Women’s Health

Women everywhere deserve accessible, affordable and comprehensive healthcare. This includes reproductive healthcare like contraception, abortion, sex and relationship education, STI prevention and treatment, cancer screenings and counseling. However, lawmakers have long attempted to restrict or reduce this care in ways that harm women.

‘Off the Spectrum’: How the Science of Autism Has Failed Women and Girls

An excerpt from Off the Spectrum: Why the Science of Autism Has Failed Women and Girls by Gina Rippon:

“Maybe we can (gently) deconstruct the elaborate camouflages that have allowed autistic girls to ‘fly beneath the radar,’ to ‘hide in plain sight.’ We must listen to these lost girls so that autism researchers, autism therapists, autism advocates, and the wider general population will have a much clearer idea of what we should be looking for, what we need to explain, so that we can better understand the autistic world.”

Amid Support from Doctors Group, Bill to Clarify Texas’ Abortion Ban Does Little to Save Lives, Critics Say

and

A bipartisan bill to clarify exceptions to the state’s near-total abortion ban garnered widespread support Thursday from healthcare professionals and abortion opponents who said the bill would remove any hesitation doctors might have to save a pregnant woman’s life.

Critics, meanwhile, told lawmakers that Senate Bill 31 doesn’t go far enough to protect women facing pregnancy-related medical emergencies and even quietly resurrects 160-year-old laws that could be used to criminalize those who have undergone an abortion or have helped those who receive an out-of-state abortion.

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court Race Will Decide the Fate of IVF and Abortion Rights—Just Ask This OB-GYN

The possible return to a near total abortion ban in Wisconsin—which depends on the outcome of the April 1 state Supreme Court election—would gravely interfere with Dr. Anna Igler’s work as an OB-GYN near Green Bay.

“Terrible things happen in pregnancy,” said Anna Igler, an OB-GYN near Green Bay. “All babies aren’t healthy and all pregnancies are not healthy for the baby or the mother. That’s just biology.” 

She knows that firsthand.

Break Things and Leave Them Broken: The Next Stage for Fired Federal Workers

Federal judges ordered the reinstatement of workers terminated based on their probationary status—a blow to the Trump administration. But for many fired feds, this welcome news does not mean a return to work. For me and most of my colleagues in HHS’ Administration for Children and Families, for instance, we will continue to receive our pay and benefits, but we won’t be allowed to work. One might think that this is a pretty good deal—but only if you don’t know federal employees.

Some of my colleagues shared with me their stories of uncertainty, loss and an unfinished mission to serve the public.

—My first colleague, a change management specialist, was nervous about rumored changes to the federal workforce, but buoyed by the encouragement of his mentors who said, “This is your dream. The way you light up, this is the thing we want in federal employees. Roll the dice, go for it.”
—Another, a policy analyst specializing in children’s issues, said she was living out her dream job. When she found out she was fired, she was on bedrest for a high-risk pregnancy. In a cruel twist of fate, it was Valentine’s Day … and also the anniversary of her previous stillbirth.

Foreign Aid Cuts Will Lead to 34,000 More Pregnancy-Related Deaths in Just One Year 

and

The freeze on U.S. foreign assistance funding and the subsequent stop work order has already taken an irreversible toll on global health programs, including family planning services, causing chaos across public health systems and forcing many sexual and reproductive health providers and programs to close doors permanently. Despite ongoing litigation to challenge these actions in court—including an important court victory that found this attack likely unconstitutional—most USAID partners are still waiting for government payments for work already completed. Adding to the upheaval, the administration gutted USAID staff and cancelled 83 percent of its aid contracts. 

Contrary to the Trump administration’s claims, cutting foreign aid for reproductive health is not a fiscal gain, but a significant step backward.  

The Fight Against Cervical Cancer and for the HPV Vaccine 

As a community-based researcher, I’ve spent countless hours speaking with women in the Mississippi Delta about their experiences with healthcare, their knowledge of cervical cancer prevention and the barriers they face in accessing care. These conversations have reinforced what we already know: Black women in Mississippi are dying from preventable diseases—not because solutions don’t exist, but because those solutions are not reaching them. The Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative (SRBWI), in collaboration with Human Rights Watch, recently released a report highlighting these inequities.

But while we work to increase awareness, figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continue to spread dangerous misinformation about the HPV vaccine, undermining efforts to protect our communities.

Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared.

, , and

ProPublica’s investigation reveals that Texas’ abortion ban has led to a sharp rise in life-threatening complications, particularly sepsis, for women experiencing pregnancy loss.

Since the ban’s enactment, the rate of sepsis during second-trimester pregnancy loss has surged by over 50 percent, and maternal deaths in Texas hospitals have increased significantly, even as the national maternal mortality rate declined. Doctors cite the law’s vague emergency exception and the threat of legal consequences as key reasons for dangerous delays in care.

While some Texas lawmakers now acknowledge the need for legal clarifications, the Republican-controlled legislature remains divided, with some pushing for even stricter abortion penalties.

Weaponizing Aid: How U.S. Policies Undermine Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Crises

U.S. policies like the global gag rule (GGR) have long restricted access to reproductive healthcare worldwide, but their impact on refugee women and girls in humanitarian crises is often overlooked. By cutting funding to NGOs that provide or even discuss abortion care, the GGR limits essential services such as contraception, post-abortion care, and maternal health support for millions of displaced women. In conflict zones and refugee camps, where healthcare is already scarce, these restrictions leave women without options, increasing the risks of unsafe abortions, maternal mortality and gender-based violence.

As the U.S. continues to wield foreign aid as a political tool, the lives of the world’s most vulnerable women hang in the balance.

‘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.