Search form

Group 4 Created with Sketch.

Forward Thinking

Forward Thinking is Equity Forward's blog platform. Here, you'll find our team's work in op-ed format.

Looking for Something?

Anti-Abortion Centers and Their Fake Economic Solutions



Equity Forward + National Women's Law Center - October 8, 2024 Blog Post

Having the freedom to decide if and when we have kids is fundamental to building the lives we want for ourselves. But in the face of a housing affordability crisis, underfunded child care infrastructure, and a widening gender wage gap, this fundamental freedom feels further and further...

Abortion Abortion Bans Anti-abortion centers Anti-Abortion Centers

Read More

The Systemic Targeting of Marginalized Groups by Anti-Abortion Centers



Chaqya Hosea, MSW, Program Manager, and Ashley Underwood, MPH, Director - July 31, 2024 Blog Post

Targeting marginalized communities is an issue across various businesses, including finance, food and beverage, and retail. Anti-abortion centers (AACs) also fall in the predatory business category. AACs’ strategic targeting of marginalized communities exploits disparities and systemic...

Abortion Anti-abortion centers Anti-Abortion Centers Reproductive justice

Read More

This Equal Pay Day, There's Something Else Robbing Us of Economic Security.



Equity Forward + National Women's Law Center - March 12, 2024 Blog Post

On Equal Pay Day, we hear a lot about the gender wage gap (and for good reason). But there’s something else that has been deepening economic insecurity: abortion bans and restrictions.

Abortion bans and restrictions are intensifying economic insecurity. In other words, abortion...

Abortion

Read More

Recent Headlines Of Anti-Abortion Ties Are Part Of A Broader Judicial Strategy



Julia Bourkland, Research Assistant, and Ashley Underwood, Director - February 29, 2024 Blog Post

Has the anti-abortion movement weaponized the judicial branch to enforce its agenda? Of course it has. The Supreme Court of the United States’ (SCOTUS) ethical state-of-play is particularly concerning given the justices will be hearing oral arguments on the two biggest post-Roe...

Abortion Anti-LGBTQIA+ Courts Human Rights

Read More

Unveiling the Connections: Understanding the Link Between Anti-LGBTQIA+ Legislation and AACs



Chaqya Hosea, MSW, Program Manager, Equity Forward - August 2, 2023 Blog Post

In 2023 alone, over 520 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in state legislatures, more than 220 bills specifically target transgender and non-binary people, and 70 anti-LGBTQ laws have been enacted in various states, shedding light on the broader issue of discriminatory legislation...

Abortion Anti-abortion centers Anti-Abortion Centers Anti-LGBTQ Anti-LGBTQIA+ Anti-reproductive health bills Human Rights

Read More

How Digital Trails And Digitized Data Complicate The Surveillance And Criminalization Of Abortion Care



Julia Bourkland, Research Assistant and Chaqya Hosea, Program Manager - May 2, 2023 Blog Post

Previously, Equity Forward began a blog series on the intersection of anti-abortion centers (AACs), data, and privacy. To contextualize the problem of AACs’ access to data, we will delve into the nature of surveillance and criminalization of pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes —...

Abortion Abortion Bans Anti-reproductive health bills Biden Administration HHS

Read More

Anti-Abortion Centers And Our Data: A History Of Unregulated Exploitation



Julia Bourkland, Research Assistant - February 2, 2023 Blog Post

Introduction

Surveillance of pregnant people and criminalization of abortion is nothing new in the United States’ long history of trying to control bodily autonomy. Historian Leslie J. Reagan details the timeline of anti-abortion laws in the U.S. beginning in the nineteenth century,...

Abortion Anti-Abortion Centers Reproductive justice

Read More

Reproductive Health: A Social Justice Issue



Chaqya Hosea, MSW, Program Manager, Equity Forward - November 8, 2022 Blog Post

The United Nations (UN) defines human rights as, “rights we have simply because we exist as human beings - they are not granted by the state.” These range from the right to food and education, to health and liberty. The United Nations also affirms that access to culturally competent...

Abortion Anti-abortion centers Anti-Abortion Centers Anti-LGBTQ Anti-LGBTQIA+ Human Rights Reproductive justice United Nations

Read More

Families Need Legitimate Support, Not Anti-Abortion Propaganda



Ashley Underwood, MPH, Director, Equity Forward - October 4, 2022 Blog Post

I am the proud mom of a toddler who has recently become fully potty trained. This was a huge milestone for my family, and I must admit that I am elated to no longer have to buy diapers or pull-ups. Diapers are essential and expensive. Children will go through anywhere from three to...

Anti-abortion centers

Read More

Recent Court Ruling Makes Need For AACs Accountability Crystal Clear



Ashley Underwood - August 1, 2022 Blog Post

Anti-abortion organization, Real Alternatives (RA), has once again been found to be using taxpayer money to fund its operations and expansion instead of on services. Why does this keep happening?

Five years ago, Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale found that...

Anti-abortion centers Anti-Abortion Centers

Read More

By Overturning Roe, the U.S. Will Lay Bare Its Ugly Reality to the World



Molly Bangs, Director - January 21, 2022 Blog Post

On January 22, 1973, the United States became one of the first countries in the world to legalize elective abortion with Roe v. Wade. Forty-nine years later, this will be the last anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, as the Court is now poised to overturn Roe this summer. The U.S...

Abortion Bans Human Rights International Reproductive justice

Read More

We’re All in This Together: Understanding Climate Justice as Reproductive Justice



Dion Mensah, Research Intern - December 16, 2021 Blog Post

As 2021 comes to a close, climate change worsens and reproductive health is under unprecedented threat. But how do the movements for climate justice and reproductive justice intersect?

