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EVERYTHING
Digging Deeper on the Women's Health Initiative Study Cut
What: NPR goes deeper on the significance of the Women's Health Initiative study funding cut, ending research and data collection that started on tens of thousands of women in the 1990s. Researchers point out that ending the study contradicts the Trump administration's stated goal of fighting chronic diseases, since it is "uniquely positioned" to produce insights into Alzheimer's and dementia.
Key Line: "'It's a huge blow,' says [Jean Wactawski-Wende, who leads a regional center at the University at Buffalo and has had a $1.2 million contract terminated.] 'It's been one of the most productive studies in history. And to really understand older women's health — dementia, heart failure, frailty — we are the study to do that. And it's been eviscerated right now because of these budget cuts.'"
Source: NPR
Stages and Future of Women’s Health: A Call for a Life-Course Approach
What: An editorial in the journal Women's Health calls for a shift from focusing on jut reproductive health to a comprehensive "life-course approach" for women. The authors say that means looking at health concerns across different stages of life and different parts of the body, emphasizing the importance of preventive care and tailored health services.
Key Line: "Rather than treating health issues in isolation, the life-course perspective considers how early-life exposures, social determinants, and lifestyle factors influence health trajectories over the life spectrum. For women, this means recognizing that adolescent health behaviors affect midlife disease risk, menopause has implications for cardiovascular and bone health, and older age brings unique challenges such as frailty and cognitive decline."
Source: Women's Health
The Devil in the FDA Food Dye Details
What: The Atlantic looks at the FDA plans to eliminate certain food dyes, like Yellow 5, Red 40, Blue 1, and Green 3, from the food supply by the end of next year. Author Nicholas Florko says it's a good start (if it comes to fruition), but there's a lot of bigger problems in American nutrition.
Key Line: "The true test will be how Kennedy and his movement deals with much more pressing, and intractable, challenges in the American diet. Even without synthetic dyes in our foods, Americans will still overwhelmingly be eating ultra-processed foods loaded with excess sodium and sugar."
Source: The Atlantic
FERTILITY
The Fertility Rate Was Actually Stable in 2024
What: Birth rates in the United States were stable in 2024 after years of decline, increasing of 1% over last year. Similar to previous data and studies, younger women are having fewer babies, while women in their 30s and 40s are having more children.
Key Line: "Sociologists who examined the CDC data said it largely reflects women who delayed having children in their 20s finally choosing to do so in their 30s and 40s. ...'It’s not that people are deciding against having kids at all,' said Karen Benjamin Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Rather, she said, people are asking themselves: 'Do I have the right partner? If I have another baby in child care, what would that do to my expenses? Does my job feel stable?'”
Source: NBC
ABORTION ACCESS
Abortion Bans Linked to Higher Pregnancy-Related Deaths, Especially Among Black Women
What: A report found pregnant women in some abortion ban states are nearly twice as likely to die during pregnancy or postpartum, with Black women facing the highest risk. Researchers found in 2022, the first full year of the Texas abortion ban, pregnancy-related deaths increased 56%, compared to a national increase of 11%.
Key Line: “'The spike in White maternal mortality in Texas is a canary in the coal mine, because White women typically have far lower rates of maternal mortality,' [Nancy Cohen, founder of the Gender Equity Policy Institute] said. 'We know from some of the reporting of individual cases in Texas that these are women with insurance, they’re middle class. And what it suggests is the breadth of the potential impact of abortion bans.'"
Source: The 19th
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