked for Rojas, was also arrested, and it is anticipated that he would face accusations that are comparable to those that were brought against Rojas against him.
Initiation of Criminal Matters Since the Texas Abortion Ban Court filings indicate that Rojas performed an abortion on a person who was described as \"E.G.\" on two consecutive days in March, in addition to another abortion that he performed in Harris County earlier this year.
The initial arrest of Rojas took place in the beginning of March in Waller County, and he was charged with illegally practicing medicine. She was rebooked into detention on Monday when the charge of executing an abortion that was against the law was added to the charges against her. By the records of the court, she and Ley are currently being held on a bail of 700,000.
The staff members at Rojas' clinics in Waller and Harris counties appeared uninformed of her arrest. Additionally, one of the staff members working at the Cypress facility denied that abortions were done there and referred to the claims as \"a lie.\"
The arrest of Rojas is the first criminal prosecution brought under Texas' nearly complete prohibition on abortion, which highlights the state's tough position on implementing its stringent reproductive laws. Proponents of this viewpoint contend that cases like these further restrict access to reproductive healthcare, compelling individuals to look for riskier alternatives.
In light of the ongoing legal battles over reproductive rights that are taking place around the country, it is anticipated that this case will stir additional debate regarding the criminalization of abortion in the state of Texas.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:45.343Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67d96ce1d938fe47cd0ebc2f_Web_Photo_Editor%20(45).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/texas-authorities-charge-houston-midwife-in-landmark-abortion-ban-case","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/texas-authorities-charge-houston-midwife-in-landmark-abortion-ban-case"},{"id":"60k1xk","slug":"texas-anti-abortion-group-recruits-men-to-sue-over-partners-abortions","title":"Texas Anti-Abortion Group Recruits Men to Sue Over Partners’ Abortions","excerpt":"Texas Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion organization, is encouraging men to file lawsuits against individuals and groups who helped their partners obtain abortions, further tightening reproductive access statewide.","content":"Texas Right to Life, a leading anti-abortion organization, is formulating new legal approaches to limit abortion access, which includes motivating men to take legal action against those who assisted their pregnant partners in obtaining abortions.
The organization plans on using Texas’ civil court system to pursue legal action against doctors, nonprofits, and private individuals who assist with abortions, explained John Seago, President of Texas Right to Life. One area of focus is wrongful death lawsuits, which argue that defendants are accountable for the death of the fetus.
“We are working to close loopholes in the law and making sure that all parties who violate it face consequences,” Seago stated. The organization intends to initiate its first lawsuits in early 2025.
The strategy is based on a precedent established in 2023 when a Texas man took legal action against his ex-wife’s friends for purportedly assisting her in obtaining abortion medication. The case was settled in 2024.
Advocates for abortion rights maintain that these lawsuits serve as a tactic of intimidation. Marc Hearron of the Center for Reproductive Rights stated, “They aim to instill fear in pregnant individuals, families, and health professionals regarding accessing or assisting with abortion care.”
Texas Right to Life is considering legal action against organizations that distribute abortion pills via mail. In 2023, medication abortions represented the predominant form of abortion in the U.S., with thousands of pills being sent monthly to states that have imposed bans.
Critics argue that these legal efforts could discourage reproductive health advocacy and further exclude Texans in need of abortion care, especially with constitutional challenges imminent regarding these restrictions.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:44.718Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673074707f36d1b750454e31_13.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/texas-anti-abortion-group-recruits-men-to-sue-over-partners-abortions","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/texas-anti-abortion-group-recruits-men-to-sue-over-partners-abortions"},{"id":"ubxu4o","slug":"texas-abortion-laws-strain-womens-health-workforce-and-training","title":"Texas Abortion Laws Strain Women’s Health Workforce and Training","excerpt":"Texas’ stringent abortion laws are placing immense pressure on the state’s women’s healthcare workforce and creating challenges for medical training and patient care, a recent Manatt Health study reveals.","content":"Since Texas implemented a near-total abortion ban after the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, over 70% of OB-GYNs indicate they are unable to deliver high-quality, evidence-based care. The legislation permits abortion solely in cases where the mother's life is in imminent danger, enforcing harsh penalties such as up to 99 years of imprisonment, fines reaching $100,000, and the revocation of medical licenses for those who do not adhere to the law.
Medical professionals such as Liza Meyer, an aspiring OB-GYN from Texas, are reevaluating their prospects in the field. \"I have a deep appreciation for maternal fetal medicine, yet Texas is increasingly becoming a challenging environment for it,\" Meyer expressed.
The limitations also affect OB-GYN residencies. Programs are required to send residents out-of-state for abortion training, a situation that Dr. Emily Briggs, an OB-GYN in New Braunfels, describes as logistically unsustainable. “What is the rationale for trainees to depart from Texas to acquire knowledge about practices they will implement here?” Briggs inquired.
The decline in talent is evident in a 16% decrease in OB-GYN residency applications in Texas. One in five current OB-GYNs is contemplating departure from the state, further intensifying the workforce shortage.
Dr. Anitra Beasley from Baylor College of Medicine cautions that insufficient training results in deficiencies in patient care. “A brief period of out-of-state experience cannot substitute for thorough, ongoing education,” she stated.
The future of women's healthcare in Texas is unclear, as restrictive laws hinder the attraction of new talent and jeopardize medical education.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:44.099Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67312ce058f2606d2646ab69_40.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/texas-abortion-laws-strain-womens-health-workforce-and-training","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/texas-abortion-laws-strain-womens-health-workforce-and-training"},{"id":"4olzpa","slug":"teddy-powells-vision-balancing-priorities-in-alabama-politics","title":"Teddy Powell's Vision: Balancing Priorities in Alabama Politics","excerpt":"Teddy Powell, a Republican candidate for the Alabama state House, is engaging voters on critical issues such as education and infrastructure. His campaign highlights the importance of addressing local needs while considering the broader implications of state policies.","content":"
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:43.489Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67304752f8a6c7e8fa3afef8_25.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/teddy-powells-vision-balancing-priorities-in-alabama-politics","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/teddy-powells-vision-balancing-priorities-in-alabama-politics"},{"id":"7oyy70","slug":"taliban-tightens-education-ban-halts-training-of-female-healthcare-workers-in-afghanistan","title":"Taliban Tightens Education Ban, Halts Training of Female Healthcare Workers in Afghanistan","excerpt":"The Taliban have closed one of the last remaining educational avenues for Afghan women, banning them from medical training and further jeopardizing women's health and rights across the country.","content":"This week, the Taliban imposed a new restriction on women's rights in Afghanistan, prohibiting women from attending medical training institutions. This decree removes one of the final possibilities for women to pursue higher education and worsens the healthcare crisis by stopping the training of female healthcare workers in a country where women already face limitations on receiving treatment from male medical professionals in certain provinces.
The directive, issued by Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, was revealed during a gathering of the Ministry of Public Health. Administrators of private medical training facilities were called upon and directed to implement the ban, which comes in the wake of earlier decrees prohibiting girls from secondary education past sixth grade and entirely forbidding higher education for women.
This decision carries serious implications. The lack of newly trained female healthcare professionals in Afghanistan poses significant risks for women, leading to a heightened vulnerability to preventable illnesses and mortality, while they struggle to obtain essential medical care. The action highlights the Taliban’s ongoing infringement of women’s rights since they took control of Afghanistan in August 2021.
In Afghanistan, women and girls face significant restrictions on fundamental rights, such as access to education, freedom of movement, employment opportunities, and involvement in public life. Access to parks, gyms, and public spaces is also restricted for them. Women’s rights defenders protesting against these oppressive policies have encountered severe retaliation, including physical assault, detention, sexual violence, and enforced disappearances.
International human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, have urged that the Taliban be held responsible for these offenses. On Monday, International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan announced that applications for arrest warrants in the Afghanistan situation would be filed soon, indicating a possible advancement toward justice.
Afghan women are enduring the harsh realities of an oppressive regime, confronting a systematic denial of their rights and the essential resources required for their survival. Ensuring accountability for the Taliban is essential not only for justice but also for the vital process of restoring hope and dignity to Afghan women.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:42.880Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67546d230c2aca3c8ba887c7_3.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/taliban-tightens-education-ban-halts-training-of-female-healthcare-workers-in-afghanistan","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/taliban-tightens-education-ban-halts-training-of-female-healthcare-workers-in-afghanistan"},{"id":"ewy1no","slug":"swiss-esports-event-canceled-over-founders-anti-abortion-comment-teams-withdraw-in-protest","title":"Swiss Esports Event Canceled Over Founder’s Anti-Abortion Comment, Teams Withdraw in Protest","excerpt":"Switzerland’s largest esports competition was canceled after the founder of host team BDS made an anti-abortion remark on social media, prompting three major teams to withdraw and causing widespread backlash.","content":"Following criticism over a controversial social media remark by Patrice Bailo de Spoelberch, head of the host team BDS, a major Swiss esports event scheduled as the country's biggest competition was suddenly called off. The debate started when Bailo de Spoelberch declared online, \"A woman who dares to use abortion should lose the right to ever have children.\" The post was immediately removed, but screenshots went fast and spurred a lot of criticism.
Three strong teams—Gentle Mates, Karmine Corp., and Team Vitality—reacted by pulling out of the tournament. Emphasizing that their organizations could not match such opinions, they denounced in a joint statement the \"disrespectful and controversial\" character of the comments. Their leaving left the \"Take the Throne\" event, set for November 23 at Geneva's Batiment des Forces Motrices, unsustainable.
\"The statements made by our founder are his own and do not reflect the vision and values of our players, employees, partners, fans, or staff members,\" Team BDS said in a public response separating itself from Bailo de Spoelberch's comments. The company also said it was \"compelled\" to call off the event and reassured us that \"internal measures will be taken immediately.\"
Bailo de Spoelberch said in a later apology, \"Every woman must have control over her body and is free to terminate a pregnancy,\" noting his \"very clumsy\" language. Writing, he said, \"Again, sorry to all the women and people I offended.\"
The episode has prompted debates on the impact of personal values in the workplace and the quick fallout from divisive public remarks.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:42.288Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673d4a45b151fad62200b10f_2.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/swiss-esports-event-canceled-over-founders-anti-abortion-comment-teams-withdraw-in-protest","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/swiss-esports-event-canceled-over-founders-anti-abortion-comment-teams-withdraw-in-protest"},{"id":"o76ion","slug":"susie-wiles-named-first-female-white-house-chief-of-staff-by-president-elect-trump","title":"Susie Wiles Named First Female White House Chief of Staff by President-Elect Trump","excerpt":"President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Susie Wiles as White House Chief of Staff, marking a historic milestone as the first woman to hold the position.","content":"President-elect Donald Trump has made his first significant appointment for the upcoming term, selecting campaign manager Susie Wiles as White House Chief of Staff. Wiles' appointment marks an important milestone, as she will be the first woman to occupy the position in U.S. history.
Trump commended Wiles for her role in his 2024 election success, characterizing her as “tough, smart, innovative, and universally admired.” He highlighted the importance of her appointment, referring to it as a “well-deserved honor.”
Wiles, a significant player in Trump’s political endeavors since 2016, boasts a distinguished career in Republican politics. She oversaw Trump’s Florida operations during his initial presidential campaign. Subsequently, she assisted Ron DeSantis in securing the Florida governorship in 2018, a decision she has since referred to as her \"biggest mistake.\" Upon rejoining Trump’s political sphere in 2021 as CEO of Save America PAC, she took on a prominent role in his 2024 campaign.
During the campaign, Wiles kept a subdued public presence, seldom making media appearances. During his election night speech, Trump emphasized this trait, endearingly calling her “The Ice Maiden” due to her composed nature and practical work behind the scenes.
Wiles’ appointment not only showcases Trump’s confidence in her strategic leadership but also marks a significant milestone in American politics. Her promotion to Chief of Staff highlights her considerable impact on shaping Trump’s victory and guiding the direction of his administration.
Wiles has yet to make a public comment regarding the appointment, choosing instead to allow other members of the campaign team to take the spotlight. Nonetheless, her pivotal role is expected to attract considerable attention as Trump’s administration starts to form.
Wiles’ position as the first woman in this pivotal role may usher in a transformative period for leadership dynamics within the White House
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:39.532Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6755037a8693ec2005d1535e_5.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/susie-wiles-named-first-female-white-house-chief-of-staff-by-president-elect-trump","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/susie-wiles-named-first-female-white-house-chief-of-staff-by-president-elect-trump"},{"id":"sc598z","slug":"surge-in-morning-after-pill-purchases-as-women-prepare-for-potential-reproductive-health-restrictions","title":"Surge in Morning-After Pill Purchases as Women Prepare for Potential Reproductive Health Restrictions","excerpt":"Following Donald Trump's presidential election win, sales of emergency contraceptives like the morning-after pill have surged across online platforms. Telehealth companies report a significant increase in purchases as women prepare for potential changes in access to reproductive health services.","content":"Stores and online healthcare companies say that since Donald Trump won the election, online sales of emergency contraceptives like Plan B have gone through the roof in the U.S. Companies say that a lot more things are being bought as women get ready for possible policy changes that could make it harder for them to get reproductive health care.
Monica Cepak, CEO of the telehealth company Wisp, talked about how women tend to stock up on goods. \"When we put out multipacks of Plan B, orders went through the roof.\" \"Multipacks now make up about 90% of emergency contraception sales,\" Cepak said.
The day after the election, Winx Health's morning-after pill sales, Restart, went up by an astounding 315%. Winx Health is a new company that focuses on sexual health. Sales were 966% higher on Friday than in the days before the election. Cynthia Plotch, co-founder, said that women are buying things for their community and themselves. \"Women are smart.\" Plotch said, \"We didn't mean for our bodies to become political, but we're learning to take back control.\"
People are rushing to get emergency contraception because they are afraid that Trump's second term will bring more rules. Long-acting birth control like IUDs is being asked about more often by doctors, who say that patients want to get procedures done before the new government takes office.
Winx Health also got a lot of calls for its community-funded Restart Donation Bank, which lets people in need get free help. Plotch said, \"Our fight goes on—to protect access and get more women into school.\"
The spike in morning-after pill purchases reflects growing concern over potential policy shifts during Trump’s second term. As women anticipate possible restrictions on emergency contraception, many are taking proactive steps to safeguard their health. The rise in demand underscores the resilience and preparedness of women who are now more determined than ever to protect their reproductive rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:38.893Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673358dd6792b85ec868b7e9_9.jpeg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/surge-in-morning-after-pill-purchases-as-women-prepare-for-potential-reproductive-health-restrictions","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/surge-in-morning-after-pill-purchases-as-women-prepare-for-potential-reproductive-health-restrictions"},{"id":"1p32rp","slug":"supreme-court-weighs-in-on-mifepristone-mail-distribution","title":"Supreme Court Weighs in on Mifepristone Mail Distribution","excerpt":"The Supreme Court recently deliberated on the legality of mailing mifepristone, a crucial medication for abortion. This case underscores the ongoing battle for women's reproductive rights and the implications of access to healthcare.","content":"On a pivotal Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States engaged in significant discussions regarding the distribution of mifepristone, a medication widely used for medication abortions. At the center of this case is the legality of federal regulations that permit the mailing of mifepristone, a topic that has stirred considerable debate among lawmakers, medical professionals, and advocates for women's rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:38.273Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67306de302e847b17fe23d13_6.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/supreme-court-weighs-in-on-mifepristone-mail-distribution","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/supreme-court-weighs-in-on-mifepristone-mail-distribution"},{"id":"cfyzh","slug":"supreme-court-upholds-access-to-mifepristone","title":"Supreme Court Upholds Access to Mifepristone in Landmark Ruling","excerpt":"The Supreme Court's recent ruling ensures continued access to mifepristone, a crucial medication for abortion, marking a significant victory for reproductive rights. This decision not only empowers women but also highlights the importance of accessible healthcare in preserving personal choice.","content":"In a groundbreaking decision, the Supreme Court has unanimously dismissed attempts to limit access to mifepristone, one of the two primary medications used in medication abortion. This ruling, delivered on a Thursday morning, signifies a pivotal moment for women’s reproductive rights, reinforcing the importance of personal autonomy and health care accessibility.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:37.601Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67318554ea876991a9343afc_Web_Photo_Editor%20(44).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/supreme-court-upholds-access-to-mifepristone","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/supreme-court-upholds-access-to-mifepristone"},{"id":"edjl6p","slug":"supreme-court-to-decide-fate-of-cross-state-abortion-access","title":"Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Cross-State Abortion Access","excerpt":"A Texas lawsuit against a New York doctor spotlights the clash between abortion access and state bans, with legal experts predicting the case could reach the Supreme Court.","content":"The conflict surrounding abortion access intensifies as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton files a lawsuit against Dr. Megan Carpenter for purportedly sending abortion pills to a resident of Texas. The lawsuit addresses Carpenter’s actions while also questioning the efficacy of New York’s shield law, which aims to safeguard abortion providers from legal repercussions originating from other states.
The case revolves around two medications, mifepristone and misoprostol, which are utilized safely in early-term abortions. Texas contends that Carpenter breached its laws by prescribing the pills through telemedicine without holding a Texas medical license. Paxton is pursuing fines amounting to $100,000 for each violation and an injunction to stop similar practices.
Carpenter can utilize New York’s shield law to initiate a counter-suit, alleging unlawful interference with protected rights. Legal scholar Mary Ziegler observes that a resolution might eventually necessitate a ruling from the Supreme Court.
This legal dispute underscores the broader difficulties faced by abortion providers as they maneuver through a complex array of state regulations. From April to June 2024, shield laws enabled more than 9,700 medication abortions in states with strict rules, highlighting their essential function in maintaining access following the Roe decision.
New York Attorney General Letitia James pledged to support Carpenter, characterizing the lawsuit as a means to intimidate abortion providers. \"We will stand strong against any threats,\" she affirmed.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:36.933Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/675d982f513cb60cf0a1e634_7.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/supreme-court-to-decide-fate-of-cross-state-abortion-access","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/supreme-court-to-decide-fate-of-cross-state-abortion-access"},{"id":"r3e2nx","slug":"supreme-court-review-abortion-case-emergency-care","title":"Supreme Court to Review Critical Abortion Case Impacting Emergency Care","excerpt":"The Supreme Court is set to hear a pivotal abortion case that could significantly impact emergency room protocols across the United States. This legal battle not only raises questions about women's reproductive rights but also highlights the broader implications for healthcare providers and patients alike.","content":"The upcoming session of the Supreme Court is poised to address a critical legal challenge that could reverberate through emergency rooms across the nation. The case at hand raises profound questions about abortion access and the responsibilities of medical professionals in emergency care settings. With the potential to establish new precedents, the outcome could significantly affect women's reproductive rights and access to safe abortion services.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:36.342Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67313a16cf6bc7ce0d06cd23_Web_Photo_Editor%20(39).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/supreme-court-review-abortion-case-emergency-care","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/supreme-court-review-abortion-case-emergency-care"},{"id":"yz3am7","slug":"supreme-court-case-threatens-access-to-abortion-pills","title":"Supreme Court Case Threatens Access to Abortion Pills","excerpt":"This week, the Supreme Court is considering a significant case that may restrict access to mifepristone, a crucial medication used in abortion care. The outcome could reshape women's reproductive rights and healthcare access across the country.","content":"In a pivotal moment for women's reproductive rights, the Supreme Court is currently deliberating on a case that could dramatically impact access to mifepristone, a medication that has become a cornerstone of abortion care. This dual-drug regimen, which includes mifepristone and misoprostol, is frequently utilized in medication abortions, accounting for more than half of the abortions performed in the United States today. As advocates, healthcare professionals, and women across the nation watch closely, the ramifications of this case could set a precedent that affects not just current access to abortion, but the broader landscape of women's health and autonomy.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:35.703Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67305fc1e3bcfa37f965f80c_Web_Photo_Editor%20(25).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/supreme-court-case-threatens-access-to-abortion-pills","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/supreme-court-case-threatens-access-to-abortion-pills"},{"id":"ognxzg","slug":"supreme-court-abortion-pill-ruling-cautious-victory","title":"Supreme Court's Abortion Pill Ruling: A Cautious Victory for Pro-Choice Advocates","excerpt":"The Supreme Court recently dismissed a challenge against abortion pills, yet pro-choice advocates urge caution in viewing this as a definitive victory. The ruling reflects ongoing struggles and the importance of vigilance in the fight for reproductive rights.","content":"In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected an attack on abortion pills, a decision that has sparked a mix of relief and concern among pro-choice advocates. While the immediate outcome appears favorable, many activists stress the need for caution in interpreting the ruling as a complete victory. This nuanced response underscores the complex landscape of women's reproductive rights in the United States, where every legal win is often accompanied by the specter of ongoing challenges.
In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected an attack on abortion pills, a decision that has sparked a mix of relief and concern among pro-choice advocates. While the immediate outcome appears favorable, many activists stress the need for caution in interpreting the ruling as a complete victory. This nuanced response underscores the complex landscape of women's reproductive rights in the United States, where every legal win is often accompanied by the specter of ongoing challenges.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:35.049Z","image":"","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/supreme-court-abortion-pill-ruling-cautious-victory","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/supreme-court-abortion-pill-ruling-cautious-victory"},{"id":"de8jcj","slug":"study-highlights-crisis-pregnancy-centers-strategic-proximity-to-abortion-clinics","title":"Study Highlights Crisis Pregnancy Centers' Strategic Proximity to Abortion Clinics","excerpt":"A new study reveals how crisis pregnancy centers, which often provide limited prenatal care and discourage abortions, strategically set up near abortion clinics. This positioning has affected women's access to reproductive health services, with over a quarter of U.S. women living within 15 miles of only a crisis pregnancy center.","content":"A new study sheds light on how crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) try to be close to abortion clinics, which can make it harder for women to get all the reproductive care they need. Based on a report published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, there were three times as many CPCs as abortion clinics in the U.S. in 2021. This difference is likely to have grown since the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision in 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
Andrea Swartzendruber and Danielle Lambert, two public health experts, did the study and made a map showing how close women were to both types of centers. It found that almost 60% of U.S. women ages 15 to 49 live less than 15 miles from both a CPC and an abortion center. But more than 25% of them live within 15 miles of only a CPC, while only 0.8% live within that range of only an abortion clinic.
CPCs, which are usually religious non-profits, try to keep women from getting abortions by giving them limited services like therapy and ultrasounds. Critics say that they often use deceptive strategies that make it more complicated or impossible for women to get full reproductive care. Patients at Planned Parenthood clinics say that CPCs who work next door or close often mislead them.
Because of changes in the law after Dobbs, some states have increased funds for the CPC while others have made it easier to get an abortion, which has made the accessibility map even more complicated. This new information shows how strategically placed CPCs are as they compete with abortion doctors and change the choices women across the country have.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:33.400Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673790726ee9565b659c92a2_1.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/study-highlights-crisis-pregnancy-centers-strategic-proximity-to-abortion-clinics","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/study-highlights-crisis-pregnancy-centers-strategic-proximity-to-abortion-clinics"},{"id":"spod86","slug":"states-push-new-abortion-legislation-amid-trumps-white-house-return","title":"States Push New Abortion Legislation Amid Trump’s White House Return","excerpt":"As legislative sessions begin in 2025, states are preparing to debate a range of abortion laws. Proposals include expanded protections in pro-choice states and stricter bans, including fetal personhood laws, in anti-abortion states.","content":"States all around the United States are ready to unleash a fresh wave of abortion-related legislation as the third year following Roe v. Wade is under review starts. Those with strong reproductive rights protections are seeking to protect abortion access as President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in January. Those with severe bans are suggesting measures including fetal personhood laws and tighter limits on abortion medicines.
Pro-choice states are developing shield laws to guard providers and patients against legal fallout in anti-abortion states. Legislators in California have proposed laws protecting medical privacy, adding abortion care to emergency services, and shielding abortion pill makers and providers from liability.
States like Texas, on the other hand, are advancing policies to label abortion pills as controlled drugs. Echoing similar laws passed in Louisiana, which have generated legal challenges, a proposed Texas measure would criminalize mailing abortion medication. Anti-abortion groups contend these policies address forced or unwanted abortions, while detractors challenge the validity of supporting studies.
States with current bans on abortion are also seeing increasing popularity for fetal personhood rules. With exceptions only for life-threatening pregnancies, Oklahoma's proposed law makes abortion a felony punished by fines and jail. Along with harsh penalties for distributing abortion pills, Tennessee legislators have proposed a bill stating life starts at fertilization and extending equal protection to fetuses.
The abortive policy is still shaped by ballot campaigns meanwhile. Voters in some conservative states, like Arizona and Missouri, backed policies to restore abortion access during the 2024 election, so underscoring the complex viewpoints on this matter. By means of constitutional amendments and insurance requirements, pro-choice states such as Colorado, Maryland, and New York further extended access.
Legislative sessions start in January, hence the abortion issue will continue to be a focus point reflecting the continuous conflict between granting more reproductive rights and enforcing more limitations.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:32.802Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/677a9287c4d0c3a0dca288cd_Web_Photo_Editor%20(47).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/states-push-new-abortion-legislation-amid-trumps-white-house-return","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/states-push-new-abortion-legislation-amid-trumps-white-house-return"},{"id":"12p27x","slug":"states-must-protect-abortion-care-providers-a-new-call-to-action-for-governments","title":"States Must Protect Abortion Care Providers: A New Call to Action for Governments","excerpt":"On International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, human rights groups have launched new guidelines urging governments to better protect abortion care providers who face increasing risks from restrictive laws and anti-abortion sentiments.","content":"A coalition of human rights organizations has issued new guidelines, urging governments around the globe to enhance protections for abortion care providers. The guidelines, released on International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, arrive at a moment when healthcare professionals are encountering heightened risks as abortion rights confront escalating challenges worldwide.
With guidance from Amnesty International, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), and other organizations, the Key Principles and Actions to Safeguard Abortion Care Providers present a series of actionable recommendations aimed at ensuring the safety and protection of these essential healthcare professionals. The guidelines emphasize the necessity of preventing violations via protective protocols, allowing defenders to operate freely by guaranteeing universal access to abortion care, and protecting the rights of individuals who provide reproductive health services.
Despite significant progress in some areas of sexual and reproductive health, abortion providers remain vulnerable to verbal, physical, and legal attacks. Fernanda Doz Costa of Amnesty International states that abortion rights defenders are \"failed by many states\" and frequently face active targeting. In areas where abortion is illegal or limited, these professionals face growing hostility and violence, obstructing their capacity to deliver vital services.
The report emphasizes the urgent necessity for governments to fulfill their responsibilities in safeguarding healthcare workers, particularly in light of the escalating opposition to reproductive rights. Simon Cooke of MSI Reproductive Choices highlights the urgent need for states to protect individuals who put their lives on the line to provide access to essential abortion care.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:32.210Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/674ddefd27624f31aa4ea26f_9.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/states-must-protect-abortion-care-providers-a-new-call-to-action-for-governments","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/states-must-protect-abortion-care-providers-a-new-call-to-action-for-governments"},{"id":"8hoz1t","slug":"state-of-mexico-decriminalizes-abortion-in-landmark-vote","title":"State of Mexico Decriminalizes Abortion in Landmark Vote","excerpt":"In a landmark decision for reproductive rights, the State of Mexico has decriminalized abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, removing legal penalties and addressing long-standing barriers to healthcare access for marginalized groups.","content":"The Congress of the State of Mexico voted on November 25, 2024, to decriminalize abortion in all cases during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. This decision represents a significant milestone for reproductive rights in the country's largest state by population.
Human Rights Watch has stated that the reform will eliminate criminal penalties for abortion during the first trimester, thereby aligning the State of Mexico with 18 other states that have implemented comparable measures in response to Mexico's Supreme Court decision in 2021, which declared the blanket criminalization of abortion unconstitutional.
The Marea Verde Edomex coalition, which advocated for the reform, declared that \"this decision is a critical victory for women, girls, and pregnant people.\" \"It is a developmental step toward gender equality and enables individuals to make well-informed decisions regarding their bodies and futures.\"
In the past, the State of Mexico's restrictive abortion laws erected obstacles to treatment, which discouraged both healthcare providers and patients. Abortion was previously only permissible in specific circumstances, such as rape or threats to the woman's life. While the new law will continue to restrict abortion after 12 weeks, it is anticipated that the reform will alleviate concerns regarding legal repercussions and enhance access to secure care.
Human Rights Watch underscored that marginalized communities, such as those residing in poverty or with disabilities, have encountered the most significant challenges in obtaining reproductive healthcare. The reform aims to mitigate inequities and guarantee a more comprehensive range of access to essential services by eliminating these legal obstacles.
Cristina Quijano Carrasco of Human Rights Watch stated, \"This accomplishment is a testament to the efficacy of collaboration and activism.\" This reform must now be translated into practical, accessible healthcare by the State of Mexico.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:30.646Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/674a951771ac5cf3133700cc_4.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/state-of-mexico-decriminalizes-abortion-in-landmark-vote","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/state-of-mexico-decriminalizes-abortion-in-landmark-vote"},{"id":"qrgg6","slug":"special-session-in-colorado-sparks-clash-over-state-funds-for-abortion-providers-gqdcv","title":"Special Session in Colorado Sparks Clash Over State Funds for Abortion Providers","excerpt":"Colorado lawmakers are scrambling to close a $1.2 billion budget hole caused by a new federal tax law, with Democrats advancing a bill to direct state funds to Medicaid reimbursements for abortion providers — a move Republicans and Catholic leaders fiercely oppose.","content":"Colorado's financial forecast has taken a significant downturn, as state officials caution about a looming $1.2 billion revenue deficit this year, a consequence of a comprehensive federal tax and spending initiative enacted by President Donald Trump. The financial impact has prompted the Democrat-led legislature to convene a special session, where discussions on mitigating the effects swiftly intersected with the contentious issue of abortion politics.
In late July, the Office of State Planning and Budgeting disclosed the anticipated shortfall, attributing it to corporate tax cuts, modifications to taxpayer deductions, and the temporary removal of taxes on tips and overtime. “The amount of lost revenue this year surpasses what we experienced during the initial year of the Great Recession,” stated Mark Ferrandino, the executive director of the office. “With each passing day without action, we complicate the path to a solution.”
A recent analysis from Colorado Newsline detailed the financial impacts: $326 million in individual income tax reductions and approximately $825 million from corporate tax reductions. Following the recent passage of a $44 billion general fund budget, Democrats faced difficult decisions: they could either cut programs, deplete reserves, or seek to increase revenue through emergency legislation.
On August 24, the House cast a vote of 43-19, strictly along party lines, to approve Senate Bill 25B-2. This legislation aims to allocate up to $4.4 million in state funds for the reimbursement of Medicaid services offered by reproductive health clinics, with a focus on Planned Parenthood affiliates. Federal Medicaid reimbursements were revoked from those providers in accordance with the same federal law.
The initiative, according to supporters, ensures that vital services will continue to be available. Critics labeled it an inappropriate allocation of public funds during a period of financial turmoil. “It’s unjust to allocate resources to Planned Parenthood considering the significant decline in our state’s budget,” stated Rep. Brandi Bradley, a Republican from Littleton, during the floor debate.
Religious leaders have also expressed their views. In a statement released in April, the Colorado Catholic Conference expressed strong opposition to any efforts aimed at directing public funds to abortion providers. “The use of millions of taxpayer dollars to support the intentional termination of innocent lives and the suffering of women represents a profound tragedy for Colorado,” the bishops stated.
While federal law bars the use of Medicaid funds for abortion procedures, Democrats contend that these clinics are essential for offering crucial services such as cancer screenings, pap tests, and vaccinations to low-income patients. Republicans argue that funds are interchangeable and ultimately enhance access to abortion services.
As state revenues dwindle and partisan divides deepen, lawmakers face increasing pressure to achieve fiscal balance while navigating one of Colorado's most contentious policy conflicts.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:30.031Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68afbd433150d9dd783356a5_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-08-28T101734.120.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/special-session-in-colorado-sparks-clash-over-state-funds-for-abortion-providers-gqdcv","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/special-session-in-colorado-sparks-clash-over-state-funds-for-abortion-providers-gqdcv"},{"id":"b46zyz","slug":"speaker-johnson-implements-anti-trans-bathroom-ban-in-u-s-capitol","title":"Speaker Johnson Implements Anti-Trans Bathroom Ban in U.S. Capitol","excerpt":"House Speaker Mike Johnson has implemented a ban on transgender individuals using bathrooms that align with their gender identity in the U.S. Capitol, intensifying the national debate over trans rights.","content":"","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:28.533Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673f3664d022da5c68c37c18_10.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/speaker-johnson-implements-anti-trans-bathroom-ban-in-u-s-capitol","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/speaker-johnson-implements-anti-trans-bathroom-ban-in-u-s-capitol"},{"id":"gj3nt2","slug":"south-dakota-judge-dismisses-anti-abortion-groups-lawsuit-over-ballot-measure","title":"South Dakota Judge Dismisses Anti-Abortion Group’s Lawsuit Over Ballot Measure","excerpt":"A South Dakota judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the anti-abortion group Life Defense Fund, which sought to invalidate the petitions used for a recently rejected abortion rights measure.","content":"A lawsuit filed by the anti-abortion group Life Defense Fund against Dakotans for Health, the organization responsible for a recently rejected abortion rights referendum measure, has been dismissed by a South Dakota judge.
In an order issued on Friday, Circuit Court Judge John Pekas ruled to dismiss the case, which contested the validity of the signatures collected to place the measure on the ballot. The lawsuit also sought to prohibit Dakotans for Health and its employees from participating in future ballot-measure activities for four years, and it also accused petition circulators of fraud and wrongdoing.
The decision was discussed by Leslee Unruh, co-chair of the Life Defense Fund, who stated, \"The people have decided, and South Dakotans overwhelmingly rejected this constitutional abortion measure.\" \"We have prevailed in the court of public opinion.\"
Rick Weiland, the co-founder of Dakotans for Health, did not respond to the dismissal with astonishment. Weiland stated that the accusations made by the Life Defense Fund were part of a more extensive, unsuccessful attempt to intimidate South Dakota voters.
The lawsuit's dismissal adds another layer to the ongoing debate over direct democracy in South Dakota, with both parties viewing this as part of a more significant ideological battle. The procedural victory for advocates of the ballot initiative process is currently underscored by the judge's decision.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:27.878Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6741a7138854f6869829d456_7.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/south-dakota-judge-dismisses-anti-abortion-groups-lawsuit-over-ballot-measure","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/south-dakota-judge-dismisses-anti-abortion-groups-lawsuit-over-ballot-measure"},{"id":"wtp0wj","slug":"south-carolina-republicans-reintroduce-bill-classifying-abortion-as-murder","title":"South Carolina Republicans Reintroduce Bill Classifying Abortion as Murder","excerpt":"A new bill in South Carolina seeks to criminalize abortion at any stage of pregnancy, labeling it as homicide and potentially subjecting those who seek the procedure to the death penalty.","content":"Republican lawmakers in South Carolina have brought back a contentious bill that defines abortion at any stage of pregnancy as murder under state law, which could expose individuals seeking the procedure to the death penalty.
The South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act, which was first introduced in 2023 and subsequently withdrawn in early 2024, has been refiled by state Rep. Rob Harris and now has the support of seven additional Republican co-sponsors.
This legislation classifies embryos and fetuses at every stage of pregnancy as legal persons, thereby categorizing abortion — including those that take place prior to the state's six-week ban — as homicide. Although the bill permits exceptions for situations where a person's life is endangered or in the event of a miscarriage.
Critics contend that the wording compels individuals to demonstrate their innocence, exposing them to potential criminal charges even if they qualify for the exceptions.
Critics of the bill further argue that it may lead to severe repercussions for reproductive rights in South Carolina, rendering access to abortion nearly unattainable.
The state House Judiciary Committee is anticipated to review the bill early next year, signifying a pivotal moment in the ongoing struggle for abortion rights in the U.S.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:27.236Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730a351ee33049f980ccc1b_23.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/south-carolina-republicans-reintroduce-bill-classifying-abortion-as-murder","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/south-carolina-republicans-reintroduce-bill-classifying-abortion-as-murder"},{"id":"ddax6i","slug":"south-carolina-conservatives-push-for-stricter-abortion-laws-amid-growing-tensions","title":"South Carolina Conservatives Push for Stricter Abortion Laws Amid Growing Tensions","excerpt":"As South Carolina enters a new legislative session, abortion remains a central issue. With Republicans holding a supermajority, the state is poised to see new, more restrictive abortion laws that could shape the future of reproductive healthcare.","content":"With the 2025 legislative session swiftly approaching, South Carolina's abortion regulations are likely to face severe scrutiny and revision. The state has already enacted a six-week abortion ban, but Republicans, emboldened by recent elections, are pressing for even stricter restrictions, potentially criminalizing abortion at any stage of pregnancy.
Rep. Jay Kilmartin, R-Lexington, expressed his wish for a law that provides \"equal protection for the unborn,\" indicating support for more stringent bills, such as those that prohibit abortion at conception. This has resulted in the drafting of the Human Life Protection Bill, which would prohibit all abortions except in medical situations, as well as the reintroduction of the South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Bill, which would allow for the prosecution of women who had abortions.
Though recent elections have given Republicans a supermajority, boosting the probability of such laws passing, they face opposition from some members of the party. Rep. Josiah Magnuson, R-Spartanburg, voiced concern that the widening ideological split could stymie movement on abortion legislation, particularly since House leadership has been reluctant to address the topic directly.
Despite these internal disagreements, national trends impact the state's approach to abortion legislation. Following the 2024 election, in which pro-life candidates such as Donald Trump gained traction, states like South Carolina may soon see additional tightening of abortion regulations, raising concerns among reproductive rights advocates about the state's healthcare future.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:26.623Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/675eb40ed68c200c0d999749_5.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/south-carolina-conservatives-push-for-stricter-abortion-laws-amid-growing-tensions","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/south-carolina-conservatives-push-for-stricter-abortion-laws-amid-growing-tensions"},{"id":"9bzyk0","slug":"senate-votes-on-nationwide-ivf-protection-legislation","title":"Senate Votes on Nationwide IVF Protection Legislation","excerpt":"The Senate is gearing up to vote on pivotal legislation aimed at safeguarding access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) across the United States. This initiative highlights the ongoing struggle for reproductive rights and seeks to hold policymakers accountable.","content":"As the Senate prepares for an important vote on Thursday regarding legislation intended to protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) nationwide, advocates for reproductive rights are hopeful that this move will not only enhance family planning options but also put Republican lawmakers in a challenging position ahead of the upcoming election.
","category":"choice","author":"Her Choice","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:26.001Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67317b7bd65cb68595c31ee7_12.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/senate-votes-on-nationwide-ivf-protection-legislation","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/senate-votes-on-nationwide-ivf-protection-legislation"},{"id":"52jbeh","slug":"sen-ron-wyden-advocates-for-womens-reproductive-rights","title":"Sen. Ron Wyden Advocates for Women's Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"Senator Ron Wyden is a vocal advocate for women’s reproductive rights, emphasizing the importance of accessibility to abortion services. His commitment comes at a critical time when anti-abortion sentiments are on the rise, threatening the rights women fought hard to secure.","content":"In a significant moment captured during a press conference on May 2, 2023, Senator Ron Wyden underscored his unwavering commitment to women's reproductive rights. As discussions around the future of abortion access intensify, Wyden’s advocacy provides a beacon of hope for many women facing the repercussions of restrictive abortion laws.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:25.414Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672ff4b3a26071b51290fc88_Web_Photo_Editor%20(12).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/sen-ron-wyden-advocates-for-womens-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/sen-ron-wyden-advocates-for-womens-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"ocfixv","slug":"sen-jon-tester-abortion-rights-montana","title":"Sen. Jon Tester Takes a Stand for Abortion Rights in Montana","excerpt":"Senator Jon Tester is actively advocating for abortion rights as he approaches a challenging reelection campaign in Montana. Facing political pressure, he emphasizes the importance of women's autonomy and personal choice in reproductive health decisions.","content":"As Senator Jon Tester gears up for a challenging reelection campaign in Montana, he is making a bold move to advocate for abortion rights, highlighting the critical importance of women's reproductive choices. A third-generation dirt farmer, Tester understands the values of hard work and resilience, and he is now applying those principles to his political stance on a deeply polarizing issue.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:24.693Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731ce7d1d0f7009ba691d31_44.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/sen-jon-tester-abortion-rights-montana","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/sen-jon-tester-abortion-rights-montana"},{"id":"yqiqyx","slug":"sen-jd-vance-womens-reproductive-rights","title":"Sen. JD Vance’s Stance on Women’s Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"Sen. JD Vance's recent remarks on women's reproductive rights have ignited discussions about abortion access in America. As the political landscape shifts, the implications of his stance could significantly impact women's autonomy and healthcare choices.","content":"In a heated political climate, the conversation surrounding women's reproductive rights is more crucial than ever. Recently, during a vice presidential debate held at CBS Studios in New York City on October 1, 2024, Senator JD Vance of Ohio expressed his views on abortion that have raised eyebrows and sparked intense discussions. His stance reflects a broader trend among politicians grappling with the contentious issue of reproductive rights, highlighting the complexity of this topic in modern governance.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:24.099Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731df8e7322eabed0b74d96_50.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/sen-jd-vance-womens-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/sen-jd-vance-womens-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"lnrfo1","slug":"sb-2880-aims-to-criminalize-online-pill-providers-abortion-funds-in-texas","title":"SB 2880 Aims to Criminalize Online Pill Providers, Abortion Funds in Texas","excerpt":"Texas lawmakers are advancing Senate Bill 2880, a sweeping effort to block abortion pill access, punish out-of-state abortion support, and expand legal actions against providers and online platforms.","content":"Texas lawmakers are pushing forward one of the most stringent anti-abortion measures in the nation, with a bill aimed at criminalizing online access to abortion pills, targeting support for abortions conducted out of state, and broadening the state's enforcement powers. Senate Bill 2880, introduced by Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola), was the center of a passionate Senate State Affairs Committee hearing on Thursday, garnering significant backing from anti-abortion proponents.
The legislation, characterized by legal experts as the most extensive effort to limit abortion access following Roe v. Wade, would classify the payment for or reimbursement of abortion costs as a felony, carrying a potential sentence of up to life in prison. This would effectively dismantle abortion funds that assist Texans in traveling out of state for legal procedures.
SB 2880 also focuses on online abortion pill providers, internet service platforms, and tech companies that host or facilitate content related to abortion. Hughes stated that the bill seeks to dismantle the framework that enables Texans to bypass the state's nearly complete abortion ban. “This concerns safeguarding lives and halting the illegal trade of harmful drugs,” he asserted.
The proposed legislation would grant the Texas attorney general greater authority to pursue alleged abortion-related offenses and broaden the capacity for private individuals to initiate wrongful death lawsuits against providers of abortion pills. Proponents argue that the legislation serves as an essential measure in combating what they describe as “unregulated, dangerous abortions.”
During the hearing, anti-abortion groups asserted that abortion pills such as mifepristone and misoprostol are being sent to pregnant Texans without sufficient medical oversight. Providers provided testimony regarding women who reportedly experienced complications due to inadequate follow-up care.
Medical experts highlight a substantial body of research indicating that mifepristone, which received FDA approval in 2000, is both safe and effective when used according to guidelines.
Opponents of SB 2880 contend that it would significantly restrict bodily autonomy, penalize reproductive health assistance, and raise issues of digital surveillance regarding personal health choices. Supporters such as John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, praised the bill as a model for other states: “Texas will be leading the way.”
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:23.362Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67f2380532778f33e031463c_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-04-06T161419.502.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/sb-2880-aims-to-criminalize-online-pill-providers-abortion-funds-in-texas","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/sb-2880-aims-to-criminalize-online-pill-providers-abortion-funds-in-texas"},{"id":"2k7au3","slug":"sam-browns-senate-campaign-personal-journey-reproductive-rights","title":"Sam Brown's Senate Campaign: A Personal Journey on Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"As Sam Brown enters the Nevada Senate race, his wife's candid revelation about her abortion sheds light on the personal narratives that shape the conversation around reproductive rights. This article explores the implications of such stories in the broader context of women's healthcare and choice.","content":"As the political landscape continues to evolve, the narratives surrounding reproductive rights are becoming increasingly personal and poignant. Sam Brown, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Nevada, has recently made headlines not only for his political ambitions but also for the candid discussion his wife, Amy Brown, sparked regarding her experience with abortion. This revelation is significant, as it underscores the complex interplay of personal stories and political platforms in the ongoing debate over women's reproductive rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:22.766Z","image":"","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/sam-browns-senate-campaign-personal-journey-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/sam-browns-senate-campaign-personal-journey-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"zbxgnw","slug":"rising-voices-women-advocating-for-reproductive-rights","title":"Rising Voices: Women Advocating for Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"In the wake of increasing restrictions on reproductive rights in the U.S., women like Rep. Shea Roberts are leading the charge to protect the right to choose. This article highlights personal stories, legislative efforts, and advocacy initiatives that underscore the importance of reproductive freedom.","content":"As discussions around women's reproductive rights intensify in the United States, a growing number of women are stepping into leadership roles to advocate for their autonomy. One such voice is Rep. Shea Roberts, a dedicated mother of three and a passionate advocate for women's rights. Her journey aligns with the experiences of countless women who are facing the repercussions of restrictive abortion laws across the country.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:22.176Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673160d3c034f24469f803a8_9.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/rising-voices-women-advocating-for-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/rising-voices-women-advocating-for-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"29kctc","slug":"restrictive-abortion-laws-linked-to-preventable-maternal-deaths-in-texas","title":"Restrictive Abortion Laws Linked to Preventable Maternal Deaths in Texas","excerpt":"Recent reports from ProPublica detail preventable deaths in Texas tied to delays in medical care under the state’s strict abortion ban. Experts warn these laws may force doctors to deviate from established medical standards, endangering lives.","content":"ProPublica has recently highlighted a preventable fatality that is associated with Texas' abortion ban for the third time in a month. Porsha Ngumezi, a 35-year-old mother of two, passed away in June 2023 as a result of a miscarriage at Houston Methodist Sugar Land.
Ngumezi's case emphasizes the complexities and hazards that result from Texas' abortion restrictions. Ngumezi was not promptly administered a life-saving dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure, a standard treatment for miscarriages, despite their history of severe hemorrhaging and a known blood clotting disorder. Instead, physicians selected misoprostol, a medication that was designed to facilitate the passage of any remaining tissue, but it was unable to halt the hemorrhaging.
Before succumbing to her condition, Ngumezi experienced heavy bleeding for more than six hours. She required two transfusions. The delays and the deviation from established care protocols were criticized by medical experts who reviewed the case, who labeled her death as wholly preventable.
ProPublica has reported on a broader trend in Texas, where clinicians are hesitant to perform D&Cs because of legal and administrative obstacles. This incident is indicative of this trend. The procedure, which frequently overlaps with abortion methods, has become entangled in the state's stringent abortion laws, causing some physicians to avoid it out of concern for legal repercussions.
Ngumezi's death occurs in the wake of other disasters, such as the deaths of Josseli Barnica and 18-year-old Neveah Crain, who respectively experienced delays in receiving critical miscarriage care.
Doctors and advocates caution that these cases underscore systemic issues, as the fear of prosecution influences medical practices, thereby increasing the risk to patients. The increasing number of preventable deaths is prompting calls for legislative reform to safeguard maternal health without sacrificing care.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:21.581Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6744890cbda802c1c9e55ae6_3.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/restrictive-abortion-laws-linked-to-preventable-maternal-deaths-in-texas","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/restrictive-abortion-laws-linked-to-preventable-maternal-deaths-in-texas"},{"id":"o3093f","slug":"restoring-abortion-rights-bidens-priority-for-a-second-term-","title":"Restoring Abortion Rights: Biden's Priority for a Second Term","excerpt":"With the upcoming election, President Biden's campaign emphasizes the restoration of abortion rights as a top priority. His administration aims to protect women's reproductive freedoms in the face of recent challenges to Roe v. Wade and seeks to mobilize support for these critical issues.","content":"As the political landscape continues to evolve in America, one of the most pressing issues on the agenda is the right to choose and access to safe abortion services. If President Joe Biden secures a second term in office, his team has made it clear that restoring abortion rights will be at the forefront of his policy priorities. This commitment reflects a broader understanding of women's reproductive rights and the importance of bodily autonomy.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:20.909Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672fd2f7f5d31dde1c2095a8_Web_Photo_Editor%20(5).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/restoring-abortion-rights-bidens-priority-for-a-second-term-","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/restoring-abortion-rights-bidens-priority-for-a-second-term-"},{"id":"neuh3x","slug":"rescinded-emergency-abortion-guidance-spark-confusion-and-backlash","title":"Rescinded Emergency Abortion Guidance Spark Confusion and Backlash","excerpt":"The Trump administration has withdrawn federal guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions, escalating confusion in states with abortion bans and raising alarms among reproductive health advocates.","content":"The Trump administration reversed Biden-era guidance mandating hospitals to offer emergency abortions by federal law, even in states with near-total abortion bans, on Tuesday. This ruling questions Roe v. Wade-era reproductive healthcare law and ethics.
Critics believe that state hospitals violate emergency care standards, endangering pregnant patients.
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act was utilized in 2022 to create new guidance following the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade. Medicare-funded hospitals are required by law to stabilize medical emergencies, including those related to pregnancy.
CMS announced a significant EMTALA enforcement adjustment under the Trump administration. While EMTALA's core principles remain, the CMS will no longer accept the Biden-era interpretation that allowed hospitals to conduct emergency abortions, especially where state laws ban them.
CMS said it will enforce EMTALA while resolving legal misunderstandings and addressing instability caused by the previous administration.
Medical professionals warn of life-threatening effects.
Healthcare experts and abortion rights groups say that the pullback may make doctors fear and reluctant to treat pregnant women in crises, especially in states where abortion is prohibited.
“OB-GYN and Physicians for Reproductive Health president Dr. Jamila Perritt said this action sends a clear message: pregnant women's lives and health are not worth protecting. This forces physicians to choose between vital treatment and strict, yet potentially dangerous, regulations.
Monica Simpson, SisterSong executive, concurred. “That confusion causes fatalities,” she said. \"Healthcare professionals must navigate an ambiguous framework.\" The Biden administration's recommendations generated discussion.
The Biden administration has instructed EMTALA to allow hospitals to provide emergency abortions without breaching state laws. When a patient's life is at jeopardy, federal law supersedes state prohibitions.
Whistleblowers are protected, and state law fears deter patient transfers with new instructions.
Trump's approach follows bitter litigation, including the Biden administration's appeal to Idaho's EMTALA-related abortion ban. The Trump administration dropped that case early this year.
Abortion rights lawyers argue that the recommended removal increases legal ambiguity. Center for Reproductive Rights senior attorney Molly Duane highlighted two recent EMTALA investigations of pregnant patients. Texas resident Kyleigh Thurman was denied ectopic pregnancy care, violating EMTALA.
Arizona resident Wendy Simmons was denied care for a grave result, yet the hospital did not violate any regulations.
Duane worried doctors and hospitals would be confused by contradictory data and rescinded directives.
Mixed reviews on this decision. Anti-abortion groups lauded the action, while abortion rights supporters called it dangerous.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser said, “The Trump administration has delivered another win for life and truth.” She said Democrats misled the public, generating the misunderstanding they now deplore.
Over 12 US states restrict abortion beyond six weeks or completely. In certain areas, the Tuesday announcement complicates ectopic or preterm labor for pregnant women.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:20.289Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6845006efdc8e2cfeef8b630_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-06-08T111545.449.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/rescinded-emergency-abortion-guidance-spark-confusion-and-backlash","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/rescinded-emergency-abortion-guidance-spark-confusion-and-backlash"},{"id":"akewgk","slug":"republicans-renew-push-for-anti-abortion-legislation","title":"Republicans Renew Push for Anti-Abortion Legislation","excerpt":"As Congress reconvenes, House Republicans are reigniting their campaign against abortion rights by advancing new anti-choice legislation. This article explores the implications for women's reproductive rights and freedom of choice amid ongoing national debates.","content":"As the new year unfolds, Republicans in Congress are once again prioritizing anti-abortion legislation, marking a continuation of their agenda from the previous year. Recently, House Republicans approved two significant anti-choice bills, signaling a strategic push to restrict women's reproductive rights and access to abortion services. This legislative move has reignited discussions around the critical issues of bodily autonomy, healthcare access, and women's rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:19.671Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672f5b1c8692f84162a86cdf_1.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/republicans-renew-push-for-anti-abortion-legislation","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/republicans-renew-push-for-anti-abortion-legislation"},{"id":"z1lvyx","slug":"republican-candidate-breaks-norm-on-womens-right-to-choose","title":"Republican Candidate Breaks Norm on Women's Right to Choose","excerpt":"Eric Hovde’s shift comes during an election cycle when many Republicans are struggling with the issue of abortion and some have moderated their positions.","content":"In a political climate where the discourse surrounding women's reproductive rights has become increasingly polarized, a recent statement from Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde has stirred significant conversation. Hovde, who is aiming to unseat incumbent Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), publicly declared his belief that women should retain the right to make choices regarding their pregnancies during the early stages. This position marks a notable divergence from traditional Republican views, which have often leaned towards more restrictive policies on abortion.
","category":"choice","author":"Her Choice","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:19.066Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67308ea24734d631e950efe3_Web_Photo_Editor%20(29).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/republican-candidate-breaks-norm-on-womens-right-to-choose","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/republican-candidate-breaks-norm-on-womens-right-to-choose"},{"id":"d9vheo","slug":"reproductive-rights-website-disappears-after-trump-inauguration--no-explanation-given","title":"Reproductive Rights Website Disappears After Trump Inauguration—No Explanation Given","excerpt":"A government website providing information on abortion rights and reproductive health care vanished after President Donald Trump took office. The administration has not clarified why the site was taken down, sparking concerns over access to crucial health care information.","content":"A government website that offered information on abortion rights and reproductive health care became unavailable after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, and officials have not provided an explanation for this action.
Launched in 2022 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the website ReproductiveRights.gov serves as a key component of a public awareness campaign. It offered essential information regarding abortion access, birth control coverage, and protections for reproductive health care.
On January 20, 2025, the site unexpectedly vanished, depriving visitors of access to the information.CBS News has contacted the Trump administration for clarification but has yet to receive a response. The exact timing of the site's removal remains uncertain, although it was operational as recently as January 15.
Trump has consistently expressed that abortion laws ought to be determined by the states, while also claiming credit for the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appointed by Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has altered his stance on abortion rights, occasionally endorsing restrictions before subsequently retracting his comments.
The Guttmacher Institute reports that 12 states have implemented total abortion bans, while an additional four states restrict abortion after six weeks—often before many women are aware of their pregnancy.The elimination of ReproductiveRights.gov aligns with wider Republican initiatives aimed at reversing reproductive health policies, including previous demands from Trump to abolish the Affordable Care Act, which requires coverage for birth control, cancer screenings, prenatal care, and HIV testing.
The absence of official communication has raised concerns among reproductive health advocates who say the loss of this resource could create confusion for those seeking accurate, up-to-date information on their rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:18.444Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/679f832514fa7564d2eb21fd_Web_Photo_Editor%20(7).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/reproductive-rights-website-disappears-after-trump-inauguration--no-explanation-given","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/reproductive-rights-website-disappears-after-trump-inauguration--no-explanation-given"},{"id":"8sz0ek","slug":"reproductive-rights-rally-challenges-kentuckys-abortion-ban","title":"Reproductive Rights Rally Challenges Kentucky’s Abortion Ban","excerpt":"Religious leaders and advocates gathered at Kentucky’s Capitol to protest the state’s near-total abortion ban, arguing that it infringes on religious freedom and disproportionately affects marginalized communities.","content":"As Kentucky lawmakers gathered on Thursday, advocates for reproductive rights assembled in the Capitol rotunda, denouncing the state’s near-total abortion ban as harsh and urging legislators to overturn it.
The Rev. Elwood Sturtevant, a board member of the Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, challenged the notion that access to abortion is at odds with religious beliefs. “The majority of religious individuals do not endorse abortion bans,” he remarked, referencing the backing for reproductive rights from non-evangelical Protestants, Black Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and humanitarian advocates.
Kentucky implemented stringent abortion restrictions in June 2022 following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which removed federal protections for abortion rights. The state's trigger law swiftly prohibited the procedure in almost all instances, except situations where the mother's life is endangered.
Attorney Beth Salamon, a state policy advocate for the National Council for Jewish Women, highlighted the importance of safeguarding religious freedoms beyond any one ideology. “We have laws in Kentucky that safeguard religious liberty, but whose religious liberty is truly being safeguarded?” she inquired.
Salamon further said, “As a leader within the Louisville Jewish community, I take pride in advocating for reproductive freedom through a faith-based lens.”
The rally, organized by Planned Parenthood, united religious leaders and activists who contend that the abortion ban unfairly affects marginalized communities and limits individuals' ability to make choices aligned with their faith and beliefs.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:17.820Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67af5cd2a946b2fc9ddc7cce_Web_Photo_Editor%20(38).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/reproductive-rights-rally-challenges-kentuckys-abortion-ban","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/reproductive-rights-rally-challenges-kentuckys-abortion-ban"},{"id":"a5s193","slug":"reproductive-health-advocates-and-anti-abortion-groups-shape-2024-legal-battles","title":"Reproductive Health Advocates and Anti-Abortion Groups Shape 2024 Legal Battles","excerpt":"In 2024, the battle over reproductive rights intensified, with key figures, including doctors, women sharing personal stories, and anti-abortion activists shaping legal and social outcomes. From abortion bans and restrictions to fertility treatment laws, this year saw significant moments in the ongoing fight for reproductive healthcare access.","content":" In 2024, the landscape of reproductive health in America continued to evolve amidst legal and social tensions, with both advocates and opponents of abortion rights actively shaping public discourse and policy.
Women like Hadley Duvall and Kaitlyn Joshua brought personal stories of hardship to the forefront, advocating for abortion rights and shedding light on the devastating effects of stringent abortion bans. Duvall, a Kentucky resident, highlighted the trauma of being raped as a child. At the same time, Joshua from Louisiana shared the struggles of women unable to access miscarriage treatments after the state’s strict abortion ban.
Meanwhile, medical professionals such as OB-GYN Kristin Lyerly spoke out against how state abortion laws have interfered with medical practice, even running for office to champion reproductive rights. On the opposing side, groups like the Charlotte Lozier Institute fueled the fight against abortion, pushing for the revocation of medication abortion approval despite concerns over the validity of their data.
Similarly, the Alabama Supreme Court's controversial decision to classify frozen embryos as children sparked a national debate over IVF access, leading to clinic shutdowns and legislative action to protect fertility treatments.
In Texas, legal manoeuvres by anti-abortion activists raised concerns over out-of-state abortion access, creating fear and confusion.
As these battles continue, and towards the start of another Trump administration, the stakes remain high for those fighting for reproductive rights in America.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:17.199Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/676ff1f24e179ea0a40af72b_Web_Photo_Editor%20(21).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/reproductive-health-advocates-and-anti-abortion-groups-shape-2024-legal-battles","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/reproductive-health-advocates-and-anti-abortion-groups-shape-2024-legal-battles"},{"id":"bt9mxm","slug":"rep-jared-goldens-bold-stance-on-reproductive-rights","title":"Rep. Jared Golden's Bold Stance on Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"Rep. Jared Golden of Maine stands out as a vocal advocate for reproductive rights, even in a politically challenging landscape shaped by recent elections. As he navigates the complexities of representing a district that voted for Trump, Golden emphasizes the importance of choice and access to abortion services.","content":"In the ever-evolving landscape of women's reproductive rights, few voices resonate with the urgency and complexity of the issue as clearly as that of Rep. Jared Golden from Maine. As a Democrat in a district that notably supported Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, Golden's position on reproductive rights places him in a unique and often vulnerable spot within the political spectrum. Despite the challenges, he has taken a strong stance in favor of women’s right to choose, emphasizing the critical nature of maintaining access to reproductive healthcare.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:16.594Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731bc690e9eea5a3a76ee5e_35.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/rep-jared-goldens-bold-stance-on-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/rep-jared-goldens-bold-stance-on-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"w451vz","slug":"rallying-for-reproductive-rights-the-fight-for-abortion-access","title":"Rallying for Reproductive Rights: The Fight for Abortion Access","excerpt":"On March 26, 2023, demonstrators gathered outside the Supreme Court to advocate for abortion rights amid critical legal challenges. As debates unfold, the fight for women's reproductive freedom continues to gain momentum, emphasizing the significance of choice and access to safe healthcare.","content":"On a pivotal day in March 2023, demonstrators gathered outside the Supreme Court, their voices uniting in a powerful message advocating for abortion rights. This rally coincided with the oral arguments in the case of Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, marking a significant moment in the ongoing battle for women’s reproductive rights. The stakes were high, and the atmosphere was charged with passion and urgency as individuals from all walks of life came together to assert their belief in a woman's right to choose.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:16.012Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67309c7ca30d972d2b4b45d4_18.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/rallying-for-reproductive-rights-the-fight-for-abortion-access","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/rallying-for-reproductive-rights-the-fight-for-abortion-access"},{"id":"lr5biu","slug":"queensland-blocks-abortion-law-changes-amid-accusations-of-labor-scare-tactics","title":"Queensland Blocks Abortion Law Changes Amid Accusations of Labor Scare Tactics","excerpt":"Queensland's abortion laws are set to remain unchanged, as the government moves to block any amendments for four years. The move sparked fiery debates in parliament, with accusations of fearmongering and political gagging.","content":"Queensland's government has ruled out any changes to the state's Termination of Pregnancy Act for the next four years, accusing Labor of running a \"US-style scare campaign\" during the October state election.
Premier David Crisafulli introduced the motion in parliament, which prohibits MPs from proposing or debating abortion laws. The action followed a contentious election campaign in which Labor claimed the Liberal National Party (LNP) would restrict abortion rights, which the LNP disputed.
Jarrod Bleijie, Deputy Premier, blasted Labor's methods, presenting personal anecdotes of his family being harassed as a result of the incident. \"They want to continue their scare campaign... \"My daughter is getting messages saying, 'This is what your Dad is doing,'\" Bleijie explained.
Labor opposed the motion, with Opposition Leader Steven Miles describing it as a \"gag\" on parliament. \"This proposal is an unprecedented and shady attempt to limit debate... It demonstrates a leader's inability to control or trust his party,\" Miles added.
Robbie Katter, the leader of the Katter Australian Party (KAP), expressed dismay after reigniting the abortion controversy during the election. \"I'm at a loss for words after seeing the government's acts. \"Removing the right to debate creates a dangerous precedent,\" Katter said, underlining his commitment to mandating treatment for newborns delivered alive.
Crisafulli supported the action, describing it as a rejection of political manipulation. \"Labor wasted millions on despicable scare tactics. \"I've been clear: there will be no changes to abortion laws,\" he stated.
The move solidifies Queensland's abortion restrictions until at least the next election, keeping the contentious topic off the legislative agenda.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:15.403Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/675eb8fc5941373065020914_6.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/queensland-blocks-abortion-law-changes-amid-accusations-of-labor-scare-tactics","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/queensland-blocks-abortion-law-changes-amid-accusations-of-labor-scare-tactics"},{"id":"pwns4e","slug":"protesting-for-our-right-to-choose-a-brooklyn-rally","title":"Protesting for Our Right to Choose: A Brooklyn Rally","excerpt":"On September 1, 2021, activists gathered in Brooklyn to protest Texas SB 8, a law imposing severe restrictions on abortion. This rally underscored the ongoing struggle for reproductive rights and women's autonomy across the nation.","content":"On September 1, 2021, a powerful rally took place in Brooklyn, New York, drawing attention to the profound implications of Texas Senate Bill 8 (SB 8). This law, which established a near-total ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, was met with widespread outrage and mobilization across the country. Not only did SB 8 restrict access to abortion services for many women, but it also included a controversial provision that allowed private citizens to sue anyone who assisted in the termination of a pregnancy. This bounty hunter clause turned everyday citizens into vigilantes, further complicating the already challenging landscape of reproductive rights in America.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:14.795Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673161c38d6b310062cd7007_10.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/protesting-for-our-right-to-choose-a-brooklyn-rally","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/protesting-for-our-right-to-choose-a-brooklyn-rally"},{"id":"s2fzgm","slug":"proposed-ohio-law-would-criminalize-abortion-override-state-constitutions-protections","title":"Proposed Ohio Law Would Criminalize Abortion, Override State Constitution’s Protections","excerpt":"Republican lawmakers in Ohio plan to introduce a bill banning nearly all abortions, defying a 2023 constitutional amendment that enshrined reproductive rights. The proposed law would criminalize both providers and pregnant individuals, sparking fierce criticism from advocates and legal experts.","content":"Republican lawmakers in Ohio are set to unveil a comprehensive new bill on Wednesday that would prohibit almost all abortions and impose criminal penalties on individuals who undergo the procedure, including in instances of rape or incest—directly opposing a voter-approved constitutional amendment from 2023 that safeguards reproductive rights.
The proposed legislation, known as the “Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act,” aims to classify all fertilized embryos as full legal persons under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, thereby superseding Ohio’s existing constitutional protections. The legislation would allow abortions solely in instances of miscarriage or when the life of the pregnant individual is in jeopardy.
Austin Beigel of End Abortion Ohio, who collaborated with GOP Reps. Levi Dean and Jonathan Newman, to draft the bill, commended its comprehensive nature. “It’s a straightforward and elegant piece of legislation,” he stated, “that provides equal protection to all humans, both born and pre-born.” Beigel expressed that he remained unfazed by the dissent from voters, labeling their earlier choice to endorse abortion rights as “evil.”
Kellie Copeland, executive director of Abortion Forward, criticized the bill as “the most extreme and anti-life legislation that you can imagine,” cautioning that it could result in criminalization, social persecution, and possible violence against advocates and patients of abortion.
If passed, the bill would position Ohio among the select states to criminalize not only abortion providers but also those seeking abortions—a decision that Copeland argues could lead to perilous real-world outcomes.
While Beigel asserts that the bill will not explicitly ban contraception or IVF, he conceded that it may influence the implementation of fertility treatments due to the legal acknowledgment of embryos as individuals.
This recent initiative comes after years of legal disputes in Ohio concerning abortion legislation, including the obstruction of a six-week “heartbeat” ban. In 2023, 57% of voters in Ohio endorsed a constitutional amendment that affirms the right to abortion care, a right that is now facing renewed challenges.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:14.204Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68539030b7e5174cfd1abe18_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-06-19T122057.290.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/proposed-ohio-law-would-criminalize-abortion-override-state-constitutions-protections","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/proposed-ohio-law-would-criminalize-abortion-override-state-constitutions-protections"},{"id":"h73h0h","slug":"project-2025-and-new-laws-show-coordinated-push-to-end-abortion-nationwide","title":"Project 2025 and New Laws Show Coordinated Push to End Abortion Nationwide","excerpt":"Three years after the Dobbs decision, abortion rights advocates warn that Republicans are advancing a quiet, coordinated strategy to ban abortion nationwide despite public claims that the issue should be left to states.","content":"As the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling approaches, experts in reproductive rights caution that Republicans are subtly preparing for a nationwide abortion ban.
Efforts ranging from restrictive legislation to targeted lawsuits closely align with the strategy detailed in Project 2025, a plan aimed at dismantling reproductive freedoms nationwide.
Although former President Trump and GOP leaders maintain that abortion is currently a matter for the states, recent federal actions suggest a different narrative. The Supreme Court's decision in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic allows states to exclude providers from Medicaid, jeopardizing access to reliable healthcare and abortion services.
At the same time, the newly enacted “Big Beautiful Bill” significantly reduces federal funding for providers such as Planned Parenthood, putting healthcare for 1.1 million patients across the country at risk, particularly in states where abortion is still permitted.
Federal actions are encroaching on privacy protections, as judges are nullifying regulations that secure abortion data. Lawsuits initiated in supportive courts seek to achieve nationwide decisions that limit medication abortion, circumventing individual state conflicts. In the meantime, the Trump administration revoked guidance from the Biden era that mandated hospitals to offer emergency abortions, leading to confusion and possibly postponing essential care.
Traveling to states where abortion is still legal faces significant challenges. Five states have proposed legislation aimed at criminalizing assistance for minors seeking to cross state lines for abortions, with Idaho and Tennessee having already implemented such laws.
In Texas, law enforcement utilized license plate readers to monitor a woman believed to be self-managing an abortion, illustrating the potential for surveillance tools to criminalize individuals seeking care.
The interplay of litigation, funding reductions, travel limitations, and punitive state legislation reveals a unified national strategy rather than mere isolated actions.
Advocates caution that even though a majority of Americans back reproductive freedom, GOP policymakers persist in pushing measures that subtly and consistently limit abortion access in every state, eroding the commitment to reproductive autonomy throughout the country.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:13.611Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68693199053bee3d3bacd120_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-07-05T220602.596.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/project-2025-and-new-laws-show-coordinated-push-to-end-abortion-nationwide","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/project-2025-and-new-laws-show-coordinated-push-to-end-abortion-nationwide"},{"id":"dv2znn","slug":"ppwi-resumes-abortion-services-following-federal-budget-bill-reversal","title":"PPWI Resumes Abortion Services Following Federal Budget Bill Reversal","excerpt":"Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin (PPWI) has resumed abortion services statewide after a nearly month-long pause caused by Medicaid cuts under a federal budget bill.","content":"Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin revealed on Monday that it has restarted abortion services following a suspension that lasted nearly a month due to federal Medicaid cuts.
The halt occurred following the designation of Planned Parenthood as a “prohibited entity” in accordance with the stipulations of President Donald Trump’s federal budget legislation, referred to as the “Big Beautiful Bill.” The legislation prohibits Medicaid reimbursements to entities that offer abortion services and obtain over $800,000 in Medicaid funding each year.
Officials from PPWI announced that the organization has successfully resumed scheduling patients, as it is no longer classified as a prohibited entity. The shift followed the organization's decision to relinquish its federal designation as a provider of essential community services, a status typically granted to clinics serving mainly low-income individuals.
“Following a thorough evaluation, we’ve concluded that relinquishing ECP status enables us to maintain abortion care while safeguarding access to other vital health services,” stated PPWI CEO Tanya Atkinson.
Atkinson stated that relinquishing ECP status will enable the organization to restart Medicaid billing for reproductive health care while still offering services like cancer screenings, contraceptives, and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.
During the service pause, access to abortion in Wisconsin faced significant restrictions. In Milwaukee, just two independent clinics still provide procedures, leaving substantial parts of the state, such as the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison, without local access. PPWI’s Madison East Health Center is the sole clinic serving that area.
Abortions can be accessed at three locations: Madison, Milwaukee, and Sheboygan. The Sheboygan clinic specializes solely in medication abortions, whereas the other two facilities additionally offer surgical options.
A court filing from September 29 reveals that family planning providers have the option to keep their Medicaid reimbursements if they either cease providing abortion services or relinquish their ECP or tax-exempt status. Although the removal of ECP status could influence PPWI’s financial outlook in the long run, Atkinson indicated that the organization anticipates only a slight short-term effect on patients.
“Based on our extensive research and analysis, we anticipate minimal impact [from ECP status] on patient access,” she stated. “Should letting go of this affect our financial outcomes, we will need to assess what the next steps will be.”
In July, Planned Parenthood took legal action against the Trump Administration, resulting in a temporary injunction that halted the Medicaid restrictions until early fall. The lifting of the injunction in late September led to a temporary halt in abortion services, which remained in effect until this week's ruling.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:12.991Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6900b493ca68f5ea1a4159cf_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-10-28T201820.521.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/ppwi-resumes-abortion-services-following-federal-budget-bill-reversal","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/ppwi-resumes-abortion-services-following-federal-budget-bill-reversal"},{"id":"9m37je","slug":"pope-francis-reiterates-strong-stance-against-abortion-in-new-year-message","title":"Pope Francis Reiterates Strong Stance Against Abortion in New Year Message","excerpt":"Pope Francis calls for respect and protection of life \"from conception to natural death\" during New Year’s Day Mass, emphasizing the Church’s opposition to abortion and euthanasia.","content":"Pope Francis delivered a compelling New Year’s Day message, reiterating his appeal for the faithful to honor and safeguard life \"from conception to natural death\" and emphasizing a \"firm commitment\" to maintain the dignity of every human life.
The 88-year-old pontiff officiated a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, dedicating the service to Mary, the mother of Jesus. In his homily, Francis highlighted the significance of nurturing all lives, especially those who are most vulnerable.
“We must learn to care for every child born of a woman,” he stated, championing the safeguarding of \"the precious gift of life: life in the womb, the lives of children, the lives of the suffering, the poor, the elderly, the lonely, and the dying.\"
Pope Francis has grown more outspoken regarding his stance against abortion. In the early years of his papacy, he concentrated on steering clear of what he referred to as “small-minded rules,” but he now often compares abortion to \"hiring a hitman to solve a problem.\"
His recent comments in Belgium, where he labeled abortion laws as \"homicidal\" and supported the beatification of the late King Baudouin, who temporarily abdicated to prevent the signing of abortion legislation, have elicited a mix of praise and criticism. The Vatican has announced that the beatification process for Baudouin, who passed away in 1993, is currently in progress.
The New Year’s Day Mass concluded Francis' hectic Christmas season, which aligned with the preparations for the Vatican’s Holy Year in 2025. The Jubilee celebration, held every 25 years, is anticipated to attract 32 million pilgrims to Rome.
In the radiant St. Peter’s Square, Francis conveyed a heartfelt message of forgiveness and unity, calling on affluent nations to forgive or lessen the debts of less fortunate countries. He urged Christian leaders to exemplify mercy through their actions.
“I request a strong commitment to honor the dignity of human life from conception to natural death,” Francis stated. “Let us value every individual’s existence and gaze forward with optimism towards what lies ahead.”
The pope’s message highlights the Church’s continuous dedication to promoting life and dignity throughout every stage of human existence.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:12.346Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/677a7993115e12eff6da4c52_Web_Photo_Editor%20(45).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/pope-francis-reiterates-strong-stance-against-abortion-in-new-year-message","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/pope-francis-reiterates-strong-stance-against-abortion-in-new-year-message"},{"id":"dl7xax","slug":"poll-two-thirds-of-u-s-adults-say-abortion-should-be-legal-despite-state-bans","title":"Poll: Two-Thirds of U.S. Adults Say Abortion Should Be Legal Despite State Bans","excerpt":"Three years after the Supreme Court dismantled Roe v. Wade, a new national poll shows that most Americans continue to support legal access to abortion. Despite a wave of state-level bans, 64% of adults believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases—a level of support nearly identical to opinions held before the landmark ruling.","content":"Three years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to set their abortion regulations, a recent nationwide poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reveals that a majority of Americans continue to support the legality of abortion.
This week's survey showed that 64% of U.S. adults are in favor of legal abortion in all or most circumstances, reflecting a viewpoint that closely mirrors public sentiment before the 2022 ruling.
In June 2022, the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned years of federal safeguards, leading to a surge of legislative actions at the state level. Since that time, 12 states have implemented complete bans on abortion. In comparison, four additional states restrict the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy—frequently before individuals are even aware that they are pregnant. The public's perception of access to abortion has not changed much in spite of these severe restrictions.
Approximately 50% of adults in the U.S. believe that abortion should be permitted in their state, regardless of the reasons for not wanting to continue a pregnancy. This perspective aligns with sentiments noted in June 2021 and shows only a slight decrease compared to 2023, when support increased after the Court's ruling. This feeling is shared beyond state boundaries. Individuals residing in states with the most stringent prohibitions are equally as inclined as those in more lenient states to believe that abortion should be accessible to anyone who desires it.
The survey reveals ongoing divisions along party lines. Support for legal abortion has seen a slight decline among both major political parties since 2023. Nevertheless, nearly 90% of Democrats continue to advocate for access in all or most situations, while approximately 40% of Republicans share that view. However, the real consequences of recent legislation have led some people to reconsider their positions.
Wilaysha White, a 25-year-old mother from Ohio who describes herself as a “semi-Republican,” revealed that her perspectives have evolved over the years. Despite her regrets regarding an abortion she underwent while experiencing homelessness, White expresses her current support for legal access, citing narratives that underscore the risks associated with restrictive laws. A noteworthy incident in Georgia resulted in the arrest of a woman following a miscarriage, a situation that deeply troubled White.
\"It's alarming to witness women facing serious health issues and not receiving priority—that's truly frightening,\" White expressed. “I prefer it to be universally accepted rather than the alternative.”
As the legal situation surrounding abortion shifts across the United States, it is clear that public sentiment strongly supports the safeguarding of access. The results indicate that, despite changes in politics and legislation, a significant portion of the American population does not support the country's most stringent abortion regulations.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:11.667Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68843ef4f8b26108b13fb4c3_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-07-26T103525.327.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/poll-two-thirds-of-u-s-adults-say-abortion-should-be-legal-despite-state-bans","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/poll-two-thirds-of-u-s-adults-say-abortion-should-be-legal-despite-state-bans"},{"id":"nbzzfn","slug":"planned-parenthood-shooter-robert-dear-dies-in-federal-custody-at-67","title":"Planned Parenthood Shooter Robert Dear Dies in Federal Custody at 67","excerpt":"Robert Dear, the man charged with killing three people at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic in 2015, died Saturday in federal custody. His death ends nearly a decade of stalled legal proceedings over his mental competency.","content":"Robert Dear, the man charged with the deaths of three people and the injuries of nine others in a 2015 shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, has passed away while in federal custody, according to a statement from the Federal Bureau of Prisons on Tuesday.
A 67-year-old individual passed away on Saturday due to natural causes at a federal medical center located in Springfield, Missouri, as confirmed by Kristie Breshears, a representative for the Bureau of Prisons. His passing marks a sudden conclusion to a prolonged legal struggle regarding the possibility of his forced medication for trial readiness.
He faced federal charges in 2019, four years following the lethal assault he executed due to the clinic offering abortion services. He consistently declared himself a “champion for the infants,” according to officials. Federal prosecutors claimed he showed up at the clinic equipped with several firearms, propane tanks, and 500 rounds of ammunition. He began shooting outside the clinic before entering it.
Three individuals lost their lives in the attack: Ke’Arre Stewart, 29, an Army veteran and father of two; Jennifer Markovsky, 36, a mother of two from Oahu, Hawaii; and Garrett Swasey, a campus police officer who arrived on the scene after reports of an active shooter. Additionally, nine others sustained injuries.
Dear's journey within the legal system faced significant delays right from the start, as courts determined he was not fit to stand trial because of a delusional disorder. According to 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael J. Allen, whose office was responsible for the initial prosecution of Dear in state court, he was ultimately civilly committed within the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Legal proceedings focused on the issue of whether Dear could be administered medication without his consent. His legal team contended that the potential side effects of the drug might exacerbate his unmanaged high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol levels. A federal judge granted permission for forced medication in 2022. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit confirmed this decision last year.
On Tuesday, there was no comment from federal prosecutors or public defenders. Allen stated that Dear’s passing prevents a complete reckoning in the courtroom. “The full measure of justice was warranted for all three victims and this community, yet that possibility has now been taken away,” he stated.
The passing of Dear results in the dismissal of federal charges, bringing closure to a case that has lingered for almost ten years.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:11.053Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/69270a9fb4ba35d70e8d565c_Nexcom%20(2).png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/planned-parenthood-shooter-robert-dear-dies-in-federal-custody-at-67","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/planned-parenthood-shooter-robert-dear-dies-in-federal-custody-at-67"},{"id":"j3r5cb","slug":"planned-parenthood-funding-restored-by-colorado-despite-1-2-billion-budget-shortfall","title":"Planned Parenthood Funding Restored by Colorado Despite $1.2 Billion Budget Shortfall","excerpt":"Colorado lawmakers have approved up to $4.4 million in Medicaid reimbursements for abortion providers, replacing federal funding lost under a new law. The decision sparked sharp debate between pro-abortion rights and pro-life advocates.","content":"This week, Colorado lawmakers took a major step by approving a measure that will allocate as much as $4.4 million in state taxpayer funds to support Medicaid reimbursements for abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, following the loss of federal funding earlier this summer.
In a significant legislative move, Senate Bill 25B-2 secured approval from the House of Representatives with a vote tally of 43-19, followed by a Senate endorsement of 23-12, reflecting a clear division along party lines. On Wednesday, Gov. Jared Polis officially enacted the legislation.
The legislation addresses the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was enacted as federal law in July, resulting in the cessation of Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood across the country. Testimony reveals that the organization has canceled close to 1,000 appointments in Colorado following the implementation of the federal law.
Advocates for the legislation argued that the state's involvement was crucial to maintain consistent care for Medicaid recipients. Leaders from Planned Parenthood contended that the absence of state funding could result in thousands of Coloradans losing access to essential reproductive and health services.
Critics, on the other hand, labeled the initiative a “political bailout.” In a surprising turn of events, Scott Shamblin, the executive director of Colorado Right to Life, revealed that lawmakers have greenlit millions in new funding, all while grappling with a staggering $1.2 billion state budget deficit.
“Lawmakers have just given the green light for up to $4.4 million annually to Planned Parenthood for primary care services via Medicaid, despite the fact that Planned Parenthood does not actually offer such services,” Shamblin stated. “As Colorado grapples with a budget shortfall, this situation transcends healthcare; it represents a political lifeline for the country’s largest abortion provider.”
Critics have pointed to the latest annual report from Planned Parenthood, revealing that the organization generated $2 billion in total revenue for the fiscal year 2023-24. This figure includes $792.2 million derived from taxpayer funding through federal grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements.
In a recent testimony, a patient recounted how her follow-up appointment after taking the abortion pill was abruptly canceled due to a funding shortfall. This left her with no choice but to seek care at an urgent care clinic to address complications she was experiencing. Opponents of chemical abortion contended that her situation highlighted safety concerns rather than the necessity for increased financial support.
The discussion unfolds as the Food and Drug Administration undertakes a review of mifepristone, a commonly utilized abortion medication, in light of adverse effects highlighted in a recent study.
Earlier this year, lawmakers enacted HB25-183, which mandates the use of taxpayer funds to include abortion services within the state's Medicaid offerings, with projected annual expenses nearing $6 million.
The combination of these two measures brings over $10 million in state funding for abortion-related services, reinforcing Colorado’s status as one of the most accommodating states for abortion access.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:10.449Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68b5be8dd9541f86bb782cf3_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-09-01T233949.942.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/planned-parenthood-funding-restored-by-colorado-despite-1-2-billion-budget-shortfall","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/planned-parenthood-funding-restored-by-colorado-despite-1-2-billion-budget-shortfall"},{"id":"mf4dif","slug":"planned-parenthood-fights-medicaid-cuts-in-court-over-new-federal-provision","title":"Planned Parenthood Fights Medicaid Cuts in Court Over New Federal Provision","excerpt":"Planned Parenthood is battling in federal court to stop a provision in President Trump’s tax bill that would cut off Medicaid funding to abortion providers. Attorneys argue that the change targets clinics offering essential services to low-income patients and could lead to more closures, similar to those recently announced in Ohio.","content":"On Friday, legal representatives for Planned Parenthood presented their case in federal court, contending that a recently implemented federal regulation that halts Medicaid reimbursements to abortion providers could significantly impact low-income patients who already face restricted health care choices. The measure, included in President Donald Trump’s extensive tax reform, became effective on July 4 but is now halted due to a temporary court ruling.
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, along with its affiliates in Massachusetts and Utah, has initiated legal action against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., asserting that the rule in question unjustly targets their organization. The statute may not explicitly mention Planned Parenthood, but its affiliates contend that the wording was designed to affect their 600 clinics spread across 48 states. These clinics provide a wide array of reproductive health services and received more than $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in 2023.
“The affiliation provision makes this fundamentally flawed,” stated Planned Parenthood attorney Alan Schoenfeld during Friday’s hearing before U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston.
The central legal issue revolves around the federal government's interpretation of the term “affiliation.” Talwani urged government attorneys to specify the modifications required for Planned Parenthood clinics to maintain their Medicaid eligibility. “Would halting abortion services suffice?” she inquired, questioning if clinics would also need to sever all corporate connections.
Emily Hall, an attorney representing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, stated that additional information regarding Planned Parenthood’s structure is required. “The specifics of the corporate relationship will determine the outcome, and I currently lack that information,” she stated.
The temporary restraining order that is currently stopping the provision will expire on July 21. On that date, Talwani is anticipated to decide on the potential extension of the block through a preliminary injunction.
This week, concerns about potential funding reductions grew stronger as Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio revealed the shutdown of two clinics located in Hamilton and Springfield, attributing the decision to the effects of state and federal budget cuts. “We implemented all available measures to ensure the continued operation of these centers,” stated CEO Nan Whaley, who previously ran as a Democratic candidate for governor. “However, these political assaults have compelled us to navigate this challenging situation.”
The clinics in Ohio, similar to numerous others nationwide, offer essential services including STD testing, birth control, and wellness examinations. Almost 50% of those seeking services from Planned Parenthood depend on Medicaid, a necessary program for countless low-income and disabled individuals across the nation.
A decision expected later this month may determine the fate of numerous clinics, affecting their funding eligibility and potentially leading to significant cuts, closures, and disruptions in care for vulnerable communities.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:09.819Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/687e41e4e843295a90c7736d_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-07-21T212757.764.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/planned-parenthood-fights-medicaid-cuts-in-court-over-new-federal-provision","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/planned-parenthood-fights-medicaid-cuts-in-court-over-new-federal-provision"},{"id":"fdcrg3","slug":"planned-parenthood-clinics-nationwide-at-risk-as-congress-targets-medicaid-funding","title":"Planned Parenthood Clinics Nationwide at Risk as Congress Targets Medicaid Funding","excerpt":"Congress is voting on a bill to exclude Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, endangering access to essential reproductive and general health care for millions of patients nationwide.","content":"A significant federal spending bill set to be voted on in the Senate this week has the potential to severely impact access to reproductive health care nationwide by omitting Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, the most extensive public health insurance program in the country.
The proposed legislation, referred to by its advocates as the “one big beautiful bill,” aims to prevent any Planned Parenthood clinic from obtaining Medicaid reimbursements if they offer abortion services, regardless of whether Medicaid finances those abortions. Experts caution that this may lead to the closure or reduction of services at nearly 200 clinics nationwide, potentially impacting care for millions of Medicaid recipients.
In numerous communities, particularly in rural and underserved regions, Planned Parenthood clinics frequently serve as the primary or sole providers of family planning services. They provide vital services such as birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing, prenatal and postpartum care, among others. More than 50% of individuals seeking services from Planned Parenthood depend on Medicaid for their healthcare needs.
“Should this legislation be enacted, numerous patients may find themselves without reliable providers and could encounter significant obstacles to essential health care,” stated advocates for reproductive rights. Studies indicate that when these clinics shut down, other health facilities seldom step in to provide the necessary services, resulting in communities lacking essential care.
Despite the existing restrictions on Medicaid funding for most abortions, certain lawmakers are advocating for this legislation as a means to undermine Planned Parenthood by attacking their capacity to provide services to Medicaid patients entirely.
With Congress moving the bill forward via the reconciliation process, it can be approved with just a simple majority, bypassing the typical 60-vote requirement in the Senate.
If passed, the legislation would affect not only regions where abortion is still permitted but also those where it has been prohibited. For example, clinics in Texas associated with Planned Parenthood—where abortion is not permitted—might face the loss of Medicaid funding solely due to their affiliation with an organization that offers abortion services in other locations.
Critics contend that the initiative is a component of a persistent effort to restrict abortion access by targeting providers in a roundabout way, cautioning that it will also adversely affect countless individuals who depend on Planned Parenthood for their routine health care needs.
“This issue extends beyond abortion—it encompasses health equity, patient choice, and the right to access care,” advocates stated. “Cutting Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood would exacerbate health inequalities for low-income families, rural populations, and communities of color.”
Patients, health care providers, and advocacy groups are calling on Congress to dismiss the bill and maintain Medicaid funding for vital reproductive health care services.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:09.206Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/685e86f3c24d819db2c7fb1f_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-06-27T195516.908.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/planned-parenthood-clinics-nationwide-at-risk-as-congress-targets-medicaid-funding","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/planned-parenthood-clinics-nationwide-at-risk-as-congress-targets-medicaid-funding"},{"id":"u6enur","slug":"planned-parenthood-clinics-face-closure-jeopardizing-abortion-travel-networks","title":"Planned Parenthood Clinics Face Closure, Jeopardizing Abortion Travel Networks","excerpt":"A provision in a Trump-backed federal spending law threatens to strip Planned Parenthood of key Medicaid funding, endangering clinics nationwide, especially in states where abortion remains legal and travel for care is already surging post-Roe.","content":"A recently proposed spending law backed by Trump has the potential to significantly alter abortion access nationwide by removing Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood health centers. This is especially impactful in states where abortion is still legal and patients are increasingly seeking care across state lines.
A new law enacted by a Congress with a Republican majority restricts Medicaid reimbursements to nonprofit reproductive health clinics that offer abortion services and receive over $800,000 in federal funding each year. A federal judge in Massachusetts has issued a temporary block on the provision, yet Planned Parenthood affiliates are preparing for potential challenges ahead.
The proposed funding ban, if enacted, could severely impact Planned Parenthood’s operations in states that prioritize abortion access, such as Colorado, New York, New Mexico, and Maryland—regions that have experienced a significant increase in patients traveling from other states since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Approximately one-third of Planned Parenthood's overall revenue is derived from government support, with Medicaid representing the most considerable portion. Medicaid generally does not cover abortion services, but it does support associated care like STI testing, contraception, and cancer screenings. If clinics are unable to charge for these services, a significant number of low-income patients may find themselves without access to essential reproductive health care.
Some Planned Parenthood affiliates have begun to halt their acceptance of Medicaid or have chosen not to submit reimbursement claims, uncertain about the likelihood of payment denials. Others are rushing to secure alternative funding sources to maintain clinic operations.
“This certainly seems like yet another significant jolt to the system,” remarked Caitlin Myers, an economist at Middlebury College. “The shutdown of clinics in states with limited access to abortion services may make obtaining care increasingly difficult.”
The Guttmacher Institute reported that in 2023, 155,000 individuals crossed state lines to seek abortion care. One in four abortion patients in Colorado, a significant portion, originated from outside the state. In New Mexico, that figure climbed to 69%.
In New York, where Planned Parenthood runs 47 clinics, officials indicate that the affiliate may face a loss of $35 million in Medicaid funding, almost a third of its overall budget. “A significant number of our clinics may face closure,” cautioned Robin Chappelle Golston, the leader of Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts.
In Colorado and New Mexico, Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountain has begun to decline services to Medicaid patients. Jack Teter, the vice president of government affairs for the affiliate, emphasized the importance of state backing: “We need our legislatures to step in.”
Without intervention, clinics in states known for their support of abortion services could vanish just as the need for their offerings continues to rise, resulting in patients confronting longer journeys, increased expenses, or a complete lack of care.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:08.576Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/687760fcb7d5dd9c2dc4cce6_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-07-16T162026.957.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/planned-parenthood-clinics-face-closure-jeopardizing-abortion-travel-networks","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/planned-parenthood-clinics-face-closure-jeopardizing-abortion-travel-networks"},{"id":"1fgh6c","slug":"planned-parenthood-aclu-fight-missouri-ags-demand-for-abortion-patients-health-files","title":"Planned Parenthood, ACLU Fight Missouri AG’s Demand for Abortion Patients’ Health Files","excerpt":"Missouri’s attorney general is demanding access to the private medical records of Planned Parenthood abortion patients as part of an ongoing legal battle over state abortion restrictions, prompting backlash from clinics and civil rights groups.","content":"The Missouri Attorney General's Office is demanding health records and internal papers from Planned Parenthood clinics in a legal struggle over abortion rules, which reproductive rights groups describe as a hazardous invasion of patient privacy.
The attorney general has subpoenaed patient medical data, incident reports, “adverse event documentation,” and patient care conversations, according to court filings. Subpoenas also demand operational protocols, equipment records, contracts, and compliance documents from Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Great Rivers.
“Despite the Missouri attorney general’s blatant attempts to overturn the will of the people, all patients expect and have the right to private medical records,” said Planned Parenthood Great Plains, Great Rivers, and the ACLU of Missouri. Politicians should not be in the exam room with patients and doctors.
In addition to document requests, two former Planned Parenthood Great Rivers board members, a contracted physician, and the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood Great Plains were subpoenaed during a Sept. 10 court recess. The clinics' attorneys are urging Jackson County Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang to dismiss the subpoenas as “nothing more than an attempt to harass” Planned Parenthood.
This dispute comes less than a year after Missouri voters enacted a constitutional amendment guaranteeing reproductive health rights, including abortion up to fetal viability. The day after that vote, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU sued various states to overturn abortion restrictions as illegal.
Planned Parenthood can resume abortion procedures in Kansas City (State of Missouri), Columbia, and St. Louis after Judge Zhang suspended some of those guidelines. The trial is in January. The clinics want to relieve restrictions on prescribing abortion medicines, such as limits on mifepristone and misoprostol.
The attorney general's request for patient data mirrors a health privacy dispute. Last month, the Missouri Court of Appeals allowed the attorney general to request limited health data from the Washington University Transgender Center under more onerous restrictions.
The office claimed it was a “health oversight agency” and could access HIPAA-protected medical information. The appellate court limited disclosure to “minimum necessary” information.
Missouri's top prosecutor is under fire again for mixing law enforcement oversight and patient confidentiality in another subpoena fight. Missourians could not get medication abortions from in-state physicians as of Oct. 6.
New Attorney General Catherine Hanaway did not reply to calls for comment Monday, Oct. 6.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:07.930Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68e66ed619f5c863a23d7cad_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-10-08T220009.327.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/planned-parenthood-aclu-fight-missouri-ags-demand-for-abortion-patients-health-files","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/planned-parenthood-aclu-fight-missouri-ags-demand-for-abortion-patients-health-files"},{"id":"gr1iw2","slug":"planned-gop-medicaid-cuts-threaten-maternity-care-mental-health-services-for-millions-of-women","title":"Planned GOP Medicaid Cuts Threaten Maternity Care, Mental Health Services for Millions of Women","excerpt":"As Trump administration officials target $2.3 trillion in Medicaid cuts, experts say the move could devastate women’s healthcare, from maternity services to mental health care and rural hospital access.","content":"Experts and advocates are raising alarms over the Trump administration's proposal to cut Medicaid funding by $2.3 trillion over the next ten years, warning that such reductions could severely impact women's healthcare access nationwide.
Medicaid, the leading health insurance program for low-income individuals in the United States, provides coverage to nearly 90 million Americans. This includes 40% of all births in the country, 80% of children living in poverty, and a significant number of women requiring maternity, mental health, and preventive care services. Proposed budget plans from Republican lawmakers, as reported by Politico, aim to reduce federal Medicaid funding from its current $600 billion annual budget. This move is part of a broader initiative to achieve a $5 trillion decrease in federal spending.
Dr. Kanwar Kelley, co-founder of Side Health, told Healthline that these cuts \"could have massive negative implications across the entire healthcare system.\" The situation affects patients who have no alternative options.
Women are anticipated to face a greater impact. Medicaid provides vital maternity care services to millions, encompassing prenatal visits, labor and delivery, and postpartum care. Public health expert Sharma has issued a warning that cuts to Medicaid funding could exacerbate current disparities in maternal health. Black, Hispanic, American Indian, and Alaska Native women are currently experiencing elevated risks of maternal mortality, with these communities demonstrating a greater dependence on Medicaid for healthcare support.
Moreover, Medicaid stands as the largest single payer for mental health services across the United States, providing coverage for treatment to nearly 25% of adults experiencing mental illness. Women, who tend to pursue mental health support more frequently, may face diminished access to affordable care if states are compelled to limit eligibility or reduce services.
Experts indicate that states collaborating with the federal government to share Medicaid costs may be forced to implement stricter enrollment criteria and reduce covered services.
Anu Sharma, founder and CEO of Millie, a medical provider specializing in holistic maternity care, emphasized that “funding reductions would exacerbate the already significant barriers faced by the millions who rely on public health programs.”
Rural hospitals and clinics, which depend on Medicaid reimbursements, may be at risk of closure. Sharma indicated that facilities may need to reduce services, shut down locations, or provide care with limited resources.
Kelley also emphasized that the loss of Medicaid coverage for women could result in a decline in preventive care and routine check-ups, potentially leading to deteriorating health and increased reliance on expensive emergency room services. The financial strain is expected to reverberate throughout the healthcare system, compelling insurers to raise premiums. \"The source of that funding remains a critical question,\" he stated.
The Modern Medicaid Alliance, comprising 90 organizations, has expressed concerns that proposed cuts would adversely affect children, older adults, individuals with disabilities, and nearly 2 million veterans, all of whom include a substantial number of women.
The Trump administration's assertion of a commitment to reducing federal spending faces criticism from public health leaders, who caution that the suggested cuts to Medicaid could reverse decades of advancements in women's healthcare access and equity. This rollback may have lasting repercussions for families, hospitals, and communities.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:07.264Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6812827f15ceccc4989e84ae_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-05-01T040507.200.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/planned-gop-medicaid-cuts-threaten-maternity-care-mental-health-services-for-millions-of-women","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/planned-gop-medicaid-cuts-threaten-maternity-care-mental-health-services-for-millions-of-women"},{"id":"yu74s9","slug":"pioneering-womens-rights-the-legacy-of-merle-hoffman","title":"Pioneering Women's Rights: The Legacy of Merle Hoffman","excerpt":"Merle Hoffman is a pivotal figure in the fight for women's reproductive rights, establishing one of the first abortion clinics in the U.S. in the 1970s. Her advocacy has shaped the landscape of abortion access and continues to inspire movements today.","content":"In the early 1970s, as societal norms began to shift and the conversation around women's reproductive health gained momentum, Merle Hoffman emerged as a fearless advocate for women's rights. Following New York's legalization of abortion in 1970, Hoffman took a monumental step forward by co-establishing one of the first abortion clinics in Flushing, New York. This clinic not only provided essential services but also symbolized the burgeoning recognition of women's autonomy over their own bodies.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:06.654Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730a167e07775ea9eec507c_21.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/pioneering-womens-rights-the-legacy-of-merle-hoffman","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/pioneering-womens-rights-the-legacy-of-merle-hoffman"},{"id":"sgwb89","slug":"philadelphia-council-declares-abortion-rights-human-rights-as-funding-cuts-draw-scrutiny","title":"Philadelphia Council Declares Abortion Rights “Human Rights” as Funding Cuts Draw Scrutiny","excerpt":"The Philadelphia City Council approved a resolution Thursday recognizing abortion rights as human rights, even as advocates criticized the city for eliminating reproductive health funding in the latest budget.","content":"On Thursday, the City Council passed a resolution recognizing abortion rights as human rights. This symbolic action came as local advocates urged officials to reinstate reproductive health funding removed from the city’s budget.
The resolution, put forth by Councilmember Kendra Brooks, emerged as abortion providers and reproductive health organizations raised alarms about increasing financial pressures. Brooks, chair of the city’s newly established Reproductive Freedom Task Force, noted that the latest budget, approved in June, eliminated funding for reproductive care.
“In our latest budget, there was no allocation for reproductive care, which is certainly concerning,” Brooks stated. “It’s frustrating to see cities like Chicago, Atlanta, and Baltimore taking action with direct funding for abortion and reproductive care, while here in Philly we can’t even secure a hearing.”
In the past two years, Philadelphia allocated over $1 million for reproductive health initiatives. In the aftermath of the 2022 Dobbs decision that reversed Roe v. Wade, the city allocated $500,000 to the Abortion Liberation Fund of Pennsylvania.
In 2024, Philadelphia allocated an additional $500,000 to Planned Parenthood and designated $450,000 for various reproductive health services. However, Brooks expressed concern that the removal of funding for this fiscal year has raised alarms among providers already under national pressure.
In recent developments, a total of 34 clinics in states where abortion is still permitted have shut down in the past two years, attributing their closures to challenges related to operations and finances. In September, a federal appeals court allowed the Trump administration to restrict Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. This change, the organization claims, could lead to the potential closure of around 200 centers.
During the meeting on Thursday, advocates from the Reproductive Freedom Task Force urged the Committee on Public Health to hold a formal hearing. They contended that the city needs to tackle increasing challenges, such as the financial strain on providers, the risk of clinic shutdowns, and the emergence of crisis pregnancy centers.
“Ensuring access to abortion and reproductive health care is not just a matter for the federal government; it concerns us all,” stated Katia Pérez, executive director of the Abortion Liberation Fund of Pennsylvania. Although the city granted permission for a hearing in September, Pérez noted that no specific date had been set.
In September, Planned Parenthood disclosed that it had covered $45 million in Medicaid expenses, a figure the organization deemed unsustainable. Brooks stated that she has not come across any reports of clinics shutting down in Philadelphia due to financial issues but cautioned, “There’s always a chance when there’s no funding.”
Advocates raised alarms regarding crisis pregnancy centers, commonly known as CPCs. Critics argue that these “fake clinics” imitate genuine medical providers while attempting to persuade pregnant women against seeking abortions. Across the country, there are three times as many CPCs as there are abortion providers. In Pennsylvania, the disparity is significant—154 CPCs in contrast to a much smaller number of abortion providers, creating a ratio of 9-to-1.
Advocates for the resolution expressed that the vote on Thursday represents progress in enhancing safeguards in a city where access to women's health care is still at risk. However, they highlighted that without renewed financial support, providers of reproductive health services may face increased risks due to ongoing federal and state challenges.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:05.985Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/69173c84d906e7d3da1c8556_Web_Photo_Editor%20(13).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/philadelphia-council-declares-abortion-rights-human-rights-as-funding-cuts-draw-scrutiny","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/philadelphia-council-declares-abortion-rights-human-rights-as-funding-cuts-draw-scrutiny"},{"id":"6w5zco","slug":"period-poverty-in-the-uk-endangers-womens-health-as-financial-struggles-force-risky-choices","title":"Period Poverty in the UK Endangers Women’s Health as Financial Struggles Force Risky Choices","excerpt":"New research highlights the alarming impact of period poverty in the United Kingdom, revealing that financial hardships are forcing women to leave tampons in for longer than recommended, risking their health and increasing the threat of toxic shock syndrome.","content":"","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:05.356Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67379374b8427b676fd32601_5.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/period-poverty-in-the-uk-endangers-womens-health-as-financial-struggles-force-risky-choices","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/period-poverty-in-the-uk-endangers-womens-health-as-financial-struggles-force-risky-choices"},{"id":"gd2zkk","slug":"olivia-rodrigos-concert-a-stand-for-reproductive-rights","title":"Olivia Rodrigo's Concert: A Stand for Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"At a recent concert in Missouri, pop star Olivia Rodrigo took a bold stand for reproductive rights by distributing free contraceptives and morning-after pills. This initiative has reignited conversations about women's autonomy and health in a state facing strict abortion laws.","content":"In a powerful display of support for women's reproductive rights, pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo recently hosted a concert in Missouri, a state currently grappling with stringent abortion restrictions. As part of her efforts to empower concert-goers, fans were offered free condoms and emergency contraception, commonly known as the morning-after pill. This initiative not only underscores the importance of accessible reproductive health resources but also serves as a catalyst for broader discussions surrounding women's autonomy over their bodies in a climate where such rights are increasingly under threat.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:04.688Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67301951c5fbdedf52471141_Web_Photo_Editor%20(17).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/olivia-rodrigos-concert-a-stand-for-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/olivia-rodrigos-concert-a-stand-for-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"f5exn5","slug":"oklahomas-troubling-legislative-moves-on-reproductive-rights","title":"Oklahoma's Troubling Legislative Moves on Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"Oklahoma lawmakers have passed a series of bills that significantly restrict women's reproductive rights, including access to abortion and contraception. These changes are part of a broader trend that undermines women's autonomy and health care choices, igniting a fierce debate about reproductive freedoms across the nation.","content":"In the shadow of the ongoing national dialogue about reproductive rights, Oklahoma's recent legislative actions have raised significant concerns among advocates for women's autonomy. While many were focused on the Alabama State Supreme Court’s controversial rulings regarding in vitro fertilization, Oklahoma lawmakers quietly passed a slew of bills that could severely restrict access to abortion and other essential reproductive health services.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:04.060Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67303d69c5fbdedf525708e2_20.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/oklahomas-troubling-legislative-moves-on-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/oklahomas-troubling-legislative-moves-on-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"ebei6o","slug":"oklahomas-abortion-rights-legal-battle-womens-choice","title":"Oklahoma's Abortion Rights: A Legal Battle for Women’s Choice","excerpt":"The case of Oklahoma v. Department of Health and Human Services highlights the crucial legal challenges surrounding abortion rights in the state. This article delves into the implications for women's reproductive freedom and the importance of advocacy in safeguarding these rights.","content":"The legal landscape surrounding abortion rights in Oklahoma is fraught with tension and complexity, particularly in the case of Oklahoma v. Department of Health and Human Services. At first glance, this case may seem like a minor dispute within health policy, but it carries significant implications for the future of women’s reproductive rights in the state and beyond.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:03.450Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731bfb4e3ecf057ff46fa33_38.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/oklahomas-abortion-rights-legal-battle-womens-choice","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/oklahomas-abortion-rights-legal-battle-womens-choice"},{"id":"x8ae9l","slug":"ohio-ag-challenges-ruling-that-struck-down-six-week-abortion-ban","title":"Ohio AG Challenges Ruling That Struck Down Six-Week Abortion Ban","excerpt":"Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is appealing a court decision that struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban, citing unresolved conflicts between the law and Ohio’s new reproductive rights amendment.","content":"An appeal has been submitted by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, challenging a verdict that overturned the state's six-week abortion ban, also known as the \"heartbeat law.\" Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Christian Jenkins decided to appeal in October and ruled that the 2019 statute was unconstitutional because the state had passed a reproductive rights amendment that the voters ratified.
The rule, which barred the majority of abortions after heart activity is detected, which occurs typically about six weeks into pregnancy, had been put on hold. At the same time, ongoing legal challenges were being processed. The court's most recent ruling invalidated the prohibition and rejected any attempts to maintain some provisions of the Act, such as the requirements for notification and reporting.
Judge Jenkins noted that if these rules had remained in place, it would have resulted in considerable costs to patients and providers. These difficulties would have included filing felony charges against physicians and mandating patient waiting periods.
In its argument, the office of Attorney General Yost asserts that the verdict raises problems that have not yet been resolved regarding the relationship between the constitutional amendment and particular constitutional provisions. According to Bethany McCorkle, a spokesperson for Yost, \"It is up to the courts to determine how conflicts between those two documents are resolved.\"
It is important to note that the appeal will set the stage for additional judicial challenges on reproductive rights in Ohio, with the constitutional amendment of the state serving as a crucial safeguard for access to abortion resources.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:02.816Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/674bd0ead37ddf987479edd0_2.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/ohio-ag-challenges-ruling-that-struck-down-six-week-abortion-ban","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/ohio-ag-challenges-ruling-that-struck-down-six-week-abortion-ban"},{"id":"5cyf7i","slug":"north-dakota-house-rejects-abortion-reproductive-rights-bills","title":"North Dakota House Rejects Abortion, Reproductive Rights Bills","excerpt":"The North Dakota House rejected four abortion-related bills Wednesday, including a controversial personhood measure that would have allowed women to be charged with murder for obtaining an abortion.","content":"On Wednesday, the North Dakota House decisively voted against four bills concerning abortion and reproductive rights, one of which was a contentious personhood bill that could have led to women facing murder charges for seeking an abortion.
House Bill 1373, introduced by Rep. Lori VanWinkle, R-Minot, aimed to redefine a human being to encompass an unborn child within state laws related to murder, assault, and wrongful death lawsuits. The bill was rejected with a vote of 77-16, as critics cautioned that it might limit in vitro fertilization (IVF), create challenges in medical care for pregnancy complications, and result in expensive legal disputes. VanWinkle supported the bill, contending that abortion contributes to North Dakota’s workforce shortage and citing religious reasons, stating, “Perhaps women are going to the IVF clinics because judgment is on their womb.”
A separate bill, House Bill 1488, which aimed to allow abortion for any reason up to 15 weeks of pregnancy, also did not pass, receiving an 87-6 vote against it. Rep. Eric Murphy, R-Grand Forks, the bill's sponsor, referenced polling that shows a majority of North Dakotans are against the state's near-total abortion ban, enacted in 2023. A district court judge deemed that law unconstitutional last fall; it prohibits almost all abortions, allowing exceptions only in cases of rape and incest within the first six weeks or when a woman's life is endangered. The state has filed an appeal regarding the ruling to the North Dakota Supreme Court.
Murphy, a professor at a medical school, stated that he proposed the bill to offer doctors more explicit guidelines, emphasizing that stringent abortion bans across the country have restricted physicians' capacity to care for their patients. His proposal would have mandated a review by a medical panel for abortions performed after 15 weeks, except for emergencies. Despite considerable resistance, the pro-IVF bill received the highest backing among the four proposals yet failed in passing.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:02.154Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67af643fcba2c18956fc3eef_Web_Photo_Editor%20(39).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/north-dakota-house-rejects-abortion-reproductive-rights-bills","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/north-dakota-house-rejects-abortion-reproductive-rights-bills"},{"id":"rchrz3","slug":"no-one-asked-you-documentary-on-reproductive-rights","title":"No One Asked You: A Documentary on Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"\"No One Asked You\" is a powerful documentary by comedian Lizz Winstead and director Ruth Leitman, shedding light on the ongoing struggle for reproductive rights. Through personal narratives and expert insights, it emphasizes the importance of choice and access to safe abortion.","content":"In recent years, the debate surrounding reproductive rights has intensified, with activists and advocates working tirelessly to ensure that women maintain control over their bodies and health decisions. Among those leading the charge is Lizz Winstead, a comedian and co-creator of \"The Daily Show,\" who has channeled her passion for women's rights into a compelling documentary titled \"No One Asked You.\" Directed by Ruth Leitman, this film aims to illuminate the critical issues surrounding abortion access and women's reproductive freedoms.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:01.511Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67312e212cb5bc132507a48b_41.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/no-one-asked-you-documentary-on-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/no-one-asked-you-documentary-on-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"4sylfi","slug":"new-texas-abortion-law-targets-mailed-pills-setting-up-national-legal-clash","title":"New Texas Abortion Law Targets Mailed Pills, Setting Up National Legal Clash","excerpt":"This week marks the implementation of Texas' new abortion law, HB 7, which potentially escalates legal conflicts with states that protect telehealth abortions under shield laws.","content":"A massive new abortion law in Texas that goes into effect on Wednesday could make national legal fights over telehealth abortions and the mailing of abortion drugs even more heated. This could lead to court challenges that could go all the way to the U.S. Experts suggest that this could potentially escalate to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Anyone can sue health care workers who \"make abortion medications available in Texas\" under House Bill 7, which goes into effect on December 4. The minimum fine is $100,000. Some people who support the rule say that it also lets individuals sue drug companies in civil court, but not people who get abortions.
The law is Texas's most direct attempt yet to stop online abortions, which have become crucial for people in states that have banned them since Roe v. Wade was overturned. According to research, about a quarter of all abortions are now done through telehealth, and about half of those happen in places with strict rules.
Even though there are new fines, some out-of-state telehealth services say they will still mail medicines to Texans. Providers say that shield rules in states where abortion is still legal keep Texas courts from enforcing them. Elisa Wells, who is in charge of access for Plan C, said that she has not heard any signs that companies are going to stop giving Texas remote services. People are even more eager to help people in Texas get abortion pills now that this law is in effect, she said.
Danco and GenBioPro, two companies that make mifepristone, refused to comment. But anti-abortion groups say they are getting ready to sue providers who keep sending pills. John Seago, head of Texas Right to Life, said his group is setting up a statewide network to identify potential cases. He said, \"We are putting together a team in case we need to file one of these lawsuits at the end of the year.\"
The law will likely assess the extent of states' power over providers operating in areas with shield rules. Almost half of the states now protect reproductive health providers in some way, but only eight of those states protect those who serve people anywhere.
Texas officials have already taken civil steps against people who sent abortion drugs by mail. Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a doctor in New York for sending pills, but under New York's shield law, the state would not follow a Texas court's decision. Furthermore, lawyer Jonathan Mitchell has sued abortion doctors in other states several times for wrongful death, saying that an abortion is the same thing as killing a person.
Telehealth groups are closely monitoring a Texas case involving a California doctor named Remy Coeytaux. Mitchell plans to change this case after HB 7 goes into effect. The leader of the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Project, Dr. Angel Foster, said that the case might show how well shield laws work with Texas's new criminal codes. “That will help us understand how the matter will go through the courts and what it will look like,” she said.
HB 7 is similar to Texas's law from 2021 that banned abortions after six weeks. That law was based on private civil cases, but no claims were successful. Some providers say they are sure they can keep doing business because of their history and the strong shield rules in place. Foster said, \"We are not going to change anything about how we do things.\"
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:00.891Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/693030af05bc93658386da2d_Group%203%20(1).png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/new-texas-abortion-law-targets-mailed-pills-setting-up-national-legal-clash","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/new-texas-abortion-law-targets-mailed-pills-setting-up-national-legal-clash"},{"id":"c89ste","slug":"new-research-exposes-coercion-forced-procedures-during-childbirth-across-12-countries","title":"New Research Exposes Coercion, Forced Procedures During Childbirth Across 12 Countries","excerpt":"A new Center for Reproductive Rights report exposes legal loopholes worldwide allowing forced medical procedures during childbirth, with recommendations to protect autonomy.","content":"Research from the Center for Reproductive Rights reveals that legal protections for women during labor and childbirth are significantly inadequate globally, exposing many to coercion, forced medical procedures, and a lack of informed consent. A recent analysis examines the legal frameworks across twelve nations, including the U.S., Mexico, India, and Uganda, revealing significant systemic shortcomings that compromise autonomy in maternal health care.
The research highlights the distinct nature of maternal health within the realms of medicine and law, noting that it stands out as the sole field where informed consent may be legally waived, often citing ambiguous “emergency” exceptions. Instances have been recorded where women faced coercion to undergo procedures such as C-sections, usually backed by dubious interpretations of fetal risk.
Recent findings indicate that a significant portion of women, at least 15%, in the examined countries faced mistreatment during childbirth, with some nations reporting rates approaching universality. The reported mistreatment encompasses non-consensual interventions, neglect, verbal abuse, and instances of sexual violence, all stemming from systemic gender bias and structural power imbalances between providers and patients.
Identified legal loopholes encompass comprehensive emergency provisions that enable physicians to circumvent consent, regulations that favor fetal protection at the expense of pregnant individuals' rights, and systems that restrict birthing options for those categorized as “high-risk.” In certain nations, such as Kenya and Uganda, regulations exist that permit providers to withhold information if they believe it may distress the patient, potentially compromising trust and the ability to make informed decisions.
The report emphasizes the need for a human rights-based framework in maternal health legislation, outlining specific emergency exceptions, affirming the right of pregnant individuals to decline treatment, and advocating for comprehensive reforms that uphold dignity and patient autonomy. It also requires compulsory training for providers and the collection of data to address abuse.
With the ongoing global crisis of maternal mortality, where 800 women lose their lives each day due to complications, advocates emphasize the critical need to safeguard the rights of those who are pregnant and giving birth. This approach is crucial for improving outcomes and ensuring respectful, patient-centered care.
Check out the complete research brief at the Center for Reproductive Rights .
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:39:00.283Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/685e8f9a2b26bd4ad388a7b0_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-06-27T203318.439.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/new-research-exposes-coercion-forced-procedures-during-childbirth-across-12-countries","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/new-research-exposes-coercion-forced-procedures-during-childbirth-across-12-countries"},{"id":"fz2lmd","slug":"new-mexico-republican-candidate-disavows-anti-abortion-stance","title":"New Mexico Republican Candidate Disavows Anti-Abortion Stance","excerpt":"Yvette Herrell, a Republican congressional candidate in New Mexico, has removed all mentions of her anti-abortion stance from her campaign materials. This shift raises questions about the evolving political landscape and the impact of public opinion on women's reproductive rights.","content":"In a notable turn of events, Yvette Herrell, a Republican candidate for Congress in New Mexico, has recently distanced herself from her previous anti-abortion rhetoric. Once proudly proclaiming her anti-abortion credentials, Herrell has now opted to eliminate any references to this contentious issue from her website and campaign materials. This shift not only highlights the complex dynamics of modern political campaigning but also underscores the critical conversation surrounding women's reproductive rights and the right to choose.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:58.508Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67301654e050323a1c911016_15.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/new-mexico-republican-candidate-disavows-anti-abortion-stance","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/new-mexico-republican-candidate-disavows-anti-abortion-stance"},{"id":"rzbfl5","slug":"new-book-by-carrie-baker-explores-the-history-and-politics-behind-abortion-pills-in-the-u-s","title":"New Book by Carrie Baker Explores the History and Politics Behind Abortion Pills in the U.S.","excerpt":"Carrie N. Baker’s Abortion Pills offers a deep dive into the political, medical, and social struggles surrounding the use of abortion pills in the U.S., a critical topic in today’s fight for reproductive rights.","content":"In her newly released book Abortion Pills: US History and Politics, Carrie N. Baker, a professor and journalist, offers a thorough examination of the complex history surrounding abortion pills in the United States. The book chronicles the lengthy battle to bring mifepristone and misoprostol into the spotlight—medications that have become essential in the contemporary struggle for reproductive rights.
Starting in the 1960s, as scientists in France and the U.S. began their collaboration on hormone-based treatments to induce pregnancy rejection, Baker reveals a narrative filled with scientific advancements, legal conflicts, and activism. The development of the \"unpregnancy pill,\" which later became known as RU-486, transformed abortion access globally, although it wasn't until 2000 that the FDA granted approval for its use in the United States. Even with its success in 96 countries, there remains significant political resistance to abortion pills in the United States, particularly in the wake of recent legal challenges stemming from the 2022 Dobbs decision.
Baker’s book emphasizes that despite the rising prevalence of pill-based abortions (which accounted for 63% of U.S. abortions in 2023), considerable challenges persist. Even with the progress made in accessibility, she contends that the fight for abortion access is still ongoing, as political opposition persists in influencing the situation.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:57.072Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/674dd74e0b4453c7a8e8add9_7.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/new-book-by-carrie-baker-explores-the-history-and-politics-behind-abortion-pills-in-the-u-s","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/new-book-by-carrie-baker-explores-the-history-and-politics-behind-abortion-pills-in-the-u-s"},{"id":"pxqzm8","slug":"nevada-judge-weighs-bid-to-block-parental-approval-rule-for-minors-abortions","title":"Nevada Judge Weighs Bid to Block Parental Approval Rule for Minors’ Abortions","excerpt":"Planned Parenthood is asking a Nevada court to halt enforcement of a 40-year-old law requiring minors to obtain parental consent or a judicial order for an abortion. Attorneys argued Monday that the revived statute is vague, unconstitutional, and poses an immediate threat of prosecution.","content":"On Monday, Planned Parenthood called on a Nevada judge to intervene and halt the enforcement of a long-standing law that mandates minors to secure either parental consent or a judicial order before undergoing an abortion.
The organization contended that the law is ambiguous, unconstitutional, and poses a significant risk of legal repercussions.
Senate Bill 510, enacted in 1985, remained unenforced due to the implications of Roe v. Wade. The U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has led to the overturning of Roe, establishing the law as valid once more.
Attorney Bradley Schrager, representing Planned Parenthood Mar Monte and an unnamed doctor, informed Clark County District Judge Erika Mendoza that the measure places providers in a position of legal vulnerability. “No one has told us, ‘You’re in the clear.’” “There’s no need to be concerned about it,” Schrager remarked. “It seems there’s no alternative to that.”
A parent or guardian of an unmarried or unemancipated minor must be informed before an abortion, as mandated by the statute. A minor might opt for a judicial bypass, a procedure that Schrager described as “hazy” and insufficient. He contended that the legislation does not clarify the procedures for physicians to ascertain a patient's marital status or emancipation, nor does it outline the criteria for assessing what constitutes a \"reasonable effort\" to reach a parent. “Are you trusting the patient's account?” “Is that something you can accomplish?” he inquired, deeming the ambiguity a violation of constitutional principles.
Judge Mendoza raised concerns about whether the presence of the statute alone poses a threat of prosecution, stating, “There has to be something more than, ‘It’s on the books.’”
Chief Deputy Solicitor General Jessica Whelan asserted that Planned Parenthood is overstating the level of confusion. She noted that criminal statutes often lack comprehensive details, pointing to burglary laws that do not define specific methods of entry. “It seems to me that these are the kinds of arguments being presented in this discussion,” Whelan stated.
Whelan raised concerns about Planned Parenthood's ability to bring a lawsuit, suggesting that the law is aimed at physicians rather than the organization as a whole. According to her, doctors can rely on familiar signs like the presence of a spouse or the wearing of a wedding ring to assess adherence.
Schrager emphasized that the law poses a risk of irreversible damage. “Amidst all of this, the rights of individuals are quietly fading,” he remarked.
On Monday, Judge Mendoza refrained from making a ruling, indicating that an order would be forthcoming soon.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:56.467Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68a52bb60221148db4f27286_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-08-20T095704.579.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/nevada-judge-weighs-bid-to-block-parental-approval-rule-for-minors-abortions","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/nevada-judge-weighs-bid-to-block-parental-approval-rule-for-minors-abortions"},{"id":"fxhmcw","slug":"nevada-activists-push-for-constitutional-amendment-on-abortion-rights","title":"Nevada Activists Push for Constitutional Amendment on Abortion Rights","excerpt":"In a significant step for reproductive rights, activists in Nevada have successfully collected enough signatures to place a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights on the ballot this November. This initiative reflects growing public support for maintaining access to safe and legal abortion across the state.","content":"On a vibrant Monday morning, reproductive rights activists in Nevada celebrated a monumental achievement: they have gathered enough signatures to place a vital amendment on the upcoming November ballot aimed at enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution. This initiative comes in response to the heightened national debate surrounding women's reproductive rights and the increasing pressure on states to restrict access to abortion services.
","category":"choice","author":"Her Choice","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:55.874Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673173ca94c66a7ceb05cc7b_4.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/nevada-activists-push-for-constitutional-amendment-on-abortion-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/nevada-activists-push-for-constitutional-amendment-on-abortion-rights"},{"id":"4un2n8","slug":"nebraska-voters-to-decide-on-abortion-measures","title":"Nebraska Voters to Decide on Abortion Measures This November","excerpt":"In November, Nebraska voters will have the opportunity to weigh in on two critical abortion-related ballot measures. This decision comes after a recent ruling by the state Supreme Court, emphasizing the importance of reproductive rights in the state. Understanding these measures is essential for Nebraska's future.","content":"As the political landscape continues to evolve, reproductive rights remain at the forefront of discussions across the nation. This November, Nebraska voters will face a pivotal moment with two abortion-related ballot measures that could significantly influence the future of reproductive health in the state. The Nebraska Supreme Court's recent ruling has paved the way for these measures to be voted on, highlighting the ongoing debate surrounding women's rights to choose.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:55.243Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731d76ff3d973363d561fb0_46.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/nebraska-voters-to-decide-on-abortion-measures","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/nebraska-voters-to-decide-on-abortion-measures"},{"id":"s2nkjx","slug":"nearly-70-planned-parenthood-clinics-close-nationwide-after-federal-funding-cuts","title":"Nearly 70 Planned Parenthood Clinics Close Nationwide After Federal Funding Cuts","excerpt":"Nearly 70 Planned Parenthood centers have closed in 2025 after temporary federal funding restrictions, according to a new report. The closures come as pro-life groups expand ultrasound placements and prepare significant spending ahead of the 2026 midterms.","content":"A new study from Planned Parenthood says that almost 70 of its facilities have shuttered this year because they lost Medicaid and Title X funding due to a federal spending bill.
There are now 20 more closed facilities since the One Big Beautiful Bill Act went into effect earlier this year. This number is in addition to the nearly 50 facilities that had already closed. President Donald Trump signed the measure, prohibiting the use of federal tax monies to support abortion clinics for a year. Because of this, reproductive health groups like Planned Parenthood cannot get Medicare and Medicaid payments for a short time.
Planned Parenthood executives argued that the financial burden made it necessary for many locations to close rather than cut back on or stop offering abortion services. Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, spoke out against the policy change. \"They are purposely tearing down health care for the patients who need it the most and pushing Planned Parenthood health centers closer to the edge of financial ruin,\" she stated in a statement on November 12.
The closures have gotten a lot of attention across the country, but pro-life researchers say that community health centers are still much more common than Planned Parenthood centers. According to research from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, more than 8,800 community health clinics offer comprehensive care and women's health services. In comparison, there are only 579 Planned Parenthood centers as of spring 2025.
As things change, several faith-based groups are working harder to support pregnancy resource services. The Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has started a new project called \"Across State Lines.\" Its goal is to provide ultrasound machines in areas where abortion is still legal. The people in charge of the initiative say it is both \"lifesaving\" and \"missional.\"
Gary Hollingsworth, the interim president of the ERLC, said that Southern Baptists \"stand firmly on the truth that God has created all people, from the moment of conception, in his image.\" He hopes that new ultrasound placements will help mothers \"see this truth.\" The commission's Psalm 139 Project will pay for the placements and also train clinic staff. Rachel Wiles, the program director, said the program's goal is to \"serve vulnerable women\" and that churches should \"reach across state lines\" to support pregnancy centers.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America announced an $80 million investment ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, a political move. The group, along with Women Speak Out PAC, aims to reach 10.5 million voters in battleground states such as Iowa, Georgia, Michigan, and North Carolina through canvassing, advertising, and early-voting outreach. The campaign staff plans to visit more than 4.5 million homes.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the SBA, asserts that pro-life voters represent the core of the Republican Party. She stated that polls indicate that past elections may have gone differently if a tiny number of those voters had stayed home.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:54.576Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/691dbf452e86159bf823ae7f_Frame%201%20(3).png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/nearly-70-planned-parenthood-clinics-close-nationwide-after-federal-funding-cuts","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/nearly-70-planned-parenthood-clinics-close-nationwide-after-federal-funding-cuts"},{"id":"mhz2cf","slug":"navigating-the-landscape-of-abortion-rights-in-america","title":"Navigating the Landscape of Abortion Rights in America","excerpt":"As the battle for abortion rights intensifies, understanding the nuances of reproductive freedom is essential. This article explores the implications of recent legal shifts and their impact on women's rights.","content":"The year 2022 marked a significant turning point in the American discourse surrounding abortion rights. Following the imminent threat of the Supreme Court overturning the landmark decision of Roe v. Wade, the political landscape became charged with urgency. For Senate Republicans, this potential shift prompted a strategic reevaluation of their messaging on reproductive rights, as they recognized the necessity of resonating with voters on this deeply personal and often contentious issue.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:53.975Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730a29eee33049f980c52be_Web_Photo_Editor%20(32).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/navigating-the-landscape-of-abortion-rights-in-america","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/navigating-the-landscape-of-abortion-rights-in-america"},{"id":"smswqv","slug":"navigating-the-divide-republican-party-reproductive-rights","title":"Navigating the Divide: The Republican Party and Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"The Republican Party grapples with the tension between its base's demand for a nationwide forced-birth law and the broader public's support for reproductive rights. This article delves into the party's internal struggles, electoral implications, and the ongoing fight for women's rights.","content":"The Republican Party currently finds itself at a crossroads regarding reproductive rights, particularly as the demand for a nationwide forced-birth law intensifies among its base. This internal conflict highlights a significant disconnect between the party's core supporters and the broader public sentiment on women's reproductive freedoms.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:53.360Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67319d28c2d867d54f90079a_24.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/navigating-the-divide-republican-party-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/navigating-the-divide-republican-party-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"egadly","slug":"navigating-the-2024-election-womens-rights-at-the-forefront","title":"Navigating the 2024 Election: Women's Rights at the Forefront","excerpt":"As the 2024 election approaches, women's reproductive rights are becoming a critical point of discussion. With President Biden facing challenges, advocacy for the right to choose remains paramount. Voters are expressing their concerns, emphasizing the significance of candidates' stances on abortion and women's health.","content":"As we approach the 2024 election, the landscape for women’s reproductive rights is charged with urgency and significance. The election is not just about selecting a leader; it’s a referendum on fundamental rights that impact millions of women across the country. With President Biden in the spotlight, concerns regarding his age and overall popularity have prompted a wave of protest votes within the Democratic primaries. Many voters are expressing their dissatisfaction, and this discontent is primarily fueled by pressing issues like reproductive rights.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:52.772Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67312814a3da350e90207a1d_33.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/navigating-the-2024-election-womens-rights-at-the-forefront","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/navigating-the-2024-election-womens-rights-at-the-forefront"},{"id":"ve4rug","slug":"navigating-post-roe-politics-a-challenge-for-trump","title":"Navigating Post-Roe Politics: A Challenge for Trump","excerpt":"In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, former President Trump faces challenges in addressing the shifting dynamics of reproductive rights. This article delves into the political landscape, the implications for women's rights, and the ongoing debates surrounding abortion access in America.","content":"The landscape of reproductive rights in America has undergone a seismic shift following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a ruling that had long secured the legal right to abortion. This pivotal change not only reshaped the legal framework surrounding abortion but also redefined the political landscape, especially for those who once championed the cause of restricting abortion access, such as former President Donald Trump.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:52.148Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731c2dc7e702fd59f923850_41.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/navigating-post-roe-politics-a-challenge-for-trump","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/navigating-post-roe-politics-a-challenge-for-trump"},{"id":"nrpcqn","slug":"navigating-crisis-impact-crisis-pregnancy-centers","title":"Navigating Crisis: The Impact of Crisis Pregnancy Centers on Women's Choice","excerpt":"Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) pose significant challenges to women's reproductive choices, often providing misleading information. Understanding their impact is crucial for advocating for women's rights and access to comprehensive healthcare.","content":"In the landscape of women's reproductive rights, crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) have emerged as a controversial entity, particularly evident in locations like Worcester, Massachusetts, where a CPC operates directly across from a Planned Parenthood facility. These centers often claim to offer support to women facing unplanned pregnancies, yet their practices and motivations raise critical concerns about the integrity of the information and services they provide.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:51.543Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731951dd44bcf05cef773a7_21.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/navigating-crisis-impact-crisis-pregnancy-centers","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/navigating-crisis-impact-crisis-pregnancy-centers"},{"id":"xsl041","slug":"my-body-my-choice-a-call-for-womens-reproductive-rights","title":"My Body, My Choice: A Call for Women's Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"Women's reproductive rights have been at the forefront of social justice movements, advocating for the freedom to choose. This article explores personal stories, legal battles, and the ongoing fight for bodily autonomy, highlighting the importance of accessible reproductive healthcare.","content":"The phrase “My body, my choice” has become a powerful rallying cry in the ongoing movement for women's reproductive rights. This slogan encapsulates the essence of the fight for bodily autonomy, emphasizing that every woman should have the ultimate authority over her own health decisions, particularly regarding reproductive matters such as contraception and abortion.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:50.944Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67312ce058f2606d2646ab69_40.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/my-body-my-choice-a-call-for-womens-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/my-body-my-choice-a-call-for-womens-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"qyu9tq","slug":"missouris-historic-amendment-for-abortion-rights","title":"Missouri's Historic Amendment for Abortion Rights","excerpt":"Missouri is poised to pass a groundbreaking amendment aimed at enshrining the right to abortion access until fetal viability in its state constitution. This pivotal change reflects the ongoing struggle for women's reproductive rights and the importance of safeguarding personal choice.","content":"On Tuesday night, Missourians are expected to embrace a landmark shift in reproductive rights through the passage of Amendment 3. This amendment is set to recognize the right to abortion access until fetal viability within the state constitution, a significant development in the ongoing fight for women's rights and autonomy over their bodies.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:50.331Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731f11b76df0b809d1e6a83_59.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/missouris-historic-amendment-for-abortion-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/missouris-historic-amendment-for-abortion-rights"},{"id":"af3rb","slug":"missouri-sues-planned-parenthood-over-alleged-misleading-claims-on-abortion-pill-safety","title":"Missouri Sues Planned Parenthood Over Alleged Misleading Claims on Abortion Pill Safety","excerpt":"Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit this week against the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, alleging the group misled women about the risks of chemical abortion pills, in violation of state consumer protection laws.","content":"On Wednesday, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey initiated legal action against Planned Parenthood Federation of America, alleging that the national abortion provider has been consistently deceiving women regarding the safety of chemical abortion pills to boost profits and cut expenses.
A lawsuit has been submitted in state circuit court, alleging that Planned Parenthood has minimized the dangers associated with mifepristone, the medication utilized in chemical abortions. This claim is supported by findings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and peer-reviewed research, which indicate a significant occurrence of serious complications, including hemorrhaging and infections.
The legal action contends that Planned Parenthood has asserted the medication is “safer than Tylenol,” a statement that Bailey has described as a “dangerous and deceptive claim.”
“This is focused on ensuring the well-being and safety of women in Missouri,” Bailey stated in a press release. “We are ensuring that Planned Parenthood is held responsible for the misinformation it spreads to women in Missouri and throughout the country.” “Everyone is accountable to the law.”
A recent lawsuit references an April study indicating that over 10% of women using the abortion pill face significant adverse effects. The legal action also highlights the public apprehension expressed by FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, who indicated in June that the agency would assess the safety of mifepristone in light of increasing evidence and investigative results.
The lawsuit alleges breaches of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, a law designed to protect consumers, and seeks nearly $2 million in civil penalties. The state is seeking restitution of up to $1,000 for each Missouri woman who obtained the abortion pill from Planned Parenthood in the last five years, along with reimbursements to the state’s Medicaid program.
Chemical abortions now represent approximately 50% of all abortions in the U.S., a statistic that has seen a significant increase since the Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Despite many states implementing bans or strict limitations on abortions, abortion pills continue to be legally available in a significant portion of the country, albeit facing growing examination.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:49.743Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/688774f7fd394e6d31a1cc85_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-07-28T210238.201.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/missouri-sues-planned-parenthood-over-alleged-misleading-claims-on-abortion-pill-safety","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/missouri-sues-planned-parenthood-over-alleged-misleading-claims-on-abortion-pill-safety"},{"id":"p76nex","slug":"missouri-attorney-general-reproductive-rights","title":"Missouri Attorney General's Stance on Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is intensifying efforts to restrict access to reproductive health care, including abortion. His actions are sparking significant concern among advocates for women's rights, who argue that these measures undermine personal autonomy and health care access.","content":"In the landscape of reproductive rights in the United States, few figures have stirred as much controversy as Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. A self-identified constitutional conservative, Bailey's tenure has been marked by aggressive attempts to limit access to reproductive health care, particularly abortion services. His approach reflects a broader national trend among conservative lawmakers aiming to impose restrictions on women's reproductive choices, raising critical questions about personal freedoms and health care access.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:49.108Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731f9f3f63b3ea818babce5_mou.webp","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/missouri-attorney-general-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/missouri-attorney-general-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"vzqwmn","slug":"missouri-and-arizona-brace-for-legal-showdowns-over-abortion-rights-amendments","title":"Missouri and Arizona Brace for Legal Showdowns Over Abortion Rights Amendments","excerpt":"Voter-approved amendments protecting abortion rights in Missouri and Arizona have set the stage for fierce legal battles. Advocacy groups aim to dismantle restrictive laws, while opponents vow to fight implementation, signaling prolonged conflicts in both states.","content":"Reproductive rights organizations are preparing for legal battles in Missouri and Arizona following the approval of constitutional amendments that safeguard abortion access by voters this month. Although the legislation represents substantial victories for abortion rights advocates, it is anticipated that its implementation will encounter significant opposition, particularly in conservative states such as Missouri.
One of the most restrictive abortion prohibitions in the nation is challenged by Missouri's Amendment 3, which enshrines abortion rights up to fetal viability. Republican legislators and anti-abortion organizations have expressed their intention to oppose the amendment's implementation, despite its passage. The ACLU of Missouri has already filed a lawsuit to overturn the state's nearly complete prohibition on abortions and permit clinics to recommence their operations. Just before the amendment's implementation, a hearing has been scheduled for December 4.
In the same vein, Arizona's Proposition 139 establishes a constitutional right to abortion until fetal viability. Nevertheless, it is in direct opposition to the state's existing 15-week abortion law and more than 40 care restrictions. It is anticipated that legal challenges will arise as groups attempt to overturn conflicting laws.
Even after voter support, the complexities of undoing entrenched abortion prohibitions and restrictions are emphasized by the battles in these states. To guarantee reproductive rights in both states, advocacy organizations anticipate months of litigation.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:48.508Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67428eb6ec44f828a71160ae_8.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/missouri-and-arizona-brace-for-legal-showdowns-over-abortion-rights-amendments","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/missouri-and-arizona-brace-for-legal-showdowns-over-abortion-rights-amendments"},{"id":"7lpwz9","slug":"midwifes-attorneys-slam-texas-abortion-case-as-speculation-and-conjecture","title":"Midwife’s Attorneys Slam Texas Abortion Case as ‘Speculation and Conjecture’","excerpt":"Attorneys for Maria Rojas, a Houston-area midwife accused under Texas’ abortion laws, sharply criticized the state’s case during a court hearing Thursday, calling the investigation flawed and lacking direct evidence.","content":"In a heated court meeting on Thursday, lawyers for midwife Maria Rojas in the Houston area pushed back against shocking claims that she had done illegal abortions, saying that the state's investigation was careless and based on speculation.
In March, Rojas was arrested because the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said she was running a cash-based abortion business as a telemedicine center. But at the meeting in Waller County on Thursday, her lawyers said there is no direct proof she did what is being accused, and the case is based on speculation rather than fact.
The Center for Reproductive Rights' senior lawyer, Marc Hearron, said that the state's investigation was \"shoddy\" and that the affidavit backing Rojas' arrest was \"rank speculation.\" Rojas's lawyers also asked why she was taken without a criminal complaint but with a warrant, and they pointed out that she has not yet been charged by a grand jury.
Rojas was freed on bond with an ankle monitor on Thursday. She used to be a doctor in Peru and in 2018 became a licensed midwife in Texas. Judge Gary Chaney's decision in favor of a temporary order means that her clinics will stay closed, even though her lawyers said that they were legally providing maternal care services.
The case is taking place in Waller County, which is a rural area west of Houston. It could be a big test of how Texas enforces its abortion rules after Roe v. Wade. Prosecutors say that surveillance, search warrants, and witness statements were all used in the case. Lawyers for the defense say the case is politically motivated and lacks solid evidence.
Judge Chaney said, \"This won't be a short trial,\" a hint at the long process that was to come.
As state laws change, this case could become a major issue in the national discussion about how to implement laws against abortion and how to make sure that people can get reproductive health care.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:47.901Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/680b813241dd8e2e0b290f46_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-04-25T203227.319.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/midwifes-attorneys-slam-texas-abortion-case-as-speculation-and-conjecture","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/midwifes-attorneys-slam-texas-abortion-case-as-speculation-and-conjecture"},{"id":"67keep","slug":"michigans-fight-for-reproductive-rights-a-community-perspective","title":"Michigan's Fight for Reproductive Rights: A Community Perspective","excerpt":"In Michigan, the fight for reproductive rights is a critical issue that unites diverse community voices. Governor Gretchen Whitmer's initiatives, along with grassroots advocacy, highlight the importance of protecting women's choices and ensuring access to safe abortion services.","content":"In the heart of Detroit, a pivotal discussion unfolded on June 28, 2022, as Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer convened a roundtable at Liberty Temple Baptist Church, bringing together pastors and community leaders to address the pressing issue of abortion access. This gathering underscored the significant role that community advocacy plays in shaping reproductive rights in Michigan, especially in the wake of changing national perspectives on abortion.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:47.234Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67313c7b3260081628bb1009_Web_Photo_Editor%20(40).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/michigans-fight-for-reproductive-rights-a-community-perspective","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/michigans-fight-for-reproductive-rights-a-community-perspective"},{"id":"hk36gy","slug":"michigan-judge-strikes-down-key-abortion-restrictions-in-landmark-ruling","title":"Michigan Judge Strikes Down Key Abortion Restrictions in Landmark Ruling","excerpt":"In a major victory for reproductive rights advocates, a Michigan judge has permanently struck down three abortion restrictions, calling them unconstitutional under the state’s Reproductive Freedom for All Act. The ruling marks a significant step forward for abortion access in the state.","content":"A Michigan state court has made a significant ruling by permanently overturning three enduring abortion restrictions, referencing the state’s 2022 Reproductive Freedom for All Act (RFFA). A recent ruling has emerged following a lawsuit initiated by the Center for Reproductive Rights, representing both the Northland Family Planning Center and Medical Students for Choice.
On May 13, Judge Sima Patel issued a ruling declaring that the disputed laws violated the Michigan Constitution's protection of abortion rights. A recent lawsuit has brought to light a law that mandates patients to receive counseling materials from the state, which critics argue contain stigmatizing and medically irrelevant information.
A mandatory waiting period of 24 hours will be enforced following the receipt of the counseling deemed biased.
A prohibition has been placed on qualified advanced practice clinicians (APCs) from delivering abortion care, despite their authorization to administer the same treatments for early miscarriage.
In a significant ruling, Judge Patel dismissed the state's assertion that the laws in question served to protect patients, labeling them as \"paternalistic and stigmatizing.\" She expressed that forcing patients to engage with misleading and emotionally charged materials “makes the patient feel belittled for becoming pregnant.”
“This aligns perfectly with the desires of Michiganders who cast their votes in large numbers to safeguard their right to access abortion,” stated Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
In a significant move, voters in Michigan approved the Reproductive Freedom for All Act in 2022, establishing the right to reproductive healthcare within the state's constitution. The legislature has repealed multiple restrictions since the initial passage; however, the three laws in question have persisted until this recent ruling.
The decision marks a significant victory for medical education. Pamela Merritt, the executive director of Medical Students for Choice, highlighted the significance of eliminating these barriers, stating that it allows “the next generation of abortion providers” to receive training in facilities that prioritize evidence-based, patient-centered care.
Renee Chelian, the executive director of Northland Family Planning Centers, described the ruling as long overdue. “Patients can now rest assured that they will receive the timely care they require.”
The case known as Northland Family Planning Centers v. Michigan is being recognized as a significant example of how state-level constitutional protections may effectively challenge restrictive abortion laws in the current legal environment following the Roe decision.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:46.641Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/682f03ee07a5c49fc7bf8d93_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-05-22T190033.161.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/michigan-judge-strikes-down-key-abortion-restrictions-in-landmark-ruling","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/michigan-judge-strikes-down-key-abortion-restrictions-in-landmark-ruling"},{"id":"n094w9","slug":"michigan-judge-blocks-24-hour-abortion-waiting-period","title":"Michigan Judge Blocks 24-Hour Abortion Waiting Period","excerpt":"In a landmark decision, a Michigan judge has blocked the state's 24-hour waiting period for abortions, reaffirming the constitutional rights established by voters in 2022. This ruling highlights the ongoing legal battles surrounding reproductive rights and the importance of access to safe, timely healthcare.","content":"In a significant ruling for women's reproductive rights, a Michigan judge has declared the state's 24-hour waiting period for abortions unconstitutional. This decision underscores a pivotal moment in the ongoing struggle for reproductive freedom and reflects the sentiments of many Michiganders who voted for the 2022 constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:46.045Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67318dc758f2606d269090a1_18.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/michigan-judge-blocks-24-hour-abortion-waiting-period","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/michigan-judge-blocks-24-hour-abortion-waiting-period"},{"id":"jgqij6","slug":"mia-bonta-advocates-for-womens-rights-with-bold-reproductive-healthcare-legislation","title":"Mia Bonta Advocates for Women’s Rights with Bold Reproductive Healthcare Legislation","excerpt":"California Assemblymember Mia Bonta champions women’s empowerment with a new legislative package aimed at safeguarding reproductive rights, expanding access to healthcare, and enhancing maternal services amid growing national restrictions.","content":"Mia Bonta, a California Assemblymember, advocates for women's empowerment by introducing a legislative bundle designed to safeguard reproductive rights and promote maternal health in the state. Bonta's proposals serve to reinforce California's status as a haven for the autonomy and well-being of women amid the impending national restrictions on abortion and contraception.
The three-bill bundle, scheduled to be introduced on December 2 during a special legislative session, aims to enhance the licensing of alternative birthing centers, provide over-the-counter birth control for Medi-Cal recipients, and increase access to emergency reproductive healthcare resources. Bonta's initiatives underscore her dedication to guaranteeing that women, particularly those residing in underprivileged regions, access essential healthcare.
Bonta's leadership is occurring at a critical juncture, as the reproductive freedoms of the entire nation are at risk due to the conservative-leaning Supreme Court and Republican-controlled Congress. In a recent interview, Bonta declared that California must explicitly state that women's autonomy is non-negotiable when the federal government transitions to \"your body, my choice.\"
Her initial legislation guarantees emergency abortion care, thereby addressing the deficiencies that are caused by restrictive laws such as Idaho's, which permit abortions solely in the event of a patient's life being saved. Her second law expands the availability of birth control to low-income women. The third is essential in regions where women must travel for hours to receive maternity care, as it simplifies the processes of childbirth centers.
The work of Bonta emphasizes her commitment to women's rights, health equity, and empowerment, solidifying California as a leader in reproductive justice and a refuge for those in need of care.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:45.441Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67316037e7b38b5ccbbf67aa_8.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/mia-bonta-advocates-for-womens-rights-with-bold-reproductive-healthcare-legislation","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/mia-bonta-advocates-for-womens-rights-with-bold-reproductive-healthcare-legislation"},{"id":"bkao51","slug":"melania-trump-book-release-abortion-views","title":"Melania Trump's Controversial Book Release and Abortion Views","excerpt":"Melania Trump's recent book release has sparked conversations about her stance on abortion, coinciding with the upcoming elections. This article delves into her insights, the timing of her publication, and the broader implications for women's reproductive rights.","content":"
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:44.825Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731e45c98643520f062153a_53.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/melania-trump-book-release-abortion-views","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/melania-trump-book-release-abortion-views"},{"id":"8maus7","slug":"melania-trump-advocates-for-womens-freedom-of-choice","title":"Melania Trump Advocates for Women's Freedom of Choice","excerpt":"In a recent video, Melania Trump highlighted the necessity of women's individual freedom, particularly regarding reproductive rights. Her statement reinforces the ongoing conversation about the right to choose and the importance of advocacy in the realm of women's health.","content":"In a powerful new video, former First Lady Melania Trump has voiced her strong support for women's individual freedom, particularly concerning reproductive rights. This statement comes at a time when the dialogue surrounding women's health and autonomy is more critical than ever. The need for a clear stance on reproductive choices is vital as many women continue to face challenges in accessing necessary healthcare services.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:44.225Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731e15d68c9536515bd7c30_51.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/melania-trump-advocates-for-womens-freedom-of-choice","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/melania-trump-advocates-for-womens-freedom-of-choice"},{"id":"4tmrus","slug":"medical-leaders-call-for-urgent-reform-of-victorian-abortion-laws-in-england-and-wales","title":"Medical Leaders Call for Urgent Reform of Victorian Abortion Laws in England and Wales","excerpt":"Medical leaders across the UK are calling for urgent reform of abortion laws in England and Wales, highlighting the harm caused by prosecuting women under Victorian-era legislation. The proposed changes aim to protect women’s reproductive rights and modernize abortion regulations.","content":"Medical leaders have made an urgent appeal for reforming the abortion laws in England and Wales, characterizing the prosecution of women for terminating pregnancies as \"trauma and cruelty.\" More than 30 organizations, such as the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), have come together to call for the decriminalization of abortion and a reform of outdated Victorian-era laws.
The Offences Against the Person Act of 1861, which makes abortion a criminal act, continues to be in force even though the 1967 Abortion Act provided certain limited exemptions. Over the past two years, six women have been brought to court under this law, marking a significant rise compared to previous cases. Life imprisonment can be the consequence of abortions performed after 24 weeks or without the consent of two doctors.
Dr. Ranee Thakar, president of the RCOG, highlighted the importance of public backing for decriminalization, asserting, \"No woman should face the threat of jail or the distress of prosecution for ending a pregnancy.\" Additional medical leaders joined in the appeal, cautioning that criminalization discourages women from pursuing safe healthcare and continues to inflict unnecessary suffering.
A coalition of healthcare groups representing 800,000 professionals is calling on Parliament to stop prosecutions and update abortion regulations. It is suggested that reforms may be incorporated into the forthcoming crime and policing bill or tackled through new legislation.
Advocates argue that decriminalisation would bring England and Wales in line with nations such as Canada, France, and Australia, where abortion is regarded as a matter of healthcare. This movement arises during a time of worldwide reductions in abortion rights, with increasing demands on UK lawmakers to safeguard reproductive freedoms.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:43.609Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6787cc35b5788f0fdf8c462d_Web_Photo_Editor%20(55).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/medical-leaders-call-for-urgent-reform-of-victorian-abortion-laws-in-england-and-wales","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/medical-leaders-call-for-urgent-reform-of-victorian-abortion-laws-in-england-and-wales"},{"id":"o5op8y","slug":"medicaid-ban-could-gut-planned-parenthood-services-experts-warn","title":"Medicaid Ban Could Gut Planned Parenthood Services, Experts Warn","excerpt":"A federal Medicaid ban targeting Planned Parenthood could destabilize reproductive and preventive healthcare nationwide, new research warns, leaving millions without essential services.","content":"Following the recent enactment of a federal ban on Medicaid reimbursements, Planned Parenthood faces significant challenges in delivering essential reproductive and preventive care. Experts warn that this decision could jeopardize the stability of the country’s healthcare safety net.
A report released on Wednesday in JAMA revealed that Planned Parenthood clinics managed over 1.5 million visits from Medicaid patients in 2024. A recent development stemming from the tax and spending package approved in July under former President Donald Trump introduces a ban that prevents the organization from obtaining Medicaid reimbursements. A lawsuit from Planned Parenthood has led to a federal judge temporarily blocking the measure.
The proposed ban stands to restrict access to essential services such as contraception, cancer screenings, and testing for sexually transmitted infections, with a particularly adverse impact on low-income Americans. “Other providers simply cannot fill the role that Planned Parenthood has played in the safety net,” stated Kari White, lead author of the study and executive director at Resound Research for Reproductive Health.
In Texas, a decision made over a decade ago to exclude Planned Parenthood from Medicaid caused a significant decline in the placement of contraceptive implants and IUDs, which dropped by more than a third. Meanwhile, the number of births covered by Medicaid increased by nearly a third. Comparable trends may unfold across the country.
Approximately 80 million individuals in the United States are enrolled in Medicaid, with 11% of female beneficiaries aged 15 to 49 depending on Planned Parenthood for essential family-planning services, as reported by the nonprofit KFF. States with substantial Medicaid enrollment, like California, will experience particularly pronounced effects.
In Southern California, nearly 50% of patients at Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties rely on Medicaid for their healthcare needs. The potential loss of reimbursements poses a significant risk to the affiliate, jeopardizing approximately $50 million, which constitutes half of its budget. This financial setback could endanger vital services, such as STI testing, which identified over 1,500 syphilis cases and nearly 400 trichomoniasis infections among pregnant women last year.
\"The affiliate is prepared to accept a rise in STIs and a possible increase in cancer rates as part of their efforts to eliminate abortion,\" stated Nichole Ramirez, a senior vice president at the organization.
Despite the prohibition on using federal funds for the majority of abortions, critics have focused their efforts on Planned Parenthood’s extensive healthcare services, viewing them as a key element in the ongoing political battle to limit access to abortion.
","category":"choice","author":"Her Choice","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:42.976Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/689dc3533f38b8e560c8b236_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-08-14T190611.087.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/medicaid-ban-could-gut-planned-parenthood-services-experts-warn","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/medicaid-ban-could-gut-planned-parenthood-services-experts-warn"},{"id":"caiu0q","slug":"matt-gaetz-under-fire-for-resurfaced-video-fat-shaming-abortion-activists","title":"Matt Gaetz Under Fire for Resurfaced Video Fat-Shaming Abortion Activists","excerpt":"A resurfaced video shows Matt Gaetz making controversial remarks about reproductive rights activists, fat-shaming women protesting for abortion access, sparking widespread outrage.","content":"After making statements that were seen to be fat-shaming toward reproductive rights activists, a video of Matt Gaetz, a former congressman and the candidate whom Donald Trump has chosen to serve as Attorney General, has been revived and has caused controversy. Gaetz made fun of ladies who were fighting for the right to have an abortion in the video that was taken at a Turning Point Action event in July 2022. He implied that these women were unattractive and unlikely to become pregnant.
During his address, Gaetz voiced his disapproval of the women who were present at pro-abortion protests. He asked, \"Why is it that the women who have the least likelihood of becoming pregnant are the ones who are the most concerned about having abortions?\" In the following moment, he yelled out, \"No one wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb.\"
Gaetz's problematic speech regarding delicate political matters is brought to light by the remarks, which have been widely condemned as being insulting and damaging to others' bodies. The sentiments made by Gaetz are reflective of a larger trend of offensive comments that have followed him throughout his political career, notwithstanding the outrage this has caused. The reemergence of this video is revitalizing conversations over whether or not he is qualified to hold a high-level position.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:42.332Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673b6229c4e46b4146c67b91_13.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/matt-gaetz-under-fire-for-resurfaced-video-fat-shaming-abortion-activists","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/matt-gaetz-under-fire-for-resurfaced-video-fat-shaming-abortion-activists"},{"id":"wbz002","slug":"maternal-health-gains-focus-as-north-dakota-debates-abortion-legislation","title":"Maternal Health Gains Focus as North Dakota Debates Abortion Legislation","excerpt":"As North Dakota debates a moderate abortion bill amid legal challenges, states like Michigan, Virginia, and Kentucky are focusing on maternal health, racial disparities, and postpartum care in 2025 legislative sessions.","content":"North Dakota is facing legal and legislative challenges regarding abortion access. A ruling in September deemed the state's near-total abortion ban unconstitutional, leading to an appeal to the North Dakota Supreme Court. The ban, which restricts abortions with exceptions only for severe health risks or instances of rape and incest within six weeks, currently remains uncertain as justices are in deliberation.
In the midst of the current legal conflict, Republican state Rep. Eric Murphy has introduced a bill that presents a scientifically grounded compromise. The legislation would allow abortions for any reason up to 15 weeks of pregnancy, acknowledging that many individuals may not discover their pregnancy until several weeks have passed. Abortions performed between 16 and 26 weeks would necessitate the approval of a committee consisting of three doctors if considered medically necessary. Emergency abortions may take place at any moment without the need for prior authorization.
Although a recent poll indicates that 55% of North Dakotans are against the abortion ban, Murphy’s bill encounters pushback from Republican colleagues. It is expected to struggle in the forthcoming legislative session.
At the same time, various states are redirecting their attention to maternal health and protections related to pregnancy. The Senate in Michigan has progressed a comprehensive “Momnibus” package aimed at tackling racial disparities in maternal health and addressing obstetric violence. Virginia lawmakers are considering the expansion of Medicaid access and the implementation of remote monitoring services for rural high-risk pregnancies.
Kentucky, implementing a near-total abortion ban, is advocating for two-year postpartum insurance coverage, increased diversity in medical teams, and enhanced doula support. California is exploring the possibility of reimbursing alternative birth centers through Medicaid. At the same time, Texas lawmakers might tackle the issue of “maternity care deserts,” which affect nearly half of the counties in Texas.
New Jersey is moving forward with a bill that permits workers to take up to 21 days of leave for reproductive losses, such as miscarriage and stillbirth.
These initiatives indicate a broader acknowledgment of the necessity to harmonize discussions on abortion with enhanced maternal health care and support for reproductive well-being.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:41.729Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/677bd7087c646263248d9b53_Web_Photo_Editor%20(48).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/maternal-health-gains-focus-as-north-dakota-debates-abortion-legislation","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/maternal-health-gains-focus-as-north-dakota-debates-abortion-legislation"},{"id":"ye4dp1","slug":"maryland-launches-groundbreaking-abortion-aid-program","title":"Maryland Launches Groundbreaking Abortion Aid Program","excerpt":"Maryland lawmakers have made significant strides in expanding abortion access, with a landmark legal ruling and a first-of-its-kind funding initiative aimed at supporting patients regardless of insurance status.","content":"This week marked significant advancements in abortion rights across the United States, with Maryland implementing measures aimed at enhancing access to care.
Maryland has made headlines as Governor Wes Moore signed a groundbreaking funding measure into law, establishing the first state-backed abortion aid program in the country. This initiative will be financed through unused premium surcharges from the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Starting July 1, a new law will allocate $25 million to provide support for abortions for patients, irrespective of their insurance coverage. The funds originate from a $1 surcharge imposed on insurance plans sold under the Affordable Care Act, a sum that had remained unutilized for more than ten years. Officials project that approximately $3 million will be accessible each year in the future.
Del. Lesley Lopez, the sponsor of the bill, stated, “This money exists in every state that has abortion as a required type of care under their state’s benefit exchanges.” She noted that states such as New York and Illinois have already shown interest in adopting the model.
Advocates assert that the funding will provide crucial support to nonprofits such as the Baltimore Abortion Fund, which faces challenges in meeting the needs of both in-state and out-of-state patients. In 2023, the Guttmacher Institute reported that 15% of abortions in Maryland were performed for patients coming from states with banned or severely restricted access to the procedure. This figure represents a slight decline from the 20% recorded in 2022.
Recent actions by various states reflect a growing movement to enhance access to abortion rights, particularly in light of neighboring states implementing stringent restrictions following the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
As twelve states implement total abortion bans and several others enforce six-week restrictions, advocates for reproductive health are calling for continued investment in access. This is particularly crucial in states such as Maryland, where care is protected and in high demand.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:41.069Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/682f012c5c5a1cf7ee00b427_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-05-22T184905.995.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/maryland-launches-groundbreaking-abortion-aid-program","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/maryland-launches-groundbreaking-abortion-aid-program"},{"id":"a63lnn","slug":"marching-for-choice-the-fight-for-abortion-rights-continues","title":"Marching for Choice: The Fight for Abortion Rights Continues","excerpt":"On July 9, 2022, abortion rights activists took to the streets to protest the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to revoke federal abortion protections. This movement highlights the ongoing battle for women's reproductive rights and the importance of advocacy in ensuring access to safe and legal abortion.","content":"On a pivotal day in the fight for reproductive rights, abortion advocates gathered outside the White House on July 9, 2022, to voice their outrage over the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. This ruling, which eliminated nearly 50 years of federal abortion protections, ignited a wave of protests across the nation, as activists from various backgrounds came together to defend women's rights to choose.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:40.426Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67305fdff4ecee1c96205e49_5.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/marching-for-choice-the-fight-for-abortion-rights-continues","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/marching-for-choice-the-fight-for-abortion-rights-continues"},{"id":"89213d","slug":"marching-for-choice-a-stand-against-the-overturn-of-roe-v-wade","title":"Marching for Choice: A Stand Against the Overturn of Roe v. Wade","excerpt":"On June 25, 2022, thousands gathered in Boston to protest the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, emphasizing the importance of women's reproductive rights. The event highlighted the need for continued advocacy and support for abortion access across the nation.","content":"On June 25, 2022, a significant event unfolded in Boston, Massachusetts, where thousands of passionate demonstrators took to the streets to express their outrage and dismay over the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. This landmark ruling, which had protected a woman's right to choose for nearly half a century, was struck down, igniting a wave of protests across the country. In Massachusetts, the vibrant march became a powerful symbol of resistance against the erosion of women's reproductive rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:39.827Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673041093e741946552c882e_22.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/marching-for-choice-a-stand-against-the-overturn-of-roe-v-wade","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/marching-for-choice-a-stand-against-the-overturn-of-roe-v-wade"},{"id":"7bqe3p","slug":"march-for-life-rally-highlights-ongoing-abortion-debate","title":"March for Life Rally Highlights Ongoing Abortion Debate","excerpt":"The March for Life 2024, held in Washington, D.C., showcased a range of perspectives on reproductive rights. Speaker Mike Johnson and other advocates emphasized the ongoing national debate around abortion, underscoring the importance of women's freedom to choose.","content":"On January 19, 2024, thousands gathered in Washington, D.C., for the annual March for Life, an event that has become a focal point in the national conversation surrounding abortion and reproductive rights. This year's rally drew considerable attention, not only for its message but also for the diverse array of speakers who addressed the crowd, including prominent figures such as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:39.218Z","image":"","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/march-for-life-rally-highlights-ongoing-abortion-debate","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/march-for-life-rally-highlights-ongoing-abortion-debate"},{"id":"hrk87u","slug":"madysyn-anderson-journey-fight-for-reproductive-rights","title":"Madysyn Anderson's Journey: A Fight for Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"Madysyn Anderson's journey to obtain an abortion after Texas's SB 8 highlights the challenges many women face in exercising their reproductive rights. Her story sheds light on the critical need for accessible abortion services and the ongoing fight for women's autonomy over their bodies.","content":"In a world where women's reproductive rights are constantly being challenged, personal stories like that of Madysyn Anderson serve as a poignant reminder of the stark realities many women face when trying to make choices about their own bodies. Following the enactment of Texas’s Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), which severely restricts access to abortion after approximately six weeks of pregnancy, Anderson found herself forced to leave her home state and travel to Mississippi for the care she needed.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:38.542Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731c5b793b13f70b91ed272_43.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/madysyn-anderson-journey-fight-for-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/madysyn-anderson-journey-fight-for-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"tm5mca","slug":"liberating-abortion-a-call-for-empowerment-and-choice","title":"Liberating Abortion: A Call for Empowerment and Choice","excerpt":"In their upcoming book, Renee Bracey Sherman and Regina Mahone delve into the pivotal role of personal narratives in the abortion rights movement. They emphasize the importance of empowering women and advocating for reproductive choice amidst ongoing challenges.","content":"In recent years, the conversation surrounding women’s reproductive rights, particularly the right to choose abortion, has become increasingly urgent. The ongoing debates and legislative battles remind us that the fight for reproductive autonomy is far from over. Against this backdrop, two influential voices in the movement, Renee Bracey Sherman, the executive director of We Testify, and Regina Mahone, a seasoned abortion reporter and senior editor at The Nation, are collaborating on a groundbreaking book titled \"Liberating Abortion.\"
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:37.927Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672fe56af4ecee1c96e7f440_Web_Photo_Editor%20(8).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/liberating-abortion-a-call-for-empowerment-and-choice","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/liberating-abortion-a-call-for-empowerment-and-choice"},{"id":"sl26yt","slug":"legal-battle-over-reproductive-rights-texas-challenges-abortion-shield-laws","title":"Legal Battle Over Reproductive Rights: Texas Challenges Abortion Shield Laws","excerpt":"The fight for reproductive rights intensifies as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sues a New York doctor over alleged abortion pill prescriptions. This legal battle could redefine the limits of abortion shield laws and interstate enforcement of abortion bans.","content":"A notable legal case has emerged in the national abortion debate, as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton initiates action against Dr. Megan Carpenter, a physician based in New York, for allegedly prescribing and sending abortion pills to a Texas resident. The lawsuit, submitted in Collin County, Texas, challenges the effectiveness of abortion shield laws in protecting providers from legal actions originating in other states.
Abortion shield laws, implemented in states like New York, California, and Illinois, aim to safeguard abortion providers from investigations or penalties that could stem from states with strict abortion regulations. Paxton's lawsuit could set a precedent for how far anti-abortion states can reach their influence outside their own borders.
“This case transcends the actions of one physician; it represents an essential analysis of the strength of laws designed to protect reproductive rights in various states,” remarked legal scholar Mary Ziegler.
The legal action seeks financial penalties against Dr. Carpenter and aims to prevent her from providing telemedicine services in Texas. New York Attorney General Letitia James emphasized her state's commitment to protecting abortion rights and ensuring that providers are shielded from punitive actions taken by anti-abortion states.
This situation highlights the growing legal challenges as states address the future of reproductive healthcare access in a post-Roe America, especially with shield laws in seven states currently under examination.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:37.229Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/675ead92bee91b289f3f9a91_Web_Photo_Editor%20(25).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/legal-battle-over-reproductive-rights-texas-challenges-abortion-shield-laws","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/legal-battle-over-reproductive-rights-texas-challenges-abortion-shield-laws"},{"id":"fyxb90","slug":"landmark-ruling-limits-definition-of-woman-in-single-sex-spaces-across-uk","title":"Landmark Ruling Limits Definition of 'Woman' in Single-Sex Spaces Across UK","excerpt":"In a landmark decision, the UK Supreme Court has ruled that “woman” and “sex” in the country’s equality law refer exclusively to biological sex, not gender identity — ending a years-long legal dispute and setting a precedent with national implications for single-sex spaces and services.","content":"The UK Supreme Court has reached a unanimous decision stating that the legal definitions of “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 pertain solely to biological sex, rather than gender identity. This ruling carries significant consequences for policies related to single-sex spaces and representation.
The ruling, issued on Wednesday, arises from a 2018 legal challenge brought forth by the feminist advocacy group For Women Scotland (FWS) regarding the Scottish Parliament’s Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act. The Act sought to enhance gender diversity by mandating that 50 percent of non-executive public board members be “women,” clearly incorporating transgender women with gender recognition certificates (GRCs) within that definition.
The FWS contended that this redefinition was at odds with the UK-wide Equality Act, which outlines protections based on sex and various other characteristics. Following the endorsement of the law by lower Scottish courts, FWS sought to appeal to the Supreme Court in 2024, garnering support from notable figures, including author JK Rowling.
On Wednesday, five justices sided with FWS, determining that “woman” in the Equality Act pertains solely to individuals born female, irrespective of a trans woman's legal transition status. The court indicated that understanding “sex” as gender-recognized sex would make the legal definitions of “man” and “woman” unclear and at odds with the purpose of the Act.
Justice Patrick Hodge highlighted that the ruling does not eliminate legal protections for transgender individuals, who continue to be protected under the characteristic of “gender reassignment.” Nonetheless, the court specified that certain rights — especially concerning single-sex areas such as shelters, changing rooms, and counseling services — could be legally designated for biological women.
The responses to the ruling have been sharply polarized. Feminist organizations praised the verdict as a safeguard for women's rights, whereas LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and certain Scottish officials voiced worries about heightened marginalization and discrimination.
The case originated in Scotland, but the Supreme Court’s interpretation now applies throughout the UK, encompassing England and Wales, thereby establishing a national legal precedent regarding the definitions of gender and sex in law.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:36.633Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68062fe766c95a986b9ca2d9_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-04-21T194405.293.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/landmark-ruling-limits-definition-of-woman-in-single-sex-spaces-across-uk","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/landmark-ruling-limits-definition-of-woman-in-single-sex-spaces-across-uk"},{"id":"aa690w","slug":"key-2025-health-legislation-in-missouri-from-abortion-rights-to-mental-health-initiatives","title":"Key 2025 Health Legislation in Missouri: From Abortion Rights to Mental Health Initiatives","excerpt":"Missouri lawmakers return to Jefferson City in January with a full slate of health-related bills for the 2025 legislative session. Key topics include abortion restrictions, insulin pricing caps, food labeling requirements, and expanded mental health services.","content":"There will be a wide variety of health-related measures introduced during the legislative session that will take place in Missouri in 2025. These bills will focus on subjects such as the pricing of insulin, food labeling, and abortion rights. Legislators intend to address these urgent issues while also proposing steps to promote public health and access to medical treatment.
The Women's health proposals include a constitutional amendment proposed by Representative Ann Kelley that would prohibit abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, so revoking the rights to abortion that the voters passed.
During the court proceedings, Representative Jo Doll is working to secure a tax exemption for period goods and diapers, and Representative Raychel Proudie is working to safeguard the legal rights of pregnant individuals.
Representative Doug Clemens's bill seeks to limit the cost of insulin to one hundred dollars per month. Representatives Cameron Parker and Rep. LaKeySha Bosley's bill seeks to expand Medicaid coverage to include cochlear implants and childbirth classes. Representatives Bosley and Parker's bill seeks to investigate maternal health outcomes, particularly among women of color.
Representative Cecelie Williams is also proposing a bill to prevent suicide among young people in schools, while Jo Doll is proposing another one to require mental health exams for pregnant women. By the year 2027, every circuit court will be required to develop treatment divisions, which will include veterans' courts, according to a measure that Representative Dave Griffith presented.
These varied initiatives are a reflection of the efforts that lawmakers in Missouri are making to address urgent health concerns and to improve access to medical care for all residents in the year 2025.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:36.020Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/677a855f15c2182faa641525_Web_Photo_Editor%20(46).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/key-2025-health-legislation-in-missouri-from-abortion-rights-to-mental-health-initiatives","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/key-2025-health-legislation-in-missouri-from-abortion-rights-to-mental-health-initiatives"},{"id":"1dqzov","slug":"kentucky-woman-sues-to-overturn-states-strict-abortion-ban","title":"Kentucky Woman Sues to Overturn State’s Strict Abortion Ban","excerpt":"A pregnant woman in Kentucky has filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s near-total abortion ban, arguing that it infringes on her constitutional rights. The suit seeks to restore abortion access in the state.","content":"A woman in Kentucky, whose name was changed to protect her privacy, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to bring back the right to an abortion in the state, which has a very strict ban on the process right now. The lawsuit, which was filed in a state court in Louisville, says that Kentucky's strict abortion rules violate the constitutional rights to privacy and freedom of choice. It asks the Jefferson County Circuit Court to throw out the state rules that make it hard to get an abortion.
Poe said she wanted to end her pregnancy when she was about seven weeks along, but she made it clear that she couldn't legally do so in Kentucky. The case, which has the support of the American Civil Liberties Union, stresses how personal and essential it is to make choices about pregnancy. The filing says, \"Kentuckians have lost the right to make important decisions about their health, bodies, lives, and futures without being able to choose whether to continue a pregnancy.\"
In a statement, Poe talked about how upset she is about the problems she is having. She said, \"I feel overwhelmed and frustrated that I can't get abortion care here in my state. I've already started the hard process of making plans to get care in another state where it's legal.\" She said that the process has a lot of problems, like finding childcare and taking time off work.
Russell Coleman, the Republican attorney general of Kentucky, is named as a defendant in the case.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:35.392Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6735b10017ad8994bd39f39a_3.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/kentucky-woman-sues-to-overturn-states-strict-abortion-ban","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/kentucky-woman-sues-to-overturn-states-strict-abortion-ban"},{"id":"q2q94o","slug":"kennedy-campaign-advocates-for-new-abortion-limits","title":"Kennedy Campaign Advocates for New Abortion Limits","excerpt":"Nicole Shanahan, running mate to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has announced their campaign's support for limiting abortion access to between 15 and 18 weeks. This stance ignites significant discussions about reproductive rights and the implications for women's choices.","content":"In a recent statement that has stirred considerable discussion within the realm of women's reproductive rights, Nicole Shanahan, the chosen running mate of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has articulated the campaign's position on abortion access. The Kennedy campaign endorses implementing federal limits that would restrict abortion procedures to a window of 15 to 18 weeks of gestation. This announcement marks a pivotal moment in an ongoing national conversation regarding women's autonomy over their bodies and the legal parameters surrounding abortion.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:34.758Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67317066f2adf30ccdb66a19_2.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/kennedy-campaign-advocates-for-new-abortion-limits","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/kennedy-campaign-advocates-for-new-abortion-limits"},{"id":"q5s4pz","slug":"kari-lakes-controversial-stance-on-abortion","title":"Kari Lake's Controversial Stance on Abortion: A Closer Look","excerpt":"This article delves into Kari Lake's extreme views on abortion, her endorsement of outdated laws, and the broader implications for women's reproductive rights in Arizona. It highlights the ongoing advocacy for choice and the importance of safeguarding women's health.","content":"In the political landscape of 2022, Kari Lake, a Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, stirred significant controversy with her strong views on abortion. Lake referred to abortion as the \"ultimate sin\" and lauded a 160-year-old Arizona law that effectively banned the procedure. Her statements ignited a passionate debate about women's reproductive rights, individual freedom, and the role of outdated legislation in contemporary society.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:34.153Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731320758f2606d264ad299_42.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/kari-lakes-controversial-stance-on-abortion","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/kari-lakes-controversial-stance-on-abortion"},{"id":"g0wmew","slug":"kamala-harris-the-vice-president-leading-the-fight-for-reproductive-rights","title":"Kamala Harris: The Vice President Leading the Fight for Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"Vice President Kamala Harris has made history as the first sitting U.S. Vice President to visit an abortion clinic, underscoring her commitment to reproductive rights.","content":"In a significant development, Vice President Kamala Harris made history by becoming the first sitting Vice President to visit an abortion clinic, reinforcing her position as a leading advocate for reproductive rights in 2024.
With the nation experiencing its first election following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Harris has focused her unsuccessful presidential campaign on the goal of restoring reproductive freedoms.
Harris has garnered support from organizations such as the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Reproductive Freedom for All. Her platform encompasses backing for federal legislation aimed at solidifying the protections of Roe, along with a commitment to veto any national abortion ban. “Harris is dedicated to reproductive health and freedom,” stated Melanie Newman of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
She has a history of co-sponsoring legislation as a California Senator aimed at preventing state restrictions on abortion and opposing a federal 20-week abortion ban. Harris has expressed strong opposition to the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision and its effects on women across the country.
The Vice President has portrayed her opponent, former President Donald Trump, as a danger to reproductive rights, highlighting his involvement in appointing justices who reversed Roe. Trump, nonetheless, has steered clear of taking a clear position on a federal abortion ban while continuing to secure victory in the presidential election.
In the face of a divided Congress and the obstacles to enacting abortion protections, Harris’ commitment to advocacy remains steadfast. \"She articulates her views on this issue with great fervor and has demonstrated unwavering leadership,\" remarked Democratic strategist Alexandra LaManna.
The last election saw an unprecedented number of abortion-related measures on state ballots, highlighting its significance to voters, especially women under 30.
