Germany’s biggest union hits back at Elon Musk’s return-to-the-office order: ‘An employer cannot dictate the rules just as he likes’

Colin Lodewick

Thu, June 2, 2022, 

After Elon Musk appeared ready to shut down Tesla’s work-from-home policy this week, union organizers representing one of its major manufacturing plants have sounded a warning to the tech mogul.

“Anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla,” wrote Musk in a leaked email shared by company shareholder Sam Nissim.

Though the email appears directed at the company’s white-collar workers across the globe, IG Metall, Germany’s largest trade union, opted to respond. In March, Tesla opened its first manufacturing plant in Europe, called Giga Berlin, in the German state of Brandenburg.

“In Germany an employer cannot dictate the rules just as he likes,” said Birgit Dietze, a regional IG Metall leader, in a statement. “A worker can rely on the strength and power of her or his union if she or he does not want to accept the demands of the company,” she added, recognizing the German constitution’s protections for labor organizing.

IG Metall represents metalworkers, including those working for other car makers like BMW and Volkswagen. Earlier this year, the union opened an office close to Tesla’s Brandenburg facility, and in February, employees at the factory, some of whom were union members, elected 19 delegates to its first workers’ council.

Musk left little room for negotiation in his email. “If there are particularly exceptional contributors for whom this is impossible, I will review and approve those exceptions directly,” he wrote.

Tesla’s workplace protocols have been under scrutiny since April, when another major manufacturing plant in Shanghai reportedly asked workers to enter a “closed-loop” system as the city enacted strict COVID restrictions. Factory workers were made to work 12-hour shifts while sleeping at the facility.

Musk’s email seemingly references those protocols: “This is less than [what] we ask of factory workers.” When prompted on Twitter to comment on workers who might view coming into work as an “antiquated concept,” he responded: “They should pretend to work somewhere else.”

Musk has been vocally antiunion for years. In March, Tesla appealed a National Labor Relations Board order to delete a May 2018 tweet that the agency said had violated the law. “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union,” Musk’s tweet said. “Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing?”

The NLRB ultimately upheld its decision later that month, arguing that Musk violated worker protections by threatening to revoke benefits from unionized workers.

Are AR-15’s weapons of war? Here’s what a former Fort Benning commander had to say




Mona Moore
Sat, June 4, 2022, 

A former Fort Benning commander took a stand in the country’s ongoing debate on gun control with a thread of tweets posted Thursday evening.

“Let me state unequivocally — For all intents and purposes, the AR-15 and rifles like it are weapons of war,” retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton wrote on Twitter.


The retired major general went on to write the AR-15 was the civilian version of the M16, a close relation to the M4 rifles currently used by the military.

“It is a very deadly weapon with the same basic functionality that our troops use to kill the enemy,” Eaton wrote.

Eaton broke down the differences between the M16, M4 and AR-15 in the thread of seven tweets. He said those opposed to assault weapon bans were playing with semantics, when they claimed any meaningful difference existed between military weapons and AR-15 rifles.

“...The AR-15 is ACCURATELY CALLED a ‘weapon of war.’ … Don’t take the bait when anti-gun-safety folks argue about it,” he wrote. “They know it’s true. Now you do too.”


The tweets came on the heels of one of the country’s deadliest weeks in recent history. In the days since the Uvalde, Texas shooting, 20 mass shootings have claimed the lives of 17 people and injured 88 others, according to Gun Violence Archive. The researchers defined a mass shooting as any shooting with four or more victims shot, either injured or killed.

Watch: Yellowstone wolves, bears not welcome at ‘bison funeral’

Pete Thomas

Sat, June 4, 2022,

When a bison dies in Yellowstone National Park, it’s not long before the carcass attracts top predators such as wolves and grizzly bears, and much smaller scavengers.

But quite often an apparent mourning process plays out, during which all other critters wisely keep their distance.

The accompanying footage, captured last weekend by Julie Argyle Wildlife Photography, shows several wolves and two grizzly bears roaming a bison carcass perimeter closely guarded by bison.

Argyle wrote Tuesday on Facebook:

“When a bison dies in Yellowstone, most of the time the herd that’s in the area will come to pay their respects and surround the dead bison and protect it for hours. This was definitely the case the other day.

