WRDI Watch

If you've followed WRDI for a while, you know we talk a lot about access.

Earlier this year, I wrote about the difference between having a right on paper and being able to exercise it in practice. Laws matter enormously. But so do courts, funding, providers, geography, and the systems that determine whether someone can actually use the rights they have.

And then this week, a story out of a Michigan high school made me think about access in a different context:

Lakeview High School in St. Clair Shores requires ninth-grade girls who miss swimming because of their periods to provide a note from a parent stating the length of their menstrual cycle before they can make up the missed days. Without the make-up, the missed swimming can impact their grade.

What?

Menstruation is a normal biological function, but it is also personal health information, especially for a teenage girl. Why should she have to disclose details about her period to receive the same opportunity to make up classwork?

If a boy misses gym because he's sick, does the school ask exactly what happened to his body? How high was his fever? How many times did he vomit? Or do we just need to know he had an excused absence?

The story raises important questions about privacy and equal treatment. But it also got me thinking about access in its most basic sense: what additional hurdles does someone have to clear just to participate?

That question runs through several reproductive-health developments we're following right now. They're very different stories. But together, they show four dimensions of access we think are worth watching: legal, physical, publicly funded, and state-protected.

— Julie

1. Legal access: Mifepristone is back in court

The legal and regulatory fight over mifepristone has entered another chapter.

On September 9, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit heard Louisiana's challenge to the FDA rules that allow mifepristone to be prescribed through telehealth and delivered by mail. During oral arguments, judges questioned whether Louisiana had demonstrated the legal standing necessary to bring the case.

But the lawsuit is only part of this story.