Why the anti-trans movement is inseparable from the anti-abortion movement

The transphobes who put a target on the back of Nex Benedict, who was beaten to death, are a threat to everyone

Chrissy Stroop
22 February 2024

In the United States, as in the United Kingdom, there are some self-identified liberals and leftists who insist on pitting cisgender women’s rights against trans rights, baselessly arguing that draconian discrimination against transgender people is necessary to “protect women and girls”.

As a transgender American woman, the willingness of such people to partner with right-wingers to put a target on my back is bewildering and painful. The fact is, after all, that trans people suffer violence disproportionately. Just this month, in fact, a non-binary, Native American teenager, Nex Benedict, was beaten to death by other students in a school bathroom in Oklahoma, and the school administration didn’t even call an ambulance to try to save them.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/trans-rights-abortion-rights-america-adf-chrissy-stroop-nex-benedict/


The Supreme Court Ruling the Right Is Using to Eradicate Transgender People

The high court’s infamous abortion decision is now being wielded against gender-affirming care—in the first of many attacks on our rights to come.

Zane McNeill, New Republic
February 14, 2024

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with its now infamous ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the adverse disruptions to both the legal landscape of abortion and the quality of life of both abortion-seekers and pregnant patients across the country were nearly immediate. But the dystopia of the Dobbs holding isn’t limited to reproductive freedoms—it has also endangered other constitutional privacy matters that determine the right to purchase and use contraception, the right of same-sex intimacy and marriage, and the right to marry across racial lines. However, what’s become clear is that the far right intends to test the judicial system for future breaches by first targeting transgender people’s access to gender-affirming care.

Continued: https://newrepublic.com/article/178681/dobbs-ruling-war-trans-community


Canada – Right-wing extremism is connected to being anti-choice – but we can win on abortion rights

As we see the growing restriction of abortion in the US, it is important that we remain vigilant of a growing anti-choice movement on the right.

by Joyce Arthur, rabble.ca
February 8, 2024

Canada has done well without any abortion law or restrictions since 1988, leaving abortion care under the same medical regulations as other healthcare. Indeed, abortion care follows the same pattern around the world regardless of law – people who want abortions have them as early as possible, while a small number of later abortions will always be needed for compelling social or medical reasons. Laws trying to regulate abortion are redundant and restrictions are harmful.

Abroad, Canada has a reputation as a socially liberal western democracy that guarantees reproductive rights and minority rights such as for gender expansive people. The Liberal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a self-declared feminist foreign policy and has often spoken out in favour  of abortion rights.

Continued: https://rabble.ca/health/right-wing-extremism-is-connected-to-being-anti-choice-but-we-can-win-on-abortion-rights/


We Must Fight for Abortion and LGBTQ Rights—and Our Own Bodies

The right to bodily autonomy is sacrosanct, whether you’re someone who needs an abortion, gender-affirming care, or simply want to live your truth openly.

Martha Plimpton
Sep. 21, 2023

It’s been more than a year since Roe v. Wade was struck down, and abortion rights are clearly in a dire crisis. Fifteen states have total abortion bans in effect and two others have six-week bans. Most of the Southeast and Midwest are now abortion deserts and pregnant people are forced to travel hundreds, even thousands, of miles to access abortion care.

I’ve watched the escalating attacks on abortion rights with a mix of horror and outrage. I’ve had more than one abortion in my life, and for a variety of reasons—because I was too young to have kids, or not in a stable relationship, or as a result of illness and complications early on. Each time I made that decision, I was sure it was the right one for me and I was fortunate to have access to the care that I needed. I’m not ashamed of my abortions—I’m grateful.

Continued: https://www.thedailybeast.com/martha-plimpton-we-must-fight-for-abortion-and-lgbtq-rightsand-our-own-bodies


Why Do Conservatives Attack Abortion and Trans Rights in the Same Ways?

Sept. 21, 2023
By Jennifer Finney Boylan

We were at the sinks in the ladies room, the stranger and I, washing our hands, when a trans woman came out of a stall, looked in the mirror and sighed. After she left, the stranger turned to me and said: “Can you believe that? A man, in here!” She shook her head disapprovingly.

