From the Magazine

‘The Moral Property of Women’: Mifepristone, Fibroids and the Stakes of Suppressed Science

PUBLISHED 1/20/2026 by

Despite mifepristone’s broad medical promise, its development has been repeatedly stymied by abortion opponents who fear wider availability would weaken their attempts to suppress abortion access.

More than 26 million women in the U.S. are affected by fibroids, which are noncancerous growths of the uterus that can reach the size of a grapefruit or larger. Treatment too often defaults to invasive surgery, either removing the fibroids or performing hysterectomies.

In China today, a three-month regimen of 10 milligrams of mifepristone per day is the approved protocol for treating fibroids. Meanwhile, American women still do not have access to this very effective nonsurgical treatment.

This is Part 1 of 3 in a new series, “The Moral Property of Women: How Antiabortion Politics Are Withholding Medical Care,” a serialized version of the Winter 2026 print feature article.

Driving the Vote for Equality Launches, Reviving a 1916 Suffrage Tour for the ERA

PUBLISHED 1/5/2026 by and | UPDATED 9/25/2026 at 10:29 A.M. PT

In 1916, two adventurous, gutsy women—Alice Snitjer Burke, 39, and Nell Richardson, 25, both members of the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association—were determined to spread the message about the importance of women’s suffrage. With support from NAWSA, they volunteered to make an epic car trip across the country and back in a small Saxon roadster for “the cause.” At the time, few women drove cars, and automobiles were a big part of a major cultural shift from horses and buggies. Such a trip would be symbolic on many levels.

Their journey often made front-page news due in part to the novelty of seeing a woman drive a car, but Alice and Nell kept the focus on “votes for women.”

The Driving the Vote for Equality tour officially launched on March 1, 2026, at the New York Historical in Manhattan. A restored 1914 Saxon automobile—matching the make and model driven by Burke and Richardson in 1916—has begun retracing their cross-country route to promote congressional recognition of the Equal Rights Amendment. Former Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a longtime ERA champion, is spearheading the campaign.

Sneak Peek: What’s in the Winter Issue of Ms.? Groundbreaking Reporting on Women’s Health and Power

PUBLISHED 12/26/2025 by

Mifepristone has shown potential to treat a striking range of diseases and conditions, some life-threatening: fibroids, breast cancer, depression, endometriosis, Gulf War illness and maybe even other autoimmune diseases, such as chronic fatigue syndrome and multiple sclerosis. Research also suggests that mifepristone may help prevent some forms of breast cancer and can serve as an effective weekly contraceptive without the side effects of hormonal birth control.

Yet despite the drug’s promise, its development has been repeatedly stymied by abortion opponents who fear wider availability would weaken their attempts to suppress abortion access. 

The result? Women are left in needless pain and subject to invasive and unnecessary surgical procedures like hysterectomies.

Playing Games With Hunger

PUBLISHED 11/11/2025 by

Gail Todd lives with her husband and three daughters in the southeastern section of Washington, D.C., and works at a Walmart in suburban Maryland. Her husband is a shift manager at a fast-food restaurant. Food stamps—the common name for the vouchers or debit cards supplied by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP—helped Todd when she struggled financially after her first daughter was born. She had to turn to them again four years ago because her job, combined with her husband’s wages, doesn’t pay enough to feed her family.

Before Walmart, Todd, pregnant now with her fourth child, worked for $8.35 an hour at McDonald’s. Walmart’s $10 hourly wage was better. In the beginning she worked roughly 40 hours a week, but since May her weekly hours have been reduced to between 16 and 28, earning her no more than $900 a month. The loss in income coincided with a cut to the family’s monthly food-stamps benefit from $339 down to $239—the lowest she’s ever received—because a temporary boost to the program in the stimulus bill was allowed to expire Nov. 1, 2013.

“The food stamps, they help, but it’s not enough because I can’t feed my family,” she says.

[From the Spring 2014 issue of Ms.]

What Feminist Wins Can Teach Us About Immigration

PUBLISHED 10/17/2025 by

Past feminist policy victories can guide the way toward more humane and effective immigration reform. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994 is a prime example—its architects successfully integrated immigration protections for women into a broader effort to combat gender-based violence. By framing immigrant women’s rights as part of protecting all women from abuse, advocates made it harder for opponents to isolate or attack these provisions. That approach, centered on shared values rather than political fault lines, offers a valuable lesson: Immigration reform succeeds when it’s connected to the broader goals of safety, equality and community well-being.

