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Plaintiffs Damla Karsan, Austin Dennard and Samantha Casiano outside the Travis County Courthouse in Austin on July 20, 2023. (Suzanne Cordeiro / AFP via Getty Images)

BY ROXY SZAL | When Austin Dennard saw her ultrasound, she “immediately realized there was something catastrophically wrong,” she said. Her fetus was eventually diagnosed as developing without part of the brain and skull. As an ob-gyn herself, Dennard was horrified, picturing her would-be child’s quality of life: “They basically just gasp for air until they pass away.”  Knowing she would not qualify under the exceptions of Texas’ abortion bans, Dennard traveled out of state to get abortion care so that she would not be forced to carry a nonviable pregnancy to term. 

Dennard told this story to a courtroom on Thursday, the second and final day of testimony in Zurawski v. State of Texas, a lawsuit filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights that seeks to block Texas’ abortion bans. The plaintiffs also ask the court to clarify for doctors which circumstances qualify as exceptions to the bans, and to allow providers to use their own medical judgment without fear of prosecution. The presiding judge, Jessica Mangrum, said her verdict should be rendered “in several weeks.”

(Click here to read more) 

Morgan Hopkins, president of All* Above All, at a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on April 14, 2023. (Olivier Douliery / AFP via Getty Images)

BY MORGAN HOPKINS | We need a new vision for abortion care in this country—to expand our belief about what is possible. I have joined listening sessions with dozens of advocates and organizations across the country that inspired an action plan for abortion justice. This collaborative vision reimagines abortion care with compassion, instead of shame or judgment. It puts people’s and family’s health, safety and real life needs first by ensuring they can decide what is best for their circumstances.

This collaboration has informed the Abortion Justice Act, a visionary bill recently introduced by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.). It would protect people’s right to make their own decisions about abortion, improve availability and affordability of abortion care, and prevent lawmakers from creating barriers to care.

(Click here to read more)

America Ferrera, Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie promote Barbie in Seoul, South Korea, on July 2, 2023. (Jung Yeon-je / AFP via Getty Images)

BY AASTHA JANI | Criticized in bad-faith as man-hating, Barbie is a masterful investigation into the facets of femininity that patriarchal influences have sought to erase. It is a reclamation of girlhoods that were destroyed by societal expectations. Even if I don’t see myself in Barbie, I am grateful that Barbie is beginning to see me, through the coexistence of raging feminism and bright pink femininity. 

(Click here to read more) 

Tune in for a new episode of Ms. magazine's podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin on

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In early June 2023, for the second time in two months, Trump was indicted—this time on 37 felony counts for allegedly mishandling sensitive, classified government materials and obstruction of justice. What does this most recent indictment mean for Trump, the 2024 elections, and the future of American democracy as a whole?

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