Abortion How-To: The Ms. Q&A on Menstrual Extraction With Carol Downer

Before Roe v. Wade, one of the ways women bypassed the medical system to get necessary abortions was a technique feminists called “menstrual extraction,” using a syringe, flexible plastic tubing and a mason jar to extract the contents of the uterus.

Ms. spoke with activist Carol Downer about her experiences teaching people to perform menstrual extractions and how the procedure could help post-Roe.

“How in the world can that Supreme Court sit up there and deny this thing to us? How can they get away with that? You can guarantee that Amy Coney Barrett has not seen her own cervix.”

Senate Republicans Block Bill Protecting Right to Travel for Abortion

As abortion restrictions and bans continue to take effect across the country, the need to travel across state lines for reproductive healthcare has grown even more critical. Yet an attempt to pass legislation to protect women traveling to seek abortion healthcare failed in the Senate on Thursday. The bill’s sponsors sought passage through unanimous consent, but Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma blocked the bill.

The U.S. Is Breaking International Human Rights Law With Roe Decision

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With the Supreme Court’s abortion decision, the U.S. finds itself in numerous human rights violations: the right to equality and nondiscrimination, the right to privacy, the right to life, the right to health and the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

It is crucial to take inspiration from feminists across the globe in using international human rights laws to stop states from eroding abortion access.

The Pregnancy Test: Cancer Treatment in a Post-Roe America

On the morning of May 2, hours before the leaked Supreme Court draft striking down Roe v. Wade, I sat waiting for an infusion of Herceptin, an essential drug I was prescribed when diagnosed with breast cancer. Herceptin has saved countless women’s lives since 1990, but it can cause fetal harm.

I was denied medical care until I could prove I wasn’t pregnant. Where was my agency in this situation? And what if I had been pregnant? Would I have been denied the very drug that saved my life and which protects my future—which ensures that my young children will continue to have a mother—in order to protect a pregnancy I did not want or plan to keep?

The Overturn of Roe Could Mean the End of Fertility Medicine

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Without the protections of Roe, we stand to see gross inequalities in fertility care and reproductive decision-making.

State laws defining ‘life’ as the moment an egg is fertilized will limit or prohibit the freezing or discarding of embryos—a process fundamental to successful fertility treatments. These practices could all but vanish in some places. These restrictions emerge at a moment where fertility technology is becoming ever more precise. Combined with existing anti-poor fertility policies, the reality is that poor women of color will have even less opportunity to determine the time and circumstance in which they decide to have a family.

Abortion Providers From Around the World Share the Dangers of Practicing Under Bans

Over the last 30 years, only four countries have restricted access to abortion: Poland, El Salvador, Nicaragua and the U.S. While the leaked Supreme Court decision is cause for alarm, it is also a reminder of how far we’ve come, and why we cannot turn back the clock in countries that have liberalized abortion. Stories of abortion providers in Cambodia, Ethiopia and Nepal of life before their countries legalized abortion show the U.S. how restricting abortion rights can endanger women’s lives.

War on Women Report: States Come for Abortion Care; 10 Anti-LGBTQ Bills; ‘Freedom’ Is Hypocrisy

U.S. patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. But day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching, and we refuse to go back.

This week: State courts come for abortion care services and close crucial clinics; Biden signs an executive order aimed at protecting abortion rights; six states pass anti-LGBTQ bills one day after Pride Month; and more.

Keeping Score: Supreme Court Attacks Abortion, Separation of Church and State, and Environmental Policy

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in in this biweekly round-up.

This week: Feminists worldwide react to the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade; witnesses testify before House’s Jan. 6 committee; 51 migrants die in an abandoned truck in San Antonio; Senate fails to pass PUMP Act; Biden signs first gun safety law in years; and more.

G7 Commitments to Gender Equality: Will Leaders Back Words with Action?

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The June G7 summit focused on climate change and the environment, energy solutions, pandemic preparedness and response, food security, foreign and security policy, and a just transition, as outlined in the outcome document, or communique.

The communique also included important language and some policy adherence on gender equality, there were few tangible and financial commitments.