Good day, Sunshine
Today…
is day #2 of Women’s History Month, but you knew that.
is the last week of session for Oregon, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
in 1955, Claudette Colvin was arrested in Montgomery. If you’re unfamiliar with her story, I urge you to learn more. She doesn’t get her due (to say the least).
in 1903, the Martha Washington Hotel - the first hotel exclusively for women - opened in NYC. Jealous.
is Fun Facts About Names Day. I have two: 1) She denies it, but I’m convinced my mother named me for Rachel Cory on Another World. 2) Also on the short list were Sunshine, or Arlo for a boy.
Abortion
I’m saying there’s no way you subscribe to this newsletter and don’t know June Medical Services v Russo is being argued Wednesday.
The Next Big Abortion Case Comes Down to John Roberts
Irin Carmon, New York Magazine
The pro-choice side’s thin reed of hope is for another rare Roberts apostasy, like his two unexpected votes to save the ACA in 2012 and 2015, or in the past term, when he reportedly switched sides at the last minute to block the Trump administration from asking about citizenship on the Census, which was expected to suppress Latino participation. The chief justice has only once broken ranks on abortion, in an earlier, procedural round of the Louisiana abortion case a year ago, when the clinics appealed a Fifth Circuit opinion that boldly disregarded the 2016 precedent; his vote allowed the clinics to stay open for a while.
Other columns to check out, in Time by attorney Stephanie Toti, formerly of CRR: I Argued the Last Abortion Case Before the Supreme Court. The One Before the Justices This Week Is Identical. And a profile of CRR from BuzzFeed,The National Right To Abortion Is Facing An Intense Threat. This Group Has Been Preparing For This Fight For Decades.
A clinic prepares for Supreme Court abortion fight
Rebecca Santana & Mark Sherman, Associated Press
“I've been here for 27 years. And the constant refrain we hear regarding the reason for terminating a pregnancy has always been primarily lack of financial resources. People are broke,” she said. “It's the women who have the least that are going to suffer the most.”
Bloomberg: Roberts Faces Moment of Truth on Abortion Issue at Supreme Court
KHN: High Court Revisits Abortion Law Akin To One Struck Down In 2016
Mother Jones: The Supreme Court Could Place an Impossible Burden on Women Fighting for Abortion Rights
Ms.: Feminists Go on the Offensive as Supreme Court Decides Monumental Abortion Case, June v. Russo
Newsweek: Does Abortion Hurt Women? A Subtle New Attack on Roe Is Arriving at the Supreme Court
NPR: Abortion Returns To The Supreme Court This Week With Case On Hospital Privileges
Reuters: Abortion rights face stern new test at conservative U.S. Supreme Court
USA Today: Supreme Court may reverse abortion rights in Louisiana case
Anti-abortion Democrats head into Super Tuesday without a candidate to support
Kate Smith, CBS News
"We're politically homeless,” said Kristen Day, the executive director of Democrats for Life of America. “When you look at the platform it doesn't leave any room for people like me.”
“¯\_(ツ)_/¯,” said Rachel Perrone.
The 'Feminist' Anti-Abortion Movement Is Just the Same Old Bullshit
Esther Wang, Jezebel
A new generation of anti-abortion activists, many of them young women themselves, who are attempting to rebrand a movement whose most enduring visual is still that of a blown-up image of a bloody fetus. This new cohort recognizes that it’s up to them to make their foundational, dangerous belief—that abortion should be illegal—more palatable for young people, and in particular young women, who have grown up in a cultural environment that has been casually suffused with the hum and hiss of a type of empowerment feminism and a growing, if begrudging, acceptance of women’s sexual agency.
Student-run play puts Alabama legislators on trial for abortion ban
Abbey Crain, Al.com
The legislators who voted to pass Alabama’s near-total abortion ban last Spring were found guilty Wednesday night of violating the constitutional rights of Alabamians.
Used to giving orders, Kansas abortion foes can't cut a deal
John Hanna, AP
Abortion opponents who’ve become used to giving orders to Kansas lawmakers on the exact wording of new restrictions are stymied now that they face compromising to get a proposed anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution on the ballot.
