U.S. Repro Watch: Five Updates You Won’t Want to Miss, 06.04.25

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

1. The Trump administration is rescinding guidance on urgent abortion care.

• The guidance, issued in 2022 by the Biden administration to protect pregnant patients needing emergency abortion care, reminded hospitals that “stabilizing treatment” includes abortion care, regardless of whether abortion is banned under state law.
• The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rescinded the guidance June 3, stating that it does “not reflect the policy of this Administration.”
• Hospitals are still obligated to provide stabilizing treatment—including abortion care—since HHS’s move does not actually change what the law, the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA), requires.
• “In pulling back guidance, this administration is feeding the fear and confusion that already exists at hospitals in every state where abortion is banned,” commented the Center’s President and CEO Nancy Northup.

2. Ruling against the will of the people, the Missouri Supreme Court reinstated the state’s total abortion ban.

• The state’s total abortion ban once again took effect after the Court ruled on May 27 that a lower court used the wrong legal standard in temporarily blocking the state’s abortion ban. A lower court will revisit the case using stricter criteria.
• This ruling follows wider efforts by Missouri lawmakers to undermine the state’s new constitutional amendment protecting abortion approved by voters last November. The efforts include a deceptively worded ballot measure in an upcoming election that would undo the 2024 amendment. 

3. Congress is trying to bar Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance plans from covering abortion.

• The House passed a reconciliation bill with a provision that would ban ACA marketplace plans from covering abortion care if they accept federal cost-sharing subsidies.
• This sets up a legal battle between federal and state law, since 12 states require abortion coverage in all ACA plans.
• Advocates warn that this change will make it even harder for people living on low incomes to get abortion care.

4. A federal judge struck down rules requiring employers to give time off to pregnant people seeking abortion.

• Last year the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued new rules requiring employers to provide “reasonable accommodations” to workers for pregnancy-related conditions, including time off to get an abortion.
• A federal judge struck down the specific abortion protections for workers, ruling that the EEOC exceeded its authority by including abortion in the regulations.

5. The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit challenging Arizona abortion restrictions as violations of the state’s voter-approved amendment.

• While last year Arizona voters approved new constitutional protections for abortion, several abortion restrictions remain on the books.
• The new lawsuit challenges three groups of laws encompassing dozens of statutes and regulations that remain in effect—including a 24-hour waiting period and a ban on mailing abortion pills—arguing that the restrictions are medically unnecessary and violate the new constitutional amendment.

The mental health of pregnant women has declined sharply.

A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found a 64% increase from 2016 to 2023 in mothers reporting poor mental health. Declines were especially pronounced among single mothers and those with publicly insured or uninsured children. The study adds to concerns that maternal mental health is worsening due to financial stress, isolation, and lack of accessible care.

June 7: 60th Anniversary of Griswold v. Connecticut

• In the 1965 landmark ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court explicitly recognized the constitutional right of marital privacy—laying the foundation for subsequent recognition of reproductive privacy.