U.S. Repro Watch: Six Updates Not to Miss, 04.09.25

U.S. Repro Watch provides periodic updates on news of interest on U.S. reproductive rights. Here are six recent updates you won’t want to miss.

1. Clinics that provide affordable birth control, STI testing, and other essential health services for low-income communities are losing millions in funding due to a freeze by the Trump administration.

• The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) withheld millions of dollars in Title X funds from dozens of clinics around the country last week, citing their promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Some clinics have already announced they will close as a result. 
• Title X was established in 1970 to provide affordable birth control and reproductive health care to people with low incomes. It remains the country’s only dedicated family planning safety net program. 
• In 2023, Title X clinics supplied 2.8 million people with birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing, and other care. Of those patients, 60% had a family income at or below the federal poverty level. The funding freeze means a sudden and devastating loss of these vital health services.

2. Center plaintiffs testified against a Texas bill that claims to clarify the state’s abortion ban—but doesn’t actually help patients experiencing pregnancy complications.  

• Texas lawmakers held a Senate hearing March 27 on a bill that purports to better explain medical exceptions to the state’s abortion ban—but does nothing to change the vague, non-medical language that leaves doctors unsure of when they can legally provide abortion care, or to change the criminal law that makes abortion a felony punishable by life in prison. 
• Plaintiffs from the Center for Reproductive Rights’ lawsuit seeking to clarify those exceptions, along with law students and advocates, testified that the bill would not have helped patients like Kate Cox, Kaitlyn Kash, or Lauren Miller, who were forced to carry pregnancies with fatal fetal diagnoses, risking their health and future fertility. Watch testimony from Lauren Miller, Kaitlyn Kash, and Taylor Edwards.

3. A Texas court heard arguments in the state’s case against a Houston-area midwife, one of the first criminal prosecutions under the Texas abortion ban.

• A hearing was held in Waller County, Texas March 27 in the case against Maria Rojas, a licensed midwife accused by Texas of providing abortion care in violation of the state’s total abortion ban. 
• Rojas was released on bond but the judge ordered her clinics to remain closed.

4. New York halted Texas’s push to penalize an abortion provider.  

• A New York court clerk blocked Texas from imposing a $113,000 fine on a New York doctor who allegedly mailed abortion pills to a Texas woman. This marks the first legal use of New York’s shield law, which protects providers if they provide abortion care to out-of-state residents.  
• The case is expected to escalate to higher courts, possibly the U.S. Supreme Court, as Texas and other states challenge shield laws. The outcome could determine how far protections for abortion rights can extend across state borders. 

5. Alabama cannot prosecute people who help residents travel out of state for abortions, a federal court ruled.

• The case was filed by health care providers and an abortion fund after the Alabama Attorney General threatened to go after those who facilitate or provide information about out-of-state travel for abortion care.  
• The judge ruled that the threats violate the right to free speech as well as the right to interstate travel.
• Multiple states are trying to restrict out-of-state travel and target “helpers” like abortion funds. In Texas, legislators just introduced a bill that makes it a felony to help a young person travel across state lines for abortion care.

6. An anti-abortion judge was defeated in Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court election, despite millions in funding from Elon Musk. 

• Judge Susan Crawford defeated Judge Brad Schimel, who was backed by President Trump and Elon Musk. Musk funneled millions of dollars into the race, making it the most expensive judicial race ever, in an attempt to defeat Crawford.
• Musk—who serves as Senior Advisor to the President and acts as the de facto leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—routinely spreads misinformation about abortion and played a key role in dissolving the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), putting the health and rights of people around the world at risk.
• Check out Repro Red Flags: Agency Watch to learn more about Musk and other anti-repro appointees and executive actions from the Trump administration.

Globally, millions of people are losing health care because of U.S. funding cuts. Last year, the U.S. allocated over $607 million for global family planning and reproductive health programs, including $32.5 million for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The Trump administration’s cuts to foreign aid mean nearly 48 million women and couples will be denied contraception, resulting in 34,000 preventable pregnancy-related deaths over the course of one year. Every day without this aid, 130,390 women lose access to contraceptive services.

April 11–17: Black Maternal Health Week

• Held annually from April 11-17, Black Maternal Health Week is a campaign led by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance​ to build activism and highlight ​the voices and lived experiences of Black moms. 
• Data shows racial disparities are increasing in pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. In 2023, Black pregnant women died at a rate nearly 3.5 times higher than white women—up from 2022 and 2021, when the rate was 2.6 times higher than white women.