Year: 2025

Minors’ Ability to Consent to Contraception and Abortion Services

Across the country, minors’ ability to consent to their health care, particularly their reproductive health care, varies significantly. Expanding “parental rights’ in health and education has been a priority for politically conservative groups and was outlined as a “top-tier” right by the Heritage Foundation in Project 2025. While parental involvement in health care can facilitate access and improve outcomes, it is not always possible for teens to include parents in decisions about sensitive health care decisions. Some teens, particularly those who have unstable home lives, are in foster care, or fear abuse if their parents were to become aware they are seeking…
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Six Months In: How the Trump Administration Is Undermining Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Globally

Since January 2025, the Trump administration has undertaken a sweeping and ideologically driven rollback of human rights protections, with particularly grave consequences for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) globally. The administration has drastically cut funding to international health programs, withdrawn from key multilateral institutions and agreements, and advanced an agenda that is overtly opposed to human rights, particularly those advancing gender and reproductive autonomy. These actions not only threaten access to essential health services for millions of people—particularly in low- and middle-income countries—but also undermine international cooperation and accountability in advancing the rights and health of women, girls…
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Ohio advocates fight back as U.S. Supreme Court asked to review same-sex marriage decision

Ohio LGBTQ+ advocates will soon start collecting signatures for their equal rights proposals as the U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to review its 2015 same-sex marriage decision. It’s been 10 years since SCOTUS decided in Obergefell v. Hodges, a case originating out of Ohio where justices determined that same-sex couples have the fundamental right to marry. The ruling legalized same-sex marriage across the country.
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The Next Infodemic: Abortion Misinformation

Approximately 20% of women in the United States have had an abortion. On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization allowed a Mississippi law that proposed to make abortion illegal after 15 weeks to stand, which effectively overturned Roe v. Wade, a 1973 SCOTUS decision that affirmed the right to have an abortion under the 14th amendment . With the reversal of Roe v. Wade, a perfect storm of factors is driving an abortion infodemic including a confusing and rapidly changing legislative landscape, the proliferation of abortion disinformants, lax efforts by internet…
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Week In Review

Illinois  Governor  JB  Pritzker  signed  the  Wellness  and  Oversight  for  Psychological  Resources  Act  (WOPR),  which  limits  the  use  of  artificial  intelligence  (AI)  in  therapy  and  psychotherapy  services.  WOPR  prohibits  using  AI  in  the  state  for  therapeutic  decision-making,  but  allows  licensed  behavioral  health  professionals  to  use  AI  for  administrative  and  support  tasks.  WOPR  aims  to  protect  patients  from  “unregulated  and  unqualified”  AI  products,  especially  amid  concerns  over  the  use  of  AI  chatbots  in  youth  mental  health  services.  It  also  seeks  to  preserve  the  jobs  of  thousands  of  behavioral  health  providers  in  Illinois.
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Congresswoman Friedman Announces Legislation to Restore Planned Parenthood Funding

U.S. Congresswoman Laura Friedman (CA-30) held a press conference at West Hollywood City Hall alongside city officials, members of local Planned Parenthoods, and healthcare providers to introduce the Restoring Essential Healthcare Act. Friedman’s new bicameral legislation aims to repeal a recently enacted Republican ban on Medicaid reimbursements for services provided at Planned Parenthood clinics. The bill is seen as a critical step toward protecting vital and affordable healthcare services that millions of Americans rely on.
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