Donald Trump and the Trump Administration

Antiabortion Politics Blocks Research on Fibroids, Endometriosis and Breast Cancer. The Media Is Finally Paying Attention.

PUBLISHED 10/1/2026 by

Mifepristone is known as the abortion pill, but it has other uses most Americans have never heard about. For more than three decades, scientists have known this medication could do far more than end a pregnancy. Research shows mifepristone and a similar drug ulipristal acetate (sold under the brand name ella) can shrink fibroids, treat endometriosis and may treat and even prevent breast cancer.

Despite this huge potential to improve women’s health and well-being, abortion opponents have obstructed research into these treatments for decades, fearing anything that could make mifepristone more available would weaken their fight against abortion.

The burden of this obstruction has fallen on women, left to suffer from years of painful fibroids and endometriosis, heavy bleeding and reduced fertility, or death from aggressive forms of breast cancer, while research that could help sits on the shelf.

For years, the fight to unlock mifepristone’s lifesaving potential was a story only feminist media would tell, but mainstream media is finally catching up.

Who Cares if Political Candidates Associate With Sex Offenders?

PUBLISHED 9/30/2026 by

Republican candidates in two pivotal North Carolina races are being taken to task for their public association with convicted sex offenders who served time for taking indecent liberties with children.

Former North Carolina GOP chair Michael Whatley—the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate—and GOP Supreme Court candidate Sarah Stevens have been called to account in the leadup to the midterm elections for accepting support from one or more individuals either formerly or currently on the state sex offender registry. That support includes campaign work, financial contributions and even public prayers.

North Carolina state Rep. Sarah Stevens (R), who resigned from the state House of Representatives in June to run for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court, attended and accepted a donation from a fundraising picnic last year at the home of convicted sex offender Harvey West. Though Stevens said she “didn’t even know” West, she had appeared on his wife Kim West’s podcast to promote the picnic and was Facebook friends with Harvey West, a former police officer who served six years in prison after being convicted of five counts of indecent liberties with a child in 2000.

This month it was also reported that Pastor Daimon L. King, a registered sex offender “twice sentenced to prison for convictions involving children,” according to ABC, who led the opening prayer at a recent campaign stop for Whatley. King, who leads the Christian church New Beginnings Celebration, declared his church members “fully support and are behind” Whatley’s U.S. Senate candidacy.

‘America Is Better With Friends’: What We Lose When the U.S. Turns Away From the World

PUBLISHED 9/29/2026 by

As the Trump administration cuts foreign aid and pulls back from international commitments, what happens to the people and countries that have counted on the United States? And what do Americans stand to lose? A packed room for a panel on the first day of the Texas Tribune Festival with a daunting question: “Who Fills the Void?” suggested many people are trying to make sense of the same thing.

The all-women panel consisted of Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau, a former diplomat and managing director at the George W. Bush Institute; Nicole Bibbins Sedaca, a fellow at the institute who has worked on democracy and human rights; and Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of the refugee organization Global Refuge; moderated by Carine Hajjar of The Washington Post.

The three panelists had different answers to who fills the void: Competitors can gain influence when the U.S. gives up its place at the table. Allies may retreat, too. But in humanitarian work, no one may step in at all, meaning the people who need help are left waiting.

Bibbins Sedaca made the case for U.S. engagement abroad, in terms of both principle and self-interest: American “interests and values are integrated.” Democratically governed countries tend to be more stable and prosperous partners. Preventing disease and persecution abroad matters to the people living through those crises; it also helps make Americans safer.

Bibbins Sedaca acknowledged the economic pain many Americans feel and the need to scrutinize how aid is spent. But foreign assistance has typically accounted for just 1 percent of federal spending, and less than that in recent years. She rejected the idea that meeting needs at home requires the U.S. to disengage from the rest of the world.

This work also has a bipartisan history. Kennedy Trudeau pointed to PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, launched by George W. Bush. The program has saved more than 26 million lives, according to the State Department. Kennedy Trudeau described its effects beyond the number: children in school, adults able to work and communities able to plan for a future. Countries facing an AIDS crisis also learned that the United States would stand with them.

Vignarajah described refugee resettlement as another commitment once supported by presidents of both parties. It was understood, she said, as both “the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.”

A Historic U.N. Choice, a Surge of Black Women Candidates and the Fight for Representation

PUBLISHED 9/26/2026 by

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!

This week:
—A woman may finally become the new U.S. secretary general.
—Secretary General António Guterres’ powerful and motivating remarks: “At the current pace, it will take us 171 years to reach gender equality. I don’t think any one of us wants to wait that long.”
—the remarkable rise of Black women candidates in Georgia
—No group of donors has had quite the impact on electing more women than EMILYs List, whose “early money is like yeast” philosophy has contributed to women being poised to become the majority of Democratic lawmakers in state legislatures this year.

… and more.

We Fought Too Hard for This Vote. Here’s How We Protect It.

PUBLISHED 9/25/2026 by

The ability to participate in free and fair elections is arguably the most essential American right. Yet on Jan. 6, 2021, the nation watched as a mob overran the Capitol. In an act designed to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next, they attacked law enforcement officers who were there to protect the building and members of Congress inside. Rioters desecrated the Capitol. Our vote and our democracy seemed fragile that day and in the days that followed.

Now, President Donald Trump is trying to create a role for the president in running and overseeing elections. That’s not how the Constitution works.

