Hi John,

We’ve just passed the one-year mark in our electronic (and hopefully, electric) relationship. So, I thought this would be a good time to be ✨radically vulnerable✨ with you:

I routinely forget to take my birth control pills for three days in a row—before realizing, panicking, and swinging them down my gullet in one fatal uterine blow.

Now, this fatal fact might horrify you. But what horrifies me is that this ability to take (or forget to take) contraception is still a privilege in our country, rather than the status quo.

Oh, To Be That Delusional!

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Insurance companies are officially ✨delusional✨.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), most insurance plans must cover all FDA-approved, cleared, or granted birth control— without any out-of-pocket costs . And yet, despite the literal law, many plans will still charge you!

That’s why the National Women’s Law Center runs a completely free and confidential helpline called:
CoverHer [[link removed]] .

If you’re being incorrectly charged or noticing unexpected out-of-pocket costs for your birth control—or other important preventive health care needs, including breastfeeding supplies, lactation consultations, and well-woman visits—reach out to us.
We will do everything we can to help you get a refund!

Oh, To Be That Diabolical!

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We know the trucking industry has a major problem [[link removed]] with sexual harassment.
Their solution?
Don’t fire men.
Just stop hiring women!
On October 5, the National Women’s Law Center filed [[link removed]] a class action hiring discrimination charge against Stevens Transport, one of the nation’s largest refrigerated trucking companies.

The charge alleges that the trucking company routinely refuses to hire women truck drivers, or substantially delays hiring them, because the company only allows women to train for driving positions with women trainers.*
*Of which they have abysmally few.

I’m f***king sick of women being expected to prevent their own trauma. Don’t walk alone at night. Carry pepper spray. Don’t pursue a “dangerous” career.

Here’s a diabolical idea:

Don’t assault your co-workers.

Must-Do:

38 destination vacations, 26 private jet flights (plus an additional eight by helicopter), a dozen VIP passes to sporting events, and two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica.

These are just some of the gifts [[link removed].] that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reportedly failed to disclose from his extremist billionaire benefactors!

That is absurd—not to mention, unethical—which is why we must tell Congress to pass the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act [[link removed]] . Now .

Must Read:

On bar stools, last November, I told my mom about something bad that had happened to me in college.

She said: “Oh, that happened to me too. We just didn’t talk about it back then.”

Six years out from #MeToo going viral, we are talking, yelling, rallying around survivors’ experiences. And we’re passing laws to further their pursuit of justice, too.

Since 2017, 25 states and DC have passed a total of more than 80 anti-harassment bills —read more about our progress here . [[link removed]]

Feminist Moment of Joy!
Victorious collage [[link removed]]

“What are you doing for freedom today?”

That is the question that [[link removed]] guides Senator Laphonza Butler—the first openly gay Black woman to ever serve in our Congress.

Though she won’t [[link removed]] be running for the 2024 Senate, Butler’s appointment alone is a joyful moment—a glimmer of hope—for us and for young people everywhere.

In Butler’s words [[link removed]] , “If your actions inspire others to learn more, do more, dream more, and become more, you are a leader.”

My actions (specifically in the contraceptive realm) are not for anyone to learn from or dream about. But I still hope that y’all (who more often inspire me) will stick around for my failure of leadership for at least another year.

Wishing you a delusional and diabolical week,

Gemma Simoes Decarvalho
she/her/hers
Writer and Editor
National Women’s Law Center
unsubscribe: [link removed]