Garnet Henderson

@garnethenderson.com

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Cofounder @autonomynews.co. Investigative reporter and researcher: abortion, reproductive justice, disinformation. Seen in The Nation, ELLE, Scientific American, WIRED, and more. Wyoming-born New Yorker. Signal: garnethenderson.12 garnethenderson.com

A picture of the top of Garnet’s fiddle leaf fig tree, with two new branches extending out just near the top of the trunk
Dear Acting Attorney General Blanche: I write to refer to the Department of Justice new information my office has received concerning an organized international effort to profit from the violation of state and federal law. I believe these activities warrant criminal investigation. At the center of the effort is an entity called Plan C, a left-wing dark-money operation that styles itself a "public health information campaign" but functions, in practice, as the referral and logistics hub for shipping abortion drugs into states whose laws prohibit it. Plan C does not operate alone. Danco Laboratories, a large and wildly profitable manufacturer of mifepristone, lists Plan C among the patient resources on its own website, steering prospective customers to an organization that instructs Americans on how to break the law.' On information and belief, GenBioPro, the generic manufacturer, maintains a similar referral relationship with Plan C. The Department is well positioned to determine the full extent of these relationships, including any financial ties. Consider what Plan C does, much of it in its own words: *Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas each specifically prohibit providers from mailing abortion drugs to patients. Plan C nonetheless directs residents of all three states to obtain pills by mail, including from two foreign clinics, that ship mifepristone to U.S. addresses from abroad. Plan C warns that using these clinics carries "possible legal risk."  *Plan C likewise directs residents of those states to e-commerce websites that sell and ship dangerous pills with no prescription, no identification, and no medical consultation of any kind. By Plan C's own description, these websites "sell generic abortion pills that are not regulated or inspected by the US government," and "Plan C tests these websites by buying pills from them.”
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Screenshot of a text message that says: “not Lindsey graham stealing Mitch mcconnell’s dead piece of shit thunder”
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A screenshot from the NLRB website showing the details of an unfair labor practice charge filed against Rewire News Group by the Washington-Baltimore News Guild. The allegations are: 8(a)(3) Changes in Terms and Conditions of Employment 8(a)(1) Coercive Actions (Surveillance, etc) 8(a)(1) Concerted Activities (Retaliation, Discharge, Discipline)
Garnet wearing her All Comstocks Are Bastards tee in black
We are the only outlet on this beat without a history of union busting, or of taking money from corporate interests. We’re also the only worker-owned outlet covering reproductive rights and justice. And we’re doing it without ads or a paywall.
A photo of Garnet imitating the “smiling through it all I can’t believe this is my life”LeBron James meme
Picture of Garnet sitting on a table in front of a projector showing a slide that says "Disarming Disinformation"
An NPR headline that says “For far-right extremists, the rise of a new enemy: women”
However, while the Fifth Circuit’s order was briefly in effect from the evening of May 1 until the morning of May 4, multiple sources told Autonomy News that abortion providers in some states were advised not to prescribe mifepristone in person, either. This concern arose because of the fact that, in certain restrictive states, clinicians could have been accused of prescribing “misbranded” drugs if they gave patients mifepristone even in person for abortion or miscarriage, because the actual label and drug information would have been out of step with the restrictions imposed by the Fifth Circuit.
A screenshot from Garnet’s TikTok showing the video was removed for “violating community guidelines.”
a screenshot from moms.gov featuring this description of crisis pregnancy centers: Pregnancy centers provide supportive services for mothers and families. Many centers offer pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, STD/STI testing and treatment, parenting support, childbirth classes, medical referrals, and material goods like clothes and diapers—at no cost to you. There are more than 2,750 pregnancy centers across the country. The majority of pregnancy centers offer limited medical services. Check with your local center for details.
A skeet of Garnet's from January 8 that says "Begging you guys to get a frame of reference for reproductive coercion and control beyond the Handmaid’s Tale. United States history is a great place to start!"
A photo of the George Washington Bridge and the Little Red Lighthouse, taken from Garnet’s yellow kayak on the Hudson River. Another paddler in a red kayak is visible heading toward the bridge.
Garnet sits on a table in front of a projector screen showing a slide that says “disarming disinformation”
The first page of a Google slides presentation. The title is "Disarming Disinformation" and the slide also says "Media literacy tools for a poisonous information environment" and "Collective Power 2026."
A picture of the hole in Garnet’s bathroom floor, where the bathroom sink used to be.
If the Trump administration’s position is that a provider who prescribes off-label medications for a purpose it doesn’t like is engaging in conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, that could be the end of misoprostol-only abortion before it even gets started. To be sure, there will still be community networks providing abortion pills outside the health system. But nearly 30 percent of all clinician-provided abortions in the U.S. are currently done via telehealth—tens of thousands per month. It’s not clear whether existing community networks could absorb this volume, or whether struggling brick and mortar clinics could, either.
