For the third time, Louisiana legislators voted against adding a rape exception to the state's 2022 abortion ban, one of the harshest in the country.
The overpolicing of women's bodies always has a disproportionate impact on Black women, and abortion bans are no exception.
Amari Marsh spent 22 days at the Orangeburg-Calhoun Regional Detention Center and an additional 13 months under house arrest in South Carolina after being charged with murder/homicide following her early labor in 2023.
Abortion and reproductive rights are tops on the minds of Black women as anti-abortion groups fight to restrict access, according to a new In Our Own Voice survey.
“Everybody wants the same access,” said Nalah Lewis, Georgia organizer with Planned Parenthood Votes.
Black women, despite being one of the most politically active groups in the country, hold less than 5% of state legislative seats nationwide, meaning their voices are largely excluded from policy discussions.
For many young Black women, this school year also comes with a different level of uncertainty following the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court earlier this year.
For some young people, political engagement goes beyond abortion, as a spring 2022 Harvard poll found that about half of young people think the country is on the wrong track.
VP Kamala Harris called it "an important step in safeguarding access to reproductive health care for women across the country."
The vice president noted the intersection between states denying bodily autonomy and those restricting access to the ballot.
While the entire Netflix series is an eye-opening discussion, Episode Four, entitled "Control," is about the fight for women's rights in the 1970s. Part of that battle gave the nation the decision in Roe establishing that there was a constitutionally protected right to privacy that covered abortion.
