Sexual and Reproductive Health

Don’t Let AI Become the New Sex Educator for Adolescents

PUBLISHED 8/20/2026 by

“Why would I Google it when I can just ask ChatGPT for exactly what I am looking for?” 

A 16-year-old asked me this during a recent conversation with Black adolescents about where they turn for health information. Her answer was striking, but hardly surprising.

As traditional sex education faces cuts in schools and reproductive health services become harder to access—particularly for young people of color in underserved communities—adolescents are increasingly looking elsewhere for answers. AI chatbots offer something schools, clinics and even trusted adults often do not: information that feels immediate, private and judgment-free.

From North Carolina to Wisconsin, State Supreme Courts Are Political Battlegrounds

PUBLISHED 8/19/2026 by

Across the U.S., recent federal rollbacks of rights have led to a rising awareness of the importance of state courts. These once under-the-radar races are increasingly attracting attention within and beyond state borders—and bringing in significant outside spending. Each state has its own constitution and high court to interpret it, giving state courts enormous influence over individual rights.

That influence has become especially clear since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, as advocates have increasingly turned to state courts for protections on abortion rights, voting rights, redistricting and other civil liberties. The most recent cycle of judicial elections was the most expensive ever.

Now, 32 states are holding state supreme court elections in 2026, with 63 of the nation’s 344 state supreme court seats up for election. The outcomes could alter the ideological makeup of courts in states currently in play and lay the groundwork for future shifts in control.

This November, money, turnout and heightened attention to once-obscure judicial races will collide across the country—and help determine the reach of fundamental rights for years to come.

In the pivotal electoral battleground state of North Carolina, Justice Anita Earls’ campaign to hold onto her state Supreme Court seat has been called “one of the most important races in the state” by the North Carolina AFL-CIO, and “one of the most-watched statewide races in this year’s midterm elections,” per Axios. Earls is currently the only Black justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Before beginning her tenure in 2019, she was a civil rights attorney focused on voting rights, education, employment, criminal law and First Amendment issues.

Hope Ngumezi Took His Wife Porsha to a Texas Hospital for a Miscarriage. She Left in a Body Bag.

PUBLISHED 8/18/2026 by

When Hope Negumezi took his pregnant wife, Porsha, to a Texas hospital for a miscarriage, he expected routine emergency care. Ten hours later, she bled to death.

Hope Ngumezi shares with journalist Bonnie Fuller how his pregnant wife, Porsha, bled to death while waiting in agony for hours for medical care. In this harrowing personal account, Hope recounts Porsha’s final hours—and the dangerous legal “gray area” that kept doctors from saving her life.

“Why did this nightmare happen?

“Our first meeting was at my 21st birthday party. … As soon as I saw her, it was like in the movies, when everything stops. There seemed to be an aura around her. I went to the bathroom to splash water on my face to sober up and to figure out how I was going to talk to her.

“She was a great mother. She just loved her boys so much and they loved her, too. They were both mama’s boys and were always hanging around her, which I loved.”

The Same People Policing AOC’s Fertility Want to Police Abortion, Too

PUBLISHED 8/17/2026 by

If you’ve seen Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s posts about freezing her eggs on Instagram, you’ve likely heard about the backlash she’s facing from folks who have called her, at turns, hypocritical, insincere, selfish and, at 36, too old to be a mother.

Funny how we didn’t hear such outcry about age when Jon Hamm announced around the same time that he’s becoming a father at 55. Or when Alec Baldwin, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino—and believe me, I could go on—welcomed new children at 64, 79 and 83. Or when Second Lady Usha Vance, at 40, announced earlier this year that she was expecting.

None of us deserve an explanation from AOC about why she is making the choice she is making. That’s the whole point: It’s her choice, and we have the right to make the choices we want about our bodies and our reproductive lives. Full stop.

And there’s power in talking about it, on our terms. That’s why so many women are feeling seen and reflected in AOC’s posts, and why it’s so empowering to have her make this decision out loud.

Who Gets Healthcare and Who Gets Handcuffs?

