Perhaps the most shocking accusation from Britney Spears’ searing court hearing was that her guardians forced her to have an IUD—an implanted contraceptive device—even though she wants to have children. But it didn’t come as a surprise to reproductive rights experts who say such arrangements are all too common—and even worse than what the pop star revealed. Current laws allow guardians a huge amount of power […]
Emily Shugerman
60 posts
On the morning of March 11, 2018, five fertility center clients received an email alerting them to an “unfortunate incident” at their San Francisco clinic. A malfunction in the tank storing thousands of eggs and embryos had caused a temporary loss in liquid nitrogen, exposing them to unsafely high temperatures. The tissue they had harvested and stored in hopes of a future pregnancy might have been […]
After a court declared him the sole legal parent of a 6-year-old son, real estate mogul Jordan Schnitzer allegedly threatened to have his ex-girlfriend and egg donor arrested if she tried to see the boy who calls her “Mommy.” “The wool got pulled out from underneath us in a pretty big way, and I’ve got a son left wondering why mommy didn’t pick him up,” the […]
Dr. Lorna Breen survived COVID-19, but the pandemic still ended up taking her life. Last spring, Breen—a bright, exceptionally driven 49-year-old who supervised the New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital emergency department—recovered from the coronavirus, only to be hit with a wave of depression that landed her in a psychiatric ward. In the following days, her brother-in-law Corey Feist told The Daily Beast, she kept articulating one fear: […]
The owner of a Nashville hat shop that sparked outcry online for selling gold star-shaped patches reading “NOT VACCINATED” appears to have been in attendance at the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S capitol, according to posts on her social media accounts. Gigi Gaskins, the 60-year-old owner of hatWRKS hat shop, stoked backlash this week when she posted a photo of herself on Instagram wearing the […]
A judge in Sanders County, Montana, on Tuesday dropped deliberate homicide charges against a woman who killed her abusive ex-husband, in a surprising win for advocates who argued she should not have to live with the threat of prosecution hanging over her. Rachel Bellesen, a 38-year-old coordinator at the Abbie Shelter for domestic violence survivors, shot and killed her former husband, Jacob Glace, on Oct. 8 […]
In California right now, you can get an abortion without speaking to a single other human being. You log onto a website—mychoix.co—put in your health information, answer some questions, and wait for an email from a clinician letting you know if you’ve been approved. If you are, an online pharmacy will ship you a package of mifepristone and misoprostol—a two-pill regime that is safer than many […]
Texas lawmakers have sent Gov. Greg Abbott a bill that would allow anyone in the state to sue over an abortion performed past six weeks—essentially turning right-to-lifers into courthouse vigilantes. The law is a twist on the increasingly popular “heartbeat” laws that ban abortions past the date that a heartbeat can be detected—usually around six weeks’ gestation. (Experts say most embryos do not have a heart […]
Just before 8 p.m. on Oct. 8, 2020, a 911 dispatcher in Sanders County, Montana, received a strange phone call. The woman on the other end said she was calling from a gas station in Hot Springs—a tiny, rural town located on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Her voice was shaky, her delivery broken. She could not give her exact address. But one thing came through loud […]
The abuse was a secret Tanisha Johnson says she kept for years. First, she says, she felt too unstable to report it: debilitated from the daily migraines for which she had gone to the doctor in the first place; addicted to the opioids she claims he purposefully overprescribed for her. Later, she worried she wouldn’t be believed. Who would take the word of a queer Black […]
A Rhode Island judge is allowing three young men to return home in a rape case that has divided the small town of South Kingstown, saying their continued pre-trial detention was “neither justified nor justifiable.” The case centers on the events of March 1 and 2, where the three men and one juvenile, who was released on bail earlier this month, met up with a former […]
While the U.S. has passed many happy pandemic milestones in recent weeks, Hawaii this week passed a grim one: The first child under the age of 11 passed away from COVID-19 complications in the Aloha state while vacationing with his vaccinated parents. The young boy, whose exact age was not released, began showing symptoms hours after arriving in Hawaii, according to health officials. Both of the […]
