Reproductive Justice

Reproductive justice is a framework created by Black women and women of color in the 1990s. It refers to the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy and have children, not have children, and/or parent children in safe and sustainable environments.

A Double Blow to Abortion Rights in Idaho: Prop 1 Fails at the Ballot Box, and a Federal Court Sides With the State

PUBLISHED 11/6/2026 by

The elation that so many of us have been feeling in the wake of the mid-terms has been tamped down in Idaho as the result of two powerful and closely related reminders that the unremitting attacks on abortion rights are not going to let up any time soon. 

First, on Oct. 30, a divided panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an interim decision in the case of Seyb v. Idaho Board of Medical Examiners privileging Idaho’s “profound interest” in protecting fetal life over a pregnant woman’s right to self-preservation when faced with a health-threatening condition or the risk of death due to self-harm. And then on Nov. 3,  in sharp contrast to the outcomes in the other three states where abortion was on the ballot, Idahoans rejected Proposition 1, which would have legalized abortion until viability (with an extremely narrow emergency exception), which leaves one of the nation’s strictest criminal abortion bans in place.

Amy Acton’s Victory Is One for All Survivors

PUBLISHED 11/5/2026 by

Tuesday night brought historic victories for women: In New Mexico, Deb Haaland became the nation’s first Native American woman elected governor. In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in U.S. history, winning in Georgia. And in Ohio, Amy Acton became the state’s first woman elected governor and its first Jewish governor.

But Acton’s victory over Vivek Ramaswamy is especially meaningful for survivors of sexual violence. Her victory is a reminder that survivors can refuse to be silenced, even when powerful people try to turn their trauma against them.

But celebrating survivors is not enough. They deserve justice, meaningful legal protections and accountability for those who harmed them—and for the institutions that failed to protect them.

With Democrats set to control both the House and Senate in January, survivors have an opportunity to see their demands for justice taken seriously. That means pushing for the full release of the Epstein files while protecting survivors’ identities and personal information. It also means congressional hearings, subpoenas and investigations into the powerful individuals and institutions that enabled Epstein’s abuse.

Congress must also restore and strengthen Title IX protections for students and pursue broader reforms to address sexual violence. As Ms. executive editor Kathy Spillar wrote in response to the Cornell case, recognizing the Equal Rights Amendment could provide a constitutional foundation for stronger federal laws against gender-based violence, including restoring the civil rights remedy in the Violence Against Women Act. States can also lead the way, as California did with Senate Bill 1056, which establishes safeguards for reviewing sexually explicit evidence in criminal trials.

Abortion Rights Win Again: Voters Reject Missouri Ban, Protect Reproductive Freedom in Three States

PUBLISHED 11/2/2026 by , and | UPDATED 11/5/2026 at 1:54 P.M. PT

Two years ago, Missouri voters approved a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights, overturning one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans. Now, they’re being asked to undo it.

Feminists and reproductive healthcare advocates urge Missourians to vote no on Amendment 3.

Meanwhile, voters in Idaho, Nevada and Virginia are considering measures to protect or expand abortion rights.

Ms. spoke to Hannah Ledford, executive director of the nonprofit Fairness Project, about what these midterms mean for abortion rights. The Fairness Project works on ballot measures around the country on issues including minimum wage, paid sick days and Medicaid expansion.

Men Don’t Get to Decide How Women Vote—or How We Live

PUBLISHED 10/31/2026 by

A woman’s vote belongs to her and no one else. It is a fundamental expression of her independence, her judgment and her equal standing in American democracy.

Yet some Christian nationalist leaders are openly advocating for “household voting”—a system in which husbands would typically cast ballots for their families. The idea may not have widespread public support, but its growing visibility among powerful political figures reflects a broader threat: the belief that women’s voices, choices and ambitions should be subordinate to men’s.

Pastor Doug Wilson has advocated for household voting, an idea Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth helped amplify in 2025 when he shared a video featuring pastors who argued that men should cast ballots for their households—and that the 19th Amendment, which guarantees women’s right to vote, should be repealed.

In 2026, women can answer by using their own voices, casting their own ballots, and insisting that their lives are reflected in the data that shapes policy. Before Nov. 3, check your registration and your state’s ID rules, especially if your name has changed. Then vote and bring someone with you. And after Election Day, stay engaged. Many of these decisions will be made in state legislatures and federal agencies next year, and the people we elect will answer for them.

War on Women Report: Antiabortion Extremism Makes Its Way to the White House; 28th Woman Accuses Donald Trump of Rape; Arizona Man Wins $68K Settlement After Ex-Wife’s Abortion

PUBLISHED 10/30/2026 by and

MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide: the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.”

We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report:
—Dolores Huerta, the labor organizer at the helm of United Farm Workers and one of the most powerful women in the movement, passed away on Oct. 28. She was 96. Huerta was also a board member of the Feminist Majority Foundation, the publisher of Ms. In March of this year, at the age of 95, she revealed that in the 1960s, Cesar Chavez sexually assaulted her.
—Abortion bans may be linked to approximately 135 excess homicides among women of reproductive age between 2023 and 2024, a new study suggests.
—Federal agents searched the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in the last few weeks of her reelection bid. Omar called the search an “attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.”
—Bernadette Greene-Placentia, the Democratic candidate challenging Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, says she was raped while repairing a campaign sign in Sun City on Aug. 14. According to her account, Greene-Placentia was struck in the head and lost consciousness, later waking to discover evidence of a sexual assault.
—A University of Arizona sorority member has reported being sexually assaulted by two men at a Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house on Aug. 26.
—During Trump’s second term, the U.S. Department of Education has drastically reduced its investigations of sexual assault and other civil rights violations at schools and colleges, even though the number of complaints has not slowed.
—A new report from House Judiciary Democrats includes an allegation from Beatrice Keul, former Miss Switzerland. Keul says that in 1983, Trump offered to help her secure a U.S. visa and admission to New York University, and invited her to a meeting at the Plaza hotel.

