The Dangers of Weaponizing Health and Science: The Ms. Q&A with Dr. Michele Goodwin

Within the first few days of his second term, Donald Trump’s threat to the country’s health was evident. The Trump administration has already ordered federal health agencies to cease public communications, directed agencies to cancel meetings to review biomedical research, and pardoned 23 individuals who violently interfered with patients’ care at reproductive health clinics—all without a confirmed secretary for Health and Human Services (HHS). Trump has promised to let his HHS secretary nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “Go wild.” RFK Jr. faces his first of two confirmation hearings this week, on January 29, and a vote will follow sometime in the coming weeks.

Ms. spoke with Dr. Michele Goodwin, the co-faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University and executive producer of Ms. Studios, to understand the devastating health consequences of a Trump-RFK Jr. team, where we can focus our energy in response, and how to hold on to hope over the next four years.

Reflecting on Trump’s Immunity Win Before the Supreme Court as He Strips Security Details From Former Government Officials Under Threat

Mere years after the Civil War, in United States v. Lee, the Court recognized that “[n]o man in this country is so high that he is above the law. No officer of the law may set that law at defiance with impunity. All the officers of the government, from the highest to the lowest, are creatures of the law, and are bound to obey it.” 

One week into the Trump administration, this wisdom rings hollow. 

From Playtime to Patriarchy: The Role of Toys in Gender Inequality

This “toy problem” doesn’t end in childhood—it grows up with kids and follows them into adulthood. When toys restrict a child’s imagination about their possibilities, it stifles development and creates a ripple effect. The path to gender equality must begin at the earliest stages of life—when children first engage with toys, books and screens.

Jodi Bondi Norgaard explores this in her new book More Than a Doll: How Creating a Sports Doll Turned into a Fight to End Gender Stereotypes.

Restoring ‘Truth’ or Restricting Freedom? The Real Impact of Enforcing Gender Binaries

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In a flurry of executive orders this week, President Donald Trump signed one that calls for “accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.” The order, called Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, seeks to restore the gender binary. 

Let’s be clear: Women do not need to be protected from an inclusive definition of gender or trans people. Nonbinary and trans people exist. Their identities are valid, their rights matter and their existence does not threaten cisgender women or anyone else. 

Enforcing binary language lays the foundation for broader discrimination and exclusion, emboldening harmful policies in communities, workplaces and state governments.

What Women Do With Political Power—and Why It Matters More Than Ever

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!

This week:
—Lifelong feminist, activist and former president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, died.
—A new report is sobering for anyone who have assumed increased women’s leadership was inevitable.
—Alaska’s legislative session begins, where women hold the majority of seats in the House and bipartisanship is flourishing.
—In New Mexico, women lawmakers have changed the legislative culture, addressing sexual harassment and championing policies to reduce child poverty and protect reproductive rights.

… and more.

‘We’ve Got to Stop This’: Doctors Sound Alarm as Miscarrying Women Die Under Texas Abortion Ban

The Texas abortion ban’s harsh penalties are “terrifying” doctors, leading to women dying from miscarriages.

“It’s like a knife straight to your stomach,” said Dr. Todd Ivey, a Houston-based OB-GYN at an academic hospital, about a third woman dying in the state during a miscarriage.

Five doctors who provide reproductive healthcare in Texas on why they believe three healthy young women died—and their advice about how other pregnant Texans can do their best to survive a miscarriage in the state.

Trump’s Pardons of 23 Antiabortion Extremists Endanger Providers and Patients

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Twenty-three antiabortion extremists convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) were pardoned by President Donald Trump on Thursday. The pardons place extremists responsible for invading and blockading reproductive healthcare clinics in dozens of states back on the street, inviting more violence and chaos against patients and abortion providers.

For Survivors of Gender Violence in NYC, There Is Still Time to Pursue Justice

On Feb. 28, 2025, the lookback window under New York City’s Gender-Motivated Violence Act (GMVA) will expire, erasing an essential opportunity for survivors of gender-based offenses, sex trafficking, sexual assault, workplace harassment, reproductive coercion and other forms of violence to seek justice. 

The National Organization for Women, New York City, urges individuals to act quickly to protect their right to file civil claims for incidents of gender-motivated violence.