[[link removed]] Ms. Memo: This Week in Women's Rights
November 5, 2025
From the ongoing fight for abortion rights and access, to elections, to the drive for the Equal Rights Amendment, there are a multitude of battles to keep up with. In this weekly roundup, find the absolute need-to-know news for feminists.
Judge Rules FDA Abortion Pill Restrictions Unlawful, Citing Political Interference [[link removed]]
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(Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
By Carrie N. Baker | On Oct. 30, 2025, following eight years of litigation, a federal trial court in Hawaii ruled that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) violated federal law by imposing medically unnecessary restrictions on mifepristone, which is used for early abortion. Ruling in Purcell v. Kennedy (formerly Chelius v. Becerra), the court held that the FDA has a legal obligation to fairly evaluate and weigh the decades of extensive research affirming mifepristone’s safety, noting the agency had failed to justify its restrictions on access to mifepristone.
Reproductive health advocates called the ruling a win for evidence-based regulation.
“Today’s decision is a victory for everyone who believes that our access to safe and essential medicines should be dictated by science, not politics,” said Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, which brought the case on behalf of medical associations and a Hawaii family physician. “Despite decades of real-world experience and mountains of evidence proving mifepristone’s safety, the FDA regulates this medication more heavily than 99 percent of prescription drugs.”
The evidence bears her out, with over 100 peer-reviewed scientific studies proving the safety of mifepristone and widespread use by over 7.5 million U.S. women for abortion care since the FDA approved the medication in 2000.
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The Trump Administration Has Been Ordered to Fund SNAP Benefits. Will It Comply? [[link removed]] Fighting MAGA Medical Disinformation: States Must Confront Trump’s War on Science and Reproductive Health [[link removed]]
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Ahead of the Country: How Florida’s Progressive Fight Against Authoritarianism Is Setting the Tone [[link removed]] Two New Laws Could Transform Black Maternal Health in California, If We Get Implementation Right [[link removed]]
What we're reading:
Because it's hard to keep up with everything going on in the world right now. Here's what we're reading this week:
* "How the Trump Regime and the Media Killed Gender Studies” — Academe Blog [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]] Tune in for a new episode of Ms. magazine's podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin on
Apple Podcasts [[link removed]] + Spotify [[link removed]] .
This last Supreme Court term was harrowing—from momentous merits decisions about the First Amendment, parental rights, trans rights and more, to the stream of shocking “shadow docket” decisions and its enabling of many of the Trump administration’s executive actions. What does the 2025-2026 term have in store for our nation? What do we think will advance through the Court? What do we think will come up, when it comes to the shadow docket? And perhaps most importantly, how will the Court choose to mediate the Trump administration’s continued onslaught of executive actions?
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