More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Estrogen, the hormone long cast as a public health threat, has been unfairly maligned.
The FDA has finally announced it will remove the incorrect “boxed warning” from vaginal estrogen products and issue corrected labeling for other estrogen therapies—a much needed course correction for one of modern medicine’s most damaging missteps.
When policy proposals like The One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the Trump administration’s recent attempt to partially suspend food-stamp payments threaten the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), we must acknowledge that these decisions are not about fiscal responsibility. They are an ideological manifestation of historical racism and sexism that inevitably punishes Black and brown families and undermines the stability of our entire society.
In fact, SNAP recipients are 45 percent less likely to experience food insecurity, demonstrating that SNAP is one of the most effective anti-poverty programs we have in the U.S.
The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to health care. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.
This week: News from Mali, Venezuela, Gaza, and more.
The battle over abortion rights crossed state lines last week when a Hudson Valley judge refused to enforce a Texas abortion ban in New York state. On Friday, Oct. 31, the judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton against a New York clerk who refused to accept papers to enforce a Texas judgment against Dr. Margaret Carpenter, a New York doctor who provided telehealth abortion services to a Texas woman.
“The New York judge’s dismissal of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s frivolous lawsuit is welcomed but expected,” said the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine.
“Our shield law exists to protect New Yorkers from out-of-state extremists, and New York will always stand strong as a safe haven for healthcare and freedom of choice,” said Attorney General Letitia James.
As federal SNAP funding stalls amid the shutdown, families, advocates and food banks are stepping up to keep people fed—but they can’t fill all the gaps.
“When we support programs like SNAP—we’re not just feeding families, we’re strengthening the entire community—every child who goes to bed with a full stomach, every parent who can focus on work instead of hunger, every landlord who can count on rent being paid—all of that adds up to a healthier, more resilient community,” said Semone Thomas, a Wisconsin SNAP advocate. “Because in the end, food security is not charity, it’s community.”
Apprehensive OB-GYNs across the country are alerting Americans that Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may withdraw abortion pill mifepristone from the market.
The threat follows the publication of a discredited study on mifepristone by a Project 2025 “think tank.” Medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have called the report “seriously flawed” and accused it of manipulating data. So why would RFK Jr. believe it?
Kennedy “is not a scientist and is entirely political. It’s hard to watch someone with such an important role in this country, who is in charge of some of the most vulnerable people in this country, have a complete lack of respect for the things we hold dear,” said Dr. Kristin Lyerly, a Wisconsin OB-GYN who also practices across the state border in rural Minnesota.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, plans to pour millions of dollars into House and Senate races in the 2026 midterms, in hopes of securing a “trifecta of pro-life administration, House and Senate.”
That’s a complete reversal from what voters have said they want: Since Roe was reversed in 2022, voters in every state with an abortion protection measure on its ballot have overwhelmingly passed it, enshrining the right to abortion into their state constitution—even in deep red states like Kansas, Kentucky and Ohio.
Backed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mehmet Oz, Trump’s attacks on safe, widely used medications are part of a larger strategy: sowing fear, undermining trust in science, and exerting political control over people’s most intimate health decisions.
The administration’s disinformation campaign extends far beyond Tylenol. Officials are questioning the safety of mifepristone despite decades of evidence to the contrary and spreading the falsehood that birth control causes abortion—all while defunding Planned Parenthood and funneling taxpayer dollars to crisis pregnancy centers that mislead and manipulate patients. Together, these actions threaten to upend decades of progress in reproductive health and put millions of women at risk.
It’s time for a coordinated response. Just as states have joined forces to counter anti-vaccine propaganda, public health leaders must now unite to defend reproductive healthcare. State and local governments can share strategies, strengthen protections for evidence-based medicine, and push back—loudly and collectively—against the Trump administration’s dangerous campaign of medical disinformation.
Following eight years of litigation, a federal trial court in Hawaii ruled the FDA violated federal law by imposing medically unnecessary restrictions on mifepristone, which is used for early abortion. Ruling in Purcell v. Kennedy, the court held that the FDA has a legal obligation to fairly evaluate and weigh the decades of extensive research affirming mifepristone’s safety, noting the agency had failed to justify its restrictions on access to mifepristone.
The court’s ruling requires the agency to consider the peer-reviewed evidence proving mifepristone’s safety, including its use via telemedicine, and to assess how the agency’s restrictions burden patient access. The ruling does not immediately change access to the medication, but it puts pressure on the FDA to follow the science rather than be swayed by political pressure.
“The FDA’s needless restrictions on mifepristone make our jobs harder without any safety benefit,” said Dr. Lisa Folberg, chief executive officer of the California Academy of Family Physicians. “We appreciate that the court recognized how FDA failed to consider the toll its restrictions take on physicians trying to provide a safe and effective medication to their patients.”
Since 2022, community providers have built a nationwide network discretely mailing free abortion pills to those in ban or restricted states.
People can find community providers through several platforms that research and share information about abortion pill access, including Plan C, I Need An A and Red State Access. On these sites, visitors can search for options by their state or territory. Once the client reaches out, community providers typically respond within 24 hours and mail the pills within 48 hours. The medication typically arrives within seven days, and are shipped in an unmarked, discrete package.
More than 100 people are involved in community provision across the United States. One provider told Ms. why she stepped in to become a community provider: “I saw a great need and I could do it,” noting she is single with no children and is white, making her less vulnerable to police surveillance. “I love helping people. It’s rewarding.”
A recent client wrote back to her community provider with a message of gratitude: “I would like to extend my gratitude and appreciation. What you guys are doing is saving lives and giving us a choice when we don’t have the means of money or the resources. Thank you so much. I received the package and it worked as intended. Thank you for being here for me and millions of other girls that are in need.”
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:
—Turning Point hosted an event at the University of Alabama advocating the death penalty as punishment for abortion patients.
—After being denied care for her ectopic pregnancy by an antiabortion OB-GYN, a 28-year-old woman in Illinois was forced to travel to multiple hospitals and healthcare centers before receiving life-saving care.
—Vocal abortion opponent Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced the Prohibiting Abortion and Transgender Procedures on the Exchanges Act, seeking to halt any healthcare plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) from funding abortions, even in states that preserve abortion access.
—The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that judges can decline to marry same-sex couples if doing so goes against their religious beliefs.
… and more.