HBO's hit show The Pitt showed some of the barriers sexual assault survivors face in healthcare—like rape kit backlogs, and lack of trained nurse examiners. But in this op-ed, three experts explain that the reality is even more dire than what the show depicted:

For Sexual Assault Survivors, Reality Falls Far Short of ‘The Pitt’

It’s rare for ERs to have specially trained nurses working when survivors need them.

autonomynews.co

BREAKING... and Thank God... 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, father board plane for Minneapolis after detention center release - ABC News abcnews.go.com/amp/US/5-yea...

5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, father board plane for Minneapolis after detention center release

A federal judge on Saturday ordered that the pair be released.

abcnews.go.com

My quarterly bill is due for accessing federal court documents. These docs *should* be free but aren’t—though I do share my uploads via the great @free.law project. Support @autonomynews.co with a paid membership or tip jar offering to cover these costs www.autonomynews.co/support/

ICYMI, @susanrinkunas.com got the lowdown on the @plancpills.bsky.social site redesign for @autonomynews.co. One update I appreciate: A feature that tells people when they can get their abortion covered by Medicaid in their state, so hopefully fewer people will pay for pills they could get free.

Exclusive: Plan C Doubles Down on Abortion Pill Info Amid Political Attacks

The online abortion pill guide has been redesigned to make it even easier to learn where to get pills, including at no cost.

autonomynews.co

RIP, Diane. 😩

The First Wives Club - You Don't Own Me

YouTube video by WatchWithMati

youtu.be

Hanging onto every bit of good news The river has come alive in the Klamath with wild Chinook salmon. The wider ecosystem is healing. This most powerful story of Indigenous-led #rewilding after the largest dam removal in US history keeps getting better. lostcoastoutpost.com/2025/oct/9/o...

One Year After Klamath Dam Removal, 'There's Just Fish Jumping All Over the Place': Scientists Describe Improvements to Water Quality and Wildlife

lostcoastoutpost.com

New from me on @autonomynews.co: The popular abortion pill resource Plan C relaunched this week with a new design that better displays the many, many options for medication abortion in all 50 states

Autonomy News@autonomynews.co · 12mo ago

The online abortion pill guide @plancpills.bsky.social has been redesigned to make it even easier to learn where to get pills, including at no cost. The redesign comes as state officials have threatened investigations and potential lawsuits against the organization. An Autonomy News exclusive:

Happy #dafday! Did you know that our Division of Women’s Health on Emergency Medicine—the only one in the US!— is 100% reliant on your tax-deductible donations to further our mission to end gender-based care disparities in the ER? From miscarriage management to cardiac emergencies, we need you.

NEW: Planned Parenthood's Manhattan clinic will stop seeing patients as of November 1 as affiliate prepares to sell the building amid budget shortfalls. Sale announced in March Patients told to schedule at Bronx, Brooklyn, or Queens (LIC) clinics or virtual www.plannedparenthood.org/health-cente...

it's the five year anniversary of this publication in @nejm.org that demonstrated protection against cancer by the HPV vaccine - #OncSky + #MedSky.

Today marks the first day in public media’s history without federal funding. And we’re not going anywhere. Listeners like you keep our mission alive. Protect one of the last places where America comes together to hear itself. Stand with us today. Donate at this link: n.pr/46wamAj

"In the 17-year period, the proportion of vaccinated women who tested positive for #HPV types covered by the later 4-valent vaccine..dropped 94.2%, and fell 75.7% for types covered by the current 9-valent vaccine" #OncSky + #MedSky via @medpagetoday.com www.medpagetoday.com/pediatrics/v...

HPV Shot May Protect Unvaccinated Women Too

'We have that potential to actually eliminate cervical cancer in our lifetimes, researcher says

medpagetoday.com

Cried reading this news. It feels like we are at an inflection point for gene therapy & previously incurable diseases. I do worry about disparities in access, but that's a solvable problem if we make it one.

Earlier this year, ProPublica found that the sepsis rate in second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations increased by more than 50% under Texas’ abortion ban. Here’s how we did our analysis. (Published Feb. 2025)

Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did

Since Texas banned abortion, no one has studied the statewide effects on pregnant women experiencing complications. Here’s how we sifted through data on millions of pregnancy hospitalizations and anal...

propublica.org

Two babies have died of Whooping cough in Louisiana, a vaccine preventable disease. All pregnant patients and their families should be vaccinated to protect the newborn. This is Louisiana's worst Whooping cough (pertussis) outbreak in 30 years. buff.ly/pez25q3 #medsky #pedsky🛟😷

It’s all the same playbook.

