Hey fam, welcome back to the Gilead Gazette, the news show for everyone whose body has been quietly reclassified as public infrastructure. This week, Trump and Vivek Ramaswamy turn child sexual abuse into a campaign ad, abortion bans get linked to more women murdered, ICE skips prenatal care for a woman who already lost one baby, an Arizona man gets paid for his ex-wife's abortion, and both parties campaign on trans kids. Let's get into it. Vivek Smears an Abuse Survivor, Trump Calls It Pay Dirt Donald Trump says Vivek Ramaswamy's ad calling a child sexual abuse survivor a liar is "hitting pay dirt," as in, striking gold. Vivek is the Republican running for Ohio governor against Democrat Amy Acton, who has talked publicly about being sexually abused by her stepfather from age nine to 12. So Vivek made an ad starring her estranged mother, the woman who stayed married to that stepfather, telling voters, "She's lied her entire life." Amy was taken out of her mother's custody, and the stepfather was indicted. Even the conservative magazine National Review says the court records back Amy up, and when National Review is fact-checking you on behalf of a Democrat, my dude, you've taken a very wrong turn. Vivek is putting $4 million behind it, and his defense is, "We ran an ad about lying. They are lying about an ad that is about lying." That's what it sounds like when a man's brain is buffering. Some Republicans, including Ohio's own Republican governor, said the ad went too far. JD Vance told them to "stop whining about an advertisement," which is rich coming from the guy who built a career whining about childless cat ladies. Trump went further. He posted that the press says the ad is bad "because it's so good!" On Friday, an NBC reporter asked him if Amy's childhood abuse means anything to him. His answer: "Quiet!" and "You're a horrible little reporter, aren't you?" He says he doesn't "know anything about a stepfather," but the mother who stayed married to him? "A smart woman." His words: "Why wouldn't you listen to a mother that says that?" Right-wing media is doing the same thing: calling a woman who reports sexual violence a liar. In Arizona, Democratic House candidate Bernadette Greene-Placentia says two men attacked her at 2 a.m. while she was fixing her campaign signs, and one raped her. The sheriff's office is investigating. The Charlie Kirk Show called her a hoaxer, compared her to Jussie Smollett, the actor who faked a hate crime, and read this viewer comment on air: "If she was too stupid to go to ER and do a rape kit, she's too dumb to be in Congress." So that's the MAGA message to survivors. If it happened to you as a kid, it's opposition research. If it happened to you last summer, it's a hoax. Abortion Bans Arrive, So Do More Dead Women A new peer-reviewed study in JAMA Network Open, the American Medical Association's research journal, found homicides of women and girls of reproductive age rose 7% in 2023 and 15% in 2024 in states with abortion bans. That's about 135 extra women and girls dead. The researchers can't prove the bans caused it, but here's their thinking. Homicide is already a leading cause of death for pregnant women, usually at the hands of a partner, and abortion can be a woman's way out of an abusive relationship. Take that away, and she's tied to him. In 2023, Gabriela Gonzalez traveled from Texas to Colorado for an abortion without her partner's permission. When she got home, he killed her. Pro-life, everybody. ICE Holds a High-Risk Pregnancy, Schedules Prenatal Care for Never In Arizona, ICE is holding 24-year-old Maria Alejandra Valero Brinez, five months into a high-risk pregnancy. She already lost one baby to a stillbirth, and she's having the same complications again. Since August, she's had no regular prenatal care, just ER trips for abnormal bleeding. Apparently ICE's idea of prenatal care is waiting until you hemorrhage. Members of Congress visited her this week, and advocates are demanding her release. And she's not the only one. From January 2025 to February of this year, ICE recorded 16 miscarriages among the pregnant, postpartum and nursing women it held, and deported 363 of them. Arizona Man Gets $67,500 for His Ex-Wife’s Abortion, Embryo Gets an Estate Also in Arizona, a judge ordered an abortion clinic to pay a man $67,500 because his ex-wife had an abortion. Back in 2018, when Mario Villegas's then-wife had a medication abortion at a Phoenix clinic, Arizona law spelled out exactly what a doctor had to tell a woman first, and let her husband sue if the clinic got it wrong. So he sued, and had himself named the official representative of the embryo's estate. The embryo had an estate. That embryo had better estate planning than most millennials. He even claimed its lost lifetime earnings, and decided it would have been a girl. First time a man in this movement has ever worried about a woman's earning potential. The judge didn't buy that the embryo was a person, but ruled the clinic slipped on technicalities, like