niyad
niyad's JournalSome of the "discussions" hinted at by the media and elsewhere remind me
of something. . what is it? Some phrase I used to hear. . Now, what was it? ? ? Oh, yes, "just asking questions".
An Introduction to Catalonia's Feminist Administration
(wow, some actual hopeful news!!)
An Introduction to Catalonia’s Feminist Administration
PUBLISHED 4/29/2024 by Tània Verge
Tània Verge (center) presents the 2024 budget of the Ministry of Equality and Feminisms, at the Palau de la Generalitat, on Feb. 29, 2024, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. (David Zorrakino / Europa Press via Getty Images)
For many decades, sexual and reproductive rights have been at the core of the global feminist struggle—but only an unapologetically feminist administration puts them at the center of the political agenda. Such is the progressive turn the government of Catalonia, an autonomous region in northeastern Spain, assumed in May 2021 when it created a Ministry of Equality and Feminisms. In October 2021, this new ministry drafted the national strategy for sexual and reproductive rights. This was founded on the premise that the personal is political, so it must also be public policy. This strategy sought to guarantee the effective exercise of existing rights—particularly abortion, long-term contraception and sexuality education.
. . . .
‘My Period, My Rules’
How does an intersectional feminist logic of policymaking unfold in practice? Let me illustrate it with a global first: the action ‘My period, my rules,’ which consists of the free distribution of reusable menstrual products to all girls and women age 10 and 60, as well as to transgender men and nonbinary people who menstruate. These products—one menstrual cup, a pair of menstrual underwear, or two cloth pads—can be collected at any local pharmacy by showing a QR code downloaded from the app of the Catalan public health system, which also covers undocumented migrants. Pharmacists have been trained by the Ministry of Equality and Feminisms on menstruation, reusable products, and sexual and reproductive rights, in order to provide adequate information and counsel. The action has also been implemented in juvenile detention centers and prisons, and sessions on menstrual health are held in high schools and in community centers. Specific sessions targeting disabled women or migrant women, among other groups, will also be organized with grassroots feminist organizations.
The goals of this action are threefold.
Firstly, social justice: The action fights period poverty, which results from the feminization of poverty. Indeed, 23 percent women in Catalonia cannot afford to buy menstrual products and 44 percent opt for products that are not their first choice due to economic reasons, with implications on school and work absenteeism or on lower participation in sports or leisure activities. More generally, it also compensates for the extra economic cost that menstruating entails for half the population.
. . . .
All these goals justify why, rather than being a means-tested benefit, menstrual equity was conceived of as a right for all women. Last month, within 10 days of the action launch, over 250,000 women had already collected their free products and the social conversation around menstruation had reached TV and radio political talk shows, social networks, coffee breaks at workplaces, and school parent chats. Besides covering the immediate problem of period poverty, this action has also stirred structural change. Goodbye to taboos, silence and lack of information about our bodies! It was about time. Many women are now asking: What about perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause—another taboo period of women’s life cycles. We will get there, but the demand of more rights is another intended, albeit undeclared, goal of the ‘My period, my rules’ action. So, yes: Our Bodies, Ourselves, and Our Rights—because sexual and reproductive rights are human rights
https://msmagazine.com/2024/04/29/catalonia-feminist-women/
Backsliding Democracies and Women's Rights in the U.S. and Around the Globe
(please read this disturbing, lengthy, scary article at the link below)
Backsliding Democracies and Women’s Rights in the U.S. and Around the Globe
PUBLISHED 5/2/2024 by Sheri Arnold
“There is no democracy without women’s rights.”
The 18th ‘Manifa’ feminist march in Krakow, Poland, on March 18, 2023—an annual feminist march organized in various Polish cities in March in connection with International Women’s Day. Activists stand for protection against violence and discrimination, reproductive rights, labor rights, reliable sex education and support for people with disabilities, migrants and non-heteronormative people. (Klaudia Radecka / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Can a democracy where women have never been equal ever really thrive? How are attacks on democracy tied to gender equity? What can we learn from past fights to protect and expand women’s rights in order to chart a path forward?
