Two Oklahoma Women Were Denied Abortions After Receiving Fatal Fetal Diagnoses. Now They’re Suing
KOSU, September 17, 2026
Two Oklahoma mothers are challenging state abortion laws in a new lawsuit filed Wednesday. The women are suing state leaders after they were denied access to an abortion for their effectively nonviable pregnancies and forced to seek care outside of the state. The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, challenges two state abortion bans. Oklahoma’s abortion laws are some of the strictest in the nation, with exceptions only to preserve the life of the mother. This does not currently include fetal fatal conditions, where a pregnancy is likely to end in miscarriage or stillbirth or, in the event of live birth, the infant will not survive with or without medical support. The lawsuit – which also includes two OB-GYNs and the Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice – argues these bans violate pregnant Oklahomans’ rights to life and liberty, substantive due process and equal protection.
Family Blames Texas’ “Merciless” Abortion Ban for Woman’s Death, Files Lawsuit Targeting Paxton, Doctors
CBS News, September 16, 2026
The family of Tierra Walker, who died of preeclampsia at the age of 37 when she was 20 weeks pregnant, has filed a lawsuit in Texas, saying she was denied an abortion that could have saved her life as her health quickly deteriorated. Lawyers for Walker’s family filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Bexar County District Court accusing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, several of her doctors and others of “deliberate indifference, discrimination, and medical mistreatment [that] ultimately caused her horrific and tragic death” in 2024. Walker’s family alleges Paxton and another defendant, Stephen Brint Carlton, executive director of the Texas Medical Board, stripped her of her right to life by imposing “a merciless blanket prohibition” on abortion, while the doctors allegedly failed to offer life-saving medical treatment.
No, You’re Not Drinking Abortion-Pill-Contaminated Water
The Cut, September 17, 2026
Are we really all “drinking abortions” in our tap water, as conservatives have alleged? The short answer is no. Of course not. There’s no scientific basis for these claims. But that hasn’t stopped the Trump administration from announcing this month the launch of a new drinking-water study that will test for traces of mifepristone and misoprostol – the drugs used in medication abortions – as potential pollutants. Simply put, the agency is handing over a win to the anti-abortion movement. While Dobbs ended the constitutional right to abortion, the proliferation of abortion pills obtained via telehealth has allowed patients, even those in states that ban the procedure, to continue safely terminating their pregnancies. “The anti-abortion movement has become increasingly frustrated with that fact, so they really are throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks,” says Bernstein. “They are really ramping up disinformation campaigns about the safety of medication abortion. This is the latest tactic of trying to weaponize laws that are meant to protect our environment and protect our wastewater.”
The Supreme Court Put Efforts To Ban the Abortion Pill on Hold. Louisiana Decided It Can’t Wait That Long
Slate, September 16, 2026
Louisiana is one of several states trying to shut down telehealth abortion access nationwide. The stakes are high. Telehealth accounts for roughly 30 percent of all abortions. Its availability is the reason that red states have struggled to enforce criminal abortion bans. Louisiana argues that the Food and Drug Administration acted arbitrarily and capriciously in 2023 in allowing telehealth access to mifepristone, the first of two pills used in the typical medication-abortion protocol. The state also argues that current rules violate the Comstock Act, a 19th-century obscenity law that Louisiana characterizes as a de facto national abortion ban. The state is asking the 5th Circuit to immediately pause telehealth access to mifepristone as the case continues.
New Maps Reveal Massive Gaps in Access to Affordable Birth Control Across the U.S.
NPR, September 16, 2026
Two reproductive policy organizations, Power to Decide and the Guttmacher Institute found that there are 21.4 million women in the U.S. who need subsidized birth control living in a county somewhere with limited access in a new analysis of contraception, a number researchers describe as “dire.” They created two new county-level interactive maps that show contraceptive deserts. An expert from the Guttmacher Institute shared that there is reason to believe the current picture is already worse than the maps show because the data is from 2020 to 2023, and many of these clinics have since closed because of the Medicaid defund that targeted Planned Parenthood.
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