Need To Know | September 10, 2021

Research Begins to Study Covid Vaccine and Menstrual Changes; Democrats Plan to Codify Roe; U.S. Justice Dept. Sues Texas Over Abortion Law

In Nyssa's weekly 'Need to Know' series, we recap the three most important stories related to reproductive health, sex education, and bodily autonomy.

People said the covid vaccine affected their periods. Now more than $1.6 million will go into researching it., The Lily

The National Institute for Health awarded $1.67 million to five institutions to explore potential links between the COVID-19 vaccine and menstrual changes.

"Our goal is to provide menstruating people with information, mainly as to what to expect, because I think that was the biggest issue: Nobody expected it to affect the menstrual system, because the information wasn’t being collected in the early vaccine studies," Diana Bianchi, director of the agency’s Institute of Child Health and Human Development, told The Lily.

Democrats have a high-risk, high-reward plan to save Roe v. Wade, Vox

Last Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi committed to bringing up Congresswoman Judy Chu’s Women’s Health Protection Act which would make reproductive healthcare including abortion federal law taking Roe a step further.

This week, Vox released a comprehensive story explaining the intention of the legislation, what needs to happen in order for it to pass and when that could occur.

The Justice Dept. sues Texas over its new restrictive abortion law., New York Times

The U.S. Department of Justice sued Texas on Thursday over its new abortion law. The new state restrictions make nearly all abortions illegal by marking six weeks into pregnancy the limit, which is before many people know they're pregnant.

Attorney General Merrick Garland called the Texas law "unprecedented" and the lawsuit calls it in "open defiance of the Constitution."