#Repro-Justice

[lovebird-222-anew]

i need to become a sex educator

[love4bratz]

I was excited to find them on shelves! Except Sasha she was online ordered. The best feeling is being able to buy a whole line in 1 day. I remember using my whole summer work program check that was only about $140 to buy the Winter Wonderland line. My cousin was visiting & my Aunt needed to do a Target run surprisingly the Winter Wonderland line was there. I forgot how I was sneaky enough to buy them without my Aunt knowing. She was always in my business about what I bought with my money & would’ve lost it if she saw it was Bratz.

[flanarchy]

watch my first tiktok on abortion access!!

[h20cleo]

He is not going to change the constitution. What we really need to worry about is the Supreme Court. Most of our human rights in this country are tied to Supreme Court decisions, which he already successfully overturned Roe with his Justice appointments. You don't vote for the president, you vote for the party with the best Supreme Court decisions and opinion pieces.

If it makes any of you feel better, Donald Trump will have an uphill battle to change the constitution. He will need:

-2/3 of Senators (60)

-2/3 of the House of Representatives (290)

-3/4 of the states (38)

In 2026, 33 senate seats will be up for grabs, and we’ll be able to vote for people who are against Trump and his ideals.

Breathe and remain hopeful because it’s not over. We can still fight and make Trump’s last four years hell.

[ovisiphorus]

Gonna be real with you guys. Much as I hate how much attention republican voters take up in the popular imagination and society in general, I think the whole voter outreach shit is more about…Winning the fucking election and not being evil or whatever. It’s annoying and all but it isn’t for us. Just ignore it.

A lot of these people already don’t want to vote for DTJ but feel like they need “permission” in order to vote the right way. It’s infuriating and stupid, yes, but voter psychology in general is massively nonsensical and without a non-esoteric personal sense of logic. A lot of DJT voters here voted for our Democratic governor last time around, too. Voters always do weird shit like this.

The point is that people are trying to impress upon would be supporters or former supporters that things are vastly at stake and that it’s okay to embrace the side they’ve been told are child sacrificing devil worshippers for going on 30 years.

It’s not messaging meant for us, so just fucking ignore it and focus on yourself/the messaging that IS meant for you. For fuck’s sake! It’s an election campaign for the highest national office in the land. Be fucking realistic and stop being obtuse to make a point.

Plus you guys are always crying about how much more useful it is to court the chud blue collar people who want NOTHING to do with us and actively want to kill us over some liberal woman who you think is cringe for having ally pins or coexist stickers, so what’s the fucking problem now?

[sayruq]

Only a few minutes into Biden’s speech, several protesters interrupted, calling for a cease-fire in Israel’s U.S.-backed military operation in Gaza, which has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians and set off a maternal and reproductive health crisis. The president was interrupted over a dozen times as security struggled to wrangle protesters who were screaming “Genocide Joe!” and demanding a cease-fire. Hundreds of Biden supporters tried to drown out the protesters by clapping and chanting, “Four more years!” “Israel kills two mothers every hour in Gaza! Cease-fire now! End the genocide!” one protester yelled at Biden, who was standing on stage in front of a massive “Restore Roe” banner and flanked by supporters holding “Defend choice” signs. A video of the event shows Alexis McGill Johnson, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, clad in her trademark hot-pink pantsuit, standing up and chanting “Four more years!” as security dragged the shouting protester out. It was a real-time illustration of the growing rift in the reproductive rights movement during an election year that will determine the future of reproductive health in the U.S.

Basic prenatal care, such as treating anemia, is nonexistent, causing more women to die during childbirth and more babies born prematurely, many of whom die without access to hospital incubators. Food shortages are leaving pregnant women, new mothers and newborns malnourished. And a lack of menstrual hygiene products has caused an increase in infections in women and girls. “No one is making the connection that there’s a huge repro genocide happening in Gaza that we are funding, and the big repro organizations that are endorsing him are pretending like it’s not happening,” one leader who has met with the Biden administration on abortion issues told HuffPost. Most of the workers who spoke with HuffPost asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from their employers or others in the reproductive rights field.

[vague-humanoid]

To the dismay of many sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice workers in the U.S., many movement organizations had to be pushed to call for a ceasefire in Gaza or otherwise voice support for Palestinians who are being murdered en masse by the Israeli military. This includes Israel’s recent assault on Rafah, a supposed “safe zone” that was shelled by Israeli forces, killing dozens of people who were sheltering in a displacement camp.

While some recent demands from pro-Palestine protestors may seem to have nothing to do with the repro movement—namely the call for institutions to divest from arms manufacturers that aid the ongoing genocide in Gaza—Prism exclusively reports that connections to weapons companies do exist in the repro field. In fact, the nation’s leading provider of sexual and reproductive health care contracts directly with one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers.

[f1ghtsoftly]

AllThe Women’s News You Missed This Week

4/28/25-5/5/25

The future of the Women’s Health Initiative remains uncertain. Gaga has a record-breaking concert in Brazil. Activists and survivors question the legacy of the late Pope Francis. Jill Soboule dies in a mysterious house fire. Thousands of Islamists organized in Bangladesh against women’s rights. Indigenous women mark 5/5 as a day of remembrance for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women around the US. 

Want this in your inbox instead? Subscribe here

Top Stories For The Week: 

Kamala Harris hits out at Trump in first major speech since losing election 

Indigenous people raise awareness about their missing and murdered 

How many more women and girls have to be attacked before we class misogyny as terrorism?

Emel Mathlouthi: From revolution to global stages, this Tunisian icon is creating feminist anthems that inspire change  

A CASE OF CONSCIENCE: THE CHRISTIAN FEMINISTS FIGHTING BRAZIL'S ANTI-ABORTION LAWS

Midwifery Is as Old as Birth Itself. Why Are We Still Fighting for It?

Financing the fight: Why redistribution, not charity, matters for feminism  

A Deeper Look: 

Inside the Gen Z housewife wars: can you ever be a feminist and house proud?

