|
EVERYTHING
Project 2025 Called to End the NIH ‘Monopoly’ on Research. What Else Did It Say?
What: KFF Health News has more evidence on how Project 2025 was always the Trump administration’s plan, regardless of Trump saying he knew nothing about it on the campaign trail. In this case, it’s how the document explicitly outlined destroying NIH’s research “monopoly.” The piece also outlines where Trump’s HHS will likely go next, based on the document.
Key line: “Few voters likely expected President Donald Trump in the first weeks of his administration to slash billions of dollars from the nation’s premier federal cancer research agency. But funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health were presaged in Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership” …The 922-page playbook compiled by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group in Washington, says ‘the NIH monopoly on directing research should be broken’ and calls for capping payments to universities and their hospitals to ‘help reduce federal taxpayer subsidization of leftist agendas.’”
Source: KFF Health News
Ignoring Biology to Define Two Sexes
What: The Washington Post breaks down how the Trump administration’s attempt to define “two sexes, male and female” ends up making a mess of biology. An executive order says there is an “immutable biological classification” of male or female, determined “at conception” …which ignores the fact that there are intersex people born into the world. (It also distracts from the important work of actually understanding how sex differences generally affect real life conditions, like cardiovascular disease.)
Key line: “’While these cases are a minority, sex is legitimately difficult to assign for close to 2 percent of the U.S. population,’ [Maurine Neiman, a University of Iowa professor who has studied the biology of reproduction for 25 years] said. ‘We can find real exceptions in real people to whatever rule we might apply to define sex, whether it be sex chromosomes, the size of reproductive cells, hormone levels, internal organs or genitals. The executive order demands that we fit a spectrum into a nonexistent binary box,’ Neiman added.”
Source: Washington Post
PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM
Texas Tries to Take Down Congress with Pregnant Worker Haterade
What: Slate’s Inimai Chettiar breaks down how a case brought by Texas against the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act could end up questioning Congress’ ability to set its own rules around voting…and the entire 2023 appropriations act’s existence. All to bring down a law that simply requires employers allow pregnant workers a “a stool to sit on, breaks to drink water, a change in schedule, or time off to attend a prenatal appointment.”
Key line: “It’s safe to say that this case isn’t about just interfering with the minutiae of congressional voting procedure. It is also about attacking women’s ability to stay healthy and free to grow, plan, and support their families without discrimination. It is about allowing employers to skirt even the most basic obligation to meet their employees’ human needs. It is about, once again, relegating pregnant people to second-class citizens in the eyes of the law. It’s about undermining basic democratic principles in order to advance a dangerous political agenda.”
Source: Slate
ABORTION ACCESS
Supreme Court Won’t Consider Abortion Clinic Buffer Zone Case
What: The Supreme Court declined to consider a law that allows local governments to set up buffer zones around health care facilities. The case was brought as a free speech challenge by anti-abortion activists against clinics in New Jersey and Illinois.
Key line: “The majority’s decision not to wade into the abortion-related matter is a setback for abortion opponents. …Mary Ziegler, an abortion law expert and professor at the University of California at Davis School of Law, cautioned against reading too much into the majority’s decision not to review the New Jersey and Illinois cases. …’It’s interesting and important that the court isn’t just going to take a wrecking ball to every abortion-related precedent from earlier eras…But there’s plenty of reason to think the court could still find bubble or buffer laws it doesn’t like.’”
Source: Washington Post
MENOPAUSE
Oprah Special on Menopause Coming in March
What: Oprah is entering the menopause chat. ABC announced she will be hosting a special at the end of March to talk about menopause with OBGYN Mary Claire Haver, a physician with a massive social media following focused on menopause, UCLA neurologist Rhonda Voskuhl, and advocates/celebrities Maria Shriver, Halle Berry, and Naomi Watts.
Key line: “’When I was around 48 years old, I thought I was dying and went from doctor to doctor trying to understand why my heart was racing, and did not receive any answers until I picked up a book and read how heart palpitations can be a symptom indicating a change is coming to your body,’ said Winfrey. ‘This show starts the revolution of answers for millions of women throughout this country. We discuss what you need to know to best advocate for yourself when it comes to mental health, sleep, weight, sex and your brain so we can ultimately see how freeing menopause can be in your life, with the best yet to come.’”
Source: ABC
|