A two-part virtual discussion hosted by Ms. magazine in partnership with NYU Law’s Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center and the 92NY explored these questions, plus how women’s rights are inextricably tied to the integrity and durability of democratic institutions.
This event is part of 92NY’s Newmark Civic Life Series: lectures and conversations with leading experts exploring pro-democracy efforts at this critical moment in the U.S. and around the world, supported by Craig Newmark Philanthropies.
. . . . .
https://msmagazine.com/2024/05/02/democracy-womens-rights-authoritarian-men/
So Goes Reproductive Freedom, So Goes Democracy
So Goes Reproductive Freedom, So Goes Democracy
PUBLISHED 5/13/2024 by Laleh Ispahani and Jennifer Weiss-Wolf
Bodily autonomy is inextricably linked to the integrity and durability of the body politic—with threats to one reinforcing threats to the other.
Pro-abortion demonstrators outside the U.S. Supreme Court on March 26, 2024, as the Court hears arguments on whether to limit the use of mifepristone, a medication that’s used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions nationally. (Michael Nigro / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty Images)
When people consider what it means to be a democracy on the decline, plot points of the recent film Civil War come to mind: a U.S. president who disregards the Constitution to nab a third term. Crackdowns on dissent and the media. Leaders using the military to break up public demonstrations. While that is, of course, representative of growing authoritarianism, recent history suggests that rollbacks on bodily autonomy and reproductive freedoms are also flashing red lights for would-be regimes. Elected authoritarians undermine the rule of law by positioning themselves as defenders of traditional values, spreading misinformation, and stacking the judiciary with their political allies.
The standing of the United States among modern democracies also has continued to ebb. The capture of the federal courts and installation of a supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court not only sounded the death knell for Roe v. Wade but ushered in the chaotic judicial aftermath we are now experiencing—with not one but two abortion cases back on the Court’s docket this term. The anti-democratic through-line points toward fissures in other aspects of free and fair representation. A majority (67 percent) of Americans who live in states where abortion is banned want the procedure to be legal; that can only be seen as an abject failure of democratic systems and structures. This is further reflected in states where abortion has been on the ballot (going six-for-six); people overwhelmingly voted to restore abortion rights where gerrymandered legislatures would have otherwise passed and enforced bans. Moreover, the introduction of nearly 400 anti-trans bills in state legislatures across the country hardly reflects the priorities and will of the majority of voters. Reproductive rights do not exist in a vacuum. Bodily autonomy is inextricably linked to the integrity and durability of the body politic—with threats to one reinforcing threats to the other. Targeting women leaders like Maria Ressa and Suyen Barahona, has proved a powerful political tool for illiberal leaders, a bargaining chip that not only helps them gain power but consolidate and maintain it.
. . . .
“Misogyny and authoritarianism are not just common comorbidities but mutually reinforcing ills,” writes Harvard Kennedy School’s (and Ms. contributor) Erica Chenoweth. In other words, leveraging these in tandem is a key tactic in the authoritarian playbook. “Aspiring autocrats and patriarchal authoritarians have good reason to fear women’s political participation. [F]ully free, politically active women are a threat to authoritarian and authoritarian-leaning leaders—and so those leaders have a strategic reason to be sexist,” Chenowith writes. In the United States, philanthropic support for democracy and for girls, women, and LGBTQ people encompasses a tiny fraction of total investment dollars. So how do we ensure that this nexus is addressed and adequately supported?
In our respective roles—as head of the U.S. program for Open Society Foundations and a feminist advocate and writer—we’ve got some ideas. First, pro-democracy funders simply must be deliberate and full-throated—in word and deed—that the fight for robust democratic structures and gender justice is one and the same. This simply means elevating these connections wherever and whenever one has influence whether it is in the media or the corridors of power. Raise your voice boldly. This also entails determining where reproductive and LGBTQ rights are on the line, mapping it with states fighting for voting rights and representation, and investing at the intersection of the two issues. For those supporting direct democracy initiatives in 2024—whether it is Florida’s abortion ballot measure or fair maps in Ohio—it means funding those efforts not just for a single win, but to harness momentum in those communities and coalitions that builds lasting democratic reforms. Here’s the main takeaway—so well-articulated by our colleague Pamela Shifman, president of the Democracy Alliance: “The struggle for democracy and for gender, racial and economic justice is one fight. It’s our fight.”