For Vice President Harris, the struggle for reproductive rights represents a wider appeal to prioritize access to abortion.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:33.532Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6782ae43a67afe34e7697989_Web_Photo_Editor%20(34).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/kamala-harris-the-vice-president-leading-the-fight-for-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/kamala-harris-the-vice-president-leading-the-fight-for-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"fokkmr","slug":"kamala-harris-speaks-out-against-abortion-restrictions-in-arizona","title":"Kamala Harris Speaks Out Against Abortion Restrictions in Arizona","excerpt":"During a rally in Tucson, Vice-President Kamala Harris criticized Donald Trump’s stance on abortion restrictions, highlighting the importance of women's reproductive rights. As Arizona becomes a focal point in the abortion debate, Harris urged voters to prioritize freedom of choice in the upcoming elections.","content":"On a vibrant Friday in Tucson, Arizona, Vice-President Kamala Harris delivered a powerful message about women's reproductive rights, directly challenging the abortion restrictions championed by former President Donald Trump. This rally marked a significant moment as Arizona emerges as a battleground state in the ongoing national conversation about abortion access and women's rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:32.880Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67312c5a24ef2f2d720d6912_39.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/kamala-harris-speaks-out-against-abortion-restrictions-in-arizona","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/kamala-harris-speaks-out-against-abortion-restrictions-in-arizona"},{"id":"y81mfa","slug":"kamala-harris-abolish-filibuster-abortion-rights","title":"Kamala Harris Advocates for Abolishing Filibuster to Protect Abortion Rights","excerpt":"Vice President Kamala Harris has reiterated her commitment to abolishing the Senate filibuster in order to pass crucial legislation aimed at restoring federal protections for abortion rights. This article delves into her advocacy, the implications for reproductive rights, and the broader context of women's health in the current political landscape.","content":"In a significant move underscoring her commitment to women's reproductive rights, Vice President Kamala Harris has voiced strong support for abolishing the Senate filibuster. This procedural change would pave the way for the passage of vital legislation aimed at restoring federal abortion protections, which have come under intense scrutiny and attack in recent years.
","category":"choice","author":"Her Choice","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:32.256Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67312c5a24ef2f2d720d6912_39.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/kamala-harris-abolish-filibuster-abortion-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/kamala-harris-abolish-filibuster-abortion-rights"},{"id":"ely3hz","slug":"judge-blocks-wyomings-abortion-and-medication-termination-laws","title":"Judge Blocks Wyoming’s Abortion and Medication Termination Laws","excerpt":"A Wyoming judge has struck down the state’s abortion ban and its unique prohibition on abortion pills, citing violations of constitutional rights. This decision comes as part of a larger trend affirming reproductive freedoms across the U.S.","content":"In a major decision on reproductive rights, Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens overturned Wyoming's broad abortion ban, including the state's special ban on medication-induced terminations. This action adds Wyoming to the list of states where courts or voters have supported abortion rights in reaction to legislative crackdowns following post-2022 targets.
Previously three times rejected laws under legal challenge, Judge Owens decided they breached the guarantee of women's rights found in the Wyoming Constitution. One law authorized abortions in cases of rape or incest or only to save the life of a pregnant woman. Though other states have more indirectly limited pharmaceuticals by generally outlawing abortion methods, other especially forbidden abortion medications.
Four women—two obstetricians among others—along with nonprofit organizations led the lawsuit. Following a 2022 arson attempt, well-known participant Wellspring Health Access marked a turning point in Wyoming's reproductive care scene when it launched the first full-service abortion clinic in 2023.
\"This decision emphasizes the need to preserve women's rights and healthcare decisions,\" stated Wellspring Health Access President Julie Burkhart. Emphasizing the effects on Wyoming citizens and women all around, she praised the ruling as a triumph for bodily autonomy.
The decision conforms with a larger national trend of opposition to tight abortion restrictions. Strong support for reproductive rights was shown by recent election results; Missouri is working to remove restrictive prohibitions and other states, like Florida and Nebraska, so opposing policies that may have increased present limitations.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:31.586Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673d4721137acd794de0a832_Web_Photo_Editor%20(4).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/judge-blocks-wyomings-abortion-and-medication-termination-laws","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/judge-blocks-wyomings-abortion-and-medication-termination-laws"},{"id":"wi8nd1","slug":"iraqs-parliament-faces-backlash-over-proposed-amendments-threatening-womens-rights","title":"Iraq’s Parliament Faces Backlash Over Proposed Amendments Threatening Women’s Rights","excerpt":"Iraq’s parliament faces growing criticism over legal amendments that could lower the marriage age to nine, sparking protests and raising concerns about setbacks in women’s rights.","content":"On Monday, Iraq’s parliament postponed a controversial vote on amendments to the Personal Status Law, which includes proposals that could reduce the legal marriage age to as young as nine. The suggested modifications have sparked extensive protests and criticism from women’s rights organizations, which caution that this action could undermine years of advancements in safeguarding women and girls.
Iraq’s Personal Status Law currently establishes the minimum age for marriage at 18, though it permits exceptions for marriages at 15 with the necessary court and parental consent. The recent amendments would empower religious councils to implement their interpretations of Islamic law, which could lead to a further reduction in the age.
Critics, such as Amnesty International, caution that the changes may legitimize child marriage, weaken protections for women, and heighten the risks of abuse. “This law legalizes child rape,” stated a protester in Baghdad, capturing the intense public outrage regarding the proposals.
Protests have emerged throughout Iraq, as activists and women’s organizations call on lawmakers to dismiss the amendments. There is a widespread concern that the changes may unfairly impact girls, depriving them of educational opportunities and increasing their vulnerability to early pregnancies and abuse.
In response to the backlash, Iraq’s parliament has decided to delay the vote until Monday. Advocacy groups are calling on the government to prioritize reforms that tackle systemic violence against women, including the criminalization of marital rape and the removal of “honor” as a defense for acts of violence against women.
The suggested amendments represent a pivotal moment for Iraq, challenging the equilibrium between religious impact and legal safeguards for women's rights in an evolving society.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:30.922Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/674ecc7e6f5d8b05b75f5159_Web_Photo_Editor%20(6).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/iraqs-parliament-faces-backlash-over-proposed-amendments-threatening-womens-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/iraqs-parliament-faces-backlash-over-proposed-amendments-threatening-womens-rights"},{"id":"3qzfxh","slug":"iowa-senator-joni-ernst-responds-arizona-abortion-ban","title":"Iowa Senator Joni Ernst Responds to Arizona's Abortion Ban","excerpt":"Senator Joni Ernst has expressed her views on the Arizona Supreme Court's decision to reinstate a near-total abortion ban from 1864. This article explores the implications of such laws on women's reproductive rights and the ongoing fight for autonomy over their bodies.","content":"In a significant legal development, the Arizona Supreme Court recently endorsed a 1864 abortion law that introduces severe restrictions on women's reproductive rights. This decision has sparked a wave of responses from political figures across the nation, including Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst. Her comments reflect the broader national discourse surrounding abortion laws and women's rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:30.324Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731267e0d77f8eb402e534f_Web_Photo_Editor%20(36).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/iowa-senator-joni-ernst-responds-arizona-abortion-ban","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/iowa-senator-joni-ernst-responds-arizona-abortion-ban"},{"id":"ldwc0c","slug":"in-sharp-contrast-to-u-s-british-parliament-moves-to-end-criminal-penalties-for-women-seeking-abortion","title":"In Sharp Contrast to U.S., British Parliament Moves to End Criminal Penalties for Women Seeking Abortion","excerpt":"In a significant step forward for reproductive rights, British lawmakers voted Tuesday to decriminalize abortion for pregnant women in England and Wales, offering a stark contrast to the increasing restrictions on abortion access across the United States.","content":"On Tuesday, British lawmakers cast a decisive vote to decriminalize abortion for pregnant women in England and Wales, signifying a significant change in the nation’s stance on reproductive rights and setting the UK apart from the growing restrictions seen in the United States.
The vote aims to abolish sections of a law from the Victorian era that permits the prosecution of women for ending their pregnancies. Abortion remains legal in England and Wales up to 24 weeks, with specific exceptions permitted beyond that timeframe, particularly in situations where the mother's life is at risk. However, women who operate outside these legal boundaries may encounter criminal investigations, arrests, and the potential for imprisonment.
The proposed change, which was approved as an amendment to a draft policing and crime bill, aims to eliminate the legal risks encountered by women who terminate pregnancies past the legal limit. Medical professionals who conduct abortions beyond the allowed timeframe would remain liable for legal consequences.
Before becoming law, the bill must navigate through both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
The decision enjoys broad backing from the British public. A recent YouGov poll conducted in April revealed that 88% of respondents are in favor of a woman’s right to access abortion services.
The decision arrives during a period when access to abortion is facing significant restrictions in the United States. Following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, numerous states across America have enacted strict restrictions or nearly complete bans, significantly altering the realm of reproductive health.
Louise McCudden, the UK head of external affairs at MSI Reproductive Choices, connected the UK vote to increasing concerns about anti-abortion activism influenced by the U.S. She noted that anti-choice protests outside clinics in the UK have risen, fueled by the reduction of rights across the Atlantic.
Nonetheless, the vote faced criticism from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, whose public policy manager cautioned that it might allow for abortion “even moments before birth.”
Nevertheless, advocates argue that the reform emphasizes compassion and autonomy, particularly for vulnerable women confronting crisis pregnancies.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:29.722Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6853867b476035eec0d2422e_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-06-19T113231.426.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/in-sharp-contrast-to-u-s-british-parliament-moves-to-end-criminal-penalties-for-women-seeking-abortion","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/in-sharp-contrast-to-u-s-british-parliament-moves-to-end-criminal-penalties-for-women-seeking-abortion"},{"id":"a1i7q5","slug":"in-farewell-move-biden-pushes-for-era-recognition-amid-legal-uncertainty","title":"In Farewell Move, Biden Pushes for ERA Recognition Amid Legal Uncertainty","excerpt":"On his last days in office, President Joe Biden declared the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, a historic but contested move to enshrine gender equality as law.","content":"On his last days in office, Joe Biden proclaimed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This assertive statement seeks to establish gender equality in legal terms, marking his presidency with a significant, albeit controversial, action. Biden's announcement reinforces his commitment to equality, yet legal experts and opponents debate the legitimacy of the ERA, which still encounters considerable procedural and legal obstacles.
“As a nation, we must affirm and protect women’s full equality once and for all,” Biden stated during his farewell address. “I stand by my beliefs and the decision of three-fourths of the states: The 28th Amendment is now the law of the land, ensuring that all Americans receive equal rights and protections, irrespective of their sex.”
Even with Biden’s declaration, the formal recognition of the amendment is still entangled in legal ambiguity. Critics highlight Congress’s initial 1982 ratification deadline and the later rescissions of six state approvals as obstacles to its adoption. The U.S. archivist, referencing established legal and procedural guidance, chose not to certify the ERA as a component of the Constitution. Biden’s announcement, though symbolically important, does not carry immediate legal weight and transfers the issue of validity to the judicial system.
Advocates of the ERA, such as Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), commended Biden’s choice. “This marks a remarkable moment for reproductive freedom and a significant day for equality,” Gillibrand stated. Proponents contend that the ERA would enhance safeguards against sex-based discrimination, address wage inequalities, and possibly reinstate federal abortion rights. Opponents argue that the amendment is unnecessary due to existing laws and may result in unforeseen issues in areas such as public facilities.
Legal scholars continue to hold differing opinions. Some contend that the ratification deadlines imposed by Congress are unconstitutional, while others warn against establishing a precedent that might undermine the legitimacy of amendments. “Biden can express any opinion he wishes, but it lacks legal weight.” \"You cannot reverse the passage of time,\" remarked Akhil Amar, a professor at Yale Law School.
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to assume office, Biden’s action highlights a significant difference in leadership priorities. During Trump's administration, there was a clear opposition to the ERA, making any efforts for its recognition under his presidency appear improbable.
Biden’s farewell statement emphasizes a presidency that advocated for advancements in gender equality. While the legal future of the ERA is still unclear, Biden’s statement guarantees that the struggle for its acknowledgment will continue to be a significant concern for generations to come.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:29.116Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/678cbfd1944a45ce7b9c90a9_Web_Photo_Editor%20(57).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/in-farewell-move-biden-pushes-for-era-recognition-amid-legal-uncertainty","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/in-farewell-move-biden-pushes-for-era-recognition-amid-legal-uncertainty"},{"id":"pa6xn","slug":"idaho-women-challenge-strict-abortion-laws-in-court-after-being-denied-care","title":"Idaho Women Challenge Strict Abortion Laws in Court After Being Denied Care","excerpt":"Four Idaho women are taking the stand to share their experiences of being denied abortions under the state’s stringent laws. The case seeks to clarify medical exemptions and advocate for more precise guidelines for doctors to prevent future trauma and health risks.","content":"In Ada County District Court this week, four women will testify in a case that could change Idaho's strict abortion rules. The lawsuit, which was filed last year, challenges the state's limits on abortion, especially the fact that there are no exceptions for fatal fetal abnormalities. It also wants to make it clear when doctors can legally perform abortions without being charged with a crime.
The Idaho Academy of Family Physicians, two doctors, and the four women who had to leave the state to get abortions after finding out they were pregnant no longer had the right to do so. The lawsuit says that Idaho's abortion rules have made the women who had to travel for care feel bad emotionally, put their health at risk, and cost them a lot of money.
This state has some of the strictest rules about abortion in the whole country. Anyone who performs an abortion can be charged with a felony and face two to five years in jail. People who have abortions after six weeks of pregnancy can be sued by private citizens. There are no exceptions to the rules for pregnancies where the fetus has problems that will kill it.
Rebecca Vincen-Brown, the plaintiff, drove to Portland, Oregon, for an abortion after being turned down in Idaho when she learned her fetus had severe problems. When she thought about what had happened, she said, \"The trauma...was completely unnecessary and could have been 100% avoided.\"
The case, which is similar to one that was filed in Texas before, could set a significant standard for U.S. abortion rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:28.449Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6733620a4a4ac891ef9c2ea1_12.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/idaho-women-challenge-strict-abortion-laws-in-court-after-being-denied-care","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/idaho-women-challenge-strict-abortion-laws-in-court-after-being-denied-care"},{"id":"qlwq46","slug":"idaho-trial-highlights-harrowing-impact-of-abortion-bans-on-women-facing-pregnancy-complications","title":"Idaho Trial Highlights Harrowing Impact of Abortion Bans on Women Facing Pregnancy Complications","excerpt":"The Adkins v. State of Idaho trial showcases the impact of restrictive abortion laws on women with severe pregnancy complications and doctors hindered from providing necessary care under state bans.","content":"During the Adkins v. State of Idaho trial, which took place from November 12–21 in Boise, women provided testimony regarding their experiences of being denied essential abortion care as a result of the state's strict abortion restrictions. Their testimonies, along with those of doctors limited by the laws, illuminate the profound impacts of these restrictions.
In 2023, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a case that seeks to broaden the medical exceptions within Idaho's abortion restrictions. The text advocates for the legal provision of abortion care by doctors when the health or safety of a pregnant individual is jeopardized, particularly in instances of fatal fetal diagnoses.
The plaintiffs recounted harrowing experiences of having to leave Idaho to seek care after being diagnosed with severe and life-threatening fetal conditions that jeopardized their health and lives.
“All four of these women were excited about their pregnancies, yet they encountered extraordinary challenges,” stated Gail Deady, Senior Staff Attorney at the Center. She highlighted that the women pursued abortions not as a matter of choice but out of necessity—\"to safeguard their health and their young families.\"
Rebecca Vincen-Brown, one of the plaintiffs, expressed her deep sorrow. “A fatal fetal diagnosis is heartbreaking.” Residing in Idaho significantly intensified the challenge because of the scarce availability of care options. We never anticipated requiring an emergency abortion for the child we had yearned for.
The trial represents a crucial point in contesting the narrow limits of Idaho’s abortion bans, highlighting the pressing necessity for legal clarity to safeguard both patients and providers.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:27.829Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67580b8123f4d6bfad89ccf4_2.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/idaho-trial-highlights-harrowing-impact-of-abortion-bans-on-women-facing-pregnancy-complications","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/idaho-trial-highlights-harrowing-impact-of-abortion-bans-on-women-facing-pregnancy-complications"},{"id":"hetr3f","slug":"hundreds-rally-to-restore-reproductive-freedoms-in-idaho-with-2026-ballot-measure","title":"Hundreds Rally to Restore Reproductive Freedoms in Idaho with 2026 Ballot Measure","excerpt":"Hundreds of Idahoans rallied at the state capitol to kick off a campaign for a ballot initiative that would enshrine reproductive rights in state law, restoring access to abortion, birth control, and emergency pregnancy care.","content":"On June 28, 2025, hundreds of people who support reproductive rights met outside of the Idaho State Capitol. They started a citizen-led effort to restore and protect reproductive freedoms through the Reproductive Freedom & Privacy Act.
The goal of the effort is to protect access to abortion, emergency medical care for problems during pregnancy, birth control, emergency birth control, and IVF in Idaho. The goal is to have the bill on the ballot in November 2026.
Idahoans United for Women and Families hosted the \"Rise & Sign Rally,\" marking the official start of the statewide signing drive. Melanie Folwell, who runs the organizing group, said, \"Today's rally is just the beginning.\" \"The people of Idaho are ready to stand up, sign, and reclaim their right to make deeply personal medical decisions without the help of politicians.\"
Between July 8 and July 21, Idahoans United will hold 11 events across the state to collect signatures. At these events, volunteers will engage with voters, gather petition signatures, and foster support for the cause. Proponents say that the current bans on abortion put pregnant women in danger and keep families from getting the care they need.
People from Idaho told powerful personal stories at the protest on Saturday. Kate Campbell-Covell, who is expecting her third child and is already a mother of two, talked about how Idaho's strict abortion rules made her pregnancy a medical emergency. \"They told me to wait until I got worse before I could get help,\" she said. \"My life was in danger because politicians did not care about medical facts.\" Laws that prioritize politics over patients are not what we need. We need laws that trust doctors and women.
People who support the proposal say that the Reproductive Freedom & Privacy Act would make abortion legal again in Idaho. This would bring state law in line with best medical practices and ensure that all Idahoans can still access reproductive health care.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:27.151Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6869367910c248454cb06858_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-07-05T222524.372.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/hundreds-rally-to-restore-reproductive-freedoms-in-idaho-with-2026-ballot-measure","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/hundreds-rally-to-restore-reproductive-freedoms-in-idaho-with-2026-ballot-measure"},{"id":"9p5900","slug":"how-originalism-is-undermining-womens-rights","title":"How Originalism is Undermining Women's Rights","excerpt":"Originalism, a legal theory gaining traction in the U.S., poses significant risks to women's reproductive rights. This article delves into the implications of this doctrine on access to abortion and personal autonomy, along with insights from activists and legal experts.","content":"In recent years, a legal philosophy known as originalism has increasingly shaped the landscape of American law, raising alarm among advocates for women's reproductive rights. Originalism posits that the Constitution should be interpreted based on the intentions of its framers at the time it was written. While proponents argue that this approach promotes stability and predictability in law, it poses serious risks to the evolution of individual rights, particularly those concerning reproductive freedom.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:26.544Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67315ef5717a6e7dbc4b44b7_7.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/how-originalism-is-undermining-womens-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/how-originalism-is-undermining-womens-rights"},{"id":"p4m8s7","slug":"how-many-texas-metoo-stories-are-going-untold","title":"How Many Texas #MeToo Stories Are Going Untold?","excerpt":"As Texas tightens restrictions on reproductive rights and workplace protections for women, many survivors of sexual assault are finding it too dangerous to share their #MeToo stories. The climate of fear is silencing voices that once sought justice.","content":"She wished to share her story. She was all set. But she changed her mind after months of telling everyone about the sexual attack, waiting for justice, and hoping for change. There was too much at stake.
It is getting more and more dangerous for survivors of sexual abuse in Texas to speak out. The #MeToo movement used to give victims a place to talk about what happened and ask for help. But now that women's rights are being attacked more and more in politics, that platform is falling apart. Survivors are being told they have to keep quiet again.
The rights of women in Texas have changed a lot. Gov. Greg Abbott used to say that he would \"eliminate rape,\" but now he's changed his mind. Because of the state's complete ban on abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, thousands of survivors are having pregnancies that were forced on them by their attackers. According to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, there were about 26,313 pregnancies in Texas that were caused by rape in the 16 months after the abortion ban went into effect in 2021.
It affects more than just reproductive freedom. A nationwide glut of untested rape kits keeps victims from getting justice. DNA proof is still a very important part of prosecuting sexual offenders, but many victims have to wait a long time for results that could put their attackers in jail.
Politics are also being used to shut women up. A site called DEI \"watch list\" has been going after government workers, mostly Black women, as part of a larger attack on efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. Women are losing rights at work, and it's getting harder for them to get good reproductive health care.
It's hard to believe the numbers. The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) says that one in six women will be sexually attacked at some point in their lives. It's one in 33 for guys. It is said by the Houston Area Women's Center that more than 90% of sexual assaults are never recorded. Their #SurvivorSpeak campaign wants to break the silence, but a lot of women are afraid to speak out.
While at SXSW in Austin, Tarana Burke, the founder of #MeToo, talked about the change in public attention. She said, \"One of the hardest things has been getting people to look away from the bad people and toward the people who have been hurt.\"
In the meantime, Texas politicians still don't care about how their laws affect women. The death rates for mothers are some of the highest in the country, but not much is being done to fix the problem. This focus on \"protecting women and girls\" by banning transgender women from sports is a distraction from the real problem, which is a culture of rape that fails survivors at every turn.
This woman wrote to me because she thought her story could help other people. She knew that speaking out could put her safety, her job, and her career at risk, though. In a world that won't let her speak, I can only hope she gets justice and better health.
Every day as I raise my daughter, I tell her, \"You are strong.\" Your voice is important. But I wonder—will those words still be true when she's older? People's rights to women are under attack more and more these days.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:25.952Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67cfd2b54b5048859ea401bc_Web_Photo_Editor%20(23).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/how-many-texas-metoo-stories-are-going-untold","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/how-many-texas-metoo-stories-are-going-untold"},{"id":"xwvyrr","slug":"how-jimmy-carters-advocacy-for-gender-equity-shaped-his-legacy","title":"How Jimmy Carter’s Advocacy for Gender Equity Shaped His Legacy","excerpt":"Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, left a lasting legacy as a champion for women’s rights. From advocating for the Equal Rights Amendment to advancing global awareness of gender inequities, Carter’s work reshaped how the world addresses the abuse and discrimination of women and girls.","content":"Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29 at the age of 100, leaves a legacy marked by his unwavering commitment to women’s rights. Carter, serving as the 39th president, advocated for gender equity, implementing policies and influencing global discussions that still hold significance today.
Throughout his presidency (1977–1981), Carter focused on the Equal Rights Amendment, which sought to establish gender equality within the Constitution. Although the amendment has not yet been ratified, Carter has extended the timeline for its ratification, demonstrating his steadfast dedication. He also signed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, protecting pregnant employees from discrimination in the workplace.
Carter transformed representation in government by appointing 41 women and 57 people of color to federal judgeships—surpassing the total of all his predecessors combined. Among the significant appointees was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, appointed by Carter to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1980, which set the stage for her eventual ascension to the Supreme Court. His administration established new representation standards by appointing four women to Cabinet-level positions, including Patricia Roberts Harris, who became the first Black woman to serve as a Cabinet secretary.
Outside the Oval Office, Carter and his wife Rosalynn advocated for gender equity on a global scale. Through the Carter Center, they tackled selective abortion practices, female genital mutilation, and human trafficking. His book, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power, emphasized these issues and proposed solutions to address systemic gender violence.
During a TED Talk in 2015, Carter referred to the mistreatment of women as “the number one human rights abuse on Earth.” His presidency and advocacy highlighted his conviction that empowering women is essential for global advancement. Carter’s lasting influence stands as a testament to the strength of leadership rooted in compassion and justice, motivating continued endeavors to attain gender equality across the globe.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:25.346Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6782b0bc1b556ea05ca6e6fa_Web_Photo_Editor%20(35).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/how-jimmy-carters-advocacy-for-gender-equity-shaped-his-legacy","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/how-jimmy-carters-advocacy-for-gender-equity-shaped-his-legacy"},{"id":"9r8wxf","slug":"how-forced-birth-laws-are-energizing-the-pro-choice-movement","title":"How Forced-Birth Laws are Energizing the Pro-Choice Movement","excerpt":"In recent years, the push for forced-birth laws has inadvertently strengthened the pro-choice movement. A record 59% of Americans now support legal abortion, showcasing a significant shift in public opinion and energizing advocacy for women's reproductive rights.","content":"The ongoing debate surrounding women's reproductive rights has intensified in recent years, particularly in light of the rise of forced-birth laws championed by many Republican lawmakers. While these laws aim to restrict access to abortion, they have inadvertently sparked a wave of support for the pro-choice movement, signaling a crucial shift in public opinion regarding women's autonomy over their bodies.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:24.737Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673074707f36d1b750454e31_13.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/how-forced-birth-laws-are-energizing-the-pro-choice-movement","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/how-forced-birth-laws-are-energizing-the-pro-choice-movement"},{"id":"fn29qb","slug":"honoring-black-leaders-in-the-reproductive-rights-movement","title":"Honoring Black Leaders in the Reproductive Rights Movement","excerpt":"As we celebrate Black History Month, it is essential to recognize the significant yet often overlooked contributions of Black leaders to the reproductive rights movement. Their advocacy has played a crucial role in shaping the landscape of women's health and reproductive freedoms.","content":"Black History Month provides a vital opportunity to reflect on the individuals whose activism has profoundly impacted the modern reproductive rights movement. Although their contributions are frequently marginalized in mainstream narratives, Black leaders have been at the forefront of advocating for women's reproductive rights. Their tireless efforts have not only advanced the movement but have also highlighted the intersection of race and gender in the fight for autonomy over one’s body.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:24.134Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672fe4661533c41ff2c7934a_Web_Photo_Editor%20(7).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/honoring-black-leaders-in-the-reproductive-rights-movement","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/honoring-black-leaders-in-the-reproductive-rights-movement"},{"id":"1nq1qy","slug":"holistic-health-a-path-to-empowering-womens-well-being","title":"Holistic Health: A Path to Empowering Women’s Well-Being","excerpt":"Professor Joyce Harper, a leading voice in women’s health, emphasizes the transformative power of a holistic approach to well-being. This strategy integrates mental, emotional, and physical health while advocating for comprehensive education and accessibility in preventive care.","content":"The Head of the Reproductive Science and Society Group at UCL's Institute for Women's Health, Professor Joyce Harper, discusses the potential of a holistic health approach to enhance the well-being of women. Here is a summary of her contribution article for News Medical Life Sciences.
Professor Harper contends that holistic health, which encompasses emotional, mental, and lifestyle factors in addition to physical treatment, is crucial for enhancing the holistic well-being of women.
The emotional and mental health of women plays a crucial role in their reproductive well-being. Studies indicate that stress, anxiety, and depression can interfere with hormonal balance, leading to menstrual irregularities and infertility.
The Hologic Global Women's Health Index underscores critical deficiencies, as it indicates that nearly 40% of women in the United Kingdom experience daily stress, and preventive care, including screenings and diagnostics, is below the European average.
Professor Harper is also a proponent of the creation of women's healthcare centers that are easily accessible in order to address these gaps. These hubs would provide essential services and encourage the early diagnosis and treatment of disease.
Preventive care is also significantly influenced by education. Harper emphasizes the necessity of comprehensive health education that commences in adolescence, thereby equipping women with the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions and adopt healthier lifestyles. Accurate health information must be provided by policymakers, institutions, and digital platforms, while data-driven methodologies must identify gaps.
Holistic health encompasses more than just disease prevention. It also emphasizes emotional resilience, balanced nutrition, and consistent physical activity. The integration of these practices into healthcare strategies can establish environments that are conducive to the success of women, thereby guaranteeing a future of improved well-being and informed decision-making.
Harper believes that with holistic health, women's empowerment is possible with education, access and impactful daily choices.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:23.529Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67526ff721f94ab7693bcc58_1.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/holistic-health-a-path-to-empowering-womens-well-being","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/holistic-health-a-path-to-empowering-womens-well-being"},{"id":"dmyoc9","slug":"hhs-to-review-abortion-pill-rules-raising-fears-of-new-restrictions","title":"HHS to Review Abortion Pill Rules, Raising Fears of New Restrictions","excerpt":"Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a new federal review of the abortion pill mifepristone, sparking concern among abortion rights advocates that the move could limit access to the most common method of abortion in the United States.","content":"In the final weeks of September, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the Food and Drug Administration will undertake a new review of mifepristone, the abortion pill utilized in nearly two-thirds of all U.S. abortions.
The decision comes in response to requests from 22 Republican attorneys general and has raised concerns among abortion rights advocates that the review may lead to nationwide restrictions.
Medical abortion, utilizing mifepristone in conjunction with misoprostol, has emerged as the predominant method for terminating early pregnancies. It is a significant alternative in states with bans on surgical abortions, frequently obtained via telehealth and \"shield laws\" that permit out-of-state providers to legally mail medications.
In correspondence with the Republican attorneys general, Kennedy and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary stated that the agency would undertake “its review of the evidence, including real-world outcomes and evidence, regarding the safety and efficacy of the drug.” They asserted that a comprehensive investigation into the safe administration conditions of mifepristone adequately safeguards women's health.
Republican officials and anti-abortion organizations have called on the Trump administration to impose stricter regulations on the drug, potentially restricting telehealth prescriptions or reducing the duration of use. Restrictions of this nature could markedly diminish abortion access in at least 16 states that currently ban nearly all in-person abortions.
The impetus for review arises in part from a study conducted by the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, referenced by Kennedy and Makary, which asserted that 11% of women utilizing mifepristone encountered “serious adverse events.” This figure notably differs from the FDA's data, which indicates a complication rate of 0.5%. Critics highlight that the study lacked peer review and was solely published on the group's website.
Kiki Freedman, CEO of Hey Jane, the largest telemedicine abortion provider in the nation, stated, “This review could undermine access to one of the most thoroughly studied and widely used medications in the country.” Planned Parenthood cautioned that this action may undermine decades of secure access. Danika Severino Wynn, vice president of care and access at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, stated that mifepristone has been utilized safely and effectively for 25 years.
Kennedy has not indicated whether the review will lead to new restrictions. However, he previously described the conservative study as “alarming” and expressed a desire for a “complete review” of the drug’s safety.
Mifepristone, approved in 2000 and expanded for use through 10 weeks’ gestation in 2016, demonstrates a 97% efficacy when administered in conjunction with misoprostol, as reported by a study from the University of California, Davis. The FDA asserts that mifepristone is both safe and effective when utilized according to established guidelines.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:20.602Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68ef112b7394a818b08c53a1_Web_Photo_Editor%20(95).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/hhs-to-review-abortion-pill-rules-raising-fears-of-new-restrictions","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/hhs-to-review-abortion-pill-rules-raising-fears-of-new-restrictions"},{"id":"ahnvrg","slug":"health-clinics-in-africa-face-uncertainty-over-u-s-aid-policy","title":"Health Clinics in Africa Face Uncertainty Over U.S. Aid Policy","excerpt":"Health workers in Africa warn that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s expected reinstatement of the global gag rule could jeopardize crucial reproductive health services. This policy, which restricts U.S. aid for organizations involved in abortion-related services, may leave vulnerable communities without essential care.","content":"19-year-old Sithulisiwe Moyo waits hours for birth control tablets at a free outreach clinic sponsored by the U.S. government in a small hamlet on the outskirts of Harare, Zimbabwe. These offerings to Moyo are like a lifeline. Emphasizing her dreams to return to school, she remarked, \"I'm too young to be a baby-making machine.\"
However, given that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump predicted the reinstatement of the global gag rule, the existence of such clinics rests precariously. Though those activities are funded by other sources, this policy forbids U.S. foreign aid from supporting groups that offer abortion services, counseling, or referrals.
Initially passed in 1984 and either revoked or restored depending on the government, the policy affects not only abortion treatments but also many other healthcare initiatives. Advocates fear the reintroduction of the regulation will interfere with access to HIV prevention, prenatal care, and contraception in nations primarily dependent on U.S. funding.
\"The gag rule is not just about abortion,\" a health advocate from Zimbabwe remarked. \"It compromises thorough healthcare for women, so depriving them of choices to regulate their reproductive life.\"
Health experts warn that in sub-Saharan Africa, where maternal death rates remain high, the strategy may result in unwanted pregnancies and dangerous abortions.
Critics contend the gag ban unfairly affects underprivileged groups by favoring political ideology over medical outcomes. \"Without these services, young women like Sithulisiwe lose the chance to shape their futures,\" the advocate stated.
Policy supporters, however, contend that by stopping their money from indirectly supporting abortions overseas, they preserve American taxpayers' beliefs. The stakes are pretty personal for Moyo and millions like her as the potential of losing access to primary healthcare looms big.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:19.991Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67429b0648d1a5d534ff9ddc_11.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/health-clinics-in-africa-face-uncertainty-over-u-s-aid-policy","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/health-clinics-in-africa-face-uncertainty-over-u-s-aid-policy"},{"id":"vyko3a","slug":"health-care-providers-urge-biden-administration-expand-abortion-rights","title":"Health Care Providers Urge Biden Administration to Expand Abortion Rights","excerpt":"In a letter shared exclusively with HuffPost, over 400 health care providers urge the administration to do more for abortion rights.","content":"In a decisive move, over 400 healthcare providers have appealed to the Biden administration, urging the enhancement of abortion rights beyond the protections established by Roe v. Wade. This call to action emphasizes the critical need for accessible reproductive healthcare and the importance of supporting women's autonomy over their bodies.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:19.390Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731a9de74a8b5e36f55492e_Web_Photo_Editor%20(47).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/health-care-providers-urge-biden-administration-expand-abortion-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/health-care-providers-urge-biden-administration-expand-abortion-rights"},{"id":"a293uk","slug":"harvard-freshmen-rally-for-reproductive-rights","title":"Harvard Freshmen Rally for Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"On May 4, 2022, Harvard University freshmen organized a powerful rally in Cambridge, Massachusetts, voicing their opposition to potential restrictions on abortion. Their chants of \"Not your body, not your choice\" highlighted the critical issues surrounding women's reproductive rights and personal autonomy.","content":"
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:18.783Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672f65275acb5e5a27ed843a_3.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/harvard-freshmen-rally-for-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/harvard-freshmen-rally-for-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"e2uqqb","slug":"governor-whitmer-urges-biden-to-address-abortion-rights-more-directly","title":"Governor Whitmer Urges Biden to Address Abortion Rights More Directly","excerpt":"Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer advocates for a more direct approach from President Biden regarding abortion rights. With ongoing political challenges, she stresses the importance of clear communication in support of women's reproductive freedoms.","content":"Name:
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:18.185Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672f5b1c8692f84162a86cdf_1.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/governor-whitmer-urges-biden-to-address-abortion-rights-more-directly","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/governor-whitmer-urges-biden-to-address-abortion-rights-more-directly"},{"id":"mgfyis","slug":"gop-governors-target-planned-parenthoods-eligibility-for-340b-drug-discounts","title":"GOP Governors Target Planned Parenthood's Eligibility for 340B Drug Discounts","excerpt":"Gov. Kevin Stitt and 10 Republican governors asked federal officials to strip Planned Parenthood of eligibility for a federal drug discount program, escalating ongoing efforts to limit the organization’s reach in Oklahoma and nationwide.","content":"This week, OklaOklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and ten other Republican governors requested that the federal government prevent Planned Parenthood from participating in a drug discount program designed to help safety-net providers increase access to care for more people.
In letters sent to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, the governors said that Planned Parenthood uses the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program to indirectly pay for abortion services, even in states where those services are heavily limited or not allowed at all.
\"Planned Parenthood can lower its costs, reallocate unrestricted funds, and improve its operations in other areas with help from the federal program,\" the letter said.
Through the 340B program, certain clinics can buy prescription drugs at lower prices. This cuts down on costs and lets healthcare providers help more people.
Oklahoma has three health centers that are part of Planned Parenthood. These are in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Edmond. The state has strict rules that make it illegal for the clinics to perform abortions. However, they still provide yearly exams, birth control, emergency care, and gender-affirming services.
Supporters of reproductive health have warned that focusing on this program could put at risk the care that Oklahomans who depend on low-cost services can get. Kensey Wright, a board member of the Roe Fund, stated that this action reflects a trend where individuals are attempting to make it more difficult for others to obtain abortions while simultaneously denying assistance or resources that could help prevent pregnancies.
After putting in place an executive order earlier this year that said the state can't give money to any group with ties to abortion doctors, Stitt has made this request.
Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which serves Oklahoma, said on its website that it cannot take Medicaid patients through SoonerCare. However, it does offer private financial aid choices.
Wright said, \"People need to think about more than just the abortion issue.\" \"The programs that help people in our community get the health care they need are in danger.\"
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:17.589Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68df4c62f0ba1ef21646421b_Web_Photo_Editor%20(93).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/gop-governors-target-planned-parenthoods-eligibility-for-340b-drug-discounts","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/gop-governors-target-planned-parenthoods-eligibility-for-340b-drug-discounts"},{"id":"g9aofo","slug":"global-aid-cuts-threaten-srh-rights-amid-rising-right-wing-governments","title":"Global Aid Cuts Threaten SRH Rights Amid Rising Right-Wing Governments","excerpt":"As right-wing governments gain power across the globe, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) rights and LGBTQ protections are facing severe setbacks. The U.S. under President-elect Donald Trump, alongside European nations like the Netherlands and Sweden, are expected to slash support for SRH programs, leaving vulnerable communities at greater risk.","content":"The global landscape for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and LGBTQ rights is becoming more uncertain as right-wing governments, especially in the U.S. and Europe, pose a risk to essential support. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is anticipated to reinstate the Global Gag Rule, which would prevent foreign NGOs from offering or promoting abortion services, thereby severing essential resources for women's health globally. Furthermore, Trump’s selection for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, is expected to focus on transgender service members in the U.S. military, which could further weaken LGBTQ rights.
At the same time, various European countries, such as the Netherlands, are implementing significant reductions to overseas development aid (ODA). The Dutch government, currently led by right-wing officials, intends to cut its ODA by almost one-third, which will significantly affect funding for SRH and LGBTQ initiatives. The Netherlands, previously the second-largest European donor for sexual and reproductive health, has declared a 70% reduction in grants for NGOs, focusing solely on issues such as HIV and female genital mutilation.
Once a frontrunner in SRH funding, Sweden has decreased its support by 17%, which indicates potential additional reductions. As we maintain our commitment to LGBTQ rights, these cuts highlight the escalating global crisis for sexual and reproductive health services, forcing organizations to address the fallout urgently.
As advocates for human rights and progressive donors resist, the upcoming years may witness significant challenges for reproductive and LGBTQ rights worldwide.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:16.964Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67313314c09970b51cd80e8e_44.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/global-aid-cuts-threaten-srh-rights-amid-rising-right-wing-governments","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/global-aid-cuts-threaten-srh-rights-amid-rising-right-wing-governments"},{"id":"fu8uta","slug":"georgias-restrictive-abortion-laws-delay-life-saving-miscarriage-care","title":"Georgia's Restrictive Abortion Laws Delay Life-Saving Miscarriage Care","excerpt":"A Georgia woman's experience highlights the harsh reality of restrictive abortion laws post-Dobbs decision. When Avery Davis Bell faced a miscarriage, her access to immediate, necessary medical care was delayed due to the state’s strict regulations, illustrating how such laws impact miscarriage management and patient safety.","content":"A 34-year-old geneticist named Avery Davis Bell lost the baby she wanted at the beginning of October. Bell was hospitalized in Georgia after several episodes of heavy bleeding. She and her doctors knew what care she needed to handle her miscarriage and keep her from getting an infection. But Georgia's strict abortion rules made it take longer to get immediate care.
Because of these rules, doctors are limited in how they can handle miscarriages, which usually involve the same steps as abortions. In Bell's case, the abortion limit in Georgia was six weeks, but she was already 18 weeks pregnant, which is too early for the fetus to be viable but too late for an abortion in Georgia. In states with less strict laws, doctors could move quickly, but Bell's treatment had to be put off.
Georgia law says that abortions can only happen in emergencies. If not, there is a 24-hour waiting time. Bell was told she would have to wait unless her health got much worse. The delay made the actual effects of the 2022 Dobbs case stand out. That decision took away federal protection for abortion and gave states more control over regulations.
A lot of losses end on their own at home, but when they need medical help, they are treated in ways that are similar to abortion. In Bell's case, the wait made it more likely that she would get an infection or have other problems.
More and more cases like Bell's are happening in states that entirely or almost completely ban abortion. This makes people worry about how rigid laws make it harder for women with complicated pregnancies to get the care they need when they need it and raise their health risks.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:16.351Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6737916008d69cc0f642125a_4.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/georgias-restrictive-abortion-laws-delay-life-saving-miscarriage-care","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/georgias-restrictive-abortion-laws-delay-life-saving-miscarriage-care"},{"id":"u5schi","slug":"georgias-first-female-president-leads-fight-for-democracy-amid-disputed-elections","title":"Georgia’s First Female President Leads Fight for Democracy Amid Disputed Elections","excerpt":"Georgia’s contested elections reveal a troubling regression in democracy and gender equality. Amidst political turmoil, President Salome Zourabichvili emerges as a bold advocate for democratic values and women’s representation.","content":"The 2024 parliamentary elections in Georgia, a pivotal moment for the country’s pro-European aspirations, have sparked mass protests and international scrutiny. Allegations of fraud have surrounded the victory of the ruling Georgian Dream party, which claimed 54% of the vote. President Salome Zourabichvili, Georgia’s first female head of state, has openly criticized the results, describing the elections as a blow to the nation’s democratic and pro-Western ambitions.
The protests have been fueled further by the government’s decision to pause EU accession negotiations despite public support exceeding 70% for European integration. President Zourabichvili has joined thousands of demonstrators in Tbilisi, calling for new elections and condemning the rollback of democratic norms and human rights in Georgia.
Women’s Leadership Under Siege President Zourabichvili’s defiance has positioned her as a trailblazer for democratic reform in Eastern Europe. Her vocal opposition to authoritarian policies, such as the controversial foreign agent law and anti-LGBTQ+ measures, has drawn fire from the ruling party. Georgian Dream has attempted to limit her international presence and even initiated impeachment proceedings, though these efforts ultimately failed.
This erosion of democratic norms disproportionately affects women and marginalized groups. Recent legislative changes dismantling gender quotas have led to a significant drop in female candidates in the Georgian parliament. Female politicians have faced targeted harassment, threats, and even vandalism, reflecting a broader trend of silencing women’s voices in public life.
A Global Crisis for Gender Equality Georgia’s setbacks mirror a global decline in women’s representation during 2024’s election super-year. Despite notable wins for female leaders in countries like Iceland and Mexico, overall progress has stalled or reversed. Authoritarian-leaning governments often marginalize women, undermining gender equality and democratic inclusivity.
The Path Forward While Zourabichvili’s presidency ends this December, her advocacy for gender equity and democratic reform remains a beacon of hope. The ongoing protests in Georgia underscore a growing demand for accountability and alignment with democratic values. Yet, the international community must amplify its support to ensure the nation’s commitment to gender equality and human rights is more than symbolic.
Georgia’s struggle serves as a cautionary tale for the fragility of progress, reminding the world that the fight for democracy and inclusion is far from over.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:15.762Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67550989f7d23a5d06b705f1_8.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/georgias-first-female-president-leads-fight-for-democracy-amid-disputed-elections","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/georgias-first-female-president-leads-fight-for-democracy-amid-disputed-elections"},{"id":"anqhkd","slug":"georgia-dismisses-maternal-mortality-committee-after-confidentiality-breach","title":"Georgia Dismisses Maternal Mortality Committee After Confidentiality Breach","excerpt":"The Georgia Department of Public Health has dismissed all members of the Maternal Mortality Review Committee following the leak of confidential reports about two preventable pregnancy-related deaths.","content":"Georgia's public health commissioner, Dr. Kathleen Toomey, has terminated the state's Maternal Mortality Review Committee following an internal leak that exposed details of two pregnancy-related deaths tied to the state's draconian abortion regulations. While an investigation did not reveal the source of the leak, Toomey cited violations of state law and confidentiality agreements as justifications for her conclusion.
In September, ProPublica reported that the committee determined that Amber Thurman and Candi Miller's deaths were preventable. According to the study, doctors were hesitant to undertake life-saving treatments due to Georgia's draconian abortion laws. The discoveries sparked controversy over abortion rights and became a talking issue in Vice President Kamala Harris' candidacy.
The group determining the causes of pregnancy-related mortality and averting future crises will be reformed. Toomey stated that the removal would be sufficient for the committee's work, as applications for new members would open soon.
Critics claim that the decision contradicts Georgia's attempts to improve maternal health. Monica Simpson of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective described the departure as \"abrupt,\" raising worries about potential gaps in important data collecting.
\"This is a scare tactic meant to stop full investigations into the circumstances of pregnant women's deaths across the state,\" said Alicia Stallworth, Director of Georgia Campaigns at Reproductive Freedom for All.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who signed a six-week abortion ban into law in 2019, has distanced himself from the committee's oversight, which the Department of Public Health handles. His spokesperson reiterated that the governor does not appoint members or reveal their identity.
As Georgia's maternal health policies come under investigation, advocates emphasize the importance of maintaining accountability and transparency in addressing pregnancy-related mortality.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:15.169Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6745c588a91a80274977be8c_7.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/georgia-dismisses-maternal-mortality-committee-after-confidentiality-breach","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/georgia-dismisses-maternal-mortality-committee-after-confidentiality-breach"},{"id":"ar81k4","slug":"france-leads-the-way-abortion-rights-enshrined-in-constitution","title":"France Leads the Way: Abortion Rights Enshrined in Constitution","excerpt":"In a groundbreaking move, France has become the first country to constitutionally guarantee abortion rights, a decision driven by recent global challenges to reproductive freedoms. This significant development reflects the nation's commitment to women's rights and serves as a beacon for advocates worldwide.","content":"On a monumental day for reproductive rights, France has made history by becoming the first nation to enshrine the right to abortion in its constitution. This landmark decision comes in the wake of increasing threats to reproductive freedoms around the globe, particularly following the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. Such actions have sparked a resurgence of advocacy for women's rights across many nations, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding reproductive health and personal choice.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:14.554Z","image":"","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/france-leads-the-way-abortion-rights-enshrined-in-constitution","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/france-leads-the-way-abortion-rights-enshrined-in-constitution"},{"id":"7nudh4","slug":"floridians-vote-on-critical-abortion-access-initiative","title":"Floridians Vote on Critical Abortion Access Initiative","excerpt":"This November, Floridians will have a significant opportunity to influence reproductive rights through a ballot initiative focused on abortion access. The outcome could reshape the landscape of women's rights in the state, emphasizing the importance of voter engagement and education.","content":"As the November elections approach, one of the most consequential ballot initiatives in Florida is set to take center stage: a proposal aimed at protecting and expanding abortion access in the state. This initiative represents not just a legal measure but a pivotal moment for women's reproductive rights, with the potential to change the narrative around personal choice and healthcare.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:13.938Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731a653552dc79e176d04fb_29.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/floridians-vote-on-critical-abortion-access-initiative","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/floridians-vote-on-critical-abortion-access-initiative"},{"id":"p7mn4h","slug":"floridas-six-week-abortion-ban-impacts-and-advocacy","title":"Florida's Six-Week Abortion Ban: Impacts and Advocacy","excerpt":"Florida's impending six-week abortion ban is set to drastically limit reproductive options for many women. This article explores the implications of the ban, patient stories, and the advocacy efforts mobilizing against it, emphasizing the importance of protecting women's rights.","content":"As Florida stands on the brink of implementing a restrictive six-week abortion ban, the stakes have never been higher for reproductive rights advocates and the thousands of individuals seeking reproductive healthcare in the state. This imminent law, which allows abortions only within the first six weeks of pregnancy, poses a significant challenge to those who may not even realize they are pregnant within that timeframe. For many women, this legislation threatens to strip them of their right to make decisions about their own bodies, a fundamental aspect of personal autonomy.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:13.298Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67315c71f2adf30ccda69b82_4.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/floridas-six-week-abortion-ban-impacts-and-advocacy","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/floridas-six-week-abortion-ban-impacts-and-advocacy"},{"id":"9ichln","slug":"floridas-pro-choice-amendment-4-step-forward-womens-rights","title":"Florida's Pro-Choice Amendment 4: A Step Forward for Women's Rights","excerpt":"The supposedly nonpartisan committee that drafted it included an economist from the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, the group behind Project 2025.","content":"
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:12.631Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731a0f1696ea7dfd8ed4528_25.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/floridas-pro-choice-amendment-4-step-forward-womens-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/floridas-pro-choice-amendment-4-step-forward-womens-rights"},{"id":"fi9dsr","slug":"floridas-new-six-week-abortion-ban-what-you-need-to-know","title":"Florida's New Six-Week Abortion Ban: What You Need to Know","excerpt":"A new six-week abortion ban in Florida is set to take effect, tightening access to abortion services across the state. This change is poised to significantly impact many individuals seeking reproductive healthcare, raising urgent questions about women’s rights and health equity.","content":"On an increasingly challenging landscape for reproductive rights, Florida is poised to enact a new six-week abortion ban, drastically reducing the previous 15-week limit. This legislation, which takes effect on Wednesday, stands to affect countless individuals seeking abortion care in the state. As advocates for women's rights gather to voice concerns, it becomes essential to understand the implications of this significant legal shift.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:11.865Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67315ac5d65cb68595ab77db_1.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/floridas-new-six-week-abortion-ban-what-you-need-to-know","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/floridas-new-six-week-abortion-ban-what-you-need-to-know"},{"id":"8lbxyd","slug":"floridas-new-six-week-abortion-ban-what-it-means-for-womens-rights","title":"Florida's New Six-Week Abortion Ban: What It Means for Women's Rights","excerpt":"Florida's recent implementation of a six-week abortion ban poses significant challenges to women's reproductive rights. This article delves into the law's implications, shares personal stories, and highlights ongoing advocacy efforts.","content":"In a significant legal shift, Florida has enacted a six-week abortion ban, a move that has raised alarms among advocates for women's reproductive rights. As this law goes into effect, countless women find themselves facing new obstacles in exercising their right to choose. This article examines the implications of the ban, the personal stories of those affected, and the broader context of reproductive rights in the state.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:11.244Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67315c1cf9b4c8583f626eb3_2.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/floridas-new-six-week-abortion-ban-what-it-means-for-womens-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/floridas-new-six-week-abortion-ban-what-it-means-for-womens-rights"},{"id":"alk3bd","slug":"floridas-agency-misleads-public-on-abortion-rights-amendment","title":"Florida's Agency Misleads Public on Abortion Rights Amendment","excerpt":"Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration claims that Amendment 4, which would restore abortion access to fetal viability, “threatens women’s safety.”","content":"Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration has come under scrutiny for disseminating misleading information regarding the state's abortion rights amendment. This article explores the implications of such misinformation on women's reproductive rights and the ongoing battle for choice in Florida.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:10.662Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731c4dd0f3005b7893c3235_42.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/floridas-agency-misleads-public-on-abortion-rights-amendment","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/floridas-agency-misleads-public-on-abortion-rights-amendment"},{"id":"i25s9l","slug":"floridas-abortion-ban-impacts-on-womens-rights-and-access","title":"Florida's Abortion Ban: Impacts on Women's Rights and Access","excerpt":"Florida's impending six-week abortion ban threatens to significantly restrict access to reproductive healthcare in the state. This article examines the implications for women's rights, personal stories, and ongoing advocacy efforts.","content":"In a move that has sent shockwaves through the reproductive rights community, Florida is set to implement a six-week abortion ban next month. This legislation is poised to drastically limit abortion access in a state that is not only one of the most populous in the nation but also a crucial access point for individuals seeking reproductive healthcare. The implications of this ban are far-reaching, affecting not only the women of Florida but also those from neighboring states who rely on its services.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:10.046Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673090a3e0a71996c56d1f91_16.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/floridas-abortion-ban-impacts-on-womens-rights-and-access","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/floridas-abortion-ban-impacts-on-womens-rights-and-access"},{"id":"2fm2wh","slug":"florida-voters-expected-to-reject-pro-choice-amendment","title":"Florida Voters Expected to Reject Pro-Choice Amendment","excerpt":"On Tuesday, Florida voters are anticipated to turn down a pro-choice constitutional amendment that sought to overturn the state's restrictive six-week abortion ban. This decision highlights ongoing debates around women's reproductive rights and the importance of safeguarding access to abortion care.","content":"In a significant moment for women's reproductive rights, Florida voters are positioned to reject a pivotal pro-choice constitutional amendment during the upcoming election. This proposed amendment aimed to repeal the state's controversial six-week abortion ban, a law that has severely restricted access to abortion services and sparked widespread protests and advocacy efforts across the state.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:09.426Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731f1ada9a7abac2797b0b7_60.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/florida-voters-expected-to-reject-pro-choice-amendment","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/florida-voters-expected-to-reject-pro-choice-amendment"},{"id":"w3npb2","slug":"florida-supreme-court-rulings-abortion-rights","title":"Florida Supreme Court Rulings: A Turning Point for Abortion Rights","excerpt":"The Florida Supreme Court's recent decisions on abortion present a complex landscape for reproductive rights in the state. While upholding the ban on abortions after six weeks, the court also acknowledged the need for future legal challenges. This article delves into the implications of these rulings and the ongoing battle for women's reproductive freedom.","content":"On a pivotal day for reproductive rights in Florida, the state's Supreme Court issued two significant rulings regarding abortion, sending ripples through the legal and social landscape of women's health and rights. The court's decisions arrived amidst a national dialogue on reproductive freedom, especially following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, which had protected the right to abortion for nearly 50 years.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:08.803Z","image":"","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/florida-supreme-court-rulings-abortion-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/florida-supreme-court-rulings-abortion-rights"},{"id":"kicjsj","slug":"florida-supreme-court-ruling-implications-for-womens-rights","title":"Florida Supreme Court's Recent Ruling: Implications for Women's Rights","excerpt":"The Florida Supreme Court's latest ruling presents significant challenges for women's reproductive rights, echoing the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The implications of these legal developments raise serious concerns about access to abortion services.","content":"On a pivotal Monday, the Florida Supreme Court delivered a ruling that resonates deeply with the ongoing national discourse surrounding women's reproductive rights. This decision, reminiscent of the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial move to overturn Roe v. Wade two years ago, marks a substantial victory for Republican lawmakers aiming to restrict abortion access. The ripple effects of this ruling are set to reverberate throughout Florida, raising alarm among advocates for women's rights and access to reproductive healthcare.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:06.762Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730769fd6a57ed1064db049_14.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/florida-supreme-court-ruling-implications-for-womens-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/florida-supreme-court-ruling-implications-for-womens-rights"},{"id":"tftcn9","slug":"florida-supreme-court-greenlights-pro-choice-amendment","title":"Florida Supreme Court Greenlights Pro-Choice Amendment for November Ballot","excerpt":"In a significant ruling, the Florida Supreme Court has allowed a pro-choice amendment to be placed on the November ballot. This decision marks a pivotal moment for reproductive rights in Florida, highlighting the ongoing struggle for women's autonomy over their bodies.","content":"In a monumental decision on a Monday afternoon, the Florida Supreme Court has granted approval for a pro-choice amendment to be placed on the upcoming November ballot. This ruling comes as part of an ongoing effort by a coalition known as Floridians Protecting Freedom, who have worked tirelessly to gather the necessary signatures to bring this important issue to the forefront of public discourse.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:06.142Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673070b94734d631e93e8030_9.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/florida-supreme-court-greenlights-pro-choice-amendment","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/florida-supreme-court-greenlights-pro-choice-amendment"},{"id":"jleciv","slug":"florida-supreme-court-abortion-ban-ballot-initiative","title":"Florida Supreme Court's Abortion Ban and Ballot Initiative","excerpt":"The Florida Supreme Court has approved a controversial six-week abortion ban while allowing a ballot initiative that could reshape reproductive rights. This dual decision has sparked debates on women's autonomy and access to healthcare.","content":"In a significant ruling on Monday, the Florida Supreme Court made headlines by approving a six-week abortion ban, a move that has ignited discussions around women's reproductive rights in the state. This decision, however, was accompanied by the court's approval of a ballot initiative that could potentially alter the landscape of abortion rights in Florida. This dual action raises critical questions regarding women's autonomy, health care access, and the ongoing fight for reproductive freedom.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:04.563Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730724c809f9c998b4fb905_Web_Photo_Editor%20(28).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/florida-supreme-court-abortion-ban-ballot-initiative","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/florida-supreme-court-abortion-ban-ballot-initiative"},{"id":"l2cxhk","slug":"florida-abortion-rights-initiative-falls-short","title":"Florida Just Became the First State in the County to Say No to Abortion Rights","excerpt":"A recent ballot initiative in Florida aimed at securing abortion rights in the state constitution did not succeed, as it failed to reach the necessary threshold for approval. This outcome underscores the ongoing struggle for reproductive rights and the importance of advocacy.","content":"On a pivotal day for reproductive rights in Florida, a ballot initiative aimed at enshrining abortion rights into the state constitution did not meet the required 60 percent threshold, falling short by just three percentage points. This initiative was designed to protect and expand access to abortion services across the state, reflecting a growing demand for autonomy over personal health choices among Floridians.
","category":"choice","author":"Her Choice","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:03.973Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731ee9fc00ede584b25c3aa_58.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/florida-abortion-rights-initiative-falls-short","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/florida-abortion-rights-initiative-falls-short"},{"id":"imnsi8","slug":"five-northern-california-planned-parenthood-clinics-close-amid-federal-funding-cuts","title":"Five Northern California Planned Parenthood Clinics Close Amid Federal Funding Cuts","excerpt":"Planned Parenthood Mar Monte closed five health centers in Northern California on Thursday, citing financial strain from a new federal law signed by former President Trump that severely restricts Medicaid reimbursements for abortion providers.","content":"On Thursday, five Planned Parenthood clinics in Northern California closed permanently due to significant alterations in federal funding regulations, impacting over 22,000 patients who are now seeking alternative care options.
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, the largest affiliate of the organization serving areas in California and Nevada, has revealed that it will be closing locations in South San Francisco, San Mateo, Gilroy, Westside/Santa Cruz, and Madera. The recent decision follows the legislation signed by former President Donald Trump, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill” by its supporters, which significantly restricts federal funding for providers offering abortion services except in exceptional circumstances.
\"We truly sense that we are engaged in the battle of our lives,\" stated Stacy Cross, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte. \"This is the most challenging moment I have faced throughout my career.\"
A recent law prohibits Medicaid reimbursements to clinics linked to abortion services, except in cases of rape, incest, or life-threatening situations. Consequently, Mar Monte is discontinuing its family medicine, behavioral health, and prenatal care services at the five closed clinics—services that primarily catered to low-income, underserved communities.
“It effectively cuts off funding for Planned Parenthood through Medicaid, hindering our ability to receive reimbursement for the services we offer,” stated Cross.
Over 60 employees have been let go as a result of the shutdowns. Cross highlighted that the choice was made with careful consideration, yet it was essential for maintaining the organization's financial stability and ensuring long-term access to abortion services.
The organization has reached out to all patients with appointments to arrange rescheduling at nearby clinics. It is actively working to transfer those requiring ongoing care, including prenatal and primary care, to other facilities within the network.
“This is about survival,” stated Cross. “We’re taking these steps now to secure our future.”
As public health clinics face increasing strain throughout Northern California, advocates caution that the closures will create significant consequences for communities that have relied on Planned Parenthood as a vital source for reproductive and general health services.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:03.383Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6887707b9a9af82abdc23376_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-07-28T204311.862.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/five-northern-california-planned-parenthood-clinics-close-amid-federal-funding-cuts","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/five-northern-california-planned-parenthood-clinics-close-amid-federal-funding-cuts"},{"id":"byrf78","slug":"female-led-fertility-startup-lushi-joins-uc-berkeleys-health-engine-accelerator","title":"Female-Led Fertility Startup Lushi Joins UC Berkeley’s Health Engine Accelerator","excerpt":"Lushi, a female-led fertility and wellness startup, has been selected for UC Berkeley’s Health Engine accelerator as part of its eighth cohort. With demand for innovative reproductive health solutions surging, Lushi aims to transform fertility care through personalized support, AI-driven care plans, and on-demand services.","content":"Lushi, an innovative fertility and wellness platform, has been selected to participate in UC Berkeley’s Health Engine accelerator. This represents a notable achievement in its goal to transform reproductive healthcare.
Lushi has been chosen as one of only 14 startups from a pool of nearly 100 applicants. As such, it will receive access to mentorship, industry connections, and funding opportunities to enhance its AI-powered fertility solutions.
Established by Jessica Schaefer, a former professional at Point72 Asset Management, Lushi seeks to enhance the fertility patient experience, which Schaefer characterizes as \"long overdue for change.\" The platform offers tailored care plans, assistance with medication management, and access to at-home injection specialists, enhancing the safety and accessibility of fertility treatments.
“The fertility crisis in the U.S. is paralleled by a crisis in access.” “Many women are traversing this path without adequate support,” stated Dr. Mana Baskovic, Chief Medical Officer at Lushi. “Through integrating technology, community, and clinical expertise, Lushi is transforming fertility care with a focus on the patient experience.”
Lushi’s involvement with Health Engine occurs against a backdrop of escalating infertility rates, a growing need for IVF and egg freezing, and recent legislative shifts affecting reproductive healthcare. The accelerator will provide the startup access to essential investors, researchers, and industry leaders, such as Andreessen Horowitz, Bedrock, and .406 Ventures, who can significantly enhance Lushi’s growth trajectory.
“I was profoundly moved by Lushi’s female-led team, who are harnessing technology to transform fertility care,” said Camille Dang, Analyst at Health Engine.
Lushi's expansion and partnership with UC Berkeley’s Health Engine place it at the leading edge of next-generation reproductive health innovation. For additional information on Lushi’s fertility solutions, please visit www.lushi.co.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:02.790Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67e4f21a217bbd7676a04faf_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-03-27T143634.316.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/female-led-fertility-startup-lushi-joins-uc-berkeleys-health-engine-accelerator","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/female-led-fertility-startup-lushi-joins-uc-berkeleys-health-engine-accelerator"},{"id":"5f9t2c","slug":"federal-judge-upholds-order-halting-medicaid-cuts-to-planned-parenthood-clinics","title":"Federal Judge Upholds Order Halting Medicaid Cuts to Planned Parenthood Clinics","excerpt":"A federal judge in Boston has reaffirmed her decision to temporarily block a key provision in former President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill that would strip Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood and its affiliates, citing constitutional concerns.","content":"A federal judge has reiterated her ruling to prevent the implementation of a contentious aspect of former President Donald Trump's recently passed tax and spending legislation, which seeks to eliminate Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood health centers and related clinics.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani rejected the Trump administration’s appeal to remove a temporary restraining order she had put in place earlier that week, shortly after Planned Parenthood initiated a lawsuit. The provision at hand is included in the comprehensive \"One Big Beautiful Bill Act,\" which was approved by the Republican-led Congress. This legislation forbids Medicaid reimbursements to nonprofit organizations that offer abortion services and their associated entities.
The Department of Justice described Talwani’s emergency order as \"highly unusual\" and without sufficient justification. In a recent development, Talwani released a revised order on Friday night, providing clarity on her legal reasoning and confirming that Planned Parenthood is likely to succeed in its constitutional challenge to the law.
Talwani, whom Obama appointed, stated that the law would lead to significant and immediate interruptions in the health care services offered by almost 600 Planned Parenthood centers nationwide. Planned Parenthood has expressed concern over the potential impact of the legislation, as it could result in the closure of nearly 200 clinics across 24 states, jeopardizing the care of millions of people who rely on these facilities for reproductive and general health services.
In her revised decision, Talwani highlighted that the ambiguous wording concerning “affiliates” of abortion providers had created uncertainty among Planned Parenthood’s 47 member organizations. A significant number of these members do not offer abortion services directly—frequently because of state-level limitations—but may still face the threat of funding cuts under the new legislation.
Talwani determined that this uncertainty could potentially violate the First Amendment rights of Planned Parenthood affiliates, especially their right to connect with the national Planned Parenthood Federation of America, known for its advocacy in reproductive rights.
About a 1984 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, she stated, “The Supreme Court has long recognized that the right to engage in activities safeguarded by the First Amendment includes a corresponding right to associate with others in pursuit of desired political, educational, or social objectives.”
Oral arguments in the case are set to take place on July 18. There has been no public statement from either the Department of Justice or Planned Parenthood regarding the recent ruling.
Talwani’s decision suggests that the courts may continue to push back against new laws targeting reproductive health providers, especially when it comes to protecting rights related to free speech and association.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:02.143Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68775deccca1b204bdbc2385_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-07-16T160759.032.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/federal-judge-upholds-order-halting-medicaid-cuts-to-planned-parenthood-clinics","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/federal-judge-upholds-order-halting-medicaid-cuts-to-planned-parenthood-clinics"},{"id":"lj14nx","slug":"federal-judge-upholds-law-cutting-medicaid-funds-to-maine-abortion-providers","title":"Federal Judge Upholds Law Cutting Medicaid Funds to Maine Abortion Providers","excerpt":"A federal judge in Maine has cleared the way for abortion providers in the state to lose Medicaid funding, ruling that Congress has the authority to restrict payments to health organizations that perform abortions.","content":"This week, a federal judge made a significant ruling regarding Maine abortion providers, stating that they could lose Medicaid funding due to a law enacted during the Trump administration. The decision came despite objections from a statewide clinic network, which argued that the funding cuts disproportionately affect them and pose a threat to public health.
On August 25, U.S. District Judge Lance E. Walker made a significant ruling regarding the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” This legislation, enacted by President Donald Trump last year, includes a provision that prohibits health providers who perform abortions from receiving Medicaid payments for a duration of one year. Judge Walker's decision means that this provision will remain in effect, shaping the landscape of healthcare funding in the context of abortion services. The measure, although not explicitly naming Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the nation, effectively puts a stop to Medicaid reimbursements for its affiliates and similar clinics, such as Maine Family Planning.
Maine Family Planning has initiated legal action, contending that the legislation penalizes its clinics exclusively due to Congress's efforts to withdraw funding from Planned Parenthood. According to the group, nearly half of its patients rely on Medicaid, and they cautioned that a loss of funding would significantly hinder access to essential services, including cancer screenings, Pap tests, and vaccinations.
However, Judge Walker dismissed the assertion, stating that stopping the law would undermine the intentions of Congress. “It would be a remarkable display of judicial arrogance to assert that the public interest has been compromised by the very public itself,” Walker stated. He remarked that although Maine Family Planning has remained steadfast in its mission, “those convictions do not match the challenge of opposing congressional intent in this area.”
George Hill, president and CEO of Maine Family Planning, described the ruling as “a devastating setback.” In a recent statement, he expressed that the loss of Medicaid funds jeopardizes the organization's capacity to deliver “life-saving services” and pledged to persist in challenging the decision.
The ruling in Maine presents a stark contrast to the earlier decision made by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston, who supported Planned Parenthood and halted the nationwide funding cuts earlier this year. Legal scholars are raising concerns about the extent of that ruling, describing it as exceptionally expansive.
Current federal regulations prohibit the allocation of Medicaid funds for abortion services. Advocates for reallocating funds from providers contend that financial resources are interchangeable and may indirectly facilitate abortion services. Critics argue that organizations like Planned Parenthood provide vital preventive services to those in low-income brackets.
The Diocese of Portland, serving as the voice of the Catholic Church in Maine, has yet to respond to inquiries for comment. The church firmly stands against abortion, emphasizing the belief that life holds sacred value from the moment of conception until natural death.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:01.546Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68afb52e652af42ad7f3b333_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-08-28T094708.576.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/federal-judge-upholds-law-cutting-medicaid-funds-to-maine-abortion-providers","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/federal-judge-upholds-law-cutting-medicaid-funds-to-maine-abortion-providers"},{"id":"1hq6cs","slug":"federal-appeals-court-pauses-ruling-forcing-trump-administration-to-fund-planned-parenthood","title":"Federal Appeals Court Pauses Ruling Forcing Trump Administration to Fund Planned Parenthood","excerpt":"A federal appeals court has temporarily halted a lower-court order requiring the Trump administration to continue Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers in 23 states, signaling a fast-moving legal battle over a new federal law restricting funding.","content":"A federal appeals court on Monday issued a stay on a ruling that mandated the Trump administration to maintain Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers across 23 states, temporarily halting the lower-court order as the case progresses.
On December 8, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an administrative stay, effectively pausing the preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani on December 2. Talwani has prohibited the administration from implementing Section 71113 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a measure enacted by Congress and signed by the president on July 4. This provision limits Medicaid funding to any “prohibited entity” that both offers abortions and has received over $800,000 in Medicaid support in 2023.
A coalition of states, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, filed a lawsuit on July 29, contending that the provision violates the Spending Clause due to its lack of clear notice and ambiguity. Talwani agreed, saying that Section 71113 “does not give states clear notice” and imposes an “unconstitutional retroactive condition” on Medicaid participation, according to court records summarized by Reuters.
Talwani has granted a seven-day administrative stay of her order. The Trump administration swiftly filed an appeal, seeking a stay pending the appeal and an immediate extension to avert what it described as any disruption to the enforcement of a “duly enacted Act of Congress.”
The administration highlighted in its filing that the same court had earlier imposed a nationwide injunction against similar restrictions prior to the intervention of the 1st Circuit. The Trump administration claimed, “Despite this, the same district court has again stopped the enforcement of Section 71113,” saying that Congress has clearly explained the funding ban.
On December 8, the 1st Circuit approved the government's request to prolong the administrative stay and indicated it would make a decision “promptly” regarding the larger motion for a stay pending appeal. A three-judge panel made the decision, consisting of Chief Judge David Barron, an Obama appointee, alongside Judges Gustavo Gelpí and Lara Montecalvo, both nominated by President Joe Biden.
Planned Parenthood continues to face political and financial scrutiny amid the ongoing dispute. The latest annual report from the organization reveals that revenue surpassed $2 billion in 2024, alongside a record high of 402,200 abortions conducted, reflecting a 23 percent rise since 2013. The report simultaneously highlights significant drops in cancer screenings, breast exams, Pap tests, and prenatal services.
Pro-life advocates characterized the appellate ruling as an essential measure to maintain federal law. “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is a federal law that has been passed by Congress and signed into law by the president,” stated Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, following the district court ruling. Dannenfelser further noted that the recent closures of clinics illustrate what she described as a “failing business model”.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:38:00.221Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/69391f9d2028268b04e9ccb7_Web_Photo_Editor%20(7).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/federal-appeals-court-pauses-ruling-forcing-trump-administration-to-fund-planned-parenthood","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/federal-appeals-court-pauses-ruling-forcing-trump-administration-to-fund-planned-parenthood"},{"id":"z37qqx","slug":"face-act-repeal-effort-sparks-outcry-amid-rising-threats-to-clinics","title":"FACE Act Repeal Effort Sparks Outcry Amid Rising Threats to Clinics","excerpt":"Weeks after a deadly bombing at a fertility clinic, some anti-abortion members of Congress are moving to repeal the FACE Act — a federal law protecting reproductive health patients and providers from threats and violence. Advocates say the repeal would invite more attacks.","content":"The Center for Reproductive Rights is urging lawmakers to reject the repeal of the FACE Act.
Anti-abortion lawmakers are intensifying their efforts to repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act), prompting intense backlash from advocates for reproductive rights, particularly following a recent tragic bombing at a fertility clinic.
In January, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) introduced a repeal bill that poses a risk to the sole federal law addressing violent, threatening, or obstructive actions against individuals seeking or providing reproductive health services, which encompasses both abortion and fertility care.
The FACE Act, enacted in 1994 with support from both parties following the tragic murder of Florida abortion provider Dr. David Gunn, has functioned as a protective measure against clinic bombings, assaults, and blockades. Experts caution that without it, there is a risk that extremists may increase their threats without facing consequences.
“This law was enacted due to the tragic loss of lives,” stated Renee Chelian, a clinic founder and CEO who provided testimony before Congress regarding the significance of the FACE Act. “Repealing it sends a message to those who engage in violence: you are invited to stay.”
In the aftermath of the Roe v. Wade decision, there has been a notable increase in violence related to anti-abortion sentiments. Recent reports indicate a troubling rise in incidents of arson, assault, and intimidation aimed at those involved in reproductive health services, including both workers and patients.
In a surprising development, President Donald Trump has granted pardons to 23 individuals who were previously convicted under the FACE Act, with many having been involved in harassment and clinic invasions.
Opponents contend that overturning the legislation would empower extremist individuals and jeopardize the safety of the community. “This goes beyond politics—it concerns real lives,” Chelian emphasized.
Advocates for reproductive rights are calling on the public to reach out to Congress and voice their opposition to the repeal, cautioning that the removal of the FACE Act could leave patients and providers vulnerable.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:59.587Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/684c28135efa5fa8fefe01ae_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-06-13T213019.464.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/face-act-repeal-effort-sparks-outcry-amid-rising-threats-to-clinics","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/face-act-repeal-effort-sparks-outcry-amid-rising-threats-to-clinics"},{"id":"rzihqu","slug":"expanding-access-a-new-era-for-womens-reproductive-rights-in-europe","title":"Expanding Access: A New Era for Women's Reproductive Rights in Europe","excerpt":"Today marks the beginning of a monumental campaign aimed at broadening access to reproductive health services, including abortion, across Europe. This initiative reflects a growing recognition of women's rights and the importance of personal choice in reproductive health decisions.","content":"A landmark campaign is being launched today, heralding a significant shift in the landscape of women's reproductive rights across Europe. Spearheaded by Finnish activist Aiski Ryökäs and supported by a coalition of organizations dedicated to advancing women's health, this unprecedented initiative seeks to ensure that every woman in Europe has the right to make informed choices about her reproductive health, including access to safe and legal abortion services.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:58.256Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731388af2adf30ccd8cafc2_48.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/expanding-access-a-new-era-for-womens-reproductive-rights-in-europe","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/expanding-access-a-new-era-for-womens-reproductive-rights-in-europe"},{"id":"2grvug","slug":"europes-reproductive-rights-gap-access-to-contraception-still-unequal","title":"Europe’s Reproductive Rights Gap: Access to Contraception Still Unequal","excerpt":"Access to contraception in Europe is improving — but not for everyone. This blog dives into the east-west divide, explores challenges, and spotlights the advocates fighting for reproductive freedom.","content":"Throughout Europe, the availability of contraception and reproductive rights is markedly inconsistent. Countries such as France, Luxembourg, and Portugal are at the forefront with robust policies and public health strategies. In contrast, others, especially in Eastern Europe, persist in enforcing restrictions that hinder access or render it entirely unfeasible. What propels advancement forward? Engagement and support for causes.
The Guttmacher Institute reports that 36% of pregnancies in Europe are unintended, a statistic that has shown a consistent decline over the last thirty years. This advancement is primarily due to enhanced access to contemporary contraceptives and more effective sexual and reproductive health education. However, progress is not uniformly shared, and advocacy is essential in closing the divides.
The Contraception Policy Atlas Europe, released each year by the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights (EPF), evaluates 47 European nations according to their access to contraception, counseling services, and public information.
In 2025, France and Luxembourg lead the rankings with a score of 93.2%, providing free consultations, extensive public funding, and substantial, accessible online information. The UK (91.6%) and Portugal (91.2%) demonstrate impressive performance, with Portugal notably improving from a score of 82.7% just one year prior.
However, obstacles remain even among the highest achievers. We had a conversation with Dr. Teresa Bombas, President of the European Society of Contraception and Reproductive Health and a practicing gynecologist in Coimbra, Portugal. She has dedicated years to advising policymakers and enhancing access.
“Portugal has commendable laws,” she stated, “yet the government fails to facilitate access.” The revised details on government websites mark a beginning, yet rural women continue encountering significant obstacles in asserting their rights.
As the West progresses, the circumstances in Eastern Europe continue to be severe. Poland, for example, ranks at the bottom of the Atlas standings with a score of 33.2% — partly because of limited contraception coverage for adults and the lack of official information platforms.
In 2024, Polish MEP Robert Biedron pledged to provide over-the-counter access to emergency contraception. One year later, the legislation remains unpassed.
Dr. Bombas warned, “Political commitments are meaningless without actual implementation.” It is evident how quickly these commitments can falter when execution is not given the necessary attention.
She highlighted systemic barriers such as misinformation, social stigma, and bureaucratic red tape as persistent threats to reproductive autonomy.
Dedicated advocates are at the core of every advancement in reproductive rights throughout Europe, ranging from grassroots women’s rights organizations to global networks. Their efforts compel governments to take action, confront outdated policies, and empower individuals to recognize their rights.
“It is essential to enhance public understanding,” Dr. Bombas stated. “Information that is clear and accessible should originate from reliable sources. Laws hold little significance without that.
As Europe grapples with its reproductive health divide, it becomes evident that progress requires active engagement — it demands voices ready to advocate, even in the face of adversity.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:57.583Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67f33d65501fd561cada4b9d_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-04-07T104814.630.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/europes-reproductive-rights-gap-access-to-contraception-still-unequal","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/europes-reproductive-rights-gap-access-to-contraception-still-unequal"},{"id":"rsmx6l","slug":"european-parliament-urges-eu-leadership-in-advancing-gender-equality-at-2025-un-gathering","title":"European Parliament Urges EU Leadership in Advancing Gender Equality at 2025 UN Gathering","excerpt":"On Thursday, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) finalized their recommendations for the EU’s stance at the upcoming UN global gathering on women’s rights in March 2025.","content":"The European Parliament has completed its recommendations in preparation for the 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, scheduled for March 2025. Members of the European Parliament are calling on the EU to take decisive action in promoting gender equality and fulfilling the commitments outlined in the Beijing Declaration regarding women's rights. The resolution, which received 322 votes in favor, emphasizes the need for a robust EU commitment to uphold current protections for women’s rights, particularly in light of an increasing global backlash against gender equality.
The MEPs support the integration of gender considerations and enhanced data gathering to guarantee equal opportunities in education, healthcare, and employment. They highlight the importance of addressing gender-based violence, advocating for the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, and supporting a consent-based definition of rape. The Parliament also calls for enhanced female political leadership, equal pay, and economic independence for women, especially in rural regions.
Chair of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality Lina Gálvez (S&D, Spain) emphasized the sluggish global advancement regarding women's rights, pointing out that at the current pace, it will require more than 200 years to bridge the gender gap in legal protections. MEPs emphasize the importance of a proactive EU role in prioritizing women’s rights across all policy ar
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:56.940Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6767e53425a33401d69626f0_Web_Photo_Editor%20(16).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/european-parliament-urges-eu-leadership-in-advancing-gender-equality-at-2025-un-gathering","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/european-parliament-urges-eu-leadership-in-advancing-gender-equality-at-2025-un-gathering"},{"id":"dy14u2","slug":"european-parliament-calls-for-review-of-eu-grants-to-anti-abortion-organization","title":"European Parliament Calls for Review of EU Grants to Anti-Abortion Organization","excerpt":"Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from multiple countries have demanded the European Commission address concerns over its funding of the World Youth Alliance (WYA), a US-based anti-abortion organization.","content":"Members of the European Parliament from Poland, Germany, Sweden, and Slovakia have reached out to the European Commission seeking clarification regarding €1.2 million in EU funding allocated to the World Youth Alliance. This US-based organization advocates for anti-abortion perspectives. Although categorized as “non-religious,” the WYA promotes conservative views on gender rights and reproductive health, asserting that abortion should not be included in family planning.
The WYA has been awarded a €400,000 grant from the Erasmus+ program for its project titled “Women’s Health Goes Digital,” which focuses on offering training related to women’s reproductive health. Nonetheless, the WYA has previously asserted that abortion does not fall under the umbrella of reproductive health, which raises concerns regarding the potential dissemination of misinformation to young individuals.
Members of the European Parliament, such as Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus and Krzysztof Śmiszek from Poland, Maria Noichl from Germany, Lucia Yar from Slovakia, and Hanna Gedin from Sweden, have urged the European Commission to provide clarity regarding its stance on the funding. The Commission has been requested to disclose the training materials for the project and to examine if the WYA is disseminating information that conflicts with EU values, especially regarding reproductive rights.
The WYA faces allegations of disseminating misleading information regarding abortion, particularly concerning inaccurate connections to infertility. Medical authorities, including the UK's National Health Service (NHS), have refuted these assertions.
Neil Datta, Executive Director of the European Parliamentary Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Rights, expressed criticism towards the EU for its financial support of the WYA, raising doubts about the Commission's understanding of reproductive health. The European Commission has announced that it is assessing the situation to guarantee adherence to EU values.
This controversy highlights the persistent tensions within the EU regarding reproductive rights and the distribution of funds to organizations that may hold detrimental views on women’s health.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:56.339Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6767e0d1dd575365a0d52447_Web_Photo_Editor%20(15).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/european-parliament-calls-for-review-of-eu-grants-to-anti-abortion-organization","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/european-parliament-calls-for-review-of-eu-grants-to-anti-abortion-organization"},{"id":"7l9x7l","slug":"eu-unveils-roadmap-to-advance-womens-rights-and-combat-gender-inequality","title":"EU Unveils Roadmap to Advance Women’s Rights and Combat Gender Inequality","excerpt":"Ahead of International Women’s Day, the European Commission reaffirms its commitment to gender equality with a new Roadmap for Women’s Rights, focusing on tackling gender-based violence, ensuring equal pay, and promoting women’s economic and political empowerment.","content":"Fear, prejudice, and uneven treatment continue to play a significant role in the lives of a significant number of women in Europe. The fact that women are expected to bear the majority of home tasks, avoid wandering alone at night, and face bias in the workplace are all examples of the pervasive reality that gender inequality continues to be.
Despite the fact that there has been progress made, the route to complete gender equality is still being slowed down by structural hurdles.
As a result, in preparation for International Women's Day, which will take place on March 8, the European Commission has reaffirmed its dedication to advancing women's rights by presenting a long-term roadmap with the objectives of eradicating gender-based violence, achieving pay equity, ensuring economic empowerment, and promoting political and workplace inclusion.
This road map builds on the accomplishments of the European Union's Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, which resulted in historic advancements such as rules requiring pay transparency, regulations mandating gender balance on corporate boards, and more stringent measures to prevent violence against women.
Both these accomplishments and the areas in which additional effort is required are highlighted in the 2025 Report on Gender Equality in the European Union, which was just recently released.
The continuous emphasis placed on gender equality by the European Commission is a reflection of the pressing need for action to eliminate prejudice and standards of behavior that are deeply ingrained in society.
By laying out a distinct course of action, the European Union (EU) intends to make the future more equitable and secure for all women across Europe.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:55.733Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67cdab62027b6113a5b16472_Web_Photo_Editor%20(34).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/eu-unveils-roadmap-to-advance-womens-rights-and-combat-gender-inequality","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/eu-unveils-roadmap-to-advance-womens-rights-and-combat-gender-inequality"},{"id":"epphvt","slug":"equal-rights-amendment-becomes-28th-amendment-what-you-need-to-know","title":"Equal Rights Amendment Becomes 28th Amendment: What You Need to Know","excerpt":"President Joe Biden has formally recognized the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, enshrining gender equality and marking a historic step forward in women’s rights.","content":"Today, President Joe Biden announced that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has been recognized as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, reinforcing the principle of gender equality under the law. Initially proposed in 1923, the amendment declares: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” This groundbreaking action marks the most crucial progress in women's rights since the 19th Amendment conferred the right to vote to women in 1920.
Here are five questions and information you need to know about ERA.
Who Does the ERA Protect?
The ERA safeguards all individuals who experience sex-based discrimination, encompassing women, men, and people of all genders, including those who are transgender. It also tackles discrimination based on sexual orientation, establishing a legal basis for contesting inequities throughout the gender spectrum.
What Will the ERA Achieve?
The ERA establishes a foundation for more robust federal laws and protections. It strengthens initiatives aimed at narrowing the gender wage gap, addressing pregnancy discrimination, and reinstating federal abortion rights that were previously eliminated. The ERA explicitly prohibits gender discrimination, thereby improving legal outcomes in court cases and enabling Congress to enact strong legislation that safeguards marginalized genders.
Is the ERA Permanent?
Indeed, the ERA has fulfilled all constitutional criteria and is now an enduring element of U.S. law. Although its legitimacy might encounter legal obstacles, the procedure for amending the Constitution—approved by Congress and 38 states—provides minimal opportunity for judicial intervention.
Are State ERAs Still Relevant?
Certainly, the federal ERA focuses on addressing sex-based discrimination, whereas 28 states have implemented their ERAs that encompass broader categories such as race, sexual orientation, and disability. The protections at the state level continue to be essential for tackling discrimination more comprehensively.
This move is a triumph for women, gender and human rights, years in the making. Acknowledging the ERA as the 28th Amendment marks the pinnacle of more than a hundred years of dedicated advocacy. It solidifies gender equality within the Constitution, guaranteeing protections for future generations and representing a notable achievement in the continuous struggle for equity.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:55.110Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/678df8baa6f66434e4d18885_Web_Photo_Editor%20(61).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/equal-rights-amendment-becomes-28th-amendment-what-you-need-to-know","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/equal-rights-amendment-becomes-28th-amendment-what-you-need-to-know"},{"id":"slg8o4","slug":"empowerment-through-choice-advocating-for-abortion-rights","title":"Empowerment Through Choice: Advocating for Abortion Rights","excerpt":"The fight for women's reproductive rights remains a pivotal issue, especially in light of recent electoral developments. This article highlights the progress and challenges faced in advocating for abortion rights, emphasizing personal stories and the collective need for autonomy over one’s body.","content":"In the backdrop of a contentious electoral landscape, where women's reproductive rights remain at the forefront of political debates, the recent elections have revealed both daunting challenges and unexpected victories for advocates of abortion rights. The complex interplay of state and federal policies, coupled with grassroots activism, has led to a renewed focus on the importance of empowering women through comprehensive reproductive healthcare.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:54.502Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673133d3a3da350e902aa9be_Web_Photo_Editor%20(38).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowerment-through-choice-advocating-for-abortion-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowerment-through-choice-advocating-for-abortion-rights"},{"id":"9yff17","slug":"empowering-womens-rights-equal-rights-amendment","title":"Empowering Women's Rights: The Fight for the Equal Rights Amendment","excerpt":"The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a pivotal step towards ensuring equal protection for women under the law. This article delves into its importance in the context of reproductive rights, highlighting recent advocacy efforts and the ongoing struggle for gender equality.","content":"The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has been a cornerstone of the women’s rights movement since its introduction nearly a century ago. Originally proposed in 1923, the ERA seeks to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex, thereby addressing systemic discrimination and promoting gender equality in various spheres, including reproductive health and rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:53.872Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67319bcc0450c6efecc1a454_23.jpeg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-womens-rights-equal-rights-amendment","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-womens-rights-equal-rights-amendment"},{"id":"hog1al","slug":"empowering-womens-choices-the-role-of-abortion-clinics","title":"Empowering Women’s Choices: The Role of Abortion Clinics","excerpt":"Abortion clinics serve as crucial lifelines for women seeking reproductive health services. This article dives into their role, challenges, and the importance of supporting women's right to choose.","content":"In the heart of South Florida, Eileen Diamond navigates the complexities of managing an abortion clinic, a space that serves as both a sanctuary and a site of contention. Each day, she reviews patient intake forms, a routine task that underscores the pivotal role of clinics in providing essential reproductive health services. For many women, these clinics are not merely medical facilities; they are places of empowerment, where individuals can exercise their right to choose regarding their own bodies.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:53.266Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731b1b1fd38463ce5455f15_Web_Photo_Editor%20(48).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-womens-choices-the-role-of-abortion-clinics","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-womens-choices-the-role-of-abortion-clinics"},{"id":"o6piyd","slug":"empowering-womens-choices-fight-for-reproductive-rights","title":"Empowering Women's Choices: The Fight for Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"This article delves into the current landscape of women's reproductive rights in the U.S., highlighting the vital role of advocacy and legislation in ensuring access to abortion and related healthcare. It emphasizes personal stories and the collective fight for freedom of choice.","content":"In recent years, the conversation surrounding women's reproductive rights has intensified, spotlighting the critical importance of access to abortion and comprehensive healthcare services. This dialogue is not merely a matter of policy; it encompasses the lives and futures of women across the nation. With legal battles unfolding and personal stories emerging, the movement for reproductive rights remains at the forefront of social justice advocacy.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:51.663Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673057429bccb65f3c400774_2.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-womens-choices-fight-for-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-womens-choices-fight-for-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"o8g5lj","slug":"empowering-womens-choices-2024-election-abortion-rights","title":"Empowering Women’s Choices: The 2024 Election and Abortion Rights","excerpt":"As the 2024 elections approach, women’s reproductive rights remain a pivotal issue in the political landscape. This article discusses the implications of electoral outcomes on abortion access, highlights personal stories, and emphasizes the importance of advocacy.","content":"As we approach the 2024 elections, the topic of women’s reproductive rights, particularly the right to abortion, stands as a critical issue that influences not only political platforms but also the lives of millions of women across the United States. The recent primary elections, particularly in Maryland, have underscored the urgency of this topic, as voters grapple with the reality of their choices at the ballot box.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:51.047Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731c4dd0f3005b7893c3235_42.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-womens-choices-2024-election-abortion-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-womens-choices-2024-election-abortion-rights"},{"id":"aavvsp","slug":"empowering-voices-the-right-to-choose","title":"Empowering Voices: The Right to Choose","excerpt":"This article delves into the significance of women's reproductive rights, highlighted by recent protests and discussions around abortion. It showcases personal stories and the ongoing advocacy for freedom of choice in Arizona's political landscape.","content":"In recent months, the topic of women's reproductive rights has taken center stage across the United States, particularly in Arizona, where passionate advocates rally for the fundamental right to choose. The phrase \"My body, my choice\" resonates powerfully at protests and marches, encapsulating the core belief that women should have autonomy over their bodies and reproductive decisions. Amidst legal and political challenges, the importance of these movements cannot be overstated.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:50.438Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67313a16cf6bc7ce0d06cd23_Web_Photo_Editor%20(39).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-voices-the-right-to-choose","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-voices-the-right-to-choose"},{"id":"ixm5bh","slug":"empowering-voices-marching-for-womens-reproductive-rights","title":"Empowering Voices: Marching for Women's Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"The Women’s March in Manhattan on January 18, 2020, highlighted the ongoing struggle for women’s reproductive rights across America. This article explores the significance of collective action, personal stories, and the legal landscape affecting women's choices.","content":"On January 18, 2020, thousands gathered in Manhattan for the Women’s March, a powerful demonstration advocating for women's rights, including the fundamental right to reproductive choice. This event was not merely a gathering of voices but a celebration of resilience and a call to action against the mounting challenges facing women’s health and reproductive freedom in the United States.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:49.761Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67303deb3fd2ebb2fcc53fcb_21.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-voices-marching-for-womens-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-voices-marching-for-womens-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"wtmxo3","slug":"empowering-choices-womens-rights-and-abortion-access","title":"Empowering Choices: Women's Rights and Abortion Access","excerpt":"In the ongoing conversation about women's reproductive rights, personal choice remains paramount. This article explores the experiences of women navigating their options and the critical need for supportive healthcare. It highlights the importance of empowering women's voices in discussions about abortion and reproductive health.","content":"In recent years, the dialogue surrounding women's reproductive rights has gained significant traction, highlighting the profound importance of personal choice in the context of abortion. OB-GYN Katherine Brown, MD, articulates a fundamental truth: \"My patients make difficult decisions within the contexts of their lives, and they are the true experts on what they need.\" This statement reflects a growing recognition that women should have the autonomy to make informed decisions about their bodies and futures.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:49.149Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672fe4661533c41ff2c7934a_Web_Photo_Editor%20(7).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-choices-womens-rights-and-abortion-access","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-choices-womens-rights-and-abortion-access"},{"id":"m7049k","slug":"empowering-choices-vice-president-kamala-harris-advocates-for-womens-reproductive-rights","title":"Empowering Choices: Vice President Kamala Harris Advocates for Women's Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"Vice President Kamala Harris is making strides in advocating for women's reproductive rights. During her recent visit to a Planned Parenthood clinic, she emphasized the importance of empowering women to make their own health choices and the need for legislative support to protect these rights.","content":"In a pivotal moment for women's reproductive rights, Vice President Kamala Harris recently attended a rally in Denver, Colorado, where she took the opportunity to visit a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic. This visit highlights her ongoing commitment to advocating for women's health and their right to choose.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:48.551Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730300945b3c8e6b014ce75_17.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-choices-vice-president-kamala-harris-advocates-for-womens-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-choices-vice-president-kamala-harris-advocates-for-womens-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"ki8d5i","slug":"empowering-choices-teen-mothers-education","title":"Empowering Choices: The Journey of Teen Mothers in Education","excerpt":"Teen mothers often face unique challenges in balancing their education and parenting responsibilities. Informal schools like Serene Haven provide essential support, allowing them to thrive both as students and parents. This article explores their journeys, the challenges they face, and the importance of advocating for their rights.","content":"In a world where young women often confront societal challenges, the story of teen mothers balancing motherhood and education is both inspiring and poignant. These young women face a unique set of obstacles: from societal stigma and lack of support to the demands of raising a child while striving for academic achievements. Fortunately, initiatives like Serene Haven Girl’s Secondary School are stepping in to provide the necessary support and resources for these young mothers, facilitating their journey toward empowerment and self-sufficiency.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:47.956Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730942f4734d631e95513db_17.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-choices-teen-mothers-education","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-choices-teen-mothers-education"},{"id":"h6k44i","slug":"empowering-choices-emergency-contraception-distribution","title":"Empowering Choices: Emergency Contraception Distribution at Maya Day Club","excerpt":"On June 8, 2024, activists and influencers gathered outside the Maya Day Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, to distribute free emergency contraception. This event, part of the Vote for Abortion bus tour, aimed to raise awareness about reproductive rights and the importance of accessible healthcare for women.","content":"In an inspiring display of solidarity and activism, a collective of influencers, content creators, and reproductive rights advocates came together on June 8, 2024, outside the bustling Maya Day Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. Their mission was clear: to distribute free emergency contraception to party-goers and raise awareness about women’s reproductive rights. This event was not just about providing a critical health resource; it was part of the broader Vote for Abortion bus tour, aiming to engage communities in conversations about reproductive freedom and access to healthcare.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:47.335Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731849dab97f9f2b7c48578_13.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-choices-emergency-contraception-distribution","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-choices-emergency-contraception-distribution"},{"id":"f2bq6k","slug":"empowering-choices-eloisa-lopez-fight-reproductive-rights","title":"Empowering Choices: Eloisa Lopez and the Fight for Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"Eloisa Lopez, executive director of Pro-Choice Arizona and the Abortion Fund of Arizona, is a tireless advocate for women's reproductive rights. Her work focuses on accessibility, education, and the critical need for choice, especially in the face of legislative challenges.","content":"Eloisa Lopez stands at the forefront of the reproductive rights movement in Arizona as the executive director of Pro-Choice Arizona and the Abortion Fund of Arizona. Her dual role is critical in a state where access to abortion services is increasingly challenged by restrictive laws and social stigmas. Lopez's commitment to empowering women and ensuring they have the tools and support they need to make informed choices is evident in her extensive work and advocacy.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:45.982Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67315e706275fc75556a08c6_Web_Photo_Editor%20(42).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-choices-eloisa-lopez-fight-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-choices-eloisa-lopez-fight-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"mmljvv","slug":"empowering-choice-abortion-funds-womens-health","title":"Empowering Choice: The Role of Abortion Funds in Women's Health","excerpt":"Abortion funds play a crucial role in supporting individuals seeking reproductive care by offering financial assistance and emotional guidance. These local nonprofits help bridge the gap in access to abortion services, ensuring that women can exercise their right to choose without financial barriers.","content":"In a world where reproductive rights continue to ignite passionate debates, abortion funds stand out as essential lifelines for individuals confronting the often daunting journey of seeking an abortion. These local nonprofits offer more than just financial assistance; they provide a holistic support system that encompasses emotional and logistical guidance, empowering women and individuals to make informed choices regarding their bodies and futures.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:45.358Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731878ba8fd79133c47c59b_Web_Photo_Editor%20(45).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-choice-abortion-funds-womens-health","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-choice-abortion-funds-womens-health"},{"id":"wuefcl","slug":"empowering-change-the-fight-for-abortion-rights-in-thailand","title":"Empowering Change: The Fight for Abortion Rights in Thailand","excerpt":"Abortions are sought by a wide range of people for many different reasons. There is no single story. Telling stories of then and now shows how critical abortion has been and continues to be for women and girls. (Share your abortion story by emailing myabortio…","content":"The push for abortion rights in Thailand has gained momentum thanks to the tireless efforts of activists and organizations like Tamtang. This article highlights the struggles, victories, and ongoing challenges in the fight for women's reproductive freedom in the country.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:44.668Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731e6f864f403e04ce7c4a6_55.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-change-the-fight-for-abortion-rights-in-thailand","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/empowering-change-the-fight-for-abortion-rights-in-thailand"},{"id":"767jb6","slug":"dr-malcolm-potts-champion-of-contraceptive-access-and-womens-health-passes-at-90","title":"Dr. Malcolm Potts, Champion of Contraceptive Access and Women’s Health, Passes at 90","excerpt":"Dr. Malcolm Potts, an internationally renowned reproductive scientist and advocate whose bold vision reshaped global family planning and women's health, has died at 90. His pioneering work—from legal abortion reform in England to expanding contraceptive access worldwide—has saved countless lives and empowered generations.","content":"On April 25, 2025, in Berkeley, California, the world lost Dr. Malcolm Potts, a trailblazer in global family planning and women's reproductive health. He had reached the age of 90.
In the 1960s, Potts, an obstetrician with training from Cambridge, rose to prominence as a key figure in the groundbreaking movement advocating for safe abortion and dependable contraception. In 1992, he took his mission to UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, where he made history as the inaugural Fred H. Bixby Endowed Chair in Population and Family Planning.
Potts envisioned a world where women were empowered, advocating for their access to contraception, safe abortion, and the autonomy to make reproductive choices.
He advocated for initiatives that revolutionized reproductive health across the globe—from convincing an Ethiopian priest to allow birth control to conducting vasectomies at Indian train stations to engage apprehensive men. He played a significant role in broadening the availability of misoprostol, a vital medication in the fight against maternal mortality due to postpartum hemorrhage.
His leadership reached Thailand, where his initial family planning initiatives were pivotal in significantly reducing fertility rates, thereby supporting the nation's progress.
As president of Family Health International in the U.S., Potts was instrumental in initiating groundbreaking AIDS prevention programs and maternal health studies that sparked transformative change worldwide.
Renowned for intertwining rigorous science with striking imagery, Potts notably scattered rice grains on television to depict the comparative risks of contraception against pregnancy. His unwavering commitment played a crucial role in transforming abortion laws in England and bringing attention to safer abortion techniques such as manual vacuum aspiration, which he regarded as his greatest accomplishment.
At UC Berkeley, Potts played a pivotal role in establishing the Bixby Center for Population, Health and Sustainability, guiding and inspiring the next generation of global health leaders. He also played a pivotal role in founding OASIS, an organization dedicated to tackling maternal mortality and enhancing girls' education in the Sahel region of Africa.
\"Malcolm's life's work reshaped the landscape of global reproductive health and human rights,\" remarked Dr. Michael C. Lu, dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health.
Potts leaves a legacy of four children, three stepchildren, seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Plans for a memorial are on the horizon.
In his memory, contributions can be directed to the School of Public Health Fund at UC Berkeley.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:44.076Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68219bea0d93f4576ac145fe_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-05-12T144942.508.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/dr-malcolm-potts-champion-of-contraceptive-access-and-womens-health-passes-at-90","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/dr-malcolm-potts-champion-of-contraceptive-access-and-womens-health-passes-at-90"},{"id":"s47try","slug":"donald-trump-melania-pro-choice-stance-","title":"Donald Trump's Take on Melania's Pro-Choice Stance","excerpt":"In a recent statement, Donald Trump discussed his wife Melania's pro-choice views on abortion. His remarks sparked a conversation about personal autonomy and reproductive rights, highlighting the ongoing debates surrounding women's choices in healthcare.","content":"In a surprising turn of events, former President Donald Trump addressed a topic that has long been at the forefront of political discourse: women's reproductive rights. During a recent public appearance, Trump made headlines when he commented on his wife Melania Trump's apparent pro-choice stance on abortion. His statement, \"I'm not going to tell you what to do,\" has ignited discussions about personal autonomy and the complex landscape of reproductive rights in America.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:43.443Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731e1d7c66430166d377bb0_52.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/donald-trump-melania-pro-choice-stance-","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/donald-trump-melania-pro-choice-stance-"},{"id":"yy1di9","slug":"despite-abortion-bans-planned-parenthood-clinics-in-pro-life-states-take-in-millions","title":"Despite Abortion Bans, Planned Parenthood Clinics in Pro-Life States Take in Millions","excerpt":"A recent report reveals that Planned Parenthood affiliates operating in pro-life states are generating close to half a billion dollars in annual revenue, which includes taxpayer funding, even in the face of abortion restrictions.","content":"According to a report released on August 18 by the Catholic nonprofit American Life League, Planned Parenthood affiliates operating in states with stringent abortion bans or restrictions are raking in nearly half a billion dollars each year, which includes millions sourced from taxpayer funds.
In a revealing analysis, the research uncovered that affiliates located in pro-life states generate an impressive average of over $41.2 million in annual revenue, collectively amassing more than $450 million in total. The revenue figure closely aligns with affiliates in states that have fewer restrictions on abortion, averaging $43.4 million per affiliate and totaling approximately $1.8 billion.
In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, Planned Parenthood continues to operate 11 affiliates across 81 facilities in states with stringent abortion restrictions. Meanwhile, 41 affiliates are active in states with more lenient regulations, overseeing a total of 418 facilities.
Various sources of funding encompass government grants, Medicaid reimbursements, private donations, and fees for patient services. In the latest annual report from Planned Parenthood, covering the period from July 2023 to June 2024, it was revealed that approximately 40% of the organization’s total revenue, amounting to nearly $800 million, was sourced from taxpayer funding.
Taxpayer dollars are largely restricted from being used to fund most abortions, as mandated by federal law. Nonetheless, Medicaid reimbursements for non-abortive services continue to play a crucial role in supporting Planned Parenthood's financial resources. The situation has taken a turn after President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, aiming to halt federal Medicaid reimbursements to the group for a year. A court has issued a temporary suspension of that provision while the appeal is underway.
In a striking development, affiliates in Texas have reported a substantial revenue of $130.8 million, while those in Florida have garnered $67.8 million. This comes in the wake of significant abortion restrictions imposed in both states. In a notable distinction, Mississippi stands as the sole pro-life state that does not have a Planned Parenthood affiliate operating within its borders. In a landscape where states are classified as supportive of abortion rights, it is noteworthy that both Wyoming and North Dakota lack an affiliate organization at this time.
Katie Brown Xavios, the national director of ALL, stated that the organization was unable to identify which services were the primary sources of income for Planned Parenthood. However, she contended that affiliates take advantage of health-related abortion exceptions in states with restrictive laws.
“Despite being labeled as ‘pro-life,’ abortions continue to occur,” Xavios stated to Catholic News Agency. She called on states to implement comprehensive abortion bans with no exceptions and to prevent Medicaid reimbursements at the state level.
Xavios highlighted the recent closure of three Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas, a development stemming from the ongoing uncertainty surrounding federal Medicaid funding. However, she cautioned, “Planned Parenthood might discover a method to offset that lost income, and we could witness these clinics reopening within a year.”
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:42.776Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68a5221a4ad39d5980a46156_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-08-20T091706.240.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/despite-abortion-bans-planned-parenthood-clinics-in-pro-life-states-take-in-millions","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/despite-abortion-bans-planned-parenthood-clinics-in-pro-life-states-take-in-millions"},{"id":"4ry83h","slug":"demonstrators-unite-for-womens-reproductive-rights-at-supreme-court","title":"Demonstrators Unite for Women's Reproductive Rights at Supreme Court","excerpt":"On March 26, 2024, demonstrators gathered outside the Supreme Court to voice their support for women's reproductive rights during the oral arguments of FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. The case could significantly influence access to abortion services across the country.","content":"Name:
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:42.184Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67305aa6c6931a21b8928259_1.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/demonstrators-unite-for-womens-reproductive-rights-at-supreme-court","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/demonstrators-unite-for-womens-reproductive-rights-at-supreme-court"},{"id":"8ojhnb","slug":"democrats-prioritize-reproductive-freedom-at-state-of-the-union","title":"Democrats Prioritize Reproductive Freedom at State of the Union","excerpt":"As President Biden prepares for his State of the Union address, over 30 Democrats, including First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, are shining a spotlight on reproductive rights. This initiative underscores the ongoing battle for women's autonomy and the critical need for policy advocacy in the realm of reproductive health.","content":"In a crucial moment for women's rights, the Democratic Party is set to elevate the conversation surrounding reproductive freedom during President Joe Biden's upcoming State of the Union address. The emphasis on reproductive rights comes at a time when these freedoms are under increasing threat across various states in the U.S. Over 30 Democratic lawmakers, alongside First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, are mobilizing to advocate for the importance of protecting a woman's right to choose.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:41.583Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730145ad6a57ed10621cb59_Web_Photo_Editor%20(16).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/democrats-prioritize-reproductive-freedom-at-state-of-the-union","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/democrats-prioritize-reproductive-freedom-at-state-of-the-union"},{"id":"j474c7","slug":"democrats-emphasize-reproductive-rights-at-recent-convention","title":"Democrats Emphasize Reproductive Rights at Recent Convention","excerpt":"At their recent convention, Democrats made reproductive rights a central theme, spotlighting the challenges women face post- Roe v. Wade. With personal testimonies and expert discussions, the event sought to galvanize support for women's autonomy and access to healthcare.","content":"Name:
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:40.882Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67305fc1e3bcfa37f965f80c_Web_Photo_Editor%20(25).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/democrats-emphasize-reproductive-rights-at-recent-convention","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/democrats-emphasize-reproductive-rights-at-recent-convention"},{"id":"whrvc1","slug":"defense-department-quietly-rolls-back-reproductive-health-travel-policy","title":"Defense Department Quietly Rolls Back Reproductive Health Travel Policy","excerpt":"The Pentagon has rescinded its policy that reimbursed service members for travel related to reproductive health care, including abortions and fertility treatments. The reversal follows an executive order from President Trump enforcing the Hyde Amendment, which restricts federal funds from covering abortion-related expenses.","content":"In a significant policy reversal, the Pentagon has quietly repealed its travel reimbursement program for service members seeking reproductive health care, including abortion and fertility treatments. The change, implemented without public announcement, removes financial assistance for military personnel stationed in states where such services are restricted. Advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers uncovered the revised travel policy on Thursday, pointing out its online posting. A defense official confirmed the change but declined further comment. Initially established under the Biden administration in response to the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that permitted states to ban abortion, the policy aimed to support service members unable to choose their station locations. Many of the military’s largest bases are in states with strict abortion laws, leading to concerns over service members' access to essential reproductive care. While the abortion aspect of the policy drew the most attention, it also covered travel costs for fertility treatments not provided by the military. With the repeal, neither abortion nor fertility-related travel expenses will be reimbursed. A group of 19 Senate Democrats condemned the decision, calling it \"abhorrent\" and threatening military readiness. \"This decision strips away service members' ability to access the reproductive care they need,\" they said in a joint statement. The reversal comes in response to President Trump’s recent executive order, \"Enforcing the Hyde Amendment,\" which mandates that federal agencies eliminate funding for abortion-related expenses. The Defense Travel Management Office cited this order for rescinding the policy. Though rarely used, the policy had an outsized impact, sparking an 11-month blockade by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) on senior military promotions. On Friday, Tuberville celebrated the repeal, declaring, \"Thank God common sense has been restored to our military under President Trump's leadership.\" Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged Tuberville’s role in the policy change, thanking him on social media. ","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:40.215Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67743e368d04789b3e85eeae_Web_Photo_Editor%20(69).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/defense-department-quietly-rolls-back-reproductive-health-travel-policy","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/defense-department-quietly-rolls-back-reproductive-health-travel-policy"},{"id":"ebw2hz","slug":"defending-womens-rights-legacy-pro-choice-movement","title":"Defending Women's Rights: The Legacy of the Pro-Choice Movement","excerpt":"The pro-choice movement has been a cornerstone in advocating for women's reproductive rights since its inception. This article delves into its history, key milestones, and the ongoing struggle for freedom of choice regarding abortion. The stories of women and legal battles underscore the importance of preserving these rights today.","content":"The pro-choice movement is not merely a contemporary issue; it is a deep-rooted struggle that has evolved over decades, shaped by the experiences and voices of countless women. As we reflect on its history, we must acknowledge the pivotal demonstrations and legal battles that have defined the landscape of women's reproductive rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:39.600Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730c1f60036c0cc63c2251e_Web_Photo_Editor%20(35).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/defending-womens-rights-legacy-pro-choice-movement","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/defending-womens-rights-legacy-pro-choice-movement"},{"id":"vammzx","slug":"debbie-mucarsel-powell-champions-womens-reproductive-rights","title":"Debbie Mucarsel-Powell Champions Women's Reproductive Rights in Miami","excerpt":"Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a key Democratic contender, is leading a campaign focused on protecting women's reproductive rights. She emphasizes the importance of health care access and personal autonomy, particularly regarding abortion.","content":"In a crucial moment for women’s reproductive rights, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the prominent Democratic candidate challenging incumbent Republican Senator Rick Scott, gathered health-care professionals and advocates outside Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. This rally was not merely a campaign event; it was a clarion call for the preservation and enhancement of women’s healthcare rights, particularly regarding access to abortion.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:38.964Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731904d04a2744f45995c4b_0.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/debbie-mucarsel-powell-champions-womens-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/debbie-mucarsel-powell-champions-womens-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"nibekk","slug":"court-expands-idaho-abortion-exception-in-medical-emergency-case","title":"Court Expands Idaho Abortion Exception in Medical Emergency Case","excerpt":"An Idaho state judge has ruled that the state's near-total abortion ban does not prevent doctors from performing abortions when a woman faces a life-threatening condition, even if death is not immediate—offering limited relief to plaintiffs who were previously denied care.","content":"An Idaho judge made a big decision on April 11 that made the state's abortion ban clearer. The judge said that doctors can legally perform abortions on pregnant patients who face a real risk of death, even if the death is not imminent or inevitable.
Speaking in Ada County state court, District Judge Jason Scott stressed that the law allows abortions if a doctor, using \"good faith medical judgment,\" decides that the patient has \"a non-negligible risk of dying sooner\" if the treatment is not done. This ruling is partly good news for the four women and two doctors who sued the state in 2023 because they were turned down for abortions even though they were not pregnant.
The Center for Reproductive Rights helped file the case, which was against the small medical emergency exception to Idaho's strict abortion ban. Because their babies had defects that could have killed them, the women had to leave the state to get medical care.
Gail Deady, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said, \"This decision is a step forward, but it leaves many others behind, including some of the women who brought this case.\" She said the decision was wrong because it didn't make any exceptions for situations where the baby isn't viable or where there are mental health risks, like self-harm.
Judge Scott also said that if the life-threatening exception is used to have an abortion, doctors must use a way that, if possible, keeps the fetus alive outside the womb. He refused to make the exception apply to cases where a fatal baby diagnosis was made.
The office of the Idaho Attorney General has not commented on the decision. The state can try to change the ruling.
The decision comes after other lawsuits were filed against Idaho's abortion ban. These included a federal case from the Biden administration, which said the state's law goes against federal rules for emergency medical care.
As the legal fights go on, supporters say that more changes are needed to fully protect pregnant people who are having medical emergencies.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:38.346Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67fe897a3bc45b95e7470343_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-04-16T002928.554.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/court-expands-idaho-abortion-exception-in-medical-emergency-case","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/court-expands-idaho-abortion-exception-in-medical-emergency-case"},{"id":"v7gwyt","slug":"court-decision-paves-way-for-trump-to-cut-medicaid-funds-to-planned-parenthood","title":"Court Decision Paves Way for Trump to Cut Medicaid Funds to Planned Parenthood","excerpt":"A federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration can proceed with blocking Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid reimbursements, a decision that reproductive rights advocates warn will lead to the closure of clinics and limit access to healthcare services.","content":"A recent decision from the First Circuit Court of Appeals has cleared the way for the Trump administration to proceed with its initiative to halt Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood.
The court ruling has overturned a previous injunction from a lower court that had paused a specific provision in the tax and spending bill, which sought to reduce the health organization’s Medicaid eligibility for one year.
The decision poses a significant challenge for advocates of reproductive rights, who caution that it may lead to the shutdown of as many as 200 Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide. The reproductive health giant has announced that the decision will affect around 1.1 million Medicaid patients who depend on the organization for essential services.
“Cancers will go undetected, STIs will go untreated, and patients won’t get the birth control that they need to plan their families and futures,” stated Alexis McGill Johnson, CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, during a press call on Friday. Johnson points out, “Individuals will need to journey greater distances for treatment and experience extended wait times as demand escalates.”
Over 60% of clinics facing potential closure are situated in rural or medically underserved regions, with around 90% located in states that currently uphold abortion rights, McGill Johnson noted. A recent report from the Abortion Care Network reveals that Planned Parenthood clinics account for nearly 40% of all abortions in the United States.
“This is a covert restriction on abortion,” McGill Johnson stated, highlighting that although federal funds, including Medicaid, are prohibited from covering abortions, this action will significantly reduce vital healthcare services like cancer screenings, contraception, and STI tests.
Planned Parenthood had previously looked into the possibility of ceasing abortion services in certain states to maintain Medicaid funding. Still, McGill Johnson has now confirmed that those options are off the table. \"We firmly support our commitment and capability to deliver abortion care in all areas where it is permitted in this nation,\" she stated.
The legal proceedings in this case are set to advance, as the First Circuit Court is poised to consider further arguments in the weeks ahead.
According to KFF, a nonprofit healthcare policy tracker, Medicaid, which serves over 80 million Americans, provides coverage for approximately 11% of female beneficiaries aged 15 to 49 who access family-planning services at Planned Parenthood.
“There is no alternative strategy.” “There’s no one waiting in the wings to take care of our patients,” stated Dominique Lee, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts.
Lee emphasized that Planned Parenthood serves as a crucial support system.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:37.754Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68c8284f4026fdb7f235fbb6_Web_Photo_Editor%20(5).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/court-decision-paves-way-for-trump-to-cut-medicaid-funds-to-planned-parenthood","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/court-decision-paves-way-for-trump-to-cut-medicaid-funds-to-planned-parenthood"},{"id":"1asijy","slug":"court-clears-trump-backed-medicaid-restriction-nationwide","title":"Court clears Trump-backed Medicaid restriction nationwide","excerpt":"A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with cutting Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood health centers in 22 states and Washington, D.C., pausing a lower-court order that had blocked the policy.","content":"On Tuesday, the U.S. appeals court paved the way for the Trump administration to withdraw Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood health centers across 22 states and Washington, D.C. This decision temporarily suspends a lower-court injunction that had blocked the enforcement of this restriction.
A three-judge panel from the Boston-based First Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a decision that temporarily halts an order from the United States. District Judge Indira Talwani. This order had prevented the administration from enforcing a provision that prohibits Medicaid reimbursements to specific providers.
The ruling represents the most recent advancement in a protracted legal battle concerning the measure, which Republicans incorporated into the extensive tax-and-spending legislation referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The regulation bars Medicaid payments to tax-exempt entities offering family planning and reproductive health services if they also conduct abortions and have received over $800,000 in Medicaid funding in the fiscal year 2023.
A spokesperson for California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat who co-led the challenge alongside attorneys general from Connecticut and New York, expressed disappointment in the ruling but reaffirmed the states' commitment to ensuring that vulnerable Californians have access to necessary healthcare.
There was no response from Planned Parenthood regarding the request for comment.
The administration contends that Congress possesses the power to establish conditions for participation in Medicaid, the federal-state insurance initiative designed for low-income Americans. A panel from the First Circuit indicated that the government has likely established its case for appeal by proving that the law is clear and that Congress possesses the authority to implement such modifications.
Talwani had earlier determined that the states were probably poised to argue that the restriction was unconstitutional, as it retroactively modified the terms of Medicaid participation following approval by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The law did not clearly inform states about the entities it covered.
According to Planned Parenthood, the provision was designed specifically with the organization in focus and has already led to the closure of at least 20 clinics since President Donald Trump enacted the law in July. The organization cautions that up to 200 centers may face closure, particularly in states where abortion remains legal, significantly restricting access to reproductive healthcare.
Current federal legislation prohibits the allocation of federal funds for the majority of abortion procedures. According to Planned Parenthood, Medicaid reimbursements play a crucial role in funding various services, such as STI testing, cancer screenings, and contraception. In the year 2024, the organization documented over 1.5 million patient visits related to Medicaid.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:37.141Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/69567b3082fd80a2e230be49_Web_Photo_Editor.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/court-clears-trump-backed-medicaid-restriction-nationwide","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/court-clears-trump-backed-medicaid-restriction-nationwide"},{"id":"xqc8i7","slug":"conservatives-challenge-voting-rights-on-reproductive-issues","title":"Conservatives Challenge Voting Rights on Reproductive Issues","excerpt":"In Missouri and Nebraska, conservative groups are attempting to block voters from deciding on reproductive rights initiatives. This article examines the implications of these legal battles and the ongoing struggle for women's autonomy.","content":"In recent months, the landscape of reproductive rights in the United States has faced significant turmoil, particularly as conservative factions have turned to the judicial system to thwart the democratic process. Specifically, states like Missouri and Nebraska are at the forefront of legal challenges aimed at restricting voters from having a say on critical reproductive rights initiatives.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:36.536Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731d6b7f7c25db1c8ea3eda_45.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/conservatives-challenge-voting-rights-on-reproductive-issues","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/conservatives-challenge-voting-rights-on-reproductive-issues"},{"id":"cmcb8x","slug":"clinic-closures-spark-legal-fight-over-federal-abortion-funding-ban","title":"Clinic Closures Spark Legal Fight Over Federal Abortion Funding Ban","excerpt":"California and 22 states are suing the Trump administration over a new law blocking Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood. The law has already forced clinic closures and drawn fierce legal challenges over constitutional violations.","content":"California Attorney General Rob Bonta, along with an alliance of 22 other states and the District of Columbia, has initiated a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration. The group contends that a new tax law unjustly deprives Planned Parenthood of Medicaid reimbursements, infringing upon constitutional rights and federal health regulations.
A lawsuit has been initiated in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts against the newly established “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which restricts Medicaid reimbursements to large nonprofit clinics that \"primarily\" offer abortion services. Despite existing federal law prohibiting direct funding for abortion services, opponents argue that the new regulation acts as a covert means to defund Planned Parenthood, particularly in states such as California, where abortion is still permitted.
Attorney General Bonta argues that the law lacks clarity, violates First Amendment rights, and compels states to deny Medicaid funding to providers based on services provided outside the Medicaid framework. Bonta stated that the measure infringes on due process and disregards federal mandates that require explicit notification regarding alterations to Medicaid funding.
“This issue extends beyond abortion—it encompasses the suppression of dissent and the erosion of public health access,” Bonta stated. Five Planned Parenthood clinics in California have shut down as a result of losing approximately $100 million in Medicaid reimbursements. Recent closures in Gilroy, Santa Cruz, Madera, San Mateo, and South San Francisco have resulted in more than 22,000 patients being left without care.
A distinct legal action initiated by Planned Parenthood Federation of America has resulted in a temporary ruling from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, mandating the reinstatement of Medicaid reimbursements as the litigation unfolds. The judge stated that interruptions in service might result in “negative health outcomes,” including unintended pregnancies and overlooked diagnoses of critical conditions.
In light of the recent ruling, officials from Planned Parenthood caution that the future of access to long-term care is still in question. “We will stand firm,” stated Andrew Adams of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, which manages 30 clinics. “However, we require support to maintain our operations.”
A representative from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services expressed strong opposition to the ruling, proposing that clinics involved in political advocacy should not be eligible for taxpayer funding.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:35.813Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68911b02c4a7c05b86dc296d_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-08-05T044101.807.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/clinic-closures-spark-legal-fight-over-federal-abortion-funding-ban","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/clinic-closures-spark-legal-fight-over-federal-abortion-funding-ban"},{"id":"lv3u1z","slug":"clarifying-religious-exemptions-in-abortion-rights","title":"Clarifying Religious Exemptions in Abortion Rights","excerpt":"A recent lawsuit in Indiana is shedding light on how religious exemptions may impact women's reproductive rights. This case highlights the ongoing debate over personal beliefs and legal rights surrounding abortion, emphasizing the need for clarity in legal frameworks.","content":"On Thursday afternoon, a significant development unfolded in Indiana as a group of plaintiffs engaged in a pivotal lawsuit that seeks to clarify the parameters of religious exemptions in the context of abortion rights. This case is particularly resonant in a climate where women's reproductive rights are continually challenged, and personal beliefs often intersect with legal frameworks.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:35.197Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67309caef4ecee1c96448e1d_Web_Photo_Editor%20(31).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/clarifying-religious-exemptions-in-abortion-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/clarifying-religious-exemptions-in-abortion-rights"},{"id":"67l10n","slug":"childless-mother-a-search-for-son-and-self","title":"Childless Mother: A Search for Son and Self","excerpt":"Tracy Mayo’s memoir, \"Childless Mother: A Search for Son and Self,\" set to release on March 28, 2024, explores the emotional landscape of motherhood, identity, and the implications of reproductive rights in a post-Roe v. Wade world. Through her personal narrative, Mayo sheds light on the broader issues of choice, health, and the ongoing fight for women's rights.","content":"Tracy Mayo’s upcoming memoir, \"Childless Mother: A Search for Son and Self,\" is poised to make waves upon its release on March 28, 2024. In a time when women's reproductive rights face unprecedented challenges, particularly after the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Mayo's narrative is not just personal; it speaks to the collective struggle for autonomy and choice that many women experience.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:34.598Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673011315132970736c110e2_Web_Photo_Editor%20(14).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/childless-mother-a-search-for-son-and-self","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/childless-mother-a-search-for-son-and-self"},{"id":"r9l1ab","slug":"challenging-floridas-abortion-laws-fight-for-privacy-rights","title":"Challenging Florida's Abortion Laws: A Fight for Privacy Rights","excerpt":"A pivotal legal challenge is underway regarding Florida's strict abortion laws, grounded in the state's right to privacy. This case not only underscores the importance of reproductive rights but also highlights the ongoing battle for women's autonomy in the face of restrictive legislation.","content":"In a significant legal development, the conservative Supreme Court of Florida is currently reviewing a challenge to the state's stringent abortion laws. This legal battle is centered around the right to privacy, a fundamental principle that voters enshrined in Florida's Constitution. The outcome of this case could have profound implications for women's reproductive rights in the state and beyond.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:33.987Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672f5e92fe93bb714d53ef1b_2.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/challenging-floridas-abortion-laws-fight-for-privacy-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/challenging-floridas-abortion-laws-fight-for-privacy-rights"},{"id":"ytr0ru","slug":"center-for-reproductive-rights-warns-of-sweeping-attacks-on-reproductive-health-under-trump","title":"Center for Reproductive Rights Warns of “Sweeping Attacks” on Reproductive Health Under Trump","excerpt":"A new report from the Center for Reproductive Rights outlines extensive actions taken by the Trump administration during its first 100 days to restrict reproductive health care access, from limiting emergency abortion care to censoring public health information.","content":"A recent report highlights a concerted effort by the Trump administration to undermine reproductive rights within the first 100 days of its tenure, amid growing scrutiny over its extensive policy decisions. A report from the Center for Reproductive Rights, titled Repro Red Flags: Trump’s First 100 Days, outlines the swift decline in access to reproductive health care under the current administration, affecting both domestic and international landscapes.
Among the significant actions taken is the decision not to enforce the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a law designed to guarantee that patients have access to emergency abortion care in cases of life-threatening pregnancy complications. In states where abortion bans are in effect, hospitals are now permitted to disregard federal law, raising significant concerns about patient safety.
The administration has frozen millions in Title X funds, the only federal program focused on family planning services. This decision has resulted in the closure of clinics nationwide or a reduction in services, consequently leaving millions without access to contraception, STI testing, cancer screenings, and additional health services.
The White House has taken significant steps by removing essential reproductive health information from federal websites and ceasing enforcement of the FACE Act, a law designed to safeguard clinic staff and patients from violence and harassment. Trump has heightened concerns by granting pardons to individuals who were convicted of offenses under the FACE Act.
A recent report indicates that Trump's actions may represent a larger initiative aimed at undermining reproductive rights and limiting legal options for individuals impacted by these changes. The Center is actively monitoring and challenging these policies via its Repro Red Flags: Agency Watch tool.
An action call scheduled for May 7 will delve into the potential consequences of these initial decisions and explore the implications of a second Trump term for reproductive freedom.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:33.386Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/681b5f587b04346f45fddc03_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-05-07T212522.205.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/center-for-reproductive-rights-warns-of-sweeping-attacks-on-reproductive-health-under-trump","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/center-for-reproductive-rights-warns-of-sweeping-attacks-on-reproductive-health-under-trump"},{"id":"dzgavy","slug":"center-for-reproductive-rights-warns-ban-would-endanger-women-veterans","title":"Center for Reproductive Rights Warns Ban Would Endanger Women Veterans","excerpt":"A Trump administration proposal to ban abortion care through the Department of Veterans Affairs is drawing sharp criticism from advocates, who warn it would be one of the nation’s strictest restrictions and jeopardize the health of millions of veterans and their families.","content":"The Trump administration is considering a proposal that could prevent the Department of Veterans Affairs from offering abortion care or sharing information about the procedure. Advocates argue that this action would create one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the nation, with a particularly adverse impact on women veterans.
The VA stands as the most extensive integrated health system in the country, with women veterans of reproductive age emerging as the most rapidly expanding segment of new patients within the organization.
The Center for Reproductive Rights highlights that veterans encounter distinct health challenges, and the suggested policy threatens to eliminate a crucial avenue for reproductive care.
“This administration is conveying a definitive message to veterans—that their health and dignity are not priorities worth safeguarding,” stated Nancy Northup, the organization’s president and CEO.
The proposal outlines a ban on abortion care, extending to instances of rape, incest, or significant health issues, allowing for only a limited exception in life-threatening situations. Observers note that these exceptions often fail in real-world scenarios. The proposed change carries considerable weight, particularly as one in three women veterans indicates they have faced sexual trauma while serving in the military. Alarmingly, this figure rises to approximately 40% among homeless women veterans.
The ramifications may be far-reaching. In the United States, the population of women veterans exceeds two million, accompanied by thousands of transgender men and non-binary veterans who may need access to abortion services. The prohibition would extend its impact to around 700,000 family members who qualify for VA care. States with abortion bans host a significant number of these individuals, including over 400,000 women veterans.
The proposed rule, if put into effect, would have implications across the entire country, extending its reach to states where abortion remains legal. In the 14 states that recognize abortion as a constitutional right, patients in Virginia would encounter the same federal limitations as individuals in states with complete prohibitions.
Supporters contend that the initiative is a component of a larger movement against abortion. The individuals behind the measure, former Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and VA Secretary Doug Collins, have consistently been against abortion rights. Collins backed the 2019 Life at Conception Act, aiming to establish fetal personhood and implement a nationwide abortion ban.
The proposal signifies the administration's initial move to reduce abortion access across the country actively. Critics argue that this move establishes a troubling benchmark and may foreshadow broader limitations in the future.
The public is invited to share their thoughts on the proposed rule during a 30-day comment period, which will conclude on September 3, 2025.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:32.731Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/689dbdf16bc8ea5aa8f7b63d_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-08-14T184123.632.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/center-for-reproductive-rights-warns-ban-would-endanger-women-veterans","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/center-for-reproductive-rights-warns-ban-would-endanger-women-veterans"},{"id":"oovkdq","slug":"celebrating-womens-rights-honoring-the-legacy-of-roe-v-wade","title":"Celebrating Women's Rights: Honoring the Legacy of Roe v. Wade","excerpt":"In late January, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris commemorated the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade at the Restore Roe rally in Virginia. This event underscored the ongoing fight for women's reproductive rights and the importance of safeguarding the right to choose.","content":"As we reflect on the pivotal moment in history marked by the Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade, it is essential to recognize how far we've come and the challenges that lie ahead. The 1973 landmark ruling not only established a woman's legal right to make decisions regarding her own body but also ignited a nationwide conversation about reproductive rights that continues to this day.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:32.120Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672ffa3f421c8024ffba937d_9.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/celebrating-womens-rights-honoring-the-legacy-of-roe-v-wade","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/celebrating-womens-rights-honoring-the-legacy-of-roe-v-wade"},{"id":"29rne7","slug":"celebrating-milestones-a-step-forward-for-abortion-rights-in-france","title":"Celebrating Milestones: A Step Forward for Abortion Rights in France","excerpt":"On March 4, 2024, abortion rights advocates gathered in Trocadéro Square, Paris, to celebrate the passing of a historic bill by the French Parliament. This legislation aims to enshrine the right to abortion in the French Constitution, highlighting the ongoing struggle for women's reproductive rights globally.","content":"On a vibrant day in early March, the atmosphere in Paris was charged with hope and determination as thousands of women gathered in Trocadéro Square. They waved flags from the Women’s Foundation, their voices joining in unison to celebrate a landmark victory for abortion rights in France. The occasion marked a significant turning point as the French Parliament approved a bill to enshrine the right to abortion in the Constitution, a move that reinforces women's reproductive freedoms at a time when rights are under scrutiny in various parts of the world.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:31.480Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67306f1b3e741946554183e3_Web_Photo_Editor%20(27).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/celebrating-milestones-a-step-forward-for-abortion-rights-in-france","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/celebrating-milestones-a-step-forward-for-abortion-rights-in-france"},{"id":"iuthk7","slug":"call-for-change-expert-panel-urges-16-billion-and-new-nih-institute-to-boost-womens-health-research","title":"Call for Change: Expert Panel Urges $16 Billion and New NIH Institute to Boost Women’s Health Research","excerpt":"A NASEM panel demands $16 billion and a new NIH institute to prioritize women’s health, spotlighting gaps in research, underfunding, and racial disparities affecting female-specific conditions.","content":"A report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) has highlighted significant deficiencies in women’s health research, calling on the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to create a dedicated institute and allocate $16 billion for groundbreaking research initiatives.
The call arises as experts emphasize years of insufficient funding and a lack of attention to conditions specific to women and the physiological differences based on sex.
The report highlights shortcomings in the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH), which was established in 1993, pointing out its insufficient authority and funding to effectively enforce NIH policies regarding women’s health research. Alina Salganicoff, co-chair of the 17-member panel, highlighted the critical necessity for structural reform to tackle disparities in conditions such as heart disease and endometriosis.
Salganicoff emphasized that NIH needs to address these research gaps to significantly enhance women's health.
Sherita Golden, an epidemiologist and co-author, highlighted the unequal impact of conditions such as lupus and heart disease on women from racially and ethnically minoritized backgrounds. While there have been advancements in the inclusion of clinical trials, the report highlights a notable lack of investment in both basic and applied research.
NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli stood by the agency’s current initiatives, yet the report contends that these efforts do not achieve the necessary systemic change.
The proposal encounters political hurdles, with the new conservative leadership aiming to reform the NIH, casting doubt on the establishment of a new institute. Advocates contend that placing emphasis on women’s health is not only overdue but also essential for achieving equity and addressing long-ignored medical needs.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:30.871Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67313314c09970b51cd80e8e_44.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/call-for-change-expert-panel-urges-16-billion-and-new-nih-institute-to-boost-womens-health-research","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/call-for-change-expert-panel-urges-16-billion-and-new-nih-institute-to-boost-womens-health-research"},{"id":"haw04c","slug":"california-moves-to-strengthen-abortion-rights-amid-federal-restrictions","title":"California Moves to Strengthen Abortion Rights Amid Federal Restrictions","excerpt":"California lawmakers, led by Assemblymember Mia Bonta, are advancing new legislation to reinforce abortion rights, countering potential federal restrictions under the Trump administration's anti-abortion stance.","content":"California is establishing itself as a leader in preserving reproductive rights as national arguments over abortion get more heated. Emphasizing the state's position as a refuge for women's autonomy, Assemblymember Mia Bonta announced a legislation package targeted at strengthening abortion access and mother health.
Set to be presented on December 2 during California emergency session called by Governor Gavin Newsom, the proposals seek to increase mother health services, access to birth contraception, and protection of emergency abortion treatment in hospitals. In stressing California's dedication, Bonta said, \"We will continue to fight for bodily autonomy and prioritize comprehensive reproductive healthcare.\"
The legislative drive takes place against a federal scene growing more hostile to abortion rights. California's proactive approach seeks to protect residents from anti-abortion activists seeking national bans on abortion and limitations on contraceptives.
California's actions highlight its deep-blue character and dedication to oppose federal authority. Long a haven for reproductive rights, the state's recommendations confirm this commitment in the face of a conservative majority in the U.S. Supreme Court and Republican-owned Congress.
California's legislators are acting forcefully to ensure women's health and autonomy remain safeguarded as the Trump government and anti-abortion groups up their campaigns.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:30.223Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6744890cbda802c1c9e55ae6_3.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/california-moves-to-strengthen-abortion-rights-amid-federal-restrictions","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/california-moves-to-strengthen-abortion-rights-amid-federal-restrictions"},{"id":"i6d37q","slug":"california-ag-sues-beverly-hills-for-blocking-abortion-access","title":"California AG Sues Beverly Hills for Blocking Abortion Access","excerpt":"Attorney General Rob Bonta is suing Beverly Hills for allegedly blocking an abortion clinic’s opening through permit delays and landlord pressure. This legal fight underscores the challenges to abortion rights, even in progressive regions.","content":"California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a lawsuit against the city of Beverly Hills using a rare legal strategy. The lawsuit contends that the DuPont Clinic, a facility that specializes in all-trimester abortion treatment, was deliberately obstructed. The case emphasizes the persistence of challenges to abortion rights in progressive states such as California, despite the state's constitutional protections.
Bonta characterized the clinic's encounter with persistent bureaucratic obstacles, such as landlord pressure and permit delays, as a \"two-pronged attack\" to obstruct its opening. These strategies are frequently implemented by anti-abortion strongholds in conservative states, illustrating the widespread obstacles to reproductive healthcare on a national scale.
\"We must maintain vigilance against local initiatives that undermine reproductive freedom, even in a state that is dedicated to it,\" Bonta stated.
The overturn of Roe v. Wade has resulted in the implementation of nearly complete abortion prohibitions in 14 states, which is the subject of this legal dispute. California has become a refuge for patients traveling from restrictive states; however, the state's healthcare system is further burdened by the delays in the inauguration of new facilities, such as the DuPont Clinic.
The judgment against Beverly Hills necessitates the appointment of a compliance officer and providing reproductive rights training for city staff. In a broader sense, it establishes a precedent for the defense of abortion access against local-level obstruction, thereby reaffirming California's dedication to the protection of reproductive rights.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:29.609Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6742a1e5cc0f0083030ad26e_12.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/california-ag-sues-beverly-hills-for-blocking-abortion-access","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/california-ag-sues-beverly-hills-for-blocking-abortion-access"},{"id":"juguky","slug":"bidens-non-reelection-announcement-and-its-impact-on-reproductive-rights","title":"Biden's Non-Reelection Announcement and Its Impact on Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"President Biden's recent announcement not to seek reelection has sent ripples through the reproductive rights community. This article explores the potential effects of this decision on women's rights, the role of advocacy, and the future landscape of reproductive freedom.","content":"Name:
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:28.134Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731a4e6811dfb4893c8f723_27.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/bidens-non-reelection-announcement-and-its-impact-on-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/bidens-non-reelection-announcement-and-its-impact-on-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"r7wk9","slug":"bidens-commitment-to-womens-reproductive-rights","title":"Biden's Commitment to Women's Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"President Biden has reaffirmed his administration's commitment to protecting women's reproductive rights. During a recent meeting of the Reproductive Health Task Force, he addressed key issues surrounding access to abortion, the importance of voting, and ongoing advocacy efforts.","content":"On January 22, 2024, President Joe Biden addressed the Reproductive Health Task Force at the White House, underlining the administration’s ongoing commitment to safeguarding women’s reproductive rights. As discussions surrounding abortion access continue to shape the political landscape, Biden's remarks served as a vital reminder of the importance of advocacy, legislative action, and voter participation in the fight for reproductive freedom.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:27.537Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67302f613acfe023dca43b88_16.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/bidens-commitment-to-womens-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/bidens-commitment-to-womens-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"qqu5yz","slug":"bidens-commitment-to-protecting-abortion-rights","title":"Biden's Commitment to Protecting Abortion Rights","excerpt":"As the debate over abortion rights intensifies, President Biden is stepping up to address the challenges posed by former President Trump. This article explores Biden's commitment to protecting women's reproductive rights and the importance of political advocacy in this ongoing battle.","content":"Name:
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:26.918Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672f6f3dd6a57ed106b0ec03_1.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/bidens-commitment-to-protecting-abortion-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/bidens-commitment-to-protecting-abortion-rights"},{"id":"3cxwsf","slug":"bidens-call-to-restore-roe-a-rally-for-reproductive-rights","title":"Biden's Call to Restore Roe: A Rally for Reproductive Rights","excerpt":"During a recent rally in Virginia, President Joe Biden emphasized the urgent need to restore Roe v. Wade, highlighting the ongoing battle for women's reproductive rights. His speech aimed to galvanize support for reproductive freedom while addressing the implications of recent legal challenges.","content":"On January 23, 2024, President Joe Biden took center stage at a rally held at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas, Virginia, to commemorate the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. This rally served as a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggle for women's reproductive rights, particularly in the wake of significant changes in abortion laws across the United States. Biden's impassioned speech resonated with many attendees, reflecting the sentiments of millions who believe that the right to choose is fundamental to women's autonomy and health.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:26.282Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672fd2f7f5d31dde1c2095a8_Web_Photo_Editor%20(5).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/bidens-call-to-restore-roe-a-rally-for-reproductive-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/bidens-call-to-restore-roe-a-rally-for-reproductive-rights"},{"id":"gtomiw","slug":"bidens-bold-move-acknowledging-abortion-rights-","title":"Biden's Bold Move: Acknowledging Abortion Rights in His Speech","excerpt":"During a recent fundraiser, President Joe Biden addressed abortion rights, marking a significant moment in his campaign. His acknowledgment of reproductive freedom resonates with the ongoing fight for women's rights and the critical need for advocacy in this area.","content":"In a world where women's reproductive rights are under constant scrutiny, President Joe Biden recently made headlines by openly discussing abortion during a fundraiser. This moment is not just a political gesture; it signifies a larger conversation about women's autonomy and the ongoing struggle for the right to choose.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:24.928Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672ff3896af415d241934f90_Web_Photo_Editor%20(11).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/bidens-bold-move-acknowledging-abortion-rights-","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/bidens-bold-move-acknowledging-abortion-rights-"},{"id":"fcainu","slug":"biden-harris-rally-reproductive-rights-","title":"Biden and Harris Rally for Reproductive Rights: A Call to Action","excerpt":"On the heels of the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, President Biden and Vice President Harris rallied in Virginia to reaffirm their commitment to reproductive rights. Their message resonated with advocates and supporters, highlighting the ongoing struggle for women's autonomy over their bodies and health care decisions.","content":"On January 23, 2024, just a day after the landmark Roe v. Wade decision celebrated its 51st anniversary, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris gathered supporters in Virginia for a pivotal reelection campaign rally. The event was not merely a political gathering; it served as a powerful reminder of the ongoing fight for women's reproductive rights in America. As they took the stage, both leaders emphasized their unwavering support for a woman’s right to choose, acknowledging the critical importance of accessible health care and the protection of reproductive freedoms.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:24.268Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672fd7f2664ff5ccd0d0b68e_Web_Photo_Editor%20(6).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/biden-harris-rally-reproductive-rights-","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/biden-harris-rally-reproductive-rights-"},{"id":"sn2ib2","slug":"biden-campaign-puts-abortion-rights-front-and-center-as-it-plans-to-tie-trump-to-abortion-bans-cnn-politics","title":"Biden campaign puts abortion rights front and center as it plans to tie Trump to abortion bans | CNN Politics","excerpt":"The Biden campaign will hit the airwaves in battleground states with its first abortion-focused ad of the year, featuring stark, emotional testimony from a woman personally affected by a state abortion ban who lays the blame directly on former President Donal…","content":"Name:\nBiden Campaign Launches First Abortion-Focused Ad in Key States\n\nSlug:\nbiden-campaign-launches-first-abortion-focused-ad\n\nMeta Title: \nBiden's First Abortion Ad Targets Key States\n\nMeta Description: \nThe Biden campaign's new ad highlights personal stories on reproductive rights, emphasizing the importance of abortion access in battleground states.\n\nMeta Title:\nBiden's First Abortion Ad Targets Key States\n\nMeta Descripti\n\nMeta Description:\nThe Biden campaign's new ad highlights personal stories on reproductive rights, emphasizing the importance of abortion access in battleground states.\n\nSummary:\nThe Biden campaign has released its first abortion-focused advertisement in key battleground states, showcasing powerful testimonies from women affected by restrictive abortion laws. This initiative aims to underscore the importance of reproductive rights in the upcoming elections.\n\nContent:\nIn a strategic move to engage voters in critical battleground states, the Biden campaign has unveiled its first abortion-centric advertisement of the year. This advertisement aims to resonate deeply with constituents by featuring emotional and stark testimonies from women whose lives have been significantly impacted by state laws restricting abortion access. The campaign's focus on personal stories underscores a growing narrative surrounding women's reproductive rights, a pivotal issue as the nation heads into the election season.\n\nThe ad begins with a montage of real women sharing their experiences, emphasizing the profound emotional and physical ramifications of restrictive abortion laws. These stories serve not only to humanize the often polarizing debate around abortion but also to highlight the stark realities faced by women who find themselves in dire situations. One woman recounts her struggle with a medical condition that made carrying a pregnancy to term life-threatening. Her story encapsulates the critical need for access to safe and legal abortion services, especially in states where such services have become increasingly limited.\n\nWith reproductive rights at the forefront of many voters' minds, this ad reflects a broader strategy by the Biden campaign to galvanize support among women and allies who believe in the right to choose. The importance of this issue has been magnified in recent years, especially following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which has led to a patchwork of abortion laws across the country. As many states implement stringent restrictions or outright bans, the Biden campaign seeks to draw a clear distinction between their stance on reproductive rights and that of their opponents.\n\nThe advertisement also plays into the larger narrative surrounding women's autonomy and health care. By presenting real-life testimonials, the Biden campaign aims to showcase that reproductive rights are not merely political talking points but real issues that affect the lives and well-being of women. Each story is a reminder of the importance of maintaining access to comprehensive health care, which includes the right to choose an abortion.\n\nIn addition to the emotional weight of the testimonies, the ad strategically targets battleground states where public opinion on abortion may sway the outcome of upcoming elections. States like Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania have become focal points in the national conversation about reproductive rights. By investing in targeted advertisements that resonate with the unique concerns of these communities, the Biden campaign hopes to mobilize voters who prioritize reproductive rights in their decision-making process.\n\nFurthermore, the ad serves as a call to action, encouraging viewers to reflect on the implications of restrictive abortion laws. It emphasizes that the fight for reproductive rights is not just a women's issue; it is a fundamental human rights issue that affects families, communities, and society as a whole. The campaign is leveraging this moment to not only inform but also inspire advocacy and engagement among those who support the right to choose.\n\nLegal developments across the country have made this a particularly urgent time for advocacy groups and political campaigns to step up their efforts. With the landscape of reproductive rights constantly evolving, the Biden campaign's initiative is a reminder of the ongoing need for vigilance and activism. The ad aims to energize supporters while also reaching out to undecided voters who may be swayed by personal stories and the gravity of the situation.\n\nAs we witness the political landscape shift, the Biden campaign's abortion-focused advertisement stands as a powerful testament to the importance of women's reproductive rights. By highlighting personal narratives and the real-life implications of restrictive abortion laws, the campaign hopes to foster a deeper understanding of the stakes involved in the upcoming elections.\n\nIn conclusion, the Biden campaign's first abortion-focused ad is more than just a political strategy; it is a reflection of the lived experiences of women across the nation. It aims to galvanize support for reproductive rights and emphasizes the fundamental necessity of access to safe and legal abortion services. As the election approaches, this ad serves as a crucial reminder of the ongoing fight for women's autonomy and the right to choose, urging voters to consider the implications of their choices at the ballot box.
","category":"choice","author":"Her Choice","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:22.765Z","image":"","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/biden-campaign-puts-abortion-rights-front-and-center-as-it-plans-to-tie-trump-to-abortion-bans-cnn-politics","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/biden-campaign-puts-abortion-rights-front-and-center-as-it-plans-to-tie-trump-to-abortion-bans-cnn-politics"},{"id":"1btmw4","slug":"barnard-columbia-students-take-action-amid-on-campus-abortion-care-delays","title":"Barnard, Columbia Students Take Action Amid On-Campus Abortion Care Delays","excerpt":"With on-campus abortion care still unavailable, Barnard and Columbia students are taking action to help peers access reproductive healthcare. Their grassroots efforts come as abortion access nationwide faces new challenges under restrictive laws and potential federal bans.","content":"Even in areas like New York, where abortion is legal, college students' access to abortion remains dubious more than two years after the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade. Students at Columbia University and Barnard College are responding by volunteering to help their peers obtain reproductive treatment, therefore bridging the void.
From before Roe was reversed, the student-led Reproductive Justice Collective (RJC) has been pushing for Barnard College to offer medication abortion on campus. Two years later, the procedure is still not accessible even though the college revealed plans in 2022 to train doctors and deliver medication abortion by fall 2023.
Though New York is a refuge for abortion rights, this delay leaves students negotiating outside healthcare systems. Emphasizing that institutional degrees of restrictions to abortion access exist even in progressive states, the RJC keeps advocating for change.
Rising national restrictions and mounting concerns about a federal abortion ban under the incoming government give their efforts fresh urgency. RJC members are confident that private colleges like Barnard and Columbia will follow suit since public universities in New York are now legally mandated to enable abortion access.
Barnard and Columbia students ensure their peers get the reproductive healthcare they need by taking up where institutional action lags.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:22.159Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6742a825c11987014d2ddac3_13.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/barnard-columbia-students-take-action-amid-on-campus-abortion-care-delays","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/barnard-columbia-students-take-action-amid-on-campus-abortion-care-delays"},{"id":"wzvnh4","slug":"arrest-of-anti-abortion-activist-highlights-ongoing-debate","title":"Arrest of Anti-Abortion Activist Highlights Ongoing Debate","excerpt":"The recent arrest of an anti-abortion activist in front of the White House has reignited the ongoing debate surrounding women's reproductive rights. This incident not only highlights the tensions between opposing views but also emphasizes the importance of protecting the right to choose.","content":"On July 14, 2005, the political landscape surrounding women's reproductive rights was sharply illuminated by the arrest of an activist from the group Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust in front of the White House. This event brought to the forefront the polarized nature of the abortion debate in the United States, reflecting the deep divisions in public opinion about women's right to choose.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:21.545Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673191305ae9407692036f41_20.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arrest-of-anti-abortion-activist-highlights-ongoing-debate","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arrest-of-anti-abortion-activist-highlights-ongoing-debate"},{"id":"bci8es","slug":"arizonas-abortion-ban-a-step-backward-for-womens-rights","title":"Arizona's Abortion Ban: A Step Backward for Women's Rights","excerpt":"The reinstatement of Arizona's near-total abortion ban has reignited concerns about women's reproductive rights. The 1864 law now punishes providers with felonies, sparking widespread advocacy for choice and health.","content":"In a move that many advocates for women's rights view as a significant setback, the Arizona Supreme Court recently reinstated a near-total abortion ban that revives a long-dormant law from 1864. This law imposes severe penalties on healthcare providers who perform abortions, including felony convictions and potential prison sentences. As a result, this decision has ignited widespread concern over women's reproductive rights and the autonomy they have over their bodies.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:20.931Z","image":"","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizonas-abortion-ban-a-step-backward-for-womens-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizonas-abortion-ban-a-step-backward-for-womens-rights"},{"id":"t2v4ap","slug":"arizona-supreme-court-revives-1864-abortion-ban","title":"Arizona Supreme Court Revives 1864 Abortion Ban","excerpt":"In a surprising decision, the Arizona Supreme Court has reinstated a total abortion ban from 1864, despite existing legislation that appeared to override it. This ruling has significant implications for women's reproductive rights in Arizona, igniting discussions on choice, health, and legal advocacy.","content":"
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:20.304Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730bf2955afbe7080277566_26.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizona-supreme-court-revives-1864-abortion-ban","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizona-supreme-court-revives-1864-abortion-ban"},{"id":"kihpks","slug":"arizona-supreme-court-abortion-ruling-womens-rights","title":"Arizona Supreme Court's Abortion Ruling: A Crucial Moment for Women's Rights","excerpt":"The Arizona Supreme Court has positioned the abortion debate at the forefront of the state’s political landscape, influencing the upcoming presidential election. With implications for women’s reproductive rights, this ruling galvanizes advocacy efforts and personal stories surrounding the right to choose.","content":"On a pivotal Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court made a landmark ruling that thrust the issue of abortion into the spotlight, underscoring its significance not only for state residents but also for the national political arena. As the nation approaches the November presidential election, the implications of this decision could reverberate far beyond Arizona's borders, affecting the broader discourse on women's reproductive rights across the United States.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:19.710Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6730a3818b18f8780bc3091f_Web_Photo_Editor%20(33).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizona-supreme-court-abortion-ruling-womens-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizona-supreme-court-abortion-ruling-womens-rights"},{"id":"nh9i9t","slug":"arizona-senate-votes-to-repeal-abortion-ban","title":"Arizona Senate Votes to Repeal 160-Year-Old Abortion Ban","excerpt":"The Arizona Senate has voted to repeal a nearly 160-year-old abortion ban, a pivotal moment for reproductive rights in the state. This decision follows recent legal challenges and reflects a growing support for women's autonomy over their bodies. As the political landscape shifts, this change underscores the ongoing fight for reproductive freedom.","content":"On Wednesday, the Arizona Senate made a landmark decision by voting to repeal a near-total abortion ban that had been in place for 160 years. This legislative action comes in the wake of a recent ruling by the state Supreme Court that revived the archaic law, thrusting the issue of reproductive rights back into the political spotlight. With this repeal, Arizona joins a growing number of states reevaluating their abortion laws in light of evolving public opinion and legal frameworks.
","category":"choice","author":"Her Choice","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:19.106Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67315d06021e5e6240bd1c2d_5.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizona-senate-votes-to-repeal-abortion-ban","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizona-senate-votes-to-repeal-abortion-ban"},{"id":"lx05mf","slug":"arizona-providers-challenge-15-week-abortion-ban-citing-new-constitutional-protections","title":"Arizona Providers Challenge 15-Week Abortion Ban, Citing New Constitutional Protections","excerpt":"Arizona healthcare providers filed a lawsuit to overturn the state’s 15-week abortion ban, arguing it violates the recently enacted constitutional amendment safeguarding Arizonans' fundamental right to abortion care.","content":"Healthcare providers throughout Arizona have initiated a lawsuit aimed at challenging the state's prohibition on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. A lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court claims that the ban infringes upon a recently ratified constitutional amendment safeguarding abortion rights, which was overwhelmingly supported by voters in the previous month.
On November 5, Arizona voters approved Proposition 139, known as the Arizona Abortion Access Act, thereby affirming the right to abortion within the state constitution. The amendment received certification on November 25, reinstating abortion rights and establishing a means to contest restrictive laws.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes collaborated with providers in a stipulation acknowledging the ban's unconstitutionality, resulting in the state pausing enforcement while awaiting the litigation's outcome.
“Restrictive abortion laws have a profound impact on families and compel physicians to deny necessary care,” stated Dr. Paul Isaacson, an obstetrician and plaintiff. “Health decisions ought to be determined in exam rooms, rather than being influenced by political agendas.” I have confidence that the courts will honor the desires of the populace.
Dr. Eric Reuss expressed this sentiment, praising the revival of comprehensive care. “Today, we are able to offer vital care once more. This lawsuit guarantees that the voices of Arizonans are honored and their constitutional rights maintained.
Organizations like Planned Parenthood Arizona and the Center for Reproductive Rights highlighted the amendment's significant influence. “Arizonans expressed their views clearly: abortion is a right,” stated Jill Gibson, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood.
This lawsuit represents a crucial step in ensuring reproductive autonomy for residents of Arizona, with potential consequences for abortion access across the country.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:18.499Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67580f4aed278d8b0a8d2572_3.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizona-providers-challenge-15-week-abortion-ban-citing-new-constitutional-protections","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizona-providers-challenge-15-week-abortion-ban-citing-new-constitutional-protections"},{"id":"f4te1d","slug":"arizona-moves-to-repeal-1864-abortion-ban","title":"Arizona Moves to Repeal 1864 Abortion Ban","excerpt":"In a significant legislative move, Arizona Democrats, supported by two Republican senators, have voted to repeal an 1864 law that prohibited abortion. This decision marks a pivotal moment in the ongoing fight for women's reproductive rights in the state, highlighting the importance of access to safe and legal abortion services.","content":"In a landmark decision reflecting changing attitudes towards women's reproductive rights, the Arizona state Senate has successfully voted to repeal an archaic law from 1864 that banned abortion. This legislative action, which saw bipartisan support with two Republican senators joining their Democratic counterparts, underscores a growing consensus on the need to protect women's rights to make decisions about their own bodies.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:17.788Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731562b6275fc755564a4b9_Web_Photo_Editor%20(41).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizona-moves-to-repeal-1864-abortion-ban","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizona-moves-to-repeal-1864-abortion-ban"},{"id":"3oev2u","slug":"arizona-lawmaker-advocates-for-abortion-rights","title":"Arizona Lawmaker Advocates for Abortion Rights in Senate Speech","excerpt":"In a compelling speech on the Arizona Senate floor, State Senator Eva Burch shared her personal experience with abortion, highlighting the importance of women's reproductive rights and the freedom to choose. Her courageous stance underscores the ongoing fight for legal and accessible abortion services.","content":"On a pivotal afternoon in the Arizona Senate, State Senator Eva Burch (D) made headlines with a heartfelt and courageous speech where she disclosed her decision to have an abortion. This moment not only resonated with many in the chamber but also with countless individuals across the state and the nation who are grappling with the implications of reproductive rights and access to abortion.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:17.079Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67303be03e741946552a9614_19.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizona-lawmaker-advocates-for-abortion-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizona-lawmaker-advocates-for-abortion-rights"},{"id":"hlgo8m","slug":"arizona-doctors-file-lawsuit-to-overturn-abortion-restrictions-after-constitutional-amendment","title":"Arizona Doctors File Lawsuit to Overturn Abortion Restrictions After Constitutional Amendment","excerpt":"Following Arizona’s historic vote to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, a group of doctors is challenging several restrictive laws that continue to limit access to care. The lawsuit seeks to eliminate delays, misinformation mandates, and bans on telemedicine for abortion services.","content":"An alliance of physicians in Arizona initiated a lawsuit on Tuesday with the goal of overturning various abortion restrictions still in effect. They contend that these laws are not medically justified and infringe upon the recently established constitutional protections for abortion access in the state.
The lawsuit comes in the wake of Proposition 139, referred to as the Arizona Abortion Access Act, which received strong voter support in November 2024 to establish the right to abortion within the state constitution. Following its enactment, courts have intervened to halt Arizona’s 15-week abortion ban, and now physicians are advocating for the removal of additional obstacles to care.
Included in the restrictions contested in the lawsuit include that patients must make two distinct visits to a clinic: the first for state-mandated counseling and the second, at least 24 hours later, to receive care.
Medical professionals indicate that this leads to delays in care that are not medically necessary, frequently prolonging treatment by days or even weeks.
Arizona law currently prohibits abortion if a provider suspects the reason is related to a fetal condition, effectively compelling doctors to turn patients away.
Prohibition on telemedicine and mail-order abortion medications: Although it is a safe and effective choice, Arizona stands as one of only four states that ban telemedicine for medication abortion and the mailing of abortion pills — a policy that healthcare professionals contend endangers rural and low-income patients, especially.
“These restrictions are intended to complicate abortion care, making it more challenging, time-consuming, costly, and distressing,” stated Dr. Paul Isaacson, an OB-GYN and co-owner of Family Planning Associates Medical Group. “The state of Arizona has compelled me to compromise my responsibility as a doctor to deliver accurate information and the safest, most compassionate care to my patients.”
Dr. William Richardson, OB-GYN and owner of Choices Women’s Center, stated that the state’s telemedicine ban “prioritizes politics over patient health.” He highlighted the importance of remote access for marginalized and rural communities.
“There is no medical justification preventing me from providing abortion care through telemedicine,” Richardson stated. “Arizonans deserve autonomy, dignity, and evidence-based care, which is why I joined this lawsuit to turn that vision into reality — not only for my patients but for all.”
The doctors contend that these persistent laws lack scientific backing and are in direct opposition to Arizona’s newly established constitutional protections. If the lawsuit is successful, it could significantly enhance access to abortion care throughout the state, particularly for individuals in underserved communities.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:16.369Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6837e798f9343a8ffd08df44_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-05-29T125016.583.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizona-doctors-file-lawsuit-to-overturn-abortion-restrictions-after-constitutional-amendment","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/arizona-doctors-file-lawsuit-to-overturn-abortion-restrictions-after-constitutional-amendment"},{"id":"si5zoj","slug":"americans-stockpile-abortion-pills-ahead-of-trumps-second-term","title":"Americans Stockpile Abortion Pills Ahead of Trump’s Second Term","excerpt":"Following Donald Trump’s reelection, women and healthcare providers across the U.S. are stockpiling abortion pills and emergency contraception amid fears of stricter reproductive healthcare laws.","content":"Following Donald Trump’s reelection worries about possible limitations on reproductive healthcare have led to a significant increase in the demand for abortion pills and emergency contraception. An essential supplier of abortion medication noted a 17-fold surge in requests within just 24 hours following Election Day.
The significant increase indicates escalating concerns among women and healthcare providers regarding the future of abortion access. During Trump's first term, there were notable initiatives aimed at restricting abortion rights, highlighted by Supreme Court appointments that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Concerns arise that a second term might lead to more stringent federal policies or encourage states to implement stricter restrictions.
Elissa Nadworny, an NPR correspondent focused on reproductive rights, highlighted the sense of urgency experienced by many. “Individuals are actively working to secure access ahead of any forthcoming restrictions,” she stated. “This involves not only individuals but also clinics and providers working to ensure they can meet future demand.”
Health experts caution that accumulating abortion pills, although reasonable, may result in shortages or misuse. Advocates are calling on lawmakers to make reproductive healthcare access a priority and ensure the availability of emergency contraception is protected.
The increasing demand highlights the persistent national divide regarding abortion rights as numerous women brace themselves for what they perceive as an uncertain future under Trump’s leadership. The current trend of stockpiling underscores the increasing concerns regarding reproductive autonomy in the U.S.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:15.599Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67316037e7b38b5ccbbf67aa_8.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/americans-stockpile-abortion-pills-ahead-of-trumps-second-term","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/americans-stockpile-abortion-pills-ahead-of-trumps-second-term"},{"id":"llf1h8","slug":"all-louisiana-planned-parenthood-facilities-to-shut-down-by-september-30","title":"All Louisiana Planned Parenthood Facilities to Shut Down by September 30","excerpt":"Planned Parenthood announced it will close its remaining Louisiana clinics in New Orleans and Baton Rouge by September 30, ending decades of low-cost sexual and reproductive health services in the state amid increasing political and financial pressure.","content":"Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast has announced that it will close its last two clinics in Louisiana, located in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The organization will discontinue all services in the state by September 30, as shared on Monday.
The recent closures signify a significant shift, marking the end of over forty years of support for countless residents in Louisiana. Many individuals depended on Planned Parenthood for essential services related to sexual and reproductive health, such as STI testing, cancer screenings, birth control, and counseling.
\"This is not a choice we sought; it is one we were compelled to confront due to the ongoing political conflict,\" stated Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast CEO Melaney Linton. \"Those lawmakers bear sole responsibility for the closure of each health center, the patients left without care, the undetected cancers, and the untreated infections.\"
Linton pointed to the closures as a result of what she termed \"relentless political assaults,\" highlighting state and federal initiatives aimed at reducing Medicaid reimbursements and ultimately defunding the organization. \"Every health center closure, every patient who goes without care, every undetected cancer and untreated infection is on those lawmakers' hands,\" Linton added.
In 2023, Planned Parenthood’s clinics in Louisiana reported delivering care during over 10,600 patient visits, serving nearly 18,000 individuals, according to a spokesperson. Among the highlights were almost 30,000 STI tests conducted, over 1,700 screenings aimed at cancer prevention, and more than 14,000 visits related to birth control, which included approximately 4,200 vasectomies performed. During that period, the organization uncovered 76 precancerous conditions.
Despite being a frequent target in political discussions, Planned Parenthood's primary focus in Louisiana has been on providing preventive and primary care services. The recent closures have created significant barriers for countless low-income and uninsured patients throughout the state.
This development follows similar reductions in nearby Texas, where the Gulf Coast branch recently closed two clinics in Houston and transferred the operations of four additional clinics to Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas.
“We are not the first Planned Parenthood affiliate to confront this situation,” Linton stated, “and we certainly will not be the last.”
Across the country, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America has issued a stark warning that political and legal challenges—particularly the implications of former President Donald Trump’s suggested cuts to Medicaid funding—may lead to as many as 60% of its affiliates needing to reduce their operations or shut down completely.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:14.757Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68945af50ba3b7e3c559ed3f_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-08-07T155016.831.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/all-louisiana-planned-parenthood-facilities-to-shut-down-by-september-30","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/all-louisiana-planned-parenthood-facilities-to-shut-down-by-september-30"},{"id":"tldfsz","slug":"alabama-supreme-court-ruling-on-frozen-embryos","title":"Alabama Supreme Court Ruling on Frozen Embryos: Implications for Rights and Treatments","excerpt":"In a groundbreaking ruling, the Alabama Supreme Court classified frozen embryos as children, igniting significant concerns among pro-choice advocates regarding the potential repercussions on fertility treatments and women's reproductive rights. This decision could alter the landscape of reproductive health, affecting not only the rights of individuals seeking fertility assistance but also the broader discourse on women's autonomy over their bodies.","content":"On a pivotal Friday, the Alabama Supreme Court delivered a controversial ruling that has sent shockwaves through the reproductive rights community. The court declared that frozen embryos should be legally recognized as children, a decision that has raised alarms among pro-choice advocates regarding its implications for fertility treatments, women's health, and individual autonomy.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:14.102Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/672ffd47996ace842c08ad44_10.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/alabama-supreme-court-ruling-on-frozen-embryos","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/alabama-supreme-court-ruling-on-frozen-embryos"},{"id":"2pwdcf","slug":"advancing-womens-rights-a-global-imperative-for-progress","title":"Advancing Women’s Rights: A Global Imperative for Progress","excerpt":"Despite progress, women’s rights remain an unfulfilled promise globally. Bridging this gap is vital for equality, justice, and sustainable development.","content":"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees dignity, freedom, and justice for everyone; however, for countless women and girls around the globe, this ideal continues to be out of reach. Currently, over 600 million women reside in conflict zones, confronting serious human rights abuses, such as sexual violence. One in three women faces intimate partner violence, and the timeline for addressing systemic gender inequality continues to appear alarmingly far off.
At the present pace, eliminating extreme poverty for women and girls may require 137 years. Achieving gender parity is still almost four decades off, and the issue of child marriage could continue for an additional 68 years. As we approach 2030, the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals is lagging, posing risks to global stability and fairness.
Promoting women's rights is not only a matter of ethics; it is also essential for strategic progress. Research indicates that economies experience more sustainable growth when women have equal access to opportunities, peace processes tend to be more lasting when women are involved, and communities thrive when gender-based violence is eliminated. Empowering women is essential for tackling issues ranging from climate change to economic disparity.
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, created almost 30 years ago, outlined a groundbreaking agenda for achieving gender equality. However, there is still a significant amount of work required to implement its framework effectively. This milestone necessitates a revitalized global commitment to uphold laws that safeguard women’s rights and guarantee the effective implementation of these laws.
Women at the forefront of grassroots movements for change exhibit extraordinary bravery, yet they require enhanced support and acknowledgment. The increasing drive for gender equality—from initiatives advocating for equal pay to movements opposing violence—needs to lead to real change.
As we near the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration, it is essential for nations to dedicate themselves to a future in which every woman and girl, in all their diversity, can fully realize their rights. It is essential for equality, justice, and sustainable progress. It is time to take action.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:12.343Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673133323e74194655da049f_43.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/advancing-womens-rights-a-global-imperative-for-progress","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/advancing-womens-rights-a-global-imperative-for-progress"},{"id":"hfg9s1","slug":"advancing-sexual-and-reproductive-health-rights-across-continents","title":"Advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights Across Continents","excerpt":"The Center for Reproductive Rights global advocacy for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) spans UN forums, African courts, and U.S. state legislatures, driving progress for maternal care, abortion rights, and youth empowerment.","content":"The Center for Reproductive Rights persistently engages in essential efforts to safeguard and advance global sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) through significant interactions at the United Nations and advocacy initiatives across the globe.
At this year's UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, the Center engaged with global policymakers to highlight the importance of incorporating SRHR into international commitments. During the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), leaders from the Center participated in discussions focused on promoting gender equality and advocating for the rights of women and girls.
Highlights of Regional Advocacy:
Kenya: In a significant ruling, the Court of Appeal affirmed the right to dignified maternal care, siding with Josephine Majani, who faced mistreatment and neglect during her childbirth experience.
The UN Human Rights Committee has suggested extensive reforms in India to enhance access to safe abortion, eradicate forced sterilizations, and broaden reproductive health education.
Turkmenistan: After advocacy efforts, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women called on the country to reform its restrictive abortion laws.
In East Africa, the Center invited 15-year-old youth advocate Brian Kumakech to speak to lawmakers, urging the inclusion of boys in SRHR dialogues and advocating for better access to healthcare in rural areas.
The Center plays a crucial role in advocating for abortion rights within the United States, actively contesting restrictive bans in state courts and upholding reproductive freedoms.
The Center persistently pursues its mission to guarantee reproductive rights and healthcare for everyone by utilizing international platforms and legal frameworks.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:11.546Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67743e368d04789b3e85eeae_Web_Photo_Editor%20(69).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/advancing-sexual-and-reproductive-health-rights-across-continents","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/advancing-sexual-and-reproductive-health-rights-across-continents"},{"id":"x090f1","slug":"activists-stand-strong-for-reproductive-rights-outside-supreme-court","title":"Activists Stand Strong for Reproductive Rights Outside Supreme Court","excerpt":"Pro-abortion activists gathered outside the U.S. Supreme Court to advocate for reproductive rights and emergency abortion care. This rally coincided with legal arguments regarding an Idaho abortion law, highlighting ongoing struggles for women's freedom of choice and health.","content":"On a pivotal day in the fight for reproductive rights, pro-abortion activists gathered outside the U.S. Supreme Court to make their voices heard. The occasion was marked by passionate speeches and a strong display of solidarity as advocates called for the protection of women's rights to choose and access safe abortion services. This rally was particularly significant as the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding a case that questions whether an Idaho law prohibiting abortions after six weeks infringes on the broader rights established under federal law.
","category":"choice","author":"Benjamin ClarkPublisher","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:10.911Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67313c7b3260081628bb1009_Web_Photo_Editor%20(40).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/activists-stand-strong-for-reproductive-rights-outside-supreme-court","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/activists-stand-strong-for-reproductive-rights-outside-supreme-court"},{"id":"alhwq3","slug":"activists-mobilize-for-abortion-rights-in-south-dakota","title":"Activists Mobilize for Abortion Rights in South Dakota","excerpt":"In South Dakota, activists are rallying to gather signatures for a ballot measure aimed at repealing a total abortion ban. This movement highlights the ongoing struggle for women's reproductive rights and the importance of local advocacy.","content":"In a significant grassroots effort, activists in South Dakota are mobilizing to repeal a total abortion ban that has sparked widespread debate and concern over women's reproductive rights. The initiative is led by a coalition known as Dakotans for Health, which aims to place a ballot measure before voters, offering a chance to restore access to safe and legal abortion services in the state.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:10.116Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67300d231533c41ff2dcd0d7_12.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/activists-mobilize-for-abortion-rights-in-south-dakota","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/activists-mobilize-for-abortion-rights-in-south-dakota"},{"id":"gugyr8","slug":"about-50-planned-parenthood-clinics-close-nationwide-amid-trump-era-funding-cuts","title":"About 50 Planned Parenthood clinics close nationwide amid Trump-era funding cuts","excerpt":"Roughly 50 Planned Parenthood clinics have closed nationwide this year after the Trump administration halted key federal reimbursements, according to advocates. The cuts have strained affiliates across the country, prompting states such as Connecticut to step in with temporary funding while legal challenges continue.","content":"This year, approximately 50 Planned Parenthood clinics have closed their doors across the United States, a trend that advocates attribute primarily to federal funding cuts implemented by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans.
States that still permit abortion and have seen Medicaid growth have strongly felt the effects. Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, operating clinics in Connecticut and Rhode Island, has encountered months of uncertainty following the Trump administration’s tax and spending bill, which suspended federal funding, including Medicaid reimbursements for preventive care.
The federal funding supported services including contraception, cancer screenings, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. The reduction in reimbursements has created challenges for affiliates that depend significantly on Medicaid patients.
Amanda Skinner, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, referred to the provision as a “backdoor abortion ban” in states where abortion remains legal.
Skinner expressed concern that the loss of funding could lead to the closure of clinics or a reduction in services. Although patient demand has stayed consistent, uncertainty is beginning to impact access.
“Simultaneously, the feedback we receive from our patients during their calls and outreach is filled with fear and concern that we may have already closed and that perhaps we will not be able to accommodate them,” Skinner stated.
The organization’s 2024 report indicates that 43% of PPSNE patients were enrolled in Medicaid or Medicare. According to Skinner, since the implementation of the federal law, the unpaid reimbursements for preventive care in Connecticut and Rhode Island have reached approximately $1 million each month.
Planned Parenthood of Southern New England has depended on financial reserves to maintain operations; however, Skinner indicated that this strategy is not viable in the long term.
“For most of our patients, we are their sole health care provider,” Skinner stated. \"We have dedicated ourselves for many years to ensure that no one faces financial hardship.\"
On Thursday, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced that the state would allocate $8.5 million from its emergency relief fund to help offset lost Medicaid reimbursements until early July 2026, providing some much-needed relief. The proposal allots $1.9 million to address the frozen Title X family planning funds issue.
State lawmakers approved a $500 million emergency pool last November, specifically for addressing federal program cuts, from which the funding comes.
The decision faced criticism from opponents. Peter Wolfgang, president of Family Institute of Connecticut Action, stated that the state ought not to support Planned Parenthood due to its provision of abortions.
“It is an outrage that this procedure is occurring and that the public, along with its representatives, had no input in the matter,” Wolfgang stated.
Connecticut law has safeguarded abortion rights for decades. Nevertheless, Skinner noted that the post-Roe landscape has instilled a sense of fear in many patients.
“There is a concern that the rights we possess could be diminished, and even if they remain intact, they might not be genuinely accessible to everyone,” she stated.
A lawsuit initiated in late July by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, along with attorneys general from 22 additional states, remains unresolved. A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction that halts the enforcement of the defunding provision, while the Trump administration has filed an appeal.
According to the organization, other states such as California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Washington have also dedicated state funding to assist Planned Parenthood in compensating for lost Medicaid reimbursements.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:09.384Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/694e92e116cf704ccba38587_Web_Photo_Editor%20(4).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/about-50-planned-parenthood-clinics-close-nationwide-amid-trump-era-funding-cuts","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/about-50-planned-parenthood-clinics-close-nationwide-amid-trump-era-funding-cuts"},{"id":"he3z0w","slug":"abortions-rose-slightly-in-2024-but-interstate-travel-declined-guttmacher-says","title":"Abortions Rose Slightly in 2024, But Interstate Travel Declined, Guttmacher Says","excerpt":"A Guttmacher Institute report released Tuesday found that while the overall number of legal abortions in the U.S. rose slightly in 2024, fewer people crossed state lines to receive the procedure, highlighting changing patterns in abortion access two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned.","content":"According to a new report released on April 15 by the Guttmacher Institute, the number of individuals traveling across state lines for abortions decreased by 9% in 2024, despite a slight increase in the total number of legal abortions in the U.S.
The reproductive rights research group estimates that in 2024, there were 1.04 million clinician-provided abortions across the nation, reflecting an increase of less than 1% from 2023. Nonetheless, the count of out-of-state patients pursuing abortions decreased to approximately 155,000, down from nearly 170,000 the year before.
The results stem from a monthly survey of abortion providers and provide a glimpse into the evolving national landscape nearly two years following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which removed federal protections for abortion access.
Despite twelve states maintaining near-total abortion bans with few exceptions and four others prohibiting the procedure around six weeks of pregnancy, the overall number of abortions has increased in the post-Roe era. This rise can be attributed to enhanced clinic capacity and a greater reliance on telehealth and medication abortion.
Guttmacher's data does not account for self-managed abortions, which are increasingly prevalent due to telehealth services and international pharmacies. A distinct study revealed that telehealth abortions in restricted states now represent approximately 10% of abortions in the U.S.
Significant reductions in out-of-state travel were observed in Florida following the implementation of a six-week ban in 2024. During the initial six months of 2023, approximately 1 in 8 abortions performed in Florida were for patients from other states. By the end of 2024, that figure had decreased to 1 in 50. In contrast, nearby states such as Virginia and New York experienced a rise in the number of patients seeking care.
Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a data scientist at Guttmacher, observed that obstacles persist despite minor increases in figures. “It is understood that certain individuals are utilizing telehealth services for abortion,” he stated, “and it is recognized that this is not a viable option for everyone.”
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:08.370Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67fe8caad8546f59275aed27_Web_Photo_Editor%20-%202025-04-16T004310.609.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortions-rose-slightly-in-2024-but-interstate-travel-declined-guttmacher-says","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortions-rose-slightly-in-2024-but-interstate-travel-declined-guttmacher-says"},{"id":"8iudgo","slug":"abortion-rights-on-the-ballot-role-of-vice-president-harris","title":"Abortion Rights on the Ballot: The Role of Vice President Harris","excerpt":"As Vice President Kamala Harris positions herself as a key advocate for abortion rights, her potential candidacy may significantly influence the Democratic ticket. This article explores her role, the importance of reproductive rights, and the implications for voters.","content":"In the current political landscape, the issue of abortion rights has become a defining topic as we approach the next electoral cycle. At the forefront of this movement is Vice President Kamala Harris, who has consistently emerged as a formidable advocate for women's reproductive rights. With her potential elevation to the top of the Democratic ticket, party leaders are optimistic about the galvanizing effect her candidacy could have on voters, particularly women who are concerned about their rights to make choices regarding their own bodies.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:06.642Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731a7c0430d1d9519a8ec79_30.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-rights-on-the-ballot-role-of-vice-president-harris","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-rights-on-the-ballot-role-of-vice-president-harris"},{"id":"psp47f","slug":"abortion-rights-dominate-pennsylvania-supreme-court-retention-campaigns","title":"Abortion Rights Dominate Pennsylvania Supreme Court Retention Campaigns","excerpt":"Abortion access has become the defining issue in Pennsylvania’s 2025 Supreme Court retention elections, as pro-abortion rights groups spend millions to keep three Democratic justices on the bench and maintain the court’s current majority.","content":"Advocates for abortion rights are making significant financial commitments in the retention elections for Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court, channeling millions into efforts to ensure that three Democratic justices remain in their positions as legal disputes surrounding reproductive health care continue.
