This law from 1873 is a ‘back door for prohibiting abortion rural’

The second Trump administration nibbles at the edges of abortic access. In June, the guidance of BIDEN era withdrew to inform doctors in first aid of emergency abborts to prevent serious pregnancy complications such as organ loss and bleeding. And Trump’s new “Big, Beautiful Bill” pushes insurers to drop the coverage of the abortion and to block MedicAid fees to abortion clinics.

These and other sneaky, crazy changes in federal abortion policy will influence how, where and whether many people can get abortion care. But they stop well with the full frontal attack on reproductive rights that many Americans expect now in hope or in fear of this government. To date, the Trump government seemed more focused on kidnapping immigrants than on controlling womb.

But that can change.

“A new Trump administration -Recognition suggests that it is preparing to start the next phase of his attack on American democracy by fighting abortion,” my colleague Imani Gandy writes. Her last Rewire News Group Column explains why Republicans can quickly dust the Comstock ACT-a long-floating anti-obscenity law from 1873 and use it to make the sending of abortion pills illegal by post.

“It’s the Republican Trump card,” writes Gandy. “A back door for banning abortion nationwide.” Read her full story here.

Trump has not forgotten abortion – amidst ice -raids, the Comstock act looms up heavily

Pro-democracy wins

• In a first of its kind of relocation, the government of Maryland will use a fund set up by an optional determination of the affordable care act to help pay for abortions, also for those traveling to the state, According to NPR. The State will use costs paid by insurers participating in the insurance market to give up to $ 2.5 million in subsidies to abortion funds.
• The Trump Government said it would release Some of the more than $ 6 billion in congress-to-aged educational fairs has remembered states. The announcement of 18 July came days after California and at least 22 other states have charged the government to try to miss the money that is financing programming for English-speaking students and students of migrant families, as well as teacher training and class technology, among other things educational initiatives.
• Several states have tried – but failed – to adopt legislation that classifies abortion medicines such as regulated substances since the beginning of 2025, according to News from the United States. This means that for the time being the medicines, which can be essential for other routine types of gynecological care, will not be confronted with stricter regulation and surveillance.
• A Jewish woman can challenge the strict abortion prohibitions of Kentucky in court, the Kentucky Lantaarn Reported on July 15. In a lawsuit of 2022, Jessica Kalb appoints to two other Jewish women, Jessica Kalb argues that the laws of the state that Define a fetus as a person as soon as an egg fertilizes a sperm and forbids abortion once a fetal heartbeat has been detectedDefends “Christian values” that are contrary to the Jewish conviction that life starts at birth, not with conception. A Kentucky’s Court of Appeal ruled on 11 July That her two co-requirements missed legal status, but said that Kalb’s case can continue. It will now go back to a lower court to be filed.

Antidemocratic actions

• The congress voted to cut more than $ 1 billion to American public broadcasters. The money helps to finance well -known networks such as National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service and maintains small regional public radio programs, in particular in sparsely populated rural areas. The conservative victory of July 18 follows for decades of failed efforts of Republicans to defend the public broadcasters of the nation, According to the New York Times.
• On July 14, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump government could dismiss more than a thousand employees at the Ministry of Education, According to the New York Times. The ruling comes in the midst of a continuous effort from the administration to dismantle the Department, which is responsible for investigating the violations of school rights and supervising federal study loans, in addition to other tasks.
• Lawyers from the US Department of Justice ask several states for copies of their voter roles, the Washington Post reported. The requests seem to be related to ongoing attempts by the Trump government to impose more voting restrictions. An expert in the field of voting rights said the position that President Donald Trump and his supporters are trying to “lay the foundation to disturb a free and honest election in 2026.”
• During a process on the efforts of the Trump government for international students and students who are not American citizens, a higher official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs witnessed on July 18, that criticizing Israel could make the decision New York Times reported.

