Thanks to the state courts and legislature, as of May 1, abortion access in Florida is now more restricted than ever under the state’s near-total ban. The impact will resonate throughout the state, harming women and hurting the state economy.
Thanks to the state courts and legislature, as of May 1, abortion access in Florida is now more restricted than ever under the state’s near-total ban. The impact will resonate throughout the state, harming women and hurting the state economy.
Limited access to affordable and quality child care has been a longstanding issue across the United States. The situation is especially precarious in the Aloha State, where child care availability falls short of families’ needs, and child care costs rank the highest in the country. Last month, the Nurturing Wāhine Fund* invited me to Hawaiʻi to discuss how the high cost and undersupply of child care hinder parents—especially mothers—from fully participating in the workforce. During my visit, I spoke with [...]
State ballot questions are often overshadowed by presidential elections and campaign ads that dominate the airwaves. Not this year. Abortion has been a driving issue for voters, regardless of political affiliation. Last week, in 7 of the 10 states where abortion was on the ballot, voters elected to protect and expand reproductive freedom, building on remarkable momentum that has been surging since six states voted to protect or thwart restrictions to abortion access in 2022, followed by Ohio’s protective [...]
Originally published on How We Rise, a Brookings Institution blog. Women’s sexual health 101. The average menstruating individual will experience 13 cycles per year and will menstruate around 500 times during their reproductive life span between the ages of 12 and 51. While teenagers prefer to use sanitary napkins or pads during the onset of their menstruating years, this preference typically shifts to tampons by the time they reach age 20. As such, the average menstruator will prefer tampons for [...]
Key maternal health legislation marked an otherwise sleepy informal legislative session in Massachusetts this summer. The August 1 deadline for lawmakers on Beacon Hill to reach agreement on bills during the formal session had come and gone, leaving a number of bills at a standstill with unresolved differences. Still, continued closed-door negotiations yielded agreement on an omnibus bill aimed at improving maternal health care. With the unanimous support required for advancement during informal sessions, the sweeping legislation moved onward to [...]
September was National Student Parent Month. As the experiences and challenges of student parents were highlighted throughout the month, three organizations—IWPR, the Urban Institute, and Child Trends—leveraged their strong track records in research and policy to produce new insights on this critical topic, utilizing the latest data from the 2020 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS). The series of publications from this collaborative effort sheds light on the demographics of student parents, where they predominantly attend college, their enrollment patterns, [...]
Latina women were among the hardest hit by the economic crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, they are still facing difficult labor market conditions, including persistently low pay. This year, Latina Equal Pay Day is on October 3—a date representing the point in the year when Latinas have earned the same amount as White men had made by the end of the previous year. This means that Latinas had to work an additional 10 months to reach pay equity with [...]