Bill to Classify Abortion as Murder in Oklahoma not Heard Before Legislative Deadline
Matt Trotter, Public Radio Tulsa
A bill classifying abortion as murder was not heard in the Oklahoma legislature ahead of this week’s deadline for bills to advance in their chambers of origin. Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice Board President Danielle Williams said HB2545 as amended was unclear. "It basically would have made it possible to prosecute for abortion, but it was written in such a vague way that it really wan’t clear whether the intention was to prosecute providers or women.”
The Traveling Salesman Bringing Abortion Bans To A Texas Town Near You
Melissa Jeltson, HuffPost
Since last summer, Mark Lee Dickson has crisscrossed Texas in his truck, encouraging municipalities to declare themselves “sanctuary cities for the unborn” and pass ordinances outlawing abortion. His first success story was Waskom, a city of under 2,000 residents in east Texas, which banned abortion last June. At publication time, 12 towns had passed abortion bans lobbied by Dickson. (One town, Omaha, later walked it back under advice from city attorneys.) Four other towns had voted his ordinance down. Dickson has a list of 400 Texas towns to go.
Virginia’s Abortion Access Bill Will Lift Medically Unnecessary Restrictions
Jay Polish, Bustle
After a vote split down party lines, Virginia will soon be removing mandatory 24-hour waiting periods, restrictions on which qualified medical professionals can perform abortions, and other medically unnecessary obstacles. On Feb. 27, the Virginia General Assembly passed a bill that will make it easier for Virginians to access abortion and reproductive health care, The New York Times reports. Ralph Northam, the governor of Virginia, is expected to sign the Reproductive Health Care Act into law.
More from Mother Jones (Virginia just preempted the Supreme Court by shoring up abortion rights) and VICE (This Southern State Just Repealed Decades of Abortion Restrictions).
LGBTQ
Buck up, queer children. 2020 is going to be a bumpy ride
Ian Aber, Project Q Atlanta
I just love this line:
Whether we are remembered for what we gained or what we lost is yet to be seen, but I choose to value the content of our content. Even the silliest Insta post is Queer History, a moment in the history of the age of visibility, the age of truth and love.
Pete Buttigieg, and The Powerful Gay Meaning of His Presidential Run
Tim Teeman, Daily Beast
The debate over the kind of gay candidate Pete Buttigieg was unfairly obscured his bravery, and his presidential run’s historic significance. It should not undermine its legacy.
Department Of Justice Supports Wedding Photographer Who Refuses To Shoot Gay Couples
Kim Wong-Shing, GO
The Justice Department filed a “statement of interest” in support of Kentucky wedding photographer Chelsey Nelson, who refuses to shoot same-sex couples.
As S.C. celebrates democracy, LGBTQ residents still fight for equality
Chase Glenn, Charleston City Paper
While Charleston is a place I have come to love and call home, being LGBTQ here is complicated. We lift our city up as a progressive beacon in our state — and it is in many ways — but our LGBTQ community is still struggling. We still face discrimination in our day to day lives, many do not feel safe in public spaces, and we often lack basic support socially and in our families.
5 ways you can help prevent LGBTQ youth suicide
Rebecca Ruiz, Mashable
"We’ve made progress but that progress isn’t enough," says Amy Green, director of research at The Trevor Project. In order to reduce the stigma, discrimination, and rejection LGBTQ youth face, Green recommends championing five strategies...
Parenting & Caregiving
Opinion | We must address America’s child care crisis
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Worthington Daily Globe
One of the biggest concerns that I hear from constituents here in Minnesota is the lack of access to affordable, quality child care. Indeed, our state ranks fourth in the country for having the most expensive child care — behind only California, Massachusetts and Washington, DC. Throughout our state I’ve heard from parents who have had to make difficult decisions just to get their children quality care.