Surgeons at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago have performed the first lung transplant on an American COVID-19 survivor using the lungs of another person known to have recovered from the disease. The recipient—a 60-year-old health-care worker from Illinois—was placed on life support after being diagnosed with COVID in May, according to the hospital. He was transferred to Northwestern and spent a week on the transplant list before […]
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) is trashing Facebook and Twitter’s response to the harassment of pregnant women on their platforms, calling it “out-of-date, worn-out, and woefully inadequate.” “Vague content moderation policies, ineffective fact checking, inconsistent enforcement, and meaningless labels are cold comfort to the women continuously assailed by vile anti-vaccine hate and life-threatening falsehoods,” the senator said in a statement to The Daily Beast. Blumenthal sent letters […]
Late last month, the founding members of Time’s Up Healthcare held a meeting to discuss what, exactly, they were doing. The group—an offshoot of the glitzy nonprofit founded to combat sexism in Hollywood—had been largely inactive for over a year, hosting only a handful of meetings and sunsetting multiple promising projects. As the pandemic raged, and members felt less and less supported, founders had begun writing […]
A Florida man who challenged police to “find the body” in his Boynton Beach home was arrested Saturday when his wife’s remains were found in his backyard. The victim, Mary Stella Gomez-Mullet, was reported missing Feb. 20, when a friend called police to say she’d last spoken to her by phone two days earlier, while Gomez-Mullet was en route to Colon’s house. The friend later revealed […]
Founding members of Time’s Up Healthcare are fleeing the anti-discrimination organization en masse over the group’s handling of explosive allegations that a co-founder brushed off complaints of sexual harassment by a co-worker. At least five co-founders of the activist group, part of the larger Time’s Up organization created during the MeToo movement, announced they were stepping down in the last 24 hours. “Bravery must be demonstrated […]
A growing number of activists and lawmakers have called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to step down following multiple allegations of sexual harassment against him. Notably absent are the powerful women’s groups that supported his election. All three of the women’s groups who endorsed Cuomo over progressive challenger Cynthia Nixon in 2018 called for an independent investigation of the allegations—an arrangement to which the governor has already […]
An already beleaguered U.S. vaccine roll-out has hit a new snag: Thousands of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine around the country are being dumped after being stored at the wrong temperature. More than 4,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine were wasted in Maine on Tuesday, when clinics opened their deliveries to find a red X on each of the vials, signifying that the vaccine had reached […]
A COVID-19 outbreak, pissed-off customers, and a public fight with local government. For a resort chain that promises “a no-worries vacation,” Sandals Resorts seems to be plagued with them. Earlier this week, the Barbados Health Ministry de-listed the Sandals Barbados Resort and Spa as an official “quarantine hotel”—one of few locations where newcomers to the island can stay while awaiting the results of two negative PCR […]
In the face of a court order and nearly 2 million coronavirus cases in the state, a California church is still planning to host indoor services for Christmas. The church, Calvary Chapel in San Jose, has been cited multiple times for breaking local health rules that prohibit indoor gatherings, including for religious services. But Pastor Mike McClure has so far refused to pay the fines or […]
Racist comments from board members. A contractor referring to undocumented immigrants as “illegals.” Failing to take staff complaints seriously. It may sound like life at a stodgy, backwards corporate office, but workers say that’s what it’s like at a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Pennsylvania. This week, the entire staff of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Pennsylvania signed onto an open letter asking Executive Director Emily Callen to […]
Millions of pandemic-weary Americans are expected to head to the airport next week and board flights so they can spend Thanksgiving with family and friends. The loved ones of Eduard Faktorovich have a message for them: Stay home. A successful former travel agent, Faktorovich was thrilled when he landed a job as a TSA agent at Denver International Airport two years ago “because that was part […]
Fox News host Tucker Carlson opened his show Wednesday by proclaiming that “truth really matters more than ever.” What he was about to report was “not a theory,” he said, adding: “It happened and we can prove it.” But two days later, he opened with an apology. One of the voters he claimed had cast a ballot from the grave on Friday’s episode—claims that were amplified […]
