[[link removed]] | APRIL 2025
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Abortion rally in front of Supreme Court (Madelyn Amos)
New Data Shows the Growing Political Divide Between Gen Z Men and Women [[link removed]]
AMELIA CRAWFORD | APRIL 30
A growing gender divide among Gen Z is reshaping the political landscape, with young men and women increasingly split on everything from Trump to TikTok.
An NBC News Stay Tuned poll [[link removed]] , powered by SurveyMonkey, shows that debates over President Trump, billionaire Elon Musk, immigration, and the state of the country have created the most division between Gen Z men and women.
In an overall poll among all adults, 45% approve of Trump’s job performance and 55% disapprove. When narrowing the range to adults between the ages of 18 and 29, the gap widens, with 34% approving and 64% disapproving. When you break these numbers down between men and women, you find that 45% of young men approve of the Trump presidency, compared to only 24% of young women. That is a 21-point difference.
For other generations, there is still a gap between men and women, but it is nowhere near as large. Among adults older than 65, the difference is 13 points. For those between the ages of 45 and 64, the difference is 9 points, and for those between the ages of 30 and 44, the difference is only 7 points.
When it comes to Elon Musk, there is even greater disagreement. While only 41% of the adult U.S. population finds Musk favorable compared to 59% who find him unfavorable, 41% of Gen Z men view Musk favorably, compared to only 20% of Gen Z women.
Gen Z women are also more likely to identify as Democrats — 52% of Gen Z women call themselves Democrats compared to only 30% of Gen Z men. Meanwhile, 38% of Gen Z men identify as Republican compared to 20% of Gen Z women.
Not only are political ideologies different, but policy priorities also differ significantly. The economy is the top priority for the largest number of Gen Z men, while for Gen Z women, it is the current threats to democracy. Interestingly, Gen Z women are more likely to consider TikTok their favorite news source, while Gen Z men favor YouTube.
With the numbers found in this study, it is important to note that women in the U.S. are outpacing men in college completion [[link removed]] across every major racial and ethnic group. Today, 47% of women ages 25 to 34 have a bachelor’s degree compared to 37% of men. These numbers have increased by 22 percentage points since 1995.
As the younger generation of progressive women continues to grow and outpace men in higher education attainment, the impact on future elections could be significant. The growing political engagement of liberal young women, combined with broad opposition across genders and age groups to Trump-era policies, offers a promising sign for the future direction of the country.
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Hands Off Rally DC (Madelyn Amos)
Cuts to Women’s Health Initiative Jeopardize Lifesaving Research [[link removed]]
AMELIA CRAWFORD | APRIL 23
On April 21, Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) investigators were informed that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will terminate WHI Regional Center (RC) contracts at the end of the current fiscal year, in September 2025.
The Women’s Health Initiative [[link removed]] is a landmark long-term national health study, launched by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Its research focuses on cardiovascular disease, cancer, and osteoporotic fractures—leading causes of death and disability among older women. WHI’s vast, comprehensive data has enabled groundbreaking insights not only in these areas, but across a wide range of women’s health and aging research.
The sudden termination of contracts will severely disrupt ongoing studies and future data collection, threatening decades of progress. Without consistent infrastructure and data continuity, WHI’s ability to generate critical findings on older women’s health—one of the fastest-growing populations in the U.S.—will be drastically reduced.
The full scope of the damage is still being assessed, but the implications are clear: these cuts will have lasting, harmful consequences for research into the health and wellbeing of postmenopausal women.
“This was really meant as a makeup project for women, because women have been excluded from research for so many years,” said Garnet Anderson [[link removed]] , a biostatistician who leads the WHI Coordinating Center.
Senator Patty Murray called the move “a devastating loss [[link removed]] for women’s health research,” adding, “It’s unacceptable and truly tragic that the Trump administration has decided to pull the plug on one of the most influential studies in the world—one that has led to enormous breakthroughs in preventing chronic disease.”
Earlier this month, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which oversees the WHI programs, was given just one week to review 16,000 contracts [[link removed]] to identify $2.6 billion in cuts—roughly 35% of its total. In response, NIH pleaded with Republican senators for a delay, warning that “there is no way to implement these cuts without damaging the NIH mission.” Among the terminated contracts: microscope maintenance, lab equipment, biospecimen storage, and nursing staff essential to clinical trials.
These cuts exemplify the Trump administration’s persistent disregard for women’s health. This isn’t just a budgetary decision—it’s a targeted rollback of progress made after decades of exclusion in medical research. WHI was created to correct that historic neglect. Dismantling it now would undo that work and send a chilling message about whose health matters.
The timing makes the hypocrisy even more glaring. While pushing policies aimed at encouraging women to have more children, the administration is simultaneously defunding the very research needed to keep those same women healthy. You cannot claim to value women and families while gutting the science that safeguards their long-term health.
If this decision stands, it will not only derail current studies—it will silence future discoveries and cost lives. Women deserve better. Science deserves better. And the American public deserves transparency and accountability when decisions of this magnitude are made.
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Family Planning Saves Lives sign at NYFLC (Roxy Szal)
Manufactured Motherhood: Trump’s Pronatalism Agenda and the Erosion of Reproductive Rights [[link removed]]
STELLA ADAMS | APRIL 23
As the Trump administration moves into its second term, a new cultural agenda has emerged: one focused on reversing the country’s declining birthrate through a series of pronatalist policies. Behind the scenes, the White House has been entertaining proposals ranging from cash “baby bonuses” to government-funded fertility education programs. Though framed as efforts to support American families, these proposals reflect a regressive vision that prioritizes a narrow model of marriage and childbearing, while sidelining reproductive freedom.
