Keeping Score: Devastating Attacks on USAID; Louisiana Indicts N.Y. Doctor; Autumn Lockwood Is First Black Woman Coach to Win Super Bowl

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: Musk and Trump’s USAID attacks have devastating impacts; 80% of the clean energy investments from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act—which Trump wants to roll back—are in Republican congressional districts; Louisiana indicts a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills; new executive orders go after workers and LGBTQ people; the Laken Riley Act was signed into law; childcare costs affect the health of parents; and more.

The Fight for Midlife and Menopausal Health Is Essential to Reproductive Rights—and Democracy

Less than one into the Trump presidency, attacks on reproductive health and rights have begun. Against this backdrop, it may sound surprising to hold out hope for the immediate future of any women’s health issue. But I think menopause may be an outlier.

Perhaps you’ve seen the headlines: Menopause is having a moment, from new tell-all books by Brooke Shields and Naomi Watts, to viral clips of Halle Berry shouting from the steps of the U.S. Capitol, “I’m in menopause, OK?!” Commitment goes well beyond celebrity moments and includes notable support from public policy leaders across the spectrum—Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and in blue and red states. These prominent voices are part of a new wave of recognition that menopausal women deserve to make informed choices about our bodies.

Just as the fight for reproductive rights is an essential tenet of any free and fair democracy, so too is autonomy and health at this life stage.

Antiabortion Forces Have a Blueprint to Ban Abortion Pills Nationwide (And You Thought Project 2025 Was Bad?)

Not satisfied with the overthrow of Roe v. Wade and Trump’s compliance with nearly all things Project 2025, right-wing conservatives are pushing the president to go further. In a chilling blueprint, “Stopping Pills that Kill,” antiabortion groups urge President Trump to stop the movement of domestic and international abortion pills using the Comstock Act of 1873 and a dragnet of new regulations. 

The new scheme calls for every U.S. law enforcement entity to play a role—federal, state and city/county agencies. Starting at home, extremists urge Trump to compel federal prosecutors to charge providers of abortion pills weaponizing both the Comstock Act and racketeering statutes (RICO) for using the postal system. They would then add regulations governing the U.S. postmaster general and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to list abortion pills as “nonmailable … hazardous materials or devices that may present an immediate threat to persons,” which would make shipping them a federal offense carrying civil and possibly criminal penalties.

Attacks on Clinics, Abandonment of Justice—And the Feminist Resistance Rising in Response

Trump’s pardon of 23 antiabortion extremists—followed by the Justice Department’s decision to stop prosecuting most FACE Act violations—has emboldened those who seek to terrorize clinic workers and patients. But feminists are fighting back. From lawmakers to grassroots organizers, the movement is rolling up its sleeves to defend reproductive rights and strategize for the battles ahead.

War on Women Report: Trump’s Second-Coming Brings Whirlwind of Far-Right Threats—From Executive Orders Attacking Repro Rights and DEI, to Immigration Blitzes

MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.” We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report…
—Abortion bans are driving young people out of restrictive states.
—Brittany Watts, the Ohio woman who was arrested last year after miscarrying at home, has filed a lawsuit against several members of hospital staff.
—Trump has launched a nationwide immigration enforcement operation, beginning in Chicago.
—Republicans ramp up attacks on the FACE Act.

… and more.

Keeping Score: Trump’s Executive Orders Undo Progress; Meta Allows Hate Against Women and LGBTQ People; Abortion Ban States Are Losing Residents

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: Trump enacts harmful executive actions on immigration, global abortion care, DEI and foreign assistance; Trump’s new treasury secretary said expanding tax cuts for the wealthy is “the single most important economic issue of the day”; Trump pardoned anti-abortion extremists; ICE raids spread fear; 1.4 percent of trans teens participate in sports, but 40 percent are bullied at school; Whole Woman’s Health has expanded its 24/7 abortion care services; states hostile to abortion rights see challenges attracting and retaining workers; female firefighters will now receive federal compensation for treatment for reproductive cancers; remembering Cecile Richards, and more.

Stopping the Flow of Abortion Pills by Any Means Possible: Texas Takes on Telehealth Abortion Shield Laws

Last month Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of the state against New York doctor Maggie Carpenter, co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telehealth, for prescribing abortion pills through telehealth to a Texas woman.

Paxton’s lawsuit is a direct attack on telehealth abortion shield laws— a move that has been anticipated since Massachusetts enacted the country’s first such law in the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs.

‘We’ve Got to Stop This’: Doctors Sound Alarm as Miscarrying Women Die Under Texas Abortion Ban

The Texas abortion ban’s harsh penalties are “terrifying” doctors, leading to women dying from miscarriages.

“It’s like a knife straight to your stomach,” said Dr. Todd Ivey, a Houston-based OB-GYN at an academic hospital, about a third woman dying in the state during a miscarriage.

Five doctors who provide reproductive healthcare in Texas on why they believe three healthy young women died—and their advice about how other pregnant Texans can do their best to survive a miscarriage in the state.