Press Releases

Senator Cory Booker today introduced the Abortion is Health Care Everywhere Act. This is the first-ever legislation to repeal the Helms Amendment, a 50-year-old policy that bans the use of United States foreign assistance for abortion, putting an arbitrary line between abortion care and all other global health services. Read More »

Today, World Population Day, the United Nations Population Division released World Population Prospects 2022, which includes new projections of world population growth through 2100. The new report projects that global population will surpass 8 billion people in November of this year and will likely peak around 10.4 billion around 2080. Global population reached 7 billion on October 31, 2011. In 1950, world population was estimated at 2.6 billion. Read More »

Today the Supreme Court, in their decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, rejected 50 years of precedent by overturning Roe v. Wade. The decision eliminates the federal right to abortion access and sends it back to the states to decide. This will decimate abortion access in this country, as 26 states are likely to ban abortion in the wake of this decision. Read More »

Last night, Politico released a leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that would erase 50 years of precedent by overturning Roe v. Wade. The opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, says that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” and that “Roe and Casey must be overruled.” If this is the final ruling, legal authority to regulate abortion will return to the states—and many states are poised to outlaw abortion altogether. Read More »

On Friday, October 22nd, the Biden-Harris administration released the very first national strategy that seeks to expand and advance gender equity and equality around the world. The strategy, established by the White House Gender Policy Council, outlines an ambitious and visionary framework to “advance gender equity and equality in domestic and foreign policy—and demonstrates that families, communities, and nations around the world stand to benefit.” Read More »

On Friday, September 24th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA)—a major step forward in protecting abortion access on a national level. WHPA cements the right for people across the U.S. to access abortion and enables healthcare providers to provide abortion without bans or other medically unnecessary restrictions. The bill passed by a 218-211 vote. Read More »

Today, an extreme and unprecedented abortion bill, S.B. 8, went into effect in Texas. This law bans access to abortion at six weeks, before most people even know they are pregnant, and allows anyone in the U.S. to sue Texas abortion providers and those who assist patients in receiving an abortion. This legislation is clearly unconstitutional, as Roe v. Wade allows abortions up until viability. In the lead up to the law going into effect, it was challenged by multiple reproductive health groups in the hope that the Supreme Court would intervene before the September 1st date of effectiveness, yet no emergency action from the court was taken. Read More »

On July 29, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a spending bill free of the Hyde amendment, the Weldon amendment, and the D.C. ban on abortion coverage through Medicaid. Also included in the bill is increased support for the Title X Family Planning Program and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. Read More »

On July 28, 2021, the House passed the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOP) spending bill for the fiscal year 2022—a historic win for global sexual and reproductive health and rights. SFOPs Subcommittee Chairwoman Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA-13) championed the bill, which permanently repeals the Global Gag Rule, removes the colonialist and racist Helms amendment, protects funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and radically expands investments in reproductive health care and family planning around the world. Additionally, the spending bill would remove the Hyde amendment restrictions from the health insurance of Peace Corps volunteers. Read More »

World Population Day is observed each year on July 11. This year, World Population Day offers an opportunity to reflect on world population, and all that means to us. Read More »