Tonight: the Supreme Court shields anti-abortion clinics from a state investigation, the U.S. quietly stops paying for the world's birth control, and more.
SCOTUS UNANIMOUSLY SIDES WITH ANTI-ABORTION CENTERS
The Supreme Court sided unanimously with anti-abortion “crisis” pregnancy centers Wednesday, reviving a federal-court challenge to a New Jersey attorney general who wanted a decade of donor records, advertising, and program documents. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the demand chilled First Amendment associational rights; even the ACLU sided with First Choice Women's Resource Centers. State investigations of CPCs — already flagged in past lawsuits for misdiagnosing pregnancies and steering women away from abortion — now face a steeper road.
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THE U.S. STOPS BUYING THE WORLD'S BIRTH CONTROL
The Trump administration is withholding more than $500 million in international family-planning funding that Congress already approved, NPR reports. It has left rural clinics shuttered, midwives fired, and contraceptive shortages spreading across 41 countries. The fiscal year 2027 budget request from Trump puts it more directly: "the United States should not pay for the world's birth control." Of course, there’s no acknowledgement of why helping the “world’s birth control” would’ve been helpful to the United States.
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YOUR ORGANS DON'T AGE TOGETHER
The first large-scale atlas of female reproductive aging finds that organs don't age in sync around menopause. A study from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, published in Nature Aging, found the ovary and vagina change gradually beginning years before menopause, while the uterus shifts abruptly at the transition. Researchers also identified blood-based biomarkers from samples of around 21,000 women that could let doctors track reproductive aging without invasive testing.
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NEW ORLEANS DOES POSTPARTUM HOUSE CALLS
A New Orleans program offers free in-home nurse visits to every new mother, regardless of insurance, and is targeting what one official calls the "postpartum cliff" — the six weeks after delivery, when 43% of pregnancy-related deaths occurred in 2021. Family Connects New Orleans, launched in 2023 at Touro and Ochsner Baptist hospitals, provides clinical evaluations, postpartum depression screening, breastfeeding support, and links to social services. Early data show reduced Medicaid spending for both mothers and babies nine months out, and the program is now in talks with the state to expand to commercial and Medicaid coverage.
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FORMULA IS SAFE. WITH ASTERISKS.
The FDA released results from its largest-ever testing of infant formula, analyzing 312 samples from 16 brands and finding lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic all below federal drinking-water limits. Trace PFAS and phthalates were detected at low levels, which outside experts told the New York Times still warrant attention for newborns. The agency said it is continuing testing and working to set formal action levels for formula contaminants.