This was 20 years ago, but I’ve never forgotten that stranger’s disdain. It has stayed with me, because the moment called for me to respond to her with courage. What I delivered instead was cowardice.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/21/opinion/abortion-trans-rights-republicans.html


‘Death Star law’ to abortion: the new rightwing laws taking effect in Texas

Hundreds of new state laws come into effect on 1 September, including attacking trans rights, further limiting abortion and pushing back climate efforts

Ed Pilkington
Fri 1 Sep 2023

On Friday, the Republican-controlled legislature in Texas will dump an avalanche of virulent new laws on the state’s 30 million residents, cementing its reputation as a hotbed of the far-right turmoil that is sweeping America.

Hundreds of laws will come into effect as the product of the legislative session that Texas holds every two years. Among them are a number of highly controversial targeted bills that will have a seismic impact on some of the most vulnerable Texan communities.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/01/texas-new-laws-republican-legislature


How South Carolina’s abortion law sounds to transgender men

South Carolina Public Radio | By Scott Morgan
August 29, 2023

For gender-expansive people in general, and for transgender men in particular, South Carolina’s ban on most abortions after six weeks raises scary questions. Chief among those is one Matthew Ward asks: Who is in charge of our bodies?

“Who gets to decide what we can and cannot do?” asks Ward, a transgender man in his mid-20s. “This sort of legislation is trying to take bodily autonomy away from people, and being trans sort of relies on bodily autonomy. It's part of the same problem.”

Continued: https://www.southcarolinapublicradio.org/sc-news/2023-08-29/how-south-carolinas-abortion-law-sounds-to-transgender-men


USA – The next wave of abortion rights ballot measures looks different from the last

How the tactics and arguments are changing ahead of 2024.

By Rachel M. Cohen
Jul 12, 2023

Last election cycle, abortion rights won in all six states with abortion ballot measures, including in red states like Kentucky and Montana that otherwise elected Republican lawmakers.

Now, this fall and in next year’s election, national liberal groups are planning to invest more heavily in ballot measure campaigns, seeing them as vehicles both to protect access to abortion care and to amplify their broader political message that abortion bans are out of step with voters.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/policy/23784409/abortion-ballot-measure-ohio-reproductive-rights-2024


Abortion laws are driving academics out of some U.S. states—and keeping others from coming

Laws related to LGBTQ+ issues and diversity are also at play

11 JUL 2023
by Katie Langin

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in June 2022, Alesha Thayer sat down with her husband and worked out a plan to leave the state where she has been a faculty member for more than 5 years. Abortions had immediately become outlawed there, and Thayer, who has experienced miscarriages and complicated pregnancies and hopes to grow her family, feared the new legal landscape would limit her reproductive autonomy and the care she could receive. “We just can’t be here anymore,” the physical scientist says. (Thayer is not her real name; Science granted anonymity to multiple sources for this story so they could speak candidly.)

Thayer is not alone. “I have a lot of friends who are in the same boat … trying to get out,” she says. Department chairs in states that have restricted abortion or adopted other conservative initiatives targeting transgender rights or diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts have started to receive resignation notices, a Science investigation has found. “We lost one faculty member who was ready to leave Texas, and two others we retained acknowledged that they were exploring other schools due to frustration with Texas politics,” said a chair in the state, which allows its citizens to sue anyone who assists an abortion and passed a law last month banning university DEI initiatives.

Continued: https://www.science.org/content/article/abortion-laws-are-driving-academics-out-some-u-s-states-and-keeping-others-coming


As Many as 16% of People Having Abortions Do Not Identify as Heterosexual Women

LGBTQ+ Patients Face Overlapping Barriers to Care

Doris W. Chiu, Emma Stoskopf-Ehrlich, Rachel K. Jones, Guttmacher Institute
June 14, 2023

At a time when conservative state policymakers are launching coordinated attacks on reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, data on the intersecting identities targeted by these types of legislation are especially important. Prior research has found that there is diversity in sexual orientation and gender identity among people who have abortions in the United States.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/2023/06/many-16-people-having-abortions-do-not-identify-heterosexual-women