PUBLISHED 8/13/2026 by

A teenage girl and her boyfriend are facing criminal charges in North Carolina after allegedly attempting to self-manage her abortion using pills. She was reportedly 31 weeks pregnant when she took the medication. At that stage of pregnancy, the medication induced labor, and she ultimately delivered a living baby, presumably without medical assistance. The state charged her with “assault with a deadly weapon,” treating the abortion pills as the “deadly weapon.”

I won’t repeat the girl’s name here. It’s already been plastered across headlines and social media, and that exposure is part of her punishment. 

When I first read the details of this case, I felt an immediate rush of empathy—and dread. Our work at Patient Forward focuses on eliminating barriers to abortion care later in pregnancy so no one feels forced into situations like these because they lack clinical options.

I know what it feels like to need an abortion later in pregnancy and fear that time is running out. However when I needed an abortion at 31 weeks, I had the resources and support that made it possible for me to get one safely. Even after learning third trimester abortion care was banned in my state, my obstetrician still referred me to a safe clinic in Colorado. My mother withdrew $10,000 from her retirement savings so I could pay for it. My husband handled flights, hotels and other logistics.

In the end I didn’t just receive safe, supported care. I also received privacy. My story became public only because I decided to tell it.

The teenager in North Carolina received neither. The difference between us wasn’t the complexity of our pregnancies. It was access.

Detaining Families, Policing Pregnancy: Trump’s Immigration Crackdown on Women and Children

PUBLISHED 8/12/2026 by

Trump’s latest attacks on birthright citizenship are part of a much broader effort to police American identity, punish migrant women for entering the U.S. and ultimately regulate their reproduction. Immigrant women and children remain particular targets of a hostile immigration system that seeks to control them through detention, family separation and deportation. The administration’s reinstatement of family detention has made it possible to incarcerate whole families while avoiding the political backlash generated by the “zero tolerance” separations of Trump’s first term.

But detaining families together does not make detention humane. Family residential facilities expose mothers and children to interrupted medical care, inadequate health screenings, poor living conditions and lasting physical and psychological harm. Women—particularly those who are pregnant, postpartum or caring for young children—also face heightened vulnerability to neglect and abuse inside a system where government officers and private contractors wield enormous power over their daily lives.

These policies are not simply about immigration enforcement. They are a means of penalizing pregnancy, motherhood and family formation in immigrant communities. From attacks on birthright citizenship to the detention of pregnant women and U.S.-citizen children, the administration is using the immigration system to make migration more painful and precarious—and to enact that punishment on the bodies and families of migrant women.

New Kentucky Media Campaign Fights Back Against Abortion Ban After Criminal Prosecutions

PUBLISHED 8/11/2026 by

Across Kentucky, pregnant women are facing growing surveillance and the threat of criminalization for pregnancy outcomes that are often beyond their control. Recent prosecutions have underscored how miscarriage, stillbirth and other complications can be treated not simply as medical events, but as potential crimes. At the same time, proposed legislation could expand that legal risk even further, deepening an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty in a state where abortion access is already nearly eliminated.

But people across Kentucky are continuing to organize, speak out and fight back. The Kentucky Reproductive Freedom Fund has launched a statewide and national video campaign amplifying the voices of physicians, medical students, faith leaders and patients living with the consequences of the ban. Their stories show that the harm is not abstract: The ban endangers lives, restricts medical training and undermines providers’ ability to deliver standard care—while making clear that healthcare decisions should be made by patients and their providers, not politicians.

Built to Withstand Trump-Era Attacks on Mifepristone: New Telehealth Provider Serves All 50 States for Sliding-Scale Fee

PUBLISHED 8/11/2026 by

Telehealth provider At Home Abortion just opened Aug. 11, but the six doctors and nurses running the service have over 100 years combined experience providing abortion and other reproductive healthcare.

At Home Abortion (AHA) is the latest to join the growing field of telehealth abortion providers. AHA is unique in that the company serves patients in all 50 states, offers comprehensive support to all their patients and is based in Europe so is resistant to Trump administration attacks on telehealth abortion with mifepristone. In other words, AHA will be able to continue to provide gold-standard abortion pill service with mifepristone and misoprostol, no matter what the Trump administration, courts or Republican states do to try to suppress mifepristone access inside the United States.

