Dear John,

This past week, abortion became significantly harder to access for women in the Southeast. On Wednesday, Florida’s law banning abortion after just six weeks of pregnancy went into effect—a law that amounts to a total ban, given that a majority of women and girls do not even know they are pregnant at six weeks. The law also bans abortion by telemedicine and requires any medication abortion to be dispensed in person, essentially banning mail-order abortion pills. 

With the Florida ban in effect, the South’s rapidly growing abortion desert now extends even further: the nearest state where patients can get abortions after six weeks is North Carolina. That means having to travel distances of over 700 miles, if you’re living in somewhere like Miami. 

“People will always need abortion care. That need will never end,” said Stephanie Loraine Piñeiro, executive director of the Florida Access Network. “What will change now are the travel patterns, and the ability for people to get care and the type of reproductive care in their community. We expect, unfortunately, many people to keep their pregnancies even when they don’t want to now because they simply don’t have the resources to be able to travel to end their pregnancies.”

In Arizona, after weeks of delay, the state Senate finally voted Wednesday to repeal the state’s 1864 abortion ban. The Senate is Republican-controlled—all 14 Democrats and only two of the 16 Republicans joined them to vote to repeal the ban. However, because the legislature did not add an emergency provision, the ban will stay in place before the repeal takes effect—meaning that there is going to be a window where abortion is fully banned in the state. Advocates, including Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, are hoping that the state’s Supreme Court delays the implementation of the ban in order to reduce or eliminate this window.

Fortunately, in both Arizona and Florida this November, voters will decide whether to enshrine reproductive rights in their states’ constitutions, via citizen-initiated ballot measures. I’ll remind you that wherever similar measures have been on the ballot in recent years, they have passed by overwhelming margins—even when Republican-controlled state legislatures have mounted efforts to try to sabotage them, as was the case in Ohio. 

Some three quarters of people in the United States are opposed to government interference in an individual’s decision in reproductive healthcare, including abortion, birth control and continuing a pregnancy. Yet, women continue to suffer the consequences of legislators who refuse to listen to their constituents. 

Onward,

Kathy Spillar
Executive Editor

P.S. — In Texas this week, we learned of the case of a man named Collin Davis—who, when he found out that his ex-partner was planning to travel to Colorado to obtain an abortion earlier this year, hired a powerful antiabortion attorney and initiated a legal threat against the woman. The action represents a new era of right-wing strategies for targeting abortion seekers, adopting a vigilante tactic of trying to stop women from traveling out of state to obtain abortions; Davis’s lawyer is threatening his ex under the state’s wrongful death statute and the vigilante bounty law S.B. 8. These are the extents to which they are willing to go.

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

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In this episode,  we’re joined by the indomitable Lizz Winstead with a live studio in Washington,  D.C.  She bares all as we talk about the new documentary featuring her and Abortion Access Front (AAF), No One Asked You.  From her childhood to her own abortion story,  she tells it all, including what led her to found AAF.

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U.S. democracy is at a dangerous inflection point—from the demise of abortion rights, to a lack of pay equity and parental leave, to skyrocketing maternal mortality, and attacks on trans health. Left unchecked, these crises will lead to wider gaps in political participation and representation. For 50 years, Ms. has been forging feminist journalism—reporting, rebelling and truth-telling from the front-lines, championing the Equal Rights Amendment, and centering the stories of those most impacted. With all that’s at stake for equality, we are redoubling our commitment for the next 50 years. In turn, we need your help, Support Ms. today with a donation—any amount that is meaningful to you. We are grateful for your loyalty and ferocity.

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