Pope Francis meets trans people regularly. But that does not mean he understands them, respects them, or is sympathetic to their desire for bodily autonomy. In Dignitas Infinita, a frightening document the Vatican released earlier this month, the pope characterizes trans people not as human beings looking to synchronize their inner and outer identities but rather as people who wish to fulfill “the age-old temptation to make oneself God.” As Michael Pettinger wrote this week, the declaration “shows no familiarity with the actual lives of transgender people.” But, Pettinger says, its logic is nonetheless worth trying to understand if we are to reckon with moving forward in an era in which such a document can be easily misunderstood.

Elsewhere across the pond, France has been gearing up for this summer’s Olympic Games. In addition to the fact that the “Olympics are tremendously unpopular in Paris,” Dave Zirin reminds us of the political strife raging in the country, from the rise of the fascist right to attacks on Palestinian freedom—discouraging trends developing on our own soil at an alarming pace as well. As John Nichols writes, just last week, activists with Christians for a Free Palestine were arrested in Washington for campaigning against the war on Gaza. Meanwhile, colleges and universities are clamping down harder on protesting students.

But one need not even consider global affairs to be frightened by our current political realities. As Mary Tuma reports this week, doctors in Texas, stifled by draconian abortion laws, have turned to C-sections to save mothers from dangerous and faulty pregnancies. Now, even in life-threatening circumstances—where abortion would normally be routine and safer—our nation’s doctors are tiptoeing with caution, looking for loopholes as their standard practices become politically obsolete.

-Alana Pockros

Engagement Editor, The Nation