Back, back to school again (they gotta go)
Today…
is the start of Public Schools Week. Doubly special as the first day back to school for DCPS kids who were out all last week.
in 1988, the Supreme Court upheld the right to satirize public figures in Hustler v Falwell. The celebration options are endless.
is technically the last week of Wisconsin session (though they’re finished with floor business). One of the bills left behind would have addressed the practice of performing pelvic exams without consent, not even a week after that painful NYT piece.
I’ll also flag some overlapping pieces on maternal mortality from the weekend, looking at racial disparities, Medicaid, rural health, doulas, etc. All worth a look, but if time is limited, I might start with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Rural clinic scrambles to provide care amid maternal death crisis.
Abortion
Let Louisiana Women Make Decisions About Abortion, Not The Supreme Court
Jasmine Rivers, BuzzFeed News
The state of Louisiana is trying to paint abortion providers as not having their patients’ best interests at heart. In reality, abortion providers were the only people I found who weren’t manipulative and coercive.
Nebraska lawmakers pick priorities as time starts to run out
Grant Schulte, AP
Crunch time is coming for Nebraska lawmakers now that this year’s session is nearly half over, and they’ve winnowed down their bills to a few top priorities. / One prioritized bill would ban dilation and evacuation abortions, a common second-trimester procedure that opponents refer to as “dismemberment abortion.”
New Mexico reproductive justice advocates say abortion ban repeal ‘next year’
Susan Dunlap, NM Political Report
Many reproductive justice advocates said their biggest disappointment of the 2020 legislative session is that the 1969 New Mexico law banning abortion is still on the books. But some in the Respect NM Women Coalition, a group of reproductive justice advocates and organizations, say ‘next year.’
Opinion | Women are free to choose abortion. Or they are not free.
George Pyle, Salt Lake Tribune
If women are not free to choose abortion - or any method of contraception that may allow them to avoid that circumstance - then they are not free. The end. Full stop.
Opinion | Ivanka Trump aids and abets the administration’s assault on reproductive rights
Rebecca Harrington @ Population Connection Action Fund, Washington Post
As President Trump’s associates celebrated Ivanka Trump for her Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, people around the world suffer because of the Trump administration’s egregious reproductive health policies.
A New Florida Abortion Bill Requires Parental Consent For Minors & That Is A Huge Problem
Elly Belle, Refinery29
In the latest reproductive legislation in the U.S., a new Florida requires people under the age of 18 to get a parental permission before having an abortion. On Thursday, legislature passed in a largely party-line vote of 75-43. Now, Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to sign the bill into law, but the ramifications for the new bill are still up for debate.
Judge asked to decide permanent fate of Georgia abortion law
Kate Brumback, AP
After a federal judge temporarily blocked Georgia’s restrictive abortion law, lawyers for the state and for opponents of the measure are battling in court over whether the law should be permanently barred from taking effect. The law bans abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” is present, with some limited exceptions.
Equal Rights Amendment
Opinion | No excuses left for Oklahoma lawmakers not to support the Equal Rights Amendment
Ginnie Graham, Tulsa World
Nothing moves fast when it comes to women gaining rights. It took nearly 100 years to win the right to vote. Then it took decades for women to have privileges like owning property, getting credit, attending college and working after having children. Now, it’s nearing half a century in the fight to gain equal protections under the U.S. Constitution with the Equal Rights Amendment.
LGBTQ
The multimillion-dollar Christian group attacking LGBTQ+ rights
Jessica Glenza, The Guardian
Alliance Defending Freedom reportedly got $55 million in donations in 2018 and has lawyers worldwide working against LGBTQ+ people
Pixar’s Onward Finally Gets the “Exclusively Gay Moment” Right
Sam Adams, Slate
In the world of Pixar’s Onward, magic is so commonplace it’s become unremarkable. ... There’s something else that’s so well-established that it passes almost without notice, too: the existence of LGBTQ people.
