Healthcare

Find stories here about healthcare in all its forms, including abortion and contraceptive care. Healthcare is a human right, and there are feminist providers and activists around the world working to ensure access for everyone across different income levels and identities.

Why Is the Trump Administration Destroying Almost $10 Million of Contraceptives?

After the richest man in the world shuttered the U.S. agency that provides aid for the world’s poorest, the government is now going to spend money destroying the contraceptives, medications and food items it chose not to distribute.

This includes $9.7 million in contraceptives that were bound for crisis areas—places like refugee camps and war zones. It includes $800,000 worth of high-energy biscuits, a kind of emergency food aid for people in the direst of circumstances—and enough of it to feed 1.5 million children for a week.

To be clear, all of these items have already been paid for by U.S. tax dollars. The Trump administration is about to spend more money to destroy them.

Women’s Health Needs Are Ever-Changing. It’s Time for Flexible Benefits That Meet Us Where We Are.

With traditional group insurance, employees typically have just a few plans to choose from, none of which are a guaranteed fit. As a result, many women are forced onto a plan that fails to meet their medical needs, leaving them with high costs but still missing the support that matters most.

By switching group insurance to an Individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement (ICHRA), companies can provide the flexible and affordable benefits that meet women where they are. 

One-size-fits-all group insurance, selected by employers, no longer makes sense for female employees with unique and ever-evolving health needs. As employers across sectors embrace this new, flexible approach, more women stand to benefit from customizable coverage.

The Minnesota Shooting Wasn’t Random—It Was a Predictable Resurgence of Violence

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Minnesota experienced an act of devastating political violence last month: Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, were killed in their home. State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette are recovering from life-saving surgeries after shielding their adult daughter from the gunman.

In recent years, we’ve seen attacks escalate against elected officials across the political spectrum. However, we must recognize that Hortman, Hoffman and the other targets on the gunman’s list are uniquely vulnerable because of the way that we treat abortion: We isolate abortion from mainstream care, in law and practice; and we exclude it from insurance coverage, hospital systems and routine medical training.

By treating abortion as unsafe and morally suspect, rather than as legitimate medicine, we further normalize hostility towards it, its providers, and the policymakers who uphold access to it.

Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene Dangerously Equates Gender-Affirming Care With Female Genital Mutilation

Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene’s misleading bill exploits the fight against female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) to attack lifesaving gender-affirming care and undermine bodily autonomy for all.

This false equivalence is grossly disingenuous, dangerous and extreme. It’s a transphobic ploy to stoke fear and score political points, all while dehumanizing trans people.

Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Create a Disaster for Rural Mothers and Babies

Women and babies who live in areas that voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump are likely to suffer some of the Big Beautiful Bill’s most sweeping and damaging effects.

The historically brutal Medicaid cuts—a staggering $930 billion slashed from the program over the next decade—could force as many as 144 rural hospitals around the U.S. to close their labor-and-delivery units or drastically scale back services.

Independence Day, Ranked-Choice Wins and Jacinda Ardern: This Week in Women’s Representation

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, sports and entertainment, judicial offices and the private sector—with a little gardening mixed in! 

This week:
—This Friday marks the 249th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The journey for women’s equal representation remains unfinished.
—Zohran Mamdani looks poised to join 36-year-old Boston mayor Michelle Wu as part of a new generation of leadership in the U.S. Northeast. It’s time for more aging men like Cuomo to step aside and let more women step up. And if New York City is any indication, the voters may take matters into their own hands.
—St. Paul in 2023 elected an all-women city council in its ranked-choice voting elections. There’s now a vacant seat, and three women are among the four candidates running in an Aug. 12 special election.
—Jacinda Ardern’s new book, A Different Kind of Power, highlights the shifting dynamics of power, how women are redefining what leadership can be, and the impact of fairer election systems for creating openings for new voices like her own.

… and more!

Walmart, Kroger and Big Food Love SNAP Dollars—But Won’t Lift a Finger to Save Them

While SNAP keeps grocery giants and food manufacturers afloat, they’re nowhere to be found when it’s under threat.

No peep out of Walmart or Kroger. Nada from ConAgra, Tyson Foods or Kraft Heinz. Zilch from General Mills, PepsiCo and Nestle. 

Maybe their tax breaks are worth it. Maybe they want to stay on Trump’s good side as Robert Kennedy Jr. attacks their products. Whatever the reason, their silence speaks volumes. 

What, you expected corporate solidarity with consumers and workers? You have not been paying attention. 

When the Federal Government Fails, Local Organizers Step In—With Laws, Not Just Protests

We are living through the hollowing out of federal protection. And while the usual narrative goes something like, “Vote, wait, trust the system,” in many places, the people closest to the chaos have stepped up to envision and advance new laws.

In California this year, four bills moving through the legislature were not the result of think tank white papers or party strategists. They came from organizers, queer folks, women of color, survivors—people who have lived the very broken systems they are now trying to change.

A process that centers lived experience as a form of policy expertise is a cutting-edge theory of governance. And it’s replicable: Invest in community-led policy training. Bring people into the lawmaking process not as tokens but as co-authors. Demystify legislative drafting. Reimagine who gets to define what safety, dignity and justice look like.