Welcome to the latest edition of our weekly roundup. Every Monday, we’ll send you a summary of the biggest stories about bodily autonomy. We’ll also include links to pieces that Garnet or Susan have published.
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Let’s dive in.
On Autonomy News
Susan wrote about how unionized workers at an Ohio Planned Parenthood affiliate are trying to blunt the impact of proposed layoffs by asking the organization to cut executive pay before laying off any patient-facing staff. Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio is, like many affiliates, facing large losses in funding due to Trump administration policies and PPGOH Workers United is concerned about consequences for patients. (Share this story on Instagram or Bluesky.)
Susan Rinkunas
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Garnet and Susan were also guests on the rePROs Fight Back podcast.
Federal news
“Defund” battle continues
Today, Trump-appointed federal judge Lance Walker denied Maine Family Planning’s request for an injunction to ensure it can continue receiving Medicaid payments while litigation continues around the “big, beautiful” bill’s provision to “defund” abortion providers . While the provision was aimed at Planned Parenthood, it also affected at least two independent providers: Maine Family Planning and Massachusetts’ Health Imperatives. Maine Family Planning sued in July.
Planned Parenthood filed its own lawsuit, and won an injunction in July from a Massachusetts federal judge that compelled the federal government to continue making Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood’s 47 affiliates while litigation proceeds. In early August, the Trump administration appealed, and last week, the First Circuit Court of Appeals denied that appeal. Maine is also in the First Circuit, meaning Maine Family Planning may win an injunction from the appeals court if it challenges Walker’s ruling. The Department of Health and Human Services may also appeal the First Circuit’s decision in the Planned Parenthood case to the Supreme Court. If that happens, the Court could hear the case in its next term, which begins in October.
Medication abortion and “shield” laws
Remember how Trump-appointed, Comstock Act-loving Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk allowed some Attorneys General to resurrect a baseless case challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of mifepristone? The AGs of Missouri, Kansas, and Idaho swooped in after the Supreme Court ruled that anti-abortion physician groups didn’t have the standing to bring a suit. Well, now Texas and Florida are looking to join the party—or perhaps more correctly, take it over.
On Friday, the two states filed a petition to intervene in the case, arguing that Missouri and Kansas, in particular, are in a poor position to challenge mifepristone’s approval given their voters’ affirmation of the right to abortion. Missouri voters passed a reproductive freedom amendment in 2024; Kansas voters defeated an anti-abortion constitutional amendment in 2022 and the state’s highest court later affirmed a “broad” right to abortion. Idaho organizers are also working to get an abortion rights measure on the ballot in 2026.
Texas and Florida say they want to challenge the original 2000 FDA approval of mifepristone, which the Supreme Court did not consider, but which Kacsmaryk previously attempted to suspend. The two states further argue that they need to step in to defend themselves from pesky “shield” law states like New York, whose doctors are helping residents of states like Texas and Florida circumvent abortion bans. So, anti-abortion AGs are once again affirming that shield laws are one of their biggest targets.
A coalition of 16 Republican AGs recently asked Congress to ban shield laws. Now, a group of 16 Democratic AGs is asking the FDA to further relax restrictions on mifepristone via a citizen petition. Despite pandemic-era changes that allowed mifepristone to be prescribed via telemedicine for the first time, the drug is still much more tightly regulated than a typical prescription. Providers and pharmacies have to register in order to carry the medication, a regulation that experts have long decried as unnecessary and not evidence-based.
Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, are still harping on the supposed dangers of medication abortion, which is objectively very safe. Three senators—Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Jim Banks (R-Ind.)—sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi asking her to investigate whether mifepristone manufacturers misled the public about the drug’s safety. This letter once again cites a report from the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a far-right think tank closely linked to anti-abortion billionaire Leonard Leo. The report, which claimed that serious complications from mifepristone are significantly more common than FDA data suggests, was not peer-reviewed and used inclusion criteria so wide it likely counted medical issues entirely unrelated to mifepristone or abortion. The senators’ letter was first reported by right-wing outlet the Daily Signal.
