Republicans Demand Tougher Abortion Restrictions To Extend Obamacare Funds
NBC News, November 11, 2025
Senate Republicans say they’re open to extending a pot of Affordable Care Act funds that will expire at the end of the year – but only if Democrats acquiesce to stricter abortion restrictions on insurance plans … Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said there will be a negotiation about an extension after the government reopens. He said one condition will be stricter rules pertaining to the Hyde amendment, which bars federal funding from being used for abortion. To satisfy Democratic demands to comply with the Hyde amendment when Obamacare passed in 2010, the law does not allow federal funds to cover abortions. Some states allow people insured under Obamacare to access abortion coverage using state or other funding. Republicans want to change that.
Florida Takes on Planned Parenthood
Mother Jones, November 9, 2025
In anti-abortion Republicans’ latest attack on abortion pills, Florida’s attorney general is suing Planned Parenthood for allegedly misrepresenting the safety of the drugs—despite the fact that more than 100 scientific studies have shown they are safe and effective. Uthmeier is suing under the state’s deceptive marketing and racketeering laws, and is seeking more than $350 million in damages, attorneys’ fees, the dissolution of Planned Parenthood in Florida, and the revocation of its state licenses … Alexandra Mandado, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Florida, told the Tampa Bay Times the lawsuit is “a politically motivated attack” and an “attempt to erode access to all abortion care.”
Planned Parenthood Closes 20 Clinics After Medicaid Cuts, Warns of Grim Future
The Washington Post, November 12, 2025
Planned Parenthood has spent tens of millions of dollars providing health care to low-income patients and has closed 20 clinics in the months since the Trump administration blocked the group from billing Medicaid – but weathering the funding cut on its own will soon become untenable, its leaders say … Without Medicaid or a way to backfill the funding, more clinics could close, said Planned Parenthood President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson – leaving many Medicaid patients without a place to get affordable care. Across the country, Planned Parenthood treats more than 1 million Medicaid patients.
The New Argument Against Birth Control That Could Appeal Directly to RFK Jr.
Slate, November 11, 2025
And in the second Trump administration, the arguments against birth control are changing: Regulators are being asked to revisit birth control at least partly (and explicitly) to benefit men. That’s the new argument promoted by the Heritage Foundation, the group that led Project 2025 … Heritage stresses that women on the pill have experienced the equivalent of “medical menopause” – and that “women who no longer menstruate are not as attractive to men” … It isn’t clear whether Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will do anything to study the pill or introduce the kind of informed consent that Heritage is asking for.
Abortion Bans Are Never Just About Abortion
The Nation, November 10, 2025
People who very much want to become pregnant could soon find their right to procreate restricted by criminal anti-abortion laws protecting embryos. While abortion is the primary target of these proposals, this language has the potential to extend beyond abortion and into assisted reproductive technologies, like in vitro fertilization. Once a state like South Carolina successfully enshrines an expansive definition of unborn children into law, it makes it easier to go further. Going further can mean lawmakers directly attacking IVF by criminalizing providers who routinely engage in embryo destruction as part of their work. It could also mean police and prosecutors pursuing criminal charges against pregnant women who experience miscarriages or stillbirths that they deem suspicious.
ICYMI: In Case You Missed It
After more than a decade of progress, the ACA marketplace stands at a crossroads. If Congress allows the enhanced premium tax credits to expire, the result will be higher costs, rising uninsured rates, and sicker women and families.
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Note: The information contained in this publication reflects media coverage of women’s health issues and does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Partnership for Women & Families.
