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Madison Pauly

@msjpauly.bsky.social

13K followers 740 following 170 posts

Reporter covering gender and politics at @motherjones.com, part of the Center for Investigative Reporting Tips to mpauly at motherjones dot com Signal: hellsbells.44 https://www.motherjones.com/author/madison-pauly/

www.motherjones.com

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Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · 6d

A year and a half ago, @hencarnell.bsky.social and I investigated the movement to resurrect conversion therapy

Now, oral arguments are about to begin in a Supreme Court case, Chiles v. Salazar, that could overturn bans in 23 states.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · 10d

Can't get over this NIH employee reacting to possible Hatch Act violations in the administration's shutdown spin: "I liked the fact that I still had the capacity for disappointment.”

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Congrats to @jollyette.bsky.social on her first @motherjones.com byline!!

For furloughed workers, Trump's partisan shutdown jabs are just the latest slight

“Not only is it insulting to the standards we’re all supposed to abide by, but it’s also insulting to our intelligence.”

www.motherjones.com

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · 20d

“As far as I am concerned,” Guyatt recounted telling people affiliated with SEGM in a recent conversation, “you are not evidence-based.”

It was a burn that only the guy who coined the term “evidence-based medicine” could give.

Henry Carnell @hencarnell.bsky.social · 20d

For years, medical professionals and transgender advocates have been saying the "Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine" was not following the principles of evidenced-based medicine.

Now the "godfather" of evidence-based medicine is leveraging the same claim against them. (1/)

Trans health care "skeptics" lost a key ally—now they're having a meltdown

The godfather of evidence-based medicine on rejecting anti-trans "misuse" of his work.

www.motherjones.com

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Aug 29

I've had a Google Alert set on Missouri AG Andrew Bailey for a couple years. His aggressive (and at times extralegal) attacks on abortion, local Democrats, trans people often get slapped down in court. But winning wasn't the point. The point was building a rep.

Now he's headed to help run the FBI.

Trump rewards MAGA attack dog attorney general with FBI post

"If Andrew Bailey can do this much damage in Missouri, imagine what he’ll do with federal power."

www.motherjones.com

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jul 23

& over www.motherjones.com/criminal-jus...

Women all over the country are suing police for failing to test their rape kits.

But they faced a blow from the Supreme Court on Monday.

www.motherjones.com

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jul 23

& over www.motherjones.com/criminal-jus...

The chilling story of three women haunted by the same rapist—and how the law failed them

DNA identified a serial predator. The law let him off the hook.

www.motherjones.com

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jul 23

& over www.motherjones.com/criminal-jus...

She said, he sued: How libel law is being turned against MeToo accusers

How libel law is being turned against MeToo accusers

www.motherjones.com

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jul 23

& over www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

They went to Bible college to deepen their faith. Then they were assaulted—and blamed for it.

At Moody Bible Institute, purity culture and complementarianism have worked together to forgive abusers and punish the abused.

www.motherjones.com

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jul 23

& over www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

"Independent" investigations into sexual abuse are big business. Can survivors really trust them?

When an aid organization hired agents to investigate her father's violence, the resulting probe became her new nightmare.

www.motherjones.com

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jul 23

Over
& over
& over

The response to the sexual assault becomes the survivor’s “new nightmare.”

Cops. Courts. Companies. Schools. It’s always the same story.

Read Sam’s latest.

I wish there wasn’t cause to publish stories like this year after year after year.

Samantha Michaels @samanthamichaels.bsky.social · Jul 23

When the Golden State Killer was arrested in 2018, law enforcement suggested that the nightmare for his survivors was finally over.

My latest investigation is about a new nightmare that emerged for the survivors who cops dismissed. www.motherjones.com/criminal-jus...

Evidence in her brutal 1979 rape pointed to the Golden State Killer. The police didn’t want to hear about it.

How one woman's quest for closure unleashed its own kind of nightmare.

www.motherjones.com

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jul 23

Extremely worthwhile to revisit
@juliannemcshane.bsky.social's reporting on reproductive coercion in light of the troubling details of this lawsuit, which involves a boyfriend trying to get a judge to help prevent a partner's abortion.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

"What can I even say without having to go to jail?"

The end of Roe has hamstrung advocates for pregnant victims of domestic and sexual violence.

www.motherjones.com

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jul 23

The new "wrongful death" abortion pill lawsuit out of Texas is a BFD for several reasons, but one twist is that the doctor being targeted is the brother of lifelong reproductive health advocate Francine Coeytaux of @plancpills.bsky.social

Collab by Nina Martin & me on what the case is all about:

He’s suing his girlfriend’s doctor for prescribing abortion pills. Could this gut access everywhere?

