‘Psychological terrorism': The war against reproductive rights in the US
As Donald Trump begins his second term as president, headlines focus on immigration, trade and free speech. But advocates warn of another front, a quieter campaign targeting reproductive rights and abortion.
Just years after the fall of Roe v Wade, critics say new policies signal a renewed push to erode reproductive freedom, especially for women of colour.
Is the Trump administration waging a quiet war on reproductive rights in the United States?
This week on UpFront, Redi Tlhabi speaks with Michele Goodwin, professor of constitutional law and global health policy at Georgetown University and author of Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
an hour ago
- Al Jazeera
Russia hits Ukraine with record 479-drone strike ahead of POW swap
Russia has launched 479 drones against Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the three-year war, according to the Ukrainian air force. The air force said early on Monday that it had downed 460 drones as well as 19 missiles launched overnight. Russia's continued to step up its drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, despite declaring, under pressure from United States President Donald Trump, that it is interested in pursuing peace talks. The record launch came just ahead of the start of a prisoner swap agreed at recent talks between the pair. Of the hundreds of projectiles fired at numerous targets, only 10 reached their destination, Kyiv officials said. One person was reported injured. Russia's escalation of aerial attacks has been matched by a renewed battlefield push in the eastern and northeastern parts of the roughly 1,000km (621-mile) front line in occupied parts of Ukraine. The onslaught follows a secretive Ukrainian drone attack that damaged several Russian bombers parked at airbases deep inside the country in what was an embarrassment for the Kremlin and, according to Kyiv, a palpable hit on its ability to strike across the border with missiles. Russia's Ministry of Defence said one target of Kyiv's strike was the Dubno airbase in Ukraine's Rivne region, which hosts tactical aviation aircraft. The mayor of the western city of Rivne, Oleksandr Tretyak, said the overnight drone launch was 'the largest attack' on his region since the start of the war. Late on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy conceded that in some areas targeted by the Russian offensive, 'the situation is very difficult'. However, he provided no details. Ukraine is shorthanded on the front line against its bigger enemy and needs further military support from its Western partners, especially air defences. However, uncertainty about the US policy has led to doubts about how much help Kyiv can count on. Two recent rounds of direct peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul have yielded no breakthroughs beyond pledges to swap thousands of prisoners, including dead and seriously wounded soldiers. Since the agreement, believed to concern an exchange of around 1,200 prisoners by each, was struck last week, the pair has accused one another of failing to meet their obligations. However, the first batch of POWs was repatriated on Monday afternoon. 'Today's exchange has begun. It will be done in several stages in the coming days,' Zelenskyy said on the Telegram app. 'Among those we are bringing back now are the wounded, the severely wounded, and those under the age of 25,' he added. The Russian defence ministry also said the first exchange had been carried out. It did not say how many prisoners had been swapped, but did note that the numbers on each side matched. The Russian Defence Ministry said on Monday that its forces shot down 49 Ukrainian drones overnight over seven Russian regions. Two drones hit a plant specialising in electronic warfare equipment in the Chuvashia region, located more than 600km (373 miles) east of Moscow, officials reported. Since the beginning of the war in 2022, Russia has targeted both military and civilian areas of Ukraine with Shahed drones. The attacks have killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations. However, Russia claims it attacks only military targets. Alexander Gusev, head of Russia's Voronezh region, said 25 drones had been shot down there overnight, damaging a gas pipeline and sparking a small fire. The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces also claimed that its special operations troops struck two Russian jets stationed at the Savasleyka airfield in Russia's Novgorod region, located some 650km (404 miles) from the Ukrainian border. The statement did not say how the planes were struck.
Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US and China to take second shot at averting trade war in London talks
High-level delegations from the United States and China are to meet in London to try to save a fragile tariffs deal and avert a possible trade war that has already roiled the global economy and sparked fears of recession. The meeting on Monday follows negotiations in Geneva last month that resulted in a temporary respite in the trade war between the world's two biggest economies. However, the agreement to suspend most of the 100 percent-plus tariffs each had imposed on the other for 90 days has been followed by barbs fired by both sides. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet with a Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier He Lifeng at an undisclosed location in the British capital. 'The meeting should go very well,' US President Donald Trump, who announced the talks on Friday after a phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, wrote on social media. 'We want China and the United States to continue moving forward with the agreement that was struck in Geneva,' White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Sunday. While the government of United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer reiterated that it was not involved in the talks in London, a spokesperson said, 'A trade war is in nobody's interests, so we welcome these talks.' The meeting comes just a few days after Trump and Xi held their first publicly acknowledged telephone call since the Republican returned to the White House in January. Trump said Thursday's call had reached a 'very positive conclusion'. The US president had previously accused China of violating the Geneva deal and described Xi as 'hard to make a deal with'. Xi was quoted by the state-run news agency Xinhua as saying 'correcting the course of the big ship of Sino-US relations requires us to steer well and set the direction'. Underscoring the impact of the trade war, customs data released on Monday showed Chinese exports to the US plunged by 34.5 percent year-on-year in May, the sharpest drop since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, stock markets in Asia, including in China, rose on Monday before the new round of talks.
Al Jazeera
5 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US travel ban takes effect amid LA protests against immigration crackdown
President Donald Trump's order banning citizens from 12 countries from entering the United States has come into effect amid rising political tensions over his administration's harsh anti-immigration policies. The measure, announced by Trump last week as necessary to prevent the importation of 'terrorists', took effect on Monday. The clampdown comes amid chaotic scenes on the streets of Los Angeles as crowds of protesters battled with police and National Guard troops following a wave of arrests by immigration authorities. The divisive order revives similar measures rolled out during Trump's first term, as travellers from several, mostly Muslim, countries were blocked from entering the US. Many of the countries affected by the new order are afflicted by war and large-scale displacement. No visible disruption was immediately discernible at Los Angeles International Airport in the hours after the new ban took effect, according to the Associated Press news agency. The order applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Chad, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, the Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Heightened restrictions were also placed on people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Trump said the countries subjected to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbour a 'large-scale presence of terrorists', fail to cooperate on visa security and have an inability to verify travellers' identities. These countries were also inadequate in keeping records of criminal histories and had high rates of visa overstays in the US, according to Trump. The new ban does not revoke visas previously issued to people from countries on the list, according to guidance issued on Friday to all US diplomatic missions. But it remains unclear how those rules will be implemented at the ports of entry. During Trump's first term, a similar travel ban resulted in confusion and disrupted travel. In announcing the new restriction last week, Trump said the measure was spurred by a recent 'terrorist attack' on Jewish people in the US state of Colorado. The group had been protesting in solidarity with captives held in Gaza when they were assaulted by an Egyptian man that the White House said had overstayed his visa. That attack, Trump said, 'underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted'. He warned that new countries could be added 'as threats emerge around the world'. Egypt is not among the states affected by the ban or increased scrutiny. Volker Turk, United Nations high commissioner for human rights, warned that 'the broad and sweeping nature of the new travel ban raises concerns from the perspective of international law'. The ban comes amid protests in the city of Los Angeles against immigration raids, carried out as part of Trump's hardline policy. Over the weekend, Trump ordered the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard to Los Angeles County to quell the protests, bypassing the authority of the governor of California and sending tensions spiking. Thousands of protesters flooded the streets in response on Sunday, blocking a major freeway and setting fire to cars. Law enforcement responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flashbangs in an effort to disperse the crowds. Early on Monday, authorities declared downtown Los Angeles an 'unlawful assembly' zone and ordered the area cleared. California Governor Gavin Newsom has formally requested that the Trump administration rescind the order deploying National Guard troops to the city. The order is believed to be the first time in 60 years that a president has deployed a state's National Guard without the governor's consent. The last instance was in 1965, when President Lyndon B Johnson used troops to protect predominantly Black demonstrators during the civil rights movement in Alabama. However, officials from the Trump administration, aware that aggressive immigration enforcement is popular among his base, have been eager to declare that they will clamp down on what they have labelled an 'insurrection' and 'migrant invasion'.
