Public Health

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.

‘We Will Not Surrender’: How to Stand Up to Trump Administration Attacks on LGBTQ+ Health Research

The Trump administration is waging an aggressive campaign to censor and dismantle LGBTQ+ health research, erasing critical data, banning key terms and suppressing scientific inquiry. These unprecedented attacks threaten not only academic freedom but also the health and lives of LGBTQ+ people. In response, researchers, medical organizations, and advocates must take bold action—filing lawsuits, protecting data and refusing to be silenced. The fight for scientific integrity and LGBTQ+ health equity has never been more urgent.

‘Silence Is an Enemy’: Rep. Frankel Leads the Fight for Global Reproductive Rights

The Global HER Act, led by Rep. Lois Frankel, aims to permanently repeal the global gag rule, which restricts funding for international healthcare providers that offer or even discuss abortion services—jeopardizing reproductive care for millions worldwide.

“They’re gagging you, they’re putting something over your mouth to prevent you from giving information. … Silence is an enemy,” Frankel told Ms. “And so, we cannot be silent. … One of the ways that we talk is with a bill.”

Physicians Sound the Alarm: The Data Is Gone, But the Need Isn’t

The Trump administration has erased thousands of pages of public health data from government websites—information doctors rely on and taxpayers funded.

“They took down information that healthcare providers use on a daily basis to make sure you’re safe, to prevent the spread of disease,” said Dr. Sophia Yen, medical director and co-founder of Pandia Health. “You just can’t play with people’s lives. You can’t play with people’s health.”