“We’re here to make it as easy, safe and available as possible for people to get care, and we want to support people all the way through,” said an AHA representative.

The intake form takes about five minutes to complete. Clinicians review intake forms within one to 12 hours. When a patient is eligible for a medication abortion, AHA providers send a prescription to a pharmacy in a shield law state that sends FDA-approved medicines—one mifepristone and 12 misoprostol—to the patient in a plain package to any address in the United States plus military bases and US territories. The pill containers do not have the patient’s or the provider’s names on them, ensuring confidentiality. AHA also sends anti-nausea medication. Patients receive the medications in two to four days.

Then, through a secure messaging portal, AHA sends the patient clear and detailed instructions on how to use the medications and what to expect during and after the abortion. AHA also shares a telephone number for the patient to call or text for questions.

AHA providers are available 24/7 to support their patients by voice or text before, during and after the abortion.

“That is really important to us, especially in the United States where people are so afraid of what is going on and afraid to search out other care,” said an AHA representative. “We want to make sure that we are there for them. We know that anxiety increases people’s pain. It makes the experience more difficult. So they need that support.”

In addition to abortion pills, AHA offers miscarriage care, emergency contraception and birth control, as well as abortion pills in advance of pregnancy.

If the Louisiana lawsuit attempting to restrict mifepristone succeeds, or the FDA reinstates medically unnecessary restrictions on mifepristone, AHA has several options to continue providing telehealth abortion with mifepristone to patients in all 50 states and territories.

Feminists and Democracy Advocates Sound the Alarm on Todd Blanche: ‘He Is Trump’s Lawyer, Not America’s’

PUBLISHED 8/4/2026 by and | UPDATED 8/17/2026 at 11:53 A.M. PT

In a party line vote of 12-10, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general on Wednesday; a full Senate vote is expected in the coming days. The vote prompted a wave of criticism from feminist leaders, democracy advocates and Democratic lawmakers, who warned President Donald Trump’s former personal defense attorney has repeatedly demonstrated his loyalty to the president over the Constitution, and could further erode the Justice Department’s independence at a pivotal moment for U.S. democracy, while also threatening access to reproductive healthcare.

“He is not America’s lawyer,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said on the Senate floor. “He is about to become Trump’s sword against his adversaries and shield against any scrutiny.”

“Our Republican colleagues see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said during debate.

As the Senate prepared to vote on Todd Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general, another major development emerged, adding fresh urgency to warnings from reproductive rights advocates: A new Politico report reveals Blanche privately pledged antiabortion leaders the DOJ would pursue a crackdown on medication abortion if confirmed with the goal of “the Dobbs decision [becoming] permanent in every single state.”

Who Will Train the Next Generation of Abortion Providers?

PUBLISHED 8/3/2026 by

Reproductive health clinics have been closing at alarming rates since the Supreme Court ended federal abortion protections in 2022. Every time a clinic closes, patients lose access to care, but that’s not all: Whole communities lose their comprehensive care providers for future generations.

As a nurse, doula and the executive director of the reproductive health clinical training and advocacy group Repro TLC, I’ve seen firsthand how abortion restrictions and clinic closures are shrinking the pipeline of trained providers. This is happening even in the states where access to abortion care remains fairly robust. 

The result is a workforce crisis in the medical field that extends far beyond abortion access and threatens the future of reproductive health in communities nationwide. 

Community-based reproductive health centers—clinics that operate independently of hospitals, major medical centers or Planned Parenthood affiliates—serve as a safety net for patients. They provide 58 percent of abortion care nationwide. 

They also provide crucial training infrastructure for future healthcare providers. Most medical and nursing education programs do not teach abortion care; providers who want to provide abortions to patients often have to find, coordinate and fund their own training opportunities at independent clinics—like a self-organized medical rotation. And as more of these independent clinics close, these training opportunities dwindle.