Roe

• The internet was ablaze with rumors about Swift dating Matty Healy, the lead singer of the English pop-rock band The 1975.
• As the Pittsburgh leg of the tour approached, I wondered if I were about to dive headfirst into an angry mob of tens of thousands of Swifties.
• On the day of the show, Acrisure Stadium was mobbed with 72,000 people, but the Swifties in attendance were far from angry.

Collective delusion

• The Eras Tour was not my first experience of collective effervescence.
• Nor was it the first time I felt such a strong disconnect between the online and offline worlds.
• Right before the pandemic began, there was the painfully quiet fizzling out of the Bernie 2020 movement.

A vocal minority sets the agenda

• Research consistently shows that a small minority of people who have social media accounts post the vast majority of content.
• In other words, most of the discussions happening on websites like Reddit and Twitter come from a vocal minority of users – whose posts are then curated and boosted by algorithms.
• But it represents the words of a smaller minority of users within the already small minority of people who post content online.
• In the weeks when Swift was dating Healy, a vocal minority of Swifties came head-to-head with a vocal minority of Healy’s defenders.

Oligarchy of the ‘extremely online’

• v. Wade peaked within a few days and people moved on to different topics.
• Perhaps it’s time to sideline social media and the internet when evaluating the nature of our collective reality.
• Reality exists outside of our devices, whereas social media algorithms push whatever keeps us tethered to the screen.
• That might be easier said than done: 94% of journalists say they use social media for their jobs.

• Open Lending Corporation (NASDAQ: LPRO) (“Open Lending” or the “Company”), an industry trailblazer in lending enablement and risk analytics solutions for financial institutions, today announced Chief Revenue Officer Matt Roe will give a presentation entitled Less Risk, More Reward: The Untapped Opportunity for Auto Lenders at the CU Leadership Convention in Las Vegas.
• Roe’s presentation will focus on the opportunity for credit unions to offer auto loans to underserved near-prime and non-prime borrowers, a market sector estimated at $270 billion annually.
• Additionally, the session will feature new data from Open Lending’s recently released Loans Within Reach: Lending Enablement Benchmark 2023 , including tactics to improve auto loan decisioning while mitigating risk.
• To learn more about Open Lending, visit booth 410 at the CU Leadership Convention or visit www.openlending.com .

• Also true has been the impact of those bans and restrictions on the reproductive health disparities between Black and white women.
• Black women comprise a disproportionate percentage – 39% – of abortion patients in the United States, and many live in communities with limited access to health services, including family planning clinics and pharmacies.
• They also disproportionately experience higher rates of other reproductive health conditions, such as infant mortality and pregnancy-related complications and deaths.
• The lack of clinics means that Black women often delay or forgo necessary health care services.

Restricted abortion access

• A small number of states, such as California, New York and Washington, have passed laws or constitutional amendments that guarantee or strengthen abortion access.
• An additional 10 states have further restricted abortion access without banning abortion outright.
• Two states with the largest populations in total numbers of African Americans – Texas and Florida – have abortion bans.

Reproductive health disparities beyond abortion

• The recent tragic death of U.S. Olympic champion Tori Bowie during childbirth is a stark reminder of the reproductive health disparities that continue to plague the Black community.
• Pregnant Black women are often refused hospital admission for delivery if they lack health insurance.
• In various studies, Black women have reported that they have been treated disrespectfully by medical personnel dismissive of their fears and concerns about their reproductive health.
• Black women report that they must be particularly assertive with health care providers to ensure that their reproductive needs are addressed.

Where do we go from here?

• According to the Pew Research Center, 57% of Americans disapprove the reversal of Roe, and 62% say that abortion should be legal.
• In the meantime, abortion access remains only one part of Black women’s reproductive health challenges.

• WASHINGTON, June 22, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, almost one year since the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) launched the Abortion Access Legal Defense Fund (Abortion Access LDF) to help pay legal expenses for abortion patients and supporters who are facing legal action related to abortion care.
• Since the Dobbs decision, the legal landscape around abortion access in the U.S. has become more confusing and hostile than ever.
• NWLC believes that people deserve access to legal representation if they are facing legal consequences related to abortion access for themselves or a loved one, regardless of their ability to pay.
• Noel León, Director of the Abortion Access LDF, added "The Supreme Court's decision to take away our constitutional right to abortion unleashed legal chaos, and we are launching the Abortion Access Legal Defense Fund because everyone deserves access to legal representation, regardless of their ability to pay."