March 32, 2020
Today…
is the start of Black Women’s History Month and National Minority Health Month
is National Grilled Cheese Day. On. it.
I’m vote nay on April 1. I know, March has gone on long enough. But are you in the mood for April Fool’s? You think the big brands are ready with clever yet appropriate content? I heart @MoonPie and @Wendys as much as the next person, but…
It’s a long one today. I grouped and abridged as much as possible so it should be skimmable.
Abortion
This right here…
The legal ping-pong playing out over the past week has been dizzying, even by the standards of abortion litigation. (Becca Andrews, Mother Jones)
Federal Appeals Court Lets Texas Exploit COVID-19 to Ban Abortions
Mark Joseph Stern | Slate
On Tuesday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Texas to revive its ban on virtually all abortion in a brief order. Although the 2–1 decision is only temporary, it indicates that the court will soon rule that the Constitution permits states to outlaw abortion during the coronavirus pandemic. When that decision comes down, abortion providers will almost certainly turn to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to block abortion bans justified by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Associated Press: Victory for Texas abortion clinics amid outbreak put on hold
BuzzFeed: Texas Can Ban Abortions During The Coronavirus Outbreak, An Appeals Court Says
CBS: Texas abortion ban can go back into effect, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rules
CNN: Appeals court temporarily re-instates Texas order limiting abortion access over coronavirus
Forbes: Texas Governor Says Attending Church Is ‘Essential’ But Abortions Can Wait Indefinitely
HuffPost: The Abortion Ban In Texas Is Back On
Jezebel: Texas Is Now Free to Ban Abortions
Reuters: U.S. appeals court allows Texas abortion curbs amid pandemic
Rewire.News: Rapid Reaction—Texas Abortion Ban Takes Effect Immediately
Vice: A Court Just Let Texas Ban Abortions Due to Coronavirus
Texas Reproductive Rights Groups Fight Anti-Abortion 'Sanctuary Cities'
Erin Heger | Rewire.News
As part of their efforts to mobilize people in opposition to these measures, the TEA Fund joined forces with other abortion rights groups across Texas to form the Trust. Respect. Access. coalition.
In some states, coronavirus measures are effectively banning abortion
Miranda Yaver | Washington Post
As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the country, physicians and hospitals are canceling elective, nonessential surgeries and procedures to preserve health-care resources, including scarce personal protective equipment, and to limit potential patients’ exposure to the virus. But what exactly counts as “elective?” A growing number of states are putting abortion in that category. These state efforts could affect women’s rights to terminate pregnancies for a long time to come.
Bloomberg: Pandemic Puts Abortion in Crosshairs as State Bans Proliferate
The Intercept: Courts Put the Brakes on Politicians’ Efforts to Ban Abortion Amid Covid-19 Outbreak
NPR: As the Pandemic Spreads, Battles Over Abortion Play Out In Court
NPR Politics Podcast: Pandemic Opens A New Front In The Battle Over Abortion Access
The network of abortion providers in red states was already delicate. Then came the coronavirus.
Becca Andrews | Mother Jones
In many red states, where abortion restrictions are plentiful and doctors who are willing to perform them are not, the physicians who do ultimately provide abortions often fly into town on a regular basis, sometimes traveling hundreds if not thousands of miles to get to clinics. … This setup has to be carefully coordinated in the best of times. During a pandemic, it’s downright precarious.
Abortion Is Available by Mail in 13 States; 21 Attorneys General Urge Broader Access
Carrie Baker | Ms. Magazine
The organization Gynuity Health Projects runs a research study called TelAbortion—which allows clinicians participating in the study to provide medication abortion care by videoconference and mail. The study is currently running in 13 states: Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, Colorado, Georgia, New York, Maine, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Maryland and Montana.
