Okay, campers, rise and shine!
Today…
is Groundhog Day. Again.
in 1943, “Rosie the Riveter” appeared in print for the first time.
in 1851, Sojourner Truth delivered an extemporaneous speech at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. “Right. It’s called “Ain’t I a Woman.’” Well, yes and no. A very different version was recorded by a local anti-slavery paper right after the convention. The version most of us know was published more than a decade later by Frances Dana Barker Gage, an abolitionist and suffragist whose daughters would nonetheless go on to walk their dogs unleashed in Central Park.
is National Biscuit Day! (To be clear, Paul Hollywood, buttermilk biscuits.) With sausage gravy, a little fried chicken, I’m flexible.
It’s been a long week, but hey at least I got you, babe.
Abortion
Doctors sue to block FDA abortion pill rule during pandemic
Michael Kunzelman | AP
Requiring patients to visit a hospital, clinic or medical office to get an abortion pill is needlessly risking their health during the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of physicians allege in a lawsuit that seeks to suspend the federal rule. The federal lawsuit, which the ACLU filed Wednesday in Maryland, questions why patients can’t fill a prescription for mifepristone by mail.
Mic: The ACLU is suing the Trump administration for restricting abortion access during coronavirus
Salon: ACLU sues Food and Drug Administration over abortion care restrictions amid coronavirus pandemic
More Patients Seek Abortion Pills Online During Pandemic, But Face Restrictions
Sarah McCammon | NPR
During the coronavirus pandemic, more healthcare is moving online — including abortion. In many states, abortion pills can be prescribed remotely, and abortion providers are reporting a growing number of women seeking medication abortions through telemedicine. But others are finding obstacles in their way.
Coronavirus pandemic is fueling efforts to increase access to abortion pills
Marie McCullough | Philadelphia Inquirer
The pandemic is helping U.S. abortion rights advocates achieve a longstanding goal: make it easier for women to use pills to end pregnancies up to 10 weeks. Federal and state regulations have restricted access to “medication abortion” ever since the FDA approved it two decades ago. Nonetheless, use of the two-drug regimen has grown steadily, accounting for at least 40% of all abortions, even as the national abortion rate has fallen to historic lows, data shows.
El Salvador
These women say they had miscarriages. Now they're in jail for abortion.
Kate Smith | CBS News
More than 140 women have been charged under El Salvador's total ban on abortion since 1998, incarcerated for up to 35 years in some of the world's most notorious prisons. Like Manuela, many say they never had an abortion, but instead claim that after suffering a miscarriage they were wrongfully convicted when their doctors accused them of intentionally terminating their pregnancies.
Colorado
Proponents of 22 Week Abortion Ban Say They Have Enough Signatures to Qualify for CO Ballot
Madeleine Schmidt | Colorado Times Recorder
The ballot initiative campaign to ban abortion at 22 weeks announced today that they have enough signatures to qualify for Colorado’s November ballot. The Secretary of State still has to review the signatures to determine whether enough are valid, but the Due Date Too Late campaign said in a press release that with 30,000 signatures collected over their 15 day cure period, they’re confident they’ll have more than enough to put the question to voters in November.
Colorado Times Recorder: Sen. Gardner, a Longtime Abortion Foe, Still Hasn't Taken a Position on CO's Potential 22-Week Abortion Ban
Oklahoma
In Oklahoma, Your Anti-Choice Parents Will Be Able to Sue Your Abortion Provider
Imani Gandy | Rewire.News
In their rush to ascribe nefarious motives to abortion providers, Oklahoma Republicans passed a law to remedy a problem that doesn’t exist. Under the “Unborn Person Wrongful Death Act,” the would-be parents and grandparents can file a lawsuit against an abortion provider alleging the wrongful death of an egg, embryo, or fetus.
Texas
Texas Towns Change Ordinances That Labeled Abortion Rights Groups 'Criminal'
Melissa Jeltsen | HuffPost
Seven towns that passed measures banning reproductive rights groups from operating within their jurisdictions have changed course in response to a lawsuit.
