[[link removed]] Ms. Memo: This Week in Women's Rights
July 30, 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.
Pregnant and Unmarried? In Tennessee, That’s Now Grounds for Denial of Care. [[link removed]]
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(Barry Chin / The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
By Jennifer Weiss-Wolf | Abortion restrictions are never only about obtaining abortion care. Bans on gender-affirming care or bathroom access are never just an attempt to discriminate against trans people. One thing is certain: These kinds of laws double as an affront to democracy.
A breaking story out of Tennessee makes this abundantly clear. TN Repro News reported on a Jonesborough town hall, where a pregnant woman stood up and shared that she was denied prenatal care because she is unmarried. (For the record, the patient has been with her partner for 15 years and they have a 13-year-old child.) In an exclusive interview by reporter Rachel Wells, the woman—who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation—shared that their family’s home is “lovingly referred to … as the ‘hangout house,’ where her kid’s friends regularly come to hang out, play games and make art.”
… Not that any of that should matter. But wow.
This is the first reported case of a woman being denied prenatal care for being unmarried in the state of Tennessee and the country. And it is the direct result of the state’s 2025 Medical Ethics Defense Act, which went into effect in April. The law enables physicians, nurses, hospitals and insurers to invoke religious, moral or ethical objections to the provision of care and treatment, with no legal requirement to provide patients with a referral or alternative.
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Read more:
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A Power Grab in Plain Sight: Inside Texas Republicans’ Mid-Decade Redistricting Push [[link removed]] Gerrymandering 101: How the System Is Stacked Against Voters [[link removed]]
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With New DOJ Ruling, Women Fleeing Gender-Related Persecution Will Have an Even Harder Time Winning Asylum [[link removed]] A System Designed to Keep Immigrant Parents From Their Children [[link removed]]
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No-Rehire Clauses Let Employers Retaliate Against Harassment Victims … Legally [[link removed]] ‘Giving Women a Chance to Choose When the World Didn’t’: Massachusetts Doctors Provide Telehealth Abortion in States with Bans [[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:
* "Not just abortion: How anti-choice politics are reshaping Idaho health care for everyone” — Idaho Capital Sun [[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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E. Jean Carroll and her lawyer Roberta “Robbie” Kaplan made headlines in 2023 and 2024 for winning a significant legal battle against Trump, with a jury finding him guilty of sexual abuse and defamation, and awarding Carroll $5 and then later an $83.3 million verdict. What can we learn from E. Jean Carroll’s case to fuel our fight forward?
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