Table of Contents
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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On Autonomy News
For the second time since the start of the year, Kentucky prosecutors have charged a woman with homicide after a pregnancy loss. A woman and her husband were arrested last Monday related to a miscarriage from 2024, while a different woman was charged in January following an alleged self-managed abortion. Both women were criminalized after seeking medical care and face additional charges related to their handling of fetal remains. The group Pregnancy Justice has found that law enforcement weaponizes laws like “abuse of a corpse” to criminalize pregnant people. (Share this story on Instagram, Bluesky, or TikTok.)
Susan Rinkunas
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Federal news
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley is angry at Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, who he says refused to give a timeline for the “safety” review of the abortion medication mifepristone in a recent meeting. According to Hawley, Makary even declined to explain how the agency will conduct its safety study, or even confirm that the review is underway. Hawley told Politico he thinks the study is “at a dead end” and said that “Congress now needs to get involved,” by trying to pass restrictions. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) also told Politico the FDA’s slow pace was “disappointing.” Clearly, Congressional Republicans are frustrated with Trump’s choice to avoid abortion-related headlines ahead of the midterm elections, but it remains to be seen whether there are enough of them to try to force his hand.
Relatedly, ahead of a hearing next week in a lawsuit Louisiana filed against the FDA over abortion pills, Republican Attorneys General from 21 states asked the judge to end telehealth prescriptions of mifepristone nationwide. The states, led by Nebraska, claim that FDA rules mean they can't enforce their bans or restrictions. Voters in three of these states have passed constitutional amendments protecting abortion rights: Missouri, Montana, and Ohio. Another “friend of the court” brief from 60 members of Congress—including 20 Senators and 40 Representatives—argues that telehealth abortions are unsafe and that mailing pills violates the federal Comstock Act, an anti-obscenity statute that conservatives misread as an abortion ban. (The size of that group is a far cry from the 145 GOP lawmakers who asked the Supreme Court to end telehealth prescriptions in a previous lawsuit.) Representing Louisiana is Christian nationalist law firm Alliance Defending Freedom with lead attorney Erin Hawley, wife of Josh Hawley. Trump-appointed Judge David Joseph will hold the hearing on Tuesday, February 24.
The Trump administration is sending pregnant migrant girls to a single group shelter in South Texas that doesn’t have the ability to give them the care they need, according to sources from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). More than a dozen unaccompanied pregnant minors have been sent to the shelter since July, some as young as 13 and more than half pregnant as a result of rape. This is an official policy, per an internal email obtained by reporters. Unaccompanied, pregnant migrant children would normally be placed in specialized ORR shelters or foster homes equipped to handle their medical needs. Government sources believe the administration is placing these children in the Texas shelter for one reason: to deny them access to abortion by moving them to a state where it’s illegal. “This is 100% and exclusively about abortion,” said Jonathan White, a former ORR official, who pointed out that the Trump administration tried to ban abortion for unaccompanied minors in federal immigration custody in 2017, a move that was blocked in federal court. “Now they casually roll out what they brutally fought to accomplish last time and didn't,” White said.
The Trump administration is incarcerating migrant girls in, essentially, a forced pregnancy camp.
— Andrea Grimes (@andreagrimes.com) 2026-02-12T16:30:04.776Z
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood clinics in Minnesota have seen their no-show rate increase by 8.2 percent since December 1, a fact medical providers attribute to the prolonged Immigration and Customs Enforcement assault on Minneapolis.
A federal judge in Idaho has ruled that a lawsuit brought by a doctor, Stacy Seyb, and the state medical board, can go to trial. The suit argues that Idaho’s abortion ban violates the U.S. Constitution by outlawing medically necessary abortions. Attorney General Raúl Labrador had intervened in the case in an attempt to get it dismissed.
State news
The West Virginia Senate passed Senate Bill 173, which would ban sending abortion pills by mail to people in the state. A non-medical professional who mails pills would face felony charges punishable by three to 10 years in prison, while a medical professional would lose their license. The bill has an exception for doctors providing pills for a “legitimate medical reason” if it results in the “the accidental or unintentional physical injury to or death of the unborn child.” But that makes little sense given that these medications are only prescribed to pregnant people for abortion or miscarriage care, or to induce labor, and the latter is not a situation where the drugs would be provided by mail. The bill now heads to the House for consideration.
Lawmakers in Iowa—where abortion is banned after six weeks—are considering two abortion-related bills. A Senate subcommittee advanced one last week that would require abortion medications to be dispensed in person, in an attempt to block prescriptions from out-of-state clinicians. The bill, Senate Study Bill 3115, would also allow certain people related or connected to the person who had a medication abortion to sue the prescriber for at least $50,000. Tomorrow morning, a House subcommittee will hold a hearing for the first time ever on a total abortion ban. House File 2332 would make performing an abortion at any stage of pregnancy a class A felony punishable by life in prison. (A different proposal for a total ban would classify abortion as homicide and allow murder prosecutions of people who have abortions, but that bill has yet to advance.)