Reproductive Health & Justice
Doulas are key to curbing maternal mortality - but they’re drastically underpaid
Sofia Quaglia, Salon
Though the programs granting access to doulas save lives, they also perpetuate an unhealthy cycle. The generous doulas who participate in serving low-income mothers earn far less than the private doulas who serve middle- and upper-class women who pay full fees, and they often slip into the same low-income bracket as their clients.
Rural clinic scrambles to provide care amid maternal death crisis
Tamar Hallerman, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While data are spotty, the recent state study estimated new mothers in Georgia were 52% more likely to die in the first year after giving birth than nationally. The situation is far worse for women who live in rural parts of the state or are older than 35. The most glaring disparity is by race. Black mothers in Georgia are three to four times more likely to die than white women, according to the study.
Black Women Call Out Hospital Mistreatment After Mother Dies During Childbirth At L.A. Medical Center
A. Woods, NewsOne.com
A lawsuit against Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center over a mother dying while giving childbirth has amplified Black women’s voices as they continue to call out hospitals for their incompetent policies and practices, ultimately forcing them to seek other options as it pertains to giving birth.
Pregnant Asylum-Seekers In Tijuana Being Denied Access To Court Hearings
Max Rivlin-Nadler, KPBS-TV (San Diego, CA)
In recent months, pregnant asylum-seekers sent back to Tijuana under the "Remain-In-Mexico" program have been barred from entering the United States for their court dates. KPBS has found at least four pregnant women who were turned away by Customs and Border Protection agents at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, even though they had been given a court date in the U.S.
Rape kit tracking, lead testing and ballot selfies: Here are the bills the Wisconsin Assembly is leaving to die
Amy Reid, WISC-TV (Madison, WI)
By not meeting again, the Assembly won’t be able to send bills that made it through the Senate to the governor, including bills to: create an online system for victims of sexual assault to track the progress of their rape kit in the testing process; allow pharmacists to prescribe and dispense hormonal birth control; require hospitals to have and enforce a policy requiring informed consent before a medical student performs a pelvic exam on an unconscious or anesthetized patient.
We Can't Have A Feminist Future Without Abolishing the Family
Marie Solis, VICE
Sophie Lewis imagines a future where the labor of making new human beings is shared among all of us, “mother” no longer being a natural category, but instead something we can choose. … Lewis isn’t asking that we all agree to physically gestate fetuses that aren’t biologically ours. Her radical proposition is that we practice “full surrogacy” by abolishing the family. That means caring for each other not in discrete private units (also known as nuclear households), but rather within larger systems of care that can provide us with the love and support we can’t always get from blood relations.
Why Americans are afraid to have babies
Bob Hennelly, Salon
The birthrate is declining, and young Americans don't see a future for themselves. This doesn't bode well.
Workplace Equality
To This Group, Labor Is More Than a ‘White Man Who Works in a Factory’
Isabella Grullón Paz, New York Times
The National Domestic Workers Alliance is putting nannies, housekeepers and home care workers at the center of the labor and progressive political movement.
U.S. Soccer Federation Says Men and Women Who Play Soccer Aren't Doing the Same Job
Shannon Melero, Jezebel
Point by point, the USSF is telling on themselves. It is true that the Federation paid more money to the women’s team during the 2019 season than the men’s team, but that is largely due to bonus money the women earned by winning the World Cup. They also went on to play games as part of their victory tour, which generated even more profit for the federation. The men’s team has not won a FIFA World Cup since *checks watch* never. The closest they came was third place in 1930. And even the men’s team rejects this false narrative of separate pay, asserting that the women’s salaries should be raised and more closely reflect the pay on the men’s team in a statement released by the players’ association earlier this month.
The USWNT equal pay lawsuit is becoming a referendum on women’s sports
Kim McCauley, SB Nation
The United States Women’s National Soccer Team’s equal pay lawsuit took another turn on Thursday night. Both sides, the players and U.S. Soccer, submitted requests for summary judgment, meaning they would like the judge to find in their favor ahead of the trial. Summary judgment filings are generally a swing for the fences that neither side necessarily expects to win.