[[link removed]]
MORE THAN A MAGAZINE, A MOVEMENT
Today at Ms. | September 3, 2025
With Today at Ms. —a daily newsletter from the team here at Ms. magazine—our top stories are delivered straight to your inbox every afternoon, so you’ll be informed and ready to fight back.
State Courts Hold the Power to Free Us Or Erase Us [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]]
(Anthony Devlin / Getty Images)
By Mercedes Fulbright and Sandra Castro Solís | While national headlines fixate on the U.S. Supreme Court, state courts shape nearly every part of our lives. From traffic violations and business disputes to child custody and criminal charges, an estimated 95 percent of all legal cases in the United States are handled in state courts.
State courts decide whether you can access abortion care, whether your protest leads to jail time, whether you keep custody of your child and whether your gender identity is protected or punished.
Despite their vast power, state courts remain one of the most overlooked battlegrounds—and opportunities—in the fight for justice. As organizers, we’ve seen the cost of that neglect. Now we’re calling on progressive movements to treat state courts not as a footnote, but as a headline.
(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund [[link removed]] highlighting the work of Groundswell partners advancing inclusive democracy.)
(Click here to read more) [[link removed]]
Female Founders Fund’s Anu Duggal Is Betting Big on Women [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]]
(Steve Jennings / Getty Images for TechCrunch)
By Jaime Patel | When Anu Duggal invested in one of her earliest portfolio companies, many in her network hesitated—there were concerns about the founder’s past that few wanted to investigate or understand. But Duggal went the other way, going beyond standard due diligence; she took the time to truly understand what happened and recognized that, under different circumstances, she could have been in the same position herself.
“If you do that to everyone,” she says, “you’re never going to give anyone a second chance.” She trusted her instincts and leaned into context over spreadsheets. That leap of faith paid off: The company went on to achieve a successful exit, and that founder is already on her way to her second venture.
What Duggal represents isn’t just a woman with a fund—it’s a different operating system for venture. The industry still privileges spin-outs, paper perfection and familiar faces. Duggal’s career shows why that lens is too narrow. Traits often coded as “soft”—intuition, nuance, second chances—can lead to transformative returns—and ripple through the entire ecosystem for women, creating role models, opportunities and capital for the next generation.
(This piece is part of an ongoing series, “Redefining Power: How Indian American Women Are Rewriting the Rules of Leadership, Identity and Care.” The series explores what it means to modernize without losing our roots—through candid conversations with Indian American women reshaping culture, power and possibility.)
(Click here to read more) [[link removed]]
Trump’s IVF Walkback Opens the Door to a Catholic ‘Alternative’ [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]]
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
By Lauren Barbato | When Donald Trump anointed himself the “father of IVF” on the campaign trail, he promised to expand insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization—a move that was more pronatalist than pro-choice. In February 2025, Trump signed an executive order to explore reducing insurance-plan and out-of-pocket costs for IVF without a national insurance mandate. Now, reports indicate that the “father of IVF” is walking back his campaign promise just as a religiously motivated “alternative” threatens to enter mainstream medicine and be codified into law.
(Click here to read more) [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]] Listen to the latest podcast from Ms. Studios! The latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward is out now on Apple Podcasts [[link removed]] + Spotify [[link removed]] .
The fifth and final episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward illustrates the power of the ERA’s promise, and how the fight for constitutional equality is connected to the issues we’ve explored in our previous installments—women’s political power, reproductive freedom, economic justice and the struggle to end gender-based violence. Experts and advocates share what they’ve learned in 50-plus years of ERA activism, and how they’re fighting forward for full equality at the state and national level.
We hope you'll listen, subscribe, rate and review today!
[link removed] [[link removed]]
READ THE REST [[link removed]] | GET THE MAGAZINE [[link removed]] | SUPPORT MS. [[link removed]]
[[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]]
Enjoy this newsletter? Forward to a friend!
Was this email forwarded to you by a friend? Subscribe [[link removed]] .

Ms. Magazine
1600 Wilson Boulevard
Suite 801
Arlington, VA 22209
United States
Manage your email subscriptions here [[link removed]]
If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please
unsubscribe: [link removed] .