Washington, DC — Damning new reporting just dropped that reveals Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is making promises to anti-abortion extremists behind the scenes. On a private call hosted by the White House Faith Office, he pledged that the Department of Justice would work with federal agencies and the White House to make the Dobbs decision “permanent in every single state”—essentially promising to enact a national abortion ban. Trump lied to voters when he campaigned on leaving abortion to the states—a backdoor ban has been Republicans’ goal all along.
During the call, Blanche told these extremists the administration is “putting practices and policies in place” to stop shipments of abortion medication into states with bans. He also singled out the shield laws in states that protect abortion access and allow providers to mail mifepristone to patients living in states with bans, promising “victory will be soon, and…it will be permanent.” These promises to extremists go much further than his public testimony to senators at his confirmation hearing last month and should alarm anyone concerned with the future of abortion access and reproductive freedom.
Todd Blanche’s anti-abortion extremism took center stage during today’s Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, where senators voted along party lines to advance Blanche’s nomination out of committee and to the full Senate. In light of this new reporting, Senator Blumenthal called Blanche a “zealot” who “wants to strip Americans of their right to choose and states of their right to govern.”
“Todd Blanche is making dangerous promises behind closed doors to weaponize the Justice Department to enact a national abortion ban,” stated Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju. “We must believe Blanche when he says he will come for our rights. Republicans are using every lever of government to attack reproductive freedom, and voters will make their voices heard this November to take our Congress back from these extremists.”
As the Acting Attorney General, Blanche has gutted the Department of Justice’s enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, the federal law protecting patients and providers from threats, intimidation, violence, and obstruction at reproductive health clinics. Blanche’s DOJ also fired the career attorneys responsible for enforcing clinic protections and dismissed pending FACE Act cases. Just last week, the DOJ, under Blanche’s leadership, cut a 7-figure taxpayer-funded settlement to a convicted FACE Act violator.
Condemnation of Erica Schwartz Confirmation to Lead CDC
Reproductive Freedom for All also condemned the Senate’s confirmation of Erica Schwartz to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), despite her dangerous commitment to undermine abortion access and patients’ data privacy. During her confirmation hearing, Schwartz said abortion surveillance is “absolutely a critical component” of the CDC’s work and signaled the federal government could explore collecting more sensitive abortion data. The push to expand abortion surveillance is part of anti-abortion extremists’ broader strategy to monitor, restrict, and ultimately criminalize abortion access.
Schwartz’s testimony also sounded alarm bells around further criminalization of patients and providers following her pledge to ensure states are not “conflating” emergency services with abortion care and “hiding abortions” in emergency case definitions. In states with abortion bans, the distinction between abortion and emergency care has already been used to stoke fear, and delays in care have resulted in preventable suffering and deaths.
Schwartz also admitted she did not know the Trump administration had made reporting of cyclospora optional—a disturbing revelation as the parasite has infected thousands, with infections growing each day. As the new head of the nation’s top public health agency, Schwartz’s confirmation marks a troubling, continued departure from science and patient safety at the CDC.
“Erica Schwartz is the latest in a long line of extremists stacked in this administration to undermine abortion access and patients’ privacy,” stated Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju. Her confirmation cements an anti-abortion agenda at the center of the CDC’s work, rather than containing outbreaks and keeping the public safe. Every senator who voted to confirm her will have to answer to their constituents for handing anti-abortion opponents another ally in the Trump administration.”
Schwartz will report to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has faced growing scrutiny over his efforts to politicize the nation’s public health agencies. In August 2025, Kennedy ousted CDC Director Susan Monarez less than a month into the job, after she refused to rubber-stamp the anti-vaccine recommendations coming out of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, which Kennedy purged and restacked with vaccine skeptics. Under Kennedy, the country has since endured its largest measles outbreak in more than three decades, and the agency has gone without a permanent director while facing political interference, budget cuts, and staff reductions amid multiple outbreaks.
For over 55 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 4.5 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.
Trump’s Plan to End Medicare Part D Subsidies is Expected to Take Effect in 2027 and Lead to Higher Monthly Premiums for Millions of Seniors Nationwide
While Trump Continues to Raise Costs for Seniors, Governor Hochul’s Policies Deliver Savings on Healthcare For Seniors Statewide
Governor’s Expansion of the Medicare Savings Program Has Helped More Seniors Save More Than $7,000 Per Year On Healthcare Costs
Governor’s Ban on Insulin Co-Pays Saved New Yorkers Around $25 Million Since 2025
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that the Trump Administration’s controversial plan to end Medicare Part D subsidies will raise prescription drug costs for around 1.3 million seniors across New York State, according to policy analyst estimates.
Governor Hochul joined seniors in New York City today to demand that the Trump Administration stop these planned Medicare cuts and end their crusade to raise costs for millions of seniors across the nation. If the Trump Administration proceeds with its plans to end Medicare Part D subsidies, impacted seniors could see higher monthly premiums starting in 2027.
As Governor Hochul slammed Trump’s latest plans for Medicare cuts, she also highlighted how New York has delivered healthcare savings for seniors through her major expansion of the Medicare Savings Program, banning copays for insulin, and other initiatives.
“The Trump Administration’s latest attack on Medicare will raise prescription drug costs for seniors across New York — and I’m calling on Trump to reverse these Medicare cuts now,” Governor Hochul said. “While Republicans in Washington are hellbent on making life harder and more expensive for hard-working Americans, I’m staying laser-focused on helping seniors and putting money back into New Yorkers’ pockets.”
Last week, the Trump Administration announced it would end the Medicare Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration Program by the end of the year – a year earlier than intended. This program, initiated by the Biden Administration in 2024, was intended to stabilize stand-alone prescription drug plan premiums for enrollees, by providing subsidies to plan sponsors. Analysts estimate that these subsidies offset the average prescription drug plan premium by $16 per month in 2026.
Raising prescription drug costs that millions of older New Yorkers rely on every day risks putting additional financial pressure on seniors living on fixed incomes. Since taking office, Governor Hochul has been committed to making life more affordable for all New Yorkers, including seniors. Her initiatives include:
Expanded Medicare Savings Program: The Medicare Savings Program helps Medicare beneficiaries living on limited incomes by paying their Medicare Part B premiums. Governor Hochul’s expansion of the program increased enrollment by 20% to serve more than 1 million New Yorkers today. This program saves eligible New Yorkers $203 per month, meaning $2.4 billion in Medicare Part B premiums every year that New Yorkers do not have to pay.
Eliminating Co-Pays for Insulin:1.58 million people are living with diabetes in New York and according to the American Diabetes Association, people with diabetes have medical expenses that are 2.3 times higher than people who do not have diabetes and the impact is even larger for communities of color, which face disproportionately high diagnosis rates. Governor Hochul spearheaded the most expansive prohibition policy against insulin cost-sharing in the nation, saving residents millions of dollars. Estimates show that this proposal has saved New Yorkers $25 million over the last two years.
EpiPen Price Cap: The Governor signed legislation in 2024 that reduced the sky-high costs of epinephrine auto-injector (“EpiPen”) devices for consumers with commercial health insurance. The legislation required health insurers to cover EpiPens and capped the amount consumers would be required to pay out-of-pocket at $100, making the life-saving treatment more affordable for the New Yorkers who need it. The initiative has saved New Yorkers approximately $2.4 million in 2026.
Congressman Jerry Nadler said, “Donald Trump’s Big Ugly Bill already kicked 500,000 New Yorkers off potentially life-saving health coverage, with hundreds of thousands more expected to suffer the same loss next year. Now, his cruel attack on Medicare Part D will force millions of seniors in New York and across our country to pay more for the lifesaving medicines they rely on every day. I will continue fighting to protect our seniors from these devastating policies in Congress, and I thank Governor Hochul for her leadership to lower costs for New York’s seniors.”
Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright said, “As Chair of the New York State Assembly Committee on Aging, I know that even small increases in prescription drug costs can have devastating consequences for older adults living on fixed incomes. Seniors should never be forced to choose between filling a prescription and paying for groceries, rent, or other necessities. New York has made meaningful progress by expanding access to affordable healthcare and lowering out-of-pocket costs for older adults, and we cannot allow that progress to be undermined. I thank Governor Hochul for standing up for New York’s seniors and fighting to protect affordable access to the medications they depend on every day.”
Note: in his Senate confirmation hearings as Attorney General, Todd Blanche assured Texas Senator Ted Cruz he would go after women’s right to obtain the abortion medication mifepristone through the mail, applying the Comstock Act’s prohibition of mailing “obscene materials” (guns okay to send through mail, mail-in ballots not okay) and opening the door to a national abortion ban. With this reward to a convicted anti-abortion extremist, the trump administration is also opening the door to intimidation and violence against women and healthcare practitioners, much as they have given blessing to January 6 insurrectionists. Meanwhile, Trump is still pushing for his $1.776 BILLION fund to pay January 6 insurrectionists 7-figure “settlements”. – Karen Rubin, editor@news-photos-features.com
Washington, D.C. — The trump administration is handing a seven-figure, taxpayer-funded settlement to a convicted anti-abortion extremist who prevented patients from accessing reproductive healthcare. Paul Vaughn was convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act after helping blockade a Tennessee clinic. This hefty payout is an alarming escalation after President Trump pardoned Vaughn and 22 other anti-abortion extremists convicted under the FACE Act just days into his second term.
This news comes as acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, a staunch opponent of the FACE Act, awaits Senate confirmation to become the Attorney General permanently. Under Blanche, the DOJ fired the career attorneys responsible for enforcing clinic protections, dismissed pending FACE Act cases, and released a sham report attacking FACE Act enforcement. Blanche’s leadership of the DOJ threatens to effectively greenlight the terrorization of people seeking basic healthcare and shield extremists from accountability.
