Healthcare

Whitmer to call for passage of the ‘Reproductive Health Act’ in Wednesday speech

"Dems want repeal of ‘dangerous and unnecessary’ laws restricting abortion care After Michigan voters resoundingly passed Proposition 3 in the November 2022 election, enshrining the right to abortion and other reproductive health care in the state constitution, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is slated on Wednesday to champion soon-to-be-introduced legislation that would repeal laws restricting Michiganders’ access to abortion. A longtime advocate of abortion rights whose reelection in November was attributed in part to voters’ support for..."
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Missouri, other abortion-ban states pour millions into pregnancy centers with little medical care

"After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, Louisiana Republican state Sen. Beth Mizell looked for a way to address her state’s abysmal record on infant and maternal mortality, preterm births and low birth weight. Louisiana has one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Mizell and her colleagues borrowed an idea from neighboring Mississippi: a state tax credit program that sends millions each year to nonprofit pregnancy resource centers, also called crisis pregnancy centers. They’re private anti-abortion organizations, often religiously affiliated, that typically offer free pregnancy tests, parenting classes and…
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South Carolina’s new all-male highest court reverses course on abortion, upholding strict 6-week ban

"COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s newly all-male Supreme Court reversed course on abortion Wednesday, upholding a law banning most such procedures except in the earliest weeks of pregnancy. The continued erosion of legal abortion access across the U.S. South comes after Republican state lawmakers replaced the lone woman on the court, Justice Kaye Hearn, who reached the state’s mandatory retirement age. The 4-1 ruling departs from the court’s own decision months earlier striking down a similar ban that the Republican-led Legislature passed in 2021. The latest ban takes effect immediately..."
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HHS Awards $23 Million to Support Evidence-Based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs

"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Office of Population Affairs (OPA), is announcing approximately $23 million in funding to foster innovation, provide new research, and expand the evidence to support and advance equity in the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) program. The TPP program is a national, competitive program that provides funding to replicate and scale evidence-based programs and develop and evaluate new and innovative approaches to prevent unintentional teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among adolescents, promote positive youth development, and advance equity in adolescent health. 'Our TPP program provides new research on innovative…
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Landmark Study Surveys Reproductive Experiences of Deaf Women

"Women who are deaf or hard of hearing are far more likely than hearing women to become unintentionally pregnant. Women with disabilities face a variety of challenges when it comes to accessing reproductive services like birth control and prenatal care. According to a new landmark study, women who are deaf or hard of hearing are far more likely than hearing women to become unintentionally pregnant and are less likely to get their first choice of birth control from their health-care provider..."
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NC pharmacists emerge as new prescribers of hormonal contraceptives

"Work is underway to bolster access to contraception at pharmacies in an effort to combat ‘contraceptive deserts’ amid the post-Roe reproductive health care environment. Reimbursement poses barrier to implementation. A 31-year-old Asian American woman hopped into an Uber on a mission — to head to a pharmacy in New Bern to get birth control. Because of her family’s cultural and religious beliefs, she was not allowed to go to doctors’ appointments alone nor to ask for contraception. But pharmacists’ new ability to prescribe hormonal contraception in North Carolina gave her the opportunity to get connected to the pregnancy prevention method…
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To expand abortion access in Texas, a lawmaker gets creative

"Texas's Republican Governor Greg Abbott addressed a rally earlier this year, celebrating the abortion bans that took effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. "As long as I am governor of the great state of Texas, Texas will always protect the unborn," he told a cheering crowd. So it may be surprising that just a few weeks ago, Abbott signed a law giving doctors leeway to provide abortions in Texas when a patient's water breaks too early and for ectopic pregnancies. There was considerably less fanfare for that signing..."
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Strategies to Advance Racial Equity in Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health

"Sexual and reproductive health equity means that all people are supported by policies and systems that help them achieve their desired sexual and reproductive health. Currently, too many young people—especially Black, Brown, and Indigenous youth—lack the autonomy and system-level supports to achieve the sexual and reproductive health they desire. This brief aims to show programs, providers, and researchers how they can approach adolescent sexual and reproductive health services in a way that advances racial equity. In this brief, we first provide some context on how racism impacts sexual and reproductive health for Black, Brown, and Indigenous youth. We then offer…
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‘I was shocked’: Australian Catholic hospitals refuse to provide birth control and abortion

"Publicly funded hospitals are using the cover of religion to opt out of providing reproductive care - and experts say it has created a ‘postcode lottery’ for access to services When Sarah*, a Melbourne mother, was pregnant with her second child, her GP gave her a surprising warning: if she had any serious complications, concerns about the viability of the pregnancy or believed she might be miscarrying, she should go to the Royal women’s hospital rather than the Mercy hospital for women, where she was planning to deliver the baby. The reason, the GP told her, was that the Mercy…
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Hey Jane Expands Its Virtual Health Services Beyond Abortion Care

"Virtual abortion care provider Hey Jane is broadening its online services to include treatments for vaginal infections, birth control, and emergency contraception. This expansion seeks to provide a discreet and accessible solution for these reproductive and sexual health issues, leveraging their established digital healthcare platform. The process involves a brief patient intake, connecting them through Hey Jane’s secure messaging platform. This allows patients to communicate with clinicians via text, phone call, or video, facilitating access to FDA-approved medications typically available at clinics or from doctors..."
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Illinois Man Sentenced to Ten Years in Prison for Setting Fire to Reproductive Health Services Facility

"An Illinois man was sentenced on August 15 for the arson of the Planned Parenthood Peoria Health Center in Peoria, Illinois. "An Illinois man was sentenced on August 15 for the arson of the Planned Parenthood Peoria Health Center in Peoria, Illinois. Tyler W. Massengill, 33, was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $1.45 million in restitution. He previously pleaded guilty on Feb. 16 to malicious use of fire and an explosive to damage, and attempt to damage, the Peoria Health Center. According to court documents and statements…
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Meta criticized for making reproductive health an R-rated issue

"Female reproductive health experts are calling on Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to rethink its restrictions on reproductive health content."Female reproductive health experts are calling on Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to rethink its restrictions on reproductive health content. The company has long faced criticism for removing and restricting female reproductive health information with a prominent report from the Center for Intimacy Justice early last year accusing Meta of systemically rejecting many female and gender diverse reproductive health ads. The CIJ report also accused Meta of having bias algorithms, stating that male reproductive health…
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California grads headed to HBCUs in the South prepare for college under abortion bans

"When I'laysia Vital got accepted to Texas Southern University, a historically Black university in Houston, she immediately began daydreaming about the sense of freedom that would come with living on her own, and the sense of belonging she would feel studying in a thriving Black community. Then, a nurse at her high school's health clinic in Oakland, California explained the legal landscape of her new four-year home in Texas – where abortion is now banned completely. Vital watched some TikTok videos of protestors harassing women outside clinics in other states. She realized her newfound freedoms would come at the expense of another. That's…
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Extreme Temperatures Threaten Effectiveness of Pregnancy Tests and Birth Control

"Extreme heat has already made pregnancy more dangerous. Now, it is also complicating efforts to control when and how someone becomes pregnant: Record heat waves across the country could threaten access to effective pregnancy tests, condoms and emergency contraception pills. All of these items can sustain serious damage in extreme heat, rendering them ineffective when used. And all have become critical resources for people living in states with abortion bans and who are trying to avoid pregnancy. In those states, few options exist to terminate an unintended pregnancy other than acquiring abortion pills online or traveling out of state for care.…
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