Tag Archives: Women’s Issues

Minnesota Dems Set Bar for State Legislatures, Passing Nearly Every Item on ‘Transformational’ Agenda

“The work we’ve done over the last five months will make a generational impact on our state—it will lower costs, improve lives, and cut child poverty,” said Gov. Tim Walz.

By Julia Conley. Published 5-23-2023 by Common Dreams

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz hugs students at Webster Elementary School in Minneapolis on March 17, 2023 after signing a law that makes school meals free for all public and charter school students. (Photo: @GovTimWalz/Twitter)

Progressives are applauding what Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman called the state’s “transformational” legislative session, which ended on Tuesday after the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party passed nearly every item on its agenda, securing economic justice, reproductive rights, and labor protections for Minnesotans.

With the DFL holding only a narrow majority in the state House and Senate—a six-vote and one-vote margin, respectively—policy researcher Will Stancil said on social media that “the scale of their achievement cannot be overstated.”

Continue reading
Share Button

Texas GOP On Verge of ‘Egregious Power Grab’ to Crush Local Democracy, Critics Warn

House Bill 2127 “is undemocratic,” said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg. “It is probably the most undemocratic thing the Legislature has done, and that list is getting very long.”

By Kenny Stancil. Published 5-16-2023 by Common Dreams

Gallery View of House of Representatives Chamber, Texas State Capitol. Photo: Randy von Liski/flickr/CC

Republican state lawmakers in Texas are on the verge of virtually eliminating the ability of Democratic-led cities and counties to enact progressive policies.

At issue is House Bill 2127, which would prohibit municipalities from instituting new local ordinances that go further than what’s already permitted under nine broad areas of state law and also overturn existing regulations that do so, thus preempting democratically elected policymakers from strengthening workers’ rights, environmental protection, and more.

Continue reading
Share Button

Erdoğan’s Hold on Power in Question as Votes Counted in Turkey

Neither the incumbent nor his main rival has secured the majority of votes needed to avoid a runoff election in two weeks.

By Kenny Stancil. Published 5-14-2023 by Common Dreams

National Election Campaign Banner for PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan.. Photo: Adam Jones/flickr/CC

Whether Turkey’s authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, maintains power remains an open question as officials continue to count votes following Sunday’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

Tens of millions of people cast ballots in the pivotal election before polls closed at 5:00 pm local time. Preliminary results indicate that Erdoğan of the right-wing Justice and Development Party (AKP) holds a dwindling lead over Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who heads the center-left Republican People’s Party (CHP) and is the joint candidate of a six-party opposition coalition.

Continue reading
Share Button

What’s at stake for women in Turkey’s election

Feminist groups tell of increasingly hostile environment under Erdoğan – but say opposition doesn’t go far enough

By Jessie Williams Published 5-12-2023 by openDemocracy

We Will Stop Femicides group at the Labour Day protests in Istanbul | We Will Stop Femicides


“It will be like the Taliban regime,” says Melek Önder, asked what will happen to women’s rights if Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is re-elected as president of Turkey in the election on Sunday.

Önder is a spokesperson for We Will Stop Femicides (Kadin Cinayetlerini Durduracagiz), one of the most active groups in Turkey’s women’s movement. The platform was founded in 2010 after Cem Garipoğlu, 17, murdered his girlfriend Münevver Karabulut, also 17. It collects data on femicides and campaigns against violence against women.

Continue reading
Share Button

North Dakota GOP Approves Near-Total Abortion Ban After Rejecting Free School Lunches

“Mandating birth is state responsibility. Helping feed those kids is not,” is how Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom summarized the Republican position.

By Kenny Stancil. Published 4-25-2023 by Common Dreams

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. Photo: North Dakota National Guard/flickr/CC

Republican Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota on Monday signed one of the nation’s most draconian abortion bans into law, just weeks after the state’s GOP lawmakers shot down a proposal to provide free school lunches to low-income students.

The new forced pregnancy law, which takes immediate effect, prohibits abortion care in nearly all cases. Abortion is allowed in cases of rape or incest, but only during the first six weeks of pregnancy—before many people realize they are pregnant. Abortion is also allowed without gestational limits if terminating a pregnancy could prevent the pregnant person’s “death or a serious health risk.”

Continue reading
Share Button

‘Can’t Win, So They Cheat’: GOP Tries to Keep Abortion Rights Off Ballot After Big Losses

“Republican lawmakers pushing these efforts want 41% of voters to block ballot initiatives that 59% of voters support. This is not democracy.”

