Comment: This author explicitly ties administration Title X guidelines to the proposals in the conservative playbook "Project 2025" and the views of right-wing media and influencers. Their goal is to eliminate hormonal birth control ("the pill") while extolling the virtues of fertility and the traditional nuclear family.
Category: Reproductive Choice
The Trump Admin Wants To Test Drinking Water For Abortion And Birth Control Pills
Comment: The article reports on efforts by Sen. Ron Wyden to get information from the federal EPA on a recent recommendation that groundwater and wastewater be tested for levels birth control pill and abortion medications. Sen. Wyden asserts that the move by the EPA is laying the groundwork for federal restrictions on reproductive health care under the guise of "drinking water safety."
The Trump Administration Is Coming After Birth Control Access in a Terrifying New Way
Comment: In this OpEd in The New York Times (paywalled) the author decries the new administration guidelines on the Title X family planning and reproductive health care program. She details provisions that turn Title X from a highly successful program that reduced unwanted pregnancies (and correspondingly prevented millions of abortions), to a Project 2025-based program for increasing birthrates at any cost.
Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signs Right to Contraception Act
Comment: The Right to Contraception Act establishes a legal right under Virginia state law to obtain reproductive health care, including contraceptive medication and devices. Similar legislation is pending in other states, including North Carolina, and in the U.S. Congress.
Scrolling into danger — the birth control myths flooding TikTok
Comment: Author Simone Paget reports on birth control misinformation spreading on social media, and concerns expressed by medical professionals that patients, especially young people, are "stopping effective methods without a plan, avoiding appointments, or making decisions based on fear rather than accurate information."
Birth control pills to be available without prescription in Georgia pharmacies
Comment: Bipartisan legislation allowing pharmacists to dispense hormonal birth control pills without a physician prescription overwhelmingly passed the Georgia Legislature and now awaits action by Governor Brian Kemp. If signed into law, the legislation will make it easier for women to obtain birth control pills in the 82 out of 159 counties in Georgia that do not have ob-gyn services.
US Dept of HHS moves Title X family planning program away from contraception, towards conception
Comment: The conservative attack on birth control is embodied in new guidelines for the federal Title X "family planning" program that does not mention contraception other than an assertion that "medical and surgical treatments" are overprescribed, have negative side effects, and are part of a broader “overreliance on pharmaceutical and surgical treatments.”
White House pushes Senate to move quickly on Casey Means nomination for Surgeon General
Comment: Surgeon General nominee Casey Means has criticized birth control methods such as hormonal birth control as dangerous and disrespectful to human life. The White House Press Secretary issued the call for her quick confirmation at the same time the President seemed less committed to Means, stating that "we have a lot of great candidates" for the position.
Alaska: Lawmakers again seek to ease access to yearlong birth control supply after Dunleavy veto
Comment: The Alaska Governor's veto is an example of incremental efforts to limit access to the most common birth control methods.
The Guise of ‘Parental Rights’ Is Denying Young People Critical Care
Comment: The author details how conservatives are pushing for the enactment of state "parental rights" laws that bypass existing medical privacy laws to block access of minors to birth control and reproductive health care.