Recently, the ultra-conservative 8th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated an involuntary manslaughter charge against a Native woman from Sisseton, South Dakota. That charge is based on allegations that she ingested illegal drugs while pregnant, resulting in the death of her newborn. Jessica Mason Pieklo and Imani Gandy explain why this decision is an alarming escalation of the anti-choice efforts to establish fetal personhood and punish people for their pregnancy outcomes.
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We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
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