Shefali Luthra
LightNews LightNews
banner
shefali.bsky.social
Shefali Luthra
@shefali.bsky.social
5.1K followers 380 following 360 posts
Reproductive health reporter @19thnews.org‬
I wrote UNDUE BURDEN, a book about abortion post-Dobbs. Past lives: KHN, The Texas Tribune.

Julien Baker/Boston Celtics/Jaguars enthusiast. She / Her. sbluthra(at)19thnews(dot)org; Signal: shefaliluthra.94
Posts Replies Media Videos
shefali.bsky.social
We spoke to lawyers, researchers and doctors about the conditions in which immigrants are being kept, and the consequences for their pregnancies.

All say signs point toward an increase in pregnant, postpartum and nursing people being detained. Only ICE knows how many.

Some stories of the impact:
Antonia Aguilar Maldonano, a mother of two from El Salvador, was arrested by ICE on her way to work and detained at the Kandiyohi County Jail in Minnesota for almost a month. Her youngest child is 22 months old and still nursing; he has acid reflux and an allergy to other forms of milk. The jail was not equipped to house someone who was nursing, said Gloria Contreras Edin, her lawyer: It did not have a breast pump when Aguilar Maldonado arrived, forcing her to use her hands to massage milk out until the facility was able to buy a pump. Workers helping integrate deported immigrants in Honduras told researchers from the Women’s Refugee Commission that nursing women who were deported had not received enough food and water to continue lactating. “They arrive with hardly any milk — or milk that looks like water — and this affects the babies’ weight,” one worker said, according to a report published by the organization.
October 20, 2025 at 1:02 PM
shefali.bsky.social
A quote that stood out to me:

“It gives employers maximum flexibility to design benefits that are consistent with their values."

Some religiously affiliated employers oppose IVF!

And here's more about the conservative alternatives that could also be covered under any of these new insurance
Abortion opponents have encouraged Trump to promote alternatives to IVF, including what some call “restorative reproductive medicine,” which they say treats the root causes of infertility. Many reproductive endocrinologists have voiced criticism of that alternative — which relies on tracking fertility through one’s menstrual cycle, along with emphasizing nutrition and exercise — saying it is unreliable and lacking a strong evidence base and that many patients with infertility are already taking those steps. Restorative reproductive medicine providers have met with Health and Human Services officials, encouraging the government to have insurance cover restorative reproductive medicine, said Linda Ruf, who runs the Vitae Clinic, one such health center in Texas. Overton suggested that employers could choose to emphasize this option in any fertility benefit they choose to offer. “Employers are going to be able to decide how to cover the root causes of infertility, things like obesity, metabolic health and other things that are impacting infertility,” she said. “And also, if they want to encourage their employer, their employees, to see certain types of doctors, and they can work with providers that are identifying the highest quality fertility providers.”
October 16, 2025 at 10:04 PM
shefali.bsky.social
The tenacious Mel Leonor Barclay spent time with Jacqueline, a mom in Florida whose husband was recently deported. She fears the same could happen to her.

She has no income. Someone donated her a crib & carseat. She still needs a bathtub for her son, who was just born.

19thnews.org/2025/10/preg...
Jacqueline approached the last days of her pregnancy hopeful that the place she had chosen — a large university hospital that workers at her local clinic recommended — would be a safe place for her to give birth. One night at the end of September, when labor pains grew too intense, she called for an ambulance and made it to the hospital. When she got there, she asked her providers if there were any ICE agents near the building. She had heard of a man at a local hospital being detained after having surgery. They told her there were none they were aware of. She went on to deliver her baby under general anesthesia after a long, difficult labor. “I didn’t even hear him cry when they pulled him out,” she said. Her only relative left in the area was taking care of her daughter, so she recovered alone at the hospital for five days before heading home in an Uber that a social worker procured for her and her son. “If my husband was here, he would have been there with me at the hospital,” Jacqueline said while recovering at home. “He would be here taking care of me, of us. I wouldn’t be worried about the things I still want to get for the baby.”
October 7, 2025 at 1:12 PM
shefali.bsky.social
One midwife described emergency C-sections because of untreated diabetes & preeclampsia.