“While everyday families are struggling to pay for essentials, Trump and his administration are using taxpayer money to hand out massive payments to anti-abortion extremists,” Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju said in a statement. “Trump and Blanche have remade the DOJ into an institution that rewards violent criminals instead of holding them accountable—putting providers and patients at risk. They have once again flipped justice on its head. Voters won’t forget Republicans’ staggering corruption and warped priorities this November.”
The Trump administration’s attacks on the FACE Act threaten to erode the law’s protections and embolden anti-abortion extremists to escalate harassment, intimidation, and clinic blockades. Reproductive Freedom for All will continue fighting to defend the FACE Act, hold the Trump administration accountable for politicizing the Justice Department, and protect every person’s ability to access reproductive healthcare safely and without fear.
For over 55 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 4.5 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Suozzi (D–Long Island, Queens) introduced a bipartisan bill to ensure that aging adults have a plan for their long-term care. The Planning for Long-term Aging Needs (PLAN) Act, co-led by Rep. Aaron Bean (R-FL), launches a public campaign to educate families about the necessity of planning for long term care, helping them avoid the financial crisis that hits many families when their loved ones age.
This commonsense bill is part of Congressman Suozzi’s long-held dedication to addressing the long-term care crisis in this country. The PLAN Act complements his Well-Being Insurance for Seniors to be at Home (WISH) Act, which creates a federal catastrophic long-term care insurance program coupled with a robust private sector insurance market.
“As our country faces a looming long-term care crisis, now is the time to ensure our future generations have the tools they need to age with dignity,” said Congressman Suozzi. “More than 70% of American seniors will require some form of long-term care during their lifetime, but most don’t plan for it while they’re still working. This commonsense bill helps impress upon American families the importance of planning ahead and averting financial crises instead of compromising on quality care for their loved ones.”
“Far too many Americans underestimate the importance of long-term care planning until they are faced with limited options and significant stress. This bill will help empower individuals to plan ahead and make informed decisions that work best for themselves and their families. I’m honored to be working across the aisle with Congressman Suozzi to advance this commonsense legislation,” said Congressman Bean.
Almost 70% of seniors will need some level of long-term care as they get older. However, less than 30% of adults over the age of 50 have thought about how they will care for themselves if they become disabled, and about half of adults mistakenly believe Medicare will cover long-term services like nursing home care or a home health aide. With more than 10,000 Americans turning 65 every day, this betrays a major gap in long-term care planning that will turn into a financial crisis for many families as their loved ones age.
The PLAN Act addresses this problem by working with the Department of Health and Human Services to create a public education campaign to encourage families and working age adults to plan ahead for their long-term care needs during retirement. The inspiration for this legislation came from the 2005 Own Your Future campaign, which leveraged TV, radio, and mail outreach to encourage the public to consider how they will plan for long-term care. That campaign resulted in thousands more families planning for long-term care.
As the baby boomer population approaches retirement age and it becomes clear that few are adequately prepared for the long-term care costs they may face, now is the time to ensure that future generations have the tools they need to age with dignity. The PLAN Act does just that.
The bipartisan PLAN Act has the support of the National Council on Aging (NCOA), LeadingAge, the Bipartisan Policy Center Action, the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA), Finseca, Genworth Financial, Northwestern Mutual, New York Life Insurance, and Nationwide.
The WISH Act would create a Public-Private Partnership to address the approaching long-term care crisis
Previously, Congressman Suozzi, with Congressman Moolenaar (R-MI), had proposed a bipartisan Well-Being Insurance for Seniors to be at Home (WISH) Act, which would create a federal catastrophic long term care insurance program that provides financial support for disabled seniors while fostering a more vibrant private sector insurance market.
“When I was growing up, all four of my grandparents lived at our home. Three of them were very sick. My mother was a nurse, and we all helped to take care of them. Everyone has a personal story with a grandparent or a family member that needs help as they age” said Suozzi. “Right now, our country is facing a looming long-term care crisis. 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day; in five years, 6,500 seniors will turn 80 every day. Medicaid and nursing homes are already overburdened, and seniors have no other affordable options to pay for the care that they will need. We need to handle this problem before it becomes a crisis, and I believe a federal catastrophic long-term care insurance program coupled with a robust private sector insurance market is the way to do that.”
“Michigan seniors deserve to have more affordable options for their long-term care services, including home-based care. Unfortunately, too many faced with the need for long-term care are uninsured or unable to afford these necessary services, driving them to use their life savings or being placed on Medicaid. The WISH Act is a commonsense bipartisan proposal to assist those in need of long-term care by providing seniors with access to more affordable insurance options that would allow them to remain at home,” said Moolenaar.
After an elimination period of 1-5 years based on income, during which Americans would be expected to cover their own care through private insurance or otherwise, disabled seniors would receive a monthly benefit from the federal government to assist with long-term care costs. This proposal will incentivize private insurers to offer more affordable products and increase public awareness of the need to plan for long-term care costs before elderly individuals become disabled. This program will also reduce seniors’ need to spend down assets and qualify for Medicaid to afford care. By doing so, significant Medicaid savings would be created.
The WISH Act has been supported by the National Council on Aging, American Geriatric Society, American Academy of Physicians, American College of Physicians, National Alliance for Caregiving, Genworth Financial, and many industry experts.
“Older adults deserve access to affordable care at home. At the National Council on Aging, we hear stories every day of families devastated by the staggering costs of long-term care. Many caregivers must deplete their life savings or leave the workforce to care for family members. We applaud Congressmen Tom Suozzi and John Moolenaar for taking this first step in giving our nation’s families the support they deserve. We look forward to working with them to enact the WISH Act.,” said Ramsey Alwin, President & CEO of the National Council on Aging.
“Our country is rapidly aging–by 2040, adults 65 years and older will comprise nearly a quarter of the population. Right now, most adults, research shows, could not afford to cover a year or more of care in a nursing home or for a year’s worth of service provided by a paid nurse or aide. America’s current patchwork approach to long term care financing and delivery is unsustainable. We’ve long urged policymakers to recognize these realities, and provide critical, much-needed support. Mr. Suozzi’s legislation, The WISH Act, which would create a federal catastrophic long-term care insurance program, is a smart solution that would help pay for the supports that ensure quality of life as we grow older,” said Katie Smith Sloan, President and CEO of LeadingAge.
“On behalf of the American College of Physicians (ACP), I am pleased to offer our support for the Well-Being Insurance for Seniors to be at Home (WISH) Act. The WISH Act would establish a long-term care insurance system for older Americans—allowing older adults to age at home if they prefer….The number of Americans aged 65 years or older is expected to grow from 56 million in 2020 to 73 million in 2030, roughly 20% of the U.S. population…We commend you for introducing the WISH Act to help address the complex issue of financing long-term care for America’s older adults,” said Isaac Opole, President of the American College of Physicians.
“The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) is pleased to support the Well-Being Insurance for Seniors to be at Home (WISH) Act, a bill to create federal catastrophic long-term care insurance for older adults. We greatly appreciate (Congressman Suozzi’s) leadership in addressing the cost challenges of long-term care. As geriatrics healthcare professionals, our members help their patients and their patients’ families navigate the long-term care system on a daily basis. There is no doubt a huge gap in care for most patients when it comes to the provision of and access to long-term care,” said Nancy E. Lundebjerg, CEO of the American Geriatrics Society.
“Almost no one can provide for their own risks of disability in old age. One in seven of us will need around-the-clock personal care for more than 5 years – and the vast majority cannot simply save for those costs. We need federal long-term care insurance to help cover the costs for long periods of long term care! The WISH Act would save so many families from the devastating costs of eldercare and would save all states from much of the costs of Medicaid for those among us who would otherwise become utterly impoverished,” said Dr. Joanne Lynn, Eldercare Advocate, Professor, and Author.
“For more than 30 years researchers and policymakers have been stymied trying to address the long-term care financing challenge. Along comes US. Congressman Suozzi who presents a bold, thoughtful, and creative solution to the problem that will help address the needs of our growing older adult population, offer relief to states, who have been facing significant increases in their Medicaid budgets, and deliver financial support to long-term care providers, who have been trying to give high quality care in an underfunded system. The problem is urgent, and this practical, targeted solution is worthy of Congressional consideration and support by all who want to solve this growing problem,” said Dr. Marc A. Cohen, Professor of Gerontology and Co-Director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
“Genworth and CareScout have long believed that public-private collaboration is the answer to our national long-term care funding crisis. The reintroduction of the WISH Act is a solid step towards an effective combination of public and private sector solutions to help more people understand and plan for the cost of long-term care supports and services (“LTSS”). As this proposal continues to evolve, we look forward to engaging further with all stakeholders within the LTSS ecosystem to find meaningful, practical funding solutions that empower Americans to navigate the aging journey with confidence,” said Tom McInerney, CEO of Genworth Financial.
“The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) appreciates Representative Suozzi’s leadership in proposing legislation to address the need for catastrophic long-term care insurance. We look forward to continuing to discuss public-private options to finance caregiving and long-term care expenses,” said a spokesperson for the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.
“We have a storm coming in this country. Spending down your assets and living in poverty on Medicaid is no way to end a life,” said Suozzi. “Seniors deserve to age in dignity and at home with the care they need, and the WISH Act can make that happen.”
