New Year, New Resolutions

The last few years have been tumultuous, ever-changing, and challenging. The future carries with it more hardships and requires continued effort.

I wanted to take the time to speak generally about the state of abortion rights and what politically must happen to advance the cause and further protect abortion access.

Since the Dobbs decision, we’ve seen clinics close in states that have historically been the most hostile to reproductive rights—places like Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, and Idaho. Culturally, conversations about abortion must change in those areas to be more open to the idea of legal and safe abortion. That’s the role of writers and storytellers.

National leaders must adjust the movement’s strategy to include and emphasize doctors' critical roles in providing abortions and advancing human rights. For far too long, they’ve taken a back seat in Democratic politics, with operatives and strategists shying away from highlighting the work of courageous individuals who protect women’s lives, health, and happiness. They have a place alongside the women who march and lead this movement. Their input about rhetoric and tactics should shape the general direction of the movement.

Furthermore, the movement has to be more inclusive of people beyond the conventional image of feminism. People who believe in bodily autonomy and gender equality aren’t just white women. They’re women of other colors. They’re men of all colors. They’re people who belong to the various parts of the LGBTQ community.

Each has a role, and each’s contributions, thoughts, writing, and scholarship deserve to be amplified and given a platform so long as they advance the cause. We shouldn’t marginalize or shun people. Or limit leadership to one group. We should embrace all voices because it means every group, regardless of race, gender, and other identifiers, is welcome and appreciated for their contributions and sacrifices.

The Democratic Party must embrace reproductive justice in policy as much as it does in convenient rhetoric that gets votes but delivers no substantive change. That means pushing for the elimination of the Hyde Amendment, forcing insurers to pay for abortions, and pushing for things like 24-hour universal daycare.

Feminism intersects with other liberal causes, like labor, environmentalism, and diplomacy. We must understand those intersections and how to reduce the challenges of people subject to hardships in each aspect.

Abortion rights is not simply an American cause or issue. It’s expanded to places like England, where women face life imprisonment for taking mifepristone because of antiquated laws that never conceived that women would be able to get prescribed medication through telehealth. We must establish correspondence and cooperation between leaders in America and those in Europe and elsewhere to build a global movement for reproductive rights.

The year ahead already has a foreboding sense to it. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton seeks to impose a $5 million fine on a New York abortion provider who prescribes mifepristone and misoprostol to women who live there. It remains to be seen whether the Justice Department or Postal office will enforce the Comstock laws, which are archaic bans on the mailing of abortifacients and birth control challenged by Margaret Sanger and other early crusaders. We don’t know what the Food and Drug Administration will do with medication approval.

We don’t know how the Supreme Court will rule in the proliferation of cases that require it to clarify where the law stands. We lack uniformity of law to govern how abortion is handled in one commonwealth as well as another.

Connecting with older figures, documenting the history, and using it to inform decision-making are the roles I plan on taking with this newsletter and the book I’m working on. I hope to have a publisher soon for the work, and I will meet with leaders next month after attending the Women’s March on Jan. 18.

We have much work to do, and we must remain vigilant, persistent, and inclusive.