Why ‘Girl’s Girl’ Culture Still Centers Around Male Approval 

The Avenging Woman: The Politics and Aesthetics of Female Rage in Rape-Revenge Cinema 

Financing the fight: Why redistribution, not charity, matters for feminism  

Book Review: Sophie Gilbert, “Girl On Girl: How Pop Culture Turned A Generation Of Women Against Themselves” 

Tooling Up Against Misogyny in Schools Is More Important Than Ever  

Updates on the Trump Administration: 

The Women’s Health Initiative has shaped women’s health for over 30 years, but its future is uncertain 

Key reports addressing violence against Indigenous women are gone from federal sites 

Women’s Rights: 

'Unacceptable' to question Supreme Court gender ruling, says minister 

Bring a mahram or die: The Taliban threat to expectant mothers

UNAMA: Taliban systemically erasing women’s public life and freedom of movement

Towards an Inclusive Gender Just Code in India: Women’s Rights are Non-Negotiable 

Women in the News: 

What to know about Karen Read's second murder trial 

Kamala Harris hits out at Trump in first major speech since losing election 

Lydia Mugambe: UN judge who forced woman to work as slave jailed for more than six years

Michigan's governor gambles on Trump - and her chances at a presidential run 

Reproductive Rights: 

Olivia Rodrigo Wins Planned Parenthood Award for Repro Rights Activism

Midwifery Is as Old as Birth Itself. Why Are We Still Fighting for It?

A CASE OF CONSCIENCE: THE CHRISTIAN FEMINISTS FIGHTING BRAZIL'S ANTI-ABORTION LAWS

From Montana to Florida—How Past Pro-Abortion Ballot Measures Are Helping Fuel a Movement 

Josh Hawley Calls on FDA to Restrict Abortion Pill Based on Bogus ‘Study’ from Right-Wing Org

Women resist: 

Profiles in Courage: Michelle King Refused to Hand Over Your Data to DOGE. Then She Lost Her Job. 

Why the Khachaturyan Sisters' Case Fired Up Russian Feminists

Ugandan women unveil 2026–2030 manifesto, demand action on rights 

Ketanji Brown Jackson sharply condemns Trump’s attacks on judges 

Profiles in Courage: Danielle Sassoon, a Prosecutor of Principle, Quits After Rejecting Trump-Appointed AG’s Order to Shield Eric Adams

Mexico’s president says she rejected Trump’s plan to send US troops across the border

Diary of a Feminist: Dr. Amal Al-Malki’s Journey from Academia to Activism 

Abuse victims question if Pope Francis did enough to stop predators 

Men Retaliate: 

Thousands of Islamists rally in Bangladesh against proposed changes to women’s rights

Women Getting Justice? 

Iranian Father Who Killed Daughter Released After Three Months  

Excavation at former mother-and-baby institution to begin this year 

Women’s Legacy and History: 

‘Unwavering friendship’: The true story of nine women who escaped a Nazi death march 

‘I Kissed A Girl’ Singer Jill Sobule’s Body Found After Mysterious House Fire 

‘She changed the face of London’: statue to be unveiled of suffragist gardener 

Uplifting News: 

First Jewish woman minister in German cabinet since Holocaust 

90-year-old Who Has Saved Over 10,000 Animals at Sanctuary Has No Plans to Retire 

‘I do what I like’: British woman, 115, claims world’s oldest living person title 

Uncategorized: 

How the IMF can help increase women’s labour force participation in Egypt 

Violence Against Women: 

South African woman guilty of kidnapping and trafficking daughter aged 6 

Woman killed in France was lovely person, says husband 

Rape 'accepted way of life' say ex-forces women

Syria’s stolen daughters: The HTS campaign to enslave Alawite women 

Gender Trolling: Digital Manosphere and Misogyny in China 

Women on Vinted are being sexually exploited and no one is stopping it

An Israeli woman taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 has alleged she was drugged and raped by a well-known personal trainer after returning to Israel.  

Sexually harassed while job hunting in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan  

Young woman's strip search at festival akin to 'sexual assault', court told

Arts and Culture: 

Two million people attend free Lady Gaga concert in Brazil 

How Katy Perry became the Hot and Cold popstar 

Book of the Week: Ani O’Brien on Ali Mau 

Flick’s Rough and Tough Feminism Fits Pittsburgh 

Far East Film Festival: Yihui Shao’s Feminist Drama ‘Her Story’ Wins Top Prize 

‘Wolf Siren’ by Beth O’Brien: Feminist retelling of a classic children’s tale 

Iris Knobloch, Cannes Film Festival president: 'For most of my career, I was the only woman at the table'

These Mormon wives are TV’s Most Unlikely Feminists 

Emel Mathlouthi: From revolution to global stages, this Tunisian icon is creating feminist anthems that inspire change  

As always, this is global and domestic news from a US perspective, covering feminist issues and women in the news more generally. As of right now, I do not cover Women’s Sports. Published each Tuesday.

[librarycards]

hi! i was reading about your journey with/relationship to running, and was wondering if you know of anyone who talks about being fat and running, in a way that isn’t horrible? sorry if this is out of your realm, i just appreciate your recs when i see them! thank you for sharing your thoughts regardless <3

no worries, i do have a few recommendations!

Marci Braithwaite / TheFatAthlete - I think she's probably the most well-known fat runner. She also does some coaching. Overall runs at a very beginner-friendly pace and focuses on finishing races over having fast times.

Martinus Evans / SlowAFRunClub - I think the only fat Black guy I know of who is a running influencer. Also very beginner/Couch 2 5K friendly, pics of runners of all sizes on their page, and lots of tips on injury, hydration, and other areas of interest.

Here's an excerpt from this excellent interview in Men's Health:

About more than halfway through the [marathon], a bus that picks up people along the way, if they’re injured or things of that sort, came by, and the bus driver said to me, ‘Hey, big man, you need a ride?’ I was like, ‘No, I'm good.’ Then after every mile, he’ll come back asking, ‘Hey, why don't you come on here, big guy? I can take you to the finish line.’ He was throwing seeds of doubt in my head. Finally, at around mile 25 or 26, the guy came back saying, ‘Hey, I'll take you to the finish line.’ I remember going off on him like, ‘Yo, I'm only a mile away from the finish line. Why the fuck would I get on the bus?’ He said something like, ‘I'm just trying to help your fat ass out.’ I finished the marathon. When I crossed the finish line, I was euphoric. I felt unstoppable, finally acknowledging my body’s strength. This feeling couldn’t be reduced by any negative comment, so I completed more races, proving to myself that I could do anything, regardless of my size. I stopped counting how many more races I’ve run after 100.

