Felicitations, Meteor readers,

ICYMI, yesterday was a national holiday, and if you did not receive paid time off from your employer, make sure to send your HR department an email letting them know you’ll be OOO tomorrow to make up for the missed observance. (It was Taylor Swift’s birthday.)

In today’s newsletter, journalist Susan Rinkunas gives us an in-depth preview of what we can expect in the fight for abortion for 2024. Also, Oprah’s weight is once again a national conversation, I stress some small stuff and, of course, a little weekend reading.

Waiting for Taylor to watch the Marilyn-Monroe-style Happy Birthday video I sent her,

Shannon Melero

EYES ON 2024

A Crucial Year Ahead for Abortion Access

Why legislative decisions will matter more than ever in the second year since Roe was overturned

BY SUSAN RINKUNAS

THIS PROTEST SIGN IS A YEAR OLD AND YET STILL RELEVANT. (PHOTO BY JEENAH MOON VIA GETTY IMAGES)

It has been nearly 18 months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and the impact of the laws that have come to life since have had devastating consequences for pregnant people. One after another, we’ve read awful stories of patients being rushed to the ICU with sepsis, nearly bleeding out in bathrooms, or having to go out of state for abortions when their fetuses don’t have skulls.

Amid all this news, it can be hard to pinpoint a bright spot, but there is one: Support for abortion has repeatedly won elections. In what would have otherwise been a sleepy off-year of races, voters were so furious about their rights being taken away that they re-elected a Democrat as Governor in Kentucky, codified abortion in Ohio, and flipped a chamber in Virginia, blocking a ban there.

Republicans know their plan to ban abortion in every state is toxic with voters, so they’re trying to deceive people from their end goal. It’s why we’ve seen conservative hand-wringing over the label “pro-life,” attempts to deflect with transphobia, and, yes, even backing away from the word “ban” in favor of “limit” or “minimum standard.”

But, according to Ryan Stitzlein, vice president of political and government relations at Reproductive Freedom for All, voters have shown a sustained fury over the abortion access crisis, and it stands to reason that they’ll keep it up. A major problem, however, is that our democracy isn’t the most democratic, and the majority doesn’t always prevail. (See: 2016.) Amid all the righteous anger, there’s a lurking threat that a Republican president could ban abortion nationwide.

“This is not us being ‘hysterical.’ This is real,” Stitzlein says. “They’re not going to stop until they’ve completely banned abortion.”

As we close out another year of egregious cutbacks to abortion access, here’s what we can expect in 2024.

IN OTHER NEWS

• Which came first, our obsession with Oprah’s weight or Oprah herself leading a national conversation about weight? It’s hard to say, but this week, the billionaire icon announced that she’s taking a semaglutide that’s helping her maintain her weight loss. On her decision, she told People, “I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself.” Oprah’s journey with weight has long been the stuff of headlines, and in case you don’t remember the infamous 1988 episode in which she wheeled 67 pounds of animal fat in a little red wagon to represent the weight she had lost—well, our In Retrospect hosts do remember, and they made a whole episode about what it meant, and how it shaped our national anxieties about our bodies.

• A new report from the United Nations has found that women in Afghanistan who file complaints of gender-based violence are, in some cases, being moved into prisons, allegedly for their own protection. Due to the country’s lack of women’s shelters or domestic violence resources, local officials have been authorized to hold women behind bars if their safety cannot be guaranteed in their home or in the home of another relative.

• The U.S. is holding the sale of 20,000 rifles to the Israeli military as it awaits assurances that these weapons won’t be used to carry out violence in the West Bank. I’m no high-level politician, but maybe if we don’t want those rifles used to displace more civilians, we should just (crazy idea here) not sell them at all?

SWEATIN’ THE SMALL STUFF

Sometimes it’s the other news that sticks in your craw. Or maybe it’s just me?

• During an acceptance speech for his shiny new star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Zac Efron gave a nod to his humble High School Musical roots saying, “I sing the songs in the shower.” My guy, don’t pretend we don’t all remember that you famously didn’t do any of the singing in the first film, which has the best songs of the entire HSM franchise. (Fight me, I’m right.) Good for Zac Efron for getting that star but in the hearts of the HSM faithful, half of it belongs to the person who really had us all soarin’ and flyin’: Drew Seeley.

• ESPN put together a list of the 50 best women soccer players of the year, and shockingly, I don’t have many complaints. HOWEVER! I think it’s criminal that Rose Lavelle didn’t even crack the top 30, and I cannot be convinced that a #47 ranking for the goddess of speed is appropriate.

• Love Is Blind is coming back for two more seasons. Normally this would have me jumping up and down like Tom Cruise on some poor couch, but given the lawsuits against the show’s production company, this might have been a good time to close the pods for good.

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WEEKEND READING 📚

• On fighting for equality: Over the years, the University of Oregon has pumped out a stream of talented student athletes who have become lucrative investments for the school (i.e. Sabrina Ionescu). But as the rules around money for student athletes start to change, is Oregon trying to find a way around Title IX? (Power Plays)

• On the drug of the year: Has any person, place, or thing had a better 2023 than Ozempic? (The New Yorker)

• On weird fitness: What’s the next level of training for yoga teachers looking to set themselves apart? Cadaver workshops. (The New York Times)

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