August 27, 2026
Tonight: cervical screening is falling as vaccination rises, Starbucks out-covers the Army on IVF, and more.
— Meghan McCarthy
ALMOST A THIRD OF WOMEN IN THEIR TWENTIES HAVE NEVER BEEN SCREENED
A JAMA Network Open analysis of around 106,000 women across nine editions of a national health survey found the share of women aged 21 to 29 who have never had a cervical cancer screening rose from just above 12% in 2005 to nearly 32% in 2023. Among women 30 to 65 it nearly tripled, to nearly 15%, or roughly 9 million people. The good news? At the same time, HPV vaccination climbed from 6% to 54%.
FORTY-THREE MINUTES TO THE DELIVERY ROOM
KFF counted 943 rural hospitals still providing inpatient maternity care to Medicaid enrollees, then measured how far apart they sit: a median 43-minute drive to the next one, against 13 minutes for urban hospitals. One in four rural hospitals is at least an hour from another maternity unit, and in 14 states an hour travel time is typical. The 2025 reconciliation law's cuts to hospital payments could thin the map further.
STARBUCKS COVERS IVF. THE ARMY DOESN'T.
An active-duty couple at Fort Leonard Wood paid more than $10,000 out of pocket for IVF because most military members’ health insurance doesn’t cover fertility drugs or procedures, the Missouri Independent reports. In this story the husband put college on hold for a job at Starbucks, because the company covers fertility treatments. Despite past support, all 14 Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee voted in July to strip IVF coverage from the defense bill.
SPAIN’S MENOPAUSE GUIDE WAS BASED ON STUDIES OF MEN
Spain’s food safety agency based parts of its menopause nutrition guidance—including recommendations on iron and vitamin C—on research conducted exclusively in men. After women scientists raised the alarm, the agency sent the report back to its scientific committee for review. Equality Minister Ana Redondo said it was time for the male body to stop being “the universal reference point for everything.”
NATIVE HAWAIIAN WOMEN HAVE THE COUNTRY’S HIGHEST BREAST CANCER RATE
American Cancer Society researchers separated cancer registry data that typically groups Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations together—and uncovered stark differences. Native Hawaiian women had the country’s highest breast cancer incidence: 27% higher than white women and 57% higher than the combined group. Across the 11 populations studied, overall cancer rates varied more than twofold, showing how aggregation can bury both the highest and lowest risks inside a single data point.