This November will see retention votes for the trio of justices—Kevin Dougherty, Christine Donohue, and David Wecht—all elected in 2015. Their reapproval would maintain the Democrats’ 5-2 majority on the state’s highest court, which has made significant rulings on critical matters like redistricting, gun laws, and abortion rights.
Organizations such as Planned Parenthood Votes, Defend Our Courts, People Power Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvanians for Judicial Fairness have launched comprehensive advertising and mailing campaigns to highlight the judiciary's crucial role in safeguarding reproductive rights. In a concerted effort, they have invested millions to encourage voters to maintain the court's independence and protect what they characterize as the final barrier for abortion access in Pennsylvania.
Planned Parenthood Votes announced its intention to invest a significant amount in mailers alerting the public that “anti-abortion billionaires are targeting our rights.” In an important move, a Philadelphia-based political group dedicated to judicial races has invested nearly $1 million in digital advertising and canvassing efforts. This includes a multitude of social media advertisements emphasizing the retention vote as a crucial battle to protect reproductive health care.
A new super PAC, Pennsylvanians for Judicial Fairness, has disclosed expenditures exceeding $1.5 million as of mid-September, with financial support from contributors including the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association and the national Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. The television advertisements and mail campaigns depict the election as a crucial decision point on abortion rights, cautioning that adversaries seek to appoint justices “who will prohibit abortion.”
The increase in expenditure coincides with ongoing legal inquiries regarding reproductive care as they progress through the courts in Pennsylvania. Despite the legality of abortion in the state until 23 weeks of pregnancy, recent indications from the Supreme Court suggest a possible interpretation of abortion restrictions as potential discrimination based on sex under the state’s Equal Rights Amendment. A ruling was issued regarding a case that questioned Pennsylvania's prohibition on utilizing Medicaid funds for abortion services, with the court directing the matter back to a lower court for additional examination.
Supporters argue that the decision highlighted the influence state courts can have on reproductive policy, particularly in times of legislative stalemate. “We understand that the court may serve as the final safeguard,” stated Signe Espinoza, executive director of Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates. She observed that the electorate is progressively recognizing state courts as pivotal in shaping access to abortion, contraception, and gender-affirming care.
Groups associated with the Republican Party, such as the Republican State Leadership Committee and various PACs connected to some of Pennsylvania's richest contributors, are also investing in efforts to remove the justices from their positions. With the Democratic majority and abortion rights at the forefront, abortion continues to be the pivotal issue shaping the critical retention races.
According to state law, Supreme Court justices undergo retention votes every decade. Although the majority typically receive approval, this year's campaigns represent one of the most costly judicial retention periods in Pennsylvania's recent history.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:06.022Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/68f8f68a197296ea5c7f3d3a_Web_Photo_Editor%20(95).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-rights-dominate-pennsylvania-supreme-court-retention-campaigns","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-rights-dominate-pennsylvania-supreme-court-retention-campaigns"},{"id":"e9qeuq","slug":"abortion-rights-advocates-strategize-in-austin-amid-texas-strict-laws","title":"Abortion Rights Advocates Strategize in Austin Amid Texas’ Strict Laws","excerpt":"As Texas enforces some of the nation’s strictest abortion laws, advocates and lawmakers met in Austin to amplify personal stories of pregnancy complications. The summit, part of the Abortion in America initiative, seeks to shift public opinion and challenge restrictive policies.","content":"This weekend, abortion rights advocates and lawmakers gathered in Austin to discuss strategies for highlighting personal narratives surrounding pregnancy complications in a post-Roe America. The event, which is part of the Abortion in America initiative established by the late Planned Parenthood leader Cecile Richards, selected Texas as its venue because of the state's longstanding history of stringent abortion laws.
As the GOP-controlled legislature prepares to implement additional restrictions on abortion medications, organizers view personal narratives as an essential strategy for influencing public opinion. “Texas stands at the forefront of the abortion rights discussion,” stated co-creator Lauren Peterson, underscoring the significance of showcasing the tangible effects of abortion restrictions.
Over 200 attendees, among them Amanda Zurawski, a plaintiff in a legal challenge to Texas' abortion laws, convened at the summit. Zurawski, who faced the denial of an abortion despite serious pregnancy complications, is among many recounting their experiences. The lineup featured former Senator Wendy Davis, Arizona state Senator Eva Burch, and writer Jessica Valenti.
The event was held privately because of security concerns, highlighting the seriousness of the ongoing abortion debate. In the meantime, advocates opposing abortion persist in their endeavors, underscored by recent legal successes, including a Texas judge imposing a fine on a New York doctor for dispatching abortion pills to a patient in Texas. Attorney General Ken Paxton has committed to upholding the state’s stringent abortion laws, paving the way for additional legal confrontations that may escalate to the Supreme Court.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:05.377Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67bc771c8f430d57b09dcbe0_Web_Photo_Editor%20(46).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-rights-advocates-strategize-in-austin-amid-texas-strict-laws","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-rights-advocates-strategize-in-austin-amid-texas-strict-laws"},{"id":"8c1cmk","slug":"abortion-our-bodies-their-lies-a-call-to-action","title":"Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies - A Call to Action","excerpt":"Jessica Valenti's latest book, \"Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies,\" sheds light on the ongoing battle for reproductive rights. Through personal narratives and legal insights, Valenti urges a collective response to the challenges women face regarding their autonomy and choices.","content":"In her compelling new book, \"Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies,\" feminist writer Jessica Valenti takes a bold stand in the ongoing discourse surrounding women's reproductive rights. Set against the backdrop of a society grappling with the complexities of abortion, Valenti’s work is both a personal manifesto and a rallying cry for women everywhere to reclaim their autonomy and right to choose.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:04.757Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731e7af7eaf3ae9d10f2fae_56.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-our-bodies-their-lies-a-call-to-action","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-our-bodies-their-lies-a-call-to-action"},{"id":"yu69uj","slug":"abortion-in-america-data-shows-increase-despite-state-bans","title":"Abortion in America: Data Shows Increase Despite State Bans","excerpt":"Following the 2022 Dobbs decision, abortion rates have paradoxically increased nationwide, despite total bans in 13 states. New data reveals how interstate travel, telehealth, and policy shifts shape access to care.","content":"The condition of abortion access in the United States has undergone significant changes following the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which reversed the federal right to abortion. Since then, 13 states have enacted total bans, while six states have restricted access to early pregnancy services. Despite these limitations, recent data indicates that over one million abortions took place in 2023, demonstrating a rise in procedures when compared to figures from before the Dobbs decision.
The Guttmacher Institute and the Society for Family Planning report that the national abortion rate increased to 98,000 per month in early 2024, primarily driven by a rise in interstate travel and telehealth services. States that offer abortion protections, including California, New York, and Illinois, have experienced an increase in out-of-state patients seeking care. Medication abortion, representing 63% of all procedures, has been crucial in ensuring access, primarily via online prescriptions.
Nonetheless, the national rise conceals significant drops in states where bans are in place. In Texas, Alabama, and Missouri, where abortion is prohibited in almost all situations, the number of procedures has decreased to nearly none. Patients in these states now encounter considerable logistical and financial obstacles, frequently journeying hundreds of miles to obtain care.
The prevailing medical consensus indicates that abortion is among the safest medical procedures, with complications arising significantly less often than during childbirth. However, state restrictions have complicated access, as waiting periods, parental consent laws, and gestational limits introduce further challenges. Research shows that these policies have a disproportionate effect on marginalized communities, worsening the already significant racial and economic disparities in healthcare.
The ongoing legal and political disputes surrounding abortion have left states sharply divided on the matter. Some have broadened safeguards, whereas others have advocated for more stringent prohibitions. The future of abortion access in the U.S. is marked by ongoing legal challenges and upcoming elections, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty. However, data indicates that the demand for the procedure persists, even in the face of increasing restrictions.
","category":"choice","author":"Michael ThompsonSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:04.134Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67d79cf1a453791c26f4565d_Web_Photo_Editor%20(35).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-in-america-data-shows-increase-despite-state-bans","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-in-america-data-shows-increase-despite-state-bans"},{"id":"9ojo3c","slug":"abortion-divisive-issue-republican-national-convention","title":"Abortion: A Divisive Issue at the Republican National Convention","excerpt":"The Republican National Convention showcased a cautious approach to the abortion debate, reflecting the sensitivity of the issue within the party. As the 2024 election approaches, the implications for women's reproductive rights remain significant.","content":"The Republican National Convention this year shone a spotlight on one of the most polarizing issues facing the nation as the 2024 election approaches: abortion. While abortion rights have been a longstanding point of contention, it was notable that this year, discussions around the topic were somewhat muted, hinting at the complex dynamics within the Republican Party.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:03.501Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731a300a8fd79133c60610a_26.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-divisive-issue-republican-national-convention","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-divisive-issue-republican-national-convention"},{"id":"i3qr6c","slug":"abortion-clinic-escorts-guardians-of-choice-and-dignity","title":"Abortion Clinic Escorts: Guardians of Choice and Dignity","excerpt":"Abortion clinic escorts play a critical role in safeguarding women's reproductive rights by providing support and guidance to those seeking care. This article explores their contributions, the challenges they face, and the importance of maintaining access to safe abortion services.","content":"In the heart of Phoenix, Arizona, a dedicated group of individuals stands ready at Camelback Family Planning, an abortion clinic that provides essential reproductive health services. These compassionate volunteers, known as clinic escorts, greet and assist women arriving for appointments, offering a buffer between them and the often hostile environment that can surround abortion clinics. In a world where women's reproductive rights are increasingly under threat, the presence of these escorts is more crucial than ever.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:02.654Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731fa190ebf7cf7dfcae3fd_volunteers_ppncs.jpg__1200x1200_q65_subject_location-750%2C504_subsampling-2.jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-clinic-escorts-guardians-of-choice-and-dignity","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-clinic-escorts-guardians-of-choice-and-dignity"},{"id":"89h34x","slug":"abortion-ballot-measures-face-opposition-tied-to-parental-rights-and-anti-trans-rhetoric","title":"Abortion Ballot Measures Face Opposition Tied to Parental Rights and Anti-Trans Rhetoric","excerpt":"As nine states voted on constitutional amendments to secure abortion rights, opponents are employing arguments centered on parental rights and anti-transgender rhetoric. This strategy aims to sway conservative voters, despite legal experts clarifying that the measures do not impact gender-affirming care laws or parental consent regulations.","content":"People in nine states are voting on whether to add abortion rights to their state constitutions. People who are against these measures are using parenting rights and anti-trans stories to try to get people not to support them. Even though the ballot measures don't name gender-affirming care, anti-abortion groups are trying to get conservative voters to help them by using similar arguments to those used in many Republican campaigns. Even though lawyers say that changing the rules about abortion or gender-affirming care would need to be done by the courts, billboards, pamphlets, and church materials still warn about threats to minors and stress parental rights.
Matt Harris, a political science professor at Park University, said that reports that these amendments are linked to surgeries that change a child's gender are not accurate. Still, the plan is based on a more extensive cultural debate that people who are against it hope will hit home, especially in conservative Christian communities.
A doctor in Nebraska named Dr. Alex Dworak said that these kinds of actions are part of a more significant trend of making trans children look bad to support cases against abortion. This method is similar to the ones that were used in the past in places like Ohio and Michigan, where voters still chose to protect abortion rights.
Even though these things are said, new laws and amendments in states like Missouri and Nebraska have not yet changed parental permission laws or care that affirms a person's gender. Expert in the law David Cohen points out that these are old efforts to challenge reproductive rights.
","category":"choice","author":"Daniel GarciaAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:02.011Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673450293581ddb7200e0ec6_1.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-ballot-measures-face-opposition-tied-to-parental-rights-and-anti-trans-rhetoric","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-ballot-measures-face-opposition-tied-to-parental-rights-and-anti-trans-rhetoric"},{"id":"ozie59","slug":"abortion-access-faces-new-threats-under-trump-administration","title":"Abortion Access Faces New Threats Under Trump Administration","excerpt":"Abortion providers and funds are bracing for significant challenges as President-elect Donald Trump returns to office. With growing patient demand and tightened budgets, they prepare for potential federal actions that could reshape access nationwide.","content":"As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, abortion providers and support funds are bracing for an uncertain future, raising renewed concerns about reproductive rights. The Trump administration is anticipated to encounter several crucial federal lawsuits that could limit abortion access, especially in relation to medication abortions and emergency care.
Trump, who appointed three Supreme Court justices pivotal in overturning Roe v. Wade, has committed to delegating abortion policy to the states. Activists anticipate federal actions that may include potential restrictions on mifepristone and misoprostol, which are utilized for first-trimester abortions and the management of miscarriages. In 2023, these medications represented 63% of abortions and have faced growing scrutiny from conservative states.
Organizations such as the National Abortion Federation (NAF) are developing contingency plans for clinics to handle medication abortions without mifepristone if needed. “We are entering the most challenging environment for abortion access in half a century,” stated NAF President Brittany Fonteno.
The increasing legal and logistical hurdles have created a significant strain on abortion funds, which assist patients in managing expenses related to procedures, travel, and accommodation. Bree Wallace, the director of the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund in Florida, reported that her organization assisted nearly 2,000 patients in 2024, with expenditures approaching $700,000.
“Wallace explained that the average cost per patient has increased as clinics adjust their prices to remain operational.” The recent six-week abortion ban in Florida has intensified resource challenges, leading numerous patients to pursue care in other states.
Illinois, known for its more progressive abortion policies, has emerged as a vital access point. Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, reported that the organization served 15,000 patients in 2024, a significant rise from 800 in 2019. Jeyifo voiced concerns about sustaining the increasing demand, despite state and local funding support.
The federal legal landscape is also significant. Anti-abortion activists are advocating for more stringent enforcement of the Comstock Act, a law from the 19th century that has the potential to prohibit the mailing of abortion medications. Trump has conveyed ambiguous messages regarding whether his administration would take such actions, resulting in uncertainty for providers.
As the NAF and various organizations gear up to meet the rising demands of patients, Fonteno highlighted the steadfastness of abortion providers. “We are committed to enhancing patient support to guarantee access, regardless of the obstacles that may arise,” she stated.
The changing policies and increasing demand highlight the significant challenges for reproductive health in the coming years.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:01.293Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/678cb4cabe8a1098b112ce43_Web_Photo_Editor%20(56).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-access-faces-new-threats-under-trump-administration","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-access-faces-new-threats-under-trump-administration"},{"id":"agz7bn","slug":"abortion-a-normal-part-of-womens-healthcare","title":"Abortion: A Normal Part of Women’s Healthcare","excerpt":"Abortion is increasingly recognized as a standard part of women's healthcare. This article discusses its normalization, the significance of choice, and the ongoing advocacy for reproductive rights.","content":"
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:37:00.634Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731b1b1fd38463ce5455f15_Web_Photo_Editor%20(48).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-a-normal-part-of-womens-healthcare","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/abortion-a-normal-part-of-womens-healthcare"},{"id":"moucx5","slug":"a-termination-a-memoir-of-reproductive-rights-and-feminism","title":"A Termination: A Memoir of Reproductive Rights and Feminism","excerpt":"In her poignant memoir, \"A Termination,\" Honor Moore delves deep into the personal and political aspects of reproductive rights in America. Through her narrative, she intertwines her journey with broader feminist issues, advocating for the essential right to choose.","content":"Honor Moore's memoir, \"A Termination,\" serves as a compelling exploration of the intricate landscape of reproductive rights in the United States, presenting a deeply personal narrative against the backdrop of the feminist movement. As a writer and feminist, Moore takes readers on an emotional journey, shedding light on the societal and legal challenges surrounding women's right to choose.
","category":"choice","author":"Emily DavisSenior Reporter","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:36:59.982Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731d88109ba08b72cc2f672_Web_Photo_Editor%20(49).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/a-termination-a-memoir-of-reproductive-rights-and-feminism","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/a-termination-a-memoir-of-reproductive-rights-and-feminism"},{"id":"uf0upq","slug":"a-heartfelt-tribute-remembering-halo-on-her-first-birthday","title":"A Heartfelt Tribute: Remembering Halo on Her First Birthday","excerpt":"Samantha Casiano's journey of grief and remembrance for her daughter Halo highlights the profound impact of reproductive choices. As she navigates her first birthday without Halo, the story underscores the critical importance of women's rights and the freedom to choose.","content":"In a poignant gathering at a gravesite, Samantha Casiano stands with her two children, Camila and Louie, as they honor the memory of her late daughter, Halo. This month marks what should have been Halo’s first birthday, a bittersweet occasion for the family. Samantha’s heart is heavy, not only with the weight of loss but also with reflections on the complex realities surrounding reproductive rights and the choices that mothers face.
","category":"choice","author":"Her Choice","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:36:59.377Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67306fbae3bcfa37f96d419e_8.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/a-heartfelt-tribute-remembering-halo-on-her-first-birthday","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/a-heartfelt-tribute-remembering-halo-on-her-first-birthday"},{"id":"b0g2lx","slug":"a-call-for-individual-freedom-womens-right-to-choose","title":"A Call for Individual Freedom: Women’s Right to Choose","excerpt":"This article emphasizes the critical nature of individual freedom in the context of women's reproductive rights, highlighting personal narratives, legal challenges, and the unwavering advocacy for the right to choose abortion. It calls for a collective commitment to safeguarding these freedoms for all women.","content":"In a recent video shared on social media, former First Lady Melania Trump articulated her stance on individual freedom, framing it as a core principle worthy of protection. This statement resonates deeply within the ongoing discourse surrounding women's reproductive rights, particularly the right to choose abortion. The intersection of personal freedoms and reproductive health has become a focal point in both public and legal arenas, igniting passionate debates across the United States and beyond.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:36:58.691Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/673176a3c034f24469084f6e_2.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/a-call-for-individual-freedom-womens-right-to-choose","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/a-call-for-individual-freedom-womens-right-to-choose"},{"id":"nhd8xc","slug":"50-years-of-roe-v-wade-a-celebration-of-womens-rights","title":"50 Years of Roe v. Wade: A Celebration of Women's Rights","excerpt":"On January 22, 2023, activists gathered in New York City to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. This landmark decision reshaped women's reproductive rights in America, and the demonstrators emphasized the ongoing fight for choice.","content":"The National Women’s March held on January 22, 2023, marked a pivotal moment in the history of women's reproductive rights as it celebrated the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Roe v. Wade. This ruling, which established a woman's legal right to choose an abortion, has been a cornerstone of reproductive freedom in the United States since its issuance in 1973.
","category":"choice","author":"James MitchellAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:36:58.024Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6731c2284019493ea1373ff8_40.png","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/50-years-of-roe-v-wade-a-celebration-of-womens-rights","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/50-years-of-roe-v-wade-a-celebration-of-womens-rights"},{"id":"wsu342","slug":"11-7-million-women-and-girls-to-lose-access-to-contraception-under-u-s-aid-halt","title":"11.7 Million Women and Girls to Lose Access to Contraception Under U.S. Aid Halt","excerpt":"A Trump administration order has halted foreign aid funding for family planning, blocking contraceptive access for millions. Experts warn the freeze will cause a surge in unintended pregnancies and maternal deaths, calling for the immediate restoration of lawfully appropriated funds.","content":"For almost ten years, Congress has designated $607.5 million each year in foreign aid for family planning, which includes $32.5 million for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The funds aim to deliver modern contraceptive care to 47.6 million women and girls by 2025. Nonetheless, the Trump administration has implemented a 90-day halt on all foreign assistance, obstructing access to these essential services.
With each passing day of this freeze, 130,390 women are deprived of contraceptive care through U.S.-funded programs. In just a week, that figure will exceed 900,000, and by the end of the month, four million women and girls will have been deprived of access. After the 90-day review period, 11.7 million women and girls will find themselves without vital reproductive healthcare.
Research from the Guttmacher Institute indicates that the repercussions of this freeze will be severe. In the absence of contraception, it is anticipated that 4.2 million unintended pregnancies will occur in 2025, resulting in 8,340 maternal deaths from pregnancy-related complications. Experts caution that the refusal to release these funds, which Congress has legally allocated, is detrimental and illegal.
The suspension of family planning aid is a component of wider policy changes implemented during the Trump administration that have focused on reproductive health funding.
Organizations advocating for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are urging an immediate reversal of the stop-work order to avert a humanitarian crisis.
“Advocates urge the Trump administration to put an end to this detrimental and illegal withholding of funds,” they stated. “These resources are crucial for safeguarding the rights, dignity, and lives of women and girls around the globe.”
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:36:57.389Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/67a76a5a657047da47f88c41_Web_Photo_Editor%20(28).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/11-7-million-women-and-girls-to-lose-access-to-contraception-under-u-s-aid-halt","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/11-7-million-women-and-girls-to-lose-access-to-contraception-under-u-s-aid-halt"},{"id":"rlh4yw","slug":"10m-in-contraceptives-in-limbo-as-u-s-aid-cuts-fuel-global-health-fears","title":"$10M in contraceptives in limbo as U.S. aid cuts fuel global health fears","excerpt":"Conflicting reports about the destruction of nearly $10 million in U.S.-funded contraceptives have left global health advocates warning of severe consequences for women and families worldwide as the Trump administration’s cuts to reproductive health aid continue.","content":"Following rumors that the Trump administration planned to burn roughly $10 million in U.S.-funded contraceptives for foreign charity, their destiny is uncertain. This condition worries global health experts, who warn of rising health and economic dangers for low- and middle-income women.
Initial rumors in July suggested the Trump administration would destroy Belgian contraception destined for reproductive health projects abroad. Reports indicated that the products had suffered damage by September. The supplies' destiny was undetermined after the storage facility inspection, as they remained undisturbed.
Before its downsizing and monitoring by Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this year, the U.S. Agency for International Development purchased birth control pills, intrauterine devices, and hormonal implants. Products prevent pregnancy, not terminate it.
Given the rumored destruction plans, many advocacy groups have written an open letter to Rubio urging the administration to protect and distribute the supplies. Several big philanthropic groups have offered to buy the contraceptives directly. “The opportunity to make the right choice still exists,” the letter said.
Advocates warn that supply depletion may cost many lives. Global health statistics show 214 million women want to avoid pregnancy. At least three African nations have exhausted contraception techniques, and several others face shortages.
According to the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition, contraceptive destruction might cause 362,000 unexpected pregnancies, 161,000 unplanned births, 110,000 unsafe abortions, and 718 unnecessary maternal deaths.
Planned Parenthood's senior director of global advocacy, Caitlin Horrigan, stressed that long-term repercussions will go beyond health. The withdrawal of funding might encourage unwanted pregnancies, with girls leaving school and women losing economic prospects, she said, adding that contraception supports many U.S. government goals.
Following over sixty years of U.S. involvement in global reproductive health, the administration has cut funding for family planning programs in poorer nations, leaving the situation unclear. The Guttmacher Institute found that 40% of government family planning financing in 31 developing nations came from the U.S. Health experts have already observed the consequences. The fall in contraceptive supplies in Kenya threatens gender equity and maternal health. “We have worked hard to reduce unplanned pregnancies and keep girls in school for years. Our contraceptive supplies are now critically low in many locations, according to a Nairobi-based development expert.
As indications indicate that some stockpiled contraceptives may soon expire, advocates are intensifying their efforts to persuade the administration to protect the remaining supply.
Horrigan said, “We are collaborating with partners nationwide, within the U.S. Congress, along with global partners, must work to maintain the momentum.
","category":"choice","author":"Sarah BennettAuthor","publishDate":"2026-02-01T18:36:56.643Z","image":"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/672e578f044b6a6d7cee81f3/6942d42e19dfc54ef7ccca22_Web_Photo_Editor%20(5).jpg","url":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/10m-in-contraceptives-in-limbo-as-u-s-aid-cuts-fuel-global-health-fears","webflowUrl":"https://www.herchoice.org/her-choice-news/10m-in-contraceptives-in-limbo-as-u-s-aid-cuts-fuel-global-health-fears"},{"id":"ou8l4u","slug":"war-on-women-report-meta-removes-abortion-related-accounts-louisiana-tries-to-extradite-california-a","title":"War on Women Report: Meta Removes Abortion-Related Accounts; Louisiana Tries to Extradite California Abortion Provider; Fatal ICE Shootings","excerpt":"MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.","content":"MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.” We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.
\nSince our last report:
\n… and more.
\nThe post War on Women Report: Meta Removes Abortion-Related Accounts; Louisiana Tries to Extradite California Abortion Provider; Fatal ICE Shootings appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"choice","author":"Ava Slocum","publishDate":"2026-01-31T03:05:52.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/war-on-women-report-1024x490-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/30/war-on-women-report-meta-removes-abortion-related-accounts-louisiana-tries-to-extradite-california-abortion-provider-fatal-ice-shootings/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.305Z"},{"id":"q7lyl7","slug":"journalist-georgia-fort-arrested-over-reporting-on-anti-ice-protest","title":"Journalist Georgia Fort arrested over reporting on anti-ICE protest","excerpt":"Georgia Fort, an independent journalist in Minnesota, was arrested by federal agents Friday morning in connection with her coverage of an anti-ICE protest at a church this month. Fort, an award-winning journalist with a focus on social justice issues who has worked in commercial and nonprofit ...","content":"Georgia Fort, an independent journalist in Minnesota , was arrested by federal agents Friday morning in connection with her coverage of an anti-ICE protest at a church this month.
\n\n\n\nFort, an award-winning journalist with a focus on social justice issues who has worked in commercial and nonprofit television and radio news for more than 15 years, filmed and shared her own arrest. In 2022, she co-founded the Center for Broadcast Journalism to increase diversity across Minnesota media outlets. She is also vice president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, or NABJ.
\n\n\n\nIn a Facebook post of the video with the caption “Agents are at my door,” Fort said: “We are supposed to have our constitutional right of the freedom to film, to be a member of the press. I don’t feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press.”
\n\n\n\nFort surrendered to federal agents on advice of her lawyer, according to local news reports.
\n\n\n\nA joint statement from the Minnesota Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio, the Minnesota Reformer, and other state and local news organizations said they “strongly condemned” the arrests of both Fort and Don Lemon, who was arrested in Los Angeles late Thursday night.
\n\n\n\n“The First Amendment recognizes the press as holding a distinct and protected role in our democracy. In America, we do not arrest journalists for doing their jobs,” the statement read.
\n\n\n\nLemon, a former CNN anchor who now also works independently, was arrested for covering the same protest at the St. Paul church. A magistrate judge had previously rejected charges against the journalists.
\n\n\n\nLemon’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, told The New York Times that his arrest was an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration.” He added that Lemon will “fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.”
\n\n\n\nNational NABJ President Errin Haines, who is also The 19th’s editor-at-large, said in a statement on behalf of NABJ that, “A free press, not a penalized one, is essential to democracy; especially when coverage intersects with contentious public issues.”
\n\n\n\n“As journalists, our first obligation is to bear witness and to inform,” Haines wrote. “When those obligations are met with detention or prosecution instead of protection, we must ask: what message are we sending about who gets to report and who gets silenced?”
","category":"activism","author":"Amanda Becker","publishDate":"2026-01-30T20:25:28.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Georgia_Fort.jpeg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/georgia-fort-arrested-journalist-minnesota/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"x8bln8","slug":"texas-a038m-eliminates-womens-and-gender-studies-degree-program","title":"Texas A&M eliminates women’s and gender studies degree program","excerpt":"Texas A&M University announced Friday that it is eliminating its women’s and gender studies degree program. University leaders made the announcement alongside the results of a campuswide course review launched after a video of a student confronting a professor over gender identity content went v...","content":"Texas A&M University announced Friday that it is eliminating its women’s and gender studies degree program.
\n\n\n\nUniversity leaders made the announcement alongside the results of a campuswide course review launched after a video of a student confronting a professor over gender identity content went viral last fall and sparked political backlash.
\n\n\n\nInterim President Tommy Williams made the decision because of low enrollment and cost, College of Arts and Sciences Interim Dean Simon North and Senior Executive Associate Cynthia Werner said in an email to faculty obtained by The Texas Tribune.
\n\n\n\n“We know this is devastating news,” the administrators said. “One of the primary duties of university administrators is to be good stewards of public money. Even the smallest programs require ongoing investment in faculty time, staff support, and administrative oversight.”
\n\n\n\nTexas A&M offered a bachelor of arts degree, a bachelor of science degree, an undergraduate minor and a graduate certificate in women’s and gender studies. The program has 25 students seeking a major and 31 seeking a minor. Students already enrolled will be allowed to complete their programs over the next six semesters, but no new students will be accepted.
\n\n\n\nAfter the controversy with the children’s literature course, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents passed a policy restricting how race and gender could be discussed in class and ordered a sweeping review of course offerings. Specifically, faculty may not advocate “race or gender ideology” or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity unless a campus president grants a written exception for certain non-core or graduate-level courses that serve a necessary or educational purpose. System officials have not defined what qualifies as a necessary educational purpose.
\n\n\n\nUniversity officials said Friday they examined 5,400 course syllabi for the spring semester and canceled six courses. They did not name the specific classes but said the cancellations were spread across the Bush School of Government and Public Service and the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Education and Human Development.
\n\n\n\nThe officials said the bulk of the work was performed by faculty and their department heads, who altered hundreds of syllabi. Deans forwarded 54 courses to the president and provost for final review. The president granted 48 exceptions.
\n\n\n\nThe Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
","category":"equality","author":"Ajohnston","publishDate":"2026-01-30T20:19:35.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20251112-TAMU-File-CS-07.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/texas-am-eliminates-womens-gender-studies-academic-program/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"w4bwkj","slug":"fear-of-ice-is-keeping-pregnant-immigrants-in-minnesota-from-critical-care","title":"Fear of ICE is keeping pregnant immigrants in Minnesota from critical care","excerpt":"Pregnant patients increasingly aren't showing up for prenatal visits. Those who are are asking if they can have fewer. Some are going without proper nutrition because they're scared to go to the grocery store.","content":"Pregnant patients increasingly aren’t showing up for prenatal visits. Those who are are asking if they can have fewer.
\n\n\n\nSome are going without proper nutrition because they’re scared to go to the grocery store.
\n\n\n\nOne provider said that in the past two months, she’s seen multiple cases of a rare complication that often leads to miscarriage after not seeing patients for months.
\n\n\n\nAcross the country , health care providers have said that people are increasingly skipping prenatal visits, citing concerns about raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But in Minnesota — the target of what the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has called its largest-ever immigration enforcement operation, and where federal agents have killed two people — the consequences of that fear are particularly apparent.
\n\n\n\nSix providers in the Twin Cities area said no-show rates have increased for prenatal visits, which are essential in detecting, treating and preventing complications such as gestational diabetes, preeclampsia and even stillbirth. Some patients, afraid of encountering law enforcement officials, are changing their delivery plans to opt for home births — sometimes without communicating it to providers.
\n\n\n\n“We are seeing significant no-show rates for prenatal care visits in our clinics,” said Dr. Chelsea Thibodeau, a Minneapolis-based family physician who provides prenatal care and delivers babies at one of the hospitals. “We’ve certainly heard from patients in my clinic where they don’t feel safe coming in.”
\n\n\n\nThe American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that pregnant patients get regular prenatal care. Typically, that involves 12 to 14 visits over the course of a pregnancy, though the number can be higher for those with more complications or at higher risk. Those visits often require ultrasounds and bloodwork, making them poor candidates for care via phone or videoconference. Complications, if not treated early, are more likely to result in irreversible harm.
\n\n\n\n“Many, many conditions in pregnancy — whether it is anemia or high blood pressure or gestational diabetes or a growth restrictions — identifying those early and addressing them early, that can make a profound difference in fetal development and in the health of both a pregnant person and the fetus,” Thibodeau said.
\n\n\n\nAnother obstetrics provider, who asked that her name be withheld because she worries her clinic will become a target of immigration raids, said that since the start of the federal campaign, patients have been less likely to show up for visits, or to answer their phones. Those who do come in for care have expressed nervousness about coming back, or want to reduce their number of visits.
\n\n\n\nMany, she said, are running out of food, which is particularly concerning in pregnancy, when doctors recommend patients consume an extra 300 calories per day. And when patients do come in, she said, she is seeing many at higher risk of gestational diabetes and high blood pressure, conditions that are most effectively treated when caught early in a pregnancy.
\n\n\n\nOne nurse-midwife, who works in the Twin CIties and predominantly treats Latinx patients, has seen three cases of preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) — a rare complication in which someone’s water breaks early — since the start of the federal blitz, with two of those three resulting in miscarriage. She had not seen any such cases for several months prior to December, she said. PPROM and preterm labor generally can be brought on by extreme stress.
\n\n\n\n“I can’t say that’s why that happened and but it certainly is remarkable,” said the nurse-midwife, who asked that her name be withheld because she is afraid of her clinic being targeted by immigration officials. “There’s been a remarkable increase in what I’ve seen of PPROM in our practice, and gestational hypertension and gestational diabetes.”
\n\n\n\nHer patients are also consistently registering symptoms of depression, she said, a concern echoed by other providers across the area. Depression during or after pregnancy not only threatens the health of a pregnant person, but can harm a newborn, making it more difficult to breastfeed and undercutting the bonding between parent and infant.
\n\n\n\nSome obstetrics and gynecology providers are pivoting to in-home visits and mailing medications. But that isn’t possible to provide on scale, said Dr. Erin Stevens, an OB-GYN in Minnesota. Patients are increasingly requesting home births, including those with high-risk pregnancies that may require complex interventions.
\n\n\n\nSome patients are requesting doctors’ notes stating they are pregnant, said Dr. Kendra Harris, an OB-GYN in St. Paul whose no-show rate has also increased. The idea, she said, is that a physician’s endorsement might encourage ICE agents to treat them more gently.
\n\n\n\nPrevious research has linked immigration raids to adverse birth outcomes, including higher rates of preterm birth and low birth weight. It’s too soon to say definitively if the federal efforts in Minnesota — or similar campaigns last year in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. — are having those same consequences.
\n\n\n\n\n\nThat said, “I do think that there is evidence to suggest that these localized raids might also exert a health toll on immigrants and coethnic communities,” said Aresha Martinez-Cardoso, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago who studied the link between immigration raids in Postville, Iowa, and pregnancy-related health.
\n\n\n\n“As a researcher, I’m sure in a few years we’ll be able to see spikes in adverse pregnancy outcomes that we can attribute to widespread social stressors,” said Dr. Lynn Yee, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Northwestern University, who practices in Chicago.
\n\n\n\nSome of those outcomes may already be emerging. And with patients less likely to attend key visits, physicians said they worry they are missing chances to intervene.
\n\n\n\n“That’s the reason we see people for prenatal care is to make sure things are healthy and well to make sure we can catch complications,” Stevens said. “We’re going to have a lot of people showing up when it’s time to have their baby with complications we don’t know about.”
\n\n\n\nThibodeau recalled one recent patient with a history of previable delivery, putting her at higher risk of losing her pregnancy. A patient with that medical history requires careful monitoring, so that if doctors see signs of another early birth — which before 23 weeks gestation, almost always results in infant death — they can take steps to reduce the risk of delivery.
\n\n\n\nThis patient, Thibodeau said, asked to postpone one of her monitoring appointments by a few days, citing concerns about nearby ICE officers. But in the time between her original monitoring appointment and her rescheduled one, she delivered at 20 weeks, losing the pregnancy.
\n\n\n\n“Would something have been identified had she gone in that day? You can’t know,” Thibodeau said. “But it’s possible if this was something imminent, she could have been offered an intervention.”
","category":"activism","author":"Shefali Luthra","publishDate":"2026-01-30T19:02:21.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/pregnancy_immigration_ICE.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/ice-fears-pregnant-immigrants-minnesota-prenatal-care/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"nyxv86","slug":"the-hpv-vaccine-explained","title":"The HPV Vaccine, Explained","excerpt":"Federal inoculation guidelines are changing. Our sex health columnist answers some frequent questions about this cancer-preventing vaccine, including who should get it, when, and how it works. The post The HPV Vaccine, Explained appeared first on Rewire News Group.","content":"Changes to the childhood vaccination schedule are sowing confusion nationwide.
\n\n\n\nNew vaccine recommendations issued in recent months by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—who is notoriously anti-vaccine —suggest fewer shots for most kids. The updated guidelines also changed when some vaccines should be given.
\n\n\n\nMany of these policies are not based on science, and major medical organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics have urged parents and doctors to continue vaccinating their children per previous guidance , in an unusual break with the CDC.
\n\n\n\nBut one change is actually based on valid research : The suggestion that people may only need one shot of the HPV vaccine.
\n\n\n\nI am an ardent supporter of vaccines (thank you science for protecting us from diseases that killed our ancestors) and a sex educator who has been writing about the HPV vaccine for decades. But I know that many parents—like the one I recently sat next to in the pediatrician’s waiting room who said she wasn’t antivax, but was skipping that shot—just don’t know enough about HPV to make an informed decision.
\n\n\n\nThis column answers some common questions you may have about the HPV vaccine, whether you’re a parent considering the shot for your kids or an adult wondering if it’s too late to get it yourself.
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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What is HPV? \n\n\n\nThere are more than 200 types of HPV , or human papillomavirus. The virus is easily transmitted from skin-to-skin. Some types cause the warts you might get on your hands or feet.
\n\n\n\nOther types of HPV are known to infect the sensitive, wetter skin—or mucosal membranes—found in our genitals, anus, and throat. These roughly 40 kinds of HPV are sexually transmitted. HPV is so contagious that most sexually active people will get it at some point in their lives.
\n\n\n\nIs HPV dangerous? \n\n\n\nUsually, no. In most cases, our immune systems clear the virus without us ever knowing we had it.
\n\n\n\nBut some people get persistent infections that the body can’t vanquish. There are 12 “high risk” types of the virus. Persistent infections with these types can lead to cancer of the cervix, vulva, vagina, penis, anus, or throat.
\n\n\n\nWhat is the HPV vaccine? \n\n\n\nThe HPV vaccine was first introduced in 2006. The version available in the United States today, Gardasil 9, protects against nine high-risk types of the virus , including the two that cause most cases of genital warts and the two that cause most cases of cervical cancer.
\n\n\n\nTwenty years of research shows that Gardasil works to prevent not only HPV infection but also cervical cell changes that can cause cancer. Scientists believe that widespread vaccination could prevent 90 percent of HPV-related cancers.
\n\n\n\nWho should get the HPV vaccine? \n\n\n\nAlmost everyone.
\n\n\n\nMajor medical organizations and health centers like the Cleveland Clinic recommend that all young people—regardless of sex or gender—get the HPV shot at age 11 or 12, though they can get it as young as 9. The goal is to vaccinate everyone before they become sexually active.
\n\n\n\nThe vaccine is recommended for anyone 26 or younger who didn’t get vaccinated as a tween, and approved up to age 45. Unvaccinated people between 27 and 45 should ask their health-care provider about it.
\n\n\n\nHow many HPV shots do I need? \n\n\n\nWhen Gardasil was first introduced, everyone was advised to get three shots a few months apart. Then research suggested two doses were probably enough, especially for young teens.
\n\n\n\nIn its new recommendations , the CDC suggests everyone should now just get one shot. This change is based on December 2025 research from the National Institutes of Health that found one shot provides as much protection as two.
\n\n\n\nSome doctors remain skeptical of these new federal guidelines, given that they were released alongside other big changes to vaccine recommendations based on faulty science. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Cancer Society , for example, still recommend more shots. As always, ask your health provider what is best for you.
\n\n\n\nIf I got vaccinated for HPV, do I still need to get screened for cervical cancer? \n\n\n\nYep. Everyone who has a cervix needs to get screened every three to five years either starting at 21 or 25 (guidelines vary ).
\n\n\n\nDepending on your age and medical history, your screening might involve either a Pap test or an HPV test. Both tests use a brush or tiny spatula to collect cells from on or near the cervix. The HPV test looks for high-risk types of the virus. The Pap test looks for precancerous changes to cervical cells called “dysplasia,” which can be treated before they become cancer.
\n\n\n\nThese tests are usually done by a health-care provider, but the FDA recently approved HPV test kits that let you collect your own sample . The samples are then sent to a lab for analysis. If that test comes back positive, you need to follow up with a provider.
\n\n\n\nI’m not your mom, but if I were… \n\n\n\nWhen my daughters got their HPV shots, I posted pictures of each of them online despite the fact that they were dressed only in paper gowns.
\n\n\n\nThey weren’t on social media yet—both got their shots at the CDC-recommended age of 11—so I could get away with it, and I was just that excited. I know how easily HPV spreads. I know it causes cancer. A vaccine that can prevent my kids from getting cancer felt like something to celebrate.
\n\n\n\nI realize not all parents feel that way . Some may have bought into the growing anti-vax movement that uses junk science to paint all vaccines as more dangerous than helpful. Others may believe the misconception that vaccinating young people against a sexually transmitted infection will encourage them to have more sex. (Spoiler alert: Tons of research shows this doesn’t happen .)
\n\n\n\nFrom its launch, the HPV vaccine has been caught in a perfect storm of anti-vaccine and anti-sex politics. In 2011, Republican presidential candidates even traded jabs about it during a debate .
\n\n\n\nBy the time my oldest got the vaccine in 2017, health-care providers and sex educators like me had learned some important lessons about HPV messaging for parents: Talk more about cancer and less about sex.
\n\n\n\nMy pediatrician, for example, simply told me that my kid was eligible for the “cervical cancer shot.” Obviously, he didn’t need to convince me. But I’m hoping the C-word is enough to persuade other parents that their kids need the HPV shot—and maybe you do, too.
\n\n\nThe post The HPV Vaccine, Explained appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-01-30T13:59:00.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/hpv-biopsy-web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/01/30/hpv-vaccine-explained/","scraped":true},{"id":"yfn29o","slug":"children-with-disabilities-particularly-vulnerable-to-minneapolis-ice-crackdown","title":"Children with disabilities particularly vulnerable to Minneapolis ICE crackdown","excerpt":"This article originally appeared in The 74 a nonprofit, nonpartisan news site covering education in America. The Trump administration’s weeks-long immigration enforcement campaign in Minneapolis, which has shuttered schools and terrified students and parents, has left one group particularly vulnerab...","content":"This article originally appeared in The 74 a nonprofit, nonpartisan news site covering education in America .
\n\n\n\nThe Trump administration’s weeks-long immigration enforcement campaign in Minneapolis, which has shuttered schools and terrified students and parents, has left one group particularly vulnerable: children with disabilities.
\n\n\n\nTheir families, who already fear their kids shutting down, running away, harming themselves or acting out when confronted under normal circumstances, have seen their anxiety skyrocket as they contemplate worst-case scenarios with federal agents.
\n\n\n\nTens of thousands of Minnesotans gathered in sub-zero temperatures Friday to demonstrate against the federal government’s ongoing presence, including surrounding the airport terminal and flooding the streets downtown .
\n\n\n\nIdil Ahmed, who lives near the epicenter of the daily raids and protests, worries about her 6-year-old autistic daughter having a meltdown during an encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
\n\n\n\n“If they stop us, all hell will break loose with my child,” Ahmed said. “And there is no talking to these people.”
\n\n\n\nParents tell The 74 they have no faith, after federal agents ripped a disabled, autistic woman from her car and, according to school officials, used a 5-year-old as bait this week to lure his mother from their home, that immigration officials would be patient with a child who can’t immediately respond to orders.
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“When I saw that image of this young boy with his backpack, I thought, ‘That could be my son,’” said Najma Siyad, mother of a 5-year-old with autism.
\n\n\n\nBoth Ahmed and Siyad are members of Minneapolis’ Somali community, the largest in the United States and one that has been virulently targeted for removal by President Donald Trump.
\n\n\n\nThey are among many Somali families whose children have autism; a neurodevelopmental condition that is prevalent in their community .
\n\n\n\nThey and other Somali-Americans say their children are doubly vulnerable by virtue of their race and disability: While the first is obvious, making them a potential mark for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the second is not.
\n\n\n\nThey and other families with special needs kids have missed school, skipped doctor’s visits and, in many cases, are not getting the occupational, physical and speech therapy services that help their children manage their lives and progress academically.
\n\n\n\n\n\nAhmed said her daughter missed three consecutive weeks of occupational therapy because her therapist was too fearful to enter their neighborhood.
\n\n\n\n“OT for us is so important,” Ahmed said. “It regulates her emotions, helps with fine motor skills, simple things like dressing, eating, body movements, the teaching of how to be physically independent.”
\n\n\n\nAnd while multiple districts are offering remote learning to families afraid to leave their homes, online instruction isn’t a viable option for children who need a team of skilled school staff to access their education.
\n\n\n\n“It’s not a solution for us,” said Anisa Hagi-Mohamed, founder of an autism advocacy group called Maangaar Voices.
\n\n\n\nRegression, both educationally and socially, is a constant concern, these parents say. But stronger still is their worry about their child coming face-to-face with a federal agent who doesn’t know — and perhaps doesn’t care — why they won’t interact.
\n\n\n\n\n\nA spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and CBP, said he was working on a response as to whether agents are trained to interact with autistic children and others with disabilities. Minnesota law requires autism training for peace officers but this does not apply to ICE and CBP, Minneapolis advocates say.
\n\n\n\nHagi-Mohamed has three kids, a 9-year-old son and two daughters, ages 5 and 8. All are “on the autism spectrum,” and each has their own unique vulnerability, she said.
\n\n\n\nHer middle child is nonverbal and frequently runs away to no particular destination.
\n\n\n\nAnd her son looks far older than his age. He also has difficulty responding to anyone who commands him to act.
\n\n\n\n“He would completely shut down, self harm and get hurt in the process,” Hagi-Mohamed said, imagining him in an ICE encounter. “I worry all the time.”
\n\n\n\nShe’s advised him not to talk to any adults outside of school or home.
\n\n\n\nShe’s frightened, too, for her 5-year-old, who treats all grownups with the same deference as her parents.
\n\n\n\n“The stranger danger thing is not so strong in her,” Hagi-Mohamed said. “She is one of those kids who if you tell her to do something, she will do it.”
\n\n\n\nThese families say they have remained petrified ever since an ICE agent in Minneapolis killed unarmed motorist Renee Good on Jan. 7 just after she dropped her 6-year-old son off at school . Hours later, federal agents wreaked havoc at nearby Roosevelt High School . And on Jan. 24 in what may be a turning point to the strife in Minneapolis, federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old nurse, Alex Pretti, setting off a fresh wave of terror and outrage .
\n\n\n\nMaren Christenson, executive director of the Multicultural Autism Action Network, said she lives so close to where Good was shot that she’s worried tear gas will seep through the family’s windows from the ongoing protests.
\n\n\n\nChristenson’s 14-year-old son, Simon Hofer, has autism and she can’t predict how he would respond to an ICE agent.
\n\n\n\nThe boy said he’s worried — not so much for himself, but for his friends.
\n\n\n\n“I have been feeling angry, scared, sad,” he told The 74 on Thursday. “It feels kind of hopeless sometimes and overwhelming. Friends of mine and classmates are afraid to go to school and so they attend online.”
\n\n\n\nMaren Christenson and her son, Simon Hofer.\n (Courtesy Maren Christenson) His mother has told the special education community that even if someone is Caucasian, is a citizen, has a disability and can articulate their challenges, they are not free from peril.
\n\n\n\nHer advice? “Comply: do what they tell you to stay safe.”
\n\n\n\nBut she’s unsure whether that strategy would work for people with autism who can become unmoored by such an encounter. Stress might hamper their ability to communicate, she said.
\n\n\n\n“We have held a number of community conversations and brainstormed, asking, ‘What could we do? What are people doing?’” she said. “But the truth of the matter is we are in uncharted territory. There is no guidebook, no best practices for when your city is under siege.”
\n\n\n\nA mother of two boys with autism who lives in the southern suburbs of Minneapolis and who asked not to be named to protect her family’s safety, said her children, ages 8 and 5, are just now learning about the concept of police.
\n\n\n\nThey cannot at all understand the complexity of immigration enforcement — or the harsh tactics that have come with it — so she’s keeping them mostly at home.
\n\n\n\n“There is only so much I can do when I am not with them,” she said.
\n\n\n\nHodan, the mother of an 18-year-old college student who has autism, said her son has always had high anxiety. But now, she said, it’s worse. She’s given him a list of a dozen phone numbers to call in an emergency that he keeps in his jeans and in his shoes.
\n\n\n\n“He has his citizenship card in his pocket and when we drive, I make him put it on the center console,” said his mom, who asked that her last name not to be used to protect her family.
\n\n\n\nAlong with school and therapy sessions, also gone from families’ routines are winter afternoons at indoor play spaces, trips to the gym for their teenagers and other kid-friendly destinations.
\n\n\n\nSiyad, a mother of three who lives 18 miles south of Minneapolis, close to St. Paul, said they recently took the 26-minute drive to the Minnesota Children’s Museum and had to turn around when they were three minutes away after witnessing an ICE encounter on the road.
\n\n\n\n“That fear is daily,” she said. “I am a naturalized citizen but I was not carrying my passport at the time. We had to turn around immediately.”
\n\n\n\nThe painful irony, she said, is that her children, like all of the others in this story, their parents said, are U.S. citizens.
\n\n\n\n“Our kids are as American as apple pie,” she said. “This is their home.”
","category":"activism","author":"Shyla Nott","publishDate":"2026-01-30T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/children-ice_3.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/children-disabilities-minneapolis-ice-crackdown/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"esog2e","slug":"massachusetts-could-be-the-next-state-to-give-abuse-survivors-a-pathway-out-of-prison","title":"Massachusetts Could Be the Next State to Give Abuse Survivors a Pathway Out of Prison","excerpt":"The Massachusetts Survivors Act, a bill introduced last year that emulates recent reforms adopted in a few other states, would require judges to reduce someone’s sentence or offer pretrial diversion if they find that a person’s actions were directly related to their experiences of abuse.","content":"The Massachusetts Survivors Act, a bill introduced last year that emulates recent reforms adopted in a few other states, would require judges to reduce someone’s sentence or offer pretrial diversion if they find that a person’s actions were directly related to their experiences of abuse. The Judiciary committee advanced the bill in September, referring to another legislative committee, but the proposal hasn’t moved forward since; advocates hope they can move it forward this year.
\nThe post Massachusetts Could Be the Next State to Give Abuse Survivors a Pathway Out of Prison appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Victoria Law","publishDate":"2026-01-30T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Massachusetts-Could-Be-the-Next-State-to-Give-Abuse-Survivors-a-Pathway-Out-of-Prison.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/30/massachusetts-women-prison-domestic-violence-abuse-survivor-reduced-sentence/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.305Z"},{"id":"mrotf9","slug":"nike-says-its-factory-workers-make-nearly-double-the-minimum-wage-in-indonesia-workers-say-its-not-t","title":"Nike Says Its Factory Workers Make Nearly Double the Minimum Wage. In Indonesia, Workers Say, “It’s Not True.”","excerpt":"The post Nike Says Its Factory Workers Make Nearly Double the Minimum Wage. In Indonesia, Workers Say, “It’s Not True.” appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"Through boom times and, more recently, slumping sales, Nike Inc. has stuck by a key claim about its overseas suppliers: They pay the average factory worker about twice the local minimum wage.
\n\n\n\nIt’s a claim company co-founder Phil Knight first made in the 1990s, when the company faced accusations of sweatshop conditions in the overseas factories hired to make Nike’s apparel. And it’s one the sneaker giant has reasserted since 2021.
\n\n\n\nBut the experiences of workers in Indonesia, Nike’s second-largest production hub, illustrate how misleading the claim can be for vast portions of its supply chain.
\n\n\n\nWhen a reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive visited the country and interviewed roughly 100 workers from more than 10 factories that supply Nike, none said they made anywhere near twice the minimum wage.
\n\n\n\n“Bullshit,” a union official said, in English, while sitting on a makeshift couch on the porch of his office near Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. (Like most workers currently employed by Nike suppliers, the official did not wish to be named because of fears of retaliation, including fines and termination.)
\n\n\n\nOne worker from a factory in West Java asked a reporter where on the company’s website Nike makes the wage claim.
\n\n\n\n“No, no, no,” he said, through a translator. “It’s not true.”
\n\n\n\n“Nike is not paying double the minimum wage,” said a union official in Central Java, a lower-wage area where Nike’s contract factories have been expanding. “The fact is the opposite. Nike is seeking cheaper workers.”
\n\n\n\nWorker housing near an Indonesian factory that makes Nike products Matthew Kish/The Oregonian/OregonLive. License plates redacted by ProPublica. Last year, a ProPublica reporter visited Cambodia and found that only 1% of the 3,720 workers at a former Nike supplier earned at least 1.9 times the minimum wage, based on a factory payroll ledger. Interviews and paystubs for other workers corroborated that earnings are typically closer to the minimum wage than double that amount.
\n\n\n\nA reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive subsequently spent seven days in Indonesia, where Nike’s contractors, including its materials suppliers, employ about 280,000 people.
\n\n\n\nAll the workers interviewed said they made around minimum wage, which is as little as $150 a month in some parts of the country.
\n\n\n\nSandra Cho, who oversees human rights for Nike, didn’t dispute that some factory workers — including in Indonesia and Cambodia — make less than 1.9 times the minimum wage, describing the figure as a “global average.”
\n\n\n\n“Some countries will be less than 1.9, some countries will be higher,” she said.
\n\n\n\nIn Vietnam, Nike’s biggest production center, two workers told The Oregonian/OregonLive they made minimum wage — about $204 a month — but two said they made twice as much. That’s in keeping with reports from Nike’s competitor, Puma, which says its biggest factories in Vietnam pay around double the minimum wage.
\n\n\n\nNike pushed back when asked whether it’s misleading for its disclosures to highlight the figure of 1.9 times the minimum wage.
\n\n\n\n“A company trying to mislead would not voluntarily publish wage data, openly acknowledge its journey toward improvement, or subject itself to third-party scrutiny,” Nike said in a written statement.
\n\n\n\nBut the transparency that Nike provides is limited.
\n\n\n\nThe company’s global pay figure is based on data for 700,000 of its roughly 1.2 million workers in its nearly 700 contract factories. In other words, nearly half a million workers are omitted from the math. Nike doesn’t disclose which factories, or which workers, are left out. It’s said that the data covers its biggest partners, which account for an outsize share of production.
\n\n\n\n(A Nike spokesperson said the wages of the roughly 500,000 workers not included in the calculation are audited to ensure they make at least the minimum wage.)
\n\n\n\nNike competitors Adidas and Puma similarly produce wage estimates for only a subset of their suppliers, but they have published data down to the country level in recent years. Adidas reports wage variations within countries. Advocates say the data helps workers determine whether they’re paid fairly and push for pay increases if they are not.
\n\n\n\nNike said focusing solely on pay relative to the minimum wage is a mistake.
\n\n\n\nThe company’s main focus with wages is whether they’re high enough to cover basic expenses and a little more, Cho said, a concept known as a living wage. Some countries have minimum wages that meet that threshold, some don’t. Nike has said 66% of workers at its suppliers, at least those for whom it has data, earn a living wage. That’s up from 53% in 2021.
\n\n\n\nBut living-wage calculations can vary widely, and they don’t always match the perceptions of people on the ground. Workers interviewed near Jakarta, where the local minimum pay rate is ostensibly more than a living wage, said it’s not enough to live on.
\n\n\n\nA Nike contract worker near Jakarta sells cosmetics as a second job. Matthew Kish/The Oregonian/OregonLive One said she wakes up seven days a week, before the sun rises, to set up a small shop in front of her home.
\n\n\n\nShe sells groceries, gas canisters for cooking, water, cigarettes and snacks, mostly to housewives buying daily necessities.
\n\n\n\nShe opens the store around 6 a.m.
\n\n\n\nA half hour later, on weekdays, she leaves for her job at the factory. Over the next eight hours, while her husband minds the shop, she works standing up, often in sweltering conditions, cutting fabric for 1,600 pairs of Nike sneakers — one every 18 seconds.
\n\n\n\nShe returns to her small apartment around 6:30 p.m., eats a quick dinner of instant noodles, then goes back to the shop until 10 p.m.
\n\n\n\nShe earns around $300 a month from making sneakers, just about minimum wage. The store brings in another $60.
\n\n\n\n“I always come home late, sometimes in the heat and rain,” she said through a translator, “but I still endure it to meet me and my child’s needs.”
\n\n\n\nA History of Dueling Numbers \n\n\n\nNike’s beginnings were rooted in the low labor costs that overseas manufacturing could offer.
\n\n\n\nIn 1962, while working toward a master’s degree in business administration at Stanford University, Knight wrote an academic paper that became the company’s basic business plan. A core pillar: the disruptive power of cheap labor.
\n\n\n\n“Low Japanese labor costs make it possible for an exciting new firm to offer these shoes at the low low price of $6.95,” Knight wrote in 1964 in his first ad, according to his 2016 memoir, “Shoe Dog.”
\n\n\n\nIn his book, he also wrote about the crushing poverty he saw on an around-the-world trip as a 24-year-old. Knight, who did not respond to detailed questions for this article, wrote in the book that hiring low-wage workers in developing countries would spur economic development.
\n\n\n\nThe first decades of Nike’s history backed up his belief. As the economy bloomed in Japan and wages rose, Nike shifted production from Japan to Korea and Taiwan and, later, Indonesia and Vietnam.
\n\n\n\n“Thirty years ago, Nike shared that responsible participation in global manufacturing could accelerate economic development in emerging economies,” Nike said in its statement. “History has largely validated that.”
\n\n\n\nWhen Nike arrived in Indonesia in 1988, the country offered an enticing economic carrot to companies hunting for overseas factories: a minimum wage around $1 a day in Jakarta, compared with $8 in South Korea, $14 in Taiwan and $33 in Tokyo, according to a 1988 U.S. State Department report.
\n\n\n\nBut Indonesia also presented new problems. The country was a target of activists because of its history of human rights abuses .
\n\n\n\nAs companies ramped up production there, anti-sweatshop protests and negative press accounts multiplied, with some noting the country’s minimum wage was so low that many factory workers were malnourished.
\n\n\n\nNumerous stories took aim at Nike, whose soaring success, coupled with its popular athletic endorsers and corporate aloofness, made it a rich target.
\n\n\n\nThe early coverage included a memorable 1992 story in Harper’s Magazine that showed the paycheck of an Indonesian factory worker who made $1.03 a day at the time and concluded she’d need to work more than 44,000 years to match Nike endorser Michael Jordan’s annual Nike income.
\n\n\n\nKnight and Nike pushed back on the criticism. Where Knight once sang the praises of low wages, he and the company now boasted the company’s suppliers paid generously.
\n\n\n\nIn 1996, Nike distributed a fact sheet that said the median wage in its Indonesian factories was $108.65 a month, or more than double the minimum wage. In June of that year, Knight wrote a letter to the editor of The New York Times saying Nike “has paid, on average, double the minimum wage” to factory workers. A month later, he told CNN Nike paid “over two times” the minimum wage in Indonesia. He told shareholders in 1996 that pay was “double the minimum wage throughout Indonesia.”
\n\n\n\nNike co-founder Phil Knight in March 1995. In the 1960s, Knight wrote about how low-wage labor could help Nike disrupt the shoe industry. Three decades later, he boasted that the company’s Indonesian factories paid double the minimum wage. Najlah Feanny/Corbis via Getty Images The Associated Press , The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine and the editorial board of The Oregonian, the biggest newspaper in Nike’s home state, all repeated the claim.
\n\n\n\nBut The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica could find no contemporaneous data that supported Nike’s assertion. Neither could Nike.
\n\n\n\n“Those statements were made nearly 30 years ago, based on the data and understanding available at the time, and reflected a broader belief that responsible participation in global trade could raise incomes and expand opportunity in emerging economies,” Nike said in its 2026 statement. “Like most companies, we do not retain granular factory-level payroll data from partners in the mid-1990s.”
\n\n\n\nThe Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica found plenty to challenge the claim, including statements by the company itself. In fact, between 1994 and 2001, four reports issued directly by Nike, done at the company’s request or compiled by the U.S. government never put the average wage in Indonesia higher than 37% above the minimum.
\n\n\n\nWhen asked to address the contradictory numbers from the 1990s, Nike said via email: “What’s relevant today is how Nike operates now, including the rigor of our current disclosures, the progress we’ve made, and the work still ahead to advance wages and opportunity across our supply chain.”
\n\n\n\nThe accuracy of Nike’s past wage claims didn’t go unchallenged.
\n\n\n\nIn 1998, California labor activist Marc Kasky sued Nike, alleging several claims about its overseas factories were “deceitful” and false advertising.
\n\n\n\nHe submitted a pile of Nike statements as evidence, including Knight’s letter to the editor of The New York Times.
\n\n\n\nNike said in a court filing, without admitting any of its statements were inaccurate, that those statements were not subject to a court’s opinion about their veracity. The company’s words were protected by the First Amendment, Nike wrote, because they were intended not to sell Nike products but to answer Nike’s critics concerning “issues of public interest.”
\n\n\n\nNike settled the lawsuit in 2003, for $1.5 million, without admitting fault. The money was earmarked for factory monitoring and programs for workers, including economic ones.
\n\n\n\nTaking on Second Jobs \n\n\n\nMotorcycles fill Indonesia’s roads during a rush-hour commute to sneaker factories. Adi Renaldi for The Oregonian/OregonLive Since the Kasky settlement, Nike has published nearly 2,000 pages of reports on its work to become a better corporate citizen. The closest it came to shedding new light on wages was in 2021, when the company reported on new efforts to understand what factory workers earn.
\n\n\n\nThe 184-page report said that workers had “average gross pay of 1.9 times the minimum wage” — almost identical to the assertion the company made back in the ’90s.
\n\n\n\nThe company said it based the claim on information from 103 “strategic suppliers” in 13 countries that employed over 700,000 workers. The report did not identify the suppliers or disclose the wages paid to workers.
\n\n\n\nNike reiterates the claim in a disclosure currently posted on its website , which has been updated with 2022 data. It’s now based on data from 111 factories.
\n\n\n\nWorkers in Indonesia reported wide deviations from the company’s stated average pay for the supply chain as a whole.
\n\n\n\nThe workers’ accounts of earning minimum wage or a little bit more are consistent with 63 paystubs from three Indonesian factories, which The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica obtained from a labor group. At two factories, workers averaged 1.1 times the minimum wage. At the other factory, workers averaged 1.4 times the minimum.
\n\n\n\nThose numbers align with disclosures of Adidas and Puma, which have released more information about factory wages than Nike.
\n\n\n\nIn its 2024 annual report , Adidas said nearly 100,000 of its factory workers in Indonesia made between 1.1 and 1.4 times the minimum wage. Data from Puma’s 2024 sustainability report indicated that workers at four Indonesian suppliers averaged $208 in monthly wages, 17% above the average minimum wage where the factories were located.
\n\n\n\nPresented with detailed questions about pay practices, Nike said looking at pay relative to the minimum in isolation “misses the broader picture of real wage growth and economic development” in countries where Nike sources its goods.
\n\n\n\nIn Vietnam, Nike’s contract factories account for 2.5% of the country’s gross domestic product, according to a 2019 diplomatic cable obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
\n\n\n\n“We’re proud of the role Nike and our industry have played in building employment, skills, and opportunity in many countries, including Vietnam today, where the industry contributes meaningfully to national GDP,” the company said, adding that it remained “committed to pushing for continued improvement.”
\n\n\n\nNike’s Cho said the company’s work to lift wages includes a program that’s helped female workers advance into higher-paid positions. Roughly 80% of factory employees are women, Cho said, but men are 2.5 times more likely to get promoted off the manufacturing line. She said 21% of participants in the program got a promotion within three months.
\n\n\n\nThe company said what matters more than what people are paid relative to the minimum wage is whether they make enough to cover basic expenses. Some regions of Indonesia, including Jakarta, have minimum wages higher than local living wage estimates by the WageIndicator Foundation, an independent Dutch nonprofit.
\n\n\n\nThe living wage “is where we focus our energy and work,” said Nike’s Cho.
\n\n\n\nBut an income that meets the living wage benchmark on paper doesn’t always match what workers say they need, at least in Indonesia.
\n\n\n\nInside a Nike factory worker’s home. Workers in Indonesia say they earn far less than what Nike says is the average among suppliers for which it has sufficient data. Adi Renaldi for The Oregonian/OregonLive Standing in an overgrown lot outside Jakarta, 30 workers broke into laughter when asked if they got paid enough to cover their basic expenses.
\n\n\n\nOne said factory wages weren’t enough to pay for new uniforms, books and shoes for school-aged children.
\n\n\n\nAnother worker estimated as much as 70% of her coworkers had second jobs, a comment that drew approving nods. That work includes operating motorbike taxis, fish farming, collecting scrap metal and cleaning fruit, workers said. Some workers sell goods inside the factory, including coffee, snacks and cosmetics, which they said comes with the risk of disciplinary action, including termination.
\n\n\n\nKnight once told documentary filmmaker Michael Moore that factory jobs were such a road to upward mobility that someone working in an Indonesian factory making Nike goods might someday be Moore’s landlord.
\n\n\n\nTwo workers who invited a reporter into their homes in a neighborhood near Jakarta last summer were not landlords.
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They lived in 150-square-foot barracks-style apartments with almost no furniture except for thin mattresses, which had been propped against the wall to create living space. Small electric fans cooled the apartments, which cost around $30 a month to rent.
\n\n\n\nWorkers largely agreed Nike contract factories are preferable to local alternatives. Nike factories are clean and pay on time, they said. Many have exhaust fans that can provide some relief from the tropical heat. Forced overtime is no longer a problem. Government regulations tend to be followed.
\n\n\n\nBut the workers said wages remain chronically low, describing the typical pay as only enough to support one person.
\n\n\n\n“It’s as if the company wants us to stay single forever,” a worker near Jakarta said.
\n\n\n\nAnother worker said she started stitching Nike sneakers 25 years ago, about the time Knight spoke to Moore about workers becoming landlords.
\n\n\n\nShe said after all those years, she makes $300 a month — roughly the local minimum wage.
\nThe post Nike Says Its Factory Workers Make Nearly Double the Minimum Wage. In Indonesia, Workers Say, “It’s Not True.” appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"global","author":"Matthew Kish","publishDate":"2026-01-30T10:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Worker-apartments-3-SG-tone-2-redaction_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=527","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/nike-wages-clothing-shoe-factory-indonesia","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.283Z"},{"id":"5yt4y0","slug":"she-was-a-key-voice-of-the-1990s-labor-movement-in-nikes-indonesia-factories-today-she-relies-on-don","title":"She Was a Key Voice of the 1990s Labor Movement in Nike’s Indonesia Factories. Today She Relies on Donations From Abroad.","excerpt":"The post She Was a Key Voice of the 1990s Labor Movement in Nike’s Indonesia Factories. Today She Relies on Donations From Abroad. appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"Once a month, American labor activist Jim Keady logs into Remitly, an app for transferring money abroad, at his New Jersey home and sends $100 to a former Nike factory worker in Indonesia.
\n\n\n\nCicih Sukaesih helped bring the world’s attention to the lives of the young women in poor countries who made sneakers in the 1990s, first by organizing a strike and later by marching onto Nike’s bucolic corporate campus in Oregon to demand a meeting with co-founder Phil Knight.
\n\n\n\nHer story — at a time of police and military harassment of labor organizers abroad — caught the attention of The New York Times and other news organizations. It also helped inform a generation of workers about their rights.
\n\n\n\n“She helped to birth, I would argue, the Indonesian trade union movement within Nike’s supplier factories,” Keady said.
\n\n\n\nCicih during a visit to the United States to campaign for improvements in the labor practices of Nike suppliers. Muhammad Fadli for ProPublica But media attention and accolades don’t pay the bills. Cicih had trouble finding work following her 1990s activism. (Cicih prefers to go by one name. It’s pronounced “Chee Chee.”)
\n\n\n\nDecades after her crusade faded from the headlines, Keady and other labor organizers began sending Cicih money to keep her afloat.
\n\n\n\n“She took a stand and she was a revolutionary,” Keady said. “And she has nothing to show for it.”
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Now 62, Cicih welcomed a reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive into her home last year, part of a reporting trip that included interviews with about 100 workers who make Nike sneakers, mostly in Indonesia, which was ground zero for the decade of sweatshop criticism that stained Nike’s reputation in the 1990s.
\n\n\n\nCicih said she’s proud of the example she set by standing up to Nike. She said workers “became aware of their rights and aware of the law.”
\n\n\n\n“Many things changed,” she said.
\n\n\n\nThe advocacy led to improvements, she said, including cracking down on child labor, installing better safety equipment and providing menstrual leave.
\n\n\n\n“Many of my friends,” Cicih said, “became brave enough to speak up.”
\n\n\n\nCicih feeds her three cats at home. Now 62, she struggles to get by. She lives with her sister at a home they inherited from their parents. Muhammad Fadli for ProPublica But she described her work as incomplete because problems linger, including chronically low wages.
\n\n\n\nNike did not address specific questions about Cicih’s experience or about the Nike supplier that employed her in the 1990s, nor did Knight provide comment. Instead, Nike issued a broad statement saying, in part, “We’re appreciative of the efforts that individuals and organizations, including Cicih, have made in helping push the industry forward.”
\n\n\n\nNike said the company has been “deeply committed to advancing a responsible and resilient supply chain for more than 30 years” and that while progress hasn’t been perfect, it has sought “systemic improvements across the industry.” Nike’s goal, the statement said, is that “all people involved in the manufacturing of Nike’s products are respected, valued, and treated fairly.”
\n\n\n\nCicih keeps tokens of her activism in her home, including a framed poster that depicts a factory worker and reads, “Who made your shoes?”
\n\n\n\nJeff Ballinger, a labor organizer who was prominent in the 1990s’ anti-sweatshop movement, gave it to her. In an interview, Ballinger said he still considers Cicih a “hero” — albeit unsung, even in Tangerang, the industrial hub where the Indonesian factory movement took off.
\n\n\n\n“Like in wartime, some people just step up,” Ballinger said. “In a perfect world, there’d be a statue of her in Tangerang.”
\n\n\n\n$1.26 a Day \n\n\n\nCicih sat for an interview in a backyard filled by a chicken coop and a small garden that included pumpkins, bananas and edible bamboo. The small house she and one of her sisters inherited from their parents in Menes, her childhood village about a 90-mile drive west of Jakarta, is now home.
\n\n\n\nAfter putting out snacks that included a traditional Indonesian dessert made from rice and grated coconut in banana leaves, Cicih often flashed a wide grin as she reflected on a life intertwined with Nike’s emergence in her country.
\n\n\n\n\nCicih grows coconuts, bananas, tomatoes, pumpkins and bamboo in her family’s garden, in addition to raising chickens. Muhammad Fadli for ProPublica \n\n\n\nNike, then known as Blue Ribbon Sports, bought its first sneakers from Japanese factories in the 1960s. But as Japan’s wages rose, it shifted manufacturing to lower-cost Asian countries, including Taiwan and South Korea.
\n\n\n\nIn 1988, it started making sneakers in Indonesia.
\n\n\n\nThe country had a terrible human rights record, but it was eager to attract foreign investors. Factories in Jakarta paid wages as low as $1 a day, compared with $8 in South Korea, $14 in Taiwan and $33 in Tokyo, according to a 1988 State Department report.
\n\n\n\nIn 1989, five years after she graduated from high school, Cicih joined one of her sisters making Nike sneakers at the Sung Hwa Dunia factory 40 miles west of Jakarta, Indonesia’s biggest city.
\n\n\n\nShe started work each day at 7 a.m.
\n\n\n\nAt first, she said, she cleaned glue and chemicals off sneakers with her bare hands. Then she moved to a glue line, attaching soles to shoes. The factory was poorly ventilated. Co-workers coughed from the fumes. Cicih recalled seeing one person faint and then return to the assembly line because factory managers didn’t give her permission to go home.
\n\n\n\n(The factory is still open, but it has changed owners and now has a different name. The current owner did not respond to emails. The previous owner could not be reached.)
\n\n\n\nThe factory formerly called Sung Hwa Dunia in Indonesia has changed hands since Cicih worked there. It is currently listed for sale. Muhammad Fadli for ProPublica Worker safety was “very, very bad,” Cicih said through an independent journalist The Oregonian/OregonLive hired to translate the conversation.
\n\n\n\n“There were many, many labor laws that the company did not follow,” she added.
\n\n\n\nLike today, the vast majority of factory workers were young women. Most of the managers were older men, which Cicih said led to a natural power imbalance and problems with sexual harassment.
\n\n\n\n“I have watched and seen a lot of women being sexually abused, or touched inappropriately,” she said.
\n\n\n\nThere was constant pressure to meet daily production quotas.
\n\n\n\nCicih made $1.26 a day, around minimum wage. A 1989 study found the minimum wage was so low that many factory workers were malnourished.
\n\n\n\n“It was not enough for me to get by on a daily basis,” she said. “However, I had to make it on the amount I received.”
\n\n\n\nCicih often worked overtime until 9 p.m. Sometimes she worked on Saturday and Sunday, which she considered forced labor. The amount of overtime, she said, motivated her to “rebel.”
\n\n\n\nCicih worked at a Nike supplier in Serang, Indonesia. She says the factory broke “many, many labor laws.” Muhammad Fadli for ProPublica “A Wage Increase Was the Top Priority” \n\n\n\nThe turning point for Cicih came when one of the company’s buses, which workers rode to the factory and were always overcrowded, flipped and killed a co-worker.
\n\n\n\n“How can we protest this issue to the company?” she asked another co-worker.
\n\n\n\nUnbeknownst to Cicih, this co-worker had joined an organization that taught workers about labor rights. Cicih faked a doctor’s letter, got a sick day and took a class.
\n\n\n\nThrough the organization, she met Ballinger, who had moved to Indonesia to organize factory workers. In 1992, Ballinger wrote a story for Harper’s Magazine that compared the wages of Sadisah, one of Cicih’s co-workers, to the earnings of Nike endorser Michael Jordan. Sadisah earned 14 cents an hour. It would have taken her more than 44,000 years to make what Jordan earned from Nike in a single year.
\n\n\n\nCicih started skipping lunch and prayer breaks to organize her co-workers.
\n\n\n\nOn Sept. 28, 1992, Cicih and workers from her factory went on strike. The New York Times reported 600 walked out, but Cicih and other activists have put the number of strikers in the thousands. They demanded better treatment of women, better union representation, better food, better transportation and, most importantly, better pay.
\n\n\n\n“A wage increase was the top priority,” she said, holding up the original document that listed protesters’ demands.
\n\n\n\n\nCicih and her friends gathered before a labor rights training course. Muhammad Fadli for ProPublica In 1992, Cicih photographed her fellow workers meeting about going on strike. Muhammad Fadli for ProPublica \n\n\n\nHer activism came with great risks. Around that time, Marsinah, a factory worker who was recognized last year as the country’s first National Hero from the labor movement, was kidnapped, tortured and murdered .
\n\n\n\n“Military and police were everywhere,” Cicih said, but she said her desire to help her co-workers “eclipsed all the fear.”
\n\n\n\nThe strike lasted two days.
\n\n\n\nIt ended after the factory agreed to increase wages for many employees, Cicih said, but she added that her seniority made her eligible for just a small raise. The company accepted other demands, including allowing menstrual leave. Cicih said she was the first worker to take it.
\n\n\n\nThat same year that Cicih led the strike, Nike released a code of conduct, becoming one of the first brands to do so. Codes of conduct have since become the default method companies like Nike use to police overseas factories. The basic system: The company writes rules and contract factories agree to follow them. Auditors monitor compliance.
\n\n\n\nA few months after the strike, Cicih and roughly two dozen of her co-workers got laid off. Leslie Milano, a prominent American labor organizer in the early 2000s, said unemployment at the time was high in Indonesia.
\n\n\n\n“That’s why a lot of people didn’t want to do what Cicih did,” Milano said. “They didn’t want to lose their jobs.”
\n\n\n\nThirty-plus years after she began her organizing work, Cicih struggles to make ends meet. Muhammad Fadli for ProPublica Cicih said that not long after being laid off, she was hauled into a police station and spent two days being pressured to confess to destruction of property and causing a disturbance. She was not allowed to go to the bathroom, she said.
\n\n\n\nCicih said the police made her watch them beat a suspect. Then they made her sit in his blood, she said, before releasing her.
\n\n\n\nThe Indonesian embassy in Washington, D.C., did not respond to questions about military repression of worker rights in the 1990s. (The country undertook democratic reform after the dictator Suharto stepped down in 1998, although problems remain.)
\n\n\n\nAfter her release, encouraged by Ballinger and others, she joined co-workers in filing a lawsuit against the factory alleging wrongful termination. The lawsuit went all the way to Indonesia’s Supreme Court. In 1996, Cicih and her co-workers prevailed. She got about $200 in back wages. She still has the check in a binder with other documents from her organizing days.
\n\n\n\nFor two years of lost wages, Ballinger figures Cicih should have gotten more than $2,000. That would have been enough to set up a small business.
\n\n\n\n“It would have been a hell of a lot of money back then,” he said. The movement’s failure to deliver greater restitution to Cicih and others “is something that I’ll never get over.”
\n\n\n\nCicih Comes to Oregon \n\n\n\nAround the time the lawsuit concluded, in July 1996, Cicih walked onto Nike’s suburban campus near Beaverton, Oregon, and demanded a meeting with the company’s co-founder.
\n\n\n\n“I’m here to meet with Phil Knight,” she said, according to The Oregonian’s coverage of her visit. “I want to ask him to consider the plight of Indonesian workers.”
\n\n\n\nCicih had stayed in touch with Ballinger. He helped bring her to the United States to put pressure on Nike, one of four such visits she made to the country.
\n\n\n\nKnight refused to see her.
\n\n\n\nCicih tried to meet with Nike’s Phil Knight when she visited Oregon in 1996. As part of the trip, she also held a press conference in front of the company’s downtown Portland store. Kathryn Scott/The Oregonian/OregonLive A week before Cicih arrived in Beaverton, Knight wrote a letter to her trip’s organizers, saying he was “sympathetic” to her case but preferred to meet with people “interested in constructive, proactive solutions, not those who announce their intentions through news conferences and mean-spirited media campaigns.”
\n\n\n\nHe defended Nike’s response to problems at Cicih’s factory, saying Nike had worked to correct them.
\n\n\n\n“The factory where Ms. Sukaesih worked has been under new Indonesian management for two years, the grievances have been addressed and the minimum wage is in force,” Knight wrote. “In our view, this is an example of the benefit Nike brings in upgrading labor practices in emerging market societies.”
\n\n\n\nCicih keeps many of the documents from her labor organizing days in a three-ring binder. Muhammad Fadli for ProPublica After she made her request to meet with Knight, a “trio of beefy Nike security guards” escorted Cicih off Nike’s campus and local sheriff’s deputies asked her to leave the premises, according to The Oregonian’s coverage.
\n\n\n\nRoughly a week later, Knight sat across the table from President Bill Clinton at the White House to talk about labor reforms, according to records obtained from the Clinton Presidential Library. Knight then stood in the Rose Garden behind Clinton as the president announced a sweeping effort to address sweatshop conditions in overseas factories.
\n\n\n\n“While I think that we have been good citizens within our industry, I think there’s clearly a lot more that we can do, that we can indeed be better,” Knight said in his brief remarks.
\n\n\n\nThe meeting with Clinton led to the creation of the Fair Labor Association, one of several groups that monitor factory working conditions.
\n\n\n\nKnight publicly committed to specific sweatshop reforms in a 1998 speech at the National Press Club . Knight announced six changes, including heightened indoor air quality standards, increased factory monitoring and raising the minimum age in footwear factories to 18.
\n\n\n\nHe didn’t say anything about raising wages.
\n\n\n\n“You Have to Fight” \n\n\n\nThese days, Nike factory workers in Indonesia told The Oregonian/OregonLive, the kind of forced overtime that sparked Cicih’s desire to “rebel” is nonexistent. They also said Nike lived up to Knight’s commitment to get underage workers out of Indonesian factories.
\n\n\n\nBut they said problems remain.
\n\n\n\nIn interviews, they criticized the auditing process, the linchpin of the factory monitoring system that Nike helped pioneer. Workers said factories know in advance when auditors will arrive. At one factory, workers said safety equipment had been distributed on the eve of an audit.
\n\n\n\n“The best time to work at a Nike factory is when it’s being audited,” a worker said.
\n\n\n\nWorkers said more rigorous and consistent auditing would catch problems with safety and sexual harassment, which they said remain persistent.
\n\n\n\nAsked about the workers’ description of factories prepping for planned audits, Nike said that it conducts unannounced audits in addition to those that are scheduled in advance, and that these are supplemented by “worker engagement and well-being surveys,” among other efforts.
\n\n\n\n“When issues are brought to our attention, through any mechanism, we work with suppliers to validate, identify root causes and implement comprehensive remediation processes,” Nike said.
\n\n\n\nNike’s most recent disclosures say 87% of the 623 suppliers it audited in fiscal year 2024 at least met the company’s basic code of conduct requirements. The company also disclosed a factory injury rate significantly below its peers. Less than 1% of code of conduct violations related to harassment and abuse, according to the disclosure.
\n\n\n\nWorkers and union leaders also say their No. 1 concern — low wages — has not been addressed. Many said they work second jobs to make ends meet.
\n\n\n\n“One job isn’t enough,” Keady said. “They’re not getting a second job because they want to send their kid to a really good private school or they want to buy a home in a great neighborhood. They’re getting a second job because they can’t afford three meals a day for their family.”
\n\n\n\nCicih also has struggled.
\n\n\n\nAfter her lawsuit against the factory that once employed her, she had the option to return, but she declined. She thought the environment would be uncomfortable because of her history as an organizer.
\n\n\n\nShe did some volunteer work as a labor organizer. Some other organizers encouraged her to set up a small business.
\n\n\n\nThose efforts never panned out. She moved back to her hometown of Menes in 2018.
\n\n\n\nA sister on whom Cicih depended financially died during the pandemic. Cicih opened a roadside food stall and sold vegetable salad and gado gado, a type of Indonesian dish, but it didn’t go well.
\n\n\n\nShe gets by on donations from American do-gooders, including Keady. She grows some of her own food. She doesn’t have a pension or savings.
\n\n\n\n“Nothing,” she said.
\n\n\n\nBut she’s resolute.
\n\n\n\n“You have to do this,” she said, reflecting on her years as an activist. “You have to fight.”
\n\n\n\nCicih at home. Despite the struggles she faced in her labor activism, she still believes in fighting for workers’ rights. Muhammad Fadli for ProPublica The post She Was a Key Voice of the 1990s Labor Movement in Nike’s Indonesia Factories. Today She Relies on Donations From Abroad. appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"activism","author":"Matthew Kish","publishDate":"2026-01-30T10:25:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20251213-Fadli-Nike-Indonesia-Advocate-049_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000_f167d8.jpg?w=752","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/nike-factory-workers-rights-indonesia-advocate","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.283Z"},{"id":"a7rift","slug":"why-sexual-and-reproductive-health-and-rights-belong-in-climate-action","title":"Why sexual and reproductive health and rights belong in climate action","excerpt":"The post Why sexual and reproductive health and rights belong in climate action appeared first on Ipas .","content":"
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A conversation with Ipas research expert Sally Dijkerman on why climate action must include sexual and reproductive health and rights, and what it will take to move from evidence to real-world solutions.
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Climate justice and sexual and reproductive health and rights work are too often kept separate, even though communities experience them together. That’s why Ipas and partners in the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Climate Justice Coalition co-authored this perspective, produced in partnership by Ipas’s Sally Dijkerman with Heather McMullen (Queen Mary University of London) and Natalie Hammond (Manchester Metropolitan University), and written on behalf of the coalition:
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Frontiers | No climate justice without sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice (SRHRJ): past, present, and future challenges faced by the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Climate Justice Coalition
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Ipas was a founding member of the coalition in 2021. Alongside Women’s Environment and Development Organization , Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women , and Women Deliver , Ipas helps convene members, connect organizations across regions, share timely information, and coordinate collective advocacy and action plans.
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In the perspective, Dijkerman and co-authors reflect on three challenges that shape the coalition’s work: building the evidence on how climate change affects sexual and reproductive health and rights, pushing back on harmful narratives, and identifying just, locally led solutions. They also point to practical tools and approaches, including a coalition messaging guide and feminist lens that challenges traditional monitoring and evaluation, to help advocates communicate clearly and design effective solutions that center the communities impacted most.
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“Healthy people and communities are better equipped to adapt to climate change,” says Ipas Associate Director of Program Evidence Sally Dijkerman (pictured right).
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“However, the climate crisis is threatening the right to health, including sexual and reproductive health and rights.” Dijkerman studies how climate change affects sexual and reproductive health and rights and helps co-convene the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Climate Justice Coalition. She shares insights from her work below.
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What is the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Climate Justice Coalition, and what unique value does it bring? \n
Sally Dijkerman: The coalition is a participatory and inclusive space that brings together a diversity of partners working from the local to the global level to mobilize collective strengths for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and gender equality from a climate justice approach. We break down silos between SRHR and climate justice organizations, facilitate knowledge sharing, jointly coordinate, and amplify the voices and priorities of grassroots organizations. We advocate for SRHR and climate change policies, programs, and funding mechanisms that advance gender equality, human rights, and climate justice.
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What are a few key accomplishments of the coalition so far? \n
Over the past four years, we have been documenting the impact of climate change on SRHR; creating collective policy recommendations and advocacy strategies; and promoting collaboration and learning opportunities. We have launched key resources, including Integrating SRHR into the UNFCCC Gender Action Plan (GAP) at COP27 and SRHR: Integral to the Climate and Health Response at COP29 for the health community. We have designed both universal messages and recommendations for our work and specific messages for key events, for fellow advocates, policymakers, and the media.
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We have convened several in-person training sessions and side events at the annual UNFCCC Bonn Climate Change Conferences and Conference of Parties (COP), focusing on SRHR as a critical element of inclusive, human rights-based, gender-transformative climate action. In July 2025, the Coalition partnered with UNFPA and the Government of Brazil to design and host sessions at the 2025 Global Symposium on Climate Justice and Impacted Populations – Rights in a Changing Climate: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Gender Equality , culminating in the Brasilia Call to Action on Climate Justice, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Gender Equality, and Impacted Populations .
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In the perspective, you argue that climate action and sexual and reproductive health and rights work cannot stay siloed. Why is it urgent to connect them now? \n\t\t\t
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The climate crisis is directly and indirectly impacting sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), but too often, climate action does not include SRHR. Likewise, it is still the exception, not the rule, for SRHR-focused organizations to recognize the impacts of the climate crisis on SRHR and integrate a climate justice lens into their work. Our goal is to make clear that these efforts cannot remain siloed anymore and must come together to act. SRHR programs must be climate-just and climate-aware to achieve sustainable progress, and climate justice cannot be achieved without integrating comprehensive SRHR.
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In the section on resisting harmful narratives, you describe the coalition’s messaging guide. What harmful framing is it designed to prevent, and what does it help people communicate instead? \n
SRHR and climate justice is an under-addressed topic area that affects the lives of some of the most marginalized people in the world. Without an appropriate human rights-based approach to SRHR, harmful narratives can take hold, such as framing contraception as a climate solution by suggesting that solving the climate crisis depends on people’s bodies and reproductive choices.
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We developed the guide to support better communication about the interlinkages between SRHR and the climate crisis for anyone interested, including policymakers, advocates, or media. This guide aims to bring awareness to this issue and equip the reader with knowledge and framing to engage the subject in a way that upholds human rights.
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We hope people and organizations will use the Messaging Guide to center human rights, bodily autonomy, menstrual dignity, and intersectionality in their communications and programming on SRHR and the climate crisis.
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In the “just solutions” section, you recommend feminist monitoring, evaluation, research, learning, and adaptation (MERLA). What is feminist MERLA, and why is it useful here? \n
Feminist MERLA and climate justice share important core principles, including shifting power, intersectionality, and centering the leadership of those most impacted by injustices. Feminist MERLA explicitly addresses the underlying causes of gender inequality, one factor that leads women and girls to be disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis.
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Too often, traditional MERLA approaches focus on accountability to donors and other stakeholders in positions of power, rather than accountability to the communities which the programs aim to help. Conversely, feminist MERLA values communities as collaborators and leaders in the creation of knowledge and programs, not just passive recipients. As a result, the feminist MERLA approach can advance gender equality and locally led solutions, both aims of climate justice and the coalition.
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The perspective states that we now have enough evidence to act. What does that mean? \n
Many people and institutions have contributed to the growing evidence base, including but not limited to coalition members. Ipas, for example, has invested in research on this intersection in many countries where we work. YLabs, a coalition member, created a helpful online resource that summarizes the evidence, solutions, and partnerships at this intersection . It is clear from the evidence that the climate crisis is an SRHR crisis. This evidence is critical to our advocacy for increased attention and prioritization of this issue, but now we must prioritize investing in solutions. With limited resources available, we need to prioritize innovating, testing, and refining programs that successfully integrate SRHR and climate justice.
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In the perspective, you note that there are too few proven models that successfully integrate SRHR and climate action. Why is that? \n
Climate adaptation must be locally led and context specific. Beyond that, there is a lack of rigorously tested solutions at the intersection of SRHR and climate action simply because both issues are underprioritized globally. There is a lack of funding being invested in these integrated programs. Climate adaptation in general is extremely underfunded, with most global funding still going toward climate mitigation. Furthermore, the funding that does exist is generally siloed between sectors, preventing integrated solutions from emerging. Ipas is working to address this issue by advocating with donors to increase integrated funding sources.
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What does the coalition want advocates and organizations to do next? \n
In addition to strengthening awareness and capacity at this intersection, we are calling for more partnerships and collaboration between SRHR and climate adaptation practitioners, building alliances across sectors and institutions to innovate and implement systems-level solutions.
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We also call for advocacy for strengthened, integrated policies. SRHR actors should support ambitious climate action in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), and Health NAPs. They can also advocate and partner with health systems to strengthen the capacity of the health workforce on climate change and disaster preparedness.
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The climate crisis is a reproductive justice crisis. \n
Our research in settings around the world finds that climate change undermines people’s right to have a child, to not have a child, and to parent children in safe and healthy environments. Yet we know that the people most impacted have solutions—and we must listen. Then we must act. Click on the boxes below to learn more about how Ipas works to ensure sexual and reproductive health are integral to climate solutions at every level of society—and that the people most impacted are actively engaged in building climate resilience within their own communities.
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Learn more about our climate research findings \n\t\t\t\t
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Advocating for women-led climate justice \n\t\t\t\t
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The post Why sexual and reproductive health and rights belong in climate action appeared first on Ipas .
","category":"activism","author":"Saren Richardson","publishDate":"2026-01-29T19:23:37.000Z","image":"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/00-C-Sally-Dijkerman.png","source":"Ipas","sourceUrl":"https://www.ipas.org/news/why-sexual-and-reproductive-health-and-rights-belong-in-climate-action/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.441Z"},{"id":"kf9z7r","slug":"expanded-global-gag-rule-is-a-major-blow-to-global-health-and-human-rights","title":"Expanded Global Gag Rule is a major blow to global health and human rights","excerpt":"The post Expanded Global Gag Rule is a major blow to global health and human rights appeared first on Ipas .","content":"
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The newly expanded rule further advances an extreme anti-rights agenda \n\t\t\t
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The Jan. 27 expansion of the Global Gag Rule is just the latest action by the current U.S. administration to decimate global health and human rights.
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“This policy weaponizes U.S. foreign aid to force the administration’s harmful agenda on people around the world,” says Anu Kumar, Ipas President and CEO. The newly expanded Global Gag Rule will use the power of all non-military U.S. foreign funds to restrict work by a wide array of actors on gender equity, LGBTQI+ rights, and diversity, equity and inclusion—as well as abortion.
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“Bullying countries into complying with anti-rights and extremist ideology is despicable and unacceptable,” Kumar says. “The imperialist goals of this administration are on full display in this policy’s conditions to receive U.S. foreign assistance.”
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“The radical expansion of this deadly policy will devastate the global community and be especially harmful to women, young people, and LGBTQI+ people,” says Jamie Vernaelde, Ipas senior researcher for global policy and advocacy. “Around the world, these individuals already face numerous barriers to health care and have repeatedly had their rights and freedoms infringed upon by this administration’s assault on sexual and reproductive rights over the past year.”
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— Jamie Vernaelde, Ipas senior researcher for global policy and advocacy
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An anti-abortion policy broadens its attack \n
As expected in January 2025, the administration reinstated the Global Gag Rule, which has been used as a political football by Republicans and Democrats since 1984. Also referred to as the ‘Mexico City Policy,’ the Global Gag Rule has historically prohibited foreign NGOs receiving U.S. family planning funds from engaging in abortion-related work. Organizations were “gagged” from providing not only abortion services, but abortion counseling, referrals, medical advice, training or lobbying to change abortion laws.
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Now, this radical expansion of the Global Gag Rule will restrict all non-military U.S. foreign aid recipients—including foreign NGOs, humanitarian efforts, and programs run by U.S.-based organizations, UN partners, other governments and parastatal organizations—from engaging not only in abortion-related work, but also work to advance gender equity, LGBTQI+ rights, and diversity, equity and inclusion.
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This policy expansion was strategically planned to not only widen the U.S. government’s influence over sexual and reproductive health globally but to force compliance with anti-rights restrictions as a condition for receiving any U.S. funds.
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“This expanded Global Gag Rule is all about control,” Kumar says. “The current administration wants to control what people do with their bodies, what governments and NGOs can do with their own funds, and even what civil society is allowed to say about health, human rights and equity.”
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Vernaelde says humanitarian response efforts will likely suffer great harm under the expanded Global Gag Rule, as will a broad range of sexual education programs that even so much as mention topics like gender or LGBTQI+ identities.
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— Anu Kumar , Ipas President and CEO
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“As intended, this policy will destroy the crucial work of many feminist and social justice organizations around the world,” says Vernaelde. “It will also end lifesaving health care—like that provided by reproductive health centers serving people displaced by conflicts and climate disasters.”
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The cumulative result of all these actions: Millions will die, and millions more will be denied basic bodily autonomy \n
A study by The Lancet estimates that 14 million people who may have lived could now die if USAID cuts continue through 2030. And Guttmacher Institute estimates that almost 50 million women and girls have already been denied contraception in low- and middle-income countries in just the past year.
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“This expansion of the Global Gag Rule will not only magnify the global crisis brought on by the destruction of USAID, but it will also continue to wreak havoc on global progress to improve health, uphold human rights, and achieve gender equality,” says Dr. Jean-Claude Mulunda, director of Ipas Democratic Republic of Congo.
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Fighting back with education \n
The Global Gag Rule is complicated, and misinformation thrives each time it’s reinstated or expanded—often causing governments, health workers and many others to avoid providing allowable services out of fear that they’ll violate the rule and risk losing funds. This “over interpretation” has a chilling effect that ripples across health systems and societies, making it ever more difficult for women to find services like contraception and abortion—even when they have the legal right to such care under local law.
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As we’ve done every time the Global Gag Rule is reinstated, Ipas will work tirelessly to support local partners and governments to understand the policy’s restrictions—and importantly, what services, actions and programs are still allowed.
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‘Health agreements’ with desperate governments bolster Global Gag Rule’s harms \n
Health systems are in crisis after the widespread destruction of funds and programs in the past year. Leaders are desperate for funding to continue even basic, essential health care for populations greatly in need.
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This is why many governments have begun agreeing to coercive “America first” health funding agreements with the United States that offer funds—albeit greatly reduced from previous levels—with complex and controversial conditions. The New York Times reported on Jan. 15 that the U.S. had signed such agreements with 16 African countries since mid-December—with dozens more in negotiation with governments in Africa as well as Asia and Latin America.
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These health agreements force countries to prioritize U.S. global health strategy and foreign policy goals over their own national health needs—especially reproductive health needs. All funding will be subject to the expanded Global Gag Rule, causing drastic cuts to programs that advance gender equity as well as reproductive health and rights.
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“We know that Kenya and many other countries are still reeling from the loss of USAID, but our health privacy and reproductive health care cannot and should not be the cost to resume aid agreements with the United States,” says Dr. Musoba Kitui, director of Kenya-based Ipas Africa Alliance.
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Kenya’s government has signed a health agreement that requires the country to share extensive private health data with the U.S.—a requirement commonly found in these agreements. The country’s high court is now considering a challenge to this part of the agreement.
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— Dr. Musoba Kitui , director of Ipas Africa Alliance
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In the news: \n
Ipas leaders and experts have been sharing analysis and insights from our work around the world with the media regarding the new “health agreements” and the announcement of the expanded Global Gag Rule:
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The post Expanded Global Gag Rule is a major blow to global health and human rights appeared first on Ipas .
","category":"global","author":"Kristin Swanson","publishDate":"2026-01-29T18:42:45.000Z","image":"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/quote.svg","source":"Ipas","sourceUrl":"https://www.ipas.org/news/expanded-global-gag-rule-blow-to-global-health/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.441Z"},{"id":"risn5g","slug":"misogyny-isnt-just-about-womenand-the-killing-of-alex-pretti-proves-it","title":"Misogyny Isn’t Just About Women—and the Killing of Alex Pretti Proves It","excerpt":"The Trump administration has made misogyny a governing principle, deploying it not only to control women but to enforce a rigid hierarchy of power that punishes anyone who disrupts it. The killing of Alex Pretti makes that unmistakably clear.","content":"The Trump administration has made misogyny a governing principle, deploying it not only to control women but to enforce a rigid hierarchy of power that punishes anyone who disrupts it. The killing of Alex Pretti makes that unmistakably clear.
\nPretti—a 37-year-old ICU nurse—was not threatening law enforcement. He was doing what the administration endlessly romanticizes and selectively rewards: stepping in to protect a woman who was being shoved and pepper-sprayed by federal agents. For that, he was tackled, disarmed and shot 10 times. The violence that ended his life did not contradict the administration’s worldview—it followed it to its logical conclusion.
\nMisogyny functions as a system, not a personality trait. It relies on domination masquerading as protection, and it turns lethal when its myths are exposed. Pretti shattered two of them at once: the fantasy of the “good guy with a gun” and the claim that this administration acts as a protector of women. His calm, visible effort to shield someone else left no room for reinterpretation, only denial. When authoritarian power cannot reconcile what we have seen with what it insists we believe, it chooses force. We know what happened in Minneapolis. We know who tried to protect whom. And we should be clear about what kind of politics requires us to look away.
\nThe post Misogyny Isn’t Just About Women—and the Killing of Alex Pretti Proves It appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Jennifer Weiss-Wolf","publishDate":"2026-01-29T17:06:14.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-2257614840.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/29/trump-administration-misogyny-ice-alex-pretti/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.305Z"},{"id":"15z8sw","slug":"global-research-roundup-findings-for-womens-health-research-day","title":"Global Research Roundup: Findings for Women’s Health Research Day","excerpt":"Global Research Roundup: Findings for Women’s Health Research Day January 21, 2026 jloewenberg January 29, 2026 True crime is everywhere—but crimes against disabled people are rarely treated as “true crime” at all. Imani Gandy talks with disability justice advocate Vilissa Thompson about why disabled victims are erased from true crime, how ableism shapes which stories get told, and what ethical storytelling requires when disability is involved.\nTranscript
\nEpisodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If you love B*tch, Listen, chip in to keep help Imani keep her podcast going. Become a supporter today .
\nImani has relaunched her column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles . Sign up for our newsletters here to read it first.
\nThe post In Mercy’s Shadow: The Mercy Narrative in True Crime (Podcast) appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-01-29T14:00:15.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/B_L-Podcast-Web-Thumb-04.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/01/29/in-mercys-shadow-the-mercy-narrative-in-true-crime-podcast/","scraped":true},{"id":"a1y5jy","slug":"melania-trump-documentary-marks-a-post-metoo-comeback-for-its-director","title":"Melania Trump documentary marks a post-#MeToo comeback for its director","excerpt":"When Donald Trump was elected to the presidency in 2024 after being found liable for sexual abuse, his political victory set in motion another comeback — for director and producer Brett Ratner. Ratner, who has directed films including the “Rush Hour” movies, “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “Tower ...","content":"When Donald Trump was elected to the presidency in 2024 after being found liable for sexual abuse, his political victory set in motion another comeback — for director and producer Brett Ratner.
\n\n\n\nRatner, who has directed films including the “Rush Hour” movies, “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “Tower Heist,” was all but cast out of Hollywood after being accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, whose allegations he denied, in 2017 at the height of the #MeToo movement.
\n\n\n\nNow, Ratner is back directing and producing with “Melania: 20 Days to History,” a documentary, premiering Thursday and in theaters Friday. Amazon MGM Studios paid an eye-popping $40 million for the rights to the film, which follows Melania Trump in the days and weeks leading up to the 2025 inauguration.
\n\n\n\nAhead of its official premiere, Ratner and Melania Trump, an executive producer of the documentary, hosted a private screening for VIP guests at the White House on Saturday, according to The Hollywood Reporter . Queen Rania of Jordan; prominent business and tech leaders, including Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and Apple CEO Tim Cook; and ex-boxer Mike Tyson, who served time in prison after being convicted of rape in 1992, were among those in attendance for the event, where guests got “glossy, commemorative black and white popcorn boxes for guests, served by gloved waiters so they won’t get fingerprints on them.”
\n\n\n\nDirecting a documentary on an American first lady and screening it at a star-studded White House event represents a remarkable turn for Ratner, coming over eight years after six women, including actors Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, accused him of sexual misconduct in a bombshell Los Angeles Times report published in November 2017. Ratner and his attorney denied all the allegations of sexual misconduct laid out in the article, and he was never charged with a crime.
\n\n\n\nRepresentatives for Ratner and Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.
\n\n\n\nThe Hollywood figures accused of sexual misconduct at the height of the #MeToo movement have seen mixed results at best in their efforts to revitalize their professional careers. As The Hollywood Reporter’s Gary Baum wrote in 2022 : “One of #MeToo’s greatest victories, at the practical level, has been its unrelenting administration of professional punishment.”
\n\n\n\nFor years, it seemed as if that would be the case for Ratner. Warner Bros. ended its first-look deal with Ratner amid the allegations against him. Projects he was attached to, including a fourth installment of the “Rush Hour” franchise starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker and planned biopics of Hugh Hefner and Milli Vanilli , were dropped or put on hold. In 2023, Ratner immigrated to Israel .
\n\n\n\nBut when Trump won the 2024 presidential election amid a backlash to the #MeToo movement , it didn’t take long for Ratner’s fortunes to turn. Variety first reported in January 2025 that he was set to direct the Melania Trump documentary, backed by Amazon. Paramount is set to distribute “Rush Hour 4 ” after Trump personally lobbied owner Larry Ellison to revive the franchise, Semafor reported in November . Ratner, who is friendly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is also reportedly working on a documentary about the Abraham Accords, the Middle East peace deal negotiated in Trump’s first term.
\n\n\n\nRatner’s comeback represents another sign of the #MeToo backlash, said Elisa Batista, campaign director at the gender justice organization UltraViolet, which advocates for survivors of sexual harassment and assault in industries including politics and media.
\n\n\n\nIn this photo released by the Department of Justice, Brett Ratner (right) hugs Jean-Luc Brunel, a modeling agent and close Epstein associate who died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial on charges of rape and sex trafficking of minors. \n (via Department of Justice) “Sexual violence, rape culture is a big-time barrier, especially for women in these competitive industries,” she said. “We made some major inroads into the industry, and we’re facing a backlash moment where all of a sudden, perpetrators are starting to be seen as the victims and those whose own careers were derailed because of sexual harassment and sexual assault are seen as making this up.”
\n\n\n\n Days before the Los Angeles Times published its 2017 article, another woman had accused Ratner of raping her in a since-deleted Facebook post. Ratner denied her allegation and filed a defamation lawsuit against her in what was one of the first legal cases stemming from the #MeToo movement; he later dropped the lawsuit.
\n\n\n\nMore recently, Ratner’s name has come up in the Justice Department’s files on the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein . In an undated photo released last year, Ratner was pictured hugging a shirtless Jean-Luc Brunel, a modeling agent and close Epstein associate who died by suicide in a French prison in 2022 while awaiting trial on charges of rape and sex trafficking of minors. Brunel and his lawyers maintained his innocence. Names and photos of many prominent individuals have been included in the thousands of publicly released files from the Justice Department and Epstein’s estate; Ratner has not been accused of wrongdoing related to Epstein.
\n\n\n\nBefore the most serious allegations against him became public, Ratner cultivated an image as a playboy and courted controversy: He apologized and later stepped down as a producer of the 2012 Academy Awards ceremony after using a homophobic slur in a Q&A session for his film “Tower Heist.” After the Los Angeles Times published its Ratner exposé, the actor Elliot Page accused Ratner of outing him as gay with degrading comments on the set of “X-Men: The Last Stand” in 2005, when Page was 18. Page publicly came out as gay in 2014 and in 2020 came out as a transgender man.
\n\n\n\n\n\nThere has been relatively little public outcry or protest over “Melania,” which has so far seen tepid ticket sales and has been projected to bring in between $1 million and $5 million on its opening weekend in the United States.
\n\n\n\nSome Democrats criticized the White House for hosting the screening for the documentary on the day that Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti , an ICU nurse who was assisting others at a protest in Minneapolis.
\n\n\n\n“Today DHS assassinated a VA nurse in the street, [Attorney General Pam] Bondi is attempting to extort voter files, and half the country is bracing on the eve of a potentially crippling ice storm with FEMA gutted,” Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York wrote on X . “So what is the President up to? Having a movie night at the White House. He’s unfit.”
\n\n\n\nThe Democratic National Committee (DNC) referred to Ratner as “a disgraced director” and “Epstein-associate” in a Monday news release slamming Trump for promoting the film “to his billionaire buddies and wealthy donors.”
\n\n\n\n“Trump is more concerned about his personal wealth and his lavish lifestyle than the issues Americans care about most,” the DNC’s rapid response director, Kendall Witmer, said in a statement. “When will Trump put his ego aside to put everyday Americans first?”
\n\n\n\nBatista and UltraViolet are focused on pushing for cultural change in industries like Hollywood and politics, where men in positions of power wield significant sway over young women’s careers with few formal guardrails or protections. In the years since the height of #MeToo, advocates have also lobbied for legislation to end practices and legal tools advocates say are used to silence survivors.
\n\n\n\nIn 2022, Congress passed bipartisan legislation banning the use of forced arbitration clauses and nondisclosure agreements in cases of workplace sexual harassment and assault.
\n\n\n\nCalifornia also passed the Speak Your Truth, which aims to protect survivors from defamation lawsuits intended to keep them from speaking out. Law professor Victoria Burke, driven by her own personal experience , has championed the passage of versions of the law in states around the country.
\n\n\n\nEfforts to pass the Speak Your Truth Act in New York, another entertainment industry hub, died in 2025 , but Batista said she and other advocates hope lawmakers pass it this year.
\n\n\n\n“We’re working on it again this year, but we need to get back to basics,” Batista said. “We believe survivors, survivors are powerful, and we have all the tools we need to make the necessary cultural and political changes here.”
","category":"activism","author":"Grace Panetta","publishDate":"2026-01-29T14:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/ratner_2.jpg?w=683","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/melania-trump-documentary-brett-ratner/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"wewrqo","slug":"sen-amy-klobuchar-jumps-into-minnesota-governor8217s-race","title":"Sen. Amy Klobuchar jumps into Minnesota governor's race","excerpt":"Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat who has represented Minnesota in the U.S. Senate since 2007, on Thursday announced that she’s running in the open race for governor of Minnesota. In her announcement video, Klobuchar said the state had been through a tough time, noting the assassination of former...","content":"Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat who has represented Minnesota in the U.S. Senate since 2007, on Thursday announced that she’s running in the open race for governor of Minnesota.
\n\n\n\nIn her announcement video, Klobuchar said the state had been through a tough time, noting the assassination of former state House Speaker Melissa Hortman , the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and the surge of federal immigration enforcement action that has drawn a major backlash.
\n\n\n\n“In Minnesota, I want to be a transformative governor. Now is our moment to renew our commitment to the common good,” she said, asking for Democrats, Republicans and independents to join her.
\n\n\n\nGov. Tim Walz on January 5 suspended his reelection campaign. Walz, first elected in 2018, gained a national profile as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 presidential election. His decision not to seek a third term comes amid an ongoing scandal over fraud in child care and other social services programs in the state.
\n\n\n\nIn a lengthy statement , Walz said his administration was taking “fast, decisive action to solve this crisis.” He excoriated “political gamemanship” by Republicans and President Donald Trump for “demonizing” Minnesota’s Somali-American community and suspending federal child care funds to the state.
\n\n\n\n\n\n“Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences,” he said. “So I’ve decided to step out of the race and let others worry about the election while I focus on the work.”
\n\n\n\nA crowded field of Republican candidates, including Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, former state Sen. Scott Jensen and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, are running for the Republican nomination.
\n\n\n\nKlobuchar was reelected to a six-year term in 2024, meaning that if she were elected to the governor’s office, she would appoint her own successor. Sen. Tina Smith, Minnesota’s junior senator, previously announced she won’t run for reelection to her seat in 2026. Candidates including Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Rep. Angie Craig are running for Smith’s seat.
\n\n\n\nThe Democratic nominee is favored to win the general election for governor in Minnesota, which has had a Democrat in the governor’s office since 2011 and Democrats representing the state in the U.S. Senate since 2010.
\n\n\n\nIn all, 36 governorships are up in 2026. Five Democratic-led states won by Trump in 2024 (Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) are holding elections for governor in 2026, while two Republican governors in states won by Harris (New Hampshire and Vermont) are up for reelection.
","category":"global","author":"Terri Rupar","publishDate":"2026-01-29T13:36:01.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-2212074312-2.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/minnesota-governor-candidates-2026/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"h7ioz5","slug":"disability-groups-are-standing-united-for-trans-rights-that-hasn8217t-always-been-the-case","title":"Disability groups are standing united for trans rights. That hasn't always been the case.","excerpt":"Nearly 40 years ago, disability advocates struck a deal with Republican lawmakers, who agreed to give their votes in exchange for excluding trans people from landmark federal disability protections. Over the past few years, and bolstered by the Biden administration, federal courts have determined th...","content":"Nearly 40 years ago, disability advocates struck a deal with Republican lawmakers, who agreed to give their votes in exchange for excluding trans people from landmark federal disability protections.
\n\n\n\nOver the past few years, and bolstered by the Biden administration, federal courts have determined that many trans people are entitled to protection from discrimination by the same laws protecting Americans with disabilities. But a new rule proposed by the Trump administration aims to reverse that.
\n\n\n\nThis time, though, disability rights advocates are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the LGBTQ+ community to extend civil rights protections to people who were historically left out. It’s a major change from how disability advocates approached trans issues in the past — and particularly notable at a time when the Trump administration has been undermining protections for LGBTQ+ and disabled people.
\n\n\n\n“It’s important for the disability community to work together to make sure that our civil rights laws are construed broadly. That has been a principle of the disability rights movement for decades,” Claudia Center, legal director of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, told The 19th. “We don’t exclude people from protections based on disability. … We don’t agree with disabilities that are unpopular not being covered by our laws. We try to work together and stick together.”
\n\n\n\nChai Feldblum was in a side room off the U.S. Senate floor in 1989 as one of the disability advocates negotiating to get enough support to pass what would become the Americans with Disabilities Act. She explains how a flash decision had reverberations for the trans community.
\n\n\n\nAt first, a Republican senator circulated a proposed amendment, which listed a set of conditions that he and other conservative lawmakers wanted excluded from protection in exchange for their support. These included about 50 psychiatric conditions and also homosexuality, recalled Feldblum, who at the time worked for the ACLU and described her role as “a conduit between disability rights litigators and the political folks.”
\n\n\n\nSome disability advocates saw no issue with explicitly listing homosexuality as one of the exclusions from the act’s protections because it was no longer considered a mental disorder by the medical establishment anyway. Feldblum, a lesbian, pushed to remove it from the list because she felt it shouldn’t have been there in the first place – that including it wrongfully framed homosexuality as a disability.
\n\n\n\nShe and other disability advocates tried to negotiate with the Republican senators whose support they needed. The GOP holdouts came back with a demand for more restrictions. Feldblum said it made her “sick to her stomach,” but in the end, she and the other advocates put together a list of eight exceptions, including “transexualism,” transvestitism” and “gender identity disorder not resulting from physical impairments,” terms that are no longer in use and that some consider offensive today. The process took a handful of minutes and the exclusions were not deeply considered, according to Feldblum.
\n\n\n\n“It was an alternative to having 50 conditions excluded,” she said. “The only way to counter it was to take some people out… That was the political reality at the time.”
\n\n\n\nChai Feldblum witnessed the Senate negotiations in 1989 as disability advocates worked to get enough support to pass what would become the Americans with Disabilities Act. \n (Via Yale Law School) After the amendment was added and the ADA took effect, Feldblum remembers people in the LGBTQ+ community being “disappointed and angry.” She said she feels what she and other advocates did was necessary.
\n\n\n\nHealth and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the change at an agency event last month alongside several other rules meant to “protect children” from so-called “transgender ideology.”
\n\n\n\nSecretary Kennedy said that designating gender dysphoria as a disability serves “the commercial interest of a predatory, multibillion dollar industry that betrayed the original intention of those laws.” In doing so, he invoked his uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Democrat who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate until his death in 2009 and played a pivotal role in co-authoring and passing the ADA.
\n\n\n\nBut Feldblum, who was in the room where it happened, said the “original intention” was no such thing. In fact, what Sen. Kennedy said at the time was that excluding “transexualism” and “gender identity disorder” was “certainly not one that I would have wanted in the legislation,” but it was one “which we can live with.”
\n\n\n\nAccording to Ma’ayan Anafi, senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, “when the exclusion was introduced, there is no evidence that the disability community was pushing for it.”
\n\n\n\nLegislation that followed the ADA passage emphasized a more expansive definition of disability, and Feldblum said she was both surprised and pleased when later court cases clarified that “gender dysphoria” is not excluded from ADA protection.
\n\n\n\nThe Trump administration has used executive orders and regulatory rollbacks through the rule-making process to advance its agenda, including its extremely broad interpretation of “gender identity disorder” and similar terms In this case, the administration is citing the original text of the ADA, according to Kevin Barry, a professor of law at Quinnipiac University. However, the terms used are no longer in use and are, to some, offensive. He noted that Congress clarified the intention of the original law through the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, which he helped negotiate. That law clearly establishes that disability should be expanded broadly, and exceptions should be interpreted narrowly, he said.
\n\n\n\n“What, in essence, [Trump administration officials] are saying is that in 1990 Congress excluded every possible condition associated with gender identity in perpetuity, forever,” Barry said. This is not something written into existing law, and it is something the courts have repeatedly rejected, he explained.
\n\n\n\n“I can’t speak to what the U.S. Supreme Court would say, but I think that is where the logic of the Trump administration goes,” he said. “If they truly believe that that’s what Congress did in 1990 excludes every condition under the sun associated with trans people, then Congress in 1990 did something unconstitutional.”
\n\n\n\nWhat do disability rights protections for transgender people look like in practice? Ezra Young, a legal scholar, has litigated a few cases involving gender dysphoria as a disability. To Young, it is squarely a disability like any other disability. He also notes that trans people are in no way obligated to identify or see themselves as disabled. Not all trans people even experience gender dysphoria.
\n\n\n\n\n\n“If they choose to not deem it a disability and choose to not invoke their rights as a person with such a disability, that’s fine, and American law does not force them to do otherwise. It’s a set of opt-in protections,” he said.
\n\n\n\nYoung cited a case of a trans woman whose office instituted a policy where workers would wear sports jerseys on Fridays. The sports jerseys in question triggered the woman’s gender dysphoria. She got a doctor’s note, but it wasn’t enough. Young pointed out that this is a common experience for many people with disabilities seeking accommodations in their workplaces.
\n\n\n\n“Does she ask for accommodation? ‘Can I please have a women’s cut jersey? I will pay for it myself. It’s just this other jersey.’ I think that’s something that lots of people with disabilities can relate to,” he said. “It’s something weird that comes up at work, at school, in public that you might not even have anticipated as needing, but you want accommodations so you can go about doing your job.”
\n\n\n\nWhat do trans people stand to lose if the Trump administration’s rule is finalized as expected, and what comes next?
\n\n\n\n “What the Trump administration is trying to do through this proposed regulation is to slice trans people with gender dysphoria out of protection of disability laws on the pretense that Congress wanted to do so,” Young said. “But guess what? If Congress wants to do that, Congress would have to pass a law. That’s the way our Constitution protects everyone.”
\n\n\n\nThe Trump administration cannot make laws through regulation, and attempting to do so leaves the administration open to litigation, experts, including Anafi and Center, told The 19th.
\n\n\n\n“We want to make sure that people know even if this rule is finalized, that’s not the end of the fight in court,” Center said.
","category":"activism","author":"Sara Luterman","publishDate":"2026-01-29T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/feldblum-EEOC.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/disability-groups-trans-rights-ada-protections/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"73xa6l","slug":"i-needed-to-know-i-was-not-the-only-one-talking-honestly-about-pregnancy-loss-and-reproductive-grief","title":"‘I Needed to Know I Was Not the Only One’: Talking Honestly About Pregnancy Loss and Reproductive Grief","excerpt":"Award-winning cartoonist Chari Pere and award-winning author and psychologist Dr. Jessica Zucker are on a mission to normalize talking about the complexities of reproductive grief in order to help people feel less alone.","content":"Award-winning cartoonist Chari Pere and award-winning author and psychologist Dr. Jessica Zucker are on a mission to normalize talking about the complexities of reproductive grief in order to help people feel less alone.
\nReproductive grief encompasses the range of emotional, psychological and even physical responses that can follow experiences like miscarriage, stillbirth, infertility, termination for medical reasons or other disruptions in a person’s reproductive journey. It is a kind of loss that is often invisible to others but deeply felt—an ache shaped not only by what happened, but by what could have been. Despite how common it is, reproductive grief remains largely unspoken, shrouded in silence and shame.
\nThe post ‘I Needed to Know I Was Not the Only One’: Talking Honestly About Pregnancy Loss and Reproductive Grief appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Jessica Zucker","publishDate":"2026-01-29T12:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/miscarried_V1_T4_04362.png","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/29/pregnancy-loss-reproductive-grief-miscarriage/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.305Z"},{"id":"wx077o","slug":"nurses-saw-themselves-in-alex-pretti8217s-death-now-theyre-demanding-justice","title":"Nurses saw themselves in Alex Pretti's death. Now they’re demanding justice.","excerpt":"Jean Stone, a maternal newborn nurse in Pennsylvania, was working a hospital shift when her husband sent a text. They’ve murdered another person. She immediately looked it up. The man, Alex Pretti, was an intensive care unit nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital.","content":"Jean Stone, a maternal newborn nurse in Pennsylvania, was working a hospital shift when her husband sent a text. They’ve murdered another person.
\n\n\n\nShe immediately looked it up. The man, Alex Pretti, was an intensive care unit nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital. But the video of his death, of Pretti being shot by federal agents in the streets of South Minneapolis on Saturday, took on another dimension for Stone.
\n\n\n\n“For a nurse, it adds immediate context to what we’re seeing in those videos,” Stone said. As she watched Pretti stand between an agent and a woman who was shoved to the ground, she thought, “that is not like the general human at-large move — to go towards that person,” Stone said.
\n\n\n\nIn Pretti’s final moments, Stone saw a nurse.
\n\n\n\nTo watch him come to the aid of a woman and reportedly ask her if she’s OK, “That’s something that a nurse says constantly in the process of a shift,” Stone said.
\n\n\n\nThe impact of Pretti’s death has undoubtedly reverberated across America, but perhaps more deeply among the nation’s nurses and health care professionals, who see themselves reflected in the actions he took before his death. It’s a sentiment that has come up again and again as nurses, a workforce dominated by women, begin mobilizing in Pretti’s name. A social media campaign, “Alex Pretti was one of us,” is taking off. On the streets, nurses are protesting, holding vigils and saying Pretti’s name at strike picket lines.
\n\n\n\n\n\n“Alex carried patience, compassion and calm as a steady light within him. Even at the very end, that light was there,” wrote Jessica Hauser, a nursing student who worked with Pretti at the Minneapolis VA, in a now-viral post . “I recognized his familiar stillness and signature calm composure shining through during those unbearable final moments captured on camera.”
\n\n\n\nNational Nurses United (NNU), the nation’s largest union representing registered nurses, is calling for a week of action to honor Pretti and for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “ICE messed with the wrong profession,” the organization said in a statement .
\n\n\n\n“We’re a profession where our purpose in life is to be the caretakers of society — the caretakers of people,” Mary Turner, president of NNU and an ICU nurse in the Twin Cities, told The 19th. “That involves so much mental, emotional, physical, spiritual effort, that when something like what happened to Alex happens, it is a devastating blow to our very soul.”
\n\n\n\nStories of Pretti’s life that have emerged show the role he played in supporting his women colleagues. Nationally, only about 11 percent of nurses are men. Dr. Avalon Swenson, a resident physician in Minnesota, recently recounted working with Pretti at the VA ICU, where he “made a point of asking my opinion and making sure my patients had what they needed without my asking.”
\n\n\n\nIn a post on Instagram , Swenson detailed an encounter with a patient who made comments about her gender, asking if she was their “birthday stripper” when she wished the patient happy birthday. The patient refused to call her Dr. Swenson.
\n\n\n\nThe National Nurses Union is hosting a national week of actions in response to Alex Pretti’s death. \n (Jaclyn Higgs/California Nurses Association) “Alex was always in the room with me, for my safety he later told me. He jumped into every conversation with patient and family, correcting each first name use with ‘she’s Dr. Swenson.’ He told them he would not continue to tolerate their verbiage and inappropriate questions toward his colleague and made a point, after the first question, to say simply ‘why would you ask your doctor that? It’s wrong and so inappropriate. Please respect her,’” Swenson wrote.
\n\n\n\nJess Lott, a neonatal ICU nurse in Pittsburgh, whose boyfriend is also a nurse, said men nurses play an important role in supporting women colleagues. Part of what has brought the story of Pretti home for nurses like her, she said, is learning about who he was from the people who knew him and worked with him.
\n\n\n\n“A lot of us — most of us probably — are empaths just by nature. So the full weight of it is just sometimes so overwhelming,” Lott said. “Every single one of these deaths should affect us profoundly, but we do live in our bubbles, and so when you come after one of our own — I’m just really hoping that no matter who you voted for, you can say that this is wrong.”
\n\n\n\nNurses like Lott have taken their concerns directly to the streets. On Wednesday, Lott and Stone joined their union, the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Pennsylvania, as part of a delegation of nurses demonstrating in front of Sen. John Fetterman’s offices in Pittsburgh, urging the Democrat to vote against additional funding for ICE . After the demonstration, nurses and health care workers joined a prayer circle to honor Pretti.
\n\n\n\n\n\nIn New York, where nurses have been on strike for three weeks to demand better working conditions, Pretti’s death has added a new layer to their demands. Nurses are asking that hospital systems pledge to protect immigrant patients and immigrant staffers from ICE detentions . There are also concerns that federal agents will turn up at hospitals and health care facilities following a rollback of federal guidelines that had categorized these spaces as “sensitive locations” where enforcement should not occur. Earlier this month, a Venezuelan family was detained in the parking lot of an urgent care in Oregon as a mother and father sought care for their 7-year-old daughter’s nosebleed.
\n\n\n\nTurner with NNU said nurses have been advocating for better working conditions for years because of challenges with stagnant pay and consolidated resources tied to hospital mergers. That took on a new weight at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when nurses and other health professionals became the frontline of mass illness and death. More than five years later, nurses are still pushing for better pay, more sustainable staffing ratios and better on-site security . Now, they’re also worried about the impact of ICE agents at hospitals and other care settings.
\n\n\n\nTurner said even though the nursing workforce was exhausted during the early years of the pandemic, at least they felt somewhat safe to show up to work. In the new year, many of them feel that the working conditions are worsening. A nurse in Maine reported being harassed by federal agents as she drove an immigrant colleague to work .
\n\n\n\n“Now add to it: anxiety, fear, anger, depression. We’ve got Black and Brown nurses that are afraid to come to work. So that short staffing? Even more short staffing,” she said.
\n\n\n\nEvents being hosted this week have drawn a strong response from union members, Turner said. She said a series of candlelight vigils offer not just a space to demand accountability, but an opportunity to be in community with one another .
\n\n\n\n“Nurses as a rule don’t take time out to do this kind of thing. We’re just go, go, go,” she said. “We hardly ever take time to stop and take a breath. To do something like this is to renew ourselves.”
\n\n\n\nIn California, where nurses began a 30,000-worker strike this week , OB-GYN nurse Kadi Gonzalez said pushing back against ICE was already part of their fight as they challenge their employer over investments into private prison operators . Then Pretti died.
\n\n\n\nGonzalez said her friends are now also feeling newfound concern about her protesting because they know she would have done the same as Pretti did in his final moments.
\n\n\n\n“People are worried about me, but that’s who we are,” she said. “Nurses go where the danger is and they want to help.”
\n\n\n\nGonzalez, who has a 10-year-old and a 14-year-old, was recently out protesting on behalf of Renee Nicole Good, the mother in Minneapolis who was killed by ICE agents in early January .
\n\n\n\n“I was out there for her because she’s a mother and she basically was doing something I would have done,” Gonzalez said. “And now I’m Alex.”
","category":"activism","author":"Ajohnston","publishDate":"2026-01-29T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/nurses-pretti_01.jpg?w=683","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/nurses-alex-pretti-death-justice/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"fiwnr","slug":"smoke-and-mirrors-how-intoxicating-hemp-seeped-into-the-first-recreational-marijuana-market-in-the-c","title":"Smoke and Mirrors: How Intoxicating Hemp Seeped Into the First Recreational Marijuana Market in the Country","excerpt":"The post Smoke and Mirrors: How Intoxicating Hemp Seeped Into the First Recreational Marijuana Market in the Country appeared first on ProPublica .","content":"The owner of a marijuana testing lab called a top regulator in Colorado on his cellphone in April 2024 with an urgent situation.
\n\n\n\n“We’ve got something that’s kind of a big deal,” he remembers saying.
\n\n\n\nDuring a routine test of a manufacturer’s products, Bona Fides Laboratory in Denver had found a toxic chemical in a popular brand of marijuana vapes sold at dispensaries in Colorado. The chemical, methylene chloride, is prohibited by Colorado’s marijuana regulators and for most uses by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency because it can cause liver and lung cancer and damage the nervous, immune and reproductive systems. The owner felt he had a duty to call immediately rather than just submit a report through the state’s online system.
\n\n\n\nAs state regulators investigated, they discovered a second problem: The product wasn’t derived from marijuana at all. It came from hemp, a close cousin of marijuana that is much cheaper to produce and that Colorado had banned companies from using to make intoxicating products for sale in the state.
\n\n\n\nCongress had legalized hemp in 2018 for other uses, such as clothing and rope, and because people believe its high levels of the nonintoxicating compound CBD can help them with seizures, pain and sleep. Hemp has extremely low levels of THC, the psychoactive compound found in marijuana that gets people high. And federal lawmakers thought allowing it would support farmers and rural jobs without the risks posed by marijuana.
\n\n\n\nBut hemp manufacturers quickly figured out how to convert CBD into THC through a process that involves toxic solvents, creating products that sometimes contain harmful chemicals and that can be more potent than products made from marijuana.
\n\n\n\nColorado was one of the first states to ban intoxicating hemp products made by chemical processing, initially with regulatory advisories and then with legislation in 2023. In doing so, lawmakers and Gov. Jared Polis boasted that Colorado — which had created the first regulated recreational marijuana market in the nation — was once again a model for how to smartly regulate cannabis, generating billions of dollars in tax revenue while keeping consumers safe.
\n\n\n\nBut despite the ban, the legislature and regulators failed to adopt many critical regulations that other states have employed to keep hemp products off the shelves.
\n\n\n\nUnlike some other states, Colorado’s lab testing system operates largely on an honor code, with marijuana manufacturers free to choose the samples they send for analysis. Colorado won’t require labs to test those products for the toxic chemicals used to convert hemp to THC until this summer. The state is also now scrambling to set up its own testing program to randomly purchase products from dispensaries to verify safety.
\n\n\n\nThe 2023 law also had an exception that allowed registered hemp companies to continue manufacturing intoxicating hemp products, but only for sale outside the state. Thuy Vu, a compliance consultant who once spearheaded the city of Denver’s marijuana manufacturing inspection regimen, warned lawmakers at the time that the carve-out “was an open invitation for bad actors” that would result in “misbranded products” proliferating in Colorado.
\n\n\n\nThe cumulative effect of these gaps means hemp-derived vapes, gummies and other edibles, which may be more dangerous than traditional marijuana products, are making their way to consumers in Colorado, according to regulatory filings, independent testing and lab results filed in litigation against companies and the state.
\n\n\n\n\n
Comparing Marijuana and Hemp \n\n\n\n\n\n\nNote: Some states that allow the sale of hemp products have restrictions on their potency. Source: Baker Institute’s Drug Policy Program, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, University of North Texas. Chris Alcantara/ProPublica Officials with the state Marijuana Enforcement Division declined requests for an interview. Agency spokesperson Heather Draper said in a statement that the agency updates its testing program on “a nearly annual basis” and “intends to pursue additional regulatory updates to the testing program this year.”
\n\n\n\nShe said the division continues to investigate allegations of companies using hemp-derived THC in marijuana products but noted that the inquiries take time because “they can be highly complex and require significant resources to complete.”
\n\n\n\nAfter the passage of the 2018 federal farm bill, many states were caught off guard as people could buy hemp-derived vapes and gummies similar to marijuana products online or at gas stations across the nation, sometimes without age restrictions.
\n\n\n\nThat sparked safety concerns as calls to poison control centers and emergency room visits related to known hemp products surged.
\n\n\n\n“When you have a market that is unregulated, difficult to assess and evolves very quickly, that is a calling card for nefarious agents to step in and make money,” said Michelle Peace, a toxicologist at Virginia Commonwealth University. “So, if they can make something that might have a little bit better of a kick, why not?”
\n\n\n\n\nOperations at the Denver-based cannabis company Ripple. Its CEO, Justin Singer, said illegal hemp is endangering consumers and undercutting Colorado marijuana businesses. Stephen Swofford/The Denver Gazette \n\n\n\nWith concerns mounting and states creating a hodgepodge of rules governing intoxicating hemp, Congress passed a law in November banning nearly all hemp-derived products starting in the fall of 2026. But how the government will implement that is an open question. In December, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to increase medical marijuana and CBD research, tasking his aides to develop regulations with Congress that would allow some hemp products while barring those that pose serious health risks.
\n\n\n\nFor now, it remains up to the states to regulate hemp. And Colorado’s experience underscores how difficult that task is. The hemp derivatives have jeopardized a key promise made to the state’s voters: that marijuana legalization would drive out the black market and create a safer environment through regulation.
\n\n\n\nWith hemp, the opposite has happened, marijuana industry representatives say.
\n\n\n\nFollowing the lab owner’s warning in April 2024, it took state regulators about two months to issue a public health advisory about the toxic vapes. The once-prolific vape manufacturer surrendered its marijuana license in January 2025. Last year, state regulators suspended two more marijuana operators after finding they used hemp-derived THC in products.
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The Denver Gazette and ProPublica conducted their own testing on products purchased at legal cannabis dispensaries in August and September. Three of the 14 vape products tested contained compounds and chemical residues that several experts said were indicative of hemp. A fourth vape had a solvent often used to process hemp into THC.
\n\n\n\nThe cases of manufacturers swapping marijuana for hemp have threatened Colorado’s marijuna industry so much that many companies are calling for tougher regulation. One even sued the state, asking a judge to force the Marijuana Enforcement Division to overhaul its testing regimen. In court filings, the agency argued that changing testing protocols was unnecessary and impracticable.
\n\n\n\n“The honor system is not working in Colorado,” Justin Trouard, owner of Mammoth Farms, the largest marijuana cultivator in the state, said in the lawsuit. “The strong economic incentives for hemp inversion have made it common practice in Colorado.”
\n\n\n\nJustin Trouard, a Colorado marijana cultivator, at his factory. Trouard alleges widespread infiltration of hemp-derived THC products into the regulated marijana market in the state. Stephen Swofford/The Denver Gazette “The Marijuana ‘Goods’ Have Changed” \n\n\n\nColorado seemed well-prepared to take on hemp after the world’s first stores licensed to sell marijuana opened there in 2014.
\n\n\n\nThe state developed a “seed-to-sale” system to track marijuana from the initial planting to the purchase of pot, vapes and other products in dispensaries, which was meant to calm fears that marijuana grown in Colorado would be diverted to states where it remained illegal. Colorado also set up licensed private labs to test marijuana products for contaminants and potency. The tracking and testing became foundational elements that other states looked to when they set up their own legalization programs.
\n\n\n\nThe first wake-up call for Colorado marijuana regulators about intoxicating hemp came in 2021.
\n\n\n\nA Broomfield man, whose business used marijuana to make the honey-colored syrup known as distillate that goes into vapes and gummies, reported that another company, Mile High Distributing, was making distillate from hemp and selling it as a marijuana product.
\n\n\n\nMile High’s owner, Jeffry Knight, who ran a string of Florida nightclubs and restaurants, had teamed up with retired pharmaceutical industry chemist Harold Meckler to come up with a way to convert hemp CBD into highly potent and profitable THC distillate for a fraction of what it cost to use marijuana, according to patents, a state investigation and interviews with Knight and Meckler.
\n\n\n\nAfter investigating the complaint, Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division sought to bar Mile High from participating in the state’s marijuana industry, arguing the company had used solvents and a chemical conversion process that weren’t allowed to make a new hemp-derived concentrate for products sold in marijuana dispensaries.
\n\n\n\nAt the suspension hearing, Meckler testified that Mile High’s hemp distillate was “probably safer” than what you get from “Mother Nature,” stressing that distillation should remove any chemicals used in the process.
\n\n\n\nBut Heather Krug, then Colorado’s state cannabis sciences program manager, worried that did not occur and testified at the hearing about the dangers posed if chemical residue remained in the final product. “When you inhale something,” she said, “it tends to go directly into your lungs and into your bloodstream and goes right to your brain.”
\n\n\n\nJeffry Knight, who owned Mile High Distributing, says his competitors stole his company’s patented techniques and are doing what he was suspended for. Chip Weiner for ProPublica Denver Fire Department officials expressed concern that if the chemicals inside Mile High caught fire or exploded, a plume of toxic gas would have reached 1 to 2 miles over Denver neighborhoods, according to a simulation run by the department’s hazmat team.
\n\n\n\n“A new breed of marijuana concentrate has entered Colorado’s cannabis market,” state hearing officer Milla Lishchuk said in her suspension order, warning that the state had failed to keep up with the changing industry. “Essentially, the marijuana ‘goods’ have changed in the cannabis market, but the laws — at least in Colorado — have not.”
\n\n\n\nShe suspended Mile High’s marijuana manufacturing license for three years, and the company went out of business.
\n\n\n\nIn an interview, Knight said that after his suspension, he had tests conducted on about a dozen products from Colorado dispensaries and found that two-thirds of them were hemp derivatives. He said his competitors simply stole his company’s patented techniques and were doing what he was suspended for.
\n\n\n\n“There’s a bunch of guys in Colorado that are making it illegally,” Knight said in the interview. (Knight is facing criminal charges in Florida after a fatal boat crash last year. He has pleaded not guilty.)
\n\n\n\nKnight and Meckler contend that they didn’t endanger anyone with Mile High products but that the chemical conversion process could be dangerous in the wrong hands. “There’s a lot of people that don’t know what they’re doing,” Meckler said.
\n\n\n\nMile High’s case prompted Colorado regulators to issue warning bulletins about hemp-derived THC in 2021, but it took state lawmakers nearly two years before they passed legislation that confirmed regulators could ban the sale of intoxicating hemp products in Colorado.
\n\n\n\nBy then, the hemp industry was already entrenched in Colorado. It had invested over $300 million in the state and generated $800 million in annual revenues, according to one industry estimate given to lawmakers. It’s unclear how much of that is intoxicating products. But an industry expert told a legislative task force that Colorado had become “the biggest provider of hemp-finished products in North America.”
\n\n\n\nIntoxicating hemp products were also spreading widely across the country. Several states took action. Oklahoma, for example, launched a secret-shopper program to ensure accurate labeling for its sanctioned medical marijuana products, including tests to detect banned solvents.
\n\n\n\nOther states that had followed Colorado’s lead in full marijuana legalization have since adopted more robust measures that Colorado did not. Of the 43 regulated recreational and medical marijuana markets in states and the District of Columbia, 24 require testing for methylene chloride.
\n\n\n\nFederal health officials also began to sound the alarm. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted a public warning about the risks of hemp-derived THC in 2021 after a spike in hospitalizations, including children who had consumed hemp gummies.
\n\n\n\nThe following year, the Food and Drug Administration warned that hemp that had been chemically converted into THC “may have potentially harmful by-products (contaminants) due to the chemicals used in the process.”
\n\n\n\nAnd studies found THC products derived from hemp caused more harm than marijuana. A review of FDA data from 2018 to 2021 found triple the number of adverse events tied to delta-8 THC, a compound common in products chemically derived from hemp, as that in delta-9 THC, the version found in marijuana.
\n\n\n\nLike other states, Colorado requires marijuana manufacturers to have labs test their products to ensure safety. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia require lab personnel to collect samples for testing to ensure that manufacturers don’t cherry-pick products for testing and hold back contaminated products.
\n\n\n\nBut Colorado lets manufacturers select samples for testing. The state found two dozen cases in which companies had manipulated testing in 2024 alone, according to a review of Marijuana Enforcement Division reports. The violations ranged from substituting samples that were different from what companies sold in stores to the use of unauthorized chemical treatments on submitted samples.
\n\n\n\nIn an April court filing in the lawsuit brought by Mammoth Farms, the division said it saw no reason to require testing for methylene chloride since it’s already banned and that doing so would be “unreasonably impracticable.” The agency’s attorneys said state employees couldn’t collect samples for testing because they are barred from possessing controlled substances, but the filing didn’t say why private labs couldn’t gather them.
\n\n\n\nMarijuana industry officials say this resistance by regulators has made it easier for manufacturers to cheat by using hemp-derived distillates. They also say the lack of regulation makes it hard to detect whether the distillate they buy is derived from hemp.
\n\n\n\n“It has never been cheaper to get the results that I want and more expensive to get an accurate understanding of what is in my inventory,” Justin Singer, CEO of Denver-based cannabis company Ripple, said at a recent policy forum. “If you actually want an accurate number, you cannot get one today if you care about accuracy. If you just care about passing the test, you can get that for 120 bucks.”
\n\n\n\nTest Results Raise Suspicions The gaps in Colorado’s marijuana laws have allowed hemp to keep showing up throughout the market. Time and again, Colorado has issued late warnings to the public or delayed enforcement action, even when officials were aware of the violations.
\n\n\n\nThe biggest discovery of illegal hemp products occurred with the tainted vapes that Bona Fides Laboratory called about in April 2024. But it wasn’t the first time Colorado regulators had heard concerns about the company, Ware Hause. In October 2023, a whistleblower warned the Marijuana Enforcement Division that Ware Hause was chemically converting hemp to make intoxicating vapes and selling them as marijuana.
\n\n\n\nThe state opened an investigation after the 2023 report, but regulators didn’t warn the public until June 2024, a couple of months after the lab reported the positive tests for methylene chloride. The Marijuana Enforcement Division told consumers to destroy or return Ware Hause vapes bought as many as five months earlier. The agency determined that samples Ware Hause had submitted for testing were not representative of what it put out to market.
\n\n\n\nWare Hause’s owner, Thanh Hau, declined requests for an interview and did not respond to detailed questions.
\n\n\n\nThe problem was more widespread than Ware Hause, according to Mammoth Farms, which grows marijuana and has a lot to lose if hemp infiltrates the market. The company sued Ware Hause and three other manufacturers last year, claiming that independent testing showed their vapes contained distillate derived from hemp.
\n\n\n\nMammoth Farms argued that the low-cost hemp put consumers at risk and also put it and other companies at a competitive disadvantage. The companies have denied the allegations, and Ware Hause countersued, contending that Mammoth Farms was the one using hemp derivatives to make distillate, an allegation Mammoth Farms denied.
\n\n\n\nFor now, Colorado doesn’t have a testing regimen to detect hemp to help sort out such conflicts.
\n\n\n\nCannabis samples sit in agitation equipment at Kaycha Labs in Denver. The facility provides comprehensive testing for potency, contamination and compliance with state and federal regulations, including the presence of illegal synthetic cannabinoids. Stephen Swofford/The Denver Gazette In March, Mammoth Farms filed another lawsuit against the Marijuana Enforcement Division, arguing that the testing system and seed-to-sale tracking program were failing to catch impostor products derived from hemp.
\n\n\n\nDuring a court hearing in that case last spring, an official for Purplebee’s, once the largest marijuana distillate manufacturer in Colorado, said hemp distillate was making it hard to turn a profit. James Parco, former president of manufacturing, said the price of distillate had cratered to $2 a gram. That was down 85% from what testimony in another case estimated it had been four years earlier, and he said the decline forced his company out of the distillate business.
\n\n\n\nThe judge dismissed the lawsuit against the enforcement division in May on procedural grounds, stating that Mammoth Farms should have petitioned regulators for rule changes before filing the suit.
\n\n\n\nRegulators have since found other hemp cases. The Commission Cartel, a marijuana manufacturer, surrendered its license in July after the Marijuana Enforcement Division found vials of hemp-derived compounds in a refrigerator at the factory it was using.
\n\n\n\nOne of the company’s owners, Joshua Littlejohn, denied in an interview that the company used hemp in its edibles and said it had instead used hemp to manufacture body creams for another company, which state regulators said still wasn’t allowed because the hemp had intoxicating levels. He said he surrendered his license because fighting regulators would cost too much.
\n\n\n\nColorado regulators have started taking steps to adopt regulations that other states have, with a trial of an off-the-shelf testing program to buy products from dispensaries and double-check the work of labs.
\n\n\n\nThey also agreed to require testing for methylene chloride before any products can go to dispensaries. Still, the state delayed implementation until July to give labs time to adjust their practices.
\n\n\n\n“It’s not enough,” said Singer, the owner of Ripple. “It is a start. But like, again, they’re four years late at least.”
\nThe post Smoke and Mirrors: How Intoxicating Hemp Seeped Into the First Recreational Marijuana Market in the Country appeared first on ProPublica .
","category":"activism","author":"Christopher Osher","publishDate":"2026-01-29T10:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/weed-hemp-comparison-fallback_f66633.png?w=1149","source":"ProPublica","sourceUrl":"https://www.propublica.org/article/colorado-marijuana-thc-intoxicating-hemp-regulation","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.283Z"},{"id":"xccmf8","slug":"fear-faith-and-preparation-as-ice-closes-in-on-an-ohio-community","title":"Fear, faith and preparation as ICE closes in on an Ohio community","excerpt":"Church-supervised hubs to house and care for children separated from their parents. Phone chains to activate citizen networks if federal immigration agents are spotted in the community. Volunteers to deliver food to hungry neighbors from their own cars instead of food pantry trucks.","content":"Church-supervised hubs to house and care for children separated from their parents. Phone chains to activate citizen networks if federal immigration agents are spotted in the community. Volunteers to deliver food to hungry neighbors from their own cars instead of food pantry trucks. Training on what to do if agents breach one of the churches planning to provide sanctuary to immigrant families.
\n\n\n\nThese are just some of the preparations that residents of Springfield, Ohio, have made in recent days as the country barrels toward the end of an immigration program that has allowed some 330,000 Haitians to legally live and work in the United States because of the rampant violence and political volatility in Haiti. Though conditions there have not improved — and perhaps only worsened — Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, ends for Haitians on February 3. There are as many as 15,000 immigrants in the Springfield area, many of them Haitian, and the city of about 60,000 is ramping up efforts to try to protect their community from the type of chaotic, violent assault by federal immigration agents that claimed two lives in Minneapolis in recent weeks.
\n\n\n\n“The fear is turned up as high as it can go in the community,” said Marjory Wentworth, a poet and member of the faith-based coalition G92, which formed last year to support Springfield’s Haitian community.
\n\n\n\nTop of mind for the largely faith-based constellation of groups and coalitions are thousands of Haitian and Haitian-American children in Springfield who are in danger of being separated from their parents if ICE begins either targeted or large-scale enforcement actions. The Catholic charity St. Vincent de Paul has spent the past eight months urging the Haitian parents who come into their community center to get U.S. passports for their American-born children in case they need to self-deport to Haiti or a third country. There have also been efforts to get kinship care and guardianship arrangements in place in the event of worst-case family separation scenarios.
\n\n\n\nMany Haitians in Springfield are still praying for a last-minute reprieve from the courts. There are two cases before federal judges that challenge the Trump administration’s decision to end TPS for Haitians given the conditions in their home country — one is expected to rule before the TPS end date. But the Springfield network that has supported Haitians there is moving forward with preparations for what more than one referred to as a potential “siege” by ICE, since the administration might appeal the ruling — or ignore it altogether.
\n\n\n\n“It has felt for a long time like we’re facing a train coming down the tracks toward us,” said Pastor Carl Ruby, whose congregation has been vocal in their support for Haitians.
\n\n\n\nCarl Ruby (right), pastor at Central Christian Church, is part of the faith-based constellation of groups preparing to support the thousands of Haitian and Haitian-American families in Springfield who are in danger of being targeted by large-scale ICE enforcement actions. \n (Jessie Wardarski/AP) Late last week, word came from the office of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine that it was time to “activate the churches,” as one leader of a faith-based organization put it — in other words, to prepare to provide emergency care and short-term housing to children separated from their parents. Amy Willmann at the Nehemiah Foundation, a local group named for a biblical figure said to have restored Jerusalem, was tapped as the point person. She said their network has 28 churches and 114 volunteers who have already completed background checks. These volunteers will staff “hubs” where children can go if they arrive home from school to an empty house or are taken in by child services once a parent is picked up by ICE. DeWine, a term-limited Republican in his final year in office, has pledged additional support from the state.
\n\n\n\nWillmann said a top priority is getting the word out to Haitian parents that these volunteers are not looking to adopt their children, they simply want to make sure they are safe during a potentially volatile situation.
\n\n\n\n“We want you to know they have a safe place to be until they’re reunified with you. We know that some of [the parents] will self deport and take their children with them, some of them will take their children with them into detention. But we also know that some are already choosing to leave their children here because they don’t want to take them to a detention center or to Haiti,” Willmann said.
\n\n\n\nOn Saturday, G92 held a rapid-response training that drew nearly 200 to a local church. Though it was initially designed to be the final in a series, there were so many new faces that organizers decided to make it more of an all-hands-on-deck overview. As G92 member and social worker Jill Potter-Bonsell put it: “The demographic of these people is changing, more and more everyday people that wouldn’t normally be involved in this type of stuff are concerned and feel morally obligated to do something.”
\n\n\n\nParticipants learned about their First Amendment rights and about the newly elevated risk of exercising them. They acted out potential scenarios community members may encounter as they face Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents on their streets — and in their churches. On President Donald Trump’s first day back in office, his administration ended a policy that protected churches, schools and hospitals from immigration enforcement. As actors playing ICE agents busted through the church sanctuary door, some participants took out their cell phones to start recording. A woman in a wheelchair did circles in the aisle to complicate the agents’ path. More than a few dropped to their knees and began to pray.
\n\n\n\n\n\n“Most of it took place in our sanctuary — no pun intended,” said Ruby, whose church hosted the training. “We tried to distill everything that we’ve learned over the last year into one training session that was very specifically focused on what could happen in Springfield in the next couple of weeks.”
\n\n\n\nHanging over the training was the recent death of Renee Nicole Good at the hands of federal immigration agents in Minneapolis — organizers emphasized personal safety considerations and their commitment to nonviolent resistance, grounded in their belief that “as Christians, we are called to push back against injustice,” Ruby said. Halfway through, Ruby got word that federal immigration agents had shot Alex Pretti and announced it to the group. As participants prepared to break for the day, they got the news that the 37-year-old ICU nurse had died.
\n\n\n\n“It was very sobering, because when I watched what happened with Renee Good, I realized this could happen to some of the people who we’ve trained, because we’ve trained people to videotape what they’re seeing, and they could be doing the very same things and be shot and killed by ICE,” Ruby said.
\n\n\n\nMany Springfield residents preparing for the end of TPS and what could follow said it is giving them flashbacks to 2024, when lies about Haitians on social media were amplified by Trump and Vice President JD Vance, and when white nationalist groups descended on their city. Misinformation “spread like wildfire” then, said Jen Casto, a G92 member and community activist. In recent days, she has heard that ICE enforcement would begin on January 28, then that it will begin on February 3 and last 30 days; she has heard that 1,500 federal agents are being deployed to the city, then that they have a high-priority list of 300 people first in line for deportation. Really, no one knows what to expect, so they’re trying to prepare for everything, Casto said.
\n\n\n\n“It takes me back to that, in a way, but at a different level,” Casto said of today versus what her community confronted in 2024. “But now, I don’t think we’re so much worried about hate groups coming here like we had in the past … I think a lot of what the feeling is right now is a fear that ICE or other federal entities are going to come in here and just destroy our community.”
","category":"activism","author":"Amanda Becker","publishDate":"2026-01-28T19:14:56.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/springfield-ice_02.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/ice-churches-children-springfield-ohio/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"t9lvvh","slug":"ipas-evidence-in-action-2025-research-insights-on-abortion-access-quality-and-equity","title":"Ipas evidence in action 2025: Research insights on abortion access, quality, and equity","excerpt":"The post Ipas evidence in action 2025: Research insights on abortion access, quality, and equity appeared first on Ipas .","content":"
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Evidence matters most when it helps people act. In 2025, Ipas and partners published research that turns lived realities into practical lessons for improving abortion access and care, especially for people who are too often pushed to the margins.
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Across 17 countries and three languages, these studies offer crucial information and methodologies to help push for better standards, smarter investments, and fewer barriers between people and essential health care.
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Here’s an overview of our 2025 research you can use in advocacy and action. \n\t\t\t
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Improving quality and equity
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Reaching people facing complex barriers
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Strengthening systems, challenging norms
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Expanding access \n\t\t\t
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Self-managed abortion with pills: Access, experience, and quality information \n
Self-managed abortion with pills is expanding access, but people still face misinformation, inconsistent counseling, and uneven availability. These studies give advocates evidence to strengthen pharmacy and community access while pushing for safeguards like accurate counseling, pharmacist training, and clear referral pathways.
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In India, a trend analysis shows a substantial increase in self-managed abortion (SMA) with pills between 2014 and 2021 and demonstrates the transformative power of SMA in increasing access to safe and effective abortion: The transformative terrain: An in-depth analysis of trends in self-managed abortion in India using NFHS-5 national data
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In the Democratic Republic of Congo, research shows that misoprostol was available in less than 50% of pharmacies and mifepristone and misoprostol in less than 2% of surveyed sites. Mystery client interactions reveal that most pharmacists need training on medication abortion counseling and regimens: Quality of information on medication abortion in private pharmacies: Results from a mystery client study in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
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In Ethiopia, a pilot study on SMA through private pharmacies demonstrates high demand from women and interest from pharmacies in providing women with medication abortion, but Ethiopia’s legal framework presents challenges to a pharmacy-based model: Increasing access to self-managed abortion through pharmacies: programmatic results and lessons from a pilot program in Oromia, Ethiopia
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In Cambodia, an exploration of women’s SMA experiences reveals that young women’s success rates were comparable to those of adult women, and they generally had better experiences than their older counterparts. Young women were more likely to seek support from family and friends, highlighting the important role of social support and the need for accurate information on abortion to be disseminated at the community level: Comparing medical abortion outcomes and experiences between young and adult women: Evidence from urban Cambodia
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Using data from Cambodia and Ghana, Ipas authors compare the SMA information and counselling provided by pharmacists to women with that provided by a health provider at a clinic. While pharmacists and clinic-based providers focused on different aspects of SMA counseling, results indicate that both cadres would benefit from training to ensure their clients receive the best information and counseling possible: Assessing information and counselling provision for medical abortion care in pharmacies versus clinics: Secondary analysis of two non-inferiority cohort studies
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Telemedicine: Quality care beyond major cities \n
Telemedicine can expand abortion access by reaching people who face barriers to in-person care, including those who live outside major cities. In 2025, Ipas and partners at Profamilia in Colombia compared clients who received medication abortion care via telemedicine with those who received in-person care.
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The study found that clients in both groups were highly satisfied with their care. It also found that telemedicine was as effective as in-person care when clients received clear, comprehensive guidance, reinforcing telemedicine as a strong option for expanding access, quality, and equity: Adherence to first-trimester medication abortion in telemedicine versus in-person care: a prospective cohort study in Colombia, 2024
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Quality of abortion care: Safety, experience, and equity \n
Abortion quality can mean many things, from clinical safety and effectiveness to how well a person is supported, respected, and understood throughout their care experience. Ipas research explores multiple aspects of abortion quality and provides the opportunity to support the development of policies and programs that improve the quality of abortion across numerous dimensions.
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In Argentina, a 2020 law change provided the opportunity to explore how legal reform impacts access to quality care. This study found that while the safety of abortion care in the study sites remained consistent, legal reform expanded access to safe abortion services up to 15 weeks, especially for disadvantaged women: Expanding access to safe ambulatory manual vacuum aspiration abortion up to 15 weeks following Argentina’s legal reform: an observational study in the public health sector.
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In Mexico, most patients who have a facility-based abortion have no complications, but those that do experience a complication are more likely to come from a marginalized area and be seeking care later in pregnancy. This research uncovers the challenges associated with abortion care-seeking in Mexico, highlighting how location and timing contribute to the safety of abortion care received.: Public hospital-based care for abortive events in Mexico: complication rates and socio-demographic factors, 2018-2022.
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For women in Uganda, the experience of seeking and receiving quality abortion care within the public health system can be a challenge due to a restrictive law and abortion stigma. Research shows that high-quality abortion care is client-centered and provided by clinicians that are trained in compassionate communication to improve a client’s experience: Mapping the journey: enhancing abortion care in Uganda’s health systems.
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Contraception decisions: Access, information, and choice \n
Research on contraception, whether after an abortion or during another phase in a person’s reproductive lifetime, provides critical information on why people use (or do not use) contraception and can inform programs and policies that support contraceptive decision-making. These publications help pinpoint where counseling and method options fall short in pharmacies, and how immigration policies impact barriers to access.
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Ipas’s SMA research in Cambodia and Ghana provides insights into women’s uptake of post-abortion contraception from pharmacists versus clinics. Results showed that although the rates of contraceptive use were the same between women who got abortion pills from a pharmacy versus a clinic, pharmacy clients were more likely to use a less effective method, and contraceptive information and options were more readily offered by clinics, indicating a need for supporting pharmacies in providing more information and effective methods at the time of SMA purchase: Post-abortion contraceptive use among women purchasing medication abortion from pharmacies vs. clinics: Evidence from Cambodia and Ghana
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Using data from the National Survey of Family Growth in the United States, researchers examined how state-level immigration policies are associated with effective contraceptive method use among US-born and foreign-born Mexican-origin women. Results reveal how exclusionary immigration policies are associated with lower contraceptive use among US- and foreign-born Mexican women: Immigration policy climate and contraceptive use among Mexican-origin women in the United States
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Humanitarian settings: Essential care and better evidence in crises \n
In humanitarian crises, abortion and postabortion care are often left out even when they are urgently needed. These studies offer practical methods that can be used in other crisis settings, including ways to study self-managed abortion and estimate deaths linked to unsafe abortion when routine data is limited. Together, they make the case for including maternal health care, postabortion care, and safe abortion care in humanitarian response and provide tools for research and to document needs that are often overlooked.
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In forcibly displaced populations, a new study protocol outlines a community-facility capture-recapture approach to better estimate maternal deaths due to abortion complications, helping strengthen measurement where official data is incomplete: Maternal mortality due to abortion complications in forcibly displaced populations: A study protocol for a community-facility capture-recapture (CFCR) study
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In two humanitarian settings in Uganda and Kenya, a respondent-driven sampling study examines abortion incidence and safety, providing evidence on access and outcomes where care is often constrained: Incidence and safety of abortion in two humanitarian settings in Uganda and Kenya: a respondent-driven sampling study
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A mixed-methods study assesses whether respondent-driven sampling can be used to feasibly recruit participants with recent abortion experiences in humanitarian contexts, offering practical guidance for researchers working in hard-to-reach settings: Feasibility of respondent-driven sampling to recruit participants with recent abortion experiences in humanitarian contexts: a mixed-methods community-engaged research study
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Youth and abortion care: What helps, what hurts \n
Young people face added barriers and stigma when seeking abortion care, which can push them toward unsafe options.
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This study centers African adolescents’ own voices and shows that when policies are less restrictive and services are easier to reach, adolescents are more likely to obtain safe care and less likely to resort to unsafe abortion methods. These findings support the push for youth-responsive services, clearer pathways to care, and reforms that reduce fear, delay, and stigma: Adolescent abortion care trajectories and safety in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Zambia: a comparative mixed methods study
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Climate justice: How climate shocks shape sexual and reproductive health and rights \n
Climate change and related disasters disrupt access to care, increase risk, and worsen existing inequities. Ipas’s research adds to the growing evidence on how climate vulnerability affects sexual and reproductive health and rights, especially for people already facing access barriers. The findings below make a strong case for climate adaptation that includes sexual and reproductive health services and for locally led solutions that protect autonomy and rights.
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In cyclone-affected communities in Bangladesh, researchers found that extreme weather can make it harder for people to get the sexual and reproductive health care and information they need, and that marginalized groups, such as low-income and displaced people, experience the most severe disruptions: Applying an intersectional climate justice lens to understand climate crisis impacts on sexual and reproductive health and rights and identify local solutions: Qualitative findings from Khulna, Bangladesh
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In Nepal, research explored how repeated climate disasters are linked to changes in women’s safety and daily lives, including increased risk of gender-based violence, but also greater autonomy in decision-making as men migrate for work: Climate change and its differential impact on sexual and reproductive health and rights among women in Nepal
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A third publication documents the journey of the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Climate Justice Coalition, co-founded by Ipas. The coalition connects more than 100 organizations working to build evidence, challenge harmful narratives, and champion locally led solutions rooted in autonomy and rights: No climate justice without sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice: past, present, and future challenges faced by the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Climate Justice Coalition.
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Related collection In Frontiers in Global Women’s Health , the research topic “Climate, Gender, and Sexual and Reproductive Health: Intersectional Approaches and Evidence” brings together new research on how climate change affects health and rights, including access to health care, gender-based violence, and safe abortion. This special issue is co-led by Ipas Associate Director of Program Evidence Sally Dijkerman as a topic editor.
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Strengthening systems, challenging norms \n\t\t\t
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Innovations in measurement: What we count shapes what we improve \n
Even when measurement is challenging, investing in the right tools and methods can drive equity and progress. In 2025, Ipas and partners published two papers that push the field to measure sexual and reproductive health in ways that better reflect people’s real lives and experiences. These studies offer improved ways to capture pregnancy recognition and to measure sexual and reproductive wellbeing, expanding what programs can track beyond clinical endpoints.
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In one study, authors propose improved survey questions about when and how people realize they are pregnant, including response options that capture physical signs, practical constraints, and emotional factors. Better measurement of pregnancy recognition can help explain why people seek care when they do, including abortion care: Capturing pregnancy recognition trajectories: a critical reflection of new quantitative measures tested in Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria and Zambia.
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A second publication offers a new definition of sexual and reproductive wellbeing and a short measure to assess it, shifting attention toward whether people are able to live the sexual and reproductive lives they want, not just whether services were delivered: What about well-being? Measuring what we really care about in sexual and reproductive health.
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Midwives: Key figures for expanding access and building local research leadership \n
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), midwives are playing a growing role in comprehensive abortion care as access to legal services has expanded. Ipas DRC has supported training midwives to provide care and to lead research that reflects what clients and communities need.
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In 2025, Ipas DRC and partners published three papers that show how midwife-led models can strengthen access and quality. The studies explore how communities view midwife-provided care, what it takes to build midwives’ research capacity through collaboration, and what clients themselves say they experience when seeking person-centered abortion care.
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Values clarification: Reducing stigma in clinical settings \n
Abortion law reform matters, but so do the beliefs and attitudes of the people providing care.
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This chapter documents a regionwide effort across Latin America and the Caribbean in which 18 obstetrician-gynecologist associations, connected through the Latin American Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology Societies (FLASOG), used values clarification workshops to spark reflection and shift perspectives on abortion and sexual and reproductive rights. With 36 trained facilitators delivering 44 workshops to 1,182 health workers, it provides a real-world model advocates can use to work with health professionals to reduce stigma and support respectful, rights-based care: Clarificación de valores: alianzas con sociedades médicas para promover una salud reproductiva basada en derechos humanos en América Latina y el Caribe.
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Gender-based violence: When sexual violence affects abortion access \n
Gender-based violence can directly shape people’s risk of unintended pregnancy and their ability to get care.
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In 2025, Ipas-supported research in Brazil examined “stealthing,” removing a condom during sex without consent, and how it may fit within Brazilian law as a form of sexual violence with implications for legal abortion eligibility. This paper argues that pregnancies resulting from “stealthing” should qualify for legal abortion under existing exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape: Direito ao aborto em casos de stealthing: reflexões, desafios e possibilidades legais no Brasil.
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See more Ipas research \n\t\t\t
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Building evidence to expand abortion access Ipas researches abortion in collaboration with diverse global, regional, national and local partners. Explore our evidence and resources here.
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Ipas 2024 research publications With 26 publications in 15 peer-reviewed journals across nine countries, our 2024 research gave evidence to drive real change in legal abortion access, care quality and stigma reduction.
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The post Ipas evidence in action 2025: Research insights on abortion access, quality, and equity appeared first on Ipas .
","category":"choice","author":"Saren Richardson","publishDate":"2026-01-28T18:13:42.000Z","image":"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/feature-module-default-image-A.png","source":"Ipas","sourceUrl":"https://www.ipas.org/news/ipas-evidence-in-action-2025-research-insights-on-abortion-access-quality-and-equity/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.441Z"},{"id":"6kcpkv","slug":"abortion-policy-on-the-global-stage-unpacking-the-trump-administrations-newly-expanded-mexico-city-p","title":"Abortion Policy on the Global Stage: Unpacking the Trump Administration’s Newly Expanded Mexico City Policy","excerpt":"On Friday, January 23, 2026, the Trump administration released the latest expansion of the Mexico City Policy (MCP). The controversial policy, which had restricted foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from performing or promoting abortion as a method of family planning as a condition of rec...","content":"On Friday, January 23, 2026, the Trump administration released the latest expansion of the Mexico City Policy (MCP). The controversial policy, which had restricted foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from performing or promoting abortion as a method of family planning as a condition of receiving most U.S. global health aid, has been broadened significantly to include more organizations (not just foreign NGOs) and most U.S. foreign aid.","category":"choice","author":"kffconnorg","publishDate":"2026-01-28T17:51:31.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2026/01/260126_KFF_Event_Abortion-Policy-on-the-Global-Stage.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/event/abortion-policy-on-the-global-stage-unpacking-the-trump-administrations-newly-expanded-mexico-city-policy/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"hwpsbm","slug":"rep-ilhan-omar-attacked-at-town-hall-amid-increased-harassment-from-trump","title":"Rep. Ilhan Omar attacked at town hall amid increased harassment from Trump","excerpt":"A man attacked Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar at a Tuesday town hall in Minneapolis, appearing to spray her with an unknown substance as she spoke about her desire to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.","content":"A man attacked Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar at a Tuesday town hall in Minneapolis, appearing to spray her with an unknown substance as she spoke about her desire to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
\n\n\n\nOmar, who has represented Minneapolis since 2019 and has been an outspoken critic of the Trump’s administration’s immigration enforcement actions there, continued the meeting after the man was wrestled away from her podium by security.
\n\n\n\n“Here’s the reality that people like this ugly man don’t understand. We are Minnesota strong, and we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us,” she told the crowd. Later on X, she added : “I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don’t let bullies win.”
\n\n\n\nWhen asked about Tuesday’s attack, Trump told ABC that he hadn’t seen the video, saying, “I don’t think about her.” He added: “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.”
\n\n\n\nOn Thursday, the Justice Department charged the man who approached Omar with forcibly assaulting, opposing, impeding and intimidating her. Authorities have since determined the substance was water and apple cider vinegar.
\n\n\n\nThe president regularly launches verbal and social media attacks against Omar , one of his most frequent targets, alongside other progressive women lawmakers in Congress — particularly those who are women of color. The vitriol he directs at the Minnesota Democrat has intensified alongside his attacks against other elected officials in the state, which has been at the center of his administration’s immigration crackdown since December. Trump has linked the raids, which initially focused on Minneapolis’ large Somali community, to federal prosecution of a series of fraud cases involving government programs and a misleading viral video about child care fraud. Trump referred to Omar as “a fraud” when asked about Tuesday’s attack.
\n\n\n\nFederal agents have been on the ground in the Twin Cities since December and recently killed two people in incidents that sparked national outrage. Omar has continued to call for abolishing ICE , urging Trump to “get your goons out of Minnesota.”
\n\n\n\nTrump announced this week that the DOJ and Congress were investigating Omar, in a Truth Social post that also announced a separate shuffling of the officials in charge of managing immigration raids in Minneapolis. Under former President Joe Biden, the DOJ had opened an investigation into her finances and interactions with a foreign citizen in 2024, but closed it for lack of evidence, per The New York Times.
\n\n\n\nTuesday’s attack is not the first incident of physical violence Omar has faced — beyond being inside the U.S. Capitol on on January 6, 2021, she was attacked at a state party caucus meeting as a staffer in 2014 — but rhetoric against the four-term representative has increased dramatically over the last few months, egged on by Trump.
\n\n\n\nSome members of Congress supported Omar on social media after the video of Tuesday’s attack spread online, including Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who has previously spread hateful messages about her colleague, including calling her an “enemy of the state.”
\n\n\n\nOn Tuesday night, Mace posted on X: “Regardless of how vehemently I disagree with her rhetoric — and I do — no elected official should face physical attacks. This is not who we are.”
\n\n\n\nHours before the attack, Trump held a rally in Iowa and made derogatory remarks about Somalis and other immigrants as he has increasingly done over the last few months, mentioning Omar by name: “They have to show that they can love our country. Not like Ilhan Omar. Did you see that wiseguy? She’s always talking about the Constitution … She comes from a country that is a disaster.”
\n\n\n\nOmar has long been singled out by Trump alongside other members of the so-called Squad, a progressive group of women lawmakers that initially also included Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley. Since his first term, Trump has called them “not very smart,” suggested they hate the country and told them to “go back to where they came from.” Three of them were born in the United States, and Omar has been a U.S. citizen since 2000.
\n\n\n\nBut beyond disparaging remarks from Trump, political violence has also skyrocketed in recent years . In 2022, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was assaulted in their California home by someone who was looking “to kidnap and interrogate” the longtime lawmaker. Last June, former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed in their home. And last week, Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost was punched in the face at the Sundance Film Festival.
\n\n\n\nA U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) report released Tuesday found that threat assessment cases have climbed for the third year in a row, so far peaking in 2025 at 14,938 reported concerning statements and behaviors directed at lawmakers and their associates. The year prior saw 9,474 such incidents.
\n\n\n\n“Being a public servant shouldn’t mean risking your life in this way,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) out of Rutgers University. “When these kinds of incidents occur, and especially if the commander-in-chief doesn’t condemn them, it makes making the choice to run for office and voice your opinions — it has a chilling effect.”
\n\n\n\nThe Brennan Center, a left-leaning think tank, has published analyses about the ways fear of violence impacts politicians’ policy positions and communications, as well as deterring people from getting into politics — one study found nearly 40 percent of local officeholders said abuse lessened their desire to run for reelection, with women and people of color more likely than White men to say the same.
\n\n\n\nWalsh added that while it’s hard to determine how many women decide not to run because of the threats of violence, there are still several cases of legislators, especially at the state level, leaving office for the safety of their loved ones.
\n\n\n\nMeanwhile, Omar has said she has not been supported by GOP colleagues throughout Trump’s repeated and increasing online attacks.
\n\n\n\n“It isn’t surprising because the Republicans have bent the knee,” Omar said during a December MS NOW appearance. “They’ve welcomed his disgusting rhetoric. I’m not expecting any of them to develop a backbone now.”
","category":"global","author":"Marissa Martinez","publishDate":"2026-01-28T15:29:06.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/ilhan_omar_attack.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/ilhan-omar-sprayed-minnesota-town-hall/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"xjettg","slug":"how-8216bridgerton8217-and-other-romances-have-evolved-in-their-depictions-of-consent","title":"How ‘Bridgerton’ and Other Romances Have Evolved in Their Depictions of Consent","excerpt":"Will they get it right in Season 4? The post How Bridgerton and Other Romances Have Evolved in Their Depictions of Consent appeared first on Rewire News Group.","content":"As Bridgerton lovers prepare to jump back into another Regency England romance on Jan. 29, viewers will be thrust into a world of lavish parties, beautiful gowns, and Lady Whistledown’s gossip. While Benedict Bridgerton and Sophie Baek’s story unfolds on the screen, there could also be expanding questions about how the show handles consent.
\nBased on Julia Quinn’s popular historical romance novels, every season of the Netflix adaptation follows the love story of one of the eight Bridgerton siblings. Each of the first three seasons raked in more than 90 million views during their first 91 days on the streaming platform.
\nBut while the love stories have captivated viewers, the show’s portrayals of consent—which the National Sexual Violence Resource Center defines as meaning “everyone involved has agreed to what they are doing and has given their permission”—have varied.
\nSeason 1, in particular, drew controversy for a marital rape scene in which the protagonist, Daphne Bridgerton, forces her husband to ejaculate inside her after he repeatedly made it clear during other sexual encounters that he didn’t want to. Bridgerton fans criticized showrunners for including the scene from the original book when it premiered in 2020.
\nIn the years since, the show has evolved in its portrayals of consent. Season 3 is perhaps the season with the best depiction of consent, with Colin Bridgerton asking Penelope Featherington for consent during different sexual encounters.
\nBut there’s still room for improvement when it comes to informed consent —meaning that there’s open communication about boundaries before, during, and after the activities being engaged in, and what may result from their actions. Season 4 is an opportunity for Bridgerton , a show which mixes the historical and the modern, to improve how it depicts consent for a contemporary audience.
\nEvolution of consent in modern romance novels \nWhile the Bridgerton series has reached new heights for book-based adaptations, the romance genre’s popularity is nothing new.
\nThe concept of the romance novel as we know it today dates back to the romantic fiction of the 18th and 19th centuries, according to the New York Public Library . While the early days of romance novels mostly explored the stories of heterosexual, white women, the genre has slowly evolved to become more inclusive . New subgenres —like new adult romance and romance-fantasy (better known as romantasy)—have also emerged. Tropes such as friends to lovers, forced proximity, and fake dating have established certain frameworks that give structure to the stories.
\nConsent appears to be increasingly important to romance-enjoyers. As recently as this winter, the Heated Rivalry TV series—based on Rachel Reid’s best-selling Game Changers novel series—was praised for its portrayal of affirmative consent .
\nAnd the books we read, fictional or otherwise, can shape our real lives . Aashna Avachat , a literary agent and young adult romance author, said in an interview with Rewire News Group that growing up, her expectations of what romance would be like were based, in part, on the books she was reading.
\n“I remember when I was growing up, the romance books that I was reading, whether for teenagers or for adults, rarely had explicit consent,” Avachat said. “It always seemed to be sort of implied. And that was, I think, considered quite romantic.”
\nBut as she began her writing and agent career, she noticed a shift: Books, especially in the young adult novel space, included more direct consent.
\n“[I] started noticing even for first kiss scenes, characters would ask, ‘Can I kiss you? Do you want me to kiss you?’” Avachat added. “And I think that that started to feel like sort of an important shift, and I think a positive shift, where we were seeing consent as a romantic gesture.”
\nThe concept of consent has changed over time in American society, as has how it’s explored in literature. Given that romance novels are published at distinct times when the definitions of consent have varied, discussions about consent can be complicated.
\nIn addition to romantasy and new adult romances, contemporary romance (taking place after World War II), historical romance (taking place before World War II), and romantic suspense (mixing mystery, thriller, and romance elements) are popular romance subgenres . Dark romance is growing in popularity and has faced criticism over what some readers consider to be romanticized portrayals of abuse and lack of consent .
\nAccording to Options Domestic & Sexual Violence Services , the subgenre can become harmful when it reinforces harmful myths about assault, blurs the lines of consent, and may not have proper context that can be important for younger readers. (It’s worth noting that not all readers and critics see dark romance as negative : It can help some people process their emotions and raise awareness about harmful behaviors.)
\nHistorical context \nDr. Jayashree Kamblé , an English professor at LaGuardia Community College in New York City who teaches about romance narratives in fiction, popular culture, and literature, explained that “readers grow up under the politics of their times,” and that the time period in which readers come to romance novels can impact the lens through which they read them.
\n“Commercial romance novels have a 100-plus year history, and ones where sexual violence was more common, as were scenes of dubious consent or manufactured consent, can be most often found in examples from the 1970s,” Kamblé said. “By the 1980s, both readers and editors were asking writers to change that.”
\nShe added that when examining texts through a cultural studies lens, especially those written in the past, it’s necessary to look at them from two time periods: when the text was written, and the current moment.
\n“You always have to be wearing both hats … because otherwise, everything else will fail based on your current yardstick,” she said.
\n“I don’t think we let anybody off the hook,” Kamblé added. “But we also don’t necessarily say, ‘Oh my God, can you believe that they were doing this and thought it was acceptable?’”
\nKathleen E. Woodiwiss’ 1972 book The Flame and the Flower is often cited as a prominent example of the historical, “bodice ripper” style of romance novels, that tend to include sexual violence or questionable portrayals of consent. This particular book was a bestseller at the time, and the New York Times reported that it helped to grow historical romances in paperback form.
