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Welcome to The Week in Women, a quick rundown of the women’s rights news from around the world, from me and my lovely researcher and co-author Tamar Eisen. This week, The Week in Women is a podcast and written out below as a newsletter — so if you prefer to read rather than listen, keep scrolling, and if you prefer to listen rather than read, you can get The Week in Women wherever you get your podcasts, or you can click the play button above.
A reminder that paid subscribers get The Week in Women early — so if that’s you, thank you, and I hope you enjoy. If that’s not you, and you want The Week in Women in your inbox as soon as it’s published, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.
Iran is maybe shutting down its Morality Police — or maybe not. The New York Times is reporting that an Iranian official said that the nation is closing down the hated police force, but the Iranian government hasn’t confirmed the story, and there are some indications at actually, no, the Morality Police will stay in business. Whatever the case, the government is still enforcing the mandatory hijab law that was the pretext for the detention of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old who was killed while in police custody. Amini’s death kicked off the months-long Women Life Freedom protests that have been roiling that country, and that much of the world hopes will take down this vicious regime.
France’s National Assembly passed a proposal to enshrine abortion rights into the country’s Constitution, in direct response to the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The bill will still have to go through a complex legislative process and could face opposition in the Senate. France is one of many nations worldwide that have tried to expand abortion access in recent years. Only a handful have made their abortion laws more restrictive, and nearly to a one those restrictions have come along with broader national shifts toward authoritarianism — including, unfortunately, in the United States.
In Senegal, a male MP hit a female MP in the face during a tense budget presentation. Feminist activists in Senegal are calling out the attack, particularly as it coincided with the week of campaigns to end violence against women. The slap kicked off a brawl as the woman defended herself.
Afghan women activists are secretly building networks to support vulnerable Afghan women who have faced increased marginalization since the Taliban rose to power in 2021. The return of the Taliban has been brutal on Afghan women and girls, who are barred from higher education, many jobs, and public life more broadly. And so some brave activists are forming secret networks to create safe spaces for women, and to promote democracy and human rights.
Thousands of women protested across Spain last week to demand an end to violence against women. These protests follow news that many men had their prison sentences reduced as a result of a loophole in a new law on sexual abuse.
Polish women are also fed up with misogyny and male violence. Hundreds gathered outside of the Polish ruling party leader’s house to protest his policies and comments that have diminished women’s rights. The ruling Law and Justice Party pushed for a near-total ban on abortion in Poland, and the country’s Constitutional Court — which at this point is basically an arm of Poland’s right-wing government — enshrined it into law. It went into effect last year, to devastating results.
When the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, feminist and data privacy groups warned that Google’s data- and location-gathering processes put women at risk. Now, new research shows that the way Google stores location and personal data has remain unchanged, despite pledges from the company that they would create new policies to protect people’s abortion related data. Google had promised to delete “personal” location searches, including “medical facilities like counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, abortion clinics, fertility centers, addiction treatment facilities, weight loss clinics, cosmetic surgery clinics.” But according to the Guardian, a tech advocacy group “found that searches for directions to abortion clinics on Google Maps, as well as the routes taken to visit two Planned Parenthood locations, were stored in their Google activity timeline for weeks after it occurred. At the time of this article’s publication, the information was still stored and available at myactivity.google.com.”
Remember the story of the 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio who had to travel to Indiana for a safe abortion? And remember how a bunch of bad-faith right-wing actors denied that she even existed? Now, Indiana’s Attorney General has asked the state medical board to discipline Dr. Caitlin Bernard, the OB/GYN who helped this traumatized child end a pregnancy that could have killed her. The Attorney General, Todd Roika, has spent months going after Dr. Bernard — and he’s failed, because she didn’t do anything wrong or illegal. But as I wrote last week, this is part of a broader effort to shut down abortion story-telling, and to prevent doctors from talking about what happens when abortion bans go into effect.
And finally, this is not a news story, but go read this poem right now.
xx Jill
The Week in Women comes to you thanks to research from Tamar Eisen (she/her/hers), an advocate for reproductive justice and gender equity. She lives in New York City and works for the Center for Reproductive Rights.
