MSF condemns sweeping expansion of the Global Gag Rule

The US Government’s new Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance policy entrenches discrimination against the world’s most vulnerable.

January 27, 2026

On Friday, the Trump Administration introduced its new Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance (PHFFA) policy, which expands the Global Gag Rule to its most extreme version to date and imposes alarming new conditions, in an attempt to reshape US foreign assistance along ideological lines.

The policy intensifies its prohibition on safe abortion care and adds extensive restrictions on other categories of health and rights, including gender-affirming and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) frameworks. These moves directly contradict established medical consensus and evidence-based standards for delivering effective health care and humanitarian assistance.

Continued: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/msf-condemns-sweeping-expansion-global-gag-rule

The Supreme Court Ruling the Right Is Using to Eradicate Transgender People

The high court’s infamous abortion decision is now being wielded against gender-affirming care—in the first of many attacks on our rights to come.

Zane McNeill, New Republic
February 14, 2024

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with its now infamous ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the adverse disruptions to both the legal landscape of abortion and the quality of life of both abortion-seekers and pregnant patients across the country were nearly immediate. But the dystopia of the Dobbs holding isn’t limited to reproductive freedoms—it has also endangered other constitutional privacy matters that determine the right to purchase and use contraception, the right of same-sex intimacy and marriage, and the right to marry across racial lines. However, what’s become clear is that the far right intends to test the judicial system for future breaches by first targeting transgender people’s access to gender-affirming care.

Continued: https://newrepublic.com/article/178681/dobbs-ruling-war-trans-community

Texas conservatives test how far they can extend abortion and gender-transition restrictions beyond state lines

Recent state and local legal maneuvers signal that Texas’ conservative movement could be wading into a complicated constitutional morass the country hasn’t dealt with since before the Civil War.

BY ELEANOR KLIBANOFF AND WILLIAM MELHADO
FEB. 9, 2024

In the months since Texas outlawed abortion and prohibited adolescents from receiving gender-transition care, women have flooded abortion clinics in nearby states and parents with transgender children have moved to places where puberty blockers and hormone therapy remain legal.

So now, Texas conservatives are testing the limits of their power beyond state lines.

Continued: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/09/texas-abortion-transgender-care-outside-state-borders/

From “Don’t Say Gay” to Abortion Bans, A New Pronatalism Is Here

To understand the conservative fervor around abortion, contraception, and LGBTQ rights, we have to understand the impact these relatively new rights have on the labor market.

ELIZABETH GREGORY
Jan 29, 2024

Lately, two conservative policy pushes have been sweeping the nation in tandem: abortion bans (with related threats to contraception) and anti-LGBTQ laws, including bans on gender-affirming care for transgender minors and increased action to ban books and other speech that affirms LGBTQ lives. While these are generally discussed as separate issues, both liberals and conservatives nonetheless view them as linked—either as issues of personal autonomy, or of, as conservatives might say, morality. Less recognized, but also a fundamental connection, is the shared core effect of both abortion access and same-sex love: fertility control—i.e., the ability to plan and limit one’s family size that both LGBTQ rights and the rights to contraception and abortion confer on individuals.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/abortion-bans-pronatalism/

29.01.2024

Commentary

Crystal Eastman

Elizabeth Gregory

gender-affirming care

LGBTQ rights

United States

Human Rights

We Must Fight for Abortion and LGBTQ Rights—and Our Own Bodies

The right to bodily autonomy is sacrosanct, whether you’re someone who needs an abortion, gender-affirming care, or simply want to live your truth openly.

Martha Plimpton
Sep. 21, 2023

It’s been more than a year since Roe v. Wade was struck down, and abortion rights are clearly in a dire crisis. Fifteen states have total abortion bans in effect and two others have six-week bans. Most of the Southeast and Midwest are now abortion deserts and pregnant people are forced to travel hundreds, even thousands, of miles to access abortion care.

I’ve watched the escalating attacks on abortion rights with a mix of horror and outrage. I’ve had more than one abortion in my life, and for a variety of reasons—because I was too young to have kids, or not in a stable relationship, or as a result of illness and complications early on. Each time I made that decision, I was sure it was the right one for me and I was fortunate to have access to the care that I needed. I’m not ashamed of my abortions—I’m grateful.