Anti-Choice Activists Say Abortion Isn't 'Essential,' but Clinic Protests Are
Jessica Mason Pieklo | Rewire.News
While the rest of us stay at home, anti-choice protestors will keep performing their "vital service" outside abortion clinics during the COVID-19 outbreak. According to anti-choice activists, abortion clinics should close during the coronavirus outbreak because they don’t provide essential health-care services, but group protests of those clinics should continue because those protests do provide essential services.
Iowa judge sets hearing on governor's abortion order
David Pitt | Associated Press
An Iowa judge has set a hearing for Wednesday to consider whether to block an order by Gov. Kim Reynolds that temporarily halted abortions in the state. State district court Judge Andrew Chappell signed an order Monday setting the telephone hearing to consider arguments by abortion providers and the ACLU of Iowa.
Minnesota providers can continue abortion
Torey Van Oot | Star Tribune
Abortion and other reproductive heath services remain accessible in Minnesota amid broader cutbacks in care, as political and legal fights erupt in other states over new bans enacted amid the pandemic.
Memphis Abortion Provider: ‘Phone Ringing off Hook,’ Staff Short, But Services Continue
Maya Smith | Memphis Flyer
With a smaller staff and a slightly different set operating procedures, CHOICES, one of two clinics in the city that performs abortions, is still open and providing services.
LGBTQ
Idaho’s New Anti-Transgender Laws Are a Trans Day of Visibility Disgrace
Lucy Diavolo | Teen Vogue
I was heartbroken but unsurprised to hear last night that, on the eve of TDOV, Idaho governor Brad Little had signed two bills targeting my community into law: one to block trans girls from playing sports on women’s teams in public schools and another to make it impossible for Idahoans (including trans people) to change the gender marker on their birth certificate.
The Advocate: Idaho Governor Signs Two Anti-Trans Bills Into Law
The Mary Sue: Idaho Has Passed Two Shameful, Discriminatory Laws Limiting Transgender People’s Rights
Metro Weekly: Idaho governor signs two bills that discriminate against the transgender community
Refinery29: Idaho Passed A Bill That Threatens The Future Of Trans Women In Sports
Viciously anti-LGBTQ group runs Central Park tent hospital & forces volunteers to reject gay rights
Bil Browning | LGBTQ Nation
Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical Christian group that regularly takes advantage of humanitarian crises to spread their far-right agenda, has been revealed as the charity behind a tent hospital that has been erected in New York City’s Central Park. Franklin Graham, son of the famous evangelist Billy Graham, leads the group.
NBC: Group behind Central Park's COVID-19 field hospital run by antigay evangelist
Gizmodo: An Anti-Gay Charity Is Running a Coronavirus Tent Hospital in Central Park
WNBC: Controversy Swirls Around Central Park Field Hospital Regarding Group Building It
Transgender people are having to indefinitely postpone gender-affirming surgeries due to the coronavirus pandemic
Canela Lopez | INSIDER
Transgender and non-binary patients are having to reschedule or cancel gender-affirming surgeries indefinitely due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Procedures like facial feminization surgeries, top surgery, and phalloplasties are oftentimes measures taken to treat gender dysphoria — when a person feels like their body doesn't match their gender identity.
LGBTQ groups mark Transgender Day of Visibility through online campaigns
John Riley | Metro Weekly
Due to concerns over the raging COVID-19 pandemic, LGBTQ organizations have been forced to move their activities online as they attempt to recognize the International Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31.
An Anthem on Hope for Trans People on Trans Day of Visibility Amid a Pandemic
Kate Sosin | NewNowNext
“I recognize that at this moment, the world feels unbearably bleak, perhaps more lonely than it ever has. It is in moments like these I am most grateful to be trans. We were built for this, for resilience. Maybe that is its own kind of Trans Day of Visibility celebration.”
These Young Activists Are Working to Make Trans People Visible Every Day
Jo Yurcaba | Teen Vogue
March 31 is Trans Day of Visibility — a day used to celebrate transgender and non-binary people for being who we are. The act of being visible can be radical for trans people, who are often targeted by conservative state legislators and face threats of violence due to the transphobic culture that still surrounds us. Visibility is especially risky for trans people of color, who face both racism and transphobia.
