U.S. Abortions Continue to Increase, Fueled by Telehealth and Shield State Providers

The number of abortions in the first half of 2024 was significantly higher than the same period for the previous two years—according to the Society of Family Planning’s eighth #WeCount report, released last week, which measures the number of abortions in the U.S. each month from April 2022 through June 2024.

There has been a 20.4 percent increase in just three years, despite abortion bans in 14 states and severe restrictions in many others. (And these numbers only include clinician-provided abortions—there are many more self-managed abortions occurring outside of the formal healthcare system.)

Biden-Harris Administration Proposes Most Significant Expansion of Contraception Coverage Under ACA in Over a Decade

The Biden-Harris administration last week announced a new proposed rule that would significantly expand access to no-cost birth control under the Affordable Care Act. The rule would require private health insurance to cover all forms of contraception without co-pays, including over-the-counter contraceptives.

This expansion of contraception coverage is important in light of steep declines in prescriptions for birth control and emergency contraception in states banning abortion.

Project 2025 Would Establish an Unborn Uber Class

Mostly without using the term “person,” Project 2025 lays out a plan for the next conservative president to use the federal government’s executive powers to enact nationwide policies that treat fertilized eggs as persons without needing to rely on courts or legislatures to achieve their goal—overriding the majority of Americans who oppose these measures.

Project 2025 would undermine public health, destroy and degrade women’s lives and inevitably lead to their criminalization.

We must understand Project 2025 as the culmination of the radical personhood agenda, launched in the 1970s, significantly advanced in 2022 by the Supreme Court decision overturning of Roe v. Wade and now poised to be fully achieved if Donald Trump is elected.  

California Becomes First State to Enshrine Intersectionality in Law, Recognizing the Amplified Harms of Overlapping Discrimination

Thirty-five years ago, Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” to explain how multiple forms of discrimination interact to exacerbate each other, resulting in amplified forms of prejudice and harm. Last week, California became the first state to explicitly recognize intersectionality in discrimination law.

Criminalization of Pregnant Women Skyrockets, Based on the Legal Fiction of ‘Fetal Personhood’

New research reveals at least 210 women faced criminal charges because of their pregnancies or pregnancy outcomes in the year after Dobbs—the highest number of documented prosecutions in a single year. The real number is likely much higher, according to new research released by Pregnancy Justice.

“Our new report shows how the Dobbs decision emboldened prosecutors to develop ever more aggressive strategies to prosecute pregnancy, leading to the most pregnancy-related criminal cases on record,” said Lourdes A. Rivera, president of Pregnancy Justice. “Being pregnant places people at increased risk, not only of dire health outcomes, but of arrest.”

Post-Roe, States With Abortion Bans Saw Steep Declines in Birth Control Prescriptions

Between abortion bans and decreasing access to contraception post-Dobbs, women are facing ever-increasing barriers to maintaining control over their reproductive lives, whether ending unwanted pregnancies—or preventing them.

(This article originally appears in the Fall 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

Abortion Opponents Use Deaths of Two Georgia Women to Push Dangerous Lies About Abortion Pills

After reports emerged that two women died as a result of Georgia’s six-week abortion ban, abortion opponents are callously using these tragic deaths to fuel false claims that abortion pills are dangerous and to push for FDA removal of mifepristone from the market.

Rather than calling on legislators to clarify life-saving exceptions, abortion opponents are doubling down on misinformation they’ve been peddling for years about the safety of abortion pills.

Community Providers Have Given Free Abortion Pills to Over 70,000 People in Restrictive States Since Dobbs

Abortion advocates have created volunteer-run, donor-supported, community-based mutual aid groups around the country to provide free abortion pills to people living in states restricting abortion.

These groups serve people of all ages and gestational stages, using different protocols for people in later pregnancy. As they start their third year of operations, they have mailed abortion medications to over 70,000 people in total.

Misogynist Manifesto: Fighting Project 2025’s Plans to Dismantle Democracy as We Know It

The final installment of a three-part series about the 900-plus-page right-wing “misogynistic manifesto”:

Project 2025 is a sinister plan to replace nonpartisan civil servants who enforce laws guaranteeing women’s rights, with trained ideologues determined to undermine these rights.

(This article originally appears in the Fall 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)