Fearless
Today…
is the 80th birthday of Nancy Patricia Pelosi, née D'Alesandro.
is the 90th birthday of Sandra Day O’Connor.
is also the birthday of Erica Jong (1942). A short story:
In the late ‘90s, Naomi Wolf started an org called The Woodhull Institute, which held regular leadership retreats for young women in this sprawling manse 2-3 hours outside NYC. I was part of the first few groups to participate.
So. First night she invites us to gather in the living room, fireplace, snacks, wine – and Erica Jong, who’s holding court and sharing war stories of being a young woman writer in the 1960s/70s. I was beyond.
But my whole experience of the evening is captured in this one exchange:
Jong: …and the publisher called me “an enormous pudenda.”
Someone else: I’m sorry. I don’t know that word?
Me: Thank you, me either, I wasn’t going to say it.
Jong: He called me a huge cunt.
is National Make Up Your Own Holiday! Geez, what even… National Stay Home Day? National Drink Before Noon Day? Oh, wait, I got it! National Share Your Friend’s Newsletter Day.
Abortion
Fires of U.S. culture wars flare amid coronavirus crisis
Lawrence Hurley, Andrew Chung | Reuters
As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the United States this week, Republicans in Texas and Mississippi sought to further limit abortion access and New Jersey’s Democratic governor refused to declare gun shops an essential service that would stay open. Welcome to America’s culture wars in the age of the coronavirus.
Trump is Allowed to Pursue His Domestic Gag Rule, Courts Rule
Betsy Butler | Ms. Magazine
Amid the breaking and continued news of the COVID-19 emergency, you may have missed another important healthcare story that will significantly impact the most vulnerable women in our country. Trump administration’s domestic “gag rule” has cut off people with low incomes from affordable family planning services.
During the COVID-19 Crisis, Abortion Access Must be Considered "Essential"
Roxy Szal | Ms. Magazine
In an effort to protect patients and staff from exposure to COVID-19, and to conserve critical equipment and supplies, the U.S. Surgeon General and American College of Surgeons have recommended restrictions or eliminations on “elective” surgeries. But abortion rights advocates fear this declaration may adversely impact abortion access.
As Coronavirus Rages On, So Does Anti-Abortion Harassment and Extremism
Micaela Brinsley | Ms. Magazine
In clinics in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Kentucky, anti-choice protesters have continued to show up at clinics that provide abortion services, refusing to comply with the pressure for people to practice social distancing and shelter-in-place.
Every Abortion Is A Medically Essential Abortion
Jennifer Wright | Refinery29
In a time when medical clinics, hospitals, and doctors are already compromised by an influx of coronavirus-afflicted patients, women are bound to have a hard time gaining access to standard reproductive healthcare — and that’s just fine with some lawmakers. Republicans are using this pandemic as an excuse to, among other things, bar women from reproductive choice.
Multiple GOP-led States Use Coronavirus to Limit Abortion Access
Joe Jurado | The Root
The entire country is in the midst of a public health crisis not seen in modern times. That fact hasn’t stopped the GOP from being the GOP. In fact, they saw fit to fully take advantage of the situation.
Are abortions considered essential surgery during coronavirus crisis? Texas, Ohio, Mississippi say no
Doug Stanglin, Giacomo Bologna & Alissa Zhu | USA Today
Several states – including Ohio, Texas and Mississippi – have ruled that all abortions should be considered nonessential procedures and must be delayed during the coronavirus crisis.
A pro-lifer shrugs in the face of mass death
Damon Linker | The Week
Abortion is about killing. Public health is about dying. That difference is everything for R.R. Reno [editor of conservative religious magazine First Things]. Ending a pregnancy is a great evil because it is the intentional taking of an innocent human life. But other forms of dying that happen by nature (a virus killing its victim is a natural process), like deaths that follow indirectly from social and economic structures that prevail in the United States, are matters of moral indifference. Yes, they're unfortunate. It is fitting to mourn them. They require "triage," as Reno repeatedly puts it. But that's life. People get sick. They die. Bad things happen. Get used to it.
