Today…
at 2:00pm ET, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is hosting a freeee panel discussion on “The Power Of Investigative Journalism: Shining A Spotlight On Survivors.” Register here.
is the birthday of Icie Macy Hoobler (1892-1984). She was born on a remote farm in rural Missouri, went on to become a biochemist and pioneer in maternal and infant nutrition. Also, come on, a name for the ages. I like the cut of your jib, Icie.
is National Vanilla Ice Cream Day. I see you rolling your eyes. There’s a lot of flavorless vanilla ice cream out there, yes, but good vanilla ice cream is good.
I’m just not in the mood for anything today. Quarantine is getting to me.
But you know one thing that always lifts my mood…
Abortion
How crisis pregnancy centers are pushing women to have abortions later
Lisa Needham | The American Independent
Crisis pregnancy centers are "clinics" that aren't medically regulated and actively work to deceive people about abortion. That deception is designed to delay or deny access to abortion, which leads to people getting abortions later in pregnancy or being entirely unable to access the care they need.
Compassionate Strangers Made My Abortion Happen
Seema Syed | Ms. Magazine
When I realized I needed an abortion, I didn’t realize that it would be a destination abortion. I didn’t realize how many barriers—how many people—would be in my way just so I could get the abortion I wanted, when I wanted it. But thankfully, with the help of complete strangers, I was able to get the abortion I wanted at 30 weeks.
The Next Big Anti-Abortion Fight: Keeping You From Having an Abortion at Home
Marie Solis | Rewire.News
As anti-choice activists adjust their strategy to focus on the FDA and medication abortion, their opponents believe they are gaining ground in the fight to expand access.
Colorado
Leading Anti-Abortion Activist in Colorado Compares Abortion to Slavery
Madeleine Schmidt | Colorado Times Recorder
In an op-ed published last week, Colorado Christian University’s (CCU) Jeff Hunt compared abortion to slavery, joining anti-abortion activists nationwide who are attempting to tie abortion opposition to racial justice.
Georgia
Abortions in Georgia increased more than 7% in 2019
Maya T. Prabhu | Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After falling over the past decade, 2019 marked the second consecutive year the rate of reported abortions performed increased in Georgia.
LGBTQ
Number of Out U.S. Elected Officials Grows by 21 Percent in Past Year
Trudy Ring | The Advocate
LGBTQ+ representation in elective office is on the rise, but thousands more out candidates must be elected to assure equal representation.
Trump administration's new asylum rule poses danger to LGBTQ immigrants
Casey Quinlan | The American Independent
The proposed rule would narrow what persecution means, excluding many LGBTQ asylum seekers. The Trump administration is moving forward with a proposed rule that immigration advocates say would do major harm to LGBTQ asylum seekers.
The U.S. Imposes Sanctions On The Leader of Chechnya's LGBTQ+ Purge
Isabelle Lichtenstein | GO
“Today’s action serves to notify Mr. Kadyrov that his involvement in gross violations of human rights has consequences.” Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya, has been banned from entering the United States.
Bisexual men exist according to study by researcher who once said they don’t exist
Alex Bollinger | LGBTQ Nation
A new meta-analysis of studies shows that “there is no longer reasonable doubt” that some men experience “bisexual arousal patterns,” according to the study’s author. The researcher had previously denied that bisexual men actually existed.
Trump's Senior Legal Advisor Shares Conversion Therapy Tweets
David Artavia | Out Magazine
Jenna Ellis, senior legal advisor to Donald Trump, retweeted an article that promotes conversion therapy.
Angelica Ross, star of the hit show Pose, is fighting for trans representation in tech
Abrar Al-Heeti | CNET
Angelica Ross is planning this year's virtual TransTech Summit, where attendees can learn new skills and network with other LGBTQI people.
California
Gay Bathhouse Restrictions Are Lifted, But A Little Too Late? How Many Are Left?
Adam Dupuis | Instinct Magazine
With all of the sex dens closed and now news that there may just be one that could come back from the COVID closure, San Francisco supervisors voted to lift restrictions on gay bathhouse operations!
Idaho
Motions on Idaho’s trans ban to be decided by August 10th
Karleigh Webb | OutSports
A request for an injunction and motions to dismiss the lawsuit against HB 500 were debated in a three-hour hearing Wednesday in federal court in Boise.
Maryland
Transgender man files discrimination suit after Maryland hospital cancels hysterectomy
Tim Fitzsimons | NBC News
A transgender man is suing the University of Maryland Medical System in federal court, claiming his rights were violated when his gender-affirming surgery was canceled by one of the hospital system's subsidiaries.
Pennsylvania
A Pennsylvania fair becomes ensnared in online transphobia
Tim Fitzsimons | NBC News
A charity event in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, became fodder for controversy after a social media post compared a man in a dunk tank — who was wearing a dress, blond wig and glasses — to the state’s health secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, who is transgender and has been leading the state’s coronavirus response.
The Advocate | Caricature of Penn.'s Trans Health Secretary Used in Dunk Tank at Fair
RawStory | A Pennsylvania fair held a transphobic dunk tank event mocking the state’s secretary of health
Pregnancy & Parenting
Why Are Black Mothers At More Risk Of Dying?
Alice Broster | Forbes
Studies conducted in the U.S. and UK show that Black women are consistently much more likely to die from complications surrounding pregnancy and childbirth. Some have pointed to systemic problems within healthcare and assumptions made about patients based on race.
The Fight for Fertility Equality
David Kaufman | New York Times
A movement has formed around the idea that one’s ability to build a family should not be determined by wealth, sexuality, gender or biology.
Giving Birth During a Pandemic
Ali Muldrow | WORT-FM (Madison, Wis.)
