Ms. Must-Reads: Oct. 28

Less than two weeks out from the election, at a Friday rally in Houston, Texas centered on abortion rights, Beyoncé appeared alongside Kamala Harris. Why Houston? Well, if you’re a frequent reader of these letters, you probably know that Texas is the site of the most severe abortion ban in the country. The Texas abortion ban starts at the moment of fertilization and has no exceptions for rape, incest, or health of the woman. As a result, in Texas, women have died and many have come close to death as a result of these bans—and it’s still happening today.

Colin Allred, who’s hoping to upset Republican incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz in the Senate race, also joined Harris on stage, helping highlight Cruz’s role with Trump in the dismantling of abortion rights.

One group that will be a decisive force on election day is young voters. In the last three elections, young voters played a pivotal role—and they stand to do so again in 2024, with more than 40 million Gen Zers eligible to vote, 20 percent of whom are first-time voters. In the latest installment of our “Women & Democracy” platform, “The Youth Vote is Essential to Democracy,” we explore their ideas and perspectives—in their own words. (Explore the essays, videos and more here.) And I encourage you to listen to our latest Ms. Studios podcast The Z Factor —where in the first episode, our Gen Z correspondent Anoushka Chander is joined by Harvard Youth Poll chair Anil Cacodcar to delve into the question: What do young voters want?

The results of the latest Harvard Youth Poll, which came out Friday, show overwhelming support for Harris among youth—she leads Trump by 28 points across gender lines, with the lead jumping to 30 points among women voters. But whether or not young voters actually cast their ballot could depend more on their friends than their politics: per the poll, 79 percent “plan to vote when they believe their friends will, compared to just 35 percent when they think their peers won't participate.”

In this election year, while the presidential contest may be dominating the news, ballot measures and down-ballot races also have a massive impact on abortion access. I’d encourage you to look into your state and local candidates, measures and propositions, including state supreme court races.

And finally, on Friday, President Biden issued a formal apology for the U.S. government’s role in running hundreds of residential schools that were designed to systematically assimilate Native children and strip them of their language and culture, and that killed hundreds of children from 1819 up until 1969. This marks the first time a U.S. president has apologized for this horrific period of U.S. history. “I believe it is important that we do know there were generations of native children stolen, taken away to places they didn’t know, with people they never met, who spoke a language they had never heard,” Biden said, adding that “no apology can or will make up for what was lost during the darkness of the federal boarding school policy.”

And just a reminder — if you haven’t yet, make a voting plan!

Onward,

Kathy Spillar

Executive Editor

This week's Ms. Must-Reads:

• "The Top Four Causes Igniting Young People" — Mahlet Sugebo
• "A National Abortion Ban Is at Stake in this Election" —?Cary Franklin, Melissa Goodman and Amanda Barrow
• "Some of the Hardest Questions Kamala Harris Has Been Answering Lately, ICYMI" —?Livia Follet and Ava Slocum
• "Gisèle Pelicot, the Woman at the Center of France’s Mass Rape Trial, Takes the Stand for the First Time" —?Ava Slocum