Mirna Valerio - A fat Black woman who is also a marathoner/ultra(!!!)marathoner (i.e. running races over 26.2 miles. which is completely and utterly bonkers). She's a multisport athlete and also does hiking, skiing, trail running, lifting, etc.

Latoya Shauntay Snell - Another fat Black woman ultra runner! She's also a PCOS/repro. justice advocate.

Bonus fat athletes I love:

Jenny Bruso - Hiking, weight training.

Keri Harvey / KHarveyFit - Mostly weight training, some cardio.

Lauren Leavell - Barre, Yoga, HIIT.

-

No matter what size you are, you can and should go for whatever sport makes you happy - running included. If you keep waiting to be "skinny enough" to start doing xyz thing, you'll just be wasting your time being miserable when you could be enjoying yourself right now. I hope this helps <3

[seraphica]

A Walkthrough of Project 2025

By Emily Galvin-Almanza, originally on Twitter.

You may have heard the term “Project 2025” floating around, and you may even have cracked open the 900+ page document yourself, only to see a lot of kind of bland, policy-wonk text. So let me crack through the policy-speak and tell you WTF is in this document.

This is, um, a long thread. But if you want a lot of info about Project 2025, all in one place, you've come to the right place.

This document is what Trump and his team will do if elected. It’s their document, their plan, their platform. So like…it’s not *me* saying what they’ll do, this is *them* saying so. documentcloud.org/documents/2408…

Shall we dig in? I’ll organize and give you page numbers. I’m going to start with criminal justice stuff (of course) and then we’ll wander through other topics like repro rights (none), discrimination (fine, unless it’s against nuclear power), environmental protection (gone), etc

Predictably, this is a document full of states-rights claims, but (true to form) there is very little left to the states when it comes to a Trump criminal legal system.

Generally, the Constitution reserves criminal law to the states, allowing localities to create criminal accountability as they see fit. But under a Trump regime, “small government” just means “no EPA or medicare and HUGE expansions of DOJ’s criminal division power.”

A primary target? The discretion and decision-making of local prosecutors.

Prosecutorial discretion is part of the foundation of our legal system—the idea that the people elect their prosecutor, and can elect (or not elect) a person whose judgment they agree with when it comes to what to focus on when it comes to criminal prosecution.

The Trump DOJ will basically override local voters and prosecutors, bringing federal charges where they deem states not punitive enough. (553)

I should note that this is a ridiculous, massively difficult thing to do—our criminal court system is spread across 3,143 counties.

So what it really means is that the Trump DOJ will troll for cases they find politically meaningful, and use the full weight of the federal government to prosecute specific individuals who stand for stuff they don’t like.

They’re not just going to take on targeted prosecutions, they’re also going to legally come after prosecutors who they feel aren’t prosecuting enough. (553) It’s like this, but EVERYWHERE politico.com/news/2024/04/1…

And somehow they’re also going to do everything they can to make sentences harsher, and increase utilization of the death penalty (553-554).

They’re going to double down on the war on drugs, prosecuting interstate drug cases much more harshly (and by “interstate drug trade” they also mean “mailing abortion pills”) (555, 562).

They will also take election integrity out of the hands of the Civil Rights Division and put it in to DOJ’s criminal division (563), which means you see a lot more cases like Crystal Mason’s, but at a federal level: nytimes.com/2024/03/28/us/…

The long and short of it is, we often think of “prosecution of political enemies” as, like, Donald Trump sending DOJ after Liz Cheney or Rachel Maddow or something. And we forget that this can also mean persecution of ordinary people like Crystal Mason.

People who are not high profile themselves, but whose conduct (or even mistake!) is in a subject matter area that makes them the political target. Under this regime, being in a state that would not choose to prosecute them may be no help.

It’s also important to remember the ramifications of highly punitive policies. A DOJ that seeks the max on every case, seeks the death penalty, increases immigration detention (below), is a federal government expanding (& lining the pockets of) the prison industrial complex.

We already live in a country where basically all social ills are funneled into our criminal court system. SCOTUS just increased that trend by allowing people who are living on the street with nowhere else to go to be prosecuted for…existing…outdoors.

But in this administration, we can see an expansion of what is criminal. You’ll see a lot of Torquemada-esque interrogatory stuff in the doc (especially at Treasury?!) but the most obvious expansion of the criminal system is into the zone of women’s health.

In other words, reproductive rights? Never heard of her. The document is pretty fixated on abortion, unsurprisingly, with plans to end all forms of abortion access (including pills) throughout the document (6, 104, 284, 450, 455 - 459, 503 - 529, 562)

There’s one point I’d like to hit on in particular: this week SCOTUS punted a case back to Idaho which was covered as a case allowing emergency abortions to save a woman's life.

But in fact, that's not what really happened here---the Court punted the issue back to the Circuit court, leaving the question of whether women need to be actively dying to receive an abortion open.

Reminder: long as there is legal uncertainty, there are doctors doing nothing while wondering what they're supposed to do as a woman lies bleeding and septic on their table. msmagazine.com/2024/06/28/emt…

The fact of the matter is, under a Trump administration, they could (and would) simply choose to stop fighting to make hospitals to offer abortion in cases where it is necessary to save a woman's life.

They could simply stop fighting for EMTALA, the statute that says hospitals that get federal dollars have to offer emergency care.

And also, in Project 2025, they want to go even farther than that, farther than banning abortion. They want to MAKE SURE DOCTORS DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO DO IT.

Specifically, this doc makes the Dept of Health and Human Services responsible for ensuring that training for doctors, nurses, and doulas doesn’t include anything about abortion (485-486).

Oh also DOJ is going to be the Abortion Police and go after anyone mailing abortion pills (562).

