NIRH Action Fund

The SAVE Act Is Back—and Women’s Political Power Is on the Line As Congress revives the SAVE Act, new proof-of-citizenship rules could reshape voter registration in ways that burden women voters.

The SAVE Act Is Back—and Women’s Political Power Is on the Line msmagazine.com/2026/02/09/s...

Tens of Thousands of Mothers Were Flagged to Police Over Flawed Drug Tests at Childbirth The Marshall Project found more than 70,000 cases referred to law enforcement over allegations of substance use during pregnancy — and that’s a significant undercount. By Shoshana Walter and Jill Castellano

Ayanna Harris-Rashid was sitting up in bed, her newborn son latched to her breast, one hand scrolling on her phone, when the police called. She was wanted on a felony charge of child neglect.Harris-Rashid had just had her third child in March of 2021. To ease pain and frequent nausea, she had used legal CBD gummies and a topical hemp-based ointment throughout her pregnancy. But at the hospital, she and the baby tested positive for marijuana, prompting providers to file a report with the South Carolina Department of Social Services, which forwarded the information to police, records show. Now an officer was demanding Harris-Rashid turn herself in.

For decades, state and federal laws have required hospitals to identify newborns affected by drugs in the womb and to alert child welfare services. In part to comply, many hospitals routinely drug test patients or babies to check if a mother might have used substances.But the tests, which start typically with urine samples, are easy to misinterpret and often wrong. They do not show how often or for how long someone may have used drugs. Most tests cannot distinguish between a positive result caused, for instance, by marijuana — illegal in many states — or a legal substance, such as CBD products. Without confirmation testing and review, positive results often lead hospitals to accuse parents of drug use, even if the substance used was a prescribed medication.

The sheer number of people that law enforcement is tracking is far higher than experts previously knew, including academics and reproductive rights organizations monitoring what they call pregnancy criminalization. Even so, the numbers The Marshall Project compiled represent a significant undercount.“My initial genuine reaction is, frankly, shock and dismay,” said Dana Sussman, senior vice president of the legal advocacy organization Pregnancy Justice, which counted more than 1,800 pregnancy-related arrests and prosecutions from 2006 through 2024. She added, “This represents an incredibly regressive and counterproductive approach.”

“The child welfare agency is acting as an agent of the police. There’s no distinction between the two.”

ALL pregnant people deserve dignity and respect. That means informed consent before drug testing and not being intimidated by police in hospital rooms. Health-based approaches, not punishment.

The "pro-adoption" #superbowl ad is anti-abortion messaging in disguise 🥸

Anti-abortion extremists, like those who created this commercial, often push adoption as a replacement for abortion care. But it isn’t and never will be able to address ALL the reasons someone has an abortion.

‘Bad Guys Are Taking Mommies and Daddies’: ICE Upends Minneapolis Kids' Lives In Minneapolis, parents must figure that out, while teachers face half-empty classrooms as students stay home for fear of abduction.

ICYMI: How do you explain armed federal immigration enforcement agents to children?

Dearest gentle readers,

No matter your preferred method of contraceptive, if you’re the tea someone is having tonight, make sure you’re comfortable and protected! #Bridgerton

Today, a judge ruled #Arizona abortion restrictions as unconstitutional and permanently blocked them!

This decision is a step toward ensuring bodily autonomy for all, but there is still a long way to go — including the vital need to remove barriers based on misleading gestational limits.

How Attacks on Immigrant Teens Helped Build the Post-Roe Playbook In the second Trump administration, the post-Roe playbook targets teens and immigrants’ abortion and reproductive healthcare access first.

How Attacks on Immigrant Teens Helped Build the Post-Roe Playbook msmagazine.com/2026/02/05/i...

Anti-abortion violence threatens us all.

We deserve the dignity of safety, security, and respect.

In our modern landscape, data privacy is a requirement for bodily autonomy. NIRH's President Christian LoBue joined @jessicavalenti.bsky.social for a chat about how these issues are all connected.

Watch the full interview below:

buff.ly/eWkt8lN

Report: States strengthen shield laws to protect abortion and gender-affirming care data As patients seeking reproductive and gender-affirming care increasingly are using telehealth to do so, states are increasing protections for patients’ and providers’ health care data.

“As the reliance on telehealth services grows across the U.S. — and that care increasingly crosses state lines – we’re seeing an increase in states taking action to protect patients and providers from law enforcement in states with abortion bans.”
www.route-fifty.com/management/2...

Pregnancy Police Alert ! Justin Olson has been nominated for a lifetime judicial appointment, despite holding many dangerous and extreme views. Olson believes that fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses are people and should have legal rights. He promotes anti-abortion laws that support this radical idea. These laws can be used to block health and life-saving care, ban abortion and IVF, and arrest pregnant people for pregnancy loss. Graphic with a black and white photo of Justin Olson sitting in front of a microphone with red and blue police lights behind him.

Pregnancy Police Alert ! If that isn't enough... Olson has a record of dehumanizing and targeting transgender athletes, considering himself a “specialist” in cases to exclude athletes from college athletics. He has shown that he doesn’t believe that all people should enjoy the same rights. Appointing Olson will put people at risk, especially those who are transgender, LGBTQ+, women, or anyone who can get pregnant. The Senate still needs to vote on his nomination. Call your senators and tell them to reject Olson. Graphic with a black and white photo of Justin Olson sitting in front of a microphone with red and blue police lights behind him.