The effort to interfere with the November midterms isn’t going to consist of a single, dramatic event on Election Day. It is what we are already seeing: a combination of efforts by Trump and his supporters to make it more difficult to vote, to create confusion about who is eligible to vote, to pressure state and local officials, and to manufacture uncertainty. As Jan. 6 proved, distrust among the American people makes it easier for an administration to contest election results they don’t like. And the Trump administration is doing all of this with an eye toward shifting as much control over elections as possible from the states to the federal government.

We can already see where pressure is being applied to voters and election officials, and we can identify the kinds of problems that are likely to arise.

You don’t need to be a constitutional law scholar to make a difference. It just takes a desire to be useful, to engage in democracy and become a participant, not a bystander. Know your state’s rules and deadlines for registering. Research whether you can vote early or by mail. Help the people around you, who may be less informed, do the same. Volunteer as a poll worker if you can. Volunteer to do election protection work if you are a lawyer, law student, retired lawyer or simply someone willing to be trained.

Keeping Score: Texas GOP Candidate Brandon Herrera’s Vile Attack on Mothers and Children; Rest in Power Gloria, Dolly, Robin Morgan, Annie Dillard and More

PUBLISHED 9/20/2026 by

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too, in this biweekly roundup.

This week:
—The Trump administration proposed a rule that would eliminate quality standards for the Head Start preschool program.
—Todd Blanche was confirmed as attorney general, after promising to remove abortion rights nationwide.
—Democrats in the Senate call out Trump administration’s attacks on Title IX and mark its 54th anniversary with a bicameral resolution: “They will fearmonger about trans kids until the sun comes up, but the fact is this administration has all but decimated the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education, leaving egregious instances of sexual harassment and assault, and so much else, totally unaddressed.”
—Kindergartener Liam Tadeo and his father, Victor Martinez Nieto, both Austin residents, were detained by ICE on their way to a soccer game and later deported together to Mexico after being held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center.
—The six recipients of the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize are all women.
—Voters in battleground states say it’s important that lawmakers protect access to reproductive healthcare.
—At least 152 ICE or CBP agents have faced disciplinary action or criminal penalties for violent crimes.
—Women make up 35 percent of non-acting Emmy Awards, matching the record high.
—Actor Anne Hathaway, currently pregnant with her third child at age 43, faced social media hate and rumors that she faked her pregnancy, after showing her bump on a red carpet.
—Florida professor Vinita Prabhakar was fired for assigning a “political” short story in a freshman English class. The story “Bettering Myself” focuses on an alcoholic teacher at a Catholic school and is commonly taught at colleges across the country. Prabhakar is now suing to uphold her First Amendment rights.
—Aisha Wahab won the special election to replace former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who resigned after sexual assault allegations. Wahab is the first Afghan American elected to Congress, and will be on the ballot for a full term in November.

… and more.

Menopause Is a Public Policy Story. Congress Must Treat It Like One.

PUBLISHED 9/16/2026 by

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, I testified before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging at Congress’ first-ever hearing devoted to menopause. I am an attorney, advocate and author whose primary professional focus is menstruation, menopause and the law—an unusual sphere of expertise, I know. These experiences too often go neglected and are deeply deserving of public policy attention and intervention.

Menopause is a whole-body transition affecting women’s immediate and long-term physical, cognitive, mental and metabolic health. Too often, women navigate these changes without the support they need.

In the United States, about 1.3 million women enter menopause each year—roughly 6,000 per day. Yet there are only around 4,000 certified menopause practitioners across the country, and menopause care deserts are common, especially in rural areas and across the South and Midwest.

Menopause is an individual and collective health story. But it also is a marriage and family story. A career and economic story. An aging and longevity story. And most certainly, a public policy story. There is no singular reform that will respond to every scenario or address every challenge facing every woman in midlife. But a collection of proposals already on the table in Congress, under consideration at federal agencies and advancing in statehouses offer a meaningful start.

(This essay is adapted from the written testimony Jennifer Weiss-Wolf submitted to the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging for its Sept. 16 hearing, “Half the Country, Zero Hearings: Meeting the Moment to End the Menopause Care Gap in America”—Congress’ first-ever hearing devoted to menopause.)

Half the Country, a Fraction of the Research

PUBLISHED 9/15/2026 by | UPDATED 9/29/2026 at 11:49 A.M. PT

For decades, Democratic and Republican administrations alike presided over a medical research system that routinely excluded women. The result? Modern medicine was built on incomplete science—and women are still paying the price. 

It wasn’t until the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 that federally funded clinical trials were required to include women. Yet changing who participates in research does not rewrite decades of medical knowledge overnight. By then, physicians had already been trained using male-centered evidence, diagnostic standards had been established, and countless drugs had already been dosed using evidence derived solely from men.  

In 2025, the Trump administration has proposed cutting the NIH’s budget by roughly 43 percent (equivalent to $20 billion per year). Its broader HHS budget proposal called for eliminating or consolidating several programs supporting family planning and maternal and child health. Federal agencies also came under pressure to scrutinize or reject grant proposals containing terms such as women, leading to paused or cancelled fellowships and research on conditions such as uterine fibroids and pregnancy. 

There are signs, however, that Congress may finally be beginning to treat women’s health across the lifespan as a serious policy issue.

On Sept. 16, the Senate Special Committee on Aging will hold Congress’ first-ever hearing devoted to menopause. Led by ranking member Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), “Half the Country, Zero Hearings: Meeting the Moment to End the Menopause Care Gap in America” will examine the nation’s lack of menopause research, informed medical care and provider training—and make the case for greater federal investment.

The hearing represents an overdue step forward. But women’s health cannot remain vulnerable to political cycles. Regardless of which party holds power, it must become a permanent priority within American policy and medicine.