Modern-day Comstocks
Last week, President Trump appointed Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey co-deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation—a position that does not normally exist—amid tensions between AG Bondi and existing FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. Bailey had only served as Missouri AG since 2022, but in his relatively short tenure he distinguished himself as one of the most anti-abortion and anti-trans AGs in the country. He tried to subpoena the medical records of trans kids, aggressively defended his state’s abortion bans even after voters largely invalidated them, advocated for the 19th-century Comstock Act to be enforced as an abortion ban, and, most recently, sued Planned Parenthood, alleging they had made misleading claims about the safety of mifepristone. His appointment to the FBI is an alarming sign that the Trump administration may be preparing to use federal law enforcement to crack down on the mailing of abortion pills, which has enabled tens of thousands of people in ban states to get abortions since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
The Trump administration has cut federal funding for a California sex education program after the state refused to remove content about gender identity and mentions of transgender and nonbinary people from its material. The administration had previously warned California that it had 60 days to do so. The Guardian reports that, per government records, the grant was worth $6 million, but an HHS official told Reuters that California stood to lose out on $12 million, so the exact amount of the funding loss is unclear.
State news
State-level “defunding”
Following the Supreme Court’s June ruling in Medina v. Planned Parenthood—the case stemming from South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster’s attempt to exclude Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid program via executive order—a lower court recently gave the state the go-ahead to officially kick out the organization. However, Planned Parenthood filed a last-ditch attempt to prevent this from happening, asking a federal court for permission to make a new argument. The Supreme Court ruled that neither Planned Parenthood or one of its patients had the standing to sue the state for violating federal Medicaid policy. Now, Planned Parenthood has dropped the patient from its petition, and wants to argue that the state’s actions violate the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause by unfairly singling out the health-care provider. It remains to be seen whether a judge will allow this.
In more Medina fallout news, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has asked a federal court to vacate a 12-year-old judgment that blocked his state from enforcing a ban on any government funding to abortion providers. Rokita, who was one of 18 Republican AGs to sign on to an amicus brief supporting South Carolina’s position in Medina, argues that the Supreme Court’s decision in that case fundamentally changes the legal landscape.
In Ohio, Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill that mimics the federal “defunding” of abortion providers—except instead of lasting for one year, this “defund” would be permanent. Remember, Medicaid and other government-funded programs do not pay for abortion care in any of these states except in extremely limited circumstances, so “defunding” abortion providers means kicking them out of the Medicaid provider network for non-abortion services like contraception, STI testing, and cancer screenings.
Other state news
Mississippi has declared a public health emergency over its rising infant mortality rate. As of 2022, Mississippi’s infant mortality rate was already the highest in the nation, and that’s before its total abortion ban went into effect; Mississippi passed the law the Supreme Court used to overturn Roe v. Wade. Previous research suggests a link between abortion bans and infant deaths. Currently, Medicaid covers more than half of all births in the state, so the crisis is likely to deepen as the fallout from cuts to that program begins to materialize.
Texas lawmakers will consider multiple bills in their second special session that would further restrict access to abortion pills. SB 7 and HB 82 would allow anyone who prescribes, provides, manufactures or distributes abortion pills to be sued for at least $100,000 for each violation—an amount 10 times higher than the six-week bounty hunter ban that took effect in 2021. HB 80 would do the same, and make it a criminal offense if someone “pays for or reimburses” the costs related to an abortion. This is meant to directly target abortion funds. The bill also says internet service providers must “block Internet access to information or material intended to assist or facilitate efforts to obtain an elective abortion” and lists the URLs of multiple websites, including Aid Access. Similar proposals failed in the regular session, underscoring that abortion is popular and politicians need to subvert democracy to restrict it.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton isn’t only trying to join the federal lawsuit against the FDA about abortion pills, he’s also threatening to sue organizations that provide information or pills themselves to Texans. Paxton sent cease-and-desist letters to Plan C, a site that explains how to get abortion pills, and Her Safe Harbor, a telemedicine service that mails pills. Paxton claims the websites violate the federal Comstock Act and cites two recent wrongful death lawsuits filed against abortion pill providers as a supposed justification for his demand that the websites stop advertising and shipping pills to Texans.
Another website that shares information about abortion pills is Mayday Health; as Autonomy News previously reported, Arkansas AG Tim Griffin threatened it and Plan C with cease and desist letters in July. Mayday has a new campaign at gas stations in West Virginia and Kentucky with ads that read: “Pregnant? Don’t want to be? Learn more at Mayday Health.” The group is also running similar ads on floating billboards at Florida beaches in St. Petersburg and Clearwater. While they didn’t provide comment for our story, Mayday said of their gas station campaign, “We don’t have concerns about advertising because we don’t sell, distribute or package abortion pills. We’re merely spreading First Amendment-protected free speech. So if anyone wants to come after us, what they’re coming after is the First Amendment.”
