It’s a sweltering Friday morning in Atlanta’s West End, just 12 hours after and a few miles away from where President Joe Biden and Donald Trump faced off in that disastrous presidential debate, but the Mother House is calm. Loretta Ross, one of the foremothers of the reproductive-justice movement, bought the green 19th-century house in 2007 to serve as the headquarters of SisterSong, the organization she co-founded a decade earlier. Here, people can access free HIV testing, computer-lab training, and resources for mothers. “It brings a sense of stability” to the community, she says. “They know the Mother House is going to be here.”

Sitting in a comfortable blue armchair, Ross lacks the anxious energy that is consuming me. Between the debate hangover and the breaking news that the Supreme Court has just obliterated yet another long-standing precedent — taking away power from experts at regulatory agencies and placing it in the hands of judges who are decidedly not — the national mood is understandably freaked out. How’s Ross feeling about it all? She gently places her hand on the walker in front of her and turns toward me. “What the Republicans have going for them is lying and violence,” she says. She smiles, showing a gap in her front teeth that makes her look much younger than her 70 years. “And those are not sustainable strategies in this country.”

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