Side note: I don’t actually disagree with ensuring more coverage for things relating to women’s preventative healthcare but Project 2025 weirdly endorsing the rhythm method is hilarious

So they're gonna make you have all these babies. Who is going to take care of these babies? Were you thinking maybe you could get access to daycare? Oh no, mama, we want YOU to take care of the babies. What’s that? You had a job? Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it.

HHS now, under Trump, thinks the gay agenda is destroying families, but the presence of a biological father can prevent all manner of bad things up to and including teen pregnancy (presumably because dad is going to meet your date at the door with a shotgun)

But also….having an adult male father figure who is NOT your bio dad is apparently the worst and most evil thing in the world. BAN BOYFRIENDS.

The Trump administration would like to make the federal government close its eyes, put its fingers in its ears, and hum loudly when anyone says “gender." Specifically...

...they will scrub out any mention of the existence of trans/nonbinary/LGBTQIA+ Americans in federal agencies, policies, regulations, and legislation (4-5, 62, 259, 333, 475).

To quote, “the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights”

These terms are getting cut “out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.” (p 4-5)

Damn, who's the language police now?

This document—in a quest to be really, really fundamentalist about gender identity—also completely abandons the idea of supporting gender equality as a whole. Efforts to protect women and girls internationally? Hell no.

Like, USAID should “remove all references, examples, definitions, photos, and language on USAID websites, in agency publications and policies, and in all agency contracts and grants that include the following terms"

And the terms are “gender,” “gender equality,” “gender equity,” “gender diverse individu- als,” “gender aware,” “gender sensitive” (259)

They would very much like to kick trans people—and anyone gender nonconforming!---out of the military (103-104). Remember Demi Moore in GI Jane? Yeah the second she gets that buzz cut she’s OUT.

What about race discrimination, you say? Well, we will have no idea, because the Trump administration plans to stop collecting any data about that. The EEOC will stop collecting data about race entirely (583).

BTW when I say this is a tricky document, this is what I mean...

The document justifies ditching any data collection by saying that “Crudely categorizing employees by race or ethnicity fails to recognize the diversity of the American workforce and forces individuals into categories that do not fully reflect their racial and ethnic heritage.”

Which at first glance, a person could be like, yes! Racial identity is complex! Let’s not put people in boxes!

But then you step back and realize that NO LONGER HAVING DATA ABOUT WHETHER BLACK AND BROWN PEOPLE ARE OR ARE NOT GETTING HIRED does exactly ZERO GOOD THINGS it just makes us UNABLE TO TELL IF BAD THINGS ARE HAPPENING.

The document is full of this—really normal-sounding pablum that actually means “we are choosing to have no idea whether Black and Brown people are being shut out of the workforce, why would the government want to know that?”

The government doesn’t need to know! Because they don’t think disparate impact—when a particular group is disadvantaged in the workplace—matters anyway!

They would “eliminate disparate impact as a valid theory of discrimination for race and other bases under Title VII and other laws. Disparities do not (and should not legally) imply discrimination per se.” (583).

BTW on this point they get hella hella weird about the idea of racial equity at the Treasury Dept…where they would essentially like to have an Inquisition:

Essentially, under this administration, any agency that wants to think about whether race is playing a role in the fairness of their sector can GTFO.

If you go into the original doc and search for “DEI” you basically enter a forest of grandpas yelling I DON’T SEE COLOR YOU CAN BE BLACK WHITE GREEN PURPLE OR POLKA DOT FOR ALL I CARE

BTW you were hoping that a Democratic Senate could be an effective check of some kind, first thing in this doc is that they want to kind of tell the Senate to F off

Specifically, the plan is to get Trump-loyalist appointees into position, scrap the Senate confirmation process for a lot of these appointees and let the rest start working even before Senate confirmation. (p136-137, 173)

All of the agency heads are clearly designated as political in this doc, not expert/neutral. So EPA (428), DOJ (560), FBI (552), HUD (508), DOL (615)...basically the doc calls for the insertion of as many loyalists as possible

And yes, the job of these loyalists is, in many cases, to dismantle the agency they head.

I don’t really know where to categorize this, so I’ll put it here: they think the Department of Homeland Security suffers from “wokeness.” I’m not making that up, they said in black-and-white serif font. I can’t make this stuff up. Page 135.

So like, to be clear, in the same breath as they’re talking about the wokeness of DHS, they would also like to reinstate the Border Patrol officers (who work under DHS mind you) who were accused of galloping up on migrant families and whipping them from horseback.

“CBP should restart & expand use of the horseback-mounted Border Patrol. As part of this announcement, the Secretary should clear the records & personnel files of those who were falsely accused by Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas of whipping migrants and issue a formal apology” (139).

FWIW what they’re referring to is some CBP agents who nearly trampled a kid and used their reins in a way that was, er, whip-like (and before you accuse ME of being overly sensitive, I have ridden exactly this way in my life BUT I WAS MOVING CATTLE NOT HUMAN BEINGS.) politico.com/news/2022/07/0…

Anyway, because DHS is too woke, they need to shrink it down until it mostly just detains and deports immigrants.

They’re gonna bust its union and remove most of its programs and privatize both the TSA and also FEMA’s flood insurance program so you can get bilked if you live in a region prone to flooding (shhhh don’t say the floods are due to climate change).

SPEAKING OF CLIMATE, we’re definitely going back to the same “if you don’t have any information about the problem, the problem cannot exist” strategy they use on race.

To that end, they would like to get rid of Offices of: Domestic Climate Policy (61) Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) (61) Clean Energy Demonstration (381) The Clean Energy Corps (386) Environmental Justice & External Civil Rights (442)

This means getting rid of climate efforts in foreign aid programs (257), stopping the USDA’s efforts to focus on sustainable food production (293—who will need to eat in 20 years anyway? Certainly not our children, they will have evolved to photosynthesize and graze on plastic)

Anyway they’re getting rid of energy efficiency standards for appliances (378) as well as cutting down all EPA activity related to climate change, including repealing the Inflation Reduction Act programs providing grants for environmental science activities (440)

BTW, I think it’s worth noting that there are a lot of things stated as binaries that aren’t binary. Ending energy efficiency requirements for appliances, for example, to focus on cycle time and reparability.

