We also dig into a Texas appeals court’s reversal of charges against midwife Maria Rojas, whose case (built largely on hearsay) upended abortion access for an already underserved community, and a Virginia federal court ruling that found the FDA’s restrictions on mifepristone “arbitrary and capricious.”

Then, Kimya Forouzan, principal state policy advisor at the Guttmacher Institute, joins to unpack new data on how post-Dobbs abortion bans are reshaping care. From the surge in telehealth medication abortion, to the ripple effects of state bans on neighboring states, to the confusion and fear that keep people from even searching for information online, the landscape around abortion care is changing rapidly.

LINKS

* Center for Reproductive Rights press release: Federal Court Rules FDA Abortion Pill Restrictions Are Unjustified

* Plan C website

* Sen. Josh Hawley’s press release: Hawley Refers Dark Money Abortion Pill Operation to DOJ for Criminal Investigation

* Center for Reproductive Rights press release: No Proof that Texas Midwife Violated Abortion Ban, Court Rules

* Fifteenth Court of Appeals ruling

* Guttmacher Institute: Guttmacher Releases New Data on Travel for Abortion Care in 2025

* The Guttmacher Institute’s website

* Kimya Forouzan’s bio page

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* Dr Kristin Lyerly (@drkristinlyerly)

* Dr Erin Stevens (@erinstevensmdobgyn)

* Dr Chris Ford (@doc_4ord)

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From there, we turn to some genuinely good news: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), along with the Society for Women’s Health Research and other partners, just announced a “women’s health moonshot.” It’s a push for Congress to invest $20 billion over the next decade to close the massive research gap in women’s and obstetric health. The doctors explain all the different ways this could be a HUGE development.

The conversation takes a harder turn when they discuss anti-abortion groups manipulating real patients’ stories for propaganda. They dig into the case of a Wisconsin woman whose fatal fetal diagnosis was twisted into an anti-abortion narrative online, and the legal effort now underway to hold groups accountable for it.

And will abortion drive voters again in the 2026 midterms? Or will it be absorbed into a broader affordability conversation that’s defining this year’s midterms?

LINKS

* ACOG: Leading Women’s Health Organizations Launch National Strategy to Close the Women’s Health Gap

* HuffPost: Trump’s AG Nominee Commits To Ending Abortion Pills By Mail

* Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Legal group warns abortion opponents to stop ‘twisting’ Wisconsin mom’s story

* Up North News: AI chatbots are spreading abortion misinformation to Wisconsinites—and lawmakers are fighting back

* USA Today: Terrifying chatbot is here to talk women out of abortions

* Campaign for Accountability: AI Chatbots Point Women to Unproven and Unethical “Abortion Pill Reversal,” Report Shows

* Amnesty International: AI & Abortion Care: How people are using AI to find abortion care, and how this might be dangerous

* NOTUS: Democratic Voters Are Not Thinking About Abortion

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* Dr Kristin Lyerly (@drkristinlyerly)

* Dr Erin Stevens (@erinstevensmdobgyn)

* Dr Chris Ford (@doc_4ord)

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The panel also reflects on the deaths of Senator Lindsey Graham and the hospitalization of Mitch McConnell, weighing legacy, accountability, and the discomfort of not speaking ill of the dead when that legacy includes real harm.

From there, the conversation turns to Graham Platner’s collapsed Senate campaign in Maine, the accountability movement that brought his history of alleged assault to light, and hard questions about why gender violence so often gets a pass across party lines. There’s genuinely good news too: wins for reproductive rights advocates in Minnesota (a new bill to fund OB/GYN abortion training across state lines), Nebraska (a failed anti-abortion ballot push), and Idaho (a successful signature drive to roll back a strict abortion ban). We have all of the details in today’s show.

The episode closes with an interview with Marina Jenkins, Executive Director of the National Redistricting Foundation, on a topic most people never connect to their healthcare: gerrymandering. Jenkins breaks down how manipulated legislative maps in states like North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina allowed lawmakers to pass abortion restrictions that don’t reflect majority public opinion and what ordinary citizens can do to fight back.

LINKS

* Maryam’s abortion surveillance tweet on X

* EFF: She Got an Abortion. So A Texas Cop Used 83,000 Cameras to Track Her Down

* The Center For Reproductive Rights’ Texas page

* Flock Safety: Setting the Record Straight: Statement on Flock Network Sharing, Use Cases, and Federal Cooperation

* EFF: “We Want Texans to Know Their Rights”: Q&A with Mayday Health on the Impact of Surveillance on Abortion Care

* Jolynn Dellinger and Stephanie K. Pell’s paper Bodies of Evidence: The Criminalization of Abortion and Surveillance of Women in a Post-Dobbs World

* Digital Handmaidens: ‘Your Body, Their Data’—Surveillance Capitalism as Reproductive Injustice in the Post-Roe Era

* Bioethics Today: The Dark Side of Wearables: A Potential Fertility Surveillance Network

* The Daily Beast: MAGA Candidate [Ken Paxton] Torched for July 4 Europe Trip With Mistress

* The 19th News, Abortion is at stake in the Maine senate race

* National Redistricting Foundation: How Partisan Gerrymandering Limits Access To Reproductive Freedom

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* Dr Kristin Lyerly (@drkristinlyerly)

* Dr Erin Stevens (@erinstevensmdobgyn)

* Dr Chris Ford (@doc_4ord)

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We begin by tackling the recent expiration of the federal defunding of Planned Parenthood. Dr. Daniels shares her firsthand experience and exposes the reality of these cuts: they didn’t stop abortions; instead, they stripped away essential primary care, leaving thousands of patients without access to life-saving insulin, inhalers, and cancer screenings.