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Welcome to Episode 10 of The Week in Women. This week, we’re talking about ongoing feminist protests in Iran and Afghanistan, abortion back-and-forth in the US, and anti-feminism in South Korea. Plus, I’m in conversation with the incomparable Richard Reeves about his new book Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why it Matters, and What to Do About It. We talk about why boys and men are struggling, and why feminists should give a damn.
A transcript of the news portion of the show is below; the interview will Richard will go out in transcribed form in a few weeks. If you want The Week on Women early, you can upgrade to a paid subscription, and get it a few days before everyone else. Thank you as always for listening!
xx Jill
TRANSCRIPT
Hi, and welcome to the Week in Women. I’m your host, Jill Filipovic.
The Week in Women is a rundown of the week’s gender and women’s rights news, and it’s available for subscribers early – so head to jill.substack.com and sign up for a paid subscription if you want the Week in Women before everyone else. I'm also adding transcripts to the news section of the show. So if you don't like to listen to podcasts and yet here you are, you can also get a basic rundown of the week's gender headlines in your inbox. And again, that will come early to paid subscribers.
This week we are talking about the ongoing #MeToo trials, protests in Iran and Afghanistan for women's rights, and the state of abortion in the United States. I'm also in conversation with Richard Reeves, who is the author of a new book about boys and men and how they are following behind.
But first, the headlines.
#MeToo Trials
Three men accused of sexual assault as part of the #MeToo movement are heading to court. Harvey Weinstein’s criminal trial starts in Los Angeles on Monday, and he faces 11 charges including rape and sexual assault. Weinstein was already convicted in New York and sentenced to more than two decades behind bars, an outcome he is appealing. His legal team has also raised concerns about the living standards in his California cell, which they say is unhygienic and medieval. Also heading to trials, but in civil court, are Paul Haggis, the Oscar-winning director of the movie Crash who has also made a name for himself standing up against the Church of Scientology, and Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey. Both men have been accused of sexual wrongdoing, Haggis of sexually assaulting a woman in his industry, and Spacey of assaulting a 14-year-old boy who is now an adult man. The trials are being seen as a barometer for the progress of the MeToo movement.
Iran protests
Sixteen-year-old Nika Shakarami was beaten to death by police forces during protests in Iran, her family says. The official story is that she fell off of a building; her family says her injuries are more consistent with being struck repeatedly in the head. And other teenage girl, sixteen-year-old Sarina Esmailzadeh, was killed in the protests as well – reportedly beaten to death by Iranian security forces. According to Amnesty International, these girls are two of at least 23 children who have been killed by the Iranian authorities as they crack down on protesters asking for greater freedoms. The youngest in the Amnesty report was an 11-year-old boy. And at least 144 protesters have been killed so far. The state has gone out of its way to cover up these deaths, often blaming them on falls or accidents, even while security forces continue to use extreme violence against protesters out in the open. Still, thousands of brave Iranians are returning to the streets, demanding an end to mandatory hijab and the end of this tyrannical regime.
Afghanistan Protests
Afghan women are protesting for their rights, too, after 53 students, most of them women, were killed in an attack on a learning center in Kabul. The attacker opened fire in the center before blowing himself up. The center largely serves ethnic Hazaras, a long-persecuted minority in Afghanistan, and protesters are standing up both for the rights and freedoms of ethnic minorities, and for the rights of girls to attend school – something many have been banned from doing since the Taliban takeover. And of course the medieval misogynists of the Taliban have not taken kindly to women protesting. They’ve beaten women and girls, verbally abused them, and fired warning shots to force them to disperse. While some men have joined women in the streets, the crowds are overwhelmingly female. University professor Zahra Mosawi told Al Jazeera, “I have a message for those Afghan men who sit at home and just watch women on the streets. How long will you remain silent in front of all these crimes and persecution against women? If today you choose to remain silent, tomorrow you may be faced with the same persecution.”
Antifeminism in South Korea
The South Korean president sailed to victory thanks to a campaign of rank anti-feminism, intended to attract the votes of disaffected, conservative, and increasingly misogynist South Korean young men. Now in office, he has set in motion a plan to dismantle the nation’s gender equality ministry. Doing so, he says, will help women’s rights. “Abolishing the gender ministry is about strengthening the protection of women, families, children and the socially weak,” he said. The country’s liberals are pushing back, and have vowed to not let him scrap the gender equality ministry without a fight.