The victim was 15 years old when she says church elders called her into a room with her mother and stepfather, sat her down, and made her listen to a recording of her own rape. A lifelong Jehovah’s Witness, the girl—who we’ll call Anna—says she was sexually assaulted by an older church member on multiple occasions. But when the church learned of it, they decided to […]
Last Tuesday night, as election results slowly trickled in from around the country, an eclectic group of women came together for a Zoom call. They were of all different ages, from all around the country—conservative states like North Carolina, swing states like Ohio, reliably blue ones like New York. Most of them had never met each other. But they had one thing in common: All of […]
It’s still unclear whether Donald Trump will pull off the kind of poll-defying, frenzy-inducing victory he did in 2016. But this year’s election results hold another surprise victory—this time, for Republican women. While Republicans were largely left out of 2018’s “Year of the Woman,” when 126 Democratic women and just 20 GOP women were elected to Congress, they are on track for a record-breaking year in […]
Coronavirus rates in Wisconsin are at an all-time high, but a group that calls themselves “pro-life” is attempting to block the governor’s “safer at home” order so they can continue holding fundraisers. Pro-Life Wisconsin, an anti-abortion group known for its bold stands on issues like buying Girl Scout cookies, joined with a local bar and grill owner Tuesday to appeal a court decision allowing Gov. Tony […]
The last few months of reproductive rights in America have looked like a cheap Handmaid’s Tale rip-off: a rushed nomination of a conservative judge to the Supreme Court; the president spreading lies about “late-term” abortions; and, in a cinematic flourish, the spread of a deadly pandemic that shuttered abortion clinics in multiple states. But amid this reproductive dystopia, abortion-access organizations have quietly introduced modern solutions to […]
In the best of times, the bar exam is stressful—a two-day marathon that determines whether law school graduates will be able to practice the career they spent three years and a mountain of cash pursuing. But this year, test-takers say, it was nothing short of inhumane. Nearly a dozen graduates who spoke to The Daily Beast described the exam—which many places administered online this year, for […]
Late last month, Arizona State University placed dozens of students and four Greek chapters on interim suspension, pending an investigation of their alleged violations of COVID-19 safety protocols. The photos displayed in a local news broadcast that night—dozens of students packed together, maskless, on a boat; sorority sisters packing together for rush week—were shocking. But even more surprising was the revelation that they hadn’t been unearthed […]
Just two weeks after going remote because of a COVID-19 spike, the University of Wisconsin Madison is resuming in-person activities, despite what Gov. Tony Evers described as a “near-exponential” increase in coronavirus cases in the state. UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced Wednesday that the 45,000-student school would return to classroom instruction and reopen some dining, recreation and library functions. The next day, Wisconsin reported the highest […]
Co-workers say Shyla Pennington, a longtime Florida teacher’s aide, was a natural with her students—patient, kind, and committed to each child as if they were her own. Pennington, who worked for almost 20 years in the Volusia County School District, lived with her brother, Gerald Jones, a paramedic whom community members described as “selfless” and “devoted” to protecting other people. This weekend, both died of COVID-19. […]
Faced with a U.S. Treasury Department report linking him to a Russian agent, Rudy Giuliani defended himself Saturday by claiming he had no idea that Ukrainian lawmaker and conspiracy-peddler Andriy Derkach was a foreign operative. In an interview Saturday on AM Joy, the president’s personal attorney refused to directly answer questions from interviewer Jonathan Capehart about how he could have been in the dark about Derkach’s […]
The college town of Pullman, Washington, is in the midst of a COVID-19 crisis. It has one of the highest per capita infection rates in the country; the National Guard was called in to help with testing; and Washington State University asked students to stay on campus last weekend to avoid spreading the virus. And yet, last Friday, more than two dozen people gathered in the […]
The mayor of Tuscaloosa is letting bars near the University of Alabama reopen on Tuesday, even though the school just reported more than 800 new cases. In a press release, Mayor Walt Maddox citied a “positive trend” in results, saying an overall decline in community positivity rates “provides an opportunity for a limited reopening of bars which have sacrificed a great deal to protect our healthcare […]
