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EVERYTHING
Gun Suicides Up Among Women Since 2020
What: Suicide by gun among women surpassed poisoning and suffocation for the first time in 2020 and has continued to rise since then, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Why it matters: “The findings, drawn from federal health data, showed that in 2022, 20 out of every million women used a gun to die by suicide, up from 14 women in 2002. This marks a 43 percent increase. The report also found that suicide rates have risen among women over the past two decades.
‘If we rely on who we think a gun owner is going to look like or how they’re going to act or vote or whatever, then we’re going to miss a lot of women who are dying,’ said Rosie Bauder, a clinical assistant professor at Ohio State University who is studying the attitudes and behaviors of women gun owners.”
Source: New York Times
Over 400 Women Health Execs Back VP Kamala Harris for President
What: Over 400 female health executives signed a letter endorsing Kamala Harris for president, with just 40 days to go until the election. Signers included “executives across venture capital, health insurance, healthcare delivery, digital health, healthcare AI and life sciences.”
Why it matters: “’Who ends up in the White House will materially impact the way in which we think about investing in women’s health and fintech, and the way in which startup CEOs are going to go forward in their business,’ Krasner said in an interview with Fierce Healthcare. ‘As I was looking around and sort of waiting for lots of groups to come together, I thought, ‘Why aren’t women healthcare leaders forming an alliance and trying to talk about this?’’”
Source: Fierce Healthcare
PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM
Large Majority of Pregnant Women Iron Deficient
What: Over 80% of pregnant women were iron deficient by their third trimester, despite being generally healthy and not anemic in the first trimester according to a new study. Researchers looked at 641 women in Ireland and their iron levels at 15, 20, and 33 weeks pregnant.
Why it matters: “In an accompanying editorial to this study, ‘Finally, a Quality Prospective Study to Support a Proactive Paradigm in Anemia of Pregnancy,’ also published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, authors Michael Auerbach and Helain Landy bluntly labeled the medical community’s approach to women, including the lack of screening and treating iron deficiency and anemia among pregnant women, as ‘misogyny.’ Given the study’s findings, the editorial calls upon the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the United States Preventive Services Taskforce to ‘change their approach to diagnosis to screen all pregnant women for iron deficiency, irrespective of the presence or absence of anemia, and recommend supplementation when present for the most frequent nutrient deficiency disorder that we encounter.’
Source: American Society for Nutrition
BIRTH CONTROL
Birth Control Prescriptions Drop By Up to Nearly 30% in Abortion Ban States
What: There is more data that birth control prescriptions—especially emergency birth control—have dropped significantly in states that have banned abortion. Across all abortion ban states there has been a 5 percent drop for all oral contraceptives, but in Texas there was a 28 percent drop for prescriptions filled (!!!)
Why it matters: Since Roe was overturned, “63 brick-and-mortar abortion clinics in 14 states closed, including 24 in Texas. ‘Because 11 percent of women rely on such clinics for the provision of prescriptions for contraceptives — many of which are filled at outside pharmacies — these closures may have reduced access to oral and emergency contraceptives,’ Qato said in a press release.”
Source: The 19th
ABORTION ACCESS
Trump’s Project 2025 Abortion Surveillance Plans
What: Maggie Fox breaks down the GOP’s desire to increase abortion surveillance: “’Because liberal states have now become sanctuaries for abortion tourism, HHS should use every available tool, including the cutting of funds, to ensure that every state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence, and by what method,’ Project 2025 reads.”
Why it matters: “…Republican-led states like Georgia have added reporting requirements for doctors who provide reproductive care. ‘It is burdensome. It introduces fear. I just dread providing it,’ Verma said. Georgia’s new ‘termination of pregnancy’ form asks medically irrelevant questions such as the specific start and end dates of every pregnancy a patient has ever had, she said. The proposed new federal legislation would place similar requirements on all 50 states.”
Source: Fuller Project via Ms. Magazine
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