\nSince then, however, the story has been criticized because of the relationship between the main characters, Heather Simmons and Brandon Birmingham. During the unfolding of the story, he rapes her, resulting in a pregnancy. And they are forced to marry before eventually living happily ever after.
\nOlder romance novels often depicted “rapist heroes .” As Salon reported
\nKamblé explained that the current cultural conversation around consent is fairly new and shaped by different factors, including feminist movements, the increasing awareness about bodily autonomy, and “the practice of sexual activity as having different stages.”
\nDifferent decades saw different phenomena: In the late 1960s and 1970s, during the women’s liberation movement, romance readers understood women’s rights—including the right to sexual sovereignty—far differently than the Baby Boomers, who linked sex and consent to marital responsibilities, Kamblé explained. And 1990s-era romance readers viewed consent through “the larger ideology of consumer-culture feminism, which equated initiating sex as a marker of one’s independence and with an implicit idea that such initiation made consent plain,” Kamblé said.
\n“The notion of consent itself is something that has evolved out of that new way of thinking about sexual engagement and one’s body,” she added. “We’ve also, especially in the United States, had changing laws about when and if you get to say no.”
\nWhat constitutes consent and marital rape, for example, is a concept that’s ever changing in the U.S. But, as the National Domestic Violence Hotline reports, the “perception of women seen as objects of property by common law, unable to handle their own legal affairs, continues to influence the perception of men, police officers, prosecutors, and judges.”
\nThey report that it was only in July of 1993 that marital rape was considered a crime in all of the U.S. states, although how that is defined and its associated consequences differ from state to state.
\nThe future of the romance genre \nFigures suggest that the audience for romance novels will continue to shape dialogue, as readers continue to influence demand. The Guardian reported
\nThe number of bookstores dedicated to selling romance novels has increased internationally, including the U.S., Canada, and Australia. The Romancing the Data database estimates that there are now 218 brick-and-mortar romance bookstores all over the world. More than a dozen have opened internationally in the last few years alone, including Books Ever After in Australia, Saucy Books in the United Kingdom, Dear Reader in Germany, and Perfect Match in Canada.
\nThere is no one way to be a romance reader, Dr. Kamblé stated, meaning that what romance readers take away from a book—like if their ideas about consent are reinforced or challenged—is different for each person. A reader comes to a text with particular lived experiences, which are influenced by their culture and family, to name a few factors.
\nOn the agenting side, Avachat mentioned that healthy depictions of consent are on her mind when she works editorially on her clients’ books. She believes in the positive possibilities of romance novels.
\n“I hope that consent continues to be explored more directly, in romance novels,” Avachat said. “But I do think that the industry sort of ebbs and flows with the type of content that it’s interested in. So I’m not quite sure what’s ahead.”
\nThe post How ‘Bridgerton’ and Other Romances Have Evolved in Their Depictions of Consent appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-01-28T15:27:11.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Love-on-the-Brain-Romance-Novels-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/01/28/bridgerton-season-4-consent-romance/","scraped":true},{"id":"fc4b9f","slug":"state-requirements-for-the-provision-of-medication-abortion","title":"State Requirements for the Provision of Medication Abortion","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"choice","author":"kffamruthar","publishDate":"2026-01-28T15:23:52.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/state-requirements-for-the-provision-of-medication-abortion/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"al7aeb","slug":"health-insurance-costs-are-up-women-and-lgbtq-people-are-paying-the-price","title":"Health insurance costs are up. Women and LGBTQ+ people are paying the price.","excerpt":"Their health care premiums have skyrocketed. And now, women and LGBTQ+ people across the country are scrambling. Some are pushing off paying for retirement, or dipping into their savings. Some are looking for extra work to afford plans that they aren’t sure will actually cover their health car...","content":"Their health care premiums have skyrocketed. And now, women and LGBTQ+ people across the country are scrambling.
\n\n\n\nSome are pushing off paying for retirement, or dipping into their savings. Some are looking for extra work to afford plans that they aren’t sure will actually cover their health care bills. And some are planning to go without insurance, hoping they won’t get too sick to manage medical expenses on their own.
\n\n\n\nThe chaos and uncertainty are the result of a monthslong impasse, after Congress let subsidies lapse that would keep down the price of health insurance on the Affordable Care Act’s individual marketplace, a key source of coverage for millions of people who don’t get insurance from work or through government programs like Medicare or Medicaid.
\n\n\n\nPolling data from KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research, polling and journalism organization, found that women are more likely to say that they cannot afford the increase in health care costs. Another KFF poll found that 52 percent of LGBTQ+ adults say it’s difficult for them to afford health care costs. Both women and LGBTQ+ people typically earn less than straight men, and they are at greater risk of many chronic health conditions that make going without coverage particularly burdensome.
\n\n\n\nThough lawmakers are still trying to make a deal that might restore the subsidies, hope is fading that they will be able to negotiate a renewal this year. But Americans have already had to make choices about what kind of insurance they will use this year — if they stay insured at all.
\n\n\n\nThe 19th spoke with six people about how they are navigating rising health care costs right now.
\n\n\n\nRena Bumbray-Graves \n\n\n\nRena Bumbray-Graves is a home care worker in Virginia, a job largely held by Black women and Latinas. At 63, she’s two years removed from Medicare eligibility. Last year, she purchased health insurance for both herself and her husband through the individual marketplace, paying just over $500 per month.
\n\n\n\nShe received a letter this month notifying her about her change in payment due. To keep their insurance, she would pay more than $1,300 each month.
\n\n\n\n“I was shocked, to say the least,” she said.
\n\n\n\nKFF polling suggests that Black women previously receiving subsidies, like Bumbray-Graves, are more likely than White women to say they will look for another job that might provide health benefits than to stick with a marketplace plan they can no longer afford. But that isn’t possible for her, she said.
\n\n\n\nHome care work typically doesn’t come with insurance benefits, something true of many other professions that predominantly employ women of color, such as nail salon work. The women who make up those professions are now more likely to be struggling to find insurance they can afford.
\n\n\n\nHer husband’s job as a freight driver offers an insurance benefit, but in the past, she said, that coverage cost far more than they could reasonably pay: close to $1,500 every month. She’s waiting to see what that might cost this year — and if it’s that much again, she said, she’ll go without insurance, despite having multiple chronic conditions that require regular medication.
\n\n\n\n“I’m not going to sign off on something that’s going to make us struggle,” she said.
\n\n\n\n–Shefali Luthra
\n\n\n\nKristin Fuhrmann-Simmons \n\n\n\nKristin Fuhrmann-Simmons, 51, saw her insurance premium skyrocket this year — had she kept her old plan, her family’s monthly payment would have gone from $11 to more than $2,000.
\n\n\n\nShe needs insurance: Fuhrmann-Simmons has multiple sclerosis, a neurodegenerative condition substantially more common in women and that requires careful treatment. She’s also treating her menopause symptoms with hormone replacement therapy, a treatment that could cost hundreds of dollars monthly without coverage.
\n\n\n\nKristin Fuhrmann-Simmons\n (Courtesy Kristin Fuhrmann-Simmons) Already, women are more likely than men to struggle with the price of prescription drugs , and to skip or delay health care because of their cost. The disparity in simply affording health care costs increases for women with chronic conditions — especially those like MS, which predominantly affect women.
\n\n\n\nThe Affordable Care Act is the only real option she has. Fuhrmann-Simmons is a digital media consultant and art teacher in Maine, and her husband is a social worker. Neither of their jobs provide benefits. Though her husband briefly looked into a job offer that might come with insurance, she said, the pay cut combined with the cost of coverage would still set them back.
\n\n\n\nInstead, she and her husband purchased a less comprehensive marketplace plan, one that covers the two of them and their eldest daughter, who is 23. (Their younger daughter is able to receive insurance through a plan offered by her college.) The deductible is $7,500 per person; they’re still paying $500 a month.
\n\n\n\nShe is trying to figure out how they’ll make everything work. The family has already drained much of their savings, including her husband’s retirement account, to pay for her medical treatments. Fuhrmann-Simmons recently sat down with a local credit union for financial planning advice on how her family’s income needs to grow if they want to make ends meet. The figure they settled on — $2,000 more every month — is why she’s looking to find more work.
\n\n\n\nEven that is complicated. With her condition, she said, she doesn’t have the ability to work full-time.
\n\n\n\n“There’s nothing else to cut away. There’s no other pound of flesh to take,” she said. “I’m hopeful that it is not the new normal — that people won’t play with my life as if it’s some sort of chip in their political game.”
\n\n\n\n-Shefali Luthra
\n\n\n\nRei Willingham \n\n\n\nRei Willingham, 35, is planning to go uninsured this year — again. As a disabled person, that means shopping for deals on her most expensive medication.
\n\n\n\nShe feels like the system is leaving her behind.
\n\n\n\n“The health care system appears to just be getting worse,” she said. “Especially for LGBTQ people in the South, where our states are not supporting us at all, it feels like it’s one thing after another for the financial burden we have to bear for being both poor and gay or trans.”
\n\n\n\n\n\nWillingham, who is nonbinary, lives in North Florida with her wife. Their household income is about $30,000 to $40,000 a year. So when they saw the $400 price tag for marketplace insurance this year, they both knew they couldn’t afford it. And although Bronze plans offered lower premiums at $100 a month, they gave Willingham little to no coverage. Those cheaper plans also came with deductibles for emergency care that went over $10,000, which would easily bankrupt her.
\n\n\n\n“I was like, I’m not going to be getting insurance this year,” she said.
\n\n\n\nThe plans are more expensive now than when she shopped on the marketplace last summer, after quitting her job and losing her employer’s insurance. She wasn’t able to put the required documents together to enroll last year, since she couldn’t access her employee portal at her old job. And now, the costs are too high. So it’s cheaper to just pay out of pocket.
\n\n\n\nHer doctor charges about $169 for a regular visit, which beats marketplace costs. And although her inhaler is roughly $500 a month without insurance, a manufacturer’s coupon brings that down to $35 a month. Without that inhaler, her asthma is debilitating and threatens permanent damage to her lungs.
\n\n\n\nWillingham didn’t have health insurance for most of last year, either. She thought this year would be different, but she’s still on her own.
\n\n\n\n– Orion Rummler
\n\n\n\nNancy Peske \n\n\n\nNancy Peske, 63, is a longtime book publishing freelancer in Wisconsin who has been enrolled in the Affordable Care Act since the law was enacted.
\n\n\n\nFor years, the ACA has afforded her family some peace of mind. Before the health law, she and her late husband and son would bounce from health insurance company to health insurance company, “praying that we would never have to make a claim.”
\n\n\n\nNancy Peske\n (Courtesy Nancy Peske) In recent years, Peske has been able to use available enhanced subsidies to enroll in a Bronze plan with a monthly premium of $370. Now, she’s expected to pay $1,164.
\n\n\n\nAs a breast cancer survivor, Peske feels it’s important to have coverage to stay healthy. She has made the difficult decision to stay enrolled. But there is a financial tradeoff: Peske intends to stop putting any money into retirement savings for the next two years until she can qualify for Medicare.
\n\n\n\n“I just think it’s crazy that in the last two years of my freelance work, I’m suddenly in this position — as if I’m a different person at age 63 than 65,” she said.
\n\n\n\nPeske says America’s health care system has put her in a tricky financial position before. Her ACA plan already included a high deductible, and she reduced retirement investments in 2023 and 2024 to help pay for some of $15,000 in out-of-pocket costs associated with cancer treatments. She also paid down hospital bills from her husband’s final weeks of life after a sudden lung cancer diagnosis.
\n\n\n\nAll these delays to retirement savings have a disproportionate impact on people like Peske. Women live longer than men but generally have less money saved for retirement .
\n\n\n\n“What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to shut down my business, go get a job somewhere — and then two years from now, start my business up again? That makes no sense,” she said.
\n\n\n\n—Barbara Rodriguez
\n\n\n\nJulie Morringello \n\n\n\nJulie Morringello, 58, is a self-employed artist in rural Maine who pays $319 a month for her and her daughter’s insurance coverage under the ACA.
\n\n\n\nMorringello makes so little, the expiration of the enhanced tax credits is not expected to spike her monthly premiums — though her deductible is going up about $500 for the same coverage as last year.
\n\n\n\nJulie Morringello\n (Courtesy Julie Morringello) Amid the emerging headlines about the changes to ACA coverage costs, Morringello was confused about what it all meant for her. She is a breast cancer survivor who relies on more frequent checkups to keep her healthy.
\n\n\n\n“I was flipping out,” she said. “I called the hospital where I receive my follow-up care and I said, ‘If I don’t have health insurance, will I be treated?’”
\n\n\n\nMorringello noted that even under her current ACA plan, health care is still very expensive. She reaches her deductible limit most years because of preventative care like MRIs. She hopes policymakers do something to bring down the overall cost of health care, given that it is impacting other aspects of her life.
\n\n\n\n“I cannot save for retirement. I can’t save for my daughter’s college education … it affects my life in a lot of ways,” she said.
\n\n\n\n—Barbara Rodriguez
\n\n\n\nKate Violette \n\n\n\nAt 41, Kate Violette has health insurance, but it still won’t pay for most of their medical needs.
\n\n\n\nThey enrolled in a low-premium Bronze plan this year after navigating the marketplace for the first time, since their COBRA eligibility ran out at the end of last year. The process was smoother than they expected, but after years of arguing with insurance companies to cover their care, they don’t expect much.
\n\n\n\n“I just feel like health insurers are constantly dealing in bad faith and it is a full-time job managing my own care,” said Violette, who is nonbinary.
\n\n\n\nViolette has Lyme disease, but it took awhile to get a diagnosis. Since the illness went untreated for so long, they developed joint issues that require frequent chiropractor visits. Leaving the Lyme unchecked also caused them to develop mast cell activation syndrome, which triggers severe allergic reactions. They end up in the emergency room three to four times a year.
\n\n\n\nViolette has a $7,000 deductible to pay before insurance kicks in, and that happens to be the exact cost of the medicine that keeps them alive. So, this month, they plan to drop $7,000 to pick up their prescription, then wait and see if their insurance will actually cover it in February. This is the first time they have had to pay for the medication on their own.
\n\n\n\n“This drug is like — if I go off of it, I will end up in the ER within two days,” they said.
\n\n\n\nThey pay $560 a month for their marketplace plan and close to $200 a week to see their chiropractor. They see their Lyme specialist, a naturopath, about every six weeks for $360. Both their chiropractor and their naturopath recently stopped taking insurance through their provider, Providence Health & Services, a large healthcare system in Oregon. The other chiropractor specialist within driving distance from their home in Portland also doesn’t take their insurance.
\n\n\n\nViolette can bear these costs since they will need fewer medical appointments as treatment improves their symptoms. But spending $7,000 every month on their most essential medication just isn’t possible. So now they will wait and see if their insurance will work like it’s supposed to.
\n\n\n\n– Orion Rummler
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Shyla Nott","publishDate":"2026-01-28T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/SubsidyLapseProfiles-Kristin-Fuhrmann-Simmons.jpeg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/higher-health-insurance-costs-aca-subsidies/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"o28m1t","slug":"federal-civil-rights-protections-for-students-are-being-hollowed-out","title":"Federal Civil Rights Protections for Students Are Being Hollowed Out","excerpt":"At least 25,000 unresolved civil rights complaints involving race, gender and disability discrimination are currently stalled as the Trump administration moves to dismantle the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights—leaving students in K-12 schools and colleges with few viable paths to fe...","content":"At least 25,000 unresolved civil rights complaints involving race, gender and disability discrimination are currently stalled as the Trump administration moves to dismantle the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights—leaving students in K-12 schools and colleges with few viable paths to federal protection.
\nAt the same time, new Title IX guidance has shifted federal priorities away from survivors of sexual violence and toward expanded due-process protections for the accused—further eroding accountability in school environments already struggling to respond to gender-based harm.
\nTaken together, these changes represent a sweeping redefinition of equal access to education—one that disproportionately harms women, students of color, disabled students and survivors of sexual assault.
\nLast semester, after I published a piece in Ms. critiquing Charlie Kirk and violent masculinity, South Carolina politicians—including Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and Rep. Ralph Norman—publicly suggested I should be fired. In a climate where ideologically driven attacks on funding and governance threaten the very survival of colleges and universities, I ultimately resigned my full professorship. The message from state lawmakers was unmistakable: Even private institutions are no longer insulated from direct government interference, regardless of stated commitments to academic freedom.
\nThe post Federal Civil Rights Protections for Students Are Being Hollowed Out appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"equality","author":"Emily Taylor","publishDate":"2026-01-28T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-2183193702.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/28/department-of-education-office-for-civil-rights-trump-students-young-women-college-university/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.305Z"},{"id":"rti10q","slug":"at-day-cares-in-minnesota-strangers-are-showing-up-at-their-doors-as-parents-scramble-to-protect-sta","title":"At day cares in Minnesota, strangers are showing up at their doors as parents scramble to protect staff","excerpt":"They started showing up shortly after the now viral video was posted to YouTube, claiming Minnesota day cares run by Somali Americans were rife with fraud. The video showed no real proof of that claim and has since been widely debunked. They came anyway.","content":"They started showing up shortly after the now viral video was posted to YouTube, claiming Minnesota day cares run by Somali Americans were rife with fraud. The video showed no real proof of that claim and has since been widely debunked . They came anyway.
\n\n\n\nThe first time it happened, the day care received an anonymous call from a woman brusquely asking them to open the door. When Fay, the owner, went outside, a man was already there recording. “There’s nobody here,” he was saying into the camera on his phone.
\n\n\n\n“Can I help you?” she asked him. The man said he was there because of Nick Shirley’s video. He wanted to see the children.
\n\n\n\n“I’m not going to let you in,” she replied. “There are kids here.”
\n\n\n\n“If you’re not lying,” he told her, “let me in.”
\n\n\n\nFay, whose name The 19th has changed to protect her identity over fears for her safety, didn’t waver. Even under normal circumstances, she would never let an unknown man enter the day care and come near the children, much less film them, and certainly not under these circumstances, as a Somali day care provider who suddenly feels like she has a target on her back.
\n\n\n\nIt’s been like this for over a month. A pair of young men turned up one night looking through the windows until a nearby business owner walked up to them and asked them to leave. Another time, an older man came twice in one day with a paper in hand, trying to pull open the doors.
\n\n\n\n“Does he want to get to the kids? Does he want to shoot us?” Fay wondered. She called the police.
\n\n\n\nChild care providers in Minnesota — especially Somali Americans — are facing high levels of harassment in a city besieged by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. As strangers continue to show up asking to get access to the children inside, there is also the constant fear that ICE may come for the parents, the children or their staff, a large portion of whom are immigrants. Nationwide, about 1 in 5 child care workers are immigrants, almost all of them women. It’s a fear now extending from child care to schools, with parents standing up adhoc networks to support providers, teachers and other immigrant families.
\n\n\n\n“I really love America more than I love anywhere in the world, and now I am feeling scared and sad and humiliated,” said Fay, who has been in the country for more than 20 years, is an American citizen and has been operating her center for nearly a decade.
\n\n\n\nThe video YouTuber Nick Shirley posted just after Christmas alleged widespread fraud at day cares in Minnesota that were siphoning government funds but not providing care for any children at all. In the video, Shirley goes to multiple Somali-run day cares. Some appear closed, others do not let him in when he asks to see the children. Unannounced inspections by state officials into the centers following the video found them operating normally, and nearly all have prior records of inspections and monitoring by the state going back years that further prove they have been serving children. Some fraud at child care centers in Minnesota has been previously reported and investigated by state officials , but there is no evidence that widespread fraud is taking place.
\n\n\n\nNevertheless, the video has created a powerful narrative of rampant abuse, drawing the attention of the president and precipitating a drastic surge in ICE activity that by many accounts has turned South Minneapolis into something resembling a war zone. Already, two people have been killed by federal agents and children — including babies and toddlers — have been hurt and detained.
\n\n\n\n“As a child care community we are feeling attacked and we are an easy target: Child care historically has always been done by women and especially women of color in an exploitative practice,” said Leah Budnik, the board secretary at the Minnesota Association for the Education of Young Children, a child care advocacy organization.
\n\n\n\nAfter Shirley’s video, the Trump administration put a freeze on child care funding to the state, though funds are still available as a lawsuit makes its way through the courts . The administration also asked for additional documentation such as attendance records and student information from providers, an effort that Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth and Families has ratcheted up by sending members of the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to parse through paperwork. That means that armed law enforcement is now joining in on the compliance checks, raising questions from providers about the need for that step — particularly around children.
\n\n\n\n“I can understand the need for the state to have people-power to go in and collect documentation the federal government is asking for in very short notice, but bringing armed law enforcement into child care centers is probably not the right way to do it,” Budnik said. “It does make people feel scared and criminalized.”
\n\n\n\nCisa Keller, the president and CEO of Think Small, a nonprofit that works with many of the state’s child care centers offering additional education and support services, called the administration’s response to Shirley’s video a “kneejerk reaction” that is ultimately going to harm providers who had nothing to do with the false allegations. Most of the nine programs in the Shirley video, she said, are programs her staff has worked directly with.
\n\n\n\n“We are in and out of those programs with coaching and professional development, and we have a presence as part of the system,” Keller said. “We would be able to see if something was going awry.”
\n\n\n\nInstead, what’s happened is an escalation of a situation where children are going to be the most directly impacted, she said.
\n\n\n\nPigeons fly around the Riverside Plaza complex in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota as volunteer ICE watchers in the area patrol their predominantly Somali community. \n (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post/Getty Images) In the Twin Cities, where the bulk of ICE activity is taking place, the situation has boiled over to full panic. Providers are losing staff to the ICE raids because immigrant staffers are either being arrested or choosing to stay home. Some families the providers serve are also in hiding , not taking their children to school or day care to avoid ICE.
\n\n\n\nDawn Uribe, the owner of four Spanish-immersion preschools in Minnesota, said two of her staffers have been detained by ICE. One of them was on break at work in early January when it happened and called a supervisor to let them know they were being taken away and to please inform their family.
\n\n\n\nSince, a vast community mobilization effort led by parents has sprung up to support staff, centers and other families.
\n\n\n\nOver the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend this month, a group of about 20 grandparents and parents showed up to a two-hour training at one of Uribe’s day cares to learn how they could step in as volunteers should the school lose additional staff and be unable to meet teacher-to-student ratios. (By law, day cares must adhere to strict ratios for child safety; in Minnesota there can be no more than four infants to every teacher, for example.) The parents and grandparents who showed up learned about shaken baby syndrome, how to do accident reporting and how to ensure kids are accounted for at all times should they ever need to be called on to step in.
\n\n\n\nThe parents, Uribe said, are also delivering food to staff, taking parking lot shifts to watch for ICE and ensure teachers get safely to and from school, and standing watch in the lobby.
\n\n\n\n“The community in general, the Twin Cities in general, we don’t like what’s happening and we are going to stand up and say that this is wrong,” Uribe said. “Every time there is a training offered [in the community] people are there and they’re showing up to help their neighbors, they’re showing up to take groceries, they’re showing up to protests to be an observer and record what’s going on. That part’s powerful.”
\n\n\n\n\n\nSarah Quinn, a mom of two in Minneapolis, said parents at her older daughter’s elementary school had been working together to take food to immigrant students and their families since ICE first showed up in the city in early December. When reports that ICE was patrolling near the schools started to circulate, parents stepped in to give kids rides to school using spare booster seats and car seats. They got an estimated 50 kids back to school in December through those efforts.
\n\n\n\nBut then came Shirley’s video and the murder of Renee Nicole Good. Calls for aid flooded in. The preschool Quinn’s son attends got so many harassing calls in one day that police had to be sent to the school.
\n\n\n\nParents started to set up school patrols, stationing volunteers in the parking lot and in their neighborhoods to make sure kids, families and staff could come and go to school safely. The number of parents doing food deliveries to other families’ homes shot up.
\n\n\n\n“People said ‘jump’ and we all kind of said, ‘How high?’” Quinn said. “As parents who care about our neighbors and who love this part of Minneapolis life that is diverse and involves immigrant families who have really just been responding as neighbors.”
\n\n\n\nThey have also resolved to be more careful, watching everyone who comes and goes from the schools to make sure they are not inadvertently letting anyone in behind them who could harm the kids. In Chicago late last year, ICE agents entered a Spanish immersion preschool and detained a worker in front of children .
\n\n\n\n“We are not going to be Minnesota nice,” Quinn said.
\n\n\n\nParents in Quinn’s daughter’s elementary school were made aware in December of a child in her grade who had not been at school for a week. They later learned the child’s parent had been detained and the other parent was keeping the child home out of fear.
\n\n\n\nWhen Quinn went into her daughter’s class recently to do a holiday craft, she realized the missing child was her daughter’s deskmate.
\n\n\n\nIt’s presented a quiet challenge among the parents in the immensity of this moment: How do you talk to a second grader about what’s unfolding around them?
\n\n\n\n“We have had to find a lot of different ways to talk to our kids about how to be safe. Our children know the word ‘ICE’ and they know the word ‘ICE agent,’” Quinn said.
\n\n\n\nThey’ve developed something of a mantra between them.
\n\n\n\n“What do we want?” Quinn may ask.
\n\n\n\n“We want them to leave,” the kids will reply. “We want all of our immigrant friends to feel safe.”
","category":"activism","author":"Chabeli Carrazana","publishDate":"2026-01-28T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/minneapolis_02_d0b559.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/minnesota-daycares-harassment-fear-ice/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"miqvzg","slug":"when-in-doubt-blame-young-women-the-evergreen-electoral-existential-crisis-of-young-women-in-us-poli","title":"When in Doubt, Blame Young Women: The Evergreen Electoral Existential Crisis of Young Women in U.S. Politics","excerpt":"While the right-wing media ecosystem views young women as an affliction, the Democratic Party risks taking this group for granted and overlooking their real-life concerns. Women are more likely to support Democratic candidates than their male counterparts.","content":"While the right-wing media ecosystem views young women as an affliction, the Democratic Party risks taking this group for granted and overlooking their real-life concerns.
\nWomen are more likely to support Democratic candidates than their male counterparts. This pattern, coined the “gendergap” by Ellie Smeal, has remained a fixture of American politics in every presidential election since 1980. That support shows that women’s Democratic support is consistent and can be politically decisive. Still, this support should not be taken for granted.
\nThe post When in Doubt, Blame Young Women: The Evergreen Electoral Existential Crisis of Young Women in U.S. Politics appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Amelia Letson","publishDate":"2026-01-28T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GettyImages-2182499285.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/28/democrat-young-women-voters-2024-election/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.305Z"},{"id":"8sln1e","slug":"she-rubbed-me-the-wrong-way-why-trump-punished-a-woman-head-of-state-for-saying-no","title":"‘She Rubbed Me the Wrong Way’: Why Trump Punished a Woman Head of State for Saying No","excerpt":"Under the Jan. 21 headline “‘She Just Rubbed Me the Wrong Way’: Trump Suggests Swiss Tariffs Were Personal,’” The New York Times quotes Trump quoted as saying, she was “’so aggressive.\" Seeking to make sense of the existential anomie that flooded me after reading the article, it quickly became appar...","content":"Under the Jan. 21 headline “‘She Just Rubbed Me the Wrong Way’: Trump Suggests Swiss Tariffs Were Personal,’” The New York Times quotes Trump quoted as saying, she was “’so aggressive.\"
\nSeeking to make sense of the existential anomie that flooded me after reading the article, it quickly became apparent that that much more was at play here than a clash of personalities, as suggested by Times ’ headline. Accordingly, as I began envisioning the article I would write, my initial aim was to locate Trump’s remarks within the broader context of his administration’s attacks on women and the LGBTQ+ community.
\nThe post ‘She Rubbed Me the Wrong Way’: Why Trump Punished a Woman Head of State for Saying No appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"resilience","author":"Shoshanna Ehrlich","publishDate":"2026-01-27T23:51:02.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-2256852768-1.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/27/trump-davos-switzerland-tariffs-women-politics-misogyny/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.305Z"},{"id":"2el7k6","slug":"how-misogyny-and-white-nationalism-converge-in-ice-enforcement","title":"How Misogyny and White Nationalism Converge in ICE Enforcement","excerpt":"The brutality we are witnessing in Minnesota, at the hands of thousands of poorly trained, heavily armed and trigger-happy men who have full reign to hunt and harass anyone who is non-white, is nothing short of state-sponsored terror.","content":"The brutality we are witnessing in Minnesota, at the hands of thousands of poorly trained, heavily armed and trigger-happy men who have full reign to hunt and harass anyone who is non-white, is nothing short of state-sponsored terror. It is a horrific illustration of what unfettered power does in the hands of leadership that celebrates and demands violence, especially from men.
\nAs thousands of amped up men are deployed in the streets and taught there are no consequences for killing anyone who refuses to submit to their authority, we should anticipate more violence to come.
\nAfter all: The violence is the point.
\nThe post How Misogyny and White Nationalism Converge in ICE Enforcement appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Cynthia Miller-Idriss","publishDate":"2026-01-27T23:12:53.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-2258420442.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/27/ice-recruitment-women-violence-lesbian-masculinity/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.305Z"},{"id":"fswuvb","slug":"why-international-law-still-fails-afghan-women","title":"Why International Law Still Fails Afghan Women","excerpt":"Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, Afghan women and girls have been progressively removed from almost every sphere of public life. Girls are banned from secondary and higher education. Women are excluded from most employment, face severe restrictions on movement and have been render...","content":"Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, Afghan women and girls have been progressively removed from almost every sphere of public life. Girls are banned from secondary and higher education. Women are excluded from most employment, face severe restrictions on movement and have been rendered legally invisible. Institutions responsible for protecting women’s rights have been dismantled.
\nIn early December, the international Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal in The Hague presented its verdict on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan. Two days later, on Dec. 13, the French Senate convened a high-level colloquium titled “No Peace Without Women: Their Representation in Diplomatic, Military and Political Bodies.”
\nTogether, these two forums—one judicial-moral, the other parliamentary-political—converged on a stark conclusion: The exclusion of Afghan women is systematic, intentional and state-imposed. At the same time, they exposed a critical gap in international law, one with far-reaching implications for the United Nations system, international accountability mechanisms and the global women, peace and security agenda.
\nThe post Why International Law Still Fails Afghan Women appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"global","author":"Amna Mehmood","publishDate":"2026-01-27T21:26:02.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Fcdpad4WYAESFlY.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/27/gender-apartheid-afghanistan-women-girls/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.305Z"},{"id":"mqp9v9","slug":"government-killings-and-kidnappings-in-argentina-drove-mothers-to-revoltand-eventually-win","title":"Government Killings and Kidnappings in Argentina Drove Mothers to Revolt—And Eventually Win","excerpt":"After the regime \"disappeared\" their children, Argentina’s Madres de la Plaza de Mayo relentlessly demanded justice—and exposed the atrocities of a dictatorship. The post Government Killings and Kidnappings in Argentina Drove Mothers to Revolt—And Eventually Win appeared first on Rewire News Group.","content":"A series of shootings by federal immigration agents, including two deaths in Minneapolis, have galvanized intense local and national protests against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations. Federal immigration agents in Minneapolis killed Renee Nicole Good—a 37-year-old woman and mother of three—and Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, weeks apart in January 2026.
\n\n\n\nSince Donald Trump assumed the presidency on Jan. 20, 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have detained thousands of people across the country, including U.S. citizens and legal residents . At least 11 people have been shot, including a Venezuelan migrant in Minneapolis on Jan. 14, 2026. Children and babies have been teargassed.
\n\n\n\nI am a political scientist who studies authoritarian regimes . I also lived through Argentina’s brutal military junta of the 1970s and 1980s. When I consider today’s ICE violence, I think of the state terror that tore Argentina apart —and how mothers became a potent force in resisting authoritarianism and ultimately restoring democracy.
\n\n\n\nMasked agents and the ‘Trump effect’ U.S. federal immigration enforcement actions began raising human rights concerns starting in April 2025, when masked federal agents in plain clothes began detaining international students .
\n\n\n\nHistorically in the U.S., police and other official state security forces have used face coverings almost exclusively during undercover operations to protect agent safety and the integrity of ongoing investigations , according to federal law enforcement sources.
\n\n\n\nThe global human rights group Amnesty International has begun using the phrase “the Trump effect ” to describe masking and other administration actions that it believes violate global human rights standards.
\n\n\n\nMeanwhile, violence by ICE agents also runs counter to international law—as does police violence more broadly .
\n\n\n\nSeveral United Nations principles require that police action be guided at all times by legality, necessity, proportionality, and non-discrimination. Any use of force that does not comply with these principles violates international law.
\n\n\n\nAmnesty International’s policing guidance is based on these standards. It explains that police must attempt to use non-violent means first, like verbal commands, negotiation, and warnings.
\n\n\n\nWhen force is necessary, officers must use “the least harmful means likely to be effective.” In such cases, proportionality requires that “the harm caused by the use of force may never outweigh the damage it seeks to prevent.”
\n\n\n\nGood’s and Pretti’s killings both occurred in broad daylight. Video analysis suggests that Good was attempting to turn her vehicle away from the scene when an ICE agent shot her three times . Pretti had a holstered weapon, but witnesses and videos show he had been disarmed before a federal agent fatally shot him .
\n\n\n\nAs non-immigrant local community members, neither victim would be the apparent target of immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis.
\n\n\n\nArgentina’s dictatorship In both its use of masks and its brazen disregard for proportionality, ICE evokes in me unsettling memories of all-powerful, authoritarian governments that exercise control over life and death.
\n\n\n\nIn March 1976, the Argentine armed forces overthrew a weak and chaotic government —that of María Estela Martínez de Perón, widow of Juan Domingo Perón—claiming the need to restore order in a country engulfed in political violence. So began one of the darkest periods in contemporary Argentine history .
\n\n\n\nBetween 1976 and 1983, approximat e ly 30,000 people were forcibly “disappeared ,” meaning secretly kidnapped, never to be seen again. The vast majority were young men and women involved in labor unions, political organizations, or student movements with left-wing ideologies, including Catholic priests and nuns who embraced Liberation Theology , a movement within the church that interprets the gospel of Jesus Christ through the experiences of poor people and the oppressed.
\n\n\n\nIn April 1977, roughly a year after young Argentines first began vanishing, 14 women gathered in the Plaza de Mayo , a central square in Buenos Aires that faces the presidential palace. They were searching for their sons and daughters, who had been detained by the police or the military.
\n\n\n\nSome of these arrests had taken place at night, in the homes where these young victims lived with their families. In those cases, the women — who would come to be known as the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo — knew their children had been taken by security forces. In other cases, their children had simply failed to return home. Nothing was known of their whereabouts. They had disappeared.
\n\n\n\nEven those who had been detained at home had disappeared, too, as their location remained unknown.
\n\n\n\nLater, the nation would learn that many of the regime’s victims were tortured, then flown in airplanes over the nearby River Plate and dropped into the water on so-called “death flights .” All this information was compiled in a 1984 report written during the first democratic government after military rule and published under the name “Nunca Mas ”: Never again.
\n\n\n\nThe Mothers didn’t know that yet . They wanted their children back—alive.
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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Demonize, deny, discredit The dictatorship had imposed a state of siege prohibiting all forms of assembly. To technically evade this restriction, the Mothers walked in circles around the plaza, avoiding the concentration of people in any single location, demanding truth and justice.
\n\n\n\nThe regime reacted by systematically attempting to discredit the grieving women . To weaken their moral authority, state-controlled media labeled them as emotionally unstable “mad women.” The were called Las Locas de Plaza de Mayo instead of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo.
\n\n\n\nRegime media also suggested the Mothers were political subversives with links to guerrilla groups and members of foreign organizations out to damage Argentina’s international reputation .
\n\n\n\nOfficials accused the women of exaggerating or inventing kidnappings, and sometimes mocked their ever-growing weekly marches . By attacking their credibility and dignity, the dictatorship sought to undermine public sympathy and maintain a climate of fear.
\n\n\n\nAt first, this narrative worked. Early in the dictatorship, many Argentines saw the Mothers with ambivalence, skepticism, or even fear. Others, while privately sympathetic, avoided expressing support due to fear of repression and social consequences.
\n\n\n\nThe government’s attacks were not only rhetorical. In 1977, three of the founding Mothers—Esther de Balestrino, Azucena Villaflor, and Mary Ponce de Bianco —disappeared when a group of military personnel stormed the Church of the Holy Cross in Buenos Aires. Twelve other people were abducted. None have ever been found.
\n\n\n\nThe Mothers received substantial support from abroad. International human rights organizations, foreign journalists, and religious institutions all played a crucial role in legitimizing their claims and broadcasting their struggle to the world.
\n\n\n\nFrance, in particular, helped publicize the Mothers’ cause in Europe , which put diplomatic pressure on the Argentine regime. This international solidarity contributed significantly to breaking the dictatorship’s silence and exposing its crimes.
\n\n\n\nOver time, as evidence of systematic forced disappearances became undeniable, public perception of the Mothers gradually shifted in Argentina , too. The Mothers came to be seen as a brave force for moral resistance.
\n\n\n\nA democracy built in part by mothers In 1982, the military dictatorship invaded the South Atlantic islands known in Argentina as the Malvinas , or Falklands. The land has been British since 1833, but Argentina’s generals claimed sovereignty. Argentina was quickly defeated, and the military government fell.
\n\n\n\nAfter democratic elections were held in October 1983, the Mothers continued their efforts to uncover the histories of their children, and to find and bury their remains. Many also started working to locate their grandchildren who had been born in captivity and illegally adopted after their parents were disappeared.
\n\n\n\nTheir dedication to recovering their loved ones exposed the full extent of the regime’s atrocities.
\n\n\n\nIn 1983, President Raúl Alfonsín, who re-established Argentine democracy , established the National Genetic Data Bank to identify kinship between the parents and children of the disappeared. Thousands of analyses were conducted on children suspected of being born in captivity and illegally adopted by military families.
\n\n\n\nMore than 120 grandchildren have since been identified.
\n\n\n\nThe Mothers and children of the disappeared have also played a fundamental role in convicting dozens of military officials for crimes against humanity . As direct witnesses to the long-term consequences of forced disappearance, they have repeatedly testified against military officials.
\n\n\n\nThe Mothers’ activism, which continues today, has helped sustain public pressure in Argentina for accountability and to transform private trauma into collective political action.
\n\n\n\nThe killings in Minneapolis inspired me to recount this story for a simple reason: The government can protect, condemn, or kill. Argentine history shows that it matters how society reacts to state terror.
\n\n\n\nThis story was produced in collaboration with The Conversation , a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to unlocking the knowledge of experts for the public good.
\n\n\nThe post Government Killings and Kidnappings in Argentina Drove Mothers to Revolt—And Eventually Win appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-01-27T19:35:44.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Argentinas-mothers-resistance-web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/01/27/government-killings-and-kidnappings-in-argentina-drove-mothers-to-revolt-and-eventually-win/","scraped":true},{"id":"maokyu","slug":"longtime-dc-delegate-eleanor-holmes-norton-announces-retirement","title":"Longtime D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton announces retirement","excerpt":"Eleanor Holmes Norton, a longtime civil rights advocate who represented Washington, D.C., as a nonvoting delegate in Congress for 35 years, on Tuesday announced she would not run for reelection. “With fire in my soul and the facts on my side, I’ve raised hell about the injustice of denying 700...","content":"Eleanor Holmes Norton, a longtime civil rights advocate who represented Washington, D.C., as a nonvoting delegate in Congress for 35 years, on Tuesday announced she would not run for reelection.
\n\n\n\n“With fire in my soul and the facts on my side, I’ve raised hell about the injustice of denying 700K taxpaying Americans in D.C. the same rights given to residents of the states for 33 years. Now, with pride in our accomplishments, gratitude to D.C., and confidence in the next generation, I announced I’ll retire at the end of this term,” Norton, a Democrat, said in a statement.
\n\n\n\nHer statement comes days after her campaign filed paperwork to terminate her reelection run.
\n\n\n\nFor months, Norton and her staff went back and forth on whether the delegate was going to mount a 2026 campaign — the 88-year-old is the oldest member in the House, and fellow Democrats and allies for the past year have suggested she retire, despite Norton’s insistence that she was going to run again.
\n\n\n\nNorton earned the moniker of the District of Columbia’s “Warrior on the Hill” for her vigorous advocacy for statehood for D.C. Throughout her career, she fought for more funding and autonomy for the District and opposed Republican-led attempts to cut funding and undermine the District’s home rule.
\n\n\n\nIn 1990, Norton was elected to represent Washington, D.C., in the House. Her campaign manager in that race was Donna Brazile, another prominent Black woman in Democratic politics who would go on to chair the Democratic National Committee. As a delegate in the House, Norton served and voted on bills in committee but could not vote on the House floor. In 2009, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that would give D.C. a voting delegate, but the legislation did not get a vote in the U.S. House.
\n\n\n\n\n\nDespite not having a vote on the floor, Norton stood out for her passionate floor speeches and advocacy for the District of Columbia’s priorities, including bringing jobs and development to the District.
\n\n\n\nNorton struggled to fundraise in 2025 and the beginning of this year amid concerns about her campaign, and a field had already emerged to primary her this June. After her termination papers were filed Sunday, several local politicians and leaders congratulated Norton on her retirement ahead of her team’s official announcement.
\n\n\n\n“As a fifth-generation Washingtonian, from an early age I looked to Congresswoman Norton as a model of what public service should be,” D.C. Councilmember Robert White, who is running for her seat, said in a statement . “Her name is synonymous with authentic leadership. When I had the privilege of joining her staff as legislative counsel, I witnessed firsthand how she wielded a seat without a vote to deliver meaningful results for D.C. residents.”
\n\n\n\nBefore her time in Congress, Norton was a civil rights advocate, first involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She eventually worked as a civil rights lawyer, litigating cases on the First Amendment and women’s rights. President Jimmy Carter appointed Norton as the first woman to chair the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1977, where she shaped federal regulations on gender equity and workplace sexual harassment.
\n\n\n\n“Thank you to my constituents for choosing and trusting me to fight for you in Congress 18 times,” Norton said in Tuesday’s statement. “I will leave this institution knowing that I have given you everything I have. And while my service in Congress is ending, my advocacy for your rights, your dignity, and your capacity to govern yourselves is not.”
\n\n\n\nPolitics reporter Grace Panetta contributed to this report.
","category":"activism","author":"Marissa Martinez","publishDate":"2026-01-27T17:26:35.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/norton_.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/eleanor-holmes-norton-retires/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"jz1q4c","slug":"at-home-and-abroad-magas-politics-of-force-try-to-reassert-white-male-power","title":"At Home and Abroad, MAGA’s Politics of Force Try to Reassert White Male Power","excerpt":"The connective tissue of Donald Trump’s takeover of Venezuela, his threats to invade Greenland, the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by masked federal agents in Minneapolis, and the EEOC’s encouragement of white men to bring claims of discrimination against them is this: All represent increasi...","content":"The connective tissue of Donald Trump’s takeover of Venezuela, his threats to invade Greenland, the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by masked federal agents in Minneapolis, and the EEOC’s encouragement of white men to bring claims of discrimination against them is this: All represent increasingly desperate efforts by Trump and MAGA to forcefully put white men back in charge.
\nThe post At Home and Abroad, MAGA’s Politics of Force Try to Reassert White Male Power appeared first on Ms. Magazine .
","category":"activism","author":"Jackson Katz","publishDate":"2026-01-27T16:33:55.000Z","image":"https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-2257856208.jpg","source":"Ms. Magazine","sourceUrl":"https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/27/trump-white-male-power-gender-greenland-venezuela-ice-minneapolis-protest/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.305Z"},{"id":"jnpghz","slug":"trans-youth-under-19-left-with-few-options-for-gender-affirming-care-in-north-carolina","title":"Trans Youth Under 19 Left With Few Options for Gender-Affirming Care in North Carolina","excerpt":"“Pre-compliance has been a problem for trans-supporting, trans-inclusive organizations and agencies across the country, not just for trans-affirming care,” said one legal expert. The post Trans Youth Under 19 Left With Few Options for Gender-Affirming Care in North Carolina appeared first on Rewire ","content":"After North Carolina’s two largest medical providers halted gender-affirming care for patients below the age of 19, trans youth in the state are left with few options for treatment.
\nAhead of a looming Trump administration crackdown on treatments like hormone replacement therapy—which substitutes sex-related hormones like estrogen or testosterone to physically transition patients’ bodies to align with their gender identity—for patients 18 and younger, Advocate Health and University of North Carolina Health have ended such gender-affirming care for anyone under 19.
\n“It’s very disappointing that they would do this,” said Ivy Johnson, an attorney with the ACLU of North Carolina. “It’s completely ignoring the fact that 18-year-olds are adults in this country, and I think it’s irresponsible to discontinue care for people who’ve already been under a certain course of treatment.”
\nThe restrictions adopted by UNC Health and Advocate Health exceed a North Carolina law passed in 2023 over then-Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto that barred minors from receiving gender-affirming care, but exempted patients already undergoing treatment due to health risks associated with halting care.
\nJust eight days into his second term, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to crack down on medical interventions such as puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, and other treatments aimed at facilitating gender transition for patients under 19.
\nThat manifested in December as a set of HHS regulations that would condition Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Program for hospitals on compliance with federal restrictions on gender-affirming care, among other measures intended to pressure health-care providers.
\nNow, trans youth in North Carolina who are not yet 19 will be forced to halt their care, find alternate providers in a state with dwindling options, or leave the state for treatment.
\nHeron Greenesmith, deputy director of policy at the Transgender Law Center, stressed that the proposed HHS restrictions are not set to take effect for months, and that hospitals choosing to end care early are doing so voluntarily. “Right now, there is no ban.”
\n“Pre-compliance has been a problem for trans-supporting, trans-inclusive organizations and agencies across the country, not just for trans-affirming care,” Greenesmith said. “It could be fear for funding or for retribution from the federal government.”
\nWhile federal opposition to gender-affirming care focuses on health risks of procedures—with Trump’s executive order warning that some recipients “will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding”—Johnson and Greenesmith both warned of complications from suddenly stopping gender-affirming care.
\n“You’ll have physical changes that can be rapid,” Greenesmith said. “The return of dysphoria is going to be a big impact and that obviously has mental health impacts, including an increased risk of suicidality and suicidal ideation, and then the other kind of emotional and mental health crises, anxiety, depression, PTSD.”
\nAdvocate Health, which oversees state provider Atrium Health, implemented the restrictions in August. UNC Health began notifying patients in September that care would be discontinued, though no public announcement accompanied the policy shift. Both hospital systems have been connecting affected patients with support resources, including a newly established 24/7 hotline at Advocate aimed at providing counseling.
\nUNC Health spokesman Alan Wolf said in a statement that concerns over the federal regulatory environment prompted the decision to restrict care.
\n“UNC Health follows state and federal law related to medical services around gender transition. While state law limits these services to patients 18 and older, given the unsettled state of federal guidelines, last year we began limiting these services to individuals age 19 or older,” Wolf said. “UNC Health remains committed to caring and treating all patients.”
\nIn comments to NC Health News last year, Advocate Health raised similar concerns: “This new policy allows our hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies to continue caring for all patients’ health needs in the changing federal environment.”
\nDuke Health, whose policy on gender-affirming care for minors remains unchanged according to their website, now has a several-months wait for those wishing to switch to their services.
\n“Due to increasing demand, we are currently booking new patient appointments several months out,” the page for the Duke Child and Adolescent Gender Care Clinic reads. “We are working on strategies to accommodate this increased demand. Thank you for your patience.”
\nDuke Health did not respond to multiple requests for comment on their gender-affirming care policies or whether patients who have lost access to care from other providers may receive expedited appointments.
\nThe HHS restrictions are the subject of a federal lawsuit led by Oregon and joined by 18 other states, including the District of Columbia. At the state level, hospitals themselves are facing litigation. In Colorado, several families sued Children’s Hospital Colorado in state court over its suspension of gender-affirming care for minors , which has halted treatment for around 800 patients.
\nBut North Carolina officials have declined to take action. Attorney General Jeff Jackson did not join the challenge to the administration’s policies, despite participating in a series of high-profile lawsuits against Trump executive actions last year, meaning state providers will not benefit from any injunction against the HHS restrictions.
\nNorth Carolina Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Summer Tonizzo said in a statement that “gender dysphoria care is not covered by any NC Medicaid plans,” citing the 2023 state law, when asked about the department’s response to hospital restrictions.
\nJohnson, the ACLU of North Carolina attorney, said she believes hospitals may be illegally discriminating against patients on the basis of sex by suspending gender-affirming care.
\n“This seems unconstitutional and dangerous on the part of these hospitals, whose functions are otherwise supposed to be to provide medically necessary care to their patients,” Johnson said. “I would encourage people to reach out to us.”
\nThis story was originally reported by Brandon Kingdollar for . NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Laura Leslie for questions: info@ncnewsline.com .
\nThe post Trans Youth Under 19 Left With Few Options for Gender-Affirming Care in North Carolina appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-01-27T13:59:24.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/21377966612_75dc57e679_k.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/01/27/trans-north-carolina-gender-affirming-care/","scraped":true},{"id":"m437e1","slug":"she-offers-free-child-care-after-disasters-its-a-lifeline-as-families-rebuild-their-lives","title":"She offers free child care after disasters. It’s a lifeline as families rebuild their lives.","excerpt":"When Hurricane Helene swept through Kelsey Crabtree’s small hometown of Black Mountain, North Carolina, two years ago, its fierce winds uprooted a large tree that landed on the roof of her house, jolting her and her husband awake.","content":"When Hurricane Helene swept through Kelsey Crabtree’s small hometown of Black Mountain, North Carolina, two years ago, its fierce winds uprooted a large tree that landed on the roof of her house, jolting her and her husband awake. She went into the living room and noticed a huge crack where water had started to pour in. The couple grabbed their two sons, dragged a spare mattress to their laundry room and sheltered there overnight.
\n\n\n\nEventually, Crabtree and her family made their way to her mother-in-law’s home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They later moved into an Airbnb, where they stayed for nearly a year. The months after the storm were a blur, she said — lots of phone calls with insurance and hands-on work to fix their home, and all of that while scrambling to care for the boys, who were two and five at the time.
\n\n\n\n“We needed time to be childfree so we could work. We needed to be bringing money in so we could have our house back in order,” Crabtree, who works as a therapist, said. “The limited child care was really making it challenging. It was limiting my ability to see clients.”
\n\n\n\nSo she got in contact with Silke Knebel.
\n\n\n\n A single mom, Knebel founded the National Emergency Child Care Network a few months earlier to help other mothers who might need child care in an emergency. What constitutes an emergency is broadly defined in Knebel’s mind: It could be a disaster like Helene, It could be snowstorms, like the one that brought massive damage to a big slice of the northeast, or just the need for a few hours to recharge after a particularly stressful day.
\n\n\n\nKids play on a bridge where the road to their home has been washed out by heavy rainfall and flooded rivers on September 27, 2024 in Watauga County, North Carolina.\n (Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images) In the last decade, weather and climate-related disasters have caused damages worth over $200 billion and affected the availability of child care in the long and short term. Hurricane Harvey in 2017 damaged over 650 child care centers, permanently closing 52 facilities. The Maui wildfire in 2023 destroyed four of the nine child care programs that were available in the city of Lahaina. Last year, the Los Angeles wildfires affected over 500 child care providers, with Altadena losing 60% of its child care centers in the tragedy.
\n\n\n\nKnebel’s desire to help others when a disaster strikes comes from her own experience as a single mom. In kindergarten, her eldest son was diagnosed with a mental health condition known as “conduct disorder,” which manifests as aggressive and behavioral issues.It soaked up a lot of Knebel’s emotional and physical energy. “I feel for other moms, because I had weekends where I cried all day and I needed that five or six hours of [care] from just somebody showing up at my door,” she said.
\n\n\n\nHer nonprofit is designed to do exactly that — deploy to families in a crisis. The organization is staffed by volunteers who have undergone extensive background checks and are trained in trauma-informed care — “We don’t bring on 16-year-old Care.com babysitters,” Knebel said. The volunteers are typically deployed in pairs to families in need, at no cost. Many of them are retired teachers, pediatricians, social workers, and mothers and grandmothers who simply want to help.
\n\n\n\n\n\nFor Crabtree, they were a godsend. “The kids loved the people who came out and played with them,” she said. They would show up and have different games and toys and animal crackers and the kids were just so excited.”
\n\n\n\nIn the weeks and months after Hurricane Helene, Knebel connected over 50 families like Crabtree’s with child care volunteers. One mother had a sick and disabled husband at home and when the storm hit, she was left to figure out how to do basic things like find water while taking care of her children and partner. Another, a mother of four, was worried that if she didn’t return to work soon, she wouldn’t be able to pay rent, but her child care center had been closed due to the storm. Then there was the family whose nanny’s house was destroyed in the hurricane. Sometimes, the mothers who called — the callers were almost always moms — were just exhausted or in desperate need of a few hours away from their kids to sort through the piles of paperwork, to call insurance adjustors, to figure out how to rebuild.
\n\n\n\nThe first person to call Knebel’s child care emergency hotline was, however, the manager of a local bank. One of his employees was struggling to find child care weeks after the storm. Employers “try to be accommodating and compassionate,” she said. “But after a while, they’re like, ‘Okay, you need to come to work.’ And that’s when the real burden and stress hits families, because the child care is still not open.”
\n\n\n\nAnd it wasn’t the only employer she helped out. United Way of Asheville, an organization that provides disaster relief, requested volunteers to staff a pop-up child care for their employees. Also, an area school requested help for 40 teachers who all needed care for their own kids.
\n\n\n\nA “watch for children” sign is seen on a flooded street after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 27, 2024.\n (Richard PIERRIN/AFP/Getty Images) At the same time that parents were struggling to find care, some 148 child care centers and home-based providers had been damaged by Helene — and no one knew how or when they would reopen.
\n\n\n\nThe barriers to getting child care back up and running after a disaster are immense, says Susan Butler-Staub, a senior vice president at Child Care Aware of America, an advocacy organization. “One of the biggest issues is finding a suitable environment,” she said. “If you’re a home-based provider and your home has been flooded or your home is gone, then can you find a temporary place that meets regulation?”
\n\n\n\nIf a provider is able to stay in their location, there’s usually a long list of issues they have to deal with first. “With a flood, you’re going to be dealing with mold in the walls,” she said. In western North Carolina, where Helene hit, “they are still dealing with water quality issues, so you have to filter the water before you can give it to children.”
\n\n\n\nBut even when facilities recover, paying for child care can become too much for families. Crabtree, who utilized child care volunteers mostly to assist while she rebuilt her house, said she could only afford to pay for child care when her extended family helped cover the cost.
\n\n\n\nA few months after Hurricane Helene, Knebel was faced with another call to action: Catastrophic wildfires were sweeping through Los Angeles and families would need help in the aftermath
\n\n\n\nThe playground of a school burned down by the Eaton fire is seen in Altadena, California, on January 15, 2025.\n (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images) Knebel’s organization promptly recruited and trained around 70 volunteers and connected with mothers like Briana Pozner, who had a 2-year-old and went into early labor with twins after the fires. While Pozner’s house wasn’t destroyed by the fire, it was contaminated with lead and other heavy metals, forcing the family to move out for a few months.
\n\n\n\nPozner and her family had already been preparing for how life would change with twins before the fires struck. She had recently enrolled her son in preschool — but then the preschool burned down. “It was like, OK, we’ve got to figure out how to get stability and figure out our son’s school.”
\n\n\n\nIn Los Angeles, the impact of the wildfires on child care was devastating. Cindy Esquivel, program manager at the Low Income Investment Fund, a nonprofit that provided small grants to child care providers recovering from the wildfires, said that many home-based providers were still struggling to reopen. In some cases, they lost their homes and their businesses in one fell swoop.
\n\n\n\n\n\nFinding the money for them to rebuild has been difficult. Of the 136 grantees that Esquivel surveyed after the disaster, 40% did not have insurance. Many home-based providers also rent their homes and in the aftermath, rents skyrocketed in the region, making it difficult to find a suitable and affordable location.
\n\n\n\nPrivate child care providers do not qualify for FEMA funding. They can apply to the Small Business Administration for low- interest loans, but the process for approval is long and bureaucratic. Instead, a lot of funding comes from foundations and grant-making organizations. States have also chipped in, but the amount available varies by state and is usually a drop in the bucket compared to need, say experts. It’s an industry that, in the best of times, is already underfunded and operating at capacity.
\n\n\n\nA friend who had been volunteering with Knebel’s organization suggested that Pozner reach out and ask for assistance. Once the family was able to return home, “We had to get the whole house back in order with these little babies that I was breastfeeding,” she said. The volunteers watched her newborns while Pozner and her husband unpacked and organized.
\n\n\n\nHer son’s preschool eventually reopened, but it is now in its third location. Similar to North Carolina, it has been challenging for child care facilities and schools to find new homes.
\n\n\n\nA partially melted tricycle is pictured at an elementary school in the aftermath of the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California, on January 14, 2025. (AGUSTIN PAULLIER/AFP/Getty Images) Knebel is only set up to offer help in California and North Carolina because that’s where she has volunteers. She plans to expand to other disaster prone states like Florida and Texas but needs to raise more funding to make that a reality. In the meantime, however, she gets calls from all over the country, for women experiencing all sorts of challenges. A few weeks ago, she heard from a woman in a domestic violence shelter who needed someone to watch her two children for a few hours. She has also fielded several calls from women at hospitals who need someone to watch their kids while they undergo surgery. Once, a grandmother whose daughter had just been incarcerated called, in need of someone to help watch her grandkids.
\n\n\n\nKnebel wishes she could help everyone. “It isn’t really just disasters. It’s school shootings, divorces, it’s a medical crisis, just experiencing a car accident,” she said.
\n\n\n\nLately, she’s wondered how she can tap into the network of volunteers her organization trained in Los Angeles to help families who are afraid to send their kids to school because of ICE raids. In the last few days, she’s been emailing volunteers about the potential need for deployments if child care and schools closed in North Carolina, one of the states hit hard by the weekend’s winter storm.
\n\n\n\n“We just want to be there when children and parents need us,” she said. “Especially now, when things are getting so doom and gloom.”
","category":"activism","author":"Jessica Kutz","publishDate":"2026-01-27T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/childcare_disaster_environment_02.jpg?w=1024","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/free-child-care-families-disasters-storms-recovery/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"asz7j9","slug":"minnesota-targeted-by-federal-government-over-trans-girls-in-sports","title":"Minnesota targeted by federal government over trans girls in sports","excerpt":"The Trump administration on Monday targeted Minnesota schools, saying they have violated federal law by allowing transgender girls to play sports with their peers. Minnesota is not the first state to be targeted by the administration over trans girls in sports, but the move came as the adminis...","content":"The Trump administration on Monday targeted Minnesota schools, saying they have violated federal law by allowing transgender girls to play sports with their peers.
\n\n\n\nMinnesota is not the first state to be targeted by the administration over trans girls in sports, but the move came as the administration confronts backlash to the increasingly unpopular wave of immigration enforcement action focused in the state.
\n\n\n\nOn Monday, a joint announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education said the agencies had notified the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) that it had failed to comply with Title IX by allowing transgender girls to compete in sports aligning with their gender. The letter also takes aim at the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL).
\n\n\n\n“The joint finding determined that, over the course of several years, MDE and MSHSL allowed male athletes to compete on the girls’ Alpine ski team, the girls’ Nordic skiing team, the girls’ lacrosse team, the girls’ track and field team, the girls’ volleyball team, and the girls’ fastpitch softball team,” HHS said in a statement.
\n\n\n\nTwenty-seven states ban transgender girls from competing with other girls in K-12 and college sports. Minnesota isn’t one of them. The Trump administration has tried to use levers at its disposal — including threatening to withhold federal funding — to force states to ban transgender girls. Last March, HHS concluded that Maine violated Title IX by allowing transgender girls to compete in sports that aligned with their gender. The Department of Education made the same conclusion about California last year.
\n\n\n\n\n\nIn a media release, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said his agency will not look the other way while Minnesota violates Title IX, misgendering trans women in his statement.
\n\n\n\n“When states allow males to compete in girls’ sports, they deny young women and girls the protections the law guarantees,” he said. “After Minnesota refused to comply, we referred this case to the Department of Justice for enforcement.”
\n\n\n\nThe Trump administration is facing massive political blowback for immigration actions in Minnesota and the shooting death of a second protester, Alex Pretti. The case against Minnesota dates back to September 30. When asked if the timing of the announcement was part of a retaliatory campaign against the state, HHS Press Secretary Emily G. Hilliard said in a statement to The 19th that the claim is “simply absurd.” He added: “As the press release makes clear, HHS initiated a compliance review in June 2025. Minnesota has repeatedly refused to comply with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 by allowing males to compete in girls’ sports and to access female-only facilities.”
\n\n\n\nHRC Communications Director Laurel Powell said the administration is using children as collateral damage to advance hateful attacks on transgender people.
\n\n\n\n“The Trump Administration continues to rely on blatant federal overreach and petty bullying to steamroll states into complying with their discriminatory agenda,” Powell said. “While their untrained, unrestrained, violent ICE agents brutalize Minneapolis, they are demonstrating the depths they’re willing to sink to by threatening this enforcement action and defying the democratic systems designed to protect us from tyranny.”
","category":"activism","author":"Kate Sosin","publishDate":"2026-01-26T23:42:46.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/minneapolis-schools.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/minnesota-schools-targeted-trans-girls-in-sports/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"85k3zs","slug":"alex-pretti-died-as-he-lived-taking-care-of-others","title":"Alex Pretti died as he lived: taking care of others","excerpt":"Alex Pretti died as he lived: taking care of other people. Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse with a Veterans Affairs medical center, was using his cell phone on Saturday morning to record federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in a neighborhood known for its ethnic diversity.","content":"Alex Pretti died as he lived: taking care of other people.
\n\n\n\nPretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse with a Veterans Affairs medical center, was using his cell phone on Saturday morning to record federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in a neighborhood known for its ethnic diversity. Bystander videos show that he was directing traffic until an agent knocked down another bystander and Pretti went to help her up . At that point, as Pretti stood with his arm around the woman, an agent sprayed him in the face with a non-lethal chemical weapon. A group of agents tackled him to the ground. After an agent confiscated Pretti’s legally registered — and secured — handgun, one or more additional agents fired as many as 10 shots at him.
\n\n\n\nHe died at the scene.
\n\n\n\nPretti’s parents said he had only recently begun venturing into Minneapolis’ streets to witness — and protest — a federal immigration crackdown that has ensnared U.S. citizens, shuttered elementary schools and led to the January 7 death of Renee Good. His father, Michael Pretti, told the Associated Press , “He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE,” using shorthand for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
\n\n\n\n\n\nPretti’s mentor praised his demeanor with patients to ABC News; a local doctor remembered him on social media as someone who “used to tell people off when they made sexist comments to female physicians … he made a point to teach medical residents without judgement [sic], but with a smile on his face and a joke.”
\n\n\n\nThe White House and administration officials have attempted to try Pretti in the court of public opinion , saying he “attacked” and wanted to “massacre” agents. Bystander videos refute federal officials’ accounts, showing Pretti was on the ground, face down, when he was shot. The federal government is also trying to block any state or local investigation. President Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Sunday that his administration was “reviewing everything and will come out with a determination.” He also praised ICE agents for doing a “phenomenal job” and said they would leave Minneapolis “at some point.”
\n\n\n\nPretti’s parents released a statement to Minnesota lawmakers the evening after his death. “Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for,” Michael and Susan Pretti wrote. “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs.”
\n\n\n\nChris Di Salvi, a friend of Pretti’s in high school and college, told a Wisconsin television station where they both grew up: “He was genuine, he was kind, he was friendly to everybody that I know. I can’t stress how much he was kind to everybody.”
","category":"activism","author":"Amanda Becker","publishDate":"2026-01-26T18:30:05.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/alex_pretti.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/alex-pretti-minneapolis-ice-shooting/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"3fjfzc","slug":"mandated-coverage-of-infertility-treatment","title":"Mandated Coverage of Infertility Treatment","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"breakthroughs","author":"KFF Women's Health Policy","publishDate":"2026-01-26T15:58:16.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/infertility-coverage/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"z4ya4s","slug":"what-legal-rights-do-you-have-in-encounters-with-ice","title":"What legal rights do you have in encounters with ICE?","excerpt":"Originally published by PolitiFact. Videos of confrontations between Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and Minneapolis residents have flooded social media, showing some of the 3,000 officers who are deployed in the city stopping, questioning and detaining residents.","content":"Originally published by PolitiFact .
\n\n\n\nVideos of confrontations between Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and Minneapolis residents have flooded social media, showing some of the 3,000 officers who are deployed in the city stopping, questioning and detaining residents.
\n\n\n\nIn one case, immigration agents escorted a U.S. citizen who is a grandfather of Hmong ancestry out of his house in his underwear in freezing weather. In another case, a father of a 5-year-old girl was briefly detained and zip-tied after he said a federal agent falsely accused him of not being a U.S. citizen because of his accent. The agency is also under scrutiny for reportedly dispatching a 5-year-old boy to knock on the front door of his home to lure relatives outside before agents then took the child into custody.
\n\n\n\nThe events have sparked protests and prompted confusion over what ICE is legally allowed to do in public and private locations. Are there limits on when and how ICE can approach or detain you? Does the law differentiate between encounters in public versus a private space, such as a home? And is the Supreme Court becoming more tolerant of aggressive ICE actions?
\n\n\n\nLegal experts weighed in on the public’s constitutional protections from immigration stops and detentions.
\n\n\n\nWhat rights do people have when approached by ICE? \n\n\n\nFederal law gives immigration agents the authority to arrest and detain people believed to have violated immigration law. But everyone — including immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally — is protected against unreasonable searches and seizures under the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.
\n\n\n\n“All law enforcement officers, including ICE, are bound by the Constitution,” said Alexandra Lopez, managing partner of a Chicago-based law firm specializing in immigration cases.
\n\n\n\nThe Fourth Amendment doesn’t stop ICE from trying to deport people who have broken immigration law, but it has traditionally constrained the agency. The more extensive an enforcement action is, the higher the bar for immigration officers to justify their actions.
\n\n\n\nFor example, officers can question someone in a public place, but more extensive interactions — such as a brief detention that’s not a formal arrest — require a “reasonable suspicion” that someone has committed a crime or is in the U.S. illegally, the Supreme Court has ruled .
\n\n\n\nReasonable suspicion “has to be more than a guess or a presumption,” said Michele Goodwin, a Georgetown University law professor. To meet this standard, a reasonable person would need to suspect that a crime was being committed, had been committed or would be committed.
\n\n\n\nAgents must meet an even higher bar to arrest someone. They need “probable cause,” which generally requires enough evidence or information to suggest a person has committed a crime.
\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat is a ‘Kavanaugh stop’? \n\n\n\nHistorically, the Supreme Court has ruled that racial or ethnic profiling is unconstitutional. But a recent opinion by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh gave ICE increased discretion to use race as a factor for stopping and questioning people.
\n\n\n\nIn the 2025 case Noem v. Perdomo , Kavanaugh was one of six justices who voted to stay a lower court ruling in favor of plaintiffs challenging federal immigration enforcement tactics in Los Angeles. Kavanaugh wrote that “apparent ethnicity” could be used as a “relevant factor” in determining reasonable suspicion, as long as it was combined with other factors and not used on its own.
\n\n\n\nBefore Kavanaugh wrote this, courts had “often ruled that agents could not stop someone just because they ‘looked like an immigrant’ or were in a high-crime area,” Lopez said. But if immigration officers follow Kavanaugh’s guidance, “it gives ICE a lot more discretion and justification to profile.”
\n\n\n\nCritics of Kavanaugh’s opinion “argue that the ‘relevant factor’ language invites abuse, opening the door to ethnic profiling,” said Rodney Smolla, a Vermont Law and Graduate School professor.
\n\n\n\nBut Kavanaugh’s opinion was not co-signed by other justices, and it came from a procedural ruling rather than a substantive one, so its legal impact might be limited. The Supreme Court “has not made a definitive ruling on ‘Kavanaugh stops’ and their permissibility,” said Ilya Somin, a George Mason University law professor.
\n\n\n\nSomin and other legal analysts have said Kavanaugh appeared to dial back his support for race or ethnicity as a factor when he wrote a different opinion several months later, in Trump v. Illinois , which stopped the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard in Illinois.
\n\n\n\nDo people’s rights differ inside their homes versus in a public space? \n\n\n\nThe Supreme Court has generally ruled that, unless a resident grants consent, law enforcement cannot enter a private home without a warrant signed by a judge, which requires the government to provide evidence showing probable cause.
\n\n\n\n“This means a person inside the house generally need not open the door, need not converse with the agent, and may require the agent to slip the warrant under the door or hold it to a window,” Smolla said. There are some exceptions, such as if an officer encounters a violent crime in progress, or someone needing medical care.
\n\n\n\nSecuring a judicial warrant is time consuming and is typically reserved for high-priority cases in which people are suspected of crimes beyond immigration violations, Lopez said. “It’s much easier for ICE to arrest individuals in public,” she said.
\n\n\n\nIn the past, federal immigration officers typically would not forcibly enter homes if they only had an administrative warrant issued by ICE itself, without a judge’s approval. Some lower courts have ruled in the past that entering homes without a judicial warrant violates the Fourth Amendment.
\n\n\n\nSpecific ICE officials have authority to issue administrative warrants. The warrants require “probable cause to believe” that the person named in the warrant is subject to removal. But they are not reviewed by anyone in the judicial branch.
\n\n\n\nA leaked ICE memo approved entering homes without consent using an administrative warrant alone, as long as a final order of removal has been issued, The Associated Press reported Jan. 22.
\n\n\n\nThe AP, citing a whistleblower disclosure, said the memo has been used to train new ICE officers, and “those still in training are being told to follow the memo’s guidance instead of written training materials that actually contradict the memo.”
\n\n\n\nThe May 12, 2025, memo, signed by ICE acting director Todd Lyons, said the Department of Homeland Security “has not historically relied on administrative warrants alone to arrest aliens subject to final orders of removal in their place of residence” but added that “the DHS Office of the General Counsel has recently determined that the U.S. Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the immigration regulations do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants for this purpose.”
\n\n\n\nIf this policy were to be challenged in court, it’s unclear whether it would be ruled constitutional.
\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat can people do if they think ICE has infringed on their Fourth Amendment rights? \n\n\n\nIf you believe that your rights were violated, perhaps causing an injury or property loss, your options for suing for compensation are limited.
\n\n\n\nUnlike many state laws, federal law generally prohibits civil lawsuits against federal officials for violating people’s rights. A 1971 Supreme Court decision briefly loosened these prohibitions, before tightening them again.
\n\n\n\nErwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California-Berkeley’s law school, and Burt Neuborne, a New York University emeritus law professor, wrote , “In one case, the Supreme Court held that people who had been illegally thrown off the Social Security disability rolls and were left without income could not sue, even though they had been given no due process. In another, the court declared that a man dying of cancer after the prison repeatedly denied him any medical care could not sue.”
\n\n\n\nDavid Rudovsky, a University of Pennsylvania law professor, said there might be an opportunity to sue under a different law, the Federal Tort Claims Act.
\n\n\n\nStill, he said, plaintiffs would face a steep challenge: “It’s not an easy path, and most people can’t afford to retain a lawyer.”
","category":"activism","author":"Megan Kearney","publishDate":"2026-01-26T15:33:54.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/ICE_rights.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/ice-immigration-legal-rights-fourth-amendment/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"7rpxqw","slug":"sylvia-czander","title":"Sylvia Czander","excerpt":"Sylvia Czander Just hours after Rhonda Swaney left a prenatal appointment for her first pregnancy, she felt severe pain in her stomach and started vomiting.\n
Then 25 years old and six months pregnant, she drove herself to the emergency room in Ronan, Montana, on the Flathead Indian Reservation, where an ambulance transferred her to a larger hospital 60 miles away in Missoula. Once she arrived, the staff couldn’t detect her baby’s heartbeat. Swaney began to bleed heavily. She delivered a stillborn baby and was hospitalized for several days. At one point, doctors told her to call her family. They didn’t expect her to survive.
\n
“It certainly changed my life—the experience—but my life has not been a bad life,” she told KFF Health News .
\n
Though her experiences were nearly 50 years ago, Swaney, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, said Native Americans continue to receive inadequate maternal care. The data appears to support that belief.
\n
In 2024, the most recent year for which data for the population is available, Native American and Alaska Native people had the highest pregnancy-related mortality ratio among major demographic groups, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
\n
In response to this disparity, Native organizations, the CDC, and some states are working to boost tribal participation in state maternal mortality review committees to better track and address pregnancy-related deaths in their communities. Native organizations are also considering ways tribes could create their own committees.
\n
State maternal mortality review committees investigate deaths that occur during pregnancy or within a year after pregnancy, analyze data, and issue policy recommendations to lower death rates.
\n
According to 2021 CDC data, compiled from 46 maternal mortality review committees, 87 percent of maternal deaths in the U.S. were deemed preventable. Committees reported that most, if not all , deaths among Native American and Alaska Native people were considered preventable.
\n
State committees have received federal money through the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act, which President Donald Trump signed in 2018.
\n
But the money is scheduled to dry up on Jan. 31, when the short-term spending bill that ended the government shutdown expires.
\n
Funding for the committees is included in the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill for fiscal year 2026. That bill must be approved by the House, Senate, and president to take effect.
\n
Native American leaders said including members of their communities in maternal mortality review committee activities is an important step in addressing mortality disparities.
\n
In 2023, tribal leaders and federal officials met to discuss four models: a mortality review committee for each tribe, a committee for each of the 12 Indian Health Service administrative regions, a national committee to review all Native American maternal deaths, and the addition of Native American subcommittees to state committees.
\n
Whatever the model, tribal sovereignty, experience, and traditional knowledge are important factors, said Kim Moore-Salas, a co-chair of the Arizona Maternal Mortality Review Committee. She’s also the chairperson of the panel’s American Indian/Alaska Native mortality review subcommittee and a member of the Navajo Nation.
\n
“Our matriarchs, our moms, are what carries a nation forward,” she said.
\n
Mental health conditions and infection were the leading underlying causes of pregnancy-related death among Native American and Alaska Native women as of 2021, according to the CDC report analyzing data from 46 states.
\n
The CDC found an estimated 68 percent of pregnancy-related deaths among Native American and Alaska Native people happened within a week of delivery to a year postpartum. The majority of those happened between 43 days and a year after birth.
\n
The federal government has a responsibility under signed treaties to provide health care to the 575 federally recognized tribes in the U.S. through the Indian Health Service. Tribal members can receive limited services at no cost, but the agency is underfunded and understaffed .
\n
A study published in 2024 that analyzed data from 2016 to 2020 found that approximately 75 percent of Native American and Alaska Native pregnant people didn’t have access to care through the Indian Health Service around the time of giving birth, meaning many likely sought care elsewhere. More than 90 percent of Native American and Alaska Native births occur outside of IHS facilities, according to the agency . For those who did deliver at IHS facilities, a 2020 report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General found that 56 percent of labor and delivery patients received care that did not follow national clinical guidelines.
\n
The 2024 study’s authors also found that members of the population were less likely to have stable insurance coverage and more likely to have a lapse in coverage during the period close to birth than non-Hispanic white people.
\n
Cindy Gamble, who is Tlingit and a tribal community health consultant for the American Indian Health Commission in Washington, has been a member of the state’s maternal mortality review panel for about eight years. In the time she’s been on the state panel, she said, its composition has broadened to include more people of color and community members.
\n
The panel also began to include suicide, overdose, and homicide deaths in its data analysis and added racism and discrimination to the risk factors considered during its case review process.
\n
Solutions need to be tailored to the tribe’s identity and needs, Gamble said.
\n
“It’s not a one-size-fits-all,” Gamble said, “because of all the beliefs and different cultures and languages that different tribes have.”
\n
Gamble’s tenure on the state committee is distinctive. Few states have tribal representation on maternal mortality review committees, according to the National Indian Health Board, a nonprofit organization that advocates for tribal health.
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The National Council of Urban Indian Health is also working to increase the participation of Urban Indian health organizations, which provide care for Native American people who live outside of reservations, in state maternal mortality review processes. As of 2025, the council had connected Urban Indian health organizations to state review committees in California, Kansas, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.
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Native leaders such as Moore-Salas find the current efforts encouraging.
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“It shows that state and tribes can work together,” she said.
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In March 2024, Moore-Salas became the first Native American co-chair of Arizona’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee. In 2025 she and other Native American members of the committee developed guidelines for the American Indian/Alaska Native subcommittee and reviewed the group’s first cases.
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The subcommittee is exploring ways to make the data collection and analysis process more culturally relevant to their population, Moore-Salas said.
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But it takes time for policy changes to create widespread change in the health of a population, Gamble said. Despite efforts around the country, other factors may hinder the pace of progress. For example, maternity care deserts are growing nationally, caused by rapid hospital and labor and delivery unit closures. Health experts have raised concerns that upcoming cuts to Medicaid will hasten these closures.
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Despite her experience and the ongoing crisis among Native American and Alaska Native people, Swaney hopes for change.
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She had a second complicated pregnancy soon after her stillbirth. She went into labor about three months early, and the doctors said her son wouldn’t live to the next morning. But he did, and he was transferred about 525 miles away from Missoula to the nearest advanced neonatal unit, in Salt Lake City.
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Her son, Kelly Camel, is now 48. He has severe cerebral palsy and profound deafness. He lives alone but has caregivers to help with cooking and other tasks, said Swaney, 73.
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He “has a good sense of humor. He’s kind to other people. We couldn’t ask for a more complete child.”
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KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF .
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This article first appeared on KFF Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .
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The post Native Americans Are Dying From Pregnancy. They Want a Voice To Stop the Trend. appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-01-26T14:00:21.000Z","image":"https://kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/kffhealthnews-icon.png?w=150","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/01/26/native-americans-are-dying-from-pregnancy-they-want-a-voice-to-stop-the-trend/","scraped":true},{"id":"dgcw2f","slug":"black-women8217s-unemployment-has-skyrocketed-heres-what-happened","title":"Black women's unemployment has skyrocketed. Here’s what happened.","excerpt":"Amanda Nataro was getting ready to travel to Liberia for a work trip when notice came that all travel was suspended. She was locked out of her emails and the building. In a matter of days, her job of nine years at the U.S. Agency for International Development was gone.","content":"
Amanda Nataro was getting ready to travel to Liberia for a work trip when notice came that all travel was suspended. She was locked out of her emails and the building. In a matter of days, her job of nine years at the U.S. Agency for International Development was gone.
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As a single mother, her thoughts turned to her elementary school-age children. They turned to the people she was supporting in Liberia as they worked to revamp the country’s only public medical school. And they turned to the other Black women like her — on her team alone there were senior leaders who were Black women — for whom jobs like this one in the federal government had been a lifeline , offering high pay, benefits and a chance to do meaningful work.
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“We had worked so hard to even get places at the table, and then the chairs were just removed,” Nataro said.
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The end of USAID via an executive order on Inauguration Day was the first in a series of deep cuts the new administration made to the federal workforce in the year since Donald Trump returned to office. Those cuts ran deeper for the Black women like Nataro who disproportionately worked in jobs that were eliminated.
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Black women started 2025 with an unemployment rate of 5.4 percent. They ended it at 7.3 percent — the highest rate in four years. Black women’s unemployment is now equivalent to White women’s rate during the bleakest moments of the Great Recession.
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“The labor market that Black women live in is what White women would think of as the worst labor market they’ve ever been in,” said Kathryn Anne Edwards, a labor economist. Without counting the pandemic, White women as a group have only experienced unemployment rates this high three times since 1954, when that monthly data started being collected.
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The impacts of job loss for Black women started to surface this summer , when cuts to federal agencies started to show up in the data. But that was just the beginning. Workplace trends and government policies that axed jobs and dismantled workplace DEI initiatives are having a measurable impact on Black women more than any other group.
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On any normal month in any normal year Black women’s unemployment rate is twice the rate of White women, which economists credit in large part to pervasive discrimination. But here is what was new to 2025: The economy was softening from the explosive growth it experienced coming out of the pandemic. Unemployment rates started to creep up again for everyone, and industries added fewer jobs than years prior. When that happens, employers have a wider candidate pool to choose from and discrimination becomes more widespread , said Jasmine Tucker, the vice president for research at the National Women’s Law Center.
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“When there’s more people looking for work, employers can be choosier. Who are they choosing? People who look like them, think like them, talk like them,” Tucker said.
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By December, Black women were spending an average of 29.7 weeks , or more than seven months, unemployed — the highest rate among every group of women and among all men except for Black men, who had a slightly higher average.
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“I remember sitting in the lobby of the Ronald Reagan Building [and International Trade Center] waiting to see if they’d let us in to apply for jobs,” Nataro recalled.
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Some 335,000 federal workers lost or left their jobs last year, including thousands of positions held by Black women.
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The share of Black women in the federal workforce (12 percent) is almost twice the share of Black women in the overall workforce (7 percent). And many of the departments most targeted for cuts by Trump and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) were the ones that had even larger shares of Black women, including the Education Department, where Black women were more than a quarter of workers.
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Those losses started to show up in the unemployment figures at the start of the year, and again in October when 174,000 government workers were no longer in labor force, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Black women also suffered job loss across sectors, said Jessica Fulton, a senior fellow at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank focused on Black Americans.
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The biggest employment dip for prime-age working Black women ages 25 to 54 was in a wide-ranging industry known as “other services ,” a category that includes personal care workers and laundry services, as well as religious groups, civil rights organizations and grantmaking positions. Black women’s employment in those jobs dropped 13.2 percent in 2025. Other big losses came in manufacturing (12.9 percent), public administration (9.8 percent) and financial activities (7.9 percent), according to annual data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics .
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Even fields that typically employ a large number of Black women and were doing relatively well last year, like leisure and hospitality and health care, either saw small dips or modest growth. Black women’s employment in leisure jobs dropped 1.4 percent in 2025; in education and health care, Black women’s employment grew by 2.4 percent.
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Driving that exodus are changes to the way workplaces are structured. The pandemic encouraged employers to stretch, offering their employees new workplace flexibilities. Now in this post-pandemic period, many employers are snapping back to status quo.
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Nataro, for example, ultimately applied for 15 to 30 positions, but only interviewed for two. In August, she started a new job in grantmaking, though in academia not government. It’s a pay cut but she can walk to work and it gives her flexibility to take care of her kids.
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Because Black women are the most likely to be single parents , workplace flexibility has long been key for them . But for more than a year now, more employers have started requiring remote workers to return to the office, eroding a benefit Black women reported gave them more work-life balance and shielded them from some of the discrimination and microaggressions they experienced in the workplace.
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The loss of remote work opportunities is part of the reason Black mothers have been leaving the workforce at higher numbers, said Kate Gallagher Robbins, a senior fellow at the National Partnership for Women & Families.
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Black women are historically most likely to be in the labor force of any group of women, but since December 2023, the participation rate of college educated Black mothers with children under the age of 5 has dropped 5 percentage points, more than double the rate for highly educated mothers overall. The most pronounced dips happened in 2025, according to an analysis by the National Partnership for Women & Families.
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Return to office mandates, the high cost of child care and lack of access to paid parental leave are all factors driving those numbers, Gallagher Robbins said.
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Stacked on top of those changes was a new workplace trend in 2025: the dissolution of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives , jobs that often went to people of color. On his first day in office, President Donald Trump revoked federal DEI requirements , saying his goal was to “forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based.” What followed was a nationwide retreat from DEI, with large companies deprioritizing equity commitments and cutting staff dedicated to inclusion initiatives.
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Employment attorney Chiquita Hall-Jackson said she spent most of last year fielding calls from Black workers who lost their jobs, many of them Black women in DEI roles.
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“They might be told one thing, that the company is just getting rid of the role altogether. Then there’s a new job description that pops up with the same duties, just a different title. I’m seeing that a lot,” Hall-Jackson said. “Then it’s hard for them to find a job with comparable duties and pay.”
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At two recent human resources conferences she attended, Hall-Jackson said employers told her they were worried about being penalized for offering DEI roles and were wondering how to reclassify positions. That changing landscape has made it a harder market for women who have 15 or even 20 years of experience and certifications in DEI for roles that no longer exist, she said. One client has been interviewing three times a week for a month and still hasn’t been able to find a job.
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“Now you’re trying to market yourself in a market that’s no longer there,” Hall-Jackson said.
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Going into 2026, there’s little sign unemployment rates will fall soon. In fact, cuts to Medicaid in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill are likely going to impact the health care workforce , Gallagher said, a field that employs 1 out every 5 Black women. One estimate published in the JAMA Health Forum put the projected job loss at about 300,000 by 2034. The sector, Gallagher Robbins said, is “a ticking time bomb.”
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The statistics are only part of the story, though, Fulton noted. Job loss at this scale for Black women has implications for entire families and communities. Black households are less likely to have access to generational wealth or other wealth-building opportunities, she said.
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“What we actually see is that Black households are more reliant on incomes earned at work through wages,” she said. “This is something that is really important in particular for Black women who are typically breadwinners in their households. If Black women are being pushed out of the labor force, there’s something really challenging happening for Black families and Black communities.”
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Tucker, who has been tracking the data for years, said the implications won’t stop with Black workers.
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“It’s going to be obvious to us when we declare the recession that the signs were there,” she said. “Black women were a sign and we sort of ignored it.”
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Chabeli Carrazana","publishDate":"2026-01-26T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/black_women_unemployment_2.jpg?w=640","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/black-women-unemployment-rate-skyrocketed-2025/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"nl1dn8","slug":"as-federal-anti-smoking-programs-get-cut-whos-looking-out-for-lgbtq-adults","title":"As federal anti-smoking programs get cut, who’s looking out for LGBTQ+ adults?","excerpt":"LGBTQ+ adults smoke cigarettes at higher rates, according to the American Cancer Society, and fewer people are taking notice. One in 6 queer and 1 in 3 transgender U.S. adults smoke cigarettes. That’s compared with 1 in 9 straight cisgender adults.","content":"
LGBTQ+ adults smoke cigarettes at higher rates, according to the American Cancer Society, and fewer people are taking notice.
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One in 6 queer and 1 in 3 transgender U.S. adults smoke cigarettes. That’s compared with 1 in 9 straight cisgender adults. There are many reasons for this gulf: LGBTQ+ people seek stress relief to deal with discrimination, and the tobacco industry has aggressively marketed to LGBTQ+ people in the past.
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But federal cuts mean fewer people and resources are available to address this disparity, and researchers are taking matters into their own hands.
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The American Cancer Society recently debuted a comprehensive report on U.S. tobacco trends that includes state-by-state data. The report was always meant to be a resource, but now it feels like a stopgap for a looming lack of federal data, said Dr. Nigar Nargis, senior scientific director of tobacco control research at the American Cancer Society.
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The Office on Smoking and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)is effectively gone, since its employees were all dismissed last spring . That office was the leading agency for tobacco prevention and control; it ran national ad campaigns to help smokers quit and funded state programs. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products has significantly cut staff.
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In this environment, researchers feel like they can’t rely on federal data anymore.
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“We were not really prepared for filling this gap,” Nargis said.
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Many LGBTQ+ people already know that smoking cigarettes is a frequent sight in the community. But they may not know why. Minal Patel, a senior principal scientist at the American Cancer Society, said the tobacco industry has poured a lot of money into making smoking “part of the culture” for LGBTQ+ people.
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Back in the 1990s and 2000s, the tobacco industry backed legislation that supported the LGBTQ+ community, as well as HIV research, Patel said. They also sought out the community in more visible ways: Tobacco companies took out ads in emerging gay press magazines, and they still sponsor Pride events and gay bars . Now, more LGBTQ+ people are watching social media influencers tout vape products.
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“Having a vulnerable population exposed to tobacco marketing when they don’t need to be and making it seem part of the culture is really predatory,” said Patel, who has been working in tobacco control, cancer and health disparities research for about 20 years.
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Several LGBTQ+ people, all previously heavy smokers, told The 19th that there are other unseen connections between cigarettes and being queer, too.
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For Emerson Wright, a law professor in Florida, smoking was how he first found LGBTQ+ friends as an adult. As a young queer kid in the South, he learned to associate smoking with safe places for people like him, like gay-friendly coffeeshops. And once he left college, smoking was the best way to catch a break at his pizza delivery or call center jobs.
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For Anasofia Wessel, a trans woman in Oregon, smoking became a crutch to deal with stress. After she broke her foot in 2024, life kept hitting her hard: she lost her job and temporarily lost housing.Meanwhile, the stress of anti-trans politics weighed on her.
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Everyone The 19th spoke with began smoking as teenagers: at 15, 16 or 17 years old. They all started, and kept going, because their friends were doing it. It offered a chance for connection, to strike up easy conversation with a stranger. Along the way, it became a way to cope with homophobia and transphobia or to ease stress. Some tried to quit and failed multiple times. But eventually, what became more important was preserving their health and the relationships that are most important to them.
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“I would like to have a long, happy life with my partner. My grandpa died at 65. He got lung cancer metastasized to his spine. And that sucks. I don’t want to die at 65,” Wessel said. Her grandpa had smoked since he was 13. She was there when he died. And lately, thinking about the future with her girlfriend has helped her stay focused.
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“In order to get myself to stop smoking, I started going for a run the next day, every time I smoked a cigarette,” she said. “It feels like knives being stabbed into your lungs.”
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Finding the will to stop smoking also has unique connections to LGBTQ+ identity. Two trans people told The 19th that they were only able to quit after they began their gender transition. Once they could live openly as themselves, they cared about their health for what felt like the first time.
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“Transitioning and getting a body that I wanted to take care of — that definitely changed my mindset about my physical health in a whole lot of ways,” Wright said.
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Matt Irving quit cigarettes in 2024 after 30 years of smoking. Last year, he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. As a gay man, receiving cancer treatment from a provider who was familiar with LGBQ+ health care wasn’t a given. If he and his husband hadn’t moved to New Jersey shortly before his diagnosis, his treatment would have been very different, he said.
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“There’s great resources for us around here,” he said. “In North Carolina … there was nobody who was understanding of PrEP or anything like that.”
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Last fall, a bipartisan group of 22 attorneys general asked the CDC to continue the youth tobacco survey . That survey, which first shed light on widespread youth e-cigarette use, was pulled from the field early in 2025, according to the American Lung Association. Its future is now uncertain. Although the CDC has proposed revisions to the 2026-2028 survey, it has not gone into detail about those changes.
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Some tobacco control researchers were also nervous about whether the CDC would continue the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which includes smoking data. The national survey is one of the few that was spared when the agency’s Population Health Office was cut last year. The CDC said in an emailed statement that data was collected as normal throughout 2025.
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Once the American Cancer Society report published in November, requests came in for the nonprofit to fill federal gaps in tobacco research. That could change how the organization tracks this data. The report presents a wide-ranging snapshot on tobacco use, but it doesn’t delve into historical data. In the past, they relied on the CDC for that.
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“Now we have to think about creating archives that offer this kind of information,” Nargis said.
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Orion Rummler","publishDate":"2026-01-26T11:00:00.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/LGBTQ-Smoking-2x3-1.jpg","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/lgbtq-smoking-cigarettes-cdc-data/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"liizz3","slug":"protesters-are-outraged-over-ices-latest-targets-school-aged-children","title":"Protesters are outraged over ICE’s latest targets: school-aged children","excerpt":"First, they killed a mom moments after she dropped off her son at school. Then, they came for the children; in one suburban Minneapolis school district, four students have been detained. On Friday, educators, activists, faith leaders and families braved frigid temperatures to protest the aggressive ...","content":"
First, they killed a mom moments after she dropped off her son at school. Then, they came for the children; in one suburban Minneapolis school district, four students have been detained. On Friday, educators, activists, faith leaders and families braved frigid temperatures to protest the aggressive tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in their state, with solidarity protests happening across the country.
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The action comes as ICE has stepped up enforcement around schools. Student attendance has plummeted across the Twin Cities and in other communities where ICE has bolstered its presence. To accommodate families too fearful to send their children to school, districts are offering remote learning, more transportation options and support from social workers.
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“Our children should not be afraid to come to school or wait at the bus stop,” Mary Granlund, Columbia Heights school board chair, said in a statement. “Their families should not be afraid to drop off or pick up their children … Schools and communities must be safe places for children and families to thrive.”
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Since the January 7 killing of Renee Nicole Good, 37, a mother of three who worked as a substitute teacher in Minneapolis, the aggressive tactics of ICE agents in Minnesota have garnered international attention — and from the beginning, schools have been at the center. ICE agents faced off with students and staff at a nearby high school on the same day as Good was shot dead. Then, on Tuesday, 5-year-old Liam Ramos was detained in the driveway of his home, still wearing his Spider-Man backpack.
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5-year-old Liam Ramos was detained in the driveway of his home, still wearing his Spider-Man backpack.\n \n\n\n\n
Columbia Heights Public Schools officials said this week that ICE agents took Liam and three other students away, including a high schooler who was detained with her mother inside their apartment. Their detention comes after President Donald Trump’s administration announced last year that it was rescinding federal guidance that prohibited immigration enforcement at sensitive locations such as churches, hospitals and schools.
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Columbia Heights Superintendent Zena Stenvik said ICE agents have gone as far as trailing school buses and driving onto campuses. “The sense of safety in our community and around our schools is shaken, and our hearts are shattered,” Stenvik said during a press conference on Wednesday.
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Carlos Mariani Rosa, executive director of the Minnesota Education Equity Partnership and board member of a St. Paul school, told The Hill that attendance at some campuses has fallen to 60 percent ; it is normally about 90 percent.
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To accommodate the needs of families who fear bringing their children to class in this climate, Minneapolis Public Schools is offering remote learning through February 12, while nearby Fridley Public Schools is adding transportation options and offering food assistance to vulnerable staff, students and families.
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“Our staff are terrified to come to work, so now we’ve stood up transportation for them to and from work,” Fridley Superintendent Brenda Lewis told The Hill. “We have families who would normally walk to school, but they’re terrified to send their children, so we’ve added transportation. We’ve stood up food support. We’ve helped staff who are afraid to leave their homes get groceries delivered.”
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Fears about ICE enforcement at schools escalated on the day an agent killed Good. Just hours after she died in South Minneapolis, the Border Patrol was accused of attacking and threatening students, teachers and staff at nearby Roosevelt High School.
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The Department of Homeland Security has denied that ICE agents acted improperly, stating that agents were trying to apprehend a suspect near the school when a crowd mobbed them. That led agents to use pepper spray to control the crowd, according to the agency, which said that children were not the targets of their operations near schools.
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But a sustained backlash against ICE has followed. Women leaders have been among the most vocal in opposing federal enforcement near campuses.
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A makeshift memorial for Renee Good is seen on January 20, 2026, in Minneapolis.\n (Angelina Katsanis/AP) \n\n\n\n
“I met with principals of MN schools — city and suburban — and heard horror stories of kids and parents ‘under siege’ by ICE,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, said on X last week. “Little kids scared. Dangerous encounters. This is no longer about a fraud investigation. If it was, 3,000 ICE agents wouldn’t be hanging outside of elementary schools and wrestling people to the ground in school parking lots.”
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Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union — a 1.7 million-member parent-led advocacy group — has also objected to the detention of children near schools.
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“As a mother, I am heartbroken. As an American, I am disgusted. We live in the only country where parents send their kids to school and quietly wonder if they will make it home alive, unharmed, untaken,” she said in a statement. “This is not ‘normal.’ No child should grow up with the feeling that their safety depends on trying to be invisible. When government actions make children afraid to walk outside, go to school or come home, that is not enforcement, it is terror.”
","category":"activism","author":"Nadra Nittle","publishDate":"2026-01-23T20:50:36.000Z","image":"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/minnesota_ICE_school_2.jpeg?w=796","source":"The 19th","sourceUrl":"https://19thnews.org/2026/01/minneapolis-protesters-rally-ice-schools-children/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.717Z"},{"id":"qno9mq","slug":"despicable-and-unacceptable-the-expanded-global-gag-rule","title":"Despicable and unacceptable: The expanded Global Gag Rule","excerpt":"The radically expanded Global Gag Rule is a harmful policy that puts the United States even further out of step with our global counterparts. The post Despicable and unacceptable: The expanded Global Gag Rule appeared first on Ipas .","content":"
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Statement from Anu Kumar, Ipas President and CEO, in response to today’s announcement of the expanded Global Gag Rule \n\t\t\t
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This radically expanded Global Gag Rule is nothing short of a regressive, harmful policy that puts the United States even further out of step with our global counterparts. This is yet another consequential setback for global health and human rights that threatens the lives and well-being of women and girls around the world. It not only aims to ban abortion, but also seeks to restrict work on diversity, equity, and inclusion; advancing gender equality; and LGBTQI+ rights.
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This latest and most dangerous iteration of the U.S. policy has also been applied to new issues, new funding, and new recipients. For the first time since it was enacted in 1984, the Global Gag Rule applies to all foreign aid, including humanitarian efforts and programs run by U.S.-based organizations, UN partners, and other governments.
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Bullying individual countries’ governments into complying with anti-rights and extremist ideology is despicable and unacceptable. It will wreak havoc on global efforts to improve health, uphold human rights, and achieve gender equality.
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Learn more about the Global Gag Rule and Ipas’s work to reduce the harms of U.S. foreign policies .
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The post Despicable and unacceptable: The expanded Global Gag Rule appeared first on Ipas .
","category":"global","author":"Jennifer Colletti","publishDate":"2026-01-23T17:39:38.000Z","image":"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Anu-Kumar_RS8511c-150x150.png","source":"Ipas","sourceUrl":"https://www.ipas.org/news/despicable-and-unacceptable-the-expanded-global-gag-rule/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.441Z"},{"id":"sp4g04","slug":"just-the-numbers-the-impact-of-canadas-international-assistance-for-family-planning-20232024","title":"Just the Numbers: The Impact of Canada’s International Assistance for Family Planning, 2023–2024","excerpt":"
Just the Numbers: The Impact of Canada’s International Assistance for Family Planning, 2023–2024 Policy Analysis sramashwar Statement from Amy Friedrich-Karnik, Guttmacher Institute Director of Federal Policy on Global Gag Rule Statement mcherins \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThis story was originally reported by Amanda Becker of The 19th , and republished through Rewire News Group’s partnership with The 19th News Network
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nA transgender worker is repeatedly and intentionally misgendered by their coworker. A workplace bars an employee from using facilities that match their gender identity. A supervisor suggests a transgender subordinate shouldn’t be in public-facing work.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nGoing forward, it will be more difficult, timely, and costly for LGBTQ+ workers to seek justice for these and other workplace harassment issues related to their gender identities and sexualities.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, on Jan. 22, 2026 voted 2-to-1 to rescind years-in-the-making guidance that the agency released in 2024 on applying current civil rights laws to workplace harassment. The 200-page document included more than 75 examples of harassment scenarios that employers might encounter and explained the agency’s thinking.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe EEOC’s move to toss the guidance out will be most immediately felt by LGBTQ+ workers, experts told The 19th , but it will also have broader implications for anyone who experiences harassment related to their gender, race or ethnicity while they’re at work—and for employers trying to comply with the underlying law.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n“One of the main services that the EEOC provides to employees is a free investigation and a free resolution of their complaint,” explained Chai Feldblum, who served as one of the civil rights agency’s five commissioners during the Obama administration and into the beginning of President Donald Trump’s first term.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n“But we should not conflate the EEOC rescinding guidance with rescinding the law that’s in place. Even though it does not change the law, it will still have an adverse, tangible, harmful effect on LGBTQ+ employees, because it will be expensive and time consuming” to pursue these cases in court, she added.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIn the earliest days of his second White House term, Trump fired two of the three Democratic EEOC commissioners before their terms ended—a first by a president in the agency’s 60-year history . He elevated Andrea Lucas, who had served on the commission since the end of his first term, to chair the agency on an interim basis. Without a quorum, the EEOC was limited in what it could do, though Lucas signaled early on that one of her top priorities was impeding the ability for gender-diverse people to lodge harassment complaints. Lucas was confirmed as chair in July, and then Trump pick Brittany Bull Panuccio was confirmed in October . Kalpana Kotagal is the only remaining Democratic commissioner.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOnce a quorum was in place, the EEOC announced that it would meet to consider rescinding the 2024 guidance, which Lucas said protected LGBTQ+ people at the expense of women. The agency developed much of the guidance related to LGBTQ+ workers—and the examples of how employers should apply it—after the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County , a landmark ruling that found the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protected workers from discrimination on the basis of their gender identity or sexuality.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n“Women’s sex-based rights in the workplace are under attack—and from the EEOC, the very federal agency charged with protecting women from sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination at work,” Lucas wrote at the time the guidance was released.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIn December, Lucas released a video in which she urged white men to report workplace harassment related to their race or gender, signaling that the EEOC’s enforcement priorities going forward will be related to the administration’s broader focus on curtailing efforts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe EEOC did not pick and choose which portions of the harassment guidance to rescind, instead nullifying the 200-page document altogether. Picking and choosing, Feldblum suggested, might have required a lengthier comment period, and drawn attention to the reasons behind the push to rescind it. The EEOC skipped the traditional 30-day notice-and-comment period for the public to weigh in.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n“The guidance addresses harassment on all protected bases—race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, and genetic information,” Kotagal, the Democratic commissioner, said during the meeting.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nShe noted that the EEOC is often the “only opportunity” for many workers to “vindicate their civil rights.” She said she was “proud” to support the EEOC’s guidance, because it “empowers workers to know their rights and enables employers, particularly small businesses, to know their responsibilities.”
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPanuccio said Thursday that the “private sector is filled with resources” about how employers should apply workplace harassment law.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe EEOC’s decision to rescind the guidance was widely criticized by advocacy organizations supporting women and LGBTQ+ people. The National Women’s Law Center said it was “yet another example of the EEOC straying from its core mission … leaving workers without the protections they deserve—especially women, Black people, and other people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, and other workers that face harassment and violence at disproportionately high rates.” The Human Rights Campaign said it would “destabilize our understanding of civil rights protections—for communities across the board—that generations of Americans have fought for, demanded and defended.
\r\n\r\n\r\nThe post It Just Got Harder for LGBTQ+ People to Address Harassment at Work appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-01-23T14:00:44.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/shutterstock_2247892893-scaled.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/01/23/it-just-got-harder-for-lgbtq-people-to-address-harassment-at-work/","scraped":true},{"id":"qdvu4i","slug":"looking-toward-2026-what-2025-state-sessions-and-elections-tell-us-about-the-year-ahead","title":"Looking Toward 2026: What 2025 State Sessions and Elections Tell Us About the Year Ahead","excerpt":"As the Trump administration ramped up federal attacks on gender justice in 2025, people across the country refused to back down. Voters, advocates, state legislators, attorneys general, and more showed up in their communities on the state and local level.","content":"As the Trump administration ramped up federal attacks on gender justice in 2025, people across the country refused to back down. Voters, advocates, state legislators, attorneys general, and more showed up in their communities on the state and local level. They made a real difference for their neighbors by defending people’s rights in state capitols, attending protests, participating in mutual aid efforts, and attending state and local government meetings. In 2026, resistance at the state and local level will be more important than ever.
\nThat’s why we analyzed the trends from the 2025 elections and state legislative sessions to give us insight on what to expect for the 2026 state sessions launching this month. Here’s what’s on our radar:
\nBolstering state budgets after the “Big Ugly Bill”
\nAcross the country, states have been left with the huge task of trying to fill the gaps left when the federal “Big Ugly Bill” (aka One Big Beautiful Bill Act or OBBBA) slashed federal programs that women, children, and families rely on, like SNAP and Medicaid. At the ballot box in 2025, voters in states and localities from Ohio to Washington voted for revenue raising measures to send a clear, courageous message that their states must show up to make sure all women and families have the chance to thrive. Colorado voters approved a ballot proposition to increase taxes on the wealthy to fund free school meals for all public school students and fund new state costs for administering SNAP following the horrific federal funding cuts.
\nA major focus in 2026 state legislative sessions will be shifting state funds and passing policies to raise state revenue to counter federal cuts to programs, as well as unlinking state tax codes from federal provisions to prevent additional revenue loss.
\nFlexing and expanding state anti-discrimination protections
\nAttacks on trans people and diversity, equity, and inclusion were rampant in 2025, with the Trump administration threatening to withhold funding or punish states that refused to discriminate. But state attorneys general did not back down. Month after month, coalitions of attorneys general showed up together, affirming that trans health care is protected in their state s and that anti-discrimination and inclusive workplace policies were not just legal, they are the law and must be followed.
\nOregon is one state leading the way on anti-discrimination efforts. The state’s attorney general is leading a lawsuit challenging attacks on gender-affirming care and its legislature increased funding for positions in the state’s civil rights division to investigate claims of discrimination. This is especially important as the Trump administration has all but declared that it won’t investigate certain kinds of discrimination, like discrimination against trans people.
\nTrump has also effectively gutted the federal Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—two of the agencies previously tasked with investigating civil rights abuses. In 2026, we expect to see states filling the gaps like Oregon has by continuing to pass and implement their own strong state anti-discrimination laws for schools and workplaces .
\nAdvancing bold policies to ensure reproductive and LGBTQI+ health and safety
\nFederal attacks on health care last year ranged from overt targeting of trans health care to more quiet chipping away at reproductive rights. But we saw legislators in states like Colorado and Massachusetts show up to support access to abortion and gender-affirming care by expanding their states’ shield laws , which increase privacy and legal protections for patients and doctors.
\nIn 2025, voters elected leaders with a positive vision of equality for all people— not leaders who attack trans people — and showed that abortion rights and access remain a defining, winning policy issue. In 2026, we expect to see policymakers acting more boldly to shore up and advance inclusive policies like proactive funding and protections for emergency abortion care and shield laws to protect privacy for abortion and trans health care patients and providers. While we anticipate wide-ranging attacks to continue into 2026 state sessions, including efforts to expand denials of health care and the spread of misinformation on reproductive and trans health care, we also foresee state lawmakers and advocates looking to strategies like those used in Florida last session to defeat every anti-LGBTQ bill introduced.
\nIncreasing affordability through investments in care and wages
\nPeople have been very focused the past year on the affordability crisis, electing policymakers who know that making life more affordable means making care more affordable . In May 2025, nearly 1,400 child care providers across the country walked out for a Day Without Child Care to make their impact and voices known. In Louisiana, advocates from a coalition of over 180 organizations showed up to the state Capitol to highlight the need for ongoing investments in child care and early education.
\nIn 2026, in addition to greater investments in care, we’re watching out for lawmakers to address another key driver of the affordability crisis : the long-term suppression of workers’ pay. We expect to see continued success of policies like pay range transparency that help close gender and racial wage gaps and hope to see efforts to raise the minimum wage and enact paid leave policies to make life more affordable for women and families.
\nCheck out our State Playbook for Gender Justice to learn more about the policies we are watching or email stategenderpolicy@nwlc.org to connect with our experts.
\nThe post Looking Toward 2026: What 2025 State Sessions and Elections Tell Us About the Year Ahead appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"activism","author":"Amelia Packham","publishDate":"2026-01-22T21:19:22.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/NWLC_Website_Blog_StatesofResistance-1024x576-1.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/looking-toward-2026-what-2025-state-sessions-and-elections-tell-us-about-the-year-ahead/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"vg8sm5","slug":"litigation-involving-reproductive-health-and-rights-in-the-federal-courts","title":"Litigation Involving Reproductive Health and Rights in the Federal Courts","excerpt":"This State and Federal Reproductive Rights Litigation tracker aggregates information about ongoing litigation regarding abortion bans and restrictions, FDA approval of Mifepristone (an abortion pill) and other federal regulations.","content":"This State and Federal Reproductive Rights Litigation tracker aggregates information about ongoing litigation regarding abortion bans and restrictions, FDA approval of Mifepristone (an abortion pill) and other federal regulations.","category":"choice","author":"kffmichaelp","publishDate":"2026-01-22T20:16:00.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2023/02/240108_Reproductive-Rights-Litigation-Tracker_FI-2.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/litigation-involving-reproductive-health-and-rights-in-the-federal-courts/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"8el7k7","slug":"why-conservatives-want-to-ban-trans-girls-from-sports-podcast","title":"Why Conservatives Want to Ban Trans Girls from Sports (Podcast)","excerpt":"Here’s a hint: It’s about opening the door to keeping all women and girls out of public life. The post Why Conservatives Want to Ban Trans Girls from Sports (Podcast) appeared first on Rewire News Group.","content":"In this episode, Imani Gandy and Jess Pieklo discuss the ICE raids in Minnesota, Trump’s threats to “buy” Greenland, and explain how a ruling in favor of state bans on trans girls playing sports could lead to boys-only chess clubs.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nTranscript
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Together, we make reproductive justice visible.
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Rewire News Group is a reader-supported, independent nonprofit newsroom. Membership keeps this reporting accessible to all.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a member today .
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImani’s column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles , is back in 2026! Sign up for her newsletter here to read it first, and listen to Imani’s new podcast, B*tch, Listen, here .
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\r\nThe post Why Conservatives Want to Ban Trans Girls from Sports (Podcast) appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-01-22T18:22:24.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/BL-S09-E47-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/01/22/why-conservatives-want-to-ban-trans-girls-from-sports-podcast/","scraped":true},{"id":"kkdg1x","slug":"what-is-pelvic-floor-therapy","title":"What Is Pelvic Floor Therapy?","excerpt":"There are tons of misconceptions about pelvic floor therapy. Here are the facts. The post What Is Pelvic Floor Therapy? appeared first on Rewire News Group.","content":"During my first pregnancy, I was rushed into an emergency cesarean section because my daughter became trapped inside my birth canal after 45 minutes of pushing. My OB-GYN sarcastically refers to it as “the best of both worlds,” because I got to labor until she was crowning before being rushed into surgery.
\nMy pelvic floor doesn’t see it that way. As an added bonus to the physical trauma that I endured, the night after I gave birth, the swaddle my newborn daughter was tightly wrapped in loosened and covered up her face. She was crying—screaming, actually—but my sleep apnea-afflicted partner snoozed away. I thanked my lifelong ability to wake at the sound of a pin drop for helping me snap to consciousness in that moment. Before I could remember that I had a fresh 14-inch long incision across my waistline, I lurched forward to aid my newborn.
\nDays later, I woke up covered in blood with a split c-section incision. My mom puked at the sight of my partner cleaning up the wound. That’s when I realized I had retraumatized the location when I adjusted my daughter’s swaddle. After a 6 a.m. ambulance to the emergency room, a return trip to the ER a week later due to more bleeding, a subsequent infection, drainage appointments, and two weeks of motherhood, I finally began the journey to physical healing. For more than six years after, though, I suffered from incontinence.
\nSince giving birth, laughing, sneezing, coughing, jumping on the trampoline with my children, or even screaming along to my favorite song in the car has left me leaking. Sex with my husband was often so painful that we had to stop. When these issues began, I had not yet begun my sexual and reproductive health graduate course and did not know that a c-section could cause a pelvic floor injury.
\nI thought pelvic floor dysfunction only happened to those who gave birth vaginally. I was wrong.
\nI know now that pelvic floor therapy, which involves working with a physical therapist to perform exercises like Kegels, squats, and stretching, and using other techniques like hands-on massaging and vaginal dilation, could have helped me with this issue long ago.
\nThe problem did not get better as time went on but in fact, got worse. Over the course of a few months, a childfree friend of mine urged me to tell my OB-GYN that I was struggling with pelvic issues—and to use the information I had gleaned from my graduate training to help me advocate for myself. My OB-GYN happily obliged without a second thought. With private medical insurance backing me, I was ready to get my pelvic floor right.
\nThe first session with a pelvic floor therapist can be the most intimidating. It consists of analyzing the pelvic floor’s response to various stimuli to create a treatment plan. There are “homework” exercises to do outside of therapy sessions, too, like those Kegels and stretches.
\nI was shocked when, only after the first week, my urgency to urinate decreased from an average of 12 (yes, 12) times in a 24-hour period to an average of nine in the same timespan. (People typically urinate six to seven times in 24 hours, on average.) As an added bonus, for the first time since those witching hours with a newborn seven years ago, I slept for more than six hours without waking up with the urgent need to go.
\nI was hooked on this therapy that I had previously been so misinformed about, even though I’ve spent nearly a decade researching and advocating for sexual health. Equipped with my personal experience, I spoke with Ruth Macy, a pelvic health physical therapist and co-author of Your Postpartum Body , to clear up some common myths and misconceptions about pelvic floor therapy for others who may be in a similar position.
\nIs pelvic floor therapy only helpful for postpartum people who had a vaginal birth? \nPelvic floor therapy is helpful for anyone who is pre- or postpartum—and for people who haven’t given birth, too. Pelvic floor therapists can help those with concerns about their bladder health, bowel health, pain or changes in sexual function, gynecological or urological cancers, and bowel cancer. People in gender transition also may need pelvic floor therapy, Macy said.
\nIs pelvic floor therapy traumatizing? \nWhile pelvic floor therapy can be difficult for survivors of sexual abuse or those who have suffered labor and postpartum injury, history of trauma typically comes up during the consents done at the initial intake session. Patients can opt out of having internal vaginal exams, for example. Oftentimes, my therapist would check my pain as we were completing exercises and always asked my consent before trying anything new. Pelvic floor therapists are trained to treat their patients with care and respect and affirm consent throughout treatment. Macy also told RNG that providers should honor patient autonomy and have “safeguards for stopping a treatment if the patient becomes unresponsive or appears to be fawning to ‘get through it.’”
\nIs pelvic floor therapy based in science? \nPelvic floor therapy has been used since the days of ancient Greece , and the field has come a long way even since the mid-1900s. Pelvic health care is one of the fastest growing areas of clinical research, and has a strong and growing body of evidence behind it.
\nIn the 1940s, “Margaret Morris [a ballet dancer and choreographer] and Minnie Randell [her mentor and a midwife/physiotherapist] identified that pelvic floor strengthening helped reduce leakage in dancers,” Macy said. “There have been many decades of ‘how to influence the pelvic floor’ since that time.”
\nMacy added pelvic floor therapists can receive board certification through the American Physical Therapy Association, but it’s not required to practice.
\nAre women the only people who can benefit from pelvic floor therapy? \nNope! Children and men may find pelvic floor therapy helpful if they are struggling with pelvic floor or related problems. Macy says men most often seek pelvic floor therapy for incontinence after radical prostatectomy. But men could also benefit if they are struggling with sexual dysfunction, any disruption related to the prostate, and testicle pain.
\nIn children, pelvic floor therapy is often recommended when there is bedwetting, urgency, daytime incontinence, or constipation. The difference for children is that they do not receive internal exams. Therapy consists of either behavior modification and/or exercise.
\nIs pelvic floor therapy only helpful for pelvic floor issues? \nOne of the biggest misconceptions fails to consider the ways that the pelvic floor is linked to other parts of the body .
\n“The pelvic floor is a tattle tale, as it reports to different parts of your nervous system,” Macy said. “It will be dysfunctional before other muscular systems. It should be considered in [unmanageable] back, pelvic, sacroiliac joint, and hip pain that is not responding to conventional treatments. It can help with any deficit in walking, transfers, running, and more. It functions as a part of many systems, so I see it involved in a lot of musculoskeletal problems.”
\nFor me, the benefits of pelvic floor therapy were immense. They helped my quality of living, my posture, my sleep, and my sex life. The myths are just that—myths.
\nThe post What Is Pelvic Floor Therapy? appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-01-22T14:00:03.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Mythbusting-Pelvic-Floor-Therapy-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/01/22/pelvic-floor-therapy-explained/","scraped":true},{"id":"gkiv5g","slug":"opinion-hotels-have-a-constitutional-right-not-to-house-ice-agents","title":"Opinion: Hotels Have a Constitutional Right Not To House ICE Agents","excerpt":"And they should use it. The post Opinion: Hotels Have a Constitutional Right Not To House ICE Agents appeared first on Rewire News Group.","content":"\r\nTo get AngryBlackLady Chronicles straight to your inbox, sign up for Imani’s bimonthly newsletter here . You can catch Imani’s monthly podcast, B*tch, Listen here , in the Boom! Lawyered feed.
\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHotels across the country are housing ICE agents as they carry out violent raids, detention operations, and street abductions.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOf course people are pushing back. Activists have been calling for boycotts of hotel chains like Marriott and Hilton that cooperate with ICE, arguing that businesses should not be providing material support for an enforcement regime built on mass detention, deportation, and brutality.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe government seems offended that anyone would even object. When one Hilton-branded hotel reportedly refused to host ICE agents, the backlash from the government was unhinged, with the Department of Homeland Security yelling on social media that it was “unacceptable.”
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAs if private businesses are obligated to support armed state violence. As if saying no to ICE is somehow unreasonable or even traitorous.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIt’s easy to dismiss the backlash as ideological, performative, or just another episode of internet outrage. But underneath it is a much older and much more serious question—one that sounds dusty until you think about how modern law enforcement actually works: What are the limits on the government’s ability to force private space into service for coercive state power?
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThat question sits at the heart of the Third Amendment—the one most people have forgotten about if they ever knew what it was at all.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nDusting off the Third Amendment \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Third Amendment prohibits the government from forcing people to “quarter,” or house, soldiers in their homes during peacetime without consent.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Founders were responding to very specific British abuses in the decades leading up to the American Revolution. The British Parliament’s Quartering Acts required colonists to house troops and provide them with supplies, including, specifically “with diet, and small beer, cyder [sic], or rum mixed with water.”
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe 1765 Quartering Act prevented British troops from being housed in private homes, but it also required colonial legislatures to provide quarters for soldiers to be lodged in , including barracks, inns, and ale houses—basically the Marriotts of the day. Later, in 1774, Parliament enacted another quartering act that required private homes to quarter British soldiers and allowed royal governors—the Crown’s appointed executive officials in the new colonies—to find places to house British soldiers in “uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings.”
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAnd, according to the National Constitution Center , a nonpartisan organization for constitutional education, there were reports of the British military forcing their way into private homes during the French and Indian War.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe colonists hated it, of course. They were deeply suspicious of standing armies operating among civilians and relying on civilians for housing, supplies, and logistics: George Washington, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton all loudly opposed it. Standing armies were invasive, expensive, and coercive. They hated it so much that they listed it as a grievance in the Declaration of Independence—and then enshrined their objection in the Bill of Rights.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Third Amendment reflects a simple principle: The government does not get to commandeer private space for enforcement just because it’s convenient. (The fact that the newly formed United States promptly ignored this principle when it came to Native Americans is deeply relevant hypocrisy.)
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIt’s easy to dismiss the Third Amendment as irrelevant today: No one is stuffing ICE agents into your mom’s spare bedroom and demanding that she serve them weak mojitos—yet.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThis particular amendment has never been the basis of a Supreme Court decision, and modern lower courts have waved it away as inapplicable to modern policing. (As recently as 2015, a federal court in Mitchell v. City of Henderson
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBut that dismissal depends upon pretending that modern law enforcement bears no resemblance to a standing domestic army—a pretense that gets harder to maintain given the ongoing events in Minnesota.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nICE is a paramilitary force, full stop \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nICE is formally a civilian—not military—agency with a law enforcement component tasked with enforcing immigration laws. In reality, it operates as a paramilitary force. Agents conduct coordinated raids, deploy tactical units, carry military-style weapons , and work hand-in-hand with local police departments that have themselves been heavily militarized over the last several decades.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThese aren’t rogue actions: They’re protocol. The Trump administration has framed this work not as immigration or law enforcement, but as combat—against “invasion ,” “criminal aliens ,” and “alien enemies “—and ICE agents are behaving accordingly.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIn Minnesota, that posture has resulted in extraordinary violence. The ICE agent who killed Renee Good earlier this month was immediately shielded from public accountability while the administration smeared her and her wife to justify the killing.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nA 21-year-old said he was left blinded in one eye after agents fired a projectile into his face at close range. That same week, agents threw flash-bang grenades into a car carrying six children , including a six-month-old baby who reportedly stopped breathing and had to be revived by his mother, who performed CPR .
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSo when ICE agents operating this way need “quartering,” the relevant question is not whether they technically qualify as “soldiers.” It’s whether the function they serve—as armed agents of the state deployed against civilian populations—triggers the same constitutional concerns the Third Amendment was designed to prevent.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHotels can say no \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHousing ICE agents is not a neutral act. It is part of the logistical spine of Trump’s detention-and-deportation machine. ICE does not operate in isolation; it relies on a vast network of private contractors, detention centers, transportation providers, and lodging to function at scale.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHotels provide staging ground, proximity, and rest and resupply for agents conducting raids that funnel people into detention facilities. Lodging is infrastructure. And when that infrastructure is treated as something civilians or private businesses are expected to provide automatically, the consent that the Third Amendment requires has already been abandoned.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWhich brings us to the Hilton mess .
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWhen Hilton stripped a local hotel of its franchise following reports that the property declined to host ICE agents in early January, individuals reportedly began canceling Hilton Honors accounts in protest. It sent a clear message: Declining to provide private space for armed federal agents is no longer treated as a neutral business choice—it’s a provocation.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThat framing mirrors the government’s response.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Department of Homeland Security melted down on social media accusing Hilton of siding with “murderers and rapists” and deliberately undermining federal law enforcement.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSetting aside that most of the people DHS is detaining aren’t murderers and rapists—indeed, 73 percent have no criminal conviction, according to the TRAC Immigration database—in what world is a private business required to cooperate with law enforcement by housing them?
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThat is precisely the dynamic the Third Amendment was written to reject.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPrivate actors are not obligated to materially support state violence. Hotels are private businesses. They get to decide who they lodge and under what conditions. Declining to house ICE isn’t sabotage or resistance—not really. It’s the ordinary exercise of property and contract rights in the face of an increasingly aggressive immigration enforcement apparatus.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe reason the Third Amendment feels outdated is because we’ve normalized everything it warned against: heavily armed agents operating inside communities, private space pressed into service for enforcement, and government officials acting offended when anyone refuses.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIt’s also impossible to ignore how selective this alarm has been. Law enforcement operating aggressively inside Black and brown communities has been normalized for decades —raids, checkpoints, militarized policing treated as background noise rather than the constitutional crisis it is. That reality has rarely triggered serious concern about standing armies or coerced cooperation.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBut when those same tactics show up in places like Minnesota, where the people affected are more likely to be white —with the visibility and connections to power that can bring—the discomfort suddenly sharpens.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWhat’s changed isn’t the conduct. It’s who is being subjected to it—and who is now being asked to quietly accommodate it.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Third Amendment was not written for a world in which federal agents routinely move through civilian communities battering and brutalizing them, supported by infrastructure that private actors are not permitted to refuse to provide.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWhat we are seeing now is not the law being enforced, but yet another constitutional boundary being worn down through normalization—first in Black and brown communities, and now everywhere else. Hotels are not required to help that happen any more than private citizens are.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAnd the government doesn’t get to act offended when hotels—and the Constitution—tell it no.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe post Opinion: Hotels Have a Constitutional Right Not To House ICE Agents appeared first on Rewire News Group .
","category":"choice","author":"Rewire News Group","publishDate":"2026-01-21T13:59:00.000Z","image":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/ABLC-3rd-amemendment-Web.jpg","source":"Rewire News Group","sourceUrl":"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2026/01/21/opinion-hotels-have-a-constitutional-right-not-to-house-ice-agents/","scraped":true},{"id":"c5eykg","slug":"parental-consentnotification-requirements-for-minors-seeking-abortions","title":"Parental Consent/Notification Requirements for Minors Seeking Abortions","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"choice","author":"kffadarab","publishDate":"2026-01-15T13:05:19.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/parental-consent-notification/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"md1gh0","slug":"dr-verma-testifies-before-the-senate-on-safety-of-medication-abortion","title":"Dr. Verma Testifies Before the Senate on Safety of Medication Abortion","excerpt":"Today, Dr. Nisha Verma, ob/gyn who provides care in Georgia and Massachusetts and Fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, is testifying before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. The post Dr.","content":"\n\t\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tDr. Verma Testifies Before the Senate on Safety of Medication Abortion\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\n\n\nOUR STATEMENT \n\n\n\nToday, Dr. Nisha Verma, an ob/gyn who provides care in Georgia and Massachusetts and Fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, is testifying before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. The hearing, organized by anti-abortion policymakers, will share misinformation and disinformation about medication abortion. Dr. Verma will share her clinical and research expertise on the safety and efficacy of medication abortion, telehealth abortion care, and the real threat to patients across the country right now including abortion bans, immigration enforcement, and Medicaid cuts.
\n\n\n\nToday’s hearing will be live-streamed at 10 AM ET .
\n\n\n\nThe following statement is from Dr. Verma’s remarks to the Senators:
\n\n\n\n“As a doctor, I know that abortion care can be complicated for many people. I sit with that complexity every day, as do so many of my patients and their families. Holding space for complexity is important—but discomfort with abortion care should not be used as an excuse to distort facts.
\n\n\n\n“So, let’s talk about the facts. The fact is: the science on mifepristone’s safety and effectiveness is longstanding and settled.
\n\n\n\n“Knowing their safety and efficacy, I took these medications myself a few months ago after my husband and I experienced a devastating pregnancy loss. Luckily, in Massachusetts, we were able to obtain the medications from our local pharmacy and complete this very difficult process safely, privately, and at home. Unfortunately, for many people, unnecessary restrictions on mifepristone make this evidence-based care unavailable, and force them to undergo additional hardship during already heartbreaking experiences…
\n\n\n\n“Access to mifepristone and misoprostol keeps my patients safe and does not pose a threat to their wellbeing. However, my patients do face real, well-documented threats to their health, wellbeing, and lives. One real risk is the impact of losing access to these medications. The consequences of losing access to mifepristone will disproportionately impact my patients with low-incomes, patients of color, immigrant patients, and those who live in rural areas; …
\n\n\n\n“As a doctor, I have the immense privilege of sitting with people and their families to learn about their lives. My patients remind me every day that abortion care, pregnancy, and medicine are not isolated political issues, and I chose to be here in this room today, as challenging as it is, to honor them. I hope moving forward this committee will focus on addressing the many real, documented dangers patients face, rather than restricting access to safe, evidence-based care.”
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CONTACT US
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Email voice@prh.org to speak to a physician advocate or get added to our reporter list.
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The post Dr. Verma Testifies Before the Senate on Safety of Medication Abortion appeared first on Physicians for Reproductive Health .
","category":"choice","author":"Mykella Palmer","publishDate":"2026-01-14T14:03:33.000Z","image":"https://prh.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/press-release-verma-senate-safety-medication-abortion.png","source":"Physicians for Reproductive Health","sourceUrl":"https://prh.org/press-releases/dr-verma-senate-testimony-medication-abortion-safety/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"egdsxi","slug":"blair-darney","title":"Blair Darney","excerpt":"Blair Darney Aliyah Simon-Felix
Ruhi Rao
South Carolina Policymakers Are Starting the Year With Attacks on Abortion and Pregnancy Care
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FROM THE ARTICLE \n\n\n\nOp-ed by PRH President and CEO Dr. Jamilia Perritt, Destiny Lopez (Guttmacher Institute) and Kirsten Moore (EMAA Project).
\n\n\n\nOn Jan. 14, the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee will hold a hearing framed as an inquiry into the safety of medication abortion. In reality, it will be an opportunity for the committee’s antiabortion majority to showcase junk science and misleading narratives to undermine access to mifepristone—the first of two drugs in a commonly used medication abortion and miscarriage care regimens.
\n\n\n\nMifepristone has been used safely and effectively for more than two decades, supported by an extensive body of evidence and endorsed by major medical organizations including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association and numerous other leading medical societies. In the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved mifepristone in 2000 and has repeatedly reviewed the medication since, each time reaching the same conclusion that it is safe and effective.
\n\n\n\n\nThe post Junk In, Junk Out: The Senate HELP Hearing Confirmed What We Already Knew About the War on Medication Abortion appeared first on Physicians for Reproductive Health .
","category":"choice","author":"Mykella Palmer","publishDate":"2026-01-13T18:28:08.000Z","image":"https://prh.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ms-magazine.png","source":"Physicians for Reproductive Health","sourceUrl":"https://prh.org/media-mentions/junk-in-junk-out-the-senate-help-hearing-confirmed-what-we-already-knew-about-the-war-on-medication-abortion/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"5iciiz","slug":"junk-in-junk-out-what-to-expect-from-the-senate-help-committee-hearing-on-medication-abortion","title":"Junk In, Junk Out: What to Expect From the Senate HELP Committee Hearing on Medication Abortion","excerpt":"Junk In, Junk Out: What to Expect From the Senate HELP Committee Hearing on Medication Abortion Opinion jloewenberg \n\t\n\t\t
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OUR STATEMENT \n\n\n\nToday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox cases in which transgender students are challenging laws that categorically ban transgender women and girls from athletic programs based on their gender identity.
\n\n\n\nDr. Jamila Perritt, ob/gyn and abortion provider in Washington, DC, and President and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health, responds:
\n\n\n\n“Today, the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in two cases, West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, in which transgender youth are once again forced to challenge laws that mischaracterize, isolate, and dehumanize them, as well as the entire LGBTQIA2S+ community. The reality is simple: laws that ban transgender women and girls from sports participation are inherently violent and oppressive. Moreover, laws like this are part of a larger strategy to suppress political freedoms and the enforcement of compliance by targeting minoritized communities. History has repeatedly shown us that political violence often targets the most vulnerable members of our communities, like our queer and trans youth, then uses those same community members as scapegoats in the justification of said violence. But make no mistake, laws like this do not just impact queer and trans youth. Laws that disenfranchise queer and trans people set a precedent for the erosion of rights universally, showing that when any group is targeted, no one’s freedoms are truly safe.
\n\n\n\n“As a medical professional dedicated to providing inclusive, supportive, accessible care to all my patients regardless of their age or gender expression, I know that living a full, authentic life expands far beyond the four walls of our hospitals or clinics. Gender-affirming health care is just one facet of a high-quality life, and trans youth deserve to experience the same freedoms, joys, and opportunities as their cisgender counterparts. Period. As a physician, I know that participation in recreational sports is essential, as it allows youth to make new friends, exercise, and commit to something important as part of a team. Since 2020, over half of the states in the nation have implemented some level of a transgender sports ban, requiring all participants to undergo invasive sex testing. Let’s be very clear: these sports bans are not about safety, “fairness,” or morality. These bans are about criminalization, restricting bodily autonomy, and invading the privacy of all youth, but specifically queer and trans youth.
\n\n\n\n“I hope that the Supreme Court does not uphold this harmful cycle of transgender violence and instead prioritizes the humanity and needs of queer and trans youth. Every queer and trans youth deserves a full life, free of ostracization and isolation. The implementation of any law to stifle this is simply inhumane.
\n\n\n\n“To my colleagues in the reproductive justice movement, I want to remind you all that we are obligated to stay abreast of the intricate ways in which the transgender community is consistently ostracized. Now is not the time to look away; it is the time to get well-informed and organized. We are our only hope.”
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CONTACT US
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Email voice@prh.org to speak to a physician advocate or get added to our reporter list.
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\nThe post SCOTUS Hears Cases on Trans Inclusion in Sports appeared first on Physicians for Reproductive Health .
","category":"choice","author":"Mykella Palmer","publishDate":"2026-01-13T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://prh.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/press-release-SCOTUS-trans-sports.png","source":"Physicians for Reproductive Health","sourceUrl":"https://prh.org/press-releases/scotus-transgender-sports-ban-cases/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"qwsgd0","slug":"prh-files-amicus-brief-to-maryland-supreme-court","title":"PRH Files Amicus Brief to Maryland Supreme Court","excerpt":"On January 12, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Doing Right By Birth , and several physicians who practice in Maryland, including Dr. Carolyn Sufrin, filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of Maryland explaining the grave health consequences of punishing parents who avail themselves of Safe H...","content":"\n\t\n\t\t
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\n\n\n\nOUR STATEMENT \n\n\n\nOn January 12, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Doing Right By Birth , and several physicians who practice in Maryland including Dr. Carolyn Sufrin, filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of Maryland explaining the grave health consequences of punishing parents who avail themselves of Safe Haven laws, which becomes all the more concerning as the nation is in the midst of a maternal health crisis.
\n\n\n\nDr. Sufrin, ob/gyn in Maryland and Fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health responds:
\n\n\n\n “As an ob/gyn who has provided full spectrum reproductive health care to patients and families in Maryland for over 11 years, I see firsthand the grave implications that restricting health care and resources has on families. It is critical that Maryland continue to ensure that parents not be punished for accessing supports in the post-partum period, and sometimes that means needing to rely on safe haven laws to keep them and their child safe.”
\n\n\n\nDr. Sufrin is joined by the support of reproductive health and birth justice groups, Physicians for Reproductive Health which represents over 550+ physicians nationwide and Doing Right By Birth, a physician led organization focused on supporting family and child wellbeing and development.
\n\n\n\nDr. Mishka Terplan from Doing Right By Birth shares:
\n\n\n\n “Precisely when mothers and infants need us most, the healthcare system withdraws care in the postpartum period, increasing vulnerability to worsening behavioral health symptoms and conditions. Birth and parenting are wondrous, yet we make it difficult. Many people need support, and some need a brief respite. Punishing individuals for seeking safe haven during this critical time violates both biomedical ethics and human rights.”
\n\n\n\nThe brief expands on Dr. Sufrin and Terplan’s experiences:
\n\n\n\n“Birthing persons in Maryland and across the United States are in crisis. Despite continuing medical advancements and increased attention to perinatal care, birthing persons continue to face serious health complications, or even death, throughout all stages of pregnancy, including during the postpartum period…
\n\n\n\n“In this context—and in a post-Dobbs world where reproductive freedom is at risk— safe haven laws provide a critical resource for postpartum persons who may be unable to parent due to severe prepartum or postpartum health conditions. Simply put, in an environment with very little support and resources protecting postpartum health, a postpartum person can turn to safe haven laws at a time of crisis. Penalizing postpartum persons for doing so poses grave risks to postpartum persons and newborns.”
\n\n\n\nPlease read the brief in its entirety .
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CONTACT US
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Email voice@prh.org to speak to a physician advocate or get added to our reporter list.
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The post PRH Files Amicus Brief to Maryland Supreme Court appeared first on Physicians for Reproductive Health .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Mykella Palmer","publishDate":"2026-01-12T21:56:41.000Z","image":"https://prh.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/press-release-amicus-brief-md-supreme-court.png","source":"Physicians for Reproductive Health","sourceUrl":"https://prh.org/press-releases/maryland-safe-haven-law-maternal-health-amicus-brief/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"56lmwg","slug":"adding-it-up-2024-investing-in-sexual-and-reproductive-health-in-low-and-middle-income-countries-in-","title":"Adding It Up 2024: Investing in Sexual and Reproductive Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries in Asia","excerpt":"Adding It Up 2024: Investing in Sexual and Reproductive Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries in Asia The Adding It Up study exa...","content":"<span>Adding It Up 2024: Investing in Sexual and Reproductive Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries in Asia</span>\n\n<div class=\"l--stack\">\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--basic-text paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n \n<div class=\"text-content c-content l--stack\">\n <p>The Adding It Up study examines the need for, impact of and cost of fully investing in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care—services that ensure people can decide whether and when to have children, experience safe pregnancy and delivery, have healthy newborns, and have a safe and satisfying sexual life.</p><p>Access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services is recognized as a fundamental human right, essential for achieving gender equality and enabling individuals to make autonomous decisions about their own bodies, health and futures. Realizing this right for all women, especially those facing systemic barriers, upholds human dignity and advances equity across communities.</p><p><strong>WHO IS AFFECTED:</strong> Women of reproductive age (15–49) in 36 <a href=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/regional-and-subregional-country-classifications\">low- and middle-income countries</a> (LMICs) in Asia in 2024</p><p><strong>WHAT IT COVERS:</strong> Contraceptive services, maternal care, newborn care, abortion services and treatment for the major curable STIs</p><p><strong>WHAT’S NEW IN 2024:</strong> The latest edition of Adding It Up offers a more person-centered approach to contraceptive need than previous studies by providing estimates of women who would like to avoid a pregnancy, are not currently using a contraceptive method, and intend to use contraception in the future or are open to future use. This definition, called “unmet demand,” <a href=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/2025/10/adding-it-up-person-centered-approach-to-measuring-contraceptive-need\">offers the most strategic starting point</a> for prioritizing limited resources and focuses on women’s own expressed preferences for contraceptive use.</p><p>All cost estimates and savings are calculated in 2024 US dollars.</p>\n</div>\n\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--basic-text paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n \n<div class=\"text-content c-content l--stack\">\n <h2>Current Use of Contraception and Pregnancy Outcomes in Asia</h2>\n<h3>Contraceptive use</h3>\n<p>In LMICs in Asia, 648 million women of reproductive age want to avoid a pregnancy. Out of this total, 519 million women are using modern contraception and 57 million rely on traditional methods.</p>\n<p>The types of modern contraceptive methods currently used range widely:</p><ul>\n<li>42% of modern method users rely on short-acting methods\n</li><li>22% on long-acting reversible methods\n</li><li>36% on sterilization</li></ul>\n<p>Approximately 36 million women have an unmet demand for contraception, meaning they want to avoid pregnancy and have expressed interest in using modern contraception, but are not currently doing so.</p>\n</div>\n\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--image paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n \n \n <div class=\"field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/styles/max_1300x1300/public/2026-01/AIU%202024%20Asia%20fact%20sheet%20Figure%201%20REV%20300811.png?itok=cBFB8pSP\" width=\"1300\" height=\"1251\" alt=\"Unmet contraceptive demand represents the most urgent need among women in Asia\">\n\n\n</div>\n \n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--accordion paragraph--view-mode--default accordion-container l--stack\" id=\"301951\">\n \n<details data-component-id=\"gutt:accordion\" class=\"accordion-item\" name=\"accordion\">\n <summary class=\"accordion-trigger\" id=\"accordion-trigger-301950\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n <h4 class=\"accordion-title\">\n Table 1. Contraceptive need by subregion \n\n <span class=\"accordion-icon\"><span class=\"accordion-svg\"></span></span>\n </h4>\n </summary>\n <div id=\"accordion-content-301950\" class=\"accordion-content\">\n <div class=\"accordion-content-inner\">\n \n <div class=\"text-content field field--name-field-accordion-content field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\"><table class=\"table\" border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\"><thead><tr><th><strong>Subregion</strong></th><th><strong>Women wanting to avoid pregnancy</strong></th><th><strong>Women with unmet demand for contraception</strong></th><th><strong>Traditional method users</strong></th><th><strong>Modern method users</strong></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Eastern Asia</td><td>228.6 million</td><td>5.9 million</td><td>7.2 million</td><td>209.9 million</td></tr><tr><td>Central Asia</td><td>10 million</td><td>1.3 million</td><td>431,000</td><td>7.6 million</td></tr><tr><td>Southern Asia</td><td>296.3 million</td><td>18.6 million</td><td>34.7 million</td><td>222 million</td></tr><tr><td>Southeast Asia</td><td>85.5 million</td><td>7.7 million</td><td>7.7 million</td><td>63.5 million</td></tr><tr><td>Western Asia</td><td>27.6 million</td><td>2.3 million</td><td>6.7 million</td><td>16.1 million</td></tr></tbody></table></div>\n \n </div>\n </div>\n</details>\n\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--basic-text paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n \n<div class=\"text-content c-content l--stack\">\n <h3>Unintended pregnancies</h3>\n<p>Each year, 57 million unintended pregnancies occur in LMICs in Asia, accounting for 47% of all pregnancies in the region. Among this total:</p><ul>\n<li>72% end in abortions\n</li><li>17% end in unplanned births\n</li><li>11% end in stillbirths and miscarriages</li></ul>\n\n<h2>Needs for Sexual and Reproductive Health Services</h2>\n<p>In addition to unmet need for contraception, women in LMICs in Asia have a range of other sexual and reproductive health needs that are not being fully met. Insufficient access to maternal and newborn health care puts women and infants at risk.</p>\n\n<p>Each year, 63 million women in Asia give birth, and many do not receive recommended care in accordance with World Health Organization guidelines:</p><ul>\n<li>22 million make fewer than four antenatal care visits\n</li><li>9.6 million do not give birth in a health facility\n</li><li>5.5 million do not receive necessary care after a major obstetric complication</li></ul>\n<p>Furthermore, each year in Asia:</p><ul>\n<li>2.1 million newborns do not receive necessary care for infections and other neonatal health problems\n</li><li>21.3 million women have unsafe abortions\n</li><li>58,300 women die from causes related to pregnancy, abortion and childbirth\n</li><li>70.2 million women do not receive the treatment they need for chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and trichomoniasis</li></ul>\n</div>\n\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--image paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n \n \n <div class=\"field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/styles/max_1300x1300/public/2026-01/AIU%202024%20Asia%20fact%20sheet%20Figure%202%20300811.png?itok=IRPuDrrM\" width=\"1149\" height=\"1300\" alt=\"Each year, millions of pregnant women and newborns in low- and middle-income countries in Asia do not receive recommended care\">\n\n\n</div>\n \n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--accordion paragraph--view-mode--default accordion-container l--stack\" id=\"301955\">\n \n<details data-component-id=\"gutt:accordion\" class=\"accordion-item\" name=\"accordion\">\n <summary class=\"accordion-trigger\" id=\"accordion-trigger-301954\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n <h4 class=\"accordion-title\">\n Table 2. Gaps in SRH care by subregion\n\n <span class=\"accordion-icon\"><span class=\"accordion-svg\"></span></span>\n </h4>\n </summary>\n <div id=\"accordion-content-301954\" class=\"accordion-content\">\n <div class=\"accordion-content-inner\">\n \n <div class=\"text-content field field--name-field-accordion-content field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\"><table class=\"table\" border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\"><thead><tr><th> </th><th>Eastern Asia</th><th>Central Asia</th><th>Southern Asia</th><th>Southeast Asia</th><th>Western Asia</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Women having unsafe abortions</td><td>1.1 million</td><td>369,000</td><td>16 million</td><td>2.1 million</td><td>1.6 million</td></tr><tr><td>Women who die from maternal causes</td><td>1,700</td><td>392,000</td><td>42,200</td><td>11,200</td><td>2,800</td></tr><tr><td>Women who do not receive STI treatment</td><td>25.7 million</td><td>928 million</td><td>28.7 million</td><td>11.2 million</td><td>3.6 million</td></tr></tbody></table></div>\n \n </div>\n </div>\n</details>\n\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--basic-text paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n \n<div class=\"text-content c-content l--stack\">\n <h2>Impact of Expanded and Improved SRH Services</h2>\n\n<p>Meeting contraceptive need yields enormous benefits for women’s health. Those benefits are multiplied when combined with meeting their needs for care during pregnancy and childbirth, as well as the needs of their newborns.</p><ul>\n<li>Unintended pregnancies in Asia would drop by 26% and unsafe abortions by 25% if all women with an unmet demand used modern contraception and all pregnant women received care that meets international standards. By meeting all SRH care needs, maternal deaths would drop by 65%.\n</li><li>If all mothers and their newborns received recommended care, newborn deaths would drop by 62% and new HIV infections among babies six weeks and younger would drop by 93%.\n</li><li>Cases of infertility-causing pelvic inflammatory disease from untreated chlamydia or gonorrhea would be eliminated if all women infected with these two STIs were given effective and timely treatment. </li></ul>\n</div>\n\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--accordion paragraph--view-mode--default accordion-container l--stack\" id=\"301958\">\n \n<details data-component-id=\"gutt:accordion\" class=\"accordion-item\" name=\"accordion\">\n <summary class=\"accordion-trigger\" id=\"accordion-trigger-301957\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n <h4 class=\"accordion-title\">\n Table 3. Impact of expanding SRH care by subregion \n\n <span class=\"accordion-icon\"><span class=\"accordion-svg\"></span></span>\n </h4>\n </summary>\n <div id=\"accordion-content-301957\" class=\"accordion-content\">\n <div class=\"accordion-content-inner\">\n \n <div class=\"text-content field field--name-field-accordion-content field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\"><table class=\"table\" border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\"><thead><tr><th> </th><th>Eastern Asia</th><th>Central Asia</th><th>Southern Asia</th><th>Southeast Asia</th><th>Western Asia</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Unintended pregnancies</td><td>↓20%</td><td>↓49%</td><td>↓25%</td><td>↓32%</td><td>↓28%</td></tr><tr><td>Unsafe abortions</td><td>↓20%</td><td>↓48%</td><td>↓23%</td><td>↓31%</td><td>↓28%</td></tr><tr><td>Maternal deaths</td><td>↓44%</td><td>↓38%</td><td>↓66%</td><td>↓66%</td><td>↓64%</td></tr><tr><td>Newborn deaths</td><td>↓49%</td><td>↓58%</td><td>↓62%</td><td>↓61%</td><td>↓64%</td></tr><tr><td>HIV infections among babies</td><td>↓94%</td><td>↓89%</td><td>↓93%</td><td>↓93%</td><td>↓93%</td></tr></tbody></table></div>\n \n </div>\n </div>\n</details>\n\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--basic-text paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n \n<div class=\"text-content c-content l--stack\">\n <h3>The Investment Case for Meeting All SRH Needs in Asia</h3>\n<p>A package of SRH care that would meet all needs for women in Asia—unmet demand for contraception, all maternal and newborn care, abortion services and treatment for the four major curable STIs—would cost $39 billion annually. This includes $6 billion for all contraceptive care, $31.7 billion for pregnancy-related and newborn care, and $1.2 billion for STI care.</p>\n</div>\n\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--image paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n \n \n <div class=\"field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/styles/max_1300x1300/public/2026-01/AIU%202024%20Asia%20fact%20sheet%20Figure%203%20300811.png?itok=IPO99ri1\" width=\"1300\" height=\"569\" alt=\"The additional investment needed annually for sexual and reproductive health care in Asia totals $12.4 billion for five subregions\">\n\n\n</div>\n \n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--basic-text paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n \n<div class=\"text-content c-content l--stack\">\n <p>This $38.8 billion total represents a $12.4 billion annual increase. It is equivalent to a $2.74 increase per capita annually.</p>\n</div>\n\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--image paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n \n \n <div class=\"field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/styles/max_1300x1300/public/2026-01/AIU%202024%20Asia%20fact%20sheet%20Figure%204%20300811.png?itok=sVLdgFva\" width=\"1300\" height=\"621\" alt=\"An additional $2.74 per capita annually in LMICs in Asia would meet all women’s needs for essential sexual and reproductive health services\">\n\n\n</div>\n \n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--accordion paragraph--view-mode--default accordion-container l--stack\" id=\"301964\">\n \n<details data-component-id=\"gutt:accordion\" class=\"accordion-item\" name=\"accordion\">\n <summary class=\"accordion-trigger\" id=\"accordion-trigger-301963\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n <h4 class=\"accordion-title\">\n Table 4. Investment to meet all SRH needs by subregion \n\n <span class=\"accordion-icon\"><span class=\"accordion-svg\"></span></span>\n </h4>\n </summary>\n <div id=\"accordion-content-301963\" class=\"accordion-content\">\n <div class=\"accordion-content-inner\">\n \n <div class=\"text-content field field--name-field-accordion-content field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\"><table class=\"table\" border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\"><thead><tr><th colspan=\"2\"> </th><th>Eastern Asia</th><th>Central Asia</th><th>Southern Asia</th><th>Southeast Asia</th><th>Western Asia</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td colspan=\"2\"><strong>Total cost</strong></td><td><strong>$7.5 billion</strong></td><td><strong>$979 million</strong></td><td><strong>$21.2 billion</strong></td><td><strong>$4.2 billion</strong></td><td><strong>$5 billion</strong></td></tr><tr><td> </td><td>Contraceptive services</td><td>$2.3 billion</td><td>$89 million</td><td>$2.2 billion</td><td>$884 million</td><td>$474 million</td></tr><tr><td> </td><td>Maternal and newborn care</td><td>$4.7 billion</td><td>$874 million</td><td>$18.5 billion</td><td>$3.2 billion</td><td>$4.4 billion</td></tr><tr><td> </td><td>STI treatment</td><td>$446 million</td><td>$17 million</td><td>$444 million</td><td>$128 million</td><td>$115 million</td></tr><tr><td colspan=\"2\"><em>Total increase needed</em></td><td>↑ $1.5 billion</td><td>↑ $214 million</td><td>↑ $7.7 billion</td><td>↑ $1.2 billion</td><td>↑ $1.7 billion</td></tr><tr><td colspan=\"2\"><em>Per capita increase needed</em></td><td>↑ $1.05</td><td>↑ $2.63</td><td>↑ $3.74</td><td>↑ $1.77</td><td>↑ $7.31</td></tr></tbody></table></div>\n \n </div>\n </div>\n</details>\n\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--basic-text paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n \n<div class=\"text-content c-content l--stack\">\n <p>With an investment in a comprehensive package of SRH services:</p><ul>\n<li>all women of reproductive age would receive the pregnancy-related and STI care that they need;\n</li><li>all newborns would receive essential care just after birth; and\n</li><li>all women would receive the contraceptive services they need to decide whether and when to have children. \n</li></ul>\n<p>These gains would reduce the substantial health system costs in LMICs and provide a high return on investment. In addition, the interventions in this package of services have proven to be feasible to implement in different settings around the world.</p>\n<p><strong>The total cost of SRH care decreases when more women who want to use contraception are able to do so.</strong> The decrease in unintended pregnancies that would result from an increase in contraceptive use means large reductions in the need for services such as abortion and postabortion care, antenatal and delivery care, and neonatal care.</p>\n<p>Achieving this vision requires addressing a critical funding challenge for contraceptive care needs. It currently costs $5 billion to provide contraceptive care in LMICs across Asia, including $2.6 billion in direct costs. To meet all unmet demand for contraceptive care in these countries, an additional $932 million investment is needed.</p>\n</div>\n\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--accordion paragraph--view-mode--default accordion-container l--stack\" id=\"301967\">\n \n<details data-component-id=\"gutt:accordion\" class=\"accordion-item\" name=\"accordion\">\n <summary class=\"accordion-trigger\" id=\"accordion-trigger-301966\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n <h4 class=\"accordion-title\">\n Table 5. Costs to meet demand for contraceptive care by subregion (in millions) \n\n <span class=\"accordion-icon\"><span class=\"accordion-svg\"></span></span>\n </h4>\n </summary>\n <div id=\"accordion-content-301966\" class=\"accordion-content\">\n <div class=\"accordion-content-inner\">\n \n <div class=\"text-content field field--name-field-accordion-content field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\"><table class=\"table\" border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\"><thead><tr><th colspan=\"2\"> </th><th>Eastern Asia</th><th>Central Asia</th><th>Southern Asia</th><th>Southeast Asia</th><th>Western Asia</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td colspan=\"2\"><strong>Current costs – Total</strong></td><td><strong>$2,034.7 </strong></td><td><strong>$69.7 </strong></td><td><strong>$1,839.2 </strong></td><td><strong>$714.4 </strong></td><td><strong>$399.7 </strong></td></tr><tr><td> </td><td>Health worker salaries</td><td>$725.3 </td><td>$27.2 </td><td>$628</td><td>$189.5</td><td>$142</td></tr><tr><td> </td><td>Commodities, drugs and supplies</td><td>$322.3 </td><td>$8.6 </td><td>$318.8</td><td>$178.3</td><td>$35.8</td></tr><tr><td> </td><td>Programs and systems costs</td><td>$987.1</td><td>$33.8 </td><td>$892.3</td><td>$346.6</td><td>$222</td></tr><tr><td colspan=\"2\"><strong>Costs to meet all unmet demand – Total</strong></td><td><strong>$2,302.3 </strong></td><td><strong>$88.6 </strong></td><td><strong>$2,241.3</strong></td><td><strong>$883.7</strong></td><td><strong>$473.9</strong></td></tr><tr><td> </td><td> Health worker salaries</td><td>$744.9</td><td>$31.3 </td><td>$694.4</td><td>$212.4</td><td>$159</td></tr><tr><td> </td><td>Commodities, drugs and supplies</td><td>$331.4</td><td>$10.2</td><td>$353.3</td><td>$200.7</td><td>$41</td></tr><tr><td> </td><td>Programs and systems costs</td><td>$1,226</td><td>$47.2</td><td>$1,193.6</td><td>$470.6</td><td>$274</td></tr></tbody></table></div>\n \n </div>\n </div>\n</details>\n\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--basic-text paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n \n<div class=\"text-content c-content l--stack\">\n <h2>Savings from Investing in Contraceptive Services</h2>\n<p>Every dollar spent on contraceptive services beyond the current level would save $1.97 in the cost of maternal, newborn and abortion care in LMICs in Asia because use of contraceptives reduces the number of unintended pregnancies. Savings vary across the region: Each dollar invested would save $0.75 in LMICs in Eastern Asia, $2.23 in Central Asia, $2.51 in Southern Asia, $1.44 in Southeast Asia and $3.16 in Western Asia.</p>\n<p>Enabling women to have children when they want them and to deliver healthy newborns safely also boosts national economies as women gain greater access to education and participate more fully in the workforce.</p>\n</div>\n\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--image paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n \n \n <div class=\"field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/styles/max_1300x1300/public/2026-01/AIU%202024%20Asia%20fact%20sheet%20Figure%205%20300811.png?itok=joZiIxRw\" width=\"1300\" height=\"731\" alt=\"Immediate return For every $1 invested: • $1.97 saved regionally • $0.75 in Eastern Asia • $2.23 in Central Asia • $2.51 in Southern Asia • $1.44 in Southeast Asia • $3.16 in Western Asia Long-term benefits • More women in education • Increased workforce participation • Stronger national economies\">\n\n\n</div>\n \n </div>\n\n</div>\n<span><span>sramashwar</span></span>\n<span><time datetime=\"2026-01-09T10:36:52-07:00\" title=\"Friday, January 9, 2026 - 10:36am\">January 9, 2026</time>\n</span>\n\n <div class=\"field field--name-field-policy-resources field--type-entity-reference field--label-above\">\n <div class=\"field__label\">Policy Resources</div>\n <div class=\"field__items\">\n <div class=\"field__item\"><a href=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/policy-resources/global\" hreflang=\"en\">Global</a></div>\n </div>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"field field--name-field-exclude-from-search field--type-search-api-exclude-entity field--label-above\">\n <div class=\"field__label\">Exclude from search</div>\n <div class=\"field__item\">No</div>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"field field--name-field-facebook-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-above\">\n <div class=\"field__label\">Facebook Image</div>\n <div class=\"field__item\">aiu asia social@4x.png</div>\n </div>\n\n <div class=\"field field--name-field-twitter-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-above\">\n <div class=\"field__label\">Twitter Image</div>\n <div class=\"field__item\">aiu asia social@4x.png</div>\n </div>\n<div class=\"node_view\">\n\n</div>","category":"global","author":"sramashwar","publishDate":"2026-01-09T17:36:52.000Z","image":"https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/styles/max_1300x1300/public/2026-01/AIU%202024%20Asia%20fact%20sheet%20Figure%201%20REV%20300811.png","source":"Guttmacher Institute","sourceUrl":"https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/adding-it-up-2024-investing-sexual-and-reproductive-health-asia","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:31.873Z"},{"id":"nc1v2p","slug":"filling-in-the-gap-in-federal-medicaid-funding-to-planned-parenthood-state-responses","title":"Filling in the Gap in Federal Medicaid Funding to Planned Parenthood: State Responses","excerpt":"This brief examines efforts in 11 states to fill in funding gaps created by the 2025 federal budget reconciliation law, which prohibits federal Medicaid funding for reproductive-health care services provided by Planned Parenthood and other organizations that also provide abortion care.","content":"This brief examines efforts in 11 states to fill in funding gaps created by the 2025 federal budget reconciliation law, which prohibits federal Medicaid funding for reproductive-health care services provided by Planned Parenthood and other organizations that also provide abortion care.","category":"choice","author":"kffrolondad","publishDate":"2026-01-09T13:30:00.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2026/01/251210_Can-States-Fill-in-Gap-in-Funding-for-Planned-Parenthood_FI.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/filling-in-the-gap-in-federal-medicaid-funding-to-planned-parenthood-state-responses/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"pgagyf","slug":"prh-responds-to-ice-violence-in-minneapolis","title":"PRH responds to ICE violence in Minneapolis","excerpt":"Yesterday, an ICE officer in Minneapolis murdered legal observer Renee Nicole Good while in the car with her wife. Dr. Jamila Perritt, ob/gyn in Washington DC and President & CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health responds.","content":"\n\t\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPress Release \n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPRH responds to ICE violence in Minneapolis\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\n\n\thttps://prh.org/press-releases/ice-violence-minneapolis/ \n\t \n\n\t\n\tClick to print \n\tPrint Icon \n \n\n\t\n\tShare this page via Email \n\tMail Icon Rectangle in the shape of an envelope \n\n\t\n\tShare this page on Pinterest \n\t \n\n\t\n\tShare this page on Facebook \n\t \n\n\t\t\n\tShare this page on Twitter \n\t \n\t\t \n\t\t
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OUR STATEMENT \n\n\n\n
Yesterday, an ICE officer in Minneapolis murdered legal observer Renee Nicole Good while in the car with her wife.
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Dr. Jamila Perritt, ob/gyn in Washington DC and President & CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health responds:
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“As a Washington DC resident who has been watching the strategic and calculated, state-sanctioned violence of ICE and the national guard every day for the last several months, I am absolutely horrified about the murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Yesterday’s violence marks the 33rd life taken by ICE since the start of 2025 under the Trump Administration’s direction. Importantly, the majority of those killed were Black and Brown people.
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“I will say this plainly: the police, ICE, the National Guard, the carceral state make our communities less safe, not more. The connections between the violence we witnessed yesterday and the ongoing violence that Black and Brown communities have endured at the hands of the State for far too long cannot be understated. Our communities, our neighbors, our family members deserve to live in safe communities. It is our duty, our responsibility to care for each other and no one deserves to be criminalized, detained or deported, or killed for doing so.
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“As a physician, I’d be remiss to not mention an important detail in yesterday’s violence. Video footage has shown that there was a physician on scene who was asking repeatedly to respond and provide care to Renee. ICE officers verbally, and then forcibly with guns, blocked this physician from going to her aide. As health care providers, we took an oath to care for people in need. The behavior of ICE agents on the scene was both deplorable and far too common. Many communities have been repeatedly denied care by agents of the State under the guise of safety or law and order.
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“My heart is with Minneapolis, with the protestors gathering and mobilizing nationwide, and the families of all those who have been victims of state-sanctioned violence. May we create, support and sustain safer communities. Our very lives depend on it.”
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CONTACT US
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Email voice@prh.org to speak to a physician advocate or get added to our reporter list.
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The post PRH responds to ICE violence in Minneapolis appeared first on Physicians for Reproductive Health .
","category":"activism","author":"Mykella Palmer","publishDate":"2026-01-08T19:59:39.000Z","image":"https://prh.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/press-release-ICE-minneapolis.png","source":"Physicians for Reproductive Health","sourceUrl":"https://prh.org/press-releases/ice-violence-minneapolis/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"z8aytm","slug":"abortion-trends-before-and-after-dobbs","title":"Abortion Trends Before and After Dobbs","excerpt":"This brief reviews the different sources of abortion data in the United States, the factors that have affected abortion rates across the U.S, before and after Roe v. Wade, and what we may see as the Trump administration, Republican majorities in the House and Senate, and a conservative federal judic...","content":"This brief reviews the different sources of abortion data in the United States, the factors that have affected abortion rates across the U.S, before and after Roe v. Wade, and what we may see as the Trump administration, Republican majorities in the House and Senate, and a conservative federal judiciary shape policy in the coming years.","category":"choice","author":"kffaeronw","publishDate":"2026-01-07T20:06:43.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2025/02/250226_Abortion-Trends-After-Dobbs_FI-1.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/abortion-trends-before-and-after-dobbs/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"dx7in8","slug":"key-facts-on-abortion-in-the-united-states","title":"Key Facts on Abortion in the United States","excerpt":"This issue brief answers some key questions about abortion in the United States and presents data collected before and new data that has been published since the overturn of Roe v. Wade.","content":"This issue brief answers some key questions about abortion in the United States and presents data collected before and new data that has been published since the overturn of Roe v. Wade.","category":"choice","author":"kffaeronw","publishDate":"2026-01-07T20:06:03.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2025/02/Feature-Image-Key-Facts-on-Abortion-in-the-United-States-2-26-2025.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/key-facts-on-abortion-in-the-united-states/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"u8a2gj","slug":"fertility-tracking-must-be-grounded-in-evidence-and-reproductive-justice","title":"Fertility Tracking Must Be Grounded In Evidence And Reproductive Justice","excerpt":"
Fertility Tracking Must Be Grounded In Evidence And Reproductive Justice Opinion jloewenberg NATIONWIDE — Following the devastating death of Dr. Janell Green Smith , a Certified Nurse-Midwife, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda President and CEO Regina Davis Moss released the below statement:\n“The death of Dr. Janell Green Smith is more than a tragedy — it is reflective of a deeply broken and racist healthcare system that continues to fail Black women, girls and gender-expansive people. As a respected midwife and scholar, Dr. Smith dedicated her life to advocating for equitable care for our communities, and it is beyond heartbreaking that she died from complications of childbirth. Although maternal mortality rates overall are declining, disparities are widening: Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than White women.
\nDr. Smith should be spending time with her newborn, but instead her family and friends are navigating profound grief. With continued attacks on reproductive care both at the federal and state levels, the Black maternal health crisis that took Dr. Smith from her community will only worsen. This is why we must advocate for Reproductive Justice — it is the only solution to advancing reproductive care, protecting our bodily autonomy and ensuring that Black women, girls and gender-expansive people can make decisions about expanding our families without risking our lives.”
The post In Our Own Voice Statement on the Death of Dr. Janell Green Smith, Certified Nurse-Midwife first appeared on In Our Own Voice .
","category":"choice","author":"In Our Own Voice","publishDate":"2026-01-05T21:53:11.000Z","image":"https://blackrj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/policy-ioov-logo-a.png","source":"National Black Women's RJ Agenda","sourceUrl":"https://blackrj.org/ioov-statement-on-the-death-of-dr-janell-green-smith-certified-nurse-midwife/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.538Z"},{"id":"4h245j","slug":"distribution-of-women-of-reproductive-age-18-49-by-federal-poverty-level","title":"Distribution of Women of Reproductive Age (18-49) by Federal Poverty Level","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"equality","author":"kffcleab","publishDate":"2025-12-22T14:00:08.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/distribution-of-women-of-reproductive-age-18-49-by-federal-poverty-level/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"y1q8ie","slug":"ipas-mozambique-is-transforming-reproductive-rights-with-community-power-and-digital-innovation","title":"Ipas Mozambique is transforming reproductive rights with community power and digital innovation","excerpt":"Ipas Mozambique has launched both a community resource center to foster local leadership on reproductive rights and a chatbot designed to reach rural youth with essential sexual and reproductive health information.","content":"\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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Ipas Mozambique has marked a transformative chapter in its commitment to advancing reproductive justice with the launch of both a community resource center to foster local leadership on reproductive rights and a chatbot designed to reach rural youth with essential sexual and reproductive health information. Both innovations are already making an impact.
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Together, the Reproductive Justice Resource Center and the “Nurse Nina” chatbot demonstrate Ipas Mozambique’s integrated model for change—combining community-driven action with scalable digital solutions to ensure that reproductive justice is both rooted locally and amplified widely. Whether it’s through a young leader co-facilitating a dialogue circle at the Resource Center or a rural girl using the chatbot to understand her reproductive rights, these innovations are shaping a new generation of empowered Mozambicans.
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“It is truly innovative to have the Ipas Resource Center with a focus on reproductive justice,” says Ivo Salamandane, a community engagement advisor for Ipas Mozambique based in Niassa. “We are already welcoming partners who use the space to discuss sexual and reproductive health, and we envision creating a virtual library that will provide adolescents and young people with structured and reliable information about their reproductive rights. This initiative is both exciting and forward-looking, and it is already making a difference for Mozambique.”
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Lichinga’s beacon of change: The Reproductive Justice Resource Center \n
The Centro de Recursos para a Justiça Reprodutiva (Reproductive Justice Resource Center) opened its doors last year in Lichinga, the capital city of Niassa Province in northern Mozambique. Affectionately known by local communities as “Omutxekone”—a term from the Emakua language, the most widely spoken language in Mozambique—the Center is more than a physical structure. Omutxekone conveys the meaning of “a place of unity” or “a space where people come together for a shared purpose.” Rooted in local realities, the Center represents a space for collective transormation, dialogue, and community-driven change.
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Strategically designed to strengthen the capacities of community-based and civil-society organizations, the Center offers an opportunity for grassroots leaders—especially young people and women—to access tools, trainings, and safe spaces where their voices are not only heard but amplified. From hands-on workshops to intergenerational dialogues and thematic exhibitions, the Center is a living embodiment of inclusion, dignity and agency. It is a vital anchor for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocates—a space where movements gain momentum, alliances are forged, and the future of reproductive justice in Mozambique is actively shaped.
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The Center aims to:
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\nDeliver tailored trainings on SRHR, safe abortion, gender-based violence and intersectional challenges such as climate change and humanitarian crises. \nFoster sustainable grassroots advocacy by equipping organizations with management tools, monitoring frameworks and strategic planning resources. \nProvide consistent technical support and evaluation, ensuring local actors are not only reactive but also strategic in their work. \n \n
Ipas Mozambique is developing an online platform and digital library to host training manuals and community resources, laying the groundwork for future training programs. While structured trainings are coming soon, several impactful activities have already taken place at the Center, including:
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\nStrategy meetings with local leaders and organizations to align programs and reinforce the Center as a collaborative planning space.Roundtable discussions with diverse local stakeholder s—including community groups, civil society organizations, government representatives, and donors—who convened to find common ground and set action plans. One gathering focused on the barriers to sexual and reproductive health care for women with disabilities, including structural (like lack of ramps), technological (like absence of braille materials), barriers in the built environment, and attitudinal challenges. Another roundtable explored SRHR in the context of displacement, conflict and climate change, identifying key actions such as integrating SRHR in emergency response plans, creating safe spaces for displaced women and girls, and involving community-based organizations in humanitarian responses. \n\t\t\t
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A community dialogue at the Reproductive Justice Resource Center brings together diverse stakeholders to discuss how sexual and reproductive health and rights are impacted by conflict and climate crises.
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A roundtable discussion at the Reproductive Justice Resource Center on how to support women with disabilities in accessing reproductive health care.
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Enfermeira Nina: A digital ally for rights and information \n
Complementing the grassroots work of the Reproductive Justice Resource Center, Ipas Mozambique has introduced another impactful innovation: The Enfermeira Nina (or “Nurse Nina”) chatbot. Available via WhatsApp, Nurse Nina provides a confidential, automated, and user-friendly digital platform that provides accurate information in Portuguese on SRHR and gender-based violence.
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Building on the success of Ipas’s Nurse Nisa chatbot in Kenya and Democratic Republic of Congo, Ipas Mozambique collaborated with local partners to adapt the chatbot and its contents to the local context and language, ensuring it filled information gaps in underserved rural communities. Before launching the chatbot in Mozambique, Ipas worked with youth leaders from our local partner ACABE (Associação Amigos da Criança Boa Esperança / Association of Friends of Children of Good Hope) to pre-test the platform, ensuring its relevance and accessibility for adolescent girls and rural users. Their insights shaped final adjustments and strengthened local ownership.
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Youth leaders from Ipas’s partner ACABE work with a group of adolescent girls to pre-test the Enfermeira Nina chatbot to ensure it’s accessible and relevant to local youth.
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During its first year, the platform reached over 15,000 users
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During its first year, the platform reached over 15,000 users , with:
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\n66% identifying as women \n38% aged between 20-24 years \n64% from beyond the provinces Ipas supports, with additional reach in South Africa, Brazil, India and Democratic Republic of Congo \n \n\t\t\t
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The most consulted topics include safe abortion, contraception, menstrual health, STIs, and gender-based violence—all areas often clouded by stigma and misinformation.
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As Elina Judite Massengele , governor of Niassa Province, emphasized at the launch event, Nurse Nina expands access to vital health information, acting as a trusted guide, a virtual companion and a tool for bodily autonomy.
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Governor of Niassa Province, Elina Judite Massengele, delivers remarks during the launch event for Enfermeira Nina, highlighting the importance of digital tools to expand reproductive health access.
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Adolescent girls and Ipas Mozambique staff celebrate at the launch event for Enfermeira Nina in Lichinga, in Niassa Province.
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Bridging digital and physical worlds for a just future \n
As our work accelerates, the Reproductive Justice Resource Center continues to evolve as a space for ongoing learning, co-creation and innovation—where tools like Nurse Nina are strengthened by dialogue and shared community exchange.
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“These initiatives embody Ipas’s vision of building a future where information, dialogue, and collective action drive meaningful change for women, adolescents, and young people across the country,” says Salamandane. “The future of reproductive justice in Mozambique is bright.”
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The post Ipas Mozambique is transforming reproductive rights with community power and digital innovation appeared first on Ipas .
","category":"global","author":"Kristin Swanson","publishDate":"2025-12-19T14:11:11.000Z","image":"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/IpasMZ-Image-02-002-image6-37.jpeg","source":"Ipas","sourceUrl":"https://www.ipas.org/news/ipas-mozambique-is-transforming-reproductive-rights-with-community-power-and-digital-innovation/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.441Z"},{"id":"89xxdc","slug":"hhs-wants-to-cut-funds-to-hospitals-that-provide-gender-affirming-care-for-trans-youth","title":"HHS Wants to Cut Funds to Hospitals that Provide Gender-Affirming Care For Trans Youth","excerpt":"In a statement, Jamila Perritt, president and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health, called the proposed rules a “deliberate and targeted attack” on transgender youth and an attempt to strongarm hospitals into choosing between providing pediatric gender-affirming care and accepting federal fundi...","content":"\n\t\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tHHS Wants to Cut Funds to Hospitals that Provide Gender-Affirming Care For Trans Youth\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\n\n\thttps://prh.org/media-mentions/hhs-wants-to-cut-funds-to-hospitals-that-provide-gender-affirming-care-for-trans-youth/ \n\t \n\n\t\n\tClick to print \n\tPrint Icon \n \n\n\t\n\tShare this page via Email \n\tMail Icon Rectangle in the shape of an envelope \n\n\t\n\tShare this page on Pinterest \n\t \n\n\t\n\tShare this page on Facebook \n\t \n\n\t\t\n\tShare this page on Twitter \n\t \n\t\t \n\t\t
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\n\n\n\nFROM THE ARTICLE \n\n\n\nIn a statement
\n\n\n\nThe Trump administration wants to cut funds to hospitals that provide gender-affirming health care to transgender youth.
\n\n\n\nHealth Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced two proposed rules Thursday which would ban Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program reimbursements for transgender care for youth, and block all Medicaid and Medicare funding to hospitals that provide gender-affirming care for minors.
\n\n\n\n\nThe post HHS Wants to Cut Funds to Hospitals that Provide Gender-Affirming Care For Trans Youth appeared first on Physicians for Reproductive Health .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Mykella Palmer","publishDate":"2025-12-18T18:40:00.000Z","image":"https://prh.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Notus.png","source":"Physicians for Reproductive Health","sourceUrl":"https://prh.org/media-mentions/hhs-wants-to-cut-funds-to-hospitals-that-provide-gender-affirming-care-for-trans-youth/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"lyhdnh","slug":"health-insurance-coverage-of-women-ages-15-49","title":"Health Insurance Coverage of Women Ages 15-49","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"equality","author":"kffalannaw","publishDate":"2025-12-18T18:00:03.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/health-insurance-coverage-of-women-ages-15-49/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"cqy5i1","slug":"trump-admin-proposes-gender-affirming-care-bans","title":"Trump Admin Proposes Gender-Affirming Care Bans","excerpt":"Today the Trump Administration released two proposed rules intentionally designed to make gender affirming care for young people impossible to access. Dr. Jamila Perritt, ob/gyn in Washington DC and President & CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health responds: The post Trump Admin Proposes Gender-...","content":"\n\t\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tTrump Admin Proposes Gender-Affirming Care Bans\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\n\n\thttps://prh.org/press-releases/trump-admin-proposes-gender-affirming-care-bans/ \n\t \n\n\t\n\tClick to print \n\tPrint Icon \n \n\n\t\n\tShare this page via Email \n\tMail Icon Rectangle in the shape of an envelope \n\n\t\n\tShare this page on Pinterest \n\t \n\n\t\n\tShare this page on Facebook \n\t \n\n\t\t\n\tShare this page on Twitter \n\t \n\t\t \n\t\t
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\n\n\n\nOUR STATEMENT \n\n\n\nToday the Trump Administration released two proposed rules intentionally designed to make gender affirming care for young people impossible to access. In one rule, federal Medicaid reimbursement is banned for medical care provided to transgender patients under 18 and prohibits reimbursements through CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) for transgender patients under 19. In the other rule, the administration is planning to block all Medicaid and Medicare funding for services at hospitals that provide gender affirming to young people.
\n\n\n\nDr. Jamila Perritt, ob/gyn in Washington DC and President & CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health responds:
\n\n\n\n“Gender affirming care is lifesaving care. Transgender people of all ages, just like their cisgender counterparts, are deserving and worthy of compassionate care responsive to their health care needs and respectful of their identity
\n\n\n\n“Physicians for Reproductive Health is made up of physician advocates proud to provide comprehensive health care, including gender affirming care. We are committed to fighting for a world where transgender people of all ages can access the health care they need, free from barriers, stigma or shame.”
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CONTACT US
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Email voice@prh.org to speak to a physician advocate or get added to our reporter list.
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The post Trump Admin Proposes Gender-Affirming Care Bans appeared first on Physicians for Reproductive Health .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Mykella Palmer","publishDate":"2025-12-18T15:45:22.000Z","image":"https://prh.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/press-release-gender-affirming-care-ban-2.png","source":"Physicians for Reproductive Health","sourceUrl":"https://prh.org/press-releases/trump-admin-proposes-gender-affirming-care-bans/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"qp19iv","slug":"health-insurance-coverage-of-women-ages-19-64","title":"Health Insurance Coverage of Women Ages 19-64","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"equality","author":"kffvannn","publishDate":"2025-12-18T13:59:34.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/health-insurance-coverage-of-women-19-64/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"meiql8","slug":"caught-red-cup-handed-why-starbucks-and-all-employers-must-provide-fair-schedules","title":"Caught Red-Cup-Handed: Why Starbucks (And All Employers) Must Provide Fair Schedules","excerpt":"Earlier this month, Starbucks agreed to pay a $38.9 million settlement to New York City—the largest worker protection settlement in the city’s history—for denying workers predictable schedules and other protections in violation of the city’s fair workweek law.","content":"Earlier this month, Starbucks agreed to pay a $38.9 million settlement to New York City—the largest worker protection settlement in the city’s history—for denying workers predictable schedules and other protections in violation of the city’s fair workweek law. We’re thrilled that New York City Starbucks workers are entitled to fair schedules—and compensation when those rights are violated. But many cities and states lack the same strong protections for workers that let them plan their lives by having access to predictable schedules in advance. That’s why unionized Starbucks workers across the country are striking to change Starbucks’ nationwide practice of giving workers unpredictable schedules, among other staffing and scheduling practices that make it hard for them to do their jobs and have a life outside work.
