Join Women Winning on Thursday, March 5th, from 6–9pm at The Whim in Minneapolis for an evening of community, connection, and impact.

Wine, Chocolate & Choice is a fundraising and networking event for pro-choice women and allies across Minnesota. Now more than ever, our neighborhoods and communities need to stand strong together and support each other.  With violence being targeted towards our state from the federal government and anti-choice extremists, coming together as one is not just powerful—it's essential. Join us for a night of connection, support, and community! 

His last words, spoken to a woman who had been tackled to the ground and pepper-sprayed by nearby ICE agents, were “Are you OK?” Alex Pretti was an intensive care nurse at a VA hospital; those who knew him recalled, among other things, his devotion to his elderly dog, Joule, who died about a year ago.

In bystander videos taken of Pretti’s death, he can be seen holding up his phone to video ICE agents operating in Minneapolis, and waving cars around him to avoid the officers as they attack other onlookers. After he is dragged away from the woman he was trying to help, a gaggle of ICE officers surround Pretti and force him to the ground, beating and restraining him there as he struggles to free himself.

At least 10 shots appear to be fired within the span of five seconds. Pretti is splayed motionless on the asphalt. “What the fuck, they killed him,” a bystander’s voice can be heard screaming in one of several videos of the incident. “Did they fucking kill that guy?” Like his fellow Minneapolis resident Renee Good, who was also killed by ICE this month, Alex Pretti was 37.

It was 8 a.m. in Reykjavik, Iceland. As I walked along the harbor, the air felt crisp, steam rising from the water, covering the shoreline in a soft haze. Ahead of me, Harpa Hall glowed suffragist purple against the still-black sky—a quiet reminder that women have always gathered in the dark to build what comes next. From the moment I crossed the threshold of the conference hall, I felt the warmth that rises whenever women gather with purpose, and the energy of women from around the world arriving to confront the most pressing challenges of our time. Day 1 of the 2025 Reykjavík Global Forum on Women Leaders was about to begin.

Over the next 72 hours, I spoke with women leaders about democracy, leadership, activism and power-building. We talked about fear. About childcare. About boys who aren’t sure where they fit in this “new” world. About deadlines and death threats, ranked-choice voting—and the deeper reasons why they keep doing this work despite the challenges.

Amid those conversations, three interviews in particular stayed with me: Liz Berry, a Washington state representative who campaigned with a 6-week-old baby; Eliza Reid, Iceland’s former first lady and author of Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland’s Extraordinary Women and How They Are Changing the World; and Alison Comyn, an Irish journalist-turned-senator from a country that’s used proportional representation—a form of ranked-choice voting—for generations.

Taken together, their stories sketch a kind of roadmap: how we change the rules, how we change ourselves and how we do this work together.

Vice President JD Vance on Friday said the Trump administration is expanding the so-called Mexico City Policy, to not only bar US government funding for organizations that perform and promote abortions, but also to those the administration says promote diversity, equity and inclusion and “gender ideology.”

His announcement came at the annual March for Life rally in Washington, DC, where the vice president sought to allay fears from the anti-abortion movement that the Trump administration has not done enough on the issue.

“We’re going to start blocking every international NGO that performs or promotes abortion abroad from receiving $1 of US money,” Vance said. “Now we’re expanding this policy to protect life, to combat DEI and the radical gender ideologies that prey on our children.”

The Trump administration has made a crackdown on so-called DEI policies and programs a cornerstone of its agenda. And this week’s announcement marks a significant expansion of the Mexico City Policy, called the “Global Gag Rule” by its critics. Established under President Ronald Reagan, the policy has been consistently rescinded by Democratic administrations and reinstated by Republican ones.

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