Abortion Access

Abortion is an essential healthcare service. Abortion access is varied across the world and throughout the United States due to anti-abortion legislation. Access is often dependent on social factors such as income, race, geographic region and citizenship status.

A Global Telehealth First: Women Help Women Begins Producing Abortion Pill Combipack

PUBLISHED 12/14/2025 by

The feminist telehealth provider Women Help Women is redesigning how abortion pills are packaged to reflect what users actually need: a combination pack that includes one mifepristone tablet and eight misoprostol tablets for use up to 12 weeks of pregnancy.

“It’s a huge revolution of who actually gets to decide when, how and with the support of whom they can have an abortion and until when,” said Women Help Women coexecutive director Kinga Jelinska. “It centers the needs of users rather than institutions or markets. The underlying notion is that abortion can be friendly, and abortion can be easy.” 

Self-managed abortion is disruptive. We were told that abortion is a difficult decision; that it has to be difficult to access, and that only doctors control it. Self-managed abortion subverts that,” said Lucía Berro Pizzarossa, fellow coexecutive founder.

She Was an Antiabortion Poster Child. Now She’s a Reproductive Freedom Activist.

PUBLISHED 12/10/2025 by and

At the age of 15, Charlotte Isenberg took to social media to process complicated feelings about a miscarriage after alleged sexual abuse. That was what first brought her to the attention of antiabortion groups.

“Almost immediately, anti-abortion actors threaded a narrative for me between my grief, my miscarriage and anti-abortion sentiment. I clung to it with desperation,” Isenberg wrote.

Feeling isolated from peers due to both her traumatic experiences and the COVID-19 pandemic, Isenberg found a sense of belonging in these online spaces.

But in May 2024, at age 20, Isenberg says her birth control failed, and she became pregnant for the second time. The timing was devastating: She was unemployed, without stable housing or transportation, and preparing to relocate for college—the first in her family to access higher education. 

When she couldn’t find adequate support for her unplanned pregnancy, Isenberg scheduled an appointment at her local Planned Parenthood for an abortion consultation, unsure of what she would ultimately decide. Another prominent antiabortion activist, one of Isenberg’s best friends in the movement, found out about her appointment; she and other members of the group intervened aggressively.

Despite this pressure, Isenberg was able to make the decision that was best for her and her body. Since her own abortion, she’s become a reproductive freedom activist, educating others about extremist antiabortion tactics and promoting systemic protections for people navigating reproductive healthcare. 

Keeping Score: 137 Women Are Killed by Partners or Family Per Day; Bipartisan Push for Epstein Files; Trans Day of Remembrance and Native Women’s Equal Pay Day

PUBLISHED 12/9/2025 by

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:
—137 women and girls are killed by intimate partners or family members every day.
—Congress votes overhwlemingly to force the Justice Department to release their Epstein files.
—Donald Trump snaps at women journalists: “Quiet, piggy” and “you are an obnoxious—a terrible, actually a terrible reporter.”
—Violence against trans women remains high.
—DACA recipients are being targeted and detained under the Trump administration.
—Higher-income college students often receive more financial support than they need, while low-income students struggle.
—Tierra Walker died from preeclampsia in Texas after being repeatedly denied an abortion.
—Viola Ford Fletcher died at age 111. She was the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. 
—North Dakota’s total abortion ban was reinstated after the state’s Supreme Court reversed a temporary injunction from a lower court. There are now 13 states with total bans.

… and more.

International Telehealth Provider ‘Abortion Pills in Private’ Ready to Ramp Up if FDA Restricts Mifepristone

PUBLISHED 12/8/2025 by

As Trump’s FDA threatens to block U.S.-based medical providers from offering telehealth abortion, one international telehealth provider—Abortion Pills in Private—has vowed to continue providing mifepristone and misoprostol to U.S.-based patients, no matter what.

Their commitment is clear: “We will continue to send mifepristone, even if the FDA takes it off the market inside the U.S.. … We want to make this service easy, the best experience that it can be, with dignity. You can just go online, and it’s easy, and there’s no judgment. If you need this, we are here for you. Here are your pills. Here’s the support service that you need. You can do this from home. Whatever the reason is, we want to have that service there for you to be able to do that, no matter where you live.”

Their service and determination grew directly out of the post-Roe crisis. People find Abortion Pills in Private through the Plan C website. Since March 2024, they have served almost 3,500 patients in the U.S., most of them living in the hardest-hit states—those with abortion bans and severe restrictions. “They are from all over, but they are very much from banned states. Texas is always number one. Then Florida, Georgia. Even Ohio and Pennsylvania. There are some blue states too.”

Republicans’ ‘National Backdoor Abortion Ban’

PUBLISHED 12/8/2025 by | UPDATED 12/9/2025 at 8:55 A.M. PT

Millions are on the brink of seeing the costs of their health insurance skyrocket if Congress fails to extend the ACA tax credits due to expire Dec. 31.

Now, Republicans are seeking to use the debate over the tax credits to pursue what Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has warned is a “national backdoor abortion ban” by expanding the scope of the Hyde Amendment.

