About my Substack

WELCOME -

Do you remember Tuesday November 8 , 2016 and Friday June 22, 2022? It is because of the news earthquakes of those two dates, that I will now be writing this FREE Substack.

On the first date, America elected Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton, who would have been the first female president. It was Trump’s election which set in motion the second date. The second date is when Trump fulfilled his campaign promise and “killed Roe.”

After successfully nominating three ultra conservative judges to the Supreme Court, they joined with the other ring wing judges already on the bench and ended Roe V Wade with the Dobbs decision on June 22, 2022.

Now, I am writing this FREE Substack to keep you filled in on the bombs dropping from every state on every aspect of women’s reproductive freedom as well the new pledges that are part of Trump’s platform for 2025, if re-elected.

But I will also share the uplifting stories of the warriors stepping up to fight back against the onslaught - whether they are women who have bravely fled for their health and lives to abortion friendly states, or about the political and healthcare leaders who are holding firm on the reproductive ramparts.

I know that there are lots of you who are just as freaked about what is going on as I am and you want to be informed and also to find out what you can do to join the fight. I’ll deliver on the news and I’ll opinionate about it all, plus give you suggestions on effective action you can take.

Whether, it’s fear that you won’t be able to make your own reproductive choices or you have daughters like me or grand daughters, friends, sisters, nieces that you are worried sick about, there is much that you can do.

But before I go any further, I just have to put it out there, that the most consequential thing you can do to protect women you care about is to Vote for every Democratic candidate from the president, to members of Congress, to your governors, judges, members of your state legislatures to your state attorney generals and secretaries of state. You have to vote for Democrats up and down the ticket this coming November.

You have to make reproductive freedom a priority in your voting decision.

There is only one party today committed to ensuring that women have reproductive freedom, which includes access to abortions, contraception, IVF and even surrogacy and that’s the Democratic party.

On the other hand, Donald Trump has said that he supports every ban and every crazy anti abortion law in every state that implements them. He’s already said that he is ‘looking’ at contraception and his right wing supporters already are claiming that birth control like ‘the Pill’ and the IUD actually cause abortions. ( GUESS WHAT - THEY DON’T!)

And if he’s elected as president, the situation for every woman in this country whether she plans on getting pregnant, undergoing IVF or just maintaining healthy reproductive organs, will get worse. WAY WORSE. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer but I’ll be telling you why that is, in upcoming columns.

There are some excellent Substacks out there that talk about attacks on reproductive choice like Jessica Valenti’s Abortion Every Day but I hope to add to your knowledge and conversation. I also will veer sometimes into talking about the very real, very serious threat to democracy that we also face.

I’ve spent my entire career communicating with women as the Editor-in-Chief of Flare, YM, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, USWeekly and HollywoodLife.com. 

I’d love to be able to talk to you about How To Put Together a Summer wardrobe for $100 or about Taylor & Kelce’s relationship prospects, but fashion and celebrity news just doesn’t feel urgent when half the country’s rights and lives are on the line.

So I hope you will tune in to read my weekly postings  and to give me your feedback in comments. I’ll be writing this as a FREE substack but please subscribe, like and share posts with friends, that connect with you. I look forward to hearing from you and standing together.

Bonnie

BIO

Hi - I’ve been covering women’s reproductive healthcare and abortion throughout my career as the Editor- in-Chief of multiple national women’s magazines for more decades than I care to admit to. I first became an Editor-in-Chief in my native Canada when I headed up Flare, the country’s first national fashion magazine. However, my experience regularly publishing features on young women’s reproductive health began when I headed up YM - a major mag for teen girls, then as well at Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and Glamour, all of which I led as Editor-in-Chief. 

At all those magazines, we were interviewing gynecologists and covering contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy and abortion. I admit, that I took a detour away from providing well- reported reproductive health service pieces as the Editor-in-Chief of USWeekly but then as the Editor-in-Chief for 14 years of HollywoodLife, a major national women’s site, we always covered women’s issues, including the creeping state abortion restrictions and the battles over funding Planned Parenthood. We warned our readers about Donald Trump’s promises to end abortion and explained to our readers in reported pieces about why restrictive abortion laws in states like Ohio and Idaho would hurt them.

But now that I have sold HollywoodLife and am a free agent I’ve been on a mission to inform as many Americans as I can about the stakes they are facing as 21 states have made government-mandated pregnancy their mission and this could just be the appetizer before abortion is ended nationwide if Donald Trump is elected as president. And then, his determined anti abortion allies are set to turn their sights on restricting access to contraception, and banning IVF and surrogacy.

In the past few months, I’ve been telling the stories of women harmed by abortion plus interviewing political candidates and leaders for their views on reproductive freedom and whether they will fight to protect it. I’ve been writing for Courier Newsroom, an independent media company with multiple state sites, The Free Press,  Msmagazine.com and The American Journal News. 

Now, I will bring you what I have learned, here plus add original stories and content. 

Listen - the opponents of women’s reproductive freedom are tenacious. They’ve had a lot of huge wins and they are not going to stop until women are locked into chastity belts and stuck back in the kitchen.

So, I plan to be dogged in opposing their Gilead - ish vision.

 I look forward to you sharing the ride. Please share your thoughts and feedback with me and share my stories with others, if you choose.

Let’s fight!

Bonnie