Abortion in the States
In US abortion news, Planned Parenthood has announced that it is opening a mobile abortion clinic in Illinois to serve women who live in states that ban the procedure. Moreso than ever before, people in the US who need abortions are being forced to travel, often for long distances. This new clinic, Planned Parenthood hopes, will increase access for women as close to home as legally possible.
In Indiana, the state supreme court has said that the state may not enforce its abortion ban for now, while the court considers the ban’s constitutionality. That’s good news for people who need abortions in the state, and clinics have now resumed making appointments. But it has been a bit of whiplash. And this is part of the problem with these slapped-together abortion bans: At least some of them are likely legally unsound, but as the courts deliberate, women and our futures are left in limbo.
In Ohio, the state is appealing an order from a judge to block the implementation of their abortion ban, which, if implemented, would criminalize abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. An appeals court will now review the decision, and determine if the law can go back into effect.
And in New Hampshire, Don Bolduc, the Republican nominee for a Senate seat, says the standard practice of discarding some embryos after in vitro fertilization procedures is “disgusting” and suggests he might support banning the practice. It’s crucial to emphasize here that, while this admission is startling, it is not in any way out of line with what every single so-called “pro-life” organization in the US supports. IVF is not currently on the top of the anti-abortion To Do list. But trust that if they continue to succeed in scaling back reproductive rights, they’ll get to it.
SHOWNOTES:
Redshirt the boys: Why boys should start school a year later than girls, by Richard V. Reeves in the Atlantic.
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Welcome to Episode 9 of The Week in Women. This week on the show, we're talking about the rise of far right women, the global plot against abortion rights, an abortion ban in Arizona that dates back to the Civil War, and more. We'll also hear from Iranian- American journalist Negar Mortazavi, who is the host of the Iran Podcast, and is on to talk about the incredible woman led uprising in Iran and how feminists the world over can stand in solidarity with Iranian women.
I’m also adding a new feature to The Week in Women, which is a transcript of the news portion of the show (transcripts of the interviews of this and previous shows will be published in separate posts). This way, folks who aren’t podcast listeners and / or who are hearing impaired can also get the women’s rights news of the week straight to their inbox.
And as always, paid subscribers get The Week in Women early — so if you want The Week in Women early, upgrade to a paid subscription. Hope you enjoy, and of course feel free to share.
xx Jill
TRANSCRIPT
Hi, and welcome to the Week in Women. I’m your host, Jill Filipovic.
The Week in Women is a rundown of the week’s gender and women’s rights news, and it’s available for subscribers early – so head to jill.substack.com and sign up for a paid subscription if you want the Week in Women before everyone else. This week, I’m also adding a rough transcript to the news section of the show, so if you’re not the podcast-listening type, you can get the basic rundown of the week’s gender headlines in your inbox – again, early if you’re a paid subscriber.
This week, we’re talking about the rise of far-right women, the global plot against abortion rights, and an abortion ban in Arizona that dates back to the Civil War. We’ll also hear from Iranian-American journalist Negar Mortazavi, who is a columnist for the Independent and the host of the Iran podcast, and is on to talk about the incredible woman-led uprising in Iran and how feminists the world over can stand in solidarity with Iranian women.
But first, the headlines.
India legalizes abortion regardless of marital status:
This week, the Indian Supreme Court upheld the right to abortion up to 24 weeks regardless of a woman’s marital status – the country’s 1971 law legalizing the procedure had only done so for married women. And, the Court held, that marital rape is in fact rape, even if Indian law does not currently recognize it as such.
Feminism as a cover for authoritarianism in Tunisia:
Tunisia has long been one of the most progressive countries in the Arab world when it comes to women’s rights, and they currently have a parliament that is nearly half female and a female prime minister – but advocates for democracy and women’s rights say women’s rights are being used as a smokescreen for a nation bending toward authoritarianism. This summer, Tunisia adopted a new constitution, which gave the president sweeping powers and removed significant authority from parliament – and the prime minister. The Tunisian president has taken aim at many democratic institutions, shutting them down and at one point suspending parliament. Now, women’s rights advocates say, Tunisia’s female prime minister and the women who were elected to higher office are figureheads only, having no real power and simply putting a feminine face on the president’s overreaches.
