Carrie N. Baker

On Friday, Oct. 25, at Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, President Joseph Biden delivered a formal apology on behalf of the United States to an assembly of Native American leaders for the genocidal impact of 150 years of U.S. Indian boarding schools, which sought to erase Indigenous people, culture and languages. “I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we did,” said President Biden. “It’s long overdue.” This apology came as a result of years of work by Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo. The U.S. Department of the Interior oversees U.S. relations to American Indians, Native Alaskans and Native Hawaiians.

On Friday, Oct. 25, at Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, President Joseph Biden delivered a formal apology on behalf of the United States to an assembly of Native American leaders for the genocidal impact of 150 years of U.S. Indian boarding schools, which sought to erase Indigenous people, culture and languages.

On Friday, Oct. 25, at Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, President Joseph Biden delivered a formal apology on behalf of the United States to an assembly of Native American leaders for the genocidal impact of 150 years of U.S. Indian boarding...

In November 2022, a group of anti-abortion doctors and a dentist filed a lawsuit in Amarillo, Texas, challenging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone in 2000. They asked the court to ban the medication nationwide. In their complaint, the plaintiffs argued that the FDA rushed approval of mifepristone in the 1990s under pressure from Democrats and abortion rights supporters and that the medication is unsafe for women. As a reporter for Ms. magazine, I have closely covered abortion pills for years. I knew mifepristone was very safe and effective. In fact, abortion pills are safer than Tylenol, and six times safer than Viagra.

Abortion Pill Mifepristone as Weekly Contraceptive Performs 'Beyond Expectations' in Clinical Trials, Says Dr. Rebecca Gompers

Political pressure and wary regulators shaped FDA’s mifepristone approval in 2000.

PUBLISHED by Faced with growing legal restrictions and an uncertain future for reproductive rights, more people are turning to advance

Intense political polarization in contemporary American society shapes not only national politics, but local politics as well. It’s happening across partisan boundaries, but also within the left as well as the right. Some people appear to have lost the capacity to disagree without demonizing one another, calling each other names, assuming bad intentions and engaging in character assassination. Examples abound, such as recent personal attacks on social media against Northampton’s mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra; attacks on Amherst school board members that resulted in multiple resignations in 2023; student protesters’ treatment of Smith College’s new president last year; and call outs that led to the cancelation of the 2021 Western Massachusetts Visual Arts and Poetry Biennial.

PUBLISHED by As Trump's second term begins, feminist advocates are mobilizing to counter his administration's extremist agenda.

PUBLISHED by Democratic governors and attorneys general are moving to “Trump-proof” their states, fighting to protect abortion rights, LGBTQ+ protections and workplace equity.