By Jake Johnson. Published 4-24-2023 by Common Dreams

Stop Abortion Bans Rally in St. Paul, Minnesota on May 21, 2019. Photo: Fibonacci Blue/flickr/CC

Last year, after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal right to abortion, voters in Kansas, California, Michigan, Vermont, Kentucky, and Montana used the ballot initiative process to show their support for reproductive freedom, both by defeating GOP-backed anti-abortion measures and approving constitutional amendments aimed at preserving abortion access.

Those losses for anti-abortion Republicans and their wealthy backers have led the party to ramp up its attacks on the ballot initiative process itself in several states.

Continue reading
Share Button

Abortion Rights Supporters Protest at US Supreme Court, Nationwide

From Florida and Texas to California and Illinois, demonstrators marched with chants like, “Red state, blue state, you can’t hide, the war on abortion is nationwide,” and “Fascist judges make me ill, hands off the abortion pill.”

By Jessica Corbett Published 4-16-2023 by Common Dreams

Lobby Day protest in Texas. Photo: Karthik Soora/Twitter

As legal fights raise concerns about the future accessibility of the abortion medication mifepristone, reproductive rights supporters on Saturday rallied outside the U.S. Supreme Court and in cities across the country.

The demonstrations came a day after the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked a recent ruling by Texas-based federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump who struck down the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2000 approval of mifepristone, one of two drugs often taken in tandem for abortions.

Continue reading
Share Button

Oxfam Shows US Billionaires Almost a Third Richer Today Than When Covid Hit

“At a time when the ultrawealthy are amassing historic and dangerous levels of wealth, a federal wealth tax offers a vital and necessary tool for directly redressing extreme wealth inequality.”

By Brett Wilkins. Published 4-14-2023 by Common Dreams

Protest to tax the rich stop cuts in social programs in St. Paul, Minnesota on April 15, 2011. Photo: Fibonacci Blue/flickr/CC

As the deadline for Americans to file federal income tax returns fast approaches, Oxfam America on Friday renewed calls for taxing the ultrarich while publishing an analysis showing America’s growing number of billionaires saw their wealth increase by nearly one-third since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and by nearly 90% over the past decade.

“Wealth inequality in the U.S. is more extreme and dangerous than income inequality; and we need to change our approach, so we effectively tax wealth as well as income,” the charity said in an introduction to the report, Tax Wealth, Tackle Inequality.

Continue reading
Share Button

Florida 6-Week Abortion Ban Heading to Desk of Ron DeSantis, Likely 2024 GOP Contender

“Women have been stripped of their rights and access to lifesaving healthcare,” warned one Democratic lawmaker. “Women will undoubtedly die. This is not freedom.”

By Brett Wilkins.  Published 4-13-2023 by Common Dreams

Governor Ron DeSantis speaking with attendees at the 2022 Student Action Summit at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida. Photo: Gage Skidmore/flickr/CC

 EDITORS NOTE: The bill was signed last evening.

Reproductive rights defenders on Thursday braced for a near-total abortion ban in Florida as Republican state lawmakers sent legislation outlawing the medical procedure after six weeks to governor and likely GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis‘ desk for his all-but-certain signature.

S.B. 300 passed in the Florida House of Representatives by a 70-40 vote largely along party lines after approval by the GOP-controlled Senate earlier this month. If signed into law as anticipated, the legislation will replace an existing 2022 Florida law prohibiting abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with a six-week ban containing exceptions for victims of rape, incest, or human trafficking; in cases of fatal fetal abnormalities; or to save the pregnant person’s life.

Continue reading
Share Button

15 Million People Could Lose Coverage as Nightmarish Medicaid ‘Purge’ Begins

“I feel sick,” said one physician. “Medicaid is not enough: we need seamless, lifelong universal care now.”

By Jake Johnson.  Published 4-1-2023 by Common Dreams

Image: CC

Beginning on Saturday, states across the U.S. will start the process of stripping Medicaid coverage from millions of people as pandemic-related protections lapse, part of a broader unraveling of the safety net that was built to help families withstand the public health crisis and resulting economic turmoil.

Medicaid’s continuous coverage requirements were enacted early in the Covid-19 pandemic to help vulnerable people maintain insurance amid the health emergency, resulting in record-high Medicaid enrollment.

Continue reading
Share Button