The good news is that most people will still have birth control after this decision because most employers want to cover it. The birth control benefit in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is one of the most important nondiscrimination provisions of the health-care law. The benefit requires that employer-provided health plans treat contraception like all ..read more

Today is an anniversary for me. Fifteen years ago today, I woke up pregnant—when I truly didn’t want to be—for the last time. My day started out in a very ordinary way. I riffled through my closet, proclaiming nothing to wear, but eventually choosing a tee shirt, tight jeans, and a thong. What does one ..read more

Inadequate Measures Heighten Existing Risks for Health, Lives Government inaction has left women and girls facing avoidable obstacles to accessing legal abortion in Italy during the Covid-19 pandemic, putting their health and lives at risk, Human Rights Watch said today. The government’s failure to ensure clear pathways to essential, time-sensitive medical care during the pandemic caused interruptions ..read more

Though abortion restrictions are incredibly harmful and coercive in the U.S., they aren’t a primary driver in the national decline in pregnancy terminations. By Zara Ahmed, associate director of federal issues for the Guttmacher Institute Anti-abortion advocates working to criminalize abortion in the United States and abroad will always be stymied by a crucial fact: People ..read more

Restrictions on training are not unusual, and it can prevent medical professionals from providing good care. Brienna Milleson was a medical student working at the free clinic at Saint Louis University two years ago when a woman came in seeking a pregnancy test. It was positive, and the woman wasn’t sure whether she wanted to ..read more

A call for Georgia Cities to stand up for reproductive justice he past month has brought two important wins for abortion rights in Georgia. On July 13, the Georgia District Court struck down HB 481, Georgia’s six-week ban on abortions. On June 29, the Supreme Court issued its decision in June Medical Services v. Russo, striking down Louisiana’s admitting ..read more

The standards could have a strong influence on textbook content across the United States. For the first time in more than two decades, the controversial Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) is slated to revise its sexual education standards in the fall, a historic opportunity to rewrite a problematic abstinence-only curriculum in a state that ..read more

Payouts of forgivable federal loans to crisis pregnancy centers may total up to $10m while Planned Parenthood had to return $60m Anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers across the United States received at least $4m and possibly more than $10m in forgivable federal loans as part of the government’s first coronavirus bailout package, called the paycheck protection ..read more

The coronavirus pandemic is causing tremendous upheaval to health systems around the world, disrupting access to family planning information and services, as well as to sexual and reproductive health more broadly. It is crucial that sexual and reproductive health and rights remain a priority despite these challenges, and they must be part of the ongoing discussion ..read more

Seen as the “gold standard” in many areas of medical research, fetal cells are widely used in coronavirus vaccine research. On Friday, a Trump administration panel erected to judge the ethics of federally funded research relying on human fetal cells met more than a year after it was first announced. Just hours before the meeting ..read more