In the LeadLea Woods2021-01-07T17:39:15-05:00


In the Lead

FL abortion ban
Florida Six-Week Abortion Ban Goes Into Effect

Thanks to the state courts and legislature, as of May 1, abortion access in Florida is now more restricted than ever under the state’s near-total ban. The impact will resonate throughout the state, harming women and hurting the state economy.  

Senate CERH hearing
Senate Holds Key Hearing on the Economic Impact of Abortion Restrictions

IWPR's research shows that abortion restrictions harm women’s health and education leading to disproportionate impacts on the national and state economy. A key Senate committee took up this important issue at a hearing on February 28 and IWPR was there.

FAFSA delay blog
FAFSA Delays-Navigating the Thorny Landscape of College Unaffordability

For many low-income college students, the prevailing Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) delays are causing added panic to our ever-growing educational crisis of soaring college costs. IWPR's Policy Team weighs in.

Moms EPD 2023
Mothers’ Wage Inequities Go Beyond Paid Labor

August 15 was Mom's Equal Pay Day and IWPR's research shows that In 2021, working moms made just 62 cents on the dollar compared to working fathers.

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Voters double down: Supporting abortion access has clear upside for candidates

For an off-cycle election year, voters across the country sent some pretty clear messages and delivered a number of convincing wins for abortion access. Even states with deep partisan divides signaled that reproductive health rights rank high among their priorities, which bears critical weight as our country heads into next year’s general election with historically few swing states.  All eyes were on Ohio as the ballot referendum on Issue 1 loomed large over the swing state’s reproductive rights landscape. Abortion [...]

A Call to Cancel Student Debt

While higher education is generally considered to be a driver of upward economic mobility, student debt is one of the biggest hurdles that prevents students from acquiring wealth. People of color experience the burden of student debt more acutely due to historic intergenerational wealth gaps, and IWPR research has shown that some student populations such as student parents are more likely to take out loans and struggle with student debt payments than others. Additionally, Black borrowers have higher student debt [...]

October 24, 2023|Categories: In the Lead, IWPR, Student Parent Success Initiative|Tags: , , |

New Wisconsin State Supreme Court Progressive Majority Faces Early Test

Wisconsin continues to be ground zero for some of the most shameless conservative partisan maneuvering going on in the country right now. Justice Janet Protasiewicz's eleven-point victory in this year’s state Supreme Court election created a liberal majority on the bench, toppling the court’s 15-year conservative majority that nearly overturned Biden’s narrow 2020 victory in the state. It was the most expensive state supreme court race in U.S. history, and Justice Protasiewicz will now serve a ten-year term on the [...]

October 21, 2023|Categories: In the Lead|Tags: , |

Backsliding in North Carolina: Legislative attacks on women and trans youth

Seems GOP legislators in North Carolina are fixated on dialing back the rights of women and trans youth in their state. This summer, conservative House and Senate members in the state held several special sessions for the expressed purpose of overriding several vetoes of legislation attacking women and trans youth that had been issued by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, further cementing the state’s reputation for hostility to women and the LGBTQ+ community. In May, the legislature passed a 12-week abortion [...]

October 3, 2023|Categories: In the Lead, Policy|

Sweeping Wins in Minnesota Include Paid Leave and Student Parent Supports

Minnesota Democrats made the most of their slim  majority in the state legislature this session by enacting a sweeping legislative agenda that included paid family and medical leave, and student parent success initiatives that promote gender equity in the workplace and in higher education institutions. Thanks to their efforts, $670 million from the state’s budget surplus will now go toward a new paid leave program, the first of its kind among Midwestern states. The new law features innovative and inclusive definitions [...]

American Families Hurtle Towards the “Child Care Cliff”

American families are currently less than two weeks away from the expiration of child care stabilization funding – what experts are calling a “child care cliff”— and there is no indication that policymakers in Washington intend to stop it. In fact, far from approving the emergency funding needed to prevent millions of families from losing critical access to care, House Republicans appear to be careening toward a federal government shutdown that would endanger even more critical safety net programs. On [...]

September 18, 2023|Categories: In the Lead|