Garnet and Susan smile at the camera while wearing their Autonomy News All Comstocks Are Bastards merch
Juan Camilo Ferreira: Yes. Thank you, Matt, and thanks, Jason. Yes. We are pretty confident that with this window that we have and the efforts that we have already planned, we will be able to recertify the prescribers that constantly use or loyalty use of Nexplanon. This physicians that have been already certified before will have a very small requirement that will take them around 15 to 20 minutes to be certified. So we are pretty confident that we'll be able to maintain the volume based on the retraining that I believe was your question. The other factors are the ones that Matt and Joe already covered.
A picture of the George Washington Bridge taken from a kayak on the Hudson River
Crisis pregnancy centers are typically religiously affiliated, and most are associated in some way with national anti-abortion organizations. However, they often hide their religious and ideological leanings from prospective clients. While Georgia Wellness is clear on its website that it does not provide or refer for abortions, the site doesn’t mention any religious leanings. But according to a strategic plan submitted with its 2025 CDBG application, its number one value is “Truthful, meaning, we base all truth on God’s Word and evidence-based medical information.” The center’s CDBG-funded mental and behavioral health program will also be operated in partnership with a church. As Autonomy News has previously reported, crisis pregnancy centers often struggle to recruit qualified physicians. Georgia Wellness acknowledges this problem in its plan, which identifies among a list of weaknesses, “inability to provide more OBGYN services without a physician willing to provide services,” and “bad reviews from angry patients” and “lack of adequate/involved physician” as potential threats to the organization.
Swartzendruber submitted an open records request to the medical board regarding McClendon’s nurse protocol in August 2025. By October—the same month Walker received his new volunteer license—the protocol was mysteriously listed as “terminated.” Swartzendruber said Georgia Wellness “may have put clients at risk through lack of appropriate licensure,” but that she also considers the medical board to be “highly culpable.” A source who asked Autonomy News not to name them said they submitted a complaint about the matter to the Georgia Composite Medical Board in late 2025. GCMB did not respond to a request for comment, and complaints are not public record.
Jean-Gilles also claimed that, at the time he spoke with Amplify Georgia, the post of medical director was being filled by a retired doctor. According to Jean-Gilles, that medical director was Dr. Gary Walker, who is listed in Georgia Wellness’ 2025 CDBG application materials as a retired OBGYN and board member. Walker “could come out of retirement to deliver babies, but he won’t,” Jean-Gilles wrote. According to the Georgia Composite Medical Board license verification portal, Walker’s physician license expired on November 30, 2019. A new “Volunteer in Medicine” license, a special type of license for retired doctors, was issued to Walker on October 15, 2025—meaning he was without a license for nearly six years, including during the time period that Jean-Gilles claims he was the medical director.
Jean-Gilles also claimed that, at the time he spoke with Amplify Georgia, the post of medical director was being filled by a retired doctor. According to Jean-Gilles, that medical director was Dr. Gary Walker, who is listed in Georgia Wellness’ 2025 CDBG application materials as a retired OBGYN and board member. Walker “could come out of retirement to deliver babies, but he won’t,” Jean-Gilles wrote. According to the Georgia Composite Medical Board license verification portal, Walker’s physician license expired on November 30, 2019. A new “Volunteer in Medicine” license, a special type of license for retired doctors, was issued to Walker on October 15, 2025—meaning he was without a license for nearly six years, including during the time period that Jean-Gilles claims he was the medical director.
In August 2024, Obria’s former CEO, Dawn Hughes, went public with allegations that Obria manipulates patients and inflates the number of people it serves. Its founding CEO, Kathleen Eaton Bravo, came under fire in 2019—during the time Georgia Wellness was doing business under the Obria name—for making overtly white supremacist comments. It’s not clear when Georgia Wellness ended its affiliation with Obria, whether the decision was related to Hughes’s whistleblower turn, or how the change might have affected service provision at Georgia Wellness. The most recent post on a Facebook fundraising page called “Friends of Obria Gwinnett” is from March 2025.
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Ramona intro: I’m an acquired taste. You don’t like me? Acquire some taste.
Image featuring the book cover of Relinquished by Gretchen Sisson
An image featuring the book cover of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood
An image featuring the cover of the book Relinquished and the details of the offer.
A graphic from KFF showing that four in ten people they surveyed are "unsure" about the safety of medication abortion.
Screenshot of text that says: “But then it is falling more on individual clinicians to make those things happen,” Beal added. “Which, if you have care siloed, it is also much easier to target those clinicians’ physical safety.” This mirrors a dynamic that has long existed in abortion care. The upside of specialized clinics is expert care and mission-driven staff. The downside is that these practices are easier to single out, whether for harassment, violence, or government surveillance.
