Dear John,
In a move that could potentially greatly increase access to birth control, a panel of FDA advisors voted unanimously on Wednesday to recommend that the FDA approve the U.S.’s first ever over-the-counter birth control pill. Once approved, the pill—a progestin-only birth control pill known as Opill—would be available without age restrictions. This move marks a significant step towards increasing access to birth control—which is particularly crucial given threats to contraception and mounting abortion restrictions around the country. The FDA's decision is expected this summer.
And on the abortion pill front, abortion providers in Virginia, Montana and Kansas this week filed suit against the FDA, asking the agency to maintain and expand access to the abortion medication mifepristone. The lawsuit is just the latest development in the ongoing fight to preserve access to mifepristone. The medication is currently available under a Supreme Court order that stays a Fifth Circuit preliminary ruling that would have restricted access via telemedicine; the Fifth Circuit will hear oral arguments May 17 in the pending case that is seeking to suspend the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill.
This week saw a significant victory, with a unanimous Manhattan jury finding former President Donald Trump guilty of sexual abuse and defamation towards journalist E. Jean Carroll. “I filed this lawsuit against Donald Trump to clear my name and to get my life back,” Carroll said in a statement following the verdict. “Today, the world finally knows the truth. This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed.”
But the trial itself was a textbook example of how women’s stories of sexual assault are treated both inside the courtroom and beyond. Amy L. Bernstein writes in Ms., “E. Jean Carroll is technically the plaintiff in her civil rape trial against Donald J. Trump. But in terms of spectacle, she has arguably been forced into the role of defendant: Every thought, every choice she makes, and has made, over decades has been parsed for intentionality, for hidden meanings and veiled beliefs. …Carroll is being put through all that for a crime she did not commit, but which was committed upon her. Her painful, and now painfully public, memories of being raped are as difficult to hear and read about as every other rape case. This never gets easier, even after woeful repetitions throughout the #MeToo era.”
Tomorrow we celebrate Mother’s Day, which as always serves as a reminder that moms in this country are horrifically unsupported by our systems—and deserve a lot more than chocolates or roses. From the inaccessibility of maternal healthcare for far too many, and our ongoing maternal mortality crisis that disproportionately impacts Black women, to the unaffordability of childcare, moms across the country have long been reckoning with the gendered failures of our society.
But we know how we can fix this—in fact, many of the solutions have been proposed by feminists for decades. As the moms who participate in the Magnolia Mothers’ Trust guaranteed income project write in our Front and Center series, guaranteed cash income has the power to change the lives of low-income mothers and families. MMT participant Erica, for example, explains how receiving guaranteed income has allowed her to be more present in her kids’ lives:
“There’s the financial part that’s so important, but it also helped me show up better for my kids,” she writes. “I don’t think I ever let them down before, but I used to have to work four or five jobs to make ends meet. Having the income coming in on top of my wages from work gave me more time to spend with them since I didn’t have to work extra hours to make sure they had what they needed. It just helped me build myself up—financially, mentally, emotionally—everything you need to really build yourself up.”
To all the mothers everywhere, happy Mother’s Day! And to all the policy makers (who all had mothers), it’s time to get with the program and provide mothers with real solutions to the problems they face.
Onward,