Continued: https://www.thedailybeast.com/martha-plimpton-we-must-fight-for-abortion-and-lgbtq-rightsand-our-own-bodies

‘Death Star law’ to abortion: the new rightwing laws taking effect in Texas

Hundreds of new state laws come into effect on 1 September, including attacking trans rights, further limiting abortion and pushing back climate efforts

Ed Pilkington
Fri 1 Sep 2023

On Friday, the Republican-controlled legislature in Texas will dump an avalanche of virulent new laws on the state’s 30 million residents, cementing its reputation as a hotbed of the far-right turmoil that is sweeping America.

Hundreds of laws will come into effect as the product of the legislative session that Texas holds every two years. Among them are a number of highly controversial targeted bills that will have a seismic impact on some of the most vulnerable Texan communities.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/01/texas-new-laws-republican-legislature

01.09.2023

News

Death Star law

Equality Texas

gender-affirming care

gender-affirming health care for transgender children

‘It’s demoralizing’: Idaho abortion ban takes toll on medical providers

State’s OB-GYN numbers are dwindling in the face of a legal onslaught amid fears that patients will be unable to access care

Abigail Abrams
Sun 16 Jul 2023

Most mornings Dr Stacy Seyb is awake by 6am. He begins his day with meetings before a packed schedule seeing 18-20 patients going through high-risk pregnancies in Boise, Idaho. He has had a long career of treating people with all sorts of obstetrical complications so he’s used to stress. But it’s never been like this.

Now that federal protections for abortion have been gone for more than a year and Idaho is approaching the anniversary of its near-total abortion ban, the state has seen an exodus of OB-GYNs and other medical providers, leaving Seyb as one of the last remaining maternal-fetal medicine physicians in his state.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/16/idaho-abortion-ban-ob-gyn-doctors

Florida: A reflection of the ‘chaos and confusion’ surrounding abortion rules in the US

The state, governed by White House hopeful Ron DeSantis, has passed one of the most restrictive laws in the country. When it enters into force, the south will become a vast desert for women’s freedom of choice

Iker Seisdedos
JUN 18, 2023

Alejandra is 32 years old and has a tense expression. She is waiting for her appointment to have an abortion at the Planned Parenthood Golden Glades clinic in Miami. She sits in a room with four other women separated by hospital curtains. “I’m desperate, it’s a matter of life and death,” she says impatiently. Because of her epilepsy, the gynecologist has warned her that her “wanted” pregnancy is dangerous. That she should not “carry it to term.” She is eight weeks along but doesn’t want to risk it: she fears that if she leaves it any longer, the new law signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, which will lower the legal limit for abortion in the state from 15 to six weeks, will take effect.

“I’ve been told I could die,” she continues. “It’s not about me anymore, it’s that I have a six-year-old daughter, and, frankly, I don’t trust my mother to take care of her.” She makes the gesture of caressing her belly with her hands and adds: “There are days when I wake up with this joy, but then I remember that I simply can’t.” She came to the clinic alone. Hardly anyone knows she’s there. That is why Alejandra is pseudonym.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/usa/2023-06-18/florida-a-reflection-of-the-chaos-and-confusion-surrounding-abortion-rules-in-the-us.html

As Many as 16% of People Having Abortions Do Not Identify as Heterosexual Women

LGBTQ+ Patients Face Overlapping Barriers to Care

Doris W. Chiu, Emma Stoskopf-Ehrlich, Rachel K. Jones, Guttmacher Institute
June 14, 2023

At a time when conservative state policymakers are launching coordinated attacks on reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, data on the intersecting identities targeted by these types of legislation are especially important. Prior research has found that there is diversity in sexual orientation and gender identity among people who have abortions in the United States.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/2023/06/many-16-people-having-abortions-do-not-identify-heterosexual-women

14.06.2023

Research

Abortion Patient Survey

gender-affirming care

Guttmacher Institute

transgender healthcare

How GOP efforts to restrict trans rights take a page from the antiabortion playbook

BY ARIT JOHN
JUNE 7, 2023

WASHINGTON — Bans on treatment. New laws threatening doctors with malpractice suits and criminal charges. Praise from lawmakers who say their legislation is meant to protect minors, even as the new policies infringe on the rights of adults.

As state legislatures wind down and the 2024 election cycle kicks off, the similarities between the fights for abortion access and transgender rights have come into stark focus. Republican lawmakers have introduced a record number of bills at the state level and in Congress that would restrict the rights of transgender people and the healthcare they receive.

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-06-07/wave-of-anti-trans-laws-reminds-advocates-of-another-struggle-abortion-rights