Italian feminists worried for their future under a female neofascist leader:
And speaking of feminism being used as a smokescreen for authoritarianism, feminist groups in Italy are concerned about the future of women’s rights in their country under newly-elected neofascist leader Giorgia Meloni. Italian feminists have taken to the streets in protest largely in defense of abortion rights, which they understandably see as under threat – while abortion laws have liberalized in much of the world over the past several decades, the handful of countries where they have become more restrictive are almost all nations that have seen a hard right authoritarian turn: Poland, Nicaragua, and the United States. Meloni and her far-right comrades are also staunchly anti-gay – these are folks who want to censor the cartoon Peppa Pig because a polar bear character on the show has two moms, and that, they say, should not be presented to children as "as an absolutely natural fact.” It ok, apparently, to present as absolutely natural facts pigs who walk, speak with British accents, and are friends with polar bears – the truly unacceptably unnatural thing is lesbians raising a child. Ok. In any event, Italian feminists, LGBTQ rights activists, and democracy defenders all understand that Meloni and the other far right leaders who will take office with her are a direct threat to the rights of a majority of Italians – and that unfortunately, Italy may no longer be in a post-fascist era.
Arizona reinstates abortion ban from 1864:
In the US, abortion opponents remain determined to take us back to the 19th century – in Arizona, quite literally. A judge just allowed an abortion ban penned in 1864 to go into effect, which means that when it comes to abortion, Arizona women now have about as many rights as they did at the conclusion of the Civil War. The law allows for two to five years in prison for anyone who helps a woman get an abortion. It had been unenforceable since 1973, when the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade. But with Roe gone, this nearly two-century-old abortion law is back in effect.
When Arizona’s 1864 abortion criminalization law passed, Arizona wasn’t even a state. The 15th Amendment, which extended the right to vote to American men, was not yet ratified, and women were still more than 50 years away from getting the right to vote themselves. Married women could not own property in their own names, and when women married, could not control either the money or property they brought into the marriage. In other words, when Arizona’s now-in-effect abortion criminalization law was passed, women were, under the eyes of the law, not separate legal persons. Women lacked legal personhood status. That is the era to which Arizona women are now being returned.
The global plot against abortion rights:
The US is not alone in being a bad actor on the world stage when it comes to abortion. A fascinating report published in Rolling Stone finds that far-right activists from Russia, Spain, and other European nations – plus, of course, American Catholics and Evangelicals – have joined forces behind CitizenGO, an organization made up of and funded by some of the world’s shadiest far-right actors. The group targets abortion and LGBTQ rights all over the world, recently taking credit for tanking abortion rights legislation in Kenya and a law that would throw LGBTQ people in Ghana in jail for long criminal sentences. CitizenGO has spent huge sums of money manipulating social media in Kenya, and in launching serious attacks on Kenyan activists and politicians who support women’s and LGBT rights. And while one of CitizenGO’s talking points in Africa is that women’s rights and the very existence of LGBT people is a Western, colonial import, in reality it’s CitzenGO that is a Western, colonial import, coming in from the outside to undermine local human rights campaigns and even free speech – in Ghana, a proposed bill tied to CitizenGO would mandate that anyone aware of homosexual activity report it to the police, throw gay people in jail, and allow for prison sentences of up to ten years for publishing anything that “promotes” homosexuality. This group, funded in part by Russian oligarchs and known criminals, continues to shape the future of abortion and LGBT rights in some of Africa’s most stable, growing democracies – undermining not just women’s rights and LGBT rights, but the civil societies, democratic futures, and economic potential of those nations.
Case against Chinese billionaire reopens #MeToo debate in China:
Chinese businessman and billionaire Richard Liu is being tried in an American court after a woman in Minneapolis said he raped her. Although prosecutors declined to bring charges, she is suing him in what could be a watershed moment for China’s still-nascent #MeToo movement. While Chinese women have been speaking out about sexual violence and harassment, the Chinese Communist Party has tried to shut down their claims. For speaking out, the woman at the heart of this case has been attacked and threatened on social media. Still, she is refusing to back down, and her case has opened up an important conversation in China about sexual assault, gender, power, and victim-blaming.
