In many areas of the South and Midwest, abortion clinics are often the only place low-income, uninsured people can go to get reproductive care, including birth control and HIV, prenatal and gender-affirming care. Now many of those clinics are set to close.
In the legal chaos following the fall of Roe v. Wade, clinics in Texas, Louisiana and Utah have resumed offering services while courts weigh the legality of those bans. Now, clinics are trying to provide as much care as they can.
In this post-Roe reality, states where abortion access is still legal serve as critical access points. Clinics now must figure out how to serve the deluge of patients soon to be coming their way as more and more states limit or ban access in the coming weeks and months.
In states with “trigger” laws, abortion services came to a halt on Friday morning as news rippled through clinic lobbies and patients, whose appointments were minutes outside of the window to receive care, had to be turned away.
The PUMP Act failed to pass the Senate Wednesday afternoon. Senators are now eyeing another bill, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which would also expand breastfeeding protections for workers and appears poised to pass soon.
Following reports of parents being harassed, breast milk being spoiled and breast pumps being destroyed by TSA agents, 14 Democratic senators are calling on the agency to address its uneven implementation of policies for nursing parents.
Addressing the shortages means overcoming not just disregard for people’s needs, but also the discomfort many Americans feel discussing menstruation and other issues affecting women and marginalized groups.
Sen. Maggie Hassan sent a letter to tampon manufacturers Monday seeking answers after reports of empty shelves started circulating last week. She wants tampons to be treated as an essential good.
States have tried to pass abortion restrictions that define life starting at fertilization, something fertility doctors worry will impact the future — and the cost — of IVF in the United States.
Women of color took on the majority of new jobs created during the pandemic to do contact tracing, and to test and vaccinate Americans, experts said. But as sites ramp down, the future of that workforce is now uncertain.