When she arrived at his hotel room, Trump allegedly raped her in an attack she describes as “brutal.” According to Keul, the assault tore her clothing and caused bleeding and bruising across her body, and Trump told her not to tell anyone about the rape.

… and more.

‘Fake Clinics Are Spooky!’ and ‘Haunted by Hidden Agendas’: Feminist Halloween Campaign Unmasks CPCs’ Antiabortion Deception

PUBLISHED 10/29/2026 by

The real Halloween horror villains are antiabortion organizations masquerading as legitimate healthcare clinics while working to prevent women from accessing abortion care.

Throughout October, Reproductive Transparency Now and the Southwest Women’s Law Center have joined forces for a Halloween-themed campaign exposing the deceptive practices of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs): antiabortion organizations that seek to reach vulnerable women and girls facing unintended pregnancies to prevent them from accessing abortion and prenatal care.

“Challenging CPCs is about more than identifying deceptive practices. It is about protecting people’s ability to make informed decisions about their bodies, pregnancies and families without coercion or manipulation and ensuring that people can access both comprehensive reproductive healthcare and the support they need,” said Hailey Zock of the Southwest Women’s Law Center.

How Abortion Bans Could Make Your IUD Insertion More Painful (And Other Far-Reaching Consequences)

PUBLISHED 10/29/2026 by

In the fall of 2024, Louisiana implemented the nation’s first-ever law designating mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances. That put the pills in the same category as opioids and anxiety medi­cations that have a high risk of­ dependency and abuse, even though mifepristone and misoprostol have no recreational use, ­aren’t stimulants or sedatives, and are not addictive.

“They do not meet the definition or intent of what a controlled substance is, and categorizing them as such can lead to harm,” warned the American College of Medical Toxicology. “Additionally, it sets a dangerous ­precedent of politicizing phar­maceu­ti­cal regulation.”

The state targeted the two drugs ­because they are used in combination in most abortions. But mifepristone and misoprostol have a broad range of other medical uses beyond abortion—from inducing­ labor, to assisting in the removal of uterine polyps.

Dr. Emily Holt, a family medicine physician in New Orleans, had regularly prescribed both drugs to help patients manage miscarriages, and had offered just misoprostol to those with a stenotic cervix, in which the entrance to the uterus closes up. But she most frequently used misoprostol for IUD insertions.

The Rise of Pronatalist Horror in an Age of Reproductive Control

PUBLISHED 10/28/2026 by

Alex Goyette’s new psychological horror film Breeder, opening in U.S. theaters Wednesday, Oct. 28, explores the terrifying ambitions of Patti (Dot-Marie Jones), a poodle breeder who lures young men to her remote ranch with promises of research funding. Russell (Daniel Doheny), a cash-strapped researcher working to save endangered bees, however, finds that Patti is keeping men trapped as breeding stock as part of her own eugenics-style program.

“I’m actually moving on from dog breeding,” Patti says in the trailer, “Now, I’m doing something more important: I’m breeding people.” Patti will force Russell to breed with her daughter, and warns that if he fails, he will face a fate like all of the other studs who failed: He will be put down.

Contemporary filmmakers and artists who grew up under the Reagan, Bush and Trump administrations are confronting Americans’ reproductive anxieties through stories about reproductive coercion, bodily autonomy and the consequences of treating human beings as instruments of reproduction.

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, P.D. James’ Children of Men and Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby represent the earliest examples of the subgenre.

Breeder (2026) will likely be another powerful example.

‘In Protest’: The Women Leading the Resistance Against Israel’s Authoritarian Turn 

PUBLISHED 10/26/2026 by

On Oct. 27, Israelis go to the polls in the first national election since Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023. It is also the first since Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power at the end of 2022 and launched an assault on Israeli democracy, beginning with a plan to strip the courts of their independence.

For the feminist movement that revolted against Netanyahu’s government, the vote comes after three years of pressure to choose between opposing the state and standing with the nation.

One of the Israeli feminist movement’s most visible leaders is now on the ballot. Moran Zer Katzenstein founded Bonot Alternativa (Women Building an Alternative), the group behind the red-cloaked Handmaids marches that became a defining image of the 2023 protests.

This spring she joined Yair Golan’s Democrats party, and in July she won the 12th spot on its slate. In Protest, a short documentary by Paula Kweskin and Carli Fogel (available to stream on YouTube), shows how she got there.

The Ripple Effect: How Abortion Bans Threaten the Entire Healthcare Ecosystem

PUBLISHED 10/24/2026 by

In her new book Side Effects: How Abortion Bans Impact Everyone’s Health, journalist Alice Miranda Ollstein shows that abortion bans aren’t just restricting reproductive care—they’re disrupting cancer treatments, chronic disease medications, fertility services and lifesaving medical research.

“… Legal restrictions on reproductive healthcare ripple outwards, compromising the health and safety of all patients.”

“… We are seeing a broader access crisis: Doctors are leaving restrictive states because they feel they can no longer practice medicine ethically or legally …”

“In emergency care, misoprostol is vital for stopping postpartum hemorrhage. … Now, strict controlled-substance storage rules force providers to retrieve it from locked rooms down the hall or in another building.”