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Florida Pregnant Women Are Having Court Hearings Forcing C-Sections from Hospital Beds
I recently read one of the most horrifying articles I have read in a very long time. ProPublica wrote an investigative report, Florida Courts Ordered Them To Have C-Sections, about women who wanted to have vaginal births but were met with resistance from the hospital and the courts.
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Spilling the Inequali-Tea with Oxfam
In 2025, billionaire wealth increased three times faster than the average over the previous five years. The United States also has more billionaires than any other country, while 40 percent of Americans are considered poor or low income.
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Why Women and Girls Are Still the Most Vulnerable in Global Health Crises
Amid the global health funding crisis, I often think about the trickle-down effect of the closure of USAID. No matter if some believe the agency was a burden on American taxpayers or not, there is no doubt that the work it accomplished over the decades created measurable change for women and girls, from improved maternal…
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Arizona’s Now-Repealed Abortion Ban Serves As a Cautionary Tale For Reproductive Health Care Across the US
When the Arizona Supreme Court ruled on April 9, 2024, that the state’s Civil War-era law banning nearly all abortions was enforceable, it brought into stark reality the potential impacts of leaving reproductive rights up to the states to regulate, and the related consequences for women’s health.
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Pending Reproductive Health Decisions on the Supreme Court Docket
Supreme Court decisions are expected this month about legal doctor and mail-order prescriptions of the FDA-approved abortion pill, mifepristone, as well as whether health practitioners can provide pregnant patients with stabilizing emergency services such as an abortion where appropriate and essential for stabilization or survival.
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The Right to Contraception Up for Vote in Senate
In light of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Senate Democrats advanced the Right to Contraception Act today to create federal legislation to guarantee contraceptive rights nationwide for women. The bill will need 60 votes today to officially begin work on the bill. “Today, we live in a country where not only tens of millions…
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2022’s Best and Worst States for Women’s Equity
With Women’s Equality Day around the corner and the U.S. ranking as only the 27th best country for gender equality, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2022’s Best & Worst States for Women’s Equality. In order to determine where women receive the most equal treatment in American society, WalletHub compared the 50 states…
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3 Teas and Coffee Brands That Support Women
With all that is going on in the world, helping women through our everyday consumer actions is a way we can make a difference in their lives. While we can’t all take to the streets in protest or write impassioned letters to our senators or even donate to a cause every month, we can divert…
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Kansas Scores Victory for Abortion Rights
In the first statewide referendum after the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, Kansas voters overwhelmingly voted to protect abortion rights. Before yesterday’s primaries polls suggested an abortion ban would ultimately prevail in Republican-led Kansas. Still, even in some of the most conservative counties, “no” votes outpaced overall votes for Republican candidates. With a massive…
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Idaho Lawmakers Send Texas Copycat 6-Week Abortion Ban to Governor’s Desk
Women, pregnant people, and reproductive rights activists are reeling about the nation’s latest blow to abortion rights. Yesterday, Idaho became the first state to pass a copycat abortion ban that successfully became law in Texas last year. Now, the Idaho bill is on its way to the desk of Idaho governor, Brad Little, to officially…
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AFTER THE CEASEFIRE, THE FIGHT TO EMPOWER ARMENIA’S WOMEN CONTINUES
By Susan Klein In the fall of 2020, as the COVID-19 infection rate was peaking in Armenia, the country was rocked to its core by the outbreak of what has become known as the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War—which Armenia neither wanted nor was prepared for. By the time a ceasefire agreement was reached last November, with Armenian casualties in the thousands, the loss of strategic territory, the presence of Russian peacekeepers,…
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The Global HER Act Explained #ReproductiveHealth #GlobalHERAct
It was a sunny afternoon as most days are in Ethiopia in April. I was taking an individual tour of a large hospital in the middle of Addis Ababa where I got to talk to doctors, nurses, and see waiting rooms and even patients who were recovering from care. I distinctly remember the room of…
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Gender Equality Is Imperative to Reach Sustainable Development Goals
In 1994, governments, advocates, health organizations, women’s and youth activists gathered in Cairo for the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). There, women’s reproductive health and rights took center stage in national and global development efforts. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the ICPD and a renewed emphasis on reproductive health, women’s empowerment…
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How to Help Women Gain Financial Independence this International Women’s Day #IWD
We often think about poverty and how to fix it. There isn’t one magic bullet that moves people out of poverty. However, there are a few tenets about reducing poverty in families who live in underserved communities that work nearly every time and those are working directly with women and giving them financial tools to…
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U.S. Support of Formula Over Breastfeeding is a Race Issue
Andrea Freeman, University of Hawaii When the United States threatened Ecuador with trade and aid restrictions if it did not withdraw a World Health Assembly breastfeeding promotion resolution that most people considered benign, if not banal, reactions ranged from shocked to amused. Experts explained that the U.S. resistance, although extreme, was nothing new. The United…
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Sexual Violence is Off the Charts in South Sudan – But a New Female Head Chief Could Help Bring Change
PHOTO: Navi Pillay (third from right), UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, poses for a group photo with South Sudanese women from Jonglei State who shared stories about their experiences with human rights violations, including violence, child abduction, and forced marriage. UN Photo/Elizabeth Murekio By Rachel Ibreck, Goldsmiths, University of London A woman was recently elected…
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Venezuela’s Health Systems are crumbling – and Harming Women in Particular
Health workers and patients protesting at the Hospital Dr. Jose Maria Vargas in Caracas, Venezuela. EPA/Edwinge Montilva Pia Riggirozzi, University of Southampton Venezuela sits on the world’s biggest oil reserves, but in terms of GDP growth per capita, it’s now South America’s poorest economy. It is mired the worst economic crisis in its history, with…
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Increasing Caesarean Sections in Africa Could Save More Mothers’ Lives
Shutterstock Salome Maswime, University of the Witwatersrand and Gwinyai Masukume, University of the Witwatersrand Caesarean sections have been lifesaving procedures for hundreds of thousands of women across the world who experience complications during labour. Globally, it’s estimated that just under 20% of births take place via caesarean section – a percentage that’s gone up over…
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To Empower Women, Give Them Better Access to Water
Bethany Caruso, Emory University Imagine going through your day without ready access to clean water for drinking, cooking, washing or bathing. Around the world, 663 million people face that challenge every day. They get their water from sources that are considered unsafe because they are vulnerable to contamination, such as rivers, streams, ponds and unprotected…
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Despite Differences in Culture, US and India Fall Short in Childbirth in Similar Ways
Woman in labor, shown with monitors. Neel Shah, Harvard Medical School After eight years of practicing obstetrics and researching childbirth in the United States, I know as well as anyone that the American maternal health system could be better. Our way of childbirth is the costliest in the world. Our health outcomes, from mortality rates…