Dear John,
Early next month, Wisconsin will hold a crucial election for a seat on its state supreme court, which since 2008 has been dominated by a conservative majority. The outcome of the election between conservative Daniel Kelly and progressive Janet Protasiewicz will determine the fate of abortion access in the state, other crucial issues like redistricting of electoral maps, voting rights and executive powers are also at play. In the wake of the Dobbs decision, battles like these are crucial—and we know feminists in Wisconsin won’t go down without a fight.
In our new Spring issue, we warn of future decisions that could spell trouble for women’s rights, beyond abortion. Contributing editor Carrie Baker explores some of these threats—and how we can fight back—in the Spring issue. Baker points out that the majority opinion in Dobbs argued that the “14th Amendment protects only rights explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, those intended to be protected by the framers of the 14th Amendment in 1868, or rights ‘deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition.’” The Court used this line of reasoning to overturn Roe—and if it chooses to go further, could “overturn or erode constitutional sex equality law” for women altogether.
As the country awaits potential indictments of the former president, Ms. contributor Jackson Katz weighs in—and sounds the alarm bells—with an incisive analysis of Trump’s call for protests by his supporters and the use of political violence. “He has been especially effective in signaling to white men that he shares not only their racial resentments, but also their frustration and anger at feminists for challenging men’s authority in both the public and private spheres,” Katz writes.
“Trump channels these race and gender-based animosities at the same time as he displays an eagerness to glorify violence, and a reluctance to criticize it when done by his supporters… In a country with a long and ugly history of white racist violence toward people of color, this all makes for an extraordinarily volatile and dangerous political situation.”
Please take a few minutes to look over the tributes to Rep. Pat Schroeder, who died on Mar. 14. Ms. contributors Kathy Bonk and Andrea Camp, both of whom worked closely for years with Schroeder, asked her former staff, colleagues and friends in the feminist community to share their remembrances. Schroeder was a pioneer—joining Congress when there were just 16 women in the House of Representatives. She spent her time in office tirelessly advocating for feminist causes like ending gender discrepancies in health research and reproductive health, authoring the Violence Against Women Act, the Economic Equity Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and so much more.
“Pat truly got it: what it was like to juggle family and work, to be a woman in the Army, a pregnant woman in the workplace, a certified member of the sandwich generation, and a woman in politics when women weren’t expected to use—as she put it—both her brain and her uterus,” writes Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Ellen Goodman. “She cared about so much. And so many.”
Without a doubt, she made the world a better place for all of us—and for future generations.
Onward,