Pregnancy Police Alert 🚨 Justin Olson supports giving fertilized eggs, embryos & fetuses the same legal rights as you and me. We know that will send even more pregnant people to jail, block life-saving care, ban abortion, and threaten IVF.
📞Call your senators and tell them to REJECT his nomination.

Abortion stays legal in Wyoming as its top court strikes down laws, including first US pill ban Abortion will remain legal in Wyoming after the state Supreme Court struck down two laws that include the nation’s first explicit ban on abortion pills.

Abortion in WY stays legal. Four to 1 ruling from justices appointed by Republican governors to sustain meaning of constitutional amendment in 2012. They noted that the amendment wasn’t written to apply to abortion; said it’s not their job to “add words” to the state constitution.

Meet the OB-GYNs fighting back against Trump’s ‘guerrilla war on science’ As some medical groups cave to the Trump administration, the American College of OB-GYNs is taking a stand

Join me in thanking the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for bravely standing up to the Trump regime's dangerous public health misinformation! Dump Trump now!

Meet the OB-GYNs fighting back against Trump’s ‘guerrilla war on science’ www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Women With High-Risk Pregnancies Have Limited Options Under Abortion Bans Our reporting has found that abortion bans generally don’t include exceptions that cover health concerns pregnant women with chronic conditions can face — or if they do, doctors aren’t using them.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people enter pregnancy with chronic health conditions. In states with bans, many are being forced to carry dangerous pregnancies, b/c doctors are afraid to act until it’s often too late. Health care shouldn’t wait for a crisis. 
www.propublica.org/article/high...

@patientforward.bsky.social
@reprorights.org
@stateinnovation.org
#desertstar

4/4 🧵 HB 2652: This bill would throw out a mandate that puts young people’s health and safety at risk by requiring minors to get notarized parental consent before accessing abortion care.

3/4 🧵 HB 2649: This bill would eliminate language from the Arizona code intended to grant rights to fetuses over the rights of pregnant people in an effort to ban abortion.

2/4 🧵 HB 2653: This mega-repeal bill overhauls the state's code to repeal more than a dozen abortion restrictions, including medically unnecessary regulations and insurance coverage bans. This would align the law with Arizona's constitutional mandate that guarantees a fundamental right to abortion.

🧵The kind of state action we need!

In 2024, Arizonians voted to add a fundamental right to abortion in their state constitution. Now, it's up to state legislators to repeal anti-abortion restrictions still on the books.

Learn about three critical bills that have been introduced in #Arizona ⬇️

Michigan clinic director warns of increasing anti-abortion violence ‘When Trump got into office, the antis started being pretty emboldened about what they could do,’ said Renee Chelian, the director of three Michigan clinics.

In 2025, President Trump pardoned 23 anti-abortion activists who had been convicted under the FACE Act on charges of blocking abortion clinic entrances in Washington, D.C., Tennessee, Michigan, and New York City over the previous five years.

Now, anti-abortions activists are feeling emboldened...

Abortion is...
✅ safe
✅ common
✅ a human right

The right is waging a quiet war on contraception Reproductive rights are under attack. Will you help us fight back with facts?

Through a series of incremental policy changes, legal rulings and funding restrictions, conservative lawmakers have been quietly chipping away at contraceptive access.
buff.ly/V3l6KPA

FDA Targets Gender-Affirming Garments, Warning Companies that Serve Trans Customers At least 12 companies received letters from the agency stating that the gender-affirming compression garments are medical devices and require compliance with strict federal regulations.

Gender-affirming shapewear is the latest target in the Trump administration’s attacks on trans communities. @hallielieberman.bsky.social reports:

The meme has a photo on top with 5 people in top hats holding a groundhog with text that reads, "What do you have to say, Magical Weather Rodent?". The photo on the bottom is of a groundhog with a microphone held to its face with text that reads, “Yes, you deserve great abortion care!”

Happy Groundhog Day!

Reproductive Justice exists bc Black women recognize that resisting the politicization of birthing people’s bodies requires an understanding how race, gender, and class intersect.

Thank you to Dr. Toni M. Bond Leonard, one of the twelve founders of the RJ framework, for this important reminder.

Big news for reproductive health in Colorado!

Starting this year, insurance for Medicaid recipients and public employees will finally cover abortion care. The next step is ensuring people can actually access this care. #Colorado

A pregnant mother in ICE detention says she’s bleeding — and hasn’t seen a doctor in weeks Cecil Elvir-Quinonez, who is still breastfeeding her youngest child, is awaiting deportation in a Louisiana ICE facility states away from her family and children.

“Detaining a pregnant, breastfeeding mother — and then transferring her out of state without notice to her family — is not public safety. It is an alarming failure of basic humanity and accountability.”

Texas sues alleged Delaware abortion pill provider In 2024, Texas also sued a New York provider accused of prescribing abortion pills, but her state’s law has shielded her from prosecution.

Maybe Texas should focus on reducing their maternal mortality rate, which increased 56% after their 2021 #abortion ban, instead of thinking they have any say over doctors in other states.

#MedicationAbortionIsHealthcare #AbortionSavesLives

www.texastribune.org/2026/01/27/t...

Digital care is collective care.

Together with our partners at @newamerica.org’s Open Technology Institute, we’ve created a brand-new zine that highlights how best to practice digital safety.

Swipe and share and learn how to protect your data, your privacy, and your community. #DataPrivacyWeek