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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
Nevada voters passed Question 6, a constitutional amendment codifying the right to abortion until fetal viability. Yet despite the victory, Nevada remains the only U.S. state that explicitly criminalizes self-managed abortion. That's because the amendment didn't repeal a 1911 law that bans taking “any drug, medicine, or substance” with the intent to end a pregnancy after 24 weeks’ gestation. Lawmakers have an opportunity to repeal the century-old ban next session under a Democratic trifecta. (Share this story on Instagram, Bluesky, or TikTok.)
Susan Rinkunas
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Federal news
Federal lawsuits
For months, we’ve reported that the Trump administration seemed poised to crack down on access to abortion after the midterm elections. It only took a few days for that prediction to come true. Thanks to the “blue tsunami,” as of next year, Texas will no longer have statewide officials who actively attack abortion access—a huge shift. The message from the Trump Department of Justice: Don’t worry, we’ll do it for you. On Friday, DOJ attorneys signaled their intent to intervene in the shady lawsuit that has the potential to bankrupt Planned Parenthood. The case was filed by an anonymous plaintiff in 2021, who just so happened to choose the district of Trump-appointed and far-right favorite Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. It alleges that Planned Parenthood’s national organization and regional affiliates that then had clinics in Texas and Louisiana committed fraud by continuing to bill Medicaid while those states were trying to kick the provider out of their Medicaid networks.
Outgoing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton later joined the case on behalf of his state, a move his successor, Democrat Nathan Johnson, may try to reverse. Under the federal False Claims Act, private individuals are allowed to file complaints on behalf of the government, acting as whistleblowers. The “whistleblower” in this case was unmasked as David Daleiden, the anti-abortion extremist leader of Center for Medical Progress, which produced doctored videos purporting to show that Planned Parenthood profited from the sale of fetal tissue. The videos were referenced by a mass shooter who in 2015 killed three and injured nine at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs.
Last week, we reported that a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state of Idaho and against Dr. Stacy Seyb, who argued the state’s abortion ban violates the U.S. Constitution because it lacks an exception to protect patients’ health. In a very unusual move, one of the circuit judges has now asked for an en banc rehearing, meaning a hearing before a larger panel of judges; the court’s order doesn’t name the judge, as is standard. Typically, one of the parties in the case would need to make this request, and now they will both file briefs on whether to hold a rehearing. Idaho’s abortion ban has exceptions only to save a patient’s life, or for rape or incest in the first trimester and with a police report.
A federal court in New York held a hearing last week in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. James, a case in which anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers are fighting for their right to promote abortion pill “reversal,” an unproven and potentially dangerous treatment. In 2024, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued 11 CPCs, accusing them of spreading misinformation. NIFLA—a CPC umbrella organization—and a few of its individual members countersued, asking courts to allow them to continue promoting abortion pill “reversal” while the legal battle continues. So far, courts have sided with the CPCs. This is one of several cases in which the anti-abortion movement has turned Democratic AGs’ attempts to regulate CPCs against them. We expect that one or more of these cases will make their way to the Supreme Court. Representing NIFLA is Christian nationalist law firm Alliance Defending Freedom.
Other federal news
The political arm of anti-abortion group Students for Life is urging Republicans to “defund” Planned Parenthood for 10 years in a last-ditch effort before the party loses control of Congress. Donald Trump signed a 2025 bill that excluded large abortion providers from the Medicaid program for one year, and conservatives were enraged when the provision lapsed this summer. Now, Students for Life Action is targeting the final budget bill of 2026, and it’s also highlighting actions that federal agencies could take to eviscerate abortion access. The group released a new “roadmap to abolishing abortion” which calls on the Food and Drug Administration to restrict or even revoke approval of the abortion drug mifepristone and the DOJ to prosecute people who send mifepristone by mail under the 19th-century Comstock Act. They’re also calling for the Small Business Administration to ban Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funds under a process known as debarment.
South Carolina Representative Sheri Biggs introduced a bill that would require the packaging of mifepristone to include a “do not flush” label, similar to legislation regarding wet wipes. But this bill is based in anti-abortion disinformation that medication abortion is somehow polluting the water supply. The policy arm of far-right law firm Liberty Counsel took credit for helping draft the bill, HR 10954, which Biggs is outrageously calling the “Don’t Flush Babies Act.” A press release shows an artist’s rendering of a possible label that’s supposed to represent a 10-week fetus and a toilet. The fetus is not at all to scale, because at that gestation it would be the size of a strawberry. The only good news is that there’s almost no time to pass the bill this Congress, and next year it won’t have the votes to advance.
