Top Stories This Week

• What’s happening at Woodhull;
• Age verification laws;
• Online censorship and sex ed;
• Medication abortion on college campuses;
• A lawsuit against prosecutors over a murder charge for abortion;
• A “Strippers’ Bill of Rights” in Washington state; and
• Woodhull’s take on improving access to gender-affirming care in Hawaii.

Online censorship continues to harm educators, sex-positive creators, marginalized communities, and adults from every walk of life. So, we teamed up with our friends at SIECUS to create
SIECUS If/Then: Online Censorship, a resource in which we:

*describe the specific harms of online censorship and
*examine these harms in the context of the intersection between sex ed, human rights, sexual freedom, and censorship.

This effort underscores the vital role of comprehensive, progressive sex education, making the case for why we must all resist policies that restrict access in ways that violate our Constitutional and Human Rights.

United, we do more than oppose censorship; we advocate for unfettered freedom, education, and access!

Last Chance to Register! 

Jamila Aisha, Mandy Salley’s co-host for the April Censorship Series program, explains: 

“As a black woman crafting a career in sexology, sexual liberation, and expression, developing this episode was very meaningful for me. The thought that sparked the idea that became our topic came to me when I was analyzing how censorship impacts people within the black community. I wanted an opportunity to create a space where black women could discuss how our bodies are criticized and censored and how we are censored within the black community, specifically when we express ourselves sexually with Woodhull’s supporters.

Next month’s censorship episode, Silenced Perspectives: The Unequal Effects of Censorship Across Communities, was born through the collaboration of these thoughts and ideas. I can’t wait to share it with all of you.” 

(Collage via 404 Media/Screenshot via Pornhub/IDs via dpv.texas.gov)

Age Verification Laws Drag Us Back to the Dark Ages of the Internet (404 Media) 

Our right to sexual freedom includes our ability to consume pornography without facing needless censorship like that imposed by age verification laws. Emanuel Meiberg and Samantha Cole write: “The fundamental flaw with the age verification bills and laws passing rapidly across the country is the delusional, unfounded belief that putting hurdles between people and pornography is going to actually prevent them from viewing porn. What will happen, and is already happening, is that people–including minors–will go to unmoderated, actively harmful alternatives that don’t require handing over a government-issued ID to see people have sex. Meanwhile, performers and companies that are trying to do the right thing will suffer.” Read more.

(Illustration by Jaqui Vanliew/Getty Images)

Inside America’s School Internet Censorship Machine (WIRED) 

As we at the Woodhull Freedom Foundation and SIECUS recently explored in a jointly-authored resource, if you care about online censorship, you should care about sex ed. Unfortunately, accessing sex ed on the internet is increasingly difficult. Todd Feathers and Dhruv Mehrotra write: “Thanks in large part to a two-decade-old federal anti-porn law, school districts across the US restrict what students see online using a patchwork of commercial web filters that block vast and often random swathes of the internet. Companies like GoGuardian sell software that governs students’ internet use in thousands of US school districts. As the national debate over school censorship focuses on controversial book-banning laws, a WIRED investigation reveals how these automated web filters can perpetuate dangerous censorship on an even greater scale.” Read more.

(Cage Rivera/Rewire News Group illustration)

Medication Abortion Belongs on College Campuses. Schools Need to Step Up. (Rewire News Group) 

Everyone, everywhere deserves meaningful abortion access. Universities are uniquely posed to respond to relentless attacks on our right to reproductive freedom. Laila Salaam writes: “Since my graduation from George Washington University last May, a campus movement has gained steam: a student-driven campaign demanding the university administration provide medication abortion access on campus. [...] University health centers are uniquely positioned to reshape the abortion access landscape across the country.” Read more.

(Truthout)

Texas Woman Sues Prosecutors Over Murder Charge for Abortion (Truthout) 

The criminalization of abortion is an unconscionable attack on our human rights, and many are raising new legal challenges. Zane McNeill writes: “Lizelle Gonzalez, a Texas woman who self-managed an abortion in 2022, is suing local Starr County prosecutors for more than $1 million in damages for ‘deprivation of liberty, reputational harm, public humiliation, distress, pain, and suffering.’ Gonzalez was arrested and charged with murder after a hospital reported her to the district attorney’s office following her visit seeking medical care related to bleeding.” Read more.

(AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Washington Strippers Win Bill of Rights (In These Times) 

Strippers, like all workers, should have safe working conditions. A recent bill in Washington state, SB 6105, creates a “Strippers’ Bill of Rights.” Kim Kelly writes: “Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill into law last week described as ​“creating safer working conditions in adult entertainment establishments” and known popularly as the Strippers’ Bill of Rights. [...] It may seem simple, but the bill’s passage marks the culmination of years of hard work from Strippers Are Workers, a dancer-led advocacy group that has been fighting to pass industry-specific labor legislation since 2018.” Read more.

(kyle-a0KL1Um0wBA-unsplash)

Woodhull’s Take: Improving Access to Gender-Affirming Care in Hawaii (Woodhull’s Sex & Politics Blog) 

Access to quality, comprehensive healthcare – including gender-affirming care – is a human right. We at the Woodhull Freedom Foundation share our take on improving access to gender-affirming care in Hawaii: “Thankfully, lawmakers are considering a bill that would remove the arbitrary and needless obstacle of an in person appointment for people wanting to obtain testosterone. HB 2079 proposes to relax the in person requirement for drugs prescribed as part of gender-affirming care. Critically, HB 2079 would also extend the protections of Hawaii’s ‘shield’ law—which ‘guards abortion patients, providers, and anyone who helps someone get an abortion from out-of-state legal action’—to gender-affirming care providers and parents or guardians of minors who receive care.” Read more.

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