\nStarbucks often prides itself on the workplace benefits available to hourly employees, including health care, paid leave, retirement support, and help funding secondary education. And don’t get me wrong; these kinds of supports are great. But the devil is in the details. If you’re a barista at Starbucks, you need to average at least 20 hours a week, consistently over three months, to be eligible for health insurance coverage. If Starbucks isn’t giving their workers consistent hours, or giving part-time workers who want more hours the ability to pick up additional shifts, they will never be able to qualify for the shiny benefits the company is so fond of promoting.
\nTake the story of Arloa Fluhr , a barista working in Urbana, IL. Arloa is a mom of three kids, one of whom has diabetes. She needs the health insurance Starbucks provides to be able to pay for her daughter’s care. But because of understaffing and erratic scheduling, Arloa doesn’t have a consistent work schedule and hours, meaning she doesn’t know whether she will qualify for health insurance.
\nUnfortunately, that kind of instability and inconsistency is far too common for workers in food service, retail, and hospitality jobs. New research shows that roughly four in 10 workers in the U.S. have little or no control over their work schedules. More than one in four have less than two weeks’ notice of their work schedule, and a similar share have hours that fluctuate a lot from week to week based on their employers’ demands. Part-time workers like Arloa are even more likely to have low-quality schedules than full-time workers.
\nLuckily for all of us, there are ways to improve scheduling conditions for workers. Predictable scheduling laws (or “fair workweek” laws) are designed to help workers with unstable schedules get more stability, predictability, and control over their work hours. And part-time parity laws ensure that workers like Arloa can get access to the same workplace benefits whether they work part- or full-time hours.
\nSenator Warren, Representative DeLauro, and Representative Schakowsky are trying to do something about this. On December 17, they reintroduced the Schedules That Work Act and Part-Time Worker Bill of Rights Act to give workers stability and opportunity on the job, particularly in the hourly service sector positions where abusive scheduling practices are most prevalent. Similar fair scheduling laws are already in effect in cities around the country , and research shows that they’re working—for companies and for employees.
\nStories of workers like Arloa remind us why work schedules are so important—and underscore the role that unions, and pro-worker legislation, can play in the fight for workers’ rights.
\nThe post Caught Red-Cup-Handed: Why Starbucks (And All Employers) Must Provide Fair Schedules appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"resilience","author":"Amelia Packham","publishDate":"2025-12-17T19:45:09.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/starbucks-blog.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/caught-red-cup-handed-why-starbucks-and-all-employers-must-provide-fair-schedules/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"785qwq","slug":"a-year-of-resilience-amid-unprecedented-challenges-to-reproductive-rights","title":"A year of resilience amid unprecedented challenges to reproductive rights","excerpt":"11 ways we made a difference in 2025 The post A year of resilience amid unprecedented challenges to reproductive rights appeared first on Ipas .","content":"
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11 ways we made a difference in 2025 \n
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For Ipas, 2025 has been a year of resistance and persistence in the face of intensifying threats to reproductive rights, democracy and bodily autonomy.
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With our local partners around the world, we have worked tirelessly to expand reproductive freedom. This year alone, Ipas provided lifesaving reproductive health care to almost 2.5 million people at over 10,000 health access points across 24 countries. We also reached millions more with vital information about reproductive health.
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Together, we are ensuring that women and girls can control their own futures, especially where governments and systems fail them most.
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Here are 11 stories that showcase our resilience and impact in 2025:
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Himali Khatri (at right), a participant in Ipas’s Natural Leaders program in rural Nepal, hands out information on family planning and where to access safe abortion care to women in her community. © Onion Films
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1. Women rising together: How grassroots leaders are lifting the next generation in Nepal \n\t\t\t
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Himali Khatri lives in rural Nepal, where discussing sexual and reproductive health is taboo and women rarely have the power to make their own decisions about things like contraception and abortion.
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Himali transformed into a respected community leader and health educator through her participation in Ipas’s “Natural Leaders,” a program that supports local women to become a force for change. Natural Leaders like Himali are stopping child marriage, guiding people to safe reproductive health care, and challenging long-held taboos.
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“Before, people didn’t even talk about safe abortion,” Himali says. “Now, they ask us to come back and teach more.”
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“Before, people didn’t even talk about safe abortion. Now, they ask us to come back and teach more.”
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Ipas staff and partners stood in support of a ban on child marriage during a session of Bolivia’s parliament where the law change was debated. They held signs with messaging from a nationwide advocacy campaign: Ni esposas, ni concubinas. Las niñas son niñas. (Neither wives nor concubines. Girls are girls). © Ipas Bolivia
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2. Ensuring girls’ futures: Bolivia takes historic step against child marriage \n\t\t\t
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In September 2025, the Bolivian government approved the Law Against Child Marriage and Early Unions, officially prohibiting all marriages under the age of 18.
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Senator Virginia Velasco spearheaded the push to change the law, with support from Ipas Bolivia and human rights organizations. This success builds on years of advocacy by Ipas and partners to end child marriage, which is disturbingly common in Bolivia. In 2024, Ipas testimony at a hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights prompted the Bolivian government to commit to take action to address the country’s child marriage crisis.
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“When a girl is married, she loses her childhood,” says Malena Morales, director of Ipas Bolivia. “This law sends a clear message: Girls are neither wives nor concubines.”
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“When a girl is married, she loses her childhood. This law sends a clear message: Girls are neither wives nor concubines.”
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At a Nigerian health center that now provides disability-inclusive reproductive health care, health worker Hannatu Tila takes time to understand Munira Ibrahim Saleh’s disability and how it affects her health concerns. © Ipas Nigeria
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3. Advancing disability-inclusive reproductive health care in Nigeria \n
Munira Ibrahim Saleh is one woman who’s experienced the lifechanging impacts of our work in Nigeria to advance disability-inclusive reproductive health care. Munira works as a program officer for the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities—an organization in Gombe State trained in disability-inclusive reproductive health by Ipas and our local partner SAIF Advocacy Foundation.
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After three years of trainings and community engagement by SAIF and Ipas, the health-care experiences of people with disabilities in Gombe State are improving. Munira graciously invited us along to a health appointment to show us why inclusive care matters, and you can see photos from that visit in this story .
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“We’ve really had a lot of changes. And those barriers and gaps have reduced drastically,” says Munira. “When hospitals know what to do for us, it eases our pain.”
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“We’ve really had a lot of changes. And those barriers and gaps have reduced drastically.”
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Ipas staff visited flood-affected areas in Pakistan as part of their humanitarian response to address critical reproductive health-care needs. © Ipas Pakistan
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4. Ensuring women’s reproductive health doesn’t fall behind when floods rise in Pakistan \n
Sehrish* lives in Pakistan, where unprecedented flooding during the 2025 monsoon season led to more than 1,000 deaths, thousands injured, and nearly seven million people impacted since June. As the floods raged, seven-month-pregnant Sehrish moved with her family to safety at a camp, but more tragedy awaited. She went into labor and, without transport to a health facility, she delivered a premature baby who died within two hours.
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Sehrish’s story reflects the harsh reality faced by countless women in rural and disaster-affected communities—where early pregnancies, poor health, poverty, limited access to services, and the burden of climate-induced crises combine to endanger their health and deepen their suffering. That’s why Ipas Pakistan—in collaboration with its local partner Rahnuma-Family Planning Association of Pakistan—initiated a humanitarian response to address critical reproductive health-care needs.
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“Our medical camps provide access to lifesaving essential reproductive health care, including family planning, contraception, postabortion care and maternal and child health services,” says Uzma Shahid, program manager with Ipas Pakistan.
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*Name changed to protect her identity.
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“Our medical camps provide access to lifesaving essential reproductive health care.”
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A woman walks down a road in Malawi, where young survivors of sexual violence now have the legal right to access abortion. © iStock/adesparrow
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5. Historic win as Malawi approves abortion access for girls who experience sexual violence \n
In November 2025, the High Court in Malawi ruled that adolescent survivors of sexual violence have the right to access abortion services in both public and private health facilities. Previously, abortion was only legally permitted to save a pregnant person’s life.
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This landmark decision was the result of relentless advocacy by Ipas and partner organizations in a country that has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Africa, despite unsafe abortion accounting for 18% of maternal deaths.
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“This ruling is a significant milestone in advancing the health and rights of women and girls in Malawi, specifically on access to safe abortion,” says Felix Chinguwo, senior programs advisor with Ipas Malawi. “It reaffirms that every woman and girl deserves the right to make informed decisions about her access to sexual and reproductive health services without fear, stigma, or risk to her life.”
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“This ruling is a significant milestone in advancing the health and rights of women and girls in Malawi, specifically on access to safe abortion.”
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VIDEO
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6. The most-viewed video about self-managed abortion in Spanish \n
More and more women around the world are choosing to self-manage an abortion using pills. In Mexico, our team found high demand on YouTube for accurate information on how to use abortion pills.
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Their video “Safe Abortion With Misoprostol ” has been viewed over seven million times, making it the most-viewed video on the topic in Spanish. Our team also helped build a highly engaging discussion in the comments section, where viewers have shared stories, support and additional resources in more than 50,000 comments.
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“The incredible number of views on this video shows just how badly people need accurate, trustworthy information about abortion with pills,” says Naomi Chalá Minda, creative producer with Ipas Latin America and the Caribbean. “Many of the questions in the comments have turned this space into a kind of support network, where people share valuable information and guidance. This interaction has also encouraged many to follow us and reach out through our other platforms, helping more people find safe and reliable abortion-related information”.
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“The incredible number of views on this video shows just how badly people need accurate, trustworthy information about abortion with pills.”
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A woman leaves her camp following violent clashes that broke out in Goma, the Democratic Republic of Congo, which left a devastating trail of suffering and destruction. © AP/Moses Sawasawa
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7. Providing critical reproductive health care amid escalating violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo \n
In January 2025, violent clashes broke out in Goma, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and North Kivu province, worsening a decades-long conflict and leaving a devastating trail of suffering and destruction.
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Throughout the fighting, Ipas DRC has remained committed to providing sexual and reproductive health care to women and girls. Ipas-trained health providers worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to provide sexual and reproductive health services, including abortion and family planning, at Ipas-supported health centers and mobile clinics.
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“We worked in the mobile clinic from 8:00am to 7:00pm,” says Dusabe Francine, an Ipas-trained nurse who lived in the Bulengo refugee camp and worked in Ipas’s mobile clinic there. “The climate is not good, but the needs are still there, so we try to protect ourselves and the women who are facing violence.”
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“We worked in the mobile clinic from 8:00am to 7:00pm. The climate is not good, but the needs are still there, so we try to protect ourselves and the women who are facing violence.”
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Men discuss contraception in a community dialogue led by Ipas-trained health workers, who educate them about family planning and their important role in supporting women’s reproductive health. © Yayasan CIS Timor
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8. Empowering women, involving husbands: Engaging men in family planning in Indonesia \n
In many parts of eastern Indonesia, deeply rooted patriarchal norms mean that women must seek permission from their husband, and sometimes even their in-laws, before accessing reproductive health services. This cultural dynamic contributes significantly to Indonesia’s high unmet need for family planning.
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To address this challenge, Ipas Indonesia, with support from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited’s Global CSR program, launched a project to expand access to family planning in rural parts of East Nusa Tenggara Province. Community dialogues led by Ipas-trained health workers educate men about family planning and their important role in supporting women’s reproductive health. Since its launch two years ago, the project has facilitated discussions in 14 villages, reaching over 1,375 men, including local leaders, religious figures, and husbands.
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“At first, many men resisted. They said we shouldn’t interfere with their households,” says Yane Beis, a community health worker involved in the project. “But we kept talking to them by reminding them that it’s the women who carry the pregnancy, who feel the pain of childbirth. Eventually, they listened. Many even began supporting their wives in using contraception.”
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“Eventually, they listened. Many even began supporting their wives in using contraception.”
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“For me, this training was profoundly meaningful.”
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– Medical student in the United States who participated in an Ipas training
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9. Training the next generation of abortion providers in the United States. \n
In the United States, where abortion access is increasingly restricted, Ipas is training current and future health professionals in both abortion care and the important role health providers can play in defending the human right to abortion. Trainings began in early 2025 and the Ipas U.S. team is now gearing up to expand the program and reach thousands of health-care professionals over the next three years.
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“As a medical student navigating an ever-changing legal landscape, this training was especially important,” says one training participant. “It not only highlighted the immense complexity of the constraints placed on providers but also reinforced the far-reaching consequences of these laws for both practitioners and patients.”
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In any setting, health providers who support abortion rights are crucial to ensure everyone can access care when needed. “Our priority is to promote and protect equitable access to abortion as a human right,” says Maria Elena Pérez, director of Ipas United States.
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“Our priority is to promote and protect equitable access to abortion as a human right.”
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Yilfashewa Beyene, an Ipas-trained nurse and midwife at Modjo Health Center in Oromia, Ethiopia, where Ipas provides training, mentorship and resources to ensure critical reproductive health care remains available. © Ipas Ethiopia
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10. Supporting Ethiopian providers to sustain abortion and contraceptive care despite a collapsing health system \n
Ethiopia’s health system has been under immense strain due to ongoing armed conflict, climate-induced drought, and economic hardship. Compounding these issues, the suspension of over $1 billion in U.S. aid in early 2025—which was vital funding for emergency food assistance, health-care services, and refugee support—has further destabilized an already fragile system.
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Yet providers of sexual and reproductive health care know women still need these vital services, no matter the obstacles. Ipas Ethiopia is helping providers and facilities keep going —providing training, mentorship, and resources so that abortion and contraceptive care remain available when and where people need them.
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“We are saving lives and providing essential care to young women and communities,” says Yilfashewa Beyene, an Ipas-trained nurse and midwife at Modjo Health Center in Oromia, Ethiopia. “Our focus is on maternal health, particularly for young women aged 15-24. We address [maternal] complications and support women who might otherwise go without care.”
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“We are saving lives and providing essential care to young women and communities.”
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Adolescents who participated in Project EmpowerHer, a sexual and reproductive health and rights training initiative designed to equip teenage girls in rural communities with comprehensive reproductive health information. © Life Lifters Kenya
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11. Working to end period poverty in rural Kenya \n
Period poverty remains a pressing challenge in Kenya, disproportionately affecting teenage girls in rural areas. According to research by the Ministry of Health, 54% of Kenyan girls face challenges accessing menstrual health management products. This crisis derails their education, exposes them to early marriages, and perpetuates the cycle of poverty.
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Life Lifters Kenya, a non-governmental organization and grantee of the Ipas Collaborative Fund, is addressing this issue head-on. Through its innovative programs in Nandi and Bungoma counties in western Kenya, the organization is breaking barriers to menstrual hygiene management while equipping girls with critical reproductive health knowledge.
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“I have received mentorship and support from the dignity center in my community,” says one adolescent girl. “My friends and I visit the center every month to collect our dignity kits, and it’s such a relief knowing I don’t have to worry if my parents can’t afford them. The center provides them to us for free, and I am so grateful.”
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“My friends and I visit the center every month to collect our dignity kits, and it’s such a relief knowing I don’t have to worry if my parents can’t afford them.”
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Read more about our impact in 2025
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The post A year of resilience amid unprecedented challenges to reproductive rights appeared first on Ipas .
","category":"choice","author":"Kristin Swanson","publishDate":"2025-12-17T15:20:36.000Z","image":"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IpasNepal_Natural-Leaders_RS11246f.jpg","source":"Ipas","sourceUrl":"https://www.ipas.org/news/a-year-of-resilience-amid-challenges-to-reproductive-rights/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.441Z"},{"id":"67g1d7","slug":"50-reproductive-rights-aligned-orgs-call-out-anti-abortion-tactics-in-recent-anti-trans-bills","title":"50+ Reproductive Rights-Aligned Orgs Call Out Anti-Abortion Tactics in Recent Anti-Trans Bills","excerpt":"PRH and more than 50 reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations are calling out two anti-transgender health care bills that mirror long-standing attacks on abortion access and bodily autonomy.","content":"\n\t\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPress Release \n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t50+ Reproductive Rights-Aligned Orgs Call Out Anti-Abortion Tactics in Recent Anti-Trans Bills\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDecember 16, 2025\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\n\n\nOUR STATEMENT \n\n\n\nWashington, DC – Physicians for Reproductive Health joined The National Women’s Law Center Action Fund, the National Partnership for Women & Families, and more than 50 reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations in calling out how two bills targeting transgender health care, which are advancing in the U.S. House, rely on the same dangerous tactics long used to attack abortion access.
\n\n\n\nIn a letter sent to House members, the organizations warn that these bills mirror efforts to strip people of bodily autonomy and criminalize doctors for providing medically necessary, evidence-based care.organizations wrote .
\n\n\n\nThe letter comes as Republican lawmakers push forward two extreme anti-transgender health care bills. One bill, introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), would criminalize medical providers for delivering evidence-based care to transgender young people in a wide range of circumstances. The other, introduced by Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), would bar federal Medicaid funds from being used to cover this care.
\n\n\n\n“Let’s be clear: a politician is never more qualified to make decisions about a person’s health care than that person and their health care providers,” the letter argues . “Just as politicians have no place making decisions about people’s pregnancies, they have no business interfering with gender-affirming care.”
\n\n\n\nRead the full letter (PDF) . The full text appears below.
\n\n\n\nLetter Opposing H.R. 3492 and H.R. 498 \n\n\n\nDear Speaker Johnson, Leader Jeffries, and Members of the House of Representatives,H.R. 3492 and H.R. 498. H.R. 3492 aims to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth by criminalizing medical providers for care that is essential, best practice medical care, and, in many cases, life-saving. Meanwhile, H.R. 498 would bar the use of federal Medicaid funding to cover this necessary care for young people. For years, our organizations have fought for abortion rights and access and have witnessed the erosion of people’s bodily autonomy and attempts to criminalize doctors for providing care. This playbook is all too familiar, and extremists have now turned their sights on LGBTQI+ people and their loved ones. We remain united with our LGBTQI+ partners in opposing this bill and any other attempts to restrict gender-affirming care. Dobbs decision and its aftermath. As such, we urge you to remain steadfastly opposed to H.R. 3492, H.R. 498, and other similar attempts to restrict access to gender-affirming care.
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CONTACT US
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Email voice@prh.org to speak to a physician advocate or get added to our reporter list.
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The post 50+ Reproductive Rights-Aligned Orgs Call Out Anti-Abortion Tactics in Recent Anti-Trans Bills appeared first on Physicians for Reproductive Health .
","category":"choice","author":"Mykella Palmer","publishDate":"2025-12-16T23:01:50.000Z","image":"https://prh.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/press-release-anti-trans-bills.png","source":"Physicians for Reproductive Health","sourceUrl":"https://prh.org/press-releases/anti-abortion-tactics-anti-trans-health-care-bills/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"ltz4jz","slug":"keeping-the-police-out-of-pregnancy-care","title":"Keeping the Police Out of Pregnancy Care","excerpt":"Op-ed by PRH President and CEO Dr. Jamilia Perritt & Lourdes A. Rivera. The post Keeping the Police Out of Pregnancy Care appeared first on Physicians for Reproductive Health .","content":"\n\t\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMedia Mentions \n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tKeeping the Police Out of Pregnancy Care\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\n\n\thttps://prh.org/media-mentions/keeping-the-police-out-of-pregnancy-care/ \n\t \n\n\t\n\tClick to print \n\tPrint Icon \n \n\n\t\n\tShare this page via Email \n\tMail Icon Rectangle in the shape of an envelope \n\n\t\n\tShare this page on Pinterest \n\t \n\n\t\n\tShare this page on Facebook \n\t \n\n\t\t\n\tShare this page on Twitter \n\t \n\t\t \n\t\t
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\n\n\n\nFROM THE ARTICLE \n\n\n\nOp-ed by PRH President and CEO Dr. Jamilia Perritt & Lourdes A. Rivera
\n\n\n\nImagine you’re pregnant and excited for your new baby—tracking kicks, setting up the crib, picking out names. Then comes sudden, unexpected pain. You lose your pregnancy at home, terrified and bleeding, and you do what you’ve always taught your kids to do in an emergency: you call for help.
\n\n\n\nThe paramedics arrive—and with them, police. The questions come before the care: How far along were you? How long did you wait before calling 911? Did you get regular prenatal care? Were you excited to be pregnant? Have you taken any drugs? Instead of prioritizing your physical and emotional well-being, you’re suddenly facing criminal charges, worried about losing your kids, and trying to find a lawyer you can afford.
\n\n\n\n\nThe post Keeping the Police Out of Pregnancy Care appeared first on Physicians for Reproductive Health .
","category":"choice","author":"Mykella Palmer","publishDate":"2025-12-12T19:28:34.000Z","image":"https://prh.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/nation-logo.png","source":"Physicians for Reproductive Health","sourceUrl":"https://prh.org/media-mentions/keeping-the-police-out-of-pregnancy-care/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"1baon7","slug":"cervical-cancer-incidence-rate-per-100000-women","title":"Cervical Cancer Incidence Rate per 100,000 Women","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"activism","author":"kffkevinstemp","publishDate":"2025-12-11T16:56:48.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/cervical-cancer-rate/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"3v39r9","slug":"breast-cancer-incidence-rate-per-100000-women","title":"Breast Cancer Incidence Rate per 100,000 Women","excerpt":"","content":"","category":"activism","author":"kffkevinstemp","publishDate":"2025-12-11T16:09:45.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/breast-cancer-rate/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"8gbs69","slug":"cervical-cancer-incidence-rate-per-100000-women-by-raceethnicity","title":"Cervical Cancer Incidence Rate per 100,000 Women by Race/Ethnicity","excerpt":"disparity, Disparities","content":"disparity, Disparities","category":"activism","author":"kffkevinstemp","publishDate":"2025-12-11T15:50:51.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/cervical-cancer-rate-by-re/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"5m1se9","slug":"breast-cancer-incidence-rate-per-100000-women-by-raceethnicity","title":"Breast Cancer Incidence Rate per 100,000 Women by Race/Ethnicity","excerpt":"disparity, Disparities","content":"disparity, Disparities","category":"activism","author":"kffkevinstemp","publishDate":"2025-12-11T15:14:03.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/04/250421_State-Health-Facts_FI.png","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator/breast-cancer-rate-by-re/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"knde88","slug":"supports-not-separation-add-your-name-today","title":"Supports Not Separation — Add Your Name Today","excerpt":"We are looking for health care provider signers from across the country in solidarity with New Mexicans who believe families deserve support and not separation. Please read the letter, and sign today. The post Supports Not Separation — Add Your Name Today appeared first on Physicians for Reproductiv...","content":"\n\t\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBlog Post \n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tSupports Not Separation — Add Your Name Today\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDecember 9, 2025\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\n\n\thttps://prh.org/resource/new-mexico-newborn-separation-harms-families/ \n\t \n\n\t\n\tClick to print \n\tPrint Icon \n \n\n\t\n\tShare this page via Email \n\tMail Icon Rectangle in the shape of an envelope \n\n\t\n\tShare this page on Pinterest \n\t \n\n\t\n\tShare this page on Facebook \n\t \n\n\t\t\n\tShare this page on Twitter \n\t \n\t\t \n\t\t
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\n\n\n\nOVERVIEW \n\n\n\nIn July 2025, Governor Grisham issued a directive requiring hospitals to place infants under a mandatory 72-hour hold if the infant was born exposed to substance. This directive unleashed chaos and confusion across the New Mexico health care system as the directive was unclear and had no implementation guidelines. It is also in opposition to existing New Mexico child welfare policies and practice. Advocates in New Mexico are concerned for families and patients. This sign on letter expresses deep concern about the directive noting that while it may be well-intentioned it undermines the cornerstone of effective health care: trust between patient and provider.
\nThe post Supports Not Separation — Add Your Name Today appeared first on Physicians for Reproductive Health .
","category":"global","author":"Mykella Palmer","publishDate":"2025-12-09T21:22:12.000Z","image":"https://prh.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/sign-on-letter-2.png","source":"Physicians for Reproductive Health","sourceUrl":"https://prh.org/resource/new-mexico-newborn-separation-harms-families/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"v2pugp","slug":"abortion-in-humanitarian-settings-what-new-data-from-uganda-and-kenya-reveal","title":"Abortion in humanitarian settings: What new data from Uganda and Kenya reveal","excerpt":"The post Abortion in humanitarian settings: What new data from Uganda and Kenya reveal appeared first on Ipas .","content":"
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Study \n
Incidence and safety of abortion in two humanitarian settings in Uganda and Kenya: a respondent-driven sampling study
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Published in The Lancet Clinical Medicine
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Led by Ipas in partnership with Ibis Reproductive Health, the International Rescue Committee, African Population and Health Research Centre, and Resilience Action International, this research is one of only a few studies on abortion in humanitarian settings. It provides critical new data on abortion from communities often excluded from sexual and reproductive health research.
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Pictured above: Kakuma refugee camp, located in Kenya. Photo taken by Matija Kovac (Creative Commons )
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Main takeaway \n
In two of East Africa’s largest refugee settings—Bidibidi (Uganda) and Kakuma (Kenya)—researchers conducted the first-ever study to estimate abortion incidence using respondent-driven sampling (RDS) in a humanitarian context. The results highlight an overlooked reality: displaced people seek abortion care at higher rates but face limited options and extreme risks from resorting to unsafe methods.
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Why it matters \n
Safe abortion services are often left out of reproductive health care in humanitarian settings due to a lack of trained providers, political concerns, and unclear laws. Yet in the sites studied, abortion rates remain high: 52 per 1,000 women of reproductive age in Bidibidi and 55 per 1,000 in Kakuma. These rates are slightly higher than the East African regional average, even though people in these settings face more barriers to access. This research proves that abortion is common in these humanitarian settings, and often through unsafe methods. It also highlights the urgent need for safe abortion care not only in these communities but also in others across the continent where similar conflict-affected populations have sought refuge. It gives humanitarian groups, policymakers, and researchers vital information they need to plan, carry out, and assess programs that make safe, WHO-recommended abortion methods easier to access in these settings.
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Key findings \n
\nAbortion is common despite few safe options. The estimated annual abortion rate in Bidibidi was 52 per 1,000 and in Kakuma it was 55 per 1,000. Yet only 5 of the 27 health facilities in these settings reported providing safe abortion services.Most abortions were done with unsafe methods. Almost all were self-managed, and very few followed WHO-recommended methods. Some people used abortion pills, but most did not know the correct drugs or doses. Awareness of abortion with pills was also low.Complications are widespread, and many do not seek care. Nearly all participants reported at least one complication (88% in Bidibidi and 98% in Kakuma). Many did not seek care because they feared stigma or arrest.People seek abortion for common reasons, but the stakes are higher for refugees. Participants cited economic hardship, lack of partner support, or fear of abandonment, which are common reasons in non-crisis settings. For people living in displacement, who lack stable income, family support, or basic services, an unintended pregnancy can bring even greater hardship.Sexual violence is a significant factor. Although researchers did not directly ask whether the pregnancy was the result of rape, 1% identified it as their reason for seeking an abortion, and about 20% reported experiencing sexual violence in the past year. \n\t\t\t
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From research to action \n
The Ipas-led team secured a follow-up grant from Elrha’s Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) Programme to put the research findings into practice through a coordinated set of improvements. They strengthened the community health worker training package, introduced the Aunty Jane hotline to support abortion seekers in local languages, and trained pharmacists and drug sellers to better support people using abortion pills. Implementation looked different in each setting: Ipas played a direct role in Kakuma, while in Bidibidi, these improvements were integrated into existing programs for long-term sustainability.
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The team also held a week-long workshop in the camp, where community members, data collectors, and Community Advisory Board members worked with the research team to create simple, multi-language materials. Together, they developed information on the risks of unsafe abortion, safer use of abortion pills, and how to reach the hotline, and they helped update local health education materials to make them clearer and more accurate.
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A method worth replicating \n
Using respondent-driven sampling (RDS), the research team built trust and reached people often missed in traditional surveys. RDS starts with a few trusted participants who refer others in their networks. Those referrals grow into a chain, allowing researchers to connect with people who are hard to reach. This works when the topic is sensitive, like abortion, or when the population doesn’t show up in regular surveys, like people displaced by armed conflict. This method can help generate data that reflects the broader community—not just the most visible.
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This companion article in BMJ Open offers a step-by-step blueprint to replicate this approach in other crisis-affected settings:
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Feasibility of respondent-driven sampling to recruit participants with recent abortion experiences in humanitarian contexts: a mixed-methods community-engaged research study
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Learn more from this research: \n
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The post Abortion in humanitarian settings: What new data from Uganda and Kenya reveal appeared first on Ipas .
","category":"choice","author":"Saren Richardson","publishDate":"2025-12-09T15:06:30.000Z","image":"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/KakumaRefugeeCamp2010-e1764961260668.jpg","source":"Ipas","sourceUrl":"https://www.ipas.org/news/abortion-in-humanitarian-settings-research-uganda-and-kenya/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.441Z"},{"id":"ql2l4w","slug":"129-organizations-urge-congress-to-pass-clean-extension-of-enhanced-aca-subsidies","title":"129 Organizations Urge Congress to Pass Clean extension of enhanced ACA subsidies","excerpt":"December 8, 2025 Dear Leader Thune, Leader Schumer, Speaker Johnson, and Leader Jeffries, On behalf of the National Women’s Law Center and 128 state and national organizations, we write to strongly urge you to pass a clean extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credit...","content":"\n
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Dear Leader Thune, Leader Schumer, Speaker Johnson, and Leader Jeffries,
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On behalf of the National Women’s Law Center and 128 state and national organizations, we write to strongly urge you to pass a clean extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits (PTCs). It is imperative that Congress act without further delay—as insurers have already set premium rates for the upcoming year assuming the enhanced PTCs are expiring. The longer Congress waits, the harder it will be to offer relief to millions of Americans with skyrocketing premiums, with women and low- and middle-income people hit the hardest.
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The enhanced PTCs, originally expanded under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and extended through 2025 in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, have made health coverage through the Marketplace more affordable and accessible than ever before . In 2025 we saw record-breaking Marketplace enrollment , with nearly 12.7 million women enrolled, a 95% increase in women’s enrollment since 2021. Ninety-two percent of all 2025 Marketplace enrollees received PTCs, with an estimated nearly 11.7 million women receiving PTCs to help pay for their health insurance premiums. Resulting in premium payments being cut by an estimated 44% ($705 annually) for enrollees receiving PTCs.
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If these enhanced PTCs expire, the health and economic consequences will be devastating to women and low- and middle-income people. It is expected that Marketplace out-of-pocket premiums will skyrocket by over 75% if the enhanced PTCs expire:
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\n\nAverage net premiums will be more than four times higher ($919 versus $169) for people with subsidized Marketplace coverage and incomes below 250% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL);
\n \n\nNet premiums will more than double, from $1,171 to $2,455, for those with incomes between 250% and 400% of the FPL.
\n \n\nAdults aged 50 to 64 are projected to see even higher premium increases, with annual premium spikes between $599 and $4,574.
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These premium increases will undoubtedly compound existing barriers to affording health care coverage for women, particularly women of color, and low- and middle-income people. Millions of people will be priced out of coverage and be at increased risk for uninsurance, negating monumental gains made in reducing uninsurance since the enactment of enhanced PTCs in 2021. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that failing to extend the enhanced PTCs will result in 4.2 million more uninsured people by 2034. An estimated nearly 2.2 million of those 4.2 million would be women and over 3.1 million would be people of color. This is in addition to the 10 million people who stand to lose their health coverage due to H.R. 1 (OBBBA), according to CBO.
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Women and low- and middle-income people already face significant challenges affording health insurance and health care-related expenses. Unaffordable health care costs force people with fewer financial resources to delay or forgo critical care, exacerbating existing health disparities. Uninsured women are less likely than those with coverage to have consistent access to care and to receive essential preventive services, such as cancer screenings. Gaps in such care are particularly harmful for women, particularly women of color who already experience high rates of chronic conditions.
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Additionally, as Congress is negotiating an extension of the enhanced PTCs, we urge you to reject any further attempts to restrict abortion coverage. Any such attempts would ultimately amount to a thinly-veiled effort to derail negotiations over these essential tax credits. Cost is a major factor in whether people are able to access the abortion care they seek, and often insurance coverage is the difference between a person getting the care they need and being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term. Any claims that additional restrictions on abortion coverage are needed to ensure that no federal funds are spent on abortion coverage are false. The ACA already treats abortion different from other health care services; it explicitly prohibits federal funds from being used to pay for abortion coverage in Marketplace plans, with limited exceptions for cases of life endangerment, rape, and incest. Any attempt to further restrict coverage for abortion care in ACA Marketplace plans will ultimately deny people the freedom to make the best decisions for their bodies, lives, and futures.
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Congress must extend the enhanced PTCs before the end of the year, or millions of women and low- and middle-income people’s health and financial wellbeing will bear the brunt of drastically higher premiums that will follow. It is critical that Congress act swiftly to preserve enhanced PTCs and ensure the millions of women and low- and middle-income people who rely on these PTCs continue to have access to affordable and comprehensive health coverage.
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Sincerely,
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Abortion Access Front
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The post 129 Organizations Urge Congress to Pass Clean extension of enhanced ACA subsidies appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"choice","author":"Erin Weber","publishDate":"2025-12-08T16:42:35.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/nwlc-logo-1200x630-1.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/129-organizations-urge-congress-to-pass-clean-extension-of-enhanced-aca-subsidies/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"axlvg8","slug":"building-climate-resilient-reproductive-health-care-in-zambia-ipass-on-the-job-training-innovation","title":"Building climate-resilient reproductive health care in Zambia: Ipas’s on-the-job training innovation","excerpt":"For nearly two decades, Ipas Zambia has worked closely with the Ministry of Health to reduce maternal deaths caused by unsafe abortion and to expand access to safe abortion services nationwide. However, despite the progress made, persistent and emerging challenges, including the growing impact of cl...","content":"\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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For nearly two decades, Ipas Zambia has worked closely with the Ministry of Health to reduce maternal deaths caused by unsafe abortion and to expand access to safe abortion services nationwide. However, despite the progress made, persistent and emerging challenges, including the growing impact of climate change, continue to affect sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
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As climate-related disasters intensify globally, Zambia has been severely affected. The country has been experiencing adverse impacts for several years, including an increase in the frequency and severity of seasonal droughts, occasional dry spells, increased temperatures in valleys, flash floods, and changes in the growing season, according to the United Nations Development Programme.These extreme weather events often cut off communities from central health facilities, limiting women’s access to timely and essential reproductive health services.
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\n“Limited access to contraceptives leads to a rise in unplanned pregnancies, and during periods of climate-related stress or emergencies, cases of unsafe abortion tend to increase. This often results in severe reproductive health complications such as sepsis, long-term disability, or even maternal death,” says Roina Mulenga, health systems advisor at Ipas Zambia.
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An innovative on-the-job training model \n
In 2019, Ipas Zambia, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, developed and adapted an innovative on-the-job training model to strengthen the capacity of midlevel health-care providers in delivering comprehensive abortion care and long-term contraceptive services in all 10 provinces in the country. The goal is to ensure women and girls who are disproportionately affected by climate change-related disasters have access to critical health services, bodily autonomy, and life-saving care.
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\n“Health facilities, especially in the northeast of the country, are frequently cut off from district pharmacies during the rainy season due to severe flooding. In addition, the road network in these areas is extremely poor, with hilly terrain that makes navigation and delivery of essential medicines even more difficult. These geographic and climatic challenges significantly disrupt the timely supply of health commodities and services,” says Mulenga, who is also the project coordinator.
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During the pilot phase of the project in 2023, 10 providers were trained as trainers, who in turn gave on-the-job trainings for an additional 30 providers. Following this success, Ipas and the Ministry of Health scaled up to three additional provinces, training 110 additional trainers who then conducted on-the-job trainings for over 600 health-care providers.
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Benefits of on-the-job trainings to communities \n
For communities, the on-the-job training model has meant sustained access to comprehensive abortion care services even during floods or transport disruptions and no interruption in services, as providers are trained within their own facilities.
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The model has also equipped local providers to manage real-time clinical needs, reduced the need for providers to refer women to far-away clinics that are hard to reach, and enhanced trust and engagement between communities and their local health systems.
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Additionally, it has led to resilient health-care systems adapted to the realities of climate change and improved health outcomes for women who always have access to a trained abortion provider.
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Trainers and other health-care providers involved with the training program use modified motorcycles or bicycles, known as “Zambulances,” to reach women who are completely cut off because of flooding.
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A scalable and sustainable model \n
“The trainers are empowered to train fellow health-care providers in the same facility. The training sessions are also held at the health facilities, so it’s cost-effective as there are no transport or per diem costs for the participants. In the end, we can create a large, competent pool of health-care providers spread across the country, even in the remotest of places cut off by flooding,” explains Mulenga. “It’s a scalable and sustainable model.”
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Key achievements to date \n
\n120 trainers trained across 4 provinces 600+ midlevel providers trained in comprehensive abortion care using the on-the-job training model \n20 mentors oriented to travel to clinics and support providers with ongoing skill building \nFinal on-the-job training curriculum provided to Ministry of Health for possible use nationwide in training public health workers \n20 mentors oriented to provide clinical supervision and skills reinforcement \nFinalized OJT curriculum submitted to MOH for consideration for national integration \nImproved provider confidence, reduced stigma, and strengthened abortion service quality \n \n
\n“By training providers within their own communities and health facilities, this model ensures that women and girls—especially during emergencies—have continued access to life-saving abortion and other sexual and reproductive health services,” says Mulenga, “We’re building local capacity, reducing reliance on external training sites and reinforcing the health system’s ability to respond in times of climate-related crisis.”
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The on-the-job training model has proven to be a climate-resilient, cost-effective, and community-centered solution to improving abortion accessin Zambia. With a successful pilot in Muchinga and scale-up across Luapula, Southern, and Eastern Provinces, Ipas Zambia is well-positioned to now support national scale-up. With continued donor and government support, this model can transform reproductive health delivery nationwide, ensuring no woman is left behind, even in the most climate-affected regions.
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The post Building climate-resilient reproductive health care in Zambia: Ipas’s on-the-job training innovation appeared first on Ipas .
","category":"choice","author":"Faith Oneya","publishDate":"2025-12-08T10:25:18.000Z","image":"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/IpasZambia-Zambulance-1.jpg","source":"Ipas","sourceUrl":"https://www.ipas.org/news/building-climate-resilient-reproductive-health-care-in-zambia-ipass-on-the-job-training-innovation/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.441Z"},{"id":"lgwk8w","slug":"when-floods-rise-in-pakistan-womens-reproductive-health-falls-behind","title":"When floods rise in Pakistan, women’s reproductive health falls behind","excerpt":"Sehrish’s* story echoes the unmet needs of countless women in Pakistan The post When floods rise in Pakistan, women’s reproductive health falls behind appeared first on Ipas .","content":"\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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This story reflects my firsthand observations during a monitoring visit to a flood-affected community. I spent a day in the community, conducting a focus group discussion with women on their reproductive health needs before and during disasters. This is how I learnt the story of Sehrish* and her heartbreaking pregnancy and miscarriage experience. I went to meet her and later discussed the matter with the camp doctor who I requested to visit Sehrish at her home before the camp closed in the community.
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Unprecedented flooding during the 2025 monsoon season in Pakistan led to more than 1,000 deaths, thousands injured, and nearly seven million people impacted since June. Around three million people have been displaced by flood waters so far.
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In climate-induced crises like these, women and girls are disproportionately impacted. Many face unmet reproductive health needs, including unmanaged complications of pregnancy loss, disruption of antenatal services, and reduced access to contraception services. While multi-sector response efforts often meet basic needs like food, shelter and water, very little attention or resources are allotted to providing lifesaving reproductive health services such as postabortion care and family planning.
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That is why Ipas Pakistan—in collaboration with its local partner Rahnuma-Family Planning Association of Pakistan (Rahnuma-FPAP)—initiated a humanitarian response to address these critical reproductive health-care needs, as well as primary health-care needs, of people affected by the floods. Our goal was to conduct 150 medical camps and 150 community sessions, reaching approximately 9,000 people in need—with a strong focus on women and girls of reproductive age.
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Sehrish’s* heartbreaking story \n
*Name changed to protect her identity.
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A team from Rhanuma-FPAP set up a mobile medical camp to provide reproductive health services in a small, flood-affected village, just three days after a heartbreaking tragedy. During a monitoring visit, we learned about Sehrish*, a young woman who had lost her baby only days earlier.
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When we reached her home, we found her lying weak in bed. The outer wall of her house had collapsed due to the floods, and the family was forced to operate from only one room. All her belongings were wet, and the space had a strong smell, but she had no alternative place to stay. She was feverish, pale, and carrying the heavy weight of exhaustion and grief.
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Sehrish explained that her family had recently returned from a relief camp after the flood water had finally receded from their home, though the village around them was still waterlogged and damaged.
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“When we came back from the camp, nothing was the same,” Sehrish said softly. “The house was wet, everything stunk, and we had to start cleaning immediately.”
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She is anemic and had gone into premature labor after seven months of pregnancy. With no transport and no one available to help, her family called the local dai (traditional birth attendant). In the quiet darkness of the night, she delivered a premature baby who struggled to breathe—and within two hours, the child was gone.
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Her voice trembled as she recalled the night she lost her pregnancy.
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“I felt everything collapse. I was already stressed from the camp and from cleaning the house all day. I didn’t rest at all. Then the pain started, and my mother-in-law called the dai . My baby lived for only two hours,” she said, clutching the corner of her dupatta (shawl).
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In 2024, after ten years of marriage, she gave birth to her first child. This was her second pregnancy in less than a year. Her first child is only nine months old. With no rest, no support, and overwhelming responsibilities, her health had deteriorated.
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A camp doctor from Rahnuma–FPAP, which had organized a mobile health camp funded by Ipas in her community, visited her home, examined her, and confirmed that she was suffering from anemia and a fever caused by an infection. The doctor explained that the infection was serious and required proper treatment, which included antibiotics. She advised the woman to rest, improve her nutrition and hygiene, take the prescribed medicines on time, and avoid becoming pregnant again too soon. The doctor also provided counselling on family planning options that she could consider when her fever subsided.
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“Your body needs time to heal,” the doctor told her gently. “You matter too—not just your baby.”
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When asked why she hadn’t gone to the nearby rural health center, Sehrish lowered her eyes.
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Her delivery took place at midnight. Unable to afford transportation or hospital care, the family relied on the dai who had also delivered her first child at home.
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A harsh reality faced by countless women in Pakistan \n
Unfortunately, Sehrish’s story is not an isolated one. It reflects the harsh reality faced by countless women in rural and disaster-affected communities—where early pregnancies, poor health, poverty, limited access to services, and the burden of climate-induced crises combine to endanger their health and deepen their suffering.
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Our medical camps provide access to lifesaving essential reproductive health care with a specialized focus on providing lifesaving reproductive health services, including family planning, contraception, postabortion care and maternal and child health services. Community sessions engage men, women, young people and individuals with disabilities to educate them on reproductive health, maternal and child health, maintaining good hygiene and limiting the spread of infectious diseases, as well as how to access health services when needed.
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We are also supporting people in flood-affected areas by distributing clean delivery kits for pregnant women, dignity and health hygiene kits.
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Our focus during the recovery phase, as well as in the preparedness program for climate-induced emergencies with the government and civil society organizations, is on strengthening the health system—including capacity building, facility upgrades, and advocacy with authorities to prioritize the Minimum Initial Service Package in contingency planning, and to ensure the availability and continuity of postabortion care and family planning services during emergencies. We are also committed to building the resilience of vulnerable districts to ensure safer conditions for women and girls during any disaster they may face.
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The post When floods rise in Pakistan, women’s reproductive health falls behind appeared first on Ipas .
","category":"resilience","author":"Kristin Swanson","publishDate":"2025-12-08T09:57:45.000Z","image":"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/dashes-3.svg","source":"Ipas","sourceUrl":"https://www.ipas.org/news/floods-pakistan-womens-reproductive-health/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.441Z"},{"id":"efxf5f","slug":"litigation-challenging-the-2025-budget-reconciliation-laws-provision-blocking-federal-medicaid-payme","title":"Litigation Challenging the 2025 Budget Reconciliation Law’s Provision Blocking Federal Medicaid Payments to Planned Parenthood","excerpt":"This brief provides an overview of these legal challenges and summarizes the key positions of the plaintiffs and the defendants, Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).","content":"This brief provides an overview of these legal challenges and summarizes the key positions of the plaintiffs and the defendants, Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).","category":"activism","author":"kffrolondad","publishDate":"2025-12-05T20:06:18.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2025/12/Feature-Image-Litigation-Challenging-Blocking-Federal-Medicaid-Payments-to-Planned-Parenthood.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/litigation-challenging-the-2025-budget-reconciliation-laws-provision-blocking-federal-medicaid-payments-to-planned-parenthood/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"h8wein","slug":"kff-health-tracking-poll-knowledge-and-views-of-medication-abortion","title":"KFF Health Tracking Poll: Knowledge and Views of Medication Abortion","excerpt":"This KFF Health Tracking Poll finds that many, including women of reproductive age, remain unfamiliar with key facts about mifepristone. Fewer than half of all adults say they believe abortion pills are safe now, compared to over half of all adults two years ago.","content":"This KFF Health Tracking Poll finds that many, including women of reproductive age, remain unfamiliar with key facts about mifepristone. Fewer than half of all adults say they believe abortion pills are safe now, compared to over half of all adults two years ago. This poll explores awareness and perception of the recent FDA review of the medication, and support for policies aimed at restricting it.","category":"choice","author":"kffmardetm","publishDate":"2025-12-05T13:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2025/12/251203_4-in-10-Unsure-About-Safety-of-Abortion-Pills_FI-2.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1","source":"KFF Women's Health Policy","sourceUrl":"https://www.kff.org/public-opinion/kff-health-tracking-poll-knowledge-and-views-of-medication-abortion/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.404Z"},{"id":"svl3ap","slug":"four-ways-the-trump-administration-took-a-page-from-the-project-2025-playbook-and-made-it-harder-for","title":"Four Ways the Trump Administration Took a Page From the Project 2025 Playbook and Made It Harder for Women to Care for Their Families in 2025","excerpt":"Over the last (very long) eleven months, the Trump administration has repeatedly claimed to be “pro-family,” stressing that its policies will radically help struggling families and support women in having more children.","content":"Over the last (very long) eleven months, the Trump administration has repeatedly claimed to be “pro-family,” stressing that its policies will radically help struggling families and support women in having more children.
\nAnd it’s true, many women and families are struggling: they’re often caring for their children and aging or disabled loved ones at the same time, all while trying to take care of themselves, too. But the Trump administration’s empty gestures cannot hide the fact that it is actively harming women’s ability to survive by dismantling the programs and policies that support caregiving.
\nBy making huge cuts to health care, undermining protections for care workers, and attacking early education programs, the Trump administration is pushing forward a series of regressive policies that, one by one, fulfill its true agenda, outlined in the anti-woman, anti-family Project 2025 playbook .
\nHere are just four ways the Trump administration made it harder for women to care for their families and themselves in 2025.
\n1. Decimating our already-fragile long-term care system
\nIn order to give more tax breaks to billionaires, Trump and his allies in Congress made the largest-ever cut to Medicaid through the partisan “Big Ugly Bill” they passed and signed into law this summer. These cuts— $990 billion over 10 years— —will not only rob millions of their health insurance, but will also put an enormous financial burden on states, which is bad for long-term care.
\nHistory tells us that when a state’s budget is stretched thin, so-called “optional” Medicaid care services are the first to be cut , like long-term or home-based care. But these services are lifelines for many disabled people and older adults with low and moderate incomes . Without them, disabled people and their families suffer.
\n2. Threatening care workers’ ability to survive
\nCare workers—the people who care for our children and support aging and/or disabled loved ones—already make poverty-level wages and, as a result, struggle to make ends meet. More than two out five child care and direct care workers rely on public benefits like Medicaid and SNAP to survive. Even though millions of families rely on care workers to get to work or school, the Trump’s administration is devaluing the work of these disproportionately Black, Latina, and immigrant women workers.
\nIn 2025, the Department of Labor proposed rolling back basic minimum wage and overtime protections for home care workers , depressing their wages even further. And a 2024 final rule to support nursing home care workers with safer staffing standards was rescinded by the Trump administration just this week. Meanwhile, the huge cuts to Medicaid will cause many care workers to lose the only form health insurance they can afford through their under-paid jobs . As care workers already struggle to both stay in their jobs supporting other families while taking care of their own on their limited wages, the Trump administration’s actions will only force more care workers to leave an already-understaffed field .
\n3. Devastating immigrant families and communities
\nThe Trump administration’s threats to care get even worse with its racist targeting of immigrants. Immigrants make up over a fifth of the care workforce , the vast majority of them women, and many people rely on immigrant family caregivers to support them through disability or help with child care. While this shows how tightly connected immigrants are with their communities, the Trump administration has terrorized immigrants by restricting previously eligible immigrants’ access to programs like SNAP and Medicaid , revoking legal statuses , and deporting people without due process. This is tearing apart communities who rely on each other for their care needs.
\n4. Attacking Head Start
\nHead Start is an early education program for families with low incomes, supporting the education and health of young kids. The Trump administration’s attacks on Head Start reveals how its “pro-family” agenda doesn’t actually support kids or families. Since the beginning of 2025 , the Trump administration’s funding freezes, staff firings, and demands to undermine Head Start’s equity-driven mission have left families with low incomes scrambling to provide their children with what they need to grow and thrive.
\nUltimately, these four attacks reveal the Trump administration’s hypocrisy. It claims to be supporting women having and raising children, but these policy decisions have all made it harder for women with families to survive.
\nWe deserve policies ensuring families’ access to health care, supporting a living wage for those who provide care, and protecting the programs that support children’s futures. If billionaires were required to pay their fair share instead of being given even more tax breaks , that future could be realized. We will continue to fight against the attacks that undermine our ability to survive and care for one another—this year and next.
\nThe post Four Ways the Trump Administration Took a Page From the Project 2025 Playbook and Made It Harder for Women to Care for Their Families in 2025 appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"activism","author":"Amelia Packham","publishDate":"2025-12-04T19:59:03.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/updated-blog-graphic-project-2025.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/four-ways-the-trump-administration-took-a-page-from-the-project-2025-playbook-and-made-it-harder-for-women-to-care-for-their-families-in-2025/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"g5xe3d","slug":"project-2025-wrapped-your-year-in-attacks-on-the-health-of-women-and-lgbtqia-people","title":"Project 2025 Wrapped: Your Year in Attacks on the Health of Women and LGBTQIA+ People","excerpt":"We have officially entered my favorite season—no, not pumpkin-spice-everything season, or sweater weather season—but Spotify Wrapped season. A time when our Instagram feeds are flooded with screenshots boasting our unique music tastes and fandom inclinations (yes, Taylor Swift is my top artist…again...","content":"We have officially entered my favorite season—no, not pumpkin-spice-everything season, or sweater weather season—but Spotify Wrapped season. A time when our Instagram feeds are flooded with screenshots boasting our unique music tastes and fandom inclinations (yes, Taylor Swift is my top artist…again).
\nBut as we approach the end of the year, there is another kind of “Wrapped” I am keeping a close eye on: Project 2025, the 900-plus–page extremist handbook that lays out terrifying policies intended to undermine people’s lives and health, especially for women and LGBTQIA+ people.
\nSo, welcome to “Project 2025 Wrapped: Health Harms Edition”—a recap of just some of the dangerous health-related actions the Trump administration has taken to move Project 2025 from playbook to reality.
\nThe Trump Administration’s Favorite Genre? Harming the Lives and Well-Being of Women, Girls, and LGBTQIA+ People
\nWhen President Trump signed his so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law, he put several Project 2025 proposals into motion, including slashing Medicaid and food assistance programs that tens of millions of people rely on. These cuts will worsen already stark health inequities , especially for women of color and LGBTQIA+ people, many of whom already struggle to access affordable, quality health care and other resources .
\nAt the same time, the administration has made attacking transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people and their access to necessary health care a central part of its playlist.
\nUnder Trump’s direction , the Department of Health and Human Services will soon propose regulations that—if finalized—would significantly restrict access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth. And the administration’s relentless efforts to impose a narrow and rigid gender binary are already harming all people . The Department of Veterans Affairs, for example, recently announced it will no longer presumptively cover benefits for breast cancer in men as being connected with their military service—a deeply concerning policy rooted in Trump’s executive order that encouraged discrimination against transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people.
\nThe Trump Administration’s Most Streamed Track: Gutting Access to Reproductive and Sexual Health Services
\nOne track the Trump administration keeps on repeat is its assault on reproductive health and bodily autonomy. The administration has relentlessly tried to make it harder for people to stay safe and healthy before, during, and after pregnancy, including:
\n\n\n\n\nThe administration’s hostility toward reproductive rights and people’s access to critical health care clearly demonstrates that its agenda isn’t about protecting women and families, it’s about controlling them.
\nThe Trump Administration’s Top Skipped Track: Meaningfully Improving Access to Fertility Care
\nDespite President Trump’s bizarre claim to be the “ fertilization president ” (ew??), his administration has unsurprisingly fallen short of promises to require insurance companies to cover in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. The administration’s most recent announcement on fertility care advances a narrow and dated view of family and particularly leaves behind the diverse people and families who need IVF—including single people, LGBTQIA+ people, and Black women —and who are often excluded from conversations about fertility and face additional systemic barriers to accessing care.
\nIn addition to failing to expand meaningful and comprehensive access to fertility care, Trump’s proposed IVF policy includes language that subtly nods to an anti-science, Heritage Foundation–backed ideology known as “ Restorative Reproductive Medicine ” (RRM). This unproven approach blames and stigmatizes women for infertility , delays access to evidence-based treatment, and mirrors the Project 2025-endorsed push for “pronatalism” —which, spoiler alert, is just white Christian nationalism in disguise .
\nHere’s a Daylist We’d Recommend for the Trump Administration: “chaotic disinformation afternoon”
\nRRM is just one example of the Trump administration’s broader campaign to tune out facts and undermine people’s access to unbiased information when it comes to their health and well-being.
\nThe administration has laid off federal staff overseeing adolescent sexual and reproductive health programs ; attacked diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives ; weakened the Department of Education ; and promoted fear and censorship in classrooms .
\nThese attacks on public education and inclusive sex education will harm girls of color and LGBTQIA+ youth most , depriving them of tools and information necessary to make informed decisions about their lives, bodies, relationships, and sexual and reproductive health.
\nThe administration has uplifted junk-science and misinformation about medication abortion, directing the FDA to undertake a review of its regulations on mifepristone , a medication used in nearly two-thirds of abortions across the country. Unsurprisingly, this represents the administration taking steps to complete the anti-abortion policy agenda laid out in Project 2025 .
\nThe administration has also pushed dangerous falsehoods about birth control—wrongly claiming that contraceptives like IUDs and birth control pills cause abortion . And it has spread misinformation linking Tylenol and COVID-19 vaccines to autism. These reckless claims are driven by anti-disability bias and conflict with mainstream medical consensus and clinical guidance , endangering pregnant people and their infants.
\n***
\nBelieve it or not, this barely scratches the surface of the harms that Project 2025 envisions—and that the Trump administration is already putting into practice. Stay tuned for our release of a comprehensive report outlining all the ways the administration has attacked gender justice over the past year. And unlike your Spotify Wrapped, this recap isn’t something to brag about.
\nThe post Project 2025 Wrapped: Your Year in Attacks on the Health of Women and LGBTQIA+ People appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Amelia Packham","publishDate":"2025-12-04T17:43:42.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/project-2025-wrapped.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/project-2025-wrapped-your-year-in-attacks-on-the-health-of-women-and-lgbtqia-people/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"apawfb","slug":"we-came-together-we-took-action-we-are-rising","title":"We Came Together. We Took Action. We Are Rising.","excerpt":"Friends, the Reproductive Justice movement is fired up. From September 19–23, In Our Own Voice hosted our largest and most energized Reproductive Justice Summit & Advocacy Day yet. For four days, Black women and gender-expansive leaders from across the country gathered in Washington, D.C.","content":"\n
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Friends, the Reproductive Justice movement is fired up. \n
From September 19–23, In Our Own Voice hosted our largest and most energized Reproductive Justice Summit & Advocacy Day yet. For four days, Black women and gender-expansive leaders from across the country gathered in Washington, D.C., to strategize, organize, learn, and move in collective power under this year’s theme: Reproductive Justice in Action: Black Women Leading with Joy, Policy & Power.
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Honoring Legacy. Elevating the Next Generation. \n
We opened with the trailblazers who built this movement— esteemed scholar Professor Dorothy Roberts, In Our Own Voice founder Marcela Howell, Reproductive Justice movement visionary Loretta Ross, and other leaders who grounded us in our powerful lineage.
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Esteemed scholar Professor Dorothy Roberts, In Our Own Voice founder Marcela Howell, Reproductive Justice movement visionary Loretta Ross \n
Their wisdom met the brilliance of a new generation of creators like Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Amber Sherman, Elizabeth Booker Houston, and Jasmine Burton—voices reaching millions and shaping the narrative of Reproductive Justice in real time.
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You could feel this energy in our live Outspoken x No Distractions podcast conversation on Black joy, truth-telling, and digital resistance.
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Power, Democracy, and the Policies Shaping Our Lives \n
Across three days of panels and workshops, movement leaders dug into what it means to advance Reproductive Justice in one of the most volatile moments in recent memory. They explored:
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\nReproductive Justice as a pillar of democracy \nHow we lead and sustain ourselves amid backlash and burnout \nIntergenerational leadership and the strength of Black women at the helm \nThe joy that fuels our work, across generations \n \n
Policy discussions centered what our communities face every day—from LGBTQIA+ rights and digital authenticity to Black maternal health, doula care, abortion access, Medicaid, and racial equity. Each conversation reaffirmed that Reproductive Justice is not one issue. It’s every issue impacting our autonomy, our families, and our futures.
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With strategy in hand, we moved from learning to action. Congresswoman LaMonica McIver joined Symone Sanders for an inside look at the policy fights ahead—from Medicaid cuts to attacks on bodily autonomy.
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Taking It to the Hill \n
Then Rep. Lateefah Simon rallied us with a powerful reminder of why we do this work.
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Fueled by that energy, participants met with Members of Congress to urge passage of:
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\nThe EACH Act, ending the cruel Hyde Amendment and abortion coverage bans \nREAHYA, expanding honest, inclusive sex education \n \n
You can still raise your voice and demand action .
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A Movement Rising Together \n
These four days revealed what makes Reproductive Justice unstoppable: our community, our clarity, and our courage. We closed the Summit with renewed resolve and an unwavering belief that our future is within reach.
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This country is ours. Our voices are clear. And as we continue to organize, advocate, and show up for one another, we are building the world we deserve.
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Thank you to every partner, leader, advocate, and supporter who makes this movement possible.
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The post We Came Together. We Took Action. We Are Rising. first appeared on In Our Own Voice .
","category":"choice","author":"In Our Own Voice","publishDate":"2025-12-03T17:36:03.000Z","image":"https://blackrj.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/we-came-together-home-banner-4.jpg","source":"National Black Women's RJ Agenda","sourceUrl":"https://blackrj.org/we-came-together-we-took-action-we-are-rising/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.538Z"},{"id":"gmuis4","slug":"g20-leaders-commit-to-womens-economic-empowerment-and-gender-equality-in-historic-summit","title":"G20 leaders commit to women’s economic empowerment and gender equality in historic summit","excerpt":"In a historic milestone for the continent, G20 leaders convened in South Africa in November 2025 for the first ever summit hosted in Africa. Against the backdrop of increasing economic, social and political crises, the world’s leading platform for economic collaboration focused on promoting solidari...","content":"\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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G20 parliamentary conference In a historic milestone for the continent, G20 leaders convened in South Africa in November 2025 for the first-ever summit hosted in Africa. Against the backdrop of increasing economic, social and political crises, the world’s leading platform for economic collaboration focused on promoting solidarity, equality, and sustainability as key pillars of inclusive growth.
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Ipas leaders were present alongside members of the Eastern and Southern African Parliamentary Caucus , which we helped form.
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In the declaration that resulted from the summit, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to empowering women and girls and to urgently removing social and economic barriers to achieve gender equality.
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“We encourage women-led development and ensure women’s full, equal and meaningful participation and leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life,” the statement read, in part. “We condemn all forms of discrimination against women and girls and recall our commitment to end gender-based violence and the killing of women and girls because of their gender.”
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The declaration took into account some of the outcome statements from the G20 parliamentary conference held in May 2025—specifically, those related to women’s health, youth, and gender.
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The leaders also committed to:
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\nStrengthening disaster resilience and response \nEnsuring debt sustainability for low-income countries \nMobilizing finance to ensure fair energy transitions \nEnsuring equal opportunities and access to economic resources and basic services for shared prosperity \nHarnessing the potential of artificial intelligence, data governance and innovation for sustainable development \nSupporting Africa to promote economic growth, trade, jobs, and prosperity \nEnsuring resilient and sustainable food systems and food security \nRaising long-term growth potential by pursuing growth-oriented macroeconomic policies \nWorking together to make the international financial system stronger and to help countries manage debt more responsibly \nIncreasing flows of sustainable finance, infrastructure investment and health security \nProtecting financial stability, promoting innovation whilst managing systemic risks and continuing efforts to support \nWorking together to stabilize the international tax system and enhance domestic resource mobilization \n \n
They reiterated their commitment to the G20 as the leading forum for international economic cooperation and its continued operation in the spirit of countries working together, with all members participating on equal footing in all its events.
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The summit was held after a high-level gathering in South Africa in May 2025, which brought together nearly 40 members of parliament from G20 countries, East and Southern Africa, to discuss the economic benefits of investing in women’s health.
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The parliamentary conference, dubbed The Economic Benefits of Investing in Women’s Health, reinforced the importance of countries working together in strengthening their collective ability to respond to global challenges and ensure that no one is left behind.
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At the close of the two-day conference, parliamentarians signed a bold and united ‘Statement of Commitment on Women’s Health’ to present to the presidency of G20 as a reflection of their collective resolve to share responsibility to advance women’s and girls’ health for the benefit of present and future generations.
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The post G20 leaders commit to women’s economic empowerment and gender equality in historic summit appeared first on Ipas .
","category":"global","author":"Faith Oneya","publishDate":"2025-12-01T18:46:06.000Z","image":"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Eastern-and-Southern-African-Caucus-on-Sexual-Reproductive-Health-and-Rights-launch_9527A.jpg","source":"Ipas","sourceUrl":"https://www.ipas.org/news/g20-women-empowerment-gender-equality/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.441Z"},{"id":"5bm8a3","slug":"building-reproductive-justice-power-on-marthas-vineyard-centering-our-stories-advancing-our-justice","title":"Building Reproductive Justice Power on Martha’s Vineyard: Centering Our Stories, Advancing Our Justice","excerpt":"On August 5, 2025, we returned to Martha’s Vineyard for the second annual Building Reproductive Justice Power Brunch, a gathering rooted in the belief that storytelling is a form of power — and that representation is essential to justice.","content":"L–R: Stephanie Tavares-Rance, Mara Brock Akil, Regina Davis Moss, Elaine Welteroth, and Maisha Closson dive into the emotional truth of their work illuminating why storytelling is not just art, but a form of justice. On August 5, 2025, we returned to Martha’s Vineyard for the second annual Building Reproductive Justice Power Brunch , a gathering rooted in the belief that storytelling is a form of power — and that representation is essential to justice.
\nL–R: Maisha Closson, Regina Davis Moss, Elaine Welteroth, and Mara Brock Akil share a candid moment with the Vineyard breeze behind them. Martha’s Vineyard has long been a sanctuary for Black feminists to think, to plan, and to do. From Dorothy West to Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan to Angela Davis, Audre Lorde to bell hooks, the Vineyard has offered space for generations of Black women and gender-expansive movement leaders to rest, create, and imagine new futures. This year, we were honored to continue that legacy.
\nOur 2025 theme — Representation in Film and Media: Centering Our Stories, Advancing Our Justice — reminded us that representation is not just about being seen. It is about owning the narrative. When Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people tell our own stories, we shift culture — and culture shapes the policies that govern our lives.
\nIn Our Own Voice Board Chair Jennifer Augustine with guests at the Building Reproductive Justice Power Brunch on Martha’s Vineyard. A Conversation Rooted in Truth, Power, and Creative Responsibility \nWe were joined by an extraordinary lineup of cultural leaders whose work has shaped how Black audiences see ourselves on screen:
\n\nMara Brock Akil , Writer & Producer \nElaine Welteroth , Author & Founder of birthFUNDMaisha Closson , Writer & ProducerStephanie Tavares-Rance , Co-founder of Run&Shoot Filmworks and Executive Producer of the Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival \nEach speaker brought deep care, honesty, and authenticity to the conversation. They reflected on the responsibility they carry when creating characters, the emotional truth behind their storytelling, and the profound impact that nuanced portrayals of Black lives can have in the real world.
\nTheir message was powerful and unequivocal:
Storytelling is not a sideline to justice work — it is justice work.
\nThis Movement Belongs to All of Us \nWhether you were with us in person or are part of our extended digital community, this movement belongs to you.
We are building a future in which Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people define our narratives — and our policies — on our own terms.
The post Building Reproductive Justice Power on Martha’s Vineyard: Centering Our Stories, Advancing Our Justice first appeared on In Our Own Voice .
","category":"resilience","author":"In Our Own Voice","publishDate":"2025-12-01T17:55:54.000Z","image":"https://blackrj.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/BRJPB-03-1200x.jpg","source":"National Black Women's RJ Agenda","sourceUrl":"https://blackrj.org/building-reproductive-justice-power-on-marthas-vineyard-centering-our-stories-advancing-our-justice/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.538Z"},{"id":"7yfuy5","slug":"in-our-own-voice-statement-on-the-preventable-death-of-tierra-walker","title":"In Our Own Voice Statement on the Preventable Death of Tierra Walker","excerpt":"NATIONWIDE — Following ProPublica’s investigation about the devastating and preventable death of Tierra Walker as a result of Texas’ strict abortion ban, In Our Own Voice President and CEO Regina Davis Moss released the below statement: “Tierra Walker did not die—she was killed as a direct result of...","content":"NATIONWIDE — Following ProPublica’s investigation about the devastating and preventable death of Tierra Walker as a result of Texas’ strict abortion ban, In Our Own Voice President and CEO Regina Davis Moss released the below statement:
\n“Tierra Walker did not die—she was killed as a direct result of Texas’ near-total abortion ban. Over 90 doctors were involved in Walker’s medical care, yet all of them ignored her deep concerns about preeclampsia out of fear of prosecution. On her only son’s 15th birthday last year, JJ should have been celebrating and playing vocabulary games with his family. Instead, he spent his birthday grieving the loss of his mom, who he found unresponsive in her bed because she had died of preeclampsia at 20 weeks pregnant.
\nThis is the reality for so many Black women and gender-expansive people that live in states like Texas that not only restrict access, but criminalize the procedure. Walker is not alone—we’ve heard the stories of Amber Nicole Thurman, Candi Miller and Josseli Barnica who should still be alive today. Their deaths were not accidents. They were consequences of harmful policy that prioritizes ideology and politics over safety and maternal health.
\nProPublica’s investigation underscores what Reproductive Justice advocates knew would happen: near-total abortion bans only exacerbate the systemic inequities our communities experience, and Black women are paying the price with our lives. With Medicaid facing over $1 trillion in cuts, Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire this year and everyday expenses becoming increasingly unaffordable—we are in a moment of crisis. The only solution is Reproductive Justice.”
The post In Our Own Voice Statement on the Preventable Death of Tierra Walker first appeared on In Our Own Voice .
","category":"choice","author":"In Our Own Voice","publishDate":"2025-11-20T00:03:01.000Z","image":"https://blackrj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/policy-ioov-logo-a.png","source":"National Black Women's RJ Agenda","sourceUrl":"https://blackrj.org/in-our-own-voice-statement-on-the-preventable-death-of-tierra-walker/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.538Z"},{"id":"sf8x0x","slug":"what-the-supreme-court-sports-ban-cases-could-mean-for-trans-students-and-gender-justice","title":"What the Supreme Court Sports Ban Cases Could Mean for Trans Students and Gender Justice","excerpt":"Early next year, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in two cases about transgender students participating in school sports. Depending on what the Court decides, students of all genders across the country could lose the opportunity to participate in school sports, and the decisions could also...","content":"Early next year, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in two cases about transgender students participating in school sports. Depending on what the Court decides, students of all genders across the country could lose the opportunity to participate in school sports, and the decisions could also narrow legal protections against sex discrimination more broadly, undermining federal protections enshrined in Title IX. These cases are part of a wide-ranging effort by the Trump administration and extreme politicians across the country to erode longstanding civil rights protections that ensure all students can learn in an environment free from sex stereotypes and mandated gender conformity.
\nThe first case— West Virginia v. BPJ— began with a 12-year-old girl challenging West Virginia’s sports ban because she wasn’t allowed to run on her school’s girls’ track and field team since she is transgender. The second case— Little v. Hecox— involved two college athletes who challenged Idaho’s sports ban that explicitly allowed anyone to “dispute” the sex of a student athlete participating in women and girls’ sports. In both cases, the lower courts at the Fourth and Ninth Circuits respectively found in favor of the student athletes who objected to discriminatory state laws that excluded girls and women from participation simply because of their gender identity.
\nWhile we know these state bans are unconstitutional, violating both the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as well as the federal law known as Title IX, the Supreme Court will still hear these cases. The outcome will likely have significant implications across the country— 28 states have adopted bans on transgender students’ participation in school sports since 2020. Over the past year, the Trump administration has also inappropriately threatened to withhold federal funding from states with transgender-inclusive school sports policies—including Maine, California, and Minnesota—as part of a pressure campaign to exclude transgender students from meets and competitions.
\nThe National Women’s Law Center partnered with Democracy Forward and Title IX scholar Professor Deborah Brake to submit an amicus brief that highlighted how Title IX—a federal law passed in 1972 that prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs and activities—was drafted in order to expand opportunities for all students, instead of shutting students out of activities based on outdated, harmful stereotypes about our genders and bodies. For generations, femininity was wrongly equated with being smaller, weaker, and less competitive—all generalizations that are not true—and today, those exact same stereotypes are being recycled to justify excluding trans girls and women from sports.
\nCisgender women and girls are also being harmed by these sports bans, which have resulted in gender policing, scrutiny, and even harassment of anyone who looks and acts outside the confines of someone else’s idea of femininity. In one instance, just last year, a cisgender girl in high school faced threats and doxxing requiring police protection after a state official questioned her gender in an online post because of her body type. This inappropriate scrutiny of girls’ bodies is only the tip of the iceberg—some state officials are calling for sex screenings of student athletes that could result in women and girls being subjected to physical examinations and even forced genital inspections.
\nTitle IX and legal protections against sex discrimination are meant to put a stop to such hostile environments that subject students to sex-based scrutiny and harassment. Claiming Title IX bans transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams—as West Virginia and Idaho now do before the Supreme Court—ignores the very purpose of Title IX: to expand access to education and school sports, especially for students who have been unfairly excluded and marginalized.
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\nThe post What the Supreme Court Sports Ban Cases Could Mean for Trans Students and Gender Justice appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"equality","author":"hwoodward","publishDate":"2025-11-17T23:14:44.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ƒ.NWLC_Website_Blog_SCOTUS_WV_TransKids.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/what-the-supreme-court-sports-ban-cases-could-mean-for-trans-students-and-gender-justice/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"k9zvd2","slug":"fyi-trump-men-get-breast-cancer-too-how-trumps-gender-war-hurts-male-veterans","title":"FYI, Trump, Men Get Breast Cancer Too: How Trump’s Gender War Hurts Male Veterans","excerpt":"Most people have breasts, including men. That is not a political statement, it’s just a statement of fact. In the Trump administration, however, this statement could be read as “too woke.” In keeping with Project 2025’s directive to attack anything that doesn’t fit neatly into a rigid gender binary,...","content":"Most people have breasts, including men. That is not a political statement, it’s just a statement of fact.
\nIn the Trump administration, however, this statement could be read as “too woke.” In keeping with Project 2025’s directive to attack anything that doesn’t fit neatly into a rigid gender binary, the Trump administration has decided that male veterans with breast cancer will treated differently than female veterans with breast cancer when it comes to disability benefits.
\nHere’s why Trump’s rigid definition of gender is dangerous:
\nYou may remember that on day one of Trump’s current term, he issued an executive order that narrowly and unscientifically defined gender. The primary purpose of this order was to discriminate against transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people.
\nAnd while gender-diverse people are certainly the most impacted by this executive order, they aren’t the only ones suffering. Recently we learned that Trump’s order has made it much harder for male veterans with breast cancer to access needed benefits .
\nYes, that’s right: male veterans will now have much more difficulty accessing cancer benefits as a result of Trump’s strict adherence to the gender binary.
\nTo understand how male veterans got caught up in attacks on gender-expansive people, it helps to look back at a law Congress passed just a few years ago:
\nIn 2022, Congress passed the bipartisan Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act , which greatly expanded veteran health care benefits by making it easier for veterans poisoned by toxic substances during their service to get the care that they need. In 2024, the Biden administration clarified that this included expanding care to male veterans who contract breast cancer.
\nThis expanded coverage for breast cancer in men is really important for a number of reasons: 1) breast cancer rates for men are increasing , 2) male veterans have higher rates of breast cancer than average, and 3) breast cancer has been shown to be more dangerous in men than women, in part because men are often undertreated for the disease—a deadly phenomenon that will worsen under this new policy change.
\nIt really should go without saying that a veteran who contracts a disease because of their service to our country should get the support they need, no questions asked. As one male veteran, Kirby Lewis, put it in his interview with ProPublica : “I don’t care if it’s toenail cancer. If exposure occurs, they should take care of those people.”
\nUnfortunately, the president doesn’t agree.
\nCiting their day-one executive order—intended to “root out gender ideology in the government”— the Trump administration removed breast cancer in men from the list of diseases covered by the PACT Act . Their decision essentially classified breast cancer in men in a different category than breast cancer in women, even though breast cancer acts in nearly identical ways regardless of gender, and the treatment is the same for both men and women.
\nBut this order was not based on facts. It’s based on prejudice. And now, because of this prejudice, male veterans will once again need to prove that their breast cancer was contracted because of their service—an extraordinarily high bar that may be impossible to meet—while also navigating a cancer diagnosis, which is a job in and of itself.
\nIn conclusion—the gender binary hurts all of us:
\nTrump’s decision to make it harder for male veterans to access benefits isn’t based on medicine or science—it’s driven by prejudice and an obsession with rigid gender norms that hurt everyone. We shouldn’t be playing politics with veterans’ cancer care, and veteran benefits should never be subject to ideological red tape.
\nThe post FYI, Trump, Men Get Breast Cancer Too: How Trump’s Gender War Hurts Male Veterans appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Amelia Packham","publishDate":"2025-11-17T21:07:18.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ƒ.NWLC_Website_Blog_GAC_MaleBreastCancer.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/fyi-trump-men-get-breast-cancer-too-how-trumps-gender-war-hurts-male-veterans/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"bdim9k","slug":"russell-vought-the-man-implementing-trump8217s-project-2025-agenda-behind-the-scenes","title":"Russell Vought: The Man Implementing Trump's Project 2025 Agenda Behind the Scenes","excerpt":"As we watched the government shutdown enter the coldest months of the year, millions were left weighing whether to feed their families, keep the heat on, or pay their health insurance. And we have none other than Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director and Project 2025 architect Russell Vough...","content":"As we watched the government shutdown enter the coldest months of the year, millions were left weighing whether to feed their families, keep the heat on, or pay their health insurance. And we have none other than Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought to thank for that, in part. Alongside President Donald Trump, Vought conducted mass firings of federal workers . While many federal workers and vulnerable families were living through distressing financial uncertainty, President Trump shared an AI video of Russ Vought as the grim reaper , a sick and twisted nod to the mass firings.
\nPresident Trump and Vought together share one common goal; undermining our democracy and blocking gender justice by seizing the power of the purse from Congress and consolidating it under the president. Gender justice thrives in a democracy with checks and balances, personal freedoms and civil rights, and where the public can make their voice heard in Washington through their representatives, not through a would-be king. We first sounded the alarm about Vought when he was nominated back in January, and sadly many of our fears have materialized.
\nAttacks on Federal Workers Vought made good on his promise to put federal workers “in trauma” and has gleefully carried out his anti-democratic Project 2025 plan. Elon Musk and DOGE were the known villains behind the firing of federal workers, from mail carriers and park rangers to air traffic controllers and scientists, and the slashing of critical government programs. However, Vought was later reported as the man behind the curtain , à la The Wizard of Oz , when it came to dismantling the federal government.
\nThrough the DOGE cuts, Vought oversaw the downsizing of agencies critical to the rights and well-being of women and girls, including the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Labor. Women made up more than 59% of the initial cuts across the five targeted cabinet level departments, even though they comprised 46% of the federal workforce before the downsizing. Additionally, Vought brought back his radical “ Schedule F Rule ,” now renamed Schedule P/C , which would take away employment protections from federal workers and allow those recategorized to be fired for political reasons. Federal workers, many who have spent decades in public service, now sit in fear at work or have been tossed out simply for doing their job and not breaking the law at Trump’s behest. Many continue to face the jarring reality of not knowing when their next paycheck will come.
\nRescissions As Vought first proposed in Project 2025, the Trump administration spent much of 2025 clawing back billions of dollars already approved by Congress for critical programs. He was instrumental in pushing for an initial $9.4 billion in “rescissions” that cut funding for multiple federal government agencies, including the Department of State and USAID programs. Specifically, Vought came after USAID and Department of State programs that he ridiculously claimed, “worsen the lives of women and children.” These so-called horrifying programs? They were family planning, reproductive health, LGBTQIA+ health and civil rights programs, and equity programs. The cuts in health and equity programs that are critical to communities around the world are unconscionable and mirror the administration’s efforts to target the same communities in the United States.
\nBut that’s not all. Since his initial cuts to USAID, Vought has continued to make moves that illegally usurp power from Congress. Even though an independent agency said it was illegal , Vought has tried to take back money for foreign aid that Congress has approved. Vought’s response? Claiming the agency shouldn’t even exist . The move is so controversial and radical that even a bipartisan group of 10 top budget and appropriations former aids, seven Republicans and three Democrats, signed a letter arguing that this power grab is unconstitutional. Judge Amir Ali ruled that Trump’s pocket rescission was unconstitutional, but now the Supreme Court is considering whether to take the case and allow it.
\nIt hasn’t even been a year into Russell Vought’s tenure as the OMB director, but he has already wreaked havoc on the lives of millions of people across the United States and beyond. From working to take away employment protections and firing federal workers en masse to taking away the power of the purse from Congress, Vought’s attacks on democracy and gender justice this year are unprecedented and dangerous. Like the “Great Oz,” Vought is no hero. He’s a con artist who wields power to benefit his vision of government: one that operates not for the benefit of the people, but for a president who sees himself as king.
\nThe post Russell Vought: The Man Implementing Trump’s Project 2025 Agenda Behind the Scenes appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"equality","author":"Amelia Packham","publishDate":"2025-11-11T16:03:35.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/vought-blog.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/russell-vought-the-man-implementing-trumps-project-2025-agenda-behind-the-scenes/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"knv4o2","slug":"women-athletes-are-once-again-getting-shortchanged-how-a-settlement-reached-with-the-ncaa-benefits-m","title":"Women Athletes Are Once Again Getting Shortchanged: How a Settlement Reached With the NCAA Benefits Men at Women’s Expense","excerpt":"This holiday season, what do women athletes have to look forward to? Discrimination in the benefits they get as compared to men athletes, the gift that seems to keep on giving—no matter how many times we’ve tried to return it.","content":"This holiday season, what do women athletes have to look forward to? Discrimination in the benefits they get as compared to men athletes, the gift that seems to keep on giving—no matter how many times we’ve tried to return it. Don’t get us wrong, significant progress has been made in the days since women and girls were considered “too weak” and as a result, were given second-class treatment as a matter of course compared to men and boys. This includes the passage of Title IX in 1972—the federal statute that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities, including sports. Because of Title IX, enormous progress has been made in closing the gaps between the way women and girls playing school sports have repeatedly been neglected compared to men and boys who were given more opportunities, equipment, and funding to play. However, a settlement recently reached in House v. NCAA threatens to undo much of this progress by grossly undercompensating women athletes in favor of prioritizing payouts from the settlement—at least 90%—to men athletes. That’s why we filed an amicus brief yesterday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in support of 10 women athletes appealing this settlement as a violation of Title IX.
\nThe lawsuit this settlement involved a group of college athletes suing the NCAA because they argued its rules limiting their ability to get paid for use of their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) were unlawful (an athlete’s NIL rights ensures they can control how their image is used, which means they have a right to get paid for things like appearing in an ad to promote a brand of running shoes). On June 6, 2025, a settlement was reached that would pay the athletes the money they were owed for use of their NIL. But the settlement vastly undercompensated women athletes. Instead of applying Title IX to make sure women and men got equitable pay outs from the settlement, it calculated the amount of money each athlete would get paid based on how much money an athlete’s sport made for their school. The result? Men athletes are slated to receive 90% of the $2.8 billion award—meaning while men could get tens of thousands of dollars, women would get a measly $125 for each year they played.
\nNWLC’s brief in support of the 10 women appealing this settlement argues that the Ninth Circuit must reject the settlement because it suffers from a fatal flaw: it fails to apply Title IX’s mandate of gender equity to all benefits student athletes receive—including how much athletes should be paid for use of their NIL payments! The history behind the law shows that Congress made it clear: Title IX applies to sports (even ones that make a school money) to ensure that women and girl athletes get the same opportunities and benefits as men and boys. The settlement jeopardizes the progress Title IX has made in the fight for gender equity by destroying women’s opportunities to benefit from playing sports. Participating in sports is a crucial part of a student’s education: research shows it is linked to increased academic performance, mental and physical health benefits, and leadership values that improve one’s career prospects. And the harms of the settlement are growing: other schools have begun to apply the settlement’s inequitable formula to compensate their athletes, resulting in them cutting women’s sports to afford the enormous payments to men athletes. Sidelining women’s opportunities to play and their ability to reap the crucial benefits of athletic participation completely defies the purpose of Title IX.
\nAt NWLC, we’ve been fighting for gender justice since 1972, the year Title IX was passed. We know that any result that perpetuates the second-class treatment of women and girls is deeply unjust. We also know that the struggles the objecting women here are up against are connected to those faced by transgender women and girls under attack. The Trump administration has claimed that banning trans women and girls from playing is necessary to “protect” women and girls, but this is a facade to justify anti-trans hate. Trump has done nothing to combat the real inequities women and girl athletes face, including their opportunities to play, the equipment they are given access to, and the benefits they are provided—just like the discriminatory settlement here. Meanwhile, for decades, NWLC has taken these issues head on by filing complaints and lawsuits to vindicate the rights of women and girl athletes who were denied the same opportunities as men and boys. NWLC doesn’t just get in the game when it’s convenient: we fight for the rights of all women and girls, because we know that the rights of cis women and trans women are not in tension and that when any woman’s rights are threatened, the rights of all women are in danger. Read our brief here.
\nThe post Women Athletes Are Once Again Getting Shortchanged: How a Settlement Reached With the NCAA Benefits Men at Women’s Expense appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"equality","author":"Amelia Packham","publishDate":"2025-11-06T22:03:22.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/trans-sports.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/women-athletes-are-once-again-getting-shortchanged-how-a-settlement-reached-with-the-ncaa-benefits-men-at-womens-expense/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"xgpniu","slug":"pronatalism-just-white-christian-nationalism-in-disguise","title":"Pronatalism: Just White Christian Nationalism in Disguise","excerpt":"Scratch just beneath the surface of the so-called pronatalism movement—a movement all over the pages of Project 2025 that’s based on the belief that people need to have more babies because declining birth rates are a threat to civilization—and you’ll find that it’s basically just white Christian nat...","content":"Scratch just beneath the surface of the so-called pronatalism movement—a movement all over the pages of Project 2025 that’s based on the belief that people need to have more babies because declining birth rates are a threat to civilization—and you’ll find that it’s basically just white Christian nationalism in disguise. The movement is full of ideological contradictions that make it crystal clear: pronatalists’ desire for people to have more babies is in service to their primary goal of reenforcing a system of religious, racial, and gendered hierarchy that favors conservative white Christians.
\nOne of the biggest tells that pronatalism is just a front for white Christian nationalism? The two movements sure seem to have a lot of beliefs ( and believers ) in common.
\nAccess to Reproductive Health Care and Women’s Role in Society Like white Christian nationalists, pronatalists hope to strip women of their bodily autonomy by criminalizing abortion and limiting access to contraception. Abortion and birth control are essential health care and are fundamental to our ability to control our bodies, our lives, and our futures. When people have access to the full range of health care services, including birth control and abortion, they are healthier and their families flourish. Yet many pronatalists oppose abortion and, to an increasing extent, birth control.
\nPronatalists’ opposition to abortion and birth control isn’t just rooted in a desire to force women to become pregnant and to give birth, although that’s certainly part of it. It’s also rooted in a narrow set of hardline Christian religious beliefs about when life begins that they want to force onto everyone else, no matter that not everyone shares the same beliefs. If successful, they would redefine pregnancy and outlaw not just abortion—but also birth control and other types of health care. The other strain of opposition to women’s bodily autonomy at play here are dangerous beliefs about women’s role in the world. The same beliefs have led many pronatalists to criticize women who seek careers and subordinate women to the role of motherhood .
\nForcing women to become mothers by denying their humanity, stripping them of access to abortion and birth control, and requiring them to sacrifice education and careers to do so reduces women to their reproductive capacity. These tactics don’t help to build healthy, sustainable families. They just build a system of control over women.
\nOpposition To IVF and Other Assisted Reproductive Technology (We Wish We Were Kidding) The white Christian nationalist underpinnings of the pronatalist movement are also exposed by opposition to IVF among many of the movement’s most prominent members. You would think any movement that was genuinely concerned about overall birth rates would embrace IVF and other fertility treatments, given their potential to help more people have more babies. Right?
\nNot for pronatalists. A significant faction of their movement staunchly opposes IVF.
\nThis opposition stems from the same extreme religious beliefs about when life begins that lead the white Christian nationalist movement to seek to ban abortion and birth control. White Christian nationalists also oppose IVF because it allows people to have children on their own terms, outside of the rigid family structure that white Christian nationalists want to force on everyone.
\nRestrictive Views on Who Should Get to Have Children The white Christian nationalist ends of the pronatalist movement are also clear from the movement’s opposition to same-sex marriage and single parenthood . If pronatalism were really about addressing declining birth rates, the movement would embrace every family that wanted to bring children into the world. But many of the leaders in the pronatalism movement have pathologized LGBTQIA+ people and insisted that the only families deserving of protection are two-parent heterosexual families.
\nThis world view aligns with the religious beliefs of the white Christan nationalist movement—that LGBTQIA+ people, single people, and unmarried people are a threat to society and unworthy of existing, much less procreating.
\nThe Real Goals of the Pronatalist-White Christian Nationalist Movement Pronatalists’ pearl-clutching panic over declining birth rates is really just an excuse to push for draconian measures that would enshrine certain extreme religious beliefs into our laws and wreck our multicultural pluralistic democracy as thoroughly as Trump just wrecked the East Wing.
\nMore babies is not the primary goal of this movement. More control—over women, LGBTQIA+ people, immigrants, and anyone who doesn’t adhere to their narrow confines—is.
\nPronatalism is about forcing one religious world view on the entire country. In that way, it’s nothing more than white Christian nationalism in disguise.
\nThe post Pronatalism: Just White Christian Nationalism in Disguise appeared first on National Women's Law Center .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Amelia Packham","publishDate":"2025-11-05T20:30:47.000Z","image":"https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Untitled-1.png","source":"National Women's Law Center","sourceUrl":"https://nwlc.org/pronatalism-just-white-christian-nationalism-in-disguise/","priority":1,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.840Z"},{"id":"1j61hj","slug":"in-our-own-voice-releases-new-polling-in-10-key-states-the-lives-and-voices-of-black-adults","title":"In Our Own Voice Releases New Polling in 10 Key States: The Lives and Voices of Black Adults","excerpt":"Poll surveys over 5,000 Black adults in CA, FL, GA, MI, NC, NJ, NV, OH, PA, VA Study explores how Black communities are responding to the new policy environment under a second Trump term NATIONWIDE — Today, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda released new polling on ...","content":"Poll surveys over 5,000 Black adults in CA, FL, GA, MI, NC, NJ, NV, OH, PA, VA \nStudy explores how Black communities are responding to the new policy environment under a second Trump term \nNATIONWIDE — Today, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda released new polling on the views, needs and priorities of Black communities, with a specific focus on Reproductive Justice policies. Conducted in partnership with public opinion research firm PerryUndem, the poll surveyed over 5,000 Black adults in 10 key states between May and June.
\nThe poll, The Lives and Voices of Black Adults Across 10 States
\n“It is not surprising that the major issues impacting Black families in 2025 are directly related to economic security and health care. Our communities already face significant barriers to accessing true Reproductive Justice due to centuries of systemic racism — from deeply rooted inequities within our healthcare system, to a severe lack of representation across industries,” said Regina Davis Moss, President and CEO of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda . “Our new poll demonstrates that these issues have only been further exacerbated by the Trump administration’s all-out assault on our civil rights, with Black communities bearing the brunt of his attacks. The results speak for themselves, and should signal an urgent call to action for state and federal lawmakers to utilize our 2025 Black Reproductive Justice Policy Agenda as a roadmap for the policy solutions necessary in order for Black women, girls and gender-expansive people to thrive.”
\nKey findings from the report include:
\n\nMore than half of surveyed Black adults in these states indicate they are struggling with financial insecurity; \nAcross all states, over 90% of respondents noted that Medicaid has been important to them and/or their families; \nOver 80% of Black adults in all states believe that dismantling systemic racism is necessary in order for Black families to thrive; \nIn all states across demographics, large majorities of respondents support abortion rights and access. \n \nYou can see the full poll results here .
\nPolling methodology: This poll provides findings from a survey conducted among 5,000 Black adults across 10 states from May 2025 through June 2025. The survey was administered in partnership with PerryUndem and commissioned by In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda. The 10 states the poll was conducted are CA, FL, GA, MI, NC, NJ, NV, OH, PA, and VA, with 500 Black adults surveyed per state. The margin of sampling error is + 5.7 to + 6.6 points (slightly different for each state).
\n###
\nIn Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda is a national-state partnership focused on lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and regional levels in our fight to secure Reproductive Justice for all women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals. Our eight strategic partners are Black Women for Wellness, Black Women’s Health Imperative, New Voices for Reproductive Justice, SisterLove, Inc., SisterReach, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW, The Afiya Center and Women With A Vision.
The post In Our Own Voice Releases New Polling in 10 Key States: The Lives and Voices of Black Adults first appeared on In Our Own Voice .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"In Our Own Voice","publishDate":"2025-10-20T22:54:45.000Z","image":"https://blackrj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/policy-ioov-logo-a.png","source":"National Black Women's RJ Agenda","sourceUrl":"https://blackrj.org/ioov-the-lives-and-voices-of-black-adults-2025/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.538Z"},{"id":"2snich","slug":"pathfinder-launches-new-strategy-and-innovation-platform-to-drive-next-generation-solutions-for-a-ch","title":"Pathfinder Launches New Strategy and Innovation Platform to Drive Next-Generation Solutions for a Changing World","excerpt":"September 23, 2025—Pathfinder International announces the launch of Women&Co, a new strategy and innovation platform that builds on the organization's...","content":"September 23, 2025— Pathfinder International announces the launch of Women&Co , a new strategy and innovation platform that builds on the organization’s six decades of deep government and partner relationships and track record in systems strengthening across Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. Pathfinder makes this radical expansion while introducing its new mission: to catalyze women-led, locally grounded sustainable solutions that enable women to navigate change, shape their own futures, and lead healthy lives.
\n\n\n\nRecognizing that women are already solving problems every day, Women&Co brings together a multidisciplinary group of women who are experts, innovators, and changemakers at the convergence of health and climate issues. The innovation system is designed to pioneer transformative solutions that solve problems, create new opportunities for women, and rapidly scale across communities and countries. The “&Co” represents the ecosystem surrounding this work—communities, companies, collaborators, and coalitions—working together to fuel women-led change.
\n\n\n\n\n“Women have a unique understanding of complex issues and a proven ability to get things done. Putting more women in leadership is vitally needed to make progress on the world’s most pressing challenges,” said Tabinda Sarosh, President and CEO.
\n \n\n\n\n“Women&Co represents the next era of international development: innovation with a power shift so that women are not just voices and recipients, but active leaders in shaping change for their communities while also influencing broader, structural change. This platform opens up exciting pathways for collaboration, welcoming a diverse range of partners, investors, governments, and the private sector to join us in putting women’s leadership at the center of progress.”
\n\n\n\nUnique to the sector, Women&Co utilizes a bespoke innovation system and incorporates a demand-led approach by pinpointing what women and communities need now while also rethinking and reshaping systems to meet the demands of a changing world. This approach ensures that innovations are not isolated disruptions but are embedded in existing systems so that solutions are nationally relevant and scalable.
\n\n\n\n“It is not a time for incremental change. It’s about retuning how the sector solves problems and operates. This launch exemplifies that Pathfinder is now pivoting to make women-led innovation the central pillar of its strategy. Underpinning its new innovation design system, Pathfinder has been heading in this direction for a few years now and has the footprints and relationships to fast-track Women&Co to address complex issues everywhere we operate,” said Collin Mothupi, Board of Directors Chair.
\n\n\n\nWomen&Co has already designed its first social enterprise business, which is launching in Kenya. Women&Co is building its women-led communities and kicking off with co-design in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Egypt during 2025.About Pathfinder
\n\n\n\n
","category":"global","author":"Laurel Lundstrom","publishDate":"2025-10-06T21:05:22.000Z","image":"https://www.pathfinder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Pathfinder_Logo_Image.jpg","source":"Pathfinder International","sourceUrl":"https://www.pathfinder.org/news/pathfinder-launches-new-strategy-and-innovation-platform-to-drive-next-generation-solutions-for-a-changing-world/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:35.068Z"},{"id":"9wmlqp","slug":"national-abortion-federation-statement-on-fda-review-of-mifepristone","title":"National Abortion Federation Statement on FDA Review of Mifepristone","excerpt":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 25, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com NATIONAL — Following the release of a letter from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Martin Makary in which they confirmed that the FDA is conducting a “review” of mifepristone based on a junk...","content":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com
\n\n\n\nNATIONAL — Following the release of a letter from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Martin Makary in which they confirmed that the FDA is conducting a “review” of mifepristone based on a junk science report from an anti-abortion think tank, Brittany Fonteno, President & CEO of the National Abortion Federation, released the following statement:
\n\n\n\n\n“RFK’s attacks on science and his ongoing spread of disinformation around safe medications are reckless, alarming, and completely out of step with reality. The facts are clear: mifepristone is a safe, research-backed method to end a pregnancy, used by millions with proven efficacy.
\n\n\n\nWe know anti-abortion extremists will stop at nothing to ban or restrict access to abortion. They are willing to jeopardize patient health and autonomy to advance a political agenda and sow fear among people who need care.
\n\n\n\nPatients deserve leaders who respect science and put people’s health above anti-abortion ideology. Every delay and restriction has real consequences for people seeking reproductive care.”
\n \n\n\n\n# # #
\n\n\n\nThe National Abortion Federation is the nation’s largest and leading professional association of abortion providers. NAF represents hundreds of providers and clinics across the country that are on the frontlines of helping people access abortion care. They provide members with trainings, security support, and guidelines for the gold standard of abortion care. NAF also operates the National Abortion Hotline, the largest national, multi-lingual abortion hotline in the U.S, which helps anyone in any state understand their care options, including finding a provider, arranging travel to another state, or funding their care. Twitter . Facebook . Instagram .
\n\n\n\nNational Abortion Hotline : 1-800-772-9100.
\nThe post National Abortion Federation Statement on FDA Review of Mifepristone appeared first on National Abortion Federation .
","category":"choice","author":"prochoice","publishDate":"2025-09-25T21:12:19.000Z","image":"https://nationalabortionfederation.org/wp-content/uploads/open-graph-image.jpg","source":"National Abortion Federation","sourceUrl":"https://prochoice.org/national-abortion-federation-statement-on-fda-review-of-mifepristone/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.846Z"},{"id":"4bm1gt","slug":"national-abortion-federation-statement-on-court-ruling-to-defund-planned-parenthood","title":"National Abortion Federation Statement on Court Ruling to “Defund” Planned Parenthood","excerpt":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 12, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com NATIONAL —Yesterday afternoon, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Planned Parenthood, allowing the federal government to block patients from using Medicaid to pay for services at Planned Parenthood he...","content":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com
\n\n\n\nNATIONAL —Yesterday afternoon, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Planned Parenthood, allowing the federal government to block patients from using Medicaid to pay for services at Planned Parenthood health centers. Brittany Fonteno, President & CEO of the National Abortion Federation, released the following statement:
\n\n\n\n“Anti-abortion extremists remain relentless in their attacks on reproductive health care. This decision isn’t just about one provider — it threatens the entire reproductive health care system, and patients seeking essential care will pay the price.
\n\n\n\nWhen Planned Parenthood health centers are forced to close, pressure mounts on other clinics already stretched thin to provide sexual and reproductive health services. This cruel decision will disproportionately impact people of color and people living in rural communities and health care deserts, who will be left with even fewer options and longer wait times to get the care they need. Any additional barriers to care are both unacceptable and dangerous.
\n\n\n\nEveryone deserves access to high-quality, affordable reproductive health care, no matter where they live or how much money they make. These senseless and politically motivated attacks deny people the fundamental right of getting the care they need and deserve.”
\n\n\n\n# # #
\n\n\n\nThe National Abortion Federation is the nation’s largest and leading professional association of abortion providers. NAF represents hundreds of providers and clinics across the country that are on the frontlines of helping people access abortion care. They provide members with trainings, security support, and guidelines for the gold standard of abortion care. NAF also operates the National Abortion Hotline, the largest national, multi-lingual abortion hotline in the U.S, which helps anyone in any state understand their care options, including finding a provider, arranging travel to another state, or funding their care. Twitter . Facebook . Instagram . National Abortion Hotline: 1-800-772-9100.
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\nThe post National Abortion Federation Statement on Court Ruling to “Defund” Planned Parenthood appeared first on National Abortion Federation .
","category":"choice","author":"prochoice","publishDate":"2025-09-12T15:53:30.000Z","image":"https://nationalabortionfederation.org/wp-content/uploads/open-graph-image.jpg","source":"National Abortion Federation","sourceUrl":"https://prochoice.org/national-abortion-federation-statement-on-court-ruling-to-defund-planned-parenthood/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.846Z"},{"id":"fmd7ov","slug":"a-history-the-progestin-implant","title":"A History: The Progestin Implant","excerpt":"This post was written by a previous RHAP employee in January 2013 and updated by Brandy Bautista and Silpa Srinivasulu, MPH in August 2025. Nexplanon is a single-rod contraceptive implant inserted under the skin of the inner, upper arm that releases a progestin hormone to prevent pregnancy.","content":"This post was written by a previous RHAP employee in January 2013 and updated by Brandy Bautista and Silpa Srinivasulu, MPH in August 2025.
\nNexplanon is a single-rod contraceptive implant inserted under the skin of the inner, upper arm that releases a progestin hormone to prevent pregnancy. The implant is a highly effective form of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC); it is over 99% effective in preventing pregnancy: less than 1 in 100 people using the implant for a year get pregnant.1 It is FDA-approved for 3 years, but studies show it can work for up to 5 years.1,2
\nThe long, tumultuous global history of the implant began with Norplant, the first contraceptive implant, in 1966, by scientists Sheldon Segal and Horatio Croxatto at the Population Council.3 They intended to create a contraceptive that combined features of the pill (hormonal control) and IUD (long-lasting) by investigating various synthetic progestins, length, and number of rods.3 The initial trials for the Norplant began in 1975 in Chile, Finland, Denmark, Brazil, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic.4 They determined that implants containing levonorgestrel were the best option in terms of safety and efficacy. This research advanced quickly, and by 1976, there were several studies underway that compared the effects of different synthetic hormones delivered through six contraceptive capsules.3 In 1983, the Finnish pharmaceutical company, Leiras Oy, was licensed by the Population Council to produce Norplant, the contraceptive system made of six silicone capsules containing 216 mg of levonorgestrel, working to prevent pregnancy for up to five years.5 In 1984, the World Health Organization (WHO) evaluated and recommended Norplant worldwide as an “effective and reversible long-term method of fertility regulation.”6,7 It was approved by the US FDA in 1990.8 From 1984 to 2022, the Population Council estimated that 10.5 million sets of Norplant had been distributed across the globe.9
\nNorplant was eventually removed from the US market in 2002 because of issues with insertion and removal.10,11 Patients commonly raised concerns with changes, disruptions, and abnormalities in menstrual bleeding patterns – although the Norplant manufacturer knew and determined this to be an acceptable side effect.4 As such, clinicians were told that these changes were normal and did not adequately respond to their patients’ concerns. When inserting Norplant, patients often reported infection, pain, numbness, and scarring at the insertion site.4 These problems would sometimes contribute to later issues when removing Norplant, causing hospitalization with long operation times of two hours or more for removal. One woman said the experience of removal was, “excruciating…I’d liken [it] to labor, and labor was easier.”4 Other problems with Norplant removal included difficulties in finding a clinician who would agree to remove it, either due to insurance barriers or clinicians intentionally pressuring people to keep it despite complaints of side effects.4 Many who claimed that they were not adequately informed about Norplant side effects prior to insertion sought legal action against the manufacturers through several class action lawsuits. By 1996, about 50,000 people had joined these lawsuits. And in August 1999, the parent company of Wyeth-Ayerst agreed to a cash settlement of $54 million.4
\nPartly because of the issues with the six-rod Norplant, the Population Council developed a newer 2-rod system called Jadelle®/Norplant II. While approved by the FDA in 1996, it was never marketed in the US.11,12 Jadelle is effective at preventing pregnancy for five years and consists of two silicone rods that also release levonorgestrel. Compared to Norplant, Jadelle was preferred by patients and clinicians due to having fewer rods and reduced visibility within the arm.13 Jadelle and Norplant are almost identical when it comes to efficacy, side effects, and duration of use. While Norplant and Jadelle are not available in the US, both are still available outside the US.
\nThe Levoplant®/Sino-Implant (II) is another two-rod implant that contains 75 mg of levonorgestrel with a three-year duration.14 It was designed to imitate Jadelle at a lower cost, making this option ideal for increasing access in resource-limited settings.14 The Sino-Implant (II) was manufactured in China by Shanghai Dahua Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, and received regulatory approval in China in 1994 and in Indonesia in 2002.15 WHO prequalified Sinoplant in June 2017, enabling global procurement agencies to distribute the implant.14,16 While 11 million units have been sold since 1994, the Sino-Implant (II) is not available in the US and is not FDA approved.14,17
\nIn 1998, Implanon was manufactured by Organon USA (a division of Merck), a single-rod implant containing the progestin hormone etonogestrel.18 This single-rod design made it faster and easier to insert and remove compared to previous implant designs. Implanon was approved by the FDA in 2006.8 Implanon suffered from fewer problems than its predecessors, but insertion errors, like placing the implant too deeply, remained.19 These errors also caused the Implanon to migrate in the arm, making it difficult to find.19
\nIn 2010, Organon USA introduced a replacement named Nexplanon, the version available in the US today.8 Nexplanon was designed to address Implanon’s insertion and location issues.8 For example, Nexplanon’s insertion device made it faster, easier, and more accurate. The rod also contains 15 mg of barium sulphate to allow for detection by X-ray,19 if not palpable in the arm. And, the FDA requires clinicians to complete a specialized in-person training from Organon USA in order to offer Nexplanon to patients.8
\nAlthough contraceptive implants have allowed people to control their reproductive lives, there is a darker side to the history of these devices with historical roots in population control, eugenics, and oppression. For example, the Population Council, the organization that spearheaded the development of Norplant, was primarily concerned with controlling reproduction for international population control rather than empowering people to exercise reproductive autonomy.4
\nIn the US, Norplant was part of harmful conversations around using incentives to intentionally and disproportionately control the reproduction of low-income and disadvantaged women. For instance, just two days after Norplant was FDA-approved, an editorial from the Philadelphia Inquirer suggested that incentives and other benefits could be used to encourage women on welfare to use Norplant.4 There was immediate backlash, calling the use of incentives for poor women coercion, leading the Philadelphia Inquirer to publish a formal apology.20 Yet, the idea of using incentives to encourage Norplant use among low-income women gained traction. In Mississippi, the state legislature considered a bill that included a requirement for women with four or more children to use the implant in order to receive public aid.4 Several states also introduced coercive legislation incentivizing the use of Norplant, though none of these measures passed. A judge in California even tried to force a woman convicted of a crime to get the implant in order to receive a reduced prison sentence, another decision that received much backlash and did not come to fruition.4,21
\nToday, the implant is slowly growing in popularity as a contraceptive option. As of 2018, the most recent year with national data, 3.1% of women ages 15-49 use the implant.22 Though it is most common among adolescents, with 16% of 15-19 year-olds using the implant.22 It may be more popular among teens as it is long-lasting, less painful to insert than an IUD, and no pelvic exam is required.23 The future of the implant is ever-changing as Organon USA’s patent on Nexplanon expires in 2027, and other pharmaceutical companies are actively working on developing new designs, including a biodegradable contraceptive implant.8
\nRegardless, barriers to the contraceptive implant still exist. Insertion and removal require in-person clinic visits, which can be difficult to access for people with compounding barriers to accessing health care. Not all clinics offer implants, and some that do may not offer same-day insertion or removal due to high up-front costs of stocking devices and challenges in training staff, managing clinic flow, and scheduling.8 Clinicians may also still seek to encourage patients to maintain the implant despite their wishes for removal.24 The Trump administration is significantly increasing barriers to access by rolling back protections for family planning programs. The 2025 spending bill aims to cut $880 billion from Medicaid and specifically targets Planned Parenthood health centers. An estimated ten million people will lose their health care coverage through this bill.25 And, in a world where reproductive health care is increasingly politicized, persistent misinformation and disinformation about how the implant works and its safety and side effects may influence people’s contraceptive attitudes and decision-making.
\nTo ensure people can exercise true reproductive autonomy and access the contraceptive methods that work best for them, health care professionals must provide person-centered contraceptive counseling and avoid practices that coerce people toward a specific method. Such practices are harmful because they invalidate patients’ experiences, preferences, and their right to freely make decisions about their own reproductive health care.20,26 This has been especially true for patients with marginalized backgrounds, as Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, disabled, and low-income communities have experienced a long history and legacy of sterilization abuse, contraceptive coercion, and medical experimentation. In response, the LARC Statement of Principles was developed by the National Women’s Health Network and SisterSong to center reproductive justice within contraceptive care. These principles include offering appropriate education and counseling for all birth control methods, not just LARC, and supporting patients’ choices when they seek LARC removal.
\nLearn more about the history and legacy of reproductive justice by reading Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts or exploring the following articles on the politics of Norplant and the history and legacy of sterilization. To learn more about contraceptive options, including the implant, check out the resources on our website or the further reading list below.
\n*Many of the studies and reports cited in this post use the term “women” and refer to cis-gender women. The Reproductive Health Access Project recognizes that people of all genders may use contraceptive implants.
\nFurther Reading:
\nThe Long Shadow of Eugenics in America
\nFemale inmates sterilized in California prisons without approval
\nKFF: Contraceptive Implants
\nGuarding Against Coercion While Ensuring Access: A Delicate Balance
\nRace Culture: Recent Perspectives on the History of Eugenics
\nIntroducing Norplant: Politics of Coercion
\nNorplant: A New Contraceptive with the Potential for Abuse
\nMaker of Norplant Offers a Settlement In Suit Over Effects
\nRHAP Resources:
\nYour Birth Control Choices Fact Sheet
\nProgestin Implant Fact Sheet
\nProgestin Implant User Guide
\nIntroduction to LARC (Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives)
\nLARC: Advanced
\nSources:
\n\nHow Effective Is NEXPLANON® (etonogestrel implant) 68 mg Radiopaque? Accessed August 8, 2025. https://www.nexplanon.com/effectiveness/ Ali M, Akin A, Bahamondes L, et al. Extended use up to 5 years of the etonogestrel-releasing subdermal contraceptive implant: comparison to levonorgestrel-releasing subdermal implant. Hum Reprod Oxf Engl . 2016;31(11):2491-2498. doi:10.1093/humrep/dew222 Darney PD. Hormonal implants: contraception for a new century. Am J Obstet Gynecol . 1994;170(5 Pt 2):1536-1543. doi:10.1016/s0002-9378(94)05016-7 Watkins ES. From Breakthrough to Bust: The Brief Life of Norplant, the Contraceptive Implant. J Womens Hist . 2010;22(3):88-111. Norplant – an overview | ScienceDirect Topics. Accessed August 8, 2025. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/norplant The History of Birth Control: Early Methods, Legal Issues, & More. Healthline. June 28, 2021. Accessed August 8, 2025. https://www.healthline.com/health/birth-control/history-of-birth-control Population Council. World Health Organization Evaluates NORPLANT Subdermal Implants as Effective, Reversible, Long-Term Contraceptive. News Release . New York, Population Council: N.p., 1984. Print. Contraceptive Implants. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Published October 2019. https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/fact-sheet/contraceptive-implants/ Brown, George F., Vimala Raghavendran, and Saul Walker. 2007. “Planning for Microbicide Access in Developing Countries: Lessons from the Introduction of Contraceptive Technologies.” International Partnership for Microbicides. Norplant System Levonorgestrel Implants, Counseling Kit. National Museum of American History. Published 2025. Accessed August 14, 2025. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_688315 French V, Darney PD. Implantable Contraception. The Global Library of Women s Medicine . Published online February 5, 2009. doi:10.3843/glowm.10399 Jadelle: Highlights of Prescribing Information . U.S. Food and Drug Administration; 2016. https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2016/020544s010lbl.pdfBrache V, Faundes A, Alvarez F, García AG. Transition from Norplant to Jadelle in a clinic with extensive experience providing contraceptive implants. Contraception . 2006;73(4):364-367. doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2005.10.015 Sino-implant (II). FHI 360. Published March 22, 2024. https://www.fhi360.org/projects/sino-implant-ii/ Steiner MJ, Lopez LM, Grimes DA, et al. Sino-implant (II) – a levonorgestrel-releasing two-rod implant: systematic review of the randomized controlled trials. Contraception . 2010;81(3):197-201. doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2009.10.013 Sino-Implant (II) (levonorgestrel contraceptive implant) prequalified. Who.int. Published June 30, 2017. Accessed August 14, 2025. https://extranet.who.int/prequal/news/sino-implant-ii-levonorgestrel-contraceptive-implant-prequalified Chapter 9 – Implants. fphandbook.org. https://fphandbook.org/chapter-9-implants Darney P, Patel A, Rosen K, Shapiro LS, Kaunitz AM. Safety and efficacy of a single-rod etonogestrel implant (Implanon): results from 11 international clinical trials. Fertil Steril . 2009;91(5):1646-1653. doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2008.02.140 Gynecology R. Difference Between Implanon & Nexplanon? Raleigh Gynecology & Wellness. December 31, 2020. Accessed August 8, 2025. https://gynraleigh.com/what-is-the-difference-between-implanon-and-nexplanon/ Gold RB. Guarding Against Coercion While Ensuring Access: A Delicate Balance. Guttmacher Institute. Published September 8, 2014. https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2014/09/guarding-against-coercion-while-ensuring-access-delicate-balance The Associated Press. Birth Curb Order Is Declared Moot. The New York Times . https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/15/us/birth-curb-order-is-declared-moot.html. Published April 15, 1992. Contraceptive Use in the United States by Method. Guttmacher Institute. Published April 7, 2021. https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/contraceptive-method-use-united-states Gupta AH. Hormonal Implants, A Once Unpopular Birth Control, Surge Among Teens. The New York Times . https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/21/well/live/birth-control-implant-teens.html. Published December 21, 2023. Senderowicz L, Kolenda A. “She told me no, that you cannot change”: Understanding provider refusal to remove contraceptive implants. SSM Qual Res Health . 2022;2:100154. doi:10.1016/j.ssmqr.2022.100154 All the Attacks on Reproductive Freedom Under Trump’s Second Term. Reproductive Freedom for All. Published March 31, 2025. https://reproductivefreedomforall.org/resources/all-the-attacks-on-reproductive-freedom-under-trumps-second-term/ Boydell V, Smith RD, Collaborative (GLC) GL. Hidden in plain sight: A systematic review of coercion and Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptive methods (LARC). PLOS Glob Public Health . 2023;3(8):e0002131. doi:10.1371/journal.pgph.0002131 \n\n\nThe post A History: The Progestin Implant appeared first on Reproductive Health Access Project .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Reproductive Health Access Project","publishDate":"2025-08-14T14:30:22.000Z","image":"http://www.reproductiveaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/History-of-Implant.png","source":"Reproductive Health Access Project","sourceUrl":"https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/2025/08/a-history-the-progestin-implant/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.416Z"},{"id":"t36h02","slug":"trump-administration-plans-to-strip-abortion-access-from-veterans","title":"Trump Administration Plans to Strip Abortion Access from Veterans","excerpt":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 4, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com Statement from Brittany Fonteno, President & CEO of the National Abortion Federation, on Trump administration’s plans to strip abortion access from veterans: Once again, we’re seeing just how far anti-abortion poli...","content":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com
\n\n\n\nStatement from Brittany Fonteno, President & CEO of the National Abortion Federation, on Trump administration’s plans to strip abortion access from veterans:
\n\n\n\nOnce again, we’re seeing just how far anti-abortion politicians are willing to go to control our bodies and strip us of basic health care. The reported plan to deny veterans access to abortion care through the VA isn’t about policy—it’s about cruelty and a deliberate disregard for people who’ve risked their lives in service to others. And it sends a message that their sacrifices don’t even entitle them to basic health care.
\n\n\n\nVeterans deserve our respect, not politically motivated health care bans. Forcing those who have served our country to carry pregnancies against their will is callous and dangerous.
\n\n\n\nLet’s be clear: abortion is essential, time-sensitive medical care. Denying it to veterans—and threatening to overturn existing protections—is part of a broader, calculated agenda to ban abortion nationwide. We cannot let that happen. We will keep fighting for a future where everyone, including those who have served, can access the care they need.
\n\n\n\n# # #
\n\n\n\nNAF remains committed to helping as many people as possible access high-quality and affordable abortion care. Anyone in any state can call the National Abortion Hotline at 1-800-772-9100 to understand their options and get the assistance they need, whether that’s help finding a provider, arranging travel to another state, or funding for their care.
\nThe post Trump Administration Plans to Strip Abortion Access from Veterans appeared first on National Abortion Federation .
","category":"choice","author":"prochoice","publishDate":"2025-08-04T22:44:00.000Z","image":"https://nationalabortionfederation.org/wp-content/uploads/open-graph-image.jpg","source":"National Abortion Federation","sourceUrl":"https://prochoice.org/trump-administration-plans-to-strip-abortion-access-from-veterans/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.846Z"},{"id":"4mcyyj","slug":"house-passes-cruel-reconciliation-bill","title":"House Passes Cruel Reconciliation Bill","excerpt":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 3, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com Statement from NAF President & CEO Brittany Fonteno on how the passing of the reconciliation bill will impact reproductive health access: What is abundantly clear to abortion providers and advocates is that the Trump...","content":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com
\n\n\n\nStatement from NAF President & CEO Brittany Fonteno on how the passing of the reconciliation bill will impact reproductive health access:
\n\n\n\n\nWhat is abundantly clear to abortion providers and advocates is that the Trump administration and its allies have used the reconciliation bill as yet another tactic for achieving their political agenda, rather than addressing the real needs of our communities. By voting to prevent reproductive health care providers like Planned Parenthood and Maine Family Planning from receiving Medicaid reimbursement, lawmakers have chosen to jeopardize the health and lives of low-income patients, people of color, and those in rural areas who rely on these providers for essential care like cancer screenings, STI testing, and contraception. The bill will take away important health care and food assistance from millions through its cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, all while handing tax breaks to the wealthiest and vastly increasing the national debt. It is both cruel and wildly irresponsible.
\n\n\n\nBut know this: we will not back down. NAF will continue to fight on behalf of abortion providers and their patients’ right to care that is accessible and equitable, no matter what political attacks come our way.”
\n \n\n\n\n# # #
\n\n\n\nNAF remains committed to helping as many people as possible access high-quality and affordable abortion care. Anyone in any state can call the National Abortion Hotline at 1-800-772-9100 to understand their options and get the assistance they need, whether that’s help finding a provider, arranging travel to another state, or funding for their care.
\nThe post House Passes Cruel Reconciliation Bill appeared first on National Abortion Federation .
","category":"choice","author":"prochoice","publishDate":"2025-07-03T18:39:36.000Z","image":"https://nationalabortionfederation.org/wp-content/uploads/open-graph-image.jpg","source":"National Abortion Federation","sourceUrl":"https://prochoice.org/house-passes-cruel-reconciliation-bill/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.846Z"},{"id":"hfzna4","slug":"wisconsins-pre-civil-war-ban-invalidated","title":"Wisconsin’s Pre-Civil War Ban Invalidated","excerpt":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 2, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com Statement from Brittany Fonteno, President & CEO of the National Abortion Federation, on Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision to strike down 1849 law: I am heartened by the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision affirming ...","content":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com
\n\n\n\nStatement from Brittany Fonteno, President & CEO of the National Abortion Federation, on Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision to strike down 1849 law:
\n\n\n\n\nI am heartened by the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision affirming that abortion is legal in the state and rejecting the use of an archaic 19th-century statute to strip people of their fundamental rights. This ruling is a critical victory for reproductive freedom and a direct rebuke to those who have sought to manipulate outdated laws in their relentless campaign to ban abortion and control our bodies.
\n\n\n\nThis moment belongs to the tireless advocates, providers, and organizers across Wisconsin, who never stopped fighting to restore access to care and ensure that all people, regardless of income or zip code, can make their own decisions about pregnancy and parenting.
\n\n\n\nWe know this win is not the end of the fight and there are still unnecessary abortion restrictions in Wisconsin. Anti-abortion individuals and groups will continue to look for ways to chip away at our rights, whether in courtrooms, legislatures, or through intimidation–and we will not back down. But today, we celebrate a powerful affirmation of our autonomy and recommit to building a future where abortion is not only legal, but truly accessible to all who need it.
\n \n\n\n\n# # #
\n\n\n\nNAF remains committed to helping as many people as possible access high-quality and affordable abortion care. Anyone in any state can call the National Abortion Hotline at 1-800-772-9100 to understand their options and get the assistance they need, whether that’s help finding a provider, arranging travel to another state, or funding for their care.
\n\n\n\n
\nThe post Wisconsin’s Pre-Civil War Ban Invalidated appeared first on National Abortion Federation .
","category":"choice","author":"prochoice","publishDate":"2025-07-02T14:15:00.000Z","image":"https://nationalabortionfederation.org/wp-content/uploads/open-graph-image.jpg","source":"National Abortion Federation","sourceUrl":"https://prochoice.org/wisconsins-pre-civil-war-ban-invalidated/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.846Z"},{"id":"84v5ev","slug":"in-our-own-voice-responds-to-scotus-decision-to-block-planned-parenthood-from-receiving-medicaid-fun","title":"In Our Own Voice Responds to SCOTUS Decision to Block Planned Parenthood from Receiving Medicaid Funding","excerpt":"In response to today’s Supreme Court’s ruling on Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, In Our Own Voice President and CEO Dr. Regina Davis Moss issued the following statement: The post In Our Own Voice Responds to SCOTUS Decision to Block Planned Parenthood from Receiving Medicaid Funding fir...","content":"NATIONWIDE — In response to today’s Supreme Court’s ruling on Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic , In Our Own Voice President and CEO Dr. Regina Davis Moss issued the following statement:
\n“Today’s harmful decision from the Supreme Court is a direct attack Black women, girls and gender-expansive people who rely on Planned Parenthood for life-saving healthcare services. This case was never about abortion, and now this ruling will have devastating consequences for the millions of Americans who will lose access to reproductive health care. Medicaid funds almost two thirds of Black births, provides coverage for almost a third of Black women, and insures over half of Black girls.
\nWe knew that overturning Roe v. Wade was just the beginning. By removing Planned Parenthood providers from federal programs and going after Medicaid, extremist politicians are executing an insidious agenda to undo decades of progress on Reproductive Justice and strip us of our bodily autonomy. And they won’t stop here — they’re already trying to restrict access to medication abortion, attempting to gut Medicaid by billions of dollars, eliminating federal safety net programs and so much more.
\nIt’s time to be honest about what we are facing: a coordinated effort to undermine the civil rights of our communities. Now is the time to take bold, urgent action to confront these multifaceted attacks — and our new Black Reproductive Justice Policy Agenda provides a policy roadmap and call to action for lawmakers on how to protect and uplift Black women, girls and gender-expansive people. With the Agenda as our guide, In Our Own Voice will continue to mobilize for policies at the national and state levels that serve our communities and advance our collective vision for Reproductive Justice.”
\n###
\nIn Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda is a national-state partnership focused on lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and regional levels in our fight to secure Reproductive Justice for all women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals. Our eight strategic partners are Black Women for Wellness, Black Women’s Health Imperative, New Voices for Reproductive Justice, SisterLove, Inc., SisterReach, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW, The Afiya Center and Women With A Vision.
The post In Our Own Voice Responds to SCOTUS Decision to Block Planned Parenthood from Receiving Medicaid Funding first appeared on In Our Own Voice .
","category":"choice","author":"In Our Own Voice","publishDate":"2025-06-27T03:58:21.000Z","image":"https://blackrj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/policy-ioov-logo-a.png","source":"National Black Women's RJ Agenda","sourceUrl":"https://blackrj.org/in-our-own-voice-responds-to-scotus-decision-to-block-planned-parenthood-from-receiving-medicaid-funding/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.538Z"},{"id":"hs8zvz","slug":"supreme-court-rejects-planned-parenthood8217s-challenge-to-south-carolina-restriction","title":"Supreme Court Rejects Planned Parenthood's Challenge to South Carolina Restriction","excerpt":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 26, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com Statement from NAF President & CEO Brittany Fonteno on Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic: Low-income and uninsured people in South Carolina already face disproportionate barriers to accessing health care a...","content":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com
\n\n\n\nStatement from NAF President & CEO Brittany Fonteno on Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic :
\n\n\n\n\nLow-income and uninsured people in South Carolina already face disproportionate barriers to accessing health care as a result of abortion bans and systemic racism. These are the people who will most acutely feel the impact of today’s Supreme Court decision, in which the Court ruled that Medicaid beneficiaries do not have a legal right to challenge the exclusion of Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid program. The exclusion will put our member clinics from Planned Parenthood South Atlantic in an impossible position when patients who need—and deserve access to—critical care cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket.
\n\n\n\nThis is yet another cruel backdoor tactic to ban abortion. These kinds of restrictions only further complicate an already confusing and hostile abortion access landscape, create even wider access gaps for communities, and compromise the integrity of provider-patient relationships.
\n\n\n\nWe won’t back down. NAF will continue to serve as a support system for our members, and we will do everything within our power to ensure our providers in South Carolina have the resources they need to provide quality, evidence-based abortion care to their communities.
\n \n\n\n\n# # #
\n\n\n\nNAF remains committed to helping as many people as possible access high-quality and affordable abortion care. Anyone in any state can call the National Abortion Hotline at 1-800-772-9100 to understand their options and get the assistance they need, whether that’s help finding a provider, arranging travel to another state, or funding for their care.
\nThe post Supreme Court Rejects Planned Parenthood’s Challenge to South Carolina Restriction appeared first on National Abortion Federation .
","category":"choice","author":"prochoice","publishDate":"2025-06-26T17:36:14.000Z","image":"https://nationalabortionfederation.org/wp-content/uploads/open-graph-image.jpg","source":"National Abortion Federation","sourceUrl":"https://prochoice.org/supreme-court-rejects-planned-parenthoods-challenge-to-south-carolina-restriction/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.846Z"},{"id":"2x21o5","slug":"supreme-court-upholds-state-ban-on-gender-affirming-care-for-young-people","title":"Supreme Court Upholds State Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Young People","excerpt":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 18, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com This morning, the Supreme Court delivered an opinion in U.S. v. Skrmetti—a landmark case about whether families with transgender kids can access essential gender-affirming health care, or ...","content":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com
\n\n\n\nThis morning, the Supreme Court delivered an opinion in U.S. v. Skrmetti
\n\n\n\nBrittany Fonteno, Chief Executive Officer at the National Abortion Federation (NAF), issued the following statement in response :
\n\n\n\n\n“Today, the Supreme Court yet again failed to protect people’s privacy, bodily autonomy, and freedom by allowing politicians to target transgender youth’s health care. Very often, the same clinics offering abortion care are the ones providing gender-affirming care, including many NAF member clinics. Just like abortion bans, these politically-driven bans on essential health care are a threat to people’s well-being and are not informed by medical expertise. NAF stands in solidarity with the transgender community and allies in the fight for access to health care and bodily autonomy.
\n\n\n\n“Ideologically, this Supreme Court is nearly identical to the one that overturned Roe v. Wade nearly three years ago with the Dobbs decision, making way for harmful state abortion bans to take effect across the country. NAF is committed to providing our members with the resources and training to serve diverse populations of people across the country with high-quality care.”
\n \n\n\n\nNAF remains committed to helping as many people as possible access high-quality and affordable abortion care. Anyone in any state can call the National Abortion Hotline at 1-800-772-9100 to understand their options and get the assistance they need, whether that’s help finding a provider, arranging travel to another state, or funding for their care.
\nThe post Supreme Court Upholds State Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Young People appeared first on National Abortion Federation .
","category":"choice","author":"prochoice","publishDate":"2025-06-18T22:44:14.000Z","image":"https://nationalabortionfederation.org/wp-content/uploads/open-graph-image.jpg","source":"National Abortion Federation","sourceUrl":"https://prochoice.org/supreme-court-upholds-state-ban-on-gender-affirming-care-for-young-people/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.846Z"},{"id":"m9oc24","slug":"minnesota-shooting-suspect-had-target-list-of-abortion-providers","title":"Minnesota Shooting Suspect had Target List of Abortion Providers","excerpt":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 14, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com Statement from NAF Chief Program Officer Melissa Fowler: \"We are beyond devastated by the murders of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband and the violent attacks on Minnesota State Senator John...","content":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com
\n\n\n\nStatement from NAF Chief Program Officer Melissa Fowler:
\n\n\n\n\n“We are beyond devastated by the murders of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband and the violent attacks on Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife. It is clear that these were politically motivated attacks—police found the suspect’s list of over 70 targets, which include a number of abortion providers and pro-abortion advocates. This is a horrific tragedy. No public servant, medical professional, or any individual should have to live in fear of violence.”
\n\n\n\n“NAF has been tracking incidents of violence and disruption against abortion providers for 45 years, and this targeting of providers is unfortunately not new. The harassment and violence targeting physicians, nurses, clinic staff, and the people they care for is yet another form of hate and fear-mongering inflicted by white supremacists and far-right extremists.
\n\n\n\n“Despite these attacks, just this past week, anti-abortion lawmakers in the House Judiciary Committee voted to advance a repeal of the FACE Act—a critical piece of legislation that has been effective at keeping abortion providers and their patients safer since 1994, after abortion provider Dr. David Gunn was fatally shot in Florida in 1993. This legislative action follows the Trump administration’s announcement in January that it would no longer be enforcing the FACE Act and going so far as to pardon individuals who were convicted of FACE Act violations. Since then, NAF has already heard from providers who are seeing an increase in harassment and violence at their clinics, as extremists start to test what they can get away with.
\n\n\n\n“NAF is working with our members in Minnesota to provide additional security support while the suspect is still at large. NAF will do everything within our power to ensure abortion providers have the resources, trainings, and security support so that they can continue to provide quality, evidence-based abortion care to their communities.”
\n \nThe post Minnesota Shooting Suspect had Target List of Abortion Providers appeared first on National Abortion Federation .
","category":"choice","author":"prochoice","publishDate":"2025-06-14T20:07:52.000Z","image":"https://nationalabortionfederation.org/wp-content/uploads/open-graph-image.jpg","source":"National Abortion Federation","sourceUrl":"https://prochoice.org/minnesota-shooting-suspect-had-target-list-of-abortion-providers/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.846Z"},{"id":"v2kl7y","slug":"naf-coo-veronica-jones-named-a-winner-of-chiefs-the-new-era-of-leadership-awards","title":"NAF COO Veronica Jones Named a Winner of Chief’s The New Era of Leadership Awards","excerpt":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 11, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com NAF COO Veronica Jones Named a Winner of Chief’s The New Era of Leadership Awards Now in their second year, The New Era of Leadership Awards recognize and celebrate executive women shaping the future of busin...","content":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com
\n\n\n\nNAF COO Veronica Jones Named a Winner of Chief’s The New Era of Leadership Awards
\n\n\n\nNow in their second year, The New Era of Leadership Awards recognize and celebrate executive women shaping the future of business
\n\n\n\nJune 11, 2025—Today, Chief , the most powerful network of senior executive women, revealed the winners of its second-annual The New Era of Leadership Awards , recognizing NAF’s Chief Operating Officer Veronica Jones as one of 100 exceptional executive women who are redefining what it means to lead.
\n\n\n\n“It’s an honor to be named among so many women who are breaking barriers and shaping the future,” said Veronica Jones. “I’m incredibly fortunate to collaborate with the dedicated team at the National Abortion Hotline. Every day, they champion abortion access for anyone who needs it, regardless of location or income.”
\n\n\n\nVeronica was selected by an esteemed panel of judges, including executives from Morgan Stanley, Squarespace, The Walt Disney Company, National Geographic, Axios, Tripadvisor, Etsy, and more. The judges evaluated each nomination based on the following qualities:
\n\n\n\n\nInnovation : Demonstrating disruptive thinking to drive impactEmpathy: Approaching leadership with a focus on inclusionCreativity: Reimagining traditional practices with original solutionsPurpose: Influencing their industries, teams, or communities positivelyResilience: Navigating adversity or uncertainty successfully \n\n\n\n“The New Era of Leadership honors the trailblazing women who are redefining what it means to lead—driving transformation, breaking barriers, and shaping the future of business,” said Alison Moore, CEO of Chief. “We are thrilled to recognize another 100 exceptional executives and 25 standout honorees in the second year of these awards—a reflection of the powerful impact women are making across industries every day.”
\n\n\n\nTo read more about the significant accomplishments that contributed to Veronica’s recognition, visit Veronica Jones – The New Era of Leadership .
\n\n\n\nAbout The National Abortion Hotline
\n\n\n\nThe National Abortion Hotline is the largest national, toll-free, multi-lingual Hotline for abortion provider information and financial assistance in the U.S. and Canada. We provide callers with accurate information, confidential consultation, and information on providers of quality abortion care. We also provide case management services and limited financial assistance to help you afford the cost of your care and travel-related expenses. Anyone in any state can call the National Abortion Hotline at 1-800-772-9100 to understand their options and get the assistance they need, whether that’s help finding a provider, arranging travel to another state, or funding for their care.
\n\n\n\nAbout Chief
\n\n\n\nChief is the most powerful network of senior executive women. Our members represent senior leaders from more than 10,000 organizations across every sector. In our vibrant community, they find the connection, insights, and support they need to maximize their impact. Learn more at chief.com .
\nThe post NAF COO Veronica Jones Named a Winner of Chief’s The New Era of Leadership Awards appeared first on National Abortion Federation .
","category":"empowerment","author":"prochoice","publishDate":"2025-06-11T22:32:40.000Z","image":"https://nationalabortionfederation.org/wp-content/uploads/open-graph-image.jpg","source":"National Abortion Federation","sourceUrl":"https://prochoice.org/naf-coo-veronica-jones-named-a-winner-of-chiefs-the-new-era-of-leadership-awards/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.846Z"},{"id":"nh4qs4","slug":"house-advances-bill-to-repeal-face-act","title":"House Advances Bill to Repeal FACE Act","excerpt":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 10, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act is a federal law enacted in 1994 in response to escalating violence targeting abortion providers, including large-scale blockades and the murder of NAF member Dr.","content":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, naf@berlinrosen.com
\n\n\n\nThe Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act is a federal law enacted in 1994 in response to escalating violence targeting abortion providers, including large-scale blockades and the murder of NAF member Dr. David Gunn in 1993. The legislation imposes federal penalties for using force, threat of force, or physical obstruction to block the provision of, or access to, abortion care. After the FACE Act was signed into law, anti-abortion violence dropped by 30%, and there was an increase in convictions against anti-abortion extremists.
\n\n\n\nToday, the House Judiciary Committee marked up anti-abortion lawmaker Chip Roy’s FACE Act Repeal Act of 2025 and voted to advance the bill.
\n\n\n\nJulie Gonen, Chief Legal Officer at the National Abortion Federation (NAF), issued the following statement in response :
\n\n\n\n\nNAF has been tracking anti-abortion violence since 1977, and we know this for certain: when the FACE Act is being enforced, it is an effective and important tool to keep abortion providers and their patients safe. It is unconscionable to see anti-abortion legislators trying to repeal a law that has been keeping people safe for decades.
\n\n\n\nIn January, the Trump administration announced it would no longer be enforcing the FACE Act and went so far as to pardon individuals who were convicted of FACE Act violations. Since then, NAF has already heard from providers that they are seeing an increase in violence at their clinics, as extremists start to test what they can get away with.
\n\n\n\nNAF provides a number of critical security resources to our members, including advocating on their behalf, conducting on-site security assessments and trainings, running security drills, and helping others understand the persistent and terrifying violence and harassment that abortion providers and their patients confront. Abortion is essential health care, which every individual should be able to access without harassment or intimidation by outsiders.
\n \n\n\n\n# # #
\n\n\n\nNAF remains committed to helping as many people as possible access high-quality and affordable abortion care. Anyone in any state can call the National Abortion Hotline at 1-800-772-9100 to understand their options and get the assistance they need, whether that’s help finding a provider, arranging travel to another state, or funding for their care.
\nThe post House Advances Bill to Repeal FACE Act appeared first on National Abortion Federation .
","category":"choice","author":"prochoice","publishDate":"2025-06-10T19:28:51.000Z","image":"https://nationalabortionfederation.org/wp-content/uploads/open-graph-image.jpg","source":"National Abortion Federation","sourceUrl":"https://prochoice.org/house-advances-bill-to-repeal-face-act/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:32.846Z"},{"id":"sqn2if","slug":"in-our-own-voice-responds-to-trumps-2026-budget-proposal","title":"In Our Own Voice Responds to Trump’s 2026 Budget Proposal","excerpt":"The proposed budget will eliminate critical federal safety net programs, slash funding for health agencies. The post In Our Own Voice Responds to Trump’s 2026 Budget Proposal first appeared on In Our Own Voice .","content":"
\nThe proposed budget will eliminate critical federal safety net programs, slash funding for health agencies \n
\nNATIONWIDE — In response to the Trump administration’s proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year, In Our Own Voice President and CEO Dr. Regina Davis Moss issued the following statement:
\n“Trump’s draconian budget proposal demonstrates how far this administration is willing to go in order to pass tax cuts for the wealthy and undo decades of hard-fought progress. By slashing critical safety net programs like Head Start, Trump is sending a clear message that his dangerous agenda will come at the expense of the health and safety of our communities. It’s time we call it what it is— this budget proposal is the latest tactic to destabilize the federal government and upend our democratic systems to pave the way for Project 2025 and an authoritarian regime that gives his administration unmitigated control.
\nDuring a time when many families are struggling to make ends meet due to rising costs, it is unconscionable that Trump wants to drastically cut resources that would help our communities survive the untenable economy his future tariffs will undoubtedly put us in. Not only does he plan to eliminate federal poverty and housing assistance programs, but his recommended cuts to the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Health and Human Services will have devastating impacts on reproductive health care. Trump is pushing for women to have more children while simultaneously eliminating the programs that help us start our families safely by gutting the agencies that oversee research for maternal health, child care, IVF and more.
\nIn Our Own Voice will continue to work with our allies in Congress in order to reject this budget proposal and fight back against the attacks on our democracy. We must prioritize policy solutions rooted in Reproductive Justice that uplift our communities, expand access to health care, improve economic mobility and protect our bodily autonomy.”
\n###
\nIn Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda is a national-state partnership focused on lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and regional levels in our fight to secure Reproductive Justice for all women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals. Our eight strategic partners are Black Women for Wellness, Black Women’s Health Imperative, New Voices for Reproductive Justice, SisterLove, Inc. SisterReach, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW, The Afiya Center and Women With A Vision.
The post In Our Own Voice Responds to Trump’s 2026 Budget Proposal first appeared on In Our Own Voice .
","category":"choice","author":"In Our Own Voice","publishDate":"2025-05-02T22:08:15.000Z","image":"https://blackrj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/policy-ioov-logo-a.png","source":"National Black Women's RJ Agenda","sourceUrl":"https://blackrj.org/in-our-own-voice-responds-to-trumps-2026-budget-proposal/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.538Z"},{"id":"q1kxgz","slug":"in-our-own-voice-responds-to-the-trump-administrations-latest-attacks-on-abortion","title":"In Our Own Voice Responds to the Trump Administration’s Latest Attacks on Abortion","excerpt":"NATIONWIDE — In response to the Trump administration dismissing the Idaho emergency abortion lawsuit and backing South Carolina’s case to block Medicaid funding for medical services at Planned Parenthood, Dr.","content":"NATIONWIDE — In response to the Trump administration dismissing the Idaho emergency abortion lawsuit and backing South Carolina’s case to block Medicaid funding for medical services at Planned Parenthood, Dr. Regina Davis Moss, President and CEO of In Our Own Voice and In Our Own Voice Action Fund, released the below statement:
\n\n
“The Trump administration continuously proves they do not care about our health and safety. On the same day they dropped the EMTALA case, they joined the South Carolina case to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funding for any reproductive health services. These decisions, in addition to Trump’s anti-abortion nominees leading federal health agencies, are laying the groundwork to enact the dangerous policies in Project 2025 that will further restrict lifesaving reproductive health care.
\n
It is not an overstatement to say that this administration’s attacks on our bodily autonomy are a matter of life or death. When Black women are three times more likely to die due to pregnancy-related complications than their white counterparts, attempts to block pregnant people from accessing critical medical services proves that this administration does not care about the lives of Black women, girls and gender-expansive people.
\n
Reproductive Justice advocates have long warned about the dangers of Project 2025, and now we are witnessing it unfold. No matter what this administration throws at us, we are prepared to work with our partners and allied lawmakers until we have the right to make decisions about our bodies. Our lives are on the line.”\n
###
\nIn Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda is a national-state partnership focused on lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and regional levels in our fight to secure Reproductive Justice for all women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals. Our eight strategic partners are Black Women for Wellness, Black Women’s Health Imperative, New Voices for Reproductive Justice, SisterLove, Inc. SisterReach, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW, The Afiya Center and Women With A Vision.
The post In Our Own Voice Responds to the Trump Administration’s Latest Attacks on Abortion first appeared on In Our Own Voice .
","category":"choice","author":"In Our Own Voice","publishDate":"2025-03-05T21:21:40.000Z","image":"https://blackrj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/policy-ioov-logo-a.png","source":"National Black Women's RJ Agenda","sourceUrl":"https://blackrj.org/in-our-own-voice-responds-to-the-trump-administrations-latest-attacks-on-abortion/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.538Z"},{"id":"6w3dlh","slug":"in-our-own-voice-responds-to-president-trumps-joint-address-to-congress","title":"In Our Own Voice Responds to President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress","excerpt":"NATIONWIDE — In response to President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress, Dr. Regina Davis Moss, President and CEO of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda and In Our Own Voice Action Fund issued the following statement: “Yesterday evening, President Trump addressed the...","content":"NATIONWIDE — In response to President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress, Dr. Regina Davis Moss, President and CEO of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda and In Our Own Voice Action Fund issued the following statement:
\n\n
“Yesterday evening, President Trump addressed the nation to brag about the chaos and cruelty that have defined the first month of his presidency. He took credit for tearing apart immigrant families and eliminating critical environmental protections. He lauded Elon Musk’s work slashing the federal budget at the expense of Americans living on low income and the protection of global public health. He celebrated ending diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that made our government and workforce stronger. President Trump has implemented the most dangerous of his campaign promises and he just took a victory lap.
\n
Black women, girls and gender-expansive people tried to sound the alarm on what a second Trump administration would look like because we knew these actions would disproportionately affect us. Now that the second term is here, we know we were right. We are the ones more likely to be impacted by Medicaid cuts, bans on gender affirming care, removal of discrimination protections and future attacks on abortion access.
\n
In Our Own Voice and our partners are prepared to mobilize for policies that protect and serve our communities. There are tangible wins we can achieve and we will not give up. State by state we are already fighting for bills that address the Black maternal health crisis, improve economic mobility, expand access to health care and address climate change. We will double down our efforts until we achieve Reproductive Justice that protects our bodily autonomy and ensures we have the right to make decisions about our lives.”\n
###
\nIn Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda is a national-state partnership focused on lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and regional levels in our fight to secure Reproductive Justice for all women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals. Our eight strategic partners are Black Women for Wellness, Black Women’s Health Imperative, New Voices for Reproductive Justice, SisterLove, Inc. SisterReach, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW, The Afiya Center and Women With A Vision.
The post In Our Own Voice Responds to President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress first appeared on In Our Own Voice .
","category":"choice","author":"In Our Own Voice","publishDate":"2025-03-05T16:47:56.000Z","image":"https://blackrj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/policy-ioov-logo-a.png","source":"National Black Women's RJ Agenda","sourceUrl":"https://blackrj.org/in-our-own-voice-responds-to-president-trumps-joint-address-to-congress/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.538Z"},{"id":"bga0ns","slug":"millions-of-lives-at-risk-as-us-government-terminates-pathfinders-funding","title":"Millions of Lives at Risk as US Government Terminates Pathfinder’s Funding","excerpt":"On February 26, Pathfinder International received termination notifications from the US government related to all six of our prime USAID...","content":"On February 26, Pathfinder International received termination notifications from the US government related to all six of our prime USAID awards. This news is devastating—millions of people around the world will lose access to essential services, putting their lives at risk.
\n\n\n\nOur six impacted programs provided lifesaving support to millions of people in Burkina Faso, Egypt, Mozambique, Pakistan, and Uganda, improving health and well-being, advancing gender equality, strengthening health systems, and saving lives. Cumulatively, in just one year
\n\n\n\n\nAverted 923,557 unintended pregnancies and provided 2,318,709 family planning consultations, ensuring young women the freedom of choice—to finish their education, achieve financial autonomy, pursue a career, and chart their own paths to a healthy future. \n\n\n\nAverted 276,322 unsafe abortions—a leading cause of death among young women in low-income countries. \n\n\n\nAssisted with 175,539 safe deliveries at health facilities, alleviating women from having to put their lives on the line to give birth. \n\n\n\nProvided over a half a million children with lifesaving care like vaccines and treatment for pneumonia and diarrhea, ensuring a brighter future for each child \n \n\n\n\nDespite this significant setback, we remain resolved to deliver on our mission. Now, more than ever, we must mobilize, deepening our support to governments and local partners who rely on us to ensure communities—especially on the frontlines of instability and crisis—become healthier, stronger, and more secure.
\n\n\n\n“Across the world, we are seeing increased instability—protracted conflicts within and across borders, mass migration, climate-induced natural disasters and health emergencies, and the spread of infectious diseases. This is coupled with attacks on the rights of women and other marginalized communities,” said Dr. Tabinda Sarosh, Pathfinder’s CEO. “Pathfinder’s work is more important than ever, and the people and partners who relied on us yesterday are still relying on us today. We must keep working by their side. We must march ahead.”
\n\n\n\n
","category":"global","author":"Sarah Peck","publishDate":"2025-02-28T13:20:55.000Z","image":"https://www.pathfinder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Pathfinder_Logo_Image.jpg","source":"Pathfinder International","sourceUrl":"https://www.pathfinder.org/news/millions-of-lives-at-risk-as-us-government-terminates-pathfinders-funding/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:35.068Z"},{"id":"i05og3","slug":"in-our-own-voice-responds-to-confirmation-of-robert-f-kennedy-jr-to-department-of-health-and-human-s","title":"In Our Own Voice Responds to Confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Department of Health and Human Services","excerpt":"NATIONWIDE — In response to the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the Department of Health and Human Services, In Our Own Voice President and CEO Regina Davis Moss released the below statement: “The Senate’s confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.","content":"NATIONWIDE — In response to the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the Department of Health and Human Services, In Our Own Voice President and CEO Regina Davis Moss released the below statement:
\n“The Senate’s confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HSS) is deeply troubling for the future of public health. Kennedy made it clear that he will blindly execute the agenda of President Trump, regardless of medical science or his own beliefs. Kennedy’s decision to abandon his previously-held stances on reproductive health in exchange for political power proves that he is not a leader, but someone who is wholly unfit to serve this country. Not only is he anti-choice, but he knowingly spreads misinformation about vaccines and ignores legitimate research that proves medication abortion is safe and effective. And when asked whether every patient deserves the right to emergency medical care, even pregnant patients, Kennedy stated plainly that he ‘does not know.’ Kennedy now oversees major agencies, like the Food and Drug Administration and Center for Disease Control — two critical players in keeping our communities informed and safe. We deserve better.
\nAs President Trump’s cabinet continues to get confirmed, we cannot lose hope and must dig in our heels. The harmful policies outlined in Project 2025 –which are now being realized–will put Black women, girls and gender-expansive people at even greater risk. Our movement must come together to overcome extreme obstacles and fight for our bodily autonomy and human rights. In Our Own Voice and our partners will continue to mobilize in our communities for policies that will improve our health, like affordable housing, removing barriers to health care and fighting climate change.”
In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda is a national-state partnership focused on lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and regional levels in our fight to secure Reproductive Justice for all women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals. Our eight strategic partners are Black Women for Wellness, Black Women’s Health Imperative, New Voices for Reproductive Justice, SisterLove, Inc. SisterReach, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW, The Afiya Center and Women With A Vision.
The post In Our Own Voice Responds to Confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Department of Health and Human Services first appeared on In Our Own Voice .
","category":"choice","author":"In Our Own Voice","publishDate":"2025-02-14T05:49:03.000Z","image":"https://blackrj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/policy-ioov-logo-a.png","source":"National Black Women's RJ Agenda","sourceUrl":"https://blackrj.org/in-our-own-voice-responds-to-confirmation-of-robert-f-kennedy-jr/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.538Z"},{"id":"kbivka","slug":"pathfinder-names-dr-tabinda-sarosh-as-chief-executive-officer","title":"Pathfinder Names Dr. Tabinda Sarosh as Chief Executive Officer","excerpt":"February 12, 2025—Pathfinder International has named Dr. Tabinda Sarosh as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). A bold and visionary leader, Dr....","content":"
\n\n\n\n\n
February 12, 2025 —Pathfinder International has named Dr. Tabinda Sarosh as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). A bold and visionary leader, Dr. Sarosh has spent nearly a decade driving impact at Pathfinder, most recently as Interim CEO.
\n\n\n\n
Prior to serving as Interim CEO, Dr. Sarosh was the organization’s Country Director in Pakistan from 2016-2022, and President of the South Asia, Middle East, and North Africa regions from 2022-2024.
\n\n\n\n
Dr. Sarosh takes the helm at a critical time for global health and development, reaffirming Pathfinder’s mission to expand access to essential services and strengthen the resilience of communities worldwide.
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\n
\n“For more than 70 years, Pathfinder has been essential to ensuring women, girls, and marginalized communities can access sexual and reproductive health care,” said Dr. Sarosh. “Sexual and reproductive health programs and strong health systems that can deliver in times of instability and crisis are more important than ever. I am deeply committed to Pathfinder’s mission and honored to lead the organization at this critical time.”
\n \n\n\n\n\n
Dr. Sarosh has more than two decades of experience as a leader, clinician, and advocate in the development and humanitarian sectors. She is a clinically trained, seasoned public health practitioner, with multi-faceted experience leading sexual and reproductive health and rights programs and research. She brings exceptional strategic insight and a deep commitment to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights and women’s rights.
\n\n\n\n
“Tabinda is exactly the type of leader we need right now,” said Collin Mothupi, Pathfinder’s Board Chair. “Her ability to navigate complexity, work across diverse governments, and drive forward solutions for women and girls makes her the right choice to lead us into the future.”
\n\n\n\n
Dr. Sarosh earned a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery and a post-graduate degree in nutrition from Dow Medical College in Pakistan, allowing her to apply her clinical knowledge of reproductive health to develop public health and advocacy programs.
\n\n\n\n
“At a time of great upheaval and disruption in aid for women’s health and development, we must continue to find ways to work together as a sector and ensure governments and civil society organizations can provide essential services to communities in need,” said Dr. Sarosh.
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
###
\n\n\n\n
Pathfinder expands access to sexual and reproductive health services, opening the door to opportunities for women and all individuals to thrive—economically, educationally, and civically. Driven by our country-led leadership and local community partners, Pathfinder brings together a suite of services and programs that enable millions of people to choose their own paths forward.
\n\n\n\n
Contact: Laurel Lundstrom, llundstrom@pathfinder.org
\n\n\n\n
\n
January 29, 2025— On this day, and every day, we affirm our commitment to the communities we serve. Our work at Pathfinder is not charity, it’s not politics, it’s not optional. Our work is a vital investment in the future. Governments and local partners rely on our work that helps millions of women, girls, and entire communities become healthier, stronger, and more secure. To build sustainable health systems and deliver babies safely, to strengthen local economies and plant flood-resistant crops, to keep girls in school and prevent cervical cancer. The work Pathfinders do in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East is essential. It makes the world safer and more prosperous. And we all benefit.
\n\n\n\nWith so much at stake, this moment of unprecedented change and strife will have long-lasting impacts and setbacks. Amid all this uncertainty, there is one thing we know for sure: the people and partners who relied on us yesterday, are still relying on us today. We will keep working by their side, we will keep going.
","category":"global","author":"Madeline Halperin-Robinson","publishDate":"2025-01-29T17:48:59.000Z","image":"https://www.pathfinder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Pathfinder_Logo_Image.jpg","source":"Pathfinder International","sourceUrl":"https://www.pathfinder.org/news/standing-with-the-communities-we-serve/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:35.068Z"},{"id":"hsh3f2","slug":"pathfinder-international-mourns-passing-of-judy-kahrl","title":"Pathfinder International Mourns Passing of Judy Kahrl","excerpt":"January 13, 2025—Pathfinder International mourns the passing of Julia (Judy) Kahrl, who served as a reproductive rights advocate throughout her...","content":"January 13, 2025— Pathfinder International mourns the passing of Julia (Judy) Kahrl, who served as a reproductive rights advocate throughout her life. Judy was a longtime supporter of the organization and served on Pathfinder’s Board of Directors from 1957 to 2021.
\n\n\n\nAs a Board member, Judy visited our programs in Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Peru, Mozambique, India, and Vietnam. Her conservation interests led her to see the interrelationship of reproductive health and the environment, an idea that contributed to Pathfinder’s adoption of population, health, and environment programming.
\n\n\n\nOutside of Pathfinder, Judy founded Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights, a national US-based advocacy group engaging older women in reproductive health philanthropy and activism. She graduated from Radcliffe College and earned her PhD in adult education at Ohio State University.
\n\n\n\n“We remember Judy’s outstanding contributions to Pathfinder’s growth as an organization that advances reproductive rights and choice around the world,” said Collin Mothupi, Pathfinder’s Board Chair. “She was a fierce advocate for women’s access to contraception and reproductive health services in the US and the countries where Pathfinder works. We remain forever grateful for her service.”
\n\n\n\nJudy once said, “I see a world where every woman who wants contraception has it…where every family lives a healthy life in harmony with their environment.” These words reflect the ethos of Pathfinder’s work.
\n\n\n\n
","category":"global","author":"Laurel Lundstrom","publishDate":"2025-01-13T18:37:01.000Z","image":"https://www.pathfinder.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/72_DPI-Judy-Kahrl-14-1024x858.jpg","source":"Pathfinder International","sourceUrl":"https://www.pathfinder.org/news/pathfinder-international-mourns-passing-of-judy-kahrl/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:35.068Z"},{"id":"vq9mk7","slug":"no-matter-whats-next-rhap-remains-committed","title":"No matter What’s Next, RHAP Remains Committed","excerpt":"To our RHAP community, Today is a difficult day for all of us as we grieve, rage, and begin to process the re-election of Donald Trump to the Presidency and the potential return of an anti-abortion Congress.","content":"To our RHAP community,
\nToday is a difficult day for all of us as we grieve, rage, and begin to process the re-election of Donald Trump to the Presidency and the potential return of an anti-abortion Congress. We won’t lie: the results of this election pose an unprecedented threat to our reproductive freedom, health, and future, and will impact us all. It’s critical that we all give ourselves the grace to sit with our emotions and show up in whatever ways we can, and to remember that the fight for reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy has always been an uphill battle. If history has taught us anything, it’s that the people who make up this movement are resilient, brave, creative, and dedicated to justice. We will continue to seek inspiration and motivation from our communities – people like you – in the days and months to come.
\nAbortion played a historic role in this election. Last night, voters in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and New York passed measures that either restore, expand, or further protect abortion access in those states. While the ballot measures in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota did not pass, people showed up for abortion at the polls in huge numbers. In this moment of uncertainty, we take comfort in knowing that millions took action and voted in favor of protecting and expanding bodily autonomy, even across party lines. Voters sent a clear message to politicians: abortion is the will of the people and we will hold our elected officials – including the incoming President and Vice President – accountable to their campaign promises.
\nAs we start to put our feelings into action, this is our promise to you: RHAP’s work to ensure equitable access to sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion, isn’t going anywhere. We remain committed to supporting our clinicians and abortion seekers across the nation as they continue to provide and access sexual and reproductive health care, no matter where they live and work.
\nIn solidarity,
\n
\nThe Reproductive Health Access Project team
\nThe post No matter What’s Next, RHAP Remains Committed appeared first on Reproductive Health Access Project .
","category":"choice","author":"Ruth Leal","publishDate":"2024-11-06T21:57:56.000Z","image":"https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/email-banner-logo-rhap.jpg","source":"Reproductive Health Access Project","sourceUrl":"https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/2024/11/post-election-statement-2024/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.416Z"},{"id":"kjoio8","slug":"pathfinder-international-board-announces-departure-of-ceo-lois-quam-appointment-of-tabinda-sarosh-as","title":"Pathfinder International Board Announces Departure of CEO Lois Quam, Appointment of Tabinda Sarosh as Interim CEO","excerpt":"Media Contact: Laurel Lundstrom, llundstrom@pathfinder.org Washington, DC, May 13, 2024—The Board of Directors of Pathfinder International today announced that Lois...","content":"Media Contact: Laurel Lundstrom, llundstrom@pathfinder.org
\n\n\n\nWashington, DC, May 13, 2024 —The Board of Directors of Pathfinder International today announced that Lois Quam, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Pathfinder, has taken a new position in the domestic US healthcare delivery marketplace and will be leaving Pathfinder. Tabinda Sarosh, the current Pathfinder President for South Asia, Middle East, and North Africa, will assume the CEO role on an interim basis.
\n\n\n\n“On behalf of the Board of Directors, I want to thank Lois for her strong leadership as Pathfinder charted a new course as a country-focused organization to better meet the needs of the women and girls we serve in countries around the world,” said Collin Mothupi, Board Chair of Pathfinder. “We are blessed with remarkable leaders at Pathfinder, and we extend a warm welcome to Tabinda Sarosh as our interim leader. Tabinda brings continuity to Pathfinder’s country-led trajectory. We have great confidence in her and thank her for assuming overall leadership responsibilities during this time of transition.”
\n\n\n\nThe Board established succession planning several years ago as part of its good governance agenda. To that end, a Search Committee is already in place and is moving ahead quickly to begin a search for a new CEO. As a result of its established succession planning, the Board is very confident that the transition will be smooth and provide the continuity necessary for the organization to remain focused on the strategic shift to a country-led, locally focused organization.
\n\n\n\n“It has been an honor and privilege to work at Pathfinder,” said Quam. ”We have a great global workforce doing remarkable work for women and girls and the communities where they live and work. I will do everything possible to help Tabinda during this transition. She is a great leader.”
\n\n\n\nIncoming interim CEO Sarosh said that, “As one of the regional presidents of Pathfinder, it has been absolutely thrilling to be part of the growth and transformation of Pathfinder. We are on track as an organization, and I look forward as interim CEO to keeping our momentum going and our organization focused on the people we serve.”
\n\n\n\nSarosh will assume her new duties effective Monday, May 20, 2024.
\n\n\n\n###
\n\n\n\nPathfinder envisions a world where everyone, even in the most challenging environments, has what they need to be healthy, thrive, and live the life they choose. We build lasting and trusted local partnerships to strengthen health systems, forging resilient pathways to sexual and reproductive health and rights for all.
","category":"global","author":"Laurel Lundstrom","publishDate":"2024-05-13T14:04:35.000Z","image":"https://www.pathfinder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Pathfinder_Logo_Image.jpg","source":"Pathfinder International","sourceUrl":"https://www.pathfinder.org/news/pathfinder-international-board-announces-departure-of-ceo-lois-quam-appointment-of-tabinda-sarosh-as-interim-ceo/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:35.068Z"},{"id":"kncbjc","slug":"a-history-the-iud","title":"A History: The IUD","excerpt":"This post was written by Megan Corbett, RN, in January 2013 and updated by Brandy Bautista in March 2024. Today, many intrauterine devices (IUDs), a form of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), are small, T-shaped plastic rods with two arms and a string.","content":"This post was written by Megan Corbett, RN, in January 2013 and updated by Brandy Bautista in March 2024.
\nToday, many intrauterine devices (IUDs), a form of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), are small, T-shaped plastic rods with two arms and a string. They are inserted into the uterus to prevent pregnancy.
\nThe history of the IUD is a tumultuous one, born within a harmful history and legacy of the eugenics movement and global population control. It was used to reinforce patriarchal and white supremacist ideals of reproductive control. The IUD was a popular choice for the 1900s eugenics movement. Sterilization, the implant (another LARC method), and the IUD were considered superior methods for population control since they were low-effort and private.1 Many organizations that promoted population control through eugenics were heavily involved in funding research into IUD development and promotion.2 Today, the IUD is considered a tool of reproductive autonomy, allowing discretion and agency over one’s reproduction.
\nBefore the 20th Century, there is no clear evidence of the insertion of foreign objects into the human uterus to act as contraception.3 The first documentation of this idea for humans was in 1909 when Dr. Richard Richter reported on inserting a ring made of silkworm gut into the uterus. He cut off the two ends at the level of the outside of the cervix to make checking and removing the device easier.3
\nIn the 1920s and 1930s, Karl Prust, Ernest Gräfenberg, and Tenrei Ota introduced similar versions.3,4 Prust recommended a silkworm placed in the uterus with a stiff cervical extension of a tightly wound thread and a glass button to cover the cervix.3 In Germany, Gräfenberg made a similar model, but took the extensions off of the silkworm ring because of concerns over infections. To be able to identify the position of the ring in the uterus by x-ray, he attached a silver wire to it.5 The pregnancy rate of this device was reported to be 3%.6
\nLater, Dr. Gräfenberg wrapped pure silver completely around the ring. Unexpectedly, the silver was absorbed, and the person’s gums turned bluish-black (gingival argyrosis). He then tried using a “German Silver” wire made from an alloy of a mix of metals (including copper, which will later come into play).3,7 The pregnancy rate dropped to 1.6%.6,8 The ring was used throughout England and British Empire countries, but not in continental Europe or the United States.3 In Japan in 1933, Dr. Tenrai Ota also explored contraceptive methods. When he learned about the Gräfenberg Ring, he decided to combine Gräfenberg’s silver ring benefits with golden balls to create his own model, named the Precea (pressure) Ring.4,9
\nWorld War II was a time of slowed research and development of contraception. In 1949, however, Dr. Mary Halton was back at work describing the use of silkworm gut. She wrapped it around her finger and pressed the ring into a gelatin capsule. She then inserted this into the uterus, where the gelatin liquefied and the thread spread out. The pregnancy rate using this device was its lowest ever, 1.1%.3
\nFor several years, different physicians all over the world wrote about their successes using variations of intrauterine devices. Earlier concerns that the “tails” on IUDs led to higher rates of pelvic infection meant most devices had no tails. This made it difficult to tell whether the device was still in the uterus and difficult to remove. In 1960, a new device was in the shape of a coil and made of polyethylene by Dr. Lazar Margulies. Concerns about detection and removal were addressed in this new model by having the end of the IUD protrude through the cervix. Dr. Margulies’ first patient was his wife. He presented the inserter tube, the coil, and a copy of his wife’s hysterogram to reviewers Dr. Alan Guttmacher, Dr. Aqviles Sobrero, and Dr. Christopher Tietze.3
\nIn 1962, Dr. Jack Lippes developed and inserted the first of what became known as the “Lippes Loop.” It was a simple plastic device shaped like a double S that was pushed through an inserter tube just like Dr. Margulies’ coil and came in four different sizes.10,11 A nylon string was used to facilitate detection and removal. The Loop was inexpensive and easy to insert and remove. Its use took off and quickly became the world’s most popular and most copied IUD.11 Within a few years, there were many different kinds of IUDs – some successful and others having severe complications.
\n1969 was a critical year for IUDs. In an attempt to decrease the cramps and bleeding many people were reporting, Dr. Howard Tatum tried to decrease the size of the IUD. He devised a simple plastic T, which was well tolerated, but had a pregnancy rate of 18%.3,12 That same year, Dr. Jaime Zipper in Chile discovered that putting a copper wire in the reproductive systems of rabbits protected them from pregnancy. Thus, the contraceptive effect of intrauterine copper was discovered, revolutionizing IUD effectiveness in preventing pregnancy. Tatum and Zipper combined their efforts to create a new plastic, with coiled copper, T-shaped IUD called Copper-T 200.3,12
\nIn 1970, Dr. Antonio Scommegna devised a T-shaped device, named Progestasert, with progesterone in a semi-permeable capsule in the lower section. It was approved by the FDA for use for one year and was on the market until the early 2000s.3,13,14
\nIn 1971, A.H. Robins Company put a new IUD on the market called the Dalkon Shield. It was aggressively (and prematurely) marketed as a highly effective, moderately priced means of preventing pregnancy.15 Three years later, it was pulled from the market because of an ill-designed removal string that wasn’t sealed on either end and funneled bacteria into the uterus. This facilitated Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, sepsis, infertility, miscarriage, and death.15,16 More than 300,000 lawsuits were filed against A.H. Robins, forcing the company to file for bankruptcy.15,16 The Dalkon Shield can be attributed to a large decrease in IUD use and a sharp increase in distrust for IUDs.15,16 Subsequently, many IUDs were taken off the market. Only Progestasert remained on the American market.15
\nIn 1984, a new IUD received FDA approval, the Copper T 380A (ParaGard developed by Teva), which is currently approved for up to 10 years.17 Although evidence suggests it works to prevent pregnancy for up to 12 years.18 The first hormonal IUD, a levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system, named Mirena by Bayer, was FDA-approved for use in the U.S. in 2000.19 It was originally approved by the FDA for five years, but new data has increased its FDA approval to eight years.20
\nOn January 9, 2013, a new low-dose hormonal IUD, Skyla by Bayer, was approved by the FDA – the first new IUD in 12 years. The device was designed to prevent pregnancy for three years, and because of false rumors that IUDs were only for people who have had children, Skyla was tested and marketed toward people who have not had children.21 It launched in February 2013.22
\nIn 2015, the FDA approved Liletta by AbbVie and Medicines360, another levonorgestrel-releasing IUD with the same hormone type and dose as Mirena. Like Mirena, it was originally approved for three years. After a review of new evidence on its effectiveness, the FDA approved Liletta’s use for up to 8 years. Additionally, as of June 2023, the FDA approved Mirena and Liletta to treat heavy menstrual bleeding for up to 5 years.23,24
\nThe most recent IUD to enter the U.S. market was Kyleena by Bayer, a hormonal IUD that works by releasing a low dose of levonorgestrel. FDA approval was granted in September 2016 for up to 5 years.25,26 While all IUDs can be used for an extended period of time, IUDs should be removed when a person requests removal. More information on hormonal IUDs can be found in our October 2022 Contraceptive Pearl .
\nToday, the IUD is a safe, effective, low-risk option for birth control. The proven safety and effectiveness of IUDs have helped to reestablish them as a popular contraceptive choice. In 2018, the Guttmacher Institute reported that 13% of U.S. contraceptive users between ages 15-49 are using IUDs.27
\nSome barriers to accessing IUDs exist. IUD insertion requires an in-person clinic visit, which can be difficult to access for people with compounding barriers to care. Not all clinics offer IUDs, and some that do may not offer same-day insertion. Insurance coverage and IUD costs may vary by state. And, misinformation about how IUDs work, their safety, and use as emergency contraception persists, especially as reproductive health care grows increasingly politicized.28
\nWith the increased popularity of IUDs and other long-acting reversible contraceptive methods (LARCs), health care professionals must provide person-centered contraceptive counseling and avoid practices that coerce people toward a specific method. Such practices are harmful because they invalidate patients’ experiences, preferences, and their right to freely make decisions about their own reproductive health care.29,30 This has been especially true for patients with marginalized backgrounds, as Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, disabled, and low-income communities have experienced a long history and legacy of sterilization abuse, contraceptive coercion, and medical experimentation. In response, the LARC Statement of Principles was developed by the National Women’s Health Network and SisterSong to center reproductive justice within contraceptive care. These principles include offering appropriate education and counseling for all birth control methods, not just LARC, and supporting patients’ choices when they seek LARC removal.
\nLearn more about the history and legacy of reproductive justice by reading Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts or exploring the following articles on the politics of Norplant and the history and legacy of sterilization. To learn more about contraceptive options, including the IUD, check out the resources on our website or the further reading list below.
\nTo view images of the IUDs mentioned above and others, you can visit the Museum of Contraception and Abortion website.
\nFor more information on IUDs and other forms of contraception, review the resources on our website.
\n*Many of the studies and reports cited in this post use the term “women” and refer to cis-gender women. The Reproductive Health Access Project recognizes that people of all genders can have uteri and may use IUDs.
\nRHAP Resources:
\nYour Birth Control Choices Fact Sheet
\nIUD Fact Sheet
\nHormonal IUD User Guide
\nCopper IUD User Guide
\nIUD Self-Removal Fact Sheet
\nIntroduction to LARC (Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives)
\nLARC: Advanced
\nIUDs: Dispelling the Myths
\nFurther Reading:
\nThe Long Shadow of Eugenics in America
\nFemale inmates sterilized in California prisons without approval
\nGuarding Against Coercion While Ensuring Access: A Delicate Balance
\nRace Culture: Recent Perspectives on the History of Eugenics
\nSources:
\n\nHodgson D, Watkins SC. Feminists and Neo-Malthusians: Past and Present Alliances. Population and Development Review . 1997;23(3):469. doi:https://doi.org/10.2307/2137570 Takeshita C. The Global Biopolitics of the IUD . The MIT Press; 2011. doi:https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262016582.001.0001 Margulies L. History of intrauterine devices. Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine . 1975;51(5):662-667. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1749527/?page=3 Muvs – Tenrei Ota (1900-1985). muvs.org. https://muvs.org/en/topics/pioneers/tenrei-ota-1900-1985-en/ Leunbach JH. The Graefenberg “Silver Ring” and Inter-and Intra-Uterine Pessaries. The Journal of State Medicine (1912-1937) . 1932;40(1):37-45. Accessed March 13, 2024. https://www.jstor.org/stable/45207964?seq=1 Baldauf P, Tönnes R, Simon S, David M. A Report on the Hysteroscopic Removal of a Gräfenberg Ring After Almost Fifty Years in Utero. Geburtshilfe und Frauenheilkunde . 2014;74(11):1023-1025. doi:https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0034-1383130 Muvs – Ernst Graefenberg (1881-1957). muvs.org. https://muvs.org/en/topics/pioneers/ernst-graefenberg-1881-1957-en/ Edwards BA. Ernst Gräfenberg (1881–1957). embryo.asu.edu. Published November 17, 2022. https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/ernst-grafenberg-1881-1957 Homei A. Why did the Japanese Government take so long to approve the intrauterine contraceptive device? Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online . 2018;6:45-54. doi:doi.org/10.1016/j.rbms.2018.09.002 Lippes Loop your intrauterine contraceptive. muvs. Published November 1977. Accessed March 11, 2024. https://muvs.org/media/pdf/lippes-loop.pdf Peipert JF. Lippes loop and the first IUDs: lessons from a bygone era. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology . 2018;219(2):127-128. doi:doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2018.06.001 Jacobson, Molly. Introducing the IUD. askabiologist.asu.edu. Published July 19, 2022. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/embryo-tales/IUD Magon N, Chauhan M, Goel P, et al. Levonorgestrel intrauterine system: Current role in management of heavy menstrual bleeding. Journal of Mid-life Health . 2013;4(1):8. doi:https://doi.org/10.4103/0976-7800.109627 Y. Gibor. Intrauterine Contraception with the Progestasert ® System. Springer eBooks . Published online January 1, 1980:146-149. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8872-9_14 Cohen P. The IUD: Birth-Control Device That The U.S. Market Won’t Bear. The Washington Post. Published August 5, 1996. Accessed March 12, 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/08/06/the-iud-birth-control-device-that-the-us-market-wont-bear/68ebb001-9e3e-4240-9a64-4c09b67f726b/ Horwitz R. The Dalkon Shield. embryo.asu.edu. Published January 10, 2018. Accessed March 12, 2024. https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/dalkon-shield Highlights of Prescribing Information . Paragard; 2020. https://www.paragard.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/PARAGARD-PI.pdfLong-term reversible contraception. Twelve years of experience with the TCu380A and TCu220C. Contraception . 1997;56(6):341-352. Accessed March 12, 2024. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9494767/ Drug Approval Package: Mirena (Levonorgestrel-Releasing Intrauterine System) NDA #021225. www.accessdata.fda.gov. Published July 19, 2004. Accessed March 12, 2024. https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/nda/2000/21-225_Mirena.cfm#:~:text=Approval%20Date%3A%2012%2F06%2F2000 FDA Expands Approval of Mirena IUD Device. www.fdanews.com. Published August 25, 2022. https://www.fdanews.com/articles/209140-fda-expands-approval-of-mirena-iud-device Hello, Skyla! Getting to know the newest IUD. providers.bedsider.org. Published February 11, 2013. Accessed March 12, 2024. https://providers.bedsider.org/articles/hello-skyla-getting-to-know-the-newest-iud FDA Approves First New IUD In 12 Years. HuffPost. Published January 9, 2013. Accessed March 12, 2024. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/skyla-iud-intrauterine-device_n_2442434 Highlights of Prescribing Information – Liletta .; 2023. Accessed March 12, 2024. https://www.rxabbvie.com/pdf/liletta_pi.pdfHighlights of Prescribing Information – Mirena .; 2022. Accessed March 12, 2024. https://labeling.bayerhealthcare.com/html/products/pi/Mirena_PI.pdfBayer. FDA Approves Bayer’s KyleenaTM (Levonorgestrel-Releasing Intrauterine System) 19.5 mg for Prevention of Pregnancy for up to Five Years. www.prnewswire.com. Published September 19, 2016. Accessed March 12, 2024. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fda-approves-bayers-kyleena-levonorgestrel-releasing-intrauterine-system-195-mg-for-prevention-of-pregnancy-for-up-to-five-years-300330006.html Hightlights of Prescribing Information – Kyleena .; 2023. https://labeling.bayerhealthcare.com/html/products/pi/Kyleena_PI.pdfContraceptive Use in the United States by Method. Guttmacher Institute. Published April 7, 2021. Accessed March 12, 2024. https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/contraceptive-method-use-united-states Improving Access to Intrauterine Devices and Contraceptive Implants. www.acog.org. Published April 2023. https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-statement/articles/2023/03/improving-access-to-intrauterine-devices-and-contraceptive-implants Guarding Against Coercion While Ensuring Access: A Delicate Balance. Guttmacher Institute. Published September 8, 2014. Accessed March 12, 2024. https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2014/09/guarding-against-coercion-while-ensuring-access-delicate-balance Boydell V, Smith RD. Hidden in plain sight: A systematic review of coercion and Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptive methods (LARC). PLOS global public health . 2023;3(8):e0002131-e0002131. doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002131 \n\nThe post A History: The IUD appeared first on Reproductive Health Access Project .
