Public Health

FDA Review of Abortion Pill Signals First Step Toward Nationwide Ban

In a stunning move that could mark the first step toward a nationwide ban on abortion pills, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has ordered the FDA to reevaluate its decades-old approval of mifepristone—a medication used safely by over 7.5 million Americans over the last quarter-century for abortion and treatment of miscarriages.

The directive, based on a single junk-science report from an antiabortion group, signals a dangerous shift: the politicization of FDA policy and a coordinated push to strip access to medication abortion across the country.

Defunding and Refunding the Women’s Health Initiative: Why States Must Focus on Menopausal Women’s Health

The ongoing decimation of the federal funding landscape brings some good(ish) news for women: the role of state legislatures in stepping up to help improve and advance the health of menopausal women.

Thus far, 13 states—a record one in four—have introduced more than 20 bills focused on menopause care, proposing changes that could permanently reshape insurance coverage and educational and health care resources. Public officials in Michigan, Illinois and West Virginia announced support for menopause reforms. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently hosted a roundtable for leaders and a statewide listening tour. The latest slate of bills—introduced in red and blue states alike—would bolster workplace supports and dedicate resources to public education. The bills are being proposed at such a fast clip that menopause was named on a “Ones To Watch: Legislation Landscape for 2025” list.

How Violent Porn Initiates Young Boys in Violence Against Women

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“Your body, my choice.” That misogynist credo is the crux of the blockbuster Netflix mini-series, Adolescence, the third most-watched English language show of all time on Netflix. The show continues to provoke debate about the impact of social media on the mental health of boys, in a world dominated by the manosphere, and its power to transform boys’ into violent misogynists. 

Surprisingly, porn was the one missing element in the otherwise brilliant four-part Netflix drama.

The show centers on a 13-year-old boy, Jamie—a typical lad, vulnerable, like so many other young men, to the venom of online misogyny spewed through unbridled social media, chatrooms, blogs and podcasts. This angry ideology, masquerading as manly virtue, blames women for male alienation and promotes violent sexuality and the dehumanization of women—the very narratives of porn.

Midwifery Is as Old as Birth Itself. Why Are We Still Fighting for It?

As long as women have been giving birth, people have assisted mothers and newborns up to and through childbirth—making midwifery one of the world’s oldest occupations. The International Day of the Midwife, observed each year on May 5, aims to honor the profession and promote awareness of its vital role in healthcare. 

A new documentary, Arrest the Midwife, follows a criminalized midwife, the Mennonite women who rallied behind her, and the political battle to legalize life-saving care. Director Elaine Epstein hopes viewers take away something powerful: that meaningful change is often slow, imperfect and comes from unexpected places. “We’re in a time where things are pretty bad and it’s easy to want to bury our heads,” she said. “But we have so much to learn from the Mennonites.”

The Casualties of Title X Cuts: Cancer Screenings, Fertility Treatments and Sex Ed

The Trump administration earlier this month cut more than $65 million in federal funding for family planning under Title X, the program signed into law by President Richard Nixon that has supported comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services—including contraception, cancer screenings, infertility treatments, pregnancy care and STI testing—for low-income Americans since 1970. The cuts will impact dozens of clinics nationwide, including nine Planned Parenthood affiliates, and leave seven states without any Title X funding—to say nothing of other funding cuts and freezes to social services like Social Security and Medicaid.

In March, Nourbese Flint, president of the national abortion justice organization All* Above All, wrote a piece for Ms. about Republicans’ proposed cuts to Medicaid, which would strip healthcare from millions of Americans, including 40 percent of all pregnant women in the United States. Last week, I spoke with her about the Title X freeze on reproductive healthcare and the long-term effects of these funding cuts, which will put infant and maternal healthcare even more in jeopardy.

The Data We Don’t Collect Is Killing Women

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, at least 10 women have died as a direct result of their inability to access healthcare. But this number is only a guess, because there’s no single place that records and tracks these tragedies. And that’s not just an oversight—it’s a choice. At the same time, women seeking reproductive care are more digitally surveilled than ever before.

Without a national system to track the consequences of abortion bans, preventable deaths are disappearing into the void—by design.

Our Baby Was Bleeding. I Was Jobless. Medicaid Was Our Lifeline.

When I lost my job while on maternity leave, I never expected I’d soon be in a hospital while my infant underwent emergency surgery. As my life became a highwire act, Medicaid became a safety net for my family.

Our Medicaid plan provided 100 percent coverage for what would’ve been thousands of dollars in hospital and surgical bills. It covered my baby’s follow-up appointments with specialists and his prescription formula. It covered all of our basic health needs. It covered my therapy.

The U.S. Aid Freeze: Counting the Global Cost of Chaos

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On the first day of his second stint in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order freezing all U.S. foreign assistance. Four days later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio halted foreign aid work already underway. Soon after that, Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) began to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and Rubio canceled 83 percent of its programs.

“Since Inauguration Day, I’d say the Trump administration has immediately gone to work in reckless, heartless and shameless ways that have attacked sexual and reproductive health and rights [and] LGBT rights,” said Caitlin Horrigan, senior director of global advocacy for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Budget Cuts, IVF Access and the Feminist Resistance: Dispatches From Week 1 of Women’s History Month in Trump’s America

Beyond the sheer cruelty, Trump’s antagonism toward government—and the attempts to swiftly dismantle federal agencies’ productivity and purpose—is a simultaneous affront to and attack on women and LGBTQ communities. Make no mistake: That is by design. As Professor Tressie McMillan Cottom underscores: “By giving people a scapegoat, giving men a scapegoat … it says not only are women the enemy, are people of color and minorities the enemy, but the government is protecting them. So not only do we need to push these people out, but we need to delegitimize and gut the government that made them possible so it doesn’t happen again.” In the weeks and months to come, as we collectively continue to litigate and report and write and resist, we must not lose sight of this reality—because countering attacks on gender is foundational to the work of protecting and preserving democracy.

As today’s headlines highlight Trump’s withdrawal of aid to Ukraine and imposition of tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico—and the lowlights of his remarks to a joint session of Congress—here are stories that also warrant attention.

Weaponizing Aid: How U.S. Policies Undermine Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Crises

U.S. policies like the global gag rule (GGR) have long restricted access to reproductive healthcare worldwide, but their impact on refugee women and girls in humanitarian crises is often overlooked. By cutting funding to NGOs that provide or even discuss abortion care, the GGR limits essential services such as contraception, post-abortion care, and maternal health support for millions of displaced women. In conflict zones and refugee camps, where healthcare is already scarce, these restrictions leave women without options, increasing the risks of unsafe abortions, maternal mortality and gender-based violence.

As the U.S. continues to wield foreign aid as a political tool, the lives of the world’s most vulnerable women hang in the balance.