More infants are experiencing potentially life-threatening bleeding because their parents rejected a shot of vitamin K at birth that helps their blood clot. The American Academy of Pediatrics has for decades recommended that every newborn get the shot, which is not a vaccine. Two studies published in the journals JAMA and JAMA Pediatrics found that the rate of parents opting out of the shot has doubled in recent years and, as a result, cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding have more than doubled.
State news
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey finally added an emergency clause to the law repealing the state’s ban on abortion after 24 weeks, after anti-abortion activists announced they had gathered enough signatures to block it from going into effect. Healey’s intervention means the law will go into effect immediately, but it will still appear on the 2028 ballot for voters to either approve or overturn. Advocacy organization Reproductive Equity Now said it “is aware of at least nine Massachusetts patients who, since the bill was signed into law on August 10, have faced devastating pregnancy complications and needed abortion care that was not available to them.”
In Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered state agencies to immediately review “all policies, procedures, and practices governing the collection, maintenance, storage, and retention of records and data relating to an individual’s reproductive health.” The directive includes geolocation information, and requires agencies to revise policies as needed to better ensure data privacy. It defines reproductive health broadly to encompass contraception, all forms of pregnancy care including abortion and miscarriage management, infertility care, and more. Whitmer’s order expressly prohibits the sharing of this data with commercial interests or the federal government.
A woman who says she’s the ex-girlfriend of Luis Matos, a judge nominated by Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee to fill a vacancy on the state Supreme Court, wrote to lawmakers with concerns over his alleged anti-abortion views. She said she became pregnant while they were dating in the 90s, and that Matos urged her not to have an abortion, even sending graphic anecdotes about supposed abortions gone wrong. However, when she offered him the opportunity to parent the child as a single father, he said no. She ultimately had an abortion, and he allegedly went out clubbing that night. “I deeply question his judgement in making policy decisions for women at the state's highest court,” she wrote. Matos says he’s pro-choice and has been “for many years.”
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An Arkansas judge ruled that a lawsuit over the state’s abortion ban can move forward. The state asked to dismiss a case filed by Amplify Legal on behalf of six women who were denied abortions, claiming it’s immune from lawsuits. While the judge did dismiss Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the state of Arkansas as defendants, she said the case can proceed against the officials who enforce the bans, including Attorney General Tim Griffin and the State Medical Board.
Oklahoma officials asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed in September that challenges the state’s abortion bans, which only allow terminations to prevent death. The Center for Reproductive Rights argues that forcing pregnant people to carry nonviable pregnancies to term violates the state constitutional right to life and liberty.
A Kansas court will consider arguments on Tuesday about whether to hold a new trial on the constitutionality of a slew of abortion restrictions. A different court struck them down in August, but the state won’t take no for an answer. It has reportedly spent nearly $1 million defending these laws, even enlisting the help of—you guessed it—Alliance Defending Freedom.
Tennessee lawmakers have pre-filed two abortion-related bills. The first, sponsored by state Representative Gino Bulso, would allow people to file wrongful death lawsuits seeking $1 million in damages against anyone who sends medication abortion into the state, if that action results in a terminated pregnancy. A similar bill last year didn’t advance, but Bulso is hopeful. The second, from Representative Chris Todd, doesn’t specifically mention abortion, but it calls for the state to create a list of “endocrine-disrupting pharmaceuticals of concern” and to test water for them. The bill text says these drugs may interfere with fertility in wildlife and humans, mimicking language from the anti-abortion group Students for Life, which is leading the charge on wastewater testing bills.
Elections
Anti-abortion groups Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and Students for Life are unsurprisingly mad about the results of the midterm elections, and their leaders claimed ahead of time that Republicans didn’t campaign hard enough on abortion bans. SBA president Marjorie Dannenfelser told reporters that “the power of the issue has not been prevailed upon by the party in general.” SFL president Kristan Hawkins wrote in an op-ed that anti-abortion voters shouldn’t be blamed if Republicans lost control of Congress.
