The Ripple Effect: How Abortion Bans Threaten the Entire Healthcare Ecosystem

PUBLISHED 10/24/2026 by

In her new book Side Effects: How Abortion Bans Impact Everyone’s Health, journalist Alice Miranda Ollstein shows that abortion bans aren’t just restricting reproductive care—they’re disrupting cancer treatments, chronic disease medications, fertility services and lifesaving medical research.

“… Legal restrictions on reproductive healthcare ripple outwards, compromising the health and safety of all patients.”

“… We are seeing a broader access crisis: Doctors are leaving restrictive states because they feel they can no longer practice medicine ethically or legally …”

“In emergency care, misoprostol is vital for stopping postpartum hemorrhage. … Now, strict controlled-substance storage rules force providers to retrieve it from locked rooms down the hall or in another building.”

When the Victim Becomes the Target

PUBLISHED 10/24/2026 by

Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) laments the moral collapse of American politics:

“What does it say about our national conscience when the suffering of a child becomes a strategy for winning public office?

“What does it profit a nation to celebrate political victory while tolerating the degradation of its most vulnerable citizens?

“Public service invites scrutiny. It does not authorize the weaponization of sexual violence.

“A democracy cannot survive on constitutional procedures alone. It requires a moral culture capable of sustaining those procedures. It requires citizens who understand that political opponents remain human beings, that public disagreement need not become personal degradation and that victory without restraint can become its own form of defeat.”

The Violent Cost of Being a Woman in Politics Spans Continents

PUBLISHED 10/23/2026 by

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world … with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment.

This week:
—There is not (yet) the political will in the U.S. to talk about gender quotas … but 35 nations in Europe have either been mandated or volunteered to implement them.
—Weeks after the brutal rape of Arizona congressional candidate Bernadette Greene-Placentia, Australian independent member of Parliament Helen Haines is in hospital in a critical condition after she was struck by a car outside her office in what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said appears to have been “a deliberate act.”
—”Politicians are no longer treated like we’re human,” says Arizona state legislator Alma Hernandez, who is facing rising harassment and threats.
—Federal agents searched the Washington-area home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a frequent critic of Republican President Donald Trump.
—If elected governor of Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms would become the first Black woman governor in U.S. history. 

… and more.

Most Home-Based Childcare Is Run by People Over 50. Who’s Going to Replace Them?

PUBLISHED 10/23/2026 by

For more than 20 years, Sylvia Crews has worked in early childhood education, spending the last decade running her own home-based center. After buying a home in Washington, D.C., in 2015, she launched LTH Infants and Toddlers Center—an abbreviation for “loving, tender home”—shortly afterward. She is licensed to care for up to nine children ranging from 6 weeks to 3½ years old, overseeing four employees.

Crews said she wants to work “as long as the Lord will allow me to,” but she does worry about the likelihood of younger workers entering the sector.

“At a point, I know I’ll have to stop,” said Crews, 67. But as for the next generation, “How do we get them involved? We need to bring them in,” she said.

For many parents, home-based care is a vital alternative. Providers tend to offer more flexible hours than larger centers: Only 8 percent of larger childcare centers offer care during nontraditional working hours, according to federal data, compared to more than a third of licensed home-based childcare providers.

Smaller home-based centers may meet a family’s needs in other ways, too, such as providing care in families’ native language or offering a specific curriculum, like one focused on outdoor play, advocates said.

A federal report found that more than 97,000 small home-based providers—defined as one person serving as the sole caregiver—closed between 2005 and 2017.

Abortion Rights Are on the Ballot in Four States in 2026

PUBLISHED 10/23/2026 by and

In the ongoing November 2026 election, voters in three states (Idaho, Nevada and Virginia) will consider ballot measures designed to protect abortion rights by affirming a statutory or constitutional right to abortion and in some cases other reproductive rights.

Additionally, voters in one state (Missouri) will vote on an antiabortion measure that would undo the right to reproductive freedom previously established by a state ballot measure. The antiabortion measure Missouri voters will face this fall threatens to undo the progress that has allowed hundreds of Missourians to access care in their state earlier this year.

Voting Is Underway. Here’s How to Find Your Polling Place, Check Your Ballot and Get Help

PUBLISHED 10/22/2026 by

The 2026 midterm elections are already underway.

Whether you’re voting early, mailing your ballot or planning to head to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 3, consider these eight free, trusted resources your go-to guide for voting in the 2026 midterms:

  • Election Protection Hotline: Call or text 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683).
  • Vote.org
  • VOTE411.org
  • USAGov’s state and local election office directory
  • U.S. Vote Foundation
  • VoteRiders.org: Call or text 866-432-8683.
  • Ballotpedia
  • Guides.vote

    • Happy voting! Power to the people.

    Why This Menopause Expert Turned Down Trump’s Rose Garden Photo Op

    PUBLISHED 10/22/2026 by

    On Monday, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump presided over a bizarre ceremony in the Rose Garden where she made rare public remarks and he signed an executive order, “Advancing Women’s Health to Improve Outcomes in All Phases of Life.”

    Never mind that his executive order has the same primary objectives as one signed by President Joe Biden in 2024—namely, increased research in and knowledge about diseases and conditions that affect women uniquely or disproportionately. Both executive orders make explicit the need to focus on menopause, midlife and aging, with stated priorities such as Alzheimer’s Disease, cardiovascular and heart disease, stroke and osteoporosis.

    The biggest difference between the two is that Biden’s tied dollar amounts to these objectives: Though the $12 billion he directed Congress to allocate never materialized, hundreds of millions were activated across several federal agencies.

    Alas, that executive order is now officially replaced with the current one.

    As much as I want to mean it when I say, This agenda must transcend partisanship, and I want to show up for the millions of women who deserve these hard-won milestones—it was way too large a leap to be in the room where this executive order happened.

    Yes, I was invited to the Rose Garden. Yes, I declined.

    Before You Head to the Polls, Know Your Rights and Save These Phone Numbers

    PUBLISHED 10/21/2026 by

    U.S. voters have legal protections when they cast their ballots, including rights to assistance in certain circumstances. Whether you encounter a long wait, a question about your registration or someone trying to intimidate you, you don’t have to figure out the next step alone.

    Here are some common obstacles voters may face this election season, plus recommended next steps from voting rights experts.

    At a No Kings Rally, I Found a Reason to Wave the American Flag

    PUBLISHED 10/19/2026 by

    On Oct. 17, in honor of No Kings 4.0, I found myself standing at a suburban intersection littered with big-box stores in my once farm-filled Vermont town. There, local organizers with Indivisible gave weekend activists like myself sturdy signs that said “VOTE” on one side, with an American flag on the reverse.

    I’m not much given to following rules, or holding signs that other people give me with messages worked out by committee. And I can’t remember a time when I had an uncritical or non-ironic relationship to the flag. But it worked: Despite everything, despite history, even, I was happy to wave my little representation of Old Glory.

    What that little flag meant at my demonstration in Williston, Vt.—and others’ in Salt Lake City, Utah; San Diego; Brooklyn; Atlanta; Dallas, Texas, and many other places—was the promise of democracy at a time of genuine peril. It’s hard to have an ironic relationship to that.