No surprise, the Food and Drug Administration now plans to hold off on releasing its so-called safety review of mifepristone—the drug most often used in medication abortions—until March 2027, when the midterms will be safely in the rearview mirror.
Sexual and Reproductive Health
Her Abortion as a Teen in an Abusive Relationship Was ‘the Best Decision I Could Have Made.’ Nevada’s Question 6 Would Protect That Freedom.
Beth Osborne, a Las Vegas writer and activist, had an abortion as a teenager. Now, she is working to convince Nevadans to approve Question 6 on their November ballots, which would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution and preserve safe, legal abortion in the state.
A Farewell to L7, the Band That Rocked for Choice and Refused to Play Nice
No band has been louder about its feminism—and braver in putting their bodies where their mouths are—than L7, the Los Angeles rock band who recently launched their farewell world tour, despite a year marked by tragic loss.
L7’s farewell tour plans almost came crashing to a halt in July, when bassist Jennifer Finch was diagnosed with brain cancer. Mere days after the announcement of her illness with a GoFundMe campaign, Finch died at age 59.
Jennifer Finch’s death was widely mourned in feminist and music circles. But Sparks doesn’t want to—can’t, really—talk much about it. The show has gone on: Janis Tanaka, who played bass in L7 in the late ‘90s, has rejoined the group.
Where Are Men’s Voices in the Conversation About Jane Doe and the Cornell 7?
Imagine a 4-year-old boy scraping his knee and starting to cry. What if his caregiver scolded, “Big boys don’t cry.” It still happens.
We must intervene before boys get the message to toughen up and harden their hearts.
Cornell fraternity men were once 4 years old. What were they taught about expressing their feelings, about bullies, about respecting girls—and themselves?
We spend billions responding to men’s violence and almost nothing studying where it starts.
Why Women Need a Hormonal Bill of Rights
For too long, midlife symptoms of women have been minimized; our concerns dismissed, our suffering normalized and our voices overlooked. We reject the notion that hormonal decline is simply something to endure.
Everyone has the right to connection, support, shared knowledge, honest conversation free from shame and community in search of quality of life.
To ask questions.
To demand answers.
To require equal research.
To expect better healthcare.
To defy patriarchal control.
To hormonally radicalize the world.
Before You Vote, Know Where Your Candidates Stand on Abortion (and the Economy and Healthcare and Education and Immigration and…)
A candidate for the U.S. House in Florida and the hosts of an antiabortion podcast recently debated whether abortion bans should include exceptions for rape and incest. The candidate said he hoped people in those circumstances would choose “to have the baby” and allow God to take a crime and make “something incredible” out of it.
Voters have the right to know their candidates’ beliefs on abortion and reproductive healthcare access. Would they protect access to abortion when a pregnancy threatens a patient’s life? What about a pregnancy resulting from rape? Would they support federal restrictions or protect access to care?
Guides.vote produces nonpartisan voter guides with the help of experienced editors, researchers and veteran journalists. The guides provide information about candidates’ positions on issues and are designed to help voters compare candidates before casting their ballots. They also link to sources, so readers can learn more about the statements and records behind the comparisons.
Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs Work. So Why Is Trump’s HHS Cutting Them?
Across the U.S., teen pregnancy rates have fallen to historic lows—the result of decades of investment in evidence-based prevention, improved access to information and sustained support for young people.
Yet the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently terminated 53 of the nation’s 67 teen pregnancy prevention grants, abruptly cutting off support for programs serving thousands of young people across the country. There was no wind-down or warning.
These programs are often described as efforts to prevent teen pregnancy, but that description understates what young people actually receive from them. They teach healthy relationships, consent, communication and decision-making. They help young people recognize abusive situations and connect with medically accurate information and trusted adults.
The grant terminations aren’t simply a funding cut—they represent a decision to walk away from proven strategies that improve young people’s health and well-being.
Two months after HHS’ cut to these programs, there is now a glimmer of accountability.
Why Does Getting Menopause Care Still Require So Much Work?
Around her 50th birthday, Oprah Winfrey began having heart palpitations so frightening she thought she might die. She went to five doctors; none connected her symptoms to menopause.
She happened to pick up a book that finally gave her a possible explanation. “Heart palpitations and sleeplessness were indications that The Change was coming,” Winfrey writes. “But no one, including my trusted doctors, had warned me (did they even know?), and when my symptoms showed up, we looked for the most dire explanation—heart disease—instead of the most likely.”
Later, a friend’s experience prompted Oprah to ask her doctor about getting on an estrogen supplement. “After I started hormone therapy, the world returned to technicolor. … For the first time in years, I was sleeping the whole night through.”
That sequence—doctor, book (or article), friend, doctor again—will sound familiar to many women who have had to assemble their own understanding of this major health transition that remains underfunded and underdiscussed, despite affecting 51 percent of the world’s population.
It also runs through two new books arriving this month: Jennifer Weiss-Wolf’s When in Menopause: A User’s Manual and Citizen’s Guide and The Book of Menopause: Real Talk, Real Science, Real Strategies for Your Next Chapter, from the editors of Oprah Daily.
Restricting Mifepristone Access Could Empower Abusers
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on Sept. 9 in Louisiana v. FDA, one of three cases threatening nationwide access to mifepristone, the medication used in the majority of abortions in the United States.
While its stakes center on access to mifepristone generally, survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) may be among the hardest hit by a national restriction on the abortion care drug.
Already living under extreme, sometimes life-threatening, circumstances, survivors have vanishingly few options to care for themselves in the event of a pregnancy. Telehealth treatment and access to mifepristone by mail have been one of the few reprieves offered thus far, and their restriction could pose grave consequences to survivors nationwide.
Who Gets to Warn Women About Crisis Pregnancy Centers? Texas AG Ken Paxton Takes Yelp to Court.
Search Yelp for “pregnancy care” and you may encounter a crisis pregnancy center (CPC)—an organization that may advertise as a full-service clinic but does not provide abortions or referrals to abortion providers. Yelp labels these listings accordingly.
Now, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is weaponizing its consumer protection law to sue the company over an earlier, since-withdrawn nationwide notice that said crisis pregnancy centers “typically provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite.”
This under-the-radar case will test how far a state may reach when a national platform posts information that disagrees with state officials.