Yesterday evening the House of Representatives passed the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” a ban on legal abortions 20 weeks or more after fertilization based on dubious evidence that fetuses can feel pain during the second trimester. Sound unconstitutional? That’s because it is ; courts have struck down similar state-wide bans in Arizona and Idaho (and temporarily delayed a similar measure in Georgia) based on Supreme Court [...]

*Trigger warning: This piece discusses sexual assault* You know what always gets the ladies in bed? Assaulting them. This is the guidance redditor Ken Hoinsky wants to offer to the world in his new book, Above the Game: A Guide to Getting Awesome with Women , for which he’s already raised nearly $16,000 on Kickstarter. Apparently the “game” of [...]

Do you think a fertilized egg is a human? Are you convinced abortion is murder? Support the righteous souls defending human dignity and the preciousness of life by purchasing an assault rifle. Personhood Ohio needs some extra cash for a mass mailing to promote (you guessed it) a personhood amendment on the Ohio ballot, but its traditional [...]

http://youtu.be/IGmocmwIIkM “Farah Goes Bang.” Dare to hope again : on incarceration and parenting. Paternity leave isn’t just about fathers. Reclaiming indigenous papahood. Blast from the very recent past: the Great Dad . Listen to a panel on labor and feminism moderated by Sarah Jaffe. RAINN praised the recent SCOTUS decision on DNA collection, but how will it affect people of color? A single bill could [...]

Feministe published a great piece by Harvard undergrad Anahvia Mewborn on 20 things never to tell a friend who has been assaulted. I don’t know about you, but I’ve definitely heard many of these before. Some highlights include:

2. “Was he DRUNK?” The emphasis on the “drunk” part comes off as though you believe there is no way [...]

http://youtu.be/ROofWOlXEPY Think Progress  has compiled the seven most sexist gun ads . Today is the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act. Why haven’t we closed the gap? The 10 best male rappers –written up as though they were female. The false paradox: freedom of expression and sexist hate speech . An illustrated guide to street harassment. Sesame Street offers a toolkit to explain incarceration to [...]

Which forms of violence are the U.S. military willing to recognize? An Air Force veteran and survivor of military sexual trauma (MST) has raised the question in an interview with USA Today .  Twenty years ago, an airman raped recent enlistee Lisa Wilken in her dorm room. When she reported the assault, though, military prosecutors discouraged her from [...]

Kind of. Clinton joined Twitter today, amassing over 70,000 followers in an hour. Her first and thus far only tweet ended “#tweetsfromhillary,” a clever nod to her own meme, but it’s her bio that caught our attention. If you have the chance to be the first female president but actually plan to spend the rest of your life [...]

Go Team Public Accountability! A new Tumblr, Make Me a Sandwich Bitch , is collecting some Twitter gems from dudes who want you to fulfill your womanly duty and put some food between two pieces of bread. Bitch. I have mixed feelings about the juxtaposition of sandwich tweets with evidence of the authors’ lackluster social lives (e.g. “watchin [...]

A series of Argentinian advertisements for sex workers’ rights has been making a small but well-deserved splash . Prostitution is legal in Argentina but brothels are not, and, without labor protections , sex workers are vulnerable to physical violence and economic exploitation. Commissioned by the Argentinian sex workers’ union, Asociación de Mujeres Meretrices de Argentina , the wheat paste ads cover the corners of [...]

http://youtu.be/rdyxEps1uXY Women and unions at the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act. Silence is a woman . The Lambda Literary Award winners have been announced. A high school valedictorian called out her school on its discrimination against Native Americans. A lot of people wrote a lot of things about the FLOTUS heckler conflict. Sontag is reborn ! Queers should care about sex offenders. Protesters across the country  demand accessible emergency contraceptives . SiriusXM dropped an anti-trans radio show. Bitch is pro-”Frances Ha.” [...]

Protests continue in Turkey. An NYU/UNM prof doesn’t want fat PhD students. Five reasons you should love Brittney Griner. A powerful narrative of responding to rape with power, not violence. Are you thinking of running for office ? Jessica on why we should stand up to misogynist trolls . The UChicago Clothesline Project was denied funding. Sign here to support their appeal. Why can’t Johnny [...]

March 18th or this year marked the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright , the Supreme Court decision that insisted all defendants have the right to representation by an attorney, regardless of their ability to pay. Half a century later, we’re still far from fulfilling Gideon’s promise. The failure of our criminal justice system is impossible to ignore in [...]

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) died early this morning at the age of 89. Think Progress has compiled a great list of ten of the World War II vet’s progressive triumphs. Some of his distinctly feminist achievements included:

4. Wrote the domestic violence gun ban to protect women and children by keeping spousal and child abusers from owning guns . Gun safety advocates are [...]

This is what Wikipedia says the apocalypse will look like. Where are all the Mean Feminist Mommies? Did you think only Fox News talking heads were freaking out about the rise of female breadwinners and the apocalypse their arrival foretells? Fear not! Lou Dobbs and his team of misogynists have plenty of company–including, as of this [...]

http://youtu.be/TqFaiVNuy1k Patrick Stewart answers a fan’s unexpected question. Sex workers engage in democratic political processes. Duh. It’s not just Facebook that has an online hate speech problem . Donate to Transgender Studies Quarterly. Jessica writes about #FBrape as a potential feminist tipping point at The Nation . A letter to the President on the anniversary of Dr. Tiller’s murder. Bye, Bachmann. A victim of the New [...]

Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency has debuted the second part of her “Tropes vs Women in Video Games” episode on damsels in distress. The script’s use of repetitive language is particularly powerful, exposing the unoriginality of misogynistic plots. Sarkeesian also does a good job of explaining how this violence affects our analog world for those disinclined to [...]

Rebecca Nagle of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture has a great post at Everyday Feminism about the challenges of publicly supporting survivors of sexual violence. She writes:

Currently, we have plenty of models for how individuals can support survivors of rape. Feminists have built and maintained crisis centers, hotlines, and emergency services. Anti-violence organizations have created excellent how-to’s and information guides for friends [...]

Mother Jones just posted some pretty startling infographics comparing the U.S. government and tech companies’ parental leave policies. The federal government doesn’t mandate any paid leave for new moms and dads, but corporations like Facebook, Instagram, and reddit are setting a new standard by offering all employees, regardless of gender, 17 weeks with their new baby. These three [...]