https://msmagazine.com/2024/05/13/reproductive-freedom-democracy-abortion-womens-rights/
Our Abortion Stories: "The Word 'Freedom' Is Hypocrisy When Women Lose the Right To Control Their Own Bodies"
(a number of the stories can be read at the link below, too many to excerpt here)
Our Abortion Stories: “The Word ‘Freedom’ Is Hypocrisy When Women Lose the Right To Control Their Own Bodies”
PUBLISHED 7/1/2022 by Phoebe Kolbert and Michelle Moulton
Protesters hold a ‘die-in’ in Boston on May 16, 2022, to represent the women who are at risk of dying while seeking illegal abortions or as a result of pregnancy complications. (Erin Clark / The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
On June 24, the Supreme Court overturned the longstanding precedents of Roe v. Wade, representing the largest blow to women’s constitutional rights in history. A series from Ms., Our Abortion Stories, chronicles readers’ experiences of abortion pre- and post-Roe. Abortions are sought by a wide range of people, for many different reasons. There is no single story. Telling stories of then and now shows how critical abortion has been and continues to be for women and girls.
The fall of Roe will strain abortion access nationwide. We cannot, we must not, lose the right to safe and accessible abortion or access to birth control. Share your abortion story by emailing [email protected], and sign our “We Have Had Abortions” petition.
. . . . .
https://msmagazine.com/2022/07/01/abortion-stories-pre-post-roe-v-wade/
This Independence Day, the Myth of 'American Freedom' Is More Absurd Than Ever
No longer is the phrase ‘no one is above the law’ an American reality.
This Independence Day, the Myth of ‘American Freedom’ Is More Absurd Than Ever
PUBLISHED 7/3/2024 by Danielle Campoamor
Days before the U.S. marks its independence from the British monarchy, the Supreme Court turned the presidency into an autocracy.
A group of protesters confronts a boat parade for the reelection of President Donald Trump on July 4, 2020, in Pittsburgh. (Jeff Swensen / Getty Images)
In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court just granted near-total immunity to Donald Trump, stating that a former president cannot be criminally prosecuted “for conduct within his exclusive sphere of Constitutional authority.” The supermajority of conservative judges also ruled that presidents also enjoy “at least a presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution” for acts “within the outer perimeter of his unofficial responsibility.” Presidents are not immune from prosecution for “unofficial acts.” “The damage has been done,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her scathing dissent. “The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.” In other words: Just days before the country will mark its independence from the British monarchy, the Supreme Court turned the U.S. presidency into an autocracy. The Fourth of July is officially a farce.
Of course, celebrating the “land of the free and the home of the brave” has always been an exercise in willful buffoonery—even before, but especially after, the overturn of Roe v. Wade, which for 50 years established the constitutional right to abortion care. Now, pregnant people across the country are forced to carry unwanted and unsafe pregnancies to term, risking their mental, physical and emotional health as well as their fertility, futures, and even their lives. Post-Roe, 14 states have enacted near-total abortion bans and an estimated 1 in 5 people are now forced to travel out of state for care. To even suggest that the U.S. is a bastion of freedom, when women are bleeding out at home, being turned away from emergency rooms and slipping into comas as doctors debate whether or not they can provide life-saving abortions isn’t just delusional—it’s an intentional fabrication.
Gay, trans and nonbinary youth are certainly not free to enjoy their unalienable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” when Republican legislators are busy introducing a record-number of anti-LGBTQ+ laws. In a country that celebrates self-determination, conservative lawmakers have successfully criminalized gender-affirming care, banned teachers from referring to their students by their chosen (read: correct) names and pronouns, and demonized LGBTQ-friendly books in schools and community libraries. When entire LGBTQ+ families are fleeing their home states for fear their children will not be able to receive adequate health care, or will be targeted in their classrooms, or will face harassment and even violence at their local grocery store or park, there is no such thing as American liberty. When nearly half of LGBTQ+ youth have seriously considered suicide, are 43 percent more likely to be bullied at school and are even terrified to do something as simple as use a public bathroom, the truths this government has claimed to hold “self evident” are, in fact, bold-faced fallacies.
