[[link removed]] Ms. Memo: This Week in Women's Rights
February 5, 2025
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.
‘People Will Die’: The Trump Administration Said It Lifted Its Ban on Lifesaving Humanitarian Aid. That’s Not True. [[link removed]]
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(Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)
By Brett Murphy, ProPublica and Anna Maria Barry-Jester, ProPublica | On Friday morning, the staffers at a half dozen U.S.-funded medical facilities in Sudan who care for severely malnourished children had a choice to make: Defy President Donald Trump’s order to immediately stop their operations or let up to 100 babies and toddlers die.
They chose the children.
In spite of the order, they will keep their facilities open for as long as they can, according to three people with direct knowledge of the situation. The people requested anonymity for fear that the administration might target their group for reprisals. Trump’s order also meant they would stop receiving new, previously approved funds to cover salaries, IV bags and other supplies. They said it’s a matter of days, not weeks, before they run out.
American-funded aid organizations around the globe—charged with providing lifesaving care for the most desperate and vulnerable populations imaginable—have for days been forced to completely halt their operations, turn away patients and lay off staff following a series of sudden stop-work demands from the Trump administration. Despite an announcement earlier this week ostensibly allowing lifesaving operations to continue, those earlier orders have not been rescinded.
Many groups doing such lifesaving work either don’t know the right way to request an exemption to the order, known as a waiver, or have no sense of where their request stands. They’ve received little information from the U.S. government, where, in recent days, humanitarian officials have been summarily ousted or prohibited from communicating with the aid organizations.
Trump’s rapid assault on the international aid system is quickly becoming the most consequential and far-reaching shift in U.S. humanitarian policy since the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II, aid groups and government officials warned.
Among the programs that remain grounded as of Friday: emergency medical care for displaced Palestinians and Yemenis fleeing war, heat and electricity for Ukrainian refugees and HIV treatment and mpox surveillance in Africa.
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HIPAA’s Reproductive Privacy Rule Under Siege: Legal Attacks and a Trump Administration Loom [[link removed]] Eighty Percent of Pregnancy-Related Complications Are Preventable. The Momnibus Act Could Change That. [[link removed]]
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Women’s Paychecks Are Shrinking—And Policy Isn’t Keeping Up [[link removed]] Pa. Court to Hear Arguments *Feb. 5* on State Ban on Medicaid Coverage for Abortion and Equal Rights Amendment [[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:
* "The Fight for Midlife and Menopausal Health is Essential to Reproductive Rights—and Democracy” — The Contrarian [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]] Tune in for a new episode of Ms. magazine's podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin on
Apple Podcasts [[link removed]] + Spotify [[link removed]] .
We begin 2025 on ‘On the Issues’ with special guest Dr. Anthony Fauci. In this episode we discuss some of the most important issues currently confronting the health of our nation and the world—from vaccine skepticism, COVID denialism, and health misinformation and disinformation to the rising tide of violence aimed at medical providers. Dr. Fauci joins us to express his hope for the future, offer insights on the pushback against vaccines, and speak candidly about how his life changed after being in the public spotlight at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the toll it took on him and his family.
We hope you'll listen, subscribe, rate and review today!
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