After Years of Silence, Texas Medical Board Issues Training for Doctors on How to Legally Provide Abortions

The course includes examples of when abortion is permitted to protect the life of the patient, but many experts say the complications women face in pregnancy are impossible to capture in a brief presentation.

by Cassandra Jaramillo, Kavitha Surana and Lizzie Presser – ProPublica
February 5, 2026

For the first time since Texas criminalized abortion, the state’s medical regulator is instructing doctors on when they can legally terminate a pregnancy to protect the life of the patient — guidance physicians have long sought as women died and doctors feared imprisonment for intervening.

The new training from the Texas Medical Board comes nearly five years after the state passed its strict abortion ban in 2021, threatening doctors with severe penalties. ProPublica’s reporting has shown that pregnancy became far more dangerous in the state after the law took effect: Sepsis rates spiked for women suffering a pregnancy loss, as did emergency room visits in which miscarrying patients needed a blood transfusion; at least four women in the state died after they didn’t receive timely reproductive care. More than a hundred OB-GYNs said the state’s abortion ban was to blame.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-medical-board-abortion-training-doctors

New Foreign Aid Rules Will Threaten Lives

The Trump Administration is expanding foreign aid restrictions on abortion, transgender health care, and DEI initiatives.

by Susana T. Fried, Alicia Ely Yamin - The Progressive Magazine
February 4, 2026

On January 23, Vice President J.D. Vance launched the Trump Administration’s new plan to “promote families and human flourishing.” But rather than being, as he claimed, “pro-life,” these rules will threaten the lives of people around the world, especially women and people who don’t fit into the administration’s narrow, unscientific categories of gender.

The first of the new restrictions on foreign aid announced by Vance extends the existing Mexico City Policy prohibitions on abortion funding to encompass not just global health assistance but all non-military foreign assistance—including U.S.-based nonprofits and government-to-government funding. Known to critics as the “Global Gag Rule,” recipients receiving funding from the U.S. government are prohibited even from tapping other donors to provide information or education regarding women’s health. This expansion will severely limit access to abortion and the full range of sexual and reproductive health care, even in humanitarian emergencies.

Continued: https://progressive.org/op-eds/new-foreign-aid-rules-will-threaten-lives-fried-yamin-20260204/

04.02.2026

Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance

U.S. Agency for International Development

CANADA – Reproductive health advocates still waiting for Holt to keep promise of free birth control

With gender-based violence declared an epidemic, advocates say it’s time for province to fulfill promise

Hope Edmond · CBC News
Feb 03, 2026

Advocates are calling on the New Brunswick government to make good on its pledge to implement universal, no-cost contraception coverage.

Premier Susan Holt promised to make birth control free during her election campaign in 2024 by signing a pharmacare agreement with the federal government.

“We’re disappointed that the Holt government hasn’t signed a pharmacare deal,” said Tracy Glynn, a founder of Reproductive Justice New Brunswick and the national director of projects and operations for the Canadian Health Coalition.

Continued : https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/pharmacare-free-contraceptives-9.7068501

USA – The Fake Clinics Taking Over Reproductive Healthcare

As abortion clinics disappear nationwide, “crisis pregnancy centers” are transforming reproductive healthcare into a far-right fantasy—quietly collecting hundreds of millions in public funds as Medicaid faces historic cuts.

Sonia Chajet Wides
February 3, 2026

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — A small crowd of abortion rights advocates gathered at a public comment session of the Gwinnett County Department of Planning and Development in July 2025. The most diverse and second-most populous county in Georgia, Gwinnett County distributed millions of dollars in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants to local nonprofits in 2025, with most recipients receiving something in the tens of thousands.

One organization, Georgia Wellness Group, was set to receive a much bigger prize: $450,000.

Continued: https://inthesetimes.com/article/fake-clinics-crisis-pregnancy-abortion-reproductive-healthcare

America’s culture wars are killing people overseas

When “pro-life” foreign aid hurts women and children the most.

by Sara Herschander
Jan 30, 2026

“The mark of barbarism is that we treat babies like inconveniences to be discarded,” Vice President JD Vance bellowed to a crowd of zoomer nuns, bagpipers, and white nationalists at the annual March for Life in Washington, DC, last Friday.

