Mifepristone Back in Court, Vance Wants to Pay Stay-at-Home Moms: September 8 News Roundup

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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

We published two reported stories last week. Susan wrote about a new report which found that people are struggling to pay for their abortions amid the affordability crisis. This means the costs of care are functionally shifted to abortion clinics. Nearly 50 clinics closed last year, and advocates worry that trend will get worse without philanthropic support. (Share this story on Instagram, Bluesky, or TikTok.)

Garnet wrote about fertility awareness-based methods of family planning—which can help prevent or facilitate pregnancy—a favorite of the religious right and MAHA influencers alike. However, despite their questionable proponents, these are legitimate methods of birth control that experts say have been dismissed and derided in mainstream health spaces for too long. To counter the Trump administration’s disinformation about contraceptives, they said, we need to give people better and more complete information about these and other methods of birth control. (Share this story on Instagram, Bluesky, or TikTok.)

Federal news

Tomorrow, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in a Louisiana lawsuit that seeks to make it harder to get the abortion drug mifepristone. The state sued the Food and Drug Administration in October arguing that the agency acted unlawfully when it allowed mifepristone to be dispensed by mail or at certified pharmacies during the Biden administration. Part of Louisiana’s argument is that the Comstock Act, a dormant 19th-century anti-obscenity law, prohibits shipping mifepristone. If the appeals court agrees to ban mailing, it would end telemedicine prescriptions nationwide, even in states that protect abortion access—though pills would remain available via activist groups that distribute them outside the medical system. Thanks to a May order from the Supreme Court, there will be no changes to access until the appeals process is complete. However, the FDA is conducting a sham “review” that it could cite as a reason to restrict access to mifepristone. If that happens, manufacturers will very likely sue the agency, kicking off separate litigation.

Relatedly, a federal judge in Virginia ordered the FDA to reconsider the remaining restrictions on mifepristone for being inconsistent with medical evidence. The judge ruled in July that, when updating the drug’s label in 2023, the FDA didn’t sufficiently justify its regulations, like requiring pharmacies and clinicians to be certified to dispense mifepristone. A judge in Hawaii came to the same conclusion last year in a separate lawsuit. The FDA claims that the dueling lawsuits—three saying the agency went too far and two saying it didn’t do enough—were a reason to conduct its unnecessary “review” of mifepristone. So, it’s safe to say that abortion pills will be back at the Supreme Court in the months ahead.

Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services abruptly canceled more than half of existing four-year grants meant to improve the health of minority groups. Sixteen grantees of the Office of Minority Health were informed that their programs wouldn’t receive the final two years of funding because they didn’t focus on the administration’s priorities, including “reducing overmedicalization in health care by addressing the root causes of infertility,” which the agency said included endometriosis, uterine fibroids, low sperm count, low testosterone levels, and erectile dysfunction. The letters also said grants should support programs promoting “regular physical activity and exercise.” The administration told grantees working on maternal and infant health that while these are “important issues,” their work “does not advance minority health with regards to OMH’s current priority areas.” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., tried to eliminate the office entirely last year, but Congress didn’t approve his proposal.

The Trump administration is drafting a new rule that would make married couples with a stay-at-home parent eligible for childcare subsidies—but the money would come from a program meant to help working parents. The HHS program was created in the 90s to help low-income parents afford childcare so they could work or go to school, and it amounts to about $9,000 a year per child. It disproportionately helps single moms, according to the New York Times: "About 80 percent of the 870,000 families who currently get the child care subsidies have single working parents, most of them mothers." If stay-at-home parents who are married can collect from the same pot of funding, it could redirect money away from childcare providers, causing them to raise prices or close their doors. The draft rule hasn’t yet been posted online for public comment and could only take effect once finalized. This policy is apparently championed by Vice President JD Vance, who will very likely run for president in 2028 and threw a hissy fit over universal childcare proposals. But not all conservatives like it: even a fellow at the far-right Ethics and Public Policy Center said it’s a bad idea to increase eligibility without increasing funding.