Support for the Plan Act
“I commend Congressman Tom Suozzi for continuing to serve as a champion for long-term care solutions. Today, Representatives Tom Suozzi and Aaron Bean introduced a bill that will direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop and implement, as part of the National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information, a public education initiative on the need for individuals to plan for long-term care. Far too many American families face caring for their loved ones with little to no financial resources, and they don’t know where to turn for help. This bill is a critical step forward in addressing this pressing challenge,” said Ramsey Alwin, President and CEO The National Council on Aging (NCOA).
“Our long-term care system is complex, opaque, and difficult to navigate. Education is a vital component of ensuring strong access to care and easing the immense burden on individuals and their caregivers as they navigate options for loved ones. The ‘Planning for Long-Term Aging Needs Act of 2026,’ or the ‘PLAN Act of 2026,’ provides much-needed infrastructure to ensure more individuals are aware of their long-term care options and can make plans that align with their wishes. This is a much-needed first step toward a broader conversation about long-term care education and financing that is urgently needed. We thank Reps. Suozzi and Bean for introducing this important piece of legislation,” said Katie Smith Sloan, President and CEO of LeadingAge, the association of nonprofit providers of aging services.
“BPC Action applauds Reps. Suozzi (D-NY) and Bean (R-FL) for their bipartisan leadership on the PLAN Act of 2026. This bill aligns with recommendations from the Bipartisan Policy Center’s long-term care work, which has consistently called for greater public education and awareness to help Americans plan ahead for their long-term care needs. Expanding access to information about the full spectrum of care options is essential to helping families make informed decisions and to building a more sustainable long-term care system, and BPC Action is proud to support this effort” said Michele Stockwell, president of Bipartisan Policy Center Action (BPC Action).
“People need access to reliable information about long-term care before costs become a crisis and personal savings are on the line. Life insurers offer solutions to help cover those costs, and it starts with giving people the resources they need to plan ahead. ACLI supports Representatives Suozzi and Bean’s leadership on this bill that will help people plan for their long-term care needs,” said David Chavern, American Council of Life Insurers President and CEO.
“America’s aging population demands action—together, through education, planning, and partnership. Bipartisan legislation introduced by Representatives Tom Suozzi and Aaron Bean to create a comprehensive public education initiative focused on the critical need for individuals and families to plan for their long-term care needs does just that. This forward-thinking measure will help Americans better understand the financial, emotional, and personal challenges associated with aging and extended care, empowering them to take proactive steps to protect their independence, assets, and loved ones,” said Christopher Gandy, President of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA).
“This long-term care education bill reflects exactly the kind of bipartisan leadership our country needs,” said Marc Cadin, CEO of Finseca. “Finseca is grateful to Representatives Bean and Suozzi for stepping up to lead on this issue. For too long, long-term care has been a quiet crisis in American households. Now, we have a real opportunity to turn awareness into action. When people understand the risks and their options, financial security professionals can help them make smart choices that protect their savings, provide peace of mind, and support lasting financial security.”
“The need for long-term care isn’t a remote possibility, it’s a reality most families will face, often without a plan for how to navigate or pay for it,” said Tom McInerney, President & CEO of Genworth. “That lack of awareness is one of the biggest drivers of financial and emotional strain when care needs arise. Genworth and CareScout support Congressman Suozzi’s proposal as an important and meaningful step toward bringing long-term care planning into the national conversation because better information, delivered earlier, can help individuals and families make more confident decisions and avoid crisis-driven outcomes.”
“Many people think they won’t need long-term care; however, research suggests they’ll need it at some point in their life. We therefore appreciate Congressman Suozzi’s efforts to raise public awareness about the importance of long-term care insurance,” said a representative from Northwestern Mutual.
“Everyone has a personal story with a grandparent or a family member that needs help as they age. When I was growing up, all four of my grandparents lived at our home. Three of them were very sick. My mother was a nurse, and we all helped to take care of them,” Suozzi stated. “We need to make sure the next generation knows their options so our loved ones have the support necessary to age with dignity.”
Governor Kathy Hochul signed two bills to safeguard access to lifesaving vaccines for New Yorkers as the Trump administration continues to undermine the scientific consensus around the safety and efficacy of immunization. The bills were introduced in March in coordination with New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.
“When public health comes under attack by an anti-science administration, New York fights back,” Governor Hochul said. “Sadly, our country has witnessed the deadly consequences of politicizing science and rejecting expert opinion, especially for young people. That’s why this legislation protects access to lifesaving vaccines for New Yorkers of all ages. I thank Leader Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Heastie for partnering with us on this legislation to keep New Yorkers healthy.”
The first bill, A.10710/S.9599, requires that in addition to the vaccines recommended by the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP), health insurers also cover vaccines recommended by the Commissioner of Health to the Superintendent of Financial Services, utilizing generally accepted medical standards and taking into consideration recommendations by nationally or internationally recognized scientific organizations.
The second bill, A.10711/S.9598, removes references to ACIP in the Public Health Law (relating to school immunization requirements and recommended immunization schedule for newborns), Education Law (relating to the immunizations that physicians and nurse practitioners are authorized to prescribe or order and that pharmacists are authorized to administer), and Social Services Law (relating to Medicaid coverage). The legislation would also authorize pharmacists to administer the COVID-19 immunization to children ages two to 18 under State law. Currently, pharmacists are only authorized by State law to administer the vaccine to adults.
New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, “I thank Governor Hochul for her continued leadership and unwavering commitment to protecting public health and ensuring New Yorkers continue to have access to safe, effective, evidence-based immunizations. Vaccines remain one of the greatest public health tools in history, protecting individuals, families and entire communities from serious and preventable diseases. At a time when misinformation is undermining confidence in science, this legislation reinforces New York State’s commitment to following trusted medical guidance and keeping New Yorkers healthy.”
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said, “In an era where federal health officials are undermining scientific integrity and sowing skepticism about lifesaving vaccines, New York is making the conscious choice to champion our medical professionals and reaffirm this state’s commitment to the evidence-based practices that have safeguarded communities for generations. This joint legislative package builds off our previously passed proposals and embodies a comprehensive and scientifically grounded approach to public health. It reinforces our healthcare system while modernizing our vaccine guidance to ensure it is clear, accessible and firmly anchored in expert knowledge. Together, we are not just advocating for public health; we are upholding the principles of science and evidence that have been proven time and again are essential for a healthy society.”
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said, “As the administration in Washington continues its attacks on lifesaving immunizations and places people at risk, New York will stand firm on the side of proven science. Vaccines are the bedrock of public health and a critical bulwark against harmful and deadly diseases. The Assembly Majority will always prioritize the health and wellbeing of New Yorkers and we will continue to work with our partners in government to safeguard access to these vital resources that keep our communities safe and healthy.”
State Senator Gustavo Rivera said, “I am grateful to Governor Hochul for signing these two bills and ensuring that New York State prioritizes scientific research and knowledge when it comes to life saving vaccines as well as making them more accessible to all New Yorkers. This sends a clear message to the federal administration and the rest of the country that public health must be protected from unfounded conspiracies that are putting communities in danger.”
State Senator Jamaal Bailey said, “We are committed to the scientific consensus that keeps our families safe. By having medical experts guide insurance coverage, we are creating a vital safeguard for public health in New York State. This legislation breaks barriers to care by authorizing pharmacists and medical professionals to do their jobs without unnecessary limitations, making it easier for parents to choose the medical resources they deem necessary for their children. I thank Governor Hochul and my colleagues in government for ensuring that the health of New Yorkers remains in the hands of New Yorkers.”
Assemblymember Amy Paulin said, “As our federal administration continues to undermine the long-trusted science behind lifesaving vaccines, it is critical that we take decisive action to ensure our communities remain safe and healthy. This legislation safeguards vital guidance New Yorkers need to make informed choices regarding their health and ensures that our residents continue to have access to the immunizations they need. I thank Governor Hochul for her steadfast support in protecting public health and ensuring New Yorkers continue to have access to science-based healthcare.”
Assemblymember Erik M. Dilan said, “The Vaccine Access Act ensures that New Yorkers maintain their ability to access vaccines recommended by professional medical groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians. With the federal CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices pursuing a rollback of recommended immunizations, this legislation is not a vaccine mandate but will ensure coverage that is crucial for New Yorkers to still be able to obtain those vaccines without facing additional out-of-pocket expenses, and I thank Governor Hochul for her forward-looking support of this legislation.”
Reproductive Freedom For All, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, and other partners hosted a press call on Thursday morning to highlight immigration detention as an urgent and immediate reproductive justice issue. (Access a recording from today’s call here.)
Reproductive freedom and justice advocates called for oversight and accountability for the human rights violations and the medical neglect and mistreatment of pregnant, postpartum, and/or nursing people in detention across the country. Overwhelmingly, speakers agreed that the Trump administration is choosing to enforce its extreme agenda rather than the safety of pregnant people.
Experts convened to speak on the crisis at hand, share the consequences for pregnant individuals and their children in detention, bring to light real-life examples, and discuss future actions from organizations, including legal actions to hold this administration accountable.
“For months now, we’ve seen reports of pregnant people in ICE custody experiencing medical neglect and abuse,” stated Yvonne Gutierrez, Reproductive Freedom for All Executive Director. “This is state-sanctioned violence. Trump’s anti-abortion and anti-immigrant attacks are part of the same agenda, aimed at controlling people’s bodies, denying care, and targeting communities they deem less deserving of freedom and dignity. This is dangerous, and it’s escalating. We will keep fighting for a world where everyone has the freedom to make decisions about their bodies and their futures, and where families are protected by their government, not targeted.”
