News

Surrogacy goes more mainstream

By Carly Mallenbaum, Axios [cites Emily Galpern] | 03.29.2026

More Americans are turning to surrogacy to build their families, as the practice becomes more common and more publicly discussed.

Why it matters: As surrogacy becomes more visible and accessible, ethical, legal and cultural tensions become harder to ignore...

U.S. Federal

Eugenics and the Modern Synthesis, Part I

By Jessica Riskin, Los Ángeles Review of Books | 03.23.2026

This is the first part of the 14th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring the history of eugenics and the ways it shapes our present. The series is organized by...

Civil Society

Surrogacy laws are all over the map

By Carly Mallenbaum, Axios [cites Surrogacy360] | 03.29.2026

Without a federal law, surrogacy in the U.S. is governed by a patchwork of state regulations/

Why it matters: Confusing...

Policies

Project Eugenics: The Rollback of Disability Rights

By Kiana Jackson and Shannon Stubblefield, New Disabled South | 02.09.2026

^{"MC0_8230" via Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by 2.0}

This report documents a deliberate assault on disabled people in...

U.S. States

three prescription medication bottles turned on their side with pills spilling out

TrumpRx claims to offer the lowest prices. But many drugs have cheaper generics

By John Wilkerson, J. Emory Parker, Chelsea Cirruzzo, Elaine Chen, and Daniel Payne, STAT | 02.06.2026

WASHINGTON — President Trump said his administration’s new TrumpRx website will offer the cheapest prices in the world for 43...

U.S. Federal

NM memorial calling for study of forced sterilization against women of color advances

By Leah Romero, SourceNM | 02.06.2026

^{An historical poster from 1977 created by Rachael Romero for the

Wilfred Owen Brigade in San Francisco, California. (Library of...}

U.S. States

He Built a Server to Protect Indigenous Health Data

By Katrina Miller, The New York TImes | 02.05.2026

Joseph Yracheta: The Native Biodata Consortium is the first nonprofit data and sample repository within the geographic bounds and legal...

U.S. Federal

Subsidising Birth: Pronatalist Policy and the Rise of Assisted Reproductive Technologies

By Pei-Chieh Hsu, Taiwan Insight | 02.02.2026

Across the globe, the reliance on assisted reproductive technology (ART) to reproduce is growing. In 2019, the International Committee for...

Policies

a photo of a highway in California with a firetruck and a fire in the trees in the distance

The EPA just erased a century of public health progress

By Michelle A. Williams, Stat | 02.02.2026

^{“Air pollution shortens lives.”}

What is the value of a human life? According to the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency...

Biopolitics

test tube filled with eggs held by tweezers

Why these women break the law to sell their eggs for IVF

By Diaa Hadid and Shweta Desai, NPR | 01.29.2026

MUMBRA, India — The afternoon sun shines on the woman in a commuter-town café, highlighting her almond-shaped eyes and pale...

Assisted Reproduction

It’s Time to Safeguard Genomic Data

By Lauren Hammer Breslow and Vanessa Smith, Bill of Health | 01.28.2026

On Jan. 24, 2026, the New York Times reported that DNA sequences contributed by children and families to support...

U.S. Federal

The ‘R-Word’ Returns, Dismaying Those Who Fought to Oust It

By Dan Barry and Sonia A. Rao, The New York Times | 01.26.2026

^{Photo by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States

of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons}

Late last...

Society