Search Results for: vagina

‘Mife No Matter What’: Community Abortion Providers Pledge to Continue Sharing Free Abortion Pills, Even if FDA Imposes Restrictions

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.”

Meet Dr. Lincoln, the Internet’s Favorite OB-GYN

You may know—and love—Dr. Jennifer Lincoln already. If you are unfamiliar, she’s a board-certified OB-GYN and a famous content creator with 2.8 million followers on TikTok and large platforms on Instagram and YouTube. Dr. Lincoln is also a practicing OB-hospitalist who works in labor and delivery, night and day.

She makes content to dispel medical misinformation, a frequent tool of the patriarchy. As ‘MAHA’ influencers decry everything from birth control to Tylenol, at the expense of women, she’s pushing back with evidence-based information.

Like most Americans, I felt uninformed about sexual reproductive health, even after my in-school health classes. In high school, I searched YouTube for information about reproductive health, where I found my way to Dr. Lincoln, who not only provided the health class I never had, but also ignited my interest in reproductive justice. Without her influence, I likely would not have become a feminist writer at Ms.

Over Zoom, I had the privilege of chatting with Dr. Lincoln about her journey from OB-GYN to viral educator, how the post-Dobbs landscape has reshaped her work, and why she believes accurate, inclusive sex education is one of the most powerful tools we have for liberation. Our conversation spanned everything from social media strategy to Christian nationalism—and what it really means to fight misinformation with empathy.

Meanwhile, at the FDA: Menopause Progress, Abortion Gaslighting

The FDA caused a stir last week when it approved a new, generic version of mifepristone—the abortion medication that has safely, effectively and privately ended pregnancies for 25 years. Many mainstream outlets made it sound like a dramatic policy reversal, but really it was a procedural box check. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is already laying the groundwork to undermine access, announcing a so-called “safety review” based on flawed data and false claims. As reproductive rights advocates like Mini Timmaraju have pointed out, this is gaslighting—pretending to be moderate while plotting restrictions. That’s why protecting mifepristone still matters now.

At least there was some progress this week in menopause care: The FDA signaled plans to remove the “black box” warning on certain hormone treatments that has long stoked fear and confusion. Experts say the label was based on outdated science and has caused real harm, leaving countless women to suffer unnecessarily. For once, the agency seems poised to get this one right.

‘Worse Than War’: A Texas Couple Was Forced to Flee the State for Essential Care—Twice

Hollie Cunningham’s family suffered incredible loss during two pregnancies. The mother of two was forced to flee Texas to get the care she needed, as she explains below in an interview with Courier Texas writer Bonnie Fuller.

“I didn’t really know about Texas’ abortion bans. I had always figured that if something were to go wrong with my pregnancy, my doctor would be able to do what she needed to take care of me.

Tradwives and ‘The People That People Come Out Of’

For the first time in years, the number of U.S. mothers with young children in the workforce is shrinking—over 212,000 women left between January and June 2025 alone.

Childcare costs, in-office pressures, and a cultural nudge toward traditional gender roles are pushing moms out, while men in power nod along.

Meanwhile, the tradwife movement parades its perfect, baked-from-scratch, filtered-life versions of domesticity online, making the impossible look effortless.

It’s absurd. It’s dangerous. And it’s time we stop letting the economy treat raising kids as invisible labor.

How Being Slut-Shamed by The New York Times Brought Out the Feminist in Joan Didion

In 1984, Joan Didion’s best-selling, critically acclaimed books didn’t stop a respected critic such as Christopher Lehmann-Haupt from presuming he had the right to criticize the publicity photo for her novel Democracy. The black-and-white image, he wrote, “presents the author wading in a skirt and sweater that cling sufficiently to reveal somewhat more of the anatomy than one is accustomed to seeing in a dust-jacket portrait”—then, without providing evidence, that “Miss Didion’s dust-jacket image was thought to be in questionable taste by a number of fastidious observers, including her English publisher.”

Joan Didion’s husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, wrote a long, fuming, deadly serious and rather hilarious letter to Lehmann-Haupt defending his wife’s honor, arguing he “would stick pasties on the Venus de Milo and call it taste. It is a taste I want no part of.”

Lehmann-Haupt conceded defeat. The New York Times critic responded, “Dear John: Thanks for writing. I guess you’re right.” 

Menopause Finally Gets a Seat at the Table

On Thursday, July 17, the FDA held a two-hour briefing featuring political leadership and a panel of doctors to focus on menopausal hormone treatments. Among the issues addressed was a decades-old labeling requirement for estrogen products—a.k.a. the “black box warning.”

FDA commissioner Martin Makary appears willing to consider scrapping it on packaging for localized vaginal estrogen treatment. The FDA should do so: The label is inaccurate and utterly alarming.

In the case of menopause, a rare combination of bipartisan commitment and robust public attention reflect not just heightened interest among constituents, but also proof of the democratic process actually working.

Sex Sells … Even in the Soap Aisle: What Does Sydney Sweeney’s ‘Bathwater Soap’ Say About Our Porn-Dominant Culture?

“I need your thoughts on this.” Attached to this urgent text was a link my friend had forwarded to me: An article by Elizabeth Gulino titled, “You Can Buy Sydney Sweeney’s Bathwater Now.”

Upon my first glance at the article, I found myself instinctually grasping for some feminist argument of the campaign, which Sweeney claimed to be fulfilling her fans’ persistent and frankly invasive requests for her bathwater. However, the way our commercial society and the broader marketplace are structured encourages women to market themselves towards those often degrading desires and enables men to continue acting as if treating women as objects is acceptable. And the solution is not restructuring what we construe as feminism, but rather, resisting the urge to accommodate one’s power to what seems like inevitable exploitation.

Defending bathwater products in the name of feminism will not lead us to the kind of liberation we could want for ourselves.

Our Abortion Stories: ‘I Have the Privilege to Live in a State Where I Am Safe’

“If she could have put off the baby for two more years, she could have saved up a nest egg and created her family the way she wanted. Instead, she was trapped with a baby too soon.”

Abortions are sought by a wide range of people for many different reasons. There is no single story. Telling stories of then and now shows how critical abortion has been and continues to be for women and girls. (Share your abortion story by emailing myabortionstory@msmagazine.com.)

“Seven more days. To find out what is happening inside my body. What is poisoning my body. Starving my body. Starving my life of joy and laughter.”

Women’s Health in Women’s Hands: Celebrating the Life of Carol Downer

One of the founders of the women’s health movement, Carol Downer died on Jan. 13, 2025 at 91. Before the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, she sparked the feminist self-help movement and helped to develop and popularize menstrual extraction.

(This article originally appears in the Spring 2025 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox.)