ALSO: Moose chases grizzly bear in wild scene caught on video

“As you can see in the video, wolves tried to come in and were chased away several times and two grizzly bears also tried to come in. None of them were allowed to get close to the dead bison until hours after it happened. Nature has an incredible way in life and death.”

Bison can be seen nudging the carcass, while others stand guard. While this behavior may not be considered rare, it’s rarely observed since it can occur far from roads and trails.

Argyle told For The Win Outdoors that she captured the footage in Lamar Valley while shooting through a spotting scope from a distance of 1,000 yards.

She did not know how long the “bison funeral” lasted because a storm swept through the valley and she left in near whiteout conditions.

The bison carcass appeared to be that of an adult and the cause of death was not known, Argyle said.

Yellowstone is home to more than 5,000 bison, which are social creatures that form large herds during spring and summer.

The immensely powerful animals can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds and run at speeds up to 30 mph, so they warrant a great deal of respect.

Attacks against Asian American New Yorkers rarely end in guilty verdicts, report finds


Eduardo Cuevas, New York State Team
Thu, June 2, 2022,

Advocates urged more reporting of hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in New York City, as a report released Tuesday found that few attacks on these groups last year ended in guilty dispositions for alleged perpetrators.

The Asian American Bar Association of New York unveiled its second report on surges in attacks across the boroughs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first report, published in February 2021, called for greater reporting of hate incidents in what it called a “rising tide” of anti-Asian attacks. The report released Tuesday was titled “Endless Tide.”

The report, released on the last day of AAPI Heritage Month, examined what happened when hate incidents were reported to law enforcement, and how difficult such cases have been to prosecute.

A person wearing a face mask reading, "Stop Asian Hate," attends a candlelight vigil in honor of Michelle Alyssa Go, a victim of a subway attack several days earlier, Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022, in New York's Times Square. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

“We want to encourage people to report,” said Chris Kwok, a board member of the Asian American Bar Association of New York and a report executive editor, in a phone interview. “But the question is turning the ball back to them. Once it’s reported, what happens? How do you deal with it?”

The report comes after the deaths of three Asian women — Michelle Go, Christina Yuna Lee and GuiYing Ma — in the first two months of 2022 in New York City. In March, video captured the brutal beating of a 67-year-old Filipina woman in the foyer of her Yonkers apartment building by a 42-year-old man who has been charged with a hate crime.

'Not going away': More than 9K anti-Asian hate incidents since COVID pandemic began, report says

More: Anti-Asian American violence is still raging. AAPI teachers are trying to stop it.

'Came out of nowhere': 'The Boys' star Karen Fukuhara says she was assaulted in apparent hate crime attack

What were the report's findings?

In the first three quarters of 2021, the report documented 233 incidents against Asian New Yorkers. Nearly 60% were assault, 20% were physical harassment, 8% were verbal harassment, 7% were criminal mischief or property damage, and 4% were thefts. There were three homicides and two sex offenses.

Of those 233 incidents, 91 led to arrests and 41 were charged as hate crimes. But just 7 led to guilty dispositions of hate crimes. Twenty cases are still pending as of April.

This number differed with the New York Police Department’s count of 117 anti-Asian hate incidents during the same period, between January and September.

Elaine Chiu, a law professor St. John’s University and a report executive editor, noted a drop in press and government attention to attacks against AAPI people, particularly after the killing of six Asian women in Atlanta in March 2021, which was followed by activism with national movement "Stop Asian Hate," and a spotlight on the community during last year's AAPI Heritage Month in May.

“By the end of the year 2021, our conclusions were that the steps that were taken to address the hate and violence against AAPI Americans, simply not enough has been done,” Chiu told reporters.

Researchers identified incidents by press coverage as well as records from the NYPD and the state courts system.

They defined “anti-Asian incidents” as attacks — whether physical or verbal — against someone who is Asian or appeared to be of Asian descent, and where there was concern that the act of crime upon the person was racially motivated.

A report by the Asian American Bar Association of New York on anti-Asian hate incidents in New York City found close to 60% occurred in Manhattan, the most of any borough. The Midtown-South Police Precinct had the highest number of incidents by precinct.

Nearly 60% of incidents occurred in Manhattan, the most of any borough. Across all police precincts, the Midtown-South area containing Times Square had the highest number of incidents. In the timeframe studied, nearly half occurred in March and April.

