If you are in political/advocacy comms, this is a must read. Tl;dr: polling is a tool to help us bring people along, NOT a tool that should dictate our stances. www.weekendreading.net/p/bringing-a...

These “creeps” wouldnt be in office if we had spent $30m to kick em out of office instead of passing a constitutional right to allow govt to interfere in pregnancy. Victim narrative is so tired. When will we fight smart?

Today, Planned Parenthood's CEO confirmed the organization considered a plan that would have allowed some affiliates to stop providing abortion care to preserve Medicaid eligibility, as Autonomy News reported in June. The organization previously called our reporting "false" and "misleading."

When people ask me why I don’t like living in KC. It’s the lack of nuance - the basic bish of it all - in the culture of this city. Exhibit:

Ezra Klein is really out here making it seem like whiteness is some intellectually crippling shit.

"Trump is attempting a fascist power grab, out in the open, for all the world to see — and Democratic leaders and their wonks don’t feel like it’s worth their time to even warn the public about what Trump is doing..." www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

🚨By a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court ALLOWS states to defund Planned Parenthood, holding that Medicaid does not give patients a right to obtain care from its providers. All three liberals dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

6/21, Los Angeles: A neighborhood volunteer documenting ICE was stopped by agents in an unmarked car, surrounded, and threatened by masked agents while they filmed him on their phones.

I wish there was this kind of explicit and direct anger about implicit personhood laws being pushed in abobo rights policies.

Delighted to be a part of the Supermajority Ed Fund's speaker panel on 6/11 with @bonyenleegilmore.bsky.social @msfchoice.bsky.social @sharkfu.bsky.social. Join us for a deep dive into what's happening in clinics, courtrooms, and medical school classrooms around the country. mobilize.us/s/C4U9so

There have been weak and wrong takes about MO’s abortion legal battles. But this is not one of them. Read👇👇👇👇

ICE made up lies about gang affiliation so that they could terrorize a child's birthday party. newrepublic.com/post/196138/...

Yassssssssss!!!!!! This is so necessary. So relevant. So amazing. Congrats @garnethenderson.com and @susanrinkunas.com

How much more data/evidence do people need before they accept that ballot measures as a tactic without any real long-term strategy to change power DOES NOT WORK?

I get that there's a lot of anger around the Georgia woman being kept on life support while pregnant, but for the sake of her family and friends, can we agree to stop referring to her as a "corpse"

And to some folks in Missouri, this outcome was entirely predictable: missouriindependent.com/2025/05/21/d...

As a founding member of What's Next 4 MO, I'm grateful to @melissagiragrant.com to telling the full story of what happened and the continued fallout in our state. We believe people deserve to know so costly mistakes don't happen again.

"I tried to book an appointment at the Columbia clinic, where, she said, 'almost everybody' was able to get one. But there were none online, and there were none when I called. The receptionist suggested I go to Kansas."

“If you draw a line in the law, the state is going to police that line. That leads to surveilling, investigating, and ultimately punishing pregnant people.”

To quote the Art of War (bc this is a war against fascism) “tactics without strategy is noise before defeat”. There’s a lot of noise in Missouri rn. My latest column:

It is f*cked that in all the performative outrage over HJR73, trans care, WHICH IS ALSO TARGETED, is nowhere to be mentioned. Not even from the trans rights advocacy group. www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/planned-pare...

HJR73 has no path to victory at the ballot box. It’s a messaging bill for anti-abortion R’s. It’s a fundraising bill for pro-abortion grifters. Keep organizing. Don’t get distracted.

It's important to center humans impacted by really harmful abortion policy campaigns. @amylittlefield.bsky.social brilliantly does this while exploring an important reckoning in our work to secure reproductive justice. READ HERE: www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Right by You is a small grassroots org taking on Goliath for the protection of young abortion patients. Support them now! secure.actblue.com/donate/right...

Anyone interested in supporting Right By You can donate at this link! secure.actblue.com/donate/right...

Right by You is also a member of the What's Next coalition, a group of activists and organizations that wanted more from the ballot measure in the first place, and have criticized Planned Parenthood's lawsuit for not challenging all the state's restrictions: missouriindependent.com/2024/11/25/r...