Fighting maternal, infant mortality
Sen. Sherrod Brown, Troy Daily News
We know we have a serious problem with infant mortality and maternal mortality in Ohio and around the country — and that we see huge disparities between white and black mothers and children.
Opinion | Instead of restricting abortion rights, improve protections for pregnant people
Diana Philip, Baltimore Sun
This year at least 11 anti-abortion bills have been introduced into the Maryland General Assembly. But where is the attention about ensuring the health and rights of individuals who want to bear a child? Maternal mortality in our state is on the rise, with the 2011-2015 rate 19% higher than the previous five years. Deaths of pregnant and postpartum patients are increasing nationally and Maryland continues to have a higher maternal mortality rate than the U.S. average. Black women in Maryland have a maternal mortality rate that is more than twice that of white women.
Your Childless Friends Are Allowed to Be Tired, Too
Megan Kaleita, Ravishly
Childless women are allowed to be tired. That's it. That's the conversation. Life can sometimes be exhausting or painful for everyone for a myriad of reasons, regardless of their parental status.
Maternal health bills fail in Indiana General Assembly
Whitney Downard, The Herald Bulletin
Indiana’s infant and maternal mortality rates outpace poor countries such as Vietnam and Iraq, but bills addressing maternal health didn’t get far in the 2020 session of the state’s General Assembly. Indiana has the United States’ third-highest pregnancy-related mortality rate, defined as a woman’s death during pregnancy or within one year after delivery.
Workplace Equity
Avoiding Coronavirus May Be a Luxury Some Workers Can’t Afford
Sarah Kliff, Claire Cain Miller & Margot Sanger-Katz, New York Times
Stay home from work if you get sick. See a doctor. Use a separate bathroom from the people you live with. Prepare for schools to close, and to work from home. These are measures the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended to slow a coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Yet these are much easier to do for certain people — in particular, high-earning professionals. Service industry workers, like those in restaurants, retail, child care and the gig economy, are much less likely to have paid sick days, the ability to work remotely or employer-provided health insurance.
Free child care is having a moment in the 2020 race. Here's what it means for working moms.
Lillian Mongeau, NBC News
Now that middle-class moms are facing many of the same challenges low-income moms have faced for decades — unaffordable, unavailable or unsatisfactory care for their children while they must work to put food on the table — the needs of the two groups may be aligning in ways that could drive real change.
Most people don't know what gender issue they care most about
Valerie Bolden-Barrett, HR Dive
When asked which "gender-related issue" they cared about the most, two-thirds of respondents said they didn't know. Ending the wage gap between women and men was most important of issues to 19% of respondents. Nine percent of respondents said they care most about seeing a federal parental leave policy passed.
Unpaid leave means ‘no leave’ for many parents in Colorado
Andrew Kenney, AP
Eight states and Washington, D.C. now have paid leave laws, including several passed in just the last few years. In Colorado, it’s a major priority for the Democrats who control state government, though the actual execution is still a topic of intense debate within the party.
Inside the near-collapse of Colorado’s paid family leave bill — and the fight to come
Alex Burness, Denver Post
On Friday, Feb, 21, the governor’s staff had a call with the four sponsors of a bill that would mandate Colorado businesses provide paid family and medical leave to their workers. The lead sponsor and the face of the bill, Sen. Faith Winter, a Westminster Democrat, has been trying to pass it for six years.
Paid family and medical leave could soon be a reality in Maryland, but local business leaders are unsure
Erika Riley, Frederick News Post
A bill in the state Senate would require employers to provide a new form of insurance for family leave for their employees. If passed, the Time to Care Act would make Maryland the ninth state that has paid family leave, in addition to Washington, D.C. The insurance plan would require employers and employees to contribute 50/50 to an insurance fund. Their weekly contribution would require no more than 0.5% of their pay.
Pregnant and nursing mothers file cases against Washington shipyard after being sent home without pay
Josh Farley, Kitsap Sun
At least four women have filed cases against the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, alleging their rights were violated under the federal pregnancy discrimination act. Two of the cases have already settled, and there may be more, according to the lawyer representing them.