Victims tended to be women; more than 59% of all victims were between the ages of 20 to 49. Meanwhile, about four out of five perpetrators were men, and half were between the ages of 30 to 49.

Stop AAPI Hate, a reporting database affiliated with San Francisco State University that tracks incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, saw 6,273 incidents in 2021, compared to 4,632 from March 2020 through the end of that year.

Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch listens as former President Barack Obama speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Monday, Jan. 4, 2016.

The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, part of California State University, San Bernardino, saw nearly a 200% increase in hate crimes nationwide in the first quarter of 2021. In New York City, there was a 262% increase, with comparable jumps in San Jose and San Francisco.

Researchers noted a variety of factors that spurred the attacks, which range from a history of racism against AAPI communities dating back centuries, to rhetoric from the Trump administration that connected Asian Americans or China with the coronavirus during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Officials also pointed to mental illness among suspects, though the report said there isn’t enough data to analyze the correlation between mental health and violence against AAPI communities.

“As we say all too many times in this country, this is not us. But unfortunately, we are seeing that actually it is, sadly, many of us,” said Loretta Lynch, the former U.S. attorney general in the Obama administration and a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, a New York law firm that has represented victims in anti-Asian incidents. “Unfortunately, we have seen this rising tide of fear and hatred that believes that recognizing someone else's humanity somehow lessens their own.”

Yonkers anti-Asian attack: After Asian woman was attacked, Yonkers neighbors call out drugs, mental health problems

Lack of safety: Atlanta-area killings rattle Asian American communities on edge after rise of anti-Asian violence

What solutions were proposed?

The report issued nine recommendations that included the need to improve law enforcement agencies' data reporting on hate incidents by making the data publicly accessible and following an incident from its occurrence to its resolution.

The report recommended amending New York's hate crimes law to encapsulate more incidents by classifying something as a hate crime if it was based “in whole or in part” on a person’s protected characteristic.

Additionally, it called for reclassifying aggravated harassment that involve bias or hate speech into the hate crimes law; out of 488 hate crimes reported to law enforcement in New York State, the report said, nearly 45% were harassment crimes, which is currently excluded from the law.

The report also said officials should restructure the state’s bail reform laws to provide bail for suspects charged in hate crime cases. Meanwhile, the report supported Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recent bail reform changes, which allowed for bail to be set for more hate crimes, repeat offenses and gun offenses.

In this June 8, 2020, file photo, Assemblyman Ron Kim, D-Queens, speaks during a press briefing at the state Capitol in Albany, N.Y.

"Oftentimes, we’re left trying to put as many Band-Aids in the interim so people would stop hating on Asian Americans or hurting our communities,” said Assemblymember Ron Kim, a Democrat who represents parts of Queens.

He added there need to be “uncomfortable discussions” around economic justice for communities of color and immigrants. During economic or health downturns, Kim said, AAPI communities often get pitted against Black and brown communities.

Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat, pointed to the COVID-19 crisis as “yet another example of Asian Americans being scapegoated for something gone wrong in our country.”

In the press conference, Eva Zhao, 38, spoke about the recent killing of her husband, Zhiwen Yan, 45. The Queens couple have three children.

At night on April 30, Yan, a delivery worker, was shot while he was getting on his scooter in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens.

No arrests have yet been made.

“I want justice for my husband’s murder,” she said through an interpreter. “I really don’t want to see another family go through this same kind of pain.”

'Not just about COVID': Lawmakers warn China bashing in Congress could spur new wave of anti-Asian hate

Eduardo Cuevas covers diversity, equity and inclusion in Westchester and Rockland counties. He can be reached at EMCuevas1@lohud.com and followed on Twitter @eduardomcuevas.

This article originally appeared on New York State Team: Attacks against Asian American New Yorkers rarely have guilty verdicts

Only 3% of reported attacks on Asian Americans led to hate crime convictions, new report says


Timothy A. Clary

Tat Bellamy-Walker
Fri, June 3, 2022

Only 3 percent of anti-Asian attacks in New York City resulted in a hate crime conviction, according to a report released this week by the Asian American Bar Association of New York.

The report, “Endless Tide: The continuing struggle to overcome anti-Asian hate in New York,” shows that only seven out of 233 anti-Asian attacks reported last year led to a guilty plea to a hate crime.

The report also found that Asian American women were victims in more than half of the attacks, which most commonly included assault, and affected individuals between the ages of 20 and 49.

