December 22, 2021


With so much at stake for women and for equality, Ms . will be reporting on policy initiatives and progress within Congress and the Biden-Harris administration—as well as tracking the backlash to equality. Every Wednesday, we will keep you updated, informed and ready to push forward!


Respectability Politics (and Joe Manchin) Are Killing Us [[link removed]]

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BY JHUMPA BHATTACHARYA, SAADIA MCCONVILLE and STACEY RUTLAND
| It’s been a rough year for feminists. As if the erosion of reproductive rights and a pandemic that’s taken a massively uneven toll on women’s careers and mental health weren’t enough, we’re now poised to lose out on legislation that would have a tremendous impact in building gender equity within our society. This latest setback is due to the failure of 51 of our senators to support President Biden’s Build Back Better bill—the latest addition being West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin.

In a confounding move, Manchin decided to derail the bill in a Fox News appearance Sunday night, stating he will vote against it. In a Senate controlled by Democrats by the slimmest of margins (Vice President Kamala Harris’s deciding vote in an otherwise 50/50 party split), Manchin’s announcement has effectively killed this legislation.

Manchin’s cable news decree will have a devastating effect on millions of Americans, and especially on women. The Build Back Better bill is a policy crafted to support everyday people: the extension of the expanded child tax credit (CTC) projected to cut child poverty by 40 percent, paid leave, free preschool, subsidized childcare. While these items would benefit society as a whole, they would have an outsized positive impact on supporting women in the workforce given the disproportionate amount of care work we do.

It’s been reported that Manchin’s demands of the White House include stripping BBB of its CTC provision, because he believes parents entering the third year of a global pandemic are more concerned with taking drugs than taking care of their kids. This is not only an exercise in extreme cynicism, but a demonstration of how Joe Manchin’s views on people living in poverty are anti-Black, xenophobic and out of touch with the truth.
Families have overwhelmingly spent CTC money on basic needs like putting food on the table and paying the electricity bill, and this year’s payments have had an outsized positive impact on Black and brown children—because they are more likely to live in poverty due to systemic injustice. Experts say the benefits of the policy that sends up to $300 a month per child to nearly every parent in the country far outweigh the cost, with 400 economists urging the Biden administration to permanently expand the policy, stating it would “yield tremendous immediate and long-term benefits.”

( To read more, click here. [[link removed]] )


Read More

Build Back Better Is in Peril. Low-income Families Can’t Afford To Lose It [[link removed]]

Dear Joe Manchin: Think Build Back Better Is Expensive? Wait Till You Hear the U.S. Defense Budget. [[link removed]]

FDA Lifts Some Abortion Pill Restrictions, Leaves Others in Place: “Ignores the Science and Smacks of Political Interference” [[link removed]]

Amnesty International Urges Aid for Afghan Women and Girls Subjected to Taliban Violence [[link removed]]

Congress Had the Votes to Overhaul How the Military Handles Serious Crimes. Why Didn’t It? [[link removed]]

The Supreme Court Revealed a Lack of Respect for Precedent and Women’s Health—And It Won’t Stop There [[link removed]]

What we're reading
We know it's hard to keep up with everything going on in the world right now. That's why going forward, we'll provide a weekly roundup of the stories we think are important that Ms. may not have covered. Here's what we're reading this week:
"How 14 policies could survive — or die — after Manchin’s ‘no’” — Politico [[link removed]]
"She Made Jeans for Americans. When They Stopped Shopping, She Turned to Sex Work" — The Fuller Project [[link removed]]
"One Move Colleges Can Make to Expand Abortion Access for Students" — Rewire News Group [[link removed]]
"The Media Is Failing on Abortion" — The Atlantic [[link removed]]

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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]] .
As the December oral arguments date for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case fast approaches, all eyes are on the Supreme Court. But we’re wondering — what’s happening at the on the ground, at clinics that provide abortions and reproductive health services where persistent, even daily violence against patients and providers goes overlooked and under-addressed?
We hope you'll listen, subscribe, rate and review today!



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