What the GOP is Doing on Voting Rights and Abortion in Texas

Sonali Kolhatkar speaks with Imani Gandy, senior legal analyst for RewireNewsGroup, where she covers law and courts and co-hosts the podcast Boom! Lawyered.

Texas Democrats are fleeing their state to prevent their Republican colleagues from holding a special session during which Gov. Greg Abbott is hoping to pass severe voting rights and abortion restrictions among other issues.

Just recently Gov. Abbott signed an anti-abortion bill into law that bans abortions after about 6 weeks into a pregnancy – which is often around the time one learns that one is pregnant. Worse, the law effectively deputizes ordinary people, not the courts or other authorities, to sue abortion providers, doctors, and anyone helping to end a pregnancy.

Imani is Senior Editor of Law and Policy for Rewire News Group, where she covers law and courts and co-hosts the RNG podcast Boom! Lawyered. Imani also began and continues to write the Angry Black Lady Chronicles.

Imani is a recovering attorney turned award-winning journalist and political blogger. Previously, Imani founded Angry Black Lady Chronicles, winner of the 2010 Black Weblog Award for Blog to Watch and the 2012 Black Weblog Award for Best Political Blog. She received her JD from University of Virginia School of Law in 2001, where she was a Hardy Cross Dillard scholar and an Editorial Board member of the University of Virginia Law Review. She has presented at several conferences and panels, including the 2013 Abortion Care Network as the Keynote Speaker; the 2014 Baffler Conference; the 2016 YBCA 100 Summit; the 2016 PPFA 100th Anniversary at the Brooklyn Historical Society; the 2018 SXSW Panel “If Roe Were to Go”; the 2018 plenary for National Abortion Federation’s annual meeting; and the 2018 Affect Conference as the Keynote Speaker. Boom! Lawyered won Podcast of the Year in 2017 from the Population Institute.

Rising Up with Sonali is a radio and television show that brings progressive news coverage rooted in gender and racial justice to a wide audience. Rising Up With Sonali was built on the foundation of Sonali Kolhatkar's earlier show, Uprising, which became the longest-running drive-time radio show on KPFK in Los Angeles hosted by a woman. RUS airs on Free Speech TV every weekday.

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Boom! Lawyered Podcast Free Speech TV Greg Abbott Imani Gandy RewireNewsGroup Rising Up with Sonali Sonali Kolhatkar Texas Texas Democrats