I also want a right to repair! I also hate it that my car’s internal computer makes it really hard to work on my own car! I just think that we, as consumers, have the right to demand BOTH and this doc incorrectly insists that we have to CHOOSE.

I don’t have to choose between repairing an appliance that massively pollutes the planet or having an energy efficient one that will lower my bills but break every two years. WE CAN DEMAND BOTH. False binaries are a sneaky, crappy constant in this document.

I’m highlighting them in particular because false binaries are also a way of dividing us. There are things I can agree with conservative friends on…literally Monday I was having a fun, productive, common-ground convo w/a conservative friend. False binaries are toxic bullshit.

Toxic ideas abound in here. You know how TX created an abortion regulation scheme that incentivized members of the public to effectively be abortion bounty hunters? Project 2025 would do the same for *science.*

Project 2025 would incentivize citizens to come after scientists under the False Claims Act for research misconduct. This is p 438. Fun times!

This is all part of diluting expertise so that the scientists who are trying to warn us about massive danger ahead can get drowned out by “citizen scientists” whose research the EPA will…equally prioritize??? 438.

Housing and Urban Development also gets their climate programs cut (508) because, much like food, who will need housing in the future? We will return to caves, as we should.

Oh, if how much oil drilling the US is doing matters to you as a voter, Project 2025 basically says maximum drilling, all the drilling, all the time (523-524).

Just a quick note in case you were thinking this was a serious policy document: note the contrast between the doc’s desire to let states drill as much as they want bc “States are better resource managers than the federal government because they must live with the results” (524)

And revoking CA’s ability to set its own air quality standards (627)…because…states…shouldn’t be allowed to self-regulate, I guess, if their regulations make things harder for the oil industry?

Oh also they’re gonna freeze all EPA activity which wasn’t Congressionally authorized on Day One (436). How often does stuff get through Congress anymore? This one echoes the recent SCOTUS decision which also strips regulatory authority.

Basically more drilling, no windmills, don’t even think about encouraging electric cars (286).

Also open season on wolves and bears (534) and let’s just mass execute America’s wild horses (529)

To break it down, if you, like me, are a mom who is concerned about the quality of water your kids are drinking at school, and wants the gov’t to be quickly responsive to new discoveries and problems (like PFAS!) that might give your kids cancer, well, you’re fucked.

If there’s a new thing that is discovered that we should regulate/know about, too bad, because of things like this: “Remove the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) for any source category that is not currently being regulated.” (425).

Climate, of course, impacts migration. The more the US contributes to climate catastrophe, the more the consequences will be felt by the developing world, particularly in regions close to the equator and low-lying regions.

What will we do about immigration? Build more prisons for immigrants (142), send unaccompanied children away (148) increase the fees to apply for asylum + generally make immigration more expensive (146) & make it so gang violence & domestic violence no longer justify asylum (148)

Cut funding for NGOs that help immigrants find safety, and instead spend that on walls and jails (149).

Eliminate prosecutorial discretion on immigration cases (150). Oh and we’re doing the head-in-sand thing again by eliminating the office that tracks immigration jailing. 165. They don’t want an “impediment to detention.”

For Americans who rely on government programs to do things like feed their children, keep a roof over their heads, or get healthcare, things will also get worse.

They really hate healthcare: “In essence, our deficit problem is a Medicare and Medicaid problem.” (283).

Even though they want people to have a lot of babies, they’re putting in new requirements on SNAP (299), reducing eligibility for Medicaid (467), cutting school lunch programs (302-303), and eliminating Head Start (482).

Oh and also fuck Sesame Street (247) (and public broadcasting generally).

Safe baby formula? Not a priority. “As for baby formula regulations generally, labeling regulations and regulations that unnecessarily delay the manufacture and sale of baby formula should be re-evaluated.” (302).

Speaking of schools, they’re going to get rid of the Dept of Education, which they say is “a convenient one-stop shop for the woke education cartel,“ (285, 319).

Instead of schools, let’s give teens more dangerous jobs. “Some young adults show an interest in inherently dangerous jobs...DOL should amend its hazard-order regulations to permit teenage workers access to work in regulated jobs with proper training and parental consent.” (595).

There’s kind of a sharp contrast here between high trust of parents in some contexts (to let their kids work dangerous jobs) and low trust of parents in others (if a father isn’t father-y enough terminate parental rights as fast as you can (481-482)).

Obviously, the Biden efforts to forgive student loans are toast (354) but also public service loan forgiveness is toast! “End time-based and occupation-based student loan forgiveness.” (361).

Having a job may be overrated anyway, and so the Trump Admin will tell the Fed to only think about price stability, eliminating full employment as an economic goal (661). Actually WTH maybe abolish the federal reserve completely (also 661).

Oh also if you were looking forward to lower drug costs, they want to end the program where the gov’t can negotiate lower prescription drug costs. 465.

As a matter of fact, no one will protect consumers against fraud and dangerous products under this admin…they are going to eliminate the CFPB completely and return consumer protection to banking regulators who are SO GOOD AT CONSUMER PROTECTION OF COURSE (/s/) 839.

Education, of course, is critical to the ability to distinguish misinformation. Under Trump, we better get ready for a lot more disinfo, because they’re going to yank federal efforts to combat misinfo/disinfo online. Facebook free for all, now with AI generated videos! (155, 550)

Speaking of misinfo, there will be no more independent Federal Election Commission.

Headed by a Trump official (with or without Senate confirmation!) the FEC will only investigate claims the Trump administration wants investigated, and remove its authority to decide what to litigate by handing that over to DOJ. (803, 865)

Oh also the new president will have to have a way to quickly deal with any ongoing, er, litigation, like, uh, criminal cases (but also ongoing litigation that conflicts with his agenda, like, say, civil rights consent decrees or environmental enforcement litigation. (28)

In the name of EXPEDIENCY, they say, the President’s lawyer (the White House Counsel) should give high-level super fast advice without wasting time on, like, researched legal memos or anything.

