While state legislators pushed through 20-week abortion bans and restrictions against fetal-tissue research in some states, there was progress on measures related to contraceptive access in places such as California, Illinois, and Vermont.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and her GOP colleagues indicated that they could wield the appropriations process against the National Institutes of Health to end the use of fetal tissue procured from abortion care for research purposes.
A Democratic congressional aide told Rewire that Republicans are "really playing with fire" if they launch attacks on funding for Planned Parenthood and dismantle the Affordable Care Act, leaving tens of millions without access to care.
The order was issued by the same judge who halted enforcement of the Obama administration’s guidance instructing schools that receive federal funding to allow transgender students access to restrooms consistent with their gender identity, rather than their biological sex.
Writing and reading are my saviors in times of turmoil, and to cope with a year like 2016, I return to poet Lucille Clifton’s words in “won’t you celebrate with me,” in which she writes: “come celebrate/with me that every day/something has tried to kill me/and has failed.”
Our list includes conscious comics; a treatise on love; podcasts on topics from abortion to Muslim life in the United States; and histories that we should know but don’t. Enjoy, get angry, and get active.
This year, abiding lawmakers, with the help of anti-choice activists, glommed onto discredited research to push policies that impede reproductive health-care access.
In a moment when the world is divided on critical social justice and human rights issues, art can serve as a bridge between the world we live in and the change we seek. Acha-Kutscher’s work gives us something to hold onto as we cross that bridge together.
