‘Care Is a Political Act’: MADRE’s Global Legacy of Organizing and Solidarity

4/18/2025
by Eleanor J. Bader

In the mid-1980s, neither Amnesty International nor Human Rights Watch considered rape a weapon of war or categorized sexual assault as a violation of human rights. But MADRE did. The 40-year-old, U.S.-based global feminist organization helped correct these egregious omissions.

The group’s legacy includes numerous other accomplishments: MADRE was one of the first domestic organizations to partner with international LGBTQ+ and Indigenous activists and was one of the first to analyze foreign policy through a feminist lens.

Continued; https://msmagazine.com/2025/04/18/care-is-a-political-act-madres-global-legacy-of-organizing-and-solidarity/

The Cost of Legalizing Abortion in Haiti

Legalization may occur in June 2024, but advocates say the new penal code would undermine any actual progress if enacted unconstitutionally.

ALMA BEAUVAIS
Aug 8, 2023

Katiana Pierre was about four months pregnant when she discovered that she was expecting. The 24-year-old mother of three said that when her belly started to show, the lady providing her and her children with shelter in exchange for labor kicked them out. The pregnancy meant too many mouths to feed.

A few months earlier, on July 8, 2022, gang members fatally shot Katiana’s husband as the family tried to escape a territory war that erupted in Cite Soleil, a highly impoverished commune in Haiti controlled by armed criminals. The same men then tortured and sexually assaulted Katiana in front of her kids. Two months later, Katiana was yet again sexually assaulted as she roamed the streets begging for money to feed her children.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/abortion-in-haiti-challenges/