“We’ve had enough of these attacks on immigrant communities, designed to instill fear and confusion and deter people from accessing healthcare and essential services,” declared Lupe M. Rodríguez, Executive Director, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice. “We know that actions to separate families and make it harder for people to make their own decisions about their bodies and lives violate our reproductive rights and bodily autonomy. Immigrant justice IS reproductive justice. Everyone, no matter who they are or where they come from, should be able to get the health care they need; live safe, healthy lives; and raise their families with dignity.”
“Unaccompanied immigrant youth must be able to access the full range of reproductive health care, including abortion, under the current law,” Brigitte Amiri, Deputy Director, American Civil Liberties Union, Reproductive Freedom Project, stated. “Any attempts to restrict abortion access for youth in immigration shelters will be devastating. If any youth in ORR custody is denied access to reproductive health care, they should contact us at 212-549-2633.”
“Our pregnant clients tell us they don’t know when or if they will be able to go to the OBGYN, and when they do go, they aren’t told when their next appointment will be,” said Jesus Gonzalez, Managing Social Worker, Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, Arizona. “We currently have a client who is in her third trimester and has no information on what the plan would be if she were to give birth while detained. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to secure release from detention for anyone right now, including people who are pregnant or suffering from serious illnesses. While our clients have reported poor conditions in detention for many years, what we’re seeing now is a choice on behalf of ICE and the federal government to detain everyone that they can, regardless of their medical history and regardless of whether they can obtain the medical care they need in ICE custody. We are sounding the alarm on the real harms of detaining pregnant people and the danger that this poses to their health and the health of their babies. We call on ICE to immediately release all pregnant people from detention and stop this harmful practice of detaining pregnant people.”
“Healthcare access is not a nice-to-have, it’s lifesaving. And reproductive health care should never be seen as optional — it’s a dignity that all women deserve,” said Rochelle Garza, President of the Texas Civil Rights Project. “Texans know this fight deeply. Those of us living on the border have experienced this cruelty for years. And it’s no coincidence that many of these immigration detention centers, whether they are run by ICE or ORR, are located in Texas. Or that the enforcement methods here have spread across the country. It’s past time to shut down these facilities and end detention of families and any medically vulnerable individuals.”
“The story of my mom– a woman who crossed the border pregnant with me– reminds me that migration and reproductive healthcare are inextricably tied. Despite people traveling miles in the hope of a better life, immigration status, financial conditions, and dehumanizing treatment create significant barriers to care,” said Congresswoman Delia C Ramirez (D-IL), lead sponsor of the Melt ICE Act. “Reproductive justice is a human right and immigrant justice demands the dismantling of systems that criminalize migration, tear apart families, and deny immigrants access to health care and full personhood.”
Trump’s HHS Targets 13 States Where Abortion Coverage is Protected With New Investigation
In other developments, The Guardian recently reported that Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services has launched investigations into 13 states that currently require health insurance plans to cover abortion care, claiming that these protections violate the Weldon Amendment.
Reproductive Freedom for All-endorsed New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill criticized the investigationsin a statement last Thursday as “nothing but a fishing expedition wasting taxpayers’ money.”
“I will fight tooth and nail to defend and protect New Jerseyans’ abortion rights against attacks from Donald Trump, or anyone else,’ she said. ‘New Jersey requires health insurance plans to follow all applicable laws, including protecting women’s reproductive freedom.”
The Weldon Amendment has long been used to let politicians and health care entities impose their personal beliefs on patients—allowing hospitals, insurance companies, and individual health care professionals to deny care, coverage, or referrals for abortion care.
This isn’t the first time the Trump administration has sought to weaponize the Weldon Amendment to attack states that have passed laws to safeguard abortion access. In 2020, the Trump Administration announced it would withhold $200 million in federal Medicaid funds quarterly from California by claiming that the state’s requirement for abortion coverage in health care plans violates the Weldon Amendment.
“Trump and his allies have lied time and again by saying that they’re leaving abortion access up to the states—and this latest move from Trump’s HHS reaffirms that this was never going to be the case. This is part of a broader strategy to chip away at abortion access nationwide, including in states where it is legally protected, and the Trump administration won’t stop pressuring providers, restricting medication abortion, and challenging health care coverage until they reach that goal,” Reproductive Freedom for All stated.
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.
Each year since 2005, the Clinton Global Initiative’s gathering in New York City has been like an alternative universe – one of possibility, progress, inclusivity, equity. The positivity and possibility so starkly contrasted with what was happening outside: intractable problems of poverty, illiteracy, abuse, climate crisis, disease and hardship, homelessness, eternal war and crimes against humanity, with those with the power and influence to make changes simply throwing up their hands, ignoring their responsibility. But here, for the two days of the conference, there are real solutions, ones that were making actual progress until Trump came into the most powerful office in the world – the first time, halting progress, the second time reversing progress, and actively putting up cruel obstacles. As only one example, literally making investment in clean renewable energy illegal, canceling ongoing projects, ordering the recommissioning of old coal plants and declaring proudly that no windmill will be constructed during his term.
But we still gather together, hearing what has succeeded, what does work, trying to work around what is hoped to be a blip in the onward course of civilization. While the conference brings together the philanthropists, civil society, government leaders, the powerful and the experts, ordinary people can listen in and learn and become armed with the information to make their own communities more successful, and know what to demand of those they elect – Karen Rubin, editor@news-photos-features.com
This year’s CGI will once again bring together public, private, and philanthropic leaders to take action on democracy, economic and energy security, climate, health, affordability, humanitarian aid, freedom of the press, women’s equality.
NEW YORK — The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), a signature program of the Clinton Foundation that unites global leaders to take action on the world’s most pressing challenges, announced that the 2026 Annual Meeting will take place September 22–23, 2026 in New York City.
2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the Clinton Foundation opening its doors in Harlem. Last week, Inside Philanthropy ran an in-depth assessment of President Clinton’s philanthropic legacy, concluding “Clinton has compiled a record of philanthropic impact since leaving office in 2001 that is unmatched by any former president and far more extensive than most people realize… CGI remains one of the more innovative and potent philanthropic efforts of our time.”
CGI’s Annual Meeting brings together heads of state, business leaders, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, and representatives from civil society to forge new partnerships, develop solutions to urgent global challenges, and drive measurable progress. Since its founding in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, members of the CGI community have mademore than 4,300 Commitments to Action in partnership withover 13,000 organizations across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors that have touched the lives of more than 500 million people in more than 180 countries.
The 2025 CGI Annual Meeting marked a key moment for the community of doers, concluding with more than 100 new Commitments to Action.
Highlights from last year’s program included:
A groundbreaking global health agreement on HIV prevention led by the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) with partners to expand access to a new HIV-preventive medicine in 120 countries by 2027.
A landmark policy roadmap to advance women’s rights into the next decade, announced by Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton in celebration of the 30th anniversary of her historic UN speech on women’s equality.
Strategic discussions on democracy, media literacy, and AI’s role in public life, featuring experts such as Dr. Chelsea Clinton and Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s cyber ambassador.
A focus on Working Groups – new, carefully curated, intensive sessions designed to develop collaborative solutions in finance, health, education, human rights, climate, and humanitarian response.
Building on a lifetime of public service, President Clinton established the Clinton Foundation on the simple belief that everyone deserves a chance to succeed, everyone has a responsibility to act, and we all do better when we work together. For two decades, those values have energized the work of the Foundation in overcoming complex challenges and improving the lives of people across the United States and around the world.
The Clinton Foundation works on issues directly or with strategic partners from the business, government, and nonprofit sectors to create economic opportunity, improve public health, and inspire civic engagement and service. Our programs are designed to make a real difference today while serving as proven models for tomorrow. The goal of every effort is to use available resources to get better results faster – at the lowest possible cost.
“We firmly believe that when diverse groups of people bring resources together in the spirit of true cooperation, transformative ideas will emerge to drive life-changing action.”
The repeal of Roe v. Wade by the ultra-right majority Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022 not only overturned women’s ability to control their own body, decide their own future, even save their own life, but the next phase, endowing a fertilized egg, embryo or fetus with personhood, essentially strips women of their personhood, altogether.
Women are not just second-class citizens, without the right to self-determination as a man is entitled to, women are mere brood mares, a slave of to the state, not much different than a beast of burden, without any rights at all – not the right to life, due process, equal protection, privacy, cruel and unusual punishment.
And the SAVE Act will make it difficult for women to regain their rights, their personhood by putting up discriminatory barriers to voting.
“Didn’t we already fight these battles?” one asked at a recent ReachOut America-Long Island meeting hosting Lynn M. Paltrow, the founder and former executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women (now Pregnancy Justice), now a leader of The Beacon for Democracy, who has been fighting these same battles since the 1960s.
In 13 states with absolute abortion bans, women no longer have the same protection under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 to keep their sensitive health information private from vigilantes, bounty hunters, spurned partners or prosecutors who are arresting women for using abortion medication and even women who have suffered a miscarriage.
Women who are on the brink of death, suffering in pain, or losing their ability to ever have a baby, no longer have the same right to Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), mandating care, or for that matter, the same protection against cruel and unusual punishment as a mass murderer awaiting capital punishment.
And to make sure a woman has no ability to obtain reproductive health care, they are prosecuting doctors, nurses, healthcare workers – even those out of state where abortion care is legal.
The result is to create “maternity deserts” – places that no longer have doctors, healthworkers, too afraid of prosecution for providing care – and a rise in maternal and infant mortality. So much for “pro-life.”
