Death

After Years of Silence, Texas Medical Board Issues Training for Doctors on How to Legally Provide Abortions

PUBLISHED 4/23/2026 by , and

For the first time since Texas criminalized abortion, the state’s medical regulator has instructed doctors on when they can legally terminate a pregnancy to protect the life of the patient—guidance physicians long sought as women died and doctors feared imprisonment for intervening.

The new training from the Texas Medical Board was released nearly five years after the state passed its strict abortion ban in 2021, threatening doctors with severe penalties. Pregnancy became far more dangerous in the state after the law took effect: Sepsis rates spiked for women suffering a pregnancy loss, as did emergency room visits in which miscarrying patients needed a blood transfusion; at least four women in the state died after they didn’t receive timely reproductive care. More than a hundred OB-GYNs said the state’s abortion ban was to blame.

The new medical training, which ProPublica obtained under a public records request, assures doctors they can now legally provide abortions, even when a patient’s life isn’t imminently in danger, and goes over nine example scenarios, including a patient’s water breaking before term and complications from an incomplete abortion. 

But medical and legal experts who reviewed the training said the case studies represent only the most straightforward situations doctors encounter. The complications that women face in pregnancy are varied, complex and impossible to capture in a brief presentation, many cautioned. One attorney called the training “the bare minimum.”

‘Who Will Revere the Black Woman?’ Remembering Nancy, Cerina and So Many More

PUBLISHED 4/22/2026 by

Even though I did not know Nancy Metayer, my heart is utterly broken by the loss of her life and the violence of her death. The night before her funeral, I joined a virtual vèyè in her honor—a space to keep watch, to remember her impact and to hold one another in communal care.

That same day, news broke about Dr. Cerina Fairfax, also killed in her home. I did not know her either, and still, I was gutted.

Nor did I know Pastor Tammy McCollum, Ashly Robinson, Qualeisha Barnes, Davonta Curtis or Barbara Deer—Black women killed in just a matter of weeks. And to think these are only the names we know.

In moments like this, I find myself returning to a question first posed by Abbey Lincoln decades ago: “Who will revere the Black woman?” The reality of this violence—and the way it is so often explained away or softened—makes that question feel as urgent as ever.

Black feminists have long named the patterns, the structures and the stakes. And still, we are left mourning, naming and insisting: We will not let their lives be forgotten. We will continue the work in their honor—because we revere them.

This Phoenix Dad, Husband and Doctor Just Helped Change Abortion Rules in Arizona

PUBLISHED 4/14/2026 by

What kind of man would sue the state of Arizona on behalf of the women here? Dr. Paul Isaacson.

Thanks to his recent win court (with legal lead the Center for Reproductive Rights), women in Arizona are no longer forced to go through a 24-hour period between scheduling and getting an abortion, which is an outdated practice that suggests women can’t make rational decisions. They also no longer have to listen to state-mandated, antiabortion propaganda before ending a pregnancy.

“All of these requirements were done under the guise of improving healthcare for women, which they did not,” he says. “I can’t imagine a similar situation with anything to do with a man’s health. It felt like we were talking down to women. I think that’s been one of the major drivers for me in being active and challenging these laws, because they are so dishonest.”

The White House’s Medical Misinformation Is Harming American Children

PUBLISHED 4/11/2026 by

Amid a war in Iran, the Epstein files, Americans gunned down in the Twin Cities, the gutting of the Department of Justice and more, domestic health policy might not be at the top of mind. Yet, American children are being harmed.

Vaccine mandates are being lifted across the United States, and the consequences are immediate and measurable.

In 2000, U.S. healthcare officials declared measles eradicated nationwide—a major public health achievement now under threat. As politicians weaponize science and elevate misinformation, measles cases are rapidly rising, driven overwhelmingly by low vaccination rates among children.

How did we get here? Disinformation, conspiracy theories and debunked claims about childhood vaccines have been transformed into political talking points and, in some cases, policy guidance. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—once globally respected—has been hollowed out, with key experts pushed out or resigning in protest.

Under the Trump administration, measles has not only returned but surged to record levels, following actions like the dismissal of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, long considered the gold standard for vaccine guidance.

The consequences are not abstract. Before the measles vaccine, millions of Americans were infected each year, with thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of hospitalizations. Children suffered encephalitis, pneumonia and lifelong complications; pregnant women faced miscarriage and death. That history is not distant—it is a warning.

Today, as vaccination rates decline and exemptions rise, the United States risks repeating it. Protecting children requires rejecting political distortions of science and recommitting to evidence-based public health—before more preventable harm is done.

Judge Pauses Louisiana’s Mifepristone Restrictions as FDA Review Looms

PUBLISHED 4/11/2026 by

A district court judge has stayed Louisiana’s ongoing attempt to restrict access to the abortion medication mifepristone, to allow time for the Food and Drug Administration to finish its own review of the medication—which comes directly at the orders of RFK Jr.

