Dear John,

This week, we’ve kept our eyes on negotiations around President Biden’s Build Back Better proposal and the negotiations and debates. Although we are disappointed that the final framework announced yesterday will not provide paid family leave, the proposal nevertheless is historic and extraordinary in what it will accomplish.

The Build Back Better Act will provide a transformative investment in universal early child education with free preschool for every 3- and 4-year old, and will expand access to affordable, quality childcare. The legislation extends the expanded child tax credit that was instituted through the American Rescue Plan earlier this year, cutting child poverty in half. 

And it provides rental assistance to hundreds of thousands of households, makes investments in maternal health and provides health coverage for up to 4 million uninsured people left behind when their states refused to expand Medicaid coverage, free school meals for an additional 9 million children as well as summer nutrition assistance for 29 million children, and programs to reduce community violence. 

Finally, the act makes major investments to address the climate crisis and—depending on the Senate’s reconciliation rules—will provide a measure of reform to the immigration system.

Women’s equality depends on many of these proposed investments. And these investments in human infrastructure—unlike investments in physical infrastructure like roads and bridges—create jobs and raise wages in sectors of the economy dominated by women.

On the abortion rights front, we are, like you, anxiously awaiting the Monday, Nov. 1 hearing at the Supreme Court on S.B. 8, the Texas law banning abortion after six weeks. Clinics in Texas and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued the state of Texas, challenging the ban as an unconstitutional violation of the right to abortion established by the Supreme Court in both the Roe v. Wade and the Casey v. Planned Parenthood decisions. The federal district court’s decision in the DOJ’s case to block enforcement of the law was overturned by the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court, permitting the law to again take effect, and prompting the DOJ’s appeal to the Supreme Court.

The question before the Court: Does the federal government have a right to sue Texas to block the ban? And will the Court grant the DOJ’s request that the law be blocked from enforcement, pending a final appellate court ruling? Until the Supreme Court issues a ruling in this case, abortion in Texas remains largely illegal.

What’s at stake? The outcome of Monday’s hearing as well as the Court’s decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that will be heard on December 1 involving the constitutionality of yet another pre-viability abortion ban in Mississippi, will determine whether abortion will be legal and accessible in many states. Between states that already have bans on the books, states that are hostile towards abortion, and states with “trigger” bans that would go into effect if Roe is overturned, just 13 states — California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington and Virginia — would end up taking on most of the country’s abortions.

We will be issuing special reports on both of these cases, and you can count on Ms. to keep you informed and ready to fight back.

For equality,

Kathy Spillar
Executive Editor