Democrat Nathan Johnson, who won the race for Texas Attorney General, says he will not sue out-of-state providers who prescribe abortion pills to Texans under the protection of “shield” laws, most of which also protect gender-affirming care. “I will not pursue the judicially absurd position that Texas law has extra territorial effect,” he said. “I can honor other states’ shield laws.” We’ll certainly be watching to see if Johnson drops the case against midwife Maria Rojas, who current AG Ken Paxton accused of violating the state’s abortion ban, ruining her life and livelihood in the process. Democrats also won control of the House and the Governor’s office, but the Republican-controlled Senate will likely prevent them from passing any bills to expand access. State Rep. Donna Howard pre-filed one anyway and that’s the energy needed right now. Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa could also make changes to state agencies that provide guidance for healthcare providers.
In Missouri, voters rejected a cynical attempt to use transphobia to trick them into banning abortion. Republicans say they’ll keep trying to restrict access.
Georgia Governor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms said she will push to repeal the state’s six-week abortion ban. Democrats did win control of the House, but Republicans kept control of the Senate, and have already indicated they plan to put up a big fight.
An attempt to amend the North Dakota constitution to require that citizen-led constitutional amendments win 60 percent of the vote failed by a large margin. The effort to implement the higher threshold was intended in part to head off the possibility of a future reproductive rights amendment. The same unusually high threshold tanked a 2024 attempt to restore a right to abortion until fetal viability in Florida.
Planned Parenthood Arizona is planning to double its staff with an eye to expanding its capacity in the southern part of the state by 2027. These plans are based on an expected repeal of the state’s Targeted Regulation of Abortion Provider (TRAP) laws since Democrats won majorities in both houses of the state legislature and maintained control of top state offices.
Personhood watch
Iowa prosecutors charged a woman with child endangerment and a prescription drug misdemeanor after she allegedly took medication abortion in December 2025 and put the fetus in her closet. The county attorney said he considered a homicide charge but did not pursue it because medical experts couldn’t determine if the fetus would have survived had she called 911 immediately. The woman reportedly ordered pills online and provided an inaccurate date for her last menstrual period.
Assaults on queer people
The blue tsunami left one vulnerable group behind: transgender people. Ballot measures banning trans kids from participating on sports teams that align with their gender identities succeeded in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, and Washington. These measures will harm trans kids as well as cisgender girls, who will now have to prove their sex in order to play sports in these states. Colorado voters also passed a ban on gender-affirming surgeries for people under age 18, even though not a single hospital in the state currently provides such surgeries. Confusingly, these cruel measures passed even as trans candidates won in several key races. This goes to show the power of mis- and disinformation: Faced with an actual transgender person, most voters have no problem. Faced with manufactured stories of theoretical harm, people buy into harmful false narratives and vote accordingly.
Seeing these anti-trans victories, a group seeking to get a similar trans sports ban on the ballot in Maine started gathering signatures again. They’re aiming for the 2027 ballot after falling short this year. Alliance Defending Freedom also announced its filing of a civil rights complaint on behalf of two athletes who allege the state is violating the anti-sex discrimination law Title IX by allowing trans athletes to play sports.
The Supreme Court heard arguments in a case where Catholic schools challenged anti-discrimination protections for Colorado’s universal preschool program. They want a religious freedom exemption from policies that say participating schools cannot refuse admission based on the sexual orientation or gender identity of the child or their parents. The Democratic-appointed justices noted that the schools are not asking for equal treatment, they are asking for special treatment—an exception to the statute. They also noted that if the parish were to win the case, it would embolden other religious groups to say that they should have access to state funding even if they discriminate against people on the basis of race or sex. The schools are represented by The Becket Fund, the conservative firm responsible for the Hobby Lobby decision on birth control coverage. This is one of the court’s biggest cases this term so a decision isn’t expected until next June.
Extremism
Bomb threats were called into two separate Planned Parenthood locations in Virginia last week. Police investigated, finding no explosive devices at either location. According to the National Abortion Federation, abortion clinics across the country faced a total of five bomb threats in 2025—but 81 total threats of harm.
Quick hits
- The National Network of Abortion Funds is still searching for a permanent executive director. Sources tell Autonomy News that Poonam Dreyfus-Pai, who served as interim executive director since the early 2025 ouster of previous leader Oriaku Njoku, has also departed the organization.
- A new study finds that teen girls and young women in the U.S. are “more likely to rely on unproven strategies such as prayer, exercise, and jumping up and down than they are on evidence-based methods” such as emergency contraception to prevent pregnancy after sex.
- “Abortion Laws Treat ‘Viability’ as a Bright Line. It Isn’t.”
Palate cleanser
A formidable opponent.
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