Covid vaccines and menstruation:
When you got the Covid vaccine, do you swear it affected your period? You’re not crazy: A new study of some 20,000 people worldwide who were vaccinated against Covid-19 found that, yes, Covid vaccination delayed menstruation by an average of one day. Not much to add there other than no, you weren’t making it up, and while the jury is still out on whether Covid vaccination causes other changes to menstruation, it’s heartening that this research is underway and women are getting answers.
Women rising up in Iran:
In Iran, protests continue as women and men alike demonstrate against the nation’s theocratic regime and the morality police that activists say killed a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, who was in their custody for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly and wound up dead. They are fighting a regime of violent misogyny and gender apartheid, and some of them are paying for it with their lives, as Iranian security forces launch violent attacks against the protesters, jailing hundreds and killing dozens.
And yet many Western feminists are strikingly silent on what is currently the largest women’s rights protest in the world. Iranian feminists are saying: Stand with us. Exiled Iranian feminist Masih Alinejad, who lives in an FBI safe house after Iranian intelligence officials plotted to kidnap her and who avoided an assassination attempt at her home this summer, writes in the Washington Post that “The true feminists and women’s rights activists are those in Afghanistan and Iran who are stepping forward, at great cost, to resist the Taliban and Islamic republic. They are the true feminist leaders of the 21st century, risking their lives by facing guns and bullets. They will go on fighting against the regimes, and we who have the privilege to live in free countries should actively amplify their voices. This is the moment for women in the West to stand with Iran’s mothers, daughters and sisters.” She continues: “My wish is for all of us to be louder than the tyrants. I call on the free world to join the protesters in calling for an end to the murderous regime of the ayatollahs. Iranian women are fighting to recover our dignity and exercise our personal freedoms — so that, one day, all Iranians can finally choose our government in free and fair elections. We shouldn’t be afraid of the religious fanatics and the jihadists. They are the ones who are frightened. It is why they seek to keep women down. Women in the streets are paying with their lives for change. But too many in the outside world are shaking hands with our murderers. I am asking all Western feminists to speak up. Join us. Make a video. Cut your hair. Burn a headscarf. Share it on social media and boost Iranian voices. Use your freedom to say her name. Her name was Mahsa Amini.”
Women the world over will be marching on October 1 in solidarity with Iranian women’s rights activists. Join them.
Show Notes:
India legalizes abortion regardless of marital status:
https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-top-court-gives-all-women-right-abortion-2022-09-29/
Feminism as a cover for authoritarianism in Tunisia:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/9/29/has-female-representation-in-tunisias-govt-advanced-rights
Italian feminists worried for their future under a female neofascist leader:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/lgbtq-advocates-women-worry-in-italy-after-melonis-win/2022/09/28/f8ca3d68-3f09-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/very-real-fears-lgbt-community-after-far-right-win-italy-2022-09-27/
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/im-a-woman-im-a-mother-im-christian-how-giorgia-meloni-took-control-in-the-italian-election
Arizona reinstates abortion ban from 1864:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/us/arizona-abortion-ban.html
The global plot against abortion rights:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/far-right-network-attacks-lgbtq-abortion-rights-1234587997/
Case against Chinese billionaire reopens #MeToo debate in China:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/28/world/asia/richard-liu-sexual-assault-trial.html
Covid vaccines and menstruation: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/09/27/covid-vaccine-period-late/
Women rising up in Iran:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/27/masih-alinejad-west-feminists-support-iranian-women/
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Hi readers and listeners — thanks for your patience with the gap between episodes. I was traveling and teaching a writing retreat and generally lacking the time and capacity to record while on the road. But I’m now back home (why is it getting cold??) and back in action.
So! Enjoy this episode of The Week in Women, which is available to paid subscribers early. Thank you, as always, for your support and for listening.
xx Jill
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Hello, and welcome to Episode 6 of The Week in Women. Paid subscribers get The Week in Women early — so if that’s you, thank you! And if that’s not you, you can subscribe to listen now.
