Health

Keeping Score: Florida’s New Extreme Abortion Ban; Democrats Urge Investigation on Clarence Thomas’ Misconduct; Abortion Pill Fight Heads to Supreme Court

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 this biweekly roundup.

This week: Dueling federal rulings on the abortion pill mifepristone set up a Supreme Court fight; Senate Judiciary hearing set for ethics investigation into Clarence Thomas; HER Act proposed in Congress to end global gag rule; Tennessee state Reps. expelled for protesting gun violence following mass shooting in Nashville; Biden’s Title IX amendment would prevent some bans on transgender students in sports; N.D. Senate votes against free school lunches while increasing their own meal reimbursements; women disproportionately owe on student loans; and more.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Women Are Now Represented in Every Parliament; Abortion Restrictions Escalate; Stacey Abrams Headed to Howard University

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: Women are now represented in every parliament in the world, but progress toward gender balance in governments has slowed globally; New Zealand has its first gender-balanced cabinet; competing court orders on mifepristone likely mean the issue will rise to the Supreme Court; more women than ever before are motivated to run for political office; and more.

Supreme Court Blocks Fifth Circuit Ruling, Allowing Mifepristone to Stay on the Market as Case Proceeds

In a shadow docket ruling late on Friday, April 21, the Supreme Court has decided to block a previous ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from taking effect, allowing the abortion pill mifepristone to remain on the market under current rules.

“While SCOTUS offered temporary relief, the fate of a medication approved by the FDA more than 20 years ago should have never been before the Supreme Court to begin with,” said Kirsten Moore of Expanding Medication Abortion Access Project.

Circuit Court Rules Abortion Pill Can Remain on the Market, but With Limitations That Could Restrict Access

In a divided opinion issued late Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the abortion medication mifepristone will remain approved for use throughout the United States, but only up to seven weeks of pregnancy when a doctor dispenses the medication in person. This ruling, if allowed to stand and followed, would significantly impair access to abortion throughout the United States.

“The Fifth Circuit’s decision to roll back recent measures that have ensured greater access to medication abortion care undermines the FDA’s authority and science, all while real people pay the price,” said Morgan Hopkins, president of All* Above All.

We Must End Racism in Healthcare. Expanding Medicaid Is A Good Start.

Black women across America face many health crises buoyed by systemic failures ever-present since our country began. The fact that health disparities persist and widen is an indictment on our system and those whose health and well-being it prioritizes—but more is possible.  

Closing the Medicaid gap is arguably one of the quickest ways to make our nation’s health system more equitable. 

We Rise in Support of Black Women’s Fundamental Rights

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The health of Black women is under constant attack. Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project (WRRAP), the nation’s largest independent abortion fund, follows a reproductive justice model and continues to work in marginalized communities across the U.S. to provide abortion funding to providers on behalf of patients.

“We believe equality, equity and autonomy are fundamental rights. We believe every individual should have agency to make decisions about their own life and well-being. We believe governments should not have control over a woman’s body, as it violates their right to bodily autonomy and bodily integrity. We believe women should not be relegated to second-class status.”

Let’s Save the Maternity Units Like We Do the Banks

What if we thought about maternity care like we thought about extractive, under-regulated, poorly run banks? We have plenty of examples of the federal government quickly mobilizing resources to bail them out. They are indispensable! They are core to the wellbeing of our economy and our communities! They are too big to fail!

But I can’t imagine many things more core to the well-being of our economy and our communities than the health of women, of mothers and the children they bring into this world. 

Idaho Makes ‘Abortion Trafficking’ a Crime—Going Further Than Any Other State in Limiting Teens’ Access to Abortion

After nearly 20 years of failed attempts to deter cross-border abortion travel by teens, anti-abortion lawmakers in Congress largely gave up the fight. However, last week’s victory in Idaho makes clear that their long sought-after goal of restricting cross-border abortion access has been resurrected in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs. This first-of-its-kind law in the nation brings to fruition a long-standing goal of the anti-abortion movement—namely, preventing teens from cross-border access to abortion.

The Same Groups That Helped Overturn Roe and Attack Abortion Pills Are Also Lobbying Against the ERA

From supporting the Supreme Court’s right-wing faction responsible for overturning Roe, to spreading misinformation around medication abortion, anti-abortion groups are fighting to eliminate abortion access on multiple fronts.

Their anti-reproductive justice efforts also include lobbying against the Equal Rights Amendment. Lobbying disclosures reveal that far-right, anti-abortion groups like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA, formerly Susan B. Anthony List), National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), Concerned Women for America (CWA) and Students For Life America (SFLA) have spent unknown sums lobbying against the ERA in 2021 and 2022.

The Month of April Brings Highs and Lows in Authoritarianism—From Dueling Abortion Rulings, to State-Level Crackdowns

We are only 10 days into April, and it’s already been a head-spinning month for U.S. authoritarianism.

Two federal district court decisions were issued that could dramatically impact access to medication abortion nationwide—even in states where abortion is legal. Voters in the notoriously purple state of Wisconsin turned out in record-breaking numbers to elect progressive Judge Janet Protasiewicz. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed three bills that repeal the state’s 92-year-old abortion ban. Tens of thousands of students across the country walked out of their classrooms to protest gun violence.