Even when abortion was theoretically protected under the Constitution, states built barriers to access – requiring abortion clinics to meet unnecessary standards, allowing protesters to intimidate patients and healthworkers, even forcing pregnant women to undergo invasive probes and to look at the image of the fetus in their womb to shame her into abandoning her intention to abort. You would think that would violate the 4th amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches.
Or how about banning doctors from giving factual information about reproductive health – a violation of their First Amendment right to free speech?
Texas and Alabama are among the states that are trying to ban pregnant women from traveling out of state to places like New York State, even prosecuting family members who might provide aid. It doesn’t matter, as the Justice Department is now arguing, that the Constitution protects the right to travel across state lines and engage in conduct that is lawful where it is performed and that states cannot prevent third parties from assisting others in exercising that right. Florida was monitoring girl athletes’ menstrual cycles.
There’s a Pregnant Workers Fairness Act that went into effect in 2023 (thanks Biden-Harris) that requires employers to give reasonable accommodation to pregnant women, but Texas has decided it can ignore it.
And none of these have anything to do with “protecting life” (if that were true, these same people wouldn’t be blocking gun control even preventing doctors from inquiring whether parents store their gun safely, despite the fact gun violence is the greatest killer of children). Rather, it is about controlling, disenfranchising, disempowering and dehumanizing women.
“Abortion laws were a way of controlling women without seeming to. But abortion is about a medical procedure and ending pregnancy,” said Lynn M. Paltrow, an attorney and activist on behalf of reproductive justice, who has been fighting for reproductive justice since the 1960s/before Roe.
Indeed, while the anti-abortionists like to portray women seeing reproductive care are Jezebels, wanton or promiscuous women (no mention of those who are raped or victims of incest), six in 10 are already mothers and half have two or more children. As Paltrow noted, women seek abortion care for many different, personal reasons including not being able to afford more children or having health issues that would be compromised by pregnancy. Also, one in four pregnancies result in miscarriage, which requires a procedure, dilation and curettage (D&C), that falls under the same definition (and ban) as “abortion,” while 80 percent of pregnancy deaths are preventable, according to the CDC.
The United States, already with the highest rate of maternal and infant mortality of any high-income country due to the lack of universal health care, is seeing these rates surge in states that have total or near total bans on abortion. And yet, the number of abortions is not going down – only access to prenatal care and to legal, safe abortions.
Right wingers use abortion to rally the Christian Right, waving the banner of “pro-life.” Reproductive Rights activists made a mistake by framing the issue as the right to abortion rather than a woman’s human rights, Paltrow maintained – an echo of Hillary Clinton’s famous speech in Beijing 30 years ago, “Women’s rights are human rights,” the First Lady declared.
“The movement tends to narrow everything down to abortion rights but the issue is not defending particular medical procedure, it’s about defending the people who sometimes need to have the procedure as a full, whole person…Abortion laws were a way of controlling women without seeming to. But abortion is about a medical procedure and ending pregnancy,” said Paltrow.
But the most serious an assault on women’s rights, freedom, liberty and self-determination is the Religious Right’s crusade to establish the personhood of an embryo, fetus – essentially giving this entity, that cannot exist on its own, more rights than the mother whose own “personhood” becomes irrelevant.
Since the embryo or fetus cannot speak for itself, this gives the state authority and power over the woman – making her nothing more than a breeder cow or literally a slave of the state. (You would think this would violate 13th amendment, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”)
She notes that personhood – or citizenship – according to the Constitution’s post-Civil War amendments, applies to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States…No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
You would think that equal protection and due process would apply to the mother (and should have been used to establish Roe v. Wade, instead of the right to privacy), but if an embryo or fetus has “personhood rights”, the woman does not.
A Catholic judge ruled that the expectant mother “has placed herself in a special class of persons who are bringing another person into existence. I submit a woman who carries a child to viability is in fact a member of a unique category of persons.”
What does “a unique category of persons” mean in practical terms? Fewer rights, no bodily autonomy.
Persons in this “unique category,” Paltrow said, lose their right to life, liberty, freedom of religion, due process of law (procedural), bodily integrity (medical decision making), privacy in medical information, privacy in reproductive decision making, being free of unreasonable searches and seizures and being free of cruel and unusual punishment, their right to reasonable bail, counsel, right to parent, right to equal protection of the law (race and sex), right to freedom of speech and conscience, as well as human rights more broadly.
In other words, a slave of the state.
What does that mean? It gives the state, the authorities, some nasty neighbor the ability to prosecute a woman for her behavior during pregnancy – if she has a glass of wine, uses marijuana, smokes a cigarette, goes skiing, even drives a car or falls down the stairs – while women are forced by the state to come to the brink of death or lose their future futility without receiving health care.
Between 1973 (the year Roe v. Wade was decided), up to 2005 (32 years), there were 413 arrests of women who miscarried. Between 2006 and 2022 (17 years), there were 1387 arrests – that is three times the incidents in less than twice the time interval. But in just the two years since 2024, the year Dobbs overturned Roe, there have already been 412 arrests of women who miscarried – a number equal to the 32 years.
Among those prosecuted: a woman who fell down steps while pregnant, went to the hospital for treatment, was reported and arrested on her way home to her two other children, for attempted feticide.
Paltrow provided some horrifying examples from cases she fought:
Pamela Rae Steward Monson had a baby that died shortly after birth. She was arrested for medical neglect – not getting to the hospital quickly enough on the day of delivery, not getting prenatal care early enough. And when she did go to the doctor, everything the doctor told her became a weapon against her. Ultimately, she was found to be at fault because “she subjected herself to the rigors of sexual intercourse.”
Though Paltrow won the case (it was featured on “Nightline,”) “it launched hundreds of cases because prosecutors saw arresting a woman for something she did or did not do during pregnancy as a way of getting on TV.”
Another case involved Angela Carter, who had survived childhood bone cancer but had lost a leg. But after she was pregnant, she found a tumor the size of a football. “She wanted to live, so wanted to have the chemo or surgery that would save her life, even if it posed a risk to the fetus” Paltrow related. Instead, her desires were ignored and a judge – who never met her – appointed a lawyer to represent the interests of the fetus and ruled that she would have to undergo a Caesarean section to remove the 25-week old fetus – which in those days, had little chance of survival – even though the operation could kill Angela. Though she refused the C-section, the judge ordered it anyway. The baby lived two hours then died; Angela lived two days, then died.
In 2008, Jennifer Jorgensen, a Long Islander, was pregnant when she was involved in an automobile crash that killed two others. She was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated and manslaughter, and though the baby was born alive, the prosecutor couldn’t convict her for anything but her behavior while pregnant that caused the accident. “They couldn’t convict her for the two who died, but violating her special obligation to unborn child.”
But this is New York State. Patrow’s group, National Advocates for Pregnant Women and Pregnancy Justice, filed an amicus brief in state Supreme Court arguing that there is no state law that says a woman can be held criminally liable for something she did or didn’t do while pregnant.
In a 2011 case (Dray v. Staten Island University Hospital), a Northwell Hospital had a secret policy allowing a doctor to overrule a mother’s decision if the doctor felt the fetus was at risk. That led to a woman being given a c-section against her will.
Since then, New York has passed an Equal Rights Amendment to the state constitution, outlawing discrimination on the basis of sex, pregnancy, or pregnancy outcome. “Abortion can’t be banned in New York State and women cannot be held criminally liable for doing something in pregnancy that somebody else doesn’t like.”
In contrast, 80% of arrests and prosecution of pregnant women that NAPW documented come from states that have passed abortion bans, like Mississippi and Texas.
“Blaming women is particularly cruel because, thanks largely to the abortion bans, there are now ‘maternity care deserts’. Since August 2023, more than 5.6 million women live in counties with no or limited access to maternity care services.
“They have nowhere to go because doctors don’t want to be in a state where they can be prosecuted for addressing a woman’s pregnancy crisis.”
Not surprisingly, the United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality of any high-income nation, and the rates of maternal and infant mortality are highest in states with abortion bans.
“Over 80 percent of those deaths are preventable. MAGA wants to lock up women as murderers – South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and Oklahoma are proposing to make homicide laws applicable to women who have abortions.”
A Nebraska teenager who had a medicinal abortion was sentenced to 90 days in jail. A Texas woman, Mallori Patrice Strait, 33, was arrested (the charge was abuse of a corpse) and spent nearly five months in jail after a December 19, 2024, incident where she experienced a miscarriage in a Whataburger bathroom in Converse, Texas. (The charge was later overturned for lack of evidence, but still.)
“If fetuses are declared children, they will be covered under criminal law,” she notes, citing a case where a woman who had a cocaine addiction, gave birth, and was convicted of delivery of drugs to a minor through her umbilical cord.
There is also renewed effort to extend abortion bans to banning contraception as murder.
If the “pre-born” have personhood and a right to life, “we lose our right to life.”
“The push to have fetus as person – fetal rights – is an argument based on fantasy that fertilized egg, embryo, fetus inside woman’s body are really outside” and have more constitutional rights than any person (including mother).
Instead, “make [reproductive justice] a conversation about our personhood, our experience, someone who needs to be treated with a right to healthcare.”
Feeling empowered to deny a woman’s personhood, though, goes back to the fact this country was founded on the notion that one could own and control people (slavery). After being shipped to America, slave women were raped – forced reproduction was a primary way slaveholders made money – producing more slaves to sell, she said.
“We need to change the conversation [from abortion] to personhood… We win when we make argument that this isn’t just about abortion, it is about women being recognized as people.”
The nearly 50 years of legal abortion made a huge difference for women – their lives were better, maternal and infant mortality went down.
Before even before 1973 when abortion was illegal, as many as 12 million were having illegal abortions – “a form of mass civil disobedience.”
