[[link removed]] Weekly Digest
Weekly Digest
Letter from an Editor | December 20, 2025
Dear John,
Congressional discussions on extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits, which are set to expire Dec. 31, remain deadlocked as Congress begins its winter recess. Now, millions will see their premiums increase as a result: According to KFF, premium payments will more than double on average—some even quadrupling—for enrollees who were eligible for the tax credits. Without the extension, more and more ACA marketplace enrollees will drop their increasingly costly health insurance plans. This comes at a time when the ACA is more popular than ever—recent polls show that across the political spectrum, three quarters of voters support extending the tax credits.
House Speaker Johnson has promised a vote in January on a Democratic plan to extend the tax credits for three years. But given Republican opposition and Trump’s disinterest, in reality a compromise with Democrats appears dim. “While the enhanced ACA premium tax credits expire at the end of this year, there is no absolute drop-dead date for extending them,” said KFF’s executive vice president for health policy, Larry Levitt. “ACA enrollees would welcome premium relief whenever it comes.”
This is just one of the ways in which Republicans and the Trump Administration are failing when it comes to ensuring the viability of our entire healthcare system. In his latest attack on evidence-based healthcare this week, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced plans to restrict gender-affirming care for youth, including preventing Medicaid dollars from covering this care, and cutting off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding to hospitals that provide it. Given that virtually every hospital in the country relies on this funding to function, the proposal amounts to a federal ban.
Many of these hospitals are already facing closures, with the hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid under the Republicans’ so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.” Could this latest attack on transgender young people be the Administration’s way of deflecting attention from the disaster unfolding in real time for millions of families in need of healthcare?
However, if the years since the overturn of Roe v. Wade have taught us anything, it’s that restricting vital, life-saving healthcare is deeply unpopular—and it doesn’t always work. Continuing a trend that has persisted since 2022, this year’s #WeCount report from the Society of Family Planning finds that even as some states continue to clamp down on abortion access (including threatening healthcare providers and women with prosecution and prison), the number of abortions is increasing each year. This report finds that telehealth has been a critical lifeline for abortion access—accounting for 27 percent of all abortions performed in the U.S. in the first six months of 2025, a number that has steadily increased since the FDA first authorized telehealth abortion provision in 2021 at the height of the pandemic.
And in their latest gambit to restrict access to abortion pills, anti-abortion forces are trying to mobilize an unlikely force: the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2025, antiabortion policymakers introduced nine bills in seven states using deceptive claims about water pollution to target medication abortion—and now, they are trying to win federal regulations. The fact that there is literally zero evidence to support the claim that medication abortion is impacting U.S. waterways doesn’t seem to matter, nor the claims that expelled tissue from abortion is a risk to the environment. Are they serious? As Candace Gibson and Anna Bernstein with the Guttmacher Institute wrote, “Medical waste tissue from an abortion is identical to that of a miscarriage or even a heavy period.”
And as the hundreds of thousands of long-awaited Epstein files are released, we’ll be reporting on whatever evidence emerges about the cover-up. More than twenty years after the first reports of Epstein’s abuse and his network first surfaced, we know much of the horrific damage that has been done to the victims. But the big unanswered question is: how did so many people look the other way for so long? Whether it’s the powerful men who were abusing women, or the powerful men in the justice system who turned a blind eye, we won’t stop reporting and asking questions till victims and survivors have full accountability.
This holiday season, Ms. is wishing everyone resilience, hope, peace on Earth and goodwill to all people .
Onward,
[[link removed]]
Kathy Spillar
Executive Editor
P.S. — I wanted to make sure you saw the very important letter from Gloria Steinem included below. In this holiday season when families and friends gather, Gloria reminds us of the isolation of women in prison, and the importance of letting them know they are seen and valued. A generous donor has pledged a challenge grant of $10,000 if we can raise $20,000 for the Ms. Prison and Domestic Violence Shelter Program. Please give today so that we can secure this important opportunity. [[link removed]] And be sure to ask if your employer has a Matching Gifts Program—it’s an easy way to double the impact of your support at no additional cost to you.
This Week's Must-Reads from Ms.
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Abortion Continues to Increase in 2025 as Telehealth Expands, Especially in States with Bans and Restrictions [[link removed]] No, Abortion Pills Aren’t Polluting U.S. Waterways [[link removed]]
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The Epstein Files Matter Only If We Center Survivors [[link removed]] For Women Spending the Holidays in Prison or a Shelter, You Can Make a Difference [[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]] .
In the year since the Trump administration returned to office, there have been hundreds of executive orders, many of which district courts have ruled unconstitutional and illegal. As judges have noted, these actions have caused direct harm to Americans all across the country. And hard-hitting attorneys general have fought back. There are now over 450 lawsuits against the Trump administration, and in many of them district courts have ruled that the administration acted unconstitutionally. In this episode, recorded earlier this year, I’m joined by two Attorneys General who are leading this resistance: Massachusetts’s Andrea Campbell, and Michigan’s Dana Nessel.
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U.S. democracy is at a dangerous inflection point—from the demise of abortion rights, to a lack of pay equity and parental leave, to skyrocketing maternal mortality, and attacks on trans health. Left unchecked, these crises will lead to wider gaps in political participation and representation. For over 50 years, Ms . has been forging feminist journalism—reporting, rebelling and truth-telling from the front-lines, championing the Equal Rights Amendment, and centering the stories of those most impacted. With all that’s at stake for equality, we are redoubling our commitment for the next 50 years. In turn, we need your help, Support Ms. today with a donation—any amount that is meaningful to you [[link removed]] . We are grateful for your loyalty and ferocity .
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