Today, we need a similar framework to move the immigration debate beyond fear and division. A new vision—what I call the RESPECTED framework, for Restoring Economic Opportunity, Protecting Every Community, and Treating Everyone with Dignity—invites us to see immigration policy not as an isolated crisis but as part of building a fairer, safer and more prosperous society.

Legalization, for example, shouldn’t just be about paperwork—it’s about removing barriers that keep women in low-wage, unsafe jobs and making economic opportunity real for everyone.

Ultimately, the RESPECTED approach asks a simple but transformative question: How can immigration policy help us build the future we want together? By embedding immigration reform within shared priorities—economic security, community safety and human dignity—we can replace the politics of exclusion with a politics of belonging.

The struggle is far from over, especially for women fleeing violence and seeking asylum. But if we listen, learn and lead with respect, we can carry forward the feminist lessons that made change possible before—and make them work again today.

Immigration Isn’t a Problem—It’s Part of the Solution

PUBLISHED 10/16/2025 by

The challenges facing women seeking asylum are just one piece of a much larger immigration crisis decades in the making. Since the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, the U.S. system has skewed toward deportation, introduced new barriers to asylum and limited judges’ discretion.

Advocates say the resulting system fuels chaos, disrupts families and touches every aspect of society—from economic opportunity to civic trust.

Cynthia Buiza, former executive director of the California Immigrant Policy Center, argues that fixing immigration requires a broader vision. “Rather than focus solely on reforming immigration laws, we need to pass laws that incorporate immigration into broader objectives such as improving the economy, promoting opportunities for youth or addressing disparities in the judicial system,” she says.

Programs like Welcoming America show that community-based solutions can help. By fostering inclusion and mutual understanding, local initiatives demonstrate that immigration reform doesn’t have to exist in isolation—it can be part of a larger framework that benefits everyone.

Yearning to Breathe Free [Part 1 of 3]

PUBLISHED 10/15/2025 by

In the matter of K-E-S-G-, a Salvadoran woman stalked and threatened by gang members was denied asylum by the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals on July 18, even though her persecution stemmed from her gender in a country that treats women as property. Advocates warn that this ruling could make it much harder for women fleeing violence to prove gender-based claims and may embolden immigration judges to discount their stories.

“This isn’t the first time the Trump administration has singled out women seeking asylum, and we know where this path leads,” said Neela Chakravartula of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies. “More judges denying protection to women who qualify for it. More refugees being deported to danger.”

The decision highlights the ongoing struggle to recognize gender as a protected basis for asylum. Afghan and Salvadoran women, among others, may now face even steeper barriers to protection—a chilling effect that experts say could deter survivors from seeking safety in the U.S.

One Megabill for the Megarich

PUBLISHED 10/7/2025 by

The Trump administration is calling its new budget “the most pro-family legislation ever crafted.” But for women like Bre’Jaynae Joiner, a single mother of two in Oakland, the cuts to Medicaid and SNAP threaten her family’s very survival.

Over the next decade, more than 11 million Americans—mostly women and children—are expected to lose health coverage, while deep food assistance cuts and work requirements will push even more families into crisis. Advocates call the bill a massive transfer of wealth to the rich at the expense of the poor, a policy that will shutter rural hospitals, deny essential care and worsen maternal mortality.

As Sen. Raphael Warnock puts it plainly: “If you cut $900 billion out of Medicaid, people are going to die.”

A Message From the Life of Urvashi Vaid: Do Not Remain Silent

PUBLISHED 9/26/2025 by | UPDATED 9/25/2026 at 10:07 A.M. PT

When the 18-minute documentary There Are Things To premiered in Provincetown, Mass., in 2023, it was never meant to be a global statement. It was meant to be a love letter, a short community film about a long legacy. But like the woman it honors— activist Urvashi Vaid—it refused to stay small.

And how could it? We are living through a time when naturalized citizens are being threatened with denaturalization, children are being separated from their parents during immigration raids, people are crossing state lines just to access basic reproductive healthcare, and pregnant women who desperately want children are dying in homes and hospitals or on their way to seek medical care because doctors delay or deny treatment under strict abortion laws. These are not fringe headlines—they are daily realities in one of the most powerful nations in the world.

Against this backdrop, There Are Things to Do (now available for streaming on PBS) arrives like a gentle ambush. Its power is subtle, but the provocation is clear: What if the most radical thing an immigrant could do in America is not assimilate, but organize?