Before Roe, she said, 20-25 percent of pregnancies ended in abortion.
Today, post Dobbs, despite the bans, the number of abortions has actually increased – because there is safe, effective medication and groups organized to get it – a post-Roe abortion “underground railroad”. (Actually, more than 50 percent of abortions are through medication and not that gruesome surgical procedure the anti-abortionists love to display.)
“Research shows restricting reproductive freedoms does not lead to fewer abortions- abortion bans only make abortion dangerous as people turn to unregulated back alley procedures. Maternal, infant mortality rise especially in marginalized communities.”
How ironic that other countries have seen a green wave of abortion rights. Over the past 30 years, more than 60 countries and territories – many Catholic conservative countries like Ireland – liberalized their abortion laws.
(After Dobbs, France amended its Constitution to make sure women would have their reproductive rights. “The rights of women are reversible — you are never sure to have really won,” said Geneviève Fraisse, a French feminist philosopher. “The proof is in the United States.”)
Meanwhile, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) just this month (Women’s History Month) introduced legislation in the Senate that would revoke FDA approval of mifepristone and make it illegal to distribute nationwide. The bill builds on legislation Hawley introduced last year that targeted mifepristone access through the mail.
The Mississippi House and Senate voted to advance House Bill 1613 that creates criminal penalties for anyone who manufactures, sells, distributes, dispenses, or prescribes medication abortion, including mifepristone and misoprostol. House Bill 1613 takes Mississippi’s already extreme abortion ban a step further by seeking to criminalize any manufacturer or provider of abortion medication, punishing any violation of this law with up to 10 years in prison, and empowering the state’s attorney general to sue people for violating the law and to recover monetary damages. (Wouldn’t you love this kind of penalty for manufacturers of assault weapons that are used in mass murder?)
Last year, Texas initiated legal action against New York doctor Maggie Carpenter for mailing mifepristone to a Texas resident, marking a major legal test of state abortion bans vs. shield laws. New York officials refused to enforce the $100,000 judgment due to state shield laws. (So just imagine if a Republican, like Bruce Blakeman, defeats Kathy Hochul for governor.)
So, with 60 percent of Americans saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases (38% say it should be legal) and 55 percent supporting medication abortion, to succeed in nationalizing abortion bans and dehumanizing women, they have to strip or suppress voting rights – fundamental to protecting every other right – especially by women, a majority of whom consistently vote Democrat.
The SAVE Act would require every American citizen to show a passport or birth certificate and government ID with the same name to vote. While 146 MILLION Americans do not have a passport (which is expensive, and is akin to charging a poll tax in the Jim Crow days; also passports take weeks to get, Trump has shut down thousands of places that issued them, are valid for 10 years during which a person could get married/divorced/remarried), 69 MILLION women do not have a valid birth certificate due to surname changes -a clear violation of 19th Amendment, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
Under the SAVE Act, with exception of NY, WA, VT, Mi, MN, your RealID driver’s license would not be acceptable proof of US citizenship; the birth certificate will not be proof of citizenship if the name does not match; a marriage license will not be acceptable proof of the change of name from the birth certificate and RealID, a woman would have to have her name legally changed. And while already registered women might feel secure, the act would allow purges of voters without notification and time to correct any error.
And just as there is more control over a woman’s uterus than an assault weapon, the same party that blocks universal background checks or any regulation of gun ownership when “gun” or “firearm” is NEVER used in the Constitution (“arms”, which in 1781 meant any weapon worn on the body, is used once), but “vote” and “voting” is used 37 times in the Constitution, in order to set up a government “by the People, for the People,” it will be easier to buy an assault weapon than to vote.
Come out March 28 for the third No Kings protests.
This would be the third No Kings protest – each one bigger than the last, with ever more grievances to protest (ICE/deportations, military in the streets, launching wars without Congress, suppressing free press, public education, free speech, voting rights, environment and climate destruction).
But what is disturbing is that Women’s Rights have kind of receded into a background (it was more prevalent at the earlier Hands Off! Protests).
On March 28, bring Women’s Rights back to the forefront.
Go to www.nokings.org to find a protest to join. So far, close to 3,000 protests are planned.
Governor Kathy Hochul announced the launch of a public awareness campaign to educate New Yorkers on regulations that improve access to mental health and substance use disorder care. The ‘Real Care, Real Access to Behavioral Health Services’ campaign highlights regulations that give New Yorkers with qualifying health plans access to initial outpatient appointments for behavioral health care within ten business days of the request and require insurers to help insured individuals access the care they are entitled to receive. The campaign also includes a new website with information about patient rights and how to file a complaint if those rights are violated.
“Every New Yorker deserves to have access to the care they need, and it is crucial now more than ever that the State continues to expand services,” Governor Hochul said. “By launching this public awareness campaign, more people across the state will be able to know their rights when it comes to behavioral health treatments and find more affordable options for providers.”
Led by the State’s Department of Financial Services and Office of Mental Health, the statewide public education campaign is aimed at encouraging more New Yorkers to access in-network mental health and substance use disorder care and understand their rights under these rules. Through June, multi-lingual ads will be featured on multiple digital and out-of-home platforms, including social media; transportation signage and digital kiosks; traditional television and radio; and on other digital platforms, including search and streaming services.
The campaign highlights the pillars of New York’s behavioral health regulations, including:
Timely Appointments
New Yorkers covered by individual and group health insurance policies that are subject to New York law, including policies purchased through the New York State of Health Marketplace, Medicaid Managed Care, Child Health Plus, and the Essential Plan, are entitled to see a mental health or substance use disorder provider within ten business days for initial outpatient visits, or seven calendar days for a follow-up after being discharged from a hospital or emergency room.
Help Finding Providers
Health plans must post on their websites an accurate and up-to-date directory of their health care provider network, including the provider’s city/town and zip code, telehealth options, languages spoken if the provider is a health care professional, any restrictions concerning the conditions treated or ages served, and any affiliations the provider has with participating facilities, among other information.
The regulations also require health plans to have dedicated employees who can help their insureds find an in-network provider that treats the insured’s specific behavioral health condition. Additionally, the health plans must provide a list of in-network providers available to treat the insured’s specific behavioral health condition within three business days, following the request of an insured or the insured’s designee.
Out-of-Network Care
If an insured is unable to schedule an appointment with an in-network behavioral health care provider within certain specified wait times because there is no such provider available, then the insured, or the insured’s designee, may submit an access complaint to the health plan. The health plan has three business days from receipt of the access complaint to locate an in-network provider that can treat the insured’s behavioral health condition and is able to meet the appointment wait times.
If no in-network behavioral health care provider is available after an insured or the insured’s designee files an access complaint, the health plan must approve care from an out-of-network provider that can meet the appointment wait times. To ensure cost is never a barrier to getting care, if an out-of-network provider is approved because in-network care is not available, the insured only must pay the in-network copay, coinsurance, and deductible.
These rules do not apply to self-funded Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) plans. New Yorkers who are unsure of their coverage should contact their insurer or employer. Those needing mental health or substance use disorder services should also check their health insurance policies for a list of what is covered.
New Yorkers can file a complaint against health plans not in compliance. New Yorkers covered by Medicaid, Essential Plan, or Child Health Plus may file a complaint with the State Department of Health, while New Yorkers with state-regulated commercial insurance coverage may file a complaint with DFS. The new website has pages dedicated to providing more information about mental health and substance use disorder coverage requirements, protections and how to file a complaint, visit here.
The Community Health Access to Addiction & Mental Healthcare Project or ‘CHAMP’ is a resource available to help people with insurance issues related to substance use disorder and mental health care. CHAMP can answer questions, help file complaints against insurance companies, and assist with insurance denial appeals. To learn more, visit www.champny.org or call the CHAMP hotline at 1-888-614-5400.
New Yorkers struggling with an addiction, or whose loved ones are struggling, can find help and hope by calling the state’s toll-free, 24-hour, 7-day-a-week HOPEline at 1-877-8-HOPENY (1-877-846-7369) or by texting HOPENY (Short Code 467369)
New York State Department of Financial Services Acting Superintendent Kaitlin Asrow said, “DFS is committed to ensuring New Yorkers have access to the essential care they are entitled to. A critical component to access is awareness — and this campaign strives to ensure that every policyholder understands their rights to behavioral care in New York.”
New York State Office of Mental Health Commissioner Dr. Ann Sullivan said, “These regulatory changes are helping to ensure New Yorkers have timely access to behavioral health care and that health plans, including commercial insurers, have adequate networks to serve them. This public awareness campaign will enable individuals and families to understand the changes now in effect and ensure they have access to high-quality mental health and substance use services whenever needed. Spreading word of the changes reflects Governor Hochul’s continued efforts to expand access to behavioral health care for all New Yorkers.”
New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, “Governor Hochul understands that often the first step for those in need of mental health or substance use health care is knowing what services are available and where to find them. This public awareness campaign will help New Yorkers navigate the options that are available to them so they can access timely appointments, find in-network providers and can access care at no extra cost when in-network care is not available. New York State will continue to be a leader in expanding access to lifesaving health and behavioral health services while removing barriers to care.”
New York State Office of Addiction Services and Support Commissioner Dr. Chinazo Cunningham said, “New Yorkers shouldn’t have to struggle to find the mental health and substance use disorder care they need, when they need it. Under Governor Hochul’s leadership, New York State has made significant strides in strengthening access to behavioral health care, and this initiative further advances equitable access by ensuring timely appointments and stronger accountability across health plans.”