Across the country, as college students return to campus with masks and hand sanitizer, fraternities and sororities are doing what they’ve always done: drinking and partying. At the University of Washington this summer, 137 students living in frat houses tested positive for the coronavirus after hosting raucous parties that violated their own internal guidelines. At the University of Alabama, students completed an entirely virtual rush process […]
A longtime employee of the Iowa Department of Public Health claims she was forced to resign after responding to routine public records requests about the coronavirus pandemic. In a press conference Thursday after she filed a wrongful discharge lawsuit, former IDPH spokesperson Polly Carver-Kimm claimed the governor’s office chose to use information from her department “in the way that would best serve the governor’s agenda and […]
Almost as quickly as she was installed as the FDA’s spokeswoman, Emily Miller is now out. The controversial PR maven, a former reporter for right-wing cable network One America News and vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, was removed Friday by FDA commissioner Stephen M. Hahn after less than two weeks on the job, according to the The New York Times. The FDA did not respond […]
The University of Alabama made headlines this week with the shocking announcement that more than 500 students, faculty and staff had tested positive for the coronavirus in the first five days of classes. But professors at the university say they were just as disturbed by emails from the administration telling them not to speak up about outbreaks. In an email to the politics department, professors were […]
The email from the principal had a lighthearted, friendly tone, but the news she delivered was alarming: Three more students at Creekview High School in Canton, Georgia, had tested positive for the coronavirus—the fourth such letter sent to parents that week. That out of the way, she then moved on to what she called a “distraction,” noting that the high school volleyball team would be playing […]
Citing health concerns, the president of the National Organization for Women stepped down Sunday, amid a flurry of allegations of racism at the nation’s oldest and largest feminist organization. In an email to the NOW board, state presidents, and staff on Sunday night, President Toni Van Pelt announced she would be stepping down with two weeks’ notice effective Aug. 28. Vice President Christian Nunes will take […]
Shots rang out in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday as hundreds of members of dueling militia groups faced off during a planned protest against police brutality. The march was initially planned by the Not Fucking Around Coalition—an all-Black armed militia founded by Atlanta-based rapper and DJ John “Jay” Johnson—to protest the death of 26-year-old Black woman Breonna Taylor at the hands of Louisville cops. The “Three Percenter” […]
As the nation locked down for the coronavirus pandemic and some states used the virus as an excuse to further restrict abortion access, women around the country became concerned they might not be able to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. A new study suggests many of them may have turned to at-home options. The study, released Tuesday by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, analyzed […]
Furious that the National Organization for Women has yet to remove President Toni Van Pelt over allegations of racism, a group of state chapter leaders have started a social media campaign to push her out of office. Over the month of July, the California NOW chapter is hosting Facebook live streams with 20 other state chapter leaders who will demand Van Pelt’s resignation and discuss their […]
Gene Taylor thought he was playing it safe when he allowed preseason football practices at Kansas State University to start on June 15. It was two weeks later than some other teams had started practicing—a significant setback in the hyper-competitive Big 12 conference. Every athlete was quarantined for at least a week after they arrived, then tested for the virus. Those who tested negative underwent daily […]
When Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced she would sign a mask-wearing mandate Wednesday, she wasn’t just protecting her citizens—she was adding fire to a growing revolt over Gov. Brian Kemp’s refusal to require face coverings in Georgia. “Atlanta is going to do it today because the fact of the matter is that COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on our city, specifically black and brown communities with […]
Natalia Marques was supposed to be touring apartments with her friend this week, in preparation for her final year at Sonoma State University. Instead—thanks to a new order from Immigration and Customs Enforcement—the 25-year-old economics major spent most of Monday contemplating how to pack up four years of her life and move back to Brazil in the middle of a global pandemic. “I am so close […]