Assaults on queer people
We knew that the Department of Justice subpoenaed information from 20 doctors and hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors back in June. But last week, the Washington Post reported that those subpoenas included demands for sensitive information from medical records all the way down to voicemails and patient portal messages, dating back to January 2020. Experts say this move is unprecedented. Providers are challenging the subpoenas in court.
According to a letter sent to insurance carriers by the Office of Personnel Management, all federal workers and their dependents will lose insurance coverage of gender-affirming care in 2026—no matter their age.
Alaska’s medical board—a politically-appointed body—approved a letter to state lawmakers asking them to restrict access to abortion later in pregnancy, as well as a draft regulation that would declare providing youth gender-affirming care to be “unprofessional conduct.” The latter would put gender-affirming care providers at risk of disciplinary action that could result in them losing their medical licenses. Alaska is one of only nine states, plus Washington, D.C., that have no gestational age limits on access to abortion—but the state has only two brick and mortar abortion clinics, and none that offer care beyond the 17th week of pregnancy.
Extremism
Mother Jones’ Julia Métraux explains that 19th-century “ugly laws” are the “blueprint for Trump’s anti-homeless crusade.” She writes: "Sparked in part by an influx of disabled Civil War veterans, ugly laws fined poor, disabled people for begging, or just existing, on city streets—often followed by institutionalization in brutal 19th-century facilities that offered little or nothing in the way of treatment." What is with Republicans and wanting to return to the 19th century? We can think of more than a few reasons…
Quick hits
- Ulster County, in New York’s mid-Hudson Valley, approved $50,000 to hire a civil rights attorney to defend its country clerk—but it turns out that wasn’t necessary. A New York City-based civil rights firm will represent the clerk for free. Texas AG Ken Paxton is suing the clerk in an effort to compel him to file a judgment against abortion provider Maggie Carpenter, who lives in Ulster County and provides abortions to patients in ban states under shield laws. In addition to the civil suit in Texas, Carpenter is facing criminal charges in Louisiana.
- “New and expecting parents who work at Veterans Affairs are getting approved maternity and paternity leave canceled after their union contract was terminated by the White House, according to two internal memos viewed by Axios.”
- “The median cost of sending one child to daycare for five years is about $44,000 across the U.S., according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Labor Department data. In 26 counties, the median cost for five years of daycare is more than $100,000…The total median cost for the most expensive area, Arlington County, Va., was nearly $147,000. ”
- About 70 percent of women struggling with addiction have children, and research shows they do better if they can bring their kids with them to treatment. Mother Jones asks, why are mothers so often forced to choose between caring for their children and recovery?
Actual good news
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill that requires public colleges and universities to offer medication abortion and contraception if the schools have a student health center or an on-campus pharmacy. The bill, HB 3709, says the schools have to provide these medications starting this fall and was part of an advocacy effort from current and former students at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Chicago Abortion Fund said Illinois is the first state in the Midwest to guarantee that students can access abortion pills through campus health services.
Pritzker also signed a bill to expand the state’s shield law, which will now protect licensed midwives from criminal or civil investigations by other states for providing care that is legal in Illinois. The bill, HB 3637, also has a novel provision that allows healthcare providers to continue prescribing medications for the next decade even if the FDA revokes approval—as long as the drug is still recommended by the World Health Organization. The bill does not mention abortion or mifepristone, but is intended to protect access to the drug if the Trump administration tries to limit it.
Last year, an Ohio judge temporarily blocked a law that forced abortion patients to undergo a 24-hour waiting period after in-person, state-mandated “counseling;” the judge cited the state’s 2023 reproductive freedom ballot initiative. Now Preterm, Ohio’s largest independent abortion provider, says that 57 percent of its patients are able to get counseling and an abortion on the same day. Prior to the injunction, most patients waited a week or more between appointments. Research presented in court showed that, previously, only 6 percent of abortion patients managed to get their abortion within 24 hours of their counseling appointment, and some patients were even pushed past the state’s 22-week gestational age ban by the forced delay.
Palate cleanser
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