August 11, 2026
Tonight: Massachusetts drops its abortion limit, a third of counties can't deliver a baby, and coaching that lowers postpartum blood pressure.
— Meghan McCarthy
MASSACHUSETTS DROPS ITS 24-WEEK ABORTION BAN
Gov. Maura Healey signed legislation that replaced the state's 24-week limit with a standard that lets physicians use their own medical judgment on abortions later in pregnancy. The law is aimed at patients who receive devastating fetal diagnoses or face serious complications and who, under the old rules, often had to leave the state for care. Massachusetts becomes the 10th state, along with D.C., to set no gestational cutoff.
ONE IN THREE U.S. COUNTIES IS A MATERNITY CARE DESERT
A March of Dimes report out today found that nearly 6 million women and over 350,000 infants live in counties without full access to maternity care. At least 96 hospital labor-and-delivery units closed across 35 states since 2024, and in nearly 60% of those counties the shuttered unit was the only place to give birth, adding an average 25 minutes of travel to reach care. The group warns that looming Medicaid cuts could push more rural hospitals over the edge.
DENSE-BREAST LAWS AREN'T GETTING WOMEN THE SCANS THEY NEED
State laws requiring women to be told they have dense breast tissue nudged more of them toward follow-up ultrasound or MRI, but the added screening rates stayed low even where insurers were required to cover it, a JAMA Network Open analysis of 12.5 million women found. Dense tissue both raises breast cancer risk and hides tumors on a standard mammogram, which is exactly why the supplemental scan matters. Notification alone, the authors conclude, isn't closing the gap.
FOR BLACK WOMEN WITH OVARIAN CANCER, THE NEIGHBORHOOD MATTERS MORE
Women in socially vulnerable communities faced a 20% higher risk of death after an ovarian cancer diagnosis, and Black women a 45% higher risk than white women, according to a study of 2,544 patients published in JAMA Network Open. Researchers used the CDC’s vulnerability index, which looks at measures such as poverty, housing conditions, transportation access, and educational attainment. The two effects compounded: being Black and living in a high-vulnerability neighborhood was worse than either factor alone. Only about half of ovarian cancer patients survive five years, and fewer than 40% of Black women do.
A LITTLE COACHING KEPT POSTPARTUM BLOOD PRESSURE IN CHECK
Pairing at-home blood pressure monitors with health coaching and care navigation significantly improved blood pressure control a year after delivery for women who'd had hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, a University of Wisconsin randomized trial of 140 patients found in JAMA Network Open. High blood pressure in pregnancy is a leading driver of maternal deaths, many of them in the weeks and months after birth. The relatively low-tech intervention produced meaningful results, although the preliminary findings will need to be tested in larger, more diverse health system.