which doctor delivered the information and the wording on a form. Never mind that his ex-wife testified nothing would have changed her mind. So he got a $5,000 automatic penalty plus $62,500 for his "psychological, emotional, and physical injuries." Physical. From her abortion. Her body, his boo-boo. And that law? A state court struck it down as unconstitutional in February, but it was still on the books in 2018, so he gets paid anyway. Anti-abortion lawyers are calling the award a building block for personhood, which means every ex with a grudge just got a business model. Republicans Spend $78 Million Panicking About Trans Kids, Democrats Ask for It in Blue In Texas's Senate race, Ken Paxton's allies have spent $78 million, mostly Elon Musk's money, on anti-trans ads against Democrat James Talarico. One says he "believes there are six genders" and voted for "taxpayer-funded sex changes on kids." The vote they mean? He voted against Texas's 2023 ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Then somebody mailed pamphlets to homes across Texas, addressed to "the student," dressed up to look like they came from the Transgender Education Network of Texas, a real trans rights group. They told kids where to get help if their parents don't support them, and how a minor can be legally recognized as an adult. TENT had nothing to do with it, calls it a smear meant to sway the election, and is now getting threats. Even the Republican district attorney investigating it as forgery says it looks like a bid to rile up voters. When a Texas Republican prosecutor is the voice of reason, check the water. And Democrats don't get to sit this one out. The DCCC, the national party's House campaign arm, just paid for its first known anti-trans ad of the cycle, for Nancy Lacore, the Democrat running for Congress in South Carolina. In the ad, a Republican mayor endorses her and promises she'll "protect girls' sports," which her campaign confirmed means keeping trans girls out. Candidates panic. This is the national party spending its own money on a Republican talking point. Poll after poll says voters barely care, so Democrats looked at a strategy that isn't even working for Republicans and asked if it comes in blue. Speed Round Okay, speed round. Education Department Finds One School at Fault, Spares Us the Crocodile Tears Trump's Education Department got more than 200 complaints about schools and colleges mishandling sexual assault, investigated 29, and found a school at fault once. Its spokesperson told ProPublica, "Spare us the crocodile tears," and said the office is getting back to making sure students get an education "free from discrimination." Which, under federal law, includes sexual assault. We'll save the tears for the students you ignored. Trump Creates a Women’s Health Division With No Budget, Brags About Cushions Trump signed an executive order creating a women's health research division at NIH, with no research budget, from the administration that wiped out at least $3 billion in women's health research grants, by one analysis. Then at the signing, he bragged about the chair cushions: "They're supposed to be a half an inch high. I said, 'How about four inches?'" Ladies, help is on the way, and it's four inches of foam. Anti-Abortion Activists Run for Congress to Get Fetuses on Your Local News And anti-abortion activists found a TV loophole: stations can't censor a candidate's ad, so they run for Congress to put pictures of aborted fetuses on your local news. Randall Terry ran in three states this year. In Hawaii, Nathan Berning, who doesn't live there and gives himself 0.1% odds, has aired them and says he's "always been pro-choice," because he'd rather pay women not to have abortions than ban them. Aloha, and enjoy your dinner. Stay angry. Stay loud. Under Her Eye. Sources: https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/vivek-ramaswamy-amy-acton-republican-party-rape https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/trump-rages-at-horrible-little-reporter-trying-to-explain-sexual-abuse-allegations-in-ohio-ad-controversy/ https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dem-candidate-in-arizona-my-rape-was-not-a-hoax-concocted-for-votes https://jessica.substack.com/p/abortion-bans-homicides-study-pregnant https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2855391 https://19thnews.org/2026/10/woman-pregnant-ice-eloy-detention-center-arizona/ https://thelensnola.org/2026/03/25/ice-detention-pregnant-postpartum-nursing-immigrants-dhs-report/ https://reason.com/2026/10/21/arizona-man-awarded-67500-on-behalf-of-aborted-embryo/ https://www.advocate.com/politics/election/elon-musk-pac-transgender-attacks https://www.meidasplus.com/p/today-in-politics-bulletin-487-102326 https://www.texastribune.org/2026/10/22/texas-transgender-pamphlet-da-investigation/ https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/dccc-releases-its-first-anti-trans https://www.propublica.org/article/civil-rights-office-education-department-investiga