A post from Keith Olbermann defending the gifts he bought Olivia Nuzzi when she was presumably still a teenager
A text message that says “well she's calling it a canto so perhaps she's going for the style of famed fascist Ezra Pound :)”
Text that says: "Actual good news A landmark study finds that ulipristal acetate, the progesterone-blocking active ingredient in the prescription-only emergency contraceptive Ella, may prevent the development of breast cancer. The study authors hope their work will be the basis for large-scale trials to test if ulipristal acetate and mifepristone, which works similarly, can be used for breast cancer prevention."
Math lady meme
Screenshot of Meredith Marks saying “You. Can. Leave!!”
Text that reads: “The science around Tylenol and autism is uncertain. While some studies suggest a correlation between taking Tylenol while pregnant and having a child with autism, others have repudiated those findings. Major medical associations rejected Kennedy and Trump’s claims as overly generalized and potentially harmful.”
A black Autonomy News “All Comstocks Are Bastards” T-shirt
“Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to: Guarantee women’s medical care for emergencies, ectopic pregnancies, and miscarriages; Ensure women’s safety during abortions; Ensure parental consent for minors; Repeal Article I, section 36, approved in 2024; allow abortions for medical emergencies, fetal anomalies, rape, and incest; and Prohibit sex-change procedures for children?”
A photo of the George Washington Bridge at sunset, taken on the Hudson River from Garnet’s yellow kayak, which is visible in the foreground.
T-shirt with a portrait of Anthony Comstock, featuring lettering that says "ACAB" across his face.
Tote bag featuring a Victorian illustration of a woman hitting a stork with an umbrella.
"Abortion was unavailable in Wisconsin for 15 months following Dobbs, and while access rebounded after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that abortion was legal, many restrictive laws remain on the books. According to its website, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has 22 health centers across the state, three of which provide abortion—though one only provides abortion pills, while the other two offer both pills and in-clinic procedures. Halting abortions would increase demand at the two independent abortion clinics in the state, both located in Milwaukee, or force patients to travel to other states like Minnesota or Illinois. Wisconsin doesn’t allow telemedicine prescriptions for abortion pills, though people can obtain the pills virtually from clinicians in other states under so-called “shield” laws."
A black t-shirt with a black and white photo of Anthony Comstock's face. Black text on a neon green shape says "ACAB" across his eyes.
Garnet and others lie on the pavement in Albany, wearing red. Garnet’s head is lifted off the ground and one of her arms is pointed forward.
Text that says: "Cooprider’s lead attorney is Mikal Watts, a puzzling figure who frequently donates to Democratic politicians, per Federal Election Commission records, but is also listed as a Federalist Society contributor. Watts faced a federal trial in 2016 on 96 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and identity theft after he was accused of inventing 40,000 victims of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in order to file a class action suit that would have earned him an estimated $40 million. Watts fired his attorney on the eve of trial and chose to represent himself. A jury acquitted him."
A selfie of Garnet, a white woman wearing sunglasses, a white tank top, and white hat, sitting in a yellow kayak on the Hudson River with the George Washington Bridge in the background.
Text that says: "Rinkunas: Yes, absolutely want to protect people who are worried about potential criminalization, having either local or federal enforcement coming after them. And then also, we recognize that it is such a small space in the reproductive justice world that if people speak out against something they think is wrong, or even just something that’s new that is happening that they want to alert people about, they shouldn’t be at risk of losing their job for telling someone about that."
Text that says: "What we typically have, when it comes to all of these issues of reproductive and sexual health and bodily autonomy, is that on one side you have actual experts and people with lived experience, and on the other side you have hate groups. And it is absolutely absurd. It’s not unbiased or objective to treat those as though they’re two equal and opposing viewpoints. In fact, choosing a false neutrality in the middle of those two “sides” actually favors oppression. And it contributes to the spread of misinformation, and that is actually bias. It is the very opposite of unbiased or objective journalism. And so that’s really important to us to say what we mean and to reinforce the truth, even if that means that you are undercutting one particular point of view. If it’s based on misinformation or hate, it is not a valid or factual point of view."
Garnet, a white woman with pinkish hair in a topknot, wearing black leggings and a gray shirt, stands in a bathroom and takes a selfie in the mirror so you can see the bandaid from an injection on her shoulder
Screenshot of a skeet from Jessica Valenti that says, "Did I mention Abortion, Every Day was threatened with jail time for requesting public records related to this arrest? Absolutely wild scare tactics at play here."
Screenshot of a Students for Life blog post with the headline "The 'Man of Steel' May be an Alien, But Not Illegal: His Parents ADOPTED Him"
A screenshot of a post from Live Action on X, which is itself a screenshot of a Planned Parenthood Instagram post that reads: "Let's call 'defunding' Planned Parenthood exactly what it is: A backdoor abortion nationwide ban." Live Action's caption says, "They might be on to us..."
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A screenshot of text that says, "This story was edited by Susan Rinkunas and copy edited and fact checked by Hannah Rappleye."