The Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling on Feb. 16 by an 8-1 majority that frozen embryos are constituted as “unborn children,” mirroring the state’s Constitution which recognizes rights of “the unborn.” The first of its kind, the ruling symptomatic of the 21st-century emergence of fetal personhood legislation embedded within Christian fundamentalism in the United States.
Tag: Healthcare
Your Top Questions on Abortion and Birth Control, Broken Down
Dr. Raegan McDonald-Mosley, CEO of nonprofit Power to Decide and practicing OB-GYN, is dedicated to educating people on abortion and the healthcare options that come with it. #AskDrRaegan provides candid, judgment-free sexual health information to young people by meeting them where they are: on social media.
Check out TikTok users’ top questions on abortion and birth control, answered by Dr. Raegan.
This OB-GYN Was Terrified For Her Patients Who Needed Abortions. Then She Became One.
Dr. Austin Dennard is an OB-GYN in Dallas. After Texas banned abortions after six weeks’ gestation (before many women even know they’re pregnant), Dennard’s patients began coming to her with concerns. Then, in 2022, she became a patient who needed an abortion. Now, she is fighting back against the state that’s become a hell on earth for pregnant women—and the extreme Republicans working to make it a reality for every state in the nation.
“There are patients who will choose to continue a pregnancy with anencephaly, and that is okay. But in the state of Texas, there is no choice but to continue. … It didn’t matter in my state that we found this diagnosis early. It did not matter that this baby was never going to survive outside my womb. It didn’t matter that I was a doctor. It didn’t matter that I was a sixth-generation Texan.”
Abortion Funders in the Southeast Are ‘Helping People Decide What They Want to Do With Their Lives’
Abortion funds are local nonprofits that pay for someone’s abortion, plus extra costs, like transportation or lodging. Their role in the abortion access movement has increased since the fall of Roe. Ms. will feature interviews weeks with fund representatives across the U.S. Each installment will focus on a distinct region—beginning in the Southeast, where every single state in the region has implemented abortion restrictions.
“No human being should ever feel like, ‘Well, I’ve got to figure out what I want to do with this pregnancy by midnight tonight, or else.'” “I enter the work in rage. I am doing abortion access work in sheer rage and spite.”
What Will Be the Cost of the First Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pill?
Opill, the first over-the-counter birth control pill, is set to hit drugstores, grocery stores and online shelves in the first quarter of 2024. But the real challenge lies ahead: Will it be affordable and truly accessible to all?
Opill is a progestin-only oral contraceptive pill, boasting a success rate as high as 98 percent in preventing pregnancies. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration hailed the approval of Opill as a breakthrough that could “reduce barriers to access” for those seeking contraception.
However, the promise of accessibility hinges on the crucial factor of affordability.
Has Life Improved for Transgender Americans in the Last 10 Years? Not Really.
The 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey shows that trans people face steep economic and health disparities while anti-trans state laws have caused thousands to flee their homes.
The Ms. Q&A: Dr. Jen Gunter on Combatting Misinformation and Democratizing Knowledge on Women’s Health
Dr. Jen Gunter’s third book, BLOOD: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation, is an accessible look at the multiple ways that the patriarchal control of medicine has allowed misinformation about reproduction, sexuality and anatomy to flourish.
Ms. sat down with Gunter to discuss the book and how she hopes to “democratize knowledge and make a difference in people’s lives.”
Our Abortion Stories: ‘I Knew Something Was Wrong, But My Doctor Wouldn’t Listen’
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.)
Two women detail their experiences with miscarriage and abortion healthcare in this edition of Our Abortion Stories: “It was one blow after another. It turned out the doctors there wanted me to have a hysterectomy. I laughed at them.”
Women Need Better Menopause Guidance. Here’s What Doctors Should Do.
An increasing number of women are hitting menopause than ever before. Each day, an estimated 6,000 U.S. women reach menopause at an average age of 51 years. This fact, combined with women living longer, means that women generally spend the last third of their lifetime in menopause.
But most women face this life change alone. Gynecologists in the U.S. receive little formal education about menopausal health, how to reduce symptoms, and the fear around those symptoms. As a result, women and their partners often have misconceptions about how these normal hormonal changes will affect them.
Luckily, Dr. Lisa Chasan-Taber provides her own set of handsets for menopause.
U.S. Gun Culture Is Killing Our Children—Including My Own
Six years ago, my beautiful boy was shot in the head at his best friend’s house. His friend’s father stored his three handguns and ammunition in a shoebox. We later learned that Ethan’s friend, who had just passed the NRA safety course and grew up with guns, had been regularly accessing and showing his teenage friends unsecured guns for over six months.
Ethan’s death was not an outlier. Over 4.6 million children in America live in a home with access to an unlocked or unsupervised firearm. And one in five children have handled guns in the home without their parent’s knowledge. As a result, eight children a day are killed or injured by unintentional shootings—a type of “family fire,” or a tragedy resulting from unsecured access to guns. Family fire killed Ethan, despite being entirely preventable. We can start to end this war by safely storing firearms and asking about unsecured guns in the home where our children go to play.