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Fifth Circuit Judges Seem Skeptical of Louisiana’s Challenge to Telehealth Abortion
On Wednesday, Sep. 9, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard oral arguments in Louisiana v. FDA, a lawsuit filed by the Louisiana attorney general seeking to end telehealth abortion nationwide, even in states that protect abortion access.
Since the fall of Roe and a national snapback of abortion rights in a majority of U.S. states, the antiabortion movement has been laser focused on trying to restrict telehealth abortion because it’s increasing in both awareness and popularity, and it allows patients to circumvent state bans.
The 5th Circuit is considered one of the most conservative appeals courts in the country. But the three-judge panel randomly selected to hear Wednesday’s case included two judges appointed by Democratic presidents: Judge Stephen Higginson, appointed by former President Barack Obama; and Judge Dana Douglas, by former President Joe Biden. The third judge, Judy Richman, was appointed by George W. Bush.
During oral arguments, all three judges indicated skepticism about Louisiana’s arguments, starting with Louisiana’s right to bring the case.
While the recent 5th Circuit hearing offers hope that efforts to restrict mifepristone through the courts will not succeed anytime soon, two greater threats remain: Trump’s antiabortion nominee to lead the FDA, Heidi Overton, and Attorney General Todd Blanche’s promise to restrict the mailing of mifepristone under the Comstock Act. (This move would spur immediate lawsuits by Democratic states and manufacturers of mifepristone.)
Meanwhile, abortion rights advocates will never give up in finding new ways to put abortion pills in women’s hands.
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Trump and DOJ’s Epstein Cover-Up Is Front of Mind for Voters Going into Midterms
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The Epstein Files Reading Room Is Coming to a Swing State Near You
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Robin Morgan’s ‘Fighting Words’ for the Work Ahead
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What Did Gloria Steinem Mean to You? Share Your Story With Ms.
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Who Should Decide Whether a Patient Needs an Abortion: A Doctor or an Opinion Columnist?
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For Gloria Steinem, Women’s Liberation Meant Men’s Liberation, Too
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Justices Sotomayor and Jackson Sound the Alarm on SCOTUS’ Dangerous Deference to Trump on Mail-In Voting
In this episode, Dr. Goodwin breaks down what the latest Supreme Court ruling on voting rights actually says and what it doesn’t. (Of course, it means everyone’s hair is on fire.) Given that this Supreme Court has tried in every way possible to make it more difficult for people to vote, dismantling the Voting Rights Act—an act that had been supported over the years by both Republicans and also Democrats—what hot mess is next?
The 1965 Voting Rights Act was one that had been embraced over the years strongly by Republicans and Democrats. As Dr. Goodwin discusses, this Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, has unraveled it, knowingly pulling the thread in order to disintegrate of one of the most essential pieces of legislation in American history, which protected all Americans. She reminds us that the very first suffragists in the United States were white men who had been dispossessed from the right to vote because they were not wealthy. Sit back and take a listen.
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Fall 2026 Cover Reveal: Gloria Steinem Changed the Story, and Taught Us to Keep Telling It
In our Fall 2026 issue, we remember Gloria not only for the words she wrote, the organizations she helped build or the barriers she broke, but for the connections she made.
Perhaps her greatest gift was her ability to listen, to make people feel capable of changing the world, and to build relationships across generations and movements. She knew that the work would outlast any one of us. The responsibility was to keep telling the story—and to make room for those who would tell it next.
Join today to get our newest issue delivered straight to your mailbox—and help sustain the independent feminist journalism Gloria worked to make possible.
Photo by Jenny Warburg
Rest in Power: Gloria Steinem, Ms. Cofounder and Feminist Visionary
Gloria Steinem, the journalist, organizer and cofounder of Ms. whose name became inseparable from the modern movement for women’s equality, died Wednesday, Sept. 2, at her home in New York City. She was 92.
In 2001, Gloria came to Ellie Smeal and me to discuss the possibility of the Feminist Majority Foundation taking on the publication of Ms. She had rescued the magazine from a series of commercial publishers that had nearly killed it, and it was now facing the headwinds of a rapidly changing media landscape.
We understood, we were being entrusted with far more than a publication—we were being asked to preserve an independent feminist institution, and to keep it alive, questioning and relevant for generations.
That responsibility is more urgent today than at any time in recent memory.
Gloria understood from the beginning that feminism needed its own media—not because feminists should withdraw from the larger public conversation, but because independent media can introduce truths the mainstream has not yet learned to recognize.
Gloria Steinem changed the story women were permitted to tell about themselves. Now it is our responsibility to keep telling the truth.
