Here are some items I’ve come across recently that I thought were helpful. The first is a page from the Guttmacher Institute called Roe v. Wade Overturned: Our Latest Resources. The most recent piece: “Abortion access in the United States has long been inequitable, due in large part to systemic racism and insufficient protections for low-income individuals. This analysis shows that these disparities are widening following the fall of Roe v. Wade and compiles additional evidence on a wide range of topics related to inequity in abortion access.”
I was also interested in this: “Much of the US abortion debate has focused on whether state abortion bans include exceptions that allow the procedure in some circumstances, such as rape, incest or life-threatening pregnancy complications. In a new op-ed for Ms. magazine, Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute breaks down why focusing on these exceptions misses the bigger picture and even works to further the agenda of the anti-abortion movement. “
A useful site.
ITEM: One “Kentucky lawmaker… has proposed legislation that would allow the state to prosecute a person for criminal homicide if they get an illegal abortion.
“While the state has a trigger law banning abortion, the law in place targets doctors for performing abortions, as opposed to pregnant people who receive them. This new bill would subject all people involved to prosecution…
“Outside of abortion rights activists, the bill also received surprising backlash from anti-abortion groups and the state attorney general, who noted it would be wrong to charge women with homicide for terminating pregnancies. “
With such opposition, I don’t see this being enacted, fortunately.
CBS
ITEM: How Les Moonves and His CBS Loyalists Worked to Discredit Accuser: “It Was Sort of a Mafia Culture.”
“On Nov. 2, 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that she’d secured a $30.5 million settlement from CBS and its former president and CEO Leslie Moonves for misleading the company’s investors about his misconduct, concealing sexual assault allegations against him and related insider trading by another top CBS executive. Her office also released a 37-page report detailing how members of Moonves’ C-suite and others unsuccessfully sought to neutralize the crisis before it knocked off the top boss, tanked the share price, and gummed up a then-nascent merger with Viacom. It’s a damning case study in corporate complicity, control, and cover-up.”
Most predators need accomplices, either active or passive, to continue to exploit others.
Material Girl
ITEM: You’re Not Offended That Madonna’s Had Plastic Surgery—You’re Offended That You Can Tell
“I’ve noticed a number of prominent female-focused organizations posting on social media in defense of Madonna’s right to do what she wants with her body, only to face criticism from their followers, who have called the singer ‘hypocritical,’ ‘ disgrace,’ and someone who ‘needs help’…
“The fact is, we’re all victims of the toxic pressure to ‘make the best’ of ourselves and not ‘let ourselves go.’ But there’s also a double standard that emerges if we’re seen to care too much— ‘how sad that she thinks she has to do that to herself.’ If you don’t try to look younger, it’s an admission of defeat. But if you do, and it’s obvious, that’s an even greater crime—one that other famous women, from Demi Moore on the Fendi catwalk (‘gone overboard’) to Kristin Davis in And Just Like That (‘awful’), have also committed.
“Naomi Wolf wrote The Beauty Myth three decades ago, pointing out how women were being held back by unrealistic beauty standards. Yet a 2019 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that—surprise, surprise—we still face a Catch-22. “
I was a little surprised by my level of irritation toward those criticizing Madonna for making her own choices.
“We are all one in Christ”
ITEM: “Two years ago, an Orange County megachurch took a stand that pitted it against conservative members of its denomination. It ordained three women as pastors. The Southern Baptist Convention has now ousted Saddleback Church, its second-largest congregation.
“Saddleback was among five churches found not to be ‘in friendly cooperation’ with the convention because they ‘have a female functioning in the office of pastor,’ according to a statement from Jared Wellman, chairman of the convention’s executive committee.
“In 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention made its ban on female pastors part of its doctrine.”
What century is this again?
Yet another reason not to vote for Ron DeSantis
ITEM: “Right-wing think tank the Claremont Institute allowed [Scott Yenor of Boise State University] to serve as a fellow with its Center for the American Way of Life.
“Claremont—whose stated mission is ‘to save Western civilization’—installed him in Florida as a Tallahassee-based “inaugural” senior director of state coalitions opposed to ‘woke leftism.’
Claremont President Ryan Williams announced the appointment “after he met with [Florida governor and potential Presidential candidate Ron] DeSantis in Tallahassee. Williams afterward praised ‘the bold executive and legislative leadership in the Sunshine State,’ adding that DeSantis had established ‘the first template of any red state in America.’
In a 2021 talk, Scott Yenor said women with careers are “medicated, meddlesome, and quarrelsome.”
“He said society should stop thinking of a girl ‘as a future worker or a future achiever, and start thinking of them as future wives and mothers.’
And, he advised, ‘if we want a great nation, we should be preparing young women to become mothers. Not finding every reason for young women to delay motherhood until they are established in a career or sufficiently independent.’
Feminism? He sees it as a dire threat to the American way of life because ‘it teaches young boys and girls that they are motivated by much the same things and want much the same things.'”
*One of the first songs I thought about after QoS died last year was 