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Weekly Digest
Letter from an Editor | July 13, 2024
Dear John,
The women and girls of Afghanistan were in my thoughts this past week, as we covered the recently released U.N. special rapporteur’s report on Afghanistan, which sheds light on the devastating impact of the Taliban’s gender apartheid regime in the time since they came back to power.
The report paints a grim picture of a future for Afghan women and girls, nearly three years after the Taliban takeover. Women and girls in the country are living under a brutal system of gender apartheid, experiencing the “deliberate systematized step-by-step eradication of their rights and freedoms,” and are being forced into roles “as child-bearers, child-rearers and as objects available for exploitation, including debt bondage, domestic servitude and sexual exploitation.”
And to be honest, it seems like the right wing in America is trying to push women in this country in the same direction. Just look at their policy objectives outlined in Project 2025—a roadmap for a Republican presidency that would reverse over a half-century of hard-fought progress for women and girls.
Project 2025’s abortion policies are draconian—from imposing a nationwide ban on abortion through outlawing mifepristone, the medication used in over 60 percent of all abortions; to enforcing the victorian-era Comstock law that would prohibit the mailing of any medical instruments used for abortion, effectively shutting down all abortion providers, even in states where abortion has remained legal following Dobbs.
The authors of Project 2025—80 percent of whom served in the first Trump administration—paint a picture of a nation where women are fundamentally second class citizens. These threats extend beyond just abortion rights: the plan also calls for the elimination of the Department of Education, which enforces civil rights laws including Title IX that prohibits sex discrimination in education; imposing blanket restrictions on gender-affirming care; and rolling back all legal protections for LGBTQ+ Americans.
And in yet another cruel policy proposal, Project 2025 would also cut back or eliminate programs that disproportionately benefit single mothers and their children. As contributing editor Carrie Baker reports in her in-depth dive into Project 2025 in our forthcoming Fall issue, the document focuses heavily on promoting Christian fundamentalist ideals of marriage—pushing patriarchal definitions of marriage and family, and stigmatizing single-parent families and gay marriage. On a policy level, this includes directing the Department of Health and Human Services to promote policies "encouraging marriage, work, motherhood, fatherhood, and nuclear families," and redirecting Title X family planning funding away from reproductive healthcare. It also recommends redirecting welfare dollars from TANF away from poor mothers and children, and towards promoting “marriage, healthy family formation, and delaying sex to prevent pregnancy.”
I know. It's alarming, and it's dystopian.
With both Republican and Democratic national conventions coming up—the former next week, and the latter in August—we’ll be watching along with our readers how the vision for the future of women and girls in America is reflected in the parties’ platforms and candidates. You can count on Ms . to keep you informed as the lead-up to November 2024 continues.
For Equality,
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Kathy Spillar
Executive Editor
This Week's Must-Reads from Ms.
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Under Gender Apartheid, Taliban See Afghan Women as ‘Child-Bearers, Child-Rearers and as Objects Available for Exploitation’ [[link removed]] Project 2025: The Right’s Dystopian Plan to Dismantle Civil Rights and What It Means for Women [[link removed]]
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What Do Tradwives Have to Do With Democracy? [[link removed]] The GOP Isn’t Getting Less Radical on Abortion—They’re Getting Better at Lying [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]] 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 two co-hosts of the Webby Award-winning #SistersInLaw podcast to discuss where our nation stands as we approach the 2024 elections—from the ongoing trials faced by former president Donald Trump, to Nikki Haley, to the Supreme Court’s recent opinions and so much more.
We hope you'll listen, subscribe, rate and review today!
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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 [[link removed]] . We are grateful for your loyalty and ferocity .
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