People

Joshua Shimkus jAH-shoo-uh sHIM-kiss (he/him/his)

Hearst Foundation Fellow

Joshua Shimkus graduated in 2018 from Western Washington University with a degree in politics/philosophy/economics. Since then he has worked as a farmhand, congressional staffer, Americorps volunteer in Montana and as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania.

People walk by the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus on June 27, 2023. Other states are watching Ohio's dueling efforts to make it harder to pass amendments to the state constitution and to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution. (Photo by Mingson Lau/News21)

Ohio special election, proposed constitutional amendment illustrate broader battles on abortion

A year after the reversal of Roe v. Wade, activists are facing off at the ballot box. In Ohio, voters are deciding whether to make it harder to amend the state constitution. That election comes just months before they consider an amendment to protect abortion rights.

Abortion-rights advocates rally in the Nebraska Capitol rotunda on April 12, 2023, in opposition to the Nebraska Heartbeat Act, which would have banned abortion around six weeks. The bill did not pass, but a 12-week ban is now law. (Photo by Joseph Kual Zakaria/News21)

‘Confusing’ and ‘chilling’: First legislative sessions after Roe produce patchwork of laws on abortion

The first full state legislative sessions after the fall of Roe v. Wade produced hundreds of bills that are all over the map on abortion, including proposals to do what was once considered unthinkable: criminalize pregnant people themselves.