In other words, what Trump does will be on the advice of a counsel who doesn’t write stuff down. Not great!

Oh also the person chosen need not have fancy credentials (oh okay I'm all for that) as long as they’re LOYAL (oh wait no). Also p 28.

I’m sorry to tell you guys this, but this is like…scratching the surface. This is the beginning. This is the stuff you should know now.

If there is something you care about in this world, I think you should dip into this document and search for it, because you might find something hideous. documentcloud.org/documents/2408…

[original thread]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Nina Martin at Mother Jones:

In the nearly three years since the US Supreme Court overturned the national right to abortion, grassroots abortion funds and advocates have facilitated care for thousands of patients living in states where abortion is banned, helping them find providers in other parts of the country, organize their travel, and pay some or all of the costs. That’s what Alabama advocates were expecting to do when that state’s near-total abortion ban took effect the day Roe v. Wade fell. Instead, these advocates found themselves embroiled in an epic legal battle with Alabama’s attorney general, who threatened to use a criminal conspiracy statute from 1896 to prosecute anyone who helped pregnant patients obtain an abortion in another state—charges potentially punishable by decades in prison.  Now, in a decision that could have major implications for states’ efforts to regulate abortion help and helpers in the post-Roe era, a federal judge in Montgomery, Alabama, has ruled that Attorney General Steve Marshall’s threats to prosecute abortion advocates violate fundamental protections for free speech and the right to travel.  “Alabama’s criminal jurisdiction does not reach beyond its borders, and it cannot punish what its residents do lawfully in another State,” US District Judge Myron H. Thompson declared in a 131-page ruling issued Monday, adding: “The Attorney General cannot prosecute those who assist people in Alabama to travel out of state to obtain a lawful abortion.” “It is one thing for Alabama to outlaw by statute what happens in its own backyard,” Thompson wrote. “It is another thing for the state to enforce its values and laws, as chosen by the attorney general, outside its boundaries by punishing its citizens and others who help individuals travel to another state to engage in conduct that is lawful there but the attorney general finds to be contrary to Alabama’s values and laws.” 

The ruling was immediately hailed by abortion rights advocates. “We won! Our abortion fund is reopened!” Kelsea McLain, health care access director of Alabama’s Yellowhammer Fund, texted in reaction to the ruling Monday evening. “Immediately! We’ve already funded our first abortion!” A request to Marshall’s office for comment was not immediately answered. The case consists of lawsuits by Yellowhammer—the state’s only abortion fund—and a trio of former abortion providers, including the West Alabama Women’s Center (now WAWC Healthcare) in Tuscaloosa and Dr. Yashica Robinson, an OB-GYN in Huntsville. Before the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe, Yellowhammer and the providers worked together closely to help patients throughout Alabama get abortion care; indeed, for a couple of years before Roe fell, Yellowhammer owned WAWC.

[...]

Alabama has long had a reputation for pushing the legal envelope when it comes to reproductive rights—including laws and court decisions enshrining fetal personhood and declaring frozen embryos to be “extrauterine children.” At the time of its passage in 2019, its Human Rights Protection Act—blocked while Roe was the law of the land—was the most restrictive abortion law enacted in the US since the 1970s.  Marshall’s threats against abortion helpers were especially alarming to reproductive justice activists because they were so broad. Theoretically, Alabama’s criminal conspiracy law could apply to anyone in the state who helps someone do something in another state that would be a crime in Alabama, even if that conduct is legal in that other state. In court documents, Marshall argued that even if another state allows abortion, helpers could be charged under Alabama’s conspiracy law because the actual help occurs in Alabama, where abortion is banned. But Thompson wrote in Monday’s decision that, according to Marshall’s logic, “the Alabama Attorney General would have within his reach the authority to prosecute Alabamians planning a Las Vegas bachelor party, complete with casinos and gambling, since casino-style gambling is outlawed in Alabama.” The judge added: “As the adage goes, be careful what you pray for.”

Thompson also ruled that the advocates’ support for people seeking abortions was a form of speech. “The court finds that Yellowhammer Fund’s act of pledging and providing funds on behalf of pregnant Alabamians who seek a legal abortion outside Alabama is expressive conduct, and, therefore, subject to First Amendment protection.”

A big win for reproductive freedom in Alabama: in Yellowhammer Fund v. Marshall, Alabama cannot charge those who help abortion patients get out-of-state abortions.

See Also:

AP, via The Guardian: Judge rules Alabama cannot prosecute those who help with out-of-state abortions

[rgr-pop]

TIME SENSITIVE ACTION REQUEST!!: can you my beautiful artists/clever people on tumblr make us some abortion button designs this weekend? To sell to raise money for Mountain Access Brigade, a collective of abortion doulas funding access to abortion in east tennessee?

I’m tabling a week from today at Stoopfest in Lansing, which will be headlined this year by Jhariah, R.A.P Ferreira, Weakened Friends, and Direct Hit!. I’m tabling with the Lansing DSA Women’s Section (working title) as well as a coalition of other women organizing with leftist orgs in Lansing (we don’t have a name yet but we call them “the girlies”). We’re looking to hit $5k on our fundraiser by the end of the month, but equally importantly, I’m tabling to meet people who want to plug into projects we’re getting off the ground to organize to defeat transphobic homophobic and anti-abortion power in Lansing, especially (my baby pet project if you know me irl!) launching our campaign to chase out and shut down the anti-abortion fake clinics in the city.

Here’s our fundraising page, you can donate and share (please!) but you should also read it to get a sense of how we talk about our vision:

https://fund.nnaf.org/team/565397

So I need YOU to design abortion loving buttons for me to make to sell for the fundraiser and start conversations that connect people :). Please help lol. The vibe is queer, mutual aidy, creative! Many of the girls I’m going with are harm reduction activists and passionate about self management and self controlled healthcare.