Ali Muldrow spends the hour discussing what it means to be born and give birth during the pandemic with Tehmina Islam, the doula behind Access Midwifery. Tehmina outlines her commitment to making midwifery accessible to women of color and low-income families and responds to some of the myths and preconceptions about home births and the medical qualifications of midwives.
Reproductive Health & Justice
🠲 Eugenics, George Bernard Shaw and the need for a dramatic reckoning
Chris Jones | Chicago Tribune
But although the historic attachment to eugenics is not an easy topic for the left to discuss, if Planned Parenthood can have that reckoning with the legacy of its founder, so can the literary and theatrical establishment.
Sen. Sherrod Brown introduces resolution to declare racism a public health crisis
Sabrina Eaton | Cleveland.com
Sen. Sherrod Brown on Wednesday introduced a resolution that would declare racism a public health emergency, saying that doing so would help the Senate continue the debate on how to deal with structural racism.
#ShareTheMedicalMic: Follow the Campaign Amplifying Black Women in Medicine
Emily Weaver | POPSUGAR
On July 22, the #ShareTheMedicalMic hashtag on Instagram was filled with posts from Black women physicians, in an effort to shed light on the racial disparities that still exist in health care.
Work & Parenting
This is how many parents have dropped out of the workforce since April
Jennifer Fabiano | Ladders
In an April survey, 20% of people reported they were considering leaving the workforce. The June survey revealed that 33% of people reported that one parent has either left the workforce or dropped down to working part-time, with it being the women to leave or reduce hours in 70% of the cases.
New Study Spells Disaster for Working Moms
Katie Fleischer | Ms. Magazine
Amidst the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, parents are now juggling working from home, overseeing their children’s virtual classes and providing child care—all at the same time. But those parental burdens are not shared equally: The pandemic is exacerbating existing gender disparities in both child care and housework, meaning moms are facing a disproportionate amount of responsibilities at home.
How Caregiving Became More Than Just a Women’s Issue
Claire Cain Miller | New York Times
Even though women have always done most of the caregiving, both paid and unpaid, it’s never been just a women’s issue. The pandemic made that undeniable.
Telecommuting Moms Bear More Household Burden - Key Insight To Help Shift The Dynamic And Share The Load
Hanna Hart | Forbes
A recent study by Yale sociologists found that telecommuting habits follow longtime gender inequities around chores and kids, and that working from home is taking a toll on women’s mental health.
On school (not) reopening
Reopening Schools Is Way Harder Than It Should Be
Sarah Darville | New York Times
Of all the American institutions the pandemic has shut down, none face pressure to reopen quite like schools do. Pediatricians exhort schools to open their doors wherever possible or risk developmental harm to kids. Working parents, particularly mothers, are in crisis, worried about having to leave the work force altogether in the absence of a place to send their young children each day. And Trump is campaigning for schools to reopen, threatening to withhold funding if they don’t.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution | No district chose distance learning. State pandemic response left no option.
Crain's New York | New York City students and parents need schools open to get the economy working
Portland Monthly | Parents Turn to ‘School Pods’ as Fall Approaches
Poynter Online | Parents are considering ‘microschools’ and ‘teaching pods’ to augment or replace virtual schooling this fall
California
California Child Care System on Brink of Collapse, Study Says
Katie Orr | KQED
A report from UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment finds an already taxed industry is struggling to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Director of the Center Lea Austin said the coronavirus is having a wide-reaching, negative impact on the child care system.
San Francisco Chronicle | Child care is on the verge of collapse in the Bay Area. Can parents go back to work?
Work & Money
Study: Gender inequality increases in media during pandemic
Associated Press
Gender inequalities in newsrooms have increased during the coronavirus pandemic according to a survey published Thursday by the International Federation of Journalists.
What We Can Learn From Feminist Federal Credit Unions
Cecilia Nowell | The Nation
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, women- and minority-owned businesses are still contending with unequal access to credit.
Have you ever tried to send an email and gotten a pop-up asking if you meant to include an attachment because your text mentions one? (It’s saved me more than once.) I wonder if writers get something like that now. “Did you mean to add ‘amid the pandemic’ to this piece?”
Women and Credit Through the Decades: The 1970s
Erin El Issa | NerdWallet
This series examines the financial progress made by women in the United States since the Equal Credit Opportunity Act was passed in 1974. In this installment: the 1970s, the decade when the Equal Credit Opportunity Act became law.
October 28, 1974 – already on my calendar.
More, More, More
Here's A Long Ass List Of Reasons To Keep Protesting
Vinciane Ngomsi | Blavity
As far as we're concerned, the protests against police brutality and racial inequality shouldn't let up until true, tangible change comes.
I am in love with that headline.
'In a perfectly just republic,' Bella Abzug – born a century ago – would have been president
Pamela S. Nadell | The Conversation
One hundred years ago, on July 24, 1920, Bella Savitzky was “born yelling” in the Bronx, a month before the 19th Amendment gave women the vote. A warrior for every social justice movement of her day, Bella Savitzky Abzug stood on the front lines protesting injustices that still roil this nation.
Another Day Of GOP Disrespect For Women
Joan Walsh | The Nation
Attacks on AOC, Liz Cheney, and Portland’s “Wall of Moms” make it seem like Republicans don’t care about women voters. Except Ghislaine Maxwell.
Roy Den Hollander was entrenched in 'anti-feminist' male supremacy movement
Safia Samee Ali | NBC News
The men’s rights lawyer suspected of killing the son of a federal judge and wounding her husband was a self-described “anti-feminist” who wrote thousands of online posts and self-published a 1,700-word book describing his unabashed hatred of women.
The "free speech debate" isn’t really about free speech
Zack Beauchamp | Vox
The debate over “cancel culture” is about something real. But it’s not about free speech.