A lawsuit has been filed against Pfizer relating to Depo-Provera, formally known as depot medroxyprogesterone acetate, a progesterone-based birth control injection you receive once every three months. The lead plaintiff, Robin Phillip, who used the shot for nearly 30 years, is a survivor of intracranial meningioma—a tumor in the lining of the brain. Phillip only […]
New Taliban Rule in Afghanistan: No Burqa, No Healthcare for Afghan Women
On November 5, 2025, in Herat, Afghanistan, the Taliban imposed a new edict requiring women to wear a burqa before entering public hospitals. Women patients, visitors, and even medical staff must now wear a burqa to be allowed inside any public healthcare facility. A burqa is a full-body covering that leaves only a small mesh […]
FDA Removes Black Box Warning from Menopause Hormone Therapies
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has removed its boxed warning from more than twenty hormone-based therapies used to treat menopause symptoms, marking a major change in how the agency regulates these medications. The FDA’s update applies to products that deliver estrogen or estrogen-progestin combinations through pills, patches, gels, or sprays. The boxed warning, also […]
Australia Solves the Preterm Birth Crisis: The Prevention Program the US Needs to Adopt
Australia’s nationwide preterm birth prevention program is a medical success and one the United States could learn from. A “preterm birth” is defined as a baby born before 37 weeks, and is the single greatest cause of death and long-term disabilities in children under 5. Australia’s new initiative is the first of its kind across the […]
Taliban Claim To “Protect” Women, yet Bar Them From Seeing Male Doctors and Pursuing Medical Training
Maternal mortality in Afghanistan has reached a dire point, a result of a web of interconnected crises. The return of the Taliban and subsequent international aid cuts have created a healthcare collapse where women are the primary victims. Each factor reinforces the other, leaving Afghan women without care and providers. Countless Afghan women and children […]
The Rise of the MAHA Movement and Implications for Women
The “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement has exploded in recent years, blending wellness culture, political populism, and deep distrust of mainstream medicine. Under current federal leadership, MAHA is reshaping health policy. But behind its promises of empowerment and clean living lies a troubling pattern: shifting responsibility onto women, amplifying shaky science, and ignoring systemic […]
Mississippi Declares Public Health Emergency as Infant Mortality Soars
Mississippi has declared a public health emergency in response to an alarming surge in infant mortality, a crisis that now claims nearly 10 infants per 1,000 live births in the state, almost double the national average. The declaration marks the first time the state has used its emergency powers to address maternal and infant health, […]
How AI is Fueling a New Wave of Environmental Racism
With the rapid expansion of data centers driven by artificial intelligence, the tech economy is repeating historical patterns of environmental racism. Once again, marginalized communities are left to bear the costs of America’s “progress.” Civil rights leader Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. defines environmental racism as the deliberate targeting of predominantly BIPOC and low-income communities […]
Policy Shift at the VA Raises Concerns About Discrimination and Access to Healthcare
The Department of Veterans Affairs has made a quiet but significant change to its hospital bylaws, removing language that explicitly protected patients from being denied care on the basis of political affiliation, marital status, and other personal traits. The change came in response to a January 2025 executive order issued by President Trump, titled “Defending […]
Public Health Experts Alarmed by CDC Advisory Committee Overhaul
On June 9, 2025, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the independent panel responsible for making evidence-based vaccine recommendations in the United States. Kennedy cited concerns over “conflicts of interest” and a need to restore public confidence in vaccine […]
The Maternal Mental Health Crisis: How America Is Failing Its Mothers
Maternal health crises often make headlines, but behind the statistics on mortality and physical complications lies another quiet epidemic: the mental health of new mothers. And it’s getting worse. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the number of mothers experiencing poor mental health has increased over 60% since 2016. In recent […]
Southern California Fertility Clinic Bombing Highlights Ongoing Threats to Repro Healthcare Providers
“Our mission has always been to help build families, and in times like these, we are reminded of just how fragile and precious life is,” the American Reproductive Centers (ARC) Fertility clinic, located in Palm Springs, California, wrote in response to the recent bombing attack they faced. No members of the clinic were injured, nor […]
Cuts to Women’s Health Initiative Jeopardize Lifesaving Research
On April 21, Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) investigators were informed that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will terminate WHI Regional Center (RC) contracts at the end of the current fiscal year, in September 2025. The Women’s Health Initiative is a landmark long-term national health study, launched by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood […]
Manufactured Motherhood: Trump’s Pronatalism Agenda and the Erosion of Reproductive Rights
As the Trump administration moves into its second term, a new cultural agenda has emerged: one focused on reversing the country’s declining birthrate through a series of pronatalist policies. Behind the scenes, the White House has been entertaining proposals ranging from cash “baby bonuses” to government-funded fertility education programs. Though framed as efforts to support […]
Nearly Four Years of Taliban Assault on Afghan Women’s Health Cost Lives
Afghanistan has seen a stark reversal in progress in all sectors of their society after the Taliban took over in 2021. However, one of the most deeply impacted sectors has been women’s health. Before 2021, there had been 20 years of growth in the health sector. Maternal mortality had decreased from 1,345 deaths/100,000 live births […]
RFK Jr.’s Confirmation as HHS Secretary: A Dangerous Setback for Public Health
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been confirmed as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services, a move that has alarmed public health experts, medical professionals, and advocates for evidence-based policy. With a 52-48 vote, Kennedy, who has a long history of promoting vaccine skepticism and conspiracy theories, will now oversee the nation’s largest public […]
IVM: An Advancement for Reproductive Health
Photo by Amr Taha™ on Unsplash Amid nationwide attacks on reproductive health and justice, a new fertility treatment provides hope to those trying to conceive. It’s called in vitro maturation (IVM), and it mirrors most of the procedures of in vitro fertilization (IVF), with one key difference: doctors collect immature eggs instead of mature ones. […]
Expanding Birth Control Access as the New Front in Reproductive Freedom
Photo by Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition The Biden-Harris administration’s proposed rule to expand access to affordable contraception under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a timely and essential move, especially in the current political landscape where reproductive rights have been systematically eroded. This proposal would provide over-the-counter birth control without any cost sharing for women with […]
The Criminalization of Pregnancy
Photo by freestocks The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022 has profoundly influenced how pregnancy is viewed in the United States, leading to an increase in the criminalization of pregnancy-related behaviors. Pregnancy Justice released their September 2024 report “Pregnancy As a Crime: A Preliminary Report on the First Year After Dobbs” by Wendy Bach and Madalyn […]
Body Neutrality as a Form of Resistance
Photo by Fuu J In a world where diet culture pervades nearly every aspect of our lives, the emergence of body neutrality offers a refreshing perspective. Body neutrality emphasizes acceptance of our bodies for their functionality rather than their appearance, encouraging a focus on well-being instead of aesthetic ideals. Instead of the body positivity approach saying, […]