We have a lot of fun/funny ones made already but we need more sweet/straightforward ones that inspire people and ground the sloganing in our principles. Some wording you can use in your designs (but please feel free to think of others)/some jumping off points/guidance:

- abortion is magic

- abortion access (or just access) saves lives

- we use the term “reproductive freedom” as a matter of practice (pro-choice and reproductive justice are okay, but we love this one)

- “bodily autonomy” is another one we orient around

- pro “repro worker” slogans (“i <3 repro workers” always good)

- “i fund abortion”

- tying in safer sex slogans (would love something like this in an 80s/90s safe sex campaign style)

- harm reduction/mutual aid framing (would looove some good ideas here)

- i REALLY want to come with something about bisexual women being statistically most likely to have an abortion (one of my favorite communist conversation starters irl) - in general messages about queer people getting abortions is a vibe!

- we don’t use “women” when referring to who gets abortions but feminist messaging is great. I’d stay away from body parts as imagery

- the classic, “i love abortion”

- slogan-free imagery that supports the vibe

- Y’allidarity :):):)

- This line from a lead organizer with DSA’s Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy Campaign has stuck with me as a guide, it really gets at the core of this work for me: “In a political climate characterized by fear and isolation, our voice is steady, loving, direct, and shows courage in our democratic socialist convictions.”

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

- Make me some designs on a 2.25 inch circle button template (im a design idiot and need help) in whatever file format and give me permission to print them and turn them into buttons to sell for the fundraiser. THEY DONT HAVE TO BE AMAZING LOOOKING! email me at rikki.g.reynolds@gmail.com

- reply to this post with specific wording ideas if the above inspires you!

- share this post :) and hit up your designer friends who have time this weekend! abortion fund-a-thon is about making hard asks of your friends who can help, and you’ll be glad you did.

- if you want to help promote this fundraiser on your own socials or somewhere else, feel free but you can also dm me for ideas!

Sorry for the last minute (this is why I’m really calling on tumblr GOATs), but I would loooooove to make buttons next MONDAY or possibly as late as Wednesday— I’ll edit this post when I know for sure. It’s an emergency! But you’ll be saving lives!

What can I do for you?

If you ask, I can post pictures on twitter and tag you if you want some traffic (some of our posts get a little traffic). I can PROBABLY also send you a finished button of your design after fund a thon season (May) is over but I don’t want to make that promise for certain yet.

ty!!!

[coochiequeens]

As someone from Connecticut, I knew as soon as I saw Yale my reaction would be an eyeroll.

By Jennifer Lahl May 13, 2025

About the Author

Jennifer Lahl (MA, BSN, RN) is the founder of The Center for Bioethics and Culture. She has produced several important documentaries that can be viewed for free on YouTube. Follow Jennifer on X: @JenniferLahl

At some of the most prestigious universities in the world, ideas once confined to fringe online communities and personal blogs are now published in academic journals and treated as legitimate scholarship. These aren’t just strange thought experiments—they’re full-blown efforts to “queer” biology, reimagine pregnancy without women, and reshape medical ethics in ways that downplay the health of unborn children. What used to sound like satire is now shaping how doctors are trained and how healthcare is delivered.

I work in reproductive technology, so I read a lot of research on fertility and pregnancy. Most of it is scientific and straightforward. But lately, I’ve been seeing more and more papers that ignore biology entirely in favor of ideology. I wrote previously about one such paper that argued we should question our desire for “normal fetal outcomes” during pregnancy—especially when the pregnant person is taking testosterone as part of a gender transition. The authors actually suggested that helping people have healthy babies might be too focused on “normative bodies,” and that staying on high doses of testosterone while pregnant is fine. It was unscientific and dangerous.

But then I came across a paper that took things even further.

It’s called “Transfeminist Pregnancy: Reproductive Speculation, Genre, and Desire,” written by Carlo Sariego, a Ph.D. candidate in Yale’s joint program in Sociology and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Sariego, who uses they/them pronouns, does research exploring gender, sexuality, medicine, and science from a sociological point of view. Sariego’s dissertation, titled “Repro Futures: Transgender Reproductive Politics, Justice, and Time in the United States,” is about dismantling the idea of pregnancy itself.

In this particular paper, Sariego argues that pregnancy isn’t just something that happens to female bodies, and that trans women—biological males—can also “experience” pregnancy through three ideas: transition, performance, and labor. Sariego claims that only by reimagining pregnancy through a “transfeminist” lens can we move beyond outdated ideas rooted in biology.

It may sound bizarre—and it is—but this kind of thinking is becoming more common in academic circles. And because these ideas are starting to affect real-world medicine and policy, they need to be taken seriously—and challenged.

Let’s take a closer look.

The paper argues that “only a transfeminist re-theorisation of pregnancy can reach meaningfully beyond bodily gestation,” and laments that current research on “trans pregnancies” has focused too heavily on trans men and nonbinary individuals “to the detriment of the fertile experiences of trans women.” Sariego asserts that “pregnancy need not imply a cis body,” and proposes that “pregnancy can potentially establish a shared ground between trans and cis women.” In short, the paper claims that men can participate in pregnancy conceptually through three categories: transition, performance, and labor.

This thesis directly challenges basic biology and raises obvious questions about how these ideas could be applied in any real medical setting. The entire paper is speculative and theoretical, making it hard to pin down what exactly Sariego is proposing—or how it might help a physician provide better care to a pregnant patient. Sariego’s challenge to the biological basis of pregnancy ignores the fact that those biological realities form the foundation for how we define women in both medicine and law—and for how we care for pregnant women and their unborn children.

Even more concerning is the way Sariego misrepresents existing legal language to support their argument. For example, in the paper’s introduction, Sariego cites Texas House Bill 2690 and claims it defines a woman as “an individual with a uterus, regardless of any gender identity.” But that’s not what the bill actually says.

Here’s the full definition from HB 2690, The Woman and Child Safety Act:

“Woman” means an individual whose biological sex is female, including an individual with XX chromosomes and an individual with a uterus, regardless of any gender identity that the individual attempts to assert or claim.

Sariego’s misrepresentation of the bill by inappropriately truncating the definition distorts the legislative context and weakens its perceived credibility. It’s also worth noting that HB 2690, which was never passed, aimed to criminalize abortion-inducing medication. That has nothing to do with reimagining who can get pregnant. Since abortion can only be performed on pregnant women, the bill’s relevance to Sariego’s argument is questionable at best.