In light of the findings, the association is calling for officials to improve the collection of public hate crime data, remove barriers to reporting hate incidents, education, bail reform, develop anti-bias programming and make changes to hate crime legislation.


“It was difficult for them to have their alleged hate crimes be recognized,” Chris Kwok, an association board member and the co-executive editor of the report, told NBC News. “We think that it’s because people find it hard to think of Asian Americans as victims of hate crimes.”

Experts attribute this issue to a lack of trust between law enforcement and immigrant populations, linguistic barriers and anti-Asian bias, such as the perpetual foreigner stereotype and the scapegoating of Asian Americans.

“All of these are harmful stereotypes that lead some individuals to see Asian Americans as easy targets of race-based violence, but they also are built into the fabric of how government structures work,” said Meera E. Deo, a law professor at the Southwestern Law School in California. “So that what we report or what we perceive isn’t taken seriously or might be downplayed or dismissed.”

Following the report, advocates and lawyers also stressed that bias-related incidents targeting the Asian American community are severely undercounted.

“It’s not only beatings, or acid attacks, which some of us have heard about, but also things like verbal abuse or spitting, pushing, threats of violence,” Deo said. “All of these are things that are within the formal definition of what could be considered a hate crime if accompanied by racist language.”

Some advocates and experts criticized the Asian American Bar Association of New York’s earlier comments about bail reform, which said bail should be determined based on public safety and whether an individual is a danger to the community.

“It’s important to think carefully about the ways in which any solutions that we have don’t pit communities of color against one another,” Deo said. “I don’t think harsher, more punitive punishments are always the best solution.”

Kwok said that bail should be used in some cases but not in others, particularly in cases that cause community fear.

“We’re not saying every single one should be, because a lot of them maybe won’t be good candidates for bail,” he said.

Kwok said that judges should have some discretion over this issue.

“Cash money bail has hit Black and Latino populations disproportionately hard and we don’t want to make that worse,” he said. “But we want to balance that with public safety, particularly in this era, and that’s the conversation we want to have.”

Some advocates and legal experts decried some of the proposals and stressed long-term solutions. This includes culturally competent legal services and investment in communities of color.

Jason Wu, an attorney at The Legal Aid Society, said it’s necessary to move away from criminalization.

“We need to ask better questions about public safety, and demand solutions that address the root causes of violence,” he said. “We’ve seen time and again that the police and prisons do not keep us safe.”

Stanley Mark, senior staff attorney at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, called for legal groups to work with more community-based organizations.

“That type of work needs to be funded and encouraged,” he said. “Beyond law enforcement, as a way to try to prevent more hate crimes from occurring.”

The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, or CACF, supported some of the solutions outlined in the report, but condemned the association’s proposal on bail reform. The report also said the Asian American community has “unfairly paid the price of ‘equitable justice.’”

“We are disturbed by the AABANY report’s suggestion that some offenses should be made ineligible for bail as well as the report’s overall implication that rolling back bail reform would solve deep-seated, systemic issues like the lack of access to mental health care, housing and other core needs,” Anita Gundanna and Vanessa Leung, co-executive directors of CACF, said in a statement. “If you focus on the wrong problems, you come up with the wrong solutions.”

Kwok said that the organization is aware of the disparities of bail reform but said that the report is focused on more immediate responses to anti-Asian hate.

“We acknowledge where they’re coming from,” he said of the advocates’ concerns. “They are basically only pointing to long-term solutions, which we agree needs to be done. … Instead of talking long term, big picture, we’re talking nitty-gritty, difficult on the ground now. We think that’s the hard thing to do and that can no longer be avoided.”

BTS reportedly paid for their trip to the White House themselves — fans are not surprised



Jane Nam
Fri, June 3, 2022

K-pop sensations BTS reportedly paid out of pocket for their trip to the White House to meet with President Biden to discuss anti-Asian hate.

Washington Post contributor Soo Youn posted the news on Twitter on Tuesday.

“Oh, I asked if BTS paid for the trip or the WH paid and it was BTS. They paid their own way, this was something they wanted to do, per WH sources,” she wrote.

It came as no surprise to many netizens, who exclaimed the members were genuinely outstanding people.

“Absolutely not surprising they turned the offer down. WH uses taxpayer money for everything and the group cares deeply about the issue they were asked to speak on and would pay for it themselves,” one Twitter user wrote in a post that has garnered over 1,200 likes.

