Next they came for the IUD users

May 28, 2026

The abortion goalposts keep moving ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

May 28, 2026

Hello, Meteor readers,

Y’all. I caught up on part one of the “Summer House” reunion last night, and I just…🚬😮‍💨. Obviously, I was too emotionally exhausted to put together a coherent newsletter, so I put the bat signal up, and Nona is here to come to all of our rescues.

In today’s newsletter, North Carolina’s absolutely bonkers abortion bill marks a new era for anti-choice rhetoric. Plus, what the DOJ’s campaign of retribution against E. Jean Carroll means for her.

Reunions should be fun,

Shannon Melero

WHAT’S GOING ON

Abortion opponents go for blood: You may have gotten wind of a proposed law out of North Carolina, the gruesome language of which belongs in a dystopian novel. HB1232 would grant a fertilized egg full personhood and not only permit the death penalty for women who get abortions but also legalize vigilante violence against anyone seeking to destroy a fertilized egg (a category which could include abortion providers, yes, but also anyone who uses an IUD, does IVF, or even drives a patient to an abortion clinic).

This bill has an almost zero chance of passing, especially after a social media outcry that caused one of the bill’s co-sponsors to remove his name (but we saw you there, Rep. Ben Moss of Richmond). Still, the proposed law is worth pausing on, because it reveals a lot about the anti-abortion movement’s true intentions—and just how much its polite mask has fallen away in recent years.

Even just a decade ago, anti-abortion activists were united in their attempt to make their extremist goals sound less so. This often manifested as a form of double-speak that classified abortions as murder, yet did not explicitly seek to punish the people who got them as murderers. If anyone revealed themselves to be ignorant of this logic—like when then-candidate Donald Trump told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews in 2016 that there should be “some form of punishment” for women who’ve had abortions—the right wing would jump in to make clear that they viewed these women not as criminals, but victims who deserve sympathy. (Even Trump, notoriously averse to apologies, was forced to walk back his abortion comments.) Feminist journalists like Jessica Valenti and Irin Carmon have been drawing attention to the punitive nature of the anti-abortion movement for years, and conservatives had been criminalizing pregnancy for individuals way before Dobbs. But until recently, the official line of GOP politicians was that women were not the targets of anti-choice legislation.

How times have changed. Just in the last couple of years, a growing number of bills have popped up that would criminalize a person having an abortion. Proposed legislation in Montana threatened women who travel out-of-state for abortion care with up to five years in prison. Red states continue to regularly introduce bills classifying abortion as homicide—a crime, of course, that generally carries stiff penalties. A bill out of South Carolina, which passed committee in April and is awaiting a vote in the state Senate, would explicitly sentence women who’ve had abortions to prison time. Again, none of them have passed yet. But just a few years ago, virtually no politician on the right would even state these goals out loud, let alone draft legislation incorporating them.

And this is how extreme abortion rhetoric—much like online misogyny and “household voting”—slowly gets normalized. Years ago, fetal personhood proponents seemed like fringe wackos; now their language is embedded in state laws across the country. Most actual people, to be clear, still oppose punishing abortion patients, but they’re increasingly witnessing respectable-looking lawmakers in suits and ties, or pundits behind podiums, talking about it. I’ve always been of the opinion that when you really decode most conservative talking points, however rote they sound, the results are pretty damn violent. Now there’s no decoding needed.

Abortion is no exception. If powerful zealots devoid of empathy really believe abortion is murder, and that the life of a fertilized egg trumps that of the woman carrying it, it’s only a matter of time before they follow that position to its logical conclusion. Our job is to take them at their word, and keep being appropriately shocked by their bloodthirsty language.

—Nona Willis Aronowitz

AND:

A survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York finds that Americans are facing higher levels of food insecurity now than they did in the summer of 2020, when unemployment rates were in the double digits. The full report points to a number of factors, including rising food costs, stagnant wages, and a “K-shaped economy” that has seen lower-income individuals make fewer financial gains than previous years. Amy Breitman, who runs a food bank in Georgia, told NPR, “People are sitting in a 2-to-3-mile line the night before a distribution starts. They’re sleeping in their cars.”
The Department of Justice is opening a criminal inquiry into E. Jean Carroll to determine whether or not she committed perjury when she claimed she did not receive outside financial support for her lawsuits against Donald Trump (which, we remind you, she won handily). If this isn’t retribution for a man scorned and found liable for assault, then I don’t know what is.
People detained at Delaney Hall, a brutal immigration detention center in New Jersey, are on day five of a hunger strike to protest their poor living conditions and bring attention to the absence of due process. One man who was freed from Delaney tells The Guardian, “We are not criminals. We are people who enter [the facility] with a clean record. We pay our taxes. [We are] fathers. Mothers. Spouses of citizens with existing petitions.”
Ten years ago this month, Erika Christensen anonymously gave a viral interview to Jezebel about obtaining an abortion at 32 weeks pregnant. Speaking to Autonomy News, Christensen shares what came after virality.
Big shout-out to gay Kentucky middle school graduate Daniel Mattingly, who was the speaker at his graduation and said, “This school is built on racism, sexism, and homophobia. I encourage everyone here today to stand up for yourself, even if it makes [a] scene. This school is fucking ridiculous.” It takes a lot of courage to say all of that in a state working overtime to suppress the queer community. But LGBTQ+ advocates are always working harder.
Drag queen and environmental activist Pattie Gonia is being sued by the company Patagonia for copyright infringement. In an Instagram post uploaded yesterday, Pattie Gonia broke her silence on the so-called $1 lawsuit.

WHY DON’T I EVER LOOK THIS GOOD WHEN I HIKE? (VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Do you ever wonder how much professional women’s hockey players make? Wonder no more. Let’s buy some hockey tickets and get these women paid a little extra next season, yeah? Yeah.
Donald Trump is threatening to attend a Knicks game next month. Somebody get Danhausen on the phone.
Olivia Rodrigo responds to the debate around her baby doll dresses and informs the older men asking her about her clothes that she’s paying homage to Courtney Love and Kathleen Hanna. Icons love icons.

She’s back.
Two women (and Virgin Galactic) are bringing menstruation to space. And studying it!
Happy the elephant, a longtime resident of the Bronx Zoo, was euthanized this morning. She was 55 years old, first arrived at the zoo in 1977, and was beloved by all who saw her.
Here’s a word you may not have known you needed: matrescence.

WEEKEND READING 📚

On changing tides: In? Matriarchy. On its way out, albeit slowly? Patriarchy. (The Persistent)

On screen: Why the rom-com “One Night Only” should give all of us some pause. (The KHole)

On that book: The novel Yesteryear hits different for Latine readers. (Subestack)

And speaking of that book! Thanks to all of you who joined us last week for the first but don’t-worry-not-last Meteor book club. We loved meeting you, hearing your thoughts about Natalie and Caleb, and generally chewing the feminist fat together. If you missed it and want to join future gatherings, send us an email.