Within 24 hours of removing government mask mandates in the name of bodily autonomy, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a restrictive abortion ban that would strip Texans of those very same human rights. This latest attack on reproductive rights is part of a broad onslaught of anti-abortion bills passed by statehouses in 2021. It follows on the heels of the Supreme Court’s announcement that it will hear a Mississippi case that could severely undermine Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. We now face a terrifying possibility that a right so many fought to secure—a right that I was born with—could soon be taken away. Read More »
Assaults on Roe v Wade increasing
May 24, 2021While the Biden administration works to shore up support for reproductive rights in Washington, the push to overturn Roe v. Wade is gaining momentum beyond the Beltway. In several states, Republican-controlled legislatures and statehouses are mounting direct challenges to constitutionally protected abortion rights. Read More »
Don’t Panic About Slower Population Growth
May 5, 2021New numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau indicated that the U.S. population over the past decade grew at its slowest rate since the 1930s. Previous Census data confirmed that except for an uptick in the 1990s, U.S. population growth has been slowing steadily since the postwar Baby Boom peaked around 1960. Read More »
New Arkansas abortion law a sign of the times
March 13, 2021Earlier this week, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a new law barring abortions “except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency.” This near-total ban on abortion clearly violates the rights spelled out in Roe v. Wade. Read More »
Congress Should Repeal the Helms Amendment
March 11, 2021Congressional pushback against draconian reproductive health policies just kicked up a notch. Read More »
It’s time to support science-based sex ed
January 30, 2021Biden’s nominee for assistant secretary of health at HHS, Dr. Rachel Levine, is historic. If confirmed by the Senate, Dr. Levine will become the highest-ranking openly transgender government official in U.S. history. As one of the key officials tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, she will have her hands full as she works to roll back harmful Trump-era health policies. Read More »
The U.S. just passed the somber milestone of 4 million COVID-19 cases in a single month (November). With the holiday season upon us, experts warn that gatherings of family and friends will accelerate the spread. Trump’s policies and rhetoric aren’t helping. Read More »
Biden and Reproductive Health Rights
November 28, 2020Despite his electoral defeat, President Trump’s war on reproductive health and rights is far from over: Trump-appointed judges, Mitch McConnell’s Senate, and GOP controlled state governments will continue to try to curtail everything from abortion rights to contraceptive access. But the tide of battle has turned. Starting Jan. 20, there is much that the new administration can do to restore reproductive health and rights here and abroad. Read More »
Are We a Fatally Flawed Species?
October 13, 2020A pandemic, like any other life-threatening event, prompts us to reflect on our mortality, but our error-prone response to the pandemic should force us to ponder a larger question: Are we a fatally flawed species? Read More »
Best way to keep America great
September 26, 2020Our presidential elections elicit bold ideas designed to capture the imagination of the American people. In that spirit, Matthew Yglesias, the founder of Vox, has written a new book, “One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger,” which proposes that America triple its population. Read More »