Stacey Abrams’ evolution on abortion

Good morning, rulers! It’s officially fall! It might be the most popular season these days, arguably due to the popular-yet-polarizing Pumpkin Spice Industrial Complex. It also always feels like the busiest season for me (perhaps tied with the weeks right before the winter holidays). So take it easy. I liked this tweet about dealing with stress from the writer Alicia Kennedy : “Eat food someone else cooked and make a list, then execute said list methodically.” Thanks to Maya Parthasarathy for your help putting this newsletter together.

Last week, POLITICO hosted a day of discussion and networking for a group of women business, nonprofit and academic leaders. The theme of the day was women and communities, and the event was capped off by two interviews with big names: Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and White House Gender Policy Council director Jennifer Klein. POLITICO reporter Elena Schneider conducted the interviews, tackled everything from Abrams’ thoughts on abortion and defunding the police to advice from Klein on raising boys who care about gender equity. More from those big moments below.

Abrams’ evolution on abortion: Abrams grew up in a very religious household, she said. “While there was never an explicit conversation” about abortion, Abrams said, she grew up with the sense that it was wrong.

Later in college, she had conversations to learn about how she could reconcile her beliefs in free will, her political beliefs in women’s autonomy and her religious thinking on the issue of abortion. She realized it should ultimately be the decision of a woman. “Abortion is not a political issue. It is not a social issue. It is a medical issue,” she said.

Later, as a state legislator, she said it was clear to her that she did not have the right to make a medical decision for women. “Your autonomy as a woman should not be dependent on your geography,” she continued. “That is why the Dobbs decision is so viscerally wrong: Because it subjugates women to second-class citizenship depending on their zip code.”

Abrams’ thoughts on defunding the police: Schneider pointed out that Democrats called for defunding the police after the murder of George Floyd but that Abrams called for raising the base pay of law enforcement officers in her platform. When asked if Democrats got the messaging wrong on the issue, Abrams said it wasn’t about getting the messaging wrong. “I am never as a politician going to appropriate the language of activism,” she said. Abrams says she wants to ensure both that everyone who works in law enforcement receives a liveable wage, and that police are held accountable.

“I point out that I have two brothers — one who has been in and out of the carceral system and one who has been pulled over for driving while Black multiple times. I have to think about both of my brothers,” she said. She continued: “Most Black people, who are the crux of this conversation, they want their communities to be safe. They want to pick up the phone and have the police come and serve them. They also don’t want to die when they call for help. And that should not be a complicated conversation.”

Abrams’ presidential ambitions: Back in 2017, Abrams told Cosmopolitan that she had a running Excel spreadsheet with her career plans. At the time, she said, the plan was to run for president in 2028. Schneider asked if Abrams had updated that spreadsheet recently. Abrams said that for now, she’s focused on becoming governor. “You have to have a plan so you know how to adapt,” she said. “I applied for this job four years ago. I didn’t get the job, and so my spreadsheet had to shift a little bit.”

Klein on protecting abortion rights: Also during the interview portion of the event last week, Schneider asked Klein about a letter sent by Democratic senators asking the White House to clarify that HIPAA prohibits providers from sharing any information about patients’ medical records without their explicit consent. Klein said “everything is on the table” for the White House, because “protecting people’s privacy right now is more important than ever.” She also “national federal legislation to protect the right to abortion.”

Klein’s advice for raising boys: On a more personal note, Schneider, a mother of a boy, also asked Klein, a mother of three boys, for her advice on raising boys who care about gender equity. It’s about “doing the work, caring about these issues, modeling gender-equal behavior … and treating them with respect and seriousness that they should do their part, and it is their job to come out well,” Klein said.



“ ,” by Andrew Desiderio for POLITICO: “Liberals who lavish praise on Liz Cheney for her defiance of Donald Trump are making one thing crystal clear: Don’t expect us to support her for president, or any other political office, for that matter.