Many are aware of the range of environmental consequences and unprecedented damage to the natural...

Abortion Bans Human Rights Reproductive justice

Read More

Equity Forward Launches New Federal Accountability Campaign, Light Inside



By Molly Bangs, Director and Ashley Underwood, Senior Researcher - November 3, 2021 Blog Post

Today, we are proud to launch Light Inside, a research-based campaign shedding light on the government agencies and contractors that can either protect, or deny, human and reproductive rights for people in the United States, with a focus on people who are detained and/or incarcerated...

Immigrant Justice

Read More

Beyond Abortion: The Radical Agenda of Anti-Abortion Groups



Ashley Underwood, Senior Researcher - August 19, 2021 Blog Post

Groups that used to primarily focus on criminalizing abortion are expanding their portfolios to infringe upon more than just reproductive rights. And they are doing so by strategizing to suppress voter turnout, strengthen their already outsized political power and fuel hostility toward...

Human Rights

Read More

The "Pro-Family" Movement's Push Toward Transphobia



Ashley Underwood, Research Associate - August 19, 2021 Blog Post

The Weaponization of “Family”

The goal of “protecting” the “traditional family” has a long history of being a veneer for hateful agendas and harmful policies. Former President Reagan’s vilification of single mothers paved a path to withhold federal support from lower income families....

Anti-LGBTQIA+ Human Rights Reproductive justice

Read More

Profiting Off Pain: Anti-Abortion Centers and “Conversion Therapy” Proponents Use the Same Playbook



Jack Dobkin, Research Assistant - June 14, 2021 Blog Post

INTRODUCTION

This Pride Month, it is important to make space for joy, to celebrate, and to lift up the queer people in our lives. But just as joy is inherent in pride, so is resistance. Among the many social movements that swept the United States in the 1960s, some of the most prominent...

Anti-Abortion Centers Anti-LGBTQIA+

Read More

Celebrating Pride Month: A Timeline of the Biden Administration’s LGBTQIA+ Policies



Mario Sto. Domingo, Research Intern - June 2, 2021 Blog Post

In celebration of Pride Month, Equity Forward is highlighting how the Biden administration has shown up to protect LGBTQIA+ rights in the best way we know how: an interactive policy timeline!

Building on our timeline of the Biden administration’s policy changes in its...

Biden Administration

Read More

Pandemic Parenting Support: From Day Care to Abortion, Where Is It?



This article originally appeared in the Rewire News Group May 2021 Special Edition, "Reinventing Motherhood." - May 4, 2021 Blog Post

Read the full article here.

 

Pregnancy is a crash course on strategic thinking and decision-making. I know this because I am a mom who has previously had an abortion. Both were parenting decisions that I fortunately got to make for myself.

...

Read More

What Remains of the Trump Administration’s Anti-Human Rights Multilateralism?



Molly Bangs, Director - April 27, 2021 Blog Post

On March 30, 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the Trump administration’s Commission on Unalienable Rights (CUR) had been disbanded. The move was a welcomed one, particularly among the human rights community, which had joined together over the past couple of years to push...

Commission on Unalienable Rights

Read More

The Trump Administration Spent Four Years Sidelining Science And Manipulating Human Rights



Rachel Wormer, Research Intern - December 22, 2020 Blog Post

In December 2017, the Trump administration, by way of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), reportedly banned the use of several terms at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including “fetus,” “evidence-based,” “science-based” and “transgender.”

In...

HHS Human Rights Trump Administration

Read More

Deception With Your Dime: Anti-Abortion Centers Are Misusing Funds to Harm People and Enrich Themselves



Mary Alice Carter, Senior Advisor - December 18, 2020 Blog Post

We’ve all seen the billboards on the highway and the bus and subway ads. The text reads, “Pregnant? Afraid? We’re here to help.” And they often feature a woman, usually white, with her head bowed, brow furrowed. Underneath is a toll-free number and a website link. If you have ever thought that...

Anti-abortion centers

Read More

Wins and Losses for Reproductive Rights: Ballot Measures in 2020



Mario Sto. Domingo, Research Intern - December 11, 2020 Blog Post

One month has passed since Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris were declared the winners of the 2020 presidential election. Since then, much of the national media’s attention has shifted to their transition team and President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede. While the incoming...

Anti-reproductive health bills Reproductive justice

Read More

The Ministerial on Religious Freedom: Pompeo’s Last Extremist Hurrah



Molly Bangs, Director - November 13, 2020 Blog Post

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other Trump administration political appointees are not going out quietly. Days after denying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory and falsely claiming the State Department would transition to a second Trump term, Pompeo will give opening remarks at the third...

Anti-LGBTQ Commission on Unalienable Rights Human Rights International State Department Trump Administration

Read More

Bad Apples Cannot Explain ICE’s Forced Sterilization



Molly Bangs, Director and Ashley Underwood, Research Associate - October 29, 2020 Blog Post

In September, The Intercept broke the story detailing a whistleblower’s complaints against a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Georgia, including forced sterilization of immigrant women. In a crowded political landscape and media environment, the details of the...

HHS Human Rights Reproductive justice Trump Administration

Read More

Introducing "Forward Thinking", Equity Forward’s Blog



By Molly Bangs, Director - October 15, 2020 Blog Post

We are excited to introduce “Forward Thinking” — Equity Forward’s new blog platform. Here, you’ll find much of the same quality research that drives our campaigns and reports, but in op-ed form. 

Forward Thinking is launching four years after the Trump Administration...

Read More