We won’t go back. 

The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) as an anti-immigrant hate group. Here is a list of demands from FAIR’s 2005 wish list that has either been accomplished or is currently being proposed by the Trump administration:

Reduce overall levels of permanent legal immigration to 300,000 or less.

Limit annual refugees to no more than half of the total of the rest of the world combined in the previous year.

Repeal or reform Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

Make mandatory for all employers the use of the national electronic worker eligibility verification system.

Make deportation a meaningful deterrent, and impose criminal penalties against illegal aliens who return to the country after having been deported.

Freeze existing caps for all existing guest worker programs.

Provide ample detention space to ensure that all unlawful entrants who refuse repatriation to their home country, or whose home countries cannot be determined, remain in custody.

Repeal the visa waiver program.

Mandate state and local police cooperation with federal immigration authorities in enforcing laws against illegal immigration and penalize states and local jurisdictions that adopt non-cooperation “sanctuary” laws.

Increase alien detention capacity sufficient to credibly reduce and deter illegal immigration.

Expand expedited removal of terrorists, criminals and illegal aliens.

Eliminate dilatory and extraneous judicial review of deportation decisions that permit terrorists, [and] criminal and illegal aliens to indefinitely delay deportation. Prevent criminal or human rights-violating aliens from escaping deportation by claiming they will be “tortured.”

John Tanton founded FAIR — he is a white nationalist supporter of eugenics who is considered the father of the modern anti-immigrant movement and who once infamously warned of a Latino “onslaught.”

As Jeff Sessions mulls yet another investigation of Planned Parenthood, which has been subjected to 3 congressional investigations, 13 state investigations, and a Texas grand jury over a 2015 set of deceptively-edited videos, just a reminder: fetal tissue donation is not only legal, it is a social good. 

Can a baker refuse to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple? That’s what their lawyers will argue. Today the Supreme Court is hearing one of the biggest civil rights cases in years. We break it down on the Boom! Lawyered podcast:

“I’m proud to be a Black, Southern, queer, trans man who uses ‘he’ and ‘him’ pronouns, has had an abortion, and is currently preparing my body to get pregnant. That might sound like a lot to some people, but it’s me. I’m a unique mix of many identities that are often misunderstood, misrepresented, or even completely erased. After multiple decades fighting for self-determination and dignity, I’ve finally reached a point where I’m comfortable and proud of the way I carry those identities.

I am trans resilience. And now, I am preparing my body to transition again and be resilient to carry the next generation of resistance.”

Cazembe Murphy Jackson, embodying trans resilience

China Martens’ 90s zine for punk parents became the longest-running parenting zine in the US. In 2007, she published an anthology of The Future Generation, covering 16 years of her daughter’s life—from infancy to teens. Ten years later, Martens is out with the tenth-anniversary edition of the anthology with an afterword written by her daughter, now in her late 20s.

It’s true. We even have a Captain Abortion slackmoji we use for Jess. 

Though prominent anti-choice groups in Virginia use terms like “pro-life” and “pro-family” to describe their views, the organizations don’t devote much time or many resources to advocating for policies that promote the healthy lives of children and families living in the state. The Family Foundation of Virginia, Virginia First Foundation, and Virginia Society for Human Life, for example, either oppose or have no opinion on policies, such as Medicaid expansion, that would help Virginia families. They have also taken no action on some hazardous environmental policies that could endanger fetal health.

Olivia Gans Turner, president of the Virginia Society for Human Life (VSHL), told Rewire that her organization doesn’t take positions on issues outside of abortion, euthanasia, and protecting the rights of the disabled. “We are independent and nonsectarian,” she added, and endorse candidates with anti-abortion views regardless of party—although Turner acknowledges that this year they only endorsed Republicans (presumably through its political action committee).

Instead of seeking to help women and families, many of Virginia’s anti-choice groups remain focused on policies to restrict access to reproductive health care. The Family Foundation and VSHL supported a bill in 2017 that would have prohibited the state’s health department from entering into contracts with or giving grants to organizations that provide abortion, an apparent attempt to defund Planned Parenthood. The bill passed the House and Senate, but Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe vetoed the measure, citing concern that it would harm “tens of thousands of Virginians” that depend on Planned Parenthood for care. 

The medical profession, in general, responds to patients of color differently than whites. The assumption that Black people do not feel pain, medical experiments conducted on slaves, and immigrants being denied medical care or being deported while still in hospital beds are only a few examples of how racial biases have played out inside medical arenas.

Substantive due process, Satanists, and sex — strap in for another nerdy yet satisfying episode of Boom! Lawyered 

“Our Cheetoh-in-Chief has declared that, pretty much any employer, is free to mount moral, or religious objections to the birth control benefit in Obamacare, which remember, is still the law of the land. As a result, groups like the ACLU and the Center for Reproductive Rights, as well as states like Massachusetts and Washington, have all sued and said, ‘Hold up. You just can't declare a benefit, like comprehensive, and nondiscriminatory healthcare null and void, because you don't like the idea of people having sex, let alone having sex for fun.’ And yes, birth control is healthcare.” - Jessica Mason Pieklo, Rewire VP of Law and the Courts

“The religious right is basically turning the Handmaid’s Tale, which is fiction, into non-fiction. I mean, where's my bonnet? Do you have a bonnet, Jess?” - Imani Gandy, Rewire Senior Legal Analyst

Subscribe to Boom! Lawyered: “Accessible and insightful. I love everything about this show. It's the right mix of technical and easy to understand. You leave each episode with a much clearer understanding of the issues.”  

Hello,

I’m Katie. We crossed paths briefly earlier this year outside of the Feminist Women’s Health Center in Atlanta. I was the Black woman, in all black with my hair in a bun: as if I were dressed for a funeral and a fight.

I was afraid to walk past you, a large white man sporting a trucker hat and spewing hate through a megaphone.

“BABY KILLER!” “YOU’RE GOING TO HELL!” “BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS!”

Your companion, an older white woman with a kitten on her shirt, had a markedly different tone as she addressed patients.

“Please … please don’t kill your baby, ma’am. We can help.”

Do you practice this routine? Good cop, bad cop: the harassing strangers edition. Is it effective? Do you protest this clinic exclusively, or are you traveling propagandists?

As I got closer to you, you paused your chorus of general insults and dropped your megaphone to focus specifically on me: “You say ‘Black lives matter,’ and go kill your Black baby. Black lives matter more to me than they ever will to you.”

Fighting words—well-worn ones at that. Across the nation, your fellow anti-abortion protesters have tried to twist and contort the call to support Black lives into efforts to suppress Black autonomy.