","category":"breakthroughs","author":"Reproductive Health Access Project","publishDate":"2024-03-20T14:00:11.000Z","image":"http://www.reproductiveaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Website-Promo_History-of-IUD-650-x-365-px.png","source":"Reproductive Health Access Project","sourceUrl":"https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/2024/03/a-history-the-iud/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.416Z"},{"id":"hdzsyl","slug":"pathfinder-to-enhance-hpv-vaccine-awareness-and-uptake-in-nigeria","title":"Pathfinder to Enhance HPV Vaccine Awareness and Uptake in Nigeria","excerpt":"Pathfinder will contribute to the prevention of cervical cancer in Nigeria’s Kano, Lagos, and Kaduna states through a newly awarded project: Enhancing Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine Awareness and Uptake in Nigeria. The project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.","content":"Abuja, Nigeria, February 7, 2024— Pathfinder will contribute to the prevention of cervical cancer in Nigeria’s Kano, Lagos, and Kaduna states through a newly awarded project: Enhancing Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine Awareness and Uptake in Nigeria . The project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
\n\n\n\nOver the next two years, Pathfinder will collaborate with the Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria, the Nigeria Cancer Society, and government agencies to launch an advocacy, community outreach, and communication campaign related to cervical cancer prevention. The campaign seeks to increase uptake of the HPV vaccine, awareness about cervical cancer, and use of self-care practices. As recommended by the World Health Organization, the HPV vaccine is primarily meant for girls ages 9-14, before initiation of sexual activity.1
\n\n\n\n“The introduction of the HPV vaccine into the Nigeria Routine Immunization Schedule is a giant step in promoting the health of girls and women,” said Dr. Sakina Amin Bello, Senior Program Advisor, Pathfinder Nigeria. “We are honored to work with governments, at both national and state levels, and our local partners in giving girls ages 9-14 years the lifesaving HPV vaccine to protect them against cervical cancer.” HPV is the cause of almost all cervical cancer cases. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women ages 15-44 in Nigeria, with over 12,000 cases diagnosed annually. It is estimated that about 3.5% of women in Nigeria have a cervical HPV-16/18 infection at a given time, and 66.9% of invasive cervical cancers are attributed to HPVs 16 or 18.2
\n\n\n\nThe project will draw from Pathfinder’s experience implementing Accelerating Equitable Access, Acceptance, and Uptake of COVID-19 Vaccine (ACCESS) Project in Kano and Kaduna and the Federal Capital Territory.
","category":"activism","author":"Jade Taylor","publishDate":"2024-02-13T16:50:56.000Z","image":"https://www.pathfinder.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pathfinder-default-IMG-A-comp.png","source":"Pathfinder International","sourceUrl":"https://www.pathfinder.org/news/pathfinder-to-enhance-hpv-vaccine-awareness-and-uptake-in-nigeria/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:35.068Z"},{"id":"rbviji","slug":"youth-health-and-empowermentfocus-of-two-new-pathfinder-projects-in-africa","title":"Youth Health and Empowerment—Focus of Two New Pathfinder Projects in Africa","excerpt":"December 11, 2023—Projects in Ethiopia, Niger to improve the health and development of youth Building on decades of experience advancing...","content":"December 11, 2023—Projects in Ethiopia, Niger to improve the health and development of youth
\n\n\n\nBuilding on decades of experience advancing adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health and rights on the African continent, Pathfinder will be launching two new youth projects in Ethiopia and Niger.
\n\n\n\nIn Niger, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands will support Pathfinder, in partnership with MSI Reproductive Choices Niger and the Association of Young Girls for Reproductive Health to implement Jagorantin Matassa or “Listen to Youth.” The project will work in 11 rural districts of Dosso and Tillabéri regions, where extreme poverty, maternal deaths, and security challenges are pervasive.
\n\n\n\nListen to Youth seeks to empower young people through the advancement of their sexual and reproductive health and rights, allowing girls to stay in school instead of marrying and coping with unintended pregnancies. By engaging and strengthening the capacity of local youth movements, organizations, youth champions, religious leaders, and school health clubs, the project seeks to apply a sustainable approach that gives young people long-term access to quality sexual and reproductive health care and shifts gender norms in favor of young women’s reproductive autonomy and choice.
\n\n\n\n“Niger is one of the youngest places in the world, with the average age hovering around 15 years old,” said Dr. Sani Aliou, Pathfinder’s Country Director in Niger. “For their futures and all our futures to be brighter, we must make sure young people have the services they need while also engaging their hearts and minds in policymaking and programs meant to empower them. This new project will do just that.”
\n\n\n\nIn Ethiopia, Pathfinder’s focus will be on adolescents and youth in rural areas who are not in school. An estimated 20 million Ethiopians, ages 7-19, are not enrolled in or attending school, putting them at higher risks of poverty, homelessness, and substance abuse, and hindering their ready access to youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health care.
\n\n\n\nThe “Youth-Friendly Services and Community Approaches to Reach Adolescents” project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will work nationally in Ethiopia to assess the barriers faced by out-of-school adolescents and youth in accessing sexual and reproductive health services, and the current reach and impact of existing youth-friendly service delivery models. Findings will inform the testing of community-based approaches to reach adolescents and youth and the types of youth-friendly service delivery models that would be most effective with them. As the government seeks to increase the percentage of health facilities offering youth-friendly services from 60% of facilities to 80% by 2025, assessment results will provide critical information to the Ministry of Health.
\n\n\n\n“Pathfinder’s support to the roll-out of youth-friendly services in Ethiopia has allowed more than 8 million young people to receive care,” said Dr. Mengistu Asnake, Pathfinder’s Senior Country Director in Ethiopia. “We will now extend our partnership with the Ministry of Health to focus in on the needs of out-of-school youth, who are some of the most marginalized from health care and identify the most effective youth-friendly service delivery model.”
\n\n\n\nThe projects, in both Ethiopia and Niger, build on previous Pathfinder work, including the Liptako project in Niger and the Act With Her and Transform projects in Ethiopia.
","category":"global","author":"Jade Taylor","publishDate":"2023-12-11T12:30:20.000Z","image":"https://www.pathfinder.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pathfinder-default-IMG-A-comp.png","source":"Pathfinder International","sourceUrl":"https://www.pathfinder.org/news/youth-health-and-empowerment-focus-of-two-new-pathfinder-projects-in-africa/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:35.068Z"},{"id":"t0r8ho","slug":"pepfar-saves-lives-pushing-back-against-a-worsening-hiv-and-aids-crisis","title":"PEPFAR Saves Lives, Pushing Back Against a Worsening HIV and AIDS Crisis","excerpt":"Washington, DC, June 8, 2023—The spread of HIV has slowed globally over the past two decades, but we are still...","content":"Washington, DC, June 8, 2023— The spread of HIV has slowed globally over the past two decades, but we are still far from ending the HIV pandemic. According to UNAIDS , an adolescent girl or young woman acquires HIV every two minutes. Women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa account for more than 60 percent of all new HIV infections, and over the last decade, HIV infections in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa have been on the rise.
\n\n\n\nYet HIV is completely treatable and preventable, and people living with HIV can live fulfilling lives. The US Government-funded President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been critical in responding to the HIV pandemic, preventing the rise of new infections, and saving approximately 25 million lives. This year, US Congress will consider reauthorization of PEPFAR.
\n\n\n\nPathfinder Statement on PEPFAR Reauthorization
\n\n\n\nOver the past 20 years, PEPFAR has saved millions of lives, delivering HIV prevention, care, and treatment services to the most marginalized and underserved communities. Pathfinder currently uses PEPFAR funds in Mozambique to ensure availability of antiretroviral therapy for those who test positive, and strengthen services for HIV testing, the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV, and tuberculosis. If PEPFAR is not reauthorized, millions of people will suffer, and the HIV pandemic will surge in multiple countries. Pathfinder calls for the reauthorization of PEPFAR to continue fighting the HIV pandemic and save lives.
\n\n\n\nContact: Laurel Lundstrom, llundstrom@pathfinder.org
","category":"global","author":"Jade Taylor","publishDate":"2023-06-08T18:52:35.000Z","image":"https://www.pathfinder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Pathfinder_Logo_Image.jpg","source":"Pathfinder International","sourceUrl":"https://www.pathfinder.org/news/pepfar-saves-lives/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:35.068Z"},{"id":"g13l7r","slug":"the-history-of-mifepristone","title":"The History of Mifepristone","excerpt":"Updated March 27, 2024 Nearly four years ago, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of mifepristone and looked back on the history of this medication and how it expanded the options available for those seeking abortion care.","content":"
\nUpdated March 27, 2024
\nNearly four years ago, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of mifepristone and looked back on the history of this medication and how it expanded the options available for those seeking abortion care.
\nFrench researchers developed mifepristone (also known as RU-486) in the 1980s to be taken with misoprostol for medication abortion care. Despite the outcry of anti-abortion activists, it was approved for use in France in 1988. In the United States, however, it was a very different story, as the FDA banned the importation of mifepristone in 1989. The manufacturer of mifepristone, Roussel-Uclaf, also banned mifepristone distribution in the United States and refused to supply it to researchers investigating the drug’s other possible health benefits.
\nThe first challenge of this ban in the courts was by an American woman named Leona Benten, who was stopped by US Customs when bringing mifepristone into the country from the United Kingdom. Although Benten lost her case, it brought mifepristone into the national spotlight and galvanized the movement to overturn the FDA ban. When President Bill Clinton was elected in 1993, he ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate mifepristone’s use for medication abortion. In 1995, Roussel-Uclaf agreed to give the Population Council the patent rights to mifepristone in the United States.
\nAlthough the FDA’s advisory branch recommended mifepristone for approval, legal and manufacturing troubles led to the medication being pushed to the side until 2000. Thanks to the work of activists and health professionals, mifepristone was finally approved for medication abortion on September 28, 2000, twelve years after its original synthesis.
\nToday in the US, medication abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol is provided in-clinic and via telehealth up to 11 weeks gestation. In 2023, medication abortion accounted for 63% of all US abortions , up from 39% in 2017 and 53% in 2020. Medication abortion has only been growing, especially as access to self-managed medication abortion information and support has increased due to the needs and preferences of communities most impacted by barriers to healthcare, abortion bans, and restrictions.
\nUnfortunately, mifepristone remains inaccessible to many people. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates mifepristone under a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), which means it’s classified as a “dangerous drug” – despite its history of safe and effective use. There is an overwhelming body of scientific and medical evidence that shows mifepristone is safe and effective for virtually anyone in a variety of practice settings, including telehealth, in-clinic, and self-managed care. Until recently , the REMS rules on mifepristone required them to stock and dispense the pill directly to patients in-office, creating barriers to providing mifepristone in primary care settings. When mifepristone is inaccessible in primary care, patients are harmed. Their continuity of care is disrupted, emotional and financial consequences are exacerbated, they experience unnecessary and invasive procedures, and they must manage multiple appointments and delays in care.
\nEarly in the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, the REMS rule required patients to travel to the clinic to pick up mifepristone in-person, forcing those seeking abortion care to risk needless exposure to the virus. The FDA had allowed patients to obtain nearly all other REMS-classified drugs by mail to avoid COVID-19 risks, but mifepristone was still required to be picked up at a clinic, even though it can be taken later at home. In the spring of 2020, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on behalf of a coalition of medical experts and reproductive justice advocates to fight this rule. On July 13, 2020, a federal district court issued a preliminary injunction that blocked the FDA from enforcing its in-person pick-up requirement for medication abortion until at least 30 days after the end of the federal government’s declared public health emergency. This ruling was particularly important for low-income communities and those who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, as they make up the majority of those disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
\nThe preliminary injunction became an official REMS modification in January 2023, allowing clinicians to not only mail mifepristone to their patients but also to prescribe the pill to certified pharmacies for patients to pick up or receive by mail. However, barriers still remain. For states that already outlaw telemedicine for medication abortion or ban abortion entirely, these rules do not apply.
\nToday, there are threats to nationwide access to mifepristone through the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. Food and Drug Administration case. Which is trying to force the FDA to remove mifepristone’s approval. This is entirely based on politics, not on medicine, science, or law. It is an extension of our nation’s history and the ongoing presence of reproductive coercion and control.
\nIn oral arguments on March 26th, we were encouraged to hear the Justices’ skepticism that these anti-abortion groups have standing to pursue this baseless case. In reality, this case should have never gotten this far.
\nThis case is part of an agenda to ban medication abortion – and all abortion – across the country. It attempts to prevent people from accessing abortion medication with threats of investigation, jail, and prosecution. If you are concerned about the abortion laws in your state, including self-managed abortion and the law, If/When/How’s Repro Legal Helpline provides free legal information and advice at reprolegalhelpline.org or 844-868-2812. And, if you need legal advice or representation for providing or helping others access abortion care, contact the Abortion Defense Network .
\nIf you would like to receive updates on this issue and the Reproductive Health Access Project’s work to support primary care clinicians to protect and expand access to reproductive health care, including abortion, during this time, sign up for our mailing list.
\nThe post The History of Mifepristone appeared first on Reproductive Health Access Project .
","category":"choice","author":"Reproductive Health Access Project","publishDate":"2023-04-18T18:00:16.000Z","image":"https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Copy-of-Provider-Story-9_8_201.png","source":"Reproductive Health Access Project","sourceUrl":"https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/2023/04/history-of-mifepristone/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.416Z"},{"id":"d7m0ra","slug":"pathfinder-names-lydia-saloucou-zoungrana-as-president-africa","title":"Pathfinder Names Lydia Saloucou Zoungrana as President, Africa","excerpt":"Pathfinder has named Lydia Saloucou Zoungrana as President, Africa. As President, Ms. Saloucou Zoungrana will be accountable for the impact, revenue, and operating performance of Pathfinder’s programs in 14 sub-Saharan African countries and expansion strategies on the continent.","content":"To be based in Burkina Faso, enhancing focus on serving West Africa Media Contact : Laurel Lundstrom
\n\n\n\nApril 12, 2023 — Pathfinder has named Lydia Saloucou Zoungrana as President, Africa. As President, Ms. Saloucou Zoungrana will be accountable for the impact, revenue, and operating performance of Pathfinder’s programs in 14 sub-Saharan African countries and expansion strategies on the continent.
\n\n\n\n“I am honored to take on this leadership role at Pathfinder. As Pathfinder’s country director in Burkina Faso for the past seven years, I’ve been a part of the remarkable impact the organization has had on strengthening health systems and forging pathways to sexual and reproductive health and rights despite serious challenges, including a political coup and related instability,” said Ms. Saloucou Zoungrana. “Even through these difficulties, we’ve continued to prepare the government and local organizations to receive funds directly from donors, while protecting the health and well-being of thousands of women, girls, and their families.”
\n\n\n\nWith more than two decades of public health experience, Ms. Saloucou Zoungrana has served as Pathfinder’s country director in Burkina Faso since the organization opened its first office there in 2016. Her leadership has allowed Pathfinder to greatly expand its work in Burkina Faso and throughout the francophone West Africa region in Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Togo, and most recently, Guinea.
\n\n\n\nUnder Ms. Saloucou Zoungrana’s leadership, Pathfinder’s programs in Burkina Faso have served as models for others globally. Since 2016, Pathfinder has strengthened services at more than 850 health facilities and opened five additional offices in Burkina Faso. More recently, Ms. Saloucou Zoungrana has been Pathfinder’s “fiduciary agency director,” managing donor funds on behalf of the government to ensure they are properly used.
\n\n\n\nMs. Saloucou Zoungrana’s relationship with the government of Burkina Faso began more than 20 years ago, when she introduced a sexual and reproductive health component to one of the government’s largest programs for young girls. This relationship, sustained over decades, has allowed her to be the driving force behind efforts to bring together donors and partners to fund the Ministry of Health’s vision for universal health coverage. Prior to joining Pathfinder, based in Nairobi, she was a regional team leader at the International Planned Parenthood Federation for multiple African countries, where she focused on strengthening the capacity of member organizations to provide integrated services.
\n\n\n\nMs. Saloucou Zoungrana will co-lead Pathfinder with Tabinda Sarosh, Pathfinder’s President, South Asia, Middle East, and North Africa, and Lois Quam, Pathfinder’s CEO. This shift in leadership structure from having one CEO and President based in the US to having shared, global leadership is part of Pathfinder’s country-led strategy, which is granting greater control of operations, resources, and decision-making to local teams in countries where programs are run.
\n\n\n\n“The majority of our programs operate in sub-Saharan Africa, where many communities still cannot access essential health care,” said Lois Quam, CEO, Pathfinder. “Lydia’s innovative thinking, ability to build strong relationships with donors and partners, and deep experience advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights will be instrumental to expanding our work on the continent and globally.”
\n\n\n\nIn addition to the new President positions, Pathfinder has recently made several organizational and operational shifts to become an organization that is truly global. This has included transferring decision-making powers and resources to offices around the world; creating a Global Leadership Council that joins country directors outside of the US with US-based executives; diversifying the Board of Directors; applying a strategic framework that is more completely driven by the needs and priorities of the communities served; and fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion.
\n\n\n\n“Having a President like Lydia, based in Africa, is essential to delivering impact under our mission,” said Collin Mothupi, Pathfinder’s first Board Chair from outside of the US, with roots in southern Africa. “Countries in sub-Saharan Africa face numerous challenges to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights, but there is also so much possibility. Harnessing the capacity that is already on the African continent, under a strong leader with deep understanding of the local contexts in which we work, will ensure a bright and promising future.”
\n\n\n\n###
\n\n\n\nPathfinder is driven by the conviction that all people, regardless of where they live, have the right to decide whether and when to have children, to exist free from fear and stigma, and to lead the lives they choose. Pathfinder builds lasting and trusted local partnerships to strengthen health systems, forging resilient pathways to sexual and reproductive health and rights for all. Taken together, Pathfinder’s programs enable millions of people to choose their own paths forward.
\n\n\n\nPathfinder nomme Lydia Saloucou Zoungrana au poste de présidente pour l’Afrique Contact Média : ali.adamouharouna@pathfinder.org
\n\n\n\n12 avril, 2023 — Pathfinder a nommé Lydia Saloucou Zoungrana au poste de présidente pour l’Afrique. En tant que présidente, Mme Saloucou Zoungrana sera responsable de l’impact, des revenus et des performances opérationnelles des programmes de Pathfinder dans 14 pays d’Afrique subsaharienne ainsi que des stratégies d’expansion sur le continent.
\n\n\n\n« C’est un honneur pour moi de prendre ce poste de leadership chez Pathfinder. En tant que directrice de Pathfinder au Burkina Faso depuis sept ans, j’ai participé à l’impact remarquable que l’organisation a eu sur le renforcement des systèmes de santé et l’ouverture de voies vers la santé et les droits sexuels et reproductifs malgré de sérieux défis, notamment un coup d’État politique et l’instabilité qui en a découlé », a déclaré Mme Saloucou Zoungrana. « Malgré les difficultés, nous avons continué à préparer le gouvernement et les organisations locales à recevoir des fonds directement des donateurs, tout en protégeant la santé et le bien-être de milliers de femmes, de jeunes filles et de leurs familles ».
\n\n\n\nForte de plus de deux décennies d’expérience en santé publique, Mme Saloucou Zoungrana a occupé le poste de directrice pays de Pathfinder au Burkina Faso depuis que l’organisation y a ouvert son premier bureau en 2016. Son leadership a permis à Pathfinder d’étendre considérablement son travail au Burkina Faso et dans toute la région francophone de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, en Côte d’Ivoire, au Niger, au Togo et, plus récemment, en Guinée.
\n\n\n\nSous la direction de Mme Saloucou Zoungrana, les programmes de Pathfinder au Burkina Faso ont servi de modèles à d’autres pays. Depuis 2016, Pathfinder a renforcé les services de santé dans plus de 850 formations sanitaires et a ouvert cinq bureaux additionnels au Burkina Faso. Plus récemment, Mme Saloucou Zoungrana est devenue la « directrice de l’agence fiduciaire » de Pathfinder, gérant les fonds des bailleurs au nom du gouvernement pour s’assurer qu’ils sont correctement utilisés.
\n\n\n\nLa relation de Mme Saloucou Zoungrana avec le gouvernement du Burkina Faso a débuté il y a plus de 20 ans, lorsqu’elle a introduit une composante de santé sexuelle et reproductive dans l’un des plus importants programmes gouvernementaux destinés aux jeunes filles. Cette relation, qui dure depuis des décennies, lui a permis d’être la force motrice des efforts visant à rassembler les bailleurs de fonds et les partenaires pour financer la vision du ministère de la santé en matière de couverture sanitaire universelle. Avant de rejoindre Pathfinder, basée à Nairobi, elle était chef d’équipe régionale à la Fédération internationale pour la planification familiale pour plusieurs pays africains, où elle a travaillé sur le renforcement de la capacité des organisations membres à fournir des services intégrés.
\n\n\n\nMme Saloucou Zoungrana co-dirigera Pathfinder avec Tabinda Sarosh, Présidente de Pathfinder pour l’Asie du Sud, le Moyen-Orient et l’Afrique du Nord, et Lois Quam, Directrice Générale de Pathfinder. Cette évolution de la structure de direction, qui passe d’une PDG basée aux États-Unis à une direction mondiale partagée, fait partie de la Stratégie dirigée par les pays de Pathfinder, qui accorde un plus grand contrôle des opérations, des ressources et de la prise de décision aux équipes dans les pays où les programmes sont mis en œuvre.
\n\n\n\n« La majorité de nos programmes sont mis en œuvre en Afrique subsaharienne, où de nombreuses communautés n’ont toujours pas accès aux soins de santé essentiels », a déclaré Lois Quam, Directrice Générale de Pathfinder. « La pensée innovante de Lydia, sa capacité à établir des relations solides avec les bailleurs de fonds et les partenaires, ainsi que sa grande expérience en matière de promotion de la santé et des droits sexuels et reproductifs seront déterminantes pour l’expansion de notre travail sur le continent et à l’échelle mondiale ».
\n\n\n\nOutre les nouveaux postes de présidents, Pathfinder a récemment procédé à plusieurs changements organisationnels et opérationnels pour devenir une organisation véritablement mondiale. Notamment, l’organisation a transféré des pouvoirs de décision et des ressources aux bureaux du monde entier, a créé un Conseil mondial de direction qui réunit les directeurs pays et les cadres basés autour du monde, a diversifié le conseil d’administration, a développé un cadre stratégique axé davantage sur les besoins et les priorités des communautés locales et a encouragé la diversité, l’équité et l’inclusion.
\n\n\n\n« Avoir une présidente comme Lydia, basée en Afrique, est essentiel pour que notre mission ait plus d’impact », a déclaré Collin Mothupi, le premier président du conseil d’administration de Pathfinder à être originaire d’un pays autre que les États-Unis, avec des racines en Afrique australe. « Les pays d’Afrique subsaharienne sont confrontés à de nombreux défis pour faire progresser la santé et les droits sexuels et reproductifs, néanmoins il y a aussi beaucoup de possibilités dans la région. L’exploitation des capacités qui existent déjà sur le continent africain, sous l’égide d’une dirigeante forte qui connaît parfaitement les contextes dans lesquels nous travaillons, nous assurera un avenir brillant et prometteur ».
\n\n\n\n###
\n\n\n\nPathfinder est animée par la conviction que toutes les personnes, quel que soit leur lieu de résidence, ont le droit de décider si et quand elles veulent avoir des enfants, de vivre à l’abri de la peur et de la stigmatisation, et de mener la vie qu’elles choisissent. Pathfinder établit des partenariats locaux durables et fiables afin de renforcer les systèmes de santé et d’ouvrir des voies solides vers la santé et les droits sexuels et reproductifs pour tous. Ensemble, les programmes de Pathfinder permettent à des millions de personnes de choisir leur propre voie.
\n\n\n\nIn the News: Burkina Faso:
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDRC
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNiger:
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTogo:
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","category":"global","author":"Jade Taylor","publishDate":"2023-04-12T12:59:32.000Z","image":"https://www.pathfinder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Pathfinder_Logo_Image.jpg","source":"Pathfinder International","sourceUrl":"https://www.pathfinder.org/news/pathfinder-names-lydia-saloucou-zoungrana-as-president-africa/","priority":3,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:35.068Z"},{"id":"l1uoby","slug":"a-day-to-give-support-and-expand-access-to-reproductive-health-care","title":"A Day to Give Support and Expand Access to Reproductive Health Care","excerpt":"A day to give support and expand access to reproductive health care. #GivingTuesday is a digital day of giving and leveraging the work of our favorite nonprofits – like RHAP! We hope you will consider giving to RHAP on this day and showing your support for our work! On Tuesday, November 29 , #Giving...","content":"A day to give support and expand access to reproductive health care.
\n\n
#GivingTuesday is a digital day of giving and leveraging the work of our favorite nonprofits – like RHAP! We hope you will consider giving to RHAP on this day and showing your support for our work! On Tuesday, November 29 , #GivingTuesday will help us launch our End of Year Campaign and introduce our theme – “Access: Now More than Ever.”
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Now more than ever, we see the importance of protecting and expanding access to reproductive health care, including abortion. Already 12 states have outlawed abortion, and at least three more have severely restricted it. Sixty-six clinics across 15 states were forced to shut down in the first 100 days after Roe v Wade was overturned. And, policy experts predict that within one year of Roe falling, 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion care.
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But here at RHAP, we are still committed to training, supporting, and mobilizing primary care clinicians to ensure equitable access to sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion. And you can help us strengthen our movement by supporting RHAP during #GivingTuesday. No amount is too small!
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We hope you consider joining us on November 29 and becoming a part of this global day of giving. Thanks to a generous donor, if you give during #GivingTuesday, your contribution will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $20,000!
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If you have any questions, please contact our Manager of Individual Giving, Ruth Leal .
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The post A Day to Give Support and Expand Access to Reproductive Health Care appeared first on Reproductive Health Access Project .
","category":"choice","author":"Amelia","publishDate":"2022-11-29T16:00:20.000Z","image":"http://www.reproductiveaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Newsletter-Images-_-Sized-.png","source":"Reproductive Health Access Project","sourceUrl":"https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/2022/11/a-day-to-give-support-and-expand-access-to-reproductive-health-care/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.416Z"},{"id":"b6suev","slug":"apply-to-join-rhaps-board-of-directors","title":"Apply to Join RHAP’s Board of Directors!","excerpt":"Apply to Join RHAP’s Board of Directors! (NOW CLOSED) RHAP is currently recruiting people to serve on the organization’s Board of Directors. This is an exciting and unique opportunity to further support an organization working to increase access to abortion and reproductive health care in primary ca...","content":"Apply to Join RHAP’s Board of Directors! (NOW CLOSED) RHAP is currently recruiting people to serve on the organization’s Board of Directors. This is an exciting and unique opportunity to further support an organization working to increase access to abortion and reproductive health care in primary care!
\nWe are particularly interested in candidates who have:
\n\nLegal experience supporting nonprofits, reproductive rights/health/justice, and/or other social justice causes (attorneys welcome); Expertise in communications/public relations to help us communicate our mission and work; Expertise in finance and/or accounting , and who can provide guidance on RHAP achieving its mission while also providing thriving wages and benefits to our staff, and/or; Experience as a fundraising professional in the nonprofit sector. \nAll candidates should have :
\n\nA demonstrated commitment to RHAP’s values and mission to train, support, and mobilize primary care clinicians to ensure equitable access to sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion. An interest actively contributing to RHAP’s journey to become an anti-racist organization , including engaging in critical conversations around white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, racial justice, and disability rights among other topics, as well as developing and implementing anti-racist and equitable practices and structures. Interest in and/or experience serving on a nonprofit board , which provides organizational strategy, oversight, accountability, and ensures the organization has adequate resources to achieve its mission. \nYour expectations (including the time commitment) for board service includes:
\n\nCommit to a 3-year term to start January 1, 2023 (start date can be flexible if necessary). Attend 2-hour board meetings via Zoom every 2 months (currently Thursday evenings Eastern Time, but moveable if necessary). Serve on or chair at least 1 board committee, which include: fundraising, finance, governance, equity, HR, and audit. Support RHAP’s fundraising efforts to ensure RHAP can achieve its mission while providing a thriving wage and great benefits to its amazing staff. RHAP does not require a “give or get,” but all board members are expected to donate whatever fits their budget and to engage in fundraising efforts (e.g., host fundraising events, share fundraising appeals with your network). Engage in RHAP activities (e.g., attend RHAP-sponsored events (virtually or in person), follow and uplift RHAP on social media, recruit and activate new supporters to RHAP). Actively engage in RHAP’s journey to become an anti-racist organization, which may include participating in racial caucuses, outside reading, learning sessions, and critical conversations to further our individual and organizational growth. \nWhy should you join the board?
\nNot only will you be contributing your skills, expertise, and experience to a small but highly effective national organization that is working against the tide in this country to increase access to sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion, but you will also have amazing networking opportunities.
\nHere is how to apply:
\nSubmit a statement of interest (no more than 250 words, please) and your CV to info@reproductiveaccess.org by Sunday, November 19 th . The Board Recruitment Committee will conduct phone conversations with applicants at the end of November/early December. Selected candidates will be presented to and voted on by the full Board of Directors. The new board members will begin their 3-year term in January.
\nBIPOC, LGBTQ+ individuals, disabled people, others with marginalized identities, and those living outside of NYC and DC are encouraged to apply!
\nQuestions? Please ask!
\nThe post Apply to Join RHAP’s Board of Directors! appeared first on Reproductive Health Access Project .
","category":"choice","author":"Amelia","publishDate":"2022-11-29T15:00:46.000Z","image":"http://www.reproductiveaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/3.png","source":"Reproductive Health Access Project","sourceUrl":"https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/2022/11/apply-to-join-rhaps-board-of-directors/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.416Z"},{"id":"i23nhg","slug":"advocacy-in-action-in-the-aafp","title":"Advocacy in Action in the AAFP!","excerpt":"Advocacy in Action in the AAFP! In late September, RHAP mobilized family physicians from across the country to advocate for progressive policy changes at the American Academy of Family Physicians' (AAFP) annual Family Medicine Experience (FMX) conference in Washington, D.C.","content":"Advocacy in Action in the AAFP! American Academy of Family Physicians’ (AAFP) annual Family Medicine Experience (FMX) conference in Washington, D.C. The AAFP is the country’s largest professional medical organization for family physicians, and is considered the expert body for family medicine.
\nOur advocates’ week started with a testimony training in preparation for the AAFP’s Congress of Delegates (COD) . Network members brought forth AAFP policy resolutions and testimony on issues from adopting gender-inclusive language in all Academy materials, to advocating for comprehensive postpartum care and access to Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARCs) among other things.
\nThere were huge wins in policy change, thanks to the efforts of our amazing advocates. The AAFP formally amended their support for family physicians providing abortions to extend beyond just the first trimester, as previous policy stated. They also adapted language in multiple policies to be inclusive of all pregnant and parenting folks’ genders by incorporating the inclusion of chestfeeding, changing policy language from supporting “equality for same gender families” to “all families,” and more.
\nLater in the week, we headed to the exhibition hall to table at FMX on behalf of RHAP for the first time since 2019. This connected us with new clinicians to draw into the Network and allowed us to share the many resources and clinical tools we’ve developed and updated in the last few years. RHAP leaders also presented and helped organize sessions, including talks on IUDs, self-managed abortion, and more.
\nThere is more work to be done, and we are already working to ensure that the AAFP follows through in speaking out for access to reproductive health care and training in family medicine and beyond. However, this is an important step forward for the AAFP, and for primary care.
\nOur time at COD and FMX reminded us of why we do what we do. We threw ourselves into the work of mobilizing and advocating for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health, including abortion and gender-affirming care, in primary care practice.
\nThe post Advocacy in Action in the AAFP! appeared first on Reproductive Health Access Project .
","category":"activism","author":"Amelia","publishDate":"2022-11-22T16:30:23.000Z","image":"http://www.reproductiveaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/AAFP-article-600x450.png","source":"Reproductive Health Access Project","sourceUrl":"https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/2022/11/advocacy-in-action-in-the-aafp/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.416Z"},{"id":"eyed8","slug":"rhap-seeks-a-new-executive-director","title":"RHAP Seeks a New Executive Director","excerpt":"RHAP Seeks a New Executive Director As you may know, our beloved founder and 17-year executive director, Lisa Maldonado, stepped down in October. While we move forward with a highly capable interim director and exceptional team, the search for a permanent executive director is ON! The chance t...","content":"RHAP Seeks a New Executive Director
\nThe chance to lead RHAP is an opportunity of a lifetime for the right person, and RHAP is reaching out to you, our friends, and supporters, asking you to please spread the word to your networks. This is a fully remote position.
\nThis search is being led by Cara Pearsal l and Danielle Higa of NPAG . Due to the pace of this search, candidates are strongly encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Candidates may submit their cover letter, outlining their interest and qualifications, along with their resume via NPAG’s candidate portal.
\nThe Reproductive Health Access Project (RHAP) is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against any individual based on any non-merit factor and is committed to an equitable workplace where everyone is treated as a respected and valued member of the team.
\n
\nThe post RHAP Seeks a New Executive Director appeared first on Reproductive Health Access Project .
","category":"empowerment","author":"Amelia","publishDate":"2022-11-22T16:30:06.000Z","image":"http://www.reproductiveaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/4.png","source":"Reproductive Health Access Project","sourceUrl":"https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/2022/11/rhap-seeks-a-new-executive-director/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.416Z"},{"id":"7m0xej","slug":"meet-rhap8217s-new-team-members","title":"Meet RHAP's New Team Members!","excerpt":"Meet RHAP’s New Team Members! RHAP has a lot of new faces – please join us in welcoming our new team members! Hannah Cavendish-Palmer (she/her), Interim Executive Director Where are you located? The Seattle area.","content":"Meet RHAP’s New Team Members! RHAP has a lot of new faces – please join us in welcoming our new team members!
\n
\nHannah Cavendish-Palmer (she/her), Interim Executive Director Where are you located?
\n\nWhy did you join RHAP?
\n\nI am fired up about reproductive health and body autonomy. I love transition leadership and I am thrilled to have an opportunity to contribute to RHAP. \nWhat do you hope reproductive justice will look like in the future?
\n\nMy hope is that any debate about body autonomy fades away as younger people become voters and get politically active. Ideally this will happen quickly, so that this painful phase can be over as soon as possible! \nWhat are your hobbies/outside-of-work interests?
\n\nI spend the majority of my outside-of-work time with my kids, but when I can, I love karaoke, eating out, dancing, and traveling. \nWhat has been your latest go-to song playlist?
\n\nThe Fresh Folk playlist on Spotify is my go-to for discovering new music! \nShare one thing you would like our readers to know about you.
\n\nRubber boots are my default footwear- essential to my life as a Pacific Northwest parent! \nAmelia Cecchetto (she/her), Social Media Associate Where are you located?
\n\nWhy did you join RHAP?
\n\nReproductive health access is one of the most important issues to me, and social media can be such an effective tool for education, mobilization, and change. I’ve seen social media fuel rapid response and advocacy movements, and there is so much potential to continue to use social media as a way of change. I’m excited to use RHAP’s platforms to keep our community educated and involved in the most pressing issues facing reproductive health care access. \nWhat do you hope reproductive justice will look like in the future?
\n\nI hope reproductive justice looks like bodily autonomy and freedom from legislation that controls access to reproductive care. I want a future where nobody needs to navigate a complicated system just to receive basic care, and that they feel empowered and free from judgment when they make their own decisions. \nWhat are your hobbies/outside-of-work interests?
\n\nI love finding new coffee shops, going on walks, and film photography. \nWhat has been your latest go-to song playlist?
\n\nI just went to a Broadway show – so show tunes are on repeat lately. \nShare one thing you would like our readers to know about you.
\n\nI have to start my day with a coffee! Warm drinks every morning are critical to get through fall/winter. \nVishu Chandrasekhar (she/her), Development Associate Where are you located?
\n\nWhy did you join RHAP?
\n\nI joined RHAP because I deeply admired its work connecting clinicians with the resources they need to provide essential abortion and reproductive care, and I stayed because I’ve only become more committed to its mission (and the fantastic team!) ever since. \nWhat do you hope reproductive justice will look like in the future?
\n\nI envision a future where essential health care is provided to whoever needs it, whenever they need it. \nWhat are your hobbies/outside-of-work interests?
\n\nDoing crosswords and going on scenic walks. \nWhat has been your latest go-to song playlist?
\n\nI’ve had the Derry Girls soundtrack on repeat since Season 3 was released on Netflix a few weeks ago. \nShare one thing you would like our readers to know about you.
\n\nI first came to RHAP as an intern with the Reproductive Rights Service Corps back in 2020. \nZoe Klett (she/her), Operations Coordinator Where are you located?
\n\nWhy did you join RHAP?
\n\nJoining RHAP is a dream come true. Having spent the majority of my professional career with organizations centered around public health initiatives, I became deeply aware of the encompassing barrier of accessibility. Then, following the overturn of Roe v. Wade , I became intent on joining an organization on the forefront of combatting restrictions to reproductive care. RHAP’s mission to revolutionize the way people can access reproductive care is integral to the fight for accessible sexual and reproductive health care for all. I am so grateful to be a part of such an essential organization. \nWhat do you hope reproductive justice will look like in the future?
\n\nIn the future, my hope is that Reproductive Justice will be widely understood and accepted for what it means: the human right to maintain autonomy over one’s body and choices. This right should be protected by law, inclusive of all aspects of reproductive care, centered around marginalized communities, and, as a result of the incredible work conducted at organizations like RHAP, accessible to everyone. \nWhat are your hobbies/outside-of-work interests?
\n\nOutside of work, you can find me engaged in numerous activities. I’m a huge animal enthusiast and spend a lot of my extra time walking the neighborhood dogs through Wag. Additionally, I love making cross-stitches and embroidery. \nWhat has been your latest go-to song playlist?
\n\nRecently I’ve been playing the Spotify playlist “autumn in new york” on repeat. \nShare one thing you would like our readers to know about you.
\n\nOne thing to know about me is I am constantly seeking the opportunity to learn and grow and value any experience that allows me to do so. \nRuth Leal (she/her/ella), Manager of Individual Giving Where are you located?
\n\nWhy did you join RHAP?
\n\nI joined RHAP because I wanted to actively support the reproductive justice movement instead of continuing to watch through the sidelines. We are living through a crucial moment where the fight for proper reproductive health access and bodily autonomy is more vital now than ever. So when the opportunity arose to join the RHAP team, I did not think twice! \nWhat do you hope reproductive justice will look like in the future?
\n\nIn the future, I hope that conversations surrounding reproductive health access become free of stigma and judgment. I wish essential health care becomes a conversation between health care providers and people, not between political parties and legislators. With access for all, regardless of gender, identity, beliefs, race, or economic status. \nWhat are your hobbies/outside-of-work interests?
\n\nI love food! I enjoy cooking and baking (big Great British Bake Off fan over here!). To burn all the calories from baking, I run 10k races and do cycling, which also helps me manage stress. Lastly, but most importantly, I love naps. I look forward to the weekend when I get to nap and be a bit lazy. \nWhat has been your latest go-to song playlist?
\n\nI am training for a 10k, so I am fine-tuning a list I like to call “Leg Fuel.” It is very random: Lil Nas X, songs from the movie Encanto, Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny, Miki Matsubara, etc. \nNeha Vasudeva (they/them), Organizer Where are you located?
\n\nWhy did you join RHAP?
\n\nI joined RHAP because of my passion for sexual and reproductive health and rights, and felt a sense of urgency to rejoin the repro sphere after the fall of Roe . I particularly appreciate RHAP’s niche approach of integrating repro health care into primary health care. \nWhat do you hope reproductive justice will look like in the future?
\n\nIn the future, I hope repro justice will continue to look queer and Black and brown, as it was when it first started out. I hope for a future where queer BIPOC folks can access their sexual and reproductive health care easily, safely, affordably, and without judgment or shame. \nWhat are your hobbies/outside-of-work interests?
\n\nI am a coffee connoisseur, also known as a coffee snob, so in my free time, I love exploring new and local cafes. I also love to go solo-hiking and binge-watching the newest shows on Netflix/Hulu/all the streaming platforms. \nWhat has been your latest go-to song playlist?
\n\nI actually don’t listen to playlists…I do however listen to the ‘radio’ option of a song on Spotify. Right now, my go-to Radio is Girls by Doechii. \nShare one thing you would like our readers to know about you.
\n\nI am a writer with a focus on poetry and creative fiction. I currently have an unfinished story of roughly 71,000 words that I’ll maybe, hopefully, finish in the next couple of years. \nThe post Meet RHAP’s New Team Members! appeared first on Reproductive Health Access Project .
","category":"choice","author":"Amelia","publishDate":"2022-11-15T09:00:18.000Z","image":"http://www.reproductiveaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1.png","source":"Reproductive Health Access Project","sourceUrl":"https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/2022/11/meet-rhaps-new-team-members/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.416Z"},{"id":"mrmzam","slug":"re-introducing-insights","title":"Re-introducing Insights!","excerpt":"RHAP is excited to re-introduce Insights, a revival of our short, monthly e-newsletter offering primary care clinicians evidence-based education on abortion and early pregnancy loss care. Modeled after Contraceptive Pearls, Insights will share practice guidelines, clinical tools, and resou...","content":"RHAP is excited to re-introduce Insights , a revival of our short, monthly e-newsletter offering primary care clinicians evidence-based education on abortion and early pregnancy loss care. Modeled after Contraceptive Pearls , Insights will share practice guidelines, clinical tools, and resources that reinforce and support evidence-based, person-centered abortion and early pregnancy loss care and counseling, including post-abortion and self-managed abortion. RHAP recognizes that this counseling and care may not be possible in all states and settings around the country. We still hope that this can be a helpful resource for you, the clinicians you train, and the communities you care for.
\nInsights will be published on the 4th Tuesday of every month. The first edition of Insights will be published on Tuesday, September 27th. Sign up
\n\n
RHAP would also like to extend an invitation for clinicians to sign-up and be guest writers for Insights. Each writer will receive an honorarium of $150 to compensate you for your time and effort. If you are interested in being an author or have any questions, please email either Brandy (brandy@reproductiveaccess.org ) or Silpa (silpa@reproductiveaccess.org ).
\n
We are so excited to see what the future holds for Insights. Thank you and don’t forget to sign-up and have Insights delivered to your inbox each month!
\n
The post Re-introducing Insights! appeared first on Reproductive Health Access Project .
","category":"choice","author":"Reproductive Health Access Project","publishDate":"2022-08-30T19:04:28.000Z","image":"https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Insights-Newsletter-600-×-600-px.png","source":"Reproductive Health Access Project","sourceUrl":"https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/2022/08/re-introducing-insights/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T19:05:33.416Z"},{"id":"t9iwqi","archiveId":"ffh0qu","slug":"technology-safety-038-privacy-resources","title":"Technology Safety & Privacy Resources","excerpt":"NNEDV's Safety Net Project develops resources and information on the use of technology for agencies and survivors. The post Technology Safety & Privacy Resources appeared first on NNEDV .","content":"The Safety Net Project at the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) develops resources and information on the use of technology for agencies and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and trafficking.
\nThese technology toolkits contain a variety of information that can be helpful for victim service agencies as well as survivors.
\nClick here to check out all of Safety Net’s toolkits!
\nThe post Technology Safety & Privacy Resources appeared first on NNEDV .
","category":"safety","author":"Matt Heinrich","publishDate":"2017-09-14T17:57:16.000Z","image":"https://nnedv.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/computer-and-phone-with-womens-hands.jpg","source":"National Network to End DV","sourceUrl":"https://nnedv.org/technology-resources/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-04-03T18:01:01.162Z"},{"id":"hjhuww","archiveId":"fjao00","slug":"what8217s-new-at-womenslaw","title":"What’s New at WomensLaw?","excerpt":"WomensLaw provides free, individualized, and confidential legal information and support to survivors in English and Spanish. The post What’s New at WomensLaw? appeared first on NNEDV .","content":"WomensLaw (a project of NNEDV) provides free, individualized, and confidential legal information and support in both English and Spanish for survivors, their advocates, and their loved ones through the WomensLaw Email Hotline and state- and territory-specific, plain-language legal information and resources on WomensLaw.org .
\nOur team is always updating existing information and adding new information. Check out the latest updates:
\n \r\n We added one resources and updated the information for 120 resources on our Kentucky Courthouse Locations page.
\n
\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n We added a resource, the Family Services’ Center for Victim Safety and Support, to our New York Local Programs page in English and Spanish.
\n
\r\n \r\n As we prepare to translate the information for Mississippi into Spanish, we reviewed the following pages to update them to our current editing standards and ensure that they include working, accurate links:
\n
\n
\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \nThe post What’s New at WomensLaw? appeared first on NNEDV .
","category":"safety","author":"omnistudio","publishDate":"2014-08-10T10:56:40.000Z","image":"https://nnedv.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/people-woman-computer-tablet-phone.jpg","source":"National Network to End DV","sourceUrl":"https://nnedv.org/whats-new-at-womenslaw/","priority":2,"scraped":true,"scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:44:54.478Z"}],"resources":[{"name":"National Domestic Violence Hotline","slug":"national-domestic-violence-hotline","shortDescription":"24/7 crisis support for domestic violence survivors.","description":"The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides 24/7 confidential support, crisis intervention, safety planning, and referrals for survivors of domestic violence.","category":"crisis","type":"hotline","phone":"1-800-799-7233","website":"https://www.thehotline.org"},{"name":"RAINN Sexual Assault Hotline","slug":"rainn","shortDescription":"National sexual assault hotline and support services.","description":"RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline providing free, confidential support 24/7.","category":"crisis","type":"hotline","phone":"1-800-656-4673","website":"https://www.rainn.org"},{"name":"Crisis Text Line","slug":"crisis-text-line","shortDescription":"Text HOME to 741741 for free crisis support.","description":"Crisis Text Line provides free 24/7 crisis support via text message. 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Current shift times and locations: Minneapolis (Hennepin County PSF, 401 4th Ave S): 1:30 pm every 1st Thursday and 2nd Monday of the month St. Paul (Ramsey County LEC, 425 Grove St): 9:00 am every 4th Monday of the month **Shift times and locations may change in the future, and additional options will become available as MFF continues to grow this program.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T18:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-07T20:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Hennepin County Public Safety Facility","address":"401 S 4th Ave, ","city":"Minneapolis","state":"MN","zip":"55415","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/mnfreedomfund/event/597283/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Court%20Watch%20Image_20240102192231546911.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"597283","scrapedAt":"2026-04-07T06:01:06.559Z"},{"id":"mobilize-831182","title":"Congratulations to New Citizens and New Voters","description":"Join us at Slowpokes to write thank-you cards to new citizens and new voters—congratulating them on their journey, reminding them about upcoming elections, and sharing key information on how to stay engaged in their community. This is a fantastic opportunity to connect with fellow volunteers, share stories, and build meaningful relationships with new voters. Let’s come together to celebrate democracy and inspire civic participation! ##### Please remember that all events hosted by the League of Women Voters of Houston are strictly nonpartisan. We ask that you please refrain from candidate and party specific conversations and wearing campaign merch from any active or past candidate.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T19:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-07T21:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Slowpokes","address":"1203 W 34th St, Suite D","city":"Houston","state":"TX","zip":"77018","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/lwvhouston/event/831182/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Copy%20of%20Mobilze%20Banner%20-%20Events%20%2850%29_20251114164515918868.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"831182","scrapedAt":"2026-04-24T06:01:55.268Z"},{"id":"mobilize-797821","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Cotswold","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T20:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-07T21:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Randolph & Sharon Amity","address":"Randolph Road & South Sharon Amity Road, ","city":"Charlotte","state":"NC","zip":"28211","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/797821/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331195214491816.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"797821","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:01:50.493Z"},{"id":"mobilize-797822","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Park Road","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T20:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-07T21:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Park Road","address":"Park Road & Woodlawn Road, ","city":"Charlotte","state":"NC","zip":"28209","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/797822/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331195211274604.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"797822","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:01:50.493Z"},{"id":"mobilize-819268","title":"Honk and Wave Food Drive","description":"Please join us every Thursday on the corner of routes 150 and 43 in West Sand Lake, NY to resist fascism and call out the atrocities the federal administration is committing against the good people of America! Our rally is also a weekly food drive that supports immigrant families whose aid has been cut by the Trump regime. Please bring a non-perishable food item to support our cause. We're coordinating this food drive with Church of the Covenant United Methodist to benefit United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) in Albany. Please bring your noise makers, music makers, signs and friends and join us for this community building event! Rain or shine, we hope to see you there! *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T20:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-07T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"West Sand Lake","state":"NY","zip":"12196","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/819268/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"819268","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:01:58.493Z"},{"id":"mobilize-838596","title":"Hide & Seek with Loudermilk","description":"Every Thursday from 4:30–5:30 PM, we gather outside Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s office (9898 GA-92, Woodstock, GA 30188) for a peaceful, visible protest. Loudermilk plays hide-and-seek with his own constituents—skipping town halls, dodging questions, and serving Trump instead of Woodstock. While he hides, we show up. We refuse to let him keep ignoring us while helping Trump attack our freedoms. Join us every week to call him out, demand real accountability, and make sure Woodstock’s voice is too loud to dodge. 📍 Where: 9898 GA-92, Woodstock, GA 30188 🗓️ When: Thursdays, 4:30–5:30 PM ✊ What: Peaceful, mocking protest against Loudermilk’s silence and Trump’s regime ⸻ Sign Ideas: • “Loudermilk’s Still Hiding” • “Where’s Barry? Not With Woodstock” • “Town Halls, Not Cover-Ups” • “Barry Plays Hide-and-Seek, Trump Pulls the Strings” • Big cartoon-style arrows: “FOUND YOU” pointing at his office Chant Ideas: • “Where’s Barry? Hiding out! We’re the ones who call him out!” • “No more hiding, tell the truth!” • “Constituents here, Barry nowhere!” *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T20:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-07T21:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Sidewalks in front of Loudermilk’s office","address":"9898 GA-92, ","city":"Woodstock","state":"GA","zip":"30188","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/838596/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"838596","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:02:01.936Z"},{"id":"mobilize-797816","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Steele Creek","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-07T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Steele Creek","address":"South Tryon Street & Rivergate Parkway, ","city":"Charlotte","state":"NC","zip":"28273","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/797816/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331195217529988.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"797816","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:01:50.493Z"},{"id":"mobilize-797827","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Mint Hill","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-07T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Mint Hill","address":"North Carolina 51 & Evans Road, ","city":"Mint Hill","state":"NC","zip":"28227","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/797827/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331195220703315.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"797827","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:01:50.493Z"},{"id":"mobilize-798071","title":"Defend Democracy Rally","description":"Join the Mazomanie rally, where WE THE PEOPLE stand peacefully in support of democracy, the US Constitution, and the rule of law. We rally against the MAGA regime’s illegal and inhumane policies. We must stop the harmful actions that threaten our families, communities, and nation. Take a stand for protecting Immigrant rights, free speech, Equity/Diversity/Inclusion, SNAP, affordable healthcare, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Federal agencies, Judicial systems, Education institutions, the Environment, and more... Gather with our community every Thursday from 4-5 pm on Hwy 14 near Crocker St. Bring signs that let others know what matters to you. Some signs are available for use. There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing choices. Dress for success!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-07T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"U.S. 14 & Crocker Street, ","city":"Mazomanie","state":"WI","zip":"53560","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/mazomaniemuddlers/event/798071/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Defend%20Democracy%20Rally_20260302215320435938.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"798071","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:01:50.493Z"},{"id":"mobilize-823372","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - I-485 N Overpass","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-07T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"I-485 @ Benfield Rd","address":"9600 Benfield Rd, ","city":"Charlotte","state":"NC","zip":"28269","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/823372/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331190937581269.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"823372","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:01:58.493Z"},{"id":"mobilize-844791","title":"Sunbury Good Trouble Thursdays","description":"Join us on the Square with your signs as we protest all the destruction being created by the Trump administration. Look for the dinosaur costume!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-07T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Old Sunbury Courthouse","address":"51 E Cherry St, ","city":"Sunbury","state":"OH","zip":"43074","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecentralohio/event/844791/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/20250821_180207_20250915173427888506.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"844791","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T18:02:26.898Z"},{"id":"mobilize-817569","title":"Standing For","description":"Weekly Demonstration ~ What do you stand for? What are you willing to get into good trouble to support? We meet every Thurs, late afternoon until sunset near the Buffalo Bill statue, Washington Ave & 10th St, Golden CO Come STAND with us one deep on the sidewalks thru Golden. We will start at Washington Ave and 10th St & spread out, as far as we can go. This is a peaceful rally. One of the important principles is the idea of de-escalation. We aim for a nonviolent protest. And we aim to be counted. We will also have the opportunity to talk with our neighbors about the important issues of the day. IndivisibleTableMountain@gmail.com We have to respond to the attacks posed on our civil and human rights by the current administration and to remind them that in America, the power lies with the people. We’re sending a clear message -- In the United States, the power lies in the hands of the people. We demand an end to • The extreme crackdown on our civil rights by the Trump administration, from our right to vote to our right to protest and free speech • The attacks on black and brown Americans, immigrants, trans people, and other communities • The slashing of programs that working people rely on, including Medicaid, SNAP, and Social Security *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T21:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-07T23:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Buffalo Bill statue","address":"Washington Ave & 10th St, ","city":"Golden","state":"CO","zip":"80401","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/817569/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"817569","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:01:58.493Z"},{"id":"mobilize-835193","title":"Poughkeepsie Calls + Cocoa","description":"Imagine that someone calls you. They tell you about new rights you have as a tenant because other tenants (just like you) fought for and WON protections. They tell you about the plan they have to freeze rent upstate and replace Central Hudson with a public utility so your electric bills go down. Then they invite you to be a part of it... You'd probably be pretty happy they called, right?! On Tuesday nights, we're going to be the ones calling to share the good news. Our phone banking conversations vary based on what we want to organize people around. Right now we're letting people know about: 🛑 Our fight to stop helping ICE by passing NY for All ❄️ Passing the REST Act so we can freeze rent upstate 🏘️ Tenant protections under Good Cause Eviction 💡 Establishing the Hudson Valley Power Authority to lower utility costs We have a script, training, phone numbers to call, and a supportive crew of volunteers. You'll have everything you need to have great conversations—plus, we'll have hot cocoa waiting for you! ***Please bring a laptop, phone, and headphones if you have them***","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"302A Mill St, ","city":"Poughkeepsie","state":"NY","zip":"12601","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/forthemany/event/835193/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/2023%20Mobilize%20event%20cover%20templates%20%283%29_20241115234939527329%20%281%29_20260304154615507254.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"835193","scrapedAt":"2026-04-29T06:01:54.214Z"},{"id":"mobilize-801740","title":"Weekly San Marcos Rallies","description":"San Marcos! Join us every Thursday. Bring signs and a folding chair if you need one. We will rally on the public sidewalk for 1.5 hours. Park at the Jack in the Box and join us on the sidewalk. Bring a friend or 10! This is a great event for newbies to attend. We will have a good time, make new friends and let off a little built up steam. Videographers- video your fellow attendees for social media. Why are you out here today? Email links to the video to indivisiblenorthcountysandiego@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-07T23:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Jack in the Box","address":"717 W San Marcos Blvd, ","city":"San Marcos","state":"CA","zip":"92078","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblenorthcountysandiego/event/801740/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_3980_20250611183455392265.JPG","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"801740","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:01:54.169Z"},{"id":"mobilize-799992","title":"Join Sorting Soup: - sorting the firehose of information-THURS &SUN - Zoom .. Thurs@5:00 / Sun@4CT","description":"#### Join Sorting Soup: - sorting the firehose of information- THURS & SUN - Zoom .. Thurs@5:00 / Sun@4PM CT Sorting Soup is our weekly gathering where we dish up the week’s headlines, court cases, and cultural happenings — because sometimes the “firehose of information” feels more like we’re sorting through soup just to find the truth at the bottom of the bowl. #### Let us know you will be attending … RSVP here-> https://mobilize.us/s/1162kb Every Thursday at 5:00 p.m. [CST], we ladle out the chaos, taste-test the facts, and, together, cook up action steps to make real change right where we live. On Sundays at 4:00 p.m. [CST], the Literature & Ladle Society — our beloved Sorting Soup Book Club — takes the conversation off the boil and into deeper, simmering territory. We’re currently feasting on “Witches, Whores, & Rebels: A Feminist Look at Patriarchal Capitalism & How to Burn It Down” by Therese Lee, a video series that helps us understand how we got into this sticky stew of history. Each session, we watch, discuss, and serve up new ideas (plus a few spicy takes) on how to resist and rebuild together. At the heart of Sorting Soup is a belief that Self‑Care is Radical Resistance — because even revolutions need nourishment. Like the story of Stone Soup, everyone brings something to the pot: knowledge, humor, love, frustration, or just the courage to show up. Together, we season the mix with hope and solidarity, turning the heat of the moment into something restorative and real. #### ZOOM link - Click Here at 4:55 pm to attend the 5:00 PM: Sorting Soup: 2025 book club - Join Weekly - every Thursday, Zoom @5PM CT & Sunday @4pm CT - Zoom -> https://bit.ly/NWSOFA-Zoom","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-07T23:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"60008","address":", ","city":"Rolling Meadows","state":"IL","zip":"60008","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/799992/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"799992","scrapedAt":"2026-05-04T06:00:56.837Z"},{"id":"mobilize-832256","title":"Visibility Brigade - Foothills Pkwy & Sioux Pedestrian Overpass","description":"South Boulder Visibility Brigade invites you to a weekly visibility event on the pedestrian bridge at Foothills Pkwy and Sioux Ave in Boulder. Come protest the regime and publicize/push back against recent takeover attempts. Bring your own sign if desired, but we will have banners/letters and signs to borrow. Parking on Sioux Ave off of Thunderbird Dr. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-07T23:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Sioux Drive & Thunderbird Drive, ","city":"Boulder","state":"CO","zip":"80303","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/832256/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"832256","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:02:01.936Z"},{"id":"mobilize-606181","title":"Franklin County Democratic Party Executive Committee Meeting","description":"### Please join us! _The FCDP Executive Committee meetings are open to all registered Democrats._ The Franklin County Democratic Party is fully committed to the principles of freedom, fairness, human rights, environmental stewardship, diversity, educational and economic opportunities, social justice, and responsible government. As North Carolina Democrats, we pledge to work tirelessly as the Party of Action and to be an engine of progress in our State. We must act decisively; we must act swiftly; we must act together to defend our democracy and protect the well-being of every resident of Franklin County. - We meet on the first Thursday of each month at 7:00 pm [FCDP Linktree](https://linktr.ee/franklincountyncdems) #### Monthly County Party Meetings https://www.mobilize.us/fcdemsnc/ - Executive Committee Meeting - Democratic Women - LGBTQ Dems - African American Caucus - Senior Democrats","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"FCDP Headquarters","address":"108 E Nash St, ","city":"Louisburg","state":"NC","zip":"27549","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/fcdemsnc/event/606181/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/2_20240421211510515292.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"606181","scrapedAt":"2026-04-03T06:01:14.226Z"},{"id":"mobilize-786908","title":"Cleveland County - Democratic Women Meeting","description":"We will be moving our meeting to the CCDEMS HQ training room.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T00:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Cleveland County Democratic Party HQ","address":"300 W Gray st, Suite 104","city":"Norman","state":"OK","zip":"73069","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/okdemocrats/event/786908/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/CCDW%20Monthly_20250916191226207593.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"786908","scrapedAt":"2026-04-03T06:01:28.793Z"},{"id":"mobilize-773889","title":"Hands Off Our Healthcare Phone Bank!","description":"*in partnership with Team Pelosi, Indivisible, Voters of Tomorrow, Blue Future, Swing Left, the California Democratic Party, LACDP, DPOC, Sonoma County Democratic Party, Santa Clara County Democratic Party, Alameda County Democrats, Palos Verdes Democrats, San Francisco Democrats, South Asians for America, Los Cerritos Democratic Club, Be the Change 509, Chop Wood Carry Water, and California Environmental Voters* Join Team Pelosi and Grassroots Democrats HQ in calling voters across California and urging them to save our healthcare! We connect voters in Congressional Districts 22 and 48 to their Republican representative's office, so they can share how these health care cuts are affecting them. If this is your first time phonebanking, we will have a full training to get you set up and ready to call voters!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T00:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/grassrootsdemocratslahq/event/773889/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/2026%20Hands%20Off%20Our%20Health%20Care%20%282%29_20260311231249176048.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"773889","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:01:47.202Z"},{"id":"mobilize-810330","title":"Stand Up For Our Rights: Democracy for ALL - Lake Forest","description":"**Build local community and fight back against fascism** at this weekly rally in Lake Forest at the intersection of El Toro Rd & Trabuco Rd (meet at the Mobil gas station on the north corner). Every Thursday, Rain or Shine, 4-6pm. This is a peaceful protest. Bring your signs, your voices, and let's be heard! **#ICEOutOfOC** Pick up Red Cards, stickers, and community resources every week. **MEET YOUR HOSTS** The Indivisible Lake Forest community is hosted by Jay and is part of the **[OC Indivisible Coalition](https://linktr.ee/ocindivisiblecoalition)**. We will gather for events and actions as our group grows. Please invite a friend! **[The OC Indivisible Coalition](https://linktr.ee/ocindivisiblecoalition)** is a collaboration between the **[Indivisible](https://indivisible.org/)** groups in and touching Orange County, CA. We are non-partisan, all-volunteer, grassroots groups of residents in OC who are fighting fascism and holding elected officials accountable, from city councils and school boards all the way up to Congress. We partner with other community organizations to uplift and support our neighbors while we work toward progressive electoral change and a democracy that works for ALL people.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"El Toro Road & Trabuco Road, ","city":"Lake Forest","state":"CA","zip":"92630","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisibleca40/event/810330/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/LakeForest4DemocracyMobilize2026_20260217024526276122.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"810330","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:01:54.169Z"},{"id":"mobilize-772870","title":"Drinking Liberally","description":"Drinking Liberally will meet at Brew Lab 101, 3301 Southern in Rio Rancho. regularly on the first Thursday of each month at 5:30 p.m. Socialize with like-minded people in Rio Rancho. Drinking Liberally is a political and social organization where self-identified liberals and progressives gather to socialize and talk politics. All must drink responsibly, and there is no charge for admission. Food and drinks are available for a fee. This group is independent of other organizations. Please email mcairocbs@gmail.com to let them know you will be attending.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T23:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T02:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"3301 Southern Blvd SE, ","city":"Rio Rancho","state":"NM","zip":"87124","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/landofdissent/event/772870/","image":"","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"772870","scrapedAt":"2026-04-03T06:01:25.115Z"},{"id":"mobilize-762887","title":"Street Rally to Defend Civil Rights - Redmond","description":"Exercise your free speech - while you still have it. Join Indivisible Eastside members in their ongoing protest of the harmful administration's policies every Thursday until the FFOTUS is removed from office. Redmond Way & 161st Avenue Northeast. Do not block sidewalk or road. Hosted by Indivisible Eastside Join us to: - ICE OUT of WA - Stop the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration. - Protect and Defend Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs working people rely on. - Fully funded schools, healthcare and housing for all. - Stop the attacks on immigrants, Black, indigenous, trans people, and other communities. Read about and listen to Rachel Maddow on how sustained, local action is so important in shaping public sentiment. This matters. You matter. Thank you for joining us! https://www.thedailypoliticususa.com/p/rachel-maddow-explains-how-protests","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-07T23:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T00:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"161st Avenue Northeast & Redmond Way, ","city":"Redmond","state":"WA","zip":"98052","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/762887/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"762887","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:01:43.970Z"},{"id":"mobilize-794152","title":"VISIBILITY BRIGADE - Petaluma - E. Washington St. Overpass - ONGOING","description":"_This is a volunteer-organized event!_ Come join us on the Washington Street 101 overpass (southside) every Thursdays, to peacefully demonstrate against the administration’s corruption, amorality, and lies. This will be a regular weekly protest spot/time. Let’s show our community that resistance is alive and active. Bring your signs and your spirit and pass the word on.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Washington St. 101 Overpass (southside)","address":"East Washington Street & Kenilworth Dr., ","city":"Petaluma","state":"CA","zip":"94954","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblesonomacounty/event/794152/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/PetalumaVisibilityBrigade_20260111180603108891.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"794152","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:01:50.493Z"},{"id":"mobilize-824060","title":"Visibility Brigade - North Park","description":"Meet on the Meade Ave bridge over I-805. We provide physical messaging in the real world to connect with and activate voters to demonstrate that resistance is possible. Prepare to wave and generally have a good time. Rules and Protocols 1. We avoid doing anything that could either harm ourselves or anyone else. This includes stepping into traffic, holding a sign where it could fall onto cars below, climbing fencing, etc. 2. We must not block pedestrian and bike traffic, so please keep the middle of the overpass and/or sidewalk clear to allow them to pass. 3. We supply the messages, you supply the waves. However, you are welcome to also display your own poster boards. Just avoid any messaging that would be rated above a PG-13. 4. We don’t litter. If we find litter, we pick it up and throw it away. 5. We don’t use stickers or anything that leaves a permanent mark on the overpass. However, chalk is okay and even encouraged. 6. If someone from the ‘opposition’ comes up to talk with us, do not engage with them. Best to just ignore them. One member will be designated to handle them and video record any aggressive interaction so that you can go right on waving. 7. We take lots of pictures and videos during our action for circulation on social media. If you prefer not to be included, please let us know and/or consider wearing a mask. 8. Should law enforcement pay us a visit, only the designated point person from the group should address them. 9. Ignore the middle fingers and negativity coming from some of the cars below. For every one of those confused folks, you are providing hope to another 100 people! 10. The Visibility Brigade is a non-violent, informal volunteer group in which we all participate with an understanding that our own actions are our personal responsibility and we accept our own personal liability. You participate with this understanding. www.VisibilityBrigade.com See you at 5:00! *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T01:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Meade Ave bridge over I-805 in North Park","address":"4371 Boundary St, ","city":"San Diego","state":"CA","zip":"92116","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/824060/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"824060","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:01:58.493Z"},{"id":"mobilize-547245","title":"Monthly All Member Meeting","description":"If you're new to States Win South Bay, join our community. Meet fellow volunteers! Meetings take place the first Thursday of the month during election season. Our Special Guest Speaker is Shawn Werner, States Win Organizing and Political Director. Shawn will give us an in-depth view of States Win's 2026 strategy, voting rights, phonebanking, and our opportunities in Iowa. There will be plenty of time for questions.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T02:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T03:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"","state":"","zip":"95070","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/stateswinsouthbay/event/547245/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot%202026-04-02%20at%209.37.56%E2%80%AFPM_20260403043818606795.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"547245","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T12:00:59.622Z"},{"id":"mobilize-832780","title":"Whittier Indivisible Chapter Weekly Strategy Meeting","description":"Come one, come all! We are the Whittier Indivisible Chapter, and we meet weekly on Zoom to discuss, share, plan, and listen. We engage in local, in-person efforts in our community as well as national initiatives. The majority of our members are from surrounding cities in addition to Whittier, CA. This a local Indivisible event! We strictly abide by and follow Indivisible leadership and protocol, and do not tolerate any behavior that is disrespectful, discriminating, or hateful in any way. Whittier Indivisible is a Southern California-based grassroots group committed to defending democracy, resisting authoritarianism, and standing up for the dignity and rights of all people—documented or undocumented. Rooted in Whittier and welcoming to all from surrounding communities, we are proudly pro-immigrant and oppose ICE overreach, racism, and any policy that dehumanizes or divides. We believe all people—regardless of immigration status, race, gender, disability, faith, or identity—have inherent worth, value, and dignity, and are entitled to the rights guaranteed by the Constitution, including due process, free speech, and equal protection under the law. We advocate for social and economic justice, environmental protection, and individual freedoms, while standing firmly against fascism and authoritarianism in all forms. As a community, we practice gracious and respectful communication, and value inclusivity, accessibility, diversity, equity, honesty, kindness, and ambition in our organizing. We believe strong, compassionate local action can create a more just, democratic, and sustainable future for all. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.* This a local Indivisible event! *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T02:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T03:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"Whittier","state":"CA","zip":"90602","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/832780/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"832780","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T12:01:54.208Z"},{"id":"mobilize-826166","title":"CRUSH ICE! NO SECRET POLICE! WEEKLY THURSDAYS!! (Honolulu)","description":"This registration is for the THURSDAY WEEKLY protest at Ala Moana and Atkinson. To register for the Weekly Wednesday Protest in Waikiki (in front of Tesla Dealership - 2330 Kalakaua), go to https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/759386/ People classified as \"migrants\" are in the eye of the fascist storm sweeping across the world. As Trump tries to put a tyrannical, authoritarian regime in place, ICE has sent out plainclothed, masked gunmen to grab our neighbors, co-workers, and friends and disappear them into private, for-profit immigration jails. Children are being torn away from their parents - again. Migrants are being deported to random countries, paid by Trump to warehouse them. What is being done to migrants today is rapidly spreading to affect those of us classified as citizens. We must reject Trump's efforts to divide citizens from migrants. We do that by acting in solidarity and crushing Trump's ICE machine.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T03:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T04:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Intersection of Atkinson Drive & Ala Moana Boulevard","address":"Atkinson Drive & Ala Moana Boulevard, ","city":"Honolulu","state":"HI","zip":"96814","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/protecthawaii/event/826166/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_6409_20260409190920488886.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"826166","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T12:01:50.808Z"},{"id":"mobilize-744890","title":"Every Call Counts","description":"EVERY SINGLE CALL COUNTS! Are you ready to get started? MAGA is NOT all powerful! Call your legislators to voice your opinion and DEFEND YOUR RIGHTS. Let them know we are watching and expect them to do their JOB. Scripts are provided for you. EVERY call is tallied so long as you provide your zip code (and street address if leaving a voicemail). PLEASE SHARE this link with friends, neighbors and family. WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER! You will receive a confirmation email once you finish signing up here on Mobilize. https://indivisibleclt.org","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T04:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T03:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":"https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aU86iBJpUkjj1GNQSpvirrpskNUWCZ_8hZj9aR_xDR4/edit?usp=sharing","registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/744890/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Every%20Call%20Counts_20241201221253207020.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"744890","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T12:01:30.441Z"},{"id":"mobilize-816167","title":"John Lewis \"Good Trouble\" Teach-In: The Racial Injustice of Gun Violence","description":"In honor of John Lewis Day, our teach-in examines how systemic racism drives and sustains the crisis of gun violence in communities of color. Far from random, this violence is rooted in decades of policy decisions, from redlining and housing segregation to underfunded social services and unequal law enforcement. In this video training, we will explore how these interconnected systems have created conditions where gun violence thrives, making it a powerful form of racial injustice, and dive into how President Trump’s policies and funding cuts have exacerbated these inequalities. Join us to uncover the structural forces behind the headlines and carry forward John Lewis’s legacy by demanding lasting, systemic change, civil rights for all, and a democracy that works for everyone. The training is given by Rachelle Hunley, Brady's Senior Director of Strategic Engagement, Aalayah Eastmond, our Cultural Community Engagement Manager, and JP Thomas, our Director of Organizing.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T04:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T03:59:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":"https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/gmarQ8JrwyuV55hOf33CymHkT0CYhuRjKrC_f_e5TVMaMRO5tuQu7-46tuLhNnkf.8aeYtRXtgaPx555e","registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/brady/event/816167/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot%202025-07-17%20at%209.46.16%E2%80%AFAM_20250717134627930758.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"816167","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T12:01:44.841Z"},{"id":"mobilize-825582","title":"Demand Your Representative Support the We the People Amendment (H.J.Res.54)","description":"**Corporate money is corrupting our democracy, and our lawmakers know it.** For decades, billionaires, lobbyists, and big business have bought access and influence while everyday people are ignored. Through a combination of court rulings like Citizens United and unchecked loopholes, our political system has become rigged in favor of the ultra-wealthy. The We the People Amendment (H.J.Res.54) is a bold, constitutional solution to take our government back. For years, Congress has failed to rein in big money, hiding behind weak bills and partisan gridlock. The Supreme Court opened the floodgates with atrocious decisions like Citizens United, and our lawmakers have done next to nothing to stop it. This amendment pulls no punches. It: - Declares that constitutional rights belong only to human beings, not artificial entities, including corporations and PACs - Establishes that money is not speech, giving the people the power to regulate campaign spending - Requires full transparency of all political expenditures—no more dark money, no more secrets This amendment is backed by a massive majority of Americans across party lines—**more than 80%**. But Congress continues to delay, deflect, and protect the very system that enriches them. **We the people are fed up.** **That’s where you come in.** We're building a movement to demand change and to hold every lawmaker accountable who stands in the way. Use this form to send a powerful message to your elected officials demanding they cosponsor, publicly support, and advance H.J.Res.54. **It takes just one minute to make your voice heard, but the impact is real.** **We're done waiting. Flood their inboxes. Flood the streets. Let’s take our country back.**","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T04:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T03:59:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":"https://actionnetwork.org/letters/end-corporate-rule-tell-your-lawmakers-to-support-the-we-the-people-amendment-hjres-54?source=direct_link&","registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/moneyoutofpolitics/event/825582/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/H.J.Res.-54-Letter-Campaign-Banner-Image_20250808002731783138.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"825582","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T12:01:47.846Z"},{"id":"mobilize-379336","title":"Take Action for Nebraska","description":"Fill out this form to help us elect Democrats up and down the ballot. (You will also be among the first to know when we have yard signs!) If you want to help, we can put you to work. We will connect you with county parties and candidates so you can help in your local area too. Volunteer opportunities include phonebanking, canvassing, postcards, hosting events, and delivering yard signs. You can also use this form to connect with caucuses and councils, just type the group in the comments box and we will connect you. **Affiliated Caucus Organizations:** - Black Caucus - Democrats Experiencing Disabilities - Latinx Caucus - Native Caucus - Stonewall Democrats - Women’s Caucus - Young Dems **Affiliated Policy Councils:** - Climate Council - Interfaith Council - Rural and Agriculture Council - Secular Council - Veterans and Military Families Council - Working Families Council","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T05:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T04:59:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"Lincoln","state":"NE","zip":"68510","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/nebdems/event/379336/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/NEDEMS_ButtonGraphic-ImBuildingTheParty_20241113195557678804.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"379336","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T12:01:25.374Z"},{"id":"mobilize-823742","title":"Postcarding & Political Conversation","description":"We strive to build community, educate voters, and use our Sharpies to write to save democracy together. Join us 9:30am to 12pm ET, to write postcards and hear from candidates, political leaders, organizations, authors, journalists, and other guests. You do not have to write postcards to attend. Please answer the registration questions accurately and completely and have your **full name** showing on Zoom. If this is your first time joining this group, please sign on by 9:45am ET. Compliance with these requests will facilitate admission to our Zoom meeting. Write postcards with us or just join the conversation. If you need help getting started with postcarding, please visit our [FAQ](https://markersfordemocracy.org/postcarding/postcarding-faq). If you are with the media and want to attend, you must notify us at nycpostcardgroups@gmail.com at least 24 hours before the start of the event. All discussions are off the record. This event is co-hosted by [Markers For Democracy](https://markersfordemocracy.org), [Downtown Nasty Women Social Group](https://linktr.ee/DNWSG), and [Team Min](https://linktr.ee/teammin ).","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T13:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"New York","state":"NY","zip":"10128","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/markersfordemocracy/event/823742/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/MFD%20DTNWSG%20TM%20for%20Mobilize_20230202175800413937.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"823742","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:32.524Z"},{"id":"mobilize-810364","title":"No Hate, No Fear! Immigrants Are Welcome Here - RALLY ORANGE","description":"**Build local community and fight back against fascism** and ICE in OC at this weekly protest in Orange CA on the North East corner of No. Tustin St and Meats Ave. Park in the Target lot This is a peaceful protest. Bring your signs, your voices, and let's be heard! **#ICEOutOfOC** Pick up Red Cards, stickers, and community resources every week. **MEET YOUR HOSTS** **[Indivisible Orange](https://www.indivisibleorange.org)** is a city team of the **[OC Indivisible Coalition](https://linktr.ee/ocindivisiblecoalition)**. We will gather for events and actions as our group grows. Please invite a friend! **[The OC Indivisible Coalition](https://linktr.ee/ocindivisiblecoalition)** is a collaboration between the **[Indivisible](https://indivisible.org/)** groups in and touching Orange County, CA. We are non-partisan, all-volunteer, grassroots groups of residents in OC who are fighting fascism and holding elected officials accountable, from city councils and school boards all the way up to Congress. We partner with other community organizations to uplift and support our neighbors while we work toward progressive electoral change and a democracy that works for ALL people.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T16:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"North Tustin St and Meats St. Orange CA (Target center corner), ","city":"Orange","state":"CA","zip":"92865","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisibleca40/event/810364/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/NO%20HATE%2C%20NO%20FEAR%2C%20IMMIGRANTS%20ARE%20WELCOME%20HERE%21%20RALLY_20260420192251630818.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"810364","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T00:01:53.414Z"},{"id":"mobilize-766780","title":"Legal Observing Training: Protests & Rallies","description":"Do you live in Hillsborough, Broward, Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, or Pasco or Pinellas County and are interested in serving as an ACLU of FL legal observer at protests and rallies? Join us to learn how to become a legal observer! We'll discuss what you need to look out for and how to report your observations. Also, we'll go over important Know Your Rights information for protesting. Note: Due to legalities, you must be at least 18 years old to participate in our legal observing program. We hope to see you there!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/aclufl/event/766780/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Legal%20Observer%20Training-Banner_20250514182304531251.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"766780","scrapedAt":"2026-04-24T00:01:40.331Z"},{"id":"mobilize-766505","title":"Protest at Gabe Evans' Northglenn Office","description":"We gather peacefully at Gabe Evans' Northglenn Office every Friday between 11am and 1pm to urge him to have the courage to speak with us, his constituents. We plead with him to defend our Freedom, our Constitution, and our Democracy. We protest Gabe Evans' weakness as he remains silent in the face of the staggering level of corruption and other unconstitutional actions of this administration. Rules (as stated by the police): Please stay on the sidewalks only and do not block the sidewalks. Please do not park in the parking lot of the building where Gabe Evans' office is located. Parking is available in the lot across the street. Protest is not permitted in the building because there is a law that no protest can be within 100 feet of a medical facility and there is a medical office in this building. Important note: The church next door is very supportive and they welcome food donations for their food pantry! Please consider a donation of any non-perishable food items, if you can.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Northglenn District Office","address":"10701 Melody Dr, ","city":"Northglenn","state":"CO","zip":"80234","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/766505/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IND%20Basic_20250519190849368244.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"766505","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T00:01:45.686Z"},{"id":"mobilize-823545","title":"Postcard Writing with Women's Think Tank of Tacoma","description":"Join Women's Think Tank of Tacoma and Friends to support Postcard writing at the Central Co-Op, 4502 N Pearl Street, Tacoma, WA from 10am-12pm. We are starting up again January 2nd. We have much to do in preparation for the 2026 Midterms! It will take every one of us to encourage others to get out and vote in 2026.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Central Co-op","address":"4502 N Pearl St, In the Meeting Room","city":"Tacoma","state":"WA","zip":"98407","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/gritcitycommunitycollective/event/823545/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/WTTT%20Collage%208-24_20251121030310856833.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"823545","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T00:01:57.758Z"},{"id":"mobilize-845866","title":"Activate & Caffeinate BR Local Love Biz & Food Drive","description":"We're excited to announce that we have a new Local Love partner! To celebrate, Tempe Rising members wearing their official t-shirt will receive 20% off your bill. Join Tempe Rising Indivisible: Activate and Caffeinate, where we're brewing up community and action! This chapter is dedicated to empowering Tempe residents to engage effectively in local and national politics. We provide a space to share ideas, learn strategies for impactful advocacy, and collaborate on campaigns that align with Indivisible's mission. If you're ready to activate your civic power and energize your efforts for justice and accountability, you've found your people.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Tempe","state":"AZ","zip":"85282","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/temperisingindivisible/event/845866/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Coffee%20Business%20Logo%20with%20Sun%20Elements_20250929230405064825_20260323005546309888.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"845866","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:44.264Z"},{"id":"mobilize-783919","title":"“Our Schools Our Power” Quarterly Organizing Meet-Ups","description":"Hosted by the Our Schools Our Power Campaign Support Team: People’s Action Institute, Building Power Resource Center (BPRC), HEAL Together/Public School Strong, We Build Progress, and UndauntedK12. Zoom link provided upon registration. We believe in high quality public education and that our schools are the foundation for a just, democratic, healthy, and equitable society. No matter our race, income, or zip code, every child deserves to learn and grow in a great school. Communities across the U.S. are organizing to strengthen our local public schools, making them healthier and more resilient in the face of climate change. Connect and strategize with organizers, campaigners, and advocates advancing healthy, green, and just public schools. These will happen quarterly on Zoom - March 13, May 8, August 14, and November 13, 2026.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T17:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/peoplesactioninstitute/event/783919/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/sketch_book%20with%20sun%20%282%29_20250826195435551114.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"783919","scrapedAt":"2026-03-14T00:01:23.057Z"},{"id":"mobilize-798100","title":"FRIDAY Escondido Democracy Defenders!","description":"Join us every Friday from 10:30 at the corner of Broadway and Highway 78. Bring your protest signs and a folding chair if you can’t stand for an hour or so. We will have a food drive benefiting Interfaith Community Services in Escondido the last Friday of every month. Please bring non-perishable, new food items. https://interfaithservices.org/ Rallies are a great way to meet other like-minded community members. They remind us that we aren’t alone and it feels good to be civically engaged. Action is the antidote to despair. We guarantee you will feel better about the state of affairs when you leave this event. Please follow all posted rules and traffic laws when attending a rally. Safety is always our first priority. Safety patrol volunteers will be wearing bright vests - please comply with their requests at all times.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T17:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"California 78 & North Broadway, ","city":"Escondido","state":"CA","zip":"92025","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblenorthcountysandiego/event/798100/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_6163_20260108171055227497.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"798100","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T00:01:48.990Z"},{"id":"mobilize-805423","title":"Save Social Security Rally","description":"Social Security and Medicare is under attack We MUST garner public support to pressure our representatives to save these benefits. Join the RATT PACK, Placer Women Democrats, Indivisible and others at the Social Security office in Roseville. Fridays, now 11:00-12:00PM: 910 Cirby Way, Roseville Plenty of shade and parking. Bring a a sign, or grab one there.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"910 Cirby Way, ","city":"Roseville","state":"CA","zip":"95661","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/placerwomendemocrats/event/805423/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Soc%20Sec_20250618233310272439.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"805423","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T00:01:53.414Z"},{"id":"mobilize-765075","title":"FightBackFridays - Pasadena City College","description":"protest trump/musk every $&!@ friday afternoon Pasadena City College, Harbeson Hall noon-1PM wield signs, bring friends","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T19:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T20:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Colorado Blvd at Harkness, just North of Harbeson Hall","address":"1570 E Colorado Blvd, ","city":"Pasadena","state":"CA","zip":"91106","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/765075/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"765075","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:21.859Z"},{"id":"mobilize-775493","title":"Join Your Neighbors in Protest on the I-91 Overpass","description":"# I-91 Overpass Protests are on again! # JOIN YOUR NEIGHBORS ~ USE YOUR VOICE! ## EVERY Friday, from 4:00 - 5:00 ## Freedom for All. Justice for All. NO KINGS. If you believe in Demanding Due Process for All If you believe in the Power of Free Speech and Peaceful Protest If you believe in Remaining a Democracy instead of having a King If you believe in Having an Efficient, Effective government that Respects its Citizens If you believe ICE is NOT immune from following the LAW If you believe we've shed Enough Blood for Oil and Power If you believe the Epstein Files need to be released NOW **NOW is the time to voice your concern. Join Us in Protest of What's Happening!** Exit 2 is the only overpass where many protesters with signs are appropriate. Other overpasses are better for banners and flags and fewer people BUT we do welcome people to come to other overpasses and share the energy! - Tyler Hill Road I-91 overpass - Western Ave Exit 2, South side of the I-91 bridge overpass - Please do not park or stand anywhere near the Deli OR block ANY driveways. PLEASE Respect Our Neighbors! - Black Mountain Rd. I-91 overpass - I-91 bridge overpass Putney Exit 4 – Please do not park in local business parking lots. Bring Yourself, a Friend, your Kids, a Sign, a Banner on POSTS, a Flag or Upside down flag to support your community! Voice your opposition to the threat on OUR Democracy, our Community and our Environment! These protests are Self-Policed. Please keep yourself and your fellow protesters safe. Stay alert. **A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.** Hosted by Indivisible Brattleboro Contact: indibrattleboro@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T19:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T20:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"350 Western Ave, ","city":"Brattleboro","state":"VT","zip":"05301","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/775493/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"775493","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:25.874Z"},{"id":"mobilize-832294","title":"Show Up / Speak Out: Williamsport Fight Back Fridays","description":"**Show Up / Speak Out: Protest With a Purpose** **Williamsport Fight Back Fridays** Our communities in the 9th District deserve to be heard. That’s why we launched Show Up / Speak Out, a weekly campaign to deliver letters and petitions, share our stories, stand up for our communities, and demand action from our legislators. **Congressman Dan Meuser has gone far too long without being held accountable to his constituents, but we’re not going to let him get away with that anymore.** 📣 If we can’t get in the door, we’ll make our voices heard outside. ✊ Whether constituents get a visit or it’s strictly a protest with a purpose, we’ll be there — every week. 🗓️ Fridays from 3pm to 4pm – Outside Congressman Dan Meuser’s office (330 Pine Street - Williamsport, PA 17701). We’ll be there – same time/same place – every week. 🏢 We’re gathering outside Meuser’s office, but it’s about more than any one elected official. It’s about holding our representatives accountable at the federal, state, AND local level and fighting for what we deserve. **This is what democracy looks like here in northeastern PA - we show up and we speak out.** We’re excited to work alongside Williamsport 50501 for Fight Back Fridays! Action Together NEPA is proud to host these actions as part of the Pennsylvanians Together coalition, working together to create a commonwealth where we all can thrive, not just survive. We work to hold our elected leaders accountable and empower constituents to take action.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T19:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T20:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Outside Congressman Dan Meuser's Office","address":"330 Pine St, ","city":"Williamsport","state":"PA","zip":"17701","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/atnepa/event/832294/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Williamsport%20Fight%20Back%20Fridays_20251023011028865248.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"832294","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:40.565Z"},{"id":"mobilize-807326","title":"Rally for Democracy","description":"This a local Indivisible event! *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.* We rally on the public sidewalk on the NE corner of Georgia Ave and Forest Glen Rd in support of democracy. Our gathering is kid and dog-friendly: bring a neighbor! Bring your signs in support of: government workers, immigrants, the rule of law, the planet, our children, and for jobs.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T20:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Georgia Avenue & Forest Glen Road, NE Corner of intersection","city":"Forest Glen","state":"MD","zip":"20910","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/807326/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"807326","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:33.722Z"},{"id":"mobilize-841321","title":"Freedom Fridays: Durham","description":"Please join Engaged Defenders for Democracy every Friday 4-5:00pm at South Roxboro St. & Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, Durham, NC 27713. This will be a POSITIVE and nonviolent demonstration. We are here to protect our democracy. We are standing up for what we believe in. We want to inspire people to join us and grow our movement! Please bring positive signs only. Some examples: Instead of \"Stop defunding science\" Say \"Protect Research\" \"Immigrants make us stronger\" \"Housing for all\" \"Healthcare for all\" \"Save the planet\" Make signs about what you're standing up for -- whether that is the libraries, DEI, healthcare, women’s rights Please no mocking signs, no swastikas We are excited to see you there and stand together for our country! See you every Friday engaging drivers in Durham. Please join our Substack: https://substack.com/profile/115484101-engaged-defenders-4-democracy For more ED4D Mobilize Events: https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T20:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T21:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"South Roxboro St. & Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, ","city":"Durham","state":"NC","zip":"27713","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/event/841321/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot%202025-09-09%20at%202.18.57%E2%80%AFPM_20250915233314244600.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"841321","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:40.936Z"},{"id":"mobilize-841368","title":"Freedom Fridays: Cary","description":"Please join Cary Indivisible and Engaged Defenders for Democracy every Friday 4-5:30pm at 327 S. Academy St. Cary NC. They met in Downtown Cary by the water fountain. This will be a POSITIVE and nonviolent demonstration. We are here to protect our democracy. We are standing up for what we believe in. We want to inspire people to join us and grow our movement! Please bring positive signs only. Some examples: Instead of \"Stop defunding science\" Say \"Protect Research\" \"Immigrants make us stronger\" \"Housing for all\" \"Healthcare for all\" \"Save the planet\" Make signs about what you're standing up for -- whether that is the libraries, DEI, healthcare, women’s rights Please no mocking signs, no swastikas We are excited to see you there and stand together for our country! See you every Friday engaging drivers in Cary. Please join our Substack: https://substack.com/profile/115484101-engaged-defenders-4-democracy For more ED4D Mobilize Events: https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T20:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T21:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"327 S Academy St, ","city":"Cary","state":"NC","zip":"27511","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/event/841368/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ED4D%20Logos_20260215022133407079.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"841368","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:40.936Z"},{"id":"mobilize-841392","title":"Freedom Fridays: Raleigh Brier Creek","description":"Please join Engaged Defenders for Democracy every Friday 4-6 pm at Brier Creek on corner with Starbucks: 7854 Alexander Prom Pl, Raleigh, NC 27617; park at Walmart). This will be a POSITIVE and nonviolent demonstration. We are here to protect our democracy. We are standing up for what we believe in. We want to inspire people to join us and grow our movement! Please bring positive signs only. Some examples: Instead of \"Stop defunding science\" Say \"Protect Research\" \"Immigrants make us stronger\" \"Housing for all\" \"Healthcare for all\" \"Save the planet\" Make signs about what you're standing up for -- whether that is the libraries, DEI, healthcare, women’s rights Please no mocking signs, no swastikas We are excited to see you there and stand together for our country! See you every Friday engaging drivers at Brier Creek in Raleigh. Please join our Substack: https://substack.com/profile/115484101-engaged-defenders-4-democracy For more ED4D Mobilize Events: https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T20:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"7854 Alexander Prom Pl, ","city":"Raleigh","state":"NC","zip":"27617","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/event/841392/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/FF%20Brier%20Creek_20260215021455408162.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"841392","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:40.936Z"},{"id":"mobilize-842492","title":"Freedom Fridays: Wilson","description":"Please join Engaged Defenders for Democracy every Friday 3:30-5 pm at Lidl's at 3520 Raleigh Rd Pkwy W Wilson, NC 27896. It's on the corner of Airport Rd, and Raleigh Rd Parkway. This will be a POSITIVE and nonviolent demonstration. We are here to protect our democracy. We are standing up for what we believe in. We want to inspire people to join us and grow our movement! Please bring positive signs only. Some examples: Instead of \"Stop defunding science\" Say \"Protect Research\" \"Immigrants make us stronger\" \"Housing for all\" \"Healthcare for all\" \"Save the planet\" Make signs about what you're standing up for -- whether that is the libraries, DEI, healthcare, women’s rights Please no mocking signs, no swastikas We are excited to see you there and stand together for our country! See you every Friday engaging drivers in Wilson! Please join our Substack: https://substack.com/profile/115484101-engaged-defenders-4-democracy For more ED4D Mobilize Events: https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T20:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"3520 Raleigh Rd Pkwy W, ","city":"Wilson","state":"NC","zip":"27896","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/event/842492/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot%202025-09-09%20at%202.18.57%E2%80%AFPM_20250909181917789953.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"842492","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:40.936Z"},{"id":"mobilize-799420","title":"TESLA TAKEDOWN M-W-F 3-4:30 PM","description":"JOIN US TO SHOW TRUMP AND MUSK THAT WE WILL NOT LET THEM DESTROY AMERICA. EVERY MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY FROM 3-4:30 PM WE WILL RALLY IN FRONT OF THE TESLA DEALERSHIP IN KC AT 10111 State Line Rd, Kansas City, MO 64114 BRING YOUR SIGNS AND YOUR ENERGY...THIS IS A PEACEFUL RALLY! *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T20:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T21:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"10111 State Line Rd, ","city":"Kansas City","state":"MO","zip":"64114","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/799420/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"799420","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:41.142Z"},{"id":"mobilize-795684","title":"Rensselaer Honk, Wave & Protest","description":"This a local Indivisible event! Park along 10th st or Farley drive. Bring your signs or I have some to share. Bring bells or noisy things if you like. We will be on the sidewalk by the stoplight and will spread out based on attendance. Bring a friend! *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T20:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T21:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Washington Avenue at I-90 exit 7 stoplight","address":"Washington Ave, ","city":"Rensselaer","state":"NY","zip":"12144","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/795684/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"795684","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:29.323Z"},{"id":"mobilize-806018","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - I-485 S Overpass","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T20:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T21:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"I-485 Overpass at Elm Ln","address":"10800 Elm Ln, ","city":"Charlotte","state":"NC","zip":"28277","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/806018/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331190953065304.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"806018","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:33.722Z"},{"id":"mobilize-841288","title":"Freedom Fridays: Fuquay-Varina","description":"Please join Engaged Defenders for Democracy every Friday 4:30-6pm at 5905 NC-55, Fuquay-Varina, NC 27526. Corner of 401 and 55. Small parking lot of the 55 side. Overflow parking, Sheetz or Circle K. This will be a POSITIVE and nonviolent demonstration. We are here to protect our democracy. We are standing up for what we believe in. We want to inspire people to join us and grow our movement! Please bring positive signs only. Some examples: Instead of \"Stop defunding science\" Say \"Protect Research\" \"Immigrants make us stronger\" \"Housing for all\" \"Healthcare for all\" \"Save the planet\" Make signs about what you're standing up for -- whether that is the libraries, DEI, healthcare, women’s rights, peace. Please no mocking signs, no swastikas We are excited to see you there and stand together for our country! See you every Friday engaging drivers in Fuquay-Varina. Please join our Substack: https://substack.com/profile/115484101-engaged-defenders-4-democracy For more ED4D Mobilize Events: https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T20:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"5905 NC-55, ","city":"Fuquay-Varina","state":"NC","zip":"27526","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/event/841288/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/FF%20F-V_20260215022450405211.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"841288","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:40.936Z"},{"id":"mobilize-788703","title":"Pop up demonstration for the protection of OUR Constitution","description":"To protectors of the US Constitution, Mark Twain wrote, “Patriotism is supporting your country all of the time and your government when it deserves it”. We currently have a government regime led by a cruel, corrupt, lawless pathological liar supported by a group of authoritarian gaslighting sycophants. This regime does not deserve our support. It deserves our resistance! The Framers of the U.S. Constitution created the Bill of Rights and placed Freedom of Assembly, Speech, and Petition of government grievances in the First Amendment in order for action to be taken in times like these. EVERY SINGLE DAY this regime is violating our Constitution. This regime is invading sovereign countries. Masked lawless federal “agents” are kidnapping our neighbors and now killing citizens in our neighborhoods. To be clear, we respect and appreciate ethical and community-minded law enforcement officers. We RESIST brutality, lawlessness, and lack of accountability by ICE. This rally is part of a campaign of recurring “pop-up” rallies at various locations throughout Onondaga County Saturdays 11-12pm. New weekly location will be announced every Monday for that Friday. Raise your voice with a community of protectors of the Constitution and human rights by peacefully assembling together to exercise our First Amendment rights! In the influential footsteps of Gandhi, Dr. King, Thich Nhat Hahn, and Susan B Anthony, non-violence is not only a strategy for direct action to save our democracy, but a shared value in our personal conduct. We are a peaceful, yet assertive movement. Any suggestion otherwise is propaganda. We denounce political violence in the clearest and strongest possible terms. Additionally, we are an organization of VOLUNTEER activists, organizers, concerned community members, and other protectors of our Constitution. We care about our community and our country. We RESIST authoritarianism from the megalomaniac in the White House. We are NOT paid. Any suggestion otherwise is propaganda. Dealing with counter-protestors: We have the First Amendment right of peaceful assembly free of threat or intimidation. We value a safe, welcoming, inclusive, and family-friendly atmosphere when we assemble to celebrate our Constitution. Sadly, some of our neighbors do not value the First Amendment as we do and will approach us with taunts and hostility. Do NOT take the bait. Do not engage. Ignore them. It denies them the attention that they want. Our power does not come from escalating with those who seek to disrupt our celebration of our Constitution. Our collective power comes from adherence to truth and morality, from the care of our neighbors, and from our discipline and dedication in saving our democracy. Stay focused on our goals. Take comfort knowing that all of our actions are in alignment our Constitution. If you ever feel threatened by counter-protestors, don’t hesitate to call the police. In the words of Dr. King, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”. In solidarity, Chad","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Assemble on public sidewalks at intersection of","address":"West Genesee Street & North Burdick Street, ","city":"Fayetteville","state":"NY","zip":"13066","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisibleonondagacounty/event/788703/","image":"","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"788703","scrapedAt":"2026-04-25T06:01:33.445Z"},{"id":"mobilize-791901","title":"Highway Signs: I-71","description":"Join us as we wave at rush hour drivers from the footbridge over I-71. We will supply the giant signs. If you have flags or something else to bring to wave, feel free. Through the winter, if the temperature 'feels like' 20+ degrees, we'll plan to be out on the footbridge. In the event of inclement weather, this event will be cancelled. Beginning March 6,2026, our hours will move to 5-6pm.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"I-71 Footbridge","address":"Park near 1059 E Lincoln Ave, ","city":"Columbus","state":"OH","zip":"43229","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecentralohio/event/791901/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/I-71Aug8-25_20250811233311012974.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"791901","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:29.323Z"},{"id":"mobilize-792716","title":"Choose Democracy Action on the Common","description":"Join us for the weekly action on the common protesting the current administration and sharing our vision for a community centered on love. Dozens of signs are available. We center on positive messages defending democracy, due process, the constitution, and migrant rights.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"75 Great Rd, ","city":"Bedford","state":"MA","zip":"01730","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/choosedemocracybedford/event/792716/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Banner%20%282%29_20250516122525436882.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"792716","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:29.323Z"},{"id":"mobilize-828747","title":"Women in Black","description":"Weekly - 5:00 p.m. Fridays at Congress Square, Portland, Maine","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T21:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Congress Square Park","address":"High and Congress streets, ","city":"Portland","state":"ME","zip":"04101","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/womeninblack/event/828747/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_6776_20250814150128747346.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"828747","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:37.252Z"},{"id":"mobilize-681204","title":"Join Fridays “Happy Hour” Friday @5CDT Zoom: Reactions 2 SCOTUS-VRA & Your May May Day Actions","description":"#### Join Fridays “Happy Hour” Friday @5CDT Zoom: Reactions 2 SCOTUS-VRA & Your May May Day Actions Every Friday for the last 5 years & 9 months … continuing strong! #### Your ZOOM Link is attached for Today’s 5 PM CT “Happy/Unhappy/Happy Hour” .. Reactions to the SCOTUS-Voting Rights Act Overturn & Your May May Day Actions .. let’s share your thoughts_ #### Let us know you will be Attending at 5 Central.. RSVP now:** link to rsvp-> [https://mobilize.us/s/0RUsrK] On April 29, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court (6-3) significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in Louisiana v. Callais, ruling that a majority-Black congressional district was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. This decision limits Section 2 of the VRA, making it harder to challenge voting maps that dilute minority voting power and creating high barriers for alleging racial discrimination in redistricting More than 3,000 demonstrations unfolded Friday as workers, students, and families boycotted work, school, and shopping to protest Trump administration policies. • Over 500 organizations backed the “May Day Strong” rallies in all 50 states, demanding higher taxes on the wealthy, expanded democracy, and an end to corporate influence in government.[newsweek +1] • In North Carolina, at least 22 school districts canceled classes after mass teacher absences for a Raleigh rally demanding $20,000 per-student funding by 2030.[newsobserver +1] _Typically we like to hear.. What is/are you/your groups plans fo Resist \" .. We want to know WHAT YOUR OR YOUR Groups are doing to Rally, organize and educate .. are you becoming \"Strategically Non-Cooperative\" .. but this week Share your plans for the May Day actions / protests.. Are you just watching, or are you ready to **DO something?** The time to act is **NOW**. **Join us this Friday, at 5 PM CT** for a fast-paced, no-holds-barred Zoom conversation. --- - For the YouTube Live videos last few weeks - www.NWSOFA.org - click here (Fiscal & Economics, Climate & Enviromental, Restore Our Democracy (ROD), SORTING soup and How too/ Hands On sessions) -> -> https://www.youtube.com/@nwsofa6290/streams #### ZOOM link - Click Here at 4:55 pm central to attend the 5PM CT… -> Happy Hour.. Every Friday @ 5 CDT -> https://bit.ly/NWSOFA-Zoom","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"60008","address":", ","city":"Rolling Meadows","state":"IL","zip":"60008","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/681204/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"681204","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:14.476Z"},{"id":"mobilize-742785","title":"Join Fridays “Happy Hour” Friday @5CDT Zoom: Reactions 2 SCOTUS-VRA & Your May May Day Actions","description":"#### Join Fridays “Happy Hour” Friday @5CDT Zoom: Reactions 2 SCOTUS-VRA & Your May May Day Actions Every Friday for the last 5 years & 9 months … continuing strong! #### Your ZOOM Link is attached for Today’s 5 PM CT “Happy/Unhappy/Happy Hour” .. Reactions to the SCOTUS-Voting Rights Act Overturn & Your May May Day Actions .. let’s share your thoughts_ #### Let us know you will be Attending at 5 Central.. RSVP now:** link to rsvp-> [https://mobilize.us/s/0RUsrK] On April 29, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court (6-3) significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in Louisiana v. Callais, ruling that a majority-Black congressional district was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. This decision limits Section 2 of the VRA, making it harder to challenge voting maps that dilute minority voting power and creating high barriers for alleging racial discrimination in redistricting More than 3,000 demonstrations unfolded Friday as workers, students, and families boycotted work, school, and shopping to protest Trump administration policies. • Over 500 organizations backed the “May Day Strong” rallies in all 50 states, demanding higher taxes on the wealthy, expanded democracy, and an end to corporate influence in government.[newsweek +1] • In North Carolina, at least 22 school districts canceled classes after mass teacher absences for a Raleigh rally demanding $20,000 per-student funding by 2030.[newsobserver +1] _Typically we like to hear.. What is/are you/your groups plans fo Resist \" .. We want to know WHAT YOUR OR YOUR Groups are doing to Rally, organize and educate .. are you becoming \"Strategically Non-Cooperative\" .. but this week Share your plans for the May Day actions / protests.. Are you just watching, or are you ready to **DO something?** The time to act is **NOW**. **Join us this Friday, at 5 PM CT** for a fast-paced, no-holds-barred Zoom conversation. --- - For the YouTube Live videos last few weeks - www.NWSOFA.org - click here (Fiscal & Economics, Climate & Enviromental, Restore Our Democracy (ROD), SORTING soup and How too/ Hands On sessions) -> -> https://www.youtube.com/@nwsofa6290/streams #### ZOOM link - Click Here at 4:55 pm central to attend the 5PM CT… -> Happy Hour.. Every Friday @ 5 CDT -> https://bit.ly/NWSOFA-Zoom","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-08T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"60008","address":", ","city":"Rolling Meadows","state":"IL","zip":"60008","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/742785/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"742785","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:14.476Z"},{"id":"mobilize-762716","title":"Save Our Democracy","description":"This a local Indivisible event! Join Indivisible Claremont/Inland Valley as we protest the anti-democratic actions of the current regime in Washington DC. We’ll be gathering at the intersection of Foothill and Indian Hill Blvds from 3:30 to 5:30 PM every Friday. Bring signs that address those transgressions that matter most to you! Bring friends! *A core principle behind all No Kings events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"North Indian Hill Boulevard & Foothill Boulevard, ","city":"Claremont","state":"CA","zip":"91711","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/762716/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"762716","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:21.859Z"},{"id":"mobilize-807196","title":"Feminist Generation Info Session","description":"Are you ready to build feminism for our generation? Join Feminist Generation for an info session to learn all about how YOU can plug in to our membership-based organization uniting young people across the country to build intersectional gender justice. Our info sessions walk interested feminists through Feminist Generation's mission, structure, ongoing campaigns, and how you can take action with us. These info sessions happen on a monthly basis. Feminist Generation builds power and shifts culture, material conditions, and public policy through base-building, direct action, political education, training programs, artivism, and mutual aid. We organize from the ground up at the local, state, and national levels, disrupting oppressive systems and demanding a world where gender justice isn't just promised, but practiced. Our membership is free and open to 13-35 year olds of all identities. Learn more at FeministGeneration.Org. Reach out to Grace@feministgeneration.org with questions.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/feministgeneration/event/807196/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/1T4A2022_20250624174145442021.JPG","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"807196","scrapedAt":"2026-04-24T06:01:48.162Z"},{"id":"mobilize-776124","title":"Friday Rush Hour with 48th Street RESISTANCE","description":"Make some good trouble -every Friday Rush Hour! 48th St bridge over Hwy 50 You can show up and wave, show up and get trained on running a deck and you can bring your own banner or protest signs! This is a crisis, and the time to act is now. By standing up, your bravery spreads. We bring good trouble, joy, a demand for justice and a beautiful community. Our message to the world that we do not consent to the destruction of our government and our economy for the benefit of Trump and his billionaire allies. Alongside Americans across the country, we are marching, rallying, and protesting to demand a stop the chaos and build an opposition movement against the looting of our country. We want a world for all living creatures. NO KING IN AMERICA. DUE PROCESS FOR ALL. HEALTH CARE FOR ALL. HUMANITY. EMPATHY. ABOLISH ICE. WE LOVE PEOPLE Social security stays. ICE OUT. WE SUPPORT VETERANS. UNMASK. We will sacrifice NO ONE! JAIL ALL THE PEDOS - JUSTICE FOR SURVIVORS. ICE CAMPS KILL. NO WAR FILES INTO TRIALS TRANS VISIBILITY TAX THE EPSTEIN CLASS Primaries matter! Please follow along and VOTE! 4:00pm - 6:00pm We stand up in peaceful protest which is our constitutional right. Donald Trump and Peter Theil think this country belongs to them. ICE agents, CA Guard and the Marines that have been turned into pawns and WE SAY NO! This is a crisis, and the time to act is now. We bring good trouble, joy justice and a beautiful community. Our message to the world that we do not consent to the destruction of our government and our economy for the benefit of Trump and his billionaire allies. Alongside Americans across the country, we are marching, rallying, and protesting to demand a stop the chaos and build an opposition movement against the looting of our country. We want a world for all living creatures.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"1800 48th St, ","city":"Sacramento","state":"CA","zip":"95819","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/cap25/event/776124/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_8752_20260410062804315039.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"776124","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:25.874Z"},{"id":"mobilize-823132","title":"Banners Over I-5: No War In Iran","description":"TIME CHANGE: The May 1 banner drop will be at 3:30 PM. Please join IGV and our partner organizations at Esther Short Park at 5 PM for May Day Strong! Join Indivisible Greater Vancouver for a Banner Drop over I-5! Trump’s war on Iran has killed more than a 1,200 civilians, including school children, and at least 13 US service members. It has cost at least $16.5 billion. Gas prices are soaring at home. Trump has given no credible reason for starting the war and no clear path to get out. Join IGV and MoveOn-Clark County to protest Trump’s illegal, unconstitutional and imperialistic war from 4-5 pm every Friday in April on the I-5 overpass on East Evergreen Boulevard, just east of the Vancouver Community Library. Bring signs saying, “No War in Iran,” “No Kings, No Wars,” “No Wars, No ICE, No Kings,” etc. When: Fridays 4-5 PM Where: I-5 Overpass at E. Evergreen Blvd (just past the Vancouver Community Library) Let’s be seen and make our message loud and clear! Bring your energy—and your own sign if you’d like—to express how you feel. Let’s show them we’re not backing down. Your safety is our top concern. If you need assistance, please reach out to the organizers. If you are concerned about your ability to stand or walk outside during hot temperatures, please stay home! IGV is deeply committed to nonviolence as both a principle and a strategy. We at IGV strongly believe that peaceful, nonviolent activism offers social movements the most power to effect change. Through peaceful protests, we set an example of making our voices heard with dignity, empowered by truth. IGV does not condone intimidation, threats, vandalism, interference with access to business or any other lawless actions. If instigators or opponents attempt to violate our commitment to non-violence, we will try to de-escalate and end the event if needed to maintain a safe environment. You can read more about Indivisible’s national commitment to nonviolence here: 🔗 indivisible.org/commitment-nonviolence We also value and are guided by the research of Dr. Erica Chenoweth, whose work shows that nonviolent movements are significantly more successful than violent ones in achieving lasting social and political transformation: 🔗 Paths to Resistance – Harvard Kennedy School Together, we stand strong, peaceful, and resolute—because nonviolence is not passive. It is powerful.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-08T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"I-5 Overpass @ E Evergreen Blvd","address":"500 E Evergreen Blvd, ","city":"Vancouver","state":"WA","zip":"98660","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible-greater-vancouver/event/823132/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/banners_mayday_20260501014442291803.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"823132","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:37.252Z"},{"id":"mobilize-806323","title":"GOOD TROUBLE FRIDAYS - WEEKLY PROTEST","description":"This a local Indivisible West CoCo County (IWCCC) event! \"Speak up, speak out, get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” That was the message from the legendary John Lewis to all of us who fight for justice and freedom. It is that message that we carry with us as we face the greatest threat to our freedom and democracy since the Civil War. Join us every Friday, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm at the corner of San Pablo Dam Road and Appian Way. We bring the hope and commitment carried by John Lewis throughout his life to the streets of our West County community. ON-GOING FOOD, TOWEL & TOILETRIES DRIVE: If you can, bring a can or box of food for our community (no glass) &/or shower amenities for the unhoused in our local community. Bring signs, peaceful energy, friends, flags, chants, etc. \"Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble,\" Congressman John Lewis. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"San Pablo Dam Road & Appian Way, ","city":"El Sobrante","state":"CA","zip":"94803","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/806323/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"806323","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T06:01:33.722Z"},{"id":"mobilize-774947","title":"Weekly Napa Rally to Resist the Trump/Musk/GOP Regime!","description":"This a local Indivisible event! This is a peaceful protest to support the rights of ALL Americans and show RESISTANCE to the current Trump/Musk/GOP regime's dismantling of our Government services, destruction of our economy and headlong descent into oligarchy and authoritarianism. Veterans are invited as we Support and Respect all those that have served our Country. Bring a sign, a friend, your good humor and enthusiasm. JOIN US in Napa!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Soscol Avenue & 3rd Street, ","city":"Napa","state":"CA","zip":"94559","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/774947/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"774947","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T06:02:02.050Z"},{"id":"mobilize-599464","title":"Fayette County Democratic Committee Monthly Business Meeting","description":"The Fayette County Democratic Committee hosts a monthly business meeting on the 2nd Saturday of each month. From 9:00 AM until 11:00 AM at the Fayetteville IHOP, \"Pancakes & Politics\" is the perfect way to meet Fayette Democrats and get more involved in our local organizing efforts. Features talks by prospective candidates, elected officials, notable Democrats, non-partisan advocacy groups, and more! Breakfast available to order with table service during the full meeting. Visit our Facebook, Instagram, or Threads accounts for information on upcoming meetings. View our website's events page, gafayettedems.org/events, to register for P&P's Zoom Livestream and see other upcoming events.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T13:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"IHOP","address":"705 N Jeff Davis Dr, ","city":"Fayetteville","state":"GA","zip":"30214","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/georgiademocrats/event/599464/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/win%20the%20whole%20dem%20thing_mobilize_v3_20210223222835563987.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"599464","scrapedAt":"2026-04-12T00:01:22.772Z"},{"id":"mobilize-843293","title":"Defend Democracy Saturdays: Morrisville","description":"Please join Engaged Defenders for Democracy every Saturday 9-11 am at the intersection of Morrisville Carpenter Road and Davis Drive. Please do not park or walk on Grace Park property with your signs. This will be a POSITIVE and nonviolent demonstration. We are here to protect our democracy. We are standing up for what we believe in. We want to inspire people to join us and grow our movement! Please bring positive signs only. Some examples: Instead of \"Stop defunding science\" Say \"Protect Research\" \"Immigrants make us stronger\" \"Housing for all\" \"Healthcare for all\" \"Save the planet\" Make signs about what you're standing up for -- whether that is the libraries, DEI, healthcare, women’s rights Please no mocking signs, no swastikas We are excited to see you there and stand together for our country! See you every Saturday morning engaging drivers in Morrisville! Please join our Substack: https://substack.com/profile/115484101-engaged-defenders-4-democracy For more ED4D Mobilize Events: https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T13:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Morrisville Carpenter Road & Davis Drive, ","city":"Morrisville","state":"NC","zip":"27560","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/event/843293/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ED4D%20Logos_20260215021654241569.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"843293","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-805158","title":"Canton Courage","description":"Join us every Saturday to stand up for democracy and fight back against the corruption, cruelty and lawlessness of the Trump administration. Please bring signs if you have them. This is a peaceful protest.* Let us build community and solidarity by increasing our visibility. Courage is contagious. Please bring signs. Hosted by community members and Indivisible Farmington Valley. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T13:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T14:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Canton Town Green","address":"Dowd Avenue & Albany Turnpike, ","city":"Canton","state":"CT","zip":"06019","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/805158/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"805158","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:36.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-835561","title":"Hilliard Pop-Up Protest","description":"Pop-up Protest in Hilliard Gather in front in of Hilliard Crossing Elementary School. Bring your signs and join us! The parking lot is back by the school. We park in the grass along the entry drive. Please note: this protest is a grassroots effort and not centrally located. Whoever shows up, shows up! If you are there, there's a protest! We are not likely to send out notices about weather or cancellations. Thanks!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T13:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T14:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Cross Creek park","address":"3311 Hilliard Rome Rd, ","city":"Hilliard","state":"OH","zip":"43026","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecentralohio/event/835561/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Jen%27s%20Popup%20graphic_20250925192012267536.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"835561","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-742870","title":"Democratic Women's Club of Lee County","description":"Be a part of our monthly [Democratic Women's Club of Lee County](https://dwc-lee.org/) meeting! All are welcome. You must be a registered Democrat to become a voting member.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T14:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Quality Life Center of SW Fl","address":"3210 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, ","city":"Fort Myers","state":"FL","zip":"33916","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/leecountydec/event/742870/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Estero%20Club%20%282%29_20241114152402408296.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"742870","scrapedAt":"2026-04-12T00:01:26.322Z"},{"id":"mobilize-810170","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Southpark","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T14:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Southpark (Fairview & Sharon)","address":"Fairview Road & Sharon Road, ","city":"Charlotte","state":"NC","zip":"28210","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/810170/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331195227175149.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"810170","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:36.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-823374","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Matthews Township","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T14:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Matthews Township","address":"Matthews Township Parkway & Northeast Parkway, ","city":"Matthews","state":"NC","zip":"28105","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/823374/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331195223934789.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"823374","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:40.968Z"},{"id":"mobilize-836748","title":"Protect Our Democracy","description":"Calling all concerned citizens. Stand with us against the pervasive corruption within the Trump administration. From self-enrichment and conflicts of interest to the weakening of ethics regulations and the undermining of accountability, the integrity of our government is at stake. Join us in peaceful protest to demand transparency, uphold the rule of law, and fight for a government that truly serves the people, not the elite. Your presence is crucial in this fight for a more just and honest democracy. This a local Indivisible event! A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T14:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"The Hudson Rotary","address":"3 Washington St, ","city":"Hudson","state":"MA","zip":"01749","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/836748/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"836748","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-842514","title":"Defend Democracy Saturdays: Downtown Durham","description":"Please join Engaged Defenders for Democracy every Saturday from 10am-11:30am with signs to protect our democracy and protest the violations to our Constitution. We will meet at the YMCA at 218 West Morgan St. We need to fight for our democracy and stop and prevent future cuts that are hurting many. Bring friends! Bring signs that show your concern or are a call to action. Please avoid triggering images like swastikas. See you every Saturday morning engaging drivers & pedestrians in Downtown Durham! Please join our Substack: https://substack.com/profile/115484101-engaged-defenders-4-democracy For more ED4D Mobilize Events: https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T14:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T15:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"218 W Morgan St, ","city":"Durham","state":"NC","zip":"27701","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/event/842514/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Defend%20Democracy%20Durham_20260325185355547976.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"842514","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-805024","title":"Democracy Needs You. NOW.","description":"Protest near OP Farmers' Market Every Saturday | 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. NEW LOCATION!! Metcalf at 75th Street Why start one here and now? • This time doesn’t interfere with any other protests. (In fact, you can hop in your car and head over to the incredible Lenexa protest when you’re done.) • Protests are an incredibly effective tool to turn the tide on authoritarianism. Read Why Civil Resistance Works by Erica Chenowith and Maria Stephan","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T14:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T15:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"West 75th Street & Metcalf Avenue, ","city":"Overland Park","state":"KS","zip":"66204","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/805024/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"805024","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:36.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-818461","title":"Rally for Freedom and Justice - PA-07 Northampton County (Bethlehem Twp)","description":"New location starting March 21! Join us to let the public know that Trump's Administration is leading to a totalitarian government.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T14:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T15:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"sidewalk in front of William Penn Park & Ride","address":"5715 William Penn Hwy, ","city":"Easton","state":"PA","zip":"18045","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/norcodemspa/event/818461/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/BethlehemTwp-protest_20250414173000928503.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"818461","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:40.968Z"},{"id":"mobilize-804048","title":"Resistance Overpass Visibility Brigade Southeast CT","description":"Resistance Overpass Visibility Brigade Protest Southeast CT 📢📢 Call to action! Cross Road bridge, Waterford Come help protest against Trump in the most visible way possible, by joining this Visibility Brigade! You can help send our message out to thousands of people as they drive through Waterford on I-95. The Trump regime is at its weakest point so far, and we need to keep up the pressure. Help save our country from this fascist regime. ⭐️ The more people we have out there, the greater our impact is! We will display flags, banners, and signs over the highway and also facing the local street. Waving to the cars helps engage them, and it’s great to hear them honking their support. If you bring signs, we recommend having fewer words with larger letters so they can be read. For those facing the highway, try to use letters 15 inches or larger ⭐️ NOTE: ⭐️⭐️ Nothing can be attached to the bridge. For safety reasons, ONLY CROSS the bridge at the light on the south end of the bridge (intersection with Waterford Pkwy, where the parking is noted above). ⭐️⭐️ *Conditions and weather permitting* Parking Details: Meet at 10:45 at the parking lot at Yale Health facility, Crossroads Professional Building, 196 Waterford Pkwy South, Waterford. Parkway South runs parallel to the highway on the south side. The parking lot is about 1/10 of a mile from the bridge. We will walk over together. MAP of protest location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/DwRrxsZHJuJnyrTT9 If you have any questions, contact us at VisibilityBrigadeSECT@Proton.ME A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"122 Cross Rd, ","city":"Waterford","state":"CT","zip":"06385","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/804048/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"804048","scrapedAt":"2026-04-27T00:01:27.538Z"},{"id":"mobilize-755184","title":"Fascistfighters rally","description":"Rally at Tesla showroom at 11-1pm Bring signs. We are tanking Tesla* 3530 Jackson Rd, Ann arbor, mi Dress for Michigan weather. Park at (quality) cinema now closed do not block driveways Keep moving on sidewalk Bring signs *Current Tesla stats: Deliveries Missed Estimates: Q1 2026 deliveries of 358,023 were below expectations, trailing the 423,000 peak from Q1 2023. Market Position Challenges: Tesla has lost its title as the world's largest EV maker to Chinese rival BYD, with significant sales declines observed in European markets like Sweden, France, and the Netherlands. Stock Volatility: Despite recent sales figures, Tesla stock remains under pressure, down roughly 20% for the year, as investors weigh the company's long-term prospects, against current performance.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Tesla showroom","address":"3530 Jackson Rd, Ann Arbor, mi, You can park at (quality) cinema nearby. Protest on sidewalks not block 2 driveways","city":"Ann Arbor","state":"MI","zip":"48103","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/facistfighters/event/755184/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot_2024-12-16-23-54-23-854~6_20250212050148479770.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"755184","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:21.528Z"},{"id":"mobilize-797327","title":"St. Albans Stands Up for Democracy","description":"### Our country is waiting for you to take a stand!!! Join your friends and neighbors who are already standing up for the Constitution, the rule of law, and our DEMOCRACY! Each Saturday, rain or shine, we will be a presence in St. Albans at the corner of Main and Fairfield St. from 11:00 to noon! We invite you to come out and join us! Bring your signs, your flags, and your positive energy! This weekly event is sponsored by Rail City Indivisible and the Franklin County Women for Democracy! *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Corner of Main St. and Fairfield St.","address":", ","city":"Saint Albans","state":"VT","zip":"05478","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/797327/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"797327","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:32.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-812078","title":"Tesla Takedown, Rockville, MD","description":"**We have Elon on the ropes. We can't let up now.** He's still the richest man in the world. He still wields enormous power. He is responsible for mass suffering and death. And he will cause more if we give him the chance to recover his reputation. After the 2020 election and January 6, a lot of people were convinced Donald Trump was toast. A lot of folks said \"Look forward, not backward,\" and he was never held accountable. Let's not make that mistake with Elon. **The stakes couldn’t be higher. No one is coming to save us. Not politicians, not the media, not the courts.** Tesla Takedown is a peaceful protest movement. We oppose violence, vandalism and destruction of property. This protest is a lawful exercise of our First Amendment right to peaceful assembly. Come with a friend and bring a sign! Bring boomboxes, musical instruments, and noisemakers! Children and pets are welcome. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Rockville Tesla","address":"1300 Rockville Pike, ","city":"Rockville","state":"MD","zip":"20852","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/812078/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"812078","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:36.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-819163","title":"Northern Vermont Stands Up for Democracy","description":"Authoritarianism is quickly creeping into our country and YOU are needed to stop it! Get off of the sidelines and join your friends and neighbors who are already standing up for the Constitution, the rule of law, and our DEMOCRACY! Each Saturday, rain or shine, we will show up and be a presence in Fairfax in front of the Community Center from 11:00 to noon! We invite you to come out and join us! Bring your signs, your flags, and your positive energy! This weekly event is sponsored by Green Mountain Alliance Indivisible. They are currently collecting food for the Fairfax Food Shelf during the rally. Feel free to bring your donation along and it will get to the food shelf. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Fairfax Community Center","address":"1210 Main St, ","city":"Fairfax","state":"VT","zip":"05454","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/819163/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"819163","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:40.968Z"},{"id":"mobilize-827784","title":"RAD R.O.A.R. (Rallying, Organizing And Resisting!) Protest!","description":"RAD will be meeting to protest this Saturday and for as long as it takes to speak out against the (fill in the blank) outrage of the moment!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"700 E Campbell Rd, ","city":"Richardson","state":"TX","zip":"75081","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/richardsonareademocrats/event/827784/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ROAR%20%20Graphic%20-%20Mobilize%20%281200%20x%20630%20px%29_20251020154821787292.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"827784","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:40.968Z"},{"id":"mobilize-832550","title":"Rage Against The Regime - Wendover Edition","description":"Come out to protest against Trump's authoritarian takeover of Washington! We will be lining up on Wendover Avenue in front of the Costco Plaza and Staples. For those with mobility issues, parking on the Panera side of the plaza is more flat or at Staples will be the best place to park. Bring your best signs and banners!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"4203 W Wendover Ave, ","city":"Greensboro","state":"NC","zip":"27407","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisibleguilford/event/832550/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Rage%20Against%20Mod%20BG%20FB%20EVENT_20250911093524909009.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"832550","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-834849","title":"Saturday Weekly Sign Wave and Pantry Collection - Annapolis Mall Sidewalks","description":"Saturday Sign Wave and Pantry Collection, every Saturday, 11-1 at the sidewalks of Annapolis Mall (corner of Bestgate Road and Generals Highway) in Parole. Bring shelf-stable food and/or basic baby and/or women's hygiene supplies for donation.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Northwest corner, sidewalks of Annapolis Mall","address":"2084 Generals Hwy, ","city":"Annapolis","state":"MD","zip":"21401","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/chesapeakeindivisible/event/834849/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_1420_20260402203758281422.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"834849","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-837137","title":"Rally for Democracy","description":"This a local Indivisible event! IndivisibleSouthPortland holds a rally every Saturday from 11-12 at Erskine Park on Broadway next to DunkinDonuts. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"634 Broadway, Broadway next to DunkinDonuts","city":"South Portland","state":"ME","zip":"04106","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/837137/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"837137","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-837686","title":"Fight for Democracy - Stop the War / Out with ICE [Tysons VA]","description":"Third Act and Indivisible are sponsoring this weekly Fight for Democracy - Stop the War - Out with ICE protest. We are grassroots groups in all 50 states that believe in the possibility of change and are doing the work to make it happen. We believe that we, the people, through our members, and along with many other organizations, and with millions of residents, can turn around the current march towards autocracy. BUT ONLY WITH YOUR HELP. We are facing attacks on the Constitution, the Rule of Law, every institution we cherish, and every racial, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic group in this country except that of the billionaire cronies of the regime. Our members will not stay silent, neither here in Northern Virginia nor throughout the country. When all of our values and everything this country stands for are under attack, what do we do? Stand up and fight back. Stand up and fight back against attacks on the First Amendment and Freedom of the Press. Stand up and fight back against the armed and masked secret police force unleashed from all restraints in order to invade our democratic cities and kidnap our hard-working, non-criminal immigrant neighbors. Stand up against the use of the military to incite chaos and confusion as an excuse to crack down on protestors in cities that are to be the military's \"training grounds.\" Stand up and fight back against hatred, bigotry, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and antisemitism. Stand up and fight back against the attacks on NIH, CDC, EPA, NPS, DOE, DOJ, CFPB, SSA, USAID, the Fed, universities, law firms, and non-profit organizations. And we do not forget about our fellow citizens of the world - the continuing and unending genocide in Gaza supported by US arms, the unprovoked atrocities by Russia against a Ukrainian democracy abandoned by the US, and the mind-numbing degree of starvation and disease in Africa caused by the dismantling of US AID. And NOW, we have had involuntarily thrust upon us the unprovoked and unjustified and totally immoral war in the Middle East started by the regime, which will solve nothing, cause immense suffering, and likely leave Iran worse off than before. And leave our national security in tatters. Our Putin/Orban/Kim Jon Un--loving dictator is in the process of taking away all of our Constitutional rights and trying to take away our humanity. STAND UP AGAINST IT ALL. Come out with signs, banners, horns, whistles, pots and pans - whatever you can think of to get the attention of your fellow citizens who are passing by and may not be as focused as they should be on the desperate state of our country. Stand up for the Constitution and for the Rule of Law. Stand up for Humanity. This is not the time to sit on the sidelines. This is a time for action! This a local Indivisible event! *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Westpark Dr and Route 7","address":"Gosnell Rd, ","city":"Tysons","state":"VA","zip":"22102","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/837686/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"837686","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-840114","title":"Stand Up CD 8","description":"We’re standing up to Donald Trump because Rep. Abe Hamadeh won’t! Join your neighbors for a peaceful, high-visibility protest as part of the Step Up CD-8 multi-site protest. While Trump and his billionaire friends dismantle our government for their own personal gain, CD-8 Congressman Abe Hamadeh has been hiding from constituents behind closed-door events with donors and MAGA voters. For months, concerned constituents across CD-8 have asked Rep. Abe Hamadeh to hold a public town hall and listen to the concerns of the people he was elected to represent. Instead, we’ve been met with silence — and even threats of arrest. When we demonstrated peacefully outside his office, his staff had a senior adult woman’s car towed. When our numbers grew, Hamadeh coordinated with GOP counter-protestors to obstruct our access to a public sidewalk. It’s clear: Hamadeh answers to Trump, not to us.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"North 35th Avenue & West Peoria Avenue, ","city":"Phoenix","state":"AZ","zip":"85029","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/desertprogressivesindivisible/event/840114/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/All%20Photos%20-%201%20of%201%20%283%29_20260410225007144645.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"840114","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-842512","title":"Rage Against The Regime Battleground Edition!","description":"Protest the Trump administration’s polices and encourage Americans to fight back! Bring signs! Parking In Lowes Home Improvement lot, in the parking lot by Starbucks and across the street by CVS and the Total Wine and More store.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"3001 Battleground Ave, ","city":"Greensboro","state":"NC","zip":"27408","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisibleguilford/event/842512/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot%202025-12-01%20085545_20251201135553611807.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"842512","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-842566","title":"Resist Westport Weekly Rally","description":"In a continuation of the Westport rallies this year, we will peacefully protest every Saturday from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM on the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge. Bring your posters, music, and positive energy! *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge","address":"1 Parker Harding Plaza, ","city":"Westport","state":"CT","zip":"06880","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/842566/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"842566","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-842843","title":"Defend Democracy Saturdays: Concerned Carolinians Hillsborough","description":"Please join Concerned Carolinians and Engaged Defenders for Democracy every Saturday 11am-12 pm at the Old Orange County Courthouse: 106 King Street Hillsborough. This will be a POSITIVE and nonviolent demonstration. We are here to protect our democracy. We are standing up for what we believe in. We want to inspire people to join us and grow our movement! Please bring positive signs only. Some examples: Instead of \"Stop defunding science\" Say \"Protect Research\" \"Immigrants make us stronger\" \"Housing for all\" \"Healthcare for all\" \"Save the planet\" Make signs about what you're standing up for -- whether that is the libraries, DEI, healthcare, women’s rights Please no mocking signs, no swastikas We are excited to see you there and stand together for our country! See you every Saturday engaging drivers in Hillsborough. Please join our Substack: https://substack.com/profile/115484101-engaged-defenders-4-democracy For more ED4D Mobilize Events: https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"106 E King St, ","city":"Hillsborough","state":"NC","zip":"27278","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/event/842843/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Hillsborough_20250911183148904049.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"842843","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-804559","title":"Knock Doors with Brenda","description":"🚪💥 LET’S KNOCK DOORS! 💥🚪 Join us as we knock doors, talk to voters, and share Brenda’s platform for fighting back against hate and standing up for working families. From affordable housing to public safety, immigration justice to lower insurance costs. Canvass with Brenda and Rep. Park Cannon - Jan. 31, Feb. 28, March 28 Canvass with Brenda and Commissioner Kirkland Carden - Feb 7 and 14, March 7 and 17, April 4 and 11 👟 Bring your sneakers. 📋 We’ve got the scripts. 💪 All we need is YOU. Experienced canvassers are great and first canvassers are welcome!!! We will provide training for first time canvassers. #KnockWithBrenda #KnockwithCannon #KnockwithCarden","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T18:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"1528 Indian Trail Lilburn Rd NW, ","city":"Norcross","state":"GA","zip":"30093","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/brendaforgeorgia/event/804559/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Profile-logo_20250617192741980644.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"804559","scrapedAt":"2026-05-04T06:01:00.590Z"},{"id":"mobilize-807456","title":"SPEAK OUT NOW CONTINUES!","description":"SPEAK OUT NOW peaceful protests continue! We will gather on the first and third Saturdays of each month to protest the cruelty of the ice raids and all of the unconstitutional and corrupt practices of this administration. What is happening in our country is not normal, the world is watching, and we must continue making our voices heard! Additionally, we will continue our Yellow Ribbon Campaign! We will display a yellow ribbon to show our support and hope for the safe return of democracy. We will have yellow ribbons to give out and pass along. We must show that we believe in a stronger, more inclusive democracy for all of us - WE THE PEOPLE! Join us! *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Pittsboro","state":"NC","zip":"27312","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/807456/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"807456","scrapedAt":"2026-05-04T06:01:00.590Z"},{"id":"mobilize-833211","title":"Gardner KS Peaceful Protest - Raise the Flag","description":"JOIN our weekly peaceful protest in Gardner! Raise The Flag is a small grassroots community group in Gardner, Kansas dedicated to peaceful protest, civic engagement, and standing up for democracy, justice, and equity. We gather regularly to raise our voices against hate and authoritarianism, and to show our neighbors that they are not alone in these challenging times. Our events include peaceful protests, sign-making gatherings, and opportunities for community dialogue. All are welcome to join us as we work to build a more just and inclusive future. Join our protest every Saturday from 10-11:30am on the corner of Main St. & Moonlight Rd. in front of Patriots Bank. There is a large parking lot next to the HTeaO. Park there and walk to the corner. ALL are welcome. Bring a sign and water! We have extra signs available as well. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Main Street & Moonlight Rd.","address":"840 E. Main, ","city":"Gardner","state":"KS","zip":"66030","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/833211/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"833211","scrapedAt":"2026-05-04T06:01:07.152Z"},{"id":"mobilize-771738","title":"Tesla Takedown Silver Spring, MD","description":"Elon Musk's seizing control of the US Government needs to be stopped. We need to stand up and let the world know how we feel. We're leading a nonviolent rally outside of the Silver Spring Tesla showroom to remind our entire community that Elon's lawless actions are dangerous and won't be tolerated. This is a peaceful action. We will not enter the business, nor stop people from entering or exiting the property. No violence or threats against anyone will be tolerated. Bring your own signs encouraging people to honk for democracy and sharing your thoughts about Elon's wrecking of our government. Let's show the world that we won't tolerate his threat to government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We will stay on the public sidewalks and not obstruct traffic. See you there!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Tesla Silver Spring","address":"2320 Broadbirch Dr, ","city":"Silver Spring","state":"MD","zip":"20904","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/771738/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"771738","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:28.788Z"},{"id":"mobilize-809403","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Tesla in Matthews","description":"NEVER FORGET MUSK'S DAMAGE: The many will defeat the money! Authoritarians thrive when we are overwhelmed, shut down and afraid to act- so we add joy to the resistance! It’s the most fun you’ll have standing up for our freedoms, our families and our future! - Guidelines for participants: - Where is it? https://maps.app.goo.gl/AAX8RkvLm1k4j3Rm9 - ICLT is committed to nonviolent action, and we expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with us. Signs and chants must not incite violence. - We are welcoming, safe, non-violent, and committed to building community as we oppose this corrupt, incompetent regime. We don’t verbally challenge Tesla customers or disrespect drivers or counter protesters. We don’t block driveways. Our joy is contagious and powerful. - Parking will be TIGHT. There is NO parking at Tesla. dealership. Park where you feel comfortable. NOTE: do NOT park in the Boston Market lot even though it is closed. - One parking location might be the CATS Park and Ride just south of Boston Market. Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/nLwhi5cFjxsf6H7R6 - NOTE: We DO NOT have explicit permission to park in any business's lot. - DO NOT park and walk across 74 not at a crosswalk. This is unsafe. - DO NOT walk or drive onto the Tesla property, even for protestor drop off. We MUST remain on public land. - Wear your ICLT shirt if you want. - Know that there are inherent risks to protesting. SAFETY DOs and DON'Ts for Friday: * Know your rights: The right to peacefully assemble is fundamental. * Be aware: be aware of your surroundings and bring attention to something you think seems off * Bring supplies: Bring water, hand sanitizer, a hat, and sunscreen. * Wear comfortable clothing: Wear nondescript clothing and comfortable shoes. IF there are counter protestors: *Maintaining social distance: Keep physical distance from people who aren't in your group. *Being respectful: Show respect to others, and don't argue when tensions are high. Signs: * NO Nazi imagery, even in a negative light.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"9140 E Independence Blvd, ","city":"Matthews","state":"NC","zip":"28105","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/809403/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331195230967018.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"809403","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:36.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-843814","title":"\"We the People\" ICE Out rally on the Tempe Pedestrian Bridge! Food Drive","description":"Join us for a unique fusion of art and activism! This isn't just a protest; it's an Artbeat Festival where **Art is the signs we make, and Beat is the music we play.** Let’s use our creativity and energy to stand together and make our voices heard against the Trump takeover. Wear an inflatable costume, donate food. We will gather at the Tempe Pedestrian Bridge to make a powerful statement. This high-visibility location provides a unique opportunity to reach a wide audience of both pedestrians and drivers, ensuring our message of unity and resistance is seen and heard. This is your chance to connect with like-minded individuals, share your passion for justice, and be a part of a powerful, collective action. **Event Details:** * **Location:** Tempe Pedestrian Bridge. Cole Park, which provides an entrance to the bridge. * **Address:** 2000 E Carson Dr, Tempe, AZ 85282 * **Parking:** Street parking is available in the neighborhood. Please be respectful of residents and local regulations. The school will not call the cops on us if we park in their lot. **What to Bring:** * **Your Creative Signs:** Make them big, bold, and easy to read. At least 15 inch height each letter. * **Water and Sun Protection:** Please come prepared for the Arizona sun with water, hats, and sunscreen. * **Friends and Fellow Activists:** The more people we have, the more impactful our message will be. --- ### **5 Sign Ideas** 1. \"Make America Think Again.\" 2. \"Democracy Over Division.\" 3. \"Our Voice, Our Vote.\" 4. \"This is Our House.\" 5. \"Protect Our Rights, Protect Our Future.\" 6. \"We the People had enough\" 7. Ice out for Good!!!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T17:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Cole Park","address":"2000 E Carson Dr, ","city":"Tempe","state":"AZ","zip":"85282","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/temperisingindivisible/event/843814/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/1a426c4d-d634-4e18-bb7a-a8672fb286e0_20250913015754800493.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"843814","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-845836","title":"Patriots Against Kings in America (PAKA) Weekly Rally","description":"A one hour weekly rally with no marching. Bring your sign, or we will have some available for you. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T15:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T16:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Columbia","state":"MO","zip":"65203","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/845836/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"845836","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:44.264Z"},{"id":"mobilize-770889","title":"RESIST TYRANNY SATURDAY - Every Saturday","description":"Rally every Saturday at 10am on the southeast corner of 528 & 550 - 4200 NM-528, Bernalillo/Rio Rancho, NM 87144. Gather at the big median on 550 by the Wendy's, but do not park at the Wendy's. Do not go onto Santa Ana Pueblo land, do not stand right outside of the Tesla showroom. Park wisely. Carpool if possible. Indivisible Albuquerque has assembled a Safety Team for Tesla protests. It consists of 13 individuals who have been trained on de-escalation and emergency response. If you have any safety concerns, please contact Stephen Conrad via Signal app (505) 900-4546.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T17:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"U.S. 550 & New Mexico 528, ","city":"Sandoval County","state":"NM","zip":"87004","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/landofdissent/event/770889/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screen%20Shot%202025-10-22%20at%203.23.07%20PM_20251022212545868527.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"770889","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:28.788Z"},{"id":"mobilize-776651","title":"Four Corners in Lenexa Standing Rally","description":"As citizens, we can’t let the policies and actions of the Federal Government and unelected billionaires be normalized, but we can only stop what’s going on by coming together. A STANDING RALLY will draw attention to the situation, encouraging our neighbors to join with us. We will rally every Saturday morning from 11 AM – 12 PM. Stay for the full hour or come by when and for how long you can. We will peacefully line the sidewalk on all four corners of 87th Parkway and Maurer Road, holding signs on issues that are most meaningful to us or just simply standing in support of our neighbors and our country. If sitting is more comfortable for you, you are very welcome to bring mobility or lawn chairs!! There is room for everyone!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Maurer Road & West 87th Street, ","city":"Lenexa","state":"KS","zip":"66219","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/776651/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"776651","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:28.788Z"},{"id":"mobilize-777892","title":"Weekly Honk and Wave to Protect Democracy","description":"WePlease update the description of our event 777892 to the following: Weekly Honk and Wave to Protect Democracy When: Saturdays from noon to 2 p.m. Where: Bernie Milton Pavilion, The Commons, Ithaca, NY Please join us for a weekly honk and wave to protect Democracy and Justice in America. Started by 2 people on March 15, 2025, we now have a core group of 20 people who attend every Saturday. We stand on the sidewalk of Seneca Street at the corner of Tioga with our signs as traffic drives by. We speak to people who are interested in our cause and politely encourage them to join us. We have dozens of signs to choose from, or bring your own. We will be here every Saturday until Trump is gone.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T18:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Bernie Milton Pavilion","address":"100 N Tioga St, ","city":"Ithaca","state":"NY","zip":"14850","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/777892/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"777892","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:28.788Z"},{"id":"mobilize-788756","title":"RESIST Central Maine-Stop Fascism Now Rally","description":"Join us on the Longley Bridge, Auburn, ME on Saturdays from 12-1pm every Saturday starting May 10, 2025 to join a weekly protest until the insanity in Washington stops and our democracy is restored. Our lives and the lives of our children depend on it. Progress toward a more just and equitable country and world is in jeopardy. Civilization is watching. Bring your friends, neighbors and tired masses, yearning to be free.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Longley Bridge","address":"Court St, ","city":"Auburn","state":"ME","zip":"04210","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/788756/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"788756","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:32.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-791465","title":"Rally for Democracy","description":"We will line the street with our signs as passing cars honk in approval! We must show that we are many and that we will turn the tide!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Middle Green","address":"36 S Main St, ","city":"Ipswich","state":"MA","zip":"01938","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/791465/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"791465","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:32.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-807279","title":"Rally for Democracy","description":"We will line the street with our signs as passing cars honk in approval! We must show that we are many and that we will turn the tide!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Middle Green","address":"36 S Main St, ","city":"Ipswich","state":"MA","zip":"01938","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/massdems/event/807279/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/optimized_protests_8-9-4_20250811170934072229.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"807279","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:36.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-829410","title":"Stand Up Saturdays with Goshen Indivisible","description":"Join Indivisible Goshen each Saturday for a rally to defend democracy and resist autocratic government in America. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"255 Main St, ","city":"Goshen","state":"NY","zip":"10924","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/829410/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"829410","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:40.968Z"},{"id":"mobilize-839819","title":"Weekly Clintonville pop-up protest","description":"Join us every Saturday as we stand at the corner of High Street and North Broadway and protest the destruction and degradation of the Trump administration. This is a weekly grassroots gathering with no formal teams or organizers working behind the scenes or fielding questions etc - it's rain or shine or snow, come out if you are up for it!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"North High Street & East North Broadway Street, ","city":"Columbus","state":"OH","zip":"43202","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecentralohio/event/839819/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_1580_20260111172855860928.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"839819","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-841515","title":"We the People Believe in Democracy and Justice for All","description":"This a local Indivisible event! Join us on Saturdays 12pm-2pm to Stand Out and Up with your signs of protest and support. As a small and passionate community, this high visibility location is very impactful and fulfilling. Meet fellow citizens to join your voice in Solidarity and for Justice. Hosted by: Hopkinton resident, a small and growing group of local and concerned Massachusetts citizens who live in Hopkinton and surrounding towns. Our mission is to build trust and relationships between local communities as we face the growing risks of: Rising authoritarianism, bigotry and hate. The erosion of civil liberties - no due process. The worsening economy with fewer jobs. Climate change and health crisis. Remember to bring water and hat It gets hot out here! It's best to park around The Common to then stand at the Spirit of the Boston Marathon Statue & Start Line, 93 East Main Street, Hopkinton. Here are some important ground rules. We cannot disrupt traffic. Please stay out of the street, and always use crosswalks. This is a peaceful protest. If someone becomes aggressive towards one of us, we should all be ready to de-escalate the situation (don't respond to the aggressor, walk away and if necessary, get support from the Hopkinton Police). Please look out for each other. The Hopkinton Police has been notified of event, and they support our right to PEACEFULLY protest. Thank you. A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T16:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T17:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Marathon Way & East Main Street, ","city":"Hopkinton","state":"MA","zip":"01748","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/841515/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"841515","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-818428","title":"Defend Democracy/Replace the Regime","description":"**Biweekly on Saturdays:** Rally to Defend Democracy in this time when our government is ignoring our Constitutional rights and destroying our democratic institutions. Bring your friends and family, and your signs. We will meet at the Oak Park Crossing Park parking lot and walk/march/roll to the nearby bridge over Highway 36. We are also **collecting food and monetary donations for Valley Outreach** at our rallies.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"15125 60th St N, Oak Park Crossing Park","city":"Oak Park Heights","state":"MN","zip":"55082","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/stcroixvalleyindivisible/event/818428/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/stop%20the%20cuts%2005%2017%202025_20250821233101825816.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"818428","scrapedAt":"2026-04-26T00:01:32.829Z"},{"id":"mobilize-795854","title":"NO WAR. NO KINGS: Tacoma","description":"THEY WANT US SILENT. WE'RE DEFIANT. Join us in protesting this war and demanding justice for ICE victims. We continue to fight to protest our democracy from Trump and his oligarchs. See you Saturday! — Devin PS. For the full schedule of events, see DefundMusk.com/events The local #TeslaTakedown crew including Defund Musk, Troublemakers, and Seattle Indivisible work in partnership to organize events throughout the Seattle Metro area. This is a peaceful protest movement. We oppose violence, vandalism, and destruction of property.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Union Station - Federal Courthouse","address":"1717 Pacific Ave, ","city":"Tacoma","state":"WA","zip":"98402","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/seattleindivisible/event/795854/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Image_20260304192839127576.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"795854","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:32.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-815173","title":"Protest Against Tyranny","description":"This series of weekly protests started several months ago as Tesla Takedown protests are now broadening as the authoritarian threat continues to evolve. We will continue to be taking nonviolent action at Tesla, but want to bring to light other issues while we keep the pressure on Musk. Bring your friends, family and neighbors and a sign, flag or slogans about the issue(s) you support and feel most passionate about! There is a good amount of parking at this location, both on side streets and in a couple nearby shopping centers. Ideally, we would prioritize side street parking and not completely fill the shopping center parking. If you do park in the shopping center, please consider patronizing a business there. NOTE: If you are sensitive to being recorded/photographed, it is recommended to wear a mask and nondescript clothing as there have been occasional counterprotesters out photographing and recording participants. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"5700 S Broadway, ","city":"Littleton","state":"CO","zip":"80121","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/815173/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"815173","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:36.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-822442","title":"NO WAR. NO KINGS: U VILLAGE","description":"**THEY WANT US SILENT. WE'RE DEFIANT.** Join us in protesting this war and demanding justice for ICE victims. We continue to fight to protect our democracy from Trump and his oligarchs. See you Saturday! — Devin PS. For the full schedule of events, see DefundMusk.com/events The local #TeslaTakedown crew including Defund Musk, Troublemakers, and Seattle Indivisible work in partnership to organize events throughout the Seattle Metro area. This is a peaceful protest movement. We oppose violence, vandalism, and destruction of property.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Four corners near the QFC 45th St entrance","address":"2734 NE 45th St, ","city":"Seattle","state":"WA","zip":"98105","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/seattleindivisible/event/822442/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Image_20260304193116846523.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"822442","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:40.968Z"},{"id":"mobilize-836714","title":"Feet on the Streets - Saturday Edition","description":"**CONTINUE BRINGING YOUR SHELF STABLE PANTRY ITEMS** Because of all the chaos with ICE terrorizing our communities our local food bank is having a hard time keeping up with demand -- let's help them help our community!** So many things to protest these days - there is no time to waste - we need to reach our goal of 3.5% of us on the streets by the March 28, 2026 NO KINGS III protest, using our First Amendment Right while we still have it! As always, thank you to my enthusiastic drive-by beepers - YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE and it COUNTS as RESISTANCE! Join Us! Bring a friend! Your weekly protesting schedule: Tuesdays - Bonita Rd. & Otay Lakes 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/dWzlpP Wednesdays - Bonita Rd & Otay Lakes 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/FpuymQ Thursdays - Bonita Rd. & Otay Lakes 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/8YwXyu Thursday evenings - Bonita Rd. and Otay Lakes 4 to 5 pm https://mobilize.us/s/mXXp2Q Friday mornings - Coronado Edition: 3rd and 0range, 7:30 to 8:30 am to catch the base traffic. https://mobilize.us/s/qvXQyp Friday morning: H and Broadway 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/sJ8QlX Feet on the Streets - with a twist - tell Home Depot to get I C E out https://mobilize.us/s/VFk6SA Fridays - Bridge Brigade -Sampson Street Bridge (between Logan & Kearny) in Barrio Logan! navigate to Fish Guts 2222 Logan Ave, San Diego, CA 92113 3 to 4 pm during traffic https://mobilize.us/s/kDq7iK Saturdays - Birch and Millenia (our original corner), 10 to 11:30 https://mobilize.us/s/ot6sjP Also Saturdays in Point Loma area -Sunset Cliffs Boulevard & West Point Loma Boulevard, 12:30 to 2 pm NO LINK - just show up! Sundays - Otay Lakes Rd. in front of the Island's Restaurant - 10 to 11 am https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/874449/?referring_vol=2660119&rname=Janine&share_context=event_details&share_medium=copy_link Thanks for all you do! Beeeeeeep Beeeeeeeeep Janine","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T18:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Birch Road & Millenia Avenue, ","city":"Chula Vista","state":"CA","zip":"91915","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/836714/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"836714","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-779507","title":"Vigil for Black Lives - Dimond District","description":"This a local Indivisible event! Neighbors for Racial Justice has held a weekly Vigil for Black Lives for the past decade at Fruitvale & MacArthur in Oakland. We’d love for you to join us! People have told us our weekly presence challenges gaslighting, shows solidarity with our Black neighbors, gives drivers an opportunity to honk their support (& since Jan 20, protest Trump) to the whole intersection. We've added a couple new signs with broader focus.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T17:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T18:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Fruitvale Avenue & MacArthur Boulevard, ","city":"Oakland","state":"CA","zip":"94602","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/779507/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"779507","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:28.788Z"},{"id":"mobilize-795849","title":"NO WAR. NO KINGS: RENTON!","description":"THEY WANT US SILENT. WE'RE DEFIANT. Join us in protesting this war and demanding justice for ICE victims. We continue to fight to protest our democracy from Trump and his oligarchs. See you Saturday! — Devin PS. For the full schedule of events, see DefundMusk.com/events The local #TeslaTakedown crew including Defund Musk, Troublemakers, and Seattle Indivisible work in partnership to organize events throughout the Seattle Metro area. This is a peaceful protest movement. We oppose violence, vandalism, and destruction of property.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T17:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T18:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Outside Tesla Dealership","address":"Lind Avenue Southwest & Southwest Grady Way, ","city":"Renton","state":"WA","zip":"98057","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/seattleindivisible/event/795849/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Image_20260303010048601003.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"795849","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:32.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-813153","title":"We, The People, Rise Up! (Hercules) Honk & Wave - Indivisible North East Bay","description":"This is a local Indivisible event in Hercules, CA! On the Second Saturdays of the month, join the Indivisible - North East Bay chapter at the corner of San Pablo Avenue and Sycamore Avenue in Hercules as we vocally and physically express dissent, and make known the (de)legitimacy of the current administration sitting in the white house. We participate and activate hyper-locally in this non-violent and peaceful social and cultural movement to protest authoritarianism in the U.S. and are building volunteer people power that is sustained, consistent, and unrelenting, until everyone is moved from their apathy and into action to stand up for democracy and re-dedicate themselves to building a better one. Only we, the people, can save us! Please park on Sycamore Ave and avoid parking info the businesses parking lot. Safeway had started to hire security watching people come and go and giving citations to those parked longer than 2 hours. 11 AM - Peacefully Protest - meet at the corner, bring your signs, Bluetooth speakers with music, and a passion for people power! 11:30 AM - do a synchronized crosswalk to any other corner (while the pedestrian sign is green, of course!) 12 PM - 1:15 - Community Connection Meeting at Pizza Twist in Hercules. This is our monthly members meeting! Meet other like-minded folks, build community, and get to know your neighbors and Indivisible North East Bay. We are your neighborhood activists, here to empower our community in fighting for democracy. We represent Hercules, Rodeo, Pinole, Crockett, and Port Costa. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.* Pictures: Please be mindful of whether people are okay with their face being taken a photo of and whether they are okay with it being shared on social media. If you have pictures that can be shared, please email us or tag us in BlueSky or you can find us on Facebook and Instagram! Follow us on... BlueSky: @indivisiblenortheb.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578209213440 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indivisible_northeastbay website: ineb.org Contact Us: indivisible.northeastbay@gmail.com. For questions about this event, or to become a member of our chapter, and be added to our email list, simply email us with the subject \"join\" and we will add you!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Four corners of San Pablo and Sycamore Ave (Hercules)","address":"4000 San Pablo Ave, ","city":"Hercules","state":"CA","zip":"94547","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/813153/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"813153","scrapedAt":"2026-04-12T00:01:48.766Z"},{"id":"mobilize-617145","title":"POSTCARDS TO FLIP PA-08","description":"Join us to write (or pick-up) postcards. We will be writing to help flip Pennsylvania's CD 08 next November. Polls show that the incumbent Republican Congressman Rob Bresnahan is deeply unpopular. For this postcard campaign, we will call out Bresnahan for his votes to cut people's healthcare, specifically Medicare and Medicaid. About 43% of District residents rely on these programs for their medical needs. There is no deadline for mailing, but we suggest within a month. If you can't come on May 9th, sign up anyway. We will send out instructions for late pick-up after the event. Reimbursement is $15 per packet (25 cards, addresses, and stamps) Thank you!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T21:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Boston","state":"MA","zip":"02130","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/swingleft/event/617145/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/sl_events_meta_letters3_20210608140138790771.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"617145","scrapedAt":"2026-04-30T18:01:29.686Z"},{"id":"mobilize-788589","title":"Studio City Rising","description":"Rise up Studio City! We need all hands on deck to continue the fight against Trump and his ongoing attack on our democracy. He’s not going to stop and neither are we! We need as many of you out here with us every Saturday at 11am to fight for our rights and our democracy. There’s nothing more important going forward in our lives than to protect our freedoms and the future of our country! 🇺🇸✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿🇺🇸","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T20:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Chase Bank","address":"12051 Ventura Blvd, ","city":"Los Angeles","state":"CA","zip":"91604","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/788589/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"788589","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:32.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-808217","title":"Saturday Protest - 11am-1pm","description":"MARCH 28th UPDATE: https://mobilize.us/s/fueNUG Join us THIS Saturday MARCH 28th, from 11 AM to 2 PM, at 7th Ave SE & 3rd St SE or at 7th Ave SE & the 512 Overpass for a few of powerful hours of protest and solidarity. We will not be at our normal Saturday Location for MARCH 28th ONLY. --------------------------------- Join us 11am to 1pm near 35th Ave Se & South Meridian. Near The Ram, on the long grassy strip parallel to Meridian. Let’s keep the momentum going—we’ve seen an uptick in positive community support and a dip in negativity, but a stronger presence helps amplify our message and ensures safety. Connect with fellow members ahead of next Wednesday’s meeting and show people of Puyallup they are not standing alone. Bring water, music, snacks, and a bucket of patriotism! Oh, and signs, obviously. You know what? I don't want to put you in a box, bring whatever. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T20:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Grassy area across from the South Hill Mall Target near The Ram","address":"35th Avenue Southeast & South Meridian, ","city":"Puyallup","state":"WA","zip":"98374","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/808217/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"808217","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:36.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-810457","title":"Defend Democracy & Fight Oligarchy in Aliso Viejo","description":"**Join us** on the corner of Aliso Creek Rd. and Enterprise to uphold our Constitution and fight the oligarchy trying to take over America. We've evolved from **Tesla Takedown!** to a weekly, peaceful, family-friendly rally in defense of our rights and with aspirations for a Democracy that includes **ALL** people. We meet every Saturday, 11am-12:30pm, rain or shine! We're collecting mutual aid to share with our neighbors via South County Outreach. **[Please see the list of needed items here](https://www.sco-oc.org/get-involved/feed-our-community/)**. Meet on the grass at the the corner of Aliso Creek Rd. & Enterprise. Park in the theater lot, near the old Macaroni Grill, and take the ramp down to the corner. This is a fun event with music, lots of great like-minded people with whom to build community, and many supportive passers-by (lots of honks & waves!) ### WHAT TO BRING: ### - your signs (please keep your messages family-friendly) - food and essential items for mutual aid (see above) - flags of all kinds - water/hydration for you and (optionally) to share - (optional) packaged snacks to share - a folding chair if you prefer to sit - a portable speaker if you have a good playlist - and a friend who's never been to a protest before - help us grow the movement! **#ICEOutOfOC** Pick up Red Cards, stickers, and community resources every week. **MEET YOUR HOSTS** Aliso Viejo Resistance is is part of the **[OC Indivisible Coalition](https://linktr.ee/ocindivisiblecoalition)**. We will gather for events and actions as our group grows. Please invite a friend! **[The OC Indivisible Coalition](https://linktr.ee/ocindivisiblecoalition)** is a collaboration between the **[Indivisible](https://indivisible.org/)** groups in and touching Orange County, CA. We are non-partisan, all-volunteer, grassroots groups of residents in OC who are fighting fascism and holding elected officials accountable, from city councils and school boards all the way up to Congress. We partner with other community organizations to uplift and support our neighbors while we work toward progressive electoral change and a democracy that works for ALL people.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T19:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Enterprise & Aliso Creek Road, ","city":"Aliso Viejo","state":"CA","zip":"92656","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisibleca40/event/810457/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/AVMobilize2026_20260411171942459735.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"810457","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:36.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-822622","title":"Peaceful Protest - Granby","description":"Join us every Saturday from 2-4pm on the Granby Town Green to stand up for democracy and fight back against the cruelty, corruption and lawlessness of the Trump administration. This is a peaceful protest. Let us build community and solidarity by increasing our visibility. Courage is contagious. Please bring signs and American flags. Hosted by Take Action Granby and Indivisible Farmington Valley. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T20:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Granby Town Green","address":"U.S. 202 & Connecticut 20, ","city":"Granby","state":"CT","zip":"06035","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/822622/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"822622","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:40.968Z"},{"id":"mobilize-829630","title":"Street Protest to Protect Due Process - Bellevue","description":"Exercise your free speech - while you still have it. Join Indivisible Eastside members Lassie and Ron in their ongoing protest of the harmful administration's policies every Saturday 11 am to Noon until the FFOTUS is removed from office. 148th Ave NE and NE Bel-Red Road. Do not block sidewalk or road. Parking available in either the Highland Middle School parking lot off NE Bel Red Road or in the Fred Meyer's parking lot on 148th. Join us to: * Stop the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration. * Protect and Defend Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs working people rely on. * Fully funded schools, healthcare and housing for all. * Stop the attacks on immigrants, Black, indigenous, trans people, and other communities. Read about and listen to Rachel Maddow on how sustained, local action is so important in shaping public sentiment. This matters. You matter. Thank you for joining us! https://www.thedailypoliticususa.com/p/rachel-maddow-explains-how-protests *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"148th Avenue Northeast & Northeast Bel Red Road, ","city":"Bellevue","state":"WA","zip":"98007","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/829630/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"829630","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:40.968Z"},{"id":"mobilize-782253","title":"Walk with the MultDems at St. Johns Parade","description":"Join the Multnomah County Democrats as we march in the 61st Annual St. Johns Parade on May 9, 2026. The St. John's Bizarre and Parade kicks off the summer street fair season in Portland. We will be meeting up at 11am. Street location will be confirmed closer to event. Bring your own sign and express yourself. The parade starts at noon. Along the way, we'll be handing out lit encouraging people to get more involved with our organization. The full parade route can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1coDsk3xQS6oOdc0-5eAAK2Bg0migG-ud/view","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T19:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T21:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"North Burr Avenue & North Central Street, ","city":"Portland","state":"OR","zip":"97203","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/multnomahdemocrats/event/782253/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/stJohnsParade2026%20-%201200x630_20260309214713746595.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"782253","scrapedAt":"2026-03-10T06:01:39.499Z"},{"id":"mobilize-782224","title":"Fight Fascism: Protest outside Tesla","description":"This is a weekly gathering of protestors. We are non-violent and passionate about the ways in which this administration has attacked every meaningful institution and value we hold dear. We started with Tesla, Musk, and Doge. We continued as they assaulted the Rule of Law, Immigrants, Political Opponents, Education, Healthcare, The First Amendment, Bodily Autonomy, the Economy, International Relationships, Gaza, now Venezuela. While Congress hands over their power, we the Citizens do not. Join us for support, updates, and hope - as we get such positive responses from those passing by in cars or on foot.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T19:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T20:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Tesla Dealership","address":"1731 Fourth St, ","city":"Berkeley","state":"CA","zip":"94710","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible-east-bay/event/782224/","image":"","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"782224","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T06:02:02.050Z"},{"id":"mobilize-795295","title":"Defend Democracy at the Tri-Valley Peace Corners","description":"Join us every Saturday and speak up for our democracy and community as our demonstrations start rotating through the Tri-Valley **Peace Corners**! Be sure to register each week to stay up to date with rally locations. **Upcoming Rally Dates and Locations ** May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30: San Ramon (Bollinger Canyon Road/City Hall) **Background ** Thanks to your boycotting, Tesla sales came down, Avelo Airlines stopped ICE deportation flights, and Spotify stopped ICE ads. We, consumers, have power and organizing works! We are carrying the fight onward to stand against: - ICE abducting, deporting, and killing our neighbors without due process - National Guard weaponized against the People - Extreme gerrymandering to silence our voice and steal Midterm 2026 - Banning Mail-in Ballot - Working for the wealthy few and not for the People - Unauthorized Wars for $$ and cover up Bring flags (American, California, Rainbow), noise makers, music, and your ideas to keep our protest fun! We are accepting a wide variety of donations from food to baby products to hygienic supplies for Tri-Valley Haven Food Pantry. Check their [wish list](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NCjL2k3Q_h0ifUvzqfGrztKNHZsJLtOq/edit). **A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action.** We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values and to act lawfully at our event. Weapons of any kind, including those legally permitted, should not be brought to the event. We encourage attendees to view the following briefing and resources about protest safety and de-escalation from the Gandhi Team: https://www.gandhiteam.org/resource-list/participant-safety","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T19:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T20:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"7000 Bollinger Canyon Rd, ","city":"San Ramon","state":"CA","zip":"94583","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisibletrivalley/event/795295/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Defend%20Democracy%20at%20the%20Peace%20Corner%20Dublin_20260303203337065720.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"795295","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T06:02:05.182Z"},{"id":"mobilize-823129","title":"Good Trouble Saturday - ICE OUT for Good!","description":"✊ GOOD TROUBLE SATURDAYS ✊ 🚨Location Change: 📍 NE Fourth Plain Blvd & NE 121st Ave The rally will continue to be from 12-1 pm and we’ll continue to focus on “ICE Out for Good.” Bring signs saying, “ICE Out for Good,” “Defund ICE,” “Stop kidnapping our neighbors,” etc. 🕓 Saturdays, 12–1 PM 🎒 Bring: Your signs, your noisemakers, and your voice. 🗣️ Let’s send a clear message: We protect each other. We stand with our immigrant neighbors. We reject authoritarianism in all forms. Join us in making some Good Trouble — because our community deserves safety, dignity, and a government that works for the people, not one that terrorizes them.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T19:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T20:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"NE Fourth Plain Blvd and NE 121st Ave","address":"Northeast 121st Avenue & Northeast Fourth Plain Boulevard, ","city":"Vancouver","state":"WA","zip":"98682","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible-greater-vancouver/event/823129/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ice_out_for_good_location_change_20260427054339670282.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"823129","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T06:02:13.427Z"},{"id":"mobilize-823373","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - NoDa","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T19:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T20:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"N Davidson & 36th","address":"3227 N Davidson St, ","city":"Charlotte","state":"NC","zip":"28205","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/823373/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331195237689984.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"823373","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T06:02:13.427Z"},{"id":"mobilize-829120","title":"NO WAR. NO KINGS: Lynnwood!","description":"THEY WANT US SILENT. WE'RE DEFIANT. Join us in protesting this war and demanding justice for ICE victims. We continue to fight to protest our democracy from Trump and his oligarchs. See you Saturday! — Devin PS. For the full schedule of events, see DefundMusk.com/events The local #TeslaTakedown crew including Defund Musk, Troublemakers, and Seattle Indivisible work in partnership to organize events throughout the Seattle Metro area. This is a peaceful protest movement. We oppose violence, vandalism, and destruction of property.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T19:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T21:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Tesla Lynnwood","address":"17731 Pacific Hwy, ","city":"Lynnwood","state":"WA","zip":"98037","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/seattleindivisible/event/829120/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Image_20260408193611727320.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"829120","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T06:02:13.427Z"},{"id":"mobilize-835089","title":"Trump Regime Takedown","description":"We do not consent to Trump and his billionaire allies taking a chainsaw to our government and our economy for their benefit! San Francisco is a sanctuary city and We the People need to defend the values that make it so. Let’s stand united and oppose the endless assaults on our communities, our civil rights, the rule of law, and our democracy. Keep democracy alive every Saturday by showing up, taking a stand, and sticking together for the long haul. Standing together is better than standing alone. Let’s get together and call out the Trump/MAGA regime as a community. Plus, it’s fun! Think of it as our democracy corner—a place for you to voice your opinion, hang out with like-minded fellow protesters, and experience a cathartic moment together. ## What you can do: - If you’ve got signs, flags, cardboard cutouts, or any protest visuals you want to make, bring ’em! We also have spare signs to lend. - If you have whistles, drums, cowbells, or other noisemakers, bring ’em! - Musicians are welcome and encouraged. Sing the song of democracy! - Many of our regular protesters are part of local activist groups who are happy to chat with anyone who wants to pair their indignation with direct action beyond street protest. Bring your friends or feel free to show up by yourself. Let’s turn this into the liveliest, loudest weekly protest in the city! This weekly event is hosted by Indivisible SF and 50501 SF (organizers of the San Francisco No Kings March), and a committed group of active protest regulars who have been occupying this corner on a weekly basis since February. We were successful in getting Elon out of government but our fight is far from over. Let’s make it the go-to hotspot for resistance against the Trump Regime! *A core principle behind all Indivisible and 50501 events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values. We oppose violence, vandalism, and destruction of property. This protest is a lawful exercise of our First Amendment right to peaceful assembly.* *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T19:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T21:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Corner of Van Ness and O'Farrell","address":"999 Van Ness Ave, ","city":"San Francisco","state":"CA","zip":"94109","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/835089/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/TrumpRegimeTakedown_Mobilize_20250829181612632740.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"835089","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T06:02:16.683Z"},{"id":"mobilize-758463","title":"Rally to Protest Musk, Oligarchs and the Power Grab 4pm","description":"Join us to rally in support of democracy and against the coup engineered by Musk, Trump, and Peter Thiel's Palantir! Bring a sign and a friend! Chants and songs are welcome. However, please remember: We practice peaceful non-violence and non-confrontation. Although we are all very concerned about Elon Musk' s activities and unconstitutional meddling in our democracy, we protest peacefully and with comradery among those who support refusing to go along with Trump and Musk. **So, if you encounter cybertrucks or hecklers, DO NOT RESPOND! We do not heckle those who have opposing views.** Peaceful non-violence means that if any violence or confrontation occurs, we sit down and go silent. Marshals are present to protect us all and will assist. Columbus Dialogue Police will help de-escalate any confrontation. This has been an amazing group of demonstrators. Let's build friendships! Let your reps and senators know how we feel! Meet others who share your views, and help build community.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T20:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T21:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Tesla Dealership sidewalk","address":"4099 Easton Loop W, ","city":"Columbus","state":"OH","zip":"43219","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/opalmissionvote/event/758463/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Image%208-21-25%20at%204.15%E2%80%AFPM_20250821201544271900.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"758463","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T06:01:59.098Z"},{"id":"mobilize-800938","title":"Stand for Democracy","description":"This a local Indivisible event! Join Neighbors for a Better Roeland Park this and every Saturday at 3pm in Roeland Park to Stand for Democracy. Meet at Cooper Creek Park (off Johnson Drive, near Roe). Bring signs and this consistent stand for our community and country. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T20:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T20:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Cooper Creek","address":"5730 Roeland Dr, ","city":"Roeland Park","state":"KS","zip":"66205","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/800938/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"800938","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T06:02:05.182Z"},{"id":"mobilize-836880","title":"Billionaire Takedown Saturdays","description":"Saturday, March 21st will be a regular Billionaire Takedown event Choose your OWN ADVENTURE on No Kings 3 Day Check out other events that are happening in the Peninsula: https://www.mobilize.us/?q=no%20kings Pre-No Kings event: Stanford Shopping Mall Tesla 12-2 https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/903224/ No Kings Street Fest 2-4 Embarcadero & El Camino (Town and Country) https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/902035/ Post No Kings event: Palantir 5-6 https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/917902/ This is a peaceful, nonviolent protest of the corruption of billionaires on the public sidewalk in front of Tesla Palo Alto. PLEASE READ COMPLETELY before attending! Make sure not to block the Tesla driveway entrances. We will stay completely on the public sidewalk and off of Tesla property, and cross only with lights. Signs, drums, flags, and similar items are welcome. Wear your favorite wig, big hat, or costume. We want to have fun and to feel like a party during our demonstrations! Signs, musical instruments, drums, flags, and similar items are welcome. This is a peaceful demonstration, and any conflicts or altercations will not be tolerated. Walk away if one arises and report it to the demonstration leader on site if it is a serious altercation. We will comply with requests from the police, including if we are asked to leave. #divestTesla **Please Note:** Photos may be taken and published at this event, including by attendees and professional photographers. If you prefer not to have your image captured or shared, please take your own precautions (e.g., wear a mask, hat, or wig).","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T20:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T22:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Tesla Palo Alto","address":"4180 El Camino Real, ","city":"Palo Alto","state":"CA","zip":"94306","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/ipaplus/event/836880/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot%202026-03-12%20at%2012.15.44%20AM_20260312071828215973_20260329073936376817.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"836880","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T06:02:16.683Z"},{"id":"mobilize-787951","title":"Visible Resistance Weekly Protests","description":"TIME CHANGE: 4-5pm November - February! Join us for a weekly visibility protest at Waters Edge Park! Bring signs relevant to current events.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-09T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-09T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Water's Edge Park","address":"602 S Shoreline Blvd, ","city":"Corpus Christi","state":"TX","zip":"78401","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/progressivesofthecoastalbend/event/787951/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Visible%20Resistance%20Weekly%20Protest%20_20260122015748737021.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"787951","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T06:02:05.182Z"},{"id":"mobilize-801600","title":"Say No To Ken Calvert Weekly Visibility Sign Waving- Formerly Empty Chair Town Hall!","description":"Join us on Sunday's at 9am on Monterrey and Highway 111 (southeast corner) for our continued community protest against Ken Calvert! Our goal is to not let our community forget that he is failing the Coachella Valley. We have moved this event to a higher visibility area for the summer and hope to see everyone there. We will be parking and assembling in the Panera parking lot next to the intersection at 73075 Highway 11 Palm Desert CA 92260. This a local Indivisible event! *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-10T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-10T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Intersection of Monterrey and 111- park at Panera","address":"73075 CA-111, ","city":"Palm Desert","state":"CA","zip":"92260","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/801600/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"801600","scrapedAt":"2026-05-04T06:01:00.590Z"},{"id":"mobilize-783103","title":"Indivisible Action Fairfield Weekly Rally","description":"This is our weekly Indivisible Action Fairfield Rally, in front of the War Memorial at Old Town Hall. Please bring your friends, your signs, and your most peaceful attitude, even in these intense times. We sometimes sing, chant, and dance to fabulously fight fascism with style and grace. Avoid spelling out curse words on signs. Instead use # * ! for a vowel. We also have a sign library to borrow from for the rallies, if you don’t have your own. To any haters who drive by, we give them the peace sign. For those who wish to confront us, we will have organizers who are prepared to engage with deescalating dialogue. We strive to avoid spitefulness and “Othering”. Courage is contagious. Make your voice heard. Please see organizers upon arrival.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-10T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-10T18:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Fairfield","state":"CT","zip":"06824","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/783103/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"783103","scrapedAt":"2026-05-04T06:00:53.738Z"},{"id":"mobilize-784920","title":"Democracy on Life Support","description":"Join The Gage County Democrats for the Democracy on Life Support Rally 2025 along HWY 77 outside the Gage County Courthouse at 612 Grant St. Beatrice, every Sunday as long as necessary, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, followed by a Silent Meditation lasting 17 Minutes and 76 Seconds.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-10T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-10T18:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Gage Courthouse","address":"612 Grant St, ","city":"Beatrice","state":"NE","zip":"68310","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/nebdems/event/784920/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/2025%20Mobilize%20Headers%20%2840%29_20250505173508936636.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"784920","scrapedAt":"2026-05-04T06:00:53.738Z"},{"id":"mobilize-797829","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Plaza Midwood","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-10T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-10T18:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Plaza Midwood Library","address":"Central Avenue and The Plaza, 1623 Central Ave","city":"Charlotte","state":"NC","zip":"28205","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/797829/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331195253389803.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"797829","scrapedAt":"2026-05-04T06:00:56.837Z"},{"id":"mobilize-832583","title":"StepForward Together, Rally","description":"Join me, and anyone available to take a stand at our weekly StepForward-Together demonstration. Show up and Speak out! Let’s move forward as one and make our voices impossible to ignore! As always, we demonstrate in a nonviolent format. Every Sunday 10am tom 11:30am. Park and Ride Victorville, 12000 Amargosa rd, Victorville, ca 92392 A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-10T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-10T18:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Park and Ride Victorville","address":"12000 Amargosa Rd, ","city":"Victorville","state":"CA","zip":"92392","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/832583/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"832583","scrapedAt":"2026-05-04T06:01:07.152Z"},{"id":"mobilize-814761","title":"Manhattan Beach Protests Every Sunday","description":"Protest at 33rd St & Sepulveda Blvd - \"Brad’s Corner\" in Manhattan Beach (West side away from US Bank, at the intersection) Sunday mornings at 10:30am Show up with Signs & American flags to proudly stand up with us! DO NOT PARK IN MALL PARKING LOT—street parking okay on west side of Sepulveda *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-10T17:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-10T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"\"Brad's Corner\" Sepulveda Blvd and 33rd St","address":"3300 N Sepulveda Blvd (East side of Street), ","city":"Manhattan Beach","state":"CA","zip":"90266","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/814761/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"814761","scrapedAt":"2026-05-04T06:01:00.590Z"},{"id":"mobilize-819205","title":"Bridge Banner Protest Sponsored by the Waco Friends of Climate","description":"McLennan County Democrats are joining the Waco Friends of Climate's Bridge Banner protest to express our opposition to the Trump regime and republican extremists in Texas that are threatening our health and safety by destroying our planet. We will be on the pedestrian overpass at the corner of South Valley Mills and Bagby—right next to the HEB. Protests are from 1pm to 2:30pm every Sunday! Please note that people should on the Chili’s side of the overpass as there is a lot more parking and therefore less risk of ownership getting upset. Park in back of Chili's and walk. There should be several spots available by the Verizon still being built. Banners will be provided by Alan Northcut of Waco Friends of climate. Every person counts! Each banner needs 5 people to hold it, and there will be several banners. Just 20-30 people can make a huge difference and take over the entire bridge!