The State of Women and Girls in America
Is Pretty F**king Bleak at the Moment
Hello! Welcome to the first WATCH YOUR BACK newsletter. It’s wonderful to see so many people willing to give my crazy experiment a try.
I’m sure it comes as no surprise to any of you that things are not looking great for the women and girls of America. I’m going to use this first issue to make sure we’re up to date on where we stand with reproductive rights.
WHAT DO OUR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS LOOK LIKE TODAY?
Our hope of a federal law supporting reproductive rights died with the Harris campaign, I’m sad to say. 7 states approved ballot measures protecting abortion access. Measures failed in 3 states (Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota). A full rundown can be found here.
As of today, 13 states have implemented near-total bans on abortion. Most allow exceptions only when the woman’s life is at risk. 29 states have laws that protect the right to abortion. Some of these states have enshrined abortion rights in their constitutions.
But even states that protect abortion rights don’t always make it easy to get one. 28 states have have varying restrictions based on gestational limits: 8 states ban abortion at or before 18 weeks. 20 states ban abortion at some point after 18 weeks.
9 states do not restrict abortion on the basis of gestational duration. The Guttmacher Institute makes this insane patchwork of laws easier to understand. The amazing map below is interactive on their site.
Over the past week, I’ve been forced to enlighten a few Trump voters who also voted to protect abortion access in their states: A future federal abortion ban will override any state protections. And now that the GOP controls the Supreme Court, the executive branch and both houses of Congress, a federal ban is a possibility. Sorry. It sucks even to write that.
“But Trump doesn’t care about abortion!” these women always shout. Yeah, probably not. But you know who does? Literally ever other f**ker in his administration, starting with JD Vance, who was vocal about his support for a national ban before it became a political liability.
But a federal ban will likely not be the zealots’ first move. Project 2025 makes it perfectly clear that their next steps will almost certainly be the following:
1) They will revoke FDA approval of mifepristone despite the fact that it has been proven to be safter than Advil (and much, much safer than Tylenol).
2) They will use an archaic law (the Comstock Act) to prevent abortion pills from being sent through the mail.
These two steps would effectively ban medication abortions—which now account for 63% of all abortions. The Trump administration does NOT need congressional approval to take either of these actions, so you can forget about John Thune protecting us. (That was a joke. He hates us, too. And yes, in case you were wondering, Project 2025 is now moving forward at full steam.)
Let’s be clear: abortion pills are the ONLY reason we have not heard more stories of women dying in places like Texas. (The stories we have heard have been absolutely heartbreaking.) The number of abortions in the US has actually risen since Dobbs—even in states with restrictions—thanks to mifepristone and the USPS. If we lose access to the pills, the number of deaths around the country is 110% certain to skyrocket. Here’s more on medication abortions if you’re interested.
So America just voted in an administration that’s totally down with killing women. (I have no f**king words for Texas.) Our country doesn’t GAF about us, right? I gotta admit, that was my feeling as well. But then I came across something interesting in an NYT article.
Seventy-three percent of independent voters who heard stories of near death from untreated pregnancy complications because of abortion bans “said abortion would impact their vote in the 2024 elections,” compared with 21 percent of those who hadn’t heard such stories, according to a report . . . (These were independents who said that abortion should be legal in some cases.) But the stories broke through unevenly: Only 16 percent of Republican voters heard them, [researchers] found.
Conservative media is not telling women’s stories, which means Independents and Republicans may simply not be hearing them. I think I’ll investigate this further, because this actually jibes with my experience arguing on social media with traitors women who vote against women’s interests. They tend to go eerily quiet when you send them links to the stories.
Obviously, our broken media is an enormous problem that I’m not going to solve this week. (Surprise!) But I thought it was worth pointing out that some voters might be ill-informed rather than completely callous and indifferent to women’s suffering. Cold comfort, I’m sure.
SO WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS THIS WEEK?
Recover. Give yourself some time. It’s rough being f**ked over by your fellow citizens.