“As expected! they have been doing this (not the first time) for trips/causes they genuinely care about,” reiterated another netizen.

All seven members of BTS met with President Biden at the White House on Tuesday, the last day of AAPI Heritage Month, to discuss anti-Asian hate and issues of diversity and inclusion more broadly.


Netizens were thrilled by the fact that the Grammy-nominated boy band convinced America’s commander-in-chief to do a finger heart gesture during the landmark visit.

BTS has been known to donate generously to charitable causes, giving millions to anti-violence and anti-bullying campaigns.

While BTS’ visit was based on invitation, it is unclear whether the White House offered accommodations or any financial compensation for the event.

Featured Image via Washington Post

Tucker Carlson Mocks BTS For Speaking Out Against Anti-Asian Hate Crimes

Josephine Harvey

Tue, May 31, 2022

Tucker Carlson seems to have something against a popular Korean boy band combining forces with the White House to denounce anti-Asian hate crimes in the U.S.

The Fox News host mocked the Biden administration and BTS Tuesday after the K-pop mega stars, who have millions of fans in the U.S. and around the world, appeared at the White House to raise awareness and speak out about the rise in hate crimes and discrimination against Asian Americans in recent years.

“Things have gotten very bad for Joe Biden, both public-facing and internally. What are they doing about it? Well, they broke glass in case of emergency and invited a Korean pop group to speak at the White House today,” Carlson said, airing footage from the appearance.

“Yeah, so we got a Korean pop group to discuss anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States. Okay. Good job, guys.”

The Biden administration has been working to address the surge in violence against Asian Americans since last year. In May 2021, the president signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law, after a white shooter killed eight people — including six Asian women — at a massage spa in Georgia in March.

Carlson’s show was named “what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news” in a recent New York Times investigation about how the Fox News host stoked white fears and division and channeled it into ratings over the years. He has directed his vitriol at immigrants and people of color across the board.

In 2020, when advocates warned that former President Donald Trump’s racist names for the coronavirus were stoking anti-Asian hate, Carlson defended the president for doing so.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Most people who died of COVID in 2020 had something essential in common, study finds


Mark Lennihan/AP

Daniel Chang
Sat, June 4, 2022

Most working-age Americans who died of COVID-19 during the first year of the pandemic were so-called essential workers in labor, service and retail jobs that required on-site attendance and prolonged contact with others, according to a recently published study led by a University of South Florida epidemiologist.

The study looks back on COVID-19 deaths in 2020 and affirms what many had already known or suspected — that Americans who could not work from home and who labored in low-paying jobs with few or no benefits, such as paid sick leave and health insurance coverage, bore the brunt of deaths during the pandemic’s first year, said Jason Salemi, an associate professor in USF’s College of Public Health and co-author of the study.

Salemi said the finding, while perhaps expected, left him with two takeaways: That essential workers need more protections during an infectious disease pandemic, and that society’s desire to “return to normal” will mean different things for different people — with inequitable consequences.

“If I say I want things to return to normal, I’m in a position of advantage,” Salemi said. “I can work from home most days. I have access to a primary care physician, and paid sick leave. There are people in this study for whom that may not be the case.”

To conduct the study, Salemi and his colleagues analyzed nearly 70,000 death certificates for people ages 25 to 64 years old and who had died of COVID-19 in 2020, nearly all of which occurred before the first vaccine was authorized in December of that year.

But death certificates do not always include a decedent’s occupation, Salemi said. Instead, researchers used education attainment level, which is listed on all death certificates, as a proxy for an individual’s socioeconomic position. No education beyond high school was “low” while some college education was “intermediate” and anyone with at least a bachelor’s degree was “high.”

Researchers then used U.S. Census data on occupations held by adults in 2020 to calculate the possibility of remote work for the different groups, which were further divided by race, ethnicity, gender and age.

READ MORE: New data shows South Florida is at higher risk of COVID transmission

COVID death rates higher for lower-income Hispanic men

The study found:

▪ The death rate of low socioeconomic position adults — those whose education attainment level did not go beyond a high school diploma — was five times higher when compared to high socioeconomic position adults, and the mortality rate of intermediate socioeconomic position adults was two times higher.

▪ White women made up the largest population group considered high socioeconomic position. By comparison, nearly 60% of Hispanic men were in a low socioeconomic position.