No matter where you stand on abortion, this bill has nothing to do with so-called “trans pregnancies.” Misrepresenting it doesn’t help the argument—it just makes the reader less likely to trust the author’s conclusions.

From there, Sariego lays out the “problem” as they/them see it: that reproductive medicine is “stuck,” in part, because “reproductive science and medicine are shaped by rigid gender roles” and that transgender pregnancies are underexplored—especially when it comes to trans women. Sariego claims that “anti-trans and gender-critical feminists use reproduction to argue for a ‘sex-based’ theory of pregnancy.”

But might that be because pregnancy is sex-based? It requires a female to produce an egg and a male to produce sperm. There’s no way around that. Yet Sariego insists we should reject the idea that “the view that pregnancy is exclusive to female bodies.”

To support this view, the paper divides pregnancy into three “sub-genres”—transition, performance, and labor—meant to help us reimagine pregnancy “beyond the cis/trans divide.” But these categories are abstract, ideological, and disconnected from biology. They don’t help us understand how to better care for patients. They simply shift focus away from evidence-based medicine and toward ideological storytelling.

Still, Sariego structures the paper around these three categories. So let’s take a closer look at each of them—transition, performance, and labor—to understand what they’re really arguing, and why these claims fall apart under scrutiny.

Transition

Sariego frames gender transition as analogous to pregnancy, suggesting that both involve bodily change, transformation, and the emergence of new possibilities. In this view, pregnancy and gender transition create solidarity between cis women and trans women because both undergo what Sariego calls a “process of becoming.”

See the rest of the article

[tieflingkisser]

Repro funders must end the ‘wall of resistance’ on Palestine

As foundations defund organizations that speak out against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, already underfunded Black- and brown-led reproductive justice groups take the biggest hit for living their stated values

from the article:

I have organized for abortion liberation through sharing my abortion story for nearly 15 years. Thus, I am no stranger to those who want to silence my voice. I have spoken up about anti-Blackness and racism in the reproductive rights movement and challenged popular pro-choice politicians to do better. Despite different tactics, I’ve always known that my colleagues and I were headed in the same direction: toward liberation and reproductive justice for all oppressed people. 

Or so I thought. 

As the genocide of Palestinians has played out at the hands of the Israeli and U.S. governments, I have watched factions of a naturally outspoken movement become silent against the backdrop of nonstop videos of mutilated and starving children, parents searching rubble for babies, families hoping for the return of their loved ones, and children parenting each other because they have no more living relatives. Along with the pain of watching this unfold has been despair in realizing that those who push us to be silent are not our anti-abortion opposition, but our own supporters, funders, and peers. Our movement is fractured along lines that are clearly defined by the reproductive justice framework that we strive to achieve.

The vision of reproductive justice is simple: for all of us to have sexual and bodily autonomy, the right to decide whether or not to have a child, and the ability to parent our children in safe and sustainable communities, free from state-sanctioned violence.

[...]

Reproductive justice isn’t up for interpretation. I can’t believe I have to say this: Apartheid is wrong. Theocracy is wrong. Segregation is wrong. Genocide is wrong. They were wrong in South Africa and the United States, and they are wrong in Israel. They are wrong everywhere. Denying health care is wrong. Denying health care at any border based on citizenship, documentation, religion, nationality, ethnicity, ability, language, and skin color is wrong, and it brings no one safety. It’s antithetical to reproductive justice. Any leader, funder, or organizers who believes that our liberation will come through segregation, theocracy, apartheid, or genocide has no place within the reproductive freedom movements. Defunding us for taking such a stance only does the dirty work of our oppressors.

[marzipanandminutiae]

Questions because I'm curious! What is your 'holy grail' doll to collect? Have you ever tried making a whole doll from scratch? What's your favourite part of doll restoration? What are your favourite haunts for doll hunting? What doll collectors/restorers do you admire most? And lastly, if you could go back to any period(s?) to get a doll when it was new, what time period(s?) would you go to

Ooooh doll questions! let's go!

Holy grail doll to collect. I already have at least one of them- a late 1860s French fashion doll with an articulated wooden body. She survived the fire and I love her even more for it; her name is Leonore. A few "wouldn't be nice" dolls I don't have yet include:

Antique 18th-century English wooden doll (I have a lovely repro at the moment, Amy)

Simon and Halbig 1159 lady doll

A wax fashion doll. I lost all of mine in the fire, unfortunately

Lenci boudoir doll

Miniature china-headed doll with an articulated wooden body

A Black French fashion doll (SUPER rare, but they did exist)

2. Have I ever made a doll from scratch? Yes, out of polymer clay with jewelry headpins baked in to string her together. She was floppy and had anime eyes drawn on with Sharpie. Not the most successful experiment.

3. Favorite part of doll restoration? Cleaning. They just look so much happier after a bath!

4. Favorite doll-hunting haunts? EBay. Sadly, one doesn't come across the sort of doll I collect in the wild much anymore, though I've had some luck with French fashion doll clothes at the Brimfield Antiques Fair.

5. Admired doll collectors/restoration artists? My friend and Amy's maker, Paul Robinson. Michael Canadas and David Robinson. Kathy Libraty (also a friend- a dealer who does restoration). Illiandra Alvey (another friend). Samy Odin. Kat Davies. Bradley Justice Yarborough (a LOT of these are people I'm friends with). Linda Wall.

6. Time travelling to get a doll when new? 18th-century English wooden. Unless you get VERY lucky, they retail for like $20K right now- the pretty ones in decent condition, that is.

Or an Albert Marque doll, to sell and make like $300K off of.

[angelsaxis]

Gaza is a reproductive environmental disability justice nightmare. Pregnant and nursing and post partum women can't get care. It's a nightmare for children. It's a nightmare for the Black Gazans living there bc the same brutality practiced on them and other Gazans is going to be repeated here against Black Americans. It's a nightmare all around. Like every single issue Biden promises to fix domestically is happening to Palestinians now in Gaza in some way shape or form. He cares about mental health while we're watching generational trauma form right before our very eyes. He cares about women but Gazan women and children can't get the repro health care they need.