If you’re enjoying The Week in Women, feel free to share it with a friend. And if you listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else, I would be very grateful if you would rate, review and subscribe.
This week’s stories include:
* Texas Right to Life’s On-Staff Pedophile. Luke Bowen, the political director of Texas Right to Life, the state’s most influential anti-abortion group and the force behind penning Texas’s abortion bans, was arrested on August 3rd for online solicitation of a minor.
* Texas Abortion Criminalization Law Goes into Effect. On Thursday, a Texas law went into effect that makes abortion punishable by a $100,000 fine and life in prison. The law offers virtually no exceptions.
* Nancy Davis is a Hero. Nancy Davis, a stay-at-home mother of three who lives in Louisiana, has become an outspoken opponent of abortion laws that provide no exceptions for fetal anomalies, after she found out that the fetus she is carrying does not have a skull and will either die in utero or soon after birth – and that she cannot get a legal abortion where she lives.
* Some Women Can Watch Football in Iran. In what I suppose counts as progress in one of the most reactionary misogynist nations in the world, a few hundred women in Iran have been allowed into football stadiums to watch the sport.
* Amy Coney Barrett’s Misogynist Cult. A new report in the Guardian last week details some of the disturbing writing and remarks of Dorothy Ranaghan, the wife of People of Praise founder Kevin Ranaghan. People of Praise is the fringe, far-right Catholic organization that Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is a member of.
* Jewish Groups Suing Over Abortion. In an interesting and creative use of religious freedom arguments, Jewish groups in several states are suing over anti-abortion laws.
* Hungary says education is too feminized. Hungary’s state audit office published a report on education in the country, claiming that it has become too feminized – and that educated women are problematically less submissive.
* Yelp Labels Crisis Pregnancy Centers. In the wake of Roe v Wade being overturned, Yelp has announced that it will more clearly label anti-abortion Crisis Pregnancy Centers, to be clear that they may not offer medical care or have licensed medical staff on site.
* New Rules from the National Abortion Federation. And in today’s deeper dive into a single story, I talk about the new rules from the National Abortion Federation on funding medication abortions for patients coming from states that criminalize abortion. These rules have made a lot of abortion rights supporters angry. I also dislike them, but I think they may be justified. And I’d be curious to hear what you all think of this one.
* …and more.
Thank you for subscribing and listening.
xx Jill
SHOW NOTES
Texas Right to Life political director arrested for online solicitation of a minor:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7b7na/anti-abortion-luke-bowen-arrested-solicitation-of-minor
Texas Abortion Criminalization Law Goes into Effect
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/25/texas-trigger-law-abortion/
Nancy Davis is a Hero
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/26/us/louisiana-abortion-nancy-davis-fatal-condition/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/19/us/politics/louisiana-abortion-law.html
Women and Football in Iran
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/25/iranian-women-allowed-to-watch-football-match-after-fifa-pressure
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/30/blame-game-after-iran-women-pepper-sprayed-at-world-cup-qualifier
Amy Coney Barrett’s Misogynist Cult
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/26/amy-coney-barrett-faith-group-people-of-praise
White House Plan to Protect Abortion Access
https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2022/08/25/health-officials-to-send-letters-to-governors-abortion-rights
Jewish Groups Suing Over Abortion
https://idahocapitalsun.com/2022/08/26/jewish-congregations-mount-legal-challenges-to-state-abortion-bans/
Hungary says education is too feminized
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62686894
Yelp labels crisis pregnancy centers
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/23/tech/yelp-crisis-pregnancy-centers/index.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/25/google-maps-abortions/
New Rules from the National Abortion Federation
https://bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12905-018-0645-6
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Hello, and welcome to Episode 6 of The Week in Women. If you want The Week in Women early — every Friday morning — upgrade to a paid subscription (at least usually, when I am not moving house and finding just about every aspect of my life falling into total chaos).
On this week’s episode, headlines include the catastrophes facing Afghan women, “pro-life” cruelty in Louisiana, and how a Florida court managed to deem a 16-year-old to immature to have an abortion but mature enough to be a mother.
If you’re enjoying The Week in Women, feel free to share it with a friend. And if you listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else, I would be very grateful if you would rate, review and subscribe.