Then, we head to Iowa, where Governor Kim Reynolds’ newly enacted laws are targeting both telehealth abortion access and minors’ ability to consent to the cancer-preventing HPV vaccine. The hosts look at a striking new study from the UK showing zero cervical cancer deaths in vaccinated young women, contrasting true evidence-based science with the dangerous rhetoric of “parental rights” and “terminal mansplaining.”

Finally, Dr. Ford leads a powerful history lesson on the 14th Amendment following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold birthright citizenship, exposing the escalating, authoritarian anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from the far right.

From HHS slashing teen pregnancy prevention grants to the critical need for young poll workers this November, the team covers why your vote is the ultimate prescription for protecting our democracy.

* The Hill: Planned Parenthood set to regain federal funding as GOP ban expires

* Iowa Capital Dispatch: Gov. Kim Reynolds signs laws restricting access to abortion pills, HPV vaccine

* The Lancet: Cervical cancer mortality trends following HPV vaccination in England, 2001–24: an analysis of population-based mortality data

* National Center for Biotechnology Information: Cervical Cancer Elimination in Australia and the Asia Pacific: Progress and Barriers

* Stateline: Federal health agency cancels most of its teen pregnancy prevention grants

* The Mirror US (via AOL.com): DHS boss wildly claims Chinese women come to US with ‘one week’ left in their pregnancy to give birth

* Rolling Stone: Right-Wingers Throw Ethnonationalist Fit Over Birthright Citizenship Ruling

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* Dr Kristin Lyerly

* Dr Erin Stevens

* Dr Chris Ford

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They also dig into why abortion numbers have actually gone up since Dobbs, what the push to criminalize patients really means, and why the courts may be our most important battleground right now.

Plus, a Texas senator just compared a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy to a hangnail, and they absolutely have thoughts.

Oh, and Olivia Rodrigo is hosting a very special concert later this year and we have all of the details.

LINKS

* Stateline: Family planning organizations sue Trump administration over Title X funding announcement

* Spotlight PA: ‘Political’ Trump admin rule puts reproductive health care for 160K Pa. patients at risk, lawsuit says

* ACLU: National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association et al. v. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. et al.

* The Guardian: Senators alarmed at Trump administration website Moms.gov promoting anti-abortion facilities

* The Hill: Senate Democrats raise ‘profound concerns’ over Trump administration website for new moms

* NPR: Why are crisis pregnancy centers saying they can ‘rule out’ ectopic pregnancy?

* Sen. Bob Hall comparing ectopic pregnancies to hangnails is HERE

* ABORTION, EVERY DAY: What Trump’s Embryo Adoption Program Is Really About

* The New York Times: Support Builds on the Right for Prosecuting Women Who Get Abortions

* SI Live: Olivia Rodrigo announces all-female festival benefiting women’s organizations, teases duet with music icon

* Paging America on Substack

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Dr. Kristin Lyerly, Dr. Erin Stevens, Dr. Chelsea Daniels, and Dr. Chris Ford mark the four-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, which effectively killed Roe vs Wade. The crew breaks down where they were when the world shifted, the chilling reality of navigating "bananas medicine" from Florida to California, and the FDA’s highly politicized "safety review" of Mifepristone. They look at the heartbreaking reality of post-Roe confusion creeping into blue states, highlighted by the case of an Illinois woman denied life-saving ectopic pregnancy care, and a South Carolina woman forced to carry a nonviable pregnancy.

Plus, they dive into the horrifying human rights violations unfolding at ICE detention centers and celebrate a rare, hard-fought legal victory for reproductive freedom in Missouri.

LINKS

* The HIll: FDA to review abortion pill safety after sustained GOP ire

* The Guardian: A religious hospital denied her a life-saving drug during an ectopic pregnancy. She lost her fertility

* People: South Carolina Woman Claims She Is Being Denied Medical Care After Her Unborn Baby ‘Died Inside’ Her 2 Weeks Ago

* Office of New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill: New Jersey Sues Delaney Hall Operator After It Refuses Full Access to Health Inspectors

* CBS News: Pregnant wife of Delaney Hall detainee pleads with President Trump to look at her husband’s case

* People: Rep. LaMonica McIver Reveals She’s Pregnant as She Faces 17 Years in Prison Over ICE Incident

* U.S. Attorney’s Office - District of New Jersey: Congresswoman Charged for Forcibly Impeding and Interfering With Federal Officers

* ACLU: Reproductive Abuse is Rampant in the Immigration Detention System

* Missouri Independent: Missouri judge strikes down nearly all state abortion regulations

* Paging America on Substack

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