Abortion Access Can’t Depend on Rage Donations

PUBLISHED 1/21/2026 by and

Now, almost three and a half years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the numbers are clear that abortion in the U.S. has, to the shock of most, continued to rise. But we also have data showing that a small but not trivial number of people are continuing their pregnancies to birth due to abortion bans. To us, what this shows is clear: that overturning Roe has prompted ingenuity, persistence, and resistance among providers and patients but is also leaving many people behind. Ultimately, this is no way to deliver healthcare.

The provision of healthcare—and abortion is healthcare—must be publicly supported in order to be equitable and accessible. When this assistance relies on inconsistent large-scale private donations, as well as the almost-supernatural work of abortion providers and supporters, it’s no wonder that some people are slipping through the cracks, even while abortion numbers are rising.

Women Are Being Priced Out of Health Coverage—and Congress Knows It

PUBLISHED 1/21/2026 by

With the 2026 Affordable Care Act (ACA) open enrollment period now closed, millions of Americans are facing an uncomfortable new reality: higher monthly costs for the health coverage they already struggled to afford.

When health insurance becomes unaffordable, women don’t just absorb the cost. They make sacrifices—often at the expense of their health. They end up skipping preventive services, delaying medical tests, forgoing mental healthcare, and leaving prescriptions unfilled. The consequences can be severe: delayed diagnoses, worsened health outcomes, poorer quality of life, and higher costs down the road for families and the health system.

Unable to wait for Congress to act to extend the credits, the vast majority of Americans have already made their health insurance decisions for 2026. With the enrollment deadline passed, women have had to make decisions based on what they can afford right now—not on promises that may never materialize.

Mifepristone Could Treat Endometriosis, Some Cancers, Depression and Chronic Illness—If Politics Didn’t Interfere

PUBLISHED 1/21/2026 by

Across a range of conditions that disproportionately affect women, research into mifepristone’s potential has been slowed, defunded or blocked altogether. Nowhere is that clearer than in the treatment of endometriosis and other serious illnesses that leave millions of women in chronic pain.

Endometriosis—when endometrium cells grow outside the uterus—afflicts an estimated 10 percent of reproductive-age women. It can lead to chronic pelvic and back pain, heavy or abnormal bleeding, pain during sex or bowel movements, fatigue, bloating, digestive issues, infertility, anxiety and depression.

Mifepristone can help—it blocks the progesterone causing the cellular growth and decreases the size of existing endometrial lesions, thereby relieving painful symptoms. But antiabortion politics have obstructed the development of the medication for these uses in the U.S.

Researchers have also produced studies showing mifepristone is effective for treating ovarian and breast cancer, chronic inflammatory diseases, and several psychiatric disorders, including major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychotic depression.

This is Part 2 of 3 in a new series, “The Moral Property of Women: How Antiabortion Politics Are Withholding Medical Care,” a serialized version of the Winter 2026 print feature article.

One Year In: 53 Ways the Second Trump Administration Is Harming Women and Families

PUBLISHED 1/20/2026 by

A sweeping, year-one rundown of how Trump’s second-term power grabs and policy rollbacks are eroding women’s rights, healthcare and economic security, including—from dismantling the Women’s Bureau at the Department of Labor and shuttering reproductive health clinics, to passing historic cuts to the Medicaid program and sowing mistrust in abortion pill safety.

‘The Moral Property of Women’: Mifepristone, Fibroids and the Stakes of Suppressed Science

PUBLISHED 1/20/2026 by

Despite mifepristone’s broad medical promise, its development has been repeatedly stymied by abortion opponents who fear wider availability would weaken their attempts to suppress abortion access.

More than 26 million women in the U.S. are affected by fibroids, which are noncancerous growths of the uterus that can reach the size of a grapefruit or larger. Treatment too often defaults to invasive surgery, either removing the fibroids or performing hysterectomies.

In China today, a three-month regimen of 10 milligrams per day is the approved protocol for treating fibroids. Meanwhile, American women still do not have access to this very effective nonsurgical treatment.

This is Part 1 of 3 in a new series, “The Moral Property of Women: How Antiabortion Politics Are Withholding Medical Care,” a serialized version of the Winter 2026 print feature article.

I Grew Up Wanting to Be Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I’m Coming of Age Under Trump.

PUBLISHED 1/19/2026 by

As a 17-year-old, marking one full year since Donald Trump’s inauguration, I have now spent half my life under his administration. I am growing into adulthood in a world where I may have to travel across state lines for an abortion; where I’ll be penalized more for my gender than men are penalized for their misconduct; where the very leaders meant to protect my rights are actively stripping them away. 

A Month of Fear: ICE’s Surge in Minneapolis and the Backlash That Won’t Quit

PUBLISHED 1/17/2026 by

For the people of Minneapolis, it has been another week of startling violence as the Trump administration continues to mobilize ICE officers into the city—shuttering schools and businesses and leaving residents afraid to leave their homes. Still, thousands have taken to the streets to resist.

One such resister’s story came to us through our Ms. community: Skye, a disabled U.S. Marine Corps veteran who has been participating in citizen observer efforts to warn neighbors about ICE presence. “This is my duty,” she told Ms. “I took an oath to defend the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic. … [ICE agents] are terrorizing our citizens.”

If there’s a silver lining, it’s that people aren’t staying silent. Protests have filled streets in Minneapolis and far beyond. As we honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we’re reminded that racial justice, gender equality, reproductive rights and an end to state violence are intertwined struggles.

As Wisconsin Democrats Push First-Ever Pregnancy Loss Protections, State Republicans Advance Embryo ‘Personhood’

PUBLISHED 1/17/2026 by

In late 2025, Wisconsin Senate Republicans passed SB553, a bill that defines embryos, fertilized eggs and fetuses as “unborn children” and “human beings” from the moment of fertilization. The bill passed with the support of every Republican senator and opposition from all Democrats. SB 553 also attempts to redefine the word “abortion,” asserting that a termination performed to prevent the death of a pregnant woman is not an abortion if it is not “designed or intended to kill the unborn child.”

Doctors also warn that SB 553 quietly functions as a personhood law by stating that once an egg is a human being from the moment of fertilization. By granting fertilized eggs status as human beings, the bill is giving those eggs legal rights which are equal to those of their pregnant mothers. While Gov. Tony Evers has said he will veto the bill if it reaches his desk, Wisconsin state Sen. Kelda Roys says its passage reveals Republican lawmakers’ intent.

Roys recently introduced the Pregnancy Loss Protection Act, the first bill of its kind in Wisconsin. Its goal is to prevent overzealous prosecutors or law enforcement officers from targeting people who experience miscarriage or stillbirth, while also pushing back against a broader Republican effort to confer legal personhood on embryos from the moment of fertilization.

Iranian Feminists Urge World to ‘Join Hands With Us’

PUBLISHED 1/17/2026 by

A powerful call from a collective of Iranian feminists in the diaspora:

“‎‎We, a group of Iranian feminists, at a time when the Islamic Republic has cut off the internet and all channels of communication with the outside world while carrying out a brutal massacre of protesters, extend our hands to feminists around the world. We call on the global civil society and feminists to stand with the people of Iran and to use all available independent national and international mechanisms to stop the regime’s machinery of killing and repression.”