A federal judge in Idaho ruled that the state’s abortion ban is unconstitutional because it lacks exceptions to protect the health—including mental health—of the pregnant person. Following a request from Attorney General Raúl Labrador, the judge narrowed his own ruling so that it only applied to Dr. Stacy Seyb, the maternal-fetal medicine specialist who filed the lawsuit. Now, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has put even that narrow ruling on hold, meaning that Idaho’s abortion ban, which has an exception only to save a pregnant person’s life, is fully back in effect. As we’ve said before, this case is almost certain to reach the Supreme Court eventually.

State news

A new study finds that Indiana’s total abortion ban has had a chilling effect on emergency care for pregnant people, making emergency room physicians less likely to treat them immediately for complications like bleeding and more likely to call in OBGYNs who know more about the ban and its limited exceptions. On Thursday, the Indiana Supreme Court will hear arguments in a lawsuit challenging enforcement of the ban against residents with sincere religious objections to the ban. A group called Hoosier Jews for Choice and two anonymous women sued the state in 2022, arguing that its abortion ban violates Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act because their faiths permit or even require abortion in cases broader than the ban allows. A lower court judge sided with them in March, but the state appealed the ruling.

The latest challenge to South Carolina’s six-week abortion ban will get a bench trial before a federal judge. In the case, doctors argue that the ban’s two exceptions—to prevent death or serious injury to the pregnant person, or in cases of fatal fetal anomalies—are too vague for them to reasonably follow. The state, of course, disagrees. In deciding to move forward to trial, the judge also cleared the way for more doctors to testify as expert witnesses, something the state had attempted to block.

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Anti-abortion groups in Massachusetts are trying to gather enough signatures to get a measure on the 2028 ballot that would reverse the state’s adoption of a new law that removed restrictions on abortions after 24 weeks. This is thanks to a specific process in the state that allows voters to repeal or uphold new laws. If campaigners get enough signatures, they can even stop the law from taking effect until after a 2028 vote, rather than this November. Governor Maura Healey can ensure the law goes into effect by adding an “emergency preamble” to its text. She has done so before, with a gun control law, but hasn’t yet said whether she’ll do so here.

It’s been decades since any freestanding birth centers operated in Kentucky. But thanks to a major advocacy effort and a new law passed last year, birth center regulations have been updated, clearing the way for more and better options in a state with higher-than-average rates of preterm birth and pregnancy-related death.

In New York, Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood will open a new health center in Saratoga County, just north of the state capital, Albany. Currently, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York—a different affiliate—offers care in Saratoga just one day per week. They will continue to do so until UHPP opens its new clinic in early 2028. Meanwhile, in New York City, advocates are calling on the city to offer medication abortion at all six of its sexual health clinics. Currently, only four provide abortion pills. One of the locations that doesn’t is in Chelsea. NYC for Abortion Rights points out that this is the only city-run sexual health clinic in Manhattan south of 125th Street, and adding abortion services there could help fill in the gap left by the closure of Planned Parenthood’s iconic Bleecker Street location.

The Texas Medical Board has revoked the license of an orthopedic surgeon who allegedly had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a patient and then prescribed her an “abortive.” He had been in trouble previously for operating on the incorrect knee of a different patient and then trying to cover up his mistake. It’s not clear what, exactly, he prescribed, or whether he’ll face any additional criminal or civil penalties.

Elections

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway spent $167,000 in state funds on anti-abortion TV and radio ads ahead of the November election, in which Missourians will vote on the deceptive ballot measure that would repeal the reproductive freedom constitutional amendment they adopted just two years ago. The ad misleadingly suggests that abortions are not being done safely because unnecessary restrictions were blocked and was developed with help from the American Association of Pro-Life OB-GYNs. Abortion rights groups have also debuted their first ad emphasizing that Amendment 3 would ban abortion, and urging Missourians to vote no.

In Idaho, Attorney General Raúl Labrador issued guidance saying that churches can spend money to support or oppose ballot initiatives without disclosing their donors, creating yet another route for dark money to flow into politics. This is, of course, because of the upcoming ballot measure in which Idaho voters will decide whether to legalize abortion until fetal viability. In better news, the nonprofit leading the campaign for the abortion rights initiative, which is called Proposition 1, won its challenge to the state’s misleading ballot summaries. The Idaho Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the state must rewrite them. In perhaps the worst news of all, creeps are betting on the outcome of the vote on Polymarket.

