January, 19 2010, 07:45pm EDT
As Congress Debates Abortion Coverage in Health-Care Reform, New Report Shows 2009 a Mix of Highs and Lows for Pro-Choice Americans in the States
NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation today released the 19th edition of Who Decides? The Status of Women's Reproductive Rights in the United States, the
nation's most comprehensive report on choice-related legislation and
court decisions. This report, which comes as Congress continues to
debate abortion coverage in health-care reform, shows a mix of progress
and setbacks for choice across the country.
On the federal level, President Obama reversed anti-choice policies
enacted by the previous administration and nominated individuals with
pro-choice records to key federal positions.
WASHINGTON
NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation today released the 19th edition of Who Decides? The Status of Women's Reproductive Rights in the United States, the
nation's most comprehensive report on choice-related legislation and
court decisions. This report, which comes as Congress continues to
debate abortion coverage in health-care reform, shows a mix of progress
and setbacks for choice across the country.
On the federal level, President Obama reversed anti-choice policies
enacted by the previous administration and nominated individuals with
pro-choice records to key federal positions. NARAL Pro-Choice America
also successfully worked with allies in Congress to lift a ban on
Washington, D.C.'s ability to use locally raised funds to provide
abortion services for low-income women, eliminate two discredited
"abstinence-only" programs, and increase funding for domestic and
international family-planning programs.
Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation, said
that House and Senate passage of health-reform bills that include
provisions making it more difficult or virtually impossible for women
to buy insurance with abortion coverage in the new system overshadowed
the progress.
"For pro-choice Americans, 2009 was a roller-coaster ride," Keenan
said. "On one hand, we saw positive changes in policies that will make
a difference in the lives of women and their families. On the other
hand, anti-choice politicians used health reform to advance destructive
and divisive attacks on women's access to abortion coverage. The
challenges we face on health reform are a reminder that, despite our
success in changing the choice-related composition of Congress and a
pro-choice White House, anti-choice lawmakers still outnumber our
pro-choice allies. Every time we take a step forward we will face
unrelenting resistance from anti-choice politicians who will sink to
new lows to undermine women's freedom and privacy."
Keenan said the report outlined a similar combination of progress
and setbacks at the state level, including the following highlights:
Pro-Choice Progress:
- In 2009, 14 states and Washington, D.C. enacted 21 pro-choice measures.
- Wisconsin enacted a law that requires health-insurance plans that
provide prescription-medication benefits to cover contraceptives and
required pharmacists to fill valid birth-control prescriptions. - Hawaii, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and Washington enacted laws that improve sex education in schools.
- Utah and D.C. enacted laws to ensure that sexual-assault survivors
receive information about and access to emergency contraception in
emergency rooms.
Anti-Choice Attacks:
- Utah and D.C. enacted laws to ensure that sexual-assault survivors
receive information about and access to emergency contraception in
emergency rooms. - In 2009, 14 states enacted 29 anti-choice measures, increasing the
number of anti-choice measures enacted in states since 1995 to 610. - Virginia enacted a law that establishes "Choose Life" license
plates. A portion of the proceeds from these plates funds anti-choice
organizations known as "crisis pregnancy centers" that target women
considering abortion and often mislead, coerce, and intimidate them.
Arizona enacted a far-reaching law that includes a litany of
anti-choice provisions that, among other things, subject women to
state-mandated lectures and waiting periods that delay access to
abortion care. The law also allows certain individuals or entities to
refuse to provide abortion services and to refuse to provide or
dispense contraceptives.
Keenan cited Arizona as a prime example of how a change in a state's
political landscape can have real consequences for a woman's right to
choose. Even though a court intervened and stopped some of that state's
new anti-choice provisions from taking effect, the 2009 law caused
Arizona's grade on reproductive rights to drop from a B- to a D+.
"The departure of pro-choice champion Janet Napolitano from the
governor's mansion in Arizona illustrates the importance of having
elected leaders who stand up for a woman's right to choose," Keenan
said. "Arizona's new anti-choice governor is a willing participant in
attacks on women's privacy - a complete reversal of former Gov.
Napolitano's legacy as a defender of pro-choice values. That means
women are worse off today in Arizona than they were at this time last
year."
Keenan also said that NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation dedicated this edition of the Who Decides?
report to the late Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider who was
murdered inside his church in May, and his family, to all abortion-care
providers, and to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.
The report, which includes a summary of federal and state laws as well as a ranking and grades of states, is available online.
For over 50 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.
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"2025 was full of stark reminders of the urgent need to cut climate pollution, invest in clean energy, and tackle the climate crisis now."
Dec 30, 2025
Climate change driven by human burning of fossil fuels helped make 2025 one of the hottest years ever recorded, a scientific report published Monday affirmed, prompting renewed calls for urgent action to combat the worsening planetary emergency.