. . . . .
Our only hope for a future democracy that truly does embody the very best, most aspirational aspects of a free United States is to uphold the other, arguably most important part of the Declaration of Independence:
“When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security.”
It is time for a new guard—new leaders who will hold a corrupt, bribe-taking, insurrectionist flag-flying Supreme Court accountable by establishing hearings, issuing articles of impeachment and expanding the Court itself. It is time for progressive lawmakers to do more than ask for our votes, send out campaign emails and issue stern statements—they must reshape a government that has been poisoned by white supremacy, misogyny and Christian nationalism, or get out of the way so the next generation can. Perhaps then, and only then—when everyone has the right to control their own bodies, raise their families free from the threat of gun violence, and send their children into a world that will respect their autonomy and honor their humanity—will the Fourth of July no longer be a sad, cruel joke.
https://msmagazine.com/2024/07/03/independence-day-usa-july-4-trump-supreme-court-immunity-president/
Training a New Generation of Antiabortion Extremists (trigger warning)
Training a New Generation of Antiabortion Extremists (trigger warning)
PUBLISHED 7/2/2024 by Roxana Behdad and Riya Khatod
A 10-day boot camp aims to radicalize the next generation of antiabortion extremists and train them on how to terrorize women seeking reproductive healthcare and their providers.
Police arrest an antiabortion activist from Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust in front of the White House on July 14, 2005. Demonstrators were asking then-President George W. Bush to nominate a justice for the Supreme Court that would vote to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
From June 15-25, the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust (SAH) hosted their 27th annual antiabortion extremist training program. This 10-day long program in Washington, D.C. was led by violent, extremist leaders intent on radicalizing young adults into antiabortion activism and training them in harassment and intimidation schemes. Immediately after the boot camp, which targeted high school and college students ages 14-25, SAH held a “DC Mission” that congregated even more antiabortion extremists in the nation’s capital. SAH is an extremist group founded in 1998 by Jeff White, a convicted felon, and Cheryl Conrad. The organization was founded after White was hit with an $880,000 fine for blockading clinics and stalking a physician, forcing him to turn over leadership of Operation Rescue West, another antiabortion extremist group, to Troy Newman. Speakers from various extremist groups, like Operation Save America (OSA) and Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), hailed from across the country to advocate militant “activism.” During the boot camp, speaker Maison Des Champs—also known as “Pro Life Spiderman”—posted to X, “As much as I would like to complain about being sent to jail and fundraise off my experiences, it’s really not that bad. Jail is just time out for adults. Nothing to be scared of.”
Jason Storms, the national director of OSA, was also a speaker at this year’s boot camp. Storms is the son-in-law and protege of Matthew Trewhella, an antiabortion extremist who signed the defensive action statement—a 1993 proclamation that justifies the murder of abortion providers. Storms has mobilized extremist activists across the country. In 2021, he led a group of OSA activists to the Jan 6. demonstrations. Since then, Storms has trained militias across the U.S., intimidated patients outside of women’s reproductive health clinics, and advocated the death penalty for women who receive abortions.
Supporters of protesters arrested on Jan 6, 2021, demonstrate one year later outside the U.S. Supreme Court on the second anniversary of insurrection of the U.S. Capitol. (Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)
. . . .
Police officer in the doorway at Washington Surgi-Center during the clinic blockade on Oct. 22, 2020. (Courtesy of We Engage)
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted nine of the extremists on two counts: violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and felony ‘conspiracy against [civil] rights.” In 2023, eight of the defendants were convicted on both accounts. Just last month, Lauren Handy was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for masterminding the invasion. SAH differs from other group in that it specializes in radicalizing young adults and training them with convicted felons, individuals standing trial for intimidation, and other violent extremists.