LGBTQ
Connecticut transgender policy found to violate Title IX
Pat Eaton-Robb | AP
A Connecticut policy that allows transgender athletes to compete in girls sports violates the civil rights of female athletes, the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has ruled. The ruling comes in response to a complaint filed last year by several female track athletes, who argued that two transgender runners who were identified as male at birth had an unfair physical advantage.
Campaigner Ruth Hunt on straight-washing and erasure of LGBTQ history
Rachel Thompson | Mashable
Ruth Hunt is one of Britain’s leading LGBTQ campaigners. She has played a central role in campaigning for same sex marriage in England and Wales and access to fertility treatment for lesbians. In this episode of History Becomes Her, Hunt talks about about the straightwashing and erasure of LGBTQ history and the role of transphobia in so-called 'gender-critical' feminism.
Judge Invalidates One of the Last Vestiges of Federal Discrimination Against Same-Sex Couples
Mark Joseph Stern | Slate
On Wednesday, a federal judge ordered the Social Security Administration to pay up—not just to Michael Ely, but to every American denied survivors benefits because of same-sex marriage bans. His sweeping decision provides benefits to thousands of LGBTQ surviving spouses, tearing down one of the last remaining vestiges of federal discrimination against same-sex couples.
Pregnancy & Parenting
Uninsured new mothers face plenty of health challenges. COVID-19 could make that worse
Paige Minemyer | FierceHealthcare
New mothers face significant challenges when they lack health coverage—a concern the industry should be watching as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, researchers say. Researchers at the Urban Institute found 1 in 5 uninsured new mothers reported an unmet health need because of the cost.
Denied beds, pain relief and contact with their babies: the women giving birth amid Covid-19
Hannah Summers | The Guardian
The organisation Human Rights in Childbirth (HRiC) published a report this month documenting evidence that maternity healthcare is being undermined by the pandemic. Changes in practice aimed at controlling the spread of Covid-19 are disproportionately infringing on the human rights of women giving birth, it claims.
California
Incarcerated pregnant women should be guaranteed a standard of care
Kate Karpilow | CALmatters
It’s a scary time to be pregnant – especially if you’re incarcerated. That’s because high-density prisons and jails are like Petri dishes for the COVID-19 pandemic. While the CDC doesn’t identify pregnancy as a high-risk condition for COVID-19, it does urge “extra precautions.”More than enough reason for the California state Senate not to jettison Assembly Bill 732, as it streamlines its bill load to address the pandemic.
Reproductive Health & Justice
Menstrual Hygiene Day Highlights The Links Between Period Poverty & Mental Health
Alice Broster | Forbes
According to a study, one in four people struggled to purchase period supplies within the last year due to a lack of income. One in five low-income women reported missing work, school or similar events due to lack of access to period supplies and these instances were linked to reported feelings of embarrassment, disappointment and depression. Period poverty has a direct link with self-perception and mental health.
Period Poverty Is Getting Worse During Coronavirus, Warns Charity
Alice Broster | Forbes
Research from development and humanitarian organization Plan International has found that the Covid-19 pandemic is leaving people struggling to manage their periods. They surveyed health professionals in 30 countries and 73% said restricted access to products through shortages or disrupted supply chains is a major issue.
How Twentyeight Health Founder Amy Fan Is Making Birth Control Accessible And Affordable
Gabby Shacknai | Forbes
Nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended, but 43% of young women remain uninformed about birth control before becoming sexually active, and education about and access to contraceptives are even more lacking among low-income populations. However, Amy Fan and Twentyeight Helth, the reproductive and sexual health start-up she founded, are hoping to change that.
'Period Futures' Sparks Curiosity and Conversation Around Future of Periods
Corinne Ahrens | Ms. Magazine
Leading up to this year’s Menstrual Hygiene Day, the Period Futures team decided to take action to tackle some of the challenges riddling the menstrual health industry—from access, affordability and sustainability, to education and stigma. With these realities in mind, they embarked on a three-week “design sprint” on a project intended to spark curiosity and conversation surrounding the complex future of periods.
Queens Teens Get School Meal Hubs to Pass Out Period Products
Virginia Breen | Ms. Magazine
Two determined Astoria high school juniors have convinced the New York Department of Education to distribute menstrual products at school food-distribution sites during the coronavirus crisis.