In 2026, we’ll see a backlash against over-optimization and the bold return of pleasure and joy; women finally getting their own lanes in longevity and sports; longevity expanding into real estate and beauty; and wellness tackling major crises: disaster preparedness, microplastics and nervous system exhaustion
The Global Wellness Summit (GWS) released its annual Future of Wellness report, the longest-running, most detailed (150-page) forecast of the big ideas that will transform health and wellness in the coming year.
There have been more shakeups in the wellness market in the last couple of years than in the last 20. The market has been rewritten by high-tech, medical, hyper-optimizing approaches—from the boom in longevity clinics to the avalanche of diagnostics and wearables. At the same time, powerful new desires for a no-tech, deeply human, social and emotional wellness are raging. These polarities, which now define the wellness market, resonate across the new report.
2026 will be another year of shakeups. A year of corrections and backlashes, a crucial year for women, one where longevity moves in new directions, and where major environmental and human crises are tackled.
Four Themes for 2026:
1)An Over-Optimization Backlash: The Revenge of the Human
The backlash against stressful, high-tech wellness will reach activist levels. Wellness experiences will embrace what humans actually are: imperfect, emotional, relational and sensory—and hardwired to seek pleasure and joy. Offerings will pivot to meaning over measurement, catharsis over clinical data, self-expression over self-surveillance. “The Over-Optimization Backlash” serves as the framing trend, detailing the many ways we’ll move beyond performance to sensation, emotional repair and embodied care. “The Festivalization of Wellness” explores a rising wave of healthy, cathartic wellness raves and gatherings, where music, dance and creative expression mean wild, collective and emotional release. If fragrance has long been about status, celebrity and corporate sameness, the “Fragrance Layering” trend predicts that the ancient art of combining scents will get a modern reimagining: fragrance as a creative, cultural and deeply personal language.
2)The Year of Women
Major gender inequities in multibillion-dollar markets will get corrected. If the booming longevity market was built for men, “Women Get Their Own Lane in Longevity” goes in depth on how the future is female. Because women age very differently, with the ovary acting as “command central” of women’s health, longevity will pivot to women’s healthspan, requiring a whole new longevity paradigm and diagnostics and interventions targeted for every life stage. If men have owned sports, “Women & Sports: The Revolution Continues” details how the women’s sports economy is at its long-awaited tipping point, with a boom in new leagues and female fandom, female athletes as marketing powerhouses, and women globally turning from lonely fitness to empowering sports.
3)Longevity Expands in New Directions
Longevity will move in other bold directions. “Longevity Residences” investigates how it’s moving out of clinics and resorts and into the home, with a new wellness real estate category that supports longer, healthier lives through preventive medicine and diagnostics, biohacking, AI-enabled health tracking and more. “Skin Longevity Redefines Beauty” argues that the traditional focus on anti-aging is shifting. Innovations in skin longevity and regeneration will introduce a new era of beauty that merges cutting-edge biotech, AI, skin diagnostics and new active ingredients.
4) Wellness Tackles Major Environmental and Human Crises
In our age of multiple crises, from terrifying climate events to brains barraged by bad news, crisis management becomes a pillar of wellness. “Ready Is the New Well” predicts that if wellness always promised prevention, the next wellness wave is about survival itself, where having a disaster plan becomes as essential as having a fitness plan. “Tackling Microplastics as a Human Health Issue” provides a deep scientific overview of how microplastics are present throughout the human body and increasingly linked to serious health issues. If we’ve had decades of false wellness “detox” rhetoric, the microplastics threat looks to be real, and in 2026, public health and the wellness market will move from awareness to action. With modern, digital life keeping our nervous systems in a state of fight-or-flight, “The Rise of Neurowellness” explores how regulating the nervous system is wellness’ next frontier, deploying everything from new consumer neurotech to somatic practices to calm our nervous systems before breakdown occurs.
This is the only wellness trends report based on insights from hundreds of health and wellness experts that gather each year at the Global Wellness Summit. Each trend is packed with new ideas, sub-trends and examples of the companies blazing these new trails.
“Each year, The Future of Wellness report delivers essential insights into the forces reshaping the global wellness landscape,” said Amway chief marketing officer Melodie Nakhle. “As the exclusive sponsor, we remain committed to advancing credible, science-driven innovation that helps people lead healthier, more vibrant lives. This research strengthens our ability to deliver meaningful solutions for communities around the world.”
Amway is the exclusive sponsor of this report. A health and wellbeing company founded in 1959, Amway has a presence in more than 100 countries and territories around the world.
Probing deeper, these are the Top 10 Wellness Trends:
Top 10 Wellness Trends
Women Get Their Own Lane in Longevity Men have dominated the longevity market, but the future is female
The booming longevity market—like medicine before it—is tacitly male: women’s path to health is extrapolated from men’s data and protocols designed for men. That era is ending. Research mounts that women age fundamentally differently, with the ovary functioning as “command central” for women’s health, and its decline (aka menopause) dramatically accelerating systemic aging in women. This leads to a cascade of conditions women suffer far more and longer: from immune disorders to dementia to osteoporosis. Men suffer no such “gonadal death” and stark “before” and “after” health decline.
Slowing/stopping ovarian decline will be the next big biotech breakthrough, and women scientists are busy working on it, from ovarian stem cell therapies to tackling ovarian fibrosis. And with the new framework that “ovary-span” is the lynchpin to women’s healthspan, the wellness market will now move beyond managing menopause symptoms to tackling ovarian aging and its specific health fallouts. This requires a new longevity paradigm: interventions tailored to women across every decade (from their 20s to 90s), ovarian aging tests becoming the new vital sign, hormone replacement therapy boomeranging back as longevity medicine, lifestyle interventions that best preserve ovarian reserve—with strength training reframed as a non-negotiable for women’s longevity. The trend details how basically every wellness market is now pivoting from treating menopause to more serious whole-life, medical-wellness longevity programs for women: wellness resorts, longevity clinics, big telehealth and women’s platforms, gyms, diagnostics and wearables. And as women finally shape longevity, its “bro” culture will change, too: less ultrahuman optimization; more human approaches.
The Over-Optimization Backlash Pushing back on peak wellness
We’re living through a modern wellbeing paradox: never before has health been so measurable—and never before has it felt so psychologically demanding. Sleep is scored, glucose is graphed, aging is tracked, and wellbeing has shifted from something we feel to something we perform correctly. Therapists warn that data-driven wellness can tip from motivation into fixation, turning insight into pressure. As health data multiplies, many experience analysis paralysis rather than clarity, overwhelmed by constant self-tracking and fear of “getting it wrong.” While longevity research, diagnostics and health technology have undeniably expanded human potential, optimization without integration is proving costly. The over-optimization backlash marks a decisive cultural pivot away from peak wellness and toward something far more human. In response, the fastest-growing spaces in wellness are prioritizing nervous-system safety, emotional repair and pleasure over metrics: social saunas are growing around the world as ritual, not endurance; brands like On and Nike are ditching performance language for campaigns about softness, presence and joy; clinics are reframing aesthetics as psychological care rather than correction; and new technologies are quietly regulating the body in the background, without dashboards or demands. From scream circles and somatic release classes going viral on TikTok, to pleasure-forward food, low-stimulation retreats and regulation-focused wearables, the trend is evident: wellness is no longer about optimizing harder—it’s about feeling safer, more connected and more alive.
The Rise of Neurowellness Regulating the nervous system is the next frontier of human health
Neurowellness is moving from niche to mainstream as people realize one of their biggest health bottlenecks isn’t willpower, it’s nervous system overload. Sleep has become the on-ramp. Wearables turned a private struggle into a daily metric: “What’s your sleep score?” When scores stay low, the message is clear: the autonomic nervous system is stuck in low-grade fight-or-flight, showing up as fragmented sleep, anxiety, inflammation, brain fog, hormonal disruption and burnout. That visibility is driving a wave of interventions that go beyond supplements and mindset. “Hard-care” neurowellness is arriving through consumer-friendly neurotech: vagus nerve stimulation devices like Pulsetto, EEG-guided sleep tools like Elemind and neurofeedback platforms like Myndlift that bring nervous system training into therapists’ offices, not just homes. Flow’s recent FDA approval for an at-home neuromodulation device adds clinical momentum, signaling a path to reimbursement and wider adoption. At the same time, long-standing “soft-care” wellness anchors are being re-framed as nervous-system medicine: breathwork, touch therapy, yoga and Feldenkrais are increasingly recognized for their measurable effects on regulation, making them more mainstream, more repeatable and, in some settings, even prescribed. Next, expect brain–body research, including Stanford’s focus on whole-system connections, to push neurowellness into everyday spaces: mental health care, local fitness studios, hospitality, real estate and next-gen destination spas and clinics—making regulation a quietly built-in feature of modern life.
Fragrance Layering The new art of combining scents to create unique personalized identities
Fragrance layering—the art of combining scents to create a personalized olfactory signature—is changing the way we express ourselves, shape our moods and interact with others. Once associated mainly with luxury and seduction, fragrance is re-emerging as a cultural and emotional language, echoing ancient traditions from Egypt, Arabia and India, where scent signified ritual, status and meaning. Today, Gen Z and Millennials are reviving this heritage through experimentation, fueled by TikTok, indie fragrance communities and brands like Kayali and Rare Beauty that encourage mixing, mood-shifting and the creation of “fragrance wardrobes.” This rise of “smellmaxxing” coincides with experimental cocktailing, social-coded scents and layering workshops, which transform fragrance into a participatory, skill-based hobby. Layering is extending beyond personal fragrance into spaces and experiences, with environments crafted to carry evolving aromas that shape mood and ritual. Technology is amplifying this, as smart fragrance systems and AI tools allow scents to shift dynamically throughout the day, responding to activity, context or emotional state. In an era of homogenous beauty products, fragrance layering offers both creative freedom and social currency—a way to express identity, foster connection and reclaim individuality through scent.