According to a recent investigation by The New York Times, White House officials have received policy proposals that include reserving 30 percent of Fulbright scholarships for married applicants or those with children, issuing a $5,000 “baby bonus” to new mothers, and promoting menstrual cycle tracking programs to encourage fertility awareness [[link removed]] .
Prominent figures in this effort include Vice President J.D. Vance and Elon Musk, both of whom have called for a renewed American “baby boom.” At a 2024 anti-abortion rally, Vance told supporters he wanted to see more “beautiful young men and women” raising children. These leaders are joined by conservative activists who have submitted their own proposals to the White House, including a draft executive order to create a “ National Medal of Motherhood [[link removed]] ” for women with six or more children.
But many of these proposals reward only a specific kind of family. They privilege married, heterosexual couples and reflect an ideology that sees a woman’s highest contribution to society as motherhood. Pronatalist activist Simone Collins [[link removed]] , who helped author the “Motherhood Medal” idea, argued that family values under Trump are stronger than they were under Biden, citing the number of children Trump officials have and their public appearances with them. This kind of rhetoric reduces family life to a symbol of cultural identity rather than a lived reality shaped by economic and healthcare conditions.
The pronatalist rhetoric from the administration has not been matched with investment in the systems that actually support maternal and reproductive health. In early April, the Department of Health and Human Services cut funding to the CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health [[link removed]] , which monitors trends in IVF and maternal outcomes. Around the same time, the administration froze over $65 million in grants [[link removed]?] through the Title X program, leading to clinic closures and reduced access to contraception, STI screening, and prenatal care.
These cuts reveal a disconnect between the administration’s stated desire to support families and its policy decisions. Encouraging women to have more children while reducing their access to basic reproductive healthcare is both contradictory and dangerous. A truly supportive family policy would expand access to prenatal services, contraception, maternal leave, and postpartum care.
The administration’s proposals risk incentivizing childbearing without addressing parents’ social, economic, and medical needs. A cash “baby bonus” may appeal to some families, but it does not replace the need for paid leave, affordable childcare, or healthcare coverage. Worse, these bonuses may pressure women into having children without adequate support systems. They also exclude s ingle parents, LGBTQ+ families, and people who choose not to have children [[link removed]?] .
Pronatalism may be marketed as a way to revitalize the country, but when it excludes, coerces, or penalizes people for their personal choices, it fails to serve the very families it claims to uplift. Reproductive justice means defending the right to have a child, the right not to, and the right to parent in dignity, not only for some, but for all.
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Nearly Four Years of Taliban Assault on Afghan Women’s Health Has Cost Lives [[link removed]]
AREZU FAYYAZI | APRIL 18
Afghanistan has seen a stark reversal in progress in all sectors of their society after the Taliban takeover in 2021. However, one of the most deeply impacted sectors has been women’s health.
Before 2021, there had been 20 years of growth in the health sector. Maternal mortality had decreased from 1,345 deaths per 100,000 [[link removed].] live births in 2000 to 620 deaths per 100,000 live births [[link removed].] in 2021. Although 620 deaths was still a high mortality rate compared to neighboring countries, the mortality rate still had decreased more than 50% – a significant progress for Afghan women’s health in just 20 years. Mothers and children were not only surviving, they were thriving. With improved health, women were contributing to the workforce and economy through their roles as doctors, nurses, teachers, politicians, and lawyers amongst many other professions.
However, in 2021 when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, their restrictions against women became a huge barrier to service delivery and reproductive health. For example, women’s medical education [[link removed]] and training is now banned and women cannot travel without a male guardian. Many clinics began to close due to international funding cuts and lack of cooperation from the Taliban.
The Guardian interviewed numerous Afghan women directly impacted by the Taliban's restrictions and dismissal of women’s rights, including Zarin Gul. Gul’s daughter, Nasrin [[link removed]] , was pregnant with her eighth child. When she needed to go to the hospital, Gul and Nasrin were stopped multiple times at Taliban checkpoints as they were traveling alone without a male. After waiting at checkpoints, it was too late to seek medical care and both Nasrin and her child passed away. Despite Gul’s pleas, the Taliban did not listen: “I begged them, [[link removed]] telling them my daughter was dying. I pleaded for their permission. But they still refused.”
Nasrin is not the only Afghan woman facing this issue. A report conducted by the World Health Organization predicted that 24 mothers and 167 infants di [[link removed]] e every day from preventable causes and about 14 million people in Afghanistan lack access to basic healthcare services. Additionally, UN Women also reports that by 2026, the possibility of a woman dying while giving birth will have increased by 50%. [[link removed]]
These reports are not just numbers – they are real women who are being affected everyday.
The Taliban are also actively inhibiting the work of physicians and nurses by enforcing their clothing policies. According to a female healthcare worker, “Taliban enforcers barged in [[link removed]] and took away three female nurses, claiming their uniforms were inappropriate. They made them sign a pledge to wear longer clothing before letting them go. Even in life and death emergencies, instead of letting us treat patients they are arresting us over our clothing.”
The Taliban has facilitated the drastic increase in women’s mortality because of their failure to recognize and respect women’s rights. What is happening in Afghanistan is not just a rollback of rights, but it is a war on women’s existence as humans. International political pressure must be applied to ensure women’s rights and to secure improved women’s health.
Sign our petition to ensure that Gender Apartheid is established as an international crime here. [[link removed]]
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Student Activist Spotlight: Amelia Crawford
[[link removed]] School: University at Albany, SUNY
Major: Political Science and Public Policy
Fun Fact: I have two pet turtles, named Frodo and Sam
What has been a standout moment for you in your feminist activism?
Getting the first ever free Plan B vending machine on a SUNY campus this past semester. Reproductive freedom and everyone having access to emergency contraception is so important to me and seeing the impact it has had on my campus has been very rewarding.
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