In Mississippi, lawmakers added abortion-inducing medications to an anti-drug trafficking bill. The amendment succeeded despite vocal opposition from House members who opposed it. Republican Rep. Celeste Hurst, who introduced the amendment, said it was designed so “that creating, distributing, dispensing, prescribing, or possessing with intent, is treated like other illegal drug content with a clear penalty.” She also made the confusing claim that her amendment was intended to protect people who need abortion pills to help treat miscarriages, citing the common anti-abortion talking point that the ability to access these drugs by ordering them online is dangerous. Someone should tell her that abortion bans make it more difficult to access miscarriage care.
A New Hampshire bill would require providers at state-funded health centers who refer patients for abortion care to also refer them to an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center. HB 1769 is still in committee in the House, and doesn’t appear to have much support in the Senate. Another bill, HB 1313, which was heard by the House Judiciary Committee last week, would repeal the state’s 25-foot “buffer zone” around reproductive health facilities, which has been in place since 2014. On the protective side, a Senate committee is currently considering SB 551, a proposed “shield” law that protects providers who prescribe abortion pills and contraceptives across state lines—New Hampshire is the only New England state without one.
Anti-abortion advocates were at the Ohio statehouse last week to advocate for Senate Bill 309, model legislation from the National Right to Life Committee known as the Abortion Pill Provider Liability Education (APPLE) Act. The bill would require doctors to give patients a state-written disclaimer telling them that they have a right to sue abortion providers and/or manufacturers of abortion pills if they experience any negative outcomes they weren’t warned about. It’s a naked attempt to try to scare clinicians out of prescribing the medications in a state where abortion is still legal.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that provides an additional $90 million in emergency funds to Planned Parenthood affiliates in the state in response to a federal budget law that cuts them off from Medicaid reimbursements. The one-year “defund” law threatens Planned Parenthood clinics across the country, including more than 100 in California. Newsom previously allocated $140 million in state funds in October to help keep clinics open through the end of 2025.
Virginia Democrats defeated a bill that would have required abortion providers to inform people seeking abortions about “safe haven provisions” to relinquish newborns, including so-called baby boxes. A House of Delegates subcommittee voted 7-1 to block the bill from advancing for the rest of the legislative session.
In Wyoming, a bill that would have put an anti-abortion referendum on the ballot failed to muster enough support to be introduced in the Senate. It was an attempt to reverse the state Supreme Court’s recent decision to permanently overturn two abortion bans—a ruling based on a constitutional amendment guaranteeing each adult a right to healthcare access. The proposed amendment would have granted the legislature the ability to define “healthcare.” Many lawmakers felt this was simply too broad, which means it’s not out of the question that a narrower proposal could succeed in the future. Wyoming’s Freedom Caucus, the farthest-right group of legislators, is making anti-abortion legislation a priority in this session, including a “heartbeat” bill that would ban abortion around six weeks of pregnancy, even though such a law would obviously be in conflict with the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the state constitution.
Personhood watch
Child welfare agencies in 21 states referred at least 70,000 pregnant people to law enforcement related to allegations of substance use during a six-year period, according to The Marshall Project. Hospitals routinely drug test newborns and their birth parents, often without their consent or knowledge. Many referrals began with false positives, including from prescribed medications—like fentanyl in an epidural or prescribed medical marijuana—while some positive tests resulted from legal CBD products. Pregnant people who are addicted to drugs need treatment, not criminalization, which is not effective at reducing substance use.
The Governor of Puerto Rico, Jenniffer González, signed a bill to recognize a fetus as a human being in the penal code section that defines murder. Abortion is legal in the US territory, but medical and legal experts worry that Senate Bill 923 could affect the healthcare patients receive if they’re pregnant—or could be pregnant. As Dr. Carlos Díaz Vélez, president of Puerto Rico’s College of Medical Surgeons told the Associated Press, “this will bring complex clinical decisions into the realm of criminal law.”
First Amendment watch
A New York federal judge declined to intervene in a lawsuit that reproductive health information nonprofit Mayday Health filed against South Dakota’s Attorney General for trying to halt its advertising campaign. As we’ve covered previously, New York-based Mayday ran gas station ads in South Dakota that read “Pregnant? Don’t want to be? Learn more at Mayday.Health.” The Mayday site then links to abortion pill providers. AG Marty Jackley sent Mayday a cease-and-desist letter in December, then asked a judge to block the campaign. Mayday countersued in New York. While Judge Katherine Polk Failla temporarily blocked Jackley from taking down the ads last month, she said on Wednesday that she would not grant a more durable preliminary injunction. “I do believe that the law requires me to abstain from exercising federal jurisdiction in this case,” Polk Failla said. “I trust that the South Dakota court will get it right.” The state court hearing is set for this Friday, February 20.