▪ The death rate of low socioeconomic position Hispanic men was 27 times higher than high socioeconomic position white women.

Salemi said the finding that stood out for him was that among all 25- to 64-year-old adults in 2020, people in a low socioeconomic position made up about one-third of the working-age population but accounted for two-thirds of COVID-19 deaths for the same age group.

Analyzing the COVID deaths of working-age Americans

Since 2020, nearly 250,000 working-age Americans have died of COVID-19, Salemi said, though he does not know if the same mortality pattern has persisted in 2021 and 2022. Researchers intend to analyze those deaths, too, to help public health officials and lawmakers develop strategies to better protect service and retail workers.

But with new cases surging again, and three in four Florida counties now at a “high” community level of COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Salemi said this research could help motivate federal agencies, such as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, to make recommendations to reduce infectious diseases from spreading among workers.

“We need really strong worksite protections against airborne pathogens,” he said. “It’s got to go beyond, ‘In certain situations, wear a well-fitting mask.’ .... Employers can do a lot to help keep people safe. But even members of the community, and those of us lucky to be working from home, the more we can reduce community spread of the virus the more we can protect people in these positions that are in the line of fire.”

Women in Japan will only be able to get abortion pills with their partner's permission



Rebecca Moon
Thu, June 2, 2022

Japan is expected to approve abortion pills later this year although “spousal consent” will be required to receive a prescription.

Linepharma International, a British pharmaceutical company specializing in women’s sexual and reproductive health, applied for approval of their abortion pill in December 2021. The drug combines two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, and is currently being used in more than 70 other countries.

For surgical abortions, written consent from a woman’s partner is already required under Japan’s 1948 Maternal Protection Law. A senior health ministry official, Hashimoto Yasuhiro, told a parliamentary committee earlier this month that a partner’s consent is necessary, even if the abortion is done by oral medication.

Campaigners in Japan are demanding that health authorities change the rule, arguing that it violates women’s reproductive rights. A founding member of Action for Safe Abortion Japan, Tsukahara Kumi, said that obtaining a written consent from a partner can become an issue when a woman is being forced to give birth against her will by a spouse.

“For women, being forced into a pregnancy they do not want is violence and a form of torture,” Tsukahara said, according to The Guardian.

A lawmaker from the Social Democratic Party, Fukushima Mizuho, raised concerns over the potential price of the pill and is worried it may be more expensive than other countries.

“It is weird to require an approval from a spouse when taking a pill,” Fukushima said during a parliamentary hearing. “Is Japan still living in the middle ages?”

Many campaigners are arguing that Japan’s failure in approving abortion pills, which are already available in more than 70 countries, indicates the country’s lack of priority in women’s health. While oral contraceptives took around 40 years for approval in the country, Viagra, an erectile dysfunction drug, took merely six months to approve.

City of Austin prepares to decriminalize abortion if Roe v. Wade is struck down


Joseph Guzman
Tue, May 31, 2022

Story at a glance

The Supreme Court could soon overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a leaked draft opinion.

Texas — where abortion is currently legal only up to about six weeks of pregnancy — passed a trigger law in 2021 that would ban most abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

In anticipation of the potential ruling, Austin City Council members are backing a resolution to stand in the way of prosecution of so-called abortion crimes.

If the Supreme Court overturns the federal right to an abortion established by Roe v. Wade, which it is likely to do according to a leaked draft opinion, the City of Austin, Texas is standing by ready with a resolution to protect abortion seekers and providers in a state with some of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws.

The leak of a draft majority opinion earlier this month revealed the high court is poised to strike down the landmark 1973 decision, effectively eliminating abortion protections at the federal level and handing authority over abortion access to the states. Thirteen states across the country have signaled their eagerness to prohibit abortion by passing trigger laws, which will essentially ban abortions almost immediately upon Roe being overturned.

Texas — where abortion is currently legal only up to about six weeks of pregnancy — passed a trigger law in 2021 that would ban most abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned. The ban makes an exception to save a pregnant woman from severe injury or death, but makes no exceptions in the case of rape or incest. Abortion providers would face first and second-degree felony charges, steep fines and the possibility of life in prison. The law would go into effect 30 days after the Supreme Court’s ruling.

