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EVERYTHING
The $30+ Million Already Gone in Women's Health Funding
What: Last night we reported on $30+ million in women's health research grants slashed by the Trump administration. A significant portion of those grants were aimed at improving maternal health and mortality, especially among Black women who face a disproportionately high risk of dying in or after childbirth.
Key line: "Based on Maternie’s analysis, nearly $31 million in “unobligated” funds (i.e. money that hasn’t been spent yet) were cut from women’s health research programs, ranging from topics like maternal health to HIV/AIDS research."
Source: Maternie
Why WHI Matters for Women's Heart Health
What: The Trump administration reversed its plan to end the Women's Health Initiative late last week, though the leaders of the study caution that they haven't gotten an official confirmation of that yet. Cardiology publication TCTMD explains why the study matters so much when it comes to women's cardiovascular health specifically.
Key Line: “'The WHI has provided instrumental data related to cardiovascular disease prevention in women and highlighted—more than any other study ever conducted—the importance of sex-specific research,” [Ron Blankstein at Brigham and Women’s Hospital] told TCTMD in an email. 'This study has informed many practice guidelines and has also helped shape the design of multiple prevention trials...Given the significant burden of cardiovascular disease, dementia, and cancer among older women, continued research on this cohort of women could lead to many more important discoveries,' he said. 'Eliminating this program could jeopardize decades of important progress.'”
Source: TCTMD
FERTILITY
State Efforts to Expand IVF Access: It's Hard
What: KFF Health News has a deep dive on the challenges states have faced when trying to expand access to fertility treatments, especially in light of Trump's claim that he would be the "fertilization president". The TLDR? It's hard to expand access because of the price tag *and* fetal personhood movements.
Key Line: “'There are economic opponents, and there are ideological opponents,' said Sean Tipton, a lobbyist for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. 'It is a tough lineup of opponents. And that’s very consistent from state to state.'”
Source: KFF Health News
PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM
Trends in Maternal, Fetal, and Infant Mortality in the US
What: Researchers looked at maternal mortality in the United States to see if a reporting change led to an artificial spike. They found that adding the "pregnancy checkbox" did increase death rates -- but that there were still real increases happening between 2011 and 2019, and especially from 2020 to 2022 due to COVID-19.
Key Line: "...results of this study reveal that the pregnancy checkbox explained much of the observed increase in maternal mortality before the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, results of this cross-sectional study suggest that, even adjusting for pregnancy checkbox effects, most groups saw increases from 2011 to 2019 to the 2020 to 2022 period, indicating that the COVID-19 pandemic led to worse outcomes."
Source: JAMA Pediatrics
ABORTION ACCESS
Abortion Foes Push to Frame Fetuses as Murdered 'Persons'
What: The Guardian reviews the latest book from Mary Ziegler, a professor at the UC Davis School of Law and an abortion law expert. The book examines how "fetal personhood" became a movement in the United State, with lawmakers in multiple states trying to pass laws that treat fetuses as people--and could lead to charging women who have abortions with homicide.
Key Line: "...Ziegler has long seen the fight for fetal personhood as the throughline in the anti-abortion movement’s centuries-long history. In recent years, with Roe gone, she grew convinced that the movement was no longer willing to pull punches in that fight. 'The trajectory has been more and more punitive, more focused on saying: ‘Justice for the fetus means punishing a larger group of people that encompasses not just doctors, but people who assist them, and potentially abortion seekers themselves,’ she said in an interview."
Source: The Guardian
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