There's a Global Movement to End Period Poverty, and Young Women Are Leading the Way
Mara Santilli | POPSUGAR
Until 2016, when Nadya Okamoto delivered one of her first TED talks at the University of Oregon, no one had even heard the phrase "menstrual movement." But the then 18-year-old would soon become one of the most prominent faces of a full-fledged battle to dissolve the taboo around menstruation and promote menstrual equality.
Period poverty keeps women and girls from reaching their full potential
Harmony Hobbs | Upworthy
According to the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, approximately 500 million women and girls live without access to essential tools for menstrual hygiene management, such as period products and handwashing facilities, but what many of them do have is a boatload of shame. Across the board, menstrual health is hugely underfunded and over stigmatized.
Work & Money
With women's unemployment sky high, this recession is a 'shecession,' expert says
Kate Kindelan | ABC News
For the first time in history, the nation's unemployment claims have a largely female, non-white face to them. While the two previous biggest economic crises in U.S. history – the Great Depression and the 2008 financial crisis – affected men's jobs more than women's, the coronavirus pandemic is disproportionately impacting women in the workforce, data shows.
The pandemic could fix the workplace gender gap (or make it wider)
Georgene Huang | Fast Company
There have been many conversations around how the coronavirus has provided us with an opportunity for a cultural reset and will change not only the way we work, but the fundamental ways in which we live our lives. Some of these changes will inevitably be for the better, but the pandemic also creates risk for important progress that society has made.
Why Gender Equality Hasn't Hit The Next Billion-Dollar Startups
Maggie McGrath | Forbes
The world may be sheltering in place, adopting work-from-home trends like conducting business over Zoom that would have been years away if not for the pandemic, but one thing remains woefully, stubbornly persistent: the state of venture funding for women, and by extension, the rate of female representation on the Next Billion-Dollar Startups list.
Feminist Leadership in a Pandemic
Surina Khan | Medium
A case study in adapting organizational policies, practices and programs in the time of COVID.
IOC says record high female representation on commissions
Reuters
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says women now account for almost half of the membership of its various commissions, an all-time high in the organisation’s drive for gender equality.
More, More, More
We Must Stop Being Amy Cooper
Shannon Keating | BuzzFeed News
The everyday indignities and aggressions suffered by black Americans don’t always break through to the level of national conversation, but when they do, white women in this country are presented with an opportunity that, time and time again, we’ve failed to take: owning up to the ways in which we benefit from, and actively promote, white supremacy, and pledging to do the work of unlearning harmful behaviors so that we may commit ourselves to the project of racial justice.
What Covid-19 Means For Equity And Inclusion
Bonnie Chiu | Forbes
“Covid-19 pulled back the curtain on so much that is wrong in our society and just how gendered and racialized the injustices in our systems are. Women of color and transgender people of color are being hit hardest by Covid-19 because they were already overrepresented in jobs that are underpaid, underinsured, lacking in sick leave or workplace safety, devalued and vulnerable to layoffs.”
NoVo Accounted for 17% of US Funding for Women's Rights
Kiersten Marek | Philanthropy Women
NoVo accounted for 17% of US funding for women’s rights and 37% of funding in that category for black women. And so, a great deal of the movement-building we’ve experienced for women and girls of color over the past decade has been driven by NoVo Foundation and its grantees. Much of this work was also feeding a larger cultural shift of growing the pipeline for women leaders of color. Now, all of this is going to take a huge hit unless other funders step in.
5 Disability Justice Activists to Know This Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
Tiffany Diane Tso | Rewire.News
Disability justice centers the rights and freedoms of people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, considering the intersections of all forms of oppression. Rewire.News is profiling some of the revolutionary Asian and Pacific American organizers, educators, artists, and writers in the disability justice movement.
The Unfinished History of ‘Mrs. America’
Katie Baker | The Ringer
The limited series accomplished the feat of retelling historical events and digging into who gets to decide how those stories are told.
Beyond the Hashtag: How to Take Anti-Racist Action in Your Life
Zyahna Bryant | Teen Vogue
It seems there is an overwhelming expectation that Black activists and organizers will say something profound about Black death, but what I have to offer is not some profound truth but a simple request: Take action.