For too long, the United States has treated poverty as a problem to manage rather than a system to redesign. Here are ways the nonprofit sector can lean in to support economic mobility for families—particularly single mothers and their children. This shift is essential to our collective wellbeing.
They are taking on debt, cutting back on personal medical care, delaying rent payments and skipping meals so their kids can eat. Federal cuts are poised to make things worse.
As Republicans create ever higher barriers to abortion that push abortion seekers later into pregnancy, U.S.-based activists are learning from Latin American feminists who have developed protocols to make second-trimester medication abortion easier and safer.
The post Latin American Feminists Train U.S.-Based Doulas on New Mifepristone Protocol for Second-Trimester Abortions appeared first on…
The device may have already saved a life.
The Trump administration’s obsession with diversity, equity and inclusion has moved far beyond rhetoric. It is now reshaping how women’s stories get told, whose health crises are allowed to be named, and what kinds of research are permitted to survive.
Across history, healthcare and science, women are watching decades of hard-fought progress become collateral damage in a culture war designed to…
Why does the federal Momnibus now only say 'Black' one time? The answer depends on who you ask.
This piece was copublished with The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics policy and power. The word “Black” has been almost completely removed from a package of bills that have long been viewed as Congress’ main legislative vehicle to address the Black maternal health crisis, frustrating some advocates who feel Black women are […]
The post The Word ‘Black’ Has Disappeared…
A report on The Neighborhood Birth Center in Boston as they get ready to break ground on a physical facility, making good on their promise to birthing people and the communities that support them.
Tennessee was supposed to face nine women in court on April 27 in a closely watched trial over the state’s abortion ban—women who say they were denied emergency care, forced to flee the state for abortions, or pushed to the brink of death after suffering catastrophic pregnancy complications. After waiting nearly three years to testify publicly about what happened to them, the plaintiffs were…
When the shots rang out at the Washington Hilton, it had not even been a week since the nation mourned the eight children shot dead in Shreveport, La., seven of whom were the gunman’s own. Two women, including his wife, were also shot but survived; another child jumped off a roof to escape the shooting.
More than just about anywhere else in the country, American classrooms have become ground…
Title X is the federal program that funds family planning and reproductive health services nationwide—and under President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for 2027, it would be effectively eliminated, reshaping access to care for women across the country.
What is perhaps most jarring, on close reading, is not only what the budget proposes, but how it speaks. The language throughout the…
The Emmy award-winning medical drama _The Pitt_ closed its second season with a storyline about a parient with preeclampsia, a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy most identified through high blood pressure and protein in urine.
As the patient’s condition worsens, including a horrible seizure leaving her nonverbal and her baby at risk, she is diagnosed with eclampsia and hemolysis, elevated liver…
For the first time since Texas criminalized abortion, the state’s medical regulator has instructed doctors on when they can legally terminate a pregnancy to protect the life of the patient—guidance physicians long sought as women died and doctors feared imprisonment for intervening.
The new training from the Texas Medical Board was released nearly five years after the state passed its strict…
Most pregnancy-related deaths in the United States are preventable. What we are witnessing is not inevitability. It is failure in policy design, implementation, and accountability.
What might happen across our country if those working to make life better for our neighbors embraced the politics of loving kindness? What if we were explicit about caring for all people, more than corporations or profit?
One clinic in Miami-Dade County, Florida, offers free midwifery care directly to majority-Black and Latino neighborhoods.
Some conservative policymakers and analysts have tried to use proposals like “Trump accounts” and medals for motherhood to frame the administration's agenda as “pro-family." But in reality, that framing is centered on an overly narrow definition of family: a married husband and wife, with the wife ideally staying home to care for children. (Some conservatives have also long touted the idea that…
When it comes to the menopause and perimenopause landscape, many women are left navigating symptoms without clear, trustworthy information.
This conversation aims to change that—offering evidence-based insights, practical guidance and a broader look at the systemic reforms needed to improve menopause care.
The post Symptoms, Hormones and the Fight for Better Care: What Every Woman Should Know…
Excerpted from _Stuck: How Money, Media and Violence Prevent Change in Congress_ by Maya L. Kornberg (published March 10):
Black women are about three times as likely as white women to die of pregnancy-related health conditions.
One of the Black mothers to die tragically was Shalon Irving, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.)'s friend. Irving was a successful scientist, who had befriended Underwood…
In every issue of _Ms._ , we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.
This week:
—Dolores Huerta breaks her silence at 96: “I have never identified myself as a victim, but I now understand that I am a…
Here's what I know as an OB-GYN: Any book about birth that ignores abortion access isn't just incomplete—it's dangerous.
I also know that any person researching birth plans needs to know how state laws could limit their care during a pregnancy complication, even if they never imagined needing an abortion. Even if they self-identify as being staunchly antiabortion.
This is precisely why I talk…
In the final days of 2025, under the cover of the holidays, Trump’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) instated a total ban on abortion and abortion counseling.
The new policy applies to all VA healthcare facilities across the U.S., including in states where abortion remains legal. As a result, the VA now has “one of the strictest abortion bans in the country," according to the Center for…
The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to healthcare. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of…
The South Texas’ Family Residential Center, an immigration detention facility in Dilley, Tex., has been the subject of an onslaught of headlines in recent weeks. National protests followed the horrifying seizure of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, the boy with a blue bunny hat and Spiderman backpack, who was sent there from Minnesota with his father last month. (Officials later released them.) By…
ICE intimidation not only endangers maternal and neonatal health but also constitutes a form of obstetric violence.
As I write this, I’m in my third trimester, anxious and excited for my daughter’s arrival, which feels imminent.
Yes, it’s an extremely dark time, but that’s not exactly a historical outlier. People have been making babies throughout the worst of them. And nothing motivates me more to build a better future for all of us than this little girl—who, like every child, deserves safety, stability,…
Tierra Walker was just 37 years old when her son JJ, 14, found her lying facedown and unresponsive on her bed. As he desperately called 911, he cried, “I need you, I need you,” and tried his best to bring her back to life with CPR, following the instructions of the emergency operator. It was too late. He lost his mother and best friend on his birthday.
Walker died at 20 weeks pregnant after…
Midwifery predates the medical model of healthcare. In the earliest documentation of humans providing healing caregiving, midwives have been consistently entrusted with this honor and responsibility for our communities, villages and tribes. From “the womb to the tomb,” meant not only the birthing community but also supporting those moving from their reproductive years to the other side:…
2025 was a year marked by attacks on reproductive freedom, including a staggering wave of forced Planned Parenthood closures. About 50 of Planned Parenthood’s 600 locations have shut down as of December, largely due to last year’s combined loss of Title X funds and Medicaid reimbursements.
In the midst of these closures, independent abortion clinics continue to play a crucial role in the…