Since Trump’s 2018 rules took effect, private health plans and insurance companies have been able to exclude coverage of contraceptive services for objecting employers, as well as private colleges and universities — leaving many without access to free contraceptives. Read more at Politico
Supreme Court takes up South Carolina bid to defund Planned Parenthood The state wants to prevent reproductive health care groups from receiving federal funds via the Medicaid program because it provides abortions. Read more at NBC News Supreme Court takes up South Carolina’s effort to defund Planned Parenthood The court will restrict itself to a … Read more
“State constitutions provide no protection whatsoever against Comstock Act, against the Trump national abortion ban, against fetal personhood within the 14th Amendment,” Cohen explained. “Which is why there were many of us who were trying to get the word out before the election, that if you really do care about reproductive freedom and vote accordingly … Read more
“We’ve been preparing for months, in some cases years,” he continued. After Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022, his staff wrote a legal brief to challenge a national abortion ban, a draft he has ready, if necessary. His staff has also monitored comments by Trump’s inner circle and reviewed Project 2025, the rightwing blueprint … Read more
Access to birth control lets women “plan for careers rather than jobs” Claudia Goldin last year became the first woman to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences as an individual, rather than as part of a team. She makes the sharpest case for how the ability to choose when to have children was … Read more
An estimated 19 million women of reproductive age are now living in so-called contraceptive deserts, counties where people have trouble accessing a range of birth control options, according to data from the reproductive rights nonprofit Power to Decide. The right to contraception is protected by two landmark Supreme Court cases. Some Supreme Court justices have … Read more
Free or low-cost contraceptives are becoming increasingly difficult for women to access as clinics close or struggle with funding problems and policy restrictions. Read more at NBC News
In addition to cutting funding for the Office on Women’s Health, this year’s Republican budget would fully eliminate the Title X Family Planning Program, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, and Healthy Start, the federal program meant to address infant mortality. Read more at Rolling Stone
“It’s enormously disappointing to see the bipartisan bill that we passed out of committee 57-1 become overrun with partisan amendments that restrict reproductive freedoms, attack LGBTQ+ service members, leave our NATO allies behind, ignore the threat of climate change, and more,” Houlahan said in a statement. “Our military families deserve better than this political theatre.” … Read more
A primary reason for the trend, the study posits, is that abortion bans enacted after the Dobbs decision in June 2022 led abortion and family planning clinics in those states — facilities where many women accessed birth control prescriptions — to close. The new laws also created confusion over whether emergency contraceptives, including Plan B, remained legal … Read more