In anticipation of the potential ruling, Austin City Council Member José “Chito” Vela has proposed a resolution, the Guarding the Right to Abortion Care for Everyone Act, or the GRACE Act, to stand in the way of prosecution of so-called abortion crimes.

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

The resolution would restrict city funds from being used to investigate any kind of alleged abortion crimes and would instruct the city’s police department to treat abortion as the “lowest priority” for criminal enforcement, arrest and investigation.

“It does not directly halt enforcement, but it severely limits the ability of the city or any staff to collect or provide evidence for prosecutions. It also preemptively bans surveillance of anyone or anything related to suspected abortions outside of some limited exceptions, like coercion or force,” a spokesperson for Vela told Changing America.

Vela plans to introduce the GRACE Act for a vote “as soon as possible” once the Supreme Court publishes its decision. The resolution has three co-sponsors in addition to Vela and would require approval from all relevant city executives. Vela’s spokesperson says the council member has the approval needed to “effectively protect Austin residents.”

“Abortion will still be illegal in Austin, and it would be very difficult for any abortion providers to openly perform abortion. This resolution simply represents a commitment from the city to turning a blind eye to abortions which are not criminal in other ways – for example, coerced or forced abortions,” Vela’s spokesperson said.

Alyssa Milano calls for Biden to do more to protect abortion rights: 'Grow a pair of ovaries and act'

Suzy Byrne

·Editor, Yahoo Entertainment

Tue, May 31, 2022, 

Alyssa Milano is calling on President Biden to do more to protect abortion rights.

The actress and activist wrote an essay for the Daily Beast telling the president to "grow a pair of ovaries and act" ahead of the expected Supreme Court ruling overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. She says the Biden administration could pressure the National Archivist to publish the Equal Rights Amendment.

"Fifty years [after Roe v. Wade], women are just weeks away from losing our most basic protections and our very bodily autonomy because of the cowardice of our government and a decades-long campaign by the extreme right to control and commodify us," the Charmed star, 49, said of the leaked draft opinion. "We can’t let it stand — and the good news is that we don’t have to, if the president will simply grow a pair of ovaries and act."

Milano, who has been speaking out in protest for years as states pass restrictive abortion laws, revisited the history of pregnancy termination in the U.S., pointing out how it was legal until the late 1800s "when elected extremists criminalized our ability to control our bodies. In the decades between this dangerous government overreach and the Roe decision (and in the decades since), women fiercely fought for basic rights of American existence: the right to vote, to work, to earn equal wages, and to decide if, how and when we want to have children — rights which men have always enjoyed and profited from."

Ahead of the expected SCOTUS decision, which she said will set "women back more than 150 years, to those first anti-abortion laws in the 1800s" if Roe falls and states criminalize and further restrict abortions, she called on Biden to immediately enshrine the Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. Constitution to formally protect women's rights.

"The Equal Rights Amendment states that 'Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex," Milano wrote about the ERA, which was introduced in 1923 and passed by Congress in 1972 with a deadline that 38 state legislatures had to vote to approve by 1982. Virginia became the 38th state to ratify it in 2020, but it was past the deadline. There is been a debate as to whether it should be formally recognized.

"Is there anything more obviously discriminatory on account of sex than denying access to health care to only one sex?" asked Milano, who has been candid about her own experience with abortion. "Right now, President Biden could pressure the National Archivist to publish the ERA, making it the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. We need to be ensuring women have EQUAL rights enshrined in the Constitution, not reducing or rolling back rights they already have. It is mind-boggling that instead he is following in the footsteps of Donald Trump. Women helped elect President Biden. Now, we’re calling in our investment. He must do everything in his power to enshrine our rights as Americans and to our own bodies in the Constitution. And he has to do it today, before SCOTUS reverses Roe." (While legal opinions on the matter differ, many believe that the ERA could be the "comprehensive fix" to save Roe.)

Milano ended by saying that "the radical right" won't stop at abortion bans. LGBTQ rights and contraception rights could also be at risk, so there's the need to act now.

"Women have always been lesser in this nation," she wrote. "This fact is the antithesis of everything we are taught the United States stands for, and yet it has persisted for centuries. And unless President Biden or Congress fix it, right now, it’s about to get so much worse for us... Gather every bit of patriotism and courage you have, and join me in loudly demanding President Biden protect the women who put him where he is by pushing to enshrine equal rights in our Constitution right this second. Tomorrow might be too late."