Hern said the work was always worth it. He recalled one of his first patients who couldn’t believe cleanliness of his operating room; she previously had an illegal abortion that left her humiliated and frightened.
In February, Hawkins, saying “the people I fear getting shot by, most of the time,” are not abortion rights activists but abortion abolitionists.
Then came the replies: “Demon,” “Ungodly,” “An accessory to murder,” “Enemy of God.” Her post opened a fire hose of online barbs from abortion abolitionists. Some called for her to resign and asserted that women should not have roles outside the home, let alone leading national anti-abortion groups.Some conservative podcasts and online figures have hosted abortion abolitionists or echoed similar disdain for the larger anti-abortion movement. Ben Zeisloft, a podcaster for TheoBros, a network of Christian nationalist influencers, blamed feminism for abortion and said, “We need Christian men leading the fight against abortion.”The comments reflect a broader uptick in misogynistic rhetoric and align with the religious doctrines motivating many in the abortion abolitionist movement, said Laura Hermer, a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota.
She said members of the movement have been emboldened by the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which had granted a constitutional right to abortion for half a century, and recent actions by Republican President Donald Trump.Those actions include
pending investigations,
who blockaded clinics and signingLawmakers have taken notice and have held multiple congressional hearings —
— on child online safety. Still, the last federal law aimed at protecting children online was enacted in 1998, six years before Facebook’s founding.issued a warning saying there is not enough evidence to show that social media is safe for kids and urged policymakers to address the harms of social media the same way they regulate things like car seats, baby formula, medication and other products children use. Parents, he stressed, can’t do it all, although some — like Othman’s — try.
Othman at first wanted a phone “with everything on it, no restrictions.”“But like now, after the years passed, I really do understand and appreciate what they did,” he said.