‘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.”

The Fight for Midlife and Menopausal Health Is Essential to Reproductive Rights—and Democracy

Less than one into the Trump presidency, attacks on reproductive health and rights have begun. Against this backdrop, it may sound surprising to hold out hope for the immediate future of any women’s health issue. But I think menopause may be an outlier.

Perhaps you’ve seen the headlines: Menopause is having a moment, from new tell-all books by Brooke Shields and Naomi Watts, to viral clips of Halle Berry shouting from the steps of the U.S. Capitol, “I’m in menopause, OK?!” Commitment goes well beyond celebrity moments and includes notable support from public policy leaders across the spectrum—Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and in blue and red states. These prominent voices are part of a new wave of recognition that menopausal women deserve to make informed choices about our bodies.

Just as the fight for reproductive rights is an essential tenet of any free and fair democracy, so too is autonomy and health at this life stage.

USAID’s Reproductive Health Funding Has Saved Millions of Lives. Now It’s Gone.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, boasted that he was gutting the federal agency tasked with providing foreign aid to its poorest. The agency’s funding in 2023 was about $40 billion, which represented less than 1 percent of the federal budget. “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk, the tech billionaire head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, posted on his social media platform, X.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was established in 1961 to provide foreign assistance to impoverished countries around the world through food aid and humanitarian and economic development work. It is also one of the world’s largest providers of contraception through its family planning program.

Public Health Websites Are Going Dark

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ordered federal agencies to take down all public information on its websites and social media accounts that “inculcate or promote gender ideology.” When the initial deadline arrived—Friday, Jan. 31, at 5 p.m. ET—multiple web entries and databases, including many dedicated to public health, went dark. At the same time, there is a herculean and whirlwind effort on the part of researchers, journalists and advocates to preserve and republish missing information.

The public response to the administration’s power grab has been not just heartening, but an important lesson for mobilizing in this next era. As quickly as information is suppressed, all of us can play a part in responding—whether that be suing, searching or simply sharing.

Antiabortion Forces Have a Blueprint to Ban Abortion Pills Nationwide (And You Thought Project 2025 Was Bad?)

Not satisfied with the overthrow of Roe v. Wade and Trump’s compliance with nearly all things Project 2025, right-wing conservatives are pushing the president to go further. In a chilling blueprint, “Stopping Pills that Kill,” antiabortion groups urge President Trump to stop the movement of domestic and international abortion pills using the Comstock Act of 1873 and a dragnet of new regulations. 

The new scheme calls for every U.S. law enforcement entity to play a role—federal, state and city/county agencies. Starting at home, extremists urge Trump to compel federal prosecutors to charge providers of abortion pills weaponizing both the Comstock Act and racketeering statutes (RICO) for using the postal system. They would then add regulations governing the U.S. postmaster general and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to list abortion pills as “nonmailable … hazardous materials or devices that may present an immediate threat to persons,” which would make shipping them a federal offense carrying civil and possibly criminal penalties.

N.Y. Defies Louisiana’s Arrest Warrant for Abortion Provider Dr. Margaret Carpenter: ‘Never Cower in the Face of Intimidation’

New York is taking a stand against conservative states’ attempts to criminalize out-of-state abortion providers. By refusing to extradite Dr. Margaret Carpenter to Louisiana, Gov. Kathy Hochul is reinforcing the state’s telehealth shield law, setting up a major legal showdown over abortion access across state lines.

Rolling Up Our Sleeves, Part 3: Fighting the Trump Administration with State Constitutions

A fierce feminist resistance is ready to defend women’s rights at the federal level—and creatively expand equality protections in the states. This is the third in a four-part series on the steps activists are taking to fight for our rights amid Trump’s attacks on democracy.

(This is the third in a four-part series on the steps activists are taking to fight for our rights amid Trump administration’s attacks on democracy.)

Pa. Court to Hear Arguments *Feb. 5* on State Ban on Medicaid Coverage for Abortion and Equal Rights Amendment

In January 2024, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that abortion providers can challenge the Pennsylvania’s Medicaid coverage exclusion on abortion for violating the state’s Equal Rights Amendment and Non-Discrimination Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution.

On Wednesday, Feb. 5, lawyers for Pennsylvania’s freestanding abortion clinics will argue before the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court that the ban discriminates on the basis of sex in violation of these constitutional provisions.

The case is the first Pennsylvania state court proceeding challenging an abortion restriction since the state Supreme Court restored the Pennsylvania Equal Rights Amendment last year.

Beyond the Bus: Rosa Parks’ History of Fighting Sexual Violence and Systemic Oppression

Rosa Parks is often remembered as the quiet seamstress who ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Yet, her history as an advocate against sexual violence is often overlooked. Parks’ work demonstrates how the fight against sexual violence is inseparably linked to the fight against systemic oppression, particularly racism, sexism, and misogynoir.