The vice president then proceeded to announce a threefold expansion of the Mexico City policy, a decades-old, controversial foreign policy that prohibits organizations from receiving foreign aid if they mention abortion as a family planning option. It was reinstated last year when President Donald Trump resumed office.

Continued: https://archive.is/vdb65

(https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/477125/foreign-aid-dei-gender-global-gag-mexico-city)

Latest US Restrictions on Aid ‘Bully’ Recipients to Accept ‘Extremist Ideology’

29/01/2026
Kerry Cullinan

Global health organisations have reacted with anger to the new US foreign aid policy, which prohibits all aid recipients, bar military, from performing or promoting abortion, “gender ideology”, or “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI).

“Catastrophic”, “bullying”, “draconian” and “ideologically driven” – are some of their reactions to the Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance (PHFFA) policy, announced by US Vice-President JD Vance at an anti-abortion event last Friday evening.

Continued; https://healthpolicy-watch.news/latest-us-restrictions-on-aid-bully-recipients-to-accept-extremist-ideology/

Becca Rea-Tucker on Why We Shouldn’t Feel Bad About Our Abortions

“Abortion is OK, we know. But how are our kids supposed to believe us if we whisper it under our breath?”

Becca Rea-Tucker
January 26, 2026

My second book, The Abortion Companion: An Affirming Handbook for Your Choice and Your Journey, is about to come out, and I’m feeling fussy. I’m scrolling through the long-finished page spreads, noting a .com where they should be a .org, an additional helpline I should have listed, a “definitely” where I could’ve written “absolutely.” The work is finished, but it’s never finished.

Later, on a break from that particular form of fussing, I’m sorting through an album in my phone titled “Repro Cakes.” I scroll past “Abortion. Any time. Any reason,” “Abortion Pills Forever,” and “No shame, no stigma” looking for one emblazoned with the phrase, “Abortion Isn’t A Bad Word” in Barney-purple script. I first posted an image of this cheerful little cake from the middle seat of a ride share sometime in 2018. I knew the not a bad word statement to be true then, but I certainly didn’t always.

Continued: https://lithub.com/becca-rea-tucker-on-why-we-shouldnt-feel-bad-about-our-abortions/

26.01.2026

The Abortion Companion: An Affirming Handbook for Your Choice and Your Journey

United States

Human Rights

USA: Expansion of Global Gag Rule will threaten lives and rights of millions worldwide

23 January 2026
Amnesty International

In response to the expected announcement by the Trump administration on Friday of an expansion of the Global Gag Rule blocking US international aid to non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counselling or information, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy Policy & Campaigns, Erika Guevara-Rosas, said:

“The expansion of the Global Gag Rule is an assault on human rights. By targeting organizations that support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and recognize gender diversity, the Trump administration is deliberately deepening inequality and putting the lives of millions around the world at risk.

Continued; https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/01/usa-expansion-of-global-gag-rule-will-threaten-lives-and-rights-of-millions-worldwide/

23.01.2026

Commentary

Amnesty International

Trump expands policy banning aid to groups abroad that discuss or provide abortions

January 23, 2026
By Jonathan Lambert, NPR
3-Minute Listen, with transcript

For over four decades, Republican presidents have banned U.S. funds from going to groups that provide or promote abortion — and Democratic presidents have reversed the ban.

On Friday at the March for Life rally in Washington, D.C., Vice President JD Vance announced a major expansion of the policy. The Mexico City policy, named for where it was first unveiled, will now also bar funding to groups that promote "gender ideology" and diversity, equity and inclusion.

Continued; https://www.npr.org/2026/01/23/nx-s1-5683204/abortion-trump-mexico-city-policy

Trump administration to block foreign aid from those promoting abortion, DEI and gender identity

By MATTHEW LEE and ALI SWENSON
January 22, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is expanding its ban on U.S. foreign aid for groups supporting abortion services to include assistance going to international and domestic organizations and agencies that promote gender identity as well as diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

An administration official said Thursday that the State Department would release final rules that expand the scope of the “Mexico City” policy that has already severely reduced assistance to international organizations that provide abortion-related care. The policy was first established under President Ronald Reagan, rescinded by subsequent Democratic administrations and reinstated in Trump’s first term.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/trump-foreign-aid-dei-gender-ideology-afbc10132dae462c368bab91671747eb