Thank you as always for your support.
xx Jil
Show Notes
Afghanistan:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/11/afghanistan-talibans-catastrophic-year-rule
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/healthcare-women-afghanistan-under-taliban/
Saudi:
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/saudi-doctoral-student-34-years-prison-tweets-88538484
Utah Trans Panic:
https://www.deseret.com/utah/2022/8/17/23310668/school-investigates-female-athlete-transgender-complaint
Nebraska Abortion and Facebook:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/us/abortion-prosecution-nebraska.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/12/nebraska-abortion-case-facebook/
Abortion and Cancer:
https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2022/08/423456/abortion-ban-may-increase-risk-death-pregnant-women-cancer
Abortion and Louisiana:
https://nypost.com/2022/08/18/louisiana-mom-denied-abortion-even-though-baby-wont-survive/
Abortion and Latinos:
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/16/abortion-latino-issues-voters-midterms-00052119
Florida teen forced into childbearing:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/18/florida-teen-abortion-forced-motherhood
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Hello, and welcome to Episode 5 of The Week in Women. If you want The Week in Women early — every Friday morning — upgrade to a paid subscription.
On this week’s episode, headlines include a huge abortion rights victory in Kansas, upcoming abortion votes in a smattering of other states, and how women’s rights in the US are being literally rolled back to a time before we could vote.
I’m also in conversation with my friend Satya Doyle Byock about her new book Quarterlife: The Search for Self in Early Adulthood. Satya and I talk about the particular challenges facing young women in an era of declining reproductive rights, and what it means to balance stability and meaning on a burning planet. Satya is an incredible person and her book is so, so informative and so, so crucial — do pick up a copy.
If you’re enjoying The Week in Women, feel free to share it with a friend. And if you listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else, I would be very grateful if you would rate, review and subscribe.
Thank you as always for your support.
xx Jil
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Welcome to Episode #4 of The Week in Women. If you want this podcast early — Friday instead of Monday — upgrade to a paid subscription. This entire newsletter is funded by readers like you and your support is what allows it to continue.
This week, headlines include the ongoing impact of cruel abortion criminalization laws, the devolving status of women in Afghanistan, and how a man who looks like Herman Munster and is under investigation for sex trafficking has the nerve to claim women who have abortions are the ugly ones.
I also speak with two neurologists, Drs. Dawn Gano and Sara LaHue, about a fascinating opinion paper they recently published about abortion bans and neurology: How these bans might impact everything from the care multiple sclerosis patients could have access to, to what kind of medication you might be prescribed for your migraines, to what happens when a woman is pregnant with a much-wanted child but discovers her fetus has a neurological condition incompatible with life, to how certain cancers might be treated – or not treated – if the person with cancer is pregnant. It’s an incredibly important and incredibly interesting conversation about issues I haven’t seen covered in-depth anywhere else, so I hope you will give it a listen.
If you’re enjoying The Week in Women, feel free to share it with a friend. And if you listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else, I would be so grateful if you would rate, review and subscribe.
Thank you as always for your support.
xx Jil
SHOW NOTES:Abortion bans:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/27/us/indiana-abortion.html
https://www.cpr.org/2022/07/28/colorado-abortion-clinic-wait-times-spike/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/23/upshot/abortion-interstate-travel-appointments.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/28/upshot/abortion-bans-states-social-services.html
Pro-Life Misogyny
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/matt-gaetz-s-anti-abortion-anti-woman-rant-would-make-n1297524
Tour de France Femmes
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/27/sports/cycling/tour-de-france-female-cyclists.html
Iran Bans Women from Ads
https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-bans-women-in-advertising/31958923.html
Diplomatic Standoff Over Gender Agreement
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jul/28/uk-in-diplomatic-standoff-over-deletion-of-abortion-rights-from-gender-statement
Women Under the Taliban
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa11/5685/2022/en/
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/07/27/1114033369/what-its-like-being-a-woman-in-afghanistan-today-death-in-slow-motion
Reproductive Rights in Neurology—The Supreme Court's Impact on All of Us
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2794176
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Welcome, subscribers, to episode #2 of The Week in Women, which you have early access to (thank you for subscribing!). This week, headlines include international shock and outrage as the US violates the rights of women and girls, progress on abortion rights in Sierra Leone, a dystopian hellscape for child rape victims in America, and much more.
