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EVERYTHING
Women More at Risk for Long COVID
What: A study from JAMA Network Open found women are “less likely to recover from COVID-19 within 3 months” and develop “long COVID” symptoms, as were people with cardiovascular disease.
Why it matters: “Women had slower recoveries despite a lower rate of severe infection. ‘Sex differences in risk of [long Covid], could be explained by multiple mechanisms, including differences in the immune response and higher risk of autoreactivity and thrombosis in women (vs men), that merit further study,’ the researchers wrote.”
Source: University of Minnesota
PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM
Getting Basic Pregnancy Accommodations: It’s Complicated
What: The Associated Press looks at the effects of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a new federal law that “strengthens the rights of workers to seek accommodations for pregnancy-related needs,” like getting excused from climbing ladders or lifting things that weigh over 20 pounds.
Why it matters: “The majority of those workers, mostly women in low-wage jobs, swiftly obtained accommodation after learning about their rights and invoking them with their employers, said Dina Bakst, co-founder and co-president of A Better Balance. But many women still confronted employers who didn’t know about the law, misunderstood its scope or simply refused to comply, according to the report.”
Source: Associated Press
BIRTH CONTROL
Emergency Contraceptives Under Threat from Future Trump Admin
What: Just under 50 million American women would lose access to no cost emergency contraceptives, such as Plan, B if Donald Trump retakes the White House. That’s according to an analysis from the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank that is analyzing “Project 2025,” an extreme right plan backed by Trump.
Why it matters: You can look at the state-by-state effects on CAP’s website—including those states that have effectively banned abortion.
Source: Center for American Progress
ABORTION ACCESS
What the End of Roe Means in Memphis
What: The New York Times has a short film on the mundane and life-changing effects of Roe being overturned in Memphis, Tennessee. The story captures both 9-hour drives to Illinois, and women questioning how their country decided they couldn’t choose their own futures.
Why it matters: “These women offer distinct perspectives on this radical transformation in American society. Together they speak to a time in U.S. history when women are wondering if they have been relegated to the status of second-class citizens. As Dr. Looney puts it in the film, ‘You basically, as a physician, had to start counseling your patients from a legal perspective and not a medical perspective.’”
Source: New York TImes
Doc Trade Groups to FDA: End Abortion Pill’s ‘Risk’ Categorization
What: Prominent physician groups like the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists called on the FDA to “permanently remove the remaining restrictions imposed on mifepristone [the abortion pill] under the risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS). Our organizations urge the agency to do so with expedience.”
Why it matters: As the groups put it: “Robust clinical evidence backed by decades of use by millions of patients has proven incontrovertibly that mifepristone is safe and effective for use in medication abortion and miscarriage management. Complications associated with mifepristone are exceedingly rare, minor, and easily treatable. Critically, the REMS requirements do nothing to enhance the safety of an already safe drug; instead, they impose administrative burdens, exacerbate health inequities, and lead to delays in care.”
Source: ACOG press release (via email)
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