Assaults on queer people
Department of Health and Human Services General Counsel Mike Stuart announced in an X post last week that his office has directed the HHS Inspector General to investigate several federally qualified health centers that provide gender-affirming care. The clinics include New York City’s storied Callen-Lorde; the Institute for Family Health, also in New York; Los Angeles LGBT Center; and Whitman-Walker Health in Washington, D.C. In his announcement, Stuart referenced the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ recent adoption of the position that gender-affirming surgeries should be deferred until age 19, and the American Medical Association’s apparent support of that position.
However, claims that the American Medical Association supports new limits on gender-affirming care stem from a sloppy New York Times report. That story featured a quote attributed to the AMA that said, “In the absence of clear evidence, the AMA agrees with ASPS that surgical interventions in minors should be generally deferred to adulthood.” However, the quote wasn’t attributed to a specific person, there are no statements on the AMA’s website to this effect, and the organization’s voting membership has consistently taken strong positions in favor of access to gender-affirming care. Later statements from the AMA appear to contradict the quote given to the Times, so it’s not clear whether or not the organization’s official stance has actually changed. Gender-affirming surgeries in adolescents are exceedingly rare to begin with and typically only offered on a case-by-case basis.
The Nevada chapter of National Organization for Women is suing to keep a measure that would bar transgender girls from participating in school sports off the 2026 ballot. The group argues that the initiative’s description is “deceptive, misleading, and fails to explain the ramifications of the proposed amendment to allow voters to make an informed decision.”
“Parental rights” groups are asking the Supreme Court to resurrect a dismissed federal lawsuit regarding a Florida school district policy that allowed school officials to help a child socially transition at school by using a different name and pronouns without outing them to their parents. The policy was invalidated by “parental rights” bills signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2021 and 2022, but two parents argue the school district should still face consequences for their child’s alleged “secret” transition when the policy was in effect six years ago. Alliance Defending Freedom filed a “friend of the court” brief urging the Court to take up the case. The case has been distributed for conference several times in recent weeks, meaning the justices are actively deciding whether or not to take it up. Preventing kids from socially transitioning is clearly a priority of ADF’s at the moment; one of their attorneys recently testified in favor of a proposed social transition ban in Missouri.
South Carolina lawmakers are consdering legislation that would limit the circumstances in which people can modify their birth certificates, restricting changes to cases of clerical errors or situations where someone’s sex couldn’t be identified at birth. This would invalidate current policies that allow trans people to modify their identity documents.
In 2003, Texas Republicans backed changes that made it much harder to file medical malpractice lawsuits, capping damages at $250,000 and requiring plaintiffs to file within two years. Now, they’re asking the state Supreme Court to make an exception to the two-year rule for just one group: So-called “detransitioners” who want to sue providers of gender-affirming care.
Quick hits
- Researchers know that abortion bans are linked to an increase in requests for telemedicine abortion, but a new paper found the increases were highest among young people ages 18 to 24 and adolescents ages 15 to 17 after the Dobbs decision. Young people face additional barriers to abortion care, including cost and laws requiring parental involvement. The JAMA Health Forum paper used data for one service, Aid Access, which is one of the few that serves minors.
- Research shows that abortion is safe and effective for people of all sizes. So why are so many clinics still imposing weight limits?
- The latest Epstein files drop reveals that Jeffrey Epstein was obsessed with eugenics—though he called it “genetic altruism.”
- In Brooklyn, a bus driver helped deliver a baby when one of his passengers went into labor on the bus.
Actual good news
The Philadelphia Midwives Collective, which delivered 70 babies and offered 300 medical appointments last year, will open a new birth center in 2027. This facility will help fill a significant gap, as Philly hasn’t had a freestanding birth center since 1989, and LifeCycle Wellness—one of the oldest birth centers in the country, located in nearby Bryn Mawr—will close in March.
Palate cleanser(s)
Give this cat a medal.
@jayjohnsonceramics Judges deducted points for excessive cat-itude! #olympics #cats #funny #winterolympics #figureskating ♬ original sound - Jay Johnson Ceramics
She doesn’t bite, she smites.
@mistymountainlegends Queen Bean strikes again. And again. And again. #ladypintobean #sworddog #funnydog #australianshepherd ♬ Mambo No. 5 - Pérez Prado
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