we have no idea what this organ is doing

October 15, 2026

Tonight: evidence that giving new moms Medicaid works, the ovary’s second act, and more.

— Meghan McCarthy

A Texas mother of two has sued Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins and three colleagues under HB 7, the Texas law that lets private citizens sue anyone who provides abortion pills to or from someone in the state. The suit says the four ordered abortion medication on their phones outside Space Center Houston in March. None of them was pregnant. The plaintiff, who goes by the pseudonym Maria Puerto, says both of her pregnancies were unplanned despite birth control, and that the state’s ban kept her from ending them. She’s seeking $459,782, the suit’s figure for the average cost of raising two children to 18 in Texas. The Texas Tribune notes the law doesn’t explicitly ban ordering the pills, only transporting them within the state. But it’s an interesting test of turning the law against the anti-abortion activists who wanted it.

Only 15% of people surveyed across 14 European countries knew that alcohol can cause breast cancer, according to the World Health Organization’s European office. Among women, it was 21%. WHO estimates alcohol caused about 39,200 new breast cancers across Europe in 2020. It calls drinking “often the least discussed” behavioral health risk, and is pointing health workers to a set of screening tools, including a 10-question drinking assessment to help them start the conversation. “We know screening and brief interventions work, but only if health professionals feel able to use them,” said Carina Ferreira-Borges, WHO/Europe’s regional advisor on alcohol.

When pandemic rules kept new mothers on Medicaid for a full year, women who had diabetes or high blood pressure during pregnancy got more of the follow-up care that can catch problems after birth. That’s according to a study of Medicaid deliveries in New York and Texas. The biggest gains came in Texas, where coverage for new moms had been far less robust. Without the pandemic Medicaid coverage, about 41% of Texas mothers with pregnancy diabetes got a follow-up diabetes test within a year, and about two-thirds of mothers with either complication saw a doctor outpatient. When new moms were on Medicaid, testing rose about 12 percentage points and visits about 10 points. In New York, where nearly 9 in 10 already had a visit, the gains were smaller. The authors say the result “suggests that postpartum extension of Medicaid is an effective strategy.”

The Washington Post reports on a topic that has been accumulating evidence: that ovaries remain biologically active long after menopause. A small study from Northwestern and the Buck Institute analyzed healthy ovarian tissue from 28 women aged 50 to 75. Researchers measured nearly 6,000 proteins and found such distinct molecular signatures in women in their 50s versus their 70s that they could almost tell an ovary’s age from them. They also found molecules that may signal to other organs, along with molecular changes also seen in ovarian cancer, even though all the tissue studied was healthy. “Women are living three [more] decades with this organ in their body, and we have no idea what it’s doing,” said co-author Francesca Duncan.

More than half of girls who started menstruating reported painful periods by age 12 or 13, according to a study that followed about 2,300 U.S. girls from before their first period. Nearly 1 in 5 of those with pain had severe pain. Girls who were further along in puberty at age 9 or 10 were more likely to develop period pain. So were girls from lower-income families, and Black and Hispanic girls. Anxiety, depression and attention problems before a girl’s first period didn’t predict pain. Poor sleep didn’t predict who would get pain, but it was linked to pain getting in the way of daily life. The researchers say signs present before a first period could help identify girls at risk “before pain becomes a lifelong issue.”