Journalist and activist Gloria Steinem, one of the most prominent figures in the American feminist movement, passed away on 2 September at the age of 92. Following the news of her death, the American media – particularly female journalists and figures from within the feminist movement – paid tribute to her legacy one after another: some highlighted her activism spanning over 60 years; others emphasized the platform she established with Ms. Magazine, considered one of America’s pioneering feminist publications; whilst others underscored her symbolic role in the fight for women to have a voice in the public sphere.

There is a detail that makes this name feel not so distant to me, but a little closer: an investigative report I co-authored with a colleague last year was published in Ms. Magazine. It was Steinem’s name that came to my attention whilst researching the magazine’s history prior to publication. Although I had never met her, as a journalist from Turkey, being featured in a publication founded by one of the founding figures of the American feminist movement made me realize just how vibrant and international her legacy still is.

But there is a common thread running through most of these tributes: when we speak of Steinem’s legacy, we are actually speaking of a fight that is far from over. For in her lifetime, she witnessed both the constitutional enshrinement of the right to abortion and the subsequent stripping away of that protection.

Her own experience lay at the heart of this fight: in 1957, when she was just 22, her journey to India took her via England — there, whilst abortion was still illegal, she had an abortion with the help of a doctor. She did not tell anyone about this for years.

In 1969, when she heard women sharing their own abortion experiences publicly for the first time at a church meeting in New York, something changed.

Steinem would later describe this moment as follows: “For the first time in my life, I saw women standing up and telling the truth about something that was not supposed to be discussed in public.” Her own experience now made sense — and this marked the turning point when she moved from writing to street activism.

In 1972, when abortion was still a criminal offense in most states across the country, Steinem published a manifesto titled “We’ve Had Abortions” in the first issue of Ms. Magazine, which she had founded, alongside 53 other prominent women. The aim was simple: to show everyone that making abortion illegal did not deter women from having one, but merely forced them to undergo the procedure in secret and under unsafe conditions. This manifesto was one of the first major steps........

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