Sexual and Reproductive Health

Three Years After Dobbs, Abortion Numbers Have Surprisingly Gone Up

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After the Supreme Court paved the way for a dozen or more states to ban abortion for the first time in almost half a century, abortion access is thriving in ways no one predicted.

How did such a counterintuitive phenomenon happen? Our recent book, After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court Ended Roe but Not Abortion, helps explain what’s going on behind the numbers. In simplest terms, this increase came about through a combination of an extraordinary mobilization on the part of abortion providers and their allies, the grit and determination of people who decide to have an abortion, and the massive amount of money poured into pro-abortion groups after Dobbs.

Three Years After Dobbs, a Coordinated Campaign Aims to Eliminate Abortion Pills Nationwide

Medication abortion has become the most popular form of abortion in the U.S. post-Dobbs, providing potentially lifesaving access to people residing in states with abortion bans in place. Because of this, the antiabortion right-wing machine’s dogged attacks on mifepristone should be seen for what they are: an attempt at a backdoor national abortion ban.

Revoking access to mifepristone is key in the antiabortion machine’s fight to maintain control over pregnant women’s bodies and lives.

This Student-Led Initiative Sends Letters of Support to Abortion Patients and Providers

We’re in the midst of an incredible surge in antiabortion extremism and clinic violence, with this weekend’s tragic shooting of pro-abortion Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband providing a grim example of the threats facing abortion advocates. Meanwhile, in the wake of state-level attacks on abortion rights, it’s hard to ignore the mental health implications for abortion patients and providers alike. In January, the Trump administration announced that it no longer plans to enforce the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act—the 1994 law that protects patients and staff at reproductive healthcare clinics from harassment and violent attacks from antiabortion demonstrators. Just this month, the House has been discussing repealing the FACE Act entirely, despite the rising rates of clinic attacks in the last three years since Dobbs.

Most news coverage of abortion rights in the United States focuses on the legal battles, and this coverage is extremely important. But the initiative Write and Rights—started last year by college student Iha Rastogi—is working to boost the mental health of abortion patients and providers in the midst of these attacks on their rights by organizing her fellow students to write and send supportive letters to clinics.

How a Liberal DA in Louisiana Is Fighting for Reproductive Rights in a Post-Roe South

In a post-Roe America, where reproductive freedom depends not just on where you live but who your prosecutor is, New Orleans District Attorney represents a growing number of local officials refusing to criminalize care. His goal: to protect bodily autonomy and keep women out of prison.

As one of the few progressive prosecutors in the Deep South, Williams operates under intense pressure—from conservative lawmakers, a hostile state government and a legal landscape increasingly tilted against reproductive rights. But he’s doing so with clear priorities: decriminalize pregnancy outcomes, defend healthcare providers and prioritize the health and dignity of Black and low-income women in his parish.

‘An Abortion Saved My Life After I Got Leukemia’

Mom Abby Blum tells why she was forced her to end her much-wanted pregnancy. She warns that an unexpected tragic event can happen to any woman—even if they think they’ll never need an abortion.

“It felt like an impossible choice, but I decided to go ahead and have the abortion to end my pregnancy so I could start the treatment I needed to save my life. … For me, the abortion was a medical necessity. And, in hindsight, I realize that in the post-Roe v. Wade era, I was lucky to be in a state where I had access to an abortion and to all the healthcare that I needed. ….

“If I had lived in a state like Texas, which bans abortion in nearly all cases, my story would have had a very different ending. I didn’t choose to get cancer and to have to make the decision to end my pregnancy, but that’s what can sometimes happen in life.”

Michigan Got Rid of Most Abortion Restrictions. Now AG Dana Nessel is Challenging the Final One.

In a year full of losses for reproductive rights, last month brought some good news out of Michigan: On May 13, a Michigan court sided with the Northland Family Planning Centers clinic, which sued the state, arguing that Michigan’s abortion restrictions made it unnecessarily cumbersome for patients to access care.

The Michigan Court of Claims struck down three major abortion restrictions in May’s decision… but left a fourth requirement forcing abortion providers to screen patients for abortion “coercion,” which creates another delay before a patient can receive care. On Tuesday, June 3, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a motion challenging the court’s decision to retain this final abortion restriction even after getting rid of the others.

What Comes After Roe? Fear, Surveillance and Felony Charges

A new survey reveals that a majority of likely voters oppose policies that grant legal rights to fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses. They also oppose the criminalization of pregnancy loss, denial of emergency medical care and broader threats to reproductive freedom.

Yet here we are, with bills to codify those rights brewing in a quarter of U.S. states this year.

Even when they do not succeed, we cannot simply ignore them or hope their proponents call it quits. Rather, this is a prime opportunity to double down on educating people and harnessing public opinion.

Plan C’s Road Trip Takes Abortion Access to the People

For the second year in a row, Plan C, the intrepid grassroots campaign for abortion pill access, is hitting the road on a cross-country trip to spread the word about abortion pills: that they are safe, effective and available to everyone, everywhere.

Plan C is teaming up with grassroots organizers in all 50 states, Guam and Puerto Rico to share abortion pill information through “pop-ups, panels, performances, and bold community activations centered on truth, agency, and access.”

Trump Is Gutting Healthcare—But Women’s Health Was Already Disastrously Underfunded

For the past few decades, women’s healthcare has been under increasing attack across the country. Even states like New York, often perceived as a beacon of women’s healthcare, are backsliding, increasingly unable to address women’s health challenges adequately. Indeed, the lack of funding and legislative support isn’t limited to rural areas or red states; it is everywhere.

As the Trump administration threatens to accelerate this decline even further, we must come to terms with how little our cities, states and federal government have valued and prioritized women’s health for more than 30 years and begin fighting back against this renewed assault.

Illinois Lawmakers Pursue Creative Path to Protect Mifepristone Access—Even if FDA Revokes Approval

While antiabortion extremists work to eliminate mifepristone from the shelves—and the FDA faces mounting antiabortion political pressure to revoke its approval—Illinois lawmakers are fighting back with a legal firewall: a first-of-its-kind bill to keep abortion pills on the market, even if the Trump administration bans them.

The Illinois General Assembly has passed HB 3637, legislation allowing clinicians to prescribe drugs removed from the FDA’s approved list—as long as the World Health Organization still recommends them. Under the bill, Illinois clinicians could continue prescribing and dispensing the abortion medication mifepristone—even if the Trump administration rolls back the FDA’s longstanding approval of the medication. The legislation now awaits the signature of Illinois Governor J.D. Pritzker.