Laws like Louisiana’s proposal are directly impacting women across the U.S.—some tragically losing their lives. Public health experts estimate that at least 59 women have died directly because of these bans, and that number is likely an undercount.

As right-wing conservatives work to push our country in increasingly dark directions, here at Ms. we’re turning to the stories of women who resist—a through-line that goes all the way back to before our nation’s founding. I’d encourage you to check out the latest stories in our Feminist 250 series, which reflect on the roles of Indigenous women, feminism’s abolitionist origins and more in our nation’s founding.

Say Their Names: The Women Who Died After Being Denied Emergency Abortion Care

PUBLISHED 4/4/2026 by

We know the names of nine women who have died after doctors denied them life-saving care because of fears they would be criminally prosecuted under abortion bans: Josseli Barnica, Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick, Amber Nicole Thurman, Candi Miller, Porsha Ngumezi, Taysha Wilkinson-Sobieski, Nevaeh Crain, Tierra Walker and Ciji Graham.

At least three least three more women—all unnamed at this time—died between October 2022 and July 2024 as a result of denied or delayed emergency abortion care, according to a March 2025 study released in academic journal CHEST.

In all, public health experts estimate that abortion bans have led to the deaths of at least 59 women—but we may never know their names.

In a lawsuit involving denial of emergency care to pregnant women, the National Women’s Law Center filed a brief documenting more than 100 cases of women almost dying when hospitals denied emergency medical care because of abortion bans—though “the true number [of cases] is likely significantly higher,” according to the brief.

Congress should move to pass two critical protections: The Women’s Health Protection Act, which would establish a statutory right for healthcare providers to offer abortion services and for patients to receive them; and the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Act, which would ensure that every person who receives healthcare or insurance through the federal government will have coverage for abortion services.

How Personal Loss Drove Rep. Lauren Underwood to Take On the Black Maternal Health Crisis

PUBLISHED 4/3/2026 by

Excerpted from Stuck: How Money, Media and Violence Prevent Change in Congress by Maya L. Kornberg (published March 10):

Black women are about three times as likely as white women to die of pregnancy-related health conditions.

One of the Black mothers to die tragically was Shalon Irving, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.)’s friend. Irving was a successful scientist, who had befriended Underwood when they were both students at Johns Hopkins University.

Underwood remembered going to the funeral: “It was … unimaginable. Her baby was there, her mom was there, the director of the CDC was there. All of these other uniformed public health officials were there, and everybody was stunned. How could this happen?”

Underwood sponsored the 2021 Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, which addresses inequities in housing, nutrition and transportation that shape maternal health outcomes, and which contains plans to improve maternal mental health resources and data collection and to combat racial bias in prenatal care.

Underwood’s advocacy is a direct result of her personal experience.

Furious, Fearless and Defiant: Our Favorite Protest Signs From No Kings 3.0

PUBLISHED 3/30/2026 by and

On Saturday, March 28, 2026, millions showed up for the latest wave of No Kings protests, drawing an estimated 8 million people across more than 3,300 events worldwide.

The flagship event was held in Minneapolis-St. Paul, the site of a controversial immigration enforcement surge resulting in the deaths of two residents, Renée Nicole Macklin Good and Alex Pretti, at the hands of federal agents.

Sinead O’Connor Was Right: It’s Time to Revisit Some of Pop Culture’s Most Maligned Women

PUBLISHED 3/24/2026 by

An excerpt from Allison T. Butler’s The Judgment of Gender: How Women Are Centered and Silenced in Pop Culture, published March 8, 2026:

While Sinead O’Connor was roundly criticized for ripping up the picture of the pope, the passage of time has revealed: She was right.

O’Connor was labeled a pop star, but she never saw herself that way. From Rememberings: “Everyone wants a pop star, see? But I’m a protest singer. I just had stuff to get off my chest. I had no desire for fame.”

He Called Me ‘Doc.’ I Called Him ‘Rev.’ Remembering Jesse Jackson’s Moral Leadership

PUBLISHED 2/17/2026 by

I knew Rev. Jackson beyond the conventions. He married me and my husband, Gregory Shaffer, almost 25 years ago. He always showed up and gave graciously of himself when I called—whether it was to host a convening on HIV/AIDS at Rainbow PUSH in the early 2000s, or to bring together hundreds of working-class residents from the South Side of Chicago to engage on matters of national healthcare, or to meet with (mostly women) academics coming together to figure out the intersections of law, family and reproductive rights at the University of Chicago Club 20 years ago. 

He called me “Doc” or “Doctor Michele.” I called him “Rev.”

A week ago, by his father’s bedside, Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) and I spoke by phone. He had just delivered a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast calling the president to account—to be more humane and just, and to “do what is right.” It was clear that Rev. Jackson’s legacy is already living on.