https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to Reproductive Control en https://religiondispatches.org/2025/12/22/without-our-consent In the film Belén , released earlier this year, a woman suffering from incapacitating stomach cramps goes to an emergency room only to learn that she’s pregnant. After she miscarries and doctors report her to the police, she’s accused of… Mon, 22 Dec 2025 12:00:00 EST Noah Berlatsky e3509066-e056-4452-9080-a8fb931ac9da https://religiondispatches.org/2025/11/18/purity-culture-and-jeffrey-epstein Editor’s note: This post mentions child sexual assault and underage marriage. Please be advised. International media outlets and even an actual teenager slammed attorney and media personality Megyn Kelly for claiming (31:40) that the late Jeffrey Epstein was not an… Tue, 18 Nov 2025 12:00:00 EST Becky Garrison 2029b7f7-5748-47f9-9222-58033083f529 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/10/01/brain-worm-science In a rambling press conference last week, Donald Trump announced that commonly used over-the-counter painkiller Tylenol is “not good.” Specifically addressing pregnant women, Trump repeated “don’t take Tylenol” around a dozen times, enough for a mantra or EDM remix. No… Wed, 01 Oct 2025 12:00:00 EDT Susannah Crockford 0baf9ccd-1c7f-4c86-8ad0-a1f5e0e01e84 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/09/30/charlie-kirk-memorial-seoul On September 13, 2025, echoes of “We are Charlie Kirk” could be heard across Seoul. From Jamsil to Gangnam, thousands of young Koreans commemorated American political activist Charlie Kirk’s death by dressing in black, raising US flags and photographs of… Tue, 30 Sep 2025 12:00:00 EDT Chanhee Heo 99580078-c280-4d6f-b1df-9cb33665f392 https://politicalresearch.org/2025/09/25/its-never-just-about-gender-gender-and-authoritarianism-pra-analyzes-trump-20s-first-100 In this second of a two-part series on analyzing Trump 2.0’s first 100 days in office, we share insights from PRA’s researchers about how MAGA weaponizes gender to entrench authoritarianism. Thu, 25 Sep 2025 05:31:32 EDT Political Research Associates 4e3e970b-c997-4ecd-815d-ff2ef117fa33 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/08/28/i-will-always-be-afraid-james-dobson Focus on the Family founder Dr. James C. Dobson died last week, and there was much rejoicing —particularly among people whose families of origin subscribed to Dobson’s punitively patriarchal and rigidly heteronormative approach to child-rearing and marriage. ___ The summer… Thu, 28 Aug 2025 06:33:43 EDT Sara J. Moslener 03f950fd-9d22-476e-b1f3-621631e90342 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/08/08/nihs-autism-registry-has-roots-nazism-white-christian-nationalism The National Institutes of Health are (still, again) trying to create a registry of autists, according to a report released by the Senate Appropriations Committee last week. “The Committee”—wow, is that ever Kafka-esque—“includes funding for the Autism Developmental Disabilities Monitoring… Fri, 08 Aug 2025 05:08:53 EDT Megan Goodwin 0e55b35f-0b28-4d8c-a5c8-e596cee6caa3 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/08/07/liberty-universitys-baby-business-forced-birth-coerced-adoption-white-christian Earlier this summer, investigative journalist T.J. Raphael released a seven-episode podcast, Liberty Lost , which investigates the history of Liberty University’s Godparent Home. In this secretive maternity home, pregnant teenagers are cared for and often coerced into placing their babies… Thu, 07 Aug 2025 04:25:25 EDT Emma Cieslik d769e38f-058c-41d9-ac33-0af3996a07d2 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/06/26/bad-muslim-good-candidate-mamdanis-campaign-disrupts-electability-islamophobia Against all odds and the will of billionaires and establishment Democrats, Zohran Mamdani is the 2025 Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City. The New York Times (about which the less said the better) reported that only one out… Thu, 26 Jun 2025 04:56:51 EDT Megan Goodwin 6a61272a-5ed5-4d4c-b696-1b2155ab69ba https://religiondispatches.org/2025/05/22/youve-been-gone-politics-hysterectomy-and-impossibility-choice Last I checked, my uterus was in a jar in Schenectady. An ignoble end for a thing that was once burdened with glorious purpose, like an old prizewinning racehorse going off to the glue factory. It’s been 17 years since… Thu, 22 May 2025 11:37:01 EDT Lissa Harris 45540c25-f028-4c91-bba9-b7b523846ab6 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/05/01/experts-agree-what-trump-doing-fascism An expanded version of article was originally published in German at “ Volksverpetzer ”, an independent, crowd-funded online magazine covering the far-right in Germany and abroad. While too many American leaders are content to quibble over definitional particularities, experts are… Thu, 01 May 2025 05:13:04 EDT Annika Brockschmidt aa8ebbd0-93e4-4151-bd96-5fd7ef728872 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/04/21/francis-roman-catholic-churchs-first-latin-american-pope-leaves-behind-complicated As you probably know by now, Pope Francis has died. (Mere hours after meeting with—how is this real life—US Vice President James Donald Bowman, aka James David Hamel, who prefers to be called JD Vance .) We’ll be offering more… Mon, 21 Apr 2025 03:47:49 EDT Megan Goodwin 8a79192d-333b-4a59-92b8-ae765d8c33e0 