Why Today?@winteroak.bsky.social · last yr.

Soooooo they're applying abortion counselling strategies to vaccinations???

This is a horrifying new trend.

Dr. Jen Gunter@drjengunter.bsky.social · last yr.

Great article in The Cut on designer prenatal vitamins and how companies are making bank by influencers peddling unproven folate www.thecut.com/article/fola...

It's a journalist's job to ask questions of government officials, no matter which party is in power. That often means respectfully knocking on doors to get answers people deserve to know. Tips and evidence are essential to our nonpartisan work: www.propublica.org/tips/

I confess myself pleasantly surprised.

Tara C. Smith@aetiology.bsky.social · last yr.

AMA representative is tearing the current ACIP a new one, suggesting they are biased and cherry-picking data.

It needs to be understood that every incremental step that RFK Jr. and ACIP take to create barriers against vaccination means that fewer and fewer people have access to lifesaving vaccines…until no one can access them at all. This is their plan and their desire. Don’t kid yourself.

I just learned about the new US Measles Tracker from @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social and @hopkinsengineer.bsky.social. #medsky #IDsky #episky 🛟😷

The decimation of public media in the U.S. begins here, in central Pennsylvania, with the closing of WPSU, Penn State’s NPR and PBS affiliate. web.archive.org/web/20250917...

‘Never would have imagined it’: Pennsylvania NPR station set to be first to shutter following Trump’s cuts

WPSU, which has been broadcasting out of Penn State since 1953, will shut down following federal cuts to public media organizations

web.archive.org

State & local officials are pulling back on fluoridation in MI, FL & elsewhere, even though it is the most cost effective method to prevent tooth decay, especially for vast numbers of people in the US without insurance or access to a dentist. / by @annaleighclark.bsky.social

Amid Rise of RFK Jr., Officials Waver on Drinking Water Fluoridation — Even in the State Where It Started

As federal agencies review their guidance on fluoridation and the nation’s top health official calls fluoride “industrial waste,” state and local governments are pulling back on the practice, upending...

propublica.org

I'm watching the ACIP meeting. #Follow along for updates. The committee will vote on whether to delay the hepatitis B vaccine for babies and whether to give the MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) and chickenpox vaccines separately.

Liz Szabo@lizszabo.bsky.social · last yr.

The meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is starting now. They will vote on delaying the hepatitis B vaccine (now given at birth) until baby is 1 month old, as long as mom tests negative. www.youtube.com/live/-6uBNXs...

There's SO MUCH going on that I'm sure this news will get lost, but: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed into law a first-of-its-kind bill that lets private citizens to sue abortion providers who ship pills into the state. Providers basically told me: Bring it on. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Abortion pill providers targeted by new Texas law refuse ‘anticipatory obedience’

Greg Abbott’s latest move fuels clash between US red states and blue-state shield laws protecting abortion care

theguardian.com

Bridging the gap between the outpatient, indie abortion clinic ecosystem & the hospital ecosystem in this moment is so crucial. If you’re speaking from inside an institution, please, I am begging you, bring in folks from abortion funds, indie clinics, and community care networks to speak & connect.

Dr. Emily Ager (UCSF) at #PWIMS2025 cites this key JAMA paper from 2023: pts who present to the ED for early pregnancy loss vs outpatient setting are less likely to receive active management, even controlling for patient preference. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Early Pregnancy Loss Management in the Emergency Department vs Outpatient Setting

This cohort study compares the management and outcomes of patients with early pregnancy loss who present to the emergency department vs outpatient clinics.

jamanetwork.com

@darakass.com at #PWIMS2025: “If you watch #ThePitt, you know America thinks you can get an abortion in the ED. The truth is you most often can’t.” We wrote about that disconnect here: www.autonomynews.co/the-pitt-sho...

‘The Pitt’ Showed What Abortion Pill Access Should Look Like

The popular HBO show’s accidentally aspirational mifepristone plotline should inspire more emergency rooms to offer medication abortion.

autonomynews.co

𝐀𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐥𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑜𝑛, 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑑 After equipping this item, you may not remove it from your hand. You must gaze deeply into it with every action and be driven mad. Messages from the damned come to you in haunting whispers and chilling images. Every year, you must purchase the newest version.