Jose Antonio Kast, a 60-year-old ultra Catholic whose father was a member of the Nazi party, has consistently blocked progressive bids for women's rights and equality across his three-decade career in politics. As a congressman, Kast voted against divorce when Chile became one of the last countries of the world to legalise it in 2004 and vehemently opposed the legalisation of abortion under limited exceptions when it was passed in 2017.
"Some of you may remember that in my remarks last year, that one of the things I most wanted in the United States of America was more families and more babies," he began his speech. Vance, indeed, during his first speech as Vice President in January 2025, told the March for Life crowd that he, specifically, wanted more beautiful young Americans to procreate. Every time I'm forced to remember this, I get an overwhelming urge to lobotomize myself.
Judith Marin, 30, was once ejected from Chile's senate by police for screaming return to the Lord during a vote to decriminalise abortion under restricted circumstances. She is an evangelical former student church group president who belonged to the Eagles of Jesus, a far-right Christian group which recruits at universities around the country. Marin has publicly questioned the future of the ministry she will now lead, and defended the natural family the idea that a man and woman head a household.
The anti-abortion Slenderman that is Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has spent much of his political career trying to dismantle abortion rights. But he's spent the past year obsessively amplifying a bogus "study" from the far-right Ethics and Public Policy Center (which is listed as an advisor under Project 2025), which published false findings about the abortion pill, mifepristone, having "adverse effects" on women.
Mayday Health, a New York-based "reproductive health education nonprofit" founded after the Supreme Court killed Roe v. Wade in 2022, is one of countless organizations that have refused to abandon Americans who live in states where abortion is banned. Over the summer, they ran more than 120 mifepristone and misoprostol ads on billboards, trucks, gas stations, and in newspapers in states like Kentucky, West Virginia, and Texas-all of which have a near-total or total abortion ban.
But, infuriatingly, her symptoms were clear: throughout her first trimester, she seized regularly and would be unable to speak for up to 30 minutes at a time. At five weeks pregnant, doctors noticed her hypertension levels were high enough to indicate an imminent heart attack or stroke. At nine weeks, she told her aunt she had a dream of her dead relatives inviting her to the "other side." At 12 weeks, doctors noticed severe clotting in her leg.
Robert F Kennedy Jr is the father of six children. He's also the US health secretary. Two facts that might lead a reasonable person to assume he possesses a basic understanding of how foetuses develop. In a shocking development, however, it seems that Kennedy an anti-vaxxer who says his brain was partly eaten by a parasitic worm may not know what he's talking about.
➡️ We're starting our Friday roundup on a positive note, with a look at how groups like Invisible Histories and the Lesbian Herstory Archives are collecting records and keepsakes from the LGBTQ+ community. "Archiving lesbian history, queer histories, as they are being forcibly removed by fascist regimes ... is important to remind people that we exist." Also, a new, groundbreaking review of IVF outcomes is raising awareness of the risks facing lesbians and transgender men trying to get pregnant.
Moderate Republicans in the House are lobbying to protect federal funding for Planned Parenthood, which poses a challenge to anti-abortion advocates seeking funding bans.