Alabama abortion clinics deemed essential amid COVID-19 business closures
Abbey Crain | Al.com
The only three clinics in Alabama that provide abortion care are considered essential businesses according to the Alabama Department of Public Health and will remain open amid the COVID-19 pandemic, despite efforts in other states to ban abortion procedures.
Minnesotans still able to access abortions during COVID-19 pandemic
Sarah Mearhoff | The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead
Minnesotans will still be able to access reproductive medicine, including abortion services, during Gov. Tim Walz's shelter-in-place order during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Walz's executive order, reproductive services are considered a "critical sector," set to remain open during the peacetime emergency.
Mississippi governor calls for abortion ban during coronavirus outbreak
Kate Smith | CBS News
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves called for abortion to be halted in the state amid the coronavirus pandemic, joining several other traditionally anti-abortion rights states in restricting the procedure. Mississippi is already one of the most hostile states toward abortion access, home to only one clinic that offers the procedure.
Tennessee gov hopes no 'elective' abortions with virus order
Jonathan Mattise | Associated Press
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s “hope and expectation” is that there will be no “elective” abortions performed in the state under an executive order that bars non-essential medical procedures to free up protective equipment for hospitals treating the coronavirus, his spokesman said Wednesday.
Abortion Providers Sue Texas Over Abortion Ban During Coronavirus Outbreak
Melissa Jeltsen | HuffPost
A coalition of abortion rights groups filed a lawsuit against Texas Gov. Abbott on Wednesday, challenging his ban on abortions during the coronavirus crisis. The groups — represented by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Center for Reproductive Rights and the Lawyering Project — are asking the court to issue an immediate temporary restraining order to block the ban from taking effect.
Ban Abortion, Kill Grandma
Imani Gandy | Rewire.News
Top Texas officials, including Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, seem to think banning legal abortion and sacrificing the elderly are the best ways to combat the outbreak. According to Patrick, people over the age of 70 will just take care of themselves so younger people can get back to work so the stock market is saved.
LGBTQ
Transgender people with IDs that match their gender have better mental health, study says
John Riley | Metro Weekly
Transgender people whose identity documents match their gender identity have better mental health than those with inaccurate IDs, according to a new study by researchers from Drexel University.
Transgender surgeries postponed indefinitely amid coronavirus pandemic
Serena Daniari | NBC News
With hospitals scrambling to deal with the influx of COVID-19 patients, surgeries deemed “nonessential” or “elective” have been canceled or postponed indefinitely. Among those surgeries put on the back burner are gender-affirming procedures, which can be lifesaving for transgender people.
GLAAD Urges FDA to Lift Ban on Queer Men Donating Blood
David Artavia | Out Magazine
The FDA currently does not allow men to donate blood if they’ve had sexual contact with another man in the last 12 months. But following a severe shortage of blood donations due to COVID-19, activists are circulating a petition to collect 5,000 signatures.
Pregnancy & Parenting
Mental Health Struggles Are Even Greater for Young Mothers
Lindsay Wolf | Scary Mommy
Research has more than proven that young mothers experience higher rates of depression during pregnancy and early parenthood than older moms or their non-pregnant peers. There are a slew of risk factors that lead many of these teens and young women to struggle with their mental health, like poverty, lack of education, limited social support, and childhood abuse. These obstacles can lead many of them to go without the care they so desperately need, which only makes living with maternal mental health struggles that much more isolating.
‘Becoming a mother broke me’: For a woman collecting pandemic postpartum stories, the work is personal
Theresa Vargas | Washington Post
“I wouldn’t want to go to an ER now, and I’m not even sure an ER would see me,” Audet says, thinking of the women who are currently struggling in the same way she did at a time when “the world was fine.” She is worried about them. She is worried about the new moms who can no longer walk into a lactation consultant’s office and get in-person help with breast-feeding. She is worried about the women who desperately want to be moms and have seen their adoption plans and fertility treatments put on hold, indefinitely. She is worried about the people who are now isolated at home with their children, feeling alone in ways that go beyond social distancing.