Reproductive Health & Justice
‘My biggest fear is having to deliver alone’: Pregnancy in a pandemic
Alison Knezevich | Baltimore Sun
As the pandemic disrupts daily life for Americans, expecting parents are dealing with anxieties they never thought they would face, from new restrictions on hospital visitors to fears of getting sick or exposing a newborn to the virus.
COVID-19: Laying Down the Groundwork for Recovery with Gender at the Fore
Aria Grabowski | Ms. Magazine
As the world shelters in place and takes action to slow down the rapid spread of COVID-19—a disease that is wreaking havoc on humanity, healthcare systems and economies, all with gender implications—the focus and solutions have been on the immediate short-term crisis, as they should be.
The Risks of Being A Woman During the Pandemic
Rebecca Gordon | The Nation
As our patriarchal world sits still, the stress, sexism, and violence women face within the home is ramping up.
How Racial Health Disparities Will Play Out in the Coronavirus Pandemic
Julia Craven | Slate
Dr. Uché Blackstock explains how the coronavirus will affect Black patients, and why that terrifies her.
Feminism in the Time of Coronavirus
Rebecca Gordon | TomDispatch.com
Although men who fall sick seem more likely than women to die, in other respects, the pandemic and its predictable aftermath are going to be harder on women.
Equal Pay Day / Wage Gap
If you didn’t write a piece yesterday on the wage gap amidst coronavirus, what even were you doing? (I will accept “writing a piece on abortion restrictions amidst coronavirus.”)
Do You Value Women's Work Yet?*
Jenavieve Hatch | HuffPost
In the three weeks since people across the U.S. have been relegated to self-isolation in the interest of public safety, many Americans are discovering, for the first time, that women do a lot of work. And that women’s work is really hard.
*tl:dr
The "All-Consuming" Emotional Labor Caused by Coronavirus-and Disproportionately Shouldered by Women
Andrea Flynn | Ms. Magazine
The coronavirus has laid bare many divisions in our society. And, like any serious crisis does, it has elevated the extent to which structural sexism permeates our lives: impacting the gendered division of labor within the home and also shaping what is possible for women, and particularly mothers, in the public sphere.
Why This Economic Crisis Differs From the Last One for Women
Alisha Guptan | New York Times
This year, as a pandemic cripples the economy, pay inequities will come into sharp focus, as many women confront the coronavirus on the front lines or lose their jobs because of the economic downturn.
Will The Coronavirus Stall Progress Toward Equal Pay?
Jo Yurcaba | Bustle
Women are more likely to be hit harder by the economic impacts of the virus for a variety of reasons. For example, they more often hold hourly, low-wage jobs, which are more likely to be cut during the crisis and also rarely have benefits like paid leave or sick days. Historically, women have also been hit harder by economic recessions.
CNBC: The coronavirus pandemic further highlights why women workers need equal pay
Fast Company: There’s a massive pay gap between men and women who work from home
Forbes: Equal Pay Day In Our New Normal
Forbes: Here’s What Equal Pay Looks Like For Workers During The Corona Virus
Fortune: Coronavirus crisis puts Equal Pay Day in a new light
MarketWatch: Even on the front lines of coronavirus, some women get paid less than men
Refinery29: Everything You've Ever Wondered About Equal Pay Day, Explained
Refinery29: Here’s What Women’s Rights Lawyers Want You To Know About Supporting Working Women During COVID-19
The Root: This Equal Pay Day, the Crisis May Be Widening the Chasm
USWNT
U.S. Soccer tones down language in new USWNT equal pay court filings
ESPN | Graham Hays
In a new federal court filing for an ongoing equal pay dispute, lawyers for the U.S. Soccer Federation backed away from previous strident language suggesting that the U.S. women's national team performs a job that requires less skill or effort than that of male counterparts, and thus that the jobs cannot be compared equally.