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In Landmark Case, California Argues False Abortion Pill Reversal Claims Aren’t Protected by the First Amendment
On Sept. 17, following nearly three years of litigation and a six-week trial, California’s Department of Justice delivered its closing arguments in a landmark case against RealOptions Obria and Heartbeat International, seeking to stop their use of “false and misleading claims to advertise abortion pill reversal” (APR), as Attorney General Rob Bonta described it in a press release.
APR is the unproven and potentially dangerous flooding of the body with a high dosage of progesterone after taking mifepristone, the first pill in the FDA-approved medication abortion protocol, but before taking misoprostol, the second approved pill in the sequence.
APR has become an increasingly central tactic in CPCs’ relentless post-Dobbs efforts to persuade what they call “abortion-vulnerable” pregnant women to carry their pregnancies to term.
The trial court is expected to issue its ruling by Dec. 16, within the 90-day period allotted under California law. Given the evidence presented at trial, a ruling in California’s favor could mark a significant victory in efforts to hold CPCs accountable for promoting false and misleading claims about a procedure that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has denounced as “unproven and unethical.” Such a decision would also send a powerful message: The First Amendment does not give organizations a free pass to mislead pregnant women about their medical care.
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Amy Acton’s Victory Is One for All Survivors
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Women Will Hold at Least One-Third of Governorships—A New Record. Now Let’s Make It Last.
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Abortion Rights Win Again: Voters Reject Missouri Ban, Protect Reproductive Freedom in Three States
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Here’s How the Races and Ballot Measures Ms. Was Watching Turned Out
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November 2026 Reads for the Rest of Us
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Vivek Ramaswamy Weaponized Childhood Rape as a Political Talking Point. Women Across The Country Are Responding. (with Moira Donegan)
In this episode, we’re looking at the upcoming midterm elections, the role of women playing in national politics, and the attacks on the women who are running for office. In Ohio, we recently saw an example of this—an unreasonably cruel and debasing attack ad from gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, directed at his Democratic opponent Amy Acton, who has said she was sexually abused as a child by her stepfather who was charged with rape and fled the state. The ad includes her estranged mother, claiming that Acton lied about the traumatic events in her childhood.
What do attacks like these say about our current political climate, and how will they influence voters? How is our cultural climate around gender impacting the midterms? Moira Donegan joins Dr. Michele Goodwin to unpack these important questions, just one week out from the election.
This podcast and many more can be found in Ms. Studios or at your favorite podcast aggregator.
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Survivors Describe How Epstein Used Their Modeling Dreams to Abuse Them
Jeffrey Epstein “used the modeling industry as a lever to try to get girls into his orbit,” says survivor Lisa Phillips.
Phillips describes how Epstein operated: He asked about her career, about how often she talked to her father (she told him not often), and he specifically wanted to know about her goals as a model. She told him her “big dream” was to work for Ford Models. He told her that she and the other model had to stay over on the island, then assaulted her later that night.
Months later, she says, he called to say he had arranged a meeting with his “great friend” Katie Ford, the CEO of Ford Models. Phillips met with Ford and became a model for the agency.
“Models were being sent to every charity event, every modeling party,” she says, “everything organized through Katie Ford and agents. … It was always us younger girls and older men. We [felt] our bodies weren’t ours and we would just have to put up with it to keep [our] career.”
Part 1 of The Pipeline to Predators, a four-part Ms. investigation into the modeling industry’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein and survivors’ fight for accountability.
War on Women Report: Antiabortion Extremism Makes Its Way to the White House; 28th Woman Accuses Donald Trump of Rape; Arizona Man Wins $68K Settlement After Ex-Wife’s Abortion
MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide: the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.”
We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.
Since our last report:
—Dolores Huerta, the labor organizer at the helm of United Farm Workers and one of the most powerful women in the movement, passed away on Oct. 28. She was 96. Huerta was also a board member of the Feminist Majority Foundation, the publisher of Ms. In March of this year, at the age of 95, she revealed that in the 1960s, Cesar Chavez sexually assaulted her.
—Abortion bans may be linked to approximately 135 excess homicides among women of reproductive age between 2023 and 2024, a new study suggests.
—Federal agents searched the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in the last few weeks of her reelection bid. Omar called the search an “attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.”
—Bernadette Greene-Placentia, the Democratic candidate challenging Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, says she was raped while repairing a campaign sign in Sun City on Aug. 14. According to her account, Greene-Placentia was struck in the head and lost consciousness, later waking to discover evidence of a sexual assault.
—A University of Arizona sorority member has reported being sexually assaulted by two men at a Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house on Aug. 26.
—During Trump’s second term, the U.S. Department of Education has drastically reduced its investigations of sexual assault and other civil rights violations at schools and colleges, even though the number of complaints has not slowed.
—A new report from House Judiciary Democrats includes an allegation from Beatrice Keul, former Miss Switzerland. Keul says that in 1983, Trump offered to help her secure a U.S. visa and admission to New York University, and invited her to a meeting at the Plaza hotel.
When she arrived at his hotel room, Trump allegedly raped her in an attack she describes as “brutal.” According to Keul, the assault tore her clothing and caused bleeding and bruising across her body, and Trump told her not to tell anyone about the rape.
… and more.