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-10T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-10T19:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"South Valley Mills Drive & Bagby Avenue, ","city":"Waco","state":"TX","zip":"76711","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/mclennandems/event/819205/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/NO%20Kings%2028%20March%20on%20the%20Bridge3_20260408201039376759.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"819205","scrapedAt":"2026-05-04T06:01:03.621Z"},{"id":"mobilize-826358","title":"Montclair Sundays Weekly Peaceful Protest","description":"We gather for an hour every Sunday to defend democracy with vigorous peaceful protest, community-building and activist inspo. We started in February 2025 and now we usually have 80 - 100 people. We provide posters if you need 'em, or you can bring your own. We've got friendship bracelets too. Jump on in, the water's fine.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-10T19:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-10T20:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Church Street & Bloomfield Avenue, ","city":"Montclair","state":"NJ","zip":"07042","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/montclairsundays/event/826358/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot%202026-01-20%20at%204.35.40%20PM_20260120213617630650.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"826358","scrapedAt":"2026-05-04T06:01:03.621Z"},{"id":"mobilize-550283","title":"A Pint of Politics and Doing Something Second Sundays","description":"Second Sundays - A Pint of Politics and #DoingSomething Join INDIVISIBLE Sacramento, Sister District Sacramento, and the Coalition Against Project 2025 at our favorite local eatery and Coalition Partner, Oak Park Brewing Co. We meet on the 2nd Sundays and will provide unique ways to take action each month. 2-4 pm We meet rain or shine on the outside patio! **Activities** At this Pint of Politics, we will review the state of play, introduce you to our activities - lobbying, postcards, phonebanks, protests, coalition and community building, grassroots organizing, and getting connected to our network to find your happy place. **Bring Donations of Tarps, socks, gloves, scarves, travel sized hand lotion, hand sanitizer, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes, toothpaste, as well as now accepting clean used adult clothing ** This is supporting our unhoused neighbors through the Black Hair and Hygiene Project supported by the Poor People's Campaign and the Community Lead Advocacy Program. Clothing donations are going to a downtown clothing closet. To learn more and donate directly to the Black Hair and Hygiene Project, go to https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1BXwYEasEmFDlkvUDPCriwSyrCU-IRc1S1xAmZ3ubViw/viewform. **By signing up to this event, you will be added to the Indivisible Sacramento newsletter to get regular updates about our events and activities. You will be able to unsubscribe at any time.** **All the resources** Indivisible Website Events Page https://indivisiblesacramento.com/events/ Coalition Against Project 20205 LinkTree https://linktr.ee/coalitionagainstproject2025 Sister District Project Sacramento https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sister-district-sacramento","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-10T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-10T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"3514 Broadway, ","city":"Sacramento","state":"CA","zip":"95817","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblesacramento/event/550283/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Mobilize%20Pints%20%26%20Postcards%20%281200%20x%20630%20px%29-2_20241111200549863345.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"550283","scrapedAt":"2026-04-13T06:01:15.856Z"},{"id":"mobilize-824605","title":"A Pint of Politics and #DoingSomething","description":"Second Sundays 2 – 4pm PDT Oak Park Brewing Co. 3514 Broadway Sacramento, CA 95817 Join the Coalition Against Project 2025 at our favorite local eatery and Coalition Partner, Oak Park Brewing Co. We meet on the 2nd Sundays to connect with ways to defend and build a people-powered society. **If you can attend or stop by, please help our homeless neighbors by bringing tarps, belts, socks, hats, gloves, scarves, and now also accepting clean, used clothes. We are also supporting the Black Hair and Hygiene Project and collecting travel size lotion, moisturizing hair products, hand sanitizer, and essential oils** Learn more about the Black Hair And Hygiene project here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1BXwYEasEmFDlkvUDPCriwSyrCU-IRc1S1xAmZ3ubViw/viewform and donate through their fiscal sponsor by noting BHBH in the memo: https://sacshoc.org/. In partnership with the Poor People's Campaign and the Community Lead Advocacy Program. See our Mutual Aid organizing document here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HlfpG2bcQrGk5SWXH10GSAVlKMzDiNEgOjSvqTxFNM8/edit For more action and connection check in with the Coalition LinkTree regularly: https://linktr.ee/coalitionagainstproject2025 For more action and connection check in with the Coalition LinkTree regularly: https://linktr.ee/coalitionagainstproject2025","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-10T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-10T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Oak Park Brewing Co.","address":"3514 Broadway, ","city":"Sacramento","state":"CA","zip":"95817","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/cap25/event/824605/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_4008_20250806030017176769.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"824605","scrapedAt":"2026-04-13T06:01:36.569Z"},{"id":"mobilize-841301","title":"Rally for Democracy @ Orange (May 3)","description":"#### Sunday, May 3 #### RALLY FOR DEMOCRACY 📍 Orange, CA: S Yorba St & E Chapman Ave 🗓️ Sunday, May 3 from 2-4pm **You are not alone!** Join your community members every week in a peaceful, pet & family-friendly grassroots gathering for solidarity against tyranny, supporting all of Orange County and adjacent areas, hosted by **[50501 Movement Orange County](https://linktr.ee/50501oc)** and **[OC Indivisible Coalition](https://linktr.ee/ocindivisiblecoalition)** (not affiliated with any political party). They are betting on your silence. They are counting on your inaction. Prove them wrong! EVENT UPDATES AS OF FEBRUARY 2026: Protest rallies at rotating sites every Sunday except the last Sunday of each month, where we hold our food drive at the Really Really Free Market Anaheim. ### Mutual Aid Food & Essentials Drive ### Requested items include: - cereal, pasta, rice, beans - sugar, salt, oil, flour, coffee - canned food, bottled water - soap, body wash, shampoo - toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant - toilet paper & paper towels - dish & laundry detergent - menstrual care products - baby diapers and wipes ### What to bring: ### - Your voices - Your friends - Water & snacks - Sunscreen ### More Info ### Most events will take place rain or shine. Please check your email for updates and check the weather forecast in advance to prepare accordingly for rain or heat, bringing items such as umbrellas, fans, personal misters, or extra water as needed. Participants are responsible for assessing their own health conditions and taking appropriate precautions. Those joining the event do so at their own discretion and assume responsibility for their personal well-being. Remember, your right to protest is covered under the First Amendment. No permit is required for this gathering. Please do not disrupt traffic.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-10T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-10T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"South Yorba Street & East Chapman Avenue, ","city":"Orange","state":"CA","zip":"92869","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/ocindivisible/event/841301/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/GenericSundayMobilize_20260203114957598400_20260427212211912594.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"841301","scrapedAt":"2026-05-04T06:01:07.152Z"},{"id":"mobilize-812461","title":"Overpass Visibility Brigade: Bridge of Solidarity I-80 Berkeley","description":"Every other Sunday, check the listing dates. Berkeley is the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement. We use large letters to spell out messages in support of human rights to cars passing below. Messages are responsive to current events. We estimate nearly 17,000 people pass under the bridge each hour making this action impactful and fun. RSVP for updates! Overpass actions are a great entry into the public resistance movement. The events tend to be less crowded and we work to solicit honks by waving at passing cars. Pop by for encouragement, no need to stay the entire time. Photos and video of this event may be shared publicly, please inform photographers if you are a ninja. We look forward to being visible with you! Rain or Shine.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-10T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"i80 Pedestrian/Bike Overpass Berkeley @ University Ave","address":"598 University Ave, ","city":"Berkeley","state":"CA","zip":"94720","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible-east-bay/event/812461/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_1098_20260117153931205287.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"812461","scrapedAt":"2026-04-27T06:01:50.015Z"},{"id":"recurring-mother-s-day-2026","title":"Mother's Day","description":"Honoring mothers and maternal figures. An opportunity to spotlight maternal health and rights.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2026-05-11T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"mobilize-762349","title":"West Coast Connection Coalition Call","description":"Join us for this month's West Coast Connection call NOW ON SUNDAYS at 6:30 as we focus on two Calls to Action. We will talk about growing actions against the Concentration Camps Nationally as well as state based responses. We will also highlight how to easily join the National Fall of Freedom's urgent call to artists and arts institutions to make art, music, plays, exhibitions, comedy, and beautiful protests aligned with immigrants' rights community and labor organizing, to amplify all struggles against repression and state violence. We are actively building a coalition where we can amplify actions and programs, share resources and tools, celebrate our successes, brainstorm ideas, and support one another in addressing challenging issues. develop, in coalition, impactful strategies to defend our democracy. Working locally and connecting regionally, in Southern, Central, and Northern California, Oregon, and Washington States, we share resources and support actions, benefiting from each group's perspectives and contributions. We will have the opportunity to share group actions, programming, and resources, and request support, as well. NELA-AFD is switching to our own Dashboard, so please sign up on this link: https://www.mobilize.us/nelaalliancefordemocracy/event/868928/ **A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values. We expect hosts to ensure all participants in your event uphold this commitment. We recommend all participants review our safety and security resource before your event: https://indivisi.org/safety**","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T01:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T03:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"90065","address":", ","city":"Los Angeles","state":"CA","zip":"90065","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/762349/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/NELAAforD%20mobilize%20program%20West%20Coast%20Cpnnection_20250818160021005040.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"762349","scrapedAt":"2026-04-13T12:01:35.154Z"},{"id":"mobilize-811105","title":"Weekly Protest at Franklin & Elliott in CH MONDAYS","description":"Stand Up for Democracy and Justice! Join us every Monday at the corner of Franklin St & Elliott Rd in Chapel Hill for a weekly, peaceful, nonpartisan protest and call to action. Free parking at the Church of Reconciliation, 110 N Elliott Rd. Across the political spectrum, Americans are disillusioned by leaders who put power over people. We gather to build community, spark hope, and inspire action. Bring a friend. Bring a sign. Speak up for immigrant rights, free speech, healthcare, social security, the environment, the Constitution and the rule of law, reproductive freedom, job and funding cuts, and the many, many other issues close to our hearts. Bonus points for signs that encourage others to move beyond honking and help turn awareness into action. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T11:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T13:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"East Franklin Street & South Elliott Road, ","city":"Chapel Hill","state":"NC","zip":"27514","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/811105/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"811105","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T00:01:58.787Z"},{"id":"mobilize-547359","title":"FDC Breakfast","description":"Meet for Breakfast with other fellow like-minded Dems! We meet every 2nd Monday of the month for an informal get together as we discuss our politics and plan for local advocacy over coffee and delicious cafe food. Come join us! *URGENT NEED:* With SNAP Benefits paused and federal workers going unpaid, families in Frisco need our help! Please join the Frisco Democratic Club in supporting our local community by participating in a food drive. Bring items to the Breakfast on November 10 or Happy Hour on November 14. *Urgently Needed Items* Cooking Oil (24 or 48 oz.) Canned Fruit/Fruit Cups Boxed Meal Helpers (Hamburger/Tuna Helper®, or mac & cheese) Assorted Baking Mixes Canned Meats (tuna, chicken, Spam®) Flour Sugar Pasta & Pasta Sauce (all varieties) Laundry Detergent Gift cards to grocery stores such as Market Street, HEB, Kroger, Tom Thumb, Sprouts, Whole Foods, Walmart, and Aldi are also greatly appreciated, as they allow Frisco Family Services to quickly replenish specific items as needed. Make a financial gift: Your financial contribution will purchase items that are most needed at the time the gift is made. Please follow this link: https://form-renderer-app.donorperfect.io/give/frisco-family-services-center/general-page-copy 📍 The address of this event will be E-Mailed to you upon registration.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T13:15:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T14:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"5th Street Patio Cafe","address":"8621 5th St, ","city":"Frisco","state":"TX","zip":"75034","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/friscodemocraticclub/event/547359/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_2380_20230504191516257628.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"547359","scrapedAt":"2026-04-14T00:01:14.597Z"},{"id":"mobilize-829717","title":"Postcards & Conversation","description":"Start your week with our three grassroots activist groups: Downtown Nasty Women, Markers For Democracy, and Team Min! Beginning at 10am ET with lively (mostly political) conversation, followed by our regularly scheduled Monday morning programming and guest speaker. Write some Get Out The Vote postcards (optional) while you're here. If this is your first time joining our groups, please sign in at least 15 minutes before the speaker start time listed below. 10:00am: Welcome and open conversation 10:30am: Fact Check, Strategic Actions, Trusted Sources Media Spotlight 11:00am: Guest speaker and moderated Q&A Co-hosted by: Downtown Nasty Women, Markers For Democracy, and Team Min.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T14:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/downtownnastywomen/event/829717/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/3_logos_mobilize_20250811210952403914.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"829717","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T00:02:02.398Z"},{"id":"mobilize-757199","title":"CD1 Protest at Schweikert's Office","description":"No War!, Stop ICE, No concentration camps in AZ, Release the Epstein Files! - Have signs asking our electeds to focus on healthcare, jobs, education, SNAP benefits, etc, instead of warfare. Rein in ICE. Due Process for ALL detained people. DHS/ICE/CBP must meet law enforcement standards. Stop paramilitary tactics. Release the Epstein files! - Bring **non-perishable food, personal care** (toothpaste, toothbrushes), and/or **household** items (paper towels, toilet paper) to **help our neighbors in need**. To date, this food drive - sponsored by MoveOn - has donated **3 tons** of food to the Scottsdale Foodbank. - Bring a **letter** or a postcard message to drop off at Schweikert's office - The building and parking lot are on private property. Building management has asked us from time to time not to park in their parking lot. so you may want to take advantage of street parking or park in Kohl's parking lot 1/2 block east on Raintree Rd. We plan to **peacefully** continue our **demand** for **Schweikert** to **do his job** every Monday through the November election. Register here to help us with an accurate count for planning purposes. Our CD1 Coalition Partners include: Move On, Optimists Resist Indivisible, Stand Indivisible, the Democrats of LD4, LD3, LD2, LD8, LD5, the North Scottsdale Democrats, the Fountain Hills Democratic Club, Fountain Hills Independent Indivisibles, Desert Progressives Indivisible, Swing Left Maricopa County, and Honest Arizona.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"14500 N Northsight Blvd, ","city":"Scottsdale","state":"AZ","zip":"85260","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/azindivisible/event/757199/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Schweikert%E2%80%99s%20Office%201200%20by%20630_20251114123952459658.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"757199","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T00:01:49.036Z"},{"id":"mobilize-811666","title":"Standout for Veterans & All Federal Workers!","description":"Stand with us at the entrance to the regional headquarters of the VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System to support our veterans and all federal workers! VA workers are the backbone of the VA system, ensuring veterans get the highly specialized care and support they earned. About a third of all federal workers are veterans adversely affected by the federal government’s job slashing/restructuring. We are in a high traffic area at a busy light, with veterans and employees turning into the VA driveway. Our standouts let VA staff know that we support them, while we protest DOGE/Project 2025 cuts and the abrupt cancellation of union contracts. We won’t sit by idly while the Trump regime works to privatize the VA, which would hollow out health care and support tailored for the special needs of our veterans. Join us to raise our voices against the chaos and destruction of the current regime. Join the many veterans and their family members who aren't on board with the \"cruelty as entertainment\" behavior of Trump and the GOP. A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values. We expect hosts to ensure all participants in your event uphold this commitment. We recommend all participants review our safety and security resource before your event: https://indivisi.org/safety. Winter weather alert: If it's a snow day, we will cancel our standout that day.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T15:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T16:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Veterans Affairs Medical Center","address":"421 N Main St, ","city":"Northampton","state":"MA","zip":"01053","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblenorthamptonswingleftwesternma/event/811666/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/VA%20Federal_Workers_Rally_20250707174926873663.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"811666","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T00:01:58.787Z"},{"id":"mobilize-754427","title":"Mondays @ McCormick's - Weekly Protest Noon 2000 Market","description":"\"Monday's at McCormick's\" each Monday at noon - rain or shine - Here's why: We are living in a MAGA-republican Coup. We were warned. Now it's here! We now have a true oligarchy in the US and we must fight back! The Trump administration’s illegal actions and relentless efforts to dismantle protections for vulnerable communities — both here in the U.S. and abroad— have made clear we are in the midst of an authoritarian takeover not unlike what has happened in Orban’s Hungary. But look what happened to him! We’re all in danger! The US has never been a perfect democracy. It has a lot of problems, but over time, regular people organized and banded together to gain improvements for everyone. This has not been easy, and positive change is not guaranteed, but the US could be a lot worse. You can never have a perfect world – but you can always have a better one. We worked hard to make it a better one. If we don't stand up, we're in danger of losing freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to marry who we want – even our right to vote. So many of the freedoms we have fought so hard for are at risk now. We must turn back the autocracy coming from the White House or everything we have gained could be lost and we will be plunged into a dark, dystopian reality that could be worse than anything the US has had before... No one will be safe. Not in the US. Not anywhere in the World. We want peace, justice and sustainability now! Let’s organize and win! Trump's to \"Own Gaza\" and move out Palestinians is NOT a plan to destroy Hamas and increase Israeli security - it is ETHNIC CLEANSING pure and simple. It's a land grab. All for development rights and to secure a seaport access to natural gas deposits off the shore of Gaza in the Mediterranean Sea. The Levant gas field includes the shores of historic Palestine (Israel and Gaza), Syria, Lebanon and, on the opposite side, the island of Cyprus. This field is estimated to contain about 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. So it will accelerate the climate emergency. As we all know Trump plan to get rid of a number of government agencies that protect our health, livelihood and constitutional rights. - the EPA is on the hit list. The Department of Education is too. So, is the CDC, the NIH and many other important agencies that protect the US public. As we all know - thousands have already been fired, causing chaos and havoc and real harm to both dedicated civil servants AND people served by life affirming programs voted on by the U.S. people and enacted, in most cases, by the U.S. Congress. The Administration may have authority to make staffing decisions, but as is the case with the Department of Education - many of these agencies can only be eliminated by acts of Congress - Trump has overstepped his legal authority. Thankfully, the courts have, so far, acted as a check on much of Trump's clear and blatant abuses of executive power. But we cannot count on the courts, particularly the US Supreme court, which has been stacked by Trump appointees and ideologues friendly to executive power. Resistance is NOT futile - it is essential. We launched \"Monday's at McCormick's\" each Monday at noon - rain or shine - to assemble peaceably - as is our constitutional right - outside Senator McCormick's Philadelphia office until Senator McCormick agrees to meet with us and support our demands: (These will change as conditions develop) 1 - Stop voting for legislation inspired by Trump's project 2025 agenda - a plan to slash Medicaid, gut school lunch programs, and shut down nursing homes while handing more power to billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and others. 2- Roll back Trump's mean spirited and Unconstitutional funding pauses. Shutting down USAID is already killing people in need all over the World. Cuts to programs here in the US could do the same. Funding for these programs are up to the Congress and the US people to decide, not Trump! 3 - Stop the Administrations wars of choice around the world. 4 - Re-engage with nuclear arms treaty regimes to reduce and eventually eliminate Nuclear weapons and ALL weapons of mass destruction That's just for starters. Overall we want Senator McCormick to represent us all, not just his rich friends. We want Senator McCormick to DO HIS JOB! The stakes could not be higher. The administration is pushing an authoritarian agenda that threatens our democracy, our rights, and the well-being of millions here at home and around the planet. We have the power to resist—and we must use every tool at our disposal to stop them.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Senator McCormicks Philly Ofc.","address":"2000 Market St, ","city":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","zip":"19103","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/peacehomecampigns/event/754427/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Monday%27s%20%40%20McCormicks%20New%20Banner%20White_20260424181116014888.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"754427","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T00:01:45.674Z"},{"id":"mobilize-758931","title":"Peaceful Rally to Save our Democracy","description":"New location (and broader focus beyond our congressman) starting March 16! Join us to let the public know that Trump's Administration is leading to a totalitarian government. Make your own sign to bring, but you are welcome to come and stand with us even if you don't have one. Attendees agree to adhere to applicable laws while exercising our First Amendment rights, or are asked to not join at our announced times.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T16:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"sidewalk in front of William Penn Park & Ride","address":"5715 William Penn Hwy, ","city":"Easton","state":"PA","zip":"18045","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/norcodemspa/event/758931/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/BethlehemTwp-protest_20250414173000928503.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"758931","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T00:01:49.036Z"},{"id":"mobilize-832457","title":"Mad Mondays","description":"MAD MONDAY PROTEST We are back and will be meeting on Mondays 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Broadway and Loop in front of On The Border. Do not park in On the Border parking. Park on Broadway side of JC Penney's..walk up sidewalk We meet to let people know by seeing us that they aren't alone. Fighting authoritarianism! Signs available or bring your own. All issues welcome. Note: a core principle behind our actions is a commitment to nonviolence in all that we do. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T16:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T18:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Sidewalk in front of On the Border","address":"4301 S Broadway Ave, Corner of Loop 323 and Broadway","city":"Tyler","state":"TX","zip":"75703","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblesmithcounty/event/832457/","image":"","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"832457","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T00:02:05.416Z"},{"id":"mobilize-779986","title":"Texas Blue Action Latino Outreach Program","description":"Our community's strength has always been in our connections, our familia, our vecinos, our friends. Local elections need our voice more than ever. We’re inviting you to a special virtual event designed to empower you as a leader within your own network. ¿What is this event? This virtual relational organizing gathering isn't a large, impersonal webinar. It's a conversational space where we equip you, a trusted voice in your community, with the knowledge and tools to have effective, personal conversations with your own circle about the upcoming elections. We'll provide you with knowledge on how to use tools to easily inform your network about local propositions to statewide races and how these decisions affect our families, our jobs, our healthcare, and our children's future. Are you ready to become a community resource where you turn your knowledge into action by helping your network make a plan to vote? This event is perfect for you if you're someone people in your life already turn to for advice. You care about the future of our community in Texas but aren't sure where to start. You believe change happens through conversation, not just commercials. ¡Te esperamos! / We're waiting for you!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T18:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"McAllen","state":"TX","zip":"78501","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/blueactiondems/event/779986/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/TXBAD%20Latino%20Program%20Mobilize%20%281200%20x%20630%20px%29%20%282%29_20260121195844148050.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"779986","scrapedAt":"2026-04-28T06:01:18.701Z"},{"id":"mobilize-772276","title":"You can tell your Electeds to Please Grow a Spine – Let’s Get Loud!","description":"You’re already calling your Senators and Representative every day. You’re going to protests every chance you get. Is there anything else you can do? As a matter of fact, there is! Post and amplify messages (on the social media platforms you're already using) that tag your electeds about the things you just called them about. Urge 'em to vote yes or no on that bill or nomination. Thank them for standing strong when they do the right thing, or ask them to fight for you when they wimp out. Why? Because people will see your posts and make their own posts to their electeds! Winner winner chicken dinner! You'll also be helping educate other people about the issues you care about. Finding all of your reps' handles on different social media platforms and creating posts is hard, so we did it for you (on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Bluesky). Just fill in the blanks and click post! Want to see how it works? Come to our fun training! Find all our ready-made posts here: https://www.pleasegrowaspine.org/ Post personal messages to your reps every day. Search for #PGAS and amplify others doing the same. Repeat. Sleep soundly knowing you did everything you could! (And yes, use your existing social media accounts or add more, we'll explain it all!) Check out all the Field Team 6 Social Storm training sessions here: https://www.mobilize.us/ft6/?q=social%20media%20account&show_all_events=true","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/ft6/event/772276/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/spine%20training_FB_20250403051344342445.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"772276","scrapedAt":"2026-04-28T00:01:15.958Z"},{"id":"mobilize-812567","title":"Show Up / Speak Out! Mondays With(Out) McCormick","description":"**Show Up / Speak Out: Protest With a Purpose** Join us weekly in front of Senator Dave McCormick's Scranton office to speak out against the federal agenda that is making corporations and billionaires richer while the rest of us face soaring costs every day! We will also make our way over to Congressman Rob Bresnahan's office regularly to ask why he's not holding in-person town halls to face questions from his constituents and why he keeps selling us out while he gets richer and richer. **What you need to know:** - Bring signs! Signs focused on healthcare and the ACA will be perfect! - Invite your friends! Let's get as many folks there as possible! - Do YOU have a story to tell about how increasing healthcare premiums will impact your family? Let us know! Email us at comms@actiontogethernepa.org and we can help guide you through the storytelling process. - There is often street parking available near Senator McCormick's office. There are also several parking garages, including one across from the Steamtown Marketplace. - We're there to stand up for each other and for healthcare for our families and neighbors. We keep our events fun, positive, and safe for all attendees. If there are any detractors there, please don't give them any of your energy and defer to Action Together NEPA staff to keep everyone safe. **EVERGREEN EVENT INFO** **Our communities in NEPA deserve to be heard.** That’s why we launched Show Up / Speak Out, a weekly campaign to deliver letters and petitions, share our stories, stand up for our communities, and demand action from our legislators. 📣 If we can’t get in the door, we’ll make our voices heard outside. ✊ Whether constituents get a visit or it’s strictly a protest with a purpose, we’ll be there — every week. 🗓️ Every Monday at 2pm – Outside Senator Dave McCormick’s Scranton office (417 Lackawanna Ave, Scranton, PA 18503.) 🏢 We’re gathering outside McCormick’s office, and we’ll take field trips over to Bresnahan’s office. Because guess what? Bresnahan’s office is conveniently located just around the corner! **This is what democracy looks like—NEPA style.** Action Together NEPA is proud to host these actions as part of the Pennsylvanians Together coalition, working together to create a commonwealth where we all can thrive, not just survive. We work to hold our elected leaders accountable and empower constituents to take action.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Senator Dave McCormick's Scranton Office","address":"417 Lackawanna Ave, ","city":"Scranton","state":"PA","zip":"18503","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/atnepa/event/812567/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/unnamed_20260109220104550758.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"812567","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T00:01:58.787Z"},{"id":"mobilize-797810","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Monroe at Rama near Hendricks HQ","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! We are protesting ICE/CBP in Charlotte, including how Hendrick Motorsports supports them by taking a no-bid contract to sell vehicles to ICE. Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T20:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T21:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"MoRA","address":"Idlewild Road & Monroe Road, ","city":"Charlotte","state":"NC","zip":"28212","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/797810/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331195245154619.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"797810","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T06:02:12.943Z"},{"id":"mobilize-810527","title":"EVERY MONDAY: 4:30-6:00PM Protest in Coconut Creek","description":"Monday, January 12, 2026 from 4:30 PM until: PM at the intersection of Coconut Creek Parkway and Lyons Road. Rally will focus upon pressing issues including: • Get ICE Off Our Streets. • Do not cut Obama Care Benefits. •Hands Off Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits for Seniors and all citizens! millions of Americans! Local organizers emphasize that Democrats Vote for Democracy – NOT dictatorship. The rally is open to the public, and all community members are encouraged to attend • Rejecting Soldiers on our streets. . •Rejecting the proposed $4 Trillion increase in the national debt. •Preserving the Department of Education. •Advocating for lower prices and economic fairness. Intersection of Lyons Rd and Coconut Creek Pkwy","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T20:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Coconut Creek Community Center","address":"1100 Lyons Rd, ","city":"Coconut Creek","state":"FL","zip":"33063","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/browardcountydems/event/810527/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Vote%20by%20Mail%20pic%20IMG_6543_20260426211358921575.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"810527","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T06:02:16.929Z"},{"id":"mobilize-827822","title":"Rally for Democracy, Stand on Every Corner","description":"Come join us for our weekly rallies to let our community know we are not complicit with the Trump agenda! We meet from 4:30-5:30 every Monday. There is plenty of parking at nearby ramps (Lunds and on Market Street). Bring your flags, signs, friends and kids. I 🕊️ This is a nonviolent protest. 💧 Bring water and dress for the weather. 📢 Whether you can stay the full time, or just stop by for a few minutes, your presence matters. A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T21:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T22:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"West 50th Street & Halifax Avenue South, ","city":"Edina","state":"MN","zip":"55424","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/827822/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"827822","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T06:02:20.276Z"},{"id":"mobilize-786343","title":"Volunteer Info Session","description":"Transportation Alternatives is powered by passionate volunteers who are working every day to reclaim New York City’s streets for people. Whether you’re brand new to TA or looking to re-engage, our monthly 30-minute Volunteer Info Sessions are the perfect place to start. These sessions are held virtually from 6:00–6:30 PM and will walk you through our mission to promote walking, biking, and public transit, and reduce car dependency across the five boroughs. You’ll learn about our borough-based campaigns, current advocacy priorities, and the many ways you can get involved—whether you have an hour a month or several hours a week. We’ll also highlight upcoming volunteer opportunities and share how you can take action in your own neighborhood. These sessions are designed to help you find the best fit for your interests, availability, and passion. Join an upcoming session to get connected, get inspired, and help transform our streets—one action at a time.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"Transportation Alternatives Office","address":"111 John St 260, 2nd Floor, Suite 260","city":"New York","state":"NY","zip":"10038","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/transalt/event/786343/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Volunteer%20Meeting_Mobilize%20Header%20%281%29_20260113160741944308.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"786343","scrapedAt":"2026-04-14T06:02:02.948Z"},{"id":"mobilize-775779","title":"Floridians for Immigrant Justice Campaign Meeting","description":"Are you concerned about the state of immigrants' rights in Florida? Do you want to learn what you can do to fight back? Join our Floridians for Immigrant Justice Campaign to learn more about the work we're doing across the state to fight back against anti-immigrant policy and legislation. Come to learn, leave with a plan to get involved! We meet on the first Monday of every month.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/aclufl/event/775779/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IR3_20250801182103333000.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"775779","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T06:02:09.929Z"},{"id":"mobilize-623133","title":"DeKalb Dems African American Caucus Politics and Pizza","description":"Join the DeKalb Chapter of the African American Caucus for Politics and Pizza to discuss issues facing our community and what action you can take to advocate for our rights and educate voters. These will be in-person monthly events on the second Monday of each month. Location: Fellini's Pizza, 333 Commerce Dr, Decatur, GA 30030.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T23:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Fellini's Pizza","address":"333 Commerce Drive, ","city":"Decatur","state":"GA","zip":"30030","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/dekalbcountydemocrats/event/623133/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/file_000000006d0071f5aafb9e7676a8a924_20260409162320461972.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"623133","scrapedAt":"2026-04-14T06:01:49.880Z"},{"id":"mobilize-826860","title":"ICTX Pop-Up Protest - Belton!","description":"Join us for a weekly one-hour pop-up protest where we show up, take space, and make our voices heard. Same time, same spot, every Monday. We gather to stand against injustice, authoritarianism, and anything happening in our community, our state, or our country that demands action. There’s a lot going on, and this space lets us respond in real time to whatever matters most. Whether you come with a sign, a message, or just your presence, you’re part of a collective showing that our community pays attention, refuses to look away, and won’t stay silent. _Note: Our location may occasionally change in response to current events or urgent needs. Anyone signed up for updates will be notified immediately of any changes._ Want to know more about our Harker Heights Pop-Up Protest? Click here 👇 https://mobilize.us/s/HcrYAx ###### Who is Indivisible Centex? We are a local, nonpartisan grassroots group resisting authoritarianism by educating, empowering, and organizing our community to defend democracy.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-11T23:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Bell County Courthouse","address":"101 E Central Ave, ","city":"Belton","state":"TX","zip":"76513","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecentex/event/826860/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_7976_20260306200442086392.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"826860","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T06:02:20.276Z"},{"id":"mobilize-606171","title":"Democratic Women of Franklin County","description":"### Please join us! _Democratic Women meetings are open to all registered Democrats and their allies._ The Democratic Women of North Carolina is dedicated to engaging women with the work of the Democratic Party. We work to get women to vote, support women who run for office, and work to get Democrats up and down the ticket elected (especially if they are women!). We ensure women have a seat at the table and a voice in decision-making within the North Carolina Democratic Party. - We meet on the second Monday of each month at 7:00 pm [FCDP Linktree](https://linktr.ee/franklincountyncdems) [Caucus Linktree](https://linktr.ee/demwomenfcnc) [Caucus Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/demwomenfcnc) #### Monthly County Party Meetings https://www.mobilize.us/fcdemsnc/ - Executive Committee Meeting - Democratic Women - LGBTQ Dems - African American Caucus - Senior Democrats","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"FCDP Headquarters","address":"108 E Nash St, ","city":"Louisburg","state":"NC","zip":"27549","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/fcdemsnc/event/606171/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/3_20240819235528447669.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"606171","scrapedAt":"2026-04-14T06:01:47.033Z"},{"id":"mobilize-819148","title":"Noblesville Dems: Advocacy Committee Meeting","description":"Looking to make a difference in Noblesville? Join the Noblesville Dems Advocacy Committee! We meet on the second Monday of every month to discuss local issues, plan actions, and advocate for policies that reflect our values. Everyone is welcome-bring your ideas and your passion!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Chapter Book Lounge","address":"996 Conner St., ","city":"Noblesville","state":"IN","zip":"46060","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/hamcodemsin/event/819148/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Advocacy%20Committee_20260122140322473791.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"819148","scrapedAt":"2026-04-14T06:02:10.534Z"},{"id":"mobilize-823122","title":"Hands Off Rally","description":"Join Indivisible Greater Vancouver and MoveOn-Clark County as we rally to tell the Trump administration to keep their \"hands off\" all of our vital services and communities! Let's raise our voices - and our signs - to tell the Trump administration to keep their hands off our: Social Security Medicaid and Medicare Public Media: NPR, PBS Trans Community BIPOC community National Parks Veterans Services Immigrants Autism/Disability Community Federal Workers -and more! When we stand together in public to affirm our rights we let our community know that we stand with them. We'll gather at the southwest corner of Mill Plain and Chkalov in Vancouver, on the sidewalk by the Fred Meyer Shopping Center. Bring a sign that lets everyone know what you want the administration to keep their hands off! PLEASE NOTE: Fred Meyer and the businesses in the Trader Joe's/Shari's parking lot have asked us not to park in their lots. There is on-street parking on 117th (behind Petco) and 2nd (behind the Starbucks shopping area). About Indivisible Greater Vancouver (IGV) Indivisible Greater Vancouver (IGV) is committed to promoting nonviolent advocacy and activism to create lasting social and political change. Founded in 2017 as a chapter of the national Indivisible movement to resist the Trump agenda, IGV has since expanded its focus to include local and Washington state grassroots organizing. We work in partnership with organizations that share our values, including Clark County 50501, MoveOn Clark County, LULAC, Pasitos Gigantes, and the Vancouver chapter of the NAACP. Together, we build community power rooted in justice, equity, and solidarity. IGV is deeply committed to nonviolence as both a principle and a strategy. We at IGV strongly believe that peaceful, nonviolent activism offers social movements the most power to effect change. Through peaceful protests, we set an example of making our voices heard with dignity, empowered by truth. IGV does not condone intimidation, threats, vandalism, interference with access to business or any other lawless actions. If instigators or opponents attempt to violate our commitment to non-violence, we will try to de-escalate and end the event if needed to maintain a safe environment. You can read more about Indivisible’s national commitment to nonviolence here: 🔗 indivisible.org/commitment-nonviolence We also value and are guided by the research of Dr. Erica Chenoweth, whose work shows that nonviolent movements are significantly more successful than violent ones in achieving lasting social and political transformation: 🔗 Paths to Resistance – Harvard Kennedy School Together, we stand strong, peaceful, and resolute—because nonviolence is not passive. It is powerful.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"11327 SE Mill Plain Blvd, ","city":"Vancouver","state":"WA","zip":"98684","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible-greater-vancouver/event/823122/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/HandsOff_Mural_1200_20260214232537204903.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"823122","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T06:02:20.276Z"},{"id":"mobilize-824571","title":"Change Begins With ME Overpass Alliance-Mondays","description":"Make some \"Good Trouble\" - Join us for an overpass visibility event at Clairemont Dr. over I-5. We use huge letters to spell out an inspiring message for passing cars during the evening commute and wave to cars honking in support. Messaging changes weekly in response to current events. It can be windy on the overpass; bring a jacket. Parking - Park in the northwest lot off of Clairemont Dr. Meet on grassy area for banner assembly. Click here for map - https://bit.ly/CBWM_MONDAY_OVERPASS_MAP RSVP to get updates. We are committed to peaceful protest. While bannering, please do not leave banners unattended or hang banners over bridge rails. Please be considerate of pedestrians & don't feed the trolls. Photos and video of this event may be shared publicly. Safety is our top priority. Please complete our Liability Waiver here - https://bit.ly/CBWM_OVERPASSALLIANCE_WAIVER Sign up, show up, and stand up for justice. We look forward to being visible with you!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-11T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T00:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Clairemont Drive overpass at I-5","address":"2366 Clairemont Dr, ","city":"San Diego","state":"CA","zip":"92109","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/bethechangesd/event/824571/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot_2026-01-26_at_4.31.06_PM_20260128052018240338.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"824571","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T06:02:20.276Z"},{"id":"mobilize-809205","title":"MacArthur & High St Weekly Resistance Protest","description":"Join us as we stand in solidarity to highlight the many harms caused by the Trump administration’s authoritarian regime. Local neighbors have held this street corner of Oakland since the inauguration and we invite you to stand with us! We use signs and the power of community to demonstrate to evening commuters that resistance against harmful government policy is strong. Bring a whistle, a bell, a sign or whatever will make you experience more comfortable. Monday from 5-6pm. (Event time changes to 5-6pm on March 9th)","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"MacArthur Boulevard & High Street, ","city":"Oakland","state":"CA","zip":"94619","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible-east-bay/event/809205/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_0754_20250630193937163754.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"809205","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T06:02:16.929Z"},{"id":"mobilize-837672","title":"Protest Every Monday in Brea","description":"## Join INDIVISIBLE CA-45 in Brea for a high visibility **PEACEFUL protest** ### DST brings daylight throughout the event. #### We will rally on every corner of the intersection of Imperial Highway and State College Boulevard in Brea, CA 92821. During rush hour, many thousands of cars will be passing by. ### RAIN CANCELS - Rain on the windshield and on the road and dark of night is a dangerous combination at the busiest intersection in Brea. Safety guidelines: 1. Do not cross streets unless necessary. 2. Remain behind the tape placed along the curb. ### Protest for Democracy, the Rule Of Law, and **ALL HUMAN RIGHTS** ## Protest against the brutality of ICE !!! ## Protest against trump's WAR ### Bring your signs ### Bring your flags. ## BRING YOUR COSTUME! # Please be safe! **DO NOT PARK anywhere in the shopping area on the southwest corner of Imperial and State College.** Southeast and Northeast corners are best. This a local Indivisible event! **A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to _DE-ESCALATE_ any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.**","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T01:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"The Busiest Intersection in Brea","address":"Imperial Highway & State College Boulevard, ","city":"Brea","state":"CA","zip":"92821","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/837672/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"837672","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T06:02:23.204Z"},{"id":"mobilize-616929","title":"Cal RCV - Intro & Get Involved: Ranked Choice Voting for California","description":"Several cities in California already use **Ranked Choice Voting**, where it's proven to **increase turnout, elect more diverse and representative leaders, and make campaigns more positive**. Join us to help expand RCV to more cities and for statewide elections! Sign up for an upcoming intro session to learn more about RCV and how you can get involved with the [California RCV Coalition](https://www.calrcv.org).","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T01:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T02:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"CA","zip":"95832","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/calrcv/event/616929/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Intro%201_20240427181442140110.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"616929","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T06:01:59.846Z"},{"id":"mobilize-840890","title":"Tuesday Visibility Bridge Brigade: I-147 @ Anderson","description":"Come join Engaged Defenders for Democracy every Tuesday from 7:30-9 on the bridge overpass of 1-147 and Anderson Drive. We are there to demonstrate in defense of our democracy and the rights of all in this country. We are for raising the minimum wage, housing for all, healthcare for all, protecting the earth, and protecting our workers. Come any time during this time. We have a mighty crew who comes each week. Thank you activism warriors for your dedication!! Parking at Erwin Square Plaza on Rutherford — about 3 blocks walking, slightly up hill. You can google Duke University Federal Credit Union (2200 W Main St, Durham, NC 27705). See you every Tuesday morning engaging drivers & pedestrians in Durham! Please join our Substack: https://substack.com/profile/115484101-engaged-defenders-4-democracy For more ED4D Mobilize Events: https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T11:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T13:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"I-147 Overpass @ Anderson Street","address":"121 Anderson St, ","city":"Durham","state":"NC","zip":"27705","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/engagedefendersfordemocracy/event/840890/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Anderson%20bridge_20250908234121267254.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"840890","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T18:01:36.076Z"},{"id":"mobilize-793817","title":"Weekly Gleaning - Mt. Airy","description":"Sunharvest Gardens is a small farm in the vicinity of Mt. Airy Forest. The grower has invited us to come weekly to harvest whatever is ready that week to share with his community. Amounts to harvest and volunteer numbers will vary with the season. Sign up for one or more gleaning shifts. We will be here gleaning through September. You must register to get a spot. *(Please, do not simply show up at the farm if you have not registered. We can only accommodate registered volunteers.)* **Also, please only register once you know you can attend. No-shows mean this important work does not get done.** Gleaning involves harvesting food that will not go to market, but is still good food. We then get it distributed right away to a local hunger relief recipient. The work will happen in the farm's fields in a variety of weather. It may involve bending/stooping, some heavy lifting, and generally getting dirty. This will vary each time. Registered volunteers will receive specific instructions about where to meet at the farm.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T12:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T15:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Cincinnati","state":"OH","zip":"45223","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/endhunger/event/793817/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Fran-Sunharvest_20240607110604551055.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"793817","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T18:01:24.330Z"},{"id":"mobilize-797812","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Elizabeth","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T12:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T13:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Elizabeth","address":"Hawthorne Lane & East 7th Street, ","city":"Charlotte","state":"NC","zip":"28204","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/797812/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331195249148271.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"797812","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T18:01:24.330Z"},{"id":"mobilize-838704","title":"BRIDGE PROTEST- SWST FT WORTH","description":"Be Brave with Us! Join Indivisible 12 & the Visibility Brigade on the SWST Loop 820 bridge just west of the bridge at Bryant Irvin and Interstate 20 at 7AM. Wear your patriotic gear! We will provide the main large sign. **Help is needed right at 7AM to help set up the large sign and around 8:30AM to take it down. To get to the bridge you must go down the frontage road on 20 (passed Chipotle). Do not get back on 20. Follow the frontage road until it gets to the bridge. You can park on the edge of the frontage road. Don't block through traffic. Go to www.visibilitybrigade.com to find OTHER ways to participate. Be sure to join our socials and share your pics from the event (please tag us and #visibilitybrigade): https://linktr.ee/jointhe12 Bridge Brigades will cancel if the forecasted weather is: -Under 40 degrees -Rain is forecasted at 50% *Bridge host may cancel that morning if they arrive at the bridge and it is raining. We do not want to add to any traffic concerns in the rain. -Bridge Hosts will make a judgment call if inclement weather moves in while on the bridge. If lightning is within 6 miles of the bridge, hosts will ask all volunteers to leave immediately. Hosts will use their best judgement regarding wind gusts. Please listen to Bridge Hosts as your safety is a priority. -Bridge Hosts will make every effort to cancel the next day's bridge protest by 9PM the night before, if needed.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T12:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T13:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Fort Worth","state":"TX","zip":"76132","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible12/event/838704/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/TX12%20BBD4_20250904210807869621.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"838704","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T18:01:36.076Z"},{"id":"mobilize-838706","title":"BRIDGE PROTEST- 30 & Hulen","description":"Be Brave with Us! Join Indivisible 12 & the Visibility Brigade on Arlington Heights HS pedestrian bridge. Wear your patriotic gear! We will provide the main large sign. **Help is needed right at 7AM to help set up the large sign and around 8:30AM to take it down. Do not park at the school. Park in the neighborhood on the north side of the highway. DO NOT PARK ON WESTERN or block anyone's driveway. Be sure to join our socials and share your pics from the event (please tag us and #visibilitybrigade): https://linktr.ee/jointhe12 Bridge Brigades will cancel if the forecasted weather is: -Under 40 degrees -Rain is forecasted at 50% *Bridge host may cancel that morning if they arrive at the bridge and it is raining. We do not want to add to any traffic concerns in the rain. -Bridge Hosts will make a judgment call if inclement weather moves in while on the bridge. If lightning is within 6 miles of the bridge, hosts will ask all volunteers to leave immediately. Hosts will use their best judgement regarding wind gusts. Please listen to Bridge Hosts as your safety is a priority. -Bridge Hosts will make every effort to cancel the next day's bridge protest by 9PM the night before, if needed.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T12:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T13:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Fort Worth","state":"TX","zip":"76107","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible12/event/838706/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/TX12%20BBD5_20250904211240403142.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"838706","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T18:01:36.076Z"},{"id":"mobilize-844184","title":"Bridge Protest - Arlington - Davis & 30","description":"Be Brave with Us! Join Visibility Brigade on the pedestrian bridge over I-30 on Davis. Wear your patriotic gear! Parking in the neighborhood to the southwest. We will provide the main large sign. **Help is needed right at 7AM to help set up the large sign and around 8:30AM to take it down. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T12:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T14:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Arlington","state":"TX","zip":"76012","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/844184/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"844184","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:44.264Z"},{"id":"mobilize-702649","title":"Indivisible LAB Daytime Action Hours","description":"Join us for our Daytime Action Hours in Lexington Center. We'll have actions you can take during the meeting and information on events and actions planned this spring. Bring your ideas for actions and suggestions for future meetings. Please RSVP to get location details and parking information. Note: Our daytime meetings are now on Tuesdays since many members attend the Wednesday and Thursday 11am -1pm ICE protests in Burlington.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T14:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Lexington Center (RSVP for details)","address":", ","city":"Lexington","state":"MA","zip":"02421","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblelab/event/702649/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IndivisibleLAB%20Wave_20240920003830302706.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"702649","scrapedAt":"2026-04-23T18:01:34.182Z"},{"id":"mobilize-793903","title":"Rush-hour Resistance Rally @ 7th St & McDowell in Phoenix","description":"# Welcome to the Rush-hour Resistance! 📣 [Rush Hour Resistance Rally](https://rhrr.us) began with a clear idea: **neighbors, gathering peacefully and regularly on busy nearby streets, could remind our communities that democracy is essential and that silence is unacceptable.** Over the last year, RhRR expanded from a handful of participants to multiple locations across the Valley, reaching thousands of pedestrians and motorists each week. This momentum is significant, as is the duty it brings. 🗳️ As we approach the midterm elections, our united mission is to safeguard free and fair elections and promote civic participation, particularly in local and primary races where every vote carries weight. **Our weekly rallies are more than outlets for frustration; they are consistent, visible commitments that normalize voting and democratic engagement as neighborly expectations.** 🕊️ RhRR is a peaceful, nonconfrontational movement. **Our goal is to reach the broader community, not to confront those seeking conflict.** When tensions surface, we withdraw, stay composed, and look out for one another. This discipline keeps our rallies inviting and helps newcomers feel secure joining us. 🫂 Most of all, RhRR is about people caring for one another while standing up for the future of our democracy. **Every person who shows up, every sign held, and every conversation sparked on a street corner is part of something larger and deeply hopeful.** ## Here’s what’s in store for our Tuesday morning event in the Los Olivos neighborhood: 🕥 The event starts at 7:30 am. You are free to show up anytime, but we recommend arriving a few minutes early to introduce yourself. Some of us get together at Einstein Bros at 7:00 am to socialize. We end promptly at 8:30 am. 🅿️ There’s plenty of parking in the Safeway lot on the NW corner. We haven’t had issues before, but parking enforcement is unpredictable. If concerned, check with others. 🚦🚶➡️ Some people stand on a corner of the intersection. Others walk the crosswalks when the lights change. You do you! 🖌️ One of RhRR’s strengths is that people feel free to express themselves. Ideally, your signs would help articulate any of our three pillars: - **Defending democracy and the rule of law** - **Encouraging voting** - **Protecting neighbors and communities** (e.g., immigrants, LGBTQIA+ people, workers, and veterans) This approach keeps signs aligned with RhRR’s purpose, while preserving personal expression and emotional authenticity. 🇺🇳 Flags, banners, and even inflatable costumes are welcome. Some blow lots of bubbles. While our mission is serious, humor and camaraderie matter. 😷 RhRRs are peaceful, public events. Most attendees don’t hide their faces, though some do; participate at your comfort level. Photos and videos are common on social media, but you can ask posters to remove accidental appearances. Thanks in advance for joining us. See you on the streets! ✊","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T14:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T15:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"7th St & Mcdowell, ","city":"Phoenix","state":"AZ","zip":"85007","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/desertdemocracy/event/793903/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Los%20Olivos_20260129223644429093.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"793903","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:24.089Z"},{"id":"mobilize-808979","title":"Rush Hour \"We the People\" Rally and Food Drive","description":"MAKE YOUR FONT LARGE ENOUGH FOR CARS TO SEE (18 inches) 📍 The entrance to Cole Park bridge is at the north end of Cole Park. 📍 Address: 2000 E Carson Dr, Tempe, AZ 85282 🕙 Time: 7:30 AM - 9AM Stay as long as you want, even for just 30 minutes. You can show up earlier if you want. Bring back those HANDS OFF or ICE OUT Signs OR Epstein Files or NO KINGS signs. Bring your friends, fellow activists, and your energy. Let’s stand up, speak out, and keep the momentum going. This is NOT the Tempe Town Lake bridge; this bridge is between Price and McClintock, hence why we are meeting at Cole Park. Cole Park has an entrance to the bridge. The bridge goes over the 60 highway. Parking is in the neighborhood. Please abide by all parking laws. For example, do not block a neighbor's driveway, park 20 feet from an intersection or 15 feet from a fire hydrant, etc Parking is also first-come, first-served; get there early for a good spot. How to prepare: By focusing on large, bold, high-contrast lettering and concise messages, you'll maximize the impact and readability of your bridge protest signs.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T14:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Cole Park","address":"2000 E Carson Dr, ","city":"Tempe","state":"AZ","zip":"85282","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/temperisingindivisible/event/808979/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/No%20Kings%20Day_20250630034426048074.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"808979","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:28.589Z"},{"id":"mobilize-791326","title":"NO KINGS. NO OLIGARCHS: Seattle Yesler Overpass!","description":"**THEY WANT US SILENT. WE'RE DEFIANT.** Keith Porter, Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and other victims of ICE deserve justice. Join our protest in solidarity with Minnesota and immigrant communities across the United States. WE CALL FOR JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF ICE AS WE FIGHT TO PROTECT OUR DEMOCRACY FROM TRUMP AND HIS OLIGARCHS. We need your voice. Let's make some noise! — Devin SPECIAL THANKS to our partners at [Backbone Campaign](https://www.backbonecampaign.org) See you Tuesday! PS. For our full schedule of protests, check out DefundMusk.com. Tesla Takedown is a peaceful protest movement. We oppose violence, vandalism and destruction of property. Please treat Tesla drivers with respect as they are most likely on our side! #TeslaTakedown #BoycottTesla #DefundMusk","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Yesler I-5 Overpass","address":"6th Avenue South & Yesler Way, ","city":"Seattle","state":"WA","zip":"98104","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/seattleindivisible/event/791326/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_0020_20250720214225300761.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"791326","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:24.089Z"},{"id":"mobilize-791329","title":"NO KINGS. NO OLIGARCHS: Seattle 50th St Overpass!","description":"**THEY WANT US SILENT. WE'RE DEFIANT.** Keith Porter, Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and other victims of ICE deserve justice. Join our protest in solidarity with Minnesota and immigrant communities across the United States. WE CALL FOR JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF ICE AS WE FIGHT TO PROTECT OUR DEMOCRACY FROM TRUMP AND HIS OLIGARCHS. We need your voice. Let's make some noise! — Devin **SPECIAL THANKS**: Please, check out our partners at [Backbone Campaign](https://www.backbonecampaign.org) See you Tuesday! PS. For our full schedule of protests, check out DefundMusk.com. Tesla Takedown is a peaceful protest movement. We oppose violence, vandalism and destruction of property. Please treat Tesla drivers with respect as they are most likely on our side! #TeslaTakedown #BoycottTesla #DefundMusk","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"50th St I-5 Overpass","address":"5th Avenue Northeast & Northeast 50th Street, ","city":"Seattle","state":"WA","zip":"98105","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/seattleindivisible/event/791329/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/DefundMuskSign-2_20250720214431966433.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"791329","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:24.089Z"},{"id":"mobilize-757948","title":"RESIST Central Maine (Indivisible)","description":"CALL TO ACTION Rally every Tuesday, starting Feb. 25, 2025 72 Dufresne Plaza-across from Susan Collins office 12-1pm Lisbon St. Lewiston, ME join RESIST Central Maine (Indivisible) In urgent need of support! Bring signs! Parking garages nearby and street parking.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Dufresne Plaza","address":"72 Lisbon St, ","city":"Lewiston","state":"ME","zip":"04240","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/757948/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"757948","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:17.523Z"},{"id":"mobilize-758550","title":"Tuesday Power Hour","description":"Join us for a weekly gathering of engaged Democrats looking to connect, take action, and make a difference. (please consider bringing shelf-stable food item for a donation to a local food pantry) Each week, we’ll come together to build community, hear from local leaders, and find impactful ways to support Democratic values in our area. Whether you’re a longtime activist or just getting started, this is the place to stay informed, get involved, and turn ideas into action. Expect guest speakers, strategy discussions, and opportunities to plug into ongoing efforts—from voter outreach to policy advocacy. Let’s build momentum and make change happen—together. Join us and be part of the movement! Feel free to bring your lunch or snacks.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Forsyth County Democratic Party","address":"723 Coliseum Dr NW Suite 201, ","city":"Winston-Salem","state":"NC","zip":"27106","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/forsythcountydems/event/758550/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Power%20Hour%20Lunch_20250401014747571580.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"758550","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:17.523Z"},{"id":"mobilize-792605","title":"Tuesdays with Tillis","description":"Join us as we meet weekly on Tuesdays over the lunch hour to give Senator Tillis a piece of our mind! We will meet outside of his Friendly Center office! Rain or shine! What to Bring: Signs with respectful messages holding Senator Tillis accountable. Your voice and determination to make a difference. Family-friendly and inclusive spirit. Together, we can make our voices heard. Let’s show up and demand that our leaders stay true to their commitments to the people they represent! There is no shortage of things to protest - DOGE, protecting Earned Benefits (Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security), protecting education, protecting the environment, etc!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"3200 Northline Ave, ","city":"Greensboro","state":"NC","zip":"27408","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisibleguilford/event/792605/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/499765227_699809342596405_3275994940498509801_n_20250521091352460926.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"792605","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:24.089Z"},{"id":"mobilize-810382","title":"Good Trouble: John Lewis Bridge Overpass! (Northgate) #TeslaTakedownTuesday","description":"**Get in Good Trouble Tuesday mornings: John Lewis Memorial Bridge at Northgate Station as part of #TeslaTakedownTuesday.** Please join us Tuesday morning to exercise our First Amendment rights and honor Civil Rights icon, Representative Lewis and stand against the corruption of the Trump administration and the billionaires who put him in office. Rep. Lewis spent his entire life standing up for the rights of his constituents, ending segregation in the South, and passed away in 2020. **Now it's our turn to stand up for our Neighbors, Immigrants, BIPOC, and LGBTQ + folks under attack from an autocratic regime. Come one, come all!** There is plenty of room on the John Lewis Memorial Bridge. Located between **North Seattle College** (9600 College Way N with free parking on Meridian Avenue) and **Northgate Station** (401 NE Northgate Way, served by Link Light Rail One Line and Metro routes: 40, 61, 67, 75, 322, 345, and others.) There is also **free parking in the Park and Ride lot** just east of the bridge, a 2-minute walk [Learn more about the John Lewis Memorial Bridge](https://sdotblog.seattle.gov/2021/10/01/john-lewis-memorial-bridge-naming/) See you Tuesday! — Will PS. For our full schedule of protests, check out DefundMusk.com. Local Tesla Takedown events are organized by a coalition including Defund Musk, Troublemakers, Indivisible, and others. Tesla Takedown is a peaceful protest movement. We oppose violence, vandalism, and destruction of property. Please treat Tesla drivers with respect as they are most likely on our side! #TeslaTakedown #BoycottTesla #DefundMusk","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T16:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"John Lewis Memorial Bridge Pedestrian Overpass at Northgate","address":"401 NE Northgate Way, ","city":"Seattle","state":"WA","zip":"98125","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/seattleindivisible/event/810382/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/signal-2025-07-15-134930_002_20250720222837613308.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"810382","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:28.589Z"},{"id":"mobilize-832761","title":"Vince Fong is Wrong Protest","description":"We will be rallying to let Congressman Fong know that we will hold him accountable for his voting record. Please join us and bring your voice and your sign to the SE corner of Herndon and Clovis. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Herndon Avenue & North Clovis Avenue, ","city":"Clovis","state":"CA","zip":"93612","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/832761/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"832761","scrapedAt":"2026-04-29T00:01:43.609Z"},{"id":"mobilize-800954","title":"RESIST TYRANNY TUESDAY (NE HEIGHTS) - Every Tuesday","description":"Join People Against Tyranny every Tuesday 11am to NOON protesting the chaos, divisiveness and cruelty of Donny-2-Dolls’ wreckage! We’re in the Northeast Heights at the intersection of Montgomery and Juan Tabo. There's plenty of parking in the shopping centers on each corner. Bring your signs, your voices, noisemakers, bodies and souls, and your friends! Please do not engage with hecklers (we haven’t had many) and allow pedestrians to get through. Let’s make some Good Trouble!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T18:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Montgomery Boulevard Northeast & Juan Tabo Boulevard Northeast, ","city":"Albuquerque","state":"NM","zip":"87111","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/landofdissent/event/800954/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/RTT%20NEH%20full%20page%20100925_20251107020151499675.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"800954","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:28.589Z"},{"id":"mobilize-836374","title":"Feet on the Streets - Tuesday morning edition","description":"**CONTINUE BRINGING YOUR SHELF STABLE PANTRY ITEMS in 2026!** We help our community by making sure they are FED and have a safe place to pick their food up!** So many things to protest these days- there is no time to waste - we need to reach our goal of 3.5% of us on the streets by the March 28, 2026 No KiNGS III Protest, using our First Amendment Right while we still have it! As always, thank you to my enthusiastic drive-by beepers - YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE and it COUNTS as RESISTANCE! Join Us! Bring a friend! Your weekly protesting schedule: Tuesdays - Bonita Rd. & Otay Lakes 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/dWzlpP Wednesdays - Bonita Rd & Otay Lakes 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/FpuymQ Thursdays - Bonita Rd. & Otay Lakes 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/8YwXyu Thursday evenings - Bonita Rd. and Otay Lakes 4 to 5 pm https://mobilize.us/s/mXXp2Q Friday mornings - Coronado Edition: 3rd and 0range, 7:30 to 8:30 am to catch the base traffic. https://mobilize.us/s/qvXQyp Friday morning: H and Broadway 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/sJ8QlX Feet on the Streets - with a twist - tell Home Depot to get I C E out https://mobilize.us/s/VFk6SA Fridays - Bridge Brigade -Sampson Street Bridge (between Logan & Kearny) in Barrio Logan! navigate to Fish Guts 2222 Logan Ave, San Diego, CA 92113 3 to 4 pm during traffic https://mobilize.us/s/kDq7iK Saturdays - Birch and Millenia (our original corner), 10 to 11:30 https://mobilize.us/s/ot6sjP Also Saturdays in Point Loma area -Sunset Cliffs Boulevard & West Point Loma Boulevard, 12:30 to 2 pm NO LINK - just show up! Sundays - Otay Lakes Rd. in front of the Island's Restaurant - 10 to 11 am https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/874449/?referring_vol=2660119&rname=Janine&share_context=event_details&share_medium=copy_link Thanks for all you do! Beeeeeeep Beeeeeeeeep Janine","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T18:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Otay Lakes Road & Bonita Road, ","city":"Bonita","state":"CA","zip":"91902","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/836374/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"836374","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:35.788Z"},{"id":"mobilize-788178","title":"Protect Social Security Rally and protest, Every Tuesday in 2026 @10:30 AM","description":"Members from CBFD Indivisible, Neighbors in Action and others, invite you to join a weekly “Hands Off Social Security\" rally every Tuesday from 10:30 AM-11:45 AM at the La Mesa Social Security office, 7961 University :45:45Avenue. Participants gather at 10:30 AM for a one hour & fifteen minute protest. Bring your signs in support of Social Security, and make sure to bring a hat, and your own water. We’ll be on the sidewalk in a relatively sunny location, so that hat will make a big difference. As with all rallies and protests, we support peaceful protest and believe that educating the public via protests works best when we are respectful and positive. Please do not park in the Social Security lot. See you on Tuesdays in La Mesa, CA. 11:15 AM to 12:30 PM. Let’s make it known that we won’t stand by while the most successful program in our nation’s history is decimated by The Trump regime just so they can give big tax breaks to further enrich the ultra-wealthy.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T17:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T18:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Social Security Administration","address":"7961 University Ave, ","city":"La Mesa","state":"CA","zip":"91942","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/cbfd-indivisible/event/788178/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Image%204_20250510193049093119.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"788178","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:24.089Z"},{"id":"mobilize-811439","title":"WE THE PEOPLE","description":"We are exercising our First Amendment Rights and peacefully and non-violently protesting what our government is doing. We encourage people to bring their signs - whatever issue you feel strongly about. We need to let others know that what is happening in this country is not normal. All issues are welcome. This a local Indivisible event! There is a good amount of parking at this location - both on side streets and nearby shopping centers. We would recommend side street parking where available. All U.S. and pride flags are welcome. Please come join us for this important effort. A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T17:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"South Broadway & Littleton Blvd","address":", South Broadway and Littleton Blvd.","city":"Littleton","state":"CO","zip":"80121","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/811439/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"811439","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:28.589Z"},{"id":"mobilize-664411","title":"**NEW** Volunteer at OCDP HQ","description":"Please note: This event is for new volunteer training. If you are a current volunteer, please contact Candice (404 275-6289) to schedule a time/day to work. ## Are you ready to step up with the Blue Crew and make a real impact in our community? We need your support to mobilize voters and turn Oconee County blue! Sign up for a shift or two at our office and be part of the movement for social justice and equality. Whatever your interests, we have a spot for you on our team. Together, we can create the change we want to see in our community. So, why wait? Join the Blue Crew today! ### Sign up to stop by and meet with Candice on a Tuesday between 2:30 and 4.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T20:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"110 S College St, ","city":"Walhalla","state":"SC","zip":"29691","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/oconeecountydemocrats/event/664411/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ocdp%20-%20mobilize_20240809004025976973.png","eventType":"volunteer","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"664411","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:10.767Z"},{"id":"mobilize-762776","title":"RESIST TYRANNY TUESDAY - Every Tuesday","description":"Tired of the tyrannical policies of the Trump admin? Indivisible Albuquerque gathers weekly in Albuquerque from 12 pm to 1pm at the corner of 4th & Lomas for Resist Tyranny Tuesdays! Remember to protest safely and avoid issues with traffic. Stay off the median, and instead please keep to the four corners or line up along Lomas. If you choose to cross the street, please wait for the pedestrian lights. Remember to bring water, sun screen and a hat! We have exceeded more than 300 protesters per week! We expect this number to continue to grow!! You may use donated signs or bring your own.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"4th Street Northwest & Lomas Boulevard Northwest, ","city":"Albuquerque","state":"NM","zip":"87102","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/landofdissent/event/762776/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_3219_20251107032125580489.JPG","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"762776","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:17.523Z"},{"id":"mobilize-815649","title":"LD4 Dems Letter Writing & Protest Sign Making","description":"Representative David Schweikert continues to put party over people, ignoring his constituents' interests. Join us on Tuesdays to write letters to Rep. Schweikert and make posters for our ongoing protests at his office. If the LD or LD candidates have postcards or letters to write, we will help with those, too.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T21:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"2980 E Northern Ave suite c 1, ","city":"Phoenix","state":"AZ","zip":"85028","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/ld4democrats/event/815649/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Tuesday%20Letter%20Writing%20Graphic_20251226173853530296.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"815649","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T00:01:32.524Z"},{"id":"mobilize-765447","title":"Support Veterans Rush Hour Rally","description":"Support veterans: Protect the VA! Join our Rush-Hour Resistance Rally outside the Chalmers Wylie VA Clinic to protest the cuts to the VA and support veterans! This huge facility, serving veterans from a wide area, is on James Road just south of the Columbus Airport. Thousands of cars pass this location during rush hour every weekday afternoon, making this the perfect place to inform people about the crippling cuts that Trump, Musk and DOGE are making to our federal government. Demonstration area: We will be demonstrating on public sidewalks on both sides of James Road, which are highly visible to commuters passing by. UPDATED PARKING INFO: To eliminate any possibility of getting in the way of patients or staff at the clinic, we are asking everyone to avoid using the VA lot to the east of James Road. Instead, please park west of James Road. Look for Visitor Parking signs in the lot for Africentric High School, 3223 Allegheny Ave, Columbus, OH 43209. Or you can park on three side streets—Kellner, Lowell and Edgevale—off Ruhl Ave., which is the first stoplight intersection south of the VA clinic. If you’re car-pooling, you should be able to drop off passengers on Allegheny Ave. just west of James, on the way to the Africentric parking lot.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T20:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T21:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Chalmers P. Wylie Ambulatory Care Center","address":"420 N James Rd, ","city":"Columbus","state":"OH","zip":"43219","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecentralohio/event/765447/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/VA%20visibility%20Mobilize%20graphic%20no%20date_20250429224625739293.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"765447","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:01:01.375Z"},{"id":"mobilize-774637","title":"Thompson Tuesdays (Rally!)","description":"Arrive by 4:30 and gather in the usual protest location in front of the office. Carpooling recommended. -If surrounding schools cancel on a tuesday of a rally, it is most likely cancelled. check your email for instructions!-","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T20:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T21:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"GT'S Bellefonte Office","address":"3555 Benner Pike, ","city":"Bellefonte","state":"PA","zip":"16823","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/centrecountydemocraticcommittee/event/774637/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot%202026-03-08%20at%207.25.25%E2%80%AFPM_20260309021323912831.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"774637","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:01:01.375Z"},{"id":"mobilize-783534","title":"Worthington Rush Hour Rally","description":"Concerned about proposed cuts to Social Security services? Appalled by the abduction and renditioning of legal immigrants? Outraged by the theft of our private information? Generally dumbfounded by the chaotic combination of evil and incompetence coming from the White House? Make up a sign and let people know! Thousands of cars pass through this intersection during rush hour every weekday. And the intersection is surrounded by the public Village Green Park on all four sides, giving us lots of room to hold signs protesting the ongoing destruction of our democracy by the Trump/DOGE administration. Organized by the Worthington Area Democratic Club and Westerville Progressive Alliance. Parking: On-street parking is limited around this intersection, but there is plenty of public parking nearby. Use the municipal lot on the east side of High Street south of the Village Green, or the municipal lot west of High Street (enter off New England Ave.). Other parking is available behind the Worthington Library and Kilbourne Middle School (enter both lots off Hartford St.). Lots for the Worthington Presbyterian Church (at the northwest corner of the Village Green) and the Worthington United Methodist Church (on the east side of High St. south of Short St.) are also options.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T20:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T21:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Ohio 161 & North High Street, ","city":"Worthington","state":"OH","zip":"43085","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecentralohio/event/783534/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Rush%20Hour%20Rally%20Worthington%20mobilize%20graphic%20no%20date_20250506225449097048.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"783534","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:01:01.375Z"},{"id":"mobilize-797814","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Independence Hwy Overpass","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"655 Hawthorne Ln, ","city":"Charlotte","state":"NC","zip":"28204","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/797814/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331190850924333.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"797814","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:01:04.611Z"},{"id":"mobilize-816998","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Park Road Park","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Tyvola Road & Park Road, ","city":"Charlotte","state":"NC","zip":"28210","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/816998/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331194902327105.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"816998","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:01:12.916Z"},{"id":"mobilize-823375","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Speak Up for Free Speech (University)","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! For this event we especially welcome signs on First Amendment topics such as free speech and freedom of the press. Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-12T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"University","address":"University City Boulevard & John Kirk Drive, ","city":"Charlotte","state":"NC","zip":"28262","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/823375/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331195144121995.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"823375","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:01:12.916Z"},{"id":"mobilize-564439","title":"Columbia IN-PERSON letter/postcard writing to Voters with SwingLeftHoCoMD","description":"This event is ONLY for IN-PERSON letter/postcard writing attendees. There is a separate zoom event for a monthly status update and letter/postcard writing on your own. December '25 til March '26 we will be writing News Boosting postcards from Progressive Turnout Project. Starting in April '26 we will be writing Vote Forward letters. The Vote Forward team is piloting our latest program—New Voter Guides—with newly registered voters in Pennsylvania. Self-mailing so no envelopes needed! The evening will start with a 10-15 minute status update. Then we'll dive into writing. If LETTERS: We'll have the letters printed. You bring a blue pen, 20 first class stamps, and sticker rounds or clear tape. NO ENVELOPES NEEDED ! If POSTCARDS: We'll have the postcards, and addresses. They encourage people to use multiple colors of pens to make the postcards more eye-catching. And bring 25 postcard stamps (61 cents). Not a HCLS sponsored event. and now for the small print: Join me for a letter writing party, where we'll be writing letters using an award-winning, proven tactic to reach potential voters in important upcoming elections. RSVP here, and we’ll let you know how to join this party. Invite your friends, too and let them know that Swing Left is pioneering an innovative program, using letters to help volunteers like us turn out voters through our letter-writing affiliate, Vote Forward. Think about it: if you help get a voter to the polls, that is an important step towards creating a more inclusive and equitable government and society. Looking forward to seeing you!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"East Columbia Branch HCPL, Marvin Thomas room","address":"6600 Cradlerock Way, ","city":"Columbia","state":"MD","zip":"21045","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/swingleft/event/564439/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/sl_events_meta_letters2_20210608140136406086.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"564439","scrapedAt":"2026-04-15T06:01:47.116Z"},{"id":"mobilize-596321","title":"Public School Strong National Organizing Meeting","description":"Join us for the next Public Schools Strong Organizing meeting on Tuesday, May 12th. This is where parents, family members, educators, and supporters from across the nation gather each month to gain practical tools to promote, protect, and strengthen our public schools. **This month we'll dive into the billionaire attempts to white-wash our history, take over public school curriculum and insert christian nationalist groups into our public schools. We'll learn who the actors are, and what you can do to stand up against them.** *If you have already attended a Public School Strong Orientation, you'll join a breakout room with current members for connection, reflection and training. If you're new, we've got you covered too!* ### Join public school families, educators and supporters from across the country to learn how to: 1. Form a Public School Strong team in your school district 2. Engage your community to get school boards and district leaders to speak up for equitable and fully funded public schools 3. Connect your local advocacy to others for state and national impact For more info, please visit publicschoolstrong.org ### Current Public School Strong Members There is strength in staying connected. After completing Public School Strong (PSS) Orientation, this is your consistent space to reconnect with your peers across the country to: 1. Access helpful tools and practice relevant skills, 2. Connect the dots between what is happening locally and nationally, 3. Learn from mistakes and progress made along the way Bring a friend! **Self Directed Orientation Now Available!** If these live training times don't work for you, you can complete your orientation at your own pace: 1) Create Account in NEA Portal (open to non-NEA members too): neapartnera.learnupon.com/users/sign_up 2) Select the PSS orientation by clicking on this link: bit.ly/SelfDirectedPSS","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T00:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/raceforward/event/596321/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Public%20School%20Strong%20Orientation%20%28mobilize%2C%201200%20x%20630%20px%29%20%2823%29_20260415003529789530.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"596321","scrapedAt":"2026-04-15T06:01:47.116Z"},{"id":"mobilize-789510","title":"Springfield Monthly Community Building Meeting","description":"PROMO’s field team is kicking off regular Community Meetings, and we’d love for you to join us! These gatherings are a chance to share a meal, connect with others, and be in community together. Each meeting includes a little bit of education and advocacy, but the main focus is on coming together — building relationships, supporting one another, and creating space where everyone belongs. You’ll also have the chance to share your thoughts and ideas to help shape PROMO’s organizing efforts right here in Springfield. These gatherings are more than just a shared meal — they’re how we build power and grow our movement. Whether you’re looking to volunteer, connect, find support, or take action, join us as we work toward a Missouri where all LGBTQ+ people are valued and thriving. 📅Date & Time: Second Tuesday at 6 p.m. 📍Location: The 3rd Place Springfield, MO","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Springfield","state":"MO","zip":"65803","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/promomissouri/event/789510/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/PROMO_Mobilize_CommunityMeeting_20250922223321183185.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"789510","scrapedAt":"2026-04-15T06:02:02.611Z"},{"id":"mobilize-829537","title":"Worcester Indivisible Marshal Training","description":"🦺 Worcester Indivisible Marshal Training 🦺 📅 Date: Tuesday - Bi-weekly (Tuesdays every other week) 🕕 Time: 7:00 pm ~ 8:30 pm 📍 Location: Zoom Link - Virtual 🎟️ RSVP: Please RSVP to the event via Facebook Description: Want to help keep our actions safe, organized, and powerful? Join us for an official Marshal Training hosted by Worcester Indivisible. Whether you’re brand new to nonviolent direct action or just want to brush up on your skills, this session will cover both NVDA essentials and marshal techniques — open to anyone ready to learn and support actions in any role. We’ll cover: What is NVDA [Non-Violent Direct Action] What a marshal is and why they matter How to cork intersections and control flow Leapfrogging techniques to support mobile protests/marches De-escalation tips and safety awareness Signal App 101 for secure group communication How to support accessibility and inclusion on the ground And most importantly — how to keep each other safe while standing up for justice 📣 This training will be interactive, and discussion based. You’ll leave with real tactics, scripts, and tools you can use right away. We’ll also go over what to do in case of police presence, counter-protesters, or emergencies. No prior experience is required — just bring your curiosity, your questions, and your commitment to keeping our community strong. You are also not required to Marshal at any time by attending this event, we encourage anyone and everyone to attend it simply to grow their skills and feel more comfortable during actions. 🧭 This is a great entry point if you’ve ever thought: “I want to help, but I don’t know where to start.” Please RSVP so we can plan for time. Let’s build the infrastructure we need for bold, safe, and effective action in Central MA! #WorcesterIndivisible #MarshalTraining #ProtestSafety #MutualAid #NonviolentDirectAction #CommunityCare ------------------------------------------------------------------ Worcester Indivisible is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: 🦺 Worcester Indivisible Marshal Training 🦺 Time: Aug 19, 2025 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Every week on Tue, 108 occurrence(s) Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system. Weekly: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/tZ0ucOmvqjIqHd3pBBofM7Ki6373eJoN6dy_/ics?icsToken=DEizF3ElheK008xKkwAALAAAAFJYecdHfw6WoZcnmzcZ1M2JeD8qQXt03OKRUmdB9HYUflyKybt4wGhX7qp56q-s-oXmFb37Toi1YNxpUDAwMDAwMQ&meetingMasterEventId=L_nyeAq_QP-Z7wbelDe86Q Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89370749079?pwd=KIjbKoUuwuX22XGNRIdDdLn4H4vjX3.1 Meeting ID: 893 7074 9079 Passcode: 250358 --- One tap mobile +13126266799,,89370749079#,,,,*250358# US (Chicago) +16469313860,,89370749079#,,,,*250358# US --- Join by SIP • 89370749079@zoomcrc.com Join instructions: https://us06web.zoom.us/meetings/89370749079/invitations?signature=hZJe09g2L-g9gCvtxQREbtj7gYGLVtlDgiPL7Dj3I3g *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T00:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"Worcester","state":"MA","zip":"01608","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/829537/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"829537","scrapedAt":"2026-04-29T06:01:51.272Z"},{"id":"mobilize-823156","title":"Unite for Democracy","description":"💥 As we enter into 2026 and see increasingly lawless actions by the MAGA Administration, it’s more important than ever that we stand together and unite for democracy! 📍Join us at the northeast corner of NE 139th St & NE 20th Ave (Walgreens) in Vancouver, WA. 🪧 Bring a sign that shows you’re United for Medicaid and Democracy. We welcome all messages of dissent that call for justice, care, and a government that works for all of us. Let’s raise our voices—and our signs—for continued Medicaid funding and the fight to protect democracy! ✊❤️💙 Your safety is our top concern. If you need assistance, please reach out to the organizers. If you are concerned about your ability to stand or walk outside during hot temperatures, please stay home! IGV is deeply committed to nonviolence as both a principle and a strategy. We at IGV strongly believe that peaceful, nonviolent activism offers social movements the most power to effect change. Through peaceful protests, we set an example of making our voices heard with dignity, empowered by truth. IGV does not condone intimidation, threats, vandalism, interference with access to business or any other lawless actions. If instigators or opponents attempt to violate our commitment to non-violence, we will try to de-escalate and end the event if needed to maintain a safe environment. You can read more about Indivisible’s national commitment to nonviolence here: 🔗 indivisible.org/commitment-nonviolence We also value and are guided by the research of Dr. Erica Chenoweth, whose work shows that nonviolent movements are significantly more successful than violent ones in achieving lasting social and political transformation: 🔗 Paths to Resistance – Harvard Kennedy School Together, we stand strong, peaceful, and resolute—because nonviolence is not passive. It is powerful.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Intersection: NE 20th Ave & NE 139th St","address":"2102 NE 139th St, ","city":"Vancouver","state":"WA","zip":"98686","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible-greater-vancouver/event/823156/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/unite_4-5_20260409193012290483.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"823156","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:01:12.916Z"},{"id":"mobilize-836661","title":"Bannering 101 (Palo Alto)","description":"**🔆 On the first Friday of the month, the IPA+ Bannering Team will host a Peace Party, with extended hours and a light-projection show from 7:15 PM to 8:30 PM.** Raise awareness and build resistance—one driver at a time! The Indivisible Palo Alto Plus Bannering Team conducts protests on overpasses across Highway 101, reaching thousands of drivers at a time with our high-impact, high-visibility messaging. We operate as part of the national Visibility Brigade and work in cooperation with other bannering groups that spread the anti-MAGA word on overpasses across the Peninsula. Come ready to dance and spread joy with like-minded folk. Participants are encouraged to bring headphones so that they can play their favorite tunes and “get their steps in” while celebrating democracy. Joy is resistance! Bring layers, hats, sunscreen, a small flag to wave—and a smile. We provide large signs for display. Costumes are welcome (but not required). Details about this event: 📍 WHERE: Adobe Creek Bike and Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 101 (near 3600 West Bayshore Road) 👉 WHAT: Set up banners that we provide and wave to drivers 📧 CONTACT: Bannering4Democracy@proton.me A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Adobe Creek Bike and Pedestrian Bridge, ","city":"Palo Alto","state":"CA","zip":"94303","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/ipaplus/event/836661/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/signal-2026-02-24-170756_20260225015908220171.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"836661","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:44.264Z"},{"id":"mobilize-781598","title":"NO WAR. NO KINGS: University Village!","description":"THEY WANT US SILENT. WE'RE DEFIANT. Join us in protesting this war and demanding justice for ICE victims. We continue to fight to protest our democracy from Trump and his oligarchs. See you out there! — Devin PS. For the full schedule of events, see DefundMusk.com/events The local #TeslaTakedown crew including Defund Musk, Troublemakers, and Seattle Indivisible work in partnership to organize events throughout the Seattle Metro area. This is a peaceful protest movement. We oppose violence, vandalism, and destruction of property.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T23:15:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Four corners near the QFC 45th St entrance","address":"2734 NE 45th St, ","city":"Seattle","state":"WA","zip":"98105","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/seattleindivisible/event/781598/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Image_20260303010153496187.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"781598","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:01:01.375Z"},{"id":"mobilize-790454","title":"NO WAR. NO KINGS: Lynnwood!","description":"**THEY WANT US SILENT. WE'RE DEFIANT.** Keith Porter, Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and other victims of ICE deserve justice. Join our protest in solidarity with Minnesota and immigrant communities across the United States as we continue to oppose Trump and the billionaires who made this fascist regime possible. We need your voice. Let's make some noise! See you Saturday! — Devin PS. For the full schedule of events, see DefundMusk.com/events The local #TeslaTakedown crew including Defund Musk, Troublemakers, and Seattle Indivisible work in partnership to organize events throughout the Seattle Metro area. This is a peaceful protest movement. We oppose violence, vandalism, and destruction of property.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T23:15:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T00:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Tesla Lynnwood","address":"17731 Pacific Hwy, ","city":"Lynnwood","state":"WA","zip":"98037","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/seattleindivisible/event/790454/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Image_20260228223605551403.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"790454","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:01:04.611Z"},{"id":"mobilize-807188","title":"NO WAR. NO KINGS: Woodland Park Overpass!","description":"**Join us and help send a clear message to Musk and Trump: We're not backing down.** We're going to defeat Trump and the billionaires who put this felon in the White House. Our protests have helped force Musk from DC but our work is far from done. **Tesla's stock is UP because investors think we're going to fade away.** That's not going to happen. Join us at HWY 99's North Woodland Park pedestrian overpass. **Every day brings a new crisis of corruption, chaos, or cruelty. Share your thoughts on the damage Musk and Trump are inflicting:** - attacks on due process and immigrants - abdication of checks and balances by Congress and the Courts - theft of our data by Musk and DOGE - corruption by the President! Bring your banners or help crew our two banners and one Pikachu. [Parking is super convenient](https://maps.app.goo.gl/uyyEW15sor9Rxr816) See you Tuesday! — Dan PS. For our full schedule of protests, check out DefundMusk.com. Tesla Takedown is a peaceful protest movement. We oppose violence, vandalism and destruction of property. Please treat Tesla drivers with respect as they are most likely on our side!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-12T23:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T00:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Woodland Park N Pedestrian Bridge","address":"5192 Aurora Ave N, ","city":"Seattle","state":"WA","zip":"98103","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/seattleindivisible/event/807188/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/image6_20250801031016939090.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"807188","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:01:09.063Z"},{"id":"mobilize-789884","title":"WE Dems Book Club","description":"First we read, then we FIGHT! Join us to turn information and connection with others into ACTION to strengthen our democracy. We're focusing on hard things, but we'll lead with humor and hope and we'll let positivity and a belief in our indomitable American spirit fuel our work rejecting authoritarianism. ** 2nd Tuesdays of Every OTHER month ** March 10: Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping Democracy by Joyce Vance. Consider this the birth of a countermovement to Project 2025, a rallying cry for citizen engagement to combat the second Trump administration and save American democracy. Here, Vance offers a blueprint for avoiding burnout and despair, and for strengthening our democratic muscle. Giving Up Is Unforgivable is a clarion call to action, putting our current crisis in historical context and sketching out a vision for where we go next. Vance’s message is hopeful at its heart, even as it acknowledges the daunting challenges that lie ahead. She is the constitutional law professor you never knew you needed, explaining the legal context and the political history— and why the rule of the law still matters. At the same time, she empowers the reader to do something, both as individuals and collectively. Previous books: (Jan '26) The Persuaders: At the Front Line, Fight for Hearts, Minds and Democracy by Anand Giridharadas (Nov '25) Don't Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st Century Minds by Sarah Stein Lubrano (Sept. '25) Abundance by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T02:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Austin","state":"TX","zip":"78746","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/traviscountydems/event/789884/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Book%20club_20250514184317880477.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"789884","scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T06:01:35.982Z"},{"id":"mobilize-796976","title":"PDA Iowa Monthly Call","description":"We are a group of Progressive volunteers in the great state of Iowa. We meet every month on Zoom on the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm CST. We believe that Healthcare should be a right for all and not just for the privileged few. We believe in the rights of every citizen. We support our Progressive leaders and our Progressive ideals.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/progressivedemocratsofamerica/event/796976/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/PDA%20Iowa_20250601200253281831.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"796976","scrapedAt":"2026-04-15T06:02:02.611Z"},{"id":"mobilize-810451","title":"Weekly Rally at Orange Circle Park & Food/Essentials drive for local pantry!","description":"**Come to the Orange Circle Park every Tuesday**, rain or shine, to take a stand opposing the oligarchs, billionaires and the regime that's attacking our way of life and the Constitution of the USA. Join like-minded people in our community in a nonviolent, peaceful demonstration! Make your voice heard. We are the many, they are the few that want to rule us all. Take a stand for democracy. Bring your signs and meet at the fountain - we'll spread out from there after a safety briefing. Let the people be heard! Let’s make some noise! **Mutual Aid (pantry items) for local food pantry** We are collecting non-perishable food and personal care items at the rally every Tuesday in support of a local community pantry. We are especially in need of toilet paper and personal hygiene items. Please bring donations as you are able to drop off at the rally. We will be **[marching to city hall on council meeting nights](https://www.mobilize.us/indivisibleca40/event/815212/)** **#ICEOutOfOC** Pick up Red Cards, stickers, and community resources every week. **MEET YOUR HOSTS** The Rally at Orange Circle Park community is hosted by Vangee, Mel, and Pete of **[Indivisible Orange](https://linktr.ee/indivisibleorange)** and is part of the **[OC Indivisible Coalition](https://linktr.ee/ocindivisiblecoalition)**. We will gather for events and actions as our group grows. Please invite a friend! **[The OC Indivisible Coalition](https://linktr.ee/ocindivisiblecoalition)** is a collaboration between the **[Indivisible](https://indivisible.org/)** groups in and touching Orange County, CA. We are non-partisan, all-volunteer, grassroots groups of residents in OC who are fighting fascism and holding elected officials accountable, from city councils and school boards all the way up to Congress. We partner with other community organizations to uplift and support our neighbors while we work toward progressive electoral change and a democracy that works for ALL people.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T01:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Plaza Park","address":"Plaza Circle, ","city":"Orange","state":"CA","zip":"92866","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisibleca40/event/810451/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/TUES%20RALLY%20DAYLIGHT%20SAVINGS_20260317125727354531.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"810451","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:01:09.063Z"},{"id":"mobilize-841917","title":"Defending our Democracy","description":"We continue with our weekly protests every Tuesday and invite people to join us on the four corners of downtown Lafayette, at the intersection of Mt. Diablo Boulevard and Moraga Road. We are there to protest the multitude of issues we are facing from the current Trump administration. There are many signs people can pick up and use at the site, or they can make their own. Monitors in orange vests are there to help, and we have a good relationship with the local Lafayette police. *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Moraga Road & Mount Diablo Boulevard, ","city":"Lafayette","state":"CA","zip":"94549","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/841917/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"841917","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:01:16.332Z"},{"id":"mobilize-672843","title":"Bi-Monthly Statewide All Volunteers Meeting","description":"### Join Cal RCV volunteers in this monthly meeting. Our standing agenda will be: 1. _HEAR:_ hear from each other about Ranked Choice Voting efforts in our cities/regions, as well as volunteer help needs across the state 2. _LEARN:_ each month we'll go in-depth on a topic of interest related to ranked choice voting and non-partisan election reform 3. _DO:_ participate in an online volunteer activity that impacts RCV efforts on the ground (in CA and farther afield) 4. _EXTEND:_ close the meeting with ideas on how you can build a Cal RCV Crew in your community by replicating this meeting's agenda, as well as hear about our Donor Calls _Sign up for all upcoming meetings by clicking the \"Select All\" link at the top of the sign up form or come back each month to sign up._","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T00:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T02:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/calrcv/event/672843/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Monthly%20Statewide%20Volunteer%20Online%20%281%29_20240820210114282235.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"672843","scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T12:01:30.607Z"},{"id":"mobilize-796460","title":"Contagious Courage Hour","description":"YOU can be a voting rights activist! At April's Contagious Courage gathering, we'll work on two actions: *write postcards for Joanna Francescutt, the woman trying to unseat a MAGA election denier who's in charge of elections in Shasta County *get the skills and the materials to register voters...at family gatherings, at community colleges, at places of worship We gather the second Tuesday of every month for fun, camaraderie--and action! Every month, we can make a difference while meeting up with new and old friends. Join us! No RSVP needed, everyone welcome! What: Contagious Courage Action Hour When: Second Tuesdays, 5:30-7:30 p.m. (April 14, May 12, June 9) Where: Dunloe Brewing, 1606 Olive Dr., Davis Register: https://www.mobilize.us/sisterdistrictca3/event/796460/ Beer and kombucha available for sale. Mocktails available for free!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T00:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T02:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Dunloe Brewing","address":"1606 Olive Dr, ","city":"Davis","state":"CA","zip":"95616","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/stateswinyolo/event/796460/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Copy%20of%20Trivia%20Night%20%281200%20x%20630%20px%29%20%281%29_20260402020743651347.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"796460","scrapedAt":"2026-04-15T12:01:49.612Z"},{"id":"mobilize-815212","title":"Orange City Council Meeting","description":"### Orange Supports Democracy! ### **USE YOUR VOICE:** Fill out a blue card to speak to Council-members as soon as you arrive. Meeting starts at 6:00pm. Prepare a 1-minute and 3-minute version. **[Read this week's agenda here.](https://cityoforange.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx)** **MARCH WITH US:** Meet @ 5:30pm at the Orange Circle Park in the Plaza, march to the Council Chambers starts at 5:45pm. **[See the details for our weekly rally and sign up for the march here](https://www.mobilize.us/event/810451/)**. ### General City Council Contact Information: ### * Address: City Council's Office, 300 E. Chapman Ave., Orange, CA 92866 * Phone: (714) 744-2211 * Fax: (714) 744-5523 ### Can't make it? ### **[Submit a public comment](https://cityoforange.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx).** Click on \"Meeting Details\" then \"eComment.\" **Email the Mayor and Councilmembers:** Mayor Dan Slater [dan@danslater.com](mailto:dan@danslater.com) Mayor pro tem Denis Bilodeau [dbilodeau@cityoforange.org](mailto:dbilodeau@cityoforange.org) Councilmember Arianna Barrios [abarrios@cityoforange.org](mailto:abarrios@cityoforange.org) Councilmember Jon Dumitru [jdumitru@cityoforange.org](mailto:jdumitru@cityoforange.org) Councilmember Kathy Tavoularis [ktavoularis@cityoforange.org](mailto:ktavoularis@cityoforange.org) Councilmember Ana Gutierrez [anagutierrez@cityoforange.org](maito:anagutierrez@cityoforange.org) Councilmember John Gyllenhammer [jgyllenhammer@cityoforange.org](jgyllenhammer@cityoforange.org) **MEET YOUR HOSTS** Organized by **[Indivisible Orange](https://linktr.ee/indivisibleorange)**, part of the **[OC Indivisible Coalition](https://linktr.ee/ocindivisiblecoalition)**. We will gather for events and actions as our group grows. Please invite a friend! **[The OC Indivisible Coalition](https://linktr.ee/ocindivisiblecoalition)** is a collaboration between the **[Indivisible](https://indivisible.org/)** groups in and touching Orange County, CA. We are non-partisan, all-volunteer, grassroots groups of residents in OC who are fighting fascism and holding elected officials accountable, from city councils and school boards all the way up to Congress. We partner with other community organizations to uplift and support our neighbors while we work toward progressive electoral change and a democracy that works for ALL people.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T01:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T03:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Orange City Hall","address":"300 E Chapman Ave, ","city":"Orange","state":"CA","zip":"92866","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisibleca40/event/815212/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/OrangeCircleMobilizeCC_20251030071122968089.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"815212","scrapedAt":"2026-04-15T12:01:56.005Z"},{"id":"mobilize-750006","title":"Placer Action Network Monthly Meeting (Virtual)","description":"Join members of Placer Action Network on the 2nd Tuesday of each month as we take action to elect Democrats in Placer County up and down the ballot. Virtual meetings via Zoom will be held in January, March, May, July, September, and November. Zoom meetings will begin with club business at 6:30 pm and continuing until 8:00 pm. In-person meetings will take place in February, April, June, August, October, and December. In-person meetings will start with social time at 6:00pm and club business and a scheduled program beginning at 6:30 pm and continuing until 8:00 pm. In-person meetings are listed separately at https://mobilize.us/s/7zmypt We'll strategize and make plans to elect our local Democratic candidates. Please RSVP, so we can anticipate the number of attendees for this event. And share this with like-minded friends! Learn more about PAN on our website - https://www.placeractionnetwork.com/.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T01:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T03:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"Roseville","state":"CA","zip":"95747","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/cadems/event/750006/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/PAN%20Mobilize%20Logo_20250218214037416091.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"750006","scrapedAt":"2026-03-11T12:01:34.047Z"},{"id":"mobilize-810465","title":"Initiate Justice Action General Meeting","description":"Join IJ Action’s General Meetings to stay informed, take collective action, and help drive progressive change in California. These monthly gatherings serve as a hub for connection, learning, and impact, where individuals impacted by systems, allies, and supporters come together to shape our advocacy efforts. We share campaign updates, develop organizing skills, and create opportunities for reflection and community building. Whether you’re deeply involved or just getting started, these meetings are a great way to plug in and power our movement forward. Everyone is welcome.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T01:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T02:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":"527 7th St, ","city":"Los Angeles","state":"CA","zip":"90014","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/ijaction/event/810465/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/2_20250724001257731985.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"810465","scrapedAt":"2026-04-15T12:01:52.887Z"},{"id":"mobilize-797806","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Myers Park (Queens)","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T12:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T13:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Myers Park (Queens)","address":"Queens Road & Providence Road, ","city":"Charlotte","state":"NC","zip":"28207","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/797806/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331195155482373.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"797806","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:33.814Z"},{"id":"mobilize-809225","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Matthews","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T12:15:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T13:15:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Matthews","address":"North Carolina 51 & Monroe Road, ","city":"Matthews","state":"NC","zip":"28105","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/809225/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331195152092574.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"809225","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:43.932Z"},{"id":"mobilize-790560","title":"Rush-hour Resistance Rally @ Moon Valley in North Central Phoenix","description":"# Welcome to the Rush-hour Resistance! 📣 [Rush Hour Resistance Rally](https://rhrr.us) began with a clear idea: **neighbors, gathering peacefully and regularly on busy nearby streets, could remind our communities that democracy is essential and that silence is unacceptable.** Over the last year, RhRR expanded from a handful of participants to multiple locations across the Valley, reaching thousands of pedestrians and motorists each week. This momentum is significant, as is the duty it brings. 🗳️ As we approach the midterm elections, our united mission is to safeguard free and fair elections and promote civic participation, particularly in local and primary races where every vote carries weight. **Our weekly rallies are more than outlets for frustration; they are consistent, visible commitments that normalize voting and democratic engagement as neighborly expectations.** 🕊️ RhRR is a peaceful, nonconfrontational movement. **Our goal is to reach the broader community, not to confront those seeking conflict.** When tensions surface, we withdraw, stay composed, and look out for one another. This discipline keeps our rallies inviting and helps newcomers feel secure joining us. 🫂 Most of all, RhRR is about people caring for one another while standing up for the future of our democracy. **Every person who shows up, every sign held, and every conversation sparked on a street corner is part of something larger and deeply hopeful.** ## Here’s what’s in store for our Wednesday morning event in the Moon Valley neighborhood: 🕥 The event starts at 7:30 am. You are free to show up anytime, but we recommend arriving a few minutes early to introduce yourself. Some gather at Serafina Coffee before the event. We end promptly at 8:30 am. 🅿️ Most participants park north of Moon Valley Custom Cleaners on the NW corner. We haven’t had issues before, but parking enforcement is unpredictable. If concerned, check with others. 🚦🚶➡️ Some people stand on a corner of the intersection. Others walk the crosswalks when the lights change. You do you! 🖌️ One of RhRR’s strengths is that people feel free to express themselves. Ideally, your signs would help articulate any of our three pillars: - **Defending democracy and the rule of law** - **Encouraging voting** - **Protecting neighbors and communities** (e.g., immigrants, LGBTQIA+ people, workers, and veterans) This approach keeps signs aligned with RhRR’s purpose, while preserving personal expression and emotional authenticity. 🇺🇳 Flags, banners, and even inflatable costumes are welcome. Some blow lots of bubbles. While our mission is serious, humor and camaraderie matter. 😷 RhRRs are peaceful, public events. Most attendees don’t hide their faces, though some do; participate at your comfort level. Photos and videos are common on social media, but you can ask posters to remove accidental appearances. Thanks in advance for joining us. See you on the streets! ✊","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T14:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T15:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"15414 N 7th St, ","city":"Phoenix","state":"AZ","zip":"85022","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/desertdemocracy/event/790560/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Moon%20Valley_20260129223742508817.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"790560","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:29.924Z"},{"id":"mobilize-790567","title":"Rush-hour Resistance Rally @ the Melrose Curve in Phoenix","description":"# Welcome to the Rush-hour Resistance! 📣 [Rush Hour Resistance Rally](https://rhrr.us) began with a clear idea: **neighbors, gathering peacefully and regularly on busy nearby streets, could remind our communities that democracy is essential and that silence is unacceptable.** Over the last year, RhRR expanded from a handful of participants to multiple locations across the Valley, reaching thousands of pedestrians and motorists each week. This momentum is significant, as is the duty it brings. 🗳️ As we approach the midterm elections, our united mission is to safeguard free and fair elections and promote civic participation, particularly in local and primary races where every vote carries weight. **Our weekly rallies are more than outlets for frustration; they are consistent, visible commitments that normalize voting and democratic engagement as neighborly expectations.** 🕊️ RhRR is a peaceful, nonconfrontational movement. **Our goal is to reach the broader community, not to confront those seeking conflict.** When tensions surface, we withdraw, stay composed, and look out for one another. This discipline keeps our rallies inviting and helps newcomers feel secure joining us. 🫂 Most of all, RhRR is about people caring for one another while standing up for the future of our democracy. **Every person who shows up, every sign held, and every conversation sparked on a street corner is part of something larger and deeply hopeful.** ## Here’s what’s in store for our Wednesday morning event in the Melrose neighborhood area: 🕥 The event starts at 7:30 am. You are free to show up anytime, but we recommend arriving a few minutes early to introduce yourself. Or stop by Copper Start Coffee, where many gather before. We end promptly at 8:30 am. Some of us head to a local diner for breakfast and socializing afterward. 🅿️ There’s plenty of parking along Glenrosa, and the shopping center on the NW corner. We haven’t had issues before, but parking enforcement is unpredictable. If concerned, check with others. 🚦🚶➡️ Some people stand on a corner of the intersection. Others walk the crosswalks when the lights change. You do you! 🖌️ One of RhRR’s strengths is that people feel free to express themselves. Ideally, your signs would help articulate any of our three pillars: - **Defending democracy and the rule of law** - **Encouraging voting** - **Protecting neighbors and communities** (e.g., immigrants, LGBTQIA+ people, workers, and veterans) This approach keeps signs aligned with RhRR’s purpose, while preserving personal expression and emotional authenticity. 🇺🇳 Flags, banners, and even inflatable costumes are welcome. Some blow lots of bubbles. While our mission is serious, humor and camaraderie matter. 😷 RhRRs are peaceful, public events. Most attendees don’t hide their faces, though some do; participate at your comfort level. Photos and videos are common on social media, but you can ask posters to remove accidental appearances. Thanks in advance for joining us. See you on the streets! ✊","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T14:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T15:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Glenrosa & 7th Ave, ","city":"Phoenix","state":"AZ","zip":"85013","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/desertdemocracy/event/790567/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Melrose_20260129223706191148.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"790567","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:29.924Z"},{"id":"mobilize-753392","title":"Wednesday Rally at US Federal Bldg in (WTF Wednesdays) Protest Sens.Husted and Moreno","description":"86 Husted in 26 and Show up. We want a country where our Senators lead with integrity, honesty and humility, and the laws of our constitution apply to everyone. Ohioans have Jon Husted, elected by no one and still missing in action. Husted and Moreno vote with MAGA every single time -- even when it's not in the best interest of their state. Husted is impossible to reach by phone, won't schedule a meeting with constituents (donors only, please) and has yet to hold a public town hall. The constituent services from his staff is disappointing. This is not the American Political Tradition. Husted and Moreno should be accountable to the people of OHIO, not MAGA and not just their own voters but all of us. Join our weekly protest, with Mobilize the Vote NEO, Lorain County Rising, Crooked River Action (Summit), Action Together Stark, Medina County Indivisible and ordinary Ohioans from around Northeast Ohio.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T16:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"The Free Stamp","address":"East 9th Street & Lakeside Avenue East, ","city":"Cleveland","state":"OH","zip":"44114","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/opalmissionvote/event/753392/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/actual-1_20251201225139547633.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"753392","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:24.338Z"},{"id":"mobilize-804203","title":"Weekly Meeting","description":"Are you looking to stay informed and engaged in your community? Indivisible St. Johnsbury offers a platform for individuals to come together, take action, and advocate for healthcare, social security, jobs, and more. We're your neighbors and friends, and we care about the things that affect our daily lives. Join the conversation in-person on Wednesdays at 11:00 at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House in St. Johnsbury. We meet upstairs in the sanctuary, accessible from the Cherry Street parking lot. Please park on the street or in the lot north of the building -- the lot at Eastern and Cherry is for another property.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Universalist Unitarian Congregation","address":"47 Cherry St, ","city":"Saint Johnsbury","state":"VT","zip":"05819","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/stj/event/804203/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/social-share_20250616142011588136.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"804203","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:33.814Z"},{"id":"mobilize-773533","title":"We the People Wednesday","description":"Each week we will stand up to Trump and the billionaires who are trying to take rights and public services away from the American People. Join us Wednesdays, 11.30am-1.00pm, MLK Park next to Carroll County Courthouse.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T15:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Carrollton","state":"GA","zip":"30117","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/georgiademocrats/event/773533/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/win%20the%20whole%20dem%20thing_mobilize_v3_20210223222835563987.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"773533","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:29.924Z"},{"id":"mobilize-807003","title":"IND Cobb We The People Wednesdays Rally","description":"Join us for a peaceful demonstration at Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield Park in support of our Parks. Meet on the corner of Stilesboro and Old 41. Free parking for demonstrators protected under 1st Amendment - just ask at the Visitors Desk. On the first Wednesday of each month, we bring our lunches and enjoy lunch at the picnic tables after our rally. Hope you can join us.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park","address":"900 Kennesaw Mountain Dr, ","city":"Kennesaw","state":"GA","zip":"30152","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecobb/event/807003/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot%202025-06-24%20at%2012.50.25%20AM_20250624045050355433.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"807003","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:36.843Z"},{"id":"mobilize-813935","title":"Resistance Wednesdays","description":"Join your neighbors in protest of the Trump administration’s actions that harm our neighbors, trample on our rights and threaten our democracy. You can also get information about upcoming elections, register to vote and learn how to get involved!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T18:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Broad Street & West Harford Street, ","city":"Milford","state":"PA","zip":"18337","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/pikecountyparty/event/813935/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/2023%20Pike%20Dems%20Picnic%20%281200%20x%20630%20px%29%20%281%29_20250711171527603909.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"813935","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:36.843Z"},{"id":"mobilize-830728","title":"Wednesday Husted and Moreno Protest","description":"Senators Bernie Moreno and John Husted are supporting the fascist takeover of our democracy. Let's hold them accountable to the people and taxpayers of Ohio. Their offices are on High Street with lots of public visibility! We demand to be seen AND heard - just like their rich donors.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"200 N High St, ","city":"Columbus","state":"OH","zip":"43215","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecentralohio/event/830728/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/image000001_20260416005838582898.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"830728","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:40.565Z"},{"id":"mobilize-836381","title":"Feet on the Streets - Wednesday morning edition","description":"A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values. **CONTINUE BRINGING YOUR SHELF STABLE PANTRY ITEMS in 2026!** We help our community by making sure they are FED and have a safe place to pick their food up!** So many things to protest these days - there is no time to waste - we need to reach our goal of 3.5% of us on the streets by the upcoming March 28, 2026 NO KINGS III protest - using our First Amendment Right while we still have it! As always, thank you to my enthusiastic drive-by beepers - YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE and it COUNTS as RESISTANCE! Join Us! Bring a friend! Your weekly protesting schedule: Tuesdays - Bonita Rd. & Otay Lakes 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/dWzlpP Wednesdays - Bonita Rd & Otay Lakes 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/FpuymQ Thursdays - Bonita Rd. & Otay Lakes 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/8YwXyu Thursday evenings - Bonita Rd. and Otay Lakes 4 to 5 pm https://mobilize.us/s/mXXp2Q Friday mornings - Coronado Edition: 3rd and 0range, 7:30 to 8:30 am to catch the base traffic. https://mobilize.us/s/qvXQyp Friday morning: H and Broadway 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/sJ8QlX Feet on the Streets - with a twist - tell Home Depot to get I C E out https://mobilize.us/s/VFk6SA Fridays - Bridge Brigade -Sampson Street Bridge (between Logan & Kearny) in Barrio Logan! navigate to Fish Guts 2222 Logan Ave, San Diego, CA 92113 3 to 4 pm during traffic https://mobilize.us/s/kDq7iK Saturdays - Birch and Millenia (our original corner), 10 to 11:30 https://mobilize.us/s/ot6sjP Also Saturdays in Point Loma area -Sunset Cliffs Boulevard & West Point Loma Boulevard, 12:30 to 2 pm NO LINK - just show up! Sundays - Otay Lakes Rd. in front of the Island's Restaurant - 10 to 11 am https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/874449/?referring_vol=2660119&rname=Janine&share_context=event_details&share_medium=copy_link Thanks for all you do! Beeeeeeep Beeeeeeeeep Janine","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T18:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Otay Lakes Road & Bonita Road, ","city":"Bonita","state":"CA","zip":"91902","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/836381/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"836381","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:44.264Z"},{"id":"mobilize-785094","title":"RALLY FOR PALESTINE - Every Wednesday","description":"Santa Feans for Justice in Palestine have been holding it down weekly for many months. Join them in speaking out against American taxpayer money being used to support the Israeli government’s crimes against the Palestinian people.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"New Mexico State Capitol","address":"490 Old Santa Fe Trail, ","city":"Santa Fe","state":"NM","zip":"87501","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/landofdissent/event/785094/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_0419_20250620135203864078.JPG","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"785094","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:29.924Z"},{"id":"mobilize-813753","title":"Resist! Wednesday Lunch Hour @ the Capitol","description":"Resist! Every Wednesday - lunch hour Every Wednesday. 15th and L st. 11:30 to 1:00 Join us! We rise up to speak out against the CRUEL and UNCONSTITUTIONAL ACTIONS OF THE TRUMP REGIME and ICE!!! Stop by on your lunch, and protest this tyranny! Hold on! Resist! We have signs to share or bring your own. We are sure you have something to say Come make some Good Trouble Bubbles! Join our peaceful protest.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T18:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T20:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"On the corner","address":"15th and L st., ","city":"Sacramento","state":"CA","zip":"95825","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/cap25/event/813753/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_6738_20260501012621428888.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"813753","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:43.932Z"},{"id":"mobilize-778940","title":"Stand for Democracy Rally","description":"Join INDIVISIBLE Chester County and Savesocialsecurity.net in support of democracy and our constitution. We object to attempt of silencing our Rights, voting . Let's not be silent. Every Wednesday at 4 PM in front of the SS Office in West Chester. ➡️ ➡️ A core principle behind all of our events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with us. The Trump administration disregards the constitution and financially benefits from his position while many in our country goes without healthcare and deals with rising prices. No promise this president has made can't be undone. He also does this with support of Republicans in congress. Let's get our message out to Chester County: Yes to Democracy, No to Fascism, Vote. Silence is not an option.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T20:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T21:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"West Chester","state":"PA","zip":"19382","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblechestercountypa/event/778940/","image":"","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"778940","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:37.369Z"},{"id":"mobilize-797589","title":"Visibility CLT Pop-up Protest - Arboretum","description":"Join a pop-up protest with Visibility CLT/ICLT this week -- and bring a friend! Good Reminders: Indivisible CLT/Visibility CLT is committed to peaceful, non-violent protesting. We do not engage with those that have opposing views, and we work to de-escalate as situations arise. Please review the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/ICLTProtestGuide Remember to “SWARM”! - Signage – Positive & appropriate that does not include profanity, incite violence or include hate symbols like swastikas - Water – Stay hydrated and bring a water bottle - American Flag – Be sure to bring one! - Reminder to park in appropriate locations - Music – Have music on hand for a fun vibe! Questions? Email visibility.clt@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T20:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T21:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Providence Road & Pineville-Matthews Road, ","city":"Charlotte","state":"NC","zip":"28277","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecharlottenc/event/797589/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/ICLT_banner_2_2026_from_KellyAP_photo_20260331195158507015.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"797589","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:41.142Z"},{"id":"mobilize-827367","title":"Walker Street Big Beautiful Bridge Protest","description":"We will be doing the Walker Street Bridge every week, starting at 5pm and continuing until 6pm or later if desired! Come join us and bring your best signs as we exercise our First Amendment right to assemble! Hope to see you there! Join us as we protest on the Walker Avenue right over Wendover! Parking available along Ashland Drive! Bring a friend or two!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T22:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"3800 Walker Ave, ","city":"Greensboro","state":"NC","zip":"27403","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisibleguilford/event/827367/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Picture%208.12.25_20250812102632739866.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"827367","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:47.065Z"},{"id":"mobilize-670451","title":"PA: Attend Allegheny County Board of Health Meetings!","description":"**Join us at the next Allegheny County Board of Health (BOH) meeting to demand that all new fracking be prohibited in Allegheny County.** It can no longer be denied: Fracking can't be done without threatening human health and climate stability. Just as recently as 2023, a state-funded health study in southwest PA found that fracking correlates with increased rates of asthma and low birth weight, as well as sharply elevated risk of childhood lymphoma _(5-7 times the national average)_. Per the Pennsylvania Disease and Prevention Control Act of 1955, \"Local boards and departments of health shall be primarily responsible for the prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable disease... in accordance with the regulations of the board and subject to the supervision and guidance of the department.\" *This means that the Allegheny County BOH is responsible for and has the power to enact policy to prevent the incredibly harmful effects of fracking!* **RSVP to receive details and reminders, as well as talking points for submitting in-person and written comments.** See you there! **_The BOH requires speakers to sign up at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. Please make sure to sign up by 12:00pm ET the day before the scheduled meeting_** 2026 Board of Health Meeting Schedule (subject to change): - March 18, 2026 at 12:30 pm (Location: Greater Pgh Community Food Bank, 1 N. Linden Street, Duquesne, PA 15110) - May 13, 2026 at 5:30 pm - July 15, 2026 at 12:30 pm - September 16, 2026 at 5:30 pm - November 18, 2026 at 12:30 pm","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T21:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"March 18th Location: Greater Pgh Food Bank","address":"1 N Linden St, ","city":"Duquesne","state":"PA","zip":"15110","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/fwa/event/670451/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/fww_Mobilize_event_community_20240816182116523071.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"670451","scrapedAt":"2026-03-19T06:00:50.987Z"},{"id":"mobilize-770802","title":"Hamilton Co Public School Strong Goal Setting!","description":"Public School Strong is a statewide movement for honest, equitable, safe, and fully funded schools and there's a virtual orientation on the 3rd Monday of each month that gives you the background (and also a free shirt in the mail that you can sport at school board meetings with us), but that is not required. You can join us on the 23rd to meet some local folks trying to support our public schools, share your thoughts, ideas, concerns, and questions as we determine what goals we want to work towards in 2026. Next virtual orientation, March 16: https://secure.everyaction.com/cTyr1uDKik2oOr4tecP7Kw2","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T21:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T23:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"2901 Taylor St, ","city":"Chattanooga","state":"TN","zip":"37406","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/caleb/event/770802/","image":"","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"770802","scrapedAt":"2026-04-14T18:02:06.694Z"},{"id":"mobilize-756833","title":"Free Speech Team Meeting","description":"From book bans and Don't Say Gay to anti-protest laws and the defunding of DEI programs, our first amendment rights are under attack here in Florida. Join our monthly Free Speech team to connect with other Floridians and strategize on how we can protect and defend free speech values in our own communities. We'll discuss direct actions, plan Know Your Rights trainings, and more. Together, we can build power and protect our civil liberties!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T21:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T22:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/aclufl/event/756833/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Copy%20of%20Copy%20of%20ACLUFL_FieldEvent_Mobilize_TEMPLATES%20%284%29_20250218205011641560.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"756833","scrapedAt":"2026-04-15T06:01:56.611Z"},{"id":"mobilize-831988","title":"Minnetonka Wednesday Weekly Protest","description":"The Minnetonka Wednesday Weekly Protest has continued since the first week of May 2025 with no breaks, rain or shine. You can sign up in advance for the Wednesday of your choice to receive a detailed arrangements memo including answers to frequently asked questions. You are encouraged to invite your friends, neighbors, relatives, and co-workers to join us any Wednesday from 4:30pm to 6:30pm Central Daylight Time. Arrive when you are able; leave when when you need to. We gather on the public sidewalks and grassy banks along the road margins at the intersection of Minnesota State Highway 7 and County Road 101 in Minnetonka where we display our hand-made signs. The busy intersection features hundreds of drivers and dozens of pedestrians and bicyclists who are encouraged by our presence each week. We build up our own morale and turn the tide of public opinion in our community. We have consistently stood up in public for almost a year in all kinds of weather; this weekly event doesn't ever get cancelled. We will expand our coalition and keep going. Trump will be out of office before we stop protesting. All local protests organized by Indivisible MN03 are peaceful, legal, nonviolent, family-friendly exercises of first amendment rights in public places.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T21:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T23:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Minnetonka","state":"MN","zip":"55345","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblemn03/event/831988/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Minnetonka%20Weekly%2022%20April%20Mobilize_20260423014221622355.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"831988","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:47.065Z"},{"id":"mobilize-835201","title":"Flagler Beach Democratic Club Monthly Meeting","description":"Our monthly meeting at 6pm on Wednesday, March 11, at Flagler Woman’s Club, 1524 S Central Avenue in Flagler Beach. The meeting starts at 6pm and it is open to everyone. Guest Speaker: Seeking Insights for Solutions (SIS) Our meeting will feature a presentation by the SISters of Seeking Insights for Solutions, a biracial group of mostly local women working to advance a more equitable society. Please join us for this moving, eye-opening talk !","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-14T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Flagler Woman's Club","address":"1524 S Central Ave, ","city":"Flagler Beach","state":"FL","zip":"32136","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/flaglercountydemocrats/event/835201/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_2088_20250827212248664855.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"835201","scrapedAt":"2026-04-09T06:01:20.025Z"},{"id":"mobilize-798687","title":"Community Connections: In-Person Phone-Banking With Equality Florida!","description":"Help Engage New Volunteers and Forge New Community Connections! Do you want to help grow Florida LGBTQ+ people power and connect with other members of the community? Pride month is here, and that means we’re recruiting more volunteers than any other time of the year. That means we need dedicated volunteers like you to help ensure these new volunteers are plugged into the work! We will be calling newly registered volunteers and helping them navigate their journey as a volunteer. Since phone banking is vital to the growth of any movement, this is an excellent chance not only to meet like-minded peers and build queer people power, but also develop valuable skills for activist work. We will be providing free food and drinks!! Don't have experience phonebanking? No problem! Whether you're a veteran phone banker or have never tried it, we NEED your help! We will provide training for inexperienced phone bankers to ensure you start making calls with confidence!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-14T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Brandon Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)","address":"910 Bryan Rd, ","city":"Brandon","state":"FL","zip":"33511","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/equalityflorida/event/798687/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot%202025-06-04%20152659_20250604192715148466.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"798687","scrapedAt":"2026-04-30T18:01:45.836Z"},{"id":"mobilize-425528","title":"Team ENOUGH Welcome Session (For Young People Under 26)","description":"Are you a young person between 13 and 25 years old who is interested in taking action around preventing gun violence? Join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session to learn more about the different ways you can engage. Team ENOUGH is a youth-led program whose mission is to educate young voices about gun violence and mobilize them to take meaningful action against it. Supported by Brady United, we harness the expertise and experience of today’s youth to advance our intersectional work across the country. Led by an Executive Council, comprised of students just like us, we believe that diversity is a strength, and that only when everyone has a seat at the table can we build an effective movement to prevent all gun violence in all communities. For us, preventing gun violence not only requires regulating access to firearms but also addressing how systemic racism and environmental factors cause this form of bloodshed to run especially rampant in communities of color. You cannot talk about gun violence without talking about police brutality, white supremacy, the broken criminal justice system, poverty, homophobia, access to affordable housing, or the often barriers separating disadvantaged populations from physical and mental healthcare. So if you share this belief, join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session and become part of the movement to end gun violence in our lifetime.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"Chicago","state":"IL","zip":"60606","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/brady/event/425528/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Mobilize-Event-Preview-06_20260126182325886622.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"425528","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:21.401Z"},{"id":"mobilize-547042","title":"Kingston Phonebanking + Pupusas","description":"Imagine that someone calls you. They tell you about new rights you have as a tenant because other tenants (just like you) fought for and WON protections. They tell you about the plan they have to freeze rent upstate and replace Central Hudson with a public utility so your electric bills go down. Then they invite you to be a part of it... You'd probably be pretty happy they called, right?! On Wednesday nights, we're going to be the ones calling to share the good news. Our phone banking conversations vary based on what we want to organize people around. Right now we're letting people know about: ❄️ Passing the REST Act so we can freeze rent upstate 🏘️ Tenant protections under Good Cause Eviction and rent stabilization 💡 Establishing the Hudson Valley Power Authority to lower utility costs We have a script, training, phone numbers to call, and a supportive crew of volunteers. You'll have everything you need to have great conversations—plus, we'll have hot cocoa waiting for you! ***Please bring a laptop, phone, and headphones if you have them***","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T23:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"13 Grand St, ","city":"Kingston","state":"NY","zip":"12401","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/forthemany/event/547042/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Mobilize%20covers_20260415212311151851.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"547042","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:21.401Z"},{"id":"mobilize-749720","title":"Team ENOUGH Welcome Session (For Young People Under 26)","description":"Are you a young person between 13 and 25 years old who is interested in taking action around preventing gun violence? Join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session to learn more about the different ways you can engage. Team ENOUGH is a youth-led program whose mission is to educate young voices about gun violence and mobilize them to take meaningful action against it. Supported by Brady United, we harness the expertise and experience of today’s youth to advance our intersectional work across the country. Led by an Executive Council, comprised of students just like us, we believe that diversity is a strength, and that only when everyone has a seat at the table can we build an effective movement to prevent all gun violence in all communities. For us, preventing gun violence not only requires regulating access to firearms but also addressing how systemic racism and environmental factors cause this form of bloodshed to run especially rampant in communities of color. You cannot talk about gun violence without talking about police brutality, white supremacy, the broken criminal justice system, poverty, homophobia, access to affordable housing, or the often barriers separating disadvantaged populations from physical and mental healthcare. So if you share this belief, join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session and become part of the movement to end gun violence in our lifetime.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","zip":"19107","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/brady/event/749720/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Mobilize-Event-Preview-06_20260126182349675118.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"749720","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:27.840Z"},{"id":"mobilize-749730","title":"Team ENOUGH Welcome Session (For Young People Under 26)","description":"Are you a young person between 13 and 25 years old who is interested in taking action around preventing gun violence? Join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session to learn more about the different ways you can engage. Team ENOUGH is a youth-led program whose mission is to educate young voices about gun violence and mobilize them to take meaningful action against it. Supported by Brady United, we harness the expertise and experience of today’s youth to advance our intersectional work across the country. Led by an Executive Council, comprised of students just like us, we believe that diversity is a strength, and that only when everyone has a seat at the table can we build an effective movement to prevent all gun violence in all communities. For us, preventing gun violence not only requires regulating access to firearms but also addressing how systemic racism and environmental factors cause this form of bloodshed to run especially rampant in communities of color. You cannot talk about gun violence without talking about police brutality, white supremacy, the broken criminal justice system, poverty, homophobia, access to affordable housing, or the often barriers separating disadvantaged populations from physical and mental healthcare. So if you share this belief, join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session and become part of the movement to end gun violence in our lifetime.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"97301","address":", ","city":"Salem","state":"OR","zip":"97301","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/brady/event/749730/","image":"","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"749730","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:27.840Z"},{"id":"mobilize-750683","title":"Team ENOUGH Welcome Session (For Young People Under 26)","description":"Are you a young person between 13 and 25 years old who is interested in taking action around preventing gun violence? Join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session to learn more about the different ways you can engage. Team ENOUGH is a youth-led program whose mission is to educate young voices about gun violence and mobilize them to take meaningful action against it. Supported by Brady United, we harness the expertise and experience of today’s youth to advance our intersectional work across the country. Led by an Executive Council, comprised of students just like us, we believe that diversity is a strength, and that only when everyone has a seat at the table can we build an effective movement to prevent all gun violence in all communities. For us, preventing gun violence not only requires regulating access to firearms but also addressing how systemic racism and environmental factors cause this form of bloodshed to run especially rampant in communities of color. You cannot talk about gun violence without talking about police brutality, white supremacy, the broken criminal justice system, poverty, homophobia, access to affordable housing, or the often barriers separating disadvantaged populations from physical and mental healthcare. So if you share this belief, join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session and become part of the movement to end gun violence in our lifetime.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"53703","address":", ","city":"Madison","state":"WI","zip":"53703","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/brady/event/750683/","image":"","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"750683","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:31.665Z"},{"id":"mobilize-751796","title":"Team ENOUGH Welcome Session (For Young People Under 26)","description":"Are you a young person between 13 and 25 years old who is interested in taking action around preventing gun violence? Join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session to learn more about the different ways you can engage. Team ENOUGH is a youth-led program whose mission is to educate young voices about gun violence and mobilize them to take meaningful action against it. Supported by Brady United, we harness the expertise and experience of today’s youth to advance our intersectional work across the country. Led by an Executive Council, comprised of students just like us, we believe that diversity is a strength, and that only when everyone has a seat at the table can we build an effective movement to prevent all gun violence in all communities. For us, preventing gun violence not only requires regulating access to firearms but also addressing how systemic racism and environmental factors cause this form of bloodshed to run especially rampant in communities of color. You cannot talk about gun violence without talking about police brutality, white supremacy, the broken criminal justice system, poverty, homophobia, access to affordable housing, or the often barriers separating disadvantaged populations from physical and mental healthcare. So if you share this belief, join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session and become part of the movement to end gun violence in our lifetime.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"Newark","state":"NJ","zip":"07114","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/brady/event/751796/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Mobilize-Event-Preview-06_20250616225523637356.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"751796","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:31.665Z"},{"id":"mobilize-751803","title":"Team ENOUGH Welcome Session (For Young People Under 26)","description":"Are you a young person between 13 and 25 years old who is interested in taking action around preventing gun violence? Join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session to learn more about the different ways you can engage. Team ENOUGH is a youth-led program whose mission is to educate young voices about gun violence and mobilize them to take meaningful action against it. Supported by Brady United, we harness the expertise and experience of today’s youth to advance our intersectional work across the country. Led by an Executive Council, comprised of students just like us, we believe that diversity is a strength, and that only when everyone has a seat at the table can we build an effective movement to prevent all gun violence in all communities. For us, preventing gun violence not only requires regulating access to firearms but also addressing how systemic racism and environmental factors cause this form of bloodshed to run especially rampant in communities of color. You cannot talk about gun violence without talking about police brutality, white supremacy, the broken criminal justice system, poverty, homophobia, access to affordable housing, or the often barriers separating disadvantaged populations from physical and mental healthcare. So if you share this belief, join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session and become part of the movement to end gun violence in our lifetime.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"Washington","state":"DC","zip":"20002","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/brady/event/751803/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/mobilize-6_20260126181709305540.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"751803","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:31.665Z"},{"id":"mobilize-751806","title":"Team ENOUGH Welcome Session (For Young People Under 26)","description":"Are you a young person between 13 and 25 years old who is interested in taking action around preventing gun violence? Join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session to learn more about the different ways you can engage. Team ENOUGH is a youth-led program whose mission is to educate young voices about gun violence and mobilize them to take meaningful action against it. Supported by Brady United, we harness the expertise and experience of today’s youth to advance our intersectional work across the country. Led by an Executive Council, comprised of students just like us, we believe that diversity is a strength, and that only when everyone has a seat at the table can we build an effective movement to prevent all gun violence in all communities. For us, preventing gun violence not only requires regulating access to firearms but also addressing how systemic racism and environmental factors cause this form of bloodshed to run especially rampant in communities of color. You cannot talk about gun violence without talking about police brutality, white supremacy, the broken criminal justice system, poverty, homophobia, access to affordable housing, or the often barriers separating disadvantaged populations from physical and mental healthcare. So if you share this belief, join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session and become part of the movement to end gun violence in our lifetime.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"19904","address":", ","city":"Dover","state":"DE","zip":"19904","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/brady/event/751806/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Mobilize-Event-Preview-06_20250616225607526331.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"751806","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:31.665Z"},{"id":"mobilize-751807","title":"Team ENOUGH Welcome Session (For Young People Under 26)","description":"Are you a young person between 13 and 25 years old who is interested in taking action around preventing gun violence? Join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session to learn more about the different ways you can engage. Team ENOUGH is a youth-led program whose mission is to educate young voices about gun violence and mobilize them to take meaningful action against it. Supported by Brady United, we harness the expertise and experience of today’s youth to advance our intersectional work across the country. Led by an Executive Council, comprised of students just like us, we believe that diversity is a strength, and that only when everyone has a seat at the table can we build an effective movement to prevent all gun violence in all communities. For us, preventing gun violence not only requires regulating access to firearms but also addressing how systemic racism and environmental factors cause this form of bloodshed to run especially rampant in communities of color. You cannot talk about gun violence without talking about police brutality, white supremacy, the broken criminal justice system, poverty, homophobia, access to affordable housing, or the often barriers separating disadvantaged populations from physical and mental healthcare. So if you share this belief, join us for our Team ENOUGH welcome session and become part of the movement to end gun violence in our lifetime.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"Boston","address":", ","city":"Boston","state":"MA","zip":"02215","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/brady/event/751807/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Mobilize-Event-Preview-06_20260126182241910009.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"751807","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:31.665Z"},{"id":"mobilize-760795","title":"Hybrid Women Working Wednesday Phone Bank","description":"It's time to find all the warriors for justice! Building power starts with engaging our neighbors. Join fierce female activists from across the land, Young Democrats, and friendly neighbors on Wednesday evenings from 6-8pm at NCDP Headquarters in Raleigh or on Zoom (link sent in confirmation email after you sign up) to call friendly Democrats to talk about making a plan to vote in the 2026 midterm elections and invite them to upcoming events. Thank you for stepping up! No experience necessary. You’ll get all the training you need when we meet. If you join us in-person, we have snacks and refreshing beverages. Join us to create a closer community and a bluer North Carolina!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-14T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"NCDP Headquarters","address":"220 Hillsborough St, ","city":"Raleigh","state":"NC","zip":"27603","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/ncdems/event/760795/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Women%20Working%20Wednesday_20260226151158423174.png","eventType":"volunteer","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"760795","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:34.358Z"},{"id":"mobilize-792990","title":"Gabe Evans Protest (I-25 Pedestrian Bridge)","description":"This a local Indivisible event! A peaceful gathering at the I-25 pedestrian overpass (for visibility) near Cinzetti's in Northglenn, CO to urge CO-8 Congressional Representative Gabe Evans to have the courage to speak with us, his constituents. We also want to let other residents of CD-8 know what Gabe is voting for. Map of where we will protest (the pedestrian bridge over I-25 near Cinzetti's): https://maps.app.goo.gl/cPPfGKSBYpWKwfYG8","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T23:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"I-25 Pedestrian Bridge","address":"281 W 104th Ave, ","city":"Northglenn","state":"CO","zip":"80234","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/792990/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"792990","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:41.142Z"},{"id":"mobilize-793753","title":"Rural Rally For Democracy","description":"Join us for a Rural Rally for Democracy and show your support for DFL values! This is a great opportunity to come together with fellow community members and show our community that we believe in democracy. Bring your energy, your signs, and your friends as we show up against the radical Republican agenda! Event will be held rain or shine. Please bring a non-perishable donation for the Chatfield Food Bank. Sponsored by the Fillmore County DFL. Prepared and paid for by the Fillmore County DFL, 45 6th St SE Harmony, MN 55939.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"City Park","address":"305 Main St S, ","city":"Chatfield","state":"MN","zip":"55923","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/dfl/event/793753/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Campaigns%203-06_20250206222513879028.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"793753","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:41.142Z"},{"id":"mobilize-819112","title":"Eastside Rising Kirkland. Overpass Event","description":"We'll gather on the south-facing side of the NE 128th St. bridge over 405 near Totem Lake, Kirkland **(IGNORE THE MOBILIZE MAP!)**. In addition to raising awareness and protesting the illegal acts of our increasingly authoritarian government, we are going to have some fun together too! Parking - Kingsgate P&R .2 mile, 8 min walk This a local Indivisible hosted by Indivisible Eastside Rally team rally@indivisibleeastside.com *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.* Consider donating to help defray the cost of this and other activities: https://bit.ly/Donate-IE-Fund-R","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-13T23:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"NE 128th St overpass to 405 (ignore the map)","address":"NE 128th St and I-405, ","city":"Kirkland","state":"WA","zip":"98034","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/819112/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"819112","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:43.932Z"},{"id":"mobilize-819716","title":"Candidate for State Assembly Salon - AD54 - Paperboy Love Prince","description":"My name is Paperboy Love Prince and I am running for Assembly in Brooklyn, New York. Join me and neighbors from across Assembly District 54 for a powerful monthly campaign salon! This is more than just a political gathering—it’s a people-powered movement to shape the future of Brooklyn and beyond. At each meeting, we’ll: Share what this campaign is doing differently and what we can accomplish together - Talk about what the district needs most right now—from housing to healthcare to youth programs - Break down bold policy ideas Paperboy Love Prince is running on - Talk about how mutual aid can uplift our community in real time - Invite attendees to join the movement—volunteer, bring friends, or even run for County Committee or District Leader with us - Build community, brainstorm, and co-create our vision for the future Check out the Socialist Manifesto that our campaign will base its policies. https://socialists.us/manifesto. You can reach me at ad54can@paperboy.nyc. To volunteer, send an email to paperboy@register.repmyblock.org. Whether you’re new to politics or a longtime activist, this space is for you. Come through and let’s build together. Snacks, vibes, and revolutionary ideas will be served.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-14T01:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Somewhere in Assembly District 54","address":", ","city":"Brooklyn","state":"NY","zip":"11221","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/socialists/event/819716/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Fx0vVRSWwAEhFRk_20250819025618689953.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"819716","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:47.065Z"},{"id":"mobilize-846598","title":"1 Million Rising INNV: Courage Connection Conversation","description":"One Million Rising: From Couch to Courage Sick of yelling at the news or tiptoeing around tough conversations? Here’s the truth: Change only happens when we step up and speak out. Join Indivisible’s One Million Rising courage connection campaign — where everyday people become democracy’s frontline defenders. We’ll show you how to turn tough talks into powerful action in your church, book club, pickleball league, family, and beyond. - Learn the strategy. - Lead the conversation. - Rally your community. Because democracy won’t save itself — we will. Don’t wait for change. Make it. Be one in a million. Join now. We can’t wait to begin the next steps in bringing more people into our movement, with tips and proven ways to resist in our lives. 🌟 We meet at the Sierra View Library","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-14T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Sierra View Library","address":"4001 S Virginia St, ","city":"Reno","state":"NV","zip":"89502","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblenorthernnevada/event/846598/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/1%20million%20rising_20260213165334741279.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"846598","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:44.264Z"},{"id":"mobilize-651442","title":"FVWA Supporter Phonebank!","description":"Every week, FVWA staff and volunteers take time to call other ranked-choice voting supporters and urge them to engage with vital actions to bring us closer to Ranked-Choice Voting in Washington, as well as alert them to opportunities to support democracy in other ways! If you've never phone-banked or are a veteran caller, you're welcome here. We'll always provide a training and a script. Join us and let's ensure we're taking action when action needs to be taken!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-14T00:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/fairvotewa/event/651442/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/WW%20PB%20Mobilize_20240517175906183795.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"651442","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:27.840Z"},{"id":"mobilize-835960","title":"Eastside Rising Bellevue - Main Street overpass action","description":"We'll gather on the north-facing side of the Main St. bridge over 405 in Bellevue **(Mobilize Map is not specific)** In addition to raising awareness and protesting the illegal acts of our increasingly authoritarian government, we are going to have some fun together too! Parking option - There's a closed auto dealer lot near 72 116th Ave NE. Or take public transportation to the bus stop at that location. This a local Indivisible hosted by Indivisible Eastside Rally team rally@indivisibleeastside.com *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.* Consider donating to help defray the cost of this and other activities: https://bit.ly/Donate-IE-Fund-R","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-14T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Main Street Overpass to 405 (map shows parking)","address":"11400 Main St, ","city":"Bellevue","state":"WA","zip":"98004","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/835960/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"835960","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:49.926Z"},{"id":"mobilize-836881","title":"Billionaire Takedown at Tesla (Wednesdays)","description":"PLEASE READ COMPLETELY before attending! This is a peaceful, nonviolent protest. Our goal is to call attention to Musk’s corruption and to defund Musk. Make sure not to block the Tesla driveway entrances. We will stay completely on the public sidewalk and off of Tesla property, and cross only with lights. Signs, drums, flags, and similar items are welcome. This is a peaceful demonstration, and any conflicts or altercations will not be tolerated. Walk away if one arises and report it to the demonstration leader on site if it is a serious altercation. We will comply with requests from the police, including if we are asked to leave. Do not boo or confront Tesla drivers or cars, or Tesla employees. Remember that most Tesla drivers are our allies, and many are protesting with us! Wear your favorite wig, big hat, or costume. We want to have fun and to feel like a party during our demonstrations! No one voted for Musk. Join the peaceful Tesla Takedown movement! **Please Note:** Photos may be taken and published at this event, including by attendees and professional photographers. If you prefer not to have your image captured or shared, please take your own precautions (e.g., wear a mask, hat, or wig).","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-13T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-14T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"4180 El Camino Real, ","city":"Palo Alto","state":"CA","zip":"94306","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/ipaplus/event/836881/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot%202026-05-03%20at%207.25.29%20PM_20260504022951262808.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"836881","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T06:01:49.926Z"},{"id":"mobilize-798797","title":"Weekly Rally for Due Process and the Rule of Law (Kailua, O’ahu)","description":"Weekly rally for due process, rule of law, and to call out policies which hurt our people (Kailua). Bring a sign.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-14T02:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-14T03:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Oneawa Street & Kuulei Road, ","city":"Kailua","state":"HI","zip":"96734","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/protecthawaii/event/798797/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_6094_20260411000526163676.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"798797","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T12:01:41.818Z"},{"id":"mobilize-759386","title":"CRUSH ICE! NO SECRET POLICE! WEEKLY WEDNESDAYS!! (Waikiki)","description":"This registration is for the Weekly Wednesday Protest in Waikiki (in front of Tesla Dealership - 2330 Kalakaua), To register for the Weekly Wednesday Protest at Ala Moana and Atkinson. go to https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/826166/ People classified as \"migrants\" are in the eye of the fascist storm sweeping across the world. As Trump tries to put a tyrannical, authoritarian regime in place, ICE has sent out plainclothed, masked gunmen to grab our neighbors, co-workers, and friends and disappear them into private, for-profit immigration jails. Children are being torn away from their parents - again. Migrants are being deported to random countries, paid by Trump to warehouse them. What is being done to migrants today is rapidly spreading to affect those of us classified as citizens. We must reject Trump's efforts to divide citizens from migrants. We do that by acting in solidarity and crushing Trump's ICE machine.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-14T03:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-14T04:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"In front of Waikiki Tesla Dealership","address":"2330 Kalākaua Ave, ","city":"Honolulu","state":"HI","zip":"96815","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/protecthawaii/event/759386/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_6409_20260409204151539751.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"759386","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T12:01:36.074Z"},{"id":"mobilize-831095","title":"Training - Join Our Pittsboro Office Crew","description":"Volunteer at CCDP's Community Engagement Center in Pittsboro! (March Training dates are coming soon!) This training covers everything you need to know to feel comfortable and competent staffing the office along with an experienced volunteer. After this one-time training session, you will be a CEC Associate Office Staff Member and you will be paired with a Senior Office Staff Member. We will work with your availability and preferences and get you on the Staffing Calendar.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-14T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-14T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"628 East St, ","city":"Pittsboro","state":"NC","zip":"27312","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/chathamcountydems/event/831095/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/CEC%20Training%20Mobilize%20graphic_20231003215513800902.jpg","eventType":"training","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"831095","scrapedAt":"2026-04-17T06:01:51.672Z"},{"id":"mobilize-755065","title":"Vermont Monthly Action Call","description":"We gather to be in community, share resources, and take action! Topics rotate monthly, with timely calls to action. ## Thursday, April 16 **Issue spotlight:** H.772 and other housing justice issues in the VT state legislature **Guest Speaker:** Alex Karambelas, Policy Advocate at ACLU Vermont All meetings are virtual and accessible to all. Donate to support our work: https://radmovement.org/donate/","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-14T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-14T23:15:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/rightsdemocracy/event/755065/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/RAD%20VT%20Monthly%20Action%20Call%20-%20Mobilize_20260324225912486800.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"755065","scrapedAt":"2026-04-17T06:01:30.359Z"},{"id":"mobilize-527845","title":"African American Caucus of Franklin County NC","description":"### Please join us! _AA Caucus meetings are open to all registered Democrats and their allies._ We promote political participation and education within the African American community and encourage African Americans to seek public office at all levels. We also fight for equality for African Americans by advocating for issues such as economic justice and fair wages. Contact us to find out how you can make an impact this election season. - We meet on the second Thursday of each month at 7:00 pm [FCDP Linktree](https://linktr.ee/franklincountyncdems) [Caucus Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/aacfranklincountydems/) #### Monthly County Party Meetings https://www.mobilize.us/fcdemsnc/ - Executive Committee Meeting - Democratic Women - LGBTQ Dems - African American Caucus - Senior Democrats","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-14T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-15T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Franklin County Democratic Party Headquarters","address":"108 E Nash St, ","city":"Louisburg","state":"NC","zip":"27549","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/fcdemsnc/event/527845/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/4_20240421211856366309.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"527845","scrapedAt":"2026-04-10T06:01:42.721Z"},{"id":"mobilize-822173","title":"Collin County Democratic Party Happy Hour","description":"Collin County Democrats Happy Hour | 6:00 - 8:00 PM Second Thursdays! January 8, 2026 - moving to Second Thursday! February 12, 2026 March 12, 2026 April 9, 2026 May 14, 2026 June 11, 2026 July 9, 2026 August 13, 2026 September 10, 2026 October 8, 2026 November 12, 2026 December 10, 2026 The Holy Grail Pub (Patio) | 8240 Preston Rd #150, Plano, TX 75024 Join us for the Collin County Democrats Happy Hour at The Holy Grail Pub! An opportunity to relax, connect, and build community with fellow Democrats in a casual setting. Complimentary appetizers will be supplied starting at 6 pm until consumed. Program including candidates and speakers will start at 6:45 pm. Enjoy great food, drinks, and conversation on the patio as we come together to celebrate our shared values and gear up for the work ahead. Whether you’re a longtime volunteer, new to local politics, or just looking to meet like-minded folks, this is the perfect place to do it! Let’s raise a glass, make new friends, and strengthen our movement in Collin County. We can’t wait to see you there! Note that the Happy Hour is on the patio, so plan accordingly. For winter months, there will be heaters and the patio will be enclosed. RSVP and invite your friends!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-14T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-15T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Holy Grail Pub","address":"8240 Preston Rd 150, ","city":"Plano","state":"TX","zip":"75024","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/collindemocrats/event/822173/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Community%20info%20Session-%20Mobilize%20%20%285%29_20251111015047807012.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"822173","scrapedAt":"2026-04-10T06:02:09.254Z"},{"id":"mobilize-520496","title":"HWD General Info Session","description":"Join us for a snapshot of the work Harriet’s Wildest Dreams is engaged in. Our liberation is tied to one another, and we need each other to do this work to protect our people — Black people, formerly incarcerated folks, queer and trans communities, and all those at risk of state-sanctioned violence. Being in the nation's capital, we are at the center of the empire and also a target for far-right extremists. DC is NO ONE’S playground, and we must remain vigilant in our fight for statehood, our fight against mass incarceration, and the fight for gender liberation and bodily autonomy for all. If you and your friends are interested in building a better world, free from patriarchal violence, a world where queerness is in, then you've come to the right place! Come sit with us as we re-imagine what this world can be and reclaim safety for all of DC. 👉🏽 This month's info session will feature a political education session on the history of surveillance and how it shows up in our city. How does policing build upon the surveillance state? What has surveillance looked like throughout our city? Find out during this month's general info session! Who Are We: We are a Black-led abolitionist community defense hub centering all Black lives most at risk for state-sanctioned violence in the Greater Washington area. What we do: Our work includes legal empowerment, political and civic education, mass protest, organizing campaigns, and community care that builds alternatives to oppressive systems. If you are in need of ASL interpretation please let us know at least 48 hours in advance.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-14T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-15T00:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/hwd/event/520496/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/home%20rule%2C%20whole%20state%20%281200%20x%20630%20px%29_20250106191830062306.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"520496","scrapedAt":"2026-04-16T00:01:24.400Z"},{"id":"mobilize-773836","title":"Texas Rising Corpus Christi - Doddridge Park Clean Up","description":"# Texas Rising Adopted Doddridge Park! ## Join Del Mar & TAMUCC Chapters of Texas Rising at the park ### We'll host park clean up days on the following days: - Monday, July 14th, 7 to 8:30 pm - Saturday, August 16th, 9 to 10:30 am - Friday, September 19th, 6-7:30pm pm - Wednesday, October 15th, 6 to 7:30 pm - Thursday, November 13th, 4 to 5:30 pm - Tuesday, December 16th, 5 to 6:30 pm - Monday, January 12th, 5 to 6:30 pm - Wednesday, February 25th, 4:30 to 6 pm - Wednesday, March 18th, 6 to 7:30 pm - Wednesday, April 15th, 6 to 7:30 pm - Thursday, May 14th, 6 to 7:30 pm Supplies such as gloves and trash bags will be provided. **Please consider weather conditions, wear comfortable shoes, and bring plenty of water!**","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-14T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-15T00:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Doddridge Park","address":"Ocean Dr, ","city":"Corpus Christi","state":"TX","zip":"78411","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/tfn/event/773836/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/CC%20Park%20Mobilize_20250407162544747004.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"773836","scrapedAt":"2026-04-29T00:01:27.654Z"},{"id":"mobilize-805861","title":"Indivisible Inland Empire Postcarding Happy Hour","description":"Come write postcards to voters while having a drink or a bite to eat and supporting local businesses. Postcards, addresses, pens, highlighters, and writing script provided. Please bring postcard stamps if you can (or you can donate to the stamp fund). We write postcards in support of various campaigns and issues. It typically changes each time. They generally focus on registering voters in critical areas.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-15T00:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-15T02:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Rancho Cucamonga","state":"CA","zip":"91730","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisibleinlandempire/event/805861/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Can%E2%80%99t%20Wait%20to%20See%20you%20at%20Postcarding%20Happy%20Hour%21_20250620062001984282.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"805861","scrapedAt":"2026-04-22T00:01:42.624Z"},{"id":"mobilize-819931","title":"Paper & Purpose: Folding Zines for Change","description":"**Zines are grassroots media**: small, folded booklets made by and for the people. They’ve long been used by movements to amplify voices, challenge injustice, and share knowledge in a way that’s personal, creative, and hard to ignore. At this **in-person folding event in Mountain View**, we’ll turn stacks of printed pages into tools for change. We’ll fold, we’ll talk, and we’ll build something together. These zines will go directly into the hands of people at rallies, info tables, and on the street. In the past, we've created zines on why we fight illegal deportations without due process, attacks on voting rights, harm to working families. At this session, we'll be making ICE-related zines in preparation for our **[Making Whistle / Know Your Rights Kits](https://www.mobilize.us/itsblueturn/event/908194/)** on Thu, May 21. If you’ve got a knack for **crisp, careful folds**, we’d especially love your help, no experience needed! **See you soon!**","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-15T01:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-15T03:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Mountain View","state":"CA","zip":"94043","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/itsblueturn/event/819931/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/mobilize-zine-folding_20250727061453404009.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"819931","scrapedAt":"2026-04-25T12:01:44.522Z"},{"id":"mobilize-806849","title":"Independence Indivisible Protests","description":"BIG CHANGE in 2026! Indy Indivisible will shift to once-a-month evening protests. We will gather at the same place - in front of Valkyrie Bottle Shop at 301 S. Main Street in Independence. After the protest, participants are encouraged to drop in to Valkyrie for a glass of wine/beer/cider/soda and conversation. We're doing this to help support Valkyrie, a progressive and supportive business. New day and time - 3rd Friday of the month, 6:00 pm","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-16T01:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-16T02:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Independence","state":"OR","zip":"97351","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/806849/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"806849","scrapedAt":"2026-04-18T12:01:53.593Z"},{"id":"mobilize-835181","title":"Democratic Women Club of Flagler County","description":"Monthly Meeting Positive-Progressive-Powerful committed to progressive Democratic values 3rd Saturday; Starts 9:30 am. Location: Dems HQ, 160 Cypress Point Pkwy, PC; Suite #C214 (2nd fl); Phone: (386) 283-4883 Page · Political Organization dwcflagler@gmail.com instagram.com/DwcflaglercountyFlorida DWC_Flagler Guest Speaker Elissa Darnell recently retired after more than 30 years in User Experience Research and Design leadership at major technology companies including Microsoft, eBay, Groupon, and Meta/Facebook. She holds a Ph.D. in Human–Computer Interaction and has spent her career helping create technology that is easier and more enjoyable to use. Elissa moved from California to Palm Coast in 2021 and is active in the community, volunteering with the local Turtle Patrol and participating in University Women of Flagler (UWF). She enjoys exploring how emerging technologies—such as Artificial Intelligence—can support everyday life. Her presentation will share simple, practical ways AI can help us stay connected, make tasks easier, and add a little fun.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-16T13:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-16T15:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"160 Cypress Point Pkwy, Suite #214, 2nd Floor Above Cue Note Billiard Room","city":"Palm Coast","state":"FL","zip":"32164","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/flaglercountydemocrats/event/835181/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/DWC%20Banner_20250606030008505195.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"835181","scrapedAt":"2026-04-19T00:02:00.893Z"},{"id":"mobilize-612634","title":"Franklin County Senior Democrats","description":"### Please join us! _The Franklin County Senior Democrats meetings are open to all registered Democrats._ Our members are Democrats over 50, and we work tirelessly to elect Democrats to public office. Senior Democrats advocate for issues of concern to seniors in our state – dignified retirement, decent housing, dependable and affordable healthcare. We are also concerned about policies that affect all generations here and beyond state lines– preserving our democracy, protecting the environment, promoting life-long learning, and providing reliable transportation and communication infrastructure. - We meet on the third Saturday of each month at 10:00 am [FCDP Linktree](https://linktr.ee/franklincountyncdems) #### Monthly County Party Meetings https://www.mobilize.us/fcdemsnc/ - Executive Committee Meeting - Democratic Women - LGBTQ Dems - African American Caucus - Senior Democrats","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-16T14:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-16T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"FCDP Headquarters","address":"108 E Nash St, ","city":"Louisburg","state":"NC","zip":"27549","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/fcdemsnc/event/612634/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/5_20240421212210456250.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"612634","scrapedAt":"2026-04-19T00:01:37.046Z"},{"id":"mobilize-833905","title":"Oconee County Democratic Women's Brunch Bunch","description":"The OCDWBB is a social group within the Oconee County Democratic Party, created for women to gather over meals, socialize, share ideas, and get to know each other. Join us on the 3rd Saturday each month at 10:30.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-16T14:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-16T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Walhalla","state":"SC","zip":"29691","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/oconeecountydemocrats/event/833905/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/OCDWBB%20%281200%20x%20630%20px%29_20250825202325302498.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"833905","scrapedAt":"2026-04-19T00:02:00.893Z"},{"id":"mobilize-811339","title":"Stand Up Indivisible Rochester Corner Protest","description":"## Save The Date! Join us on the NE corner of Auburn & Rochester and be ready to make some “good trouble”. Our theme for May 2nd is Workers over Billionaires! This is a nonviolent event- in words, actions and signage. ### This is a recurring event on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-16T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-16T18:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Rochester Hills","state":"MI","zip":"48307","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/standup/event/811339/","image":"","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"811339","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:36.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-801759","title":"Rancho Bernardo Rally for our Rights!","description":"Rancho Bernardo and Poway! Join us for a sidewalk rally. Bring signs and a folding chair if you need one. We will rally on the public sidewalk for 1.5 hours. Park at any public lot and walk over to where you see us. Bring a friend or 10! This is a great event for newbies to attend. We will have a good time, make new friends and let off a little built up steam. Videographers- video your fellow attendees for social media. Why are you out here today? Email links to the video to indivisiblenorthcountysandiego@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-16T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-16T19:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Bernardo Center Drive & Rancho Bernardo Road, ","city":"San Diego","state":"CA","zip":"92128","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblenorthcountysandiego/event/801759/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IMG_5956_20251129032141295193.jpeg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"801759","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:36.306Z"},{"id":"mobilize-750621","title":"Blue Turn Indivisible Monthly Meeting in Mountain View","description":"New people are welcome! Let's discuss plans and ideas for action, report on anything new learned, and chat with fellow defenders of democracy. Let's deepen our bonds and organize ourselves for strategic action. Our upcoming featured speakers: - April: Ren Fitzgerald, seasoned community organizer focused on transit issues and democratic strategy, undergraduate Urban Studies and Journalism student at UC Berkeley - May: Lisa Ratner, Co-President, League of Women Voters of Palo Alto **Note: April's is also \"celebrate Mariya's 50th birthday\" monthly meeting. I will be dressed up fancy and I am asking you to do the same, if you can!** It will be regular meeting until 5pm, and then we'll party (well, hang out and eat!). Bring a friend and some food to share (it's potluck)! If you can't make it to any of our monthly meetings, but would like to sign up to stay in touch: https://blueturnindivisible.org/","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-16T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-17T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Mountain View","state":"CA","zip":"94043","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/750621/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"750621","scrapedAt":"2026-04-19T06:01:48.986Z"},{"id":"mobilize-838808","title":"Save Our Democracy! Weekly Rallies with Blue Corner Indivisible!","description":"**This a local Indivisible event!** We are ordinary people focused on the ultimate core strategy of using our voices and local constituent power to help in the nationwide fight to save our Democracy! Some of us stand on the south-east corner, while others march around to all 4 corners as the light changes, so you can get your steps in for the day or not... It's up to you! Bring your sign(s) or flag(s) and join us as we defend our democracy... Together, we are strong enough to beat this regime. Together, we are *indivisible!* *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-17T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-17T19:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Community Road & Poway Road, ","city":"Poway","state":"CA","zip":"92064","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/838808/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"838808","scrapedAt":"2026-05-04T06:01:07.152Z"},{"id":"mobilize-845434","title":"Community Gathering: Uniting to Fight Fascism","description":"For our April 12 gathering we'll have a special presentation from Luka Paider about the effective and very easy phone banking system for Nafisa Fai's campaign for Chair of the WC Commission as well as a presentation by the amazing La Guera with an update on the project she introduced us to last fall and her innovative new project to distribute whistle kits to our Asian immigrant neighbors! We'll also preview candidates and issues for election day, discuss our upcoming overpass and sidewalk protest series, prepare for MAY DAY, and shower our Juntos Mutual Aid donors and shoppers with thanks! Please bring spare dollars or your Venmo account for Raffle tickets (including a VERY special raffle for a show coming to Portland in July!) as well as snacks and easy to prepare shelf stable foods for our online academy backpack program food drive. See you there!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-17T21:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-17T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Upstairs at the Cedar Mill Library (Oak & Elm Rooms)","address":"1080 NW Saltzman Rd, ","city":"Portland","state":"OR","zip":"97229","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblewashingtoncounty/event/845434/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IWC%204%2012%20Meeting_20260408015459853799.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"845434","scrapedAt":"2026-05-02T18:02:26.898Z"},{"id":"mobilize-750956","title":"Virtual Phone Banking - Volunteer Mobilization","description":"Want to help advance the movement for LGBTQ+ and all other marginalized communities in Florida?! Join us for this Virtual Phone Bank opportunity, where we will be engaging with Equality Florida Volunteers - New and Experienced - either thanking them for their hard work, providing them with opportunities to take action, or inviting them to a fun get together! Grassroots Organizing is the KEY to success in Advocacy. People WANT to engage, but they need that extra push, that helping hand - and you can be just that. By engaging with other volunteers, and activating them to take action, we will continue to build upon our movement of Queer and Allied people power so that we can better fight for our communities! Join us when you can, from the comfort of your home!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-18T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-18T22:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/equalityflorida/event/750956/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/VIRTUAL%20PHONE%20BANK%20SQUAD%20%281%29_20230807182738353642.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"750956","scrapedAt":"2026-05-05T06:02:03.675Z"},{"id":"mobilize-365586","title":"Duval Dems Monthly General Meeting","description":"### Join us every month @6pm for our Duval Dems General Meetings. We welcome the participation of all Democrats residing in Duval who wish to get engaged and meet others who share their Democratic views. -- ### 2026 Meeting Dates: - January 26th - February 23rd - March 16th - April 20th - May 18th - June 15th - July 20th - August 17th - September 21st - October 19th - November 16th _Please note that only elected Precinct Committee People (party voting members) can vote on party business. Our bylaws govern the meeting protocol and follow Robert’s Rules of Order._","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-18T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-18T23:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"IBEW Local Union 177","address":"966 N Liberty St, ","city":"Jacksonville","state":"FL","zip":"32206","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/duvalcountydec/event/365586/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/General%20Meeting%20graphic_20260318004838462700.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"365586","scrapedAt":"2026-04-21T06:01:26.740Z"},{"id":"mobilize-787391","title":"Monroe-Northampton Chapter Meeting","description":"**Join us for the monthly meeting of Action Together's Monroe-Northampton chapter!** For December and the first few months of 2026, we'll be meeting virtually to help avoid any weather-related stress! Let's get together to connect, collaborate, and get inspired. We'll review our first year as a chapter, and share info on upcoming events and ways you can take action, and preview what's ahead in 2026. **When they go low we go local!** This year proved that taking local action makes a huge difference. So let's keep up that momentum to close out the year and be ready to start 2026 ready to roll! **Monroe-Northampton Chapter meetings are held on the 3rd Monday of each month.**","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-18T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-18T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/atnepa/event/787391/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/monroe-northampton%20chapter_20250902234627898060.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"787391","scrapedAt":"2026-04-21T06:01:47.355Z"},{"id":"mobilize-752738","title":"Monthly Meeting of the Hillsborough County Democratic Party","description":"This is a Hybrid Meeting. In person at Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library, 2909 W. Bearss Ave, Tampa. The Zoom link will be active at 5:45 pm; please join as early as possible to allow our Credentials team time to verify members and attendees. The meeting will begin at 6:30 pm. https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIkd-6gqDItGNYv1GA46qha1DXEzdwCfSJe?_x_zm_rtaid=GuFvBJqtSli9qCWZCSWjZw.1748386362213.6eb9cee964491b2607b33f3a24865755&_x_zm_rhtaid=857#/registration All Democrats are welcome to attend the monthly meeting. Attendance is required for all Precinct Committeewomen/men. Registration is a two-step process. Once you RSVP for the meeting here on Mobilize, you will be sent a link to the Zoom registration page. Fill that one out (it's simple!) and you will receive the Zoom link for the meeting by email along with important instructions This confirmation email will also include links to add the meeting to your digital calendar of choice, through either Apple, Google, or Outlook; please add us to your calendar with notifications so you do not miss the meeting.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-18T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-19T00:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"2902 W Bearss Ave, ","city":"Tampa","state":"FL","zip":"33618","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/hillsboroughcountydec/event/752738/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Blue%20Flag_20250203021524586250.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"752738","scrapedAt":"2026-04-21T06:01:36.506Z"},{"id":"mobilize-757536","title":"DeKalb Dems LGBTQ+ Caucus Meeting","description":"We are the LGBTQ+ Community's leading source for civic engagement in DeKalb County Georgia. Please join us in our work towards the extension of equal rights, the repeal of discriminatory laws, the elimination of hate-motivated violence, and the improved health and well-being for all regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. Please support the LGBTQ+ Caucus with a monthly donation of $5 or $10 https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dekalbdemslgbtq","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-18T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-19T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/dekalbcountydemocrats/event/757536/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/_LGBTQ%2B%20Caucus%20Meeting%20%20Graphic%20%281200%20x%20630%20px%29_20260226190158324571.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"757536","scrapedAt":"2026-04-28T06:01:15.647Z"},{"id":"mobilize-789511","title":"St. Louis Monthly Community Building Meeting","description":"PROMO’s field team is kicking off regular Community Meetings, and we’d love for you to join us! These gatherings are a chance to share a meal, connect with others, and be in community together. Each meeting includes a little bit of education and advocacy, but the main focus is on coming together — building relationships, supporting one another, and creating space where everyone belongs. You’ll also have the chance to share your thoughts and ideas to help shape PROMO’s organizing efforts right here in St. Louis. These gatherings are more than just a shared meal — they’re how we build power and grow our movement. Whether you’re looking to volunteer, connect, find support, or take action, join us as we work toward a Missouri where all LGBTQ+ people are valued and thriving. 📅Date & Time: Third Monday at 6 p.m. 📍Location: PROMO Office","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-18T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-19T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"St. Louis","state":"MO","zip":"63104","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/promomissouri/event/789511/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/PROMO_Mobilize_CommunityMeeting_20250922223348003813.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"789511","scrapedAt":"2026-04-21T06:01:47.355Z"},{"id":"mobilize-743086","title":"INBK Monthly Organizing Meeting","description":"Indivisible Brooklyn is an all-volunteer grassroots organization, with members from all over Brooklyn who get together to promote civic engagement around democracy and civil rights, climate justice, and an inclusive economy. Join our monthly Organizing Meeting and help lead the charge in pushing our local, state, and federal representatives to resist authoritarianism, promote democracy, and stand up for our communities. Together, we will identify policy priorities to organize around; write letters, petitions, and call scripts to circulate; meet with our elected officials; organize rallies, protests, and other public demonstrations; and connect with coalition partners to help build the movement for a progressive future.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-18T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-19T00:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"Brooklyn","state":"NY","zip":"11232","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblenationbk/event/743086/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/INBK%20Banner_20241110162226252351.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"743086","scrapedAt":"2026-04-28T06:01:09.505Z"},{"id":"mobilize-815073","title":"Taco Tuesdays at Zapata's in Fairview Hts.","description":"Taco Tuesdays started because there wasn't time to get to know each other during regular meetings of the Southwest Illinois Democratic Women. Now it's a monthly conversation about the future of democracy and voting, and potential candidates for the primary election. Everyone is welcome, so come join us! 1pm on the third Tuesday of every month at Zapata's Mexican Restaurant in Fairview Heights.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-19T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-19T19:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Zapata's Mexican Restaurant & Cantina","address":"4660 N Illinois St, ","city":"Fairview Heights","state":"IL","zip":"62208","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblemonreocountyil/event/815073/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Taco%20Tuesdays_20251119015503850707.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"815073","scrapedAt":"2026-04-22T00:01:45.855Z"},{"id":"mobilize-474447","title":"Intro to the Power Building Team","description":"Black Voters Matters works to increase power in marginalized, predominantly Black communities. And while effective voting is an important way for a community to determine its own destiny, that’s only one way the organization strives to build power. In addition to voting and electoral organizing, Black Voters Matter supports community-based organizations working on a wide range of issues such as mass incarceration, gentrification, health care, education and more. We are looking for volunteers who want to join our power building team and make a real impact. Each volunteer opportunity helps to increase voter engagement, supports protecting our right to vote, and gets us closer to our goal of building permanent, progressive power in Black communities! Start your power building journey by joining us on Tuesdays at 5pm ET for the volunteer orientation. You will learn more about Black Voters Matter, what to expect as a volunteer, and the ways you can volunteer. Invite friends, family, and colleagues to join you! Please note, you only need to attend one volunteer orientation.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-19T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-19T22:15:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/blackvotersmatter/event/474447/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/FVycTt4XEAEDhXX_20220628224813574402.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"474447","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:00:45.438Z"},{"id":"mobilize-812252","title":"Georgia Action Team","description":"Join Common Cause Georgia's Georgia Action Team: Stay Connected. Stay Informed. Stay Engaged. The Georgia Action Team is Common Cause Georgia's informal, community-driven space that brings together members and any Georgian who wants to stay plugged into what's happening in our state and find ways to get involved. What is the Georgia Action Team? An open 30-minute Zoom call held every first and third Tuesday of the month at 6:00 PM. It's not a lecture or a formal briefing, it's a conversation. Think of it as your standing check-in with a community of like-minded Georgians who care about democracy, voting rights, and the future of our state. Whether you're a longtime Common Cause Georgia member or someone who just started paying attention and wants to know what you can do, the Georgia Action Team is your political home. What Happens on the Call? Every call is a mix of updates and open conversation. You can expect to hear the latest on what Common Cause Georgia is working on, current threats to voting rights and democracy in Georgia, urgent calls to action and how you can plug in, and issues and developments we're keeping a close eye on. But just as important as what we share is what we hear from you. We want to know what's happening in your community, what issues you want to see addressed, what actions you think we should be taking, and how we can show up for you and support the work you're already doing. Who Is It For? The Georgia Action Team is open to everyone: Common Cause Georgia members, community organizers, first-time activists, and anyone in Georgia who wants to stay informed and connected. You don't need any prior experience or background. You just need to care. When Is It? Every first and third Tuesday of the month at 6:00 PM on Zoom. Calls run 30 minutes. No preparation needed, just show up! How Do I Join? Sign up to receive the Zoom link and reminders before each call so you never miss an update. What if I can’t join every meeting? There is no expectation to join multiple meetings! Join us twice a month, once a month, or every other month! We know life can get busy, but the moment is too important. Whenever you are ready to take action or want to learn more about the work happening in Georgia you are always welcome to join one of our calls!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-19T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-19T22:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/commoncause/event/812252/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Georgia%20Action%20Team_20260421211957131421.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"812252","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:01:09.063Z"},{"id":"mobilize-825940","title":"Florida Student Power Youth Climate Coalition Meeting","description":"We are a coalition of young people fighting for climate justice, rooted in our communities, committed to action, and building a better future together. At this meeting, we’ll connect with fellow youth organizers, give updates on our local and statewide climate campaigns, and plan our next steps around events, actions, policy, and advocacy. There will be space to share ideas, build leadership, and support one another as we organize for bold, intersectional climate solutions. Whether you're already plugged in or showing up for the first time, your voice matters and you're welcome here.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-19T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-19T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/flcet/event/825940/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot%202025-08-08%20at%203.28.47%E2%80%AFPM_20250808192941569061.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"825940","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:01:12.916Z"},{"id":"mobilize-747784","title":"2026 GCDP East Oxford + Credle Precinct Cluster Meetings","description":"Join us for the GCDP East Oxford + Credle Precinct Monthly Meeting this March! We'll gather to discuss our upcoming initiatives for 2025 and plan our strategy as we head toward municipal elections in November! This is a great opportunity to connect with fellow Democrats, stay informed, and actively contribute to the political landscape in our community. Join us at GCDP HQ on May 19 at 6:30 PM. Whether you're a long-time party member or a newcomer interested in getting involved, your voice matters, and we welcome your participation. Let's work together to make a positive impact in East Oxford + Credle and beyond!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-19T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-20T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"GCDP HQ","address":"112 Gilliam Street, ","city":"Oxford","state":"NC","zip":"27565","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/granvillecountydemocrats/event/747784/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/HQ%20graphic_20240919195451179267.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"747784","scrapedAt":"2026-04-20T12:01:16.282Z"},{"id":"mobilize-606176","title":"LGBTQ+ & Allied Democrats of Franklin County","description":"### Please join us! _LGBTQ+ Dems meetings are open to all registered Democrats, unaffiliated citizens, LGBTQ+ community members, and allies._ With a mission to drive representation and inclusion of LGBTQ+ people at the state and local levels, advocating for the rights of LGBTQ+ people in North Carolina. LGBTQ+ Democrats of NC is dedicated to canvassing for queer Democratic candidates and advocating for pro-equality laws in North Carolina. Join us and help promote LGBTQ+ rights in the political sphere! - We meet on the third Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm [FCDP Linktree](https://linktr.ee/franklincountyncdems) [Caucus Linktree](https://linktr.ee/lgbtqdemsfrcnc) #### Monthly County Party Meetings https://www.mobilize.us/fcdemsnc/ - Executive Committee Meeting - Democratic Women - LGBTQ Dems - African American Caucus - Senior Democrats","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-19T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-20T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"FCDP Headquarters","address":"108 E Nash St, ","city":"Louisburg","state":"NC","zip":"27549","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/fcdemsnc/event/606176/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/1_20250523161057058525.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"606176","scrapedAt":"2026-04-22T06:01:46.104Z"},{"id":"mobilize-748218","title":"ICM Grow the Movement (GTM) Committee Meeting","description":"### Join the Grow the Movement (GTM) Committee Are you ready to make a tangible impact on the lives of children in Georgia? The Interfaith Children’s Movement’s *Grow the Movement (GTM) Committee* is seeking passionate individuals to help connect faith communities across the state and advocate for children’s well-being. **What We Do:** The GTM Committee works to build county-based interfaith coalitions, uniting people of faith to champion the needs of children in their local communities. Our ultimate goal is to have coalitions in all 159 counties, creating a statewide network of advocates ensuring every child has someone fighting for their future. **Why Join?** - Be part of a team committed to meaningful, community-driven change. - Collaborate with others to expand our reach and influence. - Help create a sustainable framework for advocacy at the local level. The committee meets monthly to strategize, share ideas, and mobilize action. Together, we can amplify the voice of faith communities and ensure that no child in Georgia is left without a dedicated advocate. *Sign up for the next meeting and join the movement to make every child a priority.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-19T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-20T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/icmgeorgia/event/748218/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/%5B1200x630%5D%20GTM%20Commitee_v2_20250105045007058610.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"748218","scrapedAt":"2026-04-28T06:01:12.956Z"},{"id":"mobilize-847780","title":"General Monthly Meetings - In Person","description":"General meeting at Pilgrim Firs 5:30 - 7:30 Come join us and get involved! The Agenda so far: ⭐ Snack finger food potluck items are well received! Bring enough for a dozen or so people, you don't need to feed everyone! ⭐ We collect non perishable food donations for Helpline & KIAC as well as personal care items. Members volunteer to deliver them for you. KIAC.org has specific food & household requests -Maseca, dried black beans, white rice, vegetable oil, toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo, dish soap, laundry soap, toothpaste. Helpline now assists in delivering these to families. April 14 - What's Next? Tonight we make plans - > We will review our successful No Kings III event and celebrate success. > Our Protest Team will discuss \"What's Next?\" May 1 is a national movement. > Working Groups will have time to share > The Brand New Resistance Choir is introduced! > The second half of the meeting will be for working groups to formulate plans and welcome new members Speaker: Adison Richards is not able to join us and will reschedule. Introducing the Working Groups ⭐ The goal for each group is to keep the larger group up to date on action steps - how they can participate as needs arise in urgency - there is so much we need to do! Each working group is an umbrella topic, meaning there are many actions that need attention in each group. You will have the opportunity to join a group Tuesday night. There you can speak up, support a cause, and get your idea supported. Bring your research, ask questions, find out how you can get involved at your comfort level. There is room for everyone! No task is too small. Every effort is needed. ⭐ Current Groups and the Actions their involved in ⭐ Neighbor to neighbor food drives and Mutual Aid Helpline and KIAC Food donations picked up in neighborhoods. This offers an opportunity to get your neighbors involved and informed of ways they can help. We have recommendations that make it easy to implement. This is a key way Minnesota was able to have rapid response to ICE in their neighborhoods. ⭐ Political \"Next Steps\" and how to make a difference! Key and important for the way ahead. There are many topics under this umbrella. Sign up for TAN - Candidates | Voting Registration | Issues | Office Visits Want to lead a voter drive? Get organized here ⭐ Post Card Writing Group - Join a regular meeting at Coffee at Carters Fridays, 10 am, in the back room! ⭐Protest Planning - Taking care of details Regular weekly protests | Bannering | Burma Shave silent walks Join protests up and down the peninsula in Kitsap County ⭐ Health & Safety for LGBTQIA+ & DEI Health issues are being attacked. Lives are at stake General insurance rate increases are affecting many ⭐ Port Orchard Community Group - Creating a safe community space to meet in downtown Port Orchard We think we have the space! Come help! See the Community Group story on the website ⭐ICE and NW Detention Center Vigils and updates ⭐ Immigrant support and assistance | Deportation Defense - KIAC ⭐ First Aid Team - ⭐ De-escalation Team ⭐ Admin assistance Team - Website, Social Media, Resource page, New member follow up, Data keeping, phone calls, partnering ⭐ Whistle Packet Creation - 300 more whistles! Thank you Susan! ⭐ Know your rights education - Distribute ICE information to businesses What topics have I missed? What part do you want to play? Dividing it up gets so much more accomplished and makes a HUGE difference. You are not alone!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-20T00:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-20T02:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Pilgrim Firs Camp & Retreat Center","address":"3318 SW Lake Flora Rd, ","city":"Port Orchard","state":"WA","zip":"98367","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/portorchardswindivisible/event/847780/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Join%20us%20to%20save%20Democracy%20%284%29_20250920181946860262.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"847780","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:44.264Z"},{"id":"mobilize-785756","title":"Protest Trump When He Speaks at USCG Graduation, New London, CT","description":"Trump to speak at USCG graduation New London, CT Gather and Protest In the spirit of Nonviolent Action UNIFY & RESIST PROTEST: Wednesday, May 20, 2026 9:00 to 10:30am at McKinley Park on Williams St. between Crystal Ave. & Mohegan Ave. Parkway Sponsors: Voluntown Peace Trust, War Resisters League, Indivisible SECT, Guardians of Democracy Indivisible, Indivisible East Lyme **Park on side streets where allowed: Street parking is available on Williams Street and Crystal Ave, and the side streets between them. One of our core principles is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values. UNIFY & RESIST WE UNIFY behind a vision of a welcoming community; where immigrants, refugees, members of the LGBTQ communities, Black and Brown people and women and men of all racial/ethnic identities are celebrated, honored and accorded equal rights, responsibilities, and treatment under the law. WE RESIST the gutting of our government agencies – including the Departments of Education, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, National Parks Service, Environmental Protection Agency, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Social Security. Democracy belongs to all of us—not to dictators, kings, dynasties, billionaires or those who seek to hoard power and accumulate wealth for the 1%. Join us for a peaceful rally where we’ll stand together for free and fair elections, rights to due process, equal representation, and government by the people, for the people! We are here to tell the administration: RESTORE services for immigrants, education, veterans, students, the elderly, parents, children, the disabled and the disadvantaged. Hands OFF social security, medicaid, our health care, our data, our jobs, our services, and our rights. We are in a crisis and the time to act is now!