Keeping up with the news can be hard — but we’re here to make it a little easier. The NCJW team has pulled together a list of headlines we’re reading and paired them with some actions you can take to help. Here’s what’s happening the week of September 1, 2026.

Five states are making abortion medication available to students on campus

Colorado has joined California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York in requiring public colleges and universities to make sure students can access abortion medication, either on campus or through an off-campus provider. This move will make abortion care significantly more accessible to students in these states. Learn more at Rewire News Group.

“In a post-Dobbs era where patients and providers navigate a frightening national landscape, Colorado has stepped up to safeguard reproductive healthcare,” Colorado Democratic state Rep. Kenny Nguyen, who cosponsored the measure in his state, said in a statement. “While abortion is legal, it’s not always accessible, and this law makes it easier for college students to access abortion medication on campus.”

In the wake of the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and paved the way for dozens of states to enact near-total abortion bans, this is a big way states can expand access to abortion care.

Here’s what you can do

In the wake of Dobbs, it’s never been more important for us to organize at the state and community level to protect abortion access — and that starts by organizing our communities. Let us know you’re in by RSVP’ing for Repro Shabbat 2027 now!

The Trump administration is trying to make voting by mail impossible for millions of Americans

The Postal Service is moving forward with a “secretive, rushed” effort to carry out President Trump’s executive order trying to limit mail-in voting — despite a court order blocking those plans, according to a whistle-blower report in the New York Times. If implemented, this executive order could make mail-in voting impossible for millions of people. 

The whistle-blower went so far as to say that if “even one bar code on a single ballot” fails to scan properly, it could cause this “slapdash” system to reject tens of thousands of ballots. We are gravely concerned about the implications of this on our collective democracy.

Here’s what you can do 

 With access to the ballot box under attack, it’s never been more important for us to get ourselves and our communities out to the polls. Let us know we can count you in — sign the pledge to vote now.

President Trump’s FDA pick is an anti-abortion extremist

Heidi Overton, President Trump’s pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration, has opposed medication abortion, attacked gender-affirming care, and applauded President Trump’s efforts to spread misinformation about vaccines, reports NPR. If confirmed, she could put access to reproductive health care, including medication abortion, at risk. 

The FDA is currently conducting a politically-motivated review of mifepristone, one of the two medications often used in medication abortion. Mifepristone is highly safe and effective. The medication has been FDA approved for over 25 years and is used in roughly 60% of abortions in the United States. In 2021, the FDA lifted medically unnecessary restrictions that had required mifepristone to be provided in-person. Now, opponents to abortion access have pushed the FDA to consider changing the regulations again. 

If confirmed to lead the FDA, Overton would step into the middle of that review process, potentially putting access to mifepristone at further risk.     

Here’s what you can do

Decisions about our bodies and our health care should be between us and our doctors — not politicians. Join the movement to tell the FDA to leave mifepristone alone. Click here to get your postcards.

An Israeli aid group is opening a children’s health clinic in Gaza

Israeli aid group Natan is opening a clinic in southern Gaza to provide health care to children displaced by the war. The clinic will work with the Gaza Children Village, an organization that provides educational programs and hot meals to thousands of orphans in the strip, reports Haaretz. 

The initiative is being led by Natan CEO Alice Miller, who is best known for the landmark petition she filed with the High Court of Justice in 1994 that paved the way for women to enter the Israeli Air Force’s pilot training course. 

“Children suffering in war zones are not participants in the fighting. They are victims. Since the war ended, no one at Natan has doubted that this is what we need to do,” Miller said in the article. 

Natan has also launched a program to distribute hygiene kits to women, including reusable menstrual pads and lice combs.      

“You see a woman who could be my mother, sitting there and trying to survive the tough situation she’s found herself in. For the first time, she sees an Israeli who not only doesn’t want to kill her, but wants to help her. I truly feel that we are on a mission here, even if not everyone is able to understand it.”                   

Here’s what you can do

Miller’s leadership underscores what NCJW has often emphasized: that women have a critical role to play in shaping national response and recovery after times of war. That’s why NCJW’s Connecting For Impact initiative is supporting feminist leaders from across the spectrum of Israeli society to drive collective impact. Support our work here. 

Abortion restrictions cause the average woman to lose 8.5% of her earnings

Abortion restrictions aren’t just bad for our health and freedom — they’re bad for our wallets. For the average woman, abortion restrictions result in an 8.5 percent earnings decline; for Black women, it’s 9.9 percent, reports Ms. Magazine.

According to a new study from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research:

• Widespread abortion restrictions across numerous states and the rollback of federal funding and protections costs our country $140 billion annually.
• The 16 states with the most restrictive abortion policies cost the national economy nearly $68 billion annually in lost earnings.
• Removing barriers to reproductive healthcare could mean nearly 325,000 more women participating in the workforce each year.

“We believe abortion access is an integral part of that affordability conversation,” wrote Dr. Jamila K. Taylor, president and CEO of the IWPR, and National Abortion Federation President and CEO Brittany Fonteno, who authored the article. “That demands a healthcare system guided by medicine rather than politics, compassion rather than judgment and access rather than obstacles.”

Here’s what you can do

Everyone deserves the right to control their own bodies and their own futures. Urge your lawmakers to support the EACH Act to ensure equal access to abortion care, no matter people’s income, identity, or ZIP code.