Ready Is the New Well Preparing for climate disaster is the new preventative wellness
Wellness has always promised protection—from disease, from burnout, from the slow erosion of mental health. But the next wave of wellness will promise something different: survival itself. Just as preventive medicine once transformed healthcare, disaster readiness is becoming the next evolution of everyday resilience, where having a disaster plan is as essential as having a fitness plan. This shift connects mental health, physical readiness and community interdependence into one continuum of care. The implications for the global wellness economy are vast. Gyms and fitness studios will double as emergency shelters; wellness retreats will teach readiness; and demand for disaster-proof architecture will surge. But perhaps the greatest opportunity lies in the industry’s ability to hold both sides of the psychological spectrum at once—supporting people who live in chronic fear of what might happen, while also caring for those navigating the emotional fallout of what already has. As disasters become inescapable, the most forward-thinking companies will prioritize practical, proven solutions that put people’s minds at ease.
Skin Longevity Redefines Beauty Move over anti-aging: innovations in skin regeneration usher in a new era
A transformation is sweeping the beauty and wellness industries as “anti-aging” is rapidly being replaced by the concept of skin longevity. This emerging vertical merges cutting-edge biotech, proactive skincare and holistic wellness, reframing the conversation from reversing the unwanted effects of time to optimizing the skin’s health and function over the long term. Skin longevity honors skin as the body’s largest organ and a key marker of overall health. It’s driven by demographic realities—people are living longer and seeking solutions to maintain long term health and vitality—and by a philosophical shift, treating skin as a diagnostic tool and reflection of overall health. The movement is gaining significant momentum, backed by major investments and deep scientific research. Advances include sophisticated skin diagnostics, such as L’Oréal’s Cell BioPrint, and the development of new active ingredients and regenerative treatments. These innovations are creating a new age of personalized, preventative care. The trend extends beyond the face to encompass “hair longevity,” with a focus on scalp health and regenerative therapies for hair. Industry experts concur that skin longevity is a defining turning point in beauty and wellness, where the cross-pollination of science, biology and technology is unlocking unprecedented horizons for personalized, visible results and long-term health optimization.
The Festivalization of Wellness A new wave of healthy, wild, cathartic wellness raves and gatherings
A new wave of group wellness events is reshaping the global wellness landscape, marking the rise of the “festivalization of wellness.” These gatherings respond to widespread economic stress, social fragmentation and digital overload by prioritizing human connection, collective energy and emotional release. Inspired by festival and rave culture, wellness raves, sober morning dance events and multi-day immersions are reframing wellbeing as experiential, social and identity-driven rather than prescriptive or perfection-oriented. Spanning movement, music, sauna culture, learning and creative expression, they emphasize participation over performance and lower barriers to entry by creating judgment-free spaces where people explore what intuitively feels good. Around the world, sober morning raves, grief raves and headphone-led somatic dance experiences like Sanctum are turning dancefloors into spaces for emotional release, connection and catharsis. At the same time, mass-participation fitness festivals such as Hyrox attract hundreds of thousands of athletes and spectators to sweat, celebrate and heal together. Luxury resorts from Six Senses and Soneva to SHA Wellness are now hosting immersive multi-day wellness festivals, while mainstream music events like Wilderness, Lost Village and Envision are embedding breathwork, rituals and recovery zones into their lineups. The result is a global shift where wellness becomes social, expressive and identity-shaping—built on joy, belonging and shared experience rather than discipline and optimization. By making wellness playful, inclusive and culturally relevant, the festivalization of wellness is redefining health as belonging, connection and sustainable joy.
Women and Sports: The Revolution Continues More women become empowered as athletes as the women’s sports economy booms
This trend captures a long-overdue cultural and economic reckoning as women’s athletics moves from the margins to the mainstream—reshaping fitness, media, fashion, fandom and business along the way. Around the world, new leagues like the Professional Women’s Hockey League, League One Volleyball and the upcoming Women’s Professional Baseball League are launching alongside bold, culture-forward events such as Athlos in New York City, which turned women’s track and field into a Times Square spectacle complete with instant prize payouts and a Ciara concert. Female fandom is exploding too, visible in the rapid rise of women’s sports bars like The Sports Bra (now franchising nationwide), record-breaking attendance at the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup and massive global viewership for women’s cricket in India. At the same time, female athletes are becoming cultural and commercial powerhouses: Coco Gauff co-creating fashion lines, Ilona Maher and Sloane Stephens launching beauty brands, Allyson Felix building a motherhood-centered footwear company, and media platforms like Togethxr rewriting who gets visibility and voice. On the ground, this momentum is changing bodies and behaviors—women are lifting heavier, joining grassroots leagues, filling women-only gyms from Dubai to Shanghai, and embracing strength over thinness as both a physical and political act. Together, these shifts signal a structural change, not a moment: women’s sports are no longer asking for permission, but actively redefining what power, performance and possibility look like—on the field, in culture and across the global wellness economy.
Tackling Microplastics as a Human Health Issue We’ve grasped the severity of the microplastics crisis; this year is about action
Microplastics have crossed a critical threshold—from an environmental problem to a direct human health concern. Once associated mainly with oceans and wildlife, these microscopic particles are now being detected in human blood, lungs, placentas and even the brain. Each year, an estimated 130 million metric tons of plastic enter the environment, breaking down into particles we ingest through bottled water and packaged food, inhale from synthetic clothing fibers in household dust, and absorb through everyday consumer products. Early research links this exposure to inflammation, hormonal disruption, cardiovascular disease and potential cognitive effects. As concern grows, the wellness and medical sectors are moving from observation to intervention. In London, private clinics are already offering costly treatments claiming to reduce microplastic loads in the body, while consumer-facing innovations such as plastic-free underwear are also emerging. Looking ahead, microplastics may become a routinely measured health marker—tracked alongside cholesterol or inflammation—and plastic exposure a factor shaping architecture, fashion, food systems and healthcare. The challenge now is not awareness, but whether society acts quickly enough to reduce exposure at the source, before the smallest pollutants create the largest health legacy.
Longevity Residences Healthspan finally comes home
A new category of “longevity residences” is emerging within wellness real estate, designed to support longer, healthier lives. This trend signals a major shift in how—and where—longevity is delivered, as real estate becomes an active participant in extending healthy life rather than a passive backdrop. Around the world, a new generation of longevity-focused communities is embedding preventive medicine, advanced diagnostics, biohacking and AI-driven personalization directly into daily living. The Estate is building a global network of residences where architecture, circadian lighting, diagnostics and concierge medicine operate as a continuous longevity system; Australia’s Elysium Fields has plans to pair luxury living with on-site MRIs, brain scans and anti-ageing clinics; Velvaere in Utah will integrate Fountain Life’s early-detection diagnostics into its ski-in, ski-out community; and Tri Vananda in Thailand is blending medical longevity science with holistic design, biophilia and multigenerational living. Unlike traditional wellness real estate, these residences go deeper—tracking biomarkers, personalizing care over decades and removing friction from proactive health behaviors. Fueled by an aging global population, soaring investment in longevity tech and the rise of concierge medicine, longevity residences reflect a growing realization that true healthspan gains happen at home, not during one-off clinic stays. For culture and capital alike, the message is clear: longevity is no longer a service you visit—it’s a lifestyle you live in, and the home is becoming the most powerful longevity tool of all.
The Global Wellness Summit brings together leaders and visionaries to shape the future of the $6.8 trillion global wellness economy which is forecast to reach $9.8 trillion by 2029, according to the Global Wellness Institute’s 2025 Global Wellness Economy Monitor.
The non-profit Global Wellness Institute (GWI) released its annual “Country Rankings” report, packed with data on the wellness markets of 145 countries. The new research identifies the countries and regions with the fastest growth rates, and reveals the amount of money spent annually on wellness in each nation.
The five largest wellness markets are: the US ($2.1 trillion), China ($950 billion), Germany ($281 billion), Japan ($262 billion) and the UK ($261 billion). Together these five nations represent a whopping 58% of the total wellness economy.
Among the largest wellness markets, the standout five-year growth leaders are the UAE, Saudi Arabia, India, Mexico, Poland, the UK, the Netherlands, Canada, the US and Australia. For smaller markets, the growth stars include Croatia, Cuba, Romania, Costa Rica and Kazakhstan.
The new research is a story of global growth for wellness: Each of the top 25 largest markets have surpassed their pre-pandemic (2019) sizes, most by sizable margins, despite economic challenges for many of the nations. The growth shows that, as GWI partner economist Thierry Malleret put it, the wellness industry is not only resilient—it resists shocks—but is “anti-fragile”: it actually improves under stress and shocks.
The US, which accounts for a staggering one-third (32%) of the total global wellness economy, is a striking example of that. If a record number of Americans report high stress and a healthcare system in crisis, its wellness market remains unstoppable. It grew by over $130 billion just between 2023 and 2024—a gain roughly the size of Italy and Australia’s entire wellness markets.
In addition to an annual conference, held at a different location around the globe, GWS also hosts annual in-person events such as the Wellness Real Estate & Communities Symposium and the Beauty & the Brain Symposium, along with virtual gatherings, including Wellness Master Classes and Wellness Sector Spotlights. The 20th annual Global Wellness Summit will be held in Phuket, Thailand, November 10-13, 2026.
