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 […]
South Carolina Senate Rejects Push for Abortion Criminalization Bill
A South Carolina bill that would have become one of the nation’s most extreme abortion bans has failed to advance in the state Senate. The bill’s collapse highlights deep divisions among Republicans over how far they are willing to go in restricting reproductive rights. The bill, S.323, also known as the “Unborn Child Protection Act,” […]
Planned Parenthood Forced to Close 20 Clinics After Medicaid Cuts
Planned Parenthood has shut down at least 20 of its health centers across the United States since July, a move the organization attributes to steep cuts in Medicaid funding. The closures follow a provision in the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which bars health care providers that receive more than $800,000 a year of Medicaid reimbursements […]
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 […]
Under Gender Apartheid, Natural Disasters Hit Afghan Women Hardest
While still reeling from the August earthquakes in eastern Afghanistan, the country was hit by another 6.3 magnitude quake in the north on November 3, 2025. The disaster left at least 27 people dead and nearly 1,000 injured across Samangan and Balkh provinces. Afghanistan’s latest earthquake is not only a natural disaster, but a reminder […]
A Big Win for Education in Michigan
On October 7, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed her seventh education budget, MI SB0166, into law. This bipartisan budget puts parents and kids first, offering significant relief to parents, local school districts, and students. It provides more flexibility to focus on active learning while addressing the daunting realities of food insecurity and large classroom sizes that […]
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 […]
UN Report Details Deepening Crisis for Afghan Women and Warns Against Normalising Taliban Rule
In a recent report, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan delivered his most urgent warning yet, telling the United Nations’ General Assembly that Afghanistan is facing “the most extreme and systematic assault on gender equality in the world today.” In his latest report, Richard Bennett cautioned governments against normalizing […]
Revisiting Obergefell: What’s at Stake for LGBTQ+ Americans
The Supreme Court has set a date to revisit one of the most consequential civil rights rulings of the 21st century: same-sex marriage. The justices have scheduled a private conference on November 7, 2025, to decide whether they will hear a case that directly challenges Obergefell v. Hodges. This was the 2015 decision that legalized […]
Demolishing the East Wing Is Demolishing Women’s History
Last week, the current administration made another attempt to erase women from American History by signing off on the demolition of the East Wing of the White House. The East Wing, infamously referred to as the “people’s house,” will be replaced with a privately-funded $300 billion ballroom, which the President hopes will modernize the East […]
The Future of Fair Representation: Inside Louisiana v. Callais
Louisiana’s political landscape has long reflected the tension between demographic reality and political representation. Although Black residents make up nearly one-third of the state’s population, their presence in elected office, especially in Congress, has historically fallen short. The current Supreme Court case Louisiana v. Callais challenges how district lines are drawn and whether they silence […]
The Gendered Toll of U.S. Immigration Policy
Since 2025, the United States has witnessed an explosive surge in the number of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In just 4 months of Trump’s second term, there has been a 17% increase compared to his first term. Since Biden’s presidency, the detention rates have skyrocketed by 46%. This extreme level of mass deportation is […]
Leaked Young Republicans Chat Exposes Deep-Rooted Racism and Hate Within the Party’s Ranks
On Tuesday, October 14, Politico released exclusive messages from private group chats among members of the Young Leaders Republican organizations. The leaked messages revealed horrifying racial slurs, antisemitic comments, and even references to genocidal violence, all exchanged by individuals pledging loyalty to Donald Trump. While shocking, this behavior is not unprecedented in today’s political climate. […]
Taliban’s Latest Execution in Afghanistan Exposes Ongoing Abuses and Control Through Terror
On October 16, 2025, Taliban publicly executed, Ismail, another Afghan man, convicted of murder, before thousands of spectators at a sports stadium in Badghis province, Afghanistan. In Herat province, a video from August this year captured Taliban fighters kicking the corpse of Mohammad Daud, accused of assassinating a commander, as crowds filmed the desecration, a […]
Taliban Internet Blackouts Sever Afghan Women’s Education and Hope. They Demand Global Action.
In late September, Afghanistan was plunged into a digital darkness. The Taliban government abruptly imposed a nationwide internet shutdown, cutting off millions of Afghans from communication, information, and, for many Afghan women, their final link to education and the outside world. While internet access has been partially restored in Afghanistan, reports from inside the country […]
Supreme Court Case Could Threaten Colorado’s Ban on Harmful Conversion Therapy
On Tuesday, October 7, the United States Supreme Court heard opening arguments in a case brought by a religious counselor who claims that Colorado’s 2019 ban on conversion therapy violates her First Amendment right to free speech. While a decision isn’t expected until later this year, the case could have major implications for LGBTQIA+ rights […]
A Landmark Step Toward Justice: UN Establishes Investigative Mechanism for Afghanistan
The United Nations Human Rights Council has recently approved the creation of an independent investigative mechanism to document, consolidate, and preserve evidence of international crimes and human rights violations committed in Afghanistan. The resolution, which was adopted by consensus on October 6, 2025, marks a turning point in the global response to Afghanistan’s deepening crisis […]
New South Carolina Bill Sparks Concern Over Criminalization of Abortion and Contraception
In South Carolina, the state legislature is currently considering a bill that poses an immediate threat to the reproductive rights of millions. The Unborn Child Protection Act is aimed at creating and regulating stricter access to abortions and contraceptives at large. The bill aims to define stricter limits on reproductive rights language, as well as […]