Since 1977, the Hyde Amendment has prohibited the use of federal funds for abortion except under limited exceptions for cases where the life of the woman is in danger, or in cases of rape or incest. But opponents of abortion in Congress want to prohibit ACA marketplace plans from covering abortion even in states where abortion remains legal. This means that even if a state requires insurance plans to cover abortion, and uses its own funds to do so, federal law would block it. Private insurance plans sold through the ACA marketplace would also be impacted.

A vote on the issue is expected in the Senate on Thursday, Dec. 11. 

‘This Is the Blind Spot in Extremism Research’: Cynthia Miller-Idriss on Misogyny, Gender and Violence

PUBLISHED 12/5/2025 by

Cynthia Miller-Idriss, director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University, makes the connection between gender policing, misogyny and far-right extremist violence, which for many years was not a connection scholars were willing to make.

Jackson Katz and Miller-Idriss discuss her book, Man Up, on misogyny, gendered violence, the MAGA movement and far-right extremism. Miller-Idriss says political violence coming from the far-right includes gender policing and exploitation.

“These aren’t just opportunistic elements of extremism—they are deliberate, organized and large-scale forms of gendered violence aimed at increasing pain and humiliation of victims, witnesses and family members. … I’m still blown away by how few people will acknowledge the connection.”

Shout Your Abortion Short Films Seek to Normalize Keeping Abortion Pills at Home: ‘You Always Have Options’

PUBLISHED 12/2/2025 by

The grassroots abortion-stigma-busting juggernaut Shout Your Abortion has released two new powerful public service announcements urging people across the U.S. to order abortion pills in advance to have on hand, in case they have an unwanted pregnancy.

Made by Detroit-based filmmaker Na Forest Lim, the short films follow two women—a teenager named Dani and a single mother in her 30s named Poppy—who find out they are pregnant and use abortion pills at home, supported by friends and family.

Both of the main characters have easy access to abortion pills: Dani’s friend arrives with pills in her backpack, and Poppy keeps a pack tucked away in her top dresser drawer.

Building on that vision of easy access, the Dani PSA shows what it looks like when abortion pills are already part of teenagers’ lives and a pregnancy never has the chance to become a crisis.

War on Women Report: Antiabortion Extremist Charged in S.C. Shooting; Army OB-GYN Accused of Abusing Over 85 Women Patients

PUBLISHED 12/1/2025 by and | UPDATED 12/4/2025 at 9:06 A.M. PT

MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.” We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report:
—North Dakota’s Supreme Court reinstated a total abortion ban, making it the 13th state with a near-total ban on abortion.
—Trump ordered Catherine Lucey, a woman reporter for Bloomberg, to be “quiet, piggy.”
—The U.S. moved to categorize countries with state-sponsored abortion and DEI policies as violators of human rights.
—Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has sued Planned Parenthood over allegedly “misrepresenting the safety” of abortion pills.
—On Thursday, Dec. 4, an unprecedented law banning doctors from shipping abortion pills takes effect in Texas.
—”The country’s most respected newspaper hosted a conversation about whether women’s equality and freedom was a mistake.”
—Doctor Maj. Blaine McGraw, an OB-GYN at Fort Hood military base in Texas, the third-largest base in the country, is under investigation for sexual abuse against patients. As of Monday, 85 victims have come forward.
—With Jeffrey Epstein survivors watching from the gallery above, the House agreed in a near-unanimous vote to force the release of all files related to the investigation of the convicted sex offender.

… and more.

Inside the Global Network of Abortion Doulas Supporting Self-Managed Care

PUBLISHED 11/26/2025 by

As barriers to clinic-based abortion care have increased in recent years, an increasing number of women are self-managing their abortions: finding and using abortion pills independently of the formal medical system. They are obtaining abortion pills through online abortion pill services, community networks sharing pills for free and websites selling pills.

To support self-managed abortion, feminists are creating a global network of online abortion doulas—trained companions who offer one-on-one support by phone, email and text to people using abortion pills. A leader in this effort is the organization Rouge Doulas, which runs the Rouge Abortion Doula School.

Arrests in Memphis as Antiabortion Training Camp Sparks New Era of Clinic Blockades

PUBLISHED 11/26/2025 by and | UPDATED 12/9/2025 at 9:29 A.M. PT

Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, is trying to make a comeback by teaming up with antiabortion extremist group PAAU (the so-called “Progressive” Anti-Abortion Uprising group associated with dozens of clinic and pharmacy invasions), to kick off “Rescue Resurrection.” Their stated goal is to revive large-scale clinic blockades with a formal kick-off training and series of events starting Dec. 3 in Memphis, Tenn.

On Friday morning, Dec. 5, approximately 25 individuals participating in the Rescue Resurrection training blockaded the Planned Parenthood health center in Memphis, even though abortion is already banned in Tennessee. Fourteen individuals were arrested.

Terry was one of the leaders of mass clinic blockades that took antiabortion extremism to a new level in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Operation Rescue’s (OR’s) orchestrated blockades in Atlanta, Memphis and Wichita drew massive media coverage. During the sieges, accessing a targeted abortion clinic meant getting through a gauntlet of bodies blocking clinic doors and driveways. Antiabortion activists traveled state to state in order to participate, blockading clinics, going limp when arrested (to represent the “unborn”) and requiring three to four police officers to remove each protester arrested and carry them to waiting police buses.