As Arizona hospitals limit labor patients to 1 guest, women must pick or turn to home birth
BrieAnna Frank | Arizona Republic
Hospital restrictions put in place in response to the new coronavirus outbreak have caused concern for some pregnant Valley women, many who say they would consider giving birth at home if Arizona hospitals follow others in banning all support persons during delivery.
Reproductive Health & Justice
The Coronavirus Aid Package Could Harm Disabled People
Sara Luterman | American Prospect
In a desire to kneecap Planned Parenthood, Republicans may decimate the care that millions of disabled people rely upon.
On Being Black, Southern, And Rural In The Time Of COVID-19
Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson | Essence
Despite the disproportionate and disastrous impact of state sanctioned violence, a discriminatory health care system, and a trickle-down-til-it-stops economic infrastructure, Black Southerners are once again in this nation’s peripheral vision—even as the COVID-19 (coronavirus) global pandemic threatens to devastate our communities. Make no mistake, this reality could mean a death sentence for far too many of our people.
‘Home Is Not a Safe Place If You’re With an Abusive Partner’
Bryce Covert | Glamour
Last August, a woman called a domestic violence hotline in Utah four times. She needed shelter so that she and her children could leave an abusive situation. But more than six months later, according to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, she is still living with that abuser, waiting to find a safe place to go. Hers is not the outlier experience.
Domestic Abuse Victims Are Terrified of Staying Home Right Now
Danielle Campoamor | Medium
As the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic has been realized, calls for Americans to practice social distancing and self-quarantine have increased. But the long-lasting social and financial ramifications of these necessary precautions remain unclear, and the calls to self-quarantine can place some in imminent danger
Workplace Equality
To save capitalism from the COVID-19 crisis, we need to act more like socialists
Marcus Baram | Fast Company
Our economy was sick long before this pandemic arrived. We’ll need to build a more egalitarian society if we’re going to survive the next one. It may sound naïve, but rarely are we asked to reflect on our values as a society and why our social safety net is so important. In a pandemic, we are only as strong as our weakest links. There’s a lesson here, for those willing to hear it.
Will the Supreme Court Protect ‘Ministers’ From Their Church?
Linda Greenhouse | New York Times
A case will determine the extent to which religious groups are shielded from employee lawsuits. The petitioners in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru are two Catholic schools, each of which dismissed a lay 5th-grade teacher, giving reasons that may or may not have been the real reasons. Each of the teachers — the respondents — brought suit under federal law for employment discrimination, one for disability discrimination (St. James School refused to renew Kristen Biel’s contract after she told them she had breast cancer and needed time for treatment and recovery) and one for age discrimination.
Conservatives gutted the social safety net. Now, in a crisis, they’re embracing it.
Tracy Jan | Washington Post
Throughout his term, President Trump has chipped away at the social safety net, proposing budgets that gutted housing assistance, food stamps and health insurance for the poorest Americans. When Congress rejected those cuts, the Trump administration enacted rules to make it harder to access federal benefits, such as requiring recipients to work. Now, with businesses shuttered, workers laid off, and scores more worrying about buying groceries, being evicted and getting sick, the swelling need for federal assistance has forced even conservative lawmakers to embrace government protections in sweeping stimulus bills.
The Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision that bodes ill for the future of civil rights
Ian Millhiser | Vox
Even as the justices seek shelter from a pandemic, they still managed to hand down five opinions on Monday. One of them, in the case Comcast Corp. v. National Association of African American Media, is a blow for the civil rights community — and a potential harbinger for civil rights cases to come.
Texas' Troubled Child Care System Further Strained By Coronavirus Threat
Kim Johnson & Dallas Williams | Texas Public Radio
Families are scrambling to find child care amid the coronavirus outbreak, and the lack of viable options is hitting low-income Texans and essential workers hardest.