As The World Turns

tHERSday thoughts

While we fight for the rule of law, oppose the tyranny and authoritarianism at large, other issues continue to arise that demand our attention, particularly as the Administration chips away at equal rights for women and LGBTQ. Three recent notable decisions affecting women’s rights – and therefore the health and well-being of the community at large – address abortion rights, workplace harassment, and DEI.

Here’s the Thersday roundup:

Abortion rights. The Montana Supreme Court upheld a 2024 decision striking down three restrictive abortion laws enacted in 2021. Those laws prohibited abortions after 20 weeks and imposed other requirements including a 24-hour waiting period and giving patients the option either to view an ultrasound or hear the fetal heart tone, and forbade telehealth abortion medication prescriptions. As the cases wound its way through the judicial process, Montana voters enshrined abortion rights in the Montana Constitution. In upholding the constitutional right to privacy in abortion cases, the Montana Supreme Court declared:

“Until a fetus is viable and able to survive outside the womb, the right of personal autonomy belongs to the person on whose body the fetus depends …. In contrast, we find no legal authority for the idea that the State’s interest in preserving fetal life, or the fetus’s right to life, takes precedence over all constitutional protections and dignities of the mother.”

Workplace harassment and #MeToo. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s unlikely you haven’t heard of the dueling lawsuits between actress Blake Lively and her co-star Justin Baldoni. She has alleged a panoply of wrongdoing which centers around his (alleged) workplace sexual harassment. He responded with his own far-ranging complaint alleging her interference with his livelihood by virtue of her defamatory public airing of these harassment claims. It’s a regrettable, but not unusual tactic meant to exert power and bully a victim into recanting.