One doctor has seen patients give birth to nonviable pregnancies, with anomalies that were never detected b/c they got no primary care.

And then there is this.

19thnews.org/2025/10/preg...
"In recent months, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indiana-based OB-GYN, has seen a number of pregnant patients seeking emergency attention who have not received any prenatal health care. One was 31 weeks, approaching the end of her pregnancy. Another was more than 20 weeks pregnant when she came to Bernard’s office, having developed complications from a molar pregnancy — a rare condition that means a healthy birth is impossible and that without early treatment can result in vaginal bleeding, thyroid problems and even cancer. “Anytime you’re not able to access that early prenatal care, we do see complications with that,” she said. “And many of these things can absolutely be life-threatening for both the moms and the babies.” Dr. Daisy Leon-Martinez, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist in San Francisco, said she now regularly cares for patients in her labor and delivery ward who have been transferred to her hospital because of newly developed pregnancy complications. These are often their first doctors’ visits since becoming pregnant. Many of those patients have told her that they did not want to seek prenatal care for fear of encountering immigration officials. During regular visits, she added, she has advised people with pregnancy complications that they would be best served by a hospital stay — only to be told that her patients no longer feel safe going to the hospital."
October 7, 2025 at 1:09 PM
shefali.bsky.social
woke up this week from a dream that the PTA fan club saw One Battle at the AFI in 70mm … It was a prophecy
The preview screen at the AFI before One Battle After Another
October 4, 2025 at 11:28 PM
shefali.bsky.social
In a press call just now, Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson confirmed that some affiliates — in places where abortion is otherwise available — may stop providing the service in an effort to preserve Medicaid funding.

Full quote below, replying to a q from @cartersherman.bsky.social
Our Planned Parenthood committees have created an option for affiliates to stop providing abortion in the event that abortion is able to be provided in that community. That’s not an attempt to walk away from abortion. Planned Parenthood strongly stands behind our need and ability to provide abortion care wherever it is legal in this country. It is simply an opportunity for us to engage our federation to be able to provide care and preserve as much Medicaid funding for reimbursment.
September 12, 2025 at 2:04 PM
shefali.bsky.social
to hope, perchance to dream … of duval????
ESPN column suggesting the jags will win the AFC south this year, because we have Travis and a new coach and gm, and maybe Trevor will be healthy
September 4, 2025 at 12:30 PM
shefali.bsky.social
www.wsj.com/us-news/trum...
"In practice, the most visible impact of Trump’s federal takeover has been the immigration-enforcement effort in places including Mount Pleasant. Authorities have pulled delivery drivers off mopeds, arrested construction workers and demanded proof of legal status from vendors selling mangos and watermelons. Vehicle checkpoints have sprung up nightly, and ICE vans have parked outside daycare centers and churches that tend to employ immigrants."
August 21, 2025 at 8:07 PM
shefali.bsky.social
paperback day, one year of undue burden
front cover of paperback Undue Burden! back over of paperback Undue Burden!
May 21, 2025 at 12:01 PM
shefali.bsky.social
“why is brooklyn barbecue taking over the world” dot gif
Email from Wirecutter with subject line “the best barbecue sauce”
May 7, 2025 at 9:54 PM
shefali.bsky.social
big day for the group chats
text from a New Yorker profile of Lucy Dacus, with highlighted text: “Dacus is now in a committed relationship with Baker”
March 17, 2025 at 1:47 PM
shefali.bsky.social
going to forward this one to shelby foote
Screenshot of a newsletter headline (from Civil War Memory) that says “the ‘cornerstone’ of the confederate war effort was slavery”
March 13, 2025 at 12:43 PM
shefali.bsky.social
happy Douglas Fir day to all who observe
Dale Cooper driving, saying to his recorder, “Diane, 11:30am, February 24th. Entering the town of Twin Peaks.”
February 24, 2025 at 4:31 PM
shefali.bsky.social
taking a time machine to warn 2012 shefali that the future is full of gkmc erasure :(
Image from setlist.fm showing that Kendrick Lamar did 5 songs from GNX, 2 songs from Damn, 2 songs that were "other" and 1 cover
February 10, 2025 at 1:59 PM
shefali.bsky.social
the philadelphia lamp posts right now
Simpsons meme of Ralph Wiggum chuckling “I’m in danger”
February 10, 2025 at 12:47 AM
shefali.bsky.social
The foreign aid freeze is halting efforts to advance global gender equality, stopping independent journalism and blocking programs to protect democracy and human rights. And it is (of course) blocking access to reproductive care, including abortion & family planning