Texas lawyer Jonathan Mitchell is going after a California doctor, Here’s why that’s terrifying.

www.motherjones.com

Reposted by Madison Pauly

Henry Carnell @hencarnell.bsky.social · Jul 9

One of the speakers at this was Michelle Cretella. Don't know who she is? Boy, do I have some reading for you.

She is part of a fringe, conservative doctors group that calls itself the American College of Pediatricians.

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jun 27

One sigh of relief today: The Supreme Court could have made a bunch of forms of preventive care $$$$ and didn't. This is a short-term win that comes with long-term consequences: RFK Jr. gets more power over what types of preventive care are fully covered. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Supreme Court once again preserves the Affordable Care Act

And cements power in the hands of RFK Jr.

www.motherjones.com

Reposted by Madison Pauly

Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · Jun 27

Super-quick take while reading the ruling:

This is going to be a much bigger deal for challenges to *other* Trump policies than to birthright citizenship (where it's likely that lower courts will still be able to block the policy on a nationwide basis even after this ruling).

*That's* the import.

Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · Jun 27

First #SCOTUS ruling today is birthright citizenship.

Justice Barrett, for a 6-3 majority (with the three Dem. appointees dissenting) holds that universal injunctions are only appropriate when necessary to provide "complete" relief to parties, and stays these injunctions insofar as they go further:

www.supremecourt.gov

Reposted by Madison Pauly

National Health Law Program @nhelp.bsky.social · Jun 26

And bad for individuals trying to enforce their rights in court :(

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jun 26

This is a bad ruling for people who rely Planned Parenthood and any other providers of politically controversial health care. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The Supreme Court just made it easier for states to defund Planned Parenthood

“Today’s decision…is a dangerous green light for politicians to target any providers they don’t like."

www.motherjones.com

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jun 18

And for those wondering what alternative to pediatric gender-affirming care would be preferred by the religious-right groups that support bans, this is it: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

First they tried to "cure" gayness. Now they're fixated on "healing" trans people.

Inside the movement to resurrect conversion therapy.

www.motherjones.com

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jun 18

On an press call with @chasestrangio.bsky.social , who says the Skrmetti opinion is "fundamentally wrong" but "much narrower than it could have been."
1. It doesn't say whether Bostock applies beyond Title VII
2. It doesn't say whether transgender status independently warrants heightened scrutiny.

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jun 18

Every abortion-rights story is a trans-rights story, and vice versa. I will be saying this till the day I die.

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jun 18

And @sarahposner.bsky.social's www.typeinvestigations.org/investigatio...

The Christian Nationalist Boot Camp Pushing Anti-Trans Laws Across America - Type Investigations

www.typeinvestigations.org

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jun 18

These state laws banning gender-affirming care for youth are a product of religious-right and anti-LGBTQ activist organizing, starting in the years after Obergefell.

We know this, because we have the receipts. Here's my 2023 investigation.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Inside the secret working group that helped push anti-trans laws across the country

Leaked emails give a glimpse of the religious-right networks behind transgender health care bans.

www.motherjones.com

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jun 18

bsky.app/profile/erin...

Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · Jun 18

Sotomayor is NOT a fan of Geduldig.

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jun 18

This is key. SCOTUS also used this tortured, acrobatic reasoning in the Dobbs decision, relying on Geduldig.

Evil Orc Heart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · Jun 18

I'm reading the Skrmetti decision now. One thing that pops out early is the reliance on Geuduldig, a case that ruled a state insurance program that exempted pregnancy did not count as sex discrimination against women.

www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

...the court explained that the program did not exclude any individual from benefit eligibility because of the individual's sex but rather "removed one physical condition, pregnancy, from the list of compensable disabilities.

Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · Jun 18

In her dissent, Sotomayor fact-checks the argument that Norway, Sweden, and England have turned against gender-affirming care for minors.

"None," she points out, "has categorically banned doctors from providing patients with all gender-affirming care where medically necessary."

The majority and JUSTICE THOMAS make much of recent changes to
the routine provision of gender-affirming care to minors in Norway, Sweden, and England. Ante, at 3–4, 23; ante, at 13–14 (concurring opinion).
While all three countries have committed to researching further the risks
and benefits of prescribing puberty blockers and hormones to adolescents, none has categorically banned doctors from providing patients
with all gender-affirming care where medically necessary. See Brief for
Foreign Non-Profit Organizations as Amici Curiae 4–13.