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‘The smoke enters your body’: A toxic trash site in Kenya is making women sick

As rubbish piles up on a vast dumpsite, the women who sift through it for their livelihood are suffering reproductive health problems that scientists say have been overlooked.

Related: Air pollution’s impact on women’s health is not getting the attention it needs, scientists warn

by Moraa Obiria, Louise Donovan

Published in partnership with VICE World News and the Nation

Violent crime victims in New York struggle to access funds due to them

A state fund designed to help the targets of physical attacks only reaches a small fraction of the people who need it most.

by Jessica Washington

Co-published with THE CITY

Financial Pandemic: As living costs spiral in Kenya, a mother sacrifices to spare family from ‘dire times’

With food prices soaring to over 12% over the past year, the economic repercussions of the pandemic are being heavily felt across Kenya. Women are particularly vulnerable.

by Agatha Gichana

Co-published with the Nation

Financial Pandemic: ‘Sri Lanka is not a country for poor people now’

Cooking has become an act of danger for a Sri Lankan woman who can no longer afford to safely heat her stove. As gas prices more than double, kerosene and firewood, more affordable but hazardous, are the next viable option. Read Feroza Hussein’s story on how the country’s economic crisis has permeated all aspects of her life.

by Rathindra Kuruwita

Co-published with the Nation

Financial Pandemic: 'Everything is harder now'

Asencia Tuamana, 55, started “Bello Horizonte,” a communal kitchen, in September 2020 to share resources during a nationwide lockdown that left millions of Peruvians with no income. She serves as many as 140 people during the week — even as rising costs make her daily work increasingly more difficult.

by Jimena Ledgard

Co-published with Nation

‘We have to fight back.’ Afghan women are losing their hard-won right to work under the Taliban

Afghan women's participation in the workforce rose steadily in the 20 years after the Taliban were ousted from government. Since they returned to power, those gains have been rapidly eroding. Now activists fear a new edict mandating the burqa in public could destroy them altogether.

by Zahra Nader

Co-published with TIME

The draft abortion ruling that shook the states

While the Supreme Court justices before now contorted themselves to find common legal ground on this most controversial of issues, the leaked draft opinion that would overturn the landmark abortion decision in Roe V. Wade was anything but mealy-mouthed. But what should we make of all of this? Does this unofficial, unauthorized document even matter? Here are five ideas to keep in mind as we continue to make sense of what has happened and of what may lie ahead.

New York prepares to become an abortion safe haven

In the wake of a leaked decision by Justice Alito gutting abortion rights, New York state lawmakers have introduced measures to expand access for the expected influx of abortion seekers.

by Jessica Washington

Co-published with THE CITY

‘I can’t keep this baby’: Pregnant Ukrainian refugees struggle to get abortion care

Poland has become a place of refuge for millions of women fleeing war in Ukraine. It also has some of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws, posing a major challenge to refugees with unwanted pregnancies. Some have survived rape, others simply cannot imagine taking on the responsibility of a child while their futures are so uncertain.

by Hanna Kozlowska

Co-published with The Cut

What the Taliban means for queer Afghans

During the US occupation, little was done to build a support network for the LGBTQ+ community in Afghanistan. Now their lives are in danger as they struggle to flee.

by Zahra Mousawi, Zahra Nader

Co-published with Foreign Policy

Reporter’s Notebook: Indoor air in India can be just as bad as the country’s toxic smog. Was I wrong to be surprised?

India's polluted skylines regularly make international news. But it’s only now coming to light that air quality inside homes, which mainly affects women in the kitchen, can be just as bad.

by Disha Shetty

Deaths by suicide often uncounted in states’ maternal mortality reviews

The U.S. maternal mortality rate in 2020 reached a high never before seen since tracking began. But most states aren’t counting suicides and overdoses as a part of their formal pregnancy-related death review, which means the maternal mortality rate could be even higher.

by Erica Hensley

Co-published with Reckon

Air pollution's impact on women's health is slipping under the radar, public health experts warn

Evidence is clear that air pollution is linked to higher rates of miscarriages, pregnancy complications and stillbirths, affecting women’s reproductive health. But public health experts say that air pollution’s impact on women's health is not getting the attention it needs.

by Disha Shetty

Co-published with Scroll and Health Policy Watch

Early puberty cases have surged during covid, doctors say

A mother in Mumbai noticed that her eight-year-old daughter seemed to be developing breasts. Then came bloodstains on her clothes. The little girl had gotten her first period. Did the pandemic push the child into puberty? Doctors around the world blame the pandemic for a surge in early puberty?

by Puja Changoiwala

Co-published with The Washington Post

Ukrainian Women on the Front Lines but Not in the Headlines

Ukrainian women are at the center of the war—but too often at the margins of public imagination.

by Xanthe Scharff

Analysis: Where democracy falters, so do reproductive rights

Reproductive rights don’t exist in a vacuum: They are inextricably linked to democratic institutions, with threats to one reinforcing threats to the other. As countries like Poland, Brazil, Hungary, and the United States face threats to their democracies, so do the women of those countries face threats to their reproductive rights.

by Hanna Kozlowska

Co-published with Foreign Policy

DA won’t drop charges against Manhattan woman charged with murder who says she acted in self-defense

Tracy McCarter won a small concession from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Monday in a case alleging she murdered her estranged husband. But the DA’s office stopped short of dropping a murder charge for an act she says was in self-defense.

by Jessica Washington

This story was co-published with THE CITY.

Do police help or hurt domestic violence survivors? New York City council members take a stand

Tiffany Cabán and Mercedes Narcisse plunge New York City’s legislature into a fierce debate dividing domestic violence advocates about the role of law enforcement in getting help for survivors.

by Jessica Washington

Co-published with THE CITY

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