What makes a country
committed to gender
equality and the empow-
erment of women? Uni-
versal access to sexual and
reproductive health care
is key, according to the
U.N. But to Mississippi
attorney general Lynn
Fitch, banning abortion
is the way to empower
women.
For 49 years, anti-
abortion activists in the
U.S. have fought a care-
ful battle to overturn
Roe v. Wade,the 1973
case that established the
right to abortion. Now,
as nearly 60 other coun-
tries have liberalized their
abortion laws in the past
a national furor in May,
and the fi nal decision is
sure to further infl ame
the debate. The outcome
of her case will have rip-
ple eff ects not just for
women in every state—
some of which plan to
outright ban abortion if
Roe is overturned—but
across every aspect of
American society.Abrams is a TIME
staff writer25 years, the U.S. is poised
to roll back that right.
Fitch is leading the
fi nal charge. As her
state’s top lawyer, she ar-
gued that the Supreme
Court should overturn
Roe because it was “egre-
giously wrong,” and be-
cause societal advances
mean women no lon-
ger needed abortions.
A leaked draft of a Su-
preme Court opinion
overruling Roe set offKhurram Parvez, who serves
as chairperson of the Asian
Federation Against Involun-
tary Disappearances, was
arrested in November of last
year. He had to be silenced,
for his was a voice that
resounded around the globe
for his fi erce fi ght against
human-rights violations and
injustices in the Kashmir
region. The arrest came
almost a year after India
revoked the special status
given to Kashmir and detained
hundreds who protested in
the streets. It was not the
fi rst time that Parvez was
forcibly silenced. The attacks
against him speak volumes
of the truth he represents at a
time when the world’s largest
democracy is being called
out for its persecution of the
more than 200 million Indian
Muslims.
The soft-spoken Khurram
is almost a modern-day David
who gave a voice to families
that lost their children to
enforced disappearances,
allegedly by the Indian state.
Khurram is the story and the
storyteller of the insurgency
and the betrayal of the people
of Kashmir.Lynn Fitch
Arguing to overturn
BY ABIGAIL ABRAMS
Khurram
ParvezWarrior for justice
BY RANA AYYUB