Here are the most interesting things we saw in women’s health this week:
🏥 ONE IN THREE COUNTIES HAS NOWHERE TO GIVE BIRTH: A March of Dimes report found that nearly 6 million women and 350,000 infants in the United States live in counties without full access to maternity care, and it’s getting worse. At least 96 hospital labor-and-delivery units closed across 35 states since 2024, and in nearly 60% of those counties, the shuttered unit was the only place to give birth.
🩻 KNOWING YOU HAVE DENSE BREASTS ISN’T ENOUGH: State laws requiring providers tell women they have dense breast tissue led to more people getting a follow-up ultrasound or MRI, but the rates were still low, even in states where insurers were required to cover the screenings. A JAMA Network Open analysis of 12.5 million women found that notification alone isn’t closing the gap. Dense tissue both raises breast cancer risk and hides tumors on a standard mammogram, which is why the supplemental scan matters.
🌍️ WHEN THE AID STOPS, THE DYING STARTS: The human cost of gutting USAID is not abstract. The AP documented it in Nepal, where the shutdown of nutrition and reproductive-outreach programs has left pregnant women without services. One 20-year-old woman died at 28 weeks pregnant after U.S. cuts eliminated the nutrition and maternal-health outreach that had supported her during an earlier pregnancy.
TOP CLICKED STORIES THIS WEEK
Nowhere To Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the U.S. // March Of Dimes
Dense Breast Legislation and Supplemental Breast Imaging Among Women Undergoing Mammography // JAMA Network Open
Where women live may influence ovarian cancer survival, especially among Black women // University of Pittsburgh
USAID Fallout: In Nepal, When the Aid Workers Stopped Coming, The
Women And Babies Started Dying // The Washington Post
Ocasio-Cortez Opened Up About Freezing Her Eggs. She Got Women Talking. // The New York Times