Reproductive rights

LGBTQ+ Rights

• The national suicide and crisis – hotline is ended the specialized service for LGBTQ+ Youth on July 17 in the direction of the Trump government. The administration said it has cut the dedicated 988 line “to concentrate on serving all help seekers,” Statnieuws reported. This Explain from the LGBTQ+ Publication Them Outlines what the means for mental health care remain for this community.
• Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center announced on July 15 that gender-confirming care for new patients under the age of 18 “paused” According to CBS News. Since January 2025, at least a dozen large hospital systems throughout the country have reduced their gender-confirming care programs for minors or closed under pressure from the Trump administration.
• The drastic Medicaid -Innentations included in Trump’s newly signed “Big, Beautiful Bill” is expected to affect the LGBTQ+ community disproportionately, according to The 19th. “LGBTQ+ adults have twice as much chance of using Medicaid as their most important insurance,” The 19th reported. In combination with the discrimination LGBTQ+ Many people are already confronting in the medical field: “Trump’s new tax legislation could create insurmountable obstacles for their healthcare.”

Immigration

• The United States have deported five immigrants to Eswatini, a small country in South Africa, the Associated Press reported last week. The Ministry of Interior Security said that the men – Van Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos – ‘individuals were so unique barbaric that their home country refused to take them back’. Eswatini, an absolute monarchy, said on X that it would ensure that the ‘prisoners’ were treated with ‘appropriate process and respect for human rights’.
• A The 15-year-old boy was one of the first people locked up In the new migrant detention center of the Trump in the Florida Everglades, according to the Miami Herald And Tampa Bay Times. The teenager, Alexis, was in a car that was persuaded by Highway Patrol on July 1. He told the police that he was older than 18 “because of fear,” his father told the Herald/Timesand was brought in handcuffs to the Barebones detention center that is known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” The government of Florida, Ron Desantis, initially claimed that no minors had been held, but admitted on July 16 that Alexis had been sent there. He was transferred to a hiding place for migrant children on July 4.
• The Trump administration will transfer the personal data of nearly 80 million Americans registered with Medicaid to immigration and customs enforcement, reportedly to help ice officers to find immigrants, the Associated Press reported July 17. Ice Already gained access to data on the internal entry services For similar use. Critics say that sharing demographic information and home addresses collected by the government, some of which are outdated, can lead to more raids that focus on the wrong people and households.
• On July 17, the Ministry of Justice in California Sheriffs asked for lists of all locked people who are not American citizens, the New York Times reported. The DOJ said that “all available resources would pursue to obtain the data” if Sheriffs did not voluntarily hand over the information.

Health and Science

• Trump’s medicaid cuts can lead to delays in healthcare that lead to 1,000 deaths and 100,000 hospital admissions in the US every year, NBC News reported. The figures, calculated by health experts, echo of similar projections published in June 2025.
• The Environmental Protection Agency announced on July 18 that it has lost its scientific research branch and started to dismiss hundreds of scientists, the New York Times reported.

Dei and civil rights

• De Doj asked a judge to condemn a former detective of Louisville who was convicted in the 2020 who shooted the death of Breonna Taylor one day in prison, the New York Times reported on July 17. A jury in November 2024 found Brett Hankison guilty of violating Taylor’s civil rights during a failed late-night raid of her house, a conviction that entails a maximum life imprisonment. Hankison is expected to be convicted today.

Recommended reading

• Meet the Philly Abortus Doula. In Philadelphia, one Doula uses a mutual auxiliary post model to help pregnant people understand and navigate all their options – including abortion and perhaps even meal preparation afterwards. “Tell me what you need, and I’ll tell you what we can do,” said the doula in the newest of Annemarie Dooling for Rewire News Group.

Relaxed

• We cannot claim that you will find this relaxing, but a new season of Pick up By serial productions and the New York Times Is out. It tries to understand why pain is not sufficiently managed in an estimated 100,000 American caesarean sections every year, and what some researchers do to change that. It is furious – and to be honest, a bit frightening – but definitely worth listening.