[[link removed]] Ms. Memo: This Week in Women's Rights
May 21, 2025
From the ongoing fight for abortion rights and access, to elections, to the drive for the Equal Rights Amendment, there are a multitude of battles to keep up with. In this weekly roundup, find the absolute need-to-know news for feminists.
FDA Review of Abortion Pill Signals First Step Toward Nationwide Ban [[link removed]]
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(Drew Angerer / AFP via Getty Images)
By Carrie N. Baker | In a stunning move that could mark the first step toward a nationwide ban on abortion pills, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has ordered the FDA to reevaluate its decades-old approval of mifepristone—a medication used safely by over 7.5 million Americans over the last quarter-century for abortion and treatment of miscarriages. The directive, based on a single junk-science report from an antiabortion group, signals a dangerous shift: the politicization of FDA policy and a coordinated push to strip access to medication abortion across the country.
As recently as late April, FDA commissioner Marty Makary said he had “no plans to take action” on mifepristone, but admitted there was an “ongoing set of data that is coming into the FDA on mifepristone” and that “we can’t promise we’re not going to act on that data that we have not yet seen” if it “suggests something.”
Within days, the Ethics & Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank, released their report—which experts describe as “deeply flawed” and contradicting over 100 peer-reviewed studies showing mifepristone to be very safe—falsely claiming that one in 10 of women using mifepristone had serious adverse reactions to the medication. Citing this report, Republicans then called on the FDA to restrict access to mifepristone.
The FDA’s “policy changes will ultimately go through the White House, through President Trump,” said Kennedy in the May 14 Senate hearing where he announced the directive.
The FDA has historically made decisions based on peer-reviewed research from scientists and doctors, not from elected officials with little understanding of science or medicine.
“Secretary Kennedy just revealed that he has ordered the FDA to consider making it harder for people to get medication abortions based on propaganda pushed out by a Project 2025 sponsor,” said Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney for the Reproductive Freedom Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. “Even leading antiabortion advocates admit this junk science is ‘not a study in the traditional sense,’ and is ‘not conclusive proof of anything,’ but that clearly won’t stop extremist politicians from waving it around as a basis to restrict abortion.”
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How the Take It Down Act Tackles Nonconsensual Deepfake Porn—And How it Falls Short [[link removed]] Tariff Tantrum: Why Trump’s Trade War Hits Women Hardest [[link removed]]
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The Women, Peace and Security Framework Is Not ‘Woke’—It’s Smart Strategy for National Defense [[link removed]] Fired *Again*: HHS Employees Told Their Work Isn’t in the ‘Public Interest’ [[link removed]]
What we're reading:
Because it's hard to keep up with everything going on in the world right now. Here's what we're reading this week:
* "‘Rolling Thunder’: Inside conservatives’ strategy to curb abortion pill access” — Politico [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]] Tune in for a new episode of Ms. magazine's podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin on
Apple Podcasts [[link removed]] + Spotify [[link removed]] .
In this emergency episode, we’re ringing the alarm bells: We just learned that in the state of Georgia, a woman named Adriana Smith, who passed away in February, and has been declared brain-dead, is being forcibly kept on a ventilator due to the state’s strict abortion ban, against her family’s wishes. Dr. Michele Goodwin breaks down Adriana Smith’s case, and the cases of other women who, like Smith, have been disrespected and desecrated in death thanks to abortion bans and pregnancy exclusion laws.
We hope you'll listen, subscribe, rate and review today!
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