I also speak with Dana Johnson, a researcher focused on self-managed abortion, about what self-managed abortion is, whether it’s safe, and how to do it.
If you’re enjoying The Week in Women, feel free to share it with a friend. And if you listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else, I would be so grateful if you would rate, review and subscribe. Thank you as always for your support. Happy listening.
xx Jill
Show Notes
Sources for this episode include:
International Shock and Outrage as the US violates the rights of women and girls:
https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2022/07/access-safe-and-legal-abortion-urgent-call-united-states-adhere-womens-rights
https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/3547465-un-urges-us-to-adhere-to-womens-human-rights-convention-after-overturn-of-roe-v-wade/
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/06/24/1107370547/global-reproductive-and-womens-rights-groups-react-to-overturn-of-roe-v-wade
Ukraine signs the Istanbul Convention:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/06/ukraine-historic-victory-for-womens-rights-as-istanbul-convention-ratified/
Women and Climate Change:
https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/06/1121442
https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2022/06/annual-full-day-discussion-human-rights-women
China pushes childbearing:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/business/economy/china-reproductive-rights-women.html
Sierra Leone moves to liberalize its abortion law:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jul/06/sierra-leone-backs-bill-to-legalise-abortion-and-end-colonial-era-law
Breastfeeding Guidelines:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/opinion/breastfeeding-guidelines.html
https://19thnews.org/2022/06/senate-fails-to-pass-breastfeeding-law-for-9-million-working-parents-despite-calls-for-flexibility-amid-formula-shortage/
Support for Abortion:
https://apnews.com/article/abortion-biden-nancy-pelosi-womens-rights-government-and-politics-c410dbe9a8321b35a4e779b2fb226de5
Abortion Dystopia in the US:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/03/ohio-indiana-abortion-rape-victim
Brittney Griner pleads guilty to absurd charges in Russia:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/07/world/europe/brittney-griner-russia.html
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Dear subscribers,
I’m incredibly excited to announce a new weekly podcast, The Week in Women. It’s a roundup of the week’s most important gender and women’s rights headlines, followed by a deeper dive into one specific story or issue. Future episodes will feature guests and experts; some weeks (like this one) it’ll just be me. My hope is that this can be a resource to break through the noise and, if you care about women’s rights, let you know what you might have missed and what the big news takeaways are for the week.
This week, the show includes the sentencing of R. Kelly, the unjust detainment and forthcoming show trial of Brittney Griner, and the big story: how the Supreme Court has thrown the US into chaos with its latest abortion ruling, and how anti-abortion prosecutors could use your digital trail against you in court.
As a thank you for subscribing, you get The Week in Women before anyone else — this week and every week.
As of early next week, you will (hopefully) be able to find the Week on Women on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you listen. But for now, it’s just for you, and only here on Substack.
xx Jill
Episode Notes:
Sources for this episode include:
R. Kelly:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/29/us/r-kelly-sentencing-racketeering-sex-trafficking/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/03/us/r-kelly-trial-women-justice/index.html
https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/6/5/18652167/r-kelly-jim-derogatis-interview-soulless
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/soulless-r-kelly-jim-derogatis-interview-838478/
https://time.com/6102538/r-kelly-conviction-mute/
https://sports.yahoo.com/r-kelly-sentenced-30-years-203418531.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/29/nyregion/r-kelly-timeline-charges-allegations.html
Brittney Griner:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/sports/basketball/brittney-griner-trial-russia.html
Ukraine:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/29/world/europe/ukraine-russia-rape.html
Abortion chaos:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/27/abortion-trigger-law-supreme-court/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-28/texas-judge-halts-state-ban-on-abortions-up-to-6-weeks
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/29/us/abortion-enforcement-prosecutors.html
https://fairandjustprosecution.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/FJP-Post-Dobbs-Abortion-Joint-Statement.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/technology/period-tracker-privacy-abortion.html
https://www.nrlc.org/wp-content/uploads/NRLC-Post-Roe-Model-Abortion-Law-FINAL-1.pdf
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