[[link removed]] Ms. Memo: This Week in Women's Rights
July 17, 2024
From the ongoing fight for abortion rights and access, to elections, to the drive for the Equal Rights Amendment, there are a multitude of battles to keep up with. In this weekly roundup, find the absolute need-to-know news for feminists.
Republican National Platform Invites Nationwide Abortion Ban by Supreme Court Decree [[link removed]]
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A protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, 2024, to mark two years since the Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, which reversed federal protections for access to abortions. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
BY CARRIE N. BAKER | Since 1984, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has held a platform that includes support for an “amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the 14th Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth.” On Monday, mainstream media reported that the RNC was moderating its position on abortion at the behest of Donald Trump by omitting this explicit call for passage of a national ban, which would require amending the Constitution and passing congressional legislation.
The language of the platform maintains the party’s longstanding position that the Constitution’s 14th Amendment extends rights to fetuses—an interpretation that Republicans are already asking the Republican-stacked Supreme Court to adopt. They don’t need a new constitutional amendment or act of Congress when they have a stacked Supreme Court ready to interpret the current Constitution to ban abortion nationwide.
In Dobbs, the Supreme Court referred to “unborn human beings” 23 times, laying the groundwork for fetal personhood.
“Once you say that it is an ‘unborn human being,’ then it’s a short step to saying that laws allowing abortion are unconstitutional because they deny equal protection to those persons that are unborn human beings,” said Berkeley Law School dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “I believe that there may be a majority on the Court to take that position.”
Georgetown Law professor Michele Bratcher Goodwin noted that in Dobbs, the Supreme Court ignored the 14th Amendment’s definition of citizens as “persons born … in the United States,” which appeared in the first sentence.
“That’s very explicit. That’s very clear,” said Goodwin. “The Constitution does not mention embryos, fetuses or ‘unborn human beings.’”
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Read more
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The GOP Isn’t Getting Less Radical on Abortion—They’re Getting Better at Lying [[link removed]] The 22 Scariest Lines We Found in Project 2025’s 900-Page ‘Mandate for Leadership’ [[link removed]]
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Tennessee Is the Second State to Criminalize Minor ‘Abortion Trafficking.’ Activists Are Pushing Back. [[link removed]] The GOP Has a Problem With Women Voters—and Two White Men on the Presidential Ticket [[link removed]]
What we're reading:
Because it's hard to keep up with everything going on in the world right now. Here's what we're reading this week:
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"Ohio
Senate
candidate
J.D.
Vance
argues
against
need
for
rape
and
incest
exceptions
in
abortion
laws
[from
2021]”
—
The
Washington
Post
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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.
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