Arizona set a record Wednesday for new coronavirus cases, and 90 percent of the state’s ICU beds are filled. But that’s not stopping some gym owners from ignoring new lockdown rules and opening for business—prompting Gov. Doug Ducey to launch a crackdown on rogue fitness fanatics. Ducey released an executive order Monday shutting down all bars, gyms, theaters, water parks, and inner tubing locations until at […]
The Supreme Court has struck down a Louisiana abortion law that opponents say would have closed all but one abortion clinic in the state and had lasting repercussions for reproductive rights across the country. The Louisiana law, known as Act 620, would have required abortion providers to have the ability to admit patients at local hospitals. Supporters said the legislation promoted safety and continuity of care; […]
Two National Organization for Women board members say the group is retaliating against them and seven others for speaking up about racism within the iconic organization. The nine board members—including all four women of color on the board—previously called for President Toni Van Pelt’s resignation after a Daily Beast investigation revealed widespread allegations of racism in the group’s chapters and national headquarters. Now, according to board […]
Nine national board members of the National Organization for Women are calling on the president, Toni Van Pelt, to resign after a Daily Beast investigation revealed a pattern of racism at the storied women rights group. The revolt comes as the organization’s black vice president says she has also been the subject of discrimination and tokenism—and was not even personally consulted before NOW sent out a […]
Monica Weeks knew she was taking a risk when she ran for vice president of the National Organization for Women. She was young—29 years old—and campaigning on the first all-women-of-color ticket in the organization’s 50-year history. Her friends thought the group was old-fashioned, and her mother, an immigrant from Cuba, was anxious about her taking on such a high-profile role. But recent family events, coupled with […]
An appeals court ruled against a Michigan barber who’s become a totem for the anti-lockdown movement—but he’s still fighting against safety precautions meant to stem the coronavirus that has killed more than 100,000 Americans. Karl Manke, an Owosso barber who has brazenly defied coronavirus shutdown orders from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, was too busy with customers Friday morning to answer questions about the Michigan Court of Appeals’ […]
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she and her husband regret what she described as his “failed attempt at humor” when he invoked her position while allegedly asking a dock manager to get the family boat ready before Memorial Day. The conversation—which came to light when the dock manager posted about it on Facebook—was seized on by Whitmer’s opponents as an example of hypocrisy by a Democrat […]
Nearly three months into the coronavirus pandemic, and despite the deaths of more than 100 nurses from COVID-19, the majority of U.S. nurses say they are still not getting adequate protective equipment. A survey of nearly 23,000 nurses, conducted by National Nurses United between April 15 and May 10, found a whopping 87 percent were still having to reuse single-use respirator masks with COVID-19 patients. More […]
A lawsuit filed Monday describes a prominent international hedge fund as a Mad Men-esque workplace, where male traders described women as “bitches” and “cunts” and publicly rated their appearance on the trading room floor. The complaint against Advent Capital Management by former employee Courtney Robb claims the company’s top brass allowed the behavior to continue and retaliated against her when she complained. “This case demonstrates that […]
A British father-of-two and a 27-year-old woman have been charged after a woman’s body was found “sawed in half” and shoved into suitcases in a forest outside Birmingham, England, according to local reports. The remains of an unidentified woman were found near a quarry in the Forest of Dean on Tuesday night, after a member of the public reported a vehicle driving erratically in the area, […]
Authorities said they’ve found a personal item belonging to a missing Colorado woman—the first break in a fruitless five-day search for the mom-of-two that has so far stumped investigators. Suzanne Morphew, 49, disappeared last Sunday while on a bike ride outside Maysville, Colorado. She was first reported missing by a neighbor that evening. Search crews of more than 100 investigators, eight tracking dogs and four drones, […]
President Donald Trump’s Saturday morning started like so many of his mornings do: with a very early Twitter tirade. The president praised lockdown protesters harassing a local TV reporter, retweeted a cartoon depicting Rep. Adam Schiff as the Joker, and lauded a video of a right-wing columnist who was shunned by conservatives for supporting a Holocaust denier. In a spree of at least 28 tweets starting […]