“The Wyoming Republican’s anti-Trump maneuvers have lately belied her conservative policy views — particularly on foreign affairs, an area in which some progressives have managed to align with Trump in slamming her as a warmonger. It could be a big hurdle for Cheney as she considers a 2024 presidential run that would function as a means to block Trump from a return to the White House, something she has said is more important than any policy disagreements with Democrats.

“Cheney appealed to Democrats in her primary last month, only to get trounced by a pro-Trump challenger. And her close working relationship with Democrats in probing the Jan. 6 Capitol attack is showing no signs of translating into national crossover appeal. Her approach to global affairs isn’t the only reason she’s getting few Democrats to openly back her for another political office despite her stand against Trump — but it’s a central one.

“‘I’ve told Liz I couldn’t wait to start disagreeing with her again in public,’ joked Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who’s struck up a close friendship with Cheney stemming from their work on the Jan. 6 select committee. ‘Liz Cheney has been a great constitutional patriot during this period. But we have a lot of things we disagree on.’

“While they hail the 56-year-old Cheney as a hero for what they describe as principled acts of courage in decrying Trump’s hold on her party, Democrats acknowledge that she’s no less of a conservative for doing so. And they’re not blind to the Cheney who vocally backed the Iraq war that her father helped spearhead during his vice presidency, a war now largely viewed as a historic blunder fueled by the neoconservative foreign-policy doctrine to which she also subscribes.”

“ Tish James just sued Trump — but they’ve been at it for years ,” by Erin Durkin for POLITICO: “Tish James vowed in her 2018 campaign for attorney general to pursue a man she said was an ‘illegitimate president’ and an ‘embarrassment.’ To Donald Trump, James, the first Black woman to hold statewide office in New York, is a ‘racist’ prosecutor engaged in a ‘witch hunt’ against him.

“After four years of verbal jousting, James’ far-reaching lawsuit against the former president , his company and his children Wednesday almost seems overdue as it opens a new chapter in their caustic relationship.

“And sure enough, Trump knocked James as she runs for reelection in November and seeks to bring down the Trump Organization, limit it from doing business for five years and repay $250 million in what she claimed was illegally obtained. …

“James, who previously served as New York City public advocate, won her office in 2018, after her predecessor, Eric Schneiderman, resigned in a domestic violence scandal. During that campaign, she made it clear that Trump would be her top target — remarks that have left the former president, a New York native, stewing ever since.”

“ What the numbers really say about abortion and Democrats in the midterms ,” by Jessica Piper for POLITICO: “Democrats have been on a voter registration tear since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. There’s just one problem for them — they are digging out from under major Republican gains in the previous 18 months.

“For most of the two years leading up to the midterm election, Republicans rather than Democrats were making voter registration gains in key states, a POLITICO analysis of state voter data shows — a signal of GOP momentum heading into a classic backlash election against Democratic control of Washington.

“This summer, the momentum changed. The decision by the Supreme Court in June that there was no national right to abortion inspired a surge of new voter registrations more likely to be female, young and Democratic. Data from states including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida shows evidence of a big leap in enthusiasm and political interest among potential voters supportive of abortion rights.

“In Pennsylvania, where the outcome of the race for governor could determine whether abortion remains legal in the state, new registrants since late June have been twice as likely to be Democrats as Republicans. The share of women among newly registered voters also surged by several percentage points after the Dobbs decision.

“But those gains have not fully offset a GOP advantage built earlier in the election cycle, largely due to party-switching that narrowed Democrats’ overall registration advantage in Pennsylvania from 685,000 voters in November 2020 to 540,000 now. Altogether, the new voter data points to a midterm landscape that has shifted toward Democrats compared to earlier this year — but remains uncertain with just weeks to go until the midterms.”