Researchers at World Weather Attribution (WWA) found that "although 2025 was slightly cooler than 2024 globally, it was still far hotter than almost any other year on record," with only two other recent years recording a higher average worldwide temperature.
For the first time, the three-year running average will end the year above the 1.5°C warming goal, relative to preindustrial levels, established a decade ago under the landmark Paris climate agreement.
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The WWA researchers' findings tracked with the findings of United Nations experts and others that 2025 would be the third-hottest year on record.
According to the WWA study:
This year highlighted again, in stark terms, how unfairly the consequences of human-induced climate change are distributed, consistently hitting those who are already marginalized within their societies the hardest. But the inequity goes deeper: The scientific evidence base itself is uneven. Many of our studies in 2025 focused on heavy rainfall events in the Global South, and time and again we found that gaps in observational data and the reliance on climate models developed primarily for the Global North prevented us from drawing confident conclusions. This unequal foundation in climate science mirrors the broader injustices of the climate crisis.
The events of 2025 make it clear that while we urgently need to transition away from fossil fuels, we also must invest in adaptation measures. Many deaths and other impacts could be prevented with timely action. But events like Hurricane Melissa highlight the limits of preparedness and adaptation: When an intense storm strikes small islands such as Jamaica and other Caribbean nations, even relatively high levels of preparedness cannot prevent extreme losses and damage. This underscores that adaptation alone is not enough; rapid emission reductions remain essential to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
“If we don’t stop burning fossil fuels very, very, quickly, very soon, it will be very hard to keep that goal” of 1.5°C, WWA co-founder Friederike Otto—who is also an Imperial College London climate scientist—told the Associated Press. “The science is increasingly clear.”
The WWA study's publication comes a month after this year's United Nations Climate Change Conference—or COP30—ended in Brazil with little meaningful progress toward a transition from fossil fuels.
Responding to the new study, Climate Action Campaign director Margie Alt said in a statement that "2025 was full of stark reminders of the urgent need to cut climate pollution, invest in clean energy, and tackle the climate crisis now."
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The administration had argued that the Federal Reserve should not be making payments to the CFPB because it has been operating at a loss since 2022, when it began a series of aggressive interest rate hikes aimed at taming inflation.
However, Jackson rejected this reasoning and accused the administration of using it as a cover to defund an agency that the president and top officials such as Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, had long expressed a desire to abolish.
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The CFPB must now be funded at least until the DC Circuit of Appeals weighs in on an ongoing lawsuit brought by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) against Vought over layoffs at the agency that is scheduled for hearings in February.
The NTEU took a victory lap in the wake of the ruling and taunted Vought for his defeat.
"Yet another loss for Rusty Vought," the union posted on Bluesky. "Wonder how much longer Donald is going to put up with this?"
While it will continue to receive funding for the time being, the CFPB has still seen its ability to fulfill its mission severely diminished during Trump's second term.
A Tuesday report from Reuters claimed that the CFPB is "on the brink of collapse" given that the Trump administration, congressional Republicans, and industry lawsuits have "undone a decade's worth of CFPB rules on matters ranging from medical debt and student loans to credit card late fees, overdraft charges and mortgage lending."
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who first drew up plans to create the CFPB in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, explained the agency's importance in an interview with Reuters.
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UN officials said they were "still very concerned about those who are injured, who we didn’t see, those who may be detained."
Dec 30, 2025
After weeks of pushing for access to el-Fasher, the city in Sudan's Darfur region that was taken over by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in October, United Nations officials reported on Tuesday that their recent visit to the city showed evidence of a "crime scene," with the few people remaining there showing signs of trauma from the mass atrocities they suffered and witnessed.
UN humanitarian workers gained access to the city last Friday, two months after the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) lost control of el-Fasher to the United Arab Emirates-backed RSF.
The city was the SAF's last major stronghold in Darfur, and fighting has now escalated in the Kordofan region.
Reuters reported that the RSF has attempted to portray el-Fasher as "back to normal" since its takeover, even as the Yale Humanitan Research Lab published a report earlier this month on the mass killings that the paramilitary group have sought hide evidence of "through burial, burning, and removal of human remains on a mass scale."
Denise Brown, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, told Reuters that the few people remaining in el-Fasher are living in empty buildings or tents made of plastic sheets. A small market was operating, but was selling only locally grown vegetables.
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Yale's report earlier this month relied partially in satellite imagery taken between October 26-November 28, which showed clusters of what researchers said were consistent with human remains in and around el-Fasher. More than 70% of the clusters had become smaller in satellite images by late November, and 38% were no longer visible.
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Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab, said the UN's discovery of few signs of life in el-Fasher corroborated the lab's findings.
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