Allison Fine wrote a passionate column in defense of reproductive rights in which she quoted the civil rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer: “Nobody’s Free Until Everybody Is Free.”

No one is free in America today because millions of people have lost the national guarantee of the power to control if and when they have children.

But the barbaric treatment of pregnant people, and the ongoing harassment and death threats against clinicians, isn’t the end of our story, it is the beginning of a new chapter. Our job is to keep getting up, and to keep showing up, just like Fannie Lou.

Fine describes a growing ecosystem that is growing up to provide help to women who seek abortion services, including take health consultations and abortion pills by mail.

She writes that the nation is in a state of “legal chaos” as a result of the Supreme Court decision that overturned…

You just don’t realize how many bigots there are in the world until something like the Respect For Marriage Act (RFMA) comes up.  Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed this bill that would require the federal government to recognize the validity of same-sex marriages in the U.S.  In my opinion, the bill doesn’t go far enough, but that’s a discussion for another day.  Suffice it to say that I fully support the RFMA and am only saddened by the fact that we need to pass a law to give people the right to be who they are, to love whomever they choose.  Like everything else, there is a political divide on this issue, but nonetheless, 47 Republicans in the House actually voted for the bill, and at least four Republican senators have expressed that they will vote for it when it reaches the Senate floor.

Wouldn’t you know…