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/31/w...
Some programs that don’t fit the category of lifesaving aid remain frozen, while others are explicitly barred because they fall outside of the administration’s ideological bounds, including any help with abortions, gender or diversity issues. The United Nations Population Fund, the U.N.’s sexual and reproductive health agency, said that because of the funding freeze, maternal and mental health services to millions of women in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza, Ukraine, and other places had been disrupted or eliminated. In Afghanistan, where the Taliban has banned women from working, 1,700 Afghan women who worked for the agency would no longer be employed. Some of the roughly $70 billion in annual foreign aid approved by Congress has been directed at supporting civil society in countries with authoritarian regimes, especially in places where the United States sees democratic gains as furthering American security or diplomatic interests. In Iran, where the work of documenting detentions, executions and women’s rights abuses is done by outside entities funded by the United States, activists say the U.S. pullback now means that there will be few entities holding the Iranian government accountable. A Persian-language media outlet funded by the U.S. government said their employees were working on a voluntary basis to keep the website going for now, but they had fired all their freelancers. Without money, they said they could not keep going.
January 31, 2025 at 12:54 PM
shefali.bsky.social
it’s actually very much not confusing
From the NYT: “But are alcoholic beverages, and wine in particular, truly unhealthful, regardless of how they are consumed or in what quantity? I’m not a scientist or a doctor, and I’ve frankly found many of the reports on both sides of the health issue confusing and in conflict.”
January 26, 2025 at 1:25 PM
shefali.bsky.social
lmao
Email from Bon appetit with the subject “the best doro wot in Washington DC”
January 16, 2025 at 10:29 PM
shefali.bsky.social
pretty stunning detail in the Surgeon General report on alcohol, including 16.4 percent of breast cancer cases attributable to alcohol

www.hhs.gov/sites/defaul...
Graphic from the Office of Surgeon General showing a 4 percentage point increase in women at risk of breast cancer when consuming two drinks/day
January 3, 2025 at 2:53 PM
shefali.bsky.social
we jalebi baby evangelists never stop grinding
Text message saying “actually I think jalebi baby is the perfect song. especially when he’s just listing all my favorite desserts.”
December 11, 2024 at 2:24 PM
shefali.bsky.social
“I had assumed it was for teenage girls” should be a compliment
Screenshot of NYT writer saying he was a Wicked skeptic (he was the theater reporter at the time) because he thought it was “for teenage girls”
November 29, 2024 at 5:24 PM
shefali.bsky.social
Philly Marathon rules
Post-marathon selfie Picture of the crowd at the marathon
November 24, 2024 at 6:01 PM
shefali.bsky.social
in her world, every day is international cat day
a picture of my cat!
August 8, 2023 at 6:53 PM
shefali.bsky.social
Holy shit: @19thnews.bsky.social is only three years old and for the past two years our abortion coverage has been a finalist for an ONA breaking news award
The 19th’s Dobbs coverage was an ONA finalist for breaking news
July 28, 2023 at 3:21 PM
shefali.bsky.social
the teens’ reviews are coming in for @dansolomon.bsky.social’s book
text message from my teenage brother saying the fight for midnight was “amazing”
June 21, 2023 at 5:57 PM