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PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM
The Myths of Miscarriage
What: The Atlantic’s Ashley Parker writes a moving essay on what it was like to have a miscarriage, including how the “routine” parts of it felt nothing further routine, including learning that a D+C procedure, even for a miscarriage, is technically called an abortion.
Key Line: “Every Wednesday night, I have a standing Zoom with five other women, all friends from college. …Between us, we have been pregnant 24 times and collectively given birth to 14 kids. This statistic—six women, 24 pregnancies, 14 kids—stops me cold every time it occurs to me, but it shouldn’t.”
Source: The Atlantic
Trump’s CDC Layoffs Ends PRAMS
What: Just one sliver of the CDC layoffs yesterday? The entire team that ran the PRAMS (Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System) database was let go. It was a decades-deep research set tracking infant and maternal health from pregnancy through the postpartum period.
Key Line: “Today all CDC employees who worked at PRAMS were terminated (RIF’d). So while there hasn’t been any official announcement that the program is permanently shuttered, all the people who ran it are out as of today.”
Source: Talking Points Memo
ABORTION ACCESS
Supreme Court Leans Toward Backing Planned Parenthood
What: The Washington Post reports that the Supreme Court seemed likely to support Planned Parenthood in a case against South Carolina, where Medicaid patients are suing for the right to receive non-abortion health care services from the organization’s providers. Despite federal law already prohibiting Medicaid funds for abortions, Planned Parenthood faces challenges in receiving government money for other critical health services, like birth control and cancer screenings.
Key Line: “Nicole A. Saharsky, the lawyer for Planned Parenthood, said Congress did not want states to be able to cut off funding for certain providers for reasons unrelated to medical competency. Lawmakers, she said, were trying to ensure that people on Medicaid have the same right as privately insured patients to choose their providers, even if they don’t have the same ability to pay for that care.”
Source: Washington Post
Lizz Winstead Advocates for Abortion Rights Through Comedy
What: A podcast interview with Lizz Winstead, the co-creator of the Daily Show, who now uses comedy to educate people about abortion access and to support independent abortion providers. Through her Feminist Buzzkills podcast and the Abortion Access Front, she combines humor with activism.
Key Line: “‘I wanted to combine the effectiveness of using humor to expose hypocrisy and bad actors and then combine that with a call to action,’ Winstead says.”
Source: Mother Jones
METABOLISM + WEIGHT LOSS
Intermittent Fasting Beats Calorie Restriction in RCT
What: A randomized control trial with mostly women compared intermittent fasting to daily calorie restriction in a 12-month weight loss program. Those who fasted for three days of the week ultimately lost more weight than those counting calories, losing an average six pounds more.
Key Line: “Compared with [calorie restriction, intermittent fasting] resulted in modestly greater weight loss among adults with overweight or obesity enrolled in a 12-month, high-intensity, comprehensive behavioral weight loss program.”
Source: Annals of Internal Medicine
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