“ ‘Over My Dead Body’: Janet Yellen Refused to Take a Dive for Trump ,” by Owen Ullmann for Politico Magazine



“ ‘How Many Women Were Abused to Make That Tesla ?’” by Stephen Rodrick for Rolling Stone: “A year after being hired, [Alisa] Blickman is one of seven former Tesla workers who have filed sexual-harassment lawsuits against Musk’s car company in the past 10 months. The women, most of whom were let go, allege a level of sexual harassment that paints Tesla as more like one of William Blake’s dark ‘Satanic Mills’ than a high-flying Silicon Valley corporation saving the environment. …

“In Blickman’s case, she claims, problems started at her onboarding session. She recalls the man in the S3XY T-shirt starting to read in a monotone about Tesla’s various policies. Eventually, he came to the company’s policy on sexual harassment. According to Blickman, he played an instructional video. Many of the examples in the video were of women harassing men. She couldn’t believe it.

“‘I thought, “If I’m sexually harassed, they’re not going to care,”’ Blickman says.

“On her first day at work, Blickman alleges she watched a male Tesla worker take photos of a woman’s backside as other men watched quietly, as if the man was hunting big game. The photos were soon circulating around the factory. On a break, Blickman says, she went up to the woman and asked if she was OK. The woman just shrugged.

“‘I’m used to it,’ Blickman says the woman told her. ‘Shit like that happens all the time here.’ …

“I ask her if she thought Musk’s slavish devotion to frat-boy humor contributed to Tesla workers saying whatever they wanted to women.

“‘Of course,’ she says. ‘There are people in that factory who see him as a god. If he talks like that, they know they can, too.’

“There is no evidence suggesting that Musk knew about the alleged harassment going on at Tesla’s Fremont factory before the women filed their lawsuits. But for a guy who claims to be so hands-on, it’s hard to imagine he wouldn’t have picked up on complaints about the allegedly pervasive culture. And if he didn’t know, why didn’t he know?”

“ The United States just hit Equal Pay Day for Black women ,” by Jasmine Mithani for The 19th

“ Women Across Iran Are Protesting the ‘Morality Police ,’” by Danya Issawi for The Cut: “Protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in the custody of the country’s ‘morality police,’ became increasingly violent this week, with videos showing police beating protesters — many of whom are women — with batons and spraying tear gas and bullets into the crowd. As of Wednesday, at least seven protesters have been killed by ‘direct fire by Iranian security forces,’ according to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, and hundreds more have been injured and arrested.

“Demonstrations broke out last week after Amini was arrested for violating the country’s mandatory dress code that requires women, regardless of religious affiliation, to conceal their hair and neck with a headscarf. Amini was arrested in her brother’s car while visiting Tehran to see family members and was arrested for ‘improper hijab.’ Police claim Amini suffered a heart attack while in custody at the Vozara Street Detention Center, where she had been taken to be “educated,” but Amini’s family says she was beaten by officers in a police van following her arrest. Iranian medical officials have suggested her death was caused by a head injury. Following her death, photos began circulating of her lying incapacitated in a hospital bed with tubes and wires all over her body, blood pooling from one ear. …

“Since protests erupted at Amini’s funeral in Iran’s Kurdistan Province on Saturday, demonstrations have become widespread across the country, and women all over Iran have been at the forefront. Women in Amini’s hometown of Saqqez, in the Kurdistan Province, took their hijabs off and chanted, ‘Death to the dictator.’ In the capital of Tehran, women ripped off their headscarves and waved them in the air while one woman climbed atop a car and set fire to her hijab. Elsewhere in the city, several men were seen protecting a woman who did the same to her scarf. Women followed suit in Sari with a mass burning, tossing their headscarves into a large fire and dancing in celebration as they watched them burn.”

“ Deanna Raybourn Puts Power in the Hands of Older Women ,” by Elisabeth Egan for the New York Times



Saige Wenik is now staff secretary coordinator in the office of the VP. She most recently was a legislative assistant at WilmerHale. … Kimberly Chow Sullivan is now senior counsel at CBS News and Stations. She most recently was assistant general counsel at NPR. (h/t Playbook)

Ariel (Gordon) Dorsey is now director for innovation and intellectual property for the USTR. She most recently was senior policy adviser for Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). … Kelley Robinson will be the next president of the Human Rights Campaign. She previously was executive director of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. (h/t Playbook)