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2 weeks ago | 
yahoo.com | Julie Upton
Texas officials last week arrested a man who allegedly spiked his then-girlfriend’s coffee with abortion pills, causing her to miscarry. But they didn’t charge him with violating the state’s abortion ban or for assaulting the woman—they charged him with murder. Not only is this a horrifying instance of reproductive coercion, the specific charge is also an escalation for fetal personhood, or the dangerous legal theory that embryos and fetuses have constitutional rights.
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1 month ago | 
yahoo.com | Julie Upton
Last fall, The Washington Post highlighted the horrific case of a Nevada woman who was arrested in 2018 after having a stillbirth. The woman, Patience Frazier, used drugs and didn’t respond to her stillbirth in a way that was acceptable to a local cop who knew her and judged her for parenting in poverty. She was charged under a 1911 law that prohibits taking drugs or substances with the intent to terminate a pregnancy after 24 weeks’ gestation.
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1 month ago | 
yahoo.com | Julie Upton
Welcome back to Barf Bag, a subscriber-exclusive column. Here’s everything you get when you subscribe. President Donald Trump withdrew two nominations this week: that of a Fox News medical contributor for the country’s top doctor and a Capitol insurrection supporter for the top prosecutor in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, he replaced them with people who are insane in their own special ways. The picks need to be confirmed by the Senate, but this is pretty terrifying stuff.
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1 month ago | 
yahoo.com | Julie Upton
On Monday, lawyers for the Trump administration asked a Texas federal judge to toss out a lawsuit in which Missouri, Idaho and Kansas seek to restrict access to the abortion drug mifepristone. This welcome news may strike some as a surprise, but supporters of abortion rights shouldn’t celebrate too much.
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2 months ago | 
yahoo.com | Julie Upton
Welcome back to Barf Bag, a subscriber-exclusive column. Here’s everything you get when you subscribe. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) has once again opened his big mouth and let more dumb things fall out.
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2 months ago | 
yahoo.com | Julie Upton
Welcome back to Barf Bag, a subscriber-exclusive column. Here’s everything you get when you subscribe. On Sunday, the Atlantic published a hilarious story that, in a different week, might have gotten a lot more attention. But this particular week was full of push alerts about tariffs, the stock market, and emergency court rulings on the legality of sending immigrants to a concentration camp in El Salvador without due process.
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2 months ago | 
yahoo.com | Julie Upton
On Wednesday morning, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case about whether people with Medicaid can sue a state for blocking them from getting care at a qualified provider who accepts the insurance. The provider in this instance is Planned Parenthood, which South Carolina tried to kick out of the program in 2018 because it also provides abortions, thus the lawsuit has national significance.
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2 months ago | 
yahoo.com | Julie Upton
Last month, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York announced it will list its Manhattan clinic building for sale due to budget shortfalls, a move that would leave the national organization with zero presence in the borough where it was founded a century ago. It was the most visible sign of the crisis that has hit Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers since the end of Roe v. Wade. With Trump back in office, that crisis could intensify even further — starting at the Supreme Court.
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Mar 19, 2025 | 
yahoo.com | Julie Upton
Abortion opponents have long used graphic photos of embryonic and fetal tissue to try to persuade people outside clinics not to have abortions. The same groups successfully used lurid descriptions of an abortion procedure known as intact dilation and extraction, or D&X, to ban it nationwide in 2003, a law the Supreme Court upheld in 2007, gutting Roe v. Wade in the process.
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Feb 21, 2025 | 
yahoo.com | Julie Upton
The day before Donald Trump’s inauguration, ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio wrote that the administration’s executive orders would be “glorified press releases” that won’t change the law, but will aim to create confusion and chaos among people who are already scared. That prediction has largely proved true, as seen in Trump’s EOs purporting to end birthright citizenship, ban medical care for transgender youth, and claw back government funding.
