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Today marks one year since I started my tenure as President of the National Partnership for Women & Families. The year has flown by, as time often does. In many ways, my one-year mark feels like an imperfect moment for reflection ...

"The fight over medication abortion bills is heating up, as conservatives turn their focus to medication abortion."

A crucial election is upon us. Early voting has begun in dozens of states, and on November 8th the American public will participate in a midterm election where abortion is on the ballot like never before. And despite attempts to pit concerns about the economy against access to abortion, the reality is that abortion is an economic issue. For example, women denied an abortion are significantly more likely to live in poverty years later.

Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives have been lost as a result of anti-transgender violence, hatred, and prejudice.

The first major election of the post-Roe era yielded new protections for abortion rights, as voters in three states approved measures to add constitutional protections guaranteeing access to the procedure…California, Michigan and Vermont backed ballot measures that effectively make it impossible for state lawmakers to enact bans.

This week is Transgender Awareness Week, an annual observance bringing attention to issues transgender people face. In honor of Transgender Awareness week, I wanted to highlight triumphs of the community to establish more positive representation of transgender people in an effort to combat anti-trans stigmas and prejudice.

On Election Day, voters cast their ballots in a crucial election for democracy, abortion rights, and economic justice. While votes rolled in deciding who will control the legislative branch of our government, another branch – the Supreme Court – held oral arguments in the case Health and Hospital Corporation (HHC) of Marion County v. Talevski. This case may change Medicaid as we know it by eliminating the right of Medicaid enrollees, and participants in other public benefit programs, to sue in federal court when their rights are violated by state officials.

Latinas are the largest group of women of color affected by current and future state abortion bans and restrictions: More than 4 in 10 Latinas of reproductive age live in the nearly two dozen states where officials are working to make abortion inaccessible. A new analysis from the National Partnership for Women & Families and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, first shared with NBC News, found that close to 6.5 million Latinas (42% of all Latinas ages 15-49) live in 26 states that have banned or are likely to ban abortions after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade this summer.

In honor of Halloween – and thanks to our newly released report on pregnancy discrimination — here are a few #ScaryStats on the issue:

A few blocks from the Ohio State University campus in Columbus, America’s battle over abortion is playing out under one roof. On one side of a squat single-story office building, a Planned Parenthood clinic offers reproductive health care and refers patients for abortions. Next door is a branch of Pregnancy Decision Health Center, a crisis pregnancy center that offers counseling and support for pregnant women – but also works to dissuade them from terminating their pregnancies and has been accused of promoting misinformation about abortion.

The fate of abortion rights and abortion access will be determined this November at the state and local level during midterm elections. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June of this year, most abortions have been banned in 14 states and are actively threatened in seven. Now, voters will directly influence the future of abortion in five states, while local gubernatorial and judicial races across the country will similarly shape the makeup of each state’s abortion access—either acting as stopgaps between the state and abortion bans or paving the way for expanding an already staggering abortion desert.

Abortion rights advocates are exploring ballot measures to enshrine access to the procedure into state constitutions in 2024, including in a handful of Republican-led states with restrictions on the books. The effort represents an emerging strategy for the abortion rights movement and a growing belief that public opinion is on their side. After the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, advocates know appealing directly to voters is one of the only ways to counteract bans in conservative states and reshape access in a post-Roe America. While in the early stages, discussions around whether to pursue an abortion rights ballot measure are occurring in states including Ohio, Florida, Arizona, Oklahoma, Colorado and Missouri, according to interviews with over a dozen advocates, liberal groups and others, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations.

Earlier this year, five people altered the landscape of reproductive rights in more than a dozen states across the country when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In November, millions of voters will weigh in, casting votes in dozens of races and ballot measures that will determine how restrictive their state can be. Ballot initiatives in three states could determine abortion access for millions of women and what kind of reproductive health care is available to them. Abortion has also become a key issue in races for governor and state attorneys general, who have direct control over their states’ abortion laws and how they are enforced. Democratic candidates for governor want to gain or retain veto power over Republican-controlled state legislatures that want to curb abortion rights.

No-Cost Preventive Services in Danger
In Braidwood Management, Judge O'Connor ruled unconstitutional a key provision of the ACA preventive health services requirement. This would undermine access to cost-free coverage for chronic disease screenings, cancer screenings, and vaccinations that over 150 million people benefit from.

Allison Case, a family medicine physician, spends much of her time working in a hospital where she delivers babies and provides reproductive health care services, including abortions…In the U.S., more than a dozen states severely restrict access to abortion, and almost as many have such laws in the works. Across the country, since Roe v. Wade was overturned, clinics that do provide abortions have seen an increase in demand. Many clinics rely on help from physicians out of state, like Case, who are able to alleviate some of the pressure and keep wait times down by providing services via telemedicine. But as more states move to restrict abortion, these providers are finding themselves navigating an increasingly complicated legal landscape. Is abortion by telemedicine legal? Experts differ.

Long before this summer's Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, people of color working to make ends meet have encountered numerous obstacles to abortion access. Decades of restrictions – including insurance coverage bans, bans on medication abortion, inhumane policies that target immigrants, and more have pushed abortion care out of reach even in states where it's legal.

Five forthcoming state ballot initiatives on abortion rights could add fissures to the fractured post-Roe landscape and the evolving patchwork of reproductive health policies. The big picture: The U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion has hardened sentiments in red and blue states and put critical access questions in front of voters this fall. Kansas showed how potent the issue is in driving turnout last month, when voters during state primary elections overwhelmingly rejected an amendment that would have struck abortion protections in the state's constitution. The turnout of more than 900,000 was nearly half of all registered voters in the state, and almost double the amount of voters that Kansas normally sees in a primary election.

Thirty Democratic senators led by Washington's Patty Murray are calling on the Biden administration to use health care privacy laws to protect patients' reproductive health information, specifically when it comes to abortion. In the letter sent Tuesday, first shared with The 19th, the senators ask the Biden administration to use the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to prohibit health care providers and personnel from sharing any information about patients' medical records "without explicit consent."

Public policy has the power to set women and families up for success, and new data released by the Census Bureau yesterday provide a critical look at where our country stands on the issues that matter most in determining just how successful they are. The data, which look at poverty, health insurance, and income in the United States, make clear that policy makers have unfinished business to take care of to make sure women and families have all the supports they need to live healthy and secure lives.

Well, it's Moms' Equal Pay Day again. All the way in September. That's right – a typical mother would have to work nine additional months into 2022 just to be paid what fathers made in 2021. And wow, has it been a tough nine months for moms in the United States.