What: California joined New Jersey in making birth control prescription-free in 2024, with a new law that took effect this week.
Why it matters: Like in NJ, the law will help people access birth control pills without having to spend time (or in some cases, money) seeing a health care provider.
Source: Jefferson Public Radio
An analysis from the Society for Family Planning found that every month about 8,000 women living in states with strict abortion restrictions got abortion pills via mail by the end of 2023.
One of the main recommendations is bringing mental health care into “all relevant perinatal settings.”
Florida’s state health care agency tried to push back on the fact that many women do not know they are pregnant at six weeks gestation, since it is only two weeks after a missed period for a woman on a very regular menstrual cycle.
The so-called clinics promote “abortion pill reversal,” which doesn’t have medical or scientific evidence to back it up.
The New York Times has an obituary for Kris Hallenga, who died from breast cancer this week at age 38.
Supreme Court justices seemed split mainly along ideological lines during oral arguments over a federal requirement that hospitals provide emergency care to stabilize a patient, including abortions when necessary.
I think that most women remember, and may even still have that book on their shelves, What to Expect When You’re Expecting. …Well, there’s no equivalent of that for women over 40. I wrote this book saying to myself, how about what to expect when you expect to live past 40?
Louisiana’s legislature is considering making the abortion pill medications the same as narcotic drugs, criminalizing the “possession of two medications used to induce abortion without a prescription, with punishments including prison time.”
It’s not just about avoiding counterfeits, providers need training to know where the forehead artery is, for example, or how to treat potential complications.
The AP has the dystopian details on what pregnant women face in America after Roe: “One woman miscarried in the lobby restroom of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to check her in.”
Olivia Munn talks about her cancer diagnosis, and the decision to fully remove her uterus and ovaries, despite wanting to have more children.
The third time was the charm for Arizona state House Democrats, who got three Republicans to join them in repealing the 1864 total abortion ban that was set to go into effect in the coming weeks.
The Biden administration issued new regulations to protect medical records for reproductive health care across state lines.
Nearly 60 percent said they “can just live with” discomfort caused by health issues if they’re not debilitating (!!!)
The Washington Post has more horror stories of women getting turned away from the ER because they are pregnant, and extreme state abortion bans have scared providers.
The FDA approved a new antibiotic to treat urinary tract infections in women, although the drug has been used in Europe for more than 40 years.
Senate Democrats called out Republicans for proposing a federal pregnancy database.
Examining the never-ending allure of menstruation being tied to the cycles of the moon.
Hera Biotech company said they got good interim results from clinical trials of their endometriosis diagnostic tool.
Three political science professors surveyed over 1,300 Americans about pregnancy dating.