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-20T13:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-20T14:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"McKinley Park","address":"McKinley Park on Williams St. between Crystal Ave. & Mohegan Ave. Parkway, ","city":"New London","state":"CT","zip":"06320","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/785756/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"785756","scrapedAt":"2026-04-27T06:01:42.438Z"},{"id":"mobilize-602726","title":"Democracy Seminar with Common Cause Florida (Lunch & Learn)","description":"Knowledge is Power. And Common Cause Florida wants to equip you with the knowledge you need to help defend and strengthen our democracy. Our ongoing series of Florida Democracy Seminars provide a space where we can come together and learn how to fight back against voter suppression, the pernicious influence of money in politics, and other attacks on our freedom. By understanding changing laws and policies, our rights as Floridians, and the resources available to us, we strengthen our collective ability to ensure the promise of democracy for all Floridians. When we show up informed and empowered, we win.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-20T17:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-20T18:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/commoncause/event/602726/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/FL%20Democracy%20SeminarMobilize_20240410163730170949.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"602726","scrapedAt":"2026-04-16T00:01:28.154Z"},{"id":"mobilize-638454","title":"Voicing Our Power: A Conversation Series with Volunteers","description":"Through this conversation series, we are bringing real discussions from our volunteer community! All year long we will discuss issues that matter to us like mental health, the power of our communities, protecting DEI, and more! For the next panel series, we will highlight the influence of Black women in journalism, filmmaking, social media, and storytelling for social change. We know that storytelling = power. Let's talk about what happens when we get to control our narrative, the difficulties we have in telling our true stories in non-Black spaces, and what it means to have authentic portrayals of us. We will also discuss what the fight for social justice means in the media space and what steps we can take now to uplift our communities. Bring your questions, share your insights, and build power with us through engaging conversations! Happy Women's History Month!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-20T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-20T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/blackvotersmatter/event/638454/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Volunteer%20Voices%20Panel%203.19.25_20251112203936866003.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"638454","scrapedAt":"2026-03-26T06:01:33.514Z"},{"id":"mobilize-408731","title":"Democratic Women's Club of Allen County Meeting","description":"Join us for our monthly meeting on the 3rd Wednesday of the month. We gather at 6 pm for social time, and our business meeting begins at 6:30 pm. The Women’s Club raises money for women candidates, has occasional speakers, provides social support to our members and are involved in activism on political issues at the local, state and national levels.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-20T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-21T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"900 Library Plz, ","city":"Fort Wayne","state":"IN","zip":"46802","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/allencountydemocrats/event/408731/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/2023-WC_Meeting-Graphic_v2_20230305201926206255.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"408731","scrapedAt":"2026-04-16T06:00:41.825Z"},{"id":"mobilize-464265","title":"Detention Advocacy Team","description":"There’s no question: Immigration detention is known for abuse, pervasive medical neglect, and complete disregard for the dignity and safety of people in custody. Are you looking for ways to stop these abuses and violations at detention facilities in Florida? We invite you to join us for our next Detention Advocacy Volunteer Team meeting to learn more about how you can take action to help end the abuses taking place in our state. We can't wait to mobilize with you!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-20T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-21T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/aclufl/event/464265/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/IR2_20250801174221171557.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"464265","scrapedAt":"2026-04-16T06:00:41.825Z"},{"id":"mobilize-799017","title":"Carrollton Democrats - Nico Nights with Neighbors","description":"WELCOME to our once a month (third Wednesday) meeting of the Carrollton Democrats Club. Our focus is to get to know our Neighbors - to meet like-minded folks for fellowship, education, solidarity and purpose. Learn how WE can shape our plans as we seek to SAVE OUR COUNTRY AND DEMOCRACY! THE APRIL 15th evening's program is an opportunity to get to know our candidates a little better. Candidates will be invited to a Show and Tell Evening. We will meet candidates who \"shook out \" after the Primaries. We have candidates who are in a Runoff we will hear from. We also have candidates in the School Board Elections - Early Voting April 20th - 28th, Election Day May 2nd. We will also discuss our \"choices\" for City Council and Mayor - and how we will be better prepared for next years races. PLEASE NOTE - This meeting we are asking folks to come early if they can to participate in #CRAFTIVISM. If you arrive at 5PM or later - we will be creating Whistle ICE 🧊 KITS to be distributed at at future Community Outreach to our At Risk Neighbors. May also attempt to make BUTTONS this time too. The Meeting and will begin a little before 7pm. We are a Grass Roots Group dedicated to preserving our American way of Life that honors the Individual with Diversity, Equality and Dignity. Learn about ways you can participate in ACTIVISM. Learn how you may participate in our HIVES (Precinct) project. We are Creating FUN Caring Communities - and Winning Elections! And we are building on our momentum from 2025 thanks to your growing enthusiasm! Let us help you find ways that you may use your skills, talents and strengths to participate in our fight to take back our country thru activism, demonstrations, precinct building, voter registration and much more. Our Goal is to be a source of Information to all Carrollton Democrats so they may make informed and wise decisions at the voting booth. We now have a Web Site: https://www.carrolltondemocrats.com/. This will provide our Carrollton Democrats the resources they need whether they live in Denton or Dallas County. JOIN US every 3rd Wednesday of the Month: Nico Nights with the Neighbors - Nico's Cocina (6:30 to 8:30). 3065 N. Josey Lane, Carrollton, TX 75007 We meet in the EVENT ROOM to the right of the restaurant. Please sign up on Mobilize so we may prepare enough materials for everyone. If you wish to be placed on our email list, (only 3-4 a month) please SIGN UP on CarrolltonDemocrats.com. And we'll be able to introduce you to your neighbors in your precinct. Again - we are happy you have found us - look forward to meeting you!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-20T23:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-21T01:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Nico's Cocina - Event Room (to right of restaurant)","address":"3065 N Josey Ln, Ste 24, SW Quadrant of Josey & Frankford","city":"Carrollton","state":"TX","zip":"75007","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/dentondemocrats/event/799017/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Collage_2025-06-05_10_43_40_20250605160151252634.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"799017","scrapedAt":"2026-04-16T06:01:04.214Z"},{"id":"mobilize-271054","title":"Redistricting Action Monthly Volunteer Virtual Meeting","description":"Join Redistricting Action's monthly virtual volunteer meeting for the latest updates on redistricting in the states, trainings, and opportunities to take action to end gerrymandering. ***You will receive call-in information via email upon registration - be sure to check your spam folder!*** _Please be aware that Redistricting Action (a.k.a. National Redistricting Action Fund) may be videotaping, recording and taking photographs during this virtual event. By entering into or in any way participating in the virtual event, you irrevocably consent to and authorize Redistricting Action, and its agents and licensees, to make photographs, videotapes and other recordings of your voice and likeness (“Materials”) and to use the Materials, or any portion thereof, in any and all manner and media and for any purpose without compensation. Unless you have obtained prior approval from Redistricting Action, you also agree to not record, reproduce, transmit or stream from the virtual event, in any manner or by any means whatsoever, any portion of, or the entirety of, the event, including making any photographs, videotapes or other recordings. Any video, recordings, photographs or other media of any kind generated during the virtual event shall be the sole property of Redistricting Action, and you irrevocably release Redistricting Action and anyone acting under its authorization from any and all liability or claims in connection with such usage. You understand and agree that Redistricting Action will proceed in reliance upon such grant and release and that such rights are therefore irrevocable and granted in perpetuity._","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-21T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-21T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/redistrictingaction/event/271054/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Monthly%20Vol%20Call%20Graphic_20251217143108744479.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"271054","scrapedAt":"2026-04-16T06:00:41.825Z"},{"id":"mobilize-548140","title":"KY Voting Rights Coalition Monthly Meeting","description":"Monthly meeting of the KY Voting Rights Coalition to plan strategy and upcoming events. We push to restore voting rights to all Kentuckians with felonies in their past. We meet the 4th Thursday of each month virtually on Zoom. Kentuckians with felonies in their past are especially welcome.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-21T19:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-21T20:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"Louisville","state":"KY","zip":"40203","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/kftc/event/548140/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/20220730_154249_20230119033157454617.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"548140","scrapedAt":"2026-04-24T06:01:28.015Z"},{"id":"mobilize-798839","title":"Raise Your Voice - Abington","description":"Our monthly Abington protests are held on the **3rd Saturday of the month, 2-4 pm**, on Old York Road in front of the Target / District Taco shopping center. ### Dates are available to sign up for our monthly Abington protests through 2026. Sign up now! Bring your friends, family, signs, flags, and Montco pride as we take a stand on the issues facing our towns, our state, and our country. These actions are organized by Indivisible Greater Jenkintown, Abington for Peace and Community for Change. Join us as we build local connections, keep the energy going, and expand the movement! Note: Starting in May and continuing through September, we’ll meet on Third Thursdays from 5–7 PM to stay out of the summer afternoon heat. In October, we’ll switch back to our Third Saturdays from 2–4 PM schedule.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-21T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-21T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"1475 Old York Rd, ","city":"Abington Township","state":"PA","zip":"19001","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblegreaterjenkintown/event/798839/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Abington%20Protest%20-%203rd%20Saturday%20-%201200x630_20260217010009432268.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"798839","scrapedAt":"2026-04-19T00:01:54.671Z"},{"id":"mobilize-601254","title":"Black Voters Matter Postcard Party","description":"Join our virtual postcard parties on Zoom! With other volunteers, you will create personalized messages to remind individuals of the POWER that they hold in their communities. We will provide training and the platform for you to submit your message. During March for Women's History Month, we will be highlighting and celebrating the influence of Black Women in Media. Join us to learn more about how we will engage and inform the community how important this influence is.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-21T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-21T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/blackvotersmatter/event/601254/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Postcard1%20-%20BHM_20240123170209868817.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"601254","scrapedAt":"2026-03-27T06:01:34.112Z"},{"id":"mobilize-786979","title":"UCDP - Hybrid: Monthly Meeting","description":"Hybrid Monthly Meeting Social: 6:00 to 6:30 pm Meeting: 6:30 to 8:00 pm For more information: https://mobilize.us/s/g4KRsQ Hybrid Registration after signing up. Any TBD, will be updated when set. Old Armory Community Center 500 S. Johnson Monroe, NC 28112.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-21T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-22T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"500 S Johnson St, ","city":"Monroe","state":"NC","zip":"28112","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/unioncountydems/event/786979/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/qt%3Dq_95%20%281%29_20260102003531777770.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"786979","scrapedAt":"2026-04-17T06:01:40.248Z"},{"id":"mobilize-585265","title":"Broward Action Team Meeting","description":"Join the ACLU of Florida as we discuss how to defend our civil rights and freedoms right here in Broward County. This will be your opportunity to meet with a local organizer and learn how to get involved and volunteer with the ACLU of Florida's campaigns!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-21T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-21T23:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Fort Lauderdale","state":"FL","zip":"33306","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/aclufl/event/585265/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Broward%20Team%20Meeting_20260112174407656642.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"585265","scrapedAt":"2026-04-17T06:01:23.348Z"},{"id":"mobilize-756874","title":"Indivisible Blair County Membership Meeting","description":"Join us at our monthly meeting at Marzoni's in Altoona! At our meetings, we provide pizza as we discuss action we can take to protect our Democracy! Each month, we try to have a guest speaker. Please find scheduled speakers below. February- Jordan Sesame Wild (Environment focus), Peg Duffy (Social Justice Advocacy focus) March- Officer Elections, Steering Committee Appointments, Candidates welcome to speak April-TBD May-TBD June-TBD If you are interested in speaking or have a recommendation, please email info@indivisibleblaircounty.org","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-21T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-22T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Marzoni's","address":"1830 E Pleasant Valley Blvd, ","city":"Altoona","state":"PA","zip":"16602","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisibleblaircounty/event/756874/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/General%20Membership%20Meetings_20250218224825480541.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"756874","scrapedAt":"2026-04-17T06:01:33.837Z"},{"id":"mobilize-783475","title":"TA Manhattan (TAMAC) Monthly Meeting","description":"**Join the Transportation Alternatives Manhattan Committee (TAMAC)!** **Together, we can transform our streets into safe, sustainable, and equitable places to walk, bike, take transit, gather, and thrive.** TAMAC is a volunteer-led committee working to make Manhattan's streets safer, more accessible, and people-centered. We meet on the **3rd Thursday of every month** (adjusted for holidays) to plan local campaigns, organize events, and push for better transportation options. **Register now to join our next meeting!** **Our March Monthly Meeting join us for a training on how to engage and influence elected officials! **We will discuss the landscape of elected offices that have a say over what happens on Manhattan's streets and how to make our fight for safe streets their priority.**","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-21T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-22T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"111 John St, ","city":"New York","state":"NY","zip":"10038","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/transalt/event/783475/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Manhattan_20250429184848455399.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"783475","scrapedAt":"2026-04-17T06:01:37.076Z"},{"id":"mobilize-798855","title":"IWR Member Meeting","description":"We believe our power is in influencing elected officials and holding them accountable. Our members create high visibility events and pressure campaigns while supporting local advocacy groups and initiatives. We meet monthly to work together and plan specific actions. Expect to work with others to prepare plans and take on a role to execute them. You will be able to order food and drinks at Manuel’s.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-21T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-22T00:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Manuel's Tavern - Meeting Room","address":"602 North Highland Avenue Northeast, ","city":"Atlanta","state":"GA","zip":"30307","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/intownwomensresistance/event/798855/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/MOBILIZE_MTGBANNER_20250920183342669079.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"798855","scrapedAt":"2026-04-17T06:01:44.114Z"},{"id":"mobilize-799778","title":"Monumental Resistance","description":"Community members will gather at the World War I Memorial — a high-visibility location at the gateway to Atlantic City — to protest the dangerous regime in our federal government and the rise of extremist MAGA influence. This ongoing demonstration is a call for justice, democracy, and a future free from authoritarianism, racism, and corporate greed. We stand united in defense of human rights, working families, and the truth. Join us as we make it clear: South Jersey won’t go backward.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-22T20:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-22T21:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"World War I Memorial","address":"21 S Albany Ave, ","city":"Atlantic City","state":"NJ","zip":"08401","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisibleac/event/799778/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/20250405_151639_20250607175427414567.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"799778","scrapedAt":"2026-04-28T06:01:26.663Z"},{"id":"mobilize-845831","title":"Feet on the Streets - Bridge Brigade Friday edition","description":"*A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.* Join us at the Sampson Street Bridge (between Logan & Kearny) in Barrio Logan! (navigate to Fish Guts restaurant - street parking available) every Friday from 3 to 4 pm during traffic. *PLEASE NOTE: We do NOT engage with the hecklers! They are getting bolder. We literally ignore them - let them be the ones to escalate. Also, VIDEOTAPE it ... have your cameras/videos ready to tape immediately. **CONTINUE BRINGING YOUR SHELF STABLE PANTRY ITEMS** in 2026! We help our community by making sure they are FED and have a safe place to pick their food up!** So many things to protest - there is no time to waste - we need to reach our goal of 3.5% of us on the streets by the March 28, 2026 NO KINGS III protest, using our First Amendment Right while we still have it! Bridges are the best - you are seen by 1000's of people! Come be part of it! As always, thank you to my enthusiastic drive-by beepers - YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE and it COUNTS as RESISTANCE! Join Us! Bring a friend! Your weekly protesting schedule: Tuesdays - Bonita Rd. & Otay Lakes 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/dWzlpP Wednesdays - Bonita Rd & Otay Lakes 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/FpuymQ Thursdays - Bonita Rd. & Otay Lakes 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/8YwXyu Thursday evenings - Bonita Rd. and Otay Lakes 4 to 5 pm https://mobilize.us/s/mXXp2Q Friday mornings - Coronado Edition: 3rd and 0range, 7:30 to 8:30 am to catch the base traffic. https://mobilize.us/s/qvXQyp Friday morning: H and Broadway 10 to 11 am https://mobilize.us/s/sJ8QlX Feet on the Streets - with a twist - tell Home Depot to get I C E out https://mobilize.us/s/VFk6SA Fridays - Bridge Brigade -Sampson Street Bridge (between Logan & Kearny) in Barrio Logan! navigate to Fish Guts 2222 Logan Ave, San Diego, CA 92113 3 to 4 pm during traffic https://mobilize.us/s/kDq7iK Saturdays - Birch and Millenia (our original corner), 10 to 11:30 https://mobilize.us/s/ot6sjP Also Saturdays in Point Loma area -Sunset Cliffs Boulevard & West Point Loma Boulevard, 12:30 to 2 pm NO LINK - just show up! Sundays - Otay Lakes Rd. in front of the Island's Restaurant - 10 to 11 am https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/874449/?referring_vol=2660119&rname=Janine&share_context=event_details&share_medium=copy_link Thanks for all you do! Beeeeeeep Beeeeeeeeep Janine","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-22T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-22T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Sampson Street Bridge (between Logan & Kearny) in Barrio Logan! navigate to Fish Guts","address":"2222 Logan Ave, ","city":"San Diego","state":"CA","zip":"92113","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/845831/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"845831","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:44.264Z"},{"id":"mobilize-840907","title":"Stand Up for Democracy with the Groveland Democratic Town Committee","description":"Join the Groveland Democratic Town Committee for our monthly rally! Bring your energy, make a sign, and speak your truth — everyone is welcome. 📅 Fourth Saturday of Each Month 🕙 10:00–11:00 AM 📍 Elm Park, Downtown Groveland","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-23T14:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-23T15:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Elm Park","address":"School Street & Main Street, ","city":"Groveland","state":"MA","zip":"01834","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/massdems/event/840907/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot%202025-09-08%20201034_20250909001050338704.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"840907","scrapedAt":"2026-04-26T00:01:35.615Z"},{"id":"mobilize-813154","title":"Turn the Volume UP! - (Pinole) Honk & Wave - Indivisible North East Bay","description":"Join us every 4th Saturday of the month as we peacefully protest and demonstrate against the obstruction of our freedoms. We continue to build sustained resistance in order to make sure an authoritarian state does not stand in our country and our democracy survives. 11 AM - 12 PM Corners of San Pablo Ave. and Tennent Ave., outside of the farmers market Hosted by Indivisible North East Bay! i-neb.org indivisible.northeastbay@gmail.com","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-23T18:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-23T19:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"","address":"Tennent Avenue & San Pablo Avenue, ","city":"Pinole","state":"CA","zip":"94564","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/813154/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"813154","scrapedAt":"2026-04-26T00:01:30.083Z"},{"id":"mobilize-746700","title":"Common Grounds Meet-up","description":"Join local Democrats and Progressives for a casual monthly meet-up on the 4th Sunday of each month. You'll be able to network with local progressives who are organizing to make a change in Placer County politics. If you are an activist with an action to share, I encourage you to bring that information and share it with as many folks as you can. If you are new and unsure where to begin, there generally are numerous folks with experience that can help to guide you. Remember this meet-up is not a formal agendized meeting but rather a social meet-up for networking and meeting other new activists. Please RSVP, so we can anticipate the number of attendees for this event. And share this with like-minded friends!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-24T21:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-24T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Barrel House","address":"10007 Foothills Blvd, ","city":"Roseville","state":"CA","zip":"95747","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/cadems/event/746700/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/2_20250314201021469159.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"746700","scrapedAt":"2026-04-27T06:01:32.941Z"},{"id":"mobilize-796084","title":"MoveOn Monthly Phone Bank","description":"Join MoveOn members from across the country for our monthly advocacy phone banks! The April monthly phonebank will be dedicated raising awareness about the violent, costly war in Iran! No experience necessary—training will be provided at the top of the call!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-25T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-26T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/moveon/event/796084/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot%202026-04-07%20at%203.11.43%E2%80%AFPM_20260423162148993517.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"796084","scrapedAt":"2026-04-28T06:01:22.241Z"},{"id":"mobilize-748396","title":"Volunteer Interest Meetings","description":"Are you looking to get involved? Together we can make a difference! Join us as we discuss volunteer opportunities across the state and opportunities to join Action Councils within Planned Parenthood.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-25T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-26T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"Nashville","address":", ","city":"Nashville","state":"TN","zip":"37228","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/tappactioncouncils/event/748396/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Monthly%20Vol%20Interest%20Meeting%202_20250107220210562822.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"748396","scrapedAt":"2026-04-28T06:01:12.956Z"},{"id":"mobilize-749552","title":"Tallahassee Action Team Meeting","description":"Join the ACLU of Florida for our monthly Tallahassee team meeting where we'll discuss local initiatives related to free speech, immigrant justice, reproductive rights and more! Bring your friends and join us to strategize, build power, and fight back here in Tallahassee.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-26T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-26T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Tallahassee","state":"FL","zip":"32301","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/aclufl/event/749552/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Miami%20Dade%20Team%20Meeting3_20250801173822372137.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"749552","scrapedAt":"2026-04-22T06:01:53.177Z"},{"id":"mobilize-816211","title":"Monthly Tabling Training","description":"# Calling all passionate outreach volunteers! Are you keen on public speaking, sales, or just enthusiastic about spreading the good word about Planned Parenthood? Are you someone that loves meeting new people, building authentic relationships, and getting inspired by like-minded people? **We have a training for you!** Join us for a virtual tabling training that covers the fundamentals of community outreach-offered on the 4th Tuesday of every month from 6-7PM CST. This training provides an overview of PPTNM's healthcare services, advocacy and education programs, and the best practices and common questions around representing Planned Parenthood as a volunteer while doing community outreach. _Volunteers who complete this training are required to complete paperwork and/or additional screening before signing up for outreach opportunities. Volunteers will also be added to a group chat or GroupMe with a local PPTNM staff member who will notify them of upcoming outreach opportunities._","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-26T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-27T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/tappactioncouncils/event/816211/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screenshot%202025-07-17%20103033_20250717153044991379.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"816211","scrapedAt":"2026-04-29T06:01:51.272Z"},{"id":"mobilize-756231","title":"Swing Left Maricopa County Monthly Meeting","description":"Join Swing Left Maricopa County for our monthly meetings and help grow our D/democratic grassroots community and power! During these virtual ZOOM “C.A.L.L.S.,\" you'll hear from Candidates and about upcoming Actions; Learn about the issues and initiatives, and find out about the “Light a Fire” opportunities that will make a difference in Maricopa County, for Arizona, and beyond… Together we can stay engaged, support each other, and continue to fight for the rights of all people. As the singer/songwriter/activist Joan Baez said, “Action is the antidote to despair.” And Swing Left is a national network that offers high impact ways to support Democratic candidates in races that will flip the balance of power, protect our freedoms, and create a more inclusive and equitable government and society for us all. So, please, bring us your interests, your skills, your passions, and the time you have available to Swing Left Maricopa County, and together, let’s make our impact felt! We look forward to meeting and collaborating with you…","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-27T02:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-27T03:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"Maricopa County, Arizona","address":", ","city":"Phoenix","state":"AZ","zip":"85003","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/swingleft/event/756231/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/sl_mobilize_thumb_organizingEvent_1200x6282_20210607135558244761.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"756231","scrapedAt":"2026-04-29T12:02:01.651Z"},{"id":"mobilize-757885","title":"Columbia-Montour Chapter Monthly Meeting","description":"**Join us for our monthly meeting - Action is the Antidote!** For our April meeting, we’ll be talking about Free Speech and Art as Protest, featuring readings of anti-war poems by some of the River Poets, as well as a presentation from Jerry Stropnicky, a longtime artist, activist, and co-founder of the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble. --------------------- **Monthly Details** Let's come together and talk about how we can all deal with what's happening as a community, and learn how to take meaningful steps to fight back. Action IS the antidote, and there are ways we can hold leaders accountable at the local, state, and federal level and fight for the things that we all need - for our families, for our communities, and for our country. ~~Our meetings are held at the Bloomsburg Public Library in the large community room on the 2nd floor, which is accessible by using the stairs or by elevator. The elevator is located right inside the back entrance to the library. As always, thanks to our amazing library for hosting our meetings! Support the library by clicking here: https://www.bloomsburgpl.org/ ~If you can't attend in person, we'd love to have you join us on Zoom! To register for the Zoom link, click here: https://bit.ly/cmatzoom **Columbia-Montour Chapter Meetings are always held on the 4th Wednesday of the month.**","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-27T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-27T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Bloomsburg Public Library","address":"225 Market St, ","city":"Bloomsburg","state":"PA","zip":"17815","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/atnepa/event/757885/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Columbia-Montour%20Chapter%20meetings_20260420214717605419.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"757885","scrapedAt":"2026-04-23T06:01:02.918Z"},{"id":"mobilize-748216","title":"ICM Advocacy Committee Meeting","description":"**Join ICM’s Advocacy Committee – Where Your Voice Shapes a Better Future for Children!** Are you passionate about creating real change for children in Georgia? Do you believe in the power of advocacy to drive policies that protect and uplift young lives? Then the **Interfaith Children’s Movement Advocacy Committee** is where you belong! **What We Do:** Our Advocacy Committee is a dynamic, solutions-driven group of members, lay leaders, and leaders of different faith communities and congregations, advocates, and changemakers dedicated to prioritizing the well-being of children and families in Georgia. Each month, we strategize, collaborate, and take action to ensure every child has the opportunity to thrive. **When We Meet:** Join us every 4th Thursday of the month from 6:30-7:30 p.m. (usually on Zoom, with a few exceptions throughout the year) to brainstorm, plan, and execute advocacy efforts that make a tangible difference. These meetings are lively, inspiring, and full of opportunities to make an impact. **Why You Should Join:** - Be at the forefront of meaningful advocacy efforts. - Connect with a diverse, passionate community committed to justice and equity for children. - Turn your ideas into action, from crafting advocacy campaigns to engaging directly with policymakers. - Be a voice for children who need champions like you. **Get Involved Today!** Your ideas and energy are the missing piece to our movement. Together, we’ll build a brighter future for Georgia’s children. Sign up now to attend our next meeting and be part of the change! **Make your voice heard – because children can’t wait!** Ready to take action? Join the Advocacy Committee today!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-28T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-28T23:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/icmgeorgia/event/748216/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/%5B1200x630%5D-Advocacy%20Committee_v1_20250105042106005725.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"748216","scrapedAt":"2026-04-24T06:01:30.610Z"},{"id":"mobilize-755276","title":"👏 Zone 3: Community Zone Meeting","description":"🚨📢 Calling all Democrats in Zone 3—OxGrove Dems! 📢🚨 Join us for our Zone 3: OxGrove Dems' Community Zone Meeting—your chance to connect, collaborate, and make a difference! 🌟 March 26- Save CWA with special guest, Lenny Rivera, Board Secretary of Chester Water Authority 📅 When? The 4th Thursday of every month at 7PM 📍 Where? 8 Federal Rd., West Grove, PA Your voice matters. Your community matters. Let’s build momentum together! 💙✨","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-28T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-29T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Dansko Outlet Building (Floor 1 Rear)","address":"8 Federal Rd, ","city":"West Grove","state":"PA","zip":"19390","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/chestercountydemocraticparty/event/755276/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/communityzonemeeting_20260105001359593970.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"755276","scrapedAt":"2026-04-24T06:01:34.112Z"},{"id":"mobilize-523932","title":"Courtwatch DC Training","description":"Courtwatch DC is a growing DC-based program that provides the space and training for the community to observe local court proceedings in the District of Columbia and document our city’s policies in action and to hold judicial actors accountable for injustice in the court system. Courtwatch DC is powered by Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, with support from DC Justice Lab, and DC IWOC and was founded and led by formerly incarcerated Black women. Courtwatching is a form of mutual aid. Inspired by Courtwatch PG, we strive to ensure that our community of Courtwatchers is multigenerational, multiracial, anti-racist, and moving towards an abolitionist future.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-28T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-29T01:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/hwd/event/523932/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-21%20at%208.28.08%20AM_20230301212218026682.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"523932","scrapedAt":"2026-05-01T06:01:30.323Z"},{"id":"mobilize-746348","title":"MomsRising Monthly Community Meeting","description":"# ☔ April Showers Bring Super Powers! This month, join us for a **Parent Power Skills Round Up!** Sharpen your skills for making your voice heard and advancing the issues we care about. MomsRising organizers will share quick, useful snapshots of the most impactful skills we need right now, including: * **Sharing your story** – Learn how to make your personal experience resonate. * **Understanding power** – Map out who makes the decisions and how to influence them. * **Organizing a meetup** – Tips for bringing your community together. * **Meeting with a legislator** – Feel confident and prepared for your next advocacy meeting. * **And more!** ### **More about the MomsRising Monthly Community Meeting:** On the fourth Thursday of every month, moms, dads, caregivers, and families from across the nation will gather virtually for MomsRising/MamásConPoder's monthly community meetings. Each month, we'll explore a different topic; we'll hear from expert guest speakers, leaders, and advocates; we'll celebrate victories and hope, get informed, organize, and take action. It's time for all of us to roll up our sleeves. We need everyone to come together, get informed, and take meaningful steps to protect our communities, our institutions, and our economy. These meetings are about more than just sharing information; they're about building power, community, and hope. Because when we come together, we are powerful. Let's rise together. RSVP now to join us! You can even sign up for multiple months by selecting several dates. Please share this with everyone you know who is ready to take action and build power for the challenging times ahead, and ask them to join the meeting too! Together we can create a brighter, more hopeful future. ****This event will be held in English with simultaneous interpretation available in Spanish. —---------------------- Estamos organizándonos para construir un futuro mejor. ¿Puedes ayudarnos? **El cuarto jueves de cada mes,** mamás, padres de familia, proveedores de cuidados y familias de toda la nación se reunirán virtualmente en las reuniones comunitarias mensuales de MomsRising/MamásConPoder. Cada mes exploraremos un tema distinto; escucharemos a invitados especiales expertos, a líderes y a defensores; celebraremos las victorias y la esperanza, nos informaremos, organizaremos y entraremos en acción. Es hora de que todos nos pongamos manos a la obra. Necesitamos que todos se unan, informen y den pasos significativos para proteger a nuestras comunidades, a nuestras instituciones y a nuestra economía. Estas reuniones son para más que compartir información, son para fortalecer el poder, la comunidad y la esperanza. Porque cuando nos unimos somos poderosos. **Levantémonos juntos. ¡Confirma tu asistencia ahora para acompañarnos! Incluso te puedes inscribir para participar varios meses seleccionando varias fechas.** ¡Por favor, comparte esto con todas las personas que conozcas que estén listas para entrar en acción y para fortalecer el poder para los tiempos difíciles que tenemos por delante y pídeles que también asistan a la reunión! Juntos podemos crear un futuro más brillante y optimista. ****Este evento se realizará en inglés y tendremos interpretación simultánea en español disponible.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-29T00:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-29T01:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/momsrising/event/746348/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/MR%20Community%20Meeting%20April%20FB.ai-2_20260420222408017881.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"746348","scrapedAt":"2026-04-24T12:01:32.795Z"},{"id":"mobilize-771218","title":"Northeast Los Angeles Alliance for Democracy Monthly Meeting","description":"We look forward to seeing you this Thursday at our next in-person meeting! We will get you connected to upcoming May Day events, the new coalition NO Concentration Camps CA and will focus on the power of Boycotts, and discuss other relevant issues like the Gubernatorial race! Bring a friend! Bring non-perishables and old tools to donate! Come early, 6:30-7 pm, for a yummy taco vendor buyout, supporting a local family heavily impacted by the ICE Raids! As a grassroots collective committed to nonviolent action, we are meeting locally in Northeast Los Angeles to build community, offer trainings, connect people with possible actions, and develop the skills we'll need to defend our democracy. Our monthly in-person meetings include a brief orientation, a teach-in topic, action-planning, and networking. Join us to: Defend Democracy | Fight Fascism | Protect Human Rights | Support Vulnerable Communities **A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values. We expect hosts to ensure all participants in your event uphold this commitment. We recommend all participants review our safety and security resource before your event: https://indivisi.org/safety**","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-29T02:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-29T04:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Los Angeles","state":"CA","zip":"90065","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/771218/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/NELAAforD%20mobilize%20program%20MONTHLY%20NELA%20Meeting%20in-person_20250818155924620096.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"771218","scrapedAt":"2026-04-24T12:01:43.693Z"},{"id":"mobilize-757949","title":"OCDC & Indivisible 10 Peaceful Protest - Watkinsville","description":"Join the OCDC and Indivisible 10 on the last Saturday of each month to peacefully protest on Main Street in Watkinsville, in front of Eagle Tavern across from the courthouse from 11am-noon. Afterwards, please join us for lunch at the Blind Pig (lunch is not on us unfortunately).","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-30T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-30T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Eagle Tavern Museum","address":"26 N Main St, ","city":"Watkinsville","state":"GA","zip":"30677","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/georgiademocrats/event/757949/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/win%20the%20whole%20dem%20thing_mobilize_v3_20210223222835563987.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"757949","scrapedAt":"2026-04-26T00:01:21.267Z"},{"id":"mobilize-837359","title":"Take the TP (and Paper Towel) Quiz and Pledge","description":"Thank you for taking this toilet paper (TP) and paper towel quiz and pledge. It is designed to be a fun and easy way to learn which brands of toilet paper and paper towels best support democracy and the environment. Wait, how do TP and paper towels support democracy and the environment? Part of the logic is based on the product's environmental impact, and part is based on the company that makes or sells the product. Your quiz answers will have scores, and the higher your score, the more your choices of TP and paper towels support democracy and the environment. Please see more here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf861tCZDPzr-01clpS8fHy1suRO2tbcunLQ8YXic1ssSSnDQ/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=111212089140857901677 *A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.*","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-31T04:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-06-01T03:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"22182","address":", ","city":"Tysons","state":"VA","zip":"22182","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/837359/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%201_20231214173802957298.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"837359","scrapedAt":"2026-04-30T12:01:45.141Z"},{"id":"mobilize-598067","title":"Las Vegas Podcast Club","description":"NOTE: due to Library availability, in April we will be meeting on SATURDAY April 25th, rather than our usual Sunday. We will be meeting APRIL 25th, at 2:30 PM at the WEST CHARLESTON LIBRARY Join fellow Climate Voters and activists in Las Vegas once a month to listen to informative podcasts and then get together to discuss what we have learned together and how it applies to our communities. The idea for this is that it's like a book club, but for podcasts. So we listen individually ahead of our meeting and then come together to discuss. We'll be meeting the last Sunday of every month in the afternoon. At our April 25th meeting we will be listening to the March 26th 2026 episode of A Matter of Degrees, which is titled: The Long Arc of Climate Action with Gina McCarthy. You can find a link to the podcast at below: iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-long-arc-of-climate-action-with-gina-mccarthy/id1534829787?i=1000757445927 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0SpZPDpUk5g6TM8VpT62Wg?si=RKZ-wGeIRbChJS4Pj8jCTA","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-05-31T19:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-05-31T20:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"West Charleston Library","address":"6301 W Charleston Blvd, ","city":"Las Vegas","state":"NV","zip":"89146","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/edfaction/event/598067/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Climate%20Podcast%20Club%204.26_20260401062521207554.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"598067","scrapedAt":"2026-04-27T06:01:30.091Z"},{"id":"recurring-pride-month-2026","title":"Pride Month","description":"Celebrating LGBTQ+ communities and honoring the history of the fight for equal rights.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2026-06-01T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-06-30T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"mobilize-846141","title":"Garvin County - Monthly Protest","description":"First Saturday of every month 8:30 - 9:45 am We will meet at the flagpole in front of the Garvin County Courthouse. Following the protest, we will go to the Pauls Valley Library for our monthly county meeting!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-06-02T13:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-06-02T14:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Garvin County Courthouse","address":"201 W Grant Ave, ","city":"Pauls Valley","state":"OK","zip":"73075","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/okdemocrats/event/846141/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/garvin_20251229213232544640.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"846141","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T00:01:44.264Z"},{"id":"mobilize-748335","title":"ACLU of FL Banned Book Club","description":"From school boards banning books to lawmakers taking away access to abortion, our rights are under attack in Florida. Join the ACLU of Florida's Banned Book Club to read both banned books and books on how to fight back. Our next meeting is on May 5th at 6:00pm and we'll be discussing \"The Fire Next Time\" by James Baldwin. Make sure to look for it at your library or indie bookstore!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-06-02T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-06-02T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/aclufl/event/748335/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Banned-Books-Email-General_20250115154541520973.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"748335","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:00:51.474Z"},{"id":"mobilize-795304","title":"FVWACC Clark County Chapter Meeting","description":"Join fellow ranked-choice voting (RCV) supporters for updates about state RCV efforts and learn ways you can take action to advance the RCV legislation and support in Washington. Whether you are new to RCV or have advocated for it for decades, we need you! The Clark County Chapter is for all folks living in the Vancouver and surrounding Clark County areas... we welcome you to join us if you're anywhere nearby! We are currently meeting in person, with potential Zoom options in the future. FairVote Washington is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and all are welcome.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-06-04T01:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-06-04T02:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Su Casa Marquez","address":"5406 NE Fourth Plain Blvd, ","city":"Vancouver","state":"WA","zip":"98661","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/fairvotewa/event/795304/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/FairVote%20Washington%20Clark%20Co%20Chapter%20Meeting_20250716035516003488.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"795304","scrapedAt":"2026-05-07T12:01:41.818Z"},{"id":"mobilize-758303","title":"Berkeley Community Violence Intervention Collaborative - Bi-Monthly Gathering","description":"## Berkeley Community Violence Intervention Collaborative - Bi-Monthly Gathering Join us for the Berkeley Community Violence Intervention Collaborative, a key initiative within the City of Berkeley’s \"Reimagining Public Safety\" strategy. This collaborative will meet bi-monthly to strengthen community-based violence prevention, identify service gaps, and enhance resource coordination. Ongoing Meetings: 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM ### Who Should Attend? We welcome advocacy organizations, social service providers, faith leaders, nonprofits, and community members working in violence prevention, intervention, and reentry support. ### What to Expect: - Key Learnings – Discuss insights & themes shaping the strategy. - Strategic Planning & Stakeholder Engagement – Expand partnerships for greater impact. - Development of a Resource Coordination Framework – Strengthen collaboration between organizations. - Formation of Working Groups – Set clear action steps & commitments. ### Led By: - LIVE FREE CA - City of Berkeley - National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR) - McGee Avenue Baptist Church’s Center for Food, Faith, and Justice - Additional Berkeley and regional partners This meeting will shape the future of violence prevention in Berkeley. Your voice and leadership are critical.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-06-05T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-06-05T01:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"","state":"","zip":"94709","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/livefreeusa/event/758303/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Berkeley-image_20250326194426609453.jpeg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"758303","scrapedAt":"2026-04-24T06:01:37.800Z"},{"id":"mobilize-839903","title":"Blue Woods Walk in the Woods","description":"We meet on the first Saturday of each month at the WG Jones Trail Head on 1488 West off of IH45 , past Peoples Road, across the street from the \"Texas A&M Forestry Service\" entrance. It is an unmarked paved entrance way. 10:00 AM WG Jones State Forest Trail Head FM 1488, Conroe, TX 77384 https://maps.app.goo.gl/wVa61L7CESzSttoj8 Join the Blue Woods Facebook group for updates. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1138547810576390 Please review the map ! We meet at the trail head past Peoples Rd as you travel West on FM 1488 from IH45, across the street from the A&M Forestry Station . Arrive early . We leave at 10:10 AM .","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-06-06T15:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-06-06T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"WG Jones State Forest Trail Head","address":"FM 1488, ","city":"Conroe","state":"TX","zip":"77384","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/mcdptx/event/839903/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/2%20%281%29_20250907001253955635.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"839903","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:44.236Z"},{"id":"mobilize-366996","title":"RCV Breakfast Club: Monthly RCV Meeting","description":"Are you interested in making **ranked-choice voting** a reality in Washington State? Join fellow ranked-choice voting (RCV) supporters for updates about state and national RCV efforts and to help advance the RCV effort in Washington State. --Currently we are meeting over zoom. Whether you are new to RCV or have advocated for RCV for decades, we need you! We will share action items for our region and for state efforts. The South Sound Chapter is for all folks living the the South Sound area of Washington: Thurston, Lewis, Mason, Pierce and Grays Harbor counties ... we welcome you to join us! FairVote Washington is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and all are welcome. Please feel free to contact us with agenda suggestions or questions at SouthSoundChapter@fairvotewa.org. **Better elections are possible!**","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-06-06T16:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-06-06T17:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"Tumwater","state":"WA","zip":"98501","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/fairvotewa/event/366996/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Heading_20250530025057434285.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"366996","scrapedAt":"2026-05-03T00:02:11.556Z"},{"id":"mobilize-748846","title":"Blue Action SWATX Monthly Meeting (in-person)","description":"Join us for our monthly meeting at 2:00pm on the first Sunday of the month. Bring a friend or neighbor as we take action in our local community. May 3rd: Decode the March primary results and discuss the May runoffs and turnout predictions with former Travis County tax assessor Bruce Elfant. Then, HD-48 Rep Donna Howard and HD-47 Democratic nominee Pooja Sethi will launch afternoon block walks. Join us!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-06-07T19:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-06-07T21:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church","address":"5226 W William Cannon Dr, ","city":"Austin","state":"TX","zip":"78749","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/blueactiondems/event/748846/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Mobilize%20Training%20Templates%20%286%29_20260417190345694338.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"748846","scrapedAt":"2026-05-04T06:00:43.450Z"},{"id":"mobilize-751559","title":"Placer Action Network Monthly Meeting (In-Person)","description":"Join members of Placer Action Network on the 2nd Tuesday of each month as we take action to elect Democrats in Placer County up and down the ballot. In-person meetings will take place in February, April, June, August, October, and December. In-person meetings will start with social time at 6:00pm and club business and a scheduled program beginning at 6:30 pm and continuing until 8:00 pm. In-person locations for future meetings may change as needed. Virtual meetings via Zoom will be held in January, March, May, July, September, and November. Zoom meetings will begin with club business at 6:30 pm and continuing until 8:00 pm. Zoom meetings are listed separately at https://mobilize.us/s/lAuYKQ We'll strategize and make plans to elect our local Democratic candidates. Please RSVP, so we can anticipate the number of attendees for this event. And share this with like-minded friends Learn more about PAN on our website - https://www.placeractionnetwork.com/.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-06-10T01:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-06-10T03:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details","address":"This event’s address is private. Sign up for more details, ","city":"Roseville","state":"CA","zip":"95747","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/cadems/event/751559/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/PAN%20Mobilize%20Logo_20250218214047806837.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"751559","scrapedAt":"2026-04-15T12:01:39.839Z"},{"id":"mobilize-783426","title":"TA Bronx and Uptown Monthly Activist Meeting","description":"🚲✨ Bronx & Uptown Activist Committee ✨🚍 We are organizers, advocates, and neighbors working together to transform streets across the Bronx and Uptown Manhattan into places that are safer, greener, and more people-centered 🌳🛣️ 💪 What we work on: We fight for safer streets, better buses, protected bike lanes, and healthier communities — and we win. 🏆 What we’ve accomplished together: • 🚲🚌 Bus and bike lane improvements on the Washington Bridge • 🏗️ The Tremont / E. 177th / Devoe Ave redesign, with construction beginning in 2026 • 🚴♀️ Bike lanes on First & Second Avenues • 🌉 The Randall’s Island Connector • 🌿 The Harlem River Greenway • ❌ Defeated the traffic-diverting structure tied to the proposed Cross Bronx Expressway expansion 🔥 We are powerful beyond belief. When we work together, we get things done. 👀 What we’re fighting for in 2026: • 🚲 A protected bike lane on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd • 🚌 Crosstown bus improvements in the Bronx • 🌱 Saving the Fort Washington Greenway 📍 About our meetings: • 🗓️ Third Wednesday of every month • ⏰ 6:30 PM start (doors open a little earlier) • 📍 Locations alternate between the Bronx and Harlem • 💻 All meetings are hybrid — if you can’t join in person, there’s always a virtual link • 🥨 Snacks provided • 🚻 Restrooms available at every meeting location • 💸 Free to attend — all are welcome Join us to help move these campaigns forward — or bring your own issue and rally the committee around it. We organize, we win, and we build community while having fun doing it. 💥 The Bronx and Uptown deserve better streets — and together, we’re making them happen. For 2026 our Bronx meetings (February, April, June, August, October, December) will be at the BxArts Factory. We are finding a home for our Harlem Meetings. May 2026 meeting will be our annual Ride of Silence.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-06-17T22:30:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-06-18T00:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"BxArts Factory","address":"240 E 153rd St, ","city":"The Bronx","state":"NY","zip":"10451","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/transalt/event/783426/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Borough%20Committee%20Meeting_Mobilize%20Header_20251222164523811294.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"783426","scrapedAt":"2026-04-16T06:00:56.787Z"},{"id":"recurring-juneteenth-black-maternal-health-2026","title":"Juneteenth — Black Maternal Health","description":"Celebrating freedom while spotlighting Black maternal health disparities and advocacy.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2026-06-19T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-06-19T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"mobilize-597321","title":"Ramsey County Court Watch","description":"Court watching is a community-rooted, volunteer-driven practice that brings the public into courtrooms to observe our justice system through witnessing, documenting, and sharing experiences at bail hearings. Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF) knows that transparency drives accountability - and people have better, more consistent outcomes when community members are present to observe judges' decisions. Join MFF's Court Watch Program to help raise public awareness about the justice system, hold the system accountable through observation, organize communities for systemic change, and collect pretrial data to inform ongoing advocacy efforts. We make volunteering easy! Training is provided (no experience needed), a shift lead will support you so you won't be alone, and free Lyfts are provided to and from the courthouse. Each shift is only 2 hours and can easily fit into your schedule. Current shift times and locations: Minneapolis (Hennepin County PSF, 401 4th Ave S): 1:30 pm every 1st and 2nd Thursday of the month St. Paul (Ramsey County LEC, 425 Grove St): 9:00 am every 4th Monday of the month **Shift times and locations may change in the future, and additional options will become available as MFF continues to grow this program.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-06-22T14:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-06-22T16:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Law Enforcement Center, Sheriff's Office","address":"425 Grove St, ","city":"Saint Paul","state":"MN","zip":"55101","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/mnfreedomfund/event/597321/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Court%20Watch%20Image_20240102214000222737.jpg","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"597321","scrapedAt":"2026-04-28T00:01:04.166Z"},{"id":"mobilize-784781","title":"2025-2026 Policy & Advocacy Trainings","description":"Join PWN-USA for a policy advocacy training series launching this June! We will be hosting monthly trainings focused on policy advocacy skills-building. The trainings will range in topics from providing an overview on how government processes work to how you to organize effectively on your issue to key frameworks for advocacy. We know that our members are brilliant and have lived expertise that should guide our strategies - ensuring policies will have better outcomes for those most directly impacted. Let’s build power and skill-build together!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-06-25T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-06-25T23:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/pwn-usa/event/784781/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/2025-26%20Policy%20Fellowship%20Trainings%20Flyer_20251218232540095995.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"784781","scrapedAt":"2026-04-17T06:01:40.248Z"},{"id":"mobilize-497752","title":"Big Sandy KFTC Chapter Meeting","description":"Join the Big Sandy chapter of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth for our regular chapter meeting. We'll be meeting in person at our Prestonsburg office and on Zoom in March!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-07-07T22:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-07-07T23:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":false,"location":{"venue":"Prestonsburg KFTC Office","address":"152 N Lake Dr, ","city":"Prestonsburg","state":"KY","zip":"41653","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/kftc/event/497752/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/Copy%20of%20Copy%20of%20Christian%20co.%20header_20250130200734542104.png","eventType":"rally","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"497752","scrapedAt":"2026-05-06T06:00:45.438Z"},{"id":"mobilize-402891","title":"Voting Rights Issue Introduction Webinar","description":"This webinar is a basic introduction to our campaign to restore voting rights of Kentuckians with felonies in their past. You'll learn about the history of this issue, how we're working on it, and lots of different ways to plug in.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-09-15T23:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-09-16T00:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"40202","address":", ","city":"Louisville","state":"KY","zip":"40202","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/kftc/event/402891/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/49234262922_cb9fe8c1ce_c_20210721203133382647.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"402891","scrapedAt":"2026-02-09T06:00:30.967Z"},{"id":"recurring-national-black-women-s-equal-pay-day-2026","title":"National Black Women's Equal Pay Day","description":"Marks how far into the year Black women must work to earn what white men earned in the previous year.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2026-09-21T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-09-21T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-world-contraception-day-2026","title":"World Contraception Day","description":"A worldwide campaign to improve awareness of contraception and enable young people to make informed choices.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2026-09-26T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-09-26T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-domestic-violence-awareness-month-2026","title":"Domestic Violence Awareness Month","description":"Raising awareness about domestic violence and connecting survivors with resources and support.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2026-10-01T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-10-31T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-international-day-of-the-girl-2026","title":"International Day of the Girl","description":"A UN-designated day focusing on the needs and challenges girls face worldwide.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2026-10-11T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-10-11T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-international-day-for-the-elimination-of-violence-against-women-2026","title":"International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women","description":"Launches the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2026-11-25T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-11-25T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-16-days-of-activism-against-gender-violence-2026","title":"16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence","description":"An annual international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2026-11-25T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-12-10T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"mobilize-402896","title":"Grassroots Lobbying for Voting Rights Webinar","description":"We'll learn how to reach our legislators about issues that we care about - with a focus on Voting Rights for Kentuckians with felonies in their past. We'll learn how to lobby legislators in Frankfort, or even from our own homes and build support for this important legislation.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-12-09T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2026-12-09T01:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"40202","address":", ","city":"Louisville","state":"KY","zip":"40202","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/kftc/event/402896/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/452357902_483325421144574_5842830191763761095_n_20240821044310977313.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"402896","scrapedAt":"2026-02-09T06:00:30.967Z"},{"id":"mobilize-770562","title":"Sign-up For Democracy Action Network / Indivisible LA","description":"The Democracy Action Network (DAN) was founded in November 2024 by David Comfort in response to the re-election of Donald Trump. Emerging as a grassroots organization dedicated to defending democratic institutions, promoting civic engagement, and fostering inclusive democracy, DAN has quickly become a prominent force in the pro-democracy movement. With a nonpartisan ethos and a commitment to nonviolent resistance, DAN seeks to address threats to constitutional governance while building a broad-based coalition for democratic renewal. Mission and Vision DAN’s mission is to protect and strengthen democratic institutions, resist authoritarian tendencies, and promote an inclusive vision of democracy that upholds universal human rights and dignity. The organization operates on the principles of nonviolence, transparency, and participatory decision-making while fostering hope-centered messaging and constructive solutions. It aims to create sustainable organizing structures that empower communities and build long-term resilience against democratic backsliding. Early Achievements Since its inception, DAN has demonstrated its capacity for impactful action: - February 22nd 2025: Organized a successful march and rally in West Hollywood, drawing hundreds of participants advocating for government accountability and democratic principles . - February 2025: Played a key role in coordinating protests at SpaceX, bringing attention to issues tied to corporate influence and public policy. - Held weekly organizing meetings with 300 to 400 people attending. - Developing a core group of activists and organizers - March 22nd 2025: Held a really successful \"March for our Constitution\" at the Federal Building in Westwood / Los Angeles. Had over 2,000 participants and hosted speakers such as Martin Sheen and Maxine Waters These events have helped establish DAN as a credible voice for democratic activism while galvanizing public support for its mission.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2026-12-31T16:45:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-01-01T07:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"Los Angeles","state":"CA","zip":"90069","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/770562/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/organization/Mobilize%20Generalized%20Indivisible%20Event%20Campaign%20Image%202_20231214173755488494.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"770562","scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T21:21:00.257Z"},{"id":"mobilize-546424","title":"January 6th Investigations and National Developments ... (legal-political)","description":"JOIN TEAM 2020 Victorious! | Communities United supporters (Democrats-Independents-Republicans) from all across the nation for the status of matters related to federal-state legal actions and political polarization, national security, domestic terrorism, voter suppression in the United States of America. __Donald Trump Criminal Indictments:__ * Department of Justice, election interference, insurrection probe, (January 6th) _August 1, 2023_ [(indictment)](https://www.justice.gov/storage/US_v_Trump_23_cr_257.pdf) — Trial Date: March 4, 2024 (defense request January 2, 2024) (U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan) * Department of Justice, classified documents, (Mar-a-Lago) _June 13, 2023 pending, court sealed_ ... (unsealed June 9, 2023) [(indictment)](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23839627/read-trump-indictment-related-to-mishandling-of-classified-documents.pdf) — Trial Date: May 20, 2024 (U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon) * Georgia-Fulton County, election interference probe _August 14, 2023 pending, court sealed_ ... (unsealed August 15, 2023) [(indictment)]() — Trial Date: March 4, 2024 (Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, Chief Judge Robert McBurney) * New York-Manhattan, criminal indictment, (money laundering, Trump hush money) _March 30, 2023_ [(indictment)](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23741567/donald-j-trump-indictment.pdf) — Trial Date: March 25, 2024 (U.S. District Judge Juan Merchan) * [New York-Attorney General, civil fraud-misrepresentation, (Trump Organization, et al.) _September 21, 2022_] -- [(decision)](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23991876/trump-ny-fraud-ruling.pdf) — Decision: February 16, 2024, Trial Date: October 2, 2023, [(decision-ruling)](file:///C:/Users/desig/OneDrive/Desktop/New%20folder/Trump/ruling-in-donald-trumps-civil-fraud-trial.pdf) — Decision: February 16, 2024, (NY Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoran) - - - - - Keeping Up With the Trump Trials [(resource)](https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-trump-trials-court-dates-legal-timeline/) Master Calendar of Trump Court Dates: Criminal and Civil Cases [(resource)](https://www.justsecurity.org/88039/trumps-legal-and-political-calendar-all-the-dates-you-need-to-know/) See Trump’s busy legal and election calendar in 1 chart [(resource)](https://www.cnn.com/politics/trump-trial-election-calendar-dg/index.html) Key Dates in Donald Trump’s Legal Cases—and Re-Election Bid [(resource)](https://time.com/6301429/donald-trump-cases-election-timeline/) [(resource)](https://www.justsecurity.org/88039/trumps-legal-and-political-calendar-all-the-dates-you-need-to-know/) Donald Trump's criminal cases, in one place [(resource)](https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2023/07/politics/trump-indictments-criminal-cases/) Trump's courtroom calendar clashes with 2024 presidential election [(reference)](https://www.axios.com/2023/07/27/trump-2024-presidential-election-legal-trials) These Are the Key Dates in Donald Trump’s Legal Cases—and Re-Election Bid [(reference)](https://time.com/6301429/donald-trump-cases-election-timeline/) Read key documents from Donald Trump’s expansive legal docket, including his federal and state indictments, as well as filings in his civil cases. [(resource)](https://www.msnbc.com/trump-trials-documents-library) The former president has pleaded not guilty or denied wrongdoing in all of the cases. The full extended title of this event should read \"January 6th Investigations and National Developments, _including federal-state indictments-convictions_ ... (legal-political),\" but that title would be as long as the ninety-one (91) charges against the former president and the co-conspirators. - - - - - __December 31, 2025:__ Register for this \"January 6th Investigations\" meeting discussion placeholder-date, _when-if_ you are up-to-date with the reading of the four federal-state indictments involving the former president: __New York-Money Laundering indictment__ (34-felony counts)[(indictment)](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23741567/donald-j-trump-indictment.pdf), __Florida-Mar-a-Lago Classified Documents indictment__ (37-felony counts)[(indictment)](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23839627/read-trump-indictment-related-to-mishandling-of-classified-documents.pdf), __January 6th Election Interference, insurrection probe__ (4-felony counts)[(indictment)](https://www.justice.gov/storage/US_v_Trump_23_cr_257.pdf), and __Georgia-Fulton County Election Interference probe multiple (19) indictments__ (41-felony counts)[(indictments)](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23909551/23sc188947-criminal-indictment64.pdf). Join the next meeting discussion to learn how to read the \"January 6th Investigations and National Developments\" state-federal indictments effectively-independently on your own. - - - - - The full chronology of federal-state investigation updates are available during the meeting discussion ... (January-December 2023). Notify us of any missing exclusions or important inclusions related to the federal-state indictments-prosecutions. __Investigation Updates:__ * October 2024 ~ Government's Motion for Immunity Determination [(motion)](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25182563/govuscourtsdcd2581482520.pdf) __News Updates:__ October 2024 - Special counsel Jack Smith provides fullest picture yet of his 2020 election case against Trump in new filing [(article)](https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/02/politics/jack-smith-donald-trump-filing/index.html) __Investigation Updates:__ * July 2024 ~ __News Updates:__ July 2024 - Shooting was an assassination attempt against Trump, FBI says [(news)](https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/election-biden-trump-07-13-24/index.html) Supreme Court: Trump v. United States (23-939) [(ruling)](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf) The nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority; he is also entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts; there is no immunity for unofficial acts. __Investigation Updates:__ * May 2024 ~ __News Updates:__ May 2024 - Donald Trump found guilty of all 34 charges in hush money trial [(article)] (https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-trial-05-30-24/index.html) __Investigation Updates:__ * April 2024 ~ __News Updates:__ April 2024 - Meadows, Giuliani among indicted in Arizona in latest 2020 election subversion case [(article)](https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/24/politics/arizona-criminal-charges-2020-election-subversion/index.html) 7 jurors selected after 2 days of Trump hush money trial [(article)](https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-trial-04-16-24/h_fafc76ff8188a7e8f5024debfb42e9d3) __Investigation Updates:__ * February 2024 ~ New York-Attorney General v. Trump Organization, civil fraud-misrepresentation [(decision-ruling)](file:///C:/Users/desig/OneDrive/Desktop/New%20folder/Trump/ruling-in-donald-trumps-civil-fraud-trial.pdf) USDOJ Report on the Investigation Into Unauthorized Removal, Retention, and Disclosure of Classified Documents Discovered at Locations Including the Penn Eiden Center and the Delaware Private Residence of President Joseph R. Eiden, Jr. [(report)](https://www.justice.gov/storage/report-from-special-counsel-robert-k-hur-february-2024.pdf) Trump presidential immunity ruling [(ruling)](www.cnn.com/2024/02/06/politics/read-trump-presidential-immunity/index.html) __News Updates:__ February 2024 - Judge orders Trump to pay nearly $355 million in civil fraud trial [(article)](www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-civil-fraud-trial-decision-02-16-24/index.html) Justice Department will not charge Biden in classified documents probe [(article)](www.npr.org/2024/02/08/1200897377/biden-classified-documents-investigation) [(article)](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/us/biden-documents-investigation-report-takeaways.html) [(article)](https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/08/politics/takeaways-joe-biden-special-counsel-report/index.html) [(article)](https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/09/biden-hur-report-00140658) [(article)](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/02/07/who-is-robert-hur-special-counsel-biden-documents/72485814007/) Takeaways from the scathing appeals court ruling denying immunity to Donald Trump [(article)](www.cnn.com/2024/02/06/politics/takeaways-donald-trump-immunity-appeals-court/index.html) __Investigation Updates:__ * January 2024 ~ USDC-SDNY, _E. Jean Carroll v. Donald Trump civil rape-sexual assault (plaintiff verdict, memo of law support motion to amend)_ ... (as of 01/26/2024) =updates to come= __News Updates:__ January 2024 - Jury finds Trump must pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll [(article)](https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-trial-e-jean-carroll-01-26-24/index.html) Georgia state Senate approves special committee investigation into Fani Willis [(article)](https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/26/politics/fani-willis-nathan-wade-georgia-state-senate-investigation/index.html) Fani Willis Update as Complaint Filed With Georgia Attorney General [(article)](https://www.newsweek.com/fani-willis-georgia-complaint-attorney-general-1864243) __Investigation Updates:__ * November-December 2023 [TBD] __News Updates:__ November-December 2023 - [TBD] __Investigation Updates:__ * October 2023 ~ [No other official confirmed documentation reports to date] __News Updates:__ October 2023 - What Michael Cohen said about his testimony and why it matters in the Trump fraud trial [(article)](https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/25/politics/what-michael-cohen-said-about-his-testimony-and-why-it-matters-in-the-trump-fraud-trial/index.html) Exclusive: Fulton County DA has discussed plea deals with at least 6 more Trump co-defendants [(article)](https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2023/10/25/tim-burchett-house-speaker-vote-congress-get-to-work-ctm-sot-vpx.cnn) ABC News: Mark Meadows received immunity to testify to special counsel in federal election subversion probe [(article)](https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/24/politics/mark-meadows/index.html) [(article)](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/mark-meadows-flips-trump-spills-jack-smith-1234861329/) Kevin McCarthy ousted as Speaker of the House [(updates)](https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/matt-gaetz-kevin-mccarthy-house-speakership-10-03-23/index.html) __Investigation Updates:__ * August-September 2023 Inquiries into Trump Indictment: ~ Georgia-Fulton County (DA Fani Willis) to U.S. Congress (Jim Jordan) dated 09/07/2023 [(letter)](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23941366/jim-jordan-letter.pdf) ~ U.S. Congress (Jim Jordan) to Georgia-Fulton County (DA Fani Willis) dated 08/24/2023 [(letter)](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23941397-jim-jordan-letter-to-fani-willis-082423?responsive=1&title=1) ~ Georgia grand jury recommended charges for 21 additional Trump allies in election case [(article)](www.pbs.org/newshour/show/georgia-grand-jury-recommended-charges-for-21-additional-trump-allies-in-election-case) * Georgia grand jury report that recommended more indictments in the 2020 election case [(report)](www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/read-the-full-georgia-grand-jury-report-that-recommended-more-indictments-in-the-2020-election-case) __News Updates:__ September 2023 - Judge: Trump defrauded banks, fraudulently inflated assets' value [(article)](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-fraud-financial-statements-ny-judge-rules-rcna117493) -- Read N.Y. judge's full Trump civil fraud summary judgment [(article)](www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/full-text-trump-civil-fraud-ruling-new-york-pdf-rcna117499) New York judge finds Donald Trump liable for fraud [(article)](https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/26/politics/trump-organization-business-fraud/index.html) Judge Finds Trump Inflated Property Values, a Victory for New York A.G. [(article)](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/26/nyregion/trump-james-fraud-trial.html) Fani Willis' track record shows she knows what she's doing [(article)](https://www.msnbc.com/symone/fani-willis-jim-jordan-letter-trump-election-rcna104401) Alvin Bragg keeps winning — and nobody’s talking about it [(article)](https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-new-york-hush-money-trial-delay-alvin-bragg-rcna104662) Fulton County DA tears into Rep. Jim Jordan over his inquiry into Trump indictment [(article)](www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/fani-willis-tears-jim-jordan-inquiry-trump-indictment-rcna103895) __Potential-Intended Discussion Topics:__ January 6, 2021 Insurrection and Attack at the U.S. Capitol Building ... (criminal intruders-crimes) January 6, 2021 Insurrection Investigations: (multiple) * U.S. Department of Justice - DOJ-Capitol Building, DOJ-Mar-a-Lago (secured documents) National State Investigations: (multiple) * New York Attorney General, Georgia District Attorney, New York District Attorney, etc. Other Republican GOP Investigations: (multiple) * Trump-Pence Administration-Advisors-Allies-Loyalists, Congressional Leadership, State Elected Officials, State Electors (fake-legitimate) Formal Ethics Investigations: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and several allies — Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Scott Perry (R-PA), Andy Biggs (R-AZ) — Jared Kushner, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnunchin (funding from Saudi Arabia) — Anthony Ornato, Ivanka Trump, Kayleigh McEnany, Hope Hicks, et al. Additional Potential Prosecutions: Trump-hired attorneys representing J6C-witnesses (bribes-coercion-interference for false testimony, non-recollection), Trump-fundraising, public grifts (election fraud, stop-the-steal, attorney fees), Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News, Smartmatic v. Fox News __Note:__ This meeting-discussion will be schedule based upon current events and demand-request. Register to receive status updates and confirmed program dates-times. Copyright © 2021-2024 Communities United | 2020 Victorious!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2027-01-02T01:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-01-02T02:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/546424/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/images%20%284%29_20221228144820002177.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"546424","scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T21:20:46.640Z"},{"id":"mobilize-546425","title":"The Phenomenal Work of the January 6th Committee","description":"JOIN TEAM 2020 Victorious! | Communities United supporters (Democrats-Independents-Republicans) from all across the nation to review of the January 6th Select Committee's final investigative report and witness interview transcripts, and discuss key moments from the January 6th Select Committee's eight public hearings and two business meetings. The January 6th Special House Committee has released its final report and transcripts to the public, after eighteen (18) months of investigating the events and causes of the January 6, 2021 Insurrection and Attack at the U.S. Capitol, from more than 1,000 closed-door interviews and 10 public hearings. __Members of January 6th Select Committee:__ Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) __December 31, 2025:__ Register for this J6C-Report meeting discussion date, _when-if_ you are up-to-date with the past J6C-Report readings. Join the next meeting discussion to learn how to read the J6C-Report effectively-independently on your own. The J6C-Report reading-discussion has more than two hundred (200+) registrations who meet to bring clarity to the work of the January 6th Committee and the correlation to the national political-legal investigations. __ADVANCED PREPARATION:__ Review the final report of the J6C to become familiar with the table of contents. Determine the content matters that pique your interests. Review the final business meeting video of the J6C. __The next-past readings with reports-videos are listed below.__ _The occasional-impromptu thirty (30) minute briefings for newcomers and participant updates are scheduled for Friday-Saturday-Sunday._ __Seeking Reviewers-Readers:__ NARRATIVE Chapters 1-8 Review-Readings ... (in sequence or personal choice) [(J6C-report)](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23514956-the-full-january-6-committee-report-text) [(video)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5olnF549kNE) [(audible)](https://www.audible.com/pd/The-January-6th-Report-Audiobook/B09Z3CGJ3N) __Next Meeting Readings:__ The J6C-Report - Referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice Special Counsel and House Ethics Committee (98-118) _determined by attendee-participants_ [(J6C-report)](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23514956-the-full-january-6-committee-report-text) [(video)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5olnF549kNE) The national community meeting discussions will include an ongoing-thorough reading-reflection-review of the January 6th Select Committee Investigative Report and witness interview transcripts. This is a multiple series discussion with future dates determined by participants. _Review the registration and distribution to confirm the current chapter reading-discussion._ __Past Meeting Readings:__ The J6C-Report - Forwards by the Speaker of the House, the Chairperson, and the Vice Chairperson (vii-xvii) and the entire Table of Content (xviii-xxiii) for clarity-guidance and direction-understanding, PRELIMINARIES: Recommendations (689-692), Referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice Special Counsel and House Ethics Committee (98-118). [(J6C-report)](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23514956-the-full-january-6-committee-report-text) [(video)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5olnF549kNE) January 6th Committee Business Meeting [(broadcast)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5olnF549kNE) [(broadcast)](https://january6th.house.gov/news/watch-live) * Introductory Material to the Final Report of the Select Committee.pdf [(report)](https://january6th.house.gov/report-executive-summary) * Final Report of the Select Committee.pdf [(REPORT)](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23514956-the-full-january-6-committee-report-text) [(report)](https://january6th.house.gov/sites/democrats.january6th.house.gov/files/Report_FinalReport_Jan6SelectCommittee.pdf) * Witness Interview Transcripts [(20221221)](https://january6th.house.gov/news/press-releases/release-select-committee-materials) [(20221223)](https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3787187-jan-6-panel-releases-transcripts-for-46-additional-witness-testimonies/) [(20221227)]() [(20221229)]() [(20221230-ALL)](https://www.axios.com/2022/12/29/jan-6-committee-latest-transcript-interviews) * United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack [(chronology)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Select_Committee_on_the_January_6_Attack) __Mission of January 6th Select Committee__ Whereas January 6, 2021, was one of the darkest days of our democracy, during which insurrectionists attempted to impede Congress’s Constitutional mandate to validate the presidential election and launched an assault on the United States Capitol Complex that resulted in multiple deaths, physical harm to over 140 members of law enforcement, and terror and trauma among staff, institutional employees, press, and Members; Whereas, on January 27, 2021, the Department of Homeland Security issued a National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin that due to the “heightened threat environment across the United States,” in which “[S]ome ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence.” [(mission ...)](https://january6th.house.gov/about) __Conclusions of January 6th Select Committee:__ The January 6th Committee released its final report on Thursday, December 22, 2022. The 845-page report details the key players, narratives, meetings, and events that led to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol Building and American democracy which attempted to prevent the certification of the presidential election in the year 2021. The 845-page final report of the committee draws on testimony from hundreds of witnesses and thousands of hours of video footage which identifies the key players involved in the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building, the Congress, the Constitution and made recommendations on how to prevent such an attack in the future. January 6th Committee Business Meeting [(broadcast)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5olnF549kNE) [(broadcast)](https://january6th.house.gov/news/watch-live) — The committee met on Monday, December 19, 2022 to vote to approve the final report, with a decision to make criminal referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice as part of its probe. WARNING: The videos may include graphic or disturbing depictions of violence. [(video)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtwItbTPWNE) Past Hearings [(C-SPAN)](https://www.c-span.org/search/?sdate=&edate=&congressSelect=&yearSelect=&searchtype=Videos&sort=Most+Recent+Event&text=0&sponsorid%5B%5D=139816&formatid%5B%5D=26) [(video)](https://january6th.house.gov/legislation/hearings) Final Business Meeting [(video)](https://january6th.house.gov/) Copyright © 2021-2024 Communities United | 2020 Victorious!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2027-01-02T01:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-01-02T03:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/546425/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/107168523-16714798402022-12-19t195602z_1165840266_rc279y95ctgy_rtrmadp_0_usa-capitol-security_20221228143051724051.jpeg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"546425","scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T21:20:46.640Z"},{"id":"mobilize-547784","title":"2020 Victorious! MLK National Action-Impact-Service | Communities United","description":"JOIN 2020 Victorious! | Communities United supporters from all across the nation for the MLK National Action-Impact-Service! We honor the legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a demand for legislative action. This is democracy and it requires action. In 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights leaders called for a “revolution of values” in America. Learn about the origination of \"The Poor People's Campaign\" and ten (10) surprising facts about the civil rights leader. __“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?'” – The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.__ We have to all work together towards a 21st-Century America in which we all benefit and can all be proud of. While we reflect on the past and look towards the future with hope and intention, the MLK National Action-Impact-Service will be an analysis of our national history and future legacy. Join us as we criss-cross the nation from New York to California, from Florida to Texas, from Washington, DC to the State of Washington (east-west, north-south) to honor the successes-triumphs of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We want you to bring your favorite relevant historical civil rights and social justice topics and your best community service ideas to the discussion. 2020 Victorious! | Communities United is excited to partner with organizations across the country to participate in a National Action-Impact-Service in honor of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 2020 Victorious! | Communities United encourages volunteers and community leaders to host virtual or socially distant service events in their community. Copyright © 2021-2024 Communities United | 2020 Victorious!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2027-01-16T01:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-01-16T02:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/547784/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/istockphoto-1031472834-612x612_20230116170447175974.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"547784","scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T21:20:46.640Z"},{"id":"recurring-women-s-history-month-2027","title":"Women's History Month","description":"Celebrating women's contributions to history, culture, and society throughout the month of March.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2027-03-01T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-03-31T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-international-women-s-day-2027","title":"International Women's Day","description":"A global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2027-03-08T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-03-08T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-national-abortion-provider-appreciation-day-2027","title":"National Abortion Provider Appreciation Day","description":"Honoring the healthcare providers who deliver abortion care with compassion and expertise.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2027-03-10T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-03-10T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-equal-pay-day-2027","title":"Equal Pay Day","description":"Marks how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2027-03-12T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-03-12T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"mobilize-552916","title":"The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)","description":"__The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,__ calls on countries to begin efforts to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) during the 15 years between the years 2015 through 2030. The goals address the needs of people in both developed and developing countries, emphasizing that no one should be left behind. Broad and ambitious in scope, the Agenda addresses the three dimensions of sustainable development: social, economic and environmental, as well as important aspects related to peace, justice and effective institutions. __December 31, 2025:__ Register for this 17-SDGs meeting discussion date, _when-if_ you are up-to-date with the past 17-SDGs readings. Join the next meeting discussion to learn how to read the 17-SDGs effectively-independently on your own. __The 17 Sustainable Development Goals [(SDGs)](https://sdgs.un.org/goals)__ build on the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which specifically sought by 2015: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development. __Do you know all 17 SDGs?__ [(video)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XTBYMfZyrM&t=84s) “They are a to-do list for people and planet, and a blueprint for success,” of the 17 goals and 169 targets to wipe out poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change over the next 15 years between the years 2015 through 2030. “The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are our shared vision of humanity and a social contract between the world’s leaders and the people,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted unanimously by 193 Heads of State and other top leaders at a summit at UN Headquarters in New York in September 2015. But progress has been uneven across regions and countries, leaving millions of people behind, especially the poorest and those disadvantaged due to sex, age, disability, ethnicity or geographic location. Targeted efforts will be needed to reach the most vulnerable people. This is where the SDGs are expected to play a part. They stress everything from zero poverty, zero hunger, good health, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, and affordable clean energy, to decent work and economic growth, innovation, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities, responsible consumption, climate action, unpolluted oceans and land, and partnerships to achieve the goals. Copyright © 2021-2024 Communities United | 2020 Victorious!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2027-05-02T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-05-02T01:30:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/552916/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/kacheln-the-global-goals_20230226030742499687.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"552916","scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T21:20:48.972Z"},{"id":"recurring-mother-s-day-2027","title":"Mother's Day","description":"Honoring mothers and maternal figures. An opportunity to spotlight maternal health and rights.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2027-05-11T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-05-11T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-pride-month-2027","title":"Pride Month","description":"Celebrating LGBTQ+ communities and honoring the history of the fight for equal rights.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2027-06-01T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-06-30T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-juneteenth-black-maternal-health-2027","title":"Juneteenth — Black Maternal Health","description":"Celebrating freedom while spotlighting Black maternal health disparities and advocacy.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2027-06-19T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-06-19T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-national-black-women-s-equal-pay-day-2027","title":"National Black Women's Equal Pay Day","description":"Marks how far into the year Black women must work to earn what white men earned in the previous year.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2027-09-21T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-09-21T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-world-contraception-day-2027","title":"World Contraception Day","description":"A worldwide campaign to improve awareness of contraception and enable young people to make informed choices.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2027-09-26T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-09-26T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-domestic-violence-awareness-month-2027","title":"Domestic Violence Awareness Month","description":"Raising awareness about domestic violence and connecting survivors with resources and support.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2027-10-01T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-10-31T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-international-day-of-the-girl-2027","title":"International Day of the Girl","description":"A UN-designated day focusing on the needs and challenges girls face worldwide.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2027-10-11T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-10-11T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-international-day-for-the-elimination-of-violence-against-women-2027","title":"International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women","description":"Launches the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2027-11-25T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-11-25T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"recurring-16-days-of-activism-against-gender-violence-2027","title":"16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence","description":"An annual international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls.","organization":"Her Choice","startDate":"2027-11-25T00:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2027-12-10T23:59:59.000Z","isVirtual":true,"eventType":"observance","source":"Recurring","registrationUrl":"https://herchoice.org/events","scrapedAt":"2026-02-25T13:45:59.208Z"},{"id":"mobilize-376802","title":"HIGHLIGHTS * 2020 Victorious! | Communities United: NATIONAL PRIORITIES - Community Advocacy","description":"[2020 Victorious! Strategic Community Organizing * Phenomenal Election Impact | Communities United -](https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/373889/) * Membership-Donations * [(link)](https://victorious-communities.cheddarup.com) 2020 Victorious! | Communities United [(event programs)](https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/) The Mobilize network described 2020 Victorious! | Communities United as ___\"one of the most engaged volunteer organizations on our platform.\"___ When We All Vote described 2020 Victorious! | Communities United as ___\"star volunteers that rise to the occasion, accepting the challenge to mobilize communities.\"___ __Special Updates:__ Impactful Week-in-Review and the Months Ahead JOIN THIS-NEXT WEEK-MONTH, Sundays, August 27, 2023 and September 24, 2023 for an overview discussion of the new ideas-directions planned for the future engagements at 2020 Victorious! | Communities United. Learn firsthand about how YOU can contribute-participate to have a direct impact in your community. Tell us about the discussions most important to YOU ... (and how to best deliver the implementation). Send an email communication to RSVP (introduce yourself) and register to reserve your space upon receipt. PLEASE ADVISE if you have knowledge-interest-exposure in the following subject-topic areas and want to contribute to the research of the sub-committee planning discussions related to: NATIONAL PRIORITIES: COVID-19, Economic Recovery, Racial Equity, Climate Change NATIONAL ISSUES: budget deficit, campaign-election reform, civil rights, domestic terrorism, education, employment, foreign policy, gerrymandering, global trade, gun control-safety, health-medical, immigration, infrastructure, national security (ransomware), political polarization, social justice, transportation, voter suppression, youth voters (18-25-35), etc. These Impromptu Meeting-Discussions are intended for anyone interested in the National Issues-Priorities. The Impromptu Meeting-Discussions will be especially-primarily beneficial to those who have frequented-regularly attended-participated in the weekly 2020 Victorious! | Communities United Sunday evening meeting-discussion sessions – transformed into the (now bi-weekly, once monthly) Sunday evening meeting-discussion sessions: - - - - - [CURRENT PROGRAMS:](https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/) Community Building Roundtable All-Inclusive, The Phenomenal Work of the January 6th Committee, January 6th Investigations and National Developments ... (legal-political) (January 2023), The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (February 2023) ... (plus other member's exclusive special programs-projects, anchor organization directives-insights, members' only events-training) * Public Programs: (ongoing) Strategic Community Organizing, Membership Matters-Privileges, Highlights of the Month (February 2021), Citizen-Youth Accountability, Community Conversations (June 2021) * Concurrent-Recurrent Programs: The Relevancy of The Presidency, Government Accountability-Political Polarization, National Priorities Reading-Book Collections (May 2021), The First 100-Days: Presidential Promises-Purpose, Effective Perspectives: National Priorities (January 2021) * Past Programs: Juneteenth Dinner in Black! (June 2021), MLK National Day-Week of Action-Impact-Service, Inauguration Day, The First 100-Days: Presidential Promises-Purpose (January 2021), Voter Education Week of Action, Presidential (Vice-Presidential) Debate Watch, Election Reflections, Election Directions, MLK National Day-Week of Action-Impact-Service, Inauguration Day (September-December 2020) – Special-Impromptu Programs: U.S. Capitol Insurrection-Siege (January 2021) - - - - - There will be frequent-impromptu \"off-week\" meeting-discussions about new-innovative subject-topics to enhance community engagement at multiple points of interest. These will be interactive conversations about the newly planned programs being designed-developed by our NATIONAL PRIORITIES COMMUNITY COMMITTEES and our NATIONAL PROPOSALS COMMUNITIES. The National Priorities Community Committees will focus on national issues-matters related to COVID-19, Economic Recovery, Racial Equity, and Climate Change with action plans and learning-teaching deliverables. The National Proposals Communities will design community action plans related to a broad range of subject-topics, such as budget deficit, campaign-election reform, education, employment, foreign policy, gerrymandering, global trade, health-medical, immigration, infrastructure, political polarization, transportation, voter suppression, youth voters, etc., with customized solutions to support regional-state-local issues and matters. This will be an opportunity to learn how to be prepared-productive during a 2020 Victorious! | Communities United meeting-discussion in order to be more effective with the 2020 Victorious! | Communities United team and, most importantly, within your own regional-state-local communities: [2020 Victorious! Strategic Community Organizing * Phenomenal Election Impact | Communities United -](https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/373889/) Copyright © 2021-2023 Communities United | 2020 Victorious!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2028-01-01T05:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2028-01-02T04:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/376802/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/YMA-Monthly-Highlights_20210501090913869776.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"376802","scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T21:20:46.640Z"},{"id":"mobilize-382138","title":"2020 Victorious! National Priorities Reading-Book Collections | Communities United ~members+guests~","description":"2020 Victorious! | Communities United is proud to launch a Virtual Reading Collections featuring the work of national-international experts, intellectual scholars and knowledgeable leaders. We will feature the issues that are classified as national priorities and national proposals with a mission-intent for a plan of action. National Priorities and National Proposals Reading-Book Collections: * June-July 2022 - __Mass Shootings and Gun Violence:__ What we can do to prevent more deaths [(website)](https://efsgv.org/learn/type-of-gun-violence/mass-shootings/) * August-September 2022 - __Preventing Voter Suppression:__ Protecting-Securing Voting Rights Session Schedule: Each reading collection session will meet for discussion once or twice (1-2) every weeks (approximately six-eight times per month). Each book collection session will meet for discussion every two to three (2-3) weeks (approximately once-twice per month) or as needed and will be hosted by a member of 2020 Victorious! | Communities United and/or a special-knowledgeable guest from the community. Registration is required to attend-participate. We ask-request that all participants commit to respectful dialogue and open engagement, including the mindfulness of different-various viewpoints. - - - - - We are committed to highlighting-supporting black scholarship, especially during the nation's moment of reckoning with systemic racism, the legacies of enslavement, misogynoir, 'white supremacy,' police abuse-brutality, and economic-environmental-social justices. As a nation, we recognize-realize that we have work to do in order to reflect our values as a true democracy \"with liberty and justice for all.\" We acknowledge that academia consistently limits-minimizes and even stifles black scholars, classifying the benefits of their documentation-studies as a form of identity politics or a 'niche' culture. - - - - - __Future-Tentative Topics for Reading-Book Collections__ * October-November 2022 - The Paths Forward for Racial Equity and Social Justice * November-December 2022 - The Collective Impact of Health Equity and the COVID-19 Vaccine * [TBD Month-Day, 2022] - [_submit recommendations for consideration_] - - - - - * BANNED-CHALLENGED BOOKS: Publishers \"Banned-Challenged Books\" [by various authors] [(preview)](https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade2019) [(pdf)](unavailable) ... __(current-consideration book-reading 2022-2023, _date to be determined_).__ * RACIAL EQUITY: New York Times \"The 1619 Project\" [by Nikole Hannah-Jones] [(preview)](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html) [(pdf)](https://www.pulitzercenter.org/sites/default/files/full_issue_of_the_1619_project.pdf) ... __(current-consideration book-reading 2022-2023, _date to be determined_).__ * RACIAL EQUITY: The Atlantic \"The Case for Reparations\" [by Ta-Nehisi Coates] [(preview)](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/) [(pdf)](unavailable) ... __(current-consideration book-reading 2022-2023, _date to be determined_).__ - - - - - __(review reading-book collections additional details)__ Private / MEMBERS' EXCLUSIVE EVENT *for* Members of 2020 Victorious! | Communities United ... (_interested in membership_, request-complete member profile form prior to event registration) * Membership-Donations * [(link)](https://victorious-communities.cheddarup.com) – Virtual Community Event: Social Justice & Racial Equity, Book Club, Political Education NATIONAL PRIORITIES READING COLLECTIONS Q: Would you be interested in participating in a National Priorities Reading Collections? It would require inviting interested colleagues-neighbors and family-friends to read-discuss several (3-4) books in segments specific to the education-history of the four national priorities. The books-readings will be read in chapters-segments (to accommodate-adjust for schedules-time). The chapter-segments would be discussed weekly-monthly for the purposes of long-term education-learning enhancement (to slowly digest-dissect the information). BENEFITS of Reading Clubs – Listening to Different Perspectives * Hearing– the opinions of other people is crucial to growing into a well-rounded, developed person. Reflecting on the thoughts and perspectives of others opens the mind to an entirely new world. * Learning – how to share your thoughts and opinions, especially if you disagree, teaches communication and social skills. * Developing – the most from the book club is about listening to other perspectives. Mission-Purpose: The intent is to broaden our knowledge of who-what-where-why we are as Americans in the fullness of our history (as defined by black intelligentsia) and not simply within the limited context of exclusionary American history. - - - - - POTENTIAL BOOK-Publication Discussion Resources: * COVID-19: Health-Wellness [None yet determined.] Title Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response, Author Andy Slavitt, Publisher St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2021 ... (consideration #1). * ECONOMIC RECOVERY: The Sum of Us: What racism costs everyone and how we can prosper together [by Heather McGhee] — \"The Sum of Us is a brilliant analysis of how we arrived here: divided and self-destructing, still the richest country in the world, but spiritually starved and vastly unequal. At the heart of the book are the humble stories of Americans yearning to be a part of a better America, including white supremacy's collateral victims: white people themselves. With startling empathy, this heartfelt message from a Black woman to a multiracial America leaves us with a vision for the future of our country--one whose population has ties to every place on the globe--where we finally realize that life can be so much more than zero-sum.\" ... [(preview)](https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Sum_of_Us.html?id=dFsbEAAAQBAJ) – Heather McGhee and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren: The Sum of Us [(video)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWMqU44Mll4) – Ted Talk: Racism has a cost for everyone | Heather C. McGhee [(video)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaCrsBtiYA4) – Michael Eric Dyson and Heather McGhee: Reckoning with Racism [(video)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZpBg9jo950) – New Podcast Series: The costs of racism on all communities | Heather McGhee [(video)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIfeatto1kI) – \"The Obamas' Production Company is Adapting Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us As a Podcast\" [(article)](https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/books/a36344098/heather-mcghee-sum-of-us-podcast/) – \"Heather McGhee Is Telling Untold Stories About Solidarity in a New Podcast\" [(article)](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/07/heather-mcghee-sum-of-us-interview) * RACIAL EQUITY: New York Times \"The 1619 Project\" [by Nikole Hannah-Jones] [(preview)](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html) [(pdf)](https://www.pulitzercenter.org/sites/default/files/full_issue_of_the_1619_project.pdf) ... __(current-consideration book-reading 2022-2023, _date to be determined_).__ * RACIAL EQUITY: The Atlantic \"The Case for Reparations\" [by Ta-Nehisi Coates] [(preview)](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/) [(pdf)](unavailable) ... __(current-consideration book-reading 2022-2023, _date to be determined_).__ * RACIAL EQUITY: Four Hundred Souls: A community history of African America — \"Four Hundred Souls is a unique one-volume “community” history of African Americans. The editors, Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, have assembled ninety brilliant writers, each of whom takes on a five-year period of that four-hundred-year span. The writers explore their periods through a variety of techniques: historical essays, short stories, personal vignettes, and fiery polemics. They approach history from various perspectives: through the eyes of towering historical icons or the untold stories of ordinary people; through places, laws, and objects. While themes of resistance and struggle, of hope and reinvention, course through the book, this collection of diverse pieces from ninety different minds, reflecting ninety different perspectives, fundamentally deconstructs the idea that Africans in America are a monolith—instead it unlocks the startling range of experiences and ideas that have always existed within the community of Blackness.\" [(preview)](https://books.google.com/books/about/Four_Hundred_Souls.html?id=HVj2DwAAQBAJ) ... _(past book-reading May-October 2021)._ * CLIMATE CHANGE: [None yet determined.] * POLITICAL POLARIZATION: Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents — \"Shade is a portrait in Presidential contrasts, telling the tale of the Obama and Trump administrations through a series of visual juxtapositions. Here, more than one hundred of Souza's unforgettable images of President Obama deliver new power and meaning when framed by the tweets, news headlines, and quotes that have defined the Trump White House. What began with Souza's Instagram posts soon after President Trump's inauguration in January 2017 has become a potent commentary on the state of the Presidency, and our country. Some call this \"throwing shade.\" Souza calls it telling the truth.\" ... __(current-interim book-reading November-December 2021).__ - - - - - [Introductions Checklist: __(updates in-progress, review only)__ – Introduce yourself in our Introductions thread by clicking here. Tell us a bit about who you are, when you were introduced to 2020 Victorious! | Communities United, and your hopes for our reading-book collection. Tell us a fun fact about yourself if you desire to do so. – Make your plan for how to obtain the first book-publications, [\"Four Hundred Souls\" and \"The Sum of Us\"], whether that means ordering-purchasing it, borrowing it from a library, or buying an audio version. – Our first asynchronous “reading period” will begin on May 10, 2019. At that time we will begin the timeframe during which we will read [book title] together.] - - - - - [Questions-Answers: How often will books be read, what is the time commitment, and what are the expectations? We plan to start the reading-book collection by reading one book every three months. The texts selected will cover lifelong learning, personal growth, novels and more, and take an average of nine hours to read cover to cover. If you have between two and three hours per week to read, you should be fine. Will there be any in-person meetings of the reading-book collections? While the 2020VCU Reading-Book Collections is entirely online, regional-state groups will offer opportunities for in-person/online gatherings from time-to-time. In addition, we anticipate hosting other events to further discuss the books and the experiences reading them. You can participate anywhere you have internet access, on days and times that are convenient to you. Is there any cost to participate? Participation is free for members of 2020 Victorious! | Communities United! How do I get the books? Participants can get books for free at their local library or purchase them.] Copyright © 2021-2022 Communities United | 2020 Victorious!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2028-01-01T05:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2028-01-02T04:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/382138/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/il_570xN.2673419380_im91_20210410051818999596.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"382138","scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T21:20:46.640Z"},{"id":"mobilize-382139","title":"2020 Victorious! Government Accountability * Political Polarization | Communities United ~members~","description":"Private / MEMBERS' EXCLUSIVE EVENT *for* Members of 2020 Victorious! | Communities United ... (_interested in membership,_ request-complete member profile form prior to event registration) * Membership-Donations * [(link)](https://victorious-communities.cheddarup.com) – Virtual Community Event: Government, Political Education, Community Building 2020 Victorious! | Communities United is on a mission to educate communities and highlight the issues and policies that most impact our national and respective state-local governments. We believe that the American people and the public at-large are a valuable asset to our democracy and deserve a voice beyond the ballot and the vote in our government. We believe that elected officials and national-state legislators should be held accountable to their constituents – not special interests or party politics. - - - - - THE GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY * POLITICAL POLARIZATION interactive education discussion will move us forward to assess our nation's future direction and possibilities: __Special * January 6th Committee Public Hearing(s):__ a broad overview of the 10-month investigation to set the stage for subsequent hearings, which are expected to encompass specific insurrection topics or themes, including what Donald Trump was doing as the riot unfolded, the pushing of baseless election fraud claims that motivated rioters, how law enforcement responded to the attack, the organizing and financing behind the January 6 rallies, etc. * Monday, December 19, 2022 1:00pm - January 6th Committee Meeting Report (committee presentation-review) * Wednesday, December 21, 2022 - January 6th Committee Report (public release) * October 2022 - second series, final hearings ... (_dates TBD_) Past January 6th Hearings: Thursday, June 9, 2022 8:00pm _primetime_ - first hearing ... (a series of high-profile public hearings, _additional dates TBA_), Monday, June 13, 2022 10:00am (postponed 11:00am) - second hearing, Wednesday, June 15, 2022 10:00am - third hearing (rescheduled 06/16/2022), Thursday, June 16, 2022 12:00pm (postponed 1:00pm) - third hearing, Tuesday, June 21, 2022 10:00am (postponed 1:00pm) - fourth hearing, Thursday, June 23, 2022 3:00pm (rescheduled 06/13/2022) - [third]-fifth hearing, Tuesday, June 28, 2022 1:00pm - impromptu-[sixth] hearing, Tuesday, July 12, 2022 10:00am - (rescheduled 06/23/2022 8:00pm, rescheduled 07/12/2022 1:00pm) - [fifth]-seventh hearing, Thursday, July 21, 2022 8:00pm _primetime_ - rescheduled [sixth]-eighth hearing [Thursday, June 23, 2022 8:00pm (rescheduled 06/23/2022, rescheduled unconfirmed 07/07/2022, unconfirmed 07/12/2022) - scheduled sixth hearing, actual eighth hearing] – Second Series (Final Hearings) September 2022: Wednesday, September 28, 2022 1:00pm (rescheduled 10/13/2022), Thursday, October 13, 2022 1:00pm - second series, final hearings, [final]-ninth hearing, Monday, December 19, 2022 1:00pm - January 6th Committee Meeting Report (review) __Special * FRONTLINE - PBS | Lies, Politics and Democracy:__ FRONTLINE’s season premiere investigates American political leaders and choices they’ve made that have undermined and threatened democracy in the U.S. In a two-hour documentary special premiering ahead of the 2022 midterms, FRONTLINE examines how officials fed the public lies about the 2020 presidential election and embraced rhetoric that led to political violence. * [(article)](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/announcement/frontline-returns-with-season-premiere-lies-politics-and-democracy-documentary/) - [(interview)](https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/-lies-politics-and-democracy-looks-at-trump-s-takeover-of-gop-147750469696) - [(documentary trailer)](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/lies-politics-and-democracy/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/lies-politics-and-democracy/) Newsweek: Will Trump Do Time? What It Would Take to Convict the Former President [(article)](https://www.newsweek.com/2022/07/29/will-trump-do-time-what-it-would-take-convict-former-president-1726054.html) * Fridays, September 16+23+30, 2022 8:00pm * Fridays, October 7+14+21+28, 2022 8:00pm __Special * Juneteenth Acknowledgement with Call-to-Action:__ Juneteenth marks the end of slavery in America and commemorates the collective freedom of African-Americans. This guided discussion will acknowledge the legacy of Juneteenth in Galveston, Texas to promote thought and commit to a plan to take action for our communities, _including phenomenal video presentations_. * Sunday, June 19, 2022 (special meeting, videos) * Sunday, July 10, 2022 (special meeting, videos) - - - - - [Speaking to other Americans during a digital media briefing, these scholarly discussions will analyze civility, the powers and limits of big platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and the misperceptions people have about those on the ‘other side’ of the political divide.] - - - - - :: Theme: \"Starting with the Man In The Mirror\" :: * The Ethics: Civil Disagreement: It should happen in-person (not online) * The Sociology: The Echo Chamber of Social Media (does not moderate views) ~ Exaggeration-Underestimation of Extreme Views (on both sides) ~ Popular Political Misperceptions: \"The average Democrat. The average Republican.\" ... (there are profound gaps) America is still deeply divided. There is room for overlap. * The Marketing: Technology Tools to Screen Misinformation –Algorithmic content review-removal –Manual fact-checking –All we can do is help and encourage (ultimately it is a personal choice) - - - - - Question to Ask Yourself: What is the radical and potentially violent nature of contemporary American partisanship? While social media platforms can employ algorithms and other tools to help improve the level of public debate, the best way to decrease outrage and polarization is for everyone involved to be responsible for their own online behavior. American politics has grown steadily more contentious due to a social realignment, and a new centralized separation between the political parties around issues of traditional social hierarchy. - - - - - __POTENTIAL BOOK-Publication Discussion Resources:__ * POLITICAL POLARIZATION: Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents — \"Shade is a portrait in Presidential contrasts, telling the tale of the Obama and Trump administrations through a series of visual juxtapositions. Here, more than one hundred of Souza's unforgettable images of President Obama deliver new power and meaning when framed by the tweets, news headlines, and quotes that have defined the Trump White House. What began with Souza's Instagram posts soon after President Trump's inauguration in January 2017 has become a potent commentary on the state of the Presidency, and our country. Some call this \"throwing shade.\" Souza calls it telling the truth.\" * Think Again : The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Grant, Adam M., author. — \"This is the right book for right now. Yes, learning requires focus. But, unlearning and relearning requires much more--it requires choosing courage over comfort. The bestselling author examines the critical art of rethinking: learning to question your opinions and open other people's minds, which can position you for excellence at work and wisdom in life. Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world, there's another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn. In our daily lives, too many of us favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt. We listen to opinions that make us feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard. We see disagreement as a threat to our egos, rather than an opportunity to learn. We surround ourselves with people who agree with our conclusions, when we should be gravitating toward those who challenge our thought process.\" - - - - - WE BELIEVE IN THE STRENGTH of progressive community organizing – but, it must be protected from the forces that seek to subvert our democracy. By organizing and working to facilitate the systems that allow for all Americans to have a voice and a vote, we can hold our government accountable to the people and pass-secure comprehensive legislation to ensure that the essentials of comprehensive democratic reform are respected and protected. This national collaborative will require more than a select few community activists-organizers-volunteers to be long-term and successful. There are two competing visions for the United States of America: one that harnesses-manages grassroots organizing to empower voters and one that unleashes false narratives and rhetoric to justify voter suppression. In a democracy, only one can prevail. JOIN US in our community to receive the latest news and information updates to contribute-create a viable community action plan. PLEASE SELECT a target date-time in the registration signup if your local-regional community has a specific target goal-objective schedule-deadline. 2020 Victorious | Communities United appreciates your commitment and will contact you within seven to ten (7-10) business days. Copyright © 2021-2022 Communities United | 2020 Victorious!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2028-01-01T05:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2028-01-02T04:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/382139/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/depositphotos_389923290-stock-photo-culture-war-cultural-wars-concept_20210404015136688094.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"382139","scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T21:20:46.640Z"},{"id":"mobilize-389109","title":"2020 Victorious! NATIONAL PROPOSALS * Community Conversations | Communities United ~independents~","description":"2020 Victorious! | Communities United [(event programs)](https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/) Public / COMMUNITY CONVERSATION EVENT *for* New Friends of 2020 Victorious! | Communities United * Membership-Donations * [(link)](https://victorious-communities.cheddarup.com) – Virtual Community Event: Community Conversation, Community Engagement, Political Education JOIN TEAM 2020 Victorious! | Communities United supporters (Democrats-Independents-Republicans) from all across the nation for Effective Perspective: NATIONAL PROPOSALS-Community Conversations! __Discussion Topic:__ \"The 2022 Midterm Elections: State-National Perspectives\" ... (review distribution updates) THE NATIONAL PROPOSALS: Community Conversations discussions will address political accountability and be a policy-issue analysis of our great democracy. The [monthly/bi-monthly] discussion series will be a continuum of one hour presentation-information sessions (mandatory-required), followed by a second 15-30-minute brainstorming banter-discussion (standard-recommended). The [impromptu-quarterly] discussion series will be a continuum of one hour presentation-information sessions (mandatory-required), followed by a second hour of brainstorming workshops (standard-recommended), and a possible third hour of open analysis-discussion (dependent-optional when necessary). - - - - - JOIN for an overview discussion of the new ideas-directions planned for the future engagements at 2020 Victorious! | Communities United. Learn firsthand about how YOU can contribute-participate to have direct impact in your community. Tell us about the discussions most important to YOU ... (and how to best deliver the implementation). - - - - - THE NATIONAL PROPOSALS interactive discussion will move us forward to assess our nation's future direction and possibilities: * [September 2022] - __Preventing Voter Suppression:__ Protecting-Securing Voting Rights * [October 2022] - __Maximizing Voter Outreach-Turnout:__ Mobilization-Education Beyond Voter Registration * [TBD Month-Day, 2022] - The Collective Impact of Health Equity and the COVID-19 Vaccine * [TBD Month-Day, 2022] - The Paths Forward for Racial Equity and Social Justice * [TBD Month-Day, 2022] -or- [TBD Month-Day, 2022] The US Presidency - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7F3nRB9Ujs Bring your network of community, colleagues-neighbors, family-friends. We want you to bring your best ideas, your truth meters, and your favorite relevant political topics to the discussion. Bring documentation and facts. Bring research to support opinions. Bring questions for critical thinking. Bring ideas to enhance-improve the discussions. __These will be interactive conversations__ about the newly planned programs being designed-developed by our NATIONAL PRIORITIES COMMUNITIES COMMITTEES and our NATIONAL PROPOSALS COMMUNITIES. There will be frequent-impromptu \"off-week\" meeting-discussions about new-innovative subject-topics to enhance community engagement at multiple points of interest. NATIONAL PRIORITIES: COVID-19, Economic Recovery, Racial Equity, Climate Change NATIONAL PROPOSALS: budget deficit, campaign-election reform, civil rights, domestic terrorism, education, employment, foreign policy, gerrymandering, global trade, gun control-safety, health-medical, immigration, infrastructure, national security (ransomware), political polarization, social justice, transportation, voter suppression, youth voters (18-25-35), etc. with customized solutions to support the regional-state-local issues and matters. The intent is to equip all member-participants to be effective community leaders-organizers and have a more widespread, impactful voice within more of the nation's most affected communities. You are invited to join our monthly meeting! - <<< - - - - - 2020 Victorious! | Communities United is on a mission to educate communities and highlight the issues and policies that most impact our national and respective state-local governments. We believe that the American people and the public at-large are a valuable asset to our democracy and deserve a voice beyond the ballot and the vote in our government. We believe that elected officials and national-state legislators should be held accountable to their constituents – not special interests or party politics. __Citizen Youth-Independents.__ 2020 Victorious | Communities United has specific target goals to increase voter participation in elections by closing the voting age gap, the race age gap, and to change the cultural perspectives related to voting. Our intended goals are to expand access to the ballot, educate new voters, and bring all voters to the polls by increasing-improving the knowledge-information base with comprehensive voting. We are building a grassroots team of activists, community organizers and volunteers to lead the effort-initiatives in their respective states and communities to empower more people with information-knowledge. By joining the 2020 Victorious | Communities United team, you will receive access to (i) regular updates on the latest political action news, (ii) invites to regional-state-local programs-events that directly impact the community, government and the nation, and (iii) relevant educational training to provide the information-knowledge to be effective within your region-states and local communities. - <<< A VIRTUAL NATIONAL PROPOSALS MEETING DISCUSSION featuring a variety of brief videos and works on national issues-concerns hosted by national-international experts, intellectual scholars and knowledgeable leaders ... (30-40 minute videos). POLL QUESTION: What are your preferred-choice national priority issues discussions related to enhancing the American history-knowledge perspective? ... (must-discuss national priorities). These are multiple national priorities issues-concerns being considered for discussion(s): * What Does It Mean to Defund the Police? * What is qualified immunity and how did it become intrinsic to policing in America? * Do We Still Need the Electoral College? * Does the Supreme Court Need Reform? * \"Reverb | Generation Climate\" * \"Reverb | The QAnon Effect\" * The Right's Fight to Make America a Christian Nation - <<< * Monday, June 6, 2022 - __Orientation: January 6th Committee Public Hearing,__ _scheduled for Thursday, June 9, 2022_ * Sunday, June 12, 2022 - __Mass Shootings and Gun Violence:__ What we can do to prevent more deaths * Sunday, July 10+17, 2022 - __Special * Juneteenth Acknowledgement with Call-to-Action:__ This guided discussion will acknowledge the legacy of Juneteenth in Galveston, Texas to promote thought and commit to a plan to take action for our communities, _including phenomenal video presentations_. - <<< PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE \"How to Prepare for this Event\" and \"How to Join this Event\" instructions sent via email communication, upon registration completion. The review of these instructions will (i) help to prepare you in advance of the meeting-discussions and will (ii) facilitate accessibility to join the meeting-discussions without need for assistance. Copyright © 2021-2022 Communities United | 2020 Victorious!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2028-01-01T05:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2028-01-01T16:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/389109/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/TT-CommunityConversations_20211002124501541142.png","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"389109","scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T21:20:46.640Z"},{"id":"mobilize-394432","title":"2020 Victorious! National Priorities-Proposals Volunteer Call-to-Action | Communities United","description":"__2020 Victorious! National Priorities-Proposals Volunteer Call-to-Action | Communities United__ 2020 Victorious! | Communities United [(event programs)](https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/) Grassroots: A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region, or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at the local, regional, national, or international level. - - - - - Community Engagement | Volunteer Leadership - Presentation Request - Important: Review the event program description details *carefully* to confirm-find the corresponding dates-links in the Volunteer Call-to-Action. *Review event details frequently-weekly* for description-schedule updates.* __This is a volunteer call-to-action__ (review description details below to confirm dates-times and requirements). Registration descriptions for most-each volunteer opportunity meeting is available, some description details will be made available closer to the scheduled dates. Below is the volunteer meeting schedule for January-March 2022: - - - - - __VOLUNTEER CALL-TO-ACTION__ (national-regional) Virtual Meeting: __White House COVID-19 Update Call__ [(register)]() – Tuesday, October 25, 2022 5:00pm-6:00pm ET * Join Dr. Ashish Jha, White House Coordinator of COVID-19 Response and Counselor to the President; Julie Rodriguez, White House Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Senior Advisor to the President; and Keisha Lance Bottoms, White House Senior Advisor to the President for Public Engagement for a briefing on the latest with the updated COVID-19 vaccination campaign and the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole of government ongoing fight against the virus. * * * * * __FUTURE ANCHOR EVENTS__ (more soon to be posted) Documentary: Climate Change | National Priorities - __Racing to Zero: In Pursuit of Zero Waste,__ Beaver, Christopher. San Francisco: Filmmakers Collaborative, 2014. HD, 59 min. [(register)](https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/394431/) – Monday-Sunday, January-December 00, 2022 8:00pm, TBD *various times* * In order to reach zero waste, we need to change our relationship to garbage and how to view the things we discard as resources, rather than waste. As a resource, our garbage can take on another life, stay out of the landfill, and enter into a cycle that is cradle to cradle, reused and recreated over and over again. Racing to Zero examines today’s cultural garbage practices in terms of consumption, preparation, use and production. Only one third of the waste in the United States is recycled or composted. Why? Industry, through its practice of planned obsolescence, plays a major role; our lives are almost totally dependent on unrecyclable petroleum products. Three years ago, the mayor of San Francisco pledged to achieve zero waste by 2020. Racing to Zero tracks San Francisco’s waste stream diversion tactics and presents innovative new solutions to waste. (Source: Adapted from the Official Film Website) © 2014 Bullfrog Films, Inc. Trailer used with permission. [(preview trailer video)](https://www.youtube.com/embed/jTRRk-LNMR4) Racing To Zero In Pursuit Of Zero Waste Full Length English 2021 [(documentary)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jMlDmwiai8) - - - - - Join 2020 Victorious! | Communities United supporter's __monthly volunteer virtual meeting opportunities__ for the latest updates about national priorities and national proposals in the regions-states and local communities, including training, and opportunities to take action to promote civil-social equity, justice in policing, and to end gerrymandering, gun violence, voter suppression. We are building a grassroots team of civic-social activists, community organizers, campaign volunteers and better informed citizens to lead the effort-initiatives in their respective regions-states and local communities to educate-empower more people with accurate information-knowledge. The agenda for each meeting will be shared with those who are registered as members-supporters of 2020 Victorious! | Communities United via 2020VCU's volunteer distribution. You will receive communications-connection information via email upon registration. By joining the 2020 Victorious | Communities United team, you will receive access to (i) regular updates on the latest political action news, (ii) invites to regional-state-local programs-events that directly impact the community, government and the nation, and (iii) relevant educational training to provide the information-knowledge to be effective within your region-states and local communities. The intent is to equip all member-participants to be effective community leaders-organizers and have a more widespread-impactful voice within more of the nation's most affected communities. The membership will renew annually on the 1st of January and conclude on the 31st of December of each calendar year. Copyright © 2021-2023 Communities United | 2020 Victorious! <<<<<<<<>>>>>>>> - - - - - __PAST ANCHOR EVENTS__ (soon to be archived-deleted)","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2028-01-01T05:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2028-01-02T04:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/394432/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/5f035f109555c13735d6513b_Image1_20210604233311988184.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"394432","scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T21:20:46.640Z"},{"id":"mobilize-421486","title":"2020 Victorious! | National Vote Early Day Campaign | Communities United","description":"2020 Victorious! | Communities United [(event programs)](https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/) 2020 Victorious! NATIONAL PROPOSALS * Community Conversations | Communities United ~independents~ [(community)](https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/389109/) * Membership-Donations * [(profile)](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeyY-4hYFx2ZeDfSrSzpYy5MT2oSdIjdjcEOOstO-c5RCbvvw/viewform) + [(payment)](https://victorious-communities.cheddarup.com) + [(donation)](https://my.cheddarup.com/c/victorious-communities/item/3031931)+ [(survey)](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScin0CixHVCI6GYNHEg8fzeBETFX3-E28D_D_DSJq__3NaTxQ/viewform) [2020 Victorious! Strategic Community Organizing Beyond Phenomenal Election Impact | Communities United](https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/373889/) - - - - - The 2020 Victorious! | Communities United brief History Summary, housekeeping rules and norms will be reviewed and made available for display at most-all meeting-discussions, whenever necessary or when the time permits. Please arrive 5-minutes early, before the event starts to introduce yourself, settle in, and ensure that the technology functions. - - - - - 2020 Victorious! | Communities United is conducting a National Vote Early Day Campaign – #OctoberVoter Month of Action to get our communities prepared for #VoteEarlyDay and #VoteReady between __Wednesday-Thursday, October 13-14, 2021, Sunday+Saturday, October 17+23, 2021 to Sunday, October 31, 2021.__ At 2020 Victorious! | Communities United, we want to make sure you can reach everyone in your community by hosting a GOTV (get out the vote) event during the #OctoberVoter Month of Action. We are calling on you to participate by organizing #OctoberVoter GOTV events in your community. If early voting has started where you live, host a Vote Early Day event during the week or next weekend, and join us for National Vote Early Day on Saturday, October 23, 2021. * Virtual Meeting: __Learning from National Voter Registration Day, Building towards Vote Early Day__ [(register)](https://us06web.zoom.us/w/83165410671) – Wednesday, October 13, 2021 2:30pm-3:30pm ET ... __State-Specific Co-Hosting__ breakout room training will occur promptly after this program ... (send state and participation number interest via email communication). * Virtual Meeting: __Vote Early Day Webinar: Successful Activation Plans from Those Who Did It__ [(register)](https://us06web.zoom.us/w/89872583682) – Thursday, October 14, 2021 3:00pm-4:00pm ET ... __State-Specific Co-Hosting__ breakout room training will occur promptly after this program ... (send state and participation number interest via email communication). It has never been more important to make sure you are encouraging people to VOTE EARLY in every election. With Election Day nearing in 35 states on Tuesday, November 2, 2021, early voting is a safe and easy way to make your community voice heard! __Our goals:__ 1. Celebrate and encourage people to get out to vote early, by mail or in-person. 2. Join or create safe spaces for community members and voters to stop by before or after voting for information, support, and celebration. __Participating is easy!__ Here are a few suggestions: __Vote Early In-person:__ Make a fun moment and head to your early vote polling location with your squad or your household! Don't forget to take photos (with masks on!), and share on social media with #OctoberVoter. __Organize Virtually:__ Even over distance, you can get your squad together to celebrate voting! Choose 3-5+ people or 20-25+ people, if you are ambitious, to start a text thread or direct message. Get everyone to make a plan to vote and then hold each other accountable. __Organize a march or parade to the polls__ during early voting in your community! Don’t forget your masks! __Distribute the items to members at a service event or COVID-safe gathering__ to encourage attendees to become an #OctoberVoter and vote early. While National Vote Early Day is a targeted campaign scheduled for Saturday, October 23, 2021, the call-to-action can begin today and continue any-every day throughout the month of October 2021. We will meet, as a collective, on the designated dates-times specified above to discuss the vote early strategies, our vote early progress and brainstorm ideas! 160 million Americans cast their ballots in 2020 – shattering voter turnout records and making history. And we can’t stop now. There is still work to be done before #Vote Early Day! ELECTION PROTECTION HOTLINE: Call or Text 866-OUR-VOTE * Tweet @866OURVOTE.","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2028-01-01T05:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2028-01-02T04:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/421486/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/register-vote-early-usa-flag-260nw-1819879592_20211010130733201820.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"421486","scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T21:20:46.640Z"},{"id":"mobilize-434596","title":"2020 Victorious! | National Voter Mobilization-Education Year of Action | Communities United","description":"2020 Victorious! | Communities United is conducting a National Voter Mobilization-Education-Registration Year of Action to get our communities prepared to #VoteReady and promote #VoterEducation from __January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022.__ This is a national conversation on how we can all work together every year to expand our collective mission to protect democracy, fight voter suppression, and ensure all Americans have equal access to the ballot box. This is democracy and it requires action. We are inviting you to join 2020 Victorious! | Communities United for National Voter Mobilization-Education-Registration Year of Action to get our communities prepared to #VoteReady and promote #VoterEducation from __January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022.__ We are counting on you to participate by organizing and supporting [virtual] voter registration drives where you will register eligible voters, and help experienced voters check-confirm and update their registration. __This month's target campaign will champion a call-to-action for:__ __U.S. Senate Georgia Runoff Election__ - Tuesday, December 6, 2022 __Launch a Community Conversation__ in your neighborhood-network! Let’s create a truly democratic space where we can connect together through meaningful dialogue. Advance Preparation: Organize a personal list of colleagues-neighbors, family-friends eligible to vote in the battleground-swing states below: then write a brief statement to motivate-inform the recipients. This discussion is for immediate participation in the call-to-action to protect our democracy. __Battleground-Swing States:__ AK-Alaska, AZ-Arizona, FL-Florida, GA-Georgia, KS-Kansas, MI-Michigan, NC-North Carolina, NV-Nevada, OH-Ohio, PA-Pennsylvania, SC-South Carolina, TX-Texas, WI-Wisconsin ... (governor, secretary of state, senator, congress) _Relational Organizing in the battleground-swing states._ - - - - - __Suppressed and Sabotaged: The Fight to Vote,__ a powerful 2020 Brave New Films production documentary about the growing threat of voter suppression and election sabotage to our 2022 midterm elections. There will be multiple documentary series presented throughout the year. [(movie trailer)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RhrbEh-osI&t=1s) * Monday-Friday, October 3-7, 2022 - __National Voter Education Week__ * * Documentary Screening, _upon advance request *_ [(movie trailer)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RhrbEh-osI&t=1s) __Preparation:__ We will organize our creative inspirations-skills to design several written expressions that capture the spirit of the national holiday for a monthly targeted campaign. The inspirational expressions will be distributed nationally to promote the advancement of voting rights throughout our respective communities. This will include the development of a voting toolkit of best practices. The community feedback provided by-to attendee-participants will guide-improve the collective voter mobilization-education-registration response. __GETTING STARTED__ __A Simple Task:__ Ask your community networks of colleagues-neighbors and family-friends to check the status of their voter registration at VOTE.gov or VOTE.org ... (and ask that they pass it on to their networks). _\"Check your voter registration status at VOTE.gov or VOTE.org and ask your networks to do the same.\"_ __National Voter Mobilization-Education-Registration Year of Action is a call to action.__ * THE GOAL: Engage at least 3-5+ potential voters in 5-days of action! * Ambitious Goal: Engage at least 20-25+ potential voters in 5-days of action! __Immediate Next Steps:__ Early Voting [(calendar)](https://www.vote.org/early-voting-calendar/) - Mail-In Ballot [(rules)](https://www.vote.org/absentee-voting-rules/) - Sample Ballot [(guide)](https://www.usa.gov/voter-research) - Invite your colleagues-neighbors, family-friends, and community networks to be mobilized and educated about the issues that most impact them. Include the early voting locations-dates-times, mail-in ballot instructions, and sample ballot previews information links in your personal distributions to ensure election day preparedness. National Voter Education Week [(NVEW)](https://www.votereducationweek.org) strives to help voters overcome common barriers to become confident voters and ambassadors of voting in their own communities for every election and provides days-of-action and voting resources. Learn how to register the 4-million youth voters who will become eighteen and eligible to vote this year, the 30-million Americans who moved and need to update their voter registration, the 2-million Americans living abroad (required to verify status annually), the 2-million Americans who got married (and changed their names) and need to update their voter registration, and the millions of Americans purged from the voter registration rolls for simple and avoidable reasons. ELECTION PROTECTION HOTLINE: Call or Text 866-OUR-VOTE * Tweet @866OURVOTE - - - - - __5 Days | 5 Actions__ National Voter Education Week (NVEW) helps voters bridge the gap between registering to vote and actually casting a ballot. During this week of interactive education, voters have the opportunity to find their polling location, understand their ballot, make a plan to vote in person or remotely, and more. NVEW strives to help voters overcome common barriers to become confident voters and ambassadors of voting in their own communities for every election. Review the NVEW website to become familiar with the days-of-action and other voting resources. [(... more NVEW)](https://www.votereducationweek.org) __Optional Task:__ VoteRiders is seeking dedicated virtual volunteers to help manage voter appointments and rides to the DMV and other ID-issuing agencies on an ongoing weekly basis. Responsibilities include making appointment reminder calls, scheduling rides and handling communications between drivers and voters. No experience is necessary. VoteRiders will provide all of the training and support needed to be successful. This opportunity is ideal for volunteers living in the Central Time Zone or Eastern Time Zone as the voters we help most frequently live in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Texas. [(... more VoteRiders)](https://www.voteriders.org) __12 Months | 21 Actions__ National Voter Mobilization-Education-Registration Year (NVMERY) helps voters bridge the gap between registering to vote and actually casting a ballot. During this year of interactive education, voters have the opportunity to find their polling location, understand their ballot, make a plan to vote in person or remotely, and more. NVMERY strives to help voters overcome common barriers to become confident voters and ambassadors of voting in their own communities for every election. While National Voter Mobilization-Education Year of Action is a __TARGETED campaign__ scheduled for a full extended year, the __Call-to-Action__ can begin today and continue any-every month-day throughout the year. We will meet, as a collective, on the designated dates-times above to discuss our daily encounters-progress and brainstorm ideas! A few great places to host voter registration drives include: local businesses (ask customers-employees to distribute-share the links), places of worship (ask to get a table in the lobby after services), the business office workplace (talk to each colleague to get them to update their registration), your high school or college-university (set-up a table in a high-traffic area or talk to fellow students during breakfast-lunch), and high-traffic areas in your community (laundromats, playgrounds, public parks, restaurants, supermarkets), etc. - - - - - 2020 Victorious! | Communities United is counting on all of us to participate by registering our colleagues-neighbors, families-friends and communities to ensure that eligible voters check and update their voter registration status during National Voter Mobilization-Education Year of Action. We are calling on you to participate by registering your friends, family, and neighbors, and helping eligible voters check and update their voter registration. Begin by thinking of several dates and places that you can integrate voter registration into your schedule, including the places that you will already be! Think about the gatherings you already attend, and places where you regularly have conversations with others. RSVP to this event page to indicate that during the Year of Action, you will participate by registering voters in your neighborhood and help your colleagues-neighbors, families-friends and communities check and update their voter registration! National Voter Mobilization-Education-Registration Year (NVMERY) ... (potential dates) * Saturday, January 1, 2022 - New Year's Day * Saturday, January 1-31, 2022 - New Year's Day through January 2022 * Monday, January 17, 2022 - Martin Luther King (MLK) Day of Service * February 2022 - Black History Month * Monday, February 14, 2022 - Valentine's Day * Monday, February 21, 2022 - Presidents' Day * March 2022 - Women's History Month * Thursday, March 17, 2022 - St. Patrick's Day * Friday, April 1, 2022 - April Fool's Day * Friday, April 22, 2022 - Earth Day * Sunday, May 15+22+29, 2022 - Documentary Screening [(movie trailer)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RhrbEh-osI&t=1s) * Monday, May 30, 2022 - Memorial Day * Sunday, June 5+12, 2022 - Documentary Screening [(movie trailer)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RhrbEh-osI&t=1s) * Tuesday, June 14, 2022 - Flag Day * Sunday, June 19, 2022 - Juneteenth * Monday, July 4, 2022 - Independence Day * [August 1-31, 2022 - Advance Preparations for Mid-Term Elections] * Monday, September 5, 2022 - Labor Day * Sunday, September 11, 2022 - 9-11 * Saturday, September 17, 2022 - Citizenship Day * Monday, September 19, 2022 - National Voter Registration Week of Action Kickoff Rally with Michelle Obama and celebrity guests * Tuesday, September 20, 2022 - __National Voter Registration Day__ * Monday-Friday, October 3-7, 2022 - __National Voter Education Week__ * Monday, October 10, 2022 - Columbus Day * November 2022 - Native American Heritage Month * Friday, November 11, 2022 - Veterans Day * Thursday, November 24, 2022 - Thanksgiving * Monday, December 26, 2022 - Christmas Day - - - - - __National Voter Registration Week of Action Kickoff Rally__ with former __First Lady Michelle Obama__ and celebrity guests on Monday, September 19, 2022 7:00pm ET / 4:00pm PT. __National Voter Registration Day is Tuesday, September 20, 2022.__ This rally will be a strong start to the week, as we prepare to get our colleagues-neighbors, family-friends and communities mobilized-educated-registered and ready to vote during National Voter Registration Week. __Ramp Up the Vote Rally:__ It’s time to Ramp Up The Vote! When We All Vote is hosting our Ramp Up The Vote Rally on Thursday, August 25, 2022 8:00 pm ET / 5:00 pm PT. Join us along with the partners, volunteers, and celebrity co-chairs and ambassadors as we get ready for this year’s midterm elections and ensure we all make our voices heard in the future of our country. __Special * Juneteenth Acknowledgement with Call-to-Action:__ Juneteenth marks the end of slavery in America and commemorates the collective freedom of African-Americans. This guided discussion will acknowledge the legacy of Juneteenth in Galveston, Texas to promote thought and commit to a plan to take action for our communities, _including voter mobilization-educations-registration_. * Sunday, July 10, 2022 (special meeting, _including voting rights_) - - - - - 160 million Americans cast their ballots in 2020 – shattering voter turnout records and making history. And we can’t stop now. There is still work to be done before we are #VoteReady! ELECTION PROTECTION HOTLINE: Call or Text 866-OUR-VOTE * Tweet @866OURVOTE Copyright © 2021-2022 Communities United | 2020 Victorious!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2028-01-01T05:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2028-01-02T04:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/434596/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/iStock-1200571987_20211230195758876840.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"434596","scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T21:20:46.640Z"},{"id":"mobilize-484461","title":"Suppressed and Sabotaged: The Fight to Vote Watch Party | Communities United","description":"JOIN 2020 Victorious! | Communities United supporters from all across the nation for the 2020 Brave New Films production, __Suppressed and Sabotaged: The Fight to Vote.__ This film is a powerful documentary about the growing threat of voter suppression and election sabotage to our 2022 midterm elections. __Special Presentation:__ The Center for American Progress' Reel Progress program and Brave New Films for a nationwide virtual screening of __National Film Premiere: \"Suppressed and Sabotaged: The Fight to Vote.\"__ – Thursday, September 15, 2022 8:00pm-10:00pm ET * Join after the film screening for remarks by Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD), followed by a panel discussion focused on voting rights and political power and the intersection with abortion rights and gun violence prevention policies. This powerful 45-minute documentary sheds light on the ongoing threats to free and fair elections in the United States and ways that people can help get democracy back on track. American democracy is under threat. In recent years, many states have made it harder for people to vote and easier for partisan actors to subvert valid elections. At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court continues to roll back Americans’ fundamental rights. Extremists at every level of government are doing their best to stop the emergence of a racially and ethnically diverse democracy and block important and popular policies. How did the United States get here, and what can be done? You're invited to bring your colleagues-neighbors, family-friends and communities to a 45-minute screening of Suppressed and Sabotaged: The Fight to Vote. [(movie trailer)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RhrbEh-osI&t=1s) 2020 Victorious! | Communities United is conducting a National Voter Registration Year of Action to get our communities prepared to head #BacktotheBallotBox from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022. 2020 Victorious! | Communities United is counting on all of us to participate by registering our colleagues-neighbors, families-friends and communities to ensure that eligible voters check and update their voter registration status during the National Voter Registration Year of Action. We are calling on you to participate by registering your friends, family, and neighbors, and helping eligible voters check and update their voter registration. Saving our democracy has never been led by the people in power – it’s been led by each one of us, and it starts in our communities. 160 million Americans cast their ballots in 2020 – shattering voter turnout records and making history. And we can’t stop now. There is still work to be done before we head #BacktotheBallotBox! ELECTION PROTECTION HOTLINE: Telephone or Text 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) * Tweet @866OURVOTE","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2028-01-01T05:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2028-01-02T04:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/484461/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/maxresdefault%20%281%29_20220727144020717987.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"484461","scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T21:20:46.640Z"},{"id":"mobilize-580830","title":"National Voter Education-Registration-Empowerment Year of Action | Communities United","description":"2020 Victorious! | Communities United is conducting a National Voter Mobilization-Education-Registration-Empowerment Year of Action to get our communities prepared and #VoteReady to promote #VoterEducation from __January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024.__ This is a national conversation on how we can all work together every year to expand our collective mission to protect democracy, fight voter suppression, and ensure all Americans have equal access to the ballot box. This is democracy and it requires action. - - - - - - - - - - __Training Session:__ (outline update) * Basic Voter Education-Registration ... (30-minutes, ends 7:30pm) ... review resources in advance, arrive on-time, prepare-ask questions, take notes * Brave New Films: \"Suppressed and Sabotaged\" | The Right/Fight to Vote [(trailer)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RhrbEh-osI) ... (45-minutes, ends 8:15pm) ... prepare to be attentive, note impressionable incidents, remarkable statements * Advance Voter Mobilization-Empowerment ... (30-minutes, ends 8:45pm) ... bring experiences-questions, take notes. take action - - - - - - - - - - We are inviting you to join 2020 Victorious! | Communities United for National Voter Mobilization-Education-Registration-Empowerment Year of Action to get our communities prepared and #VoteReady to promote #VoterEducation from __January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024.__ We are counting on you to participate by organizing and supporting [in-person/virtual] voter registration drives where you will register eligible voters, and help experienced voters check-confirm and update their registration. This year's target campaign will champion a call-to-action for: ... (to be updated) Last year's target campaign will champion a call-to-action for: __National Voter Registration Day__ - Tuesday, September 17, 2024 __National Voter Education Week of Action__ - Sunday, September 15-22, 2024 __National Voter Education Week__ - Monday-Friday, October 7-11, 2024 __Vote Early Day Celebration!__ - Tuesday, October 29, 2024 __Launch a Community Conversation__ in your neighborhood-network! Let’s create a truly democratic space where we can connect together through meaningful dialogue. __Note:__ The national acknowledgement date may differ from the date of meeting-discussion. Advance Preparation: Organize a personal list of colleagues-neighbors, family-friends eligible to vote in the battleground-swing states below: then write a brief statement to motivate-inform the recipients. This discussion is for immediate participation in the call-to-action to protect our democracy. __Battleground-Swing States:__ AK-Alaska, AZ-Arizona, FL-Florida, GA-Georgia, KS-Kansas, MI-Michigan, NC-North Carolina, NV-Nevada, NY-New York, OH-Ohio, PA-Pennsylvania, SC-South Carolina, TX-Texas, WI-Wisconsin ... (governor, secretary of state, senator, congress) _Relational Organizing in the battleground-swing states._ - - - - - __Suppressed and Sabotaged: The Fight to Vote,__ a powerful 2020 Brave New Films production documentary about the growing threat of voter suppression and election sabotage to our 2023 midterm-year elections. There will be multiple documentary series presented throughout the year. [(movie trailer)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RhrbEh-osI&t=1s) * Monday-Friday, October 7-11, 2024 - __National Voter Education Week__ * Documentary Screening, _upon advance request *_ [(movie trailer)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RhrbEh-osI&t=1s) __Preparation:__ We will organize our creative inspirations-skills to design several written expressions that capture the spirit of the national holiday for a monthly targeted campaign. The inspirational expressions will be distributed nationally to promote the advancement of voting rights throughout our respective communities. This will include the development of a voting toolkit of best practices. The community feedback provided by-to attendee-participants will guide-improve the collective voter mobilization-education-registration-empowerment response. __GETTING STARTED__ __A Simple Task:__ Ask your community networks of colleagues-neighbors and family-friends to check the status of their voter registration at VOTE.gov or VOTE.org ... (and ask that they pass it on to their networks). _\"Check your voter registration status at VOTE.gov or VOTE.org and ask your networks to do the same.\"_ __National Voter Mobilization-Education-Registration-Empowerment Year of Action is a call to action.__ * THE GOAL: Engage at least 3-5+ potential voters in 5-days of action! * Ambitious Goal: Engage at least 20-25+ potential voters in 5-days of action! __Immediate Next Steps:__ Early Voting [(calendar)](https://www.vote.org/early-voting-calendar/) - Mail-In Ballot [(rules)](https://www.vote.org/absentee-voting-rules/) - Sample Ballot [(guide)](https://www.usa.gov/voter-research) - Invite your colleagues-neighbors, family-friends, and community networks to be mobilized and educated about the issues that most impact them. Include the early voting locations-dates-times, mail-in ballot instructions, and sample ballot previews information links in your personal distributions to ensure election day preparedness. National Voter Education Week [(NVEW)](https://www.votereducationweek.org) strives to help voters overcome common barriers to become confident voters and ambassadors of voting in their own communities for every election and provides days-of-action and voting resources. Learn how to register the 4-million youth voters who will become eighteen and eligible to vote this year, the 30-million Americans who moved and need to update their voter registration, the 2-million Americans living abroad (required to verify status annually), the 2-million Americans who got married (and changed their names) and need to update their voter registration, and the millions of Americans purged from the voter registration rolls for simple and avoidable reasons. ELECTION PROTECTION HOTLINE: Call or Text 866-OUR-VOTE * Tweet @866OURVOTE - - - - - __5 Days | 5 Actions__ National Voter Education Week (NVEW) helps voters bridge the gap between registering to vote and actually casting a ballot. During this week of interactive education, voters have the opportunity to find their polling location, understand their ballot, make a plan to vote in person or remotely, and more. NVEW strives to help voters overcome common barriers to become confident voters and ambassadors of voting in their own communities for every election. Review the NVEW website to become familiar with the days-of-action and other voting resources. [(... more NVEW)](https://www.votereducationweek.org) __Optional Task:__ VoteRiders is seeking dedicated virtual volunteers to help manage voter appointments and rides to the DMV and other ID-issuing agencies on an ongoing weekly basis. Responsibilities include making appointment reminder calls, scheduling rides and handling communications between drivers and voters. No experience is necessary. VoteRiders will provide all of the training and support needed to be successful. This opportunity is ideal for volunteers living in the Central Time Zone or Eastern Time Zone as the voters we help most frequently live in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Texas. [(... more VoteRiders)](https://www.voteriders.org) __12 Months | 21 Actions__ National Voter Mobilization-Education-Registration-Empowerment Year (NVMEREY) helps voters bridge the gap between registering to vote and actually casting a ballot. During this year of interactive education, voters have the opportunity to find their polling location, understand their ballot, make a plan to vote in person or remotely, and more. NVMERY strives to help voters overcome common barriers to become confident voters and ambassadors of voting in their own communities for every election. While National Voter Mobilization-Education-Empowerment Year of Action is a __TARGETED campaign__ scheduled for a full extended year, the __Call-to-Action__ can begin today and continue any-every month-day throughout the year. We will meet, as a collective, on the designated dates-times above to discuss our daily encounters-progress and brainstorm ideas! A few great places to host voter registration drives include: local businesses (ask customers-employees to distribute-share the links), places of worship (ask to get a table in the lobby after services), the business office workplace (talk to each colleague to get them to update their registration), your high school or college-university (set-up a table in a high-traffic area or talk to fellow students during breakfast-lunch), and high-traffic areas in your community (laundromats, playgrounds, public parks, restaurants, supermarkets), etc. - - - - - 2020 Victorious! | Communities United is counting on all of us to participate by registering our colleagues-neighbors, families-friends and communities to ensure that eligible voters check and update their voter registration status during National Voter Mobilization-Education-Registration-Empowerment Year of Action. We are calling on you to participate by registering your friends, family, and neighbors, and helping eligible voters check and update their voter registration. Begin by thinking of several dates and places that you can integrate voter registration into your schedule, including the places that you will already be! Think about the gatherings you already attend, and places where you regularly have conversations with others. RSVP to this event page to indicate that during the Year of Action, you will participate by registering voters in your neighborhood and help your colleagues-neighbors, families-friends and communities check and update their voter registration! National Voter Mobilization-Education-Registration-Empowerment Year (NVMEREY) ... (potential dates) ~2024 DATES TO BE UPDATES~ * Monday, January 1, 2024 - New Year's Day * Monday, January 1-31, 2024 - New Year's Day through January 2023 * Monday, January 15, 2024 - Martin Luther King (MLK) Day of Service * February 2024 - Black History Month * Wednesday, February 14, 2024 - Valentine's Day * Monday, February 19, 2024 - Presidents' Day * March 2024 - Women's History Month * Sunday, March 17, 2023 - St. Patrick's Day * Monday, April 1, 2024 - April Fool's Day * Monday, April 22, 2024 - Earth Day * Sunday, May 12+19+26, 2024 - Documentary Screening [(movie trailer)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RhrbEh-osI&t=1s) * Monday, May 27, 2024 - Memorial Day * Sunday, June 2+9, 2024 - Documentary Screening [(movie trailer)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RhrbEh-osI&t=1s) * Friday, June 14, 2024 - Flag Day * Wednesday, June 19, 2024 - Juneteenth * Thursday, July 4, 2024 - Independence Day * [August 1-31, 2024 - Advance Preparations for Mid-Term Elections] * Monday, September 2, 2024 - Labor Day * Wednesday, September 11, 2024 - 9-11 * Tuesday, September 17, 2024 - Citizenship Day/Constitution Day * Sunday-Sunday, September 15-22, 2024 - National Voter Registration Week of Action * Sunday-Tuesday, September 15-October 15, 2024 - Hispanic Heritage Month * Tuesday, September 17, 2024 - __National Voter Registration Day__ * Monday-Friday, October 7-11, 2024 - __National Voter Education Week__ * Monday, October 14, 2024 - Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day * November 2024 - Native American Heritage Month * Tuesday, November 5, 2024 - __NATIONAL ELECTION DAY__ * Monday, November 11, 2024 - Veterans Day * Thursday, November 28, 2024 - Thanksgiving * Friday, November 29, 2024 - Native American Heritage Day * Wednesday, December 25, 2024 - Christmas Day - - - - - - - - - - 160 million Americans cast their ballots in 2020 – shattering voter turnout records and making history. And we can’t stop now. There is still work to be done before we are #VoteReady! ELECTION PROTECTION HOTLINE: Call or Text 866-OUR-VOTE * Tweet @866OURVOTE Copyright © 2021-2024 Communities United | 2020 Victorious!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2028-01-01T05:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2028-01-02T04:45:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/580830/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/iStock-1200571987_20211230195758876840.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"580830","scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T21:20:48.972Z"},{"id":"mobilize-413624","title":"2020 Victorious! Student-Youth Leadership * Community Organizing | Communities United ~students~","description":"N E W * P R O G R A M * P L A T F O R M – __(((Season Launch September 1, 2021)))__ 2020 Victorious! | Communities United [(event programs)](https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/) Public / STUDENT-YOUTH EXCLUSIVE EVENT *for* New Friends of 2020 Victorious! | Communities United – Virtual Community Event: Student Outreach, Youth of Color, Youth Vote 2020 Victorious! | Communities United is on a mission to educate-motivate student-youth communities and highlight the issues and policies that most impact our national and respective state-local governments from the student-youth perspective. We believe that the American student-youth leaders and the public at-large are a valuable asset to our democracy and deserve a voice beyond the ballot and the vote in our government. We believe that elected officials and national-state legislators should be held accountable to their constituents – this includes their student-youth political leadership. __The Citizen-Youth, Student-Youth, Student Leader and Independents__ are the official youth-independent division of 2020 Victorious | Communities United. The attendee-participants and members of the division strive to make a constructive difference in the community by working within the political process and upholding the principles-vision of the United States Constitution. - - - - - (((__Student-Youth Training Sessions__))) My School Votes (MSV) is a unique extracurricular program that offers transformative civic learning, hands-on skill-building, and lifelong empowerment experiences. Through this year-long training in advocacy and organizing, high school student-leaders have opportunities to apply civic lessons to real-world scenarios. Students learn the fundamentals of campaign development and management, connect national issues to the local level, and learn how to develop highly effective student-led voter ID and registration campaigns. Establishing MSV Clubs provides an opportunity to embed civics work into the fabric of a school, allowing the shift in a school’s culture to begin and students to assume leadership roles and responsibilities.Didn’t make it to the first training(s)? No worries! It is never too late to join. Sign up for this event today and we will catch you up to speed. Bring a friend. Bring three. We are giving students the tools they need to lead us forward. - - - - - __My School Votes Kickoff Training__ [(register)](https://www.mobilize.us/whenweallvote/event/404563/) – Tuesday, September 14, 2021 7:00pm-8:00pm ET * Take the first step in this school year's civic journey with My School Votes! Join us as we embark on a path that will ensure all students obtain voter ID, register to vote, address local issues all while developing and growing student power. This first-ever Constructive Civics training is for high school students. You will learn how to establish an MSV Club in your school (or adopt this program into an already running club), how to host your first meetings, recruit student members, and begin strategizing to run your first Voter ID campaign this Fall! Let's make sure your class is registered and ready to vote in 2022. Start an MSV Club today and let's get Back to School and Back to Civics. * MSV: Civics 101 -- Training II: Creating and Distributing a Message [(register)](https://www.mobilize.us/whenweallvote/event/412773/) – Wednesday, October 6, 2021 7:00pm-8:15pm ET * MSV: Civics 101 -- Training III: Learning the Issues [(register)](https://www.mobilize.us/whenweallvote/event/412776/) – Wednesday, November 3, 2021 7:00pm-8:15pm ET * MSV: Civics 101 -- Training IV: Connecting Issues to Action [(register)](https://www.mobilize.us/whenweallvote/event/412778/) – Wednesday, December 1, 2021 7:00pm-8:15pm ET * MSV: Civics 101 -- Training V: Understanding What Matters to Your School Community [(register)](https://www.mobilize.us/whenweallvote/event/412779/) – Wednesday, January 5, 2022 7:00pm-8:15pm ET * MSV: Civics 101 -- Training VI: Strategizing a Voter Registration Campaign [(register)](https://www.mobilize.us/whenweallvote/event/412784/) – Wednesday, February 2, 2022 7:00pm-8:15pm ET * MSV: Civics 101 -- Training VII: Executing a Voter Registration Campaign [(register)](https://www.mobilize.us/whenweallvote/event/412785/) – Wednesday, March 2, 2022 7:00pm-8:15pm ET * MSV: Civics 101 -- Training VIII: Reviewing and Analyzing Your Results [(register)](https://www.mobilize.us/whenweallvote/event/412786/) – Wednesday, April 6, 2022 7:00pm-8:15pm ET __MSV: Missed a training?__ Sign up for an Orientation Call! [(register)](https://www.mobilize.us/whenweallvote/event/414169/) – Thursday, October 21, 2021 7:00pm-7:30pm ET * MSV Orientation calls happen every month and are the perfect place to get started with MSV. It does not matter when you join, all that matters is that you get involved!! - - - - - We are in the planning phase of this year 2021 to allow 2020 Victorious! | Communities United to identify long-term Youth Leadership Teams and Independent Influencers. We will revisit the national election year 2020 to determine the long-term goals of 2020 Victorious! | Communities United for the atypical participant: Student-Youth (14-18), Youth Voters (18-25-30) and Independent Voters (of all ages). The intent is to equip all member-participants to be effective community leaders-organizers and have a more widespread, impactful voice within more of the nation's most affected communities. You are invited to join our frequent training sessions and monthly meetings! - - - - - __Q: Are you between the ages of 14-18-25?__ Are you a student-youth leader-organizer, infrequent voter, or unregistered potential voter? ... (or registered Independent, Democrat, Republican). Are you concerned about the political future and security of the nation? Then come join us for our upcoming monthly engagement meeting-discussion and training sessions. __Important Note:__ The attendees, Community Participants, Community Members, and Community Advocates of 2020 Victorious! | Communities United are welcome to attend-participate _only if_ \"Accompanied by a 'Minor' (age 14-18-25) attendee-participant.\" Register all affiliated attendee-participants simultaneously to confirm-facilitate eligibility for this and other related event programs. Please register both yourself and youth participants simultaneously for acknowledgement. __Registration _must_ include__ high school student-youth (~14-18), college-student youth (~18-25), young adults-professionals (~18-30) for attendance-participation. - - - - - 2020 Victorious | Communities United has specific target goals to increase voter participation in elections by closing the voting age gap, the race age gap, and to change the cultural perspectives related to voting. Our intended goals are to expand access to the ballot, educate new voters, and bring all voters to the polls by increasing-improving the knowledge-information base with comprehensive voting. We are building a grassroots team of activists, community organizers and volunteers to lead the effort-initiatives in their respective states and communities to empower more people with information-knowledge. By joining the 2020 Victorious | Communities United team, you will receive access to (i) regular updates on the latest political action news, (ii) invites to regional-state-local programs-events that directly impact the community, government and the nation, and (iii) relevant educational training to provide the information-knowledge to be effective within your region-states and local communities. JOIN for an overview discussion of the new ideas-directions planned for the future engagements at 2020 Victorious! | Communities United. Learn firsthand about how YOU can contribute-participate to have direct impact in your community. Tell us about the discussions most important to YOU ... (and how to best deliver the implementation). Copyright © 2021 Communities United | 2020 Victorious!","organization":"Unknown","organizationLogo":"","startDate":"2028-01-01T14:00:00.000Z","endDate":"2028-01-01T15:00:00.000Z","timezone":"America/New_York","isVirtual":true,"location":{"venue":"","address":", ","city":"","state":"","zip":"","country":"US"},"virtualUrl":null,"registrationUrl":"https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/413624/","image":"https://mobilizeamerica.imgix.net/uploads/event/civics_20210928160954669625.jpg","eventType":"webinar","source":"Mobilize.us","sourceId":"413624","scrapedAt":"2026-02-01T21:20:46.640Z"},{"id":"mobilize-413625","title":"2020 Victorious! MLK NATIONAL DAY-WEEK OF ACTION-IMPACT-SERVICE | Communities United","description":"2020 Victorious! | Communities United is excited to partner with organizations across the country to participate in a National Day of Service on Monday, January 17, 2021 in honor of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 2020 Victorious! | Communities United encourages volunteers and community leaders to host virtual or socially distant service events in their community. __“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?'” – The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.__ JOIN 2020 Victorious! | Communities United supporters from all across the nation for the MLK National Day-Week of Action-Impact-Service! The full week-weekend of action-impact-service series on Monday-Tuesday, Thursday-Friday, Saturday, and Monday, January 10-11, 13-14, 15, 16, and 17, 2021 will cover critical topics and share action planning about how to be of service in our communities and to our nation. The plan is to mobilize in order to support the The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, Georgia and throughout the nation. Please feel free to attend-participate in ALL-some or part of each daily-weekend action-impact-service event. Sign up with a friend! Join us as we criss-cross the nation from New York to California, from Florida to Texas, from Washington, DC to the State of Washington (east-west, north-south) to honor the successes-triumphs of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: * MONDAY-TUESDAY, January 10-11, 2022 10:00am-1:30pm ... (3-hour 30-minutes) 2020 Victorious! King Center Holiday Nonviolence365® Virtual Series: Keys to Creating a Culture Shift That Sticks https://thekingcenter.org/king-holiday-2022/ * THURSDAY-FRIDAY, January 13-14, 2022 10:00am-5:30pm/4:00pm ... (7-hour 30-minutes) 2020 Victorious! King Center Holiday Observance Beloved Community Global Summit https://thekingcenter.org/king-holiday-2022/ ... Rebroadcast [(01-13-2022)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne9tMDgmZ9M) [(01-14-2022)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIr_ULBzZDg) * FRIDAY, January 14, 2022 12:00pm-6:30pm ... (6-hour 30-minutes) 2020 Victorious! King Center Holiday Observance Beloved Community Global Youth Summit https://thekingcenter.org/king-holiday-2022/ ... Rebroadcast [(01-14-2022)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2GuNy1TMR4) * SATURDAY, January 15, 2022 10:30am-11:30am ... (1-hour program) 2020 Victorious! King Center Holiday Beloved Community Book Reading: “It Starts With Me”: A Virtual Youth Book Reading and Puppetry Presentation https://thekingcenter.org/king-holiday-2022/ ... Rebroadcast [(01-15-2022)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TvlBJBSVnY) * SATURDAY, January 15, 2022 7:30pm-9:30pm ... (2-hour program) 2020 Victorious! King Center Holiday Beloved Community Awards (Formerly the Salute to Greatness Awards) https://thekingcenter.org/king-holiday-2022/ - Streaming on The King Center Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and website. ... Rebroadcast [(01-15-2022)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TvlBJBSVnY) * SUNDAY, January 16, 2022 2:00pm-2:45pm ... (45-minute program) 2020 Victorious! King Center Holiday Flame of Hope Ceremony Hosts: the King Center and Earth Caravan – Location: The King Center Plaza. *masks required * MONDAY, January 17, 2022 10:00am-1:00pm ... (3-hour program) 2020 Victorious! Martin Luther King Jr. Beloved Community Commemorative Service https://thekingcenter.org/king-holiday-2022/ - - - - - __OTHER MLK EVENTS:__ ... (as schedules are made available) Virtual Rally: __Poor People’s Campaign National Launch of the Moral March on Washington and to the Polls – June 18, 2022__ [(livestream)](https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/livestream/) – Friday, January 14, 2022 10:00am ET * Tune in to hear Poor People’s Campaign co-chair Rev. Dr. William Barber II offers a vision for the National Launch of this season of nonviolent moral direct action culminating in the Mass Poor People's and Low-Wage Workers' Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls – June 18, 2022. And then, make your calls to Congress to let them know that we don’t have scarcity of resources in this nation, we are dealing with a scarcity of political will. Every day of continued injustice will only embolden our agitation and strengthen our resolve to realize our moral agenda and the nation we have yet to be. Our demands can't wait. Call now and demand Congress to: * Pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act * Pass the For the People Act * End the Filibuster * Pass the Build Back Better agenda as a first step * Pass $15/hr Minimum Wage now * Pass Protections for All Immigrants * Stop the Destruction of Apache Holy Site Oak Flat Virtual Rally: __Poor People’s Campaign National Launch of the Moral March on Washington and to the Polls – June 18, 2022__ [(register)](https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84734193899) – Monday, January 17, 2022 4:00pm-6:00pm ET * Join the NYS PPC Faith Organizing Team online to learn the history of the Poor People's Campaign and to hear what the movement is calling for us to do right now! Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis will join and we will learn from impacted leaders in the NYS campaign who will share their experiences and insights with us as well. We will hear from faith leaders and share collectively our religious traditions' grounding for us in this campaign. AND, we will sing, take action together that day and sign up for concrete ways to build towards the Mass Poor People's Assembly and Moral March on Washington on June 18th! MONDAY, January 17+24, 2022 1:00pm-2:00pm ... (1-hour program) 2020 Victorious! Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) – __History Alive! Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: The Last Five Years.__ Honor the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with living history interpreter John McCaskill as he chronicles the last five years of King’s life and shares other stories of the individuals who fought to end racial segregation and discrimination in the United States. Additional Information: John McCaskill brings dynamic public speaking presentations in Washington, DC and across the country. To authenticate his living history presentations, he adorns period attire for colonial, WWII/Army Air Corps Tuskegee Airmen, and Civil War U.S. Colored Troops, World War I, Reconstruction, Buffalo Soldier, and the 1960’s Civil Rights period. ... Rebroadcast [(01-17+24-2022)](https://video.ibm.com/channel/zCPF4U3hFPc) While we reflect on the past and look towards the future with hope and intention, the MLK National Day-Week of Action-Impact-Service will be an analysis of our national history and future legacy. The weekend series will be a continuum of daily information discussions conducted by The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, Georgia, followed by a brief 30-minute open group discussion (optional). We want you to bring your favorite relevant historical civil rights and social justice topics and your best community service ideas to the discussion. And once you register, make sure your communities, colleagues, friends and family join too! PRE-MLK DAY of Service Discussion: If you are looking for a place to start, but are unsure how to do so, join one of our information sessions scheduled for January 10-11-13-14-15-17, 2022 10:00am ET / 7:00am PT. If you don't know where to start, don't have the time to research or can't wait to get started with hands-on work, join us on one or more projects for the MLK Day-Week of Action-Impact-Service scheduled between Monday-Tuesday, Thursday-Friday, Saturday, and Monday, January 10-11, 13-14, 15, and 17, 2021. 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The intent is to equip all member-participants to be effective community leaders-organizers and have a more widespread, impactful voice within more of the nation's most affected communities. - - - - - __Special Presentation:__ 2020 Victorious! | Communities United for a nationwide virtual screening of __Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom | A Documentary__ from @ourdailybread Voices Collection. – Sunday+Monday, June 18+19, 2023 10:00pm-11:30pm ET / 7:00pm-8:30pm PT and Sunday, June 25, 2023 8:00pm-10:00pm ET / 5:00pm-7:00pm PT. [(documentary trailer)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa4txHtKIps) * Join after the Democracy Matters! | JUNETEENTH Voter Education-Registration-Empowerment | Communities United [(juneteenth)](https://www.mobilize.us/2020victorious/event/564618/). This documentary film is a powerful 75-minute presentation which sheds light on the original Juneteenth experience and the continued-ongoing expansion of democracy and freedoms within the American civil rights and social justice system. The documentary introduces ways to help bring the civil rights and social justice system into alignment with democracy. Uncover the deep spiritual significance of America’s newest federal holiday with pastor Rasool Berry in \"Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom,\" a new documentary film presented by the Our Daily Bread Voices Collection and Our Daily Bread Media. Learn how Scripture inspired the faith of enslaved people, travel to the church where America’s first Juneteenth celebration took place, and uncover why newly liberated men and women credited God for their freedom. With special guests Ms. Opal Lee, Lecrae, and more, you’ll journey to Galveston, Texas to discover a faith stronger than suffering. - - - - - __\"Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom | A Documentary\"__ exposes how America’s history of enslavement and social injustice evolved into an enormous movement for civil rights and social justice empowerment. Through first-person accounts of those charged with guarding the history of Juneteenth in Galveston, Texas under the paralleled stories about the systems of today, the film brings to light a powerful imagery of racial inequality. With the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, this film provides historical context and examines America’s history of racist oppression. [A black man is troubled by the legacy of American slavery and the misuse of Christianity to justify it. He travels throughout Texas and discovers how the Juneteenth holiday reveals a resilient hope that empowered the formerly enslaved and their descendants to fight for freedom in an often unjust society.] - - - - - By joining the 2020 Victorious | Communities United team, you will receive access to (i) regular updates on the latest political action news, (ii) invites to regional-state-local programs-events that directly impact the community, government and the nation, and (iii) relevant educational training to provide the information-knowledge to be effective within your region-states and local communities. __Worth Repeating:__ The intent is to equip all member-participants to be effective community leaders-organizers and have a more widespread, impactful voice within more of the nation's most affected communities. 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![\"\"](\"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=g\")
By Elizabeth Ayoola ·![\"A](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/c8a0e4c3d7be0a66b21dfba9aa865637142b20be-2560x1798.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"The](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/b1f368e387c191fcbe4046a1daa309525a8564dc-1024x679.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"Brooke](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-5.02.25 PM-1200x900.png\")
![\"Brooke](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/DSC2801-scaled.jpg\")
![\"Brooke](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/24ebce84-c670-42aa-9280-c2ea0adcd3ba.jpg-scaled.jpg\")
![\"A](\"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/KidsTearGas-FEATURE_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?w=1149\")
![\"Clockwise](\"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/2026-teargaskids-seliger-AN-1.jpg?w=752\")
![\"Clockwise](\"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/2026-teargaskids-seliger-AN-2-1.jpg?w=752\")
![\"A](\"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/20260309-Nash-Tear-Gas-Kids-041_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?w=1149\")
![\"A](\"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/20260131_EZI_union__rally_tear_gas32_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?w=752\")
![\"EXCLUSIVE:](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/GettyImages-2273084666-1200x900.jpg\")
Photo Credit: Johnny Nunez ![\"EXCLUSIVE:](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/GettyImages-2273462193-scaled.jpg\")
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 27:(L-R) Tessa Thompson, Kishori Rajan, Justen Ross, Vivica A. Fox, Kara Young, Aleshea Harris, Mallori Johnson, Erika Alexander, Janelle Monae, Riva Marker, Xavier Mills and Josiah Cross attend the “Is God Is” New York Premiere at Brooklyn Academy of Music on April 27, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images) ![\"Vivica](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/GettyImages-2273462136-2-1200x900.jpg\")
Vivica A. Fox, Janelle Monae and Erika Alexander attend the “Is God Is” New York Premiere. Photo Credit: Cindy Ord ![\"Vivica](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/21b70ea47a71d6881471e6583321e901.webp\")
Vivica A. Fox in ‘Is God Is’ (2026). Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios ![\"Jazz](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/california_DV-funding.jpg?w=683\")
![\"Adriana](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Revolutionary_AdrianaGeorge_HannahYoon.jpg?w=683\")
![\"The](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/33a7147304f465627b8d79d222ee2a58b3b893c7-2048x1365.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"The](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/60e331bbfd4610feb3856c023e3a2c7c7601a2cf-4032x2690.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"Photographs](\"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/sherri-chessen-life-magazine-660x372.webp\")
![\"In](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/image-Cropped-1920x1080.png\")
Courtesy of Create To Heal ![\"In](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/image-2.png\")
![\"In](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/image-1.png\")
![\"In](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/Picture2.png\")
![\"In](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/Picture3.png\")
![\"In](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/Picture1_Hair.png\")
![\"In](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/Picture6.png\")
His Favorite Styles To Do:![\"Precious](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/precious_brady_davis_02.jpg?w=1024\")
![\"Glass-fronted](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/marcus_ford_03.jpg?w=683\")
![\"Precious](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/precious_brady_davis_03.jpg?w=1024\")
![\"Precious](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/precious_brady_davis_04.jpg?w=1024\")
![\"‘Heart](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/20260316_OWN_CHLOE_COOK_3282_noLOGO.jpg\")
Chloe Cook is returning to ‘Heart & Hustle: Houston’ ![\"‘Heart](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/20260316_OWN_LATORRIA_LEMON_1553_noLOGO.jpg\")
La’Torria Lemon is returning to ‘Heart & Hustle: Houston’ ![\"‘Heart](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/20260316_OWN_LEBRINA_JOHNSON_1735_noLOGO.jpg\")
LeBrina Johnson is returning to ‘Heart & Hustle: Houston’ ![\"‘Heart](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/20260316_OWN_MUNEERA_PAGE_2605_noLOGO.jpg\")
Muneera Page is returning to ‘Heart & Hustle: Houston’ ![\"‘Heart](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/20260316_OWN_ROE_GRADY_0553_noLOGO.jpg\")
Roe Grady is returning to ‘Heart & Hustle: Houston’ ![\"Sterling](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/GettyImages-2273463317-scaled.jpg\")
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 27:(L-R) Vivica A. Fox, Tessa Thompson, Kara Young, Janelle Monae, Aleshea Harris, Mallori Johnson and Erika Alexander attend the “Is God Is” New York Premiere at Brooklyn Academy of Music on April 27, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images) ![\"Court](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/04bd6568fb2b201d5e6af3019927b609b0c88b6e-2560x1707.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"Supreme](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/cee188b44135e8658767818221c0918cf8784c57-2560x1707.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"The](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/51196233c76862fa259d2621f3e35fd9868b74c6-1024x683.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886052-scaled.jpg\")
Jawara Wauchope ![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886000-scaled.jpg\")
Fesa Nu ![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886020-scaled.jpg\")
Isaac Poleon ![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7885975-scaled.jpg\")
Malcolm Marquez ![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886026-scaled.jpg\")
Isaac Poleon![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886027-scaled.jpg\")
Isaac Poleon![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886035-scaled.jpg\")
Joshua Meekins![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886041-scaled.jpg\")
Joshua Meekins![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886024-scaled.jpg\")
Isaac Poleon![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886039-scaled.jpg\")
Joshua Meekins![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886022-scaled.jpg\")
Isaac Poleon![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886013-scaled.jpg\")
Vernon François![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7885983-scaled.jpg\")
Malcolm Marquez![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7885978-scaled.jpg\")
Malcolm Marquez![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886054-scaled.jpg\")
Jawara Wauchope![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7885993-scaled.jpg\")
Fesa Nu![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886058-1-scaled.jpg\")
Jawara Wauchope![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7885991-scaled.jpg\")
Fesa Nu![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886010-scaled.jpg\")
Vernon François![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886048-scaled.jpg\")
Jawara Wauchope![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7885999-scaled.jpg\")
Fesa Nu![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886046-scaled.jpg\")
Jawara Wauchope![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7885992-scaled.jpg\")
Fesa Nu![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886008-scaled.jpg\")
Vernon François![\"Inside](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/BFA_54156_7886036-scaled.jpg\")
Joshua Meekins TOPICS: Black Hair Reimagined: The New Era of Beauty Hair Show Jawara Wauchope![\"Court](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/3da8924b8d5608b9ab8452b395556d7d1cd4bf72-1024x683.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"When](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/096be47d8080ce26fa205dcb7e9ad1c993168cd2-2048x1437.webp?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"State](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/1a278df11b0840635416ebadf6602021bb97307b-2560x1920.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"Students](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/history-school-1A.jpg?w=427\")
![\"A](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/history-school-4A.jpg?w=1024\")
![\"A](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/history-school-2A.jpg?w=1024\")
![\"12](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-2202324738-scaled.jpg\")
MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 27: Victoria Monét attends the Roberto Cavalli fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week – Womenswear Fall/Winter 2025/2026 on February 27, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Daniele Venturelli/WireImage)![\"12](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-2207046760-scaled.jpg\")
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 26: Victoria Monét attends Vogue World: Hollywood Press Announcement at Chateau Marmont on March 26, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)![\"12](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-2207589226-scaled.jpg\")
INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 29: Victoria Monét attends the 2025 Billboard Women in Music at YouTube Theater on March 29, 2025 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Monica Schipper/WireImage)![\"12](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-2243518430-scaled.jpg\")
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 26: Victoria Monét attends Vogue World: Hollywood 2025 at Paramount Studios on October 26, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.(Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Vogue)![\"12](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-2247249451-scaled.jpg\")
Victoria Monét at the Give Her FlowHERS Gala 2025 held at The Beverly Hilton on November 21, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JC Olivera/Variety via Getty Images)![\"12](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-2250222204-scaled.jpg\")
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 04: Victoria Monét poses as Elaine Welteroth and Kerry Washington launch BirthFund 100 at Tory Burch Rodeo on December 04, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Tory Burch)![\"12](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-2258632094-scaled.jpg\")
TOLUCA LAKE, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 27: Victoria Monet attends Camper’s Campilation Album Release Party at Verse on January 27, 2026 in Toluca Lake, California. (Photo by Jerritt Clark/Getty Images for Camper)![\"12](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-2258780804-scaled.jpg\")
WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 28: Victoria Monét attends the Black Music Action Coalition Music Maker Dinner at The Sun Rose on January 28, 2026 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)![\"12](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-2261594045-scaled.jpg\")
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 13: Victoria Monét attends the Los Angeles Clippers & Comcast NBCUniversal’s NBA All-Star Legendary Tip-Off Celebration at Los Angeles County Museum of Art on February 13, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Julian Hamilton/WireImage)![\"12](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-2269171120-scaled.jpg\")
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – MARCH 30: Victoria Monet poses as she visits the Ferrari and BT Show with 96.1 The Beat at Estes Services Music Lounge on March 30, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Prince Williams/WireImage)![\"12](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-2273170496-scaled.jpg\")
Victoria Monét at the 2026 Billboard Women in Music held at Hollywood Palladium on April 29, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Billboard via Getty Images) TOPICS: celebrity beauty victoria monét![\"After](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/e31d2192ee2d5b96a88fcaa2c9cc7381544072a7-2560x1707.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"Court](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/91ad78a16b432995321af47143d208690b3532b0-500x332.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"Justices](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/1a4a0951c6a55129d82cb0aedf3636b9679dfbbe-2560x1707.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"Supreme](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/7ae75637b8527a75159ebb66357d674568a37229-1600x1066.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"Rep.](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Voting_Rights_02.jpg?w=1024\")
![\"Rep.](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Voting_Rights_03.jpg?w=1024\")
![\"Now](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/MICHAEL-PART-2-230426-MCDMICH_LG029.jpg-1200x900.webp\")
Courtesy of Lions Gate/Everett Collection ![\"Two](\"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/2025_1001_SR_SaundraEloise_018.jpg?w=1149\")
![\"The](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-1262634638-Cropped-1-1200x900.jpg\")
Getty Images. ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-1.46.17 PM.png\")
Flip-flops are the chic, easy sandals she’ll be reaching for all summer long—especially these square-toeclass=\"retailer essence-commerce-link\" target=\"_blank\">ZARA 40Shop Now 02 02 H&M Puff-Sleeved Satin Blouse ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-1.46.29 PM.png\")
This turquoise piece is a summer must-have, complete with puff sleeves—perfect for the fashion-forward mom. Available at H&M 75Shop Now 03 03 BDG Kayla Cocoon Low-Rise Jeans ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-1.46.57 PM.png\")
These cream-toned barrel jeans strike the perfect balance—effortlessly cool yet polished—for the mom on the go who still wants to look put together. Available at Urban Outfitters 80Shop Now 04 04 Sézane Luca Bracelet Set ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-1.47.24 PM.png\")
These bone-colored bangle bracelets from Sézane are a summer essential. Your mom can pair them with any colorful look for a playful, standout accessory. Available at Sézane 65Shop Now 05 05 & Other Stories Woven Straw Bucket Hat ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-1.48.04 PM.png\")
Every chic mom knows sun protection is key to maintaining youthful skin. Shop this straw hat from & Other Stories to help her stay shaded in the most stylish way. Available at & Other Stories 59Shop Now 06 06 Clementine Original Silk Sleep Mask ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-1.48.21 PM.png\")
Sleep is non-negotiable for a mom on the go. Gift this silk sleep mask from Clementine Sleepwear to ensure she gets a proper night’s rest. Available at Clementine 80Shop Now 07 07 Kendra Scott Mom Gold Crystal Short Pendant Necklace ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-1.48.55 PM.png\")
This “mom” necklace from Kendra Scott, featuring a delicate gemstone pendant, is the perfect everyday accessory for your favorite lady. Available at Kendra Scott 60Shop Now 08 08 Vans Premium Authentic Shoe ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-1.49.12 PM.png\")
The stylish mom knows that outfits while with her kids are just as important as those without them. These lavender sneakers from Vans will help her stay comfy while on the go. Available at Vans 80Shop Now ![\"Ethiopia](\"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/ethiopia-logbook.jpg\")
![\"Pills-In-Hand\"](\"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/pills-in-hand.jpg\")
![\"Op-Ed:](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-1435656718-1200x900.jpg\")
Sad mid adult woman in the kitchen at home ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-9.26.51 AM.png\")
I swear by Beyoncé in general, but I promise the haircare is just as great! Cécred was a very pleasant surprise. I didn’t expect to rave the way I do. I use both the Clarifying and the Hydrating shampoos on wash day because locs tend to hold on to much more than your average hair class=\"retailer essence-commerce-link\" target=\"_blank\">ULTA 39Shop Now 02 02 ALLPA BOTANICALS Grapeseed Oil ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-9.42.29 AM.png\")
Pure and organic ingredients of course. Grapeseed oil is light and natural as opposed to heavy gel or ultra-fragrant heavy oils that bleed through your scarf and make your forehead so sticky and shiny that you need to rush home to feel normal again. Trust that a little grapeseed oil goes a very long way. Perfect for retwisting without residue. Available at ALLPA BOTANICALS 37Shop Now 03 03 Locsanity Refresh Spray (Passionfruit) ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-9.44.04 AM.png\")
There are plenty of flavors to choose from. I switch between Passionfruit and Coconut! I don’t use this as a daily spray because it can be a bit heavy and full of nutrients, so when I need a good refresh, maybe every Sunday, I reach for this to bring my locs back to life in a “dry shampoo” type way. Did I mention, it has all vegan ingredients? Exactly. Available at Locsanity 7Shop Now 04 04 NappStar Jasmine Retwist Oil ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-9.45.13 AM.png\")
I love the Nappstar brand overall! I literally go to the Nappstar Salon for my retwist (they have plenty of locations, check them out!) I know it’s listed as a retwist oil, which it can be used for, but I use it as a scalp oil when my hair is feeling a bit dry. It’s SUPER fragrant, so feel free to grab the unscented if you don’t need the theatrics but you desire the growth and shine. Available at NappStar 22Shop Now 05 05 STAR CARE 100% Virgin Rose Water ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-9.46.12 AM.png\")
A go-to for keeping the scalp stimulated and balanced. Lightweight enough to use consistently without clogging or buildup, so it’s perfect for that daily spritz before leaving the house. Just something to say “I love you” to your locs. Available at Amazon 8Shop Now 06 06 BREAD Everyday Gloss ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-9.47.31 AM.png\")
I sprinkle this over my hair before date night or maybe just to boost my mood? The smell is so light and powdery fresh. Not super heavy on the hair. Think of it as the equivalent of a roll-on perfume. You know the wrist and behind-the-ear type of dance. I love this oil for a quick one, two. Available at ULTA 24Shop Now 07 07 Lina Lennox XL Organic Silk Hair Bonnet ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-9.49.16 AM.png\")
Every Black woman knows, the scarf isn’t enough. You also may need a bonnet. And perhaps a silk pillow case? It’s like Luther said, never too much! And this bonnet in particular is Black-owned, made of 100% silk, and sure to stay on throughout the night. Available at LINA LENNOX 98Shop Now 08 08 The Doux Bis A$$ Shower Cap ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-9.53.36 AM.png\")
And now that my locs are starting to get longer, and fuller, they no longer fit into my standard shower cap so I’m sure to go jumbo these days. Available at 23Shop Now ![\"Senatorial](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/graham_maine.jpg?w=1024\")
![\"In](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/27bb258ee63363ea28dfdc8670d9da46d83175f9-1024x683.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
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![\"Twinkies,](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/a41722703d2475342f6b0bcc370d96295fe42725-2007x482.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"Iconic](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2216795388-scaled.jpg\")
NAPA, CALIFORNIA – MAY 23: Flavor Flav (L) and Chuck D of Public Enemy perform during the 2025 Bottle Rock Napa Valley festival at Napa Valley Expo on May 23, 2025 in Napa, California. (Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/FilmMagic) ![\"Iconic](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/1200x1200.jpg\")
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![\"A](\"https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2224665742.jpg?w=1149\")
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![\"Scene](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2272494346-1200x900.jpg\")
Photo Credit: Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty Images ![\"\"](\"https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/NYCs-Sex-Workers-Vigil-Ash-Marinaccio-Web-660x440.jpg\")
![\"This](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/DSC05798-scaled.jpg\")
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![\"This](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/IMG_7775-scaled.jpeg\")
TOPICS: The Ritual Report![\"Court](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/4fc6989b2bd66c54521437ab9846f871995b7596-1024x683.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"Justices](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/1be45ba7058fdd67f94093d6b23bc3585f23f837-1024x681.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"So](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/1f67ecad449fc28b67102dd96cfc3ac5cccab707-2560x1440.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"Jordan](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/abortion-dems_02.jpg?w=1024\")
![\"A](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/abortion-dems_04.jpg?w=683\")
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![\"Denise](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Denise_Powell_nebraska.jpg?w=1024\")
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![\"A](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/20260427-Flood-Committee-MS-08.jpeg?w=1024\")
![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Baobab_Scarf_POW_1.png.webp\")
Every mother has one scarf that’ll last a lifetime. This is the one. Whether worn to bed, the beach, or out to run errands, this large silk scarf will protect her hair however she decides toclass=\"retailer essence-commerce-link\" target=\"_blank\">weloveus.shop 89Shop Now Brunel World Trinity Set ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/BrunelWorldTrinitySet.jpg.webp\")
Want to smell like Jasmine Tookes? This holistic body ritual is the holy trinity of body care: the Renewal and Golden Hour body oils and new Awakening Vital Radiance Body Lotion. Available at brunelbeauty.com 137Shop Now Ruechi Refresh Kit ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/RUECHI_Kit_1-200.jpg.webp\")
This kit is perfect for a much-needed Mother’s Day vacation. A plush spa headband, cryo sculpting tool, and nano mister are all wrapped into a water-resistant vanity bag for lounging by the pool, a day at the spa, or some luxurious R&R at home. Available at amazon.com 88Shop Now PAT McGRATH LABS Dramatique Major Icons Lip Duo Set ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/8ca0d2fd-1432-4d96-b181-3174d55d308d.jpeg.webp\")
Every mother needs a bold lip. Luckily, this set has two: “Elson” a bold classic red and quiet color payoff, “Nude Oasis” for a Mother’s Day beauty moment. Available at nordstrom.com 24Shop Now Cécred Fermented Rice & Rose Bundle ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/13-RICE-_-ROSE-_-VESSEL-_1.jpg.webp\")
Does mom have shedding or breakage? Skip the salon for a hair repair treatment at home, turning an ordinary wash day ritual into something with extra care (like a boost of amino acids and biotin). Available at ulta.com 56Shop Now S’Able Labs Limited Edition Core Collection Giftset ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/CCGiftset3_2048x2048.png.webp\")
Cleansed, balanced, and moisturized. This core collection set includes a three-step skincare routine formulated with African botanicals, all housed in a limited-edition bamboo travel case. Available at sablelabs.co 110Shop Now EADEM The Motherhood Set ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/MILKYWAY_b62299a6-8d01-4d46-aa38-ed27d5714dce.jpg-scaled.jpeg\")
A brand founded by two new mothers, this EADEM skincare trio is pregnancy and nursing safe for your loved one’s very first Mother’s Day. It’ll gently target dark spots, uneven texture, dullness and hormonal breakouts through all her trimesters and even postpartum. Available at eadem.co 134Shop Now PAT McGRATH LABS Mothership Totale IV ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/PMG_PDP_MSXI_KIT_8_OPEN_1_25a600b5-c036-440d-b4d8-56dca24955d8.jpg.webp\")
Nothing’s better for mother’s day than a Mothership palette. Except, three. For mothers and makeup lovers, this trio of palettes spans sunlit hues, jeweled-toned metallics and intense saturation to last all season long. Available at patmcgrath.com 300Shop Now PATTERN Curl Cocktail Hair Set ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/s2609667-main-zoom.jpg.webp\")
It usually takes trial-and-error to crack the code for the perfect curl care routine. However, this set does the work for you, cocktailing a fool-proof trio of conditioner, cream, and gel. Available at sephora.com 32Shop Now PATTERN Tortoise Tool Kit With Pick ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/tortoise-tool-kit_hairpick_1200x_2_90be20f1-aba7-4c0a-95eb-8e107c129651.jpg.webp\")
Tortoise shell is the most classic Mother’s Day print. This kit, which includes a pick, comb, edge brush and a case to hold it all, is for the mothers who like to do their hair inclass=\"retailer essence-commerce-link\" target=\"_blank\">patternbeauty.com 53Shop Now The Potion Studio Confident Crown XL Hair Towel ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Untitleddesign_66a6fe51-c687-4676-adff-9dadb702706d_832x1152.png.webp\")
We all have shampoo, conditioner, treatment masks. But, we often miss one important step. A dedicated wash day hair towel. This velvet microfiber towel reduces dry time, frizz, and breakage for a mother protective over her curls. Available at nordstrom.com 25Shop Now Lina Lennox Organic Silk Hair Bonnet ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/OrganicSilkHairBonnetOnyxBlack9.jpg.webp\")
Enough with the satin bonnets! This one is pure silk, which is just the pampering your mother deserves this Mother’s Day as the simple solution to breakage, shedding, and overall hair health. Available at linalennox.com 68Shop Now TOPICS: beauty gifts gift guide Mother’s Day gifts![\"How](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/DSCF0030-scaled.jpg\")
![\"How](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/DSCF0046-scaled.jpg\")
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![\"Supreme](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/79e33296ecc2322ef9469c9fa991be7b23eda0d2-2560x1920.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"When](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/d4cf475fdb9ed92a4be9b063a6044cd8ac6d05c8-6000x3375.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"How](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/L1510257-1200x900.jpeg\")
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![\"Did](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/SnapInsta.to_671883479_18634159234008035_3383475739334156646_n.jpg\")
![\"Did](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2237780417-scaled.jpg\")
Sudanese-US model Anok Yai presents a creation by Saint Laurent for the Women Ready-to-wear Spring-Summer 2026 collection as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on September 29, 2025. (Photo by Thibaud MORITZ / AFP via Getty Images) ![\"Did](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/SnapInsta.to_682062870_18634159255008035_4225902090287049284_n.jpg\")
![\"Author](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/H2H-140-scaled.jpg\")
Ryan happily signs books and chats with fans post-interview. / Photo Credit: Stephanie Bell ![\"Court](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/d1881a52969a343c421d6b53867c03d3ad1e852d-2560x1702.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
![\"Justices](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/57d4475d2b77db9f409a302ceec52b1cc857c0a7-2560x1408.jpg?w=1200&fit=max\")
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![\"Stephen](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2261536987-1200x900.jpg\")
Photo Credit: Leon Bennett ![\"Stephen](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/2026_Curry_Plezi-10.webp\")
Courtesy of PLEZi Hydration ![\"🤐\"](\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/72x72/1f910.png\")
We are taught to support one another and that we all can be GREAT TOGETHER!!! If you did not attend, you wouldn’t understand. The co-queens are embracing each other with joy and in the spirit of sisterhood.”![\"Keisha](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-1456230109-Cropped-scaled.jpg\")
Then White House Public Engagement Advisor Keisha Lance Bottoms speaks at a White House press briefing on January 13, 2023. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) ![\"Our](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2272856025-scaled.jpg\")
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 23: Anok Yai attends the 2026 Time100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 23, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by TheStewartofNY/FilmMagic) Coco Jones ![\"Our](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2272910572-scaled.jpg\")
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 23: Coco Jones attends the 2026 Time100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 23, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/WireImage) Keke Palmer ![\"Our](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2272163301-scaled.jpg\")
Keke Palmer at The 2026 TIME100 Gala held at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 23, 2026 in New York, New York. (Photo by Kristina Bumphrey/WWD via Getty Images) La La Anthony ![\"Our](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2272154713-scaled.jpg\")
La La Anthony at The 2026 TIME100 Gala held at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 23, 2026 in New York, New York. (Photo by Kristina Bumphrey/WWD via Getty Images) Zoe Saldana ![\"Our](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2272884678-scaled.jpg\")
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 23: Zoe Saldana attends 2026 TIME 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 23, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images) Sterling K. Brown ![\"Our](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2272884779-scaled.jpg\")
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 23: Sterling K. Brown attends 2026 TIME 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 23, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images) Junelle Lyles ![\"Our](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2272930872-scaled.jpg\")
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 23: Junelle Lyles attends the 2026 Time100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 23, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/WireImage) Isan Elba ![\"Our](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2272163184-scaled.jpg\")
Isan Elba at The 2026 TIME100 Gala held at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 23, 2026 in New York, New York. (Photo by Kristina Bumphrey/WWD via Getty Images) Gayle King ![\"Our](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2272885522-scaled.jpg\")
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 23: Gayle King attends 2026 TIME 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 23, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images) Ayan Broomfield ![\"Our](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2272872729-scaled.jpg\")
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 23: Ayan Broomfield attends the 2026 Time100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 23, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Craig T Fruchtman/FilmMagic)![\"Two](\"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/IpasMozambique_young-activists-community_RS12789f.jpg\" "\\"Young")
\n\t\t\t![\"Two](\"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/IpasMozambique_young-activists-community.jpg\" "\\"Young")
\n\t\t\t![\"A](\"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/IpasMozambique_Terra-Amiga-coordinator_RS12785f.jpg\" "\\"Cristina")
\n\t\t\t![\"A](\"https://www.ipas.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/IpasMozambique_Lichinga-Provincial-Hospital-Staff_RS12786f.jpg\" "\\"Clinical")
\n\t\t\t![\"ESScent](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-18-at-12.48.40 PM-1200x900.png\")
![\"A](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/librarians-06.jpg?w=1024\")
![\"A](\"https://19thnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/librarians-05.jpeg?w=1024\")
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![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/louis-vuitton-final-touches-gift-set-LKB001_PM2_Front-view.png.avif\")
Pick up a fragrance, lipstick, and a few other fun beauty essentials from Louis Vuitton to treat your mom on her special day. Available at louisvuitton.com 510Shop Now 02 02 Byredo Bibliotheque Candle ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/byr_ecom_25_home_jumbo_candle_1.5kg_bibliotheque_image1_2800x2800.jpg.webp\")
A candle that’ll take 120 hours to burn through, this 1.5kg candle is a size perfect for special occasions. It’s something your mother deserves, but would have selflessly never bought herself. So, you should. Available at NORDSTROM 480Shop Now 03 03 Lemaire High Waisted Curved Pants In Denim ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-23-at-5.11.16 PM.png\")
These jeans are a favorite of Solange and feature a curved, barrel-like silhouette that’s perfect for spring and summer styling. Available at FWRD 680Shop Now 04 04 Biologique Recherche Creme MSR-H ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/CRMSRH_50ML_1_-90-scaled.webp\")
Some expensive skincare is a ploy. Others, like this iconic cream, are a once-in-a-lifetime formula. Creme MSR-H is a savior to perimenopausal and post-menopausal skin, prioritizing moisture, density, and regeneration for mature women. Available at Bloomingdales 330Shop Now 05 05 Dries Van Noten Soie Malaquais Fragrance NORDSTROM Shop Now 06 06 Therabody TheraFace Mask Glo ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/TF-Mask-Glo-Media-2.webp\")
There’s nothing like turning a skincare ritual into a day spa. This red light therapy mark does just that, combining red, infrared, and blue LED lights with a gentle scalp massage to wind down after a lifetime of mothering. Available at therabody.com 380Shop Now 07 07 Louis Vuitton Cosmetics Pouch MM ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/louis-vuitton-cosmetic-pouch-M47515_PM2_Front-view.png.avif\")
For a makeup-loving mom, this cosmetics pouch is the solution to those with lipsticks tossing around their purse. This luxurious accessory is an investment in not just their beauty routine, but their outfit of the day. Available at louisvuitton.com 715Shop Now 08 08 Isabel Marant Halo Aviator ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/25HIM0219S-C4L04L-01QN4-A.jpg.webp\")
These gold-toned aviator lenses from Isabel Marant are the perfect way to keep your mom looking effortlessly cool all summer long. Available at isabelmarant.com 295Shop Now 09 09 Saint Laurent Le Loafer ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Large-81890825VAA1000_A.jpg-Cropped.jpg\")
These comfortable Saint Laurent loafers are perfect for staying chic while running errands, heading to lunch, or grabbing a quick evening drink. Available at Net-A-Porter 1,115Shop Now 10 10 Hermès Oud Alezan Eau de Parfum ![](\"https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-23-at-2.12.25 PM.png\")
The mother of ESSENCE’s Senior Beauty Editor says this is one of her favorite fragrances. The oud gives it a luxe and sultry feel, while the packaging is chic and certainly something your mom should have on her vanity! Available at Saks Fifth Ave 435Shop Now TOPICS: gift guide mothers day gifts![\"\"](\"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/pito4za5/production/e9638cf537745398cbe77036c37576e460af79e0-480x270.gif?w=1200&fit=max\")
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![collection](\"https://seattlerefined.com/resources/media2/16x9/1922/648/0x902/90/ef656428-8c1b-4abc-acc4-7f6e923a6599-ECG1.jpeg\"){kind=link}