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/04/04/why-authoritarianism-needs-gender-stereotypes-and-democracy-needs-gender-justice This article first appeared in the Winter/Spring 2025 issue of our sibling publication, The Public Eye—a quarterly magazine for analysis and commentary on the US and Global Right. Two weeks before the 2024 election, Tucker Carlson, whose documentary, The End… Fri, 04 Apr 2025 01:48:44 EDT Annie Wilkinson 242967e3-e6aa-41e9-90d9-fb85d051cdfb https://politicalresearch.org/2025/04/02/courts-clinics In Texas, state Attorney General Ken Paxton is testing the powers of the AG to enact wide-ranging right-wing policies, including anti-trans and anti-abortion legislation, that extends beyond state lines. Wed, 02 Apr 2025 01:51:27 EDT Chancie Calliham a820147b-8628-4fe1-a628-b2824a8ddba2 https://politicalresearch.org/2025/03/27/trad-values-meets-tech Pronatalism has produced a tenuous coalition of traditional conservatives, abortion opponents, and White nationalists working together with tech moguls, futurists, libertarians, and libertines, united in a common cause of promoting more births. Thu, 27 Mar 2025 02:40:03 EDT Gaby Del Valle 6088c71f-95ed-4da5-9b82-2b362f85efe4 https://politicalresearch.org/2025/03/12/authoritarianism-criminalization-and-reproductive-injustice In this roundtable discussion, seasoned practitioners who work on the front lines of healthcare, reproductive justice, and criminal law join to share insights drawn from their experiences of navigating repression. Wed, 12 Mar 2025 03:03:44 EDT Annie Wilkinson, Mary Reynolds 02df3bfc-ea84-4c4d-a619-9596c7107ca0 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/03/12/trumps-pick-fda-commissioner-hedges-abortion-pill-which-safer-tylenol-viagra-or-giving During his confirmation hearing last Thursday, Trump nominee Dr. Marty Makary equivocated on whether Americans will maintain access to medication abortions if he’s confirmed as the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Makary, a public policy researcher and… Wed, 12 Mar 2025 10:51:19 EDT Megan Goodwin fdfb7500-0b7e-4111-ab94-cd47e8d539a3 https://politicalresearch.org/2025/02/12/stacking-courts-against-mifepristone Conservative groups are reshaping judicial outcomes in their favor using forum shopping and dark money, as seen in the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA case on access to the abortion pill mifepristone. Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:05:41 EST Zane McNeill 1f4222f3-61af-4618-b6cb-e1cb3b37b95a https://politicalresearch.org/2025/02/04/calling PRA talks to Loretta Ross about her journey through activism and her framework for addressing conflict within and beyond social justice movements. Tue, 04 Feb 2025 11:34:21 EST Chancie Calliham 04cf59f0-402f-4827-9238-37d97aabca48 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/01/21/leaving-office-biden-announced-era-should-already-be-28th-amendment-if-it-could-it-be Although it has since been removed from the White House website, on Friday afternoon, with seconds remaining on his presidential clock, Joseph Robinette Biden announced (noticed?) that the Equal Rights Amendment met the requirements to be added to the constitution… Tue, 21 Jan 2025 10:20:01 EST Megan Goodwin 207db602-6043-46cc-b6fd-516587b74b1a https://politicalresearch.org/2024/11/14/authoritarian-blueprints-revealing-and-resisting-project-2025 In the lead-up to the 2024 general election, PRA hosted a multi-part political education and strategy series for our movement partners on Project 2025’s impacts on gender/reproductive justice and immigration; foreign policy and the administrative state; and racial justice, labor… Thu, 14 Nov 2024 12:00:00 EST Political Research Associates 431715b5-6a6a-4f51-85e5-798096fc79e6 https://religiondispatches.org/2024/08/07/right-questions-kamala-harris-blackness-yet-long-she-holds-any-power-shell-always-be-too Hey, do you all remember jamming to the song “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight”? No? Well, sorry if you missed out on… Wed, 07 Aug 2024 02:00:41 EDT Mary Rambaran-Olm 44fc3ed4-5f98-44e2-8899-189d8a005c51 https://religiondispatches.org/2024/07/12/women-are-still-fleeing-church-and-cause-still-pretty-clear Eight years ago here at RD I noted that women were fleeing organized religion —as measured by attendance at religious services—faster than men, a trend that showed no sign of letting up. Historically, women have been a good deal more… Fri, 12 Jul 2024 02:30:30 EDT Patricia Miller 2b13db25-3d8a-4c68-8b59-314617af8e11 https://religiondispatches.org/2024/05/23/first-it-was-insurrection-flag-now-supreme-court-justice-alito-caught-flying-another-far Some things regarding the Supreme Court are not surprising. For example: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito who, along with Clarence Thomas forms the extreme Right flank of this Court (which is saying something), doesn’t like women very much. Or abortion… Thu, 23 May 2024 08:58:44 EDT Annika Brockschmidt dea7d5c3-022f-4f73-9b22-4e6e12cc4482 https://politicalresearch.org/2024/05/16/putins-year-family In her commentary, Irina Smolevskaya scrutinizes Putin’s appeal to “traditional family values” as a reversal of U.S. Cold War containment rhetoric appealing to domestic and transnational conservatives alike. Thu, 16 May 2024 04:02:32 EDT Irina Smolevskaya dbfe0864-6d28-4079-81b2-538007dde12f