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Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic candidate for governor in Texas, released an ad in which she tells the story of choosing to continue a nonviable pregnancy more than 20 years ago. Her daughter died shortly after birth. The ad frames her love for her daughter as a reason she fights so hard for Texas families, but makes no mention that Texas’ overlapping abortion bans would force others in the same position to give birth, too. The lack of reference to abortion appears to be intentional: the campaign told Texas Monthly that, in testing, the ad moved voters toward Hinojosa by more than five points across demographics, including conservative ones. However, Hinojosa has shared her story in other ways with an explicit pro-choice message. Speaking on CNN, Hinojosa said “it’s going to take more than one election to change these very extreme abortion bans in Texas. I think where we can start, I think where there is bipartisan support, is to do away with the 99 years imprisonment that doctors face” that makes them “afraid to touch women and women are having to wait until they’re at death’s door and women are dying in Texas because of it.” Hinojosa is in a surprisingly tight race with Governor Greg Abbott.

First Amendment watch

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman filed a lawsuit against abortion pill information nonprofit Mayday Health, claiming it broke the law by running advertisements telling Kentuckians they can access mifepristone online despite a state ban. One of the ads was a banner flown over the Kentucky State Fair. Coleman argues that such advertisements violate the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act because they “constitute speech that is integral to criminal conduct,” while Mayday counters that it has a free speech right to share information about abortion pills. This lawsuit comes amid similar legal threats against informational campaigns in multiple states.

Assaults on queer people

The Trump Department of Justice announced it reached a deal with Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, in which Sinai will stop providing youth gender-affirming care in order to end a federal investigation into its gender medicine practices. This is similar to deals the administration previously announced with other hospitals, including Texas Children’s Hospital and Cleveland Clinic. It was an odd time to capitulate, given that a federal appeals court just ruled that the Trump administration can’t force New York hospitals to produce patient records.

In addition to its report calling gender-affirming care providers “wolves in white coats,” HHS also released a report linking “gender ideology” to political violence, based on a study experts say is deeply flawed. One researcher told the Guardian that it’s “probably the most obviously political study that I’ve come across.”

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The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission reached a settlement with the Christian Employers Alliance that blocks the agency from ever investigating alliance members for discriminating against employees based on gender identity. The settlement protects not only the organization’s more than 20,000 members, but any future members as well.

The DOJ is also suing a Kansas City, Kansas school district over its trans inclusion policies, specifically one that allows some kids to socially transition at school without their parents being informed. The school policy isn’t even a blanket one—it says school administrators should discuss gender transitions with a student and their parent or guardian, and that if a student asks the school not to involve their parents, the request will be evaluated on a “case-by-case basis.” The suit mirrors several that have been filed by far-right law firms like Alliance Defending Freedom, representing conservative parent groups. But now, the federal government is leading the charge, meaning the school district stands to lose nearly $70 million in federal funds.

Extremism

Protests, harassment, and other threatening behavior have been on the rise at some Colorado abortion clinics recently, including the all-trimester clinic RISE Collective in Boulder, and the Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs that was the site of a mass shooting in 2015. Most recently, Operation Rescue, one of the groups linked to mass clinic blockades in the 1990s, as well as harassment campaigns that incited violence against abortion providers—including murder—joined other groups to picket outside RISE Collective and Planned Parenthood locations in Denver and Fort Collins. Also present were members of the Colorado chapter of the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs.

Quick hits

ProPublica: “His Research on Pregnant Opioid Users Was Widely Celebrated. Auditors and Experts Found Major Flaws.”
After a New York City woman was forced to give birth in open court, the city council introduced bills that would impose new requirements for the police treatment of pregnant New Yorkers.
How the conservative movement is turning anti-trans female athletes into “well-compensated culture-war assets,”—and the right-wing oil fortune behind the creepy athletic wear brand leading the charge for trans sports bans.