Stop fighting back with facts. No one gives a damn about data points, and they don’t remember them anyway. Tell stories instead. Collect links—preferably to news sources that aren’t widely (and unfairly) seen as liberal propaganda. Share them whenever possible. YOU may be the only way your conservative friends and family members ever see this stuff.
Find out what our activists are planning for a possible abortion pill ban. (I think this may be the subject of my next newsletter.) How can you help—and how far are you willing to go?
A FEW MORE LINKS TO EXPLORE
How Do I Protect My Privacy If I’m Seeking an Abortion
How Project 2025 Seeks to Obliterate Abortion Access
OKAY, NOW I WANT TO TALK ABOUT SOMETHING EVEN WORSE.
What could possibly be worse than losing your rights, you ask? Four little words that might drive me to murder: YOUR BODY, MY CHOICE. I probably shouldn’t put this in writing, but if a kid ever says that to my daughter, I will find his dad and punch him right in the face.
Chart from Bloomberg Law
The phrase went viral when far-right influencer/Nazi/incel Nick Fuentes tweeted it after the election. It was picked up by young men online who turned social media into a battleground for days. Reports flooded in of girls and young women being harassed offline as well—most notably at school. How did these young boys latch on to something grown ass Nick the Nazi said? If you have a tween or teen son, you should ask him. He knows. You may be surprised to discover that your otherwise awesome kid has found himself lost in a swamp of online misogyny called the Manosphere. (If so, you are not alone. A similar discovery actually inspired the book I’m currently writing.)
The fact is, we are careening towards a gender cold war. All around the world, young men and women are moving farther apart politically. It’s no surprise, since they now inhabit radically different worlds online. The Guardian has a great article on the phenomenon, which includes this tidbit:
Prior to the 2024 US election, Hasan Doğan Piker, a YouTuber and video game streamer, warned that the Democratic party was falling behind the Republicans when it came to dominance of these online spaces. “If you’re a dude under the age of 30, and you have any hobbies, whether it be playing video games, working out or listening to a history podcast, every single facet of that is dominated by centre right … to Trumpian right,” he told the Pod Save America podcast.
Yup. And their parents often have no clue whatsoever.
Meanwhile, girls and women across America have been reading up on South Korea’s 4B Movement. Many women there have refused to date, marry, have sex or have children with men as a way of protesting the culture’s deeply ingrained misogyny. If you haven’t heard of 4B, please read up on it. This could very easily be our future.
The gender war is obviously a subject we’ll be exploring in depth going forward. It’s a perfect example of how misogyny, violence against women, and reproductive rights are all intricately linked. But I’ve hit my self-imposed word limit for the week. I’ll be back in your mailbox next Saturday. (Unless something HUGE happens. In which case, I probably won’t be able to resist reaching out earlier.)
SO WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT MISOGYNY THIS WEEK?
Ask the boys and young men in your life about the Manosphere. Here are a few names to drop: Nick Fuentes, Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson, Bronze Age Pervert, and Theo Von. Notice I didn’t include Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan is the very least of our worries, my friends.
Do a little Manosphere research. There’s tons of info out there. But here are some recent podcasts from Slate and The Guardian.
Ditto the 4B Movement
Make sure you and/or your daughters know how to respond to YOUR BODY, MY CHOICE. You decide what’s right for you or your kid, but I’m considering a can of bear spray.
BEFORE I GO, A FEW NOTES ON HOW THIS NEWSLETTER WILL WORK:
It’s free. Please share it. Please encourage others to subscribe. At some point I may let people donate a very small amount if I start spending too much time on it. But probably not for a while.
I am the world’s worst proofreader. Please ignore all tipos.
The newsletter will be sent to you on Saturdays. I may post stuff on the blog without sending it via email, so take a look once in a while.
Once the third newsletter is up, I’ll look into branching out into other subjects. If you’re interested, let me know in a couple of weeks! I would love to get LGBTQ rights, censorship, and Black/brown women covered ASAP.
I’m pretty good at hunting down national stories, but if there’s something happening in your city/state that I might not see, please send me a link!