elisha brown

Elisha Brown

[email protected] https://bsky.app/profile/elishabrown.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/in/elishacbrown

Elisha Brown is the Stateline Newsletter Author and a staff writer. Previously she was the Reproductive Rights Today newsletter author for States Newsroom. She is based in Durham, North Carolina, where she previously worked as a reporter covering reproductive rights, policy, and inequality for Facing South. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic, and Vox. She attended American University in Washington, D.C. and was raised in South Carolina.

Black midwives are suing Southern states, claiming regulations make it harder to help patients
Stateline

Black midwives are suing Southern states, claiming regulations make it harder to help patients

Jun 02, 2026
Elisha Brown
Black midwives in the South, a region rife with racial disparities in maternal health access and maternal mortality, are leading lawsuits over state regulations that they say limit their ability to provide care. Women behind the litigation say midwives can...
A giant inflatable intrauterine device is displayed outside of the Virginia Capitol in Richmond on Feb. 7, 2025.
National

Virginia secures birth control access as other Southern states eye abortion pill manufacturers

Apr 09, 2026
Elisha Brown
Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed a bill Wednesday that ensures the right to contraception in the commonwealth — legislation that cleared the General Assembly in previous sessions only to be rejected by her predecessor. “After championing this legislation during...
Executive Director Robin Marty said she was on the brink of closing the WAWC Healthcare clinic until she managed to hire an OB-GYN last year who’s from Alabama and willing to work under the state’s near-total abortion ban. (Photo by Vasha Hunt/Alabama Reflector)
National

Reproductive health care restrictions likely to repel provider workforce, research shows

Mar 27, 2026
Elisha Brown
When an Alabama clinic’s only OB-GYN left the state to provide abortion care in Colorado, the head of operations thought the facility would have to close. But Robin Marty, executive director at WAWC Healthcare in Tuscaloosa, hired a doctor in...
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, talks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 28, 2025.
National

Abortion pill crackdowns clear two legislatures; Hawley looks to revoke mifepristone’s US approval

Mar 12, 2026
Elisha Brown
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley filed legislation this week that would undo federal approval of mifepristone, a key abortion drug, nationwide. The move underscores the anti-abortion movement’s growing dissatisfaction with the Trump administration’s approach to the issue. “Congress must act now...
Republican Tennessee Sen. Mark Pody speaks in Tennessee.
National

Bills that would classify abortion as homicide fizzle, while pill crackdowns advance

Feb 26, 2026
Elisha Brown
Some Republican lawmakers have routinely proposed criminally prosecuting women for getting abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, despite bipartisan condemnation and criticism from national anti-abortion organizations. These bills never made it to the finish line, but...
Abortion pill lawsuit draws briefs from domestic violence groups, telehealth providers and AGs
Louisiana

Abortion pill lawsuit draws briefs from domestic violence groups, telehealth providers and AGs

Feb 23, 2026
Elisha Brown
Domestic violence awareness groups, telehealth organizations and nearly two dozen Democratic attorneys general filed briefs Monday in a lawsuit that could curb medication abortion access nationwide. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and a woman who said her ex-boyfriend pressured her...
Republican Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill stands behind a podium
National

Louisiana mifepristone lawsuit could hinder telehealth abortion nationwide

Feb 23, 2026
Elisha Brown
A hearing is set for Tuesday in a federal lawsuit led by Louisiana seeking to further restrict access to mifepristone by asking the courts to stop abortion pills from being mailed across the country. The Department of Justice has argued...
Clinic escorts attempt to stand between patients and anti-abortion protesters outside A Preferred Women’s Health Center of Atlanta in Forest Park, Georgia, in July 2023
National

Trump wields abortion clinic law against church demonstrators, providers still fear violence

Feb 13, 2026
Elisha Brown
The Trump administration is using a law Congress passed in the 1990s after a wave of deadly violence at abortion clinics to prosecute demonstrators and reporters who were at a immigration-related church protest in Minneapolis last month. Independent journalists Don...
Two boxes of mifepristone sit on a table next to a pill blister pack.
National

Bipartisan efforts to boost birth control access emerge as GOP keeps pushing abortion pill bills

Feb 12, 2026
Elisha Brown
Republican-majority legislatures have continued to focus on abortion medication by proposing legislation to further restrict mifepristone and misoprostol. GOP lawmakers are advancing bills that would allow people to sue out-of-state abortion providers and manufacturers. Measures popping up in Missouri, South...
Drugmakers ask to intervene in Louisiana lawsuit against mailing abortion drugs
Louisiana

Drugmakers ask to intervene in Louisiana lawsuit against mailing abortion drugs

Feb 05, 2026
Elisha Brown
Two drug manufacturers asked a federal judge Tuesday if they can intervene in a Louisiana-led lawsuit seeking to stop a key abortion drug from being mailed to patients. The filings come less than a week after the Trump administration sought...
Republican Indiana Sen. Tyler Johnson, introduces his abortion-inducing drugs bill in committee on Jan. 21, 2026. Johnson, an emergency room physician, is sponsoring legislation that would allow Hoosiers to sue people involved in sending abortion pills into the state. (Photo by Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
National

Bills cracking down on abortion pills advance in states that already ban most abortions

Jan 29, 2026
Elisha Brown
Even though many legislative sessions only just convened across the country this month, efforts to restrict access to abortion pills are in full swing, particularly in states that already ban abortion. Nearly 200 anti-abortion bills have been introduced in 29...
The William L. Guy Federal Building in Bismarck.
National

Feds strike deal with Christian business group over abortion, gender-related worker protections

Jan 13, 2026
Elisha Brown
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reached an agreement this month with a Christian business group to ignore regulations that allowed employees to receive abortion-related accommodations and barred workplace discrimination based on gender identity. Christian Employers Alliance President Margaret Iuculano...