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Texas’ Maternal Mortality Rate: Worst in Developed World, Shrugged off by Lawmakers
"When she got pregnant four years ago, Representative Shawn Thierry knew she was at risk. She was 42 at the time, an age at which women are more likely to face pregnancy complications. “But I certainly didn’t know that I was three times more likely to die by virtue of being African-American,” she said, referencing a disturbing trend revealed in a state report last year."
Ginsburg smacks down a major abortion myth after historic SCOTUS ruling
"On Monday, the Supreme Court struck down a set of Texas restrictions that shuttered half the state’s abortion providers, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg used her concurring opinion to blast a key argument for the state's tighter regulations — that terminating a pregnancy in a clinic is dangerous."
Breaking Down Senate Bill 8, Texas' Newest Anti-Abortion Law
"Senate Bill 8, the anti-abortion law sent to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's desk by the Texas Legislature late Friday afternoon, is a bunch of things rolled into one. It's a ban on fetal tissue donation. It requires all tissue obtained during an abortion to be buried or cremated, and it bans dilation and evacuation, the safest and most common procedure for performing second-trimester abortions — without exceptions for rape or incest."
Trump’s budget proposal aims to cut all federal funds to Planned Parenthood
"President Trump’s 2018 budget proposal would bar Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from receiving federal funds that help pay for health-care services for millions of Americans.:
The Health Care Bill’s Insults to Women
"When Representative John Shimkus questioned, during a debate in March, why men have to pay for prenatal care, it was a sign of things to come. Soon Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, was joking that older men didn’t need maternity care. When asked about repealing a requirement of the Affordable Care Act, Senator Pat Roberts replied, “I wouldn’t want to lose my mammograms.”
2 more hospitals closing baby delivery units
"Dr. Roslyn Banks-Jackson worries about what will happen to many women of Emanuel County when the local hospital shuts its labor and delivery unit.
She’s the only ob/gyn currently practicing in the east-central Georgia county. And the practice, Emanuel OB/GYN Clinic, owned by the hospital, will soon be closing as well.
Many of her low-income patients have no transportation, and they either walk or have to get rides from friends or relatives to get to their appointments."
These cities are on the front lines of a women’s health crisis
"Hold on to your obstetrician if you live in Las Vegas, Orlando, Fla., Miami, Los Angeles, or Riverside, Calif. It might be hard to find another one.
These five metro areas are the most likely to experience a major shortage of OB-GYNs in the coming years, according to researchers with Doximity, a social network for U.S.-based clinicians.
Nearly half of all U.S. counties already lack a practicing OB-GYN. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists projects a shortage of up to 8,800 OB-GYNs by 2020. And Pew Trusts predicts the nation could be 22,000 practitioners short in the decades that follow."
Title X: America’s Family Planning Program
"Since 1970, the Title X (ten) Family Planning Program has helped millions of low-income people afford much-needed health care. But each year, backward politicians threaten this critical health care safety net.
Today, more than 4 million Americans rely on affordable family planning services that are funded by Title X. Those basic primary and preventive health care services include:
Well-woman exams
Lifesaving cervical and breast cancer screenings
Birth control
Contraception education
Testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV
In 2015 alone, health centers provided nearly 800,000 Pap tests; nearly 6 million STI tests; and 1 million women with breast exams through Title X."
"Four fundamental principles drive public funding for fam- ily planning. First, unintended pregnancy is associated with neg- ative health consequences, includ- ing reduced use of prenatal care, lower breast-feeding rates, and poor maternal and neonatal out- comes.1,2 Second, governments realize substantial cost savings by investing in family planning, which reduces the rate of unin- tended pregnancies and the costs of prenatal, delivery, postpartum, and infant care.3 Third, all Amer- icans have the right to choose the timing and number of their children. And fourth, family plan- ning enables women to attain their educational and career goals and families to provide for their children. These principles led to the bipartisan passage of Title X in 1970 and later to other federal- and state-funded programs sup- porting family planning services for low-income women."