To conclude this year’s boot camp, the “campers” led a counter-protest in which they intimidated pro-choice advocates with medically inaccurate imagery and anti-Roe chants. An Instagram post highlighted that one member of the counter-protest was just 11 years old. The young adults at this year’s boot camp were not trained to simply seek abortion bans at the state level. During the boot camp, SAH member Jocabed Torres Bernal was interviewed by NBC News to advocate for a complete and federal ban on abortion. SAH vehemently opposes any exceptions to abortion bans for rape, incest and the life of the mother. As antiabortion extremists train youth in harassment tactics, it is more important than ever that the next generation stand up for women’s reproductive rights.
https://msmagazine.com/2024/07/02/anti-abortion-pro-life-camp-washington-dc-violent/
The Supreme Court Left the Door Open for Attacks on Emergency Medical Care
The Supreme Court Left the Door Open for Attacks on Emergency Medical Care
PUBLISHED 7/5/2024 by Sen. Melissa Wintrow
Earlier this year, I watched in horror as my home state of Idaho vehemently argued in front of the Supreme Court, asserting that due to our extreme abortion ban, doctors may not provide emergency abortion care—even if a woman’s health is failing. They were adamant, making it clear that our law only allowed providers to intervene in cases of impending death. Their argument wasn’t just unconscionable; it was in violation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a nearly 40-year-old federal law that guarantees that anyone can receive treatment for emergency medical condition. Idaho ignored these protections when it passed our oppressive ban, which became the subject of Idaho v. United States.
The Supreme Court handed down its decision last week and vacated the case. This conclusion—at least temporarily—protected a small sliver of the safety net that pregnant patients can count on for care. For the time being, this means that patients in need of emergency abortion care will no longer need to be airlifted out of Idaho, which has been happening since the start of 2024. You would think this decision would be comforting. It is not. Instead of doing what it should have done, which was affirm that pregnant people have the same protections as anyone else, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower courts and left the door open for other extremists to bring this argument again.
To understand how we got here—where the justices on our nation’s highest court were debating just how many organs need to fail before a woman can get abortion care—we have to travel back in time several years and nearly 2,000 miles away from Washington, D.C., to Boise, Idaho. When I was first elected to the Idaho statehouse in 2014, the legislature was already whittling away access to abortion care. This reached a crescendo in 2020 when the Republican supermajority passed a total abortion ban that flatly denied abortion care, even to protect a person’s health. The ban was horrific, but we still had Roe v. Wade at the federal level, which prohibited the trigger law from going into effect. Then, in June 2022, Roe fell.
. . .
https://www.instagram.com/p/C8nFH0epO1s/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=1cbd8099-7b7b-43c1-aba1-a98ff6c0dd69
The bottom line is that antiabortion politicians and organizations were never going to stop at Dobbs. The decision the justices made in this case doesn’t put an end to this nightmare. They chose to leave providers with uncertainty about how to practice medicine and patients confused about what care is and isn’t available. They left the door open for more states to bring cases, asserting that women must be literally dying before doctors can intervene. Antiabortion politicians in Idaho have made it clear that they don’t care about Idahoans’ health and well-being. The legislature has dug a hole that the medical system may not dig out of anytime soon. Government interference in medicine has a chilling effect that impacts the entire system, from primary care to geriatrics. As an elected official who believes the role of government is to improve people’s health and well-being, I will continue to fight against these extreme measures. The courts and state legislatures must do more to protect and expand reproductive freedom nationwide. Personal decisions belong with people, not politicians or judges. Enough is enough.
https://msmagazine.com/2024/07/05/supreme-court-emergency-abortion-emtala/
Before yesterday, I kept seeing all the increasing insanity around us,
and thinking that it was as if people had contracted some deadly fever/plague, or some massive, spreading infection, that would reach a critical point, and the fever would break, or the infection just burst and finally clear, and the healing would begin.
This morning, I wonder. . Did we finally reach that point, or is this plague one for which there is no cure, no vaccine, and it is going to kill us all?
Personally, I think the seditious six* should have released this "opinion" on 4 July.
It is such a slap in the face to everything that day represents, they might as well have gone all the way.
May they, and their enablers, receive everything they deserve.
(* for some reason, every time I try to type "six", it comes out "sux". )
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