New York DA Drops “Self-Abortion” Charges

The New York District Attorney is dropping charges against a woman accused of “self abortion” after a 24-week fetus was found in a dumpster. But that doesn’t mean they won’t continue pursuing the case. Via the AP: The Manhattan district attorney’s office said it was declining to prosecute Yaribely Almonte but continuing to investigate. Prosecutors [...]

Black Feminist Reflections on a Small Town SlutWalk

This past Saturday, while thousands of SlutWalkers took to the streets of New York, I attended my local SlutWalk, 840 miles away in Carbondale, Ill. I went to the anti-rape march not only because I am as a survivor of gender violence, a feminist and an anti-gender violence activist, but also because I was curious [...]

A Zero-Cost Way to Reduce Unintended Pregnancy

Today is World Contraception Day and many are writing about the challenges to birth control access, which are numerous, complex and vary from nation to nation. But researchers have recently identified a simple change that could make a significant difference in preventing unintended pregnancy here in the U.S. Most U.S. health insurance plans limit the [...]

Women Transcending Boundaries After 9/11

This will come as no surprise to the readers of Ms., but when women get together, boy can they get stuff done. This weekend in Syracuse, New York, a group called Women Transcending Boundaries (WTB) will host a variety of 9-11 commemoration events, including a memorial service, neighborhood trash pickups, clearing a walking trail and [...]

We Heart: Girl Crush Media

Did you know there are a lot of people talking about girl crushes? Before today, neither did we. I set out this morning to write about Got A Girl Crush (GAGC), a terrific new magazine dedicated entirely to, you guessed it, girl crushes. Loosely defined, a girl crush is when you fervently admire another woman [...]

New York City Mandates Comprehensive Sex Education in Public Schools

You have to hand it to New York City for doing the right thing(s) for sexual health and rights lately. First, the city passed a law mandating that crisis pregnancy centers, which use misinformation and ideology to misdirect women trying to make a life-changing decision, disclose whether or not they have medical staff and/or offer birth [...]

NEWSFLASH: Disclosure Law for Fake Clinics Blocked in NYC; Federal Law Against False Advertising Reintroduced

When last we spoke to New York City Council member Jessica Lappin, she felt confident that the truth-in-advertising bill she successfully proposed–which requires crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) to disclose whether they have licensed medical staff, among other things–would stand up to legal challenges. Unfortunately, Round One has gone to the CPCs, as federal judge William [...]

How to Win Gay Marriage—10 Lessons from New York

On Monday, June 13, I arrived in Albany for what turned into a two-week marathon. From the first day, when I and fellow advocates–I’m national campaign director of Freedom to Marry–made the recommendation to Governor Andrew Cuomo to move the marriage legislation forward, to last Friday night when I had the honor of standing behind [...]

Gay Marriage: Ready or Not, America, Here It Comes

June is almost at its end, which means that we’re coming to the close of June Bride month as well as June Pride Month. Thanks to the 33-29 passage of a gay marriage bill in New York this past Friday, the two have become rather synonymous for those lesbians (and gay men and other queer [...]

Live-Blogging Women’s History: March 14, 1916

March 14, 1916: The resilience of the suffrage movement was never more in evidence than today. Just over four months since the biggest setback in its 68-year history–when suffrage referenda in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts went down to defeat–the campaign is back on track. Today, the Assembly of the nation’s most populous [...]

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