In this new world, the burden of discerning what is true or false falls on each of us individually. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have not fully tried to correct harmful falsehoods on their platforms. Meta’s small programs, such as Community Notes, a way for people to add more context to confusing and misleading posts, or YouTube links to vetted information, play a small yet inconsequential role in spreading mis-, dis-, and mal-information. 

So the responsibility falls to us — as parents, friends, colleagues and, above all, as citizens — to develop the skills needed to navigate a highly polluted information ecosystem. 

Since the Trump administration took office in January 2025, we’ve seen increased attacks on our democratic systems and a failure by Congress to intervene. This came to a head in early April, when the president defied a Supreme Court order to return the wrongfully deported Marylander Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. 

This Independence Day, Americans will likely gather for parades, fireworks and barbeques, celebrating our democracy with familiar traditions. But while many will spend the holiday waving flags, the Trump administration and his allies are attempting to systematically dismantle the very reason for this holiday, and not to mention, put our country and the people in it, Americans, in harm's way.  

The right to contraception is currently protected in the United States by a combination of federal court cases and state legislation. Tens of millions of women and other people of reproductive age rely on contraception to make decisions about their bodies and lives.

However, in recent years, government attacks on reproductive freedom have made it clear how our fundamental rights can be eroded and taken away, making additional state and federal protections for contraception imperative.