NEW: Right By You, a youth-focused abortion access organization, is filing a lawsuit to challenge the Missouri laws that require parental involvement in abortion decisions for young people and ban helping young people access abortion (referred to as "abortion trafficking" in the law).

New from me—Missouri voters added a reproductive freedom amendment to their constitution in November. It has no age limits on whose rights to abortion it protects. But so far, young people have been left out. Until this new legal challenge, just filed today:

A reproductive health care nonprofit filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to overturn Missouri’s law requiring minors to get parental approval before getting an abortion. #moleg #mogov

A Missouri group that helps young people with pregnancy decisions is suing the state over a parental consent law for minors seeking abortions—they argue it's unconstitutional under Amendment 3. Planned Parenthood affiliates chose not to challenge this law. via @missouriindependent.com

Abortion funds show up for people. We must show up for them. Support @moabortionfund.bsky.social as they deal with this burdensome court mess and targeting by the Attorney General: fund.nnaf.org/campaign/mis...

Hailey entered foster care when she was 2. She got pregnant at 15, and after being denied an abortion, became determined to keep her baby from repeating the traumatic childhood she experienced. But Hailey says the state has seemed just as determined to keep her from raising her baby. #moleg

This is a heart-wrenching example of the impossible situations young pregnant Missourians face. Barriers to abortion, punished for pregnancy, and harassed for parenting. missouriindependent.com/2025/04/28/m...

I don’t know why anyone calls this a “power grab”. Republicans hold the SUPERMAJORITY in #moleg. This is a logical conclusion of skipping power change strategies and going straight to tactics ($30m for a ballot measure). www.ksdk.com/article/news...

I’m more confused by dems’ pearl clutching over HJR73 than I am at HJR73. This is predictable. Ya shouldve thought about this when u blew $30m on an abortion ballot instead of flipping seats first. #modems #moleg www.missourinet.com/2025/04/17/m...

On April 30, Nevada’s decades-old parental notification law will go into effect, requiring parents & guardians of minors be involved in their abortion decisions.

Also, abortion providers in MO cutoff care at 12 weeks and calling it a win. So?????? Im so confused as to who needs to be protesting whom?

I find it laughable that there are certain repro orgs in MO performing outrage over the 12 wk abortion ban, when just 2 years ago, they were writing ballot language for a 16-18 week ban. The adulting it takes not to drop screenshots right now.

Bottom line tl;dr of it all: if we want to halt 🛑 pregnancy criminalization, we have to stop 🛑 passing ballot measures that codify fetal personhood at viability or any other time in pregnancy.

Hearing that a bill to repeal the 1911 Nevada law this woman was charged under is being tabled thanks to pressure from reproductive rights groups. If you have information to share, please contact me on Signal at susanrinkunas.73

NEW from me: When states ban abortion, they make it harder for doctors to even learn how to perform it. Now, a small but growing number of doctors are leaving the US to learn to become abortion providers. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

There’s an important connection not named in this story: these are in essence personhood bills. It can only be murder if the embryo or fetus is a person.

This session alone, 10 states have tried or are currently trying to classify having an abortion as homicide. In most of these states, individuals found guilty of murder can be eligible for the death penalty. Whether these bills pass immediately isn't the point—it's about shifting the Overton window:

Three criminal cases relating to pregnancy outcomes and abortion in one week. This isn’t misuse of the law or rogue cops. This is PERSONHOOD - fetal rights in play. It’s actually…the law.

Angry Dems: start looking at the Dem adjacent orgs that endorsed, endorse, and have plans to endorse (i.e. send money) to these feckless f*cks. For ex. Emily's List and others who could be primary-ing incumbents but won't, b/c they are extension of the Dems. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

If/when dems ever get it together and get their power back, I better see them arresting proud boys off the streets and sending them to Russia. Nothing less for my support.

Personhood: grants embryos, fetuses, and zygotes equal protection and rights from conception to later in pregnancy. @andreagonram.bsky.social does a great explainer. 👇🏼https://www.thecut.com/article/why-fetal-personhood-bills-are-flooding-state-legislatures.html

Primary this man

Reporters, go ask the The Fairness Project ("the largest abortion ballot measure fund") if they're coming back to MO to help us fight this. I'll wait. missouriindependent.com/2025/03/05/a...